The Glitter and Gore – A Make-up Artist’s Heaven!

Very recently I stumbled upon an amazing website called The Glitter and The Gore. Quite simply it’s a make-up image archive, but that description really doesn’t do it justice. The site is described by the curators, as you’ll see, as a place featuring ‘high art make-up’ ranging from ‘glitter to gore’. For those of you who like your Special Effects make-up though, you may be a little disappointed as I’ve yet to see an image with ‘gore’ in it, such as wounds and zombie make-up for instance. It might be a bit misleading; however I’m not sure if the ‘gore’ is to be taken quite so literally!

The site is run by Gina Marr and those behind the blog ‘Creepyisascreepydoes’. Launched in April last year Gina et al scour the internet from top to bottom and corner to corner, managing to uncover the most amazing make-up artistry images – all incredible, all beautiful and many avante-garde and outlandish, they share these with all who love their make-up!

There is often at least one image added each day so on average your eyes get to feast on 30 new inspiring shots per month, if not far more. Further still if you click on each image for more information and for an expanded view, the images are always credited where possible or at the very least the source is given making sure that all those who work hard creating these stunning pieces of art are recognised!

The site’s a perfect encyclopaedia for all who love make-up, make-up artists, photographers, artists and beauty lovers alike! If you’re anything like me you could easily find yourself on here for hours just gawping at each image one by one and I certainly go on there now for my daily fix, excited about what new inspiration awaits round the corner.

Go see for yourself, what are you waiting for? theglitterandgore.tumblr.com

You can find Gina Marr on Twitter

Creepyisascreepydoes is another amazing source of great imagery, art and photography but with mostly a creepy twist (hence the title)! As a side note to warn you, this one’s not for the faint-hearted – I got a bit of surprise spook from one of the images on there today for example, but then I’m not great at coping with all horror imagery as my imagination gets a little carried away, ha!

creepyisascreepydoes.tumblr.com

All images are from The Glitter and The Gore

Fashion Toast for Breakfast, Anyone?

In the same way that some of us like to kick off their day with a slice of toast for brekkie, I like to start mine with a dose of some of my favourite blogs and websites. Many people have a list of sites that they visit ritually each day and one of mine is fashiontoast.com.

Launched in 2007, I found fashiontoast.com in a write-up a couple of years later in an edition of ASOS magazine, visited it and have been hooked ever since. Written and compiled by Rumi Neely with photography taken by her other half and herself, this website is a fashion addict’s nirvana and I love, love, love visiting it!

Rumi herself is a fashion assistant and model and gets to travel around the world doing what she loves and loving what she does. Very jealous! With her embarking on frequent trips to Tokyo, holding random photo shoots in desolate and beautiful places and visits to parties and fashion shows there’s much fashion eye candy to look at and beautiful shots to boot.

Rumi herself has great taste, of course. She has an enviable collection of silver rings and bangles and provides me with a bit of wardrobe inspiration when I’m feeling in need of a booster. She also manages to pose for photos in the middle of streets and public footpaths as natural as standing waiting for a bus – something I haven’t managed to master myself yet...

Take a look for yourselves at www.fashiontoast.com.

As a side note there’s a fair few blogs out there that I’m always discovering and I think are well worth shouting about and sharing with you. So in future I plan to post more about the great people who share, contribute and make the web that bit more fun!

Image of Rumi Neely from fashiontoast.com

New Year, New Start!

Happy New Year and long-time-no-bloggidy! Yup, it’s been a while and this absence has been the longest for which I’m truly sorry. 2010 was a very busy year with me embarking on new shoots left, right and centre, including music videos – one of which is being released very shortly – and much, much more. December was an excellent way to end the year as I had the wonderful opportunity to work at the Clothes Show Live at Birmingham’s NEC for Rimmel and do make-up on many a wonderful face : )

In retrospect I should have prepared you a little for a potential absence here and there! I truly LOVE blogging about all things beauty-related, fashion-oriented and anything sparkly(!) but my main crust is make-up artistry which can mean during the busy spells and with being on the road my blog gets put to one side a little. However I am sticking to my promise to keep adding new features and doing my best to keep All That Glitters a fun and info-filled spot for you guys to get all of your cosmetic and fashion fixes. So in future, if I go quiet, you know what I’m up to and I will return ; )

Without further adieu I intend to crack on and begin blogging about all of the wonderful products and make-up loves that I’ve been itching to share with you all : ) But if you’re curious to see what I’ve been getting up to all this time then take a peek at my portfolio website! Here you can indulge in many a photo shoot and feast your eyes and ears on the wonderful debut music video by the very lovely Georgia Mason, a gorgeous singer and songwriter who has just been signed - congrats hun!

www.amanda-makeup.com

May 2011 be amazing for everyone!

Amanda xxx

Image from Lanpher Photoblog

Blog Awardness!

Yay! I love blog awards - it always helps to know that my blog is helping and inspiring you guys out there : )

Imogen, author of Write About What? and Novel Ideas kindly awarded me two lovely blog awards a couple of weeks ago. The first being the Humane Award, awarded for being a blogger that makes others happy by leaving nice comments and helping them - aww, well I do try, hehe. It's my pleasure to help you all, so please just drop me a line!

And the second is the Sunshine Award. Thank you Imogen, it's lovely of you to share those with me.

