Regal Rose

Hey guys!

Recently I've noticed crosses seem to be on trend in various different ways in fashion from clothing to jewellery. They seem to no longer be classed as "gothic" wear, and have become mainstream and look pretty fabulous when paired with the right outfits. I've always been slightly wary of this fashion as I'm not usually too daring or 'out there' with my style, and like to stick to girly trends, but I thought I'd step out of my box and give it a go. I discovered a company called Regal Rose who I think do some really unique and beautiful pieces that you can't find on the high street. Their style isn't just what you see below, they also do some gorgeous feathered pieces, armour type rings/bracelets,on trend chokers etc the list goes on! I played around a bit with my photography this time, so check out the pieces I purchased below:

                                                Constance. Double Finger Cross Ring £9

                                                       Pagan. Silver Cross Earrings £10

                                                Pectus. Large Silver Cross Necklace £9

Indira. Carved Crystal Necklace £14

You can find any of these pieces on the website link:

http://www.regalrose.co.uk

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Love and Light

~Miss Christina C ~

November nails - Revlon & Elf combo

Hey Dolls,

I thought I'd experiment with my nails as I've been going through a red and dark pink phase recently, and wanted to try out both these new colours, so what better way than to combine them! I wanted to add a bit of glitter since the xmas season is upon us, but without going OTT.

I used two coats of Revlon Smokey Canvas, then thought I'd try Elf's Golden Goddess that I received in their surprise gift box (see my previous blog for details) onto just two nails on each hand. I sealed it all with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry (which I absolutely love btw-makes nail polish dry instantly after 30 seconds).

I must point out that getting the glittery bits in Golden Goddess to come out the bottle was a slight mission, but my persistence paid off. If you are looking to try this I advice you 'tap' the varnish onto your nail to get the glitter to stick to the surface once you have used one coat.

Hope you guys are enjoying the build up to Christmas!

Love and light

Miss Christina C ~

Follow me on twitter! @Christina_MusiC

E.l.f Goodies!

Hey dolls!

So I thought I'd do a blog on some e.l.f products I purchased recently, and the free goodie bag that came with it.

I'll admit I've only ever bought from e.l.f once before, and I wasn't too impressed with their make-up products at all, but very impressed with their powder brush that I use daily.

This time around I bought their eyelash curler, a pair of lashes, and their large brush holder. I am a huge fan of the eyelash curler it's in fact the best one I have used (and only £1.50!). It really curls the lashes beautifully, and on a quick day I can get away with not having to use mascara after curling with this tool. Tip: always curl your lashes twice, once at the base and once in the middle for the best effect!

The Brush holder is great for storing my array of brushes, it smelt a bit funky when it came out the box, and I could see where it had been glued together slightly off centre, but all in all it's really handy and looks fab. This cost £12 which I actually think is a little pricey for e.l.f, but I had liked it for a while, and couldn't find anything similar elsewhere.

 The eyelashes I've yet to try, but for £1.50 I'm not holding out too much hope, but I wanted to try e.l.f 's eyelashes as they are a fraction of the cost of the eyelure ones I usually get. They look slightly 'flaky' in the packaging but I could be wrong, maybe once they are on they are good. I will update...

A couple of weeks ago when I placed my order with e.l.f, they were offering a free suprise goody bag if you spent over £10. I was quite surprised to find some good stuff in there! 

-An antibacterial foundation brush (really smooth application, thumbs up)

-A shimmer pencil eyeliner that has a sharpener on the end (have yet to try this)

-Nail varnish in Twinkle (LOVE this! Just make sure you use two coats and wait long enough for it to dry.)

- Nail varnish in Golden Goddess (Really pretty, great for the Xmas party season, apply two coats)

Hope you guys enjoyed this entry!

Love and Light ~ Miss Christina C

Mac Face and Body Foundation

Mac Face and Body Foundation

Hey guys!

Sorry I haven't been around for a while, it's been a bit of a hectic month.

So, I have had my eye on Mac's Face and Body foundation for quite some time, but was unsure whether to purchase it or not, as I wasn't sure if the coverage would be enough for my skin type. I was in London last week in the beautiful Covent Garden, and so took a trip to the Mac store and finally gave in and purchased this.

I am really glad that I did, as it's such a great foundation! I love the coverage, it's really light, but gives your skin such a dewy "barely there" finish, yet will still cover minor skin blemishes. It isn't a full coverage foundation so it doesn't cover blemishes or spots to the point where you can't see them, so what I would recommend is to use this product all over your face with a stippling brush or something like the Mac 187, or the Elf powder brush, then use a creamy concealer over the blemishes. Make sure the concealer you use matches the Face and Body foundation colour as closely as you can, otherwise the blemishes will stand out even more, which is not the look we are going for!

