Project Perfume: Give me Strength

Since I started Project Perfume, I've been lucky to speak to 'Fumeheads from around the world, and I've been delighted to speak to some of the finest perfumers in the world too.  What's been especially great about getting involved in the perfume world has been how inclusive it is, people from all kinds of different backgrounds, just having an interest in something because it smells nice.

Okay, that makes us all look mad now I've written it down, but, speaking of mad, this link was making the rounds on twitter recently, and it made me roll my eyes somewhat.  You don't have to click the link, I'm transcribing the content here:

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My new boyfriend's place smells suspiciously like women's perfume. At first I thought it was another woman but I'm so hot I don't see how he would have time or leftover desire. Lightbulb! I finally got him to show me where the scent was coming from. He had a whole collection of women's expensive perfumes and he wears them when no one else is around. How weird is that? I don't care so much, except does that mean he's toying with gayness? Do any other guys out there secretly wear women's perfume? Why does he do it? He says his former girlfriend was OK with it, and she would sometimes wear men's cologne. -- Boyfriend Has Girly Smell, Winnipeg 

To which, "Miss Lonelyhearts" replied:

Dear Freaked: Yes, some men do, but it's unusual and means something -- it came from somewhere. Ask him about the origins of his love for perfume. You need to know. Does it have anything to do with his sexuality? Did it start with a certain female in his life: his mom or his sister or his babysitter or an old girlfriend? Is it a method he learned to use for self-stimulation? And finally, does he dress up like a woman and wear the perfume when he's alone? Gently find out what the perfume thing means. It may be nothing or it may be part of a bigger scene he has yet to mention.  

So, apparently, men who wear women's fragrances are gay.  I wonder if the reverse applies?  Women who wear aftershave, are they gay too? Or just ... butch?  It's interesting that this kind of distinction still has a foothold on people's imaginations.  Personally, if I came home and found MrLippie had been raiding my collection of perfumes, I'd be delighted, well, it'd mean I'd finally cured him of his Lynx obsession, once and for all, which has to be a good thing.  Plus, he'd smell AMAZING. I have a great collection these days, it has to be said.  As I'm a frequent stealer of his fragrances too (currently wearing Fleur du Male by Jean Paul Gaultier), I think it would be only fair to let him have his way with my collection.  So to speak.

For a long time through history, there were no distinctions along gender lines in fragrance, there were only things that smelled good - and they were necessary because people smelled bad. Men smelled of flowers, women smelled of flowers, and no one batted an eyelid.  Now, because of aggressive marketing campaigns over the last fifty years or so, apparently men smell of manly things, women smell like womenly things, and apparently the only scent everyone has in common is "sexy".  Or candyfloss.  But never the twain shall meet, it seems. 


Do you think "Miss Lonelyhearts" had a point?  Personally, I'd like to know who she thinks wears unisex fragrances.  I'm sure it'd be  ... interesting.

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

Project Perfume - Joy by Jean Patou

 I'm aware that I haven't written much for Project Perfume in the last month or so, but that doesn't mean I've been resting on my laurels!  Quite the reverse, in fact ... 


If you have a look at my project perfume page, you'll see that, I've been extremely successful in tracking down a lot of the scents I'd listed at the start of the year, and some of the ones left on the list are the ones that are more ... er ... hard to find.


Oddly, of all the perfumes on the list that are trendy, and niche, and hard to find some of them are surprisingly unmemorable.   Also, for a couple of them, I've been wondering if perfume fumes have gone to Luca and Tania's head.  For example: Let it Rock by Vivienne Westwood. Described in "the book" as comparable to Shalimar Light (I have an entire blogpost about Shalimar coming up soon), and goes on: "a bright, resinous citrus-peel top note, plus a combination of coumarin and heliptropin like a toasted almond biscotti.  A beautiful easy-going, well-made fragrance." I'll say it's an easy-going fragance alright.  It's so easy-going that I sprayed it onto myself just five minutes ago, and already I have no memory whatsoever of what it smells like.  It is, in fact, easy-gone.  I'm sure it's very nice, but I do wonder what the Perfumes The A-Z Guide authors had been ingesting on that particular day.  Lippie rating: Complete and utter nonentity.


