Guerlain Cosmetics: Indulgent, Pricey and Oh So Precious!

                                Guerlain´s candy colored Meteorites

Ah Guerlain, you, the queen of  ultra-expensive french luxury beauty brands, you have been on my must-try-at-least-once-in-my-life list for some time now.  But for years I have felt that you were really out of my league.  I´d like to think that I have always tried to be a practical person, and so  in a sea of  affordable and pretty Korean beauty products,  it seemed blasphemous and too pa-sosyal to try you out at uber-pricey Seoul prices.

To be honest, I was scared too, what if I tried your products and became hooked? How sad would that be knowing that at  your prices in Seoul, I would be reaching way beyond my budget.  Because you see,  in Seoul a precious pan of your Meteorites costs 80000 KRW which is roughly 59€ or PHP 3,500.  How can I, in all my practicality, pay for a highlighter that expensive when I can buy a highlighter of the same shimmery effect from Skinfood for only 5000 KRW(PHP 250.00) ?

     Guerlain Meteorites Blossom Price in Korea

But here I am now in Europe, where somehow, it feels okay to finally splurge with your products.
 It also helps that Guerlain products here are almost 40% cheaper than in Asia. And what excuse do I have not to buy you and satisfy this secret longing when even my Pinay hairstylist at my favorite salon in Madrid brandishes her Meteorites Blossom Pearls and gushes about them like a secret love?

So one day, while I was particularly feeling blah,  I walked and walked and walked until  I found myself at my neighborhood Bodybell shop.  And what do you know, there was an additional 10% off all Guerlain products ! The Goddesses of All Things Kikay have conspired! A sign, a gentle push, a whisper:  Go, bumili ka na ng magtigil ka na sa obsession mong yan!

                                My overused Guerlain Meteorites Blossom Pearls in  Medium
  
And so here is what I think of you Guerlain four months after I first purchased your much-vaunted Meteorites Pearls.  My imperfect skin, scars and all,  yes even my never going to be flawless skin lights up with your magical mystery pearls.  It could just be me, deluding myself, no? But truthfully, I sometimes use nothing but sunblock and then dip my foundation brush into your magical Meteorites pan, fluff them on my forehead and cheeks, finish with a swish of Skinfood  Peach Sake Powder and I feel that´s good enough.

Yes, yes, Guerlain, your Meteorite Pearls are totally worth it. Looking at my pan, I think this will last me another six months.  So not too bad, really. Your Meteorites are very high CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) for sure, but  for me, they are worth it.

After that, what was I to do? Of course, I set my sight  on another of your highly rated products.  Ah, the problem with discovering a brand so expensive yet so totally worth it is you slowly, slowly think of building your own little treasure box of Guerlain.

I have tried, really tried buying affordable skin foundations but no, not even Kiko, seems to totally agree with my crappy skin.  So I have considered splurging again, putting my faith in you and your Guerlain Lingerie De Peau Skin Fusion Foundation.  But a 30 ml costs 52€! And again, my practical side reigned in the hopeful, starry-eyed Guerlain groupie.

Everyday mantras are thrown at us from all sides purportedly to help us live more meaningfully:
Life is Short, Do (and Buy!) What You Love
There is Virtue in Being Thrifty and Frugal
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

Ah, this modern life, it will never be black and white.  If we listen to all the supposedly life rules that are pushed to our faces we´d certainly go crazy.  And so I have always looked inward and listened to that secret voice, what others call as intuition, a gutfeel. And at that price, my heart tells me, that my Lingerie de Peau was just not that smart a buy.

But four weeks ago, while I was loitering at the Dutyfree shops waiting for my flight to Istanbul, I found myself staring, stupefied at the Guerlain counter:  Lingerie De Peau Skin Fusion Foundation for only 32€! This was it, my chance to buy what I have longed for at an amazing price! 

                              Guerlain´s Lingerie de Peau Foundation in 03 Beige Natural

While the Meteorite pearls was lovely,  the Lingerie de Peau is staple-worthy. So cheers to you Guerlain, when you placed that invisible skin fusion label on your foundation, you weren´t hyping it up at all!  This foundation is watery and oh so light!  It does not cover really dark spots, it has a light to medium coverage, but how amazing it feels on the skin! It somehow evens out the skin without that telltale  makeup look.  And yes, a couple of times, due to my laziness/tiredness, I have even slept without washing it off from my face, a bad thing definitely, and one which, with other brands, has often caused me a zit or two the following day, but with Lingerie de Peau, no zits or itchiness at all.  And so I at the moment, I have deemed Lingerie de Peau, my holy grail of foundation.
                              

    My Guerlain loves

So truly, there is truth about your greatness, dear Guerlain.  I have only two of your products but these are the two beauty products I love the most  at the moment. 

And I am counting the days (exactly 30 from today), itching for my next luxurious buy.  In 30 days, I shall be off again on a long trip home.  And by fate, I hope to pick up a Guerlain classic which I shall keep close to my heart at the moment at the dutyfree shop in Barajas.

Au revoir!