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/

Lancome's Special Edition Brush Set...

You may have noticed in my List of Loves on the side of my blog I have a piccie of a brush set. Well this is the very special Limited Edition brush set from Lancome's Declaring Indigo release that is available at all Sephora stores in the US exclusively...

I'm waiting and researching to see if Lancome will be generous enough to sell these over at the UK counters but I can't find a smidge of info on it! Sure I have all these types of brushes already but that's not the point!! The indigo blue dyed brush hairs are to die for and it's such a pretty set I can't stop thinking about it *blush*... Plus they come with a bag and when you're amassing makeup at the rate of knots this is always handy.

I'll keep an eye out every day for these beauties to see if they're coming out over here and if it's going to happen you'll find out here! I REALLY hope to see them in the UK, it would be rude not to let us have them, now wouldn't it, Lancome?! : P

NOTD - GOSH Nail Lacquer in Wild Lilac

My first Nail of the Day (NOTD) - how exciting!

This nail varnish caught my eye in Superdrug over a month ago - on each visit I kept trying to ignore it when I saw it lurking at me. Needless to say I couldn't push it out of my mind - it's such a gorgeous colour, a very candy-colour purple! It's a lot like MAC's Love & Friendship Limited Edition Nail Lacquer that came out in A Rose Romance collection this summer (see my old blog post!) but it sold out like hotcakes and alas I failed to get my little pinkies on *sniff*

But fear not my polish-loving-pretties - GOSH came to the rescue and at only £4.89 a bottle I think my saviour is an absolute bargain - take a look for yourselves...

Twiggy: A Life in Photographs Exhibition

I loved this exhibition - well and truly, it was also so fun to see some of the magazine covers that Twiggy has featured on and to see how they used to look back in the day!

The exhibition is fantastic because you learn as much about the photgraphers who captured those magical moments as much as Twiggy herself and in Twiggy's own words.

I even discovered that Bryan Adams the photographer is the very same Bryan Adams the musician! But my favourite photo of all on display, maybe because it captures Twiggy at her most natural and smily, is one taken by the late Linda McCartney it's a beautiful shot and Twiggy looks really full of warmth and happiness!

But there's really all sorts of amazing shots of her - one that particularly stood out was the one taken with David Bowie. You shouldn't miss this if you're in the area, especially as it's free, there's no excuse!

Speaking of Bowie, another exhibition 'Beatles to Bowie - the 60s Exposed' showcasing some of Britain's legendary musicians from the swinging 60s will be on display from 15th October to 24th January 2010. It's a must-see for music and pop-culture lovers alike and it'll be bringing me back to the National Portrait Gallery once again very soon : )