May Favourites!

May has been a good month as we have started to see glimmers of gorgeous Summer weather here in London, I’ve nearly finished uni for the Summer term, and I’ve generally been having a lot of fun!  In this post I have chosen to showcase my most used and favourite products from this past month!

Miss Dior Cherie Fragrance – This is my summer fragrance! I got my first one a few years back on holiday abroad with my girlfriends, and whenever I smell it I am reminded of then and all the fun we had and the great weather.  The smell is just delicious, elegant yet sweet, just delicious!  The bottle is obviously adorable also.

Estee Lauder Lipstick in Crystal Baby – This is possibly my favourite lipstick.  Its the one I wear the most, my go-to; the one I can slap on and know it looks good.  It is pretty much my exact lip colour but adds a nice even sheen and creamy pink finish.  It smells so good, its silky smooth and really moisturizes my lips and the packaging is just exquisite.  I will pop up swatches of this and my other Estee Lauder lipsticks up soon!

MAC lipglass in Live & Dye (Blonde-Brunette-Redhead Collection) – I’ve had this since Christmas when the collection came out but honestly never used it as it felt really sticky and just lame for Winter weather.  Now it is warmer I have been wearing this lots, over all lipsticks!  I didn’t realise how silky it made your lips feel, like you have a big layer of silk over your lips.  The colour is cute but doesn’t show much, this is my only MAC lipglass so I’ll probably try out another colour when it runs out!

Topshop Cream blush in Neon Rose – You can see my post on this product HERE! Its a gorgeous cream blush which I’ve been using over powder blushes for a pop of colour!

Carmex cherry lipbalm – Smells delicious, lasts a long time on my lips, cute little tub, moisturizes, SPF 15, what more can I say!

MAC MSF in Soft and Gentle – This is my favourite bronzer and the only one I normally use, ever!  I am so pale, as you all know by now, but this just gives a beautiful flush of golden shimmer over my cheeks an really brightens my face up.  I love it!

The Body Shop Face and Body brush – I actually have about three of these on the go right now, one for powder, one for blush and one for clearing up fall out from eye shadow!  It is the softest, most gentle brush I’ve ever used and I possibly couldn’t live without it now, haha!  These last a very long time, I’ve had my first one for three years now and its still in pristine condition (just wash it regularly!).

So there you go, my most used from the month of May!  I am so excited that Summer is nearly here and I think it is reflecting on the products that I chose as my favourites and what I’ve been using.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been updating as much recently, I’ve had a lot of work and essays on, but I promise to pop up some more swatches soon!

Is there anything in particular you girlies would like to see next?  Do you like my May favourites?

XXX

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Another Two Photoshoots!

Hey girls! Sorry that my posts haven't been typical of late, I’ve just been collaborating with so much new, exciting, fresh talent and I want to share it with all of you, and of course, make-up is involved!

A few weeks ago I had a photo shoot with a stylist, make-up artist and a model, and I was the photographer.  Here are some of my photographs from that particular shoot -

  

• Photographer – Moi! (Katie Snooks!)
• Stylist – Alexander Antoniou
• Make-up Artist – Lucy Pearson
• Model – Tiffany Baron

Alex, the stylist for the shoot is one of my best friends and is SO talented at fashion and creating beautiful garments.  The silk cream corset in these images was created and designed for scratch by Alex and his talented hands!  If you like his style, be sure to follow his fashion inspiration blog – HERE http://alexantoinette.blogspot.com/

The make-up artist is also fabulous! I can recall her using MUFE foundation, and lots of beautiful MAC eye shadows to create this look.  Her name is Lucy and you can find her blog with her work – HERE http://lucylovesrussia.blogspot.com/

And on Monday, I had another photo shoot with Lucy as the make-up artist, but this time I was being the model!  This work is for Lucy’s uni project and the pictures are beautiful!

 

• Photographer – Naomi James
• Make-up artist and stylist – Lucy Pearson
• Model – Me!

How frikkin gorgeous are these pictures? And I’m not just saying that because I’m in them, the colours and the way it was shot on camera was just incredible and I’m so inspired by the photographer – Naomi James (website HERE -
http://naomijames.carbonmade.com/)

Lucy used my L’oreal foundation, as well as MAC’s chatterbox on the lips, kryolan grease paints on the eyes and eyebrows and a few more bright MAC eye shadows!

