In Love - By Daniel Sandler Home

 When two of your favourite people decide to collaborate, it's a cause for celebration.  When those two people are as talented as Daniel Sandler and Jonathan Ward, it's a time for jubilation.

I have to admit, I've been (impatiently) waiting for this candle ever since Daniel and Jonathan started chatting on Twitter a few months ago, and I'm happy to say that it's definitely been worth the wait.  The first presentation from Daniel Sandler Home, In Love is an ideal introduction to scented candles!

Made to Jonathan's normal exacting standards, the candle is from his usual clean-burning soy base (100% organic) housed in a weighty crystal holder, and smells ... divine.  Ingredients include (according the the box) amber, patchouli, clove, cardamom, violet, black pepper and sheer white florals:

It's a double wicked candle (my own personal favourite kind, they're less prone to runnelling, and disperse the scents more quickly), and will have a burn time of 40 hours if treated right.  I had this burning for about four hours or so last night - handy tip, with any new candle, always burn it for a minimum of three hours (or until the entire top layer of wax is melted), it'll burn cleaner in future if you do - and today, my living room still smells wonderful.  Jonathan Ward candles always perfume a room beautifully, even when they're not lit!  Happy to see that Daniel Sandler Home continues that great tradition of wonderful craftsmanship.

The scent is a wonderful soft powdery-spice, powder from the amber and sandalwood, coupled with the spice from the cardamom and pepper. The listed florals are present, but they don't dominate, they just add a little light sparkle to the scent.  As such it's a lighter scent than you'd expect from the notes list, but it's still a delightfully heady, sensuous fragrance.  Personally, I think this is very much an evening candle, and it would also make a wonderful candle for the bedroom.   It's one I'll be saving for the cooler months, as the warm spice and powder are more suited for long dark evenings, and the scent fills the room in a very comforting fashion.  Also perfect for thundery August nights!

In Love by Daniel Sandler in collaboration with Jonathan Ward will be available on Escentual.com from October, and will cost £30.  Personally, I make it a habit to purchase everything that Jonathan releases, pricey though they are, I can't really help myself.  They make wonderful gifts, and everyone I know who I've introduced to the range has immediately fallen for it.  If you look closely, you can see my beloved Santissima Amalfi (an intriguing blend of tomato vines and myrrh, which is amazing),  in the background of the last picture there!  Only a limited number of In Love have been made, so make sure you snap yours up!  I look forward to seeing what both Daniel and Jonathan do next ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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

Tom Ford Launches Full Colour Cosmetics Range - Preview

I was delighted to be invited to the recent press launch of Tom Ford's new full colour range of cosmetics. Here are the pictures I took of the day:

Initial thoughts are that it is all very wearable, the packaging is divine, and that there are a good few pieces going on my Christmas list ... as well as some great palettes, I thought there were some innovative ideas, the brow pencil looks great, I love the contouring and highlighting gel compact, and the brushes look fantastic.

Totally. 

All that said though, I'm disappointed that fully half of the newly expanded lipstick range are nudes, and that they've discontinued some of the best (for me!) shades. I'll be picking up a backup of Pure Pink post haste. Quality of the range overall appears to be very high, but, I will say that for the price point, I'm going to wait and see before I declare it a success or not.

I can't wait to bring you my thoughts when I've had a chance to play with some items ... 

Tom Ford Full Colour will be available from Harrods and Selfridges on September 3rd, and nationwide a month later.
 
The Fine Print: No samples harmed in the making of this post.


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

A Gin Special with Penhaligons Juniper Sling and Sipsmith

Yay! Gin!

I like gin. There, I said it. In fact, I like it so much that the day before my birthday this year I went to a perfume launch, simply because it had a gin theme. Then, on my birthday, someone (naming no names, MrLippie) bought me tickets for a tour of a gin distillery. So, I guess today's post was kind of inevitable...

I've been wearing Penhaligon's Juniper sling on and off for a couple of months now, and the truth is that I like it a great deal - I've read it panned on another blog for not being interesting enough as a male fragrance, but my take is that as a unisex fragrance, it's actually rather wonderful. Heady with cloves, black pepper and coriander in the top notes - and of course, replete with nips of juniper, too - it's both bracing and spicy, spicy, spicy. At first, I thought this was an odd launch for September, because of the bracing quality, but, on living with it for a while, it makes sense, because what is more comforting when the evenings begin to draw in than a crisp, spicy cocktail? Further down the ingredients list are orris, brown sugar, amber and cherries, making this into a soft skin-scent in the dry down.

