Smashbox All in Bloom Palette

Pastels schmastels.  If there is anything I really don't like about spring, it's the insistence that we're all going to be prancing around in pastel shades on eyes, nails and lips and clothes.  I don't do pastels.  I think pastels only really suit six years olds.  There, I said it.

And ... breathe ...

Now I've got that off my chest, I've been made very happy that so many of this season's releases have been a little more ... muted.  Some might say dull, I say wearable, tomaytoes, tomartoes.  Smashbox isn't a brand I buy from very often, but I've been happy with this little palette.

It contains ten shades, of muted pinks, purples, peaches, greens and browns, which I, for one, find very wearable.  It's meant to be laid out in pairs so that you can wear the colours together.  There are no shade names available, so I've numbered them for you.  Shades 1, 2, 4, 9 & 10 are matte, and 3, 5, 6, 7 & 8 have shimmer.  Here are the swatches:

All were swatched on bare skin with a slightly damp brush.  Initial thoughts are that shades 3 & 4 are very similar, only number three is more shimmery than number 4 so it looks a little lighter in the swatch.  I think my favourites are 7 & 8, I'll be wearing them today.  I found that the paler matte shades (1 & 9) were a little chalky, especially the pink shade, so I urge a little caution when you're using those ones.

All in all, I think this is a great little multi-purpose palette suitable for a variety of skintones, and it's exceedingly versatile.  Shades are well-pigmented overall (ignoring the two pale chalky mattes), and it's a palette I expect to get a fair amount of use out of.

So tell me, how do you feel about pastels?

The Fine Print:  Palette was received as part of an event goodie bag, not sent for review purposes, I just liked it.

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

Nail of the Day - Essie: Sew Psyched

Utterly infatuated with green nail varnish, I am.  I went, last year, from not ever being able to imagine wearing it to owing more green nail polish shades than I do, say, pinks!  This colour, a delightfully greyed-out khaki is Essie Sew Psyched from their a/w 2010 collection.  It's a mini-bottle, I didn't suddenly sprout man-hands overnight!

It's wearable for the office - I think so, anyway, but your mileage may vary of course - and the pics show three coats with seche topcoat, as it's a little on the sheer side, I guess it could have done with four.

Wear was about average, two days for tipwear, and three days before any chips showed.  I like it a lot, and kind of wish I'd bought a full size bottle of this shade instead of a pack with all four colours in, three of which currently remain unworn.  I'm a bit funny like that.



 The Fine Print: Products were purchased at Pro-Beauty Olympia back in October.I should really dig out the others ....
 This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Project Perfume: Clinique Aromatics Elixir

The week before last, I announced the start of "Project Perfume", where I'm going to attempt to sniff about 10 new (to me) perfumes a month in an attempt to educate myself about scents, their composition, and to see if I can finally, once and for all, identify that particular ingredient in certain perfumes that makes me want to vomit.  I'm a one-woman perfume machine armed only with a fragrance A-Z, a nose and a desire not to throw up in any more department store perfume departments ....

But first I thought I'd cheat a little and write about what is, probably, my "signature scent", and that is Clinique's Aromatics Elixir.  Over the years since I first bought a bottle of this - aged around 15 - I've owned it in every format, perfume, shower gel, body lotion, solid perfume, talc, deodorant (what can I say, layering scents was big in the 80's), but I'm kicking myself at the moment as I missed buying it in scented candle form this year.  I think the only format that it's not appeared in is bath oil, and I'd adore a massive bottle of Bath Elixir, it'd be right at home in my tardis-bath!

Aromatics is a "big" scent, and it's instantly recognisable at even the merest whiff. It's classified as a "floral chypre", but I don't get even the faintest hint of flowers, at least not until the scent has been on my skin for several hours, and ironically, this is what I like about it.  On first spray, it's intensely smoky, and reminds me of a spicy incense, which is intensely evocative.  Because it's strong, I like to save it for winter (though I used to wear it year-round layered constantly over itself) , and as a result, I have a wardrobe full of scarves, coats and sweater which are impregnated delightfully with the stuff, it's a wonderful thing to be able to stick your nose into something you've not worn for a while, and be reminded of occasions where you've worn them before.

After a while on the skin, the smokiness fades, and there's a balsamic, almost medicinal, resinous scent, which lingers around for a while, reminding me of woods and the dense boskyness of walking on mulchy leaves in the autumn countryside.  Eventually, after about 8 hours on the skin I'm left with just the faintest hint of sandalwood and roses - maybe a hint of hippy-free patchouli - and I'm a happy woman.

