To Hollywood via Waxperts!

I'm quite enamored with the Waxperts style!

Yesterday I popped all the way out to Dun Laoghaire to pay a visit to the Waxperts salon and have all my fuzzy bits removed. I've developed a bit of a love/hate relationship with wax since I started training, I love doing it, but a bog standard hot wax anywhere near your precious lady bits is a just.... *shudder* It's not nice. So I sacked the gardener for a while, let nature take it's course and  presented myself in Waxperts with a rather impressive area of coarse, dug in hair that was used to being shaved (I'm trying to be as discreet as possible here, but we all know where I'm talking about!)

I was waxed by Maggie, under the guidance of Trish, and while initially the prospect of 4 eyes inspecting my foof rather than 2 was a bit daunting, I soon got over myself (remember, these ladies are professional waxers, your's is not the only vagina they'll see before lunch!) I was getting a Hollywood and even with the extra person in the room my modesty was preserved. Maggie knew exactly what she was doing, she was absolutely flying. Nothing phased her at all! Now as I said, my hairs are used to being shaved, and I'm a natural red head, so they're pretty adamant on staying where they are, it wasn't an easy job. I'd say her poor arms are aching today! The attention to was amazing, there wasn't a single soldier left behind, and if there was he was quickly tweezed away!

Now, I'd consider myself to have a fairly average pain threshold.... ok, I lied... I'm a complete wimp. But honestly, Waxperts is the most pain free waxing experience I've ever had. Lets be honest, no one goes to a salon for a waxing for a nice, relaxing treatment, we go because it's a necessary evil! I don't know what they do, or how they do it, but the combination of oil and a wax sent from the heavens combined to make my treatment as painless as humanly possible when you consider the area being waxed. Even on the MOST sensitive parts it was mildly uncomfortable at most. When you compare it to shavers itch...ppfft, nothing!!

I'm absolutely delighted with the results. Having a small insight into waxing myself I was always gonna be a bit skeptical about the results, but there's nothing to be skeptical about, because there's just nothing there!! II actually found it fascinating to just lay there and listen to the terminology and soak up some of their pro tips (Stealing all their knowledge!) By the time I was leaving the salon it was like I'd never been waxed. That's Important to me, it would have been awful to journey all the way home feeling red raw!!

So there you have it! A lovely wax, performed by lovely people. I think once you visit Waxperts you'll see why they're becoming just as popular as they are! I bumped into Ellen on my way to the bus and thought it was lovely of her to ask how I got on, and even ask how my own training was going! Client care pro's!

Waxperts wax pretty much everywhere, and you can book your wax online (nifty nifty) here! Go on, I promise you you won't regret it!

Busy busy busy! Beauty training update.

I thought it might be nice to add a little update on how my training with Beauty Skills is going.  The last time I posted about it everything was new and exciting and honestly I was a bit worried that somewhere down the line the novelty would wear off or my laziness would takw over and I'd realise. .... actually, this is more work than I'm willing to put in!

I'm happy to report that that absolutely hasn't happened! I'm still absolutely loving it! I'm learning so much and having a lot of fun doing it.

I won't lie, it's a lot of work, and there are aspects of it that I struggle with. Particularly the anatomy and physiology side of things. The human body is an amazing,  if bloody complicated,  piece of machinery! That said, it's still very interesting!  Sitting at home with my head in a book or scribbling out notes is not a chore!

The practical side is so much fun! And seeing the progress im making, and all the other girls, is just so satisfying and motivating. The first  week I was sticking my gloves to myself with wax and now I can competently wax all standard areas! The waxing is actually one of my favourite things to do now, and I thought I'd hate it!

Our first set of exams are in October, and we're making flying progress! I'm honestly not too worried.... yet!

I've been enjoying it so much that I've even set myself up a little practical room at home and have been recruiting guinea pigs to practice on. I've been picking bits up here and there when I can afford it, and was generously given a lend of a wax pot to practice with.

