Monday 30 July 2012

Bow Manicure from The Illustrated Nail

This is super old, but I just realised that I never posted it! A few months ago, a new Lola and Grace store opened at Westfield Stratford, and had loads of things going on the day they opened. There was champagne and cupcakes, a jewelry swap, free manicures and a DJ and party in the evening I think.

My friend Leonie and I went to check it out, and we arrived just as the girls from The Illustrated Nail turned up! We booked in for the first appointment and went to shop while they got set up. When we came back there was a huge queue, but as we had booked in we got to slot right in! She created a beautiful bow design on my nails and used Essie Mint Candy Apple as a base colour. I wish I had the skills to do nail art like this!

Thursday 26 July 2012

Bobbi Brown Natural Finish Long Lasting Foundation Review

I bought this foundation a few weeks ago, to replace my previous one which was the Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation SPF 15 (£29, here), which was nice but not really long lasting enough for me.

Que the purchase of the long lasting version! (£29, here) I have shade 0, Porcelain, which is very light, although they do go one shade lighter!
I usually apply this using a MAC 130 brush (£28, here) using a swirling motion. The coverage is light to medium, but can be built up to a much fuller coverage. This is quite a liquid formula, and once out of the bottle will run down your hand if it isn't level. This can be irritating, but it is also kindof useful, as a quick shake of the bottle will mix the contents completely.

One and a half pumps is usually emough for me to cover my whole face, with a medium coverage. If you were after a lighter coverage one pump would probably be enough, and 2 would do for high coverage. having a pump instead of a pot or tube is much more hygenic too.

The thing I like most about this foundation is that shade. For me, finding a foundation that matches me is virtually impossible, even MAC don't do a shade light enough for me in a liquid formula, and they have a huge shade range. If your skin is of more a medium tone then finding a match will undoubtedly not be such a big deal, but for me it's paramount! I found that this foundation lasted well for me, about 8-10 hours, though it did need re-powdering in my T-zone. It is also oil-free and I have not had any problems at all with breakouts.


Monday 23 July 2012

Nailed: Essie Sole Mate

Totally in love with this polish. Great colour, great brush, perfect shine, perfect application! Not the best photo, but it's a gorgeous blackened plum shade.

Thursday 19 July 2012

TK Maxx and Boots Beauty Haul!

Sorry to be psoting another haul so soon, but at the time of writing this I'm running around trying to get everything sorted to leave for Uganda, which is in less than a week now! By the time this goes out I will have been there for over a month and will hopefully be having a great time! Anyway, I've been doing a lot of shopping to get essientals for going away, and I couldnt resist getting a couple of new beauty purchases too!



My friend Charlotte tipped me off that TK Maxx had quite a lot of Stila products, so I went to check it out. They didn't actually have all that many Stila products, only a couple of Lip Glazes and a mascara that had been opened by an inconsiderate shopper. I did manage to get a lipgloss though, a Lip Enamel Luxe Gloss in Euphoria, which is a dark, blue toned pink. These glosses contain 3.8ml of product, which is quite a bit more than cult favourite lip glazes, which only contain 2.4ml.  I think this particular line of glosses may have been discontinued, as I cant find it on the UK website. I was able to find it on the US site though. The TK Maxx price for this was only £3.99, a total bargain compared to its $22 reccomended price, which is about £14.30.

Also at TK Maxx I spotted several different trios of Essie polishes. These are the original formula I think, not the new, slightly cheaper diffusion formula. They were priced at £10 for the set. I have no idea what the colours are though, they are marked as Capri, Tangerine and Tangerine, but having googled these none of them are right! if anybody knows what they might be, let me know! Lastly from TK Maxx I picked up Sally Hansens Healthy Cuticles Now! which was £3.99.

Next I headed over to Boots where I picked up a polish from the new Essie Diffusion line, in Sole Mate (£7.99, here) which is a beautiful blackened plum shade. I also got Shadow Insurance from Too Faced, which I have never tried before, but I am in desperate need of a decent eyeshadow primer! (£14.03, here)

Lastly I popped to H&M where I bought this iPhone 4 case for just £2.99! Ive been looking for a completely plain case that wouldnt break the bank for ages, as I want to cover it in completely offensive glitter and sparkles. I like tacky, so shoot me!




