May Favourites

Aussie Lusciously Light Mega Shampoo and Conditioner.
I've used Aussie shampoo a few times (love the 3-minute miracle conditioner!) but I was never overly pushed about it as a shampoo brand in general. Last month sometime, I was in Boots in need of some shampoo and I spied the lusciously light version of the shampoo and conditioner. (It was the first time I had seen it, it could have been available for ages though).
I wasn't really holding out too much hope for it but I love it. It really does make your hair feel a lot lighter. Not only that but it made my hair shiner and healthier too, I believe. I've loved it that much that it's the only shampoo I have used this month, usually I have a few different shampoos and change around between them but I couldn't bear not to use the Aussie ones this month!

Lipstick and Lipgloss Combo - Beehive by 17 and Peony by Revlon Colourburst.
This is my absolute favourite lip combo. It creates a very natural but very pretty day look. It is the combination that I've used the most this month.

Urban Decay Naked Palette
Although I haven't even owned this for a full month, it had to take part in my favourites. It's definitely lived up to the hype for me and I love it!

Paradise perfume by Next 
This was a cheap perfume that I picked up and it is so perfect for summer. A light fruity scent, I've been wearing it the most as I don't have much of my Flowerbomb perfume left and I'm trying to ration it lol!

What have been your favourites this month?

Another Award! The Butterfly Award

I love the name of this award, it's so cute!

This award was given to me by the wonderful Joanne over at The Make Up Fairy! You can see her post about it here.

From my understanding of this award, you give it to people who's blogs you enjoy and want to give a little award to, which is always lovely to receive.  The rules are very straightforward;

The Rules 

1. Write a random fact about yourself. 
2. Pass the award on.
3. Notify the bloggers you nominate. 

1. A Random Fact About Me 

The random fact about me is kind of a silly one but I decided it was an appropriate random fact and that's my knowledge of random facts! I have this little pocket of the most random, irrelevant facts stored away in my head. It can be on any topic - history, science, animals, geography etc. and if I'm talking with people and I come out with some little tidbit of information they just stare at me and go 'how do you know that? why do you know that?' and I'm just like, I've no idea why or how I know it, but I do. I don't necessarily know anything else about the topic but I'll know this odd little fact about it. I'm not particularly studious or anything, I just seem to have gathered this little collection of knowledge! (And not to blow my own trumpet or anything but general knowledge rounds in table quizzes? - boo-yah!)

It's not something I ever really thought about until recently when people started pointing it out to me, so that's my random/strange/odd fact about me! 

2. Pass The Award On- My Nominations

As far as I'm aware there is no specific amount of bloggers you have to pass this on to, so it's up to yourself how many you want to give it to:) The bloggers I've given the award to are all bloggers I enjoy reading (obviously!) and some I've been following a good while and others are only new to me:) 

All-Made-Up-21

Art Donatella

Elly Belly Baybee 

Lorraine

Saloule 

What Zoe Did

VivaLuxury

Your Beauty 

3. Notify The Bloggers

Going to tweet them :D  

Thank you again Joanne for the award!! 

xx

Mini Review: China Glaze Island Escape

I bought three colours from China Glazes Summer collection - Island Escape. There's a total of 6 colours in the collection and they are all brilliantly bright and colourful, perfect for summer. 

I found that the formulation of all of the 3 that I have was quite thin/watery. I don't remember this issue with any other China Glazes that I've tried. Like this was literally running off my nail as I tried to spread it around! (And I was removing excess polish on the opening of the bottle.) When it first happened I just thought this is going to be a disaster but despite this, the varnish dries really quick and opaque. All the pictures are just two coats. The varnish was really shiny on it's own and was easy to remove despite a slight grittiness due to shimmer. 

I love all the colours and am very tempted to get the other 3! 

