Author: MANY BRAVE FOOLS

No Way This Is Enough: Product In America

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I just came across this list, which I made in an iNote, which really ought to be on my frickin’ iPhone, but that app routinely decides, off its own bat, to migrate information to a folder in my email account, which I did not even set up? Evidence that The Machines are slowly but surely starting to think for themselves.

This is a list of things that I left at my mum’s, in an effort to pack less the next time I visited:
>Hairbrush
>Some cotton pads (CVS)
>Cleanance lotion
>Lush dry shampoo
>Cocoa butter gel
>Smashbox photo finish primer
>Kerastase Sensidote Dermo Calm
>Vichy foundation
>Cien deodorant
>Avène Eluage cream and eye cream
>Clinique sparkle skin (small)
>Awapuhi hair gel
>Hair elastics
>Black eyeliner
>Benefit Girl meets pearl (not much)
>Benefit Erase paste
>Candle
>Gel tabs
>Eye pencil sharpener

What is this even? I can’t — really? Gel tabs… of what, exactly? Unicorn tears? Did I leave an entire bottle of Cleanance lotion behind? Could I be any less specific re: Kerastase Sensidote Dermo Calm? Whew: don’t have to pack an eyepencil sharpener!

I had thought to take photos but they seem to have disappeared as well.

Understand that I am at that stage in the packing process in which the bag feels heavy, so I take out a pair of tights and lace top. Because that’s the tipping point right there. I hatttttte this part. And I am sure that the bag is too heavy to pass, but it always passes, and if worse comes to worse, then I’ll take the long coat out of the bag, which in fairness I should probably be wearing but I hate rattling around the airport in excessive outerwear…

Gah.

I’ll post a photos of all of the above, and all of the stuff I am bringing in spite of all of the above, and we’ll all have a good laugh/sigh.

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Tried & Tested @ The Herald: Facial Exfoliants

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I can’t ever get enough of a good scrub — let’s go back in time and see what I thought about six of them, shall we?

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One of the entrants is Neostrata, which is very close to my hometown, as shared here!

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Crikey, looka dem tagz…

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I Used It All Up: Lush Lip Service

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The reformulated versions of Lush‘s lip balms came out in March. I started using this, before bed, every night, since… let’s say 1 April.

LUSH LIP SERVICE

Eight months? That’s pretty good! If you only apply it once*, though. Still: even if you used it twice a day, four months out of this wee 8g, 100% recyclable tin — that’s pretty impressive.

I’m also impressed by the brand’s constant revisitation of formulae, as I’ve said before. The last version I used of this was really hard to coax out of the tin — the scraping required! The initial scratchy moments of application until the balm warmed! Not nice. This is much softer, more aerated, and it stayed completely fresh over those eight months, too.

Next up: Honey Trap…

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€7.20/£5.75/$7.25

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*Who applies lip balm only once a day?!?!

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Bee Nice to Your Bod: The Body Shop’s Honeymania Line

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My favourite term of endearment is ‘honey’. I don’t know why, it just is! And it’s not something I ever gave much thought to, until I was lucky enough to avail of allll the bits of the Honeymania line, that The Body Shop have recently laid on.

Made from Fair Trade honey sourced in the Ethiopian rainforest, this honey has a social conscience, and also exhibits the benefits of the natural moisturiser, without being sticky and unwieldy. Here are the products, in descending order of love.

Honeymania Body Butter
Many have raved about the brand’s body butters, but this is the Body Butter {€18.95} that has convinced me. It has just the correct amount of honey fragrance, so you smell inviting, much like the original blossom to the original bee, but you won’t be walking around making people wonder if they’d not like a nice cup of herbal tea. Fantastic coverage and day-long softness — this claims to impart 24hr hydration, and it’s one of the few that I’ve tried and tested that comes close!

Homeymania Bubble Bath Melt
This should have probs come before the Butter, in the interest of fragrance layering, but the Bubble Bath Melt {€13.95} isn’t something I’d avail of every day. Just writing about it now, when there is manky raining pouring down, makes me want to fire up the immersion and run myself a tub. This is as near a dammit to the texture of edible honey; it froths up fantastically under running water, and the bubbles last for ages. Heart this deeply.

