Bibbity Bobbity Boo.

I acquired some new bits recently, most of which I purchased in LANDAN. Yesterday I went on an online shopping rampage, like I mean a serious splurge, but obviously I haven't received them yet, so they will not be included in this post!

This week saw Valentines Day, which was a relatively quiet one if I'm honest. I did cook dinner for my boyfriend (3 courses!) on the day, but our real Valentines treat was last weekend away in the gorgeous Carton House in Kildare, where we indulged in skin resurfacing facials, full body massages, a fine dining dinner, and the biggest breakfast buffet I have ever seen. Unfortunately for me, I had food poisoning all week, and couldn't completely relax, but we figured we might as well go, as we would've had to pay the full price even if we cancelled. I got an Aveda Skin Renewal Facial, and I may do a separate post on my facial experience altogether. If you're in Ireland and you are looking for a place to get away to, I would definitely recommend the Carton House, it is absolutely unbelievable; great service, amazing views, lavish facilities, and unforgettable dining.

I had forgotten to include my London purchases in my previous post, so I thought I'd give a bit more detail about them in this one.

Illamasqua is a brand I'm relatively new to, the main reason being that it is nearly impossible to attain in Ireland. It used to be sold in BT2 on Grafton Street, but it disappeared, and I have no idea where to get it now! It is available on Asos, so I may take advantage of that! At the IMATS, there was some serious discounts at the Illamasqua stand, it was mayhem, but I managed to pick up a few products, as well as some from Make Up For Ever, Inglot, and I nabbed a MAC lippie in the airport on the way home.

Cheeks

Make Up For Ever HD Cream Blush in #12 and #1, Illamasqua Cream Blush in Libido.

Eyes

Inglot Matte Gel Liner in Brown #90.

Illamasqua Powder Eye Shadow in Vulgar and Illamasqua Eye Brow Cake in Motto.

Soap and Glory Thick and Fast Super Volume Mascara (came free with Elle magazine!)

Lips

MAC Myth and Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Feisty

I am absolutely loving all of these products so far, apart from Myth lipstick, which I'm still unsure about. Now I am off to pack for a weekend away with my mom and sister!
I hope you all have a lovely weekend :)

Talk soon! x
x

London Calling.

Two weekends ago the gorgeous Julie and I made our way across the Irish Sea to London for the International Makeup Artist Trade Show which was held in the amazing Alexandra Palace.

We made our way to Dublin Airport on the Friday morning, heading through security at 6am, before getting a croissant and coffee and having a little look in MAC before boarding. I was so excited to go to London as I had never been before, and just to experience the culture and see the sights. We did a lot of tube hopping for the weekend, visiting Buckingham Palace, Leicester Square, Oxford Street, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden, and Spitalfields. We had intended on doing some touristy things on friday and sunday, and attending IMATS in between, on saturday. Unfortunately due to extreme weather conditions (!) on the sunday, we didn't get to visit anywhere really, as most of the day consisted of sitting in Stansted praying our flight wouldn't be cancelled! (Which was hell, 9 hours is a loooong time!)

On Friday we sorted out our travel arrangements and purchased tickets for the train into London and for the Tube for the three days we would be there. We managed to get rid of our bags in the hotel and have a waltz around London before returning to check in at 3pm. We stopped off at a gorgeous Patisserie called Paul in Knightbridge for some Lunch, before getting lost in Harrods for the afternoon. Harrods was unbelievable, but Julie and I felt somewhat out of place, being brushed past by posh ladies and men with Louis Vuitton manbags who gave us looks of disgust. Did we look like commoners or something?! Probably. I loved Harrods though, as you can see how snap happy I was taking pictures of the entire place. I loved the clothing, the designers, the shoe emporium, the makeup counters.. but most of all I loved the food rooms. Huge chocolate stands were filled with Valentines gifts, mountains of sweets filled the entire room! In another room altogether was kind of like a market; meat counters, cheeses, an oyster bar, Sushi bar, macaron counter! It was amazing.

We spent the rest of the day visiting Selfridges and Oxford Street, although we didn't buy much at all. We returned to the hotel and had a bit of a rest before venturing out again in search of some dinner! We strolled through Covent Garden and found a cute little Italian in Leicester Square where we gobbled Calzones before returning to our beds after a loooong day.

Saturday was IMATS day! We got up quite early, stopped in Julies favourite place EVER! : Pret a Manger for porridge and granola before whipping off to Alexandra Palace for the day. The IMATS was quite overwhelming. We got there at about 11, and it was jam packed. We scurried around taking it all in, and nabbing a few purchases on the way; Illamasqua, Make Up For Ever and Inglot to name a few. The makeup was amazing, from body painting to prosthetics, there was a lot of madness! After being there for a good few hours, we had seen all we wanted to see, bought all we wanted to buy, and packed up and headed home. Home to our hotel that is. We stopped off at the Hummingbird Bakery which ended up being like RIGHT beside our hotel (SCORE!), and bought a few goodies to gorge on back in the privacy of our room. And let me just say, they were AH-MAY-ZIIING! The Hummingbird Bakery near us was on the cutest street ever, called Frying Pan Alley, how adorable is that?!

