Wow! I love being wowed by something, and the new MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Lips shades from the Aqua Summer collection are so gorgeous! I fell hard for Coral and Baby Pink. They are so bright & summery and basically like a colour tattoo for your lips. Seriously – you cannot rub, wipe or smudge this stuff off without make up remover. It’s actually astounding. They aren’t slick or slippery on the lip, and they come with a clear gloss attached to add shine and a plump look to the lips. I find if you apply a thin layer and blend it (quickly!) with your finger, you can wear it on it’s own, like a stain, for more of a velvet satin finish. Coral is super flattering and I can see it working on any skin tone. I am not a fan of strong lip colours at all, but fell hard for these beauties. I go a little lighter on my eye make up when I wear a stronger lip. I hate feeling overly made up, and like to strike a pretty balance.

MAKE UP FOR EVER Aqua Lip is available at Sephora, and you can check here on their website for buying information.

Good heavens, Chanel! How do you make such magical and dreamy shimmers? Taboo (Le Vernis 583) is beyond gorgeous and I am seriously in love with this divine colour. It looks like a vampy deep red, but it’s flecked with purple, red and blue and just kind of incredible in any light. Application is a dream, and if I was super steady handed I could probably get away with one coat. Verdict? Love.

I will love it forever. Let’s let the photos speak for themselves, shall we? Pardon my sloppy application. I can’t find my clean up brush, and, frankly, just didn’t care because the colour is THAT beautiful.

Chanel Le Vernis Taboo is available at Chanel counters & boutiques for around $30.

I often fall in love with beauty prodz that I think are sooo pretty (usually limited editions) and want to buy them immediately. But these likely things I would buy and then never use. So I exercise restraint and wait for the urge to pass, which it usually does. But, the newest nail polish from Chanel, Azure, kept singing it’s siren song to me.

These photos were taken with seconds of each other, I literally turned out of the direct light & ta-da! Teal with purple became blue.

I got it home and thought “blue-green-teal-purple chrome nail polish for ME?” and was a little worried this would be a Chanel polish that would gather dust, buried in my collection. I decided to apply it quickly before heading out for dinner and thought if I hated it, I could take it off. No big deal. Yes, I over think these things.

Well, the longer I wear it, the more I love it. It’s gorgeous, magical and changes with the light like something enchanted. I also got Taboo which I’m sure to love equally. Stay tuned for that review.

Aqua butterfly image from butterflytopia.com

Chanel Le Vernis Azure  and the Collection Eté Papillon 2013 is around $30 and available at Chanel counters, boutiques and online here.

I was thrilled to find out that Elle Canada has voted Daly Beauty in their Top 8 Canadian Beauty Blogs! I share the honour with some of my favourite bloggers who I love and who inspire me. Thanks, Elle!

I’ve fallen in love with another violet perfume. I should start by telling you the lovely and charming story of the latest perfume line that has charmed me – Imaginary Authors.- which is a new perfume house founded by perfumer Josh Meyer. What Josh says:

“Imaginary Authors is born from the concept of scent as art and art as provocation. Like a good book, these scents are meant to inspire you. In these bottles are layered narratives that are sure to generate stirring conversation, fragrances that might be capable of changing the course of your own personal story. The hope is that they not only invigorate and intoxicate, but also take you to new places.”

There are seven perfumes and I can safely say there is a perfume for everyone in this collection! There is the cool, calming & pretty Violet Disguise with notes of plum, violet, dried fruits, balsam, amber & my favourite notes – “evening air” and “the month of May”. If you like soft airy florals that are not overly sweet and that impart a sense of calm, then you’ll like this one too. Or for a more bright and sparkling floral, perhaps L’Oridée Terrible with notes of orchid, honey, muguet, fizzy aldehydes, white musk and “satin”. These are lovely florals but could easily be worn by either sex. For example, L’Orchidée Terrible has a woodsy almost root beer note in the dry down and I think it would be really sexy on a man.

