It’s safe to say there are loads of celebrities that we’d love to look like, but the trouble is they almost always have a make-up artist to hand to ensure they look their best. We decided that even if we can’t have Lisa Eldridge at our beckon call, we could at least fantasise about owning the products that make them look so gorgeous. So here we have it, the ultimate celebrity make-up bag…
Despite the name, this foundation is neither sheer nor overly glowy. The skin is left perfected with a luminous finish, meaning it looks natural without compromising on coverage – gorgeous!
2. Eyeliner: Smashbox Jet Set Waterproof Eye Liner in ‘Midnight Black’, £16 (Nicki Minaj’s favourite)
Super black and super waterproof, Nicki’s favourite Smashbox eyeliner is a must-have for creating the graphic liner looks she sports so often.
3. Mascara: MAC Zoom Lash, £14 (Lara Stone’s favourite)
Long, voluminous lashes are always a good thing, and MAC’s Zoom Lash is a staple for Lara Stone.
Dabbed across the tops of cheekbones and under the eyes, Touche Eclat gives that bright, luminous look that so many celebs go for on the red carpet.
5. Lipstick: MAC Lipstick in ‘Lady Danger’, £14 (Caroline Flack’s favourite)
Caroline’s favourite bright, orange-toned red lippie really helps to brighten up the face and makes even the simplest face of make-up look well put together.
6. Bronzer: Lancome Star Bronzer Intense, £32.50 (Mila Kunis’ favourite)
Completely matte and finely milled, this powder bronzer gives a lovely, natural tan to the face without looking too over the top. Mila is always so beautifully bronzed and we love her look, so this is a winner!
7. Blusher: Illamasqua Powder Blusher in ‘Lover’, ‘Excite’ or ‘Hussy’, £18 (Nicole Scherzinger’s favourites)
Illamasqua blushers are known for being super pigmented, which means you only need the tiniest amount to get Nicole’s gorgeous glow!
8. Eyeshadow: Stila Eyeshadow in ‘Kitten’, £12 (Whitney Port’s favourite)
Whitney’s favourite eyeshadow is a beautiful shimmery champagne shade by Stila. This will look great paired with ‘Lady Danger’ lipstick as it’ll really tone down the eyes, letting the lips do the talking.
Millie Mackintosh’s complexion is to die for. Glowing and radiant with just the right amount of tan, her skin always looks immaculate and we want it! Millie’s favourite base product is Chantecaille’s Just Skin Tinted Moisturiser, which she uses to achieve a clean, natural finish that never looks overdone.
Surprise surprise, this stuff doesn’t come cheap, and will set you back an eye-watering £57 – ouch. If it makes our skin look anything like Millie’s though, it’s worth saving for. She uses it every day and claims it’s an absolute staple in her beauty regime. Considering she worked as a make-up artist before starring in Made in Chelsea, we’re inclined to take her word that this stuff is good!
It provides a decent amount of coverage whilst being incredibly lightweight, meaning it’s perfect for summer when it’s nice to wear a lighter base rather than a heavy foundation. An SPF is an absolute must as the weather gets a little brighter, but as this is only SPF 15 it’s probably best to apply a higher factor sunscreen underneath (we love Clinique’s City Block for every day use in the summer).
Finish the skin off with a dab of concealer where needed and a dusting of Millie’s favourite ‘Laguna’ bronzer by Nars – perfect!
Chantecaille products are available at Space NK, but be careful when browsing, we can guarantee you’re going to want to splurge!
Kinara Skin Care Clinic in LA is owned by renowned US facialist and skincare expert, Olga Lorencin-Northrup. Celebs love her skincare line, Kinara, with its fans including Drew Barrymore, Eva Mendes, Johnny Depp, Kate Hudson… the list goes on! Kinara seems to have been kicking up quite the fuss across the pond, and after hearing about its many celebrity fans we just had to give it a go!
We’ve been road testing the Weightless Moisturiser (£48) and we have to say, we’re suitably impressed! It’s really light but still packs a punch when it comes to hydrating the skin, which is a formula that’s often hard to come by in a moisturiser. According to Kinara, it ‘boosts skin’s self-repair with Vitamin A’, and whist we’re not completely sold on that, it’s safe to say that this is a lovely product.
