A Week In Lipstick

It's been a while, but this is the first week I've worn any in a while! Here are this week's shades:




L-R:

Chantecaille Lip Chic in Tea Rose (love this shade, and it's beautifully moisturising too)
Cosmetics a la Carte bespoke lipstick in Luce (well, how could I not?)
Guerlain Terracotta Gloss in 03 Grenade (rapidly becoming a fave as I trial facial tanning products!)
Topshop Lipstick in Show Off (made a big mistake on the day, it clashed horribly with my eye makeup, but I continue to be impressed by the quality of Top Shop makeup)
Chanel Rouge Allure in 82 Incognito (limited edition, part of last year's Kaska beige collection, and an old favourite not-quite-nude shade)
Chanel Rouge Allure Laque in Stunt (limited edition from last year's Soho collection, I picked it up from LipstickLuvvie's recent blog sale - practically a taupe!)
Clinique Chubby Stick in Mega Melon (beginning to really like these, easy to wear and handy to use)

Here are the swatches:








What did you wear this week?

Random Sunday Stuff - Featuring Sudocrem

Sudocrem, that staple of many a bathroom, is bringing out a handbag-sized tube, and to celebrate they were offering "handbag readings" by Debbie Percy who has made a career out of Bagology.  Apparently, what you carry around with you every day - both your bag and the contents can be a lot more revealing about you than you think!  Here's my bag, and its contents:

Yeah ... it's a bit pink!  I carry most things around in packets, to make things easier to swap between bags - I thought it looked a bit dull to be honest, but I'll let you read on:

 Delicious! A handbag full of attitude and surprises!  This bag is just great, it has personality and texture.  I think Get Lippie knows how to play hard and is ok being the centre of attention when the occasion presents itself!  You are a lady who has a reasonable amount of structure in place in life, but you don’t obsess over it.  You like things to be neat and tidy and for things to have a place and be in their place.  You are loving, friendly, kind and affectionate.  There is a courageous side to your nature and I wonder if that is a source of pride to you?  

Loyalty to and from those around you is important to you.  If I knew you well I would say that when you are bored – it can get pretty ugly around here!!   Routine and monotony will be your pet hates – but you won’t appreciate sympathy either so we best leave you well alone at these times!!  You enjoy strength in those around you, strong characters will be something you embrace and are drawn towards.   An important thought for you is to make sure you aren’t working or living with someone who is two faced or has been found to be deceitful. Your bag is suggesting that backstabbing may be in your neighbourhood – so if you find that, move on and ship out! 

Good health is important to you, you will enjoy people who fill you with a feeling of energy, vitality and who are keen to reach their potential (just as are you).  Finally, if on occasion you feel you have to hide away certain parts of who you are, or wear a false mask (image), then your bag has a message – be brave!  Be expressive! Above all be you! Trust your loving nature to be the thing that will pull you through even in uncertain times.

I thought this was huge fun, and hey, any excuse to show off my Haut Totes bag again ...! 

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

Guerlain Terracotta Skin Foundation

I've been ill - I might have mentioned it, now I come to think of it - and, after the best part of two weeks in bed with a fever, and still wracked with a cough like a beagle on 40 a day a very bad cough indeed, I'm not looking like the healthiest person on the planet.  Pale green, and pale blue and pale grey are the colours of my face at the moment, and it's not nice.  Oh, and there's the red bits, but they're in the wrong places, so let's just forget I mentioned them, okay?

But, I think I've found something that helps me look a bit more human, it's this stuff:

Guerlain Terracotta Skin Foundation.  Now, I'm not one for fake tan, being about as low-maintenance as you can be and still call yourself a beauty blogger, but sometimes, I admit, I do need help.  And this stuff is wonderful.  It's not a fake tan, it's not quite a foundation, but rather something in between.  It comes in two shades, 1 - Blondes and 2 - Brunettes.  I have both.


