We Want the Funk: Ripe and Ready Perfumes for a Heatwave

By Laurin

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the predicted highs in my hometown of Mobile, Alabama and London were exactly the same – 29 degrees Celsius. The local press in Mobile referred to this turn of events as “an unseasonable autumn-like chill”. Meanwhile, in London, the headlines read “OMG HEATWAVE APOCALYPSE PREPARE A VIRGIN SACRIFICE TO APPEASE THE SUN GODS!”

In Mobile, we deal with the heat by hopping from air-conditioned house to air-conditioned car, and if we’re lucky, into backyard swimming pools. In London, our primary extreme-weather coping strategies are outrageous hyperbole and whinging. It’s one of the many ways in which I’m proud to be British.

Unfortunately, Tube travel and lack of air-conditioned buildings can take its toll on the most stringent of personal hygiene regimes. I experienced this last week as I was leaving work on an especially humid day and suddenly realised I had experienced a regrettable deodorant malfunction. Fortunately, I had a bottle of Francis Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour Le Soir tucked away on my desk, so I was able to style out the funk with lashings of sweet honey and dirty knickers. That smell? Yeah, that’s me. What of it?

This, then is my plea to you: when the heat is on, be a lover not a fighter. Save the sunny citruses for your gin and tonic. They’ll evaporate within hours during hot weather anyway. Instead, reach for one of these out and proud animalic fragrances:

 Serge Lutens Mucs Koublai Khan, £79 for 50ml at Fenwicks of Bond Street. I can’t find it online, so you’ll just have to come to London.

This is what Frederic Malle’s Musc Ravageur would have been if it had been raised by hyenas in the jungle (note to self: find out if hyenas live in jungles; do hyenas prefer orientals to chypres?). Instead of the come-hither bedroom eyes, we have the flasher on the street corner in the stained trenchcoat. But if you’d just get past that, you’d see he’s a really nice person, okay? And as it turns out, he is. Though the unwashed combination of civet, musk and caraway is a bit seedy at first, the composition is beautifully softened out with amber, rose, patchouli and vanilla. Highly wearable, though still not suitable for a blind buy.

Le Labo Oud 27, from £45 for 15ml at http://lelabofragrances.com/uk_en/

There is no way to pretty this up: this is the filthiest porno-perfume that ever was. Although the official notes are oud, civet, cedar, patchouli, ambergris and rose (so, noble rot, cat bum, whale vomit and FLOWERS), whatever, this fragrance ain’t never seen the inside of Jane Packer in its life. Oud 27 will never turn up on your doorstep bearing a bouquet, but if you ask it nicely, it just might let you see what’s in the black bag at the bottom of the closet. Wear with a fur coat and crotchless knickers.

Robert Piguet Fracas, £95 for 50ml at www.lessenteurs.com

A big stinking heatwave calls for a big stinking flower. Creator Germaine Cellier was something of an enfant terrible of the 1940’s perfume world. In Barbara Herman’s book “Scent and Subversion”, we are told that Cellier’s first fragrance for Robert Piguet, Bandit, was inspired by the scent of models changing their underwear during fashion shows. Had I read that about her other masterpiece Fracas, I’d believe that as well. This is the Vagina Dentata of tuberoses: all soft, inviting flash with a deadly bite. Fracas is tuberose shorn of its angular, camphorous top note and instead given bombastic T&A with jasmine, rose, carnation, ripe peach and even riper musk. Wear this for taking a lover back to your web for the first (and maybe last) time.

Frederic Malle Le Parfum de Therese, from £80 for 30ml at www.lessenteurs.com

Michel Roudnitska, son of Le Parfum de Therese’s creator Edmond called this “the masterpiece of my father”. Considering that he was speaking of the man who created Rochas Femme, Diorella and Eau Savage, this is high praise indeed. Exclusively worn by Roudnitska’s wife Therese for nearly fifty years, it was only released after his death in 2000, when Frederic Malle persuaded Therese to allow him to publish it as part of his Editions de Parfums line. I hesitate to describe this as “animalic”, for it is actually a placid, watery fruit accord that preceded the fresh aquatic fragrances of the 90’s by over forty years. But laid over the plum, melon, mandarin and vetiver that forms the heart of this quietly confident work is a note of leather that transforms it from the coldly beautiful to something altogether more warm and intimate. I have no idea what the Roudnitska’s marriage was like, but when I smell the perfume he made for her, I can only imagine that this was a man who deeply loved and understood his wife. It manages to be dark and light and human and ethereal all at the same time, and I would wear it any day over the hundreds of candyfloss concoctions proclaiming themselves the essence of the eternal feminine. Wear this when you have nothing to prove to anyone.

