14lbs by 14th May - week 1

Morning all.  Just back from the gym and delighted to say that I have lost 1kilo, or 2.2lb's in old money!  I have been really good for the first time in ages and I am glad it has paid off.  

It actually hasn't been too bad, first week never is is it, its sticking with it in 6 weeks time when the novelty has worn a bit thin!  I went to the gym on Weds, Thurs and Friday last week. Did 15 mins fat burning on the bike, followed by 15 mins cardio still on the bike and then 20 mins cardio on the treadmill, few sit ups on the swiss ball and on one morning did 5 mins on the rower.  Saturday was out walking with a friend as needed to photograph trees for a project - needed a tree with no background which meant lots of walking up hill and then yesterday took the dogs for a walk near home which takes 20 mins - so more active than usual.  

Food wise have been having cornflakes, soya milk and a bit of sugar or greek yog and honey with fruit for breakfast, something and salad for lunch - falafel or something veggie generally and dinner has also been either something and salad or something and veg, couple of little bits of potato here and there but no huge meals of pasta and sauce, which is a real weakness of mine.  So an increase in veg and salad and a reduction in carbs.  Also I bought some nice pasta dishes when I was last in Ikea and I only ever eat off of them now, rather than our much larger dinner plates so that has really helped with the portion size - at least half of the plate is always veg or salad and then the other half is generally 3/4 protein and maybe 1/4 carb. Snacking has disappeared - having a Nescafe skinny latte at 11am has helped push me through til lunch time.  My hardest time is 5.3pm when I am cooking dinner and the urge to nibble is huge, I have a handful of almonds or a couple of oat cakes and a cup of tea which seems to help.  

Please note there is likely to be a massive dip in the Italian economy very soon as my consumption of prosecco has massively reduced!  In the past I drank on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening and sometimes if I felt the need on a Thursday too!  Certainly 2 of those evenings I drink a bottle of prosecco or Sauv Blanc.  This weekend I had 2 glasses of prosecco on Friday, and on Saturday had a bottle of Sauv Blanc - paid for that one though, head was falling off on Sunday! But I didn't drink on Sunday night which I am pleased about.  Was in two minds about this but am going to post a "before" photo, be kind!

And yes, I do know about fat girls and horizontal stripes not being an ideal combination!  


Annabella at Skin Scrubs has decided she is going to join in with this too and has promised to post in comments about how she is getting on whenever I do a weight related post, so Annabella - lets hear it!

Tiger nails

How fab are these?!

Em had them done after work yesterday.  They are about a mile long and I would be rendered useless with them attached to my hands but she still types and texts at 90 mile an hour.

Apparently she is getting the leopard print ones next.  These cost £30 at Unique Nails in Huddersfield.
Have a fab Saturday ladies.

Revlon - ColourBurst Lipstick in Carnation

Am now fully over the whole nude lip thing. Yea, thanks I heard that collective sigh of relief.

Last Saturday had a play with Revlon ColourBurst in Carnation and dithered.  For bloody ages, so much so I annoyed myself and put it back on the shelf on the basis that if you can dither over something for that long you clearly don't want it.  I fancied the colour and the texture but wasn't sure about the shimmer.  Shimmer's just aging imo.

So by Weds had built myself up into a frenzy of need and informed daughter that she either returned from work with Carnation or she needn't bother coming home at all. She said "no worries sugar tits" cos she's like that and came home with it.

I like the quilty packaging.

And the "Revlon" stamped in the front of the lipstick.  I love that it has no discernable taste or smell.  I like the brightness, the way it wears and the texture and that its not drying on my lips. Are you feeling this hossing great "buuuuuuuuut" building here?

 I am so not loving the shimmer!

This pic shows it best in the sun, light bluey shimmer. I just think it makes it a bit too cool on me?

 Thought wearing my glasses might help, not sure it did!

This is it compared to Illamasqua Move, in case thats of interest.

Course a couple of people did try to warn me, thanks Jane!, but I wouldnt listen would I?  So yesterday whilst I am thinking that I like the brightness and the lipstick would have been perfect without the shimmer the twitteratti are all over Boots No 7 Poppy King collaboration called Glamour.  Apparently its a lovely bright pink cream.  NO SHIMMER.  Bloody hell, guess where I am going on Sunday - got to get it whilst my £5 voucher is still valid! 

