Bright Peachy Pink Lip & Glam Winged Eye Look...

In the past week or two I found myself predominantly wearing this look - a bright lip combined with a winged eyeliner... I find when I am at my palest during winter my face looks pretty tiered unless I infuse it with a bright lip colour... This N7 Stay Perfect Lipstick in Tangerine Touch is gorgeousness in a bullet... It's a warm toned peachy pink... I think I picked it up during summer or just before but I'm pretty sure it was from the permanent line...  Tangerine Touch is so bright that it almost glows, yet it is wearable and pretty flattering too! Funny that, as I found it a little over-powering to wear during summer, but now I am absolutely adoring it... It's super pigmented and feels good even on my semi-dry winter lips...

I also found this little MAC Paints cream eyeshadow tube in Sublime Nature at the bottom of one of my make-up drawers, which was one of my first purchases at MAC few years ago! It's a nude satin shade, great as a base... Over the top I have been enjoying bareMinerals Eyecolour in Nude Beach... It almost feels retro now, but I must admit I still love a few shades of their original loose mineral eyeshadows that I like to go back to once in a while... Nude Beach is a beautiful glittery silvery nude with multicoloured shimmers, very glam indeed!

My most preferred way to wear bareMinerals original eyeshadows is simply with a classic winged eyeliner... Ever since that chic strong eyeliner Keira Knightley wore to Anna Karenina LA Premier I have been drawing mine quite thick, I'm sure it's just a phase... To see the look click here! This Chanel La Ligne in 10 Noir Lame is also something I have purchased back in the summer and only now really got into it... It's not very long lasting, especially if you are someone who likes to crack up so hard that you end up crying in the end, it does run, but I just love how pigmented and easy to apply it is... So here it is, this is pretty much what I wore before Christmas, during and after...

LOVE

Post-Christmas Catch Up!

Hey everyone, I hope you had a lovely Christmas! Mine was great, just what I needed: unlimited resting, eating lots of delicious home-cooked food and watching festive movies, oh yeh! And the unwrapping of the presents was the funnest part [of course], I hope Santa made you smile, he certainly made me... Speaking of which, I finally waved goodbye to my BlackBerry that by this point just felt ancient, and just in time for Christmas I got the new iPhone, a present to myself... And let me tell you, it's a-mazing! I finally feel like I can do a lot more on the go... I've been glued to my iPhone for days when it got delivered, so many fun apps to check out! I am now on Instagram, yay!! It is soo addictive... Feel free to follow me on Instagram, you'll find me under alyonainfashionlove, to see what I get upto, the lipstick of the day I'm wearing, more of Mr Barney [my fluffball] and lots more... 

I took a few days off, just to really unwind, it has been the most busy November/December in my entire life, although it was fun but still you sometimes just need those few days to recharge your batteries... Having been so busy I haven't had a chance to finish off my Beast Necklaces, so they'll have to wait for the New Year... But I will take few snaps on Instagram so you can check them out... I think that's all I wanted to say for now my lovelies... There will be couple more posts before the New Year, I think I might do a couple of looks, not sure yet, stay tuned...

LOVE

New & Limited Edition The Body Shop Beautiful Make-Up!

The Body Shop Colourglide Shine Lip Colour in 03 Pink Flash [top] + 13 Rose Quartz [bottom]

Before I leave to get some Sunday afternoon shopping done, I decided to share some of The Body Shop new pieces as two of them are Limited Edition so that if you like any of them you'd still have a chance to snap it up today before it goes! All of the products I have chosen to feature are really beautiful and perfect for Christmas... I'll start with my favourite piece, it's The Sparkler All Over Shimmer [Limited Edition] in 01 Dazzling Intense... You can use it on the face, hair, and body... Personally I would only apply it on the body, highlighting the collarbones when wearing a low cut dress... Not only is the matte glass defuse bottle very chic but the shimmer powder itself is also stunning... It's a bronzy shade with beautiful magenta fine glitters, you absolutely have to swatch it... I'm not a big fan of glitter in make-up but this shimmer is really pretty and beautifully scented...

