It's my Blog Birthday!

Time just flies, doesn't it?  I seriously cannot believe that an entire year has passed since I started blogging regularly!  I started this because a couple of friends had been nagging me too, and I'd always resisted because a) I didn't think I had anything to actually say, and b) didn't think anyone would want to read it anyway!  Well, an entire year of posting, and almost 150,000 page views later, I think it's fairly safe to say that I was wrong, on both counts ...

Blogging has brought me many things, including experiences from the sublime to the ridiculous (more about those later on this week), and I've met -  and made friends with - men and women I could never have met under other circumstances. Get Lippie has made a huge difference to my life, and as a result, I owe a massive debt of thanks to several people for all manner of reasons, and if you'll forgive my self indulgence (which I shall apologise for in advance), I'd like to mention some of them now.  Please get your sickbags ready:

To Seona, Sarah and Genna, thank you so much for encouraging me to start this in the first place, you guys have supported this from the very beginning and you have always had great ideas and feedback, even when I've found it difficult at times.  This blog probably wouldn't exist without you three, so, from the heart of my bottom I thank you very much.

For bloggers who I'm very grateful to, then I simply have to mention LondonMakeupGirl , MizzWorthy and Lipglossiping  who were my inspiration at the beginning (and remain so!) and I'm grateful to them for all the support they provided for me when I was but a struggling (and very annoying - some things never change) newbie to the blogging world.   BeautyJunkieLondon and HelenNiceThings need a mention for all the help they've given me since - you guys know what I'm talking about! Then there is, of course, BritishBeautyBlogger, who is a great cheerleader, and takes my ribbing her about sausages at every available opportunity with great aplomb. .And, lastly, but certainly not leastly (mainly because she's in a category all of her very own labelled "Mouthy Scousers"), there is Caroline over at BeautyMouth, whom I'd like to say I look up to, but I'm afraid she'll take it literally and start referring to me as a hobbit again.

I've made so many friends through Twitter, through the comments that arrive (always to my astonishment and delight) daily on this blog, and through emails and DMs and not to mention the blogging events that I never even thought I'd be invited to any of, that there are too many more of you to mention without it turning into some sort of sub-Gwyneth Paltrow-style Oscar speech.  And I think I've just embarrassed myself enough for one day.  Possibly even the week!

Suffice it to say, that if you've ever taken the time to read my tiny corner of the internet, or if you've ever spoken to me on Twitter, or if you've ever left a comment here, or written me an email asking for advice, then I'm grateful for it, and I'd like to say a massive thank you to YOU, too.  You're great you are.  And, might I add, how lovely you look today?

I'll be back a little later in the week with details of an amazing birthday competition.  Well, I think it's amazing, anyhow, I hope you guys will, too! In the meantime, if you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see on Get Lippie, then feel free to let me know in the comments!


The Fine Print:  Normal (sarcastic) service will be resumed tomorrow.  I did warn you that you'd need a sickbag.  I never joke about vomit.

A tiny note to MrLippie:  Thank you.  For everything. Now, PLEASE stop making me look socially inept when I drag you to events, thank you!

My Current Skin Care Routine

I've tried a lot of skincare this year - and I'll bring you some reviews of some of those brands soon, but I thought it would be nice to talk about what I'm using at the moment, as I'm really happy with it, and my skin is about as good as it's been in the last few years, so I thought people might like to know about it!

First of all, the Clarisonic.  I swear, this has been the single biggest difference I've made to my skin this year.  I, like many people, initially thought it was a bit of a gimmick, after all, it's essentially a giant toothbrush for your face!  But the difference it's made to my skin is amazing.  It's dealt with my troublesome forehead dry patch that I've been plagued with for years, and I've been able to use less product, and need to rely less on heavy foundations as a result.  Truly, the Clarisonic is a habit-changer, and I'm glad it's appeared in my life.  I use mine twice a day, and it's one of those products that you can really tell the difference if you've skipped a day.

A couple of months ago, I bought a collection of Alpha H products from QVC (it contains cleanser, moisturiser, eye cream, liquid gold and a mask - it's the five piece smoothing collection on this page here) and these have formed the basis of my routine ever since.  In particular, I'm a big fan of the balancing cleanser and the Liquid Gold itself.

