A review of...Chris Addison's sideburns

Far be it from me to criticize talented performers due to their hair style choice, but, when the choice in question is actively distracting from said performance, criticism has to be made! It was a good 5 minutes into the first time I watched one of Addison's stand-up routines before I realised that it wasn't the slightly jarring over-the-top performance style, which seemed at odds with his naturalistic role as Political adviser Ollie in 'The Thick of It', no it was the wholly unnecessary baby mutton chops crawling down his baby face. O Chris, no amount of oddly fashioned facial hair will stop you looking like a 12 year old public school boy. Into the same razor shy category I also have also to put David Tennant. A man who also employs the same level of puppy like energy in his performances, perhaps the sidies give them a Samson like energy? On no level does that mean I'd encourage any man alive to follow their example. Side burns are an exact science and, admittedly this may well be a personal hang up (though please do comment in support if you are with me) but any fashion sported by the Wurzels should be approached with extreme caution...and this is from a dye-hard country girl! Boys, you have been warned, cut them down or find yourself a combine harvester!

The quest continues.....

On my travels in the consumerist retail paradise that is my local shopping centre, I do like to go to Lush. For those who have yet to frequent the unparalleled ecstasy that is going into Lush (maybe its just me that feels this way) you are missing out on all kinds of magnificent bath products which smell amazing and do what they say! (just don't sue me if you can never get the glitter/flowers/colour stains/fabric butterflies etc. out of your bath).I can tell what your thinking, where the hell is my foundation review you closet hippy???? well look no further

Lush + make-up = pretty damn good

When i saw this in Lush i was drawn to it like metal is to a magnet. I knew lush had a make-up branch business called 'B' never too busy to be beautiful' this always intrigued me, but was pretty expensive and only available on-line in the area i lived (i am sacred to buy foundation on-line encase the shade is wrong). B went bust, and i guess Lush are now integrating a bit of the old B business into the current and the not going bust Lush.

You are able to use this as a tinted moisturiser AND an all over foundation. I really like this about the product. Its multi use is something i have never really encountered before.

I went for the light pink. Colours are split in dark/light yellow (check if you have green veins!) and dark/light pink (for those who have blue veins!).

The foundation is very thick and very easy to blend. You really don't need to use alot. When i saw the size of the pot i was a bit unsure how long it would last, but I seriously I think a pot with everyday use would probably last over six months. I apply this over my moisturiser and found it sits very well on top. It is as i said very easy to blend and feels very nice and moisturising, but only in a good way not in a horrible greasy way. I was very impressed by the results on my skin. It makes me look radiant and healthy, which i personally find is a very good look.

Its really up to you how heavy you want to make it, as its quite easy to layer up. Having said that, applying to much (i would say trying to have quite heavy coverage) does lead to your face looking an odd colour. I don't want to say the dreaded O word. But hell, i cant lie. Too much and you will look a bit like you are orangey. This may be a problem only i have encountered as i am quite fair, but i would still be a bit cautious about using too much.

Staying power is pretty good, i would say it would last you from morning to early evening but you would need a touch up after that. Due to the fact it has lots of lovely things in it (rose petal and soya oil) i really felt that it was doing my skin good and at no point did i get any annoying 'its really obvious you are wearing foundation' dry bits.

It makes an excellent concealer. I know this is a controversial point but i would go as far to say.... BETTER than Yves Saint Laurent touche eclat .

So whats the verdict?

THE GOOD

• its from Lush!
• Suitable for vegans
• ingredients list doesn't read like a crazy chemical lab stock take
• the price is excellent for the quality and quantity of the product
• very easy to blend or mix with other foundation/moisturisers
• multi use
• makes you look super glowing and healthy
• would be very good for dry skin

THE BAD

• Staying power could be a bit better
• it smells a bit like cooking oil
• The texture is a bit odd
• if you have very very greasy skin or are going to be in high humidity, i think this would slide

THE UGLY

• Too much and you more than likely will look like an ompa loompa
• Range of colours is poor

The Quest for the best foundation of amazingness

For many years I like many other women have been on a quest. Yes. A quest. To call it anything else would demean the years of searching, the years of smearing various waaaaay too orange gunk on the back of my hand and the incredibly stupid amount of money i have spent. Yes finding the right foundation is something not to be taken lightly, if it was I would use a tinted moisturiser.

Let me do all the hard work for you and spare you the trauma and bitter disappointments i have experienced.

Let us begin.

