A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

…Somerset holiday. *childish*

I nearly forgot I booked this el-cheapo Travelodge jaunt back when they were doing rooms for £9 a night.  I was pregnant at the time, and obviously delusional thinking it would be fine with a 3mnth old in tow.  Travelodge’s have no fridges… so I’ve spent a small fortune on those little pre-made formula cartons.

I only have a small car.  A small, 3-door car.  This barely computes – the amount of crap I have to pack today beggars belief. 

Anyway, enough of all that…

I’ll be back on Wednesday in time for the Illamasqua Dystopia preview on Thursday.  I haven’t arranged to meet anyone, so I’m bricking it a little at the thought of going in alone… ho hum… *don’t think about it, denial denial la lala la la*

I have at least one blog post scheduled, but things are probably gonna be VERY quiet around here ’till Friday.  Have a fab week lovely readers – weather forecast looks set to be crap so send me some holiday sunshine vibes (oh, and some extra confidence for Thursday!)

Much love,

Me xx

I am very lazy with my makeup application.  I rarely apply more than one colour to my eyelids. I never bother with things like lip liners (despite owning many).  I rarely contour (it scares me) and most of the time I can’t be arsed with highlighting either.

And I call myself a makeup fanatic? *hangs head in shame*

This week, I will endeavour to make more of an effort.  What’s the point of having all these lovely products if I don’t use them?  So, amongst other makeup resolutions, this week I will be ditching my taupe-y eyeshadows and may even attempt blue again *eek*

I also have a confession… I don’t own a blending brush.  There, I said it.  Disown me if you like – just don’t tell me that you could ‘like, totally already tell from your FOTD shots’ or I might have to find a dark corner to sob in.

look, my skillz are awesum!

Anyway, I know that the pinnacle of blending brushes involves the MAC 32174893 *bleh, I can’t remember numbers* – I know what one I’m talking about.  However, funds aren’t gonna stretch this month… so please recommend me a relative cheapie that I could cut my teeth on.  I’ve heard some good things about a Boots No7 one and also a Revlon one I think?

I had an idea last night, it’s always scary sharing ‘ideas’ like this incase it encourages a humiliating David Brent type moment of epic embarrassment, so if you think it’s shit… just pretend it’s good anyway.

So, I thought it might be nice to play a little game which will encourage us to get to know our fellow beauty addicts whilst honing our application skillz and having a little fun…

I’m calling the game “Pick-a-Look” (‘cos it’s too late at night to think of anything better) and it’s a Secret Santa type affair.

If you’re up for this frivolity, say so by leaving a comment below.  Your comment needs to include your email address (I shall remove email addresses from comments after I’ve read them to prevent spammers).  It should also include (if applicable) a link to your blog.  Once enough people have expressed an interest, I will secretly pair you up with a partner.

I’ll email you to let you know the name of your secret partner (and a link to their blog).  After you’ve had a look at their blog and gotten to know them a little better, email me back with a link to the ‘look’ that you’d like to see them recreate.

The look can be editorial, celebrity or everyday… but remember, keep it secret!

Once everyone has been assigned their ‘looks’, you’ll have 1 week to create your interpretation of it before you need to submit an image of your efforts to me.  I’ll display it on the blog and reveal the identity of the person who chose it for you.

Does that make sense?  I’m sure I could have written it more coherently… but I’m struggling on so little sleep.

For this to work, it needs participation people! So spread the word and let’s see if we can get this daft little game off the ground!

I shamelessly stole this post from the fabulous LionLovingTiger, go check out her blog if you haven’t done so already!

About a year ago I went for an eye test as I realised that I couldn’t read the Sky EPG without squinting.  The optician told me that my eyesight had deteriorated a little and that I wasn’t to drive without sorting myself out with some contacts.  “Contacts, schmontacts” said I, and off I skipped to find myself the baddest face furniture I could lay my grubby little hands on!

