LONDON FASHION WEEK SS 11 COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS DAY 3

It was another fun filled day in fashion paradise at Day 3 of LFW! To say today was manic is a complete understatement! I started at Basso & Brooke at an eye watering 7 am with a few camera crews from my company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com, where I stopped to have a chat with the boys and take a picture with lovely Bruno. They told me the hair and make up was inspired by the film 'Chloe' starring Amanda Seyfried with glossy and glamourous brushed out waves.

Then it was off to Antonio Berardi where Malcolm Edwards for John Frieda flew in the door hot and bothered, as he was running late from the Julien McDonald show yet he pulled it out of the bag to create the most dreamy and chic soft top knot bun with angelic wispy bits pulled out at the sides. Gucci Westman for Revlon also created an ethereal look with a wash on grey on the lips and a peachy pink lipstick used as blush on the cheeks. Marian Newman nail guru was also there mixing together a custom made nail colour for Revlon, which was a stunning pale grey.

The next pit stop was for my lady (y'all know I do love all things Viv) Vivienne Westwood where the make up by Gordon Espinet for MAC walked the tight rope between make up and high art. Good on you Gordon you lovely Trini!!!! As usual the hair and make up looks all changed about 5 mins before the show but the guys were just pushed to genius mode by the pressure. Gordon used a rainbow palette of MAC paints from pastel blues, violets to forest greens on girls with all skin tones to shade and carve out the face. It looked amazing on the catwalk BUT please don't try this at home love- it's not what I would call translatable! Fabulous but not translatable. I also had a quick chat to Daisy Lowe and petted her cute white dog before her Dr Who boyfriend popped in to wish her luck.

The last show of the day was Matthew Williamson, which was at the Battersea Power station (there's always one person who needs to be random). Driving up to the backstage felt like MAD MAX 2, as it was a desolate concrete wasteland and as cars drove down, they kicked up huge dust balls Surreal is not the word, especially when you saw the fashion crowd walking down the dust track in their Louboutins WTF!

Once backstage, I chatted to my lovely mate and nail expert Andrea Fulerton who had custom blended a nail colour called Matthew for the show, which was a sheer cream with Gemstone overcoat, which dried matte. J'dore. I rushed home and put Andrea's Nail Boutique Gemstone overcoat over my Chanel Khaki Vert nails and it looks bloody trippy and cool will a touch of pink glitter bling on top. Well done Andrea! I chatted to the warm and friendly super  hair stylist Duffy for Clairol and the rather delicious make up artist James Kaliardos for L'Oreal Paris, who is living proof you can be super talented, successful and a wonderful human being without any Diva strops backstage! He created a look on the girls inspired by a girl who had been ship wrecked and the eyes and cheeks were all chic, shimmery, sheer and bronzed but in a warmed by the sun way and defo not warmed by a wag in heat slapping on the orange bronzer way (girl from X Factor with the spider lashes I am talking to you). Well done James! I then saw Sienna Miller styling Matthew Williamson's hair and having a giggle with him and I decided to have a chat with them. She was super sweet and told me she loved Matthew because he was an incredible friend and she loved his talent. Matthew told me his collection was a return to his origins and roots but Sienna butted in to say no the collection was inspired by meeeeeeeeeeee! They were a right giggle and really fun.

That's me done. I'm rocking on about 3 hours sleep a night. My next call time is 7 am again tomorrow boooyayyyyy, I laugh in your face LFW see you tomorrow morning with bells on!

LONDON FASHION WEEK SS 11 COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS AND GRAZIA

I'm so excited please check out the film I directed with my company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com for Grazia. It brings you all the gossip, tips and trends backstage at the shows from the first day of London Fashion Week SS 11 at  Felder Felder, Sass and Bide and PPQ with Grazia's Lauren Murdoch Smith from the Beauty team!

Everyday we will be bringing you a new film with all the action from behind the Scenes at London Fashion Week!

DAY 2 OF LONDON FASHION WEEK WITH COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS

Day 2 of London Fashion Week went off with a bang! Filming with my company Couture Communications was really fun we have been filming for Grazia and L'Oreal Paris. We started out at the fabulous Topshop Unique show, which was held at the mind blowing and beautiful Old Eurostar terminal at Waterloo.  There the hair was an afro explosion created by Paul Hanlon for Bumble and Bumble with hair prepped in a figure of 8 and pins and then brushed out with lots of extensions added to create the angelica halo hair effect. Dyed pieces were placed into the hair to add splashes of colour like pink and lavender very Lady Gaga if you ask me. I also loved the patent red lip created by Hannah Murray at the show you can create the look at home by using a red lipstick and layering on top a cherry red gloss with no liner.

