LipsNspritz of the ... er ... Fortnight.

I hate being ill, and I really hate being ill to the extent that it interferes with my posting schedule.  Nonetheless, here's a double-dose (whether you wanted it or not, frankly) of my weekly diary of lipstick and perfume-wearing.  The above pic is from the week ending 22/11/15.

Monday was Etat Libre d'Orange Like This, alongside Chantecaille Lip Chic in Wild Rose.  Like This is probably my favourite "gourmand" fragrance, being a blend of pumpkin, mandarin, ginger and immortelle.  It should smell like a pumpkin pie - which it does, to an extent - but it also smells warm, sophisticated and slightly tweedy from the prickle of ginger.  Perfect for autumn, and just plain delicious at any time.  

Tuesday was continuing the gourmand theme with Laura Mercier Ambre Vanille, alongside Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Rose.  Both are easy and simple to wear, without being too challenging.  Ambre Vanille is sweet and warm, and Rose is a beautiful neutral, which will work on many colourings.

Wednesday brought Hermes Eau d'Orange Vert which is one of my favourite citrus fragrances of all time - I go a little insane for mint in fragrances, and this combination of bitter orange, sweet orange, and just a hint of peppermint oil makes me a little weak at the knees.  I only wish it lasted longer.  I wore it with the rosy mauve of Shiseido Lacquer Rouge in RD529, which is quite an opaque liquid lipstick.

Thursday I wanted to wear a classic, so I did.  Guerlain L'Heure Bleue, a beautiful dance of orange blossom and iris, coupled with vanilla and a little spicy carnation, I adore this fragrance.  It feels blue all the way through, so I wore a blue-toned lipstick too, which was Illamasqua Magnetism.  I got several compliments on the fragrance, as I always do when I wear it, and resolved to wear it more often.  Which I will when this project is over.

I fully intended to wear Tuberose Criminelle by Serge Lutens on Friday, but I was too ill to cope with the rubbery camphoraceousness (TOTALLY a word - if possibly not the spelling).  I spent the day feeling sorry for myself in pyjamas instead.

Saturday I was attempting to  make myself feel better, so a hot shower and a thorough dowsing in DKNY Drop of Rose, which I love for its soft and rosy approximation of baby powder, and a slight resemblance to Ombre Rose by Jean Jacques Brosseau.  It is pure comfort in a bottle, and I love it.  I paired it with Becca lipgloss in Palm Breeze, a bubblegum pink that wasn't too challenging.

 Part two tomorrow ...

 //
The Fine Print: PR Samples, purchases, random stuff from the back of the perfume cabinet ...



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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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I want to: Smell Like a Hug ...

 For all that I love my avant garde niche perfumes (and I do), there are days when all you want to do is smell loveable, the olfactory equivalent of a quick snuggle on the sofa.  For those days, all you need is musk, for musk is the scent of skin and so these are the products I pick:

I'm a big fan of layering my scents, so I start with:

Philosophy Amazing Grace Shower Gel

A softer scent in the shower gel form, than the rather sharp scent you get in the eau de toilette form, this is a gentle, almost flowery form of musk that is, in it's slightly laundry-soap kind of way, rather loveable in itself.  I have a hard time keeping my bottle away from MrLippie.

Khiel's Original Musk Body Lotion

Not all hugs are innocent, are they?  So I follow Amazing Grace with a light slathering of Kiehl's Original Musk Body Lotion, for that little hint of naughtiness under the light and bright musk scents I'll be following this up with. I can't speak for the formula's moisturising properties, as I don't use body lotion as a rule, it's generally something I only use for layering scents with.  That said, this is a nice formula, and I used it for scenting my skin on my wedding day (layered underneath L'Artisan Perfumer's Safran Troublant).

Body Shop White Musk Perfume Oil

Most definitely not the spray eau de toilette!  I find myself using this as an anchor to many floral fragrances, and occasionally as a perfume in it's own right.  It moisturises the skin somewhat, and allows your fragrance "proper" to have something to grip to, moisturised skin holds fragrance better.  In it's own right, this is soft, powdery and rather delicious, and it helps give a sensual base-note to whatever you apply afterward.

