Celebrities through the looking glass...

Yes, a lot of the time celebrities look annoyingly gorgeous, but we know the little secret behind the mask of perfection lies a massively talented make-up artist, stylist, dietician and personal trainer. Imagine if you had all that in order to look consistently gorgeous?! There'd be no excuse for bad hair days, fat days or ugly days! Heres a few of the celebrities who I think get it right every time :



I know what you're thinking. Lizzie Maguire?! Lizzie Maguire gets it right every time?! Well, yes actually, she does. Hilary duff consistently looks beautiful at premiere's and events, why? Because a lot of effort goes in to her make-up look. Here her look is pretty, yet polished and attainable for everyone. She has used a silvery taupey-brown on the eyes with plenty of mascara and false lashes. Lips and cheeks have been kept girlishly pink, yet subdued. The key to this look is lots of mascara, lots and lots of it!

Products to use for this look :
1) For the eyes, I suggest Urban Decay's 'straydog' eyeshadow. This silvery taupey brown is the perfect compliment to all eye shades and has the most beautiful texture. smudge it under the eyes as well as on the lids to create Hilary's polished, yet smokey eye. Use liquid liner on top lids only. I like Boots No7 liquid Liner in Black. Ensure that the line is very thick and very neat, use cotton buds to wipe away any mistakes. For volumised lashes without the clumps, my go-to mascara is 'My Biggest Lashes' in very black, by Prestige. Wiggle the wand through the root of your lashes to create thickness, then keep stroking the wand over and over your lashes till you have created Hilary's doll-like flutter! If you want, stick on some falsies, Im not a fan of them, but I hear eyelure do the best ones!

2) Keep the foundation light and dewy, the skin must not be matte for this look. No powder neccessary! I suggest Myface Mymix foundation for an ethereal glow. For those girly pink cheeks, Urban decay's after glow blush in 'quickie' does the job, dont brush on too much though because its such a pigmented blusher!

3) The lips are a neutral creamy pink, I suggest MAC's angel lipstick for pink lips that dont look overdone.

Although I find Keira Knightley really quite annoying, (why is she ALWAYS pouting?! even when shes talking shes pouting!!) she does happen to always have a good make-up artist and stylist to hand. I have heard she's an acne sufferer which makes me like her a bit more, as I am pront to acne breakouts. She mostly goes for a smokey-brown eyeshadow look with nude-rose lips. The look is very english rose/rock chick, like shes been running around on the windy moors for too long or something. Heres my break down :

1) The foundation shes used is quite high coverage, yet leaves a lovely natural glow. I suggest trying Revlon Colourstay foundation for this look. This foundation takes quite a while to set so do your eye make-up whilst its setting. (what is it?! paint?!)

2) For the eyes a dark, chocolatey brown is key. I suggest using Barry M chocolate dazzle dust (no.53). Use a brush to bring the shadow right in to the socket line, and at the outer corners of the eyes. Keria has not used much highlight, however the lid has a small amount of purpley-grey to offset the chocolate brown. I suggest BarryM's dazzle dust in mushroom, a lovely sparkly grey with hints of lilac. Use a fluffy brush to run over the entire eye and blend the colours together. Use a black kohl eyeliner to line the lower lashes and top lashline. Dont use liquid liner for this look, it is too harsh and not rock chick enough, sorry. My fave kohl eyeliner is no7. amazing eye eye pencil in black. Now take your little finger and run some Barry M chocolate dazzle dust just under your lower lash line. I have always used my little finger for this job because it gives a more worn-in rock chick effect, a brush tends to make it look too polished and precise. Now for the mascara, Keira's eyelashes are volumised and multiplied using layers of mascara on both the top and bottom lashes. I suggest using Revlons fabulash for this, at first this mascara seems useless, but trust me, keep building it up and up and after a while you will be very satisfied with it indeed! I like to blink my lashes in to the brush again and again until Im happy. It makes me really dizzy, but it works!!!

3) Hopefully your foundation has dried by now?! For Keira's glow, use an iridescent gold powder all over the face, especially down the length of your nose, tops of cheekbones and chin. I like Too faced's candlit glow, but if you prefer something less sparkly, Pixi does a lovely blush called Energy blush in naturally sunny, the highlighter part of this blush is perfect! For keir'as naturally pink glow I suggest 17's blush in bramble frost which is a really neutral pink, and literally goes with ANY eyelook you have gone for!

4) Keiras lips look naturally glossy. I like Burts Bees super shiny lip gloss in sweet pink.

C'est fini!

Vivienne Westwood, Naughty Alice Perfume

My favourite designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, has released a new perfume called 'Naughty Alice'. Could this be anymore perfect for me??

A) I LOVE perfume so much it is a bit freakish. Some people lust after chocolate,clothes, holidays,handbags, shoes. But for me, it has always been about perfume.

B) I LOVE Vivienne Westwood, I love her designs, I love her other perfumes, I love her style, I love her adverts, I love how the British style is reflected in her designs. Hell, I love her crazy red hair and freakish outfits.

C) As you may have noticed from the title of my blog, I LOVE 'Alice In wonderland' and anything related to it. I have considered having an 'Alice in Wonderland' tattoo but maybe it would be tacky? Im not sure on that one. I just love Lewis Carroll's story, its so different to anything I have ever read. I especially love the illustrations. My favourite director, Tim Burton, also provided me with a 'has he made this for me?' moment when he released his version of 'Alice In Wonderland'. Johnny Deppy playing the mad hatter was pure porn for me.

