"The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion, but cosmetics are easier to buy."
—Yves Saint Laurent
Announcements
If you're new to this blog, then read our guides to the basics: Skin (Part I), Skin (Part II), The Supernatural, Color Theory I, Color Theory II, Eyes, and Brushes.
Also, check out the blogsale.
Contents
Favored
Art Tattler
the glamourai
The Non-Blonde
Perfume Shrine
Lisa Eldridge
Garance Doré
Smitten Kitchen
Into The Gloss
Grain de Musc
Lacquerized
Res Pulchrae
Drivel About Frivol The Selfish Seamstress
Killer Colours
Bois de Jasmin Glossed In Translation
Jak and Jil
Toto Kaelo
Worship at the House of Blues
I Smell Therefore I Am
Food Wishes
The Natural Haven
Messy Wands
1000 Fragrances
Moving Image Source
Wondegondigo
The Emperor's Old Clothes
M. Guerlain
Colin's Beauty Pages
Barney's jewelry department
Parfümrien
loodie loodie loodie
The Straight Dope
Sea of Shoes
London Makeup Girl
Sakecat's Scent Project
Asian Models
Ratzilla Cosme
Smart Skincare
Illustrated Obscurity
A.V. Club
Tom & Lorenzo: Mad Style
Eiderdown Press
Beauty and the Bullshit
La Garçonne Flame Warriors Everyday Beauty
Fashion Gone Rogue
Now Smell This
Dempeaux
Fashionista
The Cut
A Fevered Dictation
Nathan Branch
101 Cookbooks
1. Favorite book?
Howards End. It's not a perfect book -- it's a bit sentimental, a bit didactic, and one of the central plot points is highly implausible. But it follows Austen -- whom Forster greatly admired -- in being full of recognizable people, with recognizable ways of being silly, touching or cruel.
Or Wuthering Heights, the greatest hate story ever written. It's a toss-up.
2. Country of origin:
Canada, specifically Upper Canada.
3. How many red lipsticks do you own?
15-20, depending on how strictly you define "red".
4. Most worn, beloved item of clothing in your closet?
It's a toss-up between my much-abused black Repetto BB flats and a pair of lightweight, wide-legged jeans from Paige. I dread the day when these give up the ghost.
5. How do you take your coffee?I have a Bialetti moka pot and Nespresso milk foamer at home -- the latter being a mildly absurd item that I use daily, while more practical items like spatulas languish in the drawer. At home, I make lattes with skim milk, a little cinnamon and a teaspoon or two of sugar. When I just need a caffeine boost at work, it's Java Blend dark roast with 18% cream.
6. Pet peeve, just beauty:
Unblended eyeshadow, especially when it's dark. It invariably looks uneven and awful, as if you scribbled on your eyelids with a Sharpie. Actually, stretch that to any dramatic makeup that's ineptly put on.
7. Which product has kept your loyalty for longest?
The Body Shop's cocoa butter lip balm has been my favourite for a long time.
8. Skin type:
Normal/combination: a bit oily in the T-zone, a bit dry elsewhere, and not at all sensitive.
9. What was your undergraduate major?
I started out in English, then switched to history. I'm not sure that was actually a good idea -- I adore litcrit -- but there's nothing quite so bad as a bad English class.
10. Have you ever cut your own hair?
Many times. I can't say I was ever particularly skilled at it, but my hair is long and wavy, hence forgiving.
11. What blogs do you check daily?
The Last Psychiatrist, The A.V. Club's TV section, The Non-Blonde.
I started out in English, then switched to history. I'm not sure that was actually a good idea -- I adore litcrit -- but there's nothing quite so bad as a bad English class.
10. Have you ever cut your own hair?
Many times. I can't say I was ever particularly skilled at it, but my hair is long and wavy, hence forgiving.
11. What blogs do you check daily?
The Last Psychiatrist, The A.V. Club's TV section, The Non-Blonde.
12. The five most extravagant things on your wishlist:- A lustrous Italian leather briefcase, in dark brown, that isn't monogrammed with anyone else's initials.
- A decent pantsuit: I don't aspire to the highest quality at this point in my life, but even J. Crew will set you back some.
- I've developed a crush on Le Metier de Beauté's lipsticks. The one I ordered from Neiman Marcus (Ken Downing's coral, btw) came broken and I still love it (and I am too lazy to complain to NM, though I really should.) I've decided that $32 USD is a stupid price to pay for a lipstick, but I still want more. Alas.
- Really lovely underwear. I spend my actual life in Liz Lemon-style T-shirt bras and pyjamas from Joe Fresh: everything else shows through clothes or is too costly and high-maintenance. But someday.
- And all right: I love the Hermès Kelly. It doesn't matter how many trashy celebrities carry it; I love it. It is highly unlikely that I will ever be able to afford a new one, and that's okay, but maybe, just maybe, there will come a day when I can splurge on one secondhand.
13. Signature scent:
I don't think I really have one because my job requires me to spend a fair amount of time in "scent free" buildings. Applying perfume is no longer part of my daily routine. But: Mitsouko. I treasure my bottle of the discontinued PDT.
14. Fashion and film---which inspires you most?
The Fred & Ginger movies, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Graduate. (Mrs. Robinson is hot.)
15. When you binge on snacks, do you prefer salt or sweet?
Usually sweets. I like to chew on Gummi Bears and Twizzlers when I'm studying for an exam.
16. How do you highlight your best feature?
I like eyeliner and mascara, a lot, and I think my fondness for red lipstick has a lot to do with the way it contrasts with green eyes.
17. Where is your favorite place to shop for makeup?
Online, definitely online. Canadian prices are jacked up from American ones -- not to the obscene extent Australians experience, certainly, but enough that it's often cheaper to order from elsewhere and pay shipping than to pay the markup here. And I live in a small city where a lot of brands are unavailable in the brick-and-mortar stores.
18. Dream vacation:
Oh god. There's almost nowhere I don't want to go, but I really, really want to visit France again.
