Blog-A-Day April #17 Barry Nails It Again

Really excited for this new Barry M product...

 

These really fab new Nail Art Pen pretty much summarise why we love Barry. It's new, it's current, it's useful, it's something we wanted before we knew that we wanted it.

The pens are literally just as they describe - pen like applicators that are easy to use, and look something like this.

Scanning the internet, I found a whole load of pictures to show exactly what can be done with these pens, and I'll post a few of my favourites here...

At £4.99 each, these might seem like a bit of an expenditure, but the wonderful thing is that they can be reused over and over and never look the same. Team them up together, with a nail colour you have at home. Spend hours finding a look that you love, or spend minutes stenciling in some cute hearts for a classic but simple look. Barry M proves once again why he's the man for us.

Blog-A-Day April #16 Garnier Perfect Blur

Hi Muffins.

K, let's talk about this...

If you live in the UK and haven't heard about Nanoblur Optical Skin Cream then the chances are you live under a rock because it is huuuge.

It's also £19.99 for 30ml, which isn't very budget-friendly.

Luckily, for the thrifty amongst us, Garnier have brought out their own version called Perfect Blur, It's really big in work right now and no wonder - it claims to be effective in just five seconds. FIVE. SECONDS.

We're a nation full of women who spend our lives trying to hide our skin. We cover it, we scrub at it, we pretty much do anything we can to change it to our own will. Perfect blur is an optical skin cream - so it doesn't actually change your skin at all, it just appears to. You use about a pea size amount and rub across your skin, and it allows you to go barefaced whilst disguising any discrepancies on your face - blemishes, wrinkles, acne scars etc.

It's also a much more affordable alternative to the Nano, at a cost-friendly £12.99.

If you want to try it for yourselves then the contract is exclusive to Boots until June 31st so that's where you'll be seeing it.

Blog-A-Day April #15 CC Cream

I am really really really excited about this...

Blog-A-Day April #14 Bad Make-Up Habits

You can Google "Bad make up habits" and be given an endless list of things you should and shouldn't do. These are just five things that people do with their make up that really peeves me off, and they would just look so much better if they didn't do.

Heavy make-up on both the eyes and the lips. Seriously it just makes you look scary. My golden rule is one or the other - if you're having glamorous eyes then tone down your lip make up and vice versa.


Not knowing your foundation tone. I see this alot lately, girls who have really brown faces, pale bodies and then a bold foundation line on their jawlines. The comparison to your face and your neck is making you look ridiculous. Nobody wants people to notice their make up, you want your make up to draw attention to the skin you already have, so just take a bit of extra time choosing your colour, use testers on your wrist and your neck. You'll thank yourself in the long run.


Using foundation to cover acne. Acne is one of those things. We all get it and it sucks big time. But one of the biggest mistakes people make is caking their make up on over their spots. All you're doing is making your skin worse and drawing more attention to your breakout. You'd be so much better off just using a BB Cream - one with decent coverage. Make sure you're exfoliating your skin on a regular basis, and then add your BB Cream. If there's still a bit of red coming through then dab gently at it with a tiny bit of concealer and blend in circular motion using a light sponge tip (try not to use your fingers, often this can just spread bad bacteria into the skin). It looks so much more natural than just caking on the powder, then the foundation, then the concealer and god knows what else and clogging your pores up more.


Having the wrong colour lipstick. I think I will have to explain this one a bit, because it sounds a bit vague. Because of the change in light, aspects of your make up should change in the evening. For example, I always wear softer colours during the day because the combination of harsh light combined with my skintone makes really bold colours look ridiculous. They wash me out, they leave no room for subtelty. Everyone is different, and you will make mistakes with this. For example I've convinced myself before now that a Crimson Red is a good look for work - the problem is that I have full lips, and it doesn't do me any favours. So these days I wear a warmer, softer red if I want to wear red in the day, or a coral red, or if I'm going somewhere like a festival then maybe a nice orange red. Now I can wear dark reds at night/in the evenings just fine. Each person is different and it's just a case of finding what works, but there's nothing glam about walking around thinking you look fantastic and really you look like a clown.