Honeymania Beeswax soap The Soap {€3.95} is great for the fragrance layer-ers amongst us, and this too bubbles up nicely on your exfoliating mitts or your shower puff. Again, not so overwhelmingly honey-scented — just the correct amount. It has the added bonus of being glycerin-like, so when it dries, it doesn’t leave much residue, which doesn’t leave one with a sense of waste and mess. I have three soaps on the go at the moment, and I keep reaching for this one. I will use this until it is the very sliver of its former self.

Honeymania Lip Butter
We all now about my issues with baume pour les levres, so no one is more surprised than I that I am not completely mad about this Lip Balm {€7.50}. It is good, once applied, but I am having an issue with the texture — slightly gritty — and the scent — it is a bit much in this incarnation. Once it gets where it is meant to go, it feels soft and lovely, and will probably pay dividends under the mistletoe this holiday season. Is your Honey a sweet-aholic? They will be very happy. {The restraint I have exhibited just there!}

Honeymania Scrub
My least fave: I found the Body Scrub {€18.95} to lack enough scrubby bits in it, and its texture was far too slippery, under circumstances that were slippery enough already. If your skin is so, so sensitive to a common-or-garden scrub, I think you may find this to be gentle enough.

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See thebodyshop.co.uk or thebodyshop-usa.com for prices in £ and $.

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Sneaky Peeky: T3 SinglePass Straightening & Styling Iron

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Okay, here’s me, with what I considered to be straight hair.PRE-T3 Try to ignore the half-asleep vibe — which is ridic, as it was like 11.20 when I snapped that on the 46A — but that’s hair I’d straightened, or as an American, I always want to say ‘ironed’.

In fairness, there were a couple of things I didn’t do:
1} I didn’t spray it with any shine-inducing, frizz-flattening product.
2} I didn’t go, like, lock by lock with the straightener. I did my usual four clumps of hair, and dragged the device down each clump several times.

Still, on a normal day, I do get asked, ‘Did you get a blow dry?’ and I smugly say, ‘Oh, no, I did this myself.’

Well, I didn’t do the following myself, but I absolutely could, with the new T3 SinglePass Straightening and Styling Iron. About to roll out in Brown Thomas, Dublin, the American brand has found a UK distributor, and is ready to hit our shores, along with a fancy hair dryer and styling wand.

T3 — Arnold Schwarznegger is in no way implicated in these tools — incorporates Tourmaline and Ionic Ceramic technology, which results in an improved sealing of the hair cuticle as imparted by the heat. Every single dryer and iron are made from parts that made from actual tourmaline, so every element of each tool is imbued with the essence of the semi-precious stone.

And when it comes to your fully-precious locks, you want the heat you use to be effective, on contact. I don’t like to feel like I’m burning my hair, you know? That’s where the SinglePass aspect comes in. I availed of the offer of the stylist giving my hair a going over and I… I don’t know that there’s any going back. Every single tress was swiped through the straightener, and then it was done. That was it. And look!

T3 IMMEDIATELY 2
T3 IMMEDIATELY 1
It took, like, ten years offa me!

Two hours later, I’m on my way home.
T3 two hours later 2
T3 two hours later 1

More words to follow — I think I really want to give the hair dryer a go, it’s meant to dry hair even as long as mine in around seven minutes — but the proof is in the pictures…

Brace yourself, bridies: it’s €157.50. I think the words that will follow will be a forensic breakdown of why this is excellent value…

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Seriously, between the flat hair and the pixellation, maybe even as many as fifteen years offa me.

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Déjà Vu All Over Again: Giorgio Armani Flash Lacquer

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Here I was, posting away, when it occurred to me that I’d already written about the blandly desginated, but oh-so-shiiiiiiiny 250.

*Searches own blog*

Dammit. Well, the prices &tc are here, but better photographic representation of the shiiiiine are below.
ARMANI GLOSS deja vu

ARMANI GLOSS redux

If anything deserved to be double-posted, it’s this.

