April Favourites

For once I'm not going to start with 'Oh this month has gone so quick, I can't believe it' as I don't think it has, it's actually been quite a slow month for me!
I have four favourites this month, 3 beauty and 1 hair related:)

Too Faced Natural Eye Palette

This is a fantastic palette. It's a great basic palette to have in your collection, you can use it entirely for a look or in addition to brighter eyeshadows you have. It's also ideal if you are going away for a few days and don't want to bring too much with you. I love all the colours in it and I've used it pretty much every day this month since I've bought it. My next blog post is going to be a more in-depth review of it.

Nars Sex Appeal Powder Blush

This is such a pretty blush. I've been using it alone for a subtle flush of colour. It's a peachy pink with no obvious shimmer/sparkle/glitter in it. I think it makes a good choice for a daytime spring/summer look when you don't want to look overdone but still want that little bit extra. Sex Appeal also looks really nice layered over other blushes.

Chanel Vitalumiére Aqua Foundation

I have absolutely fallen in love with this foundation. It glides on smoothly and smells divine! I find it lasts all day and I'm happy with the coverage, it isn't too heavy. I'm also a hell of a lot paler than I thought as I'm shade B10 Beige-Pastel, I was watching some YouTube videos of people wearing it and I thought they looked quite pale but they were all using shade B20! I must look almost transparent without make-up on!haha!

Remington Pearl Wand

This is a curling iron but one without the clamp. It makes curling your hair so simple! I have really thick, wavy hair and even at that it doesn't take me too long to curl my hair. It comes with a little protective glove which is always good as singed fingers is never a good look! I have a wedding and a few fancyish events coming up in May so I'll definitely save money by not going to the hairdressers and doing my hair myself!


Finally, I promise to be better with my blog posts in the month of May, April was an epic fail regarding posting on the blog! Alas, final college assignments won out in the priority stakes but I'll have everything handed in on Tuesday, and then all I have left to do is my viva the following week, whoop!

Hope everyone had a good April and here's to a fantabulous summer month of May!!:D

TAG: 10 Things I Love

Firstly, a big hello to all my new followers (and to my older ones!) I seem to have accumulated a good few of ye over the last few days, so thank you so much for following and welcome to my little blog:)

I was tagged to do this by the lovely Laura over at FitznBitz. (Check her blog out it's great!)

The purpose of this tag is to name 10 random things that you love. A way of getting to know each other better I suppose:) I'm not going to name obvious things such as my family and friends because I do of course love them! This is just more, perhaps material things. Also, I didn't include make-up because I felt that seeing as that's what my blog is based around, it is fairly obvious that I do in fact love make-up!

So lets get started!

1. Animals

                                                           

I absolutely adore animals, I have since I was a very young child. They're very special to me and I value them so much. Currently, I have 2 cats and 2 dogs but I have a list as long as my arm of creatures I want to add to the brood whenever I get my own house! If I was really pushed, I'd have to say that between cats and dogs, my favourite would be cats. I have a soft spot for pretty much every animal but some of them that I really love are greyhounds, german shepards, maine coon's, tigers and pigs.I also have a soft spot for giraffes and monkeys - gorillas in particular. (Obviously I don't plan on actually owning any of the wildlife animals!)

2. Reading

                                                          

One of my favourite pastimes. Unfortunately, I don't have time to read as much as I used to but I love nothing more than getting lost in a good book. And as well as bringing a pile of books with me no matter where I go on holidays, I always end up coming home with at least 5 or 6 more! And nearly break my shoulder as I have to put them in my hand luggage as I don't want to add any more kg to my main luggage (as it's generally stuffed!).

3. Raspberries

                                                           

I'm a a big fan of fruit and vegetables (I think I must have been the only child who willingly ate broccoli) but I really love raspberries. I love how they're sweet but tart at the same time. They are really expensive here out of season but Tesco have the nicest frozen ones ever. I always have a couple of packets in the freezer. In winter I like to add them to porridge and in summer they are good with yoghurt. Or by themselves of course!

4. 4od  

I love 4od for catching up on programmes I've missed. Especially the comedy shows - The I.T. Crowd, The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner to name but a few. Instant comedy at your fingertips!

5. Baking 

Unfortunately I haven't been baking too much lately but I enjoy it so much. Decorating cakes, buns and biscuits. Creating themes at Christmas or personalising them for people's birthdays. I love everything about it - Finding new recipes, gathering ingredients, the smells and of course the taste! Can't wait until I have more time to start baking again.

