Edward Bess Quad Royale Poudre Éclat Quatre Couleurs in South of France

The new Edward Bess Quad Royale Poudre Éclat Quatre Couleurs in South of France ($45) offers four perfectly paired shades that you can sweep together for allover luminous pink "sunset" color - or mix and match to highlight your cheeks and dress your eyes. The palette comes complete with a travel brush for touch-ups on the go.

South of France was extremely hard to photograph. It was easy to get photos of the palette itself. The swatches were another story. I had just as much trouble as I had when I swatched the first Quad Royale, Summer in Capri, which is darker! Today, I had to endure goosebumps, trying repeatedly to get decent photos.

The powder is lovely. The effect on the skin is sophisticated, subtly shimmering, and flattering. I swatched the individual shades with a sponge-tipped applicator, trying to apply them heavily, and you will see from my photos that the shade at the top left of the quad - at the top of my arm - is virtually impossible to see on my arm. I could barely detect it, and my camera did no better. The other shades do show, even if they are very light. I tried to get photos at two different times of day outdoors before I gave up.

The photo at right was the best I could get. Can you see the pink shade that shimmers with micro-sparkles at the top of my arm, just above the scar at the far right (turn of my arm)? That's the shade at top left. I swatched clockwise from there. The shade next to it in the palette isn't much darker, but I can see the stripe on my arm (almost level with the bottom of the scar). These shades offer two shades of pink, as you can see in the photo of the palette.

The shades on the "lower deck" do show up. The palette's largest block, with Edward's initials is a warm, flesh-toned pink, and the warm mauve-pink at the bottom of my arm is the darkest shade in the palette.

I blended all four shades together - the best way to use South of France, I think - with a dense blush brush and applied a circular swatch fairly heavily and darker than I'd apply the powder to my face. The photo at left shows all four shades blended. The result of blending is a beautiful "sunset pink." It gleams with the light I saw in the sky last night, as the sun disappeared below the tree tops, just before dark. It was an exquisite sunset, and this powder made me remember it immediately.

I hope you can see that South of France makes my skin gleam. Even though I can see some micro-sparkles in the palette itself and on my arm, if I look closely, the effect on my skin is more of a polished gleam. It's exactly what you'd expect from Edward Bess - elegant, understated, luminous color.

South of France is perfectly named. It brings the pastel colors of seaside villas to a palette that will give your skin a pastel glow no matter what the season. I think you'll enjoy it.

I purchased my Quad Royale from Bergdorf Goodman. You can call the Edward Bess counter there at (212) 872-8826. South of France is also available, as is Summer in Capri, at the Edward Bess Web site.

Photos by Best Things in Beauty and courtesy of boatbookings.com