I find this is a much more natural way of getting a flawless look, without having to cake the foundation on all over the face just to cover blemished areas - let the good parts of your skin shine through.

So my verdict for Mac's Face and Body foundation is that I am totally in love, it is now in my top foundations along with my Bobbi Brown Luminous, and it actually matches my skin tone for once (I use C3). My face is always paler than the rest of my body, and I have a yellowy pale base that I can never seem to find the right colour for, especially amongst other Mac foundations, they are usually either too light or too orange for me. Pleasantly surprised with this, and highly recommend :)

How to beat Cystic Acne, and maintain it

Hey All,

I thought I'd do a blog that might be of use to some of you. As a teenager I suffered pretty badly from cystic acne - this means not the usual acne where you have spots everywhere, but big massive boils that looked like craters on my face, yet the rest of my skin would be crystal clear. It was quite strange, but these awful cysts would pop up where and whenever they felt like on my face, and sometimes I'd have 5 at a time - it truly was awful and a nightmare to cover up with make - up!

After trying countless creams and potions both over the counter and prescriptions from doctors,even antibiotic treatments,nothing worked. Eventually a dermatologist finally gave me a contraceptive pill called Dianette which was truly a miracle cure. I still get the odd cyst here and there (usually just before that fabulous time of the month us girls endure) but it is absolutely heaven compared to how it used to be. Side effects from the pill is another story, but for cystic acne's sake, it has been amazing.

My advice to anyone who is suffering from cystic acne - it is NOTHING to do with your hygiene (in fact overly washing your face can make it worse) and nothing to do with what you are eating. It is purely to do with hormones which you cannot control. Because of this, you will find it difficult to treat with any over the counter medicines and beauty products, because the oil sebum in your body that is being over produced, will not respond sufficiently to topical creams. The only way to get rid of it is to ask your doctor for Dianette(obviously for girls only!), or to use Roaccutane tablets that a dermatologist can prescribe. Roaccutane can have some contraversial side effects and is a lengthy process, so please speak to your dermatologist about the pro's and con's before going ahead with this method. However, its success rate is really high,and it has prooved to be the best acne cure for both male and females.

Which ever method you choose, you will still probably get the odd cyst or flair up (less so with Roaccutane). When you do, I strongly recommend these two products which I think scientifically help to reduce the inflamation and make healing and recovery much quicker. These products also work amazingly for mild types of acne as well without the need of further treatment.

Panoxyl

You can either get this on prescription, or buy it over the counter (it doesn't cost much, under £5). It contains 10% Benzoyl Peroxide which is the active ingredient to fight the nasty nasties that we want to be rid of! I found this to be such a great product as it reduces the swelling really quite quickly, and somewhat stops the evils in their tracks before they can get any bigger. You can also get this product in a lesser strength (you might want to start with the 2.5% version). The only draw back is that it is VERY drying, so be sure to only use it where you really need it (do not cover the surrounding area with it or you will be in for a flaky surprise after a couple of uses). I find I can live with the flakiness for a few days if it gets rid of a horrid cyst quickly!

Tip: Do not use this on large areas of the face due to the fact it will peal your skin as I mentioned above.  Only use it directly on the spot/cyst in question. And watch it dieeeee. :)

Freederm

I actually discovered this product when it was first launched many years ago before all the adverts and hype, when you had to dig around to find it in Boots, and I have never looked back. For areas of the skin with mild to moderate acne, this stuff is great. You can use it on large areas (unlike Panoxyl) and it will not dry out the skin. I find it's best to use this product at night, I have found that using it during the day and then adding make-up on top can leave you with a flaky finish - no likey.

Freederm is great because it reduces redness and swelling as well as treating the acne. It works differently to other products as it doesn't contain benzoyl peroxide but instead uses nicotinamide, which to my understanding is a high dose of vitamin A which works to combat spots.

As I said above, these products will only benefit you alone if you have mild acne. If your acne is moderate to severe, or you suffer from cystic acne, you will need extra help before these products can help you maintain your lovely new face. It truly will be the best thing you ever did to see a dermatologist and get your treatment started! 

I hope this has helped anyone that has been having issues with acne, and cystic acne!

Love

~Miss Christina C~

Hair Products: are high end products worth your cash?

