Bargain haul!!

I'm still on the hunt for birthday shoes.... My lack of success in finding a pair has led me to splurge on skirts..... I'd love to say I'm ashamed but.....well..... I'm not. At all. Because they were all in the sale!!! River Island in Liffey Valley have thrown a heap of their brightly coloured tube skirts on a sale rail for HALF PRICE!!! How I didn't leave with one of every single colour...

Black and red dotty tube skirt was €25 now €12

Bright pink tube skirt was €24 now €12

I picked up my last skirt in New Look, it's a leather look body-con mini. Why it's in the sale I'll never know as "pleather" is set to be huge over A/W13! I'm not exactly sure what the original price is, but I onnly paid €6, which is nothing!!!

Leather look body-con mini €6

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!!)

Cocoa Brown lovely lady lunch

Anyone who reads my blog will know how much of a fan of Cocoa Brown I am. And days like today prove why.

I was lucky enough to be invited along to Cocoa Brown's lovely lady afternoon tea this afternoon in the wonderfully lavish surroundings of the Radisson Blyu hotel in Blackrock. The hotel itself is stunning,  but nothing compared to the adorable spread put on by Marissa, Sarah and sales manager Aisling. We were greeted with platters of bitesize cakes, which were to die for,  and more sandwiches than you could shake a stick at.

Lovely little treats

This post is about to get very gushy, as I feel like it's very deserved, so feel free to stop reading!

I have always said that one of my favourite things about Cocoa Brown is how they interact with bloggers and anyone who uses their products. As far as I'm concerned they are by far one of the most personable, friendly and approachable brands out there today. Everyone behind the brand goes out of their way to reply to any correspondence, not only that but they are all so friendly in person too. On both occasions I have met Marissa and Sarah they have been lovely and chatty, and just a pleasure to be around. 

Marissa gave a little speach thanking us Bloggers for supporting Cocoa Brown. You could tell she was completely genuine in her sentiment,  that she actually takes the time to sit down and read all the feedback she gets and appreciates it all. Marissa is going to build herself a little army of dedicated Brownettes purely by being so gracious and humble in her success. 

Now, that's the soppy part over! I had an absolutely lovely day, stuffed my face with delicious cakes and got to meet and chat to lots of other Bloggers. Once again Cocoa Brown went above and beyond with extremely generous No7 goody bags (to celebrate the tan now being available in Boots). There was also spot prizes for a lucky few, I managed to bag myself one, including a whopping €80 voucher for Saba Dublin.

Marissa herself will say that the feedback from bloggers has been crucial to the success of Cocoa Brown, and I think I speak for everyone when I say I felt very valued today. There are huge things in store for Cocoa Brown,  and they are well and truly deserved. 

The very generous goody bag

Introducing something new to my blog

Hi guys!

Any of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen my tweet earlier this afternoon about the blog.

Basically, im toying with the idea of expanding it to include something other than just make up and beauty. I was thinking of trying my hand at a few fashion posts, mainly focusing on plus size fashion and bargain shopping (of course). It would essentially just be me show casing my style, how I accessorise, my shopping habits, how I would style a going out outfit etc.

I wouldn't go down the tips and tricks road as I feel style is a very personal thing. If people see something they like then fantastic! But I wouldn't be actively giving any sort of style advice.

Im struggling with how to go about it, and worried that I just wouldn't have enough to say! Would it even suit my blog?

So I'm pretty much asking if it's something you would like to read? Would you have any advice for me starting out?

Cocoa Brown Tough stuff

2 things you should keep in mind while reading this review-

Firstly, I am a bit of a Cocoa Brown fangirl. I love the brand. I love the products (and the price). I love the marketing and advertising, and I love how they treat their customers and those who blog about them.

Secondly, I have a bit of a phobia of exfoliators ever since I got some in my eye and nearly blinded myself (derp). But for the love of my favourite tan, I threw down my weary old exfoliating mitt and braved the world of exfoliators once more. No goggles required.

As usual, the packaging for tough stuff is cute, funky and girly, nothing less than you'd expect from Cocoa Brown. It comes in a handy little handbag sized sachet, but there is a larger sized bottle coming our way very soon! There's also instructions and tips on the back (as always) so you get the most of the product.

The product itself is also really cute and girly! It's a pink runny liquid, that can be used on wet or dry skin, depending on how much tan you have to scrub away! It's meant for use on stubborn areas, such as elbows, knees and feet. I used it everywhere, but paid particular attention to these area's. It smells really lovely, fresh and flowery.

So, does it actually do what it claims to do? Is t a 'No nonsense scrub'? Is it actually Tough Stuff? Yes. A thousand times yes. I applied some of the scrub to a cloth and got to work. I could see the tan vanishing before my eyes. I tend to get quite mucky around my wrists and it just works magic taking it all away. I used less than half the packet to scrub away a full body tan, and the sachet itself only cost €2.99. My skin is silky smooth and ready to be tanned again. My dirty elbows (which would have severe tan build up at this stage) are gone, and I smell lovely! AND my eyesight is still intact.

Once again, I just can't find fault! It's a definite winner, something i'd use 2 or 3 times a week, even if I had no tan on or had no intention of tanning, just to keep my skin in good nick. If they could concentrate this into some kind localised tan corrector, like a roll on or something I'd take out shares! I can't recommend this enough!

Sleek Divine Pallet Acid- Day look

Excuse the boobs!

I have been lusting after this pallet since I first saw it on the website, I just never actually managed to get my hands on it! All the colours just look so versatile, with a bit of imagination you could create some absolutely stunning looks!

A very, very kind friend presented it to me as an early birthday present yesterday (needless to say I jumped up and down) and I couldn't wait to play with it. I didn't want to get too adventurous straight away, so I just did, what I think, is quite a low key look.

I found the colours to be really pigmented and they blended really well, the ones I used did anyway! The only one I was slightly disappointed in was the white. It went on very wishy washy, but I do have extremely high expectations from white shadows!

The colours really make me want a cocktail....

September Beauty Blog Challenge

I really tried my best to keep up with June BBC, but for personal reasons I had to call it a day after only a few posts. I was gutted, but I wasn't gonna half ass it. So the wonderful GirlFriday has gone and organised another challenge for us all, and it's bigger and better than before!

I absolutely love the format of this challenge, while the topics for June were great, they were quite rigid and to be honest slightly intimidating if you were a novice blogger. September comes with 2 choices- beauty or lifestyle. So you can blog about your favourite make up one day, and about what you had for dinner the next. Having that choice will be so handy in expanding what you blog about and pushing you ever so slightly out of your comfort zone.

The topics themselves (which you'll find on GirlFriday's blog) are really interesting, and accessible to everyone. Blogging for 30 days may seem daunting at first, but if you're anything like me, you're brain will start planning out your posts as you're reading the list!!

I really can't wait to get stuck into this challenge, there was a real sense of blogger solidarity about June, and it seemed to really get people in touch with other. With such a variety of topics this time around I'm sure it will be even more successful.

I have to say HUGE props to GirlFriday for organising yet another challenge. You only have to read her post to see that an awful lot of hard work, thought and time went into setting it all up, that's dedication! So, lets not let her down! (Trust me, you don't want to, she'll have your guts for garters!)

Feel free to follow me on Twitter to keep up to date on how the challenge is going using #SBBC