First off, apologies for the lack of posts this week. My sister is getting married in a couple of weeks and I have had soo much to do in help with prep for the big day (anyone feel like writing 400 wedding invitations??), and also it’s been Ramadan so my energy has been pretty low. But anyway, whilst in in my Ramadan seclusion (I hardly go out at all during this holy month) I’ve managed to keep an eye on the trends for Autumn/Winter this year, and something I’ve noticed cropping up in every A/W make-up collection and on all the hippest of celebs is dark, vampish lips. This can vary from a deep red to an almost black purple, and can be glossy or matte. I personally am all over the dark purples right now, although admittedly it is quite hard to wear. Here are two [new] lipsticks, Nars Pure Matte in Volga and Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Volupte Perle in Mesmerizing Purple, that have launched recently which are BANG on trend to recreate this look.
I think it’s really important that if you are going to rock this trend to accompany it with a few other major make-up trends for fall or else you could risk looking overdone and contradicting the look entirely.
These other trends are:
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No mascara (I know, it’s a toughie)
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Natural/bare eyelids
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Strong, full, defined eyebrows
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Lipliner for perfect lipstick (lipliner is FINALLY back!!)
Your base should ideally be matte, but not cakey or too heavy (sorry, I can’t do matte so I’ve got semi matte here), and cheeks should remain colour free other than some honey or caramel sheen/shimmer. The entire face, bar lips, should pretty much be tones of nude and not heavy/caked in texture and finish. You basically should aim to look like you have a polished, verging on neutral/bare subtly sculpted face.
This YSL lipstick I have here is part of their new Rock & Baroque Autumn collection. It is actually the limited edition Autumn colour of a completely brand new lipstick range they’ve just launched, Rouge Volupte Perle. As the shade name suggests, Mesmerizing Purple is a deep, intense purple.
It’s a strange consistency, almost more greasy than glossy, but I love it. Especially in this particular shade. As the colour is such a deep, rich colour in a high pigmented sheer formula, you really need a lipliner to ‘keep’ the lipstick in place as without (damn, even with) it’s prone to smearing and spreading, but because it’s soooo beautiful on I think you can live with it being quite high maintenance.
I love the little pieces of glitter delicately speckled throughout it; it is an amazing evening lippie and looks great in evening light – the light really catches the shimmer and glitter!
Didn’t get round to doing my brows (or anything else for that matter!) in this pic as was getting ready to leave the house quickly and it was early daytime; the pics for Nars further below display more ‘statement’ brows, caramel shimmer cheeks, full Autumn trends, etc, in them.
This Nars lipstick is also part of a new lipstick collection recently launched called Pure Matte. I was lucky enough to be invited to visit their concession in Selfridges two days ago to have a lipstick matched for me out of the six shades forming this range. In all honesty, I probably could have taken all six of the shades home as they were all so gorgeous, but decided, despite how besotted I was with the ruby red, that this shade called Volga was definitely the one as it is perfect for the season (I might go back for the red).
It’s an interesting colour, a mixture of maroon and purple. VERY dark on, but can also be worn more subtly if you don’t want to go too vamp. It’s a matte texture, and your lips seriously need to be in good condition to work this; any hint of a flake and it is amplified tenfold. Again, a lipliner to line the lips and also to deepen the colour on the centre of the lip (where the lipstick is harder to apply as it is water resistant) is required.
Here I have ‘statement’ full, groomed brows, no mascara, bare eyelids, caramel shimmer cheeks (actually a bit too much caramel shimmer here!), [semi] matte base to contrast with the dark lips.
It’s a real matte, strong, heavy statement lip. Classic but edgy.
I love both of these lipsticks, even though they are technically part of the same trend they are completely different in my eyes as one is glossy and sheer whilst the other is super matte and heavy. At the moment I am probably leaning towards the YSL Mesmerizing Purple as I love the decadence of the gloss and glitter, so perfect for evenings out and teamed with the blackish purple shade it is divine. However the matte maroon/berry shade from Nars (Volga) is also beautiful and very striking.. Eek, don’t make me choose! One thing I do know is that I’m am definitely going to get lots of wear out of both of them.
YSL Rouge Volupte Perle No106 Mesmerizing Purple is priced at £24 and is limited edition, Nars Pure Matte in Volga is priced at £18 and is currently exclusive to Selfridges, both are available to purchase now.
What do you think?
Lx
