OOH

Dude Week: Things That Make Me Go Ooh! In the Shower

/ brightandbeautyfull / 1 Comment

Alas, not this, unfortch.
B CUMBERBATCH DUDE WEEK SHOWER
A tenuous connection to Dude Week, indeed. Anyway! Shower! Ooh!

I don’t know how many body scrubs I’ve tried. I could figure it out, but how tedious would that be? I bet, though, that I could safely guess… between 30 — 50? Seven a year for the past seven years? Let’s just say 45. So when I dispensed some of Elemis’ Sp@ Home Skin Nourishing Body Scrub on my shower pouf and was inspired to exclaim, ‘Ooh!’ as I applied it — well, that’s a professional opinion, dontcha know. It is spectac.

It’s mainly about the scent, I reckon. Everything that Elemis produce smells divine, and the scent off this is so luxurious, it really does live up to its spa-at-home promise. Is it the macadamia oil? It is the sweet almond? I doubt it’s the wheat germ, but who knows?

‘Tis spendy, at €39/£28.50/$53*, but this does the pricey-product thing of lasting a long time, since you need to use so little. Also: the effect of the scrub — it’s the bora bora sand, I am sure of it — is comprehensive, and you won’t have to exfoliate as often as you would. Srsly, I was shiny and new for a week. Love it.

SHOWER OOH!

When a face scrub tells me to keep away from the eye area, I pretty much ignore it. Not that I am scrubbing that sensitive area directly! I am not that foolish! I don’t really mind the proximity of scrub to eye, though, and perhaps get a little too close for comfort.

I can confirm that that is the case, as the use of freeze 24/7 IceCrystals Anti-aging Prep and Polish {€54/£46/$65**} has converted me to caution.

This is the perfect facial scrub for those among us who sleepwalk into the shower every morning. It is fiercely frosty, the result of specially calibrated pure magnesium oxide crystals encapsulated in Advanced Silicone Emulsion << now, you know I so rarely just spout product info, but I really had no idea what it was that made this literally make my skin freeze. Smelled like menthol eucalyptus? I think I may have been trained over the years to think that everything briskly resin-y is eucalyptus. I don’t know that I feel at all enlightened by words like ‘magnesium oxide crystals’ and am particularly intimidated by ‘Advance Silicone Emulsion’ but this was invigorating, thoroughly exfoliating, and it made my eyes sting. It made them sting intensely. So, mind your eyes, like the directions say. Listen to the tube.

Like that, I didn’t bother to read all about how to use Nivea‘s new In-Shower Body Moisturiser {€3.99/£3.65/not in USA?}, which is: use your regular soap or gel, rinse, then apply this. Then rinse. It saves you the post-shower moisturising step, which I usually quite enjoy, but when I’ve had the need for speed, this product has proven to be a good thing. When I used it correctly. When I didn’t, I couldn’t figure out why I was smelling not-so-fresh? When you do it right, it is as nice as, but much more efficient than, applying oil to the damp bod and then towelling off. It’s the same principle though, which is to trap moisture so your skin will be refreshed during the rest of the day.

I think that’s it… I’ve got some hair care products in the queue — what a surprise! – so stayed tuned for more ‘ooh’!

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*Whoops: price point differential!
** Whoa: only 70gs in the tube!
*** Whew: that’s great value!

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Screen grab via the entire flippin’ internet, in fairness.

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Soz, Mr B Cumberbatch, for, you know, objectification and all that, but srsly: ooh!

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Perfectly Matched: Pandora Charm Bracelet and Me

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

It was the luck of the draw, really: Pandora are launching a brace of new charms, clips, earrings and pendants — and it just so happens that A} I got one of the new Murano glass beads, based on their animal series, in Tiger, and B} I personally have some beads from when I did a spate of necklace-making back in the mid-00s.

Feeling clever! I found a couple of blue ones that fit the snake chain style of the Pandora bracelet, and lo and behold: it matches perfectly with my rings:

The style is all modern elegance, and their clip system, as far as I know, is unique. You can see one to the left of the Tiger bead: embossed with daisies, this serves not only as a divider, but it’s a decorative element as well. The beads don’t all bunch up at the lowest point of gravity, and you get another fetching visual element.

The blue beads are mine own, and I think I either bought them in London or Brooklyn — or Paris. I can’t remember. Haven’t strung a bead in at least a year, if not more, but I’m inspired now to trawl through them and see if any more will fit.

I must say that my wrist is medium-sized, and I don’t know how many more beads this can carry before I can’t close it? And the closure is invisible, but also fiddly.

Pretttttty.

More details re: the goods on offer after I stop admiring my handiwork.

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Pandora, 35 Grafton Street, D2
Prices for bracelets start at €45; beads start at €29

Let’s Talk About Those Eyes

/ brightandbeautyfull / 2 Comments

Just gotta post that picture again:

The lashes!

Lyndsey Cavanagh is Ireland’s Max Factor Celebrity Make Up Artist, and you can find out more about her, and see samples of her excellent work over here.

The smoky eye is, to me, what that whale was for that guy in that book. Oh, how I try to achieve it! Oh, how I have to adjust the mistakes so that I don’t look like someone’s just planted me a facer!

When Lyndsey suggested that we go for a smoky eye when I enjoyed my makeover at Dublin’s Wella Professional Studio, I was all for it. I thought I might learn something. I did. I learned:

> That having my eyes close interfered with my ability to understand what was going on.
> That Lyndsey is really good at what she does.
> That it takes time and patience to get the eyeliner to go on correctly
> That individual lashes are THE BIZ.

INDIVIDUAL LASHES. Lyndsey just popped a few along my lid line, and wowee, the difference that made. I understand that I could have kept them on longer than just one night, but I was travelling on my hols the next day, and am pretty certain that between sleeping and air travel, I would have turned up at my parent’s house looking like a vampire. Not wishing to alarm the elders, I had to send the lovely lovely lashes down the drain.

I’ve had a couple of false eyelash sets hanging around that I have been meaning to test, but I was a-skeered of them. Of the glue, of the bigness, of poking my eye out. I think I may be able to woman-up and give them a go, now, just because the change is so impressive, and yet so simple < she says now. I mean, it was simple when Lyndsey did it… Well, I’ll give it a go, stay tuned.

Wella Professional Studio, Dublin, is located on Chancery Lane in D8; see here!