19. Worst habit:
In a beauty context...I touch my hair way too much. I twist it, run my fingers through it, otherwise expose it to unnecessary friction, and then I'm grossed out when I get split ends.
20. The beauty maxim you live by:
Sunscreen. Always sunscreen.
Labels: guerlain, hermes, le metier de beaute, paige, repetto, the body shop
9/26/2011 [3]
Note (March 2013): The only constant in life is change, they say. A year and a half ago, when I wrote this, I believed I had changed so radically over the past few years that there was nothing left to change. Utterly predictably, I could not have been more wrong. I felt that these answers could do with updating, but rather than bore you with the same old format, I've decided to turn my updated answers to some of these questions into full-fledged posts. (Otherwise put, I'm lazy and can't think of topics for new posts.)
1. Favorite book?
My copy of Vladimir Nabokov's Ada is worn to tatters, and the bindings have long ago fallen apart. There is no way I will ever become erudite enough to understand as much as a third of his references, but I love the way he crafts his writing, weaving the threads of sound and meaning and association behind the canon of words in order to approximate almost tactile sensory impressions. Also The Mill on the Floss, mostly because I recognize a more vulnerable, less worldly version of myself in poor Maggie. I'm a sentimentalist at heart.
2. Country of origin?
Born in Incheon, raised in the U.S.A., I now go to school in Seoul.
3. How many red lipsticks do you own?
I own more pink lipsticks than red, and the one shade I'm currently fixated on Gothika, which has been discontinued anyway, damn NARS.
4. Most worn, beloved item of clothing in your closet?
An A-line coat in dark brown cashmere with just the right suppleness and weight, a pair of sharply creased black bootcut trousers that seem to take off at least 10 lbs, and a silken blouse the color of café au lait with moon and star cutouts on the collar.
5. How do you take your coffee?
I'm quite fond of Dutch coffee when I can get it, or drip coffee. When I'm in one of the big brand cafés, I also like to dilute out the dregs in the glass with cold water: the taste makes plain water a lot more palatable.6. Pet peeve
When very short women wear very high heels, it looks very much out of proportion: all you see are the shoes, which dwarf the shortness of the legs by comparison.
7. Which product has kept your loyalty for longest?
I grew up with European pharmacy brands (Nivea, Neutrogena) in Korea, where they are much more common than in the States, and even now retain an affectionate affinity for them: my latest favorite Uriage Stick Lèvres, the only lip balm that has managed to keep my loyalty past the initial honeymoon period, only grows better the longer I use it.
8. Skin type
Temperamental, with the main problem being redness and overheating, with congestion, hyperproduction of oil, and peeling flakes as secondary consideration. I've found that layering gentle products, alternating between hydration and emollience, leaves my face the most comfortable: gentle exfoliation with a cloth or salicylic acid, a soothing face spray, hypoallergenic mid-weight emulsions, and face oils.
9. What was your undergraduate major?
I am currently working through my medical degree, hoping to match into psychiatry upon graduation, though I'm open to just about anything at this point.
10. Have you ever cut your own hair?
When I used to have longer hair, I sometimes trimmed my own bangs when I had no time to see the hairdresser, but even then I much preferred professional results: now I really have no choice, as I can't afford to dick around with hair this short and coarse.
11. What blogs do you check daily?
Cooking blogs
Smitten Kitchen
The Pioneer Woman Cooks!
Style blogs
Style Fish
The Sartorialist
Sewing blogs
The Selfish Seamstress
Male Pattern Boldness
Petit Main Sauvage
Miscellaneous
The Grand Narrative
Engrish.com.
12. The five most extravagant things on your wishlist (that you still intend to buy some day)?
1) a full bottle of L'Artisan Iris Pallida, provided it's still available, 2) the forthcoming iPad 3 (rumored to boast a freakishly high screen resolution), 3) a full set of hair / scalp care from Leonor Greyl, 4) a pant or skirt suit in black or charcoal wool, perfectly tailored to my specifications and measurements.
Really though, that's not even half of the list, just the four lemmings I'll most predictably follow through with, and I'm sure to think of the fifth one soon enough. As for more impulsive or frivolous purchases—the Leonor Greyl is a little outlandish, but at least there's a predefined niche for it in my catalogue of wishes—I'll probably burning through my paychecks as soon as I start getting them: I do believe my mother predicted with dead accuracy—when I was four, no less—that I need to study hard, because I have expensive tastes and I'm not one to marry for money.
13. Signature scent?
Vol de Nuit: an assertive perfume with a personality of its own if there ever was one, but it settles on my skin like a live thing, gravitating close like a reassuring hand on my arm.
14. Fashion in film—which inspires you most?
Irène Jacob in La Double Vie de Véronique manages to project grace in the kind of voluminous silhouette we come always to consider as the antithesis of sophistication: not only chunky sweaters and oversized men's bomber jackets worn with slender skirts—short, but not enough to be considered mini—but also demure pleated woollen skirts of the kind your granny wears paired with stubbornly utilitarian winter boots and what seems to be a man's winter overcoat. The setting is always the city—Krakow or Paris—but a different kind of urbanity, where everything is worn to a patina that glows all the more in the golden light that saturates each scene, for a kind of drowsy charm that feels lived-in and comfortable.15. When you binge on snacks, do you prefer salt or sweet?
I suspect my body does a poor job properly metabolizing sucrose or fructose, because I always feel slightly ill when I've had too much sweet to eat. This is rarely the case with savory snacks: potato chips, string cheese, pretzels drizzled with melted butter, dumplings (mandoo in Korean), leftover fried chicken, cold shredded chicken breast seasoned with a little salt and pepper and sesame oil... hell, I can happily eat sea salt straight.
16. How do you highlight your best feature?
Brows are probably the one thing I will always "do" before I go out, because they instantly lift my face and bring out the symmetry and regularity of my features. Mascara draws more attention to my almond-shaped eyes, while a faint dusting of blush brings out the contour of my cheekbones.
17. Where is your favorite place to shop for makeup?
I've received very good service at AK Plaza in Bundang, and CVSs like Olive Young and Watson's are always fun to browse. I buy a lot of basics at the pharmacy too, where they stock Uriage, Johnson's, and Vichy.
