OOTD: Borough Market

Yesterday I went to Borough Market. I was surprised when some lady asked to take pictures of my outfit. Only tourists would find my clothes cool! 

I am wearing a YSL tank from Camden (£5), full circle gingham midi skirt from Full of Joy (£30), my Tiffany's necklace, and (not showing...) New Balance grey trainers (£60)

I ended up rocking my blue pocket parka with this... Damn weather.

My Wedding Guest Look

Recently, I was a first time wedding guest and I was not really sure exactly how to dress or look for a wedding and the morning of, in a forty minute carfuffle to look presentable, I threw myself together a fantastic wedding guest look.

In this look I chose a Phase Eight tape lace dress (£160), a black vintage hat (greenwich market), a beaded clutch from Accesorize (£30),opaque fishnet tights from M&S (£10) and Office black pumps (£25). I did not really wear any jewellery accessories, I totally forgot to put them on...

For my makeup, I chose Illamasqua skin base foundation, MAC Melba blusher, Urban Decay Naked3 palette, Lime Crime eyeliner and MAC Ruby Woo lips. My lashes are the £1 lashes from Primark. I knew I was going to be dancing and doing all kinds of fun things so I chose a cheap pair of lashes and they stuck to my face like a clingy girlfriend.

Primark NATURAL lashes (£1)

The look lasted 11 hours and I only needed to touch up my lipstick twice. 

Ruby Woo has hardcore stay power!

This is eight hours in. Looking fabulous.

Whole Product List in order of application

Dermalogica Oil Free Matte Moisturiser

Illamasqua Skin Base Foundations 0013, 001, and 006

Illamasqua Finishing Powder

MAC Melba Blusher

Urban Decay eyeshadow Shade for eyebrows applied with angle brush

Benefit Eye Bright pencil

NAKED3 palette

Lime Crime Uniliner in Quill

Lipstick Queen Invisible Liner

MAC Ruby Woo matte lipstick

Primark Natural False Lashes with provided glue

Nails Revlon Red

Hair Styled with back combing and hairspray (very quickly because I didn't watch my time!)

The Five Minute Face

I was away in Belfast there for two weeks and used that as a chance to do some fun things you all might find useful. I call this...

THE FIVE MINUTE FACE

I used minimal amounts of products in five minutes or under to do day time makeup looks for whenever I crawled out of bed during my mini-vacation.

Look #1

Benefit The Big Easy for foundation

Urban Decay Naked Basics for my eyebrows

Eyeko EyeDo mascara for eyes

Lime Crime Red Velvet velvetine for lips

Hair styled with Bumble and Bumble CitySwept

Look #2

Benefit The Big Easy for foundation

Urban Decay Naked Basic Palette for eyebrows

Urban Decay Naked3 palette for eyes

Eyeko EyeDo Mascara

MAC Matte Lipstick Snob

Hair styled with clip in extensions

Look #3

Bare Minerals powder in Fairly Light

Urban Decay Naked Basics for eyebrows

Urban Decay Naked3 for eyes

MAC matte lipstick Snob

Hair styled with extensions

Look #4

Benefit the Big Easy for foundation

Urban Decay Naked Basics for eyebrows

Urban Decay Naked3 for eyes

Lime Crime Red Velvet Velvetine 

Hair styled with GHD

Look #5

(Sorry this one is not edited, it was a last minute addition)

This one took 3 minutes including hair.

No foundation

Benefit brow pencil

Eyeko EyeDo Mascara and Eyeliner

Lime Crime Red Velvet Velvetine

Hair in a sad ponytail nub and styled with a bandana

Brand Focus: LUSH

Still putting together my posts from Belfast so I decided to do a little brand focusing and share a favored brand of mine that deserves a little blog post appreciation. 

LUSH handmade cosmetics. This brand is natural, ethically sourced, and offers a variety of products for all skin conditions.

