This holiday, all we want is M·A·C Mariah Carey, featuring «All I Want» lipstick in a luminous frosted champagne. One shimmery swipe makes your lips as fierce and timeless as the icon herself. Exclusively online. In Switzerland available from February 2016 for CHF 28.00.
I am wearing it already and am in love with this shade. You can work it with different lip liner colors for multiple effects.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of MAC COSMETICS
She’s a global symbol of friendship and fun. She made cuteness a culture in Japan and a fashion imperative everywhere. Hello Kitty® is a pop icon with fans ranging from four to forever, and she is OPI’s newest muse.
The collaboration celebrates all things happy, cute, colorful and sweet with 12 limited-edition nail lacquers and matching GelColor shades. One thing is for sure, Hello Kitty enthusiasts will face a candy store dilemma – which to choose from among sweet and glittering pinks, bright reds, shimmering white shades, and more, for a limited time only.
The collection «Hello Kitty by OPI» will be available from January 6, 2016 for at least three months. One bottle is CHF 19.90.
Gosh, I love Hello Kitty!
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of OPI
Ariana Grande has been named as the new MAC Viva Glam frontwoman following in the same footsteps as Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna among other celebrities.
The 22-year-old singer will represent the Viva Glam branch of the famous beauty brand, which sells limited edition products with the proceeds going to charity.
Good girl? Bag girl? Ariana’s range includes her dark matte plum lipstick (CHF 28.00) and her shimmering light baby pink lip gloss (CHF 26.00). Show your both sides and don’t forget it’s for charity, every cent from the selling price of Viva Glam lipstick and lipgloss goes toward helping women, men and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
Available in Switzerland from January 21, 2016 at all MAC counters and online.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of MAC Cosmetics
Penhaligon’s unveils two new perfumes inspired by the extreme and wild British landscape; that moment where the land meets the sea and untamed energy explodes.
The pure, wild elements are infinitely inspiring and have thrilled painters and poets throughout history. The fragrances transport you to a world of majestic landscapes, of unceasing movement. Penhaligon’s celebrates #BottledLandscape – the drama of nature with two creations, for men and women.
BLASTED HEATH (for men)
Like a powerful swell breaking against the shore, the moment where the Land meets the Sea and energy explodes.
Top notes: Green salty seaweed, aquatic accord and clary sage.
Middle notes: Clearwood™, green leaves, tobacco and whisky accord.
Base notes: Patchouli, Alaska cedar wood, gaiacwood, vetiver and musk.
BLASTED BLOOM (for women)
Illuminating the freshness of wild flora found along the dramatic British coast.
Top notes: Aquatic accord, wild berries and green leaves.
Middle notes: Eglantine rose, hawthorn and pink pepper.
Base notes: Clearwood™, cedarwood, moss and musk.
Both fragrances (Eau de Parfum) are in stores now for CHF 156.00 (50ml) and CHF 221.00 (100ml).
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of Penhaligon’s
«Transforms age into agelessness.»
Great news for all LA MER fans, meet the brand’s newest innovation: the Serum Essence, the groundbreaking first treatment within the new Genaissance de la Mer Collection, is born of the extraordinarily pure Crystal Miracle Broth™, which accelerates skin’s natural renewal process.
This age-transcending serum essence was inspired when a scientist at the Max Huber Research Labs discovered crystals forming in a beaker of Miracle Broth™. Extraordinarily pure, the Crystal Miracle Broth™ is slow-crafted in extremely small batches to reach its ultimate potency.
Lines and wrinkles appear diminished, skin’s texture visibly smoothed, natural collagen and elastin are enhanced, pores are refined and skin’s barrier is strengthened. Over time rejuvenation becomes reality, as skin appears visibly reborn.
Available end of December 2015 for CHF 635.00.
TO SHOP LA MER ONLINE, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
LoL, Sandra
Photo: Courtesy of La Mer
As you know, I adore niche fragrances and I am always curious to find new brands. Today, I would like to introduce you to a new German fragrance house LENGLING PARFUMS Munich. Based in Munich, the brand was launched by Ursula and Christian Lengling, who are partners in both business and in life. Ursula, a businesswoman and mother of three, dreams up the bouquets and is the creative heart note of the company for style and aesthetics. Her husband Christian was born in Japan and has been familiar with the world of luxury perfume from a young age, which makes the experienced businessman the head note of the Munich perfume manufacturer.
The feeling of perfection always comes from finding the ideal balance. This is true for love and in life, and should also be true for the perfume we wear. That’s the philosophy behind LENGLING’s creations, the so-called«Extraits de Sentiments». Each one of the fragrances is characterized by the two contrasting notes of LENG and LING. I was very curious to smell the seven creations which are all very interesting, different and sophisticated. Three of them have truly captured me that I would like to introduce to you below:
EL PASAJERO N°1
A scent as resplendent as the glittering stars on a clear summer night in the Andalusian mountains. Silky magnolia softens the intensity, giving this stunningly elegant scented jewel its soft, feminine side.
