real Techniques brush bargains

Hello guys,

I thought I would share a bargain I found today.  I popped into Boots and saw that they had an offer on makeup, eyelashes, beauty accessories etc and it included Real Techniques brushes!

The offer is buy one get 2nd half price, Boots buy 1 get 2nd half price offer, Boots real Techniques,  so here is what I picked up today;

Core Collection £21.99, Starter Set £21.99, Expert Face brush £9.99 and Setting brush £8.99.

The total before the discounts were applied was £62.96 and after discount was £47.46!  BUT I just happened to have a gift card, which was given to me for my birthday a few months ago, that I had wanted to purchase some real Techniques brushes with, however at the time the store I had gone into  didn't have much stock, so I bided my time and boy has it paid off, because with the further reduction of my gift card, this lovely haul only cost me £12.46! and I get an amazing belated birthday treat :-)

Needless to say I'm one happy bunny.  I already had a set of the Core Collection and their Blush brush, which I really enjoy how they perform and get comments from models and clients how much they like the feel of them, now I get to keep a set just for me!

I also spotted real Techniques brushes in Superdrugs today, I didn't know they were a stockist too, I didn't notice if they are running an offer in there for these brushes but they did have an offer of "Cosmetics 3for2 mix and match", I picked up a few very inexpensive items, which I might share with you in another post, as some items are for me and some are for my kit.

I now know and have seen many makeup artists and their kits and every single one has had some real Techniques brushes in their kits and for good reason, they perform well, feel so good on the skin, wash up a treat and are very affordable.


If you are after some real Techniques brushes, I strongly advise you to hurry out and get them whilst Boots has this fab offer on, what a lovely Christmas treat for yourself or any makeup lovers you know.


Diane x

I'm now a Makeup Artist!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I've been gone so long.  At the end of the summer I graduated from the Academy of Freelance Makeup ("AOFM") as a Makeup Artist and Hair Session Stylist.

Since then I have been very busy working to build my portfolio and get my career off the ground.

If you would like to see what I'm up to in my new career you can now go to my newly set up Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DianeHamiltonMua.  There will be behind the scenes shots of working at London Fashion Week and recent shoots, as well as sharing what else I've been doing lately.

If you enjoy my Facebook page and want to keep up-to-date with my news, please feel free to click the lovely Like button.

I've got plenty to share with you here and on my Facebook page and am looking forward to it.

Thank you so much for all the lovely support and encouragement you've given me.

All the very best,
Diane x

Shu Uemura Chocolat Donna Collection - Mint and Vanilla Palette

Hello everyone,

It's been awhile - again!  How are you?  Do hope you've been having a lovely summer.  I had a birthday recently and was extremely thrilled to receive the Shu Uemura Mint and Vanilla palette from their recently released Chocolat Donna collection: http://www.shuuemura.co.uk/collections/chocolat-donna.aspx

The utterly gorgeous limited edition palettes are inspired by luxury chocolates, they contain 6 pre-set mini eyeshadow shades, the cases themselves are so luxurious and refillable.  I'm over the moon with my palette.  It's so lovely I didn't want to swatch it!  but I had to get over that, it's taken me a week but the urge to play and blog was strong!  Will be using this palette today that's a guarantee.

Beautiful Case which you can reuse when these shadows are finished

L-R: Micro Glittery Golden Vanilla and Mint,  Matte Vanilla, Pearl Mocha Golden Accents, Milk Chocolate,  Rich Cacao

Six shades but 7 swatches, why? the one in the middle is the pearl mocha without the golden overlay mixed in, to the immediate right of it, is my 1st swatch of this shade taken with the golden overlay, as you can see the overlay is only on the surface level which is why I did two swatches.

This is how you remove the tray,  just gently pull out, clicks back into place, it's not going to open on it's own.

How it looks completely removed and you just slide the shadows off at the end to refill with whatever gorgeous Shu Uemura shade you decide to replace it with.

Have to say they are beautiful shades and so smooth and blendable, my favourite is the pearl mocha, it's a beautiful subtle colour on me and like a golden taupe, I love it and did I say smooth, the consistency is sublime.

