A Makeup & Beauty Blog – Lipglossiping

I know you’re all raring to get back into some beauty-related ponderings (heaven knows, I am!) – but I wanna take a minute to share Leila’s first Toffee Nut Latte with you…

Doesn’t she look bored with her water?  Perhaps she’s ready for the good stuff…

mmmm… did you know that a vente eggnogg latte contains nearly 500 calories? So glad I limited my Starbucks festive drink intake to the double figures this Christmas.

“But what’s this?”

“Mam-meeee?  What’s this?”

tentatively… softly softly catchee monkey…

nom. nom.. NOM…

That’s my girl.

Let’s just say… I didn’t get any cream with my coffee.

Have a glorious Friday people, promise I’ll be back tomorrow with makeup-related frippery – thank you for all your kind comments, you’ve given my New Year a spring to it’s step! x

Today is your last opportunity to head over to BeautyBloggers.org and bid on some wonderful items that have been donated by bloggers and brands to support Doctors Without Borders (or Médecins Sans Frontières as we would know it in this country).

As an added incentive, International shipping is free on every item!

Morning stinkers!

Are you excited for Christmas?  I’m just starting to feel it properly now yano!  I haven’t got the tree or any decorations up yet… am I the last person in the world?

Oh god, I need to write and send off my Christmas cards too… and finish buying the last few pressies… and wrap them… and food shop… and stick my head in the oven from the stress of it all.  I bet you’re all organised aren’t you?

I hope you’ve been enjoying this year’s Advent giveaway so far and I’m sorry that some of the prizes are only available for the UK girls.  This will become even more apparent in the last week of giveaways I’m afraid.

These are all the prizes that have been donated from various brands and companies from within the UK and whose dealings and interests are all UK-based.  A couple of you have queried the reasoning behind the “UK only” thing and I wanted to let you know that there’s nothing discriminative about it… everything that I’ve purchased for the giveaway myself has been available to all of you lovely people.

What else…

My Red Lip series is proving to be so much fun!  Although I do feel terribly vain everytime I load the site up and see my gurning fizzog about 5 times over on the front page.  I am also taking delivery of far too many red lipsticks!  I just can’t stop buying them – every time you guys send me a photo, I’m off googling the lippie you’re wearing and heaven forbid I find it on eBay… I’m done for!

Talking of your photos, they’ll be going up in batches shortly – I love them and thank you SO much for getting involved.  Everyone loves a red lip (apart from Mr. L) and it’s brilliant that we’re encouraging each other to get a little bit bolder.  Christmas is a great excuse to use too for the shyer types among us!

Wendy at Bloggin’ Beauties was kind/lacking in better offers/bored enough to feature Lipglossiping in her Sunday Spotlight last week!

I’m really honoured… and if you’d like to learn a bit more about my blog (and the ugly mug behind it) head over there to have a squizz at the interview (which is in English)…

http://www.blogginbeauties.nl/featured/sunday-spotlight-lipglossiping/

While you’re there, check out her frankly incredible Halloween look… it makes me want to turn the clock back to October!

Thanks Wendy!  Hope I didn’t send your readers to sleep xx

OK.. so I think that’s all I really had to say [only about 5748957934 words then?]

Enjoy the rest of your week, I hope that all your Christmas plans start to come together (and mine too!)  Don’t forget to keep entering the giveaways and loads of luck to each of you. x

Mornings suck.  Monday mornings suck even harder.  I was supposed to be going on holiday yesterday but Leila decided to do her usual trick of coming down the with lurgy 18 hours before we were due to set off.

From experience, I know that it’s infinitely more preferable to miss the holiday entirely than it is to be stuck in a 7×10 hotel room with a TV with 4 channels and a pissy baby who can’t sleep for coughing.  (She’s OK by the way… just needs some TLC and the chocolate from my Advent Calendar it seems).

Anyway… I wanted to debate something today.  It’s nothing controversial (I don’t think) but it is something that irritates me.

Here we go…

.

I like beauty treatments.  Perhaps it stems from my childhood… I used to sit on the floor infront of my mother’s chair for hours while she played with my hair.  And my poor Dad? I practically drove him to distraction begging that he tickle my feet whilst the teleprinter delivered the afternoon’s results on Grandstand.  You can tell I was the youngest child right?

What has never appealed to me though is the thought of having any of this done whilst ON DISPLAY in the centre of a highly trafficked shopping mall on a Friday afternoon.  I mean seriously… I know people are busy and all… but really?  I don’t even want my nails done in a public arena like this, let alone a facial or a massage.  What happened to a bit of privacy?

I get that people often have to fit appointments into their lunchbreaks, sometimes picking at their Boots meal deal with one hand whilst choosing which OPI for the other but as a passer-by I feel uncomfortable just SEEING someone having their brows threaded so openly – so you can imagine my reticence at being on the other side of that ‘beauty bar’.

