Giorgio Armani Spring Summer 2012 - The "Luce" Collection

The good folks over at Giorgio Armani sent me a surprise package last week, and it's a tiny bit special.    Especially if your name is Luce*!  I giggled a huge amount when I read the press release, it's not often a blogger sees themselves referred to as "Luce, the Armani light" ... Flattered though I am, I'm also slightly miffed there's no taupe ...

Anyhoo, the "Luce" collection this spring has seen Armani inspired by light, in particular the golden sunlight of spring, and they've created a new pigment: "Luce d'Oro" (literal trans: "light of gold") to sprinkle into their cosmetics this season.  The result is a collection of sparkling metallics, with just a hint of the traditional pastels we tend to see at this time of year.


Shall we take a look?

Here we have palette No.2, and the eyeliners in 04 (Or Antique) and 05 (Copper).  Here is a closer look, both with flash, and without:

The shades in the palette are very pretty, from top to bottom you have "Grey" (more of a greige, really, but an interesting shade, nonetheless), "Metal Fibre" (silver, with a hint of pale blue), "Copper Pigment" and "Crystal Brown", the names of which appear to have been applied to the wrong shades, if you ask me.


The shades vary a little in pigmentation, the "Grey" being the sheerest shade, and the "Copper Pigment" being the most intense, but on application, these are creamy and fairly intense in shades, but "Grey" was the most difficult to apply:



The eyeliners are almost exact dupes for two of the shades, I think!  Or Antique is very similar to "Grey", and Copper and Copper Pigment are almost indistinguishable from each other.

The eyeliners are the same creamy, smudgeable-then-unbudgeable gel formulation as the other eyeliners in the Armani range - one thing that makes me crazy about Armani eyeliners is that they are always limited editions, even the core shades like black! So very annoying - I have to say that Armani liners are by far one of my favourite pencil liner formulas, they don't budge!  These shades are great for lining around the tear duct though, and can be used to lighten up a dark eyeshadow look too.

The full range comprises two eyeshadow palettes, a blush, 2 eyeliners and four lipglosses.  I'll be off to Selfridges soon to check those out  ... Well, it'd be rude not to, eh?

* Yes, I know my "real name" is Louise, but no one calls me that.  Except my mum.  And my boss.  Oh, and my bank manager.  And MrLippie when I've annoyed him.  So yes, NO ONE calls me that. 

The Fine Print: Unexpected and unintentionally hilarious PR samples.  Mr Armani, you sure know how to spoil a girl ...


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

Lipsticks of the week - Pink

 It's that time of the week again, where I show you which lipsticks I've been wearing over the last seven days.  This week the challenge was pink, and these were the pick of the lips:

From left to right, we have:


Tom Ford Pure Pink -  The ur-pink of any lipstick collection, now sadly discontinued.  Damn you, Tom Ford!
Illamasqua Intense Gloss in Belladonna - an amazingly pigmented (if very sticky) gloss, in a beautiful shade of fuchsia.
Estee Lauder Pure Colour in Crystal Rose - a slightly greyed out rose shade, very lovely for a MLBB colour
Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess gloss in Wild Orchid - a cerise shade gloss with a blue shimmer flash.  Very lovely colour indeed, that's give me a lemming to wear the matching nail polish today ...
New CID i-pout in Pomegranate -  wonderfully light-textured pale pink, that's just a little on the wrong side of pale for me to wear realistically, but it's a beautiful colour in the bullet.  The packaging lights up. Nice, but an entirely useless gimmick, as the light completely washes out everything it lands on.
Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia - possibly my all-time favourite lipstick of all time.  POSSIBLY.* 


Swatches (first without flash then with)

Loved my pink week, but I'm looking forward to next week's theme, which is mauve.  Yes, MAUVE.


Some outtakes:

What've you been wearing this week?


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

GHD Deluxe Scarlet Collection

  
GHD sent me a Christmas present this year - their "so gorgeous it actually hurts" Scarlet Collection Deluxe hair straightener set.  Housed in an Art Deco box, the set contains:

A beautiful red satin gift box, perfectly accented with fan designs.  Inside that box you have:

A glorious Deco-accented "handbag" that contains:

A brand new GHD Styler, accented with red plates, and underneath that, there's a handy-dandy travel size hairdryer with an adjustable handle.  The bag does double duty as a straightener holder - it's heat proof - and also contains two hair sectioning clips.  I was pleased to see that GHD have added a cover to their straighteners this time around, very handy.

