NOTW - Tinsel and Holly (18/12/12)

Hey there everyone!

Kindly excuse my prolonged absence - I'm currently going through a series of events (some unfortunate, some not so much) and was lacking in time (and, admittedly, inspiration) for blog posts...

However, yesterday evening, inspiration struck in the form of an awesome Christmassy nail tutorial by one of my favourite nail bloggers - Nailside... It's so simple, yet so chic and festive that I absolutely had to try it!

My Tinsel & Holly design (above) - inspired by Nailside's Holly Leaf design (below)

It's basically all glittery-gold - I used Essence's Go Bold! (a shimmery gold colour) and Essence's Gold Fever (a gold and red glitter) - with a (really easy to do!) holly leaf design - using Catrice's King of Greens (a metallic grassy green) as a base, Essence's Walk on the Wild Side (a dark mossy green) for the tip and leaf-vein design, and Max Factor's Wine Red (a bright Christmassy red) for the berries - and, of course, topped off with Essence's Gel-Look Top Coat. Although the leaf bit looks tricky, it's actually quite easy to do - trust me, I've got the least steady hands in the world, and somehow I managed to pull it off! Go to Jane's (Nailside) blog for easy step-by-step instructions on this and many other awesome designs!

I hope you're all well! Have a happy and safe Christmas!

Cheryl

 xXx

Review - Catrice Light Reflecting Concealer (19/11/12)

Monday mornings are never easy, but thankfully, Catrice have come up with a great concealer to help hide those horrid under-eye circles (and any other nuisances that may crop up) - the Catrice Light Reflecting Concealer.

I was never really a concealer type of person, not because I don't need it - quite on the contrary actually - but I just never found one that I could actually use well... I've tried concealer sticks, liquid concealers that come in a tube with sponge-tipped applicators, and also cream concealers, but never really fell in love with any of them (actually, I don't even think I ever really used up any of them...) 

The closest I came to finding that awesome concealer was the Essence Forget It! 3 in 1 Concealer that came with beige, green and pink sections for different types of coverage, however the packaging was too flimsy - the lid hinge broke off almost immediately, which resulted in the lid randomly coming off and my make up bag being filled with splodges of green, pink and beige... Needless to say, I chucked that in the trash...

RIP Mr. Concealer...

However, about a month ago, I decided to try out a concealer from Catrice (in 030 Rosy Beige), having read a few positive reviews about it, and was pleasantly surprised by it. At first I couldn't get round to using it (twisting the bottom to push the product up into the brush-tip, then dotting it over problem areas) and found that the best and most effective way of applying it was to blend it out with a small foundation/concealer brush after applying it from the tube/brush... I was amazed to see redness reduced, pimples camouflaged and under-eyes brightened with just one product! 

As I said, It's lasted me a month, which means I've used it every day (teamed with my Essence I <3 Stage eyeshadow base and Catrice Matte Mousse Foundation in 020 Natural Beige) and I'm really glad with the way my face looks after I've done my make up... 

It's a definite winner for me, and will be repurchasing another (plus back-up) today!

I'm thinking of doing a haul of all the stuff I've bought in the past 2 months (quite an alarming amount of items, actually) and a ring collection (as I've also been branching out and trying to go beyond my comfort zone in terms of accessories)... If there's anything you'd like to see, just comment below! :)

Cheryl

 xXx

Grandpa Wants His Cardi Back... (13/11/12)

I know, I know... It's been a while (again)...

This post was inspired by longing for wintry weather (or as close to it as we get here in Malta, anyway...), mostly brought on by a Christmas Tree shopping trip with mum last Saturday, plus listening to Christmas songs... (Yes. I know. It's still mid-November... Lay off me...)

