Beauty and my holiday in France

It has been awhile, I find it so hard to blog when my children are off on school holidays. Its like my brain can't deal with a laptop and children running around it. Plus we did move house too and my laptop was in a box for about 2 weeks. Anyway, welcome back lovely people! I have missed you!

I have just been on holiday in the south of France for 2 weeks. It was amazing. Wine is cheaper than coke, cheese is incredible, bread is heavenly and the weather was pretty good too. I wanted to share with you a few things that I had discovered about beauty and parenting. I do love people watching and I can literally waste hours watching people so I thought I would share what I learnt.

Beauty in France is very different than to what we see in the UK and in North America – I am pin pointing these two countries because I live in the UK and just moved back from Canada so I feel like I know them both very well. Here is what I noticed.

· No contouring! Oh, when will this trend end? Don't get me wrong, done well it can look incredible. It needs lighting and a film crew to look natural and real. Contouring can make you look old, dirty and lopsided.

· Woman do not wear a lot of makeup! There I have said it. I spent a lot of time people watching because I find it fascinating and I love seeing makeup trends around the world. Their makeup is very minimal. Tinted moisturizer if any, followed by a little concealer, powder, maybe some blush, mascara and lipstick. I adopted this makeup routine while I was there and it felt fantastic. I only saw one girl about 20 that was contoured and highlighted and she was working in Sephora in Toulouse. I saw another girl with a smoky eye and nude lip and that was it really for makeup beyond the minimal look.

· French woman are well groomed. Their nails were always nice, their brows were tidy and well maintained but not extreme. They love classic jewellery too, a simple bangle to show off a tan, or a necklace to show off a hot swimsuit or even their bosoms as some were topless.

· What I did notice was that French woman love a bright lip and the younger woman chose matte lipstick with pearl earrings and the older ladies chose a high shine lipstick which makes perfect sense because as we age our lips become smaller so we need a bit of shine to make them appear larger.

· One woman that I saw on the beach was fabulous. She was about 80, wearing lots of jewellery, big sunglasses, a hot orange bikini with matching headscarf and matching lipstick! I was fascinated by this woman and desperately wanted to take her picture but my French is so bad.

· They only go in the sun in the morning and late afternoon. The sun is at is hottest during midday so they are sensible. I did not see a lot of people applying sun cream which is rather worrying but if any knows the reasons why then please comment below.

The makeup that I actually wore was Clarins SPF 50 Multi-Protection Sunscreen, Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow (that I got free with a magazine at the airport, Charlotte Tilbury Healthy Glow Summer Tint Moisturiser, Clarins Instant Concealer ( one of my absolute favs), Guerlain Meteorites, Lola Blush in 001, Arbonne Its a Long Story Mascara, Charlotte Tilbury The Queen Matte Revolution Lipstick & Burberry Liquid Lip Velvet in Military Red.

Traveling with children especially as they are slightly older but not old enough to go off and discover things on their own was interesting.

· Take toilet roll with you! We stayed in a combination of hotels and apartments and in the apartments, there was no toilet roll.

· Book somewhere that has a nice balcony or garden. We were so happy that we did this because children do not want to go out night to eat all the time. They want to chill out. By having a balcony or some sort of outside space that looks out into something pretty so you can chill out and have a glass of wine and some nice bits to eat was in a away like going out and less stressful too.

· The children, Mark and I would go out at about 6pm. There was this great restaurant that right on the beach so we allowed the children to play on the beach collecting rocks (that’s what they like doing, then they drop them in my handbag so that it weighs 10 kilos…..oh the joys), we could see them at all times and Mark and I would share a bottle of rose. Most restaurants do not get busy until 8 or 9 at night so we would get a bowl of nuts and the children would have ice cream. Then we would walk back to the apartment and have dinner.

· Pack DVDs just in case. The first hotel had no WIFI but only a TV, the second had WIFI but no TV, the apartment had TV a DVD player and no WIFI and the last hotel had WIFI and TV. For the record, French TV shows French channels and CNN. Luckily in the apartment they had a Mr Bean DVD but they must had watched it at least 12 times repeatedly. I am not a parent that parks their children in front of the TV but sometimes they need to chill out and have a cuddle. It is their holiday too.

· Pack more Tea Bags than you think you will need and I wish I had picked up a pint of milk at the airport before boarding my flight to France. Milk is quite hard to find oddly and I desperately needed tea especially the first morning.