Foundation Lips. Similarly, worse than having a ridiculous day colour is people who do the foundation lips. Now don't get me wrong, I love a nude lip. I have about seven different nude lipsticks and with a tiny little bit of lipgloss it's a look that can look fantastic. However, girls who just go over their lips with foundation do drive me mad. Your lips are supposed to be a different colour to your face otherwise you're going to look like a corpse. Also your foundation is designed to cover your facial skin, but lips are very obviously darker. So 9 times out of 10 your lips are going to end up patchy and the real colour underneath is going to come through. It's just a much nicer look to get a nude lipstick and go a tiny bit darker than your foundation - and be honest, it feels better too.


Those are just a few pet peeves of mine. You may not agree - you may even have some of your own that you'd like to share in the comments :) Au revoir! x

Blog-A-Day April #13 The Cop Out

I've actually got nothing to discuss with you guys today. Except to let you know that now my holiday is booked for less than 2 months time, my diet begins NOW.

I can't be bothered talking about make up today. Here's a picture of me instead, lying in the bed I assembled myself next to the wallpaper I put up myself.

And I'll leave you with some wise words ....

"Everyone thinks finding true love is every girls dream. My dream is to eat without getting fat"

Blog-A-Day April #12 Holiday Make Up

That's my holiday booked for this year! Me and t'other half are on our way to Sunny Kavos for sun, sea and clubbing in June.

You know that means? I only have a month and a half to save up for my holiday make up.

It's trial and error with holiday make up for me, I nearly always get it wrong, and because holidays are far and few beween, and this will be my first one with the other half, I've decided that this year I'm going to do it right.

Of course people are full of different suggestions but so far this is probably what I'll go for...

A really good tinted moisturiser - possibly No7. My skin is dry anyway but in the added grecian heat moisturisation is everything. I'm open to any recommendations.

Concealer - a shade darker than my usual. From a budget point of view this is a really good idea, concealer sticks aren't costly and my skin will most likely change colour in the sun anyway, so this'll just work in the evenings when we're going out and I want to cover a few little blemishes.

I usually buy my mascara's and eyeliners in waterproof anyway, because I get really watery eyes when I'm tired, so I'll just take my eyemake up as normal.

I'll take my Rimmel Sunkissed Bronzer for a little bit of added glamour.

For my lips I'll just take a suncare lipbalm with SPF for during the day, and then a laquer gloss wand for at night when we go to the nightclubs.

I'll probably choose a standard nail varnish of which I know I like - like a summery coral or a warm red, and take the bottle to keep applying. I probably won't be bothering too much with changing my nail varnish during the week, as there'll be lots of other things to do.

Thankfully I have naturally curly hair that looks nicer when it dries in the sun when I'm blowdrying it. This is great on holiday because I don't have to take straighteners or a hairdryer. I am going to take plenty of leave in conditioner and a good 200ml bottle of conditioner, because I don't want my hair to dry out.

I'll be keeping you updated if I find any really good buys but if anyone has any great holiday must haves then I'd love to hear about them :)

Blog-A-Day April #11 Mascara Dilemma

Just a short one today guys! Because it's a Friday and really, who has time to sit and talk make up when I could be putting it on, finding a nice dress and going to party party?

I was in work today and I got talking to a woman about Mascara for ages (like you do), apparently when she was on holiday (didn't say where) she had a woman put a lengthening mascara on her, and it had like a powder in the formula which built up the length of her lashes.

She said it was the most amazing mascara she's ever tried, but she didn't have enough money to buy it on her at the time. She thought it was called "Blackberry Mascara" but if you can see the problem I'm having searching it on Google ...

I'm going to guess she either got the name really wrong or it just flat out doesn't exist.

If anyone can think of a mascara that has a powder included, perhaps under a different or similar name then please do let me know :)

Happy Friday everybody!