Gin ingredients macerating at Sipsmith

On wearing, it's quite noticeably reminiscent of a G&T for the first few seconds, an icy blast of juniper and clove, then it perceptibly warms up with the pepper and coriander, and is spicy and, oddly, comforting. I like this stage of the scent very much, but if I have a criticism (and if you've read my blog for long enough, then you'll know there's always a "but" in every review), I do find that the mid-stages don't last long enough. Ordinarily this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I do find the dry down rather ... dull, at least compared to those extraordinarily composed, and highly reminiscent, top and mid-stages, so personally, I'd have preferred the spice to have been ramped up, and not to have bothered with the sweetish skin scent. But that's just me! Oh, and I can't get Mr Lippie to wear it for love nor money, which drives me bonkers.

Various trial gin batches at Sipsmith

Last week, I wore Juniper Sling to my tour of Sipsmith, just to get in the mood. Sam, who runs the company is an extraordinary host, and if you get a chance to pop along, then you really should make the most of it. It struck me that the process of making gin is very similar to the process of making perfume, the balancing act of the various ingredients required in the initial stages,the care and attention to detail throughout the process, all dedicated to producing a product that, whilst not a necessity, will bring a little cheer to life.

The Distillery itself is a petite and bijoux garage in Hammersmith, and it is the first all-copper distillery to be set up in London since the 1800's. I was interested to find out that Sipsmith spirits are distilled in a one-shot process, and are sold unfiltered. Always having been taught that filtering is one way to gauge the quality of a spirit (the more filtering processes it goes through, the purer the end product, is the thought process), this was quite a revelation. For Sipsmith gin (and vodka for that matter) are both exceptionally smooth, and wonderfully flavoursome. Indeed, Sipsmith vodka is probably the only spirit I've ever tried that I'm happy to drink at room temperature, and without ice. Unheard of! Discovering there's a Summer Cup (similar to Pimms, but rather more flavoursome, remarkably similar in taste to how Juniper Sling smells), and a Damson Vodka now too was a nice surprise!

So, um yeah. Gin perfume and gin, is there anything finer?

The Fine Print: Juniper sling review based on a sample received at the launch event, and Sipsmiths tour has nothing to do with anything, I just enjoyed it and wanted to share.
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

A Little Bit of Chanel ... Peridot, Illusoire, Epatant and Ebloui

So, I went a little crazy at the Chanel Counter again.  I picked up three of the Illusion D'Ombre eyeshadows, which are a remarkable texture, and, I cracked and bought the nail varnish in Peridot.  I passed over Graphite as it's dead ringer for OPI's Lost in Glitzerland, and Quartz looked too similar to Illamasqua Bacterium for comfort. That said, I'll probably be picking them up anyway ...


So, the eyeshadows I picked up were:

86 Ebloui:

84 Epatant:

And 83 Illusoire:

They're a very interesting texture, unlike the recent Armani Eyes to Kill shadows, they're a powdery mousse, rather than a powder-cream texture, but, similar to the Eyes to Kill shadows, they are very, very, very sparkly.  But, it's a more subtle gleam than the rather glittery Armani formula:

Swatches at the top are over Urban Decay Primer Potion, bottom are on bare skin.  The pots come with a synthetic brush, and you do need it to apply, as using your fingers will just result in the barest wash of un-pigmented glitter, but the brush will pick up a goodly amount of the shade too.


Here's an out-of-focus shot to show off the sparkle:

Rather pretty, I think.  Hopefully, I picked versatile shades.  There was no taupe ...


I also bought Peridot:

Which I had no intention whatsoever of buying, but, I just couldn't resist when I saw it in store.  It's very beautiful.  Alas, it's not the shade for me.  At all:

Yup, on me, it pulls yellow.  Sickly yellow, and not the beautiful scarab-beetle effect you see in the bottle there.

It's not too bad in slightly different light, but man, it gives me lobster hands!  Also, the other shade is the one I mainly get, and it's just so not me ...!  Great to apply, like most Chanel polishes, can't comment on the wear yet though.

