A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Cowshed have teamed up with Astley Clarke to give newsletter subscribers the opportunity to win a £1000 manicure.

A £1000 manicure?  That sounds like a hell of a lot of O.P.I to me…. except it’s a bit more special than that…

Click the image below to be taken to the registration/entry page:

To complement the winner’s luxury manicure, they’ll also be given £1000 to spend on a sparkler of their choice… chosen in the comfort of Astley Clarke’s luxurious London showroom.

I’ve already fallen in love with this Niobe Black Diamond eternity ring… so if you’d all kindly NOT enter, that’d be great thanks.

…over at Beauty Expert, they’re giving us UK ladies the chance to live like the SATC girls with an ‘Ultimate Pampering Break’ for you and 3 friends.

It’s a prize worth nearly £2,000!

Click the image to be taken to the competition page.  Good luck if you enter!

Listen up, this is exciting stuff!

One lucky person could win the job of a lifetime…and a prize package worth up to £50k!

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Are you a Social Media superstar?  Have what it takes to be a marketing genius?

Whatchu on About?

Simple are looking for an online spokesperson and marketer to join their team.  And it could be YOU!

Simple, the UK’s No. 1 Facial Skincare brand, are inviting people across the country to promote themselves to gain support and crucial votes – similar to any election campaign – as a stepping stone to secure a place at Beauty Boot Camp.

Group Marketing Director for Simple, Alex Pike, said:

“It’s really important for Simple to own online marketing. We don’t want to hire someone the conventional way, as we don’t want them to be constrained by text-book theories. We have developed this unique recruitment process to give applicants the chance to showcase their flair and creativity – which proves they have a natural aptitude and passion for marketing – but means qualifications are not necessary.

This is a real opportunity for someone who has no marketing qualifications to follow a life-long ambition into a dream role or change their current career.

We’ll be looking for someone who really embodies the brand – is down-to-earth, honest and confident, and believes in natural beauty.”

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a Simple Star?

Log on to the Simple website and answer some questions explaining why you think you should be the person selected to represent the Simple brand.  Don’t forget to submit a video or photo of yourself.

Entry opens on 4th May and closes on 3rd September 2010.

The 50 applicants with the most votes will be selected to go through to regional heats, with the final 10 being sent to a beauty bootcamp where you will be put through your paces by a judging panel.  Winners will be announced in October.

Thanks to a heads up from lovely regular reader Julia, I can point you lot in the direction of a great competition.

Simply become a Lancome Paris fan on Facebook by Friday night to enter and win lots of Lancome goodies!

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Whilst on the subject of The Book of Faces… yours truly has taken the plunge, jumped on the bandwagon and setup a ‘fan’ page thing.

I’ll be hosting my first ever Facebook competition VERY shortly, so if you wanna join in – come on over and keep a look out for updates!

… and vote for my Mum to win Avon’s International Women’s Day competition.

Link to the voting page

You can read my original entry here.

If we won, I can’t promise I’d give the goodies away to you guys, I’m afraid my mother’s already staked her potential claim…. the mercenary.  Still… she needs beauty products more than me 😉  (she’ll kill me when she reads that!).

In honour of International Women’s Day, Avon invited me to write about the most remarkable woman in my life for their “Wonderful Women” competition…

Now, most daughters think their Mum is the best, but mine really is! 😉 She was 40 when I was born with more than a few complications. I was 3 months premature and back then, less babies survived those stacked odds. She spent months in hospital with me until I was strong enough to return home.

Mum retired in 1993 after developing a rare form of breast cancer. She was diagnosed in November, but didn’t tell anyone until January so as not to spoil Christmas. It’s funny, because despite numerous, gruelling operations, I never once believed that I’d lose her… she made cancer seem of such minor importance that it wasn’t until years later that I appreciated how close we’d all come.

One death-defying manoeuvre accomplished, Mum was finally free to enjoy retirement. For a few months at least, until my Nan developed Alzheimer’s and Mum insisted that her mother-in-law come live with us. My lovely Nan passed away three years ago after twelve years in Mum’s complete care. Twelve years is a long time for an Alzheimer’s sufferer to survive and Mum made sure that each of Nan’s remaining days were worth living for. My Mum is one strong and loyal lady, my remarkable woman.

Mum with Nan a few hours before she passed away – 2007

Mum finally enjoying some respite! – 2010

Illamasqua have a hot new competition open… I’ll let the press release give you all the information you need to know.

Check it out:

2010’s hottest new nail colour is in your hands!

Whether it’s the standout shade of your favourite killer heels, your must-have cupcake frosting or the glow of the city skyline, Illamasqua want to hear what inspires your soul.

The UK’s hottest and most talked about make-up brand, Illamasqua is famed for its unique and daringly different collection of cult Nail Varnish colours.

And now they want YOU to get creative.

Illamasqua is asking finger fetishists the world over to submit a description of their dream nail varnish colour, for their chance to make it a reality.

Run in conjunction with luxury retailer, Selfridges, this incredible competition is giving nail varnish fans the world over the opportunity to push their imaginative boundaries further than ever before and design their very own perfect shade.

Entrants must explain in no more than 50 words what inspired their unique choice, and provide an image or photograph to illustrate their big idea.

The prize? Two winners will see their dream colour created and sold exclusively at Illamasqua.com and Selfridges in London, Manchester Trafford and Birmingham from October 2010. In addition, they’ll receive a bottle of their winning colour before anybody else!