Photography by JSLEE
A trek across western China, Tibet, and northern India. Krakow, Hokkaido, and Antarctica are other prime destinations.
19. Worst habit?
Biting my nails—down to painful, bleeding nubs that eventually get inflamed—a habit I succeeded in breaking myself of, only to take up again when exam stress got to be too much in medical school.
20. The beauty maxim you live by?
Discreetness is one thing: nothing is more shaming than making it obvious you're trying to hide something—and believe me, the more you try to hide it, the more glaringly obvious it will become.
Labels: apple, ecole de paris, estee lauder, george eliot, giorgio armani, guerlain, la double vie de veronique, nars, shu uemura, sisley, tandy, the sketchbook, uriage, vladimir nabokov
9/26/2011 [4]
A look into my everyday beauty habits and routines, inspired by the series "The Top Shelf" at Into The Gloss.
When it comes to skincare, I appreciate its importance without being fully committed to the ritual of facials, exfoliates, and treatments, although I'll wager that it's only a matter of time. I use a combination of old faithfuls and new products that I am testing. First, I remove my make-up with Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil - one pump is sufficient for getting rid of everything, including waterproof mascara - before cleansing with an oil-targetting cleaner, followed by the application of layers of various toners, serums and creams. Shu Uemura Depsea Hydrability Intense Moisturising Concentrate is a stalwart that I wear on its own in summer and beneath a moisturiser or oil in winter. Another product I have repurchased many times is Clinique All About Eyes Rich; after too many bad experiences with eye creams on my sensitive skin, I tend to stick to what is known and safe. Huiles & Baumes Face Smoothing Serum is a rich facial oil I have been testing for the last month or so - I love the fresh herbal scent and the way it shrinks my pores.
My lips chap easily, especially in cold, windy weather, so I never leave the house without lip balm, preferable ones that are non-sticky, flavourless, and colourless. I keep Blistex Lip Conditioner with SPF 20 around the house, on my bedside table and at my desk, and a tube of Clinique Superbalm Lip Treatment in every purse. Both are great, intensely nourishing and not so expensive that you can't afford numerous back-ups. Lip balm is something that needs to be applied frequently and liberally, so you never want to be caught without one handy.
If my skin is clear, I am happy to get away with just wearing tinted moisturiser and some concealer. When I do wear foundation, I apply it directly with my fingers - it's quicker and saves me the bother of washing a foundation brush after every use - before dusting a bit of loose powder over it to keep it in place.
Brow pencil is a minimum requirement when mine are so naturally sparse and patchy - I use Shu Uemura in the shade 06 Acorn. On a normal day, all I wear on my lids are matte or satin browns and taupes, for a look that is polished, but not painstakingly drawn in. Even my eyeliner and mascara are brown. I am already on my third tube of Shiseido Perfect Mascara in BR602, and I've lost count of how many of the Guerlain Eye Pencil in Kohl Me Brown 03 I have bought. I smudge the pencil into my upper lashline, to give my eyes some subtle definition. Gel and liquid liner has its occasional uses, but not whilst I am on the clock.
My go-to lip colour - lipstick, never lipgloss - is always changing. If you keep your eye makeup clean and effortless, it is a simple matter to change your look in the middle of a day by switching lip colours. I have a red imitation-leather lipstick case that I bought in the markets in Shanghai for around 150 RMB (or $21 AUD). It has an inbuilt mirror and holds three lipsticks, usually a sheer natural colour, a deeper berry or rose, and a red. Continental Couture has one that looks very similar but made from shark skin for £119.
Cutting my hair short was a decision I made the year I left high school, and it's been that length ever since. Short hair is freeing and conveniently low maintenance. But also, looking back at old photographs of myself, I feel like that person with long hair is a stranger, someone still wore school uniforms and had not yet been introduced to undergraduate anthropology. In a not unsubstantial way, we are not the same, just as I will not be the same person ten years hence. Identity is an ever-evolving thing, and often the outward change - manhood initiation rituals, the widow's weeds - marks also a significant internal overhaul. (The reverse is also true, and it is not in my interest here to quibble about direction of causality between the mental and the physical, for both are intrinsic and interdependent.) It takes me less than 5 seconds to style my hair: a few strokes with a synthetic and boar bristle brush is all it needs. If it is in a truly disastrous state of disarray, a tiny daub of Frederic Fekkai Glossing Cream, combed through with my fingers, is usually enough to tame it.
I do not have a signature fragrance, but I always come back to a select few, like Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental. In my work bag, I keep a Travalo filled with Chanel No. 19, for those times when I forget to apply before leaving the house. Perfume is the last step of my routine of getting ready. Without it, I always feel a little unfinished.
*Australian regulations don't allow SPF factor numerals greater than 30 to be claimed on sunscreen labels, for several reasons, so SPF 30+ is the highest level of sun protection that you will see on any product in Australia.
Top photo credit: Orion Mitchell, 2010
Labels: beauty notes, blistex, chanel, clinique, frederic fekkai, guerlain, huiles and baumes, la roche-posay, mecca cosmetica, nars, serge lutens, shu uemura
8/21/2011 [11]
I should feel bad about having lost my entire stash of makeup, especially considering how much money has literally gone up in smoke (or down the drain, take your pick of natural disasters) but I suspect I will instead feel secretly relieved.
I have always wanted to have a stash that can be wholly contained in one compact makeup bag, easily portable and tightly edited.There is a silver lining to every cloud, and such a catastrophe would be an excuse to finally cast off all those white elephants—that I couldn't bring myself to throw away but wouldn't miss if they were to be gone—as well as to acquire those few products I couldn't bring myself to buy, because I couldn't justify buying something that I already have in my stash, however superior in quality and utility.
Skincare
- I have and like DHC Cleansing Oil, good against bulletproof makeup, but it has a tendency to clog pores. Bioderma Créaline is kinder to pores, hydrating and soothing overheated, tired skin at the end of the day—especially in summer— while it cleanses away quotidian grime and makeup. It's not really a lightweight product, despite its gentleness; you might be surprised at what you can get off with it, and I highly suspect that I'll not need anything more heavy-duty, considering I don't wear spackle.
