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!

St Tropez Bronzing Mousse

When you think of fake tans there's one brand that would rush to the front of most people's minds- St Tropez! From what I can gather the general opinion is, or was, that it's the holy grail of faking it. However, it's always sat very far outside my price range so I never really gave it a second thought. Sure why would I with so many reasonably priced options available that promise to do the exact same thing? But I found a 500ml bottle of St Tropez Bronzing mousse for €16.50 and I thought now was as good a time as any to try. I'm not a believer of only having a healthy glow during the summer months, if you do it right you can adapt your tan all year round.

I have used this tan twice since I bought it, both times my impressions have been distinctly...... meh. I'll start with the good points-

The mousse formula is super easy to apply.

It's a huge big bottle (which I've seen on sale elsewhere for a whopping €55) so you do get a fair bang for your buck.

It has a good colour guide so streaks and blotches are easily avoided.

I haven't yet encountered the dreaded biscuit smell.

It does develop into a really lovely golden colour, actually one of the nicest I've ever come across.

BUT!!!!!

It has no staying power whatsoever. The bottle says to avoid getting wet for 8 hours. Ok, that's a bit of a pain but I can live with it. You may as well wash it all off immediately for all the good those 8 hours do. I woke up with a beautiful colour, washed my hands and then only from my wrists up had any colour. When I showered I lost any hint of colour, I was my natural white self.

It's totally unreliable. If someone accidentally spills something on you on a night out call a taxi, cos your night is over!  Like, this is worse than Sun Shimmer when threatened with moisture, it just gives up and goes home.

The bottle says to reapply every day or so, but unless you spend your days in a bubble, or in a world void of liquid, you'll be applying new tan over a blotchy mess, or you'll just be reapplying to clean skin and won't be building any colour at all.

I know people who absolutely swear by St Tropez and wouldn't hear of any other tan, I can't see why. I know I only paid €16.50, a bargain on the St Tropez price scale, but from a more realistic point of view that's 2 bottles of Cocoa Brown, a much better and more wearable tan in every way! Maybe this new breed of affordable tans have spoiled me and I just expect too much from all fake tans now.

My verdict- if I could I'd go get my money back! And then go buy some Cocoa Brown because it's everything St Tropez wants to be but isn't.

Streaks the hound left me (10 hours after application)

Seventeen Stay Time Foundation

Love love love love love!! I'm actually surprised by how much I love this foundation!

A few months ago I bought Seventeen's Miracle Matte foundation and was so disappointed by it t hat I kinda swore off their foundation for good (everything about that foundation was  bad, it oxidized really obviously, was streaky and blotchy, just...ugh). However during my last little excursion to Boots I couldn't resist the lure of a bargain and picked up their Stay Time foundation for €4. It was strange, in one Boots it was €4, but the Boots around the corner were still selling it at full price......

Anyhow, I really wanted to LOVE this foundation, as I'm very fond of Seventeen as a brand, their eyeshadow's and Doll'd Up mascara are some of my absolute beauty staples! I can happily say that I'm incredibly happy with it, it knocked my, admittedly quite low, expectations outta the park.

Stay time promises to be a full coverage (yay) that will stay flawless on your skin for 25 hours. While I've yet to test the 25 hour part, I can vouch for the rest. I need a full coverage foundation, this comes out of the bottle quite thick but spreads really easily and evenly (I applied it with a Blank Canvas F20 foundation brush). My skin tone is immediately more even and any imperfections are really well hidden with this foundation, so much so I've little need for concealer. It does dry with a bit of a shine so a finishing powder is always necessary if you like a matte finish. It's definitely very long lasting, I applied it early yesterday morning and it still looked fresh when it was time to scrub it all off, it even survived a little early evening cat nap. One of my favourite things is that it doesn't oxidise at all so you don't start with a flawless base and end up 3 shades darker by the time you finish your make up.

I picked it up in Porcelain and I'm white as a ghost so it's really good for fellow palies! I'm so very impressed with this foundation, so much so I'll be popping back up to see if I can bag another bottle for €4! If not, I'd happily pay full price for it (which is coming up as €4.79 on the Boots website as it's just that good. But I've a horrible feeling they may be discontinuing it.... which would just be typical!

Mini Boots haul December 2nd

Today I indulged myself in a little bit of retail therapy, which I think is quite well deserved after a really hellish week last week. I had no intentions of buying anything. ... but Barry M had a special offer on, then there was a little sale basket when I got up to the till. Im only one woman, there's only so much I can resist.

My first little splurge was on a Barry M eyeshadow and nail polish, and because I spent over €9 I got a free special effects glitter polish worth €5.99 absolutely free!! The polish I bought is a lovely autumnal red, I love it. And the glitter goes on really thick and is really holographic on. The shadow is a lovely light bronze colour with a gorgeous shimmer.

So I went up to the till thinking I'd been really good only technically buying 2 things.... then the sale basket got me.... I got-

Seventeen Stay Time foundation €4
Seventeen Stay Pout (Date Night) €2
St Tropez Bronzing Mousse (500ml) €16.50

Whoops....... still though, I think I got some great bargains there!

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.

Waxperts in Zinc Hair and Beauty

Today I took a HUGE step and braved my first ever all off Brazilian wax. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Not so much about the pain, more so about lying legs akimbo in front of some poor stranger.

I've been shaving for years, but having to do it so often and having almost constant razor burn for the sake of a day or two of being smooth has gotten really tiresome. So a few weeks ago I got in touch with the lovely folk at Waxperts and was talking to Trish who very kindly put me in touch with my nearest Waxperts salon, Zinc Hair and Beauty in Kilmainham.

I was super impressed with the salon, everyone was absolutely lovely from the second I walked in. I was even given a coffee with a little mars bar! The salon is decorated really girly and classy, and was really comfortable to wait in. I was booked in with Tanya, who was brilliant! She was nice and chatty and kept me distracted by talking throughout the entire wax, so I wasn't even concentrating on it at all. I really couldn't praise her enough. She made me feel so comfortable, and told me loads about Waxperts!

Onto the waxing itself! As I said, I was nervous, and had worked myself up quite a bit. But to be honest, there was no point. Yes, it did sting, but literally for about 3 seconds. The entire experience felt much gentler on the skin. Normally after any waxing the skin can be quite tender and sore, and you'd know you had something done. By the time I was walking to my car I'd almost forgotten I'd been waxed! It was so much less daunting in every way than I'd built myself up for. I almost felt embarrassed for being so embarrassed!

So would I go back? Absolutely! I've already booked my next appointment and threw all my razors in the bin when I got home. If, like me, you're too afraid to wax, don't be! It's nowhere near as bad as you think. And don't be embarrassed either! Just remember that this is their job! They see countless clients a week, you'll be no different!

Finally, I just want to thank everyone in Zinc and Waxperts for the fantastic service I got today! I can see myself becoming a Waxperts addict!

You can get any info you need about Waxperts and find your local salon by getting in touch via Facebook or Twitter

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.