Christmas Gift Guide: Beauty

This week is Christmas Gift Guide Week, along with a dose of regular posts. Today I'm looking at what to get from the beauty world.

Beauty gifts are among some of my favourite gifts to get, and give. I love being able to pick out products that I think people will like. Here are some of my top picks of beauty related presents.

Feminism and Beauty

This post is inspired by several things. The first is Gemsmaquillage's video on Feminism, Makeup and Advertising and the second is Sali Hughes' book Pretty Honest. I was going to a video of my own but I realised that it would probably turn out to be rambling mess so writing everything down in a post is the best way forward.

Current Favourites

A new video appeared on my channel this week. It's the first one in my new place so it was an interesting experience trying to find somewhere with suitable lighting. 

5 Ways With: Bright Lipstick

I don't really have one 'signature' lipstick, but I love wearing bright lipsticks. I probably own slightly too many, but I don't think there's any such thing.

In today's '5 Ways With' I'm going to show you my 5 favourite brights. I do prefer matte finishes over glossy, but there's a mixture in this selection.

Christmas Beauty Goodies

*Disclaimer* This is not me showing off or boasting, I was a very lucky girl and am delighted with all my presents. I thought this would be of relevance and interest to beauty blog readers.

Christmas has sadly been and gone but the beauty of beauty gifts is that you get to feel Christmassy whenever you use them. 2012 bought the Naked palette into my life and such is the power of Urban Decay I haven't hit pan on any of the shades even after a year of use.

Sick Day Make-Up

In the last few weeks I've been feeling a bit run down and meh. I've got some stupid cold that I can't quite shake off. Here is the make-up I used when I thought I was going to have to leave the house after a day in bed. In the end we didn't, but hopefully this will still be helpful.

If All My Make-up Disappeared...

I really enjoyed EssieButton's latest video which was titled "If All My Make-up Disappeared", the concept being that someone has stolen all your make-up and you can only repurchase 10 products, which 10 would you buy. As I am a bit run off my feet at the moment due to moving back to university over the weekend I though it would be nice to do my own version as a blog post. That way I don't have to go about taking photos and finding everything. So here we go:

The Skin Zero Issue

This post is a response to a brilliant post by British Beauty Blogger which you can read here. She raised the issue that there is a strong (and much needed) focus on ‘size zero’ and happily some brands are starting to use models that aren’t stick thin. But it is rare for brands to promote beauty products without a lot of photoshop, or 'skin zero'. There are of course some who have, Illamasqua’s Imperfection range was mentioned in a blog comment. But the models they used in the 4 images I can find on the site are still stunningly beautiful. I believe there is now a law where brands have to start putting disclaimers if they have used lash-inserts on mascara ads but the same doesn’t seem to apply to foundation or skincare ads. It makes it hard for me to believe a product is going to work if the original image is photoshopped as well as the ‘after’ shot. 

What's in my hand luggage?

This week I’m off to the Shetland Islands to visit my boyfriend. I’m flying with hand luggage only so thought I would do a quick post showing what I’m taking. I’ve come to realise that compacting your make-up and skin care life down into 100ml and the correct size of plastic bag is near on impossible. I’ve had to leave out some basics that I’ll beg, borrow or steal once I get there (deodorant and anything needed in the shower). 

Mix and Match #1

I thought I'd start a little series called Mix and Match, which funnily enough will be about mixing two, or more, products together. Several other bloggers have done similar things and I always think it's a good idea to be able to see how you can use things in different ways and maybe get more use out of them.

Review: Bobbi Brown Pot Rouge

Since I went for a quick trip to get my make-up done at Bobbi Brown I've been lusting over this colour. I love myself a peachy blush and Fresh Melon fits the bill perfectly. While it looks scary in the pan it comes out much paler and allows you to build it up to the colour you want. I found I got the most colour pay-off using my Real Techniques Expert Face brush. I really want to get the stippling brush for cream blush purposes.

Birthday Haul

It was my birthday on Wednesday so I thought I'd share some of the things I got. This is by no means me boasting but these are the things that are likely to appear on the blog in the next few weeks or so.

Foundation Routine

For a month or more now I’ve been using the Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation so here’s my routine and a quick review. First of all the colour. It’s such a perfect match for my skin tone. This is what I love about Bobbi Brown; they have a large range of shades to suit all skin tones. I could probably also wear Porcelain which is the lightest colour but Warm Ivory suits the warmer tones of my skin and stops me looking too pale. It comes in a nice glass pot with a pump which means you can get out exactly the amount you need. It also has an SPF of 15 but I've not noticed any flash back. The finish is really natural and if left unpowdered can be quite dewy but I prefer a powdered finished.

Wishlist #1

Image created with Polyvore

Just a few of the things I wish I had money to spend on. 

Beauty Blogger's Tag: Get to know me

So I’m kinda sick at the moment and lack brain power so I found this tag on EmilyNoel’s blog and thought I’d give it a go. I edited it a bit but it’s still quite long, sorry!

Sheer Lip Colours and Nude Beach from Bobbi Brown

That’s nude beach as in a make-up collection….not nudist.

 

I’m not sure I’ve fully shared my love of Bobbi Brown on here. But I am a massive fan. I love their foundations had a have a review coming up soon. So come May, two new collections will be hitting the Bobbi Brown counters. And I’m fairly excited.