Alexandra Russell

I have gone off track of what I originally set this blog up for, makeup! So I want to give you guys a full makeup look. This is my day to day makeup looks. It is super easy and simple. I mainly love bold brows and full lips. They are my main features as I feel they are the most important. Brows frame the face and let me tell you. There is nothing more satisfying then someone complimenting your brows. LET THEM SLAY!
Technical difficulty...
I filmed a full tutorial for you guys HOWEVER it stopped filming halfway through! So I am going to talk you through what I did and used and give you a view of the final look.

I always start with moisturising and priming my face. You want your primer to feel tacky and sticky, this makes the foundation go on so nicely.
I switch up what order I do my makeup all the time. Sometimes I do my brows and eye makeup first. Sometimes I do my foundation first, it really depends on how I feel and how much eye makeup I am going to wear. If I wear a lot of eye makeup I complete the eye shadow, eye liner and brows first, go to my full face of makeup and then my mascara afterwards. No particular reason, just that's how I like to do it!
As brows are important to me i love to make sure they are the best they can be! I change the thickness of my brows on a day to day bases. If I feel like I want the Cara Delevigne look I FILL them brows in! I always like to conceal round my brows and highlight my brow bone. Also, I like to brush my hair upwards for a fuller look.
HIGHLIGHTING FOR DAYS! I don't wear highlighter every day but when I do I want to be looking like a disco ball! I think highlighter is so beautiful when done correctly and can make your skin look dewy and healthy. My ultimate go to highlighter is Mac 'Soft and Gentle'.
Finally my fave feature. Lips. Since Kylie Jenner's craze lips are such a huge aspect of makeup. Everyone loves a bold lip however I feel to wear different shades you have to have confidence. A dark colour lip can be hard to pull off, but if applied correctly and worn with attitude it can truly slay. I always line my lips before using lipstick to fill in. I also always mix different shades together to get new colour instead of buying loads of new ones! (I am a true cheap skate)

Hello! I am trying a 'new me' where I am more positive and most importantly, ORGANISED. I am probably the most un-organised and messy person ever, so I am trying to work on that. I've started by most importantly tidying and sorting my room out! This is really important for a clear mind as your room is the first thing you wake up in and the last thing you see at night, if this is tidy you are more than likely going to wake up in a better mood. The next step was to try and wake up earlier and try and have a routine. I never have breakfast and I know how bad this is for you but I am trying to change! Another tip that is helping me is having a planner and writing a 'To Do List'. This is so helpful as you feel a sense of achievement when you tick off something you wanted to do. The planner is to help me remember what I am doing and when I am doing it (I am useless at remembering things!) I also write blog ideas in the planner as well as clients and general appointments. I am thinking of designing the inside prettier as I love to decorate objects. I will do a blog post on this if I decide to do so. If anyone has any tips on how to be organised and generally more positive please let me know!

I'm sure I am far from the only one who wants to rave about LUSH products. I love them! I like the fact that they are 100% natural, from the packaging they are in to the product itself and they are completely against animal testing which i think is such an achievement that they are so successful doing all the right things for the environment. So let me talk about one particular product I am loving at the moment. It's the 'Mask Of Magnanimity'. This is an exfoliating face and body scrub/mask and works wonders. The ingredients include honey, African Marigold Oil, Peppermint Oil, etc. and i am going to talk about a few and the benefit on your skin.

Honey, honey how you thrill me! This is a WONDER product for your skin especially is you are acne prone, it works as a 'shelter' for your spots as it is anti-bacterial so will stop any bacteria getting into the spots. Also its great to help lighten acne scars you may have. It also acts as a moisturiser as the honey locks most moisture into the skin leaving smooth skin. Honey acts as an anti-aging product, which is a bonus for everyone!

Peppermint, not only is peppermint a life saver when you need gum it is also a major savior when it comes to naturally improving your skin! It works as an anti-flammatory which is so important when  you have a breakout and the spot is risen, painful and is embarrassing! Another feature of peppermint is it helps fade redness. We all have those days when we want a makeup free day, but there's nothing worse then your skin looking red without any foundation so this will help towards a more neutral skin tone.