We filmed some videos of our trip (one of which can be seen on Julie's channel HERE), before popping off out to see a show. We hadn't planned on going as we thought prices may be too expensive at such short notice, but we nabbed a deal and went to see Chicago, which was also AH-MAY-ZIIING! I'm so glad we got to go in the end, because it totally made our trip complete! :) The plot thickens though, dun dun duuun! (I am in such a weird mood today, excuse that!) We had planned to go to Camden that night after the show, but no sooner had we left the theatre, we were being snowed upon, like I mean there was like an avalanche coming out of the sky. We started panicking. Tubes stopped running, buses stopped running, there were no cabs to be found at all. We were running around London like mad women, we had NO clue where we were going or what was going to happen to us! In times like this I think that I would be overcome with manic distress, and just in general freak out, but we managed to get home safe and sound in the end, on a random bus that happened to go by our hotel. We don't know what would have happened to us if that random bus hadn't come our way when it did, but we were so happy it did! Thank you bus driver on the No.8! :)

The misfortune didn't end there though. We arrived home (our hotel room), flicked on the news, and were gutted to see that Stansted airport was closed! We ended up just praying our flight would go out on time the next evening. We wandered around Spitalfields aimlessly on Sunday morning before returning to Hummingbird to buy MORE cupcakes to cheer ourselves up. We had to check out at 10am that morning, and had nowhere else to go in the freezing cold weather so we ended up just going to the airport.. 7 hours early! Our flight ended up being delayed by two hours, and after 9 hours in the airport, another hour waiting to board and another half hour waiting to take off we finally made it home. Hallelujiah!

My London trip was amazing, although the end of the weekend kind of slightly put a downer on things. It's such a busy city, there's constantly so much going on. I will be back! :)

x

How Lush.

I had never ever bought Lush products up until a few weeks ago when I meandered into their store off Grafton Street in search of a few goodies for my sister. I had received bath bombs, soaps, solid perfumes and lip balms as presents over the years, but became overwhelmed at the variety of products in store every time I went in, and I never got around to actually purchasing anything for myself.

My sister started her mock exams for her Leaving Cert last week and I thought she needed some sort of treat to de-stress, calm and refresh her. I found myself wandering around Avoca for some sort of cute pick me up, but didn't find anything satisfactory. I popped around to Lush, and was helped straight away by one of the girls working there, who happens to live just down the road from me. I told her I was looking for something to revitalise and pamper, and she immediately lead me towards their fabulous array of facemasks. I picked out Brazened Honey, which I was told was quite refreshing and nourishing. Perfect I thought. It was only then that I got distracted by their amazing range of creams and moisturisers that I knew my sister was definitely going to be spoilt that day! I had heard from some of my followers on Twitter that Lush do an amazing body cream called Dream Cream, and instantly I was drawn to that. Why not I thought!? It didn't stop there. I eventually found my way back to the till and was distracted yet again by their hair products, and was informed that the BIG Shampoo was perfect for giving volume and shine. Something my sister tends to moan about alot! So I picked one up and handed over my dosh.

These three products came to a total of €47, which might be leaning towards splurge territory for some, but I thought they were a perfect bundle of pick me ups for a little sister who needed cheering up. I also intended to try them out too, you know, to make sure I was getting my money's worth. :)

The facemask is so rich and smells to me like crazy exotic plant life. It states on the tub that it "exfoliates, detoxifies, stimulates and nourishes", and I really really like it so far. Worked into the skin in circular motions and left for ten minutes before rinsing off, it leaves a noticable difference to my face. My face feels smooth, clean and fresh after using.

I was told that this cream was invented for psoriasis, and I purchased it for two reasons. Well three. It has been recommended to me numerous times, it smells divine, and I figured if I was to use it, it would be perfect for my dry, work ridden hands. So far, it delivers. And there is just so much product in the tub! Happy out.

I smelled this in the store and got so excited. It has a unique sort of scent that I have smelled before, from someone elses head maybe?! You know when someone passes you and you get a whiff of their scent?! It was that sort of deja vu for me, as I had smelled it before, and really really liked it. My sister always complains that she can never attain the desired volume from a mousse, and so I thought this would be the perfect end to a pamper me beauty bundle. Yes, I did use it too, and was quite impressed, but not only for its volumising ability, but more for its ability to create immense shine, I mean my hair was gleaming! Very nice product indeed.

Overall I am quite impressed with these three products, and would most definitely purchase Lush products again. :)

Do you use Lush?
What's your favourite Lush product?

My next post will be about my trip to London for the IMATS with the amazing Julie, so keep an eye out if you are intrigued to see what we got upto!

Talk soon :)