Category Archives: General Musing

Follow The Perfect Lipstick on Bloglovin’

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Hey there, do you know about Bloglovin'? It's my favourite way to track all the amazing blogs that I follow. It's so easy to use and it means you can see your unread posts all in one place instead of visiting every site, even if they haven't posted anything new.

You should definitely check it out, and while you're there, you could follow The Perfect Lipstick – just if you feel like it! 

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Do you use Bloglovin or some other genius site to keep track of all your blogs?!

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What My Mother Taught Me

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I'd been blogging for a while when I first asked Mum if she wanted to start up a beauty blog. My other blog is more lifestyle-y and my love of all things beauty didn't really fit into what I've got going on over there. When I thought about what I wanted to do, I decided to see if Mum wanted to do it with me. After all, everything I know, I learnt from her and she is the queen of Gift-With-Purchase and Bathroom-Cabinet-Delights. She was pretty excited and so we started The Perfect Lipstick.

Over the past few months we have had so much fun finding new products and sharing them with each other and, ultimately, whoever stops upon this here blog. If it's possible, we've become more obssessed with beauty products and expanded our minds as we try more new things and experiment with trends.

In case you haven't noticed, we've been a bit quiet around here lately for various reasons. You may also know that my mum is ridiculously amazing and crazy busy at the moment so I wanted to dedicate this little post to her in honour of her awesomeness.

So, I give you, What My Mother Taught Me. Just a few tips and things that I've picked up from her over the years.

 

ALWAYS apply lip balm before bed. This is to decrease your risk of Disappearing Lips, something that affects all women as they age.

 

Beauty comes from within and there are things you can do every day to ensure you live a beautiful life.

 

 

Make sure your hands and nails are always well taken care of. Nobody likes shabby hands!

 

Take a good look at yourself in the mirror before you leave the house. Are you putting your best YOU out there? Being too critical of ourselves is never a good thing, but you can examine how you're presenting yourself to the world and if that means putting on a different top or taking off a piece of jewellery, then that's okay!

 

Smile. As often as possible. Never be afraid to make a friendly gesture or comfort someone. No one will think badly of you for being kind.

 

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We’re chuffed

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Yesterday, whilst spending my Sunday morning browsing Twitter and Bloglovin, it became apparent to me that The Perfect Lipstick was named in iFabbo's list of Beauty Blogs To Watch. We didn't start this blog very long ago and we're new to the beauty blogging world so we were chuffed to be included among some of our favourite beauty bloggers!

iiFabbo said:

"The Perfect Lipstick – This beauty blog is co-written by Katherine and her mum Sue! If that’s not enough to make your heart sing, then the cute lipstick header will."

Thanks, iFabbo, you made our day!

We recommend that you take the time to check out all the other great blogs on the list, if you don't already know them and we'll be back next week with another Mother/Daughter Monday!

Have a lovely week!

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Scent-sory Overload!

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One of the things I love about being a girl is the sheer pleasure of wearing perfume in order to smell nice, however, I don't want my perfume to be competing with other products that I'm wearing, so generally try to wear scent-neutral 'other stuff' (althoug I have to say that hair spray is a difficult one to try and get on the neutral side – but have you noticed that you don't smell it on people throughout the day – so the smell must wear off!!)
 
Whew – that was a long introduction to make my point, but it is coming.  Remember a few weeks ago when I was so excited about all the free samples I had got in a week?  Well, I've tried some of them and the ones I tested got me ranting on about smell (see above) and I just wonder what everyone else thinks of over-perfumed skin care.
 
 
First up is the Nivea Vital Multi Active Soy day cream, night cream, and eye cream combo for mature skin.  Loved the eye cream – light, creamy and scent-neutral.  The day cream and night cream both feel beautiful, and I love soy so the soy element attracted me.  But the smell!! Wow – super overpowering!!  I couldn't use either of them more than the first time I put them on – too much for my sensitive nose.
 
The second product I want to mention is the Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Lotion.  Can't go wrong with cocoa butter (and added Vitamin E) surely?  Smells great when you open it up.  Smells great when you rub the beautiful formula into your skin after showering in the morning, and before getting dressed for the day (do not lick arm – is not really chocolate).  Smell starts to get a little tiresome late in the afternoon when you've been at work all day, and everytime you move, remove cardigan/jacket, go to the loo, you can still smell the cocoa-y buttery smell under your winter clothes.  Another one lost on me because of the smell, but the reviews out there give this product top marks, so you might just have to try it for yourself.

