Sequin Drama

I have stopped counting the number of times I've genuinely put Tammy Sequin Dress in my shopping basket. It has gone from available in my size, to unavailable and to available again. So naturally, I just had to feature it in my entry for the Boohoo Christmas #partypose challenge.


Before you think and sulk about not having been invited to take part in the challenge, let me reassure you I was not invited either :) Boohoo is inviting bloggers to blog about their dream outfit from the website, I browse a lot on Boohoo so naturally I wanted to take part. The idea is to create an outfit with at least 3 items from the website and the maximum you can 'fantasy' spend is £100. A doddle considering how affordable the clothes are on boohoo.

I was dying to feature the Tammy Sequin Dress as it is a dress I have genuinely been contemplating buying. I feel the dress would help enhance my good bits (the waist and the midriff). Most of all, it's the flared bottom half that I like. It's right in between a pencil skirt type of skirt and a full on fifties/skater skirt, without (I hope) being too clingy on the thighs which is my problem area. I think I need to try it.





There are however 4 reasons why I haven't bought it so far:

1) I have a short bust and I feel this is so low cut that it might show my navel. This won't be a problem for Roberta, my alteration lady up the road though.
2) Strewth this dress is long. Is it not going to drown the 5ft2 person that I am?
3) I absolutely love the sequin drama but the back looks a little bit too much like a swimming costume. Will I like that in real life? What I could sew (well, stick) some mesh fabric underneath. Would I like it better like that?
4) What if it is too clingy on the thighs?





I just can't make up my mind. I feel so drawn to this dress. It's so rare to find dresses these days which are not bodycon or skater style.


I decided to pair Tammy Sequin with a baroque necklace to add a bit more to the skin. This dress shows so much skin, that I wanted to dress the body back a little if that makes sense. And last but not least, the uber gorgeous lillie diamonte shoes. They are not perfect, and they look like they have this suedette effect on them (it's not my favourite type of material to be honest) but I love the shape, the diamonte straps, the chunkiness, the height and the price.







I hope you liked my second (and final) entry to this #partypose challenge. If you want to take part yourself, you can find out all about it here. Thanks for reading xx






disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

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Bronze Baroque

I have resisted and resisted but it's December in just under 2 hours and it's finally time to realise that Christmas is coming, whether I've reached my target weight or not (I haven't). I don't have many preparations to do at all, and no presents to buy - that's the advantage of not having a family -  but I do have a few parties coming up in December and I need to find outfits to party in.


The Boohoo #Partypose challenge could not come at a better time. I've heard about it today through my friend Jade, aka the Beauty Butterfly Blog. The challenge is to create an outfit collage of at least 3 products available on boohoo.com. The full outfit must cost less than £100. This is a very easy challenge, as the clothes are boohoo are very very affordable. I couldn't wait to take part. I had four outfits ideas but I decided to post my two favourites ones.

  
My first collage is called Bronze Baroque. Baroque because of the beautiful Lydia Baroque dress which is the centerpiece of this outfit.





The dress is described to have a 'skater' style. I don't usually go for skater style dresses. This is because, although they accentuate the waist and are very feminine, they tend to bulk up the thighs and the bum. But I feel this one is different as the material seems to be forgiving and skimming. I absolutely love the baroque gold/bronze detail and the see through mesh insert which allows to show some flesh. I also love the way you can wear your biggest cleavage boosting bra underneath and all I need is some clear straps.

   


I decided to pair the dress with some golden owl earrings with a little stone for eyes and some bargainous black rhinestones high heels.








As if the outfit was not bargainous enough, Boohoo is offering 15% of all the dresses and shoes until Sunday 02 December 2012, 23:59 if you enter the code PARTY15 at checkout.


Like this challenge and want to take part yourself? You don't have to receive a special invitation to take part and the prize is pretty amazing: £100 to spend on yourself. You can read all about it here.





disclaimer: I heard about this competition whilst blog reading and no one asked me to take part.

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Christmas Coundown Slendertone Toning Challenge: My Journey and Progress

I've been pretty quiet on the blogging front lately,  nor have I been very active on commenting on my daily beauty  reads. This is not the usual me and I am not happy about that. But there is one thing which I am really really chuffed about: to have embarked on a body toning challenge routine and to have stuck with it implacably, which is for  me, something of a miracle.




Which toning challenge is that? Well... :)

 In the last week of November, I was approached by Slendertone to see if I would be happy to embark on a 'Christmas  Countdown Toning Challenge' and share my experiences on the 'Slendertone System Abs' belt with my readers. My  abdominal / tummy area is not too bad compared to the lower half of my body (bum, thighs and legs) but it has never  been as toned as I wanted it to be. Why? Because addressing this area with exercise is hard work and painful.


