LipsNspritz of the Week 20.12.15

Well, unlike last week, there were no hugely stunning nasal revelations, alas, but there was still a lot to love about LipsNspritz this time around, and one nice discovery, which is good.  If you're wondering what LipsNspritz actually is, it's my way of smelling something different every day in an attempt to cure my parosmia, and a way to force myself to actually wear ALL of my something like 6/700 different lipsticks.  I'm documenting them daily over on Instagram, where you can join in with the hashtag if you like! As well as lipstick and perfume, there's also generally gin, handbags, candles, the occasional sweary makeup bag, and very rarely (don't panic) a glimpse of my face.  

Anyhoo, this is how this week went:

Monday: Mercure Ombre by Terry De Gunzberg and Estee Lauder Empowered.  Mercure Ombre is a warm and rich blend of violet and orris with hints of a very lipstick-y rose, and powdery ambre-sandalwood base.  It's really rather lovely indeed, and I liked wearing it a lot. Empowered is a sheer warm tomato red, which is really nice to wear. 

Tuesday was L'Artisan Perfumer Nuit de Tuberose, alongside Givenchy Interdit Vinyl in Rouge Rebelle. I love Nuit de Tuberose, and it was a definite contender for my wedding fragrance back when I was searching for "the one".  It's an unusual take on tuberose, starting off with a bright but sour (and slightly green) mango, which also has something a little damp and bosky (even ... swampy?) alongside.  Then the chewy bubblegum confection of tuberose arrives, and it's fun from that point on.  I love the unusual mango-opening (I love sour things generally), and this is a great fragrance.  Givenchy Interdit Vinyl lipsticks aren't actually in-store yet, but they're sheer and lovely, and have some of the most pleasing packaging it has been my pleasure to photograph!  Full review on this (I have a couple of other shades to wear yet) coming up soon.

Wednesday was my work Christmas party, so I dug out my bottle of Nuit de Noel by Caron and paired it with a fab red, Raspberry Blush by Pixibeauty.  I love Nuit de Noel, and always save it for this time of year, it's gently spicy, and doesn't fall prey to any of the orange-pomander-cliches you expect.  It's soft and lovely, and a real skin scent.  Raspberry Blush is a great example of the slightly pinked-reds I love, and the texture on this soft matte shade is great too.

Thursday I wore Alaia by Alaia for a full day for the first time, and wore it with ByTerry Rouge Terrybly lipstick in Cherry Cherry.  Alaia by Alaia is a difficult fragrance to pin down, it has hints of suede, of rose, of apricot, but it also has a strangely addictive creamy quality (it smells like perfumed and well-lotioned skin after wearing suede gloves, I think) that reminds me slightly of the now sadly-discontinued Amaranthine by Penhaligons. All in all, rather lovely, but it'll take me a couple more wears before I can really pin it down, I think.  Cherry Cherry is a really matte red, that wears very well.

Friday saw me back in tuberose, but this time in a classic version, Fracas by Robert Piguet.  I first heard about Fracas in Rivals by Jilly Cooper, and I've been a bit obsessed with it ever since.  Jilly described it as a "sharp, dry scent", and it was worn constantly by Cameron Cook.  Jilly is sadly wrong about the fragrance, it's neither sharp nor dry, but it's a loud, strident, neon pink confection of hefty tuberose, and ... just a hint of sex.  And bubblegum (all tuberoses eventually smell like bubblegum to me, I have no idea why, luckily, I rather like the smell).  I love wearing this.  Almost as much as I love Jilly Cooper, now I come to think of it. Worn with my other Art Deco Dita von Teese (I have two, the other one is pinker), lipstick, which is blood red and hot.

