Deborah Lippmann and Instagram

Did you know Get Lippie has an Instagram account? You can find us on there as Get_Lippie, you can see odd snippets of launch events, meals, stupidity, and mostly, makeup … for example, behold the glory that is Deborah Lippmann's Ruby Red Slippers:

Someone described it as looking like I'd just ripped a man's heart out in Temple of Doom, and, as I can't think of anything better to say about the varnish than that, that will just have to do … this was a gift from a Facebook friend, thank you so much, T!  

Illamasqua Glamore Collection - Lips and Tips

By Laurin

I don't remember it myself, but my birth certificate tells me I entered this world in 1978. That makes me, Laurin Emily Taylor, 35 ½.  My mental age on the other hand clocks in somewhere around 80. I like early nights and stern disapproval and I'm counting the days until my physical age (and bank balance) allows me to genuinely rock a Chanel suit. I plan to wear it on hot summer days with red lips and a sneer as I sit on my front porch shaking my well-manicured fist at the neighbourhood urchins and screaming, "GET OFF MY LAWN!" until my manservant Raoul rushes out of the house to place a cool cloth on my fevered brow and lead me gently indoors for my afternoon repose (I've thought this through - it's essential to have a retirement plan, ladies).

Back here on planet Earth in the year 2014, my 9-5 often demands my presence in a kitchen, where the rigours of the job take mercy on no woman's nails. I love the polished look of nail varnish and lipstick, but it all seems like such a faff when you know your manicure will only look great for 24 hours, tops. My one attempt at gel ended with most of my nail bed sitting in a pile on my carpet after I gave in to the urge to pick at a chip. What I long for is a forgiving nail varnish that goes on easily, dries quickly and doesn't take require a professional to remove.

Enter the Illamasqua Glamore Collection, three brand new shades of ultra-dense, highly textured glitter nail varnishes and complimentary shades of satin-finish lipstick. I spent the week road testing two of the varnish shades: Fire Rose, a disco-flamingo shade of pink, and Trilliant, a champagne gold with the slightest tint of rose. There is also a juicy tangerine, Marquise, which I suspect would be brilliant for poolside lounging this summer.

If you're a bit cack-handed AND impatient, these are brilliant. The glitter particles are rough and chunky enough that they easily disguise a less-than-perfect application technique, and they are so dense that one coat does the trick. Even better, they are completely dry after 15 minutes, so you can get on with zesting lemons for your martini or sticking pins into voodoo dolls or whatever it is you like to do on Tuesday nights (don’t try picking a piece of Parma ham out of your back tooth with your index finger, though - this is may cause damage to your new manicure. Or so I hear).

Last week was a bit hectic, so I ended up putting my Fire Rose manicure through the paces at work: dish washing, gaffer tape picking, typing, parcel wrestling, vegetable chopping and every other not-so-glamorous job that gets thrown my way in the office. There are no miracles to report, I'm afraid. By the end of day three, the tips of my nails were starting to show some wear and tear, though there was no serious chipping. Time to start again: unlike other glitter polishes I've tried, Glamore comes off relatively easily. I was advised to wrap my nails in acetone soaked cotton wool and a layer of tin foil for 15 minutes before removing, but I found it wasn't necessary. It came off with Cutex and a bit of elbow grease, leaving my nails ready for Trilliant:

Of course my future self would never leave the house without a slick of bold lipstick, and the Glamore collection has that covered as well. The three shades of satin finish lipstick are designed to complement (but not match exactly) the nail varnishes. Satin finish is new territory for Illamasqua, who are known for their dramatic matte lipsticks. I've spent the week trialling Soaked, a bold orange and Luster, a shocking candy pink (there is also Glissade, a deep fuchsia). As you would expect, these are high-pigment, statement making colours, but they both feel soft and moisturising on my lips. My only quibble is with the packaging. It's perfectly serviceable, but for £16.50 a pop, I'd like something a bit more weighty and less plastic.

