Storage Week! Perfumes with Laurin ...

Storage week continues, and today we're highlighting Laurin's perfume collection.  Probably best you don't show this one to your maiden aunty, now we come to think of it ....

My beauty storage is what you might term "organised chaos". I know exactly where everything is, in my mind at least. In my current flat, I'm lucky enough to have my own bathroom (albeit in two halves) and I recently moved all my cosmetics from the bedroom to bathroom as I felt the lighting was better (on second thought, it isn't, but I'm moving again soon and I really can't be bothered to drag it all back). Storage is an unsophisticated combination of an over-the-door shoe organiser and a gift with purchase make-up bag. I felt pretty fancy when I picked up some brush canisters from Muji recently. There is also a wicker basket for palette storage. Like I said, FANCY.

 

At last count, I had about eighty bottles of perfume, which technically means I never need buy another bottle as long as I live. In reality, it means I never need buy another bottle this month. Probably. Unless I have some points on my Debenhams Beauty Club Card and there's a sale. I like seeing it all in one place, so I'm afraid I store it out of its boxes (but never in the bathroom, and never in direct sunlight). Currently it resides on the top of my wardrobe, and I am forever rearranging to make room for more. 

It's roughly organised by house, although I couldn't resist giving my two penis-shaped perfumes their own little corner. What do you mean, you don't own any penis perfumes?

Click to enlarge, but not if you're easily scared/shocked/aroused

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Guerlain L'Homme Ideal

I have said this before of Guerlain, but they really don’t like to rush fragrances out. It’s been nigh on 6 years since they released a men’s fragrance. I may be overstepping the mark here, but I often feel Guerlain doesn’t get a fair slice of attention, and this really is a shame.

Guerlain, despite having been around since the dawn of time it seems, are still relatively new to me.  It’s only recently that I have discovered that they are quite the place to go for assured quality and proper attention to detail when it comes to practically everything they do.  Even their packaging is to die for.  I am a big fan of pretty much everything, from skincare, to makeup, and certainly their fragrances.  And you should be too. They already have a stellar line up of men’s offerings that many have grown up with, and like me, some people are discovering only now.

Many of them have stood the test of time, classics such as Vetiver, Habit Rouge, and the more modern and very flirty L’eau Boisee (easily a second date fragrance if ever there was one), and I think this is testament to their integrity as far as taking time to make sure it is right before setting it free upon the masses.  The same level of attention to detail and time has clearly been taken over their newest release for blokes, which is the L’Homme Ideal (Ideal Man, obvs).  Thierry Wasser is always a bit of an innovator, and he doesn’t seem to shy away from this here either.

The top notes are rosemary and citrus, giving it the kick it needs to really launch it, but they don’t last long, as most citruses don’t on me. Not to worry though, the best is yet to come.  Now, reading the press release (as with most that are associated with men’s products) they are keen to let you know that this is a ‘masculine’ fragrance in every sentence.  So the irony of it containing nuts is somewhat of a macho giggle. Stop yourself; the nuts that I’m talking about here are almonds.  At its heart there is an ‘amaretto’ note that gives the fragrance a beautiful dry, almost sandy feel to it, not at all sweet, and it doesn’t disappear into the marzipan end of the almond-scale.  This is accompanied by sugar cane and the increasingly present tonka bean.  It really is almost good enough to eat, and a very, sexy smell indeed. Almonds. Who knew?! The only thing is, it doesn’t project terribly well on me.  But, it does last a fair while. So you’ll have to invite people to get closer to smell it.

The bottle itself is also rather fabulous.  A faceted square cut gem, surrounded by a lacquered band of black.  It almost looks like a very smart men’s watch, which is also mirrored in the cap which has the look of a dial.  The box is also a hero.  On the monochrome front, the very classic silver and black letters all merge into each other to read ‘No need to be L’Homme Ideal anymore. You have your fragrance.’

Well, that’s a relief for us all then isn’t it.


L’Homme Ideal is out September 1st Nationwide, and starts from £48 for a 50ml EDT.

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Storage Week! Tindara

The increasingly mis-named Storage "Week" continues (sorry about that), and today we have Tindara showing you her drawers, Wednesday has Laurin showing us her ... er ... rather unorthodox perfume collection, and Friday will bring you Pro-Makeup Artist Luke showing us how we should really do it (or not ... you decide!).  Our editor, Louise, will be showing you hers next week, as she needs some time to tidy up.  Allegedly.

Anyhoo, over to Tindara:

Recently, I’ve been binge watching Orange is the New Black. It’s fantastically entertaining, really well written and also pretty funny with some proper great female characters. And another thing that I really love about it is that those women love their beauty and want to keep doing it despite their circumstances. All the way through, though, I couldn’t help wondering how the hell they stored their contraband stuff.

I love my storage paraphanalia, and tend to go as nuts in Muji as I do in a beauty hall. Their PP storage baskets are ideal for compartmentalising your haul. I also use their acrylic storage for lipsticks and glosses etc. I even recycle old Eucerin Hyaluron Filler Concentrate lids as liner/mascara pots, they’re clear plastic circular containers that would be good for brushes too, and since I use this product all the time, I assume I will always have lots. Recycling containers is useful, don’t spend money on new when that little rectangular thing that used to house cotton buds is exactly right for all your chunky lip pens.

