Current Skincare Routine

Well, it's two routines really, one for morning and one for evening!  Winter, even a mild winter such as the one we've just had can be hard on my temperamental combination oil-dehydrated skin, so the main thing I add to my routines (AM and PM) is to add an oil.

So, in the evenings, I'll do a deep cleanse with Nude Cleansing Oil, lots of massage, and removal with a muslin cloth and hot water, then I'll tone with Darphin Intral Toner, two - maybe three, depending - drops of Neals Yard Frankincense Facial Oil, then I'll follow this with Neals Yard Frankincense Hydrating Cream.  I'll be honest, I mainly use the Frankincense products for the wonderful heady and intense fragrance, but I've found that they do wonderful things for your skin too.  These are all old favourites and they're the products I come back to every winter without fail.

In the morning my routine is the same, but, different:

  
Because I do a thorough cleanse in the evenings with my nude oil, I just need a tiny wipe over with a touch of Bioderma Crealine in the morning, followed, again, by Darphin Intral Toner (both of which I'm going to have to replace soon, VERY soon), then an oil, and in the mornings I'm using Clarins Santal Facial Oil, which is one of the most beautifully scented facial products on the planet.  Redolent of sandalwood and cardamom, it's a perfect pick me up in the morning, and does a great job of both rehydrating and protecting your skin during the day. Then I'll use a good old dollop of Kate Somerville Goat Milk cream, which I've been using all winter and still love.

My skin survived the winter surprisingly well - in spite of the lack of actives in my skin care - how did you do? 

The Fine Print - mixture of purchases and PR samples,  many of these, however are repurchases.
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Lippie Loves - Frederick Fekkai Glossing Cream

Tiny post for a tiny product.  This, ladies and occasional gentlemen, has been a gamechanger for the Lippie barnet.  It's well known that my hair likes to enjoy itself with the occasional freakout, but this little tube of olive-oil infused goodness is allowing me to finally let my hair dry naturally without me looking like the Wild Woman of Wongo. And without having to resort to straighteners every day.

HIGHLY recommended, but don't use too much, or you'll look like you've been frying chips with your hair. 

 The Fine Print: Gift with purchase.


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

Engagement Bling(s)

I won't be doing too many wedding-themed posts, don't worry, but I tweeted the above picture of my engagement rings yesterday (what can I say, I'm indecisive!), and a lot of people were asking about them, so I thought I'd post about them here.

I'm not that adventurous with my jewellery, to be honest, I have a few pieces (above) that I wear day-in day-out (laziness mostly) and I wanted an engagement ring that would both complement those everyday bits and pieces, and be just a bit different from a "classic" engagement ring.  The only thought I had in mind was that I wanted them to come from somewhere independent, rather than a chain.

So, on Saturday, we headed out to Portobello Market, and our first stop was Sarah Bunting in Portobello Green, she's a jeweller I already own a few pieces from, and she's an adorable lady, she remade one of the earrings above when I lost one, and I've been wearing them every day ever since.

My eye was immediately drawn to the moonstone ring in the middle of these three - I adore moonstones, and can't have enough of them.  This one is faceted though, and you don't see faceted moonstones very often:

Well, just the moonstone ring on its own looked silly on my stumpy sausages (aka: fingers), so I had to select a few others from the range to go with it, eh?  I picked the sapphire and the amethyst just because they looked pretty and complimented the moonstone so very well. There were all kinds of other colours from peridot, smoky quartz, and yellow and green quartz too, but these were the ones that really caught my eye. 

I went away to a few other places and looked at some different rings as it's never a good idea to buy the first ring in the first shop you go to, but, well, we just ended up going back for these anyway!

Here's a couple of views of how I'm actually wearing them all together:

I love how they all look different depending on how the light hits them, and I love both how bold the look is with just a few really delicate pieces together!

Nail varnish is Quartz by Chanel, by the way. 


