Benefit Sun Beam

You might have noticed a theme this week - summer.  Yes, I know the last few weeks have had lousy wet weather, but I am determined to make things a little summery right now!  With that in mind, I'm happy to show you Benefit Sun Beam, the latest addition to the "Beam" collection, alongside "High" and "Moon", both of which I happen to adore, but can't find right now ...

Anyhoo, Sun Bean is described as a golden bronze highlighter it's actually very pretty, and a lot more versatile than I thought it would be on first opening the bottle:

Almost an "antique" gold shade, this would be flattering on many skin shades, from the palest through to very dark olive, I suspect.  I'm extremely pale at the moment, and even I find it wearable:

See the pretty speckles?  I'm glad to see that it's not too orange, as that would be very difficult for a lot of people to wear, I think.

As with the other liquid highlighters in the range, Sun Beam is easy to blend, and leaves a lovely glow, without glitter.

It's pigmented just enough to leave your skin with a pretty sheen, and will look great on tanned cheekbones if we ever get any sun this year!

Benefit Sun Beam will be available from June. 



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

Tom Ford S/S 2012 Cream Colour for Eyes in Platinum and Spice

Following on from yesterdays peek at the new metallic collection from Tom Ford, I'm going to show you what I would have purchased from the collection if wedd-onomics (what?  It's totally a word) and common sense hadn't kicked in first. Those are the cream eyeshadows in Spice and Platinum.

Love the packaging, (with one minor caveat) from the mock-croc boxes:

I like bar codes, what's your problem?

To the heavy-weight gold-etched glass pots:

To the off-centre sticky labels on the top of the pots.  Hang on!  Crooked sticky labels?  Oh, Tom.

But never mind, it's what's inside that counts, right?

Oh, my, these are lovely.  A silvery taupe, and mid-tone coppery brown, just up my alley!  Let's take a closer look:

Yes, I swatched before snapping.  BAD beauty blogger!

In the pots, Platinum seems much more metallic, and stiffer a consistency than Spice, but this isn't really the case.  The formula for both of these is feather light, lighter even than the bouncy Chanel's we've had recently, and definitely lighter than the Armani Eyes to Kill shadows which have been out for a while now.  They're so light that initially I thought they wouldn't wear well, but I'll get onto that shortly.

The shades are multi dimensional, and rather complex on skin, here are some swatches:

Simple finger swatch:

Macro shot:

The same swatches blended out.

A little of this formula really does go a very long way, especially with the more pigmented Spice, they blend very easily, I created a very nice smokey eye look with these in about 30 seconds flat just using my fingers (something unheard of for me, I'm dedicated to my brushes), and I was very impressed with the finish.

At £28 each though, these are on the pricey side, and, when it comes to that sort of price, I want things to last, so do they?  Yes, actually, I was very surprised at how well these lasted on an extremely damp day recently, they got through eight hours of heavy wear (there was a bit of eye-rubbing), with minimal creasing and very little fading indeed.  Considering you can barely feel you're wearing them at all, I was extremely impressed indeed!  I think Platinum is very quickly going to become a staple for me, as I'll be able to create a simple pulled-together look very quickly on those mornings where thinking is impossible*.

* Weekdays.  Every other weekend.  The weekends inbetween.

The Fine Print Makeup fairy delivery.Don't tell me they don't exist.  I'll cry.

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

Tom Ford S/S 2012 Gold Dust Lip Lacquer and Gold Haze Nail Varnish

I am a jammy so-and-so, I freely admit it.  The last couple of weeks have been pretty tough for a variety of reasons, but, nothing lifts my spirits more than an unexpected parcel, and if said unexpected parcel contains a variety of items from the latest collection from Tom Ford, well, it's a very cheery thing for this knackered accountant indeed!

I had been pawing this latest collection of metallics in Selfridges a couple of weeks ago, but wedding economics are now LAW in the Lippie household, so I managed to restrain myself, contented my lemmings with a few swatches, and, after a bit of sighing at the unfairness of the universe, I left the pretty behind.

Right, that sorry tale over, on with the pictures!  Today I'm going to show you the lipgloss and the nail varnish, and tomorrow you'll be able to see the cream eyeshadows.

I'm not a huge fan of gold cosmetics, they don't really suit me, but I do admire a lot of gold makeup, in particular "old gold" shades, neither of these quite fit that description, but they're lovely nonetheless.

First up, Gold Haze Nail Varnish:

It appears quite a "sandy" sort of shade in the photos, but on my nails the brassy quality of the shade shines through making it a rather difficult wear for me, as it makes my skintone rather "lobster-ish".

Horrific application on crap nails, I'm very sorry

That said, it's a lovely, multi-dimensional shade, that I think will look amazing on warmer skintones than mine.

Pictures show three coats of polish, applied by a ham-fisted muppet.

