Oh so wiser…

There's been a little bit of action of the blogosphere today. A certain list  might have made the day or some bloggers and ruffled the feathers of some others. Ok maybe just my feathers. Today 'So Feminine' released the names of their top 100 beauty blogs.

Oh so what, did you say? I have never heard of them either. Bloggers who successfully topped in their 100 favourite blogs were emailed about it and can proudly display their award on their blog: a cute and snazzy badge linking to the oh so feminine website. I have been genuinely delighted for all my blogger friends who made it, until tonight when another friend of mine, couldn't help herself from feeling a little bit disconcerted for not having featured in their top 100. Me, being me, I would need to kick up a fuss about it on twitter and got all melodramatic about it. While I am by no means proud of another twitter drama, talking to my twitter friends helped me to see the light:


Who are 'Oh so Feminine' anyway? How did they come up with their list of 100 favourite blogs? If these 100 blogs are oh so good, why were not these blogs hyperlinked anyway from their website? What if this list was just a marketing ploy to have these 100 blogs talking about them today and displaying their badges? What amazing publicity would that be for them if all 100 of blogs 'featured' would blog about them!


Well, you know what? I don't like that list. Lots of my bloggers friends and their awesome blogs didn't make it and therefore, it's not a very good list. Oh So feminine, I don't need your badge. I've got one way cooler and it's got Cassoulet on it. Cassoulet is great. It's like  baked beans, but it's got sausages in it. Do you know who made it? My favourite blogger: Charlotte from Lipglossiping.com. So there.

I feel a bit silly to have totally fallen for their marketing ploy.
I might still be a bit childish to get worked up about silly things but I am a little bit wiser, oh so wiser.

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Voulez-vous smoocher avec moi, ce soir?

If there's one thing I find it hard to resist is pretty packaging. Now when I find pretty find packaging *and* a half price sale, my self control is even more put to test. Introducing a new British brand of Cosmetics called SMOOCH. I found out about them tonight, through Holly's Secrets and I can't stop thinking about it. I feel compelled to blog about it or I fear I won't be able to sleep properly tonight.






The concept for this line is lingerie and the packaging is absolutely superb. In the words of Smooch Cosmetics themselves:

The concept for Smooch came quite simply from a pair of knickers...... In fact not just one pair a whole drawer of lingerie to be exact.
Cosmetics are a little like your lingerie drawer, you have your everyday basics that you apply without really thinking about it, then you have the special mascara and uber gloss for that big night out.
Smooch “It’s like wearing your naughty knickers to the office, your own saucy secret!”

To celebrate the launch of Smooch, they are offering all customers 50% off everything online for one month only.  The discount started 2 days ago and will end on 16 September.


 Please allow me to share with you my little wish list. If money grew on trees and I hadn't spent so much already this month, this would have been what I would have liked to spend my pennies on. The 50% discount has ALREADY been applied on these products.


First, these nail polishes (usual RRP: £6.50)  have caught my eyes. There are 24 shades in total to choose from but it's Car Key and Deep Beige (woah, you really can't get any deeper than that) which have caught my eyes. I have also nearly run out of my favourite black eyeliner (H&M) so this cute eyeliner is also calling by my pet name (usual RRP: £4.95). It's a shame the website doesn't show what the nib look like.



I don't own any Nars eyeshadow but when this Narsy eyeshadows, my heat skipped a beat. Will you guys indulge for me and report on quality please? The one on the photo is called 'minted' but they have 11 other shades to choose from. Smooch has really made an amazing effort in showcasing the shades but my only regret is that they don't give any description of the shades themselves. From the generic description '12 glistening duo eyeshadows' I would imagine that they are all shimmery.






And last but not least, this bronzer, which is looks so good, they even named it after the brand. Ladies, this is Smooched (usual RRP: £13.95)  I don't even wear that much bronzer but look at this beauty! Then look at me in the eyes and tell you don't find this bronzer utterly irresistible!!

In case you're wondering,  I have not been contacted by anybody to write this post. Inspiration for this came through reading Holly’s Secrets. If any of you is tempted by any of the items I’m also lusting on, please let me know, I would absolutely love to know what you thought about them.


So, voulez vous ...?

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A dilemma. What if…

I started to be interested in nail polishes, at the beginning of the year, probably right after Models Own had an amazing 50% sale on all their website. Then I started to discover the beauty of Models Own polishes and I've been collecting a list of items I would love to purchase one day from the Models Own website.


I've got a list as long as my arms of things which excite me from them and the list is growing more and more, as I read lovely reviews and gorgeous pictures of their products. Lately, my eyes have set on this smokey eye kit, SIMMER (£8) which Models Own have released. It comes with 2 cute brushes and it seems to be a handy palette to have.