Lush makes FACE soaps, cleansers, moisturizers, toners, scrubs, masques, spot treatments, BODY soaps, washes, lotions, oils, perfumes, deodorants, false tans, scrubs, bath bombs, for HAIR, shampoos, conditioners, masques, scalp treatments and henna based dyes. AND their own Cosmetics range which is amazing.

these are a few of my favorite LUSH products...

FRESH FARMACY FACE SOAP

A irritation reducing face soap with chamomile and essential oils

BREATH OF FRESH AIR TONER

A rose water and Aloe Vera spray on toner for face and body

COSMETIC WARRIOR FACE MASQUE

An antibacterial and free radical destroying masque for a breakout prone skin

KARMA BODY SOAP

An aromatic LUSH scent that comes in a multiplicity of products

Pachouli, Sweet Orange Oil, and Bergamot

HAIR DOCTOR SCALP TREATMENT

A seaweed based scalp soothing mask with hydrating and restorative properties

LUSH COSMETICS

LUSH Cosmetics are designed around color therapy where each color has an effect on your mood. Each color symbolizes a mood, emotion or trait you have, need, or desire in your life. these three are my favorite to wear together. In Charge and Fantasy are eyeliners, and Decisive is a hot red lipstick.

Bumble&Bumble Hair Makeover

Bumble and Bumble has an Instagram contest running to win free products but it is only available in America. Well, I can't win but I can blog about it! The contest was your Invisible Hair Oil makeover.

Bumble just recently expanded and created the Hairdresser's Invisible Oil range to a Shampoo, Conditioner, Primer, and Oil to create sleek, healthy, UV and heat protected hair that shines! It really works.

I own the miniature versions of all these products for travelling.

This kit is available at larger and participating Boots or at bumbleandbumble.com

MY HAIR MAKEOVER

BEFORE

My hair is dry, frizzy, and three days unwashed...yikes!

AFTER

With just a wash, spritz of primer, a blowout with a round brush and a light application of the oil after words, I have humidity proof, smooth as silk, straight hair that will last me days!

This process was easy to do and in the long run will have a great impact in preventing further drying and damage to my hair.

Rocking Illamasqua skin base foundation in 006, MAC Cranberry and Cinderella eyeshadows with Eyeko Eye Do liner, Benefit Brow Zing, and MAC Snob lipstick.

Palette Power

I love palettes! They make everything easier. Smokey eyes, set styles, traveling, doing makeup on the go, THEY ARE GENIUS. I collect them for all kinds of brands and recommend them to everyone.
I gathered what I believe are the top three favorable palettes on the market at the moment where you really get your money's worth!


YSL Yves Saint Laurent Couture Palettes £35

This palette comes in ten
different shade groups
1- Tuxedo -blue grey
2- Fauves - taupes and greys
3- Afrique -beige and charcoal
4- Saharienne- pinks and silvers
5- Surrealiste- purples and blues
6- Rive Gauche- blues
7- Parisienne- pinks and taupes
8- Avant Garde- metallics
9- Love- pinks
10- Lumieres Majorelle- blues and green (photoed)
11- Ballets Russes -blue, pink, and metallic





Sugarpill Cold Chemistry Palette £25

This palette was designed by the lovely model Amelia Arsenic in conjunction with Amy Doan, founder of Sugarpill. These are all metallic and used together make a beautiful smokey eye that has a pop of color.

Soot and Stars- metallic charcoal with silver
Diamond Eyes- shimmering white
Elemental Chaos- violet with purple shimmer
Subterranean- dark green turquoise shimmer








Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette £35

This is the third of the Naked Palette trilogy of natural toned all in one palettes. The first palette was natural metallic tones. The second one was more earth metals and this one, the beautiful number three is all rose gold tones which brightens the skin tone, the eye color and just glows.

Each palette has 12 colors ranging from highlight to brow and eyeliner colors with some nice popping gold tones.

Today's Buys, New Goodies

Today I was bopping around Canary Wharf today and ended up snagging myself a couple goodies! I was in Boots, checking out the latest trends, and ended up getting what is now MY FAVOURITE body lotion of all time simply because it doesn't feel like a lotion and leaves me softer than a baby booty!

