A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

Morning!  I’m not quite sure how Saturday managed to fly by so damn quickly but here we are, with a week of half-term (and Halloween!) stretching ahead of us.  Leila hasn’t been settling in to nursery too well and things came to a head this past week so I, for one, will be pleased to give her a week in which to recharge her batteries, gather as many cuddles as she needs and emerge the other side feeling a little more capable of facing all these new challenges, hopefully.

Now, on with the summary of bits and pieces that didn’t fit in to this week’s scheduling!

1.  This video from Eve Lom demonstrating how to use their iconic cleanser… is a bit duh obvious (massage it in, wipe it off) but I really liked the visual demonstration of some of the lymphatic drainage techniques you can easily incorporate into your routine. Check it out below…

2.  U.S. beauty brand Smashbox are taking the UK by storm as they launch into Boots nationwide – even my local store has stock (and that never happens!).  If your nearest store has its finger slipping from the pulse, not to worry – you can still check out the brand’s latest products online at boots.co.uk.  I’m itching to get down to my local store and get a colour match for the Studio Skin 15 Hour Wear Hydrating Foundation.  Hydrating foundation in this weather? Yes please!  What are your favourite Smashbox products?

3.  I had to share this product image from new luxury brand on the block, Mila.  Doesn’t it look beautiful?  Apart from being one letter away from my favourite brand of chocolate, Mila’s fragrances have been two years in development and their debut Scuro scent promises a lovely warm, spicy fragrance, with earthy tones of clove bud, frangiapani, vetiver and moss – the perfect Christmas gift?  Available now from milafragrance.com

4.  Finally, We had a little Halloween party on Friday night.  It involved two under 10s, a never-ending supply of Monster Munch and enough Appletiser to make a 3-year old quite, quite giddy with excitement.  I’m not into trick-or-treating, so instead we watched Scooby Doo and stayed up ’til almost midnight (and paid the price the next day).

There may also have been a pumpkin (or two) involved.

Hope you’ve had a lovely weeked, tell me… what are your plans for the spookiest night of the year?

We celebrated All Hallows Eve a few days early this year and in our house, it went a little something like this…

Happy Halloween beauty lovers!!  Have a wonderful evening!! xxx

Leila is massively excited for Hallowe’en this year… so much so that I’ve been debating breaking my own anti-halloween stance and dressing her up as a pumpkin whilst parading her up and down the street.  However, Mr. L is really grumpy about this and he NEVER puts his foot down on anything, so I’m thinking I might let him win with this battle.

Where he ain’t gonna win is on the face-painting front.  I’ve already told Leila we’re gonna have a day of face-painting fun and she’s buzzing at the prospect.  Every morning she finds me to tell me what she wants to be transformed into, yesterday it was a dinosaur and this morning, she’s graduated to a strawberry.  If you have any recommendations for good face-painting kits, I’m all ears.  No, she’s not using my makeup.

Anyway, for the bigger kids among us, here’s some lovely things to get you in the mood for a bit of ghost-hunting!

 hover over the corresponding number for more info and to click through to purchase

I’m not really anti-Halloween, I’m just a bit anti trick-or-treating but in my defence, that’s mostly because our average trick or treater can barely raise an adolescent grunt before holding their hand out to mug me for my Haribo.

Do you partake in any Halloween-y frolics?

I thought I’d do a quick post with some of the Halloween looks and tutorials that have been inspiring me!

I don’t have any plans that would warrant recreating any of these amazing looks (and I don’t want to traumatise L for life), but my goodness aren’t these girls fabulous?

Do you have any plans to makeup for Halloween?

Halloween must be a busy time for false lash manufacturers right?  If you’re dressing up for the occasion, you ain’t nothing without a pair of falsies to flash at passers by.  Stop sniggering.  Don’t be dirty.

Ardell have released 6 new pairs of false lashes to mark the spooky holiday… introducing Fright Night Lashes!

1. Spider Woman Lash Set
2. Dark Angel Lash Set
3. Cleopatra Lash Set
4. Fairy Wings Lash Set
5. Enchantress Lash Set
6. Pixie Dust Lash Set

They retail at £6.99 each and are available exclusively from Clinton Cards, Birthdays and Pure Party stores.  The sets are reusable if handled with care.  I think I want the Dark Angel set… I like the little flicky bit, but… I’m notoriously BAD with false lashes.

Do you dress up for Halloween, what are your plans this year?

No one celebrates the end of October more beautifully than the people of Mexico.

“Day of the Dead” or “Día de los Muertos” as it’s known locally is a celebration of the lives of those who have passed on and allows the living to remember them in their own way.

The costumes and festivities involved in this celebration have inspired LUSH to release their Halloween goodies themed around the Mexican holiday.

1. CALAVERA Bath Ballistic (£2.95)

Calavera means skull in Spanish, so drop this ballistic into your tub and watch as it explodes with bright, vibrant colour and dances around your tub.  The fragrance is a blend of lime oil and Mexican marigold petals – both of which play a huge part in traditional Mexican cooking and celebrations. One of our new version ballistics with bubble bar mixed in with it, it leaves a trail of skin softening bubbles as it dances about the water, interweaving different colours together in a celebration of the after life.

2. CALACAS shower jellies (£2.95)

Calacas is skeleton in Spanish, so these colourful jellies are designed to represent dancing skulls – another iconic image of the Day of the Dead celebrations. There are four to choose from: in red, green, yellow or orange and each one is scented with the same uplifting, invigorating scent of lime and neroli. These wibbly wobbly jellies are also infused with aloe vera gel, to soften and soothe the skin. Especially good frozen, they make for a great bracing, sharp shock in the morning – great if you’ve overdone it with the tequila the night before!

3. LADY CATRINA soap (£2.95 for 100g)

A spectacular hat-shaped soap decorated with bright, neon flowers. Lady Catrina was an etching by Jose Guadalupe Posada that he made in the early Twentieth Century to parody that the rich and fashionable, despite their pretensions to importance, are just as susceptible to death as anyone else. Since then, Lady Catrina has become an iconic image for the Day of the Dead celebrations … And she wore big, colourful hats! The same fragrance as Calavera ballistic, it’s fresh, zesty and uplifting.

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Anything among the new Day of the Dead themed bathroom goodies that capture your attention?

I’m not a fan of LUSH shower jellies (too tricky to chase with soapy hands!!) and I have far too many bars of LUSH soap to get through as it is… but I’ll definitely be indulging in a Calavera Bath Ballistic – I love that the new ones bubble!

Halloween’s a-coming… and I’ve got my beady eye on the Too Faced Smoky Eye Kit.

I am such a sucker for ‘tutorial’ kits like these, but aside from the ‘novelty’ I think I would get a lot of wear from this throughout the year.

If you ignore the whole ‘smoky’ angle… this is a palette of wearable colours suitable for both day and evening.  However, I wonder if the inclusion of that drawer makes the whole thing a little chunkier than it needs to be – especially with travel and portability in mind.

Are you a fan of Too Faced? I have a couple of the old Quickie Chronicles that I enjoy using, they’re fab for taking on weekends away, talk about space-saving!  I know a lot of people dislike the cardboard packaging so often used by the ‘funkier’ brands.. but I don’t have any concerns as I’ve always found it to stand up well to daily use and carting about.

Too Faced Smoky Eye Kit is available from Boots or online at HQHair and is priced at £22

What’s on your wishlist for Halloween?