Guess who's back? Back again.....

The blog is back...Tell your friends (Sorry couldn't help finishing the title).

WOW its been a loooong time since I last posted!

I owe you all a massive apology and an explanation. So there has been some major hiccups in my blog: I blew up my laptop (no idea how...made a cute noise then died), I then broke the battery in my mac (again no idea how), I then moved house!! WOOHOO (Video blogs will be up soon!) and then boyfriend got knocked by a car (he is fine, didn't break a bone! just a bit sore) and I have no Internet in our new place so having to sit in coffee bars to use the internet, I also started a new job with random hours meaning that my days and sleeping patterns are crazy.

However the blog is back up and running and even more better than ever!

So on to a review! Many of you may know from previous blogs I hate animal tested products and while I have ended up owning some these were bought as presents or I have owned for so long. As a result I love LUSH and their new range of emotional cosmetics is pretty awesome. You can play online to find out what your chosen colours should be or go into store and play the game. You basically have a wheel of colours and you can pick which one best fits yours mood and work out a whole look from that. The range of cosmetic is pretty versatile with products being able to use as lipstick, blusher and eyeshadow. Not bad from one product that fits into a clutch bag.

Good things come in small packages.

So I chose Passion. Its a bright pink with purple tones, its super bright which I love and even better long wearing. I can't believe how long wearing this product is.

Having applied it once to lips it lasted until lunch where I drank water, ate crisps and an ice cream (yes a nutioutional lunch) and the colour had still lasted just slightly faded to a more muted colour. I wore it again on Sunday and even after a Sunday dinner it still lasted! 

It is a bit on the expensive side for most of my lipsticks that I have bought with a price of £14.50 makes it more expensive than MAC Lipstick at £14. It is about the same size as a lipstick but the strong pigmentation means it will last longer as less applications will be needed. The multifunction as well is a massive plus too. While the price is a bit scary for something so small I have never seen such pigmented lipstick before and if your like your colours vibrant and lasting then this is definitely worth it. 


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Just Keep On Rolling...

Hello!

So this week I got to see the amazing Karmin. If you have no idea who they are put them into youtube NOW! Seriously talented and they have an album out in the UK next month (it is already out in the US). The best thing (apart from being front row to their first UK performance) I got to hug Amy and Nick! 

Melissa(friend), Amy (lead Singer), Moi and Nick (Keyboard/Singer)

Amy's signature style is her suicide roll, a pin-up style hair do. This is a style that I love to wear and show you all how to create. In all honesty I wear my hair like this to go shopping almost on a daily basis as its simple to do and can be done on freshly washed to needing a wash hair.

Read on to find out how to create this style:

Spot It ....

So hands up lets be honest how many have heard that toothpaste over night on spot will get rid of it?

Hands up who has tried it?

Now I had to put my hands up for both, and I honestly toothpaste has never worked. If you have had any luck with this technique please let me know which brands work best and I will test them out.

However in the mean time here is something that does work:

Read on to discover more...

Magnetic Attraction...

If anyone has ever gone down a Wiki spiral and searched nail varnish it says that at one point the application of nail art was seen as self mutilation and unhealthy by psychiatrists. Thankfully psychiatrists don't think that any more.


If anyone missed the last nail art how to blog Click Here for Leopard Print nail art. However if you have trouble getting in touch with your inner artist then here is a new product that takes the hassle out of nail art even if you find it difficult to draw a stick figure on paper.

Barry M and many other brands have launched Magnetic Polish. The polish is infused with magnetic particles that when a magnet is placed over it draws the particles to form a pattern. Barry polishes come with 3 different Magentic Patterns: the Union Jack/Cross, wavy lines, straight lines.

Faking It Like The Pros......

Hello one and all,

It has been an amazing week! It was the super long bank holiday here in the UK as we got to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee! AMAZING. I actually got to go and see the events and got to see the Queen twice! AMAZING.