I’m sorry I’ve been bombarding you all with pictures of myself! I swear to get back to the make-up swatches and reviews next! What do you think of these images? Be sure to check out the blogs of the people I collaborated with also, they all have extreme talents and deserve to be seen!

If you would like to know anything used make-up wise in particular, then give me a shout and I’ll contact Lucy for the deets! Hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful sunshine in England!

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How I bleach my hair!

This has been very long awaited and I apologise!  I only do my roots once a month so I had to wait till I was next in need of a top up before I could take some pictures!

I always, always get questions asking what I use to bleach my hair, how I do it, who does it for me etc, so I hope this helps every body who is thinking about taking the leap and turning blonde!

Here is what I use – Jerome Russell’s Bblonde powder and cream peroxide bleach!

You can get this from any local chemist, as well as Boots and Superdrug.  The pack of four sachets of powder bleach normally retails at around £5 and the individual cream peroxides retail at around £1.40

I used to use the 30% Vol Cream peroxide, but it went off the market for ages so I had to keep buying 40%, which is obviously stronger, but it makes my roots a tad whiter so I now generally use this more!

I have been peroxide blonde since the age of 16.  My friend and I went to a chemist and decided to ‘try something different’ and she transformed my mousy blonde hair into a blonde bombshell worthy barnet that evening in her bathroom!  She very kindly kept bleaching my roots every month until she moved to Spain two years ago, and ever since then my lovely Mother has taken on the dreaded role of bleaching my roots (Thanks Mummy!).  My mum is not a hair dresser, and I don’t believe you need to be to do this at home, you just need general knowledge and bravery to go for it and cover all the roots.

Here is my step by step guide!

YOU WILL NEED -

• -3 latex or rubber gloves (two for the hands of your hair dresser, one for you for the itchy bleach!)
• An old unused bowl
• A hair bleach applicator (can usually be found in chemists for 50p!)
• A hair clip
• An old unused towel
• Jerome Russel Bleach!

As I have the underneath layer of my hair brown (I decided to let my natural colour grow through as I haven't seen it in 5 years), I need to firstly separate the brown from the blonde.  So I use cling film and a hair band!

 

My kind Mother separates the blonde from the brown, plaits it, then curls it up and wraps it in cling film so that the bleach can’t get to it.

HOW TO -

1) Mix powder sachet with cream peroxide bottle and stir until frothy and smooth.

2) Slap it on the roots! (or whole hair if you are starting from scratch!)

 

3) Keep going.  Lift sections of hair and paint the bleach on, and keep at it until the whole head of roots is covered!

4) Once the whole head of hair is covered, clip up on the top of your head!

Okay, now for doing this for so long, I don’t really need to look at the time.  I know that it take approx 20-30 minutes for the product to be put on, and then I normally wait another excruciating 15-25minutes before I wash it off.  I will tell you now that this whole process SUCKS, because it itches like hell!!! The bleach is so aggravating, it feels like a hundred thousand tiny ants are moving around in your hair, itching and stinging you.  This is why I always wear a glove, so that I can itch when I need to.

I wash it off with an intense shampoo and conditioner for dry hair, normally something like Aussie.  I leave the conditioner in for at least 3 minutes after bleaching just to make my hair feel soft again. 

AND VOILA – I now have nice, bright white blond hair!

I am very lucky to have strong, healthy, thick hair naturally.  As long as I use a good conditioner every time I wash my hair, then it looks and feels healthy and soft.  However I know many people who have dry, brittle hair from bleaching, so I really suggest trying the bleach on a small patch of hair before you go right in and bleach your whole head.

When you first bleach your hair, you will probably need to use a toner.  Jerome Russell also has a hair toner in its range, which basically takes the ‘orange/yellow’ tint out of the bleached hair so that your blonde locks don’t look ginger in certain lights.  I don’t have to use this as my natural hair colour is blonde anyway, and holds onto the bleach pretty well, but I did use it when first going blonde.

I hope this helps any one who needs some advice on going blonde!  I adore being blonde and can’t imagine myself with any other hair colour.  I love how I can play around with exaggerated make-up looks because my hair colour allows it and it certainly gets a lot of attention. 

