Vintage Londoner with retrocentric tastes. Interested in the uncommon,artistic,cultural and visual life of this old tart of a city and its tawdry glamour. Tinctured with cocktails, swear words and the odd rant. I'm friendly but bolshy and my opinions are honest and sponsor-free. P.R and marketing types please see 'About Me'.
redlegsinsoho@me.com
The day of the Chap Olympiad always involves a flurry of organisation, preening, food packing and this year umbrella locating. A late night out with friends in Covent Garden on Friday sharp on a full day of slaving and Bastille night on Thursday resulted in general frazzlement on Saturday morning. As a result something rare occurred; I left the house without lipstick. Now I am aware that this hardly ranks as a terrible crisis in the scheme of things but barefaced lips on Olympiad day? Unthinkable.
I was planning to catch my taxi from just outside Liberty’s who have only recently enlarged and revamped their cosmetic hall and this seemed the speedy answer to my dilemma. However Liberty’s don’t sell the big traditional names but more boutiquey fashion brands like Nars and Laura Mercier. Don’t get me wrong, they are fine manufacturers but their ranges do not have the strength of pigment or are too sheer for me. Especially as we are in a summer season of caramel, glossy bland at present. I realised too late that I could have headed for Illamasqua or even Boots.
Turtle eyeshadow compact
Then a make-up brand that is generally under my radar blipped in response to my sheer desperation, I suspect it’s rather clinical bland point of sale display had always underwhelmed me. Then I peered at the lipsticks and noticed that several seemed to be the kind of shade I’d happily wear. Usually you try them on your hand and the colour turns out to be too sheer. I grabbed a bright corally red and tried it: a lovely soupy bright as a post box red with a coral base that seemed to work with my pallor and freckles. So I bought it. It was pricey at £23.00 but I was in a hurry however I must say I wore it all day and loved it. A creamy texture but semi matte on, it lasted well and did not feather at all easily. I really liked it. The brand was Chantecaille and the shade I chose was 'Tulipe' in their main lipstick range.
Tulipe (paraben free)
Inexpertly applied to lips
When I feel a bit more flush I may try some other bits and bobs, certainly another lipstick. The packaging of the lipstick is functional and not at all glamorous but having examined their website I have noticed that some of their products are attractively presented. I much prefer it to my Chanel and Guerlaine so the price is probably about right. Face powder/compacts and lipsticks tend to last so I am less resistant to paying a bit more for them.
Chantecaille mother and daughters.
I had assumed it was a small French company. I was only partially right. It is a company run by a French matriarch Sylvie Chantecaille, her husband and two daughters. But the company is American. Sylvie Chantacaille has form in the industry, she first started buy forming a cosmetic company with Diana von Furstenberg, she of the ubiquitous wrap dress. In the late 1970’s she launched Prescriptives for Estee Lauder and in 1997 she launched her own family business: Chantecaille.
Face powder in rose compact (someone buy it for me please).
The company schtick is avoiding the use of nasty petrochemicals, using high quality natural ingredients and supporting ecological concerns (so pretty much the same as most other cosmetic companies). Quite a lot of their cosmetics include a donation by the company to various wildlife funds and most of their lipsticks are paraben free. But what interests me is that it is a company run by women, something that was quite ordinary in the recent past but is not common now in what is an overwhelmingly corporate industry dominated by men. Also I am intrigued by it's low profile, it does not seem to be going out of it's way to market itself which either means it can rest on it's laurels or it has a firm loyal customer base. Both of which are encouraging.
Now I really want this, it is beautiful.
The website models have scary thin faces and the website is very American in tone and focus but the stuff itself is good quality and a couple of the current seasonal ‘looks’ illustrated have a vintage feel. Chaps out there could do worse than impress ladies they are buying presents for by purchasing something from this range. The Japanese lady manning the Liberty Chantecaille counter (Mitsuko?) was charming, and indeed one of the things I like about Liberty’s is that the service is good so I would be inclined to shop there if you are in the Smoke. You can also buy it in Fenwicks (another lovely store) and Harrods in London. They are also available in Space NK shops around the country.