Not only that, but on the more sentimental side of things,  I think taking up this course has done great things for my confidence. Like today I stripped off in front of a girl I have to see almost every day for the next 10 months, have her examine me in all my glory and it didn't phase me at all!

It's been an absolutely fantastic experience so far, and a great opportunity!  I really am enjoying myself and am already planning courses to after to further my qualifications! I couldn't recommend the course enough to anyone with an interest in beauty. The tutors are brilliant and you'll learn more than you ever thought you needed to know!

NYX Matte not flat foundation review

For some reason, Blogger decided to completely eradicate my original review from the face of the earth, so here we go with round two!..... fingers crossed!

As most of you know, unless you've been hiding under a rock, NYX landed on our fair shores a few months ago (in selected store) sending the blogerspher all a tizzy! My closest stockist was all the ways over in Bradley's Pharmacy in Blanch (boohoo) so getting my mitts on some was proving quite tricky! That's where the wonderful GirlFriday stepped in, took way my little shopping list and worked her magic!

I initially had my eye on the Invincible foundation (dat full coverage!!) but it wasn't in stock so I got Matte not flat instead! Lets start with the pro's!

It's one of very few foundations that matches my skin tone almost exactly without any faffing about! If anything, it's bordering on TOO pale! (I KNOW!!!) It comes in 5 shades so there should be something to suit all skin types!

It's blends really easily, and sets to a nice matte finish, but doesn't make my skin look dull or lifeless.

It has a fairly reasonable price point! (Can be yours for a sweet 13 fiddy from Littlewoods)

It has a medium to light coverage, so is enough to cover any mild redness, and feels nice and light on the face. The coverage is a bit of a double edged sword for me, even during the day I tend to lean more towards a full coverage, but I did find it to be quite buildable.

Now for the bad stuff...

I found that when I wore it without a primer it had a tendency to sit in my pores, which i HATE. Considering that I'd mostly be using this as a foundation for college, I'd often just be whacking it on and running out the door, so I don't have time to be worrying about primers! This is a bit of a bug bear for me unfortunately!

It's not hugely long lasting, I found after a few hours it was fading around my oily areas!

All in all I'd give Matte not flat 3/5. It is a good little daytime foundation, as long as you don't mind the occasional touch up, and prime time if you have visible pores!

Catrice The Giant Extreme Volume Mascara

We all know Catrice as a much loved budget high street brand with, by all accounts, some damn good products. But I just never seemed to get into them for some reason! This may be all about to change. I popped into Health Express in Tallaght (on payday coincidentally...uh oh) and they had a huge chunk of their Catrice stand Half price, all stock that's soon to be removed from the line apparently. Naturally I picked up a few bits.....for science!

I picked up their BB cream, a blush, liquid eyeliner and this mascara, which, if I'm to be completely honest, is a bit of a revelation.

The Giant promises bold, dramatic lashes with a nice chunky brush designed to each every lash from corner to corner. Normally with a mascara that offers you the sun, moon and stars it falls at at least one hurdle, but I am SO impressed with this mascara I've practically been forcing it on people.

I found it gave me amazing volume, with fantastic length and separation. It didn't clump and built up really easily. I wore it all day yesterday with no touch up's and while my lashes looked a tad limper by the evry end of the day, I found practically zero flaking!

With one coat The Giant gives beautifully full daytime lashes, but not being one for subtlety I've been lashing it on in 2-3 coats. I'm pretty upset that I didn't discover this little ge much earlier. If it's being removed from the line permanently and not being replaced with a very similar mascara I'll be pretty much heart broken.

I can't remember exactly how much I paid for The Giant, but I'm not talking much more than €2. Even at full price it's an out and out bargain!! It hands down beats some mascara's I've paid €10-15 for!

You'll have to excuse the bandy photo's, I'm currently working off an old phone and the camera is just able for anything! Oh how I miss my Samsung :(

The reason why and a little bit more....

Hello lovely folk!

