Amouroud Silk Route Fragrance Review

 I haven't read too much about the release of the latest fragrance from Amouroud; Silk Route, and I'm wondering why that is?  I attended the launch back in December, and I was a little captivated.

Silk Route is, like all Amouroud fragrances, based around Oud, but is not an in your face "oud" fragrance. It surprised me by being positively gourmand, and in my favourite way: creamy, without being too sugary.  It might have been the Christmas connection - Harrods in December might well be one of the most Christmassy places on earth.  (It's also hell, but that's by the by) - but this reminded me of eggnog.  A boozy (rum), creamy mass of spice (nutmeg) with a hint of dark, damp wood beneath, it's not the brand's easiest wear - smelling like a pudding isn't appealing to everyone -  but it's truly lovely regardless.  At least, to my nose it is, it reminds me of two of my favourite fragrances of all-time; Safran  Troublant, which I wore to my wedding, but with softer, less zingy spice, and a slightly more pudding-y aspect in the dry down; and of Amaranthine, with the slightly corrupt milkiness and creamy aspect, but it's a little more mainstream than Amaranthine.

It's a deft and cuddly fragrance, warming and comforting, like a bowl of your favourite hot dessert on a cold winter's night. Or beautiful pain d'epices straight from the oven.  Glorious. But not for everyone.



The Fine Print: PR sample

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Jusbox Perfumes: Use Abuse Review

 Sometimes a packaging concept is just so perfect that it hits all the right notes for a brand.  Italian music-lovers Andrea and Chiara Valdo created Jusbox and launched their initial four-fragrance range last summer, and it's just too beautifully done to go without comment.  From the gorgeous 78ml bottles to the stunningly detailed vinyl record-like lids, to the detailed boxes and packaging materials, every detail seems to just hit the right spot, and it's a joy to behold.

The four fragrances in the initial launch are each inspired by a different era of musical history, from  Micro Love, a cold and metallic incense inspired by the early 90's and the music of U2, to 14 Hour Dream, a spicy melange of ginger, saffron and vanilla which was inspired by the early 70's and a little remembered concert by Pink Floyd, to Beat Cafe, the smell of cigars and brandy inspired by Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation of the sixties.

But it is, of course, the 80's-tastic fragrance Use Abuse, inspired by the magnificent Freddie Mercury that I want to talk about, having grown up in that decade and all. Described by Jusbox as a tribute to all things in excess, and said things unconstrained by limits (whatever any of that actually means), Use Abuse is actually a huge white floral, containing "overdoses" of tuberose and jasmine sambac tempered by a wash of clean sandalwood in the base. Use Abuse - teetering on the edge of bad taste in all manner of ways, from the name, to the description and onwards - could have been a headache-inducing nightmare, in the style of Giorgio Beverly Hills and Poison and the like, but it lacks the throat-catching character of either, and also won't make your eyes water.

Starting with a clean yet fizzy waft of mandarin orange and bubblegum (from the tuberose), Use Abuse is both amusement-inducing, and retro, without being simply a nostalgic exercise.  On the skin it blooms with some rather plastick-y and synthetic white flowers when the jasmine arrives - and let us face it, there was very little natural about the 80s - but remains fizzy and fun throughout the wear, without ever really revealing anything particularly significant down in the depths of the dry-down. It's rather linear, but that first hook grabs you in and doesn't really let go whilst you're wearing.  Like a pop song you know is tacky and cheesy, but gets you onto the dancefloor every time anyway.

Altogether a lot cleaner and very much simpler than the actual fragrances we wore in the 80's, Use Abuse is isn't nearly as subversive, or even as deep as it'd like us to think it is (more Stock/Aitken/Waterman than Mercury et al) but it's none the worse for that. It's a good, fun wear, in what might just be the most perfect container of its type I've ever seen, and you can't really get more 80's than that.

£130 from Selfridges.


The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Beaufort London Fathom V Fragrance Review

 I confess, I'm sat here at my keyboard with literally no idea of what I'm about to write, so if this "review" of Beaufort London Fathom V makes even less sense than usual, you'll know why.

First things first, since losing my sense of smell nearly three years ago, and being still deep in the recovery phase from parosmia (where everything I smell is distorted to a greater or lesser degree), I have to confess that I really miss the smells of nature, the good, the bad and the ugly.  I've cried twice in the last three years on smelling particular fragrances (once on smelling Sel Marin by James Heeley, which is about as photorealistic a treatise on the salty smell of the seashore I've ever encountered, and the other on smelling a saffron fragrance that made me realise my synaesthesia hadn't disappeared entirely), and this, the salty smell of a rockpool suffocating with slowly drying seaweed at dawn also makes me a little emotional in similar ways.

