Smokey Brown Tutorial!

I’ve had a few requests to do a tutorial of how I did my makeup in the header of my blog, and I decided to film it for you guys! 

 

CLICK HERE to watch the video!

A few pictures of the look!

It took quite a few attempts to do this right in front of a camera but I finally did it and I hope it is what you expected of me!  I’m back in Essex at the moment so I don’t have my video camera with me, but as soon as I’m back in London I’ll film another tutorial. 

Let me know what you think of the video and if you have any ‘look’ requests then let me know!!

XX

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I would like to wish all of my lovely readers a very Merry Christmas.

 

I hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow, whatever it is you may be doing.  I hope that it is filled with love, happiness and all the food you can eat!  I’ll be snuggled at home with my family, in our pyjamas, munching food and sipping port, and playing the obligatory board game in the evening.  Christmas is one of my favourite times of year, it means my parents get time off work to relax and we can all spend quality time together without any worries, so I always treasure every minute we have together.

I really hope you have the fabulous day that you all deserve and I’d like to thank you for supporting me this year – its my first Christmas in the blogging world and every comment and bit of support I get from you means the world to me, so Thank you!

XXX

(images courtesy of weheartit)

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Precision Nail Varnishes!

I had to share with you these two nail varnishes as I think the quality and the price of them are to rave about!  I hadn’t heard of Precision Nail Lacquer's before but I quickly learnt that they are about to take on the UK market after being successful all over the world, mainly because of their variety of colours and because of the ingredients that they don't contain.

I am so happy to say that these nail varnishes do not contain Toulene, Formaldehyde and Dibutyl Phtate – all harmful ingredients found in most other nail polishes.  I was sent two polishes from the Autumn/Winter Limited Edition range, Glam Rock and I’ve been wearing them all party season and I actually think they are rather festive, but not too OTT for this cold, winter season.

Party Like a Rock Star

SO stunning, I love this colour and I have received lots of compliments on my sparkling golden nails.  This really glistens in the light and it matches my gold shimmery Christmas tree perfectly.  I used three thin coats on the swatches above. 

Very Important Polish

A true deep purple shade which sparkles blue and purple in the light, I think this is described as ‘aubergine’.  A darker colour than I normally go for but stunning when worn with a little black dress and heels.  I think short, square nails with a darker shade like this is very ‘on trend’ this Winter and I love that it makes my pale skin look milky and like an English rose!  I wore two thin coats in the swatches above.

What I think - I have certainly noticed a difference in the quality of my nails after wearing these polishes.  Normally after removing nail polish, my nails don’t feel up to standards, so I just slap more nail colour on and the circle continues, but with these my nails are left feeling healthy and strong after wearing the colours.  They are easy to remove and I haven’t noticed any staining of my nails after wearing them.  I’d say you need two to three coats on each nail which is normal for any polish. 

All Precision nail lacquers are available to buy on their website for £5.99 here or here.

I also decided to play around with a bit of nail art with these polishes and they worked surprisingly well together – Gold and dark purple zebra stripes!

What are your favourite festive nail colours?  Have you tried Precision Nail Lacquers before?

XX

P.S I was sent these products for review purposes however all opinions expressed are honest and truthful!

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My Hair Timeline!

I’ve always wanted to do one of these and the time has come!  I have been through quite a few different hair colours and looks and I’ve enjoyed digging through my old computer files to find pictures of them all!

So my natural hair colour is a mousy blonde – I haven’t had natural hair for seven years now so I can’t imagine it suiting me at all but I’d like to go back to a more natural honey beach-babe blonde soon.

Baby! – A natural blonde with a cute little bob! 

 

Aged 15 – My hair was reallllyyy long!  And it was all natural but I used to use a wash out red tint every now and then.  I really like this hair colour actually!

Aged 15 - Haha, how cringey!  This was just after I’d used a wash in red tint – it lasted about a month and I thought I looked well cool!

