An Old Favourite - Chanel Rouge Noir

 Right after whipping off Peridot, I decided to go with a real classic, and painted my nails with this, Chanel Rouge Noir.  This is an old, old, bottle as I've been wearing Rouge Noir on and off since the 90's.

It's a dark, wine-red creme, a bit gothy, but I find it goes with everything, and always looks classy.

Wear is about average, I tend to get three/four days or so before chipping, if I use a sticky basecoat like Orly Bonder, and this mani was three days old when I took the pics, hence the tipwear in the next photo:

This just reminds me that I need to get much, much better at painting my nails ...mind, before I started this blog, I never used to paint them at all ...


The Fine Print - This was a purchase by me.  Possibly in another century. Or it could be a backup bottle.  I'm not sure.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

A Little Bit of Chanel ... Peridot, Illusoire, Epatant and Ebloui

So, I went a little crazy at the Chanel Counter again.  I picked up three of the Illusion D'Ombre eyeshadows, which are a remarkable texture, and, I cracked and bought the nail varnish in Peridot.  I passed over Graphite as it's dead ringer for OPI's Lost in Glitzerland, and Quartz looked too similar to Illamasqua Bacterium for comfort. That said, I'll probably be picking them up anyway ...


So, the eyeshadows I picked up were:

86 Ebloui:

84 Epatant:

And 83 Illusoire:

They're a very interesting texture, unlike the recent Armani Eyes to Kill shadows, they're a powdery mousse, rather than a powder-cream texture, but, similar to the Eyes to Kill shadows, they are very, very, very sparkly.  But, it's a more subtle gleam than the rather glittery Armani formula:

Swatches at the top are over Urban Decay Primer Potion, bottom are on bare skin.  The pots come with a synthetic brush, and you do need it to apply, as using your fingers will just result in the barest wash of un-pigmented glitter, but the brush will pick up a goodly amount of the shade too.


Here's an out-of-focus shot to show off the sparkle:

Rather pretty, I think.  Hopefully, I picked versatile shades.  There was no taupe ...


I also bought Peridot:

Which I had no intention whatsoever of buying, but, I just couldn't resist when I saw it in store.  It's very beautiful.  Alas, it's not the shade for me.  At all:

Yup, on me, it pulls yellow.  Sickly yellow, and not the beautiful scarab-beetle effect you see in the bottle there.

It's not too bad in slightly different light, but man, it gives me lobster hands!  Also, the other shade is the one I mainly get, and it's just so not me ...!  Great to apply, like most Chanel polishes, can't comment on the wear yet though.

So, what will you be picking up from Chanel this season, anything?


The Fine Print: I purchased these.  You would have seen the post sooner, but I realised that the sales assistant had given me the wrong shade of eyeshadow ...


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Chanel Byzance Collection Topkapi Quad

Well hello there little Chanel palette that fell into my handbag at Selfridges last week!  How you doin'?

What's that?  You're shy?  Don't want to show off for the nice Get Lippie readers?

Tough.

See?  Nothing to be scared of!  You're beautiful.  Oh yes, you are.  And, with your selection of metallic browns, taupes and golds, oh me, oh my, we're going to make some sexytimes sweet, sweet swatches together.

What's that?  I didn't catch you from your best side?  Shall we try again?

You're so creamy.  So pigmented, so ... rich.  So wonderful that if all Chanel palettes were like you, I'd buy all y'all.  Okay, your dark brown is on the matte side, and your gold is a little ... sparkly, but hey, your bronze is so yummy and your taupe, why, it's so ... taupe. Taupe-r than the taupest thing I can imagine.  And that, my lovely palette is very taupe indeed.  Oh yes ...

Dear Chanel, please make more like this.  No more dry, baked, unpigmented eyeshadows.  They're annoying. Just try not to make the next one cost £37 too. Thank you.

This has been a public service announcement.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine: Shades 66, 61, 55 and 54

I've been waiting for these to be released for about six weeks now, so when I noticed they'd been released early - I thought they were out at the end of the month! - I had to snap up a couple. Or four...




