Counting down to Rougue de Coco

Today's post will be a special on Chanel's soon to launch lipstick range called Rougue de Coco, as part of my countdown to April 2, 2010, which happens to be Good Friday.

Lipstick - A Power Tool. A Girl's Other Best Friend.

I have taken pictures of pages from the latest magazines featuring interviews with Peter Philips, the global creative director of Chanel Makeup. Along the way, I will type out key points so that you can read without straining your eyes.

Rougue Coco Hydrating Creme Lip Colour ($44)

Credit line: Many thanks to HerWorld April 2010. Do checkout their revamped website @ HerWorld.com. And to Female April 2010, my current favourite mag.

So here is the colour orgasm, enjoy!

Article by Denyse Yeo in HerWorld.

An interview with Peter Philips reveals that Rougue de Coco, a lipstick line fronted by Vanessa Paradis, wife of Johnny Depp, was created for young women. A attempt to bring back a generation of lip gloss-eaters (that's me!) onto lipsticks.

The reason for Rougue de Coco - Young women with shiny lips that can look greasy if overdone, and hair sticking onto puckers.

In contrast with Chanel's existing Rougue Allure range with more sophisticated and darker extreme colours, Rougue Coco is a creamy lippy that keeps lips moisturized for 8 hours.

In 30 shades, each is linked to the brands founder, Gabrielle Coco Chanel. Think names like Camelia and Mademoiselle.

Encouraging women who wear lip gloss to try lipstick and discover a whole new world.

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How to pick a Rougue de Coco.

Pink: Legende for almost everybody, and Mademoiselle for darker lip tones.

Looking at the colours on the mag, I think I like Orchidee.

The pink attack! (I am so glad my Omnia camera is working. The colours are as I see on magazine. The shine was created by their photography, not my lights or paper angle.)

For browns, I think Sycamore looks good because of the shimmer.

Browns.

It says Gabrielle looks best against yellow-toned skin. LOL. Looks like my type outs are more like notes for myself. :PPP

Classic Reds.

For Paris, I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but Paris B of My Women Stuff managed to notice Sandra Bullock wearing Paris at the Oscars, and she has tried on the colour here and here. (Two Paris at one go, nice pair. =))

Next, I am quite amazed that there is beige tone range.

Sari Dore is REALLY nice on fair skin. The other 3 are all good for everyone everyday!

Beige.

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Forgot how to wear lipstick? Here are some quick tips from Peter Philips.

Tips.

- Try to test on your lips if possible.
- For yellow skin, don't be afraid to try blues, they make your teeth look whiter.
- Use the lipstick to apply for true effect, rather than a brush.
- Use lip liners - match the colour to make lipstick colour last, use darker one for fuller lips, and a lighter liner on top, darker one below for balance.

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More from Peter Philips in Female: (Warning: WORDY!)

Lipstick application process: Apply once, blot, apply second time, blot, dust with loose powder.

Lip gloss killed the lipstick. (How true.) Lip gloss is slicked on, dabbed on, never applied.

The first "ready-to-wear" lipstick Peter created for the brand, Rougue Coco. He wants to seduce women back into lipstick to covet and wear it the way they do the Chanel 2.55 bag, because wearing lipstick shouldn't be complicated or torturing. It is beautiful, sensual and a privilege - power.

Rouge Coco comes with a melt-away balm-like texture and sans stickiness, designed to go directly on lips smoothly and easily without the aid of a brush. It delivers a satiny cream finish while giving you full colour pay-off in just one swipe without dryness, that is the greatest problem with lipsticks that are saturated with pigments. The colour range is wide and accessible.

Apart from Legende, try Vanessa's favourites, Gabrielle and Cambon.

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Last but not least, presenting to you a mini survey on men's opinion about lipstick or lip gloss.

Lipstick wins slightly.

Wow! What a long post. That's all. =)

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FOTD - Birds and Berries at the Seaside + LOTD - Roses for the Birds

Today, I decided to put the Birds and Berries eyeshadow from M.A.C Give Me Liberty Of London to use. And the result is amazing! The colour combination I did below gives me the feeling of being at the seaside, very refreshing salty air, very lighthearted and breezy, with a tinge of sunlight on a slightly windy and cloudy day. Just the perfect weather you would like to have when enjoying a day by the seaside, hence the name "Birds and berries at the seaside".

It's really therapeutic - makeup. This is the first time my moods were actually lifted a great notch when I see the colour turnout!

FOTD - Birds and Berries at the Seaside

Full face from front.

Eyes open up close.

Eyes closed up close.

Face from side, featuring blusher - Prim & Proper from M.A.C Give Me Liberty Of London.

I actually decided upon first try that I can't carry off Prim and Proper. It's very dark even on my NC25-30/MLF Medium/ZA #22 skin. And I thought I am tanned and yellow enough.

If you look at the swatch of Prim & Proper from yesterday's post, you would find that it's actually a light purplish pink on the back of my hand. However, like yesterday, once it goes onto my cheeks, it turns into an extra dark rosewood sort of shade.

