Mr Lippie Reviews: Armani Diamonds Summer

I've been using Armani Diamonds for a little while now, and I thought (or, rather, was reminded) that it's about time that I put my thoughts on it down on paper, as it were.

 

Looking at the bottle itself, it's a chunky rectangular bottle, with a hint of blue/aquamarine at the base that gives the liquid a slightly mysterious look. The top is dominated by the spray nozzle, which is a heavy silver top that accentuates the slight curves of the bottle very nicely. The stylised Armani eagle is on the container, but it's not overbearing, it adds to the look, making the bottle itself quite imposing. 

 

The smell on first spray is quite sharp, almost like raw alcohol - it felt seriously eye-watering when I first put it on. There's quite a lot of citrus in there, which persists quite strongly for the first half hour or so, but there's quite a lot of interesting undercurrents that slowly rise to the surface and subsume the citrus. It make the scent slightly musky, but delightfully subtle and softer. I tend to use this most weekdays, as it's not something to just throw on just before going out - but it IS something that you feel comfortable wearing throughout the day, without fear that at some point you're going to smell like something that's decomposing in the corner - never the best at a crucial afternoon meeting, I find.

 

Overall, I like it, quite a lot. No whale bottoms here, Diamonds certainly manages to grab the attention.

 

Get Lippie says: I've noticed that this appears to be MrL's favourite scent by far this year, and it's become his "go to" fragrance for  everyday wear, not that I'm complaining!  Redolent of lemons at first (there's meant to be a hint of mint there but I can't pick it up), it soon settles into a woodsy smoothness that's subtle, but masculine.

Review - Summerlicious at The Chapel, Islington

At times, I'm truly reminded that mine is a somewhat charmed life. Recently, I spent the most delightful four hours in the company of Billie, Kay and Kim at the Chapel Hair salon in Islington, and was made to feel so much at home, that I didn't really want to leave.

Having read up a little before my visit about the "trend-setting" owners Billie Crago and Georgia Denton, discovering that the salon has won at least five "Salon of the Year" awards, and reading about how "cool" the design of the salon itself was, I don't think I can be blamed for being a little apprehensive about my upcoming appointment.  Add in the fact that on the day itself I was running a little late for my appointment, I was expecting a sniffy reception at the very least.  I could not have been more delightfully put wrong, from the super-friendly receptionist who set me up with a drink and a gratefully received Tunnocks teacake, to my colourist Billlie, my stylist Kim, and my mani/pedi diva Kay, everyone was friendly, relaxed, chatty, and a joy to spend the afternoon with.

I was there to trial their "Summerlicious" offering, which aims to get you ready for your holidays, or just get you all spruced up for the warmer weather. For a special price of £200, Summerlicious includes the salon's signature "floating" highlights, a pedicure, manicure, a makeup consultation and, of course a cut and blowdry.  On arrival, you're whisked into the consultation area (above), for a chat about your likes, dislikes, skintone, hair requirements (mine was, deal with the madness, and make me look less dull, please), and colour requests for nail polishes, and just general chitchat about how the salon works.


Once all that's decided, your summerlicious appointment starts with your pedicure. These take place in the dedicated colour room, which is in the basement of the salon.  Equipped with sofas, footrests, and a fireplace, it's a wonderful little cave to rest and relax in.  Kay, the salon's beauty person, is simply an amazing therapist, chatty and friendly, with an astonishing knowledge of brands and products, talking to her was a joy, so much so that I almost forgot she was playing with my feet.  You regular readers will all know how I feel about feet, so I won't go on about it here again, but suffice it to say that Kay took all my quirks into account and this was probably the pedicure that's had the least amount of flinching and wincing (on my behalf!) as a result.  The salon use Leighton Denny manicure products, and my toes were painted a fetching milky coral-peach shade called Just Perfect.  It is.


Billie was taking care of my colour, which basically meant taking care of my grey roots - I've been greying since I was 18, and I find it infuriating - and then using her signature "floating" highlight technique to do the rest.  This technique is great for darker hair, as the lights start further down the hair (slightly away from the scalp) therefore minimising regrowth, avoiding totally that attractive stripy look on your parting, and just imparting a sunkissed glow towards the ends of your hair.  Aimed at mimicking a natural sun-bleached effect, they're far less obvious than traditional highlights, and less high maintenance as a result.  Billie very clearly knows her stuff, and was happy to talk all through the technical aspects of the treatments of the salon, and her passion for her craft was apparent at all times (ask her about her head collection!).  While Billie was applying the colour, Kay was painting my fingernails, and it was also obvious that these people are a real team who enjoy working together a great deal.

