Mini Makeover - Genna

No time for a proper makeover this week - genuinely things are INSANE here at Get Lippie at the moment, but normal service will be resumed soon, I promise!

Last time Genna appeared on this page, we turned her into a California beach babe:

  This time, something a little more traditionally glam:

A smokey eye with a nude lip.  I used a pink Milani palette (more about that later this week) and MAC eyeshadow in Beauty Marked, alongside Bourjois Clubbing liquid liner, for a glittery, pinkish smokey look. It was a look we created for a party last night, hence no more in-depth photos.

What do you think, would you like to see a step by step on this look?

I fear the tangerine ...

(With sincere spologies to my Scottish readers!)

Spring is in the air, have you noticed?  I'm serious!  The last couple of days have definitely been a bit warmer, and I no longer feel the need to wrap up like the Michelin woman to consider leaving the sofa.

With that in mind, as the weather has made me think about warmer times, I've been gently warming my makeup looks up a bit.  Now, I fear fake tan.  Genuinely, and sincerely, fear the stuff. Never use it. I always think I'm going to end up looking like this:

Only, you know, with boobs. And better hair.  And ... oh you get the idea!

So, to warm up my colouring - and move slightly away from the taupe-rut (sorry, taupe "signature look") I've been in lately, I've been dusting myself with this:

YSL Poudre de Soleil in #1, Light Sun. It's a really nice, not too shimmery (though there is a hint, a very faint hint of gold shimmer in there), not too orange bronzing powder. At differing times, I use this as a blusher, a contour powder, an eyeshadow, and occasionally as a bronzer.  I've even used it as a face powder, it's that versatile. It's very pale, and so suitable for my currently pale-blue skin.  Come summer I'll be my more usual pale-custard shade, and I'll probably be using this a bit more often than my beloved Cargo Illuminator in wind, which is a good bit pinker, and a fair bit more sparkly, and so has been a wonder for the winter, but it'll be too pink for me come summer.  The Poudre de Soleil lasts a long time, I've used mine a lot (and it's quite elderly now) and I've still yet to "hit pan".

Speaking of pinker and more sparkly things, I bought this recently too, the Palette Y-Mail face highlighter in the pearly finish:

I admit, the packaging suckered me in, it has it's own little handbag!

Too cute. Now, I love the shade, the beige is lovely, the pink is radiant.  But the pearl. Oh, the pearl is a beautiful colour, but it's packed with chunks of glitter that I didn't notice either in the store, or the first time I used it.

Glitter is not radiance!  It's a menace! Okay, the powder isn't in the same league as Urban Decay's Midnight Cowboy, but it is very definitely there, and I'm not entirely sure it needs to be.  I had been hoping it was an overspray, but it appears to be throughout the pearl-shade. It's still lovely - and I'm really glad I picked it up - but you do need a light hand when you're swirling your brush over the pearl to avoid the dreaded glittery face-dandruff effect. You might love glitter, but ... it's something I expect in cheaper products, to be honest. Still a beautiful powder, but the glitter cheapens the effect they were going for, I feel.  Beautiful compact to carry around for glamorous touch-ups during the day though.

The last couple of days, I've just worn the bronzer on my cheeks with a swirl of the highlight on my cheekbones and over my eyelids, with a dash of mascara and a touch of lipgloss, and it's a very quick, simple and polished look.

Do you own any YSL? What do you love from the range? What's your spring makeup like?

Nail of the Day – LA Colour Antique Burgundy

While I was sorting out my nail polish drawer the other day, searching for a perfect red after the Crimsun debacle of last week, I pulled out all my Chanel reds – truly, I believe Chanel do the best reds, in either lipstick or polish – but this little beauty caught my eye.

And I use the word beauty advisedly, as I LOVE this shade, it’s a red jelly finish with just a teeny hint of gold shimmer, making it look like a really expensive metallic car paint job on the nails.

