CHRISTMAS HOLLYWOOD RETRO CURLS

Oh I do love this time of year when it's icy cold and your sparkley outfits come out from the back of your cupboard and the slap goes on for parties and dos. If you want to get glamourous hair (remember the Texan adage the higher the hair the closer to God) I love that have a look at the film we produced at Couture Communications for John Frieda on getting Hollywood Retro Curls all super achievable to do by yo' self. Enjoy.

BOBBI BROWN CREAMY MATTE LIP COLOR

Like a pair of killer Louboutins, which make you walk a little bit taller and with a spring in your step, lipstick can also bring out the sex kitten in you. I don’t know what it is but when I pull out a lipstick and slather it on, I feel so grown up like a woman in a Film Noir or Alexis Carrington from Dynasty, all big blow dried hair and ready to kick ass darling. My latest lipstick obsession is Bobbi Brown’s Creamy Matte Lip Color, £18, www.bobbibrown.co.uk. The formula is very 21^st century, which won’t give you 80s flashbacks of matte lipsticks, which left your lips dry and cracked and looking as if you had been eating bowls of salted peanuts all day without drinking anything. Bobbi’s new matte lipstick is creamy and packed full of pigment and leaves lips feeling cushioned and soft, which I love. I’m wearing the Crushed Plum and Razzberry, which look great on darker skin tones and the True pink and Warm Beige look like they will become instant classics. Grab one today!

LES TWIN- SETS DE CHANEL

Ok, that naughty Peter Philips, Creative Director of Chanel Make up has only gone and done it again. He's gotten me all excited about his latest creation for Anna Wintour's Vogue Fashion Night 2012. These 3 matching limited edition Rouge Allure Velvet lip colours ( a mind blowing modern texture that you really do need in your life- believe) and matching nail colours are the height of sophistication and have me feeling like a Hitchcock Heroine, a grown up womanly kind of beauty- very pulled together. The autumnal plum shade La Provocante has my name all over it, while I do love the vibrant pop of pink of L'Infidele, which is a less obvious choice for my skin tone but works just as well. The creamy beige of La Delicate has modern classic and the touch of the Rouge Noirs written all over it. Grab your Les Twin-sets de Chanel exclusively at Chanel boutiques from this September and remember pearls are optional but oh such a good look!

MAMA GOT HER GLOW BACK

Back in the day I used to be able to party all night (on a podium bumping and grinding I might add thank you very much) and the next day I would look as fresh as daisy all shiny and taut and glossy- like only a 19 year old can look and by the way I never appreciated this fact at the time. I used to slick on a touch of MAC's Face and Body Foundation (a mere whisper of a sheer foundation used and loved by celebs- very good as body make up and on legs too). Alas these days are gone. While in Topshop (where I know I have no business shopping these days),  I look at the little batty riders and sigh for my days in the sun. A decade and a half later, after twin girls and running my business as well as writing mama needs a little more help to look all glowy and fresh faced. People can become delusional over many things whether it's doing dad dancing at a wedding thinking you look like the dog's bullocks, pulling on those jeans from 1999 while breathlessly saying, " it will fit,  it will fit. For me my delusions are totally beauty related. Until recently, I was still looking at the light weight mositurisers that I used to wear  until at 4am the other night during a nappy change I caught sight of my tired reflection, which was a huge wake up call to get with the programme and up the power and potency of my skincare. I love a good serum me it's like a facial cocktail of goodness to help strengthen and treat the skin before the protecting and cocooning nature of a moisturiser. With my 30s "not in denial" skincare hat on I'm lovin' Chanel's Hydra Beauty Serum, it has a velvety decadent texture and harnesses the protective power of the antioxidant blue ginger, which feels very grown up and leaves the skin looking very uniform and soothed. Clarins Hydraquench Intensive Serum Bi-phase also leaves my skin feeling very dewy and plump. I also have to give a shout out to Estee Lauder's Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Eye Recovery complex. This is fab if you want some anti- aging protective properties but like me you a combination skin type as the gel texture feels like it's doing something without being too gloopy and sticky. Finally, nothing spells healthy skin like glossy, glowing skin and I love L'Oreal Paris Youth Code Luminize Super Serum for helping my skin find it's inner light. The best products make you feel like you are blessed with Kate Moss cheekbones and every little turn of your face catches the light and spits back a sexy glow.  Fabulous! Check out the film below my company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com produced of the Behind the Scenes L'Oreal Paris Youth code shoot.

BACK TO THE FUTURE BEAUTY

As you all know I'm a film nut. Mama loves films and beauty and as it's been chucking it down, I've been looking at loads of movies at home all snuggled up. I love sci-fi and watched 'Total " consider it a divorce " Recall', 'The Fifth Element' and 'Bladerunner' the other day. All these films have amazing fantasy beauty moments in there, which I hope beauty companies will be inspired to create.

Back in the day I remember looking at Star Trek (yes I am a Trekkie I love the special effects make up and outfits and the way it allows you to look at our humanity through the guise of alien civilisations and the distance of intergalatic space) thinking my God could you imagine reading the entire works of Shakespeare off a tablet device like they did in Deep Space Nine in the 90s. I'm now writing this blog on my IPAD- job done people -  as Disney said, "if you can dream it you can do it". 

Anyway I'm dreaming of the day like in 'The Fifth Element' you can pick up a Chanel visor and hold it up to your eyes and it spray paints on a full eye look. For me that's one of the highlights of the whole film, I remember watching it for the first time and thinking OMG can you imagine......I also love the bit in 'Total Recall', where the secretary at the memory implantation centre - Total Recall - sits bored changing her nail polish by a flick of a computer mouse-like pen, which electronically changes the colour of your nails. We have magnetic nail polish - so how long will it be before we can paint our nails with a computer chip or something that downloads any colour or design you want? Lord have mercy it's so exciting...