Saturday was me in 1970 by Bella Freud (composed by Azzi Glasser), and Revlon Balm lipstain in Crush.  My parosmia has caused 1970 to be troublesome to me since it arrived chez Lippie, as it opens with both vetiver and patchouli - both of which my post-parosmic nose still struggles with and registers as burned - but on Saturday something clicked and the smell finally registered properly for me.  A happy occasion, as 1970 is really rather nice. Alongside the aforementioned patchouli and vetiver, there is saffron and rose, and after a rather full-on inital hippy-chick vibe, the rose and saffron take over, from that point on it's a lovely and warm and slightly spicy rose.  Happy to have discovered this one at very long last!  I do seem to default to tinted balms at the weekend though, it's too much effort to put on a full face of slap on a Saturday ...

There's one more LipsNspritz of the week to come, featuring all my favourite Christmas fragrances, and my brightest reddest shiniest lipsticks of the year, but that'll be my final post of the year ...


The Fine Print: PR Samples and purchases.


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LipsNspritz 31.10.15

  
It was definitely a week of two halves, lipstick-wise at least! Bright reds, by Guerlain (Rouge Parade), Burberry (Military Red) and Art Deco (Dita Von Teese collection) were the order of the day, particularly on Wednesday, when I felt a real need for power dressing, which called for a hugely long-lasting red (as the Art Deco is), and when paired with Donna Karan Signature fragrance recalled boardroom meetings in the late 80s.  Minus the power-suits, of course ...  Oh, and you can do a lot worse than a bottle of Kim Kardashian to brighten up a doleful Monday morning, btw ...

I mellowed out enough to allow Autumn a look-in on Thursday and Friday, pairing berry-colours from Lipstick Queen (Bete Noire, sheer) and Makeup Forever (Artist Plexi-Gloss 406) with Jo Malone Blackberry and Bay (possibly the most autumnal fragrance I own), and Hermes Eau des Merveilles, which being neither fruity, nor flowery, nor spicy, nor fruity is as difficult to describe as it is easy to love (it's probably best described as a salty orange, without the orange.  Yes, yes, I know).  Then on Saturday I was seduced all over again by Burberry sending me their Christmas collection, which includes a new Military Red in beautiful gold packaging, and a sparkling bottle of My Burberry to boot.  So I wore those, because, why not?


The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and personal purchases.


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Top Five Favourite Blushers

Since I had my colour-draping back in June, I've been looking to replace my not-quite-right golden coral blushes with something a little cooler and pinker. For a long time, I never wore blusher at all, fearing I'd look like a clown, or Aunt Sally or something, but I realise these days that my makeup simply isn't complete without blusher, and finding the right shade is deeply important.  I've been building up this tiny blusher wardrobe for the last few months, and here are my current favourites:

Clockwise from bottom left, we have:

Cargo - Bali
Art Deco - Blush Couture
Illamasqua Velvet Blusher - Peaked
Smashbox Halo Longwear Blush - In Bloom
Laura Geller Blush'n'Brighten - Ethereal Rose/Sateen Subtle Berry

All are pinks or plums of varying intensities, except Smashbox In Bloom, which is a rather pinked coral, which is probably the brightest shade here.  Swatches:

 
 Swatched in the same order, you can see Cargo Bali has a slight hint of blue microshimmer, giving the pinkish coral a cooler overtone.  Art Deco Blush Couture is a lovely soft plum with a smooth satin finish.  Illamasqua Peaked (in the centre) is a very cool raspberry purple, which is a glorious shade, but I find it rather hard to apply naturalistically, it definitely needs a duo-fibre brush and an extremely light hand.  Smashbox In Bloom is a pretty pink-coral that is great with an extremely natural look for lightening and brightening my face.  I love it.  And then there is the Laura Geller Ethereal Rose, which is the one I've had the most use out of recently. It's probably the most subtle of the five here, but it still gives a great subtle glow, and a fabulous highlight effect.

Here's how they photograph with a flash:
 

As you can see, only Peaked and In Bloom have a matte finish.

What's your favourite blusher at the moment? 

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR Samples and purchases.

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Art Deco Dita's Classics

After being genuinely hugely impressed with several of the lipsticks from the Art Deco Dita's Classics collection, I thought it was only fair to try some of the other products in the range.  I found the display in my local Debenhams, and after a peaceful half an hour swatching (the stands are unmanned), I made a selection of purchases of the powder-based products.  

