Clarins Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Balm

Summer lip balms in a range of colours? Check. The usual suspect shades? You know, pink, green, orange and blue?  Check. Hang on, green and blue lip balms?  From Clarins?  I don't think we're in Kansas any more ...

And yet:

They're really, really, really gorgeous.  They're also not really green and blue sadly, but this makes them not impossible to wear, as the surprisingly pigmented coloured cores of these Crystal balms make very good lipsticks, actually.  Here's some swatches:

 
From left to right we have:  05 Crystal Rose, 07 Crystal Gold Plum, 06 Crystal Mandarin, and 08 Crystal Berry.  The balm surrounding the coloured core is essentially clear in use, but it diffuses the edges of the shades, making them nourishing to wear, but still colourful enough to define your lips:

Lip swatches:

Crystal Rose: A soft, gentle, easy-to-wear pink

 Crystal Gold Plum: A cooler shade of plum, with a hint of golden irridescence

 Crystal Mandarin: a bright splash of juicy orange

  
Crystal Berry: cool berry, without any shimmer
 

As you can see, the shades are soft and sheer, and (some patchiness with the pigment in Mandarin and Gold Plum aside) very easy to wear.  And they smell deliciously of berries!

My picks out of these four are Crystal Rose, and Crystal Berry, they're slightly easier to get the colour applied evenly, and are the shades best suited to my skin tone.

See anything you like?  They're on counter very soon ...   
 
The Fine Print: PR samples.

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Max Factor Colour Elixir Giant Pen Sticks Launch Soon

 

This post contains sponsored content
  
I've had this glass of pretties on my desk for a while now, and, as they launch in a couple of weeks, I figured (I'm nice like that) it was time to tell you about them.  There's a slew of  "podgy" products about at the moment, but Max Factor Giant Pen Sticks in the Colour Elixir range - launching on April 1st at Boots - are slightly different, being more akin to a pencil lipstick, than a self-propelling pencil of balm.  You'll need a sharpener, for a start ...

There are six colours to choose from, all selected by Max Factor makeup artist Mel Arter. Mel; famous for her inspired and edgy makeup looks, has been inspired this time around by the latest catwalk trends, and she says:
 

“Right now we’re seeing the biggest colour comeback in cosmetics since the 80s – it’s a backlash against the recession as people ditch the minimal trend by adding a cheerful splash of colour. There was a real sporty element to the collections for SS/13. Brights on the lips are a huge nod to that. Specifically pink as it is such an informal and fun colour. 

"The texture should be waxy and the shape informal. My favourite Giant Pen Stick is Vibrant Pink 15 - a sophisticated fluoro-pink which is the perfect expression of that trend. Teamed with your favourite eyeliner inside the waterline, gives the statement lip more attitude. Minimal and cool.  Hot Chocolate pushes neutral lips forward for the coming season. It gives the right amount of colour and finish to a nude make-up. Your lips look tonal but alive. This shade compliments a nude make-up beautifully.”

 

It's a compact range of two pinks, two reds, a nude, and a, as the name implies, a rather subtle coral shade, but let's have a closer look at the two shades Mel Arter mentions above, Vibrant Pink, and Hot Chocolate:

And here's them on my lips:

Think Mel is bang on with her talk of the eighties for Vibrant Pink - I had an entire outfit this colour in 1988! I'll be showing you the rest of the range in more detail in another post, and I'll also be telling you all about my upcoming Giant Pen Stick "colour consultation" with another of my Max Factor makeup artist heroes, Caroline Barnes soon too.

Looking forward to the Giant Pen Stick Launch on April 1st?  I am! 

The Fine Print: This is a sponsored post.  Get Lippie only accepts sponsored content if it's a product that would be featured on the site ordinarily, this product passed that test.  Thanks for reading.

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Deo Perfume Candy - Edible Deodorant?

 Ever wanted to smell good enough to eat?  Well ...

Now you can.  Kind of.  Possibly. Maybe!  We're not sure. Anyway.  Cybercandy sent me this little box of Bulgarian Deo Candy, which contains rose extract (said, in Japanese studies, to be excreted in your sweat after ingestion) and claims to perfume your pits for up to six hours after munching!  Here at Lippie Towers, we decided to try a little science for ourselves, and put the claims to the test.

Well, we say science, it was more like sitting around on a Sunday afternoon eating sweeties then sniffing each other, but, instead of calling it "a normal Sunday afternoon with the Lippies*", for the purposes of this review, the title "science" will just have to do ...

The sweeties are pretty tasty.  I expected them to be rose-flavoured, akin to a hard-boiled Turkish Delight, but they're actually orange-y, and rather sherbety too.  Very nice, in fact. Bit crunchy. I didn't tell MrL what he was eating (although his face when I pointed out it was "edible deodorant" a bit later on was worthy of a blog post in itself, frankly), and we both enjoyed them.  After an hour or so, we had a sniff of each others pits.

