It's no secret that one of my favourite current models is Sara Sampaio, she is just adorable, exactly the kind of girl I like, smily, happy and enthusiast. I like girls how have fun and are playful, without trying too hard. And then, there is her look, she's a Victoria's Secret model, of course she is wonderful, not too skinny, slightly tanned with those blue-green piercing eyes.
Some time ago, Nylon magazine had a video interview with her, where she explained her makeup secrets and products (you can watch it here). Of course she is quite high maintenance, and not all of us can buy a Estée Lauder foundation AND a Benefit Watt's Up highlighter AND Shiseido lashcurlers.
Nevertheless her makeup routine is quite simple afterall she's a model with perfect skin, duh! So it's quite easy to recreate her summery-glowy look with good cheaper products. Here's a list:
1) Sara starts with the eyelash-curler, she uses the Shiseido one, as she says "it's the only one that can fit my whole eye", bottom line here is buy one that you know can cover up all of your lashes, if your eyes are very big, then you might want to invest in the Shiseido one. Eyelash curling will make your eyes pop even wthout the need of tons of mascara and eyeliner.
2) Mascara, Sara uses the Maybelline Volume Express, this one is a common drugstore mascara, but believe me no one can make better mascaras then Maybelline (that's how their business started anyway), I personally use the Colossal Volume Express as I like how the wand is structured, slighly curved, as I have very short lashes and it covers them all.
3) Bronzer, the one used by Sara is the Victoria Secret Baked Mineral one, but since the company has recently shut down the makeup department (which was actually pretty good and cheap) you can either try to find it on Ebay or opt for something else. If you choose the latter KIKO Milano makes very good bronzers, after all they're an Italian company and italian girls always like a good tan! KIKO has a very good quality to price ratio and loads on colours and palettes you can choose from.
4) Sara also mentions that she doesn't usually wear foundation, but when she has to cover blemishes or spots she uses the Estée Lauder Double Wear one, which comes at $37, on the other side she doesn't wear concealer at all, and "rocks her dark circles". So here the choice is to you, if your skin is pretty clear you can buy only the foundation and not a concealer, but if you feel like you need both then opt for a cheaper foundation. The Rimmel Wake Me Up works wonders, and it is slightly stranslucent, so it really gives you a nice glowy skin.
5) Lpstick. Sara mentions the Nars make up pencil in Velvet Matte. We all know that Nars is a quite expensive company even though their lipsticks are pretty good. If you want to spend less definitely head over topshop, their lipsticks are a hidden gem, covering a lot of shades, you will surely find a colour you will love.
The key factor here is the matte finish, that Sara loves, but only on the lips (read no powder on your foundation).
6) To highlight her features Sara uses Benefit Watt's up, which I have myself, and it's amazing. But if it's your first highlighter and you are not sure if you'll like its effect then don't waste 20+ pounds on something you might not like. Try the highlighters that KIKO Milano produces, they have two shades, pink and gold. Pink generally goes better on older, palers skins, while the gold one is better on youger, darker skins; however this is not a fixed rule, just buy what you think you'd like to see more. I think the gold one will go better with the bronzer, as it will just be a lighter shade, not a different colour.
That's it, that's how Sara Sampaio gets her every day look. Would you try that on yourself? What products would you use? :)
Jewelery is a big obsession for women, those shiny beautiful diamonds, since the dawn of history indicating wealth and beauty, decorating men and women. Liz Taylor used to say she felt naked without jewels on, Marylin sung about them as "a girl's best friends" and still up today the Chopard ads and Bulgari photoshoots make our heads spin.
Still not all of us can afford them, and most of us can't affford as many as we actually want. Everyone has at least once gave in to the temptation to buy fakes, bijoux and we were all let down at least once by them, those blue stains on our fingersand earlobes? Checked. Stones that fall off? Double checked again. So here are some tips on how to maintain those bijoux as long as possible and how to chose them in order to look more expensive hen they actually are.