Since the last 50% sale, I've dreaming for the day when Models Own would do a 50% sale and then I can buy everything I want (well within this reason)


Well, it seems this day has finally come but I am not sure what to think about it, and there is a big IF about it.




That's right. If models own reaches 50,000 fans on Facebook by the end of August, they will hold a 50% sale.The 50% discount voucher will only be made available IF the Models Own Facebook page reaches 50,000 likes by August 31, 2011 (Terms and Conditions here)

Yeah but what if Models Own don't reach their target by the end of the month?


Would I have tweeted and invited my friends and family for nothing? Will the sale happen anyway when they reach 50,000 fans, like Elf Cosmetics do, to reward their followers? They've just reached about 30 minutes ago 30,000 fans. Is it likely that they will reach 20,000 between now and the end of the month?


What do you think? Is the target feasible? Shall I wait to order my stuff or will the 50% sale never happen? I've asked Models Own but they politely replied that they couldn’t comment on the question.

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When makeup recreation goes wrong...

Once upon ages ago, I took part in a makeup challenge with a friend. The idea was to recreate a look from a Mac Cosmetic Promotional Picture. This 'BoomBox' look particularly caught my attention. Not the dog meets sad panda, the arty farty red eyeliner one.





Tonight, I have given up trying to recreate it.







Where do I even begin? bwhahahahahahaahahaha.



Why does it look so pretty on her and absolutely atrocious on me? Well, apart from not having the skills to do it, I think I just don't have the eyelids for it. Or maybe this look is just meant to be shown on closed eyelids and not meant to be worn. I'd give my wage to see the girl with her eyes open to see what the eye makeup looks like…



 


Even my huge and beloved Ardell couldn't lift that look up.
They say practice makes perfect but there are times when it’s good to give up as you realise your idea was totally ludicrous.  This post is dedicated to everyone who, every now and then,
try to bite more than they can chew and make a fool of themselves with makeup :)


When was the last time you made a fool of yourself with makeup?

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Twittascope: the bane of my twitter life. How to stop it

Gone are the days when you browse a magazine to read your horoscope. Well you can still do that but there are modern ways to get your horoscope delivered to you: you can have your horoscope tweeted to you. Sounds like a good idea, no? This is what Twittascope is for. How great would that be, to wake up every morning and to have your horoscope tweeted to you.

What Twittascope really does and how it is perceived by some…


Problem is that in reality it doesn't work like that. What the programme does and what you let the programme do, when you 'subscribe' to the service is to let it tweet on your behalf, and to aaaaaaall your lovely followers the horoscope attached to your personal star sign.

Now my tweets are annoying enough as it is. I tweet way too much for starters, my tweets seem to gravitate mainly about makeup, I participate in a lot of twitter competitions, I am known to have a few rants, my tweets are not always uplifting (any more depressing sometimes and you would want to throw yourself out of the window after reading my tweets) and the list goes on... Now why would I, to top it all off, make things worse and grace my lovely followers with the horoscope predictions about Pisces? How is that tweet relevant to people from other star signs? It isn't relevant and very annoying at best.


The most stupid thing about the design of Twittascope, is that, because the way programme works (Twittascope doesn't send you a direct message with your horoscope or not even a @mention) you don't even see the actual horoscope you actually subscribed to. People subscribed to the service are not actually not aware of the tweets they're posting.


This is the timeline of my friend subscribed to the service. I am not sure where she is at the moment. Have a look at a timeline. If you read it quickly, you could be  forgiven for thinking that she is a bot. 
She’s not.




Now there are more important things that unwanted Twittascope spam I should be worrying about. I am usually OK with Twittascope, I follow so many people and it's hard to keep track of everything which is being tweeted. Every now and then though (and today seems to be one of these days) it's one of these pet peeves which resurface and when ask myself why people would want to subject their twitter followers to Spamoscope.


I am not the only one who is annoyed at Twittascope. And it's such a petty little thing in the grand scheme of twitter things that if you have Twittascope, your followers won't probably bother commenting on it. Today I would like to speak on behalf of all your followers who are also irritated with Twittascope spam and information about your star sign, but who are too polite to comment about it.






Imagine the following scenario. Imagine Twittascope works the way it should work and sends you a direct message every day with your horoscope in there. You have TweetDeck installed and you get a sound notification everytime you get a DM or a @mention. Your TweetDeck beeps, you get all excited and you think ‘oOOo a new tweet, Yaaaaaay’ and then you find out that it was only Twittascope tweeting you. Great :S  


Now imagine you tweet something you feel a bit shy about, or something a bit sensitive.  You feel a bit nervous about how people are going to respond to your tweet. But you take the courage to tweet and do it. Your TweetDeck beeps, and you think ‘OMG, someone has replid’ and then, then THEN, you find out you got all excited for nothing because it was just Twittascope DMing you. Pretty bummed no? You’d be quite tempted to unsubscribe from the service from that unpleasant experience, wouldn’t you?


