From The Vault: Elysambre Lipstick

One of the favourite aspects of my kit is my lipstick collection. Once a bag full of unidentifiable bullets and pots, more recently I have de-bullet-ed, depotted and decanted into clear palettes to make specific lipstick spotting a little easier when I'm on at work. All of the palettes are clearly labelled with each the name and brand so when I run out, I know what to replace. Simples.

Nestled in amongst my rainbow palettes of lip colours are one of my all time favourite brands of lipstick and this months find in the vault...

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Elysambre lipstick

One of the most important products in any Make-up Artist's kit is good quality lipcolour. Just one lipstick will enable you to produce a range of different looks, by simply adjusting the method of application and can be used to add colour elsewhere on the face, such as to the cheeks.

Giving great coverage, the Elysambre lipsticks are the perfect addition to an organic kit. They are long-lasting and have a lovely velvety and creamy texture, making the range a fantastic ethical and ecological alternative to traditional non-organic lipsticks.

Elysambre Lipstick

The colours are beautiful and, available in three finishes; matt, gloss and pearly, there are over thirty shades in the range from soft pearly pinks to siren reds, sublime peaches to glossy plums. This fantastic array of colours (achieved by a pigment micronisation process) are enriched with a range of organic active plant ingredients; apricot and grapeseed oils to nourish and protect and shea butter and castor oil to moisturise and smooth. The matt colours are delicately apricot-scented, whilst the glossy and pearlised ones have a vanilla/violet scent.

I adore this lipstick range and use it at every given opportunity. Unlike many natural and organic lipsticks they do not contain glitter particles (this is a huge bug-bear of mine in lipsticks!), so they are suitable for broadcast and photographic use.

As with all Elysambre products, the beautiful lipstick bullet cases are easily refillable (something I'll be writing about in the next few weeks) and the refills, priced at around £12.00, are available in all shades and finishes. Although you can easily use the lipstick without the case, it is worth the initial extra spend (approximately £4.00) to get the copper case as it will last a lifetime and put up with a typical kit bag battering without splitting or cracking.

Eco-conscious French brand Elysambre was created in 2006 by Nature.Cos. Free from Parabens, mineral oils and oil derived products, the mineral based, all-natural range is EcoCert and Fairtrade certified and cruelty free.

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I still have a love affair with these lipsticks. I utterly adore them! They are still the  first lippy I turn to for most jobs if the colour is right. The fact that they have a great range of matte shades is also a bonus for me as I generally strongly dislike lipsticks with a shimmer! All in all, in my mind they have always been a viable clean alternative to many of the big name brands. 

Now for the bad news.

Sadly (very, very sadly) Elysambre is no longer available in the UK or many other places it seems. From what I understand (please correct me if I am wrong), creators Nature.Cos. sold Elysambre to an American company a few years ago and since then it seems to have faded into obscurity.

There are one or two places that have some of the products from the collection in stock however these are slim pickings. I have even purchased some on Ebay (something I would never normally do with make-up) in a bid to get hold of a particular product, so I suggest grabbing it whilst you can!

Not all is lost however. You may have heard me mention french company Couleur Caramel. Like Elysambre, Couleur Caramel was designed and produced by Nature.Cos. and to the same exacting standards, so many of the products are pretty interchangeable. The range of lipsticks available is similar and they wear in almost exactly the same way as their Elysambre counterparts.

Take a look at the Couleur Caramel collection at www.couleur-caramel.co.uk

Ingredients:

(*) denotes ingredient is certified organic.

Pearl/Glossy: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Oil, Hydrogenated Stearyl Olive Esters, Candelilla Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera Wax), Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides, Sucrose Acetate Isobutyrate, Prunus Armniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil Unsaponifiables, *Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea Butter), *Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, *Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, *Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Pongamia Glabra Seed Oil, Asparagopsis Armata Extract, *Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Aspalathus Linearis Leaf Extract, Tocopherol, Aroma [+/- may contain: CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491 (Red Iron Oxide), CI 77492 (Yellow Iron Oxide), CI 77499 (Black Iron Oxide), CI 75470 (Carmine), CI 77007 (Ultramarine), Lactoflavine, CI 77510 (Ferric Ferrocyanide)]

Matt: Ricinus Communis (Castor) Oil, Hydrogenated Stearyl Olive Esters, Prunus Armniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil Unsaponifiables, Isopropyl Stearate, Ethyl Hexyl Palmitate, Octyldodecanol, Candelilla Cera (Euphorbia Cerifera Wax), Mountain Cera, *Olea Europaea(Olive) Fruit Oil, *Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Kernel Oil, *Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Oleic/Linoleic/Linolenic Polyglycerides, *Butyrospermum Parkii Butter (Shea Butter), Pongamia Glabra Seed Oil, Asparagopsis Armata Extract, *Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Oil, Aspalathus Linearis Leaf Extract, Tocopherol, Aroma [+/- may contain: CI 77019 (Mica), CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), CI 77491 (Red Iron Oxide), CI 77492 (Yellow Iron Oxide), CI 77499 (Black Iron Oxide), CI 75470 (Carmine), CI 77007 (Ultramarine), Lactoflavine, CI 77510 (Ferric Ferrocyanide)]