First of all is the palette you see above, Art Deco products form a modular system, you buy an empty container, then fill it with the shades of your choice.  The palette I picked out can hold eight eyeshadow pans, or two blusher-size pans and two shadows, or any combination thereof.  The empty palette costs £14, it has a good sized mirror, emblazoned with "Beauty is Art" at the bottom.

I basically went for neutrals, as the lipsticks I have from the collection are all on the bright side, I thought that neutral shades would complement them best.

I picked out a black (for tightlining), a slightly warm champagne, a dark rich brown, a cool shimmering white, and, of course, a taupe, this time matte, as I don't have too many matte taupes.  Is there such a thing as too many taupes?  If there is, I don't want to know.  The blush is a cool rose, and what you can't see here, because I'm a lousy photographer, is that there is a tiny hint of iridescent blue shimmer in the formulation.  It's not like anything else I own, and it's very beautiful.  It's not at all sparkly on the skin, which is nice too.

 
The shadows, whilst not as buttery soft as some I've come across, are nice and velvety on the skin.  I find them both easily blendable and buildable. When you factor in their £6 each price point, they're extremely good quality.  I grouped the slightly warmer shades of shadow to the left, and the cooler to the right. 

The blusher costs £10.25, and whilst I normally don't like mixed palettes, there's enough of a lip around this one to ensure that you can use the blusher with most brushes, and not get it intermingled with your shadows, which is handy.

Here are  the same swatches blended out slightly (the swatches above were one or two passes on bare skin applied with a finger, hence the slight patchiness):

Overall, I'm deeply impressed with both the Dita's Classics collection, and Art Deco generally.  I love the freedom to create your own palette, and the price point is a good one too.  You can now find Art Deco at your local Debenhams.

The Fine Print: Purchases. Yes, I was that impressed.

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How To De-Scent A Lipstick, featuring Art Deco

I mentioned de-scenting lipsticks on my Facebook page recently, and got lots of messages about blogging the method, so I thought I'd tie it into a review of two lipsticks that I bought recently (and really like) but had troubles with the smell of.

Oops, always photograph before swatching, you 'nana!

Above you can see two Art Deco lipsticks in the velvet formula in 235 (on the left) and 628 (on the right), which are wonderful lipsticks, 235 is a brown-rose shade, and 628 (from the Dita's Classics collection - which I highly recommend, btw) is a warm dark red.  I love the Art Deco Velvet lipstick formula, it's on the matte side, but doesn't dry your lips out, and the pigment lasts and lasts and lasts ...

Swatches:

I adore practically everything about these lipsticks, aside from the scent, which is a vanilla fragrance which some people love, and I - personally - cannot abide. It's very, very similar to the scent of MAC lipsticks, which I think smells like chewed up paper.  But, like I said, some people love it!  Scent is such a personal thing in cosmetics, I've found.

Anyway, the scent in these was so strong, that I felt compelled to try de-scenting them, and I'm happy to report that, whilst the scent hasn't disappeared completely it's now been knocked down to far more tolerable levels.

The method?  Well, it's fairly simple, take your highly-fragranced lipstick, and do this:

Yes, take the tops off them. you don't need to twist them up - though you can do, if you have somewhere safe to put the lipsticks - i.e. somewhere you won't knock them over.  This is important because of the next stage:

Step two: leave them alone for at least 24 hours.  Some lipsticks will only take a day, some more persistent lipsticks may take two or three.  What you're doing is exposing the lipsticks to the air for long enough to allow the volatile scent oils to evaporate. These took around two days.

Step three: After a day, give them a sniff.  If the scent has been knocked back far enough for you, then pop the top back on, and use it from that point forward with abandon!  If it's still a bit whiffy, then leave the top off for another day, and repeatt step three until the scent is at an acceptable level.

So, yes, really quite simple.  Don't worry, your lipsticks won't dry out, but I really wouldn't recommend doing this for more than, say, three days...

Hope this has been helpful!  Let me know in the comments! 
 
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