- I'm not really a skincare fanatic, I'm just happy to find cheap products that work. The Face Shop has the best skincare for value, in my opinion, of the Korean "road shop" brands, and despite its ridiculous gimmicky name, the Marine Stem Cell Toner pampers and cushions my perpetually dehydrated skin with its slippery texture rich in hyaluronic acids and other hydrating agents, so I'm sticking with it.
- Moisturizers are tricky, especially since one often needs different formulations for each season. I'm still looking, though I refuse to pay for anything higher-end than Kiehl's, which I am eyeing next but not completely decided on. If not, I'll default to matching moisturizer from TFS, which forms a reasonably good barrier to seal in the moisture provided by the toner.
- Kiehl's Ultimate Hand Salve looks and feels like a heavy-duty product, one that you might expect to instantly soften chapped, raw, unhappy hands... but might take you by surprise when it absorbs rapidly and completely, leaving behind no messy residue.
Thick, scentless and yellow, with a waxy consistency,
Face
- I would guess that Chanel Vitalumiere contains some unique blend of silicones that is especially adept at smoothing over uneven skin—my skin is fairly rough on a small scale—for a satiny finish. I might also guess that the formula works with the natural oils in my skin, rather than battling against them, transmogrifying unflattering shine into a dewy soft-focus glow, but that is just a guess. All I really know is that this product works such wonders on my skin, I am tempted to blame witchcraft rather than science for actually tempting me to fork over money for a Chanel foundation: horrifyingly expensive, not to mention I secretly dislike the interlocking C's.
- Vichy NormaTeint Anti-Imperfections is really a very matte-finish foundation (for acne-prone skin, if anyone is interested), but the sparse color selection, the fine powdery texture when blended out, and the lasting power like glue make it a better concealer in my opinion, especially in the yellower shades,for everything from undereye circles to ruddy acne scars.
- I admit I'm probably selling out here, as I concede that I prefer to keep my skin as light as possible—any darker, and my olive undertones ensure that I look muddy, or even ill—so sunscreen is a requirement. Shiseido Anessa fulfills all my requirements for a sunscreen—high SPF, broad-spectrum protection, and meaning it when it says "waterproof" on the label—in addition to serving as a mattifying base in summer that actually makes my skin look better by taking down a bit of the heated flush and oily shine that plague me around that time of year. In fact, I don't really need the excuse a natural disaster would provide to justify buying this product, since I have nothing comparably useful in my stash. This is an Asia-exclusive, but I am taking the liberty of including it, since it is quite easily available to me, at least.
- The point of a blush is to replicate a natural rush of blood to the cheeks: for this reason, it is crucial to properly match a blush to the color of the skin. On me, I've never met the color that performs like the bruised mauve of NARS Sin: my guess is that the purplish grey in it is good for neutralizing sallow olive tones, to leave behind only a faintly visible flush of rose. I've even got the hang of applying it with a finger, saving me the trouble of having to buy a brush.
- I actually really like Etude House's brow pencil: a tapering wedge-shaped twist-up crayon, with a hard texture and in a wide variety of shades (who knew that such a cheapie brand would give such seemingly humble considerations as brows the attention they really deserve). With a product like this, I honestly don't see the need to seek out something more expensive.
Eyes
- I scoff at the notion of high-end mascara (so overpriced, and you throw most of it away) but I would like to live with DiorShow for a little while: it's the only mascara I've ever liked, as opposed to "it gets the job done." I think the secret is in the fat brush with the blunt bristles spaced at extremely tight but regular intervals, coating lashes thickly enough to make an impact, yet separating each hair from each other carefully to avoid the spider effect. I would get a cheapie dupe if I could find that.
- L'Oreal Extra Intense Liquid Pencil liner goes on as smoothly as the name implies, like melted chocolate, but once it sets, turns into a waxy formula that stays on and does not smear or transfer, even through a torrential crying session (as I can attest from personal experience). In brown it imparts to my eyes the depth but not the harshness of black. To be honest I'm cheating a little here, as it's easily obtained in the United States, but is nowhere to be seen in Korea.
- Finally we have come to eyeshadow! Usually the eyeshadows comprise the largest proportion of a stash, not because they are the most frequently used, but because they are the collectible action figures of the makeup world, coming in infinite and infinitely attractive variations and serving little practical purpose whatsoever. (Though, don't take my word for it, I'm an Asian for whom eyeshadow doesn't do much and who is consequently bitter about the fact.) So when paring down a stash, it makes sense to cut away at the eyeshadow collection first. For now, I will only buy two: Laura Mercier Sandstone (a peachy fine bone in a satin finish that imparts an imperceptible glow to skin, not shown) and MAC Shale (an analogue of taupe hovering between silvery grey and sheer lavender, more flattering for my cool and light olive tones than a true brown-based taupe).
Lips
- Guerlain Kiss Kiss Essence de Gloss, in 421 Grenat for me, may be the classiest lip gloss that I know of. Now, if someone would please do something about that stupid bling packaging?
- I'd like a good everyday matte rose lipstick for professional settings... but what?
Labels: annick goutal, beauty notes, bioderma, chanel, christian dior, etude house, guerlain, hermes, kiehl's, l'occitane, l'oreal, laura mercier, mac, nars, shiseido, the face shop, vichy
3/03/2011 [0]
Everyone is going ape over the shadow palettes from Guerlain's Fall 2010 collection. They are indeed beautiful, but they were not what seized my attention. I've tried their new lip gloss in-store (the stupidly-named Kiss Kiss Essence de Gloss) and I was blown away by how lovely and sophisticated—unusually for a gloss—it looked on me, not to mention the way it felt. Essence de Gloss has a light yet substantial texture that nestles on the lips and clings to them lovingly, like the best of lip balms. Indeed, the product is supposed to contain active anti-aging elements (hence the "essence" in the name, I believe) but I do not know how much good that will really do, for it is my firm belief that makeup and skincare gimmicks don't really mix... or at least not in the same product.
