Month: November 2012

Blog Imitates Life: In Denial About The Christmas

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Yeah, so I’ve got a bunch of plans, as usual, about a theme thing for Christmas shopping, and — well, too many plans, I guess, and I can’t settle and figure it out. You know, just post, for cryin’ out loud!

It has to be right, at least in my mind.

There will be plenty of stuff for the women in your life — your mum, your sister, your cousins, your pals — there is going to be a special category for nieces! — and there is stuff for dudes, too. Also: aunts/uncles, and your parents as a duo.

Oh, I’ll figure it out tomorrow. Until such time, I will leave you with this: the World Famous Supermodel Thumbnail™ sporting Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Cha-Ching! Suitably festive!

Seriously, though, some truly excellent stuff coming this way, including some of the most amazing hampers I have ever seen.

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Sally Hansen Gem Crush comes in eight shades and retail for €8.95

When All Else Fails: The Hair

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Highly recommended for my Irish readers: Leo Bancroft Ultimately Intense Deep Moisture Mask {€4.79}, available at Tesco.

I put some on my dry hair, and then used the accompanying Blissfully Bouncy Shampoo {€3: amazing}, and then used more mask because The Hair was still all atangle.

Would write more but off to go get more laserrrrrr — !

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Seriously, though, amazing value, and The Hair looks and feels really voluised and lush.

How Now, Brown Brow?

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Not bad! That is the dolled up version, via BeneFit Speed Brow and AVON Glimmerstick Brow Definer.

The base is thanks to the Colorsport 30 Day Eyelash & Brow Dye Kit — read all about the dying process here.

This is what they look like, sans enhancement:

Just for the record, that is my FFSL how many times do I have take this photo, stupid iPhone! face. That was like, round four? Whatever, Apple!

I am pleased. Would dye again.

Also, also: the grainy photo at top also features a Smokey Eye via Estee Lauder Pure Color palette in Film Noir. I like it! The colours blended really well, and even I, a Smokey Eye Hopeless Case, feel like I did a good job of it, and may be on the road to improvement.

There’s Wally/Waldo!

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If anyone knows of another brand of brow dye kit I can get in a shop, please do inform.

Baby, It’s Cold Inside! Hot Salt Scrub by Bliss Saves the Day

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Or, it will save the day, later, after I’m back from horseriding volunteering. I refuse to heat my wee apartment like it is winter — it is not winter — so I’ve got the hot water bottle on full rotation, and I am going to luxuriate in a bath this evening.

A key element in the luxuriousness will be Hot Salt Scrub via the always by name/be nature Bliss.

I have gone on record as not being a fan of salty scrubby things, as half the salt always seems to roll right off the bod and onto the floor. This drawback is only slightly mitigated if one gets into the tub and applies — it still rolls off, but at least the excess goes down the drain, saving you a sweep up after the shower.

Now this: this has a gel base, so if you go slow, the product adheres nicely to the skin, and the scrub is thorough and satisfying. The hot water of the shower activates the cleansing powers of the rosemary and eucalyptus, the latter a scent that has not been among my faves, but I am happy enough with it in this incarnation.

So, the big exciting plan is: scrub with this all over, rinse off, and then run a tub, in which my open, scrubbed pores can fully receive the lovely heat. And maybe also throw some more salts in, like those Dermalogica ones I am newly in love with, the Hydro-active Mineral Salts.

The shivery in-between potential is high, now that I look at it in writing. May rethink this. It would be best to just plunge right into the bath, but I don’t know, dead skin cells floating all around me seems a little gross.

Big question: does it get hot? Well, sort of. Like, not so hot that you’re hopping around, which would be dangerous in the bath. It definitely warms you up, and naturally, the more briskly you scrub, you warmer you get. Science!

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€30.59/£28.60/$36

How’d It Do? RICH Hair Care

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I thought I wasn’t hungover, but I totally am. The fab new Shelbourne Spa is officially launched, and they did in style, as you can imagine.

The champagne was still being poured well after most of the crowd grabbed up their goodie bags and bolted. I can’t imagine why anybody ever left at all — I can’t believe I’m still not there, necking the Moët {which I had been tweeting as Möet all night; the shame!} There were also these amazing meat-on-sticks-things wrapped in cheese — wrapped in cheese — and medium-miniature lemon meringue pies.

Okay, so, it took me five tries to spell ‘meringue’. I really need to go have a lie down.

I used almost all the RICH products on my hair yesterday.

Yeesh, my hair is long!

I found that the Pure Luxury Intensive Shampoo was hard work to lather up — and I say this even knowing that big lather is meaningless. I loved the Pure Luxury Hair Repair Treatment, the scent off it was gorgeous. The Pure Luxury Silk Oil Serum should probably last me from now til Doomsday as a half of a pump was more than enough.

I wasn’t paying much attention when I went to spray on the Pure Luxury Maximum Brilliance Protect & Shine: it goes on very heavily if you are treating it like a hairspray. It’s more like a thing that you spray all into the air and then walk into it, so it settles gently on your ‘do?

The Pure Luxury Sure Hold Hairspray was grand, I don’t have great expectations when it comes to hair spray. This smelled good, which always helps.

