Is It Different?... (And My Own Thank You!)

They say that marriage is just a piece of paper and that it doesn't change your relationship. 

Technically this is true, but it doesn't account for all the amazing feelings that getting married and having a wedding day conjures up and leaves with you long after the party is over.

Since becoming man and wife, Mr K and I both agree that we feel so much more together than before. 

Now, we have been 'together' for about 8 years, so it's not like we rushed into marriage before we knew what we were signing up for, yet we both have this feeling that we are now well and truly a couple in every sense of the word. We are no longer separate entities from two different families who live together, we have started our own family: Mr & Mrs K. We are a team, and it doesn't matter what anyone else says ever again because we have each other as our own best friends and personal cheerleaders! We are Husband and Wife! I don't care what anyone says about this - the first time you get to introduce your 'Husband' to someone, or be referred to as "my Wife" it is such an awesome feeling, and I challenge anyone to tell me it's just the same as saying boyfriend/girlfriend, partner, or other half... 

It is not.

This is going to sound strange, but after our wedding I felt there was more love in our house - in our relationship. That's not to say I somehow magically unlocked a previously untapped and undiscovered Source Of Love once we said "I do". 

The extra love came from our friends and family who were such a big part of our wedding day. 

Aside from the fact that our loved ones helped to handcraft and build our wedding* they injected the day with so much happiness, good will, best wishes, hugs, kisses and smiley faces that I still feel the love that radiated around the garden on our wedding day and I carry it with me now even nearly 2 months later. I hope I remember the feeling of being awash with so much love forever!

To all those who say that a wedding is just a party for that legal formality, Marriage - which is just a piece of paper; I say - No it isn't. A wedding is an opportunity for everyone you love and who loves you to show how much they care for you by being there and showering you with all their best hopes and wishes for your future together. Yes, these things are invisible, but they are far from intangible - I felt full of love and happiness on my wedding day and I know it wasn't just my own good feelings I was carrying around with me, and still have with me today.

So, for everyone who was there on the 11th August whose help we couldn't have done without, and for all those who couldn't be there but were thinking of us, Thank you!

*Our friends and family literally built/made our wedding. There was baking of scones and cakes, making of jam and pavlovas, flower-planting, pompom-folding/fluffing/hanging, mustache-making, bunting-sewing, photobooth-prop-designing, flag-stamping, bow-tying, hay bale-moving, sign-writing, pit-digging, post-hammering, flower-picking, hessian-wrapping, tent-decorating, place-setting, candle-lighting. . . . the list goes one, but you get the idea! 

It's Nearly Winter - Brighten Up!

So with all the flooding up and down the country and chill in the air that has led to us putting the heating for the last week, it's time to admit it: Winter is well and truly on it's way! 
One thing I actually like about winter is getting to layer up with all sorts of cozy jumpers and scarfs and I get to wear my awesome snuggly fleece-lined mittens/wristwarmers by BlackYak: 

Anyway, whilst I'm wearing these I get to display a lovely flash of colour on my fingers to keep the winter blues at bay! 
One of my favourite brands for a cheap and cheerful splurge of colour is the 60 Second Nail Polish by Rimmel, which comes in a whole array of cool colours, which go on smoothly, last really well and really do dry pretty quick, plus the brush is nice and wide for a really easy application.

My favourites are the awesomely bright Sky High (seen here), and Blue My Mind - and they're a bargain at under £4 each.

If you're up for spending a bit more, Illamasqua do a great range of polishes with brilliant names too like Whack, Phallic and Bacterium! These are top quality polishes and coming in at £13.50 you'd hope so! But they're big bottles (15ml vs Rimmels 8ml) so of course will last longer, if you don't get bored first and want to buy a new one, which is what I do and why I go for cheaper nail polish brands!

To wear all these eye-catching colours with maximum impact keep your nails short and neat since longer nails in bold colours can look a bit talon-like! 

The problem with all these lovely nail polishes is that they are susceptible to chipping and scuffing - a pitfall of even the loveliest mani/pedi. 
In preparation for my wedding, I went in search of something a little longer-lasting, so recently had my first experience of Shellac, and I will never look back! 

Shellac and similar brands such as Gellish & Gellux is a gel polish that goes on like a nail polish, but is cured under UV or LED light. This means that once the gel has been set by the light it is smudge-proof, scratch-proof and chip-proof for about 14 days! No waiting for fingers and toes to dry, hurray! 

