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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Paris Haul ...

Yeah, I don't normally do haul posts, but I did JUST go to Paris this weekend for an event at the Guerlain flagship store on the Champs Elysees with the Perfume Society. Whilst I was there, I picked up a few bits and pieces and I thought I'd show you.  I'll write about a few of these in more detail (including writing about my time smelling the Guerlain archives!) soon, but, in the meantime, here's what I bought during my whistle-stop tour:

First off, French Pharmacy Essentials:

As the likes of Escentual.com and even Boots catch on to the greatness of French pharmacy brands, it's becoming less and less necessary to trip over to Paris to pick up cheap and good skincare.  Especially now Serozinc is here! However, La Roche Posay Respectissime eye makeup remover, which is designed for waterproof makeup, but is gentle enough not to sting even my deeply sensitive eyes, STILL isn't available over here, and it's a shame, because it is, frankly, the best eye makeup remover EVER.  Sort it out, La Roche Posay!  This Demak Up cotton wool is a firm favourite too, having a proper embossed side and a smooth and fluffy side, I love it.  And at around 50p a packet, I may have bought more than a couple ...

I popped into the Diptyque store in St Germain for a sniff and a chat, and ended up coming out with the new Rosaviola candle, the limited edition created with Olympia le Tan, the French fashion designer:

Smelling of roses and violets, and decorated with lips,  I couldn't resist! And it's so pretty with the pink jar, and the embroidered fabric label.  More about my visit to Diptyque soon.

I also, of course, went to Sephora! 

The Sephora Nail Varnish Remover pots are a firm favourite, so I took the opportunity to stock up whilst I was in Paris.  I always get the Glitter pots, as they come with a scrubby sponge that I really like for getting into all the nooks and crannies. I noticed there was a cuticle care version with camelia oil too, so I thought I'd try it, as my cuticles are positively shameful right now.  I'll report back. I'm a bit obsessed with primers at the moment (there's a big post coming up), so I couldn't resist a trial-size version of this Erborian Pink Perfect Cream. And how cute are the Sephora Kiss Me lip balms? This is Candy Apple and Soda Pop.

I also popped into Yves Rocher, because I always like having a nosey at their stuff:

I bought some Serum Vegetal skincare shots, and a Perfect Primer in Rose.  Yes, another primer ... Yves Rocher  are one of the biggest brands in France, and they're really reasonable.  It's been a while since I tried any of their products though, I admit - they're not that easy to get hold of in the UK though, which is a shame.

And finally, of course, Guerlain:

I fully intended to buy some fragrance, but the one I fell in love with in-store was five hundred euros! Luckily, seeing as I'm moving house in a month, I ran out of shopping time in-store, so some rose and violet tea (actually the Paris Caprice tea), a jar of limited edition honey (who knew you could buy Guerlain honey????) plus a couple of bits from the new La Petite Robe Noire collection will just have to do.  This is the lip colour in Berry Beret and nail polish in Black Perfecto, expect more about these soon.

So there you have it.  Just a few things, and, to be honest, I'd have been happy even if I'd only brought the eye makeup remover and cotton wool back!  

The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Sephora Cream Lip Stains

I have a full-time job, I run two blogs, and I do volunteer work on a regular basis.  That said, I'm also a lazy bitch, so I like my makeup to last, and last well.  I've not met a lipstain that works so well as the Sephora Cream Lip Stains, whenever I'm in Paris, I make a beeline for them, and buy backups of my favourites, of which these are they.

Here we have 06 Forever Fuchsia an electric pink, 03 Strawberry Kissed a more delicate pinkish red, and 01 Always Red, which is the classic bright, bright red.

These are incredibly opaque, with total coverage, and are very matte in wear - if you're scared of bright colours, don't go near them.  They're not for the shy and retiring!

Forever Fuchsia

Strawberry Kissed

Of the three, Strawberry Kissed is my favourite, and I wear it on days I need to apply my makeup then just forget about it, because there isn't anything that will get this stuff off during a normal office day, unless you regularly spend your working hours applying donner kebab to your lips every 20 minutes or something ...

I've just noticed these are now half price on the US website, which makes me worry that these are about to be discontinued, so if you're tempted you might want to snap them up now, or start begging your US friends to send you some ...

The Fine Print: Purchases

The Even Finer Print: We're not featuring full fragrance reviews on Get Lippie at the moment owing to illness - please see The Parosmia Diaries for more.


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