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Beauty and the Best of the Rest

~ A lot of beauty and a little bit of everything else

Beauty and the Best of the Rest

Tag Archives: Glasgow

Mary Kay Press Event in Glasgow

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in Beauty, Glasgow, Make up, Makeup, review, Reviews, Shopping, Skincare

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Tags

40% discount, beauty blotter oil absorbing tissues, blotting wipes, cleanser, cosmetics, custom palette, exfoliating cleanser, EyeCandy professional make-up, face brush, free gift, Glasgow, good eye make-up remover, lash love mascara review, Lynne Mills, Mary Kay, Mary Kay Compact Pro, Mary Kay Men, Mary Kay Press Event, Mary Kay review, nail lacquer, oil-free eye makeup remover, press event, review, semi-matte lipstick, Skincare, skinvigorate, skinvigorate review, time 3-in-1 cleanser, translucent powder, true dimensions lipstick

Recently I got to go along to a Mary Kay Press Event in Glasgow. It was at the gorgeous Blythswood Hotel in a nice little bar which we had all to ourselves for the event. We got to wander around and try the products placed on tables around the room and ask the Mary Kay staff everything from how the brand began to what their latest products were. Below are some images that give just a hint of the range that Mary Kay has to offer. There is also some interesting information about the brand at the bottom of this post.
Table Pic (2) DSC_0943 (1) DSC_0946 DSC_0944 Mens (1) 20141028_174846 20141028_181414

I got to put together my own palette too!

20141028_174955 20141028_175009My palette wasn’t the only thing that I got to take home with me, Mary Kay were very generous.
20141103_155034 20141103_160440 20141103_161214 20141103_161455 You can buy and create your own custom Mary Kay palette. I still have space in mine and I’m thinking that I will include some brushes and maybe some of my own make-up like eye-liner.                                                                                                               Compact Pro (Empty) Palette : £12.50

20141103_163508I tried to pick my favourite product from my Mary Kay haul and I just couldn’t, everything I’ve tried is really good, but I have 3 products which I love and that I am already using everyday. The skinvigorate brush is one of them. To use it you wet your face, apply a cleanser ( I recently converted to cream cleansers and now there is no going back) I’ve used this brush with the Mary Kay Timewise 3-in-1 cleanser(more about that below) and with my own Elemis cleanser and it works great with both. I’m continuing to use it with the Elemis one just now as I like to use all of a product before moving on to the next one. I’ve used it morning and night for 3 days and I’m already much happier with my skin. Anyway back to how use it: wet your face and the brush, apply cleanser and then use the brush in a circular motion for 15 seconds on each area of your face (forehead, nose, cheeks and chin – don’t use it too close to your eyes where the skin is delicate) The brush has a pleasantly odd sensation which I find quite relaxing. I find a light touch works best as, if you apply too much pressure it can feel a bit like the brush is dragging your skin but if you hold it lightly enough it gently buffs and polishes your skin and leaves it looking and feeling great.20141103_163526 It even comes with batteries included and a replacement brush head (it’s recommended that you change the brush head every 3 months so I will have to pick up some more of those.) The only negative thing I have to say about the brush is that I had to wrestle a little bit to take the bottom of the brush off. I did eventually manage to take it off myself (to insert the batteries)- I’m not sure If my own model was particularly stiff or if it is the same story with all of the brushes but either way it is really not much of an issue and the excellent results are well worth this small hassle.                                     Skinvigorate Cleansing Brush: £35.00

20141103_161607 My second love is this Mary Kay mascara, I actually got one of these in a Glossybox a while back and hadn’t tried it yet ( I told you a like to finish a product before moving on to the next) Anyway I have tried this now and I LOVE it. The finished result is amazing. I’ll need to do a separate post on good mascaras because I have a few that I like but I think this one might be number one.                                                                       

Lash Love Mascara: £16:00

20141103_163318 20141103_163231 True Dimensions Lipstick: £14.0020141103_161949 Semi-matte Lipstick: £12.00

20141103_162736Beauty Blotter Oil Absorbing Tissues: £5.5020141103_161825 Translucent Powder: £18.0020141103_163002 Nail Lacquer: £9.0020141103_162400 The cleanser above is a good choice particularly if you want a cleanser which also exfoliates as it contains little exfoliation beads which do a very good job. This will be a weekend cleanser for me as I can be quite rushed in the morning and when I have used exfoliating cleansers like this in the past I end up finding/feeling exfoliation beads when I am doing my make-up for work, apparently I never manage to wash them all off. I will treat my skin to this on weekends when I have time to make sure it is all properly washed off and it will make a nice little addition to my routine.                                    