 

Anyway, I'm just off now to pick up some Palmolive Naturals Body Butter Body Wash in Luscious Mango …… ummmm!

Please tell me that I am not alone here!? Do you love the scented body stuff or does it drive you crazy too?

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The Most Beautiful Woman In The World

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I spend a fortune on creams and serums in the hope that they will assist in keeping my skin looking good, that will in turn keep me looking young and beautiful (read 'make me look').  But this week I  have learned something from just sitting watching TV.  I learned that a balance of working hard, mixing with lots of people, travelling, keeping your family close around you, being loved and loving others, having fun and smiling a lot is the way to look young and beautiful.
Our Queen, the 86 year-young Elizabeth, has proven it to me.   This week I have been caught up watching the celebrations coming from my favourite city in the world – London.  The Diamond Jubilee of our Queen has captured the world, with more viewers than the wedding of her grandson William last year.  Young and old alike seem to have been captivated by four days of music, fun, celebration, pagentry, religous ceremony, and pomp and circumstance like only the British can do it.
 
And I have decided that, in my mind, she is the most beautiful woman in the world.  Not in a traditional sense, but in an overall, wholesome kind of way.  With a beauty that comes from within, and is now, in my opinion, shining through more than in any time that I have observed her. 
 
Because of this event we have seen some of the early photographs of the young Princess Elizabeth, and those of her early days as Queen, a position that she took up at the very young age of 25.  And in those photos she really was very beautiful.  And over the past 60 years, as she has worked day in and day out to raise a family and run the Commonwealth, she has undergone changes.  She has aged – but she has done it gracefully and with poise.
 
She went through tumultuous years in the 1980's and '90's as 3 of her 4 children's marriages broke down, a massive fire tore through Windsor Castle, and then the Royal Family and the country had to deal with the death of Diana.  These must have been her darkest days. 
 
But as I have watched the celebrations this week I see a woman who now is content and happy.  I have seen her loving husband by her side, and then seen her looking very human and alone when he had to go into hospital. I have seen interviews of her grandchildren talking about 'Granny' with such love and respect and admiration. 
 
I have seen her laughing with her children and sharing fun with Camilla, and she has shone in some of the most beautiful outfits and great hats, all appropriate for the occasion and her age.   And the woman is 86 years old, and still wearing heels!!   I watched her walk gracefully out of St. Paul's Cathedral, taking the stairs with the agility of a woman half her age, and hoped that I will be so adept when I am her age.
 
 
So, in a blog called The Perfect Lipstick, where we are on the constant look out for the perfect products to make us look and feel good, I give you the secret to being the most beautiful woman in your world:

  • Do something meaningful every day, that brings happiness to you and to others

  • Love the family you are in, and if that is impossible, adopt a family that will support and love you

  • Travel to keep your life interesting, even if it is only in your local region

  • Have fun always, knowing that 'dark days' never last

  • Smile and laugh, embracing the lines because they show others how much fun you are having

 

 

Images – 1, 2, 3, 4

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Don’t Be A Victim

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I think it's safe to say that we've all been there at one time in our lives. The first time I did it, I was alone, it was a rainy Saturday and I was bored and a bit cash poor. I needed a change in my life and something inside me rebelled. Even though I was in a committed relationship, I just couldn't help myself. Things got messy, chaos ensued, and then the worry began over what I had done and how I would explain myself.

On the off chance that you're not following, I'm talking about the Home Dye Job (or HDJ, as it will now be referred to as). I know I'm not the only girl to have cheated on her hairdresser with a $15 box of do-it-yourself colour goodness and spent most of the application time swearing at the complete destruction of everything around me, not to mention the moments of panic that become overwhelming when trying a new brand or colour: 'please don't turn out green…please don't stain my face…please don't make my hair fall out…should I have done that allergy test in the instructions?".  You get me, don't you?

The HDJ has become a major trend since we have all become both time and cash poor, but for what? Living in fear that you will make an irreparable home dye error? Saving some money and denying yourself the luxury of a trip to the salon? Getting what you paid for?

The major hair care extraordinaires at Goldwell are way ahead of me here and playing upon every fear and doubt I have ever had about the HDJ in their latest campaign, Don't Be A Victim, and having a bloody good go at convincing me that they know what they're talking about and their colours are better than any boxed product will ever be (the use of 'bloody' here is somewhat significant…do read on).

If you are familiar with my blog, Through My Looking Glass, you will know how much I appreciate clever advertising, marketing, and use of the media. The campaign that Goldwell and (creative agency) Bashful launched this week has hit the nail on the head as they promote the importance of their high quality products, their salon partners, and the potential horrors of the HDJ.

