1 Product That Will Save Your Hair...

Just over a year ago my hair was in a pretty sorry state. It was originally cut (beautifully I may add, by my best friend) into a short, sleek, blunt bob, but it required a LOT of styling to keep it that way. My lack of concern about heat protectors and penchant for 200 degree straightners meant that I frazzled it, I subsequently started dying it red every 4 weeks, and then decided that NO! In fact I wanted to grow it. This was pretty hard as I had turned my hair into a thin, orange, damaged frizzball; even after trimming it was still awful.

Rehab shampoo, from Lush, was a bit of a saviour for my hair, and for any hair that is thin, damaged, and generally abused. It works in 3 ways: it looks after your scalp, it gets rid of unwanted oils and THEN it still has time to nourish your hair right to the very tips. 

My bottle has changed colour because my shower is so cold!

Peppermint was the magic ingredient for me. It stimulates hair growth, oil production and circulation in your scalp, and if your scalp is healthy, then your hair will be healthy. Think of your head like a pot plant; if the soil (your scalp) is dry and undernourished then the plant (your hair) won’t grow. Using a shampoo that supports your scalp essential allows your hair to naturally look after itself.

There is also lots of lovely citrus oils and sea salt in the shampoo to cleanse grease and oil from your hair and make it clean and shiny.

On top of that, there are moisturising oils such as olive oil, almond oil and jojoba oil to add moisture back to your hair and scalp and avoid it drying out. 

In the last year I have been using only this shampoo and my hair is totally different; its grown a considerable amount, its shiny, its thicker, its healthier and even though I haven’t had it trimmed in about a year (oops), I don’t even have that many split ends. 

I have changed some of my other bad habits; for example I use Argan oil and heat protector every single time I was my hair now. However I honestly think that Rehab has made the most difference, and I can’t recommend it enough. Plus, its not that expensive, it's about £10 for the bottle I buy, which lasts me 3/4 months... but it has saved me a fortune in haircuts!

AHHHH BAD HAIR - Before Rehab

After Rehab

Here is a link to Rehab on the UK Lush website... 

How to: Get Rid of Dark Circles

Before
I was half asleep, sorry this is so horrific

After!

Quite a few people have been asking me the same question recently, the question being 'how on earth can I make myself look like less of a tired mess and get rid of these pesky dark circles?!?'. Dark circles are something which may affect us sporadically, due to tiredness or stress, or they may be a constant concern due to your genetics; dark circles and deep set eyes run tend to run in the family. Dark circles definitely run in my family, and no matter what eye cream I try, how much sleep I get and how much water I drink, there they are. Because of this, I like to think I’m something of a dab-hand at disguising them with makeup.

I’m going to use 4 products in this post, depending on how bad your dark circles are you might only need to use a couple of them. Here’s a handy little guide to help you figure out what products you need:

Dark shadows: Concealer

Dark semicircles: Highlighter and concealer

Dark circles: Highlighter, colour corrector and concealer

Dark circles and then some: 2 highlighters, colour corrector and concealer

What I will use...

So, as you can clearly see, my dark circles are pretty bad. The first thing I’m going to do is use a highlighter, which is full of light reflecting particles which bounce light off the skin and make it appear glowing.  As I have mentioned before, Touche Eclat is the man for the job in my opinion. I apply it in a ring around my eye, like this, starting at the inner corner. This is the darkest bit so this is where you want most of the product to go.

Touche Eclat

If you want an extra boost, apply a highlighter on your cheekbones too, and blend it up and into your eye area. This will make your whole eye area appear fresher and more luminous. You can use the same one if you like, or whatever highlighter you choose, but I like using High Beam by Benefit. It is a good shade for my skin tone and the light pink colour helps combat dullness. I wait until I have applied both highlighters and blend them together with a brush or my fingers.

Your skin is now glowing but there is still blue discolouration under the eye. Blue veins appear near the surface of the skin under the eye, as the skin is thinner, and these need to be cancelled out with an opposite colour. If you are pale like me then use a light yellow, here I’m using Lemon-Aid by Benefit. If you have a mid-tone skin, such as olive or tan, use a pale apricot colour, and if you are darker, use terracotta orange. I get a little Lemon-Aid on my pinky and I pat it under the eye, into the inner corner, and over my eyelid.

The colour corrector may leave your skin a weird colour (yellow eyes, anyone?) so it’s important to warm it back up to your skin tone with a concealer of your natural colour.  You probably have your own favourite concealer, I like Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer, as the texture is light but moisturising and it contains apricot for radiance and raspberry to boost circulation. 

This is an overly-lengthy process, and I appreciate that not everyone will want to use every step, but this is my method for complete coverage and it seems to work on everybody I try it on.  Play around and see what works for you, everyone is different!

Done!

5 Makeup Hero Products

This week, Sali Hughes wrote an article for The Guardian about her 50 greatest beauty products of all time, which is a definite must-read for any beauty obsessives, I highly recommend it. Articles like this are right up my street, I love finding out about new products from across the beauty industry and there is nothing more reassuring than a tried-and-tested personal recommendation. Here is my own mini collection of my five favourite makeup products which I couldn’t live without – the contents of my makeup bag are almost constantly changing, but here are 5 staples which always stay the same:

1  1)   Touche Éclat – Yves Saint Laurent

This really is such a handy product to have and a worthwhile investment. This is a product that lives up to the hype.  I have tried other brand’s versions, both cheaper and of a similar price and honestly nothing compares. (Apart from the By Terry products by the same creator) it’s lovely on a no makeup day to wake your skin up a bit or equally as nice on top of makeup for extra highlighting. Go have some fun with it, you won’t be disappointed.

