Holiday Packing

I am a very excited lady right now. This year, in fact tomorrow, I am going to Morocco for a week and I cannot wait! It will be an amazing holiday with my wonderful family and my lovely boyfriend. However, what beauty products to pack on holiday is a dilemma I have every year. This is mostly because given the option, I would forgo all clothing and fill my suitcase with SPF 50 suncream to stop my pale and freckly Scottish skin from going crispy in the sun, and then squeeze every single other product I use into any crevice in said suitcase. You can never have too many beauty products. Ever. Fact.

We are only taking cabin bags on the plane (not my idea), so this year condensing the mass of beauty STUFF was a matter of priority. I have managed to do so, into three seperate bags (I am hoping to palm off some of the stash on my boyfriend/Dad/brothers) and I think I have done a pretty good job. So here is my personal list of beauty essentials for taking on holiday, any of which I would heartily reccommend at any time of the year.
I would like to thank Paperchase for creating the handy clear travel bottle set with matching handy clear plastic wallet to keep my things in, this post would not have been possible without you.

The wallet on the top left is my skincare selection, the wallet on the top right is make up and haircare  (I KNOW, RIGHT?) and the other three products are the stragglers.

 In this wallet, I have Dove's GoFresh Cucumber and Green Tea roll on deoderant, my scent of choice which smells lovely and fresh, is fairly gentle and very effective. Carex Aloe Vera Antibacterial hand gel, no germs for me. The next product is one of my favourites for the sun, Elizabeth Arden's 8 Hour Cream Sun Defense for Face SPF 50. I used this for 2 weeks last year in Spain, including a week outdoors at Benicassim festival, and my face was the only part of my body that did not burn. Also, I try to take measures to not come back covered in freckles and this is so protective it seems to help. The next product is a new one for me, Elizabeth Arden's Targeted Sun Defense Stick in SPF 50, but I have read great reviews of this in magazines and online, and I think it will be a great one for noses,ears and lips. On the bottom I have my Lush selection. From left to right, the first is Eau Roma Toner water, with lots of rose and lavender to soothe sensitive skin. My current body lotion, Sympathy for the Skin, which is not only sympathetic for sensitive or sore skin but has nutritious banana and softening vanilla. I plan on using this as a combined body moisturiser/after-sun. The next product is my facial moisturiser Imperialis, which has lots of floral extracts to balance the skin, and cocoa butter to lock in moisture. I then popped two cleansers into the handy little Paperchase pots, the top one being a gentle scrub called Angels on Bare Skin, for occasional use and my daily almond oil cleanser Ultrabland, which doubles as eyecream and lip balm.

 Look at my make up and hair products. THEY ARE SO TINY. It sounds whiny but I'm quite proud. From left to right again, the top left is my Eyes Right Mascara, and then my favourite lipstick, a beautiful matte MAC lipstick called Chilli which is just the perfect red. I have used this a lot on shoots as it seems to suit most skin tones. As a bonus, it is moisturising and smells like chocolate. The top black pot is John Frieda's Frizz Ease Hair Serum. If it's good enough for Julia Roberts, its good enough for me. The bottom pot is Dirty Hair styling cream, a gentle hold hair product from Lush for a mussed up effect. I then have my Lush Charisma cream bronzer and Lush Colour Supplement concealer in shade Light Yellow, which is able to be mixed with facial moisturiser to create foundation. It has fairly light coverage which ordinarily I would not go for, however, in hot weather I hate the feeling of wearing heavy foundation. I then have Lush's Coolaulin conditioner, a Retro product I got from Lushfest which is full of moisturising coconut oil for dry beach hair. Anyone with a fringe will know that dry shampoo is pretty essential in hot weather so I have a teeny can of Batiste in my favourite tropical flavour (It smells like Pina Coladas) for de-slicking my hair. I then packed Elizabeth Arden's Sheer Lights Illuminating Pen, which is essentially a very similar product to Touche Eclat, though I like the texture of this more. Finally there is Urban Decay's 24/7 eye pencil, my favourite eyeliner pencil, as its easily blendable and tends to stay put for hours. I did originally buy it for the name. The shade is called Perversion. Tee hee. 

I also packed Miranda soap from Lush, which is a holiday tradition for me. I don't buy it any other time of the year, so for me, just the smell is about going on holiday. I also got Lush's Retro Gentle Lentil shampoo from Lushfest, a block of solid shampoo that is based on a traditional Indian haircare recipe. The bottle is SPF 50 general suncream from Garnier, I haven't tried it before but if it does what it says on the label, I'll be happy.

Last but not least, there is my absolute essential, Elizabeth Arden's 8 Hour Cream Skin Protectant, but I intend to treat myself to a new one in duty free. This little beauty does EVERYTHING but it is especially good on insect bites, blisters and sunburn. I would not go away without it.

