Guerlain Parure de Nuit Pressed Powder and Blush

Yeah, ok, Christine from Temptalia is to blame for this one. I have a huge soft spot for Guerlain and their incredibly luxurious, highly collectable products, but even I was balking a bit at the price tag for Parure de Nuit.

And then I became convinced after reading her initial review that I really had to at least try it before refusing outright.

And that was all she wrote. I came home with this beauty:

Guerlain, like Dior, swanks it up from start to finish. There's something epically satisfying about opening up a box with pretty detail on the inside, and feeling the heft of a significant item.

The design is just stunning as well.

This is called a pressed powder and blush, but I think it's really more of a highlighter, or a luminizing finishing powder. You can be selective in how you pick up the powder from different areas in the pan and get more of a pinkish tone - but it's not really going to read as a blush unless you are very pale or very heavy-handed.

On the left, I've swatched the light portion and the pink portion of the pan separately. The lighter portion shows up as a very soft sheen on my skin tone. It will show up visibly lighter on medium and deeper skin tones.

On the right, I've swirled a brush in the whole of the pan, which is the way I would wear this normally. The sheen takes on a faint rosiness, which is incredibly flattering, sophisticated and natural when worn as a highlight. It instantly brightens the face and enhances the skin without being over-the-top shiny. This is probably one of my favorite highlighters for the sneaky way it makes you look fresh and vibrant.

Availability: Still available at The Bay, Murale and Pharmparix stores. Price is 76$ CAD. (Compared to 67$ or so in the US, I believe.)

Pros: Subtle, skin-vivifying glow, with no danger of blinding anyone with vampire sparkles. Elegant, satisfyingly hefty packaging.

Cons: The price sure isn't in everyone's budget.

(I purchased this from Murale.)