Why I decided to emigrate

I know this is a beauty blog, a neglected one at that, but I've a few thoughts rattling around my head that I'd like to get to get out.

As some of you may know, about 2 and a half months ago I picked up sticks and moved to Toronto. I left behind my wonderful family (including a 4 year old niece that still thinks I'm on holiday), my 2 beloved dogs and my small, but vital group of friends. The decision to move wasn't an easy one, but only 2 months in its already one of the best decisions I've made.

It wasn't a spur of the moment decision. I had been in Toronto in the summer to visit 2 very dear friends who made the move over a year ago. I fell in love with the city, with the people, with the lifestyle and with the opportunities. Leaving didn't feel right. I knew from the moment I came home that I wanted to go back. Arriving home to find myself unemployed was the biggest kick.

I left school straight into the recession, so I never got to enjoy the lifestyle people just 3 or 4 years older got to enjoy. Looking for work was impossible, so I went back to college to requalify in a different field. Only to find that there STILL wasn't any work. I often felt like my generation is the generation that Ireland forgot. The generation who won't be able to afford mortgages or take their families on holiday. The generation where a guy with a plastic bag on his head made more sense in a 5 minute tv segment than the people running the country had made in years.  There was about 5 years of constant struggle and rejection. When you branch out and see the life your peers in other countries are leading it's very easy to see why a lot of my age group are now just missing from Ireland.

I honestly feel a bit like Ireland took the mickey out my generation. They acknowledged that there was no work for us, but remedied it by enlisting us to work for free in Centra to "build our skills" stacking shelves. I have friends with DEGREES doing FAS courses because they can't get work!

In 2014 I went back to education again and got my Diploma in beauty therapy. To me, that was supposed to be my brand new start. I don't want this to turn into an 'Ireland sucks for young people ' post, but honestly, Ireland was offering me no incentive to stay. I had places asking me to do 3-4 day trials for free (a practice that HAS to be illegal, but when everyone wants a job you can do what you want). I had experience and qualifications that I'd worked hard for that people wanted me use for free.

So I took my qualifications elsewhere. I waved goodbye to everyone on the 3rd of November and I haven't looked back since. I was very lucky to have friends who's space I could invade while I got settled. They put up with me sleeping on their couch until I got my own place. I landed in Toronto on a Tuesday and had a job by the Thursday which kept me going up until now. Next week I'm starting work in an award winning salon. I have essentially landed my dream job. I'm renting a beautiful little house with 2 lovely girls. I'm paying bills and keeping myself fed. I've learned more about being an adult in the last two months than I have in 7 years at home.

It hasn't been easy. There have been times when I thought that maybe I didn't think this through. I miss my friends and family every day. I miss having my mammy and daddy so close to help me out. I miss cuddling with my dogs when im morbidly hungover. I miss a big sunday roast. Ive missed birthdays, funerals, christmas, and I'll miss the wedding of two very good friends. When my first job finished up there were many moments of panic. I'm not saying jumping ship is for everyone, but for me everything seems to have fallen into place very quickly.

Since I've gotten here I've had more opportunities pointed my way than I've had in years back home. I've met some beautiful people, and I've got to experience parts of life that had just escaped me in Dublin. Like..... I have my own house! Even working full time in Dublin I just couldn't afford to live away from my folks, I was dependant on them to keep a roof over my head. Now, I'm financially independent, taking care of my own life and it's the most satisfying, liberating feeling. For the first time in a very long time I'm proud of myself.

I do wish that all these wonderful things could be happening for me back home, so that I could selfishly have the best of both worlds. But I, like so many others in my age group, had to travel to find my own life, and it has been worth it.

So there you have it. I miss Dublin, but right now Toronto is the best place in the world for me.

Katrina's Beauty Room!

Hello everyone! I hope the new year has been treating you all very well 😄

The blog has been completely dead of late, so I thought I'd show you all why! As you'll probably know, I've been working away studying beauty therapy and working in a local salon, so between that, exams, Christmas and getting my own salon up and running at home things have just been a bit mental! But now that things have gotten a bit more relaxed I'm going to do my best to get back into regular reviewing!

