It’s Almost Officially Spring…

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

… and I am so behind on my spring make up. Here’s a slice of Papaya from the Clarin’s Gloss Prodige line (€17/£15.50/$20), which does not look papaya-esque in any of the photos, nor in the ones I tried to take with my ubiquitous iPhone, but on the applicator! Eeeeeee, it is corally, which I have to say I avoid like the plague. Except! It looks well on the lips. It’s magic, maybe? I don’t know, but I have a feeling I’m going to use this one right up.

Got Chanel! Again, so late to the spring make up party, so I only {only! Oink, oink} got the Perfection Lumiere Longwear Flawless Fluid Makeup (€44/£36/$55) and the Blush Horizon de Chanel (€55/£46/$58), the latter being a limited edition. I haven’t used either officially yet, meaning: they haven’t walked out the front door after having been applied to my face, but I did swipe a bit of the PL on my hand and ohh, it looked like it would luminate perfectly, just as it says on the tin. As for the blush, it is so pretty I want to just prop it open in front of me all day; I tried a bit of that on the hand as well, using the supplied brush… well, I’ll give it a go with my trusty kabuki, and we’ll see if I have a better outcome. {So prettttttty…}

I’ve also had Avon’s Smoke and Mirrors Limited Edition knocking around for a while, and I must say, I have been loving the lippys (€9/£7/$7). I’ve just lashed on some Purple Hazed: it’s lightweight but has excellent pigment, so it shows up without feeling heavy. Perfect for me, who can’t be bothered with high maintenance lipstick anymore. I have to say, though, that I am going to be springing into summer with Nude and Infused, which is going to go brrrrilliantly with my tan. My self tan, that is. Unless we get a miracle of sunshine out this way. It could happen…

Mum’s Day: The Woman Herself

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Well, I can’t get my head round this ‘holiday’ — not that mums don’t deserve one, inverted commas or not! — but where I come from, Mother’s Day is in May or something, and my mum isn’t here {in Ireland, I mean, she’s still here here.} Ambivalence reigns.

Although I have lovely friends, both here and in Amurraka, that are mums!

I’ll quit while I’m ahead.

Look at the wee collage I made in Photoshop! I had to stop tweaking because I was spending way too much time on it. It’s okay. Oh, shoot, there’s just one thing I could —

Enough! Clockwise, from left:

I love the look of this wee thing, and if your mum is in any way gadgety — that sounds wrong… — the Logitech Mini Boom Box (€79.99; available from Harvey Norman) is a useful and fun addition to her handbag. It’s not only a mobile speaker that pairs via Bluetooth with whatever other gadgety thing she’s got, but it is also a speakerphone, so when she wants to tell a story to a bunch of people, and you’re not there, she can put you on speaker. You know what I’m talking about.

Then there’s the VOYA Me Time Anti-ageing Moisturiser (€57). Now, do you feel the hair on the back of your neck rising at the notion of handing mum anti-ageing anything? Don’t be afraid! You just say that you heard this product is great (it is: it’s guaranteed Irish and made from sustainably harvested seaweed right off our own shores) and that it’s never too early to start fending off the signs of ageing. This implies that there’s no wrinkles a’tall, yeah? Did I do that right?

Okay, I don’t know, but I think if I handed my mother a box of Viviscal Maximum Strength Hair Nourishment (€49.95 for 60 tablets), she’d squint down at the box, raise her eyebrows just so, and say, ‘Oh! Okay.’ I am laugh-quivering at myself right this second. Seriously, though? Nothing breaks my heart like female pattern-baldness, and I’m kinda giving these consideration myself. I don’t know how to present this, but if your mum has gorgeous hair, why shouldn’t she be able to keep it? Two tablets a day help to nourish the follicles from the inside out, and there’s also shampoo and conditioner to back it up. Easy peasy.

The chicken-hearted among us, who nevertheless have exquisite taste, may like to grab up one of these Grace Handbags (€35) from beautycouture… sorry, got lost surfing all those adorable bags, and made a side trip into the clutches. Beautycouture.ie is another Irish business that deserves your support, and frankly, at those prices, I think mum-and-daughter matching malas is a terrific idea.

Finally, a gift box is a glorious thing, and Burt’s Bees Head to Toe Kit (€16.95) is completely brilliant. You’ve got mum covered from, uh, head to toe, from Mr Bee’s excellent Coconut Foot Cream, through the Fabulously Fresh Peppermint & Rosemary Body Wash, the Naturally Nourishing Milk & Honey Body Lotion, the Soap Bark and Chamomile Deep Cleansing Cream, to the Hand Salve and Beeswax Lip Balm. Every extremity accounted for!

Happy Hair Day!

