Miss Hale

As the Halestorm obsession continues I just have to promote Lzzy Hale and her INSANE voice. I would listen to that woman singing the phone book. Two videos below; the first being when I saw her at Download 2012 with Corey Taylor. Corey is probably my favourite vocalist in rock and he could have done this song alone and it would have been brilliant, but throw Lzzy into the mix and you have sheer vocal heaven. The second video is an acoustic version of my favourite Halestorm song Here's To Us, where you can really appreciate the skill of this lady.

Guy Bourdin inspired

I had the opportunity to photograph a shoot inspired by the above photograph taken by legendary fashion photographer for Guy Bourdin for this photoshoot. We wanted to recreate this image in a modern, and brighter way. It was hard work, especially finding ways to keep the model from toppling off the table completely, but I think the images have turned out very well.

Model and stylist: Faye Harrison

Makeup essentials

Following up from my beauty essentials post, I thought I'd do the same but for my makeup. I'm pretty stuck on my makeup, nothing really changes because it works so why experiment with something that might not? Maybe one day I'll push the boat out a bit a try new things, but for now I love what I've got so here we are.

This is my favourite primer on the market, and I've tried them all believe me. I need a primer in my makeup routine because I have pretty oily skin so makeup tends to just slide right off me. This is the only primer I've found that really keeps it in place. I used to wear the Illamasqua Satin Primer, which was great and made my skin feel nice and soft, but it did nothing for my makeup. The Matte primer keeps everything in place and it's definitely an essential in my kit.

I think if you're going to spend a bit more money on one thing in your makeup bag it should be foundation. A bad foundation can be spotted a mile off, with tidelines and caking, and just that general fake look. This Estée Lauder is perfect for my skin. I use the Double Wear Light as I don't really like heavy makeup, it doesn't work on me, it looks really obvious on my skin, and I generally just don't like the feel of it. I never like to feel makeup on my skin because I get paranoid about what it's doing to it. I love this foundation because of the lightness of it, and also because I think it's the first foundation I've ever bought that straight out of the pot matches the colour of my skin. Again it stays in place all day even with my oily skin and hot weather. Supposedly the normal Double Wear foundation does this also, so whatever coverage you like, I would highly recommend this product.

Yes I am a huge Illamasqua fan so here's some more. I was actually quite scared of cream blusher before I found this one. I couldn't understand how you could put it in the right place and make it look natural, turns out it looks 100 times more natural than powder. This colour is absolutely beautiful, I think it would suit pretty much anyone, and the bonus is you can use it on your lips too and it looks like a gorgeous lipstick. This is my favourite powder in the world. It's loose powder so can get a bit messy but it's worth it. It's light, it mattifies the face without caking it, and it smells gorgeous too.

I always use Maybelline mascara, I've tried pretty much every one and I think they're all great. At the moment I've been combing these two, using the lower lash wand on the Big Eyes for my lower lashes, the upper wand for one coat on my upper lashes, then finishing with another coat on the upper lashes using the Colossal Volume.

For lips I tend to stick with Barry M lipsticks. I have others of course, Rimmel do great lipsticks (big fan of the Kate Moss collection), but Barry M have an amazing range of colours and each one has great staying power without drying out lips.

Well I suppose it could be argued that I like Barry M for nails too (that's just over half the amount of colours I have). I just think they're great value, great staying power, and a really good selection of colours and glitters.

Beauty essentials

This post is all about my beauty essentials, the products I swear by and have done for years, and some new miracle products I've found. It takes years to find a beauty routine that really works for you and I think I've finally found mine so here it is.

Firstly, supplements, it's so boring but oh so important. It really does make a difference. I take a standard multivitamin tablet every morning, then a hair, skin and nails supplement in the evening. I have pretty damaged hair from bleaching and years of heat styling so I'm trying to get some health and thickness back into my hair. Supplements are the best way to nourish your hair without piling on product. I wouldn't say it really matters what brand of supplement you use, as long as you don't go too cheap, anything is good enough.

I swear by this range. It's formulated for young sensitive skin which is exactly what I need. The cleanser makes my skin feel clean but not oily, I find some cleansers leave a residue after rinsing. The toner is brilliant, I've been using it for years now. I use it after cleansing at night to make sure I've removed every bit of makeup, because I'm quite obsessive about sleeping without a trace of makeup on my skin. The mattifying moisturiser works perfectly for my skin as it's quite oily and this really does the job. I tend to use it before I apply makeup, I save a slightly thicker moisturiser for makeup free days.