Timewise 3-in-1 Cleanser: £20.0020141103_162625This eye make-up remover is my 3rd love. It takes my make-up off effortlessly and works so well that instead of waiting for my Simple eye make-up remover to run out I have just ditched it as I think the Mary Kay one works much better.                              

Oil-Free Make-Up Remover: £13.00

After trying their products I’m impressed with Mary Kay and know I will make future purchases from them. If you want to purchase Mary Kay products too there are a few ways to do this, Mary Kay has 3 million beauty consultants worldwide in over 35 countries. The beauty consultants offer a try before you buy service and let’s face it buying make-up without trying it before hand is just a gamble and  the reason why I have so many full bottles of foundation gathering dust. 

Speaking of foundation, Mary Kay cater to all ethnicities and age groups with all of their cosmetic and skin care products so you should be able to find exactly what you need and stop adding to your dust gathering collection of bottles and tubes.

To find out who is your nearest Mary Kay beauty consultant or to buy Mary Kay products online visit www.markykay.co.uk, now is a good time visit as I spotted some free gift offers today.

Thank you to the team at Mary Kay for all of my great products and answering all of my questions ( the start-up story was particularly interesting, if you want to know the story it’s on the Mary Kay website along with details of how you can become a Mary Kay consultant – they get a 40% discount by the way)

Thanks also to Lauren at Pure PR for letting me attend at short notice.

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

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Perfect Gifts and Interiors, Glasgow

29 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in Christmas, Creative, Decor, gift ideas, gifts, Inspiration, Jewellery, Shopping

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Tags

chic, Christmas Decorations, gift inspiration, gifts for new parents, gifts for newlyweds, Glasgow, housewarming gifts, Launch, modern, Perfect Gifts, Perfect Gifts and Interiors, Stockwell street, unique, unusual

So last week Glasgow gained a cool new store. Perfect Gifts and Interiors opened up on Stockwell street and I went along to their launch night to check it out.

I’ll just say right now that if you go, even with a few pounds in your purse, you will want to buy something and it will be something that you probably won’t find anywhere else in Glasgow.

No prizes for guessing what Perfect Gifts and Interiors sell, (gifts and interiors) but if you like modern, cute and funky products then you will really think that they are perfect. 

They are also quite inspiring, there are lots of gifts and interiors aimed at newly weds, new parents, people in new homes that are just right on mark and at the moment there are also many chic and unusual Christmas decorations and gifts. 

I took so many photos at the Perfect Gifts and Interiors launch night of cool products that caught my eye so I have just added them all below to give you an idea of the type of range you will find.

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There really are so many lovely products and gift ideas and I was lucky enough to take some home with me in a goody-bag. We also bought two items to give as Christmas gifts so obviously I think Perfect Gifts and Interiors is worth a visit when you are doing your Christmas shopping. You can see what I took home with me below:

20141025_193847

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

 

 

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Currys in the Kitchen Glasgow Blogger Bake-off

17 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in Baking, Blogging, Food, Glasgow, Scotland

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Tags

Bake-off, baking tips, bloggers, Currys, Currys in the kitchen, Food mixers, Glasgow, Glasgow bloggers, Joes Bloggers, Kenwood, Kmix, scottish bloggers, The Cookers School

On Sunday I went along to the Currys in the Kitchen Glasgow Blogger bake-off which was held at The Cookery School in the Jacobean Corsetry Building in Glasgow. The event was organised by Joe Blogs Network on behalf of Currys.

