It's been a mixed bag, fragrance-wise this week. It's ostensibly summer, but I can't imagine anything less summery than this dark and dank July we're having so far! Like with the weather, my perfume choices have been a bit all over the place, too.
Monday brought Tangerine Vert from Miller Harris, a herbal-fresh and zingy citrus that was perfect for blasting away those dreadful Monday morning blues! This and Hermes Eau d'Orange Vert are very similar mood-lifters for me, both feature, I think, a little hit of mint amongst the orange and other leafy green herbs, and it's bother awakening and refreshing, and just that little bit "different" to a normal lemony-citrus as a result. I wore Tangerine Vert with Charlotte Tilbury Walk of Shame lipstick, which is a great brown-ish neutral that teeters on that 1990's-style rust, but just avoids it.
Tuesday was Guerlain Shalimar Parfum Initiale, and byTerry Cherry Cherry lipstick (stupid name, great pink). I was in Paris for the launch of Parfum Initiale a couple of years ago, and so it will always have a special place in my heart - I love the velvety iris and smooth vanilla, it's also surprisingly rich and earthy (almost ... carroty!) for what was intended at the time to be a teenage girl's way into the world of Shalimar. It's very different to many ostensibly "teenage" fragrances, not smelling of sugar and fruit, which is why I think it has been discontinued, and why that increasingly Le Petite Cherie Robe Noire, with it's cherries and black tea, and hints of chocolate has taken over as the flagship Guerlain fragrance. Don't get me wrong, LPCRN is good, but it's just not as interesting (to me) as Parfum Initiale is. Was. Whatever.
Wednesday found me in Estee Lauder Alliage. I love Alliage, as perfect an example of the pinnacle of seventies chypres as can be, it is both bitter green and blinding white, with galbanum and moss and crystalline white flowers, you could wear a tweed jacket and starched white shirt with this and it would be perfect. I own neither, and wore it with black jersey (my default) and still managed to feel like a grownup all day. I do think Lauder neglect their amazing back catalogue rather horribly in favour of their newer releases a great deal - does the world really need four versions of Modern Muse above some of the genuine classics in the Lauder catalogue? Does Kendall Jenner read Descartes in the original? - but the fact that their classics are still available, and largely untouched, and accessibly priced is a great, great thing. Go try some of them. Also only of my favourite reasonably priced brands is Pixi, and this lipstick in Raspberry Blush is amazingly good and pretty.
Thursday was Vaara by Penhaligons. I love Vaara. It's a fruity-floral, normally a category I eschew, but it is interesting and original, redolent of quinces and a hint of saffron, over a bed of coriander (the seed, not the leaf) and is beautiful and gorgeous and wonderfully radiant. I love wearing it. It also has one of the prettiest boxes Penhaligons have ever done. The lipstick was Givenchy Le Rouge in Carmin Escarpin, which is the lipstick I wore in Paris on my honeymoon, that's how much I love it.
On Friday, I wore Marrakesh Intense by Aesop. This blend of rose, black pepper and cardomom is both spiky and powdery and wonderfully evocative, it makes me a little woozy in the best possible way when I wear it. I do have to confess that I have a sneaking preference for the original Marrakesh formula, which punches up both the spiky black pepper, and the plush cardamom over the silky rose, but this is still magnificent, and has better lasting power overall. The lipstick was Punch Pop by Clinique, which is one of my all-time favourite pink lipsticks.
Saturday was a lazy day in front of the TV, frankly, so I wore things that didn't take much thinking about: Bagatelle de Gabrielle by Omorovicza, which is a gently pretty, rather prim, little white floral based on, but not overwhelmed by orange blossom. It's rather a "spa" kind of scent. Pretty, but slightly unmemorable. I paired it with Aerin Rose lip balm. To be honest, I'm left slightly cold by the whole Aerin Lauder cosmetics "concept" (though, I admit I do love her homewares - someone needs to bring them to the UK STAT!), it's all a bit wishy-washy "makeup for people who don't really like makeup" for me, but the perfumes are nice in a Jo Malone-ish kind-of-a-way, and this particular balm is very much a winner.
What've you been wearing this week?
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Yeah, it's been a while ... Turns out I like not blogging almost as much as I do actual blogging, who knew?! Anyway, for today at least, I'm back slaving away at a keyboard. I would have been back last week, but stuff happened, and I'm still wearing the bandage on the middle finger of my left hand, let's put it that way.