Loreal True Match foundation (on average around £9.99)

Because your worth it? (for the price, hell yes!)

Now I was very dubious about this. Mostly as any product boasting the line

'super-blendable perfecting foundation MATCHES the colour and TEXTURE (?) of your skin'

is going to make me think:

1. Colour Match? i should be so lucky!

2. I don't want anything to mimic the texture of my skin EVER. I want to cover it up! damn you loreal!

In reality it is actually a very good foundation for the price tag and i find myself wearing it far more than any foundation i have bought from MAC, Chanel or any other high end brand.

The colour was very good for my pretty pale skin (W1 golden ivoy is my shade of preference)

I find it blends well over my moisturiser and gives excellent coverage. I had many compliments on how flawless my skin was when i wore this.

I would be so so careful when using this. I was very shocked at how runny the consistency is. I have lost count the number of times i have had to wipe huge amounts of excessive amounts of foundation off my hands. The bottle does have a nice little pump, to be honest if it didn't i think ease of application would diminish into 'arrrrgh' territory. Iwould definitely recommend application with a foundation brush for a very nice airbrushed look.

The lasting power is very surprising, come bed time (the few times i have actually bothered to remove my make-up) i found i still had a substantial amount on my face. As someone who recently went through a snobby 'cheap foundation is lame phase' I found myself very pleasantly surprised.In addition to this i found the foundation had a good finish. Matte but not 'oh my god i look like a crazed mannequin' good matte, which kept my nose shine free until lunch time (a rare feat).

One thing which really really bugs me about this and other loreal foundations, is that there appears to be no consistency in shades across any of there ranges. For instance i was so impressed by my true match, that i thought i would try Loreals infallible 16 hour foundation. However i couldn't find any shade that matched my true match shade, all of the shade names were different within this range. Which as you can imagine was quite frustrating. Eventually i had to settle for either a shade which was too pale or one which was too dark, which isn't a choice you want to be presented with really.

THE GOOD

• Easy to apply
• good staying power for the price
• nice finish
• doesn't feel too heavy
• good medium coverage
• a little will get you a long way.

THE BAD

• The consistency is quite runny (use sparingly!)
• didnt make me break out
• reduced shine (if you don't have very oily skin, i imagine this would be longer lasting than my experience)
• If you suffer from dry skin i would use with caution

THE UGLY

• The range of shades are shameful to be honest
• don't expect to be able to find the same shade in another loreal foundation (why loreal? whhhhhhy?)

A Review of....America's Next Top Model: 12 Cycles on but still compulsive viewing

America’s Next Top Model is the perfect viewing experience: mindless, brightly coloured and addictive. The show, presented and produced by Tyra Banks, is now airing its twelfth season (or cycle as the Americans would have it) and the format has been exported to countries around the world. A thirteenth cycle is being put together at this very moment.
I’m certainly conscious of what I wear and how I want to be perceived but I’m definitely not a fashion slave, partly due to financial constraints and partly because the whole concept is clearly dubious from an environmental or basic human happiness point of view. Nevertheless I am a dedicated and unashamed Top Model fan and I am committed to spreading the love far and wide. So, here goes!

For anyone who doesn’t know, Top Model follows your basic elimination reality game show format. Thirteen model wannabes are whittled down over the course of the series by process of elimination based on their performance in the weekly tasks. Each series contains a number of standard set pieces: the makeovers, the runway challenge, the go-see challenge and the Covergirl commercial. Eliminations take place in front of a panel of industry expert judges who critique the photos and performance of the girls. The winner receives a modelling contract with Covergirl cosmetics and gets signed up to a modelling agency.

From the first episode that I watched I was instantly hooked and ended up watching the entire series in a single night (I believe in seeing an addiction through to the end). The appeal of Top model is simple yet contradictory. Ultimately it’s pure escapism. During the show the girls don’t have to worry about work or the mundane features of everyday life. They are thrown into an extravagant illusion of easy success based on looks alone. Yet it’s hard to say whether watching girls, who are prettier and thinner than me, having a good time actually makes me feel better about myself or worse. It’s rather like facebook stalking: you only stalk the people with more exciting lives than yourself even though you know it’ll make you feel inadequate.

But even with the escapism aside Top Model is worth watching for its visual appeal alone. The American version is the clear winner over the export versions in this respect. The budgets are incomparable. The American version is brighter and more lavish from the photo shoots to the judging rooms. The judging room in series one of Britain’s Next Top Model, for example, looks like the conference suite of a cheap hotel with a ‘Top Model’ sign stapled onto a grotty curtain. The Canadian judging room looks like it was borrowed from the set of an awful eighties quiz show.