When I first smelled Aromatics Elixir, I couldn't resist it, as it was so very "different" to everything else I'd smelled at that point, and it remains beautifully different to most of the perfumes you find in department stores today, and I revel in that very "differentness" to this day, nearly 25 years later.

What's your "signature scent"?
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Travel Makeup - Trish McEvoy Beauty Charger

I'm away this weekend, having the family Christmas that had to be cancelled owing to the recent terrible weather, and I thought you might like to see what I normally take with me when I go "travelling".  This little baby is the veteran of many a trip - in fact you can tell how old it is by the old-style logo on the front, Trish McEvoy changed her font years ago!

I like the chargers, because they're essentially empty magnetic cases that you fill with products of your own choosing, here's what I have in mine:

Clockwise from top left we have: blush in Natural, Glaze in Sugar Plum, Eyeshadow in Cashmere, Definer in Bronze and Definer in Deep Amethyst.  I like the mix of natural and plummy shades, which means I can go from a barely there look to a full-on smokey eye, all from a small selection of shades.

But wait!  There's more:

There's a second layer in this card!  In here I have (L-R) Even Skin powder in No2 Bare, and Highlight in Blush (which has since been discontinued, sadly).

 I like Trish McEvoy because I find that the powder products are actually of a great quality, being softly silky and finely milled, and I love that you get to choose your own shades.  I've taken this all over the world, and it's done sterling service, I wonder where it'll end up next?

I'm also wondering what I should fill the gap on the top row with.  What'd you put in it?



This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Balayage with Jack Howard at Equus

Jack Howard is a man on a mission.  Having conquered the hairdressing world of the US with his missionary zeal for Balayage, training (amongst others) the Frederick Fekkai salons, and becoming a senior portfolio artist for L'Oreal Professional along the way, he's now here in the UK and he's determined to spread the word.

Balayage is the art of painting the hair with light, creating a soft, sexy, sunkissed effect, without foils, and regimented stripes.  The stylist has to pay attention to how light falls on the hair, how the hair fall on the client, and how the colours will compliment the woman wearing the hair, and an art it decidedly is.  It's not - entirely - new to the UK (I myself had a similar treatment last summer at The Chapel in Islington), but the technique is something that Jack is very keen to bring to wider renown to hairdressing clients (and hairdressers!) around the country.

Knightsbridge isn't somewhere I'd normally associate with cutting edge hair techniques, to be honest, so I was initially surprised that Equus was Jack's new base in the UK. Situated a few minutes from Harrods, and catering to a clientele that ordinarily includes princesses, duchesses, baronesses, the odd dame and lots of names you'd recognise from the pages of Hello magazine - alongside a lot of celebrities - it actually makes an odd kind of sense.  Jack believes in soft, sexy, natural hair, and clients who are willing to invest in their hair aren't going to appreciate skunk-stripes and badger highlights, so balayage is perfect for clients who want to look natural, groomed and polished.

I popped along to Equus to see Jack, try out the technique for myelf and have a look at the newly revamped salon, and I have to say I was very impressed. The salon is an oasis of calm, and has what are probably the most flattering mirrors I've ever actually seen in a salon.  This is surprisingly important, I find. Hairdressing clients are exceptionally vulnerable, and seeing yourself in too harsh a light when you're covered in cling film and cotton wool isn't great - every wrinkle, zit and pore highlighted, who needs that? - but the lighting and mirrors in Equus are delightful, and a wonderful surprise!

In spite of his reputation and pedigree, Jack is delightfully down to earth and amusing to spend a few hours in the company of, it was great to hear that we share a lot of the same opinions on grooming (essentially that less is more, and glamour is better when it's polished rather than "in your face" and the like), I also found that he really paid attention to my hair, playing with it, deciding where to best paint the highlights for the most flattering effect, and he spent a lot of time explaining what he was doing as he went along too.

Whilst the mirrors are flattering, my iPhone hates me, mind, always wanted to know what I'd look like platinum blonde ...

Essentially, the dye (or dyes, we decided to go both darker and lighter in my case, me being brunette and all) is lightly applied near the roots and is applied slightly more heavily towards the ends to give a natural "sunkissed" effect, and is painted onto v-shaped sections of hair, but with this technique, the art is more in the placement, and it's that which is the major difference between balayage and regular highlighting with foils, as it enables a personalised look to suit any and all clients.