I’ve always loved glasses (strange girl that I am) but when my eyesight was 20:20, I could never bring myself to buy a set of frames to put blank lenses in… I’m not quite twattish enough for that kind of nonsense.  So I was actually pretty excited to be buying some specs!

My first pair (and probably still my faves) are these Missoni lovelies.  I think I paid around £50 in the sale for the frames.

My next purchase was lust at first sight, I’d tried these on a few times…loved them, but winced everytime I looked at the price tag – then they became like “SO last season” and disappeared from the shops…. fast forward a few months and I found a girl selling her old pair on eBay.  I very nearly peed myself with excitement when the auction ended and they were mine!

My most recent pair are a Ted Baker offering.  Lurve these, but I haven’t got round to ordering lenses for them yet as I’m still too busy loving my Missoni and Chanels and there’s only so many opportunities to wear them considering I only really need them for driving.

Group Photo!

Thanks for indulging me in my shameless showing off of my lovely glasses!  Anyone else sporting gorgeous eyewear?  Show me/Tell me!

I have a few: Debbie Harry, Anna Karina & Edie Sedgwick but here’s my fav:

Jean Seberg is incredibly beautiful with her trademark pixie cut and simple eyeliner-oriented makeup – just lovely!

Who’s your beauty icons, past or present?

I’m exhausted!  Leila has managed to maintain a constant whinge since Thursday when she had her second round of immunisations.  I’m gonna submit her to the Guiness World Record people if she doesn’t pack it in soon.

So yesterday, I went and got my hair cut.  I’ll preface this by confessing that I haven’t visited a hair salon in about 9 years.  There wasn’t any need.  My hair has been down to the middle of my back for what seems like forever and whenever it started to look scraggy I called on my trusty Mum to cut as straight a line as she could possibly manage.  I’m not precious about my hair… infact, I considered it a high-end haircut if my Mum bothered to wear her specs whilst chopping.

 When I was pregnant, my hair was thick and glossy… I was a walking Pantene advert (that whole ‘pregnancy glow’ thing really IS true by the way!).  Unfortunately, since the arrival of The Grizzler, (or Leila, as I try to remember to call her in public) my hair has changed.  The thickness fell out within weeks and the glossiness faded along with the last contraction.

In recent weeks, I’ve noticed a strange smell lingering about my person.  To my shame, I realised 2 days ago that my hair stunk of drool.  Leila loves nothing more than to suck on her fingers… I use the word ‘fingers’ loosely as she spends most of the day attempting to get the whole fist wedged in there.  These copious amounts of ‘gob’ are then transferred to my hair whenever I am within 50 yards of her.  It’s not like I don’t wash it… don’t underestimate the magnetic powers of saliva.

So… long story short (if this is a short story, I don’t know what a long one is) I finally made that long awaited, much needed hairdresser’s appointment.  And here’s the outcome!

It’s a layered chin-length bob with a side swept fringe and I have no idea how I’m going to stop it looking like an explosion in a mattress factory come the first hair wash.  I don’t own straighteners *shock, horror!* and I only use my hairdryer if I’m going somewhere posh.  This could get ugly – wish me luck!

p.s. My sincere apologies as I have been much neglecting reading and commenting.  My google reader is full of unreads that I’m itching to catch up on.  Hopefully little miss grizzle guts will settle down next week and I can resume my usual parenting routine of sitting at the computer whilst poking her with my foot if she gets a bit bored.  She likes that.

The lovely Michelle over @ LipstickRules tagged me, so here goes:

1). Photography

I love photography and dream that one day I may become talented enough for it to keep me in the manner to which I plan to become accustomed!  I love that I always discover a different way to see things when I’m looking through the lens.  I strive to take images that tell a story and I get so much pleasure from learning about and developing my art.

2). Watching back to back episodes of The Avengers

Avenger-thon!  I could easily spend a whole day cooched up on the sofa with my husband, curtains drawn getting lost in tales of espionage.

3). Reminding myself how tiny my little girl was and how much she’s grown!

4). Beating my husband to the latest geocache find!

