Month: January 2024

The Body Shop Ramie Shower Lily: Noble, but Not Available?!?

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Look, I rate The Body Shop highly but researching got frustrating, fast and also: the thing is not so great to use.

I winkled a lil Ramie Lily by The Body Shop out of the box of random offerings from those who receeved them and are keen they find a good home.

I adore The Body Shop: I was gifted with some mandarin-scented soap, before my second trip to Ireland, way back before I lived here, and anytime I smell something even remotely orange-y, I recall with pleasure my sojourn in a hostel in Westport, Co Mayo (hang on… here she is). So sure, I’m going to grab whatever someone else is silly enough to give up.

Except… yeah, not so great.

The impulse is terrific: make a shower/bath scrubby thing — does everyone call it a lily? — that is not made of plastic. Fantastic! I am happy enough with my exfoliating gloves, but wanted to give this a try.

Lil Body Ship Ramie lily hanging in the shower
So sad!

Verdict?

A) It is very smol.

B) It gets very flat? And doesn’t scrub very well?

C) The flatness doesn’t distribute your shower gel, like, at all.

Then I tried to find images that wouldn’t look so woeful: it is discoverable on thebodyshop.com; this is maybe a small press sample? There seem to be none for sale on the flagship site and is only available from portal vendors, ie, long-distance from Indonesia, for example. Which: carbon footprint how are ya.

This is not advancing saving the planet. Ultimately, one must ask: wtf???

Me being me, I wanted to see what happened if I unbunched it. Trusty X-acto knife in hand, I cut the twine that bound it…

X-acto knife and unbound lily ramie
Eh.

Not convinced, but I’ll give it a go!

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Pretty Little Thing False Eyelashes: Hmmmm

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I don’t know, they look really, really long?

Pretty Little Thing false eyelashes that look super extra long to me

Or just super extra thick? I mean, it does say ‘extra lash’ but wow, these look very extra.

During Christmas, my sister was evangelical about wearing falsies and sure why not give it a go.

I have ZERO luck with them in the past (okay, I tried ONE TIME); I have no glue, so that’s next.

Any recs? One of the gals from one of my magazine gigs swears by DUO…?

This will take me ages to get around to do, just saying.

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HOTD: 20th January, 2024

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Hair Of The Day: just took a notion.

Mainly because I took delivery of my new Revlon Salon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumiser on Friday. My brother and sister-in-law gifted me one last Christmas and to say I am obsessed does not do it justice.

Obsessed = buying one for euro use as the gift is US-plug oriented and won’t work here. Or not for long: I bought a hot flat brush thingie ages ago, can’t even recall the brand, and used an adaptor, and blew it out in a month or so.

Obsessed = speaking of, I got the Revlon version of an air-drying flat brush and was not wowed. So I waited until the finances settled post-holidays and got one of the proper, full brush oval deals. LOVE.

Image of my hair, having used the products that will be listed below
Yikes, that’s long. Ends need tidying.

Here’s hoping you’re all viewing this on mobile/cell because I spent a ridic amount of time on the above image and it is t i n y. Ugh.

1} If you take nothing from this post, take Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub. Scalp health! It is important! Imagine not exfoliating your face! That is a teeny tiny 75ml pot of scrubby excellence, and using it once a month, it lasts… at least eight? A scoop on two fingers is plenty. Apply before shampooing. So good.

2} Bumble & Bumble Illuminated Color Shampoo and its matching 1-Minute Vibrancy Treatment: I used the latter ‘cos I ran out of the conditioner, which I will say I found that touch too thick. I prefer these two working in combination. Not for going out-out hair, perfectly respectable any-old-day shampoo + treatment.

3} Smooth Me Now Thermal Spray from Eleven: really, really good, works even better with a fancier shampoo + conditioner. This is my gateway into the brand, with which I am not familiar; will likely investigate further, watch this space.

I alwaysssssss use something before I dry, and recommend you do too. I have a top five I might do on that score.

4} QUEEN. Okay if you take a second thing from this post, take this. I will say it works better if you let your hair air dry a lil bit before using this, but it is so effective it’s worth an extra five minutes or so of brushing this glorious hot air conveying device through your locks. And with the amount of feckin’ acreage I have to dry (really time for a trim), if your hair is shorter, you will defo go faster. LOVE THIS THING, SO GREAT.

ALSO! When I opened the box and a packaged Allen wrench/Philips head screwdriver fell into my lap I was like: why. Well. You can unscrew the back of the plug and upon removal, the UK prongs reveal Euro prongs, so lets go to France and have perfect hair!

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Blogging: Back?

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APPARENTLY! With Txitter’s recent descent into the deepest depths of toxicity, and Insta’s desire to not only target us with ads rather than the posts of our followers, but also to chase that TikTok vibe, social media is going through some changes.

Serious ones, serious enough that the general consensus seems to be: time to get back to blogging.

There are a couple of things going on here that are worth flagging. The first is that the internet is not forever. The Wayback Machine makes a liar of me, but I’m not referring to storage, I’m referring to that ineffable thing that make a site A Thing.

Remember I Can Haz Cheeseburger? Cute Overload? Gawker? The Hairpin? Not a one remains, or in existence in its founding form. Tastes change, ads fail to raise enough revenue to keep things running, those behind the scenes burn out.

The rise of the socials surely something to do with the demise of the above and others like them. The commentariat was the place to see and be seen, but that space soon became a thing of the past. Yes, sure, YouTube, but everyone knows that section is a dangerous neighbourhood.

The transition of Txitter from the world’s living room to blue-check disaster epitomises the reality of things changing. We can’t count on this stuff being free, and if we have to pay, we may as well do it from our on little corner of the ether.

So here we go again, I guess! I’m no longer a freelance beauty journalist, and my only free stuff is the leavings of colleagues on certain magazines. This may in fact free me up to be even more honest than I have ever been. I’ve got some posts in drafts that never saw the light of day, and will be sure to fill you in on my latest books under my pen name, Susanna Allen*.

Here I am enjoying a sheet mask. It’s Garnier, which I consider the best on the high street; I’m not convinced that any actual skincare is conveyed by this delivery device, but it makes makes me sit still for 15 minutes which is saying something.

Back on my shizz

I highly recommend Seoulista Rosy Glow Primer sachet: it gives seriously good undercoat for the rest of your makeup. Prices seem to be ranging from €5.95 to €8, which is very broad; I’d go looking for a three pack if I was you…

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*Readers may like to visit susannaallenwriter.com

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