Armani Lip Magnets Lip Swatches

In yesterday's post, I gave the full review, today is just lip swatches of the newly released Armani Lip Magnets.  The colours are lovely and pigmented, and easy to wear without drying the lips.

Top Row 300, 301 and 302
2nd Row 400, 401 and 402
3rd Row 500, 501 and 506
4th Row 601 and 602.

In the same order, here are the lipswatches, beginning with 300, 301 and 302

300

301

302

 The difference between 301 and 302 is slight, but 302 is slightly deeper and redder.

Now the reds: 400, 401 and 402:

400

401

402

The reds are actually very similar indeed, 400 is a little lighter than the other two, 401 is a little pinker, and 402 is the darkest, but there is very little in it.

Now the pinks, 500, 501 and 506 (the "nude")

500

501

506

 And finally, the berries 601 and 602:

601

602 - sorry, my lips were absolutely KILLING me by this point.

Armani Lip Magnets cost £27 each and will be released nationwide on October 28th, at the moment they're a Selfridges exclusive.


The Fine Print: PR samples.


This post: Armani Lip Magnets Lip Swatches 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

Armani Lip Magnets launch nationwide on October 28th

 2016 has been a great year for lipstick lovers, especially BRIGHT lipstick lovers, like, er ... me! Armani have launched a great range of mattes recently - they're currently exclusive to Selfridges, but they'll launch nationwide on October 28th, and I have a bunch of them here.  In today's post I'll talk about the colours and the formula, and I'll put swatches into the post tomorrow, otherwise it'll be a bit too much.  Launching in 18 shades, I have 11 of them here to show you - I'm just missing the nudes, I think.

From top (l-r) we have 300, 301 and 302.  Second row is 400, 401 and 402.  Third row is 500, 501, and 506, and the bottom two are 601 and 602.

The shades have been released in four different colour families, corals/oranges, reds, pinks/nudes and purple/berries.  They're all highly pigmented (though some are easier to apply than others), and they literally feel like you have bare lips once they're in place, and have "set" onto your lips.

(l-r) 300, 301, 302 Corals/Oranges

300 is a light, almost neon tangerine shade.
301 is a great medium coral
302 is a deeper warm red-orange.

This is me looking a bit tired in 302:

(l-r) 400, 401, and 402.

400 is a strawberry red.
401 is a cherry-pinked red and 
402 is a classic bright neutral red.  A quirk in the Armani packaging makes these look a lot more warm and "orange" than they actually appear on the lips.  Even my husband mentioned that they all looked "really orange" before I swatched them.

(l-r) 500, 501 and 506

500 is classic "bubblegum" pink on the bright side, but not too "Barbie"-looking.
501.  Barbie called, she wants her dream house back.
506 - a pinked mauve that is surprisingly easy to wear on this particular shunner of nudes.

Me moon-faced and slightly insane at 5.30am in 500:

And finally,

601 and 602 (at the front l-r)

601 is a cool-tone liverish purple
602 is a bright berry-purple shade.

602 in wear:

Can we say "goth"?

The formula is great.  A very thin and sheer liquid that can be easily built up in the more opaque shades, but I found that 300, 501 and 601/602 could be a little streaky if not applied carefully.  They have a "water-in-oil" formulation, which means they get more matte as the water in the formula evaporates off the lips, leaving just the pigmentation behind.  I haven't had any issues with my lips drying out whilst wearing these, nor do they feather or crease at all.  I have noticed an odd tendency for them to look glossier in photos than they do in real life.  I think this might have something to do with the light-reflective properties of the colours, which are opaque, but not at all flat, which is quite a feat.