Hair Disaster! As I have said before my hair has not been in the best condition as previously I have always dyed it and bleached as generally neglected it! It was in better condition as I have a 'protopak' treatment by Matrix. It is a Reconstruction treatment adding protein back into your hair and let me say it worked wonders! It improved my hair for a good 2 months however I borrowed my friends straighteners to curl my hair before a night out and they had a scratched plate (I didn't know till after). The  result was my hair getting burnt and fried together; literally felt like barbie hair! I knew I had to get EVEN more chopped off so that's what I did. I LOVE IT! So much healthier and much more sophisticated.                                                                  

 This is my hair when wet, I    did an elasticity test on it and it stretched and broke off, that is a sign of unhealthy hair!  (On the right)




My healthy hair now!

Hello there! Sorry I haven't posted in a while have been very busy recently! To make up for it I will be posting a few times over the week. This post is about skin care. I have suffered with acne for 2 years now and it is the most horrible feeling knowing that your skin is not flawless and doesn't look like every models skin, but with hard work and routine it has really improved. I am going to tell you my 'acne story' but i am no where near 'flawless' skin and i know that but i am a lot happier with my skin now than i was 2 years ago. I have recently had a flare up on my skin but this is to do with me being so busy recently that i have been skipping steps when cleansing my face and sometime skipping it in general and going straight to bed (WORST THING YOU CAN DO). It also has to do with what i have been eating recently as it's Christmas and all the quality streets are out my diet has NOT been at its best therefore reflecting in my skin.I should mention that my skin is combination skin type, in the winter it is especially dry, this is to do with the weather and if I get a cold in the winter my nose and lips get really dry like they are at the moment. So here is my current skin routine and some home made remedies I love love love to use.

Firstly I remove all my makeup with micellar cleansing water which I personal love as it removes my makeup so effortlessly and I feel so refreshed afterwards.                                                                                                                

I then move on to exfoliating my face i don't use a branded one I use honey, sugar and lemon and this really works well with removing any dry skin. I DO NOT exfoliate everyday as this is harsh for your skin, i do this about 2-3 times a week.

At the moment i am using two different cleansers; one in the morning which is a light cleanser by simple. Then at night I use the BEST cleanser I have used which is the Bobbi Brown hydrating cleanser. I love it more than anything, its so nice on my skin and it doesn't feel drying to my skin at all!

Next on to toning my skin, yet again i use simple toner. Toning is such an important step, especially for oily skin as you need to strip away any oil off your skin and it leaves your skin less greasy.

Finally I moisturise my skin. Again in the morning before applying my makeup I use the Simple light moisturiser, At night I use the Bobbi Brown moisturiser which again is an amazing product i leaves my skin so soft. it is a heavy moisturiser so at night it is lovely to use, I personally wouldn't use it in the morning if I was going to be applying makeup after.


This was my skin in June 2013 at the time this was 'clear'. Looking back on this makes me realise how far my skin has come and the pain i used to have compared to now. Acne doesn't just look horrible the pain i used to have with my skin like this was horrendous. They were big lumps under my skin that were painful to touch. My skin is not in anyway clear at the moment but a massive improvement.




And this is my skin today, a major improvement but still on the journey to improval!

This week one of my favourite beauty you tubers, Carli Bybel, posted a video about shaving your face.  My exact thoughts were probably the same as you are thinking, why would a woman shave her face?! But she really changed my opinion and opened my my to this and there are so many amazing benefits to doing this beauty tip. Firstly, your make-up will go on SO much smoother which is always such an amazing feeling for your skin to look more flawless! It is also an amazing exfoliator as it is removing all the dead skin on the top layer of the skin. But the most beneficial pro for me is no dark facial hair! I have naturally dark thick hair and it also shows on my face which is such an insecurity of mine, I've tried waxing my face and threading but personally it wasn't worth the pain as it grew back fairly quick and is an expense to get done! Below I am going to show before and after of my face. I have to clear up with you lot that the hair DOESN'T grow back thicker and darker it grows back exactly the same! (The first two pictures are before and the other two are after)

I know this is a late post about Halloween, I've been crazy busy and haven't had time to post but here I am! I had so many ideas I wanted to do for Halloween but I ended up being an 'angel'. I know scary right.... but I did a cool neck piece inspired by Jordan Hanz. I added my own touch by applying liquid latex cuts and a wax cut. I also added red contact lenses which are so scary to put in your eye and take them out, so worth it though! I paired the make-up with a peach dress and white heels. My hair was in a sleek bun so it didn't distract my make-up.
 My friend wanted help with his make-up as the only costume he had was a robin costume, so to make it more Halloween like we made him 'zombie robin'. It was interesting doing the make-up on a boy because you can define their jawline and cheek bones so much more! Again I used liquid latex and wax to create gashes on his face.