Sunday, July 31, 2011

Celeb Sunday (Part 2) - Katherine Kelly





I think Katherine Kelly (from Coronation Street, in case you didn't know) looks absolutely stunning, in these pictures, taken from Zara Phillips & Mike Tindall's wedding. Her dress, her hat (I want) and bag, her hair and her make-up were all spot on; she makes the perfect statement with it all. I completely adore this look and think she pulls it off so well, don't you think?

Gorgeous!

Celeb Sunday - Zara Phillips!

Since it's the weekend of her wedding, I thought it only right that I should feature Zara today! What do you think of her dress girlies? If I am honest, it hasn't really grabbed my attention so much, it's not something I'd pick but I think she looked lovely all the same, largely down to her make-up, hair and head attire!




Saturday, July 30, 2011

Chanel Fall 2011 Illusion D'Ombres, 84, ÉPATANT - Swatched!

Chanel Illusion D’ombre is a long wear gel eyeshadow from the upcoming fall 2011 make-up collection and shade 84, ÉPATANT is every bit as stunning as I hoped it would be, the colour is exquisite, totally to die for. Depending on the lighting, it can be kind of gunmetal-y, silver even, but also khaki too in other lights and has a whole load of reflective metallic particles thrown in there too... perfect!

As you can see in my swatches, the colour appears to be more silver on my hand, but then on my eye ‘swatches’ (sorry for the naked rest of eye and skin) the khaki really comes through. I’ve posted plenty of photographs just to show you the light catching it in different ways, although I am sure none of them do it all the justice that it deserves.

Application: USE THE BRUSH... no seriously, use it – it’s actually a decent brush, specially designed for this formula, and also the best way to get the product onto your skin I’ve found. It has dual usage too as you can use the flat side of the brush to apply as an eyeshadow, but you can also use the edge of the brush to apply the product as eyeliner too – I love that it’s so versatile!


The gel-like consistency is very easy to work with; it’s soft and blends beautifully and is a complete pleasure to use! It’s amazingly buildable, you can go from a very sheer covering, right up to a full on metallic effect with ease and with a great finish on both. You don’t need to use a lot of product either; I used a very light hand with both swatches (and my eye swatch) with great results!
They weren’t kidding when they said this was a long-wear product. I have had it on for hours and there has been no creasing, no smudging or even fading – I am totally impressed. In the past I made a decision to stick to powder eyeshadows after numerous failed attempts with cream like consistencies, but not anymore - you really do get what you pay for with these. I am a complete convert and will be (happily) buying the rest of the collection at £22.50 each when it comes out on August 19th (although I do still have one more of these to swatch for you)!

PR Sample - Views are my own!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Shock News of the Week - Wizard Blogger Award!!

I've just received a very lovely email from the equally lovely Heather at Wizard PR telling me that I've been awarded their FIRST blogger award!

"Wizard has decided to acknowledge the blogging community and those bloggers that go above and beyond and are as influential as the print media.

Weekly Wizard will award the ‘Wizard Blogger Award’ to a blog that has exceptional content, personality and talent that creatively demonstrates their passion to the beauty, grooming and lifestyle industry.

Congratulations! We think you are a Wiz at Blogging!"

I may have let out another little squeal when reading the email - notice a pattern here, I should probably try and rein that in - but thankfully nobody was around to hear me (or see the little hop-type thing that went along with it, but the less said about that, the better)!

The award will be promptly added to my mantelpiece... I mean sidebar!

Thanks Wizards! x

MAC Summer 2011 'Surf Baby' Lipstick - Hibiscus!

Me wearing hibiscus just before my holiday!

MAC Hibiscus is part of the recently (ish) released Surf Baby collection, and is a lipstick that has ended up being one of my favourites, which was kind of inevitable, since it’s limited edition.
It’s a fabulous coral hue that I initially thought might not work for me, even though I loved the look of the colour in the tube, and love corals in general... but I’ve (happily) been proven wrong and it has become one of my most reached for lipsticks!
It is richly pigmented and applies brilliantly, although you couldn’t really tell this on the photo due to my slap-dash application (I had taken better photographs but they got corrupted along with a lot of others recently) plus, it stays on for AGES!
I really recommend this without any hesitation, I think you can still buy it in some stores/concessions, thankfully, as I’m about to buy a back up because I love it so much! 
Quick face shot of me wearing it with no other make-up!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Psoriasis, Kim Kardashian, and Me!

The news that Kim Kardashian has recently been diagnosed with psoriasis may not seem of that much importance to much of the world, but that has really struck a chord with me, and probably a large percentage of the (approximately) 125 million other suffers worldwide.

You see, I’ve always seem Kim Kardashian as being pretty perfect, as I’m sure many of you have too; and whilst I am sorry that she has this condition, I think she’s got real guts to put it out there for all to see, and judge, and judge they have.

I’ve seen some awful comments on the online stories about it; people believing that Kim is being ‘shallow’ and ‘vain’ and should ‘get over herself’ and on the surface I can understand why somebody (who has no immediate compassion) may just think that this is another celebrity overreaction to something fairly minor – but I really don’t believe this is the case, and I’ll explain why.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, one that I have had since about the age of 8, it’s a skin condition that can occur at any age and on ANY part of the body; from the scalp to well... anywhere that you have skin, and it can spread from small patches to almost full body coverage. It’s such an awful thing to suffer with, and is something I have never completely learned to live with, and probably never will, and is also a huge reason why you’ll probably never see my right hand doing a NOTD shot.

