Chanel Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle

Chanel Rouge Coco in No5, Mademoiselle. - £24

I've always wanted a Chanel lipstick, especially Chanel Coco. The adverts appealed to me even when I was young, before I probably owned any lipstick,. 

They were beautiful, glamorous, and classic.

I'm now eighteen and I feel a step closer to being a lady. 

 On a day to day basis, I don't wear lipstick. I'll wear a bold red lip on days I really make an effort with my make-up, however this leaves my make-up on other days looking very unfinished. I wanted a shade I'd get a lot of use out of. This never leaves my handbag, I wear it so often and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful colour, a very natural pink-red that is so easily worn.  Looking closely it has a slight shimmer in it too.

 It's a very moisturising which keeps my lips hydrated the whole day and it's lovely and creamy to apply. Because of that I thought the colour wouldn't last long, but it does last for around 6 hours and a tint of it will last all day. Which to me I think is fantastic. 

The lighting in this photograph is more true than the first.

I think what I really love about it though is how it makes me feel. 

Beautiful, glamorous and classic.

Taking a minute out of your everyday life, a day where I'm running around non stop, to apply this lipstick just adds a little luxury. From the classic Chanel packaging, the click as you open it, the feel of the lipstick and maybe even the glamorous price tag that comes with it. It just adds something that you don't get from a normal lipstick. 

The only problem now is that I want to try other colours.

This blog post has been a long time coming, I found it hard to put into words why I love it so much. However, it's done! I'm considering a lipstick post every Monday, what do you guys think?

May Favourites!

June is here and it brought the sunshine!

Which means it's about time I do another post on all the things I've had a little love affair with this month. You'll notice there was no April favourites, and that's because April was the worst.

Dove Summer Glow - £4.99

The packaging claims it's the UK's No.1 gradual self tanner and personally for me it is. The majority of May had awful weather and I was starting to think there would be no summer at all. I love this gradual tan as it's so easy and builds up to such a nice colour. It's also incredibly cheap, yay!

Perfect now the weathers picked up and I can show off my legs.

Use with...

Fake Bake Skin Smoothie, special dry-oil spray - £11.25

If you haven't tried this and always get horrible patches around your knees, elbows and ankles when you tan, go get this now! This isn't really essential for gradual tanning as they're moisturising and tend to avoid this problem, but I still use it every time. Because it's the best. Spritz over dry areas before tanning, then when applying tan just lightly drag it over these areas. 

I love these both just because of how beautiful they smell!

Fudge Urban Iced Raspberry & Vanilla Hair Spray - £4.99

That already sounds delicious right? Very good hairspray in "strong hold" but I feel I love it for the fragrance. I love fragranced hair sprays as that's so much better for you than actually spritzing a perfume through your hair which some people do. 

Just noticed Fudge do a styling mouse with the same scent, uhoh! This will quickly turn into an addiction.

The Body Shop, Vanilla Body Mist - £7.50

Massive "meh" to May Favourites, this would be in my yearly favourites. For the past two years and forever more. I love the smell of Vanilla, I just love it. I spray this all over my body and I smell of Vanilla all day. Even my boyfriends noticed and said he likes it, which in itself is mind blowing.

I also spray it on my clothes and pillow.. but that might just be me.

Boots Sun, Swim & Gym Shampoo and Conditioner for Coloured Hair - £3.05 each.

For over a month now I started swimming again and go twice a week. Since doing this I developed a slightly-irrational (but mostly rational) fear of chlorine. The chemicals in pools can be really bad for your hair but I also find them very drying to my skin. I got to the point where I'd text my friend right before a swim saying "What if it kills my hair!?" or "Will my tan come off!?". So I started the search for hair care products aimed for swimmers. I've started at the cheap end so I could work myself up if needed, but so far I like these. 

Boots Sun, Swim & Gym Protective Masque, £3.55

Another from the range that I like the idea of is a protective masque. I put it through dry hair, which I then tie back, before I swim to protect it from absorbing the chlorine.  It's also good to wet your hair before swimming as it will absorb that water rather than the pool water.

Bioderma, usually £9.99 for 250ml

Currently 1/3 off at escentual.com for the whole of June!

