Crimson Lips and Neutral Eyes

I have been taking my makeup inspiration from some unusual places lately. I'm forever on a quest to find something to watch on Netflix to justify the subscription (easier said than done) and my recent guilty pleasure has been re-watching my Agatha Christie favourites. For me, Miss Marple wins in the battle of the Christie sleuths but the maquillage in Poirot makes up for the lack of suspense.

This particular eye look was inspired by Henrietta Savernake's makeup in The Hollow, played by Megan Dodds. You can see a good still of her eye makeup here. The character wore a lovely pale pearlised eyeshadow on the brow bone with a little on the lid too. It was subtle but very pretty and immediately made me think of the Guerlain Rue de Rivoli palette. I used the iridescent cream/pink on the centre of the lid and the brow bone and a mix of greys and fawn colours in the crease. I lined (very wonkily) using the Hourglass Script liner. In retrospect, I wish I had opted for a gel liner for a more matte finish.

I chose to go for a more statement lip than Henrietta wore, primarily because I had a new lipstick to play with but also because the colour and finish felt quite 'Poirot' appropriate. I bought this lipstick in a recent Avon order and it's in the shade Matte Crimson. As soon as I swatched it, I worried that I'd picked out a MAC Rebel dupe. I've swatched them side by side and was relieved to see that they're not identical but probably a little close considering how often I opt for such a deep, opaque colour. I'm pleased to report the formula isn't a lip-husking disaster either.

Avon Matte Crimson on the left, MAC Rebel on the right

Do you ever take inspiration from looks you've seen on TV or films? Or do you have a favourite era makeup wise?

My Sheer Lipstick Collection including ILIA Beauty Dizzy and W3LL People Lip Shine #3

I was struggling with inspiration for a post this morning, so we have Miss MB and Musing on Beauty to thank for this blog post. Miss MB was wondering around with one of my new lipsticks, which is always dangerous, but seeing the lipstick made me realise that I have a fairly large collection of sheer finish lipsticks which continues to grow.

Nudist Lip Shine #3

The lipstick she was clutching was the W3LL People Nudist lip shine in #3 above, a gorgeous glossy sheer red with a lovely balmy texture. It's one of the items I purchased whilst I was at Content Beauty last week to meet Sasha Plavsic, founder of ILIA Beauty. I will return to this visit in another post as Sasha was incredibly inspiring and I have lots to report back. Meeting Sasha and also browsing all the lovely natural brands in Content has had me reflecting on whether I want to make a more permanent switch to cleaner brands in future. Anyway, I digress..

Sasha inspired another new lipstick purchase whilst I was there, her Lip Conditioner in Dizzy. This orange sheer is a favourite with her Mother, who loves it for layering. Depending on the natural colour of your lips, Dizzy can produce a more coral shade. I purchased it for layering with brighter colours and so far have had success pairing it with Lancome Rose Boudoir.

Dizzy

I have always been a fan of sheer lipsticks, as they're so easy to wear but I seem to have made a major return to them recently. All of the ones I have here are really balmy and comfortable to wear and are excellent if you suffer from dry lips. The ILIA lipstick in Crimson & Clover isn't strictly speaking a sheer but I wanted to include it alongside the other ILIA lip colours. It's more pigmented than the lip conditioners but I don't find it completely opaque either. I have reviewed the majority of these lipsticks before and will add links where available.

From left to right: ILIA Blossom Lady*, Arabian Knights, Dizzy, RBR Murmurings, Crimson & Clover, W3LL People Nudist #3 & #2*, Chantecaille Lip Chic in Zinnia, No.7 Poppy King lipstick in Glamour and Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Bonheur.

Swatches L-R: Chanel Bonheur, Ilia Blossom Lady, Arabian Knights, Dizzy, RBR Murmurings, Crimson & Clover, W3LL People Nudist #3 & #2, Chantecaille Lip Chic in Zinnia and No.7 Poppy King lipstick in Glamour.

L-R: Chanel Bonheur, Ilia Blossom Lady, Arabian Knights, Dizzy, RBR Murmurings, Crimson & Clover, W3LL People Nudist #3 & #2.

L-R: Ilia Dizzy, RBR Murmurings, Crimson & Clover, W3LL People Nudist #3 & #2, Chantecaille Lip Chic in Zinnia and No.7 Poppy King lipstick in Glamour.

Do you like to wear sheer lipsticks or do you prefer to wear a gloss to create a lip shine? I'd also love to hear your opinion of more 'clean', botanical based lines too.

* The lipsticks labelled with an asterisk were received as PR samples, albeit rather a long time ago.

Chubby Love!

I seem to be living in the perpetual house of plague at the moment. Instead of one child with a temperature, I now have two and I appear to have had a second dose of it myself. I'm not in the mood for wearing makeup particularly and I've swapped cosmetics browsing for fantasy homeware shopping (if you're unlucky I'll share some of my curtain lusts with you!).

I think it's hard to feel motivated to put makeup on when you've hardly had any sleep and feel rough but if forced, which I was yesterday, I tend to choose products that are easy to apply and make a difference with minimal effort on my part. That's when chunky pencils like Clinique Chubby Sticks and Sephora Jumbo liners are particularly handy.

