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beauty

Beauty Gift Guides

Restock Your Make Up Bag!

It’s Cyber Monday and the online world are going nuts and offering up to 60% today. I am giving my depleted make up bag some love today and diving in to buy the classics and a few novelty treats to experiment with (that I wouldn’t buy unless they were reduced!)

Nars Blush in Orgasm Was £24 now £19.20

This was the first blusher/bronzer I bought one I had left the confines of boarding school. It was definitely a turn up from the Bourgeois one I was packed off with (I literally channelled Coco the Clown during my teens) and I Have been a faithful follower of Nars blush and bronzer since. JUST DON’T DROP IT!!

Nars

Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Beauty Light Wand £29 – £23.20

The highlighter to end all highlighters. Simply squeeze a smidgen of the highlighter onto the sponge and blend it on the top of your cheekbones, centre of your nose, under your brows and voila, you have a sun kissed radiant glow.

Remember light colours advance (i.e. your cheek bones) and dark colours recede (which is why you put bronzer under your cheekbones to give you the illusion of high cheekbones!

Highlighter

YSL Touche Eclat £25 – £22.90

Ah the classic. Just go easy and watch that flash at the Christmas parties to avoid the Panda look.

Touche Eclat

Bobbi Brown Caviar & Rubies Eye Shadow Pallette £55 – £44

This is your Christmas palette sorted. If these large palettes terrify you – here is the 101.

1) choose three colours from light to dark
2) put the light colour all over your eyelid
3) put the middle depth in a sideways triangle from your eyelashes to your eye hood but not past the pupil.
4) put the darkest just all your eyelashes
5) blend

Bobbi Brown Palette

Lancome Hypnose Gift Set £24 – £20

Whenever I chicken out of trying a new mascara, I always revert to this one. It’s ace.

Lancome

Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturiser £34 – £27

I have waxed lyrical about this product before and it is time to do again, especially as now you can get £7 off!

When my skin feels a bit dry and sallow, I whack this on (usually the lightest Bare but it’s sold out and so I am braving the next one up) and it gives you that red carpet glow.

laura mercier

There are literally thousands of discounted products from all the top brands on House of Fraser, so if you need to do a sweep this is the only place to look at for serious discounts!

Beauty Spotlight

5 School Run Make Up Tips With ‘Not Such a Model Mum’

I have been a faithful follower of Jess & Caroline’s blog, Not Such a Model Mum since they launched about a year ago. It has grown from strength to strength over the year and become a go to fashion & beauty blog for a vast number of school run mums. With both a career in modelling, you know that their posts on fashion and beauty are written with solid experience and authority – and most importantly without being patronising to us mere mortals!

Jess, caroline & kids

Jess and Caroline met in 2003 as they were both signed to the same model agency, and have been friends ever since, despite not liking eachother when they first met!

The strength of their friendship also shines through in the beautiful photos that they use too.

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Fast forward to 2010 and they thought we knew what we were doing – until they had children.

 

Coming back to work after having our kids, we realised how much the fashion industry had changed, and how much social media had changed the landscape of the fashion world. Like it or not, social media is here to stay, and if we wanted to stay part of the fashion world, we would have to embrace the change.

 

They had always spoken about setting something together, and with over three decades of modelling and fashion experience between them, they decided to set up a blog about all the tips they learnt from the fashion professionals, and the idea of NotSuchAModelMum developed from there – a fashion, mother and beauty blog with friendship at the heart.

Friendship

THEIR 5 SCHOOL RUN MUM MAKE UP TIPS

Iridescent powder.

