Tag 8 questions???

I have been tagged by the gorgeous Nicoletta, thank you, with eight questions.

So here we go . . .

1. What’s your favourite ice cream flavour?

I love Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food which is the primary reason that I try to avoid it! Otherwise, I think it has to be a tub (not so keen on cornets) of vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce and I like to let it melt a little ‘cos it is easier on the teeth and quite frankly, tastes even yummier that way.

2. How many times have you really been in love?

Twice!

3. Favourite body lotion?

Hmmm at the moment, it is all about the body oil for me and yes, there will be a post;) However, I love the Soap and Glory Daily Smooth body lotion. It smells so pretty and layers with many perfumes so fragrantly. I also like the Body Shop Butters especially Vanilla but feel that they may be slightly overpriced.

4. Do you believe in spirits/ ghosts?

My head says no but in my heart, I do! I’m not in to horror but I do find some tales, the less scary ones, fascinating. There are just too many unexplained happenings out there.

5. Whats your favourite drink? Alcoholic or soft drink?

When I was at uni, it was all about the tequila and aftershock (ouch!) but now it is all about the odd cocktail or orange and tia maria once or twice a year.

Ahem, that is the official line anyway.

On a day to day, it tends to be tap water for me although I’ve ridden the green tea wave.

6. Do you have a big family?

Yes, I do! I have so many cousins, aunties, uncles and the most gorgeous little nephew in the whole wide world.

7. Did you have a nickname at school?

I don’t think so. Not one that I knew about anyway.
Some of my family call me Number One because I’m the eldest of three girls and I’ve also been called Spam because my christian name is Samantha.
My gorgeous little nephew calls me ‘Ammie’ and consequently, that is my favourite word in the whole wide world but he is the only one allowed to call me it.

8. What 1 makeup/ skincare item are you lusting after?

Boring and predictable but the Naked pallette, it looks gorgeous and so usable.

Laura also tagged me with the eight questions, you can see that post here. This time I am going to pass the tag on and try to come up with some questions of my own.

So.

Let me think. . . tick tock . . .tick tock . . .

My questions are

1/ What was your last make up purchase?

2/ What is your favourite perfume?

3/ What would your ‘perfect’ Sunday entail?

4/ You can only buy one eyeshadow or one lipstick, which do you choose?

5/ What do you spend the most energy (and maybe even money) on, your hair cut or your hair colour?

6/ If you could spend a month anywhere in the world, where would you go?

7/ You’re shopping and your friend has lost you. Are you at the make up counter, rummaging in among the clothes rails or in the shoe department?

8/ Who is the one person that you would like to speak to today?

The chosen ones I tag are

belles boutique

B U B B L E G A R M

Get Gawjus

I Heart Cosmetics

Life, love and lipgloss

Superficialgirls

Tacky Blue Eyeshadow

The fashionteller notes

Happy Bank Holiday!
All images in this post were found in a google image search.

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Shop and shred!

So the clothes shopping did not end with the TopShop haul the other day, there is one more item (just one though, not so bad, is it?) that I picked up.

This simple one shouldered, red top from Republic.

There was no question when I saw it on the hanger that it was coming home with me. This is quite a simple top with a ruffle along the shoulder and round the neck line. With another one down the shoulderless side seam. There are probably lots of similar tops out there but not this one, in this exact shade of red. There are many shades of red that I can not pull off but this top is in the one very precise and maybe only hue that flatters me (tanned or natural) and in fact, seems to give me the “glow”.

Just looking at this bright colour makes me smile and feel more alive.

However sadly, this top is not 100% perfect. It clings (in whatever size I try). In fact, a lot of tops seem to be clinging around my tummy area lately. I’m hoping that all the good fruit and veg I’m eating is just causing a little bloating but I fear otherwise.

Nevertheless, I wanted this top!

After all, it is red (that red), one shouldered and very flattering (as long as I cross my arms or keep my gaze up). I doubt I will find a top as near to perfect for a long time and in the meantime, I know that if I walked away then I would regret it.

So I brought the gorgeous red top!

