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Friday, August 10

VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Stick

One of the items that was in my June GlossyBox was a small starter kit for the VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Foundation Cream stick.  The handy little kit contained 6 sample shades so you could find out what shade would provide you with perfect coverage.
The VICHY Dermablend stick is marketed as a ‘corrective foundation’ to provide the most complete, natural looking coverage for face and body imperfections. It contains 40% pigment concentration which makes it ideal for camouflage of skin concerns such as dark circles, acne marks, scarring, bruising, redness and dark spots. It promises to be long lasting (up to eight hours) and it is fragrance-free, waterproof and smudge resistant.
I think this would be a great foundation for someone with problem skin or if you prefer quite heavy coverage to block out any redness or pigmentation on your face. However for my complexion it seemed a little too heavy and creamy to apply all over my face so I decided to start using it as a concealer instead. And boy am I glad I did, this immediately became my favourite concealer! After trying a few of the shades I found that Nude (14) and Light (13) were most suited for me as a concealer to cover under eyes dark circles, spots and pigmentation; which I (unfortunately) get a lot more of during summer time.

So once my sample kit started running low I decided to buy the full VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Foundation Cream stick in Nude. It retails for £19 which is a bit more expensive than my usual MAC Studio Finish concealer (£14.50) but the Vichy stick is 12grams in comparison to 7grams for the MAC one so it will last me a lot longer!

It retails for £19 which is a bit more expensive than my usual MAC Studio Finish concealer (£14.50) but the Vichy stick is 12grams in comparison to 7grams for the MAC one so it will last me a lot longer!
Swatched and below blended out on my hand...

I normally just glide the stick under my eye and dab it in gently with my finger (you should never rub too much on the delicate skin area under your eyes) plus I apply it to any other small spots I might have and around the side of my nostrils. I am really happy I found this product so this does show the benefit of beauty box subscriptions like GlossyBox because otherwise I probably would never have tried the VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Stick.

VICHY products are available online here or you can find it at your local Boots store or Boots.com.
If you want to try the sample kit first to play with the product and to find your perfect shade you can actually buy the little starter kit for £4.99 online, which I think is super handy! (link).

Have you ever tried any other VICHY products that you'd recommend?

Wednesday, August 8

Birthday Celebrations =

Instead of moping about turning yet another year older, I decided to just embrace it by throwing a party to celebrate my birthday with some of my closest friends in London. And when I think celebration; I think of champagne or bubbles! So when I found out about a company that could provide cold flowing Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine) by the keg making it available on tap in the convenience of your own house; the idea of my birthday ‘Prosecco Party’ was born! So me and my flatmate ordered two kegs to be delivered to our house and it was set up with a cooler and tap to allow the bubbles to flow all night long.....
Here you can see our own 'Prosecco bar' attached to two (20 litre) kegs!
 Fore more information on how to rent-a-keg of Prosecco, click here.

My birthday celebrations officially kicked off already on Friday when I received a lovely bunch of flowers from a friend of mine delivered to work. Also it is a Dutch tradition to provide cake or sweets to your office to treat co-workers on your birthday so the night before I baked a delicious (if I say so myself) Lemon Syrup Cake. It was super easy to make and disappeared rather quickly at work :)
The recipe is from Nigella Lawson and you can download the recipe here.

The girls at the office also got me this amazing birthday card.....
Appropriate much? :)

On Saturday was the night of the party; where the drinks flowed, the music pumped and the laughs and chatter was all around. It continued on until the wee hours of the morning and I loved spending my birthday with some of my favourite people! I didn't end up getting many pictures because when 'hosting' you tend to get so busy mingling with everyone but here a couple of shots from the night!
I treated myself to a new dress for the party! I wanted something fun and colourful and this turquoise knitted panel bodycon dress from Lipsy fit the bill perfectly. It was £48 and you can buy it here.
Many many people crammed into our house!

And then my wonderful friends even surprised me with hummingbird cupcakes, candles and singing me Happy Birthday! I feel truly blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life ♥  It was the best birthday ever and I am excited to see what my 28th life year will bring me :)
Happy Hump Day! xoxo

Sunday, August 5

My Yacht Week Photo Diary

Warning warning, this post is very picture heavy. But as promised here a photo diary of my holiday in Croatia with The Yacht Week!

I think these photos speak for themselves that I had a pretty incredible time.....
Lots of Yacht Week boats, beautiful sunsets on the water, partying in Hvar and some sailing lessons
Sunset photoshoots
 
Sailing and soaking up the sun

Pre-party prosecco on the boat in Palmizana marina before heading to Hvar

Hvar Town
 
Hvar Day! Jump if you are having fun :)


Group shots with the skipper in the mast!
Exploring the beautiful Croatia!
The old fort party in Vis! 
The last day; the Yacht Week sailing regatta!

Our boat 'Team Nauti'
Me; Roxy....A Little Nauti? Never ;)
The last day, leaving our boat again after the most amazing week!

I have the most amazing memories of this trip that will last me a lifetime and I was lucky to meet some fantastic new people along the way. After a week of sailing. lots of partying and not a lot of sleeping, I do admit it I was a bit of a broken woman on my return to London and my own bed had never felt so good :) Fore more information or to book your Yacht Week holiday check out their website www.theyachtweek.com/.

Friday, August 3

More Shellac Nails: French Manicure

After my last experience with Shellac (read here) I just couldn't wait to get my nails done again! Having perfectly manicured nails for two weeks is proving addictive already :)
This time I went for classic, elegant and timeless; a french manicure!
PS....can you guess what I am holding here???
I love the classic look of a french manicure and having this chip free for 2 weeks is just brilliant!
They used CND polishes in the shades 'beau' and 'studio white' for this manicure.

TADA......Yes I am indeed holding a little blue box from Tiffany & Co! LUCKY ME :)

Why? Well it's my birthday tomorrow and it is a bit of a yearly tradition to get some T&C goodness for my birthday. See previous presents here and here. This present is from my parents and I can't wait to open it tomorrow morning. I already know what it is but you will just have to wait until I show you later this week :) This item has been on my Tiffany's wish list for a while...what's on your list?

I hope you all have an amazing weekend!
I will be celebrating turning another year older with friends over lots of prosecco and cake ♥