Perfume Portrait at Ormonde Jayne

I've had some astonishing invitations through this blog, but being invited along to Ormonde Jayne to meet Linda Pilkington and have a chat about perfume has been one of my favourites.  Linda has been the brains and inspiration behind Ormonde Jayne for ten years, and has produced some of the most highly praised scents in the world during that time.


I popped along to her new store in London's Sloane Square one lunchbreak last week, and sat for a "perfume portrait" with the lady herself.  Open to everyone, the portrait aims to pick out the scents that will best suit you from the Ormonde Jayne range, according to how well you like (or dislike) particular scents.  It starts with a few questions about perfumes you love, mine were Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Chanel Crystalle, Guerlain Herba Fresca and O de Lancome. Then you have to move onto perfumes you dislike, which in my case were LouLou (it makes me vomit) and Eden (ditto).  Many, many apologies to Cacherel there, but ... well, they do.

Then the most interesting part, Linda guides you through smelling 21 raw ingredients (divided into seven different categories) and asks you if you like them or not.  There are no right or wrong answers, but I liked many of the ingredients, apart from Tiare and Tonka.  I suspect that it is (tiare in particular) those two pesky little ingredients that are behind my intolerance to particular perfumes.  I think Linda was surprised by some of my reactions, she let slip that she'd thought I'd be a great candidate for Tolu, but I hated all the ingredients!


At the end of this, Linda asks a few more questions, along the lines of particular habits you might have, any preferences, and picks out a few scents from her range.  There are 12 perfumes in the line, and Linda selected three for me to try, Champaca, Osmanthus and Zizan.  All extremely different to one another!  Champaca is a "deconstructed" floral with hints of rice and bamboo, Osmanthus is a zesty citrus floral, and Zizan is a masculine vetiver-based fragrance.

I have to say, I liked them all, but the one that really called out to me was Zizan.  For years I've preferred men's fragrances to women's, finding them both better lasting and - to my nose - more interesting than many women's fragrances.  That said, it was interesting to have it confirmed in a blind smell-test!  

I love the scent of Zizan, it reminds me (in a good way) of Acqua di Parma.  Not in the way that it smells - they're not really alike at all - but both scents remind me of the warm smell of a man you know well, intimate, and a tad sexy.   It's a proper, old-school scent, something that if I smelled it on a man would make me swoon a little, but on my skin it's a warm, grapefruity (vetiver always heads towards grapefruit on me, albeit without the sulphurous undertones), lightly smoky and wonderfully playful scent that I can see myself wearing year round.  I suspect MrLippie would smell magnificent in it, but as of yet, I'm refusing to relinquish MY  bottle.  

As for Osmanthus, I was a little unsure at first, but over the hours that it developed, I fell in love with it more and more, and have an inkling that a purchase might be in order.  In fact, I'm tempted to go back and buy the discovery kit, as I suspect that I'll like a LOT of this range once I try them properly.  I think I really do have try Champaca as well ... But Tolu may well be a complete no-no for this particular blogger.

The Sloane Street store is a delight of black laquer with tangerine accents, and the friendly and delightfully knowledgeable staff are a real treat to chat with.  Linda herself was wonderfully chatty, and I have to admit that if I had more time, I'd have been perfectly happy to spend the entire afternoon at the store.  

Perfume Portraits are free, and depending on the time available will take from 6 minutes to an hour - mine took 40 minutes, but we got distracted talking about jacuzzis for a while.  You know, like you do ...  There's also a wonderful service where you can book out the store and take five of your friends along for a glass of champagne and a perfume portrait each.  Who's with me?

As far as my Project Perfume is concerned, the visit was a complete bust, as I wasn't "matched" to any of the perfumes on my list, but I think the visit was all the better for not being tied to smelling particular items.  Many thanks to Linda and her team for making me so welcome last week, it was a delight, and I'll be back.


You can find out more about Ormonde Jayne here.