The Dazzling Rocks Brush on Shimmer [also Limited Edition] in 01 Golden Copper is a face and body shimmer, which helps to add radiance, it also has sparkle to it but it's a little more toned down than The Sparkler... It comes in the shape of balls in a tin... There is also a new brush that came out and it's perfect to use with the Dazzling Rocks the Slanted Kabuki is great for sculpting, layering and contouring... The new All-In-One BB Cream comes in three shades, this one is the 02 Medium - I haven't tried it yet... But when I applied it on my hand I quite liked how it transformed from white cream to a tinted shade, it adjusts to each skin tone within the medium range... I think it would be fantastic for dry skin type as it is meant to provide 24-hr hydration... It has light to medium coverage, I will see how it goes on my oily skin and report back... 

There are also four new shades of the Metallic Eye Definer Pencil, two browns and two lights... The one I have is the lightest shade 18 Moonstone, I pretty much like all of the four shades but this one is great for highlighting the waterline for a more awake and fresh appearance, also it's not very often that you can find a shimmery light eye pencil, a very pretty shade! All-in-One Cheek Colour is also a new blush, it comes in seven shades, the shade I have is Guava... Although it looks very bright in the pan it's pretty build-able... It has vitamin E and marula oil, which makes it skincare and make-up in one... 

And finally Colourglide Shine Lip Colour in two very pretty shades 03 Pink Flash [a frosty blue toned pink] and 13 Rose Quartz [shimmery rose]... I really like this lipstick range, the bullet looks beautiful with the rose-gold addition, and it's incredibly moisturising and glides on like butter, but at the same time it has enough pigment... Ok, I better go now... Have a lovely Sunday afternoon and successful shopping... Christmas is almost here yay!!!

LOVE

Gift Guide 2012: Last Minute Stocking Filler Ideas!

The last few pre-Christmas days have been absolutely crazy busy! Everyone is working super hard to finish up their projects before Christmas, running around trying to get everything done in time before we finally can relax with our loved ones, cook delicious lots of delicious festive food and watch old Christmas movies.. Uhh bliss! But before we get to that, some of us are still wondering around in shopping malls trying to get the last minute gifts so I thought since I've been doing the Gift Guide pretty much for a month now to share some of my stocking filler ideas in case you still will be getting a few things tomorrow... These are mainly small but nonetheless cute and thoughtful! 

As it's such a busy time of the year, especially these few days I didn't have time to swatch all the products and create looks with some of them, but I didn't want you t miss some of the limited edition products... I chose things that are really fun to find in a stocking filler within a wide price and age range... I won't be reviewing every single product now, but I will be creating looks and doing separate reviews in the New Year, so here it goes!

STOCKING FILLERS LIST:

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips in 360 Laced Up + 260 Glitz Blitz

Nail Rock Designer Nail Wraps in Metallic Moon + Python + Pink Leopardskin

RealTechniques by Samantha Chapman Expert Face Brush

Lush Solid Massage Bar in Midnight Massage

Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Twist and Spray Eau de Parfum Purse Spray

The Body Shop Chocomania Gift Set

Avon Glimmerstick Gift Set

Cowshed Lazy Cow Soothing Perfume Oil

Estee Lauder Pure Color Nail Lacquer in Fallen Angel

Percy & Reed Simply Sumptuous Shine Gift Set

Eylure Naturalites Accent and Lengthen Strip Lashes

Lush Christmas Party Gift Set

Sally Hansen Gem Crush Nail Color in 02 Cha-Ching! + 04 Blingtastic

Pixi Early Bird Palette

Darphin Dry Oil Body Care Nourishing Satin Oil with Red Ginger

Tangle Teezer Salon Elite The Professional Detangling Hairbrush

LOVE

Gift Guide 2012: Stacey Sutton Look with Bobbi Brown Uber Nude Lip & Eye Palette!

