April - Monthly Beauty Favourites + Pop Culture Loves

April.

For me, April is a month of great change, a sentiment shared by the legendary make-up artist, Mary Greenwell of whom I interviewed earlier this month for one of my client’s digital magazines. It was such a great honour to be able to chat so candidly with Mary about her enviable career working with the original supermodels, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, as well as her transformative work with the beautiful, Diana Princess Of Wales. You can find the article HERE if you’re interested.

I was also extremely lucky to be invited to the opening of a new restaurant in Liverpool named, The Florist which has taken residency in The Old Blind School Building. The restaurant, which is spread over multiple floors, is adorned from floor to ceiling with beautiful flowers. Adam and I were invited to try their Sunday Roast which I hope the picture below is doing justice because it was simply divine. I had the lamb with homegrown mint sauce and cauliflower cheese and Adam had the belly pork, both were far from mean on the portion size and incredibly tasty. We finished our meal with a sharing bowl of the most scrumptious apple crumble and custard that I’ve ever eaten in my life. If you’re in Liverpool, you must call into The Florist, even if only for one of their beautifully crafted cocktails -I recommend the coconut and poppy mojito from their English garden cocktail menu.

Wearing my Ruflixoo red tartan scarf, the softest scarf I’ve ever worn | Roast Dinner + cocktails @ The Florist | The most beautiful arrangement of flowers suspended from the ceiling, can I have this in my house?

WATCHING. READING. LISTENING TO AND MORE.

Reading.

I know that Christie Watson’s powerful book extract focusing on 20 years on the front line of the NHS for The Times has been shared to death in the zeitgeist, but I wanted to include it here, because not only did it strike a nerve with me, but it is also one of the most insightful, no bullshit pieces of writing I’ve ever read. Christie worked as a nurse for the NHS for 20 years, in her upcoming book, of which The Times extract is taken from, Christie discusses what it’s really like working in different areas of the NHS from paediatrics to A+E to palliative care and more. There are no filters here, it’s real life. If you read one thing today, make it this.

I also really enjoyed this blog post by Lily Pebbles where Lily reflects on her experiences getting tattoos over the years. I particularly loved (and deeply resonated) with this part:

“I honestly disliked every single tattoo experience I had. I don’t mean to generalise, but they were all men and every single one made me feel rushed, intimidated and inexperienced. I’ve said for years that there’s a gap in the market for a tattoo parlour for either first-timers or for people who have just a few small tattoos… because it’s different, it just is. Often tattoo artists won’t draw the design for you ahead of time to think about it because they’re worried you’ll take the design elsewhere to be done. So you arrive on the day, you’re shown a design and unless they actively say “don’t worry, take your time and any changes you want to be made can absolutely be made”, you feel really guilty and embarrassed asking them to change things. There’s a pressure, a time constraint and I’ve many times in the past been told: “no, that’s the best I can do”. In the past, I’d paid deposits, booked appointments months in advance and it doesn’t feel easy to stick up for yourself, especially in an environment that feels alien to you (most the tattoo parlours I’ve been to are quite scary inside).“

I completely agree with Lily here, I’ve only had two tattoo experiences, one here in the UK and the other in America, with my first tattoo I experienced exactly what Lily is talking about. The whole process felt totally overwhelming to a tat first timer.

Podcasts.

My favourite podcast this month was an episode of ‘Desert Island Dishes‘ – in-particular the episode with Levi Roots of Reggae, Reggae sauce fame. I had obviously watched Levi on Dragon’s Den many moons ago, and there is indeed a bottle of Reggae Reggae sauce in my pantry however, I was really inspired by Levi’s episode where he talks about his work with Princes’ Trust, the close relationship he had with his Grandmother in Jamaica, before moving to the UK age 11 and how his humble jerk sauce made in his kitchen was snapped up on scale by a major supermarket.

I’ve also been catching up on the ‘Re-issued’ Desert Island Discs, as the programme/ Kirsty is taking a break at the moment, some iconic back episodes have been republished. I listed to Steven Hawking’s 1992 episode with Sue Lawley on a whim and I was mesmerised by Steven’s eloquence and sense of humour, not to mention his penchant for classical music.

I also, more recently listened to Annie Lennox’s, 2008 episode, what a soothing voice Annie has! A delight to listen to, Annie is someone who really appreciates the composition of music. I loved the way she identifies with particular music of a certain time or era because of the messages and mood it gives out. I share this same sentiment with music from the 1980s incidentally. Annie also introduce me to The Blue Nile, a Scottish folk-ambient band, rather ironically famed for their inaccessibility and infrequency of recordings.

Other podcasts to listen to…

Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place interview with Kirsty Young

Lily Pebbles on The Emma Guns Show discussing Friendship, entrepreneurship and honesty

Watching.

It’s certainly felt like royal family mania at the moment and amongst babies and that Camilla documentary I LOVED the Queen’s Green Planet with David Attenborough where Queenie and Sir David took a stroll around Buckingham Palace gardens looking at the different plants and trees planted there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Queen as animated, she came across really human and far less stuffy than I imagined.

BEAUTY FAVOURITES.

Body.

I’m back on the fake tan wagon, well on a part-time basis I guess. When we were treated to the beautifully sunny weather the week before last, I decided to whip out the gradual tanning moisturisers in order to not look quite so pasty. My current favourite is the Palmers Cocoa Butter Natural Bronze Tan Lotion. It doesn’t streak, smells divine and offers a really nice colour payoff.

Sticking with the self-tanning theme, I also bought a bottle of Hi Glow shimmer oil which is a tanning range by Rochelle Humes and stocked in Superdrug. Simply give the bottle a vigorous shake and the shimmery oil formula applies to the skin beautifully. The shimmer payoff is very, very subtle and in my opinion, could do with being amped up a little bit but the moisturising oil is lovely for patting onto your collarbone, arms or cheeks when the sun is shining.

Fragrance.

As I mentioned earlier on, I had the great privilege of interviewing Mary Greenwell which inspired me to seek out her fragrance range, sadly now discontinued. From Mary’s line, I chose ‘Plum‘ – her first fragrance featuring notes of white floral (my favourites) tuberose, fruit to name but a few. This is a very elegant, grown-up scent which I can totally imagine Mary wearing. You can tell that this perfume was made for the premium market as the bottle, particularly the lid is extremely weighty. I really want to try Mary’s Fire next.

Makeup / Skincare.

I have a secret place that I like to go to find discounted makeup and whilst a lady never tells, I can say that this shop has the best collection of Cover Girl cosmetics (Maybelline here the UK) I’ve recently been coveting the Lash Effect mascara, the thin, plastic wand helps to really dig into those lash roots and help lengthen and curl my lashes. I’ve been teaming a basic makeup look comprising of just one swipe of mascara with my favourite lip stain/balm of the moment ‘Crush‘ from Glossier.

I’ve waxed lyrical about my love for Olay skincare and as the slightly warmer weather sets in I’ve been using their Complete BB Cream in Fair, the colour blends into the skin, matching the pigment and tone, though I must add this formula is slightly on the warm side. I like how much of a healthy glow it gives me whilst evening out my skintone. It’s perfect for everyday use when you don’t want to wear a full coverage base.