So when it comes to hair, I will put my hands up and admit I often reach for a high end product rather than a drugstore alternative - this is because I really do find that they make a difference, and with coloured hair you can't just slap on any old product and hope for the best, as your coloured hair might not be too happy about it after. However, having said this, I have come across a few little gems on my way that have been nice to my bank balance. Today's blog will be comparing some high end products with their drugstore alternatives, the good, the bad, and the "what was I thinking" ugly. 

High End: ALTERNA CAVIAR MOISTURE SHAMPOO AND SEA SILK HAIR MASQUE

I have always been a fan of Alterna's Caviar Moisture shampoo and conditioner, they are sulphate free which means they are kind to coloured hair, really make my hair silky and shiny, and keep it in tip top condition, so I thought I'd try out the Sea Silk Hair Masque. I was in need of a masque as I'd been through a bad time illness wise and was finding my hair to be paying the price, it was becoming superly brittle and dull, and in need of a super duper moisture injection. I found it online at www.beautybay.com  for a whopping £27.95, and although a hefty price, I thought it would be worth it as I was familiar with their other products.

Hmmm...well, the first time I wasn't sure it was worth the price at all. I was quite shocked that this product didn't give me the results that I expected, since I was so in love with the rest of it's range. It didn't seem to make much difference at all, my hair in fact seemed even dryer than it had been originally! I thought I'd give it another go, and strangely enough the second time the results seemed much better, perhaps this is because I left it on for longer (10 minutes). After the third use, I actually did find that it really started to help repair the "dull" look and was bringing my hair back to life.

It smells gorgeous, and does seem to work after a couple of uses, but I'm still not convinced it's worth the price! It also comes in quite a small pot, which for my long hair isn't too great as I need to use a lot of it to see any results. All in all, I'd say the Alterna Caviar Sea Silk Hair Masque isn't a complete waste of money, does improve hair by around 60%, but is probably not worth the price. If it was a tenner I wouldn't compalin, but I was expecting gold for that amount of cash and was given silver. *sulks*

Drugstore Alternative: L'OREAL ELVIVE DAMAGE CARE REPAIRING HAIR MASQUE 

If you would like a cheaper alternative I hugely recommend the L'oreal Elvive Damage Care Repairing Masque. At an affordable £5.10 from Boots, (I believe they are also doing a 3 for 2 on haircare products and brushes right now also!) this really does do its job, I'd say almost to the same extent as the Sea Silk Caviar masque, the only negatives is that I don't think it can fully repair damaged ends, but is great for hydration.

Tip: I sometimes use virgin olive oil (yes the oil you put on your salads, us Greeks use this for everything! Make sure it's virgin olive oil and not compressed) from mid way to the ends of my hair mixed in with the L'oreal Elvive masque - any conditioner or masque you have will do the trick. Squeeze out any excess water from your hair after conditioning and rinsing out, then take some of the product into the palm of your hand as you would normally, and mix in one teaspoon of olive oil, and quickly apply to your hair (I don't recommend using it on the roots of your hair if you have European or Indian hair as it will become greasy-other hair types such as Afro can handle the oil on the roots). After massaging it in, wrap your hair into a towel or shower cap, and leave it on for up to an hour. I can actually get away with just 20minutes, it depends how damaged your hair is. Rinse out well for super luscious and moisturised locks!

High End: KERASTASE ELIXIR KULTIME

I had heard a lot about Kerastase's Elixit Kultime before I purchased it, and am really glad that I did as I find this serum really great. I purchased this from http://www.wantthelook.com/  it's currently on offer for £12.67 (15% off). I use it after I towel dry my hair, all you need is one pump for each side of your hair (possibly much less for shorter lengths) brush it through, then style as usual. I find that it seals the cuticle of the hair, making it much less prone to frizz until the next wash, and it gives the hair a glossy finish without being too heavy or greasy and makes it appear thicker. I find this product nice and light weight, and I will also use a tiny amount to tame fly aways after I've styled my hair. On the bottle it says you can also use it before you wash your hair - I am not sure what the point of that is to be honest, so I'd stick to using it after! All in all, a lovely product with great results.

Drug Store Alternative: TRESemme SALON SILK NO FRIZZ SERUM

So, I really should have known better when 1) my friend said "hey Christina, do you want a serum? I'm going to throw it out otherwise" and 2) I saw the words TRESemme, but I figured I'd give it a go. I was hoping the reason she didn't like it might have been because we have completely different hair types....yes? NO! I allas was wrong. I used this like I would the Kerastase Elixir (before I purchased it) and hated it. It's texture is gunky - yes gunky I cannot think of any other way to describe it, and really heavy on the hair. The friend who pawned it off onto me has Afro hair so I figured maybe it wasn't this bad on hers - but yes she confirmed it was. I found it weighed my hair down so much that it was even making it greasier quicker, dispite the fact I had put it nowhere near the roots. It didn't have any anti frizz properties either and without my trusted straightners I was a bit of a frizzy poof ball. Not impressed. The positives....erm...I am struggling...spend your £4.99 at Burger King you will be much happier.

