With the holiday season upon us, that means lots of company Christmas parties, family dinners, and friendly get-togethers. Clinique's new launch promises to make things a bit less hectic with a super-portable, 8-pan neutrals palette that can create eye looks for day or night.
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| Clinique Pretty Easy Eye Palette; Clinique Pretty Easy Brow Palette |
Clinique Pretty Easy Eye Palette ($55 CAD) is compact and fits comfortably in my hand. It comes in Clinique's classic mirrored packaging, which is simple and chic but an absolute pain to photograph! :P
The mirror side has a peel-off sticker with suggestions for a "naturally pretty" day look and a "dramatically pretty" evening look.
The palette also comes with two Skinny Stick eyeliners in Slimming Black and Slim Sable. Much better than crappy eyeshadow sponge applicators that nobody uses! They're about 2/3 the size of full-size Skinny Sticks (~$27 value for both eyeliners). I forgot to take swatches of the eyeliners, but they are creamy and smooth, with a super-skinny tip that would work well for tightlining. Slimming Black is a deep, matte black, and Slim Sable is dark, warm brown.
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| Swatches in direct and indirect natural light |
The shades in this palette go by number only, but the back side identities them by name. I like that they put this palette together from existing shades: if you like one or two shades, you may be able to buy it in a duo instead of shelling out for the whole palette. Plus, don't you hate it when a brand releases a palette full of "exclusive shades", only to find they're identical to existing, permanent shades? Eurgh.
- 1 (French Vanilla) is a matte creamy vanilla shade, available as a single shadow
- 2 is a shimmery beige; it is the lighter shade from the Like Mink duo
- 3 is shimmery, warm bronze; it's the darker shade from the Like Mink duo
- 4 (Jute Brown) is shimmery cool brown, also found in the Wear Everywhere Neutrals octet
- 5 is a shimmery cool silver; it's the light shade from the Nightcap duo
- 6 (Peppercorn) is a matte, dark charcoal, also available in the Wear Everywhere Blues octet
- 7 is a matte, pale cream; it's the lightest shade in the Teddy Bear quad
- 8 is a cool, shimmery taupe; it's the light shade in the Starlight Starbright duo
Overall I find the shades very buttery and pleasant to work with, with the exception of 5 and 8, which were a little more hard. They don't really kick up any dust either, which is always nice and a must if a palette is going to be bouncing around in your purse. I think the shimmers in my Urban Decay Naked 1 are more pigmented, but UD shimmers also tend to be very intensely shimmery--frosty, even. The Clinique Pretty Easy palette is on the other end of the spectrum, offering a much more understated, subtle shimmer, to the point of being almost satiny if it weren't for the iridescent shimmer present.
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Here's the look I put together with the Pretty Easy eyeshadow palette! It's a bit too dramatic for a work holiday lunch, but fit right in with a cocktail dress at a Christmas party in the evening. I used 3 all over the lid, 4 in the crease and lower lashline, and 8 in the inner corner. I also used 1 as a matte brow highlight; 7 is paler and would be the better choice for someone with a fairer complexion. I do wish I had taken the extra step to use one of the included Skinny Stick eyeliners for demonstration, but I've been so hesitant to use any eyeliner with my lash extensions. I'm scared that removing heavy makeup close to the lashline will make some of the extensions fall off! Sorry folks :<
I used the Clinique Pretty Easy Brow palette on my brows. I do have a full post about this coming soon, but FYI I
love it.
By the way, you can tell in these photos I desperately need to have my hair dyed again--I'm practically a blonde if you look at my baby hairs! My colour faded a lot and became quite brassy. I finally booked an appointment with my stylist two weeks ago and feel SO much better with my colour refreshed.
After I laid the colours down, I got so worried about mixing the warm, bronze-y 3 with the cooler-toned 4. Were they going to clash and not blend well together? But I think the end result turned out just fine! I really like the smoky cat eye shape.
Overall I quite like the Clinique Pretty Easy Eye Palette: it's highly portable, has a nice mix of neutrals to suit any occasion, and I love that they included mini Skinny Stick eyeliners. Let's say you are headed to a party right after work and want to add a little drama to your makeup. Throw this in your purse with a blending or crease brush (just use your fingers to apply all-over colour) and you'll be able to whip up a pretty eye look in the bathroom easily. The subtle shimmer is also more flattering and appealing to a wide range of makeup lovers of all ages.
Do you have a go-to holiday look?
Available at
Clinique: $55 CAD / $44.50 USD
