food overhaul!

since my last post, i am officially a graduate. this september is going to be really manic as i am a) going to bestival, b) winding up working full-time, and c) beginning a new degree. gulp. i need to figure out what my new timetable will be and what my general weekly routines will be like, as i am also going to join a gym and need to figure out when i can fit that in, because having an office job has made me fat. they're pretty slow most of the time when it comes to paying me so i've been in agony as of late as there has been SO many things my heart has pined for (HELLO NEW ILLAMASQUA COLLECTION? THAT RUBBER NAIL POLISH? GIVE.TO.ME.)

i've been watching what i eat and begun a food overhaul since yesterday morning, although i still somehow think i eat too much. yesterday i had bran flakes (which tastes like cardboard), a handful of rice, chickpeas and watermelon. oh, and some pimms (i may/may not be hungover as i type this). so that's my general sort of routine going. start the day with cereal, have a vaguely carby lunch, and then spend the rest of the day snacking on watermelon, water, or green tea. for some reason i've been feeling dizzy and lethargic all week and so i haven't been exercising, but i think i will do an hour today. i shall report any signs of weight loss on here!

yesterday it was my friend's birthday. i am elusive but showed my face briefly. i haven't changed my make-up much recently but i'm really enjoying being silly with it and mixing blushers with lipsticks, using lipsticks on my cheeks and basically just putting things where they shouldn't be. could be the early markings of a breakdown really.

for some reason the lighting in my house is completely off - you'll just have to take my word for it, but there are a lot of gold tones on my face and my cheeks were a nice apricot colour. i'm not really liking my face much at the moment either.

face: no 7 lift and luminate day cream, sephora base sublimatrice, illamasqua skin base foundation (no 10), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light), no 7 illuminator (peach), nars highlighter (albatross), mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus).
eyes: urban decay primer potion, urban decay eyeshadows (virgin, naked, buck, hustle), rimmel exaggerate liquid liner, maybelline gel liner, max factor false lash effect mascara, mac eyebrow pencil (stud).
cheeks: nars bronzer (laguna), illamasqua blush (lover) and a touch of sleek blush on the cheekbone (rose gold).
lips: urban decay primer potion, sleek blush (rose gold), tiny bit of old no 7 gloss (smile).

brush out those curls and ta dah! a result channelling something between a marcel wave and a cavewoman.

review: maybelline dream touch blush.

recently i've been venturing out of my usual pink and coral blushers (hot pink, baby pink, deep pink, you name it) and going for different, more subtle shades - more towards peach and apricot. i still prefer the pinks but shades such as these are more universally flattering. i have a very yellowy olive skin tone (i'm not pale by any means, as you can tell) and so i think that because of that, i can get away with the crazy pinks. peach tones lift my complexion but in a different way which looks more natural.

my newest shade is maybelline's dream touch blush in peach. it has recently been reformulated and i have heard echoes of dismay but this is the first time i'm trying the product and so i can't comment on whether it has been improved or not. i never used to notice maybelline, but they are really impressing me this year - their gel liner has definitely been my all-time favourite make-up purchase... quite the claim.

pros? i like its texture. i absolutely hate applying cream blusher with my fingers because it just doesn't feel right and looks very blotchy half the time because the product will be so pigmented. this is so smooth and lightweight that it's really soft, and therefore feels nice to touch. it's also very easy to build up! i also like the shade, but feel that it's perhaps a little *too* natural for my liking and gets lost within my complexion - on paler skin (such as the underside of my arm), it would look absolutely delicious. (excuse how blotchy i am, i have bad circulation and bad skin).

best hairstyle.

there is only one con, and it is a bloody massive con: its lasting power. i usually have a combination skin type and this just won't last nowhere near as long as i would like. i can't even dismiss it due to the fact that it's a high-street brand - blushes by sleek and topshop actually cost less and still do the job. i like the colour/texture to much to say that i regret buying this product completely, but i do think that i will mainly use it if i'm having guests over or popping out for an hour or two and don't want to use any of my expensive stuff. suffice to say i'm still disappointed by it though... alongside the fact that my eye make-up is a lot crazier and more 80s than the photo above depicts, with my camera refusing to take a proper photo of it.

face: 17 primer, mac studio fix fluid (nc30), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light), collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer, mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus).

eyes: urban decay primer potion, benefit creaseless cream eyeshadow (get figgy), urban decay eyeshadows (twice baked and oil slick), illamasqua cream eyeshadow (hollow), max factor false lash effect mascara, mac eyebrow pencil (stud). 

cheeks: bourjois bronzing powder, maybelline dream touch blush (peach).

lips: sephora (no 72).

review: illamasqua skin base foundation. all aboard the hype train!