But I'm digressing.  One scent that is about as far from unmemorable as can be is Joy, by Jean Patou.  I've wanted to wear it a lot since it appeared, which is strange, as it's actually about as old-fashioned a perfume can be, but its beauty transcends its image, and for me, this a scent I'd like to bathe in.


It's a floral fragrance, and an unabashed one at that. It opens with a bunch of "perfume-y" aldehydes which die down very quickly, leaving you with a bouquet of perfect full-blown roses and jasmine on your skin.  What I find beautiful about this is that sometimes it's just a rose you can smell, and then, it's a perfect jasmine soliflore scent.  What you don't get is just a "flower stew" affair, as in so many modern florals, where you can't pick out any of the individual scents.  This is very definitely roses and jasmine, without being a "rosejasminefloraljam".

Luca Turin says that "to call Joy a floral is to misunderstand it", thereby inferring that picking up on this aspect of the scent is to damn it with faint praise.  I disagree, it's a celebration of flowers, a masterpiece of floral, and an amazingly constructed scent, to boot.  It has moderate sillage (other people will smell you from across the room if you wear too much), and excellent lasting powers.  A small spritz will last you the day.  If all "flowery" fragrances smelled this good, there would be nothing wrong with calling it a floral perfume at all ...


This has made it to the front-line of my scent collection, unexpectedly, and all the more delightful for it.  It's a wonderfully womanly fragrance, comforting in it's way, but ... MrLippie has dammed it with his own faint praise, calling it ""interesting" then going on to say "flowers" in a disdainful way.  I'm guessing it's not his cup of tea...


The Fine Print: Fragrances were provided from a variety of sources, tested on skin.  With my nose.  And the "help" of MrLippie.

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.

A Week In Lipstick

 Another week, another week in lipstick.  Here's what made it to the Lippie hall of fame over the last seven days:

From L-R:

New CID iGloss in Spice Berry (lovely shade, but I HATE the light-up lid.  There, I said it)

Estee Lauder Pure Colour in Sublime Nectar (very new, look out for an in-depth blog post soon)

Smashbox Limitless lipstain in Sangria (click link for full review)

Chanel Rouge Allure in Incognito (an old, old favourite, from Chanel's Kaska Beige Collection)

Paul & Joe Blue Horizon lipgloss in 002 Pink (look out for the blue sparkles in the swatch below)

Rouge Coco Shine in 54 Boy

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Velvet in Nude Velvet (see more of this one in tomorrow's post)

It was a bit of a neutral week for me, as you can probably tell.  Mind, I did spend several days wearing blue eyeshadow (waves at Estee Lauder Blue Dahlia palette), so that's probably why.  Smoky eyes demand neutral lips!


Here are the swatches:

Brown, peach, RED, pink, pink, pink, peach.  My favourites out of these are Incognito and the red ...

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

Smashbox Limitless Lip Stain in Sangria

  
I don't have a lot of luck with lipstains, as a lot of  them have the nasty habit of being a bit too blue, and just showing up as fuchsia when they're on the skin or lips, no matter what the shade promised on the box or barrel.  So I approached the new Smashbox limitless lipstains with no little trepidation. This is the shade "Sangria".  Some of you who follow me on Twitter may find this amusing.

Based on a marker pen bullet-tip - you use the pointed end to line your lips, then turn it so you can fill in the rest of your lips with the side of the bullet - the Limitless Lipstain differs from it's current rivals by having a coloured balm on the end, to intensify the shade and make it more comfortable in wear.

Delighted by the swatches, that show this to be a deep, rich and highly pigmented red, from the marker I couldn't wait to try this on my lips, where things just got better:

Perfect blood-red lips with no feathering, I couldn't really love this shade any more.


Or could I? Well, I could only love it more if it lasted longer.  I wore this through a recent breakfast meeting, and it was defeated by half a plate of scrambled eggs, leading to a Red Ring of Doom situation ... so bear in mind, this may need reapplying if you're planning to do anything with your lips besides pouting during the day ...