So, how did it turn out?  Rather excellently, as it happens, Jack's  light hand with the bleach has left me with shiny, expensive-looking hair, which glows with different shades as the light hits it, but, doesn't look anything but brunette from a distance, and Arturo gave me a fantastic blow-dry, which I was happy with for a couple of days after.  Here's the picture that best shows off the colour:

Gold and brown, and my own natural brunette. A rather "tortoiseshell" effect, I love it.  The technique isn't cheap (expensive-looking hair tends not to be, in my experience), but you can experience "face-framing" balayage from £75, and the technique goes up to £190 for a full-head of highlights.

If, however, you've read this far, and you're interested in meeting Jack for yourself, please drop an email to [address redacted] with your address details and I'll send you a gift voucher for 30% off balayage colouring with Jack, 50% off a cut and blow dry with the equally talented Arturo, alongside a complimentary keratin conditioning treatment AND a free Essie manicure.  How could you resist?  You can have a look at Jack's work on his website, but if you follow Jack on Twitter, he'll talk to you about the technique too, don't be shy!

EDITED TO ADD: This offer has now closed.  This blogpost was written in 2011.

The Fine Print: Get Lippie was a guest of the salon, but is expecting to go back, especially as it's practically on the doorstep ....

Dior Lip Addict Gloss: 707 Flash and 654 Pearl

Alongside the palette I showed to you yesterday, Dior have also released two lipglosses to go alongside, one a cool silvery grey and one a light, cool, milky coral:

Flash 707 is the one that caught my eye back in December, and I was intrigued as to how it would work in person, but when I saw 654 Pearl, I felt duty-bound to pick that one up too, as it was so pretty in the flesh!

As you can see, 707 Flash swatches pretty sheerly, and 654 Pearl swatches far more opaquely, but both have a hint of blue and copper micro-shimmer running through them, as you can see here:

They're both exceptionally pretty, but I have a feeling Flash will be a lot more useful as a layering gloss, than as a shade in its own right, I'm not entirely convinced grey lips are the way to go unless you're serious about looking like you have consumption ...

Both are typical Lip Addict glosses, lightly fruit scented, slightly sticky, not all that long lasting, but they don't dry your lips out, and I, for one, am a fan of the slightly OTT packaging.

The Fine Print:  You can call these samples, if you wish.  I prefer to refer to them as "shopping".

Dior Cannage - 002 Whisper Grey

 Saw this palette a couple of weeks ago at a preview and fell in love with it, but it's taken till now for me to get set up to do swatches!  For Spring/Summer 2011, Dior have gone for cool greys and pinks, which makes a refreshing change from all the bronzes and corals we had last year.  I have a selection of the products from this range, and I'll work my way through showing you them this week.

I selected the Whisper Grey palette because there was a little more pink in the shades than there appeared to be in 001, which is a lot more monochrome.  Also, it's a darn cute little thing:

It's quilted in the same fashion as Dior handbags and feels great in the hand.  There's no protective velvet pouch with this one though, so maybe not one for dragging around with you too much as the squashy pleather may get scratched.  Love the Dior logo though:

Once you open the palette, you have four shadows, a decent-sized mirror, and a sponge applicator:

There's a pink, a pale grey-taupe, a darker matte grey and a frosty white (at least, that's how they appear in the pan):

It appears on first glance that the top two shades are shimmery, and the bottom are more matte, but these shades are slightly more complex than they appear, as you'll see from the swatches:

(swatched dry over bare skin with the sponge applicator included with the palette)

 

 

As you can see, these are actually fairly pigmented (I don't have much luck with Dior, the last palette I bought barely showed up on swatching at all, and the Minaudiere I bought from my mum was snatched off me in a mugging before Christmas), and I like how they appear on skin. 

The shimmery pink top left is not quite as frosty as it appear here, and the grey-taupe (top right) is a lot more complex, and is probably (surprise!) my favourite shade in the palette.  However, the matte grey bottom left is probably going to get a lot of use from me, as it has a pinkish base, which I think will make it far more flatteringly wearable than a more traditional steel-y grey, which tends towards a blue base.  I was suprised by the white, expecting it to be flat - and chalky - but there's actually a hint of shimmer, and it's shot through with a very pale, flattering gold.  Used sheerly, I'm sure it'll be far more useful than a plain flat white.

I did also swatch these shades over primer, but they don't, in all honesty, look all that different:

It pulls the grey-taupe a little more silver (which I'm not entirely sure is a good thing), and make the pink a bit more frosty, but I think I prefer the swatches without a base, in all honesty.

Grey lipgloss coming up tomorrow!

The Fine Print: These products were bought'n'paid for.  Ask MrLippie, he was most amused bemused at my shopping habits.