OMChristmas 2013: Gift Sets That Are Fab {And Mainly Come in Tins}

…and are not lame, which I used to think gift sets were — back when dinosaurs walked the earth. As the human race has evolved, so has the ways in which brands present their ‘best of’ in attractive packages for the festive season.

^^^That’s all code for: this is a simple and easy way to gift, but you wont look scabby because all of this stuff is nice.

DrHauschka Daily Face Care Kit
DR HAUSCHKA Skin Care Essentials {€27.95} is terrific way in which to introduce your natural-cosmetic-loving loved one to the brand. I am a sucker for a tin or a box, and oh! the uses this container would get put to!

LRP
I love LA ROCHE-POSAY‘s Lipikar line, having had great enjoyment out of their shower oil. If you buy two or more LRP products from your local chemists, you’ll receive this gift box plus 100mls Lipikar Cleansing Oil. I can’t imagine a better value gift, and if you’re needing to spread the love a little, you can surely give the two products away in your office Secret Santy, and the gift box to a loved one. In any event, you will get so much love in return, as this is truly an excellent brand.

PAYOT design lift regard
I’ve not had much opportunity try PAYOT; their Design Lift Regard Coffret {€85} comes in a pretty little zippered case, and contains a healthy sample of Design Lift Visage face cream and sample sizes of eye cream, masque, Elixir Jeunesse, and Design Lift Visage, which is a skin-tightening serum. The sizes are perfect for travel, and like all high quality brands, you’ll get good mileage out of the the samples — less is more.

BENEFIT groovy kinda love
OMG, here’s another tin just waiting to be used to hold things! A Groovy Kind-a Love {€39.50} is full of fabulousness, including the now-iconic Porefessional and They’re Real mascara. BENEFIT have done it again in the gift-set department. And again:
BestOfBenefit
Best of Benefit {€29.50} is truly the best of the brand, and if your loved one is a heathen and not enamoured of tins, then this box will do nicely. The sample sizes are eminently portable, and will go a long, long way. You’ll get particularly excellent mileage out of the Boi-ing and the BeneTint. I mean, your giftee will. Yeah, the person for whom you bought this. Right.

Marine algae Gift Set €12.99
ZIAJA Marine Algae Spa Gift Set {€12.99} is a terrific introduction to the value brand. There are seemingly limitless lines, from grapeseed to shea butter, but I am a fan of this one, myself. Throw in a bottle of the Enzyme Peeling Treatment {€4.99} and for less than €20, you’ve given someone pampering treat.

BODY SHOP butter snowman
I consider THE BODY SHOP to have been one of the first to conceive of this form of gifting, and in having been in the vanguard, I find it can be easy to forget about them. Well, if you go for a browse in your local shop, you’ll be amazed that anyone could: the level of design and presentation continues to improve every year, as does the quality of the product. I literally went ‘Ooh!’ when I opened the Shea Scrub & Soften Gift Set {€29.95}. A 100ml body butter is paired with 50mls of scrub. This tin has festive potential for years to come…

SANCTUARY SPA @ BOOTS
Oh, Boots, how are we supposed to keep up! There are so many bargains to be had, I almost didn’t know how to choose amongst them, but I do love the SANCTUARY SPA brand. Here is their Top to Toe Glow Pamper Tin Gift Set {a tin, how surprising!}, and it is stuffed full of self-care goodness. Oh, I gotta list ’em all: 250mls of Body Wash and Body Lotion; Spa Skin Body Polisher; Radiance Exfoliator {100ml}; Fresh Faced Purifying Wash {140ml}; Spa Facial Headband; Pumice Foot Scrub {50ml}; Moisture Rich Foot Butter {50ml}; Spa Pedicure Foot File. Whew! It’s £19, and with the best will in the world, I tried to get the € price. I’ll convert, but don’t quote me on this: €22. Sure, with all the 3 for 2 deals that are going at the moment, whatever the upward difference may be is easily made up at the till.