Goldwell's Marketing Director, Louise Chamberlain, believes that Goldwell is the height of professional hair colour stating that the company 'invest[s] in extensive colour ranging and up to the minute salon education to achieve the highest quality colour solution". Goldwell are committed to providing customers the best quality colour you can get, and the brand's dedication to this campaign and determination that we should 'only trust a Goldwell salon for the best results' definitely piqued my interest to put my hair in their hands!

Check the ad out for yourself and try and I defy you to feel that the HDJ can compete with Goldwell and their salons!


Does the 'bloody' part above make sense now?

This is definitely a subject I'd love to hear your thoughts on! I have dabbled in both over the years and I really enjoy that Goldwell's campaign will cross my mind whenever I walk past the dye boxes at the supermarket or try to convince myself that I don't have time to visit a salon for some professional pampering.

Comment below or on Facebook, let's talk about Salon vs Supermarket colour!!

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RIP Vidal Sassoon

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I’d like to pay respect today to the celebrated English hairdresser, Vidal Sassoon, who died on Wednesday in Los Angeles, aged 84.
 
The title ‘hairdresser’ seems so inadequate for the man who won his first hairdressing competition in 1950 and is credited with creating the ‘bob cut’.  Sassoon revolutionised women’s hairstyles though the 1960’s, doing away with the coiffed looks of the previous decade, and giving women wash and wear styles that were easy to manage. 
 
A 2010 documentary about his life, Vidal Sassoon: The Movie, hailed him as ‘a rock star, an artist, a craftsman, … how one man changed the world with a pair of scissors’.
 
(Just a bit of trivia – Roman Polanski paid Vidal $5000 to cut Mia Farrow’s hair for his film, Rosemary’s Baby, and invited the media to watch.)
 
 I remember my first bob cut.  It was 1976 and my hairdresser, with her straight, strong thick hair had one – so I had what she was having.  In those days the only hair products available were shampoo, conditioner and hairspray.  The only utensils were brushes, hairdryers and heated curlers.  So my bob never looked like the Mary Quant, Carnaby Street look.  It was just a short curly hairdo.
 
Fast forward to 2001, and I did the bob again; with a much better hairdresser, better products and better utensils.  And just by coincidence today, I am blessing the dry Brisbane weather as I cultivate a longer look, growing my pixie haircut into a bob again, a la Phyrne Fisher (see ABC, 8:30pm Fridays).  Bless my GHD!
 
May we all give thanks to the man who made hair styling much easier for us to manage at home, but I do wonder whether we have complicated it all again over the last 50 years!!!
 
 
 
 
 
Images – 1, 2
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Ding, Dong, Avon Calling!

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I think my love of beauty products possibly comes from the fact that when I was about 10 years old my mother became an Avon lady (surprisingly, neither of my brothers seem to have been affected in the same way). 
Mum's first territory was in our neighbourhood and she walked from door to door, building up a regular clientle and – knowing what I know now – what must have been a successful business.  However, her business really began to thrive when she learned to drive and was given a territory on the western outskirts of Brisbane, where all the women lived on acreage (small farms and horse properties) and weren't able to easily pop into the city to shop (no shopping centres back then).  It was here that she drove from property to property and built a great business, supplying shopping-deprived women with make-up, cosmetics, men's and women's toiletries, skin care, perfumes, and gifts.
 
Mum would drive out, deliver the catalogues, take the orders, place them with Avon and – hallellujah – every three weeks boxes and boxes of wonderful products were delivered to our door.  They had to be unpacked and collated into individual order bags and I got to help!  It was like Christmas every month, plus our house always smelled lovely.
 
Fast forward 18 years to when I was living in England and, one day, when I was at home looking after my six month old baby (read: Katherine) there was a knock at the door and it was the Avon lady (I should have had a doorbell!).  She was looking for someone to run the territory in our village and, boy, had she come to the right door.  I worked that territory for about a year (it was the 1980's, money was tight, and women weren't buying much), with many childhood memories flooding back every time the delivery came (smell is an amazing thing).
 
 
Returning to Brisbane, and then to the workforce in the '90's, I would sometimes buy bits and pieces from women at work who would leave an Avon catalogue lying around, or occasionally from someone local who dropped a brochure in my letterbox, but everytime I found a product I liked (or my girls did, or my mum did), the distributor would disappear from my life.
 
