Category Archives: beauty look

I was sat testing out about ten thousand different shades from Clarins’ new Joli Rouge lipstick collection (as you do) and it struck me how absolutely face-changing certain lip colours can be. A tone only needs to be slightly “off” for your skin to suddenly look sickly and pale or slightly jaundiced or ruddy and flushed. But get it right and you instantly look fresher, brighter and more awake.

Sometimes it can look like overkill when a brand offers a dozen or so very similar-looking tones, but actually when you look closely the tiny variations (bit more blue, maybe more yellow, a shot of rose-gold shimmer to brighten) they are what makes the range wearable and flattering to a larger number of people. One nude lipstick does not suit all.

Take a look at my two favourites from the Clarins Joli Rouge line-up – lipsticks that are creamy, hydrating and have a nice whack of colour. Not ridiculously pigmented, but easy to apply and sumptuous in feel. The first one is 745, Pink Praline:

A perfect pinkish-nude, for me; juicy, and not so pale that I end up looking lipless. Just a very quick and gorgeous shade that makes me look instantly polished.

And then check this out: same makeup, same lighting (natural light from the window), same absolutely everything. Apart from the lipstick, obviously. And the fact that I mussed my hair up a bit to add a bit of interest! Doesn’t the brighter shade really change my face?

(By the way: maximum respect to Deciem’s NIOD Photography Fluid for making my skin look as though it has been retouched to within an inch of its life. It just seems to work magic on camera! You can find it here – I apply beneath a very light layer of foundation.)

This vibrant face-changing orange-red is called Orange Fizz (shade 701). Though it’s a brilliant tone for beachy, sunkissed skin, it’s also great for autumn and would be quite dramatic with an otherwise bare face. (Read: tonne of concealer, base, brightening malarkey and clever “no eye makeup” eye makeup. And brows. And a bit of pale bronzer.)

The new Joli Rouge lipsticks are available now for £19.50, or a slightly cheaper £17.15 from the ever-amazing Escentual.com here.

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1) My big brother Dan is currently exhibiting his art work at Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool. If you are in the area, then please do pop in and have a look! He has also finally put some of his pieces online – here’s his website: dancrilly.co.uk

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For those of us who can’t scrape up the £250 for the Jo Malone Town House advent calendar (in which I might just point out, there are no candles anyway), then the vintage-Christmas-card style of the Yankee Candle Advent House might make up for it because it’s positively a snip in comparison at £25.

Inside, you’ll find 23 tiny tea-lights in a selection of fragrances, including Christmas Cookie, Sugared Apple, Snowflake Cookie, Candy Lane Cane and Christmas Garland and one votive size for December 24th in Christmas Eve.

To be honest, you need to like your candles on the sweet side, and you also need to have a tea-light holder handy because there isn’t one included (in my opinion, there really should be) but tiny as they are, the tea-lights are really cute and I can see this being a lovely ritual with children – lighting the candle together as a family when it’s all dark and cosy.

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Many of you (kindly) commented on how nice my hair and makeup looked in my latest video (click here if you haven’t watched it yet) and so I thought I’d do a little run-down on what I used. To wave my hair, the amazing Wicked Waver from Mark Hill, which looks like some kind of weird sex toy but is actually one of the easiest hair tools I have ever used. The lumpy bits stop the hair from sliding off the barrel and, if you use a heatproof glove, you can get around your whole head without ever burning yourself. Quick to heat up, loads of temperature settings and – this is the best bit – it’s back in stock on Boots.com AT HALF PRICE! £29.99. You’d literally be mad not to. I’m always wary of wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommending something in this way, but I have tested this sex wand to the nth degree and can honestly say that it is amazing. Find it here before it goes – I’m popping it in my gift guide, too, so I hope they are stocked up!

Makeup: a touch of By Terry Densiliss foundation in shade 7, a whisk of a Clarins discontinued face palette that I love and use almost daily (Colour Accents, see photo below, you can find it on allbeauty.com for £16.50, sshhh!), a touch of Sunday Riley blush in Blushing (below), a sweep of Sunday Riley Primasilk eyeshadow in Godiva (this is one of the best “one sweep” shades I have come across. Perfect for brightening and adding a touch of sultry sheen), and to finish it all off, Givenchy Noir Couture7 4-in-1 Mascara. My lips look as though they have lipstick on but in fact, it was just some remains of Clarins’ Gloss Prodige in Waterlily.

I’ve worn this look for near enough the whole week – natural, quite wintery but with a touch of healthy colour to the cheeks. The waves in my hair were three days old when I took this photo – they stayed in really well. Obviously there were liberal dousings of my CoLab dry shampoo to keep the roots of my hair looking acceptable! I always find that the trick to long-lasting waves, when you’re using a wand, is to make sure that when you release the hair from around the barrel you do it really fast and don’t pull down on the hair. Let the ends go so that there’s no tension in the hair strand and then just kind of “whisk” the wand away! And then don’t touch the wave/curl at all for about ten minutes. The wave sets as the hair cools, so if you faff with the hair before then, all you’re doing is pulling out the curl and allowing the hair to cool straight.

Right – if you’re reading this on Friday then it’s my birthday – THIRTY FOUR! – and if you’re reading on Thursday then it’s the day before my birthday. Either way, I have much to do, including answering about twelve milllion phone calls from my Mum who wants to know exactly what type of cake I’d like. So I’m off. You can read more beauty posts here.

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