Dancing On Ice, show 1

Since Strictly’s over, I’m watching Dancing On Ice. I do like it, no matter how much my brother mouths off about it.

Christine Bleakley got a lot of flack for apparently not being personable enough. Personally, I thought that while she could have been a little warmer, she’s probably just working her way into it.

She wore the red lip really well in my opinion, and I liked that it was mirrored by the dress without it being trashy – the high neck and low hemline helped, and she looked so elegant.

I think my favourite two looks beauty-wise were Jorgie Porter and Chemmy Alcott.

Jorgie’s was such a natural look, with a lovely air of youth and innocence. To recreate this look I would use my 17 All About Nude palette, but if I didn’t have that I would use a pale shadow (like No7’s Starry Night) blended with something like 17’s Walnut Pearl eyeshadow with a pinkish lip either from 17 Mirror Shine Belle or from a tinted lip balm.

It would be perfect for a summer day or a simple frock type day.

(I couldn’t find a better still, tried for ages, sorry)

The most interesting thing about Chemmy’s look was that she had a gold lip. I’m not entirely sure how I would recreate this, but in this month’s Company they featured a company called GlitzyLips (www.glitzylips.com) so I would probably do that – Don’t Copper Me is the cloest to what she wore. This isn’t a look you could really wear anywhere, I don’t think, except maybe for Hallowe’en or a very extreme clubbing night.

All pictures from ITV except the last which is from www.glitzylips.com

FOTD: It's Showtime!

So tonight I have my first poetry gig in quite a while, and I thought I'd do a FOTD for it. It's in a pub, so fairly dark, and I need people to be able to see my face.
I started with my new Boots 17 Blemish Balm, which had £2 off and so was only £4.99 - Boots 17 seem to have an offer on all the foundation-type-things at the moment, by the way.

Next was eyeshadow, and I used my much neglected Max Factor Smoky Eye Effect Eyeshadow. It's what I bought as a present to myself in early December, at the end of Oxford interviews, and I love it. Apart from anything else, it's fairly foolproof, as the colours have been selected to go together perfectly. Then I lined my bottom lash line with my standby Photo Flawless Eye Pencil, and a thin line of liquid liner across the top lash line, as it'll be dark and I need the definition. Last for the eyes was mascara - Natural Collection's is all I have at the moment.

Then what has become my standard blusher, e.l.f. elements in 'shy', and to finish a swipe of Mirror Shine Lipstick in Belle - it really is a 'your lips but better' finish.

FOTD: Simple green eye

Originally I wasn't going to post this, but today at school one of my friends said she liked my eye make-up, which I took as a go ahead to share the look.

So here it is, and you have Sarah to blame if you don't like it, haha.

I think this took less than five minutes to do in total, which is always good for hurried school mornings. Another thing about it that was good for it being a school morning was that it only used three products, so there was no scrabbling around, and walking back and forth from my makeup shelf to my bathroom sink.

As always, I started with this moisturiser. I put it on as I got out of bed to let it sink in while I got dressed - this was a key time-saving thing. If I'd worn foundation today I would have paused halfway through dressing to put it on, to let that sink in while I finished getting dressed. This dramatically reduces the amount of time spent at my dressing table, and increases the amount of time I get to spend having breakfast!

First was my trusty Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil, this time in shade 031, Jungle Green. It blends so well. Love it. I put this across the top lash line, and halfway across the lower lash line, from the centre outwards. It then smudges slightly as I put the eyeshadow on.

Next was eyeshadow - I used my e.l.f. elements one in shade 'sage' - top left in the palette in this picture, and centre of the swatches - across the whole eyelid. Simple but nice.

I then used the blush - 'shy' - from this palette too, which I have really loved using over the past week, as it's just pigmented enough, but not too brash, looks natural on, and blends well.