The shades I picked were (l-r): 66 - Bel-Ami: a lightly bronzed brown; 61 - Bonheur: a sheer berry; 55 - Romance: bubblegum pink and 54 - Boy: a pale caramel nude. In the tubes these shades look vivid and full of pigment, but the full beauty of these sticks is revealed on swatching:




Lightly pigmented, glossy and sheer, these shades are essentially a shiny, cushioned, balm for your lips. Wear isn't, of course, as good as the original Rouge Coco shades, but dang, these do feel wonderful on your lips! Speaking of which, here ate the lip swatches:


66 Bel-Ami:




Not nearly as brown as it appears in the bullet, this is almost reddish on the lips, but is entirely office-appropriate.

61 Bonheur




Possibly my favourite of the four, this pinked-berry is glorious for giving you that "just-bitten" look.

55 Romance




Not nearly as fluoro in the flesh as it appears in this picture, this is an exceptionally pretty, cool bubblegum pink. I'm looking forward to seeing how this one looks with a tan!

54 Boy




My lips are quite pigmented, so much of the colour you're seeing here is not from the lipstick itself, which appears as the merest whisp of creamy beige on my lips. A good neutral for me, possibly, but maybe not a shade I'd consider re-purchasing.

Packaged in a thinner version of the Rouge Coco packaging, these look classy, and will be an asset to my makeup bag, owing to their moisturising properties, and I think they'll be perfect for summer wear.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shines are available now and cost £22.50 each.

Project Perfume - First update featuring Chanel, Guerlain and Thierry Mugler

So, the first month of Project Perfume has gone stonkingly well, I've sniffed around 20 new perfumes, swapped out some old perfumes (and, some newer ones I didn't like), and sat with Linda Pilkington of Ormonde Jayne for a "perfume portrait".  Plus, I've discovered some new perfumes I absolutely adore.  Here are the highlights of my month.

On my Project Perfume page, you can see all the perfumes that I've crossed off the list - I'm not going to list them all here, but the ones that I've found in January were largely ones that were very easy for me to track down, I seem to be saving all the difficult ones for further down the line, possibly a little bit foolhardy, but I'm not really one for making life easy for myself, it seems.  I will be reviewing a couple further down the page though.

I also attended the Scratch + Sniff event: "A Perfumed Journey Around the World" with My Perfume Life and Persolaise  (both of whom are massive inspirations on this project) where we were guided on a journey through Morocco, 1980's Moscow, Bengal, Java, The Alps and Kyoto by James Craven of the infamous perfume store Les Senteurs.  This was a huge amount of fun, and I got some great feedback from other perfume enthusiasts of my live-tweeting of the event.  There were some scents I liked (heavy, spicy smoky ones), some I wasn't bothered about (marine ones), one I loved (by Andy Tauer), and one I didn't like at all (a fruity floral, who knew?), all in all a great evening, and well worth £12.50 of anyone's money, I'll definitely be going back.

So, the scents I've picked out to talk about this month are:

A*Men by Thierry Mugler
Chanel No19 by Chanel, and,
Vetiver by Guerlain


A*Men - Thierry Mugler

 Perfumes The A-Z Guide gives this four stars, and describes it as a "chocolate mint" scent.


An extract: "... one hand a herbaceous lavender-mint chord brightened by aldehydes.  ... reinforces the roasted section with caramel, coffee and tar ... simultaneously poisonous and delicious eat-me-and-die feel as the original.  Hard to imagine on a guy, but a great feminine"


Now, I hate the original version of Angel, it's choking, too sweet, too cloying, too floral, too ... everything.  It's a vision of hell dipped in sugar and sold to unsuspecting 20-somethings who think everything sweet (and strong) is good.  So, I was prepared to hate this, but the description of "chocolate mint" had me thinking that it might be worth a try.  I mentioned already that I go a little bit crazy for mint smells (however cheap and soapy), so I got my hands on a sample.


And, there's no mint in it.  Not a bit.  Chocolate, caramel, and sugar galore, oh yes, but no mint.  And I don't mind.  This is possibly because I don't have to imagine it on a male, MrLippie has been wearing it non-stop since it turned up.  It makes him smell deliciously edible, and it's a wonderful change from all the "clean" scents he's been favouring lately.  Yes, it's loud.  Yes, it smells incredibly odd for the first five minutes after spraying (that'll be the tar, with a slight hint of burnt rubber), but for the rest of the day, you'll smell like a sexy Caramac.


