Category Archives: beauty look

1) I have spent an entire week breathing through my mouth because I still have the world’s most persistent cold. Honestly, it’s becoming very distracting. I’ve taken to sipping water every five seconds to stop the inside of my throat drying out – I feel like I need to install a kind of mini sprinkler system in my mouth! (Actually, why has nobody designed something like that for when you have a cold? Something that coats the inside of your mouth with an edible moisturiser? If you see me on Dragons’ Den next year….) Anyway, I have bought this Vicks humidifier thing from Amazon and I’m hoping that’ll work – if you’re at all curious as to which one it is, you can find it here. Have any of you used a humidifier before? Tips and tricks please, if you have any. I have no idea how to use one – I’m assuming it’s a bit like a steam iron and you just fill it up and plug it in?

2) I also have a new pillow to test – and this is no ordinary pillow, either. This is (apparently) “the most luxurious and supportive pillow in the world”, the Knightsbridge pillow from The London Pillow Company. I don’t know whether you can see from the photograph, but it is literally about the same thickness as a mattress. I think (I’m skim-reading the pamphlet here) that you take out layers from inside the casing to suit your body shape. Hold on – it all depends on the broadness of your shoulders, if you lie on your side, which I do. Interesting! I’ll let you know how I get on and how many layers I end up using – if I have a head that looks as though it’s been stuck on at a right angle in my next video, you’ll know why! You can take a look at the Knightsbridge pillow here.

3) Pets. Dexter has entered a new phase of his recovery called “Cone of Shame”. He itched his neck so much that he caused an infection and so now he is wearing a silly plastic collar and bumping into every piece of furniture as he bumbles around the house. Mr Bear, below, only seems even more dignified in comparison – here he is appraising the new pillow. He thinks it’s his new bed and has already done a bit of a test.

The post Sunday Tittle Tattle: Mouth Breathing and the Cone of Shame appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Apologies in advance for my “before and after” photos (below): I didn’t ever think I’d be zooming in so close, so I have millions of bits all over my face! Just to clarify, the black bits aren’t flakes of this mascara, they are – shamefully – tiny flecks of mascara that I hadn’t removed properly from the night before. Oh dear. The things you see when you zoom right in on a computer screen! I’m just grateful I plucked my various face hairs before I started shooting.

Anyway, back to the main event here, which is Lancome’s new Hypnose Volume-a-Porter mascara. I wasn’t wowed by this at first, preferring their “swan neck”-wanded Grandiose, which is slightly wetter and smoother to apply; but I must say that Volume-a-Porter is a bit of a grower.

The formula is creamy but has enough tackiness to make it easy and quick to build. without forming blobs or clumps or making the lashes stick together. Here’s my before pic, complete with specks of old mascara:

and here’s the after – post-foundation, just in the interests of transparency! (Foundation is Max Factor’s Miracle Match.)

Nice, eh? This is after two quick coats. I’m sure you could build the mascara even further, but I just didn’t feel the need. This wears well, doesn’t flake, doesn’t irritate my eyes and (as I mentioned in my post last week) seems to hold my lashes into something resembling a curl. At the very least it keeps them slightly lifted, making my eyes seem a bit wider and more awake.

I may go so far as to say that this is now my favourite Lancome mascara. I know that the Hypnose range is incredibly popular anyway, but I can see this recent addition being a top seller. It has all the volume and intensity of a much heavier and claggier mascara but is in fact quite lightweight and doesn’t make my lashes feel thick or plasticised.

Nice. I’ve added it to my new favourites, the one from Diego Dalla Palma (see post here) and Chanel’s Le Volume Ultra-Noir (post coming up). You can find Volume-a-Porter online here – it’s £22.50.

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I am seriously obsessed with Zoeva right now, and they’ve fast become my favourite makeup brush brand. Until I discovered the magic that is, the Zoeva makeup brushes, I used to swear by Sigma eyeshadow brushes but Zoeva’s brushes are so much better quality and they’re so affordable too. I have quite a large collection of Zoeva brushes and I want to review them all for you so today I’m starting with the very first four brushes I purchased. I purchase my single Zoeva brushes from BeautyBay as they offer free UK delivery on orders over £10, but if you’re ordering a collection of brushes, I’d recommend purchasing via the Zoeva website as it would more affordable.