MEGA POST FOR A MEGA PRODUCT. i love gimmicks. i love it when brands promise that you will look amazing/stunning/perfect, and i suppose i also love how they lie (i'm like, SO rihanna~). have you ever walked past a new product and wondered which mug would fall for that? nine times out of ten, i am that mug - but i am not ashamed. my latest gimmick of choice is illamasqua's skin base foundation. i like to think i escaped the immediate hype (there seems to be many tales of the foundation being sold out everywhere) and in my own defence, i am genuinely in need of a new foundation and so i figured i'd give it a go.

nails - model's own (nude beige).

i went to selfridges, and was just in luck. at the time when i went, illamasqua was offering 10% off the foundation. the girl applied it on my face and admittedly it looked beautiful, given that as of late my skin has been completely and utterly shit. after much ooh-ing i happily bought it, and trotted off on my merry way. went to exit the building, and in true typical british fashion, it was POURING down. i'm not a wuss when it comes to rain, but this was monsoon-standard downpour. having stood outside for twenty minutes hoping that the rain would at least calm down, it didn't, and so i had to brave it whilst wearing crochet shoes and the world's biggest frown. i had pretty much assumed that my beautifully applied foundation had basically been washed off, after 25 minutes of walking in the rain...





WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2.10 ONWARDS WA

... but - nope! later that evening when i went home resembling a soaked cat, i went to cleanse my face and lo and behold, most of it was still on my face. how brilliant is that?! i therefore love it.

application-wise, i don't think it's something i could apply with fingers or my usual brush without blotching it up. i don't know if this is just down to my own incompetency or whether it's to do with the formulation of the foundation. i don't see that as a bad thing though, i'm just sayin'. when i use this, i apply it with a kabuki brush (£16, the body shop, money-grabbing or what). that way you can buff it into the skin and get the natural finish the product aims to achieve. as dumb as the prices are for body shop brushes, i absolutely swear by them and think they are hands-down the best brushes on the high street - so whatever you pay, you're safe in the knowledge in that these brushes will last you years without shedding a single hair.

here is my make-up whilst on holiday (taken with flash). my hair is wet from a shower five minutes beforehand, i'm probably melting*, and i'm wearing a buttload of new products i'd like to review when i get the chance. i'll also wear it and post a photo whilst in natural light at some point, i'm sure.

skin: sephora smoothing primer, illamasqua skin base foundation (no 10), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light).
eyes: collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer, rimmel exaggerate liquid liner, no 7 lash adapt mascara, nars highlighter (albatross).
cheeks: nars bronzer (laguna), sleek blush (rose gold).
lips: max factor (bewitching coral).

and lastly, i'd like to respond and give my take on recurring criticisms i've seen in other reviews, as i'm sure anyone reading this will have probably googled and read a variety of reviews.

- it is not longlasting - gurl, u trippin.
- there is little connection between this and bb creams - i wholeheartedly agree. i am by no means a user of bb creams anyway, but this is such a strong product that it should be praised on its own merits. i am not sure why illamasqua tried to push the bb cream connection in the first place. maybe to branch out into azn markets? who knows.
- it made someone's skin oily - i don't understand how this is possible unless your skin is massively oily. it sinks and sets into the skin without feeling heavy, and i wore it in the craziest hot weather.
- it highlights dry patches on the skin - i think this is a lazy criticism. it takes less than a minute to moisturise before you put on your make-up. if your skin is still dry after moisturising, then it's the cream you're using which needs to be looked into.
- the comparison chart on the illamasqua website is inaccurate - according to the chart, i am supposed to go for shades 9 or 10. i deliberately kept this to myself as i was curious to see if the mua would match me up correctly herself, and sure enough, she did. maybe i was lucky, maybe the chart works better for olive skin tones, who knows.

all in all, i bloody love this foundation. i think i've found the one.

* if you live in a country where the heat is very strong and very humid, i would recommend mac studio fix fluid over this as it will stay in place for longer.

holiday!

i had a fabulous time on holiday and enjoyed eight days of 30+ degree weather - most of the time i was either in monaco or venice. here is a very, very small snippet (believe it or not!) of what went down. i'm surprised my face hadn't melted into pure gloop from the sheer heat.

i felt very humbled to be able to go! i'm so lucky.

review: collection 2000 cream puff moisturising lip cream in "fairy cake".

errrrrrm, why did this not post? this was meant to go up whilst i was abroad (more on that another time). what has changed since? well, i am now broke. completely and utterly penniless. if this had gone up when it was supposed to, i would not be wittering on about financial woes - especially when i'm supposed to be going to bestival and have zero camping stuff. maybe i shouldn't have gone. £180 would be so good right about now... and to think, i had £180 at one point. :'(

my latest plaything is cheap though, so all of you fellow broke ass bitches better listen up. it retails for £2.99 (or did, when i bought it) and off the top of my head, is the cheapest piece of make-up i own. i can't claim to know much about collection 2000 but was really excited by the concept of a matte lipgloss, the cutesly-named "cream puff lip cream". eeeee cream puff. eeee shade called "fairy cake". eeee fat. i love matte lipsticks (the ones by revlon are my favourite) but their biggest problem is how drying they can be, and so i was curious to see how that problem would translate in gloss form.