This is the beautiful lovely NIP+FAB Hyaluronic Fix Body Gel. I am obsessed with hyaluronic acid which is an intense hydrator that holds 1,000xs its weight in water. The gel texture is really quick drying, I mean, seriously quick drying but I feel smooth for a long time! Looking forward to seeing how smooth my skin stays overnight tonight.

After Boots, I fell into the MAC store where I found the perfect everyday natural nude lipstick. This is an amplified finish very pigmented peachy nude from the Viva Glam collection, this is Viva Glam II. As well, at the till I got a mini mascara because I have a shopping problem...

(You will see a lot of this lipstick I am going to wear it all week)

What is Trending in August

I have done my snooping around trending magazines and the Elle Magazine Beauty Cupboard to see what products and looks are IN in August.

First we will look into the READY TO WEAR looks from Summer and Autumn/Winter Runway

This look here is my favourite runway look of all time. To do a look like this simply use nail art sequins, eyelash glue and a cotton bud. Experiment with different holographic sequins above and below the eye as your new signature night out look! I am on the hunt for nail art sequins of a colour i like at the moment to give this look at test run. 

OR ABOVE THE LASH LINE FOR A GLITTERY KICK

When it comes to product highlights. I have just a few designer lovely to share. Most of these are from Elle Magazine. This includes Christian Louboutin nail varnish, Bare Mineral liquid foundation, Philosophy miracle cream, pink, red, and orange lipsticks, and Jo Malone candles!

Katy Perry Inspired Blue Hair

I changed my hair, AGAIN, as I do because I can never can make up my mind.

I have always done reds, oranges and pinky tones but I decided to stray away and go blue!

I used Katy Perry's blue bob as my inspiration and used Directions toners and dyes to achieve the look. My hair is pre-treated and heavily over processed from bleaching so takes very easily to color. Results may vary.

I started with the DIRECTIONS WHITE TONER to remove the bulk of the golden tones in my hair to avoid making the blue too blue-green. I left it on my hair for ten minutes.

After washing it out, towel drying my hair and brushing it into sections, i mixed DIRECTIONS ATLANTIC BLUE with a cheap conditioner, this time it was JOHN FRIEDA FRIZZEASE CONDTIONER. I mixed 60/40, the majority being dye and with a tint brush applied to my roots and then worked it through the rest of my hair with my fingers.

After combing it through the hair, I put my hair into a shower cap and left it for 35 minutes. Rinsed it out and towel dried the hair. Lastly I applied DIRECTIONS MIDNIGHT BLUE to my roots (which i will be doing again later this week for darker roots) to add depth the the colour. Left that for 15 minutes, washed and blow-dried out.

Black Velvet, if you please

Last Night, I played around with the most naughty of lipsticks in my collection- Black Velvet by Lime Crime. (Reminds me of the lovely Alannah Myles song...) This liquid lipstick is from the Velvetine collection where the colours dry completely matte. Black Velvet dries to a matte leather look. Though black is intense, you can wear it as the prime time of your look to make a statement without coming off as a scary 1990's goth.

Follow the trend! I decided to vamp it up with Eladora eyelashes, soft pink blush and light eyebrows...and for some reason I put a necklace on my head too. Necklace from H&M.

Foundation- Bobbi Brown foundation stick

Bronzer- Chanel soleil bronzer in oasis

Blusher- MAC stay pretty

Eyeshadow and Brows- Urban Decay Naked Basics palette

Lips- you know.

And here is one just for the lashes!

My Deep Cleanse Masque

Last night I did a deep cleansing customised masque to clear up my skin. With stress and all the heat we have had here in London, my skin had broke out a bit so I upped my enzymatic exfoliation and using an antioxidant rich clay based masque. This masque is a mix of Glam Glow super mud and Sebum Clearing Masque from Dermalogica to get an extra kick of anti-inflammatory magic! 

With a masque like this, I will wear it every third day as an intense treatment for up to an hour post exfoliation.

Masque face... No shame