The applicator is, quite possibly, one of the best I've ever used in a liquid lipstick format, it's firm, and doesn't pick up so much of the liquid that you have to smear it all over, and hope for the best.  It's on the small side, and has a very definite point to the tip, so you get an exceptionally precise application with little fuss, even if you're as cack-handed as I am first thing in the mornings!  They're not greasy, or slippery, and nor do they suck the moisture from your lips like other matte lipsticks I could (but won't) name.  They're an exceptionally nice, and easy wear.  That said, the wear time isn't like anything as great as a traditional heavy pigment and wax-based matte lipstick, but they wear off nicely (you do have to watch for the " red ring of doom" with some of the darker shades though), and they leave a nice stain of pigment on the lips.  The best (or worst, depending on your POV) ones for leaving behind a stain are the two brighter pinks (500 and 501) and the pinker berry shade (602).  None of the shades will survive a portion of chips, but they will stand up quite well to a couple of biscuits and a cup of tea (mental note, never blog when hungry).

Full lip-swatches tomorrow.  Armani Lip Magnets cost £27 and will launch nationwide on 28th October.

The Fine Print: PR samples



This post: Armani Lip Magnets launch nationwide on October 28th 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

Giorgio Armani Maestro Fusion Makeup Review

A review of two halves, this one.

I was so, so excited when I read about Giorgio Maestro Fusion Makeup, and was desperate to try it.  Described as a blend of five different oils, with a powder-free formulation, I thought this would be great for my combination-oily, but occasionally dehydrated skin.  I'm a massive convert to oils these days, using them for cleansing, moisturising, and as serums.  When it first arrived, and I first had a play on the back of my hand, I was exceptionally excited, I can honestly say I've not tried a foundation similar to it.

It's an exceptionally thin and runny liquid, which very much needs the dropper it comes with.  You do literally only need around 5-6 drops to cover your whole face.

 

 It spreads very easily, and is virtually undetectable on the skin, you can neither feel it, nor see it, it's amazing.  It blends away exceptionally easily, and leaves a matte finish (something I wasn't really expecting, admittedly). It has a very sheer coverage, but I find that it evens out the skintone very nicely.  This is shade five, which is right in the middle of the range, there are nine shades, which promise to match every skintone.  In actuality, the shades are very forgiving, and adapt well to individual tones, so picking up something that doesn't quite match isn't the tragedy it can be with some other foundations.  It's not great at covering imperfections though, so bear in mind that you will need a concealer with this foundation.

You should be able to see the slight difference on my hand there, but please bear in mind that my hands are much paler than my face, it actually matches pretty well with my complexion.

The first day I wore this, however, I was bitterly disappointed. Just four hours or so into wear, my face was showing "dehydration lines", and the foundation was clinging, patchily, onto any dry patches of skin.  It looked awful.  Dreadful. Possibly the worst foundation I've ever worn.  It made me look very old, exhausted, and worn out. NOT what you want in a foundation.  I put it away, and vowed never to use it again.

In the meantime, however, I've read a lot of similar reviews, and they made me think that maybe I should give it a second chance. My skin is in better condition at the moment than it was around the time of my initial testing,  and I've been wearing Maestro for a week or so as a result.  I'm happier with it, as, because my skin isn't dry or dehydrated right now, the formulation doesn't cling to any flaky patches, or settle into dehydration lines.

Whilst it's great that I can now use this to even out my skintone on good-skin/no makeup days, it kind of defeats the object of foundation, really.   The fact that my skin has to be in tip-top condition before I can use the product is galling - who has perfect skin?  I'll stick to Armani Face Fabric for good skin days.

Here's how it looks on my mush - you can see it doesn't cover pores, and is clinging slightly to my nose, but aside from that, I quite like the finish.

Lipstick is Burberry Miliary Red, I'm wearing a bit of mascara, but that's it.

Giorgio Armani Maestro Fusion Makeup costs £36.  What do you think?

The Fine Print:  PR Sample, and a long-overdue review. Good Face Days are few and far between.  Camel-face days on the other hand ... well ...

This post: http://getlippie.blogspot.com/2012/10/giorgio-armani-maestro-fusion-makeup.html 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

Giorgio Armani Spring Summer 2012 - The "Luce" Collection

The good folks over at Giorgio Armani sent me a surprise package last week, and it's a tiny bit special.    Especially if your name is Luce*!  I giggled a huge amount when I read the press release, it's not often a blogger sees themselves referred to as "Luce, the Armani light" ... Flattered though I am, I'm also slightly miffed there's no taupe ...

