Forget colour blocking; if you’re really chic (or Japanese nobility) you’ll know all about kasane, the art of layering translucent coloured kimonos. As it turns out, there are over 200 different Kasane patterns to pick from to create a look that reflects the season, the occasion or your social standing.

Kanebo’s new make-up collection was inspired by Kasane and includes two new lippie lines as well as four eye shadow palettes.

As for the lippies, the lines are Vibrant Cream Colour and Intense Lasting Colour:

Vibrant Cream Colour is lovely in that it glides onto your lips, feels ‘creamy’ but doesn’t move around or bleed and is heavily pigmented so all you need is one ‘lick’ to get both colour and comfort.

My favourite formulation, however, was Intense Lasting Colour. Again, the pigmentation is great but it stays on your lips for ages. Not quite as long as, say Revlon ColourStay, but certainly longer than ‘regular’ lippies. The best bit, however, is that unlike other ‘marathon runners’, it doesn’t dry out your lips in the least. Like Not. At. All.

At R365 per lippie (for both ranges), they’re not exactly a ‘budget buy’ but if you find a shade you love and will wear with everything (much like a good pair of jeans), you can write it off as a spoilicious treat.

Love, love

Leigh