This Bobbi Brown Uber Nude Palette is from Bobbi's Christmas 2012 Collection... A great gift if not for yourself, then to someone who loves nude shades... I really like the sleek design with the silver Bobbi Brown emblem... You get three eyeshadows in Navajo [perfect off white highlighter], New Downtown [new shade: a soft brown], and Espresso [a dark brown] - all of the eyeshadow shades are matte... You also get Uber Beige Lip Colour [a brown-beige], Blushed Heather Glitter Lip Gloss [also a new shade: glittery pink] and a mini Almost Nude Glitter Lip Gloss [a very flattering shimmery nude]...

When I saw this palette immediately I thought of Tanya Roberts who was playing Stacey Sutton in A View to a Kill - one of my all time favourite James Bond movies... When I was little I was fascinated with the stunning Stacey, the make-up she wore, the dresses and not to forget her awesome cat! Almost twenty years on and so many more James Bond ladies yet I still find her iconic beauty most memorable... 

Her eye make-up was heavy but all in nude and warm shades making her piercing blue eyes stand out even more and of course the classic over-drown nude brown lip - a very 80s make-up combo... And so that's what I went for - heavy nude! On the eyes I used all three eyeshadows, applying the new shade Downtown all over the lid to intensify the outer V I blended in the darkest shade Espresso, mixing both colours I also applied them under the lower lash line, and finally to highlight the brow-bone I swept over a touch of Navajo... And as for the lips, I applied the Uber Beige lipstick, and on top a touch of the Almost Nude glittery lip gloss...

LOVE

Gift Guide 2012: Crabtree & Evelyn In To The Garden Gift Set!

How adorable is this little suitcase tin?! Filled with hand-care products it makes a very useful and great gift... It's literally all about hands... The Gardeners rage is designed to intensively moisturise even the driest hands and it's gorgeously scented with fresh green clover, lavender, sage, rosemary and thyme... If you know someone who is into the herbal scented skincare products they will certainly enjoy it... Winter and hand creams go hand in hand so to speak... 

What you get in this suitcase is: Hand Recovery [an exfoliant that helps to restore dry hands], Hand Therapy [a hand cream enriched with shea butter], Nail & Cuticle Therapy [with panthenol and keratin to prevent brittleness and breakage], Age Defying Hand Remedy [packed with a blend of peptides to help even out the skin tone, plump and firm], and Nail Buffer [with four sides to file, remove ridges, smooth, and polish]... 

Apart from leaving my hands lovely scented and moisturised, In To The Garden suitcase tin is just awesome, it's kind of retro and would be great for storing old photos, meaningful postcards or whatever you can think of... I love this neat and stylish presentation!

LOVE

Chic Blue Toned Pink Lip Look!

Blue toned pink lipsticks are a very recent discovery of mine, I had quite a few in my collection but never could get them to work without looking Essex... I find that with my complexion they work better in winter than summer... A cool toned pink lip can be very uplifting and refreshing, but I do find that the mattes are the most flattering... My current faves are Revlon Matte Lipstick in 002 Pink Pout, which is a pastel rose with light lilac undertones, and 011 Stormy Pink, a little brighter pink with fuchsia undertones... Both shades are gentle yet have enough colour to brighten up the face, and I find blue toned pink lipstick shade also makes blue eyes pop... 

When I wear a pink lip I like to keep the eyes quite simple and chic with the classic black cat eye flick and an luminizing eyeshadow shade that also helps to make you look more rested and fresh! I applied MAC Eyeshadow in Retro-Speck [Lustre] a beautiful champagne gold with fine silver glitter particles and MAC Sweet Satisfaction [Pro Longwear] also a champagne gold eyeshadow but slightly darker... Both look beautiful with just a black eyeliner... 

Speaking of which, I used the La Ligne de Chanel in 10 Noir-Lame... It has the matte black and the sparkly black shades, but as you can see the sparkles seem to be sitting just on the surface... The eyeliner is dry and you just need to wet the brush, I use the brush that comes with it, it's tiny but absolutely perfect for drawing a beautiful intense long lasting black line... And Mr Barney says Hi!

