Lippie's Lust List #2 Clarins Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Balm

Seriously, how gorgeous are these?  Full review for you later on in the week, but just had to share this picture today!


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Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose Eye Palette, Roza Polish and Lipglosses

It's been a while since I've featured anything from Bobbi Brown, I realise, but the press release for the new Lilac Rose collection was so pretty I couldn't resist ... a reasonable-sized collection, consisting of a new shimmer brick, an eye palette, a polish and several lip colours, I've selected my picks of the collection to show you here.

First off, the star of the show, the Lilac Rose eyeshadow palette.  This couldn't have been better chosen for me, if I'd selected the shades myself (though I'd have left out the shimmery lilac, thereby negating the whole point of the palette's inclusion in the collection in one go, but there you are, I'm an iconoclast*, I am):

 Housed in a package the same size as a normal shimmer brick, the Lilac Rose Eye palette contains eight shadows, all in the (rather muted) lilac/taupe/plum/brown range, with a variety of finishes.

In the top section, you have (clockwise from top left):
Ivory - Matte but not chalky shade
Pale Rose - matte pale plum-taupe
Pink Lily - Metallic (and slightly powdery) lilac, there was quite a bit of fallout from this
Stormy Grey - Shimmery brown with a greyish cast.

 
On the bottom you have (also clockwise from top left)
Barely There - satin-finish pale tan-flesh shade
Heather Brown - similar to Barely There, only with a touch more pink, and a lot more shimmer
Dusty Lilac - I'd say this was more of a dusty rose shade, very matte, and makes (strangely), an excellent contour shade
Black Chocolate - blackened dark brown, but without any red tones.  A great liner colour.

This is a great set of neutrals that you can use to create quite a few looks with.  I've created smokey looks with stormy grey, pink lily, pale rose and  black chocolate, and a few no-makeup looks with the other shades too.  If pink lily was more purple, then this would - quite possibly - have gone into the top ten eyeshadow palettes of all time.

I'm also a big fan of the Roza Nail Polish that comes with this collection, you know when you get something, and you want to wear it there and then?  I had that with this shade:

Obligatory "Claw" bottle shot

 It's a slightly greyed out pink colour, which really called out to me in the bottle.  No idea why, I'm a bit odd like that.  However, once on my hands, I realised that if Mannequin Hands (where your nail polish matches the colour of your skin -God knows why) is still a thing in the blogging world, then this would be my pick:

Yes, I did mainly choose this shot to show off my wedding ring.  Shut UP.

Roza is, however, extremely sheer.  And, by that, I mean: extremely sheer. This is four coats, and, in the right light, I can still see my nail line which is annoying.  But it does appear to be quite hard-wearing, these pictures were taken on day three of application, after a couple of days of housework and cooking, and it's held up very well indeed. That said, if I have to apply four or five coats every time, I don't think the bottle will last all that long!  This has been my first experience with Bobbi Brown polish though, and it's a good one, I shall have to investigate some of the other shades.

Finally, there are a couple of lipglosses with the collection, which I don't love (they're too sheer for a lipstick slut like myself), but it's a good formula nonetheless, and I'm happy that the crappy brushes Bobbi Brown lipglosses have been saddled with for (what seems like) forever have been ditched in favour of doe foot applicators.  Here's the swatches:

At the top you have Lilac Rose, and bottom you have Pink Lily.  Both nice shades in the tube, but on the lips all you get is a slight milky glaze with just a hint of colour.  Not my kind of thing, personally, but possibly not such a bad thing, as, personally, I think lilac lipstick (and gloss) should be banned.  It makes you look cyanotic, and, unless you're an habituee of Camden pretending to be one of the undead, or are an actual Victorian consumptive crack whore, it's not an easy look to pull off, frankly.

Overall, an extremely nice collection, as far as I'm concerned (potential cyanotic lip issues aside), what do you think? It's on counter this week, and prices start from £11 for the nail polish up to £45 for the eyeshadow palette


* Yes, I did have to check that meant what I thought it meant. I've been away, I think my brains have atrophied.  

The Fine Prinr: PR Samples.  No Victorian crack whores harmed in the writing of this post. Camden, you're on your final warning, however.
 
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Clinique Even Better Foundation Review

I genuinely thought I'd already reviewed this, seeing as it was by far my favourite foundation released in 2012, but it appears not.  Oh well, better late than never, eh? Especially as this bottle is very nearly due for a replacement ...