Beaufort London make extremely uncompromising fragrances which are always unexpected, and it must be admitted that this can make them very challenging to wear, but I've worn Fathom V a few times now, and I love it a great deal.  It's the greenest fragrance I've encountered; to the extent that MrLippie has exclaimed "that's VERY green!" when I've just sprayed it in a different room to him (he normally has three categories of smell: "sweet", "orangey", and "strawberry", which, bearing in mind I very rarely wear sweet OR fruity fragrances can make getting his opinion on things rather challenging when he's acting as my "auxiliary nose*"), and he's right.  It's so very green that they might have to invent another category of green entirely just for this single fragrance.

It is green like the aforementioned drying seaweed, but also green like the stems of freshly bashed flowerstalks when you walk past a florist on the high street, and green like the greenest kale smoothie you can imagine, and as a result, it's a bit like everything green in nature has blended itself into some huge (hopefully friendly) green monster and come up to smack you one in the face with a soft yet huge green fist in a, you know, good way.  It's also salty and woody, and, strangely, earthy, like the roots of a plant you've just dug up. Think of crushed sap and mud, on the edge of a wooden-handled metal spade you're using at the seaside and you won't be far wrong.

I grew up in an inland (river and canal) port-town and Beaufort London Fathom V inspires in me a longing for a home that doesn't exist any more, which in fact has never really existed anywhere except the inside of my head, and as a result it makes me long for places and times that would be impossible to get to any more, even if they were real. Can you be homesick for a place you've never been? Fathom V is the concentrated and distilled smell of the British coastline, natural and raw and blunt and untamed, and it's just plain sublime.

It's one of the most amazing smells I've ever encountered, I'm just not entirely sure it's actually a perfume.  In candle, or room scent form, I can imagine this is fantastic, and I'd welcome my house smelling this amazing way.  On my skin though, it makes me tearful for a time and a place that I've only ever imagined.  A frankly astonishing feat, especially when you remember I haven't smelled anything resembling "home" for years.

You can, and should, buy Beaufort London Fathom V here.

*All anosmics have a partner/ who acts as an external sense of smell, normally checking for the less pleasant aspects of life with a corrupted olfactory system.  BO, that random smell in the back of the fridge, burning toast etc

The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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Guerlain Parure Gold Radiance Foundation - Rose Clair

  
There's no getting around it, £55 is very, very expensive for a foundation.  There's such a wealth of wonderful foundations around the £20-30 range these days (and even less, truth be told), that why would you even think about splashing out on something costing double the average?  That was my thinking before I bought a bottle of Guerlain Parure Gold Radiance Foundation, anyway.

However, and quite surprisingly, I haven't regretted a penny of this purchase, and it's unlikely that I'm going to, because this sky-rocketed to the top of the list my favourite foundations right after the first wear, and I've been kind of limiting my use of it since so I don't run out.  Crazy, huh?  Yeah, I know.

Housed in a handsome black glass bottle, Parure Gold has a pump mechanism, and promises full, but glowing, coverage and boy, does it deliver!  A silky-textured liquid, it smoothes easily over skin, and blends beautifully, covering even the reddest of red skins.  I am prone to extremely high-colouring, which is one of the banes of my existence, but Parure Gold copes with it very well, even when I'm in full flush, and keeps it at bay (or at least well-hidden) throughout the day too.

Unblended - (my hands are much paler than my face, bear in mind)

Blended.

Whilst the coverage is full, it's not mask-like, and still leaves your skin looking like skin.  It's layerable without caking, and your skin glows beautifully without looking shiny, glittery or greasy.  It's exceptionally forgiving of lines and wrinkles and seems to skip over pores without gathering in them. It lasts very well, and I've not found that it needs any real touching up over the course of a day, either.  I'm seriously in love with this stuff.  When your foundation needs to deliver, this delivers in spades.

In full, natural daylight (no professional lights/filters here!) and unedited (SOOC).

I did several days filming with BBC2 last year for a documentary (more about that soon), and this is the foundation I'm wearing for all of them.  I'm mostly saving it for high-days and holidays at the moment, but I'm wondering if this is a false economy?   So yes, expensive for sure, but what price confidence?