The bottle comes with a pump, and as something which is often overlooked by skincare brands, it’s lovely to know that no germs are building up inside the packaging after days and days of scooping it out of a pot – ew! One pump is more than enough to cover the whole face and neck, meaning it should last a while (and considering the price tag, that’s a huge relief).
The moisturiser smells really fresh and lemony, which is lovely on a morning. This will be perfect once the weather starts warming up as it’s so lightweight and absorbs almost instantly, meaning your face isn’t left feeling tacky in the heat. For the same reason, it also makes a good base for make-up as its lightweight texture means your foundation doesn’t end up slipping and sliding around your face at the slightest rise in temperature.
This is perfect for normal/oily skin in summer, and is available for the first ever time in the UK at feelunique.com priced at £48.
The two words ‘hair extensions’ can stir up a whole lot of mistrust in people, but does it truly look like I have extensions in the photo below? Be honest!
Recently I was invited to the Tatiana Hair Extensions Annual Anniversary Party, where I met the gorgeous Tatiana Karelina. At the event, my hair was in such a state that I had to wear it up in a high bun (using a bun ring for extra volume) . I was so jealous of Tatiana’s long curly locks and the hair of Tatiana’s other VIP customers including TV star Imogen Thomas and TOWIE’s Jessica Wright (below with Tatiana).
I like to experiment with new beauty treatments and try what the celebs do to see whether it will work for the rest of us…it’s all very well styling celebrities as they start off well-groomed but this is an honest photo to show what I look like before I’ve styled my hair. No, I didn’t get electrocuted by my toaster, this frizzy mane is all mine (sadly).
So what actually happens when you visit the Tatiana Hair Extensions salon? For a quick overview of the process, check out this video. It seriously was that quick. To go from frizz to fabulous took approx two hours, which is very quick compared to hair extensions I’ve had done in the past.
Let me explain…where Tatiana Hair Extensions differs from some other salons is that you get a bespoke service. This starts from the moment you walk through the door and realise that this isn’t decorated like an ordinary salon. The interior is truly gorgeous with gold tables, antique mirrors, a cushioned wall, quirky glassware, two resident chiuhaha dogs and a captivating artwork of Marilyn Monroe, the original glamour girl herself.
And look at how they serve tea…
Where this attention to detail comes in really handy is at the start when Tatiana and her team take time to analyse your hair to work out what type of hair to put in. ‘The reason some extensions are bad is because you can spot where they start and where someone’s own hair ends,’ Tatiana told me. ‘If I put straight hair in yours then you’d be able to spot it but if we put in extensions that have a natural wave it will blend to your own hair more easily.’
Tatiana also gave me a choice of colour. She suggested going a bit lighter for summer with some highlights of caramel to make the overall effect ‘more expensive.’ How fabulous! And you can really see the colour at the end when it’s straight…
Even the bonding method at the salon is bespoke. This is how the extensions attach to your hair, which may be by Keratin Glue, a weft or micro-rings (which is what I had last time). I definitely prefer rings to glue as the glue starts to flake after a few months making it look like you have dandruff! However, at Tatiana’s I learned it was possible to improve on micro-rings even more…with Tatiana’s bespoke micro-rings. They’re made from silicone rather than copper and her ones are super light and thin. They’re so flat you hardly notice them, whereas the copper ones can stick out when you put your hair up into a ponytail you would never ever ever ever see these.
I had nearly a full head of high quality Russian hair put into my hair using silicon micro rings and the photo below shows the process of what happened.
After the initial consultation in my frizzy state (top left), the extensions are put in row by row. The hair is straightened and then it is cut to blend into my own hair (top right). This process is very important and an extra touch done by the Tatiana team to make sure nobody can tell the extra hair is not naturally your own. Confident that it looks natural, you can then style the hair however you want as it is high quality human hair sourced from the local collectors in Russia to ensure that there is great value all round. I decided to go for some voluminous curls, which the Tatiana team did using GHDs (below left). And then for the finishing touch, I also got a braid (below right) which shows again how the Tatiana process is bespoke and unique to my needs. Not many places would bother to plait it for you after doing extensions!