Made to GHDs usual exacting standards, the straighteners are just what we've come to expect, heating up quickly, and straightening hair in a matter of  minutes.  GHD claim the plates contain a "secret ingredient" to keep the hair shiny!

This is a limited edition collection, and currently retails at £149.  Personally, I think it'd make a perfect Valentine's present, if I didn't have it already, I'd be dropping some hints, I can tell you ...

The Fine Print: PR Sample
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Sensitive Scalp Issues

I had been planning to do an entire week about haircare last week, but my scalp flared up, and I couldn't bear to think about haircare at all.  You might have noticed last week was a bit short on posts as a result. 

I'm prone to seborrheic dermatitis, which is where you get flaky skin on your scalp (and sometimes your inner ears, I get it there too), it looks like dandruff, but it isn't - which is annoying - and it itches.  Itches a lot. And your scalp burns.  BURNS.  Did I mention that it burns?  As a result, I try to avoid harsh shampoos, and anything that contains SLS in order to avoid both the build-up of scaly skin, and the resulting itching and burning.  I think I'd been trying too many new products in one go recently, and my scalp decided to remind me who is boss.

That being the case,  I thought I'd tell you the products that I've used which helped.  Firstly, I immediately swapped shampoos for one from Phyto, namely Phytoapaisant, which is specifically for sensitive scalps:

It's gentle, SLS-free, and most importantly, it's cooling and soothing from the very first time you use it.  The relief I felt using this was enormous.  I find switching to cooler water for washing my hair helps soothe these flare-ups too, a simple thing, but very helpful.


But the thing that's helped most, and I don't think my haircare shelf will ever be without a bottle again from this point onwards, has been this little beauty:

 Philip Kingsley Scalp Toner.  The tiny nozzle on this bottle allows you to apply this directly to the scalp, and I found it amazing for spot cooling and calming the hot spots on my poor abused head, at one point, I was applying it several times a day, but you're supposed to use it just after washing.  I've no idea how it works, it just does, and I love it.  Carrying a small bottle around with me every day helped stopped me scratching like a maniac.  I still looked like a maniac, of course, because that is my natural state of being, but oh! The blessed relief of being able to squirt a bit of this on my noggin when needed!  It's a must have for me, these days.

I've just noticed that the Philip Kingsley website is giving away a bottle of this when you spend £25 on their, and all their products are damn fine indeed - I'm off away to stock up on some scalp masks, as I've heard really good things about them.  And hey, prevention is better than cure ...



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

Marie Claire Blog & Twitter Awards



"They"* say that good news comes in threes, and Get Lippie has recently had three mega bits of good news -  the first one of which was the discovery that last week I was nominated for both "Best Beauty Blog" and "Best Beauty Twitter" in the Marie Claire blogging awards!  I'll share the other two bits of good news with you as soon as I'm able to, I promise!  I'm extremely excited about what's in store for Get Lippie this year!

It would be a mild understatement to say that I'm a bit conflicted - okay, actually totally conflicted - on the subject of magazine awards for blogging in general (but that's definitely a post for another time), but as the longlist of nominees was drawn up entirely from votes from readers , I thought it would be churlish not to mention it.

I was having some serious motivational issues with regards to getting back into blogging at the start of the month, and I can't deny that being nominated for the award has really helped me get back into my blogging groove (in spite of my torn feelings on the matter), so - even though I most likely won't win - I want to thank everyone who voted for me and got me onto the longlist in the first place.  You're aces,  no really, you are.  Have I mentioned how great your hair looks today? 

As for the reason I won't win, well, it's because I'm telling everyone to vote for BeautyMouth, innit?  Think having the 'Mouth herself run the Marie Claire twitter account would be the funniest thing EVER.

You know it makes sense ...

* Yeah, I've no idea who "they" are, either.

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

No7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream

BB Creams, you'll be hearing a lot about these this year, you mark my words.  I've used a couple of BB (Blemish Balm - contrary to the name, they're not actually just to be used on troubled skin)-style creams already, and I haven't been that impressed with them to be honest, they've just been tinted moisturisers that someone has slapped the BB label on.

BB Creams are meant to be an all-in-one product, crossing the boundary between skincare and cosmetic, and taking the place of moisturiser, serum, primer and foundation.  So, how does this one from No7 measure up?

Well, the answer is, extremely well, actually.  I have combination skin, oily in some places and dry in others, and  was sent the normal/dry cream to trial, in the shade fair.  As you can see from the above pictures, the No7 BB cream is on the thick side, and on initially squeezing from the tube (you need to shake it first), it  feels very rich and nourishing.