Better You Magnesium Oil, £9.29 for 100ml at www.amazon.co.uk

Not a perfume, but a neat trick if you’d rather funk by choice than out of necessity. A quick slick of this after a shower and before deodorant somehow seems to neutralise body odour on hot days. I have tested this extensively on the Victoria Line in July and it never once failed me. You're welcome.

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Revlon Colourstay Moisture Stain: London Posh, India Intrigue, Barcelona Nights, Shanghai Sizzle and Parisian Passion

 

By Get Lippie

I do love it when a brand releases a new range of lipcolours, particularly when that range of shades is largely composed of brights.  Ach, there's a few nudes, but we all know Get Lippie doesn't really get the nude craze, so let's just gloss over that, shall we?

From left to right here we have:

050 London Posh, 001 India Intrigue, 015 Barcelona Nights, 040 Shanghai Sizzle, 005 Parisian Passion

Essentially a collection of opaque, glossy, liquid lipstains (similar to, but better-smelling than, the YSL Glossy Lip Stains), the new range of Colourstay Moisture stains are great for imparting a high-gloss shiny lip colour that will happily last for five hours or so.

London Posh is a nude-peach with a hint of gold shimmer.
India Intrigue is a deep cool pink
Barcelona Nights is a watermelon pink (see the skin swatches below for how it differs to India Intrigue)
Shanghai Sizzle is a bright, bright tomato red
Parisian Passion is a lovely warm aubergine purple.

On the skin, you can see how the shades differ:

Application is simple, there is a shaped doe foot applicator, which allows a fairly precise application, and one swipe is great for sheerer finish, but two sweeps will give you a totally opaque coverage.  They take a minute or two to set, but once set you'll have lovely glossy lips for a good four, five hours or so.  They're not totally long-lasting though, a sandwich will wreck them faster than the thought of Justin Bieber in speedos will destroy your appetite, but there you go.

The packaging is great, I love that you can see at a glance which one is which - though the colours aren't as bright on the packaging as the actual lipsticks themselves are.  They are easy to mix, too - personally, my favourite shade is a 50-50 application of both Shanghai Sizzle and India Intrigue for a perfect pink-red effect that I really like.

I generally find the Revlon lip formula extremely drying, and these are only slightly an exception to that.  Whilst they're not the most moisturising formula on the market, they're also not the most drying in Revlon's arsenal, which is a good thing.  I do find, however, that my lips really benefit from a slip of lipbalm after spending a day wearing one of these.  I don't find them particularly staining, and they don't fade evenly when they do - you will get the red ring of doom at some point during the day when wearing these, but they do layer up quite well, and as they don't dry completely you won't end up rolling off the previous layer in chunks if you need to reapply the colour during the day.

At £8.99 each, these are a bargain punch of pigment for your lips. I picked some of mine up in a current offer at Superdrug, where they cost £5.99 each.

The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples and personal purchases. 

This post: Revlon Colourstay Moisture Stain: London Posh, India Intrigue, Barcelona Nights, Shanghai Sizzle and Parisian Passion originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

GOSH Autumn Winter 2014

By Tindara

Well it might me blisteringly sunny out there but it’s Autumn Winter launch time and I was excited to be invited to see the new GOSH products this week. As usual GOSH haven’t let us down, they seem to capture the zeitgeist better than most other brands at their price point.

Those of you into mineral make-up will be pleased to hear GOSH are launching a mineral powder. Pareben and perfume free, it’s a loose powder in a decently sized container with a handy dispenser at the top in which you can swirl your brush. I tried the powder at the event and it had really good coverage but felt light and smooth. It’s also pretty good value at £9.99 if you want to see what all the mineral make-up fuss is about.

Along with the powder they’re also launching a mineral powder brush with densely packed short bristles which do the job nicely. If you don’t have a kabuki or similar brush that works well with a mineral powder, this is a good value option at £7.99. I use mineral make-up regularly as it’s a good option for sensitive skin and for a quick base. I’d definitely consider using this in place of the Laura Mercier and Bare Minerals which I use regularly. I hope GOSH join the other mineral make-up brands and make a compact version soon too.

Another product I absolutely love is the Defining Brow Gel, I’ve read a lot about brow gels recently, but having quite sparse eyebrows I didn’t think they’d do the trick for me. Well, I have worn this every day since I got it and I love the effect. It definitely thickens and darkens my brows enough and stops me having to bother with a pencil. I am using 002 which GOSH call a brown/grey. My brows are a dark black/brown and this thickens, darkens and holds my brows in place in a subtle way. I really love it. It’s gone into my everyday make-up bag where I think it will remain.

