One day at a time

I started my blog at the beginning of the year in order to have something enjoyable to do while I was going through some very difficult times at home. In June 2008 my husband was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. He received aggressive treatment and stayed strong and independent for as long as he possibly could. At the end of April his condition worsened and he was admitted to hospital. He improved enough to come home to die, which had always been his wish. With huge and fantastic support from the NHS and local hospice, I cared for him at home until he passed away on June 22nd, aged just 39.

Writing about make-up on here was a normalising activity for me and allowed me a bit of a release and escapism. It's still something I love and so I hope to return to blogging soon, if anyone is still reading - and probably even if they're not!

Glitter and smells in the pipeline

Hurrah - I no longer feel like the grotesque lead role in a horror film. Unfortunately, I still look a bit like one so there are no pictures of my face for a few days. I bet you're gutted, aren't you.

If there's one thing that's good about having to lie in bed for four days, it's the combined joys of owning a laptop and the existence of internet shopping. Instead of being at work, I could spend hours perusing various beauty websites and reaching for my credit card in between bouts of hacking coughing or feverish sleep. I can also blame any shopping excesses on a drug-induced delirium. Sorted.

A package that I ordered pre-illness arrived on Thursday to bolster my spirits. It contained more mini  shadows and lip lustres from my new love Fyrinnae:

I got more Arcane Magics, a few brights and some neutrals to try out. I will be back with more FOTDs in the next few weeks. From my sick bed, I placed a new Julie Hewett order which includes my first custom palette selection, so I'm looking forward to seeing if the colour representations on the website are accurate.

I also ordered and received (very quickly) a number of samples from Lucky Scent, a US-based website for hard to find fragrances. I'm increasingly intrigued by more unusual fragrances and I also want to find my perfect 'earthy' scent that captures damp cellars and loamy earth but in a non hideous way. Here is what I got samples of, including a short description from the website:

Boudicca - Wode
a play of dark and light - soft musk and dry spice and brooding black hemlock. A stroll in the woods becomes a trek through a primeval forest with a few glowing yellow eyes peering at you from the shadows. 

Profumum - Thundra
A solitary walk through a cool, damp forest, just after the rain. You can smell the rich earth as it drinks in the water, the bark on the trees, the carpet of fallen leaves and wild mint crushed under your feet. 

Profumum - Fumidus
The smokiness of aged Laphroaig scotch served neat, It is also earthy – the earthiness of rich, freshly tilled land surrounded by uncut forest.

Profumum - Oxiana 
a union between the more Western cleanness of musk infused by a fresh oceanic accord joining with the earthier and slightly sweet balsamic accords from the East.  

Hilde Soliani - Fraaagola Saalaaata
With notes of strawberries and salt, this is a unique mixture of pulpy, juicy, fruity innocence and strangely saline, at times almost earthy sensuality. 

Montale - Patchouli Leaves
These are patchouli leaves wrapped in the softest and the most expensive of cashmeres, brought in oak trunks from exotic faraway lands.

Montale - Fougeres Marine
The creators take fern out of its traditional foresty context and place it by the sea, thus achieving a quality that is simultaneously fresh, green and earthy. 

Parfumerie Generale - Private Collection: L'Oiseau de Nuit
this is a complex and modern salute to leather. Very sweet and earthy all at once, L’oiseau makes your eyes glaze over and your jaw tighten with the need to get as close to it as possible.

I'll be testing these over the next couple of weeks, so let me know if anyone has any requests for what gets reviewed first.

I'd really recommend a look at the Lucky Scent website as the scent descriptions alone are amazing. The samples I bought were $3-$4 each and postage was a flat $5 and they arrived well packaged and within a week.

One fragrance I really wanted to try - but they had no samples of - was CB I Hate Perfume Black March. The 'nose' behind this line is the same person that created the Demeter line of unusual fragrances, of which Dirt and Thunderstorm are some of my all time favourites. I've seen Black March described as 'Dirt in HD', so it sounds like perfection to me. The perfume notes are listed as: 'rain drops, leaf buds, wet twigs, tree sap, bark, mossy earth and the faintest hint of spring flower bulbs'. How can I resist that?! Fortunately, this range is stocked at Liberty, so I think I will be making a fragrance pilgrimage in the not too distant future.

Glamour free zone

Though I remain beauty obsessed in spirit, I'm afraid the body is not willing this week. Thanks to a hideous throat infection and four days in bed, I currently look a lot like this:

The most I have been able to manage is showers and the occasional swipe of my clammy face with one of these:

Normal service will resume when I look less like a reject from Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

Nails with a twist

I always love reading about other people's beauty bargains and products that have 'changed their life' (I know this is all relative, it's just personal grooming after all). This is one of my life enhancing products:

The Instant Nail Polish remover from Pretty Quik (I don't know why they jettisoned the 'c'). This is a little plastic tub which holds a sponge soaked in polish remover. There is a little slit in the middle into which you insert your fingertip. Then, as it says on the label, simply dip and twist.

I find this product is brilliant for removing polish in a hurry. It is particularly good with dark polishes and even those pesky glitter finishes, though a double dip is sometimes required. Even though it's like a bath of polish remover it does not dry out my nails, in fact it feels quite nourishing. It really does remove polish in seconds though and even with blue polish I never end up with the dreaded 'smurf fingers' and stained nails I usually get with a cotton wool pad.

One tub can last quite a long time, but it depends on how many dark polishes you remove as the sponge obviously becomes saturated with colour eventually. I buy mine from Superdrug and they cost about £2.50, I think. They also do a similar product for use with acrylic nails.

Smooth lips and a classy lady

If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one luxury cosmetic item (assuming sunscreen is classed as a necessary item) I would pick lip balm. I have a lot of lip balm. I have sticks, pots, tins and tubes and they are dotted around my house. Every time the season changes I become reacquainted with previous favourites as I change coats and bags and find several I've left in the pockets.

Face the past

*picture heavy post*

One of the things that fuelled my obsession with make-up when I was growing up was teen magazines and annuals. Though I was still far from being a teenager in the mid to late 80s, I had female relatives and family friends who were aged between 15 and 21 and who all seemed impossibly glamorous to me. I would snaffle their back issues of Blue Jeans, My Guy and Just 17 as often as I could.

The Blue Jeans annual of 1984 was one of my particular favourites and I would spend hours studying the photo love stories, problem pages, beauty tips and fashion. I could not wait to be 18 when I would be able to live my life as I wanted, and what I wanted was a life based on the Blue Jeans annual, 1984. I wanted stripes of tawny blusher, lurid blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lips. I wanted a curly perm sculpted into an immovable style and enhanced with plastic hoop earrings. I wanted to be a sophisticated woman. When I eventually did reach 18 in 1995, that dream had been long forgotten.

Valentine's love

When it comes to matters of the heart, I am steadfast and true, a fact Mr Glamoured is (I hope!) pleased about. However, when it comes to make-up, clothes, jewellery and other personal embellishments, I am a fickle pickle. Perhaps I am a marketer's dream, though I usually research purchases and like to think of myself as discerning. I just like to acquire new things as I get bored easily and so enjoy the variety.

So, for Valentine's day I thought I'd show you some recent entries into my affections...

They're only noodles, Michael

Though I've set this blog up with the intention of writing about make-up and beauty in the main, I'm also going to write some other bits and bobs. I like to hold court on a wide range of topics, so where better to indulge myself than here?

Let's kick off then with something that combines my love of 80s film and vampires...