The Very Best Christmas Present For A Beauty Blogger

Would be a lipstick named after them.  It's been a while coming, but, very shortly after Daniel Sandler and I cooked up this shade back in May, the wonderful Lynne Sanders of Cosmetics A La Carte let slip to me that they were adding "Luce" to their permanent line, and I've been like a little kid waiting for Santa ever since!  Imagine, a lipstick that real people can actually buy, named after little old me!

I finally caught a glimpse of it on the website this week, and just the sight of my name on that shade list gives me little chills.  It's definitely one of the greatest presents a beauty blogger could ever have, and I've been wearing my "Luce" all week in celebration*.  It's a lightly sparkling coral shade, which makes for great everyday wear.

My deepest, most sincere thanks to both Daniel Sandler, and Cosmetics a la Carte for making this particular beauty blogger's dream come true.  

The Fine Print: Not an affiliate link, and I'm not remunerated if anyone buys it!

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

Get Lippie's Lippie!

I'm interrupting my Paris posts today to let you know some astonishing news!  A couple of weeks ago Daniel Sandler and I created a couple of bespoke lipsticks  at the Cosmetics a la Carte store in London - purely for my own use -  and yesterday Lynne Sanders, the founder of the company, got in touch to let me know that they loved the shade "Luce" so much that they're introducing it to their range of off-the-shelf shades this autumn!


I can't even begin to tell you how happy and excited this has made me, what an honour!  I'm stunned that people will be able to buy something I've had a hand in creating, and that it will bear my name. Immortalised in lipstick, I simply can't believe it. I'll let you know exact dates as and when the details are finalised, but this is the single most exciting thing that's happened as a result of my blogging, and I can't wait to see if other people will love the shade as much as I do! 


But, that's not all!  Get Lippie is available to buy too!  The shade (a cool rosy purple) will be available from this Saturday (28th May), purely as a made-to-order shade for anybody who would like to buy one for themselves.  A few people were asking me how to get hold of it, so if you're interested, you can either pop into the store on Motcomb Street, or call 020 7622 2318 and buy one mail-order.  The cost will be £18, plus £4 P&P.


So, not one, but two lipsticks associated with this blog are available to buy, massive thanks to both Lynne and Daniel for helping make this astonished little blogger's dream come true.  


The Fine Print: None of the links in this post are affliliate links, and Get Lippie won't receive any payment should you make a purchase.  But if you do buy either of the shades, please send me a pic, I'd love to see!

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.

Bespoke Lipstick with Daniel Sandler & Cosmetics a la Carte

Picture the scene: a boring Tuesday morning at work, your mobile phone rings unexpectedly, and it's a world-renowned makeup artist who tells you that they want to create a lipstick for you.


What's a beauty blogger to do?


Well, in the case of this particular beauty blogger, you basically SQUEEEEEEEE with excitement, and run round the office like a lunatic for twenty minutes then say a very polite "thank you very much, I'd love that" then set a time, a date, and a place to sort everything out.

Which is how, two weeks ago, I found myself in the Cosmetics a la Carte store in Knightsbridge with two of my favourite people: one Mr Daniel Sandler and the always wonderful Lynne Sanders. Tucked away like a tiny jewel box in a very exclusive part of London, the  Cosmetics a la Carte boutique is a beautifully inviting, indeed, wondrous place to spend a few hours, and Daniel, Lynne and I had a delightful morning poring over the selection of lipsticks I'd brought along for inspiration (some of which you can see above), and trying to figure out what we were going to create.

First of all, we talked about some of my favourite lipsticks, and, once again, we spoke about my love for Chanel's long-discontinued "India" lipstick (Chanel, if you're reading this, bring it back!).  I've spent the best part of ten years attempting to find a dupe for this lipstick, and the nubbin of the shade that I still have remains one of my All Time Favourite Lipsticks of All Time, and after a while, we decided to use this as the "inspiration" behind my new signature shade.

This was where the fun really began! Using Cosmetics a la Carte rainbow of lipstick shades, we began mixing and matching lipsticks together in various combinations to recreate India (which you can just see at the bottom of the picture above), we mixed up three different combinations, then tried them on the lips to see how they matched up.

