Archive for December 2015

Not gunna lie, when Lush first starting doing make-up in the dark ages of 2012, I was dubious. The idea of alternative make-up brands hadn't really caught on yet, and honestly I was a bit scared of their 'no for anything specific' approach. The concept hasn't changed much, and a lot of Lush products, despite being packaged to suit a specific type of make-up, are still labelled as 'face make-up', so they're still happy for you to use their products as you see fit. Liberating yet terrifying.

As time has passed I've grown more and more confident when it comes to my make-up abilities. Thanks to YouTube I now no longer sit staring blankly at my various make-up utensils wondering what the hell goes where and, despite not being an expert by any means, can now tell the difference between a blending brush and a contouring brush. Probably.

That said, I thought I'd have a punt at one of these 3 ways to wear type posts, with my latest purchase from the Lush cosmetics range. Fantasy is a brilliant sparkling gold concoction that calls itself an eyeliner but is pretty versatile at just being general...make-up. And I LOVE it. It's such a bold, solid gold, has real balls by which I mean it clings on for dear life and doesn't just flake off at the first opportunity and is super duper blendable! So yh, it's pretty awesome, and it being Lush means it's cruelty free, so we're in a guilt free zone here, woo!

Without further ado, here's some things I did to my face using this lovely product!

This first look is a bit of a bold one, perfect for a New Year's Eve party where you can get away with a bit more sparkle! Using a mixture of the provided applicator and a more precise angled brush, a simply dipped into the paint and worked away with my usual cat-eye flick. I felt solid black mascara would detract from the eyeliner focus, so instead I dipped in a spare mascara brush and added a light coat of Fantasy to the ends of my lashes to finish the look!

If you have an eyeliner brush you prefer to use this look is really easy to pull off because the paint literally stays put wherever you apply it, however the applicator it comes with is slightly more awkward to get to do what you want, so if you're like me and have shaky hands my advice would be to stick with a brush you know well.

For the second look I went for a subtler use of the gold by applying a layer on top of a standard black cat-eye flick. I finished this look off with a layer of black mascara topped off with Fantasy on the tips.

Considering I do it pretty much every day, I like to think I'm pretty good at cat-eye flicks, but this was really difficult to keep straight, and as you can see from my pics I didn't quite get it perfect, but you get the gist! I think this looks great just to shake up a day to day look if you're a regular eyeliner wearer like myself, especially if you drop the gold tipped lashes and just stick to the double stacked liner. It's nice for a change every now and then!

This look demonstrates how blendable Fantasy is. Using a few random greens and blues I had lying around (from a palette I got in Japan, I can't read what brand it is, sorry!) I started around the edges working inwards, before finally laying a spot of gold in the corner of my eye and using a blending brush to buff it out. I finished the look with a flick of black eyeliner and heavy black mascara to really open my eye up and make the colours pop!

For a product so unmovable once dry, I was surprised at how easily it blended. Like a dream I tell you! And because it's so pigmented you hardly need any product at all for a strong colour. This is definitely my favourite and one I will definitely try out a bit more on those days where I have a bit longer to have a play.

So, there we have it, an extremely versatile product in a strong, stayfast colour. I adore this product and can definitely see me getting a lot of use out of it. Interested to see what else I can pull off with it.

What do you think of Lush cosmetics? Have you used any other products from their ever expanding range? Let me know in the comments, I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting bits to add to my make-up bag!

3 Ways To Wear - Lush Fantasy

Paperchase Christmas Sale Bargains

My Top 5 Most Anticipated 2016 Coasters

2015 was one of those really frustrating years for me where I kept seeing amazing films being advertised and then either I missed them or one cinema in the middle of the Scottish Highlands would be showing it. I say this every year but I haven’t seen half of the films I wanted to see this year, and honestly I felt that 2015 wasn't that great of a year cinematically speaking. That’s not to say there wasn't some amazing stuff to see, just that usually when I write these I'm spoiled for choice, whereas this year I really had to dig. But I got there, so let’s get on with it!

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015, George Miller)

I can’t even begin to explain my viewing experience of this film properly, but it kind of reminded me of those great high energy scenes from 90s Baz Luhrmann movies, except this was the whole film. I saw it in IMAX because, hey, it’d be a crime not to and just, my god. Every frame, every action, was so precise, so exact and so breathtaking. Every scene left me gasping for more, I wish I could have done a Shia LaBoeuf and filmed myself watching this because I know I definitely caught myself making goofy happy faces at least twice! So great, can’t wait to rewatch.