This is the new way forward for a longer lasting manicure, and I'm pleased to say that from the end of October I'll be offering Gel Polish Treatments to my clients (look out for introductory offers coming soon!). All this in time for the festive season! 

    

A Lovely Thankyou!

It's always nice to get mail, and when it's in the form of delightful praise from a bride I can't help but get all fuzzy inside. In fact this one almost had me in tears!! Just had to share....


Dear Natalie,

I will send a proper thank you note but I wanted to write before we leave on honeymoon to say thank you so much for all you did on Saturday.

I was so delighted with my hair and make up - when you arrived I was feeling so stressed and tired after a few sleepless nights but you transformed me into a princess for the day. I have to admit I had not been 100% sure about having my hair and make up done professionally but my Kate's (her sister-in-law and a previous bridal client of mine) recommendation convinced me to go for it and I couldn't be more pleased that I did. It really took the pressure off when I was feeling anxious before the ceremony to have someone take the reins while I sat back and took a moment to be quiet and reflect on what was to come.

You were such a lovely, relaxing person to have around and your calming influence was felt not only by me, but also my mum and the bridesmaids (who absolutely loved their hair). By the time I arrived at the ceremony, I felt so beautiful and confident which I am sure helped me relax and enjoy the day from that point onwards.

Thank you for all the little extras you did for us too - from helping mum with her hair, pinning on dad's button hole, putting on my veil, fixing my last minute spot issue (sorry again for asking you do to that!), fastening my bracelet and giving the bridesmaids a spray of make up fixer. It didn't go unnoticed and we all appreciated it so much.

Best of luck with planning the final aspects of your own big day. I hope you have better luck with the weather than we did but I have to say it didn't matter a jot in the end and our wedding couldn't have been more perfect - sun or no sun.

Best wishes, Helena

Aaaawwwwwwww, is'nt that sweet?! 
I love my brides! 

x

Here's a sneak peak of Helena's wedding pics.... more to come soon on my website!...

Ivy Hair Vine - Gorgeous Bridal Hair Accessory!

There are many gorgeous bridal hair accessories on the market these days, but there are styles that I see over and over again.

Combs and pins with sparkles or pearls and they are popular because they work with most hair styles, are secure in the style, and are easily accessible.
Every now and then I come across a bride who has hunted out something really different for her wedding hair style and I'd like to share with you the accessory that I got excited about at Isabel's wedding!
It's a hair vine that can be woven through the hair, bended, molded and manipulated to fit any hair style.
Isabel chose to wear her hair down and the vine worked really well being woven through her curls. It was easy to secure with a bit of backcombing and pinning at the roots which are hidden under the top layers of lovely wavy curls!
These hair vines are available from Camias Jewelry Designs.

New Blood for Tantrum Magazine

Ooooh Exciting!!

Today I have some scrummy new pictures from an editorial that was featured in Tantrum Magazine

Title 'New Blood' it features up and coming models who are poised to take the modeling world by storm!

I was trying out a few products from Illamasqua on this shoot and I have to say I love their products - all the pigments are so fierce and their colours translate so well from package to skin, all good stuff!

Photography & Styling: Charlotte Bibby
Makeup & Hair: Natalie Guest
Makeup Assistant: Katie Wilton

Hello Everyone,

Today is just a short post as I'm still on holiday in New Zealand.
It's actually a bit of self-promotion that is totally unrelated to makeup or hair.
It is about weddings though - my wedding in particular!

If you've stumbled upon this post today whilst researching wedding things, welcome!

I have a quick request of you dear blog reader and it is this:

Myself and my fiance are finalists in a competition to win videography (fancy expensive videography!) for our wedding day and now we need all the votes we can muster to help us WIN!

You can help out this bride-to-be by clicking here or following this link http://bit.ly/Az3NBr to go to a facebook page where you can cast your vote and help us win this amazing prize.... here's why I think we deserve it:


We met when I was still a student and he was not long out of university, in a bar in Wellington, NZ called Goodluck! Since then we’ve travelled all over the world and currently live in London.
With our families on opposite sides of the planet, I always knew there would be times in our life when tough decisions would have to be made, and choosing our wedding venue was one – in fact never mind the venue, we couldn’t decide which continent to get married on!
In the end, the garden in York won over and we’re very happy with our decision and are getting very excited planning our rustic, laid-back, hand-made, garden party style wedding!
We have pretty much all the main things sorted for the wedding, with the exception of a videographer, hence why we’re entering this amazing competition!