The Fine Print: Get Lippie was a guest of Ormonde Jayne, and a perfume sample was provided for the purposes of this article.  However, the service itself is free to all visitors to the store. Pop along, you'll surprise yoursel!  As always, links in this article are for informational purposes only, and are not affiliate links.

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

Tom Ford Lipsticks - Bruised Plum and Smoke Red Swatched

L-R Bruised Plum, Pure Pink, Smoke Red

 I posted about my wonderful Christmas present of two Tom Ford lipsticks recently (and well done to all who spotted the difference!), and I had a few requests for swatches, so here they are:

Top Direct daylight - Bottom artificial light (no flash on either)

 The sharp eyed amongst you today might notice that Pure Pink has snuck in there, it's a pesky wee thing, always wanting the limelight ... anyhoo, Bruised Plum is a wonderful deep dark plum that isn't as overpowering as you might expect from the shade in the bullet.  I feared looking like an elderly goth in this one, but it's actually surprisingly easy to wear, particularly when it's sheered out a little.  Smoke Red is a beautiful red shade, which isn't as brown as I was expecting from the name.  It's probably the one of these three that I'm going to get the most use out of, but I wear them all very happily.


I've not noticed many other blog posts that have pointed out that these are actually shimmery lipsticks, and in fact, it was only when I was looking at Smoke Red in particular lighting that I noticed it myself.  I've done my best to show the micro-shimmer in the below pics:

With the red one especially, it might help to enlarge the pics, but in Smoke Red there's a hefty dose of red micro-shimmer and in Bruised Plum there's a smattering of blue and red micro-shimmer.  I have to say that since I've noticed this my appreciation for these lipsticks has actually shot up.  The micro-shimmers just add a certain depth and vibrancy to the shades, without adding glitter or sparkle, and that's a heck of a trick to pull off in a lipstick.  Kudos, Tom Ford!  I haven't noticed the shimmer (if any) in the Pure Pink though.


As for lip swatches, here you go, Bruised Plum first, then Smoke Red:

Not a huge amount of difference in the shades, they're both firmly in my comfort zone, and I'm liking them a great deal.  If you want a lipswatch of the Pure Pink, then please click here.

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

Lost in Makeupland

Intriuged by this post at Lipstick and Lightsabers, I thought Lost in Makeupland had a great selection of neutral shades, and so this mineral-makeup-shy accountant was tempted to place an order.

Lost in Makeupland is an Etsy Shop, run by Belen, who manufactures all her items in Spain.  I thought the selection of shades was great, and very wearable. I run away from bright loose shadows like nothing on earth, and Anastasia's swatches made the colours look very beautiful and complex.  I picked out 12 shades to try, and here they are:

Shy and Faerie are blush/highlighters rather than eyeshadows, and they're beautiful.  Shy is a pink with gold, and Faerie is a white with peach, both of which suit my not that pale, and only slightly warm skin very well.  Libertine is dark charcoal with silver lights, and Purrrple is a rather dusty (and beautiful!) purple, that will work very well with my hazel eyes.  It's a lighter version of my beloved Twilight Grey from Laura Mercier, which I can't live without.

Bruised is a little more brown than Purrrple, and I like it a great deal.  7 Nation army is a blackened green with silver sparkle.  Volta is another dark, dark, purple, with just a touch of shimmer, and tan is - as the name might imply - a metallic tan shade.

Expensive is a complex gold shade, Guns'n'Roses is a gunmetal grey with silver glitter, bioshock is a blackened green, and Queen is a dark Cadbury purple. 


I think you can tell I was in a purple/neutral/smoky frame of mind when I ordered these!   All of the shades were beautifully silky to apply with a lightly dampened brush, and there was little to no fallout.  The colours are wonderfully complex, and occasionally appear slightly duochrome.  I mainly picked neutrals (for me, purple is a neutral!) but there's a wonderful selection of shades. Colour me very impressed.


I've just noticed from Belen's blog that she's just introduced a line of finishing powders which I think will be my next purchase from her store.