It Follows (2015, David Robert Mitchell)

Clearly David Robert Mitchell is a guy who loves his 80s slasher flicks, because this movie basically seeps that John Carpenter style from every pore. We've definitely seen an increase in quality horror flicks in recent years, but a lot of those tend to lend themselves to already established trends of play off of a popular franchise, and whilst a lot of these are good, none can claim pure originality like It Follows. Yes the movie uses the whole ‘if you have sex you die’ ideology from the original slashers but it completely subverts it, bringing it to a smarter modern audience whilst still remaining timeless. It is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar, a true other in a genre so overrun with clichés. Go watch.

Jurassic World (2015, Colin Trevorrow)

On paper I should hate this movie. Loads of CGI where models could have been used, hammy over the top acting and stupid, mindless action. But for some reason, I loved it! Such nostalgia at EVERY turn, the ridiculous B-Movie style ending, the tongue-in-cheek product placement, the fact that we got to see it as an actual operating park! Just everything, everything got my motors running. No, the film wasn't better or even close to as good as the original, but I never expected it to be, I expected it to be a love letter to Jurassic Park fans and that is exactly what we got.

Amy (2015, Asif Kapadia)

I think that when you study film you become hyper aware of meanings and influences behind film, and no more so than the documentary. I often find when watching them that I never fully get the impact as there’s always that niggling thought in the back of my head that the ‘truths’ I am watching are actually highly manipulated content. And so sitting down to watch Amy I wasn’t prepared to take everything I saw at face value, however this documentary is so powerful that at times I found myself truly believing and pitying this incredible woman and the seemingly toxic people she surrounded herself with – family included. The doc is basically one long tragedy – we know how it ends and it’s excruciating to watch a person basically do everything in their power to destroy themselves. It’s a fascinating flick, but prepare to grab the Kleenex – this one’s a tearjerker.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2015, Alejandro G Inárritu)

Sometimes you just want a film to strip back all of the special effects and editing and just show you some great acting. And for me, Birdman is the perfect character study. OK, I know I said strip back the SFX which is a weird thing to say about a film that features a superhero, but what I mean is make them more subtle so you aren't distracted by them. And this movie does this, so that all we are left with is the raw talent of the actors appearing before us. And everybody is excellent. Birdman is funny, dramatic, witty, heartbreaking, frustrating and endearing, a true showcase of acting ability and commentary on the modern day Hollywood machine.

And that's it! I love going back and thinking about how many great films I did manage to squeeze in! What were your favourites? Is there anything you missed at the cinema this year that you're still dying to watch? I'd love to hear from you and have a movie geek chat!

TOP 5 FILMS OF 2015

I think movies have a way of making us feel bad about not being Christmassy enough. I mean, you're sat there with your £5 Primark fairy lights and a festive Yankee Candle and you're feeling pretty good about your Christmas set up. You sit down to watch a yuletide classic and the Christmas they're having, well, you may as well not have tried. Annoying, but I do feel it makes me want to go that extra mile to really bring the Christmas spirit.

So every year Conor and I like to try out traditionally Christmassy activities that for one reason or another never made it onto our yearly December agenda. And this year was the time to embrace the Gingerbread House.

Because I'm lazy and also not that great at baking, we cheated and bought an Ikea style gingerbread flatpack affair from Tiger. £3, boom, bargain. For some reason I figured the pack would contain icing and sweets too, what a naive fool I was. AND two of the pieces were broken, bastards. Nothing a little icing can't fix, I thought. Well it turns out life is not a Saturday morning cartoon and patching gingerbread up with icing stitches is actually just a myth. Crap. We made do with some Cadbury's chocolate finger reinforcements and cracked on.

So, went to Tesco, grabbed a load of colourful sweets and icing (shockingly there wasn't a candy cane in sight, which meant I had to rethink the whole exterior fencing situation) and set about it!

Conor, for some silly reason, thought I would actually relent some creative control to him. I have to admit I was tempted, but once I realised his 'funny joke' about painting an IRA mural on the side of my winter wonderland cottage started becoming too much of a reality I decided to help. And by help I mean I took overdoing all of it and he assisted. It was a good set up.

So yeah, all the ideas came straight out of fairytales with a little help from Pinterest. And it was so much fun! We whacked on the Muppets Christmas Carol soundtrack and had a lovely Christmassy evening. The finished product looked not too far off what I had envisioned, however it only lasted one night as the aforementioned cracks in the gingerbread finally gave way and the roof collapsed on itself. And so we were forced to eat it all in one evening. It was fab.

Have you made a gingerbread house before? Did you bake it yourself or buy it pre-made like me? Hope everybody has a good week and is enjoying their Christmas preparations!