Lush Holiday Haul - Part 1

Hello! 

Slightly different to my usual blogs but today I thought I'd share with you about my ever growing obsession with Lush. Every year Lush release limited edition holiday products for both halloween & Christmas. I love halloween, Christmas & all things Lush so I just had to give them a go! My favourite shower gel ever is Snow Fairy. I love anything sweet smelling. 

I have collected lots of Lush goodies on my travels to London, Doncaster & Sheffield. Whilst I was in London I just had to visit the Oxford Street store. It was amazing & so big! It was like a sweet shop, really vibrant & gorgeous smelling (but less edible).

(feat. extremely tall man)

 

Lord of Misrule

Lord of Misrule is a limited edition halloween bath bomb. It smells of spicy patchouli & black pepper oil. Usually I like super sweet smells but this still smelt gorgeous. 

Lord of Misrule starts rotating around & green & white troth starts to spill out. Shortly after blood vivid red troth starts to bubble out! It is literally like a witches cauldron. The red starts to turn the bath a bloody colour which is a nice halloween touch! 

Here is Lord of Misrule in action:

Sparkly Pumpkin 

If you don't like extremely sparkly, orange, bubbly baths this is not the bubble bar for you! I absolutely love glitter so this was amazing! I loved the smell of this also. It was far more fruity than Lord of Misrule so more to my taste. It contained juniper berry, grapefruit & lime oils. I am sad to say this is also limited edition so is no longer available!

You simply crumble the bubble bar into running water & it begins to bubble up. The bubbles themselves are white but the bath water turns bright orange with gold glitter!

Here's a snippet of it in action before I crumbled it into the bath...

Father Christmas 

So Father Christmas is one of the first christmas products released by Lush (more to follow is subsequent haul parts!). It is super cute as it is moulded into no other than Father Christmas' face! Again this is unfortunately a limited edition bath bomb! It has a super sweet smell similar to the Snow Fairy range with a candy floss smell. 

This bath bomb starts by fizzing into a white & light pink/blush foam & then predominantly fizzes into a vibrant green colour. In the end your bath water is very green (it makes your skin look like the Grinches when submerged in the water)! 

Here's it in action...

So that's my first 3 products from Lush which I have tried recently. I have at least 4 more products lined up (some I have already tried & are ready for write up) & I'm sure I'll be buying more. I just can't help myself, it's like an addiction! If you have any questions or comments please leave me a message! 

Emma x

#Lashgang Goodie Bag

Hello!

Today I will be talking about my lovely #lashgang goodie bag! I applied to join the #lashgang which is a network for beauty bloggers. To join you had to be considered to be a established beauty blogger. I met the criteria so I was sent this goodie bag of Nouveau Lashes products! I am already a major fan of their products as I am trained in LVL Enhance Lashes (see blog post), Nouveau Striplashes (express) & Nouveau Extend Lashes. I know what you are thinking, "she got the products for free & she's trained with them she's bound to be biased". I will never give a dishonest review of any products, free or not. I will always give the pros, cons & things I like or dislike about a product/treatment. 

I received the goodie bag in a big box. Inside the box was this bubble wrapped branded gift bag. The bag is very professional looking. You can't tell from the photo but the bag itself is matte with gloss detail for some of the hair strands & it also has the Nouveau Lashes logo in the top right hand corner as you look at the bag. This was a really lovely detail. The bag was beautifully made so good first impressions. 

Inside the bag I received 5 products & the #ultimatelashselfie frame. All the products within the Nouveau Lashes range are colour co-ordinated for continuity & they all feature the logo somewhere at the front of the packaging regardless of whether the product is LVL Enhance, Nouveau Extend or Nouveau Express specific. The packaging is silver with a pop of colour on the ends & purple down the sides. Again, like the bag the product packaging is very professional & well made. After all premium brands should have premium packaging. 

So the products I received were Ultra Bond striplash glue, Striplashes in Style 3, LVL Enhance Conditioning Serum, Eye Make-Up Remover & Fine Point Tweezers. 