Once your nails are painted, and your highlights are in place, you're led to a sofa by the fireplace with a glass of wine and a magazine whilst your colour is developing. Most relaxing, and much better than being left in front of the mirror to stare blankly at yourself.  Billie had prescribed a particular "Chemistry" moisturising treatment for my hair type once the highlights were rinsed off, which has left me with silkysoft hair, and I was off to see Kim for my cut.  Kim has curly hair herself, so I knew I was in safe hands, during my consultation I'd noticed that Kim understood my concerns with my "mad" hair completely, and so I was happy to just leave her to the cutting whilst I was chatting to Kay again about summer makeup trends (which is again, all part of the service) She also gave me a great blowdry, bouncy and full without being too bouffant.


Even after four hours in the salon, all too soon it was time to leave, but all good things come to an end, I guess. Admittedly I was leaving a lot more relaxed - and groomed! - than I was when I arrived, which is always good thing, bearing in mind my natural state of being!


So-so things about The Chapel:
The name Summerlicious.  It's a simply amazing offer, but the name makes it sound a bit cheesy.


Good things about The Chapel:
Lockers for your bags, a simple, but absolutely brilliant idea.
Keys for said lockers on bracelets so you don't lose them.
The salon itself is beautiful but not at all intimidating when you're in there. Make sure you check out the Hollywood bathroom ...


Great things about The Chapel:
The staff.
The service.
The pricing structure - for all hair services, you are charged by the hour, no matter what you're having done, you have a consultation before hand (free) and you're told how long it will take, plus if your service doesn't take the whole time, you pay less.
Summerlicious itself.  An utter bargain, and a real treat!


Oh yeah, the traditional look at my hair (this is a couple of days later, and all styling errors are my responsibility as a result):

Summerlicious costs £200 and takes approximately 3.5 to 4 hours.  The offer is running till September, so book it quickly! You can have a look at the Chapel website here, and their blog is here.

The Fine Print: Get Lippie was invited along as a guest of the salon, for review purposes.  I really have to stop talking about my mad barnet, as I suspect I'm on some sort of "insane" hair marketing list and that's how people find me.

Trish McEvoy Eye Products

Recently, I was invited along to the Trish McEvoy counter at Selfridges to take a look over some of the products that they stock that won't fit in my planner.  In case you don't know much about Trish's range, she's a US makeup artist, who is famous (infamous?) for her compact (and bijou!) makeup planners.  Mine must be about six years old now, and contains a face powder, a blush, a highlighter duo, and four eyeshadows. Over the years it's proved to be a great boon, particularly for travelling.  The thing I like about the planners is that you pick the colours, and contents yourself, according to your needs.  Mine is full of pinks, purples, and browns, and I love it.  I'll show it to you, one day.  Once it's full ... which might be soon ...

I hadn't realised - it's been a while since I stopped by the counter - that there was a full range of skincare.  This isn't a reflection on the skincare, btw, but I'm a magpie-shopper, and my attention is always drawn to the jewel-like shades of the eyeshadows before anything else!  I was especially drawn to a pot of Beta-Hydroxy pads which promise to help you resurface your skin - something I'm almost literally obsessed with at the moment, thanks to a surprise birthday present that I'll be reviewing for you soon - and a balm which promises 8hr Cream-like results without the, ah, "liniment"-like scent.

After a long chat, and a nice cup of tea, I was sent away with a couple of samples to try, and you can see them above, (top to bottom) High Volume Mascara in Jet Black, Eye Base Essentials in Demure, and a 24 Hour Eye Shade pencil in Topaz.

Onto the swatches:

First off, the mascara, this is a "tubing" mascara, something I'm always fond of because they don't flake or run during the day, and you only need a little hot water to remove it.  It's a bit scary the first time you try and remove a tube mascara (basically you wet the lashes, and gently - very gently - roll the mascara off your lashes.  You'll end up with fingertips full of tiny mascara tubes, which always look suspiciously like your eyelashes themselves though!  This mascara has a tiny brush head, barely any wider than the brush wand itself:

I like a small mascara brush, as it enables you to get really deep down into the roots of the lashes, without smearing mascara all over your lids and ruining your eyeshadow!  But the true test of a mascara for me is whether or not it both lengthens and thickens.  Here's what it did for my lashes:

For some reason, these photos don't entirely do the mascara justice, yes it doesn't lengthen quite as much as my most recent mascara-love Le Metier Anamorphic, but it does volumise a lot more, giving, I think, a far more dramatic effect over all. I've used it every day since picking up my sample, and it's been perfect in this hot weather, being impervious to heat, sweat and (to an extent) tears!  Love it.