The second show of the day was Charles Anastase, which was held at the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street. The entrance looked like some ravers had crashed in and threw some shapes at a house party. Once through the doors it was like Narnia as the glamourous stage looked like a garden party and backstage was bustling with people screaming models walking in an hour late and general fashion madness. Lyndell Mansfield for L'Oreal Professionnel and Sally Branka for MAC created the look. A blunt fringe was cut onto wigs and the look was like the hair was washed and left to dry and very easy breezy. I fell in love with a new MAC lip colour out in Spring called Good to be bad. It's the perfect glossy dark raspberry shade and looks good on all skin tones ( for real ) and looks amazing on black skin tones. When dabbed on the lips it created a beautiful stain and made the girls look like
"they were eating cherries or kissing all night", says Branka. Please beauty gods well MAC send me one as soon as it comes out. People you need to have this lipstick in your life. I will keep you posted on all the gossip tomorrow!

LONDON FASHION WEEK SS II AND COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS

As I'm writing this my feet hurt and it's silly o'clock in the morning boooyayyyyyy it's fashion week and it kicked off with a big bang today! I had so much fun going backstage and filming with my Beauty and Fashion Filming consultancy company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com, directing the lovely Lauren from the Grazia beauty team- check out our film on Graziadaily.co.uk today. Couture Communications went backstage at Hannah Marshall, Felder Felder, Sass and Bide and PPQ.

The looks were fabulous at Felder Felder as the inspiration was a cool rock chick who idolises Janis Joplin and studies pagan literature with Georgina Graham for MAC doing the make up. She used MAC indigo eye pencil on the eyes and MAC Strobe Liquid  (a lighter weight version of the Strobe Cream) down the T-zone to highlight the face. I loved the nail colours, which were specially blended for the show in 3 hues of blue inspired by the blue ink cartridges you used to have at school. Genious.

At Sass and Bide I loved the braided hair and top knot bun and the soft Shu Uemura peach blush on the cheeks and new blinging bronzed sparkle eye shadow and black gel liner.

Liner was also used at PPQ using Benefit cosmetics on the top and lower lashes with lots of Bad Gal mascara on both the top and bottom lashes but combed through with a Tweezerman eye lash gadget
(well a tiny comb) to keep them flirty and feminine versus rock chick and badasssss. I also loved the trick I picked up there for getting the perfect pout. Dab some Benetint in the centre of the top and bottom lip to make them pop and then add some Benetint lip balm on all over for a sensual and glossy look. The cheeks were sculpted with a light bronzer, which the make up artist said was like Spanx for the face!

I will be bringing you more backstage news, tips and tricks and gossip over the next 5 days of London Fashion Week!!!!!!! Watch this space!!!!!!!!!

JLS JUST LOVE SAFE CAMPAIGN WITH DUREX AND COUTURE COMMUNICATIONS

It's been a crazy and exciting few weeks for my Beauty and Fashion Filming consultancy business Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com. We have been doing lots of filming behind the scenes with the delicious JLS, as they launch their Just Love Safe campaign. They held a press conference last week at the Soho Hotel to share their new news! Now to say the JLS boys are sweet, chatty, warm and well totally undiva ish is an understatement. They are a complete credit to their families and are just well mannered, well brought up young men. Even after I tried to bust some moves and sing a few lines from their 'The Club is alive with the sound of music' video, they gave me bemused yet sweet smiles (you know the one you give your demented aunt after she has had a few cocktails and decides to shame herself by dancing on a table in public thinking she is 18 years old again) blessssssss. As lovely guys they are passionate about giving back and have launched the JLS charity foundation to help aid the causes close to their hearts.

The first project the boys have launched is the JUST LOVE SAFE campaign with Durex as they have launched their own range of extra safe condoms to help 16-24 year old promote safe sex. Shockingly the UK has the highest rates of STDs and unwanted pregnancies and JLS want to do something about it. As Aston and the boys says, "no glove, no love"! They want to take the stigma and peer pressure out of both women and men carrying condoms, which is the responsible thing to do. The condoms are available at Superdrug nationwide and have a slighter lower price to help them fly off the shelves and protect this 16-24 year old age bracket. There should be no shame in both women and men carrying condoms but many people think they will look like slagggggs. WRONG. The boys say you look both ways before crossing a road, its madness not to do the same and carry condoms for safety when you go out!

I have nothing but praise for the boys and I salute you and Durex for this admirable and progressive step! Which packet will you be buying????? Hmmmmmmmm

LES KHAKIS DE CHANEL

My goodness how does that naughty Peter Philips, Global Creative Director of CHANEL Makeup do it? The nail shades Jade and Particuliere were such smash hits it saw women scratching each others eyes out to get a bottle and I was stopped 3 times down Bond Street, after I had a Jade manicure at Chanel HQ. Now that Peter P has done it again.

