New CID: i-glow and i-bronze

I don't see an awful lot of New CID on the beauty blogs I read, which I think is a shame, because in my opinion, they make some of the best powder products available.  Over the last year, I've acquired almost a full set of their face colours (three i-glows and one i-bronze), and I thought it was about time I showed them to you, too.

From left to right we have Sirocco, Ice Pop and Coral Crush (all i-glows) and that is Rio on the far right, which is an i-bronze.

All are baked formulas, and they're rather wonderful. Also, they last and last and last.  Coral Crush up there is the oldest (and most used) one in my collection, having been used at least three times a week for the last 12 months.  Next to it is Ice Pop, which I picked up last week.  Can you even tell that Coral Crush has been used 150 times more than Ice Pop? I don't think you can.

The shades tend towards the slightly complex, here's a closer look at all of them:

Sirocco

Ice Pop

Coral Crush

Rio

The powders are smooth and pigmented, Coral Crush and Sirocco are both shimmers, and Rio and Ice Pop are more on the matte side, though they both have seams of shimmer running through them.

 Swatches

With flash:

All of these have been swatched very heavily to get them to show up in the photo.  Normally I just swirl a big fluffy brush over the top of the pan, and swipe over my cheeks, if I'm using Coral Crush, there is normally no need for a highlighter too.

I'm not, I have to say, a fan of the packaging, it's extremely bulky, but at least these products don't come with the built in lights that are more or less standard on the rest of New CID's range.  A lot of the packaging on New CIDs products is deeply, deeply gimmicky, and it makes me a little nutso sometimes, but these are fabulous.

New CID powders are available from QVC and selected Debenhams, they cost £19.50 each.

 The Fine Print: PR samples, collected over a very  long period of time.


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

Nars - The Multiple G-Spot

Okay, so last week I talked about how I love my muff, and this week I'm about to tell you all about my G-Spot. I'm just too good to you people, I really am.  Fear not though,  I shan't be telling you about my bowels any time soon, I promise.

However, I'm slowly - very slowly - becoming addicted to a bit of NARS. I first saw G-Spot way back last August and it had been haunting my thoughts ever since.  Now, it has to be said that I'm not - really - a huge fan of the Multiples, they're not nearly as multi-purpose as people tell you they are, and I find they tend to fade very quickly, but G-Spot is such a beautiful shade that I had to have it anyway.

It's a lovely burnished rose with hints of a golden shimmer, which is a perfect colour to give yourself a rosy glow during the winter:

On the skin it provides a sheer "lit from within" glow, that's just divine:

This has been applied quite thickly to show up in photos, but it's very easily sheered out, it works well over unpowdered skin though, it'll ball up a bit if your base is too dry, and won't blend much.  It's easy to apply, I basically just put a little stripe on my cheekbones, then blend with my fingers.

So, all in all this goes to show I'll forgive a formula I'm not that fond of if the colour is right.  But I will say this, I HATE THE NAME.  Ooh, so daring Mr Nars!  Can we just leave off the "shocking" names now, please? They're just annoying, and they're not even that shocking any more.  Or, at least think of products to go with, say, Prostate...

The Fine Print: Purchase.  Which I made by the expedient of pointing and nodding.  There are some places where I don't think asking for a "G-Spot Multiple" will go down too well, and John Lewis is only one of them...

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

Hourglass Cosmetics - Suede and Fresco

I was in Liberty the other day and I got mugged. Mugged at the Hourglass counter. Okay, they didn't really mug me, but I did come away from them £50 lighter in the purse, and slightly dazed-looking.  I've been reading about Hourglass a lot over the last while, and I thought it was time I tried them out for myself.   I picked up their eyeshadow duo in Suede, and their lipstick in Fresco.

I adore their metallic brown packaging:

It's heavy and luxurious, and really innovative, as we'll see.  First off, let's take a look at the eyeshadows:

Yes, they're neutrals. It surprised me too - I'm such a fan of sludge that it's really difficult to move out of that comfort zone sometimes.  So, Suede comprises a cream, and a light cafe au lait shade, perfect for a no-makeup look.  I figured I could use the cream all over the mobile lid and the cafe au lait in the crease for contouring.  I was surprised on swatching at just how pigmented the shades actually were (which is what led to me the purchase, if I'm being honest):

 
As you can see, the shades go well with my neutral skintone, and they contain a slight - sophisticated - shimmer.  From left to right you can see cream, cafe au lait and then I mixed the cream and the cafe together to see how they would look.  I can see I'm going to get an eyemakeup look that will go well with bolder lipsticks with this duo.  The shadows are creamy and easy to blend.