R&G FIGROGER & GALLET 100ml Fragrance Coffrets {€39.75} in which you get matching 50mls of Shower Gel and Body Lotion. Choose from one of their four most popular scents: Bois d’Orange, Fleur d’Osmanthus; Fleur de Figieur or Rose Imaginaire. Sadly, not contained in a tin, but that box is super pretty — no wrapping required! Your new year of fragrance layering starts here.

MICRO Pedi gift set and components
Give a beloved foot enthusiast the gift that keeps on giving. At a special introductory price of €49.95, you cannot beat EMJOI‘s MicroPedi Gift Set. Look at all that! And look how cute the little heart is on the cover of the box, it’s like two little feet… As someone who is grossed out by feet, even I am adoring this.

Go forth and shop!

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Tried & Tested @ The Herald: Foundation

This week, I worked with several different brand’s foundations. How’d they do? Here’s the link!

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HELLO! WOW!Speaking of which, I recently revisited BeneFit’s Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Brightening Foundation. I hadn’t liked it a’atall when I first tried it, but now? I love it loads! Will get back to ye with a proper review, but I mention it as a case, which happens occasionally, in which I revisited a product and liked it better. Pro Tip™: using a foundation brush really, truly does make a dif. A true life case of ‘do what I say, not what I do,’ unfortch — I even remember the brand’s lead make up artist, LIsa Eldridge, showing us at the launch that using a brush is best. Tcha! Have I finally learned my lesson?!? Stay tuned…

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NeoStrata Nail Conditioning Solution: Exit 9, Represent!

A very Jesse Pinkmanesque expostulation greeted a recent discovery.

So here I was, at the computer, doing my usual multi-tasking, much of which actually involves procrastination, and I decided that once again my nails were not going to de-mankify themselves, so I reached for my sample of NeoStrata Nail Conditioning Solution.
NEOSTRATA NAIL CONDITIONING 1

Meant for nails and cuticles, it is advised to use this twice a day, on brittle and dry nails. Despite its location right there in front of me, I haven’t been using any of the nail products I’ve got on tap, and because I know myself, I reckoned that if I did two coats, it was the same as using it twice a day? Right?!?

And then for some reason — I think it involved trying to avoid doing something, like transcribing a taped interview — I did a third coat, and because the bottle was being turned from the dipping in and out {OMG this is never going to get interesting, I know it}, I caught sight of the mousetype on the back —
NEOSTRATA NAIL CONDITIONING 2
— and I went ‘PRINCETON, YEAH!’

Oh, man. Because I am from near there. And it was, like, unexpected and all that.

Soz. Carry on.

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NeoStrata Nail Conditioning Solution: €10.50/£19.99/$13.50. Hoping that this will help auld schplitty!

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OMChristmas 2013: Guaranteed Irish Gifting

GUARANTEED IRISH We are a small island, but we make a whole lotta stuff. It’s not all jam and rashers either — although! I can thoroughly vouch for the deliciousness of the brown bread that comes from Fitzpatrick’s Woodlands House Hotel in Adare, as I have scarfed that up myself during a stay there, reviewing Revas Spa for the Irish Tatler Spa awards earlier in the year. Must post about that here…

Anyway! I spotted a loaf during a recent presentation from Guaranteed Irish, a showcase of the very best that Ireland has to offer during the festive season. Everything looked gorgeous, and it was a revelation to see how well-represented the Irish touch is, in terms of self-care — and by self-care, I mean beauty products and candles. Candles are so important.

IRISH STILL LIFE 1I wanted allll the candles. Having been made familiar with the Cloon Keen brand, thanks to their presence in the Shelbourne Spa, I was happy to see them represented, and was also happy to meet a new brand, about which I will talk below.

I don’t even know what’s on this table, and I’d enlarge it but I was so overwhelmed, it’s a little bit shaky. Maybe not overwhelmed as such, just dead impressed at the lovely, lovely things arrayed before me.

