Annick Goutal - French Week Day 3

The French perfume house Annick Goutal is a truly luxurious perfume brand. This company falls firmly into the "niche" group of fragrances. I have only ever met one other person who shared my love of Petite Cherie (instead of 200,000 who wear Marc Jacobs Daisy). Not only are the fragrances and product top-notch, distribution is also very limited and the customer will have to search several high end stores in order to find the product that they desire. And we all know how much I love a chase...

Annick Goutal originally started out as a small perfume house in Paris in 1980, eventually growing a loyal and discerning group of clients. This company believes that a fragrance is more than a product made for scent. Their philosophy is that each fragrance represents a moment, one that the fragrance was purchased specially for or one that the fragrance was worn to commemorate. I was in agreement with this; for me, wearing Petite Cherie reminds me of the first warm day of Spring. I always get the bottle out right at the end of winter and eagerly await the first beautiful day in order to wear it. This fragrance represents the first blooms of spring and the excitement that the new season always holds for me.

Petite Cherie is my favorite fragrance from this house. It falls into their "Sweet" line of fragrances and is a perfect fragrance for a warm spring day. Here is the description of the fragrance from Annick Goutal, "The sweet, fruity, and gourmand notes of peach and pear mixed with the flowery touches of rose musk on a vanilla base. All the naive and determined 'Child Woman' will be seduced by this Eau de Parfum, with intense feminie chords of fresh roses. This Eau de Parfum is housed in a precious blue-green butterfly bottle, the emblem of the Annick Goutal brand". These are the notes - pear, peach, rose musk, cut grass, and vanilla. I find that the pear is the most evident on first spritz then the rose note come out after about 20 minutes.

Along with several sizes of Eau de Parfum, this fragrance also comes in several body product forms and candles. I highly covet the body products and the candles in this line and am trying to find a reason to celebrate and purchase these products.

Also while searching on this company's website...I discovered that they have a rose fragrance. This will become another highly coveted fragrance for me.

photo courtesy of Annick Goutal

Make Up For Ever - French Week Day 2

Yesterday we looked at the products that are produced in the French countryside. Today, we are going right to the heart of Paris and looking at a company that is on the cutting edge of the beauty industry. Make Up For Ever was started by Dany Sanz in 1984 to aid her in creating up to the minute fashionable looks with high quality products that could withstand outside elements. Sanz's objective in creating her own line is as follows, "To develop an all-encompassing line for fashion and show business professionals that has every product, texture, and color needed to achieve any effect a makeup artist's heart could desire".

This line was one of the first to venture into the world on HD and the types of makeup that would need to be worn by professionals in order to appear flawless on the screen. With the advances in technology, it very quickly became evident that traditional makeup no longer passed and wasn't sufficent to cover flaws and still look natural. This line of products is used by many T.V. and movie professionals in order to create a flawless skin look and is a favorite of many women who desire a fuller coverage foundation that will not budge all day long.

The HD foundation is a favorite of mine since the first use and the matching powder is fast becoming a HG product for me. This foundation comes in a array of shades with 25 currently being offered. the array is dazzling and any skintone will be able to find themselves a great match from this collection. I use Pink Porcelain or Ivory, both pale shades with pink undertones and I have fantastic results from both shades. This foundation is oil-free and is considered to be a medium to full coverage liquid foundation. It makes flaws invisible under HD and therefore is also a great good choice for women who exist in real life.

I must say that it took a long time for me to try this product out. I had previously been quite content with my Clinique foundations and wasn't really in the mood to try something new out. Also tis product is also mentioned on the Makeup Alley Makeup Board and I was uncertain that this product could live up to the hype that centers around it. The first time that I used it, I used two full pumps and wasn't happy with how heavy it felt. I went down to using a pump and a half and later down to one pump. With one pump of product, this foundation delivers amazing coverage with no clumping or caking and without making me look too made up. After about 2 weeks, I joined the group of women who worship this product.

photo courtesy of Sephora

L'Occitane En Provence - French Week Day 1

The Provencal region of the France is in the Southern part of the country, this is the area that is nearest to the Mediterranean and is part of the more farm based parts of France. The company that comes to mind when most people hear of this region is the Provencal based line, L'Occitane. This region of France has large areas of farmland and this company uses the natural ingredients to create high quality body and skincare products based on a few of the core crops and products of this region. This company enforces rigorous standards for all of its product formulations so the user knows that he or she will be purchasing only the highest quality products with high quality essential oils contained in it.

My favorite line of products from this company is the line that is formulated with French Lavender. L'Occitane uses organic Butterfly Lavender harvested in the region in the late spring and early summer of each year. Lavender essential oil is key ingredient in most products that are used to destress and to aid people who are experiencing sleep issues.

