Category Archives: beauty news

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 →

Just a quickie, today, because I have recently discovered the television series Game of Thrones and the sofa beckons! Goodness me is Game of Thrones saucy – how has it taken me so long to get around to watching it? I thought that it was going to be a bit like Lord of the Rings which, quite frankly, bored me to tears, but G-o-T is an action-packed sex-filled gore-fest!

Ahem.

A while back I mentioned a nifty little cleansing spray from La Roche-Posay called “Serozinc”. I discovered Serozinc through Caroline Hirons (along with a few billion other people, I’d imagine!) and it immediately became one of my “French Pharmacie” must-haves. Its labelling says that it’s a “cleansing, soothing zinc-sulfate solution”, the blurb says that it’s a zinc-sulfate enriched “toning mist”, I say that it’s just a bloody brilliant little spray for just about everything. I have used it as a gentle kind of toner, after cleansing and before serum, I have used it as a “quick sweep cleanse” when I’ve been travelling and forgotten my creams and balms, and I’ve used it as a refreshing mist throughout the day in hot weather or when I’ve been sat at my desk.

More skincare posts….

Zinc has long been touted about as having a positive effect on breakout-prone skin; it also apparently has something of a soothing quality and is good as an anti-irritant. Great for those days when skin is just sore, bumpy and having a minor meltdown. A quick spritz of Serozinc after cleansing can’t be a bad thing if you’re after an extra bit of anti-spot security; it takes about three seconds to spray it on and then all you have to do is just pat in and leave. If I’m away from home and haven’t taken a decent cleanser with me then I have been known to use a mist of Serozinc and then a wipe over with some damp cotton wool. I can’t say that its cleansing powers are life-changing, but as a final sweep-over you could do a lot worse! (Sidenote: I often forget to take cleanser away with me. I have no idea why, seeing as though it’s my most important step. But I have many emergency cleanse measures that I resort to, including using face oil (excellent), moisturiser (very good) and even, once, some lip balm melted down in my palms. (Don’t even ask how that went.))

So, Serozinc: definitely a nice one to have in your stash, especially if you’re fond of facial mists and spritzes. If you’re usually just using a can of scented water then do have a change and give this a go; it’s not just for acne-prone or oily skin, it’s comforting, soothing and refreshing and not at all drying.

Once a treasure to be found buried deep in the hallowed aisles of the French pharmacie, Serozinc is now available in the UK. It’s £8.50 at Escentual.com here – at time of writing it was on offer for £7.20.

The post Serozinc, Unlikely Facial Cleansers and the Saucy Game of Thrones. appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Continue reading →

Skincare rave coming up, brace yourselves: Peter Thomas Roth’s Pumpkin Enzyme Mask. This stuff is like beauty dynamite! In a good way, obviously. It’s a proper fixer-upper, a true SOS treatment, a product that should be included in every single one of those “red carpet” features (ugh) and handed out in little sachets at festivals as an all-in-one facial hangover cure.

Because it is the business, let me tell you. Both times I’ve used it (yes, just twice: I couldn’t wait any longer to write about it, mainly because of the pumpkin/Halloween thing, but also because I sincerely doubt that it will suddenly do something completely different during subsequent trials) my skin has looked completely refreshed and renewed. Brighter, fresher, chin flakiness gone, nose blackheads eradicated. I was left a little bit pink on the first attempt – I won’t lie – but that’s because I was a bit over-enthusiastic with the scrubbing part. Scrubbing part, I hear you say? Let me explain:

Peter Thomas Roth’s Pumpkin Enzyme Mask is marketed as a “triple-action treatment”; pumpkin enzymes to eat away dead skin cells and other rubbish on the skin’s surface, alpha hydroxy acids to exfoliate in a non-abrasive way and aluminium oxide crystals to exfoliate in an – er – abrasive way. It’s entirely possible, if you wish, to skip the manual exfoliation aspect and just get on with the acid and enzyme action – the directions say to massage the mask onto the skin first and then leave on for between 3-7 minutes, depending on how hardcore you are, but you could simply spread on a thin layer and let it work its magic.  I’ve tried both ways – skin is left slightly smoother after doing the initial “scrub”, but it’s also left slightly more pink. I think that it all comes down to personal preference, but if you’re in any way prone to redness, broken veins or have sensitive skin then best skip on the sandblasting section.

More face mask reviews…

In fact, if you have sensitive skin at all, I’d recommend something a little gentler, perhaps, because the Pumpkin Enzyme Mask does not hang about. If you’re the type of impatient person who can’t be bothered to wait for the thirty, twenty or even ten minutes that most masks take to get going then this is your dream product. Results after three minutes are excellent – my skin the next morning looked dewy and plump and a whole lot less tired – results after seven, who knows? I didn’t dare find out!

A more gentle face mask suggestion…

Could this be the ultimate fixer-upper mask? Tackling dullness, fine lines and congestion it seems to just be a one-stop power-mask wonder and you get a whopping 150ml in the jar, too, so plenty of applications. I mean, dozens and dozens of applications. The price? A distinctly un-scary £39.50.

Continue reading →