Clarins New Releases: Joli Blush & Natural Lip Perfector

I think Clarins makeup and skincare posts might be my favorite to write about. If there’s one brand that’s really stayed true all these years, it’s Clarins. Their products are always so nice, effective and gentle on my skin. I’m just a really big fan of Clarins, okay? The two products I am going to be talking about today on ze blog are both new formulations of some of their old products. The first is the Natural Lip Perfector ($20CAD/$26USD), a more pigmented version of their classic Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector, and the Joli Blush ($33CAD/$32USD) which replaced their old Blush Prodige (review here).

Let’s start with the Natural Lip Perfector. This is one of my holy grail lip products. Oooh! I should do a whole blog post on my holy grail lip products. I bet you are all wondering what else is on that list right now. Am I right or am I right? Okay, stay tuned in the future for that. Anyways, back to this Lip Perfector. I have always loved Clarins’ original Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors; I even have a review on one from waaaaay back in the day in 2014 (see here). If that’s not proof, I don’t know what is. But this new Lip Perfector is slightly different from those ones. It’s more intense. It’s still super moisturizing with the yummiest vanilla cupcake scent and a beautiful glossy finish but it also gives the lips slightly more colour. This one is in the shade #19 intense smoky rose and it’s, yup you guessed it, a smoky rose colour. It’s a deep rosy pink and it’s absolutely gorgeous on the lips. It gives four hour hydration with shea butter and they are a melting, non-sticky cream-gel texture. AKA they are everything you want on your lips. I’m obsessed.

The next product is the Clarins Joli Blush. Now, I am quite the self proclaimed blush fiend. I just love me a good blush and I am always on the hunt for a blush that is different from the ones already in my collection. Is it just me or do so many blushes seem the exact same? There’s just a lot of boring blushes out there. But when I saw this Joli Blush in the shade #04 Cheeky Purple, I was intrigued. I don’t have a lot of darker blushes in my collection (I love Marc Jacobs Shameless Bold Blush in Tantalizing (review here) and Nars’ Dolce Vita blush) so I thought this Clarins blush would be a nice addition. These new blushes from Clarins are supposed to be both radiant and long-wearing. But they aren’t the shimmery kind of radiant that you might be expecting. Instead they have more of a subtle sheen or satin finish. Don’t be expecting a sparkly blush with these guys.

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this blush. At first sight, it’s gorgeous. It’s a deep plum that just screams put me on your cheeks every fall and winter! But when you go to swatch it, you can’t help it but feel a lil’ disappointed. It’s a very hard powder. Not a lot of product comes off on your fingertips. The pigmentation just isn’t extreme. Now with ab eyeshadow, that would be a very bad thing. But that sort of thing is more expected with a deep blush like this. You don’t necessarily want it to be pigmented. And because it’s not the most pigmented blush in the world, it makes it extremely wearable. You don’t have to worry about being super light-handed with this one. You can still heavily swirl your brush into the powder and apply it to your cheeks without worrying that you will step out of the door looking like a clown. However, I do wish that it was just a little more pigmented so I could have the option with how heavy and dark I want to wear this blush.

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