Lately I've been fantasising about big, cosy knits, particularly Fairisle patterns - they are sooooo adorable, plus they remind me of the large printed cardis my Granpas (and dad) would wear in the winter.... In fact, I remember Dad had this cream-coloured cardi which had huge brown buttons, and was so soft, I used to love to sneak it out of his wardrobe as a munchkin and wrap myself in it... I guess I never out-grew that feeling... Thankfully, big knits are back, and I've invested in 4 amazing new wooly delights courtesy of Terranova and New Look - will post pictures of them as soon as I've snapped some ;) but in the meantime here are the links to two of the New Look ones (the others aren't available online): Grey and Pink Leopard Print Boxy Jumper ; Navy and Red Fairisle Boyfriend Cardigan 

Anyway, so great is my longing for cold weather and warm knits, that I even created a Polyvore set:

 

Yes - I adore the large "grandpa" Christmas prints! They're so cheerful and cuddly-looking!

Anyway, enough gushing!! That's all for today's post, but I'm working on a few OOTDs, so stay tuned for those... *wink wink*

Cheryl

 xXx

Blog Sale (04/11/12)

Hey all! 

Sorry for my absence last week! However, the long-awaited blog sale is here! :) 

I have uploaded photos of all the items available - you can find them here :) The only "rule" is that it's only available to Maltese residents...

If anyone is interested, leave me a comment below, facebook message or comment on the photo itself!

Thanks!

Cheryl

 xXx

Blog Sale....? (26/10/12)

Good morning!

Like many who have come before me, I am seriously contemplating putting together a blog sale in the coming weeks, as I've recently noticed a change in my personal style which has resulted in quite a few items just sitting in my closet, not being loved and taking up some of the (quite limited) space...

My mission for this weekend (well, tomorrow) is therefore to pull out every single item from my closet, and if it doesn't fit me or my style anymore, you'll be seeing it in a Blog Sale photo album on my facebook page. Items might include bags, shoes and accessories, as well as clothing, so look out for that! :)

In other news, Hallowe'en is coming up, as you might know, and at the Sliema Salesian Oratory we're going to be organising a Ghost Hunt on Saturday 3rd November. The location is secret, and anyone can apply alone or form a group of no more than 10 persons. Participation fee is €5 for Oratory members and €7 for non-members. If anyone's interested, let me know by Sunday 28th!

That's all from me today!

Cheryl

 xXx

No More Happily-Ever-After....? (24/10/12)

I have a problem..... 

I have started watching Once Upon A Time (yes, I know I'm a year late...) and have become practically hooked on the damn thing... Not only does in involve all my favourite fairy-tale characters, but their stories have been twisted into more interesting (modernised?) ones plus their costumes and make-up are just too awesome!!

Seeing as how it's Hallowe'en this weekend, I've come up with a few costumes relating to the Once Upon A Time theme, mostly inspired by the many Disney villains (because, yes, I believe that Once Upon A Time villains are mostly based on their Disney counterparts)...

As you'll notice, I've given each character a particular colour scheme, depending on what colour I associate with each.

The first is Regina, the evil queen from Snow White (colour of choice - Burgandy)

I chose this outfit because to me, Regina is quite subtle in her evil-ness... She's not as manic as typical villains, and has a certain kind of sex-appeal (which was probably the King's downfall in the first place). I couldn't resist adding an apple ring and leather cape...

Next is Maleficent - the villain from my favourite story, The Sleeping Beauty (colour of choice - Purple)

Maleficent was without a doubt the Disney villain which caused me the most nightmare as a child, and considering the fact that I used to watch the video countless times since Aurora is my favourite Disney heroine (along with Pocahontas and Megara), you'd think that she'd have stopped being so scary after a while - nope...!

One of the funniest villains - Cruella De Ville (colour of choice - Black & White)

Ahhh, Cruella... I remember that for a long time I associated those long vintage cigarette holders and long gloves with her, rather than Ms. Holly Golightly... Apart from the highly frowned-upon penchant for animal furs, you have to admit that she's a damned stylish villain!

An oldie but a goodie - Lady Tremaine - aka the evil stepmother from Cinderella. (colour of choice - Navy)

I chose navy blue out of all the colours Lady Tremaine wears because she keeps Cinderella under very tight orders - very militantly - so I thought the colour would compliment that... That and the fact that she thought very highly of herself...