6. The Sea 

Source: My Image

I can see the Atlantic Ocean from my bedroom window and I can't imagine not living near the sea. I feel secure beside it, like I can escape anytime I want to or something. I love the smell of the sea air and the rush of a gust of wind on a stormy day. The sound of waves crashing against the rocks at night is one of the most relaxing and peaceful sounds I know.

7. Earrings 

I have a huge collection of earrings. Huge. My love of them probably started when I was in about 2nd year of school and I got my ears pierced for the 2nd time (remember that trend...) And the collection just kept building. At my last count around 1.5 years ago, I had just over 100 pairs and thats not including studs! And it has definitely grown since then.

8. Stationary

It was always my favourite part of going back to school. Getting new notebooks, folders, pens and pencil cases.  I think I like it so much because it allows my organisational freak nature shine!:p It's something that I'm really going to miss now that I'm nearly finished college:( It's not going to stop me though, I'll always have room for stationary in my life!

9. My Phone

I don't mind spending a lot of money on something like a laptop but I drew the line at the ridiculous amount of money required to buy an iPhone. Since they first came out I always thought that they were really cool but never thought I'd get one. My parents knew that I liked them and treated me to the iPhone 4 for my 21st. <3 It is amazing, I never thought I could love a phone as much as I love my iPhone but sadly I do. It's great for multi-tasking. It has an iPod and a surprisingly good camera not to mention all the really useful apps. I would be lost without it at this stage. (That's actually scary:o)

10.  Airports

This is a bit of a strange one as everybody else I know hates airports. But I love them. Even if I'm waiting there for hours, I love just chilling out watching people bustling by. I think it's the atmosphere, it's so frenzied but it just gives me a burst of excitement. It doesn't matter if I'm going on holidays or coming home, I still love it. It helps that I enjoy flying I suppose! 

So that's my top 10 loves of my life. 

I tag:  

http://whatzoedid.blogspot.com/

http://irishwishesarespecial.blogspot.com/

http://ozstil.blogspot.com/

http://hannahsbeautyblog20.blogspot.com/

http://louboulush.blogspot.com/ 

http://kit-cat-kitty-cat.blogspot.com/

http://honestlybec.blogspot.com/

http://sunnysunnylipglossandcat.blogspot.com/ 

http://toptotoe28.blogspot.com/

http://fluffandfripperies.blogspot.com/

Rules of the tag

1) State who gave you this award in your post

2) State 10 things that you love 

3) Tag 10 other bloggers, listing them at the end of the post, and notify them 

If I haven't tagged you specifically, please feel free to do the tag anyway! 

IMAGES: All images are from google images apart from the image of the sea which is my own and the image of the iPhone which is from o2.ie

Collective Haul!

The last couple of weeks I've being picking bits and pieces up sporadically so I decided just to do a collective haul on the all of it.:)

Everything I've picked up recently:)

The Lip Products 

Carmex Lipbalm in Mint 

One of my local chemists finally started stocking the Revlon Colourburst lipglosses - something which I thought could only be gotten Stateside. I was really excited to see them and I've picked up 4 so far but I might have to pick up the other 3 that are available here lol! 

From top to bottom the shades are; Crystal Lilac, Peony, Rosegold and Papaya

Nail Varnish

There was on offer on Revlon nail varnish in the chemist 2 for €9 and they had gotten in stock the scented ones! (The same day as the colourburst - t'was a good day!) 

The Essie ones I stumbled across in a health food type store that stocks skincare products like L'Occitane and I hadn't been in there in ages and I was over the moon to discover that I now had a local Essie stockist! They don't have many colours - only about 10 different shades - but I didn't have any of them so that's good:) 

The colours from L-R Revlon Ocean Breeze, Beach, Passion Fruit (These 3 are all the scented ones my chemist had) Blue Lagoon. Essies's Mint Candy Apple and Tart Deco.

Face/Eye/Body Products

I bought the Revlon Photoready foundation not so long ago and while I really like it, I feel that the shade is just a little bit too dark for me during the day so I've regulated it to my night-time foundation which it's perfect for. So I obviously needed a new day one and I've been scraping out the remains of my Bobbi Brown one, which I also love but unfortunately there is no Bobbi Brown counter near me. I decided to try the Chanel Vitalumiére Aqua as I've read good reviews on it. I've used it a few times and it's lovely and light with a light coverage which is what I prefer. 

