This is a sponsored post by Clarins – but the opinion is all my own.
My first interaction with Clarins began when I was very young, when I would watch my mother put on various creams and lotions from this respected French skincare brand on her porcelain skin. And on and off over the next couple of decades, I would ‘borrow’ her Clarins moisturizing creams and sun care lotions – all good, but I guess in a way, my inner rebel refused to actually purchase anything from Clarins due to the fact that it is one of my mother’s favorite skincare brands.
Well now that I am older and more mature ( read: More and more, I often found myself purchasing and wearing the same items as my mother, so we obviously like a lot of the same things, so why fight it?) I don’t have such petty issues anymore and so when Clarins wanted me to try out their makeup for their 5/10/15 minute makeup challenge, I thought, “Why not?”
First of all, they sent me quite a bit of product. I mean THREE bottles of foundations? But I was not deterred. I actually drove to the Clarins counter in Nordstrom Santa Monica ( shout out to Katerina at Clarins, you are now my favoritest Nordstrom salesperson) and asked the lovely Katerina to explain to me about said foundations (will try to cover this in a future blogpost).
But before that some facts about my skin:
I have fair~medium complexion ( color matched to Clarins’ Honey in #110 ) and my skin is oily.
Oily skin tends to oxidize most foundation, making your foundation/skin look darker than it is after a while.
I have breakouts, mild hyper-pigmentation, clogged pores and all the other lovely problems oily skin brings.
Clarins’ Teint Haute Tenue ( and now I am a convert!) is one of the foundations given to me, and it was the one I used for all my looks because it has buildable medium-to-full coverage as well as bamboo extract which is soothing to oily skin ( and I’m telling you, it makes my skin looks flawless.). Other than the fact I’ve yet to use the other types of foundations they sent me, I used the instructions on their site as follows:
5 mins To Natural … using 5 products :
Here I used the foundation + Clarins brow kit ( I have really fair/fine brows!) + Cream Blush shade 02 (used this on my cheeks and lips) + Be Long Mascara, and Instant Light + Natural Lip Perfector in Rose.
It really took me less than 5 mins to put on my makeup on and I believe the secret is the amazing foundation. I mean, if you have a great base, it’s really hard to mess things up. As you can see, there is slight undereye darkness because I am not wearing any concealer, but I think for days when you’re not really looking to see anyone, or when you’re in a rush, this 5 minute routine is perfect.
10 Mins To Polished … using 8 products:
Here I used everything I used before , but adding the instant concealer after putting on foundation, lining my eyes with the Crayon Kohl pencil and putting on some bright pink Rouge Eclat lippy in Sweet Rose.
I have to admit, this is the look I love the most. Concealer as once famous makeup artist once said, is the secret of the universe and Clarins’ amazing concealer instantly brightens up my eyes. Also, the bright lipstick just makes me feel happier.
15 Mins To Fabulous … using 10 products:
So it happened that it was date night that night so I had 5 more minutes to turn my 10 minutes “polished” look to ‘”fabulous” . Here I used the 3 dot liner on my upper eyelids, and swapped my pink lipstick with Rouge Eclat in red fuchsia. I also changed my parting ( a trick I learned to refresh volume). Tadaaaa :
PS: I don’t know why I look more pale here, but I find that wearing red lipstick always makes me look a less tanned. Or maybe it’s the night time lighting.
And now, for you my dear Ambitionistas … do enter to WIN – Clarins’ Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in Rose. All you have to do is click here, then come back and comment on which Heidi do you like the best.