Emotional Brilliance

Something pretty exciting has happened. Lush Cosmetics have launched a colour cosmetics range! And I have been lucky enough to be a part of a team of 20 Lush employees from all over Britain involved in promoting and championing the new range, the Colour Warriors. We were some of the first peple in the country to see the range and the secret has a hard one to keep! We promoted the event at Lushfest, Lush's annual festival, and I was involved with training London staff on the new range.

Me outisde our Emotional Brilliance launch tent

The inside of our beautiful  colourful tent

The Emotional Brilliance colour wheel at Lushfest

Like the rest of Lush’s product range, the new cosmetics are fresh, handmade with beautiful natural ingredients and good for your skin, something I find truly refreshing as usually when I’m purchasing make up my focus is on the effects and not the ingredients. That is not to say that quality has been compromised for the sake of the ingredients; the new range of colour is richly pigmented, I have yet to try it on a photoshoot but I’m confident that the pigment is so strong that it would stand up well when photographed. The range is also all vegan, and as with all Lush products, not tested on animals so you can feel good about using it too.

The new products are split into 4 sections; patent applied for liquid lipsticks, crème eyeshadows, eyeliners, and a ‘Desert Island Range’ of essentials for everybody’s makeup bag. The whole concept of the range is the brain child of founder Rowena Bird and is based on colour therapy; each of the 30 individual products is named with an empowering word. Harley Street structural behavioural therapist Lady Helen Kennedy chose 30 commonly used words she uses to positively change people’s attitudes and behaviours in her treatments. The 30 words were then given as a list to a selection of Lush employees along with a pantone book, and the employees were asked to pick a colour to represent each word. When it was found that the colours picked for each word had a strong correlation, Rowena decided to turn this coincidence into a treatment for the Lush Spa. However after developing the colours, it was decided that the colour range was just too good to save only for the spa and needed to be brought to all Lush stores. When you wear a colour from the range, you not only wear the colour but the power of the word, clever, huh? The makeup is all about empowering individuals, not about following trends or what is perceived as fashionable. It is first and foremost about feeling good, however as the products are so beautifully crafted you can’t help but look good too! Instore you can play our colour wheel game and find out what the colours you are drawn to say about your personality, kind of like having your horoscope read.

The products launched on Saturday 21st July, and my shop, Lush White City in Westfields Shepherd's Bush had a VIP launch party in the very lovely bar the Vandella in Shepherd's Bush which was a huge success. There are some pictures here on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.368435393227448.79594.140859852651671&type=3.  

And how pretty are the glass bottles?! They will look so good lined up on a dressing table, and they're fairly indestructable too, I've seen a few dropped onto tiled floors. The lipsticks are on top, they have a moisturising base of jojoba oil, rose wax and candelia wax. And they DO NOT COME OFF. Seriously, you can wear them for about 12 hours with no transfering and no fading. My favourite colours are Strong, an orange-red, Confident, a deep purple and Bubbly, a more natural looking coral-pink with lots of gold shimmer. 

On the left hand side on the bottom are the eyeliners, there is a colour called Fantasy that I'm obsessed with, it looks like gold leaf on the skin. Think Cinna in The Hunger Games film. I really want to do a photoshoot with it and just cover someone in gold. On the bottom right are the creme eyeshadows, which have capuacu butter in to moisturise, and which you can wear as bold colour or blend to a natural finish.

Eyes Right and the next 3 products are part of the Desert Island range. This mascara actually GROWS your lashes and has wheatgrass in to condition them. It also has one preservative in instead of the usual 5 or 6 so its super gentle for even the most sensitive eyes. I love a LOT of mascara and I thought it was a bit too natural at first but you can really layer it for a thick look if you like thick lashes. A very versatile product.

Emotional Brilliance translucent face powder  can be worn over makeup to set it or on your bare skin to prevent excess shine. It has a lovely light reflecting finish and won't clog your pores or look cakey. It has a pale pink colour which I have found does not suit darker skintones as much but hopefully this will be improved or a more suitable colour will be brought out. I love this though, usually I don't wear powder at all but it has a very natural finish and still lets your skin glow.

For fans of Strobe Cream by MAC or Highbeam by Benefit, you will love Feeling Younger skin tint, arguably my favourite product in the whole range. It has oatmeal decoction, full of the antioxidant Vitamin E, inside so it is extremely beneficial for the skin. It also has sweet orange flower to reflect light off the skin and make it look fuller, younger and glowing. You can wear it under makeup, over makeup, mix it with your makeup, the list goes on. Basically, it is extremely multipurpose. It looks nice on arms legs and collar bones as well for summer skin.