If you're already an Illamasqua fan, the Glamore collection will no doubt be right up your street. But if like me, you've always hung back around the Bobbi Brown counter with all the flattering neutrals, the nail varnishes are a great way to join the brights party without frightening the horses, and the finish of the glitter is rough and edgy enough that you needn't worry you'll look like a five year old who's just been let loose in Claire's Accessories. As for the lipsticks, the shock of bold colour in the middle of my face is going to take some getting used to. But I think I'm well on my way to being a lipstick lover. I have to be. My future self will accept no less.

The Illamasqua Glamore Collection launches in store on February 27th. Nail varnishes Fire Rose, Trilliant and Marquise are £15 each. Lipsticks Soaked, Luster and Glissade are £16.50 each.

The fine print: PR samples.

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Selena Gomez Collection from Nicole by OPI

I don't even know who Selena Gomez is, aside from some kind of Disney poppet, so I have no idea what I was expecting from this collection.  Certainly what I was expecting was a collection of uber-brights!

From left to right here we have: Love Song, Spring Break, Pretty in Plum and Hit The Lights. 

Love Song is a saturated lilac with a white-ish base.  Spring Break is a pretty cool bright pink.  Pretty in Plum is a shimmering royal purple (not quite enough red in the formula to be a real plum-shade), and Hit the Lights is YELLOW.

The colours are rich, glossy and deeply saturated with pigment, and whilst I'll realistically only wear the pink and plum shades from this collection, I was surprised at how much I like the colours! 

So, um yeah.  Selena Who? 


The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Sally Hansen Autumn Collections

This collection doesn't scream autumn to me, but it's an unusual collection of lovely shades and some fashionably "ugly" shades ...  It's actually a couple of collaborations in conjunction with several fashion designers, but, as I am a bad, bad, blogger, I have to admit that I care more about the colours than the designers involved.  I am so NOT fashion, dahlinks.

 From left to right we have 
Stocking Nude
Coat of Arms
Loden Green
New Wave Blue and 
Night Watch 

Stocking Nude is a lightly greyed pink.  Coat of Arms is a platinum with slight hints of gold, Loden Green is a deeply browned khaki, New Wave Blue is a gorgeous blue with a greenish tinge, and Night Watch is a medium navy, which isn't quite dark enough to appear black on the nail.

The Sally Hansen Salon Manicure is said to have a lot of nail benefits (currently my nails are far too raggedy for public display, hence the nail wheels), has anyone tried these formulas?

Any of the shades catch your eye? I'm thinking New Wave Blue might make a great holiday pedicure ...

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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Comparison: Black Sugar by Tom Ford, Sulfurous by Guerlain and Facet by Illamasqua

I was picking out my favourite polishes for autumn, and when I had  made my list, I realised that Black Sugar by Tom Ford, Sulfurous by Guerlain, and Illamasqua's Facet are quite similar, so I thought a comparison might be in order. 

When I got the bottles together, I realised that they were quite different, but possibly not *that* different.  

First up, Bottle impressions:

Tom Ford Black Sugar.  This is a browned-taupe, with a quite beautiful red shimmer visible in the bottle which is almost impossible to photograph, in my experience.  Not the end of the world though, as it's impossible to see on the nail too, as it turns out.
Guerlain's Sulfurous is more of a shimmering charcoal in comparison to the other two, and is much, much darker than either. 
Illamasqua's Facet is a softened medium dove-grey, enlivened with lots and lots of bronze shimmer.

On the nails:

Black Sugar has the thinnest formula and is a little prone to dragging.  This isn't helped by the super-long brush handle, which is required because of the super-tall bottle.  If you're a cack-handed muppet like myself, it's the least easy polish to apply in the bunch.  That said though, the Tom Ford nail polish formula is a good one, and the shades tend to wear very well indeed.  It's a nice, slightly flat, browned taupe on the nails, a cooler version of Chanel's Particuliere, in fact, and none the worse for that. It dries a little darker than it appears in the bottle.

