Clarins Splendours Summer Make-Up Collection & Swatches

Clarins Splendours Summer '13 Makeup Collection Visual

Taking its inspiration from the idea of turning sunshine into gold, the Clarins Splendours Summer '13 makeup collection takes its cue from a pre-Colombian civilization that worshipped the sun, and gold features heavily in the collection.

Splendours Shimmer Body Oil

Splendours Shimmer Body Oil

The most interesting item in this collection for me is the Shimmer Body Oil (€37).  Weighing in at 100ml, this will be LE and I have it on reasonable authority that it won't be available in all countries.  

Splendours Shimmer Body Oil - close up

Containing tiny specs of gold, it's designed to illuminate, moisturise (via hazelnut oil) and subtly scent the skin with summer scents of tangerine, grapefruit, ylang-ylang and tonka bean, it's similar enough to a (very old and almost used-up) YSL body oil I had and loved from some time ago.

The bronzing oil in the flesh - quite a big bottle!

The bronzing oil on a white background - it's very very bronze up close n personal

A great big blob on the skin :-)

Sheered out - showing the gorgeous really subtle sparkles

Appearance-wise, this sheers-out very nicely to give a gorgeous really grown-up shimmer with a subtle bronze undertone.  Scent-wise, it's gorgeous - it smells of summer!  The tonka bean is just tempered with enough citrus to lift it, and it smells like my skin used to on a sunny day.  Wearing this today, coupled with the gorgeous weather in Ireland (for a change) genuinely lifted my mood.  Lovely - definite recommend.

Splendours Bronzing Compact

The second most interesting item in this collection for me, if for no other reason than the packaging, and the pattern stamped into the product, is the Bronzing Compact (€38).  Another LE offering,

Bronzing Compact

This compact features three shades which can be swirled together to give a great just-in-from-the-sun flush to the skin, a warm beige brown and a warm copper-based terracotta (both are matte shades) and an iridescent peach-based gold at the centre.  Matte bronzers are a great staple in your personal kit and with this compact, you have the option of either a matte bronzer (using just the browns) or a shimmer bronzer (mixing the gold shade in). 

Bronzing Compact - close up - how cute!

Isn't this just gorgeous!  I'm a sucker for products featuring a cute stamp, even though they wear off, they look lovely for that ten minutes before you can bring yourself to take a brush to them :-)

Splendours Eyeshadow & Liner Palette

The collection also features a LE Quad & Eyeliner Palette (€39) in typical summer shimmer shades of Copper (more of a bronze than a copper I think), Pale Gold (a beige-champagne gold) and a Pink Gold (a gorgeous peachy-pinky-rosy-gold pale pink shade), and two matte eyeliners in Powder (a dark rich Inca chocolate-brown) and Plum (a deep dark plum shade).

Cute packaging!

In the flesh... this needs further investigation and swatching

A separate review of this quad will follow, it's quite gorgeous and deserves a post all on its own :-)


Splendours Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Balms

Nearly there!  The collection also introduces four LE Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Balms - in Crystal Rose (pink tourmaline), Crystal Mandarin (orange), Crystal Gold Plum (jade green*) and Crystal Berry (sapphire blue*) (€22 each).  Flavoured with vanilla and red berries and designed to deliver the "colour of a lipstick, the transparency of a gloss and the comfort of a lip-balm", these may well be very interesting for the summer.  Look at The Sunday Girls great blog post featuring some swatches of these to see just what the will look like - I am particularly interested in Crystal Gold Plum, I'm not a fan of wishy-washy colours and this one looks the most vibrant of them all to my eye.

* Do note that the colour on the lips isn't, in fact, green and blue :-)

Splendours Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Gels

T -> B: Crystal Pink, Crystal Plum 

And finally, two very shiny, crystal-glossy LE Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Gels in Crystal Pink and Crystal Plum (€20 each), this time scented with blackcurrant (am not 100% convinced that this is a good idea, but let's wait and see).

Wonder Waterproof Mascara

There are two other, non-LE items being promoted as part of the collection - a new Wonder Waterproof Mascara in No1/Wonder Black (€25) and Fix' Make-Up (€25).

New Clarins Wonder Waterproof Mascara

I already have, and use, and definitely recommend, both Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara and Clarins Double Fix Mascara (the former is a great black which gives volume and length and a small amount of curl, the latter makes any mascara waterproof).  This new one, Wonder Waterproof Mascara, sounds like it's a perfect mash-up of the two I already have; a waterproof mascara in the same vein, designed to create volume, curl, length and definition.  Clarins mascaras are wonderfully creamy and don't flake or fade over the day - these I most certainly recommend.

Fix' Make-Up

To set or to fix, that is the question...

Fix' Makeup is a setting spray - and it's most definitely one I'm interested in checking-out.  Incidentally, look here for some more information on the difference between different sprays (setting sprays, finishing sprays, fixing sprays, refresher sprays...).  Apparently this one smells of rose and I'm looking forward to seeing if in fact it's a setting or a fixing spray.  I would have imagined the former, however the ingredients list bears further scrutiny - it contains silica (which will help reduce shine over the course of the day) and a film-forming polymer (which suggests finishing spray).

Releasing on-counter in May, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing these in the flesh, in particular Fix' Makeup.