As to the photos, some are truly stunning and you always look forward to the photo critique each week. In Britain’s Next Top Model the photo shoots are approached with a good, British dose of realism that reflects the overwhelming probability that even the winner is unlikely to feature in any serious fashion editorials. The judges’ in the American original make claims to look for an all-round winner who can do ‘commercial’ and ‘high fashion’ but there’s no sustained commitment to preparing the contestants for the realities of the less glamorous end of the fashion industry. The show never sacrifices the aesthetic glory of the dream for such dreary concerns.

So you’ve got escapism and aesthetics but Top Model also has some good, clean, family-fun entertainment thanks to the foibles of some of the judges and contestants. My all time favourite contestants from this point of view include Robin (cycle 1) who seems to have a biblical or moral maxim justification for everything she does, including buying $400 boots. There’s also Melrose (cycle 7), who epitomises the bitchiness that elimination shows can produce in people who are probably perfectly pleasant in the real world. In fact there’s a bitchy one for every cycle and usually a pair of girls who can’t stand each other so this never disappoints. The girls in Britain’s Next Top Model are arguably bitchier on the whole than their American counterparts and seem to form factions rather than there just being one or two bitchy girls within a larger group of nice girls. The first episode is always a selection episode and some of the auditions are priceless. Jaslene’s audition in cycle 7 is utterly glorious.

My all time favourite contestant by far, for entertainment value, has to be Jade Cole from cycle 6. She is outrageously arrogant, not only because of her looks and modelling abilities (frustratingly she does produce good photos) but also from a wildly misplaced belief in her level of intelligence. You have to see it to believe it but she has a unique vocabulary featuring words such as ‘analystic’, ‘tornness’, ‘dwelve’, ‘withhandle’ and ‘derrogatoriness’ which she not only believes are accepted words but that they make her sound intelligent. My favourite quote is “Elephants are just incredible. They’re so preposterous” but there are countless others.

Some of the judges are brilliant too. Janice Dickinson (cycles 1-4), boldly asserting herself as the world’s first supermodel, represents the brutal voice of the fashion industry and generally berates the girls for being ‘too fat’. She also has a hilarious argument with another judge Jay Manuel (who presents the Canadian version and claims that his skin is naturally that colour) in cycle 1 and is eventually replaced with Twiggy (cycles 5-9), the lovable fashion aunty who has a genuine claim to being the world’s first supermodel. The veteran model in Britain’s Next top Model is Huggy Ragnarsson: a walking warning to anyone considering plastic surgery. Back in America, two- time judge Nole Marin (cycles 3 and 4) ought to have some sort of statue erected in his honour for fulfilling so many fashion stereotypes. He’s a fashion editior who is gay, bitchy, short and a bit tubby, ruthless in judging the girls on their weight and has a miniature dog. Nigel Barker, the most enduring judge, probably owes the longevity of his service to the fact that there would be a tidal wave of abuse letters if the female viewers didn’t get to look at him each episode. His English accent appears to particular advantage next to the Americans and makes him all the more handsome.

Finally, there’s Tyra herself. There’re moments in the cycles when she shows surprising insights and she usually has intelligent and worthwhile advice for the contestants. There’s also her achingly awful attempt at a pop single and her frequent crazy moments which I can only assume are unfortunate attempts to make her look a bit quirky or original. When watching the programme you may sometimes wonder if you’re watching some sort of speech therapy programme as both Tyra and Jay Manuel belong to the presenter school of thought that believes in speaking patronisingly slowly and over-enunciating. There’s also the scandal as to whether cycle 9 was fixed so that Saleisha would win. It’s all on Youtube but the evidence looks pretty convincing to me, particularly as Chantal, the runner-up was basically a goddess.

The real question though, after twelve cycles, is does Tyra actually care about the girls anymore? Certainly comparing cycle 1 to the following cycles there’s a massive decline in the amount of time that Tyra personally invests into the girls’ progress. However, anyone questioning her interests needs to watch Tyra yelling at Tiffany in Cycle 4. Literally watch it now! It’s the rawest emotion that I’ve ever seen on a reality TV show, or maybe on any TV show, and it’s hard to believe that they didn’t edit it out.