The Vivienne Westwood site describes it as : 'At the very heart of Naughty Alice's perfume is a luminous floriental which dazzles the senses. The modern powdery elegance of Black rose and carnal violet is subliminated by the warm sensuality of the ylang-ylang. Naughty Alice is available in three sizes (30ml, 50ml, 75ml).'

Christmas collections - Too Faced and No7.

Too faced cosmetics have always been a favourite of mine, you actually get what you pay for, unlike other cosmetic company's who shall rename nameless, but charge triple for a very low quality product's. I wont name and shame them, except to say that some of their products are often copied by other companies, for example a rose tinted cheek and lip stain which has been reproduced by other companies who probably did a better job at the product and dont overcharge. Anyway, moving on before I get too heated about the subject!

Its that special time of year when cosmetic companies release their Christmas collection waaaay too early, and it makes me waaay too excited and therefore willing to splurge on all types of glitter coated eyeshadows which will be worn once on Christmas day when it is exceptable to look like a deranged fairy. And this is exactly what I wanted and recieved from Too faced's 'Enchanted Christmas' collection. The collection has some gorgeous fairy-themed palettes which I can only lust after (penny-less student). My favourite is the 'Pixie Perfect make-up collection', featuring a make-up bag with illustrations of fairy's on it. Inside you recieve : Lash Injection Black Masacara, Shadow Insurance, Fairy compact with two blushes in Sun Bunny&Papa dont Peach (gorgeous), Glamour Gloss in Plush, Pixie eyeshadow quad with : Velvet revolver, Enchanted Forest, Totally Toasted and Peach Fuzz.

As for No 7 , they never fail to delight me with something sparkly over the Christmas period. They have released their limited edition 'Tis the season to be twinkly', yes indeed!! Their collection features 'Mirrorball Highlighter compact' - (a sparkly pink and white powder), 'Mirror ball palette' -(featuring 4 sparkly eyeshadows), Mirror ball lipstick, MirrorBall eyeshadow pencils, Christmas Glitter mascara (luuuuust), Christmas collection eyeshadow palette in CandyCane.

Are you feeling more scrooge or more sparkly??!

MAC- just a pretty face?

I'll be the first to admit, I love make-up, especially MAC make-up with its vast array of colours, textures, compositions and many collections. It gives me that little buzz. So when I heard that beauty you-tubers and bloggers who previously adored MAC were boycotting the company I was shocked and extremely curious. What on earth had MAC done to cause such demonstration of resentment after previously being so adored? After doing much research in to the matter, I had my answer and it wasn't pretty (excuse the pun).

MAC released a collaborative collection with clothing company 'Rodarte' . The make-up collection in conjunction with the clothing was supposed to capture the "ethereal nature of the landscape" in vast areas of Texas. As many people are aware, Mexico is well known for having 'Maquiladoras' , more commonly known as sweat shops, which are factories providing cheap export goods to many parts of the world. A typical daily shift in a sweat shop is from 4AM to midnight, with the workers taking home $4.50 at the end of the week (which is actually higher than the average wage in Mexico). However, because the workers are earning more they are having to pay higher rent. This disables the workers from having any basic household amenities such as running water and electricity. Two thirds of the sweat shop jobs are taken up by women, this is because women are considered to have nimbler fingers and are apparently more obedient than males and therefore more reliable workers.

The women are made to prove that they are not pregnant each month either by tests, or appalingly, by showing a used tampon or pad. If they are pregnant then they will lose their jobs, but this isn't even the main problem. The city of Juarez, near the US-Mexico border has become a site of female destruction and murder. 400 unsolved murders and even more abductions lie at the realm of this hell site. A huge number of these victims hail from the 'Maquiladoras', and instead of protecting these women using the huge amount of wealth they have accumulated the factory owners are leaving them defenseless in the face of violence and murder.

But what on earth could my favourite cosmetics company have to do with this brutality and murder? In an act of extremely poor taste, MAC released the Rodarte collection of make-up containing an eyeshadow called 'Sleep walker' after the large groups of women making their way to the sweat shops in the early hours of the morning. This caused huge scrutiny because of the red veins running through the eyeshadow. Many were under the impression that this red veining represented blood. Not only this, but the collection contained a nail polish called 'Factory' because of the large amount of 'Maquiladoras' in the area.

MAC 'Sleepwalker' eyeshadow.

If this information doesn't put customers off MAC as a company, I dont know what would. MAC released a statement on the issue,

'We understand that product names in the M·A·C Rodarte collection have offended some of our consumers and fans. This was never our intent and we are very sorry. We are listening carefully to the comments posted and are grateful to those of you who have brought your concerns to the forefront of our attention. M·A·C will give a portion of the proceeds from the M·A·C Rodarte collection to help those in need in Juarez. We are diligently investigating the best way to do this. Please be assured that we will keep you posted on the details regarding our efforts."

Rodarte also issued a statement,

"Our makeup collaboration with M·A·C developed from inspirations on a road trip that we took in Texas last year, from El Paso to Marfa. The ethereal nature of this landscape influenced the creative development and desert palette of the collection. We are truly saddened about injustice in Juarez and it is a very important issue to us. The M·A·C collaboration was intended as a celebration of the beauty of the landscape and people in the areas that we traveled."

Since then, MAC have cancelled the release of the collection and have donated proceeds to the countless problems in Juarez. Needless to say I can not help but be put off by MAC cosmetics as I'm sure many other women world wide are. To associate themselves with such hideous crime is to cut themselves off from countless customers. There may be some truth in Rodarte's comment that the collection was entirely based on the beauty of the landscape, but to release a product called 'Sleepwalker' ensures that they must have a least been aware of the sweat shops. As for MAC, it seems that they are JUST a pretty face.