After last week’s Sleeplessness post I tried to make some serious changes to my bedtime routine. Thank you, by the way, for all of your amazing comments – I was really rather touched that so many of you took the time to share your experiences and give advice. And as last week’s post was so well-read, I thought it might be interesting to jot down my sleep patterns. If only to help those of you who find it difficult to nod off: BECAUSE IF READING THIS POST DOESN’T KNOCK YOU OUT THEN NOTHING WILL.

Right-o, here’s what time I went to bed, what I did before bed (stop it) and what time (approximately) I got to sleep for every night of the past week. There’s something a bit narcissistic about these online diary things:  I for one love reading them (especially food diaries, for some reason) but I understand if you feel like telling me to sod off. The rest of you – the voyeurs and devourers of online journals – enjoy. I started this a week ago and finished it (late) last night.

Sunday: after imposing a new “no work after 7pm” rule, I – amazingly – managed to stop work at 6.30, put the baby to bed and not watch any television, making a conscious effort to potter about without any electronics. I even shunned my Kindle in favour of a paperback so that I wouldn’t think about iPads and therefore laptops and therefore work, and I left my iPhone in the living room. I fell asleep at about 10.30 after massaging my feet with that Uma oil from Cult Beauty and – quite literally – slept like a log. One wake-up to feed the baby at 2am, but straight back to sleep and woke up very refreshed at just after 7am.

Monday: no work after 7pm – tick. In bed by 9.30pm, but we watched an episode of Ray Donovan (new television obsession, oh my God) and turned the lights off at 10.30pm. The dog woke us up at about 3am, then the baby at 4am, but overall it wasn’t too bad.

Tuesday: I worked until 8.30pm, trying to finish off some video editing. I should have been more organised in the day, but time just slipped through my fingers. Made a curry and we ate that at 9pm, I can’t go to bed straight after eating so we had a mini Magnum (healthy!) in front of an episode of Ray Donovan. OK, two episodes of Ray Donovan. Bed at 11pm – I tried to read for a while from my paperback, but it was scary (The Good Girl) and also not that good and so dropped into something of a fitful sleep at around 11.20pm. Up for a feed at 3am, back to sleep until 7.40am, woke up a bit groggy.

Wednesday: Mr AMR didn’t get back from his shoot until 8pm, then we chatted until about 9pm (I had already eaten) and decided to retire to watch – you guessed it! – Ray Donovan snuggled up in bed. (We have a telly bed. It’s ridiculous and also amazing.) At 11pm Mr AMR got an email from a client (must have been in the US) asking for a photograph they wanted to use so he got back up to find it and transfer the file. At 11.30pm the baby woke up with teething pains, I got her back to sleep at about 12.15am and then went and slept in the spare room next to her nursery because I was anxious about her. Slept straight through until 7.15am, which is a LONG uninterrupted period of time in my sleep world!

Thursday: Mr AMR stayed in London after work and so I was home alone and ended up working from 7.20pm, when the baby went to sleep, until about 11pm. Ooops. I lay in bed until about 12.30am Googling miniature bathtubs for my dolls house, then I was too scared to turn the light off and also had the dog on the bed with me as protection (don’t judge) so didn’t get to sleep until around half past one. At two thirty the baby woke up then I slept fitfully until five when I turned the light off because it was starting to get light outside which means that demons can’t get you and then I went back to sleep until half past seven. Phew. A bit of a failure in terms of my new sleeping regime, but at least the lamp kept the vampires/trolls/girl that climbs out of the well in The Ring/zombies away.

Friday: had a late dinner and then watched The Good Wife on catchup TV. I have no idea where the time went after that, I think I was Googling miniature things again (I always have some sort of online shopping preoccupation happening), but before I knew it it was midnight. The baby woke up loads, very grizzly, but finally went back to sleep at about one and then I slept through until almost eight o’ clock. Not bad, despite the Googling – but I couldn’t have dropped off anyway with the baby being all angsty…

Saturday: after a day in London and the baby refusing to have any naps, we returned home at 8.15pm and put the baby to bed, and by the time I had searched eBay for a chair for my office (another current shopping theme) and Mr AMR had watched the snooker it was 11pm. I had three weetabix for my dinner (thank God this isn’t a food diary, I’d be failing miserably) and – at the time of writing this, we are just preparing to settle down and watch the final episode in the first season of Ray Donovan. It will be at least midnight before we go to sleep, because there needs to be the mandatory discussion session after the programme finishes (I do all the talking, Mr AMR pretends to be asleep) and then the dog will need a wee and someone else will need a wee and the baby will wake up…

So there. A week of bedtimes. In summary, I think we can all agree that Ray Donovan single-handedly sabotaged my good intentions with regards to establishing a good sleep routine. I’ll add it to his list of crimes (framing his own father for murder, drink driving, sleeping with a psychotic blonde when his wife is at home worried about him, shooting a priest through the head, to name but a few). If you don’t have a clue what I’m on about then you can watch it on Amazon Prime. I’ve had Prime for too many years to even count, but only recently realised I could watch films and TV programmes on it. You can usually get a free trial for 30 days – enough time to watch all of the Ray Donovan  episodes! After that it’s £79 a year – used to be about forty quid, if I remember rightly, but at that time it was just about getting free next day delivery and they didn’t have all of this new-fangled streaming stuff going on.. Oh, the innocent days of yore! The Amazon Prime page is here.