It soon sheers out though:

At first, I thought this was a little dark for my pale skin, but it blends in very nicely, and leaves a very nice sheer, dewy finish.

I've found that the coverage is quite buildable, and it covers my red bits quite nicely, especially if I put a little extra over any particularly stubbornly flushed areas. I don''t really need to powder over it, and I haven't felt the need to put foundation over the top, which is almost unheard of.

Whilst you can use it without serum or moisturiser underneath - I have trialled it both with and without, it was perfectly fine either way - in this cold weather, I do still layer a little (but less than usual)  cream underneath, just for a little added protection from the cold.  That's just my choice though. In summer, I'd probably be happy to wear this entirely alone, it has five star UVA coverage, and contains a factor 15 sunscreen too, which is very handy!

I've found that it lasts very well, and in fact lasts a lot better than foundations costing two or three times the modest price of £12.95. It certainly it stands up to the rigours of driving a desk in my office, so all in all, I'm very impressed!  No flare ups, no scaly patches, no wishing for more coverage.  No zits! I'll be honest, I don't think the tube will last that long - you do tend to use more than you would a normal foundation, as you're using it as moisturiser as well - but at this price, it's quite hard to argue that it's a problem.

And we all know I'm not easily impressed ... 

Full list of ingredients:

The Fine Print: PR Sample
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

I Love My Muff

 

Back in the day, Get Lippie used to be a big fan of Iron Maiden.  Okay, that would be a slight exaggeration, it's probably more accurate to say that Get Lippie was a big fan of Bruce Dickinson.  To this day, I have no idea why*, that fringe!  Although, I've just done a quick Google search and he's ageing rather well.  Ahem ... Trust me, this is all totally relevant.  I'm totally going somewhere on this little trip down memory lane. Well, kinda...  

Anyway, many years ago, Bruce Dickinson released a little-known solo album, and on that album is a song called "Dive, Dive, Dive". It's dreadful.  And it's about ... well, let's put it this way, every single time I see the box for "I Love My Muff" in my bathroom, I get the chorus of that terrible song as an earworm.  Trust me, visions of Iron Maiden at six am aren't this blogger's idea of fun.  Well, not anymore, any way ...


So ... um ... yeah, what is "I Love My Muff" then?  Well, the kit I have (there are two, a blue and the green, and it's the green I'll be talking about today) contains a wash, a spray, a moisturiser, and some wipes, all said to be scented with vanilla, grapefruit and ylang ylang,  said to be perfect for the "muff on the go".


I'm not sure I have a muff that's going places, to be honest. I don't really give the ladygarden that much thought.  I keep it clean, obviously, and I trim the ... er ... lawn once in a while, but I've never really considered giving it it's own four-step beauty regime before.  Can you imagine targeting a product like this at men?  Four products in one box specifically for their dangly bits?  You could call it B'lox Pour Homme, and then charge them £38 for the privilege of not having cheesy testes.  But, if you do do it, I want commission, mmkay?


Now, I'm actually doing the product a disservice here, they're nice products, very nice in fact.  They're vegan and cruelty-free.  They smell nice, but they're not overly perfumed, they're about keeping your "sensitive parts" clean and fresh, so they are not the labial equivalent of Mr Sheen.  Using them is not at all like blasting your shanana with a bit of Pledge and and a baby wipe, they are very, very, gentle, and it is, in fact, an actual pleasure to use them.  It turns what is normally just a routine clean into a bit of a ritual.  My second major gripe (I'll get around to the main one in a second) is with the packaging, as all the instructions say to "lovingly apply to your sensitive parts", which sets my teeth on edge a bit.  If you're going to use "Muff" in the product name, why go all coy on the products themselves?  Stop fannying about, and call a muff a Muff, please.  This is a personal thing though, it's just that the wording is a bit hippyish, and nothing annoys me much more than  ... hippies.


My major, major gripe is the price.  THIRTY EIGHT of your English pounds.  That's a hell of a lot of dosh to keep your vajayjay clean.  The individual products are between £18-22 each, and again, I think that's on the pricey side.  All in all, it's a good product, but, even with my love of expensive fripperies, I can't - quite - justify the price.  I do love the wipes though, they're aces, and if they weren't the best part of a pound each then I'd have a supply on me at all times.

The Fine Print: Not a PR sample, but it was a gift from someone associated with the company.

*Not quite the truth, Get Lippie knows precisely why, but this is a family blog, and we're not at liberty to discuss the matter any further.  AT ALL.

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