Darphin Intral Skincare - Serum and Redness Relief Cream

Having a reddened face is one of the banes of my existence at the moment, and dealing with my flushed skin has been one of my top priorities this year. I've found that a lot of the skincare I've been using that is full of actives has been exacerbating the situation somewhat, and so have had to dial back on using some much loved old favourites.

When I last wrote about my skincare routine, I'd cut out actives altogether, and was using very basic, but effective products.  Now, having fallen in love with the Darphin Intral toner (which I'm still using), I decided to add in a couple more products from the range, both specifically formulated to deal with reddened and sensitive skin.

Please welcome Intral Serum and Intral redness relief recovery cream:

Both contain Darphin's "Calm Complex" which is a proprietory blend of chamomile, hawthorn and peony extracts. I used the serum on my red patches after eyebrow threading on Friday, and was astounded at how cooling it was, and how very quickly it took the inflammation down.

It's a very thin, watery serum, which doesn't really smell of much, but a little of this goes a very long way, one pump is more than enough for my whole face and onto my neck.

The redness relief recovery cream has a slight green tinge - very, very, slight - which helps diffuse the appearance of redness, whilst cooling and calming at the same time.  It's a very light moisturiser designed for normal to combination skin, but there are two other varieties of this cream, which will help if your skin is drier than mine.

I don't normally do swatches of skin care, they're dull - and are they helpful?  I'm not sure they are, to be honest.  But, I thought it would be useful to see that this isn't a bright green cream!

So far, I've found these products cooling, calming and soothing, it's been great.  But I'm not sure I've seen a massive reduction in my redness.  Maybe I should give it another couple of weeks.

So far, the only sure-fire "cure" I've seen for red skin is a tan.  Next week, I'll show you my favourite facial tanner.  I say favourite, it's the only one I've ever used, I'm terrified of accidentally turning orange instead of red ...

How do you deal with a red face?


The Fine Print: I bought these.  The Garden Pharmacy in Covent Garden saw me coming and mugged me.

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

Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eye Colours

Being a beauty blogger, sometimes you get a chance to look at things before they're released, and I can't deny that it's a massive perk.  These little beauties are the new, updated version of Shiseido's infamous cream eyeshadows.


They're cutely packaged in little glass jars:

I was sent six to take a look at, so let's see the shades:

There are twelve shades in the range, all of which seem very wearable (I'm loving the pink and the purple, but, alas, they're not in this batch!):

What we have here is a khaki (my fave!), a yellow-green, an "old gold", a black, a white, and a blue.


All the shades are packed with shimmer, and they are very complex, not to mention pretty:

Shiseido say that these include "jewel reflecting powder" that reflects light from every angle, creating a luminous glow around the shades.  I have to agree, even the black (in the flesh) appears to have a glowing shimmer around it.  They are beautifully creamy, and apply like a dream, they also blend out very easily, without dragging, which is just what you need in a cream shadow.  The swatches show one pass on clean, unprimed skin.


Shiseido also say, however, that you don't need to use an eye base "and the colour lasts, and lasts, never creasing, or fading".  I have to say that I don't agree.  I've worn two or three of these shades over the last couple of weeks, and they don't last as well as you'd think based on this description.  I found that over the course of three to four hours or so, that I'd have creasing, and by around hour six, the colours would have faded quite considerably.  I didn't try setting them with powder, as I didn't want to spoil the shades, and I wanted to see how well they worked under their own steam.


This swatch shows that colours can and will smudge after application:

This was taken ten minutes after applying, where I just rubbed a finger, very lightly, over the swatches.


These shimmering cream shadows are beautiful. I'm just sorry they didn't live up to the claims made on the press release.  I'll still use them, but I'll just be aware I'll need to carry them around with me for touch-ups.


Shiseido Shimmering Cream Eyeshadows.are available from 20th August, and will cost £20 each.

The Fine Print: PR samples  Pretty, pretty PR samples.


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

Aww ...

... you guys!

I've just noticed* I hit 1,000 followers on Google Friends Connect today.  That's fantastic, and it's made me very happy.  I'll be doing a giveaway (and I'll do my best to make it a special one) to celebrate very soon, as it's also my blog's second anniversary coming up too ...


