THE Nude Lipliner - Charlotte Tilbury Lip cheat in Pillow Talk

Why is it whenever someone mentions 'Pillowtalk' I immediately go between singing a few words from the Zayn song, and rushing to see if they pull out this glorious lip pencil from Charlotte Tilbury.. is that weird? Sure, pillow talk is meant to be the secretive, sometimes laden talk between couples as they lay side by side in bed, and perhaps this Charlotte Tilbury number is meant to reflect the plumpness of lips that can happen after multiple kisses? I suppose I can theorise all day about where names come from, and their inspiration, but just know this: this stuff lasts. I was scrubbing it off my arm in the swatch, so you can only imagine how long it lasts whilst on the lips.

Pillow Talk is one of those shades that's super close to the natural lip colour, so it can be used to over exaggerate the lip line, to create added fullness, or balance out uneven lips. One side of my lips is rounder than the other, so when I do wear lipstick, I do like to try and balance it out, but it's not always possible. Deep reds and bright colours tend to draw attention to an overdrawn lipline, but it's not such a big thing anymore. I'll say this, Kylie Jenner really brought lipliner back into the forefront of social culture, but it's been something that our mothers and grandmothers did for many years before. Lip lining never went away. Much like contouring, these beauty tricks come in waves, crashing back over us as 'new trend' when makeup artists and drag queens have been using them for years.

It's a pinky-nude, more brown than another one of my favourite lipliners, Rimmel's Eastend Snob, and a bit more long lasting. Lip Cheat's are waterproof, paraben free and last for up to six hours with minimal drying and discomfort. The lip cheat's formula tends to glide more than most lipliners, as a lot tend to be so dry that they drag across the lip, and Pillow Talk just doesn't do that.

As Charlotte says herself, these Lip Cheats will help you 'cheat your way to the perfect lip', and if you've seen her tutorials, then you'll know that Pillow Talk is one of her go-to's for most nude lip looks, or when she just wants to enhance the shape of the mouth. It's £16, and I bought it from my local John Lewis. Trust me, you want to go and try this out, if not for the formula and delightful packaging, then go for the response that this makeup gets from older women. In my Cardiff store, a lady exclaimed that she loved the look of everything, especially the packaging of the Beach Stick Blushers, which reminded her of a Pan Stick so much, that she was determined to buy it. I love that it brought back so memory and fondness; that's what makeup should be about. Enhancing the good and concealing the bad.



Pillow Talk is one for all ages, and all skin tones. Trust me, you need to check it out. Get the Charlotte Tilbury staple from John Lewis, Selfridges or Charlotte Tilbury herself (here).

Next on my Charlotte Tilbury wish list: Pillow Talk Matte lipstick and The Complete Natural Glowing Look which features a selection of products.

Celebrating Australia Day with Jurlique

Not just the land of kangaroos, spiders bigger than my face and Vegemite, Australia is home to one of my favourite skincare brands of the past few years: Jurlique. If you've scrolled through here a few times then you'll know that I'm just a little bit obsessed with Jurlique. Their products are divine. The scents, formulas and results are all something I can only associate with Jurlique.



Skincare favourites include: Skin Balancing Face Oil, Antioxident Face Oil, Rosewater Balancing Mist and Antioxident Face Serum. 

To top it all off, Jurlique are celebrating Australia Day right in the heart of London, in their flagship store (which looks so beautiful and instagrammable). An event based solely around their natural based skincare, there will be demonstrations about how to get the best glow from a facial, as well as complimentary Express Treatments in their very own Nature's Spa. It sounds like a divine night, and with some of my favourite scents like rose and citrus, the event will be a relaxing, informative night where fans can learn about how to get the best from their skin. Trust me, if there's something that Jurlique knows all about, it's skincare.



I'll include the link to buy tickets to their event, which is of course redeemable against any purchase made in their store on that evening. The tickets are £5, and for what will be a delightful evening, surrounded by natural ingredients from the Adelaide Hills, this is something that should not be missed. Pop over here to buy tickets to the event on Thursday the 26th of January.

Featured products include: Rosewater Balancing Mist Intense, Aromatherapy Mist - Revitalising and Balancing, Rose Love Balm, Herbal Recovery Antioxidant Face Oil.

My not-so new resolutions

Hiiiiiii.... yes, I still exist. I swear I do tweet and Instagram, but blogging, actually blogging has evaded me for a long time. I just.... didn't really want to do it. Of course I still love blogging. I love the photography aspects of it, the setting up of products so that they look their best and doing my best to capture it. I love the writing, as I've always loved writing. But it was the feeling of being small in the blogging world, which never usually bothers me, combined with a new bout of anxiety and panic attacks. I've never had a feeling like it. 

The instant sweating sensation.. the feeling of someone standing on my chest, shortness of breath, dizziness... it drains all the colour from my face and makes me so light headed that I usually have to lean against something until I'm okay again. My living situation really brought it out, and made me feel totally worthless as a person. I questioned myself, my job and whether I was strong enough to live away from home, by myself. It was ugly and I haven't felt so low about myself for a long, long time.

But with age, comes some perspective, and spending time away with my family has really shown me that I can handle this. I can be strong, happy and not be afraid to talk about things. Of course my boyfriend has played a big role in helping me get better from where I was. It's easy to lie to people, flash a smile and laugh - 'nothing's wrong, why would you ask?'. It's a lot harder to keep lying to people that know you better than you know yourself. 

My parents were quite upset, and that's not really something I see a lot. My dad said it the best, I think. 'You don't do your blogging anymore, and you loved that, why are you letting those horrible people (he said something worse, but let's be PG for the sake of this) affect you, and bring you down?'. He was right. Why was I letting it affect me so much? A terrible situation for me, is not where near as bad as other people, so why not be stronger and overcome it? I suppose that's what this is. A post that breaks the proverbial ice and allows me to sink back into the blog that I loved so so much. 

I hope you're still reading this, and I hope that you know how much I love and appreciate you for getting to this point with me. I aspire to be better, both mentally and physically. I want to be stronger, so that I can help myself and others when times are bad. 

This is my resolution, to be stronger both for myself and for those that cannot be. We must all help each others against those that pull us down, degrade us and tell us we're not good enough. We must fight back against those that intimidate and disrespect us. We must fight to have better mental health, as what's better than being happy with both body and soul?