Man, that looks so stupid now I've written it down. It's rather true though.  Lippie rating: Weird (but gooooood)


Anyway, onto:


Chanel No 19

As diametrically opposed to A*Men as it is possible to be, I'm still finding it hard to believe that I'd never smelled this before until now.  Perfumes categorises this as a four star "green floral"


An extract: " ... from the silvery hiss of it's nail-polish-remover beginnings to its poisonously beautiful green-floral heart ... For a fragrance with so many springtime references, all white blossoms and leafy greenery, No19 never lands you in any Sound of Music meadows"

Cold, austere, bitter, but undeniably beautiful, this is a fragrance I can wear whenever I'm pretending to be an elegant businesswoman in control of my destiny, instead of the lightly hassled, frazzled, and dumpy, frumpy, lumpy accountant I actually am.  There's nothing warm or sweet about this fragrance, and it's all the better for it.  It's a spritz of pure confidence in a bottle, and I've taken to wearing it to board meetings.  Yes, I do attend board meetings, something that astonishes me upon occasions too.  It's dry, but less obviously "perfumey" than Chanel No5, and I don't smell many flowers in the perfume until it's almost worn off.  I love it.  For me this falls into the Very Nice category, but for MrLippie, it's merely in the Nice/Soapy area, there aren't enough soft edges for him.  It's a perfume to wear to please yourself, and go hang anyone who doesn't like it.


Vetiver by Guerlain

I hadn't really smelled all that much vetiver till just before Christmas, but this was a beautiful addition to my perfume collection.


Luca Turin names this as the "reference vetiver" and gives it four stars in the book.  His write up is rather dismissive of the current formulation, however, this fragrance is talked about in the context of so many other perfumes in the book, that I felt that my perfume "education" would be incomplete without smelling it.


And I'm very glad I did, it's a perfect "sparkling" green scent, not too sweet, not too citrus, and not too smoky.  Vetiver is a grass, with - on my skin - hints of grapefruit, and for me, this is a perfect every day scent, I get hints of pepper, possibly a bit of clove, but the spice never dominates.  It's clean, it's fresh, but it's never soapy, it's wonderful.  I'm currently trying to convince MrLippie to try it (it's classified as a masculine, but I think it's perfectly, wonderfully unisex), but I'm still having trouble tearing him away from A*Men ...  


This is a massive post, so I think I'll save writing about my meeting with the lovely and amazing Linda Pilkington till later in the week!





This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Chanel - Le Coton

I make no apologies - whatsoever - for this post!  I mentioned Chanel cotton wool to some fellow bloggers the other week, and the gorgeous Vex in the City and Virtues of Beauty both blogged about how insane they thought it was straight after.  Can't, in all honesty, say I blame them, they are a little ... mad!

So, Chanel have released Le Coton exclusively to Henri Bendel's in NYC and a good friend of mine was sweet enough to bring me a box as a housewarming present recently.  There is nothing  - and I do mean nothing - as exciting as being handed a Chanel bag as a gift, no matter what the contents, for this particular beauty blogger!  The "coton" is apparently made of three layers, from cotton fibres so fine that they have to be hand-picked.  The box contains 100 pads, costs $20 and each pad is embossed with the Chanel logo on both sides:

Each pad is a more than decent size - you'd easily remove nail varnish from all ten nails with this, and it is very thick and soft:

So .. is it any better than ordinary cotton wool? Errrr ...no. In fact, I prefer my Boots double sided pads, which are smaller, but the edges are bonded so you don't get those irritating threads everywhere!  But, that said, this is such an insane item, that it's actually fun to use them.  It's fun to have them around, they were a perfect present for a beauty addict, and for that reason I'm very glad to have them! They do, it must be said, look very stylish on my dressing table.  Which is actually a bookcase, but I digress.  I shall ration my use of them though, as, at 10p (approx) a pad, they're an expensive habit to get into!

What's your most insane beauty purchase?

