May Favourites

I haven't done a favourites post in a few months - naughty me! I don't know where the time has gone ... and, I won't bore you with my excuses! Straight into it, these are my most-used and most-loved products of the moment.

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1. RMS Beauty Raw Coconut Cream. It took me a while to fall in love, but now I look forward to cleansing with it every night. It melts immediately on contact with your skin and it removes everything. I use it as my second cleanse after removing my makeup with Bioderma first.  I love anything related to coconuts - this smells fantastic and leaves my skin ultra-soft. You do need to make sure you wash it all off completely with a flannel and warm water to avoid breakouts. 

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2. Eye pencils to achieve a little flick. Black eyeliner, particularly liquid or gel liner doesn't look good on me which means I have missed out a little on the feline flick trend but lately I have been giving myself a flick with an eye pencil. I tend to go for a dark brown or dark grey and find it gives a nice little line without looking as harsh as liquid liner can. Another bonus is that if you wobble, make a mistake and can't face starting over, you can always blend it in for a more smokey eye look.

My top 3 eyeliners, from top, Estee Lauder's Blackened Cocoa, Marc Jacobs Ro-cocoa and Chantecaille's Hematite

My top 3 eyeliners, from top, Estee Lauder's Blackened Cocoa, Marc Jacobs Ro-cocoa and Chantecaille's Hematite

3. Nude Stix Lip + Cheek Pencil in Mystic. This is a newbie and has gone straight into my daily makeup mix. A full revisited review on this brand is coming soon, so all I will say is that this creamy lip crayon is the answer to my no-makeup-makeup prayers right now. Big love.

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4. Sage Roll-on Perfume Oil in Diamond. This range was introduced to me by My Showcase* and is simply delightful. My birthstone is diamond and this blend of essential oils such as sandalwood, musk and amber is so appealing. The packaging is also beautiful and ideal for travel.

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* I am a Stylist working for My Showcase. You can read more about my involvement here.

Chanel's Ace of Base

While in Paris earlier this month I visited the Chanel counter in Galeries Lafayette. I had read lots of positive reviews on their new foundation, Perfection Lumière Velvet, and loved the sound of its smoothing effects. I have combination skin which gets shiny in the t-zone during the day so I thought that given this foundation has a matte finish it would be perfect for me.

The sales assistant had other ideas and despite my enquires, she just kept pointing me in the direction of the Vitalumiere Aqua foundation. I couldn't be bothered arguing, so I just went with it and walked away happily swishing my Chanel bag. 

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I also picked up Le Blanc de Chanel which is their sheer illuminating base, because ... well why not! I do like to purchase the matching base to a foundation as you know the formulas will work well together. The texture of this is really lovely. It is quite nourishing and thicker than I first thought as you massage it onto your skin, and it smells as good as you would expect any Chanel product to smell. The illumination is subtle which is good for someone in my 30+ age bracket, enough to give you a healthy glow but not so much to make you look glittery or shimmery. 

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The foundation is extremely sheer which, to be honest I first thought wouldn't give me nearly enough coverage. I was wrong! When used in combination with the base, it glides on and covers everything that needs covering whilst still maintaining natural looking skin. I did build up a second layer on my problem areas but really, I was surprised that it covered so well for such a seemingly sheer liquid! The bottle is light and perfectly sized for travel which is an added bonus.

Vitalumiere Aqua - I take shade 30 beige

Vitalumiere Aqua - I take shade 30 beige

As I said on Instagram, I am late coming to the party but at least now i'm here! I am still seeing amazing reviews on the Perfection Lumière Velvet, I just need to find a sales assistant who will actually let me buy it!

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua costs £32.00 here and Le Blanc de Chanel costs £31.00 here.

Nude Stix ... first thoughts

I was lucky enough to win a competition on Instagram with Space NK and was sent some Nude Stix, a new range of fuss-free natural makeup in stick form which they are launching this month. I was excited. Damn excited. You all know of my love for anything in crayon form, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on these and to start drawing on my face.

I was a teeny bit disappointed when I opened the package. I don't want to sound ungrateful as i'm lucky to get sent anything, but I had really hoped my booty would include one of the lip crayons and one of the concealer crayons. Sadly this was not the case. Enclosed in a very lovely matte black tin was a golden eye crayon (yay), a pretty average looking black mascara (yawn) and one of their special crayon sharpeners (yay - I think). I'm just wondering why they would choose to send out mascara's to all the prize winners when it's not one of their clever, inventive products?

Anywhoo, disappointment aside it was nice to see some tips and suggestions inside the box. The eye crayon is a beautiful gold shade and lovely and creamy in consistency. It probably is not the correct shade for me to wear as an eye-shadow alone but it would work nicely as a highlight in the inner corner of my eye. The mascara seems fine but nothing amazing and definitely a disappointing inclusion in the prize selection.

The eye pencil in Golden which is £24.00 

The eye pencil in Golden which is £24.00 

Is it enough to entice me to go out and spend money on other products in the range? I am not sure.  They have some fierce competition in the eye crayon stakes with the likes of the Charlotte Tilbury range who's shadow sticks I lovingly caressed last Friday in Selfridges. And let's not forget about Wild About Beauty who have one of the loveliest colour palettes I have seen in a while.

The full range ca be viewed here and is available for pre-order now with dispatch to take place later in the month.

 

New work - Xsenia & Olya Fashion Show

Here are some pictures from a fashion show I worked on a few weeks back. It was for the label Xsenia & Olya and was a fairly informal catwalk show at the Gallery for Russian Arts and Design in the West End, London. 

The makeup look was natural and glowing - lots of lovely dewy skin, a subtle smokey eye and a nude lip. The clothes were really flowing and colourful, involving quite a lot of fabric so a neutral makeup look worked best to compliment the designs.