This makes me feel like a clown from the front. You may not think so from pictures, but what I see in reality, it's very dark even with a light-handed single swipe of a proper blush brush. I did not try to be funny and use kabuki or a skunk brush today.

I am open to wearing strong lip colour, but I feel a lot less confident wearing strong blushes which looks so unnatural. Obviously, the flush of red I get after working out at the gym will not look anything like rosewood.

Over applying of blush is okay for blushers that drop, like Silkygirl. But M.A.C is so good, this one swipe lasted me more than 12 hours. No lying. Exactly the same intensity when I reached home. I'd say, there are true, logical reasons (nothing to do with aesthetic, cult etc) why people adore this brand.

So that's about the eyes and face. As for lips, I had Ever Hip from the same Liberty collection on, which you can see closer up from the previous post.

LOTD - Roses for the Birds

This was actually pretty simple. I just picked a flowery dress (which I have, A LOT). I love flowery clothes. I don't know why.

Me. (Got a violet bandage from Bloodbank@HSA) on my left arm.

Appeal: This is a sidetrack. I'd just like to remind Singaporeans to donate blood if you haven't done so recently. I think the tag-line, "Give Blood. Give Life." cannot be more true than it spells. Especially if you have O type blood, the people need you.

I have very sad news here. I was requested to not donate blood for life, or at least 2-3 years, because my veins are just way too small and deep to inject the needle without causing other vessels to rupture, clot, and result in a bruise.

My violet bandage. I love these bandages. haha.

By visiting the Bloodbank, I was simply wasting manpower, time and blood (which may happen if they have to pull out the needle before the pack is filled). Furthermore, my blood type is not universal, so no point. So sad.

I guess I should do serious volunteer work to make up for this. I feel so handicapped/underprivileged/lacking whatsoever you may call it. Sigh.

If you're scared of needles, be assured that there is no pain at all because they do use anesthetic.

If you're afraid of the sight of blood, close your eyes. I swear it works. I've donated before, and I freaked out upon seeing tubes of blood drawn out at the end. I immediately felt faint, and they had to prop me upside down on the chair. They spotted my face turned white!! Don't see nothing wrong, see can just faint. LOL.

Full dress length up close.

This is all for the day. Bye. =)

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M.A.C Give Me Liberty Of London & Riveting Haul + Swatches

I am very happy to be posting this. There are so many items that I looted, but just not enough time to use them all. LOL.

I am starting off with the M.A.C Give Me Liberty Of London collection, as it is the latest (just launched, exclusively at all Tangs M.A.C outlet), plus I just got it today. =)

M.A.C in the bag.

I love the plastic bag, which is transparent on one side, and opaque black on the other. So stylish. The other stylish bag is Sephora's. :PPP Carrying Sephora is like carrying a black mini clutch around. Can dump all my other things inside, like flyers, and tissue paper etc.

Sitting my boxes nicely. =)

Unfortunately, the names of the eyeshadow and blush are blocked by the ugly price tag. That's why I like buying from M.A.C Sephora counter. Tangs is like, paste, paste, paste, as if it's nobody's business. Spoil my box pattern.

My haul! Made to sit in display collection fashion. hehe.

Mini display counter. LOL.

Imagine your room having a table lined with opened up eyeshadows, and rows and rows of lipglasses, liplustre etc (like WSITN), then it will really look like a mini M.A.C counter. Pretty sure lipglosseater and lots of other girls can do that. :P

Birds and Berries.

This is a sort of aquamarine teal in my opinion. And the only thing I wanted out of Liberty of London. This is because all the swatches and videos that I've seen show the colours very poorly. I took my pictures many, many times to make sure that you are seeing what I see in front of me. (Seriously, this looks like a lousy grey blue from other websites.)

Birds and Berries swatch.

See? It's so beautiful!!! I am surprised, because this didn't even look like that when I swatched it at M.A.C counter (perhaps due to the yellow lights). I almost passed it off, if not for the fact that I waited two weeks, for this one eyeshadow alone (I really wasn't interested in anything else).

It is tending towards jewel tone, and so rich and multi-faceted. Sometimes I see it as having more blue grey, sometimes more teal. Most of the time, it's like this. Lovely.

Prim & Proper blusher.

A lot of people are saying how they must get this, but honestly, I do not think much of it. Not when I swatched at counter, not when I swatched at home, still not when I used it on my cheeks.

Looking at it, you already can see the dullness inside. It's like this grey coral.

Prim & Proper swatched next to Birds and Berries eyeshadow.

I still feel that Prim & Proper is a not nice pink. Really not worth it. One look at the swatch while I was at the counter, I knew it wasn't going to fit my skin tone. But I got it anyway, to try.

From left: Ever Hip, Peachstock, Petals & Peacocks, Blooming Lovely.

These lip colours look horrible on the sites I saw too. But it's like so pretty when I swatched it at the counter. Amazingly, all of them actually suits my skin tone. Simply amazing. Even the lilac one (Blooming Lovely).

My Give Me Liberty of London face.

