Clarins Barocco Festive Makeup Collection for Holiday 2010

Barocco, Clarins’s opulent offering for this holiday season, is every bit as flamboyant and sumptuous as the artistic eras/styles – Baroque and late-Baroque Rococo – from which it derives its name. The visual of the Barocco model is itself stunning; I love the sultry smokey eyes, as well as the rich and velvety red lips.

Comprising only four items (click to enlarge), this collection may be small but luxury and excess are evident in their packaging – the curlicue embellishment often found on elaborate scrolls, together with the reflective gold surface, characterises their lavish splendour.

This limited edition collection will be available from 15 November 2010 at all local Clarins counters. To my delight, I was treated to a sneak preview of them recently. Here are my thoughts on and swatches of these beauty lovelies:

Barocco Eye Colour Trio (S$64) is a palette that contains eyeshadows in a matte charcoal black, a shimmery swirled black-gold and a shimmery peach gold. Made in Italy, they look like the famed baked shadows that hail from that country.

They are very easy to work with and can be worn together or alone. They might not seem exceptionally smooth at first swatch (they do not have a velvety touch) but they blend all right dry and show up well over a base. They are very pretty, when used wet.

As with most swirled shadows, the middle shade is quite special – you can get an antique gold, a brassy black, a golden black, a smokey bronze or even a golden pewter, depending on the area you pick up colour from. It makes a lovely lid shade and can be a complex contour colour for an interesting smokey eye.

I love how the packaging pattern throws off a shadow in the light!

Barocco Rouge Prodige True Hold Colour & Shine Lipstick in 130 (S$35) is my favourite product in this diminutive range. Inspired by the purple velvet drapes of the Baroque period, this intensely pigmented lipstick is the perfect berry red for me. It doesn’t pull fuchsia on me and is a good alternative to Shiseido Dragon, which has warmer tones. A full-coverage lippy, it doesn’t glide on as effortlessly as the latter because of its heavy and velvety pigments but it is certainly moist, as you can tell from the swatch.

It can be blotted and toned down for a more subtle appearance but its strength is really its rich and even intensity. The nib shape is perfect for sculpting the lips too (see my FOTDs below, where I used it straight from the tube).

Barocco Face Palette (S$64) is a complexion powder housed in a black lacquered compact with its own red velvet case. Its exquisite hewn surface and incredible heft reminded me of the Guerlain Écrin 6 Couleurs Palettes. The raised scroll motif in a softly-matte pink-peach lies on a bed of sandy-beige sprinkled with delicate shimmer. Swirled with a blush brush, it imparts a healthy, flattering colour to the cheeks, while the beige portion can be used on its own as a soft highlighter.

Barocco Gold Shimmer Powder For Face & Décolleté (S$70) is a cask of gold nuggets. I love the irregular shapes of the pieces and the luxe-looking black powder puff! This glittery product is great for sparkle and shine at night or for special events. At 36 g, it is slightly heavier than Guerlain Météorites Powder for the Face, which weighs 33 g.

Clarins Singapore hosted my friends and me at Cova Pasticceria – Confetteria, an Italian restaurant at Paragon. The desserts are exquisite and the Sacher Torte left a deep impression! : ) ~

Here we are, together with the lovely Clarins people who encouraged all of us to try on the Barocco products.

Here I am, with the lipstick on (we all had to try it! ;)). I’d initially thought it looked overwhelming with my strong eye makeup but it seems all right in the photos.

Here are Kas, Sophia and Shirleen working the red lipstick. I particularly like Kas’s feline snarl! ;)

Shirleen had voiced her apprehension about using darker colours, so I couldn’t resist working some of the Clarins Barocco magic on her! Here we are, post eye-makeover! :) Her eyes are very prettily-shaped and were easy-peasy to work on. I think she looks great with smokes.

And here I am, with the Barocco Rouge Prodige again. I loved the colour so much, I couldn’t help but try it out at home too, hence the almost-bare face. I really like how it brightens my face in an instant.

I later completed the look with the Barocco shadows and complexion powder, as well as Clarins Hydra-Luminous Powder Foundation, Clarins Instant Light Brush-On Perfector and Clarins Multi-Blush Cream Compact in 30 Tender Raspberry (a gorgeous cream blush that has since been discontinued, unfortunately).

Here is my Barocco face. I’m missing falsies but it still is a strong look. I think I can swing it for a special occasion, though! The concealer does a pretty decent job of reducing the appearance of my eyebags (thank goodness!) but I still prefer them obscured by my glasses. ;)

Click to see the Clarins Christmas coffrets for this season!