Neither of the pictures really do it justice, I’m afraid. They show three coats over a Mavala base, with a Seche Vite top coat. It’s a pure, clear red that doesn’t shade either pink or orange, and there’s no hint of blue in it.  I think it’s about the nicest, prettiest red I own, and it’s one I think really suits the skin-tone on my fingers.

Oh, the best thing about this polish?  It  cost me 99p. Now, when you bear in mind that I’m happy to pay £11 for a polish, and indeed, I’ve paid £16 for polishes before now, I think you can understand how happy this little baby has made me!  I got mine from Beauty Base in Westfield, but I think you can find LA Colours at places like Savers.

My nail drawer now looks like this by the way, whaddya think?

What I did at London Fashion Week ...

By Get Lippie, aged 32 and a lot of halves.

I don't get serenaded by middle aged men in body paint nearly often enough, I've decided.

I was delighted to be invited backstage (as a guest of Illamasqua) at the House of Blues AW2010 fashion event at London Fashion Week recently. An opportunity to get to see Alex Box work at close range was an offer I simply couldn't turn down, and after reading this interview with Johnny Blue Eyes on Helen and Sheenie's Nice Things the other day, I knew that this was going to be a day to remember! Believe me when I tell you that I haven't laughed as much or been quite that embarrassed in a very long time.

After meeting up with Helen, Sheenie and MizzWorthy, we had a brief Fashion-off (a competition I sadly lost in spite of my sparkly Converse) and then headed to the Freemason's Hall to find out where the action was.  We were thrust straight into the thick of things, and greeted with the words: "ARE THESE MY BLOGGERS? COME HERE, TALK TO JOHNNY! ASK ME ANYTHING MY DARLINGS, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?"

(Johnny Blue Eyes is the only man I've ever met who speaks in capitals. Imagine Brian Blessed with a hint of Julian Clary, and you'll be - somewhat - on the right track. For the sake of my sanity though, and your eyeballs, I'll render the rest of his conversation in proper grammar from here on)

Having been nudged to the front of the receiving line - Johnny was having his hair done at the time - I rather sheepishly asked what we could expect from the show, and the answer was rather surprising (apologies for this in advance, I'm writing this bit from memory), for me, at least.

"It's about colour, it's about peace, it's about love.  It's a reaction to the lack of colour in the world, the recession, natural disasters.  Why should winter collections be dull? I'm bringing colour - like the colour of your eyes darling, that's an amazing shade - to the the world".

Pulling myself together a bit, I asked if he was deliberately giving people the opposite of what they'd normally expect from a winter collection, and his answer was yes, and deliberately so, what he was trying to do was "democratise fashion, make it for everyone.  I'm a 42 year old man, and I'm surrounded by love.  All my models here today are real people, they're my friends, they're all shapes, all sizes, all ages, all sexual orientations, we're all people, and we're all the same, so I want to include everyone in this show, it's ALL ABOUT LOVE".

At this point, I moved onto have a look around the - crazily chaotic - room, and spent some time watching various makeup artists doing their thing:

 

 I found out that the models were all made up with the same base Illamasqua products:

Cream eye shadow in predator was used on the faces, which were then highlighted with both liquid metal in Solstice and pure pigment in furore. The cheeks were contoured with a fushia pink cream blusher in Dixie and the lashes used were no9.

 Then, once she had a chance to take a breather from creating Johnny's rather dramatic look for the show:

 

And once we'd all had a chance to recover from  Johnny's rather, erm, "colourful" call to arms to the women in the room (seriously unrepeatable here!), and I after I'd recovered from being serenaded  (pic above) by Johnny himself (about the most embarrassed I've ever been), I had a chance to chat with Alex Box herself.  We discussed colour, and style, and beauty blogging.  I've long been a fan of her work, and this was an amazing opportunity.

House of Blue Eyes: A Day In Pictures

Here’s some eyewitness scenes of what happens backstage at London Fashion week.  Check back later today for a written account of the day, including some exclusive quotes from Alex Box of Illamasqua!