Smashbox products can be difficult to find, but you can usually find them in Debenhams, and you can definitely find them on QVC.

The Fine Print: This popped up in a recent goody bag.  But I love the colour so much I'll be purchasing a backup.  I'll just have to give up eating eggs.

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

Darphin Intral Skincare - Serum and Redness Relief Cream

Having a reddened face is one of the banes of my existence at the moment, and dealing with my flushed skin has been one of my top priorities this year. I've found that a lot of the skincare I've been using that is full of actives has been exacerbating the situation somewhat, and so have had to dial back on using some much loved old favourites.

When I last wrote about my skincare routine, I'd cut out actives altogether, and was using very basic, but effective products.  Now, having fallen in love with the Darphin Intral toner (which I'm still using), I decided to add in a couple more products from the range, both specifically formulated to deal with reddened and sensitive skin.

Please welcome Intral Serum and Intral redness relief recovery cream:

Both contain Darphin's "Calm Complex" which is a proprietory blend of chamomile, hawthorn and peony extracts. I used the serum on my red patches after eyebrow threading on Friday, and was astounded at how cooling it was, and how very quickly it took the inflammation down.

It's a very thin, watery serum, which doesn't really smell of much, but a little of this goes a very long way, one pump is more than enough for my whole face and onto my neck.

The redness relief recovery cream has a slight green tinge - very, very, slight - which helps diffuse the appearance of redness, whilst cooling and calming at the same time.  It's a very light moisturiser designed for normal to combination skin, but there are two other varieties of this cream, which will help if your skin is drier than mine.

I don't normally do swatches of skin care, they're dull - and are they helpful?  I'm not sure they are, to be honest.  But, I thought it would be useful to see that this isn't a bright green cream!

So far, I've found these products cooling, calming and soothing, it's been great.  But I'm not sure I've seen a massive reduction in my redness.  Maybe I should give it another couple of weeks.

So far, the only sure-fire "cure" I've seen for red skin is a tan.  Next week, I'll show you my favourite facial tanner.  I say favourite, it's the only one I've ever used, I'm terrified of accidentally turning orange instead of red ...

How do you deal with a red face?


The Fine Print: I bought these.  The Garden Pharmacy in Covent Garden saw me coming and mugged me.

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

Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Colours

Being a beauty blogger, sometimes you get a chance to look at things before they're released, and I can't deny that it's a massive perk.  These little beauties are the new, updated version of Shiseido's infamous cream eyeshadows.


They're cutely packaged in little glass jars:

I was sent six to take a look at, so let's see the shades:

There are twelve shades in the range, all of which seem very wearable (I'm loving the pink and the purple, but, alas, they're not in this batch!):

What we have here is a khaki (my fave!), a yellow-green, an "old gold", a black, a white, and a blue.


All the shades are packed with shimmer, and they are very complex, not to mention pretty:

Shiseido say that these include "jewel reflecting powder" that reflects light from every angle, creating a luminous glow around the shades.  I have to agree, even the black (in the flesh) appears to have a glowing shimmer around it.  They are beautifully creamy, and apply like a dream, they also blend out very easily, without dragging, which is just what you need in a cream shadow.  The swatches show one pass on clean, unprimed skin.


Shiseido also say, however, that you don't need to use an eye base "and the colour lasts, and lasts, never creasing, or fading".  I have to say that I don't agree.  I've worn two or three of these shades over the last couple of weeks, and they don't last as well as you'd think based on this description.  I found that over the course of three to four hours or so, that I'd have creasing, and by around hour six, the colours would have faded quite considerably.  I didn't try setting them with powder, as I didn't want to spoil the shades, and I wanted to see how well they worked under their own steam.


This swatch shows that colours can and will smudge after application:

This was taken ten minutes after applying, where I just rubbed a finger, very lightly, over the swatches.


These shimmering cream shadows are beautiful. I'm just sorry they didn't live up to the claims made on the press release.  I'll still use them, but I'll just be aware I'll need to carry them around with me for touch-ups.


Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eyeshadows.are available from 20th August, and will cost £20 each.

The Fine Print: PR samples  Pretty, pretty PR samples.


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