My top 5 red lipsticks

From the beauty icons of the past, such as Rita Hayworth and Marylin Monroe, to the more recent celebrities Madonna, Kate Moss and Dita von Teese, all the most famous women of the world have used a red lipstick as an immortal signature of their style and charm. Red lipstick are a must-have for us all, no matter of the physical appearance. What brands and trends taught us, is that there’s in fact a red for anyone. Or even better, that every woman has her red.

Coco Chanel used to say that whenever you’re sad, you should wear more lipstick, because men hate women who weep. My recommendation is instead to find a man who likes and truly worships your red lips.

Chic February on the shelf

Last February has been a very lucky and fruitful month beauty-wise. I can happily say I’ve been satisfied by both skincare and make up and as you may have seen from the recent posts, I’ve had the chance to try very gorgeous products and brands. Most of them are luxury beauty brands, such as Tom Ford and Charlotte Tilbury, or Cane+Austin as regards the skincare, but there are also a couple of super affordable picks from Maybelline and The Body Shop. For some of you the monthly ‘chic beauty on the shelf’ has already become a habit, to all those who’ve never happened to read any, it’s the selection of my actual favorites, covering both new buys and products I’ve been enjoying during the month.

Here’s my list of awesome stuff for February:

Philip Kingsley Flatchy Itchy Scalp Shampoo

Redken Thickening Lotion 06 Body Builder

The Body Shop Hemp Foot Protector

Cane + Austin Retexturizing Treatment Pads

Benefit That Gal

Clinique Acne Solutions Liquid Makeup

Maybelline Dream Sun Bronzing Powder with Blush

Maybelline Eraser Eye Concealer

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in #Very Victoria

Charlotte Tilbury Eyeshadow Pencil Color Chameleon in #Dark Pearl

London beauty buys: Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury is launching some of the most gorgeous and best marketed products in the beauty lovers arena at the moment and it is very hard to decide where to start. Packaging, shades, formulas, tips are all great! You may have seen them on Instagram, as well as on the blogs of the most successful UK beauty lovers, because the brand is British.

You guys know that I’m a sucker for high end products, but nevertheless if you’ve never tried anything from Charlotte Tilbury before, as in my case, the very first approach to the brand can be a bit intimidating.

The primer for when you need extra radiance

It’s quite obvious to say that the first step to radiance is a good skincare: deep cleansing, better if with balm and fennel, exfoliating, moisturizing with a serum enriched with natural oils…but talking about make up, there are many products nowadays, which are targeted at primarily boosting radiance. And Benefit That Gal is one that really accomplishes the target on me. If you know me a little, you’ll be aware of the fact that I’m quite skeptical towards primers and if I can skip them in my routine, I feel even better. Having a very sensitive and blemish prone skin, I prefer just one layer of make up. But what happens when I have a party or a dinner after work and there’s no time to re-do my make up? Or whenever I’m having an important meeting and I want to look happy, healthy and beautiful?

Well in all these cases, a radiance-boosting primer could be a solution!

Pink lady

Influenced by the recent Valentine’s looks and the incoming spring time, last week I’ve been taking out of my arsenal the most pinkish lip balms, sticks and liquid stains I have. Considering the weather conditions and the wintery trends ruling still, they were mostly ‘cool’ or lightly fuchsia pinks , because I find them extremely chic with a dramatic smokey eye and I prefer to wear peachy and coral pinks in late spring or summer. Having green eyes, I noticed that pink is the kind of color that better helps them to naturally pop out, without having to wear much make up.

Now, after a series of posts covering high end lipsticks and brands, such as Tom Ford, Bobbi Brown and Dior, it’s the turn of more affordable but chic solutions. Clinique, Clarins and Sephora have gems in their ranges and the products you see in this post are definitely among them!

Not chic products #4

If there’s something I can’t stand in the beauty world – and to be honest in the outer world in general – it’s when everybody hypes a brand or a product, which is more expensive than the average and then I give it a try, to discover that the customer experience it delivers is rather mean, if not completely disappointing. For this reason I created a category on Chicfirst, dedicated to all the not chic products I’ve found, in order to save you money, effort and expectations from something that doesn’t deserve your attention at all. To brands such reviews should sound like a honest incentive to improve or re-adjust things. Because nobody is perfect. And because from imperfection you can learn a lot.

