Guerlain Cruel Gardenia Meteorites Swatches and Review

Guerlain Les Roses Et Le Noir is a beautiful collection that focuses on soft pinks and elegant black shades.  It is now available at all counters nationwide.  One of the star items in this collection is the Cruel Gardenia Meteorites.  This retails for $67USD and is limited edition. I purchased mine online from Nordstrom sight unseen but  am so incredibly glad that I did. It is probably one of the quickest item to sell out since Terra Inca Sublime Radiant Powder (reviewed here).

Cruel Gardenia's design alone is quite stunning.  Yes, it is similar to Laura Mercier's Rose Rendezvous but this is focused on one large flower instead of multiple small ones. I love the details on the flower and the raised petal edges.

Cruel Gardenia has small shimmers infused all throughout the powder. 

Here it is again in direct sunlight:

In the pan, Cruel Gardenia is a soft pink with shimmers.  The design is so pretty that I literally did not want to touch or swatch it.

In the finger swatch, I get a pigmented pale pink with multi-color shimmers. The texture is simply divine! It is buttery smooth just like Terracotta Sublime Radiant Powder.  I did try to sniff the product but it does not have the same Jasmine fragrance.  In fact, I'm not sure I smelled anything at all.

I know for sure I don't have anything that looks like Cruel Gardenia in my collection but did want to show a comparison between it against Laura Mercier's Rose Rendezvous (reviewed here) and Terracotta Inca Sublime Radiant Powder.

Texture wise, they are all the same.  However, that's where the similarity ends between these 3 powders.  I took numerous shots of the comparison swatches but could only use one image.  I feel that this is the most accurate representation of the colors on my skintone.  Cruel Gardenia is unquestionably pale pink, Rose Rendezvous is bronzy rose, and Terracotta Sublime (mistakenly labeled as Terra Inca) is a pink bronze.  When taken with flash, Cruel Gardenia can show up as a cream/white highlighter, which I feel is not the true color of the powder.

Overall, Cruel Gardenia is really one of those items where I literally gasp after swatching it on my skin.  It is really breathtakingly gorgeous.  This is a shimmery pale pink that beautifully highlights my cheekbones. I love to use it on top of Chanel's Rose Ecrin for a nice subtle glow.  What makes Cruel Gardenia stands out is not only the design but truly the smooth texture of the powder.  The shimmers are fine, not gritty, and also not overly shimmery on the face either. 

Bottom line: It has been a long while since I've said this but Guerlain's Cruel Gardenia Meteorites is a must-have item from this spring season.  I think it has blown all of the other blushes/highlighters that are recently released out of the water. I highly recommend checking out Cruel Gardenia and getting your hands on it as soon as possible.  It is already sold out from Nordstrom online. If you remember how quickly Rose Rendezvous got sold out, you'll understand why this is such a hit.

What are your thoughts on Cruel Gardenia? Are you going to pick it up?