I’m no baker, in fact nothing kitchen related is my forte, so I was a bit nervous about going but I thought it would be fun all the same and it was 🙂 There were a lot of bloggers there so it good day for meeting other Scottish bloggers.

Group ShotImage courtesy of Joe Blogs Network

Once we had all arrived we split into teams of three to bake. I teamed up with Lynne and Paula who were both lovely, you can check out their blogs here and here. We tried our best but none of us were up-tight about creating masterpieces so we had a lot of fun.

Although we weren’t expecting to create masterpieces, the chef from The Cookery School, Danny McArdle  taught us well and demonstrated everything very clearly so I surprised myself by creating some cakes that I was actually proud to take home.

_MG_8205

Image courtesy of Joe Blogs Network

Danny showed us how to bake scones, cupcakes, muffins and a Victoria sponge:

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Danny also gave us a great tip for adding filling to small cakes like cupcakes. Use a tooth pick to make a small hole in the cake and twist until you it is big enough to insert the filing using an icing bag.

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Toothpicks are also really handy when it comes to decorating too:

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When we weren’t baking we were eating, so I can’t tell you which part of the day was most fun. We got to eat one of our scones with some tea and then later we had lunch, I had a lovely soup which I scoffed before I thought to take a picture of it (blogger fail I know) and then we were offered raspberry panna cotta’s.

20141012_125013 20141012_140019

After we had made all of our bakes it was time to box them up: 

20141012_152807

I took a nice full box of cakes home as you can see. See that cupcake with the butterflies on it? I originally tried to make that a halloween cupcake which was topped with white chocolate and had the word ‘Boo’ written on it in milk chocolate but I messed it up quite a bit. This wasn’t too much of a problem as I just used a toothpick to swirl the 2 chocolates together to create a new design and hide my mistake. My top baking tip? Keep a toothpick handy. They can be used for everything from making it easier to fill cakes, decorating and disguising mistakes.

Once our cakes were boxed up it was time to find out who had won the competitions of the day (best baking tip in a tweet and best instagram pic)

Congratulations to the winners who won Kenwood Patissier Food Mixers

_MG_8286

The blogger on the left is Charlotte who was seated at the same table as me during lunch. She’s really nice and has a cool blog – coloursandcarousels 

The rest of us didn’t leave empty handed either, in addition to our bakes we also got to take home great goody-bags:

20141015_225716

I couldn’t believe we were all given Kenwood Kmix’s from Currys. Since I got that, a nice little recipe book and I learned a lot about baking on Sunday I’ll definitely be spending this weekend in the kitchen 🙂

If you bake too or if like me you want to start and you want some funky kit then check out Currys kitch range at http://www.currys.co.uk/

Thanks to Joe Blogs Network, Currys and The Cookery School for a great day!

If you want to find out more about the day or read posts from some other bloggers who were there then check out #currysinthekitchen on twitter or visit  http://techtalk.currys.co.uk/cooking-home-appliances/bloggers-bake-off-the-cookery-school-glasgow/

 

 

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I’m dreaming of a Lush Christmas – Lush 2014 Christmas Range Event, Braehead

05 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in advent, Beauty, Christmas, Glasgow, Halloween, Shopping, Skincare

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Tags

Bath Bombs, bath melts, Blogger Event, bonfire night, Book, Christmas, Christmas launch, Dashing Santa, Dragon's Egg, face masks, fireworks, Glasgow, Halloween, Holly Golightly, Lush, Lush 12 Days of christmas Advent calender, Lush Braehead, Magic Wand, massage bars, Northern Lights, porducts, Reindeer rock, shoot for the stars, snow cake, soap, Sparklers, Sparkly pumpkin, The Christmas Hedgehog, wizard, yog nog

I was one of the lucky bloggers who were invited to the Lush Braehead Christmas range unveiling event and I can tell you that Lush has you covered (in sparkles, glitter and amazing scents) this Christmas.

lush tree

 

They also have you covered for Halloween with a really cool chic little range that you will be both excited and reluctant to use. Excited because these products smell amazing, reluctant because the look so cute that you might be tempted to use them as ornaments rather than bathing products. 

lush collage 1

In fact, there is a lush product for every occasion… even Bonfire Night.

