Easy Spring Look: Clinique's Three-Minute Eye Collection

One popular look this spring is soft and natural. Since most of us don't have all the time in the world to get ready each morning, Clinique helps us look both natural and sophisticated with their 3 Minute Eye kit. The kit contains three full size products: Touch Base cream eye shadow in Canvas, a double-ended Cream Shaper for eyes in chocolate lustre and cream lustre, and High Impact mascara in black.

Touch Base is one of my favorite Clinique products. It's a cream shadow, but unlike many creams, it doesn't settle into the eyelid crease; it stays put. Canvas covers any little veins you may have, and can be used alone for a soft feminine look, or as a base for a powdered shadow - which will also stay where you put it. You could apply this with a brush, but I prefer a well-washed finger to spread it where I want it.

The Cream Shaper is like few other eyeliner pencils you'll find. It goes on like a cream, not like most pencils, and doesn't tug at the fragile skin around your eyes. Use the chocolate end to line your upper lid, just above the lashes, from the center of your pupil to the outer end of your eye, and then extend it just a tiny bit, slanted upward, to make your eyes look bigger. Use it on the bottom lid, again just along the lash line, from where an imaginary line would end if you drew it straight up from the side of your nose to meet lower lid. The cream luster is perfect for those of us who aren't morning people. Use in on the inside corner of your eye, making a small sideways vee on both the top and bottom lids. Keep it short! This touch of light will help you look wide awake. (Tip: if you don't have this liner, you can achieve the same effect with a pale highlighter shadow and a damp liner brush!)

Finish off with the mascara. Brush the top lashes, wiggling the mascara brush from side to side to catch all your lashes (it helps it you curl them first, but who has time?), and if you want to, touch the bottom lashes with the brush as well. Whether or not lower lashes should be mascara-ed is a subject of debate among make-up artists, some of whom say that liner on the lower lid is all the color you need. So, I'll leave it up to you to create the look you choose. And these three steps should have your eyes done in three minutes or less.

For an extra pop of spring color, sweep one of Clinique's Fresh Bloom all-over colors over your cheeks. Camellia is perfect for my fair skin, and while Almond Blossom may look like a bronzer on me (not a bad thing, especially mid-winter!) it may be the perfect shade for someone with a little more natural color.

The 3 Minute Eye collection is a Sephora exclusive, so you can get this $42.50 valued set for just $28 at www.sephora.com or at a Sephora store. Fresh Bloom is also available at Sephora, on-line or in a store, but you can pick it up at any Clinique counter as well, for $29.50, not bad when you take into account how long it lasts. With these two purchases, you're all ready for spring!