Harrods magazine and your friday giggle

A while ago I shot this lovely garden story with photographer Lorna Freytag for Harrods magazine.
Lorna just started a blog, Lornaland, have a look its worth a visit.

Isn't the apple seat amazing? You want to have a garden just so you can put the apple in!

And for your Friday giggle

On Lorna's blog, LornaLand, I found this amazing little video from Minuscule Animations. They have lots of videos on YouTube but this one will definitely give you the Friday giggles :)

Location, Location

One of the best parts of photo shoots is the different locations a client takes you. And that's how last week I found myself staying in a beautiful country house for a few days, lucky me!
Have a look at this gorgeous location.

Bayfield Hall is a stunning 18th century country house set in 120 acres of parkland in the heart of North Norfolk, two miles from the coast. The Estate comprises of 1900 acres, of for Norfolk unusually hilly countryside. Not only are the surroundings stunning, the estate is run by a lovely family that made us feel very much at home. And not to speak of the amazing lunches, diners and cakes that were freshly prepared for us. I was a lucky piggy indeed!

I hope I can show you the photo shoot soon as the shots were amazing.

In the meantime have a look at the residence dog, Gertrude, living a dogs life....

You can also host your wedding or party in Bayfield Hall, have a look here

Giorgio Armani

After a lovely lunch with my friend M this afternoon I made the mistake of walking into Selfridges.
I wanted to check out their magazine department, Selfridges is one of the only shops left in London selling foreign fashion publications. But it didn't take long for me to wonder off to the beauty department for a good nose around. I had read a lot about Giorgio Armani's Eyes to Kill Silk eye shadows and wanted to have a little try myself. I can tell you they are amazing!!

These eye shadows are an entirely different approach to eye color they have a innovative hybrid texture, which is not a powder, nor a cream and acts like a smooth, lasting super shiny colour film. Very easy to use : applied wet or dry, with fingers or a brush, Eyes to Kill Intense blends and layers endlessly to increase the depth and intensity of the eye.
When stroked on wet you can achieve a more dramatic, thicker layering without build. 
From the wide variety of colours it was hard to choose, they retail for £25 so I decides to try out one tone to start with but I think I'll be back pretty quick for more ;)

I choose colour 7, Sweet Fire, a soft pink/beige tone witch will look very nice on its one or layered over a darker brown eyeshadow. Other great tones are 2, Lust Red and 4 Purpura. Have a look for yourself, click here.
On my way to the till I walked passed an amazing lipstick from their Rouge d'Armani range. Plum 603 lasting satin lip colour is a very unusual pinkie plum tone and as a lipstick junkie I had to have it. The texture feels great and although it didn't pass my cup of tea drink test (some lipstick left on the rim of the glass) enough tone stayed on my lips so I didn't needed to touch up.
This colour is a great summer alternative for my usual red.

Everyday style Icons

A great book went on sale, My Mom Style Icon.
Based on the popular blog by Piper Weiss, momstyleicons.blogspot.com this book is full of pictures send in by daughters surprised by their mothers past. These fashionable woman make great everyday style icons!
As the book says we could all stand to take some style cues from our moms, who ruled the fashion world with their up-dos and taffeta, their peasant skirts and mod bobs, their short shorts and cat-eye shades. This book features the best entries from the website making it a very pleasant, well put together read. I especially loved the section about big hairdos and the chapter about mothers on their holidays.

This made me think, my mom was pretty stylish her self! From her fab 60's bob to her black wedding dress!

Have a look trough your mums old photo albums, did she sport an amazing hair do? Fabulous eyeliner? Outrageous lipstick?

Please send your pictures in as I'm thinking of making this into a regular feature on the blog!

Beautiful hair starts with repair

The mailman had a nice surprise for me when I received this parcel in the mail.
Aveda had send over their Damage Remedy products for me to try out.
I absolutely adore Aveda's products, just the fragrance alone can completely de-stress you.
They do wonderful shampoo's, hairstyling products, skin care and makeup but the damage remedy line was new for me.
I received the Intensive restructuring treatment and the Daily hair repair.

Damage remedy Intensive Restructuring Treatment, is a weekly treatment you put in your hair after shampooing.
This will restore softness and shine and deliver long lasting moisture. I tried it out and must say, Amazing!
It left my hair soft but not to limp so you cant style it anymore. My hair is also more shiny then usual and that's just after using it once!

