By Kilian

On my recent wander through Brown Thomas, I noticed that they have a number of new fragrance ranges in this season, one of which is By Kilian. The perfumier is Kilian Hennessy, grandson of one of the LMVH founders, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate. Kilian clearly has the family pedigree for a career in luxury fashion and beauty, and he augmented this with apprenticeships in the perfume houses of Paco Rabanne, Dior, McQueen and Armani. Kilian launched his own perfume range in 2007 and this is the first time it has been available for sale in Ireland.

The sales rep in Brown Thomas (a wonderful and knowledgeable Frenchman whose name, to my shame, I never asked), noticed me lingering at the display. He asked my preferences with regards to scent (always oriental or woody, never floral and especially not ozonic) and then selected two for me to try. Incense Oud was the clear winner. Perhaps it’s the recovering Catholic in me, but I have always loved the smell of church incense, and this combined with the clear and fragrant oud (otherwise known as Agarwood) is addictive.

By Kilian fragrances come in gorgeous packaging: a hard black case lined with black velvet enclosing a simple chic glass bottle. The travel spray is a dinky, Art Deco influenced, silver or gold tube which would be a decadent addition to any handbag. As By Kilian is a luxury brand, the prices are in the same range as the Tom Ford scents, i.e. around €150-300.

I have written before about my history in perfume and my Goldilock’s style mission to find my perfect fragrance. By Kilian has some gorgeous and unique fragrances but by far my favourite is Incense Oud, which I think will become my new signature scent.

Urban Decay’s All Nighter

I’m not going to complain about the recent heatwave we’ve been having. It can get hot as hell and long may it last as far as I’m concerned. The one slight drawback to all this heat is the effect it has on make-up. I don’t know about the rest of you, but within five minutes of leaving my house, my make-up has started to slide off, and rather than looking glowy or dewy or any of those lovely feminine beauty terms, I look like a hot mess.

So Urban Decay to the rescue. Many of you know the brand for their famous eyeshadow palette Naked (as yet I haven’t got my hands on one of these but it’s only a matter of time) or their amazing eyeshadow primer which helps shadow stick to the eyelids without creasing. Now meet All Nighter, Urban Decay’s make-up setting spray. Basically it’s like hairspray for your face!

I was first introduced to this miracle product by my mother (make-up guru extraordinaire) who did my make-up for my sister’s wedding and finished it off with this stuff. The result? My make-up DID NOT MOVE. All day. All I had to do was reapply some lipstick but that was pretty much it. Since then I’ve been a convert. I’ve used it for weddings, DJ gigs and various other events where I want my make-up to look good for hours and won’t necessarily have time to touch it up, but it comes into its own in the summer.

This is definitely one to purchase if your make-up is down to your knees by lunchtime! You can buy online at or in-store at Debenhams. The travel size is €12 and the large size is €28.

Urban Decay All Nighter Make-Up Setting Spray

Hero Products

I thought I’d share with you a few new products that are gaining hero status in my make-up bag and bathroom!

The first is Lancôme’s new foundation Teint Idole Ultra 24H. It has a great range of shades with many suitable for ghostly Irish skin. My skin is so pale that often the palest shade in a range can be too dark or more often too yellow for my skin tone. The palest shade of this foundation is perfect for my skin. The coverage is excellent and very buildable where you need it and it stays put for hours. It’s probably not ideal for anyone who wants a more dewy finish but as I prefer a relatively natural and matte look I think I’ve found my holy grail foundation. It’s very reasonably priced too and can be found at major department stores and pharmacies.

Next up is Number 7’s latest innovation, Lift and Luminate Serum. Given that I turned 36 a couple of months ago I thought it was wise to amp up my skincare a bit and a serum seemed to be the best way to do it. This product is apparently aimed at women who are 45 plus but I was hooked by the clinical trials that confirm it noticeably treats dark spots and hyperpigmentation in eight weeks. I have a large patch of hyperpigmentation on my forehead and some other smaller patches, and they get darker in warmer weather. I have been using this duo of serums (Is the correct plural sera? Does anyone care except me?) for about a month and there has been a slight improvement. I’m going to keep using it and fingers crossed my skin tone will be perfectly even in another month’s time.

Lastly, being a huge fan of facial oils, I tried the Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil. It’s deliciously scented (which makes a change from the Trilogy Rosehip oil I was using before) and as it’s formulated for oily and combination skin it’s very light. It seems to be more nourishing than Bio Oil (a budget favourite of mine) so I’ll definitely be repurchasing.

