MAY FAVOURITES

I had so many favourites this month that I had to boot a bunch of goods from the list. I was lucky enough to try out a load of new stuff what with the hauls from Europe, the English beauty swap with Ella and a few other naughty purchases. It's been an exciting time for me and my vanity. And yes I mean vanity in both respects. So you know the drill by now, I'm going to drone on for a bit about why I loved zee goods.

FAVOURITE BLOGGERS OF THE MOMENT: ROUND 4

I realized that it's been way too long since I've done a post on my favourite bloggers of the moment. I think it's important for us to support one another as a community and sharing the love posts are a great way to do that. After all, I would be nowhere without the help of other bloggers. So without further adieu, here are the ladies that have been the many apples of my eye. My eyes are filled with apples.

THE TRIA HAIR REMOVAL LASER 4X

I did a bad. I spent a lot of money. I'd been lusting after the Tria Hair Removal Laser for ages and ages and now this tasty treat is finally mine. This post isn't a review by any means, I just wanted to let you guys know that the journey begins now. And it will be narrated by Morgan Freeman... if only in my mind. 

PHOTOGRAPHY: PROPS AND BACKGROUND IDEAS

The right background and props can really make a photo. I find that changing up the background completely alters the tone of the photo. Likewise, props can add that little something something that helps to create some visual interest. However I often find myself feeling stuck when I go to take a photo. Somehow all ideas seem to fall out of my head. So I wrote myself a list of prop and background go-tos and I thought it might be nice to share it with you guys.

HOW TO APPLY LIPSTICK PERFECTLY

Attempting a perfectly lined bold lip is a challenge even for a lot of makeup artists. It takes a steady hand and a butt load of practice. I suppose in a sense I’ve mislead you with the title of this post because, frankly, I’m not always that keen on that perfectly done look anyways. Most of the time I prefer to skip the liner and instead use a technique that leaves your lipstick looking tidy, but not so crisp. Essentially you’ll end up with a good shape, but softer, more gradated edges. I think it makes a bold lipstick look that bit more casual and cool. Here’s the technique:

FAVOURITE YOUTUBERS OF ALL TIME

I have put off writing this post for ages. I guess I wanted to be a little more experienced with Youtube myself before I got into this subject, but the Youtube thing seems to have fallen by the wayside for now. So no more procrastinating. I'm finally talking about my favourite Youtubers. This is a wonderful subject for me because I actually got into Youtube well before I got into the blogging community and a lot of these women ignited my passion for the beauty industry.

A TRICK FOR COATING BLONDE LASHES

One of the best things about going to makeup school was getting to learn tips and tricks from top notch makeup artists. A great little tip I learned from @win_liu was how to fully coat blonde lashes with mascara. It's all down to one simple tool.

4 STEPS TO COVERING REDNESS IN THE SKIN

I'm finally getting around to my follow up post on dealing with redness. I've already addressed preventing and treating redness in the skin, so now it's time to move onto covering redness. Redness, redness, redness. There's going to be a lot of that word today. My philosophy when it comes to evening out the complexion is to use products strategically, rather than piling on a whole load of coverage. That's pretty much my philosophy with makeup in general. So I'd say there are 4 key steps you can take.

THE ENGLISH BEAUTY SWAP

A couple of months ago I got a twitter message from Ella, from Ellabooxo, saying “OMG let's do a beauty swap.” First of all, I love this girl. Her sense of humour is unstoppable. Second of all, OMG yes. Given my obsession with British bloggers/vloggers, you can imagine how long I've lusted after UK cosmetics. Ironically, just a short while after we organized our swap I did a somewhat impromptu trip to Europe, which is how I ended up with doubles of a couple of items. But that's besides the point. Excitement levels were still high on the day that the package arrived on my doorstep.

DESIGNING A BLOG: 10 TIPS I WISH I'D KNOWN PART 2

A few months ago I did the first Designing A Blog: 10 Tips I Wish I'd Known post. When I started brainstorming for that one, I ended up with far too many ideas for just one post. A good two and a half months later, I finally got around to fleshing out my thoughts for round two. As I mentioned in the previous post, I use Blogger, and while some points here may apply to multiple blogging platforms, others will only apply to Blogger.

LAURA MERCIER SECRET CAMOUFLAGE VS MAC STUDIO FINISH

I've been a long time lover of the MAC Studio Finish Concealer. However, I always wondered how the Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage would compare. I looked around for a post on the matter, but I couldn't seem to find one anywhere. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and throw my $41 at Sephora. I just chucked it right at the sales assistant. Right in her face. I kid. But I did take Secret Camouflage home with me, giving me the opportunity to do a little comparison of the two for anyone out there who has also been wondering what the key differences are.

HAPPY ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY!

About a week ago I hit my one year blogiversary. I think I subconsciously put off writing a post about it because I don't even know where to begin, but I'm going to try.

SNIP SNIP, CHOP CHOP: THE LOB

Finally, it's done! I've been wanting to do the chop for ages now, but I'm a total hair-cutting-phobic. When I returned from Europe, however, I was feeling confident and ready to make some changes. My sister, who is also my hairdresser, and I had planned to slowly take up the length so as not to freak me out. I headed over to her house one morning and we cut off a few inches. I went on with my day and the hair loss didn't frighten me at all, so I decided “frack it, let's finish the job!” Later that night we chopped the rest and I was absolutely tickled!

FRENCH PHARMACY SKINCARE HAUL

It's no secret that I love me some French pharmacy skincare. It's the bomb for sensitive skin. On our voyages on the starship Enterprise... I mean of Europe... we conveniently passed through Nice so I did a little skincare shopping. There were quite a few items that I'd been eager to try for some time and I figured, at half the price of what we pay in Canada, now was the time.

HUGE KIKO HAUL

I'm back baby! You may have noticed a serious lack of new posts on Bloomin' Rouge in the past few weeks. That's due to the fact that I was lucky enough to have been living it up in Europe for most of April. Truth be told I was feeling a real lack of creative energy before I left, so I'm hoping the break will have me feeling refreshed and ready for round two.