Clarins Ladylike Collection: Look of the day

Rather than just doing a review of some of the Clarins Ladylike Collection pieces I've been trialling, I thought I'd do a quick Look of the Day post instead.  Bear with me... I've never done one of these before!

Note that mostly Clarins products were used for this tutorial, however some other products of course were also used.
Warning: picture-heavy post.


I love this collection, and I really love the campaign visual (see the preview post here), it's subtle, and understated, and polished.  I started out this post intending to trial and report back on these lovelies:

ie Clarins latest (new formula, never-before-released) Ombré Matte shades - in 01/Nude Beige and 06/Earth (which for the sake of transparency, I should report are PR samples, graciously received).  As these are completely new, and I'm a product junkie, I really wanted to try 'em out.

... et voila, Les Swatches ;-)  On the left, Nude Beige (a) wet and (b) Dry.  On the right, Earth, (a) dry and (b) wet.  There's not much difference using these wet or dry to be perfectly honest.  They're somewhat of a strange formulation; not quite eyeshadow, not quite cream shadow.  Very, very, matte, and slightly chalky, but good to work with, and they apply and blend well.

So let's get started... what I did (and I should note that I wasn't attempting to reproduce the campaign visual for the Ladylike collection, this was just me playing around with some of the products):

step 1: applying the base

Step 1:  Over an eyelid primer, I applied Nude Beige with my trusty MAC 252 (probably the single best brush at whacking a base on really quickly, as it's lovely and big, albeit slightly prickly, which we'll forgive!)

step 2: start adding definition

Step 2: At the outer corners and up into my crease, I applied Earth with my Illamasqua Eye Shadow Brush (by the way, some of these brushes are some of my favourites, and some of them just happened to be within arms' reach when I did this).

Hint: if you've got a hooded eye, as do I, and you want a slightly blown-out look, then make sure you're looking straight ahead when you do your "crease", to ensure that you can see the shadow when your eye is fully open.  Does that make sense?  Good... next...

step 3: add a shimmer highlight

Step 3: Adding some shimmer (I used a Becca highlighter actually) using my Lauren Luke Flat Eyeshadow Brush (a perfect dupe for a MAC 239, and from what I can see, now discontinued) across the middle of the lid and into the corner of my eye.

At this point I also did my brows (using Illamasqua's Brow Cake), and sharpened the underneath with Nude Beige.  I personally prefer the tops of my brows a little unstructured, as it stops them looking "too perfect" (personal preference is all!)

step 4: tightlining

Step 4: Tightlining the upper and lower waterline with my favourite brown eye pencil (I used MAC Coffee).  You can do this with your eyes open or closed, whatever is preferable (being honest, I do this with my eyes open, but it produces a very freaky looking picture - this one is a bit calmer, and the end result is the same!)

step 5: the liner

step 5: the liner

Step 5: Starting to line the eyes.  I wanted to do something a little different, so I used the new Clarins 3 Dot Liner in Brown (this one is LE, it's usually only a version in black that's available) to create a double line.  It takes a little working with, and I tend to go over it with a liner brush (Louise Young LY24 is my recommended, favourite, eyeliner brush, ever, bar none) as I'm working with it to get a smooth line.

step 6: tidying up the liner

Step 6: As the brown isn't as distinct as a black liner would be, to ensure that the double line is evident, I pushed some Nude Beige in between the lines with my Shu Uemura 5F (Natural) brush.  I didn't want something as harsh as white, and I wanted to mainly use Clarins/Ladylike products where possible.

step 7: adding mascara

Step 7:  Nearly there - as this was a daytime look, and more subtle as it was just all browns, I wasn't bothered with lashes.  So I just used the Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara (in black - personally I prefer black to brown mascara).  I also tidied-up, blended the outer edges etc.

Make up artist hint:  Just use whatever bronzer or blusher you're using on your face to subtly blend out the top of your eyeshadow: it will harmonise your makeup and make it all appear to match.  Make sense?  (For this I used one of my all-time favourite blushers, MAC Warm Soul.  Love it.)

Step 8: finishing off

Step 8:  Finishing-off involved some foundation (I used the lovely Clarins latest and greatest True Radiance Foundation - see here for a review), some concealers and correctors and my Clarins Loose Face Powder in Translucent (sadly, discontinued - it is fantastic stuff) on my current favourite (!) "powder" brush (Inglot 4SS).  The look was completed with a few spritzes of Clarins Fix' Makeup, because much as I occasionally love the matte look, I don't particularly love a powdery look. A slick of nude lip gloss, and that was it - a subtle brown blown-out smokey eye with a double liner twist :-)

the finished look

And that's it;  the finished look.  Complete with some tilt-shift focus thrown in for good measure :-)

I liked these Ombre Matte shades for a nice polished, subtle smoked-out eye.  In general, personally, I'd usually go for something slightly more dramatic, but this suits me nicely today.  In fairness though, I should point out that the eyeshadow does appear a little less subtle in real life - the computer camera does wash it out a little bit.

Update: this lasted me all day and then some (around ten hours) with absolutely no budging or moving or shifting or fading or bunching or creasing or any other undesired -ings.  Impressive, so.

I hope you enjoyed this one.  If you'd like me to do more of these tutorial type posts, please comment below, and as always, thanks for reading!