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

Lipsticks of the Week - 11 March 2012

A big week on Get Lippie -  so I pulled out a mixture of old favourites: Lanolips, Chubby Sticks, Guerlain Rouge G's and the old standby Chantecaille Lip Chics, but I also trialled a trio of the new Vernis a Levres from YSL too.  Want a closer look?  Then keep reading:

From left to right, we have:

Lanolips 101 - An old standby, I always have a tube around for treating dry lips, cuticles and whatever else needs a bit of greasing up during the week.
Guerlain Rouge G in Georgia - My lipstick of the year in 2010, it's a beautiful fleshy pink, that's simply wonderful, I adore it.
YSL Vernis a Levres x3 in 
12 - Corail Fauve -
03 - Brun Cachemire -
05 - Rouge Vintage -   I'll be honest, I'm witholding judgement on these a little bit.  Whilst they're definitely great glosses, I'm simply not gettting the same great results as everyone else seems to be with the stain bit. Full review to come soon, nonetheless.
Chantecaile Lip Chic in Tea Rose - another old standby, and it's a lipstick I think everyone should have in their makeup bag.  There I said it.  Go out and buy it. Sell a kidney if you have to.
Clinique Chubby Stick in Chunky Cherry - these automatic pencils of slightly coloured balm are wonderful for a polished no makeup look, they're about the only shades I wear at weekends.

Swatches in same order as above, only without the lanolips, you don't need a swatch of a clear balm, do you?  DO you?

Georgia, Corail Fauve, Brun Cachemire, Rouge Vintage, Tea Rose and Chunky Cherry.

So that's it for another week, what've you been wearing?

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

Book Review - The Perfume Lover by Denyse Beaulieu

Fangirl disclosure: Denyse Beaulieu writes Grain de Musc, a blog I've read for years (though I've always been too shy to comment on it), and for the last year and a half I've been saving my pennies to go on Denyse's highly-regarded "Perfume: Understanding Fragrance" course at London College of Fashion.


So, when the chance came up to review this book, I leapt at it. On Grain de Musc, Denyse writes both beautifully and lyrically about perfume, I admit freely that her blog has helped me form quite a few of my own opinions of fragrance - Serge Lutens' in particular - and her style has helped me figure out what perfume-writing can aspire to.  She is, in many ways, a blogging inspiration.


The Perfume Lover is a triple bill, the story of the creation of a perfume, a partial history of Western (particularly French) perfume, and the story of a life lived in - and through - fragrance, all three strands interwoven through Denyse's own, very particular, viewpoint.   It's a fascinating book, but has a fundamental flaw which throws the brilliance of some sections all too much into stark relief, and ultimately makes the reading of the book somewhat ... difficult.


Inspired by Denyse's story of "the most beautiful night of my life", which is  a sultry tale of an encounter with a beautiful man during Holy Week in Seville, whilst surrounded by orange blossoms and incense, perfumer Bertrand Duchafour (creator of a couple of my favourite scents of all time, Acqua Di Parma Colonia Assoluta and Commes des Garcons Avignon amongst many more) is inspired to try and paint a picture of that evening through fragrance.  


The story of Bertrand and Denyse's somewhat flirty and bantering relationship is genuinely interesting, and as a sketch of how a perfume is created, the book is exceptionally good, but we're never really "invited in" to Duchaufour's laboratory to observe the nitty-gritty of  how it all happens.  Oddly, and especially so for someone at times over-keen to promote herself as both the "muse" and "co-creator" of Bertrand's work, Denyse somewhat avoids describing the nuts-and-bolts of perfume creation - either because she isn't interested in how it actually goes down, or wasn't as intimately involved in the process as she lets on.  It's hard to tell.


Where it really excels, however, is in the details of perfume itself, it's a mix of travelogue and history, and is endlessly fascinating, if somewhat incomplete owing to the "personal history" nature of the text. However, I could have read five times as much of this than was in the book - Denyse has a way of bringing scent to life on the page in a way that's both extremely engaging and is almost "photo-real" in the way you can almost smell the fragrances rising from the pages.  This is what Denyse is good at, and had the book been purely a history of fragrance and the inter-relationships between individual perfumes, their times, their places and importance in history, then there's a better than good chance that this would have been one of the best books on perfume ever written.