I also bought another Urban Decay Primer Potion, this time the one in Sin. It is a metallic type brown and works as well as the original. 

I also picked up Next's own brand perfume in Paradise. I love my Vicktor&Rolf Flowerbomb that I got for Christmas but I've been using it so much that I only have about a 1/4 left! I want it to last another while so I'm going to change my perfume about a bit more. Paradise smells divine. A proper summer holiday scent:) 

Palette 

I've been desperate to get my hands on Urban Decay's Naked Palette but it is impossible to get. I heard that this Too Faced Natural Eye Palette was extremely good as well, so I found it online and got it to try and substitute my lemming for the Naked palette. It is a really good palette and I'll be doing a review on it soon. 

Blushes and Eyeshadow

Nars and Benefit are two more brands that I can't get locally and when I found out that Asos were stocking Nars I had to get some! I had also swatched Benefit's Bella Bamba blush the last time I was at a counter and I loved it but didn't get it at the time so when I saw it on Asos I decided to get it as well. The Nars eyeshadow I got is called Galapagos. I saw Dulce Candy on YouTube using it in this tutorial and I loved it. The blush is called  Sex Appeal and I wanted a sheerish pale pink blush and that seemed ideal.


I really need to go on a spending ban:-/



Look out for upcoming reviews/e.o.t.d/n.o.t.d. on these products!

OPI - Lincoln Park After Dark

Apologies again for the lack of regular posting but hopefully this will tide us over for another while:)

So I know many of us are rocking pastels this time of year, but I just had to post about this nail varnish.

Last November, I was on the hunt for a suitable dark but not black nail varnish. It was this one that bloggers and YouTubers were raving about. I had heard of OPI but wasn't overly familiar with it (it's not readily available in Ireland) but when I saw this colour, I knew I had to have it. I found it on Amazon and since then my OPI collection has kept growing, although I usually use ebay now as it is much cheaper.

It truly is a beautiful colour, the essence of dark wintery nights. Good application and opacity.

Tag: How Much Does Your Face Cost?

I've been wanting to do a tag for a while, and when I spied this one over at Lipgloss and Me I knew I had to try it! Today was a fairly basic day (and my first time using the Too Faced palette - review coming soon) so I didn't think it would amount to too much.

Here it goes!

New Cid i-prime primer: €28
Bobbi Brown Foundation: €33
Catrice Concealer: €3
Nars Bronzer: €27
MAC Creamblush: €19
Bobbi Brown Shimmerbrick: €35
MSF Natural: €24
Too Faced Natural Palette: €26
Maybelline Falsies Mascara: €14
Urban Decay Brow Kit: €18
N.B. Prices are approximate, bear in mind some are rounded off and allow for exchange rates as I changed some from GBP to EUR.

Total: €227!!

I really did not think it would come to that much, you never think of that when you're putting it on in the morning!

How much does your face cost? I tag everybody!:)

March Favourites

I don't have too many favourites this month, it took me ages to even think of these 3!

Bobbi Brown Shimmerbrick 

I've had this since last summer and used it regularly - until it was just forgotten! I fell in love with it all over again this month and used it nearly every day. The shade I have is in Pink Quartz and I use it as a highlight for my cheekbones and sweep it up onto my temples. I sometimes use it on my collarbones as well.
It really is a wonderful product and I want to pick up some of the other shades!

NARS Laguna Bronzer

This was actually an unintended favourite of the month. I only realised how much I love it when I hit pan a few days ago! I only bought it in January and I really didn't expect to hit pan so soon - I really thought it would last me for ages! Obviously theres's still loads of product in it as I only made a tiny dent in the centre, but still! I'm very pale so I really only use it to lightly contour, or else I'll end up looking tangoed:p
It is a brilliant product and I'm glad I gave into buying it after hearing so many people talking about it on youtube.

MAC All that Glitters and Satin Taupe 


These are two more products that are well mentioned on youtube and in blogs. This combination has been a lifesaver all month. I've been really busy and haven't had much time to do my makeup in the morning. Putting All that Glitters all over the lid and Satin Taupe in the crease and you're good to go. If I have a little more time, I put Nyx jumbo pencil in Gold on the lid before All that Glitters and it gives it a really nice pop of metallicy goodness:)