Some other things that have been nice this week - actually, now I've typed that, I've just realised it's only Tuesday, and now I'm praying that my week hasn't peaked already - are:


The lovely and amazing Ondo Lady declared me her "Blogger of the Month" yesterday, and there's a big interview where I finally admit what I do all day, and announce who my favourite bloggers of all time are (just five of them, otherwise I'd have had no space to write anything else) and talk about what I really think of blogging.  Click the link to read it!


Also, Wikio gave me a sneak preview of their Top Twenty beauty blogs for August this month, and I'm utterly gobsmacked to see I'm at number FIVE this month! A massive honour.  No idea why, but, how utterly flipping blimming amazing!  Here's the full list:

1	BritishBeautyBlogger
2	Kiss And Makeup
3	Beauty And The Dirt
4	Lipglossiping
5	Get Lippie
6	Cosmetic Candy
7	London MakeUp Girl
8	Modesty Brown
9	FabSugar UK
10	Fleur De Force
11	I Heart Cosmetics
12	MakeUp4All, Ladies Beauty
13	Beauty's Bad Habit
14	Oh! Panda.
15	the london lipgloss
16	"Of Faces and Fingers"
17	Daily Polish
18	MakeupLoveer
19	Lady of the Lane
20	ghostparties.

Ranking made by Wikio


I'll admit that, for a couple of months - up until this week - I'd been finding blogging more of a chore than a pleasure for a variety of reasons. It's been crappy.  I've hated a lot of things, both products, and behind the scenes, and it's been too much of an effort to write as much as usual.  

I even gave serious consideration to giving it all up for the first time since I started.  I've always said  that when blogging stopped being fun, then it would be time to stop.  Luckily, I copped myself on after a while, and  after making a few editorial and lifestyle decisions, I'm now feeling refreshed and ready to blog  again even more than ever.  I love beauty, blogging and I especially love beauty blogging, so I'm not going anywhere.  There's still a lot of fun around, and I'm determined to rid my life, and especially my blogging life, of negativity, and some toxic influences.

Stuff like blog awards, reader numbers and rankings, whilst meaningless in the "grand scheme" of things, helps remind me that people do like what I write, and that blogging IS fun. So big thanks to everyone for bearing with me while I got some perspective. You're aces.  All of you.

Lippie x

*Okay, I actually just spent an hour on Twitter begging for new followers - I'm not proud! I promise I won't do it again**.


**Speaking of things not to do again, I'm not planning on writing any more blog posts about blogging again.  EVER.  You may shoot me if I do.  They're wanky.***

*** Please don't shoot me.
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Mavala's Elle Shades

If you're a reader of Elle Magazine, then there's a great freebie with the issue this month: a free bottle of Mavala polish!  I'm a big fan of the Mavala mini-bottles, and this is a great selection of shades.  You'll get one of either Elle Red, Elle Grey or Elle Orange, I thought I'd show you a swatch of each, to help you make a choice:

These are great shades, the red is a perfect classic red, pulling neither pink nor orange, the grey is a cool concrete shade, and the orange is BRIGHT.  My camera has dulled down the finish somewhat on the orange, but it's probably my favourite of the bunch.  Swatches show three coats of red and orange, and two coats of grey.  No topcoat.


Elle's Mavala shades will be free with the September issue of Elle, which is available now.  Which one will you get?

The Fine Print: PR samples.  I haven't bought a printed magazine in years.  And it was probably Look In or something when I did.

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

Clinique Black Honey Collection

I don't buy Clinique makeup often, but it's safe to say that Clinique are responsible, at least in part, for my lip product obsession.  Not to mention that when I take people shopping for coloured lipsticks, I often introduce them to Clinique's "Almost Lipstick" range, which is a great way to introduce brighter lipstick colours into someone's makeup wardrobe, as they are very sheer, and non-scary.

One of Clinique's iconic products is actually their Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, which I have bought far too many times to mention over the years, and when I discovered they were bringing out an entire range around it for this autumn, I may have got a little over excited.  Some people have dismissed the collection as boring, but I disagree. 