So, what will you be picking up from Chanel this season, anything?


The Fine Print: I purchased these.  You would have seen the post sooner, but I realised that the sales assistant had given me the wrong shade of eyeshadow ...


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

On Massage with Aromatherapy Associates, L'Occitane and Liz Earle

Lippie Underground HQ - soon to be Lippie Towers, but more about that anon - has been the scene of a lot of massage lately.  For a variety of reasons, it's become a slight necessity, prime among them is the fact that for the last few months I've been suffering from a skeleto-muscular problem, which isn't quite as serious as it sounds but has been causing continuous headaches since April.  Even so, this is all way less scary - and stressful - than the brain tumour I thought it was initially.  I don't recommend worry as a beauty aid.

Anyhoo, a decent massage begins with a decent massage oil, and I've found these to be my top contenders (one isn't a massage oil at all actually, so I hope I'll be forgiven for so heinously misusing it!):

Aromatherapy Associates Enrich Massage and Body Oil.  A glorious blend of Geranium and Ylang Ylang in a blend of olive, coconut and macademia oils, this has plenty of slip, and warms delightfully in the hands to provide a nice scented massage oil, that isn't too heavily fragranced.

I've found that it leaves the skin soft, scented, and wonderfully moisturised without being at all sticky, and, for that, I love it.  One downside is that the frosted glass bottle is a little tricky to handle with oily fingers, and it has been dropped once or twice because of that, (luckily the glass is thick and heavy, so no major spillages!) so I tend to decant in order to use this.  This costs £33 for 100mls, and I'd happily purchase another bottle.

Next up is L'Occitane Lavande Body and Massage Gel, which surprised me by arriving in a large, flat, plastic tub.  For some reason, I'd been expecting a tube. But, no matter, it's already more fit for massage purpose than a heavy glass bottle, even when you consider my heebie jeebies about jarred products.  If you like the smell of lavender (and I do, very much so), then you will love this, and even if you don't, then you still might like it, for in use, this has an odd effect that that in the jar, the smell is pungent, and heady, but on the body, it's a rather light and delicate scent.

As this is a gel, I was expecting it to be sticky, and, it is stickier than the two other oil products, but not unpleasantly so, and not so much that you'll notice it really.  It still gives very good slip, and is great in use.  It can, however, be very, very, very cold straight out of the jar, so this is one that you must warm in your hands before applying it your massage victim partner.  It's a fairly reasonable £20 for 200mls too, so is the cheapest option I'll be showing you today.

And now, my controversial choice: Liz Earle Superskin Concentrate.  Probably Definitely the most extravagant oil here, by far (costing £37.50 per 28ml, or £133.93 per 100ml), this has been a pleasure to use for massage.  Now, ordinarily, this is a facial oil, hence the small bottle and the whopping price comparison, and I wouldn't recommend it for this use as a rule, but, personally,  I adore the neroli/lavender/camomile scent, and it makes for a highly fragrant experience if you do use it for anything other than the recommended usage.  Also, I had a bottle handy nearby. Also surprising is that this tiny bottle (easier to handle than a big glass bottle) actually lasted through around a month of massage!  Excellent slip, and it led to pleasantly scented dreams ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples all, and gratefully received, too.  Thank you very much to all the firms who listened to my pleas for massage products.  And sincere apologies to Liz Earle for misusing her fine facial oil ... As always, the links are here for informational purposes only, and are not affilliate links.

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

Andrea Fulerton - Petrol in Water

I have never had as many compliments on my manicure as I have when I wore this last week, I have to say it's a very strong contender for my nail varnish of the year!  I've featured the Andrea Fulerton Colour Layering System before, but the Petrol in the Water combination is by far the one to beat.


Each "system" comes with an opaque base polish, and a sheerer layering topcoat, and you can apply them in various combinations for the best effect.  Petrol in Water looks like a dull brown with a glittery topcoat in the box:

In fact, I'd seen it in store several times, and just passed over it, as I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to brown polish.  But, even on its own, this is a glorious shade, I discovered:



With thanks to my glamorous (anonymous) hand model, the boy done well.