Aged 16 - I AM NEVER GOING TO LIVE THIS DOWN.  Please girls, never ever do as I did and try and do highlights yourself at home.  I am so embarrassed about these pictures!! I did this the day before I went on a school trip to Prague so I didn’t have time to change it.  I basically used a hairdryer to warm up the bleach on my roots and this is what I was left with. arggghh!!

Aged 16 – This was a while after I first bleached my hair (my friends and I did photo shoots in each others bedrooms for fun!).  I dyed the underneath of my hair black and I let my friends chop short layers in to give my hair some volume.  Once I was this colour I felt that I was finally ‘myself’, I didn’t feel the need to change it anymore and I felt confident and really happy in my appearance.

Aged 17 – Obsessed with Mary Kate Olsen, I decided one day at school that I wanted to copy her and go brunette (as she was at the time).  I ran home from school and dyed it and regretted it instantly!  I wasn’t too clued up on makeup although I loved doing smokey eyes, but I just had no idea how to wear makeup with this colour!  The blonde made the smokey eyes look good but I didn’t know how to wear it being a brunette.  I wish I’d had learnt to fill my brows in etc because I think it would have made me feel so much better!

Aged 17 – I went back to blonde a month later!! I couldn’t resist lovely long blonde locks and bleached it.  I used a toner as well to take the orange out, but it wasn’t a very nice blonde, more of a dirty blonde.  I kept the brown underneath my hair.

 

Aged 19 – Still blonde, I decided I was bored so I let my friends cut my hair shoulder length!  It was like a fresh start and was in much better condition afterwards!

NOW! (Aged 22) – My hair is in good condition despite bleaching the roots once a month and I’m very happy with it.  I don’t have any layers as I let them all grow out, and I decided to let my natural hair colour grow out underneath so that I could see what it looks like now!!  (You can see that natural colour in this post).

I do think that I need some layers cut in because often my hair looks very flat, but I’m too scared to go to a hairdresser!

 

All in all I’m really happy with my hair, but I can’t help but wonder what I’d look like with natural, beach blonde babe hair, which one day I will do (when I’m brave enough!).  I think I get judged quite a lot when I first meet new people because of my hair colour, which I don’t like, and I think I might get treated a bit more seriously with natural coloured hair!

There you have it!  My entire hair timeline, I hope you enjoyed it and had a good laugh at all my hair mishaps!!

What was your worst hair style?  Have you made your own hair time? Show me!

XX

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Liz Earle – Tone & Moisturize!

After trying out and falling in love with Liz Earle’s Hot Cloth Cleanser, I was asked if I’d like to try out the toner and moisturizer to complete the whole regime, and obviously I jumped at the chance! 

Both smell gorgeous (in my opinion) – very fresh and natural and the packaging is again mature, neat and looks great on my bathroom shelf.

Instant Boost Skin Tonic

So lovely and refreshing, I use this after I take my makeup off and I’m always surprised at how much more makeup is left on the cotton pad – I feel like it definitely removes all dirt and leaves my skin feeling squeaky clean.  I also use this occasionally in the morning to wake my face up.  A lovely product to use and the 200ml bottle is massive, it’s going to last a very long time!

Skin Repair Moisturizer for Normal/Combination skin

I’m always weary about trying out new moisturizers as they are the most likely product to give me spots, and this was, unfortunately, no exception.  I really, really wanted this to work with my skin, after hearing so many good things about it on other blogs and makeupalley.com, but although it moisturized my face, it also brought me up in a few pimples.  I’m sure that if I’d kept on using it, my skin would have adjusted but I was so scared off being left spotty for the holiday season that I gave up after two weeks of use.  I’ll try this again in the summer, when this horrible cold, winter weather goes away and when my skin isn’t dry and temperamental anymore and of course I’ll update you all!

 

All in all, the whole Liz Earle range is very luxurious and makes me feel like a real woman, in a way that no other regimes I’ve tried have (as silly as that sounds!).  I love using a three step regime and these three products used together make my face feel clean and nourished, its just a shame the moisturizer gave me spots!

