Now I know that from the title of this post you may have thought twice before reading it, with its cliched Nicholas Sparks kind of title. Although today I may be talking about some heartbreak, fond memories and getting my hopes up (not boy related obviously) but over my first ever foundation. I mean what else is a staple in every girls make-up bag? A foundation. Like the name implies its our first step of becoming young adults and the first step of understanding the art of makeup.  Such a naive time of our lives when our mums, grannies and aunts finally accepted we where growing up and let us paint our faces.

Back in the day when I was just a little 12/13 year old I was never allowed anything more than clear mascara and eyebrow gel, but girls where already experimenting with their Elizabeth Arden creme foundations from 11. So it made me pretty envious back then (poor 12 year old me), how those girls where allowed to make their faces 10x's browner than their neck and I wasn't. I guess now looking back I'm grateful for being forced to wait till I could actually make sense of blending and colour matching to my actual skin tone. I learned that the hard way when I used my half Indian mothers foundation to school one day (obviously once I left the house), and from the neck down I was snow white with a snooki like facial complexion. 

So when I finally hit 14 my aunt (who is like the reason I'm obsessed with all things make up and fashion) took me shopping like she always did every saturday, but this time proposed we went to the Benefit counter. At the time I thought it was her -even though she's a bare minerals lover- but it wasn't till I sat down on the chair and the girl asked me what kind of coverage I wanted. I was all like GDSUFSDKF is this for real? So ended up the girl put this amazing foundation on my face and boom I actually looked like a little princess. The coverage was amazing, it was easy to use, went well on my skin and overall just looked flawless (to 14 year old me). So 5 years later and in the black friday sales I stoated over to the Benefit section in boots and grabbed one, just to see if it was really everything I loved before. 

So I sat down in front of my huge mirror on Friday night before a gig and got ready for the first impression, 5 years later. I had no fake tan on so I figured I would wash then prep my skin with the little testers the girl in boots had given me for free. Ive always used the Porefessional and I have the regular size one but I can't complain when its for nothing. So anyway now my skin was ready I wasn't sure whether to apply it straight on or just use a brush (was honestly so nervous incase it was horrible). So it got planted straight on my face 5 lines at most and then blended out with my Make Up Revolution blending sponge.

I mean it gave coverage as I expected but it wasn't as amazing as I thought it used to be, but know I'm used to liquid foundations maybe that was the problem? It gave a dewy finish but was also quite heavy on my skin. I wore the foundation all night through alcohol inflicted activities and sweating when we were in the gig. To be fair it stayed put and never slid off my face, which was probably what spotty 14 year old me loved. Its a great foundation overall for starting off with and maybe using on nights out, but not everyday because it can feel quite heavy. 

A couple of days later I figured I could mix it up a little bit and play around with the foundation stick in ways I hadn't before, testing it for other uses. I put on my Rimmel Lasting Finish 25 hour foundation in shade 303 (thats my fake tan go to foundation, holy grail I swear) and used the Playstick as a highlight shade under my eyes, the forehead, nose and all the usual places and my MAC Studio Finish concealer in NW40 as a contour shade. Blended all that in and I'm being honest I think I've found my new christmas routine for my face. It went no where, stayed put, kept the tones and any highlight powder was stuck on there as well.

Im thinking the moral to this love story is that 14 year old just assumed this was the only level of coverage and staying power there was in the world. Then 5 years on and many foundation routines later realised that she could use the old and blend it with the new, for that ideal party coverage. Overall Benefit are a great brand for the makeup shy people, the inexperienced and the pro's, this foundation is definitely going into my memory box and staying there.  So comment below, tweet or email me to let me know what your first foundation was, I mean why not go out and buy it and see what you think now (i dare you). As always you'll find everything spoke about today linked below with the best price possible. If you have any questions or need to get a hold of me please don't hesitate to do so.  Have a great day and I'll speak to you tomorrow. 

Email: haute.bothered@gmail.com

Twitter: HauteBothered_

Instagram: Haute_Bothered

Useful Links:Benefit Playstick ,Benefit Porefessional, Benefit B.Right Triple Performing SPF Moisturiser, Rimmel Lasting Finish 25H Foundation, MAC Studio Finish Concealer, Makeup Revolution Pro Blend Sponge

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Know Your Body Shape - Dressing for events

We all know its coming, that one night, out of the ordinary where you can look and feel a million dollars, be it a prom night, award show or cinderella's ball. Its round the corner and now its time to start planning, finding that perfect dress, planning the perfect make up and hair. Despite the excitement it can be some what overwhelming and stressful (don't worry it'll be perfect in the end), so here's me offering a few tips and guidelines to help you out with that planning. As a bridal stylist for the last year, I can shed a bit of light on the subject and share with you my experiences. So where to begin...