Alas it's not, and the reason for that is Denyse herself, I'm afraid.  At times, she seems to be so determined to be the most fascinating part of her narrative that I think she over-identifies with the title of the book, which could, in all honesty, be renamed The PerfuMe Lover, without it making any less sense in context.

There are times in the book where the narration goes overboard on the "I'm doing a sexy thing now" routine.  For example - she recounts a tale of how she had an affair with the mailman simply because she gets so many packages, and she devotes more than a small amount of attention to an affair with a shadowy "Monsieur" that she appears to enjoy purely because he's rich and buys things for her.  These tales don't always add to the narrative, and occasionally jolt you into wondering just why they are there, or if they are even true (quite a few of them have a more than tangible hint of pandering to a rather pedestrian hetero-male sexual fantasy), which disjoints the reading experience quite considerably.

And I can't even begin to explain why either Denyse or her editor thought it was necessary to include a section that details precisely how the author fakes an orgasm - but it's in there, just in case you were on the edge of your seat about it. 

Imagine a Madonna impersonator coming around to your house and performing a ceaseless "bump and grind" routine in your face whilst you're trying to read a good book. "The Perfume Lover" is a bit like that at times.

I think we all get that sex and fragrance are inextricably linked, and the sections of the book that are about just that inter-relationship (albeit the ones without the direct authorial experience of it) are fascinating, but, even though the book is described as a "personal history of scent", there are long periods of it which are just too personal, and it's to the detriment of the two other strands of the story, which deserve better, to be honest.

Overall, I learnt a lot about (certain) fragrances from the book - and I loved that.  I wish there had been more of it, and, further,  wish that there had been more from Duchafour and the other perfumers interviewed for the text, all of whom are presented in a rather disappointingly shallow fashion. Personally, I could have done with a lot less of Denyse's rather distancing, and occasionally extremely distracting, "sexiness".  I've found too, that after years of reading, rather enjoying (and *blogger confession alert* occasionally writing), women's erotica, that I never want to hear about another woman's knickers - or the contents thereof - ever again, so that's nice.


However, I also discovered, via the sample vial that was sent alongside the book, that I simply adore the fragrance Bertrand Duchafour created during the writing of this book: Séville à l'Aube.  It is, quite frankly, stunningly beautiful, and, when it is released by L'Artisan Parfumeur in July, I shall be removing the funds I'd set aside for Denyse's perfume course and buying a full-size bottle of Séville à l'Aube, instead, because it is already the perfume I think I want to wear to my wedding.   Scratch that, it is the fragrance I'll be wearing, and I can't think of a higher compliment to pay to the genius of Duchafour's creation than that.


Normally in such a mixed review, I'd say wait for the paperback, but in the case of this book, I say wait for the fragrance. I certainly will be. 


The Perfume Lover by Denyse Beaulieu is released on March 15th, and is available to pre-order on Amazon.

The Fine Print - Advance press review copy.

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

Guest Post - Georgina Regazza: Makeup Tips for the More Mature

Following on from my guest posts during my week off, here is the wonderful Georgina Regazza from Makeup Tips for My Sister giving us her top tips for her makeup look:

Now that I am a Woman of a Certain Age and cosmetic counter assistants call me Madam, I confess to being a bit bewildered by it all. Serums make me think of monkeys, and I don't really know if I'm supposed to be concealing, light-reflecting, making things dewy or just staying indoors until it all blows over.

I started wearing makeup in the era of disco and polyester and things have changed a LOT cosmetics-wise since my first Miners' blue eyeshadow, but after much trial and error, I've gone back to keeping things simple, and this is how I get myself out of the house of a morning and face the day - wrinkles and all. My hair might not be so big these days, but I don't look half bad for an old bird.

