Tag Archives: Lips

In My Kit: Revlon Super Lustrous Lipsticks

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Revlon you naughty minx you – you just keep on bringing out new and lovely products I have to find room for in my kit.

I’ve only recently had a kit clean out and made space for your Just Bitten lip stains and the Lip Butters (pretty much all of them), and now you have revamped your Super Lustrous lipsticks, and I’ll be needing space for those as well!

These are gorgeous. They are moisturizing, go on like a dream and are nice and pigmented. For those of you who think you need to buy NARS or Chanel or Dior to get a great lipstick, think again. These are right up there with the more expensive ones. I also like the comprehensive shade selection, which runs the gamut from bright fuchsia to amazing reds to early 60’s pinks (that will be coming out to play in an upcoming beauty shoot) and rich wines and berries, perfect for the cooler weather.

The lipsticks come in 48 colours,in Australia and with lovely actress Emma Stone (my new girl crush) as the spokesmodel, I’m totally sold. Although I am cross that they have just bought out ANOTHER range of fab lipsticks called Colorstay Ultimate Suede that I have yet to try but word from the blogosphere is they are ace. At this rate I’m going to need a Segway just to carry my lipsticks!

www.revlon.com

 

Right Now: Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out with Chanel

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Twinsets Chanel

Every year Chanel do incredible events for Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out, around the world. Here’s a lovely video from London a couple of years ago, with two of my favourite people, makeup artist Kay Montano and lovely British supermodel, Daisy Lowe, getting into the spirit of the evening:

 


 

Chanel is also renowned for launching special, liimited edition products for the occasion, and this year in Sydney is no exception. This Thursday, 6th September, will be the launch of Les Twinsets de Chanel, created exclusively by Peter Phillips, Creative Director at Chanel Makeup. Les Twinsets will be available exclusively at The Chanel Makeup Studio, Myer, Sydney City for Vogue’s Fashion’s Night Out.

There are three unique harmonies in the range, matching lips and eyes like a twinset – resolutely feminine.

ROUGE ALLURE VELVET and LE VERNIS:

  • LA PROVOCANTE & PROVOCATION: a unique Autumn plum shade.
  • L’INFIDÈLE & INFIDÈLE: an intense pink with a burst of energy.
  • LA DÉLICATE & DÉLICATESSE: a refined expression of beige to play on the
  • natural side of sophistication.

This is the perfect excuse to indulge in a bit of Chanel lipstick and nail polish action – like you ever need one of those.

Current Trend – Jelly Lips

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Rouge Coco Shine

This is the finish I’m obsessed with for lips at the moment, the Jelly Lip. I’d love to say it’s a name I created but it’s actually a term coined by the world’s most prolific makeup artist, Pat McGrath, who was asked during the last show season to name her top trends. Jelly Lips was one of them, and I have to say I’m hopping on her bandwagon for this.

I think Jelly Lips perfectly reflects a woman’s ideal lip right now – juicy, shiny without being too glossy, making your lips delectable and kissable like little flowers drenched with dew. What your lips look like in your fantasies basically.

Jelly Lips are softly tinted and beautifully hydrated, not at all the scary gloss finish of the early Noughties when a passing breeze would shellac your hair into your (plentifully applied) MAC Lipglassed or Lancome Juicy Tubed lips like a fly in amber, whipping sticky shiny hair strands across your cheeks. (Which was possibly not the sexy effect you were going for).

Jelly Lips is a look that’s created with a new type of lipstick that a few of the cosmetics houses are now doing – it’s basically a cross between lip balm, lip gloss and lipstick. They aren’t too sticky, nor too drying and they use super reflective pigments to give EXACTYLY the amount of sheen you want. It’s the perfect lip for summer as it’s so easy, and its best complement is glowing skin – especially with a lovely (faux) tan. They’re even great for the beach as you can just toss them in your bag and go.

And for real life, let’s be honest – these new lipsticks work a hell of a lot more easily than a lip balm, lipstick and gloss. I don’t know about you but when I’m racing out the door with my son’s homework under one arm and my makeup kit under the other, the last thing I’m worrying about is getting my lips pristine with three different products. These new hybrid lipsticks mean you can throw them in your bag and go – you don’t even need a mirror to touch up.

Some of my favourite Jelly Lips products are:

Dior Addict High-Shine lipstick – quite sheer colour-wise but gives the beautiful finish you would expect from Dior. It has a huge range of shades and has a lip plumping effect as well.

Estee Lauder – Pure Colour Gloss Sticks – these are some of the most pigmented options giving a soft burst of colour with a bit less sheen than others. I love Honey Pink for a slick of gorgeous coral.

