I heart Orange! >

Hi my lovelies,

Happy Hump Day!

Also thought I'd share some pictures of my most recent visit home to the Netherlands to celebrate 'Koninginnedag'. Koninginnedag means Queen's Day, which is a national holiday in the Netherlands. Celebrated on the 30 April, it's the official birthday of Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands. Queen Beatrix's actual birthday is 31 January, 30 April was the birthday of her mother and predecessor, Juliana. The holiday remains as an April observance in honour of Juliana and in the anticipation of better weather than would be encountered in January! On Queens Day the whole country sees large-scale celebrations, with many concerts and special events in public places, particulary in Amsterdam! One basic rule for Queens Day is to wear something ORANGE! People go all up in the 'Orange Madness' by dressing completely in orange, dying their hair, painting their faces and even drinking orange tinted drinks!

For Queens Day this year, me and 25 friends rented a boat to cruise the canals of Amsterdam, saoking up the sun, dancing it up, drinking and basically just having a blast with hundreds of thousands other people in Orange! It was one of the best days of my life, I truly LOVED it...which is probably clear by the constant smile on my face in the pictures below ;)

Looks like crazy fun right? There were about 800,000 people in Amsterdam celebrating that day and you can see the canals and crowds got pretty busy! However, I can definitely recommend anyone to go to Amsterdam one year to celebrate Queens Day. The atmosphere is just so buzzing and friendly, it's hard not to have a great time :) Me and my friends loved it and think I will most certainly be back next year!

Also I will also quickly answer a question I get asked a lot by my international friends!
"What's the deal with Dutch people and (their obsession with) orange, because your flag is red, white and blue?!" The answer: Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family. The lineage of the current dynasty, the House of Oranje-Nassau, dates back to Willem van Oranje (William of Orange). But while the color orange has royal roots in the Netherlands, today it symbolizes a broader pride in the country and in being Dutch! So there you go, maybe you've learned something new today :) I hope you all have a wonderful day! xoxo

Sweet like Chocolate..

So pretty much every girl loves Chocolate, right? Plus a lot of girls also love Bronzer, right? Now you might be thinking, OK Roz where on earth are you going with this, because what do they have to do with each other… Well, let me introduce you to Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder! As you can see it’s a bronzer that looks like Chocolate ♥ :)

I really love this bronzer, and no, that’s not just because it reminds me of Chocolate! The powder is finely milled, blends nicely and it lasts all day on my skin. They say the bronzer is ‘enriched with flecks of gold to give you a radiant but non shiny glow’. You can see the little flecks in the pan but it comes out pretty matte once applied and the colour is a lovely tan shade; not too flat, orange or brown! Personally, it is one of my favourite bronzers to use as a contour as it looks very natural. The bronzer is pressed in a chocolate block form and comes in a cardboard box. It’s pretty sturdy and there’s a lot of product which means it will last for ages. It also smells nice and sweet (not quite like chocolate, but still yummy!)

Check out some looks I did with the bronzer here, here and here. So as you can see, I have been using this bronzer a lot recently and think it’s one of the best drugstore bronzers out there. Keen to try it? Well if so, the good thing is you won’t have to fork out a fortune as this bronzer will only set you back £6.99!

M.A.C BAFTA Runway to Red Carpet Event‏

Last week I was so lucky to be invited to a M·A·C BAFTA Runway to Red Carpet Master-class event! Because M·A·C is the official beauty partner to the Phillis British Academy Film Television awards taking place on Sunday 22 May at Grosvenor House in London, M·A·C Make-Up Artists from the M·A·C Pro Team will be on hand to provide make-up services to VIP's in town for the awards at the M·A·C Beauty Style Suite at Pelham Hotel in South Kensington.  

A group of us bloggers got an amazing look around the Beauty Suites and got to experience a style suite red carpet masterclass hosted by M·A·C senior artists, Lynsey Alexander & Neil Young. They demonstrated two contemporary yet iconic looks and shared many fantastic tips!

Lynsey & Neil in action on the stunning models!

On the night I took some little video's while they were doing the make up and caught some great tips on camera which I wanted to share with you all: 

The finished looks; a modern bright pink lip called 'Show Orchid' & a bronze 'Antiqued' smokey eye!

Don't you think the model on the left looks a bit like Rihanna??? On the right: me with the lovely and talented M·A·C Make-Up Artists Neil & Lynsey!