A light rose-petal scent is also present throughout—and by "light" I do not mean the scent is faint, for it is quite emphatically there even a long while after application, but that it has an airy floating quality to it that's quite cheering. Simply put, this lip gloss feels wonderful going on, and feels wonderful to wear too.
The color is lovely too, at least in the iteration that interested me the most. I have pale olive skin and dark hair and eyes, so this browned rose with mauve tones goes very well—it is similar to, though rosier and browner than, NARS Sin, which is the best blush on me—though I honestly believe this could flatter a wide range of skintones and colorings. For those whom it doesn't flatter, there are a range of other colors, all wonderfully complex (but, I will warn, on the warm side of neutral). There is 420 Vermillion, a rich red like its name that is not quite as pigmented as lipstick but adds that extra oomph when layered over red lipsticks, 460 Myrrhe, a golden nude with a composite sheen of several different shades of peach and copper, and 441 Tonka, a sheer shimmering toasted bronze (none of which I can wear, but I think would be lovely on the right people). All in all, I'd say that this is one of those rare products that serves both luxury and utilitarian purposes.
The greatest caveat: I very much dislike the packaging, it's way too much bling for me. The only thing that's really stopping me from buying this gloss (apart from the price tag, of course) is imagining how embarrassing it would be to take that case out in public. The strong scent may also be a deal-breaker for some, and from what I hear, the lasting power is not excellent... though that may be only to be expected from a texture so light and smooth.
A brief word about the collection: since I heard that Guerlain started reformulating their classic perfumes—arguably the greatest source of their status as a legend—into new compositions of lesser complexity, I did not have great faith in the brand... or, to be more precise, LVMH, the large company that now owns the Guerlain name (and they still have yet to win my approval on that count). Which is why this fall's collection has honestly surprised me with its immense shelf appeal potential which is sure to last beyond the first euphoria of purchase, excellent products as they are. What's more, Guerlain has done its customers an extra kindness and made these products permanent additions to their line. The always-beautiful face of Natalia Vodianova fronts this collection, as it has for years, but in my view, her richly sensual yet sophisticated look is reflected very well in the elegantly-calibrated products themselves.
Labels: beauty notes, guerlain
8/07/2010 [1]
The weather has been gorgeous.
After four and a half months away at school, I've finally had a chance to come home to Toronto. And oh, what a relief it is to be home. While I can live happily in cities smaller than Toronto, I remain a city girl, and the town where I've been going to school is much too small, expensive, under-serviced and car-dependent for me. Alas, I'm not done with it yet; my lease is not yet over, my graduation ceremony is this week, and I have numerous loose ends to tie up before I leave for good. But oh, believe me, I will be leaving for good.
During my two-week break, I have been catching up with friends, babbling at my family, snuggling my beloved cat, and revelling in the pleasures of home: abundant sidewalks, walkable and varied neighbourhoods, a halfway functioning transit system (essential, since I don't know how to drive), cheap restaurants, my brother's PS3, and oh yes, shopping.
When I first sampled Après l'Ondée, more than a year ago, I was displeased and perplexed. I believe the phrase I used at the time was "urinal cake". Did I get a bad sample? Does it need to be sprayed instead of dabbed? I have given away the sample; I can't compare it with the scent I idly spritzed in Toronto's Guerlain boutique last week, only to discover that I'd fallen in love. Was it the warm weather, the exhaust in the air, that made this ever-chilly scent -- anise and violets in a spring mist -- so suddenly, absurdly appealing? I was astonished. I had to buy it.
I try (I do!) not to be profligate in acquiring makeup, but I am a sucker for red lipstick. I own more variations on red lipstick than any woman ought to have: corals, bricks, wines. My latest is YSL Rouge Pur in 131, Opium Red, which gets raves on Makeupalley; now I know why. This is a rich, glowing, deep red, faintly warm, utterly beautiful. Alas, it bleeds like mad, necessitating the use of lip brushes, lipliner, concealer, the whole shebang.
I finished watching The Wire when I should have been studying. I fear I have become one of those tedious Wire evangelists, but seriously, this show is fantastic; once you get past the in-medias-res confusion of the first episodes (a process that must be repeated with every season of the show) it becomes the most complex, gripping, twisted tragedy. I am now in withdrawal: I've watched The Wire, I've seen all of Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood and Six Feet Under, Mad Men does not return until August, I'm not quite ready to take on The Sopranos, what should I do? Am I ready for another show? Perhaps not. Lately I have been using the TV to upgrade my Rock Band 2 skills, not quite the same sort of thing.
Labels: consumer diaries, guerlain, the wire, ysl
5/24/2009 [4]
I received Chandler Burr's The Perfect Scent as a Christmas gift; I'm reading it now and shall post something about it when I've finished. I'm nearly done; the highlight for me is definitely his vitriolic take-down of the Hugo Boss line, but then I love watching articulate people bitch about things they dislike. (I was also fascinated to read the lists of 2003's bestsellers in America and France; American women really love florals, so it seems.)
On Christmas Day, I mentioned my developing perfume habit to my grandmother, whom I associate very strongly with the smell of Jean Patou Cocktail and, to a lesser extent, Joy. As it turns out, she said she has never worn perfume, but had a collection of scents she'd received as gifts over the forty-plus years she's lived in her house, which she urged me to take.
And so I have a small collection of minis, mostly from the '60s and '70s, revealing as examples, not of my grandmother's particular taste, but of what people thought suitable to give a woman in her forties at that time. The most exciting thing, to me is a full-sized bottle of vintage Chamade EDC, 2/3 full, still nearly fresh. Chamade is a heartbreaker on my skin; the first fifteen minutes (particularly in the vintage) are phenomenally beautiful, the most lush, creamy hyacinth imaginable, and then it becomes dried-rose potpourri, a high-quality potpourri to be sure, but still too, too sweet. I must put it on fabric and see if it fares any better there.