So where should the Top Model novice begin their obsession? At the very beginning... Cycle 1 is probably still my favourite cycle and as I said there’s a lot more Tyra time and a feeling that there’s more at stake as there can only be one original top model winner. Cycles 8, 2 and 7 closely follow as my next favourites but, believe me, once you’ve watched one you will NEED to watch them all!

A review of...The 2008 Emmys

The Emmys are back! With the red carpet hotter than ever before! The award show began in spectacular fashion as always by the red carpet event. Stars from all across the States and Britain were interviewed by E!News presenter Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest. What you wear on the red carpet is almost more than important than the award ceremony itself! E! Daily Ten presenter Catt Sadler said ‘Showing up on a best or worst dress list in this town somehow manages to have a more lasting impact than a statue!’
Styles that were particularly prominent these years were metallics, and bright bold colours were very popular as seen on Brooke Shields in her fuchsia Badgley Mischka dress, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Mariska Hargitay. Black was surprisingly popular this year with Kate Walsh, America Ferrera, and Debra Messing all arriving in black dresses. The Emmys are the first award show of the season so there is even more importance within the fashion stakes as anything celebrities wear can be remembered and talked about for a long time. First presenters were Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, fresh from there work on the SNL spoof of Sarah Palin & Hilary Clinton, the pair looked glamorous as they presented the first award for ‘Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series’.

It was all a far cry from the first show back in 1949, where the first award was given to Shirley Dinsdale for the Most Outstanding Television Personality.
1950 was the first national Emmy award show. Originally there was only one award show per year, this changed with the arrival of the Daytime Emmy, and the first daytime Emmy was given to The Doctors Best Show Daytime Emmy in 1972. Now that’s enough on the history! On to the red carpet – everyone’s’
favourite part!


The rest of last years award winners were:

Outstanding Drama Series –
Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series
30 Rock – Winner

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series –
Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series –
Glenn Close, Damages- Winner

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series –
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock - Winner


Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series –
Tina Fey – 30 Rock

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie –
Paul Giamatti-John Adams


Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series - Zeljko Ivanek, Damages

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series –
Dianne west – In Treatment

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series –
Jeremy Piven – Entourage

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Jean Smart – Samantha Who?

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie –
Tom Wilkinson – John Adams


Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series –
Glynn Turman – In Treatment


Outstanding guest actress in a drama series –
Cynthia Nixon – Law and order : special victims unit

Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program –
Don Rickles, performer; Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project


Outstanding Reality-Competition Program –
The Amazing Race

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program –
Jeff Probst – Survivor

Outstanding Miniseries
John Adams

Outstanding Made for Television Movie – Recount


Outstanding director for a variety, music, or comedy program
Louis.J.Horvitz


Outstanding writing for for a comedy variety or music show
Colbert Report

Oustanding directing for a miniseries movie or dramatic special
Jay Rooch – Recount

Outstanding writing for a miniseries , movie, or dramatic special
Kirk Ellis – John Adams

Outstanding writing for a drama series
Matthew Weiner – Mad Men – Smoke gets in your eyes


Surprisingly enough both Chandra Wilson and Sandra Oh missed out on ANOTHER Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series award for the third and fourth year running respectively. 30 Rock’s Tina Fey won three awards for Outstanding comedy series, Outstanding lead actress in a Comedy Series, and Outstanding writing for a Comedy Series. On top of her three wins, Fey also lost her purse! In a purple dress Fey accepted her awards, minus those famous glasses. This was rumoured to be because she wanted to distance herself from Sarah Palin for at least one night. The Hills start Lauren Conrad also made an appearance as a host, amid some criticism that she shouldn’t be giving out awards due to the fact she is not a ‘proper actress’
One of the highlights of the show was Veteran actor Don Rickles making an appearance with Kathy Griffin star of ‘My Life On The D-List’. Apparently Griffin was told not to go off script as she usually can be quite controversial, that was basically wasted as Rickles went off script for her. When Kathy Griffin asked people to stand up in honour of the legendary, Rickles then asked if it was a Jewish holiday. With the red carpet being so amazing, the overall show left a lot to be desired, as this was the 60th you would think that the organisers would have pulled out all the stops? But they didn’t hopefully next years will be more impressive!
E!’s presenter Catt Sadler commented ‘Overall, this year's 60th Anniversary of the Emmys lacked fire. It was rather boring. The ratings reflect that. TV shows in general suffered this past year because of the writer's strike and what have you... So the nominations and categories seemed somewhat lacklustre. Much respect to all of the nominees of course, but for the global viewing audience... I think it was a rather dull ceremony.’