Tuesday 30 April 2013

The Lush Event

This is a picture heavy post, sorry guys but it had to be done! Last night (yes, I am actually blogging the day after something, now sit back down and shh!) I attended a fancy VIP body pampering event in Lush on Henry St - I know, moment for fangirl #Idie needed. Anyone could go and it was all free too. I dragged my oh-so-good friend Steph along for the ride (shes not a product junkie like me, hence the dragging and sucking up!) And let me just tell you all with my hand over my heart, I knew the Lush staff were generally helpful nice people, but not until you spend an hour and a half in their shop like I did talking to them do you get the full force of just how amazing and genuinely great these peeps are!
The Lush shop on Henry St., Lush are against animal testing, a quote from The TImes
I started my evening by getting a yummy alcohol free cocktail and talking to some of the staff. But secretly it was the fun and charming barman (below) in what can only be described as the next big fashion piece, a wonderful Hawaiian shirt, making the cool looking cocktails that made me relax, so thank you! Also beside him was Garret, the stores managing director. You know the way people who are managers are nice to cutsomers but only because they have to be? Well, I could not get over how genuine and chatty this fellow was! He even obliged me by writing down his blogs name The Secret, giving both Steph and myself a goodie bag and if thats not enough he gave me a sample of Blousey shampoo that I've wanted to try forever. Go talk to him next time you pop into Lush, hes so fun!  

Garret and his lovely barman/boyfriend, the cocktails, some bath bombs, everyone having fun!
 The place had a fab atmosphere with people gossiping about the best bath bomb and others smearing magic goo onto their hands and even faces. I qued up to see the bubbly Maeve who was in deep conversation about how wonderful Lush make up is. She asked me to close my eyes while she spun the colour wheel and when I open my eyes to choose the first three colours that caught my eye. She wrote them down for me, below. Its something I would have never done if I was just popping in for a quick sniff of something so do ask about it next time your in their shop, its like getting your fortune told! Check out the to-die-for colours here, you'll be glad you did.
The colour wheel, all the different colours and bottles of make up, my three colours


Lush have reformulated their massage bars recently and they are really something to talk about. I got a mind melting hand and arm massage from Jess who was so informative and could really make a girl feel at ease! She told me all about how the new formulation has some air bubbles in it to make it lighter and easier to use and spread out once they are warm. Also a lot of the bars now have raw 100% fair trade cocoa butter in them. Oh goodness do I have a new Lush wish list to write up! I got to try Aqua Mirabilis body butter - I am not joking, I wanted to buy them all then and there, the Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar - such a lovely warming effect on the muscles but I'm not sold on the cinnamon smell, and Hottie massage bar - which I was told by Jess is great for massaging all places, even bum cheeks! Oh and a fun fact she told me that I just have to share, the Therapy massage bar is great for stretch marks like ladies can get or if you are pregnant. The ridges on the top are there because 1 in 4 babies are born with an 'outie' belly button. Overly cute and serious attention to detail or what?! Take a look at it here.

I'll be back in soon to stock up on summer essentials. Make sure and like their facebook pages so you can keep an eye out for their next event if you didn't get to go this time. On another note, I took some quick snaps of places in Dublin on the walk to the bus, isn't the place a little magic at night? - Perhaps smelling of Lush things as we walked along in the cold made us see things a little more through rose tinted glasses, but Lush will do that to you! 
View of the Liffey, Clearys lit up, Eason's big clock

Saturday 27 April 2013

Brownie In A Mug


This is a really simple thing to do in under 3 minutes if your looking for a nice sugar/chocolate fix but can't decide what to have. (Or if your like me you have nothing left in the house because sweets are the first thing to go!) This particular recipe is for a more gooie-type brownie, those of you who are lovers of the more cake-type ,beware. All you need is as follows:

  • A mug
  • A table spoon
  • A fork
  • 2 table spoons of oil with no flavor 
  • 2 1/2 table spoons of sugar
  • 3 table spoons of plain flour
  • 2 table spoons of water
  • 1 1/2 table spoons of cocoa powder

Mix all this together into your mug with a fork, making sure that its all mixed well. (Mouthfuls of flour that escaped the mixing not a yummy treat for your taste buds - believe me) and pop it into the microwave for about 60 seconds. Boom, you can thank me later!

