I fear the tangerine ...

(With sincere spologies to my Scottish readers!)

Spring is in the air, have you noticed?  I'm serious!  The last couple of days have definitely been a bit warmer, and I no longer feel the need to wrap up like the Michelin woman to consider leaving the sofa.

With that in mind, as the weather has made me think about warmer times, I've been gently warming my makeup looks up a bit.  Now, I fear fake tan.  Genuinely, and sincerely, fear the stuff. Never use it. I always think I'm going to end up looking like this:

Only, you know, with boobs. And better hair.  And ... oh you get the idea!

So, to warm up my colouring - and move slightly away from the taupe-rut (sorry, taupe "signature look") I've been in lately, I've been dusting myself with this:

YSL Poudre de Soleil in #1, Light Sun. It's a really nice, not too shimmery (though there is a hint, a very faint hint of gold shimmer in there), not too orange bronzing powder. At differing times, I use this as a blusher, a contour powder, an eyeshadow, and occasionally as a bronzer.  I've even used it as a face powder, it's that versatile. It's very pale, and so suitable for my currently pale-blue skin.  Come summer I'll be my more usual pale-custard shade, and I'll probably be using this a bit more often than my beloved Cargo Illuminator in wind, which is a good bit pinker, and a fair bit more sparkly, and so has been a wonder for the winter, but it'll be too pink for me come summer.  The Poudre de Soleil lasts a long time, I've used mine a lot (and it's quite elderly now) and I've still yet to "hit pan".

Speaking of pinker and more sparkly things, I bought this recently too, the Palette Y-Mail face highlighter in the pearly finish:

I admit, the packaging suckered me in, it has it's own little handbag!

Too cute. Now, I love the shade, the beige is lovely, the pink is radiant.  But the pearl. Oh, the pearl is a beautiful colour, but it's packed with chunks of glitter that I didn't notice either in the store, or the first time I used it.

Glitter is not radiance!  It's a menace! Okay, the powder isn't in the same league as Urban Decay's Midnight Cowboy, but it is very definitely there, and I'm not entirely sure it needs to be.  I had been hoping it was an overspray, but it appears to be throughout the pearl-shade. It's still lovely - and I'm really glad I picked it up - but you do need a light hand when you're swirling your brush over the pearl to avoid the dreaded glittery face-dandruff effect. You might love glitter, but ... it's something I expect in cheaper products, to be honest. Still a beautiful powder, but the glitter cheapens the effect they were going for, I feel.  Beautiful compact to carry around for glamorous touch-ups during the day though.

The last couple of days, I've just worn the bronzer on my cheeks with a swirl of the highlight on my cheekbones and over my eyelids, with a dash of mascara and a touch of lipgloss, and it's a very quick, simple and polished look.

Do you own any YSL? What do you love from the range? What's your spring makeup like?

Nail of the Day – LA Colour Antique Burgundy

While I was sorting out my nail polish drawer the other day, searching for a perfect red after the Crimsun debacle of last week, I pulled out all my Chanel reds – truly, I believe Chanel do the best reds, in either lipstick or polish – but this little beauty caught my eye.

And I use the word beauty advisedly, as I LOVE this shade, it’s a red jelly finish with just a teeny hint of gold shimmer, making it look like a really expensive metallic car paint job on the nails.

Neither of the pictures really do it justice, I’m afraid. They show three coats over a Mavala base, with a Seche Vite top coat. It’s a pure, clear red that doesn’t shade either pink or orange, and there’s no hint of blue in it.  I think it’s about the nicest, prettiest red I own, and it’s one I think really suits the skin-tone on my fingers.

Oh, the best thing about this polish?  It  cost me 99p. Now, when you bear in mind that I’m happy to pay £11 for a polish, and indeed, I’ve paid £16 for polishes before now, I think you can understand how happy this little baby has made me!  I got mine from Beauty Base in Westfield, but I think you can find LA Colours at places like Savers.

My nail drawer now looks like this by the way, whaddya think?

What I did at London Fashion Week ...

By Get Lippie, aged 32 and a lot of halves.

I don't get serenaded by middle aged men in body paint nearly often enough, I've decided.

I was delighted to be invited backstage (as a guest of Illamasqua) at the House of Blues AW2010 fashion event at London Fashion Week recently. An opportunity to get to see Alex Box work at close range was an offer I simply couldn't turn down, and after reading this interview with Johnny Blue Eyes on Helen and Sheenie's Nice Things the other day, I knew that this was going to be a day to remember! Believe me when I tell you that I haven't laughed as much or been quite that embarrassed in a very long time.

After meeting up with Helen, Sheenie and MizzWorthy, we had a brief Fashion-off (a competition I sadly lost in spite of my sparkly Converse) and then headed to the Freemason's Hall to find out where the action was.  We were thrust straight into the thick of things, and greeted with the words: "ARE THESE MY BLOGGERS? COME HERE, TALK TO JOHNNY! ASK ME ANYTHING MY DARLINGS, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?"

(Johnny Blue Eyes is the only man I've ever met who speaks in capitals. Imagine Brian Blessed with a hint of Julian Clary, and you'll be - somewhat - on the right track. For the sake of my sanity though, and your eyeballs, I'll render the rest of his conversation in proper grammar from here on)

Having been nudged to the front of the receiving line - Johnny was having his hair done at the time - I rather sheepishly asked what we could expect from the show, and the answer was rather surprising (apologies for this in advance, I'm writing this bit from memory), for me, at least.

"It's about colour, it's about peace, it's about love.  It's a reaction to the lack of colour in the world, the recession, natural disasters.  Why should winter collections be dull? I'm bringing colour - like the colour of your eyes darling, that's an amazing shade - to the the world".

