Category Archives: beauty look

What’s better than getting new makeup? Winning it, that’s what! Thanks toBenefit’s latest Instagram giveaway, you have to opportunity to win an entire makeup haul. It even includes a the ultimate beauty-lovers sweatshirt to round it out. The best part is that it’s super easy to enter. I’m talking “it will take less than 30 seconds” easy.

When makeup companies do giveaways, there’s sometimes a catch. Maybe you have to buy a certain amount of products or sign up for something. Well, not this time. All you have to do to enter Benefit’s Instagram giveaway is like their photo and comment with the heart-eyes emoji on the picture. That’s it. It’s honestly doesn’t get much better than this. Plus it also means that everyone has an equal chance to win, which is also pretty great.

Now let’s get to the fun part. According to the company’s Instagram photo, it looks like you have the chance to win an entire collection of Benefit goodies.Up for grabs is a “Benebabe” sweatshirt, a hand-held mirror, Benefit sandals, and $250 worth of different yet to be determined products from the makeup company, according to the official rules. That’s a whole lot of beauty goodness. Basically, it’s everything that a Benefit Cosmetics fan could possibly need.

According to the official rules page, the giveaway will be open from now until Aug. 14 at 3am ET. So I’d head over there and enter while you still can. After all, it doesn’t cost you anything but a few seconds. Here are some amazing Benefit products that we can only hope might be among the official giveaway prizes. Bear in mind that the brand still hasn’t announced the rest of the items yet, so there’s no guarantee any of these products will be part of the sweepstakes. But hey, a girl can dream, right?

1. Hello Flawless Foundation

Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation, $36, sephora.com

This would be a serious win all on its own.

2. Porefessional License To Blot

Porefessional License To Blot, $20, benefitcosmetics.com

This stick product disguises pores in just one swipe.

3. Watts Up Highlighter

Watts Up Soft Cream Highlighter, $30, benefitcosmetics.com

This highlighter has been raved about since it came out.

4. Roller Lash Mascara

Roller Last Curling Mascara, $24, benefitcosmetics.com

Fingers crossed this cult classic mascara could be included.

5. Dandelion Dew Liquid Blush

Dandelion Dew Liquid Blush, $28, benefitcosmetics.com

Cream blushes are perfect for summer, so this would be a great product for them to include.

6. Sugarbomb Face Powder

Sugarbomb Face Powder, $29, benefitcosmetics.com

With four different shades, the site says that this is great for all complexions.

7. Dandelion Finishing Powder

Dandelion Finishing Powder, $29, benefitcosmetics.com

Watch the video below to witness a full-on disintegration of my mental faculties. It happens at around three or four o’clock every day and apparently this isn’t a temporary pregnancy thing: it stays after the baby has been born! Please someone tell me that their brain went back to normal? It takes me about twenty seconds to find the word I need and by then I’ve forgotten the entire sentence!

More monthly beauty videos…

Anyway, a nice little mixture of beauty favourites this month, though I fear things are a little predictable on the skincare front: MV Organic Skincare Rose Moisturiser again. Can’t get enough of it. It’s not my favourite texture of cream in the world, but it’s very soothing and light and it seems to simply “reset” my skin again and again, returning it to its hydrated, non-spotty self if I ever go OTT with my beauty product testing. (Which is a lot. I should lay off, really, but I can’t help myself. Always so many exciting new things to try…)

So moisturiser, some body oils, some makeup, some cotton wool mega-pads….enjoy. And if you’re thinking of grabbing a rose moisturiser, then please wait until tomorrow. You’ll see why!

February Beauty Favourites:

 My Pregnancy Blog: http://www.theuphill.com

Glow Video: http://youtu.be/Mjm5rm1hr2E

Paris Vlog: http://youtu.be/x9ytrtmvlxs

Burt’s Bees Mama Body Oil: http://tidd.ly/bc614ed1

Balance Me Super Moisturising Body Oil: http://tidd.ly/40a2454

Lancome La Base Pro Hydra Glow Primer: http://tidd.ly/36a25f1a

Phillips Sonicare Pink Toothbrush: £112 at Amazon http://goo.gl/VV25vv or at Boots.com: http://tidd.ly/f34683a1

Clinique Brush-On Liner in Black Honey: http://tidd.ly/eff00a0b

Bobbi Brown Calypso Blush Palette: http://tidd.ly/99848aa7

Chanel Rouge Allure Gloss in Sensible: http://www.amodelrecommends.com/2015/02/18/gloss-can-love-chanel-rouge-allure/

Chanel Les Beiges in Shade 10: http://tidd.ly/aec26e78

MV Organic Skincare Rose Balancing Moisturiser: http://goo.gl/BHuADu (Spoiler Alert: there is a goody bag running on Cult Beauty from March 1st so maybe wait if you’re thinking of getting this!)

The post February Beauty Favourites appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →

Oh ho ho, I am so ready for deep and sexy wintertime perfumes and Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium is just about as sexy as they come. I mentioned Chanel’s Coco Noir Parfum last week – it’s a very concentrated, sexed-up version of the popular eau de toilette – but I must say that Black Opium has knocked my socks off. (I’d use ruder terminology but I’ve already said sex three times and we haven’t even got to the good part.) Black Opium is dark, naughty and almost overwhelmingly warm and spicy – I’m half wishing for the nights to get longer just so I can prowl around town intoxicating unsuspecting people with my scent!

