{Now that song is going to be in my head…}
Just a word to say THANKS to all the bloggers who are following this blog. I will follow you, as soon as I get an admin.
Ahhhhhahahahahaha!
No, seriously, need to set some time aside on the weekend to move through blog-o-verse. Be reading you soon!
Emma Hardie is UK-based facialist and and skincare specialist, and those of us who haven’t got the dosh to fly over and get a session from the woman herself {and one of those would be me} can dig into this: her Amazing Face Professional Cleansing System is a fantastic treatment-in-a-box, and even though it comes across as complicated, it really isn’t. Continue reading
I am here. At my desk. In Dublin.
I think. Continue reading
Greasy roots, dry ends.
Shampooing every day sucks.
What’s the solution????
Common sense would answer: dry shampoo.
I’ve only tried three, and I don’t know, I think I don’t know how to do it right. Continue reading
High maintenance, me:
On hols*, but missing my STUFF.
Would love a good scrub.**
Oh, the perspective one gains when life throws out a challenge. I admit that I am spoiled, and even as hard as this beauty reviewing can be {yes, it can be}, I enjoy it thoroughly, but I also take things for granted, and have high expectations. And I also can get kind of… bitchy about things. Continue reading
Many tiny scents!
An option for every sitch.
Staying power: low.
Okay, let me just get this out of the way: I am too susceptible to packaging design, and must express my deep loathing for the display font that Lush use. Oh, how I hate that class of scripty-brushy font!
But oh! how I love Gorilla Perfume Miniatures – EXCLUSIVES, a cleverly designed little box ‘o’ fragrance. The brown cardboard is sturdy and I wouldn’t hesitate tossing it into my handbag. Which I would have to do because the scents don’t really last all that long. This is a bother, but not a ginormous botheration, because you can bring it along because the box is so sturdy you can just toss it into your bag… see how that works? It is a little bit of genius.
Each of the eight scents have a genius touch as well. I don’t like all of them, which is normal, but the ones that I do like, I like unconditionally and unreservedly.
These are:
*1000 Kisses, which is sounds sweet because the name is sweet, but it actually has weight.
*B Scent, which goes perfectly with that sexy, sexy Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner I love.
*Cocktail, which: need I say more? Also: ylang ylang which = sexy.
*The Smell of Weather Turning, which OMG, smells exactly like a rain-washed forest. I adore this.
So, 50% ‘like’ for me, that’s pretty good. And it’s really not that big a drag to carry them around and to keep applying one’s scent of choice — something about dabbing on fragrance is unutterably sexy.
Lots of sexy in this post — Lush are on to something!
€24/£19.95/$24.95
When reviewing things
It helps to read directions.
Call me crazy, right?
I love French stuff: the food, the wine, the lifestyle, the whole santé thing that they do. I’d never heard of the Avène line before, but have had the chance to try several of their products. I particularly got a kick out of the Thermal Spring Water, but haven’t really made it a big part of my regime. I was spritzing myself with the pressurised spray because I was bored last year during the snowpocalypse. It helped break up the day, and I suspect my skin, housebound as I was, enjoyed the refreshing sensation.
We don’t suffer from a lack of moist air in Ireland, so it doesn’t seem necessary to carry around a container of hydrotherapy in my handbag. Neither is the sun much of an issue, but SPF enthusiasts will insist that any sun is sun that is going to age us and give us skin cancer, so when the Eau Thermale Avéne Tinted Compact 50 SPF came through the letterbox, I thought, ‘Better safe than sorry.’
Of course, I didn’t bother reading exactly what it was so when I tried to use it as pressed powder, uh yeah, it didn’t work. Because it is foundation. Unaware, I swiped it over a face that was already sporting foundation. Crazy! I put it aside and forgot about it, scarred momentarily by my misuse of it.
Then one day I was running late, and I wanted to cut out the middle woman, meaning the time-consuming dispensing of foundation and then application of it onto my face > yeah, wha’? This makes sense to me, okay? Remind me to tell you about the time I used to take a cab four blocks to work — And so! So I picked this up, and using the pad that cunningly rests in the hinge between the top of the compact and the flip-up mirror, had a flawless face in three-ish swipes of product. I’ve never actually counted. I’m trying to reconstruct in my mind’s eye… okay… more like four-ish.
I brought this with my on my hols because it’s compact and effective and easy. It looks amazing, and it lasts and lasts. It’s also got a laundry list of excellent qualities — protection against UV radiation, free radicals, and sweat, as well as offering irritation reduction — but frankly the most important thing to me, at the end of the day, is that I don’t want to have to be touching up excessively throughout said day. This is a matte finish that combines the best effects of foundation and powder, and I am quite sad that I am near to using it up.
€20/£15/$35
Okay, basically, this is a powder made out of beauty. Continue reading
This tube of goodness
Is better travelled than most,
But should be retired.
I was getting a Dermalogica facial once, and a lovely lady at Papillon in Ranelagh said that whenever she travelled transatlantically, she used the Multivitamin Power Recovery Mask as a skin hydrator. Just apply upon take off, and then take it off upon arrival. The lightness and transparency of the mask meant that you would maybe look a little shiny, but you wouldn’t like you would be capable of scaring small nephews.
That sounded like a good idea to me: I didn’t really find it very effective as a mask, but thought that using in this fashion might be beneficial. The main thing I didn’t like about it was its quick absorption; I like that in a serum, but not in a mask. I figured that slathering this on, especially on the journey back to Ireland from NYC, would shield my skin from the worst effects of floating around in recycled air for hours.
This plan mostly worked when we didn’t have to display our cosmetics for the delectation of airport employees. Even when we began to take part in the product parade, the 75mls made it as regards the restrictions, but it took up too much space in my plastic baggy. Especially when they got strict about the size of the baggy, and I couldn’t use my go-to quart-sized Ziploc freezer bag.
Despite not having it to hand, I still packed it on every single trip I have taken over the last many years, even though it l
anguished in the hold. This doesn’t make a ton of sense, but once I had decided it had a use as a travel companion, it was going to go with me everywhere.
I wish I could sign it up for frequent flier miles, we could probably go round the world for free by now.
It’s been to Paris countless times. It came on honeymoon; it came with me to residential school at Bath University when I was studying psychology with the OU, mid-divorce; it is here with me now, and I’ve actually been using it as it is intended to be used since I did such a poor job packing adequate skin care.
I am still not entirely sold on it as a mask. As I have said, I prefer my masks to actually be mask-y, but if your skin is super sensitive, then this might be worth a go. Oh, and here’s the fancy-pants new packaging. Gosh, it is awfully modern-looking and sleek, isn’t it? I can’t see tossing my auld soldier, even if he is past his sell-by date. He’s still got some go in him yet.
€39/£33/$46
I had been worrying about my hair. You can tell, can’t you, that I am a person who worries about her hair? I felt like it was thinning and that was making me nervous, and I was going to begin researching hair enhancement formulas, or whatever —
And then I came to the States for the holidays, and realized that it’s a water thing. And no, I don’t really understand. Continue reading
Bright & Beautyfull! 