Now for the eye base and the 24 hour shadow:

What I like about the Eyebase Essentials is that it comes in a selection of 8 shades, and a selection of finishes.  Shown above is Demure which is a rather cool-toned lightly pinked beige, with a faint sparkle, but there are peaches, and light taupes, all perfect as either skin-toned shadows in their own right, or they make a great base for your powder shadows.  I've noticed they don't last quite as long as Urban Decay Primer Potion,  but they do give you a bit more slip, so they're far, far easier to blend over.

The 24 Hour Shadow pencil in Topaz is a beauty, a multi-tonal bronze shade, you can either apply it heavily (as in the swatch) or sheer it out with your fingers or a brush after a quick sweep over your eyelids. After a few seconds, the shadow will "set" (you don't have to work as quickly as with Ellis Faas, for example) and it will last.  A very long time.  The sheerer you make your application, the less time you'll have before it creases, but I estimate that even then you'll get a minimum of 6 hours crease and fade-free wear.  If you apply it more heavily, you'll be wearing a perfect shadow look until you decide to take it off.  There are four colours in the range, and I'll be heading back out for the grey one very soon.

Trish McEvoy products are exclusively available from Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.

The Fine Print: I own a fairly extensive collection of Trish McEvoy already, but the products featured in this review were supplied for review purposes.  Unless you consider tea a bribe, I wasn't compensated in any way for this review.

It's not, by the way.  A bribe, that is.  Even Selfridges tea isn't that good.

Burberry Cosmetics land at Harrods ...

So, as well as spending a little money with Dolce & Gabanna the other day, I also indulged in a little Burberry.  I hadn't been planning to, but the sales girls were so friendly, and the colours were so much nicer than I was expecting, that I felt duty-bound to pick up a few bits and pieces!  After a bit of a mass swatch, I picked (l-r) Sheer Eyeshadow No9 Rosewood, Light Glow Cameo Blush No2 and Sheer Eyeshadow No10 Antique Rose.

I've read some criticism of the range that it's all too neutral, too safe and a bit dull.  Well, yes, if you love your brights and deeps, then I can understand those thoughts.  Me though, I love me some sophisticated, polished neutrals, and this collection has them in spades. I thought the entire collection glowed with quality, and I'll be popping back this week for a lipshade (or two).

On the left there is Rosewood, which is a delicately glowing, pinkish taupe.  It's lightly shimmering, and very flattering, perfect as a crease-shade, or for a light look all over the mobile lid.  On the right is Antique Rose, a more matte, slightly plum-shade.  It's slightly more intense than Rosewood, and I used this to create a bit of an edgy smoky eye recently, a look I'll show you in a FotD coming up soon.  I really, really, really liked it.  Which kind of guarantees no one else will, but hey ho ...

Swatches shown dry over unprimed skin.  Although they're called sheer, they're actually fairly opaque, and when I wore them over primer, I had no issues with fading or creasing, even after about 14 hours of wear.

Onto the blush, the range of shades is actually quite small (three), but this was the one that called out to me.  I don't own many pinkish blushes, but this one struck me as very fresh-looking, and vibrant when I swatched it.

It's a matte shade (I prefer my blushes matte, so I can add highlight where I need it, rather than risk getting the dreaded "glitterball" effect), and on the more coral side of pink.  It's fairly long-lasting, needing a top-up only after about 8 hours of wear, but I like it a lot, it makes a change from my more bronz-y or orange shades! I like to think it's fairly flattering on my skin tone, and doesn't make me look too flushed.  It smells faintly of roses, too, which pleases me, oddly.

What's your opinion of Burberry Cosmetics?  I love the classily quirky packaging (also adore that the boxes are lined with pewter to match the compacts), and the textures are, whilst not the most buttery and pigmented I've seen - that would be Rouge Bunny Rouge - are very high quality indeed.  I'll definitely be investing in more.  Very soon....

The Fine Print: I bought these on the same day I got treated like poo by Dolce & Gabanna after my hard day in East London.  My bank manager reminded me this week that I bank with them, and NOT vice versa.  I love a funny bamk manager I do.  I should get one.

Dolce & Gabanna Summer Collection

So, if you read my blog last week, you know I had a hard time actually buying these, but, I do love the bits and pieces I bought ... Up there you can see (l-r) Nail Polish in Perfection, Classic Lipstick in Soft, and the eye quad in Nude.  What I didn't realise at the time is that Perfection and Nude are actually part of the summer collection, and as a result are limited edition.

