My Week

So, what’s been happening at GG’s Pin-up Couture’s headquarters this week then?

1. Getting my Brand ‘Out There’

I have my business head on at all times but this week I have turned it up a notch or two. I’ve decided that I need to take the bull by the horns so to speak in terms of getting my brand and business out there. I’ve written a Press Release to send out to the local news (I thought starting with Cardiff would be best to test the waters) & have sent it to the two main news publications, Cardiff Life and the South Wales Echo. Cardiff Life responded straight away, accepting my Press Release and agreeing to feature me in the month’s Business News! Fingers crossed it all materialises! I will chase it up next week to cement the arrangement! I am waiting to hear from the Echo but I’ve heard that sometimes you need to follow up sending a Press Release with a phone call to see if it’s been received so I’ll do that on Monday. I will keep you all posted. If any of you run a business or need to write a good quality Press Release there are hundreds of guides on the net, but the best one by far is the one on Rock and Roll Bride.com. It’s straight to the point and full of tips from someone with experience within my own business niche. Which is priceless in my opinion. I won’t count my chickens yet though but the advice given by Debbie Carlisle in this article seems to be working already for me! My next task is to tailor my Press Release to other non-local publications.

2. Updating my Website and Adding New Stock

This is an ongoing task for me. I don’t have traditional collections like Spring/Summer Autumn/Winter that are added in bulk twice a year but rather I prefer to add bits continually. I like to have fresh content and like to keep the designs moving and my ideas fresh. I’ve been slowly adding stock to my website from the shoot me and my fiance Andrew did with models Nixe Phoria and Naomi Shalom a couple of weeks ago. The images are fantastic and Andrew is such a perfectionist that each picture takes him about 3 hours to edit. They turn out amazingly well but he has to put up with me nagging him for more pictures as I’m so excited to share them with Facebook and to add them to my shop! I must ease off the nagging though as he works full time as a lecturer and commutes so by the time he gets home the last thing he wants to do is edit images. Cue me with pouting lip. This is what I’ve added so far:

Screwball Fascinator

Glittered Dramatic Mask

Ivory RosPurple and Band

Poppies

Kitty-Cat

Crystals

Dinosaur

 Screwball

I have around six more to add and have a queue of fascinators ready to take more pictures of. Poor Andrew!

3. Completing Custom Orders

I make custom pieces for ladies (and gents) wanting something specific. Here are some of the pieces I’ve made this week!

There are more than this and I have uploaded them onto my facebook page.

Next week I’m going to be making more designs for my new range and trying to organise another shoot! I will keep you updated but until then, have a lovely weekend!

If I had the Money Wednesday (on Thursday this week!)

 Due to me being crazy busy yesterday making hats I had to postpone this week’s If I had the Money Wednesday until today. I’ve been thinking lots about what I’m going to write about this week & I remembered a brand of clothing that I’ve adored for a few years now. I’ve not bought anything from this company yet, but for me it’s one of the best around. The brand is Tarantula Clothing.

Wild Catsuit by Tarantula Clothing $100.00

In terms of style I would describe Tarantula Clothing as completely Femme Fatale. The style is more edgy than other brand within the niche of vintage reproduction clothing. Also, I love the length on their skirts and dresses. As a rule I never wear anything above the knee dress and skirt-wise and even then it has to be the right length for me – I don’t like the length to be too close to the knee but for the hem to sit around mid-calf.

Amazingly Perfect Pencil Skirt! $49.99

Smoothy Dress in Blue $90.00

Plaid Skirt: enquire at Tarantula Company for price

Smoothy Dress in Red $90.00

Sex Kitten Capris £84.00

I think all of their designs are amazing and have been soooo tempted to invest in a few pieces over the past months! Plus you don’t have to order from the US to get your hands on some of these pieces. Ozone Clothing I believe are the UK’s only stockist & have quite a wide range of Tarantula Designs in their range as well as lots of other cool rockabilly designers for both girls and guys! What do you think of these designs? I think they’re perfect for vamping it up to the max!

Red Lipstick Review – ‘Decisive’ by Lush Cosmetics

Anyone who knows me will know that I absolutely LOVE red lipstick. Red is my favourite colour in anything but there is something about red lipstick that makes me feel great. It brightens my face, makes me feel ‘made up’ and presentable and also is a nod to my love of vintage style and also the musical icons I love, enter Robert Smith (although my makeup is a tad neater most of the time), PJ Harvey etc. 

If you follow my posts you’ll know that I admitted to having a hoard of lipsticks that have just built up over the years and, in fitting with my money saving themed Wednesday posts (Haven’t Got the Money Wednesdays) I decided to review them and share my findings to save my readers the trouble of wasting money on too many lipsticks like I have. Here is some of my collection:

Just some of my lovely red lipsticks!