Let me show you:

Possibly the least appetising swatches I've ever posted on Get Lippie, but bear with me.  As you can see 1 on the left is a little paler, and peachier, and 2 on the right is a little darker, and slightly more, dare I say it ... orange?  Incidentally, a little of this stuff goes a long, long way, and the amount you see on the back of my hand there is probably enough to cover at least four faces.


You apply it as you would a normal foundation or tinted moisturiser, and, because it's chock-full of silicones (so if you're sensitive to them, avoid this at all costs), you won't need a primer, or powder, and it will do a wonderful job of smoothing out both your skintone, and  your pores.  Once blended it will just give you a hint of whisper light colour, which looks natural and healthy:

Um, yeah, so natural and healthy you can't even see it.  Let's try that again, shall we?

 Why, yes, I do spend my Wednesday evenings raising my eyebrows in the bathroom mirror and belming at myself, thank you.  And I know I'm not alone ...  Now, admittedly, this is a good 14 hours after I applied No 2 (Brunette), but my skin is still showing colour. And it's a vast improvement on the pale grey I was at 7am yesterday morning.  Yes, I'm a bit shiny (and for the love of god do not enlarge that picture and look at my pores, I implore you!) and it's showing a few red bits around my nose, but, I remind you that I am still, you know, ill.  Also, this picture was taken with a flash, which would normally wash me out even further, so the fact that I'm still looking even vaguely human is a miracle.  When I use the 1 - Blonde version, the finish is just a little paler, but still humanising.

For reference, this is how I looked before I applied it:

This reminds me a great deal of my beloved Armani Face Fabric foundation, which is another chock-full of silicones beauty that works wonders on my knackered mush.  The Terracotta Skin foundation is something I'm going to get a lot of usage out of this year, especially now that I've discovered that No2 is perfect for covering up my high colouring.  Win-win!


Pros - easy to use, literally 30 seconds or so to apply, natural colour, great for hiding patches of high colouring, de-zombifies, smoothes skin, little goes a very long way don't need a primer, almost entirely fool-proof and perfect for fake-tan scaredy cats, don't need an exact match for your skin colour.


Cons - very sheer coverage (so not perfect for blemish-prone skin), no SPF, pricey - £33 at time of writing - quite a small tube, will need powder in hot weather.


Guerlain Terracotta Skin Foundation is, for me - this year,  a must-have.  Just don't forget to blend it down your neck all the way down to your chest otherwise you'll look a bit odd.

The Fine Print: One of these was a PR sample, and I was so impressed I went straight out and bought the other shade.  Which is which?  Who knows, and I no longer care ...


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

What Do You Get The Beauty Blogger Who Has Everything?

Well, providing that the aforementioned beauty blogger is actually of the male variety, you get him one of these:

The Alice Temperley Safari Traveller for men.  Makes a great present - as well as the stylish soap bag it contains shaving foam, shower gel, face scrub,  face wash, and moisturiser, making it perfect for little getaways.  Or longer trips to Portugal next month  ... Best of all, a proportion of the price goes to fund the Mothers4Children charity, so he'll smell good, look good and have a happy conscience.  Speaking of happy ...

Happy birthday Mr Lippie!


The Fine Print: I bought mine ... er ... his at Harvey Nicks. Other premium department stores are available.  There's one for women too, but even I didn't think that was an appropriate gift.  I kept the samples though, I'm not a complete muggins.

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

Bespoke Lipstick with Daniel Sandler & Cosmetics a la Carte Pt II

So, if you made it through yesterday's post, then you'll know I recently had two bespoke lipsticks created for me by Daniel Sandler and Lynne Sanders at Cosmetics a la Carte.  Judging from the comments, you'll be wanting to see the final results (and names) today!  

So, without further ado, I introduce you to my two new lipstick shades:

On the left here, we have the purple "Get Lippie" and on the right, we have the coral "Luce".  Do you see what I did with the names?  Never let it be said that imagination is my strong point, I remind you all politely that I am an accountant, and there's a reason for that.  So there.

Anyhoo - Swatches!

