Guerlain Rouge G 864 Rose Grenat - Limited Edition

We love a Guerlain Rouge G (or 12 ...) at Get Lippie, and the release of a new limited edition colour, especially when it is in what I think is my signature shade of reddish-pink is definitely a cause for celebration!  In fact, this has been practially the only lipstick I've been wearing for the last few weeks.  But it's not just the colour of the lipstick itself that makes me happy, it's the case too.

In a change from the usual entirely silver livery, this new Rouge G in Rose Grenat comes clad in a coating that almost exactly matches the lipstick inside:

It's a happy, cheery, bright and beautiful, deep shade of red-pink.  In the flesh, lighting depending (and further depending on the pigmentation of your own lips, the lipstick can appear fuchsia-ish, or a lovely cherry red.

It has the usual sublime Guerlain Rouge G formula, which is emollient without being greasy, and highly pigmented without dragging, and it's divinely scented with just a hint of violets and rose (look, I said I was a fan, okay?)  I find the Rouge G formula to be my favourite of all the ultra-luxe lipsticks at around this price point, and I adore the retro-space-age packaging, which I find reminds me of the Jetsons, for some reason.

The packaging is heavy, no doubt about it, and if you have more than two Rouge G's in your handbag (as I often do), then you'll know about it for sure, but I find the mirrors super handy, personally, and hey, if you ever need to use your makeup bag as a weapon, then there's no finer lipstick to have nearby ...

Creamy and richly pigmented, Rose Grenat is a lovely shade for spring/summer, and I'm glad to have it around.  It's been on counter for a couple of weeks now, and the limited-edition packaging (which makes it really easy to identify which Rouge G is which, and I wish they'd do more of it, to be honest) means it'll soon be sold out, so you'll need to snap this one up quick-smart.  There's also a version in a snowy white shade, also in a colour-matched case, but I don't do well in anything milky, so won't be picking that one up, personally, but it's very lovely indeed.

Guerlain Rouge G's are available at all good department stores, and cost £31.50

The Fine Print: PR Sample. Pictures for this post were taken with a Nokia Lumia 1020 lent to me by Microsoft. Brilliant gadget, by the way!

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Korres, Apivita and the Ancient Greeks

A selection of Ancient Greek makeup pots and mirrors.

By Tindara

A little while ago I spent a long weekend in Athens. It’s an amazing city, the Acropolis and museums are incredible and the food is gorgeous, and it’s totally doable in a weekend from the UK. If you get the chance do go, though if you’re a Brit you may be embarrassed by the Parthenon Marble gaps in the Acropolis Museum. Yeah guys, we should give them back. Honestly, it’s just completely shaming.

Obviously, there was something else I wanted to check out, Greek beauty products. Like most beauty geeks, I get a real thrill exploring a foreign pharmacy or three, and this weekend was no different. The little pots and colours and brands I know and others I’m not so familiar with are part of the whole holiday experience.

I had tried Korres products at home and was keen to see more of the range that would be available in Greece. When I went into the nearest pharmacy I picked up a Raspberry Twist Lipstick in Passion and a Zea Mays Blush in Pink.

The Raspberry Twist Lipstick is a Chubby Stick type affair that is twist up, so no requirement for a sharpener. I am loving the preponderance of these twist-up pencils of late, they’re super practical. The lipstick itself is very hydrating due to the raspberry oil included in the formulation. I am wearing this berry red a fair amount at the moment and never need any lip balm beforehand or after, as it’s so moisturising. The finish is pretty glossy so I wouldn’t say it’s the most long-lasting lipstick in the world, but it does leave a natural berry stain on your lips for most of the day. This would be a great lipstick for those that are a bit wary of stronger reds; it can be blotted down to a soft stain from the start, or layered for a more full-on lip later on if you’re going out.

The Zea Mays Blush in Pink was really good too, I chose this quite natural pinky brown shade because most of my powder blushers are pops of colour on my cheeks and I needed a subtle one for wearing underneath or on more neutral days. I could use this as a contour shade or bronzer at a push; it’s not a very deep pink at all. Not that I go in for bronzer or contouring much. I could probably do with a contouring masterclass in fact, but let’s not discuss my ruddy cheeks or double chin any further, there will be plenty of time for that in future posts, I am sure. I am doing facial exercises as we speak.

