Finishing Touches (#LipsNspritz) of the Week 2nd May 2016

 Bright reds and dark berries, plus one glorious pink this week, alongside some classic fragrances too. Top left were the gorgeous white flowers of Narciso  For Her, which is a fragrance I love a great deal, and could even smell it slightly through my parosmia last year, which always grants a special place in my heart for a fragrance. I wore this on Friday with Mac Hot Tahiti, a soft and gentle red.  

Middle Left: I'd also worn Narciso Rodriguez Musc For Her this week, which is a powdery musk, somewhat clean-smelling (reminiscent, slightly, of laundry musks), but the oil format keeps it close to the skin.  I wore this with the most emailed about lipstick ever featured on this blog, Rouge Baiser 306, which I picked up in Paris a few years ago.  (Incidentally, I'm not a stockist or supplier of these lipsticks - which are only available in France - so, please, stop asking me to get them for you!)

Bottom Left: I wore Mugler Cologne, which features a little creaminess in amongst the usual neroli and bitter orange that you get in a classic cologne, making this just a little more interesting than the usual plain citrus blast you might get with a sharper cologne.  I wore this with It Cosmetics Vitality Lipstick Stain in Pretty Woman, which is a sheer deep berry.  I'll have a lot more to say about It Cosmetics products later on this week.

Bottom right is Chanel Rouge Coco Lip Stylo in 208 Roman, which is a beautiful bright pink.  I've not bought anything from Chanel in AGES, and it's hard to get across in this picture just how bright, beautiful and juicy these shades are in the flesh.  I'll be picking up some more for sure. I wore it with Chanel Exclusifs Sycomore, which is a fabulous smoky vetiver that I should really pick up a proper bottle of at some point.

And finally (top right) Reiss Grey Flower.  Still one of the most unusual and haunting fragrances you could buy on the high street for less than £50, it's filled with guaic wood, which has an oddly fleshy kind of effect (smelled neat, its a bit like parma ham), and this doesn't smell flowery, either.  It's hard to say what it smells like (apart from good, interesting, unusual), but it's definitely worth a sniff if you can find a bottle.  I paired it up with YSL Rouge Volupte No4, a bright and beautiful sheer red.  Not my favourite of formulas - I find it too slippery - but a gorgeous shade.

What have your favourite finishing touches been recently?

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LipsNspritz 13 December 2015

I really enjoyed this week's #LipsNspritz, thanks to making a stupendous discovery about Shalimar that I've always missed before.  Sometimes having a "before" nose and an "after" nose thanks to my anosmia and my parosmia has it's blessings!  Anyway, more about that when I get to the Thursday part of today's post.

Monday was Aesop Marrakech Intense with Lanolips Apples.  I love the peppery-spicy rose of the original Aesop Marrakech a huge amount, without at all falling into the Christmassy spice trap, it's a true treat for spice lovers.  Ironically, Marrakech Intense drops a little of the peppery-tickly spiciness in favour of a brighter, greener, altogether fresher (without actually turning into a "fresh" scent) take on the spice market, but it's still lovely, nonetheless.  It's rosier too, and slightly easier to wear as a result, I guess.  Lanolips Apples is a lovely red balm that nourishes a treat on the lips, and never looks fuchsia when you're wearing it, which is something I really appreciate.

Tuesday brought DSquared2's She Wood and Givenchy Le Rouge Givenchy in Rose Dressing.  Sadly, something in the formulation of She Wood smells "burned" to my parosmic nose, and I wasn't able to get past that to smell anything else in there, but I'm given to understand that She Wood is a pleasant woody fragrance, designed to smell good to women who like to wear men's fragrances - it has vetiver in the base, which is, I suspect what my nose is reacting too.  I'll smell this one again in a few months, I think and see what happens then.  Givenchy le Rouge Givenchy  in Rose Dressing is a lovely neutral rose-pink, perfect for unthreatening days in the office.