Anyhoo, skincare. This week was mainly about trialling the new Burts Bees Cleansing Oil (literally just released in the UK, and costs £16.99 a bottle from their website). I like it a lot, but I'm a bit upset it's a fragranced oil, I can't see any reason why it needs to be. It's a light, smooth oil that spreads over the skin nicely, and removes makeup thoroughly but gently. The label indicates its for dryer skins than mine, but my sensitive combination-oily skin tolerates it nicely. It doesn't quite emulsify when you come to rinse, just becomes a bit looser, and it easily wipes off with a warm flannel. I like it.
Everything else I've been using this week is an old (or an almost-old) favourite, I'm still mostly in love with Tata Harper skincare, and I'm nearing the end of this bottle of the Tata Harper Rejuvenating Serum, and I totally intend to finish it off. I recently finished my much-beloved bottle of Zelens Intense Defence Serum, which has left a gaping hole in my routine, to be honest, I'm still casting about to find the perfect replacement, the Tata is good, and does what it is supposed to, but I just don't love it as much as the Zelens for some reason. It does work really well with the Rebuilding moisturiser though.
How has your week in skincare been?
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I've been waiting to get my hands on Delilah's Pure Light Illuminating Powder in Aura ever since India Knight raved about it in the Sunday Times late last year! It sounded like it was the perfect powder, illuminating, not glittery, and she used the phrase "you absolutely do not look shiny, just lit from within". Well, who doesn't want to look lit from within at all times for just £36? I couldn't resist. After India's review, it was sold out for months, and I ended up waiting till April to be able to pick one up. Was it worth the wait?
Er ... I'm not sure, really.
First things first, it's beautifully packaged in a hefty rose gold and pewter compact, and the powder within looks divine, delicately marbled with golds, peaches and lilacs, and yes, it does look lit from within. It is seriously, inside and out, a stunning piece of makeup.
However.
It is warm-toned. Seriously warm-toned, and I am not. Delilah claim that it adapts to all skintones, but I find that I simply cannot use this powder alone because it just looks like I've painted myself pale peach. Warm-toned gals, and darker-skinned ladies will love this, but it's just too much for me. Oh, and it's shiny. Really, really, really, shiny. I have oily skin, and applying this over the top is just Too Much Shine. Like I'm wearing a face made of pleather.
For me, as a face powder, it's a total failure, I'm afraid. But, in its favour, it makes a beautiful highlighter, and if I apply it in conjunction with a more matte powder it's wearable. I've also noticed that parts of powder in the pan have "glazed" over - become hard - and this makes it more difficult to get it on the brush. I hate it when powder products glaze over, as it's normally a sign of a cheap formula. In this case, I think it's just that the powder contains a high level of waxes to bind the pigments together, rather than it being a "cheap" powder, as such, but glazing so much after only a month of use is very disappointing indeed.
It's not a universal powder, not by a long chalk, and that's a shame for me as a pale blue person. It'll be much less of a shame for you if you're warm-toned and light a highly reflective finish. As a result, I don't think I'll hit pan on this one for a long, long, long, long time, it'll never replace my much-loved Hourglass Ambient Light in Diffused, I'm afraid.
The Delilah Pure Light Illuminating Powder in Aura costs £36 and mine came from Fortnums.
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I do love a yellow-toned face powder. For years, my default face powder has been Hourglass Diffused, and, after hitting pan on my third one, I thought it was time to possibly try out a few different ones rather than just blindly buying the same powder again. Enter Rodial Instaglam Compact Deluxe Banana Powder.
A finely milled, soft yellow powder, Rodial are promoting this off the back of the current contouring trend as a "matte highlighter" for the high points of your face, and therefore allegedly perfect for that massive "Instagram Face/part time pornstar" makeup craze we're seeing everywhere at the moment. Me being over forty, I can't be arsed, frankly, with attempting to create cheekbones on my gigantic wheel-of-cheese face, nor can I be bothered attempting to look like a Kardashian when my only plans for the day are popping over to Budgens in my pyjamas for a croissant or seven (which might explain my giant melon-head, now I come to think of it). Oh, and you can "bake" your foundation with it, for all your "waking up wanting to be a Drag Queen" days. We all have them, apparently.