20141003_175954

 But let’s get back to Christmas and the launch event, I’ll start at the beginning- when I first walked into Lush Braehead I was directed to the treat table:20141003_175841And then I had 5 minutes or so to wander around the store and take pictures of anything that took my fancy before the event started:

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20141003_180116 20141003_180134 20141003_180455

Once all of the bloggers had arrived we had a fun little ice-breaker event where we introduced ourselves and our blogs and told everyone our favourite thing about Christmas (my favourite Christmas thing is surprises but food was a very big theme with a lot of the other bloggers) We were then split into 3 groups and my group visited the Christmas bath bombs, melts and bubble bars first:

20141003_184356

 The Christmas Hedgehog Bubble Bar

20141003_182951

20141003_183157_4 Father Christmas Bath Bomb

20141003_175930

20141003_182249 20141003_182302 Golden Wonder Bath Bomb

20141003_180341

Snow Angel Bath Melt

20141003_180355

Dashing Santa

20141003_184948 20141003_185027 20141003_184858

Holly Golightly Bubble Bar

After bath bombs we were shown all of the new shower gels:

20141003_180448 20141003_180430

 There a few more including Snow Fairy but my camera was low on battery at this point so I had to save some for the soaps. Don’t worry, the link to the Full Lush Christmas Range is at the bottom of this post.

 We were then shown the amazing and eye-catching array of Christmas soaps:

20141003_191354

 Reindeer Rock

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 Baked Alaska

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Fairy Ring

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Snowcake

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Yog Nog

Then, after a quick hand and arm massage using the massage bars below, we had time for a spot of shopping.

20141003_180651

 

The one thing I couldn’t leave the store without buying?

20141004_230710

This reindeer rock soap smells wonderful, it’s made from a dried lingonberry infusion that I just love the smell of so much. I think it has beaten rock star soap to be my new favourite.

Thanks to the team at Lush Braehead providing us lucky bloggers with goody-bags the reindeer rock soap wasn’t the only product that I took home with me:

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Thanks Lush!

So which lush product will be at the top of my Christmas wishlist? Well I saved the best until last:

20141003_193348 20141003_193404

The Lush 12 Days of Christmas Book is definitely at the top of my list!

This post has just been a snapshot of the lush Christmas range, they are bursting to the seems with new products and I couldn’t fit them all in but luckily the lush website can. Go discover all the amazing Lush Christmas products at https://www.lush.co.uk/products/christmas or pop into your local Lush store.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest Lush Braehead happenings? It’s easy, just visit them at: 

20141003_195024

 

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Why it is Dangerous to accept Gifts in Scotland

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by masquerade21 in News, Scotland

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Bizarre, cautionary tale, gift contracts, gifts, Glasgow, gold diggers, Homer Simpson, Law, Ned Flanders, odd, presumption against gift, Rinsers, Scottish law, STV, the dangerous of receiving gifts, the dangers of rinsing, unusual, you can be sued for accepting a gift

MH900446460

So yesterday I came across this article from STV about a wealthy man suing an ex-girlfriend for the cost of a designer handbag and a designer pair of shoes. Basically the man said the arrangement was a loan and he expected to be paid back and the woman claimed that they were a gift (although she had signed an agreement to pay the man back) Make what you will of the article but the article itself is not actually what interests me.

From reading the article I gathered that in Scottish law it is up to the recipient of a gift to prove that what they have received was in fact a gift, in other words if someone gives you a gift and then later claims it was a loan and takes you to court to sue you, unless you have proof that it was a gift you will have to pay them back. I have looked into this and it’s true, in Scot’s law there is a presumption against gifts.

I am the only one who thinks this is a bit unfair? Also, it’s not really the type of information that you are likely to know without looking it up.

So do we now need gift contracts? Have you ever made anyone sign a statement agreeing that a gift they have given you is a gift…I’ve never seen that happen at a birthday party.