Larger than actual size, of course. Is this not the most darling thing? Houndstooth! I think I would keep this even if the juice had turned. Chandler Burr writes that vintage Miss Dior smells like armpit. I didn't believe this until I tried it on and...I'll be damned, it kind of does. I think it needs to grow on me; at present the leathery bitterness (a scent related to armpit, evidently) is a bit disconcerting, although it softens and sweetens in the drydown.
My grandmother also had a half-ounce bottle of Helena Rubinstein Courant.
This surprised me: a chypre, on the sweet side, with the warm-skin feeling people call "animalic". I think the top notes have suffered some from being in a cupboard for 30 years, but I still find it lovely, eminently wearable. I suppose it isn't surprising it was discontinued; it was released in 1972 and is recognizable, even to me, as a 1970s chypre, a style that went out of fashion (as did Helena Rubinstein, to a great extent; certainly the brand no longer has the profile it once did).
And now, dear readers, a mystery -- what is this?
There was no box and there's no label anywhere on the bottle. It smells like an oriental (through the seal beneath the cap, as my grandmother never opened it). It looks a little like a Youth Dew bottle, which would certainly make sense, but I'm stumped.
Labels: christian dior, guerlain, helena rubinstein, perfume notes
1/03/2009 [3]
Unlike Dain, I was an ignorant fragrance noob before this year, and in many ways still am. Blogging about perfume has been not so much an effort at educating other people (who am I to do that, after all?) as a record of my own enthusiastic yet clumsy explorations. For other, more seasoned entries, read Dain's entry here, or check out the other Retrospectives:
1000fragrances
Ars Aromatica
A Rose Beyond the Thames
Bittergrace Notes
Grain de Musc
I Smell Therefore I Am
Legerdenez
The Non Blonde
Notes From the Ledge
Olfactarama
The Perfume Shrine
Savvy Thinker
Tuilleries
For years I wore single-note fragrances, if anything: most of these are now of little interest to me, although I retain a soft spot for Demeter's Gin and Tonic; it smells like Christmas at my grandparents' house, when my martini-drinking grandfather was still alive. My first "proper" perfume, a couple of years ago, was Tocca Stella, an uncomplicated thing despite the list of notes -- aquatic topnotes, musky drydown, orange, orange, orange. It claims to be blood orange, but for the real bitterness of blood orange one has to go to something like Fendi's much-mourned Theorema -- of which I just tracked down a full bottle (yes!).
Much of what I've learned has come directly from Dain, although I've also done plenty of lurking on the sites linked above.
What amazes me at the end of this year is how quickly the nose develops when you start smelling a lot of scents. After six months of exploration, I can now detect the orange in Organza Indécence; Bulgari BLV Notte, which I adored on first sniff, so much that I considered buying a full bottle before my mini was empty, is now oppressively sweet and heavy; I use words like "animalic" and "vetiver" with something approaching confidence, which I would not have done a year or even eight months ago.
Anyway, enough babbling; here is my Top Ten of 2008, the perfumes that I either fell hard for, learned from, or both.
1. Mitsouko. Funny that even in this 1938 ad, Mitsouko is presented as something rather harsh, haughty and forbidding (if I read the image right), because it has never struck me as a difficult perfume. Mitsouko was what gave me an inkling that fumeheads might be on to something, since before that, almost everything smelled unpleasantly "like perfume" (read: alcohol and fake flowers) to me, and I imagined nothing complex would ever work on my skin. I put on a sample of the EDP, thinking "this is interesting, but not for me", and then, a couple of hours later, spontaneously noticed that I loved the way I smelled. Mitsouko is an odd thing on me, chameleon-like, sometimes hinting at white flowers, sometimes at spice cake; usually it's recognizable as Mitsouko, though, a spiced-peach glow, the light that shines through autumn leaves in the late afternoon, in perfume form.
2. Bandit. On my skin, Bandit EDT is indeed (as Luca Turin calls it) a "dark and fresh" fragrance, reminiscent of under-lit streets and deep green leaves after an evening rain, no flowers, no fruits, no sugar. Bandit says "do not fuck with me." Bandit is really the ideal thing to wear out to small-town bars where unattractive and overly persistent frat boys follow you around; Bandit makes me feel like I can kick ass. Bandit might also be the first perfume I encountered that truly was not sweet.
3. Tabac Blond. I have only a decant of the extrait, but I think this is the sexiest perfume I own; I'm sharp-nosed and flat-chested, cleavage-in-a-bottle scents like Fracas make me feel silly, but Tabac Blond is dark, warm, a bouquet in a leather-bound study, half-hidden in a cloud of cigar smoke. Alas, it has apparently been messed with so much that even the recent version I like may be gone any minute.
4. Theorema. I still have an affection for gourmands; they work well on my skin, unlike most fruity florals, which tend to become loud and aggressive, projecting syrup for miles. Theorema is that marvellous thing, a grown-up gourmand, bitter orange, nutmeg and cream; why, why was this ever discontinued?
5. Iris Poudre. I thought I disliked aldehydes. I was wrong. Hell, I thought I disliked perfumes that smelled "like perfume", and I was wrong about that too. Probably the most "traditional", "ladylike" fragrance I've fallen for, so far.
6. Songes. I loved this on first sniff, but was sure I would tire of it. I haven't. It's sweet, yes, but it has complexity and balance; vanilla, banana, dark chocolate, and that full, blooming jasmine over all. My favourite comfort scent, by far.
7. Bois des Îles. I haven't had the greatest luck with Chanel scents; so far, they've all had a forbidding smoothness, too perfect, too luxurious, nothing to reach out and grab me. Bois des Îles is the exception; it is so strongly, recognizably sandalwood that the aldehydic touches are decorative rather than definitive; Tania Sanchez described it as being like No. 5's brunette sister, and I think she hit the nail on the head. It hints at gingerbread in the drydown. I could wear this all winter.
8. Vétiver Extraordinaire. Swoon. The most dusky, fresh, woodsy vetiver, without the fresh citrus-y touches of Guerlain's; I'd happily wear this myself, yes, but on a man it would be absurdly sexy.
