Author: brightandbeautyfull

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 →

Eyebrow Dye: Should I?

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I’m little afraid.

The thing I love best about all the things there is to love about HD Brows is the part with the dye.

It is almost gone — I got a pretty impressive run, almost a month! — and they look okay with enhancements, but not 100% fantabulous.

So I got this… Such detailed directions! So complicated! Or it seems so for someone {me} who is never bothered to follow directions a’tall.

I am so going to follow these, because doin’ this wrong would have terrible consequences.

Should I?

Is It Okay Yet? Can I Say the ‘C’ Word?

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Not that I want to, really, but I’ve realised that I have always lived in the future as far as The ‘C’ Word is concerned. In high school, we’d start singing ‘C’ Word carols in September, and in my professional life, when I worked on monthly magazines, we were always two months in advance of everything. And ‘C’ WordTime is always features largely.

The daily — nay, instantaneous — nature of blogging has presented a serious challenge in the living-in-the-moment department, something I’ve never been good at it, something I hope I am getting better at, and despite this act of boldness, I’ve restrained myself.

All bets are off tomorrow! Get ready for a ‘C’ word bonanza!

This whole deal drives me crazy on another level, because it brings more stuff to my attention, and I really don’t need more stuff. Especially stuff that is so cunningly and prettily presented. *Sigh*

These posts may double as letters to Santy.

OMG The Darkkkkkkkkkness. Go Have a Bath.

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I never post on Bank Holiday Mondays, and I never post past 5pm, in order to respect some class of business hours which I expect the internet has already rendered artificial/obsolete, but lads: it feels like a million o’clock, and this day, despite being so short, feels like it has been gonig on forever, and even though episodes of the superlative Forbrydelsen are whispering at me, through the ether, I have to say the following.

When it is newly dark out because of the shaggin’ clocks, and it feels like a million o’clock, and you just don’t know what to do, go have a bath with Dermalogica Hydro-active Mineral Salts {€30.20}.

Is bliss.

They put it best, themselves:

The advanced complex of mineral-rich Sea Salts, natural Kelp, aromatic essential oils, spices and skin-smoothing enzymes gently exfoliates the entire body, leaving it ultra-smooth. Soothing essential oils of Sandalwood, Lavender, Orange and Clary Sage, balanced with purifying oils of Lemon, and Tea Tree, help deliver soft, silky, revitalized skin. The warming and fragrant spices of Coriander, Cinnamon and Ginger relax the body and uplift the senses for a soothing, stress-reducing muscle soak.

Plus! You can scrub it all over yourself like a… like a scrub. You know what I mean! An exfoliation/spa-type thing! Here’s a Pro Tip™: Stand in the tub and dampen yourself, and then commence scrubbing. Even then, the stuff will get all over the place, but at least in this case, that place will be the water.

You do not want to waste a single grain of it.

It smells better dissolved in the water; on the bod, there’s a bit of an odd pong. Even still, it is gorgeous, relaxing, soothing, and cleansing.

If only my water heater wasn’t so crap! I’ve almost got it figured out, the perfect ratio of cold-to-hot water, one that gets the best use out of the measly amount of hot on tap {LOL}. I may shake some of this into a baggie and bring back to Amerikay for The Christmas: land of the free and the home of an endless supply of hot water. Wow, now I’ve got even more to look forward to!

Seriously, get this, turn on the water, take a bath. It will make these dark hours melt away.

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kudosbeauty.ie do a great line in Dermalogica products.

The Hair Meets Elnett Styling Spray; Happiness Ensues

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Three new products from Elnett are available for your follicular pleasure: Heat Protect Styling Sprays for three-day Volume, Curl or Straight coiffures.

I went for Volume on the roots and Curl on the ends:

L’Oréal Paris spokewoman/model/boldface name Cheryl Cole and I are like *that*.

This very impressive blow dry was done by Sinead from Foundation Hair Salon. No tongs were used in the creation of this hairdo. The sprays protect the hair from heating tools up to 230°, so no more fried tresses of a Saturday night.

This morning, with very little intervention. Combed out and spritzed the Volume on the roots!

Due to the fineness of my hair, I am not entirely convinced that I’ll get another day out of this, but we shall see.

Pictures of the very fancy spray bottles can be found here, as well as more pretty pictures of my pal Cheryl. Price point is in the area of €8, and I asked how many hairdos you might expect to get in a bottle, and I’ve forgotten the answer. Four months worth, I think? I bet that’s reasonable. {Updates to come on all that — couldn’t wait to post!}

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Elnett Heat Protecting Styling Sprays are available everywhere, basically.

Oh! And the lippy in the last photo is one of the new Clinique Chubbies in Mightiest Maraschino. It is a lightweight in texture only — I already adore it.

Confident Liquid Lipstick from LUSH: How’d it Do?

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In contrast to the other Lush Liquid Lipsticks I have reviewed, this onewas not as drying. Behold: Confident

It was rather more… liquidy, which made it a little more difficult to apply. It was like a weak gloss with super high pigment. Kind of weird, but in the end, it looked well.

I must say that whilst I felt confident in its form, I wasn’t quite as to its function. This is a going-out-to-meetings-in-which-I-will-decline-the-cup-of-tea lipstick. The sort I’ll wear when I’m moving around town and not alighting in one place for long.

This is hummingbird lippy.*

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Lush Liquid Lipstick is part of the Emotional Brilliance line. Go to lush.co.uk and play the cool interactive game!

*Er. Wha’????