Guerlain Autumn 2013 Rouge Gs - Madame Reve, Madame Flirte, Madam Batifole

I recently posted that I was really looking forward to the new autumn collection from Guerlain, and last week, I was lucky enough to be able to pick up the Rouge G's from the Violette de Madame collection a little bit early.  There's very little that makes me happier than a brand new Rouge G ... 

There are three new shades, Madame Reve, a soft, sheer medium pink, Madame Flirte, a soft, slightly warm red, with a light dusting of gold shimmer, and Madame Batifole, a fuchsia pink.   As soon as I saw the promo shots, I knew these were for me!

They're clad in the same classic housing as the regular Rouge G lipsticks, this time with a "fishnet" effect. 

Daylight

Flash

The texture is the same soft, rich and creamy formulation  that I've come to know and love, not as firm as a Tom Ford lipstick, but not quite as balmy as a Chantecaille Lip Chic, these are moisturising, and (Reve aside), fairly pigmented.

Daylight

 

 

Flash

 

 

They're softly glossy, and easy to wear.  By far the most pigmented is Madame Batifole (which, not entirely coincidentally, is my favourite), but Reve and Flirte are both great everyday shades.  Batifole is rather dramatic, and if your tolerance for dramatic lipsticks is lower than mine it'll make a great evening shade.

Here's how they look on my rather unevenly pigmented lips:

Yes, at £31 each, they're not cheap, but a Rouge G is a thing of beauty forever.  They'll be on counter August 1st.

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Narcisco Rodriguez Musc Oil for Her

  
Musk-based fragrances have really, really grown on me this year, I came within a whisper of wearing Serge Lutens Clair de Musc for my wedding (choosing to wear Khiel's Musk body lotion with L'Artisan Safran Troublant instead, but it was an extremely close-run thing), and my musk obsession started with re-discovering the Body Shop White Musk Oil around this time last year.

Narcisco Rodriguez Musc for Her is a new range from NR, and there's a  musc oil released too (limited edition), which I was sent to try.  Now, I wasn't a particular fan of the original For Her fragrance, so won't be bothering comparing the two scents, but this is a very pretty, lightly floral scent, which I've enjoyed wearing a great deal.  

It's a warm scent, which stays very close to the skin. Clean, and slightly sweet-smelling, that isn't entirely a million miles away from the slightly more diffusive Clair de Musc (the two layer extremely well, in fact, the RM anchors the CdM to the skin, making both last longer), it's exceedingly pretty.  I find it also makes a good layering scent for other fragrances too, like the Tom Ford Plum Japonais that I'll be telling you about on Friday.

Narcisco Rodriguez Musc Oil for her is a limited edition (the rest of the range is a permanent line), and will cost £66.

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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Becca Cosmetics - An Introduction

Becca Stuff by getlippie featuring a sheer foundation

I am really enjoying rediscovering Becca Cosmetics at the moment - every product I've tried has been great, and I am deeply glad they're making a proper re-entrance into the UK via SpaceNK

Loving the Beach Tint in Raspberry in particular (bottom row, second right), the shade, on me, is very much a "my lips but better" colour, but on people with paler lips, it's a gorgeous "just bitten" berry shade, perfect for adding a little colour without being too scary.  All you need is a tiny pin-head size amount, and it layers up nicely.  If you squeeze too much out, you can always pop the excess on your cheeks as a blusher, where it works very well.

I've reviewed the Sunchaser palette before (bottom row, second left), and I'm happy to report that I love the AstroViolet Eyeshadow Quad just as much, same great quality shadows, but this time in a selection of purple and taupe shades that is hard for me to resist. And I love the dinky packaging!  Much less of a waste of space than some other quartets I can think of.  I find the eyeliner in Belle Epoque (bottom right) goes very well with both palettes too. A slightly greyed brown, it lasts well, and is very easy to apply without dragging.

Becca Base products are very good too - I've been using, and liking, the Matte Skin Foundation  (Top left) a fair bit recently, and it's good for giving a matte finish to the skin. On the days where I can't face foundation, I've been dotting a little of the Ever Matte Poreless Priming Perfector (top right) over a tinted moisturiser, and this has helped soak up any greasy spots without having to resort to powder.

Possibly the most famous Becca product is the Shimmering Skin Perfector, made into a cult by Lisa Eldridge, these are liquid highlighters, which give a beautiful glow to the skin, without making you look greasy, or as if you've rolled yourself in lard and glitter, a la some cheaper "highlighters" I've seen and rejected over the years!  I have Opal and Moonstone, which see me through the year (one's slightly paler, the other is a pale gold), neither of the shades are too stark or bright, which is great.

Finally, I adore the Matte Lip Colour in Antoinette, a deep cool raspberry (I'm a little obsessed with raspberry shades at the moment), which lasts and lasts without drying my lips out:

L- Flash R-Daylight

The lipglosses are a little sheerer than I'd like, but I have Palm Breeze, which is a warm fuchsia, which works well layered over Antoinette.  They're not sticky, either, which is lovely!  Now I think I need Hummingbird ...