The other product, the Damage remedy Daily Hair repair is, a as the name gives away a product you use every day before styling. It instantly repairs damage by 26% and helps to protect your hair from heat styling. It detangles your hair to protect from breakage and further damage. Work a small amount of product trough damp hair, focusing on the damage areas. I can see this leave in treatment work amazingly on long hair. 

I love natural looking hair, and good natural hair starts with good health. The damage remedy line will help repair your hair and create a healthier foundation to make styling easier. And who doesnt want that?

Highlands!

A look behind the scenes of a Scotland shoot I was on two weeks ago.

Have a look at my very grand makeup room!

Lazy times

Whenever I have half an hour to spare I like to make myself a nice cup of coffee, sit down and flip trough a magazine.

 Nothing can be so inspiring and relaxing with a nicely layed out magazine. These half hours are for me a real moment of happiness.

Here a look at this months pile.



Cath Kidston magazine - just looking at all the lovely patterns makes me happy!

Easy Living - good magazine to read when you only have a few minutes. Great articles and nice lifestyle. And it had a free Cath Kidston bag this month!

Stylist - the free fashion magazine. If I managed to get hold of one it will be my preferred tube read of the week. Keeps you up to date of whats new that week.

Vogue - doesn't need any description, this is every ones style bible!

Country Living - my escape out of the city. Just seeing the beautiful photographs makes all the urban stress fall of your shoulders. The lifestyle and nature shots are also a great inspiration for my fashion work. Mother nature does the best colour pallets.

Red - the fashion magazine I buy every month and read cover to cover. The pages are beautifully layed out and the fashion is amazing. Also the recipes and lifestyle stories are an inspiration. A must read!

Making - a relatively new magazine. I buy this every now and then as they do nice craft projects.

Gwyneth Paltrow Tales from my kitchen table - I know this isn't a magazine but its on my pile to read this month. Gwyneth has a great blog, Goop, where she shows you places to go, things to do and make. This publication just came out and has beautiful pictures and yummy recipes, a lovely book to flip trough.

Jan - a Dutch magazine that has great fashion stories with a quirky twist. The interviews and articles are a way for me to keep up with the homeland!

Do you have a monthly must must read pile of magazines? Am curious to see what are you favourites!



Ellis Faas cosmetics

Holidays and long shoot days make little blog updates!
I finally updated the blog yesterday only to find out that it had disappeared over night, lets say it must be Friday the 13th ;)
So here again, yesterdays blog update.

A stroll trough my local shopping centre made me very happy as I discovered that Space NK now sells Ellis Faas makeup!
The cosmetic line from Hollands most amazing makeup artist Ellis Faas, has been going for a while but I always found it hard to find a shop that stocks these 'bullets' full of amazing product.
They have a web shop and as I almost buy everything online nowadays I still prefer buying makeup in a real shop.
The packaging of Ellis her products is one of a kind. All products are fluids, not only so they all fit in same sized 'bullets', but also because an enormous part of the human body consists of water. Therefore liquid makeup tends to blend into the skin more easily than solid makeup: the products will melt into the skin instead of lie on it.

If you have a couple of Ellis Faas products you can also store them in the Ellis holder.

All your daily essentials fit neatly in this stylish holder so you can find your product with ease and messy foundation spills are a thing of the past!

I stocked up on Creamy lips in L101, this is Ellis her signature colour and the most perfect red ever!

All the makeup products in the range are based on colours that naturally exist in the human body and with this red  Ellis was able to reproduce the colour that Snow White's mother wished for the lips of her child: blood-red.

Because this colour naturally exist in your body it suits every skin tone and is very flattering.

As you can see I like wearing my lipstick strong with just a hint of mascara on my top lashes. The rest of my face is clean. If you prefer wearing your lipstick in a softer fashion then instead of applying the colour with the applicator, apply it with the tip of your finger. This will give you a softer, smudged look.

Have a look on the Ellis Faas website where you can purchase all the lovely products, follow her online makeup tutorials and have a look at Ellis her amazing portfolio.

Click here

I also bought the Milky eyes in E207, a very wearable soft brown cream eyeshadow.