 Housed in a neat dropper-style bottle (my favourite kind), Clinique Even Better foundation contains many of the same  ingredients as their Even Better skin-tone brightening skincare range, which is expanding (wonderfully) all the time.  I'm never without their Even Better Eyes dark circle corrector in my handbag! Used long-term, this foundation is said to have skin-tone evening properties.  I can't comment on that, as I'm a complete foundation flibbertigibbet, but I do use this foundation several times a week, because I genuinely love it.

It's available in 18 shades divided into with  several colour groups, all of which have cool, warm or neutral undertones, and this shade is 03 Ivory (VF-N)  (ie: Very Fair colour grouping, with Neutral undertones). It's the third lightest shade in the collection.  Please bear in mind that my hands are a lot paler than my face, and this foundation, whilst appearing dark on the hand and arm, is actually a pretty darn near perfect match for my facial skin.

It's a medium-thick formulation, giving a satin-matte finish, and a medium coverage.  You can, if you so wish, build it up to full-coverage on problem areas, but I prefer to use a separate concealer if I need extra coverage, which isn't very often when using this, in all honesty.  Here's the return of Maurice the Control Mole to demonstrate:

As you can see, that's some pretty good coverage, right there.  Best of all, this level of coverage lasts. And it lasts well.  I don't know about you, but my skin eats foundation, and I find that generally around 3pm (I apply it around 6am though, bear in mind, so that's nine hours) I need to top up a bit, as I have high colouring, and this tends to peek through after a foundation has been on for a while.  

I have found, however, that Clinique Even Better lasts longer than very many foundations, and it's this long-lasting-ness (totally a word), coupled with excellent coverage without looking flat, or cakey, or needing a setting powder that makes me love it.  As I've said, I can't speak for its skincare properties, as I use very many different foundations in the course of a month, but as a foundation, this one is difficult to beat, and that's why my bottle is nearly empty ...

Lippie Rating:

Clinique Even Better Foundation earns a Triple Lippie for being long-lasting, not needing powder, and giving a great finish.  A great rating for a great product.

The Fine Print: PR sample, which is so old it's nearly gone.  Definite repurchase material though.

 
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Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine

 

There has been a plague upon the House of Lippie this winter, a veritable plague of cold-sores.  If you follow me on Twitter at all, you'll know that barely a week has gone by for the last couple of months without me complaining about yet another crop of painful blisters.  Sorry about that by the way!  

Teal is simple THE colour for cold sores this season, dahlings

I've tried everything, Compeed cold sore plasters, Superdrug cold sore plasters (which are officially the most useless thing ever, by the way) Zovirax, and a couple of other bits besides!  I've been banned from taking all dietary supplements besides Vitamin D for a while (related to my kidney problems last year), so the options of zinc, or L-Lysine or other vitamins and minerals aren't really an option for me at present.

I've been aware of the Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine for a while, but have been put off purchasing by the high-seeming price of £35.99, and also not knowing whether it works or not.  But, after four months of almost-weekly sores, I reckon I've spent almost double that on "remedies" that, whilst killing some of the initial pain, weren't actually doing anything to prevent further breakouts.

So,after a twitter conversation with several people who swore by the Avert (I'm sorry, but continuing to type  Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine is hurting my fingers), including Sali Hughes, I was sold.  I ended up begging Boots for a machine, and here it is.  This isn't a review, as I've only had it a couple of days, but I'm currently using it to heal up a couple of old sores, and I'm planning to use it every few days as a preventative measure for the next couple of weeks, too.

The Avert uses a narrow band of infra-red light to boost the immune response to the "tingling" phase of a cold sore attack. You place the machine over the site of the tingle, press the button, and for three minutes the light does the rest.  It beeps to let you know the start and the finish, which is handy. Having had good results from light therapy previously, I have high hopes for this, and I  won't be leaving the house without it for a while! As I've had at least one sore a week for the last two months or so, I should know pretty soon if it's working, and I'll keep you posted - lots of you have been talking to me about this, since I posted it up on Instagram and Twitter, and I'm aware it's a pretty hefty initial investment, but I figure if it works, it'll be worth it.

I am slightly amused that if you buy your Avert online at the moment, Boots will give you a free tube of their coldsore cream to go with it though ...!

How do you deal with your cold sores?
 
The Fine Print: A much begged for sample. I'm not proud.  I'm scabby, and fed up with it, so sue me.

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Lippie's Lust List #1 Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection

It's not often a collection makes my heart go pitty-pat these days (jaded, Moi?) but this retro-themed collection from Estee Lauder might just have managed it.  The blush compact and lipstick in particular have got my name all over them, and hey!  Mad Men.  Gotta love it.  Think this will be one of the most collectible make up sets in a long time ...