I'd like to award the Humane Award and the Sunshine Award to both Georgie at So Full of Twilight Dreams that Glitter and Amanda at A Fairycake Tale. Georgie writes amazing beauty blog posts with fab product reviews and is incredibly helpful if you ever have any queries. If you ever have a culinary query I urge you to ask Amanda at A Fairycake Tale - she's quite the chef and an expert in the kitchen!

x

Happy Birthday to Me & Exciting News...

... Well Happy Birthday to All That Glitters that is! Yes my blog is one year old today - hoorah!

It's such great timing too - what a way to celebrate it with a blog award but also more importantly a huge, big thank you to all of my followers and to those of you who leave comments and enjoy my scribblings!

Whilst I'm here celebrating the birthday joy I'm going to let you in on a surprise too: I've been thinking, planning and daydreaming away for a few weeks now about new ideas and directions in which to take my blog. As a result All That Glitters will be going through a dramatic overhaul very shortly - the full fruits of my labour should be all ready to see early next year during January/February time : )

Don't worry I'll still continue with all of the original content like makeup reviews and so on so you guys won't be losing out on that, but there will be further features added to those that currently run.

For now that is all I'm going to say because I don't want to give away too much (trust me, I'm fit to bursting to tell you all, but surprises are fun.) Needless to say I'm very excited and can't wait to share with you the new sparkly format that All That Glitters is going to take on!

Now over to you - is there anything you would like to see more of in my blog? More fashion? More makeup reviews? Let me know in the comments below.

*Blows out her Birthday Blog candles*

Tag - Blog Award!

I'm very honoured and flattered to report that I have just been awarded an 'I Love Your Blog' award by the very awesome Georgie at So Full of Twilight Dreams that Glitter! Thank you Georgie, I'm really pleased to gain wonderful feedback like this, it means so much to me and I'm so excited to see that people are enjoying my blogging adventures - it comes at a very awesome time as my blog is very nearly 1 year old : )

And here it is:

To accept this award: Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.

Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

So now that I've been tagged I'm to nominate, in no particular order, 15 other brilliant fashion and beauty bloggers whose blogs I love and follow:

1. Boho Market

2. Vintage Lollipops

3. Zebra & Meerkat

4. Gala Darling

5. Nubby Twiglet

6. Kandee the Makeup Artist

7. Pixiwoo

8. La Petite Fashionista

9. Future Hippie

10. Misschievous

11. A Brilliant Brunette

12. The Nie Nie Dialogues - Stephanie Nielson isn't a beauty/fashion blogger but she is an incredible woman with a beautiful zest for life and a heart-melting blog! Before and even after her accident she has always been and still is such a positive person who has endured so many challenges, but still sees the beauty in life and feels grateful. She truly is one of the most inspiring people I've ever came across!

13. Petrilude

14. Fashion Toast

15. La Vie en Rosie!

Thank you again Georgie! And do check out Georgie's blog - she is the beauty and cosmetic knowledge queen: So Full of Twilight Dreams that Glitter

Because Beauty's Skin-Deep :-)

Hello fellow makeup-addicts!

I can't believe I've been away this long! A slight lack of funds and time in the past few weeks has meant I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like. However I recently became the proud owner of the eagerly awaited MAC Hello Kitty bits and bobs, some Helen E makeup, Miss K Co makeup and this weekend I went to the Vitality Show in London so I have lots to update you with :-)

I also want to make it my aim to post on a daily basis, if and when possible, so I won't be taking such a long vacation away from my blogging from now on!

Today's post is one I've been meaning to write for a while now. Make-up's fantastic (obviously pfft!) and can transform any look, spice up an outfit or simply hide the mistakes of the night before! But as any makeup artist worth his/her salt will tell you: looking after your skin is essential for providing a great canvas to start with! This means getting plenty of sleep and water, eating the right foods, exercise and of course using great skincare that's right for you and your skin's needs.

My friend Gemma is a natural skincare and beauty fanatic and she has created a fantastic website called Anderra, a great resource for any of you who share her passion or just want to know more. We've all heard about 'natural' and 'organic' products, but before I saw Anderra I wouldn't have been able to tell you the difference between the two! And as more and more of us become aware of what potential damage some synthetic ingredients can cause (like parabens) it's useful to know what alternatives there are and what they can do.

The website is packed full of product reviews on soaps, shampoos, right through to toothpastes and multi-purpose products. Plus if you feel like having a go yourself, hunting around for your own organic or natural faves and would like to review them drop her a line - Anderra's open to anyone who wants to add a review themselves. I'll be sending mine very soon :-)

In addition it's got loads of information on understanding all the jargon on skincare labels, plus a great glossary of A-Z of all the ingredients - natural and synthetic - that you'll see in everyday skincare products, what they're used for and how safe/dangerous they are for the body.

My ultimate favourite section has to be the blog where you'll even find recipes for making your very own bath bombs and much more so you can have a go at home - something I really want to try out myself at some point! Why not have a bash at making the Cocoa Butter Bath Melts?! They look good enough to eat... But I wouldn't advise it :-P

Finally, if you're not sure where to start looking or what brands are out there, Anderra offers a Brands section where you can find a rundown on many of the organic and natural skincare ranges on the market, a little bit of history on how they each came about and where to find them. Because of Anderra I've even found the smaller specialists that are just starting out and whose products are simply gorgeous and are very good value - it's well worth a look!

To find out more you can find Anderra here

Enjoy! x