Elizabeth Arden Grand Entrance Mascara

I posted a bunch of selfies on instagram last week, not something I usually do, but in every single one someone went out of their way to compliment my "beautiful" eyelashes.  I'm lucky, my lashes are quite long naturally, as well as being black, and they curl quite well with a good mascara, but they are a little thinner than I would like, sometimes.  I use all kinds of mascaras, but have a particular fondness for anything that will give me daytime drag-queen lashes.  I want length, I want volume, and I want curl, but I mostly want my lashes to be visible, which means my mascara has be to be very, very, very black indeed, otherwise my lashes just look dusty.

Enter Elizabeth Arden Grand Entrance Mascara.  Equipped with a scooped brush that hugs the lashes tightly, and has short, plastic bristles (always my favourite kind) of differing lengths and thickness on the wand, it combs through lashes easily, and deposits just the right amount of mascara with every sweep.  It's black, too, very black, and easily covers my lashes.  It adds curl, and a nice amount of volume, and I'm incredibly pleased with it.

I've been using it for a couple of weeks now,  and it has rapidly become my "go-to" mascara. It applies nicely, without clumps, separates the lashes well, and doesn't run or flake throughout the day.  I'm a fan!  In the picture below, you can see just what a difference two coats of Grand Entrance makes to my lashes:

Before and after

So, a good brush, a great formula (I'll gloss over the ever-so-slightly tacky tube), and great lashes, no flaking, no smudging and no running.  What more could you want?  Currently it's on offer for £15 (a great price, and I'll be picking up backups for sure) but it'll normally be £22. 

The Fine Print: PR sample 


This post: Elizabeth Arden Grand Entrance Mascara originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Skincare of the Week 11.10.15

No blog posts last week because I was unwell last Sunday and I simply couldn't face writing in the slightest.  I still kept up with my skincare routines though, because I do (occasionally) have standards ...  The routine above was a night-time one mid-week, from when I had a congested chin - complete with zit!  I haven't had a zit in a couple of years now!  Stupid hormones - I'll be reviewing the Pixi Skintreats Glow Mud Cleanser in full tomorrow, but I found that a mixture of the Overnight Glow Serum (a gel formula with 15% glycolic acid) on the congested areas and the Nourishing Sleep Mask (which contains lavender and hyaluronic acid) on everywhere else really, really helped.  The zit was only in place for a day or two, which was nice...

Another night-time routine later in the week had me trying these Elizabeth Arden Skin Illuminating Advanced Brightening Night Capsules, and I'm looking forward to using these a couple more times, as the texture of the formula is fabulous, and I was left with lovely velvety smooth skin in the morning.  Hopefully they'll be like that every time!

For more daytime routines, please join me after the jump.

Elizabeth Arden Sunkissed Pearls Cream Eye Shadow Stylos

Now, if you had asked me recently what my favourite cream eyeshadow stick/wand/pencil/crayon/whatever was, I'd have answered the Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks I featured yesterday, but I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by these limited edition "stylos" from Elizabeth Arden when they arrived a little while ago.  These babies last.  And last, and last ... it is safe to say I definitely saved the best for last this time.

Available in three shades, (from L-R), Fresh Water Pearl: a gilded pink, Bronzed Pearl: a warm metallic brown, and Blue Pearl, a golden deep turquoise. these are part of the incredibly pretty summer collection from Elizabeth Arden.

Trying - and failing miserably - to capture the lovely holographic effect on the packaging

These are crazy pigmented, but can be blended out easily for a sheerer coverage. and the colours are well chosen for a summer look.  The cool Fresh Water Pearl is my particular favourite, as it blends well with my skintone, but Bronze Pearl works well with it, if you fancy wearing two shades together.  I like Blue Pearl as an eyeliner too.

They are very creamy, and soft, and there is no dragging whatsoever.  The creams spread easily, and blend together beautifully, and look good either together or alone.  The shades are gorgeously multi-dimensional, and not flat at all.

Oh, and when I say these last, these really last - this is a picture taken 24 hours after swatching (which encompassed showers and doing dishes):

They do remove easily with an oil-based cleanser though, don't worry!

The other thing that endears me to these is the sharpeners, not only do they come with the pencil, they're part of it, so you can't lose them, the base of each pencil detaches and forms the sharpener.  Cute and practical!

