Estee Lauder Double Wear

Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation is the best-selling foundation in the UK.  I was a bit surprised when I found that out, but realistically, I shouldn't have been, because, for a long time in my late twenties, Double Wear was the only foundation I ever wore.  Actually, coming to think about it now, it's probably the first foundation I ever used.

Let me explain. I had a blessedly zit-free existence until I was 26, my teenage years passed in an acne-free haze.  I was clear-skinned, and delightfully pore-free.  I had no skin-care routine whatsoever, washing my face as and when I felt like it, and my makeup usually consisted of a tonne of eyeshadow, lashings upon lashings of eyeliner, and any lipstick I could put my hands on.  Blusher and mascara were optional, and I don't think I even knew what foundation was at the time.

I woke up one day at the age of 26, with adult-onset acne, my chin, in particular was zit-central, but there wasn't really any area of my face that got away scott-free, and my skin was the bane of my existence. Add to this that I had increasingly red and flaky skin, well, it wasn't good. Someone on the internet recommended Estee Lauder Double Wear to me, and it was life-changing.  A good, high-coverage foundation that covered up even the reddest of inflamed and spotty skins?  I was in.

However, at that time, Double Wear was only available in six shades, and, well, they were all slightly orange.  But, taking the lesser of two evils into consideration, being a little bit tangerine was a small price to pay to have my zits hidden, and I gladly paid it (and the £18 it cost - which I thought was extortionate, how times have changed!  Now, an £18 foundation would be midrange, but I'm digressing). 

All this has been a very long and roundabout way of saying that Estee Lauder Double Wear is now available in 30 shades ... and not all of them are orange!   Good old Fresco (what used to be the lightest shade) is still available, but it's now abutted by 29 other shades which should ensure that there is a match for most people.

The shades are in six different colour groupings, 1 being the palest, and 6 the darkest, with warm, neutral and cool tones (W, N, C) within each group. I got matched recently to shade 2N1 Desert Beige, which you can see above. I have pale (but not that pale) skin, and neutral is normally a good match for me, whilst my skin is usually on the cooler side, I do actually tan quite well, and my eyes are hazel, both of which normally mean you're warm-toned, but I'll stick with neutral, thanks.

My hands are WAY paler than my face, for some reason.

Re-trying Double Wear has been fun, actually, I see a lot of people wearing it these days - sometimes, if it's been over-applied, then powdered to heavily (something I see fairly regularly, even in people who should know better, frankly) you can just tell.  The trick to a natural application with this, and it is possible, is to apply as little as possible, then buff, buff, buff the liquid into your skin, until you're left with as natural a finish as possible.  Personally I don't powder over - but then I only ever use powder once in a blue moon anyway.

I love how Double Wear lasts, it never needs reapplying in the middle of the day, and you very rarely need concealer, either, just, you know, take care not to over-apply, guys ...


The  Fine Print: PR Sample - if you ever get a chance to meet Alan Pan, the Lauder International Makeup artist, jump at it, he's a scream. 

This post: http://getlippie.blogspot.com/2012/10/estee-lauder-double-wear.html originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Estee Lauder Violet Underground Eyeshadow Palette

I may have let out a little "squee" of excitement when I saw the promo image of this palette from Estee Lauder, from the gorgeous purple packaging to the contents, this had Get Lippie written all over it.  Not literally, of course, but you know what I mean.  Anyway, take a look:

So pretty, and such an unusual selection of shades.  Fuchsia, Copper, Navy, Champagne and Black, and, it's surprisingly versatile, as I'll show you later - don't let that bright pink put you off:

I love how textured and gorgeous the shadow pans are.  The shadows are the "tribrid" texture, which is an amalagam of cream, powder and gel, and the shades are fairly pigmented, and quite complex as a result.

This is just one pass on bare skin with the sponges from the palette, you can get a heavier application with your fingers or a densely-haired brush.

 All the shades, even the pink are very wearable, the champagne shade almost blends with my skin, but I assure you that it's in the swatch pics!  Only the black has a matte texture, usable for lining with a thin brush.