I guess it was a fairly inexpensive way of finding out that I do like pink lipstick though!

Botanics -

Having been blown away by the fabulty of the Botanics Cleansing Balm and cleansing brush I decided to give some of the other skin care products in the range a whirl.  Most of my skin care concentrates on moisturisation, hydration and dealing with the needs of my sensitive, redness prone general freak out of a face, the aging issue is overlooked.  And that worries me. Gawd knows the aging is an issue!

Deluded or what? "First signs of aging" having your bus pass is not a first sign of aging love ok - women in their mid 40's are slightly beyond that stage, but it was all they had in the anti wrinkle serum front on the display so it had to do.  I do like this, although I think its better suited to an oily skin perhaps, it is very mattifying and leaves your skin with a sort of velvety but not moist feel, making sense?  Whilst I dont actually believe that anything in a tube can erase existing lines I am ever hopeful that it can help delay the appearance of new ones!

I also don't really have a night time regime, apart from the usual cleanse and apply Organic Surge night cream so I thought perhaps adding something to help with radiance would be a good idea - ok AND it was 3 for 2 so I needed something else in my basket!  I like how this applies, it feels very comfortable, it has the effect of sort of sloughing off the dead skin cells on the surface of your skin, I apply it and then the night cream and I get that "peely" balled up stuff appearing as I rub in the night cream, presumably thats my inner radiance being revealed!

This however is the star of the show, I am loving it.  It is a really nice cooling gel that I am using morning and night and I have to say I think the skin around my eye is looking much fresher and plumper - I get very dry, papery skin round my eyes and this combined with the Avene Rich Eye cream has really helped.  I had wanted the eye and lip serum, they are still on my wish list, but as they weren't around I thought I'd give this a whirl and I am really glad I did.

 This is the anti wrinkle serum, top, the radiance serum, middle and eye gel, bottom.
The Botanics Ultimate Lift Eye Gel for mature skin is £6.12.  The First Signs of Aging Intensive wrinkle reduction serum isn't on the Boots website but was £9, or there abouts and the Radiance Night Renewal Serum is £9.18.  I have used all 3 of these for over a week now and none of them have caused any problems with my rosacea or skin sensitivity so I think they would probably be ok for people with similar skin to mine.

Have you used anything from the Botanics range that you think is overlooked and that more people should try, or anything that similarly isn't getting the love you think it should from any other range?  If so, share! 

Putting it out there

At 29 I decided I didnt want to be fat and 30 so began a massive regime that saw me lose 4 stone between Jan and May 14th.  It quite literally revolutionised my life and gad was I happy!

Fourteen years later, omfg how did THAT happen, I am just back from the first visit to the gym in about 3 weeks.  This morning I decided to weigh myself. Folks, it was bad, real bad. I am officially a heffer.  Up until last June I had been going to the gym 3-4 times a week and being at least watchful about what I was eating and at one point I was *rifles round in drawer for last years diary....* Oh, I was 5 kilo less than I am now.  See how crazy this whole thing is?  My immediate response to that was "oh, well, its not that bad then is it?"  When I saw it on the scales in the gym and looked up at the conversion chart to turn it into a weight I could understand I was horrified at how much I had gained.  11lb is a lot, but when you weigh as much as I do its not that much. The reality is the weight I was last March and the weight I am this March are both at the very least 28 kilo away from where I want to be - and thats a good few kilo away from where I OUGHT to be.  But somehow for the last few months I have been trying to convince myself that I a) look ok, I don't or b) that I don't mind, I do.

So I am drawing a line in the sand, rather than burying my head in it for once.  This has to stop.  Whilst I am not going to be noting down every mouthful I eat or videoing live blog posts from the gym, lmao at the thought of that one! I am going to be keeping you posted.  And I am setting myself a little challenge. Out loud. So I cant deny I every said it.  I am going to be 45 on the 14th of May.  I want to have lost a stone, or 6.3kilo, by then, it's 7 weeks away so it should be do'able.  If I make it, I might even do my first ever OOTD post to celebrate.  Wish me luck and if you can think of anything inspirational, nurturing, bullying or hectoring that you feel you want to say you go right ahead, I need it all!

Liebster Blog Award

The lovely Annabella over at Skin Scrubs was recently given the Liebster Blog award.  The Liebster Award is designed to bring well deserved additional recognition to those bloggers with less than 300 followers.  If you receive the award you link back to the blogger that nominated you and nominate 3 more blogs, touchy feely blog love - fab!


