Crown Brushes

Crown Brushes
Originally uploaded by oxfordjasmine

That's it indeed, more brushes than my poor little mind could comprehend. This is the Crown Brush stand at Vitality Earl's Court. This photo was only one third of the entire selection there and there are more types on their website! www.crownbrush.co.uk.

I bought five amazing new brushes which are all dupes for MAC (217 for blending and 109 for contouring) and a pencil brush. The great thing is that they cost a fraction of the price! I paid £12 for 5 brushes. Some are animal hair but there are a lot of synthetic versions which I was really pleased about.

I have not been disappointed and the 217 dupe is just amazingly soft (at under £3 it was a steal). I love MAC as much as the next make up junkie but I was not happy with the price of their brushes and I found the 217 a bit scratchy. This way I have got 5 for less than the price of 1 MAC brush. Get in!

Sip Your Way to Younger Radiant Skin?

P1030434
Originally uploaded by oxfordjasmine

I was thirsty so I tried this new flavoured water, sip - the original skin drink. It's £1.29 per 500ml bottle and is currently available from Waitrose and larger Sainsbury's supermarkets. There are several flavours but I liked the elderflower best.

From the label: every sip contains:
- vitamin c
- botanical extracts of rose petal, sweet violet, scottish heather blossom tops, marigold and linden blossom
- white tea tincture
- selenium

It all sounds fabulous doesn't it? I liked it because of the obvious poshness of the ingredients and that it wasn't boring like water but not sickly sweet like juice or juice drinks. My skin doesn't feel any different but it tasted nice and was cheaper than a bottle of Volvic at the time!

Surreal Encounter

Rosemary Conley and Me
Originally uploaded by oxfordjasmine

This is me with the lovely Rosemary Conley. She was such a brilliant lady and she told me I looked great, which endeared her to me even more! I used to do her work out video and it was a bit surreal to sit next to her and have a chat!  She is absolutely tiny and looks so amazing, well I'm not surprised she could probably run rings around me!

I met Rosemary at the Vitality Show at Earl's Court, I have loads more to show and tell about the day and the new products I bought so stay tuned.

Saving Grace

Yesterday the photo shoot for my portfolio went really well, everyone had a good day.

The photographer Mat Smith, http://www.matsmithphotography.com/, was excellent. I can highly recommend his services.

Sarah the hair stylist took my few garbled words of an idea and just made it happen, she is my wedding stylist. If you'd like to talk to her, send me an email and I'll put you in touch.

Here are two of the photos on Mat's Flickr page.

 

Used here: Barry M Dazzle dusts and elf lipgloss

Used here: Barry M Fuschia and Black Dazzle dusts, elf blush and Barry M Fuschia mixed with elf clear lipgloss.  

The models were friends of mine I had collected together because of their beautiful features that meant that all I had to do was complement their beauty with the make up.

The Living Room in Oxford was our venue, they have an ultra swanky private bar called The Study which has the normal bar and booth arrangement but also three bed style areas where you can curl up with your mates and sip cocktails amongst the cushions and bolsters whilst laughing and chatting in the relaxed atmosphere. I think for my next birthday I am going to hire it for my party, definitely. Then it was all change, make up off and new make up on to go upstairs to the roof garden to take some stunning shots of the Oxford skyline as the sun was setting.

My most suprising and wonderful product that saved my bacon was a recent purchase of elf's glow powder in shimmer http://www.eyeslipsface.co.uk/

The sculpt and shape duo I have by MAC was a little too orange for some of the models so this elf powder worked wonderfully for contouring and highlighting.

My other show stopper was Barry M Dazzle Dust in Hot Fuschia Pink www.barrym.com

I can't wait to show you the photos from the day, they were amazing, I can barely believe that I (yes little old me) achieved it and my portfolio is going to look very good indeed, thanks to Mat, Sarah and the lovely models who all get to keep their photos ;)

I am planning another photoshoot sometime soon, those of you who are smirking whilst reading this know what I am on about....

I love the smell of fresh lipstick in the morning

I just received my two MAC lipsticks and they immediately transported me back to my 8th birthday party. I was given a strawberry shortcake figurine that smelled of vanilla strawberries.

I am in love with these two, Patisserie and Blankety. Even though in the photos they look identical, Patisserie (left swatch) is lustre so thinner and shimmery, Blankety (right swatch) is amplified so thicker and pretty matte.







So check them out, great for nude looks. Can't wait to do a few looks with these babies!

Oops I did it again!

So today I had a glorious day off, the first half of was spent cleaning and tidying which made me grumpy. So after lunch I treated myself to a lovely drive in my fiance's sports car with the top down. That soon blew away all my grumpy cobwebs as I flew down country lanes at a frightening speed (don't worry guys I passed my advanced driving exam last year so it's all good).

I headed for MAC to stock up on some "essentials" and some "non-essentials" (what these are I don't know because everything make up related is essential!). I have a photo shoot on Sunday and it's going to be mental with five models needing two sets of make up throughout the day. I have full confidence in my models, photographer and hair stylist so it should be good fun. I am hoping to do a little video about it so that should give you a good idea of how it went.

I bought

MAC wipes (and forgot the remover soaked cotton buds!) which are awesome for quick and thorough removal (but they are £10... so I wouldn't use these for everyday removal just for photoshoots).

A couple of paint pots Delft which is an amazing peacock blue and Moss Scape which is a lovely mossy green. If you've used these two then I'd be interested to know what you think, I tend to use paint pots for photography rather than every day as they are quite heavy and can make your eyelids look more creased.

A couple of new eyeshadows, Time and Space which is a gorgeous taupe brown colour, lighter than satin taupe though. Also Magnetic fields which is darker than satin taupe.

I also bought a new Prep + Prime but this time instead of the plain one I got Illuminate which has a more pink tone and more irridescence, normal P+P has a bit of a shimmer but it's more delicate. This pink tone suits me better.

So that's my little haul from today, I think I need to give my wallet a bit of a rest until after the photoshoot!

Ta ta for now, blog ya later!

Bl*g Virgin

You know me, I'm OxfordJasmine... off YouTube? Off Twitter? Off Facebook? Blimey, I'm a bit of an internet genie (I pop up all over the place).

So this is my first post, a bit of a random one. There's more to come, I like to talk dirty about make up, cosmetics and fashion, so expect some juicy bits about products I'm loving and cruelty free goodies that are worth having!

Would love to see more people on these two websites please:
www.swapsiesuk.co.uk
www.slapswap.com

Both are awesome places to find make up and cosmetics that you might not be able to afford just yet, but would like try. Cosmetics you don't want are a mega find for someone else!

See you soon, more bl*gging bl*gs on their way!