The Mission to find a Face Primer...

A few weeks ago I was asked to review a face primer - specifically one of the new Urban Decay face primers that came out recently. I didn't rate it at all. Not one to leave it at that I wanted to seek out an alternative that could come in handy for all you makeup lovers. I chose to buy and trial Too Faced's Primed and Poreless Face Primer.

Could I find it at any of the Too Faced counters? Nope. I tried Boots, Debenhams and even online stores that sell Too Faced (which isn't many at the moment). None of them had it in stock. I then checked the shelf labels at the counters to see if it was supposed to be in, hoping that they were perhaps awaiting delivery but none of the shelf labels listed the primer at all. It would appear that no UK Too Faced counter/online store sells the face primer... Bizarre.

Now I'm feeling sheepish for saying I'd buy it and review it before I even got my hands on it. Having said that, considering practically all of the Too Faced range is available in stores you'd think that the primer would be too...

I'm very sorry for not being able to deliver the review, but I promise the quest hasn't stopped there! I will continue to search long and hard for an alternative primer to Urban Decay's but in the meantime I can't recommend enough the GOSH primer that I myself use everyday to keep my foundation in place!

But I didn't want this post to be all bad news. Instead of reviewing their primer, I decided to get my hands on one of the Too Faced eyeshadow kits. They look so cute in all of their packaging and this one in particular just drew me in. I must say I'm pretty impressed...

Too Faced's Natural Eye Kit

Natural eyes, whilst many of us want to achieve them on a day to day basis, can be quite difficult to achieve. Well this is where this kit comes in handy. All the eyeshadows come in a box and when you lift the lid you'll discover 9 different eyeshadow colours, along with 3 different helpful cards telling you how to complete various looks depending on what you're after and the occassion.

The eyeshadows are nicely laid out together so you know which shadows to use for each look. Of the looks available you can choose from:

• Day
• Classic
• Fashion

'Day' is the nudest look, and the eyeshadows needed for this look are the top row within the box. You'll find a lovely cream colour 'Heaven' for the highlight, a nice nude brown shade 'Velvet Revolver' for the lids, and a lovely coffee colour, 'Sexpresso' for the accent shade.

The second row belongs to the 'Classic' look. Here you'll find 'Silk Teddy', a shimmery soft pink shade to go as a highlight, 'Pushup' and 'Erotica' as your shade for your crease.

The final row as you may have guessed is designed for the 'Fashion' look. These three shades consist of 'Nude Beach', 'Honey Pot' and 'Cocoa Puff'.

The first thing you'll notice about these shades even by just dipping your finger in them and not using a primer or base is that they are really pigmented and are of very high quality. I was really impressed with the strength of the colour achieved, so with an eyeshadow base you really don't need that much to achieve the look you're after. They also blend beautifully and their lasting power? Perfect. They don't budge at all.

I'm perhaps not so fond of the shimmery highlight colours as the other shades in the kit but that's just down to personal preference really.

The kit retails at £22.00 which isn't very cheap but you do get 9 eyeshadows for that price, all neatly and well presented within a box which is very light and compact and you could easily take

it away with you on holiday or for that weekend away! Plus with the added bonus of the cards you can really learn from them again and again and perfect those natural peepers.

I really love this eyeshadow set and to prove it I keep using it time and time again both on myself and on others so it really has become a staple in my kit.

Body Confidence

Okay I admit this is a bit of a copy-cat post because Georgie from So Full of Twilight Dreams That Glitter posted about this yesterday. However I strongly support this cause and want to do my bit in spreading the word further!

Recently the lovely and charismatic Gok Wan from Channel 4's How to Look Good Naked and Shona Collins, winner of Miss Naked Beauty 2008, have set up a petition to Number 10 to get Body Confidence on the National Curriculum to help teenage girls gain and maintain confident and positive thinking when it comes to their bodies and self esteem.

I'm sure that some, if not all of you girls out there remember that your teenage years are pretty tough as you're at your most vulnerable, impressionable and therefore likely to develop bad habits when it comes to your attitude towards your own bodies. Or you may be a teenage girl and would really like help in addressing this.

I think that it's a great petition because if it can help teenagers develop a positive sense of self earlier on, those good mental habits will stay with them for life!

I'd really appreciate it if you could help and sign the petition online today. It's currently the 4th biggest petition on the Number 10 website, but if we can get it to be number 1 then all the better! It only takes a few seconds and your signature will make all the difference!

Please pass this onto friends, family and colleagues - let's get the word out there : )

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/bodyconfidence/

Thank you so much! x

Awesome Vintage Shopping & Cupcakes To Boot!

