Katie, Author at Lady From A Tramp

Katie Beauty

Have your say with Wahanda

I’m all for peer reviews on products and treatments, so before I buy anything or book anything, I like to check out Makeup Alley, Boots, Google for reviews or use the Good Spa Guide. It’s always good to know what you’re getting right?

Wahanda has introduced a monthly awards system called the Wahandies to recognise treatments, salons and products that us, as consumers have voted for and recommended. Sounds good right! Recognition due where it is deserved!

Here’s a bit of the official blurb about the Wahandies… Don’t forget to go and vote. I know I have a few local salons i’d like to sing the praises off so I’ll be hotfooting it over to investigate on how I submit them!

Wahanda Launches NEW ‘Red Carpet’ Awards!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Wahanda have now launched their new exclusive awards…the Wahandies! These fantastic monthly awards are designed to acknowledge and say thank you to all the venues and treatments that the Wahanda community love the most.

The NEW awards are based around the wonderful community at Wahanda and are a chance for visitors to the site to reward their favourite spas, salons and wellness venues to help them shine like the stars that they are!

How the Wahandies work

The awards take place each month and there are 10 different Wahandie awards in total. The award categories are different each time to give the community a chance to vote for a variety of their favourite treatments, from ‘Best Beach Body Fixes’ to ‘Top Tanning Treats’.

The winners are chosen solely by the Wahanda community and the businesses selected are those the community rates the highest; based on reviews, average ratings, number and quality of the reviews and credibility. The winners of each category are then awarded with a ‘glistening’ Wahanda badge to display on their website, letting the world know just how much the Wahanda community loves them!

Get started!

These rewards need participation from everyone and if you’re not already a member of the Wahanda community, then join in! For users this is a great chance to further envelope yourself into the beautiful Wahanda community. The Wahandies make it even better for everyone to be part of something special and make finding the best treatments, spas and salons even easier.

So here’s what to do next

For the healthy and the beautiful:

Think of a spa or salon you have recently been to and search it using the great easy-to-use search at the top of the Wahanda home page.
Write your review whether it is good or bad; Wahanda love to know what you think so unleash your inner writer!
Don’t forget to sign up to their newsletters so Wahanda can keep you up to date on each month’s categories and winners! Not forgetting all the wonderful deals they’ll alert you about.

Check out the Wahanda site to see who won this month’s Wahandies!

Katie Beauty

Review : Sleek – Pout Polish – Monte Carlo

I’m a bit indifferent to this pout polish (and the rest of them), I have to say. It does seem to be super bright in the pot but it translates to a super sheer light fuschia colour.

Excuse the pesky stray blush brush hair, i’ve just spotted it. I swatched Santorini at the same time as this!

It’s a lovely colour though. Nicely delicate to wear for work but not OTT and pouty.

I have dark pink lips and it doesn’t really pop on my lips as much as I’d like but it does give it a subtle tint and keep them extremely moisturised.

Product only really shows up with the flash i’m afraid

I think this will be a perfect holiday item though. If you’re pool side it would be great to slick on to keep lips moist and give a bit of colour to pool side posing, but it is also light enough to use on a city sightseeing trip without looking too overly-made up and dinky enough to slip inside a hip bag or shorts pocket.

I don’t know if it is just my imagination but the usual scent seems less overpowering in this polish. I know loads of people love it but I have to say it’s the only thing I hate about the range of Pout Polishes and have wrote about it before so to me this is it’s HUGE redeeming feature!

I might try this colour again, with a lip base on first to cancel out my natural lip colour.

You can buy the Monte Carlo Pout Polish in the following way s…..

Direct from Sleek’s website – £4.30

In Superdrugs stores – the added bonus of using the Superdrug Beauty Card

Katie Beauty

Are you dying for an Illamasqua make over?

Illamasqua always push the boundaries of wearable colour (or so I think) so for what seems to be an innovative brand, it’s no surprise they have thought outside the box again.

They are now offering one final salute to a beauty obsession… a make over for a dead loved one. When you think about it, it is quite weird, and the artist performing it must have to have a strong constitution but I actually love the idea.

Heaven forbid, should anything happen to me in the immediate future, i’d want peoples last memory of me to be exactly as in real life, with impeccable make up, not slapped on by some work experience kid in a funeral parlour ya know?

It’s not something you could ask your mother / sister to do now is it?

I truly don’t know if i’d make provisions in a will for it to be done as I think £450 is highly excessive.. but when you consider the poor MUA will have to work on a dead body, maybe that is a reasonable rate, I don’t know.

I do know i’d also want my hair to be immaculate too, I know we’d be dead but you don’t want to be remembered with a nana perm and blue frosted eyeshadow up to your brows do you?

Here is the blurb from the Illamasqua website.

05 July 2011

The Final Act of Self-Expression

We have collaborated with established family funeral directors Leverton & Sons to launch an innovative service bringing ritual beauty to the final act for those who to self-express…

This unique service encourages people for whom making-up is an intimate part of their identity to plan their final transformation – one that pays tribute to who they were in life and how they want to enter the afterlife …

Illamasqua encourages people to self-express and embrace their alter ego in every way – why should this be any different when you pass away? It is a celebration of life, and one that should be indulged for your last glamorous look.

