MY PALE SKIN: February 2014

Breaking News! Sephora Now Ships to the UK!

Oh my gosh. I didn't think this day would ever come. Sephora announced today that it will begin shipping to the UK as well as Australia, Japan and South Korea. Holy hell.

I've been dying to get my hands on Sephora goodies for a long time, even to the point of debating taking a holiday somewhere in the world where there's an actual Sephora. I've also contemplated shopping on the Sephora France website and having it shipped over to the UK. Now, there is no need.

Sephora has announced that they will deliver internationally for £10 on a £75 and over spend. That's not too bad! I'd happily pay £10 to get the makeup brands I'm really craving.

However, do be aware that TAX will be added to everything you buy before you check out. I read on twitter about a £90 order which had an additional £38 tax added to it during check out. So guys please take this into account, that the prices you see on screen, may not be what you actually end up paying.

I'm really excited that I can actually order from Sephora now, although I don't quite understand why they haven't done this sooner; especially in an age where you can order products from around the world and receive them in days elsewhere on the web.

I'm going to spend this weekend mulling over the products and I'll hopefully place my order soon!

I'd love to hear from you, if you're based in the UK and have ordered from Sephora.com already or are contemplating it. What will you buy?

Throwback Thursday #1 - Vamp Edition

Okay, so I admit it... i'm not going through the depths of the archives here... i'm only travelling back a few weeks...

I often look back at old photos I've taken of my make up to critique myself, and study previous looks to try and work out what worked, and what didn't.

There's something about this look I created that I like, I like how it's so out of the ordinary for me, but I would never have the balls to wear this out in public as it's so full on. I don't think I would have the confidence to pull it off, but sometimes it's a little bit lovely to walk around your house feeling like a rockstar. This day, was certainly a rockstar day.

(Note - 'smoke' exhaled in the image is an extremely low 1.5mg Vapour from an electronic vaporizer, purely for art, not to encourage smoking of any kind)

[REVIEW] Professional Beauty London 23-24th February - Trade show review

This week I headed over to the excel in East London for the Professional Beauty London show.

It's the first big beauty show i'd ever been to, and I was super stoked to be going. I'd somehow managed to wrangle myself up a press pass, so I grabbed my camera, heels and lashes and off I went.

I arrived at around 10:15 after vastly underestimating how many changes i'd have to make on the DLR to get there. The show was pretty busy even after only being open for 15 minutes. As the show was aimed at trade there were coach fulls of beauty students in attendance alongside hairdressers, make up artists and therapists. I didn't see too many other people wandering around with press passes or cameras which was a shame as it would have been nice to meet a few other bloggers at the event.

The Excel had a stall for everyone. Here are a few that caught my eye!

Essie.

Oh my gosh all the colours. Any nail varnish fans would have loved this stall.

Megawhite.

Now i'm not sure why, but there's something about the idea of sitting in the middle of a trade show getting my teeth whitened for all to see that doesn't really fill me with joy. I think it might have something to do with having a small mouth, and whenever I go to the dentist it's always super awkward and uncomfortable. I wasn't sure what I thought of mega white at first. I thought it was a little silly. I wasn't prepared to pay £70- to a company to get them done and not read a ton of reviews on the company first... but after talking to Alice from http://www.beautybyalicee.co.uk/ on twitter about it... i'd never regretted not making an impulse decision so much! Her teeth whitened by 7 shades!! Gutted. Maybe next time i'll try it if I don't find somewhere to have them done before hand.

Smudge Free.

It's not only teeth whitening that you can have performed at the Pro Beauty show. There were many many stalls that were offering semi permanent make up! and cosmetic tattoos! You could actually get your make up tattooed on in the excel. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't expecting that!

NYX.

Now i'm an NYX fan. I love their jumbo eye pencils and am totally into using their Taupe Blusher as a contour powder; it's the perfect shade for cool pale skinned girls. I was looking forward to seeing a big display of their other products and not just a small unloved display in Next. The stand was insanely busy. It took forever to try and get around to see the different products and it's unsurprising why as the whole range was running on offer for up to 20% off! Needless to say, I picked up a few goodies.