A full price-list is available on the Tatiana Extensions website but why I think it is especially good value is because the hair is such good quality you can use it again and just go back to fix the bonds without attaching new hair. If you buy cheap extensions they fall out regularly and it gets matted so you have to buy new hair every three months. Tatiana’s hair could last you for years!
Now check out the plait in the photo below.
Not only is Tatiana an expert at hair extensions, she is full of ideas about to style long hair as well. Her Twitter @TatianaHairExts has a different tip each day and there is even an iPad App (FREE!!) so you can see if long hair would suit you.
Next week, I’ll do a separate blog post showing you how you can get that plait step by step so watch this space! But I’ll leave you with another before and after photo. On the left is Tatiana and I at the party, when I was forced to wear my hair up. On the right is Tatiana and I in her salon with my gorgeous, natural looking hair extensions.
Later that night, I put the same dress on and went dancing – and the man in the photo below never guessed that I had extensions!
Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Demi Moore and Angelina Jolie are some of the biggest A-listers with the craziest beauty regimes. Whilst we’re still trying to get to grips with the concept of the ‘fish pedicure’, celebrities are indulging in all sorts of weird and wonderful beauty treatments. Here are some of the most bizarre…
Jennifer Lopez and Madonna: The Human Placenta Facial
Yes, you read it right… human placenta. Well, a facial cream that uses human placenta to repair the signs of ageing, to be precise. Whilst most of us would probably feel queasy at the sight of such an ingredient on the back of our pot of moisturiser, apparently J.Lo and Madge swear by it! We have to say that both these ladies are looking fantastic for their age (who would’ve guessed J.Lo was 43?!) but we absolutely draw the line at a $1000 human placenta face cream. We’d rather grow old gracefully (and with that $1000 in our back pockets) thank you very much!
Demi Moore: Blood Sucking Leeches
Much to our surprise, there are people in this world who are quite happy to hop into a bath tub full of blood sucking leeches all in the name of beauty. And would you believe it, the fabulous Demi Moore is one of them. Supposedly the treatment has cleansing benefits, and according to Demi, the leeches are ‘highly trained medical leeches’. We’re sceptical as to whether a leech could ever be ‘medically trained’, but it’s safe to say that Demi looks amazing for her age. Still, each to their own but this is still pushing the limits of alternative beauty therapy a bit too far for our liking, sorry!
Angelina Jolie: The Caviar Facial
Finally, a crazy celebrity beauty treatment that doesn’t make us feel too nauseous! Angelina Jolie’s love for caviar facials makes her beauty indulgence seem tame compared to J.Lo, Madonna and Demi! Angelina’s said to be a big fan of La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Luxe Cream, which contains extracts of caviar to help nourish the skin. Thankfully, the fishy aroma has been left out of this little pot of moisturiser, meaning it’s actually feasible that we might consider letting it within 100 metres of our faces (which is more than can be said for the human placenta and the leeches!) Sadly, we probably will never get the opportunity to do so considering a pot of the Caviar Luxe Cream will set you back £278. Some things are just best left to the celebs…
Taylor Swift and, of course, Nicola Roberts are just a few celebs well and truly rocking their au natural fair skin at the moment.
Whilst a subtle faux glow (when done properly) can be equally as beautiful, nothing makes you blend into the crowd like an olive, sun kissed skin tone. The best way to stand out this summer is to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing, so take a leaf out of the celebs’ book and ditch that fake tan in favour of some serious SPF!
When it comes to protecting your face, nothing prevents sun damage quite like Elizabeth Arden’s Prevage Triple Shield SPF 50 (£60). It’s perfect for under make-up, so it’s great for city breaks, but it also works just as well worn alone, meaning you can throw it in your suitcase before jetting off for a beach holiday. It protects against UVA, UVB and even Infrared-A radiation (which causes ageing in the skin) so you can rest assured that your skin is well and truly safe from the sun when you’re out and about.
Wearing a high SPF if you’re naturally fair will ensure you don’t damage your beautifully pale skin, meaning you can take a leaf out of Taylor Swift’s book and embrace it this summer! If you take extra care to look after your skin in the sun, you’ll also reduce the likelihood of developing wrinkles early, meaning you’ll stay looking younger for longer whilst all your tan-a-holic friends look ten years older than they really are!