The Giant Blush stick is another GOSH product which might remain a staple, I love the soft texture which blends really well. I tried 06 Pink Parfait which is a lovely colour. It pulls a bit more blue pink than I’d normally like, but blends very well with deep pink, and blue red lipstick shades. I tried using it as lip colour too but I found the texture wasn’t quite right for this so I’d stick to using as a quick pop of blush on the cheeks. I also wondered whether some of the lighter toned pink-brown shades could be used for a subtle contour effect.

And now to the new shadows, GOSH have themed the new pallettes in this Autumn Winter range with American cities, so there’s 001 New York sophisticated neutrals, 002 LA aqua and green-browns and my fave 003 Las Vegas (Rainbow brights). I got a Las Vegas palette which caught my eye immediately, the colours are beautiful clear brights, and I’ll be honest with you, irrespective of how these shadows work I love this palette. It’s gorgeous. The jewel-like rhomboids of colour are like a Mondrian. I know others feel the same as me about pallettes, they’re just beautiful things. So what about the shadows, you ask. They’re not massively pigmented so though the colours look bright in the pan, they’re quite subtle on, buildable washes of strong colour that would look beautiful with minimal make up look or with a liquid liner on top. Those of you that find brights scary may want to try these, they’re a good way to get a bright green or pink shadow on without making a big statement. The palettes are also good value at £9.99.

GOSH have also launched more colours of their great Velvet Touch lipsticks and a couple of new mascaras and glamorous nail colours. I have yet to try the rest, but I’m going to enjoy going to Superdrug and having a play. I hope you do too.

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Golden Touch Intimate Waxing - Soho

By Laurin

When I got back in the saddle after my divorce, I noticed a curious statement on about half the profiles of any given online dating service: “I love London, but equally love escaping the hustle and bustle for a relaxing weekend in the country.” Not me. I spend 95% of my time happily cocooned within Zones 1 and 2, believing absolutely in Peter Ackroyd’s pronouncement that “London is so large and so wild that it contains no less than everything.” Soho, especially, is the balm of my soul and since I no longer spend a sizeable portion of my time and income drinking there, I have resolved of late to concentrate all my grooming services within its streets. If I clock up enough hours here, I reason, I will simply be absorbed into the pavement of Brewer Street, and we shall never be parted again.

The only problem with this, as far as I can see, is the matter of cash. Central London beauty services are indisputably more expensive than their local counterparts, and it adds up quickly if you happen to need a haircut, waxing, and nails done all in the same month. It’s not unheard of to pay £50 or more for a bit of below-the-belt grooming in some branded salons, because who wants to put their ladyparts on the line just to save a few quid? At least, not unless a tube of Canesten is your idea of a “holiday kitbag essential”.

But lo, West End Workers! I bring you glad tidings in the glittering form of Golden Touch Waxing, which is now operating out of the Bodhi Clinic in Ingestre Place (just off Broadwick Street). It’s owned by Hannah Salisbury, a cheery New Zealander who is just striking out on her own after years working as a trainer for other waxing emporiums. She doesn’t do facials, massages or pedicures. It’s all waxing, all the time for Hannah, and she’s bloody good at it too. I’m not going to get too graphic about what I had done because this isn’t Vice and I promised Madame Editor I wouldn’t. Let’s just say it involved a large country in South America and it was, by Hannah’s own definition, an “intimate wax”. That means everything off, from belly button to coccyx. Moving swiftly on then, here’s what you need to know:

• Nobody in the hair removal business seems to bother with the pretence of modesty any longer. It’s all “knickers on the chair” and not a paper thong in sight.
• But thankfully, they do all provide wet wipes for you to “freshen up” before the treatment, which incredibly kind when it’s late July and you’ve just spent half an hour hurtling between underground locations in a sweltering metal box deemed unfit for livestock (known locally as “the Tube”).
• You get special wedge pillows pushed under your hips on each side to prevent lower back strain when you’re asked to open your knees. I’ve said it before, but small concessions to a client’s comfort during a treatment is what impresses me more than any technique. This is one of those small but utterly luxurious gestures.
• If the phrase “open your knees” already has your cheeks burning, fear not. Hannah puts you completely at ease during the treatment. We chatted about restaurants, the correct and incorrect way of holding your friend’s newborn baby and her plans for World Waxing Domination. It felt more like having a coffee with a friend than completely exposing myself to a person I’d met only ten minutes earlier.
• Hannah uses hot wax, which adheres to the hair as opposed to the skin. It doesn’t require the use of strips to remove the product, and it is about 98% less painful than traditional waxing. Which is to say that I barely noticed anything was happening at all.
• When the treatment is finished, it all goes a bit ‘Our Bodies, Our Selves’. You get a hand mirror, and Hannah steps out of the room while you inspect her handiwork. If you spot a stray that her eagle eye has missed, you can call her back in to deal with it. This was appreciated, but unnecessary in my case. I could not spy a hair out of place, so to speak.
• A full Hollywood or Brazilian costs £35. In my experience, this is a bargain for Central London.

