Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Beautiful Faces

I wanted to quickly share with you all, some of my favourite makeups I have done, and some of my favourite people that have asked me to do their makeup.























To see more of my work, click here :)

Ash x

Monday, 3 February 2014

My Go -To Lip Products

If you're like me, you kiss your kids ALL THE TIME.  So, on days when I can be bothered smothering my face in makeup, I need lip products that I can still kiss my kids with and not leave lip marks or stickiness behind (only embarrassed pink cheeks of my biggest boy).

Below are colours, brands and finishes of my favourite daily lip products!






From L - R we have:

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain in Passion: a bright pink that I find to be very long lasting. Kiss and food proof and no sticky feeling on my lips! 

Rimmel Kate Lipstick in No.103: A natural, rosey-pink colour that I find very flattering with my pale skintone - it's very easy to wear.

Rimmel Kate Lipstick in No.20: a BRIGHT hot magenta pink on days when I'm feeling like Superwoman!

Essence Lipstick in No.53 All About Cupcake:aside from the awesome name, this is my favourite lipstick to very wear, it look my natural lip colour only better, has excellent staying power and is REALLY inexpensive!

MAC Cremesheen Lipstick in Ravishing: a peach/coral colour that I just adore. It is a creamier finish, but once I gently rub my lips together, it removes the excess stickiness.

Lipsmacker Lip Balm in Vanilla: has no colour (dah) but smells ah-maz-ing, is quite moisturing and is great underneath the lipsticks and on top of the lip stains.

Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stain in Victorian:a deeper rose-pink that I find long-wearing and is completely kiss proof and food proof.

If I had to take only 2 of these with me on a desert island (incase I needed to look nice?) I would take the lip balm and the Revlon Lip Stain in Passion.  I really love the lip stains as they don't need re-applying and my kids can't smear them all over my face!!  The Rimmel and Essence lipsticks I blot with tissue to remove the excess product to help with longevity and not stamping my boys with it.

What kind of lip product do you use on the daily?

Ash x

Friday, 17 January 2014

Inexpensive Makeup Storage

Soooooooooo... I'm in the midst of re-organising my makeup room turned junk room and I decided my daily makeup organisation tray thing was JUST NOT WORKING.  I have been really wanting one of the 'clear cubes' that so many beauty gurus and celebrities have, but I really can't justify spending like $120 on one. I know, it's ridiculous!  Anyway, moving on.  

So, being my determined and stubborn self, I wasn't going to give up until I got something similar.  I started thinking outside the box...literally.  Then I uncovered my paperwork draws amidst my cleaning frenzy and thought they'd be perfect for makeup.

I immediately drove myself to the nearest Officeworks and picked up the gorgeous beauty below for...wait for it...$16.96!!!!!!!!!!



It keeps all my makeup AND brushes dust-free. I have one draw for each type of thing - Face, Face Powders, Eyes, Lips and Brushes.  What I love about it is that it's clear so I can see everything (although, it was very hard to walk away from the very hot purple one) and that I can store my palettes in a letter holder on top and other bits and pieces I used frequently.

I have one of these babies below holding all my other makeup for my freelance kit and my makeup kit is always half packed with things that I never take out and use on myself.


                               Product image for 10 Drawer Chrome Trolley- Multi Colour Brights

I hope this helped someone also in a makeup organisation rut.  If you'd like to see whats in my personal makeup stash draws, the products and brushes I like, then please let me know below.

Ash x

Making Food Fun For Kids

I have been blessed with a child who will eat anything (I know, I shouldn't brag) but during meal time he can get bored and want to play, so I like spruce things up a bit for him and keep him engaged in the meal.  The ideas featured below take no more time than preparing other meals - it's just all about presentation!  For me and my kids, every opportunity is a learning opportunity.  (Except when they've both had cranky days and I need a large small vodka.)  So I try to make mealtime fun and engaging, and here's how:

Fun Food #1 - Sandwich Castle with People/Villagers






This is one of mine and my sons favourite lunches.  It looks inviting, tasty and fun! We have novelty plates like Hungry Caterpillar (or Calapitta as my son says) Spiderman, Lightning McQueen etc so that instantly makes it fun for him. You can use any filling you want in your sandwich and use anything for the people. My sons favourite is a cream cheese sandwich with cucumber and grape people - but I think the combo above is a lot more fun.


Fun Food #2 - Bread/Cookie Cutter Shapes

                 (these were borrowed from google images - mine have gone missing...)

Just simply using fancy pants cutters make lunch time fun for little people. They can play, use their awesome imaginations all whilst getting some yummy tucker!

Fun Food #3 - Colour Fun

http://www.healthymoncton.com/tag/colourful-diet/

What I like about colourful food is that it instantly looks inviting and fun.  What kid doesn't love colour?!  There  are also many options to do with colour.  One I try to do regularly is to make one dish all the same colour.  For instance, I make french toast, with some cheese on the side of the plate, as well as banana and a little pile of corn.  Doing this encourages discussions of other things that are yellow.  Green is also an easy one - lettuce, spinach (my son loves "leaves"), cucumber, beans, grapes etc. Blue and purple is a little hard, but you could always use food colouring for pasta perhaps, or keep those colours geared toward bakes treats.  Rainbow meals are a lot of fun and fruit salad is so easy to make.

I hope my ideas were thought inspiring and please, if you have any other fun food ideas for little kiddies, please let me know below!!

Ash x