Best beauty advice you have been given

Best beauty advice you have been given

As someone who is interested in beauty and as a blogger people feel the need to pass on all sorts of gems of wisdom. Some are passed directly to me, some I pick up from blogs and YouTube videos, some are just my experience from life. I know once I have posted this I will think of more that I want to share but for now the pieces of advice that I want to share are:

Smile – a genuine smile is better than makeup for making you look your best!

Drink lots of water – this flushes the toxins out of your system, keeps you hydrated and all around helps you to have the best skin you can have. About 2 litres a day is ideal and it is best to spread it out over the day as too much in one go is not good for your kidneys.

Cleansing/Skincare – Do not sleep with your makeup on; no matter how tempted you are! Another piece of advice I was given is around a skincare routine. I was always of the opinion that you should find one routine and stick to it. A piece of advice I was given however advised that you listen to your skin to see what it needs on the day. You need nutrition to keep your body in working order but you wouldn’t eat the same food day in and day out. Bearing that in mind why be so rigid in your skincare routine?

As I said, I am sure there are lots more but these are the ones that I truly live by at the moment. Have you any advice you want to share? What was the best advice you were given?

Sugar Cubed

Sugar Cubed

Sugar Cubed could be described as the baby sister to Brown Sugar. It is the brainchild of Mark O’Keefe who realised that in the recession there was a market for a salon targeted at the 18-28 year old market who are looking for funky and on-trend styles at a reasonable price. Now, I am *slightly* above the demographic age but when I got to see Sugar Cubed in person on Wednesday night I was impressed. The place was really buzzing but it was obvious that there was serious attention to detail in the design without it being overly done. Look at the pics to see for yourself!

The salon – without party guests!
(Pics provided by Hunter Communications)

The wash room and the beauty room

For me everything looked great while still being practical and comfortable – I’m at a stage in life where that’s important I guess. The most interesting bit was discovering that the backwash area (which features really space age/futuristic looking pods) includes smartphone-docking stations so clients can listen to their own music. Why have other salons not thought of this?

The one part of the salon that I didn’t manage to get a photo of was the Soda Stream bar. I thought this was just there for the launch night, but it’s a permanent fixture! Certainly beats the regular tea/coffee offer you get in most salons!

Sugar Cubed use L’Oreal products for colour and treatment of your hair. It also introduces expert Tiago Rodrigues and the exclusive GKHair 15 week blowdry which it claims restores damaged hair to its original, vibrant and healthy state. There is an introductory offer starting from €150 but I’m not sure how long it’s running for so snap it up quickly.

They also have their own range of cosmetics – KOHL cosmetics (facebook). I didn’t get a chance to swatch these but they looked similar to other products I have seen so I would be confident in them. I really don’t think the Brown Sugar/Sugar Cubed teams would accept anything substandard in their salons.

Find Sugar Cubed at the Westbury Mall, Clarendon Street, Dublin 2 or call them (01) 6725750. Online, Sugar Cubed can be found here, here and here. For any students reading they offer a 10% student discount Monday – Wednesday with a valid ID card.

I know I will be paying them a visit before too long. I fancy a makeover and they seem perfectly skilled to help me with that!

Review ~ Merumaya Iconic Youth Serum*

Review ~ Merumaya Iconic Youth Serum*

I received this product as a PR sample back in July when I met with Lehka Mohanlal and Maleka Dattu (owner) (see post here). I had provided them with a description of my skin in advance of the meeting and they chose this product as the one in the line that they felt would be of most benefit to my skin. I’ve had a good chance to put it through it’s paces at this stage and it has become a firm favourite!

As I have repeatedly said, I have dry sensitive skin. This serum has been *amazing* for days when it’s feeling a little temperamental. It provides the nourishment my skin needs while also providing a protective layer to keep it safe from irritants.  The scent is very luxurious smelling and I just can’t put into words how amazing my skin feels after use. This is a great serum for days I need to wear makeup too as it is not overly oily. I’ve struggled with other serums and moisturisers, finding that they can sit on my skin rather than absorbing making wearing makeup impossible. Not so with this and with a primer over it my makeup lasts perfectly!

The packaging of this product is also great. I have worked out that it takes 1 1/2 pumps to cover my face so there is never any waste. The fact that it is in a pump also means that air is not getting at it so it lasts for longer and as you are not needing to put your fingers into it it’s also perfectly hygienic. Win win all round!

You can find Merumaya products in Arnotts (here) and the Iconic Youth Serum is priced at €43.50. I’d definitely recommend it!

Favourite Cheek Product

Favourite Cheek Product

What a difference a month makes! When I was setting out the topics for #JuneBBC I felt like this would be a challenge as in my head I would have to choose from a blusher, bronzer and highlighter and choose one item out of those. I suspected it would be my Mary-Lou Manizer highlighter from The Balm as I really love it. Mine was purchased from MakeUp Forever on Clarendon Street in Dublin 2 after a very long search but has lived up to the hype!