LOVE

Gift Guide 2012: Lush Seasons Tweetings Gift Set!

Lush has so many lovely Christmas gift sets to choose from! Each gift set comes in a box wrapped in festive pretty paper, which is recycled of course... The choice is wide, you can find something for everyone... In the Seasons Tweetings gift set you get four items - Twilight Shower Gel, which I have reviewed before click here to read more, it's a lovely calming shower gel that helps to relax after a long day... Ro's Argan Body Conditioner works exactly like hair conditioner, you meant to apply it on the skin while bathing or showering and then rinse off and lightly dry yourself with the towel to leave the skin feel conditioned... 

I haven't had a chance to try the Ro's Argan Body Conditioner yet, but at the moment I am pretty curious as it's not a shower gel nor is it a lotion... I will do a separate review once I get familiar with the actual product, but let me tell you this - it smells heavenly! It's meant to really nourish your skin, which is exactly what you need during winter! Some of the ingredients are: Almond Oil, Cypress Leaf Infusion, Brazil Nut Oil, Vanilla Pod Infusion, Fairtrade Shea Butter, Argan Oil, Cupuacu Butter, Cocoa Butter, Rose Oil, Geranium Oil, and Lemon Oil...

Tiny Hands Hand Serum is a deep moisturising hand balm... Basically it's like their body bar that you need to warm up in your hands to melt the oils... It also smells amazing, literally every single item in this box smells so good that I can't decide which one I prefer! Some of the ingredients are: Aloe Vera Extract, Vanilla Extract, Chamomile Oil, and African Marigold Oil... When I am sitting at my computer writing I like to smother my hands in this gorgeous hand serum and just wash my palms to keep them grease-free, and because it's so oily it stays easily on the top of my hands leaving them feeling beautifully moisturised!

And finally, Snowcake Soap also smells amazing! I tried looking it up online to see the ingredients, but the Snowcake Soap that Lush has on their website looks completely different, cut white blocks with a sprinkle of gold on top, nothing like this star shaped soap... But the star shaped Snowcake Soap smells of marzipan just like the soap that is on the website, so it's probably the same one... Aside the little confusion about the shape differences it's a lovely soap... Snowcake Soap is meant to be their Christmas best-seller, and it does smell just like Christmas to me!

LOVE

Wet Eye Make-Up Look with Berry Lips!

Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in Luxe Burgundy

bareMinerals Round The Clock Waterproof Eyeliner in 5pm

Revlon Lipgloss in Peach Petal

Few months ago I saw this really grungy wet eye look created for one of the Fashion Week catwalk shows, and I can't find which one it was... But ever since, I had this image engraved in my mind, I really loved how that kind of dishevelled eye make-up looked on the model... So I decided to create a more wearable look... First of all if creased eye make-up is something you absolutely cannot stand then this look won't be for you as it is impossible to create a wet looking eye make-up without creasing... To achieve the glossy wet eye make-up, which literally looks like you just had a shower and it made your eyeliner and mascara run, all you need is a gel like texture to get things moving on the eyelid and get it to look messy... 

Make-up artists quite often use something as simple as a lip gloss in a nude or pale shade... I left the eye make-up I was wearing during the day only intensified the eyeliner a little more and then just applied a touch of the Revlon Lipgloss in Peach Petal over the top... MAC does a Water-Based Mixing Medium, which is clear and I think it was designed to be applied anywhere on the face... Berry lips are also one of the trends this a/w and I absolutely love this Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in Luxe Burgundy... Luxy Burgundy is from the current Shu Uemura Holiday 2012 Collection, and the shade is a gorgeous berry with warm light shimmer, very flattering and pretty!

LOVE

Gift Guide 2012: Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Holiday 2012 Collection!

Shu Uemura Holiday 2012 Collection...

Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Premium False Eyelashes

Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Rouge Unlimited Lipstick in Luxe Burgundy

Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Nail Color in Karl Black

Ever since I heard about Karl Lagerfeld creating a make-up Holiday 2012 Collection for Shu Uemura I knew it would be something very special! This collection is based around Japanese pop culture... Here are my picks from the entire collection... Black being the iconic colour of the Fashion Godfather, Karl created a nail polish to die for! I love black nail polishes with a twist, Karl Black has predominantly gold glitter and also multicoloured fine glitter mixed in... It's quite punky and dramatic, I love it! Oh and the nail polish comes with nail stickers for some extra fun...

From all the lipstick shades in this collection I felt Luxe Burgundy was most unique... It's a beautiful burgundy shade with warm shimmer... It may not look like much in the bullet but as soon as I applied it I felt like Kate Moss in her party days - that kind of rough punk look again...  If you are not quite sure what the hell I am talking about do not worry, you will be able to see the look I created wearing this lipstick in the next blog post!

Now, the lashes! Karl Lagerfeld for Shu Uemura Premium False Eyelashes are quite something! To start of with they are a real collector's item... I can see someone like Lisa Eldridge owning a pair to keep them in her amazing make-up collection for posterity... They are pretty cool even just to look at, and I think if you have a friend who is a make-up artist or someone who loves to indulge in eclectic items they would seriously love these lashes... They are not for everyone as they are quite out there, very Tokyo and Karl Lagerfeld mixed in one cocktail... Or if you have a special dress-up party to attend and you are brave enough you could try wearing them too...

These eyelashes are not cheap either, but you pay £50 for something that could potentially leave its mark on the make-up history... Things we look back at and admire the beauty of, things like Biba make-up, it was crazy and amazing at the same time... These eyelashes are handmade, and the detail that you see is double sided, so you get exactly the same pattern on both sides of the lashes... And they come in beautiful box as well... It is Karl Lagerfeld after all, of course he would come up with something exclusive and fabulous!

LOVE

Keira Knightley at Anna Karenina LA Premier Inspired Look...

Keira Knightley at the LA Premier of Anna Karenina...

I've seen the images of Keira Knightley at Anna Karenina LA Premier when I was getting my car MOTed... I instantly loved that playful and witty make-up she was wearing, a very thick and straight cat-eye flick with a blue toned shimmery lipstick... Not a look you get to see on Keira very often, but there's something really gratifying about it and so I decided to have some fun and try to recreate this look... I could have gone thicker and longer with the black eyeliner but I don't think it would suit me very well... It's important to know your own face and how far you could take it... You can always take the main aspects of a look and adapt it to what suits you best... So here it goes...

There was hardly any colour on Keira's eyelids, so I used the soft brown shade [bottom right] from the Dior 5 Couleurs eyeshadow palette in 754 Rosy Tan, which I believe came out last spring... For that thick intensely black line I used the matte shade from my beloved Chanel Professional Eyeliner Duo in 10 Noir-Lame - in summer I read somewhere that it will be discontinued and so I went and got it, if it is still around I would really recommend to check it out... On lower lashes I applied Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara in Black, the only mascara that doesn't run on my lower lashes! 

I also decided to add a little more flirtation to the look by adding some individual lashes... I used the Ardell Individual Lashes in medium length... When I tried to use the individual lashes for the first time I ruined about four of them... But then you get used to them very quickly, and I can honestly say they are much easier to wear than a full-set... When I wear them now I can hardly feel them, they are incredibly light and you don't have the desire to take rip off at the end of the night... Also you can be quite creative and choose what look you want... For this look I applied them criss cross over one another right at the end to elongate the eye and also for extra flutter...

Keira didn't appear to wear much on her cheeks and so I went for a subtle but luminous blush - Chanel in 65 Espiegle a very pretty and light peachy pink, it is hard to over-do your cheeks with this one... For lips the closest colour I could find in my collection to resemble Keira's cool toned shimmery pout is Estee Lauder Pure Color Lasting Shimmer Lipstick in 16 Candy, which came out for the BCA Collection... Et voilà!

LOVE