Wednesday was YSL Black Opium and Lipstick Queen Rat Pack.  I'd not smelled Black Opium before, and it's a nice fragrance, but it's about as far removed from the original Opium as, say, the smell of freshly brewed coffee is.  Inoffensive, and packaged in a gorgeously sparkly bottle, it's a great perfume for people who don't remember the original, and just want to smell "nice".  Lipstick Queen Rat Pack, from the Velvet Rope collection is a fabulous red lipstick though, feather light, and with a HUGE punch of pigment, it's one of my favourites.  

On Thursday, I thought I'd wear Guerlain.  For some reason, in spite of not, actually, liking it very much, I have acquired at least five bottles of Shalimar, of differing strengths, formulations and vintages, but the old classic and I have never really gotten along that well.  I've always found it a thick, rather oily and smoky perfume, like an old fur jacket that's spent too long around cigar smokers, and I've found the vanilla overpowers literally everything else in the fragrance. I've read myriad reviews of Shalimar that rave about the bright and sparkling bergamot opening, but for some reason, my nose has always gone straight to the base, and not found it lovely.  However, this week, after having not worn Shalimar at all for a couple of years I sprayed it with some trepidation and presto!  Bright and sparkling bergamot ahoy!  It was a glorious revelation, all the more precious because I've literally never smelled it before.  Best of all, the bergamot beat the vanilla into submission so this was infinitely more wearable for me than ever before, parosmia or no parosmia. A happy discovery, and I'm looking forward to trying more of my Shalimar wardrobe as a result.  Lipstick was Guerlain Rouge G in Madame Flirte, a lovely soft red.

I was interviewing candidates for a job on Friday morning, so nothing too unusual or outré was required and this Eau des Minimes from Couvent Des Minimes was just what the doctor ordered.  A clean and classic herbaceous-citrus cologne, it was bright and lively, and not too long-lived.  And can I just say how much I love the packaging?  It's really rather lovely.  I wore Lipstick Queen Saint Wine, which may just be my favourite lipstick of all time with it.  Didn't want to scare the poor accountants!

Saturday was a pyjama day - still trying to shake this hideous cold off - but I dug out my bottle of Guerlain Teazzurra, which is one of their Aqua Allegorica collection (and, I believe, soon to be discontinued, so if you've been interested in it at all, then you might want to snap one up now).  Teazzurra is based around citrus and black tea accords, and it smells like nothing more than sweet, sift and lovely lemon tea.  Not the most sophisticated fragrance, possibly, and definitely not very complex, it doesn't last at all long, but it's lovely whilst it does.  I wore it with a Clinique Chubby Stick Intense in Plushest Punch, because even when you're ill, sometimes you want to look (and smell) nice, don't you?

What've you been wearing this week?
  
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Lipsticks and Perfumes of the Week 13.09.15 #LipsNSpritz

I'm mainly to be found over on Instagram at the moment, I love it.  Part of it is having a new camera, of course, but I've enjoyed finding different ways to show off products when I don't have enough time for writing during the week.  I've started a new hashtag series "#LipsNSpritz" (named by the glorious Katie from Lady From A Tramp) to show off my lipstick and perfume combinations every day.  Would love it if other people joined in, btw, but this is what I really enjoyed wearing last week:

Monday was Joan Collins Timeless Beauty I Am Woman (which I wrote about in full last Monday), and I'm not even slightly apologising for mentioning again here - nor for when it pops up again, either - as it's lovely.  Really, really lovely.  I paired it with Zelens Lip Glaze in Rouge, which is my favourite go-to red for when I don't really want to think about wearing "proper" red lipstick.  Easy to wear, and feels lovely on the lips, Zelens Lip Glazes are ace, I just wish I could wear more than two of the five shades - the corals and pinks all have too much white in the base for me.

Tuesday was Jo Loves Pomelo, which I love an unhealthy amount.  A light and zesty grapefruit-y citrus with just a hint of vetiver giving it a slightly grassy edge, it's a perfect scent for when you want something bright, but not too girly.  It's a clean "grapefruit" (Pomelo is, essentially a green grapefruit), lacking the sulfurous aspect many other grapefruits can have.  I paired it with Joan Collins Timeless Beauty lipstick in Helena (pay attention, you may notice a theme this week) which was a lovely rich, statement red.

On Wednesday, well, let's see if you can figure what I was up to on Wednesday just based on my fragrance and perfume choices, shall we?