Make up tips for beautiful bridal make up
Its that time of year again!
I love bridal season, I have been really busy over the last few weeks with bridal make up trials and wanted to pass on some tips to you ladies who are doing your own make up for your big day.
Here are my top 10 tips for perfect bridal make up
.1. It’s all in the eyes.
If you are like me your regular mascara may be your saviour! But for this one day I say ditch it! I’m not asking you to go out on your wedding day with naked lashes!!!! I Often apply individual lashes to my brides and blend them with the natural lashes with a little waterproof mascara. This is a really glamorous alternative, adding enhancing length, thickness without any unnatural clogging.
Using individual lashes with a little coating of waterproof mascara is a cleaner smudge free alternative You might not be the “crying” type, but don’t take the risk, you don’t want to be a soppy mess.
2. Beauty is only skin deep….
Drink plenty, drink water like its going out of fashion! Hydrating the skin will give you a glow, it will help your skin become clear of any spots and will also plump out any dehydration lines which prematurely age the skin.
Also invest in a skin care regime which is recommended for your skin type and conditions.
3. Cheat your way to a perfect base. Many women don’t see the necessity of a make up primer, well let me tell you; the right primer for your skin can be a god send. All primers cause your make up to stay fresher and longer.
Specialised primers can also mattify or create a dewy finish, there are also silicone based primers which fill pores and fine lines!
4. Its not a great thing to try new things or make big changes just before your big day! If you are going to get a spray tan don’t do it on the eve of your wedding do it a couple of days before just so you have time to remove a patchy dodgy job!
This goes for brow grooming too, maintain your usual regimen. You could end up chola’d!
And as for vajazzling- just don’t! You inevitably will be walking down the aisle like John Wayne!
5. Keep shine at bay. For your photographs keeping the shine down on you face is imperative.
If you know you have oily skin opt for a mattifying primer over a moisturiser, follow with a mattifying foundation. Now with a small powder brush focusing on the t-zone stroke a little translucent powder over your foundation to set the makeup.
A heavily powdered face can be really dull looking so don’t be overzealous with powder instead keep oil absorbing sheets in your purse for shine touch ups.
6. If you line your eyes swap your inkwell or kohl pencil eyeliner for a long-lasting gel liner. Bobbi Brown does a cult gel liner which comes in a huge variety of colours and is totally smudge free and waterproof.
Top tip: If you always opt for black save your pennies and try out Maybeline’s Lasting Drama gel liner- They have just brought out an extremely similar product but have only brought out the 1 shade and are selling it at almost half the price!
7. Create a lip stain. Many girls usually use a lip gloss but this may not do the trick on your wedding day. Lip gloss is not very long-lasting, you will spend most of the day kissing family members you vaguely remember as well as your oldest friends and if that doesn’t remove your gloss the ”I do” moment will see your lip gloss go from your face to all over yours and your grooms faces! I find long stay lip duos cause drying and cracking and can look really shrivelled.
I often create a lip stain by outlining and filling in my brides lips with a flattering lip pencil colour, then I apply a soft lipstick and blot with a tissue. Repeat this metod. This will leave a stain on your lips and the lipstick will stay on longer.
8. Dont harden your look with penciled on brows.
Use an eyebrow powder to softly enhance the shape of brows. This is also a smudge free method.
9. highlight.
A pro trick is highlighting to sculpt the face.
Apply dewy shine to the highest point of the cheek bones. An ivory highlighter under the brows really compliments and ivory dress. Dust a subtle powder highlighter along the cupids bow of the lips.
As well as enhancing the lips this will help to stop lip colours “bleeding” around the lip line.
10. Finish the make up with a fixing spay. This freshens the make up instantly, eradicates any powdery finish and really sets the make up for a long-lasting hold.
Have the beauty counters gone to far? Sales vs customer care
For the record I’m not really a whinger!
Quite spinelessly I brush off many things and prefer not to complain but I was recently pushed to contact to a high-end, luxury beauty brand about the pushy sales tactics at their counter. This got me thinking about the state of counter-culture…
I’ve done the rounds in retail myself as well as paying more shopping visits to the beauty counters than most people have had hot dinners and in turn I know the score. Behind the lip glossed smiles brands are more focussed on sales than customer service, and this leads to some very poor customer service and cookie cutter selling.
The worst culprits? You know who they are! They have pop up stands in shopping centres ” Madam can I ask you a question” is the start of their tired script, 10 mins into conversation if you haven’t indicated any intension of buying you can see them begin to slightly foam at the mouth in desperation. Expect hard sales from these brands their pay is largely made of commission but I’d expect informative sales advice from the high-end luxury brands!
I visited the beauty counter at Westfield’s with the soul intention of purchasing several products for an editorial and to check out their new cosmetic and skin care launches. Let me tell you the products I required where not cheap!
