A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Many professions dread the general public encroaching on their skills.  Whether it’s traditional makeup artists having their hackles raised by You Tube gurus and beauty bloggers, professional photographers glaring across the wedding party at uncle Bob with his £2k Nikon kit, or long-established nail technicians bristling at professional-only products being sold to the mass market.  Financially, it’s a tough world out there, and for people who have poured often not-insignificant sums into years of training and equipment, I get that it can be galling to see your profession ‘diluted’ in this way.

This was brought to mind recently when I received a press release for a new DIY gel nail system called Sensationail, which has just gone online at Boots priced at £85.00.  It promises salon-quality gel nails at a fraction of the cost when compared to regular salon visits.

From my regular brow-threading trips to the brilliant Eastern Arts Beauty, I know how much these small enterprises rely on return business from their most loyal customers and I wonder just how threatened these establishments must feel when the latest DIY products come on the market.  Sure, in the past most of them have been gimmicky and in reality, rarely give the best results… but there are always newer technologies waiting in the wings, ready to superceded and threaten.

From my own personal experience with DIY beauty, there’s still very much a place for the salon and this is coming from someone who’s been fortunate enough to try some of the most cutting-edge DIY devices.  On the surface, at-home beauty tools seem to provide total convenience but after just a few sessions with my ILP device (for example)… I was ready to go back to the professionals, even if it meant paying through the nose, and I’m still coughing up the pennies today.

What do you think about at-home solutions for the kind of services you’d usually visit a professional?  Interested in doing your own gel nails at home?

…for no other reason than I’d like to be able to throw this question back to you guys; today I’m going to share my top 5 most-used apps.  Non-iPhone users, look away now.

It’s true that I’m addicted to my iPhone and it’s for one reason, and one reason only: apps.  The range and breadth of utilities, timewasters and memory-makers is unparalleled and I’ve gone from someone who never even turned her phone ON, to someone who gets itchy fingers if I can’t plug it in beside my bed.

I’ve been using Boxcar for a few weeks and it’s become my all-in-one solution to keep me updated on my social networks, emails, and RSS feeds.  It sends me push notifications whenever I get a new email, tweet or facebook message.

It even lets me know when someone comments on the blog or if the blog experiences any downtime.  I have been able to turn off push notifications for all my other apps and consolidate everything into one, saving constant updates (from different apps) and resources.  It even lets me set a ‘quiet time’ to ensure that I don’t receive any notifications when I’m sleeping!  Love it. (£free but with an optional purchase to remove ads)

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of eBay and I use it to uncover all sorts of bargains.  My favourite things to buy on the site are bargainous nail polishes from the U.S. (OPI, China Glaze and Zoya mostly), the ‘drugstore’ type products that we just don’t get easily over here (Wet n’ Wild, NYX etc), and pretty beauty-related things from Asia.  With the app, I’m able to receive notifications when an auction I’m watching is about to end, I can bid directly from my phone and even complete the sale via Paypal.  It makes my shopping habit mobile.  A wonderful thing! (£free)

Where would I be without Twitter?  A lot more productive I’m sure!  There hasn’t been an app to date that has fulfilled everything I want but Tweetbot is as close as I’ve gotten to twitter/iphone harmony in a long time.  It feels polished, streamlined and has an easy-to-use interface which is both intuitive and visually attractive.  It has features that blow some of the other Twitter apps out of the water with the ability to “mute” users and filters (cough) and also provides full conversation threading. (£1.99)

I have a bunch of photography applications on the iPhone (instagram, snapseed, picframe to name but a few) but none is more important than the app I use to take the picture right?  Camera+ builds on the functionality of the iPhone’s native camera app and returns increased usability with features such as the ability to set different area for exposure determination than focus.  You can also use the apps built in self-timer, burst modes (great for shooting fast-moving action), and best of all?  It loads up faster than anything else I’ve tried.  (£0.69 on sale)