Here even more top tips on creating stunning red carpet makeup and keeping it camera flawless all evening long! And even though you or I probably won't be attending a red carpet event any time soon haha, I think these tips are perfect for any girl that wants to create beautiful long lasting evening makeup looks:

♥ Lynsey Alexander on skin:

'For camera ready skin it's important to spend a bit of time prepping before you apply foundation. If you have time, exfoliating will ensure your skin is at its smoothest, allowing further products to glide on easily. Add a brightening serum before you apply moisturiser or alternatively a luminising cream such as M·A·C Strobe Liquid. Apply foundation to create a dewy glowing skin, my favourite is 'Studio Sculpt' foundation because it is gel based and acts like a second skin leaving a creamy satin finish on the face.  Set your base with a light sweep of M·A·C Mineralize SPF15 Loose Finishing Powder and make sure you have a blotting compact for touch ups (this will remove shine, without adding more coverage).' Lynsey Alexander

♥ M·A·C Senior Artist Caroline Donnely on highlighting:

'With intense flashes from the cameras on the red carpet the face can sometimes become 'bleached' out, flattening the features. Adding highlights to the cheekbones, cupids bow and brow bones works beautifully. Cult M·A·C product Strobe Cream when applied to the bridge of the nose adds a gorgeous glow as well as to the already mentioned areas'

♥ M·A·C Senior Artist Pablo Rodriguez on eyes:

'Eye makeup for red carpet is generally very neutral. Neutral meaning more brown and greys used rather than any other colour. This however does not mean natural. There is ALWAYS a glamour element to it, Sculpt the eye shape with long socket lines, and shading under the eyes too, M·A·C shadow in Wedge is a great shade to do this with.  Eyebrows must be groomed and defined, but still kept soft. M·A·C brow set in clear is a perfect tool to achieve this!' 

♥ M·A·C Senior Neil Young on Styling your makeup to your outfit:

'There are many ways to approach your makeup styling once you know what you are wearing. If the dress and hair reflects an iconic era then it makes a great statement to continue your makeup along the same theme. We see it often with regards to the classic red lip/brow and a chignon hair style. However try to keep the feel modern by considering texture as much as colour, to bring the makeup up to date and on trend. Be very cautious about matching makeup to the colour of the dress, more often than not a monochromatic makeup works best, so select tones that work with your dress rather than it match it exactly. Also remember, less is more! When the dress is already making a big statement, you can never go wrong with a classic contemporary makeup.'

I truly loved this event! It was fabulous to get one-on-one time with such talented senior makeup artists to be able to ask them questions and I ended up leaving feeling very inspired! :) Now I can't wait to see what looks M·A·C will be creating on the celeb's on May 22 at the BAFTA Awards. Watch this space.... :) xoxo

May Cover Girls =

Sorry, I am a bit late with my May Cover Girls post as the June mags are already hitting the stands. But still quickly wanted to share my May faves :)

The May 2011 edition of Harper's Bazaar features model Kate Moss in Alexander McQueen for their Fashion Royalty issue. As the fashion world honours Alexander McQueen with an exibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, Kate Moss stars in Bazaar’s special double cover May issue. She wears both the ruffled organza dress in which she appeared as a hologram in the A/W 2006 Widows of Culloden show and then in an exquisite white gown from Sarah Burton’s first collection . Love her glowing complextion on the left photo!

January Jones is pretty in purple on the cover of Marie Claire UK’s May issue. I really like her eye makeup in the cover shot! The 33-year-old Mad Men star posed in Gucci for the shoot in Los Angeles. It recently hit the news that January Jones is preggers and that there's no mention of a guy in her life which means she will raising the child as a single mom, interesting goss! ;)

Newly wed Reese Witherspoon is always such a pleasant appearance on every single magazine she covers. This time, the 35-year-old actress is elegantly posing for the Vogue May 2011 issue, the US edition, photographed by Peter Lindbergh. On the cover, Reese wears a Roland Mouret Frits silk and crepe camisole and glamorous marcel waves. The issue also featured some amazing photographs of Reese at the circus in line with her new movie 'Water for Elephants' that has just come out in the UK!

I think the glamorous retro feel of this shoot is just lovely! Her make up in the middle pic is stunning and I adore the red dress!! Reese is definitely one of my favourite Hollywood actresses. I recently watched the movie 'How Do You Know' in which she starred with Owen Wilson and would recommend it, it was super cute!

Glee stars Lea Michele (Rachel), Dianna Argon (Quinn) and Amber Riley (Mercedes) look beautiful in blue for the May 2011 cover of Marie Claire magazine. Not only are ladies featured on a cover together, each received their own separate cover and gave fierce faces.