Getting Lippy: Givenchy Le Rouge in #204 Rose Boudoir

(I bought this a couple of months ago now, but I’m going to consider it new as I didn’t have this blog then, and it’s still a relatively new addition to my lipstick collection.)

I love everything about this lipstick.

I must admit, this was an impulse buy when I was indulging in a bit of retail therapy. Curiously, I’m not big on retail therapy — no matter how much stuff I purchase, I tend to think it through quite a lot before I go for it. I guess this was still a little true with this spontaneous purchase, as I have been wanting a Givenchy lipstick for a long time.

I made a beeline for the Givenchy counter the minute I was in Sephora, and was in and out in about 10 minutes.

I tried three different lipsticks on, and I just fell for this one immediately. It glides on, and feels wonderful on the lips. It doesn’t dry my lips out or settle into cracks or dry patches. I don’t have dry lips in general, but even on the days when I do, I’m comfortable picking this one up.

(After I’d taken the picture and uploaded it to my computer, I realised I hadn’t applied my lipstick perfectly, but I was too lazy to do it again. You get the idea.)

I love the colour — it feels vibrant and summery without being neon or flashy, which I must admit I shy away from. I like the pop it gives to the face, and it brightens my entire look up. I also love that it’s different from the colour I usually go for, which is a “your lips but better” colour, either slightly deeper or rosier than my natural lip colour.

The price tag is pretty hefty, there’s no denying that. But I love the texture, colour, and the packaging is divine. It was a wonderful little splurge.

Stylin’: Outfit of the Day

I can’t emphasise how simple my daily style is. I go comfort over style every time. There are pieces in my wardrobe that I really love, but rarely wear because when I wake up grumpy, I don’t want to put the effort in. I know some people say dressing the part will perk them up, but I’m a stubborn old git and if I’m feeling grumpy, sleepy or tired, I just want to throw on any old thing and head out.

Unfortunately, seeing as I work as a journalist there are days I can’t do that. If I’m out at press conferences, interviews, or at events, I need to be semi-respectable. Some days I work from the office, but I often don’t know when I’ll suddenly have to head out to cover something. Short of the long: I can’t go to work in jeans and a t-shirt — although I have refused to give up my jeans.

Here I opted for quite a simple outfit that I think was both comfortable and looked good. The top is really soft and light, which is great for summer. It’s from a Kuwaiti brand called Riva. I’m wearing a simple green tank top from New Look underneath it, as it’s quite short in the front and I’d be flashing my midriff constantly otherwise. My jeans are straight cut jeans from Evans.

Like most days, I didn’t have any make up on today. I was wearing an emerald-green scarf from Origem as my hijab to match the green tank underneath the top.

My shoes are from Payless, and are a quilted white with black tips. I slip into these pretty often, and even though I’ve only had them a few months, I think I’m already beginning to wear them out. They’re comfortable, and that’s my main concern with footwear.

I was using my Rebecca Minkoff Swing bag, and I tired not to pack it to the brim.

For accessories, I was wearing this vintage gold Raymond Weil watch and a gold ring with an emerald stone. The watch is actually my grandmother’s, and I think it’s about 30 years old, from one of their first collections. She gave it to my father at some point, and he gave it to me a couple of years ago. I love the history behind it and I love how simple it is. A lot of my favourite jewellery used to belong to my grandmother. Although she owned a few pieces that I didn’t like, she mostly had amazing taste in jewellery.

Even though this ring isn’t usually my style, I treasure it. An aunt on my dad’s side bought it for me at a time when she couldn’t really afford it. I know she saved up for a while to be able to get me something, and I find that enormously touching and really appreciate it. I had it on today so that the stone could match my scarf and tank.

That’s all! I don’t know if outfit of the day is something people would want to continue seeing? Please let me know if you do, so that I keep doing them. As I said, I don’t imagine myself to be any kind of fashionista, so I hope it’s alright.

Throwback: What’s In My Bag

I’ve been scribbling a lot of ideas for posts, and it crossed my mind that before I even considered starting a beauty blog, I used to take “what’s in my bag” photographs. I’ve been doing it since the end of 2009, so I thought it would make for a nice “throwback” post. I think it shows what’s changed in that time. I’ve picked six different ones, ranging from the beginning of 2010 to the second half of 2012. This is actually also a great sneak peak into my handbag collection, as a lot of them are featured here.

This bag was my first Coach purchase, and it remains one of my favourite bags from them. I just love how elegant it is, and I’m a sucker for this shade of tan in bags. It’s not a bag I reach for often anymore, but I really should remedy that.

I always carry a book around with me — looks like I was reading Neil Gaiman’s Stardust at the time of this picture. I was going to the salon, so I had a magazine to flip through (old magazines drive me crazy!) and I’d packed my OPI nail polish in ‘Jade is the New Black’ for my mani-pedi. My purse was from Burberry (I love it and had saved up for months to buy it!), my signature Chanel Coco Mademoiselle fragrance, my phone, earphones, painkillers, and a compact camera.

