It’s time for the May favourites. A mixed bag again, this month, as I’m featuring more beauty in the 5 Most-Used videos. So there are two beauty things (both of which you can read more about here on the blog, links below the video pane), one sort-of-beauty favourite and two things for the house. Annoyingly, if you fall in love with either of the interiors favourites, both are one-offs. I reckon my Mum could be enticed into working her magic for profit (she made the amazing wall hanging I feature towards the end of the video) but the mirror was another fine purchase from Wells Reclamation yard (which appears to have become my new spiritual home) and they only had one.

Although I’m sure there are other antique mirrors of a similar style – just be mindful of transportation, if you do happen to get over-excited around oversized objects. (Hello.) Barry the Iron Man, weighing in at 1.5 tonnes, was not at all easy to move – he required a crane on a lorry – and the mirror, which is too heavy to be wall-mounted (it has anti-tip brackets on the back) had to be lifted to the first floor and brought in through a double-window because it was too big to get up the stairs.

Oops.

All of these giant things appearing in the house make me feel a bit like a Borrower. I might start sleeping in a matchbox and eating my dinner off a giant button. I love playing with scale – anything outsized, or miniature, it all really floats my boat. I have no idea where it stems from, but perfectly scaled-up or scaled-down objects fill me with an obscure sort of happiness. Those huge display perfume bottles in department stores, or gigantic reels of cotton in the window of a haberdashery. Very pleasing.

Anyway, enough of my musings and onwards with this month’s video. Or last month’s, I should say – bloody hell this one is really late, isn’t it? I’ve just realised we’re halfway through June! And if you like the interiors stuff, I did a post about my downstairs loo. Just in case you missed it.

Hush Dress*

KIKO Mascara

Guerlain Lipstick

Scamp & Dude Bags

Wells Reclamation Yard

Genesis Research Trust

The post Beauty, Fashion and Home Favourites: May 2018 appeared first on A Model Recommends.

In a Monthly Favourites first, I have included something that only appeared on the scene a few minutes before I started filming. In fact, when I think about it properly, it shouldn’t even be in the June Favourites because I got it in July! Oh well, let’s not split hairs: this find was so amazing it had to be featured immediately. But perhaps what was even more amazing than the find itself was where the find was found.

At a car boot sale.

I have resisted Mr AMR’s attempts to get me to go to a car boot sale for over nine years – I think the last one we went to was in Southampton the year after we got married – but yesterday I agreed to have a mooch around our local one, primarily because the chicken feed shop wasn’t open for another forty minutes and it was too hot to sit in the car. (Oh, how life has changed.)  Anyway, we dondered on in, past the man with the megaphone selling meat from the side of a lorry and there was the Peacock Chair of dreams staring us in the face.

Why on earth nobody had snapped it up I have no idea; an original cane chair from the sixties, great condition, an iconic piece that would look good pretty much anywhere… I’m going to waft about in kaftans and get Mr AMR to take soft-focus backlit photos of me draped over its arms. Hopefully the dog won’t try to eat the new chair, because he quite likes basket-y, rattan-y stuff – he’s chewed my Fortnum & Mason picnic hamper, the little git.

Anyway, sixty quid and now I have a chair that makes any room I put it in look like a set from a retro soft porn film**. Can’t do better than that. (**Apparently.)

Other favourites this month? Two lip things, one bargain dress and a face cream that makes my skin look as though I’ve been on a month-long health retreat. The lipliner isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it’s incredible what a difference it makes to the shape and perceived size of my lips if I just even out the lipline a little bit; not that I particularly want those hyper-pumped lips that are all the rage, I just want to be able to see where my own lips end. Because the boundaries are getting a bit hazy with age, if you catch my drift.

I actually did a post on that a while back – What A Difference A Lip Line Makes. See the before and after pics, if you don’t believe me.

Right, on with the show. Links to the things I chat about are under the video pane!

Chair: car boot sale, £60

Dress, H&M: http://www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.0625480001.html

Clinique Quickliner Intense Sassafras Lip Liner Shade 01*: http://bit.ly/2tKmJWt

L’Oreal Colour Riche Shine shade 247*: https://amzn.to/2IHLFCV

Murad City Skin Overnight Detox Moisturiser*: https://amzn.to/2MycuLO

The post Favourites: June 2018 appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Interesting fact: when I went to write the title of this post I couldn’t remember what year we were in! I typed 2017, but that didn’t look quite right and then I typed 2019 but that just seemed very unfamiliar and then my mind went blank and I simply couldn’t recall any sort of useful information that might give me a clue as to what year we currently reside in.