First of all, as soon as you buy your new jewels coat them with some transparent nail polish, it will preserve longer the coating and the won't turn blue/brown/black and won't stain your fingers, and it will make them look shinier, a property of the authentic precious metals and stones. You are basically cheating light into transforming the piece of glass on your necklace into at least a semi-precious stone.
Stones. Stones are the most difficult thing to fake, even precious stones can be divided according to quality, and no, a £10 ring with a red stone cannot pass as a badly cut ruby. Even Swarovsky crystals can be distinguished from the real thing. So try to avoid statement necklaces or bangs or earrings, they are fake and look fake.
The best way to go is subtle, thin jewels, in the simple colours of precious metals, i.e. gold and silver. You can vary shapes, compositions and number. Do not go for jewels that spell worlds or have too many too colorful charms, if fake, they look taky.
Don't buy fake copies of famous jewels, really, everyone will notice, no need to show off something you can't afford.
Nails should always be perfect when wearing rings, either have them done or without nail polish, but half there colour or bitten nails are a no-no.
A tip for what concerns watches. Watches are expensive, overly expensive, but the thing that gives away the cheap ones is the false leather. False leather can look like the real one, but actually is less flexible and after a while it breaks down literally. Consider changing only those parts with real leather, it will cost you aroung £10, but upgrade the look of your watch by miles!
One last thing, don't buy too many bijoux, buy some that you can combine with others and save on buying that pair of earrings that you saw in that shop window.
The 15 years old daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradise made her official red carpet debut this week in New York at the Metiere d'art show by Chanel. Accompanied by her mother, a long-time muse of Lagerfeld, she wore a total outfit by Chanel's SS15. I really think she's lovely and the dress is amazing, I also like how she personalised t with her own shoes and did not put the boots that went with that look on the catwalk. Obviously with parents like that she has to be soooo pretty! We imagine that soon she'll become a Chanel muse herself!
What do you think? Doesn't she look lovely? :)
Some people buy magazines only to sell out the samples and make some money, other times you simply want to read the magazine but are not interested in the product itself. So here's a short simple guide on how to make the most from these products.
1) Don't sell them the moment you get them, all the other people that bought the magazine will have the same sample to sell and too many of them will be circulating online, meaning that you won't be able to make that much out of them as other people will have lower prices. Wait for at least 3 months (ebay offers a free relist on the second month, which means products will still be online to be sold 2 months after they come out) or even more.
2) Be aware if the product is discontinued, it will gain value as lovers of the products will try to look online if they can find it again before switching to something new.
3) Calculate the price you will be giving it. First look up the price of the whole size product and divide it by the number of grams or milliliters, so you will know how much a gram/mil is worth according to the company. Multiply this by your sample size and you will have the prize the product is officially worth (usually more than what you have spent on the magazine). The difference between the sample size and the magazine is how much money you have gained, check if it's ok for you, if not try to increase your selling price a bit (works better the more months have passed from the magazine release date).
4) Decide whether to give a free delivery or not. If you do then you can increase the price quite a bit, as the buyer won't know effectlively how much you are paying for postal services and he will feel like he's not really paying for it as it's not written up on the bill. If you don't offer free delivery then you need to be ready to sacrifice on the your gains, as paying for delivery always feels like an added burden.
Have you got any other tricks of the trade? x
Now that April has started we can really say that spring is here, or at least around the corner (I am looking at you Scotland!) and it's also time to ditch the deep nourishing masks and heavily moisturising creams and give in to all the spring and summery products. Here are my favourites:
Chanel Hydra beauty lip balm, a wonderful product for your lips, it looks and feels so luxurious and classy. It is a bit expensive, but it really upgrades your lip game and as spring is the season for a more natural makeup and look your lips have to be on point. Plus we know that Chanel is the best!
