Ten Of The Biggest Makeup Mistakes To Avoid

• Oooops - choosing the wrong foundation and concealer. Girls can often pick a foundation colour that is far too light as they remember the old rule "does it match the skin tone along the jaw line". Unfortunately, using this method can often result in a very light shade of foundation when applied over the face leaving the complexion looking washed out and uneven particularly if the skin has darker patches of skin tone or freckles. Choosing a foundation which gives your skin tone a slight golden glow looks youthful and revitalised - think of the natural glow shown off by Jennifer Aniston.
• Avoid Harsh eyeliner. We love the smoky eye look, but that is a softer, dark and sultry look which is blended along the lashes and into the eyeshadow. Don't be tempted to use eyeliner, especially liquid black eyeliner, to greatly exaggerate the shape of the eyes unless you are creating an OTT party look for a night out. This look for day wear is harsh and false. If you use a liquid liner for your day to day makeup create a thinner line close to the lashes to define the eyes.
• Don't over emphasise all of your features. The old rule here is true - don't try and make both eyes and lips the main features of your face - it's just too much. Either create dramatic eyes and neutral lips or emphasize your mouth and keep your eye makeup natural.
• Just too shiny! Remember not to apply too many shimmering products together - unless you are going to a '70s party! Shimmering lipstick does not look good with frosted high-lighters and eyeshadow. Use matte products and finish with one shimmering product, such as a frosted lipstick, or use matte lipstick on the lips and make a feature of your eyes with glittering eyeshadow.
• Don't apply too much mascara to the lower lashes. Keep it to one natural looking coat of mascara on the lower lashes and be careful until they are dry that they don't smudge onto your skin.
• Don't use a white high-lighter on your brown bone. This can look very odd - just use a lighter shade of the eye-shadow you have applied over your eyelids, applying it lightly upwards towards the brow bone, but not right up to your eyebrows.
• Don't make your eyes look smaller. Be careful when applying eyeliner to the inner eyelid, i.e. inside your eyelashes, as this can make your eyes seem much smaller and again looks pretty unnatural. If you have a darker complexion and eyes, then black eyeliner applied in this way can look stunning, but otherwise we don't like this method of application.
• Don't be a clown. Applying a darker lip liner to the outer contours of your lips and filling in with a lighter shade of lipstick is not a good idea - it's rather like clown lips. It might work for models in a studio for a photo shoot, but in real life it looks pretty fake and your lipstick will generally wear off leaving an unnatural dark line around your lips.
• Do you look like Aunt Sally? Yes, Aunt Sally was a character in a children's program who had bright rosy cheeks applied in big circles. One of our tips is to apply blusher to the apples of your cheeks, but this should look like a natural blush and be blended - be careful of creating unnatural looking small red circles. Blend from the apples of the cheeks towards the cheekbones.
• Don't apply lipstick on its own. Applying a swipe of lipstick may seem like a quick fix to brighten up your face, but without any other colour on your face it will look unnatural, harsh and ageing.
• Do you have makeup lines around your jawline? Always check your jawline after applying your foundation, give it a moment to "settle in" then check your jaw on both sides for any unnatural looking "tidemarks" which just look grubby. Remember to blend foundation into and over your jawline for a natural finish.

Have you made any terrible mistakes when applying your makeup or have you learnt any great makeup techniques - we are interested to hear about them, so let us know, we love new tips!

How To Get Perfect Skin From Eating Great Food

Yes, it's true - yippee! Eating is good for you, and it's also good for your skin. Eating is not all about how fat we are all becoming and cutting down things we enjoy. It's true you have to choose the right foods, but as well as enjoying a great and varied diet, you can give your skin a beauty treatment from the inside out. Here are the best of the super foods which can feed, not just body and soul, but also your skin from within.

Get Your Oats

Yes breakfast is the most important meal of the day - particularly because it's pretty easy to incorporate some oats into your diet by either making up some porridge (easy-peasy in the microwave with some semi-skimmed milk or water, and honey), or by indulging in a yummy bowl of muesli. If this sounds boring to you, add some banana or berries for a natural sweet treat. Oats are high in calcium, potassium, magnesium and the skin important vitamin - Vitamin E.

Avocado Heaven

Yummy avocados are packed with potassium, antioxidants and "good" fats and are a heavy-weight champion in the fight against wrinkles. Have one at lunch with some lemon juice squeezed over or make up your own guacamole.

Anyone For Soup?

Not any old soup - that of the watercress variety! Watercress is gorgeous and peppery in salads and is full of Vitamin A and C. It works as a natural antibiotic helping to heal and improve the health of your skin.

Strawberry Surprise

Yes it's a surprise that something so good to eat is so good for you! They are high in iron and cleanse your system which will brighten your skin. Eat them ripe and red, add some natural yogurt and make them into a yummy desert for an after dinner treat.

Melons at Mealtimes

Ever wondered why melons have often been included in starter courses - it's because they give your constitution a boost. They are brilliant at detoxing your body and of course your skin.

Choose Blueberries

Blueberries are oh-so-good for the skin as they help the body to manufacture collagen (which is the glue for our skin cells) and which keeps our skin supple and smooth, i.e. looking young. Blueberries are also full of antioxidants which fight off those free radicals which lead to cell damage and premature aging caused by exposure to sunlight and toxins. What brave little berries.

Craving Carrots?

They may not be your favourite veggie, but carrots can be yummy eaten as baby carrots gently steamed, or raw grated into salads and sandwiches. And when you know that carrots are a mega source of beta-carotene which the body converts to Vitamin A which protects us from dry skin, and that they are also lots of antioxidants which prevent premature aging I am sure you will be heading to the greengrocer for a bunch of the orange veggies.