The dress obviously! So where to buy from? who can you trust? is it safe to order from abroad?
In my opinion and from others horrible experiences never order from a Chinese wholesaler, if it seems too good to be true then chances are it is. Order from people with legit certificates and are legitimate retailers of for instance; Jovani, Sherri Hill or Tony Bowls. Shop around for the best prices, compare the quality and customer reviews.

Every girl has a certain body shape which suits certain and specific styles of dresses, something that will enhance what God gave you. On a weekly basis, at work, I am expected to know which dresses will suit a girls figure, height and weight (its a tricky job), but when done right leaves a girl feeling $1 million. So what kind of figure do you have?

Triangle : The Triangle shape is defined as shoulders and torso that are narrower than the hips.

Inverted Triangle :This is characterised by having wider shoulders than hips, and wearing a larger size on your top half than on your bottom half. Little definition between waist and hips, the lack of curves at bottom.

Rectangle :Little definition on the waist, your hips and your bust are roughly the same size and there is a small difference between your bust and waist is little.

Hourglass: The bust and hips are well balanced and you have a beautifully defined waist, likely posses a rounded bottom and rounded shoulders which align with hips.

Diamond: The hips are broader than your bust and shoulders, the waist is undefined and the widest part of the frame and lower legs are shapely.

Rounded: The waistline lacks or has no waist definition, hips and bottom may be wide and full along with waist creating a rounder look. (also knows as an Apple body shape)

Pear: The waist is well defined, bust and shoulders proportionally narrower than the hip-line and the thighs and bottoms are full and rounded.

So now you've identified which body shape you are, what kind of dresses should you check out and where?

Start of by looking for legitimate sellers (even if its all the way in NY), shopping round your city to see what kind of dress you can find. However some of us girls don't have that luxury of being able to get the designers labels and styles we want, so we resort to online shopping. The horror stories from ordering online are endlesssssss, from wholesale disaster, international sizing and it not suiting you as it did on that slender 5"8 model. So here are a few of my tips and (from personal experience) tricks on how to have a stress free prom, as far as humanly possible...

• Go online initially, see what kinds of things you are liking, make a note of the style number or screenshot all details on your Ipad, Iphone or tablet. Are you a lace kind of girl? a glitter girl ? or couture chic? you need to know what you love, like and hate.

• Go shopping around some bridal boutiques, special occasions shops and even go check out some bridesmaids dresses. Try anything on, you need to know what suits your figure personally, try column, soft and floaty, mermaid, fishtail, princess... you name it just try it on!!

• From that shopping trip you'll recognise what kind of things suited you, what details, colours and embellishments.. you never know maybe you've already found your dress! But for us indecisive hard to please girls, you've now chopped your online list in half... you better get shopping..

• So way at the beginning you should have set that budget for the dress, taking into accounts things like make up, hair, shoes and accessories... trust me this end is pretty much endless. You have to be reasonable when picking that dress, for you, your mum and her poor bank account. So there's more of those $1,000 dresses of the list.

• Here's the hard part.. picking one! Taking into account everything you have to choose that one dress and its as simple as "which one would suit me better?" , "which can I afford?" and "which one do I remember the most?"

• Hopefully you've chosen the dress, so now to get your size and where to buy from? go on the official retailer website and see where they sell their dresses, most retailers have a list you can view of their suppliers to prevent any fraudulent activity. But since I'm so kind, here are a few I highly recommend: New York Dress, Mack Tak Mart (where I got my Jovani 3008 eek) and Misses Dressy.

• You're ready to order so how do you know your size? well basically, you're going to have to reform back into the good old, original, method of using a measuring tape. Never order a dress guessing your measurements you need to be specific and accurate, I mean its coming from another part of the world, who's to say their returns policy is as lenient as a high street store.

• Wait... ITS HERE. Take it to get some alterations done, plan your hair, bag, shoes and nails all in accordance with that dress. Just double check you have an order number, parcel number and an estimated delivery time. 

I hope these tips are appreciated and help you when buying your fabulous dresses online, It would be awesome if you could share some of you views, experiences, tips and tricks with me. I hope you all look stunning, now I'm away to hunt for my dress for our Italian/Scottish Awards, god how fun! Seriously though, expect me ranting about all the cool websites I've found, not to mention make up, just warning you. Ahh the joys of blogging.

Love Naomi xox

Email: haute.bothered@gmail.com

Twitter: HauteBothered_

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