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.

Christmas haul 2013

I was kinda unsure about doing a Christmas post at all this year as most of my gifts were intentionally non beauty related, but sure a bit of show and tell never hurt anyone. 

My poor mother god bless her hadn't a clue what to get me, so asked me out straight so there were no surprises in that department. That said, as always the presents from my parents were absolutely lovely. I got two dresses, a floor length dress from H&M to wear over Christmas, and a stunning black dress by Scarlett and Jo for Evans (above). The black one is being put up for a family wedding next year, so hopefully it'll give me some added incentive to kick my ass into gear in the new year.

There was a Babyliss curling wand, which I'm absolutely obsessed with. It give my hair beautiful, defined, long lasting curls.

My last little surprise was a gorgeous satchel style bag, I love it, it's very me! I don't know where she got it, I never do, she has a great eye for things like that.

My brother got me a flight case for all my nail gear, which will come in very handy in the new year please god!

The two gifts that really knock me for six, purely because they were so unexpected were the Urban Decay Smoked pallet that I got from my brother's girlfriend (along with a bottle of vodka, wahooo) and a Naked 2 pallet that I got from a very dear friend. To be honest, I haven't really gotten around to playing with either of them yet as I've been too lazy for the last few days to bother with make up, but I can't wait to get stuck in to both of  them.

Christmas was a bit of a weird one this year with my nan passing so close to Christmas itself. We all kinda struggled to find our festive spirit. But thanks to family and some very important people we managed to pull together and pay homage to the woman herself on Christmas eve the only way we know how- A stonking good sing song in the pub on Christmas eve.

I hope everyone had a really lovely few days spent with their nearest and dearest x I'd love to see all your goodies too so feel free to link me on Twitter or just pop a comment on this post and I'll be sure to have a look!