Do you use the whole Liz Earle range? What’s your favourite three step regime?

P.S – These products were sent to me free of charge however all opinions expressed are truthful and honest!

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ELF 100 Piece Eyeshadow Palette

I fell in love with this palette after first seeing pictures of it online – I have never owned a palette like this and couldn’t imagine having so many varieties of colours in one place.  The packaging is lovely and sleek, and its surprisingly light as well so its easy to carry around – a really portable palette. 

The set contains 100 different eye shadows ranging from nude peach to neon pink to moss green – most are shimmery but there a few matte shades in there too.

The colours are gorgeous aren’t they!  I’m really looking forward to playing with this palette and creating different looks with it, which of course I will post.

I’ve swatched a few of my favourite random shades – these were on my arm without any primer.  With primer they are a lot more vibrant and striking so I definitely recommend using them together!

100 shadows in a sleek palette for only £15, I think is such a bargain and a lovely Christmas pressie for sisters or friends.  It’s available from the EyesLipsFace website and its limited edition only for Christmas.  Grab it whilst you can, I say!

Who else has a massive palette crush right here!  Did you get one of these for yourself this Christmas?  Can you recommend any other palettes like this?

XXX

P.S I was sent this product free of charge however all opinions are truthful and honest!

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Gaga!

Sorry for the lack of posts girlies, I’ve been super busy letting my hair down for the party season and have even starting seeing a guy! Christmas romances are lovely, I now have a constant grin on my face!

On Thursday I went to see Lady Gaga at the O2 with my best friend and we decided to go all out and dress up for the occasion. I’ll say now, the gig was incredible. We were standing at the front and were so close to Gaga herself, I got some great pictures and we had a good old dance to her best tunes!

I’ll show you our makeup and tell you what products we both used!

Me

I have done this look once before (here) but I decided to do it again a lot darker and heavier. This look is from the Sandwich scene in the Telephone video!

EYES

• MAC Paintpot in Delft and Bare Study
• MAC eyeshadow in Nylon, Beauty Marked, Deep Truth
• The Body Shop Shimmer Cube 19, Shade 04 - Sparkling Sky
• Gosh Velvet Touch eyeliner in Black Ink
• Kat Von D palette in Metal Orchestra
• MAC Zoom Lash Black Fast Mascara
• Girls Aloud Nadine False Eyelashes
• The Body Shop black Liquid Liner

FACE

• MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC15
• Rouge Bunny Rouge As if it were Summer Still bronzer
• MAC Mineralized Skinfinish in Porcelain Pink
• Lily Lolo Porcelain Foundation

LIPS

• Barry M Lipsticks in # 52 & #146

Rhianne

Rhi decided to do the classic lightening bolt look – which is really fun to do and looks striking. She’s an actual brunette but bought a blonde wig especially for the occasion.

EYES

• Stargazer Glitter Eye Dusts in #5 & #107
• Black Eyeshadow from the Sleek Storm Palette
• Rimmel Black liquid Liner (for the lightening bolt)
• Urban Decay Silver Liquid Liner
• Eylure False Eyelashes

LIPS

• Barry M Lipsticks in # 52 & #146

There we have it! I wish I had have filmed a tutorial on how to do the look – maybe I near next Halloween, haha! I’ll leave you with some photographs I took of Lady Gaga herself!

What other Gaga looks would you like to see me do? Did you get a chance to see her in concert? What’s your fav Gaga song?

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Prive Haircare

I’ve been using a few products from the Prive haircare range for about a month now and I’d like to tell all of you girls about it!  I was introduced to the range at a Beauty speed dating event last month and learnt a bit about the products and I’ve come to really adore their product and ingredient ethics.

