Launching this month, Clarins Joli Rouge lipsticks have experienced a face lift. They’ve been enhanced with a moisture-rich formula and come in brand new gold packaging. The range boast 25 shades that offer plenty of variety – from nudes and typical pinks; to vibrant reds and fiery oranges with the occasional dark vampy shade thrown in for good measure.

The new Clarins Joli Rouge come in a solid gold tube with a small indent and etched C on the lid. The tube feels light, but not cheap. It’s sleek and compact, so it definitely looks and feels like high end makeup.

The Joli Rouge formula is smooth and easy to wear. They glide on to your lips with ease and stay glossy for ages. They also have an interesting fruity, sweet scent. I would consider myself very sensitive to scents in lipsticks but these do not bother me. (For those who are familiar with essence lipsticks, they smell similar to those, but less artificial and slightly more fruity.)

The shades I tried out are not shades I would have picked for myself, but sometimes that’s the best part about being sent PR samples! Left to my own devices I’d only choose bright red-pinks or something of that ilk, and not gotten to experience these shades.

Soft Plum is a gorgeous purple-red berry colour that one can’t help but associate with fall. I basically want to throw on a long comfy sweater and pull on some knee high boots while wearing this shade! If you’re not especially comfortable with colours like this, rest assured that the sheen in the formula helps to diffuse the colour so that it doesn’t appear quite as stark. If the formula were matte, it’d be a completely different story and a lot more in your face.

In the look above, I matched Soft Plum with a golden lid shade (Makeup Geek Fortune Teller) and a deep cranberry crease shade (Makeup Geek Bitten).

Rosy Nude is the shade that took me by surprise. Even a friend of mine took one look at the bullet in the tube and was like “whoa, that’s light”. And I suppose it does look rather pale in the tube – I certainly wasn’t expecting it to look good on me in the slightest. But holy cow was I ever wrong. Rosy Nude is a *stunning* peachy-pink shade that matches every eye look I throw at it (although I apparently never caught any of them on camera, much to my displeasure). It’s currently rivaling my combination of Wet n Wild’s 903C with NYX’s Butter Gloss in Tiramisu on top for most flattering lip look on camera. Total winner.

Final Thoughts

In a beauty world where everyone has become obsessed with matte liquid lipsticks, it’s rather nice to try something new for a change. Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much in love with matte lips, but it’s been really pleasurable discovering a product that doesn’t make your lips feel like the Sahara. Having never tried Clarins‘ lipsticks before, I have to say I’m impressed with the Joli Rouge lineup. They’re soft, creamy, hydrating and easy to wear. They stay shiny the entire length of time I’ve worn them (which is around three hours, then I usually end up wiping off my lips to eat or drink) and they claim to last six hours. I’ve not tried them for that length of time because it’s just not in my nature to wear lipstick for that long, but at the three hour mark they showed no signs of giving up the ghost. Since they don’t dry down at all, you need to be aware that they will transfer to anything you touch your lips to, but that’s not expected for a formula that stays shiny for so long.

Of the colours I tried, Soft Plum was the more “typical” fall shade, whereas Rosy Nude knocked it out of the park for me in terms of the colour. Both colours wore well and I experienced no difference in the formula between them.

Let me know what you’ve tried from Clarins because I’m going to need recommendations! So far they’ve knocked it out of the park with their Aquatic Treasures collection and now this Joli Rouge lipstick lineup!

This post features press samples sent for consideration.

Despite being around since 1954, Clarins is a completely new brand to me. I had often associated Clarins with more mature adults: I pictured their products on wealthy ladies who did tea and went for luncheons. Far too classy for the likes of me.

And yet… the launch of their summer 2015 collection Aquatic Treasures piqued my interest. It was gorgeous, vibrant and showed a boldness I hadn’t expected from a brand that I (admittedly) knew very little about. And for that, I was very, very excited to try out pieces from the Aquatic Treasures collection.

The first thing I need to mention is the packaging. Forgive me if this is traditional ofClarins and I’m just pointing out a standard design of theirs (I am still a newbie to them after all!) but the simplicity of the packaging lends itself to beautiful elegance. The tiny indent in the cap of the product above inscribed with the letter “C” is such a simple touch, and yet totally unique, in my opinion.

Anyway, on to the actual product. This is the Irisdescent shadow in Aquatic Rose. Clarinsdescribes it as a cream-powder shadow, but I’d say it’s firmly a powder. It is *incredibly* smooth though. Sticking a brush in this pot kicks up no powder and yet it goes on the lids like a dream.

My jaw dropped when I applied this to my lids for the first time. Aquatic Rose was totally opaque in one swipe which is something I was not expecting from such a pale shade. On me, it’s leans towards more of a rose-gold shade than a true rose.

Next up is the Waterproof Eye Pencil in Aquatic Green. It comes with a smudger on one side and the colour on the other.

Again… I’m totally floored. Aquatic Green is a beautiful teal shade with a very fine hint of shimmer running throughout. This eye pencil is a total workhorse product: It is absolutely waterproof (which you’ll see shortly with my eye look below). While the pencil is not as soft as a gel pencil, it’s still very smooth and easy to apply. It went on my water line particularly well too.

And finally, the Truly Waterproof Mascara in Aquatic Green. I was hesitant about this one as I had recently tried a green mascara that had made my eyelashes look ghastly.

However, the Aquatic Green mascara is a murky, dark teal that actually does wonders for my lashes. I don’t know how they did it, but Clarins managed to find a colour that was dark enough to pretend it was black, but colourful enough to give off that edge of colour. But don’t take my word for it! See the results for yourself:

On my lid I’m wearing the Aquatic Rose shadow (with another shadow in the outer corner to add dimension). I applied the Aquatic Green waterproof eye pencil to my upper lash line as well as onto my lower water line. On my lashes is the Aquatic Green mascara. I love how much the pencil works with the mascara – it looks so seamless to me, particularly on the lower lashes.

Do you see what I mean when I say the mascara is dark enough to pass off as a black but still retains that teal-ness to it? Incredible, seriously incredible.

I decided to test out the waterproof claims during a particularly nasty weekend in Toronto. Here’s what my makeup looked like after I had been out in the rain for over an hour AND after I’d gone and seen Inside Out (movie) which was definitely sappy enough to cause me to mist up a bit. You can see that a very small section of my lower waterline has lifted off (and I’m prone to water line problems – there’s only one other product I’ve tried that will actually stay put there), but the remainder of the makeup stayed exactly where I had put it. No colour bleeding, no raccoon eyes… Waterproof products? I’d say so!

Side note: I loved this loved this look so much that I wore it for three days straight – something I never, ever do!

Final Thoughts

I’m in love! I need to check out more by Clarins because this collection surprised and delighted me. I love that everything I tried was truly waterproof because that’s what everyone is looking for in the summer. There’s nothing attractive about your makeup melting off your face and I feel like everything I tried held up to whatever I put it through.

If I had to choose a favourite product out of the three I tried, I think I’d go with the mascara. The colour on that mascara was subtle but it worked out so well.  That being said, all three products were wonderful so you can’t really go wrong with any of them.

So how about you? Is there something from Clarins that you love that I need to try out? Or is it a brand that you’ve not yet tried?

The products featured in this review were provided by PR for consideration.