Actually, all I want a powder to do is set my foundation, even out my oiliness, and stop me looking like a boiled lobster on those days where my redness is too much to handle. This powder fulfills all those functions really well. It's highly milled, soft on the brush, and spreads over the face beautifully without caking. I like it very much. It definitely hides redness, and does it very well. I love the hefty compact too, it's a statement piece in any makeup bag. However, it is very, very matte, and, being of a certain age, a very matte powder can exacerbate fine lines and wrinkles, and I worry that it's not the most flattering of finishes if I apply with slightly too heavy a hand. I use it in conjunction with a powder that has a more gleaming finish which I will tell you about tomorrow to counteract that.
Is it a replacement for my beloved Hourglass Diffused? Well, no. But its a good powder nonetheless and I'll use it on days when I want a matte finish that lasts.
Rodial Instaglam Compact Deluxe Banana Powder costs £52 and is available instore now.
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Sometimes I really shouldn't be allowed out, you know. I was at a launch with the founder of Erborian a couple of months ago, and I got so excited by this product that all I could say for about 20 minutes was "It's a jelly! But it's a powder! But it's a jelly!". This is, I suspect, why I'm not going to be challenging any of the major beauty editors in the UK any time soon, I'm, like, sooooo eloquent and all that.
So, Erborian 0.09 Touch au Ginseng Cream Powder Compact, what is it? Well, it's a powder. but it's also a jelly (look, I don't get out much these days, and it may be affecting my vocabulary) and I find it makes a really nice base in its own right. The 0.09 name comes about from the amount of water in the formulation, with only 0.09% aqua, this is basically a water-free product. It's a hybrid powder that has an amazing bouncy texture, not in the slightest bit powdery, and I find that it smoothes out uneveness in tone beautifully.
What it's not, I have found, is a finishing powder. It's more of a base in its own right, though a sheer one. It's rather a firm product and needs to be applied with a sponge, so over a foundation it's not the greatest finishing product as the sponge has a tendency to remove foundations, but over something like a lightly tinted CC cream (and it has to be said that Erborian make one of the best CC creams ever, especially now it comes in a new "light" version), or BB cream, it's rather wonderful. I use it on its own on good-skin days too.
Because it's a bouncy jelly texture it's perfect for carrying round in your handbag, because unlike powdery ... erm ... powders, it won't crack owing to being thrown around a bit. And it never looks powdery on the skin, and won't cake. It leaves a lovely velvety, glowing finish, and a little of it goes a very long way. There's a good-size mirror in the lid too, for touch-ups on the go, though even on my oily skin, touch up requirements have been minimal, this has great lasting power.
It costs £27 from Erborian.com.
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Summer's coming! Summer's coming! Well, hopefully it is, anyway! My tastes have certainly turned to the more summery this week, anyway. I started with Caron's My Lang (which gave me and my husband a Woody Guthrie ear worm for several days), which is a sophisticated and creamy sun-lotion kind of a scent, which I really liked from first sniff. More about this soon. I'm also LOVING the new Burts Bees lip crayons, this one in Napa Valley is a beautiful deep blood-red with great lasting power.
On Tuesday I wore Guerlain Terracotta, only to have it pour down raining all day. Irony. Again, another sun-lotion kind of fragrance, this one heavier on the jasmine, with an oilier kind of side to it, it's beyond gorgeous. I wore it with one of Guerlain's new La Petite Robe Noir lipsticks, which smell of cherry blossom and black tea. Nice shade, but scented lips are a little distracting, I think.
On Wednesday I wore what might be two of my favourite launches of the year so far, Diptyque Eau de Sens and Chanel Rouge Coco Stylo in Roman. Eau de Sens is a gorgeous, waxy and fleshy orange blossom that has been rounded out with juniper and patchouli, it's fun and beautiful, and a delight to wear, I can't resist it, and it's a fragrance I crave almost daily. Which is tough when you're trying to wear a different perfume every day! The Rouge Coco stylos are gorgeous, and the first Chanel purchase I've gone out of my way to pick up in what must be a couple of years now. They're shiny and cushiony, and beautifully pigmented. I'm going to need backups of both of these.
Thursday I wore Hermes Pamplemousse Rose, which is a refreshing and light, almost sugary take on pink grapefruit, lacking the sulphurous air that can make things like Guerlain's Pamplemousse in the Aqua Allegorica a little difficult to wear. I paired it up with the almost neon-pink of Revlon's Barcelona Nights, which is a long time favourite.