This little pot of gold is one of my latest beauty finds. I'd been using Simple makeup wipes for years and had got so used to the slight sting after removing my makeup, I just thought that was normal. Wrong! Turns out my skin is actually too sensitive for the Simple range, which is aimed at sensitive skin. So a friend introduced me to this little beauty and I will never go back to wipes. This cream melts the makeup off your skin, and eyes (seriously you can get right in there with no pain at all), without the need to rub harshly. You simply massage it all over then remove it gently with a warm cloth. The one issue with this, is that it's quite oily, and tends to leave the sink in a bit of a mess after you've rinsed out the cloth. I found I have to wipe down the sink every night but it's a small price to pay for a makeup free face that hasn't been scrubbed raw.

It might seem silly at 22 to start using anti ageing products, but their not just made for older skin, the overall aim of these products is to improve the skins elasticity and pigmentation. I say there's no problem with getting started early. Before I go to sleep every night I apply this Vichy eye cream to the darker circles around my eyes, using a gently tapping motion with my middle finger. This Olay Regenerist is a pretty new product for me, but I'd say it's working already. Again I apply this at night, just one small drop is all you need, but I can already feel that my skin feels softer and firmer, and it's reducing the appearance of my pores as well. Bonus.

This little tube is my biggest beauty secret. As a lipstick lover, I have to take care of my lips making sure they're not chapped so my lipstick goes on smoothly. Every other night (not every night, your lips can get dependant on lip balm and it ends up drying them out in the long run) I apply this, and I wake up in the morning with soft chap-free lips, without fail. If I feel I need to top it up during the day (especially in cold weather), I just slick on a bit of the classic that is Vaseline.

As far as my hair is concerned I'm constantly changing what I use on it. The one thing that has remained constant is my tangle teaser. I genuinely do not know what I did before I had one of these. My hair is very dry and damaged so every time it's combed or brushed it feels like it's all breaking off, but not with this. I'm pretty sure this would make it to my desert island essential list. Apart from the tangle teaser I recommend a heat protectant spray, I've been using this TRESemmé heat defence for years. I also love argan oil, it's like an instantaneous fix for damaged hair, but long term use is even more effective. This Redken version is a real treat, it's like liquid gold for hair.

On Wednesdays we wear pink

Happy Mean Girls day! It's been 10 years today since the release of everyone's favourite chick flick Mean Girls, and as fate would have it it's fallen on a Wednesday. So I'm following the rule of The Plastics, and wearing my favourite pink jumper and a slick of pink lipstick today.

This week's music

I've been having a bit of a girl power week clearly but I've really been loving Halestorm lately. Lzzy Hale's voice is insane, I saw her a few years ago when she came out and sang You Shook Me All Night Long with Corey Taylor at his acoustic set at Download 2012, and it was awesome. There are some great Halestorm covers in this playlist, including Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, and Daft Punk's Get Lucky. Continuing my girl power trip, I've been getting into Tonight Alive lately, their brilliant new song The Edge is from The Amazing Spider-man 2 soundtrack. Had to throw a bit of Paramore on the playlist, not the biggest fan of the new album but I like two of the singles released from it, Still Into You and Ain't It Fun. Finally, I've been listening to Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! and Four Year Strong, two bands I've been wanting to get into for a while now. The French band Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! made the playlist because their cover of childhood classic All Star by Smash Mouth is brilliant. If you're going to listen to one song on this playlist, make it that one.

Oh Avril...

Oh Avril, poor poor Avril. If you haven't already seen the latest creation from the unholy union of Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger then... actually avoid it, save yourself. It's too late for me as I ignored the signs because I will always have a soft spot for Avril Lavigne (Let Go is the soundtrack of my pre-teen years), I thought 'well it can't be that bad'. How wrong I was. Hello Kitty, is the third single off of Avril's self-titled fifth album, honestly I had no idea she even had a new album out, she's pretty under the radar nowadays. Before I even get to the atrocity that is the music video, I'll start with the song itself. First off; lyrics, that's a pretty generous description to summarise the random words Avril shouts out 'kawaii / hello kitty, you're so pretty / like a major rager OMFG / someone throw a cupcake at me'. I'm in pain. These lyrics were generously written by Avril's husband Chad Kroeger, who isn't exactly renowned for his songwriting abilities 'Look at this photograph / Every time I do it makes me laugh!'... Nice one Chad. Secondly, the music itself is a complete car crash of techno-pop, Avril has tried something new and failed spectacularly. However, she hasn't lost it, she demonstrated that in her song Here's To Never Growing Up, released earlier this year with a great music video nodding back to her Sk8er Boi days. Avril we love you like this! Stick to what you know!