Great versatile palette which has 3 matte shades, vanilla all over lid colour or eyebrow highlight, the Milk Chocolate lid or crease colour (does have a gold accent but on surface only) and Rich Cacao for defining.

Pearl Mocha (golden accent) lid and highlight.  I experimented with the micro glitter shades overlaying them on top of the other shades, I like the Gold on top of the Rich Cacao and the Mint on the Milk Chocolate, they both look lovely over the Pearl Mocha but I really love it just as it is.

There are two other palettes in the collection, Raspberry and Mocha (I'm currently coveting) and Orange and Pistachio.  There are also more than 20 blushes and 44 new lipsticks, some Chocolat lashes and a limited edition foundation case, here is the link to the collection again: http://www.shuuemura.co.uk/collections/chocolat-donna.aspx

I'm a lucky girl, what a beautiful, luxurious and incredibly generous gift, perfect for my 40th birthday!

I don't think these palettes will hang around for long on the site.  I'm so pleased I will be able to continue to use my gorgeous case long after I've used these shades.

Diane x

Astalift Jelly Aquarysta on Sale

Lovely Debenhams in the UK are currently having a sale with Duty Free prices! Included in this promotion is the the skincare beauty item of the moment the beauty world is buzzing about, the Astalift Jelly Aquarysta, Rejuvenating Concentrate from Fujifilm, yes I meant to say that :-)

You can purchase the 40g Jar for £57.50 (instead of £69), but wait just a minute, you can also buy the 15g jar for £17.50 (instead of £21) Debenhams Astalift Jelly 15g, which means you can buy 3 x 15g = 45g for £52.50.

So for £5 less you can get 5g more - rock on!  Even better, using smaller jars, will mean the product and all it's expensive ingredients will have less exposure to the air over the time that you are using it, which will help keep them stable and potent for longer.

To read more about it, here is a link to where I first heard about it from Lisa Eldridge; http://www.lisaeldridge.com/blog/24330/lisa-loves-photo-tech-meets-anti-aging/.

Here is the blurb on this product which is an excerpt from Debenhams website:

An innovative patented, intense beauty rejuvenating concentrate that contains ceramides that perfectly match ceremides in the skin, multi types of collagen and Astaxanthin. Ideal for anyone who is concerned about premature ageing, dehydrated, dry skin and those who wish to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The nano ceramide delivers long-lasting moisture for a dry skin. Skin will immediately appear smoother, with luminosity increased. The various types of collegen will promote cell regeneration and retain water. Skin's resilience and elasticity will be recovered and younger looking skin will be revealed. Astaxanthin will counteract free radical damage preventing further damage to collagen and elastin, the cause of lines, wrinkles and sagging; resulting in facial features looking restored. Lastly, Astaxanthin is the highly effective anti-oxidant, 1,000 times greater than CoQ10, which prevents free-radical damage.


Of course I ordered, how could I not!?!  I have to try this much touted "hero" product and I'm looking forward to it.  Will you be joining me?


Diane

Body Painting - AOFM Advanced Makeup Course - Day 2

Day 2 was a creative day learning some basic body painting techniques.  Our tutor had amazing skills and has won several prestigious competitions around the world to prove it.  She made it look so easy but trust me it isn't.

I thought I'd taken pictures of my work but I only have one, in my defence I really wasn't feeling very well, lame excuse I know, shame I think I did a decent job of a swinging chain (which was something that the tutor had demonstrated for us, she also did a design on an eye and a shirt with a collar on someone else).

We were given free range to do whatever we fancied so I also decided to have a crack at creating a shirt cuff and button.

It's a very interesting medium with the products, brushes and most importantly the various brush techniques and the results you can achieve with them, trying to put in shade, light, illusion of texture and movement, I'm sure we just covered the tip of the iceberg.

It's very much an art form I feel and I have new appreciation of the skills, patience and artistic talent it takes to do this and do it well.

Diane x

AOFM Advanced Makeup Course - Day 1: Period Makeup

So today is the start of the advanced section of the AOFM Freelance Professional Hair and Makeup certificate course I am attending.