The packaging on these is excellent, heavyweight, and a shade of gold that doesn't look cheap, even the etching of the names on the packaging looks great.  They do get hellishly covered in fingerprints though, so may be a good idea to keep them in their velvet pouches.

Onto swatches! 

The nail varnish flows like butter, I have an issue with the long, spindly brush aligned with a tiny cap (the gold part pops off to reveal the proper cap beneath), but this is because I am a well-known cackhanded muppet, and these things make applying varnish difficult for me. I think this is an almost perfect "mannequin hands" polish, too.  The above pic shows two coats (with a base and top coat), and is on it's sixth day of wear.  There was a minimal amount of chipping, and barely any tipwear.  Seriously amazing quality.

Lips:

Classic lipstick in Soft  is a rather dark neutral rose shade, opaque in one stroke, it provides soft, glossy lip coverage:

It looks a little lighter on the skin than on the bullet, and it reminds me somewhat of Chanel's Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle - I'll make a potential dupe post soon! - on my lips it very nearly a "my lips but better" shade (I have quite pigmented lips naturally) but it's a good, wearable, fairly neutral shade for many skin colours, I think.

Onto the eye quad:

I fell in love with these shades, the top two a lightly shimmery brownish-purple, and pale coral, and two matte flesh shades, perfect for creating a no-makeup makeup look.  Here's how they swatch:

The brown-purple (or purple-brown, if you prefer), is simply beautiful, I've used it for lining, but it's also perfect for a flattering smokey look.  I used the whole quad recently to create a natural look (for meeting Edward Bess, who complimented me on it, but more about that anon), used the two matte shades for the base and crease shades, and then coloured the mobile lid in a little with the peach, and used the brown to line, seemed to work just fine!  The shadows lasted really well - admittedly over a primer - too.

So, was it worth dealing with the sneery sales assistant?  Yes, I think it was, but I'll be buying from the Selfridges counter next time ...

The Fine Print: I bought these after a hellishly bad day in East London.  East London apparently does strange things to your credit cards.

Review - Clarisonic (First Thoughts)

Ever since I read Gemma's Clarisonic Diaries posts about her experiences of using a handset for a month over on London Beauty Review a while ago, I've wanted one of these sonic beauties!  A couple of weeks ago though, this desire was cemented by the amazingly talented Jody Bloch at the Fern Skin Clinic, who told me that a Clarisonic would definitely help me with some dry skin issues I've been suffering from lately.

It took me a little while to get my hands on one, but I finally have one in my sticky little paws, and, after a week of use, I thought it might be interesting to get some thoughts down about how using a giant toothbrush Clarisonic to clean my face has been.

Here is what Clarisonic claim for themselves (from the Clarisonic website):

Benefits beyond just clean skin: Clarisonic improves the appearance of skin tone and reduces the appearance of pore size

Clarisonic is the sonic technology proven to gently yet effectively loosen dirt and oil to clear your pores. The Clarisonic Cleansing System uses a patented sonic frequency of more than 300 movements per second to clean, soften and smooth your skin. In just 60 seconds a day, the Clarisonic micro-massage action cleans more than twice as effectively as manual cleansing.

Clarisonic Sonic Cleansing Benefits

• Removes 6x more makeup than manual cleansing
• Leaves skin feeling and looking smoother
• Cleanses so well that products absorb better
• Gentle enough for twice daily use
• Helps reduce oily areas, dry skin patches and blemishes
• Helps reduce the appearance of visible pores
• Reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles 

I've been using mine twice a day for the last week, with an old favourite cleanser (Nude's Facial Cleansing Oil), and, I have to say, I've been astonished at how much I love using this thing. Essentially, you apply your cleanser to your damp skin, then, after wetting the brush head with warm water, you move it in small circles over your skin, moving to different parts of the face when the handset beeps.  Once the brush turns itself off, I usually go over my skin with a warm facecloth and remove any last traces of cleanser that are left behind, and give myself a little steam-treatment too.

So, how have I found it? Well, after my operation, I'd been quite openly complaining about my dull, grey, flaky skin, which not even my usual hot-cloth method of skin-cleansing had been able to shift.  In addition, I've been "suffering" from a constant patch of dry, flaky skin on my forehead for a matter of months that has been driving me bananas - it was diagnosed by a couple of people recently as "lipid dryness", meaning that oil wasn't able to penetrate beyond the most superficial layer of my skin.  From the first use, Clarisonic has helped with both of those problems. 

My dry patch has disappeared, and my skin has been uniformly more even in tone, and it's soft. So soft that it feels like velvet!  I do find that my skin most definitely feels a lot cleaner when I use the handset, and from the first use (for me), it's been a bit of a revelation. I've also found that I don't need to exfoliate at all.  Astonishing.  Astonishing enough for me to actually look forward to cleansing my face as a result!