If your extra fancy or fussy you can swap normal sugar for caster sugar as the grains are a little finer ad you aren't chewing on big grains of over sugaryness. Also try some jam, milk or ice cream sauce (trust me) on the top to make it over-the-moon-mmmmmmm. This is by no means a perfect recipe, so do experiment as to what tastes the best to you.

Enjoy!

Before mixing, after mixing, after being microwaved! Mmmmm


Sunday 21 April 2013

The Comforter Bubble Bar


I have to start off by saying mmm. That sums up this lovely pink and white Lush 'the comforter' bubble bar completely and theres really no need to go on. But I will anyway for those of you who are yet to be convinced. To start with I'll point out the obvious, its huge like break-into-four-pieces huge. At about €5 its a little pricey like a lot of Lush things are but I think you get a bit of a bargain with this as you can cut up little chunks of this to make it stretch to a few baths rather then just the one. If you do decide to do that, pop the rest of the pieces into a sandwich baggie to make sure it stays fresh and if any little pieces start to crumble, you have a mess free zone! 

The amount of bubbles you get from this guy is amazing, even if you only use a tiny bit. I think by now you will all know that I am a fan of having as many bubbles as humanly possible in the bath, and this really helps achieve the dream! I had to take a billion pictures of just how bubbly it got (its the little things, don't judge) And to top it off the lovely girly pink and white bar has an amazing smell of sweet blackcurrant, thats something you can't help but relax with while having a little dip in the pink bath water. Its also preservative free which means its better for the environment not needing any packaging and to top it off its vegan friendly.  

Definitely something I will be picking up again once I finish my other pieces. Its bigger then a lot of the Lush bath products so this would be a lovely present to pop in a bag of goodies for a birthday or some other present worthy event. I have my eye on another bubble bar 'blue skies and fluffy white clouds' that is just like this one but its blue and has a totally different smell. Go look at it here and 'ohhh' with me.

Saturday 20 April 2013

Fragrance Direct Haul

Ladies and gents I am excited today to share this little haul with you all! Hope everyone is keeping well and looking fab, as always!

Fragrance Direct is something that I am quite new to and this is my very first haul from it. This site has a fab range of different low and high end products at a knock off price. Every item is in perfect condition unless otherwise stated e.g. the packaging has imperfections or there is no box. They ship world wide and shipping normally takes 10 working days if its not in England. But I must say, besides being excited about finally getting my hands on my cheap as chips goodies, I am very disappointed at their customer service. I waited 16 days before my box arrived and in that time I emailed them about the delay, wondering why it was taking so long after reading on their site that it would take up to 10 days for delivery and got the same information in my confirmation email. Their customer service replied to say that due to changes in their postal service it now takes 14-24 days to be delivered. So if you are thinking of ordering something please do note that as they don't mention it in emails or at the check out service and you could end up nearly pulling your hair out like I almost did. If they had just informed me of the longer delivery times I wouldn't be half as bothered as I am now. But anyway, new info/rant over!

L'oreal Recharge Lip Balm for Infallible Lip Duo Top Coat
This was 50 pence and if I'm honest I kind of got it on an impulse buy. Don't judge me, I think cheap things are amazing at the time! It smells like all other L'oreal lip products, the overly sweet I-want-to-eat-it kind? And feels lovely and soft on my lips. I have yet to use it with any lipsticks to check out the staying power, but you can be sure I will keep you all updated!

Essie Off The Shoulder
£1.99 for a Essie nail varnish? Yes please! I am new to the Essie craze, but every blogger and their grannys parrot raves and loves this brand. It is too expensive for me to even consider normally. Off the shoulder it a gorgeous hot pink that I'm sure will get loads of use this summer. 

