If you want to try out curling your hair for an evening do, this step-by-step by session stylist, Neil Moodie, is a must-see. You can achieve the look with any good hairdryer and tong (I recommend John Frieda or the Babyliss Bellissimo though I have yet to find a curling tong I really like – the one in this video, the WAM might just be it). The clever thing about them is the rotating nozzle at the end. It lets you turn the tong without burning your fingers and makes curling each section of hair easier. Although it will take a little practise. Happy curling.
My money’s on it. The new Clinique Chubby Stick is set to be for 2012 what Lancôme’s eponymous Juicy Tubes have been for at least the past decade: the absolute must-have for lips. It’s already won awards – Marie Claire Prix d’Excellence (for whom I was a judge) and Elle’s Beauty Awards.
Why? Well it’s different to the iconic gloss – it’s a cross between a lip balm and a lipstick in a chunky pencil. There to deliver the slightest tint of colour in the most comfy lip softening salve imaginable. You can twist the crayon’s silver bottom as you wear down the top so there is no need to bother with a sharpener. The added beauty is a heap of flattering shades. The one above is Whooping Watermelon (!) but my favourite right now is Mimosa. It gives lips that pretty, youthful pinkish peach colour, which those of us not naturally blessed envy when we see. Probably a colour best suited to a paler skinned chick but there are plenty for all skin tones, that’s the beauty.
Why do we all love a new pencil? Nothing like the anticipation of making that first mark with its pioneering point. A new pencil brightens the prospect of the task in hand – a shopping list, a school essay, a drawing – no end. As a make-up tool for lips and eyes its sharp new point is the difference between defined and slovenly – unless you’re extremely skilled. The more pointed the better, unless we’re talking Chubby Sticks, in which case it doesn’t matter. The sublime combination of subtle colour and forgiving lip balm means mistakes hardly every happen.
Here’s a good thing for a sunny Monday morning. If you buy this scent, 10% of its net profit (that’s around £6 per bottle) will go to the Women for Women’s sponsorship programme, which supports women victims of war. The statistics according to Women For Women reveal that 70% of the world’s poor are women, which makes their plight during war all the more far reaching. It brings to mind the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, a sharp portrayal of the horrors of war for women.
The kind of help the programmes provide is both supportive and practical. A year in length, they include training in vocation skills and building small business ventures, to help give women and their families back their lives. The programme has helped equip Julienne (who had to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo with her seven children) with the know-how to take herself from selling palm oil and peanuts in the market (not enough to feed her family properly) to building a small, successful soap-making business. It’s also possible to be a sponsor – if you’re interested in reading more, take a look at the Women For Women website, which outlines ways to help.
The scent itself is a floral with freesia, iris and sandalwood and has a lovely, low key smell – soft and warm on the skin and difficult not to like. It was created by the perfumer, Azzi Glasser, who was behind Maitresse by Agent Provocateur. You can buy In Peace (£60) at Space NK and also at Bloomingdales from April 17th.
Thoughts of peace in the air, Karl Jenkins‘ Benedictus, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace knocked me for six this weekend and I’m listening to it as I work here at my desk. The recurring seven note melody is beyond disarming – a melody for peace. Here is an extract:
On a morning such as this, bright, chilled, Spring’s promise still tightly packed up as if in an ice cube just out of the freezer, ready to plop into a long, bright glass of citrus cordial, this is the scent to sum it up. Miller Harris Le Pamplemousse is the newest addition to the British perfumer, Lyn Harris’s repertoire.
Grapefruit is its first flush and is rich and juicy, as if you’ve squeezed a Californian pink grapefruit to its limit, zest too. It’s the most fabulous morning tonic, which can’t help but radiate morning-time in early Spring. The inspiration behind the scent was Marrakesh and the gardens at La Palmerale, where there are grapefruit trees.
Harris has blended grapefruit with rhubarb and green melon, which give way to orange flowers, clary sage and rosemary. As the scent develops you get vetiver, moss and the woodiness of cedar. It’s lovely, and would work on both men and women.
I like this idea of citrus offset with the more earthy smell of vetiver and another way to do it is by layering. I recently tried Dyptique Vetyverio Eau de Toilette layered with L’Eau de Neroli on top. Both of which work alone, but combined thus, become more complex and longer lasting.
Le Pamplemousse is available mid April as a limited edition, call 020 7079 1234 to pop yourself on the waiting list.
Each season we wait with baited breath to see the beauty look and latest nail colour from Chanel. Here, for Autumn 2012 the house’s look combines cool, gentle make-up, where skin is kept matte, cheeks are contoured with a specially designed, lavender-grey powder and lips dabbed with flushed pink. The effect is quite the English Rose and a perfect foil for the focal point: the eyebrows.
These appliquéd brows were created by the embroidery house of Lesage, under the direction of Chanel Makeup Creative Director, Peter Philips. ’Each eyebrow consists of an anthracite gray sequins and pearl base, embroidered with several sorts and shades of mineral stones and crystals,’ he says. It’s a look that reinforces today’s trend for a full, definite brow taken one step further for the benefit of the show.
Says Philips: ‘The inspiration for the makeup look came from a few key words and a sketch that Karl Lagerfeld provided: minerals, shading and eyebrows were the key words and the sketch showed a face with stone-lined eyebrows.’
As for the nail polish we can all eagerly await for Fall? It’s called Frenzy – expect taupe with hints of lavender. A cool neutral for neat nails. But hey, let’s get on with Springtime first.
2012-13 Fall-Winter Chanel Ready-to-Wear Show Backstage, Makeup Peter Philips, © Chanel, Photo Vincent Lappartient
by email
RSS