Now onto the lip lacquer:

I love the rather matte effect you get from the tube, and thought this was going to be rather more opaque than it actually turned out to be:

The shade is actually a rather warmer colour than the nail varnish, something I'm trying (and failing miserably, but hey, it's good picture of my ring) to show below:

A little bit of this goes a long way, it's lightly vanilla scented, and you can't really feel the glitter on the lips, I think it'd make a great layering shade over darker lipsticks, to give them a bit of depth and dimension.

I think it's really pretty, but, in all honesty, it's not a shade I'd ever wear alone!

The Tom Ford Spring Metallics collection is available now, and the nail polish and lip lacquer both cost £25.

The Fine Print: a PR surprise, and a most welcome one.
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.

Elizabeth Arden Rose Gold Collection

Ignore the chintzy, and slightly dowdy, boxes, this is a beautiful, beautiful collection from Elizabeth Arden this summer, I've been very pleasantly surprised with what's in these boxes this year:

Yes, a collection of rose gold compacts, and lipstick. These are gorgeous, and really tactile.  What we have here are two bronzers, a highlighter and a lipstick:

You have (clockwise from left), Rose Illumination, bronzer in Soft Radiance, bronzer in Warm Radiance, and lipstick in Rose Aurora. 

A closer look in the same order:

  

And  swatches:

I'll be honest, it's been a long, long time since I picked up anything from Elizabeth Arden's cosmetic range (I've been a long time devotee of Green Tea though, and get through a bottle a year), and, I have to say that I've been exceptionally pleasantly surprised by the quality of these products.  

The powders are finely milled and very silky, which, despite some sparkles visible in the pans, are very easy to wear, and blend well on the skin.  The rose illuminator in particular is very flattering on the skin, and would suit a wide variety of skintones.  It was also nice to see different shades of bronzer - I've been using the soft radiance to "warm up" some of my winter foundations, which are just a shade too pale for this time of year.  The warm radiance would be a better choice if you've a more olive skin shade than me though.

The lipstick is creamy and emollient and very easy to wear, the shade, if I'm entirely honest isn't entirely right for me, but the formula is lovely.  And, I love, love, love the packaging!  A slightly better shade for me is Tulip, which is in slightly different packaging, but is a gorgeous bright pink:

 And just to show the difference in colours:

I just wish they'd done a translucent powder in that gorgeous rose-gold finish so I could carry it with me year-round!

Think you'll be picking anything up from Elizabeth Arden this summer?

The Fine Print: PR Samples.  There may have been a bit of squealing "ooh, it's PINK!" when I opened the boxes.  I'm *such* a girl sometimes.

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

Engagement Bling II - Monica Vinader Mini Luna

I was devastated when the original engagement rings MrLippie and I had decided on turned out to be ... not as high in quality as we would have liked, two of them kept dulling, and marking my finger, so, it was with some regret that we decided to replace them.  I'd had my eye on the rings at Monica Vinader for a while, and initially had my heart set on the Medina Faceted ring in Labradorite, but, when we got to the store yesterday, it just looked wrong on my tiny, stumpy fingers, we we went for the Mini Luna ring in labradorite instead (which is the one on the left in the photo above).  But, because I never do things in halves (I'm an accountant, I fear fractions), we had to buy the amethyst version too ...

Personally, I love the chequerboard faceting on both rings, 

And the hammered finish on the bands:

 I also love how snugly the bands fit together, too.  Making them extremely comfortable to wear.


Best of all, when we were instore on Saturday, Monica Vinader had an engraver in-store, so MrLippie had one of them inscribed:

It reads: "Love Without Limit"

As they're stacking rings, I've been able to add one of the rings from my original set back to these two, here's how I've been wearing them recently:

And, because I've found it next to impossible to capture the blue flash in the Labradorite ring with my "real" camera, here's a bonus instagram pic (from the iphone) that does capture it:

I love these rings!  And, best of all, there's an entire store FULL of bits and bobs to mix and match with.


Yes, M, that is a hint ...  Oh, and Monica Vinader have an engraver in-store every Saturday ...


More wedding stuff soon, lots going on!

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

Le Metier Aurora Lip Kaleidoscope

I've been waiting for Le Metier de Beaute to come back to the UK for what feels like a very, very, very long time!  So, when Zuneta announced they were going to be their exclusive UK stockist from now on, I was very excited!  Then, when Zuneta initially put the products on the website, I was devastated, as the prices were astronomical.  Always a super-premium brand, I thought that Zuneta and Le Metier were taking the mickey with the price increases - the Kaleidoscopes had increased in price from around £55-65 and were now selling for £90! When I queried this with Zuneta, I was assured that this was an error, and the prices were immediately changed by around 20%, so the kaleidoscopes (when they're in stock) now retail for around £75.  Whilst I'm loath to cast aspersions, I can't help being sceptical that no one had thought to double-check both the prices on the website and on the email that was sent out before they were released to customers, to be honest.