Half our class has gone as they were on the Foundation course only and we gained two new students, a smaller class but thankfully even numbers so we all still have a partner.

Fun day learning about 1920s to 1980s makeup.  Our tutor was Lina Dahlbeck, I really warmed to Lina, impossible not to she has such a lovely, fun and friendly nature.  We were given lots of useful and interesting information about the industry and tips.

The demo for today was a 1960s Twiggy look, Lina decided to do this look as it is still very much requested (or versions of it) today, which is why I decided to have a go at creating this look too.

We were also showed how to block out eyebrows if we wanted to do a 1920s/1930s look, I was very tempted as really wanted to have a go at the technique but Twiggy was a calling :-)

Here is the look I created on Laura, hope you like it.

I wish I had false eyelashes to play with, would have loved to amp up the look with top and bottom lashes, but alas had to stick with trying to draw on bottom lashes with gel liner, fyi liquid liner and a firm fine pointed tip brush is best, neither of those I had to hand, I know I could improve on this but still for a first try I'm happy.

Another very fun and informative day :-)

Diane x

AOFM - Day 6 - Makeup for Photography - B&W

Hello folks,

Day 6 of my AOFM Freelance Professional Hair and Makeup Certificate course was the last day of the Foundation level part of the course.

We spent the morning learning the fundamentals of makeup and lighting for photography and in particular focusing on makeup for black and white photography. We then watched a demo as usual then after lunch it was our time to experiment. 

Just for a bit of fun, can you guess which colours I used to create the contrasts?  More pics below but don't cheat and scroll there just yet.

I had fun as always working with Li, as you can see he really is a good sport.  

I was definitely experimenting with colours and textures, (as you will see clearly below...) to check the level of contrast, if any, they would achieve in black and white photography.

Our tutor today was the very talented Valentina Creti, a lovely lady and she gave us such an interesting and informative class.  It's wonderful to watch the tutors at work and to receive their guidance, they really do have an amazing eye for detail, very inspiring and I really enjoyed the whole day.

Each day we get a different makeup brand to work with, we had one of my favourites today, Make Up For Ever and I used their HD foundation, HD concealer and eyeshadows on Li.

The tutors on the day liked my choices of colour gradients and I was complimented on my blending by one and told that I can definitely blend by another, music to my ears, I can't you how lovely it is to have such support.

OK I guess it's time to show you the colour photos....

Gotta love that electric blue gel liner, which incidentally was from Inglot and really stays put!  I wasn't sure it would show up in the black and white photos but it does indeed show up as a black liner.

Did you guess the colours?

I am so happy to have the opportunity to work with Oriental features.

A thoroughly enjoyable, interesting and informative class.

Diane x

Benefit Bargain Freebies with £2 Magazine!

It's that time again when the lovely people of Benefit do their amazing magazine freebies!!!  Always worth it and I always go and get me some goodies, silly not to right.


Look out for the July issue of Glamour magazine from Thurday 31st May 2012, costs £2.


So what's up for grabs this summer?  Ask no more I'll happily tell you;


Choose from: 'The Porefessional' 7.5ml (pore minimiser) which Glamour says is worth £10, 'That Gal' 7.5ml (face primer) worth £15 and 'Bad Gal' (mascara) worth £10.  

These are 'luxe minis' rather than full sized products.  So for £6 you could get your hands on £35 worth of Benefit goodies!

I'll be stocking up for sure, how about you?

Happy shopping.
Diane x

Catwalk Makeup done on me!

Hi guys,

I thought it would be fun to show you the Catwalk look Agi created on me on our AOFM Foundation Level course, I really got into character as a joke, I did it for a millisecond and snap went the camera.

Shame about the double chin, but you'll have to cut me some slack, after all I'm knocking on 40 in a few months!

I think Agi did fab creative work.  Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Diane x

AOFM Foundation Level - Day 5: Catwalk Makeup

Today is an exciting day, we get to learn some behind the scenes background information for Catwalk makeup.