The reason for this being that I am very conscious of, and paranoid about what my psoriasis looks like, and more importantly how other people may view my psoriasis (will they wonder if it's contagious etc, it's not by the way, although it can be hereditary) – especially since getting into beauty blogging. I’m always very self conscious about the ugly psoriasis on the fingers of my right hand, and aware that even on my left hand, my skin isn’t always a picture of perfection (which is why, sometimes I may leave a finger out of shot).

My psoriasis goes around the edge of my hairline and ears, I have it on my elbows and also (as mentioned) my fingers. The symptoms (so to speak) are unsightly patches of red skin, often covered with dry skin that usually needs exfoliating on a daily basis. It can be painful, especially when I knock it and end up breaking the skin – and this is especially the case on my fingers where the skin can get particularly weak and where the knocks are more frequent.

If the weak skin and unsightly nature of psoriasis wasn’t bad enough, then the fact that it can cause psoriatic arthritis is just another kick in the teeth to those, who like me, have both conditions; adding severe pain all over the body into the equation.

There is no cure, and any treatments that are available to try to alleviate symptoms usually come with their own set of problems – but I won’t go into all that as it’s quite in-depth (and boring) and this isn’t a medical blog. I just really wanted to explain the condition a little bit more from my own personal experiences, and hopefully soften the view of those people that thought that Kim Kardashian was being a diva over something minor.
Make-up can slightly disguise, but never fully cover the condition!

I hope you don’t mind me posting such a personal and potentially boring post up, it took a lot of guts for me to put it out there about this as it’s something I would usually rather avoid acknowledging, and actually get embarrassed about.

What do you think about Kim having this condition? Do any of you suffer with psoriasis too?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - RIP Amy Winehouse!

Whichever way you look at what happened, it is a very sad situation, for a young girl to lose her life at just 27. Whilst many people may not have agreed with her lifestyle choices, hopefully they'll still be able to acknowledge what a huge loss her death has been, both musically to her fans/music lovers across the world and personally to her friends and family.

I thought hard about posting this up, since this is a beauty blog and because of the circumstances that it has come about; however I thought it might be nice to put up some photographs that didn't show her looking at her worst. In fact, I personally think she was probably looking more at her best in the images above!

RIP Amy! 

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

OPI Holiday 2011 - The Muppets Collection!

Last year's Christmas saw the incredible Burlesque range from OPI - a collection that I ended up buying every polish from (along with the Switzerland collection from slightly earlier too but shhh we won't mention that)! This year, we have... The Muppets, a collection that again looks like it’s going to cost me lots of money (again). I know sparkle and glitter are not to everybody’s taste, but to me they are my weakness, like shiny things to a magpie – especially at Christmas, which would be my absolute favourite time of year if it wasn’t for the dark nights and crap weather that comes with it!

What do you think of the collection? Do you love or hate the look of it?

I’ll be back with some swatches as soon as I can!

Monday, July 25, 2011

NOTD Chanel Morning Rose (557) Nail Polish - Summer 2011 'Les Fleurs D'été' Collection!

This is a polish that I almost never had, since it is part of their Les Fleurs D'été De Chanel, (limited edition) summer 2011 collection, and Limited Edition Chanel polishes almost always sell out. I think it was released around the time I was going on holiday and so I completely forgot to go and buy it in store, and when I tried to buy it at the airport, they said they still didn’t have it in stock yet. Anyway, I digress, the main thing is I managed to get my hands on it; although I’m not sure if you can still pick it up anywhere – maybe if you’re lucky?!
The colour is a pretty rose pink, kind of dusky and muted and all very lovely with gorgeous gold glass flecks running through it – although I’d say that these were more apparent in the bottle than they are on the nail, they’re not completely invisible on the nail, though.

It is a fairly sheer polish but it applied brilliantly, dried quickly between coats and I managed to get a decent result after 3 coats, although I did an extra one just because the camera can always seem to find fault with things, even when to the naked eye, it looks fine.

I don’t know if it’s my camera, my use of the camera or the colour of the polish but I did find this fairly hard to photograph accurately. I think I got there in the end, though, so I’m posting many pictures taken in different lights – just in case!

So far the polish has worn very well, I’m on day 4 and it’s all still looking rather good – can’t fault that! In fact I'm almost wishing it would chip as I have a lot of nail polish still to swatch and I'm very reluctant to remove the polish whilst it's still looking so damn good!

My advice if you can find this polish is to grab it as it’s a polish that is definitely worth owning.


Outside in bright sunlight.
 Natural Light
  Natural light, no flash.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Celeb Sunday - Katy Perry!

Katy Perry has made the transition from her trademark black locks, back to a colour closer to her (rather surprisingly) natural blonde. I recently posted the 'in between' hair she sported not so long ago so thought it only right that I showed you her new 'do too!

I'm not sure if she's planning on going any lighter, but I have to say... I really like her with this soft blonde style. I think she's actually done really well to get to such a nice blonde shade in just 2 steps (or so we're told) as whenever I've gone from darker hair to blonde, it's always been much more of a struggle to get a blonde that doesn't have orange tones in it (it's never looked orange when I've come out of the hairdressers, as I've always been sent away with a lot of toner in my hair and a silver 'at home' toner to keep the 'warmer' tones from coming through).

What do you think of it, do you like it blonde, black or in between best?


Katy when she was younger!!
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