So that’s promising.

Whilst I still have any kind of memory at all, let’s get on with the July Favourites. You’ll particularly like this month’s favourites video if you are looking for the absolute holy grail of complexion enhancers: there’s a full review coming up, but be prepared to be won over by the Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter based on description (and my crazy rave review) alone.

It’s spectacular stuff – it brightens, evens out skintone, adds a hint of colour and – most importantly – leaves your face with the sort of dewy, summery glow that you’d only get naturally if you had done a three day Yoga retreat in Ibiza. You can find it online here* if you really can’t wait for the before and after pictures – I wear shade 3 but the shades are quite sheer and adaptable, so I also just about get away with a 2.

Also, the amazing Scamp & Dude Charity Swag Bags are back in stock! When we launched them (Caroline Hirons, Ruby Hammer, Sali Hughes and Sam Chapman also designed bags) they sold out almost instantly but there is now more stock, so if you would like to grab yourself the best (huge) beauty bag that money can buy then click here. All of the profits go to our respective charities – mine is the Genesis Research Trust, you can read more about my charity choice here.

Superdrug Solait Sun Spray*: https://bit.ly/2LR6vC1 

Whistles Luna Dress

Gel Nails, I go to Martha at The Suite in Bath, it’s £33 about every three weeks

Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter, shade 3*: http://bit.ly/2NMhflS

Scamp & Dude Charity Swag Bag

The post Favourites: July 2018 appeared first on A Model Recommends.

Well I’m not at all sure what happened to this video when I put it up on Youtube; the views crept in so slowly I thought that maybe I’d accidentally put some kind of explicit content warning on it or applied an age restriction! (Although I’m sure either of those things would make someone want to watch it more.)

Perhaps it was bad timing, or maybe everyone had already used up all of their enthusiasm on Sunday’s video, which was a sort of beauty-centric “Supermarket Sweep”. Who knows? The ways of the internet are beyond me; I mean, who wouldn’t want to watch a video covering such diverse and engaging topics as house-painting, baby-weaning and pink lipstick? All in one place?

The mind boggles.

As well as the aforementioned subjects, there’s also a rather energetic recommendation of a certain skincare wonder: Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting BHA Liquid Exfoliant. Now I’m not going to write too much about it here, because there’s a proper review in the making, but suffice to say this product is – or should be – a beauty cabinet essential for anyone who gets hormonal (or indeed non-hormonal) breakouts. It’s a wipe-on-and-leave salicylic acid that removes dead skin cells from the skin’s surface as well as doing a deeper down de-clogging of the pores. Brilliant for bumpy, pustulous skin, blackheads and also redness. I’ve used this, or a very similar product from Paula’s Choice, for years. I crack it out in my pre-period week to help calm my angry face (shame it can’t do anything for actual, real rage which I get in epic proportions) and it’s just the most convenient, uncomplicated SOS treatment.

(Trial-size Skin Perfecting BHA Liquid online here*, you can find the full-size here*)

I’ve listed my favourites below the video screen – more books than beauty, this month! – but please do click play, if you have the time, as I like to know that you’ve had to endure my waffling. It gives me a sadistic sense of satisfaction.

Photo above included to demonstrate why it’s not a good idea to try and take still life photos with a small child about: two seconds later the entire pile of “favourites” had crashed onto the floor, obviously with the open lipstick landing first and everything else weighing in on top. Obviously. It had to be the scenario that would cause the most mess. By the way, Angelica’s face isn’t dirty – she had been face-painting earlier in the day, which she likes to do herself, using a hand mirror, like a very serious artist doing a self portrait.

Young Gums Weaning Recipes*: https://amzn.to/2NwkQVa David Sedaris Calypso*: https://amzn.to/2Cbcq4H David Sedaris Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls*: https://amzn.to/2BVjuSw Farrow & Ball How to Decorate*: https://amzn.to/2MBmj0j Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting BHA Liquid – £26 at Amazon*: https://amzn.to/2C0CgIs, or FeelUnique*: http://bit.ly/2C1hOak Bobbi Brown Pink Sand Lipstick*: http://bit.ly/2wrwiuP

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