Paris Purchases: Guerlain Hiver en Russie

No trip to Paris is complete without a trip to Guerlain.  And, no trip to Guerlain is complete without a purchase, come to that. This time I wanted to make my souvenir very special, something I can't find in the UK, and the ladies of the Champs Elysée did me proud on this trip:

The gift wrapping in store is exquisite, it was heartbreaking to have to unwrap this. So what is it? (some of you might already have guessed, from the title of the post, I'm aware)

Can you tell what it is yet? 

 How about now?

That's right, it's a candle.  But oh my, what a candle.  Guerlain have four scents, and for me it was toss-up between this one and Bois des Indes (Indian Woods), but after sniffing several times, I finally settled for Hiver en Russie (Russian Winter), as it is full of incense and is heady with myrrh, making it, for me a perfect candle for the darker months.

I think it will make a perfect pairing with my Tom Ford Tuscan Leather candle (oddly, both are black candles) for a smoke-y intoxicating scent for the winter evenings.  I can't wait to light them both together.


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

Paris Purchases - Toiletries

I love wandering around foreign supermarkets (heck, I love wandering around supermarkets in the UK too - I'm a bit odd that way) looking for things I haven't seen before.  On this trip, I picked up a few bits and pieces which, whilst not all that interesting in themselves - they're things like shower gel and deodorants - are different enough from the stuff I can get in the UK to have made me want them.

Here we go:

 Shower gels.  Rhubarb and custard!  Seriously, why can't we get rhubarb scented products in the UK? Whilst I'm the first to admit I don't really care for fruity scents, as soon as I saw this one, I flipped and had to buy it.  It smells, almost precisely like rhubarb and custard flavoured boiled sweets.  I love it.  And hey, rhubarb is a vegetable.  So there.  I also bought the vanilla and pain d'epices scented variety.  A creamy smelling shower gel complete with tiny bits of "gingerbread" in the formulation, this smells good enough to eat.  I won't though.  But it's tempting.

Yeah, I went a bit crazy buying deodorants.  I'm an idiot and had forgotten to pack one, so when I spotted these, in scents difficult to find in the UK, I had to pick them up.  From left to right we have an amber scent, a vanilla scent, and a green tea and mint. I can't believe no one makes an amber scented deodorant in the UK, it's a beautiful soft-smelling deodorant, which will layer beautifully with any number of my perfumes this winter.  I bought the vanilla because hey!  Who doesn't want pits that smell of cake?  And the mint one?  Well, I go a bit wibbly when it comes to body-products that smell of mint, so this one just had to come home with me.  It'll pair wonderfully with my Guerlain Herba Fresca perfume.  Might be one to save for the warmer months though.

Cotton wool.  I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to cotton wool, surprisingly.  I have to have pads, and they have to be embossed ones.  I find them so much better to use than just plain smooth cotton wool, especially when it comes to removing nail varnish.  Embossed cotton wool just seems to work better with liquids, and smooth cotton wool works better for creams and lotions in my experience.

Here you can see the edges of the pads are bonded - slightly - and you have both a smooth and a rougher side.  I may have accidentally bought four packs of this back ...  

Anything caught your eye?

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

Paris Purchases- Rouge Baiser Mademoiselle Authentique 302 Lipstick

I don't think it's legal to come back from a trip to France without a lipstick as one of your souvenirs.  Well, if your blog is called Get Lippie, you kind of have to, don't you?  And, if it's France, well, that lipstick has to be red.

I spotted the Rouge Baiser lipsticks on our last trip to Paris, and had been kicking myself ever since for not picking one up, so this time, I was a woman determined to get hold of one.

I adore the packaging:

The pewter case (sadly, plastic), the sunburst detailing, it's too gorgeous for words. If I were a different kind of blogger I'd be saying all kinds of wanky crap like "c'est magnifique!" and "tres chic!" but I find that kind of pretentious Franglais irritating beyond belief, so you'll have to settle for me saying "gorgeous" instead.  So there.

Because it is.

Did I mention that it's red?

A semi-matte finish, the red of 302 (and I can't pretend that I'm not disappointed the shades have numbers instead of names, because I am) is a blue-based highly pigmented shade, that covers lips in one coat. I don't find it particularly drying, but, like most long-lasting lipsticks (Rouge Baiser state that this is a "comfort long last lipstick) it's not as emollient as many other lipsticks you might have tried in the past, but it slips well over the lips, and you won't feel like your lips have been run through a shredder if you've been wearing it for a few hours.

It's a classic red shade, and I'll be wearing a lot this winter. What was best about it, was the price: 13 Euros.  For the packaging alone, I'm happy to pay that price!  I bought a separate shade to give to my mother for some  French Christmas glamour for her too.