But another look at the packaging.  At the top of the post you can see the closed compact, but what makes this one different is the pivot in the middle, meaning you can turn the top around:

Or you can close it with the mirror outward to form a handy mirror for your makeup bag:

Now onto the lipstick.  Fresco is a neutral rosy mauve, and it was the first lipstick on the display to really catch my eye:

There's possibly a hint of brown in there too, but it's not too overwhelming.  I love the square tip, which is unusual, but I find it actually aids in application, you can get a really defined lipline without having to use a lipliner.

On me, this is a "My Lips But Better" shade, and one that will work well with smokier eyemakeup looks.

Here's how it looks with Suede:

 And here is how it looks on my lips (with flash, and without):

Texture-wise, this is comparable to my beloved Chantecaille Lip Chics, only with a deeper level of opacity.  The Lip Chics are sheer, but I'd say the levels of pigmentation and comfort in wear are on a par. And hey!  The Hourglass is £6 cheaper than the Chantecaille.  Plus, did I mention the lipstick is refillable?  Very handy.  
Hourglass cosmetics are available at Liberty or online from Zuneta, the lipsticks are £22, and the eyeshadow duos are £28.  



The Fine Print:  Purchases. Spur of the moment purchases.  I wasn't actually mugged.  Unless MrLippie is reading, in which case they were a present from the makeup fairies.

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

Giorgio Armani Spring Summer 2012 - The "Luce" Collection

The good folks over at Giorgio Armani sent me a surprise package last week, and it's a tiny bit special.    Especially if your name is Luce*!  I giggled a huge amount when I read the press release, it's not often a blogger sees themselves referred to as "Luce, the Armani light" ... Flattered though I am, I'm also slightly miffed there's no taupe ...

Anyhoo, the "Luce" collection this spring has seen Armani inspired by light, in particular the golden sunlight of spring, and they've created a new pigment: "Luce d'Oro" (literal trans: "light of gold") to sprinkle into their cosmetics this season.  The result is a collection of sparkling metallics, with just a hint of the traditional pastels we tend to see at this time of year.


Shall we take a look?

Here we have palette No.2, and the eyeliners in 04 (Or Antique) and 05 (Copper).  Here is a closer look, both with flash, and without:

The shades in the palette are very pretty, from top to bottom you have "Grey" (more of a greige, really, but an interesting shade, nonetheless), "Metal Fibre" (silver, with a hint of pale blue), "Copper Pigment" and "Crystal Brown", the names of which appear to have been applied to the wrong shades, if you ask me.


The shades vary a little in pigmentation, the "Grey" being the sheerest shade, and the "Copper Pigment" being the most intense, but on application, these are creamy and fairly intense in shades, but "Grey" was the most difficult to apply:



The eyeliners are almost exact dupes for two of the shades, I think!  Or Antique is very similar to "Grey", and Copper and Copper Pigment are almost indistinguishable from each other.

The eyeliners are the same creamy, smudgeable-then-unbudgeable gel formulation as the other eyeliners in the Armani range - one thing that makes me crazy about Armani eyeliners is that they are always limited editions, even the core shades like black! So very annoying - I have to say that Armani liners are by far one of my favourite pencil liner formulas, they don't budge!  These shades are great for lining around the tear duct though, and can be used to lighten up a dark eyeshadow look too.

The full range comprises two eyeshadow palettes, a blush, 2 eyeliners and four lipglosses.  I'll be off to Selfridges soon to check those out  ... Well, it'd be rude not to, eh?

* Yes, I know my "real name" is Louise, but no one calls me that.  Except my mum.  And my boss.  Oh, and my bank manager.  And MrLippie when I've annoyed him.  So yes, NO ONE calls me that. 

The Fine Print: Unexpected and unintentionally hilarious PR samples.  Mr Armani, you sure know how to spoil a girl ...