I know I've been MIA from the blog for some time with no explanation so allow to to kinda fill you all in on why now! Basically, a culmination of things (life, my own health, health of others) just left me seriously lacking in blogging mojo. I always said that if I felt like writing a post was becoming a chore I'd just step away for a while, so that's just what I did. I know I won't have been missed, but I feel like I've gotten a bit more pep in my step of late so I'm gonna try for a bit of a comeback!

One of the biggest changes of late is that FINALLY, after months of hounding, I have started my Beauty Therapist Trainee-ship. It's a one year ITEC/CIPTAC certified course run by Beauty Skills Ireland. I can't tell you how excited I am to be getting my foot in the door at long last. I can't wait to put some actual qualifications to my existing knowledge, and gain SO much more. But more than that I feel that for the first time in a long time I have a bit of direction in my life. I have a goal and even though I have a lot of work to do before I get there, I am GOING to get there!

So, I was thinking of maybe adding a weekly post with just a little post on the goings on of the week, what I learned and such. Maybe someone out there is thinking of taking up the course themselves at some point, or any beauty course for that matter! My experiences my shed a bit of light on what it's really like. Obviously I'm going to try get back on top and reviews too, but I'll be honest and say there are going to be weeks where I just won't have the time!

So that's about it really! I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself at the moment.I'm under no illusions, the course I'm on is 2 years crammed into 1, I know it's going to be a slog, but I'm a firm believer that if you're doing something you're passionate about it doesn't seem like such hard work. I have found that I have to reel myself back in at times, I'm getting ahead of myself in terms of additional courses without even having my core qualifications yet. But hey, a girl can dream!!

Cocoa Brown Gentle Bronze

Howdy folks! Before I get into the wonderful world of tanning I just want to take a sec to apologise for the HUUUUUUGE gap in posts. A mix of personal and family issues meant I just completely lost my blogging mojo, and to be brutally honest.... blogging was the last thing on my mind! Things have finally started to calm down so I'm gonna try ease myself back in!

So with that said, I've recently been mucking around with the newest additions to the fabulous Cocoa Brown family! Each will get their own post, but first on the chopping block is the gradual tanner- Gentle Bronze.

I'm pretty much anti gradual tanners, the smell is just too much for me- even off products that promise to have NO fake tan smell at all. But inevitably I always wake up in the middle of the night to a waft of digestive biscuits....and I'm just not able. I have so much trust in Cocoa Brown that when I was promised a biscuit free healthy glow, I fully expected to get it. And I did!

The lotion itself goes on silky smooth and dries really quickly. My skin was left feeling really soft and moisturoised and I noticed an even, streak free colour developing after just a couple of hours. There's even a very subtle colour guide so you can see if you miss anywhere. Neither myself, or my hyper sensitive mammy, got any smell (other than Cocoa Brown's signature floral scent) from the lotion.

I love Gentle bronze, I find it much handier than a full on tan! I love the fact that it eliminates my Irish blue hue, without me needing to adjust my make up routine to blend everything together! The colour I achieve after 1-2 days is absolutely perfect for every day wear!

It's a lovely addition to my Cocoa Brown collection, and I have a feeling it will be my most regularly used! Gentle Bronze retails at around €5.50 and can be found anywhere that sells the CB range!

Happy (gradual) tanning!

W7 Cosmic Nail Dust

Being the magpie that I am, I couldn't resist picking up these sparkly little ditties on Cara Pharmacy today. At just €1.50 a pop it would be rude to just pick up one! They come in a fantastic range of colours- pink, red, blue and yellow to name just a few. I opted for a lovely pewter, a brown and a beautiful rose gold colour.

They come with a little screw nozzle, but I honestly thought you would be able to unscrew the cap completely. Unfortunately, and this is the only downside to the glitter, you can't. Trying to shake the glitter out of the skinny nozzle is a bit of a pain, and leads to a lot of waste that you can't get back into the bottle.