 
And promised myself that I would just have to use some control underwear or some layering or a big belt to wear it or some very high waisted trousers. That is, if I haven’t toned up a little more by then.

Which brings me to, Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.

I have started shredding. So far I have done it three days straight and I WILL be doing it for another 27. At the moment, I’m shamelessly clinging to level 1 but I will push myself up to level 2 and then level 3 soon. I will, I’ve promised myself!

Jillian is tough with all her ‘pain is fear leaving the body’ talk and suchlike. Yet in twenty minutes, I do get a sweat and aches start, which last the day, so surely it is doing some good.

The twenty minute regime is made up of three circuits. Each circuit has three minutes of strength training (you need weights), two minutes of cardio and one minute of abs. Then of course, the workout includes a warm up and a cool down.

The two things I like about this fitness regime is that you don’t need any coordination and it only lasts twenty minutes. I’ve been doing it first thing in the morning before my Green Monster.

I think if I left it any later in the day then I might not find the motivation and also, I’m finding once the workout is done then I feel good. So the last couple of days, I have felt pretty good all day and I’m sure it is because I dragged myself out of bed and in to some jumping jacks!

Has anybody else done the shred? Did you keep it up? What can I realistically expect to achieve in 30 days? Do you find yourself making some compromises in order to add another gorgeous addition to your wardrobe?

 

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MAC Rodarte Collection.

I am sure that you have all heard about the MAC-Rodarte collaboration and the controversy that it is causing.

MAC are due to release this collection in September. Rodarte have stated that the collection was inspired by the landscape that they saw on a road trip in Texas.

One of the nail polishes is called Juarez. Juarez is a town in Mexico full of factories which employ women to work for very low wages and in harsh working conditions where sexual harrasment is common place. A vast number of women have gone missing, been raped or murdered on their way to work. Locals estimate the number of murders to be around 5000 although the authorities speculate about 400. It is alleged that the Mexican police have done little to investigate these murders possibly because the victims are primarily poor women.

Aside from Juarez, other product names in this collaboration include Factory, Bordertown (Angelina Jolie starred in a film ‘Bordertown’ loosely based around the murders) and Sleepwalker (most of the offences take place as women workers travel to and from shifts in the factories).

A promo picture has also been released with this MAC collection featuring a very pale, ghost-like female.

MAC have apologised for the offence caused and have stated a portion of proceeds from this collection will go to help those in Juarez.

I hope I have got all of the details right, there are many more indepth posts out there. I found most of my facts in Yinka’s (http://www.vexinthecity.com/2010/07/mac-rodarte-collection-ignites-juarez.html#more). A very informative post with a number of links to related posts and to Amnesty. I would also imagine that there could be some further statements from MAC this week.

Now a lot of us have strong opinions one way or another as to whether the marketing of this collaboration is acceptable. Indeed I saw one tweet asking if we would accept it if MAC had instead created a collection that related to 9/11 in the way this collection relates to Juarez. However, what I want to focus on is one thing and actually it is relatively trivial compared to the issues at the core of this controversy but ‘What were MAC thinking?’.

It does not matter if they have the right to create such campaigns or not but why did they bother? I just feel that anybody could have foreseen the controversy that it was going to cause and I can not see how MAC could squeeze additional product margins out of this collection with this campaign marketed as it is. So, no financial gain. Even if some customers are not as outraged as British/US Bloggers, the very best MAC are going to do with this collection is equal what they would normally get from a collection. So what was the point in a corporate brand, whose primary aim is probably profit, doing this and guaranteeing themselves some bad hype when it seems they are set to gain absolutley nothing?The campaign almost comes across as a desperate cry for attention but surely MAC don’t need attention that badly.

As you know, I am quite new to beauty blogging and indeed, MAC but I do know that many (dare I say most?) beauty blogs feature MAC heavily (ahem.). Now I find the products more often then not of great quality but there are plenty of brands out there who probably deliver enough to satisfy our day to day needs yet some (and yep, I’m counting myself here) seem to class MAC differently to any other cosmetic brand. In Laura’s (http://lollipop26writes.com/) latest video, she mentions how a haul in MAC is different in the thrill factor it provides.

