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 of the week 08.11.15

 I ended up having a week of musk, it wasn't planned, but after wearing The Body Shop White Musk layered up with Serge Lutens Clair de Musc (a combination I'd planned to wear for my wedding, till I realised I needed something with a little more oomph!), I realised that I wanted to wear more of it. I wore these with ByTerry lipstick in Cherry Cherry, which is a great matte fuchsia.

My hyposmia/parosmia means that I still can't smell much when it comes to musk, but I do love musky fragrances a great deal, particularly "clean ones" like the ones here.  Tuesday saw me in Maison Francis Kurkdijan's Aqua Universalis Forte (possibly the cleanest perfume on the planet ever) alongside Guerlain's Christmas Rouge G offering, which is a nice, easy to wear rose shade.  Wednesday brought along an old-school musk in Musk by Alyssa Ashley, alongside Me Me Me Lip Sheen in Wild Plum.

 Thursday saw me in Kiehl's Original Musk Oil (layered over the matching body lotion, which is a little more flowery-smelling than the spray), and Chanel Dragon Lip Lacquer. Both classics, so a combination made in heaven.  Friday brought Jovan Musk which is probably the ur-musk of many people's childhoods.  I wish I had the oil version of this one!  I wore it with Zelens Lip Enhancer, which is a product that always makes me laugh.  A healing and nutritious balm with colour-changing properties, it always ends up a bright bubblegum pink on me, and reminds me of the lipsticks that were just the same in the early 80's.  Nothing changes.

Saturday saw the arrival, finally, of a full-size bottle of Seville a l'Aube by L'Artisan Perfumer, a fragrance I've loved since its initial release, but had finished my sample of.  It was another perfume I nearly wore for my wedding, but the groom-to-be found the mixture of wax, orange blossom, incense and amber had a little too much "oomph" for his taste (he's a buffoon, but I married him regardless) and so it remains my own perfume pleasure.  I wore it with EOS lip balm in Soft Lemon because it was the weekend, and I can't be bothered wearing makeup at the weekends ...

What've you been wearing?

The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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L'Artisan Parfumeur Fragrance Profile Service

Nuit de Tubereuse by Bertrand Duchafour

When planning a wedding, there are a million decisions to be made, some big, some small, and all seemingly important, at least to someone! Fragance is an important addition to a wedding, I think. I've known, almost since the moment we got engaged, what perfume I was going to wear to get married in. I'd picked out Seville A L'Aube, created by Bertrand Duchafour for L'Artisan Parfumeur, as, from the second I smelled it initially, it spoke to me, and I'd been dreaming about it ever since.  It's released this week, and I had been planning to buy a bottle.


But ... MrLippie doesn't like it.  In his words, it is, "too strong and too heady", apparently.  Which is a shame, because it is a stunningly beautiful orange blossom and incense fragrance, which would have been perfect for a winter wedding. Warm and floral, and seemingly innocent in the top notes, and fleshy-sexy as hell underneath.  But, alas, it is not to be. I can't wear a fragrance MrL hates. Well actually, I can, but maybe not on our wedding day ... I can grant him that.  Just this once.  I suppose.

Fou d'Absinthe by Olivia Giacobetti

However, L'Artisan heard about our clash of the wedding fragrances, and, invited us along to their beautiful jewel-box of a perfume shop in Covent Garden for a joint fragrance profiling.  We were delighted to take part, and went along one evening last week to meet with Diana who was there to guide us through this particular scented journey ...

Safran Troublant by Olivia Giacobetti

Your fragrance profile starts with a few questions about your favourite scents, favourite perfumes, and the perfumes you grew up with your mother wearing.  Diana took great pains to point out that my choices were "eclectic" - but this I already knew! Then, you're given selected L'Artisan fragrances two by two, in their signature cups with a fragranced muslin in the bottom, and asked to say which one you prefer.  The ones you like go to one side, and the ones you don't choose go back into the display.


Then, once this is done, you go back through the ones you like, until you have narrowed your selection down to just two or three of the original line-up of fragrances.  I'll just say that some of these choices are surprisingly difficult! You're then sprayed with your fragrances of choice so you can see how they work on your skin.

Timbuktu by Bertrand Duchafour

We took this in turns, and I ended up narrowing down the fragrances to three: Nuit de Tubereuse (a glamorous white floral), Timbuktu (a deconstructed vetiver, heady with incense) and Safran Troublant (a spicy, spicy rose with saffron and ginger).  I was sprayed with these and settled down to quietly sniff myself whilst MrLippie went through his profile, which was - probably unsurprisingly - considerably quicker than mine!  Eventually, MrLippie narrowed his choices down to Timbuktu (great minds think alike, apparently!), and Fou d'Absinthe (anise with pine and patchouli).


When the scents were on my skin, it was clear that there was only one winner for me, and that was Safran Troublant, this initially spiky, gingery, saffron gourmand (it dries down to a vanilla rice pudding on my skin, which is a lot nicer than it sounds), isn't something I'd have picked out in a million years, to be honest, but on my skin it was definitely the one that smelled most "me".  Foody fragrances normally turn my stomach a bit, but this pulls of the wonderful trick of being both extremely comforting, and a little edgy, all at the same time.  I like it a lot. All three of us smelled all three of the scents I was wearing, and we all picked out the same one - a fragrance consensus, that never happens!


For MrLippie the choice was a lot harder, both Fou d'Absinthe and Timbuktu suited his skin magnificently well, and there was lots of to-ing and fro-ing, and eventually, he settled on Timbuktu as his fragrance of choice.  A very good choice as it happens, it's rather wonderful, and, as it smells pretty good on me, too - I'd be bound to say it was a good choice! I regret, slightly, that he didn't pick the licorice of Fou D'Absinthe, but his choice, I guess...


So, will Timbuktu and Safran Troublant end up being what we wear to the wedding?  At this moment in time, I'm not sure.  Safran is going to get a lot of wear, I can already tell that, but my dreams have been haunted, just a little by the sour mango, tuberose and earth of Nuit de Tubereuse ever since I smelled it too, so there may just be another little purchase in the offing ...


Fragrance profiling is available to all L'Artisan customers, you just need to make an appointment with your local store.  Purchases aren't necessary.  I'd highly recommend the service, it will make you think very differently about the scents you like.


Get Lippie and MrLippie were guests of L'Artisan Parfumeur.
 
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