10 moments when I like to use a bb cream

I feel so self conscious about the skin on my face (hyperpigmentation, red lumps and bumps, big pores and now visible signs of ageing) that you will probably never see me out and about, in broad daylight without a generous coat of the fullest coverage foundation I own. Asking me to step out of the house without some sort of foundation on my face is the same as asking me to venture out without my teeth brushed and deodorant. I basically could only do it if my house was on fire.


At the same time, I am a massive fan of bb creams and it just doesn't make sense. After all, bb creams are just a tinted moisturiser with a bunch of extra skincare properties. Why would I opt for something with such low coverage when I would usually go for the heaviest foundation I can lay my hands on? Well, you'd be surprised.


I wanted to share with you 10 moments when I want to reach out of my items of my beloved bb cream collection.





1) Going to the gym. There are lots of people out there who like to give you grief if they notice you're wearing foundation at the gym. You shouldn't have to care about what people (and mainly strangers) think about you, but if you're already feeling self conscious about your level of extreme unfitness, I find that wearing a bb cream helps with confidence and gives you one less thing people could give you grief about.

2) Strenuous-ish activities outdoor, for example a day to the mountain, walking pretty much all day. If you're anything like me, you won't enjoy outdoor activities much. One it's always cold outside, even in 'summer' and two, everybody is walking faster like you, like they have some sort of train to catch. The last thing you want is to appear like some sort of high maintenance girl, with layers of cakey foundation and who will cry if they break one nail. Just wearing a bit of bb cream on will make people think 'aww, she's clearly useless at walking, but she's not wearing any makeup, how refreshing for a girl who I thought was so obsessed with makeup.’

3) Beach. It is very unlikely I am going to put my head under water at the beach. I can't even swim. As people would laugh at me if I was wearing foundation at the beach, I find that bb creams are just perfect. And if people catch you re-applying bb cream more often than you should, you could always make it pass as a SPF cream ;)

4) Emergency Chocolate Fix. You need to nip out to the corner shop and can't bear showing your bare face to the world? BB cream to the rescue.

5) He stays over. You've started to see this guy more often. You know he's going to stay over and stay for the night. It's very early days and you don't feel comfortable with him seeing you with no ounce of makeup on. You dutifully take your makeup off, pop on bb cream on the sly right after, he's happy because he thinks you let him see the real you and you're happy because he's not seeing you with nothing on. I don’t condone wearing makeup overnight, but if a bb cream is just a tinted moisturiser, this has got to be better than full on primer and foundation, right?

6) Hungover Days. You went out the night before, have a massive hungover and someone is visiting you last minute.


7) Hospital stays. Foundation would make you look too done up. BB cream on its own (no blusher, mascara, lipstick, bronzer) will make you decent enough to be seen by visitors, will even some of your imperfections and still earn you sympathy and hopefully some non hospital made food goodies ;)

8) Dirty foundation tools. You can't stand apply foundation with your bare hands and all your foundation tools (brush, sponge, etc) are dirty or wet.


9) Rubbish Foundation. You bought a foundation and disappointed with its coverage. The foundation is not very buildable and would look very cakey and horrible if you attempt to apply too much, so you apply a bb cream as a base, and manage to use up your disappointing foundation overtime.

10) Fake Tan. You have a lovely fake tan on your face and don't want to mask with your heavy duty foundation. You apply a bb cream to cover some of your ‘bad’ bits and still let your lovely tan shine through.

What about you? Did you also catch the bb cream bug? Are you still using your bb creams regularly or are they sitting there gathering dust?

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

The best red eyeshadow in the world

If there is one party eye makeup I love is glittery red eyes. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, but I have found nothing gets you as many compliments as red glittery eyes. Once, I was coming back from a night out, was a bit naughty, didn't remove my eye makeup (don't sleep in your makeup, it gives you spots) and was stopped (the following day) by the Boots Makeup woman whose makeup is always absolutely flawless and she went 'woah, what's that you on your eyes'. I must say, I loved that moment as for once I was a getting a compliment from a makeup professional.


But my beloved red glittery eyes demand a pigmented red eyeshadow and good quality and inexpnsive eye shadows are VERY hard to find in the high street.

 
When I finished the teeny tiny little red eyeshadow part of famous 'ebay' 88 matte eyeshadow palette (the only shadow I used out of that palette, I had never liked that palette at all actually) I realised how difficult it was to find an inexpensive and good quality red eyeshadow on the high street. Matte shadows in general are harder to find, but blooming heck finding a matte red one really felt like mission impossible.


