Beauty Book Club: Lauren Conrad, Beauty

Hey Guys!

I'm always on the hunt to find new resources to help me to learn that bit more about makeup and to give me new ideas for applying it and mixing up my everyday look, so when I came across 'Beauty' by Lauren Conrad it seemed rude not to spend my £20 WH Smith's gift voucher on it!

For those of you who don't know who Lauren is, she's a reality TV star from 'Laguna Beach' and 'The Hills'. Lauren's style is amazing, and her makeup always looks flawless (she runs the blog 'The Beauty Department' with her hairstylist and makeup artist) so naturally any book that claims to hold all of her beauty secrets had to be mine!

Although this book contains no 'revolutionary' tips as far as makeup goes, I did learn some helpful pointers from the easy to follow diagrams such as how to properly contour and highlight along with how to do the perfect cat flick (something Lauren is the master of, and I fail at miserably). The layout and pictures in this book are aesthetically pleasing which makes it a good read even if you learn nothing from it. Overall I would say this book is a great choice for beginners and even those more experienced with makeup will find it enjoyable to flick through.

You can pick this book up from all major book stores and Amazon for an RRP of £14.99 (although it's only £8.39 on Amazon- bargain!).

Penny 

xox

Holiday Wishlist

Hey Guys!

I'm going on holiday in a week- so, naturally, I've prepared a list of things I want to take with me that I feel will make my holiday experience that much better - not that I need an excuse to make a wishlist of things to buy- it seems to be what I spend a lot of my time doing these days!

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Happy Shopping!

Penny

xox

Product Spotlight: Mint Carmex Moisturising Lip Balm

Hey Guys!

Here in England, the sun has finally decided to rear its head from behind the clouds, and that means that we need to start focusing more on SPF. Whilst you should wear SPF all year round, it is particularly important during summer when , obviously, it's likely to be sunnier than at any other time of year. An often overlooked, yet easily sunburned, area is the lips, and this is where SPF lipbalms come in handy.

When we spotted mint carmex in our local Primark for the affordable price of £2 we had to snap up a tube- the lipbalm promises to be "long lasting relief for dry, chapped lips" as well as containing SPF 15, making it perfect as the warmer weather approaches.

The product comes in the typical bright yellow Carmex packaging, and can be applied to the lips using its spherical doe-foot applicator, making it hygienic and perfect for on the go application. The lip balm itself has a smooth texture and the strong peppermint flavour is a nice addition if you like mint flavoured products. 

In terms of performance, we found that the lipbalm was really nourishing and made our lips extremely smooth and well moisturised- all you could really want from a lip balm- we can definitely  see why Carmex is such a popular product!

You can purchase Mint Carmex from Boots and many other retailers for an RRP of £2.69.

Penny & Clio

xox

Product Spotlight: Benefit World Famous Neutrals: Most Glamorous Nudes

Hey Guys!

When we heard Benefit were coming out with three neutral eye shadow kits featuring both cream and powder shadows we knew we had to get our hands on one. They sound perfect, six complementary colours that you can combine in order to achieve the perfect smokey eye or daytime look, and they certainly lived up to our expectations.

As always, Benefit do not disappoint with their packaging. The shadows are housed in a super cute box that looks almost like a book, and is also fairly compact and suitable for travelling, making this kit a good choice for holidays.

Inside the box there are two creaseless cream shadows in the shades 'Birthday Suit' and 'My two cents', along with four powder shadows (from left to right, starting on the top row) in 'Call My Buff', 'Kiss Me I'm Tipsy', 'It's complicated' and 'Gilt-y Pleasure'. There's also a really helpful 'tips and tricks' booklet with application guidelines, and behind that a medium sized mirror, again making this a good option for travel.

As you can see from the swatches, all the shades are fairly subtle and 'everyday', although they can be built up to create a smokey evening look if that's desired.  From the Top down the swatches are: 'Birthday Suit', 'My two Cents', (Hard to see) 'Call My Buff', 'Kiss Me I'm Tipsy', 'It's Complicated' and 'Gilt-y Pleasure'.  Our favourite shades are ; 'Kiss Me I'm Tipsy', which is a great crease shade and 'My Two Cents' which is a great all over lid shade and as it's a creaseless  cream shadow it's very long lasting.

Penny & Clio

xox

Steal Her Style: Millie Mackintosh

 Hey Guys!

Recently I've been watching  a lot of Made in Chelsea (I know, I know, it's not the most intellectual program). One of the things I've noticed about the people on this show is that all the girls dress so well, always looking really classy yet still relaxed and casual at the same time. But whilst all the female cast members have great fashion sense, I have a serious case of style envy for Millie Mackintosh, I don't think I've ever disliked a single outfit I've seen her wear, but being a 'Chelsea Girl' a lot of her clothes are slightly out of my budget. As a result of this I've decided to put together this blog post on how you can get her look for a more reasonable price.

 

 

Images courtesy of:

http://millie-mackintosh.com/style-diary/

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All the pieces above are from high street stores such as Topshop, Miss Selfridge, New Look and H&M so the items should be reasonably affordable, definitely more so that Millie's designer picks, so that you can get her laid-back, pulled together style for less!

Penny 

xox

Product Spotlight: Essie's Mint Candy Apple Nail Polish

Hey Guys!

Essie's nail polishes are a popular choice in the beauty blogging world, with some shades, such as Fiji (and of course Mint Candy Apple) popping up more than others. As we've recently been looking to get a really nice summery mint green nail colour we decided to take the plunge with Mint Candy Apple, as it looked like it fulfilled our needs!

As you can see the product is in the regular Essie packaging, but it is one of their diffusion line polishes, and as a result the brush is thicker than that of the standard Essie polishes, making it easy to apply in one or two strokes, a definite bonus in our book!

 The colour translates onto the nails as a blue-toned mint green which is really gorgeous and complements most skin tones. Formula-wise, it's okay. The texture is fairly thick, becoming totally opaque in two coats, but it did go on a little patchy and streaky, although nothing major, this is easily resolved with a coat of Seche Vite (or any other top coat) over the top.

Hope you all had a good Monday!

Penny & Clio

xox