The Estee Lauder Mad Men collection is released tomorrow (Monday 4th March) exclusively at Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Harrods and Estee Lauder online.  Blush £48, Lipstick £26 and Polish £20. My poor bank balance ... 

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Wedding Flowers with Silk Blooms

Photo by Helen Burnham

I wasn't that fussed about flowers for the wedding, to be honest, and I wasn't even going to bother.  But, after three sets of parents (look, it's complicated, okay?) asked what we were having, we realised that maybe flowers were a bigger deal than we'd realised and we did some investigating.

Picture by Priya Sonn

I knew all along that having a February wedding meant my options for real flowers would be limited, and that not getting married till later on the day would limit those options further (cut flowers start to die from the moment they are picked, and need careful handling to look their best if you're not getting married early morning) so I was always at least vaguely interested in silk flowers.

After doing a great deal of googling in the months running up to the ceremony, I discovered Silk Blooms,  who had by far the largest range of purple bouquets, and at extremely reasonable prices to boot.  I did some checking of their reviews, and they were unanimously positive, which gave me some peace of mind - especially as I was ordering the flowers rather late, all things considered!  Note to self: for next time, order flowers when there's more than a month before the ceremony)

Anyway, the bouquet I decided on, the Lesley, is, perhaps, somewhat more traditional than I think I would have picked had I gone for a white dress - I was interested in a long "spray" of purple orchids originally, but I realised that the drama of it would have been lost against my magenta dress - I think the mix of white roses and purple tulips (I do love me a tulip) worked well with the colour of my dress:

Picture by Priya Sonn

Overall, I can't fault the service from Silk Blooms at all, they dealt with my rather vague instructions exceedingly well (the question "can I have silver ribbon please?" elicited a choice of no less than five different wrappings to choose from, completete with links, and suggestions) and they were also  extremely helpful when I realised a couple of days later that I needed more buttonholes too.  The flowers were despatched very quickly, and arrived in perfect condition - everybody loved them!  Mums in particular loved their matching corsages.  On the day they garnered lots of compliments from the guests, and quite a few people were stunned when they realised they weren't "real"!

I like M&Ms.  Shush.

I love the fact that if I'd have needed the flowers in a different colour, Silk Blooms could custom-dye the flowers if I could tell them a Dulux colour shade that matched what I wanted, which is very handy if you need something a little different!  They also sent a little email (and not a form one, either) on the day of the wedding to wish us luck too, which I thought was a very lovely touch.

Best of all, I have a permanent keepsake of my day which looks as good now as it did then, and so do the wedding party who all had corsages, buttonholes and  bouquets of their own, in a matching design.  I currently keep my bouquet on my desk, and I'm planning to fill the vase with hundreds of aurora borealis crystals to make it even more of a feature.  Silk Blooms also do a selection of flowers for the home too, and we're thinking of investing in a couple of arrangements to put around the place as they have some fabulous ones, both modern and traditional.

What do you think of silk flowers?  I know some people really hate the idea, but I think if they're done well, no one need ever know!  I admit to being surprised at how much I liked my bouquet, and deeply surprised at how glad I am now to have even bothered with them, too. Thank you, Silk Blooms!

The Fine Print:  Purchases - Silk Blooms had no idea who I was, or if I was going to write about them (I genuinely wasn't planning to, but so many people have asked about them) - their excellent customer service comes as standard.
 
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Rouge Baiser Mademoiselle Authentique 304

The odds on my going to Paris at any time and coming back without any beauty purchases are slim.  Having just got back from Paris (have I mentioned I've been in Paris?  If not: I'VE BEEN IN PARIS) I've got a couple of things to show you.

This is a lipstick from Rouge Baiser, which is a France-only brand, and, in this increasingly homogenised planet, it's always good to get something you can't buy anywhere else.  I've featured Rouge Baiser before, and the Mademoiselle Authentique formula is one I like, in packaging I think is fantastic.

The last one I bought (302) is a crisp bright red, and I fancied something a little more neutral this time, so I purchased 304, a slightly rosier than it appears under flash photography, mauve.  Which, after red, is my favourite colour.

The hand-swatch above is a slightly more true to life representation of the actual shade, but either way, it's more of a my lips but better shade, albeit slightly paler than my actual lips, which I think will be a good partner for a smokier eye look.  Here's the same swatch under flash photography:

And on the lips in natural daylight and with flash:

I find the Rouge Baiser Mademoiselle Authentique formulation creamy and not too drying for a long-lasting formulation.

What things do you pick up when you're away? 



The Fine Print: Ill-gotten gains from my honeymoon.  You knew I was going to buy shizz, didn't you?

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