You should be wary of getting into relationships with gift givers. If you’re new boyfriend or girlfriend treats you to a romantic weekend in Paris you may have to them pay them back for it.

I guess there is a silver lining, people who get ‘rinsed’ can now get their stuff back when they realise what has happened and people who loan each other money or items  and then don’t get their stuff back can sue eachother. Imagine how much stuff Ned Flanders could claim from Homer if they were real and lived in Scotland?

So what if your neighbour gives you their old lawn mower because they have bought a new one? Or someone treats you to a weekend away? or a wealthy relative pays your school fees? Or your parents buy you a car?

My advice would be to not accept anything that you can’t afford to pay back because at some point down the line you may well end up having to pay for it. Either refuse or at least have a pen and paper handy next time you are lucky or unlucky enough to be given a gift. I might make sure any future benefactors (not that I expect to have any) are recorded on video stating that they are giving me X,Y,Z as a gift.

Gone are the days of no take-backsies.

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂 I would love to know your thoughts on this so please comment x

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Dower & Hall – For when it needs to be special

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by masquerade21 in Fashion, review, Shopping

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

bespoke, bloggers, bracelets, British, Celebrity, charms, chintz, Designer, Dower and Hall, engagement, event, Fashion, feather, Glasgow, gold, hearts, Inspiration, James Bond, jewel, jewellery, Judi Dench, Kasabian, lockets, M, pearls, pendants, Press day, rings, severine, shopping, silver, spiral, unique

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the Dower and Hall Press Day in Glasgow. I was absolutely thrilled to get an invitation, especially since most of the press invitations I get are for events in London which isn’t even in the country I live in. When I received this one and a) it was from Dower & Hall and b) it was in Glasgow, there was just no question about whether or not I would attend.

The Glasgow Dower & Hall store is tucked away on the first floor of the lovely Princes Square shopping centre. Princes Square is a gorgeous little shopping centre which is full of luxury stores. I normally only go there to wander around window shopping so this time it was actually quite nice to go in with some purpose and walk straight into a store.

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I was actually the first one to get there and this was my first time attending a press day so I was quite nervous and as at first it was only me and the store staff I felt a little awkward. That didn’t last long though as the Dower and Hall team were all really friendly and soon I was chatting away to Dan Dower.

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Now before I even tell you about  Dower & Hall jewellery or review the lovely piece that I was gifted, I will tell you the main reason why you should go there if you ever want something special. Dan. Dan is the reason. He is one of those rare and lucky people who love their job. And what does he love most about his job? Turning an idea from your imagination into a real, beautiful and one of a kind piece of jewellery. He showed me some images of  bespoke pieces that he had created and they were all really lovely. If you commision a bespoke piece he will really go above and beyond for you. He even goes so far as to cast the pieces in silver and then plate them in gold or whatever the client wants and set them with cubic zirconia instead of diamonds just so you can wear the piece and say ‘yes I want it like this’ or ‘please change this and make it x’ so you always know that the finished piece will be exactly as you imgained it. Dan showed me some beautiful images of the pieces he has created in the past but unfortunately I don’t have them to show you.

I can however show you one of the members of Kasabian wearing a  feather pendant that they commisioned from Dan and also Judi Dench wearing Dower and Hall pearls in the latest James Bond film Skyfall:

Celebrities seen recently in Dower & Hall_Kasabian _

Judi Dench

To be totally honest, Dower & Hall is a bit out of my price range, my budget only allows costume jewellery at the moment but now that I have met Dan and seen his passion for what he does and heard him describe how he really wants to create exactly what clients want and imagine, I am sure that I will be seeking him out for the one piece of jewellery that I will want to be unique, my wedding band (not that this is on the cards at the moment) So, if any of you would like to have your own unique piece of jewellery created, you know who I would recommend.

Here are a few of my favourite pieces that are on sale at Dower & Hall at the moment :

collage

collage

Would you like to see the lovely gift I received? Here it is:

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To see what else Dower & Hall have to offer visit : http://www.dowerandhall.com/

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

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