Monday 24 January 2011

Red Head

Here is a pic of me with my new redder hair, I love it.  I am obviously really stingy when I put my eyeshadow on because you can barely see it, but I am still bothering with my eyeshadow I promise.  Plus I am loving Benefits Dandelion blusher at the mo'.


Had a lovely day a short walk round the art gallery and finished off with fennel tea and a slice of dime bar cake.

Thursday 20 January 2011

Tuesday

Here is my look for Tuesday.  Don't I look pleased with myself?


I used pretty much the same products I did on Monday (how lazy)

*Laura Mercier - tinted moisturiser
*Laura Mercier - secret camouflage
*Bobbi Brown - colour corrector concealer
*Laura Mercier - secret brightening powder
*LOreal - waterproof grey eyeshadow
*Elizabeth Arden - grey sparkly eyeshadow (sorry I don't know the actual name)
*Benefit - Dandelion blusher
*Maybeline - Colossal mascara
*Nars - gloss in a beige/pinky colour (I have had it so long the name has worn off)

Monday

I am a bit behind on my posts this week, working out on Monday (whoo yeah), book club Tuesday (geek), hair do on Wednesday (pics to come).  Anyway here is the look I wore to work on Monday. 


I recently read in a magazine that if you are feeling and looking a bit tired to wear a lilac eyeshadow, so because I hadn't had the best night sleep I decided to give it a whirl. 


I used:

*Laura Mercier - tinted moisturiser
*Laura Mercier - secret camouflage
*Bobbi Brown - colour corrector concealer
*Laura Mercier - secret brightening powder
*Elizabeth Arden - lilac shadow
*Benefit - Dandelion blusher
*Maybeline - Colossal mascara
*Blistex - soothing splash (post to come)

Quite quick to do, but I feel I look better than I felt.  Think I might be a purple eyeshadow convert!! 

Monday 17 January 2011

Iman

Today while on my lunch break, I was flicking through the pictures of the Golden Globes on the Daily Mail website, (my guilty pleasure) and especially loved Angelina Jolie's beautiful green dress, it pains me to say this because she is not my favourite celeb. 


Here are a few others that drew my attention, for good and bad reasons.


I just love the fact that Helena Bonham Carter has her own thing, and really doesn't care.  Look at her shoes, ha! Her face is stunning though.


I love velvet, I love navy, I love Tina Fey.


Love her hair, and make up, don't really get the dress. 

While I was browsing the DM, I found an article on Iman.  She is just so stunning, and completely in a league of her own (for want of a better less cringeworthy expression).  I hope I look as good when i'm in my mid 50's.


Golden Globe pictures from style.com and Iman from Daily Mail.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Belle and Galaxy

Check out my bling nails, picked these two up from what I call a "cheapy" shop in my local town centre, they only cost £1.39 each.  Both by Revlon, and designed to be a top coat.  I have just used them on their own.


My little finger has Barry M Grey painted on it, with the Galaxy on top just to see what it looks like.


The darker one is called Galaxy, the silver one is called Belle.  I popped into my local Boots and they didn't have it there, so it must be limited edition or something.  Just googled it and there are loads of american blogs loving it.  

I'm not looking forward to tackling the glitter with a polish remover.  I'm sure it will still be there in three weeks time.   

The quest

My skin hasn't been looking the best recently.  With how cold the weather has been and then, how hot it is inside, I have been suffering with dry patches and dull skin.  I have tried lots of different exfoliators, Dermalogica's daily microfoliant, a micro dermabrasion cream whose name escapes me and more recently Liz Earle's gentle face exfoliator I have come to the end of  my second bottle of this, but I just want to try something different.  The problem is I don't want anything with granules in.  When I was a teenager I use to rub my skin raw with Aapri scrub gel, and I think I am now paying for it.  I think that because my skin is so fair, I have developed broken veins on my face and they are becoming more and more obvious.  I think genetics plays a part in this, but I don't think scrubbing my face has helped much either. 

So I am now on a quest to find a gentle exfoliator, that contains salic acid.  I have read that this is one of the best ways to get glowing skin, and I don't think its as harsh as it sounds.  When I visited Leeds I asked round some of the high end beauty counters to see if they had an exfoliator or mask that contained salic acid, I didn't have much luck.  There was a really helpful lady on the Sisley counter who although didn't have what I was looking for gave me two samples Sisley's gentle facial buffing cream and radiant glow express mask, how could I say no, and when am I ever going to pay of £50 for a cream regularly.  My little mitts couldn't wait to get into the little packets.