 

 

      

 

Makeover: Sam

Two weeks ago, when I did my makeover on Rebecca from le Salon de Beaute, she brought along her friend Sam for a makeover too.  It was lovely to meet them both, and I was really happy to get the opportunity to makeover two such lovely women.
Meet Sam:

Sam  has amazing bone structure, and beautiful glowing skin.  She spends a lot of time outdoors, and wanted a clean and simple look that complemented her colouring. 
As always, we started with the base, and this time we used Benefit Playstick foundation in Jax:

For a lovely, sophisticated, but not too intimidating look, I always like to dig out my Bobbi Brown Chocolate palette, I thought the differing shades of chocolate brown, and champagne would be a good match for the kind of look Sam was going for.  Initially I covered the eyelid in a shimmering apricot shade, then added a darker colour in the crease:


I then went on to add a slight bit of definition with the expresso shade in the palette, and added some mascara:
 

I added a gentle flush of colour on the cheeks with Cargo’s Illuminator in Wind, and added a little slick of Bare Escentuals lipgloss in Caramel:
and here’s the before and after:

Excited!

Today, I'm going to be tweeting live (backstage!) from The House of Blue Eyes event at London Fashion Week. Follow @Get_Lippie on Twitter, I'll be using the hashtags #LFW and #HOBE.

If you don't tweet, don't worry, there will be a full report here in the next day or so. I'm really very excited, Ilamasqua are doing the make up for the show and this is a unique opportunity for me to see what goes on in a professional setting!

Wish me luck, I'm going in…

Mission Statement?

I try not to  make Get Lippie political - I've said before, it's all about the products and how they work as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd share this email exchange that took place today regarding a product that a PR firm wanted to see featured here my blog:

"Hi Louise,


NAME from  PR FIRM here,

I'm writing today to see if you would be interested in posting a new piece of video content on http://www.getlippie.blogspot.com/

MADEUPNAME is a fun new campaign encouraging you to get creative, take a look at the video here: MADEUPNAME.com

...

We can pay you to post this video, to sign up as a publisher and for payment please visit MADEUPNAME.com

If you have any questions please get in touch."
 
(emphasis mine)
 
My response was as follows:
 
"Hi NAME


Thank you very much for getting in contact with Get Lippie.

Get Lippie does not feature sponsored posts, and nor do I accept payment for posts. Nor will I ever.

 I write about products I've tried and tested - 90% of which I buy myself for the purposes of review. All products, regardless of their source, are tested thoroughly, and the reviews posted on my site - good and bad - are, above all, honest and true. I also do not feature video content, and have no plans to do so.

I believe that the concept of paying bloggers to feature products (not to mention your requirement that the posting be in a specific format) to be a pernicious one, and one I have no interest to be involved with. Your products may be wonderful, and in fact I have tried them already, but I will be unable to be involved in this particular project at this time.

Again, I thank you for your interest in Get Lippie. I assure you that if your product is mentioned on my blog in the future, my review will be honest, thorough, in the format of my choosing, and I will NOT have been paid to feature them."

I'm reprinting it here as I thought it was as good as a mission statement.  What do you think about the concept of brands paying for posts?

EDIT:

It's been pointed out by another blogger (quite rightly) that my posting appears to misrepresenting what the email is actually asking people to do. I'm happy to make clear, and put right, that this email isn't asking for paid endorsement of a product, that it is in fact a request to rent "ad-space" on the blog. Whilst I'm more than happy to put that miscomprehension right - and I'm happy to have been corrected! - the above is still a genuine email conversation, and it was based on how *I* interpreted the request at the time it was put to me (actually I feel that the email from the company involved could have been much better-written to make their intent clear. But, then I would!), as such, I stand by my comments with regard to paid posts, and would like to make clear that my reply to the agency involved would still have been in the negative, for a variety of other reasons. Other people can, and will, feel differently. That's the beauty of blogging!