So today was meant to be a tutorial on Kate Middleton inspired hair but having burnt my hand at 7.30am and builders arriving at 8am when the swelling had subsided builders arrived to fix my bedroom wall so I got kicked out and had to catch a train. So here is a great quick fix to bad hair days forever.

This is an amazing product much quicker than having to style hair and hide extention clips. EZ Pony is great for covering up bad hair days or days when you just didn't have time to bother with your hair. Also another bonus is even if you have short hair it can be attached to give length.

It is also great to adding length to short hair as well as protecting hair from over styling. Hair can be damaged from heat styling causing split ends and breakage. 

This is a synthetic hair ponytail but the company also does human hair if you want to blend better with your natural hair and style it. 

I know this is not a new product and its very popular with Afro-Carribean hair but it works well with all hair types as it there are several lengths and styles to blend with a variety of hair.

How to attach:

Fruit Pastel Hair...

Hello! Have you missed me? Sorry computers hate me but hopefully you will love this post...

So a huge thank you to all those who have been voting for me if you haven't voted for Cosmopolitain's new blog awards please click HERE and vote for my blog. Thank you xxx

Also another huge thank you to those who have been sponsoring my Cancer Research 5K Run if you would like to make a donation or read information about the run please click HERE.

On to this weeks beauty post....

Now I have always loved the crazy coloured hair styles and dip dyed hair but never actually thought I would be able to get the colours I wanted without bleaching my hair but I found an awesome way of achieving a temporary colour for your hair. I am using non oil pastels ( the colour will rub on your hair better than oil based pastels and the colour will be brighter than using chalk), it will rub on your pillow at night if you want it to last longer and not wash it out but don't worry it will wash out in the wash.

Raising The Brow...

Hello!


I hope you have all been enjoying my how to blogs, if you have missed my reviews you are in luck its review time....BUT FIRST!....


I am running a 5k charity run in July. It is for Cancer Research UK, please do not be put of with donation because it says UK. It is a UK charity and the research is done in the UK but it will benefit the world. If a cure for cancer can be found it can help all those globally who have this awful disease. Please feel free to look at my sponsor site CLICK HERE this is an amazing charity and a worth while cause. To those out side of the UK this is a great race its main colour is pink (i think it use to be for breast cancer but all the cancer research charities merged to fight the same fight). So all the runners usually get dressed up in pink crazy outfits, so if you donate please give me some suggestions as to what I should wear for this race, best answer will win a prize!


Also, Cosmopolitan magazine is running a competition at the moment for bloggers, it is competition open to all bloggers however there is a catagory for new beauty bloggers THAT ME! I count as a new blog as BeautyLLB has been going for under a year. So if you love reading this blog please vote for me CLICK HERE, the blog ULR is http://beautyllb.blogspot.co.uk/ just copy and paste. Thank you for your votes and please tell your friends.


So on to the review....


Eyebrows are big news in the beauty world, I am sure you may have noticed the amount of threading bars that have opened over the past year (in my town alone there is 4 and counting). The style of brows at the moment is more fuller but not over grown. If years of over plucking have left your with sparse brows and growing them out makes you look like you lost a fight with a pair of tweezers have no fear I have the solution!


I love my brows but I love bollywood, Grace Kelly and Audry Hepburn inspired brows thick, full and groomed to perfection. In reality my brows have a good shape ( I have mine threaded, I specify the shape I want some people I have seen just sit in the chair without saying a word then get upset with the result!) I have some random gaps of hairless patches, I have tried pencils and eyeshadow all which work great but the look I like is best achieved with this .....

Scrubbing Up...

Its the bank holiday weekend! YAAAAY. 


So I have run away from the big bad city to the Yorkshire countryside for a city girl this is pretty rural. 


