Lancôme French Ballerine Spring 2014 Collection - Highlighter Blush in Rose Ballerine

I used to do ballet. I never made it to pointe and I was much too tall - even as a child - to pursue it seriously, but I remember those classes with a profound fondness. I still get a flutter of excitement when a dance movie comes on...and let's not even speak of the wondrous perfection that was the too-awesome-for-its-network Bunheads.

In short, I love ballet, and when I saw the original promo image for the Lancôme French Ballerine Spring 2014 collection, I may have actually gasped. 

photo credit: Lancôme

Lily Collins - invoking the essence of Audrey Hepburn - is sheer perfection as a modern-day yet hazily romantic ballerina. I'm not generally given to super-soft pinks and pastels, but all of a sudden I needed to have a piece of this collection.  

And then this beauty landed on my doorstep: the Highlighter Blush in Rose Ballerine.

There's no denying this is completely gorgeous. Lancôme does "feminine" and pretty" like George Clooney does "debonair". In other words, perfectly.

The mirrored compact, the lovely heft, the sweet bow, the classic rose bas-relief - it hits all the right notes.

The powder is silky and finely-milled, smooth to the touch but not so soft that it kicks up powder. It blends well and doesn't look remotely evident on the skin.

The shade is a light, seashell pink with no perceptible shimmer when applied to the skin, despite the way it reflects the light in the pan. It has more of a satin finish that still imparts the impression of a low-level glow.

The pigmentation is true-to-pan but not intense, so while it shows up as a delicate pink flush on my light skin tone, it may need to be built up a bit on medium or olive skin tones. (The light, fine texture allows a good level of build-up without textural issues, but because of the pastel hue, I suspect it will read ashy on deeper skin.)

Despite the name, it's not a highlighter per se, but more like a blush that has a skin-brightening undertone, and creates a subtle illumination as a result of the finish.

This is the kind of shade that obviously works well as part of a daintier makeup look, but it also begs to be paired with a more dramatic eye. Here I teamed it with the new spring eye palette from YSL (review coming soon!).

In short, it's almost as awesome as Bunheads. Which is high praise, indeed.

Availability: At The Bay, Holt Renfrew and select Pharmaprix/SDM locations. Price is 52$ CAD.

(This item was provided by the brand/PR to be considered for review. This post is not sponsored or compensated and all opinions are my own.)