Instead over the last six weeks or so I have steadily fallen in love with my Urban Decay Naked Flushed palette. This retails for €26 and I got mine in Debenhams during one of their 10% off promotions and also had a €5 voucher to use so mine was a bargain at under €20!

The Urban Decay Naked Flushed palette is a trio of face products in a compact yet sturdy casing. This coupled with the large mirror inside make it ideal for using on the go! The products are amazing and seem to be the perfect shades for almost every skin type. There is a slight satin finish in both the blusher and the bronzer but this just serves to help make your skin look more ‘glowing’ rather than actually shimmery. For me, the highlighter in this set is the stand out product. It is just the perfect almost iridescent shade that with just a little blending looks seamless on your skin. This is an absolute winner in my books and the only negative I can see is that the products don’t seem to be available individually should I hit pan on one before the rest run out.

What do you think of Urban Decay’s Naked range? Have you any of the items?

Procrastinating Beauty Blogger Tag

Procrastinating Beauty Blogger Tag

1) Name a beauty regime that you barely do.
Cleanse, tone and moisturise. I’m not great at doing this. I cleanse and moisturise 99% of the time but I can’t remember the last time I used a toner!

2) Is washing your make up brushes something you do regularly?
I do them as they are needed but I haven’t done it in a while so really need to get around to it ASAP! I have a massive stash of brushes so I tend to let it build up a bit and then spend an evening at it. I will not use dirty brushes though.

3) How long will you last with chipped nail polish?
Not long! I’d rather pick it all off and go without than have it looking chipped. That’s why I love Shellac.
4) How long do you put off buying/replacing a new beauty or nail polish product even if you need it (i.e. a new base coat or a new foundation etc)?
I don’t! In fact, I’m more likely to buy it well in advance and end up with a stash of them. It’s like I have a fear of ever finishing a product!
5) What is your worst beauty habit?
I’d consider this to be like the “Things I suck at” tag so you can read that here.
6) Name something non-beauty related you put off doing all the time?
Housework! I hate it – but it has to be done as I also don’t like living in dirt!
7) When going out somewhere, do you leave getting ready until the last minute or not?
It depends! I will either be last minute or I will spend forever getting ready… There’s no medium!
8) Can you commit to spending bans?
Yes, but I usually allow myself one or two loopholes so that I can purchase sensibly rather than trying to not shop at all.
9) How organised is your make up and nail polish collection?
It’s a bit messy at the moment as I was away and haven’t put everything back in it’s place yet plus I did a bit of a de-stash yesterday. It’s normally pretty good though as I have a set up I am really happy with.

10) What is the longest amount of time you’ve gone without writing a blog post?
In between my two blogs I took a break for about 18 months. On this blog I think my longest break was almost 7 weeks over Christmas last year.

5 of your favourite beauty vloggers/YouTube videos

5 of your favourite beauty vloggers/YouTube videos

This is such a difficult topic as I love so many wonderful YouTubers. These are a selection of my favourites.

A Brunette Duet

LetzMakeup

Sharon Farrell

Ghostparties

Makeup by Lauren Marie MUA

Honorable mentions:

PixiWoo, Fleur de Force and Louise SprinkleofGlitter, Miss Bargain Beauty, Pretty Obsession, Sineady Cady (Makeup Chair), Makeup Over Mind

Lush Pucker Up for Record Breaking #crueltyfreekisses

Lush Pucker Up for Record Breaking #crueltyfreekisses

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to a promotion at Lush Grafton Street. The lovely Stephanie was over from the UK to inform all of us bloggers that July 6th is International Kissing Day. To mark the occasion and to highlight their ongoing campaign for cruelty free cosmetics internationally Lush are going to attempt to break the world record for the most kisses collected in 12 consecutive hours on that day. It’s an international campaign and all Lush stores worldwide will be taking part – even though some of them will be shut at the time!

Unfortunately you don’t get to kiss the lovely model above but you can use the beautiful products that Lush have for your lips to prepare for making your mark and for anyone else you may decide to kiss along the way. To demonstrate this we were given a set with a lip scrub, lip balm and one of their fabulous Emotional Brilliance lipsticks and a card like the ones that will be used on the day and asked to make our mark.

So, as soon as I got home I used some of the products I already had from Lush and prepped my lips… I gave them a good scrub with the (very tasty) sugar scrub and followed this up with some nourishing Lip Therapy lip balm. When I was ready to leave my mark I opted to use my Decisive lipstick as red lips always make the best statement in my opinion!

