Stila Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach Palettes.

When I first became very interested in higher end make up, Stila seemed to be the brand to go for way back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Every women's mag and early bloggers raved about them for being so fresh and daring compared to the older, more established brands such as Estee Lauder and Clinique. The Lip Glazes and Lip and Cheek Tints were particularly different to what had come before, especially since you could use the Convertible Colour on both lips and cheeks. Yes, we were easily pleased back then. A product that could be used as both lipstick and blusher? Amazing. Well, it was to us. Nowadays, most brands offer multi-purpose products, none more so than Illamasqua who say most of their products can be used anywhere on the face and body.

Anyway, Stila was created by Jeanine Lobell in 1994 after a friend was selling private label make up in her shop. Jeanine decided that it could be done from scratch rather than just putting her name to private label. As for the name, Stila, "We kind of just made up the name, Stila. It sounds kind of like 'Stil' in Swedish which means 'style'."

She then researched factory after factory which could make the make up she wanted in a small quantity that she and her friend Allison could afford. After a lot of knock-backs, she was directed to a small factory who could make what she needed. However, they could not afford the moulds for lipsticks and did not like the basic stock packaging so came up with the idea of making them from paper. (Unfortunately, Stila doesn't make a normal lipstick any more and my Google-fu seems to be borked so can't show you a pic of what they used to be like back then.)

Instead of photographs, illustrations were used because Jeanine couldn't afford modelling fees.

With the packaging sorted, the factory went into production and the brand was sold in one shop. When Jeanine realised that the quantity that they had ordered wasn't going to sell fast, she

tramped around every big department store and boutique hustling her Stila brand. Barney's loved the brand "When Barney's likes it, you're 'Okay, we're going to be fine.'" From there, the brand went to Sephora, Nordstrom and to Japan.

After five years of success, Estee Lauder came calling and offered to buy up Stila. Other companies had tried to buy them out but Jeanine kept backing out. However, Leonard Lauder called her personally and after realising that she couldn't deal with the huge responsibility of leading such a large team of warehouse workers, counter staff and artists, she sold to Lauder.

Lauder then sold Stila to Sun Capital Partners in 2006 and the brand was pulled out of the UK because it was sold on Lauder owned counters. In 2009, Stila was sold on to Patriarch Partners/Lyn Tilton in 2009 and has now found its way back to the UK.

Today, Jeanine is a freelance make up artist. She was partner and creative director at Kevyn Aucoin. She has worked with a range of celeb clients such as Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams. She has worked with countless magazines and photographers - Bruce Weber and Annie Leibowitz to name but two. She's married to the actor Anthony Edwards and has 2 children. She lives in New York at the moment and has lived in Sweden, the UK and France. Before becoming a make up artist, she was a mime actor in France.

~*~

I bought two Stila palettes last week - Wonderful in Wakiki and Striking in South Beach.

Top - Striking in South Beach. Bottom - Wonderful in Wakiki.

I'm in the process of building my kit up with beautiful products that work and I remembered from the early 2000's that I oved the Stila brand and that their products just worked. I don't have a lot of money so these two palettes have exactly what I need for the princely sum of £10 each. £10!

Both palettes contain 4 shadows (all shimmer, some more than others), a blusher and a bronzer. They're very finely milled and go on easily. One shadow in both palettes is rather sheer so needs to be built up (Ocean Drive in South Beach and Wahine in Wakiki). The darker colours are very pigmented so there's an instant colour pay-off. My favourite shade out of both palettes is the fantastic blue colour, Surf. Because of the high pigmentation, the shadow colours are fab for all skin tones. I'll be using both palettes for Asian Bridal make up.

The blusher and bronzer in the South Beach palette are pink toned and in the Wakiki palette, they're peachy toned.

Top Left shadow - Wave. Top Right shadow - Cabana.

Bottom Left shadow - Ocean Drive. Bottom Right shadow - Nightlife.

Blusher (on left) Art Deco. Bronzer, Sobe.

Top Left shadow - Sarong. Top right shadow - Surf.

Bottom left shadow - Wahine. Bottom right Shadow - Coconut.

Blusher (on left) North Shore. Bronzer (on right) Hanauma Bay.

I feel that the bronzers are a little too pale to be used as all over bronzer on darker skin

tones so best for contouring the cheeks and temples. You may disagree, though.

Not very good at doing swatches but I hope you get the idea.

Ocean Drive

Wave

Nightlife, Cabana

Art Deco, Sobe.

Hanauma Bay, North Shore.

Coconut, Sarong.

Wahine.

Surf.

Do you have any Stila products? Are they a favourite or do you dislike them? Do you remember them from when they were created in the 90's?

(I paid for these with my own money and can scan the receipts if need be.)

Kevyn Aucoin at Space NK.

Sometimes, when I get bored or can't sleep, I go to sites like Selfridge's or Space NK and make fantasy wishlists of products I adore. I've often looked at Kevyn Aucoin make-up on various US sites and wished with all my heart it was available over here. Happily, it is now available at Space NK, hurrah!

Aucoin was what you might say, the first celebrity make-up artist. I mean that he was a celeb in his own right and paved the way for other make-up artists such as Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier to launch their own brands of make-up. He did work with many, many famous women such as Nicole Kidman and Cher but they were just one page in his career.

When he was a child, he became fascinated with make-up and would often do his sister's face and ake a polaroid of each look. Living in the South was hard on him and embarrassed to buy make-up, he'd steal it. Eventually, he took off to New York where he started off working for free until he was 'discovered' by American Vogue and from there he flew. he was head-hunted by Revlon and Shisedo where he was creative director for one of their diffusion brands. He eventually launched his own brand where he had total freedom to create cosmetics and tools that everyone could pick up and use.

He died in 2002, after being diagnosed with a tumour on his pituitary gland in 2001. His books are still available and are well worth buying or borrowing regardless of being a pro or make-up lover.

Lisa Eldridge has more on Aucoin on her blog here.

Out of the entire collection available at Space NK, I really want the Best of... Eyes Kit. It contains, amongst other things, the legendary eyelash curlers. They are the best curlers you could buy, even more than the Shu Uemura curlers. For that alone, I'll happily part with my money.

Kevyn Aucoin's site.

Inspiration - Tilda Swinton

This is a pic heavy post. Tilda Swinton is an utterly beautiful woman who seems not to care what people think of her. She is the master of no make-up make-up and her face shows a life that's living instead of being hidden with botox and fillers. She reminds me of David Bowie with her androgyny and chameleon-like ability.

Films include Orlando, The Chronicles of Narnia, Constantine and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Her latest role is in We Need to Talk About Kevin. She is also a successful model and has modelled for Pringle Scotland.

Her picture should be in the dictionary entry for AWESOME.