It’s no secret that Decleor are a big hit with the celebs, and when we heard Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Alexa Chung are fans, we wanted to see what all the fuss was about!
Rosie is a big fan of the Harmonie Calm and Neroli Oil, and everybody knows facials oils are best used during an actual facial, so a Decleor Aroma Expert facial was booked and off I headed to the tranquil Titanic Spa on the edge of the Pennines to be transformed into a Victoria’s Secret model…
Ok, so maybe my expectations were a little more realistic than that. But still, the whole experience was pretty special. The facial began with a deep cleanse with the Decleor Cleansing Milk to rid my skin of any nasties that may have been trapped – smelled nice and seemed to do the job (so far so good). Then came a refreshing sweep of the Decleor Tonifying Lotion which smelled like heaven – so calming and hydrating and just really, really lovely.
The next step was a facial massage with a few of Decleor’s luxurious oil based products. Because of my skin type (oily/combination), the facialist used the Ylang Ylang Purifying Night Balm and the Ylang Ylang Purifying Serum, rather than Rosie’s favourite oil, and I was more than happy about that because both products felt amazing! The balm was probably the highlight, as it melted into an oil upon contact with heat and felt really luxurious.
All this was followed with a hydrating mask and accompanied by a back, neck, arms and hands massage, and lasted an hour and fifteen minutes – now that’s how a facial should be done! The results were just as special as the treatment and I was left absolutely glowing! My skin was calm, pretty much free of my usual redness and looked really plump and healthy for a good few days after.
As far as facials go, Decleor’s are the bees knees – no wonder the celebs adore their products, with results like that who wouldn’t?! I had my facial at the wonderful Titanic Spa in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside – bliss! If that’s not anywhere near your neck of the woods though, Decleor facials are available across the country and you can find the nearest location to you on their website: www.decleor.co.uk
Chloe Moretz’s multi-coloured pastel birthday manicure was too cute and had us on the hunt for the perfect set of polishes to recreate the look; this is where the STRANGEBEAUTIFUL Inept Laundress Library of Colour steps in.
Pastel nails have been big every summer over the past few years, and the good news is they’re here to stay. STRANGEBEAUTIFUL creator Jane Schub was inspired to create this range by nothing less than her disastrous laundry skills believe it or not! Ok, so an old off white t-shirt you managed to throw in the washing machine along with your fuchsia knickers isn’t exactly VIP, but hear us out on this one.
The Inept Laundress set contains ten beautiful pastel shades ranging from the most muted of greens to the palest of pinks and could easily pass for a work of art sat on your dressing table. Shades this pale are notorious for being streaky and thin, meaning five coats and an hour later and you’re still not left with an opaque finish. Well, these pack a punch in pigmentation and leave you with a creamy, solid colour in just two coats – impressive! As they’re so similar in tone the colours all look amazing worn together too, which is perfect for recreating Chloe’s birthday cake inspired mix and match manicure.
At £65 this set is for the more hardcore nail polish lovers amongst us, but if you want to justify splashing the cash on this beautiful ‘library’ of colours then think of it as £6.50 a nail polish – that’s pretty darn cheap considering the quality! If you’re ready to take the plunge and enter into pastel nail heaven then visit Cult Beauty and pop this set in your basket, it’s pricey but so worth it.
Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman are all famous for their flawless, radiant skin on the red carpet, but until recently the secret to that Hollywood glow has been kept under wraps. Well, we can now reveal that GLAMGLOW is indeed that secret, and guess what? We can all get our hands on a jar of this super-mask now it’s available on the high-street!
GLAMGLOW Youth Mud Mask was originally used behind the scenes in Hollywood’s Entertainment, Music, Fashion & Award industries to immediately achieve camera-ready glowing skin before stars appeared in front of the paparazzi. Now we may not have cameras flashing in our faces whenever we leave the house, but when the results are as amazing as GLAMGLOW delivers, we kind of secretly wish we did.