I bought a pack of ten samples for $6 from Etsy, and each sample is enough for around ten applications, I'd estimate.  Belen was kind enough to add in an extra eyeshadow and blusher as a free gift, for which I was very grateful, I wouldn't have ordered Shy otherwise, but it's lovely.  There are far more shades than this, and it's highly likely I'll be picking out a few more when I head over to order that finishing powder ... this is a mineral brand I can really get behind!


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

Project Perfume - First update featuring Chanel, Guerlain and Thierry Mugler

So, the first month of Project Perfume has gone stonkingly well, I've sniffed around 20 new perfumes, swapped out some old perfumes (and, some newer ones I didn't like), and sat with Linda Pilkington of Ormonde Jayne for a "perfume portrait".  Plus, I've discovered some new perfumes I absolutely adore.  Here are the highlights of my month.

On my Project Perfume page, you can see all the perfumes that I've crossed off the list - I'm not going to list them all here, but the ones that I've found in January were largely ones that were very easy for me to track down, I seem to be saving all the difficult ones for further down the line, possibly a little bit foolhardy, but I'm not really one for making life easy for myself, it seems.  I will be reviewing a couple further down the page though.

I also attended the Scratch + Sniff event: "A Perfumed Journey Around the World" with My Perfume Life and Persolaise  (both of whom are massive inspirations on this project) where we were guided on a journey through Morocco, 1980's Moscow, Bengal, Java, The Alps and Kyoto by James Craven of the infamous perfume store Les Senteurs.  This was a huge amount of fun, and I got some great feedback from other perfume enthusiasts of my live-tweeting of the event.  There were some scents I liked (heavy, spicy smoky ones), some I wasn't bothered about (marine ones), one I loved (by Andy Tauer), and one I didn't like at all (a fruity floral, who knew?), all in all a great evening, and well worth £12.50 of anyone's money, I'll definitely be going back.

So, the scents I've picked out to talk about this month are:

A*Men by Thierry Mugler
Chanel No19 by Chanel, and,
Vetiver by Guerlain


A*Men - Thierry Mugler

 Perfumes The A-Z Guide gives this four stars, and describes it as a "chocolate mint" scent.


An extract: "... one hand a herbaceous lavender-mint chord brightened by aldehydes.  ... reinforces the roasted section with caramel, coffee and tar ... simultaneously poisonous and delicious eat-me-and-die feel as the original.  Hard to imagine on a guy, but a great feminine"


Now, I hate the original version of Angel, it's choking, too sweet, too cloying, too floral, too ... everything.  It's a vision of hell dipped in sugar and sold to unsuspecting 20-somethings who think everything sweet (and strong) is good.  So, I was prepared to hate this, but the description of "chocolate mint" had me thinking that it might be worth a try.  I mentioned already that I go a little bit crazy for mint smells (however cheap and soapy), so I got my hands on a sample.


And, there's no mint in it.  Not a bit.  Chocolate, caramel, and sugar galore, oh yes, but no mint.  And I don't mind.  This is possibly because I don't have to imagine it on a male, MrLippie has been wearing it non-stop since it turned up.  It makes him smell deliciously edible, and it's a wonderful change from all the "clean" scents he's been favouring lately.  Yes, it's loud.  Yes, it smells incredibly odd for the first five minutes after spraying (that'll be the tar, with a slight hint of burnt rubber), but for the rest of the day, you'll smell like a sexy Caramac.


Man, that looks so stupid now I've written it down. It's rather true though.  Lippie rating: Weird (but gooooood)


Anyway, onto:


Chanel No 19

As diametrically opposed to A*Men as it is possible to be, I'm still finding it hard to believe that I'd never smelled this before until now.  Perfumes categorises this as a four star "green floral"


An extract: " ... from the silvery hiss of it's nail-polish-remover beginnings to its poisonously beautiful green-floral heart ... For a fragrance with so many springtime references, all white blossoms and leafy greenery, No19 never lands you in any Sound of Music meadows"

