Pastel puddings and ballroom dancing

Good weather is keeping me in high spirits, baking pear and almond muffins and sweet spiced nuts. Out and about I picked up some of my favourite puddings from the Chinese supermarket and Some broken blossom boughs from a walk in the park on the way to visit a friend.

The shoes I mentioned in my last post are from Bourne, they are from last seasons range but there are lots of new bejewelled designs or try Ebay for similar. Continuing on the shoe theme I visited Kirt Geiger and I picked up a pair of super cute silver ballroom style shoes for £29 so no lunch money for me next week. Time to hand the debit card in to my husband I think. I don't know what it is about silver and gold shoes but I am building up quite a collection, I love them.

Happy weekend to you.

La Roche-Posay Makeup Remover

This was an accidental purchase arising from a 3 for 2 offer at Boots. I was vaguely looking for a new MU remover, following an episode with me and Clinique's 'Take the Day Off' Lids, Lips and Lashes formula. I purchased the Clinique product after a recommendation by Tanya Burr (Pixi2woo for you YT'ers) and whilst I agree that it is amazing and removes every sinlge tiny trace of makeup, it left my lids with a slight oily feeling which I found hard to apply makeup onto. So, although I still have my Clinique and will love it and use it on occassion, I needed something a bit more day-to-day.

Enter La Roche-Posay. I became aware of this brand about a year ago, but as it wasn't stocked anywhere near me, it was a bit of a non-starter. Now, my local Boots stock it and the prices are fairly reasonable (from £8 +)- I had expected them to be much higher.

I picked up the Physiological Micellar Solution, which claims to remove all traces of lip, eye and face makeup, whilst still suitable for sensitive skins. The light, non-oily texture of this solution means there is no rinsing required either, so can just be applied with a cotton wool pad. It is free from parabens, alcohol, dyes and soaps.

My skin, which is dramatically reactive to any change in skincare routine, has drunk this up without any issues and I'm onto my 2nd bottle. Since I've started using it, I wash my face less with water (except on days when I exfoliate) and I really think it's helping. My skin is much calmer, my hormonal spots seem to be going away from a flare up last month and it is much less oily! Unfortunately, it is unavailable to buy on Boots.com just now, so I can't give you the exact price, but I recall it was around £8-£10 I think. Other products in the range can be seen on the Boots website or visit the La Roche-Posay website for a look at their full line.

I will definitely be picking up more in this range!

Pic from La Roche-Posay website

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadows

Hola,

I first bleated about these back in Feb, after picking up RSVP and loving it; since then, I have acquired 3 more and I love them even more!

Last time I talked about how lovely the application was, how soft they are, how long-lasting the shadow is and how easily blendable they are, so no need to mention all that again...

This time, I am just wowed by the colours. I love them! They are so versatile, so modern but classic and can be just as easily daytime as they can evening eyes. Because it is a cream, the pay-off you get is the same as what you see in the jar. No need to build these colours up, 1 coat is enough.

The whole range complements each other perfectly and many of the colours can be blended together. I often use RSVP over my lid, then Get Figgy in the crease, or Skinny Jeans on my lid with Strut as a liner.

Fab, fab, fab.

Above - pic taken in artificial light, below - pic taken in bright daylight.

From Left to Right: Strut, Get Figgy, Skinny Jeans and RSVP

RSVP

SKINNY JEANS

GET FIGGY

STRUT

These bad boys currently sell for £14 in your nearest Boots or Debenhams counters or visit Benefit's UK website. I should point out that the UK site has 21 colour choices as opposed to the US site which only has 13!

Jewel-ly Eyes inspired by Rae Morris

One of the pictures in the 'Eyes' section of Makeup, The Ultimate Guide by Rae Morris (I can't post the pic in case of copyright rules) totally captured my imagination last week and below is what I created using the pic as inspiration. The picture in the book is of a beautifully bronzed model with purple, pink and turquoise-y blue eye makeup and it's stunning.

I am a bit browner in the pic due to a combination of proper suntan and a little Benefit One Hot Minute Bronzer.

Other products used included the Purple, Pink and Blue glitter eyeliners by Sleek Makeup and the Acid I-Divine eyeshadow palette, with lashings of Benefit Bad Gal lash to make my lashes spiky as if they were wet.

