NOTD: NYE 2014 Illamasqua Raindrops

Morning (just about) Sparkles!

I've gotten up and made lots of a tummy goodies for my sister's NYE party tonight and painted my nails to boot! Inspired by the "beautiful" NI weather here at home, I'm channelling pathetic fallacy with my nails using Raindrops by Illamasqua.

Christmas Eve Ombré Lip of the Day (LOTD) - Red

Morning Christmas Sparkles!!

First of all sorry for the failure on blogmas. Despite my personal determination between illness and work I just didn't get there for the missing ten posts. I'm planning a little post Christmas fun to try to make up for it though.

In the meantime...

My first ombré lip!

This is done by lining and covering my lip in a red liner from Barry M. I then filled in with Blake's Red from L'Oreal and shaded the edges with Black Dahlia colour pencil from OCC.

I feel a little glammed up and a lot ready for Christmas! Now, to flick on Mr Buble's Holly Jolly Christmas and the scene is complete!!

What's your Christmas Eve beauty look? 

Til next time kitty kats - love, hugs and gradient shaded kisses 

xx Josephine xx

Blogmas 2014: #15 Tip of the Day - starter brushes for eyes

Jeepers, creepers….where'd you get those peepers?

Monday again…but the holiday season is almost upon us.

So heads down and let's keep cracking for the rest of the week!

A very common question I get is around the brushes I use and what, if people are buying them, should they make sure is in their starter kit. Foundation and blush brushes are probably a whole separate topic - but let's assume that you can get where you need to there with fingers in a pinch, so I'm going to concentrate on eyes.

Blogmas 2014: #13 Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Nude-ist

Happy Saturday Sparkles! 

What a relief to be into my second half of Blogmas now. It's a real challenge to come up with things to blog about on a daily basis. Not to mention I'm sure I'm going to be chopped off a load of Facebook news feeds (more on the male front) for my shameless spamming!

However, as is my wont, I thought Blogmas had perhaps been a little eye focused (my name is Josephine and I am a liner addict….*hello, Josephine* says internet), so let's bring back the lips.

Mattes were not really a welcome resurgence for me. I've got thin lips which pretty much totally disappear when I properly smile or laugh. believe me when I say the perils of rainbow coloured teeth are real in my life. That being said, brands have come a long way with their matte formulations - the newest of which appears to be the liquid velvet finish lipstick.

So, this stuff applies like a gloss but looks like a wet lipstick and then dries to a velvet matte finish. The shade I picked up is 07 Nude-ist. It's actually quite a pinkish nude tone and very wearable. These feel slightly drying but not ridiculously so. I wear Nuxe lip balm underneath on days where my lips feel very chapped.

Long lasting but not all day (I suspect this is partially because it's not a super drying formula). I like it and it's a fairly affordable way of trying out the currently very popular velvet formulations. Revolution cosmetics have some out also but I preferred the more wearable shades in the Bourjois range personally.

Happy Saturday and enjoy silky soft kisses, hugs and Christmas tunes til tomorrow kitty kats

xx Josephine xx

Blogmas 2014: #12 RMK Ingenious Powder eyes (EX-04)

Happy Friday pals!

Well, post-Christmas party I must confess I could be feeling a little better rested and happy within myself than I do right at this instance. However, to make up for the lack of inner sparkle I might be feeling, I believe in distraction tactics and the hearty application of a pretty glitter shadow any time I'm in doubt or feeling a little lack lustre.

Enter this very pretty little number from RMK. The box makes me think of Alice in Wonderland and all the little "eat me" or "drink me" labels. Terribly cute - and it just gets better when you open it up…

Blogmas 2014: #11 L'Oreal Color Riche Collection Exclusive Pure Reds (Blake)

Happy Christmas Party day readers!

Ok, so it might not be the Christmas party for all of you, but tonight I shall be cruising the Thames with my fellow bean counters - imbibing more wine than is healthy, talking more loudly than should be permitted and (I sincerely hope) seeing some cheesy dancing to hits such as Wham's Last Christmas.

Getting me through all of this, with a Christmas themed smile on my face shall be one of the latest offerings from L'Oreal in the form of Blake Lively's contribution to the Pure Reds collection.

Blogmas 2014: #10 Urban Decay shadow in Sin

Calling all nude lovers…

That might get a few more unsolicited page views than my general openers, eh?

This week's Hump Day treat is brought to you courtesy of Urban Decay (but I bought this with my own pennies).

I love it as a base for a neutral eye look, or just generally as a pretty base shade for a cut crease or smokey look. I think this shade is really wearable across the board and the texture of UD shadows is worth at least some of the extra pennies you'll have to fork out to have them.

Sin is perhaps best described as a champagne shade which verges on having pinkish tones. I use it as a precision highlighter (brow bones and inner corner) in addition to the whole-lid looks it can act as base for.

Blogmas 2014: #9 Product Review TopShop The Foundation

So pretttty, you seductive little minx of a vial, you...

Morning beauty addicts!

Today's FOTD is with TopShop's Foundation, in shade 1.0. There are currently five shades available in the product which is claimed to be self-correcting in order to match with your skin tone. While I'm pretty pale I actually prefer to wear a foundation which is darker than my natural skin tone and then blend it in using a mixture of the product itself and bronzer. My first inclination was therefore to try the second shade - however it was far too dark and orange.

In fact Shade 1.0 gives me the darker shade I wanted - so first bit of bad news here not one to pick up for your pale and interesting gal pals / relatives.