The foregoing post is merely a statement of *my* intent on *my* blog at this time.

Christopher Drummond and Sue Devitt FotD

I've spoken of my love of "no-colour" makeup before.  This morning I was going for a totally neutral but slightly sunkissed look (so tired of it being dull and grey outside, so brought some sunshine to my makeup!), and so I reached for:

Christopher Drummond Veludo foundation in Fair
Christopher Drummond Finishing powder in Branco
Christopher Drummond Radiance Booster in Saude Pele
Sue Devitt Eyeshadow in Lonely Splendor
Urban Decay liquid liner in Smog
Cover Girl Lash Blast mascara
Cargo Illuminator in Wind
Chanel Rouge Allure in Incognito

Taupe is my go-to colour at the moment, and the Sue Devitt shadow has been a lovely addition to my makeup bag, it's a very soft and subtle shade:

As you can see, I'm still using Endora as my style icon at the moment, I love me a bit of swoosh on my eyeliner!  You won't be seeing any baby-blue shadow here though, I promise.

But what I really want to talk is the foundation, I've been having a lot of trouble with powder formulations lately, owing to having somewhat ... er ... mature skin, and it being a bit dry owing t the weather at the moment.  I find a lot of powders - and even some pigment-heavier creams are just sinking into lines and crevices during the day which I swear simply did not exist in the morning!

So it was some trepidation that I approached the Christopher Drummond foundation, powder and highlight, I'll be honest.  I was scared of looking cakey, dry and, well, old! I needn't have worried, these powders are silky smooth, and a delight to wear.

The Just Beauty Direct website (where my samples came from) says this about the Christopher Drummond range:

"100% natural, vegan, made with organic ingredients. These are products not only good for your skin, but good for the environment. Christopher Drummond believes that by having eco-friendly and animal-friendly cosmetics, we are contributing to the prosperity of our planet ... 

... Christopher's skin-friendly all-natural, organic based formulations include such soothing ingredients, including açai, and green tea, which contain healing antioxidants.

These products which have a natural sunscreen and are non-comedogenic will leave your s  kin feeling velvety soft and looking naturally radiant." 

What I liked about these was that you don't have to "buff" them into your skin, you just brush them onto your face, as you would with a liquid foundation, sometimes I find that the "buffing" required with other mineral foundations can aggravate a sensitive skin.  This foundation lasted really well, and didn't need a touch up until about three in the afternoon!  The finishing powder is very, very silky indeed, and the Saude Pele added just a touch of champagne coloured highlight to my cheekbones. I was delighted that there was no settling, no cracking, no caking and ... no ageing!

All that said, I'll definitely consider buying the full size product, even though it's priced at a wallet-thumping £50 - but that contains a travel container, full size foundation, and flat-topped kabuki for application - but, I'd be interested to see if Just Beauty Direct have any plans just to stock the foundation refills at any point, as I hate being forced into buying a brush everytime I just need a powder. Maybe I'll just get one of his liquid lip pots in the meantime, I think the samples are going to last a while!

You can buy Christopher Drummond products here and Sue Devitt products are available from QVC or Harvey Nichols.

Nail of the Day - OPI Crimsun

 Yes, it's another Holographic polish, but this is one I'm a little disappointed in ...

 Application was exceedingly sheer, meaning I still have visible nail lines, and ... it's pink. Not this orange shade you see here under my halogen lights, and not the crimson you assume from the name.  It's pink.  Fuschia-pink under most lights.  Not a bad colour, as it happens, but not what I wanted!

Also, the holograph-effect is barely visible on the nail.

It's a nice polish.  But not a great one. I like it, but I don't love it. It's also started to chip after about 18 hours on the nail.  Boo!  Holographic polishes are notoriously chippy though, so maybe that's me being picky. I bought mine from eBay.