Has this helped anyone at all? If anyone needs any more advice or has any more questions then just let me know, send me a comment on this post!

P.S Sorry for the very unattractive, un-glamorous pictures in this post, keeping up the glamorous blonde locks unfortunately isn’t as pretty as it may seem!

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A few FOTD & Beyonce Look!

I’m ILL!! I hate being ill, I have cold and flu symptoms and they just came out of nowhere!  Does anyone have any good tips for getting over colds quickly? I’ve already stocked up one Vit C tablets and hankys!

Lately I’ve been experimenting a bit with make-up and taking some some portraits!  I have some make-up skillz and photography skillz and I never use them together, so I thought why not!

This first look was inspired by Beyonce’s new video – (Why Don’t you Love me?) In which her make-up is gorgeous and she looks just stunning!

I used –

• Gosh Kohl Black eyeliner
• The Body Shop eye shadow in 45 & 01 Shimmer, Black liquid eye liner, White pencil liner, 05 blusher,
• L’Oreal voluminous mascara & Infallible Long lasting foundation in Porcelain
• UDPP
• MAC’s Nylon & Beauty Marked eye shadow, and Patisserie lipstick!
• Clinique dark brow pencil
• Topshop cream blush in Neon Rose

And another – Not really inspired by anything this time -

Used

• MAC’s Nylon, Beauty Marked and Woodwinked eye shadow.  Ever Hip lipstick
• The Body Shop – 12 Blusher, 02 gold shimmer eye shadow, Black liquid liner
• L’oreal infallible foundation in Porcelain, voluminous mascara
• Gosh kohl black eyeliner

What do you guys think? They are a bit random, its quite hard to take good pictures of yourself without seeing through the lens, but a tripod and zoom definitely helped!  X

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Glitter Liners!

I adore glitter, I think every girl does, so its no wonder glitter eyeliners are a big success.  Almost every make-up brand now includes glittery liners, which is good for being girly, but bad for our purses!  Here are the few I have -

L-R

• Urban Decay Heavy Metal – Stage Dive
• Urban Decay Heavy Metal - Baked
• Urban Decay Heavy Metal - Pyrotechnics
• The Body Shop - Silver
• The Body Shop – Limited Edition 02
• The Body Shop - Gold
• The Body Shop – Sparkle Roller Ball

I bought the Urban Decay liners when they were all the rage (back in 07?).  I went to New York with my family for my sisters 16th and I made sure to pop into Sephora and pick up these three liners, they came in a pack for like $21? Anyway, I used to adore them as back then they were the only good glitter liners and they looked stunning on the top lash line, but now I think although the colours are gorgeous, they just aren't as good as others.  The consistency isn’t great, you have to apply lots of layers to get a good coverage of glitter (you can see in the swatches that they are patchy – even with four layers!), they kinda feel quite weird on the eye lid – a  bit itchy?  So I don’t use them often, but I still love them for the packaging and because of how beautiful they look in the tube!

The silver TBS liner is my favourite glitter liner and the one I use the most.  I have like, 3 of these as backups and I adore them so much.  The swatches here are with just one fat brush stroke and you can see how much glitter and product you get out of it!  I think the difference here (compared to the Urban Decay ones) is that the formula has more liquid in it – not just glitter – so you can get a nice pigmented application as it is all mixed into one, if that makes sense?  The gold one is beautiful as well – though the formula tends to separate in the tube which isn’t great, you have to shake it up before use, its a tad watery as well.  The other gold one was a limited edition one a few years back.  I honestly don’t wear it much but I need to start as its beautiful.

I’ve also included my favourite ever glitter product – TBS sparkle roller ball.  This stuff is just incredible, its fine fine glitter, in a roller tube, which covers you in a beautiful shimmery, sheer sparkle, and it stays on the skin! It isn’t a liquid, its literally just a fine shimmer, which you would expect to fall off, but it stays on the skin which is fab.  All of the TBS ones are limited edition and only come out at Christmas, which is a shame, so hopefully next Christmas they will bring out some more!

Does anyone else agree with me about the Urban Decay liners? They may even have improved the formula since, I’m not sure!  And who else loves the TBS liners? What other brands should I look out for, who have glitter eyeliners?

XXX

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Pencil Eyeliners!

