Superdry Professional Lip Paint

                                                                                 

                 Superdry Professional Lip Paint in
                Electric Pink, Rebel Red & Flamingo

Superdry, the clothing company, expands this month with the release of a range of new beauty products. Packaged in brown cardboard with a font in different colours, each product exhibits all of the invention of Japanese packaging and typography. Superdry is minimalist like Muji. Stayability is a feature of my first favourite product, the Superdry Professional Lip Paint. This Lip Paint seems improved when tweaked with the heat of your index finger, proving you need not always perfect the finish of your lipstick with a lip brush. The Superdry Professional Lip Paint comes in Electric Pink, Rebel Red and Flamingo, the pink I tested, a velvet, smooth lip colour with a super matte finish. A colour like Flamingo usually suits a blonde complexion only, but the Superdry Lip Paint's unique finish is interesting, dramatic and could appeal to anybody. £8 for 3g in a highly covetable brown card tube. Available to buy online at www.superdry.com or at Superdry stores nationwide and worldwide.

Evolutionary Cosmetics - A Useful Dimension of Glamour

American Vogue August 2013 Editorial
feat. Karli Kloss and Daft Punk

As we advance, technology is at our fingertips in the consistency of our face creams and cosmetics - the microscopy of the skin cell, computers and technology in the content of the products we apply. Prescriptives - Monocream. Helena Rubenstein - Power A. Shu Uemura - Cell Fusion Al. Chanel - Cyber Lumiere. Makeup and skincare is advanced like the photographic techniques used to capture its effects in beauty shoots in magazines and adverts where the newest and most technological products are showcased first. The designer Hussein Chalayan presented his Remote Control Aeroplane Dress during his Spring/Summer 2000 show which I attended in September 1999, advancing ideas about technology and clothing in the process. The effects on your skin of your foundation or eye shadow now look even more like a photograph in a magazine, completed by digital airbrushing, the perfecting effect of the 21st century. Products like Revlon's Photoready Compact Makeup with Liquefying Screen demonstrate this, as do face and body creams, which are an intimate biological technology worn close to the skin. Evolutionary cosmetics, including skincare - a useful dimension of glamour.

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick
CR 330 Coral

Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick - a range in 44 shades, tested in CR 330 Coral (pictured), quite an orange pink. This lipstick applies smoothly eliminating the need to apply too generously. I usually use a lipstick brush to extend lipstick stayability and the lip brush I recommend - any lipstick brush from Japonesque. Moisture and comfort are a feature of this Shu Uemura lipstick with the addition of a nourishing, moisture-locking cream. This lipstick is a breakthrough using hybrid pigment technology delivering a high flush of colour straight to the lips. In a clear plastic tube suggesting something advanced, like a space age technology, another complete product from Shu Uemura, a Japanese company. £19. Available from Shu Uemura Covent Garden London (tel 0207 2407635), Harvey Nichols, Liberty, Selfridges London or online at shuuemura.co.uk.

Richard Phillips - 'Peel' (1996)

Richard Phillips
'Peel' 1996
 Oil on linen
 198 x 218cm 

Richard Phillips, an American painter, born in Massachusetts in 1962, 

was commissioned by MAC cosmetics in 2009 to produce a version 

of one of his own hyperrealistic paintings using MAC's latest cosmetic 

colour pigments and products, including their 'In the Gallery' eyeshadow. 

Employing the retouching technical expertise of Pascal Dangin, the 

renowned digital airbrushing artist, Richard Phillips produced 'Der 

Bodensee', a vivid, super hyperrealistic painting based on a 

photograph, executed to highly glossy, digital effect. Advancing the 

medium of painting in this way, Richard Phillips' work has always been 

influenced by photographs and adverts he finds of women in fashion or 

other magazines from the late Sixties and early Seventies in particular.
Although often provocative, you admire the skill of his paintings at 

first. 'Peel' (1996, above) is a painting of his I admire the most for it's 

beauty in detail, colour and close-up.