Ask anybody on what they think would be a good form of exercise to tone and improve the muscles of your  tummy and they will all reply in unison: 'crunches and sit ups'. I can't do crunches and sit ups. I try to do it for  2 days, and then I spend the whole week with stomach cramps, when laughing even becomes painful. Sit ups also give me  pain in the neck area. In fact, while I try to do my sit up, I feel more pain in the neck than in the tummy area,  which surely isn't right. So when I was given the opportunity to try this Slendertone System Abs, it was a no brainer, I had to say yes  and I just couldn't wait to start my challenge.



So what does this belt designed to do?

The Slendertone System Abs is a belt designed to tone your abdominal muscles. It delivers a complete abdominal  workout for the rectus, oblique and transversus abdominis muscles, giving you firm and flat stomach. Replicating  abdominal exercises, wearing the belt for 20 minutes is equivalent to 120 sits ups targeting the abs muscles (rectus,  oblique and transversus abdominis muscles)

Yes, you heard: 20 minutes is equivalent to 120 sits ups. I know!!

I was very impatient to try the belt but I was also very anxious. As I said earlier, I don't do pain. To give you an  idea of my pain threshold, I'd have some anaesthetic cream before a blood test, would usually have my whole mouth  numbed before dentist could approach me and categorically refuse to have my eyebrows threaded. I have my tache waxed every now and then but this usually comes with me swearing at the beautician and calling her a wicked witch. I knew I wanted to  have a firmer tummy but I was really scared to have an electrically charged belt around my tummy. Did I need to  expect a pain similar to electrolysis, or perhaps some mini electrical shocks?

 I received my belt bang on 24 November, which fitted perfectly with the Christmas Countdown Toning Challenge and  decided to start my slendertone adventures on the same day. The belt arrived in a nice posh box and ready to  use in 2 simple steps: charge the belt for 3 hours, stick the 3 pads on and you're ready to go. What does it feel  like? I felt so silly as I realised instantly that I had really nothing to worry about. Depending on what level the  belt is on, wearing the belt feels like a tingle or a strong massage of your tummy and whole abs area.



The way the belt is programmed is  brilliant and takes the guess work out of how long you should do the exercise. Their prime objective (the way I personally understand it) is to provide you with a safe and gradual/progressive work out. The belt has 7  programmes and the first time you switch it on, it activates the programme 1. The belt remembers how many times you  followed programme 1 and then it declares you ready to move on programme 2. I don't remember the figures but  it's something like once you've done the programme 1 five times, then the next time you switch on the belt they move  you on the higher programme.


No need to choose how long to wear the belt as the programme you’re on has a  predefined time. To top it all off, and to mimic the effect of a real work out session, each programme even comes with a  warm up and cool up phase. All you do is to choose the level of 'contraction intensity' of your workout and you are  encouraged to increase the level of contraction intensity as and when you feel ready.

 There is a special section in  the manual which gives you suggested intensity levels if you're doing a 4 week challenge. They recommend for example  to start it at level 20 the first time you switch it on (I started it at level 30 on my first work out, you'll understand why below) with a view  to progressively get to level 80 in your last week. A lot of emphasis is put on safety throughout the manual. While they encourage you to increase the level of intensity as you go through your 4 week challenge, they  also discourage you to put up with a work out which causes too much discomfort/pain.


During a 7 day week you are also supposed to exercise 5 days and give you 2 days of rest, to give you and your muscles a chance to rest. I find it  very sweet. When I wear my belt, I am usually sat on my fat arse, watching telly and they still ask me to make sure  to allow 2 days of rest :) aww.

 Which brings to my next point: How difficult is it to follow the programme day after day? To be honest with you,  doing the slendertone challenge is as easy as watching 'I am a celebrity Get me Out here on telly' for 20/30 minutes (minus the eating challenges which make it very uneasy watching)  I  have been naughty on a few occasions, whereby sometimes I have not allowed my body to rest after 6 or 7 days in a row  but other than that, I have followed my work out programme/challenge religiously for which I am extremely proud  about. I can't recall the last time when I have followed an exercise routine so assiduously! Probably never.


I started the programme on 24 November, wear the belt pretty much every night, (funny enough i like to wear during watching masterchef or best dish) and I am now on programme 4 and level  70. Level 70 is not for the faint hearted, it feels there was a massive gap between level 50 and level 70 but I am  really really happy. At the moment it feels like I am never going to be able to move on to 'contractions' further  than level 70, but I have still have some time before Christmas Eve to get there. What pushed me to move higher and  higher in my work out and keep stuck to it was this little diagramme I saw on the website. You see below why I wanted to be at intensity 30 from the very beginning.  I don't want a tingle, I want muscle contraction baby :)





How efficient is it? Does it work?


