Guerlain Cruel Gardenia

Guerlain's Meteorites Cruel Gardenia highlighter initially launched in January 2012 with the Guerlain Spring 2012 collection.  It sold out of its initial run and quickly became one of those cult, hard to find products.  You can still find some from the original run online for a 100% mark up.  I've been lusting after it for two years and then randomly, it was available at my local Dillards a few weeks ago.

I have no idea when it was re-released.  There is nothing on the official Guerlain site about it and I haven't seen any press releases.  I have no idea if this is another limited edition run or if it is now part of the Guerlain permanent collection.  It's not on the Dillards website, but it's definitely on counter as I know several other people who have seen it nationally.

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(indirect natural light)

The design on the powder is surprisingly resilient.  Using a brush, it is difficult to pick up too much product.  (And I had a heck of a time trying to get enough product for a heavy swatch without running my fingers all over the design).  Heavily swatched, it can look like a cool, pinky metallic, but otherwise adds a very subtle sheen with a tiny bit of microglitter.

I tried to find a dupe just for the color and ended up with eyeshadows.  I don't have any highlighters which are overly similar to this.  Of the shadows that are similar in color, two are metallic cream shadows.  I think it's safe to say you're probably not going to be slapping those babies on your cheeks, but purely as an exercise in product duping, here you go:

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(indirect natural light)

(direct natural light)

As for how Cruel Gardenia compares to other highlighting products, I compared heavy swatches. You probably aren't going to use a highlighter this heavily, so your mileage will most assuredly vary depending on how much you apply.  

Cruel Gardenia is as bright as the more metallic highlighters without being overly metallic itself.  It really is a beautiful product.  Everything about it is beautiful.  The design is beautiful, the packaging is beautiful, the effect on the skin is beautiful.  This is a lovely, totally non-essential product that, if you have the money to spend, is totally worth it and will keep you warm on those cold winter nights (or maybe that's just me.)

The packaging is nice and luxe (as it should be at this price point).  The compact is heavy and is made of high gloss plastic that manages to not feel cheap at all.  It feels substantial in your hand.  

My only complaint is that the lid of the product screws onto the base at exactly the same level of the powder.  And the design in the powder is actually raised, so it would be easy for someone as suave as myself to accidentally gouge the product while trying to either open or close it.  It hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

The Guerlain Meteorites in Cruel Gardenia contains 9 grams of product and retails for $68.  As stated before, I picked mine up at a Dillards counter and I know other people who did as well (at a different Dillards counter from mine), but it does not appear to be available at any of the major retailer websites or the Guerlain website.  If you find one, please let me know where you got it.

Overall:  10/10

Guerlain Terra Ora Sculpting Powder and Contrast Highlighter for Summer 2013

Guerlain's Terra Ora Sculpting Powder and Contrast Highlighter is the limited edition summer 2013 Guerlain bronzer.  As far as I can tell, Guerlain does these every summer.  Last summer it was the Emelio Pucci Terra Azzurra blush/bronzer.

I should have taken a picture of me holding it, but I forgot.  This is NOT the huge one (that's the Guerlain Terra Neroli).  This compact fits neatly in the palm of my hand, but it still contains a good bit of product - 16 grams.  And to be clear, it should at this price point.

I've seen all sorts of blog and YouTube reviews on this product.  My favorite one was a YouTube review instructing people to stop treating this as a bronzer (and being disappointed) because it is meant to give you an all over healthy glow.  WHAT.  EVER. omg.

As with just about every other color product on the planet, a big part of what this product does will be dictated by your particular skintone (and often, skintype).  This product is a light golden beige.  On my pasty pale face, it absolutely is a bronzer.  On someone with a medium skintone, I could definitely see this being an all over glow product.  And on someone with a deep skintone, I suspect it would mostly be a waste of money, but could possibly be used as a highlighter, at least the center gold section.

I need a gold highlighter like I need a hole in the head, so I don't ever use the very center part.  I just don't.  I use the outer ring and here is a swatch of it on my skin

I think it is absolutely gorgeous.  It is very finely milled.  On the skin is has a beautiful sheen without any obvious shimmer or glitter.  It applies like a breeze, wears a solid 10 hours on my dry skin without a problem.  It doesn't emphasize pores (and trust me, I have some serious pores).  

The design on the product itself is gorgeous and shockingly resilient.  I've been using this thing for literally months and the design is still visible.