Competitive much?  If you don’t know what geocaching is… you probably wouldn’t be interested anyway!

5).  eBay Sniping!

I’m such a muppet.

6). Good Manners

Love seeing people going about their day to day lives displaying good manners. Giving their seats up for people less able to stand, saying thank you to public service workers… warms my heart even more if they’re under the age of 25.

7). Fairy Lights

I love Christmas in all it’s sparkly, cheery, food obsessing loveliness… and nothing epitomises Christmas more in my house than fairy lights.  I can’t get enough of them… I don’t do tasteful when it comes to these things.  I don’t even do co-ordinated.  If it’s twinkly and colourful I’m on it!

8). Achieving the perfect flick!

Mine are still wonky.

9).  Cinnamon Rolls

No explanation needed!

10). Believing in Myself

It doesn’t happen too often, but occasionally I can pull this one off!  Best example was when I gave up smoking.  I had my last cigarette on January 16th 2008 which marked the end of a 20-a-day habit.  I started smoking when I was 14 so in my heart I knew I’d had a good run of it (nearly 13 years) and I didn’t want to be entering my 30s as a smoker.  I had been putting it off for ages as I was sure I would fail… and rather than face failure, I just buried my head in the sand and didn’t even attempt it!  When I finally did give it a go, it was hard… but after the initial few weeks had passed, I started to believe that “YES, I can do this!” – and whatd’yaknow, I did!

11). My Marriage

Awww….

I tag Sophie, Rhamnousia, Stephanie, Nicola & Tali – if you decide to do the tag ladies, let me know so I can have a look!

I hope this isn’t too deep for a Sunday evening/Monday morning, but it’s something that’s been playing on my mind for a few days.

I’ve noticed that disclosing my love for all things cosmetic to a colleague, friend or even family member often has a profound affect on the way I’m perceived by this person.  I’m not completely discounting the possibility that I may be a little hyper-sensitive to this, but generally, I notice a shift in attitude.  This usually involves them expressing a flicker of surprise followed by puzzlement and if they particularly care about me, there’s a genuine sense of disappointment that I don’t choose to invest my energies into something more worthwhile.

I wonder if it’s because I don’t conform to how people prejudiciously imagine fashionistas and their beauty equivalents should look, think and behave?

~ I’m above the age of 22
~ I don’t ‘air kiss’
~ I’m someone’s mother and wife
~ I don’t say ‘awwww bless’ lots
~ I run my own business
~ I can hold a relatively intelligent conversation on a variety of subjects (go me!)
~ I don’t have the *ahem* ideal body shape for displaying fashion
~ I don’t have a complete meltdown if I break a nail (just a mini one)

Don’t get me wrong… there are definitely some women that seem to revel in the stereotype.  My Space-Cadet-O-Meter usually registers the vacuumed in cheekbones/overly ambitious pouting action displayed in some profile pictures.  In general though, since discovering beauty blogs I’ve realised just how diverse the beauty blogging community is, and most bloggers don’t appear to conform to the stereotypes.

I feel sad that our hobby is often regarded with such disdain.  It’s thought of as frivolous, trivial and altogether rather pointless.  Your appearance, rightly or wrongly (that’s a WHOLE other debate!) has a huge impact on your daily life and surely it makes us sensible rather than senseless to invest time and gain pleasure from making the best of what we started life with?

Even my husband (who is completely tolerant) will roll his eyes and gently tease me about going to ‘play’ with my makeup.  I asked him curiously if he could think of another word to replace ‘play’ that didn’t make me sound like an 11 year old about to raid my mother’s vanity case.  He couldn’t, and neither could I.  I don’t mind the expression, I use it myself – but I do think it’s indicative of the attitude that prevails when it comes to beauty.

Either way, I can live with it up until the moment that people I hold in high regard look at me as if I should know better.

Do you have anyone in your life that understands YOU, but just can’t seem to grasp your love for this ‘superficial’ hobby of ours?  And perhaps more importantly, do you notice it having any impact on your perceived credibility?