The post Sunday Tittle Tattle: Ray Donovan and the Sabotaged Sleep Routine appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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After quite a long spell of using mostly high street complexion powders in my daily makeup routine (I’ve been doing research, watch this space) I’m rather pleased to be reunited with a bit of luxe. There are so many brilliant bronzers and blushers and face powders from budget brands, but most of them are – not unexpectedly – lacking on the design front. Many don’t have mirrors in the cases, for a start, and you certainly don’t tend to get beautifully decorative compacts like the ones in the photo above…

So I’m enjoying carrying about a bit of eye candy in my makeup bag – powders with amazing packaging that I feel glad to whip out in public for an impromptu touch-up. From left to right, above, there’s the Sicilian Bronzer from Dolce & Gabbana (if you find one of these, snap it up, they seem to be universally sold out), the Beached Bronzer from Urban Decay and the Dreamy Glow Highlighter from Charlotte Tilbury.

The Sicilian Bronzer, if you can get it, is quite deep and warm in tone – this is proper bronzing rather than the natural, sunkissed look that I tend to plump for by default. On the other hand, Urban Decay’s Beached Bronzer (centre) is the classic sunkissed sort of powder. Cooler in tone than the Dolce & Gabbana bronzer, it’s a true dust-it-on-and-look-like-a-beach-goddess summer makeup staple. (Find it here – it’s £20. I have the appropriately-named shade “Sun Kissed”.)

Charlotte Tilbury’s Illuminating Youth Powder (right of the photo) is part of her limited edition Norman Parkinson collection, which has a selection of the photographer’s most iconic pictures reproduced on the lids of the cosmetics. The Dreamy Glow highlighter is a soft and forgiving kind of highlighter – no large bits of shimmer or glitter, it has a subtle finish that looks radiant and fresh and a slightly warmed-up, peachy tone that stops things from looking too silvery or harsh. This is great for adding a final flourish to finished skin – it seems to pull everything together and add a bit of life. I rather like it over a sheer face tint on a “good skin day” but it’s equally marvellous for bringing over-mattified faces back from the brink. Find it here – it’s £45.

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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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I used No7’s Skin Illuminator in my No Foundation Makeup Look a couple of weeks ago; it gave my skin a beautiful sheen with just the right amount of pearlescence. Because  – let’s face it – some of these illuminators are almost too pearlescent to work with in any kind of sensible way. At least, they’re OK once you’ve bunged a foundation on top, but you couldn’t go out in them without some form of tempering down. You’d look like the inside of a seashell. (I’m thinking of you, Dior Glow Maximiser and Laura Mercier Radiance Primer!)

The No7 Skin Illuminator takes a softly-softly approach to adding radiance to the skin – it’s a believable, fresh dewiness rather than the OTT shine that you might use on cheekbones and beneath brows to add drama to the face. It’s not as full-on as the primers mentioned above and so gets a bit lost underneath full-coverage foundation, but for perfecting bare skin it’s just wonderful.

For added glow: Laura Mercier Radiance Primer…

It has a lightweight, silky feel and although it isn’t especially moisturising, it leaves skin looking as though it has been thoroughly buffed with a nourishing face oil. If you did want to use it with a foundation then it works very nicely mixed in – equal parts if you’re not fussed about sheering out your coverage – or patted on over the top. Though you have to be careful with the patting, because you can get a bit out of your depth if you use too much product or start disturbing the makeup base beneath… If it’s specific highlights you’re after on top of your foundation I think that MAC’s Strobe Cream is always a safe bet, or a powder that you can lightly dust on with a feathery brush.

i-Glow Powder: the One Stop Shimmer Shop…

No7’s Skin Illuminator is quite similar to Clarins’ Instant Light Radiance Complexion Boosting Base, I think, though Clarins have theirs in three shades and No7, so far as I can see, just have the one very neutral  tone. The Clarins is more of a comprehensive primer in that it seems to very slightly blur and conceal minor imperfections as well as adding radiance – I’ll admit that to wear the No7 on its own you’d want your skin to be looking very, very good! I must do a comparison between the two – I’m frantically testing my way through a whole drawer of primers at the moment, so will add these to the list.

You can find the No7 Skin Illuminator in “nude” at Boots here – it’s £12.50 for 30ml. The Clarins is £24 for 30ml and they usually have good stock at Escentual.com. Note on application, for both: if you’re not adding something on top then don’t apply the illuminators to the tip of your nose. I have, above, and it definitely makes things look more…bulbous.

The post No7 Illuminator: The Softly-Softly Skin Glow appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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