I simply shaded the Birds and Berries aaaallll over my eyelids, crease, wherever. lol. No special playing. And I've got Prim & Proper on throughout all the lipstick switches. So if you can't catch it once, or if the lighting is lousy, overexposure etc, you can always see it again.

[I really didn't like the way Prim & Proper went on me. It's way way to dark for my skin tone, though it may not look so. As such, I swiped away a LOT of it with a clean kabuki brush. So you may just see it as some sort of light rosewood colour. It's really very dark, like a bronzer. Not for people fairer than me or yellow skinned. Super ugly.]

I tried on Blooming Lovely first.

haha, I was so excited to see if the lilac will work for me. I just watched a video on these colours yesterday. And it seems that colours like St Germain and Lavender Whip were disasters for yellow/brown skins. And Melrose Mood.

The latest disaster was Viva Glam Gaga. Sigh. All these cold blue pinks. Can't wear them properly.

Pretty amazing actually.

I manage to carry it quite okay. I think it's because this is more a purple. Truer to Lilac than others. =) I like this colour.

Birds and Berries on eyes.

Like I said, this is really very multi-faceted, amazing eyeshadow. In this picture, it looks like there's is a tinge of mint green on top fading into teals, then sea blue closing the lashline, and greys at the outskirts. Gives me the feeling of sunset and the sea.

So love it. I feel like getting a second pot for backup already. But then, I think I really wouldn't use so much. And M.A.C does come out with the same things after some time... ...

With Petals & Peacocks on lips now.

I like this!!! I didn't think I could wear this. Honestly. Or that I'd dare to wear this. But when it's worn, the colour tones down a whole big lot. As the Liberty of London Collection goes, all their items have grey tones inside, so everything is toned down. As long as it doesn't looks ashy and turns me into a corpse like Viva Glam Gaga, I am so happy.

This is really nice. It's like wearing fire engine red or siren red - the calling out loud feeling, but in a more playful colour.

And I can wear it! The moment I got it on, I saw my face suddenly brighten and popped out. Makes so much difference.

Love Petals & Peacocks.

Face with Peachstock.

You know, the moment I saw this, I knew I had to get it. Even when I swatched on my hand, I could tell that this would be the perfect nude shade for my skin colour. I just could tell.

I've tried some Lip Attitude lipsticks from Sephora house brand (which does have respectable size of nudes), but most of them were brown beige. I know that brown doesn't suits me. It's just way to dark and dull. Makes me look more yellow and sandy.

But Peachstock, Peachstock is this beautiful ultra light salmony colour.

Can see more Prim & Proper here.

Really very nude. haha.

Last of Liberty of London, me with Ever Hip.

This is definitely the most popular/wearable lippie from Liberty of London. Very popular. It's like, just this super duper sweet toned down bright pink. Reminds me of a Stabilo colour pencil colour.

I love this too!

Really, out of the 4, I can't pick any one that I like the most. All are so wearable for me. Surprise find from Liberty of London since I only wanted Birds & Berries initially.

How about you? Anything from Liberty of London that you like? Or from my lip test, which lipstick do you think is the best?

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Next up, is Viva Glam Gaga. A horrid colour in my opinion. But I just got it for the sake of completion since they came out together.

Viva Glam Gaga's blue pink.

I think it looks a lot better if you use the stick to apply directly like I did here. When I used a lip brush previously, it just corpsified me.

Then it's partner Viva, Viva Glam Cyndi.

Looks a lot better right.

This, according to an interview, was made specially to be wearable and thus sellable, because Cyndi wanted more people to buy so that more funds may go to charity.

Pretty rosy red!

This is a super gentle red. It's red. But really soft. I can forsee myself wearing this often, alternating with my Gosh! Exotic, which is an orange.

Today is my first time actually opening it, seeing the colour and putting it on my lips, so can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to discover its wearability and sweetness. I immediately thought, "this goes into my makeup bag"! haha.

So if you haven't already gotten it, do get it, since it's for charity as well. Really great colour for everyone. I believe there are still lots of stocks, cos the display is up everywhere.

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Last for today, is Riveting Collection.

This is a very much overlooked collection because its launch was last Wednesday I think, just two days before Liberty of London. Nobody really talked about it, as the anticipation ballooned for Liberty of London.

I myself was caught off guard when I stepped into Sephora M.A.C and saw this. Never heard of it.

This collection is really strange. It's the super cool, literally cool collection. All whites, metallic rusted, ruggard, rough, and blacks. Totally unwearable. They have a white lipstick... ...

I got the lipstick in Riveting, because when I swatched it, it looks really nice. Looked wearable.

Riveting.

However, it turns out that the colour is sheer on the lips. I had to rub over numerous times to get it to cover the redness. This definitely has to be worn over a lip concealer for the colour to pay off better.

Looks so zombie.

Turns out a really grey, with a tinge of purple. Regret this. I wouldn't wear this out. Seriously. Maybe I should go search the net for how to wear it, so I don't waste the lippie.

Yup, so that's all. I only did the lip products as they are easier to change. Still have my blushes... and shadows... I bought my first M.A.C nail polish from the Riveting collection too. So stay tune. =)

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