I’m sure as an avid blog reader, I read at least one post each day which heavily features MAC. I am encountering MAC every single day and this might be quite pathetic but maybe I see MAC almost as a friend (and one I aspire to as well) rather then just another brand. I guess this collaboration reminds us all that MAC are another huge multinational brand. And this is where it hurts because long ago, I accepted that such brands have their own rules so maybe it is not surprising that MAC have caused some controversy. These days, most multinational brands seem to. However, I am a little bit surprised that MAC have let this go so far.

Many of you know MAC so well knowing all the latest release dates and product information and yet, despite providing such great customer satisfaction for so long, it seems that MAC know nothing about their customers at all. Otherwise surely they would have foreseen this furore.

I would presume that MAC’s customer base is mainly female as are the victims in Juarez. The females there are often victims of crimes or behaviour which impreach ‘womens’ rights. Many of MAC’s customers are going to relate to such issues. I’m not sure how MAC thought they could spin this collection so postitively to a largely female majority market. They have millions of female customers all over the world, mainly in the developed countries where women on the whole are fortunate enough to have voices. MAC must have known, especially in this digital age, that people were going to join up these dots rightly or wrongly and there would be this controversy. Why go to all the trouble of designing a collection and then marketing it in a way which quite obviously is going to get all this bad press especially when their Viva Glam collections are so applauded?!

Also it sounds like the colours in MAC-Rodarte collection are not suited to all skintones. Therefore, they have already eliminated some customers interest so why market this collection in this way and disable its success even further?! *Shakes head in disbelief*, it seems senseless!

I saw a comment somewhere (sorry I can not remember where, I have read a few posts tonight) that art does come out of darkness and such risks are more ‘acceptable’ these days.

Maybe?!

However MAC are such a huge brand with what I would imagine generally are pretty standard, mainstream, customers (as far as individuals are standard). I’m not sure the number of people drawn to the collection because of the brand’s new ‘edge’ are going to make up for the number of people that they have lost.

Saying that looking to the long term, I can’t see this been the end of MAC but I do wonder if people are going to think of them a little differently now. Maybe they won’t be quite so “bestie” anymore.

The one good thing that has come out of this controversy is that I now know about Juarez. I didn’t before and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. It may be slightly naive of me but I only hope that now so many more of us are aware of the situation there then in some way, more help can be given to the people.

Oh and as Yinka suggests in her post, we all need to make our own choices as to how far we condemn/boycott MAC, if at all.

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Making the best of a bad hair day!

Oh, I had a bad hair day today.

It was my hair appointment day. I normally have one about every 10-12 weeks. New hair extensions and a cut.

I hate the process. The hour or so when my old extensions are out, but my new ones are not yet in, is agony. It sounds pathetic but without the security of those extra inches, I do not feel like me and of course, in the hairdressers there are all those silly mirrors and all I can see is this reflection that does not look like me at all. It is horrible and really throws me. For that hour or so, I act differently and squirm a lot. I’m not always the most confident or bubbliest of people but there I am so, soo lost, so awkward and completly dazed. I guess for more then four years now, I have worn extensions everywhere. I even made sure my clips in were in securely when I did a parachute jump in Australia. For me, they have become like a piece of clothing (and more), without them I am naked and very self-concious.

I don’t really know how to explain it. I know how silly it sounds but I can’t help the way I feel. Somebody said maybe I feel how those girls feel who get their nails done every week or so and then for some reason stop.

I know it is a silly thing to get so worked up over and I know, that it is all relative. If, God forbid, I had some awful news at the salon about my health or somebody close to me or some other real ‘crisis’ happened then I know that my hair would be forgotten just like that. I know there are many people in the world with real, real worries that I can not even comprehend but when it is just me, my hair and the mirror then I can’t help it, a switch goes off and I do not think about that and all I think about is my hair. It is not necessarily that I think the extensions look better. It is just that I identify myself now as somebody with all that hair and when there is some reminder that I haven’t really got all that much hair then something in me gets confused. I’m not sure, it is difficult to explain. I think if you’re thinking of getting extensions or indeed any kind of fakery, you should consider the addiction factor and what that could cost you both in money and confidence.