I'm sure you've heard enough about this product and how fantastic micellaire water is, so I won't go on! But this is my first bottle for myself and it truly is worth the hype. I use it just to remove heavy make-up and will continue to cleanse afterwards. I feel it's still important not to rush your skincare and use this as a cleanser, however fantastic it is. I do love it though and will stock up now it's on offer!

And just because I haven't included in any make-up yet, as nothing new has shook up my make-up routine. Here's some products I used this month and feel I'll use more together for a bronzed look!

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum, £10.99

NARS "Laguna" Bronzer, £26

MAC in "Bronze", £12

Maybelline Color Tattoo in "On and on Bronze", £4.99

What have you loved this month?

Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoo

Maybelline Eye-Studio 24 Hour Colour Tattoo cream shadows available here for £4.99.

Oh wow, I really like these. I like these a lot.

These have actually been around for a while, and I completely ignored them. And I'll tell you why, dear friends, but not just yet. I picked up two colours in the shades "Pink Gold" and "On and on Bronze".
However I've noticed different stores and countries have different names for the colours which might get confusing. What's the deal there Maybelline? 

The reason I actually wanted to try these was to wear as a base before eye shadow so I picked up the colours I felt went best with my Urban Decay Naked Pallet. They're a match made in heaven for that. Can you see it? Ugh I feel like Cupid for the cosmetic world. "Pink Gold" would go perfectly as a base for the pink shades in the naked pallet such as Sin or Toasted. And "On and on Bronze" will really bring out the browns and golds such as Half Baked or Smog. They'll make any shadow last all day.

The thing is, I wasn't expecting to love these products to wear on their own. As much as I love the dewy look and how perfect they'd be for summer, I don't go for cream shadows.Well, the exception is these. They don't crease, they don't flake and they really do last hours (possibly not 24 hours but I won't be putting that one to the test). When I washed off my swatches they also didn't budge so I feel it's safe to say they're also waterproof to some degree. Like that.

The colours on their own are also beautiful! I literally fell in love when I swatched them in store. Just look at them, that bronze! If you're a fair English rose (like me!) then this pink is perfect for you.

Maybe the best thing is how soft and creamy they are to apply, they're easy to blend and won't drag across your eye lid. Nobody wants that do they? 

So far I love dabbing them with my finger over my eyes when I'm running late and just want a little something. Effortless and so beautiful. A small amount will give a shimmer and a sweep of colour which I like with the pink to brighten the eye, and the bronze I build up the colour intensity and blend out for a natural smokey eye.

I feel I ignored these for so long as the advertising was wrong. I only ever saw the turquoise or the  bright purple used in really bold looks. The reason they're amazing is because of the range of neutral colours and that they can be so wearable. I'm sorry I doubted you Maybelline, these will always be in my make-up bag from now.
Through sickness and through health. Like for ever and ever. 

Breakfast Scrub

Well it's only the best smelling thing on the planet.

Ever.

I couldn't not blog about this. I've probably smelt it 3874 times since buying it at the weekend. I've also held it up to my boyfriends face, my boyfriends brothers face and my boyfriends brothers girlfriends face and said "SMELL THIS, IT SMELLS LIKE PANCAKES".
And if I could unscrew the cap and virtually hold it up to your face, I would.

Yep, it's a body scrub that smells of Maple Syrup. To be precise it smells of Maple Syrup on warm pancakes in Vancouver. To be even more precise it smells of happiness.

This is £8 and personally I wouldn't care if it did nothing for my skin, I'd still slather it all over my body without complaint. Luckily, it's also a really good exfoliant and I would happily repurchase it.

I take a small scoop with my fingers and exfoliate in circles. This is a product that's perfect in a bath because it will fragrance the water too! It's a sugar scrub so will remove any dry skin but it's not overly harsh grains, like in Soap & Glory Flake Away which can sometimes be a bit full on. It's also very moisturising from the Shea Butter and will leave your skin feeling pretty darn soft (and smelling fabulous, have I mentioned that yet?).
Like all Soap and Glory scrubs, they've hit the nail on the head. 

