COURTNEY WE HEART YEW

BRELIGION ON TOUR - skin LIGHTENING!

So we haven't blogged in a whole month.... BEAUTY IS A RELIGION has been neglected in the name of charity... we hope you can forgive us, we have been over in Africa building a little school for some kids..

And it would seem that whilst over here our tanning industry is rife and we spending endless time and hundreds of pounds on preening our skin to a nice shade of orange... The African community are fighting the opposite battle and smothering themselves in "Skin Lightening" creams... And these aren't just for the higher class African with access to expensive products online, these I found in a petrol station and cost less than 70p! And I would say more commonly stocked in shops that tanning products are here!

Might test it on me tan...

More info on our Africa trip

The Na'vi from Pandora... all have blue skin... they all look fit... a beauty trend perhaps?

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010 - SKINHEADS

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010

Skinheads... Need we say more - Laura Fraser (wow)

PHOTOGRAPHS -  BELLA HOWARD

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010

- Urban Warrior (vomit), dread locks and baggy trousers. They've been gone for a while, but we have seen the dreaded dreads popping back up on the streets of London. Ethnic style sequins on hair, crazy braids, beach braids grossssss...

- Chemical Haircuts too much bleach in 2009 (its been worth it)

- Sloney Hair Parting Shift (this year it will be a lot closer to the middle, almost a centre parting) and black panda eyes, more black, and a bit more black. 90s off nude lipsticks like all the fit girls did at school, the lips you make using concealer and lip gloss.

- Glitter and Face Decorations at parties, this has been going for a while since Smash n Grab, but it's really going to reach climax in 2010  look here .

This however should only be done by teens and very early twenteens (at the oldest!!)

- Beauty is a Religion's #1 prediction - We also think that some people are gonna get pissed off with vampires (over-saturated media) and the western world is going to be divided into two strong beauty camps (a bit like in The Time Machine)

There will be:

The Vampires

-----> Pale skin powdered up, dark eyes red lips, no concealer under the eyes letting them bags show through, limp disheveled hair.

vs

The Bronzed Skin Sun Worshiping Lovelies 

-----> Lots of bronzer and Fake Bake, with blow dryed thick healthy looking extensions hair.

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010 - NAIL ART

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010


Nail art - is going to be a huge must have trend for 2010, no longer is it going to be a must only for RnB girls. Look at the success of Sharmadean Reid's  WAH! Nails, nail bar in Dalston ... Coolest Nail Bar in the world!

BEAUTY IS A RELIGION'S two pence worth on the subject - Tip ex for nails --> everyone bored of black now right?

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010 - ORGANIC MAKE UP

BEAUTY PREDICTIONS FOR 2010

Some of these Organic Beauty Products cost almost double their non-organic, high street, competitors.. However we praise the pioneer brands of the vegan lippy for giving us the option and, hopefully, leading the high street brands down the same road... So our verdict ---> its GOOD, organic make up is getting a lot better, we will be trying loads of it this year....

THE ORGANIC PHARMACY...

OUR GREY HAIR FEATURE IN SUNDAY TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE

Alex Brownsell and twins Sam and Lou Teasdale are, at the tender ages of 22 and 25, way ahead of their time. So far ahead of their time, in fact, that they have leapt the generations to join their grannies and gone grey — by choice.

Yes, the colour wheel has finally twirled full circle. Growing numbers of women are no longer eschewing the very thought of grey, but embracing a gunmetal mane with pride — and attitude. As Brownsell and the Teasdales prove, this is not only about silver foxettes going au naturel. This is a youth movement: from east London’s cool set to models on the Paris catwalks, women are throwing the tonsorial rulebook out of the window and going with the grey. Even Victoria Beckham and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs are getting in on the act by letting their own silver strands peep through.

“We had all been blonde for a long time,” says Brownsell, who tends the tresses of east London’s fast crowd, as well as the X Factor contestants and a few select A-list clients. (She could name-drop Keira Knightley, Alice Dellal and Little Boots.) “We became obsessed with it being as white as possible, a mania we called ‘blonde-orexia’.” Eventually, the fixation led to grey dye. “I really liked it, so, rather than bleaching it out, I kept it,” she says. “I quite like looking like a granny. I dress a bit like one, too.” Brownsell and her fellow hip hairdresser, Lou Teasdale, who run the beauty blog www.beautyisareligion.com, say that after summer’s frenzy for full-on pink, yellow, orange or blue hair, an understated grey is directional, classy and perfect right now.