Senorita Bonita - A purple shimmer

Paypaya Punch - A bright orange but not quite neon

108 Degrees - A gorgeous pink shimmer with slight blue reflects.

GOSH Rainbow

This I think is my all-time favourite nail varnish. It needs to be used as a topcoat as on a bare nail itself, it doesn't amount to much. Rainbow is a beautiful gold flakie which reflects the colours of the rainbow. I've been wanting to do this post for a while (I finally got my hands on Rainbow at the end of January) but wanted to try and get it pictured over as many colours as possible. I could have kept going for ages but I had to stop sometime and this post is already extremely photo-heavy! 

When I found out about Rainbow, I searched everywhere. It wasn't in any of my local Gosh stockists and from everything I had read online, it was long sold out everywhere. (I was very late in discovering the beauty of Rainbow). I had seen one knocking around US ebay but it was for around $29 or something obscene like that which I was not prepared to spend on a nail varnish (just yet lol!)

By chance I was in a small independant pharmacy that I don't even go into very often and I hadn't even remembered that they stocked Gosh. When I went in they had a little bargain basket of Gosh goodies going for 1/2 price and after rooting through it,picking up Magic Star first (damn you Magic Star, so often have you made my heart leap), I found 1 lonesome bottle of Rainbow!! I actually squealed! I couldn't believe it, I practically cradled it going up to the till, I was so afraid I'd suddenly become clumsy and drop it! (I didn't thankfully :D)

What I hate about doing this post, is that everybody is going find it difficult to find Rainbow. My advice is keep an eye on ebay in case you come across it cheaply but also just anytime your in a pharmacy, particularly in small towns or villages, keep your eyes peeled and you might just strike it lucky like I did!

And now we can move on to the photos. I'm going to divide it up in to 3 sections. The first group of photos are Rainbow over colours that while still very pretty, just don't show it off to it's most fantabulousness! The second group are the ones that it works over and looks good but the third group are the ones I love it over!

"The 'ooh' but meh"

1. Rainbow over OPI's Do You Lilac It?

2. Rainbow over Revlon's Grey Suede

 

3. Rainbow over Revlon's Minted

4. Rainbow over China Glaze's Pelican Grey

  

5. Rainbow over China Glaze's Mint Candy Apple

The "Yea, I Think It Works" 

1. Rainbow over Essie's Chinchilly

2. Rainbow over GOSH's Holographic

 

The "OooooOoooh I Really Like It!"

1. Rainbow over OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark

 

2. Rainbow over (I have no fecking idea!)

3. Rainbow over China Glaze's Peace on Earth

4. Rainbow over Catrice's I Sea You!

5. Rainbow over OPI's Strawberry Margarita with Essence Matte Topcoat

6. Rainbow over Catrice's It Blue Me Away

 

Sorry for the crapness of so many of the photos:-/ I'm still learning how to take decent photos

E.O.T.D using MAC's Pigment in Melon

This pigment was my first ever MAC pigment. I've seen it in videos/blogs quite often and I just fell in love with the colour, so it was only right that it was the very first one I bought. 

I'm still such a newbie when it comes to make-up so I definitely want to mess around with the pigment a bit more but to start with I just did a very basic look using the pigment pretty much by itself.

 

Products Used 

Urban Decay Primer Potion 

Benefit Creaseless Eyeshadow in sippin'n'dippin 

MAC Pigment in Melon 

Maybelline Gel Eyeliner in Black 

Maybelline Falsies Mascara  

It has such a fantastic sheen to it and I used it quite lightly to just give a wash of colour but I imagine it can be built up to a higher a pigmentation. (well, it is a pigment :p)

Do you use pigments? Any tips on using them?

Revlon Ocean Nail Varnish

                             

I was really excited to try this nail varnish out as I had never tried one of the scented Revlon nail varnishes. And I adored the colour. 

Firstly I'll discuss the scent. It was very sweet for me and I couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed  to smell like. It was just a generic sugary sweet smell. It kind of reminded me of what 'make-up' products aimed at little girls smell like. If you like the smell of it, it does linger for a few days but not overwhelmingly so. Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of the smell, it wasn't so bad that it would prevent me from wearing the nail varnish again. 

