Author Archives: netnoise

Olympus PEN

When people have a moan about my blog, top of the moan list is my photos. I am the first to say that my photographic skills are basic – when I look around some of the incredible photography on blogs it’s even more obvious that I’m showing inferior pictures and it’s bothered me for a long time. But, time is what I don’t have – to do a course or study on line or any of the things that might just pick the photos up a little.

So you can imagine that I practically bit off Olympus’s hand when they offered me the chance to host a photography workshop for my blog friends at their studio in Bishopsgate using the Olympus PEN Digital E-PL7 Camera. We had the best of tutors with Cleveland Aaron showing us around the camera (find him on Twitter at @cleve_A to see his profile picture taken by his four year old son! clearly photography skills run in the family!) and needing all of his patience!

So, I’m at the very beginning of my journey with the Olympus PEN Digital Camera E-PL7 but have managed to connect it to WIFI at home so that I can download pictures from the camera to my iPhone (I know..! It’s like discovering the microwave all over again – “it does what?”). As someone who has just existed with iPhone pics for the past two years, it’s really hard for me to tell you all the facilities because I don’t know them yet.. but one of the most useful aspects for bloggers is the flip down LCD screen that means you can selfie away very easily indeed.

Here’s one of the pictures I took last night while we were playing with how to use light. Bearing in mind I had only picked up the camera about five minutes previously, I’m rather pleased with it.

Olympus PEN

So, these are some of my ‘practice’ pictures – realistically, it is going to take some time for me to get used to it and find all the functions… but.. *thrilled face*!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Olympus PEN

I think we were very lucky to have Cleveland – he explained how to use the camera so well for us non-techies and in such a way that I came home with enough basic function knowledge to use it immediately – so don’t laugh at my new efforts – they WILL get better!

As a blogger camera, the Olympus PEN Digital Camera E-PL7 is probably the ultimate in ease of use (I mean, if I can, anyone can!) and versatility with functions that mean you can be creative rather than obvious (the ‘spot’ colour option where everything can be black and white except the one thing you want to be in colour), the tap screen to take a picture, the WIFI, the focus with everything blurry behind (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this!) – oh, so many things. I know it’s going to take a little while to learn it, but I genuinely feel I will have better photography on the blog from the PEN – in fact, I know I will. I am never, ever going to be David Bailey but pictures play such a big part of blogging, and my pictures are something I’ve felt self-conscious about (thanks, trolls) for a really long time. The best word to describe what I feel about this camera is relief. At last, I have the tools to do the job properly – although, caveat.. give me time to work my way around it!

Although we were given our cameras by Olympus, I now know I need to invest in the macro lense (£69) a ton of white paper, a tripod and a basic little lamp (I will take Mr BBB’s from the bedside..shh) as well as a cheap n cheerful LED lamp (Morrisons have them for £5, according to Mikhila @msbudgetbeauty). Sponsored as this is, I am genuinely SO happy to have this camera and I’d hand on heart recommend it a million times.

There’s a whole lot more to read up on about the camera HERE.

SPONSORED CONTENT

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The time is going to have to come soon when I give up on my lash extensions – much as I don’t want to – because I think I need to start trying mascaras again. There have been a couple of mascara launches this year where I’ve felt I’ve missed out by not being able to try them properly. I can always use mascara on my bottom lashes, and do, but I think I want the full mascara experience again, even temporarily. So, everything lashes is piquing my interest at the moment, especially the Estee Lauder Little Black Primer which heads our way in January.

Little Black Lash Primer (can you see a whole new Little Black… franchise starting here?) works as a lash boost, a tint and a waterproof top coat. I like the sound of the waterproofing best – but naked lash days will definitely be improved with a very natural finish tint.

I don’t have the price to hand but I’ll flag it up when it launches towards the end of January 2015 and will hopefully have guinea-pigged it out or even tried it myself by then.

The post Estee Lauder Little Black Primer appeared first on British Beauty Blogger.