Pixie Geldof, another fan of the supernan look, agrees. “I’d been blonde for three years and fancied a change,” she says. “I wasn’t thinking about the colour, I just put on a bunch of toner one day, and there it was. It was rad. I didn’t want to do another colour like pink, grey just seemed obvious.”

“Grey has always been seen as distinguished on men,” says Neil Moodie, of Bumble and Bumble. “But on women it’s seen as ageing, which isn’t necessarily true — the model Kristen McMenamy looks incredible [with it]. Normally, if you bleach hair, you can put in an ash tone to stop the brassiness, and it goes a slight grey-blue, so it also has that punk element. This turnaround is really cool.”

The charcoal trend has also been spotted on the catwalks, at Giles Deacon and Gareth Pugh’s latest shows. Always one to cause a stir, Pugh sent his models down the Paris runway with tone-on-tone grey hair and a cadaverous pallor. “We used grey hair for a film we made as a preview to the spring/summer 2010 Paris show, which ran during New York fashion week, then for the show itself, as it sat tonally with the grey clothes,” says Katie Shillingford, Pugh’s show stylist and fashion editor at Dazed & Confused. It wasn’t, she says, intended as any kind of social comment: “It was a visual thing, an idea of tone on tone, and the hair had to be part of that.” Still, hair as a colour-co-ordinated element of any outfit is pushing the fashion boundaries.

Think of this trend as the groovy granny movement. Whether you’re a blonde, a brunette or a redhead, isn’t it time you flouted convention and chose the colour of the moment?

THE BEST THING YOU COULD EVER! USE ON YOUR SKIN (spesh for party face)

Bioderma Cleanser and Embryolisse Moisturiser.... now these aren't easy products to find, you may have to get a Eurostar ticket over to Paris to pick some up... BUT ITS WORTH IT!!

Alternatively Ebay generally has these products to offer - Bioderma Cleanser

Embryolisse Moisturiser

MY MULTICOLOURED HAIR MUSE (and friend) - Bella Howard

 

WELCOME TO PLANET BELLA

ILLAMASQUA commision short film to stamp out prejudice...

On 11th August 2007, 20 year-old Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were kicked, stamped on and left unconscious – for nothing more than looking different. Sophie later died from her injuries.

As a brand that promotes the right to experiment and self-express through the way you look, Illamasqua is committed to changing attitudes towards subcultures.

In tribute to Sophie, Illamasqua has commissioned ‘Dark Angel’ – a short film  by award-winning French director, Fursy Teyssier. that’s a haunting rendition of Sophie’s story, featuring the music of iconic British band, Portishead.

The aim of the film is to raise awareness of The Sophie Lancaster Foundation and generate £500,000 to help educate young people about tolerance. Since Sophie’s death, the Foundation has been working with behavioural experts Huthwaite International, to put together an interactive youth workshop that does just that.

But this essential education programme can only be delivered with your help.

Please, please show your support and watch the film.

We’re hoping to reach over 1,000,000 hits, so forward this page and help us spread the message. If you have your own website, blog, Facebook, MySpace or You Tube page, or a Twitter profile, please display a link to the film. For added impact, download a specially designed web banner, see bottom of the page.

As well as being available to view online, the film will also be running on MTV from 26th November – Sophie’s birthday.

Stand up for Sophie – act now and buy an Illamasqua Sophie pencil, wristband or make a donation. £3 from the Sophie pencil purchased and all proceeds from the wristband sales go directly to the Foundation.

Together, we’ll help stamp out prejudice, hatred and intolerance everywhere.

