A Beauty Blogger's Shipwrecked Survival Kit

Ahoooy there shipmates!

So picture the scene. You are set to be castaway on some idyllic paradise (as pictured above) for the unforeseeable future. Sounds pretty heavenly to me! The only downside is: you are only allowed to take 5 beauty/make up products with you. Eeeek!

So what would be your travel essentials? What would have to be a 'must' in your beauty survival kit?

I often think about this condumdrum and it took me a while to come up with my 5 essentials, but I did it and it has made me re-evaluate my makeup/beauty needs! Not saying it will stop me purchasing excessively and unnecessarily, (let's not be silly now) but it did make me feel rather saintly for a while!

Oh and FYI, the local tribe of the island will be providing us with suntan lotion, so no need to list that!! :)

So here goes...

No.1: Vaseline

Maybs quite an obvious one, but even those days when I'm not stranded on a desert island, this is such an essential in my bag. With sun exposure comes chapped dy lips, and no beach babe wants that going down when there's cute marooned pirates running ragged on the beach!

No. 2: Tweezers

I have a real thing about unruly eyebrows! I am quite obsessed about maintaining pretty brows and I just know that if I didn't have these babies in my survival kit, I would literally be burying my head in the sand! (I just hope the tribe have a miror to hand that I can borrow...!)

No. 3: Coconut Oil

Whenever I use this product, the smell alone transports me to another paradise far far away from Essex! And it really does do wonders for my hair.  Sea water and the sun makes my hair one angry frizz ball! This stuff however really deeply conditions my hair and puts back in all the moisture and shine! I would be hoping that The Body Shop could commision an industrial size pot though for my trip!

No. 4: L'Oreal Telescopic Mascara

I think mascara would be the most essential item to take with me out of my make up bag. I love this Telescopic Mascara, and would be confident to go au naturel on the beach, providing I had this to hand. Mascara just does wonders to open up the eyes and makes you look more awake, bright eyed and bushy tailed!

No. 5: Nail Varnish

I figure I will have pleny of time on my hands, in between sunbathing...swimming...spearing some fish, so I would definitely take a nail varnish with me to pass the time and keep my nails looking luscious! I would chose a pale pinky nude colour like Barry M's Hint of Pink, thus enhancing my tan to the maximum!! :)

And that's it ladies. I'm not going to tag people only because I am aware of a lot of tags going around at the moment. But please, if you fancy doing this then jump onboard (get it!) and give it a go yourself! You will find it quite enlightening.

Thanks as ever for reading, following and be darlings to me.

xXx

My Very First FOTD!

Hello again tinkers!

Feeling a little blog happy tonight, I thought I'd give my first FOTD a go! These are probably one of my favourite aspects of beauty blogs and love seeing and reading what other girlies slap on their face!

So here's me!

♥

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♥ Face ♥

* MAC Strobe Cream as my primer/base

* MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC30 (applied with my MAC 190)

* Benefit Boing Concealer in No.2

* MAC MSF Natural in Medium + (applied all over with my MAC 134)

* Benefit Hoola Bronzer to contour (applied with my MAC 168)

♥ Eyes ♥

* MAC Rubenesque Paint Point

* No.7 Liquid eyeliner for my flicks

* Urban Decay's 24/7 eye pencil in Zero

* Loreal Telescopic Mascara

♥ Brows ♥

* MAC Eye Brow Pencil in Spiked

♥ Cheeks ♥

* MAC Style blush (applied with my MAC 116)

* MAC MSF in Porcelain Pink as highlight (applied with the MAC 16 again)

♥ Lips ♥

* MAC Fleshpot!! :) ♥

* The Body Shop Oui Oui Oui Yes Yes Yes Lip Butter

And that's it! Ha! Schimples! :)

I hope you likey. I know the photo isn't great! I am still learning how to pose without looking like a muppet! So please be nice :)

Thanks, as always, for reading my darlings.

♥

xxx

A 'Fantastic' Chanel NOTD

Good evening bubbas!

I am going to do a quick update on my favourite, go to nail varnish of the moment. It is Chanel's Le Vernis Nail Colour in Fantastic (no.481) and it is truly gorgeous!

Now I love my nail varnishes, and am a huge fan of drugstore brands such as Barry M, GOSH, & Rimmel. I always thought they were fine, served the purpose and offered a perfect array of colours. I would never have considered shelling out over £10 for a nail varnish, however amazing it claimed to be.