The final villainess was quite a tricky one to interpret - Ursula from The Little Mermaid. (colour of choice - Turqouise)

Now, I decided to look to the Broadway version of Ursula's costume, and came up with the above. Note the seashell earrings and the snake-like ring (in memory of her "poor little poopsies" Flotsam and Jetsam)

I hope you like these ideas... Might be doing a "good-guy" verson later on this week...

Cheryl

 xXx

VOICES 2012 - Dream A Little Dream (15/10/12)

...can 7 months really pass by so quickly?

"Yes, they most definitely can!!" is the answer, just in case you were wondering... It seems such a short time ago that I sat in the foyer of the St. Aloysius Sixth Form, anxiously waiting for my turn to audition for Voices in front of a panel of people whom I didn't know... I can remember clearly the way my heart stopped when I then received the following e-mail a few weeks later: 

"Dear Cheryl,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for the solo part of ‘Hey Soul Sister’."

Then came the day of the first rehearsal at the UoM chapel - Tuesday 26th June...  I was feeling a mix of anticipation and anxiety, at the thought of spending two hours singing with 200 people of which I only knew 4 - my sister, Fiona, and my friends from the Sliema Salesian Oratory: Joanne, Aldo & Francesca.

Representing the Salesian Oratory in Voices - Joanne, Francesca, Aldo, Fiona and myself with our super amazing choir directors Martina and Tony

Fast forward to the end of September on stage at the Mediterranean Conference Centre and I just couldn't believe how many new friends I'd made! (spending all that time standing and singing next to each other is bound to lead to new friendships!). 

Joanne singing her heart out during rehearsals at the Chaplaincy

Aldo and his fellow Low Tenors listening attentively... (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

Joanne and Francesca singing with the Low Altos at the Chaplaincy (credit to Yentl Spiteri)

Fiona in the midst of High Altos and Sopranos (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

The choir at the Chaplaincy during a short talk from Ira Losco :) (credit to Johann Cardona Schranz)

We've finally moved to the MCC!! :)

Although it was getting increasingly difficult to get up each morning during the final two weeks, I was looking forward to 17:30, when I'd drive from work to Valletta, run down the steps of Cottoner Hall through to the Stage Right entrance, and down to the make-up area to get ready for yet another breath-taking experience on stage with the people I grew to call my Voices family!

As well as the usual rehearsals, we sometimes got a guest speaker to give a short talk prior to a particular rehearsal. Among these were Ira Losco - who came by to share some tips re: stage presence and microphone handling for the soloists - and the beneficiaries from the previous edition of Voices - The St. Jeanne Antide Foundation - which was particularly heart-warming, as we got to hear how much our hard work was helping the community by the people who benefited from it themselves.

The final set of rehearsals were particularly interesting as we were literally experiencing the set being built around us... Each day a new set of clouds, or a new form of embellishment would be added by the amazingly dedicated stage crew and each new addition signalled that our performances were getting closer by the day!

The stage being set-up!

...TO THE DRESSING ROOOOOMS!!!

The make-up station :)

One thing I should mention is that by this point, each voice group (Sopranos, High Altos, Low Altos and the Bases/Low Tenors/High Tenors) was assigned one of the four dressing rooms at the MCC (being in a minority the 3 male voice groups shared one room), and it was up to the members of each group to make our rooms as "homely" as possible for the coming fortnight. Cue a variety of charts, streamers, tinsel and one very troubling "female drawing", resulting in what I could only describe as Voices-gone-Christmas!

Jeanelle hanging up our flashing clouds in the High Alto dressing room

The HA decorators...