Pulling myself together a bit, I asked if he was deliberately giving people the opposite of what they'd normally expect from a winter collection, and his answer was yes, and deliberately so, what he was trying to do was "democratise fashion, make it for everyone.  I'm a 42 year old man, and I'm surrounded by love.  All my models here today are real people, they're my friends, they're all shapes, all sizes, all ages, all sexual orientations, we're all people, and we're all the same, so I want to include everyone in this show, it's ALL ABOUT LOVE".

At this point, I moved onto have a look around the - crazily chaotic - room, and spent some time watching various makeup artists doing their thing:

 

 I found out that the models were all made up with the same base Illamasqua products:

Cream eye shadow in predator was used on the faces, which were then highlighted with both liquid metal in Solstice and pure pigment in furore. The cheeks were contoured with a fushia pink cream blusher in Dixie and the lashes used were no9.

 Then, once she had a chance to take a breather from creating Johnny's rather dramatic look for the show:

 

And once we'd all had a chance to recover from  Johnny's rather, erm, "colourful" call to arms to the women in the room (seriously unrepeatable here!), and I after I'd recovered from being serenaded  (pic above) by Johnny himself (about the most embarrassed I've ever been), I had a chance to chat with Alex Box herself.  We discussed colour, and style, and beauty blogging.  I've long been a fan of her work, and this was an amazing opportunity.

House of Blue Eyes: A Day In Pictures

Here’s some eyewitness scenes of what happens backstage at London Fashion week.  Check back later today for a written account of the day, including some exclusive quotes from Alex Box of Illamasqua!

 

 

      

 

Makeover: Sam

Two weeks ago, when I did my makeover on Rebecca from le Salon de Beaute, she brought along her friend Sam for a makeover too.  It was lovely to meet them both, and I was really happy to get the opportunity to makeover two such lovely women.
Meet Sam:

Sam  has amazing bone structure, and beautiful glowing skin.  She spends a lot of time outdoors, and wanted a clean and simple look that complemented her colouring. 
As always, we started with the base, and this time we used Benefit Playstick foundation in Jax:

For a lovely, sophisticated, but not too intimidating look, I always like to dig out my Bobbi Brown Chocolate palette, I thought the differing shades of chocolate brown, and champagne would be a good match for the kind of look Sam was going for.  Initially I covered the eyelid in a shimmering apricot shade, then added a darker colour in the crease:


I then went on to add a slight bit of definition with the expresso shade in the palette, and added some mascara:
 

I added a gentle flush of colour on the cheeks with Cargo’s Illuminator in Wind, and added a little slick of Bare Escentuals lipgloss in Caramel:
and here’s the before and after:

Excited!

Today, I'm going to be tweeting live (backstage!) from The House of Blue Eyes event at London Fashion Week. Follow @Get_Lippie on Twitter, I'll be using the hashtags #LFW and #HOBE.

If you don't tweet, don't worry, there will be a full report here in the next day or so. I'm really very excited, Ilamasqua are doing the make up for the show and this is a unique opportunity for me to see what goes on in a professional setting!

Wish me luck, I'm going in…

Mission Statement?

I try not to  make Get Lippie political - I've said before, it's all about the products and how they work as far as I'm concerned, but I thought I'd share this email exchange that took place today regarding a product that a PR firm wanted to see featured here my blog:

"Hi Louise,


NAME from  PR FIRM here,

I'm writing today to see if you would be interested in posting a new piece of video content on http://www.getlippie.blogspot.com/

MADEUPNAME is a fun new campaign encouraging you to get creative, take a look at the video here: MADEUPNAME.com

...

We can pay you to post this video, to sign up as a publisher and for payment please visit MADEUPNAME.com

If you have any questions please get in touch."
 
(emphasis mine)
 
My response was as follows:
 
"Hi NAME


Thank you very much for getting in contact with Get Lippie.

Get Lippie does not feature sponsored posts, and nor do I accept payment for posts. Nor will I ever.

 I write about products I've tried and tested - 90% of which I buy myself for the purposes of review. All products, regardless of their source, are tested thoroughly, and the reviews posted on my site - good and bad - are, above all, honest and true. I also do not feature video content, and have no plans to do so.

I believe that the concept of paying bloggers to feature products (not to mention your requirement that the posting be in a specific format) to be a pernicious one, and one I have no interest to be involved with. Your products may be wonderful, and in fact I have tried them already, but I will be unable to be involved in this particular project at this time.

Again, I thank you for your interest in Get Lippie. I assure you that if your product is mentioned on my blog in the future, my review will be honest, thorough, in the format of my choosing, and I will NOT have been paid to feature them."

I'm reprinting it here as I thought it was as good as a mission statement.  What do you think about the concept of brands paying for posts?

EDIT:

It's been pointed out by another blogger (quite rightly) that my posting appears to misrepresenting what the email is actually asking people to do. I'm happy to make clear, and put right, that this email isn't asking for paid endorsement of a product, that it is in fact a request to rent "ad-space" on the blog. Whilst I'm more than happy to put that miscomprehension right - and I'm happy to have been corrected! - the above is still a genuine email conversation, and it was based on how *I* interpreted the request at the time it was put to me (actually I feel that the email from the company involved could have been much better-written to make their intent clear. But, then I would!), as such, I stand by my comments with regard to paid posts, and would like to make clear that my reply to the agency involved would still have been in the negative, for a variety of other reasons. Other people can, and will, feel differently. That's the beauty of blogging!



The foregoing post is merely a statement of *my* intent on *my* blog at this time.