One day I rang Avon and asked if I could just order for myself via the Internet and the company very obligingly said I could. So I did – until about a year ago, when I realised that I was just buying for the sake of it and paying postage to boot.  My cupboards were full of body wash, night creams, and cosmetics, but I had moved on to trying and buying a vast range of different brands from department stores – where I could try, and buy, and take them home immediately.  Also, as an addicted collector of a number of brands that do Gift With Purchase, I had so many boxes full of sample products it was starting to look like an obsession.  I gave products away left, right and centre but, miraculously, they would stock up again just as fast.
 
So I made a decision;  I could live without Avon in my life.  Not that there is anything wrong with the company or its products, quite the contrary.  The products are great, the prices affordable, and the freedom many women have gained through selling is inspiring.  I just felt that I had to exert some self-discipline after accumulating more product than I could use in a lifetime.  I might go back to buying the odd Avon product here and there, but sometimes you just have to say no. Do you have any weaknesses that you need to get some control over?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Images – 1, 2
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Estee Lauder and The GWP

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Estee Lauder has long been credited as the business woman who started the 'Gift with Purchase' idea, way back in the early 1930's. As co-creator of the famous Estee Lauder line, she first gave handbag-sized samples to friends, and to the rich and beautiful, to introduce them to her products.  Not only was she a good, strong business leader, but she knew how to get the products into department stores and into the hands of their intended market.

And she understood women, stating "Beauty is an attitude.  There's no secret.  Why are all brides beautiful?  Because on their wedding day they care about how they look.  There are no ugly women – only women who don't care or who don't believe they're attractive."

Today there are a number of cosmetic companies that do the GWP special – Estee Lauder, Lancome, Revlon, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, Clarins – and the list goes on.  They also do the rounds of the department stores.  If you miss the GWP at Myer, you can pick up a similar one a month or two later at David Jones (and even Terry Whites is now getting in on the action).

And I've done them all. I do have favourites, but none are exclusively targeted. Amongst my friends, I am known as the GWP queen.  I love the excitement of new products.  A new make-up or toiletries bag (I end up with so many I give them away to a charity that makes up toiletries packages for children taken into care). Tiny products that are great to use when traveling.  New seasons lipstick colours.  Cosmetics brushes. Mascara, eyeshadow, blush, skincare, and so on and so on.

I haven't bought a new blush, mascara or eyeshadow for decades, as I get them all in GWP packs.  Clinique always includes a small High Impact Mascara in Black which I love, and it means that I can hygienically replace it every 6 to 8 weeks.  I have baskets in the bathroom cupboard (called the 'shop' by my daughters) full of small and full-sized products.  I  love them, I use them, sometimes I do a bit of a stocktake, and sometimes I give them away.

I believe life is too short to not enjoy skincare and makeup.  I love it – but most of all I love the thrill of the chase when I hear there's a new GWP that has hit the streets!  If you've never indulged I'd urge you to try it just once.  It's like a special gift for no reason at all, and you never know, you may just find a new product that is just perfect for you.

 

 

Image – 1

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The Perfect Lipstick

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There are three things, it seems, that women are on the search for at some point in their life – the perfect man, the perfect bag, and the perfect lipstick. You might be lucky enough to find the man (Ryan Gosling, duh) and the bag (even if it might just be out of your price range), but the perfect lipstick is always on the horizon, the perfect colour changes from season to season and will we ever find one that doesn't budge while you sip your latte?

Obviously, there are things in life more significant than the perfect lipstick – love, family, laughter, memories – but it’s one of those things that can make any dull day seem brighter. In bad economic times, it is a fact that lipstick sales go up because it is the one, affordable luxury item that women can count on even when times are tough.

The Perfect Lipstick came into fruition when my mum and I decided to take years worth of research, samples, and purchases and put it to good use. From when we lived together and, now, over Skype, we have always loved sharing our recent beauty buys, sneaky gifts with purchase (GWP), current loves, and make up mishaps with each other and now we’ve decided it’s time to share it with anyone who is interested.

Mumsie!

We have a lot of great stuff to tell you about, but first I better introduce us (that's us up there ^). I’m Katherine; a 20-something living in Sydney. I work in television, spend too much time online, think cake and coffee is as great a combination as eye liner and mascara, and write a lifestyle blog called Through My Looking Glass.

My mum, Sue, will be co-writing this blog. She is a 50-something living in Brisbane, she is an incredible optimist who has taught me everything I know, she has the most intense lipstick collection I have ever seen, and never turns down free postage or a GWP.

Together, we plan on bringing you up to date reviews of our beauty and fashion purchases from two different age groups so be sure to come back and invite your mother or your daughter along too!

 

 

 

 

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