Clarins Barocco Eyeshadow Trio

Every season there's one makeup collection that stands out among all the other pretties. It's always a combination of gorgeous packaging, unique colors and impeccable quality. It's no big secret that I've been feeling a bit "meh" about many of the holiday collections this year, but finally there's something truly exciting: Clarins Barocco collection.

The packaging alone is outstanding- golden compacts and tubes with a beautiful black floral decoration. They're very gift-worthy and would look impressive on every dresser. The colors themselves are lovely and have a broad appeal, especially this eye shadow trio.

Clarins Barocco palette includes three colors. Two are sparkly with a metallic finish- a medium gold and the balck/gold marbled eye shadow that changes with the light. It looks like anything from khaki to brass and is one of the prettiest shades in my current rotation. the black is a soft matte and makes a beautiful liner that can be easily smoked or deepened. Used together, it's a glorious evening/holiday look, but I've been playing with just the liner and the tiniest amount of the marbled shadow and successfully brought it down to an acceptable daytime level- just a hint of shine on the lid blended into a beige base.

The texture of the Barocco eye shadows is soft and luxurious. I've tested them with a variety of primers and brushes- so far everything works. I'm fully enamored with this trio because it's as nice to use as it is to look at it. Taking the photos was also fun, except for the ridiculously bad lighting we've had for days. What you see was photographed in artificial light, mostly without flash, which accounts for the sub-par swatches. Karen from Makeup & Beauty Blog has a far better swatch of this one and also the rest of Clarins Barocco collection, so I recommend some drooling on her page.

Bottom Line: Festive in the best sense of the word.

Clarins Barocco Eyeshadow Trio ($40) is available from Nordstrom, online and in store. The press sample was sent by the company for my consideration.

All photos are mine with the help of Sophie.

I'll stick to bronzers, thank you

In an effort to bring life back to my poor face that has suffered one of those nasty summer colds that refuse to leave one's body, I decided to try a couple of things that shine and brighten. I'm sticking to my resolution of no more sun, so a real tan was out of the question. The next best thing was supposed to be a self tanner.

I've been keeping my legs on the golden side of things with Jergens, but for my face I chose to try two Clarins products. After all, they are highly regarded, and I'm pretty fond of their high quality, always nice smelling products.

I had samples of two self tanners. One is the Intense Bronze Self Tanning Tint for face and décolleté. The problem with this one was the tint: Its "rich, tropical color" was just wrong for my skin tone, and looked less like a tinted moisturizer and more like weird, yellowish goop. I ended up wiping it off before it had a chance to develop in either color or scent, so I can't comment on either. If your skin tone is somewhat similar to mine, this is probably not the right product for you.


The second sample was of their Self Tanning Instant Gel for face and body. The little tube wouldn't have been enough for even one leg, so I only tried it on my face. I have to raise my eyebrow at the claim for instant action. It took a couple of applications for the color to make an appearance on my face, and when it did I wasn't all that impressed. It wasn't bad (or orange), but it looked a tad too yellow, like a faded tan with a side of jaundice. Not exactly the healthy glow I was so desperately seeking.

Another not-so-good thing about this product is that it did some pore clogging. Nothing too awful and I can't be 100% sure that it was the Instant Gel, but I'm not repeating this little experiment.

Smooth and Smoother

I've had this tub of Clarins Toning Body Polisher sitting there for a couple of months. It was waiting, unopened, in the wasteland that is the vanity storage space. I came across it the other day and decided to give it a go and see how it compares to my favorite scrub, Maryam's.

Next to Maryam's homespun product, Clarins' packaging looks slick and sophisticated. The scent is more subtle and the texture is finer. It comes with a plastic applicator that helps mix the salts and sugar granules with the oils before applying to your skin.

The polisher goes on easily, sloughs off dead skin and feels rich and creamy enough to be pleasant. However, despite its content of hazelnut oil, shea butter and palm oil it isn't as nourishing and moisturizing as promised. Actually, I suspect that this product goes a bit overboard with skin stripping.

Unlike Maryam's scrub that leaves my skin feeling like it needs very little moisturizing post use, here I needed to put on lotion right away. Also, after several hours it was evident that lotion wouldn't be enough and there's a need to use the big guns.

Now, I'm not saying that this is a bad product. It isn't. It's pleasant to use, it exfoliates nicely and it smells fresh and sharp. But if you have very dry skin and it's the dead of winter, you need to make sure that you butter up your skin thoroughly following use. Also, I wouldn't say that it delivers on its promise of luminous skin. Not on my skin or this time of year. It's just a decent scrub.

Bottom line: Maryam does it better, and for half the price.