Colors Beyond Belief!

We’ve got something beyond belief coming your way, Benebabes! Drumroll, please—on June 26th, you’ll be able to snag your fave they’re real mascara & push-up gel liner in #killercolors! We’re beyond excited for this REAL bold addition to the benefam—the ultimate “are-they-or-aren’t-they…” beauty besties in colors that make our skin & eyes pop has us certain that things are about to get real sexy, real quick.

Benefit_Insta_prodct_ColorNoFog_June15They’re real mascara is coming in beyond blue & beyond brown—shades that make any eye color pop. The blue is bright & gorgeous, but subtle enough to be wearable for everyday, and the brown—well, ladies, you’ve been asking for it for years & we’ve been listening! Benefit_Insta_prodct_TarFcBlueMascara_June15

They’re real push-up liner is swimming into stores in beyond brown, beyond blue, beyond green & beyond purple—deep, gorgeous jewel tones with a creamy, long-wearing formula that won’t smudge, budge or dry out! The original lash-hugging AccuFlex tip is alive and well in these new killer colors—’cause every Benebabe knows, it’s all about the tip 😉 These colors all work hard to highlight the whites of your eyes & give ah-mazing color payoff that doesn’t quit ’til you do. Whether you’re going for a sexy cat eye, bold, dramatic liner, or a thin, subtle look—they’re real in colors beyond belief is the ultimate new makeup bag must have!

Benefit_Insta_prodct_TarFc_June15

So, Benebabes, we’re dying to know—which one of these killer colors are you dying to try!? Tweet @BenefitBeauty with #killercolors & tell us which one you’re grabbing first!

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What’s In My Bag?

lk bennett handbag

Just to go alongside the “What’s In My Makeup Bag” post that went up earlier on this week; a snoop inside my handbag. My sister said when I took these photos – and I quote her directly – “this is the sh*ttest What’s In My Bag ever! Where’s all the makeup stuff?” But I don’t like to contrive my bag contents, and I suspect that is what happens quite a lot of the time – a carefully edited selection of beauty products and so on, that look pretty on the page and cover all of the bases. I just tend to tip my own bag upside down and see what’s going on – granted, I do often remove old pieces of tissue and cereal bar wrappers and so on, but for the most part it’s a true representation of that day’s contents.

whats in my handbag

So sorry if this really is the “sh*ttest” reveal ever – I’m getting my sister back by posting up the picture of her photobombing my still-life. Again, entirely unplanned – this should win some kind of photobombing award, I feel. Her head and arms have been perfectly framed!

And so, to the contents of my handbag. Which is the beautiful Jenna bag from LK Bennett – it also comes in white and hot pink, which would be lovely for spring! You can find it online here.

ruth crilly beauty blog

Firstly, let’s tackle all of the bumph: a five pound note, crumpled, some little hairbands in pastel colours (bottom left), my Nectar trolley token and a “Nakd” cereal bar. I eat loads of those cereal bars (well, about four a week, but that’s four more than I’d have eaten prior to being pregnant!) and I can imagine that non-pregnant they would taste quite foul – can anyone vouch for them? Like them? Hate them?

The scary dolly thing is my Marni Rose purse spray – some of your comments on this did make me laugh when I posted about it! I just love the scent, though, regardless of whether the packaging is cute or hideous – it’s a really interesting, non-girly kind of rose. Other beauty items: my Colab dry shampoo, which goes with me everywhere, and a Clinique Superbalm. There’s lots going on with Colab at the moment, all very exciting, but annoyingly you won’t see anything happen for a while because product developments take AGES. Lots of brainstorming and nit-picking (not literally) and lots of me being completely pedantic and a control freak. But if the things that come from all of this work are as brilliant as the Sheer & Invisible dry shampoo I will be a very happy lady – watch this space!

Clinique Superbalm – keep meaning to post on this. It’s just excellent, and quite a nice “dupe”for the Sisley in terms of effect and a little bit similar in texture. It just really does the job on chapped lips, I especially like it layered over their All About Lips cream, overnight. You can find it here.

louis vuitton agenda

What else, what else? Filofax, or Agenda as they say at Louis Vuitton: I bought this for myself about ten years ago, before luxury good prices were so utterly ridiculous. I’m pretty sure I paid just over a hundred pounds, and now they are about four hundred. What the heck? The refills alone cost £52 now! But it’s a ritual, buying them every January and I must say that the diary itself has lasted amazingly well – it looks brand new. Underneath the Agenda you can see my new camera, the Canon Powershot G7 X, which is brilliant – I always need a smaller camera to supplement the big, chunky, heavy Canon DSLR that I use when I’m at home. I can highly recommend the Powershot – the functions are amazing and it has a flip-up screen, too, if you’re into “vlogging” and need to see yourself… I bought mine from Amazon here.