Y’all know I’m a sucker for all things Chanel but when these 3 little beauties landed on my desk- I did do a little gasp. Chanel’s new nail polish (oh polish doesn’t sound posh enough, will refer to it as Le Vernis) collection Les Khakis De Chanel in Khaki Vert, Khaki Rose and Khaki Brun, £19 each, available from Chanel Boutiques and Selfridges call 0207 493 3836 for stockist details, are quite frankly fabulous. The collection was created in honour of last week’s Vogue's Fashion Night Out and is fiercceeee. I shall be rotating the shades and wearing them on my nails during London Fashion Week -look out for my blogs and Twitter updates @atehjewel from Friday!

The Khaki Vert is actually really flattering for all skin tones, just think of it as a cool J brand Khaki jean, you can dress it up or dress it down. For black skin tones, the Khaki Rose is one of the best chocolaty nudes I have ever seen and gives you that milky chic mannequin hand that I love. Khaki scaredy cats should try the Khaki Brun, which feels like a mix of the two shades and gives a nod to all things camouflage. Well done Chanel you have hit it out of the park yet again, I salute you!

THE NICHOLAS BROTHERS AND BEAUTY

As you know I love all things musical and jazz hands. Last night I rediscovered some of my favourite dancers The Nicholas Brothers on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM. Check them out in this clip from the movie ‘Story Weather’, it will make your eyes water they are so good- you can also see the foundations of break dancing in there too. As I marveled at their sheer talent, athleticism and acrobatics I began to get angry....very angry (you won’t like me when I’m angry).

I stood mouth open and was enraged at the injustice, as this clip was a metaphor. When you think of tap dancing, black and White or  MGM films- whom do you think of? Fred Astaire, right? Well compared to the Nicholas Brothers- Fred Astaire seems like some geriatric shuffling around the dancefloor while muffling to himself,  "I've still got it...ahhhh". To be fair, even Fred Astaire said that this sequence of the Nicholas Brothers in ‘Stormy Weather’ was the finest piece of tap dancing ever filmed.

Now the injustice of this really pisses me off. Have you heard of the Nicholas Brothers probably not. What springs to mind is something the editor of Elle US said on 'The City' about the spoilt and rather pleased with herself it girl Olivia Palermo, she said well in this industry there are show ponies and work horses. I hate the double standard but the lady was bang on.  Because of the colour of their skin The Nicholas Brothers were condemned to be work horses in the business we call show. As black men they were only usually given a 3 minute set piece to do in a movie -their scene would start with the hero Fred Astaire or some other 1930/40s dream boat bringing their gal to a nightclub to see the brothers perform as part of the side show and that was it.

This annoys me because really how far have we come today? When you look at the fashion and beauty industries how many real positions of influence do ethic people hold. At launches (where I am usually the only black person) I'm told the UK will not stock foundation colours for darker skins. When I ask why, I'm told an array of offensive answers from because there is not enough space on the shelves to we don't think they will sell over here etc Translation ...... We don't think ethic/ black people can afford or want our products and quite frankly they are not important enough to make room for them. This is all madness when you think brands like Bobbi Brown, MAC (God bless you and all who sail in you), Estee Lauder, IIamasqua, NARS, Giorgio Armani, YSL, Sue Devitt, Clinique and the like all stock extensive colours and there is enough room for their lil’ old bottles to shove up on a counter.

In the wake of the anniversary of hurricane Katrina this all does hit a nerve with me about the perception of black people and their importance in the beauty world. Yet, ironically today you do have show ponies in the form of Naomi (don't look at me or I will throw a phone at your head) Campbell and make up artist mega stars such as Pat Mcgrath but why is it still a big deal to stock a full spectrum of make up for black and ethic consumers. It's very hard to have any sort of self worth and self esteem, when you, as a consumer rock up to a major beauty brand and the lack of choice  screams you are not important especially when it comes to foundations and powders.  The weird thing is these naughty brands do have darker shades but they are only available in the US. When I asked a marketing man of one of these brands why they don't bring the full range to the UK, he told me they needed to do more research. I told him to save his time and money on research, as there were black women living in the UK - trust me on that.  It's part of a deep seeded problem that spans social/ economic reasons and is a reflection of how ethic/black skin tones can feel marginalized and that is also reflected on the counter. Close your eyes and imagine Cameron Diaz walking into a beauty hall and being told, “ sorry love we just don’t do any shades in your sunny yellow toned skin colour”, it does sound nuts doesn’t it, so why should it be the same for someone with a darker skin tone? So the next time you go make up shopping just imagine how it feels and what it says when you walk into a beauty hall and are met with a beauty apartheid.