Wicked Candles

As I blog my flat in smelling the best its ever smelled. A friend of mine recently set up a business making and selling candles. The business is called Wicked Candles and it just so happens that Im moving house next week and want it to smell Christmassy.
I'm a right fusspot though and wont buy anything unless I can smell it.

Today I received some samples in the form of small melting tarts which you can buy from Wicked Candles for just £1 (GBP). As soon as they popped through the letter box I couldnt wait to open them. I could smell something delicious inside the packaging and I wasnt disappointed. I received 9 and each one smells good enough to eat.

The 9 samples I received are:

Lazy Daze - A blend of freshly baked apples and cinammon.
Coffee Caramel Cream - Indulge in a wonderfully rich smelling candle
Witches Cauldron - Nothing wicked is brewing in our witches cauldron, just sugar cookies and bananas.
Amaretto - Indulge in this beautiful smelling candle, without the hangover in the morning.
Cinderella - A beautiful cinammon candle with the soft undertone of vanilla, this candle will warm your home without being overbearing.
Autumn Spice
Irish Cream - enjoy the smell of an irish cream coffee all year round with this beautiful candle.
Strawberry Cheesecake - Good enough to eat
Creamy Vanilla Fudge - This one was actually specially made for me on request so if you have any specific requests for your favourite scent just get in touch with Wicked Candles and Jeri will hopefully be able to get your special scent made for you.

All of them smell delicious, I just want to eat them.

Wicked Candles have a selection of scents for each season as well as specials and the candle of the month and Im particularly excited by the Christmas scents which include 'Santas Treats' which smells like cookies and 'Frosty the Snowman' which is a refreshing minty scent. If youre just gearing up for Autumn and Halloween Id definitely recommend the Witches Cauldron, although some of the other Autumn Scents sound great and the Candle of the month for November will be Toffee Apple.

This time of year Im very partial to Cinammon smells and they cater really well for that. I'll definitely be ordering Autumn Spice, Witches Cauldron and Lazy Daze. Strawberry Cheesecake and Cinderella will also be considered. The coffee collection for me was quite sweet smelling but perfect for coffee lovers. The Irish Cream smells exactly like Baileys and during Christmas my house will probably smell like that anyway without the help of a candle :p

It may also be worth noting that all of the candles are hand crafted using a blend of ecosoy wax for a longer burn time and theyre available in  tart form, small, medium, large and extra large jars and the coffee collection come in 7oz coffee glasses.

(OH MY GOD these samples are making me so hungry.) I cant wait to fill my new home with these candles :)

Get the look!

So Ive been getting a few people wanting to know what lipstick I used for the recent shoot with Charlotte Chapman so I thought Id share with you the products that I used to create that gorgeous red wine lip.

Red lipstick is an absolute must for this Autumn/Winter and I think this particular shade suited the models fair skin very well.

I cheated a bit with this look actually. I used 3 products to create this look as I wanted it to be darker around the edges and lighter close to the middle. The 3 products I used are:

Rimmel Soft Kohl Liner in 011 Sable Brown
Revlon Vital Radiance Lipstick in 40 Mulberry
Models Own Lipbalm in Blackberry

None of the products were expensive and are available in Boots and I actually found the lipstick in Savers. Sometimes I find some great bargains there. If you cant find this exact lipstick any lipstick in a wine red sort of colour or your desired shade of dark red would suffice.

If youd like to recreate the look just follow these simple steps:

1. Line the lips with the brown liner. I always draw in the cupids bow first (the pointy middle part of the upper lip) then I draw in the rest. The way you shape the cupids bow can make a huge difference to the overall look. I smudged the liner with a lip brush so it wasnt such a harsh line.

2. Apply the lipstick. I always use a lipbrush to get a better finish. You can already see the graduation in colour.

3. Apply a generous coat of Models Own lipbalm. You can mix this with the lipstick but I prefer to apply it after for a gorgeous gloss. This adds to the depth of colour. It also tastes and smells delicious. I love this lipbalm on its own for a subtle hint of colour without being sticky like a lipgloss.

I might experiment next time with just the gloss and not the lipstick or I may try one of the Models Own Lip and Cheek stains. I am absolutely loving the products from this company and I cant wait to try more.

Hope you enjoyed my step-by-step, those of you who wanted to know.

Im hoping to do some celebrity 'get the looks' so if there are any requests, just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Photos from the shoot with Charlotte Chapman

 On Thursday I did a photoshoot in Birmingham with photographer Charlotte Chapman. I had a fantastic day, the model was gorgeous. It was my first location shoot and I hope I get to do more. Anyhow, I have a few of the edited shots back. Here are a few of my favourites so far:

You can view more here:
 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=519579&id=507405303&l=8df701a038

or here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlottechapman/

I just get so excited to share them with you, being so new to the industry it's great to be able to share my work.

