HELSINKI and Finnish Country Land

OK, So whilst in Finland I became very accustomed to the Finnish way of living! This involved midnight fishing, day and night Saunas and Lake Swimming! I can really see why these Northern Europeans have such amazing skin. They lead a somewhat stressful professional life in the city and have these stunning backdropped country homes. Whilst staying with the man's relatives 2 hours north of Helsinki I found I LOVE this kind of lifestyle. The first night we went swimming in the 'local lake' at get this, MIDNIGHT. Still set in beautiful twilight this was a lovely end to a first night in the countryside. The man's relatives then got us to try the 'sauna-lake in the evening' combo. This involved first starting up the sauna, this can take around 40 minutes, you boil the water, burn the wood in the fire and wait, and wait, until the sauna room hits 80'. Yes that's right, 80'! Then comes the splashing water bit, and oh dear LORD... The man's dad nearly KILLED me with steam heat- The British skin isn't used to it.  You also have the option of using the equivalent of liquid air freshener on the rocks for clearing the senses, sinuses or de stressing. So after spending 10 ish to however many minutes you can handle in the sauna you then RUN the 30 odd metres through the above picture to the lake and JUMP!

After spending 10 ish minutes in the cool lake you then sprint back to the sauna and do it all over again! Until you feel like all your skin has repaired itself and grown anew. Finish by using the boiled fresh sauna water and a yummy moisturiser. Lovely jubbly...

:::Turning Japanese:::

Ok, so as a Make Up Artist, my kit is my living, it pretty much as well as every other professional and ability factor guarantees my future work. That's why it's insanely important not only to keep your kit CLEAN but ORGANISED! These wondrous 'travel' bags and containers have been pretty much an organisational ocd freaks miracle. Ok, so they're not specifically for make up or sfx artists kits, HOWEVER if you're willing to be open minded and just think of the space and practicalities of them this selection have been VERY useful.

The bag with the shoes is £7.95 and from what I can tell is cotton. Which means WASHABLE! This I will be using for hair accessories storage, hairspray cans, brushes and in a separate bag electrical implements, such as straighteners, hair dryers and tongs.

The Large Tarpaulin bag is £5.95 and very roomy. I now around 4 of these and counting, I buy gradually as they are a tad pricey but I think It's an investment for my kit, they are clean tidy and semi transparent. I think I may need another 2.

The smaller Tarpaulin bag is £3.95 and IS defined as a cosmetics case on the Muji Site. It's a fab little starter case for make up beginners, enthusiasts or if you're much more of a pro/ intermediate user is great for your lipsticks/ nail varnishes/ smaller items.

Medium Mesh Pouch is £2.50 and is some sort of nylon I think. This is particularly useful for any kind of liner i.e. lip or eye as it's a great size. also good for any adhesives you may have that are small, i.e. eyelash adhesive. This could also be good for carrying samples.

BUY HERE

Apologies for the picture... turns out there are settings on my phone I cannot adjust correctly yet ;)

A little gem from using my Boots points ;)

I have discovered a legend! I had become a little fixated on Vaseline and tended to use it a little much lets say. It had it's uses by all means but I found that while it really did moisturise it also looked very SHINY. Now this is not so much a problem for the ladies if it's the shiny look you want. HOWEVER when it comes to having photoshoots, co operate events, commercials etc with gentlemen involved you need something that's not only moisturising but MATT. Not every man in the world wants to look like he has GLOSS on. This has some lovely ingredients that not only moisturise but don't sound scientific and threatening not to mention for the vegans/ veggies out there it's friendly for their lip nourishing needs. It feels nice and matt as mentioned but also nourishing, no grease, easy to smooth into areas and feels nice and tingly but DOESN'T sting. A FAB treat for your holiday/ make up kit and general lip moisturising needs! BUY HERE

Airport Duty Free Yumminess!

