New Clinique Lid Smoothie Antioxidant 8-Hour Eye Colour

Clinique's new Lid Smoothie Antioxidant 8-Hour Eye Colours ($19.50) build on the enormous success of Clinique's Vitamin C Lip Smoothies. These new creamy, crease-resistant eye colors keep their color and wear nicely all day. The lid colors promise to instantly cool the lids, thanks to a unique applicator (those metal applicators are all the rage, but see below). Nourishing ingredients in the formula are said to coax fine lid lines into a blanket of smoothness, and antioxidants and botanicals help protect the eye area. They even have spinach leaf extract in them (makes me think of Popeye).

These beauties come in 12 shades. I had a hard time selecting "only four." I wanted two shades I could wear as a base on my lids and two that offered some "quiet color."

My selections are all fabulous!

• Bit O'Honey, light champagne shimmer
• Cute-cumber, silvery leaf green
• Ginger-ly, peachy gold
• Seventh Heather, taupe (of course!)

A little bit of these cream shadows goes a long way. Clinique suggests that you start with a small amount and build additional color as desired. I'll go one step further and suggest that you squeeze the tiniest amount out of the tube and pick up the color with a small concealer brush. Apply to your lids with the brush, building the color until you've got the look you like. I would not recommend that you apply the creams directly to your lids with the gimmicky applicator and then blend quickly with your fingertip. I'd use my finger first if I were skipping the brush.

In my swatch photos, which were taken in full sun, I blended the shades slightly with a brush. I didn't blend Bit O'Honey as much as the others because it's light. It's shown at the top of my arm. As a result, it pops in my photos. You can apply it with more restraint.

The other three shades are, top to bottom, Cute-cumber, Ginger-ly, and Seventh Heather. All of the shades have some shimmer, but some have more than others. Cute-cumber and Seventh Heather have less then the others I purchased.

They shades dry quickly and stay put. If you have oily lids, I would recommend that you wear a primer. If your lids are dry like mine, you can skip the primer if you wish. These shadows shouldn't crease at all on dry lids.

Nice, aren't they? You can't beat the price. All of the names are corny, but who cares? I bought mine at Neiman Marcus, but ordered two more (that had sold out at NM) from Clinique.com.

Photo at top courtesy of Clinique; other photos by Best Things in Beauty