Penney's Haul August 19th

This is my first foray into fashion blogging, so it's gonna be very rough around the edges! Today I headed into town to find some shoes to go with my birthday outfit and ended up picking up a few bargains....but no shoes!!

One of my favourite things is the larger silver necklace. It's almost a dead ringer for this New Look necklace that I have lusted over for months but could never justify the €25 price tag. The main difference is the Penneys version only has 2 dangling chains to the 3 of the New Look version, but it's less than half the price at just €10. An absolute steal.

€10

I also picked up a chunky gold chain for €5. These chains are very hit and miss for me, I've seen some people wearing them looking fabulously stylish, but it just looks tacky on others. It's worth a try for a fiver!

€5

Last little accessory I picked up was a rather sweety little hair clip. You clip it into either side of your hair and it has little chains that drape around your hair.

€3

Now onto clothes! There's not in the way of sales item's floating around (except in the shoes, loads of the Penney's cons for €3). I found this skirt for €5. I love it, it's a colour that will get me well into Autumn/Winter teamed with tights and knitwear.

€5

I also picked up jeggings in a similar colour to the skirt. For me you can't beat Penney's jeggings, they're only €9 and come in a fairly wide variety of colours.

€9

And lastly I treated myself (sheepishly) to an underwear set. Any other big busted ladies will know that Penney's bra's aren't always true to size, but I thought these were so feminine and pretty I couldn't resist! The bra was €8 and the thong was €4 (the pants also come in a lacey short version)

Bra €8, pants €4

Item breakdown-

Silver statement necklace- €10

Gold chunky chain- €5

Skirt- €5

Jeggings- €9

Bra and pants- €12

Total- €41 (€20 of which came off a girt card, wahoo!!)

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!