When approached I thanked the advisor for offering help and told her that I didn’t need advice and wanted to browse. I might as well have been speaking backwards in Japanese! Instantly she persisted to follow me at arms reach and ask sales engaging questions, giving me information on products I had no interest in and suggesting that I do a multi buy for a gift with purchase. As I scanned the beauty products I could feel I was being watched. Feeling incredibly stifled I practically ran away from the counter. I had none of the products that I needed
Beauty is my area of expertise so I wouldn’t fall prey to any of these sales tactics but what if I had very little knowledge on the subject and really needed advice? The sales person wasn’t listening to me she had no idea of my requirements or needs. The brands products range from about £20 to several hundred(!!!!) so it scares me when we are talking such big money to think that sales “advisors” are obviously under these sales pressures and so unreceptive to a customers needs.
When I contacted the brand I wasn’t complaining about the sales staff as I understand that these staff are under immense pressure.
Trusting consumers hang on their every word of beauty staff as expert and the sale begins. Many of the make up artists and beauty specialists in retail are brilliant, I have friends who work in retail and they are fantastic, talented make up artists/beauty specialists with great passion in what they do. The problem is that their job is in no way as simple as people believe. They have targets to hit, high targets. Their performance is constantly monitored on percentages- they aim to sell *% make up * % skin care etc.. IPS/IPT this stands for Items per sale/transaction. If you buy a single product this will bring their items per sale down so they have to try to avoid this. Their wage is often made up by commission as individuals and as counters. In a sale they have to try to link sale to improve their items per transaction, they also have to try to get your contact details as well whilst you are at the counter to add you to e newsletter or mailing lists and also so they can call/write to you to tell you about new products events etc to get you back in store.
It’s a shame that brands are now favouring the employment of sales people rather than beauty experts.
When you are at a beauty counter-
If you find some one particularly helpful you can book in with them directly for make up updates etc.
Dont be pushed in, its understandable if a sales person has spent a long time helping you feel an obligation but take your time to check the products in other lights and to ensure the product lasts well after a few hours.
Check your own products before you make a purchase, how many times has it happened, you buy the amazing sounding product just to find that you have something just like it already at home!
Listen out for the multi sell do you really need the extra products? Will the extra products really improve the finish or performance of your chosen products? Or are you just spending twice as much as originally intended for some trial sized products you would never have intended to buy?
Only give your contact information if you are happy at being contacted , it’s just an extension of the brands sales methods.
How to blag your way into fashion week
Good luck to all my friends who are going to be at London Fashion week, Its shaping up excitingly already with curvy models hitting the runway- size 16 big girls you are beautiful 
There will be lots of tributes to Alexander Mcqueen, I will miss his amazing style and fabulous shows.
If you are really desperate to squeeze into London Fashion week I found this hillarious article on twitter- a guerrila guide to blagging your way into the shows, written by Laura Gabrielle-
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5203/Blagging-Into-Fashion-Week
If anyone has ever used these techniques and ended up rubbing shoulders front row please let me know (you are my hero)
xxx
Discount 10% off K by Beverly Knight
50% off Shu Uemura’s Premium limited edition lashes!!
1.jpg "lashes in nature collection")
Its time to stock up!!!
As previously mentioned I am in sweet love with Shu Uemura’s lashes -the ferrari of falsies!!
So I am prepared for an over draft max-out as there is 50% off the Shu Uemura premium limited edition Lashes in Nature collection - this is a gorgeous collection of dazzleing totally oringinal false lashes. My favourites are Snow twist ( the only thing in relation to snow I am not totally sick of!) and gold glam leaf!
You can get this huge saving for1 week only at their Neal St Boutique in London. Limited quantities available and you will have to fight me for them! 
Happy shopping
Also
x
Valentines gift ideas- Urban decays cutest set ever
I thought I’d give you boys some ideas for Valentines Day in hope that my husband might read this…
I can’t wait to watch Alice in Wonderland on the big screen and I am in sweet love with Urban Decay’s Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows palette!!!
This is the best packaging I’ve seen in a long time, indulgent and whimsical gorgeousness.
“Open the palette to reveal a pop-up scene of Alice in the mushroom forest. Her “drink me” bottle discarded, she staggers past towering mushrooms, only to cross paths with a very peculiar, hookah-smoking caterpillar. A large mirror rests behind the scene – you feel as if you are transported into the film itself.”
16 best selling eye shadows have been hidden in a secret drawer- adorable!
You can buy urban decay in Boots but may have to ring in advance as this collection has been selling out and is quite hard to get hold of but earn some brownie points and buy it for me Adam… whoops I mean- buy it for your lovely girlfriends lads 
Beauty in the sales ;-)
I have found the best for you! I would advise buying online- sales are crazy and you never know what they will have left in the stores.