Here’s more:
IRISH STILL LIFE

And here’s a small round up of things that I love, and think you — I mean, your loved ones! — will love, too.

IRISH BIA feed your skin
BIA BEAUTY Feed Your Skin set {€80} includes Mellow Mandarin Moisturiser; Orange & Grapefruit Exfoliant; Stop the Clock Eye Gel; Apple Blossom Body Butter; and Detox Body Scrub. All take their scents from essential oils, and the scrub in particular is terrific for treating cellulite. There’s more info at the Cork-based concern’s website on biabeauty.com.

GREEN ANGEL face cream set
O, seaweed! Is so awesome. GREEN ANGEL offer up their fab duo, Daily Moisture Face Cream & Night Cream {€39.99} I can personally gush about the day cream: it is so silky and absorbs perfectly, yet feels so rich. I love the little blast of aromatherapy too, as the Jasmine and Neroli are invigorating enough to give me a wakey-wakey boost in the morning, but not so much that I am bouncing off the walls. Go to greenangel.com to see the full line.

IRISH PIXY TEMPTING GIFT BOX €14.95
All of PIXY NATURAL SKINCARE’s Christmas offerings are priced under €20! I myself am tempted by their Tempting Gift Box {€14.95} which comes with a heart-shaped soap, two skin nourishing mini bath bombs, a creamy lip balm, and the Internet’s favourite Lime Body Scrubs, also heart-shaped, and a perfectly natural exfoliating treat. See pixy.ie for more well-put-together gift boxes.

LA BOUGIE
Ooh, LA BOUGIE! Also from Cork — what is going on down there, is it like the locus of creative beauty entrepreneurs or wha’? — the company present us with candles in an array of scent combinations that are spectacular. Pictured is my very own Sweet Pea & Pear 140g candle {€19.95}, and I gotta say, I am deeply attracted to the Ginger & Black Pepper and the Honeysuckle & Sea Salt. This bad girl will burn for 40 hours; there’s 220g versions that burns for 55! {€29.95} Go for the glow on labougie.com.

IRISH VOYA
VOYA is also a purveyor of Irish seaweed-infused products, and here’s three gift sets that pretty much are like their ‘best of’ collection of hits: the Organic Voyager Set {€40} features 75mls each of Squeaky Clean Body Wash, Softly Does It Body Moisturiser, Silky by Nature shampoo and Forget Me Knot conditioner; 1,2,3, Glow {€58} comes with a full-sized Ritzy Spritzy facial toner and Cleanse & Mend facial cleanser, and a mini 7ml jar of Me Time moisturiser; the Body Gift Set {€48} Softly Does It body moisturiser and Squeaky Clean body wash. Not pictured is the Hair Gift Set {€40} Silky by Nature shampoo and Forget Me Knot conditioner. The full complement of product is on voya.ie.

NAT'L PRINT MUSEUM FAIR
The Christmas Fair at the NATIONAL PRINT MUSEUM runs from 29, 30 November and 1 December; rock up on Friday between 16.00-20.00, and on Saturday and Sunday between 11.00-16.00. It’s free to enter, although your wallet ought to be lightened considerably once you clap your eyes on all the artistic, unique offerings. There are also make-your-own opportunities for all the family, although I’d say it’ll be a bit late to be hand-printing your Christmas cards, hmmm? See nationalprintmuseum.ie for directions and the like.

Also, for more creative goodness, check out TALBOT GALLERY & STUDIOS on Talbot Street, D1 and their Selection BOX exhibition. All the artworks are 12 inches x 12 inches and priced at €200, making for an affordable start/expansion of your collection. Find the list of artists here; I bought a picture a couple of years ago, and it’s really one of the nicest things you can do for yourself — loved ones! Loved ones! Everybody! Art is for everyone!

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Have You Ever Used Up a Lippy? Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter

I don’t think I ever have, even before I began to enjoy the beauty-journo perquisites.

