So I only have a sample of this. I don't get on with the original Chanel No 5, be it EDT or EDP, sadly it dislikes my skin and becomes a hot stuffy mess of that spicey pepperyness of old books in direct sunlight.
And it really does make me sad because I love the idea of this fragrance and its instant recognisability. I have tried it in all forms and can just about cope with the body lotion and suprisingly the deodorant, which is incredibly effective for a deodorant rather than an anti-perspirant, but even the hair perfume is a bit too much.
But this, well it has a lightness and a freshness which seems to sit more happily on my skin. I love a good perfume and this maybe the next one for me.
I struggle with a summer base. Being oily and with a myriad of albeit fairly minor imperfections, including age spots, redness, thread veins, blackheads, open pores, it feels like I need something industrial to even out and smooth, for as Gestalt said "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
I have attempted mineral powder foundation and often it is okay, but often it ends up as a bit of smeary mess, because not only is my skin oily, it is old and the fine line between matte and dead, glowy and sweaty is gossamer at my age.
I want sun protection, I want some pigment, I want the moon.
I had come across Chanel's CC Cream SPF50 before but dismissed it because it came in the "universal-one-shade-suits-all" misnomer because they are always too dark on me.
However there are now some different shades and I chose the lightest B10 which I have swatched below.
It is quite thick in texture. I would say this is a cream texture. It is very pigmented. A little goes a very very very long way - so much so that I am invariably caught out, and am trying vainly to force it back into the tube.
Blended in badly below.Ingredients below.What I like is the shade, neutral, thankyou. I like the level of pigmentation which is full. I like the finish which is glowy, but in a glowy skin way rather than a sweaty too rich way. And I like its tenacity - this stuff is there from application at 6.30am to removal at 7.00pm.
I have made the mistake of setting it with powder, but in this incredibly hot spell that is currently in place in UK that is a mistake, I apply, and blot with any blotting papers as necessary.
Currently £44 for 30mls
There is something about the clickety click of a Chanel lipstick, but I own only one and this is it.
It is a somewhat purpley nude I think, it has a cool rosey hue, and there are gleaming shimmers to my eye.The range is a sort of hybrid between a lipstick and a lipgloss but in a stick form, to me it is a kind of lip gleam, there is shine and moisture and some brightness but no stickiness.
I don't reach for this as often as I envisaged when I purchased, probably because of its tendancy to pull a little purple on me, but on a good day and with a following wind it is an assailable flattering raspberry, and really what my lips used to be some thirty years ago.
Currently around £25