Artificial light

Natural daylight (and they're reversed, because I am an idiot)

Now, when I asked my readers a Quick Question  of "if Get Lippie were a lipstick, what colour would she be?" recently, there were two clear choices: rich, bright reds and clear bright pinks.  And, to be honest, both of those colours were things that initially crossed my mind too ... but ... part of the fun of having this blog is my constant quest to find the perfect red, and my (newer) quest to find the perfect pink is something that I find a great deal of fun too!  So, when I thought harder about what I'd want from a "signature" lipstick shade, I realised that I actually wanted something pretty, but a little more on the neutral side, so I can use it to accessorise lots of looks, and would get lots and lots of wear out of it.  So, these shades are probably not what most of my readers are expecting!  But, to be fair, "Get Lippie" isn't what I was expecting, either!

So, let's take a closer look at "Luce", shall we?

  
Luce isn't a perfect dupe for my beloved Chanel India, but it's pretty darn close.  It's essentially a soft pinky-coral, with just the tiniest amount of gold shimmer. For me, this is a perfect, colourful - but not too bright - wearable shade, that will compliment many makeup looks.  Sheered out it shows a little more orange, and worn in a thicker layer, it shows a little more pink.  It's a complex shade, but it's not too complicated to wear.  Here's how it looks in a thin layer in natural daylight:

Incidentally, "Luce" is my (other) nickname, only my mum and my boss call me Louise these days, which gets a bit confusing, sometimes ...  I just have to stop a couple of people referring to me only as "Oi! Lippie!" now. They know who they are ...


Speaking of which, onto "Get Lippie":

Artificial light

Artificial light with flash

  
It's a bit of a chameleon, this one.  Ostensibly purple, but it can appear brownish - as in the swatch picture at the very top of the post -, a dark purple, or a very pink-based purple with blue shimmer as under the flash picture just above here (and if someone would like to make me a nail varnish in that shade, I will love you forever.  No really, I will).  In reality, once again, it's another very soft shade, this time more of a  purpled-pink, which I find to be surprisingly wearable.


Swatched quite sheerly on the lips (natural daylight):

Not nearly as scary as it looks in the tube, eh?  In fact, the daylight has washed it out just a little here - and the natural redness of my lips has warmed it up a little.  That said, I think it suits my skin-tone very well indeed (I am learning to live with cooler shades these days), but this is dramatic for me in a way that brighter colours simply aren't.

Here's how it looks in the full context (kinda) of my face, and this is probably the most colour-accurate picture of them all.  Yes, it's purple, but it's not a full-on PURPLE!, if you see what I mean.  It goes best with slightly more neutral makeup looks, as it's far more of a statement colour in its own right than "Luce" is.

I was terrified of wearing purple lipstick in the store, and it took a lot, and I do mean a lot, of persuasion to even try it on in the first place, but, the lesson I've learned is, that when Daniel Sandler tells you a colour will suit you, you should just go with it.  I went with the softer, more sludgey purple shade than the more fuchsia-shade you saw in yesterday's post, because I felt that this colour, although  technically harder to wear, is actually far more unique, and it's definitely not a colour I'd have picked up unassisted. I love it though.  A lot. And I've worn it far more than I expected since it appeared too.  

Odd thing, I think this shade makes my hazel eyes look greener!  I could be imagining that though.  The lipsticks themselves, whilst quite perfumed (something I personally like, though your mileage might vary), do have a lovely soft velvety texture, and more than adequate lasting properties.   I've had no problems with grittiness or drying whilst they're on the lips.


Don't forget, that if you want a custom colour lipstick for yourself, then Cosmetics a la Carte will be happy to assist you, too. Just, you know, put some actual thought into what you want to call it ... What would you name a shade you created, and what would it be?  I'm, er, not using you guys for research, honest ...
 
The Fine Print: Once again, this wasn't a PR post, the lipsticks were a gift, and I want to extend the most grateful, and heartfelt of thanks to both Lynne and Daniel for this amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity to have a product named after me!  


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