Parian Spirit

Every once in a while a product comes along that's nothing less than a miracle.  Parian Spirit is one of those products.  In case you're wondering, it's a brush cleanser, but it's not like any other brush cleanser I've ever used, it's much, much better.  No water required, no shampooing, and no endless rinsing, it's a miracle.

Essentially, you just dip your brushes in a shallow dish of Parian spirit, it dissolves the makeup on them almost instantly, then you wipe the brush with a paper towel, and presto! Clean brushes which dry in a couple of hours, rather than overnight.

I'm demonstrating this on one of my favourite brushes, my blush brush from Pro Makeup Brushes, which is made of white goat hair, and takes on the colour of whatever you use on it almost instantly.

How to use Parian Spirit:

Pour a little into a shallow dish:

(It's there, honest!  Up to the third line on the bowl)

Then, dip your brush into the liquid:

Swirl the bristles around in the dish:

Then wipe the bristles on a paper towel:

Once done, your brush will look like this:

Clean, and almost dry!  This was just one pass in the liquid.

Once I'd tried it once on this badly stained white brush, I used this to clean my entire brush collection (which is huge, I have two sets for me, and one set that I use for makeovers, a collection of nearly 100 brushes in total) and was done in just a little over an hour.  Something that if I'd tried it with shampoo would have taken several hours, and some of the brushes would have taken several days to dry.

I've used it on both natural and synthetic brushes of all shapes and sizes, and it works astonishingly well on all of them, leaving brushes clean, conditioned and smelling gently of citrus - it's also antibacterial, so your brushes will be super-super clean.  I simply can't recommend this stuff highly enough.

You can buy Parian Spirit from Pro Makeup Brushes who currently have it on offer for £14.95 instead of £19.95 for a 473ml bottle.

The Fine Print: PR Sample, but I've had this in rotation for about four months now, and I'll be buying another bottle.

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

Reader Request - Handcreams

Well, it is Valentine's day, so I'm hoping all my readers will find at least one person they'd like to hold hands with today, so here's something to make sure your paws will be at their smooth best.  Now, I'll be honest, I don't use much in the way of handcreams - my hands aren't particularly dry, as a rule, and I'm blessed with good "hand genes", in my hands are always pretty smooth and youthful looking. Sorry! But, I do use handcream occasionally, especially at this time of year, and these are the three that I reach for when I need one:

For every day use, I have a tub of this on my desk at work:

 All for Eve Hand Cream.  Simple, easily absorbed, and beautifully herbal-scented, this is a great all rounder, and everyone at work who has tried it has ended up buying a tube.  In fact, it's the most seen beauty product in my office.  I think the fact that all the profits go to help The Eve Appeal make this a simple decision for me.  A "feel good" product that actually does good, it's a no-brainer.  At £7.50 for 100mls, it's an affordable treat too.

Most times, I have a tube of this  in my bag at all times too:

 Liz Earle Hand Repair.  When I first tried this hand cream - must be about 12 years ago now - this was a revolutionary texture for me. It's matte, and leaves your hands soft and moisturised, without ever feeling greasy, which is utterly wonderful. Again, it's easily absorbed and with a lovely herbal scent.  A 50 ml tube of this will set you back £8.95, so it's a bit more pricey than the All for Eve, but it's a very handy size for carrying around with you.

When my hands really need a bit of TLC I use a dollop of this:

Lanolips Wild Rose Balm Intense. Which is an incredibly rich, thick, even dense, balm of medical-grade lanolin which requires warming in the palms of your hands before it becomes soft enough to be spreadable onto your skin. Once that's done though, you're rewarded with a rose-scented treatment cream that's an incredible treat for parched skin.  It's fabulous on dry cuticles and anywhere you have dry, parched or even cracked skin.  It costs £8.95 for 50mls , but it's also available in a less intense version for dry skin which is £9.95 for 120 mls, making that one a bargain.  I find the smell of this one extremely (and randomly) nostalgic, in that it smells - ever so slightly - like the plastic they used to make Sindy's out of. 

Yes, I am a weird.  What are your recommendations for handcreams? 

The Fine Print:  These are all products I've quite happily spent my own pennies one.  Make of that what you will ...


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

I wish I'd looked after me teeth ...

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath,
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
 

I wish I'd been that much more willin'
When I had more tooth there than fillin'
To pass up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers
And to buy something else with me shillin'.
 

When I think of the lollies I licked,
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.
 

My Mother, she told me no end,
"If you got a tooth, you got a friend"
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.
 

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin'
And pokin' and fussin'
Didn't seem worth the time... I could bite!
 

If I'd known I was paving the way,
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin's
Injections and drillin's
I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.
 

So I lay in the old dentist's chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
In these molars of mine,
"Two amalgum," he'll say, "for in there."
 

How I laughed at my Mother's false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath,
But now comes the reckonin'
It's me they are beckonin'
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.

Copyright: Pam Ayres

Who says a beauty blog can't be cultural?  That's, like proper poetry that is. Well, kind of. 

Anyhoo!  My teeth aren't that bad in reality, but they could do with a little sprucing up, I have to admit. So, I spent an interesting hour at The Welbeck Clinic yesterday, looking into getting my teeth whitened, and I've decided to go for it.

I hate my smile, and there's a reason you never see my teeth in my Face of the Day posts (and I'm aware there haven't been too many of those recently, long story, but they'll be back, consider this a warning), that's because my teeth are yellow, and I have a somewhat "gummy" grin, which I'm very self-conscious about and have trained myself over the years not to grin much.

