Friday I'm in Love....With This Lip Tar

I was moaning just the other day about how I'd allowed the otherwise magical Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar to migrate all over my damn face when I tried to soften it up with a little lip balm. That was before a package of goodies I'd ordered from ACW, the discount cosmetics retailer, arrived. I'd included two new Lip Tars -- Petty Beige (oh how I love that name! if only I were a drag queen!) to try to brown down some of the brighter colors, and Clear, to sheer them out a bit. Today I mixed up a bit of each with Trollop, which is a bright pink, and found great success. My lip color isn't blinding, the feathering factor is greatly reduced (though I'm still making careful use of lip-colored liner), and the Clear medium adds a bit of sheerness without compromising the long wear, non-sticky texture.

Eye makeup subtle and pretty -- NYX Skin Tight (shimmery peach) with a little MAC Woodwinked (golden bronze) in the crease, plus a touch of MAC Eye Kohl liner in Teddy (bronze) and NYX Propel My Eyes black mascara. More on that another day. Pinked up my cheeks with NYX cream blush in Rose, which is a new favorite.

On the perfume front, I slathered on Amsterdam today, for something fresh and pretty. But then like an idiot I skin tested anothe BPAL that I knew wasn't going to work for me, as much as I love most of the individual notes. This is The Great Sword of War, which contains mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, "sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conquest." To date, I have not found a fragrance containing red musk that doesn't make me want to wash it off immediately, and though I want to love mandarin as a single note, it's never blended in such a way that I can stand the result. Ditto cocoa. And it just figures that the perfumes I hate are the ones I can't wash off. So please remind me not to skin test stuff that I know won't work, or that has death notes in it, just for the sake of being complete.

It is Easy Being Green!

I was feeling.....green when I got up today. Not emerald or kelly or olive, or even green-around-the-gills green. It was more an off-kilter kind of green. So first I headed off to the bathroom to do my makeup. First thing I reached for was MAC Club, one of my favorite eyeshadows because, like everything else I seem to love, it's a duochrome (reddish brown with green frost) that gives the look of an iridescent beetle shell or dragonfly wing. I used that on the lid and topped with a simple vanilla color, MAC Mylar. Then I used a dark bronze eyeliner on top and bottom and traced over that with a touch of Jesse's Girl Antique Green pigment and added highlights with their Pixie Dust iridescent white pigment. The finished look is something like this, though this isn't me, as you can tell by the exquisite long and lush eyelashes:

Then it was time for scent. I chose "51" from the Black Phoenix Wanderlust collection, inspired by places in the real and fantasy worlds. First of all, it tickles me to wear a perfume inspired by Area 51. But it suited my mood exactly. It's described as "luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly" and contains green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats." The liquid is palely green in the vial, and the scent is brightly fruity and floral with a nice underpinning of dry wood. It gives me a color impression that is neon green and pink, but as if seen from a distance.

I should probably have some pesto for dinner, just to keep the streak alive.

Olfactory Pleasure: A Theorem

Today I was feeling a little tired and burned out, so I didn't want to think too much about my perfume. That sounds ridiculous, I know. I mean, how much thought does it take? But I just didn't have the psychic energy to think about matching my scent to my mood or the weather or the colors of my dress. I just wanted to put on something that would smell pretty and make me feel comfortable all day.

I opted for BPAL's Lorelai, which is a very simple fragrance containing neroli, sandalwood, and ylang ylang. It's a sweet floral, but with a creaminess and a roundness that I find very soothing. Often sandalwood can rise up and drown out everything else on me, but this particular sandalwood stays in its place and just grounds the florals. The neroli gives it almost a whiff of orange Creamsicles that is quite lovely.

I've been going through my growing stash of BPAL samples and organizing the ones I have available for sale or swap. I was thinking about grouping them thematically, which could help isolate notes they have in common so as to help educate the nose. I noticed that certain of the scents are much more complex than others -- not just the number of notes in the blend, but also conflicting notes, notes that play off one another. Some morph over time as you wear them, leaving a different impression than the one you start with. Some are fairly high-concept and are meant to evoke very specific places, characters, or experiences. At some point I'll share some of my experiences with these, because I find them very interesting to wear and think about.