In the morning, I use the Balancing Cleanser - alongside the Clarisonic, and I find it cooling and refreshing on my skin. I'm not, ordinarily, a fan of cream cleansers, but this doesn't leave any residue, and leaves my skin feeling clean and smooth.  There's no real scent to it, and I've had no breakouts whatsoever since I bought it. I have a massive 200ml tube which has lasted me two months so far and I estimate I'm about half way down it so far. However, I do not double cleanse, I find that on my (sensitive, and temperamental) skin, double cleansing is just a recipe for dryness and redness, personally.

I follow this with the Alpha H Age Delay Lip and Eye cream, and then I've been following it with Murad Active Radiance serum, which provides a massive vitamin C boost for the skin, and helps repair sun damage.  I like that is absorbs quickly, and it gives my skin a little tingle in the mornings when I use it.  I follow that with either Murad Sheer Lustre Day Moisture (SPF 15), if I'm planning to wear foundation that day, it's a nice, very light lotion that leaves my skin with a nice sheeny glow and provides a great base for some of the foundations I've been trialling recently. There's a golden sheen to it in the tube, which just adds a little radiance to my skin, and I like it a great deal.

If it's a day where I just want a tinted moisturiser, then I'll break out my tried and trusted Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturising Balm in Light-to-medium. I love this product, and have been using it for at least five years now, it's pigmented enough to even out your skintone, but it's also, let's face it, a damn fine moisturiser. It's also one of the nicest smelling cosmetic products I own, I love the stuff, and this must be my fifth or even sixth jar now, it's a summer staple.

In the evenings, I once again cleanse with the Balancing Cleanser (or, if it's an OTT makeup day, I use Nude Cleansing Oil), again with the eyecream, and then follow with the  Alpha H Liquid Gold.  Initially, I thought this was a toner, but it's actually a glycolic acid-based treatment that gently helps to resurface your skin overnight.  I love this stuff, it's one of very few products where you can actually see the difference in your skin the morning after.  Your skin will just glow, and you'll look like you had at least ten hours sleep.  My only issue with this product is that you have to apply it to cotton wool, and it turns out that I really don't like applying things with cotton wool.  Yes, I'm a bit odd.  It's fine, I'm used to it.

It's not really recommended that you use Liquid Gold every night (you'll resurface yourself into oblivion if you do!) so on aternate nights, I use the Rejuvenating Cream as a night treatment.  Meant for daily use on mature skins, this is a little too rich for me to use all the time, but I find every other night as a boost to the Liquid Gold, it's perfect as a night cream.

This has been a very long post for what is actually a pretty simple routine!  I'm currently swapping in a couple of new products (changing the night cream, and the serum, basically), for review purposes but this is what I've been using for the last couple of months, and I've loved it.  What's your current routine, and what wonder products have you found and enjoyed recently?

The Fine Print: Some of the products mentioned in this post were provided by PR for review purposes.  Others I bought.  It doesn't matter which is which.  I like what I like, and it matters not in the slightest under those circumstances how I came by the product.  So there, how's about them apples?

Review - Guerlain Lingerie de Peau Foundation

My quest for a Holy Grail foundation goes on, this time around I'm trying Guerlain's Lingerie de Peau, which is their latest release, and it was released a couple of weeks ago. After a while swatching in-store, I settled on shade no2, Beige Clair, which is a slightly more pink-based shade than I'd ordinarily wear, but the lighting in the shop make picking colours way more difficult than it should be.

This is what Guerlain have to say about it:

"Silk and linen weave themselves into a second skin

Selected from among the most luxurious textile fibres, silk and linen combine their complementary qualities, weaving an imperceptible veil of perfection on the surface of the skin in a voluptuous sensation of comfort and drapes the complexion in a silky radiance that captures an reflects the light.  Ultra-mattifying powders and pigments are woven into the linen to help refine the texture of the skin and give it a velvety softness.  On the skin itself nothing is visible except the natural appearance of a perfect complexion."

Housed in a handsome glass bottle, with a monogrammed lid, the bottle has a proper pump to help you get it out. It's a foundation that is prone to separating in the bottle, so it really needs a good shake up before you use it.