Apivita, like Korres are a Greek brand that are all about the natural ingredients and are paraben and silicone free. I tried their Euphoria Jasmine and White Tea Bath and Shower Gel and corresponding Body Milk. I chose these primarily for the scent, but these are good products irrespective of their glorious aroma. And it’s a beautiful scent, but I love jasmine anyway. There’s a touch of freshness to it too, which I’m finding really useful for this mini ‘heatwave’ we’re having in London. The Bath and Shower Gel foams well and the Body Milk moisturises nicely without being too sticky. It’s a light body milk, so not for the driest of skins but still enough to give a slight sheen. But oh, shall I say it again, the scent of this, it stays on for hours and wafts about you like a cloud of fresh white petals with a tannin and citrus hit. I love it and want to know if there’s a perfume similar so I can layer it all on together. Recommendations, please, for Jasmine scents, people!

I also spent a lot of time in the Archaeological Museum in Athens. I am a total museum nerd, having spent what felt like months at a time in the Cast Courts at the V&A sketching as a teenager, and a short time of my working life in a couple of London museums and galleries. So I never pass up the chance to go to an unfamiliar one when visiting new places. Where is she going with this you ask yourself? Well, there was a section of the museum that displayed objects associated with the average ancient Greeks’ toilette and I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some of them. Especially the beautiful hand mirrors that they used. There are what look like large compact mirrors, as well as hand held mirrors with intricate decorative work on the back and handle. Mirrors from 6BC with the short thin handles were usually sheathed in wood at the bottom like some of our hand mirrors and brushes today. The upright mirrors that were supported by female figures were also from the same period, but the folding portable mirrors were from the later 5 and 4BC. These mirrors had one or two decorative covers, usually of deities or mythological scenes. Sometimes, there was even a hook edge to hang up the mirror when it wasn’t in use. Practical, eh? There were also small pots used to contain cosmetics and ‘strigils’ which were scrapers used to remove cosmetic oils and ointments. I’m really hoping they didn’t remove their make-up with them though, it sounds harsh. What you want is a nice micellar water or hot cloth, ancient Greek Lady.

Limited Korres and Apivita products are available in the UK. Korres Zea May Blush is £17.50. The Raspberry Twist Lipstick is a new product and should be over here soon, look out for it. Apivita Euphoria Jasmine and White Tea Bath and Shower Gel is £12, while the Apivita Euphoria Jasmine and White Tea Body Milk is £13.

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Giving Good Face: Illamasqua Blush-Up Brush

By Laurin

Let me get something out of the way: I had a not-insignificant identity crisis while preparing this piece. Throughout the months I’ve been contributing to this blog, I’ve mostly been able to use single-feature pictures (lips, lashes, arms, etc.) or better yet, pictures of David Bowie in one of his many incarnations. I’ve not yet written many pieces that require a full shot of my face. But this week, I wanted to write about the Illamasqua Blush Up Brush, and it seemed like cheating to just show the brush, or my cheek with blush applied. After all, the point of blusher is to either add colour to the face, or enhance its structure. I decided to show my full face.

From a young age, I was always told I was pretty, and it stuck. I’m generally okay with what I see in the mirror when I’ve made a bit of effort, but believe me when I tell you that what I’m seeing on the screen of my iPad is NOT what I’m seeing in the mirror. I can’t explain it. My greatest hope is that technology is indeed evolving at light speeds faster than the human eye, and my camera is simply picking up lumps and bumps that my naked eye cannot. In which case, I shall simply hire a sympathetic portrait painter for all my future selfies, tip well and think no more of it. But my worst fear is that the ageing process has accelerated since reaching my mid-thirties, leaving me with sagging cheeks and major dehydration lines under my eyes. Deciding how best to deal with this is a decidedly trickier process, so while I crack on with googling “jowl sorcery”, get a load of this:

The Blush Up Brush is from Illamasqua, my new favourite make-up brand. I spotted this in Nicci Jackson’s personal brush roll when I was at Muse last week. My faith in the transformative power of good make-up tools is childlike, and judging by the way my entire class dutifully scribbled the names of the brushes used during morning demonstrations, I am not the only one. 

The brush came out last year as part of the I’mperfection Collection, but as far as I can tell, it was somewhat overshadowed by the buzz around the duck egg speckled nail varnishes released at the same time. It’s understandable, but also a damned shame because properly applied blusher will do far more for your overall look than spangly nails ever will (although you should obviously have both).

