Chantecaille: Another wonderful vintage shade of red lipstick.

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.

Butterfly pressed eyeshadows.

Chantecaille's website:  http://www.chantecaille.com/ 
Liberty website: http://www.liberty.co.uk/

Rockalilly Lipstick Review. Pucker up!

I’m a red lipstick kind of lady although I dabble in pink and even the very occasional coral shade.  Red lipstick seems to encourage strong reactions, I know there are ‘hate red lipstick pages’ (morons!) and some dislike red lips for their artificiality. Red is problematic though, the range of shades is startling once you put it on even though they don’t seem that different in the tube.  As a redhead with very white skin I have it easier than some but I don’t have whitewashed teeth so the issue is as much a shade of red that doesn’t give your toothy pegs that buttermilk shade redolent of old piano keys as anything else.

Additionally modern formulations are moisturising but they are too sheer and lightweight to provide a strong look, in fact that is the overwhelming problem with modern lipsticks: too much moisture and shine and not enough pigment. The sheer shiny look falls into that whole 70’s faux thing going on right now.  As my hair is longer and some of the sheer shiny lipsticks veer on sticky I am keen to avoid the hair stuck to mouth situation, which funnily enough does take me back to the 70’s, when as a nine your old I had a brief dalliance with cheap strawberry flavoured shiny lip gloss from Miners.

The requirements for a good vintage style red are that it be either fully matt or semi matt, highly pigmented and come in good strong dramatic shades.  A measure of how the cosmetic industry is not serving the vintage niche market is revealed by the fact that a new small lipstick company has been established by Ree Ree Rockette, a lover of fifties and vintage style who took the lipstick bull by the horns and produced her own brand ‘Rockalilly lipsticks’.  Now I have to declare an interest here that I do know this lady, but am ruthless enough to review any product with a modicum of detachment.  I was aware however that the as yet limited palette of colours would probably chime with my own thirties inspired tastes so ordered one of the reds, ‘Rockette Red’ online and subsequently treated myself to a second shade, a zingier slightly orangier red: 'Hot Rod Red' which I was able to buy at the Powderpuff Girl salon near Carnaby Street (who have the advantage of testers). Hopefully more vintage outlets will stock them.

I am quite happy to use a very expensive lipstick and re apply it fastidiously at an evening event when in any case I am likely to be in and out of the bathroom checking my false eyelashes are not about to fall in my beer (it has happened). What I am looking for is a good all round wear through the day red.  The Rockalily lippies fall somewhere between my Guerlaine and my Mac. Less oily than the former and a great deal lighter than the latter.  I noticed two elements I liked immediately: the shape of the tip of the lipstick was smaller and made it easier to apply straight on and it smelt nice.  I was impressed by the fact that this lipstick feathered far less than my other lipsticks and both the shades did not make my teeth look yellow. I did like the colours, particularly the strong dark Rockette Red.  Do I have any gripes? Well it doesn’t last as long as the Mac but then again your skin does not end up flaking after use, it has quite a nice texture.  The lipstick holder itself is functional rather than glamorous.  This is not a ‘cheap’ lipstick, but then again it is a small company and I feel it is reasonable value especially if you consider you are supporting a small personal endeavour and not a massive corporation.  The red has become my default day time colour and I look forward to this company expanding it’s wares.

Bare face chic?

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.

Any feelings on this subject? please share! xx

Vintage stereotypes? who? Me?!

I was cogitating on the fact that there can be a great deal of conformity with vintage and retro inspired sub-cultures. I am impressed but faintly bemused by the activities of re-enactors, even more impressed by all those superb dancers and frankly intimidated by the sheer number of highly elegant people I meet. We are all, to some degree unique, even if it simply boils down to our DNA. But like other groups of people with similar interests there are totems and signs of allegiance which point to someone being retroesque with the accuracy of an exocet missile. What might these tribal markers be? What is the retro equivalent of say woad ? I list my own suggestions below.

1 Cherries. Not necessarily as in pies or coke, more as a visual garnish. Whilst pineapples are pleasantly Carmen Miranda and Chillies have their own red hot mama connotations it is the Cherry which is the only fruit. Those rockabilly chicks started it. Personally I hate cherries as sustainance, but I do have a dress covered in them.

2 Spiky things all over the carpet, behind the sofa, under the bed in fallen battalions and if you are really unlucky: in that beef hotpot you made for your other half last night. I refer of course to the kirby grips, bobby pins and vary other spiky little objects which we require for our pin curling and tress fastening. They are the essential foundations to our complex hair constructions. However they have a nasty habit of dissapearing when you need them and reappearing in legions when you want to tidy up. If you encounter them in a retro chap's lair, he is either cheating on you, you are moulting them or he is a cat burglar.