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I’ve decided it is happy hair day, because look:

Wowee, it is like a hair care bonanza! {OMG is she going to link to — yep, there she goes again… *heaves huge sigh*.}

So, what have we got here? From Revlon, the new Equave Instant Beauty line is all about the keratin. it offers a conditioner for four different conditions of hair, to be wedded with one shampoo. Now, as you can imagine, I would be a heartfelt advocate for a million kinds of shampoo, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of my shampoo-addicted doubt.

What is keratin, you may ask? Why, it refers to a family of fibrous structural proteins, of course. Also, this:

Hair starts growing from a bulb which is lodged just under the skin. The beginning of a hair is made up of cells, which are bulging with keratin. The cells lengthen and then die, leaving behind protein bundles. There are two types of keratin: I and II. And their intertwining form long coils which accumulate in hair.*

Wooo-ooo, you know me and the science. Anyway, from what I gather, the keratin treatments that you get in the salon are the heavy-duty, hardcore hair straightening yokes, and this keratin-enriched shampoo and conditioner is what you can use at home to gentler effect. I haven’t cracked these open yet, so I don’t know from experience.

Cannot wait to experience! What we’ve got is:
> Hydro Detangling Shampoo
> Hydro Nutritive Detangling Conditioner, which you leave in
> Volumizing Detangling Conditioner, which is also a leave-in conditioner, for fine hair
> Blonde Detangling Conditioner, which is for me because I am ‘blonde’
> Sun Protection Detangling Conditioner, which is for your hollllidaaaaays. And also everyday, because of the UV damage that is always happening, right???!

Also! For the stylin’: Volumizing Foam, Substance Styling Cream, and Shine Serum.

Prices range from €10.99 to €14.99, which is excellent value for what is salon-calibre stuff.

I will let you know how I get on…

*Via…

In Which I Get Botox and Restalyne in My Face {III}

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Gotten away with… what, exactly? Gotten away with ‘getting some work done’ and no one can even tell?

So what’s the point, then?

Look, shit is starting to happen to my appearance. I realise that I have become quite attached to people gaping when I tell them how old I am. I am becoming disturbingly keen to get that reaction for, oh, the next twenty years or so. I realise that, after a lifetime of looking like a Cabbage Patch Kid, I am happy enough to keep that face, only with less blank staring. But, that shit is starting to happen. I can see the area under my chin, the turkey-wattle area – well, it’s beginning to look like a feckin’ turkey wattle. I don’t look good in scarves — I need every inch of neck that I’ve got. Dammit.

***

I wake up, and it is amazing: my mind, my poor, easily-led, easily alarmed mind, zeroes in on my mouth brackets. Or what used to be my mouth brackets. I think Dr Peter used the term ‘comma’ rather than ‘bracket’ which is so much softer and gentler, but no, I am all about the brackets. They have been the site of constant scrutiny in the last four {six, actually. Maybe eight} months or so, which only makes them worse, because I look at them and frown, and there I go! Digging them in! So much for the ‘detached appraisal’ of the beauty journalist. Yeah.

I wake up, and the area is less sore. I swipe the alarm on my iPhone, conveniently installed on the bedside dock, and removing it {haaaaalp me!} I take a look in the reverse camera. As I’m lying down still, I look even weirder than I think I look in my mind’s eye. I stick the phone back in the thing, and I close my eyes, my fingers gently massaging my jaw, which is rock-hard with tension.

***

Again: the actual process itself was professional, fast, thorough, and assured. Had Dr Peter been a dentist, I would have been like, ‘OMG this dentist I went to!’ And if you ask me for a recommendation for a … well, it’s not a nip and a tuck because: no knives — holy God could you imagine what I would have been like if there had been knives?!? — If you say to me, ‘Sue, these crow’s feet, what do I do?’ I would say, go to Venus Medical in Dundrum. <Not a word of a lie. You can hop on the LUAS and be there from town in twenty minutes, twenty minutes for your tweak, and then boom, back to work, that is your lunch hour.

***

I’ve been trying to take photos to show this, the brackets ‘after’, and have also been trawling old photos for the ‘before’. I have discovered that I make silly faces when I take pictures of myself, I think to acknowledge the absurdity of peering into a device and immortalising my new glasses or a lipstick. I didn’t think there was anything to this, that there was an underlying thing, but there I was, all along, mocking my seemingly regular documentation of myself.

I had always liked drawing and painting self-portraits in art college. What does this mean? I’ll give you vanity, but I don’t think it’s narcissism? <But forealz, what else would a narcissist say?! I just made myself laugh, and today, it doesn’t hurt to laugh. I woke up, and the left side of my mouth was little tender, but I just laughed and I feel like I’ve got the essence of my face, its movement, back. I feel like now, maybe, this wasn’t such a big deal?

Didn’t feel that way on Saturday, though, when I began to focus on the Botox-ed gully between my brows, and wondered: if I put on my riding hat, will that screw up the treatment???

Installment the first, and the second.

To be continued…

In Which I Get Botox and Restalyne in My Face {II}

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

‘Do I look freaky?’