This neat little trick both brightens and opens the eyes and adds a little glow to otherwise shattered peepers – it works both on camera and most importantly, in real
life, off camera. Using your finger if you are in a rush, or a brush if you have more than two seconds, grab some MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Powder in the Soft and Gentle colour, or some Benefit High Beam and dab it in the inner eye around the tear duct and up slightly in the inner eye lid.

iridescent

The trick here is to blend, blend, blend and blend some more so that only a subtle trace of the iridescence is left. Illuminating and highlighting this area serves to subtly conceal darkness around the eyes and adds a natural radiance that makes you look like you had at least five hours sleep! Blog post is here

 

By terry concealer and foundation stick

Covering under eye bags from sleepless nights and giving dull, tired skin an all over, even glow, these two products literally take a minute to apply and can be done whilst running out the front door with the kids in tow. I carry them with me all the time. In fact, they are, thanks to that catalogue shoot, part of my nappy bag essentials. Nappies; wipes; By Terry Light Expert Click Brush foundation; and By Terry Touch Expert Advanced Concealer.

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Both products have complicated sounding names when they actually do something really simple. They work. Blog post is here.

 

The Eve Lom Rescue Mask

This has been around for ages. In the beauty industry, this longevity is the sign of a great product, and a winner in our book.

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The clay based formula of this particular mask is packed with natural ingredients, from honey to almonds. The Camphor brightens the complexion and draws out toxins. The mask can be used as part of a weekly routine or for emergency breakouts, which, frankly, when dealing with unhygienic children, are part and parcel of our lives! For more, our blog post is here here

Paula’s Choice Intensive Wrinkle Repair Serum

This is a great night time moisturiser, with a little added punch of Retinol. Retinol sounds like a scary chemical, but is , in fact the chemical name for Vitamin A. Just adding Retinol to your skincare routine has been proven to reduce wrinkles, increase collagen, improve skin tone, texture and dark spots.

retinol

All this can be done with minimal effort- just cleanse as always and then add the serum and then slap on your nighttime moisturizer. For more info, our blog post is here

The Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess

This is a bronzer comes in a multitude of colours to suit every skin tone. Blog post is here.

bronzer

Jessica’s Favourites

Hotel : Ham Yard Hotel, London. I am obsessed with Kit Kemp.

Restaurant : Le Gavroche – old school fine dining at its best.

Website : TheBlondeSalad, Southmoltonstreetstyle, thefashionguitar and London’s Little Thinkers on Instagram.

Shop : Anthropologie, anywhere in the world…an Aladdin’s Cave of fun.

Holiday destination : North Germany- stunning, off the beaten track and paradise in the summer.

Parenting Tip : “Don’t be afraid to cut corners, and don’t beat yourself up. You are doing great. And make time for a manicure and pedicure- this will make you feel amazing.”

Caroline’s Favourites

Hotel : The Treetop apartments at Chewton Glen.

Restaurant : El Nacional in Barcelona

Website : TKMAXX.COM

Shop : Sign of the Times.a little second hand store in Chelsea with the most incredible designer finds.

Holiday Destination : anywhere that has a kids club!

Parenting tip : Don’t forget to get some time for yourself to get a bit of balance back.

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Sign up to follow the girls here

Have a fab day xx

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Beauty

Get That Facial Feeling at Home : My Top 10 Products

Recently, my skin has been feeling really parched and I have noticed a few lines appearing so I have been on the hunt for some products to replenish and nourish it. I have tried loads through recommendations from friends, bloggers and beauty assistants. Some were meh, some just not worth the money but lots amazing! Now the kids are heading back to school, it is time to look after yourself!  Here are my Top 10 Products to help you do that!

 

The Body Shop : Drops of Youth £15

This has a very light consistency and is perfect for putting on before your moisturizer to help the cream absorb rather than just sit on the top of your skin.  It lasts a really long time too.

Body Shop

Clarins : Hydraquench Intensive Serum 

Serum is  abuzz word on a lot of the beauty experts lips and I can see why. I use this in a similar way to the Drops of Youth, although it is slightly more intense and expensive – so I use it when my skin is feeling really parched.

Hydra quench

Be Shiny : Hyaluronic Acid Serum 

Again, this is to use on bare skin but not as frequently as it contains Hyaluronic Acid which is proven to smooth your skin. However, with this, the skin can become slightly red so not to be used every day.

 

Trilogy : Rosehip Oil  £19.50

I use this after one of the above serums and it really gives your skin that nourished feeling. I use this every few days and generally if I am not putting make up straight on.