Anyhoo, the "Luce" collection this spring has seen Armani inspired by light, in particular the golden sunlight of spring, and they've created a new pigment: "Luce d'Oro" (literal trans: "light of gold") to sprinkle into their cosmetics this season.  The result is a collection of sparkling metallics, with just a hint of the traditional pastels we tend to see at this time of year.


Shall we take a look?

Here we have palette No.2, and the eyeliners in 04 (Or Antique) and 05 (Copper).  Here is a closer look, both with flash, and without:

The shades in the palette are very pretty, from top to bottom you have "Grey" (more of a greige, really, but an interesting shade, nonetheless), "Metal Fibre" (silver, with a hint of pale blue), "Copper Pigment" and "Crystal Brown", the names of which appear to have been applied to the wrong shades, if you ask me.


The shades vary a little in pigmentation, the "Grey" being the sheerest shade, and the "Copper Pigment" being the most intense, but on application, these are creamy and fairly intense in shades, but "Grey" was the most difficult to apply:



The eyeliners are almost exact dupes for two of the shades, I think!  Or Antique is very similar to "Grey", and Copper and Copper Pigment are almost indistinguishable from each other.

The eyeliners are the same creamy, smudgeable-then-unbudgeable gel formulation as the other eyeliners in the Armani range - one thing that makes me crazy about Armani eyeliners is that they are always limited editions, even the core shades like black! So very annoying - I have to say that Armani liners are by far one of my favourite pencil liner formulas, they don't budge!  These shades are great for lining around the tear duct though, and can be used to lighten up a dark eyeshadow look too.

The full range comprises two eyeshadow palettes, a blush, 2 eyeliners and four lipglosses.  I'll be off to Selfridges soon to check those out  ... Well, it'd be rude not to, eh?

* Yes, I know my "real name" is Louise, but no one calls me that.  Except my mum.  And my boss.  Oh, and my bank manager.  And MrLippie when I've annoyed him.  So yes, NO ONE calls me that. 

The Fine Print: Unexpected and unintentionally hilarious PR samples.  Mr Armani, you sure know how to spoil a girl ...


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

Random Face of the Day - Diorskin Nude Foundation Test

Apologies for the fact that I'm fully dressed here, random Googlers! I've been trialling Diorskin Nude foundation for about a week now, and I don't really have any hard and fast thoughts about it - yet - but I thought you might like to see how it photographs.

Alongside the Nudeskin, I'm wearing:
Sue Devitt eyeshadow in Lonely Splendour (a lovely taupe), 
Illamsaqua  Precison Ink eyeliner in Abyss, 
Giorgio Armani Eyes to Kill mascara
NARS Blush in Sin
Guerlain Rouge G in Galante (yes, I bought another one)


Six products is about the minimum I can make a FotD these days, even one as simple (though I prefer the term "classic" as this one).


Here's another shot in different lighting:

You can very nearly see my new teeth!


Have you tried Diorskin Nude foundation?  What're your thoughts?


The Fine Print: I bought everything in this post. Not all at the same time, I'm not made of money credit cards.

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

Perfume Review - Acqua Di Gioia by Giorgio Armani

Said to resemble a mojito, with notes of mint, water jasmine, brown sugar, and primo fiore lemon, this is the latest release from Giorgio Armani perfumes.  It's meant to also have some aquatic notes, and smell very "wet" as a result.

I've seen it described as a "floral aquatic", and many of the reviews I've read describe all the notes as read in the press releases.

I think maybe my nose is broken, because I smell melon (chanterais, maybe, a little honeydew, but definitely no watermelon), I don't get any of the mint, or the lemon, or the jasmine (no flowers at all, in fact), but after a while on the skin, I can smell the sugar.  In fact, after it's rather crisp'n'fruity opening, it's really, really, really sweet on my skin, to the point where I can't stand it any more.  It's a shame really, as on paper this scent sounds like it's really my kind of thing, I adore mint in perfumes - go crazy for it, in fact, as you'll see in a couple of weeks - so I'm terribly upset that this scent, to me, just smells like another generic fruity, woody musk that you can buy by the bucket-load anywhere in the UK.