Today's tutor was Angela Davis-Deacon.  I picked up lots of awesome tips and she kindly let us have a look through the items that she had out for her demo.

Angela and resident tutor Maria Papadopoulou (fab name) were really great with their support, encouragement and advice.  Most students decided to go along the route Angela had demonstrated for their Catwalk looks, which involved lovely colourful bold looks and experimenting with textures.

I knew I wanted a statement look and had a very good idea of the structure I wanted but was keen to keep it clean and simple but yet visually strong.

I'm really pleased with what I came up with and the tutors that day were kind enough to compliment my work.   It received comments of being a clean, modern and edgy Catwalk look and Angela pointed out to a few fellow students that my work was an example of what she had said when she showed one of her images from her portfolio, that "sometimes it's not so much what you do but what you don't do that makes the look".

I got to work on Agi a fellow student, she is beyond lovely, cannot tell you just how much fun we had working together!  Brilliant day!!!

The brief was to have the foundation to look like skin, brill for me it's what I always try to do, and for the rest we were left to play with our creativity.

Having a blast on this course. 

Diane x 

AOFM Foundation Level - Day 4: Contouring & Highlighting

Day 4 on the foundation stage of my AOFM Pro Hair and Makeup course started with contouring and highlighting.

We are very lucky to have one male student in our class, and I was extremely lucky to be able to work with Li for the contouring and highlight segment.

I cannot tell you just what a good sport Li is, he's been through all the looks we've covered on the course so far, glam, bridal, catwalk, the works and he's so cool about it.  Thanks so much Li, it's brill having a male model to work on and very much appreciated.

We were asked to apply the contouring shades heavier than I would normally go for in every day life, being on shoots with all the lighting, we would have to be aware of the colours being washed out.  The idea being to start off lightly and then keep an eye on the photographers screen to see if we need to add more depth.

I found the guide provided about contouring and highlighting on different face shapes a handy aid but the emphasis was on us deciding what needs to be done on an individual basis using our own judgement, fab to hear, there are no textbook faces :-)

We did not put a base on, just powdered the face, and then got on with the contouring and highlighting.

We didn't think to take a before photo at the time, so Li was really kind enough to take one for me at another time, so below is how he looks on an every day basis. The before photo was taken in artificial light and the after photo in natural light in the studio but I'm grateful to have any before version to show you.

I'll be loading more as soon as I can, have my catwalk look and makeup for black and white photos to show you.

Diane x

AOFM Professional Freelance Hair and Makeup Certificate - Days 3 and 4

Covers Foundation Level Makeup, Advanced Level Makeup and Hair Styling

Another fab weekend, feel lucky I'm in a class filled with such lovely sociable students.

Day 3 - First up was a talk from today's tutor lovely Barbara Carranza ("BC"), originally from Mexico, eyebrow specialist.  I have to say she was an absolute joy, so fun.  We always get to hear the background of our tutors and how they came to be where they are today, very interesting.

All of us were due to get one eyebrow done my BC and then our partners for the day would try to follow the guidelines to create the other one.  We were asked to combine this with a glam look and attach a strip lash to one eye and individual lashes to the other, oh and lest I forget, we had to use red lipstick, no exceptions.

We did not have time to do any work on the skin so what you will see on Ndidi below is just her eyes and lips done by myself, she did however manage to put on some foundation before I took the photo - result!

I will point out that Ndidi's eyebrows are naturally high and unless she was to get rid of all her eyebrow hair and have some new eyebrows added semi-permanent/permanent ink lower down, this is the way she will stay.  BC did show her how her eyebrows would look lower down by filling in one temporarily before we started.  Made such a difference to the balance of her features, I thought that would be interesting to share but alas it seems I fudged taking a photograph of it :-(

BC did the eyebrow on the left (left eye has the individual lashes) and I did the one on the right (this eye has the strip lash).  I was so happy when BC and another tutor both said I had done a great job when checking out my eyebrow efforts, but then BC bowled me over by saying that my one was better than hers, such high praise!  Chuffed to bits :-)

One interesting fact for you, BC told us that none of the ladies in Mexico use eyelash curlers yet they still curl their lashes, how do you ask? well...with a spoon of course!  Seriously, I kid you not, she even did it on me, really works too, amazing,

Day 4 - Our tutor was Barbara Braeunlich ("BB"), specialising in beauty makeup, to see some of her work click here.  She has an amazing highly successful career and it's still growing strong.  Again we heard all about BB's background and heard some very fascinating insights into the beauty industry.