The Top Shelf from Into The Gloss

The Top Shelf segment on the Into The Gloss blog is one of my favourite beauty resources on the web. As well as getting to have a peek inside the beauty cabinets and bathrooms of some of the most stylish people on the planet, it’s also handy for product tips and tricks of the trade. For example, Francelle Daly (NARS National Make Up Artist) showed how she used Smith’s Rosebud Salve mixed with an eyeshadow to give a dewy effect – something which I tried last Friday and it worked a treat, giving a smudgy sexy eye when used with some dark grey eyeshadow. I love seeing inside Olivia Kim’s (VP of Creative for Opening Ceremony) bathroom and lifestyle, and I’m trying to grow my nails so I can do Sally Singer’s manicure as seen below. There are stacks of posts in the archives so hours of enjoyment for any beauty junkies like me!

(Click on links above and pictures below to be taken to their original post on Into The Gloss.)

Sally Singer's silver tipped manicure

Michelle Violy Harper's undercut and green eyebrows are amazing

Coco Rocha's well stocked make-up cupboard (this is only some of it!)

Don’t you wish your girlfriend could smell like me? Not really…

Elizabeth Taylor started it. Dita Von Teese has just launched her first. Britney has six. Halle Berry has three. Jennifer Aniston has one. Paris Hilton has fourteen and JLo is the Queen of them all with seventeen. Celebrity fragrances are everywhere. 

Lady Gaga has announced that she will be jumping on the bandwagon (brandwagon?) in 2012 with her debut fragrance “Monster” which apparently will smell like blood and semen. If I were designing it, “Monster” would have top notes of raw meat, latex and glue, and come in a heelless shoe-shaped bottle, covered in glitter, fan letters and shards of glass.

Obviously I’m not a perfumer, or a “nose” as it’s known, but I have come up with some ideas for celebrity fragrances that I’d like to see. If Elizabeth Arden or Coty want to contact me to discuss any of the below I’m open to offers.

Entitlement by Lindsay Lohan – Husky, musky and with strong notes of a three day old bender. Top notes of cigarette smoke and flat champagne dry down to an undertone of desperation.

Winning by Charlie Sheen – Top note of stale sweat, middle notes of a career up in flames, drying down to mimic the chemical aftertaste of a coke drip at the back of the throat. And here’s the commercial.

Denial by Tom Cruise – Manly heterosexual leather and musk give way to subtle notes of soap and forbidden fruit.

Velvet Robe by Hugh Hefner – Top notes are reminiscent of baby oil and denture glue unfolding to a subtle strain of Preparation H.

(And what’s my poison? I’ll take a bottle of Coromandel any day.)

Make-Up

And so to the make-up post. I am a bit of a cosmetics addict and so I have chosen just the products that are in my everyday make-up bag as otherwise this post would go on forever!

Foundation – After trying every foundation in the known universe I have settled on Chanel’s Pro-Lumiere. My biggest problem when buying foundation is that I have typically Irish skin, very fair with bluish undertones, and many cosmetics companies don’t make colours pale enough. In my experience the best are Estee Lauder and Chanel. This foundation gives medium coverage and a nice dewy finish which has good staying power.

Concealer – The rather tired looking tube to the front is a Bourjois highlighting concealer. I think it’s just as good as Touche Eclat and a whole lot cheaper! I’ve been using this for years and it covers my dark circles really well.

Lipstick – The two I am currently using are Chanel’s Rouge Coco in Lune Rousse which is a dark red berry-ish shade, and YSL’s Rouge Pur Couture in Blonde Ingenue which is a peachy shade and will come into its own this summer I think. Both Chanel and YSL are amazing for lipstick and I especially like the taste of the YSL ones, however I also have lippies by Mac and Nars which are great too.

Blushers – For my money Nars blushers are the best. They are heavily pigmented so they last for ages and the colour range is brilliant too. The two pictured here are Orgasm and Desire. I have had Orgasm for about a year (lucky me…ahem…) and there’s still tons of it left. A word of warning – Desire is so pink that you need to apply it with a light hand or else you can look like Bosco‘s long lost sister.

Eyebrows – The compact to the far right is Benefit’s Brow Zings in light. It contains a wax (on the left) and a shadow (on the right) and you combine the two to define your brows. It keeps them in place all day and I prefer the softer look it gives in comparison to a pencil. The whole Benefit range is currently available at much cheaper prices in Dublin Airport, so perhaps save your pennies till your next holiday and pick up your favourite Benefit products in duty free.

Eyeshadows – The two here are Sephora’s Black Flame and another peachy neutral by Sephora (at the front). The one complaint I have about Sephora’s packaging is that it falls apart very quickly. I have a stack of tiny pots from Muji that I keep on hand for such emergencies.

Mascara – I have been using Lancome’s Hypnose which I adore but unfortunately you don’t get much for your money and it tends to dry out very quickly. I bought Estee Lauder’s Projectionist a while ago to give it a whirl and so far it’s great. It gives good separation, dense colour and the wand is easy to manipulate.