Anyway, never mind, normally it is just a hour or two and before long, I’m skipping out of the salon with my extra inches and for the first two weeks or so, that new hair is so shiny, soft and silky and basically I’m a very happy girl.

Normally . . .

Not today!

Old extensions out and then argh, I’m told my new hair hasn’t arrived and I have got 24 hours plus au naturalle.

Oh and by the way, au naturelle was cut quite nicely at the back (free of charge, for obvious reasons ie. I had lost half a barnet!!!) but the front (where the work was so badly needed) had to be left until extension time for blending reasons.

My first thought was rush home, lock the door and cry (again pathetic, I know).

I didn’t cry (maybe because my Sideways Cross necklace was waiting for me) but I did rush home and I did think about getting my clip in extensions out but then I thought, this is bad. Nobody can see me and well, I’m not planning on having short hair for a while so make the most of it so I had a bit of a play. Styling my hair this way and that and I have to concede that my natural hair is slightly more versatile then I feared.

This is my favourite style of the day.

I love this look. I think it is really girly, pretty and timeless. It took me two minutes at the most.

I can do it with my extensions but normally don’t bother as it takes, at least, three times as long and is a bit more complicated. I had a bit of help from the hairdresser with this version (shown above) last year. It is all that trying to backcomb the hair without matting or getting it caught/tangled in the rows, pulling the sides of the hair back smoothly while trying to keep all the rows concealed, trying to find and attach a clip (or combination of clips/bands) to keep all that hair in place.

So in conclusion, I will be going back for my extensions tomorrow but the surprise break we had from each other was maybe not as painful as I imagined.

Maybe in fact, it was a very, very, very small step on the road to recovery from my chronic addiction which is good in light of the infamous Naomi Campbell picture which hit the newstands recently. It is alleged that she may have some form of alopecia due to adorning hair extensions.

Like some smokers and many people addicted to all different things, I do intend to give my extensions up. One day!

Have you ever had any shock, horror experiences at the hairdressers? Do you change your hair often or is there only one way/colour/length you would ever have your barnet styled?

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Three Things!

Here are three things that I’m liking at the moment.

1/ FRENCHED

This Benefit lipstick has defined the last week. Ever since the PixiWoo Christina Agrilia trutorial and Pixi2Woo wearable red lip one, I have being heading towards pan with this beauty. I am going to do a post/vlog very, very soon (I am wearing it in my new perfume collection videos http://www.youtube.com/user/essjay23x )  but this is a true, true red. No compromise or safe bet like the pretty but nowhere near as daring as Viva Glam Cyndi. Frenched is a berry red, a real red and I can wear it! Yay! And what is more, no gloss is required, a beautiful pigmented creamy finish is delivered by Frenched all by itself.

2/ SATIN TAUPE

I’ve always liked this one. It is so verstaile and can be used just for the lid or it can be the lid in a smoky eye or the contour in an everyday look. I’m favouring the mono look in the day and then smoking it up with carbon and sable (or one of the browns from my Sleek palettes) at night. I knew I liked this one but didn’t realise how much I wore it until I was flicking through some photos earlier. I love Sable but I think sometimes that is a little bit red for me. Satin Taupe is more of a greyer brown akin to Barry M Mushroom rather then chocolater colours.

3/ CURLIER HAIR

It must be the green tea because I am a ‘Sleek’ freak and almost always wear my hair straight on a day to day basis but I would say I have curled, flicked or waved in some way at least three times over the last month and I think I act differently with curled/waved hair. I’m more relaxed, more ‘blonde’, I guess. Maybe I think that I’ll get away with more as curly hair is so not me. It does take some heavy conical work to curl/wave my hair so that it wearable. My hair is not straight so I presumed (pre-curling action this month) that it was wavy or curly but no, curls actually fall out in a quicker time duration then the transformation from my straightened hair to frizz. I have come to the conclusion that my hair is just one great big puff ball. Although the Garnier Fructis Bamboo Finish and Hold Extreme (obviously) hairspray seems to help a lot!

What are you liking at the moment?

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