Christmas lights
For make-up lovers and collectors, there is nothing like the Christmas make-up collections. I’m sorry to use the C word so early but I just couldn’t wait and these limited edition items always fly off the shelves before Christmas.
All of the big brands have beautiful offerings, so if you have a favourite, make your way to their counter to see what they have coming up. Here’s a taste of just a few of the special items coming this November.
All the autumn fashion magazines have showed images of vampy women with wine-red lips and Chanel’s Peter Phillips is right on that look with his Rouge Allure Velvet in L’impatiente (€30.50) and nail varnish in Malice (€22).
There’s just the slightest hint of a bauble in this claret red and the lipstick can be built for daywear right up to dramatic nighttime effect. The Illusion d’Ombre gold eyeshadow (€29) is beautifully delicate, shimmering rather than glittering. Lancome takes Paris, the city of lights, as its inspiration for Christmas, and two items that you will be kicking yourself if you don’t pick them up are their Ombre Hypnose Mono eyeshadow in Fil d’Argent (€25) and Le Crayon Khol eyeliner in Jazzy Taupe, a beautifully soft crayon in a wearable bronze shade.
Yves Saint Laurent is all about luxury and the company says their Christmas look is inspired by the northern lights. Their Boreal Palette Arctic Night eyeshadow quad comes in a silver-sequinned pouch. Very covetable. It includes a frosty blue, a plum, a midnight blue and white shades that are very glamorous and can be used wet or dry.
The Body Shop is all decked out like a ginger bread house for Christmas but two of their products that will make you feel right in the mood. Their Dazzling Rocks (€28.95) bronzing balls will give you a lift and their Sparkler All Over Shimmer (€23.95) is a decadent and playful powder shimmer. Christmas is all about the senses and Annick Goutal is one of my favorite perfume houses.
Mid-November will see a new Eau de Parfum version of their newest fragrance, Nuit Etoilee. This fragrance is most unlike Annick Goutal fragrances, full of dark, Alpine wintry scents, and this newer version is rounder than the original, with amber and iris.
The bottle is the midnight blue of a Van Gogh night (€91.50 for 50ml from House of Fraser).
Bring the glamour right down to your fingertips with No. 7’s nail gift sets in the trendiest colours of the season.
As Chanel is about to launch a new campaign featuring Brad ‘Swoon’ Pitt — the first time they have ever used a man to advertise the fragrance — what better time to talk about the ultimate cult classic.
Fragrances come and fragrances go but this is my all-time favourite. I started wearing it when I first went abroad as a college student and felt like I was finally living life, on my own, in the big city of Chicago.
I wasn’t as sophisticated as I thought, of course, but this scent is for me forever connected to those days of possibility and adventure. There was something in my nascent self that knew this was a grown-up, woman’s perfume.
Its origins are well known by now — Made-moiselle Chanel wanted to create a scent that smelt like a woman and this was it. It’s still the best selling fragrance in the world.
Its simple bottle, its classic lines, its powdery scent of extravagant measures of jasmine and aldehydes, ylang ylang and rose. It is unique.
Chanel’s No 5 Christmas collection this week featuring a 200ml Eau De Parfum spray, €205 (more swooning), and a No. 5 Bath Soap and dish, €39, is in shops now.
“My desert island product would have to be mascara. I’ve tried every brand out there and by far the best is the Dior one — Diorshow in black. It makes my relatively stumpy eyelashes look long and a lot thicker than they really are. When I wake up in the morning and peer at my currant like eyes, I reach for the mascara and within seconds, my eyes open up and I look human ... it takes a lot more effort to look nice, but at least it’s a start.”
Sinead’s book This Child of Mine is published by Penguin Ireland, €16.99
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