image by Brad Olson
makeup by Corinna Cooke

Are you dreading Valentine's Day?

Although it can be deliriously lovely for those who are in perfect relationships, Valentine's day can be plain awful for single girls, or girls who's significant other choose not to celebrate it.

You would be surprised how many girls are facing a February 14th spent alone. If you are one of them, don't go feeling bad - take the day into your own hands and have yourself some fun!

The Single Girl's Guide To Surviving Valentine's Day

Plan A Girls' Night Out

Chances are some of your friends don't have Valentine's dates. Get the gang together and go out somewhere fun! Plan something girl-centric, go to your favorite restaurant or go dancing - just make it fun.

Plan A Girls' Night In

Host a girl's-spa night in with wine and appetizers, have a masseuse, a nail person and a makeup artist come over. Turn your home into the most fabulous spa-zone ever!

If everyone else has a date and you are going to be alone, take the time to celebrate yourself.

Get Dressed Up

Even if you don't have a date get dressed up for yourself. Buy a pretty dress, do your hair and makeup, and celebrate you!

Get a Mani/Pedi

When your fingers and toes look and feel lovely, you feel lovely. So what if you are staying home with Netflix??

Take Yourself To Dinner

Get dressed up, grab a good book and take yourself out for a fabulous dinner. Who needs a dinner companion? read a great book instead.

Buy Yourself Some Roses

Who doesn't love flowers? Valentine's is nothing if not the flowers and chocolate holiday, so as kitschy as it may seem, buy yourself an armful of flowers, a box of chocolates and maybe a demi-bouteille of champagne.

Curl Up With A Good Movie

If all else fails, put on some bold red lipstick (the world is more exciting with red lips on!) put your flowers on the coffee table next to your chocolates and some popcorn, and curl up on the couch with Netflix for a romance movie marathon.

Simplify.

Simplify Your Life

One of my major goals for 2017 is to streamline my life a little more. To simplify.

Last year I read Maria Kondo's life changing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

and prompted by a subsequent flood in my house started massively clearing the clutter, cleaning out closets, donating boxes of stuff that we no longer needed, consigning car loads of clothes.

It's amazing how peaceful home feels when you have pared everything down!

Part of simplifying my life has been going back to using a regular day planner. I still keep an electronic calendar on my phone, but there is something soothing about opening a calendar book and seeing my week and my month clearly. Sometimes going old school is cool.

I got this day planner at Barnes and Noble. 

My favorite minimalists on Instagram have been sporting these Daniel Wellington watches. I normally wear heavier, chunkier sports watches, but was so drawn to the chic simplicity of this watch. I pair it with silver bracelets, and it really looks quite sleek.

My makeup obsession at the moment is super gleaming cheeks, feathered eyebrows, a good coat of mascara, and a power lip. My favorite lipstick is Tarte's new Lip Paint in Fly. It is the perfect red-crimson a la Miss Sloane. I think it is far more interesting than a plain red, and the undertones fire up the skin and make it look gorgeous.

I still am an avid coffee drinker, but have scaled back to one cup per day. The rest of the day I drink tea from Teavana. 

When I first moved to America from London I got terribly homesick. I adored living in sunny LA and had no interest in moving back to dreary, rainy old London, but still I ached for a few things British. 

I bought this tea cup in between shoots one day in an antique store on Magnolia in Burbank. It sat idle for a while, but now it serves me Teavana tea all day long. I found some of my Teavana canisters that I had completely forgotten about, and they still had tea in them, which although only a year or so old, I would have thought would have gone stale.

My favorites are Opus Rouge, Citrus lavender sage, and Maharajah Chai Oolong.

I've been making the teas in a French press coffee maker, but I think I'm going to invest in the Breville tea maker or maybe  the Blomus Modern Hot Tea Maker  

Sometimes the simple things in life bring you the most joy.  

  

The Absolute Perfect Red-crimson Lip

Ever since I saw Jessica Chastain’s amazing lip color in Miss Sloane I have been obsessed with finding the ultimate red-crimson lipstick.