To find out more, please visit www.sophielancasterfoundation.com. Follow The Sophie Lancaster Foundation on Twitter for daily updates on the charity's work at www.twitter.com/SOPHIE_charity

TREND SPOTTING - Dead Red Eyeliner

It looks like you're going to have to wait for BEAUTY IS A RELIGION to release our own products because no other brand appears to make a red eyeliner.... So best thing to do to get this look is; use a soft lip liner - MAC Cremestick Liner in 'Red Enriched' is a good one. Or for a softer look use a red eyeshadow with a small brush- Use a deep red that's not too orangey... Something like Illamasqua's Powder Eyeshadow in 'Angst'.

ALEX'S COLOUR WORK ON JAK & JIL BLOG AND THE TELEGRAPH!!! [UPDATE]

http://jakandjil.com/blog/?p=2979

QUOTE Sarah Mower in the Telegraph-

"HOORAY FOR GREY

Here’s a turn-up for the books from the collections: grey hair is suddenly edgy and fashionable. I’m trying to think of a precedent for this, but apart from the fad for powdered wigs in the eighteenth century, I don’t think we’ve ever quite seen the like. Models with silver-tinted hair oddly under-streaked with green, pink and blue roamed the catwalks at Proenza Schouler and Giles Deacon, but why? Credit the look to the inspiration of a few stylish British individualists. Daphne Guinness, with her grey-and-black streaked pompadour, is one. Deacon got her to let her hair down and open and close his show. Sarah Harris, the Vogue fashion writer, and Kristen McMenamy, the ex-supermodel, are two more who magnetise attention around London with their stunning long, grey hair. But I conclude Katie Shillingford, Gareth Pugh’s stylist, is the chief influencer this season. When she turned up to shows, the way she was wearing her hair - grey with navy tips - had half the audience turning around and gawping harder at her than attending to what was happening on the catwalk. My spies tell me her colourist is Alex Brownsell - clearly, a star in the making."

 HERE'S THE FULL ARTICLE

Trend Spotting - RECESSION ROOTS [UPDATE]

It's probably a reaction to the (cough, sorry to talk about it) credit munch, but roots are everywhere. It's 2009's version of the war time womens drawn-on tight seam.

I'm not talking just a 6 week re-growth. A lot of girls are doting a nice 5/6 months regrowth on their blonde highlights and leaving their ends rattier.

Thankfully this looks super cool and its also been sported by some top faces and being featured in magazines.

In fact I have been dying peoples roots IN! for both shoots and for normal clients because their own roots aren't dark enough ,which is the first time this has happened.

So fuck getting your painful, torturous bleach done, why not let them grow out and save some money for some shoes (pub).

photo: BELLA HOWARD (http://bybellazine.blogspot.com/) best photographer that's ever lived ever

UPDATE - Super-cool fashion designer Louise Gray is now donning blue glitter roots on her signature red barnet!!! This look is gunna be HUGE!! ---->


MORE about the amazing Louise Gray

BOYS AND THEIR BUM FLUFF

A man knows he is a real man when he can grow a beard. I remember being 16 at school and my friend Kieran growing a beard because he thought it made him look like he had lost his virginity.

Men with their facial hair has its phases and now, at a time when girls are doing less and less with the hair on their heads, boys are (if they're lucky enough to have some) doing more and more with the hair on their faces. Whether they can only muster a caterpillar-like mustache, a full-blown trucker beard or even just an impressive 4 day stubble growth. Those who can; are and those who can't; are looking on green with TENVY!

ten.vy [ten-vee] Show IPA, plural- vies, verb, -vied, -vy . ing

– noun

 1.       abbr: tash-envy. a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's mustache advantages,  facial hair-growth success, possessions of beards, etc

Ratty Ratty Rats Tails

FROM  CHELSEA CATWALK TO CAMDEN - THE JOURNEY OF THE HAIR EXTENSION....

This look has evolved from polished Cheryl Cole-esque extensions and those seen in Gucci ads to the ratty ratted version spotted by every girl in Camden.

The look is un-brushed, un-washed and not properly colour-matched, worn thickly clipped in rows through the scalp and left long and ratty; straight from the bag.

Rats tails to a new extreme with some girls wearing them as long as they can afford. Its  more economical in this tragic financial climate with the new straggly trend because synthetic (plastic) hair  is cheaper.