Well, I didn't shell out, I got given this for a lovely Christmas pressie, but it has definitely made me reconsider my approach to nail varnish purchases. 

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The things I heart about this nail varnish:

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The colour pay off is beautiful. It is rich and luxurious and goes on like a dream.

In the above picture, I only have one application on, which I deem plenty. I would add another coat for a more intense finish, but the quality after one coat is just perfect.

The staying power is pretty impressive. The one downside to choosing the lower end nail varnishes, is the chipping I encounter after 1 or 2 days.

I have wore this nail varnish for up to 4 days without it budging, or even hinting of chipping.

And if they weren't enough reasons to love this nail varnish, the final reason why I heart this...

it's the closest I will get to owning my very own Chanel :)

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After my new awaken love of Le Vernis Nail Colour, I am now lusting after the much talked about Vendetta! I shall add this to my ever growing *Beauty Wishlist*!

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Thanks for reading girlies. Let me know your thoughts on high street vs. high end nail varnishes.

xxx mwah xxx

My Hair Story!

Evening popsicles
I have been reading a few of these hair blogs, charting the history of your hair and, in particular, I loved reading Steph's hair blog http://www.topshopprincess0188.blogspot.com/ So I have decided to do a similar post for you lovely people to indulge in.

My hair and I have a very much love/hate relationship. Believe it or not my hair is ridiculously curly! The moment it comes in contact with water, it turns into tight curls that makes me a resemble a drown poodle. Now I love poodles, but dont particularly want to look like one! It's definitely true when people say, you always want what you havent got. I have dreamt, since being a little girl, of having gorgeous long hair like my Princess Barbie. 

Alas, sadly, my mummy held my hand and told me this would never be the case so I have slowly learnt to love my hair. Funnily enough, I have NO photographic evidence of my hair in it's 'rawest' state, as I really feel very unattractive with it all curly and poodle-like! A lot of people say it looks lovely and are envious of it which is really sweet, but personally I can not stand it. I only leave it natural when on holiday or slobbing at home.

Before God created GHDs, I use to 'gel' the curly mess (mmmm, sexy!) and scrap it back into a curly bun! Because the moment I added heat to the hair, it would just frizz!! Disaster. Many years, and several tubs of gel later, GHDs came along and I felt all my prays had been answered.

My hair is naturally a darkish brown colour. Pretty mundane and unexciting. My first dabble with experimental hair was having braids weaved in when I was about 15. Once again, I have no photos of this momentary lapse, except being reminded periodically when I use my driving license. But when you're 15 and going through the 'greebo' stage at school, they were truly the coolest statement ever! Now we skip forward a few years and I am dabbling with colour now! I can safely say my hair has been every colour possible at some point in my 23 years. Blonde highlights was my first experiment and I was blonde for quite a while.  Here are some pics, before and after I had it chopped! The first pics were probably the closest I got to being Barbie! (lol)

And then it was time for the chop! Having had long hair FOREVER, it was time to lose the Barbie locks and get something a bit darker and 'edgier'! So voila, I emerged from the hairdressers like this...

Then we went bit darker and fringy!

 The fringe didnt last long and I am now desperately growing it out. I just dont think the fringe is for me on a practical level. I am always at the gym or playing hockey, so it was constantly being pinned back. When it wasnt clipped back, it just use to annoy me as it tickled me! Random I know but I could never get use to it, so I am on operation Fringe Grow! It is getting there as the following photos will show.

So, we are now in 2010 and the hair is still dark (Schwarzkopf XXL live colour Bittersweet Chocolate to be precise!) but I want the length back me thinks. Which cleverly leads me onto my most recent beauty purchase. HAIR EXTENSIONS! Woop. I have always marvelled at the idea of extensions, but never thought I'd give them a go. But I was having a little recking on the net last week and thought, "hell, why not" and purchased some. I got my ones from Jenny's Hair Extensions which is an eBay business. I was most concerned about the colour match and avoiding the Jordan-esque look. The hair was 20" long (prob a little bit too long if I'm honest so I am planning on cutting them), and it came with 8 wefts. This is plenty as I can only fit 6-7 wefts in my hair at one time. It is real human hair so therefore can be coloured, cut, washed straightened/curled! If I'm honest, the hair isnt as thick as i'd like so i dont get the fullness i'm after, but for my first experiment with hair extensions, I feel rather chuffed. Let me know what you think. This was Saturday night before I went out and my bf had just come over and was baffled how my hair had just grown 1ft and a half! Bless!!