They're also probably the cheapest pencil I've featured in this series, at £19 each, but they're limited edition, so hurry, hurry, hurry, they're in store now ...


The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


This post: Elizabeth Arden Sunkissed Pearls Cream Eye Shadow Stylos originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Moisturising Lipstick: Matte - Rose Petal and Bold Red

I'm still in a lipstick kind of mood.  Aw heck, I'm always in a lipstick kind of mood, there's a reason why Get Lippie is called Get Lippie, after all ...

I do, I admit, have a bit of a soft spot for Elizabeth Arden lipsticks, mainly because I love the packaging so much, I think they look like tiny golden tardises (Tardis's?  Tardi?), they're classy and cute, which is a tough trick to pull off, I think.

Inside we have two shades of the newest Elizabeth Arden matte lipstick formula, in Rose Petal (on the left) and Bold Red, on the right there.

Matte lip colours were huge last year, and they're showing no signs whatsoever of being a craze that's dying out this year, which, as a matte, opaque lipstick fan, I'm very grateful for.  Your mileage may, of course vary, but I love full-coverage lips, sorry!*

Rose Petal is a soft rose-mauve, a little on the pink side, and Bold Red looks quite bright in the tube, but in wear is actually a lovely soft red, a little on the warm side, but easily wearable on most skin-tones, as it is more muted than it appears in the tube.

Against skin, the colours are saturated and bright, not powdery matte at all.  The texture is whisper-light, and creamy, you can barely feel it on your lips.  I blotted them down slightly on my lips, however:

Naked lips

Elizabeth Arden Rose Petal

Elizabeth Arden Bold Red

Rose Petal is just a slightly cooler version of My Lips But Better on me. It reads as "nude" on my lips with my skintone, making this a very versatile shade.  Bold Red is, for me, an incredibly wearable shade of red, rather neutral on the skin, and not screaming RED LIPSTICK APPROACHING!, which is nice.  I admit, I do find reds easier to wear than most people, and this shade is particularly appealing to me.

There are three other shades in this range, Coral Crush, a light tangerine, Nude, a slightly yellow-toned beige, and Raspberry, which is a very cool fuchsia, which I like very much indeed.  The formula is light and not drying, and has a slight satin finish.  Lasting properties are pretty much as you'd expect, though I did find that the brighter colour had a slight staining effect, meaning you don't get so much of the red ring of doom effect as the lipstick wears off.  Which is nice.

They retail for £21, and are available nationwide.  And hey, who doesn't want a Tardis-shaped lipstick in their handbag?

*Not sorry.  Not even a little bit.

The Fine Print: PR Sample

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


This post: Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Moisturising Lipstick: Matte - Rose Petal and Bold Red originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Cheap Smells (or how to smell good without breaking the bank ...)

By Laurin

I recently overheard someone dismiss a wonderful early 90’s commercial blockbuster fragrance with a wave of the hand and a dismissive, “It’s a bit…high street for me.” House rules prevent me swearing on this blog, so I am unable to repeat my exact thoughts. However, I would like to offer the following observation: “Your MUM’S a bit high street.”

Nobody wants to be basic, but in the rush to prove their connoisseur credentials with incessant name-dropping of the obscure, expensive and hard-to-find, perfume enthusiasts often wilfully ignore the fact that not everything that smells good is exclusive or requires a second mortgage. There is no shortage of mediocre scents bearing outrageous price tags to fool you into thinking they’re something special, and by the same token, it’s possible to find some great fragrances for very little money at all. 

All the perfumes below can be had for under £30.

Bvlgari Black - £24 for 40ml at www.amazon.co.uk

I would consider this a bargain at four times the price. The fact that you can buy two bottles and still have change from a fifty pound note is surely proof that there is a God, and She wants us to smell good. It contains notes of rubber tires screeching on hot asphalt, smoky black tea, vanilla, cedar and bergamot, but to attempt to pin this fragrance down to a mere collection on notes is to ignore its ever-changing complexity and almost human presence in a room. It walks softly, but carries a big stick. Or, as my friend Amy once put it, “This is a fragrance you wear when you need to rescue a vegan from a swamp.”