 

Oil

Caudalie : The Eye Cream £49

This eye cream is one of Caudalie’s bestsellers. It absorbs straight in and is heavy enough to smooth away tired eyes but not to give you that puffy eye ‘just put on under eye cream’ look.

Caudalie Under Eye

Jojoba : Hydrating Day Cream £22.99

This vegan moisturiser from Australia is lovely, no smell & quick easily absorbed moisturiser. It absorbs well and leaves skin feeling really soft.

Face cream

Clarins : Radiance Plus Golden Glow Booster £20

Add a few drops to your moisturiser in the morning, rub your hands together and moisturise as normal. It will give you a really natural glow with and you don’t have to worry about tide lines or eyebrows!

Clarins Tan

El & So : Velvety Exfoliator 

This is a dream product. I am not surprised it has been shortlisted for the 2017 Beauty Awards. At the end of the day, take a little bit of this between your fingers and rub it gently over your face.  Remove with a hot cloth. Not only will it take off all your make up – eye make up included, it will leave your skin feeling clean but not stripped like some cleansers can make your skin feel.  They also do lovely Mummy & Baby sets.

Elso

 

Ninni : Bespoke Face Cream 

I swear by this nighttime face cream. I filled in the online form to receive a bespoke moisturiser just for my skin. Mine contains Lavender and Chamomile and it is lovely and relaxing just before bed.

Ninni

Soapsmith : Body Butter Melt  £12.99

Ok, not for the face but I had to slip this in! A friend introduced me to Soapsmith (late to the party again) and I am now a firm convert. It is so different to regular body moisturisers, it literally melts in your hands and when you rub it in and the smell is like no other.

Soap smith

Do you have any recommendations? I would love to hear, especially tips on how to prepare to bare!

Lucinda xx

 

 

Beauty Spotlight

New Business Alert : The Natural Living Company

Leone, who set up The Natural Living Company this year, supports local enterprises by selling a wonderful selection of eco-friendly beauty and natural homeware products.  She has always loved fashion, cosmetics and interior design and became aware that sustainable and eco-friendly products were few and far between.

me

 

I wanted to see better quality products on the market but most importantly because there is a need for these types of products to sustain the beautiful world we live in.

 

The Natural Living Company aims to show through it’s carefully curated collation of goods that natural, sustainable products from British enterprises can be better, higher quality and more beautiful than their high street counterparts.

It certainly achieves that….  (and don’t forget to check out her 5 Favourites at the bottom – they are awesome!!)

Anyway, here are my top picks from her beautiful website!

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Beauty 

Being an absolute beauty junkie, this is my favourite part of Leone’s website. From facial oil (everyone has to have a face oil!) to scrubs and ‘bath potions’ you could really get your Instagram ‘shelfie’ nailed.

moa-isla

For a busy London mum, I urge you to buy yourself the Calming Gift Box filled with a body oil, candle ands salts.

calm-gift-box


Pregnancy 

If you are pregnant, there is also a wonderful range of goodies. Breast Balm? I wish that had been around in my day!!

breast-balm


Baby & Child 

Leone has a wonderful baby range of baby balms, butters and oils and the baby skin gift set would be a lovely new baby present. I especially love ‘Little Herbs, Tummy Rub

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There is also a gorgeous section of natural baby grows, blankets and hats. The red star range is my favourite!

red-star-collection

This little Whale Bodysuit is would be a lovely baby gift at only £13.

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Interiors 

I am a sucker for items that make my home cosy at the moment and this Indigo Welsh wool throw is a steal at only £29.

rug

She also sells lots of lovely smelly things such as candles  – I love the ‘Happy’ one!

happy-clear

I am also a sucker for a room spray. Some of the combinations of her ‘room mists’ are exquisite! Lime, Basil and Clementine… 

happy-room-mist


Kitchenware

There are some fab chopping, bread and carving boards at only £39.45 along side pretty ceramics.  The stoneware cup and saucer is would make your Instagram flat lay unbeatable!!

chopping-board

The little jugs are only £12 too!

ceramics

Rose Linen Apron £35 (Also comes in Charcoal to the left of the photo and Dove Grey)

aprons

January is certainly a time for getting your house in order, looking after yourself and making good choices.  You can certainly do all that here!