9. Une Fleur de Cassie. I have a huge crush on the Frédéric Malle line; I've yet to smell one of these I disliked, and several of them (as you see) I adore already. To me, this one smells like a young cousin to L'Heure Bleue; that same almost-edible floral sweetness, lightened, freshened, and utterly radiant. It's nearly impossible for me to describe Une Fleur de Cassie; it's more of a chord than a succession of notes.
10. Lolita Lempicka. A certain lack of taste on my part? Maybe. But my skin seems to absorb most of the Angel-like super-sweetness in this fragrance, leaving only licorice, 7-Up fizz, baked apple, and a touch of salt. I couldn't decide on first wearing whether I loved this or hated it. Now I'm confident: it's love.
What next? I have entered a masculine/unisex phase; I love Le 3ème Homme and wear it frequently, Caron's Pour Un Homme has persuaded me that I actually do like lavender, and Dain has promised to send me a decant of my other Guerlain love-at-first-sniff, Jicky. Also, I think I shall have to buy a bottle of Mitsouko at some point; I've found a Canadian distributor I like (Enchante Perfumes) and I'm very tempted by the tiny bottles of parfum.
Labels: annick goutal, caron, chanel, fendi, frederic malle, guerlain, lolita lempicka, perfume notes, robert piguet
12/29/2008 [2]
Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada, which means that after more than a month in Small Maritime City You Haven't Heard Of, I had a long weekend in Toronto to eat turkey, drink wine and shop.
Being fairly short of both time and funds, I just went to the mall. Exotic, I know. I'll write a proper, non-grab bag post one of these days, but for the moment:
I covet fancy boutique-y clothes, but I don't live in them; they tend to require too much care. Since junior high, I've bought a lot -- perhaps most -- of my basics from Jacob, a Montreal-based Canadian chain whose prices and quality put it roughly in league with the Gap. (Jacob even has its own Old Navy-ish offshoot, Jacob Connexion.) Jacob only put up a website quite recently, and unfortunately, it's one of those annoying websites that display garments in outfits (often hidden by a big scarf or something; how useful!) and not individually. But perhaps this selection of outfits will give you an idea of the aesthetic, or at least of how Jacob differs from the Gap: slightly more urban, a little more dressed up (except for the Connexion mannequin on the right), with a lot (a LOT) of black, always.
Over the years, I've probably owned a dozen pieces in Jacob's never-varying red, a rich-looking and almost universally flattering deep cherry. It amused me to discover that Jacob's website refers to this colour as "perfect red". My latest acquisition is the plaid shirt from Jacob Connexion (in red), faintly seventies, surprisingly soft, perhaps a little baggy (story of my life) but not unacceptably so. For the price ($38 CAD) one doesn't expect great quality, but some things I've bought at Jacob have lasted me years.
Dain suggested I look for a plum-toned eyeliner or mascara, and I have found one: MAC Fluidline in Macroviolet. Like all Fluidlines, this looks much brighter and more shimmery in the pot than it does on my face; also like other Fluidlines, it is easy to work with and stays put. Macroviolet is dark enough not to look teenage or clubby, but plummy enough to bring out green eyes: perfect.
I went to Sephora to try Shalimar again; I felt I should know what it smelled like, and the last time I sprayed it on in a department store, my immediate response was "Oh my god, this is evil." I believe that bottle had turned, because the Shalimar I smelled this weekend was the deep, mysterious lemon-and-vanilla oriental I had been led to expect. I can see why Luca Turin describes Shalimar's sillage as "black"; it's dark and smoky and, unlike many modern vanilla scents, not particularly sweet. For a smoky dark fragrance, I think I prefer the Tabac Blond extrait I got from The Perfumed Court, but Shalimar is cheaper, more consistent (word is Tabac Blond is constantly being tampered with -- bah!), and easier to find.
I have Lolita Lempicka on my other wrist as I write this and cannot make up my mind about it. Is it a marvellous, autumnal mix of roasted apples, licorice and vanilla with a warm, musky drydown, or is it just an awful, boring, cloying thing like the hundreds of other awful, boring, cloying things on the market? It appears in different guises at different moments. I may have to get another sample.
Labels: guerlain, jacob, lolita lempicka, mac, notes
10/14/2008 [1]
When I was in junior high, I rode a crowded, overheated city bus to school every morning. I was barely five feet tall, and being crammed into a series of business people's armpits at the beginning of every day gave me a lingering hatred for two things: solid deodorant and complex perfumes.
More specifically, it made me hate Amarige. This was 1993, and Amarige was near the height of its popularity, so some of the women on the bus were probably wearing it, but to me it became a catch-all designation for department-store perfumes, the kind with multiple "notes". I would say that no matter what the notes were supposed to be, they all just smelled "like perfume" to me: a stinging blast of alcohol followed by an obnoxious spicy sweetness that resembled nothing found in nature, and nothing you would want to find in nature.
I've never been an actual perfume-hater; I wore The Body Shop's Vanilla in high school (wow, that stuff was sweet) and Demeter colognes in undergrad, but I had no interest in anything but single-note and/or soapy fragrances until I started reading The Lipstick Page. I love reading about fashion history; the idea of smelling the fragrances women wore eighty or a hundred years ago was incredibly appealing. I ordered a couple of decants from The Perfumed Court: Worth's Dans La Nuit, which I liked wearing, and Guerlain's Après L'Ondée, which I did not. (I can appreciate it in the vial, and I believe it's beautiful on other women, but on me it smells of urinal cake.) Then, knowing that Dain loves Mitsouko, and Luca Turin had described it as "infinitely chic", I bought another tiny decant of the EDP, expecting to encounter another historical curiosity, or something a bit harsh and forbidding. Instead, I fell in love with it. (How boring, yet inevitable -- another Mitsouko lover!) It's been compared to a Tiffany lamp, and that's what it feels like: warm, glowing, multi-coloured, floral, fruity, spicy, but somehow more than the sum of its parts. It is amazing. It does something on me that makes me like it better -- it makes me think of that directive about pearls, to wear them frequently because they shine more brilliantly after exposure to skin oils.
