I’m actually surprised about the lack of marketing around this because quite frankly, it’s almost the best thing since sliced bread. I said ‘almost’ (nothing is better than bread. FACT.). A few weeks ago I visited the Estee Lauder counter in Selfridges London. I had booked the first appointment of the day early on a Saturday morning because if, like me, you detest the crowds (particularly crowds of people ready to splash their cash combined with masses of tourists who haven’t a clue where they are going so are subsequently walking slower than snails’ pace) you’ll know to get in as soon as the shops are open and get out, preferably alive before the lunchtime rush hour hits. I had seen somewhere (trying to rack my brains where but I cannot for the life think of me think where I had seen it) that Estee Lauder were offering their Custom Lip Blend service whereby you can blend your very own custom lipstick shade. I remember the event via someone’s Instagram where they shared their customised lippie and I was gutted that I had missed the boat on it. Not this year. I tried a quick search online to see if I could find out more info. I couldn’t find anything on this year’s service but I did find a couple of blogpost from last year.
When I arrived at the counter, I was greeted by two advisers and was promptly told that they had been having issues with the machine used to create the lipsticks. Just my luck. However, luck decided that it was going to be on my side in the end because even though there were a few close runs, the machine stayed fully functional. Phew!
I had the experience of making my own custom lip colour before at the Bite Beauty Lip Lab in NYC but this time I wanted to be a bit more prepared and so I knew exactly what colour I wanted to achieve. Being a lover of nudes, I was going to create my perfect shade. My inspiration for this came about by accident when I layered the MAC Intensity Lipsticks in the shades Doe and Smoked Almond together. Combined, they make a warm, peachy – pink nude, a colour that would work year-round and with any makeup look.
To make this colour, the beauty adviser started by combining a small quantity of white lipstick with some deep, earthy pink and then melting it down. This resulted in a cool, mid-toned pink. To add some warmth to the molten mix, she proceeded to add yellow to it and continued to do so until we got to the right level of warmth. Each time she would allow me to test the colour on my lips to check whether I liked it and to determine how close we were getting to the desired shade. We got very, very close in the end, perhaps a touch less brown but I was pretty happy with the result. She then proceeded to pour the mixture into the bullet-shaped moulds, which was then left to solidify.
In the meantime, we went on to engrave the lipstick packaging. I was able to choose from a variety of fonts. I chose the italic style and of course chose to have my blog name emblazoned on the lipstick cap. I was also given the choice of three designs to have imprinted on the top of the actual lipstick bullet; two hearts, lips and one other (nope, totally forgot what that last design was). I opted for the lips design.
Following on from the engraving, the mould which had been left to solidify, was put into another machine where the bullets could set in their new form. Once set, the lipstick bullets were released from the mould via insertion into the lipstick packaging.
For £81, I got a full-sized lipstick with two refills packaged in a navy leather (not sure if real or faux) makeup bag. That might seem like a hefty price tag but when you actually break it down, it’s the same as the cost of three Pure Colour Envy Sculpting Lipsticks but you 1. get to create your very own custom shade which can be totally unique 2. have it personalised further with a sparkly engraving 3. also get a makeup bag to house the three lipsticks.
I guess it probably isn’t the norm for someone to purchase three lipsticks in one go (unless you are a lipstick junkie like me of course), but I feel this is definitely worth the splurge. In fact, it would make a wonderful gift for that beauty fanatic in your life. Unfortunately, it is only limited for a short amount of time (not even sure if it’s still on as the booking system on the Selfridges site is not returning any slots – if you’re interested, keep your eyes peeled next year) and exclusive to Selfridges London. If you were lucky enough to get your very own Estee Lauder Custom Lip Blend then well done you.