Ciao bella! Au pair time

Ciao!


I am in the beautiful Alassio, Italia, this month working as an Au pair for a wonderful family. 


I just wanted to write a quick post as to what au paring is and what you have to do! 


What is an Au pair?
An au pair is usually a domestic assistant from abroad, living and working for a host family. 


What can an au pair do?
1. Help out around the house
2. Clean up toys that the children have left lying around the house
3. Cook basic meals for the children (n my case the mother usually takes care of this every time!)

What au pairs should not have to do:
1. No intense cleaning, such as clearing/sweeping out the garage- you are not being paid for manual labour!
2. No house hold maintenance


The primary responsibility of an au pair is, of course, child care. An au pair can provide up to 45 hours per week of care for the children. If the children are babies/very young, the au pair will help change nappies, give them baths and care for them. If the children are a little older, the au pair should take them to activities, play games with them and in my case, help them to learn English. 
My primary role as an au pair is to help improve on the child's English as he is an Italian boy. This means constant chatting whenever you are around them and playing games that can encourage the use of English at all times. 


Well,  I hope this has been of some use to anyone who is thinking about wanting to get a job over the summer. Being an au pair can be a very rewarding experience and an exciting challenge as well as getting to travel abroad and learn another language!

Here's a snap of the beach where we spend most of the week, it's a hard life being an au pair!


Has anyone 


Arrivederci!


Love,


E-L xo

Liebster Award!

Thank you Jesslyn for this lovely award, it was very kind of you! If you'd like to visit her blog click here, and I suggest you do! The Liebster award is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers!

The rules:

1) Each Person must post 11 things about themselves.

2) Answer the questions the tagger has set you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer. 

3) Choose 3 people and link them in your post.

4) Go to their page and tell them.

5) Remeber, no tag backs!

Ok, so here goes:

11 things about myself:

1) When I was younger, I wanted to be a caterpillar so I could grow up into a beautiful butterfly. 

2) Nearly everyone over the age of 25 has tried to call me Emily (except my parents)

3) I've fallen into my fish pond more than once 

4) I used to scooter

5) I unplug everything in my room before I leave the house

6) I check I've locked the door more than once

7) I love painting with my fingers

8) I used to talk to my dog

9) I don't have a middle name 

10) I get withdrawal symptoms if I've been away from the beach for too long

11) I ran at the London Olympic Stadium and it was AWESOME

So Jesslyn asked me 11 of her own questions:

1) Who is your inspiration to do make up?

My inspiration came from watchinf YouTube videos of the amazing beauty Guru that is Michelle Phan- simply amazing!

2) What is your favourite make-up brand?

Estée Lauder 

3) Do you have any pets? What animals do you like?

I have lots of fish and I used to have a German Shepherd dog named Trojan. I love all animals but I adore Tigers.

4) What do you think you are best at?

Probably being the calm one in a stressful situation.

5) What hair colour do you think is best?

Brunette of course!

6) What is your everyday clothing?

I love to change my look every day to suit my mood, so I don't really have an everyday clothing, unless you count tights, I ALWAYS wear tights!

7) Which part of your body are you really proud of?

My hands.

8) Wavy or straight hair?

Straight.

9) What pops out in our mind when you see the word 'muffin'? 

Blueberries... I love blueberry muffins!

10) Chocolate muffin or banana muffin dipped in honey?

Banana muffin dipped in honey.

11) What is the last song you heard? Change one word with donkey.

Poem for Donkey (Real title= Poem for Eva by Bill Frisell)

And these are the questions for those I nominate:

1) Why do you write?

2) What is your favourite pass time?

3) Where is your favourite place to be?

4) What piece of make up can you not live without?

5) When did you last write a blog post?

6) Dark, white or milk chocolate?

7) What is your favourite colour?

8) What do you aspire to be, if anything?

9) Do you speak more than one language? If so, which ones?

10) Do you desire to travel?

11) What are you most afraid of?

Here are the 3 people I nominate for the Liebster award:

js-maquillage

mystylesmysmiles

cloudsandcuticleoil

Thank you again Jesslyn for the nomination, remember you can find her blog by clicking here!

Love,

E-L xo

Bold is Beautiful!

Hey my little cherubs, 


I hope you are all well!


So I've been playing around with some make up lately and I have been noticing a great summer trend, the bold lip colour!  Finally I can bring out my gorgeous red lippy!


This summer, do not be afraid to go bold and bright.


 Red is perfect for all hair colours from Blondes to Brunettes. 