And ta-da, the finished look! Those of you who've seen previous Faces Of The Day will notice I've had my hair cut. I decided that cost would win out, and went to Supercuts, and I'm actually really impressed. The stylist was efficient, nice, etc, and always asking if the cut was okay. She was chatty but not too much, and the salon was nice and clean. So yeah, good.

I then decided to add some lip colour, and I used Boots 17's Lasting Fix lipstick, in the shade 'Chocolate Eclair'.

It's alright, but I don't think it will be a repurchase. It has a tendency to go bright pink after a few hours...

But here was the look totally finished:

e.l.f haul and unboxing

I ordered some brushes and a custom palette, for a total of £12 including postage.

When the order arrived I could see it was well packed in a good - but not oversized - box. It was well sealed but not impossible to get into - I just used a biro to open the sticky tape. The box seems really sturdy - I'll probably keep it, it will be good for presents or storage.

When I opened the box there was lots of bubble wrap (so I know what I'm going to be doing for therapy for the next week!) and a packing note on the top, and then the brushes on top of the custom palette and the elements I ordered for it, with some wrap between the brushes and the makeup to protect it all. I like the care that's gone into this packing.

I've swatched these bits later, but I thought I'd write more about them here. The compact is a really good size, and you can see why I like the versatility. The elements are packaged well, though slightly overpackaged - within the cardboard boxes there is a plastic frame keeping the element safe. Again, care despite the fact they only cost £1.

The brushes also seem really good; I haven't had a chance to try out the total face brush, but the blusher/bronzer/blender brush is really good, and I like the angle cut across the top of both of the fuller brushes. They're also lovely and soft! The lip brush I haven't had a chance to properly experiment with, but I had a quick go and it seems to work...

Here are swatches (top without flash, bottom with flash, I know, I need hand cream) of the elements I got for the compact. From right: 'sage' eyeshadow, 'wisteria' eyeshadow, and 'shy' blusher.

Sage is a lovely colour, a definite repurchase when I run out.

Wisteria is more purple and less pale than I expected, but I can see it being useful when I figure out how to incorporate it into looks.

Both of the eyeshadows have a lovely creamy (but still powder) texture. LOVE them.

Shy is nice and sheer, which will help to avoid the clown look.

Overall I love these!

Oh, and there is a free postage offer code that lasts until 9.30am GMT on Monday morning when you spend 10 quid - the code is SHIP24FREE

Review and NOTD: Rimmel Lasting Finish shade 193 - Black Cherries

In a way similar (probably) to most of you, I can't resist a bargain, so when I saw that this polish had £1 off at Sainsbury's, reducing the price to £1.99 I had to take advantage of it. I had a brief dilemma between this colour and a sparkly one (which I can't find anywhere online, darn Boots.com being down for maintenance), but decided that I'd get more wear out of this one.

The colour is lovely , a rich dark purplish red which, if you look closely under the right light, has tiny glimmery bits in it. I love the colour so much. Definitely made the right choice.

It goes on really nicely, it's nice and thick and gloopy, and although the brush is more like the Barry M ones than the Rimmel 60 Second one, it is thick enough, and the polish thick enough, for it to work.

It dried fairly quickly, and once it was dry it stayed dry and fixed to the nail (ie, not like the Barry M that slides off). The photo above was taken after I'd been wearing it for a day, with a little bit of wear but overall still looking very presentable. The one thing I have noticed is that there are a few little grooves from the tips of my other hand's nails (I think), but that seems to be a serial problem with most polishes for me. The colour of this polish seems to disguise those grooves quite well, though, so I'm happy.

As for Lasting Finish, I'm not yet entirely sure... it has seemed to stay on quite well, as you'd expect, but I'll have to see how it looks later in the week before I can really assess that.

Overall though, I love this polish, and I can see it becoming a staple.

http://www.superdrug.com/rimmel/rimmel-lasting-finish-nail-polish-black-cherries/invt/499951/

(note that it's only £2.49 at Superdrug anyway)