I have searched high and low for a color even close to the Miss Sloane lip, but everything I found was too something. Too red (and not all of us can pull off red lips every day) or not blue enough, or too dull, too dark, too pinky, or too lifeless.

On shoots I will just mix up the color I want or need, but in my daily life I need to have a lipstick I can grab and go.

I got super lucky a couple of weeks back when Tarte

sent me a box of makeup to use on my Luca Magazine Spring 2017shoots. The box contained the entire collection of lip paints, and in there was the absolute perfect red-crimson. For me this is the color of the season, and let me tell you why.

Red is great, but it can be overwhelming. For those of us who aren’t supermodels red isn’t always a win, and isn’t always the perfect shade. Sometimes it just feels too much. Sometimes a red lip feels like too much work.

Red can cross the line between projecting confidence and projecting sex-bomberage. One of the reasons I loved Jessica Chastain’s lip in Miss Sloane was that it at all times made you feel that she was in charge, she was powerful, she was strong, but at the same time it eluded the overtly sexy connotations of a traditional red.

Red-crimson is still a sexy color. It’s just a little more manageable. And it’s also a little unpredictable. It goes with so much more in your closet than a regular red does.

 

It looks quite pinky here, but Fly is actually deeper and less pink.
(see Jessica Chastain picture above)

It makes your teeth and the whites of your eyes look sparkling white. It compliments cool skin tones exquisitely, and it leaves your lips looking a little bitten, which is quite alluring!

For spring/summer 2017 bold lips are a major makeup trend. Red-crimson gives you a power lip, but it is a power lip that fires up the gorgeous tones in your skin, looks stunning with a tan, and once again – it goes with verything!

The Tarte red-crimson is in their new Lip Paint collection so it has a matte finish and lasts all day. The color is Fly.

Tarte cosmetics are available at Ulta, Sephora, and on the Tarte website.

There's A Right Way To Burn A Candle...

Did you know that there is a "right" way to burn a candle???
I burn them in my home all the time, but I never thought about there being a right or wrong way to do so.

Tonight, shortly after lighting the candles in my living room, (and not pouring myself a glass of wine because it's dry January) I read this article on Vogue.com and figured maybe some of you would find it interesting too.
That is, if you don't already know the right way to burn a candle...

There’s a Right Way to Burn a Candle: Here’s Everything You Need to Know

by Mackenzie Wagoner for Vogue.com

Malin Goetz Vetivier candle is crisp and clean with notes of fruit and citrus,cloves, cedarwood and vetivier. Available at Space NK

’Tis the season for hibernation. No matter what’s driving you indoors—the recent snow flurries, dipping temperatures, early night falls, or merely disheartening headlines, few things will help you dodge the winter blues like the warm glow of a candle. But whether you crave the inviting fragrance of a fireplace, or the soft, sleep-inducing notes of fresh violets, there’s more to burning a candle than lighting a match. Expert candle burning requires etiquette—a precise art of what, when, and how. According to Alia Raza, cofounder of the conceptual fragrance house Régime des Fleurs (which recently debuted its first collection of candles), sloppy candle maintenance can lead to a lopsided wick that burns more glass than wax, while bad scent judgment could ruin a dinner party. From the importance of lids to picking the best fragrance for every room in your house, here, Raza shares the four simple precepts on how to burn a candle like a grown-up.

Diptique Genevrier smells like Juniper berries. Available at Space NK

Before You Burn, Always Trim
Wick length is a kind of goldilocks variable that can swiftly cut the life of your candle short. Especially with larger candles, which provide more surface area for drifting, a curt wick length will ensure a straighter burn. Trim it right before you burn it every time you burn it, says Raza. As far as length is concerned, “I’ve heard that wicks should be a quarter of an inch, but in my experience, that’s too short,” she says, describing how a diminutive wick can drown and extinguish in molten wax. “Eyeball it for a third of an inch. You can use a special wick trimmer, but I just use small scissors that I keep in a drawer.”