Chopard Casmir - £12.95 for 30ml at www.amazon.co.uk

This was the first grown-up fragrance I bought with my own money. I have a hazy, possibly false memory of billowing red scarves and gold turrets at the Dillard’s department store launch in Mobile, Alabama. The idea of smelling like an Arabian Nights fantasy princess while my peers were showering in squeaky clean CK One absolutely appealed to pretentious 16-year-old me. If I smelled this on a teenage girl today, I wouldn’t know whether to high-five her or order her into the bathroom to scrub that off NOW, young lady. Casmir is a daring overdose of vanilla, musk, benzoin and tonka, just made wearable with baskets of peach, mandarin, blackcurrant and overripe tropical fruit. It’s no surprise to me that it was created by Michel Almairac, the nose behind the outrageously brilliant Gucci Rush. Wear it while wrapped in cashmere and dreaming of ancient souks. Or give it to a teenage girl with a wink and a copy of Delta of Venus.

Elizabeth Arden Sunflowers - £10.00 for 30ml at www.superdrug.com

I own a small handful of what I like to call “Sunday Evening Perfumes”. They are for spraying medicinally, by the gallon, to dispel anxiety and unease. With its sunny notes of citrus, juicy honeydew, mouth-watering peach and breezy orange blossom, Sunflowers is the closest you can get to a bosomy bear-hug from a long-lost friend without getting on a plane. It’s simple, happy and completely without pretension. Spray with joyful abandon, or when joyful abandon is in short supply.

Karl Lagerfeld Sun Moon Stars - £12.00 for 30ml at www.amazon.co.uk

Official notes: Pineapple, jasmine, freesia, bergamot, vanilla and musk. Off the record: Like being strangled with a candy necklace by Karl Lagerfeld’s ponytail. Sweet shops and Brylcreem. Only buy this if you’re a collector of perfumes by Sophia Grojsman, or a fondness of mid-nineties “Celestial” themed décor. And if either of those descriptions do apply to you, drop me a line. I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady - £30 for 10ml (well, sort of) at www.lessenteurs.com

If, on the other hand, I haven’t convinced you of the delights to be found in purchasing a fragrance in the same shop that’s running a special on Tampax, take heart. There is always the option of pooling your resources with your similarly high-minded friends and splashing out on a travel set of Frederic Malle’s Portrait of a Lady. At £90 for three 10ml travel sprays, this is stretching the concept of a “budget” option, but I find it helps to think of it as investing in your share of a masterpiece of modern perfumery. Dominique Ropion’s instantly recognisable accord of rose, patchouli, incense, cassis and raspberry is the only perfume I’ve ever worn that has caused strangers to chase me down the street, just to find out the name. Would that ever happen with a Jo Malone? I rest my case. BARGAIN.

This post: Cheap Smells (or how to smell good without breaking the bank ...) originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Best of 2013 Pt II

Fragrance of the year:

Maison Francis Kurkdijan - Aqua Vitae

According to Persolaise, I said it best  - at a preview of the scent -  when I mumbled that it smelt like a hug from the seventies.  I'm astonished that I've not really written about this fragrance since though (might be something to do with having my best line used before I could commit it to my own blog post alongside a touch of the writers block I've had recently.  Oh well!) ... Anyway, there's something reassuringly familiar and comforting about Aqua Vitae, alongside something a little disturbing.  Built around citrus, hedione atop a base of guaiac wood, there's a hint of CK One here, but also very much more. It's richer, deeper, and more enjoyable to smell, but I can't avoid the comparison between the two completely.

Francis was inspired to produce this by the phrase "the space between us", and, in a way, this is precisely what he's created.  Smelling Aqua Vitae is like slipping into a favoured clothing item of a loved one who isn't with you, wrapping yourself in the ghost presence of your beloved, and smelling and comforting yourself with all the associations you have with that person.  It's the smell of nostalgia, of love, of longing and comfort, with just a hint of the smell of their body too.  It's not a groundbreaking smell, it'll drive you a little crazy in fact, trying to remember precisely what smell it is that it actually reminds you of, but it's a wonderful scent to wrap yourself up in, cozy, warm, comforting and very, very sexy in a quiet, understated kind of way.   Less a fragrance, and more a complete sensory experience, it's the most memorable thing I smelled all year.  The price however will make you cry: it's £175 for 200ml.  Mind, a bottle that size will last you forever.

