Beauty Bargain

So at the weekend I randomly popped into Savers, went into see if they had some good shampoo at low low prices. I didnt buy any shampoo but I did come across these beauties.

Revlon Creme Gloss. I wasn't sure about them and they werent priced so I only bought 2 in the shades which looked most exciting. I chose 065- crush on coral and 020 fiercely fuschia. I almost didnt buy them until I saw they were Revlon so I thought maybe they wouldnt be too bad. Its quite rare to find branded makeup in Savers. They priced at £1.40 each which is very cheap but this also made me dubious about the quality but me oh my was I surprised when I tried them out. Im such a pessimist.

The applicator is a brush which put me off completely for a number of reasons the main reason being hygiene especially for using it in my kit, might not be so bad for personal use, the other was the fact it didnt look like it would apply very well since it was so soft.

After a lot of twisting and clicking the bottom to push the gloss through to the brush a whole lot came all at once. I even started to think Id got a dudd and was never going to get any product out.

Heres how the 2 shades look on the back of my hand. This was when I became impressed. I love the colours, they were a lot more vibrant that they looked in the tube.

TOP: Firecely Fuschia BOTTOM: Crush on Coral

I lined and filled my lips with colours that almost perfectly matched the 2 shades before applying each gloss with a lip brush. Once I saw how they looked on, I was hooked. Crush on CAt this point Im very impressed, especially at how little they cost.

Fiercely Fuschia

Crush on Coral

I was massively impressed. Non-sticky, easy to apply, really glossy finish. I am in love. They had a few more shades available in various red and nude tones and I will definitely be filling my kit with these beauty bargains. I cant wait to use them and I cant wait to get more and at £1.40 I dont have to feel guilty about the price.

Bridal season begins

April is the month the bridal season kicks off......well for me it seems like its all kicking off now. And of course we have the Royal Wedding to look forward to. So I thought I would share with you a bit about the bridal makeup work Ive been doing and what is still to come for me this year and also my 3 top bridal makeup tips.

My first piece of bridal work came last year when I organised a shoot with Catherine at The White Dress Boutique in Leamington Spa. I used some girls from my workplace as willing models and teamed up with local photographer Lucy Clarke for the shoot and the girls all looked gorgeous in their wedding dresses. You can see the photos on my facebook page.

My most recent photoshoot was a couple of weeks ago and it was amazing. Some of the photos are in my Bridal Gallery already and it gave me a great opportunity to work on a variety of models and also build my portfolio. We shot at the Menzies Welcombe Hotel and at Billesley Manor in Stratford. It was great to see so many different wedding dresses as well as some Indian bridal outfits and was brilliant to meet and work with so many photographers. One of my favourite looks from the day was definitely on Tiff who wanted to look a bit like Katie Price, false lashes, dark eye makeup, bright pink lips. Was fun to do.

This Saturday Ill be doing my first Bridal Fashion Show at the Smudge Magazine Wedding Fayre which Im sure will be a great day.Im a bit nervous but also very excited.
Later this year I'll also be doing a photoshoot with local dress designers LuaSarcy. Lucy and Sara are both fab so Im really looking forward to working with them.

I absolutely love what I do and bridal makeup is possibly one of the most rewarding jobs, making someone look and feel absolutely gorgeous on their wedding day, I cant think of anything better and of course its always nice to meet so many lovely brides.

My top 3 tips for bridal makeup:

• Always use waterproof mascara, especially if youre an emotional bride or if your eyes get watery in the sun like mine. Use brown mascara for a more natural look and use black for a dramatic look or to finish off a smokey eye. Similarly, make sure you use a waterproof eyeliner. Liquid liner tends to run unless its waterproof. I prefer to use a cream or gel liner.
• Your wedding day is not a day to be trying out a new look. You want to look like yourself but at your best. You dont want to be unrecognisable, especially to the person youre about to marry, so stick to a look you know works for you, and if you dont usually wear makeup, keep is simple and natural by highlighting your best features.
• Make sure you have a touch up kit. Touchup kits usually include some extra powder for avoiding any shine throughout the day and some extra lipstick. Your wedding day is a day of kissing, talking, drinking and eating so youll probably need to touch up the lippy at some point. For a longer lasting lipstick, use a lipliner to line and fill the lips before applying your lipstick. Applying it with a brush also helps.

Whispers of a Sea Nymph

You can now see Issue 2 of Rebel Magazine online. My work is featured on an 8 page spread from page 74 onwards and the series is called "whispers of a sea nymph". Its been nearly 8 months since the shoot and I must admit, i was beginning to wonder if Id ever see the images but seeing them today has made it worth the wait :)

Some other photos from the same series are dotted around in the issue which Im really pleased about.

Take a look here

I do prefer the cleaner looks, the smudgey looks didnt turn out so well but its still early days, im still learning and this was my very first photoshoot so.....I think I can be forgiven a little bit.