IN

~ Blog sales, can’t wait to get my hands on my goodies from Louise @ Makeuploveer
~ Inspired by Jenn @ Mizz Worthy, I went a-hunting for makeup storage and landed the obvious choices of Fira and Anordna – can’t wait to get them setup.
~ HQ Hair honouring a discount code I wanted to use post expiry date.  I wasn’t able to use it in time thanks to the product I wanted being out of stock.
~ Discovering a 2nd cousin on Genes Reunited – the world is getting smaller everyday!
~ Finding our first family geocache with Leila (yes, I am a total nerd).
~ Car Boot finds (the most beautiful gently worn baby clothes from Zara)

OUT

~ Leila deciding that she’d quite like to start her day at 4.30am from now on thankyouverymuch.
~ Shopping for cookers… yawn.
~ Having fab skin ruined by 2 ugly insect bites on my chin.
~ Not having a spare moment in which to hot-foot it to Superdrug for my Curious and Safari Sleek palettes.
~ Selfish clients who call for help, then aren’t at home at the arranged meeting time.

In
~ Discovering my local CCS/CCO in Portsmouth, total kid in a sweet shop moment.
~ Garnier Hydralock, picked some of this up on offer in Superdrug – and so far I’m loving it!
~ Shu Uemura Painting Liners, once set – this stuff does not budge!
~ Tickling the back of Leila’s neck and watching her go all squiggly.
~ Food shopping in Lidl.
~ Holding my pregnancy weight loss (yes, I’m weird and bizzarely lost weight whilst pregnant).

Out
~ The weather, it’s the height of summer for gawd’s sake!
~ Wiping baby bottoms and sterilising bottles, ’nuff said
~ My local superdrug not stocking Sleek
~ Having to give up breastfeeding *sob*
~ Still not being able to achieve a decent eyeliner flick – damn it.

My enjoyment at admiring my latest Body Shop haul was short lived when…

…to my horror, I opened up my Oui, Oui, Oui lip butter only to discover that the lip butter goblin had swiped the lot.

The greedy little bastard had even somehow managed to get the plastic wrap back on the pot ensuring it was hygenically resealed (just to mess with my mind some more you understand).

Um, do you think The Body Shop will believe me?  Or will they think I’m some kind of sick desperado who goes around buying Oui, Oui, Oui lip butters… painstakingly scraping out the contents, washing up the pots and returning them for a new one?

I wouldn’t mind SO much, but sods law dictates that I didn’t haul from my local Body Shop… oh no, I had to get this from the store 15 miles away didn’t I.

Anyway, onto the rest of my haul…

Olive Glossing Shampoo & Conditioner: Have heard such good things about this.  My scalp is a mess at the minute, I always suffer from soreness this time of year so I’m hoping something a little more natural than my usual products will help.

Mandarin Orchid Shower Gel: Love my bathing products to smell fruity or tropical and citrusy scents are at the top of my list!

Vitamin E Face Mist: Replacing my last bottle which I find essential for giving my mineral foundation a more dewy appearance.

Rich Plum handwash: This was in the sale, and now that I’m a full time nappy changer – I’m always washing my hands, so thought I’d indulge in something a little more luxurious than Carex!

Almond Home Fragrance Oil: I already own this one (I collect them), but it’s one of my favs so grabbed another bottle while I saw it.

Chamomile Essential Oil: My super bargain of the day, I usually drip a little of this into some milk and add to the bath, it’s normally over £11 a bottle, this was reduced to £1.75 – very happy!

Simply Purify Rejuvenating Bath Soak: Another sale item, contains wasabi extract… love wasabi!

Was sorely tempted by the Coconut Body Scrub too, but I’ve still got a Nirvana Spa one I bought at The Vitality Show to use up.

What are your Body Shop favs?

…confession time.

Looking back through my posts over the last couple of months, my skin has improved 110% since I started making an effort to not go to bed with my makeup still on.

Told you I was a scab.