Elizabeth Arden AW12: Visible Difference SkinCare, Beautiful Colour Eyeshadows

The Elizabeth Arden crew were in town last week to tell us all about their new season plans. No less than 10 new product launches are planned across their skincare, fragrance and make up portfolio, proving there's a lot more to the brand than the Eight Hour range.

On the skincare front, we can look forward to a brand new line of 17 spa-inspired products. The Visible Difference range promises results in just six days, and features a daily regime for oily, combination and dry skin types. Prices range from €20 through to €49.

Along with the usual cleansers, toners and moisturisers are six specialist treatments, including serums, primers and masks. I've been using this Hydration Boost Night Mask, €29, and it's exactly what my skin needs right now.

Although I'm normally combo-to-oily a new skincare routine means I have dry, flaky patches and, with active ingredients like chamomile, gingko biloba, vitamins and shea butter, this is really helping to balance me out. It's fab stuff altogether, and smells delish - I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the line. It's on counters at the end of this month.

And on September 15th it will be joined by a range of new eyeshadow singles and duos, called Beautiful Colour. These are designed to be multi-tasking and to offer a great range of fashion led colours that are strongly pigmented and easy to work with. There's some fancy technology at work here - the colour pigments are coated with a blend of silicone and other ingredients for a luxe, silky smooth finish.

What's really interesting though is the skincare benefits we're promised - these boast retinyl linoleate, a Vitamin A derivative, that's claimed to minimise fine lines on the eyelids, and support the skin's natural collagen production.  Vitamins C and E make an appearance too, along with a blend of antioxidants.

There'll be 20 singles and 7 duos in the line, priced at €20 and €25 respectively, and new, catwalk inspired shades will be added each season. I've had a couple to play with ahead of the launch date and happily the shades tick all my boxes, as well as playing into two of the biggest autumn trends - purples and metallics. Precious Metals features a soft, sheer gold and a warm bronze, while Mystic Violet is a moody blackened purple and yep, they're all that and a bag of chips. Soft, smooth, easy to apply and blend, and the packaging's fab, too; it features the Elizabeth Arden red door on the mirrored case, and embossed on the shadows themselves.

What do you think ladies, is there room for these in your makeup lovin' hearts?