House of Harlow candle set .
Each candle is different: Midnight Moon, Flower Child and Saint James.
Available online at Revolve.com

Consider the Setting
The urge to light a beautiful candle is hard to ignore, but restraint is occasionally necessary. For example, scented candles should never be lit at the table. “Unless you’ve designed your entire meal to be enjoyed around that scent, it’s not appropriate during a meal,” says Raza. A candlelit dinner should only occur with the help of fragrance-free pillars or tea lights. Dens become more welcoming with masculine notes like wood, leather, and cashmere. “It’s more of a cozy, old-world smell,” says Raza, who developed her first collection of candles, Artefacts, with specific rooms in mind. Bathrooms and offices share olfactory requirements for cool, bright scents that smell clean and keep you alert. “A mint candle is not going to put you to sleep,” recommends Raza. Meanwhile, bedrooms call for softer notes like iris and iris root, while, “Violet is nice for a more feminine side.” And white florals will send an inviting message in entranceways, “but really, they’re beautiful anywhere.”

Jo Malone Basil and Neroli candle, available online at Nordstrom

Keep It Lit
“In general, when you burn a candle, and especially the first time you burn it, you want to burn it for about two hours or more, depending on the size of the candle,” says Raza. The idea here is that the entire top layer becomes molten before you extinguish it. “That means the whole surface will burn evenly so it won’t create those dips,” which can deepen, creating a cavernous hole for the wick that can, with run off from the surrounding walls of wax, become permanently lost.

Voluspa Japonica Goji Tarocco Orange candle, available online at Nordstrom.com

Extinguish Gently
Splashes of wax and tilts of wicks are often the result of blowing out a candle with too much force. Sniffers will cut this possibility out of the equation entirely, but Raza recommends gently blowing on the wick and immediately covering the extinguished candle with a lid. “All candles should come with a lid,” says Raza, explaining, “There’s nothing worse than blowing out your candle before you go to sleep to find that your entire room suddenly smells like smoke.” A lid will also keep dust and dirt from settling on your candle wax—just further insurance that you and your candle enjoy a long, beautiful life together.

 Find more articles like this on Vogue.com

Nicole Kidman's Makeup Golden Globes 2017

Nicole Kidman is guaranteed red carpet gold.
She understands the medium, has the panache to pull off any look she wants, whether she is going classic old Hollywood or avant garde nouveau.

I was really disappointed with many of the red carpet makeup looks this golden globes. The looks I liked from a distance looked like un-powdered drag up close. But Nicole's makeup was on point. Probably because of her collaboration with one of my favorite makeup artists, Charlotte Tilbury.

I found the breakdown of Nicole's makeup on People.com

Here is an exerpt from the original article, written by Juliann Ruffo

Nicole Kidman's Glam Squad Takes Us Inside Her Globes Prep

At Sunday night’s Golden Globe awards, Nicole Kidman continued her reign as a red carpet queen, opting for a metallic, sequin encrusted Alexander McQueen gown with statement sleeves and equally dazzling hair and makeup. And because we needed to know exactly how to re-create her look, we tapped her pros — who shared their secrets.

Makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury tells PeopleStyle of the inspiration behind her makeup look, “Her look is dreamy, ethereal, and has a little bit of a rock chick kind of edge to it. She’s wearing a beautiful Alexander McQueen dress that’s tulle and silver, its dreamy.”

Image via People.com

To prep Kidman’s skin, Tilbury applied her new sheet mask, which launches next month, and she describes as an “instant celebrity facial.” Then, she applied her world famous Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream, followed by her Magic Foundation.