I work better when I’m up against the clock!  I’m a dreadful procrastinator with a penchant for easy distraction and Timer+ forces me to concentrate my efforts into little bursts of productivity.  It lets me visualise light at the end of the tunnel and breaks chores down into more managable chunks.  I simply set the timer, assign it a task and away I go.  I know that the iPhone has a built-in timer but this allows me to preset various timers for a number of tasks, allowing for minimal faffing about when it’s time to get some work done.  30 minutes housework? 3-2-1…. go! (£free)

I can’t believe I haven’t even touched upon any of the games, travel or photo-editing apps on my home screen!  Alas, I strictly limited myself to five and for once, I will show some restraint!

What are your most-used apps on your phone right now?

…decorating gingerbread men!  L spotted these in Tesco and had been such a good girl traipsing around after me all day that I couldn’t resist giving in and promising her a morning of biscuit decorating.

super concentration!

caught red-handed giving way more sweeties to herself than the gingerbread men!

Mummy! You PINCHED one!

Mine, Leila’s and Mr. L’s masterpieces.

It’s a good thing they came with so many sweets ‘cos the actual biscuits tasted like shit.  And Tesco didn’t even bother to give them willies, I thought that was the law when it comes to gingerbread man baking?

Hope you beauty peeps have been spending some quality time with the people you love the most this weekend!

My friend Jenni is conducting some research on makeup storage solutions, who better to ask than you guys? Please take just a couple of minutes to fill out the questionnaire.

All responders who leave their email address at the top will be entered into a draw to win a £50 ASOS voucher, sure to come in handy!

Thank you.

Most of my makeup is split between five old-style Ikea FIRA chests and a couple of Ikea HELMERS.  When Ikea discontinued the FIRA, makeup-loving hearts were broken across the globe, they’ve since replaced the storage solution with a hugely inferior version called the MOPPE which is about 2x the original price and half the original depth of the FIRA. No bueno.

I’ve been loving my HELMERS more and more since I threw some cheap drawer dividers in there, it wasn’t pretty but it helped to organise each drawer a little more effectively.

I went to Ikea a couple of days ago and came across some plastic basket inserts called ANTONIUS.  They come in one size, with one compartment configuration.  They cost a mere £1.80 a-piece and THEY FIT THE HELMER!  It’s actually a little bit of a squeeze to get them in there but fit they do!

Wanna see?

How sexy is that picture?  I just need a Dymo printer to make those little labels and I’ll be happy left alone in my room for the next seven years.  That’s a bit of a miscellaneous drawer by the way: powder highlighters, cream and liquid highlighters and lip products that don’t fit in my lipstick drawer!

On the right is mostly MAC MSFs, which should give you an idea of how big the compartments are.

A different drawer.  These are blushers.  It’s so much easier to be able to store them on their side with minimal rattling about or ‘foraging’ to find the right shade.

So how much would a full makeup storage solution set you back?  Well… let’s do the maths.

1 Ikea HELMER @ £24.99

6 Ikea ANTONIUS @ £10.80

Total = £35.79

Not bad eh?

I couldn’t be without my HELMERS.  Sure, I love the look of the ALEX but… these serve their purpose really well and after nearly three years of daily use, they look as good as the day I bought them.  I have one which fits snugly under my desk for nail polish and one that sits ontop of my desk (I have a huge corner desk) with the rolling casters removed.

How are you storing your makeup?  Got any tips to share?

Ok, I promise – enough with the holiday photos after this and back to the regular beauty stuff.  I’ve got to pull myself out of my post-holiday hangover anyway and get back into my usual routine, why is it always so hard to get going again?

Some of the other highlights of our week included a visit to a working glass & games factory called The House of Marbles, comparing the two distinctly different coastlines of North and South Devon, eating fish and chips on the quayside in Brixham, and climbing up Haytor for a magnificent view over Dartmoor!

“Have you taken it yet? I’m getting some strange looks up here!”