2)      Lipsticks in ‘Cherish’ (nude) and ‘Chilli’ (red) – MAC

Cherish (left) Chilli (right)

Wearing Cherish

Wearing Chilli

Every girl needs a perfect red and an everyday staple lipstick, and MAC’s matte shades are my absolute favourite. The cocoa butter formula is nourishing and keeps lips moisturised but it’s the colour payoff which really impresses me, it’s absolutely fantastic, rich, long-lasting colour. ‘Cherish’ is a browny-neutral which is nude without being chalky and so easy to wear.  ‘Chilli’ is a deep red which looks beautiful on most skin tones – it’s my go-to red for using on photoshoots, as well as on myself. 

3)      2000 Calorie Mascara – Maxfactor

Before

After

I’ve done a blog post raving about this mascara before, read it here, so I won’t go into too much depth, but it really is the best mascara that I have ever used. It does everything you’d want; lengthening, thickening, volumising etc. Its waterproof enough for all but swimming and it never seems to dry out or go clumpy. Plus its cheap, £8 well spent!

4)      Duo Adhesive

This may seem like a weird choice, but I am a huge fan of false eyelashes and the glue that they come with is usually rubbish and/or irritating to the eyes. Although the eyelashes are always different, the glue will always be the same. I find that it is better than Eyelure or Shu Uemura’s glue. Duo dries quickly, lasts AGES (you can wear your lashes all night, I never have to touch them up) and it’s gentle. I wear contacts and I still get on great with this. You can buy this online, from MAC or Inglot for around £10. The tubes pretty big, it usually lasts me 6-9 months.

5)       24/7 Eyeliner in ‘Perversion’ – Urban Decay

Urban Decay is not a brand that know very well but I can say that their eyeliners are incredible. ‘Perversion’ is the darkest black, though they have a huge range of colours; it has a great colour payoff and will last all day and the next, if you’re feeling lazy with your cleanser. It is really soft and smudgeable but it sets after a few minutes so you can play with it and use it however suits you best. Again, I have tried many other brands of all different price ranges and nothing compares to this, in my opinion. 

I hope you enjoyed my recommendations, I’d love to know if you’ve tried any of them yourself or if you have any makeup essentials you’d like to share!

Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2013/14

This post may be a little shorter than my other fashion week round-ups, only because I’ve had a busy week, not because of lack of inspiration! As the saying goes, ‘leave the best ‘til last’; though each fashion week is great for its own reasons, Paris Fashion Week is certainly home to some of the most prolific and influential fashion houses in history. Beauty trends that we have seen in the last few weeks were still prevalent here (dark red lips, semi-matte skin, goths, ponytails) but there were lots of surprises too!

For a lesson in clean glowing skin, have a look at Celine, Chloe, and Stella McCartney. Makeup was minimal to compliment each collection, but perfectly groomed nonetheless. Sometimes perfecting the no-makeup look is one of the hardest things to achieve! Keep skin looking youthful and fresh with a nude pink on the lips and cheeks and lashings of mascara on curled lashes.

Celine

Chloe

Stella McCartney

Dark red lips and dark eyes were a focal point at Louis Vuitton, inspired by classic Hollywood starlets and the idea of being ‘all dressed up with nowhere to go’; glamming up to stay in. I like that the makeup and hair looks lived in and smudgy, it modernises a classic look (and is so easy to create at home!)

Louis Vuitton

Dark lips were more multi-dimensional at Miu Miu and applied with the highest precision, in contrast Vuitton. The dark lip line bleeds into the lips, and the centre of the lips highlighted with a lighter shade. Try pressing a bronze pigment into the middle of wine red lips to try this at home, such as Melon by Mac.

Miu Miu

Melon

Melon

A dark lip was also a feature at Zuhair Murad.

Zuhair Murad

Givenchy had beautiful pink and taupe contouring around the eyes, matching a soft pink on the lips. I love how the hair looks like those frilly old swimming caps and is such a stark contrast! 

Givenchy

Givenchy

Two more creative makeup looks which I loved were Chanel and Dior. Chanel created a perfect base, a little natural pink on the lips, defined the brows, and then used large silver glitter all over the upper eyelash line.  Plus I LOVE the royal blue furry hat from the collection! I’ll be keeping my eyes out for a high street version come the autumn.

Chanel

Chanel

I want that hat!

Dior lined the eyes graphically with a liquid silver liner and then used the most gorgeous smudged in raspberry shade on the lips.

Dior

Dior

I loved these two cute crops, shaggy at Isabel Marant and razor cut straight at Yohji Yamamoto. Which do you prefer?

Isabel Marant

Yohji Yamamoto

More hairstyles I loved were the long side plait at Valentino, which perfectly complimented the fairytale inspired collection. 

Valentino

Valentino

Also, the messy beehive at Loewe, which finished in a low ponytail.

Loewe