Next, the pro filled in Kidman’s eyebrows with a brow gel, before moving onto her eye shadow. First up? The champagne shade from her Uptown Girl eye shadow palette, followed by the minky grey shade all over her lids and underneath her lower lash lines.

image via People.com and Charlotte Tilbury

Then, in order to create the metallic sheen on Kidman’s lids, Tilbury used the glittery silver shade from her  Rock Chick palette, applying it all over the lid using her fingers. “It really plays with the light and picks up the light really beautifully,” she says, adding that she then added a wing with a charcoal grey eye liner, and lined her waterlines with a shimmery brown pencil.

To top it all off, Tilbury added a few swipes of Full Fat Lashes mascara, a bit of contour on her cheeks and temples, and blush on the apples of her cheeks. On her lips? “Kidman’s Kiss — a color that I specifically mixed for her. It’s her favorite lipstick,” Tilbury says.

Lily Collins Makeup Golden Globes 2017

Did you just love Lily Collins' makeup at the Golden Globes this year???

It was probably my favorite look of them all. 

In fact there was plenty of makeup on the red carpet this year that I personally thought was ghastly.

What I loved about Lily's was that it looked fresh.

I always love a makeup that focuses on clean skin, accented brows (without them being Instagram brows!) softly rounded cheeks, and a bold lip. In this case a red/crimson bold lip.

I managed to get the scoop on Lily's lipstick. The shade is so sensational! Note how it compliments and works with the pinks in her eye shadow and dress. It is a perfect shade for spring/summer.

She was wearing Nars Audacious Lipstick in Shirley.

You can order it online at Nordstrom

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I'm always being asked about my favorite things. 
I was given some amazing products in the lead up to Christmas, and I bought some really great items, and some of it got lost in the holiday madness and didn't make it to the blog, but today I want to show you an assortment of my absolute favorite beauty items of the moment.

I have been hearing so much about Sunday Riley products for a while now. My winter Rachel Zoe Box Of Style had a full size jar of Sunday Riley's uber celebrated Tidal Brightening Enzyme Water Cream.

This is the cream that everyone is raving about and I can totally see why! This is a next generation super hydrating cream that holds water and nutrients to the skin, plumping it up and making it look youthful, all the while brightening it and getting rid of that dull, lifeless winter complexion. It is really, really fabulous.
(Tidal is going to be an amazing product to travel with this year too.)
I seriously want to try out the Sunday Riley Juno Hydroactive Cellular Face Oil which I hear is just amazing. It's going to be the next new skin care product that I buy.

You can find Sunday Riley products online at Space NK.

From my Bloomingdale's Beauty Box, which was a birthday gift from Bloomingdale's, I fell in love with the new Tory Burch fragrance, Love Relentlessly.



I have worn it every day for the past month and just adore it. It is pure romance.

Bloomingdale's also gave me my new favorite mascara too. 
It's from Clarins and is called Supra Volume Mascara.

In it's tube it is quite unassuming, and I really thought it would just be a "nice mascara", but this one is an absolute powerhouse lash builder! It makes my lashes huge, but not gunky. They stay defined, separated, long and thick all day long. I am convinced that Supra Volume Mascara is the french girl's secret weapon. 
I was sent so many mascaras last year, most of which I never wrote about as I only talk about the products I love. This one is the real deal.

I am always looking for concealers that I can love. Most either don't hold all day (my days are looooong! I'm constantly leaving home at 8 am and not getting back til 11 pm) or they are too heavy, which just makes you look old and tired, or they don't color correct out the dark shadows well enough.

I am obsessed with Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer. I bought mine at Nordstrom before Thanksgiving and have worn it every day since. My shade is Honey, but they have tons of them, all calibrated with different undertones to color correct out your under eye demons. (10 I think?) They also have a fantastic color selection, so you can be the palest girl or the darkest goddess and they still have you covered.
They don't crease, have a luminous finish that bounces light off, making your eye look refreshed, last all day long, and frankly are the best concealers I have used in years. Love.

From Stila I have been enjoying Aqua Glow Watercolor Blush. 

The colors are fresh and pretty and the product is buildable. 
I love really glowing, gorgeous complexions so often I find that powder blushes can either look heavy on the skin or deaden the glow. This one breathes life into the skin and gives it a gorgeous radiance.