So I approached my visit to Welbeck with some trepidation yesterday, I thought I'd be thrown out for having nasty teeth!  Luckily, the clinic is warm and welcoming, and Dr Joe couldn't have been nicer.  He explained the difference between the at home system (basically four hours a day wearing custom-made trays unable to eat or drink anything that might stain for 14 days)  and the laser-whitening (Zoom) system, which takes one visit to the dentist and a couple of days in trays at home.  I opted for the Zoom laser, it just sounds easier, quicker, and well, it involves a laser, and anyone who read my blog post yesterday will know how I feel about those ...

During my consultation Dr Joe was totally honest about how the process is entirely unpredictable, and results will vary individual to individual, which I appreciated.  He also pointed out that I have translucent teeth tips and these won't whiten at all during the process.  To be honest, I hadn't even noticed I had translucency issues.  I'm just hoping my teeth don't go completely invisible over the years! 

I then had my impressions taken, from which they make my trays for the at-home portion of the whitening (which takes four days) a process which was surprisingly easy, and super-speedy, and didn't taste as strange as I expected it too, which was nice. It took about seven minutes start to finish to complete the whole thing.  I go to collect those on 23rd February, and then the full whitening will go ahead on 1st March ... I can't wait.  New gnashers will be mine ... for a year or two, it's not a permanent process.

Whilst I was there, I also enquired about gum sculpture, but it turns out I'm not a suitable candidate as I'm not having veneers, so, whilst I can't deal with my "gummy" grin, at least the teeth you can see will be white and shiny!

I'll be back with before & after photos later, is there anything else you'd like to know about the process?  Also, has anyone else had this done, what can I expect, do you think?

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

LMS Spotlights

This is a Red Light Therapy Unit.  Yup, I didn't know what it was either, but this little gizmo has been unbelievably handy recently.

In a nutshell, the LMS Spotlight is designed to help you keep your skin clear from spots and blemishes via the use of red LEDs (which provide the light).  Red light, shone on trouble spots at the right wavelength, apparently stimulates the body's natural defence systems, and enables it to relieve problems like spots.  Apparently, it activates adenosine triphospate in the skin, and this starts the healing process off more quickly than you would expect.  The technology was initially developed by NASA, and is used a lot by physiotherapists. Colour light therapy is also widely used in hospitals around the country for a variety of problems - my mum is a licensed therapist (she's also a Reiki Master, but we don't like to talk about it). It's also meant to be good for headaches (according to unofficial sources, so don't quote me - thanks, mum), but I haven't tried out this unit for that purpose.

So, the "science bit" - please don't presume I know anything about science, as should be most definitely clear by now, I actually don't - out of the way, does this work on spots?  Well, the answer, surprisingly, would appear to be yes.  I picked one of these up the other week and the very next day woke up with a whopping great cystic zit on my neck, one of those painful ones that takes a week to work up into an actual spot, and appears for that week to have it's own central nervous system, not to mention a pulse rivalling your own.  I suspected for a while that it had its own gravitational pull too, but I could be mistaken.  Perfect timing though, admittedly!

However, I used the LMS as directed - you put the unit against the spot, turn it on, and leave the affected area illuminated in red light for a minute, three times a day - and, by the following morning, there was a most definite reduction in the size of the spot, and, I have to say that the spot very definitely felt less painful every time I used the unit, which was a nice surprise.



On the second day, there was merely a slight red mark indicating where the spot would have been.  I was a little astonished, nothing works that quickly!  Since then, I've used it almost exclusively on MrLippie's skin - he's a little more spot-prone than me, bless him - and it's had an astonishing hit rate, spots appear to calm down after just one "zapping" (and if you're thinking that there's nothing more fun than pretending to be attacking your other half with a "laser" several times a day, then you'd be right - but then I am very easily pleased, and a girl has to get her fun somewhere), and are almost entirely gone by the third go-round.  It's very easy to use too, turn it on, and leave it on till it switches itself off.  Simples!

Great stuff - highly recommended, anything that gets rid of spots without drying your skin out is okay with me!  The LMS units cost from £29.99 - £69.99 (depending on the amount of LED's in the unit, which in turn relates to how much skin you want the unit to cover), and are available either from Harrods or the LMS Spotlight website.


The Fine Print: Sample provided by PR.Fun Factor: Priceless

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

The Breakfast Scrub - Soap & Glory

I'm a snob.  I know it, always have been, most likely always will be, but that said, even I do like a decent high street product that costs less than a tenner!


Soap & Glory.  Oh, how I wish their products appealed to me more, I really do. I love that they have a sense of humour, but sometimes I think (actually, scratch that, I know) that I'm not their target market, and so I tend to ignore them in Boots.


Well, more fool me, eh?  Having been introduced to body scrubs by the wonderful Haus of Gloi recently, when a tub of this turned up recently, I thought I'd give it a go.  And I'm glad I did.


Fairly solid in the tub - nothing annoys me more than a runny scrub that you end up merely rinsing off the bottom of the bath - and smelling deliciously of maple syrup, owing to that, porridge, shea butter and ... banana* being it's major ingredients alongside salt, sugar and glycerine, this is a good scrub.  In the hands it remains fairly solid, and it exfoliates even the hardest skin very nicely without making the bath a slippery nightmare.  I found it dealt with the scaly skin on my shins - that I suffer with every winter - very well indeed, and didn't cause any redness or itching.


Whilst I didn't enjoy using it quite as much as my Haus of Gloi Bubbling Scrub (it doesn't lather, and the scent isn't as complex, being rather foody, but enjoyable all the same), it's a perfectly acceptable substitute and, at £9.45 from Boots, it's a fairly reasonable price for a massive tub.  Although the S&G website states it's only £7.50 ...


The Fine Print: PR sample, but a very welcome one.

* I HATE BANANAS.  There, I said it.

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

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.