A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

…decorating gingerbread men!  L spotted these in Tesco and had been such a good girl traipsing around after me all day that I couldn’t resist giving in and promising her a morning of biscuit decorating.

super concentration!

caught red-handed giving way more sweeties to herself than the gingerbread men!

Mummy! You PINCHED one!

Mine, Leila’s and Mr. L’s masterpieces.

It’s a good thing they came with so many sweets ‘cos the actual biscuits tasted like shit.  And Tesco didn’t even bother to give them willies, I thought that was the law when it comes to gingerbread man baking?

Hope you beauty peeps have been spending some quality time with the people you love the most this weekend!

Ok, I promise – enough with the holiday photos after this and back to the regular beauty stuff.  I’ve got to pull myself out of my post-holiday hangover anyway and get back into my usual routine, why is it always so hard to get going again?

Some of the other highlights of our week included a visit to a working glass & games factory called The House of Marbles, comparing the two distinctly different coastlines of North and South Devon, eating fish and chips on the quayside in Brixham, and climbing up Haytor for a magnificent view over Dartmoor!

“Have you taken it yet? I’m getting some strange looks up here!”

Brixham’s replica of The Golden Hind

A very ropey-looking sandcastle!

It could almost be Santorini right?

Yeah, I know you’re cute.

Torquay Harbour

fishing stuffs

life preserver at Babbacombe

next time, I’d like some tea in my tea please?

who else loves paperweights? just me then…

all cafes/restaurants should provide colouring books and crayons, amen.

heart-shaped cream tea!

doing her ‘work’

banister baubles!

glassworks

funny mirrors, I’m gonna have nightmares about that arm

house of marbles!

Haytor

view from the top (love this one)

yeah, I know… sad.  I COULDN’T STOP MYSELF!

pretty sand at Croyde Bay

Just wanna say a big thanks again for the tips and suggestions you gave me on places to visit, you’ve probably recognised most of them from the photos – talk about a holiday leech!  If you’re ever planning on visiting Winchester/Portsmouth/Southampton/New Forest – I’m your girl to reciprocate the favour!

Are you going anywhere for Easter Weekend?

I took the most ridiculous amount of photos.  Before we left, Mr. L challenged me to put down my iPhone and pick up my camera… and as much as I love the convenience and instant gratification of instagram – there’s nothing quite like the control that a proper camera allows you to have over a photograph.  With over 30gb of images recorded, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve fallen back in love a bit.  I’ve only edited a couple for facebook so far but here’s what the first half of our holiday in Devon looked like…

mint choc chip – is there any better flavour?

lots and lots of seaweed! (or salad as Leila called it)

the sweet spot

red sand!

beautiful tiles in Goodrington

Greedy gulls

A place to call our own (wish!)

A quiet church and beautiful light in Cockington

The first ever sandcastle at Paignton!

Lush textures in Cockington

Cute beach huts in Paignton

A hazy morning in Torquay

Torquay Harbour

My (far-too-grown-up) girl thinking she owns the world

We were so lucky with the weather, every morning we opened the curtains expecting to see an overcast day… not daring to push our luck, but we were greeted with blue skies and gentle breezes from the day we arrived right through to the day we packed up to head home.  Thank you so much for your suggestions on places to visit, I think we probably did most of them!

I want to write a little more about our first proper holiday in what seems like forever, and show you some of the other cool places we visited, but it’s very late and this will do for now!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums, Moms, and Baby-Mamas out there!

It’s the hardest job I’ve ever done and boy, do I ever feel both the responsibility and fear that it can bring with it… but it’s sickeningly true that the pride, love and all that other stuff outweighs any negatives by the bucketload.

Hope you have a brilliant day with your bumps, babes and bigger ones.  A super-special mention to those hoping/trying to conceive this year, may you be celebrating with us this time next year! x

Now that Leila’s older (if two and a half can ever be considered old), she’s showing a certain amount of interest in my beauty bits.  It’s only to be expected and I embrace it, I see it as something we can bond over and I always feel like I’d be a horrible hypocrite to exclude her from something that makes up a sizeable chunk of my life.  Sure, I hold my breath when she goes near my most precious compacts but she loves to see the colours of everything and we have little swatch sessions.

I let her pick out some of my colours most days, and she does a great job.  We had a ‘pink’ day last week and this is what she chose.

