London Fashion Weekend 2012

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you would know that earlier in the week I got very excited after I found out I won a competition hosted by iFabbo to visit London Fashion Weekend.

If you aren’t aware, LFWend falls immediately after London Fashion Week and is a designer shopping event, with some designers offering up to 70% off.

I have never visited before and had no idea what to expect. Somerset house is huge and it took me a while to find the correct entrance and the iFabbo team! But once I did I met the team and some other bloggers who had won the competition and we were treated to canapes and drinks before the start of the runway show.

The show was a collection of British designers, including Holly Fulton, which was my favourite collection since a lot of pieces were something I would actually wear. Another collection by Prim Rose showed gave me some good ideas about how to work the pastels trend this season and I was surprised that I liked the sport luxe collection, who ever thought tracksuit bottoms and high heals could work?

My one fluke shot during the Prim Rose collection! You can almost make out the braids, which I loved. 

Unfortunately I am a useless photographer, but I loved the models hair and makeup. Some of the models sported a braided look, which looked so pretty and feminine. The host Zoe Hardman also ran through some other hair trends like the top knot (a high bun) and fishtail braid.

Their makeup was all done using the new Elizabeth Arden collection, which I had a chance to check out after the show. The makeup was mostly plain, with a nice pale pink/rose coloured lip.

We were also given a goodie bag each, which contained Kleenex eyemakeup remover wipes, Label M protein spray, Elizabeth Arden eight hour cream, impress nails and a Toni&Guy gift card. There was also some Lavazza coffee, which my mum claimed and a Galaxy chocolate bar….which didn’t make it home.

After the show I wondered round each of the rooms in Somerset House and looked at some of the fashion available. I didn’t buy any clothing, but I did get my brows done at the Benefit brow bar — taking advantage of the discounted price and picked up a face mask from Elizabeth Arden (expect reviews of both soon!).

If you are into your fashion, this is definitely the place to be this weekend. There are still tickets to the event but not the fashion show, and I have a discount on my Facebook page for anyone who wants to purchase tickets in advanced.

Have you been to LFWend before and what spring/summer trend is your favourite this year?

Quick review: Eye bright by Benefit

This is one of those products that does exactly what it says on the box. Eye bright by Benefit is designed to make you look awake by adding brightness to the eye — I can’t think of any other way to describe it!

It is a nice pale pink coloured eye pencil, which you can use in that waterline to brighten up the eye are and make you look awake or in the corners of the eyes (useful to highlight the inner corner too!).

I have heard of and tried out the tip of using white eyeliner before to brighten up the eyes, but I really didn’t like the look it gave, and the pink tone of this lends itself much better for this.

The pencil is creamy and applies to the waterline easily and surprisingly it lasts as well as you would expect from any eyeliner. I prefer to apply with a light touch to get the best look.You can also use it as a highlight underneath the brow bone or in the inner corner of the eye.

This normally retails at £14 but I used my Debenhams beauty club points to get this for cheaper. I think at £14 it is expensive for what it is. For those of you who received the dusty pink Eyeko eyeliner in the January Glossybox, I think that this can be used in the same way and is a cheaper alternative. I also think that the slightly darker shade will work well to give a brightening effect without looking obvious.

7 deadly sins of beauty TAG!

I love a good tag post, so when I spied this on Eyelining Obsessions blog I had to post my responses.

TAG QUESTIONS

1. GREED: What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?
My most inexpensive are a whole bunch of products I brought in ELFs 50% off sale, making the standard range 75p each! I picked up lots of lashes, a few lipglosses, brushes and a facial whip. At regular price my cheapest item is a MUA blusher at £1!

As for the most expensive, either my NAKED palette or Book of Shadows III, I can’t remember which cost more, but they were about £35.

2. WRATH: What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with? What product has been the hardest to get?
Eyelashes! I haven’t had the patience to learn how to apply them properly but I love how they look.


After seeing them on YouTube I really wanted to try the EOS lip balms, when I went to the states I couldn’t find them anywhere and sent my parents on the mission when they visit and ended up with two… that was two years after my original trip!

3. GLUTTONY: What are your most delicious beauty products?
My Benefit coralista blush, it smells amazing!

4. SLOTH: What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness?
Eyelashes, again! I always try for a night out and after one attempt give up and do without. On a daily basis I skip using an eyeshadow base a lot of the time out of laziness and later regret it when I notice my eyeshadows have creased!

5. PRIDE: What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?
This is difficult, I don’t usually go a day without sorting out base, whether that is a BB cream or mineral foundation, but I always feel best when wearing eyeliner.

6. LUST: What attributes do you find most attractive in the opposite sex?
I agree with Eyelining Obbessions on this one, not sure how this links to makeup — but a strong jawline, nice smile and a good heart.