I am close to using this all up! In the case of Revlon’s ColorBurst Lip Butter, it is not merely down to propinquity, but its rich, luxurious texture.
REVLON STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE 2

Propinquity because it is near to the computer I sit at when designing at TV Now Magazine two days a week. When the morning’s lip gloss/stick wears off, and I have maybe forgotten to put it in a pocket, or am too lazy to dig it out of my shoulder bag {SRSLY}, I have been reaching for this, and have been very happy.

In fact, there are days when I am like Where is my fabulous little lip butter? and remember it is not at home.

That texture is down to being loaded with mango, coconut and shea butter; a gel formula is mentioned in its description across t’Internet, but ‘lip gel’ isn’t as delicious-sounding as is butter. Whatevs: this has a balm-y feel that I love, and I reapply it the way I do a lip balm, even if the colour doesn’t need it.

Almost all gone!
REVLON STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE 1

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€11.20/£7.99/$4.79
^ O.M.G. Okay, I realise that currency conversion is a fluid, fluctuating thing, but the difference in price here is shocking and appalling. No wonder we all go crazy shopping in the States!

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OMChristmas 2013: Wow! Hatbox from LUSH

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! This happens every year: the press releases start rolling in, in September, and I get all, Oh, Christmas is miles away…; and then the launches start, and I think, Hmmm, time is flying!; and then the day comes when it is mid-November and I go Shite! There is like six weeks to go! Let the scrambling begin!

LUSH do a great line in beautifully designed and packaged Christmas gifts, and this has to be the most spectacular of them all, ever. It is crazzzzzy full of their signature holiday stuff, mainly in the bath ballistic/bubble bar line, as the freshly-made scrubs and cleansers wouldn’t make their sell-by dates.

LOOK:

WOW INDEED

In actual real life:

photo 1

That’s how big the box is. I had initially taken a photo of the box with a pencil lying on the floor, because… I don’t know why, because people used to use pencils for scale, much less writing? I can’t even believe I had a pencil in the house! Then it occurred that the pencil was ridic, and I used the Snowman instead.

I was so eager to paw through this that I didn’t take any photos of the interior, so will have to do this the old-fashioned way and use my words. There are three stacked trays with 32 individual compartments, in which resides each product, and the whole shootin’ match is full of styrofoam beans to keep everything from getting smashed. The assortment includes shower gels, bars of soap, bath melts, lip tint, lip scrub, and an array of the ballistics and bubble bars, and couple of body creams.

Since I’ve finally figured out how to run a decent bath in this place I am living — because the immersion is like the size of my kettle — I took several of the bits for a test-bathe. It was so hard to choose!

> I loved the look of So White and wanted very much to be in a tub full of whiteness, just like Cleopatra and her famous milk baths. It was, for about two minutes, and then the core was exposed, and turned the water a really dark red. I wasn’t mad about the scent, either.

< Hearted Father Christmas tonnes, even though I hated to see his merry smile fizz away. He’s a bit fruity, stuffed full as he is with mandarin oil and orange blossom absolute; don’t tell Mother Christmas…

> Wasn’t crazy about Cinders, and didn’t feel that the popping candy, which is embedded in it, worked all that well. But! My skin felt stupid silky afterwards.

> Adored unconditionally Lord of Misrule, which renders the water a deep, dark green, and the fumes rising off it are imbued with Fair Trade vanilla absolute and patchouli.

> Also very much loved the Christmas Eve Bubble Bar. I have not liked the bars much in the past, but this is where Lush really do stand out: they keep improving all their formulae, and I must say, this has really gotten better. Much better bubblage than before!

LE BOMBS

Fab Four: Father Christmas, Lord of Misrule, Christmas Eve Bubble Bar, Bombardino

> I am deeply swoony about the Snowcake Soap, which is evocative of marzipan, which I only like in small doses. Not so this! Big doses of this soap, please!