Kylie Minogue Darling
I love all of Kylie's fragrances and really wanted to pick up a little bottle of Darling for my hand bag. It smells divine and I'm already getting asked what sent I'm wearing. Its floral, sweet and a lovely fresh sent that will be used to death for the summer months. From what I've used so far, it seems to last a good while too. Double score considering the 15ml bottle was only £4.99.

Bourjois Bio Detox Organic Foundation
This is a brand I rarely go near, as I think its a bit expensive when you can get something similar for half the price. But £2.99 sounded better then good to me and with all the hype its been getting I thought I would give it a go and see what all the fuss was about.

Rimmel Hide The Blemish Concealer
This was just a repurchase for me, my trusty old Rimmel concealer that I have been using since the dawn of time. But its normally around the €5.50 range and I nabbed it for £1.50. Think I should have gotten a tonne more, silly me. 

Dainty Doll Mascara and EyelinerThis was a oohh and ahhh moment for me when I realised that Dainty Doll was on this site. I have only ever looked and longed for some of these products so when I spotted this for £1.99 I pounced at the chance to try one of my longed for items out!

Prestige Cosmetics Wet To Dry Foundation
I had never heard of this brand before but I decided to try out a few new types of foundation while I was picking up a few things that were all so cheap. I have never used this type of foundation before so it will be interesting to see how it goes and maybe I will find a new favourite along the way, fingers crossed.

So that it all my haul, hope you enjoyed seeing what I nabbed and maybe gave you all some ideas of lovely cheap as chips things to go and look at. I will do reviews on all of these products once I give them a good test drive and find out if they are as good as I hope they are! Since ordering these I may have done the dreadfully bold thing of ordering another little box of fun things, so look out for my next haul from my growing addiction site!


Wednesday 17 April 2013

Book Review: Hurry Up And Wait

This was a book that I had read an excerpt of, read reviews of and drooled over while continuously hunting online for a cheaper price then what was on Amazon kindle. But no, visiting the page everyday to see if the price had gone down any was not the way to go, so I left it on my wish list for a few months and almost forgot about it. That was, until I went on a mad 'lets buy everything in sight that I've wanted for months spree' that I remembered it and bought it for (a slight ouch of) £3.29 kindle price.

Hurry Up And Wait is the second book Isabel Ashdown has published and I must say, after all the hype and my own anticipation I was a little let down. If it wasn't for some of the very adult themes, I would be recommending it for the younger section in the book shop. There are loads of 80's references that I'm certain are totally lost on me, but for some I'm sure it would be a lovely trip down memory lane. We start by meeting present day Sarah Ribbons, a bundle of nerves on her way to her school reunion. It seems clear that its more then young lost loves and old school friends that shes anxious about seeing. Something bad happened that last school year, that last summer. Now Sarah has to go back to face those ghosts she thought she could run away from. But what happened?

  We are set in 1985 following the life of Sarah Ribbons, a fifteen year old in the last year of school who is on the long and difficult path of friendships, boys, relationships and how to drink coffee because its cool and boys think its very mature. We meet her two best friends Kate and Tina, who one month can't get enough of her company and the next stand outside the bathroom stall saying dreadful things about Sarah while she hides behind the door. But if you were ever a teen girl you would regard this sort of behaviour as perfectly normal.

As Sarah celebrates her birthday with her elderly father and little dog, we are at the beginning of a coming of age journey. Older boys, tough homework, a summer job, the new and exotically named Dante, family troubles and more. The trials of becoming a more mature teen are hard enough to face on her own but then Sarahs dad is taken to hospital after falling ill and Sarah has to stay with her friend Kate for a few days. But when something truly awful happens Sarah knows things will never be the same again.