As you can see my dressing table is pretty crowded. All my perfume, jewellery, daily skincare, current nail polishes and this week’s make-up are piled up on here. But believe it or not, it’s in some order. My fave things are my Muji clear jewellery box and the knock off Eames hang-it-all for my necklaces. Clearly, I need a larger dressing table; I’m working on it, but I’m also really fussy and am waiting for the perfect vintage piece to turn up. In the mean time, the drawers are pretty organised.

The first is blushers, lipsticks, eyeliners and mascaras.

The second is skincare and perfume samples, beauty tools, essential oils, glitters, eyeshadows, nail polishes and wraps.

The third drawer contains, glasses paraphanalia, hair accessories and brushes, and scarves.

I also have an excellent IKEA Lillangen tall slim bathroom cupboard in my hall with more Muji acrylic storage dividers inside for hair and body products, hair dryers and straightening/curling irons, brushes and rollers etc.  My husband gets a shelf here and a little more room in the small bathroom cabinet that has a few travel size toiletries, tweezers, wax strips, stuff I might need in the bathroom basically. Dunelm Mill do a great extendable bathroom caddy for shampoos and shower gels and we also have this in our bathroom. By my bed I have night creams oils and balms and a bag containing all my mani/pedi tools.

And that’s about it. My dream is a bathroom with amazing floor to ceiling storage built in. One day, grasshopper, one day. In the meantime I have a ‘mid century chest of drawers with mirror’ alert on ebay and a serious Muji habit.

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Storage Week! Nails ...

We're a nosy bunch here at Get Lippie, so when we were mulling over makeup storage recently, our editor requested - nay, demanded - we all get out collections out for the lads, as it were.  So this week, sit back and enjoy perving over total strangers' makeup collections.  On the internet.

We're kicking the week off with Emily, our nail-obsessed newest addition to the team:

Disaster struck this week in the form of me returning to the gym for the first time in FOREVER and donning my boxing gloves again. Of course I had forgotten that long nails and boxing don't mix and an hour later I had broken pretty much every goddam nail, resulting in me having to cut them incredibly short.

I KNEW exercise was bad for you.

So, while my nails are pretty much out of action I thought I'd share my DIY nail storage solution with you. Now, my collection isn't HUGE (yet) but probably bigger than average and I got rather fed up with various boxes and bottles lying around my flat and never being able to find the colour I wanted. IKEA came to the rescue in the form of this set of storage drawers, which of course I painted in pretty pastels and embellished with pearls. Because, why not?

I have a drawer for everything: cotton wool and buds (the pointy ended ones which are great for tidying up), a multitude of files, clippers and such like and then one for nail stickers and embellishments. I used to travel to Japan for work a lot and always paid a visit to Tokyo Hands (AKA - the best shop in the world) to stock up on cute nail stickers...these doggy and rabbit ones are my favourites, I can't bring myself to actually use them.

The middle drawers house my nail art pens, brushes and larger sets (such as Ciate's awesome if short-lived Caviar and Velvet manicure sets) and then finally the bottom drawer houses all my polishes, in colour order, from reds through to glitters and top-coats. Geeky I know but it means I can find the colour I'm after pretty quickly!

So that's my DIY nail storage solution...though i'm pretty sure I'm going to need a bigger box sometime soon!  How do you store your nail goodies?

Emily

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Everyday Essentials: Dove Advanced Hair Series - Pure Care Dry Oil

By Get Lippie

I just can't get that excited about expensive hair care, I'm afraid. Give me a £36 lipstick, or a £250 perfume, and I can justify that to myself (not so much my bank manager, admittedly), but a £30 shampoo?  Something that just goes down the drain?  Man, I have a hard time thinking about that.  Ironically, a £20 shower gel (something else that just gets sluiced away), I can get excited about.  Rational?  Logical?  Not really, but, you know, no one ever became a beauty blogger because they were entirely rational about things.

Anyhoo, Dove have recently released their Advanced Hair Series, in three different types.  Oxygen Moisture for creating volume in fine, flat hair, Youthful Vitality for  ... er ... more mature hair types and Pure Care Dry Oil which gives moisture and nourishment to dry and treated hair.  I've been using the Pure Care Dry Oil range for a little while now, and it ticks all my haircare boxes, cheap (£5.99 to £9.99 at the time of writing) simple, and - most importantly - effective.

There's a whole bunch of science behind the Dove Advanced Hair series, which I had explained to me, and now can't remember, but essentially, what it boils down to is that Dove spend a lot on their R&D, and in this range, it shows.  In the Pure Care range, there's a shampoo, conditioner, mask and an oil.

You know how some shampoos leave your hair really rough during washing, and you desperately need conditioner to smooth it back down again?  Well, I've found that washing with the Dove Dry oil shampoo leaves my hair really soft, and feeling like it has already been conditioned.  As my hair currently has plans to take over the planet in this humidity, I've never tried not using the conditioner (anything to keep it tamed, ANYTHING), but I find that the shampoo and conditioner together definitely leave my hair soft and shiny, and less frizzy than usual.  The mask is good too for those weeks when my hair is dryer than usual.  I love the oil, I use it every time I wash, as it's perfect for those of us with slightly unruly locks, it beats down frizz, and helps keep things under control.

Infused with pomegranate and macademia oils, the range has an unexpectedly beige formula which is refreshing in this age of pearlised white haircare formulas, and it has a pleasant and (in the nicest possible way) inoffensive scent which won't clash with any of your body products or fragrances.

So yes, cheap and cheerful and effective, what more could you want in your shampoo?

The Fine Print: PR samples initially, but repurchases since.

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