Hello. As promised, I finally tried one of Chanel’s latest lip releases this Fall – the Chanel Rouge Allure Liquid Powder ($30). This unique, squeezable, and powder-like liquid lipstick has a creamy feel upon application and it sets into a soft blurred matte finish. It has a sponge applicator for easy application (kinda like Too Faced’s Melted line of lip products) and it has a very faint floral scent.
This liquid powder lip color glides effortlessly on the lips and it has a creamy cushiony yet powdery feel. It then sets into a blotted/soft-focus matte that stays on the lips very well without smudging. The pigment is impressive and almost all of the six shades are so pretty. The darkest shade (Avant-Gardiste) lasts six hours on me even after having a meal, and one of the lightest shades (รvocation) though patchy at first is still long-wearing.
This liquid powder is great for creating an ombre lip and even though it is mattifying on the lips, it doesn’t make my lips dry at all and it doesn’t emphasize my lips’ fine lines so much. I do feel like there seems to be a slight difference in the formulation for each color as each seems to apply differently on me. For example, the lighter shades kinda pill a bit on me during application, and are also kinda patchy, though they set well on my lips afterward. The darker shades, however, are impressively staining, not patchy and they don’t pill. The application was seamless and super easy.
รvocation – light coral, appears lighter on my pigmented lips
Avant-Gardiste – Deep blue-toned red, appears like a soft blurred vampy shade
I highly recommend this innovative Chanel Rouge Allure Liquid Powder for its pigment, color range, and its soft-matte effect. They feel weightless on the lips and they are long-wearing. If you love the matte texture on your lips but hate the drying feel, then you’ll be happy with this one. For me, this is one of the best liquid lip powders I’ve ever tried so far. Great job Chanel Beauty!
Hello, travel bugs! You may have read my travel diary when I went to the quaint little town of Lawrence Country, called Volant, PA. Link HERE. In that trip, I detailed my desire to see the rural life, especially to see the Amish and check out their businesses and some other shops. Volant, PA is a very scenic sleepy little town that will truly put you in the mood for some fresh air and peaceful disposition. I found several Amish stores there and did see some Amish people but never really interacted with them. I would say that Volant was a place that showcases Amish shops and businesses but it wasn’t really where you could actually see their way of life. To truly get a glimpse of the real Amish culture, I knew I would have to go elsewhere. I had two places in mind – either visit Lancaster, PA or check out New Wilmington, PA. Last Spring, I decided to visit the latter.
Why did I decide to visit Wilmington, PA? And why was I so interested with the Amish people? Well, New Wilmington seemed like the most feasible place for me to visit, and also, I saw a really interesting Amish Tour from there. For the second question, I have always been fascinated with Amish people. I’m curious about their way of life and how they really live in this fast-changing modern world. Also, I wondered what it’s like to be an Amish? Would I be able to survive in a simple fuss-free lifestyle, devoid of my beloved cellphone and makeup? LOL. Oh my, probably not.
New Wilmington, PA is about an hour drive from its closest populous city, Pittsburgh, PA. I’ve seen an Amish tour there that I’ve been so curious about and have always wanted to book it. It’s called “Simple Life Tours”, and it’s rated highly in Tripadvisor.com. The Simple Life Tour is a personal private tour with a vehicle that will take you up close and personal with the Amish. The tour guide is Susan, a sweet, lively, and friendly lady who grew up in New Wilmington, PA and have been doing business with the Amish for years. She also happens to be the former owner of The Tavern on the Square Restaurant that features Amish-style country cooking. This restaurant also serves as the meeting place for the Amish tour. When I met Susan, she told me how she came into the tour business while running the most iconic restaurant in town. She said that her restaurant guests would ask her where they could see the Amish. At first, she would just tell them to drive around some roads. But Amish people can be hard to locate, and you definitely need a local as a guide. So she decided to ask permission to some Amish business owners to let people visit their shops. She also said that most Amish don’t market or advertise their businesses well and that some people may feel uncomfortable visiting Amish shops, apart from not knowing them. So her tour is meant to give the Amish the exposure needed for their businesses and to let people avail them.