Frankie Essex Hair.

One of the popular stalls with the young crowd was Frankie Essex Hair. Essex, who made a name for herself on The Only Way Is Essex, or TOWIE as it's affectionately known by many is a scripted reality series based around the lives of a glamorous group of friends & foes in Essex.

Frankie Essex Hair has a range of clip in hair extensions and hair bands suitable for many hair types. and colours.

Crown Brushes.

This was a stall I was much looking forward to. It took me forever to try and find it, and by the time I had, my feet were killing me from my heels, the excel centre was packed and it was incredibly hard to get close to any of the products. Needless to say, I waited as patiently as I could to get to the brushes and picked up some much needed new eyeshadow brushes

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my day at the Excel Centre. The show was incredibly busy and I didn't get to meet any other bloggers, but I made some great contacts with brands and I picked up some goodies,including some from jojoba cosmetics which i'm going to review individually. I got to see a lot of new and innovative products being demonstrated and even with my achey feet. It was definitely worth it. I'm definetly going to make sure I come back next year and I'll look forward to seeing what's on offer!

Did you go to the Pro Beauty Show? What did you think?

I'll be posting up my haul over the next few days, so check back soon for pics!

Win a MAC Lipstick of your choice!

Hello lovelies! So to celebrate hitting 200 followers on Bloglovin & Twitter, I've decided to launch a MAC giveaway! I've decided to give a little back to say thank you for all the support and for welcoming me to the blogging community.

I've recently found my new favourite lipstick at MAC, Pink Plaid (pictured) and I'd love for you to be able to have a new favourite lipstick of your own! So go ahead and enter to win! This competition is open Worldwide!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms & Conditions

You must follow My Pale Skin on Bloglovin to be eligible to win the prize. All other entries are optional.
This competition is open worldwide, however you must chose a lipstick from the MAC UK website.
If your chosen shade is unavailable, you will be asked for a second choice.
The Winner will be contacted within 48 hours of the competition closing. If you do not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen at random.

Searching for the perfect pair of false eyelashes. #1

I love false lashes. Love them. They can transform a look in seconds and add that extra bit of oomph right where you need it. I find it hard to chose the right lashes that don't swamp my hooded eyes, and make me look quite frankly ridiculous. There are so so many brands of lashes that are popping up constantly! All different types, styles and even materials.

I find it hard to get the right lashes for my face with my pale skin, bleach blonde hair and blue eyes.

I'm after a pair of HG lashes that don't break the bank & don't look like slugs on my face.

Today i'm trying out the Katie Perry, Oh Honey! Lashes.

£5.95

I chose these because they had a full natural look without appearing too heavy and dark for my face.

I applied the lashes with the glue supplied in the box. My first thought after putting them on was.. ermm... maybe I should have trimmed them down. They're a little bit too wide for my eyes. I think if I had trimmed maybe 2/3 ml off they would fit better and look plenty more natural.

What I like about these is that they have that floaty wispie vibe I love going on. They feel light to wear and certainly aren't weighing my eyes down.

What I don't like is, they are far too wide. I'm lazy, I don't really have much patience for cutting down lashes, and I always get them wrong. They never look even and I end up getting them muddled up with which chopped lash goes on which eye and having to take them off again. I also don't like the length of the lashes in the inside corner of the eye. These just don't seem right, as the inner corner lashes are too long for my pea sized eyes.

My final verdict for these lashes is a simple, meh. They're just okay. Nothing sensational, not life changing in the slightest and i'm certainly not going to run out and buy 20x pairs of them. However, if I wanted to dress up a little and glam up without having to buy lashes? I'd probably wear grab my Katie Perry Oh Honey! lashes from the drawer and wear them.

I'd love to hear what your favourite lashes are to wear, so let me know in the comments!