Our wall of dreams... :)

The delicious (and beautiful) HA cake baked by Mrs. Justine Odom! :D

The High Alto Wall of Fame - 'cause we're all stars! :D (credit to MarTina Farrugia)

The Soprano's chart :)

The Low Altos' Chart :)

...props to the men for this amazing chart - clearly this year's winners! :D

Shenanigans aside, we still had two weeks of hard work ahead of us - even though it didn't exactly seem like hard work, more like keep-fit-slash-singing-slash-laughter. From the very first performance in front of an audience - the Beneficiary night - to closing night yesterday, we gave our all, all for a good cause, and we were greatly rewarded by the applauses, smiles on our audience's faces and the positive feedback we received on various news sites:

Times of Malta Online
ESC Flash Malta

The only glitch that happened during the 10 performance nights was that on Friday the 12th the sound mixer somehow got shut down, resulting in a 50-minute delay before the concerts, however not even this could stop us, for the absolutely brilliant sound team managed to solve the problem and the show went on!

So, with all that said, I guess this rounds up today's post... Yes it's long, but it was a very enriching experience, and I felt I couldn't do it justice with just a few words.

Thanks to the Voices committee, all the choir members, sound/lights/camera/photography/stage crews, directors, group co-ordinators and mostly the late Louis Naudi, for dreaming up this noble cause 21 years ago!

Never underestimate your dreams, and you never know how well they might turn out! 

Cheryl

 xXx

VOICES Update: Time to Dream... (02/10/12)

The time has come...

Yesterday night was our final dress/technical rehearsal for Voices, and I for one am well and truly excited (as well as SUPER tired)! As I mentioned in my previous posts, production weeks are my favourite weeks of any production, because they bring with them a delightful mix of excitement and pride, as well as the unavoidable long hours (and as a result, lots of tiredness)... However, the fact remains that tonight is our first performance in front of an audience!!

Tonight's performance will be particularly emotional for all of us taking part, as while tomorrow marks the start of our performances in front of a paying audience, tonight's the night we're performing for our beneficiaries. Since Voices is (above all things) a charity concert, each edition is always for the benefit of a particular cause, and this year's cause is particularly close to my heart - Mamma Margherita Home, which is a safe-house for young men who have nowhere else to go. It's a project founded by the Salesians of Don Bosco.

I'm feeling slightly nervous about tonight, but since yesterday's dress rehearsal went so well, I'm sure today's will be even better, as we get to have our hard work appreciated by the people who we're actually doing it for...

Later I'll be writing an article for Password (the monthly newsletter for the Salesian community) about my experience in Voices, including some awesome pics... But for now, just a small teaser - me in my rockin' Voices t-shirt and make-up yesterday before the dress rehearsal started...

Another update coming up tomorrow with my thoughts of opening night... :)

Cheryl
 xXx

Vamp-Me-Up lip tutorial (02/10/12)

Hey everyone!

Something relatively new for me - a mini make-up tutorial featuring one of my newest Catrice Ultimate Colour lipsticks - 160 Tell Me A Berry-tale - as well as my Catrice Precision Lipliner in 60 Very Berry and my Rimmel lipstick in 38 In Vogue.

As you've probably heard/seen/read, two of this fall's hottest (and most daring) lip trends are duo-chrome lips and dark berry colours. In today's tutorial I decided it would be fun to mash the two together into one (pretty cool) lip tutorial.

First of all, apply your favourite lip balm - flaky lips look nasty no matter how fierce the colour you use is! Once that is done, line lips with a dark plum colour. I used Catrice's Very Berry as the colour matches my lipstick perfectly. Also, Catrice lipliners are my absolute faves because they are retractable, creamy and very easy to work with, thus providing precise application!

Catrice Precision Lipliner in 60 - Verry Berry

Next step is to apply your deep purple/plum lipstick (as you know, mine is Catrice's Tell Me A Berry-tale). It's important to blot your lips on a tissue after applying the colour, then re-applying. (This is a little trick my mum taught me in order to achieve maximum colour-payoff.)

Catrice's Ultimate Colour Lipstick in 160 - Tell Me A Berry-tale

Now comes the best bit - adding the second lip colour to the centre of your lips, creating a duo-chrome effect. I went with a bright raspberry pink from Rimmel - In Vogue. (I bought this one last winter and I simply adore it. It's lasted quite a long time too, as it's got very rich colour payoff, so a little goes a very long way!) Apply the second colour to the centre of your lips, blot and repeat.