Perhaps my favourite is Falling Into The Sea – here is what the website says about this, it’s too delicious not to share here:

At the age of nineteen Nica Galas published her first book, the autobiographical tome Falling into the Sea which chronicled her short and torrid love affair among the hot beaches and lemon trees in the Gulf of Naples. The breathtaking story opens with Nica and her girlfriends picking bunches of jasmine flower for boys while they cliff-jumped into the sea. An innocent first kiss erupts into an ardent summer entanglement which is cut short one moonlit night when her lover leaps into the dark abyss never to surface, leaving Nica naked on the cliffs screaming his name.

WHEN TO WEAR: This scent is sunshine in a bottle. Wear on cloudy days to invoke the ardor of summer.

NOTES: Lemon, Bergamot, Grapefruit, Lychee, Tropical Flowers & Warm Sand

Falling Into The Sea is so fresh and I’ve worn it a couple times during our incredible summer May weather and is lovely and almost cooling. The Soft Lawn is a really neat green scent with notes of “fresh tennis balls” and “clay court”. While I’m not sure I pick up on those, the fresh green grass note is amazing. Attention lovers of GAP Grass – you need to grab The Soft Lawn!

I’d call The Cobra and The Canary ( I smell leather and ashphalt), Bull’s Blood (I smell patchouli, rose and tobacco)  and Memoires of a Trespasser   (I smell sweet vanilla, whiskey and oak) the “masculines” but seriously – these are for both sexes. You know me and my florals and girly scents – but I would  seriously LOVE to smell these on a man. Yummy.

 I love the descriptors because they are imparting a feeling of the scent, an impression vs listing all the “notes” which are almost always just ad copy anyways. So keeping it simple and having fun with perfume is fresh and I love it. The “stories” behind the authors aka the perfumes are fun and dreamy, so fresh and interesting and something a little different in the world of perfume.

So – guess what the awesome perfumer, Josh Myers, has offered the readers of Daly Beauty? A contest! We will be giving away two sample packs with all the perfumes for you to try (generous spray samples!) and one bottle of Imaginary Authors perfume. So you have three chances to win! Just comment on this post to enter, and mention the Imaginary Authors perfume that most appeals to you and the lucky winner will get a bottle of their choice! Winner will be chosen May 15th at 6pm so be sure to check back!

WINNERS: Tami – you have won a bottle of your choice! Bryan and Sarah – you’ve won sample libraries!

Imaginary Authors perfumes are available on their website at $85 USD for a 60ml bottle. Single 2ml sample sprays are $6 each, or you can get the whole collection of samples, the entire “Bookshelf”, 7 scents for $35.

Guys! I have actually just discovered my absolute new favourite self tanning product. I have been a huge fan of St Tropez mousse forever – it’s been my go-to self tanner because it looks natural, applies dark which helps for even coverage, and develops quickly. I like that it is a thin product base vs a thick cream, as I don’t need anything to block my pores. It also doesn’t smell weird. So when I got a little bottle of Vitatanz to try I wasn’t expecting to be wowed, as in the past five plus years, nothing has come close to St Tropez mousse, so why would this time be any different?  Ha! How wrong I was. This is likely because Vitatanz has a very special formulation not seen in the self tanning world before.

From their website:

“Vitatanz is the world’s first and only Anti-Aging and full body skin therapeutic treatment. It leaves your skin with a beautiful, deep, dark, Golden glow. Vitatanz was developed to help fight the signs of aging with such trace elements as magnesium, iron, zinc and copper. Green tea and other anti-oxidants also help protect skin against free radical damage.”

Vitatanz is a liquid product, in a spray bottle, and is meant to applied directly to the skin, then buffed with the buffer pad that comes with the product, see how-to here. Sounds weird right off the bat, I thought. Geez, why was I so skeptical? Vitatanz goes on a lovely shade of bronze-y brown, with nary an orange tone in sight. The scent is neutral and doesn’t last at all. I hate the smell of almost all spray tans, they smell plastic and gross and seem to stay in the skin forever. Vitatanz seems to have eliminated that weird cooked skin note. But the craziest part of Vitatanz is what develops over the next few hours, and that would be tanned perfection. I did my legs and my face and was amazed at the perfectly natural shade. The buffer means you can blend out the edges of the tan area perfectly, and makes for lovely and even application. But the best was how long it lasted! At least a week of glow on my face, and considering the vigorous cleaning, scrubbing and exfoliating I do, this is amazing. I kept forgetting I’d used it and would catch myself in the mirror thinking – “You look like you’ve had a lovely restful holiday”. Isn’t that what a good self tanner is supposed to do?