So you can appreciate the extent of my cosmetics addiction here is some (yes only some) of the rest of my kit at home:

A new scent

I am on the hunt for a new perfume. I have been wearing Chanel No. 5 for months and it’s a scent I have worn on and off for years. While I love it, it is a bit ubiquitous and I’m looking for something a bit more unusual. I tend to go for perfumes which are termed ‘oriental’ and I detailed my history with perfume in a previous post.

I think Chanel Coromandel is my favourite perfume in the world but it is prohibitively expensive at €200 a bottle! So while I love it, it’s not on my shopping list right now. I was wandering through Brown Thomas last week and spied the latest collection from Tom Ford. It’s a collection of musks and I tried the Jasmine Musk which is absolutely gorgeous. But once again I prove to be the personification of “champagne tastes and a beer income”: when I asked how much it was I was told €140. Eeeeek!

It appears that while my taste in perfume is becoming more affordable, I’m not quite at my ideal price range yet! Does anyone out there have any recommendations for an oriental type scent? Something grown up, feminine but not floral, heady, and not worn by every second woman? Something a bit esoteric and unusual? HELP!

Lisa Eldridge Make Up

From the age of 12 up until I moved out to live on my own at 21 I lived with my Dad on our own in our little cottage in the Dublin mountains. My father was an amazing single parent and we’re very close to this day, however there were of course some things that were beyond even his reach. I’m talking about make-up, hair, beauty products, fashion, and girlie things of that nature. I learned how to do my make up from magazines and my friends. My mother is a make up expert but as I wasn’t living with her I had limited access to her font of cosmetic knowledge. If only I had had access to Lisa Eldridge’s make up tutorials it would have revolutionised my teenage years!

Lisa Eldridge is a make up artist from the UK who works on fashion editorials, runway shows and celebrities. Her magazine client list includes British, Italian and Japanese Vogue, Allure, The Face, Numero, Pop and Another. Lisa has worked with designers such as Chloe, Alberta Ferretti, Prada, Donna Karan, Moschino and PPQ, and celebrities that include Cameron Diaz, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, Cate Blanchet, Demi Moore and Selma Hayek. She has also designed and developed a make up line with Shiseido and has also worked with No. 7.

Lisa describes her signature make up style as a fresh, flawless skin and an understated modern approach to beauty. The video tutorials on her site cover the basics such as applying flawless foundation and concealer and covering acne, through to creating a pin-up look and dramatic eye shadow looks. The videos are very well shot, well lit, and Lisa has a gorgeous speaking voice which helps! Even if you’re a make up addict you will still find great advice and tips on the videos and on her blog. Very highly recommended.

Scent of a Woman

A women who doesn’t wear perfume has no future – Coco Chanel

My future is uncertain but I certainly have a past when it comes to perfume. The first perfume I called my own was Diorissimo, given to me by my mother as a birthday present when I was twelve.  It is the perfect scent for a young girl; very crisp and fresh with lily of the valley as the predominant note.  I adored it and wore it every day, which was a bit extravagant for the local primary school.  I then graduated to the classic Chanel No. 5, a fragrance I have worn on and off for most of my life.

On my 19th birthday a friend of mine gave me a bottle of Angel by Thierry Mugler.  I wore it throughout my early 20s and I think it is the scent most people associate with me.  My boyfriend at the time had to have his pillows dry cleaned when we broke up as they were completely permeated with it.  But then Angel became very popular and every third girl was wearing it and so it was time for a change for me.

Since then I have tried a few different perfumes but none of them truly suited me.  I wore Opium for a while but my mother has worn this for most of her life and so I felt like an imposter.  I tried Douce Amere by Serge Lutens but it was too sweet.  Another boyfriend bought me a bottle of Amber by Marc Jacobs, but it’s only available as an eau de toilette and has little staying power. I tried Prada Parfum but again it became too popular.  I am in danger of becoming the Goldilocks of the perfume world; I want one that’s just right!

A couple of weeks ago I was in town with my sister, both of us in a jubilant mood as she had just bought her wedding dress.  (As as aside, she will be the most beautiful girl in Ireland on her wedding day.  The dress is stunning, made even more so by her beauty.)  We passed the Chanel section in Brown Thomas and stopped at the display for Les Exclusifs, a range of eight perfumes. And there, I fell in love. Unlike Bono, I think I have found what I’m looking for.

It’s called Coromandel.  It strikes just the right balance; oriental with amber notes, a hint of something fresher on top, perhaps citrus.  I wore it all day and eventually my sister and I made the trek back to Chanel to find out how much it cost.  €200, which is rather more than I had anticipated.  I think my ever-evolving shopping list now needs to be recalculated with Coromandel taking the top spot.  I just have to smell like that every day.