Today’s not chic-product is from Anastasia Beverly Hills, the worldwide famous expert of perfect brows and it’s the kit of Eyebrows Stencils I bought online some time ago. Now I haven’t got particularly bushy brows, not desperate conditions to solve, as over the years I’ve been keeping good care of my arches with a thoughtful plucking and I’ve never tortured myself with insane face waxing, absurd pomades or crazy brow designs. Nevertheless, I thought a professional shaping could have been an improvement of my DIY usual brow routine to achieve that ‘perfect’ Hollywood’s glamorous look, and after years of enjoyment of the Benefit brow products, I turned to Anastasia Beverly Hills, because online everybody seemed to be falling in love with this brand.

Inside the Anastasia Beverly Hills kit you get n°5 transparent stencils you can create to design ideally every brow shape you want, from a thicker to a thinner arch. The packaging is gorgeous, very slim, elegant and luxurious. But then…

The stencils don’t stay put, because they’re not sticky and when you keep them still with one hand, to pluck unwanted hair or draw the desired shape, they move and mess up. When trying to fill the empty space with the pencil, the stencil makes you apply product all along the temples. It’s horrible!

No matter which stencil you select, this kit is not comfortable at all. Probably it was conceived for a doll or an ideal woman, but on me it’s completely useless. If I follow the shape on the stencil I end up with a totally unnatural brow shape. The full arch for instance is probably fitting a monkey, not a woman. Mine are really full, but believe me, the full arch is too much!

I also purchased their Brow Wiz pencil, but for that price, but I’m not happy either. The formula of the product is nice and it stays put all day/night long, but if compared to other pencils, this takes ages to apply, because the tip is very very thin. The color too doesn’t match well my brows as other brands do. It’s simply not my kind of style. And not my kind of brand.

If you guys have been using this kit, I’d be very curious to know your thoughts, because probably I simply do something wrong and I just need to get more confidence with it. If you’ve been checking this one online, wondering if it could help you achieve a better brow design, my suggestion is to invest the money in a professional brow shaping at a salon.

Peter Thomas Roth Mini Mask Magic

It’s been a while since I touched the subject of face masks. I have a theory: depending on your skin type sensitivity and needs, every week you should deep cleanse and hydrate your complexion with a targeted mask. But whenever you’re more stressed than usual, or your skin is more stressed than usual, like in cold winter, at the seaside, or after facials, chemical peels, waxing, the usual soothing mask may not be enough. You’ll need a calming mask with strong restoring and cooling properties.

Now, without having to invest on three different full sizes of face masks to accomplish all the three tasks I mentioned above, you can find a super-chic and smart kit that does all for you. It’s the Peter Thomas Roth Mini Mask Magic. Available by Sephora shops as well as on Sephora online at the affordable pricing of 20 dollars, it boasts three mini sizes of Peter Thomas Roth best-selling masks:

• Cucumber Gel Mask
• Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Gel Mask
• Pumpkin Enzyme Mask

In just one set you get all you need to fulfill your skin’s demands. Cucumber Gel Mask helps soothe, hydrate, and detoxify dry or irritated skin,  Rose Stem Cell Bio-Repair Gel Mask contains cutting-edge plant biotechnology that isolates and replicates the perfect rose stem cells for maximum age repair. Pumpkin Enzyme Mask is a powerful and highly effective exfoliating treatment that peels away dull surface cells, thanks to Alpha Hydroxy Acid.

The mini size of the three jars make the Mini Mask Magic perfect as a present or a travel set, for both women and men. Peter Thomas Roth is in fact an entrepreneur who created in 1993 a bespoke cosmetics range to solve his own skin troubles. His breakthrough formulations address mainly skincare professionals, but are now available also for at-home use. Are you already among his fans?

 

 

London beauty buys: Maybelline

For the past three weeks I’ve been almost on a mission: to check the best UK beauty buys and focus on the brands and products which are not easy to find somewhere else, especially in Italy. I prepared for the task with a long read of UK beauty blogs + Sephora international + Spacenk + Boots and other online shops, because I wanted to seek out both luxury products and drugstore ones.