  

 See how I’ve lined them up like the usual suspects! I couldn’t fit them all in the frame and I have some in my handbag too. The brands are (from left to right) Estee Lauder ‘Rouge Bingo’, (you can just see the gold tube) Lush ‘Decisive, GOSH ‘Shanghai Express’ Barry M ‘121’ (unknown brand), Rimmel ‘Alarm’ Topshop ‘Rio Rio’ Mac Ruby Woo and Sleek ‘Russian Roulette’. I’ll be reviewing all of them one by one to see which ones I feel are the best value for money.

My first review is for ‘Decisive’ by Lush Cosmetics, £14.50

I was a bit out of the loop in terms of Lush products, having not ventured inside the lovely Cardiff branch in months, and, when doing so, never bothered going upstairs. How silly of me! Had I known about the lovely range of makeup that was laying in wait I’m sure my collection of Lush Cosmetics would be a lot larger by now. Lush launched its makeup range in July 2012 and rather than think of new synonyms for ‘red’ as other brands do, Lush uses the innovative concept of linking emotional ‘buzz’ words to each colour. You gotta have a gimmick, right? 

Lush co-founder Rowena Bird explains to Vogue magazine

“This range offers pigment-rich products that are very versatile… they can be worn to give great depth of colour or more sheer coverage, so can be worn by both make-up junkies and non make-up wearers who prefer the subtle look,”

The colours are certainly very pigment rich  and my eyes lit up when I saw the display which included a fabulous spinning wheel that is part of a sort of personality/emotion reading game! Try it yourselves here.

‘Decisive’ rad popped out at me immediately and I was especially pleased as the sales assistant assured me that it is (along with Lush’s other products) completely cruelty free. Its description is as follows:

Decisive: A Vintage Cherry Red. This patent applied for recipe for the Liquid Lipsticks is a super softening base, which is a simple blend of organic jojoba oil, candelilla wax and rose was. As well as being intensely skin softening and soothing, the base also carries pigment incredibly well.

We shall see! This is the product:

 

It comes in a small bottle which is identical in shape and size to the other colour products in the range. Apparently this can be used on the cheeks too. The applicator is a bit like a pipette so it all feels a bit pharmacy-ish.

The first thing you notice is it is a lot more liquid-like than most standard red lipsticks. It has a very ‘lip glossy’ texture but without the gloss. It smells lovely, and tastes quite nice too, without that waxy chemically taste that can be had with most lipsticks. This made me feel quite reassured as I know the ingredients used in this lipstick are 100% natural and I wont be ingesting any nasty chemicals!

Here I am putting it to the test. I’ve added pictures of me without using any posh photo filters so you can garner a true impression of the colours

Me without lipstick:

Me, sans lipstick

Please excuse the rather miserable expression and the spot on my nostril. The sales assistant advised me to add lip-liner before using as this product’s liquidy formula tends to make it bleed into the lines around the mouth.

Here I am with lined lips. Weird. I used a standard Red from Rimmel,

The first thing I noticed when applying this is how little of the product you actually need. The colour is such a vivid red that I only needed a thin layer of product before my lips looked fully made-up. It went on smoothly and there was no need to blot.

The shade of red has blue undertones so it made my teeth look whiter (yay!) and made me feel very vampy indeed!

Me just after applying the lipstick

How long does it last before needing re-application?

I wanted to see how long it lasted as reds are notorious for needing touch ups throughout the day. The first thing I tried was a cup of tea.The product left no lipstick stains on the cup at all and stayed even and vibrant. Here are my lips after the tea:

Me apres-tea

Still lovely and red! I left the red on for the rest of the day & it was a little faded slightly after around four hours, but the colour had faded evenly and didn’t leave patchy lips or lips with just the outline left (one of my pet makeup hates!). I think this is pretty good going! I used a tiny smidge to get the brightness back again.

I love this product. I think the packaging is innovative and fit-for-purpose and the cost of £14.50, although it may at first seem a bit on the expensive side, will work out to be quite cost efficient as you need very little product to get a luscious red lip and also very few applications. The only criticism I have is the fact it will bleed into your lip lines (and we all have them, no matter how young you are). This is because of the product’s consistency. You can stop this happening by using a lip-liner.

The scent of the lipstick was a new experience for me with regard to cosmetics and I was pleasantly surprised, I can’t put my finger on the smell but I like it. It doesn’t have that ‘taste’ that so many lipsticks have either and it felt nice on my lips. I enjoyed using the applicator too. It had a soft, furry tip that allowed precision of application too.

I think this lipstick is going to be a tough one to beat!