PRODUCTS TO GET THE LOOK -

- A Salt Spray - ie: Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray

- A dry shampoo - ie: Batiste Dry Shampoo

- A finishing product (waxs/shiney/oily products) - ie: Kiehl's Silk Groom

DIRECTIONS -

Apply all products on top of each other until desired effect, the combination of the powder and salt and oils will create a ratty dirty effect whilst still being able to have a wash!

ALEX BOX by Rankin - Exhibition and Book from the Make Up ARTIST of our generation.

Alex Box by Rankin - £50 (£40 on Amazon) is out now GO AND BUY IT! This looks AMAZING. Here's a nice article from Sunday Times Style

Little Voice BIG Hair - Vickers: GET THE LOOK

EYES-

step 1

Brush MAC Mineralize Eye Shadow (Duo) in Family Silver all over the eye lid, use the lighter side on the inside corners and the darker side for the outer corners. Continue under the eye with a smaller brush for extra smokey-ness.

step 2

Line the eye with Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner with a small brush and blend into the shadow with a soft brush. Bring the gel line under the eye on the inside of the bottom lid.. MIND YOUR EYE!

step 3

Brush over the line and blend upwards with MAC Eyeshadow in Smut and repeat step 2.

step 4

Brush over the line just on the outer corners with MAC Eye Shadow in Carbon and repeat step 2 AGAIN.

You can carry this on for as long as you desire, the smokier the better!

step 5

Apply 5 layers of MAC Zoom Fast Black Lash Mascara, or 6 or 7, again, the more the better, depends how much time you have.

CHEEKS-

I just used a light dust of Nars Bronzer Powder in Laguna to contour slightly. A bit of bronzer is key when your doing a dark eye, it rescues you from that goth feel that appears when the eye is done and nothing else.

LIPS-

Shu Uemera Beige Lipstick. This is a very matte lipstick so prep your lips with a lip balm before use. Also blot a little bit after so you don't look dead, Essex girls seem to be suffering from 'nude-liporexia' and go too far with it.

HAIR-

This is a very quick look, so if you have 5 minutes like I did and need to create something glam, this is effective...

step 1

Start with your hair dry, it doesnt matter if its a mess.

step 2

Spray LOADS of Dry Shampoo though your roots, I used the Batiste one, its really good and costs about a pound. And smells nice.

step 3

To get the flat curl, finger wave cheat; take a section of your hair and wiggle it through your straighteners in a zig zag shape, or any shape you want, and let the straighteners do the work. Repeat over your whole head. If you have a natural kink in your hair like Diana you can leave most of it and just do a few sections around your face. If your hair is poker straight you may need to get your mum to help you with the back.

step 4

Run some L'Oreal Professional Liss Control Creme over your hair to give it a shine and a bit of glam.

Trend Spotting - THE GREAT UNWASHED, THE LAST REBELLION

picture - BELLA HOWARD

OK so what's a boy to do to rebel? Be in a band and not have a conventional job? SNORE. Have tattoo's? SNORE. Have a weird haircut? SNORE. Be a drugged up mess? DOUBLE SNORE.

There is no rebellion left. Perhaps a better rebellion for a cool London boy would be to get a job and a flat.

So there's this trend that we are finding amongst young London lads? They're all wearing one particular cologne and it's sweeping the city by storm. What is it? Well... it's a mixture of sweat and testosterone full pheromones, basically; B.O!

Taking a lesson from punks and homeless vagabonds, these boys who have money and access to a shower are purposefully not washing anymore as a last chance rebellion, shock and a huge trend!

The poor artists of yesteryear were embarrassed by their dirty clothes, shambolic attire and gross smell and it is now the case that if you look clean and if your clothes are ironed, you are most definitely not cool in most circles.

Once you would have been repulsed by the strong stench of boy's body odor, it is now odd to be in a club and smell a cologne, almost laughable and defo not sexy. Wonder who will bottle it first?

THE HAIR FACTOR! Jedward Cobain..

 PLUS    

 EQUALS   

  

THE HAIR FACTORRR!! Graziellas quiff..