Do you buy cosmetics when you're away?  What do you look for?  Tomorrow I'll be showing you some supermarket purchases that I just couldn't resist buying whilst I was away ...
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Postcards from Paris

 Just a few - a very few - snapshots of my weekend in Paris:

Joan of Arc

 Normal posting will resume tomorrow ...


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

Lipstick of the Week ...

 It's been a while, but it's back, back, b a c k!

Here's what I've been wearing on me mush over the last seven days: 

From left to right we have:

Lanolips Lemonaid (love this stuff, particularly when my lips are really dry and hard in the cold weather, this softens them up a treat.
Dior Lip Polish, shade No 2. Similar to the above, but leaves a slight milky pink colour behind
By Terry: Terrybly 302 Fanatic Red - you'll be able to read more about this lipstick later on in the week.
Chantecaille Lip Chic - Tea Rose.  One of my default lip shades, there is barely a week that goes by that I don't reach for this one.
Poppy King for No7 lipgloss in Glamour.  Lovely light pink shade that perks up my lips a treat.
Clinique Lip Smoothie in Strawberry Bliss - this came as part of a GWP recently, but it's a shimmering My Lips But Better shade, that I wore more or less the entire time I was in Paris this weekend.
Tom Ford - Indian Rose.  As with the Chantecaille above, this is a shade I reach for again and again and again.  I'm going to need a backup.

No Flash

With Flash

 It's been - with one notable exception, a neutral kind of week.

Here are some (blurry - sorry!) swatches: 

What've you been wearing?

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

Gay Paree Part Deux

No real post today, for as you read this, I'm in Paris.  I shall be eating, drinking, getting a facial, hitting the Christmas markets, and - of course! - doing a little shopping.  I'll be back next week with some (edited) highlights for you.  In the meantime, here's a little something to look at:

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

Benefit They're Real Vs Dior Diorshow Iconic

Perfume aside, I don't think there is a beauty product that is as dependent upon personal preference as mascara.  We all have our particular requirements, and personal favourites, and we tend to stick with them, no matter how many new mascaras are released in a particular year.  Last year I was addicted to Trish McEvoy's mascara, but discovered that the formula had changed - making it wetter, and less volumising - when I bought a replacement, so I spent quite some time this year looking for a new one that would replace it in my affections.

I like long, fat "dolly" lashes - verging on the drag queen effect - from my mascaras, none of this natural look thing, thank you.  I'm a fan of Armani Eyes to Kill, but it is pricey, and I can't always be bothered heading to either Selfridges and Harrods to pick one up.  Ditto Makeup Forever's Smokey Lash, but the only place I've found that is Paris, really, so even less easy to pick up.  So, I thought I'd try a couple of mascaras that were easier to get hold of in department stores, Benefit They're Real, and DiorShow Iconic.  Both have had a lot of love from my fellow beauty bloggers lately, so which one would win for me?

The Tubes:

I have to say that the hands down winner of the battle of the tubes is Benefit, I love the shiny pewter finish, and the fat tube.  In all honesty, the embossed finish of the Dior tube makes it look a bit sticky.  It's not, but I don't like it, all the same.

The Brushes:

These are both plastic brushes, as opposed to bristles, and they're both slightly unusual twists on a normal brush in their own right:

Benefit:

This always reminds me of a mace, for some reason.  We have short spiky bristles, and these bristles continue onto the tip of the brush.  I'll be honest, I do find the bristles a little too spiky at times, and if you accidentally blink when applying, well, it's not nice.

DiorShow:

A little wider than the Benefit, the bristles on Iconic are arrayed in a spiral pattern, and they're a little longer and rounder than the Benefit bristles.  Personally, I find that the brush on the Diorshow Iconic suits my lashes better, leaving my lashes looking more "groomed" after using.

The Formulas:

I find that the Benefit They're Real formula is very wet in comparison to the DiorShow Iconic, and that it requires more coats to give a "finished" look than the Dior.  The Dior is dryer, and gives a fuller effect with a lot less effort. Both are very black, and I've not noticed any flaking with either formulation. Dior wins. Anything that can help a lazybones like me look good quicker has to be good.

The Lashes:

They're not upside down, I'm just looking up.  A bit too much.

It is, in fact, almost a dead heat.  Both lengthen, and both volumise, but the Dior just has the edge on volumising, and, I noticed, it curls the lashes more.  Pic shows two coats of each on uncurled lashes.  I suspect though, that if I were to apply more than two coats, that the Dior would clump a bit more than the Benefit.  I only ever apply two coats though - life is too short for three coats of mascara, if you ask me.

Winner:

For me, it's the Dior, but they're both excellent.  Once the Benefit had a chance to dry out a bit (when I first used it, I hated it, but letting it dry out for a month or two has worked wonders for it, for me), I liked it a lot more, whereas the Dior was a winning formula straight out of the box.

The Fine Print: Benefit was a PR sample.  The Dior ... wasn't.

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