Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan28

The Bird Print Trend, Spring 2012.

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Amaryllis Earle

Bird prints and patterns where spotted on the runway late last year and are set to be a top trend for spring 2012.

Photo Credit: Jill Stuart, Carolina Herrera, Marc by Marc Jacobs from ImaxTree

From: Three Is a Trend: Birds of a Feather – Harper’s BAZAAR

I think this print design is a really exciting trend to incorporate into beauty, and there are two different but equally successful ways of doing this:

1. Using the vibrant colours, patterns and theme to inspire your make-up, nails and hair – which is great if it is party time!

2. Using a fresh, simple look where you let the prints do the talking!

So Let us start with Make-up:

When it comes to make-up with both ways of using this trend you want to keep you facial make-up as simple and clear as possible. Then if you are using the colourful approach your make-up will not be to overpowering, and it fits in with the simple look too.

Colourful Eyes:

To get a powerful look and make a strong statement start by using a soft eye pencil line the top lid of your eye from the inner to outer corner the best colours for this trend are greens, blues, purples and gold. For this I recommend Urban Decay who do a fantastic range of coloured Glide-On Eye Pencils. They are soft so easy to use, but as far as I have seen do not smudge and you can get them in half sizes which are great to pop in your hand bag.

Then get a pot of eye glitter that compliments the pencil colour, and using a fine eye shadow brush apply the glitter to the inner corner of your eye, spreading a little along the top and bottom lids if you wish. For this I recommend MAC eye glitter, I use a copper colour for this as I love my green Urban Decay eye pencil, and I really like the contrast they make together!

For a still vibrant, but slightly more understated look, use a cream coloured eye shadow, and a thin eye shadow brush, so you can blend the colour better, and a more neutral bright eye glitter, like silver or gold.

For example the Picture before is of NARS Party Monster, a purple cream eye shadow, with a silver MAC glitter. However the glitter also reflects blue when the light catches it for some extra dazzle!

Then to finish off either of these looks line your bottom lashes with a neutral colour (brown, grey or navy blue) that suits the colours you’ve used on top, so you give your eyes definition without distracting from the colours on top. Followed by two coats of mascara for plenty of volume!

Top tip: Although for these looks we are using lots of colour and glitter, still try and keep it as simple as possible, use clean lines for the eye liner, and still use plenty but don’t go overboard on the glitter!

For a more natural look:

If your opting for a fresh and simple look to focus on the prints have a look at Hannah’s tutorial over at Fresh Look Beauty for a fantastic chic day time look!

The Hair:

Fully embrace the bird look with the slightly un-tamed looking yet elegant Bird’s Nest Top Knot:

Apply hair texturising gum through your mid lengths and ends. I use Shockwaves Go Matt Gum.
Pull your hair into a high pony tail that sits on the crown of your head. (Top tip: Do this step and the one after with your head upside down to save your arms!)
Create large amounts of volume by slitting the pony tail into sections and teasing your hair with a comb (until it looks a little crazy!)
Use a bristle brush to gentle brush over the top on the pony tail to neaten up the texture.
Wrap the hair around your pony tail and secure with bobby pins creating a messy top knot, and hair spray.

You can then decorate the top knot by putting a head band around the base of the knot or even use some butterfly or bird pin clips! It can be very simple to be effective – in these pictures I’ve pinned a platted a beaded leather bracelet around the base of my top knot.

For a more simple look blow dry your hair with a large, round bristle brush so your hair has plenty of volume and oomph! Gently brush it through and pull it back into a loose side pony tail (so you still have the volume!) at the nape of your neck, letting your hair flow over your shoulder. However, leave a small section of hair (about half an inch) from the bottom of your hair line, near where you tie the pony tail. Then wrap this section of hair around the pony tail, over and hiding hair tie and then secure it in place with a couple of bobby pins. This is still an elegant, yet more understated look.

For this I brushed all my hair to one side, but it works with any parting you like.

The Nails:

Magnetic Nails:

Magnetic Effect Polish from Nails Inc London could have been made for this trend! Apply one coat of the nail polish then hold the magnet that comes attached to the lid above your nail to create a feathered pattern on your nails! Use the green, purple or maroon colours to be right on trend for 2012 nails!

(Please excuses the strange outdoor photos – this nail effect is really hard to capture on a photo!)

Glittery Nails:

Blue glitter from BarryM and gold glitter from NARS.

Dust off the glittery polishes from the festive season and crack them out for a bird of paradise look!

Neutral Nails:

Another big nail trend for 2012, which works if your want to keep the attention on the prints. Use light shades of beige, light brown, or a subtle french manicure.

Save The Nail base and top coats from Nails Inc London.

Please remember with all of these to use a base coat to protect your nails, and top coat to keep your look for longer (particularly for the metallic nails as the pattern works best if your only use one coat).

Et Voila! There you have it beauty birds, a variety of different ways to use the bird print trend!

Jan20

The Cute Blog Award!

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Amaryllis Earle

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To start with I would like to give a huge thank you to Hannah at the gorgeous Fresh Look Beauty Blog for this award!

For this award you:

1. Link back to the person who awarded you.

2. Answer the award questions.

3. Tell something about yourself that you haven’t told anyone on your blog yet.

4. Award as many blogs as you think worthy of this award.

5. Make sure to let these you gave this award to know that you awarded them.

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1. What is your go to makeup product?

On my face I always wear Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint, and for my eyes benefit they’re real mascara.

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2. What was your favourite fashion trend of 2011?

High waisted trousers, I think they give any day time look a touch of elegance.

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3. What is your favourite dessert?

Banoffee Pie or Treacle sponge.

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4. Favorite color?

Emerald green.

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5. What is your middle name?

Roxburgh

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6. What was the last song you listened to?