I never thought I’d be able to say I’d had a pleasant bikini wax, but so I did. If waxing is your bag, I can wholeheartedly recommend The Golden Touch. And, to make it even better, Hannah is offering our readers £5 off any service over £30, or a free eyebrow or upper lip wax. All you have to do is quote Get Lippie when you book.

The Golden Touch (www.thegoldentouch.co.uk) is in the Bodhi Clinic at 14 Ingestre Place, W1F 0JQ. To book, call 020 7734 4184.

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Boots Opticians and Protect Lenses

By Get Lippie

I've been a glasses wearer for nigh on 40 years now, and, I'll be honest, I hate wearing my glasses.  Years of being told I was an "ugly duckling" in my smeared pink plastic NHS frames (complete with eye patch for several years, to boot) as a child, followed by decades of movies and TV using "beautiful woman in glasses" as shorthand for "ugly woman in need of makeover" as a trope , has left me feeling far more comfortable when I'm not wearing my glasses.  I don't feel "beautiful" in my specs, ever, so discovering long-wear contact lenses was a happy day for me.  I know other women don't have this problem, and I see beautiful women looking amazing in their glasses every day, but I feel self-conscious in mine whenever I wear them.

Now, whilst I don't feel beautiful in my glasses, what if you could use your glasses as a beauty aid?  Bear with me, it'll make sense, I promise.  The skin around your eyes is the thinnest skin on your body, and as such, it's the most vulnerable to sun damage, caused by UV rays.  We all know that sunglasses should also protect your eyes about UV rays, but did it ever occur to you that your everyday glasses should too?

I was invited to take an eye test at my local branch of Boots recently, and find out more about their services, and their now-standard "Protect" lenses.  It's been a long time since I've had a Boots eye test, and I was pleasantly surprised at how thorough and professional their sight test now is.  I've always been a sufferer of both myopia (short-sightedness) and hyperopia (long-sightedness) after a series of operations on my eyes as a young child, but as I've got older, I've developed a touch of astigmatism (where the shape of the eyeballs is slightly irregular - rugby instead of soccer balls, if you will).

This time around,  Boots lead me to the - slightly depressing! - conclusion that I can add presbyopia (where the lens has trouble focusing on nearby objects) to that list too.  Simply put, this means reading glasses are now a necessity ... I've been having trouble focusing on beauty product packaging for a while now, but reading glasses had totally passed me by as a possibility!    I refused varifocals though, I'm not that old.

The Boots eye test also checks for signs of  glaucoma, alongside high blood pressure, and diabetes, both of which can show signs in the eyeballs before the patient might notice any other symptoms. They also photograph the optical nerve and the blood vessels in the eyes to check on your general optical health too.  All of these tests checked out well for me, which is a great relief, but it's good to know that Boots are prepared for all these eventualities.

New "every day" glasses by Givenchy.

But, back to all things beauty and UV rays.  Boots are now including their  "Protect" lenses in the price of all frames. Previously, they were only available for an extra charge of £40. Oh, and how happy was I to see that they now label their prices on their frames as the "complete price"?  It makes such a difference -  how many times have you picked out some frames, only to drop them in horror when the full price comes up?  Or is that just me?   Anyhoo: Protect Lenses.  They come with a special coating on both sides of the lenses which will stop UV rays getting to the skin around the eyes (which is ten times more susceptible to UV rays as anywhere else on the body) from both the front and being reflected off the back of your lenses from light hitting from behind you.  In effect, these lenses offer you an sun protection equivalent of SPF50, whether they are tinted or not!  They will also protect you from the UV rays given out from your computer monitors and tablet computers - they're all ageing!

I'm fully dressed, I promise you.

These are my new reading glasses made by Kyusu, I went for a slightly bigger frame for these, as you tend to look down when you are reading.  In addition to UV protection, Protect lenses are also scratch resistant and reflection-free, which is good for reading, particularly on backlit screens. However, I went (as I always have to owing to my prescription difference), for the thin and light option on both my reading and distance lenses, for which you do still have to pay an extra charge.