The three Chubby Sticks I have here are from the original line up: Whole Lotta Honey is a sheer honeyed brown, Woppin' Watermelon is a cool pink and Super Strawberry is a sheer rosy/berry shade. I have already shown my favourite of the three applied, Super Strawberry, in a recent face of the day post. Lola wondered whether this colour might be similar to Ilia Arabian Knights so I have included comparison swatches. Both are balmy and comfortable to wear but I think Arabian Knights is a little more pigmented that Super Strawberry.

L-R: Woppin' Watermelon, Super Strawberry and Whole Lotta Honey.

L-R: Ilia Arabian Knights, Woppin' Watermelon, Super Strawberry and Whole Lotta Honey.

Super Strawberry

I've only worn the colours individually so far, although you can experiment with layering to create different shades. I ought to do this with Woppin' Watermelon as I find this colour a little tricky to wear. I imagine it would be nice mixed with either Whole Lotta Honey or Heaping Hazelnut. I had quite a lot of fun experimenting with colours using the virtual mix & match application on the Clinique website.

I think the Chubby Sticks are really easy to wear and a good option for those that aren't comfortable with lipstick but want an alternative to gloss. In fact, a friend of mine has relieved me of Whole Lotta Honey for exactly that reason. It's good to share the Chubby Love!

Chubby Sticks cost £16 each and are available from Clinique counters, as well as online from clinique.co.uk. If you're feeling in the mood to shop today, you can get free delivery with the offer code PAYDAY.

Disclosure: PR Samples. 

Lancôme Rouge in Love Lipsticks

The Lancôme Rouge in Love collection was released nationwide at the beginning of April. There a total of 24 lipsticks in the collection which are sub-divided into three categories: Jolis Matins, Tonight is my Night and Boudoir Time. The five shades I have here are all from the 'Boudoir Time' range. Oh la la!!

L-R: Violette Coquette, Rose Boudoir, Rose Thé, Miss Coquelicot and Rouge in Love

L-R: Violette Coquette, Rose Boudoir, Rose Thé, Miss Coquelicot and Rouge in Love

The Rouge in Love lipsticks have a really interesting texture. They have a gel like texture but also feel very creamy and comfortable to wear. Some of the colours are quite sheer, whilst others are more opaque. Of the ones I tried, Rose Boudoir and Rose Thé are the most opaque, which you can hopefully see in the swatches above. With the exception of Rose Thé, the colours are all extremely vibrant and leave a stain once the glossy colour has faded.

MISS COQUELICOT

Miss Coquelicot (146B) is a vibrant sheer orange. This colour is really fun and very summery. I can just about pull it off wearing a similarly toned blusher (like Illamasqua Rude), mascara and little else but I think it would be best suited to darker skin tones.

ROUGE IN LOVE

Rouge in Love (159B) is sheer glossy red which leans fuschia on my lips. I like this colour very much. The nice texture makes it easy to wear and it leaves an even stain as it fades.

ROSE BOUDOIR

Rose Boudoir (340B) is one of the more opaque finishes from the collection and the coverage looks similar to a YSL Rouge Volupte on my lips. It has a different feel though and doesn't dry my lips like the Rouge Volupte lipsticks. I see it as a salmon pink and this sort of colour is significantly outside of my comfort zone. On the right colouring, I'm sure it looks fabulous but this morphs me into elderly maiden Aunt!

ROSE THÉ

Now Rose Thé (200B) has been a surprise favourite for me. I don't think the lip swatch really does it justice. I'm not a big nude lipstick fan but this is dark enough not to wash me out. I like to wear this with a smoky green eye look. I wear it interchangeably with my other nude du jour, Clinique Chubby Stick in Heaping Hazelnut which I will write about shortly.

VIOLETTE COQUETTE

Violette Coquette (381B) caught my eye when I first wrote about the collection. I'm a sucker for purple lipstick but they can sometimes be a bit tricky to wear. It looks quite dark and intimidating in the tube but it's not as dark when applied. The sheer finish makes it quite wearable and you can adjust the intensity according your personal level of daring. If you like MAC's Up The Amp, I think you would enjoy this colour.

The Rouge in Love collection is available from Lancôme counters, as well as the Lancôme website. The lipsticks cost £21 each.


Disclosure: PR Sample

Ilia Arabian Knights compared to RBR Murmurings

About a month ago I showed you Ilia Arabian Knights applied. I have worn this lipstick a lot since I purchased it. Ilia lipsticks have a nourishing balm texture which makes them very comfortable to wear. I'm also a fan of these sorts of sheer berry shades for easy wear so this was really the perfect choice for me. If you're a fan of the Clinique Almost Lipsticks you'll enjoy the sheer Ilia.

Swatch of Arabian Knights

Whilst on holiday, I wore Rouge Bunny Rouge Murmurings and Ilia Arabian Knights a lot. Murmurings is one of the Rouge Bunny Rouge's Succulence of Dew lipsticks, so like Arabian Knights, this has a sheer finish. By eye these quite similar colours but I didn't get round to swatching them side by side until I returned home (my apologies for failing to get the swatches in the same order in both lighting conditions).