I have several favorite products from the Lavender Collection. My favorite is the Lavender Foaming Bath. This product creates mountains of lovely, fluffy bubbles and is my favorite way to soothe away stress and get ready for a full night of sleep. I follow this up with the matching shower gel and body lotion. I will admit that I get much more use out of the shower products since I don't get to relax in a bath near as much as I would like to. Let me tell you from first hand experience, these product (when all used together) will put you to sleep. I first tried using Lavender when I was a junior in college and was going through a period where I had slept more than a couple fitful hours per night in well over a month. I gave these a shot and the next morning, I woke up to realize that I had slept for well over 12 hours and I felt sluggish from all that sleep and felt as though I had used sleep meds and forgotten about them.

While browsing the L'Occitane website to find the foam bath, I noticed that they make this fragrance in small butterfly shaped soaps, which would be a lovely hostess gift along with some bath products and the room perfume.

L'Occitance also carries many other products that are very popular. The two best known are by far the Shea Butter collection and the Citrus Verbena collection. The Almond products also get rave reviews. I think I will be trying more of the products from this company when I am feeling like a bit of simple South of France beauty.

photo courtesy of L'Occitane

Le Commencement...

Tomorrow begins my annual Bastile Day celebration. Notice that I did nothing for the Fourth...the United States spent 8 years from 2000 to the 2008 disgracing itself in the world community. I celebrate the French Independance Day and this year I will devote a whole week starting tommorrow to French beauty and classic French brands and style.

To start it off...the First Lady of France!

Maybe next year, the United States will have progressed to the point that I won't be embarrassed to be an American...

But for this year...vive le France!

photo courtesy of Telegraph UK

Benefit Crescent Row Collection

These three fragrances are the latest to come from the company Benefit. I rarely think of Benefit when thinking of fragrances but their Maybe Baby fragrance is top seller for their company. These fragrances are based on the personalities of three different ladies that live next to each other. The Sephora website allows users to take a quiz to determine what their personality matches from this collection. At the end of looking at the fragrances, I will take the quiz to determine what should be the fragrance for me.

Here is the description of the overall collection from Sephora, "The Crescent Row fragrances are based on a fashionable strip of flats in Bath, England, which serve as home to several imagery gals. Their lives are filled with laughter, gossip, and seduction; and each scent, bottle, artwork, and name was created to reflect the fascinating protagonists."

The first scent is called My Place or Yours Gina. Gina is described as having a "flaunt it if you've got it" attitude that is seductively provocative. Her scent is an alluring affair of pink pepper and wild raspberry - resulting in a woody-oriental scent that is enticing and smoldering. The notes are: pink pepper, bergamot, tangerine, peony, wild raspberry, white lily, patchouli, tonka bean, vanilla bean.

The second scent is called Laugh With Me LeeLee. LeeLee is described as having a playful feminity that is naturally sexy. Her scent is based on a light blend of citrus, jasmine, lily blossoms, blonde wood, and amber. This results in a soft-floral scent that is refreshing and feminine. The notes are: cassis, melon, citrus, black violet, lily, jasmine, blond wood, amber, santal.

The last scent is called Something About Sofia. Sofia is described as a free spirit that has flair and a distinctly individual style. Her scent contains oriental blossoms, mango, and fresh vanilla - resulting in an oriental floral scent that is fresh and original. The notes are: mango, freesia, sheer lily, jasmine sambac, peony petal, musk, white caramel, vanilla bean.

So who am I? I got Laugh With Me LeeLee which is exactly who I thought that I would come out as. This actually is the scent description that I am the most attracted to so I happy that this one is my choice. So according to this scent quiz is that I am flirtatious and innocent with a playful wink and a mischievous smile. Time for me to get this fragrance since it and I are meant to be...

photo courtesy of Sephora

DuWop Lip Venom V

DuWop's Lip Venom Lite was the first of the many lip plumpers that I have bought over the years. My collection has grown by leaps and bounds but I have always held a soft spot in my collection for the Venom and the great red shade that it turns my lips. I don't notice much with the plumping effect but since I already have rather full lips, I wouldn't really be the greatest candidate to test out the plumping effect.

DuWop has released a new Lip Venom called Lip Venom V, inspired by the Twilight series of books and movies. We all know that I love Twilight and marrying Twilight with beauty products is one of my versions of heaven.

Here is the description from the DuWop website, "Be transformed. Let the alchemy transcend. This special limited edition Lip Venom is a sneak preview of our highly anticipated Twilight Venom, debuting this fall. Lip Venom V is not your typical DuWop Venom. Instead of a gloss, Lip Venom V is a shimemring crimsom lip stain suspended in a venom-laced liquid lip conditioner with a super-potent bite (Watch out!), and contains argan, avocado, olive oils, and Vitamin E."

This product is limited edition and due to the demand that DuWop is anticipating, at the moment only a maximum amount of two of this product can be purchased by one customer.