A while ago the Daily Telegraph ran an article on going make up free : http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/news-features/TMG8454043/Bare-faced-chic.html. It caught my eye because a few conversations with others recently revealed how minimal my approach is. Certainly I am typing this with nothing on my face apart from a morning dab of moisturiser. I probably only wear foundation twice a month and even then I dab, more a concealer than anything else. Recently I have developed a dislike of mascara, my little stubby eyelashes don’t really benefit much. If I do go out it is a case of eyebrows, a brief lick of eyeliner top lash only and lipstick. In truth my make up habit is simply a bright red or pink lipstick and this is the only place my money goes.
I actually like the Elizabeth I, Karen Elson look of strong lips agains a pale face with just definition on the brows and perhaps a lined eye. It is simple, strong and exaggerates the personality of the wearer. That’s not a make up free look but it is minimal, I was therefore interested in the article.
Fantastic simplified make up.
One thing that struck me and the only person to comment on-line when I first read it, was a suspicion that these claimed exponents of ‘bare faced chic’ looked rather high maintenance. Also some of the exemplars had marvellous bone structure and were models. Otherwise they have fashion jobs and access to skincare. Skin care costs a heck of a lot more than cosmetics, as does a stress-free privileged life, regular hair maintenance and expert eyebrow plucking. Apply your make up well and you can distract from hair in a scarf and compensate for uneven eyebrows. Go bare and you cannot. There’s potentially a nasty little bit of class snobbery creeping in there, makeup is a help to the harried, working and low-income.
Of course we are over-sold cosmetics and we can see the young and gullible falling for a corresponding over emphasis on looks. This isn’t new. Young women wear lots of slap as its when you experiment and establish your identity. I’m less annoyed by this than I am with the obsessive declarations that as you age your make up must become ‘natural’, it goes with custard coloured hair and beige,,ooops, I mean’t to say sand or sable or toffee or whatever new word for beige is fashionable. I'd rather look interesting and my age. The argument that the media impels women to wear make up they don’t need really kicks in as you are older rather than younger as your income and insecurities kick in. As a teen Miners and Rimmel were fine, now I head for Chanel and Guerlaine and I need so many more items for an age specific 'youthful' look. However it seems an extreme response to advocate no makeup. It is one of our many privileges as secular, economically active women to be able to paint our faces. To advocate being bare faced as a fashion statement makes me uncomfortable. I can understand not being bothered with the stuff, I really loather those low-brow gossip magazines that match some poor starlets red carpet maquillage with a badly lit gurning papparazzi picture and a strap line that they are 'just like us' (ie gurning, splotchy and looking crap). Time to stop beating ourselves and others up.
Tilda rocking the bare with lipstick look.
On the other hand I have always suspected that foundations, eyeshadows, blusher and mascara are probably a bit crap for your skin. The women in my family have never ever worn foundation or blusher, it’s an alien item to us. Putting on a full face in a busy world is a faff for some, but for others it is a cherished ritual. I fall into the faff camp (although I find hair far more of a faff) and the article addresses this, but then posits a facial as an alternative. In what world is making an appointment for a facial quicker that putting on a bit of lippy? A strange world, I’ve never had a facial. Again I don’t trust them at all. This ‘they look bad initially but get better’ thing is unconvincing. You’d get the same glowing effect from a scouring pad and baby lotion. As I read on I grew more frustrated, what next? Perfume is not green enough so we ditch it and all arrange for a small beautician to dab us with distilled water and lemons every morning?
This 'natural' look is extremely hard work.
What I particularly disliked was the inevitable obsession with ‘greenness’ and the resulting evangelical tendency which is what you get in any beauty article in the middle-class press. I’m happier not to have things tested on animals and I don’t want to coat my face with dangerous chemicals but I don’t mind harmless miniscule traces of things. My favourite piece of stupidity in the article was this quote from the founder of steam cream “'I remember stumbling upon a study that proved that eating lipstick would be better for you than putting it on your lips. That way you at least have the digestive enzymes to help absorb it.' Yeh, but if you eat it your lips won’t look pretty and red. Once I read that completely daft comment I knew where the article was going and inevitably it did. It managed to mention Kate Middleton (everyone has to at the moment, it’s the beauty editor’s rools) and finished with some ridiculous vitamin/oxygen treatment that costs £600 quid and is injected into your face (euww!). Personally I’d rather eat my lipstick…. or even wear it.
