A rose for a Rosie

Ooh, get me being photographed with the super that is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley! Yes, it's a been a week (well a night) of swanning about town. Straight after meeting the Pixiwoo women, I hit the launch for RHW's new Rosie for Autograph fragrance. I think Rosie was actually in one of her slips from her lingerie line, but she looked fabulous and only she could pull it off. Imagine meeting press in your nightie? Only the truly body confident could do it. And reading her exercise regime in a magazine this week, she deserves her body.
I spied her passing on delicious chocolates being served that evening too. See, if you cut out the rubbish you can look like Rosie!

Anyway, to the fragrance. Like her name, the heart of the fragrance is a centifolia rose. It's a rare, vintage style flower and actually smells very sexy rather than overly sweet. Other notes in the mix are pepper, lemon, magnolia, jasmine and musk. Capturing the feel of the countryside, the campaign was shot in Rosie's home county of Devon. It was a natural choice for Rosie as she felt it captured the beautiful sentiment she wanted for her fragrance. Although a global jet setting super, Rosie proves she's a homebody at heart.Smell and be seduced.

Rosie for Autograph Eau de Parfum starts from £14.
On counter now. www.marksandspencer.com

A brush with the PixiWoo women

I am sure sisters Sam and Nic Chapman need no introduction from me. If you're into make-up and the blogging community they will be in your DNA. I had the pleasure of meeting them this week at a swanky soiree at London's Mondrian to launch their Real Techniques Bold Metals Collections. Firstly, let me just kick off by saying, what lovely women! Professional and friendly, they're exactly what you see on their YouTube channel. They is no BBS (beauty bullsh**t) with these women. Two busy working mums who know the value of make-up, they believe everyone can look good - it's just a case of playing up your best features. The only smoke and mirrors is in your application technique.

So, onto the brushes. With contouring, like the biggest thing in make-up wizardy at the moment, these brushes put the expertise of chiseled cheekbones into your hands. Each brush is hand cut with luxury synthetic bristles that literally glide across the skin. Created for professional make-up artists as well as the consumers, they have smart little twists like the triangular shaped handle so they don't roll off the table whilst you're working. Handles are also weighted for optimal workability that tip towards the face when using them. There are seven brushes all of which to highlight and enhance each area of the face. My personal favourite is their Tapered Blush that sculpts across the cheeks. I may well not have model cheekbones, but I sure can try to create them! There's also the Triangle Foundation brush. Dual purpose it has flat edge covers for the larger areas of the face and smaller angled edges to contour around tricky areas like the eyes and nose. All-in-all these brushes help develop your make-up artistry whether you're a professional or not. Go on give them a swirl!

The Bold Metals Collections by Sam and Nic Chapman are available from Boots and prices from £10 to £25.

Hair to the Rehab

THE DOOR TO COOL COLOUR

This post is about me stepping in and becoming a fairy (beauty) godmother with my favourite hair salon FOUR London waving their magic colour wand. A friend of mine had suffered a hair malfunction after a well known, on-trend salon had coloured her hair with, it seems little technical skill. I thought this might be a useful blog post for all of those walking around with a hair shade they hate as they - or even (worryingly) their salon don't have the know-how to correct. Worse, in typical salon style, most of us don't say we're unhappy with it as we tip them and wave them goodbye! Colour correction is big business at FOUR and something they are adept at doing. Bad colour is like walking around wearing the wrong foundation - it robs your skin of natural radiance and upturns your look not in a good way. Here's the hair history from my friend Amy.

COLOUR BAND OF SHAME

For about a year and half, I've had a scalp bleach. The condition of my hair really deteriorated so I went back to my hairdresser and said I wanted to dull down the blonde to try and get the condition back, so perhaps give bleach a miss for a while. This is where it went wrong. At this point I'm not too sure what my hairdresser did as it was all done at the backwash so I couldn't see. But when I came out I was left with an extreme brassy/orange band around my root area and the rest of my hair went a grey/khaki/dark blonde colour. You can see the pics above of the band of shame!

Consultation

I went in to see Danielle, colour technician at FOUR and she could see exactly what was wrong with my hair. Although she said it wasn't the worse she had seen, it did need five hours work! We both looked over some images and it was nice that we were totally on the same page of hair shades that we liked. I felt a big relief that Danielle knew exactly how to correct my colour back to normal. Carly, the stylist came over to take a look at my cut and said she was quite surprised, that except for around the hair line where a 'chemical fringe' had been created, my hair was in pretty good condition and breakage was minimal. Bad colour normally results in bad hair. She said she would give me an 'invisible' trim as I wanted to keep the length, and to make the broken fringe better she would cut me in a parted fringe.

BAD COLOUR BE GONE.

