FOTD - Suqqu, Daniel Sandler, Julie Hewett, Bourjois

Even if I get up 5 minutes earlier than usual in the morning, I never seem to have time to click a few photos of my FOTD lately. I finally managed it on Friday for the first time in ages.  

I was rushing to get ready for work and was a little flustered, which hopefully explains my dishevelled mop. I decided to use my Suqqu EX-02 Sukashizumi palette on Friday, but wanted to try a slightly different look from the last one I featured using that palette.

I really like the shimmery taupe shade in the palette, so decided to make it more of a feature this time. As before, the shadows blended beautifully, even on top of a base of Urban Decay Primer Potion, which normally hampers smooth blending slightly for me. I was pleased with the finished look, which only took a few minutes. I love the pale lilac shade for highlighting, it's such a brightening colour.

The photo washes the colours out slightly, but it was a nice, office-friendly look. On the rest of the face I used Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation and concealer, Daniel Sandler Watercolour in Truth as a blusher, Suqqu Noble Nuance face powder and lips were Julie Hewett Camelia balm in Rose. The Daniel Sandler Watercolour is a new acquisition and I really like it. The shade is a very pale peach which is recommended for helping to camouflage high colour in the cheeks. I will do a full review on it once I've used it a few more times.

I tried to capture the full look in natural light, but as you can see I managed to skew the shot slightly thanks to the slatted blinds in my lounge. Oh well, I suppose it adds a bit of atmosphere, or a great impression of cack-handedness, dependent upon your opinion.

Ruddy hell!

*long, and very picture heavy post*

As I've mentioned before, I have naturally ruddy cheeks. I am also getting more broken veins in my cheeks as I get older. I'm generally happy with my skin, it's usually clear apart from the occasional hormonal outbreak but I'm currently trying out some new skincare that seems to be helping (I'll post on that once I've been following it for a month). My mum has lovely skin and my nan did too, so I know genetics plays a big part. I do make an effort to look after my skin though and have been cleansing, moisturising and using a minumum of SPF 15 daily since I was about 14.

Anyway, back to the ruddiness. this is what my cheek looks like without any make-up:

I thought I would review and show you how several of my favourite foundations deal with that...

FOTD - Suqqu, Bourjois, Julie Hewett

Just a quick post to show a face of the day from a couple of days ago. I've been on the back foot all week and keep forgetting to take photos in the morning so I rushed to get this after work, before the light went completely.

After falling completely in love with my first ever Suqqu purchases I decided to drop by the counter to look at the other two eye quads in the Spring range. I decided to get EX03 Koukon, a mixture of warm browns in matte and shimmer shades.

I used Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation and concealer, set with E.L.F. Complexion Perfection powder. Blush was MyFace blusher in Holiday (my favourite blush) and lips were Julie Hewett Gem Noir lipstick, which is a lovely soft and sheer raspberry. I've just received some more Julie Hewett products so I'll aim to do a post on them soon.

Considering I took these pics at the end of the day when the whole lot had been on for 12 hours, I think the make-up lasted really well. I don't know what's going on with the simpering expression though. I tried to avoid my normal grumpy 'in repose' face, but I think this might be even worse. I can definitely see a touch of the Mr Bean about it.

FOTD - Suqqu

Today was going to be a make-up free day. I was feeling a bit off colour and did not have to leave the house, so I planned to spend the day reclining languidly on my sofa, gorging on Gilmore Girls DVDs. It seems my husband had a similar plan, though in his case it was recordings of Match of the Day and Football Focus he wanted to watch.

I retreated upstairs to watch DVDs in the bedroom. Within an hour the urge to play with my new make-up was too strong - it called to me from its new home by my dressing table. The light was good and I was itching to see if my Suqqu Noble Nuance face powder would look as good when I used it as it did when the MUA demonstrated it for me.

New to Suqqu

As an avid reader of the brilliant London MakeUp Girl I have been exposed to several new and wonderful products. I've already talked about Villainess products which I bought from Posh Brats. Both were recommended on London MakeUp Girl's blog. I also own some Julie Hewett products after reading her reviews. I'll post about those in the future.

London Makeup Girl's favourite brand seems to be Suqqu and I love the elegance of her FOTDs using these products. Suqqu is a Japanese brand which I would describe as high end. Apparently the name was derived from a Japanese word meaning 'posture with attitude' and the brand concept states 'our Japanese cultural tradition of inner composure and serenity is echoed by the range'.

When I was at the RMK counter in Selfridges, Birmingham  last week, I decided to check out the newly released Suqqu Spring 2010 range. It looked absolutely beautiful, particularly the Noble Nuance Face Colour which reminded me of the Guerlain Les Meteorites powder compact. I decided to think about potential purchases for a few days as the high end quality also means high end price.