FYI - I am wearing my Pixie Lott dress from River Island here and have Mac's Snow Orchid or my lips! :)

So there we go! This is my little Hair History over the past couple of years!!

Let me know your thoughts darlings. Are we thinking blondes have more fun? Or shall I stay dark??

Tell me what abuse you have put your hair through over the years.

Thanks as always for reading and remember, if you likey what you see, please make my day and follow me! :)

Big Snogs

xxx

nude

Hello chickens

I plan in the future to do a whole lipstick collection/review as I do believe lipstick is my favourite type of makeup to purchase and it does give me the most joy! But for the time being, I just want to enlighten you all on my most recent purchase.

MAC Fleshpot (please bow your heads in respect! This beauty is a godsend. I have had it on my wishlist for several months now and have actually been outbidden twice on eBay to get an original Fleshpot in the Heatherette package.

So yesterday, the boife was planning on going to London so I seized the moment and wrote him a very special list, along with a map to MacPro and asked him very kindly to pick me up the following...

Fleshpot...obviously.
MAC strobe cream was a spur of the moment addition to the list as recently I feel my face has been rather too matte (probably down to my occasional heavy handedness with the MSF natural!) Ho hum...
So i thought maybs I'd give the Strobe Cream a go to add a bit of dewiness to my face and then ease off with the MSFN. Not quite sure yet whether to put it on my face UNDER my Studio Fix Fluid or to mix it with the foundation?? Your thoughts would be gratefully received.

Anyways, the Mission:Fleshpot was accomplished and I have to say I am in love.
As a massive nude lippie fan, I thought I had found my perfect match with Myth and Creme D'Nude (and sometimes Barry M 101) but Fleshpot takes top prize for loveliness!

Here how they line up (from l~r)
Barry M 101 (Marshmallow) ~ I very white-ish nude which can be quite drying. Best used with a lip balm like BodyShop's Oui Oui Oui over AND under usually.
MAC Fleshpot
MAC Creme d'Nude - Looking rather sorry for itself there in the line up. It suffered some sun explosure and has never been the same since!
MAC Myth

Now, I am giggling to myself as I am looking at a photo of 4 potentially IDENTICAL lipsticks and I am thinking, "Oh Dear Milly...!" But I am sure you nudey fans will agree that they all offer something different in the nude stakes. Oh and I just remembered I have neglected GOSH Darling which is another easy wearable nude.
I personally like wearing lipsticks on their own without any gloss on top, but if you wanted to make these lippies a bit glossier on the lips, I'd recommend using maybs Florabundance or Underage from MAC?? Apart from Creme d'Nude as the cremesheen formula almost fakes a lipstick and gloss in one. Perfect.
And then, like the darling he is, Rob treated me to PeachyKeen blush which I have also been habouring after for a while. I felt my palette was really missing a true peach colour, but I was unsure which one to go for so I went for PeachyKeen and I am not disappointed. Tis a very pretty baby peach colour with subtle gold reflexes. A perfect marriage with Fleshpot on the lips! :)
So now my first blush palette is complete. Yippee
Top Row (l~r) Well Dressed, Dame, Coygirl
Bottom Row (l~r) Style, Pink Swoon, PeachyKeen

So that was my little splurge! I feel rather satiated now...for the time being! Ha!
Thanks for reading girlies. Leave me your thoughts and if you enjoy my blog - remember to follow me! :)
xxxx

My Love for Lace

Morning Cherubs!

So on Friday night, myself and my work buddies went out for our belated Xmas Partay!! It was due in December but due to snow, we had to cancel it as everyone was stranded in their houses!

Felt a little bit random celebrating Chrimbo mid January but we had a gorg time and this is what I wore!

Pretty lace dress: This is from Topshop £45 and is my favoritist purchase recently. On the hanger I was a bit dubious, not only because it didnt seem very fitted but also the fact that I may resemble a bride!!

Alas, I tried it on and it was beautiful. I felt very angelic! The cammy underneath is attached to the dress but I have dethreaded it away from the dress so I can wear it under other sheer dresses. Needless to say I was staying well clear of the red vino that night!!

Now, I obviously didnt want to look like I was en route to my wedding so I decided to team it with my beautiful biker boots (again from Topshop...sure you can see a pattern emerging here!)and a black studded belt.

Then I wore my 'leather' jacket and pearls! :)

I adorned my hair with daisies and voila, outfit...DONE! :)

Thanks for reading girlies! Let me know you fav clothes purchases recently?

xxx