Hi girlies!  I had to tidy my room today as my landlord is visiting the flat on Friday, and whilst I was at it I decided to tidy my make-up drawers!  I dug out my pencil eyeliners to show you and review!

I haven't got many, considering I wear eyeliner every day and compared to some people, but I like the few I have.

L-R

• The Body Shop – 01 Black
• The Body Shop – 14 Glowing Amethyst
• The Body Shop – 10 Brilliant Blue
• The Body Shop – 12 Shimmering Steel
• The Body Shop – 05 White
• Barry M – blue (nameless)
• Gosh – Velvet touch eyeliner Black Ink

I will go right ahead and say my favourite is the Gosh black one.  I’m on my third pencil of this, and I use it everyday, with whatever look I decide to go for.  I have this thing where I’m so used to wearing a kohl eyeliner, that without it my eyes look tiny and I hate it, so I always wear eyeliner.  This is my favourite as it is so smooth and pigmented, it doesn’t drag my skin, the colour is the perfect black, it lasts all day and it only smudges if I do so myself (with a smudger brush!).  Gosh always has 3for2 offers on, so I usually pick out two of these and something else that I haven't tried before.

The Body Shop colourful ones are stunning, the shimmer and shine and are gorgeous to look at.  I use the steel a lot when doing silver smokey eyes.  The colourful ones are beautifully pigmented and are very smooth to apply, they can be a bit of a pain to sharpen sometimes though. The black and white ones arn’t as smooth to apply as the shimmer ones, but they are still intense colours which I love.  I always use the white one to highlight the flick of liquid liner on the top lash line (I will show you in pictures what I mean soon!).  Does anyone remember when a magazine (was it Instyle mag?) was giving away two TBS eyeliners? That's when I got most of these, I picked up two magazines especially!

I was after a bright bright blue eyeliner after seeing a picture of a girl with smokey black eyes, but with bright blue liner, and it so worked!  I adore this liner, although I admit I don’t use it as much as I would like too.  This lasts a very long time, its bright and vibrant and pigmented!  Plus, its affordable being Barry M!

(flash)

(without flash)

Hope you enjoyed that! I love going through my makeup and finding things that I need to use more!  What do you think of these eyeliners? Does anyone have any more good pencil eyeliner recommendations?

P.S All of these were bought with my own money!

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Topshop Make-up!

When I first saw pictures of the new Topshop make-up range, I wasn’t at all interested, I was convinced that it would be ugly, cheap looking and badly made, but I was wrong!  The more I heard about it, the more I wanted to check it out for myself and I got the chance last weekend.

I bought two things which stood out to me, with a gift card which I got for my birthday last year. 

Cream blush in Flush and Neon Rose - £6 each

I loveeeee these SO much! The formula is so different but it works well, its creamy but as soon as it touches the skin, it sets like a powder, so it feels silky smooth.  This also means that you have to work quite quickly to blend it in your cheeks, otherwise you will look like you have sunburn, haha. 

 

Flush is a gorgeous bright barbie pink which gives a lovely light pink flush when applied to the apples of cheeks. 

Neon Pink is more orange based, meaning its a tad more red and orange, which is very in this Spring/Summer.  Its easy to go overboard with this shade so build it up slowly, bit by bit, to avoid looking like a lobster.

I also love that you can wear these shades on your lips, which I will definitley be doing.  They will need a tad of gloss or balm underneath them whilst on the lips, as they are quite drying because of the powder effect, but the colours are so worth it!

On the pictures below, I have used each blush on the lips AND cheeks, just so you can see what they look like on!

Please excuse the freckles!! These cream blushes don’t budge either; I had a bath just after I swatched these and they are still on my hand now! Which means you won’t have to apply through out the day.  I also really like how the compacts have mirrors in, not many product do these days.  It makes it handy to quickly apply when out and about!

So there you have it! I will really treasure these as I don’t have any other cream blushers apart from a discontinued TBS one, so I’ll be using them a lot!  I am now also lusting after a few of the lip polishes – the orange one and pink one, and the matt nail varnish top coat! Oh, and the kohls aha!

What do you guys think? A bit too much, or perfect for summer?  Do you think my picture swatches are clear? Will you be buying these?! XX

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The Body Shop Haul!

