Hope all your weekends are spiffing. I finished today’s shoot at 9am and had the rest of the day off before tomorrow’s shoot. I think these must have got stuck in some historical vault; some postcards from a shoot with Simon Newlyn, who I will have the pleasure of modelling for again next week on an entirely different theme!

New work from Steven Billups in our traditional jaunt to Germany… Always a highlight in my calendar. I really love working with him.

This is ‘part one’ – abandoned castles (film). Parts two and three (water and rivers; flowers made of sun) can come later…

I was listening to this Jill Scott track (<<< click on it for a soundtrack to your viewing!) when I looked through the images he sent me. Her voice was often in my ear in the past and I'm enjoying re-listening to all of her work. Lyrics:

“I’m Not Afraid”

I got to work with Paride again recently in the massive ancient woodland I have near my home here in Oxfordshire, and enjoyed a quick shoot around the trees – we only did one hour (I don’t mind such short shoots when they are so local and convenient!).

As some of you know, I occasionally put out ‘casting calls’ to alert photographers to my availability for these short, local ‘Nature’s Bite-size Sessions’ when I can, around other bookings, as it’s so nice to make the most of the natural area I have practically on my door step! These shoots are short, punchy affairs (1-3 hours) and it’s all very relaxed, suitable for professional, creative photographers as well as those who are less experienced and want to keep things simple. I also sometimes give a small discount for shoots booked here during these specific periods, as it’s (obviously) very convenient for me. I have some upcoming dates allocated for more of these days dotted around the 24th Sept-4th October. You can email me to book some time or ask for more info: ellarosemuse@live.co.uk.

Here are some of Paride’s shots (thank you Paride for sending me these!):

The lovely Rob Ellis came to visit me in Oxfordshire when the bluebells were out, and did some marvellous things with different cameras and effects… I love these!

A couple of days ago, I shocked the various animals in my vicinity – yes, as anyone following me on instagram will know, I am basically Cinderella (minus the mice, thankfully, as cute as Gus-Gus is) – and got up at a casual 4.30am. When I get up this early it’s usually:

1. some ridiculous TV/film call-time, upon arrival at which I am usually dressed in some corset or other and left to roam for tea until things get moving.

or

2. a sunrise shoot!

At the moment, I’m doing some lovely little shoots around my local woodland (about 5 mins from my house) in Oxfordshire, and it’s just one of those facts of life that the light gets a bit magical either early or late. I emphatically do not consider myself a morning person, but I definitely quite like feeling like you’ve done a ‘day’s’ work by the time most people are getting around to having some breakfast, and it can be such a peaceful experience, so I actually quite like morning shoots.

This particular blogging exposé comes with some images taken by Paul Lock, who wanted to focus on portraits in the morning sun and has already sent me some gems.

(I did the make up myself and am wearing in some of the shots a headpiece made by one of the lovely ladies at Chanticleer Brides the first time I modelled some of their beautiful wedding dresses, a million years ago.)

I can’t not mention the fact that this shoot was Paul’s first ever outdoor shoot with a model. I think the images are extra-impressive bearing that in mind!

(Oh, and further to the Cinderella thing, we saw a beautiful deer in the field, which gazed calmly at us for a while before sashaying away through the crops, and at the end, I turned around and saw a very interested cow watching me.)

Without further a-moo (sorry I’m not sorry):

As promised, this blog may well veer gently towards the idea of being back on track, over the next few weeks/months…

So here we are with some summery goings on taken by the ever-wonderful Karen Jones, who inexplicably doesn’t seem to be bored of me quite yet. It’s always a pleasure to shoot with her!

I am sometimes asked about my health/beauty ‘routine’ and wanted to write a quick blog post about some of the things I do or have been doing in this area… This is quite personal and word-heavy, but hopefully it might be of interest to some of my followers… 🙂

When it comes to health and beauty in general, I am always most inspired by and interested in solutions or enhancements which are completely natural. Increasingly over the last year or so, I’ve actually been making my own products from scratch. In recent times, I’ve made my own:

– Perfume (using essential oils, blended exactly how I want them; this is so much fun to experiment with, and you know you are creating something completely unique as well as non-synthetic)

– Toothpaste (I haven’t bought commercial toothpaste for quite a while – though I currently use a travel-sized one for trips away from home, only because I haven’t quite got around to decanting some of my own into a smaller lightweight jar… but I will!). I flavour mine with peppermint and clove essential oils, and I think the coconut oil and bicarbonate of soda do a very good job of keeping my teeth fresh and white. [Edit: I came to the end of my jar and made something else instead, so am now using my ‘Volcanic Earth Tooth Powder’, which is as weird as it sounds, but rather excellent.]