Fragrance Bottle of the year:

Elizabeth Arden: Untold 
 
Whilst I don't particularly care for the fragrance (it's perfectly good, by the way, just a little too sweet for me), this beautifully tactile design, which looks completely different from every angle, is one of the most gorgeous bottles I've seen in a long time

Combining curves and geometrics with the transparency of glass, and the permanence of metal, it's an objet d'art in its own right.

Fragranced Toiletries of the Year:

Noble Isle

I'm an idiot, I spent a great deal of last year completely ignoring the press releases about Noble Isle as I had the impression that they were some kind of fruity aromatherapy brand.   More fool me, because, whilst the marketing of the products is based on traditional British ingredients, such as rhubarb, and their imagery is based around hedgerows and rolling countryside, there are some seriously good scents in this range.  Rhubarb, Rhubarb for instance, whilst it is distinctively fruity, is sharp, and rounded and gloriously juicy, more like a fine perfume than the fruity stew I was expecting.  Whisky and Water is woody and peaty and smokey, and gorgeous.  Fireside is also smokey, but gloriously spicy and comforting with it.  Since being given a bottle of shower gel to try, I've bought hand soaps and hand creams to keep by every sink in the flat, and I've bought bottles and bottles of different products as gifts for other people too. The packaging is sophisticated and unisex, and the contents are glorious. Don't be an idiot like me, try some Noble Isle, you might like it.  Brad Pitt does ...  

Candle Brand of the Year:

 Neom

 God, I do love a Neom candle.  Clean-burning, and gloriously scented, I burn a Christmas Wish, well, every Christmas ... scented with orange, cinnamon and rounded out with tonka bean, one of these will last you a good few  weeks if you burn it a couple of hours a day. AND it smells of Christmas what more could you want?  This year, I supplemented my Christmas Wish with the Pine, Cedarwood & Eucalyptus varieties, and a Comforting home scent too, which is a smokey-scented blend of cedarwood, star anise and vetiver.  Burned separately, or together, these are the scents of winter.  At £42 each you'll get a couple of Christmases out of each if you burn them judiciously, but they're currently available on the Neom website at  £30.50, which is a bargain!  Go snap them up, and hoard them till next Christmas, you won't be disappointed.  Might have to get a couple of backups myself ...

Hair care product of the year 

 Aveda Sun Care After Sun Masque

A late entry into the hair care stakes, this was a product I gave the harshest of tests to, I took it on my honeymoon!  Sun, sand, sea, chlorine, all are hell on the hair, and, when your hair is both curly and coloured, a holiday is about the worst thing you can do to your hair. Ironically, I came back from my trip to the Maldives with hair in better condition than I went away with!  From the slightly fizzy ginger scent, through to the great slip, and down to the wonderful condition this leaves your hair in, this is a fab product.  So good, in fact, I'm still using it now, in spite of the lack of sun!  And sea.  And sand. And pool.  And endless cocktails.  No, I'm not crying, why do you ask?

So there you have it, these are my discoveries of 2013, what was on your list? 

This post: Best of 2013 Pt II  originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper

Review: Elizabeth Arden Fragrance Free 8 Hour Cream

I still have the first tube of Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream that I ever bought, there's still some left, and it's still perfectly useable.  Yes, I'm a skank, but, well, this stuff lasts forever.  Something else that lasts forever is the scent!  8 Hour Cream is the Marmite of skincare, you either love it, or hate it.  I freely admit, I go through phases of both, the scent is an acquired taste (it's a herbally-linament kind of a thing), and there can be some times where the scent is just too much to bear, so I'd use something else.

So, I was delighted when I heard they were bringing out a "fragrance free" version of 8 Hour Cream! It's a great multi-purpose balm, less natural, admittedly than some of the other balms you've seen on the blog recently, as it has a mineral oil base, but I do find it surprisingly useful, and moisturising, hence having had a tube around (I've bought, and used up others, but I like the retro packaging of my original tube!) for the best part of 20 years ...