I GOT MY SERUM! Yes, in case you hadn't been reading my previous posts, my skin was in desperate need of Clarins' Bi Serum. Just before a little jolly to Finland ( more about that later on) I found myself at the Heathrow Duty Free sections oogling goodies. Unfortunately I couldn't find my Kiehl's Skin Tone Correcting moisturiser, what I DID find however was the Bi Serum. HEAVENLY! With around £9 off I couldn't resist. This little gem will be refreshing dry patches of skin tone everywhere! A walk around the corner of Clarins at Heathrow led me to the MAC counter. After meeting the very informative Lan Nguyen on a Make Up MasterClass at Charles Fox, I was highly recommended to purchase MAC Fluidline Eyeliner in BLACKTRACK. I don't usually like gel liners as I find they set too quickly and you can't get them off after. It's soooo long lasting, easy to use and remarkably easy to take off, it's fab for those dramatic gothic- evening looks/ heavy photo shoot looks. This was 20% off RRP so I decided to take a chance with MAC and buy! I am yet to use the eyeliner as yet but look out for a future review! I was so so so tempted to go absolutely nuts and buy alll the beauty products from Duty Free that I wanted but then remembered I was going on holiday and had a flight to board!

Press Samples... :)

First time lucky with my press samples. After being briefed for my shoot with The Kensingston and Chelsea Review I decided to use a fairly neutral yet edgy 70's inspired colour palette. Luckily the Press Department at Clarins- ( how did you possibly know I LOVED CLARINS?) were VERY generous... As you can see above ;)


In total I managed to add to the shoot the FABULOUS Hydra Quench Cream ( the BEST moisturiser I have EVER used for dry skin) , Hydra Matt Lotion for Combi Skin ( not pictured), Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation 103 the best light weight foundation I have ever used, 107, Eye Contour Gel, Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch, Blush Prodige Illuminating Cheek Contour 06 Spiced Mocha with the new Mosaique Collection:  Summer Bronzing Compact, ( Both FABULOUS for all over shading, contouring and even as an eye shimmer shadow) and finally Rouge Prodige 103 Miami Pink ( I used this as more of a lip stain). See what you think of the results below!


With massive thanks to The Press Office at Clarins. You helped to polish off a great shoot for KCR! All beauty and skincare credit for Photoshoot- Made for Chelsea for KCR, Clarins.

Kensington, Chelsea and CLARINS!

A while ago, I told you about a shoot I was taking part in for the Kensington and Chelsea Review. I had the pleasure of being able to get some goodies from Clarins. The wonderful Press Department gave me quite the extensive make up bag which was put to fabulous use!

More pictures to come very soon!x

( Pictures Copyright Kylie McMichael 2011 All Rights Reserved. All Beauty and Skincare Clarins. Clothing and Accessories: East, Helly Hansen, Buba London, Toms)

Clinique Foundation:::

Clinique Redness Solutions Foundation Make Up in 03 Calming Ivory was my first ever Clinique tester. I had my hopes as of those of you who read my blog and know me, know, I have VERY red splotchy skin. I was therefore, really excited to try this out!

So after CTM'ing in the morning I used this for one week, with powder and without and each day with different amounts of layers on.


Day One: I tried a thin layer, mainly on my cheeks ( that's where the redness on my face is), bearing in mind I really wanted to try this to CALM DOWN the redness on my cheeks, if not to make it disappear completely without the need to use my Shu Uemura Colour Corrector. So I tried this out with a small amount of matt powder ( Bobbi Brown Loose Powder in 01 Translucent) but by midday ( four hours after applying)my skin had sucked all the goodness out of the stuff. Bad Times. My redness had died down but my skin looked cakey and dehydrated. ( I think the fact I am not using the Kiehl's Skin Tone Corrector or the Clarins Hydra Quench doesn't really help. Bad Times number 2.)


Day Two: I tried a thin layer once again but this time WITHOUT my powder. It did let my skin breathe a bit more without the powder but most of the foundation had rubbed off again by midday. I really think the lack of moisturiser loving from my faithful Kiehl's and Clarins goodies definitely doesn't help.


Day Three: I put the foundation on in thin layers today again with a little loose powder to set it. Same result as day one but it kind of looked worse as I now had a think caked dehydrated crispy layer of make up on my cheeks either side of my top lip- ATTRACTIVE!


Day Four: I put the foundation on in thin layers once again but NO loose powder. This had a much better effect than any of the previous, my cheeks were still slightly covered by midday, it had bought down the redness considerably.


I will be trying this product again in my skin tone once I am able to get my hands on some hydration goodies for my skin. I don't think my usual work environment helps, a very dry, dusty and old building doesn't exactly do wonders for your skin. If you're skin isn't as dry and chafy as bit of old sandpaper I would definitely try this product. BUY HERE