I hate the word ‘haul’, I think it makes me sound greedy, selfish and gluttonous; I’m really not! Haha, but I didn’t know how else to title this post!  I bought a few bits from TBS lately that I wanted to share with you!

Here is what I got and the offers which are on them at the moment.

Sweet Lemon Body Scrub & Wild Cherry Body Butter – Buy one get one free = £12.50 

This offer is only on certain body and foot care products, including coconut, mango body butter and scrubs and some shower gels etc, but its a great deal.  Also in my store and a few others at the moment, they have £3 off sampling vouchers, so you could get these two for £9.50 if you received a voucher!  I adore the smell of the lemon scrub, it smells like lemon meringue, so good! And the wild cherry is delicious, almost edible, I’ll see how this is with my eczema!

Facial Buffer £3.00– I’ve been hearing such great things about this so I bought it!  I used it for the first time today to take my make-up off, with a cleanser and my face is so smooth right now, I can’t stop touching it!  It did feel a bit harsh as I was using it, but I do have quite sensitive skin, so I just rubbed it in circular motions very lightly and it still scrubbed my dry skin off.  I also love the little handle which you can slip your fingers in, it makes it really easy to use.

Love ETC… EDP & make-up bag! If you buy any Love ETC perfume, you get the make-up bag worth £6, for free!

I love this fruity, summery fragrance and decided to finally purchase it!  I’m glad I did cause this make-up bag is adorable! Its quite roomy and will be easy to wipe down because of the material that it is made out of.

 

Summer Trend Eye shadow in Jade.

I finally got another one of these gorgeous baked shadows.  I haven't tried it out yet but will probably try it out tomorrow.  How pretty is it? And look at all those shimmery colours in the darker bit!  It looks stunning swatched but I forgot to take pictures before posting this as I was too excited! Haha, I will do that with a FOTD soon!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my disgusting beauty obsession, it really sickens me how much I purchase, but I can’t help.  Has any body got any tips to stop buying make-up?  Maybe I will do the 10pan thing? Also let me know if you’ve taken advantage of any of these offers, I want to know what you bought with them!!

I indulged myself in a bit of topshop make-up as well as I had a gift card to use up, so a post on that will be coming tomorrow! XXX

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May purchases!

My local Boots has been renovated, and it looks fantastic. It has the nice new shelving units, the big new makeup counters, self service tills, everything! Yes, it has the new Models own make-up range as well, which I drooled at for ages when I visited. I bought a few bits and bobs that I’d been wanting to try out.

Boots Original Beauty Formula Hand Cream

I love this hand cream!! I picked it up as I already love the Original beauty formula range (you can see my post on the cleanser HERE) and at the moment, everything in the range is half price! This was under £2, bargain! It smells delicious, the packaging is just adorable, it leaves me with smooth hands and it is also the perfect size to carry around in my handbag. I usually need a generous pea size about to moisturize my whole hands and the tube is 45ml, so hopefully it’ll last me a while. I think the packaging is really unique; it looks like a metal covering, but its actually squeezy, so it doesn’t dent which is a bonus. On the packaging it says it contains lavender oil, and I know lavender scents can sometimes be overpowering, but this is so subtle and smells more like rose with a hint of lavender, which I like. I am probably going to pick another of these up soon whilst the offer is still on, as I can see myself using this lots!

Boots 17

Boots had a wicked offer on their 17 make-up range. If you spent £6 on any 17 products, you got a cute little nautical tin with a nail varnish, eye shadow and eye liner in! I couldn’t resist! I had been wanting a pale purple nail varnish and wanted to try out their eye shadows anyway so I picked up Parma Violet nail polish, and glitter Chalice eye shadow for £6!

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Above is what I got inside the cute tin, Knockout red nail polish, Viva Diva eye shadow and Azure eye liner!

Swatches of the eye shadows, without primer, and the eyeliner with the blue eye shadow on top – a great combination. I cant wait to experiment with these, the colours are beautiful. I have already worn the purple polish and I love it! It makes even my pale hands look tanned! I will take pictures for all of you soon with a small review!

Has anyone been naughty with their cash lately and bought a few selfish purchases? I really can’t help it myself! Does anyone have the hand cream also? What do you think? XX

P.S The Body Shops new Summer Trend make-up is now available, check it out on their website HERE!!! You can see what I thought about the range with some swatches HERE!!!

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