Which is (in this case):

 Serge Lutens Clair de Musc

 A bit of an overlooked fragrance from the Serge Lutens line, this sweet, fragrant hug-in-a-bottle reminds me of childhood cuddles from my female relatives.  It's not ground-breaking, it's soft and gentle and rather lovely.  Longevity isn't the greatest, which is why I like to layer it.  This was this close >.< to being my wedding fragrance ...

The Fine Print: Mixture of samples, purchases and gifts.
 
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I'm A Collector: Serge Lutens

I love how they look like a chemistry set

 Turns out I've accidentally been a "niche" perfume collector for years now.  An entire lifetime ago, a tiny collection of six (or it may have been eight) fragrances appeared in my local Debenhams, and I was shocked and appalled to discover that they cost a whopping £40 each.  Naturally, I ended up buying two.

I'd never heard of the brand "Serge Lutens" at the time, and it was described to me as a range from a French artist who was more concerned with the story of a fragrance, than the fragrance itself, at the time I thought it was just so much bullhooey, but I realise, as time goes on, that the sales assistant wasn't talking that much rubbish, to be honest.

Anyhoo, I thought you might like a little tour around my collection, so here goes:

From left to right, we have La Myrrhe (bell jar), Tuberose Criminelle, Ambre Sultan, Vitriol D'Oeillet, Sa Majestie La Rose, A La Nuit, Un Bois Vanille, Clair de Musc, L'eau Froide.  That's nine, there used to be ten, but I had to part with my bottle of Jeux de Peau because my nose registered it as rancid margarine, and that's not a fragrance I adore to be honest ...

Anyhoo, in no particular order, here are some thoughts on each of these:

Sa Majestie La Rose and A La Nuit were the first two Lutens that I bought, and these bottles must be the best part of fifteen years old now as a result. Actually, on checking, I can see that both these scents were released in 2000 - which fits - and that means that my versions are original bottles in that case.   

Sa Majestie is a thick, rich rose which feel red, red, red on the skin, it's fairly sweet, but with a hint of the greenery underneath a rose bush to it too. I think the scent has some minty facets to it too, but there is no mistaking that this is, first and foremost a rose fragrance.   A La Nuit, on the other hand is a jasmine, almost a soliflore, it's very very strong at first, but softens down to something more wearable after a couple of hours.  If you don't like jasmine, then avoid this by all means possible.  These are, to some extent, the yardstick by which I measure any and all rose/jasmine fragrances to this day.  Whilst these are both almost photo-real flower fragrances, which plenty of punch, they're amongst the simplest fragrances, being almost linear from start to finish, amongst the Lutens collection.

Ambre Sultan.  Oh man, how much do I love Ambre Sultan?  A lot, is the answer.  It is dry, rich, woody, spicy, powdery and incensey, all at the same time. It feels like wandering around a spice market, wearing powdery furs, and as such, it's not an amber fragrance for the shy and retiring. Last winter it was the only fragrance I wanted to wear, and I have a hard time picking out other fragrances in my collection to wear instead, still.  An all-time classic.

Tuberose Criminelle: I love tuberose, and this fragrance highlights all the strange aspects inherent in the flower, the first blast is all menthol, camphor, and rubber.  It's one of the most shockingly odd fragrance openings I've ever come across, and it never fails to make me smile. Once you get past this Listerine-gasoline blast, there's a rich, creamy and adorable white floral fragrance behind it, but your work colleagues might prefer it if you apply this a good hour or two before you get to the office ...

Vitrol d'Oeillet: Or, Angry Carnation.  My search for a proper carnation scent goes on.  Have you ever stuck your nose into a bunch of carnations?  Of course you haven't, everyone (seemingly) hates the poor carnation, but do yourself a favour, and the next time you're given a bunch of supermarket flowers replete with carnations, stick your nose in and take a really good sniff, it'll be peppery, and clovey, and spicy, and not in the slightest bit sweet.  Luten's take on carnation tones down the spicy (angry) facets of carnation with violet, and sweetens it up, so it loses a bit of punch.  I love it regardless - as I do any carnation scent - but ... it's not the one.