Everything is delivered in a beautiful box so you can ensure your recipient will be blessed with a an amazing gift all beautifully wrapped too.

packaging-1


Leone’s Favourites 

Shop : I love going for a wonder around the shop at Petersham Nurseries. They have such beautiful antique furniture and chandeliers, some occasional skin care products and of course the most beautiful plants and plant pots! I could spend hours and a lot of money there if I’m not careful!

Website :  I love reading blogs, I’m really into The Londoner and Pretty Hungry Me for their amazing post on new restaurants and to lust over their latest travels. I have also recently discovered Yoli & Otis who are an Australian kids clothing company with beautiful such a beautiful blog!.

Restaurant :

“I have been slowly going vegetarian over the past couple of years so I always look forward to a meal at Mildreds where nothing on the menu is off limits – everything is utterly delicious.

I also love lusting over anything by Jo Rogers, Skye McAlpine, the lovely Lucy and Jemima of Tart London and Meg & Issy of The Curious Pear on Instagram. All the recipes I’ve tried have been so straight forward and flavoursome.”

Hotel :

“It has got to be the Soho House. I love their farmhouse in Oxfordshire, especially during a less crowded weekday stay. Barnsley House in the Cotswolds is also such a treat!”

Holiday Destination :

“My family is from Cape Town, so going to visit never gets old- it really feels like a second home to me and I never tire of the stunning scenery and gorgeous weather.

We’ve had a holiday house in Harlyn Bay, Cornwall since I was born so that part of the country holds many sweet (and often hilarious) family memories of spending scorching summer days on the beach and terribly wet summer days cycling up endless hills or being dragged on coastal walks, all memories we look back on with fondness though!

Next on my bucket list are South America, Kenya, India and South Korea…”

Parenting Tip :

“Although not a mother myself, growing up in a large family (I’m the second youngest of six) I’ve had plenty of experience with kids of all ages. Firstly, always carry a spare change of clothes (or two) and a muslin.

Secondly, try not to compare yourself to other parents. I think it’s so easy to compare in an era of social media, but we should be using this platform instead to educate and encourage each other.”

The Natural Living Company 

Follow Leone on Instagram

 

Fashion Products

Make Up For Tired Mummies

I am not one for a strict beauty regime but I have started to realise that if I am not to be mistaken for my children’s grandparents in the coming years, I need to hop on the beauty bandwagon and pay attention. My son asked me ‘what are those lines either side of your mouth?’ Out of the mouth of babes…

If you feel your skin is dry and your moisturiser just sits on top of your skin, I urge you to try Clarins Hydraquench Serum which you put on before moisturiser and it helps the moisturiser absorb and makes your skin feel like you have just had a facial.

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Alex from Love From Ophelia used to run a beauty blog Lashes For Little Ones (a travesty she no longer does) and a while back she recommended Perfect Look Skin Miracle. Its aim is to smooth and add a bit of tan at the same time. It is spenny but worth it.

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OK, I know I have mentioned this before in TLM Loves… July Edit but I have tried a few other tinted moisturisers since then and none have been as good so Laura Mercier Illuminating Tinted Moisturiser stays in my top spot (and make up bag). I use bare radiance – the lightest one – as I have a teenage hangover about tide marks.

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I went for a makeover at Charlotte Tilbury in her newly opened Covent Garden store and thought it was absolutely fantastic. The Retoucher & Concealer Stick is a must have for every make up bag. Eyeshadow base – tick. Under eye concealer – tick (without the reflective nonsense that you get in photos with the touche eclat). Red bits that your foundation hasn’t quite covered – tick.

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Here is my before & after the make over…  (My mother prefers the before – thinks the ‘young’ wear too much eyeliner these days!)

If you like reading about new products and other people’s routine’s, India Knight’s no nonsense approach to make up etc on her blog is worth a squizz.