A rich chocolate shade, shot through with gold, I'd like a bottle of this on its own, for it is beautiful.  Above you can see two coats of each the brown and the white, and you can see just how completely the shades transform when layered (two coats of brown with one of white on top).  It's amazing, a blue-teal duochrome, which shades to purple, with hints of gold when the light hits it right.  No topcoat was used in this pic.

It looks a bit frosty here, which it's not ordinarily, but it does show off some of the colour change.  It's one of those shades that looks lit from within, and you can spend many a happy hour (where you should be concentrating on meetings, say), just staring at your nails and watching the colours change.

On me, this wore exceptionally well, too,  all the pics on this post were taken after around three or four days of wear, and it wasn't until the fifth that there was major damage, and even then I was loath to take it off!  There is nothing particularly special about the brush, which is an old-style round brush with squared off ends, no Pro-Wide or flat bristles going on here, and there's an argument that the dual-bottle style means the brush is a little off-balance when you're applying, but these are minor quibbles compared to the ease of application with the thin polish, and the truly excellent wear.

Andrea Fulerton Trio Colour Layering Systems are exclusively available at Superdrug, and cost £7.99.

The Fine Print: I heartlessly stole this from Oxford Jasmine when she wasn't looking.  I am a bad beauty blogger.  It's okay though, she didn't run after me or anything.

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

Lipstick of the Week - Aug 21 2011

Another Sunday, another look at what has been rattling about at the bottom of my bag this week!  It's been an exceptionally neutral week, as we shall see.  Here we have:

 L-R 

Laura Mercier Pink Cocoa
Chanel Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle
Laura Geller lipstick in Berry Banana
Clinique Moisture Surge in Tender Mauve
Dolce & Gabanna in Orchid
Serge Lutens in 03
and at the bottom, Lipstick Queen gloss in Jean Queen

Here are the swatches:

As you can see, the Laura Geller is very, very yellow in my stick, which makes it borderline unwearable.

Oh, and yes, the Serge Lutens is black.  I didn't wear it to the office, that's all I have to say about that one!  It's really a stain, and it's very good underneath reds to deepen the shade.

Oh, and a little more storage porn for you, this is how I keep my lipsticks for the week when they're not in my bag:

Every day, I give myself a lucky dip out of the selection at hand, and arrange my makeup around whatever I pick out.  Once every couple of weeks, I change all the lipsticks in the box.  I have too many lip products ...



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

Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint

Liz Earle is dipping her toes into colour cosmetics this September, and, prior to a full range of colour products coming to market in late 2012, the first product in the line is this, Sheer Skin Tint with SPF15.


Now, I'm a great fan of Liz Earle, she's an inspiration in the beauty business, and I think the idea behind adding a colour-range to the already impressive range of aromatherapy-based skincare is a great one, but I have genuinely mixed feelings about the Sheer Skin Tint.  Described as a pathway into cosmetics from the skincare, Liz describes this a tinted moisturiser, and certainly, the coverage is as light as you'd expect from something described as sheer in the name of it!

However, I find that Sheer Skin Tint is very thick, and can be difficult to blend as a result.  As the resulting coverage is so light, this isn't a big problem.  That said, I do find that I am constantly aware of this product whilst it's on my face, which isn't a feeling that I like very much.  I also find that it takes a long time to "set" on my skin - upwards of ten minutes - and this, very much, drives me bananas.  In the mornings, I'm very much a grab and go girl, and waiting ten minutes for what is essentially a tinted moisturiser to sink in is a bit of a waste of my time.  That's ten minutes I could have had in bed!


Also, when it finally does set, I find myself suffering from the unfortunate condition known as "stickyface". This is where a product makes your skin feel sticky and low-grade unpleasant for several hours after application. It's unusual to find it in a sheer tint! I've spoken to a couple of other beauty bloggers who've suffered from the same affliction though, as at first I thought I just had a dodgy tube. I also found that is has a habit of "grabbing" any powder products I applied over the top if I tried to put makeup over it too soon, which is annoying, because, although Liz herself describes this as a matte moisturiser, it's actually more of a satin (verging on dewy) finish, and owing to being slightly oily-skinned, I find it unwearable without a dusting of powder over the top.