A pair of Carrie shoes

The sun rushed in and my appetite for colour went through the roof. A lunch with friends on Sunday, a little retail therapy whilst visiting some new boutiques in the Old Town. Vintage plates, pretty pins, paisley cupcake cases, and a pair of Carrie shoes which were so pretty I blew my whole weekend budget on them.

How did you spend your weekend?

Mini Monday... Not Makeup Related

Hi

I'm sorry today's Mini Monday is not about makeup but today was a very, very sad day; one of those days that shows how painfully short life can be. How it is too short for bitching, moaning and procrastination.

So while we lust after the latest lip-glosses, blushers and bronzers to make us beautiful on the outside, remember the ones we love who shape us on the inside.

That is all.

Love, Amanda x

Ellis Faas Lipstick

Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know I am a bit fond of a red lipstick, so when I spotted a competition over at Beauty Woo Me to win an Ellis Faas lippie, I was all over it!

Unbelievably, I won and the bullet of delicious red glossiness popped through my letter box last week. The Ellis Faas cosmetic brand is completely inspired by 'Human Colours'; the colours that exist universally and naturally in each and every one of us.

The lipstick range consists of 27 colours, in 3 textures; Creamy, Milky and Glazed. You can see the full range here. I received L103 Creamy Lips, which retails at 25Euro. It's so smooth and silky, not like a normal thick lipstick texture at all and it's beautifully moisturising. I expected it to go on slightly streaky due to it's lighter texture, but pictured below is just one tiny smooth coat. And 3 hours later, my lips are still red, even and the best part is they haven't dried out. Delighted!

sweet treats, plans and inspiration.

Last weekend was spent preparing sweet treats for a Saturday night gathering. Teeny meringue and fruit tarts, brownies, yummy white russian cupcakes from this book, and fresh strawberry ice cream. Seems I ate way too little cake and drank too much Rum. Although Sunday morning I did manage to fight through the hangover and craft a green iced dinosaur out of chocolate cake for a two year old's birthday party. Miracle. It all went down hill after I became a human climbing frame. So will be having quiet Saturdays in for a few weeks.

Has everyone else been really enjoying the sunshine? Even from indoors, my windows pushed open, curtains fluttering in the fresh spring breeze. Tidying magazine scraps into folders and paper piles all over the living room table (much to my husbands dismay).

I have been gathering images for a holiday inspired mood board hoping I can weed out the black leggings and grey cardigans for more colourful and bejewelled style capsule wardrobe to take away with me to Marrakech. All my greys fall together so easily and the revival of leggings has made me utterly lazy about dressing. Feel another wardrobe cull fast approaching.

Still procrastinating about what to sew these beautiful stones onto. A trip to Liberty is needed to get some fabric and design some cushions. All this colour is making my imagination boil over.

Mini Mondays... Coco Beau

Howdy,

I had planned on doing a full on creative FOTD today inspired by Rae Morris, but my skin is having a freak-out at the moment and don't really want to be messing about with it too much as I'm hoping it will calm down soon. So... I thought I would do a new mini series called Mini Mondays. Everyone hates Mondays anyway so 'Mini Mondays' will be short and sweet!

Today is basically just to show off about the fact that the lovely peeps at Coco Beau have decided to put me up as a 'model' (trust me, I use the term loosely!!) on their customer gallery, which contains pics of lots of lovely girlies modelling the products they have purchased.

If you select a product, click on 'more images' and then use 'next' in the top corner and that will take you through all the customer pics for that product. So, my dreams of being famous are slowly being realised!!

Anyway, this is supposed to be mini so I'll stop now. But not before I entice you back later this week with a look at my Ellis Faas lippie... The packaging alone is simply divine and I can't wait to try out the product properly! Pics up in a couple of days!

Love A x

Princess diaries.

Something pretty for a Monday morning. So many beautiful details on these gowns by Zuhair Murad. I love the delicate glistening antique feel of them all.

All images Zuhair Murad.

Chanel Mini Haul

Following on from yesterday's post, here is a quick look at some of the things I picked up at the Chance party...

First up, Chanel Ombre Essentielle Eyeshadow in Quartz (£19.41). Fiona, the MUA who was tasked with brightening up my face, choose this shade and teamed it with some grey eyeliner (not in the pic below). Although I didn't take the eyeliner, I fell in love with the gorgeously baby soft velvety feel of this little shadow and the shade just made my eyes so blue!

