We have another pretty bronzer for summer 2013. Clarins Splendours Summer Bronzing Compact features a translucent red case that holds a bronzing powder with an exquisitely intricate design.
I had a lot of trouble getting a picture of the case without getting a ton of reflections.
So then I tried putting the flash on, which worked a lot better. The way it went off in this picture makes it look like there’s a candle inside the palette, spreading a warm glow and softly illuminating the pattern.
Here’s the collection description: “Sunshine into gold. Travel to far away lands, to the heart of an ancient people…and discover the splendours of a pre-Columbian civilization that worshiped the sun. Gold, a rich cultural symbol, is the highlight of this summer make-up collection. Sprinkle it on the eyes, neck and lips. Jade, sapphire, ruby and tourmaline appear as crystalline gemstones and illuminate this elegant sun-kissed collection.”
Of course, they don’t mention specifically which Pre-Columbian civilization. As we saw with the Guerlain Terra Inca collection, I’m in over my head in
trying to decipher what specifically this palette is based on – I’m no archaeologist or Pre-Colombian scholar. But after a brief search on Google I think it most resembles an Aztec sun stone that is housed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. This photo was taken around 1890, roughly a century after it was unearthed.
Image from Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company, LC-DIG-det-4a03446; image is public domain
Looking closely at the palette, I’m more inclined to think this particular stone was the inspiration for the design. The circle in the center surrounded by four square shapes is found in each, along with the concentric triangle at the top of the center circle and the four dots placed around the squares and one at the bottom of the inner circle. The tiny horseshoe-like pattern appears throughout both as well. The triangles with the scrolled edges in the stone find themselves in the outer case of the palette and are also present in the powder, albeit slightly deconstructed there (the triangle is broken up into its base shape with two scrolls on each side). Additionally, this stone (weighing in a whopping 24 tons – wow!) is actually believed to be an altar or ceremonial container for the sun god Tonatiuh rather than a calendar. So it would make sense that the Clarins collection, based on people that worshipped a sun god, would choose an item used in worship instead of a calendar for their inspiration.
I think this is a beautiful palette and for once, Clarins provided at least a glimmer of explanation as to their vision for the collection. What do you think?
To brighten up this gray day I thought I'd share a little floral happiness from Clarins. The spring 2013 face palette features an embossed iris with stripes and pink and peach on either side.
I don't really have much to say about this, except that like Karen at Makeup and Beauty Blog, I thought this was a hibiscus. It doesn't look very iris-like to me either in color or shape. I also wish Clarins would fill us in on where they get their inspiration. They've been making some really gorgeous palettes in recent years but it seems they just slap something on with no explanation. It's a little frustrating for collectors like me, who like to know about the design behind each piece. Still, it's a worthy addition to a spring exhibition.
Clarins really upped their game this season in terms of packaging. This beautiful highlighting powder, from their Odyssey collection, is presented in a gold case with delicate, engraved details.
The powder inside features the same design. I’m amazed at the level of intricacy.
With flash:
The collection contains several other pieces with the same motif, including a deluxe makeup palette and eyeshadow quad.
I did a little digging about the inspiration behind the collection. As the name and Grecian garb-clad model would suggest, ancient Greece played a part in the development of the design.
Apparently the motif is the “original Odyssey emblem of ancient Greece“. I searched high and low but couldn’t find any information on this symbol, or even anything that suggested it actually existed. I will say, however, that the lavish gold and elaborate pattern is certainly reminiscent of ancient Greek jewelry. Take a gander at this necklace and earrings, all from about 300 B.C.:
In that sense, Clarins captured the more extravagant, opulent side of ancient Greek culture. While I would have liked to see a more concrete explanation for the motif, it’s not as vague as some previous Clarins collections. And the level of detail is on par with more high-end brands, so all in all I’m pleased with this.
Did you/will you be partaking in the Odyssey collection?
Clarins released a pretty interesting palette for fall. At first glance it reminded me of either pixels or a paused game of Tetris, ha.
With flash:
But then I was brushing up on my op art for MAC’s upcoming Art of Powder collection and stumbled across an artist named Francois Morellet. This work (Bleu Violet, 1973) jumped out at me right away. While it’s a work on paper and therefore not in 3D (meaning the little squares are flat and not sticking out as in the palette), the seemingly random scattering of different colored squares is really close to the Clarins piece. What really made my head almost explode though, is Morellet’s work from 1960, Random Distribution of 40,00 Squares using the Odd and Even Numbers of a Telephone Directory. Morellet explains, “The catalyst for the idea of the painting Random Distribution of 40,000 Squares using the odd and Even Numbers of a Telephone Directory (1960) came about after a conversation with Ellsworth Kelly, who at the time was living in France. He had recently visited Jean Arp’s studio and talked about one of Arp and Sophie Taeuber’s joint collages, Squares Arranged to the Laws of Chance, made in 1917…With Random Distribution, the purpose of my system was to cause a reaction between two colours of equal intensity. I drew horizontal and vertical lines to make 40,000 squares. Then my wife or my sons would read out the numbers from the phone book (except the first repetitive digits), and I would mark each square for an even number while leaving the odd ones blank. The crossed squares were painted blue and the blank ones red. For the 1963 Paris Biennale I made a 3-D version of it that was shown among the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel installations (and re-created it again on different occasions). I wanted to create a dazzling fight between two colours that shared the same luminosity. This balance of colour intensity was hard to adjust because daylight enhances the blue and artificial light boosts the red. I wanted the visitors to have a disturbing experience when they walked into this room – to almost hurt their eyes with the pulsating, flickering balance of two colours. I like that kind of aggression.”
Now, the Clarins palette obviously isn’t influenced by this work or anything in particular, but since discovering this artist, I do like pretending the palette is a mini version of a Morellet (with soft pink colors instead of the strong red and blue that formed a “dazzling fight”). Another little piece of art. 🙂