Sunday afternoon was truly delightful! The sun was shining, and the Autumnal weather was just about mild enough to be pleasant and off we went to the Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair - so much fun in one afternoon.

All the vintage stalls were wonderful, a lot of them had such lovely owners running them. Some of the sellers were really chatty, helpful and informative - one of them even told me that one of my buys was a genuine 60s number - this is the one that I'll be wearing for Halloween as Twiggy ; )

And on top of all the fun with clothes, when you needed a break or a sugar/caffeine boost you could even grab a cupcake and a pot of Fairtrade tea, with a lovely performance of classic songs like Marilyn Monroe's and the by one of the lovely girls at Pop-Up-Shoppe tea shop! What more could you ask for?!

I had such a lovely time and without a doubt I'll be returning to shop there again when the Fair returns next Spring (I think they return in April, but I'll keep you posted).

Here's some snapshots of some of the items I bought - check out a sneak-peek at the 60s dress for my Twiggy outfit and the cute spotty 80s number, so fun. Oh and I couldn't resist -I threw in one of my new ruby red ballet pumps that the courier delivered today, yay!

The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair

I'm very excited - tomorrow afternoon London plays host to the largest vintage fair in the UK: The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair. You'll find 50 stalls of vintage joy offering vintage clothing, accessories and even homeware from the 1920s right through to the 1980s.

The Fair has been going strong for four years now and is so popular because it's an opportunity for anyone to come along and search out for some great quality vintage bits and bobs at really affordable prices - perfect when your wallet's feeling the pinch from the current recession!

Don't worry if you don't live in London though. The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair tours the UK and sets up its stalls in different towns and cities at different times of the month. The Fair will be visiting the following places in the next remaining months for 2009 - look out for a town near you:

October '09

25th - London

31st - Lincoln

November '09

1st - Cheshire

21st - Cambridge

22nd - York

28th - Durham

29th - Newcastle

December '09

5th - Liverpool

6th - Leeds

12th - Norwich

As for tomorrow's fair it starts at 12pm and goes on till 5pm and takes place at the Sustainable Studios, 65-71 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4PJ. Let the scouring for all vintage goodness commence!

For more information visit http://www.vintagefair.co.uk/

How to Master False Eyelashes

Well Halloween is only a week away and with that I've been planning my costume for Halloween partydom! I decided as I love her look so much and seeming as she turned sixty this year, I've picked Twiggy as my star of choice for playing dressup : )

Twiggy was famous for her massive false eyelashes so I'll be using these as part of my completed look next Saturday... But falsies can be very tricky to master - worry not! The very lovely Victor C from MAC has given us his top tips in a brand new video on how to apply, disguise and get the best out of your false eyelashes!

What you'll need:

• Eyelash curler (MAC's is great)
• Black mascara of your choice
• False eyelashes of your choice (false eyelashes are sold at many different places as well as MAC stores, you can find them at Superdrug or Boots, Sallys or other makeup counters. They also vary in price, it really depends on what you prefer. Ardell make great false eyelashes at purse-friendly prices!)
• False eyelash adhesive (should come with your pair of false eyelashes!)
• Black eyeliner gel (I can thoroughly recommend MAC's Blacktrack Fluidline for this)
• Small angle brush

And here's the link to Victor's video - he gives some great sneaky secrets on how to make your false eyelashes look seamless:

False Lashes with Victor

In the meantime I'll be working on my Twiggy look for next Saturday, I'll take some photos and I'll be making a tutorial for you guys to recreate your very own Twiggyness! Also I promise I haven't forgotten the Aviator look and the Eyebrows tutorial either - my silly camera is still being a massive nuisance which means they're going to take a little while to put together.

Funnily enough the boy found a fantastic camera yesterday - we're thinking it's time to ask Santa nicely for one hehehe...

NOTD - Ruby Red Slippers

I love Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and her amazing Ruby Red Slippers! Once I spotted a girl wearing an awesome pair of sparkly, ruby red ballet pumps. I really wished I'd asked her where she'd bought them from! Since that day I've been endlessly searching for those shoes.

I have a pair of red patent leather ballet pumps and I'm often asked if I click my heels together will they take me home, haha! But I often think back to those sparkly ones that I saw once upon a time and daydream - I find plenty of ruby red slippers with heels, but I preferred the ballet pumps and believe me, if you'd seen this pair you'd have preferred the non-heel variety too!

My search continued... UNTIL TODAY! My saviours of the Ruby Red Slipper Mission? ASOS (see piccie above for the prettiest pumps I think I've ever owned, hehehe). I think I'm going to have to write to them to say how much I love them for coming to my ruby red rescue!