Today's goals were contouring and highlighting and then later bronzing to produce a summer glow makeup.

I was very fortunate to be able to work on Lee for the task or contouring and highlighting, who just so happens to be the only male student on the course, he's such a good sport and a lovely person.

Lee let me take some before and after photos on his phone as I didn't have my one to hand, unfortunately numpty that I am I forgot to give him my email address.  I'll post the pictures later if I get manage to get hold of them.

Next up was the summer glow makeup, most people went for golds but the tutors were keen for us to experiment using brighter colours on the eyes, which is what I used but I went for a wash of colours rather than pack it on.  I was asked to up the bronzer which I did,  in fact we were told not to be shy with it at all for this type of look, I usually would prefer to be on the cautious side.  Here is the lovely Stephanie:

We were lucky enough to work with Armani foundations and liquid illuminators, a first for me, I mixed a luminous but deeper shade of foundation than Stephanie's skin tone to give her a glowing summer tan, I took it half way down her neck as didn't want to get foundation on her clothes, you can see the contrast with her natural skin colour.

I was pleased that the Armani foundation could be layered to take down any redness on the skin in specific areas and then in other areas let the skin show through, especially Stephanie's few gorgeous freckles.  Was a lovely consistency, I think it was the Armani Silk.

We had another visitor pop in to the studio and it was Kim Borio, Kim's website, a well renowned celebrity makeup artist from L.A.  She is such a fun bubbly person, I wished I'd had more time to talk with her, she sure knows her Armani :-)

So all in all another very enjoyable weekend and lots of friendships forming, like I said a sociable lovely bunch of people, most of us go to lunch together, it's such a pleasure.

This weekend will be the last of the foundation classes, so we will be saying goodbye to those that are only booked on the foundation course and saying hello to whomever will be joining the rest of us that are staying on for the advanced course.

Hope you are enjoying these posts, as much as I am enjoying sharing my experiences.

Diane x

The Road to Becoming a Makeup Artist

Hello everyone,

Sorry I've been AWOL, my PC just upped and died one day, which left me with an unexpected expense of getting another computer, it's so nice being back :)

I'm so happy to say that my yearning to become a makeup artist has finally taken it's first step to becoming a reality, as last weekend I started my Pro Hair and Makeup Course with the Academy of Freelance Makeup Artists (AOFM).

To say I'm excited at what I will learn is putting it mildly and am already enjoying myself thoroughly.  As luck would have it my class has a good mix of different skin tones, ages and there is even a lovely man, so we will all get a wealth of experience with the challenges each person presents to us.

AOFM Professional Freelance Hair and Makeup Certificate - Part-time

Covers Foundation Level Makeup, Advanced Level Makeup and Hair Styling

Academy of Freelance Makeup AOFM Foundation course stage - Days 1 & 2

Day 1 was focusing on two totally different looks, first up was perfecting the no makeup makeup look, clean fresh skin and subtle enhancing of features.  My model was a fellow student that just so happened to be a pretty young woman, I loved doing this makeup, having to mix a matching foundation (Mac Face and Body) and concealers, unfortunately with all the excitement I didn't think to ask for my camera so no photo to show you :(

We are not allowed any personal belongings in class, especially not phones which I use as my camera too, but we can ask for them at appropriate times to take photos of our work, so thankfully I did think to ask if I could go get it for the next look.

The second look was a black smokey eye, we only have time to do each look once on the day, so what you see will be my one and only attempt but I will admit that one eye was done by the tutor for the demo and I did the other eye, I did my best to get my eye to the same standard as the tutors.

