Dermalogica Skin Care

Hey sugars,

So far I have been really lucky with my skin and have managed to steer clear of the dreaded spots!
But now for whatever reason I have been struck down with blemishes!!

Some people may think I'm being a tad dramatic as I'm not talking big white heads that look like second heads! Its basically small pimples that are under the skin which cover my forehead and the sides of my face :( But fear not.....I have found an answer to my problems!

Dermalogica.....I have been a huge fan of their products for about twelve years, when I trained as a beauty therapist I used them as part of my course and then took the product range on when I set up a beauty room! In my bid to be money conscious I have tried many budget skin care items as I'm a firm believer that you don't have to spend lots of money to get the best! This being said I have not actually found anything that matches Dermalogica so I relented and spent the money in the hope that my old skin will grace me with its presence once again!

 These are my two favourite products from Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel (250ml - £25.50) and Daily Microfoliant (75g - £38.50)

Special Cleansing Gel - A soap-free, foaming gel which cleanses the skin and removes all traces of dirt and make up. I use a small amount of the gel on damp skin twice and it leaves the skin feeling squeaky clean!

Daily Microfoliant - Is a Rice-based enzyme powder which exfoliates leaving the skin instantly smoother and brighter. I use a small amount of the powder on damp skin and massage on the skin for a minute and rinse with clean water. I love this product and have never found another exfoliator like it!

The great thing about their products is that they are all colour and fragrance free so there are no nasties for your skin to deal with! I know these products may seem expensive but with the amount you actually need to use they will last you ages!

Since using them again I have noticed my skin has improved loads so hopefully it will be back to normal in no time!

What are your favourite skin care products? Have you tried Dermalogica? If so which products did you like best?

Stay Gorgeous (and spot free!!)

Grace xoxo

My Final Piece.....The Flmonktin!!

As most of you will know I have just completed my Theatrical and Media Make Up course. This is part of the reason I have been a bit MIA recently as with all courses I had my final pieces to get together amongst other stuff!

Well I thought I would share my final piece with you! This was also my entry for UK Skills which is the biggest industry competition in the UK. My design made to as a reserve!
The theme was Golden Oldies.....Couldn't really be more vague! I decided to go with an old film and chose The Wizard of Oz and chose to make a mash up of The Flying Monkey, The Tin Man and a bit of glitter for Dorothy! Mixing these together (and someone else's random thinking) brought the name "The Flmonktin"!

And here it is.....

 It is slightly random and definitely not an every day make up!! But being that It had to involve imagination, prosthetics and a bald cap, I'm pretty sure it ticked all the boxes and I'm really happy with the final result!

Its hard to believe that my gorgeous friend Camilla is under all that paint!

So much effort went in to this piece and it took a few weeks of preparation as I had to face cast, make the prosthetics and the costume before we could even start applying stuff to the body!

What do you think?

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Vivo Lacquer Shine Lip Gloss

Vivo Cosmetics very kindly sent me some of their new Lacquer Shine Lipgloss to try out recently and it didn't disappoint!

They have launched eight shades for the summer all priced at a bargainous £1.99 each. They have aimed to produce a non sticky formula that has a vinyl like finish to give a plumped up look to the lips. The applicator brush is really soft and spreads the gloss on nice and evenly.

 These are Spiritual and Fire

 The colours are very dense and glossy

 Fire is a vivid orange, perfect for the summer!

 Spiritual looks quite dark in the tube but actually on the lips its a pinky nude shade 

The gloss feels really nice on the lips and actually lives up to the non sticky claim, I love that the colour is full and not wishy washy a many glosses are. With eight shades for you to choose from there will be a shade to suit everyone.

Vivo is available at Tesco stores or directly from their website at www.vivocosmetics.co.uk

What do you think? Will you trying these out?

Stay gorgeous

Grace xoxo

EOS Lip Balm

You may have seen the EOS Lip Balms in you tube videos and blog posts from the beauty girls from across the pond.

EOS stands for Evolution Of Smooth, they have many products including the Sphere Lip Balm.

It is a clear sphere shaped lip conditioner which is Phthalate, Petrolatum and Paraben free. It contains Shea butter and Vitamin E which gives long lasting moisture to the lips! They come in six flavours, Summer fruit, Lemon Drop, Strawberry sorbet, Honeysuckle Honeydew, Medicated Tangerine and Sweet mint.

Over here in the UK I don't know of any where other than online that you can get this product, and even then you normally have to pay more in postage than you do for the actual lip balm!

Well I got one on eBay and then another one for my birthday, I have them in Lemon drop and Sweet mint and I love them! I really like the way the are packaged, and they make my lips feel super soft and that feeling last for ages! I would definitely recommend them to everyone!

The sphere shaped balm glides on to the lips perfectly leaving them feeling super smooth! 

I definitely think these are my new hand bag essential! One warning...You do get odd looks when you get it out of your bag, one person said to me they thought it was an egg!!??

Have you ever tried these lip balms? What did you think? 

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Going For Gold!

Hey Loves,

I have been very lucky and have been sent the brand new Limited edition palette from MUA....It has been launched to help celebrate this years Olympics!

As always it delivers ten highly pigmented colours, they are all metallics so perfect for glam evening looks. There a a few different golds in the palette which will be great for those balmy summer evenings (if we ever get any!!)

 You may also notice that they are now displayed in square pans! (please excuse the slightly blurred pic below!)

 The colours are gorgeously shimmery and even with the glitter there are colours that are great for an every day look,

Then you can glam it up for the evening with these amazingly rich tones!

This is a fab palette to have in your make up bag especially being priced at just £4.00!! It will be available from MUA's website and superdrug on July 4th!

What do you think of the colours? Will you be buying the Going for Gold palette?

Stay Gorgeous

Grace xoxo

Stay in touch!

Hey lovelies,

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that reads my blog.  Its so great to see that people are following my posts. I really appreciate your comments and I try and make sure I reply when you do.

I just wanted to do a really quick post to let you know the ways you can keep up with what I'm doing.

For those of you who don't know I have a YouTube channel with Hair, Make-up and nail tutorials so please take a look and subscribe if you like it! You can either click the logo to your right or you can follow this link
http://www.youtube.com/pamperedbygrace
Dont forget to hit the like button if you enjoy the videos.

For the twitterista's out there you can follow me on Twitter

I also have a "like" page on facebook

I always love to hear your comments and requests, and if you ever have any questions please feel free to get in contact.

Stay gorgeous

Grace x

A little hello....

Hey sugars,

I just wanted to pop a quick post up to say hi and let you all know why I have been a little MIA recently!

Life has been manic and and when I say manic, I actually mean ridiculous!! As most of you know I went back to college in September to study Theatrical and Media Make Up. The course is coming to an end and I have had some final pieces to do and a huge piece of course work to get done too! I do see a light at the end of the tunnel though so that is good but also scary at the same time! I have been in the beauty, hair and make up industry for ten years but have mainly specialised in wedding and fashion make up, so now I am taking it that step further and trying to break into the TV and media side of it too!

Along with all the college work I have also been trying to network, build my portfolio and find out about different jobs......This in itself is a full time job!

I have a couple of things that I have applied for one of which would see me making the move to London which would be really exciting! I will keep you posted.  I also have a couple of really exciting assisting jobs lined up over the next week or so (I will tell you more once I've done them!).

I really love my blog and my YouTube and have really missed not being able to do anything over the past month, but I promise I will resume normal practice as soon as possible! I also wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all my readers and subscribers, with out your love and support my little blog wouldn't be where it is!

I hope you are all well and loving the sunshine!
Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Stay gorgeous

Grace xoxo