Since it’s summer, I felt like this might be the time to play with more sparkly, playful eye makeup looks. Luckily for me, I’d come across some snippets from other folks about a product that looked like a much less expensive dupe for Chanel’s Illusion d’Ombres, which are prohibitively expensive (but also pretty darn nice!) They’re from Peripera, a brand that’s also linked with Clio and Goodal.
Peripera’s Jewel Pots come in 10 different colors.
9 and 10 are colors that were not part of the original collection. Here are swatches of each of them.
The pots themselves came with sealing tape along the side, so you know that your product is new.
There’s also a tiny little cap inside that is meant to keep the product packed down and fresh – ie, to help it retain its moist qualities.
Unfortunately, when I took the little cap off of one of the jars, almost a third of the jar’s worth of product was stuck to the bottom of it. I had to scrape the cap bottom off and repack the jar, which was kind of frustrating. But it doesn’t seem to have affected the quality of the product.
The product itself has a spongy texture, and is a sort of cream(ish)-to-powder product that is reminiscent of Chanel’s Illusion de Ombres or DD’ell’s Gel Color Pot.
Clio’s website tells me that you can build an eyeshadow look using nothing but these paint pots. While that is technically true (there’s nothing physically stopping me), it’s really not a good idea, unless you are going to a Halloween party and your costume concept is “disco ball”. These little pots are GLITTERBOMBS.
Unfortunately, not only are they ridiculously glittery, they’re also fairly difficult to work with. I tried applying these with a brush meant for dry products. It didn’t pick up anything. I tried using a brush that could work with either dry or wet products. It barely picked up anything. I tried a brush that was supposed to be used with cream products. It picked up some product and then applied it in an ugly lump all in one spot on my eyelid. Not in the least what I was looking for. Eventually I ended up using an angled brow brush, and that kind of worked (the angled tip of the brush picked up just enough product that I didn’t end up with unsightly clumps), but it’s a small brush to be working with if you have larger eyelids or are looking for a soft wash of product all over. If you’re going for a soft wash, you really ought to use your finger – and then make sure to clean it afterwards, or you will have glitter all over. And the fallout. Did I mention the fallout? I tried doing an eye look using nothing but these jewel pots. When I finished I looked down and not only was there glitter all over my face and my hands, there was glitter on my knees. This stuff falls out everywhere.
After getting really irritated about the workability of these pots, I thought “well, they say the product is moist enough that you don’t need to wet them, but maybe my pots got dried out a little during shipping and using them wet would work better”. Nope. Not even a little bit of difference.
A last point about the glitter – it doesn’t scratch your eyelids, but you certainly don’t want to be getting any in your eyes.
All in all these pots made me kind of sad. I really wanted to love them – I have a lot of Clio and Peripera products that I really like, so I expected more from them than, well, a face (and knees, what the hell) caked in glitter. If I were to make a recommendation to you, it would be to purchase one or two of the lighter shades and use them as highlighters – they’re easy enough to apply with a swipe of your finger near your tear duct and under your lower lashes, and you can do it with a kleenex over your lower face to take care of any fallout issues. I certainly wouldn’t bother with the darker shades unless you’re going to be performing on stage and you need something really out there.
You can purchase the Jewel Pots direct from Clio here, or through a number of e-tailers. Or you can do as I did, and wait for a sale on Clio’s Korean website and buy through Avecko. I got these for about $4.50 each. I certainly wouldn’t be tempted to pay any more than that for them.