Falling for Winter - my favourite perfumes

Winter is not my favourite season of the year. At all. It would have been fine if we had one month of winter but having below zero Celsius temperatures for three months or more is just a little bit annoying. As I can't change anything about the weather I can at least find things that I like about winter: snuggling under the duvet and refusing to get up (that's a favourite until I have to actually get up at which point I just want to cry), cups of morning tea to warm me up, less smelly people on the buses, thick and warm scarves in which I bury my head like a turtle, having a pot of hot golaž or chilli with sour cream while watching the snow falling down,  bright lights of December, doing more smokey eyes and wearing darker lipsticks, having a good excuse for anything glittery, the smell of cinnamon roasted almonds and of course perfumes: oriental, ambery, woody, all these delicious perfumes.

Kenzo Amour Le Parfum: not to be mistaken with the original Kenzo Amour Eau de Parfum in pink, orange and white bottles, Amour Le Parfum is a deeper and woodier scent than the Eau de Parfum and to be completely honest I actually don't find them to be all that similar. Amour Le Parfum is a simple blend of amber and incense with some obligatory vanilla thrown in. There isn't much development (at least according to my nose), and I find that even the beginning of the perfume smells already like a drydown of a perfume, if that makes any sense. A perfect cuddly scent to warm me up when I forgot my scarf at home.

Guerlain Shalimar Ode a la Vanille was last year's limited edition variation on the legendary Shalimar perfume. I never owned a full bottle of the original Shalimar - I always loved the drydown of the scent but found the top notes too sharp. Luckily for me, Ode a la Vanille keeps everything I love with the Shalimar: a hard-to-miss combination of bergamot and smokey vanilla, but adds some more warmth to the scent, turns down the volume of the citrus and overall softens the edges of the scent. It is still a very  powerful and dense fragrance so you need to be careful with those spritzes.

Ormonde Jayne Ormonde Woman: I have nothing new to say about this green, woody wonder since my review precisely a year ago (what a funny coincidence!). It is one of the most unique and surprisingly calming scents I've ever tried and there are no words good enough.

Serge Lutens Chergui: if a mix of smokey tobacco and honey doesn't appeal to you then please don't let it discourage you from trying Chergui. I actually hate honey but somehow in Chergui it works - probably because it is not a sweet fragrance at all and the honey note is not overwhelming or puke-inducing. I'm very grateful that Ines sent me a sample of Chergui and since then I've been hooked on this spicy goodness which makes a great "scarf scent" as well (I'm a little bit obsessed with scarves at the moment, can you tell?).

L'Artisan Parfumeur Safran Troublant was my first perfume purchase, I think (before that I would usually get perfume for birthdays but I never bought it by myself). Rose, vanilla and saffron, the ultimate cuddle in a bottle and it still makes me think of the book and the movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

This is my selection for this season and I'm sure I'll definitely find some other gems in the following months and I still have Amouage Lyric on my winter wishlist. What perfumes do you love wearing in the Winter?

Chanel Le Vernis in Rouge Fatal (487)

 

Chanel nail polishes are probably one of the most highly anticipated items in every new collection from the brand (Who's got their eye on "June", the pastel orange nail polish new for spring? By the way, I always thought spring months are March, April and May. Not for Chanel, I guess). I've never tried Chanel polishes before - I just thought I wouldn't wear the colours enough to justify the expense and I really like my OPI, Essence, Catrice... polishes so I didn't really feel the need to get any of the more expensive ones. Also, judging by many online reviews a lot of nail colours by Chanel are not always the best quality - they are definitely not cheap but apparently they often chip. (I had to put this in here, sorry!)

But! For my birthday this year one of the gifts was also a gift certificate for Müller and suddenly getting a nail polish for 20ish just seemed like the best idea in the world.

Rouge Fatal is a deep muted red with a little bit of brown in it (although under certain lights it can look more like a berry red). The application was easy, opaque in two coats. One thing I've noticed was that using a topcoat didn't really extend the wear-time of this polish: it lasted 3-4 days whether I applied a topcoat or not.

Rouge Fatal for me is the perfect shade of red for autumn and one that I'll no doubt wear very often (and use the cost per wear formula while wearing it).

What are your favourite red nail polishes for this time of year or are you already in the festive mood with all the shimmers and glitters?

New Edward Bess palettes

This might just be my shortest post ever! I've just noticed on Facebook that Edward Bess has launched two new palettes in the US. Now I haven't tried anyhing from his beauty line yet but these two palettes just look so amazing: there are two colour combinations - Back to Basics and Berry Chic and in each palette you get a cheek/lip stain, highlighter, eyeshadow quad, two lipglosses and a dual-ended eyeshadow brush. I'm not usually a fan of palettes that mix cream and powder products but these two just look extremely versatile and I have high hopes for that eyeshadow brush.

Will you be getting any of these two palettes? I have my eye on Berry Chic (of course, I've been loving these colours lately) and I hope it pops up at Zuneta soon.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Colour Burst Lipstick in Word of Mouth

As mentioned in my review of the Whim of Mine lipstick by Rouge Bunny Rouge the next colour on my wishlist was Word of Mouth. I actually bought Word of Mouth together with some other lipsticks by Rouge Bunny Rouge months ago and it has become one of my favourite colours, actually it's the one I've been using the most this past month.

Rouge Bunny Rouge Colour Burst Lipsticks are probably the most comfortable lipsticks I've ever tried. They feel moisturizing on the lips but at the same time the lasting power is very good and the colour fades evenly to a nice sheer stain.

Word of Mouth is described as Creamy, shiny finish cool cherry syrup - The little black dress of lipsticks, very pretty and feminin. It doesn't look particularly cool toned on my lips, it's more of a neutral light berry rose. This colour has some slight shimmer to it but it's not really visible on the lips or in the swatch. In my opinion this shade would suit many different skintones which is why "the LBD of lipsticks" part actually makes sense.



L-R: Rouge Bunny Rouge Whim of Mine, Rouge Bunny Rouge Word of Mouth, MAC Viva Glam Cyndi


Above is a comparison swatch of Word of Mouth (in the middle) to another Rouge Bunny Rouge lipstick in Whim of Mine (I now have two WOMs from RBR:) on the left and MAC's Viva Glam Cyndi on the right.

Whim of Mine is more of a warm rosey-brown colour and MAC's Viva Glam Cyndi is lighter, sheerer and pinker than Word of Mouth.

I bought my Word of Mouth lipstick from Zuneta, as usual. By the way, Zuneta has recently lowered their delivery charges so that shipping to Slovenia now comes to 5 GBP instead of the previous 10 GBP (and as before there's still free shipping if you buy over a certain amount).

I love all the lipsticks that I have from Rouge Bunny Rouge - the only one that I don't really like that much is Prey of Lust but that one was a bad choice of colour, it's far too pale for me, texture-wise it's the same as all the other colours. I would love to see if Rouge Bunny Rouge brought out a bright pink lipstick (and a sparkly dark purple eyeshadow, oh, and a plummy blush. Can you tell I'm in full Autumn mode?).