Tuesday, 30 August 2011

High Roller

I have a love/hate relationship with velcro rollers, it's as simple as I love them and they hate my hair. Until recently I could spend hours (literally hours, I have a LOT of very thick hair) carefully coiling my hair onto velcro rollers, waiting patiently for the curl to take and then unwrapping my hair from the rollers with the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas morning only for my hair to look exactly the same as it did before I spent the best part of an afternoon attending to my mane.

However, I was browsing Boots about a month ago when I stumbled (quite literally, somebody had left the box on the floor) across *these* Trevor Sorbie rollers. The voice of experience told me to leave them whilst the voice of "oooh look how many and all different sizes! For only £15!" said: BUY THEM. So I did.

I forgot to take a 'before' picture so just think 'flat'.

Fitting nearly a whole box of rollers in my hair left me feeling very pleased with myself!

I varied the size of the rollers I used, keeping the largest ones for the crown area to create maximum volume. I kept to mid-size to large rollers as I knew there was no way, even in hair roller heaven, that these babies would curl my hair. That, unfortunately, requires serious amounts of heat and patience.

Before I placed the rollers in my hair, I ran my GHDs through each section of hair to provide the heat the style needed to set. The hair cools around the roller and takes shape that way.





Ta-da! Volume AND bouncy hair! After taking the rollers out my hair looked as though it'd just been blow-dried at the hairdressers; I always love my hair after it's been blow-dried at a salon, mainly because I don't have the time nor the patience to do it myself. However, the rollers gave me the same effect and I most certainly have the patience for them! Kate Middleton hair, be mine!

One more grainy webcam shot just for fun :)

Are you a hair 'high roller'?

Vicky xoxo

Monday, 29 August 2011

OOTN: Back to Black

On Saturday my friend held her 21st birthday party as a joint event with her twin sisters who turned 18. I didn't take a camera but I snapped a few pictures on my BlackBerry to share with you all.







This picture amuses me greatly...


I know you can't really see my makeup very clearly but I'll break it all down here anyway :)

Face
Soap and Glory 'Glow Job' moisturiser
Illammasqua Skin Base Foundation in 04
MAC Light Peach Colour Corrector
Chanel Loose Powder in  20 Clair


Eyes
MAC Paint in Bare Canvas
Inglot shimmery white (not sure of the name - can't get it out of the palette!)
MAC Electra
MAC Expensive Pink
MAC Hepcat
MAC Sketch
Urban Decay Naked Palette 'Creep'
Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara
Ardell 109 lashes
MAC Reflects Gold pigment

Cheeks
MAC Pearl Cream Colour Base
MAC Sculpt contour powder
MAC Dame Blush
MAC Petticoat MSF
MAC Vanilla Pigment

Lips
MAC Angel
Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in 57 Insolence

 Tan
Fake Bake (not impressed with the application - will post later!)
Nails
Barry M Pink Flamingo

Perfume
Paco Rabanne - Lady Million

Outfit
Dress - River Island
Heels - New Look (old season)
Clutch - New Look
Bracelet - Pandora


Have a lovely week!

Vicky xoxo

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Wonderful Wednesday

Image from Google :)

 After a horrible start to the week with all the unrest and riots around the country which unfortunately reached my local area,Wednesday saw the trouble stop here and the chance to get back to normality.

I started by baking cupcakes...


They are lemon flavour and I'm too scared to eat them because the cases are too pretty!

Myself and two friends then decided to go out for a quiet evening which included:


Bowling... as you can see, I'm not very good!


Sangria in a cute Mexican restaurant...


And a hat that was far too big for me!

All in all it was nice to have a relaxing day in the middle of the week for once.

I hope you're all having a lovely week.

Vicky xoxo



Sleek Pout Paints: Swatches and Review




 Shades (Clockwise from top): Cloud 9; Pinkini; Milkshake; Peek-a-Bloo; Rosette; Minx.
Applied with: Crown Lip Brush
Price: £4.99 each.

I've seen a lot about the new Sleek Pout Paints lately and whilst having a mooch in Superdrug at the weekend I saw they were currently on a 3 for 2 offer, with this in mind I snapped up four shades plus the two 'mixing' colours.


There are 11 shades to chose from, including Cloud 9 which is a white paint used to lighten colours and Peek-a-Bloo which is a blue paint used to add depth and warmth to shades. In a way only I can, I went from the four most similar shades!



The paints have a precise little nozzle and as with all products of this nature, you only need the tiniest amount.


Believe it or not, the top picture was taken in exactly the same light as the others... strange camera.

The first thing I will say about the Pout Paints is they can be bloody awkward to apply! I'd like to think I have a pretty good technique when it comes to making up my lips but you'd never see it in the above pictures! The packaging says to apply the product directly to your lip brush but as always, I opted for the back of my hand; I can only imagine the mess I'd have made had I applied it as directed!

The pigmentation is a little hit and miss; whilst Rosette, Pinkini, Minx and Peek-a-Bloo were all very opaque, I found Milkshake to be watery and streaky. Whilst the other shades certainly have a good deal of 'slip' to them and apply easily, Milkshake just would not stay in place nor enable me to build an opaque colour and I noticed Cloud 9 is of a similarly watery consistency and also streaks. Has anyone else had this issue or did I buy a dud? 

I've tried these out a few times now and they've got pretty good staying power and they smell divine. They don't feel drying on the lips however it takes a good 10-15 minutes before I feel secure that the product has 'set' and won't slip all over the place. 

For anyone wanting to mix a unique lip shade for a night out or a photo shoot or whatever, the Sleek Pout Paints are a great bargain buy; the range of shades on its own is excellent and there is no limit to the colours you can create -- I would suggest you keep colour theory in mind however as I got a bit mix happy and came up with about 10 shades of purple due to my over enthusiasm with Peek-a-Bloo!

Positives

  • Range of shades
  • Good staying power
  • They smell divine
  • They're fun!
Negatives

  • There doesn't seem to be any consistency with the erm, consistency of the products Ive tried
  • They're awkward to apply - not great if you're in a rush
  • You can buy a lipstick for the same price and save on the fuss 

Overall I think they're a fun product and they're good for what they are however I doubt many people will want to fuss about mixing shades or painstakingly applying this with a brush for a night out when you can buy a lipstick for the same price and know that you're good to go all night.

If you've tried the Sleek Pout Paints, let me know what you think :)

Vicky xoxo