Read more fragrance reviews…

Partly, I know that I love Black Opium because there’s something of the original Opium in there and Opium was always my Mum’s perfume. She still wears it occasionally even now, but when I was a small child it’s the smell that I remember lingering on her coats and scarves and in her hair. Black Opium isn’t as grown-up as the original, I don’t think – it’s darker and spicier, but it’s not so…cloying? I don’t know whether “cloying” is a fair description, because I don’t mean it negatively, but I can’t think of a better word; it’s so strong that it makes me dizzy. Black Opium feels much less heady. It has a little trace of the original scent (maybe it’s the jasmine?) but the rest is warm and spicy – coffee, vanilla, pink pepper, patchouli. It seems a bit younger and edgier and I’d hazard a guess that YSL are after a new generation of Opium wearers; it’s all sparkly, tactile packaging with sultry, rock-chick advertising campaigns.

Read about some dark, “naughty rose” scents… 

Whatever; I love it. I seem to be changing in my perfume tastes, as I get older – stronger, darker, more exotic. Rarely do I go for a fresh kind of scent, now, unless it’s over the proper summer months or I feel as though I need something light and girly. But for the next few months, as the long, cold evenings draw in, it’s dark and sexy and spicy all the way. I’m already envisaging the outfits I’ll be wearing with Black Opium; skinny black jeans, high black boots and a rock ‘n roll faux-fur. (I like this one from Unreal Fur – it’s on the wishlist.)

Black Opium starts at £44 for 30ml,  but it’s cheaper (as usual!) on the amazing Escentual.com – find all sizes here, the 30ml is £37.40 with free delivery.

Continue reading →

I found a rather snazzy solution to my sofabed woes the other week and it has just been delivered. I needed a very occasional spare-spare bed that could be stowed away easily but that was more comfortable than a blow-up, and after hours and hours of Googling and internet-trawling I found the one above, the “Kix” from John Lewis. This double bed folds up into a kind of ottoman, mini-sofa thing which I thought was perfect considering it was going to live in Baby AMR’s nursery. It’s quite a neat solution if you don’t want a hulking great sofabed taking up space! Anyway, haven’t slept on this yet – and probably never will – but I’ll update you on comfort levels when it has been tried and tested. It comes in a few different colours and also a single bed version, you can find it online here. (The giant Miffy light is mine, believe it or not. (!) You can find him online here at Amazon , or search for the Miffy “XL”, 80cm tall.)

The prize-winners for the various Newsletter giveaways are as follows – if you missed out in this season’s special email and want to make sure that you get the next one, sign up here. (If you already think you’re signed up but didn’t get one, use the same form to input your email and you’ll see a (small) prompt to update your preferences.)

The winners of the four amazing Philosophy skincare sets are: bellalasic03, bridgetrosajamieson, kasia.lichota and catrionamaclennan19. Congratulations and please keep a lookout for an email directly from the brand.

The winner of the gorgeous gigantic Moringa Cleansing Balm from Emma Hardie is Jo Newland – enjoy, Jo! This is one of my all-time favourite cleansers, I hope you love it.

The very smart Alpha-H skincare sets with mini candles go to antje.strietholt and nicaraman – well done!

There were thirty – THIRTY!* – winners of the Colab Luxe Shine Hair Fragrance spray. Each one of you will be contacted directly by the brand so please keep a lookout. If anyone misses their email or doesn’t respond I’ll do a shout-out to them in a couple of weeks time here in the Sunday Tittle Tattle.

Read more Sunday Tittle Tattles…

Righty-ho, that’s me for today: I have to take photos of a load of sexy stationery for tomorrow’s post and think of my Top 10 Christmas Book recommendations. Lots of people have also requested a teen gift guide and IF I have time I will try and do that too. But there are only so many hours in the day, so no promises…I must leave enough time to eat what is now my daily Mint Choc Magnum. (Giving them up after Christmas. Along with all of the other terrible things I’ve started munching on to get myself through the day.)

*I’ve updated this from FIFTY, because FIFTY was wrong – I got a bit overexcited with my numbers!! Soz.

Continue reading →

Sorry; another pinky-nude lipstick, but it’s really the texture of this one that I want to scream and shout about. (In a good way.) Bobbi Brown’s Nourishing Lip Color with Oil-Infused Shine is deeply moisturising and gives a good bit of non-sticky glaze – rather like the By Terry Baume I wrote about and the Lip Parfait from Laura Mercier, but with more whack in the pigment department. It’s most definitely a lipstick rather than a balm, but the formula is so ridiculously sumptuous and moisturising you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was some sort of treatment, if you were judging by feel alone.

I’m wearing Almost Pink in the picture above – it looks quite subdued here, in daylight, but for some reason it seems to get a bit of a colour boost under artificial light – when I wore it in Paris one evening last week the shade almost seemed rather outré and daring. For me, at least…

The formula contains Avocado, Babassu and Jojoba oils and is excellent at smoothing over lip imperfections and dryness, as you’d perhaps expect – I love the low-key shine that doesn’t feel sticky or overdone. I can imagine that the Nourishing Lip Color will be instantly popular; this sort of glossiness feels modern and sexy without any of the gloss-related pitfalls. (Hair stuck to lips, small insects and midges stuck to lips, etc.)

You can find the new Nourishing Lip Color at Bobbi Brown here – it’s £21 and there are 16 shades. I must try Coral Pop in a few months and see how the oil formula holds up in the summer heat! I’ll report back…

Continue reading →