But today I didn't want any of that cognition and analysis. I don't detect anything especially evocative of the story of Lorelai in this particular perfume, and what you start with is pretty much where you end up. And some days that's just what I need.

A breath of fresh tuberose

Today is a banner day, in that I was finally able to squeeze myself into a dress that I hadn't been able to wear since I got pregnant with the baby. It's a tailored sleeveless navy dress, so I might actually pass for a lawyer, for once. I'm wearing it with my excellent tortoise patent peep-toe heels with a strap across the front, from the brilliantly comfortable Cole Haan Air collection. These things are genius for work, in that you don't feel a compelling need to amputate your foot at the ankle by lunchtime. In addition to everything else, my feet swelled to massive proportions when I was carrying that kid, so these were also missed.

To go along with the general impression of sophistication and put-together-ness, I busted out my bottle of Fracas by Robert Piguet. It is described thusly:

Classic femininity and modern sensibility collide within this lush white floral fragrance. Seductive tuberose mingles with jasmine, jonquil, gardenia, Bulgarian rose and orange flower in a profusion of fragile white flowers before revealing a base of sandalwood, vetiver, and musk.

Amazingly, this fragrance works beautifully on me, because jasmine more often than not turns sour on me, white flowers can go powdery, sandalwood can dominate everything else, and vetiver can turn everything it touches into misery. But this is supremely well-balanced, with the Bulgarian rose and gardenia supporting the tuberose (the dominant note) and the jasmine, orange flower, and white flowers adding a sweet and light top.

I became consumed with desire* for a tuberose fragrance after my friend Christi got married 10 years ago at a fabulous and fabulously low-key beach ceremony in Malibu. Christi wore a simple wreath of tuberose in her hair, and for the entire day I could not stop sidling up to her to sniff her head. Tuberose reminds me of every lush, romantic, tropical vacation I've ever taken. So I spent quite some time visiting fragrance counters and trying everything with tuberose on. Eventually I narrowed it to Fracas and Michael Kors, and went with Fracas in the end because that added sweet lightness made it more wearable for me. But I do think I need those musk, wood, and yes, even vetiver underpinnings to keep it from feeling cloying.

The only thing I would improve about Fracas is its staying power. For such a lush scent, I do find it's pretty much gone by afternoon.

*I do not say "obsessed" because one of my pet peeves in beauty writing is the way every editor of every fashion magazine writes her monthly little column about how she's currently "obsessed" with some overpriced, of-the-moment product that some manufacturer sent samples of. Obsession is a big concept, and it really shouldn't apply to the toner you've been using for two weeks.

Dragonfly Wings

I'm wearing Blue Morpho again today. When the temperature is over 100, I might as well scent myself like a Hawaiian vacation.

I paired this with one of the prettiest eyeshadows in my collection -- Blue Emperor Dragonfly from Sweet Libertine (pictured), which was designed in collaboration with The Sanguine Gryphon, purveyors of gorgeous yarns and knitting patterns with a sort of steampunk/goth kind of vibe. To make it a little more work-appropriate, I layered it over MAC Kohl eye pencil in Teddy.

Sweet Smell of Success

I managed to successfully do over yesterday's attempt to wear one chosen scent all day. The key: remove all errant lookalike perfume vials from my bag before leaving the house. I have been peony-tulip-grass-scented all day today! Woo! Some days it's the little things.

Unforced Perfume Error

Today I was in an Amsterdam sort of mood -- Amsterdam being a BPAL scent composed of "tulips, peony, fresh flowing water and crisp green grasses." Between the desire to feel cool and fresh in light of yet another day of extreme humidity and heat and this exceedingly sprightly dress I have on (pattern detail above), it seemed like a good call, though I was also considering a couple of scents with an extra little oomph to echo the black and white crispness in the dress.