Chanel Ombre D'eau Splash and Torrent Comparison

 
 When I wrote this post recently, one of my wonderful regular readers (the always-lovely Modesty Brown) commented that she thought the colour would be less bronze, so I thought a comparison to the decidedly khaki Torrent as released earlier on in the year would be useful, so here goes:

As you can see, whilst both shades do have a decidedly bronze-y cast to them, Splash is definitely more on the grey side, whilst Torrent runs khaki.  However, Splash is only "taupe" in the same way that Chanel's recent "Taupe Gris" eyeshadow is.  Which is to say, not taupe at all, rather more grey-purple, and not quite as brown as a true taupe.

That said, it fits in very well with my love of sludge-shades and both of these shadows are in regular rotation in my makeup routine.  I wish there was more love for these shadows out there, they're great!

Chanel Ombre D'eau: #757 Splash

I love a bit of Chanel.  Some of my more regular readers might have noticed.  I'm also a massive fan of their Ombre D'eau eyeshadows, finding the colours gorgeously complex (in the main), and also rather more long lasting than Chanel's powder shadows.

The latest release in this format is number 757,also called "Splash".  It's the second one I've purchased this year, the first was Torrent (a beautifully sludgy khaki shade with beautiful iridescence) from the Spring Kaska Beige collection, and that's been in heavy rotation ever since.  Splash is a bronze-y taupe, with a metallic sheen:

It's rather more dark-seeming in the bottle than on the skin, but it's a very wearable shade - if you like sludge colours!  On swatching, it seemed rather familar, so I swatched it next to my beloved Shu Uemura Brown 805:

As you can see, the Shu (on the left there) is rather lighter, and a little more shimmery.  Then I thought that it reminded me of Chanel's Taupe Grise, and so, I swatched that too:

In the bottle, Splash looks a lot more like Taupe Grise, but once on the skin, it definitely loses the greyish cast, and takes on more bronze.  As you can see, the Taupe Grise (far right) looks far more grey, and definitely has a touch of purple in the undertone.

Under slightly different lighting conditions, you can see the differences more clearly.

I like to wear the Ombre D'eaus sheered out on the eyelid, and this is how it looks after six or seven hours on the eyelids:

I'm wearing it here with Guerlain Oriental Metal on the waterline.  I didn't really have a burning desire to pick up any of the rest of the Chanel holiday collection - it was a bit too PINK for me - but will you b getting any?

Face of the Day - Berry Lips

Dark, gothic lipstick colours are very much the flavour of the day this season, so here's my take on the look:






I'm wearing Chanel tinted moisturiser, Edward Bess eyeshadow in Intimate, Dior purple eyeliner, and the lips are Daniel Sandler lipstick in Micro Berry. This shade, I've discovered, makes a really pretty stain too.

Will you be wearing dark lips this autumn?

In a rush!

I mentioned yesterday that I'm lazy, and I'd rather spend an extra minute or two in bed than spend time using two products when I can use only one.  So I thought I'd tell you my favourite "two minute face" products.

For my base, I'd use Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturising Balm, it has SPF 25, and works well for evening out skintone (taking the place of foundation) and also works exceptionally well as a moisturiser in it's own right.  This, essentially, takes the place of three products!

Eyeshadow, probably something taupe (the one above is Chanel's taupe grise, not, strictly, a taupe, but lovely nonetheless).  Taupe because it goes with everything, suits almost everyone, and it's hugely versatile.  I'll either pat a darker taupe into the crease, or a lighter one all over the mobile lid.

Trish McEvoy High Impact Mascara in Jet Black.  I love this stuff, it doesn't budge throughout the day, and I find that it volumises my lashes to the extent that I can go without liner (normally a total no-no chez Lippie) once in a while.

For my cheeks, I'd either use Daniel Sandler's Watercolour Blush in Cherub (a pale rosy pink) or, if I want a little more colour, I'd use

Edward Bess Cream Rouge in Island Rose.  Both of these are ideal for adding a little fresh colour to my pale and sallow mug in the mornings, and they're both a real pleasure to use, too.

As for my lips, I'd cheat and use either of the blush shades on my lips.  Four products, two minutes and groomed perfection.  In my dreams!

What's your two-minute routine?