Video: School Make Up

Here's the first of my Blogtv series! More is explained in the video about what that all means.

So, the first one I did was make up that you can wear to school. At this time of year this is my most popular request which is one of the reasons I did this one first. I had the colours picked out already. Before getting on to the make up, I thought I'd go through a few important points about school make up.

-School Rules - Seriously, pay attention. If your school rules are very clear that you are not to wear make up then leave it for home. School's stressful enough, leave the fun colours for when you won't get into trouble for wearing them.

-Foundation - So many young women (how old am I sounding right now!) cake on layers of heavy foundation, whether it's to cover acne or not, and it's just no good at all for your skin. Better yet is a tinted moisturiser which will give coverage without caking. Alternatively, use a mineral foundation. However I'm aware the loose powder of mineral foundations can be daunting especially if you're rushing in the morning.

-Colour - Keep it toned down for school. You want to enhance for a school look, not overwhelm. Again, leave the brights for home! I've kept this look to a couple of soft shades of champagne and brown. Go deeper if your skintone is deeper than mine. Keep the shimmer and frost down as well. I've used a shimmer on my lid and a more satin shade to add depth to my crease. Also, the liner and mascara are tones of brown. Black would look far too harsh for a school look on my skintone. The colour on the cheeks is kept to a minimal, natural looking flush. Lips are either just a shade or two deeper than your natural lip colour, or clear gloss.


Here I recreated the look from my video as the photos I took when I recorded just weren't good enough for me. While I wear liquid foundation on the video (HD can be a curse sometimes!), I have changed to a mineral foundation for the pictures.

Used:
-L'Oreal True Match foundation "Ivory Rose" (video)
-Chri Ma Luxe Minerals foundation "Jasmin Rose" (photo)
-ELF Under Eye Concealer "Light"
-ELF Complexion Perfection
-Bee Luscious Shadow Magnet "Light"
-Lumiere Minerals pigment "Cafe Latte" over lid
-Lumiere Minerals pigment "Bon Bon" in crease
-MAC Shadow "Jete" as highlight
-Rochas Eye Liner "Brown"
-Max Factor Waterproof Mascara "Black/Brown"
-ELF Minerals Blusher "Coral"
-ELF Minerals Lipstick "Rosy Raisin"

Kettler's Cottage Crafts

One of the absolute best things about running this blog is the fact I get to introduce you all to brands and products you may not of otherwise come across. Today, I am delighted to introduce you to a local business that I adore. I've been using their products for a while and now I think it's time I introduced you to them!!

They are called Kettler's Cottage Crafts and are based in Alford, Lincolnshire. They create and sell a range of soaps, balms and other handmade beauty products. Their range is available for sale on the website, they are also stocked in a few shops around Lincolnshire and they regularly have a stall at craft/farmers markets.

None of the products contain synthetic ingredients and everything is handmade. All products are suitable for vegetarians, although not all are suitable for vegans. All ingredients are listed so it's easy to see which contain honey, beeswax, etc.

It was at the market in my hometown that I finally got to meet Dawn, the owner of the business, and she was kind enough to pose for a photo.


Please forgive the iPhone picture as I wasn't carrying my camera with me that day.

It was wonderful to meet someone who had such a clear passion and enthusiasm for her craft. We had a good chat about the products and I took the oppertunity to pick up a couple more items.


So, this is what I currently am using. The hearts are little soap samples that Dawn was kind enough to add to my shopping!

-Lavender Hand Salve (£3.99 30g) - I adore the smell of Lavender, it's possibly my favourite scent and this salve contains Lavender Essential Oil. Delicious. It's a solid, waxy salve that melts readily at body temperature. This is wonderful when used on dried cuticles, it keeps mine from getting too dried out and sore after all the hand washing I have to do. Also good on any dry skin, not just the hands. I use on elbows, heels, toes, and even occasionally as a temple balm. Did I mention just how relaxing the scent of Lavender is? I've had this the best part of 6 months and with constant use my tin is only about halfway done.

-Peppermint Foot Rub (£3.99 50g) - This rub has a very zingy Peppermint scent, as I think all good foot products should! It refreshes the feet. This one also melts at body temperature and can be used in a couple of ways. My favourite is to rub and massage into the feet, then slip on some of those thin cotton socks that you can get for moisturising your feet. Dawn also suggested melting some into a foot bath and soaking your feet after a hard day shopping. I haven't got round to trying that yet.