Mac BB cream. Perfect for a subtle makeup look, it's flawless and packed with loads of antioxidants and vitamins for the skin. It also provdes a 35 spf sun protection, a must for days that see more and more sun. Ditch your contour palette and surrender to this sleek and subtle BB cream.
KIKO Milano eyeshadow, n.154 in the picture. KIKO eyeshadows are great and cheap, long lasting and saturared with colour, they go very nicely on the eye without the need of primers. You can put very little under your eyes to bring attention to them in a very subtle way, or use it just as an eyeshadow to get a bronzier look without sacrifying the dramatic effect given by a dark colour.
Mac browgel. This one is an all time favourite, it works wonders to keep on point your brows throughout the day and in spring I like to use it on its own without using a brow pencil underneath. You can buy it in different shades of brown up to black for a more dramatic effect, while the transparent one is good if you already have a brow pencil of if you just want to keep the eyebrows in place.
What are your spring products? What make up or skincare products you can't live without in this period? Let me know :)
Let's all take a step back with this new obsession about hiding away from the sun all scared that we're going to get some wrinkles. The sun is good for us, we know it, that's why we smile every time we see it after a week of rain, or we suddenly want to get out and go for a walk in the park. However recently I have been reading a lot of posts encouraging women to absolutely avoid it, and promoting, I quote "a Marilyn Manson pallor". Really? Do we REALLY want to look like an unhealthy ghost? I don't think so, so here are some good reasons to go out and enjoy a nice day in the sun.
1) Sun is a well known antimicrobial, have you ever noticed how after a holiday in the sun your skin looks less prone to break out? Yea, it's the sun killing all those bacteria that we try to wash off every day with soaps and cleansers, the sun just kills them off.
2) Exposure to sunlight is the best way to accomulate vitamin D, we all know it. There is a good article about this and sun protection in the NHS website, or here. Let's not also forget one of the diseases that was eradicated from Northern Europe with the help of vitamin supplements, rickets. Rickets is the defective mineralsation and calcification of bones due, predominantly, to a chronic lack of vitamin D. This disease was never a real problem in Southern Europe as exposure to sunlight is high enough there.
3) Sweating. There have been so many studies convincing us on how a sauna session is good for the body as through sweating we release some toxins that otherwise will accumulate in the body. Sweating in the sun can give the same result. obviously you won't be sweating that much, but this means that you won't lower that much your heart rate, which in people with already low blood pressure is not that beneficial.
4)Meteoropathy. We all know how we are more cheerful in a sunny day, while many rainy days in a row tend to depress us. Meteoropathy is a thing that affects our happiness daily, why ignore this signal and stay locked up in the house, when we clearly feel like going out?
"We will all get old and have wrinkles, it is the natural outcome in life, that doesn't mean that we can't have fun in the process"
5) Activities. There are loads of things we can do in the sun, like jogging, going to the park and playing with our friends, relaxng on the beach or going swimming in an open pool. There are loads of activities to do that will seem so much less of a burden rather than going to the gym.
6) We will gain a healthy glow, and a nice natural tan by stying in the sun. Becaus let's face it, sun beds, fake tans, bronzers and all that stuff that should recreate the action of the sun, are chemicals, anly chemicals and UV rays that we are layering on our skin and this on the long run is not good either.
I also want to specifiy that I am by no means promoting excessive and irresponsible sun exposure. Don't go to the beach in summer between 12 and 3pm, always wear a spf 50 that contains PA+++, that is also water resistant. Remember to reapply it every 2 to 3 hours as well, unprotected exposure is not good. The Shisheido Perfect UV protector is a very valid option for a sunscreen.
All I am trying to say is that layering chemicals to fake a tan is worse than getting the real thing while protected by a sunblock. Also I really think that having a nice day at the beach, enyoing yourself and life and getting some wrinkles is better than being super obsessive with skincare and not ahving a good time in life. We will all get old and have wrinkles, it is the natural outcome in life, that doesn't mean that we can't have fun in the process.
What are your opinions about this article? I am looking forward to read them all! x
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