All Things Pink & Beautiful by Chanel, Bobbi Brown & Tarte

With Spring dragging her feet I really needed to add some cheery colour to my routine. Pink is always perfect. I love pink flowers, I love pink sunsets and my favourite fruit, watermelon, is a lovely pink. Pink clothes can work miracles and brighten a sallow complexion, and you will always look gorgeous and glowy in a pink room. Think about that when decorating a boudoir ladies….just saying…

So here are my favourite pink things today.

Chanel Rose Insolent Nail Polish is from their Fall 2010 collection. I recall thinking such a bright pink was an odd choice for Fall but loved it all the same. I also got the Rose Confidentiel which is a nude pink, also lovely, but today is a Pink Day so no neutrals…Rose Insolent is a lovely bright fuschia pink that straddles the cool/warm scale quite nicely. I think lovers of cool and warm tones could carry this off. It manages to be bright without being fluorescent which is nice for me, making it nice for work but still fun. Very sweet, very girly but deep, rich and far enough off the candy scale to work on a grown up. Verdict- LOVE.

natural light- it's not quite this blue in real life...

Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge in Pale Pink is a richly pigmented cream blush that enhances almost any complexion- if applied correctly. The key with the Pot Rouge blushes is intensity- as little or as much as you like. I cannot imagine using one up because they are so rich I only need a teensy bit to add a glow. As well, using a flat topped brush to apply a cream blush was a life changing experience for me.  The lovely Angie, a fabu make up artist here in Ottawa, suggested softening a cream blush by “buffing” it on with a flat brush. I have the Bobbi Brown one, that I bought to use with bronzing powder, but that NEVER worked for me so it just sat there in my make up drawer, taunting me for tossing away my money on something so useless. Not so! I just tap it on the blush, gently rub it in the lid before lightly buffing it on the apples of my cheeks. Ta-da! So pretty, and I look like I have been frolicking in the fresh spring air. This stuff lasts hours on me as well- it is not as fuschia in real life as the product shot above would indicate, but it is pigmented. Verdict- true pink LOVE.

Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge: sheer & intense, natural light

Tarte Lip Stain Lipsurgence natural lip tint in Charmed is a perfect way to bring the soft pink lip that has been all over the runways for Spring/Summer 2011 into real life. Fun, bright but so wearable, this colour has me seriously considering actually wearing more colour than Chanel Rouge Coco Shine Boy (Your Lips But Better Lipstick). My daughter Emilie got this (she is much braver than I regarding lippy!) and after seeing her wear it so effortlessly, I might be sold! It is a stain, so it lasts forever, yet it seems to have more presence on the lip than the lighter liquid stains we all know so well. She swatched it for me and it really is so sheer and lovely. But, it can be built up for more intensity. It is a “Lipsurgence” tint which means it is infused with all kind of good moisturizing stuff for a soft moist and naturally plumped look without any stinging or tingling. Lovely! I think I’ve been charmed…Verdict- LOVE! Thanks Em.

Tarte Charmed swatched in natural light on Emilie

What are your favourite pick me ups for Spring? Do you do pink and if so, what are your fave ways to wear it?

Beautiful Lippy- Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy

Let me start out by saying I am not a lipstick girl. I don’t like anything that requires a mirror to apply or anything that has so much colour that it needs a precise and concise application. I like my lips to feel soft and moist so lipstick has just never appealed to me. Too thick, too much colour, and a “made up” look that just didn’t feel like me.  I am lucky enough to have fairly high colour in my lips naturally so gloss has always been enough.

Leave it to Chanel to change the way I think. I’d been reading about Rouge Coco all over the beauty blogosphere and had even swatched a few colours- tempted a bit by Mademoiselle but not quite enough to actually buy it. But, it did seem rich and creamy and the colours were gorgeous. I did get the Gabrielle, a gorgeous true red, for my oh so chic Parisienne sister in law for Christmas. She can wear ONLY red lipstick with no other make up and look like a million bucks. Only the French…

Anyways, the buzz for spring has been about Rouge Coco Shine- a sheer non lipstick lipstick. I was at my local Chanel counter getting a bottle of Rose Insolence nail polish that Sabrina wore so gorgeously on The Beauty Look Book (gorgeous, right?) and, wouldn’t you know it, they had the Rouge Coco Shine in Boy on the counter- “the” colour for spring. I gave it a try and was hooked. The perfect YLBB (your lips but better) look that just enhances my lip colour perfectly. It feels soft and smooth and is somehow perfect. Sold. I love it and know I will wear this. I can put it on without a mirror and love the way it enhances my complexion. A sort of pinky mauve tone that I imagine would work with many skin tones. It seemed to morph from cool to warm when I was looking at the swatch on my arm, depending on the way the light hit it. If anyone can do a colour that shape shifts, leave it to Chanel to do it right.

Available for around $38 at most Chanel counters- I got mine at The Bay.