So, what does it actually do? Apparently it activates moisturizing collagen synthesis, provides gentle resurfacing exfoliation, tightens the skin, shrinks the appearance of pores and leave the skin bright and soft. Dermatology jargon aside, basically it moisturises, exfoliates, shrinks the appearance of pores and makes your skin bright and soft. What’s not to like?
This is best applied with a clean foundation brush onto cleansed skin, but it’s fine to use your fingers too. Smear it on all over the face and sit back and relax (I’d recommend steering clear of the under eye area when applying as it might be a bit too harsh for the delicate skin there). Within a few minutes you’ll feel it start to tingle, maybe even slightly burn if your skin is a little sensitive, but don’t give up on it, let it work its magic! Within ten minutes your face is likely to feel like you’ve plastered cement on it, seriously, even talking is near on impossible once this miracle worker has set. You’ll also temporarily look like a swamp creature, but we’ll spare you the face mask selfies in favour of a picture of a lovely model sporting the mud mask look – trust us, it’s for your own good!
When you feel like chatting again, get yourself to a sink and run your hands under the hot water tap. Massage the small amount of water on your hands into your face and the GLAMGLOW Youth Mud Mask will start to loosen, giving way to exfoliating volcanic minerals that have been pulverised into Micro Pumice to give multi-level exfoliation. Spend a minute or two lightly exfoliating your face and then take a damp muslin cloth and wipe away the excess.
Afterwards you’re left with calm, soft and radiant skin that lasts a few days – seriously, this stuff is like a facial in a jar, no wonder Hollywood has been keeping it a closely guarded secret! We’re so glad the cat’s out the bag though, this is a must have in any beauty junkie’s bathroom cabinet for those days when your complexion is feeling dull and tired.
At £49.99 for 50ml it’s pretty pricey, but considering you’re getting a slice of Hollywood glamour, we think it’s worth it! Alternatively, if you just want to give it a go, the smaller size will only set you back £19.99, which is a small price to pay for red carpet ready skin! You can pick up a jar for yourself in Selfridges, Marks & Spencer Your Beauty, SPACE.NK and at the Beauty Mart at Harvey Nichols. Or, if you prefer to shop online, visit glamglowmud.co.uk, feelunique.com and ASOS.com and pop a jar of GLAMGLOW in your virtual basket.
We’re bombarded by magazines advertising luxury skincare, celebrities endorsing luxury skincare products (Beyonce with L’Oreal, Liz Hurley for Estee Lauder) and then A’listers like Kylie revealing they use simple things like Ponds cream. So where does that leave me and you? How are we meant to know what to put on our face?
Sometimes, you just have to call in the experts, which is how I found myself agreeing to a consultation with SkinMed. They take the risk element out of finding the right product for you as they use science to analyse your skin and are able to prescribe cleansers, toners and moisturisers that are almost guaranteed to suit you. There are clinics all over the UK (check out their location map here) but I met SkinMed’s Peter Roberts in the bar of the Mayfair Hotel. That beats going to a clinical doctors surgery!
The full analysis took about an hour (it’s that thorough) with Peter asking all manner of questions from how red my skin is, to how dry it is to how much I slept and what I tend to eat and drink. All answers were recorded into his iPad so he could analyse it properly when he had access to all his files back in the office.
Two weeks later, my prescription arrived in the post. How exciting! The first product was designed to remove the redness on my nose – Synchrorose. It is clinically proven to take redness out of the skin and cleanse it at the same time.
I was also prescribed Tebiskin, firstly to take the redness from my skin. And secondly to protect it from sunlight as Rosacea gets worse if exposed to repeated sunlight.
I never would have heard of these products without SkinMed and the process of answering all the questions about my skincare habits reminded me that I perhaps did not wash my face as properly as I should (eg after nights out). And also, I did not sleep enough. Just talking through these skin issues made me more careful and hence my skin started to improve even before I had received the products!
Therefore, if you’re thinking of having a facial, maybe save the cash and have a consultation with SkinMed instead (visit the SkinMed website here). It will give you a tailor-made solution to your face and the staff I’ve dealt with could not be more helpful. They even phoned me up after a week to see how I was getting on and they don’t do that at the salon where I normally get facials.
EXCITING NEWS: I will shortly be running a competition for you to experience some of the products sold by SkinMed. Watch this space – its coming soon!