Now, has my skin been visibly changed for the better?  I can't in all honesty say so.  Yet.  MrLippie hasn't noticed any difference in my skin (then again, he'd only really notice a change in my skintone if I suddenly dyed it to match his London Irish rugby shirt, to be honest).  Skin creams certainly seem to sink in better after using it, and  I think this might be raising their efficiency slightly.  Oils, in particular just seem to vanish into my face with only the bare minimum of massaging, and my skin has been brighter as a result.  The main skin oil that I'm using at the moment is Liz Earle's Superskin concentrate, by the way, I just adore the neroli-scent as a night treatment.

Things I don't like: it takes a long time to charge - when it first arrives, you have to charge it for 24 hours before you can use it, and, I've found it can be tricky trying to change the programming.  It has three speeds, which are very easy to sort out, but moving it from a 1 minute timed setting, to a 2 minute timed setting or a setting without a timer can be difficult.  So difficult, in fact, that mine appears to be stuck on the 2 minute timer, and I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to get it back onto a one minute timer!  This is eating up my battery life, which ties back into my point about it taking a long time to charge! It's also on the pricey side, coming in at £150 for a face-only version, or £175 for a face and body unit. You can pick one up from Selfridges, Harrods, or SpaceNK.  That said though, a course of facials would cost a similar amount, and, this is something that I feel is definitely going to make a big change to  my routine, so, on a cost per use basis, it actually works out pretty cheap.  I've always believed that getting your cleansing right is the key to any skin routine, and, well this is a big step along that route.

Overall, I'm exceptionally impressed, and I'm looking forward to seeing if the coming weeks bring any differences to my face that other people can notice ...

The Fine Print: Unit was accidentally provided for review purposes.  Long story, it involves Selfridges, a champagne cocktail or two, another encounter with me talking WAY too much to Daniel Sandler and some lightly embarrassed gatecrashing.  Probably best not to ask ...

MAC Rodarte Collection - but it is art?

You're going to be reading a lot of posts on this matter this evening, and I just thought I'd add my tuppenorth into the matter.  The new MAC collaboration with Rodarte is due out (in the US) in September.  A collection of ethereal pale greys, pinks and taupes, it's meant to be inspired by the beauty of the countryside in Mexico, and specificially, items (according to Rodarte) were inspired by the female workers "floating to work" in the factories at dawn.

So far, not so unusual, but several of the items may have been insensitively named: Juarez, and Factory, are the nail polishes in the collection, and here's where the controversy begins, for, over the last several years, women in their dozens have been abducted on their way to work in the factories of Juarez, and they have been raped and murdered. Juarez is a notoriously impoverished factory town, and has been named one of the most dangerous places to live in the world as a result of these abductions, murders and rapes.  Very little is being done by the police to investigate the situation, as the women (aged between 12 and 20, in the main) are every poor, and it's not seen as worthwhile to try and bring their rapists and murderers to justice.

After an outcry in the US, MAC have released a statement announcing that they are aware that some people consider these names controversial and/or offensive, and, as a result, they are going to donate a "portion" of the proceeds of this collection to the people of Juarez.  Rodarte themselves have merely said that the names of the collection were inspired by their "travels", and have not apologised for the controversial element.

This strikes me as a shame, and a missed opportunity.  Why not release the entire collection as an awareness raising one, and donate the entire proceeds to the people of Juarez? MAC, of course, have a track record in this area, donating as they do, the entire proceeds of their Viva Glam releases every year to Aids charities.  I'd feel a lot less uneasy about MAC if they'd done this, I'll be honest.

Can you imagine if, in the UK for example, Illamasqua had released a collection with an item named "Soham" and then claimed it was simply because the town was so beautiful, and that was the only reason they chose the name?  It shows a massive amount of naivety on the behalf of the Rodarte team that they didn't consider the implications of naming parts of a collection this way, and ignoring any offence they may have caused too.

Please be aware that I am NOT calling for a boycott of this collection, and if you want to buy the items, you are, of course, welcome to (personally, some of the items I've seen, I think to be very pretty, in all actuality - it's certainly not a collection for our darker skinned sisters, judging from the promos though), but I'd like to see MAC do more to redress this situation, (what proportion of the proceeds are they willing to donate, for example) and I'd like to see more in the way of action from the Rodarte team to acknowledge the situation too.  Makeup shouldn't, if you ask me, be glorifying the rape and murder of women ...

What say you?  Legitimate outcry, or storm in a teacup?