LVL Enhance Conditioning Serum 

So I thought I'd start with my favourite product the LVL Enhance Conditioning Serum (purchase here). I have been using this product for over a year now & it is one of my go-to daily essentials. Even if you have not had LVL Enhance Lashes done this is a great product for ensuring that your lashes are in the best condition they can be. Healthy, conditioned lashes are happy, long lashes! 

This product RRP is £14.99. Personally I think this is really good value for money. Usually mine last 6+ months. I use it on both my lashes & brows. I absolutely love this product for my brows too because it helps to keep them looking healthy, glossy & fixed in place. 

The product is like a clear mascara & applies in exactly that way. It has a mascara wand so it is really easy to use. It is recommended that you use this product twice a day, applying it from the root of the lash to the tips. For brows simply brush through them in the direction of hair growth. It can be applied before mascara or it can be used as a stand-alone treatment. One little note I do have is to really make sure you remove your eye make-up before using it at night time otherwise the clear gel starts to become not so clear!

Below is a video showing how to use the product: 

Fine Point Tweezers

My first word of advise is these fine point tweezers (purchase here) are very sharp so please please if you get them handle with care & watch your eyes! They are a pro product so should be used in a professional manor. 

Many lash technicians will use these lashes for isolating the lashes ready for lash extensions but they are great for precise application of striplashes. Keep reading to find out how! 

Striplashes 

Every girl loves a good striplash but everyone has a particular style they like. The style I have is Natural Style 3 (purchase here). There are 12 different striplashes which can be found here so there should be a style for everyone. There are three general styles natural, glamour & volume. As mentioned these are natural lashes. 

I was quite excited to try these lashes as I have never worn lashes of this style. Usually I go for a very natural filler lash to add a little volume while keeping them natural but glamorous looking. I have naturally long & thick lashes so I don't really need lashes but I feel left out if I don't wear them!

They RRP at £6.99 which is pretty much on par with other brands. While the product is a similar price to other brands the quality is far superior. The lashes are super soft & they are a premium lash & professional product used by pros so the quality is amazing.  

Like pretty much all striplashes they come with a miniature Ultra Bond striplash glue. This is ideal for on the go incase of lash mishaps but because the glue is a professional product you shouldn't have the problem of them pinging off half way through the day/night unless the application wasn't great to start with obviously. Another advantage of having a miniature glue includes is that you can try before you decide to buy the full size version. 

So before applying I checked to make sure they were the correct size for my lashes. This is really important as if the lash is too big/long it can make the eyes appear to droop down & it can also be very irritating. If they are too long, trim a little from the outer corner of the lashes & recheck for size. Once they are the correct size you can apply a tiny amount of glue along the edge/vein of the lashes. I left the glue to go tacky for about 30 seconds. 

I then applied the lashes to the centre of my eyelid as close to the lash line as possible using the fine pointed tweezers. I then started to position the rest of the lash working from the inner corner to the outer corner. The fine pointed tweezers were great to get a snug precise application & reposition the lashes if required.

As you can see the lashes are nice & relatively natural. You could get away with them for everyday use or for a little extra volume on a night time. 

I love my #ultimatelashselfie frame too!


Ultra Bond False Eyelash Glue
So I've already spoke briefly about the Ultra Bond False Eyelash Glue (purchase here) but there is still lots to say about this product! I am an avid Duo striplash glue enthusiast. It is my go to product for striplashes so I was interested to see how it compared.

Like the Duo glue is has a small hole for precise application. Just hold a gentle squeeze & run the product along the striplash as described above. It applies white & dries clear. 

I personally found this product to be a little stickier than the Duo glue which I didn't really like but other than that its a great stay-put product. So stay put that if you get some in your lashes it is quite hard to get out! 

Eye Make-Up Remover
It is really important to have a good eye make-up remover to remove any make-up, oils & bacteria from the lashes at the end of the day. This eye make-up remover (purchase here) is a gentle, oil-free formula which can remove even the hardest to remove eye make-up but is still suitable for sensitive skin. This product RRP at £14.99.

