An evening soiree at TOPSHOP.

Made Over Ladies attended a fab little soiree marking the launch of the new honeymooners personal shopping service at TOPSHOP in association with The Scottish Wedding Directory. We met some lovely brides to be and fellow wedding industry suppliers and partook in some fabulous window shopping!

Personal Shopper Laura Galloway introduced us to the Personal Shopping appointment menu which is quite extensive they really have something to offer for every kind of occasion. 

Laura showed us a few of her picks for the wedding season and some honeymoon outifit choices I loved the tomato colour of this blazer and the large flower print on the dress.  With a few friend's weddings coming up this year I was weighing up my options.

           

The personal shopping suites were also gorgeous a really nice space for trying on and having some girly fun.  This would bean ideal place for kicking off a hen party or girls night out.  The ladies can also supply bubbles and sweet treats as you try.  Even better.

Time for some fun...

 trying on...

 and of course a #selfie

We also got chatting to some lovely local wedding suppliers and met the fab team from 'Higher Love' who have a beautiful turquoise VW Camper van named Peggy Sue available for hire to transport your wedding party in true vintage style. Pop over to their facebook page to check her out.

We had a fab little night at TOPSHOP and really liked Laura and the girls' styling choices. Personal shopping isn't something I've tried but it's something I'm looking forward to trying it out now.  Here's a few words from Laura about the service she provides...

"Here at TOPSHOP we offer a complimentary service for all our customers. 

So, whether it is a complete wardrobe overhall, an outfit for a night out or wedding, I am here to help you find those pefect outfits! 

We offer on the spot style advice and offer a range of appointment types to suit all your needs. 

You may also consider Personal Shopping as a gift for someone therefore, we offer Personal Shopping Gift Cards. The gift card allows you to give the gift of a personal shopping spree to your desired value and full use of the Personal Shopping suit. 

 You can call our booking line 0844 2435544  to book an appointment. Alternatively you can email me at laura.galloway@topshop.com"

A little word that means so much...

What words do you think about when you think of a Wedding? Love? Happiness? Marriage? Maybe it's new beginnings and building lives together, starting out and planning your adventures together.  I have the pleasure of being part of weddings who have already started on their journeys and their plans involve more than just husband and wife they maybe already have their homes and have gorgeous little ones to share their wedding day with them so along with 'Happiness', 'Love' and 'Marriage' along comes 'Family' to join the party...

2 years ago we celebrated Kirsty & Nicks wedding day a celebration of their beautiful family.    A day to mark all of the love, history and effort that goes into that small but momentous word....Family. From the matching suits & converse worn by Owen & Evan to Morvens pretty boho floral crown and Joselyn's jewelled dress that twinkled in the lights.  The flowers in tea cups & jars made with love by Kirsty the night before her big day, the meaningful soundtrack to the wedding day chosen by Nick, to the handmade bunting and wedding favour hearts made by her mum and the look of pride on her dads face as he walked her down the aisle.  This was a day full of happiness, love and above all, family.  

Gorgeous families like this don't just happen there's hard work and effort involved, kids to get to school on time and bills to pay and it's sometimes it's easy for us to get caught up in it all.  To me anniversaries aren't about the flowers or chocolates or perfume (although accepted gratefully) but maybe they are about reflection and reminiscing and maybe most importantly there to remind us of who's there at the centre of it all. 

Happy Anniversary to a very beautiful person in my life and her very beautiful family xxx

A quick 5 minute tip on how to master the flawless foundation routine!

Different kinds of foundation brushes call for different application techniques.  Each of these techniques can be used alone but combine the two methods for the most thorough and flawless finish...

Sweep it down- if you have a flat foundation brush it's likely you spend your mornings painting on your product on that's fine but ensure you only use downward strokes to flatten any tiny downy hairs on the face and not brushing them upwards!  Use the tip of your brush to get right in to the corners of the nose and under eye area.   Also be sure to 'mould' your foundation in with your fingers by pressing  your finger tips over your applied product this will get rid of any brush marks and keep it looking natural.

Whisking it round- for using a buffing or kabuki brush.  This is when you use your a round brush in a whisking circular motion to really buff product into your skin.  This is the best method for filling in pores and fine lines.  It's the best way to melt the product into the skin rather than having a layer of product sitting on top of the skin which makes for a longer lasting finish.

Combining these two techniques will ensure you have an even & thorough coverage which is buffed into the skin resulting in a fresh and natural finish.

Enjoy your new flawless face!

Revisiting contouring

My first post about contouring was quite some time ago and if your a beauty follower on blogs, Pinterest or Facebook you've probably seen the Kim Kardashian crazy contouring picture that floats around after a tweet of her 'mid contour'.  With an influx of information in the beauty world about contouring these are quite easy to do guidelines to try it out.

Have you ever had your make up done and felt like you've been given the 10 years younger treatment? Likelihood is that you've had some contouring incorporated into your make over. Mastering the art of contouring is no easy task but can make you look and feel great. Contouring is about light and shade and using make up products to either bring out (using a light shade) or push back (using a darker shade) areas of the face.

Follow these simple contouring rules:
1. Only ever attempt contouring in a well lit area.
2. The 'perfect' face shape is oval and that's what you are aiming for so use a darker product (you can use either powder or foundation) around the outside of the face to 'blank out' outer areas (e.g. top corners near hairline, corners of the jaw) aim for a diamond shape in the centre of the face. This pushes back these outer areas into the shade making your face appear more oval.
3. Adjacent to these darkened areas use a lighter product to bring out the new face shape you have created.
4. BLEND. Single most important thing in contouring...well actually in make up application full stop. Regardless of what product you have used you must blend these harsh lines or you will get some serious funny looks! Be brave and use a good amount of product don't go too faint or you've likely wasted your time but don't forget to blend like you've never blended before!
5. Use contouring to emphasis your cheekbones by sweeping your darker colour down underneath your cheekbones (do the fish face and suck in your cheeks to see where this colour should go), use your darker colour down each side of your nose to slim a wide nose or on the underneath the tip of your nose to shorten a long nose, go under your chin and along the underside of the jaw to camouflage a double chin and finally a sweep of the darker to the cleavage will create depth and emphasis. 

6. Now you have finished contouring go look at yourself in a different mirror and blend some more!

Just a note about products. Darker colour should be a Matt finish so it is flat and not reflecting the light  best products to use are either a bronzer without shimmer try Benefit Hoola or a face powder two tones darker than your skin tone. If you are using foundation to contour make sure you use your actual skin tone to blend the two contouring products.  

To finish the process you must add the light.  To highlight feel free to add shimmer but it also doesn't  have to be shimmery it could be a lighter concealer you use or a light reflecting concealer.  Good areas to highlight with shimmer are inner corner of the eyes, cuspids bow, tops of cheekbones, brow bones but to add a sweep down the centre of the nose and highlight the centre of forehead I prefer to stick to none shimmer.    For a contemporary look forgo the blush but if you can't resist finish with a sweep of blush on those cheeks and up to the temples.

Practise makes perfect when it comes to contouring and it's worth the effort. My original celeb reference point was Jennifer Lopez when I wrote this post first time round but I'd say she's been superseded! Here's some contour queens let's see if they can motivate you to join the contouring revolution!

Ax