Beth Sugarblur

In apparel, bikini

I was only recently introduced to Kiko by other fellow bloggers. I was first attracted to their cream shadows which claim to sit on your face all day. This is a trouble I have with most of my cream shadows, they crease awful after a few hours! So I added a few to my basket to only find I had to spend a minimum of £25... I have to spend £25? Psh, no problem!! Here's what I added and a few of my thoughts about the products.

1. Cream Crush Eyeshadow
These are absolutely gorgeous! Like I said, I read lots of reviews of these and was completely sold. When they arrived, all three certainly lived up to my expectations! The consistency is creamy but not too hard like some cream based products so it allows for just the right amount of application. I like to build up the product slowly as it is very pigmented and a little spreads a long way. The shadows are exceptionally good wearing, hence the name "lasting colour eyeshadow". I can put them on in the morning and they will stay put all day! Some of my powder shadows are terrible at creasing and looking all greasy by the time I get home (and realise I've looked like this for how long?!) which is such a shame cause I really love the colours. Solution? I like to use a light layer of 04 (Matte Taupe) as my shadow base and apply the powder shadow on top. This helps to prevent the powder from creasing and makes way for a brilliant mix of colours and looks - win win! It's also a great matte colour to use on its own and blended out. I use 01 (Pearly Vintage Rose) as a highlighter to sweep over my brow bone, a little dab on the inners of my eyes to widen and even grab a bigger brush to apply on my cheek bones. It acts as a really nice shimmery, not glittery highlight which is great for me when I want a break from the powdered options. The other colour I have is a deep bronze/brown which is slightly metallic and so pretty for creating depth. This colour is number 06, Pearly Chocolate.

Kiko Cream Cruch Lasting Colour Eyeshadow £6.90

2. Eyebrow Sculpt Automatic Pencil
Seems to be the dupe of the Anastasia Beverly Hills one. It's tip is a sort of triangle and I don't really know why... I've seen videos where the point makes it easier to get right into the corners of the brow for expert precision. However, maybe I'm not doing it quite right but I don't find it to be much more helpful than a standard brow pencil. It may be that the Anastasia one is more pigmented or sharper, I'm not to know as I haven't tried it to compare it. However, this one in 03 Brunettes, provides good colour for my dark blonde to bleach hair and is build-able to achieve a darker colour. Since purchasing this, I now use a pomade and brush so I don't feel the need to use a pencil as well. Having said that, I will still find use for this by storing it in my handbag for on the go emergency touch ups!

Kiko Eyebrow Sculpt Automatic Pencil £6.90

3. Smooth Temptation Lipstick
I love this! It basically does what it says on the box, it's very smooth and glides on like a dream. It's also build-able in colour which is just another plus to this super-duper lippy. I do find I need to be really careful with application because it's so smooth it is pretty easy to over do the over drawn lip look with this product. It's much easier with a small lip brush to outline before filling in the whole lip. Finally, the colour in 05 Peony is like a naturally pink lip colour which is really lovely to add a splash of natural sass to a nakey pout.

Kiko Smooth Temptation Lipstick £2.30 (sale)

4. Dark Circle Concealer
This is a pretty nifty little concealer! I didn't have high hopes as I'm always sceptical about correction products but I was pleasantly surprised. The colour 01 Porcelain colour could be slightly lighter but it's the perfect colour to simply blend into my foundation. While it doesn't brighten on my skin, it does conceal dark circles and doesn't crease or 'go funny'. This is the lightest colour Kiko do in this product so I don't recommend it if you have really pale skin as it will probably be too dark or orangey. As you can see from my swatch it has those undertones. It is really good with baking.

Kiko Dark Circle Fluid Concealer £8.90

Overall my favourite product from this Kiko haul has got to be the Cream Crush Eyeshadows. On my next order I am certainly going to look at getting some more as I love how easily they apply and how long they last without creasing or, basically, without budging. Finally, just a quick nod to the packaging, I think it's really expensive looking and looks great on my desk. I love the simple branding and anything in a box has me hooked from the off haha!

0Comments

, by Beth

In bikini, business

STARTING MY OWN BUSINESS

A dream of mine has always been to start my own business. I think it started in my early teens when I started selling some unwanted bits and pieces that belonged to myself and my family for a few extra quid pocket money. I remember getting so excited when I'd get a notification saying one of my items had sold. I still use eBay for this reason today and it still has the same effect! I dabbled with my own business when I began making my own two piece clothing items. Unfortunately it didn't really have time to hit off as I had to go back to university which required all of my attention. So, now I'm super happy to announce I've re-established and re-branded my business to give it another go! And here's how, in case you're thinking of doing similar.

1. What are you going to sell?

Probably the best place to start, think of something you would buy yourself. Whilst there are a lot of items out there that are in high demand, there's not much point selling it if you're not passionate about it. I'm feeling really proud of my business (attempt) because I've created it myself from the name, the finance to the final sale, so it is important I'm selling something I can be proud of and enjoy marketing.

