How Bloom Made Me Love Glitter

By Tammi Ireland

I’ve never loved glitter.  I wasn’t the girl to wear it on her eyes during high school, I never wear sequined clothing, and I never, ever wore glitter top coats on my nails.  I remember trying once while at a sleepover and then begging my mum to help me remove the ‘tacky’ polish that kept getting caught on my woollen jumper at the time.  It was rough, technicoloured, and felt horrid.  And so I refused to put glitter on my nails again.

However, I’ve since fallen in love with technicoloured photos of our galaxy.  I’ve fallen for a gold glittery Ellery number.  And I adored the glitter hair at last season’s MYER preview.  So, when I was offered Bloom Cosmetics’ Glamorous Sparkle Top Coat in Gold (RRP $19.95) to trial, I thought I’d give it a go.  Thank God, I did.

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This glitter top coat is so far from the ones of my Year 8 hey-day that I’ve already re-applied it three times.  A nice gold colour (read: not garish), the key to Bloom’s adult look with the sparkle top coat is in the different sizes of glitter particles.  There are regular, hexagonally-cut glitters and then there are very fine glitter pieces.  The result, when coated over Bloom Nail Polish in Lucy II was astounding.  A gorgeous result that I just kept getting compliments on (11 at last take!)  

New Year’s Resolutions

By Tammi Ireland

Happy New Year, beauties! Another year gone and it’s time to reflect on what we want for 2012.  Hopefully you’ll all have nursed your New Year’s Eve hangovers away by now and have a pen handy because it’s time to make our New Year’s Resolutions.

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Some people I know don’t believe in resolutions, saying they only lead to guilt and disappointment when you can’t check them off at the end of the year.  However, I think having goals are a great way to ensure you stay focussed on what was once – at a moment of downtime – important to you.  

New Year’s Eve Make-Up

By Tammi Ireland

Another year over, and a massive party to celebrate the new one – 2012 – a huge year for me, you, and everyone we know. Let’s bring it in with a bang!  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Need some inspiration for parties tonight?  Here are our top five favourite looks…

THE RED LIP

Sophistication. Sex. Smouldering.

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THE WINGED EYE

Classy. Fun. Clean.

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THE BRIGHT LIP

Fun. Summery. Kooky.

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THE NATURAL ENHANCEMENT

Fresh. Sensual. Classy.

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THE GLITTER EYE

Party. Crazy. Bold.

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Whichever look you choose, be sure to rock it with your head held high and a fierce expression.

Happy New Year from all at Coveted Canvas!

Xx

Christmas Make-Up

By Tammi Ireland

Yay, Christmas is just days away.  Eating with the family, drinking with friends, and being merry all weekend, we can’t wait here in the Coveted Canvas office!  What are you doing for Christmas?

Whichever way you celebrate, the key for your makeup is to keep it simple. You don’t want to be running to the bathroom to check your foundation or fix your lippy in between the prawn cocktail entree and turkey main.  The key is a little in the prep, a lot in the application.  Here’s the look we’re aiming for this year…

Chloë Moretz

Beauty Q&A: Ash-Leigh Hunter, Burn The Floor dancer

Ash-Leigh Hunter, 28, professional ballroom dancer with Burn The Floor

When I was a young teenager, my love for ballroom dancing was so strong I continued it professionally for as long as I could until TEE took over all my free time.  Seeing Burn The Floor last month with a good friend, I was on the edge of the seat, wanting to join the amazing (understatement) dancers on stage as they moved to classic songs in a way that had everyone’s eyes locked on them.  The girls had rock-hard abs to rival the guys’, the costumes were amazing and music was foot-tapping fabulous.  I wanted to instantly sign-up to ballroom dance once more (and plan to upon arrival from Europe). 

Here, we interview one of Burn The Floor‘s longest-running dancers, from our very own Kalamunda.  Give it up for Ash-Leigh!

*clap, clap, hip-shakin’, woohoo*

Beauty routine, day: I use all of Clinique products and have done for years. Every morning and night I use the Clinique 3 Step.

Makeup, day and night:  I also use Clinique make up during the day but for the show I use the MAC full coverage stage make up.

Beauty routine, night: At night I use Clinique make up remover followed by the 3 Step and a night cream.

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What’s great about everyday Aussie beauty? It is very affordable and it is an investment. It pays to have beautiful skin and makeup!

Where in the world have you seen women with the best beauty/makeup? I think the States have a bigger range of beauty makeup but not sure if I have noticed anywhere with the best beauty / makeup.