3 Colourful shoes, life is too short for black and brown. Red, orange, yellow and green. Vintage shoes usually reflect the daintiness of our grannies feet and our modern shovels require reproduction foorwear. They may be flat, high or wedged but we all have at least one pair of shoes that make a statement, one that is not always appreciated by others. One peerlessly stylish vintage chum of mine was told that her green wedges made her 'look like Kermit the Frog' and my mater tells me my taste in shoes 'shortens my legs'. But frogs or short legs we loves our shoeses. Remix specialise in great vintage styled shoes: http://remixvintageshoes.com/handtd.html

4 Tattoos. Bit of a controversy this. The retro-bores insist it isn't authentic and that Laura from Brief Encounter would drop her handbag in horror at the idea. The fifties rock types have embraced Las Vegas like trad tatts with enthusiasm. Many fall somewhere inbetween. So many find themselves in the scene via punk, garage, goth routes that many arrive inked. Personally I think, unless an actor or a passionate re-enactor drawings on your skin are fine. I'm going to write on friend's tattoos and post their suggestions so watch this space.

5 Vibrantly coloured hair. Let's face it. Our hair does not match the past. Women used to spend time on their locks and vintage clothes just don't cut the mustard without a strong hair colour. If you naturally have it, wonderbar, if not, it must be dyed. And what is the point of that if you don't actually have it dyed a discernably different colour? So we end up sitting in a salon with a pile of foul smelling gloop being deposited on our hair. Some have gallant gentleman who offer to do it at home. My lovely man has offered to do so but I suspect he simply wants to make my hair stick out at ridiculous sticky right angles and have a laugh.

6 A thick skin. Most of the comments you get when out and about are positive and even if Dita! being yelled at a brunette might lack originality it is hardly insulting. Humourous comments are fine but there is the odd rude or idiotic comment and more than a few stares. I am amused that a lady in red lipstick, a dress and a hat is more astounding to most than the most tattooed and pierced and punky cybergoth. Then you get strange comments from women who seem to resent the percieved effort you have made or regard your approach as being reactionary. Ironically it takes longer to be contemporarily dressy with all the hair straightening and leg browning and fake eyelash-applying. As for the accusation of reactionary or right wing tendencies, feminists made a stand so we could wear whatever we want rather than as little as possible. And I am a socialist to boot.

7 Cakes, and more specifically cup cakes and fairy cakes. They are breaking out all over the capital like sugar topped acne pustules. I prefer fairy cakes as there is only so much sponge cake I can stand. Cup cakes do have many advantages, they are in little cases so are portable, they should be cleaner to eat and they make great missiles (only joking). However many on the market (including some of the super expensive ones made by ex-models) are far too sweet and rather cloying. If you are not seven years old a decorative lump of pink stuff will be ok for about one mouthful. Absolutely the best around in terms of taste and visual flair (and I have nibbled a fair selection) are made by Sophie Jonas at : http://www.theremaybetrufflesahead.co.uk/

Some of Sophie's cakes.

8 Bright red lipstick every vintage girl's gotta have it , especially Mac. Simply because Mac do good rich pigment matt sticks. I was planning to compose an 'every red lipstick in Selfridges' report but fear that I would rapidly end up looking like the scary clown in Stephen King's 'It'.

9 A 'signature' cocktail. I'm not suggesting there is anything wrong with a glass of wine, a jug of trappist brewed pilsner (although there is plenty wrong with mass produced lager) or a tankard of real ale. Indeed a tumbler of whisky, a la Mad Men has it's own appeal. Cocktails however match all outfits and eras. Thirties elegance? sip a Brandy Alexander. Forties zing? a Martini or Margarita. Fifties pzazz? a jamaican punch topped with pineapple and a plastic monkey. Again a certain strand of vintage lady is too concerned about her image, or feels her own grandmother went no further than a small sherry and demurrs. How dull. I really don't like people who are tee-total, it's my personal prejudice. There are, of course, those poor souls with no choice due to allergies and intolerances. But being tee-total isn't like being vegetarian or vegan. Most seem to adopt it because they are scared of themselves, have no faith in others or are religiously extreme. A friend of mine said yesterday that fruit juice is for vodka. Cocktails are for fun. Make mine a white lady!

10 Elnett hairspray. Whilst I would like to aspire to smell of any number of lovely fragrances from even lovelier bottles, my presence is, I fear betrayed by the niff of the wonder spray from France. Nothing works as well as Elnett and even the packaging is pleasingly retro. It holds hair rigid and brushes out most easily. Of course you can taste the stuff for ages but the smell is evocative of generations of women. Funnily enough it is one of the few hairsprays that doesn't make this mild asthmatic hack and cough. Bugs also dislike it which is rarely a bad thing.

Well those are Red Leg's suggestions as to what might constitute the vintage mavens 'must haves' but it is simply personal opinion, what do you think ladies?

Pip, Pip!