Best of all, you can mix the shades, if you layer the pink over the blue, you get a beautiful multichromatic smoky purple, which I adore:

Perfect for more dramatic looks.

What do you think of Violet Underground?  It's limited edition, and available on counter now for £40.  There's an eyeliner and four new lipshades to go with it too ...

The Fine Print: I may have begged for this one.

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

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Polishes in Viper, Explosif and Blue Blood

I do love an Estee Lauder polish (or three). Lauder, since the addition of Tom Pechaux to their creative team, are really knocking it out of the park at the moment, and the Pure Colour polishes have just released two new fabulous mini-collections of five polishes each: Beyond Black, and Metal Mania.

Here we have two Beyond Blacks, with a Metal Mania in the middle.  The shades are (L-R) Viper, Explosif, and Blue Blood.

I adore the Pure Colour bottles, yes, they're big, and very bulky, but they're also very beautiful.  Little drops of pigment suspended like teardrops in their crystal cubes, they're a unique and love addition to any makeup collection. 

Now, onto the shades themselves, the Beyond Black collection is, as the name might suggest, a collection of blackened shades with deep rich colours within, and the Metal Mania is a collection of foils with micro-glitter, to give a very on-trend look this autumn.

Depending on the light, you can see a variety of effects in the polishes, here you can just see the blackened effects of Viper and Blue Blood, and Explosif looks like an antique gold glitter.

Here you can see a bit more of the differences between Viper and Blue Blood

And this picture really shows off the stunning range of shades of glitter that you can see in Explosif:

As is pretty usual with Lauder polishes, they wear like iron, I've had a full manicure of Blue Blood on since last week, and it's stood up to the rigours of the office and housework admirably well.  I'm going to try and check out Black Plum and Smashed (metallic purple) at the earliest opportunity ...

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Metal Mania and Beyond Black polishes cost £14.50 and are available on counter now.

The Fine Print:  PR Samples. But purchases to follow.

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

Back to Basics - Estee Lauder Invisible Fluid Makeup

Continuing with the Foundation Week theme, it's time to discuss what is the newest addition to my little* foundation family, Estee Lauder's Invisible Fluid makeup.  We're not allowed to call it "foundation", apparently, as it's specially formulated to be foundation for people who don't like foundation.

Personally, I don't understand this "not liking foundation" business, but that's probably because my ugly blotchy red mug regularly makes small children cry, nonetheless, I thought I'd give this a go anyway.

Packaging

Cute plastic bottle, with shiny, shiny blurple lid.  A little on the large size for carrying around with you, but it won't shatter if you drop it.

Formula

An exceptionally thin, runny liquid.  This is light, light, light!  The formula is both oil and emulsifier-free, meaning you need to shake the heck out of it when you first buy it (at least three minutes worth) in order to mix the pigment with the binding ingredients.  After the first use, you won't need to shake near as much to get the ingredients to blend, but this will need shaking every time you use it.  Again, this product contains a blend of silicones to get the pigment to meld with your skin.  This is virtually undetectable on the skin, either visually or physically.  It spreads easily, either with fingers or a brush.  I prefer fingers.

Shade Selection

 This is shade 2CN2.  There are sixteen shades in the range, arrayed into six colour groupings (1 = palest, 6 = darkest), and C = Cool, N= Neutral and W = Warm.  This should, in a perfect world, all make sense,  so my shade is second palest group, with both cool and neutral undertones, but not the palest shade in the group - that would be 2CN1.  I think.  It's great to see a brand like Lauder catering to a large range of skintones at last.  As a Lauder foundation-wearer of many years standing, I've often found it difficult to match my skin tone owing to the limited shades on offer, and it's great to see them expanding the range in both directions.

Coverage

Coverage is, as you might expect, on the light side.  Here's Maurice the Control Mole for our visual demonstration:

Coverage is light to medium, as you can see from the above, it won't hide blemishes completely, it will even out your skintone, and at least disguise the worst of your blotchiness.  The coverage is very buildable, and if you have stubborn redness, you can just add another layer or two over the worst affected areas, without it looking cakey.  As it's oil-free, it's great for oilier skins, if you're prone to dry patches, this will cling to them slightly, but keeping on top of your exfoliating will help.