No point going to Boots or Superdrug, you'd be wasting your time. If you don't want to go through the expensive Mac route, Illamasqua does a gorgeous one (@LizzumsBB aka benebelle has some gorgeous swatches for you) but I'd rather not spend £16 in a eyeshadow if I could and would rather pay £1 more and purchase a pair of stunning lashes. Topshop does a lovely red shadow but 1) it's more a raspberry pink shade of red and 2) topshop annoys me, being so pretentious only selling their makeup in the poshest and biggest shops in England. Sleek finally released a red eyeshadow in one of their eyeshadow palettes but the palette was only a limited edition item, in honour of the Olympics and you still had to fork out £7.99 for it.

  
Ebay once again came to my rescue and you have no idea how excited I was to find a super pigmented red eyeshadow for just £1.76. Now for the confusing part. The shadow is made from the lovely folks at Stargazer. They have, I believe, 2 red eyeshadows. One is disappointing, and is called the 'fluorescent' one. Don't get that one, because it's dry and not that pigmented. You want to get the other one, also called the red velvet one by some sellers. I always wear a primer and a white base to maximise the duration and pigmentation of my eyeshadows but I took some photos for you, without any primer or anything to show you how pigmented this little bad boy is. POW!





I hope you will excuse the abysmally bad outdoor lighting. That’s England for you!









This shadow is everything you want from a eyeshadow: very good pigmentation, soft but not too much fall out, very easy to blend and is £1.76. Why get anything else?






I told you people liked it

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

What: Stargazer Red (velvet) eyeshadow
How much: £1.76 (+£1.44 postage)
Where: Ebay. Seller is called Supply me Beauty.
Link to product here.

My moisturising buddy

If there is one thing I keep changing times and times again is my day face moisturiser. For one, I don't think I have found my 'holy grail' one and my priorities change all the time. One minute, I will feel super self conscious about getting old and will want to invest into something pricey-ish hoping it will make me feel better. The next, I am thinking, I am going to get old anyway, no matter how many lotions and potions I slather on my face and will just want a very accessible and plain moisturiser which does its hydrating job well.

 
One of my skincare priorities which is hardly going to change is that I need moisture, loads of it and this what brought me to purchase a tube of Superdrug Vitamin e radiance moisture cream. I was very dubious this moisturiser would impress me. How could a £2.99 moisturiser ticks my boxes when a £14.99 face cream can sometimes leave me indifferent?





This is what it promises to do:







12 hour moisturisation, did they say? I don't know about you but when a product promises me to give {insert amount of hours/days/weeks} result, I usually like to half that and consider myself happy if I get that result. Put your hands up if you only get 1.5 weeks of fuzz free legs when you’ve been promised 4! I can't tell you if this moisturiser left me moisturised for a whole 12 hours but my skin always feels adequately moisturised after a whole day of work and until I am ready to take it all off in the evening.


To top the long lasting moisturising experience (and the Superdrug vitamin e hot cleansers fans will vouch for this) the moisturiser smells absolutely divine and reminds me of cocoa butter mixed with sun cream. Texture is lovely too and sinks in my skin very easily, leaves me moisturised, plumped, smelling gorgeous and never too greasy. It feels like my skin needs it and drinks it all as soon as I slather it on my face.
 
Now for the 'radiance' bit. This cream, in my opinion, is strictly reserved for individuals with dry/very dry types of skin. The light reflecting pigments are quite powerful and noticeable almost verging disco ball but I absolutely love it personally. I hope the following picture, taken in bright natural light will be able to give you an idea.





I admit I will probably feel self conscious if I wear this moisturiser on its own, in bright day light, say at a picnic date (eek, I can't stand picnics) at 2pm on a ridiculously sunny 'summer' day, in case I resemble one of the vampires in twilight but to be honest, I can't imagine myself wearing this moisturiser alone, and with no foundation on top. As soon as you put something on top, primer or foundation, the radiance effect is dramatically reduced. Also having said that, I have found myself reaching for this moisturiser many times, on a dull winter day, even when I am not planning to put makeup on top.

This moisturiser is not perfect though and it tragically clashes with my favourite face primer (no.7 airbrush away primer) and as soon as the two become in contact, they almost curdle together and  I am left with little bits of stuff peeling away on the surface. Is is the fault of the £2.99 moisturiser or the ridiculously expensive no.7 primer? (£19 something?) I don't know. My primer also 'curdles' with another face moisturiser which I own and my vitamin e moisturiser gets on perfectly with my L'Oreal Studio Secrets Smoothing Resurfacing Primer.
 
As for the anti ageing agenda, the Superdrug vitamin doesn't claim to bring me 10 years younger but it does contain 2 universally recognised anti-ageing ingredients (read the beauty mouth anti ageing cheat skin here) : vitamin e and a sun protection factor (SPF 15) and I am very very VERY happy with that.