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Let’s get real, Benebabes—we’re DYING for a spring makeup refresh! With all of the spring cleaning going on, we need to reboot our cosmetics collection too, but it can come with a hefty price tag. Our solution? The nice package! kit builder! Nice package is a custom makeup kit with one of each type of item: complexion, cheeks, eyes, a free gift AND a makeup bag! At only $79, we get the best of Benefit for a steal!

We LOVE knowing what our fave beauty gurus put in their nice package! so we caught up with Ashley of MakeupbyAmarie, to find out what’s in hers. Ashley is one of our faves because her videos cover everything from lifestyle to beauty to fashion—we can always count on her for ah-mazing tips & tricks! She does fun & easy how-to vids, & you ALL know we’re a sucker for gorgeous, EASY looks!

Ashley’s complexion pick is one of our classic go-tos—the POREfessional primer! She tells us that she loves the way it smooths her skin to create the perfect canvas before foundation—but her fave part about POREfessional? That it has a little bit of tint so she can wear it alone when she feels like going natural! She even went so far as to say it’s her holy grail primer! We’re totally blushing!

Ashley’s cheek choice is hoola. She loves to do the hoola because it adds dimension & brings color back into her face after the flattening effects of foundation. We couldn’t agree with our gorgeous friend more—hoola is our contour must-have!

You already know we’re uhhhb-sessed with her eye pick—roller lash! She tells us that roller lash is her newest go-to mascara because it gives lashes a lift while separating each individual lash for a natural, fanned out, crazy-curled look. The 12-hour formula & hook ‘n’ roll brush on our fabulous new mascara has her proclaiming, “it’s perfect.”

Last, but certainly not least, Ashley goes for benebalm for her free gift. Our rose-tinted moisturizing balm is super buildable and gives the perfect just-kissed finish to any look. Ashley tells us she needs it in her purse on-the-go for when she needs color & hydration at the same time!

After hearing this fab guru’s flawless nice package! picks, we’re more positive than ever that we’re going to stock up for spring with nice package! We’re feeling so inspired, we might just have to copy Ashley’s choices—the girl knows how to get gorgeous! Dying to know more about Ashley’s nice package? Check out the look she created for her YouTube channel using her choices here!

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I mentioned this idea in my Affordable and Smaller Gifts video and thought I’d show you the finished result. Himalayan pink bath salts (the “in” thing of the moment and often extortionately priced) rustically packaged up in a Kilner jar (or something prettier, if you have it) and finished off with a rather kitsch artificial rose. I’ll tell you why I like this as a gift: 1) it’s an enormous amount of bath salt for your buck – and these are effective, lovely bath salts not weird peach-smelling ones that will possibly give you thrush or some other kind of gynaecological situation; 2) the Kilner jar is reusable and inherently useful, so there’s no wastage; 3) you can pick up everything at your supermarket as you whizz about snapping up the last of the mince pies and sprouts and goose fat and so on.

The cost of some of these luxury Himalayan salts online can cost up to £10 per 100g – mine, which are distributed by “Dr Salts” (no idea, have never heard of him!) cost fifty pence per 100g. Now – as I have said previously – I do not know whether there’s a significant difference between the two versions; perhaps they are sourced differently or one batch is more ethical or one type has been blessed by naked virgins at midnight. I have no idea, and I will endeavour to do some finding out on this in the New Year. But I’ve checked the ingredients list on both luxury and budget versions and they say the same thing: salt.

So, grab a Kilner and a hefty bag of these lovely, detoxifying beauties and get pouring. I used a large jar so that there was space for my faux-rose, feel free to use a jar half the size and fill to the brim. I suppose it looks more generous, in a way. But if you do want to go down the decorative route then you can find fake flowers at those big hobby and craft stores and at quite a few florists (ironically!) and also in the supermarket if you’re lucky. A nice alternative could be to write a little note on brown paper, curl it into a scroll and tie with some twine before popping into the jar on top of the salts. Message-in-a-bottle style. You could say something along the lines of “Himalayan Detoxifying Bath Salts: The Ultimate SOS”. Or similar. Knock yourselves out!

Here are the salts online, for those who want to take a look: Sainsburys.co.uk. They also do salts at Waitrose – if you’ve seen them anywhere else then do put it in the comments, for the benefit of your fellow good readers!

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