It is almost weekend! Plans are to go shopping and to eat at our favourite restaurant (Japanese cuisine, yummy!). Additionally I will try to practice some type of sports (Zumba?) and avoide all types of sweets (no chocolate!), my summer holiday is getting closer and I have to get in shape :-P
Today I have a gorgeous palette for the natural lovers. Lastly I was told the "nudy tunes" part of my blog description is not particularly noticable *lol*. So I decided to go for something nude today.
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| Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones |
Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones is going to be released with Fall 2014 Collection called Ladylike. Although I am not particularly a fan of the name which sounds to me like lady bug lol, I really like the promo photos (check them out here). Once the collection hits the counters, I will check out the blush, which looks gorgeous on promo images. I am not sure what the model is wearing on her eyes since it looks more rosy. The palette though has more browny and bony tones...
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| Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones |
#13 Skin Tones is for those of us, who don't like shimmer too much and don't get along too well with warm naturals. This one has cooler naturals with matte and satin finish. Sounds like a dream? Like something you were looking for? Let me go on ...
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| Close-up: Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones |
When I opened the compact, my eyes shone. Two mattes two satins and cool naturals, yes! Then I started shooting photos from every angle, love the combination. Then I wanted to swatch it... Ouch, no color pay off. I am used to Clarins Palettes having one problem shade but this one was so dry across the board. The following swatches are dry and they required multiple swipes of each eye shadow, like maybe five times? Then I remembered these could be used wet as well, huh, why haven't I thought about it before? The eye makeup below is done mostly with wet application and I can say they perform much better once they are wet...
Top left: A light nude/tan with satin finish and subtle golden shimmer. This shade is almost non-recognizable on my skin tone since it blends with it.
Top right: A light off-white with rosy beige undertones and matte finish. This one was rather chalky once used dry. Once used wet, it was chalky again, but rather like a wet chalk :-} You know how a wet chalk performs then you understand what I mean. (Reminds me of my classes lol) But let me tell you something, if you can get the right amount on your brush, this shade is stunning! Don't ask me how a chalk can be stunning, just check out the photos below and you will see since I applied it all the way to the mid of the lid and it brightens up the look like no other.
Bottom right: A mid-toned cool brown with satin finish. Another gorgeous shade, it has a tad of pink in it to make it very flattering. This one shows much better on my skin and performs better once used wet, but can also be used dry.
Bottom left: A deep natural brown with matte finish, dark enough to define and line.
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| Swatch: Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones |
Here is the resulting eye look, top left shade is too subtle on me to show up on the camera so I layered it with top right (off-white matte) all the way to the mid of the lid. I then used bottom right shade at the outer corner and defined my crease with the darkest brown (bottom left). I was rather disappointed after the swatches but I liked the application on the eyes, once certain shades are used wet.
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| In-action: Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones |
Below I combined my nudish eyes with Tom Ford Wicked on the cheeks, Rouge d'Armani Sheers in #603 on the lips. Lipstick is from Armani's Bright Ribbon Collection and I am really loving it. Thanks to MACina from Specktra for enabling me on that one. You can read my review of #604 here which was rather too sheer for my taste but I am happy to report that #603 performs much better on me and it combines well with Wicked.
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| FOTD with Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in No. 13 Skin Tones & Armani Sheer Lipstick in 603 |
Final thoughts: I always have a place for a good cool toned natural palette with combination of mattes and satins and Clarins Mineral Palette #13 Skin Tones fits the bill. It has to be mentioned though, you can only fully appreciate it if you don't mind wet application.
Clarins Fall Collection should be available in August. I got mine from a friend (hugs to Teresa) who is fortunate enough to receive products in advance.
What do you think, will you be checking out #13 Skin Tones or do you have closer shades in your stash?