Un Bois Vanille: A smoky vanilla, with hints of licorice and coconut.  Should leave you smelling like a pudding, but by avoiding making it too sweet, it just avoids being reminiscent of custard.  I love how this smells on MrLippie (I occasionally spritz him with it when he's not paying attention), as it makes a really good male scent too.  If you love sweet scents, this is a great gateway into more "grown-up" fragrances.  Highly recommended.

La Myrrhe: The Serge Lutens collection has two different lines, the export (in the square bottles you see at the top) and the Bell Jars, which are only available in Les Salons du Palais Royal Shiseido from Paris, La Myrrhe is one I purchased last year, to celebrate my first ever trip to France, and I adore it.  From the rosy aldehydic opening, which is almost soapy in it's freshness, to the slightly smokey and incensey dry down, this is a beautiful scent.  It doesn't last anything near long enough on my skin (basically, all I want from every fragrance I own is seemingly a big, ballsy, opening, and frankly, nuclear lasting power), but the bottle is beautiful, and the fact that I'm hugely unikely to bump into anyone else wearing it just adds to the appeal.

L'Eau Froide: Icy fresh incense.  A bit of a contradiction, and I don't really have much to say about this one, except that I prefer it to the original L'Eau, which to me smelled like vaguely scented coffee-flavoured washing powder.  Nice in the summer, but nothing really to get over excited about.  For me.

And finally: Clair de Musc: No one I know gives this one much love, and if you read reviews online, many of the people I don't know don't like it all that much either.  Me, somewhat to my own surprise, I love it. It's a light, clean, almost laundry-esque musk fragrance, somewhat clean, but rather lacking in that "fresh" note that makes a lot of light fragrances smell the same.  It also smells a little powdery, almost baby-powdery, but most of all, it smells like skin.  Beautiful, clear, skin. When I first smelled it, it brought back intense memories of an aunt who died not long after I moved to London, and of my grandmother, who died when I was 13, it still does.  I got a bit emotional smelling this, truth be told.  It's now rocketed to the top of my list of fragrances to wear at my wedding in February.  It's not groundbreaking, it's not complicated, it's just ... lovely.  And if it will help me think of those relatives who can't be at my wedding, so much the better.

Jeez, this post has turned into a monster ... sorry!  But the truth is that there are a lot of Lutens available, and they can be addictive.  Even now, ten bottles later, I still have a list of others I want to try:

Chergui: Cherry-tobacco, sounds wonderful, and I'm wondering if it will bring back memories of my grandfather.
Sarrasins: Another Lutens jasmine, this time darker and less bright than A La Nuit, it sounds fascinating.
Muscs Koubla Khan: filthy, dirty, disgusting musk, the exact opposite of Clair de Musc.  I like a contrast. Also, I want to test it against Maison Francis Kurkdijan's Absolue Pour le Soir, and see which one wins the skank-off ...
Feminite du Bois: Spices, cedar and plums. This is possibly the most famous, and most highly lauded of the Lutens fragrances, and it makes me feel like a bad blogger that I don't own a bottle.
Daim Blond: Whenever I smell this, I think of a soft suede rose, in a pale apricot shade.  As this is more or less the ingredient list, I think I need this one ...

So there you have it.  My accidental niche collection, which I still want  to grow.  Anything you thought sounded interesting?

The Fine Print: A mixture of purchases, presents, and the occasional sample from a variety of sources.  I wish you could still get them in Debenhams.  And that they were still £40, I'd probably have the full set by now ... Inflation sucks.

This post: I'm A Collector: Serge Lutens 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.  Scrapers are scum.