It’s pretty telling that there’s no make up in this bag. I still don’t wear much make up, but I think around this time of this picture I’d only worn make up three or four times that entire year.

I think I’d just recently bought this classic Longchamp bag when I took this picture. Several of my friends had them, and I just lusted after it. I finally got it in this lovely navy, and I ended up using it a lot at university — it eventually got a couple of holes poked through it because I kept chucking heavy books in it!

My purse was from Coach, a purchase I remember I got at a 40% off sale. I seem to have been using Burberry London for my fragrance, which is still a scent I love. I think I repurchased it two or three times before trying other scents. I’m sure I’ll buy it again in the future. I’m carrying two phones because the iPhone was locked on my UK account, and I was in Bahrain at the time so I needed a Bahrain number. The sunglasses are from Police, and I remember getting them at the Duty Free because I actually had no sunglasses at that point.

I was also taking a French class, hence the French dictionary, and I was reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover (one of my favourite books in the world). Once again, no make up in this bag!

This handbag is from Marc Jacobs, and is something I would have never bought myself. The elder of my two younger brothers got it for me as a birthday gift that year. I now love it, and use it quite a lot. Once again, I’m using my Coach purse.

The fragrance I’m using here is Chanel Chance, which my youngest brother got for me as a gift. It’s the reformulated scent, which I’m glad about, because the original Chance doesn’t really float my boat.

The bracelet you can spot in the right corner is a souvenir from Istanbul that my friend Carly and I got when we took a trip there. I was also reading Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (it had just come out, so I it gives me a good idea of when this photograph was taken!). And there’s finally something resembling make up in this bag, which is my lip balm.

My bag here is a leather satchel from Ollie & Nic that I really, really like. It’s got such an old-time academic feel to it, but has a lovely embossing on the flap that lifts it. The leather has already begun to age, and I think it looks great.

Up top on the left you have the book I was reading, Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, as well as a corner of my Kindle in its cover. I had just gotten it recently (as a gift from my father) and was still hesitant about how much I’d like it. I also have my mini Moleskine that I carried everywhere, my Burberry purse and a cheap make up bag from New Look.

And finally, in this bag (picture taken in March last year), you see some make up sneaking it. It’s true to life, too, as around February/March last year I rekindled my love for make up, although I still didn’t wear it very much. Included in the photograph is my first foundation love, Chanel’s Teint Innocence, Chanel Rogue Allure lipstick in Silhouette, Chanel Chance (can you tell I’m a Chanel fan?!), Vaseline lip blam, Soap & Glory Hand Maid hand sanitizer and Hand Food hand lotion, as well as some blotting paper and floss.

My Burberry handbag makes an appearance! I love this bag. It’s one of those where the circumstances converge to make things possible — I saved up a lot to get it, it was on sale, and I think I got the one of the last two still on the shelf. I really love it, and despite owning it for three or four years now, it’s still a bag I use all the time. I got it in a classic, signature style so that I could be sure that it wouldn’t suddenly be dated!

I’m also using my Burberry purse, along with Chanel Chance, some mints, a toothbrush, my Kindle and a Ted Baker make up bag stuffed to the brim.

In the bag is: Chanel Le Crayon Khol in #61 Noir, MUA clear mascara, Estée Lauder Lipgloss in #31 Wild Lilac, Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer, Molton Brown Protecting Vitamin Lipsaver, Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle, Soap & Glory lipstick in Perfect Day, Molton Brown Eau de Toliette in Cool Buchu, eye drops, MAC Tendertone lip balm in Hot ‘n’ Saucy, Soap & Glory Hand Maid hand sanitizer, painkillers.

As you can see, my obsession with make up increased enormously. It has to be noted, though, that the reason for the ridiculous number of lip products is because I chucked in the one I was using that day into my bag, and I only cleared out the other ones about once a week.

The bag here is from Moschino. I’m also carrying my Ted Baker make up bag (which I then passed on to my friend Zoë because she loved it, so I don’t have the same one anymore!), Burberry purse, notebook with a picture of Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart on the cover, reading Byatt’s Possession, my Kindle, and Soap & Glory Hand Food.

In the make up bag, I have Soap & Glory Great Kisser lip balm in Peach, Dior Addict Lipgloss in Tailored Mauve No. 692, Revlon Lip Butter in Pink Truffle, Soap & Glory lipstick in Perfect Day, MAC Tendertone lip balm in Hot ‘n’ Saucy, Molton Brown Protecting Vitamin Lipsaver, Molton Brown Eau de Toliette in Cool Buchu, Givenchy powder, EcoTools retractable kabuki brush, Soap & Glory Daily Double, an eyeshadow/eyeliner, No. 7 Poppy King lip crayon, Chanel Le Crayon Khol in #61 Noir and Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer.