mindful birthing nancy bardacke

The final piece of the handbag puzzle: a bit of light reading. (Ha!) Mindful Birthing by Nancy Bardacke. I won’t go too much into the whole birthing thing here (you can read my pregnancy diary entries and rambles over on my little blog The Uphill, which isn’t quite ready to see yet but I trust you’ll all be kind!) but so many people – friends, family, readers, Twitter followers – have said about Mindful Birthing and how it helped them and so I’m doing loads of reading. It’s basically about breathing and trying to stay calm and in control during birth and yes I know that loads of people will say that  “everything will go out of the window at the time” and “you have no idea what it’s like”, but I do think that we are bombarded with incredibly negative representations of birth, especially on television and in the media. And in my own immediate family and friends group, the birth stories have been overwhelmingly positive, so that’s how I’m setting my mind. There will be more discussion on this topic over on The Uphill very soon!

The post What’s In My Bag? appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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Exploring Paris & French Skincare with La Roche-Posay | Advertorial

 

It wasn’t until I developed adult acne, did I learn to appreciate good skincare. I’d always had relatively good skin, even throughout my teens and seemed to avoid that ‘life ending’ puberty led onslaught of acne. Of course I had the odd blemish here and there, but never anything too extreme.

Growing up with a single mother who didn’t care much for makeup, skincare or beauty products, I learnt through trial and error, and women’s magazines which skincare products to use. Needless to say, I picked up a few terrible beauty care tips… (Does anyone else shudder with horror at the thought of putting toothpaste on breakouts and baby powder in their hair now?)

When my skin was at its worst, It affected my self confidence in so many different ways. I was a shadow of my former self and I wasn’t sure on the best way to deal with it, but one thing that helped me, was sharing what I was going through.

It took me the better part of a year to get my skincare routine nailed in a way that was working for me, and it was so heart warming to see all the amazing comments and messages of support in Instagram and YouTube from those that had been following my skincare journey.

One thing I’ve learnt is how temperamental acne-prone skin can be, and I’m very aware that many of the skincare products I added into my routine were mid to high end in price point – which isn’t very purse friendly. A few of you were disappointed that I hadn’t found more affordable products that work to combat blemishes and acne prone skin, so over the past few months I’ve been looking into alternative options that are affordable to everyone and that’s why I recently headed to Paris, famed for not only it’s amazing Boulangeries, but also it’s wonderful French Pharmacies and incredible skincare, with La Roche-Posay. .

These days I’m always more reserved, and hesitant with trying new products, but one thing which attracted me to La Roche-Posay, is that they have an affordable range of products called Effaclar, designed specifically for acneprone skin. In the summer, I was SO into the La Roche-Posay Thermal Spray Water, and was intrigued to learn more about their products as I’ve seen so many bloggers talking about them. With that in mind, a quick Parisian trip seemed the perfect way to learn more.

I checked into the beautiful Les Bains Hotel, infamous in Paris and showbiz circles for the Celebrity packed parties that frequently took place in the 80’s and 90’s. Now, it’s decked out into a beautiful designer led boutique hotel. The Room was so beautiful, and looked like a bloggers paradise with a beautiful marble headboard and crisp white sheets.
I spent the first afternoon wandering around the city, even stopping for a quick bite to eat near The Louvre, and before I headed home, I got the chance to spend time with a leading French Dermatologist – Prof Phillipe Beaulieu. If you follow me on Twitter then you may have heard about a very special YouTube video Phillipe and I got to film together! I asked on twitter if you had any questions or thoughts you’d like me to put to a Dermatologist, such as ‘What do Derms REALLY think of face wipes?’ as well as a few other burning questions I see popping up all the time about skincare.
A huge thank you to LaRoche-Posay for helping me understand more about skin, as I got to attend a special Dermatologist led skincare session. We talked about everything fromIsotretinoin(more commonly referred to as Accutane), to the different types of acne and how they are graded on a scale – from very severe to no lesions (only redness) and how dermatologists treat the different types. It was fascinating and I feel like it totally enriched my knowledge, which hopefully I can pass on. Over the next few months I’ll be putting the knowledge and skincare to the test, and trying out the La Roche-Posay Effaclar range in the hopes that it could be the affordable skincare line we’re all looking for.

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