So here are my 3 nominations:
Visionary Beauty - who reviews some frankly lustworthy things and always has loads of photos which I love!
Musings of a Make up Artist - who saved me from chucking my very expensive Chanel foundation in the bin in disgust - top tips all the way!
And Wish Listing - with whom I am sharing a new found love of Chanel nail varnish, althoughs hers runs deeper; she once went without lunch to buy one!

Thanks Annabella for nominating me!

Sanctuary Mela Amla & Cardamom shower drench

Spent ages in Boots today trying to find a shower gel that seriously floated my boat, I hate smelling of fruit or flowers which reduced my options by around 60% and am not a lover of all things Soap and Glory, no reason they just don't set my world on fire and actually I don't think I like the packaging enough either.  Which didn't really leave me a whole big lot to choose from!

This leapt out at me, I like the purple and gold packaging and was intrigued by the idea of a Cardamom scented shower gel and I have to say I have not been disappointed, this smells wonderful, quite an unusual rather sensuous frangrance that lingers on the skin and leaves your bathroom smelling pretty lush too!

I hope you can read the ingredients, as I know some people like to know whats in their stuff - it isn't SLS free so that will right it off for many I know.  I love the description "fragrant jasmine & aromatic cardamom" actually starting to sound like something of a thai menu, maybe thats why I love it!

Sanctuary Mela Amla & Cardamom Shower Drench costs £5.87 and I am really annoyed to have only just noticed the 3 for 2 on this, could have got the Rose and Pistachio body butter and had the Black Pepper and Ginger body scrub too! Did notice a £20 gift set of this which I might just nominate as a Mothers Day pressie, if I cant convince them I am worth a Tom Ford perfume!

Super Moon

Eerie super moon photo! Made Tom and his friend Eugene walk up the lane with me this eve, the moon wasn't as super as I had hoped but I took a couple of pics, like this one best!

Filthy Gorgeous - Blah

Isn't this lush?!  The lovely Jane at Modesty Brown very kindly offered to post this to me when I commented on her post about the Filthy Gorgeous nail varnishes, she had tried this and whilst she liked the application it wasn't a colour she felt she would wear.  I have recently bought a black and lime dress from Wallis and had thought a lime polish with it would look fab!

Tiny dress pic borrowed from Wallis.co.uk

Black leggings and heels complete the look!  Steve was aghast when he saw the dress but liked it on.  Jane and I negotiated a swop - her lime polish for a Botanics face brush, I bought a spare last time I was in Boots and I am really glad I did - Jane was more than happy just to post the polish but I was much happier to do it as a swop.

I absolutely love the colour of this although I know its not going to be everyones cup of tea - Em thinks its vile!  What I really like is that it has that slightly murky look to it so its not lime in your face its more of a light swampy green.  I may not be selling this to you!

Even if you don't like the colour you have to love the lace on the bottle top.

Application is pretty good - streaky on 1st coat, a bit more level on 2nd but does need a 3rd at that point it is nice and opaque and very glossy, although I suspect I may regret my decision to apply without a base coat, strongly suspect I am going to have seriously yellow nails to deal with when I take this off.  The top photo is very colour accurate.

This one is taken in bright light when the polish does look more lime than swamp.

 Back in shade - almost more glowingly neon than my nails are my rather red hands, lurvely!  I do think this would look amazing with a tan and perhaps when I am not wearing my lime and black dress it might be best on toe rather than finger nails, although I am wearing it today with an all black outfit - what Steve calls my Italian widow look! - and really like the flash of colour it gives.

Just to show you how well it sits with my usual make up, one last photo - lol!!!

Chanel Paradoxal

I have never been a lucky sort of person so I was totally amazed when I won not once but twice on the Lipglossiping Advent New Year give away!



I was so excited when Charlotte confirmed I had won Paradoxal as I had really fancied it back when it came out but would never be tempted to part with the sort of wedge Chanel demand for their nail polishes, I mean how much better than any other polish can brush, application and formula be?


I know all about aspirational products and the adoration those interlocking C's generate but hey its only nail varnish.