Yes, yes, yes. I really feel my tummy is much much more firm, toned and I am loving it. I am also a bit shell shocked  about 2 things: how I managed to stick to the programme to the letter and how the belt abs managed to tone while so  little input was made from me, as the most active things I've been doing have been walking to work and  watching tv. If I had to pin point one uncomfortable thing about the belt is this 2 second moment when you attach the  belt on, as your tummy gets into contact to the cold fleshy-like pads. It’s a bit like the mindset you would have before taking a cold shower, the 1,2,3 count you take before going in, but at a much  smaller scale as it is only 2 seconds. I really don’t like that 2 seconds bit though!

 I am  really hoping that the before and after pictures I am hoping to post when my challenge is over will show the  improvement. The system belt is not cheap (£119) if you don't already own a controller. But very little active input  is required from you, it's easy to stick it to so I really think it's a worthwhile investment. I don't know how you're  all doing with your party season / christmas diet but if you've fallen off the wagon or planning some form of  diet/exercise regime comes the new year, but if you have the funds, this seems to be like the perfect way to reward yourself, and have a little help while you're putting your 110% efforts cutting down in portions while your appetite is raging and you could eat a horse and everything else in sight.


See you soon for another update x



disclosure: the system abs belt was offered to me for review purposes and I still can’t believe how lucky to have been chosen for the experience/challenge

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Sleek Saturday Series – with 2 oh so special girls …

It's Saturday, and do you know what it means? It's Sleek Saturdaaaaayy. I am very excited this week and I have 2 girls joining me: Ellie from Missy Ellie Beauty Blog and Helen from Nice Things.


The idea behind Sleek Saturday is to forget whatever grudge you have with the brand encourage myself and whoever who would like to join me, to play with these sleek products you have in the cupboard and which you don't reach out very often. Today, I wanted to play with Oh So Special, a very recent addition to Sleek Make up I-Divine eyeshadow palettes. Trying to get hold of 'Oh So Special' has been an adventure and if it hadn't been Navilicious Beauty, who were very kind to custom purchase it for me, I am not sure I would have been able to get my hands on it.

Here is it in his splendid beauty:



 



This palette is unusual for me: such a drastic change from the bright vivid colours I am used to. Oh So Special is definitely more neutral and demure than many of its little sisters (palette in French is feminine) but I am welcoming it in my house and on my eyes with open arms as it’s about time I tried my hands at a more wearable daytime look.


Oh So Special has a perfect mix of matte and shimmering shadows which suit me perfectly. All the shadows are really pigmented and very easy to work with, apart BOW and PAMPER. My favourite shades are WRAPPED UP and GATEAU. This palette, strangely reminds me of a mix of the STORM palette meets the AVOIR LA PECHE  palette, which I can’t wait to play with and blog about.

 





My look had to incorporate WRAPPED UP and GATEAU, with a dash of RIBBON and BOXED. For the highlighter, I just had to ‘cheat’ and use my trusty Vanilla from MAC as BOW could simply not deliver.










I am quite happy the way it turned out. Since creating this look ‘for the blog’ I found myself recreating it twice after that. It makes me very happy and ‘oh so special’ is definitely going to be a keeper.










Not much else is going on the face, although I am very excited to tell you about my new lip product. So excited, in fact, that I wanted to devote its own little blog post. Click here to see what I’ve got on my lips.



I would like to dedicate this episode to Kellie (Big Fashionista) who inspired me to use the ‘Oh So Special’ this week hoping she will play with her palette soon and would like to thank Missy Ellie and Helen for having joined me this week.



Click here to see Ellie’s and Helen’s ‘Sleek Saturday’ Looks


Same time, next time for another episode of Sleek Saturday? You bet!

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The Photography Tag...

There are thousands of things I would like to learn, thousands of skills I'd like to acquire one day and if I had the money, I would be enrolling on (thousands) lots of courses. I can't swim to save my life, can just boil water to cook pasta and can't even sew a button which has fallen off.
Photography is another area where I don't have a clue about but which really interests me. You'll give me 2 equally good beauty blogs in terms with content and if I had to choose one, I'll go for the one with the best photography.

Anyway, all this long introduction to say that you might have noticed that I like dandelion clocks. When I saw that (free to use) wallpaper from internet, I just had to have it and incorporate it somehow in the layout of my blog. However, I feel that a more 'personal' picture would look better. Well.. this is where you come in.

How would you fancy a little photography challenge?

Fancy photographing a dandelion clock (or even the dandelion yellow flower) for me, please pretty please? There is nothing to win, but if you fancy the challenge, I'd love to 'tag' you and invite you to take part, and take 1 photo for me.


