Keeping It High Brow

There’s no denying it, all eyes are on Cara Delevingne at the moment. More specifically, all eyes are on those eyebrows. They've taken the beauty world by storm and now they even have their own Twitter account. Bold, strong ‘power’ eyebrows are now a major trend and brow bars have been popping up all over the country. The reason? Fuller eyebrows give the illusion of lifting the face, drawing attention to bone structure, defining your face shape and framing your eyes beautifully.

Don’t worry if you’ve had years of over-plucking, you can get Cara’s look with the help of a range of products. To encourage hair growth, try RevitaBrow or Nourishing Brow Oil, it promises fuller brows in just sixty days. Once you’re happy with the fullness, pop into any beauty salon and ask for threading and an eyebrow tint which will add definition and can last up to six weeks.

For those wanting to do it themself, be sure to pay careful attention to your natural brow shape and only pluck the stray hairs. For a balanced look, the highest point of the brow should be directly above the pupil. You can use wax, powder and pencils to add shape, simply fill in little by little to gradually build up the colour. To finish, add a little illuminator under your brow bone, the BeneFit High Brow Pencil has a lovely creamy texture and can be blended easily. This will give your eyes that instant ‘pop’, just like Cara’s.

Nail The Trends

Last year it was all about the Caviar nail trend so what’s new for summer 2013?

Concrete and liquid sand seem to be causing quite a stir, with their matte, grainy textured finishes giving a whole new dimension to nails.

If the idea of concrete and sand all sounds a little too industrial for you, why not vamp it up with the luxurious leather look. Alexa Chung kicked off this trend back in November when she rocked up to the British Fashion Awards with this daring new look. Go all out and add silver skull embellishments for a real rock ‘n’ roll vibe. Or you could experiment with velvet nails for another nod towards the texture trend.

If you need to tone it down for the office, you’ll still be on-trend if you stick to pale coloured nails or add just a subtle flash of metallic. Then when it’s time for after office drinks, take the metallic look one step further by trying out the crocodile effect metallic varnishes – simply apply two coats of the polish and sweep the magnet over the nails to create a unique scale-like finish.

New Years Likes and Loathes

I know the first month of the year is over, but I still feel like January has just dawned, and I’m struggling with neon’s, tribal prints, pastel colours and updating my work wear wardrobe with the addition of a new bag and shoes!  I know it’s not very positive but for once I’m just not into clothes – perhaps its all the time I’ve spent at home, so I’ve decided to give you, from the comfort of my sofa my likes and loathes of 2012 (so far)

Likes

·       Guilty Pleasure Celebrity Big Brother – I’m enjoyed being a voyeur into the celebrity bubble – they should have kept Andrew Stone in – was quite disappointed Denise won

·       Elemis products – thank you for all my Christmas and Birthday goodies Jack, Claire, Jon and Javi. I’m spoilt for choice and have a different bath or shower theme each day

·       Gregory Porter – saw him for the first time on Jools Holland’s New Year show and thought he was fantastic

·       Award season – bringing a bit of glamour into our lives

·       Oscar films – so many good ones to watch – not sure who will win this year

·       Can’t wait until True Blood Starts on 5^th February

Dislikes

·       Doom and gloom – I’m so fed up of hearing so may negative comments and how long it’s going to take us to recover. We’ve been through worse and I’m sure we will go through worse in the future – just get on with it - moaning’s not going to get you anywhere.

·        E-shots – now I normally love an e-shot but if I get another one with another 10% off sales prices or photographs of totally un-wearable items of clothing (even in summer) I’ll scream!

·       102 mile and hour winds – not an everyday occurrence but they have made my garden look likes it’s gone through a spin cycle. Broken fences, walls down and trees uprooted – not nice

·       The amount of lotions and potions I put on my face and body – I could save myself hours if I didn’t have to put Elemis eye cream, Lip and Eye balm, Colin serum, Strivectin skin firmer, Elemis Daily Redness relief, Aveno Cream, Boots Foot Cream and not forgetting the smelly Chinese herbs I put on my back! Don’t get me started on my hair – Nanokeratin shampoo, serum and heat protector, KMS Volume Spray and KMS Anti Humidity Spray – Beauty Junkie moi???