Next the actual nail varnish itself. It was really good. I have found that Revlon is much like GOSH in the sense that their nail varnish can be very hit and miss; both application and opacity wise. Ocean however was one of Revlon's hits. The application was flawless. It went on so smoothly and was very opaque from the first coat. The colour certainly didn't disappoint me. It was so bright and reflected so much shimmer and I just loved looking at my nails with it on.  

The other fantastic thing about this nail varnish was it's lasting power. Usually I wouldn't leave nail varnish on for too long but when I was wearing this it just so happened that I didn't get a chance to take it off for about a week. The pictures were taken just before I removed it. While there is slight tip wear, especially on the little finger, all in all it wore extremely well.

Such a gorgeous colour, I can't wait to put it on again! 

My Very First Award! - The Liebster Blog Award

The Liebster Award is designed to bring well deserved additional recognition to those bloggers with less than 300 followers.  If you receive the award you link back to the blogger had nominated you and nominate 3 more blogs. 

I was so thrilled to be given this award by the lovely Andreea over at Your Beauty. As I've said in the title this is the first award I've ever been given and it really made my day. I love to think that people are actually reading this little blog and like and enjoy it enough to follow and comment. I love each and every one of you!<3 

Your Beauty is a fabulous blog with a good mix of reviews, loads of information on perfumes and events:) Definitely take the time to check out her blog:) Thanks again Andreea x 

So on to 3 of my fellow bloggers who I want to give this award to. (I really wish I could give it to more of ye!) 

The Make Up Fairy 

Joanne is amazing.She is so consistent with her blog posts, as in usually 2-3 a day! (I wouldn't have been surprised if a new blog post had appeared during blogger's downtime - that's how good she is). Her posts contain everything from outfit of the day to makeup tutorials as well as general beauty/fashion news, gadgets and her own lovely ideas like Blissful Bubblies, which can be about anything. 

Saloule 

Sarah is like a breath of fresh air. Her posts are witty and informative. I love the reviews that she does, they're always on the button. Not only that but she does posts that just seem different, not the typical beauty blogger posts. 

Sunnysunnylipglossandcat

Lorraine has only been blogging since last month but I love when she has a new blog post! Her posts are always very in-depth and enjoyable to read. She does fantastic reviews on lipsticks and does incredible photo montages of the lipstick swatches. And she has a YouTube channel!

And all of these wonderful bloggers always make sure to reply to anybody who comments on a post. They are all so genuine and lovely so if you don't know them already, definitely go and check them out straight away!

Thanks again to Andreea at Your Beauty for giving me this award! <3 xx                                   

Another Haul! Mac, Lush and Urban Decay

I can’t really lie and say that I’ve had this post ready for ages but didn’t get it posted due to blogger being in a bad mood but my peeps on twitter know the truth -  that I only found out blogger was down yesterday afternoon!

I had my last ever offical thing for college on Thursday and had to spent Wednesday prepping for it so that’s the reason that it was only on Friday that I got the chance to do this post. (and then only got the chance to post it today).

So I really didn’t think that I’d get the chance to do much shopping on Tuesday in Dublin as I had an appointment that I thought would take much longer than it actually did. This meant more shopping time for me, the purse wasn’t overly keen on this idea though.

Anyway first stop was MAC. I went in hoping that they would have the Surf Baby collection in, as it’s out in the UK but the girl said that unfortunately they won’t have it for another few weeks.(But from reading other blogs I think it appeared on Thursday?) I should have turned on my heel and left then. As if.

I ended up getting a few things that were actually my first ever items from some product lines.

I got my first ever paint pot. I know everybody raves about Bare study and Rubenesque as the must-have paintpots and while they’re nice and extremely wearable and useable; the one that appealed to me most was Indianwood. I love bronze colours and I thought that this would create a great base for more vibrant bronzed eye-looks which are my favourites in summer.

I bought my first pigment as well. I got it in the colour Melon, which is so pretty and has an amazing peachy sheen to it. I think it will look fabulous as a slight twist on the bronze eye.