Well I did say that I'd get back to you on whether a month's use of Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Intense face serum worked. The idea being that the scientists have said it does. The difficulty with this is that I view my far from perfect mug in the mirror everyday. Asking the gentleman merely produces a comment along the lines of 'you look lovely'. Even if I have been out all night and look like a character in an Otto Dix painting. Sadly even when I do get a good nights sleep, a journey on the London Underground has me looking like a ghoul by the time I get to work. Work itself is bad for the skin. You heard it here first...anyone care to invent a patented anti-work cream?
However I do think a generous application of this stuff, morning and evening has made a small but discernable difference in the look of my skin, particularly in the areas with fine lines at the corner of my eyes, the very deep wrinkles on my forehead look a little better, although only a syringe full of disease (botox) would solve that and syringes full of disease are a step too far. Also worked well on the skin under my eyes which looked less pulled.
I did see someone who had not seen me for a few months and his comment, unprompted by this blog was that my skin looked very 'clear'. I'm not spotty and he is American so hopefully I can presume that means it looked good in some form. On the whole then, I can recommend the stuff. I'm going to give it a few more months as the whole point is that it can actually change your skin with some permanency. Toodle pip! Minn x
Powderpuff girls doing the make up thang properly..
However I could list the horrors and pitfalls of cosmetic application when yours truly tries it, in fact I will, just a few:
False eyelashes.A sod to apply. I think there is an unfriendly eyelash goddess, a spikey gluey fugitive creature that makes your hands shake and your tweezers jab and ensures the things just won’t go on when you have a big night out and a taxi waiting. Then you can never be sure they are actually on. I once looked down at a drink to find a repulsive caterpillar floating in it and made a fuss. It was naturally my kamikaze eyelash.
Little plastic boxesthat are hard to open, especially with long fingernails. Even once you do prise them open all the little itsy bitsy applicators fly out. One usually hurls itself inevitably into the toilet, the sink or the gaping jaws of hell.
Bright red lipstickno matter how carefully applied migrates to the surface of your teeth making you look like a messy vampire. Also when you drunkenly ram the top of your lipstick back on, without twisting lipstick down it will always be your favourite, most expensive stick that is reduced to a mucky messy stump.
Once you find the perfect failsafe shadeof eyeshadow or lip colour the cosmetic company will promptly discontinue it and replace it with dead corpse nude. And in your mind no colour will ever look that good.
When applying nail varnish you will get an attack of sneezes, have an irristible urge to scratch your ear or be forced to rescue a kitten or something. Shall I just describe this as the dreadednail varnish smudge paradox?
Katie Chutzpahhad already reviewed thePowderpuff girl salon in her blog, and having worked out they are just around the corner from my favourite barnet fixer I decided to have my face put on for me. Which I did, whilst nibbling a biscuit and drinking tea. The interior of the premises is pleasingly girly and retro decorated in a fifties palette of feminine pastel shades. The ladies wear kitsch retro uniforms and cute pill-box hats and it is run by the rather elegant Katie Reynolds. This is a welcome migration from the East by this company as some of us are just innately West End Girls.
Dream dressing table.
They offer a number of services ranging from manicures, through to make-up and on to hair. I had the 15 mins 'in a jiffy' make-up which cost £15.00. Vintage themed looks are their mainstay and they have literature to help customers choose their look. As I was sitting there in a full circle skirt and petticoat a fiftiesish look was applied. What a luxury to let someone else, very efficiently, get on with it. In terms of confidence, time saved and fun the price and end-product were good. The lady applying mine was happy to give advice and kind enough to trim my unruly brows. I am also impressed with their eyelash applying service, you get two pairs of eyelashes, and one of these is applied for you, which seems a good deal at a tenner considering that a decent pair of false eyelashes cost this. The speedy hairdo's at £15 pounds seemed also good value for girls in a hurry.
Powderpuff Salon interior.
Moreover it is pleasant to be sat in a feminine stylish environment. I'm sure this, the good looks of the staff and the fact that they have leaflets and advice on retro looks encourages visitors to experiment. It had a friendly atmosphere and I felt the environment encouraged the customers to be chatty (and those that know me know I am far from monosyllabic). To be honest all I need now in Covent Garden is a Wallace and Gromit like machine to drop me into the perfect vintage frock, the 'right dress' rather than the 'wrong trousers'!