Tell us your story: I started dancing when I was 5 years old. My mum was a dancer and noticed that I was interested in dancing as I was always doing concerts in the backyard with my sister and friends. She took me to all types of dancing until I stumbled across Ballroom Dancing. I knew I had a real passion for Ballroom in my first social class. I then started competitions where I did alot of traveling both nationally and internationally. In 2001 I was approached by Jason Gilkison, the coreographer of the show and asked if I would like to be part of Burn the Floor. I remember watching Burn the Floor in 1999 and wishing one day I would be in the show! My dream came true and have been in the show now for 10 years!

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Hair Salon: I have used the same hairdresser for about 11 years. She works from home and I love the way she does my hair. Because im always on the road I take my own colour with me and get one of the girls in the show to do my colour.

IT’S OUR BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to Us,

Happy Birthday to Us,

Happy Birthday dearHappy Birthday to Us!

 

 

Hip Hip, Hooray!

Yes, we’re one year old today!  It’s been an absolutely huge year – one with ups and downs (mostly ups), a lot of support from the great beauty community and a helluva lot of laughs (while wearing Tom Ford’s Private Blend Lip Colour, of course)!

Speech!  Speech!

Okay, settle.

As we turn one and start feeling our age (fending off those wrinkles with SPF), I’d like to take the chance to say a huge thank you to those who have supported us through our 365-day journey so far.

To my family and friends - your support has been amazing and every one of your recommendations of Coveted Canvas to your friends means the world to me.  Keep it up! (Seriously.)

To the beauty and lifestyle publicists – receiving your emails and products at my door each day have made this journey possible.  Without you, I’d probably still be using the wrong cleanser for my skin type (God forbid).

To my writers - Ali, Jenna, Kate, Jo and Beth, you are all beautiful.  Some of you have spread your wings after joining us, others are still with us and writing hilarious, perfect posts once a week.  No matter which you are, you rock my world!

To other beauty media – while we may technically be in competition, the friendships we have formed over Twitter, prepping up the beauty blogging industry and doing it for ourselves, is forever inspiring.  Love to each and every one of you.

And last, but most certainly not least…

To my readers – you guys are spunky as hell, inspire me to write when it’s way past my beauty sleep time, and provide me with the comments that make my heart swell!  Keep your questions, queries and support coming – you’re all my beauty stars!

CHEERS TO THE MANY MORE YEARS TO COME!

- Tammi Xx

P.S. Join the party on Facebook today and you could win an American Apparel nail polish!

 

 

How to Fake Fresh, Luminous Skin

There is nothing worse than those days (often Mondays, like today) when you feel off your game.  You feel dull, lifeless and really tired and sometimes you look that way, too.  As luck of the universe would have it, these are the days of your first date/job interview/meet the in-laws/(insert already nerve-wracking event here) and the last thing you need is a dull complexion. Today, luck is on your side, as I’ve compiled a quick list of the best ways to get a sparkling, luminous complexion that will trick strangers into thinking you’re a supermodel.

You could look like this...

Step 1 – Prep.

As with any killer makeup, it’s important to prep your skin to look amazing.  The best way to be on your way to bright skin is to slough away all the dead skin you already have.

What is Summer to you?

Here in Perth the skies are a bit overcast and it’s a little bit chilly.  Basically, it’s not summer.  So rather than whinge, I thought I’d create a montage of the things Summer means to me in WA. Feel free to add what Summer means to you below.  T x

Getting dunked at Cott beach.

Lazy hairstyles, inc. the ever-fabulous top knot.

Meet Lauren Luke!

Have you met Lauren?  She’s the young self-taught makeup artist taking over the Internet community. Never one to fit in while at high school, Lauren turned to makeup to test out different looks and experiment.

After dropping out of school to have her son Jordan at age 16, Lauren started selling her old makeup products online to raise some money.  Along with the product itself, Lauren would post images of makeup looks you could achieve with the products and buyers started asking her more and more questions about how to achieve those looks.  As a result, she took the looks online.

Colour My Lines!

I love, love, love winged eyeliner.  It’s just so hot on any woman at any time of the day.  You can extend the line at night for some extra va-va-voom or just wear it to the outer corner of your eye during the day.  The thing is, CCs, I cannot use a liquid eyeliner pen for the life of me.  No siree!

That’s why I was thrilled when I discovered Clinique‘s Brush-on Cream Liner in True Black.  It’s a little pot of highly-pigmented colour in a gel/cream form that you dip your (supplied) brush into and scribble over yourself however you like.  And if your brush goes dry there’s no need to buy a new one like you do with liquid eyeliners.  Nope, just pop that beauty back into the pot and we’re away again.