The rite of passage to the afterlife has been of central importance to human culture for thousands of years. To have the best mahogany, the finest, lining, the best stallions … are today chosen in tribute to the life lived.

To wear the most fabulous make-up applied by a professionally trained make-up artist for your final journey is the ultimate statement of celebration.

This service is available from Illamasqua and Leverton & Sons in the London area only from July 2011. The Final Act of Self-Expression service can be booked as part of a pre-arranged funeral by calling Leverton & Sons on 0207 387 6075

Prices starting from £450 subject to availability.

Katie Beauty

Sleek – Santorini Blush

Oh my lord this is bright!

The Santorini Blush is part of the summery Mediterranean collection which was launched on the 6th June.

When compared side by side to Sleek’s other bright pink offering, you can see the difference isn’t quite so vast but on use, it becomes shockingly apparent. I had initially thought there wasn’t going to be that much difference but I sure was wrong!

Swatched in daylight, in front of the window

The dolly pink shade is a nice buildable bold pink, it’s forgiving and super blendable. Santorini on the other hand is bold, super pigmented tricky customer.

Swatched in bright daylight

From swatching, I knew I’d have to have a very gentle hand to get this look to work without looking like Aunt Sally from Worzel Gummidge!!!

With one very light tap of the blusher brush on the pan, you are rewarded with a super bold flush of colour that is quite hard to blend. It certainly does need blending to make it look wearable.


Top of my hand – 3 light sweeps over the pan with a brush and then blended out with fingers

I’d definitely rate this as a blusher for the summer as you’d need a tan to pull this off, or it’s perfectly suited to the more olive + darker skinned ladies. I think you’d look a little clown-ish if you wore this on pale skin, there’s only so much blending you can do! That might be your thing of course!

For a highstreet brand, the pigmentation and longevity is just astounding, especially considering the price!!

You can buy the Santorini Blush from Sleek in the following ways….

Direct from Sleek’s website – £4.30

In Superdrugs stores – the added bonus of using the Superdrug Beauty Card

Katie Beauty

Review : The Katie-sonic – A budget beauty Clarisonic alternative

When the Clarisonic’s came to my attention I was desperate for one but I just couldn’t afford to take a risk on purchasing one, when it could ultimately result in me buffing the top layer of my super sensitive skin off (Which is likely ha ha!) and it’s not the kind of item I’d want to sell on as used 2nd hand! Ick!

I researched around for a while and found a cheaper similar version made by Champneys. It was around the £5 so I thought it was better to get that one and give it a whirl before I comitted to the £150+ of a Clarisonic, especially as it’s not something you can go and try before you buy really is it!

Mr Tramp has named it my Katie-sonic and the name has kind of stuck!

In the Champneys kit, you get 2 mini foam applicator discs, a small brush and a large brush. I like to ‘get my moneys worth’ and use as many as I can.. in one go!

Excuse the grubby mini brush – i was FAAAAR too impatient and foolishly used it dry on a fully made up face!

I have read many tutorials and FAQs about using the actual Clarisonic and this is how I use mine…..

1. First I remove the majority of my make up with eye make up remover / face wash as if you don’t, the heads just get incredibly gunked up far too quickly and they just don’t look very nice! Ick!

2. After washing the large part of my make up off, I click in the small foam applicator pad, dampen it slightly and add a pea size glob of a foaming face wash (or whatever cleanser you prefer!) and then I swirl it over my face to get the wash on my skin and start it foaming up. Alternatively, if I’m using my Elemis melting gel cleanser, I apply it to my made up face, rub it in, let it eat away at the make up and then lather it up with water before going straight in with the small brush like step 3.

3. I then switch to the small brush head and again dampen it. I focus this head around my nose and t zone area and all along my hair line. I use the small one as I find it gets in closer to my features, meaning I don’t miss anything out.

4. After I am sure I have worked the skin, lightly with the small brush head I click on the large brush and take it round and over the larger expanses of my skin – Forehead, cheeks, jaw line and neck. I find the larger head gives a quicker exfoliation without being too harsh to the skin.

I follow this by rinsing off all the face wash with a few splashes of water to my face before patting dry and continuing with my skin care regime.

I give each attachment a good wash with running water as hot as my hands can stand with an anti bacterial face wash, making sure I rinse all make up and soap residue out of the bristles and foam. To dry the attachments I swirl them on a clean hand towel just to take the bulk of the moisture out then I dry them upside down, bristles down on a piece of tissue.

I only use my Katie-sonic once a day, just before bed as I like to feel like I’m cleaning the entire days dirt off before bed and I find my skin looks fresh, red and rosy after using the brushes which I don’t want to be trying to cover on a morning when applying fresh foundation.

It does certainly make me feel much cleaner than my usual routines and I haven’t had any bad reactions or sensitivity to using the brushes. I know the range offered by Clarisonic themselves is obviously wider than the 3 types of head with the Champneys but if you are in 2 minds about trying the Clarisonic, or if you just want
to get the same kind of effect on a budget then I really recommend trying the cheaper alternative.

Hopefully this should help you make a decision one way or the other!