I am going through my third tube of vitamin e moisturiser and it's definitely going to fall into my Superdrug basket many times again in the future, especially when I get 2 for £3.99 as it is the case at the moment. The tube has a very small handy handbag size, it's not overly girly and embarrassing to carry around and be seen with and finally no big fat fingers dipping in a big fat pot: you squeeze of fresh amount of product every time. It really bugs me I can use my airbrush away primer with it, but it gives me the chance to use up my other primers I never use.


What: Superdrug Vitamin e Skin Care SPF 15 Radiance Moisture Cream. 
How much: £2.99 (watch out for 2 for £3.99 offers during the year)
Where: Superdrug.
Availability: even the small and dingy superdrugs have got it :)

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. Thank you for reading xx

About blogging: Untitled/Invisible subscriptions be no more

When my beloved british beauty blogger and miss budget beauty changed their blogging platform and moved from Blogger to Wordpress, a lot of changes took place. One of them was the way I was receiving their blogs posts in my rss reader. I am a big fan of Google Reader and not a (sober) day passes without me checking my reader for new content, multiple times a day.


Suddenly, and because of the blogger/wordpress conversion, for some technical reason, British Beauty Blogger's and Miss BB's posts became anonymous, almost invisible and arrived in my reader as 'untitled'. This is not the end of the world, as I was still receiving their content but I found that it really affected how much I read those posts. I almost didn't notice them.


If you are a little bit superficial like me, and you're having the same 'issue' with some of your favourite bloggers who changed their blogging platform, it is really really REALLY easy to fix it and I could kick myself for not having it done any sooner.







Solution:
In short: As a google reader user, you have the possibility to give a name or rename any blog you have subscribed to. Open your google reader, click subscriptions, then 'manage subscriptions' and just click 'rename'. And that's it.

In detail:
Open Google reader, click subscriptions,





then 'manage subscriptions'










Find the blog which has no name. The blog which have no name are very easy to find. They usually sit at the top.










Click rename.









By clicking rename, google reader allows you rename the TITLE of the subscription (which is what you want) not the actual rss feed address. The RSS feed address will stay the same which is what we want because otherwise you won't be able to receive the posts of your favourite bloggers.
And voila. xx

Last night a hair dye saved my life

So what do you do when you have a special occasion coming up, at the very last minute, there's no time to do anything and you're white as an headache tablet? You experiment with bronzer or wash off fake tan, and pray it doesn't rain. When it comes to hair, things are a little bit trickier, especially when there are grey hair involved. Colouring your hair is messy, super messy and if you're anything like me your hair only looks presentable the second time you wash it. No matter how much I rinse my hair, straight after colouring it, you can guarantee I will be left with a stained scalp and other tell tale signs.

While browsing Superdrug, I came across the Colour Effects wash in and wash out and I can't even begin to tell you how many times this has saved my ‘life’. I couldn't tell you how many times I bought it too.




The idea is to wash your hair as normal, pop a bit of the conditioning colour on your hair, leave it to rest for 5 minutes and voila. In reality, it is not straight forward as that. My hair is so bleeming dark, I like to leave it on 15 minutes (this is something I always do with any type of hair colourant) while I go about ma’ business in the bath. The product is super runny and before 15 minutes have elapsed, you look like you had a head injury and the red colourant is dripping all over your body.


The way I go round this is to apply this temporary conditioning colour and cover my head with 2 disposable shower caps immediately after. Bulk buying disposable caps is probably one of my best (and probably most boring) beauty investments in the whole of 2012. Don't even think of trying this hair colour and not having some sort of head gear at your disposal. You will only manage waiting for 5 minutes (if that) and you'll freak out in case the skin of your whole body gets stained in the process, which is probably something you don't want on the day of your special occasion.


The result is quite striking. If you have grey hair, you will still be able to see where they are, but they will look almost as highlights and will blend better with the rest of your hair. The bottle says that it contains enough product for 3 applications. I find that I just have enough product for 2 applications on my 20 inches hair. I love how it gives me enough colour to temporarily (2 shampoos) to cover the bits I am self conscious about but without the faff of a traditional hair colourant. You don't need to worry about gloves either and it won't stain neither nails or hands.


I easily could think of 2 brands which offer a wash in, wash out hair colourant with far superior quality: the legendary shaders and toners from Wella and another brand which used to be only sold at Tesco. Both of them seem to have been discontinued. Colour Effects from Superdrug are far from perfect. If I had to give it a mark, it'd just scrape a 5 out 10, due to its extremely runny texture. But it has saved my bacon so many times, it's a product that I've been buying again, again and again. It is definitely, for me, anyway, a case of 'confidence in a bottle' and that is priceless.