The winning entries will be selected by a high-profile judging panel consisting of legendary make-up artist Alex Box, nail artist to the stars Sophy Robson and YouTube sensations Pixiwoo.

The rules:

In 50 words or less, submit a description of your dream colour and the thinking behind it – please include pictures to illustrate your inspiration if possible.

Entries must be submitted in one of the following three ways, no later than 14^th March 2010:

Via email: competition@illamasqua.com

Via blog post: email the link to competition@illamasqua.com

Via mail:

NAIL COMPETITION
c/o Illamasqua
6-8 Amwell St
London
EC1R 1UQ

One entry per person. Competition is open to entrants globally.

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Congratulations Yinnie!  You’ve won yourself a £50 Red Letter Day gift card!!!

PinkySpanish kindly agreed to judge my competition and she chose Yinnie’s entry as the winner.  Here’s what she had to say about it…

This was more difficult than I thought!  I am going to go with 4.  She had the most creative idea, the execution wasn’t perfect, but she showed the most outside the box concept and I like that!

Thanks to all fab entrants for taking part!  I really appreciated your participation!

Yinnie, could you please email me your details so that I can pass them on to Aussie by Sunday.

Quick update…

I’ve had word from Lauren at 1000heads that the prizes will be revealed early next week.

Sorry for the delay, I’m sure you’re as impatient as I am!

I can’t wait to reveal which of my 6 beautiful entrants has been declared the most deserving winner! Woo!

I introduce to you… 6 fabulous ladies & 6 fabulous entries!

I have looked long and hard at these.  I deliberated, umm-ed, ahh-ed and threw some hmmm-ing in there for a bit of added drama.  Mr L was useless, he agreed to have a look whilst stuffing his face with Coco Pops at about 2am last night.

“What am I supposed to do?” says he… “Help me judge the competition.” says I…

“You just pick whichever one you like and I’ll agree”.  I’m sure I heard him mutter “like we usually do” at the end there, but he looked all innocent with milk dribbling down his chin when I spun around to throw my death-ray glare.

Onto Plan B then… (not that I had one until a lightbulb moment half an hour later)

But before that, let me show you the fab candidates…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Six wonderful entries I’m sure you’ll agree!

So anyway where was I?

Oh yes, being the super cool networker that I am, I worked my magic on Twitter (all Social Media stylee) and persuaded an ultra-hip Make Up Artist from Las Vegas to judge your entries…

Oh ok… so I asked my mate @PinkySpanish to have a look.  But she is a bona fide MUA (some say she’s ultra-hip too) anddddddd she is from Las Vegas… which sounds terribly exotic and edgey to me sat in my front room in Hampshire.

So there we have it!

She’s been looking over your entries and has chosen a winner!

But um, I can’t tell you who it is yet.

I know, I know!! I’ve just made you read this huge post before leaving you sitting there on the edges of your seats.  It’s like I’ve run away with the biscuit tin after filling it with all-butter shortbread right?

The thing is… I don’t know what the prize is.  I was hoping Aussie would let me know today, what with it being THE END OF THE COMPETITION AND ALL but no… so you’ll have to cool your heels for one more night (as will I) and I promise all will be revealed as soon as I hear from them!

Wahanda (the Spa and Wellness people) got in touch to let me (and you) know about this year’s Wahanda Advent Calendar Competition with over £10,000 worth of prizes to give away.

At least one lucky winner a day stands the chance of winning from a range of prizes including: Spa Breaks, Christmas Gift Sets, Spa Days and gift vouchers.

Log on to the site every morning from the 1st December to get your entry in.  If you’re a forgetful old soul like me, sign up for a daily email reminder.

I love advent competitions and have a little folder full of my favourites that I visit every day in the run up to Christmas.

…and talking of advent competitions….

keep an eye out over the next few days for the announcement of…

The Lipglossiping Xmas ’09 Advent Giveaway.

‘Citing!

Eeee… d’ya reckon if I sneak this up here at 3am no-one will notice?  It’s in them there Aussie rules that I’m to post it up on my blog.

It’s bad… it’s really rather horrific.  Car crash cosmetics.  The worst of it is… it took me bloody ages!

Oh god… ok… Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish wrap and all that.  I’ll post heavily afterwards to push it onto page 2.

Ta-Da!! *does a whirl*

So, inspiration… what was I thinking? WHAT WAS I THINKING?!

Well, the colours are representative of the Aussie Hair logo…  Purple and white is synonymous with the brand no?

One of the top things that springs to mind when I think of Aussie is fun-loving!! Combine that with it’s home territory and what is more fun loving than the annual Sydney Mardi Gras?

Which goes some way to explain why I went for something a little more ‘out there’!

The white parts are also meant to be like kangaroo tails as in the logo… but um, yeah…

Oh and the stars! Musn’t forget those… well they’re in the Aussie flag of course!!  Very important considering the amount of natural and native ingredients that can be found in some of our favourite Aussie Hair products!

So anyway, that’s my competition entry and despite my current embarrassment I had *so* much fun doing it.  Thanks Aussie for making me think outside of the box.

If you haven’t entered the competition yet, you’re running out of time!!  It’s open internationally (cos who says that it’s just us Brits who love a bit of Aussie?).  You have ’till Monday to get your entries in.  Just show me… what is Aussie all about to you?