Susan’s Simple Life Tour is very friendly and respectful to the Amish. She told me that Amish people are very shy and that they don’t like their photos being taken. She answered several questions of mine regarding the Amish way of life, their culture, and she took me to several Amish businesses. She said these people became her friends with time and that she almost feels like they’re part of her family. According to her, the Amish people at New Wilmington are part of the Old Order Amish, that means they’re more traditional.
The tour started with a car stop outside an Amish house. It looked very minimalist, clean, and with several clothes hanging on a clothesline. Susan said it’s a typical Amish house and that most Amish houses are like that – white-painted with a blue door. She mentioned that Amish women use wringer washer to wash their clothes, which adheres to their technologically restricted lifestyle.
Next up, we stopped at a covered bridge where some Amish Buggies would pass by. I took my selfie there, LOL. We then continued and passed by an Amish School House where Susan mentioned that Amish kids typically go to school only up to the eighth grade. Further, she pointed to a lone phone box that pretty much resembles a wooden phone booth and it was situated several yards away from most Amish houses. She said Amish people can use the phone box in times of emergency or even to call a cab, but it should always be farther away from their homes. Susan explained to me how the entire Amish community helps each other in times of need, they are very united in that sense.
I saw several Amish men at work, either plowing their fields with their horses, working in a dairy factory, or making different types of furniture. FYI, Amish people make the best quality furniture ever at a much lower price than most furniture stores, provided that you buy directly from them. Now if you’re wondering how they could build such solid high-quality chairs and tables without electricity, well, the Amish men use a diesel generator to help with their work.
My favorite part of the tour was visiting the local Amish Dry Goods Store that is exclusive to the Amish community. I had the chance to get a good glimpse of what’s inside and was able to purchase some homemade stuff, as well as some handmade items from that store. I also talked to some Amish kids who were working there, they were shy but they were very courteous as well. There were two little boys which have cute hairstyles and they were holding a map. The asked me to point on the map where I came from, and they put a mark on it. LOL! I must have been an alien to them. I did sense that they seem to have a slight accent. As you all know, Amish people speak Pennsylvania Dutch, especially among each other. They learn English in school. If you ask me how a Pennsylvania Dutch sounds like, is it more German or is it more Dutch? I’d say, it’s all German to me, LOL!
Halfway through our tour, we took a look at an Amish Souvenir Store that sells a mix of quilts, pastries, pieces of furniture, as well as some other handmade items. Here we were greeted wholeheartedly by several little Amish kids with a cute Pug running toward us. They’re so cute and so friendly, and they were waiting for Susan’s gifts. They wanted to play some games with Susan’s phone and they seem to be really fascinated by it. Oh, I bet they would love to play my favorite game- Gardenscapes. LOL.
Our final stop was at an Amish Greenhouse that was full of gardening accessories as well as several different kinds of flowers and some other plants. I talked to two Amish kids whose parents are the owners of the Greenhouse and they also have two cute and chubby dogs that greeted us as we entered. Susan told me that the dogs are fat because they like to raid and eat the eggs of the chickens, LOL, and on top of that, they also beg for some treats from Susan. Ha! What a nice life, right? I definitely won’t mind being an Amish dog. LOL.
All throughout my stroll and drive around the area, I saw a lot of Buggies on the road and they are pretty much everywhere there. It was nice to see something so different from my normal environment, and I had learned a lot and admired the Amish’s simple way of life. My trip to New Wilmington, PA was definitely one of my most unique and unforgettable tours.