I can't enthuse enough about how soft and dense the application and pigment is. The colour is like a neon pastel, with the soft summery baby pink, with a much deeper, brighter undertone peeking through.

Quite pricey for a single e/s, so any future ones will definitely be a treat but really pleased with this one!

Next is another addition to my ever-growing Chanel foundation collection! This is the Vitalumiere Eclat Comfort Radiance Compact (about £42 I think, I couldn't get onto the Boots website to check).

Although this is more like a pressed powder compact, Fiona used it as a foundation alone. I normally think my skin is oily but Fiona said it seemed to be a bit de-hydrated and that even though the compact is powder based, it's still suitable for dryer patches and it looked fab! Very natural with a lovely day-time coverage. I received a free compact in my goodie bag, so the mini-version will go into my travel kit. Perfect!

This little card was one of the mini-freebies in my goodie bag, which has 4 little pots of Rouge Coco lipsticks. I haven't tried these yet, so am saving them for when I'm off on a night out or something to give the shades a whirl! Sorry about the pic, I forgot to turn it when I was editing...

Last, but not least! Chanel La Vernis Rouge Noir. My HG nail polish since I discovered it in 2005. Other colours may come and go, but Rouge Noir will always be there!

Chanel 'Chance' Launch party

This afternoon, 2 of my most favourite girls and I sauntered down to the local Chanel counter, after I managed to secure 3 invites to this weekend's launch party for the new Chanel Chance perfume. Chanel is running these mini pamper parties all through April and we jumped at the opportunity to get make-overs, manicures and goodie bags!

**Sorry I should have said... I will cover the products I bought and received in a seperate post! And the new perfume, the star of the day, was gorgeous!!**

The new version of the perfume is the pink one! I didn't realise the bottle was the wrong way round!

The lovely Claire!

Marie having her nails painted with 'Splendour'. I had mine done in Rouge Noir, as if I'd choose anything else!


One of the goodies I received was this little limited edition book about the Rouge Coco lipstick range. Lovely!

Although I did spend a fortune, as usual, the ladies at Chanel kindly flung in some other goodies including some Chance perfume, Rouge Coco lipsticks and Vita Lumiere foundation.

And this was me, after being beautified by Fiona, the Chanel MUA and having my nails painted!

All in all, a lovely wee treat for the girls and I!

I'm Back!!

Hi there!

So, sincere apologies for my extended absence! My internet was finally re-instated last night. Whilst my lovely new house in the country is fab for some wholesome living, it's in a total mobile phone/internet blind spot so the past few weeks have seen a very grumpy girl!

From tomorrow, regular MU posts will be back to normal! I only have 4 weeks left of my Post Grad, so am expecting to have much more time to dedicate to the blog.

See you all soon!

A x

A thing for beauty

Aren't some things so beautiful that they almost cause you physical pain? I feel like that about the inspiration boards of the blog A thing for. I want to get inside the pictures and live the moments all for myself. I discovered them earlier today over at Once Wed

Check out her other lovely blog too. The post featuring turquoise walls makes me happy.


All images A thing for

Writing for joy

Just thinking this morning about how it was high time I got on with some paper correspondence (I owe nanny a letter). And although I seem to cover every surface in our house with creative debris, I have always wanted a desk for just writing letters and cards and love this desk makeover featured earlier this year over at Design sponge. I have lots of french paper, vintage stamps and tissue lined envelopes that would look beautiful nestled in a writing nook like this.
Whilst looking for other bits and pieces to decorate I popped over to Lynne at Tea for joy's online store Papermash and found some stationery items almost so lovely I wouldn't want to post them out!

If you are heading over to Tea for joy be sure to read a few of my favourite posts from 2010.
The one about a makeover
The one about a picture
The one about Flowers
and
The one about Style.

Top images from Design sponge. Product images Papermash.

chalky whites and shimmering silvers

Recently found this lovely post over at Gathering Spriggs and thought I would bring some of the tattered glory back here for you. I have posted before about the locations company 1st Option but this just got me all overwhelmed again hoping we can move into a house next year and have more rooms to decorate with chalky whites and shimmering silvers.


The two houses featured here are Myddelton House and Richmond Road.

All images 1st Option.net


Ps still trying to sort out a face Book, so look out for the link in the side bar, I apologise to anyone who already added me I thought it was good to go but it was a profile not a fan page oops!