Clearly Clarins

WITH RED CARPETS ROLLED OUT all over town, Clarins’ team came to LA to make the rounds. However, instead of setting up a pop-up beauty studio at a gifting lounge to showcase their latest goods as they had in past years, they opted for a more intimate and civilized way to introduce their various audiences to the new products.

Beauty editors and journalists were treated to a hearty brunch at the historic Sunset Tower Hotel. Artistic arrangements of product testers replaced flower arrangements, flanked with candle votive holders filled with make-up removal pads. Fresh croissants and muffins that would normally disappear went untouched before main courses arrived.

In fact, main plates sat uneaten for a good twenty minutes, thanks to the fact that the approachable spokes-make-up artist Pati Dubroff held court, giving a play by play of what elements of the spring 2011 collection she used on four of her favourite A-list clients (Sheryl Crow, Julianne Moore, Naomi Watts and Kate Bosworth) with very different colouring and skin types.

Though it honestly cannot be that difficult to make these four naturally attractive women all the more gorgeous, what actually resonated was the versatility of the products. Rather than offer screaming neon hues or cutesy Easter colours normally found this time of year, the mosaic-style Blush Prodige and NeoPastels eye shadow compacts were neutral and bordering on seasonless—in the best way imaginable. Same went for the Rouge Hydra Nude Smoothing Cream lipstick, which boasts more of a “skin care component” than other lipsticks on the market—making it just as good for winter as for summer. Like the compacts, anybody with any skin tone can pull off the five lip colours available.

However, the products that generated the most excitement among this ladies-who-breakfast crowd were the Instant Smooth Line Correcting Concentrate and Smooth Perfecting Touch primer, which worked instantly, even on the backs of our hands, thanks to Clarins’ Acacia Micro-Pearl technology and infusion of vitamin E. Even if one is a sceptic of “secret ingredients”, it does provide a nice canvas for colour and base.

Dubroff swears the Instant Smooth Line Correcting Concentrate, with its handy pen tip, became a fast favourite of Barbara Streisand in remedying her ongoing issue with the two faces in her mirror (one we can all relate to—before and after applying make-up). The portability of the Instant Smooth Line Correcting Concentrate also makes it ideal for business travellers, so you really could put your best face forward when you head for the boardroom direct from the airport.

Also new to the line are sunscreens for face and body with their SPF 50 power from a variety of plant extracts (senna, pea, plane tree, olive and baobab) among other things, and glam new packaging for the signature Clarins beauty oils Dubroff and the seemingly ageless Moore swear by. Though the press did not get oils in their go-kits, we did get a generous tub of another Clarins staple—the Extra Firming Body Cream. •