Five basics every makeup bag should have

I get asked, quite regularly, what makeup products every makeup bag should contain, and I always find it a difficult question to answer (I don't really carry a makeup bag round with me, and, when I do, it mainly contains lip products ... the name of this blog didn't come around by accident, you know) but, in response to a particularly heartfelt plea from MummyBarrow, asking for the five products you need to re-stock an empty makeup bag, here's what I think you need in a basic, but well-stocked makeup bag:

1) Base
2) Blush
3) Mascara
4) Eyeshadow/Eyeliner
5) Lip Colour

Here's my product picks:

1) Base 
 
Every makeup bag should contain a base product, whether it's foundation, concealer, or a powder is entirely down to individual preference, but, if I was starting from scratch, I'd pick a pigmented base with some skincare properties - either a tinted moisturiser from a reputable skin-care company, or a BB cream, again from a reputable skincare company (rather than a company better known for their colour cosmetics.  So, which ones would I pick?  Well, depending on budget, I'd either pick:

Chantecaille Just Skin Tinted Moisturiser (£57 from Space NK)

Or Dr Jart Regenerating BB Cream (£21 from Boots)

 Both can be used as a moisturiser in their own right (confession, I never use a coloured product in place of skincare, I always use my full skincare routine then use tinted moisturisers etc, but not everyone is as obsessive about their skincare as I am, I admit), and both give great coverage.  If pushed, I prefer the Chantecaille, less mineral oil, nicer fragrance, more buildable coverage as you can apply in successive layers - but the Dr Jart has an SPF of 30,  over and above the Chantecaille's SPF of 15.  The Dr Jart is nice and soothing on the skin though, and doesn't irritate my stupidly sensitive skin. 

A good base is all-important for making the rest of your make-up (however little you spend, and however little attention you pay to it) look good, don't skimp here.

2) Blush

Only one possible choice here, for me, and that is:

New CID iGlow in Coral Crush (£24 from New CID Cosmetics)

This is possibly the most-used cosmetic item in my stash at the moment, and I adore it.  Gives a wonderful glowy lift to my cheeks (it's ostensibly a highlighting product, but I find it pigmented enough to use as a blusher), and it goes with most makeup looks.  It photographs amazingly well too.  Writing this reminds me that I need a backup.

3) Mascara

The mascara I've been wearing most often over the last few months is:

Benefit They're Real Mascara (£18.50 from Boots)

I was slightly underwhelmed with this on first release, but, over the last while, I've come to love it a great deal, and regularly reach for it over and above other fancier (and more expensive) releases.  It's a good, buildable formula that, on me, doesn't flake or smudge, and only comes off when *I* want it too.  Can't say much more than that.  It's a bit wet on first opening though, but after a week or two when it dries out a little, it's a cracking tube of mascara.

The above three products are what I would consider the absolute bare essentials, if you've evened out your skintone with a base, highlighted your cheekbones with blush, and defined your eyes with mascara, then, frankly, any other colour cosmetics are an optional extra.  That said though, here's my pick of eye and lip products to round out a new collection:

4) Eyeshadow/Eyeliner

Sometimes, you just want something quick, and versatile.  When that's the case, I reach for:

Sue Devitt Eye Intensifier Pencils (£18 from Harvey Nichols)

Soft and smudgey, these pencils are a total boon if you're a bit short on time.  You can use them as a soft liner, a base for other shades, or smudge them and create a soft smokey eye look.   They come in a variety of no-fuss, no-worry shades, so there's something to suit most people.

If I was really splashing out, to be honest, I'd also pick up a Cream Colour from Tom Ford in Platinum. A cream eyeshadow that doesn't crease, and isn't greasy, and lasts all day.  I just wish they were a permanent part of the range (and didn't cost £28, but that's a different story).

Clinique are rumoured to be bringing out an eye version of their cult Chubby Sticks, and I, personally, am waiting with baited breath for their release.