Organic Wednesday - NEOM Candles

Candles.  Oh, how I love candles!  Jonathan Ward, Kenneth Turner and now NEOM, I love them all ...  was especially delighted when I found out this week that NEOM are expanding their fragrance library to 12 this March with the addition of two new varieties of candle.

Serenity, which has hints of vanilla and sandalwood and about which NEOM say: "For the ultimate piece of me-time, comfort in warming tones of vanilla, a fantastically comforting scent, combined with woody and calming sandalwood. Also works as a gentle aphrodisiac."  Hmn, now that sounds more interesting than I thought when I first read it ....

Also, (and this is the one I'm really excited about) they're bringing out a Sumptuous variety too, which combines rose and neroli - two of my all time favourite scents - and they have this to say about it:  "The most deliciously decadent scent in the NEOM library, rose is calming, soothing oil whilst precious neroli (orange blossom) lifts your spirit and calms the mind. Quite simply - the most opulent feel-good scent in the world."  

Now my mum is an aromatherapist, a reflexologist and a reiki master (she needs to get out more) and she uses neroli like it's going out of fashion, so basically, this scent will make me think of home, and help uplift my spirits at the same time.  I can't wait to get my hands on one of these babies for a sniff.  I think I might also send my mum one for Mother's Day ...

The candles are entirely organic and have a natural base.  You can buy them from NEOM online, or Planet Organic.  I'll be chatting to Nicola Elliot about the brand very soon, so you'll be able to find out more about them then, keep an eye out!

Organic Wednesday - Dr Bronner vs Method

Doing things slightly differently this week - haven't done a side by side comparison for a while, so I thought I'd do one now.

I've mentioned how much I like Dr Bronner soaps before and they have a new one available from their Shikakai range, and in this trial, I'm using the peppermint version - I'm a sucker for peppermint:

And in the clear corner, I'll be testing Method's handwash in Sweet Water:

Now, both of these products are organic, and claim to be non-drying, and contain no ingredients known to irritate skin.

Here's how they look out of the bottles (Dr Bronner first, then Method)

 

Dr Bronners is a thin, runny liquid that's very difficult to control ... it's also an odd colour, how unnattractive is that yellow-y brown?  The Method is a more familiar gel-style affair (trust me, it is there in the photo, I assure you!) that won't run all down your arm while you're trying to take photos of it.  Of course, that might just be my problem ...

Here's how they foam.  I don't know about you, but I LOVE a proper foamy handwash, even though I know that many foaming agents are bad for your skin!  As before, Dr Bronner first, then Method:

 

Just to be clear, I used one full pump of each product, and hands were washed consecutively, in the same temperature water.  As you can see, the Dr Bronner has foamed up magnificently, very surprising as the main ingredients appear to be sugar and a seed extract! The Method doesn't foam up nearly so well, although compared to a lot of organic SLS-free cleansers, it's actually pretty good.  Even compared to Method's own moisturising handwash, this is good foam.  Dr Bronner's peppermint smells precisely like washing your hands with a stick of Blackpool rock (not as sticky though) where Method has a more generic, gentle, slightly perfumed scent, which is not at all unpleasant.

Neither soap left my hands dried out, which is great. Even though I do like a foaming hand wash I hate it when it leaves my hands feeling dry after, or worse, feeling like I need handcream.  I don't believe in handcream (or toner, or body lotion.  Yes, I'm a weird, I know), so don't use it too often, and hate feeling that another product I'm using is forcing me to use it.

I guess which one you'll prefer will come down to what you want from your handwash, Method's wash is undoubtedly the one that'll look more stylish in your bathroom, but Dr Bronner is the one that'll give you the most satisfaction when you use it!  Both of these have pride of place in the bathrooms around our house, and I guess which one we buy next depends on which one runs out first!

Dr Bronner is available from Victoria Health, independent health food shops and Liberty in London, whereas you can buy Method from Boots, Waitrose or from the Method website.