The compact is made of wood and has three magnetic closures.  The two halves of the compact come completely apart.  I'm fairly indifferent to this packaging.  It's okay.  I don't love it and I don't hate it.  I think it's fine.  The Terra Neroli bronzer comes in plastic packaging which I am much less excited about.

The Guerlain Terra Ora Sculpting Powder and Contrast Highlighter for Summer 2013 contains 16 grams of product and retails for a whopping $72 wherever Guerlain is sold.  I bought mine at Nordstrom.  Most retailers still have some in stock.  I get that at this price point, this would definitely be a miss for some people, but I absolutely love everything about this.

Overall:  10/10

Guerlain Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette

Guerlain's Calligraphy Eye & Lip Palette launched with their holiday 2012 Liu collection.  As soon as I saw the promo pics for this palette, it went on my wish list.  Just look at it.  It's gorgeous.  I was even more excited when Temptalia did a review of the palette and gave it an A+ rating.  In fact, every review I have ever seen for this palette gave it a top rating.  It seems like everyone loves this palette.

This palette has it all, beautiful, luxurious packaging, rich holiday colors and phenomenal quality.  At at Guerlain's price point, it definitely should.  The Calligraphy palette had a price tag of $79.

I COULD NOT WAIT to get my hands on it.  

Lucky me, I did receive this as a Christmas present last year.  I was thrilled!

Look at those shadows, they are gorgeous!

At least in the pan.

...

Well, only in the pan, as it turns out.

This palette is hands down the biggest disappointment of 2012 for me.  Possibly my biggest beauty disappointment ever.  As I said, it is gorgeous.  This palette definitely is a thing of beauty - to look at, not to use.  

But the quality?  The shadows were described as buttery soft with great payoff.  Um ... I have no idea what to think of this.   All of the shadows are stiff and dry with very lackluster pigmentation.  I had to fight with the shadows to get any color at all.

The lipsticks are definitely the standouts of the palette in that they go on fantastically well and have great pigmentation.  They look really similar in the pans, one orange red and one primary red.

The primary red looking shade actually goes on a very bright raspberry pink.  The orangey looking red actually swatched much more of a true red.

Overall, looking at this palette just makes me want to cry.  I had such high expectations for it and it totally failed to live up to them.  If someone just handed me this palette on the street, I would probably think it was okay.  The shadows are disappointing, but not the worst you could find.  But given the expectations I had for the palette combined with the price point, it just breaks my heart.

Overall:  0/10

Review: Guerlain Rose Aux Joues in 03 Over Rose

So I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but Dillards has definitely kicked up their cosmetics offering.  They are now carrying high end cosmetics like Guerlain (YES!), Shiseido and more.  And even better, they now have these high end counters at the mall I frequent.  

Not that you care, but it's been a giant pain to me that no one within a 10 hour drive has an actual Guerlain counter.  Because at this price point, I have to see before I buy.

The Guerlain Rose Aux Joues blush duos released in August 2012.  The duos have 2 wells.  

The larger well has a high shine frost finish blush in an absolutely gorgeous blue based pink that leans slightly berry colored.  I've seen other reviews where people describe this blush as having a very slight shimmer.  I really don't get that at all.  If you look hard, you can see some microglitter, but it doesn't strike me as shimmery.  To me this blush reads straight up metallic pink.

I'm generally not crazy about frosty metalic finish blushes, but I have to say I love this one.  It is super pigmented and the color when applied is true to the pan.  I love that applied lightly along the tops of the cheeks, it doubles as a highlighter.

The second, smaller, well contains a much more subdued blush.  I'm not sure it's completely matte.  It leans slightly satin to me.  It's not as pigmented as the top well, but it has good color payoff, goes on silky smooth and isn't powdery at all.

Guerlain says you can mix the two colors or use the shade from the smaller well as a contour.  I don't know that I'd use it as a contour, but I do often use it by itself.

The packagin, which I somehow neglected to get a picture of, is beautiful - as is typically the case with Guerlain.  It has a shiny gold finish, though I don't know if it is actually metal.  The case has some heft, it feels substantial, but it's also not overly large.  You can definitely throw this in your makeup bag.

The blush duo contains 6 grams of product and retails for $50.  I picked mine up at Dillards, but I believe you can get these duos wherever Guerlain is sold.

Overall:  10/10