The collection includes:

Clockwise from top: Graduated ("ombre) Blush, eyeshadow palette, eyeliner and lip duo, all in the shade "Black Honey".

Let's take a closer look at each product, starting with the blusher, which is the standout product for me:

I love this shade.  A non-shimmery, extremely fine-milled powder that grades from a brown with hints of purple on the left, to a slightly pinked brown on the right.  It's not entirely matte, but there's a slight hint of sheen when the powder is on your face.  It's really gorgeous.  Here's a pic that shows off the "ombre" effect better:

It's immensely flattering on my currently very slightly tanned skin, but I can see the hint of purple in this will make it wearable on even very pale skins.  It would, I suspect, pull a little chalky on very dark toned skin.

The eyeshadow palette:

This is a very neutral eye palette, with hints of pink in most of the shades, so nice to see neutrals without a taupe! Shades 1 and 3 are matte, and shades 2 and 4 are shimmery, and extremely pigmented.

This is one pass (with a finger) over unprimed skin. Shade three is a rather unusual pinkish shade, but it can work quite well in the crease as here:

I did quite a nice, lightly smoked eye look with this on Saturday, I applied shade 1 on the brow bone, shade three all over the mobile lid, with shade four blended into the crease, and shade two patted into the corner.  As a liner, I used this:

Black Honey gel liner - which is an item from the permanent line - it's a shimmering brown, again with a purplish undertone.  Less scary than that makes it sound ...

It's a great alternative to black, and the formula is very long-lasting, and transfer proof.  The brush you get with the liner is rather useless thoughbut.  I found that applying it with any other flat brush was a lot easier.

The Lip Duo is handy too.  At one end you have a mini Almost Lipstick, and at the other, you have a small pot of Long Last Lipgloss:

Black Honey is one of the archetypical "my lips but better" shades, back in the 90's - when it was relaunched and promoted quite extensively - there was a lot of talk about it being one of Madonna's favourite lipsticks.  It looks scary, being dark brown, but once on the skin, it's a lot more subtle:

As you can see, on the hand, the shades are barely there, but on the lips, this will impart a rosy glow.

When I swatched these, I remember thinking that the formula used to be darker, so I dug out my original pot of Black Honey glosswear:

Looks a lot more like Marmite, eh?  Bear in mind, this pot of gloss is a minimum of about 15 years old ... however, this is how it swatches alongside the new lip duo:

So there you have it, swatches of almost the entire collection (swatches of the blusher didn't come out, but I'll attempt to retake them, if people would like it), here's a face of the day, where my makeup is practically invisible:

Artificial light

Natural light

I'm wearing the lot though, I assure you!

The Clinique Black Honey collection is available now, but the blush and eyeshadow palettes are both limited edition.



The Fine Print: A mixture of PR items and purchases, as PRs hadn't heard of me 15 years ago.  Bless 'em.


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

Tauer Giveaway Winner ...

I had some lovely entries into my Tauer giveaway last week (although, I suggest that the person who told me that all perfume reviews were rubbish because they don't write they way the correspondent does was a little ... misguided ... you might want to read more perfume blogs, I humbly suggest), and, as a result, it's been very difficult to choose a winner.

However, because I've loved his thoughts on several other fragrances, I'm going to offer the Pentachords samples to CandyPerfumeBoy, so if you'd like to email me your details to tauer@getlippie.com I'll get them in the post to you tomorrow!

I did love a few other entries that I got so much that I'll be in touch with a couple of you shortly to see if you'd like to review some other samples that I have  ... stand by your emails!

Thank you - very much  - to everyone who entered. 

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

OPI Rally Pretty Pink

Whilst this is indeed "Rally Pretty" (Dear OPI, with these puns, truly you are spoiling us), I'm not entirely sure I'd call it pink. What say you?





(artificial light)





(artificial light)





(artificial light with flash) bit pink here ...





(natural light)

Of all of these shots, I think the daylight one is the one I prefer.

OPI Rally Pretty Pink is one of the Serena Williams creations, and comes in a duo pack with a red crackle glaze. Which I hate. That's why I'm not showing it to you. So there.