So, with that said, I'd love to introduce you all to my new baby- Katrina's Beauty Room. 

A lot of blood, sweat, and quite a few tears went into to turning my attic into a little slice of heaven for clients, and for myself! It's very early days yet, I'm doing tanning, nails, tinting, waxing, lashes (all your basic salon treatments) but there'll be new treatments added regularly at very competitive prices! 

If you'd like to keep up to date with news and any special offers feel free to give me and aul sneaky like on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Katrinasbeautyroom 

Talk soon! 

Our Little Secret hair extensions

As many of you know I recently got hair extensions applied by a company called Our Little Secret. I applied to be a model for one of their training courses, which meant I got a discount and paid €89 for a "full head" of single strand extensions, €89 more than they were worth imo. As you will also know if you read my blog, I generally love to give credit where credit is do, and rarely write a bad review.

Firstly, let me say that my problem is not in any way related to the people running the course. The guy who did my hair was lovely, as was the trainer. My problem is with the quality of extensions I received on the day being so poor that I had to pay to have them removed after less than 2 weeks.

When I applied to be a model I explicitly explained that I had had a very bad experience with micro bead extensions before and was very dubious about getting them again. I was repeatedly assured that the beads used were so small that they would be virtually invisible in my hair, and was linked to the below picture as proof. That all looked very convincing to me, so I followed through.

Image from http://www.hairextensiondublin.ie/microring-hair-extensions.html

How obvious the beads were.

While my extensions were being applied (which took about 5 hours but I was prepared for that) I was very aware that there wasn't an awful lot of hair being used. When the trainer brushed my hair through on the day it looked fine, unfortunately I'm not a professional stylist so it never looked that way again.

I first started noticing problems when I tried to tie my hair up. The beads were painfully obvious from every angle, as you can see below. They were also sore for nearly 4 day after, again something I was assured wouldn't happen. They were so sparse that I couldn't wear my hair down as the extensions were very ratty, gappy and wispy, basically it was blatantly obvious that I had extensions in.

I emailed Our little secret on the 4th day that I was in discomfort explaining the situation and with pictures of the state of my hair. When they replied they said that extensions can take up to a week to settle and "bulk out", contrary to what was said on the day. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and persevered.

After a week and a half there was absolutely no improvement. If anything they looked worse as almost every time I brushed my hair I was losing strands, before taking them out I lost 7 strands. On the day we were told we could lose between 1-5 strands, but any more than that is excessive. I explained this in my email too.

I had to get the extensions removed during the week, leaving me a further €50 out of pocket. The hairdresser removed a total of 68 strands, plus the 7 that fell out makes 75 individual strands, which for someone with quite thick hair is just no where near enough.

For nearly 2 weeks I had hair that I just couldn't do anything with. At no stage in my correspondence with the company did I ask for a refund, as I knew I was part of a training course. That said, the quality of the extensions I was left with was still tied to their company, and was a reflection on them, it's not a reflection I would want on my company. In the last email I received from them i was offered €89 off a full head of extensions (valued at €299-599) as a goodwill gesture, but once bitten twice shy, I wouldn't even trust them to remove the extensions. I'm sure anyone would be extremely reluctant to let anyone near their hair who had done such a bad job in the first place. I told them this, and explained that I feel that they should at least cover the cost of having them removed, and they never replied. Their attitude towards an dissatisfied customer seems to be 'ignore them and hope they go away'. Their customer service leaves an awful lot to be desired.

If anyone is thinking of taking part in one of their training courses I urge you to tread very carefully. I am now €149 out of pocket for absolutely nothing. I would never recommend them to anyone. Had they had dealt with my complaint better I probably never would have written this review but I think that people should be aware that if they are unhappy with the level of service they receive from Our Little Secret that they will do virtually nothing for you to rectify it.