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€25.50/£23.50/$29

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Hair of the Yesterday, Today: BaByLiss Big Hair meets L’Oréal Techni Art Fresh Dust

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Actually, this is Wednesday night/slept-on-it hair, so it’s Hair of the Yesterday + even more hours.

photo

I don’t look convinced, but I really am.

So, what did I do? I used Mane ‘n Tail Shampoo and Conditioner, because I knew I was going to be sleeping on The Hair, and wanted the kind of fullness that this duo impart. When I dried it on the night, I HOTY l'orealspritzed in some of the new John Frieda Luxurious Volume Blow Dry Lotion Root Booster on, unsurprisingly, the roots, and the Ojon rare blend oil: Total Hair Therapy on the ends. Now, I gotta say, a little bit of that goes along way. Axiomatic, I know, but so true. In fact, a little too much is way too much. Loving the shine, but not liking the feeling of limpness that I get when I use too much oil.

Okay! Dried it that magical 80%, BaByLissed it, twisted it up in a knot, went to sleep.

Awoke, and immediately hit the roots and the lengths with L’Oréal’s dry shampoo, Tecni Art Fresh Dust, then fired up the Big Hair and gave it all a twirl. Was very pleased, but was too busy to take a selfie, and so was not pleased. I had promised!

Imagine my surprise when I awoke this a.m. I thought, Nah, there’s no point in trying to revive this — or is there? I mean, I had twisted The Hair into a knot the night before — but I had had a full day in a office, and office-air is just so deadening for the tresses — but sure, why not, let’s see…

And so, I am pleased once more. For the sake of argument:
HOT DAYS

HOW MANY DAYS CAN I GET OUT OF THIS ROUND OF HAIR CARE?!?!

As well: time to maybe test Color Wow Root Cover Up…

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John Frieda® Blow Dry Lotion Root Booster, €6.31
L’Oréal Techni Art Fresh Dust, €11.85

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Tautology and Beauty: Oro Gold

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I was in a great mood yesterday: loved my outfit, had me nails did at a fab Garnier launch in conjunction with Volunteer Ireland, saw many of the beauty pals there, went and started a facial de-fuzz-ifying process at Akina in Temple Bar, and with the sun out and all, decided to go for a browse in Brown Thomas — why it makes sense to go for a spin through a shop when it is glorious out-of-doors, I don’t know. I still have the token I won at a recent La Roche-Posay event, and I wanted to do some research. All in all, an unmitagatedly bold-facey kind of day.

As I was cruising down Wicklow Street, I noticed a new beauty shop, one by the name of Oro Gold. Hmmm, looked very much like the way I was feeling: shiny and new and interesting. As I was debating having a look, a dude surged out of the shop, waving little sachets of this:
ORO GOLDSo I took, it obvs. Sure, why not? I love a good sample, in a manner of speaking.

Made the mistake, though, when the dude asked me if I had a moment. Well, I have many moments, but moments like these, not so much. Some crazy, evolutionary, socially hard-wired thing made me stop, just long enough to allow him  surge right up to the outside edge of my personal space, and ask what sort of skincare I used?

Between thinking What’s this dude gonna know about skincare* and the sheer impossibility of my being able to answer that question, I put up my hand, said ‘Sorry!’ and turned away. Also, the thought Oro Gold is a fairly redundant name snuck in, and I’m sure that millisecond of grammatical irritation made my feet move.

I woke up this morning quite curious about a brand that used gold in its products.

There is little to no information on the Irish website, as regards where they come from. I went agooglin’, as you would, and turned up this rather cautionary tale on Beauty Snob, dated 2011. The brand seems to be based in America, and is mad expensive, which, yeah: gold as a primary ingredient.

Reviews are mixed: folks who dislike a hard sell and make the choice to enter have found that it is an unrelenting experience. Folks that love the product love it. Which is par for the course, really, but holy moly, the price list is faint-worthy.

I’ll give this wee sachet a go, for the craic…

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*Since I am planning a Dude Week here at brightandbeautyfull, that is rather a sexist remark!