Finish

Finish is matte, but not flat.  You can powder over this, but it will kind of defeat the whole "invisible" nature of the makeup.  I find using an illuminating primer underneath will give your skin a glow, but again, it's not necessary.


Wear

I've been very impressed with the wear of this.  I expected such a light formulation to wear off very very quickly, but this has stood up to even the hardest of wear over the last week or two, and I've not really noticed any problems with fading or needing reapplications during the day. I'd say I get about 8-10 hours before needing to touch up.
 
Price

Currently exclusively available from John Lewis, this costs £27 for 30ml.
 
Ingredients

Overall Thoughts

Wonderfully light on the skin, with buildable coverage which is virtually undetectable on the skin during  wear, in a great range of colours, this is a total win as far as I'm concerned.  I'm surprised at how much I like it, considering my redness problems, but since this turned up, I've found myself reaching for it over and over.  

 * Ha ha!


The Fine Print: PR Sample.


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

Estee Lauder Cyber Eyes Collection

It seems Estee Lauder are continuing their innovation in eyeshadows into the new year, and their first collection by Tom Pecheaux this year is Cyber Eyes, a collection of six "tribryd"* gelee eyeshadows, four mascaras, and six eyeliners.   I selected a few to get a feel for the collection:

Here you can see Cyber Copper, Cyber Pink and Cyber Green eyeshadows (the other available shades are Cyber Teal, Cyber Lilac and Cyber Silver) with Blackened Cocoa and Blackened Plum Eyeliners.  The other shades of liner are Electric Teal, Blackened Olive, Blackened Sapphire and Blackened ... um ... Black ...

Here are the shades with flash:

The shades are beautiful, as is the product in the pan. The Cyber Eyes shadows are a creme/gel/powder, which lends them to being used either wet or dry.  Used dry, you get a beautiful sheen, and a complex shade on the skin:

They are easy to blend and last extremely well on the skin with or without primer beneath.

Applied wet, you can see how the colours deepen, and gain a lovely metallic finish:

 Even the pink, which applies a little more sheerly than the other two shades.  

The pencils are a real treat, being both densely packed with pigment, and very, very soft and easy to blend.  I think, if it came down to it, I'd say the pencils were the best part of the collection, but it'd be a very close-run thing.

Here are swatches of both Blackened Plum and Blackened Cocoa:

Plum is at the top and cocoa is at the bottom.  Blackened Cocoa is lovely, but I'm a little disappointed with the Plum,  it's a little more of a navy blue with a hint of purple than a plum, which is nice in itself, but it's not the shade I was expecting from the name, I always think plum should be on the redder side of purple than the blue.  That aside, these are lovely, lovely pencils, soft, smudgeable and unbudgeable.

MrLippie and I had a bit of a giggle over the name of this collection, as there's very little "cyber" about it (and hey, "Blackened Black", really?  How much more black can it be?  Answer: none, none more black*), and it has to be said that with the exception of Cyber Green, the shades themselves aren't hugely original choices, but these are lovely, glorious glowing eyeshadows and I can see I'm going to get a lot of wear out of them.

Cyber Eyes Shadows are available now, and cost £19 each.  The liners cost £16 each.  Some of the shades are limited edition though, so you'd better get your skates on ... 


The Fine Print: Cyber samples, through the interwebs.

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

Estee Lauder Modern Mercury Collection

  
Another glorious autumn collection this week, this time from the wonderously talented Tom Pecheux, the Creative Director of Estee Lauder.  Modern Mercury is a lovely collection of sludge.  If you're a sludge-lover like what I am, them this is the collection for you.  There are three eyeshadow duos, three liquid liners, a nail polish, and three new matte lipsticks.  Here are my picks:

Yep, I picked out the taupe eyeshadow duo ("Platinums"), but in my defence, the other two duos would be less usable for me - Modern Mercury itself is a white and a dark blue, and Black Chrome is a black and dark blue.  Both beautiful in their way, but not for me - in this duo the white has a micro-shimmer, and the taupe is a lovely cool greyed mink shade.  I don't think I'll get much use out of the slightly chalky white, but the taupe will be very useful.