However, it's really sparkly on the nail, and doesn't go dull under a top coat, something I've found with some other budget nail glitters.

If it weren't for the fiddly glass bottle I'd be 100% in love with these, but considering the amount of glitter currently decorating my floor I'm about 90% in love. I suppose it's not a huge deal when you take the cheap and cheerful price tag into account, I just hate wasting something so pretty!

L'Oréal Fibrology range

L'Oréal's new Fibrology range has been dotting my social media feeds for the last while, and I just had to give in and try it! I'm such a sucker for anything that promises extra volume, but have sometimes found that what will give you added volume, will take away condition and manageability and that's not a compromise I'm willing to make!

I picked up the shampoo, conditioner and mask for under €7.50 because they're currently half price in Dunnes. Absolutely fantastic value for 3 hair products imo!

Good value is well and good, but does it work? For me..... absolutely! The range states to have a cumulative effect by thickening each strand with each wash, so the more you use it the more it works. I have distinctly middle of the road hair, not too thick, not too thin either. Even so, I could definitely feel a difference after just shampooing my hair. It felt noticeably thicker. The range also smells really nice too!

My hair felt, and still feels, really soft after using all 3 products. Normally after blow dying my hair it's just a ball of fluff until I whack the straighteners on it, but it actually looked much sleeker, while still looking. .... bigger. If that makes any sense.

Im really excited to use this range again and again to see if it actually does build up the volume over time. I would highly recommend nabbing some while it's on special offer, it's definitely worth it!

L'Oréal Miss Manga Mega Volume mascara

I stumbled across this in Boots yesterday and I just couldn't resist the super cute advertising, and the promise of big anime eyes. Already being a L'Oréal fan, I just had to give it a try.

My overall impressions are..... it's quite good. It's a perfectly fine mascara, but doesn't really offer me anything I can't already achieve with my current mascara, and I certainly don't look like a Japanese cartoon character. The brush is a bit flimsy, and bends a tiny bit when you're using it. It's also a bit tricky to get a good bit of traction to get good separation. But it is the perfect shape for getting lovely, fanned out lashes. The thin nib is great for getting at your corner lashes.

I found this mascara gave me lots of  length in just one quick coat but not a huge amount of volume. It took a fair bit of building up to get the length and volume I'm used to. But I do love that it comes in unusual colours such as turquoise and purple!

Miss Manga is currently on introductory offer at €8.99.

2014- Goals- Change starts now!

Inspired by GirlFriday's Day Zero Project I have decided to set myself a little set of goals for 2014. I've found my life to be just standing still for the vast majority of 2013, and I'm the type of person who really needs a kick up the arse from time to time to get the ball rolling again.

That said, I know what I'm like. If I write myself a huge long list of things that should be doable, but are out of my reach at the moment I'll get completely overwhelmed and give up on the entire notion. So the goals I'm setting myself, while they may seem frivolous to many, are pretty important to me and will really help change my life for the better.

This is not a Day Zero project, as these are all things I want to have done by the end of 2014. I'll be adding to this as the year goes on, and hopefully checking everything off by December 31st 2014.

So here it goes-

General-

• Keep my room tidier. Do regular little tidy around's rather than let a mess accumulate and having to spend an entire day cleaning.
• Have a clear out of clothes/make up every 3 months. Be ruthless
• Sit my driving test. I won't say pass, but at the very least I want to have tried it by the end of the year.
• Start my Beauty course.
• Start my own recipe book.
• Try to cut out meat.
• Take my niece on a day out somewhere nice by myself
• Go on a girly night out.
• Have a girly night in.
• Go on a mini break- Just get away somewhere for a break from all the stresses of home. Doesn't have to be far, and doesn't even have to be with someone, just a break and some peace and quiet.
• Get rid of the negative influences in my life, spend more time with, or at least talking to the people who make me happy..