Noooooo, the gals assured me, but dammit, I felt freaky. I felt like I could feel all the stuff that had been injected into my face {with neeeeeeeedles!}, I could feel it, like it was going to start morphing underneath my skin, distorting my face, my face! There had been nothing wrong with my face! And now, what had I done, there was stuff in there, what was it going to do, would my friends even recognise me?!?

Always had way too much imagination. And a penchant for la dramz. Continue reading →

In Which I Get Botox and Restalyne in My Face {I}

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

I don’t know if it actually needs saying, but of course all opinions on this site are my own.

All reactions are my own, too, and are mainly emotional, and I have given myself a lot to react to this morning.

I didn’t know it when I woke up, but by midday I was going to have ‘work’ done. Continue reading →

Mum’s the Word: Buying for Sisters Who are Also Mothers

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I’m not sure, is it a good thing that Mother’s Day in Ireland falls on the Paddy’s Day* bank holiday?

A) You can’t just feck off somewhere.
B) Unless mum is fecking off as well.
C) A bank holiday Mothering Sunday is an excellent excuse for a real full out hoolie.
D) Because you can recover on bank holiday Monday.
E) Unless your family don’t party well as a group, if you take my meaning, then you’ve lost a whole bank holiday drinking Sunday.

Ach! How to cope? Buy a lovely gift for all the mum’s in your life, that includes the sisters and sister-in-law who have presented you with nieces and nephews, and godmothers, too.

Hmm. This is starting to add up. And let’s face it, there’s a hierarchy. Better spend most of your pennies on your mum. So what to do about the rest of the  mum-type ladies in your life?

My best default is Aldi, which is a no brainer, really. I know, I know, you don’t want to cheap out on the sister-types, but what do you think you’re getting? I myself would be delighted beyond words to receive a bottle of Phillipe Michel Crément Du Jura Sparkling Chardonnay (€9.99, 75cl). This will go a long way to making the bank holiday experience bubbly and festive.

I have a bubble-bias, so even without having tried this, I am happy to vouch for it. You know what I would love into little bits and pieces? A sparkling rosé. OMG, talk about tacky, but I would drink the living daylights out of a sparkling rosé.

I have tried two samples from the Abbott & Broome line: the Sweet Clementine & Grapefruit Luxurious Handwash (€1.49, 300ml), which is the yellow one in the middle of the group on the left, and the Divine Gingerlily Luxurious Bath & Shower Gel (€1.99, 300ml), which is the brown one on the far right. Their scents are rich, as are their suds, and the Bath & Shower Gel in particular is a real winner. Their line up looks fairly comprehensive, with a scent family to suit just about anybody, judging by the colours anyway, which may not be the most sensible thing.

My advice? Buy all the bottles, and you will be a total heroine.

*A teaching moment: that’s what we call it here, not ‘St Patty’s Day’. The more you know!

Am I Toner Deaf?

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I’ve always been a bit suspicious of toner, in that I’ve felt it an unnecessary part of a beauty regime. If you’re cleansing, do you really have to tone? I say this having been using Clinique’s Clarifying Lotion since, oh, forever. What am I even talking about? Continue reading →

Houses of the Curly

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STAIRWAY TO HAIR HEAVEN? I like to browse through old photos, past clippings, and all manner of the weird bits and pieces I have kept over the years. I got rid of a bunch of stuff in the move, which I may regret at some stage, but there’s a whole world of nostalgia knocking around my hard drive.

I sometimes launch Photo Booth on my Mac because I need to check my amazing brows yet again, or apply a lipstick I’m testing. Trust me, this is in no way a vain exercise because I don’t think I ever look worse than when that programme launches, and I am caught unawares. I never click the red button to snap those pictures, but when I start throwing shapes, all is at least OK with the world.

At almost the same time as I was perusing Photo Booth, I was also googling some old columns from the Herald. In an amazing example of synchronicity, I came upon this Gadget Gal column, a review of the Yogi Wand, after I had found this photo:

Post-Wand, and it totally looks worth it, although I have to say I was surprised I didn’t have to ring for an ambulance, as I feel like I burnt the beejayziz out of my ears, from knocking into them with the Wand.

At that very moment, in the photo, I was Skyping Karen, and the stupid video wasn’t working, and I wanted her to see my haaaaaair, so I took the photo with the computer and then emailed. O brave new world that has such gadgets in it!

Now everybody can see my hair, and I’m kind of getting a buzz to curl it up again. I’ve got a Remington Pearl Pro-Styler that looks pretty interesting… hmmm. Maybe I’ll play with that later. I really do have to psyche myself up for it, because I am not the most patient person in the world, and just want the hair to be done. Oh, sure, I start out slowly, but the hanks of hair get bigger and bigger the more bored I get by the process.

But! I end up looking like Robert Plant, which I feel is actually a good thing…

The Yogi Wand is available at Peter Mark for €69; ring round first, because there seems to be a dearth of wands in Dublin at the moment.