At first I would recommend choosing only a few products, maybe even one to start off with, for example I've chosen swimwear. As my business (hopefully) gets more successful, I want to get more styles in and expand into other areas of clothing including some handmade, self-designed pieces, such as my two pieces, when I have more time (final uni year problems).

If you can, choose something unique, don't copy anyone else because you are just creating competition for yourself - and what's the fun in being a copy cat? Finally, decide where you are going to source your items or how you are going to make them.

2. Finance.
The boring part. Starting a business is not easy, you can't just order some stuff one day and have it sold over night. Neither can you just dive in, you need to think about branding, copyright (which I will talk more about later) and of course - money. Depending on what you wanna sell, you're gonna need a sizeable chunk of cash to start up. I had to first work out how many bikinis I wanted to buy from my source, what styles, what sizes, how many of each size and what this will all cost. I want my business to be as professional as possible, which unfortunately requires more dollar input. I wanted my bikinis to be housed in a box, which I would decorate and then delivered in a mail bag. Again, I'm really nitty-gritty about sticking to my brand's theme so the mail bags had to be a certain colour, the decorations had to be just so, and so on. All costing £££ extra. I did manage to cut some cost by sizing down on the boxes.

Still interested? The best way for novices like me to keep track of spending, or to just experiment with numbers, I think, is Excel. Everyone hated it in school, no one understood it, "I'm going to use this in the future" said no student, ever. But, it's actually been quite helpful and its surprising how quickly I remembered/picked up the basics to create a simple total money-out spend spreadsheet. I won't bore you with the details but I basically kept it organised and simple with a column for my products, their size, price to me, price I'd sell for, postage, blah blah blah and another for all the extra branding items, followed by a grand total. I managed to make the spreadsheet 'work' so if my outcome/income will correspond with how many units I've bought/sold. It's geeky but I find it quite satisfying.

However, a small business can be done on the cheap by going basic if you're not too fussed about packaging.

3. Create your brand.

This is probably the most important part of building a business. You need to think of some sort of theme and stick to it. So, firstly, a name. It could just be your name, a random word, something that means something to you. I've called mine Magical Matilda Apparel after my dog's Kennel Club/fancy pants show name, Magical Matilda. She is my world and my first ever dog which I begged my parents to get me for years, so she's a pretty special reason to name my business after. Make sure no one else has your business name by a simple Google search or something. Again, make it unique, try not to copy.

Next I thought of the style I wanted to use, so colours, fonts, patterns etc. I wanted my brand to be girly but modern and sophisticated. For fonts I didn't want it to be too sharp so I went on a hunt for some handwritten fonts online - there are 1000's out there to download for free! Sticking with the handwritten/hand made effect, I went for some watercolour effects to tie the whole thing together. It's important not to use anything online, such as a picture or pattern, without permission. I don't know the laws on this kind of thing, but it's best to just avoid any copyright sticky situations and make your own stuff, just in case. Obviously if there is a pre-set available to download saying "take this for your own use" or something, then yeah you can use it. But it's nice to make your own patterns and drawings from scratch!

I recommend using Pinterest to search for ideas, if you follow me using the link on the left hand side you can see some of the inspiration I pinned for reference. It was also helpful to create a brand mood board thingy, where you can create ever element of your brand in one document so you can see if it all looks good together, like the fonts, colours, patterns etc.

4. The logo.
The logo doesn't need to be a picture, it could just be your brand name in some kind of fancy font and arrangement but as my biz name is "Magical Matilda", I wanted some magical element to go with it. So I chose a unicorn! I couldn't just steal any old image from Pinterest, I had to create my own using a free design program GIMP. It's like Photoshop but less advanced. I got several images of unicorns together, used ideas from each of them to digitally draw my own unicorn from scratch. Its really simple, identifiable and says what I want my brand to tell people. I also created a sublogo from my main logo. This is kind of like a watermark and handy to put on smaller products.

5. Copyright.
I'm no expert in this field, I'm not 100% about the rules, laws and regulations but all I know is don't use anyone else's name, branding, logo, picture, font, emblem, whatever without permission. Same goes for products, it's illegal to sell fakes and with replicas... I'm not too sure, it's a really grey area from what I can understand and I do law! I'd just do your research and steer clear, be original. I've seen several other companies using certain character images on their products and selling items as "copies" of the designer brand and...meh... I'm not going to say anything but I would not do this! Just be careful out der.

6. Packaging!
I've already touched on this briefly, I love nothing more than receiving something new and it's in cute packaging! The whole point of me forking out extra for the boxes is because I want the customer to feel they can keep their product inside the box or use it for something else cause it is just so God damn pretty! I've made some stickers with my logo on to paste onto the box, along with some colourful adhesive film from craft stores and other iddy biddy little accents I have in my art box at home that are inkeeping with my brand. I don't mind each box being slightly different, as long as they all have the same theme. You can get some pretty cheap bits and bobs to use as decoration such as wrapping paper, printable sticker paper and self adhesive film. Try Wilko.