Drugstore Alternative: AUSSIE DUAL PERSONALITY SMOOTH AND SHINE MILK

Although this is not a serum like the Kerastase Elixir, I really do love Aussie, and for a drug store brand I think their products are really great value for money. This hair milk is great for softening, smoothing and taming hair that is prone to frizz. I'm not sure how well it would work on tightly curled hair, but if you have wavy to straightish locks, then it really does do what it says on the tin. I use it in the same way that I'd use the Elixir before blow drying my hair. It doesn't quite have the staying power or glossyness that the Elixir has, but for £4.69 you can't really complain!

High End: GHD HEAT PROTECT SPRAY

I received this free with my GHD straightners purchase and really love the consistency. It's price can vary depending where you get it from, it usually retails around £15 in salons but I found it the cheapest at http://www.wantthelook.com/ for £8.46 (currently 15% off). As a heat protector I find it doesn't stiffen my hair down like some others do, and smells really lovely and fresh. I've found in the past that some heat protectors still wouldn't protect the ends of my hair from frazzling after daily straightening and curling, and I'd begrudge having to have more chopped off at the hairdressers, so I have been quite suprised that this product seems to have saved the split ends from coming so quickly. *Happy Face*

Drug Store Alternative: TONI & GUY IRON IT HEAT DEFENCE SPRAY

Before I had discovered the GHD heat protector I really liked this Toni & Guy version, and compared to other drug store products I found that it was at the top of its game. The smell isn't too chemical, and the bottle is massive so will last you absolutely ages. It does a good job at keeping your locks protected while styling, and you can usually find some sort of 3 for 2 deal involving this product in Boots (it is currently in the same deal as the L'oreal hair masque-bargain!). It's currently selling for £6.63. The negatives are that I didn't like the way the bottle nozzle was made as I found unless you hold it quite far away it can drench your hair a little too much, so they could work on their pump, also unless you want a slight hold to your hair, you might find it a little weighty as it does have a slight flexible hair spray type feel to it. It's advertised as a product for straight styles, although I have used it while curling and it didn't seem to straighten the curls. All in all, a good alternative.

I hope you have enjoyed the reviews - What do you think, high end hair products always win, or can drug store brands rival the pricey ones? Please leave your comments I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Love

~Miss Christina C~

Chanel New Autumn Collection Nail Varnish! Graphite

CHANEL - Graphite nail polish £17.50

Hey guys,

I'm sure most of you have already seen this nail varnish floating around youtube and blogs, it seems to be so popular and in high demand - the lady at the Chanel counter yesterday told me it sold out in 4 hours of being released in their concession! I was lucky to get my mits on some, as I had been stalking this particular shade for some time.

Chanel's new nail colour releases for Autumn includes 3 different shades; Quartz, Peridot and Graphite. I was drawn to Graphite because it just doesn't look like any other nail colour I have ever seen before. The colour to me seems like a mix between silver and gold, and has so many layers that in some light it even looks like there is a very dark metalic green thrown in there too, along with glittering sprinkles of shimmering particles. Notice how the colour on the nails actually looks exactly the same as the varnish inside the bottle which is rare (see picture above). In most nail varnishes anything with shimmering glitter "bits" can feel and look a bit rough, but with Graphite I found it glides on with ease as if it is all sealed and the consistency is just so smooth. You could actually get away with just one coat but I used two. I did use a base coat (Barry M) and I usually use a top coat to make nail varnishes shine and stay put, but I really didn't need to with this, it just looked so beautiful and shiny.

I've been wearing it for 3 days now, and so far no chips or fading of colour, it really does seem to be quite durable unlike some other cheaper versions of this particular colour. An old Russian saying has always stuck in my head "I'm too poor to buy cheap" and I do sometimes think this is so true! This colour will look great into the winter season and I can see it teaming up well with outfits during the day with black, creams and whites, aswell as at night giving you that extra touch of sophistication.

I have always been a Chanel nail varnish fan (and everything else!), and when I worked for them as a Christmas temp a couple of years ago I absolutely loved trying them on, yet never got around to buying any as I must say they are pricey, but sometimes its ok to treat yourself and loved ones!

What do you guys think? Have you tired any of the other colours in the Autumn collection?