> I was also taken with the new Rose Jam Shower Gel, but not so much with Snow Fairy. The former has some lemon oil in it to give it a bit of bite; the latter is just too sweet for me.

> Also was hearted, big time: Bombardino. Based on an aprés-ski Italian bevvie, this is full of Sicilian lemony goodness, and made me want to drink the bath water, which is disgusting on so many levels.

Barely scratched the surface! There is so much clean in this big box, and so many different textures and ‘flavours’, it’s the perfect gift to not only club in on with, say, three other family members, but you can also get away with buying this for a bunch of nieces, and not look scabby. Seriously, I’d say it’d take two people the guts of three months to go through all this, if not longer!

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING…

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Okay, wait for it — €169.95/£129.95/$249.95.

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Tried & Tested @ The Herald: Primers

I used to resist primers because: how much stuff did I actually need to put on my face, and also, sheer laziness. Then I started actually using them instead of giving out about them, and I am such a fan. See here! for capsule reviews of a handful — or should I say a faceful? — of a variety of primers on the market.

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Ask Andrew! Mr Dunne From Mane Salon Answers Some Knotty Questions

ANDREW DUNNE from MANEAndrew Dunne is the Irish Colour Ambassador for Wella, and one of the hand-picked colour specialists who represent Wella and P&G on the global stage. Winner of The International Trend Vision Colour award 2009 for Ireland, he was voted Colourist of the year,  and was inducted into the Hall of Fame, in 2010.

So, clearly, he knows about colour + hair. His work on my own head appears here, and it’s one of the more popular posts on Bright & Beauytfull. Since people ask me about hair allll the time, and since I’ve only got expertise as relates to my own, Andrew kindly agreed to answer some of the more frequent questions…

1} I dye my hair black, always have, always will. Lately, though, the colour is not lasting past ten days. It looks like growth, but it’s not — it seems like the colour is washing straight out. Going lighter won’t suit me, and on top of it all, my hair is dry. I can’t understand why this happening, or what to do about it. Can you help?
Mary, Co. Kerry
Hi, Mary! The answer to your problem is in your question: the products you are using are working at dyeing your hair and not colouring it. The dyes just stay in the hair and have very strong, heavy pigments in them; a good professional colour will open your hair to allow new micro-pigments to enter your hair, so the shine will come from within. Not all salon carry products like this, so do your research before choosing a salon that’s the real deal.

2} How can a lady in her 40s update her look without looking like an eejit? There are so many new technique out there, and I want to be on trend, but I don’t want to, like, chop all the hair off and then dye what’s left turquoise. Any advice?
Bridie, Co. Dublin
Hi Bridie! First off, go to someone who know how to break it all down, let’s start with the colour and the way choosing the right tones works its skin and eyes first, then hair. If it works on your skin and makes your eyes pop, then the hair comes alive. Then regarding the shape, look for the focal points on your face as in: eyes, lips, cheekbones, jawline, and create a shape that shows off your best features. Now bring the cut and colour together and that’s the best trend in the world to follow: your own trend.

3} Fringe: yay, or no way? I feel like it took me about six years to grow out the hair around my face, and I like it sweeping back, but I am always thinking about chopping a few lengths over my forehead. This is cheaper than Botox, can just a few locks be sacrificed to the cause, locks that could maybe be tucked back in somehow?
Sue, this blog
Well, Sue, most of the time it comes down to the size of your forehead; that determines the type of fringe that you can wear. The general rule of thumb is: the bigger the forehead, the fuller the fringe. The biggest mistake most people make is not committing to a proper fringe, as it must be the focal point of the whole haircut! Instead, they half do it and it just doesn’t work — and they start growing it out a week later. I’d say go to someone who understands face shape and how fringes impact on them.

