Monday 22 September 2014

Perfume Wishlist

I was in Boots, nothing new there, normally I don't pay to much attention to the perfume section. I don't really know why. I guess I just gravitate straight to the make-up haha. I sprayed a couple of different perfumes and now of course I want them all!

First is Lola by Marc Jacobs. I am a sucker for adorable packaging. All the Marc Jacobs perfumes have adorable packages. I think this just smells so good! I stayed away from the others to be on the safe side. I just couldn't get enough of this one. The picture is the 50ml bottle and its €60.

(picture from boots.ie)

Next is the Calvin Klein Reveal. It smells soo good! I sprayed it on my wrist and I didn't want to get in the shower cause I knew I wouldn't be able to smell it anymore. A 50ml bottle of this is €66 in boots. One thing I love about this just from trying the tester was that normally after an hour or less sometimes I can't smell the perfume anymore but a couple of hours later this was still going strong.

(picture from boots.ie)

The last one is one that I got for a present a few years ago and absolutely love! Sadly there's only a tiny bit left in the bottle. It's Jean Paul Gaultier Ma Dame. It just smells soo good. When I get a perfume I really like I normally wear it the whole time then when the bottle is nearly empty I just stop wearing it in an effort to save it. Strange little habit of mine haha. So when I reorganised my room some of the perfume bottles with a little drop in them got put in a box under the bed and when I went looking for my hot water bottles I saw the box and ended up pulling this one out. Now that I've seen and smelled it again I really want another bottle.


 So that's it. My little perfume wishlist. Hope you enjoyed.

:)

Friday 19 September 2014

Collective haul!

OK so in the last week and half or so I've done WAY more shopping than I should have. Oh well I couldn't help myself! It's a bit of a mixed bag a few skincare, a hair product, some makeup and a couple of magazines.  Some of these products I have tried a bit so there's a bit of a first impression the rest I got today so I'll just show you those ones. Here it goes hope you enjoy.

First off I was in the Boots in Athlone which as far as I know is the closest Boots with a Sleek stand. My local Boots doesn't have one, I don't know if that a good thing or a bad thing though. If it did I might not be able to stop myself from buying everything haha. I was so excited to get my hands on some of the i-divine palettes after seeing a few different youtube videos and blog posts on them. I decided before I got to Boots that I wanted Oh So Special and since it was buy one get one half off I ended up picking up Vintage Romance. I was going to get Storm or the original but when I was at the stand Vintage Romance just looked so pretty!

I mean don't those colours just look gorgeous! And I love the names too!

Next thing I bought was a Tangle Teaser. Again youtubers and bloggers made me do it! I've heard so many people talking about this and I just really wanted to give it a try. I got it in my local Cara Pharmacy for the very reasonable price of €9.05. Considering Boots charge €15.99 I was very happy with my purchase. At first I thought it felt so strange but after using it for a little over a week I can't imagine going back to a normal brush or a comb I love it so much.


Next purchase blame/thanks goes to my friend. She spotted this mask and said it was really good so of course I had to pick it up. It was on sale for €6 I think it was €12ish not sure though. I just loved it. It made my skin feel so soft. It is the Sanctuary Spa Convent Garden Deep Facial Cleanse 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask. I've only used it twice but my skin feels so soft after it's amazing. I've never tried a thermal mask before I love the feeling!


Those were the bits I got last week. When I was in Boots I got a double points voucher so I decided to go in today and pick up a few things. I'll start with the hair product. I picked up the Batiste Dry Styling XXL plumping powder. I was watching one of my favourite youtubers, Tati, I can't remember if it was on her channel or the Allure one but she was talking about plumping powders and lately I feel like my hair looks a little flat in some pictures so I wanted to give one of these powders a try. I hope the Batiste one is good now.


Next thing I picked up was the L'Oreal Skin Perfection Miracle Cleansing Oil. It was on offer in Boots save 1/3 on selected L'Oreal skincare. It was reduced from €10.49 to €6.99. My Sephora cleansing oil ran out recently and I started using my Garnier Micellar Water to take off my makeup but I prefer getting the majority of the makeup off with a cleanser specifically a cleansing oil and then using the micellar water afterwards. I hope this is as good as my Sephora oil. I used it once and so far I'm pretty happy with it.


The other skincare product I picked up was the Garnier express 2 in 1 Eye Make-up Remover. I heard good things about this product, but the main reason I purchased this was because I feel like I've been pulling at my eyes more than I should when removing my eye make-up. I hope this lives up to my expectations now. This was also on offer in Boots save 1/3 on selected Garnier so I got it for €2.86.


On to make-up. Rimmel has an offer 2 for €12 on at the moment. I was using my Rimmel Scandaleyes jumbo pencil to line my water line but jumbo pencil + water line = bad. I had a few other pencil liners but they were scratchy and just uncomfortable so I decided to pick up the normal size Scandaleyes pencil. It feels very creamy and smooth on my hand and I've heard good things so fingers crossed. Sadly I had another liner that felt smooth on my hand but was very scratchy so hoping for better results this time around. 

