Clarins Holiday 2012 Collection - Odyssey

We are now really coming to the end of the holiday collections and I am ready for spring!  At this point, I am not buying any new makeup for the rest of the season since I will be going crazy for the spring collections as soon as they begin releasing in early January.  Right now, I am mostly spencing my money on skincare products as my skin is the worst in the winter months.  I have enough perfumes and color products to last me through the rest of the winter and I have a salon appointment next week to stock up on my favorite haircare products.  So at this point, I am pretty mentally finished with the holidays and any makeup for the winter months.  I still have a few holiday collections but at this point, I am only looking for products and shades that I know that I will be using throughout the whole year and will be more classic and seasonless.  Clarins often has great shades so this is one of the few holiday collections that I am actually still excited to look at!

The newest holiday collection from Clarins is called Odyssey and it contains all shades of deep bronzes and golds.  I am expecting some great eye makeup from this collection however I am expecting very little from the face and lip shades.  On first glance, I can already see that the model has a much warmer skintone than I do and therefore the face and lip products are not going to be very flattering for me...

The Clarins website provides a full description of the overall collection and then of all the products contained in it.  "Clarins’ shimmering, lightweight pressed powder brings a goddess glow to face, neck and décolleté. Matte gold medallion compact—with engraved edges, scrolls and golden mother-of-pearl—is the must-have holiday accessory for all skin tones."  The last item that I need is a product that is too pretty for me to use but I know that I am going to really love this...

Here is the Odyssey collection!

Odyssey Face Palette - Clarins’ shimmering, lightweight pressed powder brings a goddess glow to face, neck and décolleté. Matte gold medallion compact—with engraved edges, scrolls and golden mother-of-pearl—is the must-have holiday accessory for all skin tones.  Clarin’s “Light Optimizing +” complex instantly captures, amplifies and diffuses the light—visibly reducing the appearance of lines and imperfections for an even, radiant result. Our exclusive Plant Micropatch maintains hydration, comfort and a soft skin texture. White Tea extract delivers powerful anti-pollution protection.

Eye Quartet Mineral Palette - ghly concentrated in mineral pigments, these eye shadows light up all eyes. Their wet and dry texture is extremely soft on application. Easy to blend and shade, their colours are both subtle and even. Harmonies of satin and iridescent shades offer a variety of effects. For a superb, long-lasting make-up result.  An anti-pollution active ingredient preserves the fragile skin of the eyelids. It also protects them from harmful free radicals.
- Odyssey - eye shadows in bronze, beige, and taupe are paired with a creamy golden bronze highlighter

Instant Definition Mascara - A dual-purpose, ultra-volume, intense colour mascara with a rich formula that enhances the beauty of all types of lashes.  A complex of red and brown algae extracts rich in minerals: protects, restructures and reinforces lashes. Glycoproteins: coat lashes, restore body and shine.
- Black - deep rich black

Gloss Prodige Lip Gloss - Lip-plumping formula delivers intense colour, mirror-like shine and long-lasting hold. Leaves lips soft, smooth and fuller looking. Available in 8 fashion-perfect shades: Chocolate, Nude, Rose, Candy, Grenadine, Raspberry, Blackberry, Papaya.  The Suprashine Colour complex : delivers intense, glossy color.  Maxi-Lip® peptide : stimulates production of natural collagen and hyaluronic acid for fuller-looking lips.  Radiance-boosting pearls: optimize the reflection of light on lips.  Raspberry seed oil: nourishes lips, leaving them feeling soft and supple.
- Chocolate - deep sheer brown with gold shimmer

I can already rule out the lip gloss shade from this collection, the formula sounds great but I will need to try it in a totally different shade than the one that is featured in this collection.  I will try one of these out in a pink or berry shade the next time that I visit my closest counter.  I am on the fence about the highligher face palette, this product is beautiful and I would love to own it but I doubt that I would ever really use it.  I think that it looks slightly too warm for my skintone and won't be very flattering.  Normally, this would be a big reason for me not to buy it but I just love the packagin so much that I would use it as a compact...I think that I will just have to say no on this one and go after the eye makeup palette.

The eye makeup palette is one product that I really want from this collection, I am not all about the mineral formulas in this product but I love the shades contained it.  I know that I have all of these shades in my collection at least twice or three times over but I love them so much and I know that I would use them all the time.  This is a great chpice for me and one that I know that I would use throughout the rest of the winter months and then well into the spring and summer months.  This is one of the last pieces of holiday makeup items that I will try to find.  I am betting that it will be harder to find but this collection released a bit later than the rest of the holiday collections so I still hold a bit of hope aside that I can still get my hands on this palette.

We have less than five collections left and we will finish them up pretty soon and then I am getting ready to head into the spring months!

photo courtesy of Clarins