 5) Lip Colour

Blimey, where do I start?  When it comes to lipstick, it really is up to you (your budget) and your personal preferences.  For budget preferences, I've discovered I'm a bit of a fan of the Kate Moss range of lipsticks for Rimmel, the matte collection is really cute, particularly in the darker shades.  If you want something a bit less fussy, then the Clinique Chubby sticks:

Might be what you want: Retailing at around £14, they combine the best parts of lipbalm and lipstick.  There's a whole slew of imitators around, but I definitely prefer these for their superior balm properties (little known fact, Clinique's range of superbalm lip products are amongst the best balms on the market, for me at least), and their sheer range of shades.  They're releasing an "intense" version now too, which have more pigment ... I may already have a couple, and will be bringing you a full review soon ...

If you want to splash out, and still have a balmy consistency, well, then you need a Chantecaille Lip Chic.  Which is, for my money, the most divine lipstick formulation in existence.  If you really want to push the boat out, well, then, head yourself over to Tom Ford.  Or pick yourself up a Guerlain Rouge G.  You know you want to ...


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

Tom Ford: Ombre de Hyacinth Review

A new season, and a new Tom Ford Private Blend fragrance to review ... 

This autumn, Tom Ford is releasing the "Jardin Noir" collection, a series of four floral scents, including, Cafe Rose, Jonquil de Nuit, Lys Fume, and this, Ombre de Hyacinth.  I've been lucky enough to have a sniff of all four, and to me, Ombre de Hyacinth is the most distinctive.  The rose, jonquil, and lily fragrances are very nice, but quite traditionally floral - in particular Jonquil de Nuit, or Daffodil of the Night as I've heard it referred to a few times, representing as it does, a traditional English country garden, but Ombre de Hyacinth has a little more of an edge than the other three.

It starts dry, green and bitter, oozing with resinous galbanum, reminiscent - in a very distant way - of the opening of Chanel No19. When sniffed on paper, (but not onskin), there's almost a hay, or drying grass accord, but on my skin, it's a little sweeter, a little more floral, with just a hint of soil beneath, and it's a fascinating fragrance whilst this bit lasts.  Personally, I don't know what hyacinths smell like, but the first hour or so of this fragrance is really lovely, yes it is flowery, but in an unusual green and slightly dirty way, like flowers from bulbs, rather than cut flowers.  MrLippie likes it very much too, which is very unusual for a floral fragrance. 

After about an hour, the jasmine and musks kick in.  I haven't really worn a lot of jasmine over the last few years owing to having overdosed back in the dim and distant past on Serge Lutens A la Nuit (which is a little like being drowned in jasmine - it might be time for me to reinvestigate my vintage bottle, now I come to think of it), it's quite a clean jasmine, polite, you might say, and it sticks close to my skin, without really disappearing at all.  I like it, quite a lot, the scent reminds me of vintage cosmetics, of finely milled face powders and French lipsticks, it's rather lovely.

It's fairly tenacious too, sprayed on skin it will last around eight hours, though I've been able smell it on my skin some 12-18 hours later too, and if you spray it on clothing, it'll last even longer than that.

Is it a classic?  I don't know, and I'm not qualified to say, either, but this is a fragrance I like a lot, in spite of myself.  I thought, originally, that I had a few fragrances similar - almost immediately Untitled by Maison Martin Margiela sprang to mind after that bitter green opening, but I was soon disabused of that notion, it is a floral, but with an unusual crisp green edge and a hint of dirt that I like a lot.  It's one of those scents that I find myself occasionally "phantom-smelling" (where you get an idea of a scent in your mind and think you want to smell that again), and not a lot of fragrances do that.

It's a pricey one, at £135 for a 50ml bottle, but I can see I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this - it's currently on my (mental) shortlist of potential wedding fragrances ...


The Fine Print: The PR department at Tom Ford have kindly forgiven me for my Lavender Palm review, and provided a sample of this for consideration.  I threatened to send my granny round, you see ...