-Cocoa Butter Soap (£2.99 100g bar) - This is the swirly bar on the left. Smells delicious and just "fresh". Feels like a pretty solid and dense soap. After 2 weeks of constant use it still looks like it's new. This soap creates a rich, creamy lather and my hands feel moisturised rather than dried out after using it.

-Lavender Soap (purple heart), Confetti Soap (cream heart) - I must admit I haven't used the Lavender soap at all, the scent it just too wonderful. It's currently sitting under my pillow since the smell of Lavender puts me to sleep. The Confetti Soap is as rich as the Cocoa Butter soap. It's got a fairly neutral "soap" smell since I assume it's made of all the odds and ends of other bars.

I am planning on continuing to pick up items from Kettler's so I'll review them as and when I do.

Oh, nearly forgot. They will ship internationally on a case by case basis, just drop them an email first. International shipping will be expensive simply due to the weights of the products involved.

Bee Luscious Palette "Pop Art"

I have been playing with this for the last few days so I just had to share it with you!


These colours are bright!! You get 5 bright, matte shades for $36.95 from Bee Luscious.

I must admit to being somewhat hesitant at first as such bright mattes usually mean a chalky texture, but these are soft and almost creamy. You do need to work slowly with these as they do get a bit powdery if you apply too much, but that's true of every matte shadow I've used so far.

The red is pretty awesome, just because it's a true red that doesn't turn orange or brown on me. Finding a true red eye shadow is not easy due to differing laws around the world as to what pigments are classed as "face" or "eye". It's easier to find red eye shadows in Europe than the US, for example. So I'm quite pleased there is a decent red here! Red can be scary to use, you're always at risk of looking as though your eyes are puffy. I find the best way to wear red is to not blend it out too much: keep the red pretty solid and obviously red, rather than blending out to a soft colour. Also, I like to wear red with black in the crease for a very strong look.

I don't tend to use all matte shades on my lids when I use them as I don't think it's the best look for me. I love using either the blue or deeper green as crease colours with a neutral lid, creating a contrast of texture which can add something to the overall make up look. Alternatively, you can dampen an eye liner brush and use these shades as liner.

I've got plans for a video with this palette, so keep an eye out!

Oh, almost forgot! Swatches:


Don't the colours just glow? I'm finding the yellow difficult to wear. I'd love to hear any ideas if you have them!

Haul: Lincoln 03/08/09

Look, I'm getting better at getting haul posts up! I haven't been sitting on this one for 3 weeks before posting. It's only a small haul really, having a poke around to see what's available on a budget as I'm thinking about starting a budget beauty series.


For some reason, this haul included 5 nail polishes and 2 mascaras. Neither of which I had planned on buying. The bulk of it (everything but the NYC polishes) was bought at Boots as I had various points coupons and offers. I'm at £41 ish on my card which is the most I've ever had.

Reviews will come up of stuff if you'd like!!

-New York Color in a Minute Polish "Chelsea" & "Midtown" on offer at Superdrug at the moment: 2 for £2.99. They're £2.49 each so a pretty good bargain.
-Collection 2000 Hot Looks Fast Dry Polish "BMX Bandit", "Wham", "Ninja" Ninja is a green polish, I would think a Ninja polish would be black.
-Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner "Intense Olive"
-Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Lipcolor "Iconic Iris"
-Maybelline Color Definer "Satin Dragee"
-Rimmel Max Volume Flash Mascara
-Boots 17 Va Va Voom Mascara

NOTD: 05/08/09 NYC Chelsea

I picked this up in Lincoln the other day (haul post coming up next) as it was on offer: 2 NYC nail polishes for £2.99. As each polish is £2.49, I couldn't pass up a bargain like that!

It's a deep red with shimmer in the bottle, but as you can see the colour is much brighter on the nail. It took 3 coats to be opaque, and the polish has the lovely flat brush that I'm so fond of.

I really love the colour of this polish, even though it didn't come out as deep as I was hoping.