i'm not going to lie and say that this is the most hydrating thing to ever touch my lips, but it's pretty damn good. for £2.99, even better. it also smells delicious. fortunately i didn't find this to be drying at all like regular matte lipsticks, and i absolutely loved the bright pink-coral shade. however, it does present the same problems in that your lips have to be in tip-top condition before you apply it, otherwise it will look terrible. it also won't last the entire day - i think i got about two or three hours out of it. all in all though, i think it is fabulous and would urge anyone to try it, especially if they are put off by matte shades in lipstick form. 

my only real disappointment is the colour choice: there are four shades in total, and i'm going to be blunt and say that if you are not white, then two out of the four will possibly work with your complexion (this one, and another more nudey tone, the name of which i do not know). however, this is an issue with cheap brands in general who don't cater for a wider variety of skin tones, and so i'm not going to specifically hate on collection 2000 over it. i'll just have to hope that this will be a great success and that they'll branch out with more universally flattering shades!

beauty inspiration: madonna.

LONDON HEAR ME ROAR. WHAT IS WITH THE CONSTANT RAIN AND COLD TEMPERATURES?! i am feeling remarkably confused when it comes to appearance. my brain is telling me that it is august and that i should opt for summery clothes and bright make-up, but i just don't feel like it when it's absolutely freezing and raining constantly. so, i've sort of developed some kind of mish-mash way of dressing. note: mish-mash is not attractive. it just makes you look retarded. can't wait to leave this place tomorrow, although i'm gutted it's not for a very long time.

my current looks (crimped hair anyone? christ) is semi-inspired by a late night gaze at one of my (many) large photobooks about style in the 80s, as i am planning on selling it. i'll be upfront and confess that i don't even like the 80s unless i'm looking for a giggle. i like the music, but i think it was absolutely awful in terms of style, so why i am drawing anything from it i just don't know. however, there are two exceptions to my "everything 80s is gross" stance. i do like boy george and think that he was exceptionally pretty (there is no other word)... and i also like the look of MADONNA. i do not care for 99.9999% of her music, and i think she is borderline insane. but, no one even comes close to how amazing she looked in her video for "justify my love". that was her PEAK. the marilyn hair, the thick brows, the bold lips... absolutely fabulous. definitely something i'd like to try out for myself! i do wish someone would tell rihanna et al that that video is how you do something risque (even more so considering that it was over twenty years ago in a more conservative society) - as current efforts just seem relatively pathetic by comparison.

U GO GURL

unfortunately, i have about as much sex appeal as a slice of lettuce. i think this still is more me...

nevertheless, that single video is very inspiring (in terms of style, not sex with transgender people) and is one of my favourite things in the entire world. 

face: sephora base subliminatrice, mac studio fix fluid (nw30), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light), mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus).
eyes: urban decay primer potion, rubie and millie perfect eyes pallette, rimmel exaggerate liquid liner, urban decay 24/7 eye pencil (zero), urban decay eyeshadow (creep), max factor false lash effect mascara, mac eyebrow pencil (stud).
cheeks: nars bronzer (laguna), duwop blush (peach).
lips: revlon (mauve it over).

in other news: i've recently been feeling less of a need to see friends. not in a horrible way at all. i'm just tired and want to live a quiet existence. it's official: i've become old.

so sleepy...

i think i have narcolepsy.

i am tired. somehow i feel as if all the sleep in the world is just not enough and it's beginning to show on my face. i graduate in september and my biggest concern is no longer my weight, but having big dark circles under my eyes. i used to be able to cover it quite decently with make-up, but the sleep-deprived look is slowly fighting back and with a vengeance. my favourite concealer is clinique's airbrush concealer as it is really light, easily blendable and feels so smooth. it's also one of the few brands that caters for my special shade of yellow. it's still my favourite product when it comes to covering up spots and blemishes (i have a fair few right now), but is slowly finding itself unable to cope with the epic bags under my eyes. i think i am definitely going to branch out and see if anything out there is up to the job.

ramble aside, this is the make-up i wore today. if i had thick black eyeliner on, i would be able to say that this is my staple look: simple eyes, bright cheeks, and bright lips. i decided to go for something a little bit smokier and softer though, just to make it a bit different from my usual thing.

i would also really appreciate it if everyone could ignore the eyebrow situation that is going on here - as i am going on holiday, i am trying to not touch them until later this week (right before i leave) so that i can get them fixed up. they are shocking, i know. :(

face: 17 primer, mac studio fix fluid (nw30), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light), mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus).
eyes: ruby & millie eyeliner pencil (brown/black), revlon grow luscious mascara, maybelline gel liner, the body shop brow and lash gel.
cheeks: bourjois bronzing powder, nars multiple (portofino), no 7 highlighter (peach).
lips: revlon (wild orchid).