As an ode to those pretty shoes, today's Nails of the Day are sparkly and red just like them. The nail polish I used here is an old brandless bottle that I wouldn't be able to tell you where to find it. But you'll be pleased to hear that Barry M offer an exact replica called Red Glitter for £2.95 a bottle - hoorah!

Lush - A Few Reviews

Seeming as their sister brand (B Never) is saying a fond farewell to us all at the end of the year, I thought I'd celebrate my favourites at Lush to take our minds off the very sad news! I love Lush and their products because they make such fun cosmetics for all ages - it's like being a kid again when you get to try all of the different types of textures, smells and sensations. And because their products are so different from your average cosmetics and toiletries on the market, it makes preening and cleaning yourself that bit more special and fun!

I've got a list as long as my arm here people, so if you're thinking of making a Christmas list for yourselves, then you better get scribbling...

Cupcake Fresh Face Mask

It smells like chocolate icecream, looks like chocolate icecream so it's got to taste like it, no? I don't know, I can't say I've tried but what I can say is that whilst I can't recommend you taste it I can recommend that you use this all over your face every week if you suffer from oily or acne-prone skin.

This face mask has been specifically designed with teenagers in mind. It's perfect to soothe breakouts and prevent new ones. The main ingredient that you may mistake for chocolate icecream is Rhassoul mud which is responsible for soothing angry red blemish-prone skin...

Whilst my skin isn't so teenage anymore, I do have skin that leans towards the oilier side and I also suffer from clogged pores. So I use this mask on my T Zone once or twice a week. It has peppermint oil in it so it's slightly cooling and when you take it off your skin's left feeling really smooth, soothed and soft. You'll also end up with a slight whiff of chocolate on your skin so don't be surprised if people start to drool after you!

Snow Fairy Shower Gel

It's pink, has sparkles in it and smells divine - what's not to love?! In fact I wish my blog came with Smell-o-Vision, I don't think describing the scent can do it justice. The first time I smelt this I got very excited, haha! My sister had received a bottle one Christmas and I decided I just had to have some too. Except by the time I trotted along to Lush I'd missed out and found out that this beautiful shower gel is only limited to the Christmas period.

Well I'm not going again another a year without it so I'm all stocked up now. I love that it leaves you feeling young again - it smells like all the naughty sweets you used to love as a kid and the smell lingers on your skin and in the bathroom long after you've showered. You can also use it in your hair if you like and you can buy it in three different sizes 100g, 250g and 500g. If you haven't smelt this yet then I'm sure when you do you'll be stocking up on the largest bottles to last you until the next Christmas... Snow Fairy is available to buy now!

Ocean Salt Facial Cleanser

It's like rubbing the contents of a cocktail bar... ON YOUR FACE! There's salt, lime and even vodka in this heavenly facial cleanser. It works as an exfoliator and is ideally best for those of you with oily skin. This is the best exfoliator I have ever used on my face and I mean EVER! Not only is it really fun - when you open the tub you'll see big, blue, beautiful chunks of sea salt and then if you delve in you'll notice the mousse-like cleanser all mixed in underneath! It's also really good at controlling oil, unclogging my pores and making my skin super soft! My skin hasn't been in this good condition for a long time, I love it and will definitely be stocking up on this in future...

Curly Wurly Shampoo

There's no chocolate or caramel in sight but if you open up the tub you'll find a very fun coconut mixture inside. I dare you to turn the tub upside down - with the lid off! No it doesn't move - at all. This is a solid shampoo and as you'll see if you scoop some out, it contains tonnes of dessicated coconut. All you need to do is wet your hair, grab a small amount of Curly Wurly and rub it in your hair and voila - as if by magic, it bubbles up and creates a wonderful lather leaving your hair feeling silky soft!

Designed for those of us with curly hair (hence the name!), it's great at curing the dried, dull texture that curly hair can suffer from time to time. If you have processed hair then this shampoo will work wonders for you too! If you want to follow up with a conditioner too then you can buy Coolaulin - a similar mix but with creamed coconut and lemon juice for added shine - this conditioner is however a liquid and comes in a bottle.

Paris Fashion Week S/S 2010 Favourites

Going through some of the shows from Paris Fashion Week I couldn't help but fall in love with two collections most of all, the first being Chanel's collection. This was a really fun and sweet range and the show itself revolved around a barn where Lily Allen sang with her band especially for the show (dressed in Chanel of course)!

The clothing and even the makeup were all really pretty, soft and feminine! And clogs made an appearance as the shoe of choice for the show - I'm not sure about clogs and I wouldn't choose to wear them myself, but they worked on the catwalk nevertheless...