As you can see my lips looked perfect (no lipliner used) and there wasn’t a dry patch to be seen – an essential avoidance for the perfect red lip! I’m also really looking forward to using my Passionate lipstick in future as this was one of the colours that came up for me in my Emotional Brilliance colour reading.

Above: Colour reading taking place and my choices
Below: Marriage Equality campaign

This campaign is great and I love the fun element of it! Lush also have a campaign going at the moment in relation to Marriage Equality and have a petition in store that you can sign for this.

Will you be popping to Lush on July 6th? Who will get your kisses on that day?

Primer – do you use it?

Primer – do you use it?

Short answer – yes!

As you can see I have a rather extensive collection of primers. I suspect that Donna (NotJustInside) has a larger collection so if you are into primers please check out her blog!

In the picture above I have posted I have divided my collection into three types of primers: face primers, face primers with highlighters and eye primers.

Face Primers:
Left-Right: Inglot primer, Rimmel Fix and Perfect primer, Collection 2000 Primed and Ready, Murad Hybrid Skin Perfecting Primer, Smashbox Colour Corrector primer and Benefit Porefessional.

Out of all of these my most used is the Rimmel primer. I find a little goes a long way and I don’t find it too heavy on my skin. I have enjoyed using both the Inglot primer and the Smashbox one but found that both felt heavier on my skin and felt they would be more suited when foundation needed to last a particularly long time. The Collection, Murad and Benefit primers are all samples that I received in beauty boxes or magazines and I haven’t used them enough to really give a view on them to date. I will get working on this!

Face primers with highlighter:
Left-Right: Smashbox Hybrid 2 in 1 Luminizing Primer (as seen in this post), Catrice Illuminating Base (limited edition) and Benefit That Gal.

I have to be honest and say that these three primers are completely neglected in my collection. I don’t use them and instead apply powder highlighter as part of my makeup to highlight where I need it. Since writing about the Smashbox primer in my Disappointing Buys post I have tried to play with it once or twice and it seeming like it may be more usable than I thought but it still seems like a lot of work so I will keep you posted if it becomes a love!

Eye Primers:
Left-Right: Essence I Heart Stage (post here), Urban Decay Eden, Urban Decay Original, NYX Eyeshadow Base.

Out of all of these the Essence primer is the one I rate the highest. I have a few of the Urban Decay primers as they tend to come with the palettes so I am trying to use them up. The Eden primer is particularly good as it is skin toned (like the Essence one) and covers any imperfections or discolouration you may have on your eyelids. Given that the Essence primer was €3.09 when I checked last and the Urban Decay primers are €11 for the sample size or €20 for the full size I know which one I will be repurchasing when I get to the end of my stash!

Do you use primers? If so, which ones? If you would like to see a more indepth review of any of the above products please let me know in the comments!

Alternative uses for products

Alternative uses for products

Initially when I came up with this idea for a post I was thinking of things like using concealer as an eyeshadow base or lipstick as a blusher but to be honest, I don’t do those things! So I started to look to see what I did do and to start with I was stumped! Then the more I thought of it the more the ideas came to me of things I was already doing…

Letter rack or eye palette storage container?

Makeup storage can be really expensive and difficult to find exactly what you want. When I found this letter rack in TK Maxx for €9.99 I just knew it would be perfect for storing my makeup palettes – or at least some of them!

Acrylic glass and a mesh pen holder for makeup storage

Again I have used alternative items for makeup storage above. I have a selection of acrylic and plastic ‘glasses’ that are great for storing small items and about 4 of the wire mesh pen holders from IKEA that are cheap and yet perfect for storing pencils and brushes!

Lovely Jubblies from Lush is a breast cream – but it is also great for around the eye area as it has a firming effect!

A cotton pad cut in half can be used as a shield under your eye to prevent mascara smudges or eyeshadow fallout. You can buy a specific shield for this but a cotton pad is easier to source, just as effective and a lot cheaper!

A foundation brush is a great way to apply a facemask. You can apply an even layer more easily and there is less mess and wastage making it more economic!

Eyeshadows can be used instead of eyeliner if you want to have a softer look. You can use them dry smudged into the lashline for a soft look or can use a wet brush to apply them to make it more defined and dramatic. This is also a great alternative for more mature persons who may find that the ‘crepey’ nature of the eyelid isn’t suited to eyeliner.

We all get those sponge applicators in eyeshadow palettes and they are useless – unless you want to use them for nail art! These are perfect for doing sponge effect or gradient nails as they are firm and easy to control application with and can also be thrown out guilt free afterwards! You can buy packs of these in Boots but I’m sure if you go through all the eyeshadow palettes you have you’ll find that you’re in no need to rush out to buy extra!

I hope you got some interesting ideas from this post. What items do you use for makeup or beauty that may not be exactly what they were intended for?