I have turned into one of those people I used to roll my eyes at, people who will describe perfumes in terms of colour, emotions, references to music. (I was half inclined to mock this post until I realized my immediate reaction to it had been not "what a silly idea" but "what? Elizabeth Bennet would not wear Après L'Ondée!" Got me.) I fear I am on my way to perfumista status, which is ridiculous, as almost nobody around me wears or likes perfume and I spend a lot of time in buildings where it is actually forbidden (and having seen a classmate having an actual perfume-triggered asthma attack, I am not inclined to question this). Ah well. It wouldn't be the first time I've been ridiculous.
It's a weird pastime, trying to educate yourself about perfumes; you spend a lot of time skulking in department stores, spraying yourself with this and that, and then taking transit home in a cloud of scent that you rather hope no one else can smell. If your nose isn't well trained, as mine isn't, you may not be able to pick out more than a couple of notes. It's the emotional reactions I look for. I may not be able to explain exactly what Mitsouko smells like (or vintage Bandit, another scent I've fallen hard for), but I can describe the feelings it evokes, and send other people into fits of eye-rolling.
This is the context for anything I write about perfume on this blog. I don't have expertise, just personal experience, preferences and enthusiasms. But I suppose that's what a lot of bloggers would say about ourselves, isn't it.
Labels: givenchy, guerlain, perfume notes
9/07/2008 [0]
I'm new to fashion and beauty blogging, and because I'm obsessive and undisciplined and almost everything I know of cosmetics is the product of my own explorations, I know a lot about the things that interest me and very little about other topics.
Red lipstick is definitely one of my obsessions. I think I might one day end up being one of those women who wear red lipstick all the time, although I'm too shy for that now. My experience supports Dain's contention that we are particularists in the shades we buy, acquiring multiple variations on the same colour. In my case it's really a spectrum, coral through warm red; I'm not nearly as interested in the nude or the tastefully understated.
My preferences are partly a function of having unusual colouring. I'll probably end up writing more about this because it's one of the major reasons for my interest in cosmetics. I don't understand the theory (or theories) of undertones all that well, but sometimes I think that's because nobody quite has it worked out. I've read that pale women of European descent invariably have cool pink undertones to their skin (um, no); I've been told my own skin is everything from "very pink" to "olive-y". It doesn't really signify, since the upshot is always the same: I can't wear most "universal" shades, they are either boring or flat-out awful on me. Blushes look sickly or too dark, lipsticks turn mauve or fuchsia, and "true, neutral reds" are not. I fairly easily found a blush that suits me (MAC Tenderling, a sort of washed-out terra cotta) and stuck with it, but I find lipsticks more interesting and more variable, and red lipsticks especially so.
I suppose I could go into detail about all the different kinds of red lipsticks I've tried, but I think that would get boring, so instead I'll just list my favourite warm reds in three categories: bright, true (but still warm), and dark.
Bright red: MAC Lady Danger ($14) is fantastically late-'40s, an uncompromisingly bright, matte orange-red that lights up pale warm-toned skin, although it can be a little overpowering -- but then, that's true to the era. The swatches on the MAC website are useless, and unfortunately I no longer own a tube, but I shall keep looking for photos. My cursory Google search turned up a good Flickr photo of a woman wearing it; her colouring is similar to mine.
Similar shades: MAC So Chaud (practically the same colour as Lady Danger, so I have no idea why they sell both), Julie Hewett Belle Noir (which is what I currently own). The brightest orange-red I've ever seen is NARS Heat Wave, but I think you need a tan and a serious attitude to pull that one off; on me it's hideous.
True-but-warm red: Ah, Guerlain. You've produced such beautiful, classic perfumes; whatever possessed you to name a line of lipsticks "KissKiss" and put them in this tastelessly bling-y packaging? (It doesn't look so bad in this photo, but bear in mind, it's large, and this is what it looks like with the cap on. Some people like it, but to me it's very LOOK AT MY EXPENSIVE MAKEUP.) Never mind. Sexy Tango ($29) is a beautiful, flattering red, not nearly as dark as it looks in the tube but not overpoweringly bright, with just enough orange, brown and rose to make it wearable for someone with warm undertones. The texture is balm-like, not dry, and the staying power is surprisingly good. I ordered mine from StrawberryNet, since Canadian retail prices are absurd.
If I had to pick one red to live with, it would be either this or MAC Chili, another matte lipstick in a beautiful bright brick red. Again, MAC's own swatches are crap, so here's a very unglamorous photo of my own tube.
Similar shades: MAC Lady Bug, NARS Manhunt and Flamenco. All three of those shades are slightly cooler than Sexy Tango; I find them slightly too cool (yes!), but most women probably won't.
Dark red: I think Julie Hewett's Noir lipsticks ($22.50) are excellent, as highly pigmented as MAC's Mattes but smoother and less drying, and the tubes are gold-tone packaging done right, not too large or heavily ornamented. Coco Noir is as close to dark, gothic red as I care to go (which is to say, not very). The website sells it as a red for women who think they can't wear red, which I don't understand, because although it's fairly neutral, it's a strong colour, even on women with darker skintones than mine (see The Non-Blonde's review). If you think you can't wear red you should probably pick a more toned-down shade, something with a lot of rose or brown in it, and apply it lightly until you get used to the strength of the colour. Dain has recommended Bésame Red Velvet, which I can't try because I refuse to pay $18-$25 in shipping charges for one tiny lipstick(!?!?!), but I'd suggest experimenting with MAC or Lipstick Queen lipsticks; each line has a great number of variations on red, including several softer, more toned-down shades.
Incidentally, Julie Hewett's lipsticks are available in Canada through Essential Day Spa, and the prices are not stupidly marked up.
Similar shades: Sue Devitt's Great Australian Bight is very similar in tone to Coco Noir, but browner and not as heavily pigmented. NARS Velvet Matte lip pencil in Forbidden Red is described as "brick red," but it's more of a ruby on me, slightly more orange than Coco Noir and not as deep.
Labels: beauty notes, guerlain, julie hewett, mac
8/24/2008 [8]
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