Just goes to show what I know!  It's a bit like the nail varnish angels have left heaven, decended to your kitchen and have applied this for you, given your cuticles a quick nudge and massage and done the washing up too.  Of course being a mousey greyed purple its a bitch to photo and all you get is the shimmery purple, which is lovely but frankly I have a million shimmery purple polishes.  What I really love is what you actually see when you aren't pointing a camera at this, that mousey greyed out colour.  Its not in this next photo,

But by the miracle of me being a photographic genius, or perhaps because I can make stuff happen in LightRoom! it is in this one:


I was in swatching mode not mani mode on Sunday when I took these photos so slapped 3 coats on my left hand, no base and no top coat, today its Wednesday and whilst its no longer looking perfect it only has a couple of little chips and some tip wear, neither of which were bugging me til I typed this and now it has to go! I consider myself incredibly lucky to have won this, but I think I may live to regret it as has potential to cost me a fortune, the brush, application and formula of this are all exemplary and the hideous price for a bit of nail paint is fully justified.

Scrabble

Our new arrival!  Loads more pics on my photo blog.

Illamasqua - Lip Gloss in Move

If you have been reading ihavemostlybeen recently you will know that I am having a crazy love affair with a nude lip. Not any old nude lip, my own nude lip. What the hell am I on about.  I have always worn colour on my lips - as a glasses wearer I felt colour on my eyes was a waste of time so stuck to a bit of mascara and some brown eye liner and added the colour I needed on my lips.  I have worn red lipstick and sometimes I think I look lovely in it but it does scare me.  I tend to stick to mlbb shades and I like a creamy glossy texture and it has to be sparkle/shimmer/glitter free, really not a hint of a shimmer or I am going to look 90.

At the Trafford Centre I got into conversation with the SA on the Illmasaqua counter, we had a play with the new Toxic nature collection - Delirium is the only thing I think I might need from that tbh! - we talked foundation, am tempted to ask for a sample of the light base at some point and then I apologised and said I had to go and check out the MAC viva glam gaga 2 lipstick.  She asked why and I explained about  my new found love of nude.

"Nude, really? Hmm right.  Really?" was her reply, which led me to thinking that perhaps she didn't see me as a nude lip kinda gal.  Anyway I slipped across the way and had a play with the MAC vgg2 (it is luscious, creamy, proper beige nude and I wanted it sooooo much) but Emily said "Mum, I love you. That looks fricking horrible on you.  I love you, I really do, you do know that don't you" and hauled me back to Illamasqua land.  Whereupon the SA did me a matt peach lip, on the basis that brown isn't good for me but nude peach or nude pink would be. OMFG I swear I have never looked so awful, if anything the nude pink lip was worse, to her credit Em was stood behind the SA doing the fingers down throat pukey thing throughout!  Finally I caved and agreed with the SA and Em that a nude lip wasnt working on me.  We had a little group hug at this point.  They might have high fived as well, I think. Ok ladies, I am getting the message.

 When I said to the SA "ok what would YOU put on me" she did a little dance and hauled out a lip liner pencil and the lip gloss you have been seeing in the pics threaded through this post.  She was a lovely girl but clearly thought my lip line was pointless and created one of her own for me - I looked like a blow up doll.  But, I loved the colour.  Very opaque pinky mauve, no nasty shimmer, applies like a gloss but wears like a lipstick, no stickyness, no lip staining just lovely glossy lips.

 You would probably have liked a bit of warning about that pic wouldn't you?!!

Not sure why I look like a beady eyed freak in this. I just do!

One more pic, above, taken today (Mon) which also shows how layering and buffing my foundation has improved things on that front. I had a couple of goes and in the end found putting the foundation on with 187 MAC brush and then buffing with a soft fat brush seemed to do the trick.

What I really like about this gloss is that it is really opaque so even wearing only a little gives a really nice full colour effect.  That said I squeezed the tube a bit too hard this morning and ended up with a heap of stuff on my lips, the lipstick shaped applicator is great for moving the gloss where you want it, and my heavy handed application resulted in me looking like my lips were made of super glossy plastic. On me thats erring into TV territory, but on some lovely young thing with poochy, pillowy lips would look beyond sexay!  Just so you know the swatch on my hand and the tube pics are colour accurate, clearly my face sucks the colour out of stuff which is why it doesnt look too exciting on my lips in these pics, in real life its a fresh, luscious pink pop and I right proper love it!



Illamasqua Intense lip gloss in Move £13.  Am thinking I might need to try a red one of these at some point!