The Fine Print: Purchases



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Pixi + Caroline Hirons Double Cleanse #PixiPretties Collection

Right. I've started this "review", like, fifteen different ways now, and they were all a complete bag of utter shite.  I'm out of the habit of blogging at the moment, admittedly, and I can't deny it, but there's no way for me to write a "proper" review of this anyway. She'd squash me. The truth is that Caroline is a friend of mine, and Pixi Double Cleanse  is going to sell BAJILLIONS of units regardless of anything I have to say (as it should) because a) it's fupping brilliant and b) Caroline is also fupping brilliant.  So, I'm just going to say whatever I want.  No change there, really, but anyway ...

Caroline has been talking about making a skincare range for the best part of a decade now, and I know that she has turned down any number of offers to work with other brands.  She chose Pixi over them, because they gave her the freedom to put precisely what she wanted into the jars, and she believes in their integrity as a brand.  Personally, I don't get on well with all of their skincare products (but what I do use, I love) having sensitive skin, but they're an excellent, mid-priced range, that cater for a range of skin-types and conditions without overselling themselves.

Double Cleanse is gorgeous.  I'm not a huge fan of overly-scented products, and I react to products that are filled with essential oils, so discovering that both the "solid oil" and cream sides of the container are completely unscented, and not full of essential oils was a delight.  The jar is bifurcated, containing 50mls each of a silky balm that melts instantly on contact with skin, and a rich cream cleanser that feels wonderfully hydrating on skin.  The balm will destroy any makeup it comes into contact with without stripping the skin, and the cream is ...

... well, I'm not usually a huge fan of cream cleansers tbh, preferring to use them only when my skin is irritable, or irritated, and then usually in conjunction with my other "SOS" skincare products (which I haven't needed much recently), but when I have used this one I've found it rich and creamy, and wonderfully soothing, and very much like the much-missed Clarins Extra-Comfort Cleansing Cream (the one in the jar, not the less-good reformulated one in the tube), so I'll give it a pass on this occasion.

I've had my jar for a couple of months now, and it's been the cleanser I've reached for again and again and again in that time, and it's brilliant, but I do have a gripe with the packaging.  Whilst having both cleansers in the one tub is actually a brilliant idea, it's not ideal if you have a marked preference for one kind of cleansing over another.  I'd buy a full-size pot of the balm cleanser in a heartbeat, you don't need much, and it's fabulous, but I'm definitely not using the cream side as much (I'll be honest, I don't always cleanse twice, because I'm a lazy bitch), and the sides of my jar are uneven as a result. I will not finish both sides of the jar at the same time A little bird* did tell me at the official launch last week that this pot may end up being the "travel" size, which would be a perfect use for the current packaging.  I just hope that means that full sizes of both cleansers are on the way.  Fingers crossed!

 Pixi + Caroline Hirons Double Cleanse costs £24 and is available from both Pixi Beauty and Marks & Spencer.

* Actually quite tall, really.

The Fine Print: PR samples and purchases


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No7 Lift and Luminate #BetterTogether Challenge

 This is a sponsored post on behalf of  No7.

It is always good to challenge yourself to do something different once in a while. Towards the end of last year, some exciting (terrifying!) opportunities arose for me, and they have led me to challenge myself to do more exciting - and different - things this year, too.  And, as a skincare junkie, who better to partner with for my first big challenge of 2017 than Boots, and the UK's number 1 serum brand: No7 Lift & Luminate Triple Action?



To prove that things work #BetterTogether,  Boots have  revamped their entire No7 Lift and Luminate skincare range so that every item, including the day cream, the night cream and the eyecream now incorporates all the same great skincare benefits as the Triple Action Serum, and clinical trials suggest that 88% of users reported better results when using the Lift & Luminate serum alongside the day cream. To back up those results, Boots have also challenged 10 UK bloggers  to use only this range for the next month and report back on how they get along. I was one of the lucky ones selected, and I’ve been trialling for a few days already. I’m looking forward to seeing how the next few weeks go!



It’s a big change, using skincare from only one brand, but it's an exciting challenge for me, as it's something very different to my usual routine. No7 is a brand I trust though, and Lift and Luminate is a range I’m excited by.

The nine other bloggers working #BetterTogether in this challenge are:


Hayley Carr             londonbeautyqueen.com
Kate Marten             katelouiseblogs.com
Tracey McAlpine     fightingfifty.co.uk
Jane Cunningham    britishbeautyblogger.com
Alex Garman           heartbeauty.net
Lisa Barrett              glowology.co.uk
Fritha Strickland      tigerlillyquinn.com
Jo Middleton           slummysinglemummy.com
Sareta Fontaine       kikiblahblah.com


Please go check them out, they’re amazing.


The Fine Print: This is a sponsored post, which also features PR samples  

This post: Boots No7 Lift and Luminate #BetterTogether Challenge 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