The idea behind the Blush Up Brush is that the short, densely-packed elliptical bristles place the blusher directly under the cheekbone, which you then brush upwards in short, sharp strokes to diffuse the colour onto the cheeks. This has the effect of contouring at the same time, as the colour you’ve placed directly beneath the bone will naturally be darker than the wash of colour above.

Above is a picture of me, minus blusher. To use the brush, load up the brush with your chosen colour and gently tap away the excess. Next, suck in your cheeks and place the brush directly in the hollow beneath the bone. Flick upwards and repeat, working from the centre of your face, all the way to the ear. Soften the strokes wherever you want a gentler diffusion of colour. There is an excellent video on the Illamasqua website that demonstrates the technique.

http://www.illamasqua.com/explore/tutorials/blush-up-brush/

Above, I’ve used the brush with NARS Orgasm blusher and a touch of NARS Copacabana Highlighter at the top of my cheekbones. The brush produces a very defined look, and as such, I think it works better with a stronger colour. I’ve tried it out with NARS Deep Throat (a soft peach) as well, and found it much harder to see the colour wash on my cheek, making it look like I’d tried to apply bronzer with a bad case of the DTs. The other thing I noticed is that because I am right-handed, I found it more difficult to get the left-hand side of my face to look right. I eventually realised that for some reason, I wasn’t placing the brush high enough on my face. I found it helped to do my dominant side first, then try to match it on the other side.

 The Blush Up Brush is an excellent investment if you’re just getting into contouring, as it not only allows you to try it with a single product, but it also helps you to learn the bone structure of your own face and proper placement of shade and colour for when you do want to go advanced.

Get your hands on one and have a play. The possibilities are endless. In the meantime, I’ll be starting a formal campaign to bring hats with veils back into fashion, as per my new role model, Anna Karenina. What could go wrong?

The Illamasqua Blush-Up Brush is £28.50 at www.debenhams.com

The Fine Print: Bought it myself, innit.

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All Bound for Muumuu Land - Body image, bare face and red lipstick.

 By Tindara

I’ve gone out of the house with no make-up on most of this week. This is not by design, simply down to the fact that I’ve been busy and pushed for time. Also, I have taken to carrying a small and beautiful orange satchel which doesn’t allow for carrying much make-up with me. It got me thinking again about that naked face for charity nonsense a while back where people were talking about women as ‘brave’ for showing what they looked like with a bare face. It was all a bit silly really, wasn’t it? I often go out bare faced. The first couple of hours I feel a bit unfinished, but then I get used to it. I see my pink cheeks and small bright eyes and it’s all fine. I recognise that face, the old faithful. Why would it be brave? 

It makes wearing make-up fun again rather than a chore that’s part of your morning rush hour, a few bare faced days and putting on a full face again is thrilling. I love my pots and brushes and sticks of colour, I see them as an extension of my creativity and a means of self-expression. For me it’s a statement of intent; confidence, passion, a commitment to myself, who I am, not just what I look like. I realise that sounds overblown, you’re probably thinking “Get over yourself love, it‘s only lipstick.” But in a world where people are constantly telling my fat self to pipe down and get in the shadows I feel it’s an important statement. I could just wear a muumuu all the time and sit in the house, I suppose, but I’m not ready for my muumuu yet.

Recently, I attended one of the Selfridges Beauty Project events where a panel were discussing body image; they spoke about beauty being democratic in a world where fashion leaves a whole lot of people out. This is definitely my experience. But also, people see the world of make-up as a masking of imperfection rather than an exuberant female rite of passage. Yes, we all wear foundation and concealer, and strive to deal with the problem areas that irritate us. I will be reporting back on my experience of non-invasive procedures on my double chin shortly, so I know how it feels. 

It’s the other stuff that gets me going, though, the purple and pink waxy matt sticks, palettes of rainbow powders, the slick of red or fuchsia satin lips, an inky black calligrapher style pen for eyelids. People say these are brave too. As though the only acceptable box for women is that marked beige and perfect. No more, no less. Don’t stand out or get too big or too small. Don’t be bare-faced or scruffy, don’t have tattoos, piercings, or be different in any way. Maybe it’s best if we remember we’re all in this together whatever our bodies or faces are like, whatever lipstick we choose to wear, whether we favour bikinis or muumuus. Actually, I’ve just looked some up on google images; I think one could work with a belt and some gladiator sandals. What do you think?

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New Basenotes Article!