This was a very ordinary even paced teen story of everyday life and I think thats what makes the darker themes more shocking and unsettling. Personally I prefer books with a more face paced and fuller story line, so I am biased here. I think if I was to read it again I might appreciate it and grasp the underlining tones more,  getting something different from it.

What are you reading at the moment?

Monday 8 April 2013

The Way I Look


I'll have to give you all warning here, this is a ranty rant but I want to vent to the world! Recently I have been noticing more and more negative things towards big girls and women in general. Let me just say here and now that I am a self confessed 'Big Girl'  (bet the title of this blog never gave that away!) Ladies and gents I am a size 16-18 and so the media portrays, unattractive. Let me tell you all, it bothers me about as much as me not having a pet rock - which is not a lot. (Ok I lie. That was a dreadful example, of course I'd love a pet rock, who wouldn't? but you see what I'm getting at.) Basically, and I'm going to shock a few people here, I like being 'fat'.

 Now now, lets not all shriek and recline in horror from your various screens, you read that right - I like being the size I am. As I said before, the media has the world thinking size 0 is the most attractive size there is and that dieting yourself to ill health is the only life style choice worth knowing about. Magazines, tv, the internet, the sides of buses! its all over the place and its not going away. When I walk into a shop I don't see plus sized manikins gracing the walls. No heroine I know is portrayed as being of the larger variety unless its a major Bridget Jones thats-part-of-the-charm way, even then she was only a tiny size 14. God grief, where are all the big girls gone?!


Oh, let me tell you another shocking thing. 'Skinny' girls are amazing too (some of my besties are sizes 8,10 and 12) I love big and hell I love small. Some girls are born thin or with a fast metabolism. Some are born with small boobs, some wont have great eyesight, some people have different coloured skin and some will have amazing teeth. I might even be as bold as to say some might have awful acne prone skin or be really super tall. You might be one of those girls with two different coloured iris or a small bum. I have heard some people have thick hair or big thighs. I have yet to find one person on earth who will admit to being perfect.  Otherwise there would be no market for hold-it-all-in spadix, for fan diets or surgery. No one would need to wear make up or wear high heels. Never again would there be a call for a doctor or low fat milk. We are all insecure and imperfect in some shape or form. The sad thing is not everyone seems to know that and thats where people are getting hurt.

Young and old alike are trying to conform to the media's interpretation of what is 'right', 'beautiful' and  'sociably acceptable'. If were not beating ourselves up mentally or pushing ourselves physically its ok because there will always be a long line of others to help do that for us. It could be a mother comparing siblings, a school bully teasing about weight, a staff member talking about our crumpled skirt or even a friend talking behind our backs. It starts with you. One person at a time to stop and think about what they are saying, how they are making that person feel and how it would make them feel if it was the other way around. Lets stop the bitching, the back stabbing comments and the general lack of being a good person. We are not school bullies, we are better then that. Lets list our flaws and embrace them. We are not robots, we can't all be the same or look as the media wants us to (not to mention the genetic race which no one can win.). With that in mind, let me list my 'flaws' for the entire world to see .


  • I am fat.
  • My skin has dry patches.
  • My hair is thin.
  • I have bad acne.
  • I have self harm scars.
  • I have a lazy eye.
  • My thighs touch.
  • I have stretch marks.
  • I am very pale.
  • I like every single thing that I have listed above.
  • I am a normal human like the rest of the world.

I have self love and I have so many people around me who love me no matter what way I look, what clothes I wear, how I style my hair, if my make up isn't perfect or my bum doesn't fit in the seat. I am more then what people see in front of them. I have a personality, I have different tastes, I have skills and knowledge. I can be moody and sad, loud, allergic to things, daring. I have fears, hopes and dreams. I am a real person. And so are you.

Thats the end of my rant, if you stayed till the end thank you. I hope this might have touched a nerve with some people, or even just a passing thought. My next post will be a book review so don't worry I'm not going all heavy and deep on you lads much longer! As always have a fab day. And by the way? You are beautiful, I just thought you should know.