Brixham’s replica of The Golden Hind

A very ropey-looking sandcastle!

It could almost be Santorini right?

Yeah, I know you’re cute.

Torquay Harbour

fishing stuffs

life preserver at Babbacombe

next time, I’d like some tea in my tea please?

who else loves paperweights? just me then…

all cafes/restaurants should provide colouring books and crayons, amen.

heart-shaped cream tea!

doing her ‘work’

banister baubles!

glassworks

funny mirrors, I’m gonna have nightmares about that arm

house of marbles!

Haytor

view from the top (love this one)

yeah, I know… sad.  I COULDN’T STOP MYSELF!

pretty sand at Croyde Bay

Just wanna say a big thanks again for the tips and suggestions you gave me on places to visit, you’ve probably recognised most of them from the photos – talk about a holiday leech!  If you’re ever planning on visiting Winchester/Portsmouth/Southampton/New Forest – I’m your girl to reciprocate the favour!

Are you going anywhere for Easter Weekend?

I took the most ridiculous amount of photos.  Before we left, Mr. L challenged me to put down my iPhone and pick up my camera… and as much as I love the convenience and instant gratification of instagram – there’s nothing quite like the control that a proper camera allows you to have over a photograph.  With over 30gb of images recorded, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve fallen back in love a bit.  I’ve only edited a couple for facebook so far but here’s what the first half of our holiday in Devon looked like…

mint choc chip – is there any better flavour?

lots and lots of seaweed! (or salad as Leila called it)

the sweet spot

red sand!

beautiful tiles in Goodrington

Greedy gulls

A place to call our own (wish!)

A quiet church and beautiful light in Cockington

The first ever sandcastle at Paignton!

Lush textures in Cockington

Cute beach huts in Paignton

A hazy morning in Torquay

Torquay Harbour

My (far-too-grown-up) girl thinking she owns the world

We were so lucky with the weather, every morning we opened the curtains expecting to see an overcast day… not daring to push our luck, but we were greeted with blue skies and gentle breezes from the day we arrived right through to the day we packed up to head home.  Thank you so much for your suggestions on places to visit, I think we probably did most of them!

I want to write a little more about our first proper holiday in what seems like forever, and show you some of the other cool places we visited, but it’s very late and this will do for now!

One of my biggest passions after makeup and photography is geography.  I’m an avid consumer of guide books, atlases, and street maps.  I buy an A-Z of nearly every UK town I visit, bought Leila her first globe last year and can spend literally hours poring over google maps.  Despite never having lived there, I can navigate London as well as a native and will always rate exploring a city above lazing on a beach.  I’m crazy about culture (nothing too high-brow mind!), buildings and places.  I geocache in my spare time and go on guided walks in my local area just so that I can see it through the eyes of a tourist.  How many cool points have I lost?

Without getting all cultural about it, and heaven forbid – stereotypical, I’ve been trying to think of how where we live affects our lives from a beauty perspective.  I couldn’t come up with too much in the way of trends without reverting to cultural stereotypes but then I got to thinking about the kinds of products that certain areas of the world seem to produce very, very well.

When I think of skincare, I often think firstly of France with it’s Parisian skincare, therapies and more classic approaches to anti-aging.  Moving across the globe to Australia and it becomes more about the natural approach with tea tree oils, aromatherapy and herbalism.  Heading north to Asia and it’s all about sun protection and masks to promote collagen, a mixture of hi-tech science with traditional ingredients.  Tanning?  Go on… guess.  Brazil!

I would look to the Middle East and India for insights into promoting healthy hair, with natural oils and remedies coming top of the list.  South Asia for treatments… massages, exfoliations, all that body-beautiful stuff.  The U.S.?  Probably surgical cosmetic procedures!

The world really is our oyster when it comes to picking and choosing products, techniques and knowledge.

Where do some of your biggest associations come from?  Which countries or regions do you align with your beauty routine?