Anyhoo, after using the "fragrance free" version for a while, I think the name is a bit of a cheat.  Whilst the fragrance is very definitely a world away from the original "Marmite" fragrance, it's very still a fragranced product, just a whisper rather than a shout.  It's a little sweeter, a little rosier, and very much muted, but it's still there.  It's still, seemingly, identical in formulation to the original though, in colour, texture and use, which is a nice change in a reformulation!

I'd recommend this is you're a fan of the original but have difficulties with the scent, or if you want to try 8 Hour Cream, but have been put off by tales of the scent, but, I must warn you, if you're expecting something that has no scent whatsoever, then you may be disappointed.

The Fine Print: PR sample.
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Elizabeth Arden Rose Gold Collection

Ignore the chintzy, and slightly dowdy, boxes, this is a beautiful, beautiful collection from Elizabeth Arden this summer, I've been very pleasantly surprised with what's in these boxes this year:

Yes, a collection of rose gold compacts, and lipstick. These are gorgeous, and really tactile.  What we have here are two bronzers, a highlighter and a lipstick:

You have (clockwise from left), Rose Illumination, bronzer in Soft Radiance, bronzer in Warm Radiance, and lipstick in Rose Aurora. 

A closer look in the same order:

  

And  swatches:

I'll be honest, it's been a long, long time since I picked up anything from Elizabeth Arden's cosmetic range (I've been a long time devotee of Green Tea though, and get through a bottle a year), and, I have to say that I've been exceptionally pleasantly surprised by the quality of these products.  

The powders are finely milled and very silky, which, despite some sparkles visible in the pans, are very easy to wear, and blend well on the skin.  The rose illuminator in particular is very flattering on the skin, and would suit a wide variety of skintones.  It was also nice to see different shades of bronzer - I've been using the soft radiance to "warm up" some of my winter foundations, which are just a shade too pale for this time of year.  The warm radiance would be a better choice if you've a more olive skin shade than me though.

The lipstick is creamy and emollient and very easy to wear, the shade, if I'm entirely honest isn't entirely right for me, but the formula is lovely.  And, I love, love, love the packaging!  A slightly better shade for me is Tulip, which is in slightly different packaging, but is a gorgeous bright pink:

 And just to show the difference in colours:

I just wish they'd done a translucent powder in that gorgeous rose-gold finish so I could carry it with me year-round!

Think you'll be picking anything up from Elizabeth Arden this summer?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.  There may have been a bit of squealing "ooh, it's PINK!" when I opened the boxes.  I'm *such* a girl sometimes.

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

Products I love - Updated!

For those of you who followed my last blog, you'll know that the original of this post (below!) was written the best part of five years ago ... how time flies! So I'm going to update the post, and see what's been replaced, and what's still going strong. I'll be doing a separate list of my new favourites later.



Kerastase Dermo Calm shampoo - Simply the best anti-dandruff shampoo there has ever been, for us sensitive scalped, dry haired people, plus it's good for coloured hair. Now sadly rumoured to be discontinued, I've recently bought four bottles just in case

... UPDATE I still use this, it was never discontinued (don't trust those pesky sales people who are only interested in upselling you to the products with better commission!) and I still love it. Have never found a product that soothes as well, and is as gentle on the hair.



Diorific 008 Mystic Mauve - The perfect neutral lipstick, if one ignores the quite ridiculously bulky packaging. Goes with smokey eyes or no-makeup makeups, somehow just makes your lips look polished and gives the perfect finishing touch to any face. And it makes your teeth look whiter, which is marvellous.

... UPDATE I still use this lipstick too, but I've redefined the colours I use as neutral these days, I use a lot more caramelly shades, and, some people might think this is odd, I use red as a neutral too. More about that later.


MAC Prolash - Great mascara with bulking fibres to make your lashes look fab of a nighttime. This was my wonder-product till I discovered Lancome Hypnose, which I find doesn't smudge as much.

... UPDATE: MAC simply couldn't compete with the Lancome Hypnose, for me! Sorry MAC, I love you, but Lancome do what they do so very well, it's not a fair competition any more.

MAC Strobe Cream - a cream highlighter/moisturiser. You can use this on your cheekbones/browbones for a highlighter effect, or use it in place of moisturiser for a slightly sheeny dewy effect. I like to dab a little all over a too matte foundation to make it look more natural. Did you know all MAC face products are vitamin enriched, like this one? I didn't either. And it's literally half the price and twice the size of Benefit's similar products.