Once we'd hit on what we thought was a winning mixture (you can see Daniel writing out the "recipes" there) a little further chat revealed that Daniel also wanted to move me out of my comfort zone a little bit.  It might not be completely obvious to most readers of this blog, but it turns out that I'm far more adventurous with my eye makeup than I am with my lipstick ... what that basically boils down to is that there are certain lip colours that I simply will not try.  So, of course, it was decided that for lipstick number two, we'd go a little crazy!

Purple.  It's going to be huge this winter apparently, and that's where Daniel decided my lips had to go ... his inspiration was "Pretty Biba" or ... "Happy Goth" (and where have we heard that phrase before ... hmn?).  Now, I freely admit that I much prefer a bright lipstick to a dark one, having an inkling that dark shades are too ageing for me, these days, but Lynne and Daniel were insistent that I'd be able to pull this off.   I remained sceptical, but, it was kind of hard to resist!  Of the three purple groupings above, I was drawn to the one at bottom left, so we used those to start off with.

Once again, we mixed up a couple of shades, one brighter, one darker, and tried them on the lips to decide which colour I liked best.  Here's how the one at the top looked on:

Funny camera angles R us

There was a hard decision to be made here, but I finally made it - and selected one of them to be made up into a full bullet of lipstick.  You'll be able to see the finished results tomorrow!  And you'll find out what we called them then too ...


Now, you might think I'm a jammy so-and-so for getting to have a bespoke lipshade created (and, well, let's face it, you'd be right, I am blessed with great and very thoughtful friends who I've met as a result of this blog, and well, yes, I'm jammy), but one of the exciting things that I found out during my time in the store is that anyone, and I do mean anyone, can also have this service carried out for them at Cosmetics a la Carte.  All the staff are trained in this technique, and it costs £47.  Yes, £47 is fairly expensive for a lipstick, but, for a bespoke lipstick, created for you and you alone, I actually think it's a bit of a bargain, particularly when you compare it to the cost of, say, a Tom Ford lipstick at £35, or a Guerlain Rouge G at £28.  I think for brides, or for a special birthday, or any special event, it would also make a great present for someone, too.  To find out more, take a look at the Cosmetics a la Carte website.    Sadly, Daniel isn't included in the price ...

So, tune in tomorrow where I'll show you the lipsticks in detail ... 


The Fine Print: No PRs were harmed in the writing of this blog post, I was invited along as a friend of Daniel Sandler, the blog post is purely incidental. It's also belated, but that's another story ...



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

Lippie Chat - Lynne Sanders of Cosmetics a la Carte

Just a wee while ago, I was lucky enough to meet and chat with Lynne Sanders who -  alongside Christina Stewart, now retired from the business - founded Cosmetics a la Carte back in the seventies, after working for both Unilever and Yardley.  Cosmetics a la Carte have been providing women with bespoke cosmetic shades for all occasions, and individually blended foundations for any and all skin types ever since their inception. Renowned for their naturally glamorous groomed looks, Cosmetics a la Carte provide make up for women that is made by women who care what they wear too.

Lynne very kindly agreed to be interviewed for Get Lippie, and I'm both delighted and honoured that she did, she's a lovely, funny and warm lady who I took to immediately when I met her (she was eating a cupcake at the time, and hey, who doesn't love somebody who loves a cupcake?), and I've been enjoying re-discovering a British institution that's inspired many cosmetic brands the world over.

Hi Lynne, thanks for taking part! Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 

I really enjoy making make-up and being actively involved in helping women ‘find their look and be fabulous’ and enjoy dreaming about new products, concepts and colours.  It’s difficult to believe that I am 60 and have been involved with Cosmetics a la Carte for over 30 years.

Apart from enjoying my daughter it is the most fulfilling thing that I do.

How did you end up in the beauty industry in the first place?

I have been a convert to the transformation qualities of make-up ever since I was a spotty, pasty, teenager studying Chemistry and conscious that the concealers available to cover those spots were all the wrong colour!

Inevitable then that I should choose Cosmetic Science as a career and start making my own colours. The rest is history.

How did Cosmetics a la Carte itself come into being?