 

Reparative Shampoo #6 and Conditioner #14 – Both designed for chemically treated or coloured hair, which is exactly my hair type.  They work to cleanse, rejuvenate and repair the hair.  The shampoo lathers up well, and is easy to apply evenly and the conditioner feels soft to apply to the hair and even softer to wash out.  Shampoo contains a Herbal Blendof Aloe, Evening Primrose, Heather, Jasmine and Orchid – but does unfortunately contain SLS, however it didn’t irritate my scalp at all.  The conditioner contains - Ginseng Root Extract, Rose Hips Fruit Extract, Blue Green Algae and Corn and Rice protein.

Leave in Treatment #24 – I’ve been using this as my leave in conditioner instead of my beloved L’Oreal one and it surprised me by doing the same job of detangling my hair whilst making it feel super conditioned and soft.  It somehow makes me feel better that I’m using more natural ingredients on my bleached hair than the ones found in my L’Oreal conditioner.  Contains Aqueous Herbal Blend of Aloe, Comfrey, Kelp, Spirulina and Honey.

Shine Serum #52 – This has got to be my favourite product out of the bunch, and I featured it in my November favourites.  I just adore it, how silky and soft it makes my hair feel and how it doesn’t leave it looking greasy or lank.  I apply this to my hair when its dry or damp, whenever I feel basically and I mainly focus on the tips of my hair, where its most dry and it gives the impression that my hair has never seen a bit of frizz in its life.  Love it! 

Thermal Protection Detangling Spray #30 – I don’t really use heated gadgets on my hair because I’m worried about damaging my hair even more, so I’ve been using this mainly as an extra detangler on the underneath of my hair which is most prone to matting.  It makes hair easier to comb through and I know this will last me ages and I only use around three spritz to detangle! 

Concept Vert Volumizing Froth #110 -  This stuff is quite hard to get used to but I’ve had loads of fun experimenting with it.  On the website they call it a ‘revolutionary non-aerosol mousse’.  You literally need the tiniest bit, about the size of a pea, you rub it around in the palm of your hands and style with it!  I’ve been using this near my roots to give some volume and it doesn’t leave my hair greasy or hard/sticky.  I haven’t had a chance to do a gorgeous up-do yet but when I do I’ll use this to style and let you know how it goes.  Contains Acai and Babassu oil.

  

Before and after – Before was obviously before I had used any Prive products, and After was taken after I’d used the range to wash my hair around three times, and with the serum, detangler, and leave in conditioner.  You can tell that afterwards my hair looks a lot more shiny and silky soft and a lot less frizzy.  Before my hair was hard to brush and comb through but its so much more manageable now.  Please note I didn’t straighten my hair in the after pictures either – it had dried naturally like that.

Smell of the whole range– All the products smell basically the same, like very fresh, floral, green smells.  Very natural yet clean smelling, which I think is great because men won’t be afraid to use the range either.  The smell doesn’t linger on after you apply the products so they’re not overpowering, which is also a bonus.

What I think – I’m really impressed with my before and after pictures and its great to see and feel a difference in my hair now.  Once the products run out I will definitely be purchasing some more, especially the serum, leave in conditioner and the reparative conditioner.  I love that the range is eco-friendly and that all the packaging is recyclable and that the products are sulphate and paraben free and do not test on animals.

You can read up on the Prive range on their website here - http://www.priveproducts.com/index.php and you can buy the products in selected salons in London and online here - http://www.luxuryhaircare.co.uk/

Can you see the difference in my hair now? Have you ever tried the range?

xxx

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November Favourites! (& my first youtube video!)

 

Stargazer Star Pearl Eyeshadow in Peach Flush

Amazing price, great quality, gorgeous colour – everyone should have this eyeshadow!  I’ve been wearing this lots as my base colour for the rest of my eyeshadow and I love it.  My last one cracked so I went out and bought a new one and I’m glad I did.

Barry M Lipstick in #150

My newest lipstick which I adore – a gorgeous natural, moisturizing, pink brown colour which you can see swatches of in my last post here.  I’ve been wearing this lots recently as I find it easy to wear with any of my clothes.

