Fragrances -L'Artisan Fragrances - Seville a l'Aube
Gother 11/21/2012 1:23:00 AM
The notes list is tantalizing and I had great expectations about a fragrance from a house that usually makes great fumes (namely, La Chasse, Jour de Fete, Timbuktu and the amazing incense that is Passage d'Enfer). I love orange blossom and I especially love Beeswax, not per se, but for the way it adds solidity and consistency to any fragrance where it appears. Smelling it, on the other way, was slightly deceiving: after the triumphant start of fresh orange flowers mixed with lavender, the notes of incense started to appear and to make the mix aethereal and just a tad mysterious, not girly. After that, the beeswax made its entrance and I almost felt the fragrance melting like a church candle into something warmer and deeper, not unpleasant, but I couldn't avoid the association: Orange Blossom + Beeswax = Yankee Candle OK, a Yankee Candle that I would respect and maybe buy in bulks for my house, but not wear as a personal scent. The only possible salvation is that I tried this fragrance in the late fall and I guess this is better suited for springtime, so I'm waiting for the next spring to come and give it another try, expecting the beeswax to feel less heavy and the orange blossom more cheerful and light.
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Concealers -Clinique - All About Eyes Concealer
Gother 10/8/2012 7:57:00 AM
I used to be a big fan of Clinique All about eyes back in the days when I could still afford to rely on that alone (I need something heavier and hardest working at forty). I had high expectations for this concealer claiming to come from the same line, as I have very dark and definite circles under my eyes. Unfortunately, this concealer didn't satisfy me: it does cor, and it does cover VERY WELL, but there has to be a downside to this perfect coverage and it is that the cream is so thick that it gets chalky once you put another product on top of it, whether it is foundation (let alone a compact one like mine), powder blush or powder. I like that it comes in a tube, because it is the best solution that comes to my mind when I think about hygienic issues: it's definitely better than any kind of internal wand or attached brush (Touche Eclat style). But it would have been better if the tube was not anonymously transparent. In short, I could love this product, but I must be extremely careful when I apply it and when I combine it with other products, or I'll look like I've covered my circles with mud.
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Lipstick -Lancome - Rouge in Love
Gother 10/6/2012 1:46:00 PM
I own this lovely lipstick in two shades (but they're soon to be in a larger company!): 353M "Roses in love" and 240M "Roses en dashabillé". First let me tell you that I initially bought the first tube because of the packaging: it's simply adorable, silver satiny with tiny red stitches and lettering, quite like anything else in the market. Then I love the texture and the great staying power, which is quite strange because long staying lipsticks usually turn my lips dry, but not this one. As for colours, there are a lot and the letter in the color number stands for the part of the day when it's better to wear it (which is quite relative, anyway!). M= matin, morning, B= Boudoir time (evening) and N=nuit (night), et voilà we've learnt some French along with our nice little tubes. I must admit I'm not totally crazy about the colors as I am for the Chanel ones: the lancomes are somewhat flatter, less multidimensional. But there are quite a bunch that are clearly worth a try.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Liquid -Chanel - Vitalumiere Aqua
Gother 10/3/2012 1:06:00 AM
So far I've always loved Chanel foundations and I've used some FBs of Vitalumiere and some compact foundations. I've been trying a sample for the last 3 days (a sample lasts a lifetime to me) and I found a perfect colour match (#44 Beige Ambré). I love its consistency more than the original Aqualumiere: it really is a lightweight fluid, yet it covers perfectly (or at least, as perfectly as I want my foundations to cover before I look like a mask). I also like that it comes with a SPF 15, which is OK for winter, although I can't understand how such a light fluid can have a SPF inside. Only negative side is, I expected a more elegant bottle, in traditional square glass. I suspect this product targets a young public, therefore saving on costly packaging. I definitely recommend this one.
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Fragrances -Creed - Love in White
Gother 10/1/2012 1:01:00 PM
My mom has her own special theory that for flowers to be grown rich and blooming they need to be nourished with love, too. I guess there is much love behind the (mostly white) flowers in Love in White, because it's simply beaming with splendour, like the tender orange light filtering from a semi opened, white courtained window on a peaceful May morning. The fragile beauty of jasmine flowers arises from a perfectly arranged bouquet of narcissus, magnolia, a very subtle rose and an incredible iris and the concrete presence of rice powder in the background announce an Italian wedding (they use to throw rice to newlyweds in Italy as a symbol of luck, fertiliyy and well being and the vision of the couple showered by white grains falling is simply poetic). I imagine this fragrance is the bride, she is gorgeous and you can't help but think how lucky that man can be, who'll be able to count on a woman with so much love and strength. True love must be tender and strong to prosper and grow wiser, the way a white flower will boldly face the cold morning breeze to protect its secret fragrance as long as it's safe for it to explode magically.
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Fragrances -Annick Goutal - Eau De Charlotte
Gother 9/30/2012 4:55:00 AM
It's a damp and melancholic February morning in a French village and a charming elegant woman in her peach trench and light blue loafers opens the door of her pretty patisserie and sets a cream and pink pot of lily and mimosa flowers, the early messengers of the timidly approaching spring, on the bar counter. Very soon the festive smells of cookies baking in the back kitchen peacefully invade the shop and make it alive with notes of vanilla and cocoa, while she diligently proceeds to fill her soft pastries with berry jam and chocolate and cream. All her clients adore her and the joyful moments of guilty pleasure that her sweet treats deliver, another way to transform an ordinary day into a glory day, which is the real art in life, and the brief moment of happiness dilates all through the day and comes back at tides to seduce again and again.