Flossy xx

To Betty Hula, with love

Dear Betty Hula,

After a month of detoxing (yes, no alcohol for a full 31 days, minus a glass of champagne but that was essential) my skin is feeling super smooth and fresh. I'm not sure if it's the lack of white wine, a new gym membership or a recent detox spa day, but I'm convinced it's your products I found in my Christmas stocking. The Champagne & Spice and Rum & Blackcurrant moisturisers have made the cold weather almost bearable. The holiday smells instantly warm you up, while the Secret Wonder Oil soothes the skin from too much central heating! Betty Hula has now become part of my daily beauty routine, and I'm convinced your products will work just as well in summer as they do in winter.  

With Love

Ruby Woo

       

New Year New York

With a trip to New York on the horizon, it’s time to start planning outfits, day-to-night outfits, and separate day and night outfits. When packing a capsule wardrobe nothing can be left to chance. First purchase has been secured – flat over the knee, black suede boots. Not necessarily the ones my holiday partner/husband would have chosen but worn with grey skinnies and loose knit-jumper they are the perfect choice. These will be teamed with another Christmas gift – a black leather, gold studded bag that holds the world and more.

So, one outfit down, another nine to go.

Until the next time.

Rubywoo 

Fluoro happy

Happy New Year bloggers! I hope you all had a very good one! 

I spent the holidays on a mission...thanks to the Terry Richardson Lady Gaga book and some inspiration from Miss Rihanna, I've decided to ditch the short square nails and grow long, spiky talons. 


I'm not a fan of acrylics so instead I'm trying to grow these bad boys au naturelle - and who knew it was such an obstacle course! Phones, keyboards, cans of juice - everything seems to pose danger to my slowly growing nails But we're getting there and to celebrate the first day back in the office I went for a neon yellow that I LOVE. It's an American Apparel nail varnish, and to be honest the polish itself isn't that great - it began chipping after a day. But the colour is so vivid I think it's worth a daily update!

I'll keep you posted on the progress - I'll be like Gaga in no time!


Chelsea D

A chilly decision...

I need a new winter coat – no wrong I want a new winter coat. I didn’t buy one last year as it snowed and my Barbour jacket was superglued to me, and it was too cold to even venture to the shops to buy a new one.

I know what I want, in fact I’ve seen what I want – it’s gorgeous from Burberry and ticks all my coat boxes. A coat is very important item of clothing for me – you can make a great first impression with a good coat and as I go to lots of meetings a coat is a good investment. (see how easy I can talk myself into things)

I had planned to buy my fabulous new coat on line – I did check it out first of all in Harrods and decided that it was the one for me. I was feeling very good about it, as it wasn’t as expensive as my first choice – which when I saw it I really didn’t like it.

All was going well until I came home one night and my freezer had decided to play up – it was freezing over – it didn’t matter what was in it – one minute it was frost free the next time it looked like the Antarctic was paying us a visit.  A new freezer is required. I looked on line and at the shops – well it must have been a long time since I bought a new fridge and a freezer (have to get both as it would look odd in the kitchen) and you can get many of life’s little luxuries for the price of a fridge and a freezer. I found the perfect one – black and shiny perfect for my kitchen.

So here’s my dilemma – a coat or a fridge and freezer?  Common sense should prevail and have me rushing off to Curry’s to buy my new fridge freezer. At any other time I’m happy to buy ‘house’ things, I love to my house to look nice, but with Christmas coming and David Cameron not really getting his finger out to kick start the economy it’s one or the other.

Haven’t made my decision yet – should common sense prevail?  What do you think?

Flossy xx