Tag Archive | Glamour

Beauty and the bubbles

Early March means only one thing – time for the annual Glamour Beauty Festival, held at Saatchi Gallery, London! What could be better than spending the day with a girlfriend, getting pampered and drinking fizz?!

I like to get glammed up for the festival and the day prior, I had eyelash extensions applied for the first time. I was really pleased with the result but sadly they didn’t last long. I did my hair in a sixties style pony tail with the help of an accessory bought from Pretty Kitty Fashion. I wore a Biba sweatshirt with a black mini skirt from H&M and a red trench coat from M&S. The classic trench is seeing a revival this season, freshened up with pops of colour and statement details. I accessorised with a black cross body bag from Oasis and black patent shoes from Faith at Debenhams. Those of you who are around my age will remember Faith stores, everyone had their shoes from there at one stage and the obligatory orange drawstring carrier bag with Rin,Tin,Tin on it. I always had heels that were more than twice that permitted by the school rules!

This year’s festival was sponsored by Philips. Unfortunately I felt it wasn’t quite as good as last year due to the amount of people it now attracts. Most queues for treatments were quite lengthy which meant that with a morning only ticket, what you could do was limited. I might have to consider an all day ticket next year.

We started with hair. My friend queued up at the OGX braid bar but was less than impressed with the finished halo or crown braid which she thought made her resemble Friar Tuck! I enjoyed watching how to do a dutch braid while I waited, which is when it looks as though the plait sits on the top and is achieved by doing a similar method to the french plait, except that when you take a piece of hair you add it under, rather than over. Other treatments included having your hair straightened with GHDs as straight hair is back in this season or having a temporary colour put in with Schwarzkopf Live colour spray.

Next we moved on to the nail zone where we enjoyed a manicure with Orly. This is not a brand I had previously heard of but one I now highly recommend. Nail varnish rarely lasts five minutes on me before it chips but this lasted almost a week! There are 36 shades to choose from and I went with rose gold.

Also on this level there was an option to have a collagen density test. While this appealed, the queue was too long and I realised I might not get the answer I wanted. Who wants to know that their skin is ageing faster than they should be? That was bound to be the result, given they were demonstrating Pure Gold Collagen, a 30 day programme of drinks to plump your skin and improve hydration. I didn’t fancy a taster of the drink but my friend’s face when she tried it said it all!

All that queuing had caused us to work up a thirst, so we headed to the champagne bar. This was surprisingly reasonably priced and they would hold on to the bottle to save you carrying it and you could just go back for top ups.

Something a bit different this year was an Alcatel instagram zone where you could perfect your instagram photography skills with various products and props.

I was desperate to have my eyeliner done by Kat von D; either graphic liner or a feline flick but having queued for an hour and being about five from the from the front, I had to abandon it as it was time for our booked talk in the Glamour theatre with Wendy Rowe. Other more well known speakers were Katie Piper, Trinny Woodall and Pixie Lott, however they were either in the afternoon session or fully booked.

Wendy Rowe is a renowned make up artist who has worked with the likes of Cara Delevigne. She has worked with Burberry on their runway shows for over 15 years and is artistic consultant for their cosmetic range.

The best part of the day in my opinion and what makes the tickets great value for money is the goodie bag, containing products worth over £180. This year’s bag was a trendy rose gold and some of the best freebies inside included a Fresh rose face mask, Kat von D tattoo liner and of course the Glamour Beauty Book SS18! Since Glamour went online only this year, twice a year a beauty book is released in print to coincide with the two fashion seasons. I keep being told in my professional life that digital is the future but I take issue with this. I still don’t think you can beat the joy of leafing through a glossy mag, particularly when you might not have internet access, on a plane for example.

The festival is a fantastic way of trialling new products as well as a fab girls day out – I highly recommend it. See you next year!

What’s the lesson you live life by? How has it shaped you?

Dec22

That was the question asked to Glamour readers in a competition to take over Dawn O’Porter’s column for a month. Unfortunately I didn’t win, but thought I would share my column with you, my loyal blog readers. Hope you enjoy it.

Heading for column

“Before embarking on the journey of life, always read the manual”

Life doesn’t come with a manual and if it did, we probably wouldn’t consult it until all else failed. Through their own experiences, our elders try to guide us, but we have all been young, with the mentality ‘I know best’.

When I was nine years old my uncle wrote in my autograph book ‘love all, trust but few and learn to paddle your own canoe’. At the time I didn’t really understand what it meant, let alone its significance. Now in my 30’s I finally realise just what a good piece of advice this was.

I strive to ‘love all’, putting others first and being thoughtful. A birthday card, a thank you note – little things that don’t cost a lot, but can really brighten someone’s day. There is so much hate in the world today and we could all do our bit and spread a little love. But I often forget to include myself in the ‘love all’. We all make mistakes in life; learn from them and then forgive yourself. Love the body you are in; if you want to make changes in terms of a healthier lifestyle, do, but you should never be made to feel in anyway inferior because your body doesn’t conform to the latest media ideal. Confidence is far more attractive than any body shape.

