Lusting over Tom Ford Beauty

A late night venture to Harrods on Thursday evening ended in huge disappointment. Nothing to do with the store of course, more to do with price tags of products in said store! My fellow journalist friend Rebecca came along to meet me after work, as she was in search of the perfect 'pretty' pink lipstick. She also left in a bout of defeat after no luck. But while scouring every beauty counter Harrods had to offer for Rebecca, I managed to come across these two lip products at Tom Ford which sent me into a slight state of delirium. I've always admired the Tom Ford beauty ad campaigns, in particular this one above and the campaign below for fragrance Violet Blonde. I'm not sure if it's the beauty of Lara Stone, the cheerful colour way or the ever so handsome male model, but all of Tom Ford's ad campaigns shriek opulence.

This weekend's lust worthy products just happen to be featured in the ad campaign at the top, I'm not sure if this is the reason why I seem to be lusting over them so much, but I've been in search of a more 'grown up' lip colour that isn't a luminous pink or candy lilac. These two products are the perfect mix of scarlet and magenta. Using the 'Cherry Lush' lipstick as a base would be perfect as a day to day lip coat, and to jazz it up in the evening or for an extreme day time look you could add the lip gloss 'Lost Cherry' for an extra shine.

Cherry Lush £36 at Harrods

Lost Cherry £32 at Harrods

The online picture's do the colour no justice, so I suggest you go and take a look at your nearest Tom Ford Beauty counter, all of their lip, face and eye colours are really unique which makes the price tag a bit more bearable. And the packaging is really luxurious. As I'm saving for my Paris trip next week I sadly declined these two products (it was HARD), but if I find a Tom Ford Beauty counter in Paris I may just make the plunge, as I'm sure being in Paris will make every purchase feel guilt free!

Much love,

M-x

If you a fly gal, get your nails done....

This week my sister and I decided to have a little pamper session at our local 'Beauty and Wellness' salon 'So Me' on Clapham High Street. My sister opted for a Microdermabrasion facial and eyebrow threading, while I decided on a full set of gel nails. The optometrist vs student budget is clearly evident.

The nail technician was really lovely, a cute little Polish woman who liked telling me about all her stories from home, which makes a change from the lower budget nail salons that I usually visit, where the technician can't even string and English sentence together, it's always a slightly awkward experience.

What I really loved about this specific nail technician was her preciseness and her perfectionist attitude to my nails. Understandably, this was the first time I had used the salon and perhaps she was out to impress, but even so this certainly worked for me.

Whilst scanning over their MASSIVE nail polish collection, I was faced with the question of 'What colour?' I slightly panicked at this stage, but I finally made the plunge and I'm pretty happy with the final result.

I picked OPI Black Onyx as a base colour and then OPI Rainbow Connection on one finger on each hand. See results below:

Very pleased with the outcome! Also, as my sister has adopted a crazy obsession with nail polishes over the last week, I sneaked a bit of her Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat over the Onyx Black...definitely prefer this look to the shiny-ness of the above. Yum.

All in all I was really impressed with So Me. I paid £24 for a full set of gel nails, which for London in a proper salon is a spectacularly good price (unless we're talking Peckham or Lewisham £10 full set acrylic salons!) So Me actually charge £30 for a full set but as I went in the daytime on a week day I got a 20% discount. Bargain!

Much love,

M-x

PS: Signed up to Glossybox this month after hearing loads about their limited edition collaboration with Harrods this month, so can't wait for it to arrive! Expect new postz on that!

Unleash the beast....

I thought it was about time that I introduced my pug, Violet to my blog, after all it's named after her! As it says at the top, this is not just a beauty blog, I also feel really passionately about my beautiful little pooch. She has kind of taken over my life this past year.

I received Violet last Christmas as a not-so-surprise gift from my mum, for me and my sister who live together in London. I hadn't stopped going on about how much I longed for a dog for months. As a girl who has never lived without a dog before, moving to London and not having a cute little hound to cuddle up to was starting to get to me. Boyfriends just don't cut it. My mum finally got sick of my whining and thought she'd scare me out of it by saying "Go on then, I'll get you one for Christmas if you want one so much!" which OBVIOUSLY had the opposite effect...and here we are, one year later.

On most weekends we tend to go on mini adventures. Although we don't venture too far, I like to think that Vi really enjoys getting out and about. We mostly go to Hyde Park or Clapham Common, and meet loads of other pups along the way who she likes to play with. If you're a dog lover like me, I'm sure you'll enjoy the occasional pug posts! I like to take A LOT of pictures of dogs that I spot, so fingers crossed you enjoy as much as I do.

Much love,

M (and Violet)-x