Best of 2013 Pt II

Fragrance of the year:

Maison Francis Kurkdijan - Aqua Vitae

According to Persolaise, I said it best  - at a preview of the scent -  when I mumbled that it smelt like a hug from the seventies.  I'm astonished that I've not really written about this fragrance since though (might be something to do with having my best line used before I could commit it to my own blog post alongside a touch of the writers block I've had recently.  Oh well!) ... Anyway, there's something reassuringly familiar and comforting about Aqua Vitae, alongside something a little disturbing.  Built around citrus, hedione atop a base of guaiac wood, there's a hint of CK One here, but also very much more. It's richer, deeper, and more enjoyable to smell, but I can't avoid the comparison between the two completely.

Francis was inspired to produce this by the phrase "the space between us", and, in a way, this is precisely what he's created.  Smelling Aqua Vitae is like slipping into a favoured clothing item of a loved one who isn't with you, wrapping yourself in the ghost presence of your beloved, and smelling and comforting yourself with all the associations you have with that person.  It's the smell of nostalgia, of love, of longing and comfort, with just a hint of the smell of their body too.  It's not a groundbreaking smell, it'll drive you a little crazy in fact, trying to remember precisely what smell it is that it actually reminds you of, but it's a wonderful scent to wrap yourself up in, cozy, warm, comforting and very, very sexy in a quiet, understated kind of way.   Less a fragrance, and more a complete sensory experience, it's the most memorable thing I smelled all year.  The price however will make you cry: it's £175 for 200ml.  Mind, a bottle that size will last you forever.

Fragrance Bottle of the year:

Elizabeth Arden: Untold 
 
Whilst I don't particularly care for the fragrance (it's perfectly good, by the way, just a little too sweet for me), this beautifully tactile design, which looks completely different from every angle, is one of the most gorgeous bottles I've seen in a long time

Combining curves and geometrics with the transparency of glass, and the permanence of metal, it's an objet d'art in its own right.

Fragranced Toiletries of the Year:

Noble Isle

I'm an idiot, I spent a great deal of last year completely ignoring the press releases about Noble Isle as I had the impression that they were some kind of fruity aromatherapy brand.   More fool me, because, whilst the marketing of the products is based on traditional British ingredients, such as rhubarb, and their imagery is based around hedgerows and rolling countryside, there are some seriously good scents in this range.  Rhubarb, Rhubarb for instance, whilst it is distinctively fruity, is sharp, and rounded and gloriously juicy, more like a fine perfume than the fruity stew I was expecting.  Whisky and Water is woody and peaty and smokey, and gorgeous.  Fireside is also smokey, but gloriously spicy and comforting with it.  Since being given a bottle of shower gel to try, I've bought hand soaps and hand creams to keep by every sink in the flat, and I've bought bottles and bottles of different products as gifts for other people too. The packaging is sophisticated and unisex, and the contents are glorious. Don't be an idiot like me, try some Noble Isle, you might like it.  Brad Pitt does ...  

Candle Brand of the Year:

 Neom

 God, I do love a Neom candle.  Clean-burning, and gloriously scented, I burn a Christmas Wish, well, every Christmas ... scented with orange, cinnamon and rounded out with tonka bean, one of these will last you a good few  weeks if you burn it a couple of hours a day. AND it smells of Christmas what more could you want?  This year, I supplemented my Christmas Wish with the Pine, Cedarwood & Eucalyptus varieties, and a Comforting home scent too, which is a smokey-scented blend of cedarwood, star anise and vetiver.  Burned separately, or together, these are the scents of winter.  At £42 each you'll get a couple of Christmases out of each if you burn them judiciously, but they're currently available on the Neom website at  £30.50, which is a bargain!  Go snap them up, and hoard them till next Christmas, you won't be disappointed.  Might have to get a couple of backups myself ...

Hair care product of the year 

 Aveda Sun Care After Sun Masque

A late entry into the hair care stakes, this was a product I gave the harshest of tests to, I took it on my honeymoon!  Sun, sand, sea, chlorine, all are hell on the hair, and, when your hair is both curly and coloured, a holiday is about the worst thing you can do to your hair. Ironically, I came back from my trip to the Maldives with hair in better condition than I went away with!  From the slightly fizzy ginger scent, through to the great slip, and down to the wonderful condition this leaves your hair in, this is a fab product.  So good, in fact, I'm still using it now, in spite of the lack of sun!  And sea.  And sand. And pool.  And endless cocktails.  No, I'm not crying, why do you ask?

So there you have it, these are my discoveries of 2013, what was on your list? 