So ... some of you might remember that last year I spent a week marinating myself in the finest fragrances the Poundshop had to offer for Basenotes, well, it took over a year (a year in which it got nominated for a Jasmine Award though!) to finally come up with the follow-up, but I'm happy to announce that my special week-long Celebrity Fragrance Challenge has finally been published!  There's a little hint as to who has been included in the final line-up above - you can click on the picture to get to the article.

Hopefully it'll make you laugh, I know it's already made a couple of people go out and buy their own bottle of celebrity "juice", so will you, too?  A couple of them surprised me, and one of them astonished me, and you'll be surprised which one that was too, I promise you.  That reminds me, I need a biscuit ...

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A Life With a View Scented Candles

By Get Lippie

:sigh: Very few people love candles as much as me.  I rented my last abode purely because it had little cubbies I could display my candle collection on, and the love of the "candle wall" has remained with me ever since.  I love candles.  But, they have to be scented well, and they must burn cleanly.  There are a couple of cult candle brands that I avoid like the plague because they're petro-chemical based, and so produce soot like a soot-producing factory faced with a hugely increased demand for soot.  I'm not a fan of a sooty candle, you might have noticed.

A Life With a View candles deliver on the clean burn, and they are, I have to say, some of the best scented candles it has ever been my pleasure to come across.  They're strongly scented both in the glass, and during a burn, and even a tiny travel candle can scent my entire flat for a whole evening, which, bearing in mind my stupidly high ceilings is a rather amazing feat.  I have a travel set of The Gite candles, which provides a "View of Provence", they're scented with lavender, blackcurrant and spearmint, with a base of rosemary and woods,  and they are delicious.  I'm well known to be a bit of a sucker for mint-based scents anyway, but adding the lavender, with its already flinty, herbacious, minty facets works astonishingly well for a candle, even now in the slightly warmer months of the year.  The scent is both bracing and soothing, like sitting in a warm Mediterranean garden, and they're amongst my favourite candles ever as a result.

But there is one drawback, and it's something I hadn't really considered until I put this candle amongst the others in my collection.  The design.  They look cheap.  Really, really cheap, and somewhat nasty.  Look at that picture at the opening of this post, does that look like £40's worth of candle to you?  It doesn't to me.

Now, whilst packaging isn't everything, if you're paying £40 for a candle, or £50 for a set of travel candles, you kind of expect the product - especially a product that's left out on display like candles are - to also function as an object.  The reason why, say, Diptyque candles are so popular is because of the simple, striking, and lovely labels, almost as much as it is the scents inside of the candle.  

If only the outside were as beautiful as the inside (or I'd even settle for just plain not looking like it came straight out of the remaindered section of the poundshop, to be honest), then Life With a View candles might just be the best candles on the market.   You can find them here.

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London Muse Make-Up School

By Laurin
 

So, who likes make-up? Everyone? Excellent, good to know. I’ve always liked make-up, ever since my mother begrudgingly allowed me to start wearing eyeshadow when I was 12 years old because MELINDA’S MOM LETS HER WEAR PINK EYESHADOW AND I’M NOT A BABY ANYMORE *exits stage left slamming door, sobs are heard from offstage for next three hours*.

Like many women my age, I’ve been adorning my face on a near-daily basis for over twenty years. I read about make-up in magazines, talk to other women about it on the Internet and even blog about it. I like make-up pretty well. Or so I thought. Last Monday, for a variety of personal reasons and no reasons whatsoever, I took myself off to the foundation course at London MUSE Make-Up School near Leicester Square.

My main considerations when searching for a course earlier this year were as follows:

1. Will I have time to do this? I work six days a week, so getting time off to do a month-long course or an entire term was not an option.
2. Can I afford it? I had been advised that I should expect to pay at least £1,000 for a week of training.
3. Is it a good school? This should have been my first consideration, but honestly, if I didn’t have the time and couldn’t afford it, it wasn’t happening.

The main courses at London Muse are run as week-long courses, although you can do the Foundation and Advanced certificates in make-up in two weeks back-to-back. I decided to do the Foundation course on its own because I knew I could get a week’s holiday and because I could afford it. The six day foundation course costs £1,200, although there is a 10% discount if you pay the full course fee up front, or you can pay in instalments. Finally (should have been “firstly”), several of the posters on the Sali Hughes Beauty Forum recommended the school, but our very own Luke sealed the deal when he told me that as a working make-up artist, he’s always impressed by the quality of work he sees from graduates of London Muse, even the ones who have only been on short courses. I paid my money, I took my choice.