LENG-Note
“Brilliant diamond”
Fucus Absolue, Ambra, Hedion, Galbanum
LING-Note
“Silky magnolia”
Magnolia, Vanilla, Osmanthus Absolue, Benzoin
IN BETWEEN N°4
The carefree, sweet and trusting essence of tender youth complements the mature, full bloom of Arabian jasmine. A fragrance with great sensitivity – hesitant yet extraordinarily feminine.
LENG-Note
“Youth”
Patchouli, Musk, Vanilla, Rosewood
LING-Note
“Maturity”
Jasmin Sambac, Violet, Muguet, Peach
SEKUSHI N°7
Sophisticated, seductively sweet fruits play a secretive game with dark leather… creating a fanciful and provocatively erotic fragrance.
LENG-Note
“Leather”
Leather, Patchouli, Olibanum, Musk
LING-Note
“Fruity sugar”
Candyfloss, Raspberry, Apricot, Muguet
THE BEAUTIFUL LENGLING PARFUMS MUNICH COLLECTION IS IN SWITZERLAND AVAILABLE AT OSSWALD PERFUMERY.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of Lengling Parfums Munich
Lipsticks are certainly back this fall and not only on handbags (Monogramme lipstick printed textured-leather clutch by Saint Laurent). Let your lips do the talking and pay homage this season to the beauty icon in rich and trendy shades. From blood-red to smudgy, just-kissed stains, you choose the intensity. From left to right:
Chanel Rouge Allure
N°109 Rouge Noir
A classic since 1994, this shade dresses lips with an unmistakable attitude.
CHF 48.00
YSL Rouge Pur Couture Collector Kiss & Love
N°1 Le Rouge
Being part of YSL’s Holiday Look 2015, this lipstick comes with kisses all over.
CHF 48.00
Shiseido Perfect Rouge
N°RS 656
Intensive ultra-pigmented color that moisturizes your lips.
CHF 40.00
Clarins Joli Rouge
N° 742 Joli Rouge
A classic red in a rich and creamy formula.
CHF 34.50
Urban Decay Matte Revolution Lipstick
Matte Bad Blood
A classic suede-like finish – careful, it is highly addictive!
CHF 27.50
Clinique Pop Lip Colour & Primer
N°21 Rebel Pop
Rich color plus a smoothing primer in one.
CHF 33.00
Estée Lauder Modern Muse «Le Rouge»
An oriental floral fragrance inspired by the color red, seductive and ultra feminine as a lipstick itself.
Top notes: Red currant, raspberry, pink pepper and saffron
Middle notes: Bulgarian rose, may rose, jasmine and magnolia petals
Base notes: Patchouli, vetiver, madagascar vanilla and ambrette
CHF 68.00 (30ml), CHF 98.00 (50ml) and CHF 138.00 (100ml).
This post is also available in German and French on the Marionnaud blog.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of the Brands and © Sandra Bauknecht
All that sparkles, golden hues have never been bigger in fashion, and where fashion goes, so does beauty. No doubt, gold is the most festive shade. This holiday season, decadence is the key word. More is more is the motto. Here are my personal favorites:
Marc Jacobs has dedicated its newest oriental floral fragrance DECADENCE to opulence and glamour. The bottle design is reminiscent of an emerald green handbag with a python pattern, a gold chain and a black tassel. Definitely the most stylish one on the market!
Top notes: Italian plum, saffron and iris.
Middle notes: Bulgarian rose, jasmine and orris root.
Base notes: Liquid Amber, vetiver and papyrus wood.
Decadence by Marc Jacobs
Eau de Parfum 30ml (CHF 106.00), 50ml (CHF 153.00), 100ml (CHF 207.00)
Body Lotion 150ml (CHF 76.00) and Shower Gel 150ml (CHF 72.00)
«The poop was beaten gold,
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that.
The winds were lovesick with them.»William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
The new fragrance from Bvlgari, GOLDEA is an invitation to an exceptional olfactory journey. The name means «Gold Godess» (eng. gold & lat. dea). The oriental floral composition is a sumptuous hymn to the musks which have always been characteristic of Bvlgari’s style in fragrances.
Top notes: Crystal musk, orange blossom, raspberry and bergamot.
Middle notes: Golden musk, ylang-ylang and jasmine.
Base notes: Ambery musk, patchouli and Egyptian papyrus.