Four Chemists, working in the corporate world of Cosmetic R&D, frustrated with the ‘copy-cat’ marketing approach to make-up in the 1970s; opened a little shop in Knightsbridge where we had a lab to create make-up while pioneering Make-up lessons in the shop.
I seem to be the only one left!

What are the philosophies behind Cosmetics a la Carte?

Make-up is a crucial part of self expression, part of finding the look to be taken seriously as a young person and then keeping the look fresh, glowy, and not disappearing into middle age.

It takes just 3 seconds to judge someone on first meeting so it is important to send the right personal message and be ‘truly top of your own game’.

What makes Cosmetics a la Carte unique, do you think?

The wide range and personal approach is part of our brand ethos. We are well known for blending the exact shade with variations for all skins and whatever our customers need.

We are totally customer led, and a lot of our range has a celebrity origin. From Princess Diana who ordered a flesh-coloured lipstick to Lady Gaga who was wowed at the idea of  Flush Blush and Bubblegum gloss that shows in UV light!  Dannii Minogue created Candy, our super glossy staining lipstick with sunscreen, and Boy George during the punk movement meant that we were the very first with super bright shadows… the list goes on.

Who are you targeting the Cosmetics a la Carte brand at?

We are a little different. Our experience with over 30 years making products for women by women means that we really understand what it means to have the right foundation and we go to extra-ordinary lengths to find that for those that care.

What do you hope is in the future for Cosmetics a la Carte?

CALC was the first luxury British makeup company to make all their own products, with a personal and individual couture service including makeup lessons to “Find your look and be Fabulous” and we have expanded and perfected the genre of natural with advice ever since. We would like to take this all over the world. 

What’s your beauty regime?

I love wearing make-up so I try to accentuate the good bits of my face with clever make-up colours and application. Naturally with a nod to fashion, and cleansing my skin completely every single night! 
What one cosmetic product couldn’t you live without?

Can I only have one??  I suppose it would have to be foundation or concealer to cover up the shadows, redness and marks.

What beauty advice would you give Get Lippie readers?

Make-up is a wonderful way to enhance anti-ageing skincare or procedures by concealing flaws and providing an illuminating glow to the skin. Furthermore, technology now means that we can enhance these qualities by incorporating anti-ageing ingredients into the products so delaying dermatological procedures or sustaining benefits in between treatments, naturally and without toxins.

I want to say a massive thank you to Lynne for taking part.  You can find out more about Cosmetics A La Carte here

Is there anyone else you'd like to see featured in this series?  I have interviews lined up with several cosmetic-range founders, a celebrity makeup artist, and an international hair designer, alongside a couple of surprise guests, but if there's anyone specific you'd like to see featured here, please let me know and I'll see if I can make it happen.  You might also be interested in reading about the chat I had with Alex Box recently, too!

Foundation Week - Bespoke

It's foundation week here at Get Lippie, I'll be bringing you some hints and tips, and reviewing a few foundations (and the odd tinted moisturiser) from my collection for you too. If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll do my best to get back to you!

But I wanted to start the week off by mentioning Cosmetics a la Carte.  A lot has been written lately about the demise of Prescriptives, and people have been bemoaning that they're not able to get custom-blended foundations any more.

Well, Cosmetics a la Carte are, arguably, the company who Prescriptives got the idea of "bespoke" cosmetics from in the first place, and they've had a bespoke service for over 30 years! I had the pleasure of chatting to Lynne, the company's founder, a couple of weeks ago and was bowled over by her commitment to cosmetics and her enthusiasm for makeup in the first place.  I had a makeover from them, and loved their choice of items, too!

Cosmetics a la Carte will custom-blend your foundation to your perfect shade, in the format of your choice, matte, powder, satin or all of the above, if you so wish.  And best of all, none of that silly colour-matching nonsense with the yellow/red/blue and orange pencils, which only ever worked in proper daylight (and, not ever, in department store lighting), and was entirely dependent on the whim of the sales assistant in the first place ...

But I digress, if you want a bespoke foundation, Cosmetics a la Carte are the place to go, and the prices start at £45 for a foundation.  Take a look at the website, for more details, you can find it here

I'll be reviewing my foundation from them later in the week.

Do you have anything you'd like to see featured in Foundation Week?