If you’re like me, unfortunate enough to have permanent under eye bags, then you’ll know what it feels like to turn up to work or school and have someone comment ‘wow, you look so tired today!’ At first you feel very confused, because, in fact, you’d had a great night sleep and felt totally fresh. Then you realise that it’s all because of your under eye dark circles, which make you look like a zombie no matter how much sleep you get!

Learning quickly that foundation and concealer does nothing for dark circles or bags, I went through life thinking that nothing less than surgery would help. But that was when I discovered a wonderful thing called ‘highlighters’!

Highlighters (or illuminators) are not concealers, and in fact don’t necessarily have any coverage at all. The only thing they are aimed to do is lighten the parts of your face that would normally cast a shadow, often also giving that part of your face more light reflectivity as well.

Chanel Eclat Lumiere has reached cult status as a top face highlighter, along with YSL Touche Eclat. Though it’s pricy, I’ve found it worth every penny.

And that’s not least because of the characteristic elegant gold and black design of Chanel products. There’s also a certain amount of weight built into the product casing, that gives it that ‘expensive’ feeling! And of course, the iconic double ‘C’s’ gives that final touch.

Eclat Lumiere is a twist pen type. The base, when twisted, makes a clicking sound, and the mechanism inside slowly pushes upwards into the tip of the pen.

The product is pushed through into the centre of the pen bristles, then distributes through when pressed. The thin tip of the pen allows for a degree of precision. While the gimmick of Eclat Lumiere is that you use the pen only to ‘erase’ dark circles, I’ve found that I still needed to use my finger to blend it in.

Now, lets skip right to the ‘does it work?!’ section of this review. I’ve read some reviews of Chanel Eclat Lumiere which have concluded that it does not do what it claims. But below are my own personal experiences with this product.

Take a look at the before shot. My under eye shadow is most prominent in my right eye. Here’s what it looks like with just BB Cream and concealer.

Ok…are you ready?

*waves wand* Expecto Patronum!!

I promise you, this has NOT been photoshopped! Look closely, you can tell these are two different photos.

 

Want to see it again?

Before…

…………After!!

The place you apply Eclat Lumiere is very important. You want to only ‘highlight’ the shadowy parts. If you apply highlighter to your whole eye area, it will have no effect what so ever. So look very carefully at where the shadowy parts of your face are, and apply Eclat Lumiere to those parts only. For me, this is an elongated almond shape just below my eye.

Eclat Lumiere is also a great general highlighter for sculpting your face. For example, you could apply some to the top of your cheek bones to make them look prominent, or to the bridge of your nose to make it appear straighter. Also, apply it to the top of your lips to make them appear fuller.

Now for some technicalities.

Keep in mind that the place a shadow appears on your face differs depending on the direction of the light source. Generally, this will be from above, as this is the case with indoor light. But outside, sunlight could be bouncing on your face from all directions. Eclat Lumiere is generally compensating for the shadows cast on your face by making areas shadows are likely to fall on lighter and the other parts of your face to begin with. So if the shadow falls somewhere else, then the illusion will obviously not work. Also, highlighter can