Financial/ shopping-

• Stop splurging! This means stop buying pretty things just because they're pretty. Do I NEED it? Does it serve an actual purpose? No? Put it back.
• Try to put away at least €5 a week. If necessary, give it to my mam to hide away in a little piggy bank somewhere where I can't get my mitts on it.
• Make a huge dent in my Credit Union loan.
• When shopping make a list and stick to it.
• Put more money into my bedroom, make it a nice place to be.
• Try charity shops for new clothes/ stuff for my bedroom.

Health/weight loss- (This is the big one for me)

• Lose at least 2 and a half stone by May for a family wedding.
• Don't get lax after that, feel the benefits and keep going.
• Eat at least 2 pieces of fruit/veg a day. (I know it's not nearly enough, but I really dislike fruit!!)
• Drink at least 1.5lr of water a day.
• Rejoin the gym and aim to go at least 4 times a week, more is better.
• Go for a walk at least twice a week.
• Keep a food diary.
• Take a class, be it Zumba, belly dancing, aerobics etc, even if I have to take it alone.
• Quit smoking, or at the very least try limit it to when I am out socially.
• Try to only drink alcohol once a week.
• Give yoga a try.
• Try going gluten free for a week.
• Be able to walk/run a 5k for charity.

Personal/beauty-

• Set aside a window of time every week that will just be ME time, to do whatever the hell I want without interruption. 
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• Have at least one recipe that I can say I cook amazingly.
• Be more adventurous when it comes to meals.
• Tell the people I love how much I love more often.
• Wash my make up brushes more regularly.
• Really up my skin care regime.
• Go on a date.
• Be more patient with certain people.
• Get back into reading. Try to make the time for at least 1 book every 2 months.
• Stop dying my hair- let my natural colour grow back an have happy, healthy hair for the first time in years.
• Get my sleeping pattern back in proper order. 
• Stop being so negative/self deprecating.
• Plan a lovely surprise for someone for no reason.
• Cook a meal for someone.

Blog related-

By the end of the year have blogged AT LEAST 100 times. Which means that by the years end my post       count should be at a minimum of 185.

Do't be afraid to meet new people- try get to more Blogger meet ups.

Get 20,000 blog views by the end of the year.

Vary my posts more, introduce fashion, weight loss, maybe even track how I'm getting on in my course.

Read more blogs and be more interactive.

So there you have it, my hopes and dreams for 2014. This list was actually harder to compile than I'd thought it would be. It's so easy to say 'Oh, I'm gonna do this, that, and the other this year' but when I actually sat down and tried to lay out realistic goals,  found they kinda escaped me! I think that if I can achieve everything on this list, I can get back the structure, and all round contentedness that was sorely lacking n 2013.

So you've read mine, and now I'd love to read yours!! Please send me on your links. I know things like these can be quite personal, but support and encouragement, even from virtual strangers, can make all the difference! Best of luck everyone, 2014 is ours for the taking!!

Babyliss curling wand

I have quite peculiar hair, it's not poker straight so turns frizzy and wavy with a hint of moisture, but at the same time won't hold a curl from a standard curling tongs for more than a couple of hours.

I love curly hair, but have grown tired of spending the guts of 80 minutes trying to get a decent curl in my shoulder length hair only to have them fall out shortly after. I got my hands on the Babyliss curling wand over Christmas and it is genuinely the answer to all my problems.

It's incredibly easy to use, you just turn it on and chose which of the 4 heat settings you want to use. It heats up in about 30-60 seconds depending on the heat you chose. The ceramic conical barrel is quite thick near the base, and gradually thins out so you can chose how tight you wan your curl to be. It comes with a handy glove so you don't burn your fingers on the wand.

I personally find that it takes about 20-25 minutes to curl my entire head and the curls stay put. I curl my hair in the morning and the next morning my hair still has a lovely curl. It won't be as neat and tidy but would only take about 5 minutes to fix up again.

I'm obsessed with this wand! I've been using it constantly since I got it and couldn't recommend it enough!

I picked mine up in Boots for just €25.99.