Laura Mercier Fall 2013 Spellbound Face Illuminator- Dark Spell Collection

Laura Mercier is responsible for one of my all time favorite face highlighters, Rose Rendezvous, from Holiday 2011, so I was thrilled to see that the fall 2013 collection, Dark Spell, includes a new illuminator: Spellbound. The surface of this new Laura Mercier illuminator looks like a shiny meringue. It's truly appetizing. The color of Spellbound is a pale rose gold, less peachy pink than Rose Rendezvous, and not as metallic. It'll delight those who found Rose Rendezvous not subtle enough or too pink, but will satisfy just about anyone else.

I've tried applying Spellbound with various brushes and my conclusion is that everything goes. You can pat it on top of the cheekbones, blend it into the skin, mix with a blush-- the texture of Laura Mercier's highlighter is very fine and easy to work with. The swatches show you Spellbound applied with a flat synthetic brush (Shu Uemura #14) in a patting motion (two or three touches to the skin). It looks marginally more sheer than the second swatch that was a quick buffing of the highlighter with a Hakuhodo 212 (natural hair, full round head). Obviously, you can use bigger or smaller brushes, depending on the area you're illuminating. Spellbound also looks beautiful in the inner corner of the eye.

Bottom Line: Love.

Laura Mercier Spellbound Face Illuminator ($42) from the Fall 2013 Dark Spell Collection is arriving at the counters and already available online from Nordstrom and lauramercier.com.