Before arriving, I knew very little about Nicci Jackson, aside from the fact that she was a make-up artist herself, and she runs the school. I think I assumed that training sessions would be run by course tutors, and we might see Nicci once or twice. I was very wrong about this. Aside from our very last day, Nicci taught every syllabus herself and spent the afternoon sessions monitoring and mentoring our practical sessions with the help of her lovely and kind assistant Josie.

There were six of us on the course initially, five women and two men. We were a more diverse bunch than I expected, from a young South London hairdresser to a youth worker and mother-of-three from West London. We were joined on the Thursday by a woman who’d flown over from Egypt to attend the school. Only one of us had any previous make-up training, and we all had different ideas about how we’d use our knowledge when we’d finished. I thought perhaps I was a bit old to be on the course at thirty-five, but not only was one of my fellow students the same age, but Nicci assured me that she’d had plenty of more mature students on her courses in the past.

My third attempt at smoky eyes. I got told off for my “dolly cheeks”, which I slapped on at the last minute before time ran out. It is better to have no blusher than a sloppy application

Each day had the same structure: in the morning, Nicci took us through theory of a particular topic, demonstrating on Josie or one of us, and after lunch we were let loose to practice on each other, with Nicci and Josie watching and correcting. The six day syllabus touches on everything from facial geometry and contouring to kit hygiene and safe working practices to eyeliner effects, but the topics we spent the most time practising were base application and colour correction and smoky eye effects. As it turned out, everything I’d ever learned about “cool” and “warm” skin tones was completely incorrect, and it took me a couple of days to wrap my head around the correct colour terminologies and how to apply it to various skin tones. We also spent two days working on smoky eyes because as it turned out, not one of us could get it right on the first try.

Above: Nicci’s lip correction demonstration on me.

I’m not telling you much you couldn’t get from reading the syllabus on the website, so if you’re still unsure, here are a few things they don’t tell you:

1. Nicci Jackson does not bullshit or mollycoddle her students. When you get it wrong, she tells you, immediately. And then she very patiently shows you your mistake and makes you do it again. She absolutely gives praise where it is due, but if you want someone to stroke your ego and coo over the bizarre red and orange colour scheme you chose to deliver for your smoky eye brief because you liked the idea of an “urban acid sunset”, go elsewhere. This is a place to abandon everything you thought you knew and start from the ground up. It’s frustrating at times, but it’s also exhilarating.
2. On that note, whatever you’ve seen on YouTube is not a substitute for proper instruction from a working professional if you want to call yourself a make-up artist. The best way to learn is from true professionals who practice their craft every day.
3. The course does not finish after six days unless you want it to. Students are always welcome to come back and re-sit any day if they feel they need more instruction or practice. Free of charge. On the day that we all failed to deliver smoky eyes, we were invited to stay on for the evening foundation course and try again. We all did, and we nailed it the next day. Several of the students on my course are planning to go back this Wednesday evening for additional instruction. Free of charge.
4. The course runs from 10:30 to 5:30 each day, which doesn’t sound like too much of a stretch if you work regular hours, but you will be exhausted at the end of each day. If you can, don’t plan to go out in the evening while you’re on the course. Go home, have something to eat and go to bed. You will need all your energy and mental reserves for class. By the time I got home on Wednesday night, I was so tired that I forgot how to operate a perfume bottle.
5. The studio is on the fourth floor of a building with no lift, so you will have nice thighs by the end of the week.
6. If you thought make-up was a doddle, or had any doubts that it is a serious art and a highly technical craft, you will think differently by the end of the course. I have more respect for true make-up artists now than ever.
7. Get used to working under pressure. Your practical sessions will be timed from Day 1. I found this frustrating and stressful at times, but this is how real artists have to work in a professional environment.
8. If you don’t know, ASK. Help is always available during practical sessions, and I learned the best lessons by being told what I was doing was completely wrong and being shown the correct way.
9. You will want to own ALL the Illamasqua and MAC by Day 3.
10. You will want to go back. Three of the students from my group had already signed up for the next course when they started, and the rest of us spent the last few days discussing when and how we could get onto the advanced course ourselves.

Above: My final application on my lovely fellow student Krisztina

All in all, it was a brilliant, exhausting, maddening and completely exhilarating week and I’ve never been more in love with make-up artistry than I am at this moment. Do it. You won’t regret it.

The fine print: Laurin Attended Muse at her own expense - this is not a sponsored post.

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