‘Trust but few’ has often tripped me up. I always see the best in people, assuming they will share the same values as me and unfortunately that means that I’ve been taken advantage of. At work, a colleague from another location used to regularly pop in for a cuppa and a chat. Unbeknown to me, when I went to put the kettle on, they were helping themselves to my till! I thought the discrepancy was because I was rubbish at my job and it was only when they did it to someone else that the truth came out. That taught me to be careful who I put my trust in; trust needs to be earned.

The final part ‘learn to paddle your own canoe’ I have always found the hardest to follow. I have allowed others to dictate how I feel, when really only you can be responsible for your own happiness. Of course it’s nice to be popular but 1,000 friends on Facebook don’t equal happiness. For the most part they are barely acquaintances! Quality not quantity is what is needed in terms of friendships; otherwise, even with lots of people around you, you can still feel lonely and isolated. I wasted too much of my childhood wishing to be more popular but by the time I got to secondary school, I settled into a nice group and those friends are still my friends today. Never worry what path you should be following in life. I have come to realise that we all do things at different times and you should follow what you feel to be right.

This neatly brings me on to my final point about envy. We have all looked at others and thought ‘I wish that was me’; it’s natural but as my Dad once said ‘be careful what you envy’.

I learned some of these lessons far too late and I hope these small words of supposed wisdom can help you to bring happiness into your own life today; after all as the old saying by Dale Carnegie goes ‘today is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday’.

Sign off

Glamour Beauty Festival

Jul2

My friend and I attended the second annual Glamour Beauty Festival at the beginning of March, which was held at Saatchi Gallery London.

I have been a dedicated subscriber to Glamour magazine for many years and when I saw this advertised I just knew this was a perfect girls day out. In case I needed further persuasion, this years festival was being sponsored by Fiat 500 and there would be an opportunity for a mock up Glamour cover shoot with the new Fiat 500 Riva. That’s it I was sold!

I got my very own Fiat 500 last October, from my old boss who had owned it from new and I have now become quite a fan of the cute iconic car which celebrates its diamond anniversary of production this year.

For the festival I wore a grey t-shirt dress with cute black tie up ribbon at the back from New Look, a denim floral jacket also from New Look and some black suede slouch boots from House of Fraser. I accessorised my hair with a Orelia cute star clip from Asos and the piece de la resistance of the outfit was a monogrammed clutch from Oasis.

First stop on arrival was of course the Fiat 500 pool party. They had a classic Fiat 500 on display and of course the new Fiat Riva. The make up artists covered us in sparkle in keeping with the fact it was the diamond jubilee year and we then got to pose in the Riva whilst a photographer snapped away. The photo was then inserted onto a Glamour mock cover and emailed to us.

Fiat_Glamour_0068

Next stop had to be to collect our goodie bags. I have to say this goody bag was something else with an estimated value of over £100, making the £45 ticket to the festival more than worth it! I have since used many of the products and particularly recommend the Garnier Micellar water, Garnier moisture bomb UV mist, Estee Edit pink peony overnight water pack and the Nars blush in Orgasm.

There were so many stands and so little time to try everything, given many of the stands had queues but we managed to fit in quite a bit.

The Garnier Ultimate Blends stand was excellent and I had some honey restore hand cream tested on me. I have incredibly dry hands and couldn’t believe the difference this cream instantly made. My friend persuaded the lady to give me a free tube too which was fantastic.

Next we visited the Eylure stand to have false eyelashes applied. I had opulent ones applied.

My favourite one was the last stand we went to which was Fresh. The brand was founded in 1991 by Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg who opened a store in Boston curating upscale natural beauty products from around the world. In 1993 they launched the iconic oval soap and the brand has grown since then with them celebrating their 25th anniversary last year. I must confess that I hadn’t heard of them before but anything that uses natural ingredients always gets my endorsement. There are 2 stores in London and Harrods also stocks their products.

The mask bar allowed you to test out some of their face masks although I had them tested on the back of my hand rather than ruin the makeup I had already had done. I also tested the sugar lip polish which was amazing – my lips had never felt so smooth afterwards. Fresh first used sugar in a body exfoliant in 1998 and it ignited an industry wide trend of using sugar in beauty products. The festival goodie bag included a Fresh soy facial cleanser and we also got some free samples of the masks from the stand along with a tinted lip treatment.

I was totally sold on these products and went on to order online after the festival the rose deep hydration face cream and the sugar lip polish. When they were delivered the products were presented in a lovely box tied with a ribbon and the box was lined with pretty vintage print tissue. You also received some free sample sachets and a small jar of vitamin nectar vibrancy boosting facemask.

Tickets to the festival are sold as morning or afternoon sessions. We purchased just the morning but some people had purchased both and that would be my only criticism of the day that those who had paid for both sessions had to leave the gallery for an hour at lunch time.

We finished our visit with prosecco from the bar there. It was a wonderful girly day of pampering that I highly recommend to any beauty product fan.