[REVIEW] Muji Beauty Event - 18th February 2014

On Tuesday I made my way to Muji on Oxford Street for the #Mujibeauty event. I admit it, I left the office early to get there on time... The event started at 6pm, and the first 25 people in the queue would receive a goody bag crammed full of Muji health and beauty items!

I rocked up at about 5:30pm and stumbled upon this queue... I was disappointed to say the least.

But then I started my head count.... and it turned out that I was still in with a chance of getting my hands on a bag! I bumped into the ever so lovely Louise from whatlouiseisloving.blogspot.co.uk whilst waiting for the clock to strike 6pm, we became queue buddies and chatted about blogging, work and make up!

After a bit of a kerfuffle with the security, and people attempting to push the line to grab a goody bag, it hit 6pm and we were head counted! I'd made the first 25 by the skin of my teeth and I would be getting a bag! Hurrah.

The store was packed with fashionistas and beauty lovers all clambering amongst themselves to get as many beauty drawers as they could in the 20% sale. Honestly, the queues were insane both upstairs and downstairs...

I made my way downstairs, and bumped into the lovely Lily Pebbles! lilypebbles.co.uk

I caught her mid instagram! We laughed then chatted for a bit about London living and which Muji products are our favourites.

Needless to say she got swamped throughout the event by loving fans dying to get a picture with her and talk to her.

The Muji team were working overdrive throughout the time I was in store, constantly filling up shelves, pouring champagne for shoppers and keeping the store presentable. They'd also drafted in Make up Artists from Shu Uemera to give eye makeovers!

Now, I wasn't going to buy anything in store tonight... I don't really have room! Living in Chancery Lane and being able to walk to Oxford street super quickly is a godsend, but it also means not having much room! I don't have room for a vanity table or somewhere to sit and do my make up :( But I thought, to hell with it! I'll make room! I'm forever struggling to find the products I need in the clear kit bags I have, so I decided to re purpose space in my flat to find a home for some beauty drawers.

I bought 3 sets of the stackable flip top wide drawers, an acrylic pot holder to put brushes in, some cotton buds, cotton squares and a few other bits and bobs... I got to the checkout, got everything bagged up, handed in my golden ticket for my free goody bag and couldn't believe what I was presented with!

Here are the contents of my bag! It was amazing! It's funny, out of the 5 items I was gifted, I actually bought 3 in the 20% off sale! I was very happy with what i received and think it was an extremely generous gift!

It was a good event, and they had some great offers on in store, I'm super happy with my purchases and over the moon with my goody bag. I look forward to heading to the next one!

The Lust List! - February Edition.

Hey lovelies, so I've decided i'm going to post a lust list every month! Hurrah!

It's going to be full of products which I'm dying to get my grubby little paws on. I've bought a fair amount of drugstore products this month, most of which i'm yet to even try, and I haven't even begun to buy half the mid-high end make up I would like!

Here's the list that will end up breaking my bank...

Naked 3 Palette
Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara, Black.
Kevyn Aucoin, The Celestial Powder
By Terry, Touche Veloutee Concealer
Lorac Pro Palette
Nars Blush in Day Dream
Laura Mercier Secret Concealer
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in Radiant Magenta
Kevyn Aucoin Beauty The Sensual Skin Enhancer

And now for the scary part... the collective cost of all of these products is

£270.00

or $450.00

I think a trip to Space NK and Liberty is in order to work out what I need, and what I can live without...

I am meant to be saving up to get my teeth done after all...

Which of these products have you used? What do you rate? What do you hate?

When Bad lighting happens to good make up...

I admit it, I'm a perfectionist. I have incredibly high standards towards myself and my goals. I can be driven, almost to the point of being obsessive and I do not like to let myself fail. The above image is one, of maybe 40/50 I took tonight. I was aiming to shoot content and 3 different looks to blog about over the next few days.

...That didn't quite happen... or maybe it did happen, but none of the images met my impossibly high standards. I've scrapped the rest of the images, and I'm just going to share this image with you instead.