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua

I was not a happy bunny when I looked in the mirror before doing my FOTD pics this morning.  After treating myself to the foundation I had been wanting since I got the first sachet out of Glamour mag I had imagined that I would look radiant, glowing and non-doughy the first time I used it from the tube. Instead my skin looked dry, felt tight and had no glow at all.  Admittedly I am also using a new Botanics serum, more on that in a later post, and had perhaps scrimped on my moisturiser. 

Because we live in the basement I never get to do my face in natural light, which is both a blessing and a curse, so at 11am I dragged everything up stairs, cleaned off the make up I put on at 7am in the basement, was a bit more liberal with the moisturiser and re-did my face in full daylight.  

Couple of things I need to explain.  My cheeks, chin and nose are blessed with rosacea, which varies in intensity depending on loads of factors, main trigger is hormonal though.  Foundation that offers enough coverage to deal with the rosacea has a tendency to sit in my pores and look powdery and horrid.  Yesterday was a nightmare, I was wearing Lancome Teint Miracle and for some reason it sank into the pores on my chin and came off of the surrounding area so in effect I had powdery dots with redness all around - looked bloody terrible.  When I re-applied the Chanel this morning it was lovely on my chin, looked smooth and fresh with no powderyness, but sadly on my cheeks the redness still showed through and adding more foundation started to make things a bit dry and tight feeling.

This has been a lot of words, have a couple of pics to keep you going!



Fab light today so all posts this week will have tonnes of pics!

I was having a grump and was having a look at Twitter to cheer myself up when I noticed Helen at Sparklz & Shine had rt a link to a post by Kenneth Soh, which was the answer to my issues! I am so glad she did!  Having read Kenneths really interesting post about mixing and blending to customise the products you are using I have decided to do just that - I am going to see what happens when I wear the Lancome which I love for its coverage, combined with the Chanel which I love because its Chanel it's fresh and non powdery!

POST EDIT: Kenneth Soh is a god!  When I commented on his post yest about foundation layering he replied with some fantastic advice.  So as he suggested this morning I dotted a little of the Lancome on cheeks and chin where I needed additional cover, added a thin layer of the Chanel all over and a second thin layer on chin and cheeks and then buffed.  I have never buffed my foundation in before - you know what? It makes you look like you have good skin, not like you are wearing good make up.  Am now going to google foundation buffing brushes, but if anyone has any tips let me know - should it be a kabuki style brush?  If so have found a use for one more of those No 7 £5 vouchers!!

Just in case anyone is still here reading here are a couple of fotd pics.


Call yourself a photographer woman, bloody hell??  The delicious orange glow in the photo above is as a direct result of me forgetting to adjust the white balance on the photo when I was processing it.  This is how it should have looked:






I think what I love best about this pic is that it is quite apparent that the Chanel shade 20 Beige Tendre is much too dark for me (less obvious with post processing sorted out!!). £31 well spent or what -hopefully mixing with the Lancome will deal with that too.  Had another go with the Revlon matt blue eye shadow this morning, I am really liking this bit of colour now!

One last thing before I go, the Illamasqua SA yesterday convinced me that for me nude lips can only look "freshly dug up".  Instead she sold me a very lovely liquid lipstick, which I am wearing in these pics, its getting a post of its own soon!

Here but hiding!

Sorry for complete lack of posting this week, on Weds had to haul ass down to Birmingham for a meeting that started at 8.30am and finished at 6pm so didnt get home til 9pm.  Thursday and Friday alarm at 5.50am has meant that my face has been getting just enough attention to prevent it from putting the guests' off their breakfast, so any fotd would leave you looking for any sign of make up at all, apart from eye brows!  


However, Em and I are off to the Trafford Centre tomorrow so I strongly suspect there will be a hauling post on Sunday and quite possibly a fotd too.  Bet you can hardly wait!
Have a fab weekend x

FOTD - Back to neutrals (an an update!)

Don't you think its weird how quickly something that had seemed totally unworkable can become the norm?  I was convinced I could not wear nude lipstick.  Since I bought GOSH Cappuccino I haven't worn anything else, then Helen posted the Lancome review and I am wearing the Bobbi Brown cream lipstick in the pics and suddenly darker lipstick looks totally ott.  How weird is that! 

Today was doing my usual rush job at stupid o'clock and decided not to go too elaborate.


