Archive for November, 2009

Firstly, this week’s moonlighting involved a short guest contribution on the wondrous Den of Geek.

Remember when I used to write about fashion? Nah me neither.

Also, I now have a Tumblr. You may think ‘why in God’s name has she got herself another thing to update when she never updates this one.’ Well, my faithless friend, I have it so I don’t fill this here blog with random pictures with one line links underneath them, and save it for proper stuff like product reviews that don’t fit anywhere else and rants about customer service.

To finish, here’s a picture of me in ridiculous sunglasses outside the Mirage in Las Vegas. I finally uploaded all my pics to Flickr. I look fat in all of them…which is good, because one day I’m going to need a ‘before’ photo.

It’s totally the wrong time of year for this review, but I didn’t go on holiday until late September so even then it would have missed the boat a bit. For those of you going away to sunny climes over the Winter break, here is a way of rubbing it in even more. For those of you who won’t be going away until next Summer, it gives you chance to stash a couple of quid a month so you can buy this in June!

This Summer, the folks at Imedeen were kind enough to send me some of their Tan Optimizer to try. I have very pale skin that just doesn’t seem to tan, so I thought I was a fairly good test subject. Some people argue that everyone tans, but I promise you that for 26 years I’ve found it really difficult to get my skin to go any colour other than bright lobster red. I lie in the shade, I top up my SPF 50 every couple of hours, and still if I get any colour it’s pink to say the least. And don’t tell me to use a lower SPF, try sunbeds or ’sit in the sun for a bit to get used to it’. I don’t want cancer, kthnx.

So a product that tops up all the stuff in the body that encourages a tan seemed like it might be a good solution. Tan Optimizer isn’t a miracle formula, and to be honest, you could probably get the same result from feasting on tomatoes (for the lycopene), taking loads of multivitamins and so on, but this offers all that in one smallish daily capsule. You take the capsules for four weeks before your trip, continue taking them while you’re away, and then continue after you return to prelong the tan. The idea is that it “supports your skin’s own sun protection mechanism”. You’ll still need to use an SPF, but if you take it properly, you should get a more even, longer-lasting tan.

So did it work? Well, if you bear in mind that I didn’t really sit out in the sun much, but walked around a lot in desert heat of 30 degrees plus and didn’t burn at all, then yes it definitely did. I didn’t go St Tropez bronze, but that wasn’t my plan. On my return people actually commented that I’d picked up some colour – a miracle for me. Looking back on photos of the holiday, I can see that my arms in particular did indeed tan lightly, and that colour lasted a good few weeks after I got home. For me, this is worth £40. It may sound a lot but I spend that on a taxi to the airport without thinking twice. Protecting my skin for a fortnight is worth far more than that (because every bad sunburn increases the risk of skin cancer).

Imedeen Tan Optimizer £38.50 for 60 capsules (2 month supply)

I’ve wanted the Black Halo Jackie O dress since forever. Especially after my girl crush Christina Hendricks wore it.

So thank you, thank you a million times thank you to ASOS for coming up with the goods.

Not identical, but close enough, and it’s made from a softer, stretchier fabric. I wore it on Friday and definitely got £38 worth of compliments. It’s getting increasingly difficult to find dresses that flatter at the moment with everything being really short and sparkly and huuuuuuge in the shoulder department, but I’d go as far as to say this probably looks better on a curvier woman than it does on the model. I’m now tempted to buy it in red and purple as well…

I’ve not been here in a while. I’ve been here instead…

Joy of Clothes
- I helped out a bit with the launch of this new shop-by-body-shape site.

The Nod Celeb guide to Las Vegas
- We all know how much I love Vegas. Now I get to write about it as part of my job. Brilliant!

Dress Yourself Slimmer: Top 10 Ways to look thinner
- Because who doesn’t want to pretend they’re a size 12?

Celeb Style Steal: Party with an edge
- Going old school with some image mapping. Just like when I was 19 and writing for the kids.

Dork TV: Burn Notice
- Moonlighting as a TV pundit for Katie Lee’s new site, Dorkadore.

Domestic Sluttery
- Still going strong despite the fact I’m lazy. This is because the other girls are better than me.