Basically we're aiming for something better than this, LOL and a bit arty farty, you know a bit like the picture on the banner ^_^



BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!

Deadline: There is no strict deadline for this 'tag', but maybe a week's time would be enough? How about next Sunday, 1 May midnight? I hope you will take part. I leave you my email, shall i? :)  liloo@hotmail.com

I would love  to tag ALL of you my readers but also these very talented photo friends of mine:

Pete Favelle @ahnlak
Charlotte @lipglossiping 
Debbie @drew692
Fee  @makeup_savvy
Matt @gothick
Lizzums @talei
Bicky (Tastes Like Glitter)
Steph @Steph0188
Lily @beautysbadhabit
Peter @technex
H @25FLONDON 


Thank you so much xx

liloo/tsunimee
liloo@hotmail.com

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Double Dares with Lily – A clown in Vegas FOTD

In short, this post is about a cool makeup challenge the lovely Lily from Beauty's Bad Habit has invited me to take part in, my excitement the whole way through the challenge and lastly my disappointment with my finished look. If you're reading this in hurry skip along to lily's blog to read all about the challenge and her makeup creation. At the time of writing this post, I have not yet seen her look, but knowing Lily, it's going to be absolutely stunning!


And in details... (Put the kettle on)
I don't know why. It's my own personal blog but I can't help myself from feeling self conscious about writing lengthy posts and losing you, my readers in the process, even before you get to the 'meat' of the post. Even in normal speech, when I explain things at work, I tend to want to speak fast and summarise, before people want to cut me and lose interest. Today, I don't care and I have got a lot to say and I don't want to be rushed. Please bear with me, will you? xx


If you've been following my blog or my youtube channel for a while, you will have noticed that I am very fond of makeup contests and makeup challenges. I absolutely adore them. There's nothing quite like a makeup challenge to excite me, get my creative juices (or lack of) flowing, and have an excuse to play around with makeup. There is also that buzz, which is like no other, when you're happy with your finished look, especially when it's been challenging and that you've overcome successfully a few obstacles. (You’ve scrolled down to the bottom already haven’t you, had one glance at the piccie and left didn’t you? ;)

When Lily, from Beauty's Bad Habit invited me to take part in her 'double dares' makeup challenges series, I was bouncing up and down. Her first episode with Leanne (from donotrefreeze.com} really excited me and I just fell in love with the concept. I was also mega excited as I have a lot of respect for Lily. Not only her makeup skills are absolutely out of this world, she has got amazing enviable photography skills and  all this in a really cool and unpretentious blog. Off the top of my head, my favourite recent posts from her are her photography guide 101 ( for dummies like me), her bermuda sunshine makeup look fotd and her post about some cheap as chips crappy looking eyeliner at first, where she goes beyond the first impressions of the product, work with it and reveal its true brilliance. I love that about her: striking makeup looks with high end products as well as products that even a teen would be embarrassed buying because they *think* it's  going to be crap and they don't want to give the product a chance. So, put it that way, I was pretty chuffed when Lily invited me to take part in her 'double dares' challenge on top of mildy cacking myself with the pressure.
The idea of this double dares challenge is that I challenge Lily to create a makeup look (theme of my choice) and we both create a look from the same theme and post it at the same time and surprise each other with the finished product. The theme I have chosen for her this week was:

to recreate a makeup look from a Mac Cosmetics Collection Promo Picture from any collection she liked. To see her creation, click here (at the time I am writing this, I have yet to see her look).

Die hard fan of Mac Cosmetics or not, and if you are remotely interested about makeup, you would have come across some stunning makeup creations and visuals. It was very hard to choose but my heart set for this promotion picture, in particular, which I believe was part of the Star Flash or Star Vegas Collection.






Was this a wise choice? No. Was it more than I could chew? Oh my definitely. I couldn't have made life more difficult for myself. I wish I could be positive about my finished look. The truth is that I don't like it and that I didn't want to post it. Personal pride and respect for Lily made it that I just had to go ahead with it and post it anyway.





So without further ado, this is my very loose recreation of the mac visual (hell, there is some pink and yellow, right?)  I'll spare you the 1000 additional words of why I don't like my finished look and try to focus on the positive: I've had a whale of time playing with brown face paint and foundation changing my skin colour (I didn’t have to, but I really wanted to have fun with it) and I can't wait to be invited to a pocahontas fancy dress when I can play some more. :P





  
This week, a few things pretty surreal happened to me. I reached 300 readers on my little blog and 15,000 subscribers on my youtube channel. This is to hoping that I won't lose any after this makeup, where a 6 year old could have done better with just fingers for tools. I shall end this post, with a nice cheery smile…

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