Beauty: Guerlain La Petite Robe Noir lipstick and nail polish review

Guerlain is known for their stunning fragrances, immortalized by Serge Gainsbourg's lyrics to Initials B.B. about Brigitte Bardot:

"Elle ne porte rien
D'autre qu'un peu
D'essence de Guerlain
Dans les cheveux"

La Petite Robe Noire always jumps out to me whenever I walk past someone in the street wearing it, much like YSL's Black Opium. Both fragrances are sweet with fruity, floral and vanilla notes, and both are very strong: I only need a small spritz of YSL's Black Opium to last me all day. LPRN is even sweeter than Black Opium, on me at least, which sadly tends to result in a headache whenever I test this iconic Guerlain fragrance. I still love smelling it on other people, though, and it is undeniably a lovely fragrance which has proven a very popular addition to the Guerlain line of perfumes. 

The house has decided to expand on that success by adding a dash of colour to their La Petite Robe Noire/Little Black Dress fragrance with a line of lipsticks and nail polishes, which I will be reviewing for you today. The coolest thing about these products is that all of them are scented like the LPRN perfume, and the lipsticks even taste sweet! So cute.

The packaging of the LPRN beauty line obviously references the perfume bottle, with the heart shaped bottle cap. As I was told at the launch event where I received these samples, the heart shaped cap was inspired by the way people traditionally apply perfume, which is by dabbing it where the major arteries run closest to the skin while carrying blood from the hart through our bodies: the wrist and the neck. The packaging is lovely, these would look stunning on your makeup table.

The line carries a wide range of lipsticks (twenty shades!), and I received three of them to review: 001 My First Lipstick, 003 Red Heels, and 041 Sun-Twin-Set.

001 is a neutral toned pink with silver glitter, 041 is a coral shade, and 003 is a warm based red. All three of these apply like a sheer lip balm, and the pigmentation varies from one shade to the next. While 003 is actually quite bright and saturated, 001 is very subtle and sheer. Most of the shades are buildable when you apply a couple of coats. All of them dry down after about an hour of wear, losing the glossy finish, but a bit of the colour remains on the lips. Easy to wear, easy to reapply, and I love smelling that whiff of LPRN on my lips. The scent is not as heavy as the perfume itself, so I have no headache issues wearing these.

As you can see, these come in a wide range of shades, but do keep in mind that the darkest colours are very sheer, just like 001. I have since bought 007 Black Perfecto because it's such a cool product, and while it looks like an almost black purple in the tube, it applies like a sheer, MLBB type of colour. In fact, it reminds me of Clinique Black Honey, but cool toned rather than reddish-brown. Very flattering, and it makes your teeth seem whiter!

Moving on to the nail polishes, which also smell like La Petite Robe Noire.

These are two of the seven LPRN polishes released in Europe. Pink Tie is a bright, cool toned pink that is opaque in two coats. The LPRN fragrance is very present here, and it lasts for about two days after applying. The wear is OK but nothing extraordinary, with some minor chips on day two. Black Perfecto is a gorgeous shade: a smooth, sultry eggplant with a warm, copper shimmer that is visible if the light hits your nails just right. You can wear this opaque by applying two coats, or keep it semi-sheer, which makes it look more like a brown leaning black. Very unique! The fragrance is barely noticeable with Black Perfecto, though.

All in all this is a really cute collection - super collectable, and probably very appealing to the younger crowd. The lipbalm type formula will be a favourite in my handbag when summer comes round.