A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

After 26 years of pretty good vision, it came as quite a shock when I visited the opticians and was told that I’d need glasses.  Growing up, I’d had a lazy eye and was one of those poor kids that looked like an extra out of Pirates of the Caribbean with my NHS-issued patch.  Thankfully, I only had to wear it for a few hours a day… but I remember being assured repeatedly that it meant I wouldn’t need to wear glasses when I was older.  It’s funny how those things stick in your mind, as plainly untrue as it was, it did its job and I wore my patch dutifully.  Sometimes.

When I sat in the darkened optician’s cupboard 20 years later and read all the letters on the bottom line of the Snellen chart incorrectly, I knew I was done for.  I’d made a valiant attempt at guessing them, which made it look all the worse as he then encouraged me to repeat the next line up just in-case I’d gotten extremely lucky.  I eventually left the opticians clutching my prescription, hating all the glasses that I’d been shown by his assistant.

I found three pairs of frames online… even nabbing myself a cool vintage pair on the ‘bay, and sent them off to be fitted with my prescription lenses – the difference they made to my vision shocked me.  I guess you could say that I simply hadn’t noticed how much I’d been missing out on.  I remember the first couple of weeks wearing them, I’d keep lifting them to check out the difference between looking at things.  Sharp, blurry, sharp, blurry.  Simple things, simple minds and all that…

I now have three beautiful pairs of glasses.  And I rarely wear them.

They look ok on me, I think they’re kinda fun to wear as they force me to change up my makeup and I can’t help but feel a little bit smarter in them(!) but you know, they just don’t feel like ME.  I feel like I’m playing dress-up in them.  I work on the computer A LOT and I wonder if I’m going to regret my lackadaisical attitude to my eye-wear when I’m older.  Please tell me I’m not the only one who doesn’t wear the glasses they’re supposed to, I’m sure that I should have grown out of this childish-ness back when I grew out of the eye-patch.

The obvious alternative is to become accustomed to contact lenses.  Out of my friends, I’d say that the glasses/contacts split is around 50/50 and I wondered whether that trend continues online?  Do you wear them and if you do… how did you make the transition?  I’m keen but apprehensive!

* this is a sponsored post

Boots contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I’d like to take part in a challenge which involved styling a look using a pair of glasses from the latest Boots Opticians range.  Being a bit of a reluctant specs-wearer, I thought that it might be a cool idea to have a play and have a go at getting my eye makeup looking polished behind a pair of frames.  It helps that I stand a chance at winning a pair of glasses worth £450 for one of my readers too!

I also got to choose a new pair of frames from the latest Boots Opticians Autumn range for the occasion, there were six frames to choose from:

As tempted as I was to go with the fifties retro frames (red lip, black liner anyone?), I know from experience that the 50s cat-eye style really doesn’t suit the shape of my face – so instead, I opted for a pair of Caytlins, the “stylish secretary” look!

It was only a couple of days later, late at night when I suddenly realised… “how do you style a “secretary” look without looking overtly err… sexy?”.  I submitted this question to the folks on Twitter, who agreed that the sexy secretary thing was so damn entwined with the look that it might be tricky to pull it off without looking a little bit porny.  I was mildly horrified and immediately googled “non-sexy secretary”.  Google returned two hits.  OUT OF THE ENTIRE INTERNET.  Apparently such a thing doesn’t exist.

Well, do you know what?  I’m fairly pleased with myself for managing to keep the smut on the down-low whilst still retaining a bit of style (if I do say so myself).  Hopefully it looks secretary-ish, seeing as that was the brief but I think I might have a bit of librarian creeping in there too…

I kept the look as warm-toned as possible, not only as a nod to the season but also to help accentuate the warmth in the classic tortoiseshell frames.  I tried to bring as much light to the eye area as possible with copious amounts of highlighter and luminizer. Glasses can cast unflattering shadows under the eyes, so I avoided lining the lower lashes with anything other than a flesh-toned pencil but endeavoured to continue the colour theme with a pop of bronze shadow toward the outer corners.  I also kept the lid area as light as possible, blending the crease colour higher than usual to compensate.

Well-groomed eyebrows are important when sporting a pair of specs (don’t think you can hide them behind the frames!) and finally, cheeks and lips were kept fairly neutral but warm-toned to complement the whole look.

You can’t be a “stylish secretary” without a pussybow jumper can  you?!

I’m looking forward to seeing some of the other looks that get posted on the Boots facebook page.  I must admit that when I’m going to be wearing my glasses for longer than a short trip in the car, I’ll usually revert to a bold lip/simple eye look instead so it was really refreshing to push myself to try something different.

Do you wear glasses and bother with eye makeup?  Do you have a favourite from the new Boots Autumn glasses range?

* the Caytlin frames were provided free of charge, perma-sticker included 😉

I shamelessly stole this post from the fabulous LionLovingTiger, go check out her blog if you haven’t done so already!

About a year ago I went for an eye test as I realised that I couldn’t read the Sky EPG without squinting.  The optician told me that my eyesight had deteriorated a little and that I wasn’t to drive without sorting myself out with some contacts.  “Contacts, schmontacts” said I, and off I skipped to find myself the baddest face furniture I could lay my grubby little hands on!

I’ve always loved glasses (strange girl that I am) but when my eyesight was 20:20, I could never bring myself to buy a set of frames to put blank lenses in… I’m not quite twattish enough for that kind of nonsense.  So I was actually pretty excited to be buying some specs!

My first pair (and probably still my faves) are these Missoni lovelies.  I think I paid around £50 in the sale for the frames.

My next purchase was lust at first sight, I’d tried these on a few times…loved them, but winced everytime I looked at the price tag – then they became like “SO last season” and disappeared from the shops…. fast forward a few months and I found a girl selling her old pair on eBay.  I very nearly peed myself with excitement when the auction ended and they were mine!

My most recent pair are a Ted Baker offering.  Lurve these, but I haven’t got round to ordering lenses for them yet as I’m still too busy loving my Missoni and Chanels and there’s only so many opportunities to wear them considering I only really need them for driving.

Group Photo!

Thanks for indulging me in my shameless showing off of my lovely glasses!  Anyone else sporting gorgeous eyewear?  Show me/Tell me!