A new addition to the family

This week has been an exciting and sad week all in one. One of my best friends has decided to emigrate to Australia with her other half, which is great for her, but desperately sad for me. Why can't life be like Corrie or Eastenders where you grow old with people on your 'street' rather than not knowing who your neighbours are, or worse still, detesting your neighbours. It is so sad when a friend moves away, but at least now I have a great excuse to head to the land down under for a holiday.

Anyhoo, to the good part. Seeing as I am going to be abandoned by my friend, at least she has left me a parting gift. Her very gorgeous, very cute and adorable Springer Spaniel.

See here, our newest addition to the family, Teal!



And in honour of Teal, I found a gorgeous nail polish in a trip to Superdrug that I just had to have. the colour is, wait for it....Teal, and the shade is a very nostalgically named 'Button Moon'. It cost £1.95, and is a Collection 2000 polish. The picture has made it look like a baby blue, but in reality it has a nice mermaidy green undertone (and anything that reminds me of mermaids gives me a warm fuzzy).

Now, despite it looking a gorgeous colour, I really wasn't impressed with the formulation. For some reason, it just seems to me that lighter shades of polish tend to be a bit 'gloopier'. I had to paint on at least 3 thick coats to get the coverage I wanted and for the colour to look even and without streaks.



Let me know if you know of any good cheap brands that don't have this problem. A dark polish girl I shall remain. My little sister however looks quite cute with this shade on, so this shall be a hand-me-down that isn't exactly worthy of the vintage phrase seeing as I only had it a day! :o)

NYX has arrived

Well it has been a while, and humourous note must be taken for my previous blog entitled "All the best intentions", which I always have, just not the time.

My time most recently has been taken up loading all the new products onto the website for the beauty company I work for. A massive perk of the job is being able to try out the products and review them, these are hair and make up products, could my job be any more suited to a beauty junkie?

Most exitingly - the latest products to arrive are NYX cosmetics. I was like a child on christmas day when these arrived at the office last Friday, I was literally ripping through the bubble wrap to get at the gorgeous chrome eyeshadows and cream blush.

NYX is an American brand of cosmetics that has been really hard to source in the UK, we have finally got them over the pond and available to our customers who flinch at the thought of paying extortionate shipping and tax prices.

If you want to check out the range we have go to http://www.smartbeautyshop.com

On a sadder note (but only sad for me), I am considering selling an amazing vintage prom dress that I own but have never had the opportunity to wear. I considered wearing it to the final of Miss England but thought better of it knowing that the dress code for such an event was usually long and slinky, not fun and flirty, but it would be perfect for Prom (which I am too old for), a wedding reception (my friends are nearly all married now) or a Christmas Party (to which I never go to, I do often wonder why my life is a string of wine bar visits rather than glam parties) Although, I think the right kind of girl could pull this off at a wine bar, that girl just aint me.

I will post a picture of it soon to see if it will generate any interest. I am probably going to sell it in a silent auction, so that the highest bidder wins and I am willing to ship worldwide to the proud new owner.

The dress is a small UK size 10, and bustier girls may not get along with it that well, I am 34" at the fullest part of my bust (can we say BEESTINGS) and it is a snug fit, as for the waist, I'd say it would suit anyone with a 29" waist or smaller, it is boned so there isn't much tolerance to the body. As for the design, I shall keep this a delightful little secret until I post pictures.

Let me know what you think of the NYX cosmetics range....if we haven't stocked a particular colour or product you want from the main range then you can just let me know by telling me in the comments and I will do my best to add it to the site.

With all the best intentions, and love

L x

Miss Earth UK Final 09

So, my work can be glamorous, and at other times down right dull, tiring and frankly the pits (only when it involves digging files out of cupboards of dead spiders), but Saturday night was another one of those great little highlights that keep you plodding on and wading through the spider discovery days.

I work with a hair colourant company called Smart Beauty, they are based in the UK and more importantly, they do not test on animals, something of which I feel very strongly about.

The Director of the company and I got to go to the UK Final of Miss Earth 09, which sees 4 girls from the UK, including England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland, win a place to represent their countries in the world final of Miss Earth in the Phillipines. This is a beauty competition with a difference, or 'beauty with a cause' as they put it because these girls are advocates for recycling, reusing and reducing waste to help the world little by little. They want to inspire us to make small changes for a big benefit.

Even some of the outfits they had put together out of recycled household waste had me dumbfounded - one in particular was an origami dress made from old broadsheet newspaper - that girl deserved to win a place at a Fashion College, simply amazing.

So here is a pic of myself and the 4 winners, the box I am holding has Smart Beauty products in it, the girls win a modelling contract for a hair styling how-to book with Smart Beauty as part of their prize.

All the best intentions

Hi All (well, no actual follows yet, but I can hope),

I had all the best intentions of kick-starting my blog today with a how-to on the perfect foundation application technique, until the camera I was using went caput on me whilst downloading the snaps.

I will make a promise to you, dear non-existant reader, that this will be posted Monday as rather excitedly I have to get ready for the Miss Earth UK final which is being held on Saturday in Leamington Spa.

My hair tongs and make up brushes are at the ready. Will post pics of this also.

So, I will leave this little post in the vain hope that maybe someone will be interested to read, follow and await said pictures and tutorials, but until then I will say adieu with a little beauty tip for the weekend.

I suffer terribly from frizzy hair when going out at night, and if you have spent ages styling it it is such a pain for all that effort to go to waste.

Carry one of those small pots of Vaseline with you to sooth chapped lips, then take a smaller blob, run it thinly over your fingers then lightly run them over the surface of your hair to tame frizz, flyaways and seal split ends temporarily.

Vaseline - such a classic!

Can anyone think of anything else it is good for (keep it clean ;op)

Have a great weekend! x