This product is a major lemming for me. I am a bit on the wary side about the warning of the "super-potent bite" but I really want to give it a shot. And it is the first piece of the Twilight inspired collection that will be releasing this fall.

photo courtesy of DuWop

MAC Colour Craft

Colour Craft is the newest collection from MAC, launching in stores today. I can already feel that this will not be a collection for me...look at the promo pic! I could never look like that nor would I ever want to. I am going to look at this collection with the assumption that I will be skipping over it but let's still take a look and see if I can find anything that will work out for me in real life.

Here is the description of the collection from MAC, "Every artist must be daring to hone her craft. Go ga-ga over this dizzying array of new hues. The self-made individuality of arts and crafts finds its way in a soaring one-of-a-kind creation: you. Don't skimp on the materials. Get creative!"

Let's check it out...

Mineralize Eye Shadow (Quad) - Mineralize Eye Shadow spun into a stylish pinwheel pattern of four shades to provide contrasting and complementary colours in a range of glitter, pearl, or shimmering mineralize finishes. Limited Edition.

- Girlish Romp - dirty violet/yellow white/mid-tone pink/pastel coral

- Odd Bits - silver grey/dusty rose/peachy bronze/dark burgundy

- Assemblage - silver white/deep grey/yellow gold/black with silver glitter

- Eccentricity - rich gold/light violet/rich bronze/deep plum

- Natural Flare - copper/yellow orange/rich gold/dirty brown

- Fashion Patch - ice blue/off white/white pink/black with silver glitter

Lipstick - Colour plus texture for the lips. Stands out on the runway. Simmers on the street! What made MAC famous.

- Colour Crafted - milky pink (Frost)

- Madly Creative - pink neutral with white pearl (Frost)

- Most Popular - purple with yellow undertone (Lustre)

- Ever Embellish - plum brown with red pearl (Lustre)

- Made With Love - bright coral pink (Lustre)

- Trimming Talk - bright fuschia (Frost)

Marbleized Lip Glass - A marbleized melange of three summer-light and get-ready-for-fall tones swirled into one high-shine Lip Glass formula.

- Funky Fusion - pink coral (Cream)

- Pretty Pattern - warm dirty beige (Frost)

- Crazy Haute - blue pink (Cream)

- Miss Marble - muted pink (Cream)

- Electric Edge - cool violet (Frost)

- Nice Mix-Up - burnt ginger (Frost)

Mineralize Skinfinish - A luxurious velvet-soft powder with high-frost metallic finish. Smoothes on: adds buffed-up highlights to cheeks and brows, or an overall ultra-deluxe polish to the face.

- Porcelain Pink - soft pinky coral with gold veining

- Sunny By Nature - rich bronze with pink pearl

- Cheeky Bronze - soft golden coral with bronze pearl

Mineralize Skinfinish (Trio) - A Mineralize Skinfinish featuring three complementary shades in a striped pattern. On application provides an overall sheer and radiant effect. Limited Edition.

- Warm Blend - antique gold/mahogany bronze/copper

- Triple Fusion - soft champagne gold/soft golden pink/rose pink with gold nuances

- Smooth Merge - soft champagne pink/deep rose/pale cool pink

Mineralize Blush - A Mineralize Blush specially created for the Colour Craft collection. Each shade features a rich, shimmering pearl veining in contrasting or complementary tone. Limited Edition.

- Hand-Finish - light pink with deep gold veining

- Fad-Dabulous - dirty burnt coral with yellow gold veining

- Daft Pink - deep blue pink with light white yellow veining

- Improvise - mid-tone neutral coral with light white yellow gold veining

- Cheek & Cheerful - mid-tone bronzy brown with yellow gold veining

- Style Demon - dirty brick red with copper veining

109 Small Contour Brush - Use on the face to apply, blend, or contour powder products. Softly rounded dome tip delivers just enough colour; smoothly blends colour into the face. Of natural fibres.

131 Duo Fibre Powder/Blush Brush - A flat, tapered face brush featuring a combination of short natural fibres and longer synthetic fibres making it ideal for the highlighting/contouring of Mineralize Skinfinish and all powder products.

226 Small Tapered Blending Brush - Short, tapered blending brush with ultra-soft, natural bristles. For application and blending of shadow on the lid, and perfect for working the crease.

My only must-have from this collection is the 226 brush, this looks like a perfect brush for blending that is just a smidge smaller than the 224 that I already have. I would like to get the Madly Crative Lipstick but I'm not a fan of any of the other lip products. Many of the eye shadows look like colors that I would want to own but I dislike greatly how all four shades are in the same container, the package totally ruins all of them for me. I would use them twice and all four shades would get mixed together and that would be the end of it. I don't really care for any of the blush shades or the other Mineralize products made for this collection.

This collection looks too hard to work with for myself. This might have been a bit more workable as a Pro only collection.

photo courtesy of Nordstrom