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The Best of Both Seasons?

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My style calendar goes like this: I embrace dressing like a witch in October and November. In December I wear a bit of gold and red and green but mostly I put on as much glitter as possible. In January and Febuary I go back to the jewel tones and berry shades for a while but by March I’m desperate for some sun and start trying to pile layers on under summer dresses and wearing as many bright colours as I can.

I never really want summer to be over. I love summer. I love not being cold. I love barbeques. I love not having to wear a vest and more than one pair of tights. I love long days. I love bright colours. At the moment I’m clinging to summer, even as the days get shorter and darker. Autumn doesn’t really exist, in my opinion – where I live, all the deciduous trees seem to drop their leaves at once, over the space of one day. And it will be raining at the same time, so that there is no crunchiness, only a soggy mush. The ‘slight chill’ will last a week, and then it will be properly, horribly, cold. Until June. I don’t drink coffee, but I put cinnamon in my hot drinks in winter too. And apple pie? Okay, I’ll give you that one, but otherwise the only thing that I really like about autumn is the biennual fashion-discovers-goth phase, which happened last year, so this year the main trend is something else. Chunky knits? Baroque? Stereotypical Russian style? Oh, I don’t know, and I don’t care. The important thing
is that it’s not goth, so hopefully people will be taking all their lovely Autumn/Winter 2012 clothes to the charity shops for me to buy, as soon as my mind is done with its current tug of war.

I want to resist the cold with the aid of bright pink and purple and turquoise, but I also love the more autumn-appropriate berry shades – dark purples and reds and blues and greens. I’ve decided to deal with this dilemma by getting out all of my most autumnal nail polishes. I will keep wearing my summery pink cardigans but paint my fingernails dark purple. My bright violet skirts and dresses will go perfectly with dark raspberry nails. Most of my hats and scarves are dark berry colours, or grey, so I can co-ordinate with those.

And by the time I’m bored of this combo, it will probably be Christmas time, and I can bring on the glitter!

How do you feel about the coming of winter? Or are you one of those lucky people in the southern hemisphere, who still have summer to look forward to this year?

4 Make-up Products That I Can’t Get Excited About

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I am thrilled by the sight of colourful, sparkly eyeshadows. I love reading perfume reviews, even though I want to smell perfume before I buy it. If a blogger has reviewed a new lipstick range, I feel kind of like it’s Christmas. However, there are some products that I just don’t care about. I may not be using the Best Ever version of that product, but I can’t be bothered to ruthlessly hunt it down.

1. Foundation

I only wear foundation because heavy eyeshadow and under-eye concealer looks really weird on me if I don’t have something on the rest of my face. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed about covering my spots and freckles, but now I rarely get massive spots and quite like my freckles.  Unfortunately, even the thinnest layer of foundation seems cover to them up.

I have tried four foundations in my life. The first was a Rimmel stick foundation. I went through several tubes because they were often on sale for only a few pounds at my local pharmacy. Then when that supply ran out, I moved onto Stay Matte because it was the cheapest. Finally, I tried the Cool Matte mousse foundation in the lightest shade, but it oxidised and went orange just the same.

Finally, I was old enough to own a debit card, and I orderedsome samples of Lily Lolo’s foundation. I found a good enough match in ‘Porcelain’, and haven’t bought another foundation since.

2. Bronzer

I am resolutely pale. I bought a bronzer once, in my teens. I applied it so sparingly to my face that it didn’t show up. I used it as an eyeshadow a couple of times, then passed it on to my sister.

3. Blush

I own four blushers. A light pink one, a really light pink one, a darker rose one, and a bright almost florescent magenta. This is already two more than I actually need. I do read reviews of blush, and occasionally I bookmark one, but every one I like is an almost-dupe for one of the four I already own. I don’t see the point in buying them, so I don’t.

4. Mascara

I love mascara. I always have and always will, but it’s just not exciting. I’ve yet to find a realy great purple mascara, though I always have three black mascaras on the go. One that I’ve had open for a while, for ‘natural’ lashes; a newer one, for when I’m going out; and a double-ender, for when I want extra volume.

I’ve found that the brands don’t really matter. As long as the mascara is of the ‘volumising’ variety, it usually works fine. I really like the Benefit Bad Gal mascara, but that’s only because it is the least clumpy mascara that I have ever tried. I don’t think that it’s any more volumising or black than any other I’ve tried, but it’s so clump-resistant that I can wear three coats without it looking ridiculous. I pulled out the stopper on this tiny sample about a month ago and it’s still not really going clumpy. I’m not sure I’ll be buying the full size any time soon, as it’s £17.50.

Do you love all types or  make-up products, or are there some things that aren’t your cup of tea? Can you get excited over these basic items?