Zoeva 322 Brow Line Brush £5.95

I bought this brush with a view to use it with the Anastasia Dipbrow Pomade, but it has a fair few uses. The bristles are slightly angled, and are very short and dense but as the brush head is so thin and narrow, it’s amazing for creating precise hair-like strokes throughout the brows. The angled shape also makes the brush perfect for eyeliner as it does all of the hard work for you as you can drag along your lashline for the perfect line. I love how short and stiff the bristles are, as they make eyeliner so easy as they don’t move around too much but glide over the contours of the eye. I haven’t got any other brushes like this in my collection, but it’s an amazing brush and I’ve bought a second one so I can use one for my brows and one for liner. It works well with cream, powder and gel products and the bristles are cruelty free Taklon bristles which are so quick and easy to clean.

Zoeva 227 Luxe Soft Definer £6.95

This is Zoeva’s answer to the MAC 217, and is the perfect blending brush. The bristles are a flat and oval shape which fits perfectly into the crease for blending crease and transition shades. The bristles of this brush are made from super soft goat hair, but Zoeva do a vegan version of this brush which is such an amazing idea and it’s called the 227v which has synthetic bristles. I like that the brush head is quite compact and rounded so it moves through the crease easily, diffusing colour very well. I really want to get a couple of backups of this brush as I use it every single day with every makeup look and if I had to recommend one Zoeva brush it would be this one as it’s just so useful, and it makes your eyeshadow look so polished and blended. The price is incredible, especially as the MAC 217 is £20 so you could get nearly three of these Zoeva brushes for the price of one MAC 217 which is crazy.

Zoeva 225 Eye Blender £6.95

This is another natural brush with natural (squirrel) bristles, but the bristles on this brush are a little stiffer and they aren’t as soft as the 227 brush. The bristles of this brush are more domed compared to the 227 so it’s a little more precise at blending, and the stiffness really helps to blend. I would describe this brush as being a slightly fluffier version of a pencil brush, and I particularly like using it for blending colour through the outer crease or for gently blending shadows on top of eachother. This brush has a little more control compared to the 227, and you can use it for blending along your lower lashline or even for packing colour onto the lid.

Zoeva 232 Classic Shader Brush £6.95

I bought this brush a couple of months ago, but from what I can see they’ve changed the bristles since I bought it as they’re now white but apart from that the 232 is exactly the same. The bristles are a mixture of synthetic and natural, and are shaped into a thin, dome shape and are ideal for packing colour onto the eyelids. The rounded edge allows for precision around the crease, and along the lashline and the brush works well for both powder and cream shadows thanks to the mixture of synthetic and natural bristles. Due to the flatness of the brush, it could work well for applying pigments or loose shadows as it can press shadow onto the lids and I like to use the edge of the bristles for adding shadow along my lashline as it’s quite precise. These bristles are soft, but I imagine the new 232 with the white bristles will be super soft just like the 227 so I’d be interested to see how the new version compares.

I am so impressed with all four of these brushes.. they’re all essentials in my everyday makeup routine, and the quality is incredible. I have never experienced any shedding with any of my Zoeva brushes, and they all wash amazingly well and retain their shape wash after wash. I really love that all of the Zoeva brushes when bought individually, come packaged in individual sealable plastic wallets to protect the brush and they can be reused, so you could use them to carry your brushes when travelling to protect them from damage. I cannot recommend Zoeva eye brushes enough.. they really are the best brushes I’ve ever tried, and are considerably better quality than Sigma, Crownbrush or Real Techniques. Continue reading →

Look, I thought that “Coco” was my favourite red from Chanel’s new Rouge Coco lipstick collection, but it’s becoming very apparent that I may have changed my mind. Sorry. Regardez-vous the very bright, very punchy “Arthur”. Is it not an absolute delight? It warms the skin, makes the lips look juicy and perfectly finished and seems to throw everything into the most glorious technicolor.

If you want to read more about Chanel Rouge Coco lipsticks in general, then please do refer back to my longer post here – they are beautifully formulated, easy-to-wear lip colours with strong pigment but a foolproof, buttery texture – I just wanted to flag up my new love. Coco (see here) is more on the bricky, orangey side, whereas Arthur is one of those true reds that sings out and is entirely unapologetic – perfectly modern, yet inescapably classic at the same time.

