Review & Swatches: Clarins Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in Graphite & Instant Definition Mascara

It has been too long since I last used Clarins products. Their Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch is one of my favorite primers, and their Instant Light Brush-On Perfector is a great YSL Touche Eclat alternative (for $10 less). I recently tried out the Eye Quartet Mineral Palette in Graphite, and paired it with the Instant Definition Mascara—let’s take a look!

The gold packaging is really pretty and substantial, it just shows fingerprints like crazy! That alone wouldn’t deter me from making a purchase, but I know some people really dislike that, and I wanted to point it out.

This quad contains four wet/dry shadows with mineral-based pigments, which seem to hold up very well for all-day wear. Shades of iridescent pink, shimmering silver, satin graphite grey, and an ebony liner work well together for both day and night looks. The payoff is pretty decent while dry, but for maximum intensity and smoothness, you’ll want to work with them wet. They’re all nice and velvety to the touch, and there’s nothing chalky about them. Since I’m so fair, it’s often hard to make lighter shades show up on my skin. I think this quad will work best for medium to dark skin tones, otherwise the pale shades could wind up looking a little washed out.

Wet

Dry

The Instant Definition Mascara definitely adds the definition it promises, but I found that the spiky precision tip gathered quite a bit of the formula. If you’re not careful, you could wind up with clumpy inner and outer lashes when you go in to grab them with the applicator. While I didn’t notice much of an increase in volume, this did curl the lashes nicely by adding a little lift (which stayed all day). This formula is quite moist, which is great for giving you time to perfect your lashes, just be careful that you give it a minute to dry so that it doesn’t smudge. Few things are worse in the makeup world than accidentally getting mascara on your fresh eyeshadow look!