We would love love love to have our wedding captured on film not only for ourselves to look back on with future children, but for all our friends and family who will not be able to join us on the day. Gavin’s closest family are coming over and a couple of friends can make it, but there are many people who just can’t do the journey: Three grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins, friends with children and mortgages… It would be amazing to be able to share our day with them with a film capturing all the moments that you just don’t get from photographs. As we’ll already have to done boring legal bit at a registry office, this wedding ceremony will be quite different from any that most people have been to, so to capture our self-written vows and our jumping the broom would be ace!
Also on my side of the family it’d be amazing to capture 4 generations of the family all celebrating together after a year with some family members fighting and beating serious illness.
So everybody is very much looking forward to a love-filled event and a chance to meet new people, old friends and family members from all corners of the globe – to catch this all on film would be amazing!
We’re crossing fingers and toes!

Foundation Application

A question that I get asked often.....

"How should I apply my foundation?"

Firstly, I'd like to say that there isn't really a 'wrong' way to do makeup. 

There are, however, things you can do to make application easier and give a better/smoother result, so that's what I'm talking about here. 

You can apply foundation with your hands, a sponge or a brush (or a trowel in some cases ;p) and it's mostly personal preference as to what you use, but the type of foundation you use might determine what's best.

So, whichever implement you choose to use, make sure it's clean to start with - you don't want to go rubbing bacteria, crusty makeup and old face-grease back into your skin do you? That's exactly what you're doing every time you use your makeup-encrusted brush or sponge that used to be cream but is now a browny/orange colour! Gross, I know! You should really try and wash your brushes once a week to keep them in good condition and nice and fresh, sponges every few days. Use an anti-bacterial soap, rinse well, gently squeeze excess water out then lie flat to dry overnight on a clean towel.

Applying Your Makeup:

*Gently blend the makeup onto your face, starting at the centre and working outwards - this will help to avoid too much makeup in the hair line or around the jaw line.

*Finish using gentle downwards strokes - smoothing down the tiny hairs on your face so they don't end up pointing in all directions!

If you're using your fingers, the warmth from your hands will warm up the foundation and make it that bit easier to blend into your skin. You can apply cream, mousse or liquid foundation this way. Be gentle, especially around your eyes, and use your fingertips to stroke the makeup over and blend in into your skin, not drag your face around! Using your fingers will generally give a full coverage and can be hard to ensure everything's gone on evenly.

If you use a sponge the same follows: Smooth don't drag the makeup over your skin, not forgetting to blend around the edges of your face. Use a sponge for creams, mousse, liquid or powder. Sponges will suck up more makeup than brushes or your fingers, so they can be a waste of foundation and are harder to control the amount of makeup you end up putting on your face. They are also harder to clean properly.

Using a brush is by far my preferred method - it keeps your hands clean, the brushes are easy to wash and if you look after them they will last a long long time!
The classic foundation brush is great for liquid foundations, especially if you like a fuller coverage, and many have a curved or angled edge that make it easy to get right in by your nose and eyes so you don't miss a spot.
The duo fibre brush is my personal favourite. The black bristles are natural and the white synthetic and it makes a little foundation go a long way. Once you're done swirling the brush round your face you're left with an airbrush-like finish as the makeup has been buffed to perfection! What's more these brushes can be used with any type of foundation, wet or dry. You only need a little on the brush and then using gentle circular motions sweep the makeup over your face.
You can also use a blush brush in the same manner - the soft and fluffy bristles will mean that the makeup is dispersed evenly over your skin and is well blended.

There are a lot of good makeup brush suppliers out there now, and although MAC do great brushes, I can also highly recommend Royal & Langnickel and Crown.

 

Bridal Shoot with Gillian Million Wedding Accessories

A couple of weeks ago I spent a lovely morning with Gillian from Gillian Million Wedding Accessories and Barney from Timeless Pictures for a photoshoot show-casing some of the gorgeous bridesmaid and flower girl accessories that Gillian has in her shop.
She is a very talented lady, hand-making everything herself in the little workshop in her shop on Teddington High St. It is certainly well worth a visit for any bride-to-be who might be looking for hair accessories, jewelry, veils, and many other beautiful sparkly things!
Our models were some very lovely young ladies who I'm sure loved every minute of dressing up in the gorgeous dresses from Little Bevan, and fresh flower head pieces and bouquets from Rosaberg Flowers. The head pieces for our bride in this shoot were also Gillians handiwork.
Here are some of my favourites...