House of Fraser
House of Fraser is selling loads of luxury skin care and make up at discounted prices!!
Please note – House of Fraser has lots(!!!!!!) of amazing discounts on make up brand Prescriptives so stock up now but dont get to attached to the colours as we will be saying good bye to the brand after January as Prescriptives has become a victim of the recession 
Bye bye
Yves Saint Laurent- Eyes the bow collection 4 Colour Eyeshadow £12.00 off now £22.00
Givenchy Prisme Again in Blush Was £24.50 now £18.27 other colours available
Givenchy Poudre du Soir caressing loose powder now £27.75! (gorgeous, sparkly and silky extravagance)
Yves Saint Laurent Complexion Trésor d`Afrique Collector Sun Powder was £44.00 now £29.34
CULT PRODUCT!- Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Skincare Set was £28.00 now £18.76
Good old Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream, the multi purpose skin care wonder that every girl in the world must know of/used/heard about by now! So what do you use it for? A skin treatment, especially good at this dry time of year– not to be mistaken for your daily moisturiser the cream can be used as a booster when you’re skin is feeling dry, lack lustre etc. I wouldn’t recommend over use. Use as a treatment at home- a full face of the cream leaves you looking and feeling greasy.
Lip balm – Although the set comes with a lip balm you can use the original cream, a tiny blob of this cream will transform dry lips. great to mix up with your lipstick to make lipstains as well.
Dry area cream- Works like magic on Elbows, Knees, heels any dry patches.
Nail and cuticle cream.
After sun (this is an amazing multi product for travel) Brow tidy. Brow and cheek highlighter adds a dewy natural glow.
the list goes on!
OVER £100 OFF! Estée Lauder Re-Nutriv Ultimate Indulgence WAS £360.00 nOW £252.00
Reduced Limited edition beauty buys from Yves Saint Laurent Glamour duo lip palette WAS £39.00 NOW £26.01
Estée Lauder Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lifting Set was £146.81 now £102.76
Boots
Dior Christmas Lip Palette Gift Set Gorgeous limited edition set now £21.33
No7 Ultimate Collection lots of colours to play with half price now £30.00
17 Vanity Case £18.00 off!!!!! Now £12.00
Mark Hill Smooth & Shine Wide Ceramic Styler £48.94 off!!!!Haff priced now £48.93
Superdrug
LA PRAIRIE CELLULAR INTERVENTION CREAM 30ML WEB EXCLUSIVE DEAL £20 off this lux skin care now £50.00
Space nk
MAKE UP ARTISTS!!!! Bag these amazing, award winning make up brushes from Sonia Kashuk at cheap, cheap prices!!!
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Retractable Kabuki Brush Sonia Kashuk was £23.49 Now £9.79
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Large Eye Shadow Brush Sonia Kashuk was £17.62 Now £4.89
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Angled Eye Shadow Brush Sonia Kashuk was£14.69 Now £4.89
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Synthetic Flat Top Brush Sonia Kashuk was£18.60 now £4.89
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15 Minutes of Fame Mini Lip Gloss Kit- Berries LIPSTICK QUEEN was£21.53 now £10.77
Happy Shopping
xxx
Nail them!!!!
Photography Titus Powell, Nails by Sunshine 07951680947, Model Jeizmie Morriss, Make up me
2010 Is going to be the year of the decorated (somewhat bionic) nail. The most exciting thing in beauty now is right on the tip of your finger!
Nails make the most amazing accesory and right now outrageous nail art like the hottest styles from nail crazy Japan are hitting the world.
Create your own nail art on any budget with gorgeous colours from Japanese inspired London based brand Eyeko.
“ Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP and Camphor FREE! No Colour fade thanks to UV absorbers and an amazing glossy, chip resistant finish which strengthens nails too! “
Beyond doubt the cutest packaging on the market and only £3 each! Great colours and well priced for creative shoots for make up artists !!! I love the pastel colours-Nude, Violet and Vintage!
Also if you use my special code E7493 you will also get a free gift when you shop online at www.eyeko.com !!!!!!
Brands like Minx and Kawai nails are making nails exciting and very easy to do!
I am in love with Kawaii Nails gorgeous pre made bejewelled nails. Simply press these babies on for an instant make over that will get noticed! I want them in every single style!
Celebrity divas from Beyonce and Solange Knowles to Gaga, Rhianna and Blake Lively are sporting the “Grillz for your finger nails” Minx Nails, a foil like product which comes in gorgeous patterns and metalic shines. It is an innovative professional product and must be applied by a trained technician and can last for 2 weeks.
.JPG "beyonce in minx")
And last but not least, my hands down favourite glittery nail polish is Deborah Lippmans “Happy Birthday” nail polish. More seasonal sparkle than christmas!!