4} Do colour protect shampoos really make a difference?
Matilda, Naas

The difference between professional products sold in a salon and cheap products sold in smaller chains is massive, and getting bigger by the day. But if your hair is not coloured properly in the first place — as in, low volume of peroxide, the right colour for the right skin tone, the right technique — no colour protect shampoo is going to make a difference. Make sure your hairdresser uses the most gentle products possible while colouring your hair so as not to damage your beautiful locks.

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Mane Salon is located in The Grooming Rooms, 16 South William Street, Dublin 2. Prices range from €100-160 for colour and €60-80 for cut.
Ring 01 672 5177 for an appointment.

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I Used It All Up: Dove Purely Pampering Body Cream with Shea Butter and Warm Vanilla

On the very day that I Used All V329158_PS1340-C1of the above Up, I went to get me brows did, as ever in HD style at Carter Beauty, Blackrock. The lovely and talented Katie and I were nattering about product, as ya do, and she mentioned how much she herself loved this particular body cream. What are the chances!

This is a little tub of goodness and great value: at €6.49 RRP, and even though I was hoarding it, this really did last a relatively long time. I mean, if I used it every day it would still have lasted ages. And when it became apparent that this was going to join the IUIAU crew {that is the worst acronym ever}, I tried to UIAU faster, but it simply wouldn’t allow me to do so.

But eventually {sob} I did indeed make it all go away.
DOVE PURELY PAMPERING goneso

Katie says she found this to be a miracle product for extending your self-tan, which, even as winter prepares to get its grip on us, is still an issue, given all the holiday parties about to erupt on the scene.

I love Dove, and have always been a fan of the classic bar of soap: it feels so soothing going on, and the scent of it is so clean. I have not been much of a fan of shea butter in the past, disliking its smell immensely. I think the warm vanilla ingredient has mitigated that nutty shea nutshell smell in this case, and combined with whatever that essence it is that makes Dove smell so fresh — well, it’s a winner.

And texturally, for a product at that price point? Amazingly rich, but with excellent, smooth coverage that absorbs quickly. A miracle!

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More Crazy Face: Origins Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Mask To Clear Pores

I am allll about minimising my pores these days, and photo 3I’ve been gasping to try Origins Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Mask for ages. It’s been sitting there on my sink for said ages, patiently awaiting its employment. Such was my yearning that I left it there, unusual because even though my own employment has a siginificant amount to do with products that need to be tested under bathroom conditions, I hate to have the sink all cluttered up. This stayed fast, and finally I got around to giving it a go.

The thing is, hot water is an issue in my gaff. Now, the Americans reading this are gonna be all like, ‘WTF?’ It’s not that I don’t have access to hot water, it’s just that it is a pain/very expensive to fire up the immersion {The what, howl the Yanks}, and this mask requires the use of a cloth dunked in hot water and then applied to the face — to open the pores, ya see. My power shower runs off its own heating element, and it took me ages to realise that I could run the shower, wet the cloth, and then proceed. Must be the American in me that continued to equate hot water with the faucet {The taps, shout my Irish readers.}

Got there in the end!
photo 2

I once tried a charcoal mask, I think it was from Sanctuary Spa, that warmed up on your face, on contact, and it was amazeballs. This is texturally much better than that one, but even with the hot cloth — or perhaps because of it — it didn’t get all that warm, which was a disappointment.

I was very, very happy with the way it — I was going to say ‘dried’ but in fact I am happy because it didn’t dry, it was more like it ‘set’. I do like a nice, tight, squinchy mask {TWSS} but this gave the squinch without the drying feeling. It was pretty perfect, to be honest. This is it, almost dry:
photo 1

Srlsy, that still has some shine on it, which I take to mean it is not going to dry out yer gob.

How did my pores feel? Shrunken, in the best possible sense. The minimisation project has been going well, and I’ve been noticing a real improvement in texture and general glowiness. I’ve got a few other products that I’ll be talking about soon, but this mask is a great place to start, should you like to join me on my pore-shrinking adventure…

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100mls: €29/£22/$24

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