Recently a few friends and I enjoyed fun, food and frolics by the sea at the Sidmouth Folk Festival. The weather was glorious (before it took a grey turn for the worst the following afternoon, in typical British summertime fashion) so we enjoyed our first evening by the coast sat in the garden with bubbles, sangria, and one helluva fabulous feast!
A couple of weeks ago I picked up this gorgeous gloss by L’Oréal on a complete whim. I was in a Boots store in Devon and felt like I needed a pick-me-up product, something that would make my monochrome attire look a little more colourful. Enter, the Infallible Mega Gloss.
A few weeks ago I was kindly invited to Ladbrokes’ Wimbledon Summer Party in London with a bunch of other bloggers. With such cute invitations, how could a girl resist throwing on a white frock to celebrate the Tennis on a Friday night…
Belém is windy.
Continuing my trip to Lisbon last month, our third day was our final day as a five-piece as one of the girls had to fly back home *insert sad face emoji*
Whilst researching my trip to Lisbon I came across several recommendations to visit it’s historical town, Sintra. And on our second day we did just that.
A 3am start to the day must only mean one thing – holiday o’clock! Lisbon, here we come…
‘Blossom Dandy’ is one of the beautiful shades from Essie’s 2015 Flowerista collection and is perfect for summertime. A gorgeous bright duck egg shade, it has a hint of mint without taking anything away from the blue tones.
I’m obsessed.
I have been searching for a shade like this for a few weeks but all the polishes I have seen seem to be too blue or too green – I wanted that famous Tiffany’s colour.
Using the Essie base coat and two coats of colour, the drying time was great and I didn’t have to endure any smudging (I’m a fidget which always proves problematic painting nails!)
I can’t comment on the staying power as it’s only been on my nails for a couple of hours but Essie polish usually lasts a good 5 days before chipping. During the hotter months (or week, in the UK) I change up the nail colour quite a bit so longevity isn’t too much of an issue for me, but I have a feeling I’m going to be opting for this shade quite a bit…
You can find more details on the Essie Flowerista collection here.
What do you think of this colour? Have you bought any shades from this range?
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Last month I was kindly invited to go along to Benefit cosmetics blogger event in Bristol for a ‘summer contour’ masterclass.
After all the introductions were made the lovely Kirsty, Benefit’s boutique manager in Debenhams, informed us on their charity month in May called Bold is Beautiful campaign which will help raise money and awareness for Look Good Feel Better & Refuge charities. If you purchase any brow wax service at Benefit during May you will receive a complimentary full sized Gimme Brow product, and 100% of the profits from the brow wax services will go to the two charities. Check the website for details on your nearest brow bar.
As we sat down ready to learn about how to contour for summer I got chatting to the lovely Bea whilst swatching some of the products in front of me. We were shown two contour looks: the Kim Kardashian contour which is slightly more time consuming but looks incredible for an evening look, and then a more natural and easier contour. I’m always eager to learn new techniques for applying products but was especially keen to find out how to create the former contour look.
Kirsty began the Kim K look on Bristol’s Benefit beauty consultant Brooke using Boi-ing concealer (choosing two of the five shades available), explaining which areas to highlight and where to contour.
Highlight should be applied under your eyes (think of a triangle shape, taking the concealer above your cheekbones), above and between the eyebrows, down the centre of your nose and around your chin.
Contour using a concealer two shades darker than the highlight, take it under your cheek bones, down the sides of your nose, across the bridge of your nose, around your jaw and hair line and alongside the highlight on the chin. You can also apply some contour above your lip, a trick I hadn’t tried before.
Once you have done these two stages grab a sponge (or brush) and it’s time to blend blend blend.
When it’s shown in these simple stages it seems far less daunting then you may have initially thought. As someone with fair skin this look would usually be out of my comfort zone but I have attempted it since using products I already own (ideally I would be using Benefit’s Boi-ing concealer in the shades 01 and 03) and I love the extreme glamour it creates! Although perhaps not a look I would wear if I was just off to do my grocery shopping…
Alternatively, you could use their best selling Hoola bronzer for a slightly easier and daytime friendly contoured look. Brooke demonstrated this more familiar method on Kirsty, who then created the same look on myself after the class. Hoola is a slightly darker bronzer than I usually choose to wear and was initially unsure how it would look on my paler complexion, but I was impressed with the bronzed finish (another product to add to my never-ending wish list). It really slims the face and by taking an extra bit of time to get it right, the rest of your makeup can be kept as simple as you wish – or channel your inner Kardashian!
I have seen many tutorials on YouTube but being shown how to do in reality was far more helpful, and of course we were able to try and recreate it ourselves using the products. Now I’m no contour-pro just yet but with the right tools and the lessons I have learnt above, I’m excited to have a contoured summer glow!
A big thank you to Kirsty for putting on a great event.
Let me know in the comments your favourite Benefit products and how you like to contour.
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