We were literally just focusing on the eyes and by this stage the natural toned down lip colour for the no makeup makeup had been long gone and my models lips are naturally quite pigmented, if we had been focusing on the whole look, I would have definitely tried to mute them down to balance out the strong eyes.  However, I'm pretty happy with the outcome for a first try, here it is:

Day 2 was all about bridal makeup and our lovely tutor was Annabel Callum, the morning session was all about the practicalities of being a bridal mua and was very informative, so grateful for everything I learnt.  After lunch we then watched Annabel demo a pretty fresh bridal look and then had to create a look ourselves.

Again I was lucky to be paired with another naturally pretty student, whom is a shade or two lighter than me.  We were given Shu Uemura products to work with which was a treat, however, the liquid foundations were very limited, just 3 but that gave me the chance to customise a foundation shade and with the blue tones under eyes and around the mouth I again was mixing concealers/correctors.  Really enjoyed working with the MUFE concealer palette for darker tones, such lovely consistency.

We were advised to go for matte products, unfortunately the matte shade range was not geared for Asian skin tones and I decided not to go with the more vibrant warm earthy shimmer tones that I was directed to as I still wanted to see if I could create a pretty fresh spring like bridal look from the the options available, limited choice for what I had in mind and shimmery but I tried to tone that down by mixing them with the lighter matte colours available.

I let my model choose the lip colour from swatches on my hand, I used an awesome Paris Berlin lipliner, it did come out just a tad darker than I would have chosen but it's in the same tone range that I had in mind, I then tried to mute the colour with a paler brownie/pink lipstick from the Shu Uemura selection, which was very sheer.  I'm very happy with the over all look, I think the lovely Jas looks gorgeous and best of all she was really happy with it too, which pleased me no end, here is it:

Of course I can look at these photos and see things I'd like to improve, probably will always be that way no matter how many goes I might get to create a look!

Loving getting all the tips, direction, information and getting hands on experience on other faces.  I'm especially looking forward to doing makeup on a guy, that'll be new.

The only thing I could ask for is an afternoon tea break, I do so love a cuppa :)

Next we will be covering glam makeup looks for events, eyebrows, contour and highlighting, yes!

Bring it on :-D

Diane x

IMATS London 2012 - The Makeover Result

Had an amazing day.  Which started at 5am for me after max 4 hrs sleep, far too excited!

I got to IMATS very early with my lovely friend Snig from YouTube Channel IndianBeautie.  Snig had the first makeover of the day, my one was booked in for 3pm and as a lovely surprise for me I was booked in with the makeup artist from Make-Up Atelier but unfortunately, his body painting work went over time and he worked flat out all day without a break, the same for his lovely model, you will understand why when you see his amazing work below.

Luckily there were another two makeup artists helping on the day but they were not from Make-Up Atelier, so I got my makeover.  It will probably come as no surprise that I chose the Penelope Cruz makeup look in the end, as I was already leaning towards that one and almost all the feedback I received on twitter voted for it too.

So here is the inspirational photo again and a picture of my makeover on the day, *Warning* it's not a fab photo of me, you can tell I've had very little sleep, don't say I didn't warn you ;-)

Make-Up Atelier were kind enough to give me some of the products used for my makeover, so I also had a go at creating this look, which you will see clearly in my IMATS 2012 video on my YT Channel dianeuk01 link: IMATS 2012 Video, (I will list the products there too), but I did manage to take 2 pictures, shame they didn't come out very well :-/ it also might have been better if I had closed my eyes so you could see the eye makeup! oh well here they are:

However, there are pictures on the Lovemakeup.co.uk Facebook page, with more to be added soon, here is the link: Lovemakeup.co.uk Facebook IMATS 2012.  Here you will also see pics of my other lovely YT friends that I spent the day with there, Kelly - YT Jellyminx, Cami - YT camiloveskiwi, Maria - YT thelipstickdiaries.  Had such a fun day with friends, shopping and keeping each other company during each of our makeovers, having lunch and cuppas, not to mention waiting in the artic conditions outside for the bus!