Foundation:  Make Up For Ever Face & Body Liquid Makeup in #38   |   Cory Cosmetics Mica Free Mineral Foundation in Bare Beige
Blush: Illamasqua Cream Blush in Laid
Lipstick: Maybelline ColourSensational in 112 Ambre Rose
Eyeliner: Chanel La Ligne de Chanel in #10 Noir Lame
Mascara: Benefit They’re Real

To her, we’re doing the best painting EVER and she loves making Mummy look more ‘colourful’ (I try not to use the word ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful’ in assoc. with makeup).  She’s never asked to put any on herself – though she does nag me to do her nails (she always chooses red) and I always let her choose a perfume to spritz on her wrist.

 Would you let a two year old choose your makeup?!  Would you/Do you let your children share your fascination for makeup?

I know, it’s horribly sacrilegious to mark such an occasion with a trip to the axis of capitalism but it had to be done, the thought of the new Christmas drinks had been robbing me of sleep!  We finished off our Bonfire Night celebrations with a trip up the road to Winchester which holds an annual torchlit procession through its ancient streets, followed by the biggest bonfire I’d ever seen!

Here’s some photos from Saturday night.

Incase you’re wondering… the new Praline Mocha drink is yumm-o, Leila’s stuck on the babyccinos like an old lush and Mr. L thinks that Toffee Nut Lattes are over-rated (insert gasps here).  Oh, and the cakes in the first photo?  Figment of your imagination 😉

Hope your Bonfire Nights went off with a bang!!

* what a difference a year makes!

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

My little girl Leila loves watching me polish my nails, she loves lining up my bottles along the carpet… organising them by shape, colour and height.  She makes me nail polish trains and loves nothing better than picking out my next shade.  With that in mind, you can imagine the ridiculous amount of delight on her face when I presented her with her own set of nail polishes*.  No?

Well, here’s an idea…

I’ve never painted Leila’s nails before.  Aside from the politics about whether or not children should wear cosmetics, I’ve just never felt comfortable applying solvents to those tiny little fingers.  Hell, all I need to do is look at my own peeling, yellow nails to discover more than one supporting reason why I’m keeping my polishes locked in my cabinet when I’m not around.

But Little BU make nail polish especially for little fingers with a non-toxic, water-based, solvent-free formula.  The brainchild of Patricia Dente Haimes, a former New York beauty publicist — these formulas have spent a long time in careful development and are now ready to be unveiled to the world.

I’ve tried a water-based polish before but I found it an utter pain to apply.  Streaky, watery and sheer to the point of frustration.  In Little BU’s case, I can confirm that both the shades Emma (red) and Sofia (dark purple) are opaque in a single coat and when you’re trying to paint a moving target, that comes in very handy.

Kyra (luminescent silver) wasn’t quite so successful, mostly because Leila decided she didn’t like it and wasn’t going to afford me even thirty seconds of the patience needed to apply it, but I could tell that it was sheerer than the other two shades.  Over on the right in the above photo is the top coat.  It’s not an absolute necessity if you’re just having afternoon play but I do recommend it for sealing the colour to the nails so it doesn’t wash off too easily in soapy water.

Leila has already requested that I might like to buy her Olivia (soft blue) and Riley (bubblegum pink) and I’m sure I can stretch to those for her Christmas stocking but until then she’s rocking red toenails, just like her Mum.

Little BU are having a launch party in Harrods on Saturday 15th October from 2pm – 6pm.  It’s set to be a proper knees-up with mini manicures, face painting, colouring in and balloon modelling and what’s more — we’re all invited!  If I can make it into London, I might see you there!

Little BU Nail Polishes are priced at £9.95 each and available online at www.iluvlittlebu.com or instore at Harrods.

* press sample

No posts for TWO whole days.  I can see a few beads of sweat developing and is that a nervous twitch I can feel tickling the corner of my eye?

Where have I been?  Well, I’ve spent a couple of days in Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of Mr. William Shakespeare… I’d like to say that I took the opportunity to have a nosy around the town and check out some of the beautiful surroundings but I didn’t get so much as a chance to pop my head in Space NK.

We travelled there for Mr. L’s nephew’s wedding, the weather forecast was a bit grim but as you’ll see, the sun always shines on the righteous regardless of what the Met office has to say.  I’m massively fond of Mr. L’s nephew A, when I first met him he was only 14 years old (I was 19) and I was very nervous meeting Mr. L’s HUGE family.  I still get a bit nervous 11 years later but A relaxed me with good humour and gentleness.  We would play Silent Hill late into the night together… me, Mr. L and A, raiding my MIL’s biscuit tin and consuming endless cups of tea until dawn broke.  Good times.