And so leads me to the cringe-inducing video for Hello Kitty. If you really must, you can watch the ghastly thing for yourself on Avril's official website here. Don't say I didn't warn you. The video consists of her parading around with four expressionless and quite frankly bored-looking women. Some treats to look forward to are when Avril lazily plays guitar, waves to imaginary admirers, and excitedly eats sushi while sporting a buzzcut and a cupcake adorned skirt. She's coming under a lot of fire for this disastrous video, with some people claiming it to be racist through cultural appropriation, I don't know about that, but I can certainly say it's an offensive assault on two of the senses. Come on Avril, you're better than this.

Babymetal

I was going to make a new music playlist for what I've been listening to this week, but it has solely consisted of one band. A friend introduced me to Babymetal a while back and I managed to listen politely to half a song before asking him to turn it off immediately. Bubblegum pop and metal don't mix right? Wrong! Babymetal are the new Marmite of music and I have now fully taken my stance on the 'love it' side. The band consists of three adorable Japanese girls Suzuka Nakamoto (aged 16), Moa Kikuchi (14) and Yui Mizuno (14), singing and dancing over intense heavy metal and techno beats. I'm still unsure of what made me change my mind about the kawaii metal band, but I encourage everyone to give it a chance, even if your initial reaction is one of horror. There's something really innocent about it, especially if you watch the band in action in their music videos or live performances, but then it's completely juxtaposed with the rawness and ferocity of the music. It's impossible to ignore Babymetal, the viral phenomenon caught the music industry's attention when they uploaded the music video for their single Gimmie Chocolate to YouTube and it received over 5 million views in less than 2 months. You can't deny the catchiness of the music, they really are stuck-in-your-head songs and I admire the girls because there's no way I would be able to perform to crowds of that size now, let alone when I was 14! The Japanese trio are headed to the UK in July, performing at Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth Park. I can't wait to see them in action.

Cutaway

Jean Paul Gaultier

This week I went to see the new exhibition at the Barbican in London, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk. Clothes aside, the presentation of the exhibition itself was amazing. Firstly in the way that some of the mannequins displaying Gaultier's avant-garde creations had faces projected onto their heads that blink, sing and talk, including one of the designer himself, welcoming guests to the exhibition. There were rooms devoted to the designer's muses over the years, including Madonna, Kyle, Grace Jones and Kate Moss, beautiful fashion photography decorating the walls, and a mechanical catwalk showcasing some of Gaultier's designs. All of the clothes were in arms reach and it was really exciting to be able to see the intricate detail in the haute couture pieces.

Breton-striped lace dress from the Spring/Summer 2000 couture collection.

A dress from the Spring/Summer 2007 couture "Virgins" collection.

"Auréole" gown, worn by Kyle Minogue in the Pierre et Gilles photograph The Virgin with the Serpents, 2008.

Boy George inspired pieces from the Spring/Summer 2013 ready-to-wear collection.

Stage costumes worn by Madonna during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour.

The "Punk Cancan" Room.

Outfit modelled by Agyness Deyn on the Spring/Summer 2007 ready-to-wear catwalk.

Skirt and dress made of multicoloured kipper ties, from the Spring/Summer 2002 couture collection.

Mannequins on a conveyor belt catwalk.

Outfit from the Autumn/Winter 2014-15 ready-to-wear collection.

The exhibition runs until the 25th August 2014, I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Gaultier's work, or fans of punk, androgynous fashion.

Céline Paris

This week's music

The weather has been gorgeous lately, and when that's the case I struggle to listen to anything but ska, the ultimate musical accompaniment to a sunny day. This has been my standard Summer playlist for years now, just the best collections of songs to lean back and relax with a cider and friends. I'm always open to some suggestions to update my Summer soundtrack so let me know if you've got any beautiful weather songs.

Grease is the word

I've been getting all caught up in the greaser style lately, listening to a lot of Arctic Monkeys and watching Crybaby and Rebel Without a Cause. So this inspired a greaser style photoshoot.

Model: Stephen Brightwell

Style Icons

My latest post about Kurt Cobain got me thinking about icons, specifically style icons. There are several names that spring to mind immediately when you think about style icons; Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Wintour. Narrowing down your favourite style icons is like picking your favourite Beatles album - there are so many great ones, it's hard to choose. However, I've had a long hard think, and put together a few of my personal style icons.