It really is a lovely fragrance, but it does need refreshing during the day, as it can fade out over time. So after lunch I reached into my bag and pulled out the sample vial I carry around with me for touch-ups, uncorked it, and started slathering away. "Hm," thought I, "this seems extra floral all of a sudden."

Turns out, I had left my vial of Two, Five & Seven in my bag and had mixed them up, so I was smelling that gigantic rose bouquet. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, and I finished applying to neck and wrists. Now I smell cheerfully of roses instead of wet peonies and grass. It's a good thing both perfumes contain grass, and peony has something in common with rose so the two don't clash.

It did get me to thinking, though, what kind of added note would transform something like Amsterdam into something slightly more substantial? Many of the "darker" notes, such as opium, patchouli, vetiver, and even violet don't really appeal to me (or flat out gross me out). Leather and aromatic wood, though I love them, tend to amplify on my skin and drown everything else out. I'll have to keep exploring, especially as we start to approach fall and I transition into wanting something a wee bit heavier but still refreshing.

Blue Morpho and Dragonflies

I wish this photo could do this color justice, but I often find it's hard to capture the depth and prettiness of duochrome and glittery nail polishes.

On Saturday I was doing my nails, and took suggestions from the peanut gallery, meaning I let my oldest kid (age 9) pick my colors. For the pedicure he picked one of my favorites, Zoya Adina, which is a soft purple with green duochrome, like a dragonfly's wing. For the manicure he picked Jesse's Girl in Glee (pictured) which is basically a peacock foil. This shows the blue base, but you don't really see the teal-green sheen. It didn't last long, but it sure was pretty, and anyway I had to take it off Monday morning for work. He decided it looked like the wing of a Blue Morpho butterfly.

As it happens, Blue Morpho is one of my new favorite scents from BPAL, so much so that I ordered extra backup bottles of this limited edition. Description:

Wild orchid, pikake, honeysuckle, calla lily, agave nectar, pink geranium, violet leaf, and wild amber.

Pikake makes me think of my honeymoon in Bali, where we were treated to tropical flowers strewn all over our bed. It seems to be the only jasmine I can wear without it turning sour and harsh on me. Whenever I wear it and catch a whiff it feels like an instant vacation. Which I need today, given the heat and humidity.

Today's Scent

This morning, with temperatures in the 90s predicted and insane humidity, I put on my lightest summer dress -- cap sleeves, faux-wrap bodice, circle skirt, black and white snake print with black sash -- and decided to go with something fresh and rose. I picked BPAL's Two, Five & Seven, described thusly:

A huge bouquet of squished rose petals: Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose…

…and just an itty bitty bit of green grass.

I have a problem wearing many roses, such as tea rose, which instantly turns to soap on my skin, but this one stays really true. It smells like a big bouquet of fresh-cut roses, or like walking through a rose garden where the grass has recently been mowed and watered. What I love is that the rose is not one-note, it takes into account the fact that not all varieties of roses smell alike, so it's wonderfully layered, and the grass adds freshness.

Makeup also contained a revelation. I've been using shimmery nudes on my lids for years, colors like Urban Decay Sin, which is a muted nude pink, but there was always something a little off with my skin tone. Today I busted out NYX's Skin Tight, which is a shimmery peach and WHAMMO, that's my skin, only better. I did that over the whole lid (with a base of MAC Paint Pot in Painterly), added a line of NYX felt tip black liner and their Propel My Eyes mascara in black, and I had a great neutral but finished eye that was just enough retro to go with my dress.

Scent 'o the Day

Today is going to be hot and humid, and we're hosting a backyard barbecue with friends. I'm in a stay cool sort of mood, so I chose BPAL's The Dormouse, which is described as "A dizzying eddy of four teas brushed with light herbs and a breath of peony." I actually get something closer to lemony iced tea with a good dose of fresh-cut grass. It's comforting in a cool, fresh way, and isn't challenging or complicated. Suits me well on a Sunday, especially one I greeted with less than an optimal amount of sleep, thanks to a growing baby.