This post: http://getlippie.blogspot.com/2012/09/tom-ford-ombre-de-hyacinth-review.html originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.If you're not reading it on Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen.

Tom Ford S/S 2012 Cream Colour for Eyes in Platinum and Spice

Following on from yesterdays peek at the new metallic collection from Tom Ford, I'm going to show you what I would have purchased from the collection if wedd-onomics (what?  It's totally a word) and common sense hadn't kicked in first. Those are the cream eyeshadows in Spice and Platinum.

Love the packaging, (with one minor caveat) from the mock-croc boxes:

I like bar codes, what's your problem?

To the heavy-weight gold-etched glass pots:

To the off-centre sticky labels on the top of the pots.  Hang on!  Crooked sticky labels?  Oh, Tom.

But never mind, it's what's inside that counts, right?

Oh, my, these are lovely.  A silvery taupe, and mid-tone coppery brown, just up my alley!  Let's take a closer look:

Yes, I swatched before snapping.  BAD beauty blogger!

In the pots, Platinum seems much more metallic, and stiffer a consistency than Spice, but this isn't really the case.  The formula for both of these is feather light, lighter even than the bouncy Chanel's we've had recently, and definitely lighter than the Armani Eyes to Kill shadows which have been out for a while now.  They're so light that initially I thought they wouldn't wear well, but I'll get onto that shortly.

The shades are multi dimensional, and rather complex on skin, here are some swatches:

Simple finger swatch:

Macro shot:

The same swatches blended out.

A little of this formula really does go a very long way, especially with the more pigmented Spice, they blend very easily, I created a very nice smokey eye look with these in about 30 seconds flat just using my fingers (something unheard of for me, I'm dedicated to my brushes), and I was very impressed with the finish.

At £28 each though, these are on the pricey side, and, when it comes to that sort of price, I want things to last, so do they?  Yes, actually, I was very surprised at how well these lasted on an extremely damp day recently, they got through eight hours of heavy wear (there was a bit of eye-rubbing), with minimal creasing and very little fading indeed.  Considering you can barely feel you're wearing them at all, I was extremely impressed indeed!  I think Platinum is very quickly going to become a staple for me, as I'll be able to create a simple pulled-together look very quickly on those mornings where thinking is impossible*.

* Weekdays.  Every other weekend.  The weekends inbetween.

The Fine Print Makeup fairy delivery.Don't tell me they don't exist.  I'll cry.

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

Tom Ford S/S 2012 Gold Dust Lip Lacquer and Gold Haze Nail Varnish

I am a jammy so-and-so, I freely admit it.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty tough for a variety of reasons, but, nothing lifts my spirits more than an unexpected parcel, and if said unexpected parcel contains a variety of items from the latest collection from Tom Ford, well, it's a very cheery thing for this knackered accountant indeed!

I had been pawing this latest collection of metallics in Selfridges a couple of weeks ago, but wedding economics are now LAW in the Lippie household, so I managed to restrain myself, contented my lemmings with a few swatches, and, after a bit of sighing at the unfairness of the universe, I left the pretty behind.

Right, that sorry tale over, on with the pictures!  Today I'm going to show you the lipgloss and the nail varnish, and tomorrow you'll be able to see the cream eyeshadows.

I'm not a huge fan of gold cosmetics, they don't really suit me, but I do admire a lot of gold makeup, in particular "old gold" shades, neither of these quite fit that description, but they're lovely nonetheless.

First up, Gold Haze Nail Varnish:

It appears quite a "sandy" sort of shade in the photos, but on my nails the brassy quality of the shade shines through making it a rather difficult wear for me, as it makes my skintone rather "lobster-ish".

Horrific application on crap nails, I'm very sorry

That said, it's a lovely, multi-dimensional shade, that I think will look amazing on warmer skintones than mine.

Pictures show three coats of polish, applied by a ham-fisted muppet.