Regarding the last category, I came back home with just two products:a L’Oréal red lipstick I’ll be showing you soon among my top 5 red lipsticks and the Maybelline Dream Sun Bronzing Powder with Blush. If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’m not at all a fan of bronzers and contouring. I seldom find something that works on me in this category and apart from the Honey Bronze from The Body Shop, I have very few favorites. So why did I put this product in the shopping list? Because the beautiful and lovely Anna from Viviannadoesmakeup has been praising the Maybelline Dream Sun Powder with Blush many times and looking at the final result on her, I was very curious to give it a try, but here it was impossible to find, because nobody seemed to be selling this product in the right shade for my skin, which is the fairest. So thanks to a very quick visit to one of the Boots shops in Oxford street, which happily sold this item, I can now show you the Maybelline Dream Sun Bronzing Powder with Blush on Chicfirst as well.

Tom Ford Lip Colors in Indian Rose and Reckless

For those who’ve never tried a Tom Ford lipstick before, to invest in these luxurious and costly make up items will sound crazy. But once you’ve checked the beauty counter in person, had a beauty consultant do your make up with Tom Ford products it will be a completely different story. Known for their highly pigmented coverage and the classy click sound when closing the case, these lipsticks are probably among the most wanted items by all beauty lovers and bloggers.

As for other brands I’ve been posting about lately, Tom Ford is quite rare and difficult to find as well. Only in the best and most famous malls or airport duty free shops you’ll have the chance to enter a Tom Ford beauty shop and believe me, it’s really worth the visit.

The ‘TF’ signature lipsticks you may have seen many times on Instagram as well as on other people’s blogs are among the products you should absolutely check. To Tom Ford there is no more dramatic accessory than a perfect lip. It’s the focus of the face and has the power to define the whole look of a woman. More convinced now?

Winter skincare

Winter skincare is not only all about hydration and protection against cold weather. This is probably the best moment of the year when you can enjoy a brightening treatment, detoxify the skin, and enhance collagen production. My routine has been changing a little thanks to a couple of new products I added this year. As a premise, I’ll remind you that my skin is extremely delicate and sensitive, and it often breakouts. Here are the winter heroes I’ve been using the most this winter to cleanse, exfoliate, nourish and moisturize. Perhaps there’s something you may enjoy as well, or something you’d like to know more about.

Cleanser – REN Centifolia N°1 Purity Cleansing Balm is almost a classic. I selected it for the January beauty shelf (if you’re interested in all the featured products here’s the link to the post for you) because this silky rose infused cleansing balm really changed my skin. As the name suggests, it’s a balm, but when emulsified with water it transforms into a rich milk. I remove it with a hot cleanser and I can see a purified, calm and glowing skin afterwards.

Exfoliator – I’m not at all in love with mechanical exfoliation. It’s too harsh for my sensitive skin and I think it stresses it even more. When talking about exfoliation, my personal preference goes to the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads. I’m also in love with those from Cane+Austin, which are formulated according to the same principle, but are more luxurious and expensive. These are a little more affordable solution. First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads contain just the right amount of lactic and glycolic acids to make them safe and effective for daily use. Even on sensitive skin.  If you want to see result, you have to be constant and patient, but they really work.

Serum – I’ve already reviewed the Ole Henriksen’s Pure Truth Youth Activating Oil this year, so I won’t be adding many more words. Check the post here.

Eye serum  – Although not yet mature, as regards this step of my daily skincare routine I’m using a very rich product, which is ideally addressing more aged people. It’s the Shiseido Benefiance Nutriperfect Eye Serum. I’m so in love with this product! It’s rich, yet not greasy and extremely soft. You can do your make up afterwards without that bad oily/tacky sensation and your eye area will feel very comfortable and nourished all day long. Even when removing your make up in the evening, you’ll still feel the eye area hydrated. A sensation that I get only with this serum.

Moisturizer – Here again, as for the previous step, I’m in the hands of Japanese facialists. My actual moisturizer is in fact SK II Essential Power Cream: an absolutely gorgeous treatment, even though it’s quite unaffordable for most of us. If you ever get the chance to receive it as a present or find a reduction, don’t hesitate, it’s very effective and doesn’t run out fast, because you’ll need the tiniest amount ever to moisturize both face and neck.

Enjoy!