What: Superdrug Colour Effects Wash in Wash out. (6:4 rich red)    
How much: £1.29    
Where: Superdrug
Availability: even the small and dingy superdrugs have got it :)  

  

It’s Sunday and that means it’s Blogging Date with Sirvinya. If you have a few minutes to spare, please do check Sirvinya’s beauty blog. It’s been a real challenge for me this week. To say that I have been feeling rusty, is an understatement. Thank you for reading xx

A pop of colour

It seems that these days that not a day passes without a celebrity releasing a beauty product. Sometimes their endorsement and whether they were really involved in the creation of the product is a bit dubious but there are times when it really makes sense and you wonder why a particular product weren't released any sooner. Cue Katy Perry and her most recent collaboration with Eylure lashes.


Katy Perry released some false lashes before but never before have they looked as perry-esque as they do now. Katy Perry is all about bright colourful looks and these lashes invite you to add a pop of colour into your makeup look.




These would be perfect if you want good quality and reliable quality lashes (as opposed to taking your chances with lashes an obscure random brand on eBay) to complete an already bright and colourful eye makeup or if you want to subtly enhance the natural colour of your eyes. The blue and the purple would be ideal to make brown eyes pop.




The packaging is absolutely spot on: What more appropriate that pop art to illustrate lashes with a pop of colour. The shape of the colour of pop lashes also excite me. The feathery look really remind of the luxurious shu uemura smokey layers who are by far, without the shadow of a doubt THE lashes which have got me the most compliments EVER. When I wear them, people go 'You should wear them often'. Well, I would if they weren't £17 a pop! They also present 2 features that I really like on false lashes: a solid lashline (easier to conceal than 'dash-lined' ones) and the fact that they are shorter on both the inner and outer corner. Lashes which have a slanted shape and longer at the outer corner do not tend to suit me as they emphasise my droopy lids.








If you couldn't tell already I am beyond excited about these lashes. The concept, the name, the shape, the colour and the fact that they scream Katy Perry to me. They cement the idea that I already have in mind of Katy Perry: Her costumes are so much fun, you could almost believe she comes straight out of a comic book.

 

 

According to the lovely Bicky, from Tastes Like Glitter, these little beauties will be released in January 2013. I can't wait to check them out and see how they compare to the 'pop-of-red' (Girls Aloud) Sarah Festival lashes.

Bronze Nails

'Tis the season to make your nails festive and today I have a gorgeous golden coppery bronze shade to show you. I am the first one to be surprised at the beauty of this shade.  My first experience of bronze nail polish didn't have the best start. I remember buying Models Own Proper Copper from a blog sale and not being able to wear it at all. It basically looked like baby poo.

  






Models Own Rage however is a total different kettle fish altogether. I predict that it won't be everyone's cup of tea and won't suit all skin tones but for me, it has enough gold in it to stand against the contents of a baby's nappy and I really really like it. To top it all, Bronze Rage applied very easily and gave me a beautiful opacity in just 2 coats.








In one week's time, well next Friday, I am hoping to wear a black skirt and a fancy gold embroidered corset style top for my staff Christmas Party (this is the plan so far anyway) and Bronze Rage is presenting itself a strong contender for my nails. I am thinking that maybe I could jazz them up with a gradient-ish gold glitter tips a la Lady of the Lane? We'll see...

I am once again very grateful to Sirvinya, without who this blog would be very bare at the moment. Take a moment to check out her blog, if you have a few minutes to spare. If we hadn't had this Sunday blogging date going on, this blog wouldn’t be very much updated these days. I think my mojo is hibernating.

Have you been on a Christmas Party yet?
What did you wear on your nails?

Sequin Drama

I have stopped counting the number of times I've genuinely put Tammy Sequin Dress in my shopping basket. It has gone from available in my size, to unavailable and to available again. So naturally, I just had to feature it in my entry for the Boohoo Christmas #partypose challenge.


Before you think and sulk about not having been invited to take part in the challenge, let me reassure you I was not invited either :) Boohoo is inviting bloggers to blog about their dream outfit from the website, I browse a lot on Boohoo so naturally I wanted to take part. The idea is to create an outfit with at least 3 items from the website and the maximum you can 'fantasy' spend is £100. A doddle considering how affordable the clothes are on boohoo.

I was dying to feature the Tammy Sequin Dress as it is a dress I have genuinely been contemplating buying. I feel the dress would help enhance my good bits (the waist and the midriff). Most of all, it's the flared bottom half that I like. It's right in between a pencil skirt type of skirt and a full on fifties/skater skirt, without (I hope) being too clingy on the thighs which is my problem area. I think I need to try it.