If I could give you only one bit of advice in life, it would be to go into Boots and take a whiff of this.
Thank me later.

Natural Glow Make-Up

So as a part of college last week I did the hair, make-up and photography to produce a photo shoot on the theme of "No make-up, make-up". This is all about creating a natural look with flawless skin but so it appears the model isn't wearing make-up at all. It's commonly used in skincare adverts (sneaky). I thought I'd share with you the look I went for with a glow to the skin.

My beautiful friend Fen Barr was sweet enough to come model for me and how fantastic does she look?

skin 

I started with Benefit High Beam on her cheek bones, brow bone and her cupids bow. I also re-applied this over the foundation too to give a beautiful highlight to her skin. Fen naturally has such clear skin, so I blended two shades of Kryolan Ultra Fluid Foundation to give an even but not heavy coverage. I used Kryolan Derma Colour to cover any dark patches or blemishes and MAC Select MoistureCover concealer around the eyes.

I used the highlight from the Sleek Contour Kit to highlight areas of her face, although this has small glitter specks in so be careful when photographing this. I then used Nars Laguna bronzer to contour and add warmth back to her face.

Eyes

Keeping to the natural look I used natural matte eye shadows to add some colour and shape to her eyes and Urban Decay shadow in Virgin to highlight the inner corner and under the brow bone. I LOVE this shade.

I also took a natural matte shadow through her brows with a small angled brush and brushed a clear mascara through to hold them in place. I put some black eyeliner onto a very thin brush and painted inbetween her lashes to give a light natural defintion. To finish off the eyes I put a small amount of white eye pencil on the water line.

Lips

I used a lipstick in a natural shade that had a slight peach tone to go with her beautifully tanned skin and added a lttle MAC lipglass to the centre of her lips and blended out. This enlarges the look of the lips and a slight shine for a healthy look.

Products Used:

- Benefit High Beam

- Sleek Contour kit

- NARS Laguna bronzer

 - Urban Decay Naked pallet

- MAC Lip glass

- MAC Select MoistureCover Concealer

 - MUA White eyeliner pencil

So there you have it, who else loves this natural make-up look? I can't wait to try it on myself now.

Little Shop Of Horrors

Feed me Seymour

So the past week I have been super duper busy helping the cast and crew of my local drama company, BATS, with their production of the Little Shop Of Horrors. I thought I'd share with you some snaps of what was such a fun week!
 Normally doing make-up for shows can be so hectic it's a nightmare, but every night was fantastic and so much fun. The cast and crew were incredible and did such a brilliant job with the whole production. I've always been a huge fan of the music and the show so I took a night off so I could go see the it in all it's glory and I loved it.

As for the make-up, the first half is fairly chilled out with your standard stage make-up and a quick black eye for Audrey. It's after the interval where the real fun begins as people start to get eaten!
- Joy!

I'm not sure if I've ever actually mentioned this on my blog, but I plan to specialise in prosthetics. I just happened to become girly and fall in love with beauty make-up when I started my training. However my heart has and always will be devoted to horror. So you can see why I love this musical so much.

Feed me all night long!

For the comedic final number almost the entire cast had to be made up as "zombies". So much fun. Of course this was still stage make-up though so this was quick, easy but effective for the audience. For the (very) few people that didn't have incredibly fast changes, small latex pieces were applied.
Respect to Liam, a chorus member who let us cover his eye with a latex piece of an eyeball hanging out and still go dance and sing on stage, every night. What a babe.

And just in case you're an addict like me, here's some Instagram snaps to top it off.

 

 

 

Covering imperfections.

Just a short one today to carry on from my last camouflage make-up post!

So recently I posted about how I was learning camouflage make-up to cover tattoos. But of course it also covers discolouring, hypo-pigmentation, hyper-pigmentation, blemishes and some scarring.

Here's a picture (with no filter or camera tricks) of a covered hypo-pigmentation that I did this week.

Personally I think this came out really effective and I'm pleased with the result.
So of course I had to share it with you!

This was really simple and really quick, it's just done by using camouflage concealers (personally I use Kryolan Derma Colour) and matching the area to the natural skin tone and layering this up!

What do you guys think, would you guys like to see more posts on this?