Today, I’m heading off to Devon for a week… hoping for continued sunshine and plenty of excuses for ice cream. We’re going to the classic English riviera that is Torquay before a couple of nights on the Northern edge of the county near Barnstaple.

photo credit: Mark Robinson

I usually plan my holidays with military precision (before letting it all go awry by the end of the first day) but I haven’t had time to do anything in advance of this one. I have no idea where we’ll go or what we’ll do. To be honest, that makes the control freak in me feel a little bit… antsy. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!

So far, all I plan on doing is pretending that I’m in a Famous Five book (I’m probably more Anne than George). I’m going to talk about “coves” a lot, eat many, many cream teas and hopefully take some photos to make me proud. If I remember my camera.

photo credit: Mark Robinson

I’m very excited, all recent holidays have involved more hectic breaks in London and whilst I’ll never get bored of exploring the city, it can get a little bit tiring with Leila in tow (for both of us).  We’ll have the car this week, and I’m literally sitting here grinning with excitement at the thought of all the sea air, beautiful views and unexplored terrain!  I bought a family English Heritage membership last month, hoping to be able to visit a bazillion castles but I’ve just found out that most of them don’t open until April 1st.  Guess the joke’s on me!

Whatever you’re doing this week, have a lovely one!  I’ve got some brilliant guest bloggers coming on board to delight and entertain you and I’ve managed to schedule a couple of posts in myself aswell.

See you soon! x

The diet wagon that is!  Well, mostly.  Ignore Sunday, it was Mother’s Day and I fell off it headfirst into a box of Lindt chocolates before staggering out and tripping arse over tip into some Maltesers.  What can I say?  I’ve always been a bit clumsy.

A small selection of my recent eats, I won’t bore you with the recipes unless you want to see one in particular, but from top left and going clockwise: protein pancakes, stuffed peppers, king prawn salad and courgette fritters (the bomb.com), brussel sprouts with garlic parmesan and chicken.

In an effort to be able to get all my veggies in the one shop, I went to a local farm store over the weekend and I was BLOWN AWAY by the variety and quality which was apparent as soon as you walked through the door.  Nothing prepackaged, peppers the size of Leila’s head and prices that floored me.  I walked out with 4 carrier bag-fulls for less than £15 – throw in a packet of chicken breasts, some pork medallions and my weekly food bill was under £25.  There should be next to no waste this week too as I was able to select exactly what I needed, in the quantity I wanted it.

Is it worth me investigating a proper butchers?  I’ve only ever been in one once or twice to buy some steak for a special occassion.  T’was very, very expensive and I think it put me off a bit.

But here comes a slight downer, I haven’t actually lost any significant weight.  I’ve been doing it for nearly a month… 1200kcal daily target and I’m usually just under that.  I’ve had a total of 5 piggy days (spread out) since I started and I’m in a bloody holding pattern.  Time to up the exercise?  Bah.

Any of you currently following a healther eating plan?  How are you doing with it?

With a massive amount of gratitude to reader Mary (and a little bit of fist-shaking since I spent half of last night checking my makeup’s expiry dates), I wanted to share a link that she posted in a recent comment.  The link is to a website (http://checkcosmetic.net/) where you can enter your product’s batch code into and discover its year of manufacture thanks to an impressive database of production dates.

Be warned, ‘cos just like Pringles, it’s pretty addictive stuff.  NARS Flaming Dust appears to be the oldest (well, joint oldest) of the ones that I checked… 2004, shameful…

So, tell me… how old is your oldest lipstick? (and are you going to bin it now you know how old it is?!)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums, Moms, and Baby-Mamas out there!

It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done and boy, do I ever feel both the responsibility and fear that it can bring with it… but it’s sickeningly true that the pride, love and all that other stuff outweighs any negatives by the bucketload.

Hope you have a brilliant day with your bumps, babes and bigger ones.  A super-special mention to those hoping/trying to conceive this year, may you be celebrating with us this time next year! x