– Hand and body creams (I use 100% natural unrefined shea butter, coconut oil, beeswax, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, etc. etc…. and essential oils for flavours – I will next be making some for my friend’s birthday soon…. These cream mixtures are pretty much all all-purpose; the one I used today can be used as an eye cream, or cuticle cream, or hand cream, or hair balm…. you name it, I’ll probably stroke it on myself. I’ve ordered some cocoa butter as well, plus some beetroot powder for tinting lip balms a soft, natural pink; and my collection of beauty ingredients is so large now that I’ve had to designate a huge storage area to it all!)

– Face masks (My favourite is still inspired by Deliciously Ella [she has a cool name, huh? ;-)] ‘s combination of banana, oats and honey. Makes your skin feel so amazing afterwards, even if you do look a bit of a state with the browning banana and dripping honey ambling down your face while the oats fall off – it can get a bit messy, that one!)

… I would really recommend going online and googling things like ‘DIY hand cream’ or ‘face mask recipe’ if you are curious about doing some of this. It is a pretty snazzy new hobby of mine, and the internet is FULL of clever people brandishing tips and ‘how to’s everywhere you look!

Aside from these, I swear by St Ives natural apricot face scrub, coconut or argan oil in my hair (often both) and Witch Hazel/tea tree oil for over night skin treatment. I also like Botanics and Simple for removing make up. So there we are!

MORE ABOUT SKIN – getting deeper!

OK, some history… Coming off the pill a year ago was something I was nervous about, as I thought I’d get lots of spots immediately (well, it was possible! And scary!!), but I didn’t see why I should be ‘medicating’ a non-existent problem (fertility!!) simply for convenience. Anyway…. After researching quite a lot, I decided the main factor that I could control (and therefore would pay attention to) was my diet. I now credit my good skin almost entirely to that (as well as thanking my Mum for good genes and drinking a ton of water [& nurturing my tea addiction!!] every day). I am frequently told I look much younger than I am and that my skin is ‘glowing’.

HOW?

I basically eat vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds (plus lots of herbs and spices). I’m a good cook (as anyone can be – cooking is easy!!) and in a world in which creative flavour combination is thriving (just look at the internet, again!), I don’t need to defend this way of eating as being ‘not boring’, because you are only limited by your imagination. For starters, this blog ‘Clean Food Dirty Girl’ is both brilliant and HILARIOUS – I highly recommend it.

You might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned dairy. Although I was never lactose intolerant at all, I now deliberately eat dairy extremely, extremely rarely (I had a minuscule amount of cheddar cheese at a baby shower the other day after months and months of not having any, and only because I was seduced by the pineapple it shared a stick with; it tasted OK but then made me feel kinda weird!!! Not going to bother next time!!).

Dairy famously causes inflammation, and cow’s milk is pretty awful anyway (it’s not meant for human consumption – see here and here for a start) as well as being the result of a quite exploitative process of treating intelligent animals very poorly (see here, for example). Did you know that cows are in many ways as intelligent as dogs? (Aside: even if they weren’t, would that matter?) When I used to eat milk and cheese, I couldn’t even imagine not having cheese; that’s the main reason why I used to think vegans were ‘extreme’ and, to be honest, a bit silly. Ha!! Apparently it’s a fact that most people are addicted to cheese on some level, and I could well understand it. But now, I honestly don’t even crave it. I mean it – I don’t crave cheese at all, day to day.

My taste buds are so different now; it’s amazing how quickly the body adapts and changes. All over the world, dairy and other animal ‘products’ are being less and less consumed (especially as people are cottoning on to the fact that milk is NOT the best source of calcium; in fact it acidifies the human body, which prefers to be slightly alkaline and then has to leech alkalinity from the body’s biggest source of it in order to re-jig its balance (which, you’ve guessed it, is your bones) – did you know that the world’s lowest consumers of dairy – China and Japan – also have the lowest incidences of osteoporosis?). I genuinely believe that this trend of reducing our animal consumption will continue, such that, at one point in the future, way down the line, eating meat/animals will be seen as a strange thing to do. But it’s ‘all a journey’ and I don’t want to pretend that I am perfect or a total vegan (just a strict vegetarian who prefers vegan eating most of the time) – and I could never have been rushed into any of it; everyone has to come to their own decisions in their own time. All I can say is, I really enjoy the creativity and ‘pureness’ of eating in a way that most suitably nurtures the human body and least bothers those creatures who can’t speak for themselves but are vitally important, intrinsically valuable and often very intelligent.

So yes, that’s my little thesis on skin and beauty for today! Over and out. 🙂