Never fear I have packed my make up case with me and can still post some awesome reviews and how to tips. Now if you have taken the plunge and started to wear lipstick then having smooth, moist lips is important. Applying lipstick to dry, cracked and peeling lips will often make the colour patchy and also show up imperfections like peeling skin. So I am here to show you how you can get super soft lips quickly and easily. 


You will need the following:


A lip balm (not a gloss!!!) something like Vaseline will do.
A tin or container if the lip balm or Vaseline comes in those super big tubs.
Sugar (granulated is best you want something coarse, icing sugar is way to fine)
A spoon

Vaseline tin lip balm, Tea spoon, Jar of granulated sugar

Let Them Eat Cake...

So as you may have gathered from my previous posts my second passion from Make Up is baking!  I am baking mad! I love decorating cakes too, its like make up for cakes! True story. So this blog is my favourite where I am combining cake and nails to show you how to make your nails look tasty!

This weekend was the first London cake show: The Cake Decorating and Baking Show at ExCel by from ICHF Events. It is now over in London but it is going up north to Birmingham this November so start booking your tickets! First I want to give a couple of shout outs to some really amazing people that I met at the show and at the end I will post some amazing pictures of cakes from the show.

Hello and a massive THANK YOU to Susan from Cake Craft & Decoration Magazine who helped me and my Mum look for my Mum's purse when she lost it. Thank you so much for all your help and giving my mum extra hugs when she was worried, you were amazing.

Also to the mystery person who handed in my Mum's purse and didn't steal a penny THANK YOU xxx

Another HELLO to the amazing girls at  Queen of Hearts Couture Cakes, Valeri & Christina . These two girls are seriously talented check out their cakes below! All hand made with butter cream (I think its called butter frosting in the USA). Both are nurses with talent for cake decorating they do cakes to order and they run classes throughout the year check out their designs and classes HERE. This is one class I would love to take, maybe they can teach me how to do a make up inspired cake. Here are some of their creations that were on display:

So on to the nail art inspired by all the cakes I saw (and ate). You will need the following:

Natural/Neutral nail polish

Tan or Brown nail polish

A darker tan/brown polish or Black nail polish

Bright colour nail polish

A darker similar shade to your bright colour nail polish

Either a Nail Art Brush or unloved make up brush

A smooth piece of paper (usually  junk mail work best)

Here are my chosen colours, I am using an eyeliner brush that came in a set that I didn't like. The brush was not that great for eye lining but is perfect for nail art.

BLURRY Photo sorry. From Left to right: BarryM- top and base coat,Nails Inc -Jermayne Street, 17 -Grapefruit, Sinful- Stiletto

And The Phone Ran Away With The Blog...

Hello...  you can follow me on TWITTER or FACEBOOK

So this week my phone has gone bye bye so posting pics is taking a while. However it gives me a chance to blog about something that matters to me and should concern most cosmetic users: Animal Testing. This has been a hot topic recently, and animals are treated horrifically just for a lipstick or tube of mascara. Is the suffering of animal really worth the price of your blusher? In my opinion NO! There is legislation that is meant to ban animal testing but due to loop holes companies still do test on animals both ingredients and/or finished products. If you want to see an end to animal testing then sign the petition and read the information HERE . Also if you are 16 or over and have a strong stomach Lush had a performance artist act out the horror of animal testing in their Regent Street store, I won't post a link but you can search online for news articles about the performance. 

Also today me and a friend went to  Metal Morphosis in Hackney to get our ears pierced! Check out their Studio they have a stand in Birmingham , Hackney and Selfridges London.They have featured in several magazines and TV shows about piercing, they are the best piercing studio I have found in a long time. So to add to my collection of metal in my ear I got some random ones a pinna on my left ear (the bit at the top of the ear)  and a Auricle piercing on my right ear (kind of random half way bit of your ear). I like to have the same number of piercings in each ear (I like to feel balanced) so I chickened out of conch piercing (the middle bit of your ear on the inside).