Lastly, my new favorite lip product is Sephora's Lip Stain.
They have a creamy texture but a matte finish, the colors are fabulous, and they only cost $14!!

image via Modern Maires Blog

Every time I walk past a Sephora I go in and buy another one. They are gorgeous!

5 Ways To Detox For The New Year

I absolutely love the Christmas season.
Each year I plan to eat uber healthily, on some form of paleo plan just to avoid the post Christmas cheese hangover and bloat misery, but each year I face those last few days of December feeling hellacious and sprinting towards a New Year detox.
There's no point in starting before New Year's Eve because I'm not going to miss out on champagne and canapes, and with me as of that very first cheat, the proverbial goose is cooked. (so I can't blow the diet in the first couple of days).

If you too are feeling the excesses of the holiday season and want to detox, here are a variety of ways to clean the system and get refreshed for the year ahead.

Exercise
Whether you hit the gym, hit the mat or hit the pavement running, exercise is one of the greatest ways to get your body back into the swing of things and get it detoxifying itself.

Water

I'm sure the worst month of the year for wine stores is January! Take a month off from all alcohol and sugar consumption and give yourself 31 days straight of serious water intake.
Drink it hot with lemon in the mornings, drink it with apple cider vinegar, drink it by itself, just find a way to imbibe as much as possible to flush your system out.

Dandelion Tea

Dandelion tea is known to detox your over-stressed liver, improve your skin and apparently has stomach and digestion benefits.
It actually tastes pretty good too.
I drink it throughout the year when I remember. I buy the Yogi brand at the supermarket, or I order it online at Amazon. When I order it this is the one I get: Dandelion Root Tea - Raw Organic Vitamin Rich Digestive - 1 Pack (20 Bags 2 Grams Each) 

Juicing
I like to have a few juice days before launching into the January diet. It breaks up going cold turkey zero sugar. It also is a little hellish to do, so after 3 or 4 days of it you are soooo excited to get off of it and get into your diet.

Last year I was all inspired by watching food documentaries on Netflix and decided to make my own juices. 

I have a Juiceman JM400 Juiceman Jr. 2-Speed Electric Juicer similar to this one. (Mine is a few years old now).
I absolutely love juicing and make juices throughout the year, but when it came down to living off juices for a few days I got bored with it and stopped doing it.

This year I have ordered Jus by Julie's 5 Day Juice Til Dinner Detox System.

Jus By Julie is a New York based juice company that makes amazing juices and overnights them to you to all 48 continental states and Canada. They have specific cleanses, booster shots, probiotics - all kinds of great stuff. They have a 40% discount going at the moment with free shipping too, so it's quite affordable. There is also a 3 Day Juice Til Dinner if you're not up for 5 days. It's on special right now for $99 with free shipping.

Get 3 Free Protein Juses and Free Shipping when you get the 3 Day JUS Cleanse with coupon code  NEWYEAR99 at JUSbyJulie.com! Valid through 1/9 at 11:59 PM EST - Shop now!

Don't Forget Your Scalp

Part of detoxing is clearing your skin. Body exfoliating, body brushing, detox baths are all things we are well versed in, and generally we have everything we need on hand for them.

Most of us forget to detox the scalp though.

You can use apple cider vinegar to clear flaky scalp or dandruff, but my favorite thing is Nioxin's Scalp Renew Dermabrasion.

I normally do it at the beginning of each season, but during the winter when we are wearing hats and beanies and going in and out of hot and freezing cold air your scalp will absolutely LOVE you if you give it an extra detoxing dermabrasion treatment.

I buy Nioxin hair Dermabrasion Treatment 75 ml / 2.5 oz ANTI-AGING TREATMENT on Amazon. It's not expensive and the results are fabulous. Hair immediately gets bouncy and full and shiny after doing a treatment, which is probably what keeps me coming back for more.