Yup, fully clothed.  Honest.

For my sunglasses (Boots own frames) though, I didn't bother with the thinner lens option, and I've not noticed them being particularly heavy in wear.  I like that you can pick the level of the tint you require, which is good, as I always simply just pick the biggest, blackest sunglasses you can get in the store, and presto, these were the result!

I've found the new lenses to be extremely (even remarkably) clear, and very easy to adjust to in wear. The thin and light lenses really are just that, and don't leave red marks on your nose because of the weight of the glass in the frames.  I have other, smaller, glasses with so called "thin" lenses in them which I hate wearing for more than a couple of hours at a time because they leave a ridge in my nose!  None of the glasses featured here do that.  Of course, I may just have picked lighter frames this time ...

An eye test doesn't just test how well you can see, it can give you a health check at the same time.  Likewise your new glasses won't just help you see better, they might just help save your skin too.  You will still need SPF facecream too though ...  You can find out more about Boots Opticians and their lenses here.

The Fine Print: Get Lippie was a guest of Boots Opticians. The sight test and one of the pairs of glasses in this piece were provided by Boots for review purposes.  However, several pairs of the glasses in this feature were purchased at the author's own expense.  This is NOT a sponsored post.

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Leopard Print Nails with Nails Inc, Barry M and Sally Hansen

By Emily

Leopard print nails are a bit old school now…but still a favourite of mine! Every time I leopardize (made up word) my nails I get a huge amount of compliments, and no-one ever thinks they are hand-painted! So if you want to add a bit of Grrrrr to your mani, here’s how!

First up, two coats of polish, you can choose any colour you like, doesn’t have to be traditional leopard colour! I used Nails Inc. Gel Effect Polish in Lexington Gardens: it gives great coverage in two coats.

Once your base colour is dry, use a contrasting colour (I used Barry M’s Gelly Hi-Shine in Blueberry) to create the patches. Simply dab the brush onto your nail, in irregular patches. You don’t need to be neat, but be careful not to have too much on the brush, or you’ll get 3d blobs.

Once your patches are dry use a nail art pen in black to carefully outline each of the patches, and add some extra dashes and dots in-between. You’ll need a steady hand, but I practice on a piece of paper before starting on my nails, to get the right flow from the pen. I used a new pen this time, Sally Hansen’s I Heart Nail Art Pen…and it’s brilliant! It gives a fine line and is much easier to control than any other nail art pen I’ve used.

Finally, after a bit more drying time, slick over a decent top coat (I use Seche Vite ALWAYS!) to give a glossy finish!

Let me know if you give my Leopard Mani a try!

Chantecaille Autumn Winter 2014: 15th Anniversary Palette

By Get Lippie

You have to have a heart of stone (or at least a deep, deep hatred of taupe, you sick puppy) to be able to resist the annual Chantecaille Charity Palettes.  Usually items of huge beauty devoted to a single animal cause, tigers, turtles, butterflies and such, it can be difficult to bring yourself to use them.  Out next month, the Chantecaille 15th Anniversary Palette is certainly a thing of beauty, and it's very wearable too.  I steeled myself to try it out recently:

Clad in the brand's trade-mark pewter livery, the palette comes complete with a facsmile of Sylvie Chantecaille's signature across the top, and inside we have, instead of the usual three eyeshadow shades and a blush, just three eye shades, which makes this a far more compact and portable option than the larger four pan options:

Three shades, each embossed with a different animal.  The deep aubergine liner shade has an elephant, the slightly warm vanilla highlight comes complete with a monarch butterfly, and the elegant coppery-taupe has a turtle.   All the shades are very wearable, and are very sheer in use:

This pic is slightly more representative of how the colour appear in the flesh, it's shown alongside a couple more pieces from the collection that I'll show you later.  However, here is how the colours swatch:

The colours here are swatched over bare skin.  Chantecaille isn't particularly known for its deeply pigmented products (which, if you're over the age of, say, 35 or so, is a bit of a blessing.  You'll see), so these swatches shouldn't come as much of a surprise.  However, if you swatch over an eyeshadow primer (and I never wear shadow without a primer), then you'll see a huge difference:

The shades are complex and flattering, but admittedly, they're not hugely dramatic, though you could create a great smokey eye with this, it's also a lovely wearable daytime palette too.

Unusually for the normal Chantecaille charity palette, this supports three foundations:  The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the Monarch Butterfly Fund and Widecast, which respectively support elephants in the wild, butterflies, and, of course, sea turtles.

It'll be available from SpaceNK next month - will you be picking one up?

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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