I also really want to get my hands on the new Chanel nail varnish colour for Spring/Summer 2010 - grey. It was all over the catwalks and makes for a really different and classy nail polish colour. Plus you know it'll go with pretty much everything : )

And my other favourite was courtesy of John Galliano. Those dresses... Those hats... That makeup! And squee - how do they make those super awesome gas bubbles that were being showered all over the catwalk?! They were amazing - when the lights shone through them they looked otherwordly (see the video at Vogue.com).

I would have loved to have been there to see the show and better still - to have been backstage to see how everything was crafted together! John Galliano shows always look so much fun both on the catwalk and behind it.

As well as the bubbles being otherwordly, the makeup was fantastic and really magical, not necessarily one to be worn out on your average day, haha, but I found the colours and creations really inspiring nonetheless... Then I found out that Pat McGrath was responsible for providing it - I should have guessed, the lady's a genius!

Photoshoot Photos - A Taster!

Well I have some very good news this time round - the pictures from the Berlin photo shoot are baaaack! So I wanted to share a few of them with you all so you too can take a ganders! There are plenty more, but I'll be saving a few for my website which is under construction at the moment (by my lovely friends at Toggle)...

In the meantime I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed being a part of creating them. Thank you once again to Enemy Artists for being amazing hosts and hostesses and to Oded for letting me join him on this fantastic opportunity - here's to many more! x

All photos courtesy of Oded Shein copyright 2009.

Prescriptives To Go

I can't keep up with this - more bad news from the makeup and beauty industry! I read today that Estee Lauder are closing down their global Prescriptives brand. Estee Lauder's CEO and President Fabrizio Freda announced on the website that this has been due to the fact that the brand's "long term business model is no longer viable given the current market environment”.

You may remember my post on Prescriptives' Flawless Skin SPF 15 foundation... I love this foundation and I'm actually due to buy a new bottle since my first purchase in April (yes, that's a whole 6 months' use!) is just about to run out. The great thing about this product is it's not yellow-undertoned - my shade is in Vanilla which is a Red/Orange undertone - making it perfect for someone like me with fair skin, but skin that can tan a little in the summer!

Equally their Flawless Skin concealer which comes with an SPF of 25 is the creamiest, most pigmented concealer I've ever tried - it's my cure for sleepless nights and their tell-tale eyebags and it perfectly hides the odd blemish! This too is still lasting the mile in its pan six months in...

Once again if you want to stock up on any of your favourites, or you may even be curious about Prescriptives for yourself and wish to give them a go, now's the time to do so (of course I can't hold any responsibility for any addiction you may develop and then live to regret, haha!) You have until 31st of January 2010 when all Prescriptives counters will close. You'll still then have a chance to buy from their website until all stocks run dry!

If you have any questions or problems then Prescriptives have opened Freephone numbers to all UK residents: 0800 088 4168, Republic of Ireland: 1800 936 080 and 877-819-2968 for North America customers.

*Starts to tuck away a Winter squirrelling fund for all closing makeup brands* Please, for the love of my purse, no one else close down too!

http://www.prescriptives.com/

Bye Bye B Never...

Well I'm certainly not the first to be announcing this really sad news, but I wanted to let those of you who may still not know. Georgie of So Full of Twilight Dreams That Glitter broke the bad news just under a week ago. You may remember my post on the magic of B Never Too Busy To Be Beautiful - Lush's sister makeup and beauty brand? Well unfortunately after this Christmas B Never will be no more : (

The company have made the decision to pack up shop after all these years, they won't be going into liquidation, administration or anything nasty like that but instead Lush will be absorbing all the assets. I'm really going to miss this brand - I loved everything about them - their awesome products with amazing names and super gorgeous and fun packaging, philosophy, branding and the stores were like candy shops!

But in true B Never style this Christmas all the stores will be going out with a bang and celebrating their wonderful six years of trading with YOU their loyal fans - so gets yourselves down to your local store and if you're not very local to one then it should still be worth the trip to your nearest. Their UK stores are in Covent Garden, 332 Oxford Street (the one off Carnaby Street isn't there anymore so don't go over there by mistake!), 29 High Street, Poole, Dorset and 21 Commercial Street, Leeds. And if you're in Tokyo, Japan or Vienna, Austria then you too can find your way to your local store for a fun-packed Christmas/Goodbye Do!

In the meantime if there's anything you would like to stock up on before B says goodbye then get online or head to one of the stores because as their website says all their products now really are collectable!