The lady reckoned there was about six applications in the sample, and I think so far I have had about four and there is more left.  You pat the cream all over your face and then roll off in an upwards motion.  I add water because I still think it seems slightly harsh.  I think it is making a difference to my skin, and it does feel lovely and soft afterwards, just not so sure I could justify spending that amount of money on this cream.  I am yet to try the mask, but apparently it has won lots of beauty awards! So I may be giving that a try later on this week. 

Take care

I don't generally make new years resolutions, but this year I am going to try and take more care of myself.  The idea came from a friend of mine, her new years resolution last year was to make more effort and she really did stick to it.  Sometimes my procrastination skills are worth a medal and stop me from doing what I set out to do, such as applying my nail polish or moisturising my legs.  I know the world will not stop if I don't complete these tasks, but I really irritate myself by forgetting to do this sort of thing.  You may think I have better things to do with my time, but I can tell you I don't! 

Here is a list just as much for my attention as yours, (apparently if you tell someone or write something down you are more likely to achieve your goal).

*Eyeshadow is now going to become part of my daily routine, I have some gorgeous colours, and I really am wasteful if I don't start putting more of them to good use.  I am going to start posting some "this was my look today" pics.

*Apply cuticle cream to my nails, I am sick of my fingers getting sore.

*Moisturise the bod more.

*Give myself more pedicures, or maybe treat myself to some.  I think like most people this area often gets neglected. 

Now I know this list is not going to change my life or anything substantial like that, and it has made me feel slightly embarrassed and very shallow.  But I am not going to pretend that sometimes the littlest, most vain things don't get my goat because they do.  Plus it probably doesn't surprise you that I am slightly vain because I do spend time writing a beauty blog, which often has me posing with certain "looks".  I'll leave it there I think people. 

Wednesday 12 January 2011

A different kind of Acne

How gorgeous is my ring??  It's my pressie from my BF.  I love green and NEEDED (cough) a gold ring, so decided on this one.  It's by Acne and I just loved the chunkyness and structure of the ring.




Now, if only I could afford the clothes.

Lip tint on Max's collar

The BF and I went shopping to Newcastle on Sunday, I had to change a pressie at Fenwicks so decided to make a day of it, including YO Sushi, oh how I love the deep fried pumpkin. 

While we were whiling the hours away in Fenwicks (I don't think I have ever spent that long in a shop) I received a phone call from my Mum, who wanted me to pick up one of the new Max Factor Lipfinity Lasting Tints.  I really liked the idea of the tint pen when I saw it advertised on the back of my Mothers Easy Living magazine. (I could go on and on about that mag, slightly middle aged, but sometimes makes for a better read than Vogue).  Boots didn't have the whole range so I had to popped into Superdrug, read something similar here.

I decided to treat myself too, I went for No. 03 and I bought No. 04 for my Mum.  


I really liked the idea of the pen and just kind of drawing on my mouth.  Although I love the colour, I found a few problemos.  Have you ever tried to write with a biro or highlighter on a wall?  The ink often can't flow to the nib because the pen is not upside down,  well application to your bottom lip is fine because the tint is the right way up, as soon as I started on my top lip the colour wasn't as consistent.  I think this is more visible on the No. 04 pic.

Also stay away from this if you have even the tiny bit of dryness on them, it will make the dry part stand out like a beacon!


I also think the key to making it last longer, is once the tint is applied keep your mouth slightly parted until it dries.  Excuse the slightly severe mouth above.  


I wore the tint to work on Monday, and got lots of compliments about the dramatic lip colour.  I kept applying a colourless lip balm at work, and it seemed to extend the life span of the tint too.  I will keep using the product, and thought I might where it underneath a lipstick to make that last even longer, but I don't think I will re purchase when it either runs out, or drys out (!?)


Tuesday 11 January 2011

Back for the New Year

So its well and truly the New Year.  After completely overeating as I am sure everyone else did, and getting over my Christmas break outs which I get every year because of the overeating.  I was finally able to try some of my new creams and potions that I received for Christmas.

One of my pressies was the Shue Uemura cleansing oil, I decided on the fresh high performance balancing oil click and I LOVE it!!  Yes the wait was well worth it.  It says you need three to four pumps and I can get away with about one to two.  What I didn't realise was how light it was going to be, I can just rub it in rinse and go, and every last scrap has gone.   Officially added to my favourite list.