Monday 16 July 2012

Everyday Makeup 3

Face: Shu Uemura UV Underbase BB Mousse in Beige (£29, here), Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer in shade 1 (£4.19, here) MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation in NC15 (£19, here), MAC Blush in Fleur Power

Eyes: Vintage, Stealth and Wolf from the Illamasqua Neutrals Palette (£30, here), MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack (£14, here) and MAC Eyeshadow in Omega on my brows (£12, here)

Lips: MAC Lipstick in Speak Louder (£13.50, here)

Thursday 12 July 2012

Nailed (Properly this time!): Shock.

Finally I got around to trying Shock by LA Colors with a white base. It's MUCH better, but also MUCH more labour intensive. I had to do 2 coats of  NYC white, and then about 5 coats of Shock.

With white base

Without white base


Monday 9 July 2012

Selfridges Big Beauty Bang Haul

A few weeks ago now I blogged about Selfridges jubilee celebrations, and more specifically their Big Beauty Bang. That wasn't a sceduled post, it went up straight away so that people would know and could get tickets to the second event a week later. I only bought 3 items on the night, but they were quite big purchases so I wanted to do a haul post for them!

The first thing I bought was this beautiful Neutral Palette from Illamasqua. (£30, here)

The colour in the top right hand corner is so pretty, it's like antiqued gold, it's called Vintage and is the only colour in the palette that isn't matte.

Next up we headed over to MAC where I picked up a matte eyeshadow in Omega (£12, here) to use for my brows. It's the perfect colour for my virtually invisible blonde brows, because it's not too dark and has absolutely no red tones, which was the problem I was finding with my other brow products; they were just too red.

I got a lipstick too, also from MAC. I've actually been wanting this for quite a while but it was sold out! It's a creamsheen lipstick in Speak Louder (£13.50, here)
Speak Louder is a warm toned pink with a hint of gold running through it.

Lastly I got a BB cream from Shu Uemura. I'd like to point out that I didn't actually buy this, I won it out of the 'Beauty grabber' machine they had at the event. I didnt know what I was going to get but having had this for a while I love it! It's the UV Underbase BB Mousse.


Thursday 5 July 2012

Hair Series: Spin Pin/ Primark Spiral Pins Topknot

When I'm busy doing something, like taking notes in a lecture or bloogging, I always want to keep my hair out of my face. This is a cute a simple style that you can use to pull all of your hair back so it isn't in your face, or you can leave some bits down at the sides and front, and leave it looking a bit messier. You can do this look with normal pins very easily, but I wanted to show how these spiral pins are used.

Again, thankyou to Leonie for lending me her hair for this post!

For this look all you need is your spiral pins (£1 from Primark, for 2) or Goody Spin Pin (£5.50 for 2, here), and a brush. I use a Tangle Teezer (£10.99, here) but any brush will do.



The first thing you need to do is brush your hair out, and then pull it into a high ponytail, using a brush to keep your hair sleek and to make sure there are no bumps. If you are going for a more relaxed, messy look then you can just pull it back with your fingers.

Twist the hair firmly at the base, to anchor it in place. Twist the remainder of the ponytail and wrap it around the base until it is all used up. Tuck the end of the ponytail underneath the bun.
Grab one of your pins, and literally screw it into the bun from the side closest to your neck. You will get a much more firm hold if you push down on the top of the bun as you do this, and try and keep the pin as close to your scalp as possible. Screw the other pin in from the side closest to your forehead, again pressing down on the top of the bun. They warn you on the packaging not to interlock the two pins, as it will tangle your hair, but when I interlocked them accidently nothing bad happened, they just unscrew the same as before!
And you're done! You could spray some hairspray on your hands and use them to smoothe any flyaways that you might have if you need to.



Monday 2 July 2012

Hair Series: One Pin French Twist


This is a great style to master, it looks good for formal occasions, and you only need one pin to secure it, and it's really secure. Although it looks really formal, it's also useful because it gets all of your hair out of your face really quickly. I wore this style quite a lot in Uganda last year, even trekking through the jungle! (see proof below!)
The first thing you need to do for this style is gather your hair at the nape of your neck.

Twist it through a full turn, tightly, to anchor it in place

Flip the hair over so that the ends of your hair are pointing up.
Twist the ponytail tightly, still holding it up
Spread the looser hair around the bottom of the twist out, so that the twist is covered up to your crown


Fold the ponytail in half (if your hair is long you might need to do it in thirds, or even in half twice) and tuck it under the twist

Grab an open hair pin, and push it into the twist, following the direction of the hair.

Hold the curved part of the pin, and push it around and under the twist. This should hold the style really securely.
Push the pin all the way in, and you're done!