Guerlain holiday 2011: Parure de Nuit.

i have it for about a month now and today i finally want to share my thoughts on Guerlain's Parure de Nuit powder from their holiday collection 2011 with you.
i ordered at douglas.de and with some coupons, i could grab nice goodies (check Frau Shopping for ongoing codes). it did cost around 55€ and contains 10g of product.
it comes in the same packaging like the Blush G, star product from their spring collection 2011 (reviewed here), but with a teal colour scheme.
there is a nice velvet pouch with teal lining. the glossy black compact has the powder and a big mirror on the upper compartment and a thin brush with teal dyed bristles in the bottom level. the brush looks exciting but i don't find it usable because it's too thin and too scratchy. the case is pretty but a bit too bulky.
the powder itself is beautiful to look at: it has a pinky beige base with 3 delicate peacock feathers embossed, the eyes as three dots of colour with a outer rim of white, the main part as a coral and a dot of teal in the center.
the powder has a clear sparkly overspray that can be easily brushed away before the first use. it's intensely scented of a sweet floral perfume, much stronger than the Météorites (reviewed here and here). this could be quite annoying for sensitive noses.

in sunlight

in daylight

with flash

in sunlight, without overspray

Guerlain Parure de Nuit swatched in sunlight: beige part - red part - mixed - mixed & blended

the packaging says this to be a Pressed Powder & Blush, and i also use it as that.
it has a silky texture with a very fine silver pearl. although i first hesitated to swirl my brush generously in the pan because of the 3 blue dots, i learned that they don't interfere much with the overall resulting colour as opposed to the coral parts - the result on my face is much too pink. the coral circles are highly pigmented and a few sweeps diagonally over the three coral dots make a pretty pearly pink blush. i find the blush colour just ok, though, a bit too ordinary.
i need to use a smaller brush to carefully concentrate on the beige part if i want to apply the Parure de Nuit to the rest of my face. the beige part is quite firmly pressed and doesn't have a high pay-off. it creates a pearl glow on my face when i use it as a finishing powder, not a subtle luminescence like the Météorites Pearls that also mattifies. it is a gorgeous glow, though, it polishes my skin beautifully without emphasizing on enlarged pored or tiny bumps. if i apply it a bit more intensely, i can also use it as a highlighter.
it doesn't have any mattifying qualities, so if i get shiny after about 4-5 hours, i can't retouch with this at all because the pearl shine particles would pile up and make me look very greasy.

overall i like this powder as a soft highlighter, but i don't prefer it over the Guerlain Météorites as a all over finishing powder. i think it's a beautiful finishing powder for people with normal to dry skin, but still find the handling quite uncomfortable. the blush colour you get from this is quite average.
it's not a must-have for me.

tihilw

 only foundation - with Guerlain Parure de Nuit all over the face)

here you can see the shine better, also the blush colour.

this is how it looks with a full make up.