Can you believe I have never purchased a single piece of Dolce & Gabbana makeup? As a beauty addict and a lover of D&G leopard silk-lined jackets (I have a nice collection of them), you would think D&G would be a natural for me. Fortunately or not, there is nowhere to see and purchase D&G makeup in the DC area. When I see the ads for the collections in the magazines, I am not drawn to the colors. It has been easy to do without.Then Sabrina tempted me. Her features on the D&G Italian Summertime Collection were intriguing. Check out this The Beauty Look Book link to one of her three fabulous posts. I wanted to try Mandorla Classic Cream Lipstick ($30). It looked like a nude I might wear, so a friend helped me get it.
Sabrina and I have very different coloring - meaning she has some color. She's a gorgeous gal with shiny hair to die for! Mandorla looked like a pretty and interesting nude pink, one that might actually look good on me. Most nudes are too light for me. While my lips have some color, if I wear a nude, truly beige lipstick, I can look ghastly. I need some color. On Sabrina's beautiful skin tone, Mandorla appeared to have enough pink to work for me, although she noted that the shade is extremely pale on her lips. She was so right!
Mandorla doesn't work for me.
Even on my arm, it looks like it should work, but it's too pale on my lips. I can wear it, but I have to apply a fairly colorful gloss over it to give it (and me) some color. My reaction is, "Why bother?"I've included a few swatches on my skin. They were taken outdoors in sunlight of various intensities.
Mandorla is nice and creamy on my lips, but so are many other lip colors. It has a gleam, but it does not shimmer. As I usually tell you, my skin reflects light, so it shines (that may be good or bad - I do like the idea of glowing). Mandorla is definitely a nude on my lips, but it appears to have no pink (or peach) on my lips. It's just beige. It is fragranced. Because the fragrance dissipates quickly, the scent is not a distraction. The finish has a glow, or radiance, but definitely not a shimmer. Any shimmer you see on my arm is from the sun's reflection.
Mandorla is not long-lasting. Just to make sure I was right about my initial impressions, I applied it yesterday morning and checked my lips when I got to work (about 45 minutes after I left home, with stops for gas and groceries on the way). It was still there when I got to my office. Then I ate a cherry turnover and drank some orange juice. After that, there wasn't a trace of the lipstick left. Most long-lasting lipsticks would have left some stain after eating a light meal. Mandorla didn't.
D&G's Classic Cream Lipstick is available at Saks.com in a wide variety of shades. Online, they don't excite me. I need to see them in person to find a shade I might love. It was still fun giving the lipstick a go. You always win some and lose some when trying new things - sight unseen. Experimentation is part of the joy of makeup, and my search for a great nude lipstick for myself continues.
Photos by Best Things in Beauty
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12 comments:
My goodness, I would have expected more from D&G, quality-wise. I just received their Vulcano quad (majorly gorgeous!) and am having fun playing with it. Shame about the lipstick.
The colour looks too nude. I'm not wild about the nude lip, to be honest....looks a bit washed out, no?
I'm not so sure about the color of the lipstick, but the cherry turnover is to die for! LOL
For those times when I want the attention to be on my eyes, I prefer the my-lips-but-better approach. The nude lip has always looked rather anemic to me. Remember the matted, blanked out, nude lips of the mid to late sixties? Ugh! I remember a PE teacher once saying that we were all so pretty and healthy and that she couldn't understand why on earth we would want to look like death warmed over. I think she had a good point. Nude lip? Been there, seen that, done that. It's someone else's turn.
That's how I look in it, Lovethescents, washed out. Not a pretty look. :)
Hi Eileen!
The perfect nude lipstick may be the holy grail. We'll never find it.
Loved the anecdote. The cherry turnover was pretty good too. :)
LOL! I love it Eileen!!
I couldn't agree with you gals more. I had a choir teacher in high school who forbid us to do the nude lip (especially on stage). She always had "community" red, berry, fuschia lipsticks on hand for us to wear. (I always purchased my own) If she spotted anyone going against her she would point to them and holler, "Liver Lips!!"
I still think of that to this day and get a good chuckle out of it. I have to admit there have been times I want to point and yell, "Liver Lips" at girls in the mall. LOL!!
I do not own any Dolce & Gabbana makeup either and thank the money gods, I have yet to be tempted.
Soni, Liver Lips! I have a new expression - thanks. :)
I'm not sure if this is something that you make a point of finding out, but do you know if D&G test on animals? They're hard to come by in Canada anyway, but one of the reasons I haven't bothered to try to find them is because I was under the impression that they did test.
I really didn't like the flat nudeness of mandorla either. The mua who helped me applied a gloss over it called bonbon which is a thick milky gloss, which just made it worse! However, after a little while, my lips turned a very nice nude pink - surprisingly! It was nice enough for me to pick up though.
Hi Flora_Mundi,
I don't know, but would be very unhappy if they did. Tomorrow, I can do some research and report back.
Wow, Joolz,
See? I knew it would work for someone, even if it's not the best for me.
Can you believe I bought another Dior Addict today? I think that makes about 18 of them. I went to a blogger party and bought a nude shade that's to-die-for. I'll tell y'all about it later. I am such a Dior Addict fan!
Now that is a shame from a high-end brand. Too bad.
The perfect nude lipstick is hard to find. In my case, 2 products bought and 3 presents received down the road, and the closest I got to the best look was that of a stale fortune cookie.
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