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Bond No.9 - Fire Island
Gother 9/29/2012 4:24:00 PM
If you stay with me on this dreamy beach today, I'll hug you gently and I'll cover you with salty musky kisses under the brightest sun. You'll be fine and you won't bother the sweat coming from your warm skin 'cause the tuberose wind will keep you fresh and alive. I promise you a neroli zenith to make this summer unforgettable and patchouli golden, so you'll never forget how good it feels to be alive. Please Lord, make this cardamom summer last forever and make this skin scent never leave my memory, for I love it.
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Fragrances -Chanel - No.19 Poudre
Gother 9/29/2012 4:11:00 PM
A calm, galbanum light green morning horseback ride amidst a field of powdery iris while the sun is shily rising and the air is still filled with fresh dew. A slightly cold waft of condensed neroli greenness comes from the earth and envolutes your senses. You're alive in this morning and that is all you really need, and all you want. No worries, no mundane tasks now, only the unlimited musk blue sky and the newborn jasmine bushes leaning against the ancient tonka bean walls along the road you're following. All that vetyver calm is a promise of peace and goodness.... Here take this day and live it to the full, 'cause you deserve this calm, lady of lightness
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Fragrances -Chanel - Coco Noir
Gother 9/29/2012 3:21:00 PM
As Mademoiselle Gabrielle approaches the reverend age of 54 she gets fruitchouly hormonal and starts putting on some weight that will forbid her to wear her beloved vanilla trousers and so she starts obsessing just a tad too much about her fading jasmine glory and out comes her Madonna-esque 6th decade post-menopausal arousal of baroque sandalwood self-celebration, the way celebs become a photocopy of themselves as time goes by, but I digress... Coco cleans her drawers and takes away all the amber, delicious clover and labdanum attempting to get rid of the dusty smell that an ageing body will inevitably emit... and then adds a grapefruit Glade bar for the crowd pleasing effect and the illusion that freshess will extinguish the anguishing economical crisis that chokes the free spirits and makes crowds run towards the "secure, inoffensive patchouly-grapefruit fragrances" aisle at every department store, with so many dupes and dupes of dupes to hide yourself among... Also, the afore-mentioned world crisis calls for a black funereal dress to play it safe after the frilly Mademoiselle pink and white orange happiness of the golden 2000s. So sorry, so so sorry Mademoiselle Gabrielle. We all know you didn't deserve such a sad treatment, and you certainly didn't deserve a perfumer who would downgrade you to synthetic triumphant Calvin Klein status.
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Fragrances -Etro - Etra
Gother 9/29/2012 1:22:00 PM
A nice walk into a late september, late afternoon rosewood and sandalwood park, yellow leaves just beginning to fall against the fading orange light of a setting sun, still warm from summer memories. A warm spicy chai tea in my hand, rich with whiffs of vanilla and cardamom, with just a subtle paprika aftertaste to get me awake and curious, and happy, above all. In the background, roses and geraniums still remind me that the summer lazy jasmine-y days aren't really over, if I try. There's still no need for pashmina scarves around my shoulder, but maybe it's time to think about a new one and hey, what about a musky light brown wood?
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -Estee Lauder - Idealist
Gother 9/27/2012 4:32:00 PM
Over the course of the last two years I was given several samples to try and I never got any decent effect on my skin.This product is a silicone based serum that claims to reduce your pores. It doesn't. It only gets your skin unnaturally smooth by covering it in a film that won't allow any other treatment to penetrate and really take care of your skin. Also, the same silicone will strip your skin of moisture and oils. A huge thumbs down on this one.
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Mascara -Maybelline - Volum' Express The Falsies
Gother 9/24/2012 10:46:00 AM
I love and respect many Maybelline mascaras, but this one didn't like me. It flakes like hell and gets my lashes all sticky. Bah.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Treatments -Aveda - Tourmaline Charged Radiance Fluid
Gother 9/24/2012 10:40:00 AM
After using it religiously for 3 months, I came to the conclusion that tourmaline charging a cream or fluid won't add any benefits to the cosmetic. I prefer some old fashioned nourishing oils or extracts.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No
Liquid -Sisley - Oil Free Fluid Foundation
Gother 9/24/2012 10:38:00 AM
For the ridiculous price of it, this foundation comes in a very mediocre bottle. With that said, I love the stuff in itself, I appreciate the coverage (medium), the colour match and the natural finish. The fragrance, too, is lovely.
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Treatments -Clarins - Beauty Flash Balm
Gother 9/24/2012 10:34:00 AM
This is one of the very first primers to appear on the market, so it does have a reputation. I used a full tube of it, but I never bought one again. Somehow, the silicon-y finish didn't agree with my combo skin and I felt I was becoming drier and drier. It was somewhat disturbing because Clarins is a brand that boasts to rely on natural ingredients to take care of skin, but in the end, it's a lot more synthetic than other brands and I hate this hypocricy.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No