Back to England

So after a ridiculously long journey, I arrived in Los Angeles, it in total took us 12 hours, and we were all very tired!

The first day was a bit of a disaster as our group leader Tina had told us to 'explore' and just hop on a few buses to get into the center of Hollywood, 4 hours, 4 buses and a 30 minute walk later we actually made it to 'The Grove' a very prestigious and expensive shopping mall Hollywood.

Unfortunately after hours of shopping and sight-seeing, my friends and I lost the group, and had to make our own way back through town, even more unfortunate for us, the heavens opened and there was torrential rain all over L.A which we were stuck right in the middle of. Seeing as there had been so much confusion getting there, we could barely remember the way home, but luckily for us, everyone was extremely friendly and took pity on us, letting us travel for free, and guiding us back to our hotel in El Segundo.

Our second day was more structured and we visited the Hollywood museum, I found this fascinating as they actually have Marilyn Monroe's make up, and Max Factor's original collection, along with memorabilia and clothes from famous movies.

We also visited the Kodak theatre, where The Oscars will be held in a few days, so the middle of Hollywood Blvd. was all blocked off for cars.

Our trip also included tours of celebrity houses, with "That's how we get down" Mike the tour guide, a general tour of Santa Monica, Beverley Hills and Hollywood, an open air bus tour of the city, a trip to Paramount Studios to see real life film sets, a trip to Universal Studios Hollywood, a visit to Venice beach (where Baywatch was filmed) and finally shopping in the Beverley Center Mall!

Overall the trip was brilliant and the weather did brighten up eventually, the only problem I had was the food and that I found it difficult to find anything uhmm...not fried? Oh well, I was there for the experience but I am glad to be back to my dad's cooking :)

L.A!!!!

Ok so just a quick post, tomorrow I will be boarding on Virgin Atlantic to make the long trek across the pond, and into Los Angeles!! I am so excited as I have never been to America before (I'm more of a European/Middle Eastern kinda girl) nevertheless, I am looking forward to it :)

I'll take looooads of photos, and upload them when I get home.

Torné

Love is in the air!

So it's the weekend before Valentines Day, and everyone who has someone should be loved up with them, except me because David is still in Uni :) Never mind! I'm having a Valentines Day with my girls :)

Of course I have been flooded with the endless presents and cards....Actually just a few so far, and all from my mum! (They weren't given to me half eaten)

I also decided to do 2 different Valentines looks, one more natural for maybe a day time, then sexed (if that's a word?) it up a bit for the evening. I used M.A.C rebel lipstick, E.L.F gel liner on a M.A.C 208 brush and some NYC Bronzer, enjoy! (Sorry for the bad quality photos, haven't got the best camera)

Bold, bright and daring.

Any trace of the sun being just about visible in the sky, and I think it's time to bring out the bright lips again! These are my absolute favourite bright/bold lipstick colours, even though I wear them whenever :) From left to right they are

• Chanel's Rouge Coco Hydrating Créme lip colour in 22 "Paris"
• Rimmel London Colour show off lipstick in 220 "Shocking pink"
• M.A.C's Satin finish lipstick in "Rebel"
• M.A.C's lipstick in Girl about Town (I think that's what it's called, the label has come off, and I think the finish is creamsheen)
• Yves Saint Laurent's Rouge Pur in 52 (this lipstick doesn't appear to have a name on the packaging)

I already have a review on the Chanel lipstick I got for Christmas somewhere on this blog, so you can go look at that one.

The best thing about the Rimmel London lipstick is the smell, it's fruity, and sweet, and I'd rather smell it than actually wear it, but for the times when I decide to use it, it gives great colour pay off, and very long lasting without drying your lips, brilliant for summer! M.A.C's Rebel lipstick also has a 'Lipstick of the moment' review, this is such a beautiful deep purple, great to wear with faux fur I find, and anything dark, great for cold weather.

My other M.A.C lipstick was bought a while ago, which is why the label has rubbed off, I got this for my prom when I was 15, as it matched my dress perfectly, it stays on all day which is great, and has the classic sugary vanilla smell from M.A.C lipsticks.

Finally the Yves Saint Laurent lipstick is, in one word, beautiful. But, very 'daring' it looks pink in the photograph but it is most definitely the brightest neon orange I've ever seen, matte finish, long lasting, smells great, and love the gold packaging, such a winner!

Nude lipsticks: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

There's no doubt that these 5 lipsticks have been used a lot, but as 'blanked out' lips look is getting fairly out-dated, and the return of the bold colours is back, I've decided to put these lipsticks to the back of my drawer, but before I do, I thought I'd do a quick review of them...From left to right they are:

• GOSH Velvet touch lipstick in 134 "Darling"
• E.L.F Mineral lipstick in "Natural Nymph"
• Revlon matte lipstick in 001 "Nude Attitude"
• Rimmel London Moisture Renew lipstick in 700 "Nude delight"
• Finally another E.L.F Mineral lipstick in "Nicely Nude"
  

First is the GOSH, glossy finish, not great staying power, but it has a nice scent to it, kind of like M.A.C ones. The E.L.F. lipstick, this is whiter than you think, it's very drying and VERY matte, probably my first ever full on nude lipstick, looking back, big mistake if you have any warm tones in your skin, just makes you look dead!

Revlon next, really nice peachy nude, which I prefer to the white based ones, very matte so I'd wear a lip balm underneath to stop you from getting a really dry finish, but this does also mean it has good staying power. Rimmel London Moisture Renew lipsticks are more like tinted balms to be honest, not great colour pay off, or staying power, so something just to slick on every now and again, without needing a mirror.

Finally the second E.L.F isn't really a nude at all, unless you have naturally very pigmented lips, then this will just match your natural lip colour, it's pretty but nothing special, just an every day girlie pink/peach.