Step 1

When doing my hair Danielle said the first step was to get rid of the brassy orange band that I had around the root area. She wanted to leave my actual roots and try to bring some of those back into my finalised colour. This would most certainly help with the condition of my hair. A permanent dark dye was applied over the brassy band and my very natural root was left out. This totally eliminated the orange band - phew! Danielle thinks when I told my previous hairdresser that I wanted to dull down my colour, rather than bleaching my hair she put a high lift tint onto it followed by a toner over the top. This caused the colour to go ginger. A toner was then put over the rest of my blonde colour to take the brassy edge out of that. 

GREAT COLOUR COOKING!

Step 2 

My hair was then washed and dried and the final colouring process began. She put a mix of two colours of highlights in. One which was closer to my natural hair colour and one blonde. More of the darker colour was applied to the underneath of my hair to make it look more natural and give my hair some depth. The blonder bits went around the parting. We washed it off and I was taken to Carly. 

Step 3 

I definitely wanted to keep the length of my hair, and unlike other stylists who take up to three inches off knowing you want to keep you hair long, Carly said she could take off just the very tips and it would still remove all of the split ends. I was happy for the first time whereby I wasn't about to walk out of the salon thinking where has all my hair gone? Carly cut my chemical fringe and kept the rest of the hair around the face long as I wanted to grow out the graduation. She blow-dried it off quite naturally with just a bit of movement and I couldn't have been happier with the final result. I had no orange at all left in my hair, just a lovely ashy blonde colour and the cut of my hair was amazing. I literally couldn't stop swishing it when I left the salon!

Yes, it's pricey - my colour was in excess of £300, but now I own the colour I actually want and I'm not spending on expensive mistakes - my colour disaster was over £200 and I've crucially found a colourist I can trust. I've learned that expensive colour can look cheap unless you go to a super skilled colourist!

NEW ROOTS

BRAND NEW HAIR!

For further details go to www.fourlondon.com
Telephone: 020 7297 9600 or email: salon@fourlondon.com

Beauty besties

I can hear you oooh-ing from here! Yes, these delicious eyes palettes are fresh from Bourjois. Coaxing out your inner make-up artist, all the hard work has been taken out with pre-coordinated shades and cream-to-powder textures to create a sizzlin' and smokin' hot look. To walk you through application, apply the lighter shade under the arch, the medium shade on eyelids and the dark shade at the roots of the lashes. The ultra light shade in the middle use as a light touch top coat for a glittery effect. Perfect for a big night out. Loving the 70's retro packaging, the Smoky Stories Palettes come in 8 quartets making them an absolute eye-light for everyone!

Another beauty bestie is their Rouge Edition Velvet Lipstick. These have been a ginormous hit thanks to their matte and lightweight finish. They feel invisible on the lip whilst giving an on-trend punch of colour. Their Happy Nude Year shade 09 has just been introduced and the shade is sublime - it really does suits everybody. It's set to become one of my lip lusts for 2015 and I'm sure will be one of yours.

Bourjois Smoky Stories retail at £7.99
Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet, £8.99

desert storm skin sorted

Casually gliding my fingertips over the surface of my skin the other night I couldn't believe how dry it felt. Sahara dry. Sandpaper dry. Typical of seasonal switch skin, emergency measures had to be taken to restore the moisture robbed by central heating, overheated transport and snarly winds. Already addicted to serums, I needed to upgrade to something stronger. Something that would smooth and soothe. The word booster as in Dermalogica's skin hydrating booster caught my eye. If my skin needed anything it was a super saturated hydration boost. On the box blurb it highlighted is was for the driest skin conditions and with a concentrated blend of hyaluroinic acid and panthenol to help restore balance, I thought it was up to the job. And it was. Using 6 to 10 drops massage over the face, I could instantly feel my skin inwardly release a sigh of relief. Like magic, skin was plumped and boosted and fine lines exacerbated by lack of moisture seemed to disappear. It was like the desert conditions of my skin had finally found its oasis.

Dermalogica skin hydrating booster £52.50
www.dermalogica.co.uk

Boss and Bottled

Socks. Wallet. Underpants. When you're stuck gifting dad/uncle/brother these are the items you fall back on. I confess cologne isn't that much out of the ballpark, but Boss Bottled Collector's Edition does look rather special. Repackaged in celebration of more than 15 years of success, the blend of apple, cinnamon and woody notes are encased in a gunmetal grey flacon. As women step into a lifestyle fantasy when buying fragrance, bear in mind Gerard Butler is the ambassador for Boss - an actor that defines contemporary masculinity!

Boss Bottled Collector's Edition on counter from 1st October from £41.00

Double-Decker Dips

Wow! Talk about a palette that packs a punch. This Bobbi Brown bonanza has it all. A double decker of gorgeousness, many looks - from the subtle to the stunning can be conjured up with these personally picked creamy lip colours and eye shadows from the make-up maestro herself, Bobbi. Flattering to all skin tones, it makes for the perfect Christmas stocking thriller, or if you really want it to be all about you, it's the perfect self gifting treat. Bobbi's tag is #ReadySetGive which I feel could easily be switched to #ReadySetKeep!

Bobbi brown Deluxe Lip & Eye Palette on counter now for £59