Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night, Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry for Fall 2015, Review, Swatch & FOTD

I hope you are having a wonderful week. There is less than a week left for my holiday, so I am trying to make the most out of it. At the same time I need to do a few things before going to work, such as organizing a farewell party at the last day at work, that will be 31st of August. I don't have many ideas about it though and I don't feel particularly motivated, because, you know, if it would all be so perfect there, why would I leave the company anyway. So I keep delaying the organization, oh well...

Back to beauty, today I have two pieces of Clarins Make-up Collection for Fall, called Pretty Day & Night, Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night and Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base. Recently the brand also released a new version of their Joli Rouge Lipsticks. I opted for a color,  #731 Rose Berry, which would go good with the items from Fall Collection. Here are my thoughts about the products I have been testing.

Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night, Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry

One item which I have been eyeing since the promotional material of the collection was released on the internet is Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night. There are two palettes in the collection, #01 Pretty Day for a day time neutral look and #02 Pretty Night to go full on dramatic and smokey. If you know me, you know that I am more of an intense eye look lover, so I have been eyeing the night palette to use it during the day hah!

The packaging is from card board, which is a little let down. On the bright side, it reminded me of Clarins Essentials Palette (reviewed here) which I love. I wished the rubber band to hold the compact would be replaced by a proper closure but this is a minor issue. The packaging is sturdy and light weight which makes it great for traveling. There is a generous amount of 7.5 g/0.2 Oz of product in the compact.

Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night

The reason why I got very excited about the palette was the combination of copper and plummy shades looked so pretty in the pan. It also a nice and balanced combination of mattes and shimmers which makes it versatile.  The shades in the palette are as follows:

Left most: A light cool skin color which is a shade or two deeper than my skin tone, so it makes a great contouring shade for me on the crease. The finish is matte. This shade swatches and applies very well, is not powdery and nicely pigmented.

2nd from left: A mid-toned shimmery copper with satin to shimmery finish. The shimmer in this one is very pretty and complex, the consistency is nice and it applies smoothly. One of my favorites in this palette.

Middle: A mid-toned shimmery khaki with satin to shimmery finish. The formula of this shade is similar to the copper shade on its left. I like how it applies and how it looks on the lids. It doesn't end up being very shimmery but induces a nice and dimensional look. Another favorite of mine.

2nd from right: A deep plum with matte finish. This one feels very dry and it is hard to apply. It is best once applied wet but I don't like using it wet since it is harder to blend a wet shade and I like using it on my crease and outer corner. Unfortunately this shade is a let-down. It can work as a liner though if you like wet application.

Right most: This is the most disappointing shade in the palette, which reminds me of MAC Carbon. It looks like black in the pan but it is hardly a brown, the color pay-off is bad, so is the formula and application. This one also applies better when used wet but doesn't go beyond being a grey/brown.

Close-up: Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night

Swatch: Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night

Below I applied copper in the inner half, khaki on the outer half, defined the crease with the skin shade and tried to deepen it as much as it gets with the purple. I wished there would be a highlight shade in this palette and that the deepest two shades would have better formula. I applied these over the new Clarins Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base.

In-action: Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night and Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base

Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base (Eclat Minute Base Fixante Yeux) is a new addition to the Clarins line. I am currently using Nars Pro-prime which works great for my dry eye lids. One would think that oily eye lids are hard to apply makeup because of creasing but believe me dry eye lids come with their own challenges, fall outs and fading are just a few. As much as I love Nars Pro-prime, it doesn't eve out the color on my naturally dark eye lids so I am still searching for the perfect base. 

After I gave Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base a try, I thought this particular base will be better for ones with combination skin. It dried out my eye lids slightly. I could still get along with it if the shade would be matching. It has a skin color, not transparent like Nars Pro-Prime, which is good but the shade is deeper than my skin and it comes in only one shade. I believe with the primer it works best if you opt for a shade which is the same or a tone lighter than your skin. That way you can make the eye shadows pop better. The packaging is nice, it is in a one way tube, close to Clarins Instant Concealer  (reviewed here) which I adore so much. Base has 10 ml of product whereas concealer has 15 ml so the tube of the base is slimmer. Consistency is close to the concealer as well but the shade is deeper than concealer #02. Too bad about the shade because I could imagine it being a great concealer for me especially for summer time when my eyes are not particularly try. This shade would be good for medium to deeper skin tones.

Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night, Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry

Clarins new Joli Rouge release is not the part of the fall collection but I thought I can show you a look using the products together. The shade I selected is a great my lips but better color for me, called #731 Berry Rose. The formula is light weight, it is comfortable on the lips and not drying. It didn't emphasize the lines which is great, it is also not too slippery but a little shiny. The formula is not very opaque, has some transparency which makes it easy to wear. It wears off nicely without getting patchy. If you like formulas such as new Chanel Rouge Cocos with a little bit of less slip, then you might enjoy new Clarins Joli Rouge.

Swatch: Clarins Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry

Here is the look in context with Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night on the eyes and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry on the lips. Please excuse me since I don't remember which blush I am wearing. I wore this look before holiday so in rush I forgot to note it down.

FOTD with Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry

Another photo with full FOTD. Loving the lipstick shade, I will be wearing it very often the next season.

FOTD with Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night and Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry

Final thoughts: I like the color story of Clarins Palette 5 Couleurs #02 Pretty Night but the deepest two shades turned out to be very dry and they don't have the color pay-off I would expect from Clarins Make-up. Until now all the powder products I tried from the line impressed me so I can't recommend this particular palette. I will check out this palette at the counter upon my return to make sure that I didn't receive a faulty product. Instant Light Eye Perfecting Base has a nice texture but the shade is too deep on my lids. It can especially recommend it to medium complexions with combination skin. I am loving Joli Rouge #731 Rose Berry, a perfect light weight lipstick for the upcoming season.

Are you eyeing anything from this collection? Do you like your eye shadow base tinted? 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided free of charge for my consideration. 
I am not paid for this review. All opinions are honest and my own.