Perhaps it’s a cultural thing?  Maybe I’m a little too uptight and ‘British’ about it… but honestly?  It’s in those situations that I feel at my most vulnerable.  Trust in your technician is paramount… I don’t need my vulnerability compounded by hearing 6yr old Jordan ask his mother (and everyone else within earshot) why that lady over there is getting attacked with a piece of string.

I want to try threading but everywhere near me (that isn’t like some private secret threading party I don’t know how to get into) is the kind of place where I have to sit in the middle of a concourse (usually next to the cafe) or in Debenhams at the top of the escalators so that shoppers get the added bonus of being able to see up my nose aswell.

In this country, the  practice seems fairly limited to threading, manicure/pedicure and hair styling.  Perhaps I should be thankful for small mercies.  When I was in Australia, I would see people getting chinese massage and facials as I darted from store to store.

How do you feel about it?  Where would draw the line and what’s next…. a quick scrape and polish at the dentistry bar before after work drinkies?

I promise after this, I’ll shut up about the snow.  Infact, it’s gone 10pm as I’m writing this and I’m a bit bored of it now.  I’m going to London tomorrow and I’ve just had to dig the car’s back tyres out of a 15″ drift.  Over the course of the day only a little has melted… the rest has compacted and is now really slippy.

I live on top of a hill… I’m not sure the car will make it down it.  I may have to slide down on my bum.

Still…. regardless of tomorrows potential problems, today… was a very good one.  Leila’s first taste of a Winter Wonderland and that little flump DID NOT want to come back inside!

We couldn’t stay out too long ‘cos L wouldn’t keep her gloves on!  I think we’ve lost one… it’s white, so we’ll have to wait for the snow to thaw before we’ve got a hope in hell of finding it again!

I also wore my blusher in a different way today… does it look ok?

Don’t laugh at that rather vain statement… I’ve struggled for years with blush placement.  I have what I like to refer to as ‘hamster cheeks’… the fleshy bit is rather… fleshy… and quite high.  This placement was recommended by a very special makeup artist that I had the pleasure of meeting on Tuesday.

I’m hoping to post tomorrow about that little encounter!

If it’s cold where you are, I hope you’re staying warm and wish me luck that I can get to where I need to be today! xx

This is a work in progress – if you know of any offers that I haven’t listed… please add them!

It strikes me that considering the weather… more brands should be pushing offers for free or reduced delivery.  Heaven knows I don’t actually wanna go OUT in all that white stuff but still have Christmas pressies to buy.

I could sit on my debit card and wait for it to melt (the snow, not the card… my ass is hot but not THAT hot)… OR… I could let my fingers tap across my keyboard, making my bank manager a very happy man.

Here’s a few that are successfully doing the siren dance and tempting us in with delivery offers.

PowderRooms – Free Standard Delivery until December 5th. Shop online at http://www.powderrooms.com/

ELF Cosmetics – £1 UK and £1.50 EU shipping on www.eyeslipsface.co.uk TODAY ONLY (minimum spend £10).  UK Customers use code SNOWDAYUK, EU Customers SNOWDAYEU

Uniqlo – Free Standard Delivery – Limited Offer, no code… should be automatic at http://www.uniqlo.com/uk/

AVON – Free Delivery when you spend £5 – Code JINGLE – Shop online at http://avonshop.co.uk/

The Body Shop – Free Delivery until Friday 12pm.  Shop online at http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk (thanks Asmaa!)

NEXT – Free Delivery on all order until midnight Saurday 4th December – Code K6516.  Shop online at http://www.next.co.uk/ (thanks Jo!)

Feel Unique – Are always on the ball with 24/7/365 Free Delivery – Shop online at http://www.feelunique.com/ (thanks Shortiee31!)

There are a few honourable mentions… 15% off at Benefit Cosmetics online (GIFT4DAY)… Free Delivery at Virgin Vie on orders over £25 and check the comments to learn some Etsy free shipping tips from the lovely Ann!

Must have more.

Just before midnight, this happened:

These were taken at about 2am (leaning out my bedroom window)… it *never* snows like that here.  I’m almost tempted to wake Leila up… almost.

Happy SNOW DAY!!!

Now, don’t be confusing this for a giveaway… these are very much MY goodies and I’ll fight you lipsticks at dawn (well, no earlier than 9am ok?) for them.

My beautiful friend Julia from BlessMyBag sent me a surprise Christmas gift a few weeks ago.  It would be something of an understatement to suggest that I was excited and noisy (squeals of delight mostly) as I investigated everything at the breakfast table.  Then Leila stole the empty box and carried on with the noises where I’d left off.

Thank you Julia, you made two girls far happier than their bowl of cornflakes could!