How to stop Twittascope tweeting on your behalf…


If you have Twittascope and feel concerned that you might cause erm.. discomfort to others and want to stop the subscription of the Twittascope, you can follow these easy steps:


1. Log on to http://www.twitter.com/
2. go to SETTINGS
3. go to APPLICATIONS. What this page will do, is to display all the applications you have authorised to work with your twitter account
4. Scroll down to TWITTASCOPE, and then press REVOKE ACCESS.


Thank you to lovely Kat aka @KittyFairy for the instructions.


So what do you do if you're really annoyed with Twittascope spam? If you mainly use TweetDeck, well you are in luck. You can add 'Twittascope' in your filters and be done with it. If you use web twitter, other than that speaking to the person twittascoping to the risk of ruining a twitter friendship for such a petty matter, there is nothing you can do, other than sucking it up, grin and bear it, and read the spam, day after day after day. Another option you now have is to say: 'OMG have you see this post about Twittascope? *hint* *hint* hope that they will get the hint ;)


Happy tweeting everyone. Peace ^_^


Hey, do you want to read my Twittascope for today? :P

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Reliving the past: A rather unconventional kind of review... on a beauty blog.

This happened a year ago but I am still thinking about it from time to time. One thing led to another, in a conversation with Antoine and Jude on twitter, we were talking about grooming treatments for men, and in particular the hair removal process on men intimate parts of the body (waxing the sack and crack to put it bluntly). From then on, Jude and I were joking about Antoine blogging about the waxing experience and providing some pictures. One thing led to another, and I suddenly remember this episode one year ago:


Think of a beauty blogger who you are following on YouTube for her makeup tutorials and products review. You've been following her for a while, you actually entered a makeup contest she hosted on YouTube, you follow her blog and chat to her on twitter. One day, literally popping up on your dashboard, a rather unconventional review: your beauty blogger accepts to review ... a sex toy.


What do you do? Do you read it? I am no prude girl but this was definitely a review I was not expecting to find on a beauty blog. Imagine you're watching a scary film with someone and that there are bits you just can't bear to watch and hide your head under a pillow and ask when it's safe to watch. I was like that. I just couldn't bring myself to read it and had to ask others to read it for me, to see if it's ok.


It turns out that Kayla's review was very well written, and that {excuse the pun} no demo or swatches were shown. But boy, it took me for ever to read it, as I was stopping every few words, expecting to read the worst. I guess, the anticipation was the worst


I guess I'm going to have to link to the review to you now...


Would you accept to review similar products on your beauty, lifestyle or fashion blog?
Do members of your family read your blog?

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Interlude: What I get up to when I'm upset or bored...

There are hundreds of things I need to blog about. I am really behind with my blogging but tonight I am not in  the best of predispositions to blog. My day was ok, nothing bad happened bad at work. I went to my first class of  Zumba tonight, and let's just say that I was left pretty disappointed, with a deflated self confidence. Even  letting it all out on twitter didn't help.

When I feel a bit under the weather, it's actually doing a little  something for someone and hopefully making them smile which brightens my mood. I find that focusing on someone  else, instead of just myself, helps forget my own miseries, a little bit anyway…





So tonight, even if I have a backlog of emails and hundreds of things to do, I just wanted to play with my paint  shop pro (I can't work with Photoshop to save my life) and do something a little bit creative: a little banner  for my friend Catherine. Her blog is called Perfectly Polished. I think she likes as she has just adopted it :) 


This is the before:




and this is the after:


 


I am still a bit  mift about the whole zumba trauma and probably won't go to one of these zumba classes in  a hurry but I feel a little chirpier.


While I'm showing off, this a simple banner I did for  LouLou’s Blog. The brief was something simple, which goes with the existing background and with flowers and a bit of pink.



 





and this is a little banner/header I did for Miss Lori.
Again, this nothing special, very simple but different. It matches her love of pink, zebra and features one of my favourite pictures of her. I had so  much fun playing around with her banner.








I can't imagine why she didn't pick this one, can you? ;) Love you sweetie xx





Fancy a header for your blog?  I am not the best with taking photos but I can cook up something basic and simple  for you if you don't have a banner/header at all or if you fancy a change. Let me know.

Have you had a good day?

Liloo xx

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A little insight into my life… de A a Z

I don't usually like to write about myself. Isn't that what you're doing in your *god knows how many tweets a day* anyway? I hear you say. True. I also feel my blogposts include enough personal junk and I wouldn't want to add to the bore.


In my small life as a blogger, I've been invited three times to give more facts about myself: The lovely Briony Lou, Carla and Laura (Lil Fairy Doll)  have all tagged me and wanted to know more about me.