7. Taking photographs of your products
You should aim to make your products look as beautiful as possible. I used a plain backdrop to make the item stand out and cleared the background from any clutter. I used some self-adhesive film in a marble effect, it's really handy to roll out quickly whenever you need to take a few snaps. I used a proper camera to take the photos, too, not just a phone so the images can be good quality to look as profession as possible. I've also slightly edited them by making the background whiter and a few brightness/saturation adjustments but nothing too much so the product looks unrealistic.

Wilko Marble Self Adhesive Film £5

8. Advertising, selling and social media
There are so many platforms to sell goods these days, from eBay and Etsy to your own website or a simple PayPal transaction. I'm going to pay out for a nice website platform once I'm up and running as I feel this is the ultimate professional element to a business! If using a selling site, the site takes some commission when your item has sold so it is important to think about that extra cost too.

The best way to get yourself noticed is marketing, which is why I'm putting so much time and money into the look of my brand as I want people to stop and feel interested by it. I have created an Instagram for my business (@magicalmatildaapparel) before it is launched to get some form of following and interest while I'm adding finishing touches. Luckily I have a blog Instagram with a reasonable follower count where I can 'shout out' my business page to get it noticed that way. Hashtags are also my friend for that same reason. I'm also thinking of creating other social media pages like Facebook to ask my FaceyB friends and fam to join and share. I think it's good to get these accounts set up before you're ready to launch, or else you're just gonna be sat there twiddling your thumbs, all your products ready to go, just waiting for your first order to come through! Its fun to keep people waiting a little bit, bring about an element of excitement and WOW IT'S LAUNCHED when it finally does... No? Lol.

SOOO, those are my very unprofessional tips for starting a small business! If you understand non of these jibberish ramblings I've just been blabbing about at 1am, just try to comprehend that it's basically best not to copy! I should probably mention that tip 9. would be to have fun with it too - it's not all doom and gloom, surprisingly.

0Comments

, by Beth

In anastasia beverly hills, charlottle tilbury

HIGH END FACE WISH-LIST

How many times a day do I find myself saying "I want that"/"I need this"? Too many to count is probably the answer for most people! So I thought it might be more helpful to make a list of all the bits I want, especially the high end goodies, so I can save up for these things specially rather than impulse buying everything in sight every time I go into Superdrug... So here is my wish-list for my biggest high end must haves with clickable links above.

1. Anastasia Beverly Hills Dip Brow Pomade

Not exactly a stranger to anyone these days, we've all seen the magic this product creates, transforming those tufts of fluff on your face into model worthy, sculpted, sharp-enough-to-cut-a-hoe brows! I asked for this for Christmas just gone but Santa did not give and I got a bunch of Benefit stuff instead... Then I found out about Freedom's dupe and have been head over heels in love with this since purchase so it would be interesting to get the ABH version to compare application, colour and wear. I also have the ABH 15 Angle Pencil so that's another good excuse to get the pomade.

2. Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow

I saw this being used on This Morning and fell in love with the level of pigment and velvet look of application. I understand the bronzer is not too orange which I find is the trouble with most bronzers. I use Benefit's Hoola at the moment and it looks even less orange than that which would be pretty perfect for my pale skin. I have not seen many swatches of the highlight glow, but it seems fairly subtle which is what I like from a good highlighter.

3. Laura Mercier Invisible Loose Powder

I already own this! I bought it in New York last year and it's still going strong as I only need to use a small dab over my T-zone once a day then I'm good to go. It's a super powder if you have really oily troubles like me as they are eliminated in one sweep. This is on my wish-list as I'm wanting to stock up on it to make sure I'm never without it. Once you work for me, you're never leaving me.

4 & 5. Christian Louboutin Silky Satin Lip Colour and YSL RougeVolupte Shine Lipstick

These products simply come down to the fact I am obsessed with packaging. That's the only reason I want these. I've not read any reviews, I just want them because they look pretty as anything. Super helpful blogging here, I know.

6. MAC 32 Lash False Lashes

I used to wear fake eyelashes a lot a few years ago, now I don't even bother on a night out in fear of talking to a cute honey with a lash stuck to my eyebrow. However I want to get back into wearing them as they make such a difference to your eyes and overall finish of your make-up look. I have been thinking about having individual lash extensions put in by a salon, certainly for my upcoming Vegas trip. But I'm also thinking of trying a pair myself such as these subtle ones by MAC.

So there you go, probably not very helpful what so ever to anyone reading this, it's basically just a very long, time consuming way of doing a shopping list to myself....hahaha.... How about you guys? Own any of these which you can share more informative information about than me?!