The Bird and the Worm by Owl City

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7. Cats or dogs?

I can’t decide – I’ve had them both!

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Something I haven’t said on my blog before: Swans scare me!

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Right, it’s time to pass on some love ♥ to these lovely girlies.

Sophia at An Indistinct Vision

Soup For Every Girl’s Soul

Jessi Arrington at Lucky So and So

Jade at Jade Boylan Illustration

Kat at Kat’s Beauty Review

Jan17

Beating the January Blues.

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Amaryllis Earle

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As you may have gathered from my last post, once my birthday has past I’m not a big fan of January. The end of the celebrations and bright lights of the festive season. Going back to the dark, cold days can leave many people feeling a bit low.

It was also a topic on the radio last week, and it got me thinking about what my own attitude has been like recently and I decided that I wasn’t going to let January get me down, and here are some ways how:

1: New Year’s Resolutions.

How are they going? Are they still going? Or are they a distant memory that faded away on 4th January?

The end of a year provides a great opportunity for self reflection, and thinking about what you can change to make the next year even better. However, every year I sit down to write a list of resolutions, and it is normally a page or even two pages long, and if I look back over the years, some of the same resolutions keep reappearing.

Which got me asking – “how is it possible to completely change yourself over night, between 31st December to January 1st?” Which came with the answer, “it’s not.”

I think that one of the main reasons New Year’s Resolutions don’t have a lasting effect is because we try more than we can possibly manage. Instead we should be making smaller, but consistent and sustainable changes to ourselves for the better, because these are more likely to become integrated parts of our lives.

They say it takes 30 days to make a habit, right? Have a watch of this Ted talk by Matt Cutts, then get back on the New Years Resolution band wagon, with a better chance of staying on it.

Try something new for 30 days.

2: Get Outside.

In the winter months we spend most of our time inside, with the central heating drying out our skin and strip lighting hurting our eyes. So in the few short hours when the sun is up dig out your thermals and scarves and get out, even if it just a short walk in your lunch break, it will have you starting the afternoon feeling far more refreshed.

3: Look After Yourself.

Essentially you get out what you put in. If you fill your body with lots of junk and don’t do any exercise it will leave you feeling sluggish and run down. Try and incorporate more fresh fruit and vegetables into your diet, and try to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise 5 times a week. An example of the is brisk walking so your body does get warm and a bit sweaty, but your working at a level where you can still hold a convocation. For more information click here.

4: and finally SMILE!

Go on try it – a full face smile, don’t you feel a little bit better? Research has been conducted into the effects of smiling and they found that the physical action of smiling can actually produce a positive emotive response.

Also they say smiles are contagious, a bit like yawns, so this month my 30 day challenge has been to pass on a smile each day. Not only am I making others smile but when I see the other person smile too, it makes my smile a little bit wider.

So along with many cups of tea, lots of jumpers and a good old giggle with my girlfriends I am surviving the January blues, and actually this January doesn’t seem so bad after all.

Jan13

Give your head a present with a bow hairstyle.

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Amaryllis Earle

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I’ll be honest, apart from my birthday generally, January is a pretty awful month in the UK, its cold, wet and dark for most of the day. This post is about a hairstyle that (when I get it right!) makes me feel pretty good, so here it is for you all to try.

For this tutorial I have done a version which is best for longer hair, however if you have sorter hair still follow the steps but only use the top half of your hair, you’ll end up with a slightly smaller bow but it still works really well

For this style you will need:

A hairbrush.
A hair tie that matches your hair colour.
hair pins that match your colour.
A small crocodile clip might be useful.

Start by brushing your hair up into a very high ponytail on the crown of your head (it may be useful to do this with your head upside down, and stop you getting arm-ache!).

Take the hair tie that matches your hair colour, and tie it round the pony tail twice, but on the third time only pull your hair half way through, keeping the rest of your hair facing forwards.

Take 2 hair pins and secure each side of the loose part of your hair at the front at the base of the bun.

Split the bun in half. (I feel a bit like Mini-Mouse at this point!).

Pick up the loose part of the pun and pull it back in between the two halves of the bun.

Secure the loose end behind the bow using the hair pins, this is where the mini crocodile clip may come in handy! (You can also secure the loose hair to the hair tie as well).

Hopefully you should have something like this!

Now take each side of the bow and spread the hair out.

And fix the bowes using the hair pins by pinning the inside of the bow, and using the pin as a support to keep the bow upright.

And voila! One bow hairstyle! Enjoy everybody!

Jan10

Let’s hit the January sales!

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Amaryllis Earle

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Firstly, let me take this opportunity to say HAPPY 2012 EVERYBODY! How exciting!

For this New Year I was lucky enough to go back to Kenya with some of my family, and after all the celebrations had died down we went and spent a few days on the coast, and since the January sales had started we thought we would do a bit of shopping before flying back to the UK.

We went to some really famous shops situated in little huts (dukas) on the beach, so I took some photos of our trip to share with you.

First we went to Paul’s Boutique at Harrods:

I really love this shop front! the lettering and the geckos are made from old flip flops that where found on the beach.

Then we headed into the main shop floor of Harrods, Knightsbridge:

And while in Knightsbridge we popped into Harvey Nicks:

Next was door Peter Jones:

The owner of Peter Jones did a lot of work with found objects on the beach, particularly with drift wood, and there we found possibly my favourite piece of African art ever!

This little guy is made out of a coconut for his head, the natural black dots, known as ‘eyes’ on the bottom of the coconut have been carved out to make the eyes and mouth, and the outer layer of the coconut has been carved on at the back for his hair.Then his body and legs where carved out of a small log, which is attached at the bottom as a stand.

His name is Ernest.

And the partner store to Peter Jones: John Lewis: