on the lips: …more lip balm

Remember how I don’t need any more lip balm?

Well…I got some more lip balm.

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1. Jurlique Rose Love Balm – brilliant product from the Australian biodynamic* brand Jurlique. This is essentially olive oil fixed with beeswax, so it melts on contact, like putting coconut oil on your lips (which is also nice)…or olive oil. I love rose. This is a multi-purpose balm (though I suppose you could consider most lip balms a multi-purpose balm – it’s all marketing), but on the lips it feels especially like a nourishing treatment.

2. Dr. Hauschka Lip Balm –  officially my favorite lip balm right now, especially at night, and prominently placed on my dressing table. And from another biodynamic brand. This has a peculiar texture I haven’t quite come across before. It’s another blend of oils (a lot of them) mixed with various herbal extracts and fixed with beeswax, but the oil content is high, and the texture is incredibly soft and yielding. It is blended in such a way that the effect is not oily (as with the Jurlique balm), but creamy. This has to be in a pot because the texture could never survive in stick form. Smells to me vaguely and pleasantly herbal/medicinal. Melts into the lips beautifully and not in an oily way, it maintains presence of friction, isn’t slick…obviously I am an obsessive case and whether or not I am willing to spend $17 on a lip balm maybe doesn’t help you much, but I will say that I have spent more on products I liked much less. This is the kind of product I plan to begin giving indiscriminately as a gift.

3. Nuxe Rêve de Miel Lip Moisturizing Stick – a great blend of shea butter, honey, and luxurious (argan, macadamia) oils in convenient stick form. I happen to prefer the softer formulations that tend to come in pots but sticks are convenient to carry around, and this is a beautiful one. Not as bizarre as the ultra-nourishing version, texture-wise. This is more a luxe version of your standard non-wax based (actually nourishing, not just protective) balm stick.

Yes, I think about lip balm a lot.

*Worth investigating the basics of biodynamics, I think. There is a fair amount of what I consider empty ceremony built into the structure of biodynamics but what the process is able to achieve, and the extent to which it is in harmony with the environment, can’t be refuted.

weekend distraction: Chanel Spring/Summer 2014

Chanel is a leviathan*, of course, but Lagerfeld maintains such a consistent vision that I don’t feel I’m in much danger of missing something if I’m a few seasons off in my fashion reading. This season I loved the eye look so much, though, that I browsed through the collection.

*Here’s an interesting series of short films outlining the history of the brand.

Chanel is doing some beautiful things with shoulders for S/S 2014.

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See what I’m saying about the eyes?! Also loving these giant asymmetrical pearls.

Other highlights:

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The shoulder is one of my favorite parts of the body to showcase. It can show delicacy or strength, depending on the shoulder, and there is always an element of vulnerability. It is also, to me, one of the most elegant ways to show a large expanse of skin. [Another being the back, but you already know my preferences in that regard.]

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This off-the-shoulder suit is my favorite, I think. The cut here frames the shoulder so beautifully, and in a way that is entirely distinct from the slouchy Flashdance approach (which has its own appeal, to be sure).

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You can browse the full collection at chanel.com.

images from chanel.com