Adventures in Henna

Before I get going on this, I just want to point out that I'm not a hair dyeing novice at all. My hair has been every possible shade of red/purple/black (even blonde in one eagerly forgotten moment of madness). I've used both henna and chemical dyes. I know not to use henna and chemical dyes together.

So, after many years of "I'll get round to it some day", I bought Caca Rouge from Lush for just under £7.00. For that you get a chunk of solid henna divided into 6 chunks. I used 4 for my shoulder length hair on the advice of the lady who served me.


Here I am with clean hair (and no makeup!!) before starting the process.


There are some natural red tones in my hair already.

On the advice I was given in store, I grated the 4 chunks into a glass bowl before adding boiling water from the kettle. I did end up adding a little more water than this to make the mixture a little more runny so it smoothed onto the hair much more easily.


Over the bath (since this is very messy!) I smoothed it into my hair, starting from the back and working forward. I quite liked the smell of it, earthy and herbal, rather than the usual ammonia stink of chemical dye. Once it was all in my hair, I wrapped my head in cling film and waited for 4 hours. The plan was 5 or 6 but the Cocoa Butter in the henna had begun melting and I was getting lovely green trails everywhere.


Oh yeah, my clingfilm hat is sexy.

After the 4 hours, the process of washing out begins. The henna takes quite a while to rinse out, but once it gets going with the heat from the water it washes out fairly quickly. I then followed with a couple of washes with shampoo to make sure all the little bits were out. Once my hair dried I could see I had green patches.

Green.

My hair was green.

I washed again and it was still there. It's been quite a long time and several haircuts since I last used chemical dye, besides the green was on new growth around my hairline where there wouldn't be any dye. After an intensive shampoo this morning the green has almost gone.

Here's the final colour.


It's come out a nice bright shade of auburn, but I don't think it's anything I couldn't get out of a box from Tesco. As for the conditioning effect of henna: my hair currently feels like straw, even after a deep conditioning treatment this morning.

I won't be bothering with it again.

Ciate Paint Pots

Hello my darlings! I've missed you all *kiss kiss*. I'm not going to go into why I've been MIA but I'm back now, and that's the important thing!

Anyway these little darlings from Ciate arrived a little while ago but since my cuticles and nails were shredded to hell, there was absolutely no way my nails were getting photographed. They've recovered somewhat since then.

Onto the details before the pictures and review!

13.5ml bottle sold for £9.00



I love the 2 colours I got to try (I made sure to get brights!). The blue is a cream, the pink has a little blue flash which only really shows up in the bottle. It shows on the nail under bright lights but it hasn't been picked up at all in the photo.

The photos are taken with 2 coats of the polish and no top coat. They dry pretty glossy and I think I'd only need the top coat for the sake of rapid drying, they certainly don't need any extra gloss from a top coat. The pink was more opaque then the blue as the blue definitely needed the second coat to even out the application. I must just point out that my nail ends are abnormally bright white (to the point of constant questions about my French mani) so the pink is possibly a one coat polish for most people. I only needed the second to get rid of the last hint of white.

The flat brush was a huge plus for me! Nothing is more frustrating than a small round brush. This one was perfect. Just the right width. I didn't notice that the bottle shape helped with application as I sit my polish on a desk as I'm applying it. The curved shape is unique and it'll help me spot those specific polishes if I'm looking to apply either one of them one day.

The polish itself seemed thicker than other brands I've used, but not as thick as some of the specifically one coat polishes I've tried. It's this thickness I think that makes the polish so opaque. It's thick but not gloopy (you know, when hey get all nasty and dried up) in any way.

I know you're going to ask about how long they last on me, and honestly I'm not the right person to ask. If a nail polish lasts 2 days on me then it's amazing. I wear polish at work and between the constant handwashing, alcohol hand sanitizer and the occasional solvent, polish just gets destroyed. Still, these lasted through 2 days of polish hell before the first chips appeared. On a normal person that probably equals a week of wear. For the record, Dior nail polish lasts 3 hours at work. So, yeah.

And the black bow on the front of the bottle is just adorable!!

I will definitely want to try some other colours from this line. They've come up with a very solid formula for their polish, I'm impressed!

Before I go, I do just have congratulate Lauren on her Sephora launch!! Congrats hon, you've done amazingly well!!