There is a set of three new formula lipsticks released too, Estee Lauder have finally released their first matte shades, they are a red, a fuschia and a nude.  In my goody bag at the launch recently, I was given the nude:

Whilst it's not the shade I'd have picked from the three (I look like Death in it), the formulation is satiny and rich with pigment.  There's a good chance I'll be buying the red one in the near future.  Oh, and the pink.


And now onto my complete and utter must-haves from the collection, the eyeliners and the nail varnish:

I am obsessed with green nail varnish, and this is a beauty.  A lightly bronzed khaki, this flows like butter onto the nail, and it wears really well too.  I immediately went out and bought this as soon as the collection hit counter, as I know it's going to be really popular.  I'm still wearing it now.


And so onto the eyeliners, which I adore:

 Again, three shades, Graphite, a sparkling grey, Silver Zinc, which is a platinum-taupe shade and Black Quartz, which is a sparkling black:

The shades are soft and subtle, but with enough pigment to be visible, and just a hint of sparkle in each to catch the light, and flatter your eyes.  I was so impressed with Graphite that I went and bought the black and silver shades too.  I've just noticed that Silver Zinc is sold out online though, so if you want this one - and it is a beautiful shade that I think will be flattering on many skin tones - you'll have to hustle down to your local stockist very soon.  They have a flexible point on the brush end, and they're very easy to control.  Super longlasting too.  Some swatches on my hand lasted for over 24 hours!


Modern Mercury is available now, and prices range from £14-£28.  There's a highlighter too, which is a lovely rose-gold, but ... I didn't think I'd get much use out of it, so I've passed on it.  I have an inkling I'm going to regret that in about a week, but them's the breaks ...


What stands out for you?

The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples, and purchases. Lauder group have my bank details on record these days.
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Bronzing Blush

The ever-lovely Kellie over at BigFashionista was asking me last week how I go about updating my makeup for spring.  Well, the simple fact is that I tend to wear the same sort of makeup all year round (though I do switch to tinted moisturiser rather than foundation when it gets really warm), but in spring, I find that one of the simplest ways to update your makeup is to change your blusher.

Luckily, this time of year is when brands start to bring out their summer ranges, and switching to a warmer blush is easy.   Last year, my favourite blush was actually a bronzing blusher from the annual Bronze Goddess range released by Estee Lauder.  This year's limited edition bronzing blush is too cute, featuring a starfish design:

The darker pink that you see there is a shimmery overspray which disappears on first usage.  On first seeing this, I thought the shades were identical to last year's zebra-striped palette, so I decided to compare the two:

Turns out that my initial thoughts weren't quite correct.  Last year's palette has slightly cooler tones, and is, in fact, slightly more shimmery:

Top is the starfish palette, and bottom is the zebra, and I've swatched them in the order: bronzer then blusher then a mix of the two shades. the top palette has slightly more pigment, and is more matte, whereas the zebra bronzing blush (bottom) has a slightly more sheeny finish.

The bronzing blush is limited edition every year and costs £29.  The rest of the range consists of an eyeshadow palette, a couple of eyeshadow pencils, a beautifully coppery-bronze nail polish and a selection of lip products.  I'll bring you swatches as I have them ...

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

Looking forward to 2011? Guerlain, Lauder, Dior, Lancome and Clarins are ...

Nope, haven't gone quite mad - yet - but I found these pics on my iphone today and thought I'd show you some of the things you'll be able to see on Get Lippie coming up in the next couple of months ...

Here you can see the spring/summer releases from both Dior and Guerlain (Dior on the left, Guerlain on the right).  I'm loving the pressed Meteorites powder there, and the grey lipgloss from Dior.  Dior have a new mascara brush too, which I'm looking forward to trying when I get rid of my eyelash extensions ...