HD Brows in Nu Essence Beauty

A few weeks ago I replied to a tweet looking for models for HD Brows. I'd been toying with the idea of getting them done for a while, but both the cost and how precious I am about my brows always put me off. Your brows can really make or break the overall look of your entire face, so once I find a waxer I like I tend to stick to them like glue.  Being between waxes because my current waxer is on maternity leave I jumped at the opportunity of getting them done in Nu Essence, and I'm so glad I did!

Firstly, I was running about 20 minutes late, and the girls were completely accommodating. The salon itself is really lovely and relaxing,  and I felt really at ease as soon as I walked in.

My brows were done by Joanie, who was brilliant. She talked me through every detail,  and always made sure I was comfortable and happy with what she was doing. Her attention to detail was amazing,  she tweazed and threaded my brows to perfection. Even the waxing was so much less painful than I'm accustomed to. I haven't touched them in weeks so they were really unruly, and one brow is naturally fuller than the other so she really had her work cut out for her. She even custom mixed my colour so I have lovely cool toned brown brows that really suit my complexion and hair colour.

I'm so, so happy I took the plunge,  and couldn't thank or recommended Nu Essence enough. Everything was absolutely lovely and I'll definitely be going back to keep up my new brows.

The Irish Beauty Show- RDS Dublin

I popped out the Beauty Show today on a free ticket that was gifted to me by a very lovely friend. I have to say, it wasn't really what I expected! In some area's it excelled, in others it kinda fell flat. Granted, I went on the second day, and didn't get there till about half 3, so a lot of stalls weren't long about winding down.

There was more fake tan there than you could shake a stick at. Every kind, spray tans for salon and home use, mousse, creams, you name it, it had a stand. The sheer amount was actually a little overwhelming, if you didn't go in with a clear idea of what you wanted it could have been quite difficult to chose. On the plus side they were all really reasonably priced. Cocoa Brown had a great offer of 4 cans for €20, which is great value. I settled on a bottle of Bbold in light/medium. I was very cheeky and asked for the sample bottle since they were packing up. Got it for €5, as opposed to €10, and the bottle was almost full. The girls at the Bbold stand also really knew their stuff, and were really, really nice and approachable. I applied the tan tonight and am so far really impressed. Like Cocoa Brown, there is no smell at all, and it's developing into a nice natural glow! Here's a link to their Facebook page, I would highly recommend giving them a visit!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/BBoldtan/174403839327677

If you're a nail polish fan, you would have been in heaven. There was mountains of nail polish, loads of stands doing Shellac, nail art, gel nails, or selling products for salon and home. The OPI stand was particularly impressive, like a rainbow! And they were only €6 a bottle, €3.50 for some of the older sets.

I was slightly disappointed in the selection of hair care/ hair dressing/ extensions on display. I was very excited about seeing the Great Lengths stand, but when I finally found them, there was nothing happening at their stand! No one even approached me to give me any information. The same thing happened at the House Of Colour stand. There was only 1 guy there, myself and my friend were looking at one of the TWO products on display, we weren't approached, even though we were the only ones there. There was a pretty limited selection of hair care, but what was there was pretty good value.

There was bundles of make up, from very well known brands, to brands I had never even heard of. Some of it was fantastic, and there was great offers to be had, but some were blatantly samples that people were trying to fob off. I bought a lovely little semi permanent eyebrow kit from Cresty Cosmetics. I got the eyebrow powder, brush, 3 stencils for €20. The girl I was dealing with also threw in 3 free mascara's and 2 lip tattoo's! Can't complain about that! Dermalogica's stand was absolutely fantastic. They were offering free face mapping, and gave you free samples of everything that your skin needed. The staff at the stands were also incredibly friendly and helpful! There was about a 5 minute wait, but it was well worth it when you were handed your envelope full of samples at the end.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable day out. I would have loved to have gone with a couple of hundred euro in my back pocket, as there was so much on offer on the spot, like teeth whitening for just €69! There was lot's to see, a lot of demonstrations, but not a lot of samples to be brutally honest. It would have been nice to try a lot of the products before parting with your hard earned cash. I would recommend going, even if just to pick up some tips and tricks from experienced practioners. I'll definitely head along to the next one, but I'll be saving up this time!