 If you are interested in knowing about my piercings or piercings in general let me know. Also if you have any requests for make up, hair or nails tutorials or reviews let me know by posting in the comment section below or via facebook or twitter.

Stay tuned for a tasty post...

X X X

I'M FADING AWAY....

No not really but my nails are:

So this post is a nail art tutorial for super trendy nails for the weekend.

BeautyLLB Dares...

So Spring is in the air, well when its not raining. But the spring clean fever is upon me and while its a chance to clear and clean up my make up draws its also a chance to try out something new. It all started with new glasses (yay for the huge glasses! I can actually see so much more!) and I felt this was a time to make some changes:

YAY New Glasses, New Lipstick and New Hair Style! (this was taken at work, I was couldn't wait to go home to take a picture)

Pressing Concern...

So I am sure many of you have been in this situation where you have a pressed powder product that has been smashed and makes a mess when opened.

 

Now I loved this blusher it was a really lovely peach colour but I accidentally dropped it and it smashed the powder but the case didn't break but is really messy to use:

If anyone has had this happen to them its pretty annoying but I am here to save the day. This trick also works with loose eye shadows.

So there are somethings you are going to need:

Surgical Spirit

Bowl

Spatula (or those stirring sticks from coffee places)

Piece of material

Something to press the reformed powder (most eye shadows a 10p coin is the right size/ USA I think its a quarter)

Pucker Up And Give Us A SMOOCH...

Its the end of the Easter weekend which means the diet starts again and its back to work. In the UK at the moment the weather turned from glorious sunshine (actually sun bathing weather!) to grey and rainy. Typical as soon as I have a day off the sunshine also takes the day off. 

No matter if the sun isn't shining we can still have gorgeous glowing skin thanks to the amazing new UK make up company Smooch.

Smooch is a relatively new company that is gaining a great name for themselves especially in the professional beauty world having recently featured in Scratch (professional nail magazine) in its section for what a professional make up artist needs in their make up kit.

This month's Scratch

Must have lipstick

Must have bronzer

So having read such a great press I really wanted to try out some of their products. I bought a bronzer, blusher, lipstick and lip gloss.

Brush Your Troubles Away

Hello!

So it has been a crazy few weeks but YAY for a new post!

I have needed a new brush for ages as mine is pretty much destroyed having lost several bristles and the little ends of the bristles that stops it scratching your head have fallen off. So while I was looking for a brush I remembered the Tangle Teezer having been on an episode of Dragon's Den and shouting at the TV as none of the Dragon's invested. However Shaun P launched his product and it is now a must have for salons and anyone wanting to look after their hair.

Back Where We Belong

WOW it has been a looooong time!

BT accidentally disconnected our land line and Internet at home! Living without Internet did drive me insane but I managed to live through it and I even managed to get some reading done. My friend lent me Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and if you haven't heard of the book you would have heard of the film which is in cinemas both in the UK and USA not sure the rest of the world. It is amazing I am off to see the film tomorrow.

So I got my Internet back yesterday but I hurt my back really badly so spent the evening in bed with pain medication and a hot water bottle. Today my back was still a bit sore so I couldn't do any treatments on clients at school so I was sent to the hair department to be of some use. My hair is in need of a trim but I wasn't ready for a big change so got a wash,trim (half a centimetre off) and blow dry:

now that's service!

A Stitch In TIme

Hello friends!


Sorry for the absence of posts these past few days but my internet at home is broken! BT are trying to fix it apparently but it has been down since Friday night and still not working!!! Life without the Internet is proving rather difficult as I can only use it while at work so I will now have to wait till Tuesday night to post again.  


Don't forget about the competition http://beautyllb.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/just-giving-it-away.html


On happier note I have acquired a new skill with the Internet being down, I took my Mum on an early Mother's Day treat to a craft fair at Olympia. This fair was for the public and was made of three floors one for needle work, another for paper craft and another for knitting/crochet. My Mum and I love craft work stuff so it was a fun day out also there was a lot of cross over with beauty and crafting. In the paper craft department I found several flat back gems and stickers that are great for nail art or enhancing eye make up. Here is a flat back pearl I stuck on my thumb nail with nail glue, I love Kawaii nails and I think this summer I may go a bit crazy with these pearls:

A Brush With Beauty....