Top - Murmurings, Bottom - Arabian Knights (direct sunlight)

Top - Arabian Knights, Bottom - Murmurings (overcast lighting)

I was relieved to see that the lipsticks are similar but not identical. Murmurings is more brown toned and plummy whereas Arabian Knights is a brighter, cooler berry. The colours look more similar on my lips than in the swatches because of the sheer quality but Arabian Knights still looks the brighter of the two. 

I cannot choose between these lipsticks, both are lovely in terms of colour and texture. It can be difficult to find really comfortable lipsticks and I would happily recommend either of these formulas. RBR Murmurings costs £21 is available from Zuneta. Ilia Arabian Knights costs £20 and is available from Content Beauty and Mise Beauty.

The hunt for a dupe: Guerlain Beige Nude Lipstick

A reader got in touch recently to ask about a dupe for one of my favourite lipsticks: Guerlain Kiss Kiss lipstick in Beige Nude #550. She was unable to find this particular shade but keen to know if I considered something else to be a good alternative. I was actually quite dismayed when I realised the reason she wasn't able to find it was because it seems to have been discontinued. As you can see, I don't have much left myself so the hunt for a dupe seems even more pressing......

.....well, until I pulled out half a dozen very similar looking colours from my stash. Ooops! Oh well, I've said before how much I'm drawn to such shades. This is probably a good moment to point out that this isn't a nude in this way that most people consider nudes. This applies as a beige-y rose on my lips: a touch more brown toned than a 'My Lips But Better' kind of shade.

The lipsticks pictured below are Rouge Bunny Rouge Irreverence and YSL Rouge Volupte in Spicy Pink #20 on the top row and Revlon Colorburst in Blush, Armani Shine lipstick in #5, Guerlain Kiss Kiss in Beige Nude, YSL Rouge Volupte in Ultimate Beige #3 and MAC Cosmo from left to right on the bottom row.

I realise it's a little tricky to make the comparison from the product photographs as so much of the lipstick bullet has gone but hopefully the swatches are more illuminating.

Swatches left to right: Revlon Blush, Armani #5, Guerlain Beige Nude, YSL Rouge Volupte #3, MAC Cosmo, YSL Spicy Pink, RBR Irreverence

with flash

Although most normal people would not require so many rosy nude shades, I have to say that none of these colours are an exact dupe for Guerlain Beige Nude. YSL Ultimate Beige is about the same depth of colour but more beige toned, Revlon Blush is very sheer in comparison and both YSL Spicy Pink and MAC Cosmo are darker than Beige Nude. From the swatches, I would say that Rouge Bunny Rouge Irreverence and Beige Nude look most similar but on my lips Irreverence looks more pink toned. On my lips, the closest in appearance is the Armani Shine lipstick in #5 and of all the lipsticks I would say this has the most comparable texture.

For that is the other part of the problem: Beige Nude is a favourite not simply because of the colour, it also has a lovely formula. It's creamy, very opaque and non-drying. The YSL Rouge Voluptes are similarly opaque but I dislike how they dry my lips so soon after application, so these are not a good dupe texture wise. At some point I should investigate the Guerlain Rouge Automatique range to see if I can find a comparable colour to Beige Nude.

Left - Guerlain Beige Nude, Right - Kevyn Aucoin ThelmaDora

As I was putting away the lipsticks, I spotted another similar colour that I'd missed in my first forage. Above you can see Kevyn Aucoin Expert Lip Tint in ThelmaDora (right) compared to Beige Nude (left). The colours are quite similar but the Kevyn Aucoin has some shimmer and isn't quite as creamy or opaque as the Guerlain.

Although I don't think I really possess a proper dupe for Beige Nude, I do think that I would recommend the Armani Shine lipstick in #5 as a good alternative. I reach for this lipstick often and couldn't bring myself to part with it, even after the toddler-eating-lipstick disaster. However, I'm not sure that this is easily available either so, the hunt continues! If you have any suggestions for an alternative, please let me know.

17 Supreme Shine Lipstick in All About the Sass

As soon as I opened this lipstick and saw the colour I grinned. Boots 17 lipstick in All About the Sass is a bright cheery pink colour. When swatched the colour appears slightly sheer but it is opaque on the lips. The Supreme Sheen lipstick formula is slippy, I'm not sure yet if it is especially moisturising (my lips are particularly dry today) but it is very comfortable when first applied. I did spy the ring of doom as the colour faded so it's one to keep regularly topped up.

I like the silver mirror-effect packaging. Of course it wasn't until after I'd sorted all the images that I realised I had omitted to take a picture of the lipstick closed. The shaping of the outer casing makes it look a little different and it's larger dimensions would make it quite easy to locate in your handbag.

The colour reminds me a little of Barry M's Punky Pink. When swatched side by side you can see that Punky Pink is a little darker and more blue toned that All About the Sass. The Barry M formula is more opaque too. My apologies for difference in lighting in this last picture, I didn't take this picture until later the the day when the light was quite dim.

The 17 Supreme Sheen lipsticks cost £4.99 and are available from Boots.


Disclosure: PR sample.