If you are more towards Snow White's skin shade(fair), you should opt for a lipstick with more of a blueish undertone. 

Such as L'Oreal Colour Riche in the shade 214 Violet Saturne-Plum.























If you are more like Jasmine's shade(medium-olive), you can indulge yourself in reds with orange undertones.
Such as Oil of Olay Colourmoist Lipstick in 600 Sunset Gold.












If you are more like Esmeralda's shade(dark), are the lucky ones who can choose any colour they wish, from light coral through to the darkest berry!
Such as Avon Ultra Colour Rich in Red 2000.

DON'T FORGET: If you want your lip colour to last all day make sure to line those lips first!
I love using the Barry M Lip Liner for when I dare to wear red!

                                                   

What's your choice of lip colour this season?


Love,


E-L xo


P.S Don't forget to vote for me as best new beauty blogger! Click here.

Best New Beauty Blogger 2012

Hi guys, 


I have been nominated for best new beauty blogger by Cosmopolitan and I would be forever in your debt if you could vote for me here!


There will be a beauty post coming soon!


Love,


E-L xo

Perfectil Review- Skin, hair and nails.

Hello my little juniper berries!
Today I bring you a review of a product I have been trying for a while and it seems to be doing miracles for me. Now before I get into it, I would like to say that I do not encourage the use of vitamin tablets instead of getting vitamins through healthy eating but taken with a good, healthy diet and balanced lifestyle, vitamins can boost all your hard work that you put in to staying healthy.


Now with that out the way, let us begin! 

I saw these when I was shopping at Tesco and they were on offer 3 packs for £10, which is a bargain! Each packet contains 30 tablets, so enough for the month, more or less. I suffer from really bad flaky nails so I was looking for something to help me with that. On the back of the packet it says that Perfectil  is designed to complement your daily skin and hair care routine with a range of over 20 micronutrients specially formulated for utilisation by nails, hair follicles and the skin's lower dermal layer. You only need one tablet per day to be taken with your main meal and swallowed with water. 

After having used this now for 3+months I can say that I have seen a rapid improvement in the condition of my nails. I never used to treat my nails with anything or use many hand moisturisers, which may have added to the flakiness but my nails have remained flake free for quite some time. I am really impressed with the condition my nails are in, and I do think that these tablets have helped. Hair fall out has been less, but I like to try and take good care of my hair anyway, so I haven't been able to tell if the tablets have been working for my hair too!

Has anyone else tried out these tablets or any other vitamins for that matter to help improve nails, hair and skin? Let me know!

Love,

E-L xo

The sun is out from behind the clouds... sometimes!

...And for when it is out you should be protecting your bobby dazzlers (aka. eyes) with a pair of funky sunnies. 


Your outfit is not complete until you have framed your face with the right pair of shades!


A few styles that I have been loving recently are the Cat-Eye shape, like this pair from Asos, with the funky cut away detail and frameless lower rims. 

£9 from asos.com

Also, I love the Rounded shape sunglasses, the choice of the cool kids  this summer. These an also be found on Asos for £18.

There are some crazy shapes out there, so be brave and give them a go!

What are your favourite shaped sunglasses?

Love,

E-L xo

I never go anywhere without my CONCEALER!

Hello you crazy cats!

Just thought I'd write a quick review about Soap and Glory Kick Ass Concealer. 

Now I have major troubles with my dark circles, being a mixture of Indian and English means that I have light skin but I also have the dark circles that can be very prominent in Indian women. *sigh*. So I spend a lot of time searching for the perfect concealer that will help me disguise my tired looking eyes (even though I'm not tired!). AND I think I have found it! It is the Kick Ass Concealer  by Soap and Glory. 

3 Piece Camouflage kit 

Now the price of this kit is pretty steep for a high street brand at £10 but it is most definitely worth it. It has 3 steps that allow you to conceal all the imperfections on your face; from an under-eye brightener, light scrambling complexion concealer and translucent setting powder, all in one handy pot that fits perfectly into a small make up bag!

This concealer leaves tired looking eyes bright and fresh, without looking heavy or leaving you looking like a cake face, which nobody wants! The two tones are great for being able to mix together to get the perfect shade to match your skin tone, and they blend very well on the skin. If, like me, you suffer from those pesky dark circles, I do recommend investing in this product.

You can find it online at the Soap and Glory website or it is available at Boots. 

It seems I am becoming a little bit of a fan of Soap and Glory these days, is anyone else?

Love,

E-L xo