I had looked at Toasted in the Naked palette lots of times and decided that it was one I probably wouldn't wear.  Then I tried it and realised that its shiny penny copper colour is really wearable.  So this is Toasted on mobile lid, Darkhorse into crease and Hustle tightlining top and bottom.  Nothin earth shattering but it is nice and wearable.  Still using the bronzer and the GOSH lipstick, although to be fair in this light for some reason the lippy is looking a bit "granny" but it didn't seem to when I looked in the mirror, oddly!

You'll notice that in my rush the UDPP got overlooked!


And sneaking in an update here that I am not sure I really want to flag up with a post all of its own.  Remember I applied this:

 To this:

Well that was two weeks ago and the above photo is a super close up of the area that was, erm, experimented on.  And yes, after posting that I had done a small test area I then decided to extend the area on which I was researching to include all of the above.  This particular experiment certainly caused a reaction -  I even had friends I didn't know read my blog siddle up to me at functions and whisper "for godsakes dont shave your face"!!  Well like I said that was 2 weeks ago, this close up was taken this morning and it is quite apparent that I could do with another tidy up, it is also quite apparent that I don't have stubble, shaving rash or a much thicker and darker re-growth.  I have however grown a dick.  Joking!!  Whilst I wouldnt recommend this if you have dark hair I suspect that if like me you have some peach fuzz that needs dealing with this is a cheap and painless option.  I also read that Japannese women shave their faces every day as they really dislike the look of any hair on their face and as a result they have fantastic skin that ages very well.  In spite of the evidence in front of my eyes I am still quietly traumatised at the thought of shaving my chin and upper lip but I did love the results so I suspect I will overcome my reservations and do it again, an added bonus was that my foundation sat really nicely on my ultra smooth skin.  So any converts??!

Guest Review On Sparklz and Shine - Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation

Helen asked back in January for someone to review the Lancome Teint Miracle foundation for her as it was too dark for her skin, needless to say I jumped at the chance and was lucky enough to the be the one picked out of the hat!  My guest review is here so nip across and have a look when you have a mo!


In case you are wondering this stuff has knocked the Bobbi Brown Luminous Moisturising Foundation into a cocked hat (whatever that means!) I have only worn the Lancome since the day I first tried it and I completely love it.  It has completely changed how I do my make up and I am loving a degree of cover that I thought I could never achieve without doughy, powdery make up - which has been especially good this week when my rosacea has had its once a month flare!

FOTD - when bad eye shadow happens to good people

After yesterdays rather dull neutral FOTD I decided today I wanted to incorporate the blue in a more wearable, day friendly eye.

Please bear in mind that I get up at 5.50am. I have to be ready to run Em down the hill at 6.50am and in that time I have to shower, beat my hair into submission and do my "face". Mistakes are not an option. So this morning I slapped on my UDPP and grabbed the blue matte Revlon shadow and whacked it all over the mobile lid. So far so blah. So thought I'd try blending. Now have an eyelid with nasty patchy stains and blue eye shadow all over one hand.  At this point my options were a) do breakfast for guests with one blue eye or b) slap some blue onto 2nd eye and hope applying foundation would balance things out.  Once I had smeared blue eye shadow over 2nd eye decided only way out was to then apply the same blue to the crease.  At this point I looked like the "before" from "Ten Years Younger" as in "Debbie is aware that she has been stuck in an eye shadow rut for 20 yrs and is still wearing the same blue eye shadow she wore in 1986".  In an absolute panic I wiped a smear of Buck from the Naked palette into the crease and attempted some kind of blending action.

see what I mean? Not exactly fab is it but not a bad recovery if you had seen the dire big blue mess I was before adding the brown!
 
Emily came in and took one look at my blue stained hands and masses of tissues all covered in blue matte eye shadow (bloody stuff wont blend but it does get everywhere!) and said I looked like a kid who had nicked her mums make up kit. And she still expected a lift down the hill.

I had a go at mixing some of the GOSH Cappuccino and the Revlon Matte in Mink to make a slightly darker nude lippy.  Off for a facial this pm and need to buy a nude lip pencil, as my Bobbi Brown Cocoa one leans too orange to work with this colour.  Also need to invest in some kind of lip buff and lip primer I think.
Onwards and upwards folks, not a triumphant fotd but I think its good to share the lash ups too!