That said, it'll sell MILLIONS. Armani perfumes are always stupendously popular, and this isn't a bad one, not by a long stretch, it's purely a malfunction of my nose, I think. I do adore the wonderfully tactile bottle though, it's a delight in the hand.

The Fine Print: Samples were acquired for review purposes.  If they weren't, I'd be reviewing something else, so there.

Review - Giorgio Armani Face Fabric Foundation

This review alongside this one finally made me take the plunge into buying a Giorgio Armani foundation.  I adore my Blushing Fabric blushers, so when I was in Selfridges lately, I thought I'd complete the set.

A 40ml tube will set you back £29 which is fairly expensive, but you use so little that I estimate that the tube will last quite a while.  It's not a full-coverage foundation, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's meant to echo how real skin looks, for a "makeupLESS" look.  It's a thick mousse-y style foundation, but it's whisper-light on the face. Here's how it appears on my skin - compared to how my skin looks without help (for which I apologise, please don't look too hard at my pores in the pic at left, thank you):

As you can see, it smoothes out my skin tone, makes it look, well, less pink. I find it adds a softly "powdered" effect to my skin, but on really hot days, it does have a tendency to disappear fairly quickly, and, because of it's light coverage, I find it's better for "good skin" days.  But, I LOVE this foundation beyond all reasonableness in spite of that. Why?  Because it's chock-full of silicones, and it makes my pores disappear when I'm wearing it.  Seriously, click on the picture above to enlarge it, if you don't believe me.  Just, you know, don't say you weren't warned.  If I need a heavier coverage, I layer it over my beloved Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturising Balm, which gives this just a little more "oomph".

Of course, if you're at all sensitive to silicones then this is most definitely not the foundation for you, but if you're looking for a light-coverage foundation which will negate the need for a primer, then this is one of the best you'll find. It comes in 8 shades, (I'm shade two), but the coverage is so light and "realistic" that an exact match with this foundation isn't as important as it might be with full coverage foundations.

Giorgio Armani cosmetics are available from Selfridges.

The Fine Print: I bought this.  And I'd do it again, I tell you.  AGAIN!

Armani Nude Contrast Palette - FotD

New for this summer, Armani have released two nude contrast palettes, one pink, one blue.   I was very lucky to have been sent the blue one to try recently.

That said, some of you will already know of my dislike of pastels – in particular pale blue – and find those sorts of colours impossible to wear, so this one was rather a challenge for me!

The palette consists of stripes of pale blue, a beautiful shimmering “old gold” shade, a thin strip of jet black, and a pure white highlight, this picture shows off the shimmer in the gold shade better than the one above:

 Blue and pure white are difficult shades for me to pull off with my (very) pale olive skin, but here’s what I came up with:

I used the white as a brow-highlight, the gold as a colour-wash all over the mobile lid area, the black as a liner, and the blue to highlight the inner corner. Mascara is Lancome Precious Cells, and the lipgloss is Lancome D'Absolou, I'm also wearing a hint of Cargo Plant Love Illuminator in Wind on my cheeks.

What this picture doesn't show is that I gave myself a double-flick of eyeliner, here's a close up:

I thought it was a good way to make this a little different to my normal liner.  The Armani palette is very nice, and of beautiful quality, it has definitely made me want to discover more about the brand, I can't deny it!

The black is very densely pigmented, it makes a great eyeliner, and doesn't have a grey cast on the skin. It stays very black, I'd have liked a wider strip of it in the palette, actually. I absolutely love the sandy gold shade, it's beautifully shimmery - with an almost holographic sheen - which makes it very beautiful.  However, I'm not entirely sure I'll be using the blue or white again, I kept getting glances of myself whilst I was wearing this (ok, I was looking at myself, I'll admit it), and all I could see was the pale blue, and it wasn't flattering!

How do you wear pastels?

Armani Nude Contrast Palettes are available from Selfridges and costs around £39.

The Small Print: This was sent to me for review purposes.  Gotta love a PR with a sense of humour ;)