My Top Five Essentials:

1. Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer  I honestly don't know how I lived without this. I've yet to find a reviewer who doesn't struggle for the words to describe HD primers, and who doesn't resort to using the phrases "soft focus" and "you just have to try it for yourselves". It's at the pricier end of products, but you need two pumps per go, so it does last well. It's silicon-free, which is a plus for me, makes your skin feel like silk and lasts for a good eight hours. But here's the kicker - you don't notice much of a difference at first, but then you start to catch a glimpse of yourself and you look... different. Soft focus. Smooth. Healthy. You still have the odd wrinkle, but it looks somehow pleasing. And on camera - and who doesn't take photos and make videos these days? - you notice a BIG difference. You have good skin. REALLY good skin. I am in love with this product.

2. L'Oreal Paris Touche Magique Concealer  - I struggled with this at first. I have bags under my eyes and no cream or gel will shift them. It's a drag on my confidence and I tried everything in the way of concealing before almost giving up and considering cosmetic surgery. And then I saw Wayne Goss' video  on how to do it properly and it Changed My Life. Dark colours recede. Light colours advance. So you find the dark line under the bag and put the concealer there and nowhere else, blending it gently. Result - eye bags disappear. I like that the brush pen gives extra precision and again, a little goes a long way.

3. Bio Oil  - age brings pigmentation and this is the only product I've ever found that makes it fade. I've been using it for three months now and the area of pigmentation around my mouth has reduced by about 60%, another thing which had previously sapped my confidence. You apply it morning and night on clean skin and massage it in. It has a pleasant floral smell and I've not found any problems with clogged pores as long as you use it sparingly - I've used about a quarter of the bottle so far. It's an essential part of my daily routine now.

4. Urban Decay Lip Junkie  - over time your lips start to thin and out of the army of lip plumpers on the market, this is the one I come back to again and again. It doesn't have that painful sting to it, just a pleasant tingle and a gentle plumping effect rather than making you look like Mick Jagger. Rush is a lovely pinky nude which goes with just about everything, so it's a no-brainer on mornings when I'm in a (excuse the pun) rush. My only beef is the cap, which seems to consist of multiple moving parts that have a habit of going south, but it goes on smooth and lasts for a good couple of hours between applications.

5. Maybelline Great Lash  - I haven't been blessed with big, long, luscious lashes and time has conspired to make them even thinner and shorter. No matter how many brands I stray to and play with, I come back to this one. It does the trick, giving me decent lashes with no clumps or bumps, and stops me from looking like a space alien. Big thumbs up!

So there you have it - less is more when you target rather than mask. Older faces are beautiful too - show yours off, girl!

****

What do you think?  I like these choices, but personally, I'd pick a plant-based oil such as something from Clarins, Decleor or Darphin over the Bio-Oil (which is mineral-oil based and doesn't contain anything intrinsically "nourishing" for older skins), but what are your tips for older skin?

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

Dear Reader ...

I'm marrying him.

Relax girls, he's (nearly) married.

I promise not to become a Bridezilla:





(But I can't promise not to become a Bridezuki over the next few months - sorry.  Although, in all honesty, I'll probably be more of a bridal Scrappy Doo in any case, short and annoying.  My usual self, in fact)

Like any self-respecting beauty blogger my first worries are: perfume, makeup artist (I refuse, point blank, to do it myself), hairdresser, and, of course, which pair of Uggs to wear for the ceremony. 

Have we set a date? No, but it'll be next spring, somewhere quirky, hopefully. Oh, and I'm looking for some small independent artisan jewellers to support with our purchases of rings and so on, so if you have any handy hints or recommendations, then please leave them in the comments! 

There will be no meringues, no churches, and - most importantly - nowhere that doesn't serve chicken wings.  There is, I must admit, a slightly better than good chance we'll be married in the local branch of KFC.


I have, it has to be said, NO IDEA where to start.


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