Nicole Kidman’s big make up faux pas!!
Ooops! Could this be the biggest red carpet make up blunder of all time?… Nicole Kidman attended the New York premiere of her latest film Nine last night with powder clearly under her eyes and on the side of her nose.
How embarrassing!- This film has an amazing line of leading ladies including stunning beauties- Fergie, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz so the pressure to look immaculate was on. I am guessing Nicole may have been dragged off during make up and had gone on the red carpet before getting it properly finished. A lot of make up artists put powder under the eyes if using colour to catch fallen powder then sweep away. I prefer to do eyes first; I then wipe away any drop with a facial wipe leaving a clean base for the rest of the face.
If this is the reason why Nicole was caught on the red carpet like this it surprises me that no one around her noticed.
Also I am guessing her dress cost the price of a small house so why any one would dress her with the white powder still all over her face is beyond me.
Its actually thankfull that her make up artist left the powder under the eyes as well as on her nose as if it was just on her nose poor Nicole could of been under media scrutiny for a very different reason if the powder had just been missed on her nose!
Nicole’s eyes look fairly natural so her make up artist didn’t really have to use this technique, her gentle defined eyes, rose lips and always gorgeous skin would have been a nice look if it wasn’t for that god awful powder. As a make up artist its making me feel a little obsessive, compulsive just looking at her is making me hyperventilate and want to run up to her with my powder brush and put it right!
Nicole if you are looking for a new make up artist…
Cult Products under the spot light- YSL Touché Éclat…
There are certain products that clients cant wait to pull out of their make up bags or tell me that they own and get my opinion on- the “cult” beauty products.
At the very top of the list is YSL’s Touché Éclat.
Every 15 seconds a Toche Eclat is bought and this product has won countless awards, yet I find that this product is over rated; often bought as a concealer/under eye (miracle) concealer which it is not.
Touché Éclat translates as “radiant touch” and this is its actual job- a touch of radiance. It ads subtle luminosity, a luxury highlighter to fight against fatigue. I have heard of it to be described as a “magic wand for enhanced radiance”, that it gives the look of an extra 8 hours sleep and that is generally a miracle worker but I disagree with some of the far fetched claims. I give the pros and cons of this product and my advice for its usage.
Pros
I feel the main innovation of this product when it was developed was the use of light reflective particles which give the illusion of filling out wrinkles and skin furrows. For example I would use it on those depressing lines I am starting to notice develop around my mouth or some people may have “jowl” lines from the corners of the mouth, frown furrows etc. It could be used to brighten sunken eyes etc. You can also use it to highlight the cupids bow area of the lips, under the eyebrows to lift the eyes and on the cheek bones
A brilliant product for people who are extremely natural and want a no make up appearance, this would be a great product for men. I like the fine fluid texture which blends in seamlessly.
Very easy to use out and about due to it’s built in applicator.
Cons
If you have under eye bags this product highlights so the light reflection will do a good job of adding to the problem my adviced would be cold compresses and apply a good eye cream which reduces puffy eyes like Dr Sebagh For Your Eyes Only cream using a draining massage pattern to apply and then a concealer on areas of discolouration if needed.
It’s extremely expensive especially for the slight results
I dislike the pen brush; I find the concept of product that comes with a built in applicator fiddly and harder to keep hygienic. You never know how much product you have until it runs out.
Light reflective products can throw back light when used in photographs and therefore look lighter in pictures although I have used them before with out problems. I think a problem would be caused if you used a lot of the product…
I found it a bit drying.
If lots of this product is used to remove darkness I find it can make it look grey and unnatural
For hiding discolouration I would opt for more coverage By Terry concealers are a better bet. Made by the creator of the Touché Éclat I feel the By Terry pen is an updated version. A very much a similar product but with noticably more coverage.
For heavy discolouration around the eyes I would strongly recommend Bobbi Brown’s correctors. Unlike the Touche Eclat and other concealers the correctors work to erradicate discolouration which generally shines through concealers how ever much you put on.
The bisque toned concealers neutralise the grey blue-ish tones often found around the eyes of Caucasians and the peach tones work miracles on the more brown dark circles often found on warmer skin tones- Eastern Europeans and Indian Asians. This is the only product I have ever found that cuts the grade for Indian clients with very dark circles/pigmentation around the eyes.
This what YSL say about their product – (I would advise trying the product in store before you buy so you can see the results for yourself before you buy)
In just one click, this moisturising and ultra-fluid emulsion eliminates shadows from the side of the nose, the corners of the mouth, the hollow of the chin and expression lines. It embellishes the eye area, making you look rested and bright-eyed. The pure magic of TOUCHE ÉCLAT can also be applied to the lip contour to create fuller looking lips, or to the side of the nose to give your face a touch of radiance.