Goldea by Bvlgari
Eau de Parfum 25ml (CHF 66.00), 50ml (CHF 137.00), 90ml (CHF 189.00)
Body Oil 100ml (CHF 101.00), Body Lotion 200ml (CHF 68.00) and Shower Gel 200ml (CHF 60.00)
For the most radiant facial glow – a formula inspired by pure gold. Guerlain L’OR banishes imperfections, revives the skin by erasing its irregularities, and cloak it in a luminous veil. This ultra-moisturizing primer melts into the skin, offers freshness and prepares it for your perfect make-up with the help of pure gold. For me a daily must-have product! I can also recommend the fluid and the compact foundation of this line.
L’Or Make-up Base 30ml (CHF 90.00), Fluid Foundation (CHF 110.00) and Compact Foundation (CHF 113.00)
Happy Holidays with Lancôme. For a truly festive eye makeup, those dazzling eye shadows provide an intense and sophisticated color with jewel-like sparkles. Easy to apply, just dab them in with your fingertips.
Lancôme Hypnôse Dazzling in 420 Givre Doré, CHF 48.00
To upgrade your manicure, I recommend this glittering top coat. Can be worn alone or over every shade you wish.
Lancôme Vernis in Love Golden Top Coat, CHF 28.00
A pioneer of the beauty industry, Helena Rubinstein created the first revolutionary mascara in a tube. This fall, a new mascara launches, providing volume, definition and softness, encased in a distinctive gold packaging.
Helena Rubinstein Lash Queen Perfect Blacks, CHF 47.00
I am wishing you a wonderful festive season with lots of sparkles and golden bubbles. Here is my holiday favorite – enjoy a glass of champagne with some raspberries to create an explosion of flavors.
This post is also available in German and French on the Marionnaud blog.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of the Brands and © Sandra Bauknecht
This week’s publication about the project «100 YEARS: THE MOVIE YOU WILL NEVER SEE» that will be released in November 2115 has inspired me to today’s post.
How will fashion probably be in 100 years? Will there be an innovation that will revolutionize the future that we don’t know about yet? Will women rule this world?
The movie with John Malkovich in the leading role was inspired by the legacy of hundred years of craftsmanship it takes to create LOUIS XIII Cognac.
Before thinking of 2115, let’s move back in time 100 years to the year 1915.
The Hobble Skirt (1911) – the speed-limit skirt
1915 Pictoral Review
In 1915, women’s fashion was affected by the war in Europe in many ways, necessity was more important than style. The need to be able to move faster as well as the new independence of women also asked for a looser, more comfortable models. The rich opulence that the century had started with slowly disappeared. Hobble skirts that were widest at the hips and very narrow at the ankle transformed from floor length into styles above the ankle that opened up at the bottom, allowing for freer movement.
Theda Bara in the 1915 film «Sin»
In 1915, makeup started to become more popular, literally, as the term itself was considered vulgar, “cosmetics” was the more common expression but applying beauty products was still nothing chic and done only by people in the theater or of dubious reputation and not something for the high society.
Rubinstein’s Fifth Avenue Salon
A big milestone for the beauty industry took actually place in 1915, when two major forces opened salons on Fifth Avenue — Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein. By then, Max Factor, who was going to invent the first lipstick just a bit later had already perfected his first cosmetic product, the «pancake makeup» for sale. And 1915 marked another milestone, Tom Lyle Williams, who was only 19 at that time, founded one of today’s most successful beauty giants: The Maybelline Company.
Max Factor in 1915
Personally speaking, when I started to research about what happened one hundred years ago in fashion and beauty, I was utterly impressed about how much we still profit from those inventions and changes in the world. I learnt about all of that during my fashion design studies, but most of the knowledge fades away…
Chanel’s Biarritz store 1915
… but one designer that has always interested me the most, Coco Chanel, started to really influence the fashion world in the mid 1910’s. With her reputation firmly established, she opened her first couture house in Biarritz, France in 1915, followed only three years later by the opening of the famous 31, rue Cambon store in Paris.
Just after 1915, it became popular to wear a knitted sweater that pulled over the head (yes, a pullover!), with long sleeves, belted at the hip that left a no discernible waist as seen here at Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in Biarritz around 1920.
Just try to imagine the world now 100 years later if Coco Chanel had never been born, we might still be wearing corsets. This amazing woman redefined womanhood in fashion and gave us freedom. She gave us pants, the little black dress, costume jewelry and elegance in general.
“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.” Gabrielle Coco Chanel
If we start to think forward now, who might be the designer pioneer of today about whom the world in 2115 will still be speaking? And especially how will fashion change?
Personally speaking, for me it is very interesting to see that in 2015 trends are fading, everything is possible and that we are reviving previous eras constantly. There is nothing really new.
Today, we are constantly challenged by the limitation of our resources on our planet. Returning to nature will and has to play an important factor. Organic fabrics will mostly be extremely common in 2115. The improvement of technology makes everything from impossible to possible.
