Glo for Colour this Easter

When it comes to colour cosmetics, I tend to favour Mac and Nars, but there is always space for cool new contenders. Well, there’s always space in my heart, if not on my shelves!

If I’m looking to diversify my beauty collection and decrease my wallet size, cult beauty shop BeautyMART is usually my first port of call – they’re so ahead of the curve.  It makes sense, then, that BeautyMART introduced me to Glo & Ray. These guys take ‘the chemistry of colour as constant inspiration’ for their range of highly pigmented products.

I tried a couple of their products and was impressed with their eyeliner. Glo & Ray eyeliners have ‘Ultra-Adhesion Technology’. I tried the ‘Houston’ Eternity eyeliner which is a deep, shimmery grey. It performed incredibly well, staying put from (very early) morning until I got home that evening. I loved switching up my usual black. I paired my smoky grey eye with La Amo Creamy Lip Colour in Love&Hate. The formula is great, really moisturising and comfortable to wear. Everything’s very reasonably priced (Eternity Long-lasting eyeliners are £9.00 and LaAmo lipsticks are £12.00).

If you’re getting a bit too comfortable with your make-up basics, I’d recommend shaking things up with Glo & Ray – it’s always good to inject a bit of colour into these rainy March days! We've got time to experiment with Easter fast approaching...Happy Easter Fashion Slanters.

Glo & Ray is available to buy here and at BeautyMART in Topshop Oxford Circus. 

The full look - I used Mac's Dirty Blond on my brows and their Mineralise Skinfinish in 'Soft and Gentle' for overall skin glow. I've got Glo & Ray Houston eyeliner on, with my semi-perm individual lashes and a taupe Nars eyeshadow. 

Houston Eternity Eyeliner

La Amo Love&Hate Lipstick

January Beauty Buys

Mariah’s always warbling about how little she cares about the presents under the Christmas tree and usually, I tend to agree with her.

This year, however, the evergreen delivered such a tasty beauty bounty that I felt I had to share – I hope it inspires some of your January shopping or gift buying.

1. Leopard print purse from Monki

2. Mac Studio Waterweight SPF30 Foundation

3. Nice make-up bag (don’t know where it’s from)

4. Facepaint The Story of Makeup by Lisa Eldridge

5. Black Orchid EDT by Tom Ford

6. Mac Palm eyeliner pot

7. Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick in Rouge Noir

8. Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation

9. Charlotte Tilbury and Norman Parkinson Dreamy Glow Highlighter

10. Mac lipstick in Matte Royale

11. Tom Ford nail varnish in Smoke Red

12. Mac lipstick in Fashion Trip

Other faves included an awesome toothbrush, a Clarisonic and a L’Occitane beauty set with minis that make me look forward to the gym.

Not Another Salon

Happy 2016 Fashion Slanters! I hope you had a lovely break and that getting back into the swing of things is not proving too taxing. I thought I'd welcome the New Year with a post about a new discovery. 

Every time I walk down Brick Lane I notice something different. There’s an unanticipated sample sale (dangerous), an untapped vintage store, a fun pop-up or, most recently, a shiny new salon.

But this was ‘Not Another Salon’ – A Pinterester’s dream, an Instagrammer’s fantasy and a colour-lover’s long-awaited blog post.

The second you walk through the door, you feel like you've been whisked into the future – strong lines, bright shades and funky decoration took my breath away. So cool it was, that it might have felt intimidating, but the girls in the salon were so lovely and welcoming that they offered to take me on a tour. I will try and give you the same treat, statically. Let’s go:

The Entrance

The graphic flooring, the colour pops, the cages! Arghhh! 

The shopping cage

Hmm, what shall I buy from the shopping cage? How about EVERYTHING?

The hair washing area

A minimalist moment with a neon sign and a head massage. Is there any other way to go? 

The logo wall

Yes.

The mani station 

A rainbow of beautiful colours. Which colour do you want to go for? I HAVE NO IDEA.

One of these designs on each nail please. Let's begin with Zippy. 

Or maybe glitter Shellac that looks like the film Frozen trapped in a polish...

Now let's go downstairs. 

What's that? Oh, only a secret room which is like a timewarp. Doesn't every salon have one of these? No?

With some creepy Dorothy legs and trippy wallpaper. Just because. 

And Pinterest goes wild. 

We've now left the secret room (which was on our left behind that shelf) so let's explore the rest of downstairs. 

There are some sexy mirrors, found in a little boutique from the actual future. 

 

Let's not forget what these guys actually do, which is amazing hair which has the power to turn heads - even in London's coolest area. 

The hair you always wanted is sitting on another woman's head. 

Or maybe this mousy/blue creation is more your style? 

If you've always been totally jel of My Little Pony's tresses then make them YOURS.

Remember the colour wheel from Art? Of course it's here - where else would it be? 

Don't forget to book your appointment on the way out - if your New Year's resolution is to 'be more adventurous with hair' then you are in the best possible place. 

Not Another Salon

020 7033 3920

188 Brick Lane E16SA

Candy Yum Yum by Mac

I think winter is the most wonderful time of the year for make-up. You have longer to spend doing it (the weather’s shite, who wants to be out there?) and there are more parties than you can drunkenly shake a cocktail sausage at. Although it feels wrong to transition from cocktail sausages, here goes.

When you’re tired of your usual wintry crimson lip, why not buck the expected colour palette and go neon pink?

I’ve long-loved the eye-hurting brightness of Mac’s Candy Yum Yum shade – the lipstick is matte and so pigmented that reapplication doesn’t feel like an endless chore. My only gripe is that it can sometimes feel a bit dry. I recently tried the gloss version which feels great on the lips and is a bit more wearable for daytime. I also like mixing pure Candy Yum Yum lipstick with the Cyan Lipmix to create a surprisingly flattering bright violet hue.

I’ll post some good Mac combinations soon, but in the meantime here are some pics of a look with the Candy Yum Yum Tinted Lipglass.

With such a bold lipcolour, I like keeping the rest of the face quite neutral. In this case I prepped my skin with a primer, used a light foundation with some pink contouring and filled my brows in with a combination of Mac Lingering and a mid-brown powder.