7. ENVY: What items would you most like to receive as a gift?
This is a tough one, there are loads! Anything on my wish list would be nice but I think a set of Sigma brushes would be amazing, only because I have heard so many good things about them and they are not easy to get hold of.

I tag you all! Just leave a link below

Quick review: No7 lash adapt mascara

No 7 mascaras are a bit hit and miss with me, but Lash Adapt has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I picked this up using one of their £5 vouchers some time last year. It gives a nice natural look which makes a change from Benefit They’re real look I sported all over Christmas break and has become my everyday mascara.

The wand is quite thick (but I personally always look out for fatter wands) but it picks up just the right amount of product. The formulation of the mascara isn’t thick either so this combined with the wand size means that it does work really well to provide an even coat over the lashes and can be built up if needed. Even better, true to word, it doesn’t clump.

I tend to go for no more than two coats, generally I only apply the one to give me the look I want. When I have applied two there is still no clumping, but I also didn’t notice a huge difference in the length or volume of my lashes.

It is also worth mentioning the packaging, which at first glance looks like a standard black tube but it does have flecks of multicoloured sparkle through it, subtle but pretty.

Quick review: Blistex intensive moisturiser

There aren’t many lip care products I would rave about. Up until discovering this product all the lip balms I tried didn’t do much in the way of improving the dryness of my lips, particularly in the cold winter months, and only stopped them getting much worse.

Blistex intensive on the other hand actually does make my lips moisturised and soft and this is the first winter I haven’t suffered with dry, cracked lips.

Instead of being a balm is it a cream and the scent is minty/medicinal, but not at all unpleasant. I apply it as the last step of my skincare regime in the evening and let it do its magic overnight — using a regular lip balm during the day. It doesn’t tingle when you apply but it does feel very fresh!

Being a cream it isn’t easy to apply during the day and if you do put too much on you end up with white cream all around your mouth and on your fingers as you try to rub it in on the tube (yes bitter experience there). Also, it is so good at moisturising that I don’t feel the need to use it more than once a day.

As an added bonus, this is very cheap at around £2.50 for a 5g tube.

Snow nails

When the snow fell and I was all snuggled up at home I decided to attempt a snow inspired nail look.

I even attempted an artsy photo! 

I have not attempted much nail art but decided to try a faded look. Instead of using a series of colours and blending them into one another, I used an old sponge to add white to the tips of my nails.

I used an old blue No7 polish as the base, which has a sheer finish and worked well for this look. For the sponging I used Barry M white, which I placed directly on the sponge and blotted off the excess so that only there was only a light transfer of colour onto the nail. I concentrated the colour only on the tips and tried to place more colour at the edge of the nail compared to where the white met the blue colour in order to look like snow fall on my nails!

To finish of the look I applied one coat of glitter polish.

I am hoping to attempt more nail art in the future, what would you like to see next?

Barry M croc effect

Just a quick nail post to show what I have been wearing the last few days on my nails. I decided to go back to the croc effect combining it this time with Barry M’s mushroom underneath.

I have spoken about the application of this previously so there isn’t really too much to add in this post, other than I really like the look when using muted colours underneath.

Next time I sport this look I intend to opt for a neon/bright shade…. any recommendations?

January empties

January is over already! Since I enjoy reading empties post I decided I would start doing these each month, there have been quite a few products I have actively made an attempt to use up since they have been hanging around my bathroom far too long.

So here we go…..

Excuse how grimy these bottles look but they spent a long time in the bottom of the shower! 

Schwarzkopf Seah hairspa cashmere cream masque — In keeping with my new years resolution I have treated my hair more. This is a really rich and nourishing masque, which smells gorgeous and left my hair feeling really soft and moisturised. It came as part of a gift set originally so I don’t know how much it would cost to buy, definitely a contender for the repurchase list. 

Johnson’s baby oil — I use this after showering to moisturise my skin. I like to apply any moisturiser to damp skin to help lock in the moisture so having this in the shower worked really well for that. Being an oil it meant it lasted ages and is also super cheap! 

Soap and Glory the fab pore face mask— I really liked this and will probably repurchase once I get through the rest of my face masks. It lasted ages too and I was using it at least 3 times a month, which makes it great value for money. 

Avon face perfector — I did a review on this recently. I am actually cheating and chucking this out without finishing it, but I noticed that after using it everyday I started to get some nasty breakouts, and I couldn’t put it down to anything else, so it had to go.

Urban Decay primer potion — finally reached the end of this sample that came with my book of shadows III. I really like this and would repurchase it, although I do have high expectations of my Bella Pierre primer.

Emporio Armarni Diamonds — this is my second favourite scent of all time and I already have a replacement for it.

Bella Pierre foundation — I think it has taken me about a year to get through the 9g of foundation, I have raved about this product many times and have already replaced it.

I feel quite accomplished getting through all of these and I  am glad to see my cupboard emptying. Do you enjoy empties posts as much as I do?