But then, I am both deeply sceptical and an accountant, and double/triple/quadruple checking the numbers before information goes to people is what I do ... I'll get back to talking about quality control shortly though.  Yes, I pick nits, it's my job.

I was sent this lip Kaleidoscope in Aurora a few weeks ago, and it's taken me a while to write about it because, well, I'm disappointed with it.   You'll see why in a minute.  It is, in all actuality, very beautiful, and I love that it was inspired by the Northern Lights.  As always in a Le Metier Kaleidoscope, there are four shades, designed to be used either individually, or layered in the brand's trademark "couches de couleur" technique.

The shades are, from top to bottom:

Illuminate - a sheer, shimmery pink:

Second down is Voltaic - a rosey mauve in a cream finish:

Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed my problem by now

Then there is Dynamos, a sheer coral shot through with golden shimmer:

And finally, at the bottom, there is Eos, a creme fuchsia shade:

Two sheer shimmers, and two creme shades in one palette, there's a lot of scope for mixing and matching these pretty colours. 

Here's how they look in swatches:

 L-R Illuminate, Voltaic, Dynamos, Eos.

But, let's go back and take another look at shade number two (Voltaic) again, shall we?

That's a lovely thumbprint, isn't it?  It's not mine, by the way, this is how the palette arrived from Le Metier HQ in New York, and I'll be honest, it made me very disappointed with the palette.  It also, I don't mind adding, made me feel a bit sick.

When a brand is as super-premium as Le Metier, then I don't really expect massive thumbprints in the products.  And, sadly, it's not the first time I've had a problem with this sort of thing with Le Metier palettes, in my le Cirq kaleidoscope there was a damaged eyeshadow, and in last year's Penelope Kaleidoscope that I was sent, there was an entire eyeshadow missing!  And, in spite of me mentioning it to the brand on several occasions, they never did anything about it, which is why you didn't see it on the blog.   Something appears to be seriously amiss with Le Metier quality control - I own three of their palettes, and every single one has something wrong - one has 25% of the product missing, and the company didn't really care about my concerns.

So, on the one hand, I'm very glad to see Le Metier back. thumbprints, dinged shadows, and missing parts and all.  Then, on the other hand, I'm extremely unlikely to buy anything from them till I'm assured they they're really pulled their socks up over their quality control.  At these (newly reduced, but still extremely expensive) prices, there is less than no excuse not to provide perfection.

 The Fine Print: PR Sample.


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

Massage Therapy With Jarod Chapman

If you're an accountant in the public sector (like what I am), then April is by far the most stressful month of the year.  Long hours hunched over the computer, fighting with spreadsheets, budgets and recalcitrant auditors combined with a stressy lifestyle in general all combine to exacerbate life's little strains, and leads to a lot of aches and pains.

I've been suffering, on and off, from shoulder pain for a while now,  part of it is down to my generally terrible posture, but occasionally my right shoulder in particular has been "freezing", which is intensely uncomfortable, and has lead to more than a couple of sleepless nights over the last few months.

I figured it was time to do something about it, so I popped along to see Jarod Chapman at his "Gym Down Under" in Earl's Court recently, and undergo some therapeutic massage to get it sorted.  Well, if it's good enough for Tina Turner (one of his recent clients - Jarod spent time as her "Wellness Coach" on her latest world tour), then it's good enough for Get Lippie ...

Pleasantly surprised at the bijou surroundings of the tiny gym, which is actually a private studio, which specialises in one to one sessions - there are no massive groups of ultra-fit people for you to be intimidated by here - I underwent my consultation with the softly-spoken Jarod, who listened to my concerns, and wasn't backward in coming forward with some solutions.  Jarod trained at the Sydney Nature College, and as well as specialising in massage therapy, is a qualified personal trainer, and can also advise you on nutrition.  He uses Neal's Yard products exclusively in his massage sessions, which is certainly something that I can appreciate.

It was decided that I required a sports rather than a theraputic massage, owing to the depth of my shoulder and back problems, and, with that in mind, Jarod got to work.   I won't go into the details, but the difference between a theraputic massage and a sports massage is that theraputic is largely lighter, with smoother strokes - more akin to something you'd experience at a spa - and sports massage is designed to actually work your muscles, loosening tight ones, and mobilising your joints.  Whilst it's not entirely relaxing, you definitely can feel the benefits afterwards.  My back and shoulders definitely feel looser, and I'm very grateful to Jarod for showing me some simple stretching exercises to help stop some of my muscular problems getting worse.  That said, he recommended, and I agree, that I probably need some remedial therapy on my right shoulder ... It's all glamour being a beauty blogger, eh?

I can't recommend Jarod's services enough, he's a good listener, and is wonderfully non-judgemental.  Not at all your "typical" personal trainer-type, and for that, let us all be thankful.

You can find out more here: Jarod Chapman's website.

The Fine Print: I was introduced to Jarod by a mutual friend.  Thanks, Fiona!
 
This post originated at: http://getlippie.com All rights reserved.