Already very innovative in 2015: Studio Roosegarde has developped a fabric that undresses you. ‘Intimacy‘ is a curious material made from opaque e-foils which turn transparent during personal encounters thanks to a sensitivity to the wearers heart rate.
If I imagine the world in fashion in 100 years, I could think of very innovative materials that will show their impact as they might not stain anymore and have a self-cleaning effect. In an Huffington Post article from 2012, Mingce Long and Deyong Wu from Donghua University are mentioned “who have developed a fabric which could see washing machines replaced by a stint in the sun. The fabric makes use of a titanium dioxide and nitrogen coating which decomposes stains and kills microbes using light from the visible spectrum.”
UK-based BioCouture, the world’s first biocreative design consultancy, is already investigating the use of microbial-cellulose to produce lab-grown clothing. New materials that could be used in clothing production might include fibers that can produce heat in winter and coolness in summer, so that you might be able to wear shorts in the cold season. Probably to go one step further and imagine the beauty industry, there might be clothes that have the ability to constantly speed up your metabolism so that just by wearing them you are loosing weight or have a treatment included that can cure skin problems or fight aging. That is a nice idea, don’t you think?
There might be machines in which we put our faces inside in the morning that will apply makeup by themselves. I would miss the fun of putting on my favorite beauty products in the morning though, but I know a gazillion of my girlfriends who would be in heaven with a machine like that.
But who could be the Coco Chanel of today, meaning a designer that will be remembered for his or her changes?
Stella McCartney with me
First to my mind came Stella McCartney who helped to pioneer the vegan leather movement and made environmentally-conscious fashion stylish.
Mary Katrantzou with me
Another designer I thought of is my beloved Mary Katrantzou who made digital prints popular. As you might now printing uses a lot of energy but “with digital printing, prints are directly applied to fabrics with printers, reducing water usage by 95 percent, energy reduction of 75 percent, and minimizing textile waste“*.
Coco Chanel, Stella McCartney, Mary Katrantzou, all women that have changed our thinking. Women are key to improving the well-being of children and achieving lasting change in society. We have the power to make this world a better place. And I am sure that in 100 years, Mr. Georges Clot, a former LOUIS XIII Cellar Master, who used to say: “When you discover LOUIS XIII, you become a different man“, would have said:”… you become a different woman.”
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of LOUIS XIII, © Sandra Bauknecht, via Huffington Post, New York Sun, © Chanel, *via gbnews
In 1994, a uniquely striking LE VERNIS shade was revealed on the CHANEL F/W 1995 runway, and a legend was born: ROUGE NOIR. This year, a gleaming Holiday colour collection celebrates the rebellious black-red, ‘Vamp’ — the shade that became an icon. I still remember how blessed I felt 20 years ago when I got my hands as one of the first ones on one of those popular bottles.
Revive your vamp attitude!
Chanel Rouge Noir Holiday 2015 Collection
Chanel Les 4 Ombres Signe Particulier – Limited Edition – CHF 78.00
Satin Beige Pink – Velvet Purple – Black Red – Saffron Gold
Joues Contraste Lumière Highlighting Blush – Limited Edition – CHF 59.00
Coups de Minuit – peach beige
Illusion D’Ombre Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow – CHF 47.00
Rouge Noir – shimmering black red
Le Volume de Chanel Mascara – Limited Edition – CHF 47.00
Rouge Noir – intense black red
Ultra Black – intense black
Le Crayon Khol Intense Eye Pencil – Limited Edition – CH 32.00
Rouge Noir – black red
Lèvres Scintillantes Glossimer – Limited Edition – CHF 41.00
Rose de Lune – shimmering soft pink
Etincelle – golden black red
Rouge Double Intensite Ultra Wear Lip Colour – not available in Switzerland
Merry Rose – soft grey pink
Le Crayon Yeux Precision Eye Definer – Limited Edition – CHF 33.00
Or Safran – warm saffron gold
Rouge Allure Luminous Intense Lip Colour – Limited Edition – CHF 48.00
Vamporeuse – light pink purple
Rouge Noir – black red
Rouge Allure Velvet Luminous Matte Lip Colour – Limited Edition – CHF 48.00
La Merveilleuse – intense raspberry red
Le Vernis Nail Colour – Limited Edition – CHF 35.00
Rouge Noir – black red
Rose Fusion – luminous purple grey
Le Top Coat | Gold Sparkle Nail Coat – Limited Edition – CHF 33.00
Lame Rouge Noir – shimmering black red
Les Mini de Chanel – Limited Edition – CHF 130.00
Is a set of five essential mini brushes for face and eyes.
The collection is in stores now.
LoL, Sandra
Photos: Courtesy of Chanel