 
The other Rimmel product I picked up was the Scandaleyes Retro Glam mascara. I like the mascara I have now (which also happens to be Rimmel coincidentally) but I feel like it is better for nights out or dramatic looks. I wanted to try something new. I was going to pick up the Wonder'full, but the lovely girl that was working at Boots said people weren't happy with it and often came back for another new mascara. I may have dodged a bullet on that one. I love the look of this brush though. I'm looking forward to testing it out tomorrow.


Moving away from Boots I wandered through my local Penneys. There's no nice way to say it my Penneys is crap. It's small and the stock is not a patch on Athlone or most other Penneys. Despite this I often come out with something. I'm a shopaholic what can I say. Today I picked up the french false nails. I love fake nails. I've never really been happy with my own nails. For €1.50 you can't go wrong with these. I personally think they last longer than or at least as long as the Broadway nails which are roughly €9-12. I also picked up fake lashes. I don't usually wear fake lashes but my graduation is coming up in about a month so I wanted to try out a pair of these and possibly wear them on the day. For €1.50 what could it hurt to give them a try anyway. I was going to get the natural ones but I have ELF natural lashes and they are definitely natural. I wanted to try something a little more noticeable.


I haven't read a magazine in quite a while so I decided to pick up Stellar and Glamour. I got Stellar in Easons for €1.95 and Glamour in Tesco for €1.47. I had my eye on a few other ones but didn't really want to spend €4-7 on a magazine. I normally like Stellar so I wanted to get my hands on the newest edition. Truth be told I only picked up Glamour for 2 reasons 1 it was cheap and 2 I recently read a post on tips to overcome blogging blocks and I figured it wouldn't hurt to have another magazine around the house. I'm really looking forward to reading the Glamour Beauty Power List though.


Hope you enjoyed this haul. Have you tried any of these products? I'd love to know what you thought.

:)

Wednesday 17 September 2014

Today's Make Up

Hi there. I was doing my make up today and I thought I'd share how I applied everything. So I'm going to list what products I use then explain how I applied them.



Face:
Foundation - Rimmel Stay Matte in 010 Light Porcelain and Wet n Wild Coverall in 816 Fair/Light
Powder - Mac Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Light Plus
Bronzer - W7 Honolulu
Blush - NYX Bourgeois Pig
Concealer - Essence Stay Natural concealer 03 Soft Nude

Eyes:
Shadows - Sleek Oh So Special palette shades Organza, Wrapped Up and Bow
Liner - Wet n Wild Mega Liner Black
Mascara - Rimmel Glam Eyes Lash Flirt Volume and Flirt 
Brows - Wet n Wild Ultimate Brow Kit in Ash Brown

Lips:
Lipstick - Mac Creemsheen in Creme Cup
Lip gloss - NYX Mega Shine in Salsa

Brushes:
Real Techniques Stippling brush
ELF Blending brush
ELF smudge brush  - not pictured
Bare Minerals blush brush - not pictured
Claire's brush for bronzer - not pictured
Other brushes from Ebay 

Personally I go back and forth between doing my eyes first and doing my face first. Today I started with my eyes. I used my ring finger to apply a thin layer of foundation and set it with my mac powder. I applied Organza all over my lid and blended Wrapped Up into my crease with a little bit of Bow under my brow. At first I lined my lid with Noir from the Oh So Special palette but then I decided to go over it with my Wet n Wild liquid liner. I applied the mascara but this mascara is a bit more than I like for  day time look. I prefer something a little more natural but it does the job. For my eyebrows I use my ELF smudge brush to fill in my brows. I used the lighter shade of the Wet n Wild eyebrow kit.

I have a lot of redness in my cheeks so today I wanted to try something I haven't tried before. I put a pea size amount of the Rimmel Stay Matte to the back of my hand and used my Real Techniques brush to apply a very thin layer on the cheeks and anywhere else I thought looked red. Then I used a small amount of the Wet n Wild foundation all over my face. Alone I don't like either of these foundations. They both feel quite heavy and the Rimmel one creases but I quite like them layered like I applied them today. I applied a little Essence concealer under my eyes. For my bronzer I start just above my tragus and blend towards my mouth. I really like the W7 bronzer in Honolulu. I think it's really good and it's very affordable I think it's around €3. Lastly I swept my NYX blush from the apples of my cheeks towards the top of my ear.

Here is the finished look



Wednesday 10 September 2014

Make Up Shelf Life


This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately. I know certain products should only be kept for a certain period of time but I couldn't remember how long that was so I decided to look it up and thought I'd share what I found with you. I used 2 articles for the information in this post. The first is an allure article you can check out here. The second is an elle article which you can check out here. In the elle article Bobbi Brown outlined the shelf life of the products. So let's get started.

Mascara:

Allure: 2-3 months to be safe and if the mascara smells like gasoline it's gone bad.
Elle: 6 months.