I'll be stocking up on the glitters, concealer and bath products, yes please!

www.bnevertoobusytobebeautiful.co.uk/

A/W Hair Colour? As Red as the Autumn Leaves

Recently I've been toying with the idea of getting my hair coloured just for a little change! I haven't altered the colour of my hair for about 4 years now. I used to bleach my hair with a home bleaching kit and let's just say my poor hair suffered big time. Hair dressers nearly went white with horror as they saw that my hair was in such bad condition because the kit was practically cleaning bleach in a bottle!

Since then as you can imagine, I've developed a bit of a phobia of dying my hair, especially as now my hair's in the best condition it's been since I was little! But I had been toying with going brunette/blonder... As you can probably tell from my photo, I'm a strawberry blonde so I was very happy to see that this year's A/W hair colour trend is... RED!

Red hair is so beautiful, coming in all sorts of shades. It's fiery, passionate, romantic, heart-stopping and very symbolic of Autumn when the leaves turn all shades of golden and red! Some of the prettiest/most handsome people I've met/known have gorgeous red locks and there are some beautiful models and actresses that have emerged on the scene in recent years making red hair very popular - Lily Cole, Nicole Kidman, Isla Fischer and Debra Messing to name a few!

So if you are a natural flame-haired mademoiselle (or monsieur!) celebrate your lovely locks as many a fashionista will be rushing to the salon paying good money to imitate your colour this winter! Here are some of the amazing, inspiring photos that I've come across demonstrating that red hair can really be the best hair colour around ; )

Back from Beautiful Berlin!

Wow... I'm now back from Berlin and what can I say? It was amazing - especially East Berlin, that side of the city was definitely my favourite! We went to so many places that I couldn't possibly fit them all in here without turning this post into a traveller's guide, haha!

The architecture's breathtaking, you'll notice a stark difference between East and West! Without sounding cheesy I think it's a great example of how fantastic things can come out of the ashes of bad times - East Berlin has had such a tough time in the past and now I think it's the prettier side of the city : )

I think it was also quite an apt place to be considering the current times of the recession - it shows that positive things can come out of the bad! And we also happened to be there on Germany's biggest holiday of the year - Unity Day or Tag der Deutschen Einheit, celebrating the year (1990) that the East side of the city was reunited with the West.

One thing I noticed about the girls in Berlin is that there are some who rock the 1920s look so, so well - they look so cute, but I never had the chance to stop them in the street and ask them for a pose (I need to work on my broken German, haha). I've promised myself that in future I will get piccies!

The photo shoot was so much fun and Oded captured some amazing moments. It was held for Enemy Artists, a label that currently resides in Berlin, and one of their signed singers and her producer. The artists' name is yet to be revealed and the album's currently in production! Of course as soon as more is revealed on their progress I'll let you all know : ) The entire team were all so lovely and made me feel very welcome, it was so lovely to be shown around Berlin and thank you so much for allowing me to join you out there for an amazing weekend!

I'll have shots to show you all very soon, just hold on tight and I'll post them as soon as they're available! And as for Berlin, I have to go back again very soon, I didn't see nearly as much as I'd have liked (so much to see, so little time!) - it must be done!

(In the meantime this is just a little piccie of me fashioning a lovely German shopping guide, hehe!)

Photoshoot of Dreams!

Last week I got a very special call from a very special friend. His words were "Are you ready to be happy?" - of course I didn't say no, haha! I thought he'd managed to secure me a ticket to a gig he was off to see (we both have a secret penchant for the Veronicas haha!). I'd never have been able to guess what he told me instead: "Do you want to come to Berlin with me next Friday?"

That week we'd been talking about a photography shoot that he'd landed for an up and coming female music artist. I'd mentioned that in future when he next gets a shoot in again if they ever need a makeup artist he knows who who to call, hehe! ; ) Well it just so happens that this shoot in question did need me and to top it all off it's taking place in Berlin.

I'm so thrilled, I was shaking for about an hour after the call and ever since feel like I have to keep pinching myself to check that it's real. The shoot opportunity in itself is amazing, the fact that I get to travel and see Berlin is an awesome bonus! I'm fairly untravelled in the 'Abroad' department - I've only ever been to Normandy, France once in my life so the chance to see a bit more of the world is so exciting, especially as it's one of my aims in life, hehe!

The photographer I'm talking about is Oded Shein - a super talented guy, his work is amazing and he's such a lovely person who'll always make you laugh! He's photographed the likes of The Veronicas, Florence and the Machine and James Dean Bradfield (from the Manic Street Preachers - one of my all-time favourite British bands) and he's just one of those people who you know who will go far!

I'm honoured to be working with him and can't wait to tell you more when I can, I'm setting off tomorrow (I love airports, always have done) and will blog about my adventures (hopefully with some photos of the experience) when I return...

To take a look at Oded's work check him out at http://www.odedsheinphotography.com/