Revlon ColourBurst Lip Butters – Part of the new makeup that Revlon has been bringing out, these are gorgeous and don’t in any way feel budget, although they are a lot cheaper than the prestige options. They have hydrating mango, coconut and shea butters to boost lip moisture. They come in a wide range of colours and give long lasting and hydrating wear. My picks are Strawberry Shortcake and Cherry Tart.

Clinique Almost Lipstick – the original and still one of the best. Invented way back in the 90’s Clinique were so far ahead of the curve on these easy, super sheer lip tints. They have now re-launched the range with new shades and it’s one of the most comfortable ones to wear. My favourite is still the iconic Black Honey shade.

Crème de la crème – Chanel Rouge Coco Shine. I think these are perfection. I love the colours, pinky-grey Boy being my personal current lipstick – and the chicness of Chanel? Well with a lipstick like that there’s nothing to stop you touching up in public. In fact, it should be mandatory.

Perfect lips in an instant? Maybe you want to hop on my Jelly Lips bandwagon too.

Bobbi Brown Slopes lipstick

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I absolutely love this lip colour at the moment – it’s the perfect ‘Your Lips But Better’ colour that I’m always obsessed with finding at MM HQ. You would think it would be an easy thing to find, lipstick that is just the shade you want your lips to be, but it’s harder than it would seem. This is a gorgeous wine colour that apparently was inspired by Bobbi Brown’s ski trip to Telluride, and the colour that the skiiers’ lips would be after swishing down a mountain. It’s neither warm nor cool so it suits every complexion I’ve tried it on at work, and it doesn’t go brown or muddy as some wine or natural lip colours do (hello 90’s dead person brown, no thank you).

You can start with a gorgeous stain, or you can also build it up to a more easy take on the vampy lips that always come out for winter. With my makeup, I tend to do either lips or eyes and not generally both (unless it’s a full on editorial makeup, which is a different thing entirely). Thus if I’m doing a strong eye I need a lip colour that balances the face, beautifying and enhancing what’s already there. And you don’t always want to do a beige lip with a smoky eye – although this little beauty is also great for mixing in with beiges you might own that are too pale, and giving them some life. Versatile and gorgeous – kind of perfect, right?

Bobbi Brown UK
Bobbi Brown Australia

In My Makeup Kit: MAC LipMixes

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MAC Lipmix

These are, in a word, awesome. Super pigmented lipsticks in a deep cream formula that you dispense from a small artist tube, and you mix to custom blend your own shades. Amazing, right?

It’s so funny that I don’t blog about MAC more often (note to self, must rectify that). I think it’s because they are such a workhorse brand in my kit that I don’t think about them as much as I should do. Their products are just there, trusty, reliable, ready to be used on every single job. Also I think I overdosed on MAC when I was younger – the MAC counter at Harvey Nichols in London was one of my first destinations back in the 90’s, where I bought my first Spice lipliner – sadly it never looked as good on me as it did on Linda Evangelista –  and various shades of dead person brown lippy that were the shizzle back in those days.

Then MAC was the cornerstone of my kit for along time, and gradually I started to phase in loads of lovely new brands and products – Shu Uemura, Laura Mercier, Bobbi Brown, Illamasqua, NARS, Myface, Dior and Tom Ford and YSL – oh God stop me now! So because MAC was always there, and sponsoring the shows, and just around, I didn’t take so much notice when I used their lovely products in my kit.

But it’s time for me to get my MAC back on, and I thought Lip Mixes are a great place to start. Pretty much every makeup artist I know has these guys in their kit, as they come in – not that many shades, but once you start mixing, there’s no stopping you! Deep burgundy, bright red, pure orange, yellow, black, white, even blue shades mean that you can mix in different colours to create whatever shade you fancy. I love them as they are deep and velvety matte, and if you want to add gloss, well away you go once you’ve painted on your desire shade. Just add a lipbrush and a painter’s beret and voila! Instant Van Gogh (inspirational madness and severed ear not included).

MAC US | MAC UK | MAC Australia

Trend: Days of Wine and Roses

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Wine Lips YSLWine lips aren’t just for winter

For ages I’ve been wanting to write a post about wine coloured lipsticks as they’ve been having a moment in my kit the last few months, but recently I’ve been crushing on other colours too – pinks and raspberries and fuchsias.

So I thought – let’s cover them all off in one big sangria drenched lip festival!

Wine Lips

From deep claret to almost black bordeauxs, and into chocolates and blackberries, I love a deep, opulent rich lip.