Anyway, now he’s all grown up and like his uncle, moved away from the North East a few years ago.  His wife C is one of those rare people who can truly light up a room, as a newcomer to the family I remember envying her ability to take everything in her stride with a casual smile.  I’d still be sat there (8 years down the line) with a halo of awkwardness surrounding me praying that nobody was mistaking my lack of confidence for sullenness.

Anyway, enough of that… here’s a few photos from the day.  I wasn’t official ‘tog so tried to stay out of the way, there’s nothing worse than someone trying to get in the way and be all David Bailey when you’ve got a job to do right?!

I love a good wedding.  Especially when there are no punch-ups.

Is your wedding season over or have you gotta dust off your heels for one more outing before Summer’s out?

Having a little tidy up this morning and I uncovered some more precious bits and bobs to put in Leila’s box of memories.  I unashamedly hoard for this collection of papers, objects, cards and photos that make up the parts of Leila’s life she’ll never remember.

Mr. L has to keep me in check a little.  I want to preserve ever memory we ever make together but let’s be honest, I don’t think they make boxes big enough.

From photos of her first day at home, a postcard from our first family holiday, her first lock of hair and even her name translated into Arabic by a friend who was delighted we’d kept the original spelling…. everything is here for her to look back on when she is big and has babies of her own.

I’m posting this here because I’ve noticed that the collecting has ground to a halt and I want to remember that even only 2 years on, these precious snippets of her life are moments I’ll never re-live.  When she’s five, I’ll want to remember her as she is now too.

Live in the moment, live in the past and live in the future… where my girl is concerned, I want to absorb every last second.

Do you collect memories like this?

I had the best weekend I’ve had in ages… you know when you just can’t stop thinking about it despite how rubbish the following week is turning out to be?

Saturday I did a little shopping (just a little) and picked up some drugstore UK brands for a friend in the U.S. and perhaps a couple for myself too (but don’t tell anyone).  Then I hit Primark with all the gusto of someone with £20 burning a hole in their back pocket.  Bargain-a-rama.  Biscuit making and a round of catch the pigeon with Leila made for an alltogether exhausting afternoon!

Sunday was a beautifully lazy day spent in our local park (L loves the mini train!), cooking roast dinner and bread & butter pudding, playing with another WnW palette, talking to my Mum in France and generally being idle.  Bliss!

Some photos from my weekend (apologies for the food overload!)…

Did I mention Leila inally gave up the dodie too?  I told her the new baby down the road (there isn’t one) was crying because he didn’t have any dummies and that now L was a big girl… could she give him hers?  She wasn’t sure…

We put all five of her dodies in a fancy Jo Malone box (she would settle for nothing less) along with some ribbon and tissue paper.  Sealed the box with a big kiss and Mummy disappeared up the road (round the block twice) before returning with another box.  Leila was confused until I explained it was a present from the baby who was so pleased with his new dodies.  Leila opened the box to find a new pink and yellow toothbrush, so searingly obnoxious in colour she could do nothing but fall in love.

We brushed her teeth 4 times yesterday.  My clever, brave girl.

Hope you all had good weekends too, bring on the next one!

Have you ever read the Malcolm Gladwell book?

I first read Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking back in 2007 and as a notorious over-thinker of everything… the book, which places value on the snap reactions and decisions we make everyday, struck a chord with me.

I’m the type of person who over-analyzes every word that leaves my mouth to the extreme where I regularly decide it would be preferable to say nothing at all.  Then I go on to listen to everyone around me spew the same words I was so desperate to contain… coming from them, they never sound as ridiculous as I imagined they would leaving my mouth.

Over-thinking, in some cases can be a debilitating condition though that’s not to say I find it preferable to watch people shoot their mouths off… it’s all about striking a balance right?

So nowadays I try to put more trust in my first impressions, initial instincts and have faith that although a little wariness is good, so is realising the potential merits of this “rapid cognition”.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when I’m taking photos… once I learnt a bit more about the processes behind the technical aspects, I struggled with wanting to create perfection.  It’s taken until today to learn that some of my favourite shots are the ones that took absolutely no thought at all.

Blink.  ‘Cos I’ll miss it when she’s taller and loves her friends more than her Mum.

Hope you’re having a great Thursday you beauty-loving bunch x