Category Archives: beauty look

“First Week Back To School” Makeup Tutorial

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-nyx pore filler primer
-nars creamy radiance concealer- custard
-maybelline better skin powder
-benefit hoola bronzer
-physicians formula rose pearl blush
-physicians formula beige pearl highlighter
-sanias brow bar mechanical brow pencil- light
-Anastasia beverly hills clear brow gel
-nyc white eyeliner
-mac oh honey lipliner
-ana v beauty cosmetics “Tiana” lipstick

Brushes used:
-ana v beauty cosmetics makeup sponge
-maskcara double ended brush
-sigma F10
-zoeva 127
-sigma F37
-sigma E15
-morphe MB23

Another Pretty Thing to Sleep In: Triumph’s Amourette Spotlight

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Triumph Amourette Spotlight Night Dress

As my pregnancy progresses (30 weeks and counting!) so my affection for nightdresses grows. I’ve never really been that into nighties, partly because they’re called nighties but mostly because pyjamas are easier to stay in for the entire day. Should you feel the need. Which, if you’re a freelance worker, is often.

There’s something marginally acceptable about remaining in your pyjamas for a good proportion of the day; not so much a nightie. Answering the door to the Fedex driver wearing star-print pyjamas is OK- they just think you’re lazy, and really, pyjamas are just one step down from wearing a tracksuit – but answering the door in a lacy nightie? It’s all very scant and exposing. It makes you feel as though you’re starring in your very own low-budget adult movie.

Anyway, as mentioned, since my bump has begun to grow at an unstoppable rate I’ve become a lot more enamoured with the idea of wearing a nightdress. I like the coolness of it and the feeling of freedom. I don’t get tangled up in my various layers when I try to roll over in bed (a mammoth task, let me tell you!) and the draping of a nightie is far more flattering on a pregnant body than a pyjama shirt could ever be.

Triumph Amourette Spotlight Night Dress

Latest nightdress acquisition? The “Amourette Spotlight” from Triumph. Quite lacy and sexy on the bust but very wholesome and pretty on the lower half. I discovered the Amourette range at a launch for Triumph’s fuller cup bras last week; it’s one of their bestselling lingerie styles and comes in loads of different bra types and colours, all of them beautiful and lacy. (More on those soon, I’m planning a very lengthy and ambitious bra post!)

The nightdress is a lovely addition to the range, comfy with a hint of seductiveness. How much longer I’ll actually be able to wear it for is anyone’s guess, but I’m definitely getting my money’s worth out of it at the moment. (It is starting to look a bit…er…short at the front, but that’s only to be expected.)

You can find the Amourette Spotlight at Triumph here – it costs £34. Take a look at my other nightie post, too, if you like pure, understated cotton things: La Maison De Senteurs

The post Another Pretty Thing to Sleep In: Triumph’s Amourette Spotlight appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Sunday Tittle Tattle: The Buddha Beauty Bowl

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madeleine shaw ready steady glow

This, my friends, is the Buddha Beauty Bowl from Madeleine Shaw’s recipe book, Ready Steady Glow. Not my usual kind of lunch (mainly because it’s not sandwiched inside two enormous chunks of buttered bread or topped with a fat ball of mozzarella) but boy did I enjoy it! Perhaps it was because I cooked it up in a gorgeous country kitchen at the picturesque Soho Farmhouse, then gobbled it down sat in blazing sunshine in a quaint vegetable garden (as you do), but it really was delicious. Fresh, filling (I could have eaten a quarter of it and still been quite satisfied) and incredibly virtuous with its raw beetroot and carrot and oranges and avocado and miso dressing and flaked almonds.

Phew.

To be perfectly honest, grating beetroot and heating chickpeas with a miso dressing is far more effort than I’d ever go to for a normal lunchtime, but I felt so good after eating my Buddha Bowl (I managed to gobble down two thirds of it) that I’ve been inspired to have a little search for a few more fresh and easy lunches. Ones that don’t involve grating, preferably, because vegetable grating is up there with sieve-washing and oven-shelf-scrubbing and egg-separating on my Most-Hated Kitchen Jobs list.

madeleine shaw ready steady glow

I need to have a proper peruse of Madeleine’s book because everything looks so colourful and appetising and the recipes I made from it (during the Origins Soho Farmhouse retreat, see vlog here) were very tasty. I’ve been having a bit of an “anti-clean-eating moment” because I’m a bit tired of the whole kale-juice thing and of reading that we can’t eat this and we must avoid that (including cutting out HUGE food groups, which always makes me slightly worried) but Ready Steady Glow looks relatively sensible with a focus on fresh ingredients and interesting preparation ideas. I’ll keep you updated. If you fancy a browse yourself, it’s here on Amazon.

prawn salad at the pub

Amusingly, I had a “local pub version” of the Buddha Beauty Bowl a few days ago – grated beetroot was probably the only similarity, because this had pickled egg (ew! not something I’ll ever eat again), coleslaw, half a loaf of granary bread and about a kilo of peeled fresh prawns tipped into the middle of the bowl. I have to say that the Shaw version beat the pub version, hands down…those stir-fried chickpeas were a meal on their own!

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© 2016 A Model Recommends®: all opinions are my own and any sponsored or paid posts will always be very clearly marked. I accept press samples and receive product and services to review as part of my job. Outward links to retailers will usually be affiliate links. Please see here for full “about” section and disclaimer.  A Model Recommends and Ruth Crilly are registered trademarks.

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Zest for Life – For Less than Half Price!

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zest for life set space nk

Oooh, we all need a bit of zing and zest to get us through January, don’t we? Crap weather, dark, chilly mornings and a seemingly endless number of weeks until we get to anything exciting, calendar-wise. (What is the next good event after Christmas? The clocks going forward? When is that? Someone winch me up and out of my pit of despair!)

So yes, Space NK’s Zest for Life set. I was going to write about this when it was full price (£28) and forgot; it was then on my list of priorities when it was half price, but I forgot again. It is now less than half price at nine pounds and I very much suggest snapping one up if you need a little self-treat that won’t break the bank. Or if you’ve a few birthdays coming up it’s a nice one to stockpile. It’s actually a third of the original price, which is rather pleasing…

zest for life set space nk

This set is a veritable tin of sunshine: open the lid and a load of bright orange tissue paper springs out to reveal four little goodies hiding inside. There’s a Mandarin & Grapefruit candle, and then a body lotion, body wash and body scrub, all smelling very juicy and fresh and invigorating. If you had a shower using this lot you couldn’t fail to have a slightly happier morning.

No sulphates in the shower stuff, no parabens in any of it, if you’re on the lookout for those, and the candle is so scented that you could probably just leave it unlit in a room to get a good whiff – light it and it’s like the room-fragrance version of a fizzy Berocca! Find the Zest for Life set at Space NK here.

(On a side note, the own-brand candles at Space NK are really very good indeed. I shall be looking out for them more, from now on – the Christmas one was lovely with a sophisticated fragrance and pretty jar.)

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