Rimmel's 38 - In Vogue

This is the finished look:

Hope you like the look! Enjoy experimenting with your own colour combinations (that's the best thing about make-up after all!)

Cheryl

 xXx

NOTW - The Star-Spangled Banner (28/09/12)

Good afternoon everyone!

SOOOOO excited today, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because of the fact that this evening I've got the first technical rehearsal for Voices - Dream A Little Dream! I CANNOT WAIT! Production weeks are my favourite times throughout all the productions I've ever taken part in. Yes, there's a whole load of tension and waiting around during the first rehearsal, but for me it's part of the experience, as you get to see all the hard work you've been doing for the past weeks months come together - and thus starts the HUGE hyper-energy build-up in anticipation for Tuesday, which is our second dress rehearsal, and also the day which we'll be performing for this year's beneficiaries (which are particularly close to my heart) - Mamma Margherita House and the Salesians of Don Bosco. :)

Anywhose, really, really looking forward to the upcoming fortnight!! In fact, to celebrate (and to add a little pizazz to my solo performance) I was inspired to create a Star-Spangled-Banner nail design - according to our stylist, my song is "the one really American and fun number" (his words, though I must agree) - so I thought it would go perfectly with what I'll be wearing.

The finished look :)

I used Max Factor's Redly Nightshade on the bottom halves of my nails, and Deborah's 35 on the top halves. Then using my brilliant french-manicure pen from Essence, I dotted the tops (the stars - duh!) and drew 3 horizontal stripes down the red part of each nail. I love the way it turned out, and will be applying a top coat (Essence's Gel-Look combined with Essence's Fast Drying) every day, to avoid chipping!

Hope you like the tutorial, and look out for some more Voices updates, as well as nail-polish storage/collection posts soon!

Cheryl

 xXx

Top 10 Nail Polishes - Autumn 2012 (23/09/12)

Hey there all my lovely readers!

As promised on my facebook page, today's post is all about autumn nail polishes - my top ten ones, to be more precise!

1: Max Factor's Wine Red 

2: Nails Inc.'s Savile Row

3: Essence' Choose Me!

4: OPI's Jade Is The New Black

5: OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui

6: OPI's Grand Canyon Sunset

7: Maybelline's Rosy Sand

8: Maybelline's Deep Violet

9: Deborah's 08

10: Deborah's 35

1. Max Factor's Nailfinity in Wine Red: A brilliant in-between red! Not too dark, not to bright, and slightly metallic, the perfect transitioning colour for autumn!
2. Nails Inc. in Savile Row: Plum - SO AUTUMN!!! I adore this colour!
3. Essence's Colour & Go in Choose Me! - I know, it's turquoise, it's shimmery, it's not your typical Autumn colour... However, I love colour, no matter what the season! This just feels right for this time of year!
4. OPI in Jade is The New Black - A muted kind of green which is reminiscent of the leaves before they change colour... <3
5. OPI in Suzi Says Feng Shui - This sky blue is just milky enough to be on the border of being a pastel.... Transition from summer to winter - ACHEIVED!
6. OPI in Grand Canyon Sunset - Typical Autumn brown with a twist, as it's got a bit of a reddish hue to it...
7. Maybelline's Rosy Sand - My go-to nude colour, it's so chic and polished! I love it!
8. Maybelline's Deep Violet - Another metallic bright, I just feel that these colours are great because they combine the brights of summer past with the cool metallics of winter to come...
9. Deborah's 08 - One of my favourite polishes, and the one I've got on my nails right now, this deep gunmetal grey dries to a matte finish, which is awesome!
10. Deborah's 35 - A deep denim-blue with ever-so-subtle blue reflects to it... Another success story! :)

Hope you guys like my selection! I love making these nail polish-related posts, so if you enjoy them, I'll keep making them!

Next post will be some Polyvore sets showing some autumn-inspired outfits! Also, probably a few updates from Voices - next week we start the most gruelling part of the experience - on-stage technical rehearsals, all gearing up to two weeks of performances - I CAN'T WAIT!! :D :D

Until then,

Cheryl

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