I felt like my hair was smooth enough, and I was sorry I had scared myself as regards the gloss spray — I think in future, when I use it correctly, it will really pump up the shine.

I knew I wasn’t going to be bothered washing The Hair this morning, so I twisted it into a top knot to sleep, and reckoned I’d iron it out and lash on some of that mysterious Pure Luxury Intensive Treatment Cream, but when I took out the elastic, look what happened!

Big sexy bed head! I put some of the treatment cream on the ends to dial down the frizz. It didn’t really last the whole day — it might look better when I get me roots seen ta — but seriously crazy waves I couldn’t get if I tried.

In general, I am feeling positive about the RICH line! Now, time to fire up the electric underblanket and forget I even heard of French champagne.

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RICH haircare is available in all good chemists.

The Shelbourne Spa is really fab, follow them @shelbournespa

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You Don’t Have to be Rich to be RICH

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I bet you think you do, when you see a fancy box like this.

I really — really — want to see what’s inside.

{Well, hey, I was in the kitchen.}

Ah: happy family of hair products!

Prices range from €6.99 for the Pure Luxury Intensive Shampoo to €8.99 for the Pure Luxury Silk Oil Treatment, and €9.99 for the rest. That’s really good! And they are available in chemists!

The text promises me ‘unparalleled moisture, strength, and shine’, which is exciting. I admit I am not entirely sure what to do with the Pure Luxury Intensive Treatment Cream: it says to leave in the hair and style as usual… After drying? Maybe? Eh, I just fecked some on the ends of my dry, pre-washed hair, just for the craic. It smells gorgeous, and, well, rich.

We’ll see how we get on!

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Horseriding Rucksack Hero: Cuticura Hand Wipes

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Sure, anybody can be a handbag hero! It takes something extra special to make it into my horseriding rucksack.

I am never averse to cross-polinating my blogs, and whilst my horsey musings are not updated as often as are my cosmetic cogitations, they are always on my mind. And the evidence of the activity is always all over me.

I am currently volunteering for the Riding for the Disabled Ireland organisation, Leopardstown Group. As I was saying goodbye to Soprano, a massive 18hh bay gelding who is as gentle as a lamb, he rested his enormous jaw on my shoulder and rubbed. Having been ridden well on the bit, there was a lot of spit on his mouth; much of it transferred to my sleeve.

That is cool with me, but it’s the stuff that gets on my hands that is: not so very. I generally drop into the shops after a session, or a lesson, and it’s important that my hands are clean. Sometimes, well… sometimes soap for humans is not a priority at a yard. So, talk about handy: Cuticura Anti Bacterial Hand Wipes {€1.49} are a new big hit with me.

I feel far less unfit for human consumption after using these, and feel like they are doing a more comprehensive job that would a liquid disinfectant. Although, the brand’s Anti Bacterial Hand Serum {€1.99/50ml} works a treat too! In this case, however, I need to feel like I am totally removing the scurf from my mitts.

I’ll be using three of these a week, so this is five weeks worth, and for less than €2? Works for me, and for the grateful general public. I can’t help the eau de equine I exude, but I won’t be spreading the germs around.

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Available at all good chemists. Stay away from the bad chemists!

From the Archives: Origins Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight Mask

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I am really feeling the winter on my face! I think it is to do with it being unnaturally cold here for this time of year. Seriously, I remember my first Thanksgiving in Ireland — not an oxymoron — and walking to my host’s place with only a bulky jumper for outerwear. I have to wear The Fat Coat® to the horses already! This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

So one must do the right, right, right thing and make sure that one’s face is not going to get all chapped and worn out, and when it feels tired and dry, I can’t recommend Origins Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight Mask more highly.

When I first used this, I was like, Great, this is going to get all over the pillowcases. Well, it does not! It absorbs quickly and yet — and yet! — is utterly and completely moisturising.

Even when, If you are me, and you haven’t used it in a while, and you forget that you don’t need tonnes of the stuff, and you dispense so much that when you put it on, you look like Charlie Chaplin. Even that much product absorbed well in time to snooze out.

Now, mind you, I was catching up on allll the programmes last night, and charged through two Downton Abbeys {yes, let’s all just play cricket, shall we? The patriarch can still get away with lying to the peelers, jolly good, eh?} two Revenges {Oh, gosh, I was getting bored. Whither the bandage dresses, Victoria?} and one Homeland {That scene between Brody and Carrie! Will watch again!} I applied before Homeland, and so it did take at least half an episode to sink in, but sink it did, and I felt refreshed upon waking.

By ‘archive’ I mean ‘the hanging shelf thingie, behind my bathroom door’. As exhaustively catalogued as the National Library, that.

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€30.60/£20/$23 << I am giving that euro price point the side eye…

Eyebrow Dye: I Did

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So: Colorsport 30 Day Eyelash & Brow Dye Kit in Dark Brown. Because of the ‘mix it up’ aspect of the biz, I read the directions thoroughly several times, and consulted them throughout the process.

Good thing, as you leave this stuff on for 10 minutes if you are dying your lashes, but only 2 minutes if dying your brows. Serious potential for disaster there, right?

Hmmm, well, maybe not. Here’s what I learned from doing it myself. Continue reading →