Man, the things I do for this blog, seriously.

So, how did we smell?  Well, not that different to normal, really.  Possibly slightly sweeter than usual,  but there was no gust of Bulgarian rosy pits that we could discern, alas.  I'm slightly disappointed, but hey!  Sweeties!

For £1.85 you can have literally minutes of fun wit these, and possibly smell a bit nicer ... I did actually notice that my breath was a bit sweeter after eating these, so maybe a better breath freshener, as well as a nice taste sensation. 

You can find Deo Perfume Candy here
 
* We do our perfume testing on a Sunday. And MrL is a chocoholic.  SHUT UP.

The Fine Print: PR Sample
 
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Lippie's Lust List #2 Clarins Instant Smooth Crystal Lip Balm

Seriously, how gorgeous are these?  Full review for you later on in the week, but just had to share this picture today!


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Bobbi Brown Lilac Rose Eye Palette, Roza Polish and Lipglosses

It's been a while since I've featured anything from Bobbi Brown, I realise, but the press release for the new Lilac Rose collection was so pretty I couldn't resist ... a reasonable-sized collection, consisting of a new shimmer brick, an eye palette, a polish and several lip colours, I've selected my picks of the collection to show you here.

First off, the star of the show, the Lilac Rose eyeshadow palette.  This couldn't have been better chosen for me, if I'd selected the shades myself (though I'd have left out the shimmery lilac, thereby negating the whole point of the palette's inclusion in the collection in one go, but there you are, I'm an iconoclast*, I am):

 Housed in a package the same size as a normal shimmer brick, the Lilac Rose Eye palette contains eight shadows, all in the (rather muted) lilac/taupe/plum/brown range, with a variety of finishes.

In the top section, you have (clockwise from top left):
Ivory - Matte but not chalky shade
Pale Rose - matte pale plum-taupe
Pink Lily - Metallic (and slightly powdery) lilac, there was quite a bit of fallout from this
Stormy Grey - Shimmery brown with a greyish cast.

 
On the bottom you have (also clockwise from top left)
Barely There - satin-finish pale tan-flesh shade
Heather Brown - similar to Barely There, only with a touch more pink, and a lot more shimmer
Dusty Lilac - I'd say this was more of a dusty rose shade, very matte, and makes (strangely), an excellent contour shade
Black Chocolate - blackened dark brown, but without any red tones.  A great liner colour.

This is a great set of neutrals that you can use to create quite a few looks with.  I've created smokey looks with stormy grey, pink lily, pale rose and  black chocolate, and a few no-makeup looks with the other shades too.  If pink lily was more purple, then this would - quite possibly - have gone into the top ten eyeshadow palettes of all time.

I'm also a big fan of the Roza Nail Polish that comes with this collection, you know when you get something, and you want to wear it there and then?  I had that with this shade:

Obligatory "Claw" bottle shot

 It's a slightly greyed out pink colour, which really called out to me in the bottle.  No idea why, I'm a bit odd like that.  However, once on my hands, I realised that if Mannequin Hands (where your nail polish matches the colour of your skin -God knows why) is still a thing in the blogging world, then this would be my pick:

Yes, I did mainly choose this shot to show off my wedding ring.  Shut UP.

Roza is, however, extremely sheer.  And, by that, I mean: extremely sheer. This is four coats, and, in the right light, I can still see my nail line which is annoying.  But it does appear to be quite hard-wearing, these pictures were taken on day three of application, after a couple of days of housework and cooking, and it's held up very well indeed. That said, if I have to apply four or five coats every time, I don't think the bottle will last all that long!  This has been my first experience with Bobbi Brown polish though, and it's a good one, I shall have to investigate some of the other shades.

Finally, there are a couple of lipglosses with the collection, which I don't love (they're too sheer for a lipstick slut like myself), but it's a good formula nonetheless, and I'm happy that the crappy brushes Bobbi Brown lipglosses have been saddled with for (what seems like) forever have been ditched in favour of doe foot applicators.  Here's the swatches:

At the top you have Lilac Rose, and bottom you have Pink Lily.  Both nice shades in the tube, but on the lips all you get is a slight milky glaze with just a hint of colour.  Not my kind of thing, personally, but possibly not such a bad thing, as, personally, I think lilac lipstick (and gloss) should be banned.  It makes you look cyanotic, and, unless you're an habituee of Camden pretending to be one of the undead, or are an actual Victorian consumptive crack whore, it's not an easy look to pull off, frankly.

Overall, an extremely nice collection, as far as I'm concerned (potential cyanotic lip issues aside), what do you think? It's on counter this week, and prices start from £11 for the nail polish up to £45 for the eyeshadow palette


* Yes, I did have to check that meant what I thought it meant. I've been away, I think my brains have atrophied.  

