Clarins’ Palazzo d’Oro Collection: Gold Attraction Face Palette
Clarins Gold Attraction Face Palette
($57.00) is an elegant holiday highlighter from Clarins’ Palazzo d’Oro Collection.
It’s a particularly pretty to look at with the texture and design of the palette itself, and the overall shimmer and shade of it is quite lovely, too. It swatches as a shimmery, sunny yellow gold with just a little peachiness to it. It’s shimmery, has a golden sheen, and it does warm up the complexion (but not in a bronzy way, as Lancome’s Sparkling Cherub does).
I would say it can run a little too shimmery, so if you’re more of a subtle-barely-there kind of gal, this might not make the best highlighter for your face. (For your body? Oh, yeah, dust this on your decolletage for some va-voom!) I don’t mind using it as a face highlighter, though, and if you use a stippling brush (like MAC’s 187), you can get a more toned-down look than if you used a denser blush brush.
Bottom Line: It’s certainly not a must-have highlighter at $57 (which is a little spend-y), but it is an item that is worth a look at and perhaps purchased as a splurge during the holiday season. The packaging is particularly luxe (has some heft to it), with a brilliant faux gold finish.
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- Product: 27/30
- Value: 7/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 5/5
Recommendation: If you’re keen on lovely gold packaging and highlighters, this Clarins’ highlighter might be for you.
Clarins’ Palazzo d’Oro Collection: Gold Attraction Eye Quartet
Clarins Gold Attraction Eye Quartet & Liner Palette
($66.00) is a limited edition holiday palette from Clarins’ Palazzo d’Oro collection, which was “inspired by the light and sumptuous radiance of the architecture of Venice.” It’s a very minimalist collection with four pieces: an eyeshadow palette, a face palette, a lipstick, and a mascara.
The Eye Quartet includes a soft, shimmery milky pink, high-sheen peachy-gold, subdued taupe brown with subtle gold shimmer, and a richer, chocolate brown with just a smidgen of gold specks in it. It also has a black-brown cream liner included with the palette. All four shades are pigmented, and the eyeshadows themselves are smooth to the touch. They blend easily, and this combination of shades is actually very easy to use, because they work so well together. It’s not quite a neutral quad–almost like a neutral quad with a kick, I suppose. It’s perfect for the holidays, but it’s a palette you could easily continue to use throughout the year.
The packaging is stunning; it’s a heavy metal-ish compact that looks like gold. I may even go as far as to say I like the packaging more than the contents! It’s just particularly lovely and well-done, and I am happy that the insides didn’t disappoint.
I only found one drawback for this eyeshadow palette, and it’s the price. The price is really tough to swallow, even for Clarins. Even though you are getting 0.17 oz. of eyeshadow in the palette, it still works out to be $388.24/ounce–which prices it above MAC and NARS, but around the level of Givenchy and Chanel. They sell eyeshadow quartets as part of their regular line-up at $40 each, so I do think you are paying quite a bit on top of this for the packaging itself.
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- Product: 28/30
- Value: 6/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 5/5
Recommendation: If you’re a sucker for packaging, Clarins’ Gold Attraction palette just might sucker you in!
Availability: Clarins, Nordstrom
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Affordable Skincare: Aveeno Positively Radiant Makeup Removing Cleanser
Aveeno Positively Radiant Makeup Removing Cleanser ($6.99 for 5.5 fl. oz.) is a foam-based cleanser that feels lightweight, doesn’t dry out skin, and removes most makeup.
This review is one of those short and sweet kind, because the product itself is really simple. Like many Aveeno products, it’s not about frills, it’s about meeting a need. If I had to compare this to another high-end brand, I’d consider this similar to Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple (Foaming). This one comes in a bottle-shaped container with a pump to distribute the foam cleanser. I find one or two pumps is all I need to feel clean.
It is advertised as a makeup removing cleanser, not just a cleanser, and it’s unfortunate, because it doesn’t quite remove all makeup. Whenever I have a makeup remover, I test it against the long-lasting power of MAC Fluidline. This removed some, but it didn’t remove all. It does remove the majority of my makeup (eyeshadow, non-waterproof mascara, foundation), but it’s not necessarily the best choice for heavier or more long-wearing products.
I do, personally, prefer to remove heavier makeup with an oil-based makeup remover (like Lancome’s Bi-Facil) before I do my nightly cleanser, so it’s not a big deal for me. It’s just something that does take away from this product’s score, since it doesn’t completely live up to its claims.
It smells like something soft and clean and a little sweet–it reminded me of baby shampoo, to be honest. When I was trying to describe it, all I could think of was baby shampoo as my descriptor.
