little white truths

Back on 12 August, I introduced this Clarins bronzer to my Project Dent series for the second time.

You may remember that I was considering decluttering it, but since no one in my family wanted it, I used the denting period to work out whether I would be panning it next year.

Turns out I will be, but more for what happened next - as opposed to absolutely deciding that this was the next bronzer I would finish. More on that below.

Above is how my bronzer looked when I first got it. Gosh it looks pretty with its fancy print. I bought it because I liked the idea of having four shades in one and I'd heard that these bronzers were fantastic.

It's not that I dislike it, it's more that it's not my favourite formula or colour of the bronzers I own (whether I use the whole pan or focus on a particular shade/s). I've reviewed it here.

And while I do like the idea of having four eyeshadows in one compact with this, in practice none of the shades are my favourite for my eyes either so it's not been a product that I've reached for often.

Anyhoo. Here's what happened. 

While my husband was away earlier in August - leaving me with two sick, teething young 'uns - I took my pent-up frustration out on this bronzer and eventually managed to de-pot it. If you haven't seen my de-potting story, it's here. The de-potting tale is quite a funny, involved and...violent...one, so if you feel like a laugh then I recommend having a look.

I won't repeat it all here: suffice to say that I did manage to remove it from the packaging, but gosh it took some work.

Here's how my bronzer looked at the start of the denting period, two weeks ago on 12 August:

And again:

Here's how it looked immediately after I de-potted it, back on 19 August:

Same shot, enhanced for clarity:

And here's how it looks now, on 27 August - after being thoroughly, thoroughly abused:

Same shot, enhanced for clarity:

Ok, so what you need to know is this: other than mucking up that top right 'corner' a little during the de-potting process (just the top layer of the upper half, thankfully), I've also had to attack this bronzer with sticky tape at least ten times during the denting period - for the simple reason that it keeps developing hard-pan that I need to remove in order to use it.

That's annoying. I mean, it's only been open for something like a year and it was developing hard-pan from the very beginning, so I'm not happy about that. It's mainly the darker two shades that keep forming more, but I did need to use tape on the paler two shades a couple of times too.

Obviously we're seeing more progress on this product than we normally might during a round of Project Dent because this bronzer has been to hell and back, but I did use it consistently throughout the denting period so that's at least partly why the pattern is finally starting to look more worn.

Anyway. The good news is that I've now developed a relationship with this bronzer (I feel rather sorry for it, given what it's been through) so I'm now looking forward to panning it next year - while before I wasn't big on the idea. It does contain 20g of product though so it's going to be a long road, but I'm determined.

That's all from me. Looking forward to choosing my next item for Project Dent : )

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x