Lil Star Hairdressing!!

As many of you may have noticed, I'm now teaming up with Lil Star Hairdressing to bring my clients the best in hair and make up! Lil Star is a salon based in Bootle. Started by Kelly over 2 years ago, Yas, Katie and Bekki make up the team. I'm so happy to be joining them! Even though I love travelling around to everybody (which I will still be doing) I need a base so that I can fit more clients in as I'm finding that I'm driving around more than I'm doing make up and my cancellation lists have more people on them than I have appointments. I hope you all understand why I have made the move and I can't wait to get underway with it!

Where is the salon?

The Salon is on Hawthorne Road, L20 2DW and the contact number is 0151-922-2021. We're holding an open day on Sunday 10th June from 2pm-6pm so if you get the chance it would be wonderful to see you there! There's refreshments and goody bags and you will get to meet us all and see us in action. Even if you have a make up or hair query that you want answering or if your fed up with your style at the moment, come and speak to us and see what we can do for you! For both hair and make up we carry out in depth consultations so you will never go away unhappy. Models will be modelling our creations on the day so come along and see what we're about! 

ProChart Advert

I have blogged about ProChart before but I feel that we need a little bit of an update! Vic has amazingly used one of my facecharts to appear on the add for ProChart. I couldn't be happier as I think ProChart is fantastic! Everybody get yourselves one! I'm currently doing some black skin facecharts and will post them when they're done! Thanks Vic, you're a star :)  Here it is:-

HD Brows Update!

I have blogged before about my HD Brows but I thought I would let you know about the new lady who is doing my brows, Rachael Hall. I checked out her website not so long ago, and thought she was fantastic. She is based in Manchester and is a trainer for HD Brows. While Skin Deep introduced me to HD Brows and really improved my shape initially, they weren't giving me the satisfaction that I really wanted., Rachael gave me this in my first appointment with her. Not to mention she completely sold me the pencil, which is amazing. Her expertise is shown by the fact that she has many celebrity clients. If you get a chance, check her out www.rachaelhall.com or @HDbrowsbyRach on twitter. She is a true pro and has given me the brows I have always wanted. I'm waiting for her to come to me again on Saturday and then I will update you with a before and after pic!

Chanel Perfection Lumiere vs MAC Matchmaster

Foundation is one of those things that I am obsessed with. I am forever in search of that amazing foundation, that will change my life. Dramatic I know! Now I have some amazing favourites, yet I am always trying new ones to update my kit and to keep abreast of what kind of products are on the market now. Recently there have been some absolutely gorgeous foundations released and amazingly, a lot of them are matte. In recent years that 'dewy glow' has been so prominent that it was difficult to find a matte foundation that was as technically advanced as some of the dewy ones that were on the market. However this is all about to change as thankfully matte skin is back in fashion! This is like music to my ears as I have to wear a matte foundation because of my oily skin!

Chanel, MAC and Clarins are just some of the cosmetic companies to have released beautiful new matte foundations. This new generation of matte foundation veers away from the heavy coverage that most matte foundations give and are virtually undetectable on the skin. Matte foundation has always tended to be heavier in coverage because of the misconception that people with an oilier skin have things that they want to cover up. In many cases this is true yet its not true for all cases, hence why this new generation of foundation is fantastic.

Chanel has yet again released another beautiful foundation, one set to replace Pro Lumiere in their product range. I'm gutted that Chanel has decided to discontinue Pro Lumiere and I don't think I will ever find a foundation like it, although rumour has it that the new clinique repairwear laser focus is very similar. Perfection Lumiere is a matte, medium coverage foundation that comes in a greater shade range than Chanel usually offer. It is silky smooth on the skin and doesn't look dry or cakey like some matte foundations usually do. Whilst it doesn't set on the skin, it does feel quite sturdy although I was a bit worried about my oils coming through as it didn't feel like it really gave me the completely matte finish that I need. My face was shiny after about 4/5 hours which is nothing that a bit of powder won't fix. It was overall a nice foundation although I found the smell overpowering. In the long term I don't think it will ever be my go-to foundation as it didn't last long enough and isn't "wow" enough for me. 

MAC has released a new foundation called 'Matchmaster' which thankfully, has colours which cross the middle ground between the NWs and the NCs. The idea behind this foundation is that it matches your skin colour through a clear particle that enables your true colour to show through. It does set and it offers a nice coverage, again without feeling heavy or cakey. Overall, I found this to be very similar to the chanel perfection lumiere however, it doesn't have the overly fragranced smell to it. The only qualm is that too much of this and the skin looks chalky - but if you want to build the coverage up then why not go for a foundation such as Studio Fix Fluid, which is one of the more old school matte foundation with tons of coverage (and still my favourite after all of these years). 

If I was choosing between the two, I would have to go for the MAC, not only because I felt that it lasted longer and was less fragranced (and so therefore caused less worries about breakouts) you also get 40ml for £24.50 whereas the chanel is £34 for just 30ml. For a foundation that is practically the same, I would much rather go for the matchmaster.

Clinique Repairwear Laser Focus Serum

I'm a big fan of serums. With having oily skin I prefer their watery texture and the way that they seemingly sink into the skin so quickly allowing make up application straight after it. I've recently purchased this as I have read so many amazing reviews, with a lot of them comparing it to Lauder's Advanced Night Repair. So thought I would give it a go myself. With having oily skin I suffer from open pores and I have some acne scars so I'm hoping that that will all get evened out! I'm also getting on a bit now and I'm noticing some fine lines on my forehead. Hopefully prevention not cure will be found in this little bottle! I'm only on day two and so far I have noticed that my skin feels smoother, yet has also become slightly more oily. I'm taking this as a good thing because this is what my skin does when it's healthy and is nothing that good primer and foundation cannot fix! I will keep you posted. (Also the packaging is annoying because you can't see how much you have used and the pipette makes it all spill over onto the sides).