I’ll be the first to admit it; I rarely switch off from beauty-based thoughts. My YouTube sub box is crammed with ammunition, a quick tour of my flat serves as a visual reminder that I never need to buy another bathing-related product ever again and my reading material? Yep, you’ve guessed it – on the whole concerns the beauty world once again. And my latest Amazon order only adds fuel to the (mentioned above) fire…
If you’re new round these parts you may not have heard me talk about Cosmopolitan magazine before; the US-based Hearst Communications’ fashion-centric publication, a.k.a ‘The Best Damn Magazine Ever’. If you’re a G&M old-timer then you’ve probably just sighed a ‘not again Gauri’ groan. It’s OK. I’ll make this one quick. It dawned on me the other day while having a flick through their latest issue that this mag is one great learning tool. For someone who’s loved beauty for donkeys years and has slowly chipped away at practically every beauty tutorial on YouTube ever made over the years, discovering something brand-spanking new isn’t always easy. So here’s my top five tips and tricks that I’ve absorbed from the pages of Cosmopolitan that may be fresh fodder for you too:
I was thinking the other day during one of my makeup musing moments that usually occur on the bus mid-Candy Crush, how back in the day when I was a student at college no one really wore red lipstick. I was really trying to rack my brains, but I seem to remember we were all in the grips of a slick of nude gloss on the lips, if that. Now bold lips are a bit of a daily norm. I even sported Shiseido Lipstick in RS 452 the other day with not much else in a last ditch attempt to channel some Parisian chic into my look, though it probably ended up looking like ‘sweaty girl who’s gone a bit too crazy in Big Bazaar and now can’t carry it all home’ chic. In fact one of my favourite parts of getting ready to go out is seeing what my lipstick adventurous best friend, is going to put on her pout. Hint: it’s usually a MAC Lipstick. But equally I still love a nude, albeit not the porno lips we all were pulling out a few years back – hello MAC Myth – but a ‘my lips but better’ shade equally balanced in the brown, pink and beige departments. But the question is, what one rules supreme in the lipstick charts now: bold or nude? There used to be a clear winner, but now the game has changed.
It dawned on me the other day that if I was to be put on the spot and asked to pinpoint my favourite beauty brand ever, I would probably end up ummm-ing and ahhh-ing for a good five minutes before concluding with a confused shrug. So deep I know. I can only imagine it’s like picking a favourite child (I kid, I kid). Though there are some brands who bring it across the board and who don’t really disappoint whatever product I decide to try and buy from them. So here they are; four G&M-approved suggestions that would be front runners for the aforementioned question…
Here’s a bit of backstory for you. Late last month I jacked in my role in marketing and decided to go it alone with the whole G&M thang. After squirreling away on it for three years it was finally at a place where I could pump my blood, sweat, tears and makeup musings into it as a more full-time thing, so for the past four weeks I’ve been working from home as a one man band. Just me, my laptop and a stack of beauty bits along with the occasional tub of Baskin & Robbins. A bit of luck combined with many the late-night post writing sesh has paid off and life is good. But don’t start getting grand visions of a Pinterest-able desk area; I currently work wedged between my sofa and coffee-table-turned-lipstick-strewn-control room. Cramped, but comfy. Obvious PJ-wearing benefits aside one good thing about being home bound is that I can go barefaced and layer-up the skincare throughout the day without getting shot bewildered stares, tending to puffy eyes and pesky oily patches while penning posts and here’s what’s currently making the coffee table cut…
I love a good peruse on Instagram I do. Pretty pictures of well laid out makeup, manied-up nails, people’s cats, lunch – I’m there scrolling and liking away. It’s up there in my favourite ways to while away the time with Candy Crush (don’t even talk to me about Level 33). I follow almost 200 accounts – told you I was an addict – so cutting it down for this post was tough but here’s a handful of snappers who are right on the beauty beat and well worth a follow…
Here’s a little confession for you – I’m horrendously unfit. So unfit in fact that even just a short sprint to catch the bus leaves me feeling wheezy, puffy and I spend the rest of the bus journey with my elbows in the air to resist the pesky sweat patches that are desperately trying to break through. After numerous repeats of this episode, combined with the whole ‘beauty from within’, your skin will thank you etc etc thing (and a new found love for Nike town), I’ve decided to step up my non-existent exercise routine. Feel. The. Burn. Having not partaken in any type of physical activity since P.T lessons at school it’s quite the task, so I’m starting off small. The discovery that a journey round the block equates exactly to one km was a good one, so I’m treating it as a lap and attempting to jog round every other morning (the earlier the better, not as many people about to gasp and groan in the faces of) until I feel up to increasing the mileage. After a week or two of this routine I still have to hold something when I reach the finishing line, but I’m working on it and slowly but surely I’m coming for two km.