Here you can see that I didn't shake it quite enough before I pumped it onto my hand, I generally find that one full pump is just about the right amount for my face and onto my neck (for blending purposes).  It's a very light, very liquid-y foundation, which spreads extremely easily on the skin, it has great slip.

This shows the partially blended foundation, as you can see, a little amount of this goes a very long way.  It blends very easily, and just needs a tiny hint of powder to set it.  I've been using my Guerlain Meteorites over the top, as I find it's very difficult to over-apply that one.

Once on the skin and set, you get the most delightful finish, sheeny without being too glowy, or even (heaven forfend) "greasy".  It's practically invisible in use, and evens out your skintone wonderfully.  I adore the finish, not too matte, not too shiny, it's a really lovely foundation.

That said, it's lasting power is merely average, I do find that it really needs either a good re-powdering around 3pm (I tend to apply around 6.30, 7am, though, which is actually around 8 hours wear) or a little reapplication.

This is a definite re-buy for me, I like it a great deal more than my Chanel Pro-Lumiere, as it feels a lot lighter on the skin, and doesn't appear to oxidise very much - if at all.

What's been a great foundation find for you recently?

The Fine Print: I bought this.  I was actually looking for the new Guerlain palettes, but they're not available till the first week of September, dammit!

Summer perfumes: Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte vs Guerlain Herba Fresca

I mentioned in a recent perfume review that I go a little bit crazy for minty perfumes and colognes and the two I'm talking about this week are two of my all-time favourite summer scents.

First off, Hermes Eau d'Orange Verte, which is a unisex cologne.  I find this is quite citrussy on it's opening (that'll be the orange in the name, I expect, I'm clever that way), and it smells a little like you've gone a bit mad with your other halfs' aftershave for a few minutes - not that I mind that too much - in the mid point it smells a little like Imperial Leather, sort of soapy, clean and warm, a little musky but not too much, and then once it's dried down completely, you get a mossy sort of minty smell which I find totally intoxicating.  Sadly this one doesn't last all that long, the top notes last minutes at most and the middle disappears irritatingly fast, and you'll find that you will have to go hunting on your skin for the dry-down (it sticks very close to your skin), but it's worth it.  Also, I find that the irritating lightness is also part of it's charm, as it means you can reapply quite regularly, without worrying that the people around you are going to need a gas mask.

But, my all-time favourite summer-minty fragrance of all-time is Guerlain's Herba Fresca, which is part of their "Aqua Allegoria" range of scents inspired by nature.

It's decidedly green, and smells of fresh cut grass, hay and MINT on first spray, it's cooling and delicious, and very, very, very light.  I spray it everywhere (and I mean everywhere, arms, legs, chest, back) and then spend the day sniffing delightedly at myself.  It's clean and fresh and very different to anything else I own, which is probably why I like it so much.  Occasionally, if I want it to last longer, I will layer it over Korres Spearmint Shower Gel and Body Lotion, which are an excellent companion to this scent.  This is also the only perfume I own that MrLippie comments on spontaneously, saying how wonderful it smells.  Of course, he thinks it smells of orange, but hey, that's men for you, right?

What are your favourite summer fragrances, and what do you think of mint as a perfume ingredient?

Lipstick Queen - Jean Queen.

I'm a sucker. No, really, sometimes I am.  I'm always on the look out for great neutrals and when I spotted these in SpaceNK (gah!) I had to indulge.  Poppy King's latest addition to the Lipstick Queen line is a lipstick and a gloss designed to go perfectly with jeans.

Yes, jeans.  Now, I love my jeans, don't get me wrong, but one thought in all the years I've been wearing them that's never ever occurred to me is "Does my lipstick go with my denim?".  Maybe I'm a little odd, but I tend to match my makeup to my mood rather than my outfit (and yes, it doesn't always work, thank you) but I was intrigued so bought both anyway.

Poppy has this to say about them:

"After 20 years of designing lip colors, I have often been asked what is the perfect shade to wear with jeans.  Voila!
 Jean Queen lights up your jeans and your whole face at the same time.  This special shade offsets jeans perfectly for day or evening and suits all skin tones, ages, jean cuts and colours.
See your jeans go from drab to fab with one stroke of Jean Queen! JEANIUS!"

