Chezspiration!

Ooh, have you seen Cheryl Cole's new hair?

Picture from http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/494814/cheryl-s-new-long-locks-love-or-hate.html. You can read more about Cheryl there.

Love!

Btw, I love the colour of her dress too.

As unoriginal as it may make me, Cheryl is one of my style inspirations.

This image was found through a Google image search. It is from http://anythinghollywood.com/

I have tried a few different tutorials based on Cheryl's look and in celebration of her new hair (and health), I thought that I would share a couple of them with you.

This first one is based on a couple of tutorials on the Barry M website http://www.barrym.com/lookz/. It was one that I wore out (that is why the photo is blurry. Oops, it seems I was not the only one drinking!) so I did tweak it a little to suit me.

This look uses the Barry M dazzledusts.

I used mushroom (51, my favourite dazzledust) on the lid and chocolate to contour (53). You can see I also used a lot of black shadow and liner. I'm sure for once I actually managed to stick a pair of false lashes on (whoo!) but interestingly they are Nadine's and not Cheryl's from the orginal GA lash collection. I think you can see that I tried to wing the shadow and liner out a bit as Cheryl has that cat look going on. I remember it all got a bit messy and as usual when using dazzledusts, I did the eye look before I did the rest of my face (phew). Hmm, dazzledusts are messy but there is something (maybe the dazzle) very starry and glitzy about them!

I have also created a Cheryl look based on a Pixi2Woo tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCVyEHo5AGA. I was trying to see what colours worked together.
This time I used MAC Sable, Jest and Carbon with lots of liner and mascara to make up the eyes pictured above. Tanya used the MAC lipstick, Girl About Town. However I improvised and used another lipstick, Barry M 144. I love this lipstick but I never really wear it. Well, not outside the house. It is such a beautiful, vibrant colour. It is quite classy too. 

Sometimes it can be hard to find a strong pink that does not look too tacky and indeed, lasts. This pink is blue toned and original. It reminds me of a very, very full on Creme de la femme even though they do not look that alike when swatched.

However, there seems to be a some resemblance between them on the lips. 144 is very, very bright but as I've said before, I like it a lot and would like to wear it out and about. However, I still have one problem. Look at my inner lip here.

I painted it but lipstick just doesn't seem to stay in this area and I always end up with these horrible patches. Does anybody else have this problem, what can I do so that I can wear these beautiful colours?

So what do you think of Cheryl's new hair and her look in general? Who are your style inspirations?

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My July Favourites!

- L'Oreal Volume Million Lash
This mascara has lived up to my initial expectations. It is fantastic. If anything, I like it even more now. I haven't noticed the overpowering scent for a while; the careful light hand approach (which is required) now seems effortless and it still looks very classy in it's gold casing.
You can read my review here http://essjay23x.blogspot.com/2010/07/mascara-mascara.html

- Sable and Satin Taupe
I'm loving Sable eyeshadow at the moment. I know that you might think it quite a dark, heavy colour for the summer but since I've been laying off the foundation, I have needed more striking eye make up. I'm finding that shades closer to my skin tone such as Modellette and All That Glitters just highlight my poor skin and the lack of foundation.
Sable is a way to get striking eyes with the minimal of effort. Colour block it, a slick of mascara and that is my eyes done. I love Satin Taupe but I feel it needs more work (usually with another shadow and liner) to create the same impact.

- Hue
I can never stay away from my first Mac lippie for long. I love Hue. A nice natural, low maintenance lip for the summer. I also like the fact that it is not that red or pink as I'm finding some of my more pink/red lips draw attention to any imperfections or sore skin on my face. You can read more about Hue here http://essjay23x.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/the-first-date-my-mac/

- Lipgloss
I am not the biggest gloss fan but I have worked them a little this month. I'm finding that they have felt increasingly refreshing and moisturising on my lips as the temperature has risen. I have found myself picking up two lipglosses often. One is Underage from Mac ( pictured above). I have always been a bit wary of this gloss as sometimes it looks a bit artificial on my lips and messy like the lipsticks, Barry M 101 and Gosh Darling. However when I use a light hand with Underage, the slight shimmer is much more flattering. You can read about my first impressions of Underage back in January here http://essjay23x.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/the-first-date-my-mac/
Also Kim has done a great review of Underage here http://misskc027.blogspot.com/2010/07/mac-lipglass-comparisons.html.
Gloss-wise, I also like the Jodie Kidd Shell and not just because it was a freebie from a magazine. Shell is very similar to Underage but I prefer the formulation. I find Shell nicer (easier) to apply. I'm always surprised that it looks less pink then Underge in the tube as I think they give a similar finish on the lips with Shell maybe finishing slightly more neatly.


- Dark hair
I have dyed my hair again. Last time I dyed it, I chose Medium Golden Brown. This time, I have gone a shade darker to a Warm Dark Brown and I like it. The Medium Golden Brown was ok but I preferred the colour before it started lifting. So I thought it would be an idea to go one shade darker.

In my dreams, I would love to be a blonde. Oh, how I would! However, I am now starting to face the fact that in reality, I'm always happier when I keep my hair at the dark end of the spectrum. It seems to frame my features better.

- Intimately Beckham
This is an old favourite but I particularly like it in the summer (yes, I do wear it in the day), it is one of those scents that seems to intensify in the heat and linger a while. It is gorgeous and reminds me of carefree days in Ibiza. This perfume never fails to make me smile.

- Eat Love Pray
I have always been a little bit curious about this book. Angela's (http://ohsheglows.com/) recent posts and news of the forthcoming film only heightened this. So when I finally got my hands on Eat Love Pray,  I devoured it in less then a week. It is a brilliant read and very thought provoking. I might go through it again now with a marker. I do like a good quote!

So that was my July favourites. Interestingly, there are not really any new products in there. So that makes me think that either there isn't anything that new and exciting out there at the moment or just maybe I'm getting the hang of this saving thing (yeah, right, after that TopShop haul)! What do you think? Have you any July favourites? Is there anything I'm missing out on?

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