People. Places. Faces.

Archive photos I have taken. Brighton-London-France

                                          Monet's Garden, Giverny

Skincare SOS!

So being blessed with a wonderful array of skin ailments which grace me on the regular, this post is really just running through the products I am well stocked in which I hope will help any of you who can relate. I'm going to start by saying that beauty really does come from within, and it's important to eat a balanced diet for long term benefits. It's amazing the difference little changes can make in clearing up skin problems such as eczema, spots and dermatitis because the problem could be something quite simple like a vitamin or mineral deficiency.
I aim to keep my pizza, whiskey and cake addiction strictly limited to weekends and try to fit in lots of fruit and veg in my daily routine. Smoothies are great because they are quick and really do make a noticeable difference to how you look and feel. I'm pretty hardcore and make mine with whatever we have lying around the kitchen- the one in the photo has banana for potassium, beetroot which is packed with iron, potassium, folic acid and fibre, spinach for iron, an apple and a bit of water. I also take omega 3 supplements and love the Terra Nova Digestive Enzyme capsules which really help with digestion.
Spots are something we all get, granted some of us more than others. Life has played this cruel joke on me where I had perfect skin throughout my teens and spots as soon as I hit my early twenties. A couple of month's ago I had a breakout because I was stressed and using a lot of new products while makeup artistry training. My amazing tutor Amanda Bell sent me home with a Pixi glow tonic and told me to use it for two weeks. As the days went by my skin got noticeably clearer and now I'll never stop buying it. The tonic contains witch hazel which sorts spots right out and a brightening 5% plant based glycolic acid which gently exfoliates dead skin cells. The Inika foundation is in my spot-fix category because it's a natural, mineral product which goes on problematic skin better than any other foundation I've used. Also because the ingredients are better, it makes sense that it's less likely to make spots flare up more. The Bourjois concealer is brilliant for hiding and brightening spots and never goes cakey.
Rashes really, really suck. There are all sorts of reasons why people get them, from hereditary reasons, allergies to dust mites, common ingredients in washing detergents, skincare, make up, diet intolerances, stress...you name it. I suffered with painful eczema from the age of four and remember clawing at my skin until it was raw. My gran used to cut my nails at bedtime and plaster me with liquid calamine lotion which was often the only way I could get to sleep. To this day when a rash pops up, calamine lotion is something that helps every time. It's inexpensive, available in every Boots/chemist and I can't thank whoever invented it enough. Before using steroid creams, please try calamine lotion first!
Z-Gel is a fab organic natural gel which contains arnica. It's great for bites, stings, sunburn, rashes, you name it. I've used it on bruises and seen miraculous results within hours. It's clear so doesn't show up on the skin and the sanitary little tube is good for carrying around. Another little gem for soothing rashes! The Graham's Natural bath oil and skin cream were given to me by my friend Rebecca at Biteable beauty when a big stress rash popped up overnight. Look at the no-nonsense packaging! Ha. The bath oil has a thick olive oil consistency and to be honest doesn't smell much different. Much in the same way olive oil does, it locks in the skin's moisture and helps reduce redness. Also a brilliant little skin saviour is the cream which I kept reapplying at work. It made a huge huge difference and it's another all natural product. Go nature!

Years and Years- Take Shelter

What's in my handbag?

Quite a fun post today. I always enjoy having a little snoop at the loyal items people carry around with them; those beauty pieces which have outshone all the others in their collection. That red lipstick which has stood out from the dozens of red lipsticks in the box and the hairband which spruces up a boring hairstyle should unexpected drinks come into plan.

This is how my current handbag has looked for the best past of three months (minus the sunglasses. A recent and optimistic addition). The Daily Journal is by Frankie Press, an Australian magazine I subscribe to. Discovered at a time when I was fed up of reading the same generic articles and sought after a magazine which was creative and covered food, music, DIY and travel. Have a look at the website. The 80's hair scrunchie, band and clip are what I was talking about with the hair items that jazz up an otherwise mundane style. I have these floating around my bag in case I need to get my hair off my face or suddenly feel like doing an eighties ponytail. The Tangle Teaser is lightweight and good for smoothing hair and de-tangling. Mine is so overused that the plastic bristles are looking a little shabby nowadays. My Lacoste purse which is so durable and worn looking, but I love it. It also has a cool little mirror on the inside flap. It belonged to my friend who saw I didn't have a purse and liked it, so tipped her money out and insisted I took it, even though she no longer had a purse. How sweet is that? 

The Chloe perfume was my obsession for a long time. It's a really delicate, playful scent with a bit of a musk in there preventing it from smelling too youthful. The Antipodes Jubilation cream smells like fresh peppermint. It's a nice, gentle all over cream but I mostly use it on my hands because it doesn't leave any sticky residue. The Chanel Les Beiges powder gives a very subtle glow and is good for touch ups. I get a really oily forehead in the afternoon's so if I'm out all day then this is a good thing to have. The Chanel blush in 'innocent' is good for if I make an unexpected plan and want to look more polished. It's a natural pink which is really flattering and looks as though I've been walking briskly through the countryside. I have always worried about wearing blush as I really blush sometimes quite unexpectedly and dread looking like a clown with pre-existing blush on already, but thankfully I haven't had a problem with this looking too heavy. A full review on these Chanel items will be coming soon anyway!The sunglasses are by Jeepers Peepers and look so glam. I love vintage inspired accessories and always feel like the bees knees when I put these on.