Eyeshadow:

Allure: 3 months for powder shadows. Keep a close eye on smell and colour of cream shadows.
Elle: 2 years.

Eyeliner (liquid and pencil):

Allure: 3 months. 
Elle: 1 year.

Foundation:

Allure: 6-12 months.
Elle: 2 years.

Concealer:

Allure: powder and stick up to 2 years. Liquid 1 year.
Elle: 2 years.

Powder:

Allure: up to 2 years.
Elle: 2 years.

Blush:

Allure: powder - 2 years. Cream - 1 year.
Elle: 2 years.

Lip Products:

Allure: 1 year.
Elle: 1 year.

Make Up Applicators:

Allure: Brushes washed every 2 weeks can last years. Cheap sponges 2 uses
Elle: Brushes wash every few weeks. Sponges 6 months - wash after every use.

The elle article also includes brow pencils - 1 year, moisturiser - 2 years and cleanser - 1 year. The allure articles has more detail than the elle one. I didn't want to go into detail in this post just give a quick outline of how long the articles give products. Personally I have quite a few products that are older than the shelf life given here. Especially eyeshadow and blush but they aren't irritating or breaking me out so they can stay in my collection for now. Hope this post was helpful.

:)




Sunday 7 September 2014

My Drugstore Wishlist

There are a few things I've had my eye on for a while now but the way things are I just haven't been able to get my hands on them. A few of these I just can't decide which to buy but I'm hoping to get my hands on these bits in the next few months.
1. Real Techniques Core Collection

(Picture from boot.ie)

I have had my eye on these for a few weeks now, months really but I couldn't bring myself to pay €28.99. But recently I found out you can order them from realtechniques.com and the core collection is only €15.98 including shipping so hopefully I will be adding these to my brush collection in the near future.

2. Foundation

(Picture from boot.ie)

I'm coming to the end of my NYX stay matte not flat foundation so I have had my eye on what foundation to get next and these three are the ones I am considering at the moment but I just can't decide which one to go for. I think I might have to take the Bourjois 123 Perfect out of the running after testing it on my hand for like the 10th time I think the lightest shade might still be to dark for me. I find it so hard to tell sometimes.

3. Maybelline Eye Eraser


(Picture from boot.ie)

I really need an under eye concealer. I need to embrace concealer in general haha. But I really want to try this one. I've read some good reviews on it so hoping to get my hands on it soon.

4. Sleek Makeup

 (picture from sleekmakeup.com)

This is a very general one. I wanted to get my hands on some Sleek products for a while now. Last time I was at a Sleek stand I couldn't decide what to get and ended up leaving with nothing. :( after seeing they have a buy one get one half price on boots I'm thinking it may be time to place another boots order. :D I'm thinking of trying the I Divine palette in Oh So Special and maybe the Face Contour Kit in light.


(picture from boots.ie)

5. Tangle Teezer

(picture from carapharmacy.com)


I've heard a lot of good things about Tangle Teezers. Recently I saw them in my local Cara for around €9. I'm hoping to get my hands on it soon. Do you use a tangle teezer? What do you think of them?


That's all for now. If you've tried any of these I'd love to hear what you think of them.

:)

Tuesday 2 September 2014

August Favourites

During the month of August I didn't buy many new products but I did rediscover some old and some not so old favourites that I wanted to share. 


1. Physicians Formula Shimmer Strips in Vegas Strip/Light Bronzer


I picked this up last summer in New York and I've used it now and again over the year but very little in the past few months. I dug it out again at the beginning of August and I have fallen in love with it all over again. I think it gives a lovely finish to a look.

2. Mac Cremesheen Lipstick in Creme Cup


I absolutely love this lipstick. I actually misplaced it for a few weeks but I was so happy to find it in one of my handbags a while back. I just love the shade, it's a lovely natural pinky nude. I normally throw this on on my way out the door.

3. Benefit's Porefessional


This sample of porefessional has been in my makeup drawers for quite some time now. I finally started using it this month and I'm loving it. I'm hoping to try the Maybelline Pore Eraser soon. Fingers crossed it is a dupe for porefessional like a lot of reviews say.  :)

4. NYX Ultra Pearly Mania in White Pearl


 I also picked up this eyeshadow last summer in New York. To be honest sometimes I find it a little awkward to get the product out. I'm always worried to much will come out so I try to be very careful. Sometimes it takes a few shakes. I normally put the product on the back of my hand which can get messy at times haha. I must say I love packing this shadow on my lid for bright looks this month.

5. Ebay Blush Palette 


I got this blush palette a few years ago off Ebay. Out of curiosity I checked and they do still sell the palette, it looks the same in the picture anyway. You can check it out here or check out the swatches below. I honestly don't know why I stopped using this palette. I love the colours in it. I do tend to gravitate to the same 3-4 shades but it is a very handy palette in my opinion.


So that's it for my August favorite. Have a you tried any of these products? What do you think?

:)