Posted by admin on Mar 19, 2010 in
Celebrity,
style 
A disused vault filled with rat droppings and crumbling masonry may have put some people off, but Sara Blonstein saw only the potential of the space. The ‘Dead House’ vaults are located under Somerset House and had remained disused for many years, with the walls featuring gravestones of people who had come to rest there. To turn this rather grotty looking cavern into a space worthy of hosting London’s fashion elite was a monumental task, but something Sara saw as a challenge. ‘My first thoughts were, ‘Oh my god- what a natural catwalk!’ she said, and the space is now firmly established as the venue to be at LFW, hosting the Fashion East show.
I went backstage with Sara to see how things worked behind the scenes, and with a show scheduled to start at 1pm, we had an early start of 7am. Her crew were already hard at work, prepping the stage area, planning security and going over the music, and it was intriguing to get a sense of how something like the show is created, as there’s far more than just aesthetics involved. Sara swept in, a vision in a leopard print coat and pink lipstick. Read more…
Tags: Blonstein & Associates, Fashion East, London Fashion week, Sara Blonstein
Posted by admin on Jan 31, 2010 in
Celebrity,
beauty,
lists My teenage days were spent wistfully perusing the counters at Boots, with barely enough money to scrape together the required 99p for a Collection 2000 lippie. I lived in lime green eyeshadow (oh the shame), sprayed Sun-In on my hair and had horrible encounters with the Silkymit and maxipads. Thankfully my beauty routine has progressed considerably (as has my budget) but there are still lessons to be learnt from the beauty blunders that occurred in those days of yore.
In fact many of the mishaps made when I was younger could now be considered cutting edge trends- and I’ll show you how to create them for yourself. Best of all, as they all pay homage to youthful errors, they’re pretty light on the bank balance.
Stripes of hair colour
I’m not sure if it was the fault of Geri Halliwell or the launch of all those coloured mascaras but I know that I desperately wanted to have streaks of purple and pink in my hair when I was young. I did try- but those mascara never worked that well, leaving the hair gritty and feeling rather lank. Once I was in my twenties hair streaks were strictly of the highlighted kind as pink shimmering sections weren’t really suitable for my career path. However, thanks to the likes of Ashley Olsen, Kate Moss and some of the recent catwalk shows, streaks are being taken more seriously, and in a sweet whimsical way. If you’re brave enough you could go for the colour block option seen on the runway at the Alexis Mabille show, but a more wearable look is simply adding streaks to the hair. La Moss went all the way and actually dyed in gray strands as highlights throughout, whilst Olsen’s take on this trend was more of a sugar plum fairy effect, with light wefts of baby blue and lilac. If you’re not brave enough to dye just yet, try clip-ins to give you more confidence, like these good quality ones from Hot Hair here. (only £2.95). Read more…
Tags: A/W 09, Ashley Olsen candy hair, Chanel Particuliere, Christopher Kane, Collection 2000, home hair dye, Impulse, Kate Moss grey hair, multicoloured nails, silkymitt
Posted by admin on Dec 7, 2009 in
Celebrity,
style 
I hate the rain and the cold. Whilst other people love taking their plastic off their winter coats and unfurling last years leather gloves, I cover up in blankets and big slippers whilst chain drinking hot chocolate and coffee. I’m not a fan of rain, drizzle or waking up with my breath crystallized in front of me, and no matter how cute I look in knee high socks I’m 100% in the summer camp. Pretty brollies are my only consolation for months of downpour, and here are my favourites. Read more…
Tags: Lulu Guinness, Rihanna, umbrella
Posted by admin on Oct 12, 2009 in
Celebrity,
opinion
Perhaps I’m naive, and expect slightly more from the youth of today. I can forgive them their gum chewing, cider swilling antics and even shrug nonchalantly as they fill our parks with spittle and cigarette butts, but I’ve just discovered a board game that makes me deplore their long term life choices (and yes, I’m fully aware of how condescending this sounds, having once been a gum-chewing teen myself).
When I was younger it was considered rather scandalous to play Dream Phone - an interactive board game about discovering your secret admirer, with sweet Americanized nothings whispered down a touch-tone pink phone. How we’d giggle as we passed the phone around, feeling slightly outrageous and grown up, never thinking that the next-gen of board games would take things to a whole new level.
Last year’s best-selling perfume wasn’t one of the many high end scents that pushed the boundaries with new ingredients and interesting topnotes, instead it was Stunning, by Katie Price. The bottles design looks like it had been stolen from a kids Barbie’s Dream house, and the smell was pure saccharine, think strawberries and sugar-coated candy with a high level of E-numbers. Considering this, the creation of the ‘Page 3 Idol’ game shouldn’t shock me, but it still does. Read more…
Tags: glamour girls, Katie Price, Page 3 model
Posted by admin on Jun 28, 2009 in
Celebrity,
news,
opinion 
Yes, he’s dead. Yes, it’s very, very tragic. Yes, he did make a major difference to the music scene and make people rethink what they viewed pop music as (and showed us all that money doesn’t always buy a good plastic surgeon).
But c’mon guys, let’s get some perspective on this. I’d like the radio/MTV to be playing something other than his top 50 greatest hits and I really don’t care that much what B-list celebs think about his death (’tragic’ and ‘will be missed’ are seriously overused terms). Death comes to us all, and sure it’s a shock when a public figure pops his cork, (especially if you’ve shelled out for expensive tickets) but why this mass hysteria? Read more…
Tags: cult, hysteria, jade goody, michael jackson
Posted by admin on Jun 25, 2009 in
Celebrity,
beauty 
The amount of fragrance releases that pop into my inbox lead one to think Britain is enjoying a multitude of good weather and a sunny economic climate rather than the most depressing recessions we’ve had since the 50’s (though the current heat wave can’t be denied). Despite the rise of redundancies and doom and gloom the perfume gravy train rolls on, and a trend I’ve noticed is that there are more and more celebrity based scents launching, whilst the big perfumeries are keeping themselves content with one or two launches. So, the big houses are opting for quality rather than quantity (think ‘a scent by Issey Miyake’ and the new Dior fragrance) whilst cheap and cheerful rules the roost in the likes of Superdrug and Boots.
It may come a s a surprise to learn that the bestselling scent of 2008 was not one of the multitudes of scents that were created with a complex artistry of base notes blended with precision worthy to be dissected by Dexter’s scalpel ( my current fave show), but rather the unimpressive artificial candy coated scent that was Stunning by Katie Price (a.k.a Jordan). Yes, I was surprised too- but if that’s the market that has the spare cash (think saved up pocket money/guilt ridden gifts from divorced dads and mini-WAGS) then it’s no surprise that scents like these are being churned out. Read more…
Posted by admin on May 5, 2009 in
Celebrity,
beauty,
opinion 
Since when did being a blue state equate to Double D’s?
There’s no denying the lady on the left is an extremely pretty girl. The skin looks flawless, the eyes are sparkling, oh, and the boobs look every so perky and inviting…
Um. Yeah. The FAKE boobs. I don’t have anything against using surgery to aid and enhance you natural assets but the case of Carrie Prejean is verry disturbing. Take a girl pretty enough to get into the Miss California pageant, add a dash of St Tropez and a low level eating disorder, and you have your standard ‘I want world peace’ stylee contestant’.
So what happened? I guess Carrie was feeling a little insecure about the skimpy attire she had to wear, and went to the pageants helpful aides to see if they could give her some support. I’m hoping she was requesting chicken fillets not silicon surgery, but hey, these things are easy to get confused. Read more…