I may be doing more for Rebel Magazine in the future so....watch this space. For now, I hope you enjoy Issue 2

Photoshoot with Charlotte Chapman - Sneaky peeks

So today I had my second photoshoot with the fantastic Charlotte Chapman. Her photos turned out amazing last time so I was very excited to shoot with her and we had an absolutely stunning model today.

It was a lovely spring day, the weather was gorgeous, the flowers are just starting to blossom, I couldnt have asked for a better setting or better weather. The makeup for todays shoot was soft, pink and feminine with some shimmer and a bit of an edge. Our model Bayleigh usually wears bright red lipstick so it was a bit of a shock to see herself with nude lips. The looks were based around 2 flower necklaces charlotte had so we did 2 looks, for the second look I added some blue eyeshadow, metallic purple cream eyeliner and a pink lip.We wanted it to look really carefree, just really chilled out and I actually challenged myself to do hair. I was very impressed with myself. I managed to do a loose fishtail plait with a little help from youtube and I put some curls in as well, the look was quite messy which is what we were going for. Its given me the confidence to try out doing hair again.

Anyway, here are some sneak peeks from the shoot - behind the scenes style. I didnt get as many as usual as I was holding a reflector most of the shoot.

Ill put some of the finished shots up when theyve been edited. Im very excited, I forced Charlotte to show me some of the pics she shot today and they already look amazing. Im not sure how well the shimmery eyeshadow will show up...hopefully itll be pretty. Lots of flowers around so definitely a good spring shoot :)

Thanks to Bayleigh and Charlotte for a great day.

Rebel Magazine Issue #2

Some of you remember waaaaaaaay back sometime last year when I did some makeup for Rebel Magazine.

The release date of issue 2 kept getting pushed back for a variety of reasons BUT now they have set a release date for the 30th March.

Heres the pic theyre using for their promo:

You can still see Issue 1 here. And dont forget to check back on the 30th to see the full set of images from the shoot. I still dont know which ones theyre using so Im very excited although I think theyve used one of the best for the promo. What do you think?

MUA:Victoria Steele
Clothing and Jewellery: Shiromi Lazarus
Model: Cyan Cheung
Photography and Styling: Namal

Spring has sprung

5 things I love about spring:

• The promise of warm weather although Ill probably end up working indoors again all summer....I sort of missed last summer completely and just watched it pass me by through the shop window :(
• Flowers starting to appear
• Saying hello to dresses of the floral and colourful variety and goodbye to dull winter clothes
• Spring makeup trends
• Different food. Over winter I seem to have a lot of stews, casseroles, soups etc now Im quite looking forward to salads and fruit.

5 things I hate about spring:

• Bees and wasps
• The unpredictable weather and having to carry around a coat and umberella just incase it rains
• Getting my ghostly white legs out to get a bit of colour - this almost never happens as I hate my legs but they really do need to see some sunshine.
• The fact that all my summer shoes went mouldy in my old flat so Ill have to carry on wearing winter boots until I can afford summer shoes
• Not being able to wear sunglasses - prescription sunglasses are just hideous

I am really enjoying lighter mornings and finishing work when its still light and being able to sit in my front room with the light coming in and the windows open to let all the signs of sinter out. HELLO SPRING!!

I was also happy that spring time showed itself for the wedding photoshoot on Sunday, the weather was perfect.

Ill be putting some piccies up from the shoot later this week or possibly today.

New business cards :D

Just wanted to share my new business cards and do a little review of my experience with moo.com and their service.

So their estimated arrival was 15th March, theyre 5 days early and I love them. I got 50 made, came to a little over £16 inc. P&P which I think id very reasonable considering the quality.

Here they are:

And a close up of the back:

My photos of the cards are a bit grainy but the actual quality of the cards is brilliant. I chose a matte finish. I think the choices are a little bit limited and you also have a small choice of card type as well. The colours are really vibrant and the quality of the card is great. I chose the standard business cards but they do postcards and mini cards as well, the mini cards are actually quite cute but as I have to rely on my images to promote my work I needed something a bit bigger. What attracted me to moo in the first place was the fact you can have as many different images as you like, you dont have to have the same cards, you can have a different image on each card if you like. I uploaded 5 images and received 10 of each image so the people you give them to can choose the card which appeals to them and you can get more of your work out there to potential clients rather than just showing them 1 image, 1 example of what you can do.

I found their service easy to use and understand, very clear and being the big kid I am I loved receiving the update e-mails from a service robot called Little Moo telling me about the progress of my order and how to seek further help if I wanted to speak to an actual real person.

They arrived really well packaged and came with a gorgeous little black storage box with separaters (is that correct?) titled 'Mine' and 'Theirs' so you can have a place to store your cards and cards youve collected from other industry professionals. I love it.

However, Im not 100% happy with my black and white cards...the image is grainy and Ive been told the image I used wasnt hi-res enough, it looked fine during the ordering process. Moo have kindly offered me a replacement order of 50 cards which has boosted me back up to being 100% happy with their service. I will certainly be re-ordering more cards in the future especially since I have an exciting bridal photoshoot coming up next week which I will keep you all updated about.
If you need business cards, I definitely recommend using moo.com I wont be going anywhere else.