Before I left New Wilmington, I made a stop at The Tavern On The Square and chatted with the new owners which are both very kind and very friendly. I had a nice meal where I ordered their Hand-Battered Cod with Fresh Brewed Iced Tea. My meal came with a crisp garden salad, a cup of soup, and of course, their very famous Tavern Sticky Buns. The food was amazing!
To visit New Wilmington, PA and get a glimpse of the Amish way of life, you can book a tour at Simple Life Tours by Susan Hougelman. Click HERE
Tom Ford recently released a couple of new lip products, one of them is the Lip Sculptor which is basically a lip liner with a lip brush, and another one is the newest Lip Color Satin Matte, which is a velvety soft matte lipstick that is meant to be high impact and long-wearing.
I went to my local Tom Ford beauty counter to check out these two new products and also to swatch the colors and find out which ones would look well on my skin tone. I picked two colors from the Lip Sculptor line and also picked two from the Lip Color Satin Matte.
Lip Sculptor ($46) – This lip liner glides comfortably on the lips and it has a built-in lip brush on the other end. It contours, sculpts and defines the lips and it’s great with any Tom Ford lipsticks or with any other lip color as well. This sets into a matte finish and can be easily corrected if the application wasn’t accurate. There are different shades available from this lip liner and they are all beautiful, especially the deep ones. Since this lip liner has an easy-to-glide formulation, this could potentially be worn as a lip color, provided that your lips are not the type that dries easily. Unfortunately, for me, this is too drying when used as a lip shade. On the other hand, since this particular lip liner is quite matte, I don’t really see how the lip brush on the other end can work with this liner unless of course it’s meant to define the lips with a lipstick, which I suspect is what it’s really meant to be. The price of this lip pencil is high, but the quality is very good. Having a few is worth a try.
Lip Color Satin Matte ($55) – This newest lip color from Tom Ford is very pigmented in just one swipe. It has a creamy feel once applied on the lips, then it sets into a true satin matte. It is one of the most comfortable matte lipsticks I’ve ever tried since it’s non-drying, lightweight, and soft-focus without emphasizing too much lip lines. It has a blotted effect as it wears for several hours. This particular lipstick, however, does transfer but it’s not to the extreme since the color will still remain on the lips. On me, this lasts about six hours after drinking tea or coffee, and about four hours for the lighter shade after eating. The darker shade tends to stay longer. There is no strong scent detected, but only a faint buttery one. However, finding the right shade from this lip color line that would look well on my complexion was such a dilemma. There are for sure several Fall/Winter colors like deep berries and reds but I had a hard time finding the right nude or neutral beige for my light-medium skin tone since most of the nude and neutral ones are either too nude or they’d pull off as bright pink or coral on me. Another thing I noticed is that it’s pretty hard for me to accurately apply this lipstick on my lips since this has a slightly angled flat round tip, as opposed to being more pointy like most lipsticks, so, I always end up overlining my lips. But then, that’s easy to remedy, I just use the lip brush that came with the Lip Sculptor above. Anyway, I can’t seem to find a product that closely resembles this lipstick, especially when it comes to its texture and its finish. For starters, this is definitely not as mattifying as the Tom Ford Lip Color Matte. This lip color is more comfortable and it feels more lightweight. This also feels a bit hydrating but it’s not shiny. I’m thinking perhaps the Dior Ultra Rouge Lipstick might be on par, but I will have to investigate more, and speaking of that, I will be reviewing that lipstick soon. I also think the YSL Rouge Pur Couture The Mats (reviewed HERE) might be similar as well, and probably the Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet too, but the Chanel ones may be a bit more mattifying than this TF Lip Color Satin Matte.
Bottom line, this latest Lip Color Satin Matte and Lip Sculptor from Tom Ford are worth the splurge. These perform just like what they claim. The Lip Sculptor is a reliable lip liner that sets well and applies smoothly. It truly contours and defines the lips. The Lip Color Satin Matte is one of the most comfortable easy to wear matte lipsticks I’ve ever tried and I really like its velvety matte effect on the lips.