INSTRUCTIONS -

1 - Section off the whole top of your hair... the part that you want quiffed... a bit more than you would think though, and back comb it.... A LOT

2 - More than this ---->

3 - And some more

4 - Leave out the birds nest at the top ... pull the sides back really neat and tie in a bobble, this is going to be hidden.

5 - Brush  the froofey back matted area into desired shape.

6 - Pin the back down over the sides and back using any thing fancy that you have to hand. (I used bungie chords which are a bit hairdressery but the big mess of pins looked nice)...

Next week Alex is doing John and Edward!!!

EXPERT PROFILE - Semi Permanent Slap

Fancy waking up with a perfect topliner already done, a Megan Fox eyebrow and perfectly lined lips… that would save me about 20 minutes a day!

Which is 140 minutes a week...

Which is 606 minutes a month...

Which is 7280 minutes a year... 

longer in bed.

We ask professional Beautician Heather Richardson and king make up artist (the traditional, one day stuff) Adam De Cruz about the pros and cons of semi permanent make up. 

 Heather, what exactly is it please, just a tattoo?
Semi- Permanent make up or micropigmentology lasts 1- 3 years. Minute particles of coloured pigment are mechanically placed a few millimeters below the skin's surface using a very fine needle. Micropigmentation can be compared to having a tattoo.
What can we have done?
Areas that can be treated are eyebrows, eyeliner enhancement, lip liner, full lip colour, beauty spots, cleft palet reconstruction and nipple reconstruction (for women that have had breast reductions and mastectomy's)

Will it just look like a tranny eyebrow? 

In the late 1980.s-90's when it first became popular it gained a bad reputation as being very exaggerated and gave obvious results- (thinks surprised look with eyebrows!) it often left a ginger colouring on the skin. It has since been redeveloped and is now being named 'the future of beauty' with more natural results. It is also amazing for alopecia suffers, chemo patients, can relax scar tissue so great for acne, stretch marks, burns etc.
How long’s it take? 

After an initial colour consultation, treatment should take 1 1/2 - 2 hours and is applied in a similar way to a tattoo, not as painful though.
How much is it? We’re not rich..
Costs vary dependant on treatment but range form £300- £600.
How long will it last?

It will fade over time, although some colour will remain to a greater or lesser degree and may never completely disappear. It can last approx. 2-4 years, but with regular touch-ups the effect lasts considerably longer.
What are the side effects?

Allergic reaction to permanent cosmetics is quite rare; a patch test may be carried out first. Swelling or redness should go after a day. Risks include needles being inserted too deeply (causing bleeding, spreading of pigments, or hair follicle damage) and technician error may lead to scarring. Proper hygiene and sterilisation is vital.

Does it hurt?
The short answer to that one is “yes.” Getting a tattoo is essentially getting punctured a lot of times with an ink-filled needle. A permanent makeup job will be essentially the same thing. A permanent makeup machine; a device used specifically for the application of permanent makeup will often be used; although it pretty much does the same thing a tattoo needle does: deposit pigment into deep layers of skin.
With permanent makeup though, it isn’t applied as deeply, and since it’s applied to the face, most plastic surgeons will apply topical or local anesthetic to whatever you want to put permanent makeup on.
So, what if I hate it? 

It is fairly obvious. It’s permanent. You’ll have it for the rest of your life. Or, since it’s really likely that the ink will fade over time, you’ll have it for at least a few years. This means that if you opted to have blue permanent eyeliner, you’re going to have to live with that particular permanent eyeliner color for a while, unless you’re willing to undergo costly and painful (usually more painful than the permanent makeup application process) tattoo removal to get rid of it.
Of course, this is probably the reason why people get permanent makeup in the first place, so it counts as a pro as well: the fact that it stays. It’s really a double-edged sword.

Adam, you’re a professional Make Up Artist, the conventional stuff, what do you think?

I hate semi permanent makeup and advise people against it with a passion. I maybe the wrong person to ask as I am strongly against it. I mean what the fuck happens if the get the eyebrow shape wrong?
You have to wait for the fucking thing to disappear if it does completely disappear at all.

HATE IT!
 
OK! Thanks guys. What do you think? I think I’m gunna ask Heather for my eyebrows done!