As always, any feedback would be appreciated, thanks lovelies :)

P.S next week Im hoping to review a few more products, Im just waiting for my spots to disappear :P Ive had a few requests already but if theres anything in particular youd like me to review, if I have it in my kit or can afford to buy it, Ill review it.

Photoshoot with Charlotte Chapman

Today I headed to Birmingham for a shoot in various locations around the city. It was my first location shoot and I had a great time despite the weather threatening to rain. The model was amazing as was the photographer.

Heres a few sneaky piccies from the shoot taken on my crappy camera.

We wanted to go for a sort of casual look with a less casual looking makeup. We did plan to turn this into a smokey eye but really liked how it looked so we kept it and i think it worked really well especially with the models t-shirt. We did a quick shopping trip to grab the jacket before we started the shoot and i think it finished the look off really well.

Even though it was pretty cold, I had an awesome time. The model Manda aka Cherry Vixon was so much fun, absolutely stunning and just fantastic to work with. Charlotte was just amazing, so talented. Ive admired her work and was so happy that I got to work with her. Im sure the results of all our work will be amazing.

Stay tuned to see Charlottes photos from todays shoot.You can view more of her work here : http://www.charlottechapmanphotography.co.uk/

She's so amazing that shes already sent me one of the retouched pics so heres a BONUS sneak peek.

Youre the first people to see it other than myself, the model and photographer so enjoy blog followers :)

The Biscotti Kitchen

A few weeks ago I was runner up in the "Name the Biscotti" competition run by The Biscotti Kitchen

My prize was a pack of my chosen biscotti. I thought I'd review them too. I know theyre not beauty related but I thought youd enjoy the review all the same.

I chose the rocky rollercoaster biscotti. (id alrady sampled the chocolate and orange biscotti and they are to die for) They came very well packaged with a cute little card as well from Ewa :)

I originally chose the chocolate marble biscotti but was advised by Ewa that the rocky rollercoaster may be more to my liking as Id confessed to being a massive chocaholic.

I am a dunker so naturally I made a cup of tea and sat down to enjoy the mini biscotti's.

I really enjoyed the biscotti. The only criticism I have is that on the website it specifically says the rocky rollercoaster biscotti is soft baked for young mouths so I expected to bite into it and meet a soft, delicious biscotti. However, it was more of a classic hard bicotti which I love but I was expecting softness. Still tasty and enjoyable and they didnt last long.

I think these biscottis would make an excellent gift and after searching for the perfect recipe myself, there is defnitely an art to making these. Ewa is so helpful and I think this competition was great, having the chance to name a biscotti is very exciting.

Check it out, these biscottis are definitely worth a look....and a nibble.

Ciate Paint Pots

I got this gorgeous little nail varnish free with the November Issue of Marie Claire. The shade is Dangerous Affair 013 by ciate There are 2 shades available with the catalogue.

Now I very rarely wear nail varnish, especially not as an every day thing. But since discovering this nail varnish last week Ive worn it every day. Its a shade that seems to go with everything and Ive resisted the urge to pick at it or peel it off. And weirdly, it makes me feel a bit sexy.

It comes in a gorgeous little bottle which is curved and that makes it a bit easier to hold and the long handle helped me when applying the polish.

I was actually really impressed with this product. It went on easily, dried quickly and after a few coats is a gorgeous dark, seductive shade of red. it layers really well. I know some just get sticky and dont dry as quickly if you try to apply more that one coat but I currently have 3 coats of this on at the moment, it looks amazing and dried really quickly without any stickiness.

It definitely needed a few coats to get the desired shade. Heres how it looked after the first coat.

Its quite pinky red instead of the dark red in the bottle. However, the desired shade was achieved after 2-3 layers.

Ciate have a great range of paint pots and theyre currently on sale at asos  I will definitely be buying more. The Autumn/Winter shades look delicious.

L'Occitane en provence - fleur cherie hand cream

So I was out shopping and spotted some lovely looking freebies with this months magazines (theyre actually Novembers issues). They looked too good to pass up so I obviously bought them and thought Id review the free beauty products for you.

Free with the November issue of InStyle magazine youll get L'Occitane en provence hand cream. There is a choice of 3 but I could only see 1 available which was the Fleur Cherie.

Despite the very floral smell (I'm not big on floral scents at all) I actually really like the hand cream. You dont need much at all with this, use it sparingly, a little goes a long way and it sinks in to the skin quickly without leaving your hands feeling greasy or sweaty like some hand creams do. My hands actually feel really soft just after the first application but Im really not keen on this flowery scent.

Im also put off a little bit by the tube. It reminds me so much of my acrylic paint tubes and theyre a nightmare if they split or the top breaks.

Im also about to review the free nailvarnish I got with Maire Claire magazine so be sure to give that a look as well.