And on Friday (my birthday!) I wore the amazing Rose Gold from Ormonde Jayne, which is the companion piece to Black Gold which, in a tiny twist of fate, was released on my birthday two years ago. I'm going to need a couple more wears to allow my nose to pick it apart, but so far it appears a worthy follow-up. I'll do a joint review of both of these fragrances soon, Black Gold is probably one of the most commented on fragrances in my collection, and I love it an unhealthy amount. Just so you know. I wore Rose Gold with my Louboutin lipstick in Survivita. Love the colour, like the formula, completely underwhelmed with the hype, the price and the packaging.
And finally, in super-exciting news, later this month Frederic Malle launch body products (shower gel and body lotion) in the Cologne Indelible fragrance. Cologne Indelible is a juicy and fresh cut-orange fragrance, replete with orange blossom, and cut through with a bright lemon and green herb facet which I adore an unhealthy amount. The best thing about Cologne Indelible though is that is is a juicy citrus that lasts and lasts, which is hugely unusual for a citrus scent. I've used these every day this week for layering purposes, as they're really zesty and refreshing. I must pick myself up a full bottle of Cologne Indelible though, one day ...
And what have you been wearing?
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I've been on a blog-hiatus. It wasn't intended, but it just sort of happened, and, I have to admit, I've rather enjoyed it. I'm just now entering my eighth year of blogging (you read that right), so that's seven years of Sunday afternoons that I've spent at my computer,which equates to nearly a solid YEAR of taking pictures, editing pictures (always the worst part, tbh), actually doing the writing and doesn't even slightly take into account the hours I spend getting to events, reading press releases, testing products and the thinking (oh my god, the THINKING) about blog posts even before I sit down to write them!
So, because I've been enjoying NOT blogging for a couple of months, its crossed my mind that maybe I should retire. Year end was super-busy at work this year, and we just moved house, and I've been tired - so very, very tired - and the thought of adding blogging back into that particular mix has just been ... depressing. Another thing to worry about, and another obligation. That said, I've been loving Instagram very much lately, pop on over!
Retiring from blogging at Get Lippie completely has been a tempting option under the circumstances, like the thought of going on a lovely, looooooooong, holiday. Blogging, particularly beauty blogging, is both a bit of a rat-race and a popularity contest these days, and I'm never going to be Zoella or Pixiwoos. Hell, I'm barely even Get Lippie these days! Luckily, I don't rely on my blog to make my living - there's no sponsorship or endorsement deals here - but, now I'm out of work-madness time, and we've practically got the new flat sorted, I'm going to give a couple of Sundays* back up to the blogging muse, and see what occurs.
So, yeah, skincare is what we're meant to be talking about, apparently, not my existential crisis, so here's some skincare chat:
I'm attempting to use up my much-beloved Zelens Intense Defence Serum, because it's nearly at the end, and that will make it the only serum I've used up in several years! I love this stuff, on my picky, overly sensitive, prone-to-redness skin, this acts like a bandage, protecting it from all kinds of pollutants and cushioning it from the effects of overly harsh weather, or unsuitable skincare products. I've been boosting it with Zelens Power D Drops in recent weeks, and I'll be giving a full review of those soon.
Clinique sent me a bumper pack of their Moisture Surge products the other week, and, whilst I've had trouble with gel-formula moisturisers in the past (they tend to be heavy on the silicones and irritate my skin by not letting it breathe too well), I'm really enjoying using Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief. The stress of the last couple of months, combined with spending a lot of hours really staring at a computer - seriously, when you're getting 40 incomprehensible emails a day from a government department, you'd be screwing your face up too - have left me craving hydration, and I find this feels super-hydrating at first application and leaves my skin feeling velvety and wonderful, without the little angry bumps I can get from too many silicones.
Something else new that I'm trying right now is the Silke London silk hair wrap. I've been toying with wrapping my hair for a while now, having found that sleeping on a silk pillow case makes a huge difference to my hair, but couldn't find a 100% silk wrap that I liked. Then Silke London launched, and I had to have one, so treated myself to an Isla, which is the green and blue version. It's essentially a silk turban, and looks impossibly glamorous on the right person. I am not the right person, and look like Hilda Ogden after a minor lottery win in mine, so there will be no selfies wearing it, but I'll keep you posted ...
How's your week been? I've not retired. Yet.
*But not next Sunday. Ironically, I'm going on holiday ... ;)
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