There are however 4 reasons why I haven't bought it so far:

1) I have a short bust and I feel this is so low cut that it might show my navel. This won't be a problem for Roberta, my alteration lady up the road though.
2) Strewth this dress is long. Is it not going to drown the 5ft2 person that I am?
3) I absolutely love the sequin drama but the back looks a little bit too much like a swimming costume. Will I like that in real life? What I could sew (well, stick) some mesh fabric underneath. Would I like it better like that?
4) What if it is too clingy on the thighs?





I just can't make up my mind. I feel so drawn to this dress. It's so rare to find dresses these days which are not bodycon or skater style.


I decided to pair Tammy Sequin with a baroque necklace to add a bit more to the skin. This dress shows so much skin, that I wanted to dress the body back a little if that makes sense. And last but not least, the uber gorgeous lillie diamonte shoes. They are not perfect, and they look like they have this suedette effect on them (it's not my favourite type of material to be honest) but I love the shape, the diamonte straps, the chunkiness, the height and the price.







I hope you liked my second (and final) entry to this #partypose challenge. If you want to take part yourself, you can find out all about it here. Thanks for reading xx






disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

Bronze Baroque

I have resisted and resisted but it's December in just under 2 hours and it's finally time to realise that Christmas is coming, whether I've reached my target weight or not (I haven't). I don't have many preparations to do at all, and no presents to buy - that's the advantage of not having a family -  but I do have a few parties coming up in December and I need to find outfits to party in.


The Boohoo #Partypose challenge could not come at a better time. I've heard about it today through my friend Jade, aka the Beauty Butterfly Blog. The challenge is to create an outfit collage of at least 3 products available on boohoo.com. The full outfit must cost less than £100. This is a very easy challenge, as the clothes are boohoo are very very affordable. I couldn't wait to take part. I had four outfits ideas but I decided to post my two favourites ones.

  
My first collage is called Bronze Baroque. Baroque because of the beautiful Lydia Baroque dress which is the centerpiece of this outfit.





The dress is described to have a 'skater' style. I don't usually go for skater style dresses. This is because, although they accentuate the waist and are very feminine, they tend to bulk up the thighs and the bum. But I feel this one is different as the material seems to be forgiving and skimming. I absolutely love the baroque gold/bronze detail and the see through mesh insert which allows to show some flesh. I also love the way you can wear your biggest cleavage boosting bra underneath and all I need is some clear straps.

   


I decided to pair the dress with some golden owl earrings with a little stone for eyes and some bargainous black rhinestones high heels.








As if the outfit was not bargainous enough, Boohoo is offering 15% of all the dresses and shoes until Sunday 02 December 2012, 23:59 if you enter the code PARTY15 at checkout.


Like this challenge and want to take part yourself? You don't have to receive a special invitation to take part and the prize is pretty amazing: £100 to spend on yourself. You can read all about it here.





disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

Nudey Dudeys

It's been so long since I've blogged that I feel I have forgotten how to do it. To ease myself gently back into it, I wanted to share with you my impressions on the second half of the neons and nudes set from Nails Inc. After being very disappointed with the opacity of the neon side, playing with the nudes was a walk in the park. Just two coats and the white line of my nail was appropriately hidden.




I hope you will excuse again the 'lazy' manicure. These bottles are so small (only 4ml of product in each of them) and you really feel the big dent in the bottle after 2 coats on each finger. Porchester is such a lovely colour. It was love first sight. If I listened to my heart, I'd go buy a full size bottle right now. I feel it compliments my skin tone quite nicely. I didn't get along with Cadogan Square at all. I can't put my finger in it, it just clashes with my skin tone. It feels a bit like trying to pull off a shade of blonde hair on someone designed to be a brunette.






No seche vite was used in this manicure. Holding a normal size bottle of nail polish made the photograph taking easier






The little cherry on the top in this set was the timeless classic Jermyn Street and it made me fall in love with it all over again. I could have sworn to have blogged about it before but a quick search on my blog made me realise that I was wrong.


Jermyn street is quite simply the best brown nail polishes out there. Some of you will call it taupe but to be honest, I don’t know much about colours to distinguish between taupe, brown, mushroom and all that. Since jermyn street, I have not touched at my Barry M mushroom which I find quite bland in comparison. Jermyn has just the perfect dosage of purple in there and I don’t think I could ever get bored of this colour. I would totally recommend it!

  







  

It’s time of the week again when I have a blogging date with Becky. Hop over to my friend Becky aka sirvinya and check out her post of the day