The Oddest Lipstick in my Collection

 This little monolith looks fairly innocuous, no? Well, it's one of the oddest, and most expensive, makeup products I own.  It's actually a Serge Lutens Water Lip Colour, and when it turned up in a goody bag at a Serge Lutens fragrance launch, I was about as excited as I could be.  I thought there were only two shades, Chardon, a red, and Safrane, an orange, and I wondered which shade I would get.

I was wrong, by the way, there are three shades.  Number three is Indian Ink.  A black. Guess which one I got?

Yeah, you got there ahead of me, didn't you?  A black lipstain.

I love the applicator, it looks like some kind of exotic sea-creature from the depths, it's rather cool. And, surprisingly, it really helps with the application, being easy to get into all your lip crevices.

However, it's black.  Well, grey, rather:

It's actually oddly useable, you can use it to stain your lips darker, to give a different dimension to lipshades that need darkening, or you can use it to fake bruises:

What's the oddest thing in your makeup collection?

This post: http://getlippie.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-oddest-lipstick-in-my-collection.html originated at: http://getlippie.com If you're not reading this on Get Lippie, then the content has been stolen by a scraper. All rights reserved.

Project Perfume - Serge Lutens

If you're in Paris, and if you're at all interested in perfume, then there's one pilgrimage that you have to make, and that is to worship - just a little bit - at the shrine of Serge Lutens, which you can find at Palais Royal, just behind the Louvre.  It's a stunning store, as different as different can be from the Caron store I showed you yesterday, but, possibly even more beautiful:

We were there to take a "perfume journey" with Sandrine, the wonderfully knowledgeable manager of the store, who received two rather travel-weary bloggers with beautiful grace and hospitality.  We were whisked up the magnificent staircase to "Uncle Serge's" private domain at the store, which is a peaceful haven replete with both Japanese and Moroccan touches, and, during a well-needed sit down, we were introduced to both the Export Line, and the Bell Jar collection, which is only available at this single - and singular store.

Sandrine started off talking to us about the Serge Lutens history - I had no idea he began his career as a hairdresser (again, bad beauty blogger alert) - and mentioned his links with both North Africa and the Far East.  We began, of course, by smelling Feminite Du Bois, which was Serge's first fragrance collaboration with Shiseido, and was possibly the first ever wood-based perfume created exclusively for women.  I own a sample of this, and it's a perfect cuddle of a perfume, reminding me of grey cashmere, and it's something I both hoard, and save for those days where a little comfort wouldn't go amiss.  It is quite rightly considered a classic.  There are three other fragrances in the "Bois" collection, et Fruits, et Musc and Oriental.  I loved all of them.

We then had a whistle-stop tour of the rest of the collection, the ritual of being told the story of the perfume, then dipping the strips into the jars to sample the scent, and the discussion of the notes being, to me a little slice of peaceful perfume heaven, right there in the city centre.  Particular standouts for me were Boxeuse - which, we were told is the scent of a lady boxer, sweet and leathery, for me, lacking a real punch, but a lot prettier than expected.  Sarrasins, a perfume on my list, didn't make much of an impression, but Tuberose Criminelle and Un Lys were real hits with both Hilda and I.

I then had to smell the two other "big-hitters" on my list: Iris Silver Mist, and La Myrrhe.  I have read a lot about Iris Silver Mist, and was looking forward to trying it, but at the point of smelling it, I'd had a little olfactory overload, and was totally anosmic. I couldn't smell a thing.  However, I took a few minutes out of sniffing at this point, and came back to it ... and ... well ... I didn't like it.  Cold, metallic and melancholy, the smell of the tears of a graveyard statue. On my skin it wasn't "me" at all.  It's another Lutens that I can appreciate the structure and the artistry of, but not wear.

Or ... can I?  On the drydown, which took a good two or three hours to reach, there was a beautiful, powdery and buttery scent, which was elegant and wearable, and I liked this a lot more than I did at first.  It's eccentric, for sure, but potentially loveable. This is definitely a scent I'll be searching for a sample of in the future because, as challenging as it is, I think it's definitely one that warrants further investigation.