My last ‘first ever’ from MAC in this haul is one of their lipglosses. Now I’ve heard people say that they find them sticky but I bought a lipglass in Underage and it is one of the nicest lipglosses I’ve tried. I definitely didn’t feel that it was overly sticky. Perhaps it is their other forms of lipglosses that are stickier but I’ll still give them a chance.

The next item I got is a lipstick. They still had some stuff left from the Quite Cute collection so I decided to get the Quite Cute lipstick. Which is purple. Am I ever really going to wear purple lipstick? Would I have been better off buying a lipstick that I could wear comfortably every day? Probably. But purple lipstick is more fun! Besides if you just put a slick of it on, it’s more of a sheen and with a little bit of lipgloss I think it’s perfectly acceptable to wear purple lipstickJ

 Swatches: L-R Melon, Indianwood, Atlantic Blue, Silver Ring, Quite Cute and Underage

I also bought 2 more eyeshadows to add to my eyeshadow collection, which I adore. The 2 colours I bought, I got because I don’t have anything like them in my collection. Silver Ring is a beautiful grey/silver which is going to be ideal for a smoky eye look and it’s a veluxe pearl which is my favourite finish. I also bought Atlantic Blue as I have no true blues and I thought this was a gorgeous vibrant blue and looks as if it will go well with Silver Ring to create a blue smokey eye.

Next stop was Lush. I’ve wanted to try some of their skincare line for a while so I bought Angels on Bare Skin cleanser and Tea Tree Toner. The cleanser smells divine and has left my skin so smooth. The toner is surprisingly gentle and I like it so far.

I also got a bathbomb in Sakura and it smells so good. I think it is supposed to smell like cherry blossoms and it is just wonderful. Not too sweet like some of Lush’s stuff. Can’t wait to use it!

The final make-up item I got is the one I am most excited and thrilled about. It is of course Urban Decay’s Naked Palette. I can’t belive that I actually managed to get it. 

The colours are fantastic and I think it is a really good price at €36 for what you get. I got it in Debenhams on Tuesday and there was loads of them there in case anybody is still trying to get their hands on one. Even though there has been gazillions of reviews on this, I proably will end up doing one as well. Lol!

So that’s it for this haul, if you want any more details on anything mentioned just let me knowJ

A Mini Haul - Boots and Pennys (Primark)

A little bit of a random haul that I did last week and kept meaning to post but didn't get a chance to. 

                         

From Penny's I got the most gorgeous little white lantern for tea lights. I love having candles burning and this suits my room. It was only €4 and when I got to the till they had a set of 30 tea lights in yellow, greens and blues for only €2.50, always good to have a supply of them:) I don't have a separate photo but you can see them easily enough in the main one. 

Next in Boots I got some E45 hand cream which I like to use at night when I put on my funky white cotton gloves to help hand cream and cuticle cream sink into my hands overnight. I like it because it's a really thick consistency. I also picked up a packet of Perfectil. I've used it before and I find it works and I just want to give my skin a boost before summer.

Boots are having a 3 for 2 on cosmetics at the moment so I decided to use it has an opportunity to pick up some more lip products. I got another Revlon Colourburst lipgloss in Strawberry and it's a beautiful bright pink. 

The main item that I went into Boots for was a 17 lipstick in Beehive. I saw this on Saloule's blog and fell in love with it and just had to get it! It is the perfect 'my lips but better' colour. 

I also got a red because I don't really have any red lipsticks and wanted to try one out. This one is called Hollywood and is what I would call a juicy red. While it is definitely red, it's not a mad bright pillarbox red. It's more sedate. I wore it out last week and I got so many compliments so I will definitely be wearing red lips more often!

L-R Beehive, Hollywood

 

Hollywood

 

Beehive

So that's it for my little haul. I have to go to Dublin tomorrow and as I'm trying to save I really shouldn't be shopping - I mightn't even have time to - but I'll probably make a dash to MAC as the Surf Baby collection is out in the UK and I want to see if it's available here yet. And it is limited edition. Hmmm we'll see what happens.....