I've recently bought new lights to use whilst taking photos of my makeup, but I just don't like them. I'm struggling to get them to work with my face. They're perfect for product shots, but FOTD or tutorial posts? Non. No chance. Maybe if I persevere I may be able to get them to work, but i'm still coming out of a bad face breakout caused by Chanel Foundation (which bogs me down as it is), and yesterday I cut down to 0% Nicotine on my Vaporizer (e.cig)... maybe today isn't the best day for taking makeup photos...

Hopefully i'll become friends with my lights (and my skin) again soon, when that happens, i won't pull my lashes off in frustration, and I won't scrub my makeup off in despair :(

[Review] Beauty Protector Protect & Oil Review!

Hello lovelies! today i'm going to be giving you my thoughts on the Beauty Protector - Protect & Oil. I received this bottle in my February Birchbox subscription!

Beauty Protector Protect & Oil is 'a nourishing hair oil that battles UV rays, heat and breakage'

Okay, this sounds like my kinda product. I have bleached hair, so I'm always looking for a new product that will add some much needed goodness.... without the high end salon price tag.

It's a very cute little glass bottle of oil with the Beauty Protector Logo printed onto it. I'm not sure exactly how much is in the bottle as I didn't weigh it, but at a guess, i'd say around 5ml of product.

Now, let me tell you about the scent.. oh boy is it good!! The stuff smells like amazing. It's a mix of sugary sweeties & vanilla with a few fruity extracts thrown in. I love how this smells, and If it makes my hair smell like this, i'm sold already.

This oil isn't greasy and as thin as one may expect, it is more of a gel like consistency. The guide states to use 2/3 drops on wet or dry hair. I have the finesse of a trout, and plopped a small pool of product into the palm of my hand, i'm estimating I used 3 drops.

I massaged it into the end of my hair first, as that it my most dry area and then worked my way up to the roots. It glided through my hair and made it feel silky and soft. I let the product settle in for a minute or two before i began blowdrying my hair. In all honestly, the ends did feel more silky! However, I don't know if that's because they were desperate for a bit of moisture or because the product is really that good.

After blow drying, I set my hair in rollers for the night....

Here's what it looked like the next day.

Now there's a definite shine going on here in this picture, and it's safe to say it was in real life too. The ends felt soft and tamed and my hair felt luxurious. I think this product is really going to be a game changer for my hair. My only concern is that my hair gets quite greasy quickly when I start adding extra products onto it. If I keep this Oil onto the bottom half of my hair, i think it's a sure bet and something i'm going to keep on using.

Pale Girl Contouring... in GIF Form!

For the full step by step breakdown of this look... check out the tutorial here:

Margot Robbie Inspired, Pale Girl Contouring 2.0 - Smokey Eye Edition

A February Wedding Make up look!

Hey All, Just wanted to share with you my FOTD from Sunday, this is the make up look I wore to a friends wedding. It was a beautiful day, and such a lovely ceremony.

I wore a pink Forever 21 dress,with a light pink Forever 21 blazer & accessorized with a statement Roberto Cavalli Gold necklace

Make up wise, I took my Pink Plaid lipstick and Hip 'n' happy liner combo on it's first day trip!

I feel like i have my brows under control now! Finally. Honestly they were so bad before! I fill them in using my Sleek Eyebrow palette (Light) and i picked up a clear mascara on the weekend (which I'll tell you all about soon!) to fix them. Cannot believe I haven't fixed them with clear mascara earlier.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE IT MAKES! OHMYGOSH!

I set my hair using my trusty sleep in rollers, and then brushed it out. The hair dropped by the time we'd rode the central line from getting on at Chancery Lane to the wedding in Epping and gave me the volume and shape I needed to last all day!

The Liebster Award!

How exciting! On Thursday I was nominated for the Liebster award by the fabulous Issy From Thinking of Issy - http://issyfreeland.blogspot.co.uk/. Thank you so much! It's so nice that people even read my blog and comment, it makes my day to hear what you guys have to say about my posts. So Thank you.

