Sleeping Beauty Salon Event

Last week I was kindly invited to the Sleeping Beauty Salon in the West End of Edinburgh for a one year anniversary celebration involving cupcakes, cocktails and free treatments. I was quite excited, so asked to get off work early that day and had to rush down for the 6pm start, but managed to get there shortly after. I met up with the lovely Hayley and Abby beforehand and then wandered along Princes Street and down to William Street where the salon is located. It's pretty close to the centre, so it really wasn't difficult to find!

We were greeted with friendly faces, offered cupcakes as well and cocktails (which were were made by a mixologist there and then!) and were met with the inviting aroma of the salon itself, which smelled amazing btw. We were given a brief talk through of the treatments available, which ranged from manis and pedis, eyebrow waxing / threading and a choice of party lashes! I instantly knew I would opt for a manicure, and given that I had just taken shellac off of my nails, they desperately needed some attention. I chose a lovely mint green - surprise surprise - and had them re-shellac'd. The colour is beautiful, and is still lasting away relatively chip free. The power of shellac! I then enjoyed some more cocktails, a peach mojito to be precise, and chatted away some of the other girls there all the while munching on yet more cupcakes.

The salon itself was quite surprising, usually when you think of beauty salons you think of sparkles and glitter and generally all things super girly, which doesn't really appeal to me too much. However the interior was so pretty and calming, which is more of what I'd like to see in other salons, it made me feel a bit more at ease with the treatments going on. After getting my eyebrows waxed, for the first time I might add, I was so impressed by the staff and the atmosphere that I have actually booked a one hour massage for August!

I had a really good time there, and I'm quite looking forward to going back again. They have a few different salons scattered around, so if you're ever in the need for a pamper, I would definitely recommend them. We were given a lovely little goody bag to take away too, which had some Elemis products, St Tropez tanning mouse, as well as candles, chocolates and other little bits and bobs. A big thank you to Sleeping Beauty Salon for hosting and to Alison Jameson Consultants for organising and inviting me and other people along, I really enjoyed myself.

Love,

Kirsty.

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Oh hey, Benefit Push Up Liner!

When June 28th rolled around, I knew I was going out to buy one thing, Benefit's Push Up Liner, from the 'They're Real' range. I remember when I heard about this launching and thought that it was a pretty genius idea, knowing that I adore gel liner pots, I knew this would be perfect for me. After searching for some product reviews, I inevitably found some kicking around from some of the bigger bloggers who had received the product early to test before it was launched. Also, sorry for the use of "bigger bloggers", I couldn't think of a better way to describe them, but we all know who gets to test every new product before launch anyway.

After reading the glowing reviews from these blogs, I knew that this was a product for me. A gel liner in a handy little push up pen, with a flexible nib that allows the liner to hug close to your lash line? It sounds perfect. So on my lunch from work, I wandered over to Boots and to the Benefit counter, where the girl on the counter was amazingly nice and sold me my nice new gel liner and also a free sample of the They're Real Remover. I went back to work totally chuffed that this was going to revolutionise my make up routine and I wouldn't have to worry about using those little pots of black gel goodness any more, I had a perfect new replacement.

I opened up the liner and pulled out the little orange stopper thing and began twisting, slowly, to see the product come out. I was must have done about ten twists and nothing had happened yet, which I thought was a little odd. I was scared in case I twisted to far and it shot out all at once, but nope, twenty odd twists later, and still no product. I must have twisted that bottom bit at least forty times before I noticed the tiniest bit of product come out. Better late than never, eh? I took my usual position, using my other hand to hold my eyelid gently, I started close to the inner corner and swept it across my lid, like I would a gel liner brush and aimed for a nice neat black line. I was a little surprised that after the reviews I had read that I didn't achieve this. Yes, the product did remain close to my lash line, wonderfully close in fact, but I did not manage to get a black solid line. The product came out quite thick and a little dry for me, so it sort of felt like it was scraping the product across rather than just sweeping without pulling. I twisted a little more product out and finished off my typical winged liner and observed in the mirror.

It was a little uneven and needed touched up in the middle where the product had kind of run dry and twisted out more. I did notice that right next to my lash line was covered in solid back, but coming up from that was a little faded and sparse. I think the consistency surprised me a little, it's a bit to thick for my taste, but I might just need to practice with it. I do plan on using it again, as I really do find the idea of this product amazing, but think it just needs a bit of getting used to. I suppose when I started using gel liner over liquid liner that there were some teething problems there, but now I wouldn't go back to liquid liner. so I hope it will be the same with this!

Overall, I am pretty happy with this, but I think if you're used to liquid liner and jumping straight to this that it will be a little bit of a shock. Unless you're a make up genius of course, which I'm certainly not, haha! Priced at £18.50, it's not the cheapest liner to buy, but you should definitely give it a go!

Click here to see my latest attempt at winger liner using this! «

Love,

Kirsty.

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