Clarins The Essential Eye Make Up Palette

 Clarins The Essential Eye Make Up palette against my (very well used) Naked 1

Clarins The Essential Eye Make Up palette against my Naked 2 palette

As the owner of seemingly 385,492 neutral eye palettes already I didnt need another neutral eye palette.  And I wasn't seriously tempted to buy this one until I read Sara from Color Me Loud's review and swatch post.  That post from the eyeshadow queen had me opening a new browser, logging into Selfridges and ordering this tout suite.

Having been trying it out all week I can safely say that Clarins really have pulled it out the bag with this 10 shade palette.

The shadows are packed in a sturdy cardboard casing, reminiscent of a box of chocolates complete with an elasticated band to securely hold the palette shut.  Top marks for travel-ability.  It contains a double ended brush which is actually fairly decent and not your standard foam applicator which usually goes directly in the bin and a mirror.

Each shadow is 0.04g which is exactly the same as each shadow in the Naked palettes.  Inevitably these palettes are going to be compared.  The Naked palettes contains 12 shadows but are slightly more compact in size than the Clarins palette.  But they're all excellent.

The Clarins shadows are numbered rather than named so here's a rundown of the full 10.

1-The first shadow I swatched led to instant disappointment and instant regret that I bought the palette as the pigmentation was so poor that I could barely see the swatch on my arm.  This is the one shadow I would bin and would feature in a 'disappointing products' post.  It's a skin toned neutral beige but honestly it barely appears on my eyelid.  Thank goodness my disappointment quickly turned to delight when I swatched the rest of the shades!!

2-Number two is a cool toned shimmery gold.  This is the only shade I would say contained sparkle but luckily there isn't much fallout so don't fear the disco ball effect on the top of your cheekbones (if you do like that effect I would suggest you buy Charlotte Tilbury, The Uptown Girl palette where fallout is a-plenty)

3-Three is a warm toned pinky brown-a great base colour with number 9 blended out through the outer corner.  Not too soft that the powder goes everywhere when you put your brush in but buttery, easy to apply and easy to blend.  In fact, this description applies to all of the rest of the shades in the palette so I won't keep repeating myself.

4-Four is a red toned medium brown with a matte finish

5-Five is a cool toned fawn with a frosted finish

6-Six is a medium bronze with a satin finish, a little bit similar to Urban Decay Baked.

7-Seven is a similar colour to number 4 in the palette but with a satin finish.  This one leans towards chocolate brown

8-Eight is a taupe with a frost finish.  Slightly darker than number 5 in the palette but with the same finish

9-Number nine is a medium brown with a reddish undertone with slight golden shimmer through it.

10-Ten is a stunning greyed dark brown with a frosted finish.  Looks amazing with number five.

I've worn this palette every day this week with different combinations and have loved every single one of them.  They're all (with the exception of the first shade) fabulous-pigmented, a pleasure to work with, last all day without creasing.  I am a very happy neutral palette loving girl.  I'm actually pleased to see the palette doesn't include a black or very dark brown shade because I think almost every palette has one and for the amount of times I would use it, it's a wasted colour for me.

I'm not going to say it's better or worse than the Naked palettes although the comparisons will be drawn I am sure.  Naked 2 is probably closer in tone to the Clarins palette than Naked 1.  The shades in the Clarins palette are shimmery and pigmented without being glittery or too frosty.  I feel it's a slightly more grown up/sophisticated palette than the Naked's but I will use and love them all to death. 

This is a limited edition palette for Christmas 2013 and I would highly recommend snapping one up if you need (want) a new neutrals palette-you really cannot go wrong with this one.

PS-I am currently hosting an international giveaway on my blog to say thank you/Happy Holidays and celebrate my blogs first anniversary.  You can enter here