Wanna see what I got?  Tough, I’m showing you anyway…

Etude House is a Korean brand that has some of the cutest packaging I’ve ever laid eyes on.  It’s flirtatiously girly and these nail stickers are no exception!  Adorable!

*dies* I couldn’t have chosen better shades myself.  Truly.  If I’d had an Etude House stand infront of me… I would have plumped for these three.  That girl must know me well (either that or I’m really predictable!).

These eyeshadows from Code B (an Etude House sub-line) are well pigmented and contain the most beautiful micro sparkle that makes them quite glittery but in a fairy dust way rather than chunky.  Hard to explain but stunning on the lid.

Julia also sent me a cute bottle of nail polish remover from the line… that girl knows what I need! LOL

Now, this cream liner… I’ve read rave reviews about.  It comes with a brush attached to a chain which you can hook up to the pot lid for convenience.  I’ve had a feel of the brush and it’s nice and stiff… I hate floppy eyeliner brushes because I need something that I can use to ‘push’ the cream into my lashline.  This looks like it might be up to the job.  I’ll probably be back with a full review of this one.

Again… would have totally picked this myself.  It’s a beautiful pale, shimmery rose… not one of those barbie pinks but slightly lighter than a nude lip, so it has some impact.  I have been applying, then blotting to take down the shimmer.  I want to show you a FOTD with this one because I think it would probably appeal to a LOT of you if you saw it on the lips.

Lastly…

Two Filipino nail polishes!!  A classic pin up red and a shimmering blue.  They look beautiful and I can’t wait to try them!  Julia also told me that they’re an amazing bargain at less than 50p each! (equivalent).

I’m delighted with my lovely goodies, thank you so much Julia!

…sensible in this cold weather?  Or just plain funny lookin’

I like to pretend that I’m a completely free-thinking, non-judgemental and generally super-cool human being.  I’m not, but on the bigot scale I’m definitely not setting off any alarm bells either.

Which is why I don’t know why I can’t get my head around the idea of men wearing tights without giggling about it like an 11 year old.

I think it’s the feet.  If they were a bit more legging-y I could probably contain my giggles.

I love how he’s pointing his toes… mind, he’s probably got better legs than me.

Would you be cool as a cucumber if your man whipped off his trousers to reveal a pair of Charnos 20 deniers?

I think I could possibly handle it… I reckon it’s one of those things that you’d get used to once the novelty had worn off…

…that is until he asked to borrow my clear nail polish to fix a run in his stockings. *dies*

Tightsplease.co.uk have launched a selection of man-sized tights perfect for blokes to layer underneath when the cold weather bites.  You can check out the selection online.

…picture the scene.  You’re getting married today.

You open your makeup bag and discover that from your entire amazing collection, you’ve managed to somehow bring only 3 ITEMS with you!  Tsk!

In an ideal world, what would those three items be?  You’re not allowed to choose a HUGE palette that has EVERYTHING in it!!!  And don’t just pick your favourites… be resourceful!

I’d choose:

1). NARS Kuala Lumpur Eyeshadow Duo –  The peach is a beautful allover shade and the plum works well dry in the crease and wet as an eyeliner.

2). No7 Exceptional Defintion Mascara – Can’t do without mascara and I’d attempt to run a bit lightly through my brows too!

3). Estee Lauder Extravagant Berry Lipstick – Patted onto my lips as a stain, this beautiful lipstick gives a flush of colour to my lips.  I’d apply some to my cheeks in an attempt to not look like I’d just been dug up!

…and then I’d mug a passing pale-skinned stranger for their foundation.  Wha?

Which three items from your collection would you pray were in your makeup bag on such an important day?

Welcome to the Haus of Lurgy.  One cough and you’ll get slimed.  Or infected.

I’m on antibiotics and whilst Mr. L likes to think that he’s too much of a man to be on antibiotics… the only reason he’s not popping pills like me is because he’s a doctor dodger.  Me?  I’m up the surgery declaring brain disease the moment I feel an attack of sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia coming on – when really, all I need to do is put down the Ben & Jerrys.

Have you googled sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia yet?

The only one who seems to have avoided this roller coaster ride of mucus is Leila, so we’ve taken to approaching her with our eyes slit in mock suspicion, pointing our fingers and whispering “carrier”… “disease spreader”…

It tickles her funny bone to see one of us bend ourselves in half, coughing a lung onto the kitchen floor.  A cuter giggle you never did hear.

All this is really just to say, sorry for the lack of posts.  I’m on day 2 of the red and white striped meds and will hopefully be back in functioning form in the next couple of days.  Until then, I’m quite enjoying watching Martha Stewart Crafts on QVC, made-for-tv afternoon movies and (heaven forbid) Jeremy Kyle.  No.  Not really Jeremy Kyle, I’m not THAT ill.

Mucho love and phlegm x