Dr Organic Pomengranate Advanced Recovery Eye Cream

Dr Organic Pomengranate Eye Cream 15ml

Although seemingly slow-acting at first, Dr Organic Pomengranate Advanced Recovery Eye Cream is by now my eye cream of choice, the one I use twice daily, morning and night to moisturize the delicate area around the eye - tap lightly around the eye area using your ring finger. Available exclusively from Holland & Barrett, along with the entire Dr Organic range (previously reviewed), at an inexpensive £9.29 for 15ml, it is a super-efficient, light cream formulated using the anti-aging super berry pomengranate, a fruit which is bursting with Vitamin C and B5. I found after three weeks, dark circles around the eye area were reduced and the skin around the eye was completely hydrated, smooth and fine line free. Preventing dryness by actually protecting the skin, this eye cream is formulated to boost collagen stability, return elasticity, reduce puffiness and promote cell regeneration, ambitious claims fulfilled by a highly successful product. Recommended for all skin types including more mature, aging skin. £9.29 for 15ml. Available exclusively from Holland & Barrett stores in the UK or buy online at www.drorganic.co.uk

Lacoste L.12.12 Rouge - Fragrance for Men

Lacoste L.12.12 -
Fragrance for Men

Lacoste L.12.12 Rouge 100ml £45. The iconic Lacoste tennis shirt 

captured in a fragrance brilliantly packaged in a red box and red bottle
complete with woven fabric crocodile. Contains: mandarin, ginger,
rooibus, acacia wood. Invigorating. Red indicates courage in the wearer.
Lacoste, a French clothing and accessories company, founded by
Rene Lacoste, a Grand Slam tennis star in 1920's France, with his
business associate Andrew Gillies. Designed and worn by Lacoste
himself, Lacoste invented the tennis or polo shirt in a breathable cotton
and called it L.12.12. The crocodile logo was born from his nickname
introducing an era of elegance in sports clothing. From tennis attire
to today's contemporary style brand including the Lacoste Polo shirt
in a most classic colour, red. Lacoste L.12.12.Rouge 100ml £45
- the iconic Lacoste tennis shirt captured in a fragrance. Invigorating.
Available from Lacoste Boutiques nationwide. Locate a store at
http://shop-uk.lacoste.com

Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Youth Regenerating Cream

Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Youth Regenerating  Cream

Thick and rich on application at first, Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Youth

Regenerating moisturizing face cream contains Rosa Arctica, the rare 

"Resurrection Flower", an African violet, known to withstand up to 31 

months of extreme dehydration. Harvested at full bloom for maximum 

efficacy, this ingredient is proven to re-awaken cell activity in skin 

where cell turnover and barrier function is decreased due to aging. 

Formulated to boost elasticity and reduce dryness, dehydration lines 

and wrinkles, this is a natural cream, not synthetic as suggested by 

its strong, paint-like smell. Another of its ingredients is glycolic 

acid, a fruit-derived mild acid which decongests the skin (rids it of 

dairy spots or whiteheads) contributing also towards a fresher 

complexion. Kiehl's Rosa Arctica is an anti-aging treatment cream which 

delivers the firmer, denser, smoother skin promised by the product. I 

found this cream tightened the forehead instantly and delivered a blast 

of continuous moisture to the skin over the following two weeks. My 

skin was so revived and radiant, I stopped using the product until I 

think it needs intensive care again. Kiehl's Rosa Arctica suits all skin 

types 50g £45. Use as a day cream or apply at night. Available from 

Kiehl's stores nationwide or check online at www.kiehls.co.uk

'My Bizarre Harper's Cover' - George Lois/Art Director, Ad Man, Graphic Designer

ESQUIRE Magazine October 1963
Art Direction: George Lois
                
          

First there’s the entire photograph, then there’s the beauty shot – the shot of the model, framed for a fashion magazine, like a classical painting. The black hat and the white furs are designer and create contrast. The lipstick and the nail varnish are pink, vivid and glossy. This framed section of the photo is the magazine front cover shot, the Harper’s Bazaar George Lois refers to in the title, ‘My Bizarre Harper’s Cover’, published in Esquire Magazine in October 1963. Outside of the frame, the rest of the photograph is how the model looks in casual attire, tanned and active, away from the glamour, where 'real life' is located. The aqua background makes the entire image pop. American Art Director, graphic designer and ad man George Lois, photographer Art Kane and Esquire intended to expose the artifice of it all, a comment on the power of the American fashion magazine at that time. DC