Favourite lipsticks for this are:

  • MAC Lipmixes – to mix up your favourite shade
  • Illamasqua Growl and Poison
  • NARS Velvet Matte Pencils in Damned and Cruella
  • NARS Lipstick in Scarlet Empress
  • YSL Rouge Pur Couture in 8
  • Estee Lauder Pure Colour in Plum Couture

Pinks and Sangrias

A deep, bold claret lip is not always appropriate, let’s be real. Sometimes one wants a stain, or more of a juicier version. Lighter-bodied lipsticks include:

  • MyFace Strawberry Fields and Cherry Bomb
  • Chanel Ballet Russes
  • Clinique Black Honey (this has iconic status in Lip Lovers’ World)
  • MAC Plumful

Fuchsia

This is my current hot colour preference for a statement lip – nothing says you got it goin’ on like a hot fuchsia. My current go-tos are:

  • Illamasqua Atomic
  • Tom Ford Perfect Pink
  • NARS Schiap

If you want to go for a glossy version of the above, a clear gloss would suffice (I’m a MAC lipglass in Clear fan myself) or you could punch up a wine lip with the following glosses:

  • MyFace Lip Pop Gloss in Crazy in Love
  • Bobbi Brown Rich Colour Lip Gloss in Pink Raspberry
  • NARS Hot Wired or Easy Lover for pinks
  • NARS Rose Birman for Wine

When wearing a strong lip, you can either dab the lipstick on with your fingers for a casual take on the look, or layer on at least two coats using a good lipbrush (I like the Shu Uemura Lip Brush). If you find you have an unsteady hand, a matching lipliner can be useful for giving a super precise, finished look.

 

In My Makeup Kit: Estee Lauder Pure Colour Lipsticks

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Estee Lauder Pure Color LipsticksEstee Lauder is really a brand that I’ve been avidly watching the last year or so. They have been re-inventing themselves from a luxury heritage company that was getting a bit dated to a brand for a much younger, fresher, cooler consumer, whilst still keeping the history and refinement of the brand’s legacy.

It started with the appointment of Tom Pecheux, their new International Creative Director and master-mind of their last few collections, which have, without exception, been absolutely gorgeous. His latest one Wild Violets, is no exception.

The other addition to the line is the eagerly awaited Pure Colour lipstick, part of their Pure Colour line that has re-formatted single eyeshadows, nailpolish and gloss. These lipsticks are beautiful. Hydrating, comfortable with a lightweight feel yet great pigment pay-off, they are what girls now want to toss in their handbags. It’s exactly the type of lippie you can wear every day. Even in the deeper colours (my favourite is the deep wine-red Plum Couture), it glides on like there’s nothing there, provides amazing colour and best of all, your lips look shiny and supple, and stay that way.

I’ve long been a fan of Estee Lauder lipsticks – Vanilla Truffle hello! So gooooood for a nude lip, and the Crystal lipsticks which are like tasty little bonbons that you just want to eat, and now Pure Colour is here I feel like it’s an Estee Lauder festival at my house.

I’ve just had a big decanting session for my kit (something I do every season to take advantage of all the gorgeous new colours out there), and although cutting up high end lipsticks makes you feel like a murderer, I now have a brand, spanking new selection of mouthwatering new lip shades. Time to get lippy!

www.esteelauder.co.uk

 

In My Makeup Kit: Tom Ford Private Blend Lipstick in True Coral

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Tom Ford Lipstick

Ladies, it’s time to start planning Spring makeup. Enough with the heavy coats and the tights and the legs that are so dry they look like Victoria Beckham’s new alligator purses, enough, ENOUGH!

It’s time to start thinking about the season ahead, the one where you will be warm and you can wear clothes that make you feel like sunshine. To that end, today’s recommendation about what you will be needing, is a new lipstick. Not just any old lipstick though, and I’m sorry to do this to you at the beginning of the year when you’ve probably got your credits cards, quite literally, on ice, in the refrigerator, but I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. This lipstick has me in its thrall, and it ain’t cheap.

Namely True Coral, by Tom Ford. I have blogged about these incredible lipsticks before when they launched, but it’s time to rhapsodise again. This lippie will spoil you for other lipsticks. It is rich, opulent and delicious. Its formulation is just so beautiful that it practically applies itself – one coat and you’re done. It gives you lips like Elizabeth Taylor sipping a mai tai in Acapulco in a caftan – gorgeous and 60’s in the best possible way (are you proud of me? I didn’t mention Mad Men once yet. And I won’t – except to say oh my God are you watching Season 4?? It’s unbelievable).

I love everything about this lipstick – the packaging is original, classic, elegant yet still cool, much like Mr Ford himself. It’s for grown up women, and I can guarantee this lipstick will be going nowhere near a festival this year. As for the colour? It’s a true, perfect Technicolour coral, one of the many colours that will be huge once Spring kicks in with a vengeance. It makes me dream of sunshine and palm trees, cat’s eye glasses and tans, cocktails and swimming pools. Oh and alright then, Don Draper. But don’t hold it against me.

Tom Ford Private Blend lipsticks are available from Harrods and Selfridges in London, and David Jones in Australia.

