Morocco 2013!!!

Hey guys! So you may be aware of the fact that I went to Morocco this month and it was amazing - literally one of the highlights of my life (slight exaggeration maybe). But seriously it was so fun, it felt good not having to worry about anything, about clients, about wearing makeup and most importantly about wearing a bra all day, lol! It was chilled and relaxed at most points, but me and my friends did the right thing and explored like real tourists. We did everything from climbing a mountain and riding camels to watching entertaining films till the early morning and laying by the pool sipping on fizzy drinks all afternoon at our all inclusive hotel.

The flight on the way there was absolutely terrible, I was almost in tears, it felt like I was going up a ride at a ridiculous speed (anyone who knows me will be aware of the fact that I do NOT like rides, lol, hence the fact that I have never gone to Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and all that jazz), take off wasn't gentle at all; not to mention that my ears popped and didn't fully open or a further two days. AND I had a terrible cold, so my nose was blocked but running at the same time - but enough moaning, look how beautiful the clouds were, God is really great....

We arrived in Morocco, Marrakesh at approximately 10pm in the evening, it was beautiful, the roads, the water fountains on the roads, the palm trees, it was just so nice to see something worlds apart from London for a change. We were picked up by our Thomson rep and got in a coach to our hotel. We landed so late that when we got to the hotel they had stopped serving food, we were too exhausted to hit the town so we went to bed starving :(

... This is the hotel we stayed at, it was called Riu Tikida Garden, it was so lovely, it had a spa on site, was all inclusive with a bar on site and three meals a day. It was very clean, had a beautiful but extremely cold pool and we played tennis and got involved with some of the evening activities.

One of my favourite parts of the holiday was definitely the camels! I was petrified at first, they were so huge and so noisy but you get used to them. My camel was quite calm and sweet. We rode the camels around the dessert for about an hour, it felt like forever, it was hurting all of our bums and thighs! lol

This is the guy who owned the camels, forgot this name but he said I was his wife *cringe*

A Moroccan restaurant...

Belly dancing...

Another man who said I was his wife...

The people in Morocco were such romantics, the men were terrible lol, in the markets they would call us 'The Obamas' 'Beyonce' 'Toni Braxton' 'Nicki Minaj' and 'Halle Berry' it was hilarious, they'd be in your face, look you up and down like you're a piece of meat and say 'wow' loooool. They love their black girls - well, black English girls.

Some more signs of affection from the Moroccans...

We climbed to the top of this mountain! It was an amazing experience, very hard, at points I felt that I felt I was going to slip and fall, but God was by my side, lol... if I fell you would not be reading this right now, that's how high we were up!

We did shisha at a bar called highway, the service was poor even though it looked nice, so I really wouldn't recommend it. As we were making a complaint the waiter walked off to serve someone else it was hilarious. We couldn't even complain to anyone else as all the other staff couldn't really speak English.

We purchased herbs, oil and incense from this lady and enjoyed some complimentary mint tea.

Nikki Beach, wasn't a beach, it was just a fancy pool with an overpriced bar and food. It looked so lovely though, it would be best to go at night. If you are going to Morocco and you want to visit a beach, I recommend you go to Agadir instead.

Me :-)

My favourite holiday shades, the first two are from ASOS, bottom two are Rayban.

I loved my holiday! It was amazing, we had a driver that took us everywhere and recommend really good places to go. If you would like his details, let me know.

I will be going back, most certainly, in a few years!

Looking forward to the next holiday ;)

Freeeeeebies!

June is so far so good! £306 worth of goodies so I can't complain - I'm also thinking about doing a giveaway soon too ;) my room is seriously getting cluttered with all this stuff and I love to share so... you know! Anyway, this post is slightly different from my haul posts, but I'll still try and give you the prices and product information and how I got it hold of the items where I can.

The first few items are from a seminar I attended with Clinique at the Royal Courthouse Hotel for the launch of their new 'Dramatically Different moisturising lotion+' which will be launching in July! We all also got a full size bottle to try out before the launch and the rest of their '3 Step' which they are best known for.

I have oily combination skin and it works fine on me, its lightweight and hydrating so it gives my skin that drink it needs. I would still recommend that if you have oily skin that you use their gel instead, but I still an get away with using it on my drier days!

We all also received their most recent foundation, the Even Better cream to compact powder, which is too dark for me but I will use it on my holiday and also two of their new nail polishes. 

 

Cliniques liquid facial soap, clarifying lotion, dramatically different moisturising lotion +, foundation and two nail polishes, £112

I entered a competition with Rayjeweled Beauty and won!!! I knew I had to enter because I have wanted to try Sleek lipsticks for a while but never got round to purchasing! I am officially in loveeeee with Vamp one of their shades, if you follow me on Instagram, the last picture of me with red lipstick is Vamp. It's amazing, like a very deep and rusty red, yum... New fave?