Mick Jagger

No one does it better than Jagger for me. The man is 70 and still makes me want to rush out and buy a colourful blazer to wear with my all-black outfit. The main thing for me about Mick Jagger is that I genuinely just really like him, I like the fact that he was the bad boy playboy of the 60s, leaping around the stage in an Ossie Clark rhinestone jumpsuit, I like the fact that despite being rail-thin and pretty gaunt looking, he's still considered a pin-up (in my eyes anyway), and I like the fact that he still has the energy and stage presence of a man a quarter of his age.

Daphne Guinness

I'm not saying I want to wear couture head to toe every day (though I wouldn't be opposed to it), but the reason Daphne is a style icon of mine is due to her sheer bravery. I love the risks she takes because it works every single time and she always looks amazing. She's the ultimate gothic princess, who regards her clothes as armour. My fascination with Daphne started when I saw this short documentary film by Brennan Stasiewicz, which features intimate footage of Daphne at work and home.

Gwen Stefani

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember a time when Gwen Stefani wasn't my style icon. Other's have come and gone but this girl will never leave. I loved her late 90s bindi sporting, pink hair, crop top phase, I ADORED her solo career Harajuku inspired phased (I still listen to Love, Angel, Music, Baby. I won't let anyone tell me it's not a great album), and her interpretation of the modern day pin-up, with her signature peroxide blonde locks and red lips is perfection.

(Images via Vogue UK, Marie Claire, Grazia)

Kurt Cobain: remembering an icon

This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the legendary Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's death. Those who were influenced by him pulled in their plaid shirt collars as they listened to the timelessly haunting lyrics he wrote all those years ago, and remembered. Kurt Cobain is an unintentional hero, a tortured poet who was honest about his emotions in a time where frontmen were more concerned about looking cool than connecting with the people. 20 years on and he continues to inspire people in all industries.

As the unwilling personification of grunge, Kurt defined a genre of music that was previously unheard of, it was a groundbreaking combination of indie rock and punk, complemented by honest confessional lyrics. There was a pattern to the songs, quiet-verse loud-chorus, that became Nirvana's signature, it was structured chaos. But it was the MTV Unplugged performance that truly shone light on Kurt's gifts as a songwriter. Though his lyrics often had more meaning behind each line, some lines were a direct transmission from his tortured mind. Kurt's raw expressiveness is still inspiring artists today spanning through all genres of music, for example in Drake's heartbreaking confessionals. 20 years on, the presence of Nirvana is still felt throughout the music industry.

It could be strange to think of Kurt Cobain as a style icon, as it seems highly unlikely for that to have been a goal of his, but it's inarguable that he is just that. Every few seasons, designers have cited the grunge movement and Kurt as a key influence. Flannel shirts, grandad-style tatty oversized cardigans, heavy layers, and ripped and patched jeans are still statement pieces in fashion today. Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent demonstrated how to do grunge Cobain-style perfectly in his Autumn/Winter 2013-14 collection. The collection is pure early 90s grunge, with some pieces that looked like they came straight out of Kurt's wardrobe.

So here's to another 20 years of inspiration to the man, the music, the mystery, the icon that is Kurt Cobain.

(Top image via deviantART, middle images via Vogue UK, bottom image via Photobucket)

Autumn/Winter 2014-15 Paris picks

Alexander McQueen

I always tend to have more love for the more theatrical shows, therefore Alexander McQueen is generally a year by year favourite for me. This season was very Game of Thrones, yet folksy and light. Another sinister fairytale offering from Sarah Burton.

Chanel

Another theatrical show, therefore another winner for me, except the Chanel show was not dramatic or mystical or fantastical, it was satirical, and it was fabulous. The very idea of these incredibly glamorous, modern and fresh women doing their shopping is genius, it actually gave the iconic brand an approachable feel.

Balmain

A fierce, sexy, safari warrior princess is the Balmain girl this season. It was rough, and strong, and perhaps even restricted, but it was all the while sensual in it's military style.

Saint Laurent

So my favourite collection of the entire season hands down was Saint Laurent. It's rare for me to come across a designer and think 'this person is designing for me', but Hedi Slimane does just that. It's rock and roll coolness all over, which was reflected in the front row of the show with the likes of Alex Turner and Miles Kane present. There wasn't one piece in the collection that I wouldn't at least consider wearing, and that's all the way down to the shoes and accessories. I'll certainly be keeping a close eye on this one.

(Images via Vogue UK)