But this is a lipstick that could change all that. I’m ready to bust out some colour and head to Acapulco way…

In My Makeup Kit: Lanolips

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LanolipsThe new product on everyone’s lips seems to be Lanolips, and there is a good reason why – it’s really ace.

Lanolips is the brainchild of Aussie PR maven Kirsten Carriol who grew up around lanolin, with a father who was a doctor and espoused it as a wonder ointment and had grandparents with a sheep farm, so lanolin was always part of her consciousness. Contemplating a long haul flight back from Paris (and all its hydration issues) a few years ago, she decided to utilise lanolin in an effective and portable way. And now it’s stashed in a zillion handbags.

At first I was a bit wary of it to be honest as I’ve had some not so great experiences with lanolin in the past (Ella Bache and my teenage skin, I’m talking to YOU), but when I did some research into Lanolips I discovered:

  • It’s 100% pure lanolin moisturiser, which has been refined to Ultra Medical Grade status
  • It is one of the only substances hygienic enough to apply to a fresh wound and its medicinal use dates back to 700BC when the ancient Greeks used it as a skin reparative
  • Holds up to 200% of its own moisture
  • Able to imitate the function of human skin lipids
  • Made from lanolin sourced from Australian and New Zealand wool
  • Lanolin is a natural by-product of the wool industry, extracted from the fleece once the sheep are shorn and is no more cruel than drinking milk or using beeswax.

So being a general lip product ho I decided to try it – and it has lead me to cheat on my Lucas’ Paw Paw Ointment (as you might recall from the beginning of my blog, we were married, but being an incorrigible lip product flirt I have been dallying with other products lately, including Homeoplasmine again). And now, with all my reservations about lanolin put to rest it has been Lanolips turn!

Whilst I haven’t tried it MacGyver style on all the other things it’s supposed to work on – sunburn, nappy rash (haven’t had them for awhile), rough cuticles, smoothing wild brows (definitely have those but I’ve been too lazy to try Lanolips on them), like all good lipbalms I’ll be putting it through its paces in the coming months.

Lanolips comes in four colours, plus clear, and I keep Apple in my handbag as it is pretty much the ultimate “your lips but better” colour. A word of warning though – it’s quite pigmented so checking it in a mirror is advised as if you don’t rub it in properly you end up looking like a hot mess with streaks of red glossy balm all over your lips! Once rubbed in though it’s a juicy, natural lip, and great for blondes who do need a little bit of something to stop them looking like an egg.

I also keep it in my kit in Clear for those moments when you just need maximum lip hydration – those emergency lip softening times. If you’re looking for a new lip romance – this just might be it.

Lanolips is available from www.victoriahealth.com and in Boots chemists across the UK from November.

www.lanolips.com

The Return of Lipstick

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There is a bonafide revolution going on in makeup halls not just around the country, but around the world – Lipstick is Back.

Relegated to the status of a makeup also ran since, ooh, about 1999, when gloss usurped its position as women’s choice of lip enhancer, lipstick has quietly been easing its way back into our lives.

For me the tide turned on a shoot with David Bailey over a year ago – Kay Montano had these beautiful, creamy lipsticks from Bobbi Brown that she had been using on Nicole Kidman (aptly named ‘Creamy Lipsticks’), and I fell in love all over again with their delicious texture and the fact that they were moisturizing and had a sheen on them, but no stickiness. Gloss had been feeling a little passé for awhile, but this was the first time I had tossed an actual lipstick in my handbag in years.

My gloss bag at work started to shrink, and my lipstick palettes increase. I was using bolder colors at work – bright oranges, corals, fuchsia, red in all its permutations from deep wine to eye-popping cherries and strawberries.

Then came the launch of Chanel’s Rouge Coco lipstick in March this year with its ethereal image of Vanessa Paradis. Chanel’s Global Makeup artist, Peter Phillips, was so vocal in his championing of the forgotten makeup product, that it heralded something of a return. In the last couple of months it feels like every line is bringing lipstick back, and when the master of the fashion zeitgeist, Tom Ford, decides to launch a line of lippies, you know it’s a done deal.

My new-found love of lipstick has led me to try out quite a few lately, and my top winners at the moment are:

YSL Rouge Volupte – love the colours and they are super-creamy

Bobbi Brown – perfect for your natural lip shade but better

Chanel Rouge Coco – they really are as good as the buzz

Estee Lauder – if you’re re-investigating the classics, why not go to the source?

Illamasqua – For mouth-watering statement lip shades

NARS – from nudes to reds, his colour selection is unparalleled

MAC – like a lipstick candy store for grown ups

Lipstick is not just about applying lip colour – it’s an attitude, a feeling, a gift to yourself. It’s time (if you haven’t done so already), to make like a lady, and get yourself a lipstick.