Glossybox August 2013 Review

This months glossybox it titled 'high flyers' and the products included are ideal for travelling, the products are all from different places around the world from Sweden to Brazil and includes some interesting products from brands that I have not heard of before and a variety of products which I would personally not buy myself but can enjoy which is exactly what I want when I open a box each month. Overall I am really impressed with this months box due to the fact that four out of five of the products are full sized and good products and also that two of the products come with replacement parts meaning that they are longer lasting!

Review: Dr Jart + Water Fuse BB Cream

 Dr Jart + Water Fuse BB Cream

 In this months glossy box I received a sample of the Dr Jart + Water fuse BB cream. I was very happy when I saw this in my box, because i've wanted to try a good Beauty Balm for ages and have heard glowing reviews about the Dr Jart+ BB creams. The first thing that impressed me about this sample was the size, it came in a 15ml tube which is quite good considering the normal size is 50ml. The full size version of the product costs £18 which I think is quite a reasonable price and it is the cheapest of the Dr Jart + BB creams. The water fuse beauty balm provides natural-looking coverage, evens skin tone and minimises the appearance of imperfections. It is oil free and has a SPF of 25. There are four variations of the product available in the UK, each varying in price and formula, they are all designed for different skin types aswell as different age groups

•  Water Fuse - Focused on moisturising the skin, yet remains oil-free and controls sebum
• Regenerating - Hydrates sensitive skin and works to conceal redness and blemishes with a slightly higher coverage.
• Platinum - Helps to counteract the first signs of ageing (targeted at women in their 30's)
• Premium - Targeted at more mature skin, focused on anti-ageing with a higher SPF than the other varieties

I tried the BB cream straight away and was very impressed with it. It gives a very natural bright glow and makes your skin look fresh and happy. This formula is suited for oily skin, my skin is not oily but I found that it still has a nice effect on the skin.  When applying it I found that it has a thick consistancy so only a small amount is needed to give good coverage, it blends in to the skin really well and really complimented my skin tone. I have read other reviews on this product and some people have found that the colour is not right for their skin tone as it is quite a light colour. However on my face it gave me a nice dewy glow which covered most of my problem areas, when using it I like to still use a bit of concealer to make sure there are no red areas and I also tend to use powder on top to give a more matte finish. Overall though I am very impressed with this product and it is a great daytime alternative to a full face of foundation, it gives a good coverage without being heavy on the skin. I will deffinately be repurchasing it when my sample runs out. 

5-in-1 Collapsible Multi-Disc Photographic Lighting Reflectors

This is a strange sort of review, but I wanted to make a post on a crazy random purchase I recently made and how much I like it. The other week on amazon I came across these collapsable lighting reflectors and thought yeh lets buy it. So it came and I forgot about it and threw it in the corner, anyway today I wanted to do an outfit post and I remembered I had it so I yanked it out and took it out of the packaging, I almost had a heart attack when all 43 inches of it sprang out at me, I didn't read the size and thought it would be abit smaller. Anyway it looked fun so I took it out with me and I am actually really impressed by it. I wasn't expecting alot from a large piece of foil that cost me £8 but it massively improved my photos. You can buy them off of amazon just by searching light reflectors for photography or something along those lines and they aren't too pricey :)

These two photos show the difference, the top one is with the big circle of foil in front of me and the second one is without it, although these are horrible photos they show the difference well. I'm deffinately going to continue to use this light relfector in the future and because it folds up its easy to take to places! Here are some other photos I have taken with it:

Book Review: Fashion Photography 101 by Lara Jade

Fashion Photography 101 - Amazon £10.49

Recently I was browsing the web for nice fashion related books, when I came across the book Fashion photography 101 by Lara Jade, It looked interesting and was only £10.49 so I was quite intregued and decided to find out more, I hadn't heard of Lara Jade, and boy was I missing out on her beautiful work. I went onto her website and looked through her portfolio and its amazing, I love her styling and the lighting and how dreamy her photos look. Deffinately one me over and I decided I must get the book! And so I did and what a great purchase it was!

The book itself is beautifully presented and is just bloody brilliant,  it is a complete course for new fashion photographers and the idea behind the book is for Lara to share her knoweldge on fashion photography and the steps requried to create beautiful proffesional work. The book is made up of 9 chapters guiding you through the different processes of photography starting from the initial idea and equiptment needed through to the shooting and scenery and then retouching and the finished product including marketing. 

The first chapter Equiptment introduces you to different cameras and lenses and how to chose the right camera for you and for what you want to achieve. I found this part very interesting as I am always facsinated by what cameras photographers use and how they prefer to shoot, the lenses section introduced me to the brand lensbaby and their lenses and I now know what I want for christmas! It also covers softwear and hardwear that photographers use aswell.

The next chapter is about preperation and talks about every step a photgrapher takes when preparing their shoot, such as basic camera settings and preparing the shoot, it also covers sketching and inspiration which I found very interesting to read about. 

The third chapter is about the creative team and guides you through the people who make up the team such as stylists and makeup artists and their roles in photography, it then goes on to talk about models and how to cast them as well as how to style your chosen model and how to direct them. 

The fourth chapter about shooting covers all the different forms of lighting used and how to work with artifical and natural lights and how to decide which form of light is best for your shoot. This section is really really good and guides you through every step and taught me alot of stuff I didn't know. 

The following chapters showcase alot of Lara Jades work and shows the different scenarios that she works in, such as beauty shots and group shots

It then goes on to talk about what its like to work with clients and working from a brief. Aswell as a lot of the legal and technical parts such as copyright and pricing. 

The next chapter titled organisation is very interesting as it guides you through the process of filing photos and choosing the 'right' shot and leads you straight through to the next chapter which is retouching, this chapter shares lots of great tutorials on adding layers and making adjustments to photos, this section is great for those who don't know alot about using softwear such as photoshop and teaches you in simple steps how to make great improvement and changes to photos. 

The final chapter marketing is a great conclusion to the book and talks about the importance of social media and alot about portfolios and web portfolios.

I really reccomend this book to anyone interested in photography and fashion photography, especially beginners. Even if you already know the basics its holds a great load of information and literally covers everything! I love how its written by a photographer and shares all of her advice and experience. Its a great book for a great price, £10.49 is ridiculously good for this book and is deffiantely worth it.