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Sweet Sixteen Minus Six: Yes to Carrots Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask

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Number 8 is a classic for all the right reasons: it is a mud that gets your face just the correct degree of squinchy, and yet it doesn’t get all cake-y and gross. Sadly Princess Marcella Borghese did not take the hint re: her Fango, so whateverrrrr, Your Highness!

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I can be a real snob when it comes to product. Growing up, I read too many magazines, and started to get a bit sniffy about cheapy cosmetics at an early age.

I couldn’t afford to be as posh as I wanted, but it didn’t stop me from dropping some serious dough whilst in art college: I had found a special something at a fancy Manhattan shop, on the Upper East Side {which is saying something, since I went to Pratt in Brooklyn} and — holy cow! early onset is pre-empted as I just remembered the name of it. I was struggling to remember what it was called and I couldn’t bring it up for the life of me until I started writing. The special something was a mud mask by Princess Marchella Borghese, who is still around. I would welcome any samples of her Fango: Active Mud for Face & Body for a future review, just to see if it is still as good as I remember it to be. The container was similar to what it is now, a luxuriously heavy glass jar; the mud was scented to just the correct degree, and it was my first experience of true self-care indulgence.

Whoops, down the rabbit hole! The point of the above was that having been exposed to a serious mud mask, anything else wouldn’t do. I like to keep an open mind, and have found several non-muddy masks to be effective, but to me, there is nothing like having my face squinched. I am sure there are anti-ageing arguments against this experience, but feck ‘em. I love a good squinch {TWSS} and in these modern times, I have found something that satisfies this need entirely.

yes-to-carrots-c-the-difference-exfoliating-and-soothing-mud-maskThe Yes To line has branched out to include Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Blueberries, but to me, Carrots will always be the cornerstone of the brand. These all-natural, crap-free products care for every part of you, and in general, they work as well as crap-laden products — and come on, let’s be honest, in general, most natural products simply don’t work. The cleansers don’t cleanse, the moisturisers don’t moisturise, or else they require so much more product to effect change that it’s not cost effective.

Or maybe our standards have become too laden with crap, and they work just fine, and we have only to adjust our expectations.

Expectations need not be adjusted when it comes to YTC’s C the Difference: Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask. It’s made from Dead Sea mud, and it’s rich and thick, yet applies smoothly — it’s not like you’ll be trowelling this on. Fragrance-wise, it is pleasant without being too perfume-y, and in this regard is one up on the Borghese, as far as memory serves < and it serves pretty darn well, considering. I tend to leave it on for way longer than the 5 minutes prescribed, but that’s me, the squinch-lovin’ beauty blogger, so take that with a pinch of Dead Sea salt.

Ooh, I’d love a dose of this right about now: I’ve just woken up and my face feels like it’s flaking off. The post-mask Carrots skin feels shiny and clean and new, and I’d love that right now. I’d also love to run around the house scaring my nephews with my crazy mud face. Ah, well, there’s always next time.

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€12.99/£12.35/$17

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That Magic Mischief ‘n’ Me in Exclusive Magazine!

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Screen shot 2013-03-12 at 12.51.21

I’m not entirely sure this link is going to work — hang on — hey, mostly! The page on the left can be found in the digital version of Exclusive, the very fancy magazine available in posh shops all across Dublin and also via the ether. We’re on page 38. Thanks to editor Brenda McCormick for asking me to contribute.

The picture in the article is via Johannes Kroemer {johanneskroemer.com}, and I am still so, so happy with. I love that it makes me look like I have bone structure! The magic of lighting! I’ve got some new ones via Mike Blackett {mikeblackett.com} and @SmashboxUK that will find their way onto the site — those are good ones too, and now: with more blonde!

I’m home due to a family emergency, and am not sure of the netiquette, to be honest. I am so not into the TMI — well, I mean, obvs as far as like, The Hair is concerns, I’ve got no boundaries… but I know that my dad, who is in hospice, would be entirely cross with me if I didn’t see to my responsibilities, and such like.

So I’ll figure it out as I go along.

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