Today, I would like to beat the bull, the bullet and the horn while the iron is hot and just do it. Here's a little insight into my life, from A to Z…

	AGE: I'd rather tell you when was the last time I had some action on the sofa/bed rather than telling you my age. I don't do age and I don't celebrate birthdays either. The biggest favour people can do to me is to forget my birthday altogether and I'll love you back :) The look of the cars on the photo above will probably give you an indication of my age ^_^
	BED SIZE: 140x200 cm ha! aka a standard double bed with plenty of pillows.
	CHORE YOU HATE: Changing the duvet cover
	DAY: Wednesday
	ESSENTIAL START TO YOUR DAY: My mini bath of the morning. I don't like showers but I love mini baths
	FAVOURITE COLOUR: I have so many. Favourite colour to wear would be black (not in honour of the Rebecca afore mentioned. A bright fuchsia, lime green would perk me up, I am addicted to orange and purple eyeshadows too.
	GOLD OR SILVER: Gold, gold and definitely gold. I love golden toes, they go with anything and makes me feel like Cleopatra
	HEIGHT: I am very small. I am 158 cm (or 5.2 and a half for all you with the non metric system users
	INSTRUMENTS: Other than blowing my own trumpet at times at times, I play no instrument. I would have loved to play drums though.
	JOB TITLE: Administrative Assistant. Think typical secretary complete with the nail file, the photocopying machine, the tea/coffee round, the fit or not delivering stationery but without the typical secretary attire and makeup: I would mostly be in tracksuit or combat, whatever fits the bum.
	KIDS: Not in a millions years. I'd rather have a cat if I am bored one day
	LIVE: I live in the north west of England, about 1 hour away from Manchester. I spent most of my life in Réunion (next to Mauritius) which explains my frequent moans about the British weather
	MOM’S NAME: She's referred to as 'mother'. We are not very close and don't like each other. I try to keep in touch 3 or 4 times a year.
	NICKNAMES: Frenchie, French fancy, trouble, pain in the bum, lozza,and @tsunimee of course
	OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAYS: None thankfully. Well .. if you don't include that one time when I was a bit drunk. Tequila, never again.
	PET PEEVE: I have millions of pet peeves. The first one which will SPRING to mind, is air conditioning in shops and in trains, when the weather doesn't warrant for it and when I still think it's too cold for it. It is always too cold :)
	QUOTE(S) FROM A MOVIE: "What we do (...) does not define who we are. What defines us is how well we rise after falling" Maid in Manhattan, 2002 'Sorry' does not put Humpty Dumpty back together again’ (I think it's from Collateral, film with Tom Cruise) It's over! This this this twisted, toxic thing between us is finally finished. I'm miraculously done being in love with you. Huh! I've got a life to start living and you're not going to be in it! <-- Can you guess which film it is from?
	RIGHT OR LEFT HANDED: I am naturally left handed but they forced me to write with the right hand at school. So apart from writing, using a pair of scissors and using a computer, I would use the left hand for everything. It's not easy at times to live in a right handed ruled world. The kettle and the way the iron table are positioned in a shared building would be my most common pet peeves (told you I had many of those)
	SIBLINGS: What is this? Family time or something? I have one brother. We don't get on. Probably last time I talked to him was 6 years ago, if that. I don’t “do” family.
	TIME YOU WAKE UP: Too late that's for sure. I need to be at work for 9 everyday. Saturday is bliss and I am never up before noon. I am not a morning person to say the least.
	UNDERWEAR: You perv! Are you sure you really want to know? I got a preference for black underwear. Cannot bear visible panty line. I hate normal knickers and when the way the fabric goes and dislodged itself within minutes in between my bum cheeks. This is why I have been wearing g strings for as long as I can remember
	VEGETABLES YOU DISLIKE: celery, celery and celery.
	WHAT MAKES YOU RUN LATE?: I don't understand that question. Twitter on my phone is the number one distraction in the morning which would make run late for work? (is that what was the question asked)
	X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: I had a x ray once. My hips. One is higher than other. Not a big deal. I sometimes suffer from bad back. Would you believe I was prescribed to wear heels to balance that problem. I don't mind that :)
	YUMMY FOOD YOU MAKE: I am ashamed to say that I can't cook to save my life. I don't even enjoy my own cup of coffee. I do make a good cheese on toast.
	ZOO: Would you believe I've never been to the zoo. I’ve clearly missed out on life.

Sources: Like this funky alphabet?
The artist who came up with this genius light lettering is called David Airey:


I would like to tag all of you my dear readers. If you wish to do it, send me a link to your post so I don't miss it. I've uploaded a blank version of this tag here for your convenience :)
Thank you for reading. Have you guessed the origin of the third quote? It's also a movie ...

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