Lip Six

I haven't done a Lip Six post in what seems like aaaaaagges so here's this last weeks lip choices-a very bold week!

Top row (L) Dior Rouge Dior 775 in Darling (R) Mac Amplified lipstick in Chatterbox

Middle row (L) Daniel Sandler Micro Bubble lipstick in Micro Femme (R) Mac Retro Matte lipstick in All Fired Up

Bottom row (L) Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Damned (R) Marc Jacobs LoveMarc Lip Gel in Voila!

The review: Dior Rouge Dior lipsticks in 958 Sterling Red and 775 Darling

Dior's latest lipstick offering is the Rouge Dior-Couture Colour Voluptuous Care lipstick.  Somewhat of a mouthful so lets just call them Rouge Dior.

My interest in these lipsticks was piqued by reading the reviews posted by Sunny at Mostly Sunny.  Pretty much anything that gets Sunny's seal of approval immediately goes on my 'must check out' list and this was no exception.

I picked up 958 Sterling Red and 775 Darling during my recent Dubai Duty Free Haul and got to try them out this week.  You can find links to all of Sunny's reviews of this range in that link too.

Firstly, the packaging is sleek and understated.  Glossy navy blue with silver detailing.  I like it.  It will look swish in my make up bag.  The lipstick bullet has the word Dior embossed into it.

The formula is consistent on both-very creamy and smooth to apply with no tug on the lips.  Sterling Red was more difficult to apply directly from the bullet but only from a precision not an application point of view.  I used a lip brush to apply Sterling Red in the end just to try to achieve the most precise finish.  It's quite a 'slippy' formula to apply but once on the lips it's not moving-no bleeding to be seen.

Both colours are very pigmented, bold and opaque.  The finish is smooth and glossy.  The formula is comfortable and hydrating-not as lightweight as the Giorgio Armani Rouge Ecstasy lipsticks are, I can definitely feel I am wearing something on my lips.  The Rouge Ecstasy lipsticks are so easy to apply from the bullet and feel weightless, the Rouge Dior feel as hydrating as the Rouge Ecstasy but heavier-probably because they are so much more pigmented than the Rouge Ecstasy.

958 Sterling Red is a bold opaque blue red with a glossy finish.  I was surprised how close in colour it is to Mac Riri Woo-Riri Woo has a matte finish and Sterling Red is the other end of the spectrum and is super glossy.  Both have teeth whitening properties because of the blue undertone.  Wear time was about 3 hours and a bowl of bolognase-after eating I had a bit of a red ring around my lips but it was nothing a quick smudge using my finger couldn't fix to bring the colour back to life.

Here's RiRi Woo and Sterling Red compared-you can see the colours have the same blue red tone but the finishes are very different.

Darling is a blue toned fuchsia, almost magenta.  Wear time was a little longer with even fading.  I love this lipstick!  As much as I am into nudes at the moment you cannot beat a bright lipstick.  This pink brightens my face as soon as I swipe it on.

The bottom line?  A great lipstick from Dior.  No wonder I have already picked up a couple more.
 
NB I just read back one of Sunny's posts about these lipsticks to see if she made any other valid points about the lipstick I had missed and I noticed she road tested one of these lipsticks with a bowl of bolognase too!  Great minds....

Dubai Duty Free haul

Last week was a bit topsy-turvy for me.  My parents had been here in Dubai on vacation for a week and were leaving on Monday so I planned to leave for a business trip to Cairo the same day.  I managed to book my flight so that it was half an hour after my parents left on their flight so we were at the airport together.  I am admittedly quite an emotional person and I am very close to my parents so it was quite upsetting being in the airport together knowing soon we would both be boarding flights but to two completely different locations.

There was also a bit of uncertainty about whether my business trip would actually take place due to security reasons-Cairo had had a national holiday the day before I was due to fly and the 6th October celebrations had descended into violence with over 50 people being killed in Cairo that day.  But on Monday morning the head of our security team in Egypt gave the ok to fly.

I said goodbye to my parents-crying in public is always embarrassing but I pulled myself together and looked for something to distract myself-of course that was shopping!

I posted yesterday about the Mac RiRi Hearts Mac bits you can see on the left-suckered in by the rose gold packaging but admittedly loving both items.  You can read full reviews on the Mac RiRi Woo and Her Cocoa quad here.

I seem to be physically incapable of going shopping these days without picking up a lipstick or 4 and the first ones that caught my eye were the new Dior Rouge Dior.  I have devoured every review written about these, particularly those written by Sunny at Mostly Sunny who has reviewed 999, 775 Darling, 028 Mazette, 884 Trafalgar and 169 Grege 1947.  I love Sunny's blog-it's a daily addiction!!  I immediately made a list of the shades I wanted out of the 32 in the range.  I don't know if anyone else has found this but whenever I am at a Dior counter, if I don't have the number of the lipstick (ie 775 Darling) then the sales assistants are clueless.  I have asked for lipsticks by name to actually be asked what the number is!!

In the end, Dubai Duty Free only had 2 of the shades on my list and I happily picked up 775 Darling and 958 Sterling Red.  I have reviews and swatches coming up of both lipsticks soon! 

I also picked up 2 more nude lipsticks that had been recommended to me in the comments of my 5 Mac Nudes post.

The first was Mac Viva Glam II which was recommended to me by Lauren from The Beauty Habit.  Lauren is the most amazing freelance make up artist-you can admire her work here on her website, I love everything she does.

The second was Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy which was recommended to me by another Lauren, Lauren from Dirty Blonde Ambition and also Christina from Christina 77 Star.  I love the look of both and can't wait to get swatching them.  Both Lauren and Christina's blogs are firm favourites of mine and I highly recommend you check them out!

Finally I picked up Mac Harmony blush.  I know this is a well loved blogger favourite but it went on the wish list after reading this post on it from the brilliant blog written by Katie at SugarFixx Beauty.  I love the way it looks on Katie and we have quite similar skintones and blonde hair so hopefully I am onto a winner.

So a fairly cheered up Stacey went to board her flight to Cairo and was instantly made even happier when I was informed at the boarding gate I was being upgraded to Business Class!

Once I was on board things took a bit of a turn.  On checking my work phone it seemed in the last 10 minutes whilst boarding I had 10 missed calls, 3 from my boss and 7 from my colleague in London who was also flying to Cairo to join me.  It seems following the events of the previous day our head of security in Egypt had done a u-turn on his decision that Cairo was safe to travel to and had issued an immediate ban on travel to Cairo until the 19th October as he felt the situation there was 'too fragile'.  My colleague had reached Heathrow and discovered her ticket had already been cancelled by our travel agent.  I was already on board and the plane was pushing back as this unfolded.  I had no choice but to fly to Cairo.  My hotel was changed to one deemed to be in a safer area and I was booked on the next available flight back to Dubai which was 9.25am the next morning.  I was well looked after and don't believe I was in danger at any time.

It was somewhat of a 24 hour rollercoaster of emotions but for me, shopping solves everything!

Do you splurge in duty free?