Now onto the lip lacquer:

I love the rather matte effect you get from the tube, and thought this was going to be rather more opaque than it actually turned out to be:

The shade is actually a rather warmer colour than the nail varnish, something I'm trying (and failing miserably, but hey, it's good picture of my ring) to show below:

A little bit of this goes a long way, it's lightly vanilla scented, and you can't really feel the glitter on the lips, I think it'd make a great layering shade over darker lipsticks, to give them a bit of depth and dimension.

I think it's really pretty, but, in all honesty, it's not a shade I'd ever wear alone!

The Tom Ford Spring Metallics collection is available now, and the nail polish and lip lacquer both cost £25.

The Fine Print: a PR surprise, and a most welcome one.
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Tom Ford - Lavender Palm Review

(source)

Previously exclusively available only at Tom Ford's Rodeo Drive boutique, Lavender Palm is the latest release from the Private Blend series of fragrances.  It's meant to evoke California, apparently, and is built around scents of lavender, bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, palm leaves and various woods in the base.

Rodeo Drive bottle - a cool $950 a pop!

On first sniff you get a "whoosh!" of fresh, bright, green and clean citrus from the bergamot, followed up very quickly with a hit of lavender which is a bit like getting smacked in the face by a granny who's terrified you're about to steal her Murray Mints.  Once this has dried down a bit - and by that I mean about three hours later, this stuff is tenacious - you get a wondrous skin-scent all powdery wooden scents, with just a hint of coppery minerality from the frankincense. I like all the stages of the scent, but the dry-down in particular is divine, leading to lots of nuzzling of the places it has been spritzed on many hours before.

The new bottle - rather cheaper.

It's not entirely a unisex scent, packing rather a heady "fougere"-like effect into it's wear-time, meaning if you apply it with too heavy a hand you'll smell rather like your dad, but it's warm, and rather comforting to wear, all the same.  That said, I can't get MrLippie to wear it, owing to his fear of lavender (I've not bothered pointing out to him that it's in most masculine fragrances, although, admittedly it's not usually quite as "front and centre as it is here), but I like wearing it now and again when I want to smell like a burly granny with a mean right hook.  So, for board meetings, usually.


A word about the name though: whenever I've mentioned wearing this on Twitter, I've always got a few comments of the "hurr, hurr, hurr" variety, leading me to wonder if Lavender Palm is some kind of previously unknown to me medical complaint - which apparently may lead to blindness.  Bear in mind though, that the variety of my twitter followers are sick puppies, and that is why I love them ...


I wouldn't say Lavender Palm is breaking any new ground, but it's pleasant to wear, and would make a great masculine scent, providing your man is man enough.

 The Fine Print: PR Sample - I think I'll be back off the mailing list after this though.  Hi Tom!
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Tom Ford Quad Comparison - Titanium Smoke and Silvered Topaz

Someone pointed out to me recently that the two Tom Ford Eyeshadow quads that I own look a little similar.  Well ... it can't be denied.  In fact, for a while, I was convinced that the top row of both palettes was identical, myself!  So, any excuse to get them out again, I thought I'd do some side-by-side swatches of each:

But first, a look (or two) at the palettes together:

 Look dang similar, those two top rows, eh?  Let's take a closer look:

So, just how similar are they?  Here's the swatches:

The glitter shades are indeed slightly different, the Titanium Smoke has a more "steely" grey appearance, and the Silvered Topaz is a very pale gold.  In reality though, they apply so sheerly that there's no way you'd be able to differentiate between the two of them on the eyes.

The grey shades in both are more different - Titanium Smoke is definitely greyer, and, on application, is both more pigmented and less powdery.  Silvered Topaz has a sheerer, slightly browner appearance.  I definitely prefer the Titanium Smoke out of these two.

For the bottom row, I simply had to swatch the matte shades together.  Out of these two, Silvered Topaz is very definitely the more pigmented out of the two - I barely had to touch my skin with the brush!  But, for me, the Titanium Smoke is the most versatile shade, as it makes a wonderful powder liner, and is particularly suitable for tightlining your upper lashes.  The Silvered Topaz is actually so pigmented that it's difficult to blend, and, the slightly red undertone makes it unsuitable for the inner rim of the eyes.