Steve McQueen & his, ahem, tan lines.

I’m 100% sold on Vitatanz and the St Tropez mousse has moved to the back of the cupboard. Looking for a self tanner? You MUST try Vitatanz. A starter kit, which includes a 2 oz bottle, a buffer and plastic gloves is $30 which is totally reasonable in my opinion. Canadian buyers go here and US/International buyers go here.

Virgin Island Water is a gorgeous unisex scent from Creed that somehow manages to feel modern and classic at the same time. The citrus notes feel fresh and “eau de cologne” like but make no mistake, this is no watery boring citrus. Right off the top a soft yet subtle coconut note feels like the Caribbean breeze. Not a sweet Pina Colada/Hawaiian Tropic coconut, this is more of a green breezy true coconut, the green being backed up by a tart lime note. As it dries down there are gentle floral notes that somehow manage to be fresh and airy and completely universal or unisex while evoking a field of wildflowers. Ylang-ylang and jasmine can be soapy clean in perfume and this really adds a fresh cooling effect- topped off with a spicy ginger note that again, takes the florals into a place that any man can carry off. Trust me- on a man, this stuff is s e x y. The scent dries down to a delicious and sensual skin scent, with a soft sweet musk tempered with tonka. The tonka gives the impression of sweet hay in the sunshine with gentle vanilla and almond undertones. All of these notes combine to make a cologne that somehow manages to feel like a day sailing in the Caribbean trade winds, then taking a dip in the ocean, topped off with lying on the beach while the warm sun kisses your skin. Seriously.

I know a few people who like to keep this in the refrigerator and spritz it on while it is cold. What a great idea. It is a soft cologne, so it would work well in an office environment as it wears quite close to the skin without leaving a trail of sillage in your wake. That said, it does require re-applying after around 3-4 hours as softer colognes tend to have less longevity than stronger perfumes. This is also another of my favourite “spray on the sheets” perfumes as it makes your whole bedroom smell like Caribbean trade winds are blowing through it. On men, Virgin Island Water is subtle, sexy, enticing and unexpected with its sweet twist. On women, well, it’s also delicious . If you like beachy scents, you need this in your collection. It kind of makes me think of the lovely Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess beach perfume that she puts out every spring, but with a little more of a sexy base to it.

From Creed’s official website:

Virgin Island Water captures the tropical splendor of scents carried in the trade winds of Sir Francis Drake Channel near Ginger Island in the Caribbean.

Top Note: Essence of copra (the white inner portion of the coconut); lime of the Antilles; white bergamot and mandarin orange from Sicily
Middle Note: Hibiscus, ginger, ylang-ylang and Indian jasmine
Bottom Note: Sugar cane and white rum of the Antilles, musk from Tonkin

Do you have a favourite beach perfume, or perfume that makes you think of the beach?

Creed is available at select Holt Renfrew perfume counters in Canada, the online Creed Boutique http://www.creedboutique.com/ and from Neiman Marcus in the US, as well as the recently opened Creed Boutique on Madison Avenue in New York.

Creed Virgin Island Water prices range from $122 for 30ml to $320 for a 250ml flacon.

We all know that feeling. You’ve just found a lovely new perfume – you’ve spritzed a paper blotter with it, it smells good, you try it on your skin. Then, something happens. That perfume becomes a monster, slowly but surely turning into a headache (and possibly nausea) inducing disaster on your skin.  You try washing it, and nothing works. Well, there are a few things that do work. First, I recommend making sure your skin is well moisturized before trying or wearing perfume. The oily base of a skin lotion or cream is what the perfume will hold onto and make it last longer or easier to wipe off.

Don’t ask me how I come up with this stuff. But trust me when I say it works.

