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I’ve been playing around with a few new formats for things, recently, so here’s a “New This Week” post that’s sorted a little differently than usual.
Feel free to let me know what you think of it in the comments, or just quietly peruse the beauty launches that have caught my eye this month!
The shade: I have to admit, Pêche Cerra-Colla isn’t exactly my usual shade. A slightly pinked peach, it has a blissfully shimmer-free finish, and fades to a soft, super-sheer tangerine.
A solid “medium” in both opacity and depth, this peach Glossy Stain is darker than my bare lips, but creates a very natural effect — far from bold or brash, it delivers good colour while still maintaining a wonderful visual translucence. Though the touch of pink makes this wearable on my cool, pale complexion, I can see it creating a beautiful “my lips but peachier” shade for warmer skintones, too.
The application: Like many bright, translucent stains, Pêche Cerra-Colla applies with a milky finish that soon disappears (think Benefit Posietint, but better). The applicator is a thin, slanted doe-foot, and it distributes the perfect amount of product for an even, glossy lip.
It’s not your typical applicator, but that only makes me like it more. The thin profile keeps you from picking up too much product, and the shape makes it easy to both apply product quickly & get right into the corners and edges of the lip.
Swatched L-R: YSL (1) Volupté Sheer Candy in No. 12 Tasty Raspberry, (2) Glossy Stain in No. 27 Pêche Cerra-Colla, (3) Glossy Stain, sheered out
The wear: The internet is a crazy place, but they get some things right… one of them being that YSL’s Glossy Stains are awesome.
Lightweight and relatively non-sticky, even a sheer shade like Pêche Cerra-Colla wears for ages: I can get a solid five hours with a glossy finish (if I don’t eat or drink anything), and a few more with just a light stain. While not hydrating, it’s reasonably comfortable for a solid 5-6 hours, even on my dry lips – as long as there’s still a tacky finish, the Glossy Stain formula is incredibly easy to wear.
L-R: YSL Framboise Craquante, Pêche Cerra-Colla heavily/sheerly
YSL Pêche Cerra-Colla Glossy Stain – stains
Like almost everyone else who has tried out a YSL Glossy Stain, I’m pretty smitten with them. While I could do without the added fragrance, the Rouge Pur Couture Vernis à Lèvres Glossy Stains (what a mouthful!) pair fantastic wear time with ease-of-use, comfort, and a fantastic shade range. They’re as easy to apply and wear as a gloss, but you get the extra-long wear time of a stain, too.
Availability:$34 USD/$36 CAD. Pêche Cerra-Colla was new this January with YSL’s Arty Stone Spring 2013 collection, but is now part of the permanent line.
A launches from the past few weeks…
More importantly, Clinique just launched their Cinique ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Nail Color ($16 USD). I think I speak for all of us when I say, “excuse me, but what?!” because I honestly did not see this one coming at all.
I don’t know if I should be incredibly pleased or extremely freaked out, but these 21 shades are available now alongside an ‘A Different Nail Enamel’ Top & Base Coat (also $16 USD).
Clinique 70s and Sunny, Really Rio, & Juiced Up
Clinique Fizzy, Indie Rock, & Made of Steel
So, I wrote a fifteen page paper earlier this week on prefrontal cortical damage and its intersection with tactical communications, mostly between the hours of eleven at night on Tuesday and two in the afternoon on Wednesday.
I’m still kind of dazed.
Despite the lack of sleep I’ve been getting this term, though, I think I’ve been presenting a pretty glowy base… but maybe my perpetually-dry skin just has me biased. Either way, L’Occitane’s limited edition facial spray has been high, high up on the list of things I’ve been loving!
What it is: Part of L’Occitane’s Immortelle Brightening range, the Brightening Mist is an alcohol-free toner & make-up setting spray. It’s enriched–of course–with floral water from the Immortelle flower, an anti-ageing “golden sun” (Helichrysum arenarium) sourced by L’Occitane from the island of Corsica.
Also formulated with Bellis Perennis (a common European species of daisy), the range is made to increase collagen production, protect against free radicals, and reduce the appearance of pigmentation marks.
A quick snap from this bright blue eyeliner tutorial — glowing skin courtesy of the Immortelle mist!
What makes it great is not the marketing or fancy-schmancy ingredients, however. Nope, it’s something much more simple than that: the packaging. Solidly housed in the Immortelle range’s white, yellow, and blue uniform, this mist is easy to aim, spray, and diffuse – no awkward spluttering in sight.
Decent facial sprays are actually pretty easy to find, but functional, utilitarian packaging – that’s a little harder to come by, if you ask me.
I hate recommending limited edition skincare, but I have to say — I’m pretty darn pleased with this one. I think the fragrance (floral; a natural and synthetic blend) could be a little lighter, but my dry skin absolutely loves this water-and-glycerine formula!
All in all, I’m not too broken up about the fact that this isn’t in the permanent range. I like it, of course, and I think it does a great job of setting makeup and leaving skin glowing… but I think what I really love about it is the dense, even mist (and pretty-but-simple packaging).
Availability: $20 USD/$22 CAD for 100ml, limited edition.
Oh, corals. The taupes of the lip colour world, coral hues are almost as hard to identify as Nemo in a sea of tiny clownfish. One person’s coral is another’s apricot, or peach, or pink — they sit just in that lovely spectrum between peach and pink, making them wonderfully flattering but oh-so-hard to define.
That said, though, this month’s Lipstick Bandit collaboration features just that: corals.
I don’t actually own a proper coral lip product (that I know of) at the moment, so I layered two products to get something in the neighbourhood. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough — and it’s comfortable and long-wearing, to boot.
This lip features a thin layer of a YSL Glossy Stain in Corail Alla Prima, a new permanent Vernis à Lèvres from this Summer’s Saharienne Heat collection. Despite being described as a “dazzling coral” (and being named accordingly), I wasn’t crazy about this new permanent shade’s orange-heavy intensity — it’s gorgeous, but it still kinda feels too early in the year, you know?
Anyhow; after blotting (to get rid of the high-impact gloss but keep the medium-sheer stain of colour), I added a layer of–what else?–a Clinique Chubby Stick to tone down the shade. This pinky beauty is Mighty Mimosa, and despite how sheer the original-formula Chubby Sticks tend to be, it did a great job toning down the warmth of Corail Alla Prima.
I think the Glossy Stain would make a great coral on a darker, warmer skintone, but without the Chubby Stick to pink things up a little, it was just a bit too much on me. I’ll definitely give it another try with my “summer goggles” on (they’re like beer goggles, but better beauty), but I might just be a little too cool-toned for it!
SKIN
theBalm timeBalm Concealer in Lighter Than Light, $18 USD
Clinique Gradient Powder Blusher in Black Honey (review & swatches)
EYES
Anastasia Beverly Hills Bold & Beautiful Kit: Vol. 2 Beautiful Eyes, $36 USD
Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Trio in Nude Eyes (glitter black only), $11.99 USD
Annabelle Expandable Mascara, $10.99 CAD
LIPS
YSL Vernis À Lèvres Glossy Stain in 31 Corail Alla Prima, $34 USD/$36 CAD
Clinique Chubby Stick in 13 Mighty Mimosa, $16 USD/$19 CAD