Cold, austere, bitter, but undeniably beautiful, this is a fragrance I can wear whenever I'm pretending to be an elegant businesswoman in control of my destiny, instead of the lightly hassled, frazzled, and dumpy, frumpy, lumpy accountant I actually am.  There's nothing warm or sweet about this fragrance, and it's all the better for it.  It's a spritz of pure confidence in a bottle, and I've taken to wearing it to board meetings.  Yes, I do attend board meetings, something that astonishes me upon occasions too.  It's dry, but less obviously "perfumey" than Chanel No5, and I don't smell many flowers in the perfume until it's almost worn off.  I love it.  For me this falls into the Very Nice category, but for MrLippie, it's merely in the Nice/Soapy area, there aren't enough soft edges for him.  It's a perfume to wear to please yourself, and go hang anyone who doesn't like it.


Vetiver by Guerlain

I hadn't really smelled all that much vetiver till just before Christmas, but this was a beautiful addition to my perfume collection.


Luca Turin names this as the "reference vetiver" and gives it four stars in the book.  His write up is rather dismissive of the current formulation, however, this fragrance is talked about in the context of so many other perfumes in the book, that I felt that my perfume "education" would be incomplete without smelling it.


And I'm very glad I did, it's a perfect "sparkling" green scent, not too sweet, not too citrus, and not too smoky.  Vetiver is a grass, with - on my skin - hints of grapefruit, and for me, this is a perfect every day scent, I get hints of pepper, possibly a bit of clove, but the spice never dominates.  It's clean, it's fresh, but it's never soapy, it's wonderful.  I'm currently trying to convince MrLippie to try it (it's classified as a masculine, but I think it's perfectly, wonderfully unisex), but I'm still having trouble tearing him away from A*Men ...  


This is a massive post, so I think I'll save writing about my meeting with the lovely and amazing Linda Pilkington till later in the week!





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

Nail of the Day - Deborah Lippmann Don't Tell Mamma

I saw this online at House of Fraser and had to have it, it looked so gorgeous!  And, in the bottle it is, a deep dark blackened green, with incredible micro-shimmer.

As with my last Lippmann polish, application was perfect, smooth and opaque within two coats, and the wear was great, it lasted four days without chipping and I was very happy with it ...

but ....

Where's the shimmer?  It's just black on the nails! Just occasionally, depending on the light, the angle of viewing, even the time of day, you get a hint of the shimmer, but most of the time it's just black.  A good black, and a lovely polish, to be sure, but I was disappointed all the same. Gorgeous, just not quite gorgeous enough, I'm afraid.  Especially at £14 a bottle!


The Fine Print: Bought this with cash.  Not my cash, of course, but it still counts.

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

Cult Beauty: Live at Selfridges

Odd though it may seem, I'm not - actually - a big fan of makeup shopping online.  I like to see, touch, swatch and even smell the products I'm buying!  Also, when I decide I want something, I want it RIGHT NOW. None of which is possible from the comfort of your laptop, alas ...

Despite that, I do, occasionally buy things from beauty websites - usually things which are difficult/impossible to find on the high street - and one of the best ones I've visited is Cult Beauty. I do love their well thought out selection, and it's a nicely laid out site too.

So, with my dislike of online cosmetics shopping, and my love of Cult Beauty, I'm delighted that the CB girls are launching a pop-up shop in one of my real-life favourite stores, Selfridges (honestly, I'd move in, if I could), today!  Hoorah! I'll finally be able to do all the swatching and sniffing of their amazing stock that I need to before, no doubt,  handing over a goodly part of this month's salary for whatever it is I decide I can't live without today ...

The shop opens 27th Jan, and will be at Selfridges until Monday 31st January. For more details please click this link (and get yourself a nice little voucher for some freebies!)



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

Dear Mr Lippie

Be afraid, be very afraid … for have I found the perfect Valentine's present for you!

Guyliner. Oh yes! But not just any guyliner, there's also mascara and concealer in this handy kit. It's like the lovely people at http://www.guyliner.co.uk/ have been reading my mind! And for just £20, I can finally make all my "dating an 80's rockstar" fantasies come true*!

Oh, I'm going to have such fun this February 14th...

*C'mon, don't tell me I'm alone here!