Blogmas 2014: #8 Quick and dirty removal

One third of the way through the season…

My preferred options (other than the No7 wipes)
because I think the wipes for more "mature" skin are
more sensitive skin friendly. Could just be me. 

I don't know about you guys and girls but sometimes I can be LAY-ZEE when it comes to removing my make-up at night. Especially when your'e working longer hours, socialising more often and crashing for 6 hours a night, rather than the preferred 10. 

I'm sorry mothers of the readership - please don't hate me for my childfree person sleep preferences. I'm sure I'll pay for it somehow, someday. 

In any case, sometimes (mostly) I'm not going to start with the cream cleanser and hot cloth, no doubt a contributing factor to my increasing skin flakiness and dullness. Enter - cleansing wipes. 

(*Audible gasp from stage left*) Ahem, and I continue…

Blogmas 2014: #7 Lips to last through your cocoa (or mulled wine)

Hey ladies, lucky number 7...

No-one wants to be caught out with a smear of lippie across your teeth while talking to the cute guy from [sales/accounts/across the floor] in the vicinity of the mistletoe - but similarly long wear lipsticks can be slightly drying. That's where a glossy stain can come in to be your new BFF.

These products offer some of the pigment of a lipstick, the shine of a gloss but with the added benefit of a staining function which will ensure you still have a hint of colour after dinner when the dance floor time comes.

I've got the L'Oreal and Maybelline versions of these products but really like the Revlon Colorstay Moisture Stain. There's a decent range of colours that actually look pretty wearable (the Barbie pink LA shade probably isn't going to do my non-whitened teeth any favours but I'd give the rest of the pinkish shades a bash)…

Blogmas 2014: #6 Tip of the day - lower lash line eyeliner

Happy weekend!

While I am a chronic eyeliner addict, I do like to experiment with the ways I wear it and formulas I wear. Recently I have been wearing my lower eyeliner only part of the way across my eye rather than entirely around the eye and have been asked how to get a subtle finish on this, rather than looking like a bad clown!

End result - using Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 palette 

The trick I find is to make sure you've not applied the eyeliner, before blending, to the entire area that you want to see it in. Rather, I apply the eyeliner a half to two thirds of the way along where I want it to end up and then blend out - see above for the finished look and below for where I actually applied the eyeliner.

Blogmas 2014: #5 White eyeliner (something different)

Wakey, wakey rise and shine!

Obviously, as with Mr Bing Crosby we're all dreaming of a white Christmas here in the UK. In reality it might actually involve some damp, drizzle and perhaps some wind. So if Mother Nature won't oblige, perhaps Illamasqua can help us out.

DSLR with flash, artificial light.

I bought Precision Ink in Scribe a little while ago but haven't actually use it for much other than filling in the "gap" on a double wing look with black mascara.  It seemed like this time of year might then be appropriate to try something a little new and specifically white!

Blogmas 2014: #4 Hair hero - Tresemme hairspray

Guys and gals

With my fine locks which have a tendency to be neither straight nor wavy, I've come to understand that hairspray can be my friend. Now Cheryl & co may look fabulous with Elnett, not to mention the ability to brush a style out easily and without residue may be an attractive notion when doing studio styling. For real life - I want some serious clout.

My hairspray needs to deal with sweaty Tube scalp syndrome, probable light to heavy rains and winds, heat styling and being stuffed into giant scarves. That's before I reach the office - with the onslaught of hair pulling, air con, central heating and general fussing which occurs throughout the day.

Is it any wonder my hair looks like an assault victim by 4pm?

Blogmas 2014: #3 Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy polish

With the festive season being one of the most demanding on my time with work deadlines, client events and (obviously) social events with friends and family, I don't have as much time to repair manis as for the rest of the year.

I picked up this polish and accompanying top coat to see if the long lasting promise would live up to the claims.

I bought "Showtime" a blue-purple shade, shot through with a lot of shimmer. This polish looks more purple in the bottle, blue in daylight and violet when photographed with flash. While I love those shades - they're not the friendliest to capture on screen!

Blogmas 2014: #2 Festive earrings courtesy of Accessorize

Can there be a greater joy than that of teeny weeny
snowmen, non-gender specific gingerbread people,
glittering stars and Christmas trees?
World peace aside... 

Happy Blogmas my beautiful readers one and all!

I hope you're enjoying the tiny chocolate laden path to a day filled with wonderful family smiles, nibbles, tipples, snoozes and arguments over who really won that last round of the game. Ah, no…. just me at 163, then?

In any case, I'll be indulging myself with some pretty little earrings from Accessorize. At least, until the base metal they're made of renders my ears so sensitive they can't touch me for a week.

Even so, I shall persevere in the name of Christmas cheer.

Blogmas 2014 - #1 Body Shop Vanilla Brûlée range

Happy Monday beauty addicts!

A scrumptious selection of bakery scented goodies
suitable for any sweet-toothed lady in your life!

The first day of Blogmas is sprung (I only discovered the existence of this term for my personal challenge last night on Twitter!)

Now it's a lovely, fairy light-lit, twinkling adventure to the funnest family day of all on the 25th. All very exciting, but as a gal with an aversion to all things cinnamon and clove scented, I can find the Christmas season somewhat nauseating with a profusion of such scented candles, pot pourri and oil burners.

How delightful then that the Body Shop has come up with some other festive scents. There are three scents in the range - glazed apple, frosted cranberry and vanilla brûlée.

While slightly saccharine the VB range is very much of that the ilk of the Laura Mercier bath and body products I adore but tend to hoard rather than using them as wantonly as I might with these beauties.