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

/ brightandbeautyfull / 4 Comments

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?

Are You Feelin’ Lucky, Chick? BeneFit Treasure Hunt to Hit Dublin

/ MANY BRAVE FOOLS / 1 Comment

Do you win things? Are you good at winning things? I think some people are and some people aren’t. Two weekends ago, I was at a fundraiser, and this woman won three raffle prizes off only five tickets. Is it luck? Is it Fate?!?!

If you are good at winning stuff, or perhaps want to work on your ability to win things {can it be learned?!?!} then check this out:

If I must be pedantic — I must, I must — and suggest that ‘Scavenger Hunt’ might be a better turn of phrase, and mix the metaphor less? Is a scavenger hunt not a Thing over here?

There I go, coming over all Amurrican again.

Maybe see you there!

***

Ring the number shown with any queries, I am sure that the BeneFit Gals will be happy to help.

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

/ brightandbeautyfull / 3 Comments

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.

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

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

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

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.

Changing My Tune: Lancôme Génifique Sôleil SPF 50

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Or to give it its full name, Skin Youth UV Protector for the Face SPF 50.

Now that I’ve, to put it indelicately, busted my cherry re: laser treatments, I am newly converted to assiduous SPF use. I know, I know, blah, blah, blah, should have been using it all along. I’m sure I have been, via moisturisers and foundation and all that craic, but now — now I am going to be a tiresome, UV protecting evangelist. Why undo all the good work The Zap has done?

I was somewhat taken aback by the price point of this one — €28.50 — but taken with:
> The light texture
> The super speedy absorbancy
…and then taken aback again by:
> Its extreme whiteness
> Its scent — which fades quickly, but not quickly enough?

The thing is: the lightness. This is going to be the thing that influences my choice of daily SPF. See, I equate SPF with sunscreen. This is possibly {probably, definitely} erroneous. Sunscreen = heavy, gloopy stuff that you put on at the beach. The last thing I want to have to do is apply something that is going to take forever to dry. This is because I am not efficient in the mornings.

Basically: I don’t want an SPF that’s going to require that I get up early in the a.m.

This is a good candidate for daily use. I’ve got a few others up my sleeve, however…

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Lancôme is available at all good department stores.

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’????

Sparkletacular Twinkly Toes from Sally Hansen

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Love!

Here’s Gem Crush Nail Colour from Sally Hansen, a flock of new glitter varnishes. Behold, the perfectly named Blingtastic.

I don’t bother with a base coat on my toes, and I expect that this will go on much more smoothly with one. The mass of glitter makes it sparkle like Rockefeller Center at Christmas, but it also makes it difficult to apply as quickly as one might wish. You’ve got a couple of coats to do here until you get total coverage.

Once total coverage is achieved, though, the look is spark-tacular. Sparkletacular? Eh, whatevs. Shiiiiiny!

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Gem Crush come in eight shades and retail for €8.95.