Here are pictures of the amazing work the makeup artist from Make-Up Atelier created and his lovely model, how striking is that? was such a treat so see this being created right in front of me:

I cannot thank Sue from www.lovemakeup.co.uk enough for this amazing opportunity and for such a fun day, you are so very kind, thank you so much!!!  And girls thank you for making the day so special :-)

Diane xoxo

IMATS London 2012 - My Makeover details

Hi lovelies,


As promised, I am letting you know that my makeover with Make-Up Atelier Paris at IMATS on Saturday 4th February, will be at 2pm.


If you are going to be there, please come say hi if you like, you will see which makeup look I decided to go with and how it turns out.  Would be lovely to meet you :-)


Diane x

IMATS London 2012 - I'll be a Makeup Model! But which of these looks to choose?

Hi everyone,


It's that time of year again when IMATS comes to London town.  This year I have been so lucky, as I've been asked to be a makeup model for Make-Up Atelier Paris. To say I'm excited is putting it mildly!  


I will be there on Saturday the 4th February, I don't know my time slot yet but I'll let you know when I find out in case you would like to come say hi and watch the transformation.


I've only ever had my makeup done by someone else on a couple of occasions so this is such a treat for me and I have been given the opportunity to bring along a makeup look of my choosing, just gets better and better eh? :-)


Only problem is, which look to choose? I think I've narrowed it down between two looks, OK possibly 3!  So as I'm still deciding I thought I'd ask which look you would prefer for me, just out of curiousity.


So first up is Mila Kunis with classic winged liner makeup looks, I'm putting two pics one  from her recent Dior advert and the other from a red carpet event, both similar and in my mind have that classic chic Parisienne/European feel, neutral colours, totally my cup of tea, so here is gorgeous Mila:








































The next look is totally different, more sexy, well it is on the beautiful Penélope Cruz, this one has beautiful colours and the eye liner on the top and lower lashes is more intense than I would usually go for, I'm curious to see how Makeup Atelier will recreate it on my skin tone, so this is the one that is just ahead for me at the moment:

So which look do you prefer?  I really would love to know.  Of course the hair styles really set off the looks and the clothes are the finishing touches, so whichever one I pick, I'll probably do my hair sleek and straight or volumised and bouncy, I hope!


Will you be going to IMATS?  If you are I would love to know what's on your wish list.


Diane x

Lancome Teint Idole Ultra 24H Foundation - Free 7 day sample

Lancome has a new foundation launching on 1st February, Teint Idole 24H, £27 I believe, available in 18 shades, from fair to deeper skin tones, however, you don't have to wait until February to try it!

Earlier this evening, whilst passing the time waiting for one of my kids to finish one of his after school clubs, I was just flicking through a magazine in the supermarket, as you do, and saw that during January if you get yourself to a Lancome counter to be colour matched to this foundation, they have a Try Before You Buy” scheme and will give you a 7 day sample, so you can go home and have a good test of the foundation to be sure it suits you before you buy, how nice is that :-)

I get so excited when I see a range that looks like it will accommodate my skin tone and will be so accessible to boot.

That's all the info I have, I'm sure going to be popping to a shopping centre near me this weekend and will definitely check out this and the Clinique promotion.

If you do too, I'd love to hear how you get on.

Diane x

Free Clinique Mascara Time Again

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year!

I do hope you have all had a lovely time over the festive season and that 2012 will treat us all well :-)

Don't know if you remember this promotion but seems every year Clinique launch a promotion to give away free mini mascaras, all you have to do is go to a Clinique counter in a Boots store between Sat 14th Jan - Wed 1st Feb 2012 and hand in any old full size mascara and they will give you a mini Clinique mascara in exchange.

There's a choice of two mascara samples: High Lengths (5ml) and High Impact (4ml). They're about half the size of the normal ones (7 and 8ml).

It's while stocks last. Apparently Clinique hasn't been able to confirm specific stock levels but has said it's ordered more stock than the last time this offer was on. Saying that, this offer's been mega popular in the past so it's worth calling ahead to check stock at your local store.

This is great because I have an old one lying on my table so fab timing for me :-) I think I got the High Lengths last time so will ask for the High Impact to try out this time around, if I can get it!


Happy freebie shopping :-)

Diane x