Here is where I get weird. Ok so you know those feminine hygiene cleaning products, like Summer’s Eve and the worst named product ever made, Vagisil? Yeah, well they make little individually packaged wipes. They have something in them that effectively gets rid of odour and that includes perfume. I read somewhere that the Summer’s Eve body wash was the best way to get rid of a nasty perfume aka “scrubber”, and when I was perusing that weird section of the drugstore I spotted the wipes. They seem a little easier to tote around than a bottle of shower gel. These products wipe away any “smells” you might have on your skin, and leave it soft. They are pH balanced and quite gentle on skin, with very little scent of their own – as I suppose eliminating odour is what they do… Another trick I’ve used is to swipe over the offending perfume with unscented stick deodorant. There is something in there that is specially formulated to deal with unwanted smells.

So, next time you go shopping for perfume, toss a few Summer’s Eve or Vagisil wipes in your purse, and maybe an unscented Lady Speed Stick or something. You’re welcome.

Clinique Nail Enamel in Happy

Earlier this week I posted about the new Clinique Nail Enamel and now I finally got the chance to try a couple colours. I have a few more to go but these ones stood out as lovely for spring! They really are not as strong smelling as my other polishes and application was easy. Pinkini is only 2 coats below and you can see a little VNL (visible nail line) so perhaps 3 coats would be better. They get nice and glossy with the Clinique Top & Base Coat, and are fairly fast drying.

Clinique Nail Enamel in Pinkini – it was cloudy when I took this shot!

Clinique Pinkini with Hula Skirt on ring finger.

As you know, I love musk scents. Clean musks, floral musks and woodsy musks – I love them all. Certain musks have the ability to morph and take on the chemistry of the wearer and become what I like to call a “skin scent”. This means the scent sits close to the skin  and only get noticed when someone is close to you.

Lately I’ve been enjoying a sweet and sexy little gem of a musk scent by the English perfume house, Miller Harris. They created a perfume as an ode to Jane Birkin (she and Lyn Harris, the perfumer, are friends) called L’Air de Rien (air of nothing), which while sexy, was just a bit much for me. It wasn’t “nothing” on me and smelled a bit, well, “barnyard” on my skin. But then I read about a flanker of L’Air de Rien called Un Petit Rien. For Un Petit Rien, Jane asked Lyn for a lighter, more transparent scent, less of an oriental. So this perfume is clearer and more sparkling, representing both its muse’s mysterious side and her luminous one as well. The fragrance’s name has a secret meaning, since it refers to Serge Gainsbourg’s somewhat melancholy song, ‘Ces Petits Riens’ (“Little Nothings”). It has a neroli, oak moss and musk structure but somewhere in there are some sweet vanilla and tonka notes, which makes this scent a little mouth watering. A delicious tasty musk that wears like a sexy second skin? That’s my kind of perfume. The only issue with Petit Rien is that one now has to order it direct from Miller Harris in the UK as a special order. I got mine from MIN New York, but I’m not sure if they have any more bottles.

Santa Maria Novella is an old Italian perfume house with many lovely scents that I love. Melograno was the perfume worn by Vesper in Casino Royale, and I love it too. I have SMN Gardenia and consider it one of my most sensual floral perfumes. The sexy factor with SMN is likely the musk base that is common to all their scents. I tried their Muschio/Musk and it was just a bit too “much” somehow. I have used the term oily to refer to musks I don’t like but some may say too dirty or skanky. But make no mistake – if it’s the wrong musk for you, you will know immediately. And one man’s yucky musk may be another man’s invisible perfume, such is the oddness of the musk perfume molecule. So I was happy when I tried SMN Muschio Oro/Gold Musk and found it in the bright sparkly soapy musk family I love so much. Yes, it still has undertones of the SMN earthy musk I love in Gardenia but the “Gold” notes are sunny sweet flowers on top of the musk. If I had to compare it to anything, I would say it reminds me a bit of Camay soap. I loved Camay soap when I was a kid – maybe it is just the childhood memory of a cooling bath at the end of a hot day, then sitting outside in the cooler evening air in my pj’s with soapy fresh clean skin. There is a naughty-nice aspect to Santa Maria Novella Gold Musk but also a sweetness that is similar to Petit Rien.

I think Raquel is wearing Gold Musk – rawr!

These perfumes are not the same, but there is a similar thread that joins them, and that is the musk notes. Musks are among my favourite types of perfumes, and Gold Musk and Un Petit Rien are really getting lots of love from me lately.

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