I have thick Afro hair, which takes forever to blow dry and anyone with curly hair will know what I'm talking about when I say it's a pain the arm doing it. In 'Bladerunner', my fantasy beauty moment comes in the form of the replicant andriod lady, who is hiding out as an exotic stripper with a snake (stay with me) - anyway she goes from a full greased up slicked down ponytail to a full on Charlie's Angels Farrah Fawcett blow out  - just by stepping inside a full body blowdry pod.

Again my mouth was left open at the thought of just standing in a blow dry machine that can do that. I love beauty and I love to get my technie geek on and when they combine and collide I get very excited. Will all this technology in beauty, which I'm sure is coming, spell the end of make up artists and manicure bars? I don't think so. No matter how advanced we get with technology - to have a bespoke one on one experience with another human being will always be valued and that's what makes us human and not aliens or androids. 

You can't have a discussion on Madonna's nipple flash or whether Ri- Ri will really take back Chris Brown (allegedly?????) Saying all that I can't wait to see what the beauty future holds and what my baby twin girls will be doing when they are my age and I'm applying a liquid liner by hand, which they will roll their eyes up and say, "Oh mum that's so old school, get with the programme let us hook you up"! Bless!

MOLTEN METALS

Excuse me, how hot is it????? I’m sorry but I can’ t stand it when London gets this hot. One bit of sun and people think it’s acceptable to strip and flash their flesh. The amount of bellies and people’s bits and pieces in thongs out, is quite unsettling and that’s just the middle aged men (who quite frankly should know better). Also when travelling on public transport it feels like you're being punished in some dramatic yet creative Greek mythological way, for crimes you have committed but you can’t work out what those crimes are. You end up feeling like the guy from the amazing Korean thriller 'Oldboy', where you have the pleasure of being tormented trying to figure out your crimes, while caged and trapped- in our case in an underground broken down tube carriage, which is as hot as Hades. For me nothing beats a snowy day with Diptyque's Feu de Bois  candle burning in the background with that crisp cold scent in the air, that tickles your lungs when you breathe it in and it feels like you’ve just done a shot of something, as it snakes its way around your body. Ahhhhhh

The one good thing about these hot days is molten metals. I love metallic golds, bronzes and khakis that look like they've been forged in fire or as if you left a gold bullion bar out in the sun, it melted and then you smeared it across your eyes….FAB.U.LAS. These molten metals may feel very A/W my season of choice but their smouldering sexiness also looks great while out on hot sticky nights.

On my nails I’m loving Chanel’s new Nail Polish in Delight, it looks like I’ve dipped my nails in a very expensive gold leaf. I love the fact it looks a bit rose gold against my dark skin rather than that angry Dictator’s wife gaudy gold gold – you know what I mean. Tom Ford’s latest Spring/ Summer Collection is also rocking the look with their shimmering chocolatey Burnt Topaz nail Lacquer and Cream Color for eyes in Illicit, a delicious burnished red, which screams glamour and has a touch of studio 54. I’ve also been slicking on Maybelline’s Color Tattoo a gel eyeshadow, which really doesn’t budge (fab if you are indeed on the tube or dancing on a table with a cocktail in your hands) in Eternal Gold or On and On Bronze.

To create even more sexy heat and smokiness around the eyes to make your molten metals pop the genius that is make up artist Charlotte Tilbury, who can be seen back stage at fashion week told me once to put some warm chocolate brown liner on the lower lash line, as this creates a hot-ness that Brazilian girls naturally have and it really pulls the look together. I love Clinique's Quickliner for eyes Intense in Intense Chocolate, as it's not ashy on my skin and has a deep rich cocoa colour. Give it a go for a smoking hot look.

P.S I love this shot from ‘Oldboy’,  he looks like he’s about to go nuts and lose it, like he’s been stuck on the tube for hours but it’s uncanny my hair looks like this after sticky weather. Nice.  

THE BODY SHOP - BEAUTY WITH HEART

Whenever I think of The Body Shop I get a warm fuzzy glow inside. We have all grown up with this very sincere and British brand that not only has loads of heart and a social consciousness. Their recent campaigns in helping to stop sex trafficking as well as helping communities around the world is what beauty is all about feeling and being beautiful from the inside out. On top of all that the products also really deliver and have iconic status, such as their lip smacking Body Butters to the fruity shower gels such as Fuzzy Peach and Green Apple that take me straight back to the 6th form in school listening to Blur and Oasis in the common room. Other happy Body Shop memories I have was when I meet my husband in the first year of university at 19 and I saw that he had their Passionfruit Cleansing Gel in his bathroom - I thought yes I can date this man - 15 years and twin baby girls later - the thought of it still makes me smile.

So last week when I was invited to attend and also filmed with my production company Couture Communications, www.couturecommunications.com at The Body Shop's massive global launch to announce their first ever Brand Ambassador Lily Cole I was beyond excited. The launch was held to celebrate and talk about their new Beauty with Heart Campaign, which Lily will be heading up and it's a movement inviting us all to - "Look Good, Feel Good and Do Good"- it was very inspiring. The launch was held at the Old Sorting Office in WC1 in the heart of London and was literally huge as the 120,000 square foot space was turned into a mad Willy Wonka style fun playground with all things The Body Shop. I had loads of fun playing in the Look Good room at the Shimmer Cube wall where you could custom make your own eyeshadow palettes with the help with the fabulous Chase Aston, The Body Shop's celebrity make up artist. At the Feel Good room there were hand massages with the wide array of different body butters and in the Do Good room we learned all about the campaigns and work we all can do to help make a difference. Well Done! Take a look at the film below to get a sneak peek of the launch.