All that said though, whilst I don't think this is a great product for me, I do think that some people will love this, and in particular my drier-skinned sisters (provided they're of the paler persuasion, there are only three shades available, and none of them will really cater for women of colour) are recommended to try it.  It's richly moisturising, and I haven't noticed it clinging to any dry patches of skin.  It does give a nice glow, and will even out your skintone, without giving a heavy appearance of being "fully made up".


Another nice thing about the product is that when you order it, Liz Earle will send you sample sachets so that you can ensure you have a proper colour match without opening the product.  If you find you've ordered the wrong shade, you can return the full-size product, and get it replaced with the correct colour for you.


All in all, it's not a bad product, it's just something I didn't enjoy using, and as such, I'd suggest anyone buying this should do as much research as they can before they splash out the £21 this will cost on release next month.

The Fine Print: PR sample.


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

Laura Geller Vanilla Nudes Collection

Following this tip-off from the lovely girls over at London Beauty Review, I cracked and bought my second Laura Geller set from QVC.  I bought one last year, loved it, and totally forgot to review it, so I'm not making that mistake again!

The set comprises:

• Balance n'Brighten Foundation (choice of Tan, Regular, Fair and Porcelain - I bought Fair)
• Baked Cheek Dream blush and highlight compact in Neapolitan
• At Long Lash mascara in black
• Italian Marble Lipstick in Banana Berry
• Baked Eyeshadow and Eye Rimz in Vanilla Toffee and Black Cherry

 Here's a closer look:

Laura's range is based around baked minerals, and I've always found her products to be really high quality.  Last time I bought a Laura Geller TSV, I bought the foundation in Regular, and have found it to be just a tad too dark for year-round wear, so I selected fair this time:

I love the camouflage appearance of this in the compact!  It's a mixture of pigments, designed to correct and cover flaws, and it's delightfully soft and silky on the skin.  It gives light-to-medium coverage, I've found, but you can also use it as a very nice finishing powder.

The highlighter-blush combo is very nicely done too:

These have been swatched very heavily in order to show up on the photo, you have a pale yellow (it's not gold as I anticipated) a strawberry pink, and a browned-berry shade, which makes a good contour colour if used alone.  Mixed together, you get a nice, sheeny medium-pink which is very flattering, but I couldn't get this to show up in swatches.  Suffice it to say that it's a lovely healthy pink shade, which will be suitable for cool skin-tones and paler warm-toned ladies.  If I had a criticism of the palette, I'd suggest that it would have been nice to have a wider strip of the pink so it could be used alone, but it's a minor quibble really.

The Vanilla Toffee  and Black Cherry Eye Rimz is a lovely product with a dreadful name.  On the skin, Vanilla Toffee is a creamy copper shade, perfect for a polished but not too over the top daytime look.  Black Cherry has a slight hint of pink micro-shimmer in with the black base.  It's not too pigmented though, so, again, is perfect for a softly smokey daytime liner look.  Both shades can be applied wet for a more intense "foiled" look.

The Italian marbled lipstick is the one product that gave me pause before ordering, as Laura was making a big song and dance about how the lipstick contains banana extract, and I was worried that the lip colour would be banana-flavoured as a result.  I'm happy to say that the lipstick is actually both scent- and flavour-less.  However, it's a very nude shade on me, owing to all the yellow in my stick, and, as a result, it's about as flattering a thing that is not very flattering.  At all.  It has a nice, light balm-texture though, and is very moisturising, so if concealer-lips are your bag (baby) then you'll love this.

At Long Lash mascara is very wet, and very thin, mascara - I normally prefer my mascaras a bit drier - but it has very good lengthening properties, and it doesn't flake or run during the day.  There was some hoo-ha on the show I was watching that made a song and dance about the mascara having a semi-permanent colouring effect on the lashes, but I can't say that I've noticed my lashes being any darker after removing the product.  The brush is nice and thin, and is shaped well to coat the lashes though, but it is not very volumising, so for me, this is very much a nice "day-time" mascara, for a nice natural look.  You will need to use an oil-based remover when taking it off though, as it's stubborn and likes to stay put ...

Overall, I'm really glad I picked this up and, some minor quibbles aside regarding not enough pink in the blusher, and the lipstick making me look like death warmed up, this is a really nice kit, and well worth the £33 or so I paid for it.  Laura's makeup is always well worth a look, and you can find a collection of her cosmetics on QVC, 

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