Armani Rouge Ecstacy, €28, Brown Thomas

One of the prettiest beauty buys you’ll get your hands on this year. Inside this beautiful packaging, you’ll find the latest lippie line from Armani – Rouge Ecstasy. Billed as the first ‘CC Lipstick’, the double Cs stand for Care and Comfort, in a collection that promises high-impact colour and all the comfort of a moisturising balm. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the 36 shades in the line, and for someone who rarely bothers with lipstick – this just might be the line to convert me.

I’ve usually found that a lipstick goes one of two ways for me. It stays, but it dries my lips out, or it feels lovely and soft but has no staying power. Rouge Ecstasy seems to be the one I’ve been waiting for. The product is velvety soft on application, but it stays put for hours on end. Winner!

Thirty-six shades will be available to customers, broken into three categories.  Incognito is a selection of beiges and browns, Fatal comprises of the bold reds and purples, and Eccentrico, (a personal favourite), includes the corals and pinks.

Rouge Ecstasy is exclusive to Brown Thomas Dublin and Cork from this month, at a recommended retail price of €28.

 

Untold, from €42, Elizabeth Arden 

If you’ve steered clear of Elizabeth Arden because it’s a line your mother uses, now is the time to take a look with fresh eyes. The iconic beauty brand is over one hundred years old, so the brains behind it are clearly doing something right. EA owns a huge percentage of the fragrance market, (they’re the folks behind Britney/Taylor/Justin’s bestselling scents), and Untold is the latest one to market. A feminine and sophisticated scent, Untold has top notes of Pink Pepper, Bergamot, Pear and Blackcurrant, heart notes of Gardenia and Jasmine, and base notes of Patchouli Heart and Sandalwood. The interesting packaging design means the bottle looks different from every angle, a tribute to the ‘multi-faceted, versatile nature’ of the modern woman.

Untold is available at Elizabeth Arden counters nationwide now, at an RRP of €42/€60/€85 for 30ml/50ml/100ml. 

 

Beautiful Brows Kit, €45, Cloud10Beauty.com 

If you’re in search of the perfect brow, this bespoke kit might be the perfect beauty purchase for you. Containing all your eyebrow essentials, the kit comes in a swish looking mirrored refillable compact that would take pride of place in any beauty bag. In it, you’ll find Beautiful Brows’ trademark eyebrow powders, three stencil shapes, a highlighter, highlighter brush, soft grip tweezers and a duo applicator brush.

The highly concentrated mineral pigment brow powder is smudge proof, water resistant and lasts until you remove with an oil-based make-up remover. The really handy thing about this one is that you can insert refills of your favourite shade. It’s also quite neat to be able to remove individual shades to carry in a small bag/on holidays etc. With such a beauty focus on brows these days it’s a failsafe kit to keep yours in check. Eat your heart out Cara D…