You Must Be (Brazil) Nuts

A great and handy food for snacking on - Brazil nuts are a great source of selenium which may help acne sufferers, and also improve skin elasticity. Selenium also neutralises those free radicals which damage our skin. Over and above all this, Selenium is great for your hair and nails. Brazil nuts also contain zinc which helps dry skin, eczema and psoriasis. Go nuts on your morning snack break with these little beauties.

Happy eating and happy skin. 

The Best Makeup Tips Ever From The Hollywood Makeup Artists

Have you ever wondered how the makeup artists create the perfect looks for the stars when they have to appear on the red carpet - how do they look so perfect - and stay that way all evening too? What exactly do their makeup artists have in their makeup kits and what techniques are they using? Well here are a few of their tips and secrets shared with us - read on for some goodies ...

Eyes

• Although you may have applied a base makeup, apply a neutral colour eyeshadow to your eyelid and blend towards your brow before applying your chosen colour of eyeshadow as this will create an even base and help build up your colour evenly.
• Use a good quality eye-cream which will keep the skin around your eyes hydrated as it is dehydration that causes fine lines which can be accentuated by makeup. Only use a small amount, about the size of a grain of rice and apply this by patting in a semi-circular motion underneath your eye.
• Eyelash curlers are a must if you are not going to apply false lashes - they are the key to opening up the eye. Find ones that fit neatly over your eyelid and let you get to the root of your lashes with the curler which avoids breakage.

Lips

• Exfoliate any dry skin off your lips before applying lipstick to stop lips looking rough and lined. Use either your toothbrush with toothpaste or add some sugar granules for extra exfoliation power to smooth your lips.
• Matte lipsticks are the latest trend, but you might find them drying. Before applying smooth some lip balm over your newly exfoliated lips - your lipstick will stay matte, but your lips will feel moisturised.
• To get a matte effect with a normal lipstick apply as normal, and then place a tissue over your lips. Brush loose powder through the tissue, this will set the lipstick and give a velvety matte effect.
• Create a Bardot look by applying your foundation over your lips as well as your face.

Skin

• Eliminate shine by using blotting papers rather than powder which can become uneven and clog your pores particularly in a hot environment.
• Ensure that at the end of the night you are cleansing all the makeup and inpurities from your skin - check this out by wiping your face with a white towel or flannel when you have finished cleansing.
• Sculpt your face with your blusher rather than just applying to the apples of your cheeks. Use it along your cheekbones, up towards your temples and blend above the creases of your eyelids for a natural, glowing effect.

Sandra Bullock - Winner Of Best Actress In A Leading Role - Oscars 2010 - Get The Look

Sandra Bullock has just had one of the best weekends of her career, by first turning up at the Golden Raspberry Awards (the Razzies) to accept her award for the Worst Actress for her role in All About Steve, where she handed out free copies of her movie in a delightfully comic way before accepting her Oscar for the Best Actress in a Leading Role with an endearing, but slightly batty speech for her part in The Blind Side. SB is an actress that we all seem to have grown up with (who remembers her in Speed and While You Were Sleeping?) and unbelievably, looking at this picture, she turned 45 last year. She looks amazing in this Marchesa silver gown with straight, sleek locks and classic Hollywood makeup, and if you want to create this style yourself here is how Sandra (or her makeup artist - Angela Levin) did it on the night.

The products Angela used on Sandra were:

• Chanel Hydramax + Active Cream
• Chanel Vitalumiere Satin Smoothing Fluid Makeup in Gentle Ivory
• Chanel Eyeshadow Irreelle Duo Brun Express
• Chanel Inimitable Waterproof Mascara in Noir
• Chanel Tweed Blush Duo in Tweed Rose
• Chanel Rouge Coco Lip Colour in Paris

• Prep the skin with Hydramax + Active Cream or a similar rich moisturiser which ensures there are no dry areas.
• Using a foundation brush apply Chanel Vitalumiere Satin Smoothing Fluid Makeup in Gentle Ivory all over the face. Using a foundation brush ensures a perfect, almost doll like finish, perfect for this Hollywood look.
• Create quite a strong and structured browline using an eyeshadow brush and the soft brown powder in the Irreelle Duo Brun Express. Using shadow creates strong brows, but it is easier to get a smoother effect than when using a brow pencil.
• Again, use the darker shadow around the eyes on both upper and lower lids, blending across the upper lid. Use the lighter shade in the palette over the brow blending into the darker shade on the eyelid.
• Apply two strong coats of Chanel Inimitable Waterproof Mascara in Noir for real glamorous Hollywood starlet lashes.
• Using a lip brush apply the Rouge Coco Lip Colour in the shade Paris.  Take note, all girls obsessed with lip glosses, Chanel has just launched a new campaign (with Vanessa Paradis) promoting the benefits and feel good factor of a glamorous lipstick colour - such a great way to brighten up your look with minimal spend in these credit-crunch times.
• Last of all apply the Chanel Tweed Rose blusher to the apples of the cheeks.
• Sandra's hair was finished in a sleek style by hairdresser Adir Abergel using Fekkai products, but you can do this yourself, by creating a strong side parting and then using straighteners and adding a soft, modern wave to the ends of the hair. 
• Sandra's Marchesa silver embroidered dress is amazing, and best of all Marchesa are British designers.  Unless you can afford their gowns, a similar look would be a lace or embroidered cream evening dress which is just perfect for summer parties.