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

Lipsticks of the week - Pink

 It's that time of the week again, where I show you which lipsticks I've been wearing over the last seven days.  This week the challenge was pink, and these were the pick of the lips:

From left to right, we have:


Tom Ford Pure Pink -  The ur-pink of any lipstick collection, now sadly discontinued.  Damn you, Tom Ford!
Illamasqua Intense Gloss in Belladonna - an amazingly pigmented (if very sticky) gloss, in a beautiful shade of fuchsia.
Estee Lauder Pure Colour in Crystal Rose - a slightly greyed out rose shade, very lovely for a MLBB colour
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess gloss in Wild Orchid - a cerise shade gloss with a blue shimmer flash.  Very lovely colour indeed, that's give me a lemming to wear the matching nail polish today ...
New CID i-pout in Pomegranate -  wonderfully light-textured pale pink, that's just a little on the wrong side of pale for me to wear realistically, but it's a beautiful colour in the bullet.  The packaging lights up. Nice, but an entirely useless gimmick, as the light completely washes out everything it lands on.
Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia - possibly my all-time favourite lipstick of all time.  POSSIBLY.* 


Swatches (first without flash then with)

Loved my pink week, but I'm looking forward to next week's theme, which is mauve.  Yes, MAUVE.


Some outtakes:

What've you been wearing this week?


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

GHD Deluxe Scarlet Collection

  
GHD sent me a Christmas present this year - their "so gorgeous it actually hurts" Scarlet Collection Deluxe hair straightener set.  Housed in an Art Deco box, the set contains:

A beautiful red satin gift box, perfectly accented with fan designs.  Inside that box you have:

A glorious Deco-accented "handbag" that contains:

A brand new GHD Styler, accented with red plates, and underneath that, there's a handy-dandy travel size hairdryer with an adjustable handle.  The bag does double duty as a straightener holder - it's heat proof - and also contains two hair sectioning clips.  I was pleased to see that GHD have added a cover to their straighteners this time around, very handy.

Made to GHDs usual exacting standards, the straighteners are just what we've come to expect, heating up quickly, and straightening hair in a matter of  minutes.  GHD claim the plates contain a "secret ingredient" to keep the hair shiny!

This is a limited edition collection, and currently retails at £149.  Personally, I think it'd make a perfect Valentine's present, if I didn't have it already, I'd be dropping some hints, I can tell you ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Sensitive Scalp Issues

I had been planning to do an entire week about haircare last week, but my scalp flared up, and I couldn't bear to think about haircare at all.  You might have noticed last week was a bit short on posts as a result. 

I'm prone to seborrheic dermatitis, which is where you get flaky skin on your scalp (and sometimes your inner ears, I get it there too), it looks like dandruff, but it isn't - which is annoying - and it itches.  Itches a lot. And your scalp burns.  BURNS.  Did I mention that it burns?  As a result, I try to avoid harsh shampoos, and anything that contains SLS in order to avoid both the build-up of scaly skin, and the resulting itching and burning.  I think I'd been trying too many new products in one go recently, and my scalp decided to remind me who is boss.

That being the case,  I thought I'd tell you the products that I've used which helped.  Firstly, I immediately swapped shampoos for one from Phyto, namely Phytoapaisant, which is specifically for sensitive scalps:

It's gentle, SLS-free, and most importantly, it's cooling and soothing from the very first time you use it.  The relief I felt using this was enormous.  I find switching to cooler water for washing my hair helps soothe these flare-ups too, a simple thing, but very helpful.


But the thing that's helped most, and I don't think my haircare shelf will ever be without a bottle again from this point onwards, has been this little beauty:

 Philip Kingsley Scalp Toner.  The tiny nozzle on this bottle allows you to apply this directly to the scalp, and I found it amazing for spot cooling and calming the hot spots on my poor abused head, at one point, I was applying it several times a day, but you're supposed to use it just after washing.  I've no idea how it works, it just does, and I love it.  Carrying a small bottle around with me every day helped stopped me scratching like a maniac.  I still looked like a maniac, of course, because that is my natural state of being, but oh! The blessed relief of being able to squirt a bit of this on my noggin when needed!  It's a must have for me, these days.

I've just noticed that the Philip Kingsley website is giving away a bottle of this when you spend £25 on their, and all their products are damn fine indeed - I'm off away to stock up on some scalp masks, as I've heard really good things about them.  And hey, prevention is better than cure ...



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