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Best of 2013

For me, 2013 has been a really good year, the happiest one I've had in a while, luckily there have been some products released this year that have really measured up too ... here's my pick of what I have used most or discovered over the last twelve months:

An unsung hero of mine, This Makeup Forever Aqua Pencil in 19 (light brown) is something I use on a daily basis, particularly for under-eye lining.  A slightly rosy taupe, it's hugely versatile, being as it is actually the colour of shadows on skin, and is perfect for a very natural look without being too "done". You can buy Makeup Forever from PAM Cosmetics.  I picked mine (and the backup) up in Paris, but I can't recommend that for everyone ...

I've featured these three before, but this has been a good skin year, and I mainly have these three products to thank.  The Clarins Gentle Exfoliator is by far my product of the year (and, I might add, that Clarins has definitely been my brand of the year), but the Hydraluron and the Chantecaille - which is a perennial on these lists of mine - run it a very, very close second.

New additions to my favourites of the year are from Cargo, namely the Magic Brush, and Waterproof Blush in Bali:

 I've really embraced pink blusher this year, and I love this soft rose with a hint of blue micro-shimmer.  Applied with the hugely versatile "magic" brush, it really is a facelift in a tin! These came from Debenhams, and look out for a fuller review of both in the new year ... 

Speaking of Debenhams, the new Beauty Hall at the Oxford Street branch is a sight to behold, with a whole bunch of brand-new to the UK brands, of which Tromborg is a definite must-try.  I adore the organic lipstick in Sitara:

 
Look at that beautiful packaging! A soft tomato-red, which a hint of silver microshimmer, Sitara is a perfect everyday red lipstick that looks very natural, here's how it looks on my (rather tanned at present) mush:

The products are available at Debenhams, and are soon to be available on QVC.  You can find out more about Tromborg here, and I'll have more products from the range to show you in the New Year too.  

This Bodhi Luce Revitalising Face Oil is beautiful stuff.  Run, don't walk, and go get yourself some. I'm almost at the end of this tiny bottle, and I'm torn between reinvesting in this, or in the Desert Rose oil instead.  Oh, such a tough decision! 

My lipstick of the year is Lipstick Queen Saint Wine.  I don't have much to say here aside from the fact that I'm now on my third tube, which I think tells you everything.

Hourglass Luminizing Powders have become a BIG obsession this year.  I now have five of them.  Six if you include the back up of Diffused I have around somewhere.  Perfect for a finishing glow without adding pigment, these are amazing.  And so is the brush. 

Every single morning, without fail, I apply lipbalm, and my lipbalm of choice this year has been this one:

 Hurraw Balm in Chai Spice.  It's delicious, and does a perfect job of prepping my lips for even the most drying of lipsticks.I got mine from Content, one of my favourite shops in London.

Speaking of dry, Z Matrix Energy & Moisture Infusion is the perfect remedy for dry, dehydrated or stressed skin.  It even makes a wonderful moisturiser.  It's a rare favourites list of mine that doesn't feature a Zelens product in it somewhere and this one is no exception.  Of all the ultra-luxe skin care brands I try, Zelens is the one that delivers every single time, no matter what the product.  To say I love Zelens would be a mild understatement.  

And finally ... I struggled with including this as it was limited edition product but the Tom Ford Skin Illuminator in Fire Lust has been an astonishingly versatile product, and it's become much-loved as a result.

A peachy pearlescent liquid, it's a great - subtle - highlighter, but where it really comes into its own is as an addition to foundations.  It adds a wonderful "glow" to them, and leaves you with a beautiful dewy finish.  If it comes around again (and, knowing Lauder, it's rather likely), it's a good one to pick up. 

So there you have it, my favourite cosmetics and skincare of 2013, I'll showcase perfume and haircare products very soon ...

 The Fine Print: A mixture of PR samples, purchases and repurchases/  My credit card aches.  ACHES, I tell you.

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Review: K West Hotel & Spa

Mr Lippie and I decided to start our honeymoon early, so the day before our flight to the Maldives we popped along to the K West Hotel and Spa in Shepherd's Bush for an afternoon of last minute shopping, and an evening of pure relaxation.  We're so glad we did!

Around 11 years old, the K West is based in an old BBC office building (as you'll be able to tell when you're wandering down the corridors, in a good way, I promise you!), and the hotel is literally a five minute walk away from Westfield, and the tube/overground rail stations.  It's ideally situated for an afternoon of shopping, and it's easy to get to Central London from here too, making it a great base for either tourist-stays, or in our case, a base for locals to see London a little bit differently.

K West has an amazing wet-spa, and we spent several hours in there, utilising the steam rooms, the bubble beds (in the pool above), the sauna, the "kuddles" (below):

And, our favourite, the snow room, which has real snow!

It's London's only snow room in a spa, and it's a real experience.  I loved running from the sanarium into the snow room, and back again, over and over!  The bubble beds were such fun too, once you got the hang of not floating off them!