Have you tried Becca products?  What are your raves?

The Fine Print: Mixture of PR samples and purchases.

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Hot Weather Helpers

Knowing my luck, by the time you read this, the weather will have broken, and we'll have been plunged back into the perma-winter we've known this entire year.  In which case, please accept my sincere apologies, and hopefully this will come in handy for the four days of summer we're likely to get next year ... 

I'm addicted to sprays in the summer, and two of the best I've found this year are the Melvita Damask Rose Floral Water:

 
Lightly scented, yet highly emollient, this is good for those days where you need both cooling down, and a hit of moisture in your skin.  This is lovely, and I really like the new packaging.

And, for those days when your skin is either pumping out the grease, or you just want a super-refreshing spray, you need Suti Peppermint Toning Water:

Like a tube of polos in liquid form, this refreshes the parts other toners cannot reach.  I have a bottle on my desk, and a bottle in the fridge at all times.  Handy hint, it's great for spraying on your feet both to cool, and neutralise any nasty niffs.

And finally, an oldie, but the best summer helper EVER is this:  Bodyglide:

For when your sandals rub your feet, or when your straps rub your skin, or where any bits of your skin rub against other bits of your skin (yes, thighs, I'm looking at you) this is the business.  Stops rubbing, chafing and blistering on any part of your body.  It's ACES.  Get some.  I've found the big tubes on Amazon for around £12 or so, but one should last you at least a year (you don't need much), and it's the best investment I make every single summer.  Get one.  Get two, in fact, and carry one round with you at all times.  You'll never regret it.

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Maison Francis Kurkdjian - Oud Silk Mood

Of all the perfumers I've met over the last few years, right up there in my favourites would be Francis Kurkdjian.  Never afraid to say something controversial, yet always friendly, and with passion for his art oozing from him in droves, he's a real thrill to spend any time with.  Recently I met up with him for the launch of his latest fragrance, Aquae Vitae, where, in referring to his sales figures, he announced that if the bloggers "love" a fragrance, then it's the kiss of death for the sales of it!  Oddly, I kind of know where he's coming from.

Perfume blogging is an odd thing.  I started doing it because I was bored with all the sugary-pink shit available in the shops, a state of affairs where everything, and everyone, smells exactly the same (like an ADD teenager wrapped in candyfloss, having drenched themselves in fruit-scented body spray first), and nothing had any "sex appeal" any more.

Then you discover niche fragrances, and frankly, the more off-the-wall, the better. They're a revelation! Burning rubber?  I'm in!  Cough drops and cat-poo?  Also in!  Fur and leather?  Oh yes ... and somehow, along the way, you can lose your taste - or even develop a distaste - for the simple, the commercial, or the popular.  It's not always a bad thing (though there are some fragrance shops and departments I simply can't set foot in these days, alas), but for some perfume bloggers, it seems that if a scent is designed to "sell" as well as "smell", then it's automatically inferior, no matter who the "nose" behind the scent is.  

It's a fine line for a perfumer to tread.  Do they design purely for the masses, wanting those sales, and risk the wrath of the bloggers?  Or, do they design their fragrances purely to appeal to that strange creature, the "professional" perfume critic?  Guerlain, in particular, I think suffers from this.  They're actually a brand available on most high streets, but, because of their place in perfume history, they're held in an especially schizophrenic position for most perfume bloggers, adored for their heritage, yet, most of their modern output (one or two future classics aside) gets a somewhat "sniffy" reception ... Guerlain is not niche these days, it's not even ultra-luxe any more, but if their more recent, more commercial releases allow them to still keep their historical (and wonderful) fragrances on our high street shelves - and prove that there is easily-accessible life beyond the candyfloss, to jaded consumers to boot - well, more power to Thierry Wasser's elbow, frankly.

Most people aren't perfume critics, however, and burning rubber is always going to appeal only to the select few, and I think it is far, far, far too easy for people (especially those who have educated themselves to a certain degree in fragrance) to write off a perfumer's more commercial output. But, there are a number of perfumers doing the mainstream very well.  Francis Kurkdjian is, I think, one of the best representatives of how to appeal to both the masses and the niche-lovers.  His Aqua Universalis and Absolue Pour Le Soir illustrate this tightrope very well indeed.  AU is a clean, fresh, laundry-scent, immediately appealling, easy to wear, simple and uncomplicated, it's the scent of the relationship between yourself and your clothes.  APLS, however, is a thick, sticky, sweet and dirty (how dirty?  It's actually pure, distilled filth.  Bottled.  It smells of sweat, sex and honey.  Oh, and a bit of cat poo), hard to love, and utterly impossible to "get" at first sniff, it's adored by perfume bloggers - including this one, who ran out and bought a bottle after reading a single review - the world over.  But it sells fewer bottles than Aqua Universalis, by a factor you can measure in the thousands.  Yet, you never see a blogger rave about AU.  Funny that ...