I've reviewed Guerlain Sulfurous before, and it's clear I really like the deeply complex shimmering charcoal of it.  I notice in macro-mode, however, that it's a little brush-strokey, but this isn't visible in real life.  It has a wide brush which makes application easier. 

Facet by Illamasqua is an unusual colour on the nail, being not quite grey, and not quite bronze, whilst appearing also not quite khaki too. Whilst it lacks some of the complexity, and (in my eyes) beauty of Sulfurous, it has its own unique loveliness, which I really like.  The brush is a standard round brush, and the formulation is a little thinner than the Guerlain, but spreads really nicely over the nail.  Illamasqua polishes also tend to be extremely hard wearing.

So, all very similar, and all rather different too.  Personally, if I could only have one, it'd be Sulfurous by Guerlain, but the other two are very beautiful too.  Which would be your choice? 

The Fine Print: PR Samples.

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YSL Babydoll Collection - Lips, Nails and Mascara

I have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this collection to launch!  I first saw it way back in February, and I've used the mascara non-stop since ...  A mini-collection, consisting of glossy lip stain, mascara, nail varnish, and several eyeliner shades, I had to pick up the lip stain and nail varnish as soon as it launched last week, and I also picked up a replacement mascara as I've used my sample up entirely in the few months since the press launch!

I've had a fairly disappointing experience with the Rouge Pur Couture Vernis A Levre (or glossy lip stain) previously, but I HAD to have this one, a cool raspberry, this shade is completely up my alley.

You can see the slightly blue undertones around the edges there.  When the gloss is in place, it's a rather hot pink shade, but very rich.  Unlike my previous GLS-experience, this one actually does leave a stain behind:

This can actually last a day or so after application, I've noticed.    Here's how it looks after approximately five hours wear which involved cocktails, and tiny sandwiches:

It does have a tendency to feather a little after a few hours, I've noticed, which is annoying, but it is a super-lovely shade ...

I do love YSL mascara's, but one of my main bug-bears with them is that they dry out too quickly.  I had to stop using Faux Cils as I was finding a tube only lasted about a month or so.  However, the Babydoll mascara formula is a massive improvement over that, and my initial tube lasted three months before I noticed it was clogging slightly.  I like the compact, short-bristled brush, and the very black formula.  Here's how it looks on the lashes:

Yes, my eyes ARE different colours, thanks

(YSL Babydoll on the left, bare lashes on the right - uncurled in both cases)

You can see it has a significant lengthening and curling effect, and I love it for not being cloggy, even after applying a couple of coats.  I have noticed (with the second tube, but not the first for some reason), that you can get smudges after a long while in wear, which is slightly annoying, but it's not the end of the world.

And finally:

Whilst it's not a particularly unique shade, I do have to say that I really like the new YSL brushes, which are wide enough almost to cover my entire (tiny) nail in one stroke.

Anything caught your eye recently?

The Fine Print: Mascara was initially a press sample, but all products featured in this article were purchased myself.
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Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose Eye Palette, Roza Polish and Lipglosses

It's been a while since I've featured anything from Bobbi Brown, I realise, but the press release for the new Lilac Rose collection was so pretty I couldn't resist ... a reasonable-sized collection, consisting of a new shimmer brick, an eye palette, a polish and several lip colours, I've selected my picks of the collection to show you here.

First off, the star of the show, the Lilac Rose eyeshadow palette.  This couldn't have been better chosen for me, if I'd selected the shades myself (though I'd have left out the shimmery lilac, thereby negating the whole point of the palette's inclusion in the collection in one go, but there you are, I'm an iconoclast*, I am):

 Housed in a package the same size as a normal shimmer brick, the Lilac Rose Eye palette contains eight shadows, all in the (rather muted) lilac/taupe/plum/brown range, with a variety of finishes.