 The gold bullet next to it is the Max Factor lipstick in Ruby Tuesday  which I have been wearing for four years because I just feel really chic when I wear it.It's a glossy pink which makes green eyes pop and I can't tell you how many compliment's I've received over the years with this one. My mum said it looks as though I've been eating a lollypop when I wear it. Well worth a swatch if you pass by the counter in the drugstore. The black circular palette is by Jemma Kidd. It contains a lip/cheek tint, champagne coloured highlighter and two neutralising shades. This has come in handy numerous times for last second retouches while on the go. I have been trying to buy one of these for my kit, but sadly I think it has been discontinued. Gutted! 

The Bourjois healthy mix concealer is the best concealer I have ever used, and I haven't thought about another concealer for two years. It's light so it doesn't sink into any fine lines or go cakey and the formulation brightens the skin really nicely to make the eye area look more awake. The  liquid eyeliner is the most long lasting and easy to apply one I've found so far. I was becoming so frustrated with how quickly these liquid pen eyeliners dry out but this is still going strong. The brand is DHC cosmetics which is Japanese, but a US brand seems have bought it to make it more accessible.The very battered looking tube on the bottom right is the Jason natural deodorant stick in the glowing apricot scent. I try to use natural skincare where possible and this works really well for me. Just remember to put the lid and plastic insert back on after use because natural products do need a little more TLC as they don't contain nasty preservatives!

So basically the products I choose are those I can rely on if I want a change of look during the day without carrying what feels like a ton of bricks around. It would be interesting to do a summer update and see what has changed!

Ji Nilsson- Encore

I thought it would be nice to do the odd music post for those who are interested. I'm always on the look out for songs which give me those 'must play this on repeat until I'm sick of it' moments. Right now it's Swedish artist Ji Nilsson whose song 'Encore' melts my ears (in a good way). I actually heard this a couple of weeks ago while shopping about in Oxford Circus and hovered around the doorway of the shop with Shazam out...you've got to love Shazam!

If you love catchy electro fuelled tracks with beautiful melodies then this is well worth a listen.  

London Fashion Week Essentials

A little late, but after mentioning here that I used the Antipodes Grace gentle cleanser when I assisted the lovely and hugely talented Dani Guinsberg on the Hemya LFW show, I thought I'd do a post on some of the other products which served me well on the day. The Mac Strobe cream  is a very widely used product, and for a reason! It's lightweight, mixes well with creams and foundations and it isn't too glittery and shimmery making it really versatile. I use this all the time and it never seems to run out. Look how much is there after regular use for a year! 

A new discovery is the brand Monu who were one of the sponsors of the show.  Honestly, no superlatives can describe how super this brand is for sensitive skin! They have such a fantastic array of very natural and gentle products which I have been trying to keep specifically for my kit but keep dipping into myself. Everyone I have used them on has asked about these products and said how relaxed they felt after.  I love the rosewater toner which is light and cooling, and swipes off makeup really well. The face oil is absolutely brilliant and feels like a proper pampering experience. It isn't as heavy as other face oils and serums I have used so might be worth a try for those who want something a little lighter. Also pretty impressive is the Monu primer which is a clear, lightweight base that does a really good job. No colour, not too much sheen and no glittery bits, it's just simple and leaves the skin smooth and plump. The lip balm goes on like a cream but has a matte finish which worked really well with the barely there makeup theme at the Hemyca show.

An addition to my new discovery list is the French brand  Bella Pierre's cream blusher in coral which gives the most natural healthy flush. Bella Pierre is a mineral makeup brand that sources natural, ethical ingredients. Rather than bringing out makeup just to cash in, products are created according to the consumer requests.At the moment this blush is my go-to product for creating a dewy, fresh look and I loved it so much that the incredibly kind and talented makeup artist Amanda Bell gave it to me from out of her own kit! I was pleasantly surprised to spot the range in the Camden Town Wholefoods so I'm looking forward to testing out their foundations. Talking of foundations, I was in the Wholefoods specifically to purchase the Inika mineral foundation (the very black bottle pictured next to the strobe cream!) which is the best foundation I have ever used. Dani had let me try out hers in the shade 'cream' and I couldn't rush out to buy it fast enough. The foundation has the smoothest finish I've seen and leaves the skin with a glow that just looks like natural skin, but on a really good day. It's light but you barely need to use any at all, and it still looked flawless even after the models had been standing in a hot atrium under bright lights for hours. Amazing.

Also sponsoring the show was the cosmetics brand Lola which does a fab lipstick in the shade 'Minx' that I used to create a natural pink lip. It is a great shade match with the blush and builds really nicely if you're after a more intense shade of pink. To create a slightly fuller brow (below) I used the Illamasqua eyeshadow in the shade 'Obsidian' from the neutral eye palette which gave a nice definition to my model's face.

You can see the backstage video for the Hemyca show below, with Dani, myself and the rest of our makeup team working away and looking super focused. It was such an exciting show to be part of- I was on a total high for days afterwards!

Brand- Hemyca
Sponsors:
Lola cosmetics
Monu skincare
Jessica nails
Vox water
With thanks to Dani Guinsberg at The Sessions School for inviting me along to assist!