Guerlain Meteorites Electric Pearl

I bought this Guerlain Meteorites Electric Pearl along with the Palette Electric Look, both apparently were 190 Years LE's released in the 2018 holiday collection.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

My first Guerlain Meteorites, folks! I've seen and read about these for years since before I even started blogging, that's some 15+ years, which is nothing considering they were first released in 1987. I've always wanted to own one but back then, they were way out of our grad student-NPO employee budget. By the time hubby finished his PhD, I was too smitten with Japanese cosmetics to allocate any discretionary fund for European luxury brands, especially when I'd learned that Japanese brands regardless of tier were more aligned with my taste and quality expectations. That, and my product preference had shifted away from powder highlighters and blushes. The fact that these pearls are LE does add some value, but in the end, if the eye palette didn't catch my attention, I probably wouldn't have bought the pearls either. 

In fact, I had a brief moment of buyer's regret once I saw how crappy the eye palette compact was, though thankfully these pearls came in much nicer packaging, a gold metal jar with embossed fish scales. It does not feel chintzy or cheap. The lid has the brand name embossed tastefully, in small font and at the edge. It closes tight and securely over the jar.

The pearls themselves are pretty. For a highlighter powder, they're decently pigmented. They're scented though, with a powdery rose fragrance that's very similar, if not identical to that of Lancome lipsticks. I don't know who ripped off who, because while these pearls have been around since 1987, Lancome has also made lipsticks for decades.

Guerlain also sells a powder brush meant to be used with these. Their US website indicates the bristles are natural hair but does not specify hair type. It doesn't matter either way, because I found myself eye-rolling pretty darn hard at the brush. At $40 (via Nordstrom) or GBP31 (via Selfridges UK) a piece, I can probably get a superior brush from Koyudo for less.

For example, the Pr003 and Pr010 from the Purin collection both set me back 3,360yen each (~$32, although Koyudo prices might have changed now), the BP025 is gray squirrel and was 3,900yen (~$37, again, prices might have changed), the fu-pa10 was 2,800yen (~$26) and fu-pa11 was 2,200yen ($21), and the C019 was 2,800yen (~$26). I definitely have other brushes (Hakuhodo, Chikuhodo, Koyomo) I use for highlighting, but I'm emphasizing Koyudo brushes here because I think the brand strikes the perfect balance between quality and price point. And note all the brushes I referenced above are either goat+synthetic mix or squirrel for the intended soft-focus application. Because these pearls are both shimmery and pigmented, an all-goat brush would probably pick up too much color and shimmers.

There are 4 different colored pearls in the jar. There might be more colors but these four are most discernible to my naked eyes. When whirled together, they create a softly golden sprinkle of stardust that both add warmth and dimension to my face, especially on those gray and ashen winter days. As you can see, when swatched individually, each pearl is decently pigmented, hence the use of said brushes. I'm happy I have these but I probably won't be indulging in any more of them ^.^"

Clockwise from top left:
- Gold
- Cream
- Bronzy copper
- Soft white