Prive Hair Serum

I was recently introduced to the Prive hair care range, created entirely by a session stylist to the stars!  I adore this serum – I apply it to the ends of my hair when its dry or damp, and I pay special attention to the bits of my hair that are dry from bleach.  It really leaves my hair feeling silky smooth, and the product is made from natural ingredients – what more can I ask for!  I’ve been using a whole hair regime from Prive so will post what I think of it in the next few weeks!

Bourjois Eye glitter in #22 & #23

I used to use these every single day a few years ago and I’ve just rediscovered them, just in time for Christmas and the sparkly season.  They are beautiful powdered glitters that come in a little pot with a brush in the lid.  I have one in silver and one in gold and I use them under my brow bone to highlight and they really do look beautiful.  Will be using these for months to come!

Topshop Cream Blusher in Neon Rose

Blusher is so important in the winter months to keep me from looking pasty and frozen, so I’ve been using my favourite Rogue Bunny Rogue bronzer with a smidgen of Neon Rose dabbed on top – keeps me looking rosy and fresh throughout the cold days!  This cream blush is going to last me forever – I only need the tiniest bit, its great value.  (You can see my swatches of my Topshop cream blushers here)

Superdrug body spray

Whenever I go back to my home in Essex my sister introduces me to a new body spray, and recently they have been these Superdrug own brand sprays.  They smell SO GOOD.  Especially Flirty and Delicious – I can’t describe them, both are gorgeous fragrances and last surprisingly well on the skin.  I’m one to forget to put perfume on, so these are great and light to carry around in my bag to spritz up in the day!  And at only 99p each, you can’t' go wrong!

(Does anyone remember how amazing Impulse body sprays used to be, back in the day?  They were incredible, my favourites were vanilla and the limited edition Spice Girls one they did back in the 90s!  Did anyone else have these? Sadly they don’t make the vanilla anymore – such a shame!  If anybody knows of any vanilla body sprays let me know!)

Vaseline Cocoa Butter Body Oil

I’m on a bit of a cocoa butter frenzy at the moment!  Girls, if you love a chocolaty, sweet body fragrances or moisturizers then you will fall in love with this, just like I have.  I was browsing in Boots ages ago, sniffed this curiously, not really paying attention and I nearly died out of love for this scent – its amazing, go sniff it!  Its nice as a body oil, does leave you pretty greasy, but it moisturizes well after a bath and leaves me feeling soft and smelling gorgeous for hours!

The Body Shop’s Lightening Touch in #03

I’ve been using this product for about three years now and sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without it!  I’ve never had to even bother trying YSL’s Touch Eclat because this is basically the same thing for half the price.  I’ve been using it a lot this month because I’ve had lots of late nights and the dark circles/bags under my eyes are paying for it!  I tap a few dots of this under each eye, and then pat it in with my ring finger.  I also pop some on any redness on my face and down the center of my nose just to highlight.  It covers my bags well and includes light particles to bounce light back off to create an airbrushed illusion.  #03 is the perfect shade for me as and my pale skin!

 

I’ve also filmed my first video for you tube!  I really want to get into filming videos, but I’ve attempted doing a tutorial before and ended up with mascara all over my face (haha!!) , so this first video is just to ease me in to the video-community and here you can watch me waffle on for ten minutes about what’s in my bag!  Haha!  I’ve had a request to do a tutorial on how to do the makeup I’m wearing in my blog header so that’ll be the next video that I do (I’ll film it next week!).  I hope you enjoy this!

If you have any other requests for things I could film then let me know!

ALSO – I want to say a MASSIVE thank you for everyone who commented on my last post, about my favourite books.  I’d had it written out for a month but didn’t post it because I didn’t think any one would be interested, but I’m so overwhelmed with the response!  Thank you to everyone who recommended me a new book and I really hope you enjoy the books that I’ve inspired you to read!

What were your favourite products from November, do you have any video requests for me and what’s your favourite body spray?

XX

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