Bottom Line: This is an affordable cleanser that works well for daily dirt and grime and light to medium makeup. If you’re looking for a cleanser to remove heavy eyeliner, you may want to look elsewhere. I actually really liked it, and I was pleasantly surprised by it overall. I’ll probably be switching over my boyfriend over to this from Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple when he runs out. (Well, I’m going to have to see if Aveeno offers a foaming cleanser in this product line that doesn’t have “makeup remover” on it!)
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- Product: 26/30
- Value: 10/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: For an easy, lightweight cleanser that works well on daily dirt and build-up, this one is worth checking out!
Availability: ULTA
Cosmoholic Rockstar Red Lip Gloss
The Scarlet Season: Cosmoholic Rockstar Red Lip Gloss
Cosmoholic Rockstar Red Lip Gloss ($20.00 for 0.15 oz.) is a glossy semi-opaque red with pink tones. I had never heard of Cosmoholic prior to trying out this shade, and I was pleasantly surprised at the pigmentation! After reading up on Cosmoholic’s back story, I learned that their lip glosses are designed to be liquid lipsticks, so they’re supposed to be heavily pigmented. The gloss itself is non-sticky, contains no shimmer, and lasts about four hours on me and leaves a just-bitten stain behind. It has a sweet vanilla scent that doesn’t read synthetic, though a lil’ extra sweet for my personal taste (but it’s not a bad thing). The gloss also contains vitamin E, and this gloss definitely didn’t dry out my lips while I wore it!
What about you? Would you wear this red?
The Scarlet Season is a series of posts showcasing and featuring my favorite shades of red lips–from glosses to lipsticks that runs through December 2009. You can sure expect to see a lot of red this holiday season!
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China Glaze Cleopatra Nail Lacquer
Glitter Polish: China Glaze Cleopatra Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Cleopatra Nail Lacquer ($3.50 to $6.00) is a warmed-up yellow gold with small-sized gold particle glitter with a little mix of multi-colored shimmer. On my nails, it read more yellow gold and I didn’t notice much of the holographic glitter.
It’s kind of the opposite of Medallion, which is more of a cool-toned antique gold in comparison. Between the two of them, I do prefer Cleopatra with my skin tone — it really just warms me up.
This is also glitter suspended in a clear base, so it can work nicely as a glitter top coat over your favorite nail polish or worn alone for a sheerer look. It took me three coats to achieve the results in the swatches, but I could have waited a little longer in-between coats to get a more opaque look. (I was trying to get it done before my boyfriend came back to the office!)
It’s not as smooth as the average China Glaze lacquer, and it has the same consistency and feel of Medallion–a little gritty, not the easiest to apply, but it’s workable and not bad for a glitter polish. It removes like the average glitter polish. If I could improve it, I’d definitely wish for a smoother application–just one that spread the glitter evenly and quickly, and perhaps, a faster drying time.
From the various shades I’ve tried from China Glaze’s fifty new glitter lacquers, Cleopatra is my favorite! It’s just the right shade of gold that I’m automatically drawn to–plus, it complements my skin tone quite well.
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- Product: 26/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Looking for a warm gold, totally blinged out lacquer? Cleopatra might be it.
Availability: 8ty8beauty.com, Head2ToeBeauty.com, TransDesign.com
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China Glaze Medallion Nail Lacquer
Glitter Polish: China Glaze Medallion Nail Lacquer
China Glaze Medallion Nail Lacquer ($3.50 to $6.00) is a cool-toned gold with multi-sized, multi-colored shimmer suspended in a clear base. It has hexagonal multi-reflective bits of glitter amongst more square-shamed, smaller-sized dark gold glitter. It’s pretty much one of the most glittery polishes I’ve ever come across–and I say that in a good way… if you like glitter! Now, if you’re not a fan of glitter polish, I think I can safely say this isn’t for you.
I found application to require some effort, and you’ll get best results if you do let the layers dry substantially in-between. This lets you get better overall coverage of glitter so it doesn’t get bunched up or pushed around into certain spots. One issue I had if you moved too quickly was the glitter would bunch up a bit at the very edge of the nail (around the tip), which wasn’t so cute. I think this would work really well as a glitter top coat over your favorite lacquer as well, particularly since it has a clear base. It took me three solid coats to get the above (and below) results, and as you can see, it’s not opaque, though it’s still a fun shade to wear by itself.
Removal is about on par with what I’d expect from a glitter polish; it’s not the quickest removal process, but it doesn’t drive me batty. I really just like how sparkle-tastic this shade is, and I think that alone wins me over, since I was looking for it China Glaze’s new glitter shades. I will say it could have applied a little more smoothly, even for a glitter, but the finished result is still quite fun.
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- Product: 26/30
- Value: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Packaging: 4/5
Recommendation: Looking for a cool gold, totally blinged out lacquer? Medallion might be it.
Availability: 8ty8beauty.com, Head2ToeBeauty.com, TransDesign.com
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