Seriously, who are these people begging to have their jeans "lit up" by their lipstick?

Still, here at Get Lippie, ours is not to reason why (much), and I'll just get on with showing you the goods.

There's a lipstick and a gloss, both in a shade of mauve-y pink.  I have to say that I HATE the packaging of the lipgloss, it's a squeeze-tube, and it's very, very, very easy to squeeze too much out. Because the plastic is quite stiff, you have to squeeze it quite hard, and I fear accidentally matching my eyes and hair to my jeans too.

I've swatched the lipstick on the left there and the gloss on the right.  The lipstick is actually a fair bit brighter than the gloss, and for that reason, it's a little less neutral once it's on your lips than the gloss is. The lipstick is Poppy's usual sheeny style, which I find sits "on" the lips a little rather than melds with them, but it's a very pretty shade, all the same.  I find that the gloss is better for smokey eyed looks, and the lipstick is better for a more neutral eye look.

Anyway, here's me looking goofy (complete with Croydon facelift hairdo) so you can see how it looks on my mush:

(eyes are Burberry Rosewod and Chanel Cassis Liner, Face is Guerlain Lingerie de Peau, and blush is ... er ... something).  So, do my jeans look good in this?  I am wearing them, I promise.

Overall, I like the shade of both of these, neutral without being too nude, and they'll suit a variety of makeup looks ... but light up your jeans?  I dunno.  What do you think?

Oh, and Poppy, a word about the packaging:

Is that really necessary?

Dior Autumn 2010 Eyeshadow Quint - Incognito

I haven't really decided what this week's theme is going to be, so prepare for a week of utter randomness!  Today I'm having a look at Dior's latest eyeshadow quint palette in Incognito, which was released very recently:

I'll be honest, I don't own a huge amount of Dior shadows (lip products, oh yes, tonnes of them!) but I loved the slightly cool neutrals in this palette, and the silvery taupe in the bottom right there really called out to me.

This is how they swatch:

The shades all swatch on the sheer side (swatched once with fingers, no base), and, to be honest, I find the matte shades (the two at the top) a little powdery and somewhat chalky.  But there's no doubting the pigmentation of the bottom two!

Another shot of the swatches from a slightly different angle to show the finishes:

I'll be honest, I was expecting wonderful things from this palette (I was in a bit of a rush when I bought it, and didn't have a chance to swatch in store), and I'm a little disappointed in how "meh" it appears on the skin like this.  I've read some real raves about Dior Quints in the past, and I was excited about picking this one up.  I'm hoping I'll fall more in love with it once I've used it properly on my eyes.

What do you think of Dior shadows?  Have you tried any?

Perfect Purple? Daniel Sandler Sheer Satin Eyeshadow 575

Specifically for OxfordJasmine, this one ...  I know a few people are on the lookout for the perfect "Cadbury" purple eyeshadow, and I think this one is definitely a contender!  Daniel Sandler himself picked this one out for me recently (more about that next week) after I confessed my love of purple eyeshadow to him.  I've long been after a proper "bright" purple that isn't too blue, or too "dusty", and this one has been love at first sight.

Purples are notoriously difficult to photograph, and I'm not entirely happy with how these shades appear here, but I shall do my best.

Don't be fooled by the adjective "sheer" in the name of this shadow, it's vibrant and well-pigmented, and very smooth to apply. Whilst not as buttery-smooth as, say, Rouge Bunny Rouge, it's plenty soft, and very blendable.

The top swatch there is blended over Urban Decay Primer Potion, and the bottom is over bare skin.  As you can see, putting this on over a primer brings out the hidden shimmer in this shadow, which makes it appear lighter on the skin.  The photo has washed out the shade of this shadow a little, it's very definitely purple, and not at all the lilac-y shade you're seeing here.

Daniel Sandler cosmetics are available online from LookFantastic (but a slightly limited range) and Your True Colours (which has a full range) and you can see the entire line in the flesh at Urban Retreat on the 5th floor at Harrods. The shadows cost £10.

The Fine Print: No PRs harmed in the making of this post.  Nor did any money change hands. 'twas a present.  Kinda.  Long story, look out for a longer post explaining soon.