Again, a TON of products. It’s especially ridiculous if you knew how little I actually used them. I always wanted to have them in case I had to suddenly put some make up on — but at the time I was at uni, living in a small town, and could easily pop back into my flat to put some make up on. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Hopefully when I do updated “what’s in my bag” posts, we’ll see what I carry around now.

New Buys: Candles

I always stock up on Bath & Body Works candles when they have a big sale. These were all reduced 50% to 60%. As soon as I realised I like the scents, I bought a couple of spare ones. I don’t think I’ve paid full-price for one of their candles in quite a while! It does mean that sometimes I miss ones I want (there was London Bridge candle that smelled like tea and lemon and I was smitten, but it sold out before the sale). My mum really loves the Garden Bouquet candle, so one of these is being passed onto her. I just really like how fresh they are, just great for summer when the scents I usually love are a little too heavy.

New Buys: Dubai Loot

(This is a bit of a long post! I did include lots of pictures though.)

I went to Dubai a few weeks ago to visit a friend, and we spent a fair amount of time in Dubai Mall. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s absolutely enormous and contains most of the shops you’d possibly want. I went knowing I’d spend some money and had saved up. I also wanted to treat myself, so I don’t feel bad about buying any of these.

I’ll start with the biggest purchase I made:

I have been after a new black bag for a little while. I’ve been looking around, but I wanted something semi-reasonable (ie. not the Mulberry that I have been lusting over for the past six years) and I kept coming back to Rebecca Minkoff. I think for a designer, her handbags are well-constructed, elegant, and reasonably priced. I focused on the MAC, because I have the mini-MAC in red and love it. However, it’s too small (for my personal day-to-day use), and I wanted something in black.

We don’t have Rebecca Minkoff in Bahrain, so when we walked into Bloomingdale’s in Dubai Mall, I went to have a look. I was in for a stroke of good luck, as it turned out there was a sale on. The MAC, which they had, was not on sale. However, this baby was:

The Rebecca Minkoff Swing bag. I’ll do a full review on the bag soon (with a “what’s in my bag”), but suffice to say that I really liked it, and for 20% off (I can’t recall perfectly, it may have been 25%) it turned out to be cheaper. I also reasoned that I have the Mini MAC, so I don’t really need the MAC.

This is everything else that I bought.

I got quite a few things from Lush, since we don’t have one in Bahrain. I also bought a box of mini-mints (to the amusement of the store attendant), a couple of products from Bath & Body Works, an eyeshadow palette from Urban Decay and a couple of Dior products from the Duty Free.

I’ll start with the Lush products. I’ve been wanting to try their Big shampoo for a while, since my hair has been acting up a lot lately. I also picked up their Rehab shampoo, which is filled with essential oils and is meant to be good for the hair. I’ve been after a good lip scrub, and I’ve heard good things about the Lush ones. The only thing that’s disappointing is their scents. They have three, and they’re all far too sweet for me. I picked Popcorn Lip Scrub because it was the one that annoyed me the least! I thought the Flying Fox shower gel smelled heavenly, and I liked the freshness from their Dirty soap. It might look like I’ve bought three bars of Dirty soap, but I haven’t! I got 100g, which was the smallest amount you could get. I just thought it made quite a big bar of soap, so I asked the attendant to slice it up into three bars so that I could ration using it. I’ll try and do reviews of them soon.

I also made four very exciting make up purchases. These are all products I’ve been wanting and I’m really glad I have my hands on them! Clockwise from left: Christian Dior Diorskin Nude BB Creme in #2, Maybelline Babylips in Quenched, Dior lipgloss in #223 Angelique and the Urban Decay Naked Basics palette.

I’ll post reviews for each of them, but I’ll run through why I wanted them quickly. The Naked Basics palette caught my eye the minute they released it. It looked so simple, but I know Urban Decay eyeshadows are amazing quality, and I loved that they were all matte shades with one highlight. Once again, we don’t have Urban Decay in Bahrain, so I specifically went looking for it in Dubai. The Maybelline lip balm I bought purely because I needed a lip balm with an SPF (this one has SPF 20) as the summer is hell on my skin. Finally, on my way to Dubai I was wandering around the Duty Free and headed to the Dior counter. I have seen people rave about the Dior BB Creme, and just wanted to have a look. I fell for it completely, and the fact that the Duty Free is 30% cheaper than the stores just pushed me over the edge. As for the lip gloss, I love their formulations, and I liked this one didn’t have a ton of shimmer in it.

These were both from Bath & Body Works. They had a sale and it was something like 60% off, so I thought I’d give them a try. I’ve set the hand cream aside for now as I’m finishing off another one first.

I was disappointed by the body cream. Maybe it’s because I don’t use a lot of body butters/creams in general, but the texture of this product was so rich and thick that I found I had to really put an effort into working it into my skin. I also could feel it afterwards, which is not a sensation I personally enjoy. I like creams to sink in quite quickly, and not leave much tackiness or grease. I will definitely give it another chance, though. We’ll see how it goes.

Have you bought anything recently? Have you tried any of these items? If so, what did or didn’t you like about them?