Five Sleek lipsticks and one pout paint, £30 - she did purchase when it was 3 for 2 so she technically got it for £20

Last but not least, all these products below from MAC, Clinique and Jo Malone... all received by winning an incentive from work... HAPPY DAYS!

Three MAC brushes, three refill shadows, facial wipes, number 48 lashes, fascinating eye kohl, studio finish concealer, pro palette case and Clinique's anti-blemish spot treatment gel, total £125 

Jo Malone, Red Roses candle, £39 

Candy Yum Yum Dupe!

Finally, I've found a dupe for Candy Yum Yum at nearly a third of the price! 

I actually heard about this shade through instagram, number 62 is a nice color too but I do think this shade is more suitable for darker skinned girls. Wear it with a nice purple liner and it looks lovely.

In the beginning I didn't get the hype about Candy Yum Yum so I ended up not purchasing it, I thought it was way too bright, but this shade has convinced me otherwise... I love it!

Left: Without flash Right: With flash

Here is a swatch of the colour, nice right? And it's only £4.99 :D 

Wash My Brushes With Me :D

Welcome to my bathroom, haha! 

This is a routine I do every Sunday, either in the afternoon or evening, it's long, it's annoying... but it HAS to get done :( plus it can be therapeutic too. I used to hate washing my brushes, I tried everything to avoid doing so... worst investment so far is MAC's brush cleanser, I hate the fact that it's not a spray so I have to pour all the solution out onto a tissue or a cloth, but it still doesn't thoroughly cleanse my brushes... blah

What I do suggest is Clinique's brush cleaner, you can use this mid week or on the go, but I still recommend you clean your brushes, skin is delicate and it deserves the best.. it's the first thing people look at usually... your face! Please don't go and give your self unnecessary and avoidable rashes or blemishes because your brushes ain't clean girls!

This is how my brushes tend to look by the end of the week, it's harddddd to clean foundation out of brushes especially when you're black, lol. Its the truth. When I'm cleaning brushes from my caucasian clients, it's 10 times quicker. But we get there in the end so its fine. 

I used to use facial cleanser when cleaning my brushes, that's what I was told to do. But it doesn't really clean the brushes properly, cleaning the brushes with shampoo makes sense since brushes are made mostly from hair. I do suggest however, you use baby shampoo as it's more gentle. You don't want to use anything that is too harsh which will then come in contact with your'e skin.

Another thing I have to do on a Sunday is clean my beauty area, If you follow me on twitter (@RamiCoco) you'll know that, as I regularly tweet updates. 

I have a lot of things so it's important that I organise myself before my week begins. 

RiRi Woo? or RiRi booooo?

Hey Guys,

It’s been a while but I’ve had so much on my plate (good things so I thank God) but I’m here to do a quick review on Rihanna’s lipstick, which I finally received this morning after much anticipation.

Now before I get into the review, here’s what Rihanna told Women’s Wear Daily prior to the lipstick release:

“When you think of makeup, the brand that pops into your mind — for something legit — is MAC. Whatever color you want, it’s like ‘Let’s go to MAC.’ I’ve been using MAC on tour for such a long time it was a natural fit for me. I have always loved makeup, and I always said that if I do it, I want to do it with a credible brand.”

“Working with MAC, it’s difficult to get a red lipstick that beats Ruby Woo, because it works on every skin tone. I had so many different samples to choose from and so many different colorsunderneath — blue, yellow, orange and pink bases. And I got to pick one that worked, and I tried it on all my friends to make sure it worked on all of our skin tones.”

First things first.... she trieeeeeeeeeeed it *Tamar Braxton voice* LOL I joke, just always wanted to type that.
It looks exactly the same as Ruby Woo except for the fact that the undertone is ever so slightly different.

Below are swatches of RiRi Woo, Ruby Woo and Russian Red all from mac. As you can also see in the picture, Ruby Woo which is in the centre is more drying than the other reds, so I guess Rihanna did try in that sense, but appart from that, the colours are basically the same.

Okay, on a more serious note, lol. In my opinion, most true reds do look more or less the same, it has been highlighted in the press that RiRi Woo is basically Ruby Woo with a slight twist so I don't really know what everyone was expecting. Well, I guess people were just expecting more. RiRi Woo and Ruby Woo are also both matte so the texture was always going to be slightly similar. 

On the other hand, Russian Red and Ruby Woo are both matte and red but they are also both significantly different so I do understand why some customers aren't too pleased.

I have not yet worn the lipstick but I look forward to seeing what it looks like on. I collect MAC lipsticks as you can see below, so I was always going to buy it anyway. But if you don't and you already have Ruby Woo, don't bother purchasing it in June when it is next released as there is a chance you may be disappointed.

Have you got RiRi Woo already? What do you think?