So this week the blog is truly international as the stats show for this week alone the blog has managed to hit all corners of the world WOOHOO thank you to all my visitors.

So next week I will be getting my wax pot (fingers crossed) and I can give a review on some very pretty waxing products. Also to come a great and honest review on some ELF make up products.

On to the pretty stuff...

My favourite brushes

Work of Art...

As many of you may know I love nail art and while nail can be easy for some it is difficult for most and also tricky to do on both hands but worry no longer there is an answer! This is via Rent-Nail-Art-printer check out their website for a video demo of the printer http://www.rentnailartprinter.com/

NAIL PRINTER! Now this is not a new gadget there are similar ones that are very popular in Japanese shopping centres and other parts of the globe, even Mattel created a desk size nail art printer for Barbie where you connect it to a computer and upload or select the image you want. I have never tried these type of nail art before and I was super SUPER excited to find there was a stand at the beauty fair demonstrating the printer for salons.

Company promotional picture: smaller one is portable and the large one is for a salon.

Happiness Overload...

OK people the competition has stated simply follow this link http://beautyllb.blogspot.com/2012/03/just-giving-it-away.html for your chance to win some top make up prizes used by Beauty Queens. There are two prizes; first prize wins an eyeshadow brush and a smokey charcoal shimmer loose pigment eyeshadow and second prize wins a gorgeous pink fast drying polish all Helen E products (this competition is not run by Helen E these are simply items that I love and I want others to enjoy as well).

So the Professional Beauty Show London 2012 is over and the next one is six months away it has left me with so much to share with you all. The show was a two day event but I unfortunately could only make it for the Sunday show but if any one is thinking of going next year I would recommend going both days as there is just so much to see and if you are interested in the talks then there are different ones through out the day.

There are so many products that I loved at the show highly recommend Airbase if your not a make up artist but have a special even coming up such as wedding or prom then I would ask for a make up artist using Airbase.

The Dermalogia girls were amazing! Absolutely loved their up beat friendliness and they even did a face map for me and the boyfriend ( yes I dragged him along to help carry bags and take photos). I was told I have dehydrated skin around most of my face and congestion around my jaw which means I have combination skin and they gave me special samples to try out before buying the products.

Also loved WAXXXEPRESS! There packaging for the products are so much fun! I would order extra just to display as they have quirky names and colours also they smell so yummy!! Unfortunately I at present do not have a wax heater but I have a pot that I just smell it because it reminds me of piña coladas and holidays as it is coconut based. This one is COCO NUTS...

I have used other wax brands but I have yet to find one that smells any where near as good as this stuff. As soon as I get to try this stuff out I will post a full blog on it but I have a feeling I will not be disappointed and WAXXXPRESS http://www.waxxxpress.com/ is having 20% off their entire range at the moment with free delivery!!! Their attention to detail is amazing even their forms at the fair to fill out were imitations of boarding passes as their range is inspired by travel and holiday destinations.

False nails

Natural Nail. This didn't hurt at all.

Close up of the patter,

Also another review that will be up in the next few days is the amazing nail art printer http://www.rentnailartprinter.com/. This is amazing, the technology is not new they have similar printers in shopping centres in Japan and China also Mattel have a Barbie nail art printer in the USA but this was the first time I saw one in the UK and got to use it.  This is something I think would do well in nail bars as the possibility of patterns and images than can be applied to nails are endless. I got a graffiti nail pattern done on my natural nail and also on false nails...

Stay tuned for all these reviews over the next few days and don't forget to sign up to the competition http://beautyllb.blogspot.com/2012/03/just-giving-it-away.html

XXX