I'll say one thing, the bottom left shade from Silvered Topaz was damn near impossible to swatch, so much so that it really annoyed me.  The Titanium Smoke grey is glorious, but it is just that little bit  ... too sparkly.  That said, that hasn't stopped me wearing it practically every day for the last couple of weeks!

So, which one catches your eye? 

 The Fine Print: Purchases.  I am a mental.


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

Tom Ford Titanium Smoke Eyeshadow Quad

 I said in my last Tom Ford quad review that I'd be happy to get more if they were a lower price, and, when this quad popped up on Buyapowa recently, I jumped at the chance to pick it up for the "bargain" price of £50 + P&P, quite a considerable saving of the counter price of £62!


This post, however, isn't so much a review - it only turned up on Saturday, and I've not worn it yet - but more an excuse for some eyeshadow porn, and some initial impressions.  So here goes:

Same gorgeous packaging as always (I'm going to be knackered taking pictures at my desk when that tree blossoms in spring, I can tell), but what colour does Titanium Smoke contain?

Clockwise from top left, you have a champagne glitter shade, a satin-grey, a sparkling charcoal, and a dark matte charcoal shade.  This is a dramatic palette, but, on swatching, I think it's a little more versatile than it might appear on first glance. Take a look:

Seen straight on

Tilted slightly to show the sheen in the shades

Initial impressions are that this is a great palette.  Shades are shown here swatched on bare skin with a dry brush.  Again, the glitter is difficult to get to show up, but the other shades?  Wow.  I especially love the grey, which is actually a surprisingly complex taupe on the skin, as opposed to the slightly dull grey I thought it was!  And the sparkly charcoal is actually very wearable, I think.  Possibly not office appropriate, but as someone who has just bought sequinned Uggs (and is planning on buying a second pair) specifically to wear to work, I really don't think I'm the person best placed to comment on appropriateness.  Or not.


Here's a close up of all the colours:

Overall first impression is very favourable, looking forward to updating on this one.


One last look at the palette - with flash this time:

Very happy so far! Next on my wishlist: Burnished Amber.

The Fine Print: Purchase, via Buyapows, which I was very impressed with, actually.  More on that subject anon.

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

Tom Ford Nail Polish - Bitter Bitch

I splashed out a bit before Christmas, and went a bit crazy at the Tom Ford counter - admittedly, going a bit crazy at the Tom Ford counter can be very hurtful on the old wallet area, but sometimes you just have to, don't you?  I looked at the lipglosses, and simply couldn't decide which I wanted, but I knew I just had to have a nail varnish.  I picked Bitter Bitch (in spite of the name), because I don't have many brown polishes, and this looked like a a nice rich one.

And it is:

A warm brown with reddish tints, I figured this would be a great shade for my new - shorter - nails.

With flash:

Natural light: 

It applies like a dream - the brush is slightly too long for my short nails, which can lead to pooling, but applied carefully, this is great, great polish.  The square lid on the top is removable:

Making for easier application.


It's a creme finish without a hint of shimmer, and three coats makes for a delicious finish:

And again with flash:

Best of all, this stuff wears like iron!  The first time I applied it, it survived cooking Christmas dinner for ten, and was one for the best part of a week without showing any major chippage, but this was with three thin coats.  I've applied it since with just two thicker coats, and it has shown signs of chipping, minor signs, but still.


So, at £25 a throw, they're pricey.  But, as I never reapply the same nail varnish twice in a month, and I've had this one for the best part of a fortnight now (with a two-day break for some Pasha from Zoya - as you can see in the second picture), I think you can safely say that it's love ...


The Fine Print - Purchase.  I bought this AND something else (coming soon), I think I was bamboozled by some unexpectedly good service at the Tom Ford counter in Selfridges ...


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