In the top section, you have (clockwise from top left):
Ivory - Matte but not chalky shade
Pale Rose - matte pale plum-taupe
Pink Lily - Metallic (and slightly powdery) lilac, there was quite a bit of fallout from this
Stormy Grey - Shimmery brown with a greyish cast.

 
On the bottom you have (also clockwise from top left)
Barely There - satin-finish pale tan-flesh shade
Heather Brown - similar to Barely There, only with a touch more pink, and a lot more shimmer
Dusty Lilac - I'd say this was more of a dusty rose shade, very matte, and makes (strangely), an excellent contour shade
Black Chocolate - blackened dark brown, but without any red tones.  A great liner colour.

This is a great set of neutrals that you can use to create quite a few looks with.  I've created smokey looks with stormy grey, pink lily, pale rose and  black chocolate, and a few no-makeup looks with the other shades too.  If pink lily was more purple, then this would - quite possibly - have gone into the top ten eyeshadow palettes of all time.

I'm also a big fan of the Roza Nail Polish that comes with this collection, you know when you get something, and you want to wear it there and then?  I had that with this shade:

Obligatory "Claw" bottle shot

 It's a slightly greyed out pink colour, which really called out to me in the bottle.  No idea why, I'm a bit odd like that.  However, once on my hands, I realised that if Mannequin Hands (where your nail polish matches the colour of your skin -God knows why) is still a thing in the blogging world, then this would be my pick:

Yes, I did mainly choose this shot to show off my wedding ring.  Shut UP.

Roza is, however, extremely sheer.  And, by that, I mean: extremely sheer. This is four coats, and, in the right light, I can still see my nail line which is annoying.  But it does appear to be quite hard-wearing, these pictures were taken on day three of application, after a couple of days of housework and cooking, and it's held up very well indeed. That said, if I have to apply four or five coats every time, I don't think the bottle will last all that long!  This has been my first experience with Bobbi Brown polish though, and it's a good one, I shall have to investigate some of the other shades.

Finally, there are a couple of lipglosses with the collection, which I don't love (they're too sheer for a lipstick slut like myself), but it's a good formula nonetheless, and I'm happy that the crappy brushes Bobbi Brown lipglosses have been saddled with for (what seems like) forever have been ditched in favour of doe foot applicators.  Here's the swatches:

At the top you have Lilac Rose, and bottom you have Pink Lily.  Both nice shades in the tube, but on the lips all you get is a slight milky glaze with just a hint of colour.  Not my kind of thing, personally, but possibly not such a bad thing, as, personally, I think lilac lipstick (and gloss) should be banned.  It makes you look cyanotic, and, unless you're an habituee of Camden pretending to be one of the undead, or are an actual Victorian consumptive crack whore, it's not an easy look to pull off, frankly.

Overall, an extremely nice collection, as far as I'm concerned (potential cyanotic lip issues aside), what do you think? It's on counter this week, and prices start from £11 for the nail polish up to £45 for the eyeshadow palette


* Yes, I did have to check that meant what I thought it meant. I've been away, I think my brains have atrophied.  

The Fine Prinr: PR Samples.  No Victorian crack whores harmed in the writing of this post. Camden, you're on your final warning, however.
 
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Lippie's Lust List #1 Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection

It's not often a collection makes my heart go pitty-pat these days (jaded, Moi?) but this retro-themed collection from Estee Lauder might just have managed it.  The blush compact and lipstick in particular have got my name all over them, and hey!  Mad Men.  Gotta love it.  Think this will be one of the most collectible make up sets in a long time ...

The Estee Lauder Mad Men collection is released tomorrow (Monday 4th March) exclusively at Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, Harrods and Estee Lauder online.  Blush £48, Lipstick £26 and Polish £20. My poor bank balance ... 

This post: Lippie's Lust List #1 Estee Lauder Mad Men Collection 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