Because it is a gel formula it needs to be applied in combination with a damp cotton pad.  Simply do one pump of gel onto a dampened cotton pad & rub it together with another dampened cotton pad.

I then used circular motions to remove the eye make-up. As you can see it removed my eye make-up really well. I then dried my lashes with a dry cotton pad. 

My tip would be make sure you remove the excess water from the damped cotton pads to reduce the amount of water/product going into your actual eye as no product should really come into direct contact with your eye.


I hope you have enjoyed reading about these products as much as I have enjoyed using them! Thanks again Nouveau Beauty Group! Product  If you have an comments or questions about these products please feel free to message me!

Emma x

Photo Shoot for Glass Onion Vintage AW15 Collection

Hello!

A few weeks ago I was asked to do the hair & make-up for a photo shoot for the Glass Onion Vintage AW15 Collection. This company is essentially a vintage warehouse who stocks stores such as Urban Outfitters (Urban Renewal). I was really excited to do this shoot as they had two great models, one male & one female. I have never done a males make-up other than eyebrows so this was something new for me to get my teeth into.The weather was absolutely horrendous this day. It took me more than double the amount of time it should to get to Sheffield for this shoot! Luckily I wasn't the last to arrive! 

Jake Chatterton

I started my male model, Jake Chatterton first. I began by cleansing his skin with Bioderma Sensibio micellar water to remove any dirt or oil from his skin followed by a moisturiser. I then prepped the skin with Illamaqua Hydra Veil which is by far one of the best primers out there. It is both hydrating & helps to keep your make-up on. I then applied MAC Face & Body to create a nice even skin tone without making it obvious he had make-up on. This is a really fluid, almost water-like foundation which is buildable. He had a few blemishes so I concealed these with a combination of MAC Select Cover-Up & MAC PRO Conceal & Correct Palette. I finished the brows with HD Brows Brow Beater which is a clear brow setting gel. It is one of my go to brow products! This is all Jake needed in his brows as I didn't want him to look made up. I finished by using MAC Blot Powder to fix the make-up in place. 

Here are a few of my favourite shots...

 

Bluebell
When Bluebell arrived I did the exactly the same procedure as Jake. Cleanse with Bioderma Sensibio micellar water, moisturise then prime with Illamaqua Hydra Veil. Bluebell had absolutely amazing skin with only one small spot requiring concealing so I used MAC Face & Body as this created a light, glowing coverage & again I used MAC Select Cover-Up & MAC PRO Conceal & Correct Palette to conceal. I then used my Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Contour Kit in Light followed by Anastasia Beverly Hills Powder Contour Kit in Light to enhance her natural contours. The company asked for a really natural look hence why I keep emphasising the natural element. I applied MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft & Gentle to highlight her cheek bones, cupids bow & very lightly on the nose. I added a touch of blusher so that her cheeks don't look washed out. I can't remember the exact colour but it was MAC. I added a natural eyeshadow using Urban Decay Naked 2 palette, a nude MAC eyeshadow from my pro palette, MAC Pigment in Vanilla to highlight under the brow arch & tear ducts followed by a sweep of mascara using Benefit Roller Lash which is my go-to mascara (see blog post for more information) & finally a baby pink MAC Mineralise Lipgloss to make the lips look nice & plump & moisturised! I finished by straightening Bluebell's hair.

Me in action...

Here are a few of my favourite shots from look 1...

I then changed Bluebell's hair into a fishtail plait & made the eyes a little heavier but not too dark. I used MAC Pigments in Heritage Rouge & Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. I darkened the lip but kept it relatively natural using a MAC Lipstick in Twig. This lipstick matched beautifully with her dress.  

So here's the final, slightly grungier look of the day...

 

I hope you have enjoyed reading what I have been up to. It was a really fun day. If anyone is interested in checking out the photographer she is called Alice Wint (@shecriedwolf). You may have also noticed that I have started to add the links in for the products I have used. I hope this is something you find useful! Obviously feel free to shop around but always buy from a reputable source! Feel free to comment if you have any questions!

Emma x