There is also the lovely Charisma, a darker skin tint which is a mix of golden pigments, oatmeal decoction and cocoa butter. It makes a lovely bronzer and gives skin a sunkissed glow, it also bends in extremepy naturally. I love my MAC Mineralize bronzer but this is quickly becoming a new favourite. As its not a powder it does not make the skin look older, which I love. Again, on darker skintones I have found that it does not blend as well as it is quite a pinky tan colour, and it does not suit dark yellow skintones as much.


If you only buy three products, I would definately recommend Feeling Younger, Eyes Right, and a Liquid Lipstick. But why stop at 3?!

Hyde Park

I recently shot in Hyde Park with two photgraphers, Selene Alexia Christodoulou and Ian Mears. We worked extremely well together, it was a lot of fun to be a part of the team. Here are Ian's images from the shoot, I'll post Selene's seperately as soon as I get a hold of them.

Ian is an extremely talented photographer (myself being an absolute beginner, he has been giving me lots of advice and useful reading material, thanks Ian!) please have a look at his work:

http://www.facebook.com/IanMearsPhotography
http://www.ianmears.com/

I'm obsessed with the last photograph, I love how serene Jodi looks, and the traffic in the background.


Photography: Ian Mears
Styling: Selene Alexia Christodoulou
MUA/Hair: Rhiannon Chalmers
Model: Jodi Lakin

The Convent Garden

This shoot was also a collaboration with Ryan Connolly, shot in Stoke Newington graveyard, which I found out is actually an extremely beautiful ground, secretively tucked away from central London. Styling here was done by Diana Beavers. I love the finished images, both the models and the setting have a real, pure ethereal beauty.

Again, I have only included images that I contributed to. The finished editorial can be seen on  http://cargocollective.com/rconnolly

Photography: Ryan Connolly
Styling: Diana Beavers
MUA/Hair: Rhiannon Chalmers

The Culture Mosaic

My first ever beauty shoot, which I did with the very talented photographer Ryan Connolly, who uses both analogue and digital photography, and collage in his work. Here is a link to his website: http://cargocollective.com/rconnolly

I only included pictures here that I contributed to, but the complete editorial is on Ryan's page, please have a look :)

 Photography: Ryan Connolly
MUA/Hair: Rhiannon Chalmers

Underlife

This shoot was for photographer Carolina Mizrahi for part of her final major project. It was a really exciting concept to be a part of as the shoot was underwater; the models were fully submerged underwater in the safety of Carolina's bath! This presented me with some challenges as far as makeup was concerned, of course everything had to be waterproof. I used MAC Face and Body as foundation which gave a good buildable coverage and is pretty much as waterproof as foundation gets. I also found MAC's Paintpots to be extremely useful, as the creme colour was waterproof and pigment rich, and could be used for contouring but also around the eyes as shadow. I bought 2 colours, Bare Study, a champagne colour for highlighting, and Quite Natural, an almost matte brown for contouring. I have to say though, the hero product on this shoot was Elizabeth Arden's Lip Fix, a transparent lip primer. Water and lipstick have never been the best of friends, and this little beauty definately helped keep things looking as perfect as possible.

The concept of the shoot was inspired by the Greek myth 'Narcissus', and becoming obsessed with our reflection. The water distorts the reflection however, a comment on how society distorts and shapes what we percive to be beautiful. Other makeup artists were also involved on the shoot as it was a large and time consuming project that took place over several weeks, so the pictures here are only the ones I contributed to. To see Carolina's other work and to see the whole shoot, here's a link to her website: http://carolinamizrahi.carbonmade.com/

Photography: Carolina Mizrahi
MUA/Hair: Rhiannon Chalmers
Models: Adriana, Chloe, Rhiannon

AVIS Magazine

My old flatmate Catherine is a BA Fashion Journalism student at London College of Fashion, and through her I got involved with this shoot for AVIS Magazine, which was set up as a project by a group of her peers. The clothes themselves were beautiful, I had major wardrobe envy, especially for the white Alexander Wang sweater, LOVE. Also in love with the last shot.

Photography: Selene Alexia Christodoulou and Eleanor Finch
Creative Direction/Styling: Colin Dawidzuik
Assistant: Catherine Earnshaw
MUA/Hair: Rhiannon Chalmers
Model: Lisa M at Oxygen Models

Fire and Ice Shoot

So it's been a long time coming but here are my three favourite pictures from the 'Fire and Ice' shoot. I especially like the portrait, as I think our lovely model Chloe looks very elegant and serene. I was especially pleased with the makeup on this look as well; I blocked out the eyebrows with wax and then pressed castor sugar mixed with white greasepaint over the top to create an icy effect.

Photography: Kirstie Taylor and Abilash Karthikeyan
Styling: Mo Shi
Makeup: Rhiannon Chalmers
Hair: Chae Won Seo
Model: Chloe Campbell