Clarins 230 is so elusive that it has earned the nickname “unicorn pee.” Often times, hard-to-find items don’t live up to the hype. Not so for 230. It absolutely deserves its reputation.

230 is a sheer polish and multi-chromatic. Given the sheerness, it’s best layered over another polish. And given that it’s next to impossible to find, I want this bottle to last as long as possible.

I swatched it over several colors and I liked it best layered over blue or purple. In these pictures, I layered 1 coat of 230 over 2 coats of OPI Sapphire in the Snow. I wore this until it started chipping, which was around day 4.

Tracking the collection down, however, was actually somewhat challenging. At Nordstrom and Dillards, when I asked, “do you have Clarins’ holiday collection?” they responded, “do you mean the sets?” I finally found Palazzo d’Oro at Macy’s � but there are no testers. If you want to try, you must buy. (Perhaps this is not the case in other places; different areas might also find them in different retailers.)

The collection contains an eye palette (four shadows and a cream liner, $66). The top two shades are both shimmery: pale pink and melon-gold. The bottom two are satin warm purple-grey and matte brown with a few tiny gold sparkles. The cream liner is very dark brown and swatched beautifully.

The “face compact” is a highlighter ($57), and should you choose to buy it, your first task will be to scrape off the layer of insane gold overspray (I used a triangle sponge). Once that’s gone, you’ll be left with a delicate, finely milled gold highlight which is actually very pretty.

Both compacts are ridiculously heavy.

There are two more holiday items, each $23.50. There’s a mascara with shimmer (which I did not try), and a Joli Rouge lipstick. The lipstick is really a topcoat � you could wear it alone for a subtle, festive, lipgloss-like shine on your bottom lip (but it looks weird on the top lip). It smells like Juicy Fruit gum, and the gold sparkles feel a bit grainy. The effect is pretty, though, and feels worth it for a special occasion. Now to get myself invited to a suitable holiday gala.

Clarins Holiday: Palazzo d’Oro, Gold Attraction, Joli Rouge Perfect Shine Sheer Lipstick