Here you can see the next Tom Pecheaux collection for Estee Lauder - Wild Violet - this looks simply beautiful. I think Tom has done amazing things for Lauder since he became Creative Director, and this looks like no exception:

The palette looks amazing - I'm a sucker for purple, as most of you should already know - and the Untamed Violette eyeliner looks fab too, can't wait to try this.  The range launches at Selfridges on 3rd January, and will be available nationwide from February.

Clarins are specialising in nudes for Spring 2011, and these are some lovely shades. Personally, I can't wait to have a proper look at the one second from the right there.  Those shades of mauvy-pink are perfect for me.  There's an eyeshadow palette too, which has some lovely pinkish neutrals, which looks very interesting.

Lancome are giving us pinks and purples this spring, and this looks very pretty indeed.  That purple eye palette in particular is really calling my name.  I like purple, what can I tell you?

A closer look at Guerlain - I think I need that new Rouge G. It's red, of course I need it!

Urban Decay is launching creme blush this spring, alongside a limited edition box of all of the 24/7 eyeliners.


So ... see anything interesting?  Anything catch your eye?  If so, let me know, and I'll arrange a review for you ...

Estee Lauder Signature Services

After my little rant yesterday, on to a brand that's at least trying to get their counter service right.  I mentioned the other week that the worst makeover I ever had was at an Estee Lauder counter, and as a result I was invited along to try out an Estee Lauder Signature Service for myself to see how things had changed in the meantime.

There are several Signature Services, including Skincare Check Ups, Foundation Matching, Fragrance Finding, Colour advice, "Two Minute Touch Ups" (snigger) and Time Reversing Tips and Tricks.  I popped along to the Selfridges counter (ironically, one of the nearest proper Lauder counters to where I live), and spent some time with Kaman to get some skincare hints, and find my perfect foundation.

I'm a lapsed Lauder customer. I used to use their Double Wear foundation back in the day, I always found it slightly the wrong shade, but it was about the only foundation at that time that would cover up my dreadful reddened, angry and pustular skin.  Likewise, aside from Idealist, I'd always steered clear of their skincare, finding it dreadfully over-perfumed and found the names way too long and confusing (still do, as a matter of fact).

However, with the recent addition of Tom Pecheaux to their creative team, Lauder powder products have impressed me hugely, so I was happy to have my prejudices challenged.  Kaman, is a lovely girl, and when she told me that she's going to be spearheading Lauder's campaign to get all counter-staff trained in making the customer feel comfortable, I wasn't surprised that she had been chosen for the job.  Calm, chatty, and willing to listen to my specific concerns about my skin, and my less specific whinges about customer service in the beauty industry in general she's a great person to spend 20 minutes or so in the company of.

She really knows her stuff too.  The Lauder system is based on you answering a few specific questions, and then a range of products are suggested to you.  My skin is going through an oily patch at the moment, so I wanted to look at products that were good for combination skin showing the first signs of ageing, no mean feat, really.  I was "prescribed" products from the Perfectly Clean range (Sparkling Clean is for oily skin, Soft Clean is for dry skin, and Perfectly Clean is for normal/combination skin), alongside Revelation Moisturiser and Idealist serum.  Oddly, I've always thought of Idealist as a primer rather than a serum, so we'll see how it goes.

As for foundation, I was matched to Double Wear Light (bad beauty blogger alert) which I wasn't aware actually existed!  It's a lot easier to wear than regular Double Wear, that's for sure!  I was surprised that I was matched to a cool tone - I actually think my skin tone is pretty neutral these days, I'm pale, but I tan, and the veins on my inner arms appear green rather than blue, but I do prefer cooler tones for clothing, and silver jewellery for some reason - but it was interesting to see that Lauder are making an effort to match cool, warm and neutral skin tones.  I was also really pleased to see that even though this is a free service, I was actually given a ten-day sample of the foundation of my choice to take away with me, which I thought was brilliant.  Much better than a sachet that may, or may not give you a full application.

All in all, I was very impressed with my time at the Estee Lauder counter, and once I've finished trialling a few things, I'll be back to tell you more ...