LipsNSpritz of the Week March 06 2016

 This week was an incredibly busy one - I'm an accountant by day, and I'm currently preparing for year end, plus preparing to move house, at the same time, because I am an idiot), so LipsNspritz took an accidental back seat this week.  That said, I did manage to wear some lovely ones:

Monday was a Jo Malone London Vetiver Cologne day.  My (recovering!) parosmia still makes some perfume ingredients tricky for me, anything with a heavy vetiver or patchouli base still smells burned to my nose, and it's troublesome, because the only thing I can smell is whatever causes the reaction in that case, and nothing else in a formulation.  Jo Malone Vetiver is the very opposite of heavy vetiver, however, being a light and fresh, and citrussy take on what can be both smokey and grapefruity.  I enjoyed wearing this a great deal, and it may become my "go to" vetiver, whilst other vetiver-based fragrances remain waiting for my nose to recover more.  I wore it with Sephora Kiss Me balm in Soda Pop.

On Tuesday I wore Estee Lauder Amber Mystique, which is a woody amber, with clouds of oud in the base.  Someone in the office commented that I smelled "very Arabic", which I thought was hilarious, and very true.  I love Amber Mystique, but it appears to be discontinued now, which is a shame. I wore it with Sephora Kiss Me balm in Cherry.

Speaking of cherry, I finally managed to track down a hard-to-find bottle of Mary Greenwell Cherry, and I'm very glad that I had.  The demise of Mary's eponymous (and excellent) perfume range pains me greatly, but I'm happy that I finally have a full set of the fragrances now.  I've featured Plum before - indeed, it was very nearly my wedding fragrance - and Lemon and Fire will obviously feature in the weeks upcoming, but Cherry is quite a literal fragrance in comparison to the sophisticated and rather retro Plum, in that you can definitely pick out the fruit that inspired it.  It rather reminded me of a stick of Juicy Fruit at first, but I soon got over that.  It's sour cherry and blackberry leaves at the top, with licorice and vanilla in the base.  Fun, sunny and cheerful.  Such a shame its gone. Worn with Provocateur Lacquer balm from Revlon, because, what else?

I had a long and tiring day day minuting boards and committees on Thursday (and if you're ever wondering why my instagram isn't full of pictures of beauty launches and cupcakes and home offices with puppies staring soulfully at the viewer, there's the reason right there - no one wants to see pictures of my day, believe me), and in full business-woman mode (did I mention I'm an accountant?)  I wore Estee Lauder Private Collection - the original -  because it's a classic "don't f*ck with me" fragrance, bitter and green and grown up, and I love it very much.  I paired it up with the also classic Tom Ford Pure Pink lipstick (long discontinued, and much mourned), and wore black leather to the office.  Hey, I was around in the eighties, it's totally cool now.

And, what've you been wearing?



The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Plum by Mary Greenwell

Confession time: Mary Greenwell is one of my all-time idols.  Alongside Kay Montano, a young Get Lippie used to collect pictures of the looks these two women created for the likes of Princess Diana, all the Supermodels, and practically every celebrity you've ever heard of (and a few you haven't) ever since.  Both ladies are still going strong today, and Mary, in particular simply can't put a foot wrong as far as I'm concerned. 

Normally you'd expect a makeup artist's eponymous line to start with a makeup item.  A range of lipsticks, perhaps, or a perfect eye palette, but no, Mary's decided to go with a perfume, and it was, I have to say an inspired decision.

Plum by Mary Greenwell is ostensibly a fruity-floral (normally my most loathed perfume genre), but this is far more of a modern chypre.  To my nose it appears perfectly balanced, to the extent where I can only rarely pick out any of the individual notes, to me the perfume smells, always, perfectly of itself.  It's not too sweet, and I can't, in all honesty pick out any fruit in the perfume at all.  My nose just isn't up to it.The listed notes contain:

Top: peach, blackcurrant, plum, bergamot and lemon.
Middle: gardenia, tuberose, orange flower absolute, rose absolute and jasmine absolute.
Base: woods, sandalwood, oakmoss, patchouli, amber, and white musk.


Reading that list, you expect a screechy fruit-y marmalade-ish affair, which will dry down to a nothing-y skin scent at the end, suitable for teenagers of all ages. But lists of notes can be misleading, because Plum is a very grown-up affair indeed.  Sophisticated, and glamorous, even.  MrLippie likes this one a great deal.   

It's quite a perfume-y scent, in the style of Chanel No5, but without the shouty aldehydes at the beginning. I notice that the cunning Mary has styled the bottle after the classic flacon of Chanel, topping it off with a stylised gold representation of a plum that will do some serious damage to you if you're ever unlucky enough to drop it on your toe (take it from one who knows). 

Mary considers a spritz of fragrance to be the perfect finishing touch to a beauty routine, and, with this unashamedly feminine (not girlish) fragrance, I have to say that this is one of the better spritzes out there.  You can buy Plum from House of Fraser, or you can buy it direct from marygreenwell.com

The Fine Print: I won my bottle in a Twitter competition.

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