In case you didn't know, The Liebster Award is one which is given to those with less than 200 followers, after receiving it, you then list 11 facts about yourself, answer 11 questions, pick 11 nominees and set them 11 questions to answer! It's as simple as that. I think it's a brilliant way of getting new blogs out there and sharing the love :)

Rules

You must link back to the person who nominated you.
You have state 11 facts about yourself
You have to answer the questions given to you.
You have to pick 11 nominees and create a set of 11 questions that they must answer.
You can't nominate the person that nominated you.
You have to tell the nominees that they have been nominated by you.

11 Facts about me.

I love video games, and am currently playing Borderlands 2 co-op with the BF.
I've been vegetarian for 15 years.
I eat veggie Percy pigs for breakfast everyday
I'm a massive wimp, and can't watch any tense tv shows or films without getting super scared.
When I was 7 I wanted to change my name to Cinderella by deed poll.
I love shooting, and last year flew my BF and I flew to Estonia to spend a day at the shooting range.
I'm a perfectionist and am extremely critical of myself.
I love to bake, I bake anywhere from 12-60 cupcakes a week.
I'm a really really heavy sleeper and a nightmare to wake up in the mornings.
I'm an introvert, and am quite content with not leaving my flat for 3 days at a time.
I've a scar on my forehead from a childhood accident where I hit my head on a sharp slide in a playground.

Here are my questions to answer, set by the lovely Issy.

Nominee Questions:

1. Who is your favorite blogger?

I love reading Tanya Burr. I think she's an inspiration to a lot of bloggers with how successful she has become!

2. What is your favorite movie

I think i have a new contender for my favourite movie! I loved Saving Mr Banks. I was doing my best big girl attempt to hold back tears during certain parts of the movie. Some of hit hit home really hard, and I could relate to P.L Travers in many different ways.

3. Describe yourself in three ways

Inquisitive, passionate & Whimsical.

4. How would you describe your style of writing/blogging?

I'd say my writing style is conversational, I like to write as if I were sat next to you telling you a story about what I did on my weekend, or what I shouldn't have bought.

5. What is your favorite makeup product?

My current favourite make up product is Mac Studio Finish Concealer.

6. Favorite music genere?

I quite like Country/pop music. Artists like Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, & Taylor Swift. :)

7. Hobby?

Blogging & Baking!

8. Favorite brand?

I actually got really into Forever 21 last year. I really struggle to find clothes to fit my as I have an hourglass figure and forever 21 always seems to fit!

9. What are 2 of your major celebrity crushes?

Girl Crushes for their perfect hair and make up have to be Cara Delevigne and Margot Robbie.

10. What is the worst movie you have ever watched

Ooh Absolute worst? hmmmmm. That is a tough one. I'm going to say 'My Uncle The Alien' Picked it up from CEX for about 75p i think. It was awful. BF hated it, I found it hilarious. It was atrosious. We turned it into a 'drinking game' just to get through it.

11. Why did you decide to start blogging?

I decided to start blogging as I kept getting PM's and messages on Reddit telling me to start a youtube or a blog as they really wanted to read what I had to say. It ended up with every time I posted I'd get lots of messages telling me to, So I bit the bullet and here I am!

My Nominations

All of these blogs have a little something special about them. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have!

Lucy @ http://lipstickloveheart.blogspot.co.uk/

Leah @ http://leahloves1.blogspot.ie

Lucy @ http://Lucylocketchats.blogspot.com

Lauren @ http://cestlauren.blogspot.co.nz/

Charlotte @ http://charlotte-louise-t.blogspot.co.uk

Katie @ http://katiesblondeambition.blogspot.com

Melissa @ http://domesticglamblog.blogspot.com

Kate @ http://makeupbykate.blogspot.com

Susanna @ http://lipstick-affair.blogspot.co.uk

Emily @ http://emilyviennabeauty.blogspot.com.au