... UPDATE: Still love this stuff, I love a dewy finish these days - I have reached that age where matte simply won't do any more, alas - and this is a marvel for mixing with other products where a sheen is necessary. There is no glitter, and no sparkles in it, so it's a little more subtle than a lot of shimmering products out there.

Laura Mercier eyeshadow in Twilight - a sort of purply-browny-greyish colour. You can wear this as a light natural colour wash across your lids, it's perfect for bringing out the green tones in hazel or brown eyes, but it also suits blue eyes. Or, you can use it as I do as the basis for the smokey eyes look as detailed earlier. The perfect suits all occasions and colourings eyeshadow.

... UPDATE: Still use this on a regular basis, but I use it more often as a subtle eyeliner, it's a beautiful shade still, and exceptionally versatile.

MAC paint in Untitled - a flesh coloured pigment in an artists paint tube. Can be used anywhere on the face - it comes in a variety of colours and finishes - but this one makes the perfect base for eye makeup, as it evens out the skin tones there, and gives the shadow something to cling to, and makes it last all day, and all night if it has to. Wonderful stuff.

... UPDATE: Still great, and still works (and still on the same tube! This stuff l a s t s) but it has serious competion from Urban Decay eyeshadow primer. In fact, if Urban Decay wasn't packaged so bloody stupidly, it'd be the hands-down winner in this category.


Urban Decay liquid eyeliner - I own about six of these, beautiful colours and simply the best brush yet found for ease of application. Stupid, stupid colour names though.

... UPDATE: Urban Decay still have the best selection of eyeliner colours on the High Street, and the product is just as good, BUT (and it's a big but) the new packaging makes it a lot more wasteful, and less easy to use. A case where less is indeed more when it comes to packaging.

Rimmel pencil eyeliner - there is no eyeliner pencil on the market to rival these budget beauties. Soft, easy to apply, and relatively long lasting, simply no sense in buying more expensive ones.

... UPDATE: They still rule. Other companies might come up with lovelier colours, but for cheap and cheerful, you can't beat Rimmel pencils in the UK. In the US, a totally different story, as Wet'n'Wild rule, but they're difficult to find over here.

Chanel Crystalle - my favourite perfume, I flirt with others, but I always come back to this. A green, floral, herby type scent, that's not at all sweet (my pet hate in perfumes, along with that horrible ingredient in certain perfumes that I haven't identified yet which makes me retch), and apparently it's very sexy. I love it.

... UPDATE: Oh yes, I still love this. But, my other go-to perfume these days is Philosykos by Diptyque. That's a glorious green fig scent. I think green is my favourite perfume type, by far. That and incense. Again, more about that later.


Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream I never leave the house without a tube of this about my person somewhere, I use it as a lip balm, to pat on foundation to get a glow, as an eye gloss (great if you've smudged your liquid eyeliner, and want to make it look like a deliberate action), as a cuticle treatment, on spots, on flaky skin patches such as ankles and elbows, on scratches. It's wonderful, and last for years. Don't buy the lip treatment stick though, it has too much added vitamin e and another ingredient which can actually make your lips flakier. And it doesn't contain petrochemicals, which is one of my pet hates in balm-type products. The original wonder product, and still the best as far as I'm concerned.

... UPDATE: Still can't be bettered, as far as I'm concerned. I must have a tube, tub, jar, or tin of every single balm on the market, and I must pick up a new one every week, but the only thing I've found 8hr Cream can be bettered on is scent. 8hrs wins because, when it comes down to it, it's more versatile. Wouldn't want to waste something gorgeously smelling on burns and zits now, would you?

Chanel Rouge Noir lipstick and nail varnish Beautiful colours, beautiful packaging. Chanel do reds better than any other make up company, and these are the best reds ever, no question.

... UPDATE: Controversial, this one. They are still the best reds ever, but not for me, these days, I think. They're beautiful, but they're too dark and too ageing for me to wear regularly. Currently, my favourite red is a Givenchy CanCan which is the brightest reddest red I can find - at the moment! - and I find it gives my face a little lift, which can only be a good thing, right?