As for La Myrrhe? Reader, I married it. Erm ... what I mean is that I felt strangely compelled to buy a bottle.  From the rosy and slightly aldehydic opening, which is both traditionally "perfume-y", and yet manages to remain undated, to the balsamic and slightly medicinal undertones, which are slightly mysterious and yet strangely welcoming, the bottle sang out my name loud and clear.  I've worn it a few times since, and in spite of MrLippie's assessment that it's "nice, but nothing original" - something I wholeheartedly disagree with - I love it.  A few more wears and I'll review it more fully, I think.

We also took a look at the Serge Lutens export line, where I once again fell for the apricot and leather beauty of Daim Blond - which I always think smells like the essence of a suede rose - to the extent where I wondered anew why I don't own a bottle, and the makeup collection, which you can see here:

I had, at one point, been determined to purchase a Serge Lutens lipstick, as they are in beautiful shades, and with a gorgeous satin texture, but at seventy five euro each - and discovering I couldn't choose between three of the shades! - I felt they were a little too rich even for my blood. They shall remain, for me, a thing to save up for ... in the meantime, I shall go to Harvey Nichols at every available opportunity and swatch, and dream ...


The Fine Print: Trip to Serge Lutens arranged by PR, but my very grateful thanks go to Sandrine for a wonderful afternoon. Purchases were acquired.  My credit card cried a little bit.  It had had a very hard day.

This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Serge Lutens Jeux de Peau

Serge Lutens, how much do I love thee?  The first super-expensive bottle of perfume I ever bought for myself (at a whopping £45, back at the time when most "expensive" perfumes cost £18-25 depending on precisely how "fancy" you wanted to smell) was a bottle of Serge Lutens Sa Majeste La Rose. This was shortly followed by a bottle of A La Nuit, neither of which I ever wear these days, but I do still own the remnants of both bottles in their "vintage" formulations.


I can't really bear to part with them, because of the memories I associate with them, even though I realise they're two of the least complex of the Serge Lutens line, these days.  Back then I really just loved rose scents (Ombre Rose was a contemporary purchase too, and I used that bottle up in a matter of a few short months), and I thought jasmine - the primary, and some might say only ingredient in A La Nuit - was a much more innocent scent than it actually is.  I know different now, but ... do I know better?  Nowadays, I much prefer Ambre Sultan, and Femininite du Bois.


It would appear that dear old "Uncle Serge" has been playing memory games with his fans with this his new release.  I've read lots of reviews that talk about bread, jam, butter, and baked goods, and thought that as I'd recently come to terms with Guerlain's "patisserie accord" (more about that in a Guerlain post later on), that this might be a good one to try.


And, on initial sniffing, my immediate reaction was "bread and butter pudding!".  I was delighted, as bread and butter pudding is one of my favourite things.  Sadly, on closer inspection, the butter in this particular pudding turned out to be margarine.  The scent of cheap spread was cloying and clinging, somehow managing to be both fat, and flat.  It also - for me - crowded out the scent of anything else for the first three hours.  Then, when something else did turn up on my skin, it was curry.


Oh yes.


Actually, it wasn't curry, it's actually the scent of Immortelle, which has cumin-ish aspects on my skin.  Margarine and curry.  Yummy!  Then, finally, about six or seven hours of wear, there was a lovely, slightly peppery maple syrup scent that stuck very close to my skin.  Had this been more prominent, or had appeared sooner, I'd have loved this.  But, alas, it wasn't to be.  Me and margarine have never got along all that well, and this was terrifyingly close to being a scrubber throughout the entire day of wear.


Serge Lutens definitely tries to create art with his scents, and even his more challenging fragrances deserve a shedload of admiration. Jeux de Peau is a skillful creation, and it's a rather playful one, too.  However, this is Serge playing games on my skin, and I'm not sure I liked it.  I have to admire it, but I don't think I'll be wearing it again any time soon ...


Jeux de Peau costs £65.36 and is available from escentual.com


What's the worst scent you've ever put on your skin?


The Fine Print: Review written from sample.


This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.