Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’ll know that eyeshadow palettes are my weakness and I just can’t resist a pretty palette. Last Christmas, Clarins released an eyeshadow palette and it sold out quite quickly and I did kick myself for not purchasing when it launched which always happens so I was excited when I read that they were releasing another palette as part of their Winter collection. 

The Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette £35 is absolutely beautiful, and is packaged within a long, dark brown cardboard palette with metallic gold detailing, and an elastic band which you can secure over the lid to keep the palette closed, which I really like. I love how lightweight the palette is, and it takes up very little room and as far as cardboard palettes go, I think this is a really great one as it feels pretty sturdy and secure.

The Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette contains ten eyeshadows which are within vertical, rectangular pans similar to the lay out of the Urban Decay Naked Palettes. The palette contains a mirror within the lid, and also a double ended eyeshadow brush. The eyeshadows have a wet and dry mineral powder formulation, with a mixture of finishes.

The eyeshadows contain natural ingredients which claim to offer nourishing benefits, with the matte shades containing musk rose oil, and the satin shades containing white meadowfoam. What makes The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette so special, is that it was created as part of an initiative to minimise environmental impact, and features carefully selected materials and reusable packaging which is very admirable especially as you don’t hear of many brands considering environmental impact.

I usually find that brushes and applicators included within palettes aren’t particularly great quality, but the double ended brush within this palette is just lovely. The handle is made from birch wood, and both the handle and card for the palette were sourced from renewable forests.

The brush includes a rounded shadow brush which is perfect for applying base shadows, and the other end is a more rounded brush which works well for blending shadow through the crease, or for smudging shadow along your lower lashline. It’s a really great quality brush, and potentially one of the best brushes I’ve seen included within an eyeshadow palette.

Shade 1 – I know what you’re thinking.. where is it?! Believe me it’s there. I don’t know if it’s just my palette, but I get literally no payout from the first shade, and I’ve even tried lightly scratching the surface to see if that would help but sadly it gives no colour pay off whatsoever, and being the first shadow I swatched from the palette, I was really worried the others would follow suit by I couldn’t have been more wrong, the other nine shades are incredible.

Shade 2 – is a light champagne satin shade, with a slight pinky tone which I love.

Shade 3 – is a gorgeous, warm toned milk chocolate brown with a matte finish which is stunning as a crease shade.

Shade 4 – is possibly the showstopper within the palette, and is a beautiful (albeit slightly gritty) glitter which does cause a little fall out, but the extra work is worth it as it’s so incredibly pretty, and perfect for the party season. I would recommend doing your eyeshadow before your foundation when using this shade due to the fall out.

Shade 5 – a cool toned matte rich brown.

Shade 6 – is a deeper rich chocolate brown, with a matte finish which is the perfect liner shade.

Shade 7 – is a gorgeous matte brown which contains golden shimmer, which becomes more prominent the more you apply.

Shade 8 – is a dark charcoal grey matte.

Shade 9 – is a palette staple; an intense black matte.

Shade 10 – is an amazing blue toned purple shimmer.

I am really impressed with the pigmentation of the shades within the Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette (bar shade 1), and the range of finishes within this palette. I love that it contains beautiful neutral shades, but a glittery and colourful option too which is perfect for the festive party season. The quality of the Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup Palette shades is fantastic, with them being buttery soft with very little fallout except for the glitter shade, but all glittery shades tend to create a little fall out.

If you have been considering the Urban Decay Naked Smoky Palette, I’d recommend the Clarins The Essentials Festive Eye Makeup palette over the Naked Smoky as the shades are a lot more pigmented, and the shades are very similar actually, but the pigmentation of the Naked Smoky is pretty disappointing. If you like the look of this gorgeous palette, remember it’s limited edition so it won’t be around forever so make sure you snap it up before it disappears…

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