You can find Chanel Rouge Coco Arthur online at Boots.com – it’s £26. (Boots have 15% off if you spend £30 or more on luxury beauty at the moment.)

The post Changing Red Lipstick Allegiances: Chanel Rouge Coco in “Arthur” appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Something to note, before we embark on this little natural deodorant chat: I’m not a particularly malodorous person, in terms of armpits and sweat and so on. If I go completely au naturel on a summer’s day, hop on and off the tube and do a few sprints up and down the escalators then yes, I’ll be sweaty. But I’m not a profuse sweater. Some people get the sweats when they eat a hot curry, some people wouldn’t sweat if you locked them in a sauna for a week. Everyone’s different.  I’m not a curry sweater, but I would sweat if I was locked in a sauna. I’m a relatively light sweater. So –  just for extra clarification – if someone was going to do a national study to test out a super-strength extreme deodorant, I’d be a crap and pointless participant.

I wanted to clear that up because I have no idea how well the following deodorant will work on people of varying sweat-propensity. Do let me know in the comments if you’ve tried and have anything to add into the mix! The deodorant in question is Pitrok‘s Crystal Natural Spray Deodorant. I bought it after getting on reasonably well with the Crystal Roll-On Deodorant, made by the same brand. And I bought the roll-on because, after quite extensive internet research, it seemed to be the one that ticked all of my deodorant boxes. Which were as follows:

1) Good ingredients. I’d been reading about the perils of deodorants (and other products) containing parabens (have a read here for a very brief summary of the parabens issue), and although I’m still very much undecided about where I stand in the whole parabens debate, I’d also been reading about aluminium and how there had been concerns about its regular use in the underarm area. Now there don’t seem to be any trials that have given conclusive evidence to say that aluminium in deodorant is bad and the general gist of things seems to be that it’s not considered harmful, but in the interests of my own research and also complete peace of mind, I thought that I’d search out “clean” deodorants that didn’t contain the above.

2) Easy to use. ie: you can just spray or roll the thing on, and you don’t have to unwrap a special crystal from a velvet pouch and apply it only between the hours of 2 and 4pm. I wanted the deodorant to be as near to the traditional idea of deodorant application as possible.

3) Inexpensive – or at least not prohibitively expensive. You can pick up a deodorant for less than a quid in the supermarket (30p at Tesco!) and so I didn’t want to be championing products that were much more than three or four quid.

4) Effective. Because what’s the point in a deodorant that absolutely does not work? I tried one “natural” deodorant and it actually smelt of BO before I’d even applied it to my skin! Useless.

I bought about five or six different deodorants, but it was the Pitrok roll-on that stood the test of time. It kept me dry and fresh all day long, was free from aluminium and parabens and had a really gentle, soothing formula. No stinging, even applying it straight after shaving. (Surely the acid test when it comes to deodorant gentleness?!) The only thing that I didn’t like about it was that the ball dried up quite quickly and I had to keep coaxing it back into action, but really a very small niggle.

Though I suppose enough of a niggle to make me want to look for an alternative in the same brand, which was why I then went for the Crystal Natural Spray version. Love it. I think it actually works even better than the roll-on; the same soothing formula, no alcohol or perfume added, and an easy-to-use non-aerosol spray. It says on the instructions that it takes about a minute to dry, but I find that it’s far less than that. And I haven’t had any problems with white stains, so far, though I do make sure that my underarms are completely dry before dressing. Mind you, I’d imagine the risk of white stains would be far less if there are no aluminium salts included in the formula…

Important observation: this deodorant is designed to be applied to clean skin. For many, this may go without saying, but, y’know. Sometimes you have to emergency apply and a shower isn’t possible. If so, then Pitrok isn’t the best option – it works by stopping the growth of the underarm bacteria that cause odour, so if they are already there and a-growing, well. It would be kind of like shutting the barn door after the horse had bolted, crying over spilt milk, etc. Pitrok isn’t an odour-disguiser, it’s an odour-preventer. Which is, in all honesty, the best kind of odour-anything.

But overall it’s a definite winner, this discovery. Let me know if you’ve tried it and how you got on – you can find Pitrok for £4.05 at Boots.com.

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