All the bedrooms feature king-size beds, and our room had a California Super-King bed, which is, it must be said, the biggest bed I've ever seen!  Big enough for us both to starfish, and still have room for at least two more people in there ... well, in theory ...

A great, comfortable (more important to me than trends these days), well-stocked bar rounds out their offering, they have a great selection of cocktails, and, even though MrLippie and I found ourselves too relaxed to hit the bar after an hour or two in the spa, it definitely looked like a great place to hunker down with a drink and a snack for the evening.  It's a friendly and welcoming place, literally every staff member we met during our stay was smiley, and took the time to wish us good morning or afternoon - NOT service we're used to in Central London!

Breakfasts at the K West are hearty and delicious, there's a selection of pastries to get you started (I still dream of their mini-Pain au Raisin!), then you can have the cooked breakfast of your choice to follow, which features such delights as American-style pancake stacks, smoked salmon with scrambled eggs or the old favourite, the full English.  The sausages are *excellent*, by the way. 

All in all, K West Hotel & Spa gave us the best possible start to our honeymoon, and we're very grateful for the opportunity to go visit and find out more about them.  They're holding a couple of open evenings, one on 12th and one on 19th December, if you want to pop along and find out more for yourself (and grab a drink and a canape or three, whilst you're about it, too!).  I can't recommend the place highly enough, we've both said that if we had the cash, we'd try and stay here a lot more often!  Visiting a hotel on your doorstep might be a little odd, but when it's a great hotel, then it's real treat ...

 
The Fine Print: The Lippies were guests of K West Hotel & Spa. 

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I'm back!

You'll have to bear with me whilst I deal with the post-honeymoon blues, but in the meantime, here are some holiday photos ...

The Maldives is one of the most beautiful places on earth, if you get a chance to go, take it.  This was, without doubt, the best holiday I've ever had.

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So ...

The sharp-eyed amongst you might have noticed that I've been having a bit of an unexpected break from blogging recently.  Truth be told, it's been an extremely long, and busy year.  A (very) happy one in the main, but frankly, I'm completely, totally and utterly exhausted.  I've had no time off for six months bar one day last month, and I'm in the middle of the busiest period of the year at work so blogging has had to take a little backseat for a while. I've been keeping my weekends free for my tiny nervous breakdowns!  Seriously, I'm that knackered, I can't even bring myself to do my usual drunk-tweets during X Factor ...

However, I do still have lots of things to write about, I'm still full of ideas for the blog, I'm just a little short on time and sleep right now, but I will be back!

Next month. 

In the meantime, in a few days time I'll be here:

Finally taking my long-delayed honeymoon!  Hard to believe I've been married the best part of a year already, and I'm only just getting my holiday!  So forgive the radio silence for a week or two, and I'll be back, bigger, brighter and bossier than ever.  Soon. 

Eventually.


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Merry Christmas!

Shurrup, the clocks have gone back, haven't they?  That means Christmas is right around the corner, in my world.

A few weeks ago, I innocently tweeted about my "Christmas cupboard", and it was picked up on by Tesco Mobile.  We had a little twitter conversation, about the holiday season, and, whilst I fairly quickly figured out they were up to something, I couldn't figure out what. Turns out they had a big surprise up their sleeves!  To find out more, click and watch the video below (it's pretty amusing):


 
We're still picking the glitter out of the soft furnishings ... but you can see what else Tesco have up their sleeves by following their #AnytimeUpgrade hashtag on Twitter ...

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Lulu's Time Bomb Complexion Cocktail

I've ignored Lulu's skincare up until now.  I don't really know why, but I just find celebrity tie-ins rather gimmicky, and ordinarily I'd prefer to buy my skincare from certified skincare professionals rather than ex-popstars, but that's me being a snob, I guess.

Complexion cocktail is a lightly viscous pale pink liquid, which is packed full of hydraluronic acid and vitamin B12, it's designed for tired, dehydrated skins (which has been a bit of a theme this week if you've been paying attention) and I think it's a bit more of a treatment than a daily toner.  I think it would be excellent for sorting out hungover skin.  Which I never have, of course. EVER.

I use this after my Clarins Gentle Exfoliating toner, and it soothes cools and refreshes whilst adding a shot of moisture before I follow it with Hydraluron, Aquarysta  and my normal moisturiser.  I really like it.  It's great for adding a shot of moisture when you need it, and if I could change one thing about it (besides the pea-green container, which is rather hideous), I'd put it in a spray bottle to make it easier to refresh your skin with the product during the day.

Lulu's Time Bomb Complexion Cocktail costs £24 for 100ml from the Timebomb website, or you can get kits containing a full size of the product from £35 on QVC.  I might even investigate the range further, myself.

The Fine Print: PR Sample.

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