Anyhoo.  All of that was basically my extremely longwinded way of getting into the mindset to review Oud Silk Mood by Maison Francis Kurkdjian.  In PerfumeBlogVille, Oud is, essentially, over.  Something the professional critics are bored with, and are waiting for the next big ingredient to pop up and replace it.  Over in CommercialLand, however, to very many consumers, Oud is still something new and exotic, still a smell that takes some getting used to.

Oud is a funny smell, it's essentially a rotted, infected tree-sap.  It smells dark, and oddly medicinal, it's thick, and difficult, and, although it's been widely used in fragrances in the Middle East for a long time, it's still relatively "new" in fragrances in the west.  In 2012, Kurkdjian brought out an entirely new kind of oud fragrance; Oud, which was light, transparent, and decidedly shimmering, and whilst still hugely "odd" (and medicinal) to most tastes, is probably the easiest to wear Oud fragrance I've come across.

In 2013, Kurkdijan added three new fragrances to his Oud line, in a selection of "moods": Velvet, Cashmere and Silk.  Compared to the original Oud, Silk Mood is decidedly heavier, opening with a giant bouquet of the richest, darkest, reddest roses you can imagine, with just a tiny hint of fruitiness contained within, like the tiniest smear of raspberry jam in a rose-petal sandwich.  As it dries down, the oud and the chamomile add a hint of dustiness and depth, and a hint of mystery to the jammy fruitiness above.  There's meant to be papyrus in there too, but I have no idea what that smells like, so I can't pick it out.

It's hugely well-balanced, meaning it's hard to pick out individual ingredients above all the others, but this is, without doubt a gorgeous scent, it blooms in the heat - and has been the only fragrance I've wanted to wear in this recent hot spell - unusual for me, who normally cries out for minty, herbal, FRESH scents in this weather.  It's also pretty appealing to the opposite sex, if the reaction of MrLippie is anything to go by, he normally dismisses things as "yes, flowers" or "oranges", but he seems to really like this one.  

I've read reviews of Oud Silk Mood dismissing it as "nothing original", and maybe it isn't (it's the smoother, sexier sister to Guerlain's Rose Barbare, which has a spiky, rather austere beauty, if you ask me, dried roses, and no jam.  Ironically, both were created by Kurkdjian). In Middle Eastern perfumery, oud and rose is the definitive combination for oud fragrances, but in this not-quite-a-"proper"-perfume-blogger's opinion, there aren't very many oud/rose combos that are as appealing as this one anywhere.

Now for the bit that'll make you cry.  It's £275 a bottle.  I only figured that out after I'd been spraying my sample with wild and gay abandon!  A small price for beauty though, perhaps?

The Fine Print: The fragrance was a PR Sample. Waffle, all mine very own.

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Everyday Eye Essentials

If you follow my instagram account (and if not, why not?  You can find it here) you'll notice that I've been posting a daily picture of my eye makeup, with a description of the shadows, liners and mascaras that I've used.  What I never mention are these two products, without which my eyemakeup is incomplete.

First off, if I've learned anything from beauty blogging over the years, it's that an eye-shadow primer is absolutely essential, and, after years of testing practically all of the ones on the market, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion is the one I return to again and again and again.  If you suffer from wandering shadow, or greasy eyelids, or shadow that just disappears after an" hour or two, then primer will help.  UDPP is a rather  "grabby" primer that can sometimes be difficult to blend over, but I deal with that by adding a layer of flesh coloured shadow over the top of it first, then using any darker colours over the top, you still get a good, bright, longlasting look, but it's much easier to blend shades over the top.  I'm looking forward to trying their new "anti-ageing" primer when that is released.

And to finish off any look, it's imperative to have groomed eyebrows, and an eyebrow gel can help hugely.  My own eyebrows (even though tattooed underneath), would take over my entire face if I didn't keep them under control, so I brush through a little of this lightly-coloured gel through to tame them a little, and keep them in place for the day.

The Eyeko brow-gel has a nice little brush (which could, in all honesty, be a bit longer), and has a lightly coloured gel, which would be suitable for most shades of brows, except maybe for very red ones.  It's nice, and keeps brows in place all day.  I'm a little o_0 about the price, to be honest, as I think £18 for a brow gel is a bit on the high side (frankly, you could use hair gel just as well), but it's a good product if you want your brows to provide the perfect frame for your eyes.

What are your eye essentials? 

The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples and purchases.
 
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Lippie's Lust List #Twelvety Guerlain Violette de Madam

Oh man.  I need me this collection something chronic.  I was sent the nail varnish in Madam Batifole (below) this week, and now I have a shopping list as long as my arm.  A collection entirely in purple, fuchsia and red?  Oh, I am IN.

 In love, that is.

GIMME!!

 It's on counters August 1st, but don't bother yourselves, as I'll have bought it all.   ALL YOUR GUERLAINS ARE BELONG TO ME.

This post: Lippie's Lust List #Twelvety  originated at: Get Lippie All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Get Lippie, then this content has been stolen by a scraper