These days, I'm all about speed.
With two small children to get dressed, fed and out of the house, I have ten minutes tops to get my glam on.
What is a beauty addict to do? Developing a quick and dirty routine with multi tasking products is the only way to go. This is something I've been working on since having my son five years ago, and I like to think I've got it down to a bit of an art now.
So in celebration of all the time-poor working mums out there who still want to rock the war paint, I'm starting a series of posts dedicated to quick and easy looks, starting with this take on 'soft glam'.
Soft glam is a very Instagram thing. It's all about trying to get that hyper-real gently, filtered look in real life.
Glowing skin, glossy lips, warm eyes and fluffy brows and lashes are the goal. There should be no hard edges here - everything needs to look hazy and diffused.
So what are the steps to getting there and how do you do it in ten minutes?
From supply shortages of key products to sacking off make-up without a daily commute or an office to go to, through to making more time for face masks or learning what eye makeup compliments a face mask - there’s no doubt that Covid-19 has had an impact on our glam.
For me, beauty has provided a little bit of escapism in a stressful world. I do go through a phase where I couldn’t be bothered to make any effort at all, but I soon realised that make-up is a part of who I am. I see the act of putting it on in the morning as a tiny, ten minute sliver of ‘me time’ in a day full of work and childcare.
If I look better, I feel better, so I soon worked out that even if I wasn’t leaving the house, it was better for me if I carried on with as much normality as possible. I’ve always said the real me wears eyeliner!
And discovering new products still continues to be a source of pleasure in a time when most of ours have been cancelled. I’ve discovered some game changing beauty products lately, and I hope that sharing them might lift your spirits a little as well as mine.
And when my husband and I headed out for tapas at Escabeche the other night, we could almost kid ourselves that we were back in our pre-pandemic lives for a few hours.
The restaurant is a place that we’ve enjoyed dinner with friends many times in the past. There were delicious Catalan flatbreads, the signature Baresca meatballs, spicy patatas bravas and of course, the sinful-but-delicious churros to finish, with the usual lovely atmosphere and friendly service we’ve always loved there.
To top if off, it was one of those evenings where the air felt balmy and rich, so we could almost kid ourselves we were on holiday, which is one thing we have seriously missed this year.
So of course, an outfit post had to be done!
My love for Beauty Pie just grows and grows.
Since signing up way back in March 2017, I’ve seen the brand go from strength to strength, improving their formulas, launching exclusive products and expanding from skincare into colour cosmetics, body care, hair products and even things like scented candles and travel bags.
Now every month brings some new launches that keep things interesting but also make it much harder to decide what to spend allowance on!
If you don’t know how Beauty Pie works, my initial post explains the model - but basically it’s a membership offering luxury formulation beauty products for less.
It’s not without it's problems - the spending allowance can be problematic, and they’re very prone to annoying stock issues with things being impossible to get hold of for months, but in my opinion the good outweighs the bad.
I now purchase almost all of my skincare products from them and increasingly a lot of my daily make-up items too, which means being a member makes perfect sense for me.
In fact, there are some items that have made it onto the list of my can’t-go-without items, so Beauty Pie have a fan for life in me.
I thought I’d share the latest order I made with them - a mixture of new products (some of which have rapidly become essentials) and a couple of tried-and-tested favourites.
It’s the particular combination of effortless insouciance and perfectly chosen combinations that captivates me. On the surface, it's a contradiction - how can something be both so simple and yet so nuanced? And yet it’s precisely by putting in the planning - understanding the items and colourways, what shapes go together etc - that French women can achieve that throw-on-and-go effect.
It appeals to me for so many reasons. It’s utterly timeless and never looks ‘too much’. It’s polished but not overly groomed. And as someone with very limited time, the appeal of a selection of well-chosen basics is strong.
So recently, I’ve resolved to ‘be more French’ in my approach. This doesn’t come naturally to me. For a start, I’m a bit of a magpie, drawn to different styles in a way that is sometimes less than considered. I’m also a bit too try-hard by French girl standards - I love a good contour and I don’t leave the house without eyelash extensions, which is way over the top for this style. But it’s something to aspire to and aim for, and as I get older I find it easier to stick to one tried-and-tested thing.
I adore French style icons - especially Jeanne Damas, Camille Charriere, Monica de La Villardiere and Sabina Socol. Plus, my family are French on my mother’s side, so I’m going to claim that and milk it for all it's worth. Years of following these French style influencers has helped me understand the building blocks of ‘French style’, if such a thing can be claimed. So what are the key pieces to pulling together the look?
I can't really remember the last time I went into a physical shop other than a supermarket, which is crazy. But recently, the office I worked at shut down for good (I'm now officially permanently home-based, at least until they lease a new premises!) and I went in to clear out my desk.
As I was in the city centre, I decided to pop into Primark. I was on the hunt for some of their lash cluster sets, and I also like to look for basics and trend led pieces if I ever go there. There's nowhere quite like it, after all. No item was over £15.00, and the choice on offer was amazing.
So here's what caught my eye this time….