The Fine Prinr: PR Samples.  No Victorian crack whores harmed in the writing of this post. Camden, you're on your final warning, however.
 
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Clinique Even Better Foundation Review

I genuinely thought I'd already reviewed this, seeing as it was by far my favourite foundation released in 2012, but it appears not.  Oh well, better late than never, eh? Especially as this bottle is very nearly due for a replacement ...

 Housed in a neat dropper-style bottle (my favourite kind), Clinique Even Better foundation contains many of the same  ingredients as their Even Better skin-tone brightening skincare range, which is expanding (wonderfully) all the time.  I'm never without their Even Better Eyes dark circle corrector in my handbag! Used long-term, this foundation is said to have skin-tone evening properties.  I can't comment on that, as I'm a complete foundation flibbertigibbet, but I do use this foundation several times a week, because I genuinely love it.

It's available in 18 shades divided into with  several colour groups, all of which have cool, warm or neutral undertones, and this shade is 03 Ivory (VF-N)  (ie: Very Fair colour grouping, with Neutral undertones). It's the third lightest shade in the collection.  Please bear in mind that my hands are a lot paler than my face, and this foundation, whilst appearing dark on the hand and arm, is actually a pretty darn near perfect match for my facial skin.

It's a medium-thick formulation, giving a satin-matte finish, and a medium coverage.  You can, if you so wish, build it up to full-coverage on problem areas, but I prefer to use a separate concealer if I need extra coverage, which isn't very often when using this, in all honesty.  Here's the return of Maurice the Control Mole to demonstrate:

As you can see, that's some pretty good coverage, right there.  Best of all, this level of coverage lasts. And it lasts well.  I don't know about you, but my skin eats foundation, and I find that generally around 3pm (I apply it around 6am though, bear in mind, so that's nine hours) I need to top up a bit, as I have high colouring, and this tends to peek through after a foundation has been on for a while.  

I have found, however, that Clinique Even Better lasts longer than very many foundations, and it's this long-lasting-ness (totally a word), coupled with excellent coverage without looking flat, or cakey, or needing a setting powder that makes me love it.  As I've said, I can't speak for its skincare properties, as I use very many different foundations in the course of a month, but as a foundation, this one is difficult to beat, and that's why my bottle is nearly empty ...

Lippie Rating:

Clinique Even Better Foundation earns a Triple Lippie for being long-lasting, not needing powder, and giving a great finish.  A great rating for a great product.

The Fine Print: PR sample, which is so old it's nearly gone.  Definite repurchase material though.

 
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Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine

 

There has been a plague upon the House of Lippie this winter, a veritable plague of cold-sores.  If you follow me on Twitter at all, you'll know that barely a week has gone by for the last couple of months without me complaining about yet another crop of painful blisters.  Sorry about that by the way!  

Teal is simple THE colour for cold sores this season, dahlings

I've tried everything, Compeed cold sore plasters, Superdrug cold sore plasters (which are officially the most useless thing ever, by the way) Zovirax, and a couple of other bits besides!  I've been banned from taking all dietary supplements besides Vitamin D for a while (related to my kidney problems last year), so the options of zinc, or L-Lysine or other vitamins and minerals aren't really an option for me at present.

I've been aware of the Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine for a while, but have been put off purchasing by the high-seeming price of £35.99, and also not knowing whether it works or not.  But, after four months of almost-weekly sores, I reckon I've spent almost double that on "remedies" that, whilst killing some of the initial pain, weren't actually doing anything to prevent further breakouts.

So,after a twitter conversation with several people who swore by the Avert (I'm sorry, but continuing to type  Boots Avert Electronic Cold Sore Machine is hurting my fingers), including Sali Hughes, I was sold.  I ended up begging Boots for a machine, and here it is.  This isn't a review, as I've only had it a couple of days, but I'm currently using it to heal up a couple of old sores, and I'm planning to use it every few days as a preventative measure for the next couple of weeks, too.

The Avert uses a narrow band of infra-red light to boost the immune response to the "tingling" phase of a cold sore attack. You place the machine over the site of the tingle, press the button, and for three minutes the light does the rest.  It beeps to let you know the start and the finish, which is handy. Having had good results from light therapy previously, I have high hopes for this, and I  won't be leaving the house without it for a while! As I've had at least one sore a week for the last two months or so, I should know pretty soon if it's working, and I'll keep you posted - lots of you have been talking to me about this, since I posted it up on Instagram and Twitter, and I'm aware it's a pretty hefty initial investment, but I figure if it works, it'll be worth it.

I am slightly amused that if you buy your Avert online at the moment, Boots will give you a free tube of their coldsore cream to go with it though ...!

How do you deal with your cold sores?
 
The Fine Print: A much begged for sample. I'm not proud.  I'm scabby, and fed up with it, so sue me.

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