What Happened At #BloggersDoDublin

When I started sending emails to companies and trekking across Dublin in an effort to find a venue, I never thought that the day would actually come together and so many lovely bloggers would turn up! I really have a new found appreciation for anyone who organises an event and I can't decide if they are really lovely people, or really mad in the head. I think its a little of both.

So before I tell you about what we got up to, I have to tell you about the companies that made this day possible. After all, I am only one big lady and as much as I would like to grow that extra arm, sometimes you need a hand from someone else. FindaVenue.ie really rocked my socks, they are a free venue finding service for every type of event you could imagine. They found me a choice of places to look at in like 24 hours. Holy be da jasus if your organising something you should really use them. In fact. I insist.

Next on the list of saviors is where the event itself took place, Pacinos. Now if you've been hanging around a while you'll know I'm not one to hold back if I feel I could bitch about it, so when I tell you that the manager (Mick, heya fella!) and the staff were one of the nicest groups of people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, you'll know I'm not messing. They didn't mind over 30 crazy women, balloons, glitter, confetti thrown round the place or even sex toys. They were so accommodating and friendly and if there was something they could do to make the day better, they would have bent over back ways to try and do it for you. I loved the gorgeous resturant and the food even more. I actually pre booked my birthday dinner there after the event, it was that nice. Are ya's sold? Good. Now don't all send me flowers at once when you see I wasn't just jabbering on.

Anywho, on the day loads of lovely blogging ladies and some companies that kindly contributed to the raffle prizes came together and had the lols, the noms and the natters. What an amazing day it was! I got to meet so many new faces and I'm delighted that people from as far as Cork and Belfast were able to make it. Fair play lads! Upon arriving there was utter excitement at the Cosmetic Outlets goodie bags. Man those things weighted a tonne! Paul very kindly gave us 30 of them and I've been told there were some really lovely surprises in them. So make sure to keep an eye out for any of the bloggers reviews of them! (you can see the full list of bloggers who attended here)

The first demo on the day was done by Matte to Matellic, who just launched their new site so take a look at it over here! The gorgeous Jennifer and Ciara took turns to show us how to create a day time summer look only using budget brand make up. This was right up by street as we all know how much I hate forking out on expensive stuff if I can basically get the same thing for less elsewhere! I couldn't have asked for two lovelier ladies to help us out on the day. They were nothing but helpful answering beauty questions while doing Nickki's (limesandstars.blogspot.ie) makeup so she looked stunning. (But then again, doesn't she always.)

The second demo of the day was given to us by Secrets Ireland, a sex toy company. You know me and my sex, I just can't get enough of it. I thought I'd give other bloggers the opportunity to get to know a few toys better while learning about all the high end and low end things on the market. Who knows, we might have more sex bloggers joining the ranks in future! I couldn't have asked for a better response and everyone was positive asking questions, feeling some of the toys and lets face it, having a lot of giggles too. This was a lovely change from the more childish and famous alcohol infused Ann Summers parties that are normally associated with sex toy talks. The lovely lady who gave the demonstration was a mind of information making sure that we understood everything and asked that if we had any questions that we weren't comfortable with to email and ask her. Professional, friendly and knowledgeable doesn't even begin to describable this company and I recommend everyone to have a look at it over here.

Lastly I have to thank all the companies again for giving prizes to raffle off on the day in aid of The Irish Cancer Society. Some of the things are below and I'm sorry to say I'm very jealous of all the girls who won on the day, there were really exciting things! You can see the full list of companies that took part in my #BloggersDoDublin post. 

I really can't thank the companies, venue and all the bloggers who came enough. It was such a fantastic day and maybe next year I might even do it again. (but for now, let me sleep for a week!) 

April Favourites

Normally I'm banging on about how fast the month went but I think this month went on forever. Not that it was a particularly bad month or anything, but don't you just hate it when you feel like something is dragging on? April was lots of fun though, I got to meet some new and old lovely blogger girls at the #llameetup that Hannah organised all by herself, some woman! (check out Instagram for even more photos!) Ugh I just wanna squeeze these people! *pauses to send out love vibes across the internet*. Have a look below at us all and my eh, attractive duck faces? Oh dear.

April also meant lots of moisturising and scrubbing the life out of myself. Below is my trusty and nearly all gone bottle of Spray and Go Vaseline. This is the best thing since sliced bread if you ask me. I did a big old review of it over here if you fancy having a look. Its easy to use and your not doing the flappy dry-yourself-quick-its-freezing dance either. Winning. 

Next up is a new one that I've not talked about before, Bio-Oil. This jazzy little bottle has been floating round my room for years. I got it on offer way back and then put it in the back of my draw never to be seen again. That was until I went looking for something to help fade some scars I have. I will admit, its pretty feckin' amazing when you find a product that works before your eyes in just a few weeks. My scars are fading by the day and I know once this bottle is used up my scars will hopefully be hard to see! This is a pricey bottle at €20 a pop which I was shocked at when I saw it in Boots the other day, but its well worth it.

With moisturising and keeping silky comes another new one for me, Anatomicals Don't just clean it woman, scrub it body wash - what a mouthful! Over the past two or so months I have been trying out a lot of  different tanning products and my god, that stuff is a full on bitch to get off your skin! But I've been using this and I think don't just scrub it is the bees knees. I got mine from Cloud10Beauty for €4.50. Its lasted me ages and has all the good exfoliating scrubby bits that a good body scrub should have. 

Last in the beauty department, I give you my very pretty shiny love that is Barry M gelly hi-shine nail varnish in key lime. Its not only a beautiful summery colour but the general collection is something of utter magical things. Its clear Barry m employs fairies to do all the work and taa dahh! Look what they come up with! You can read my full review of it here. I think the gorgeous colour is making me bias here...

In other non beauty related stuff this month I have been planting lots of lovely veg that will hopefully grow (grow, sweet baby jayjay PLEASE just one sprout!!) I'm very excited by all this. I haven't got green fingers at all, I either over water or forget about them altogether. But mostly over enthusiastically over water (I'd over water and kill a fish, thats how bad I am).  But none the less its been a few years since I've taken to planting little things and hoping for the best, so its very exciting. That and the fact that my best friend has also gone seed growing mad, so all her giddyness for her sprouting little green yokes is contagious. 

Lastly, I am in love with all the comics that have been coming out lately. I'm a massive Buffy fan and season 11 is deadly so far. I got way over excited by the fact that I got a variant copy of issue two and I also picked up the Hulk. I know issue two is out and I will pick it up asap! As you can see from the very first photo of this post, I got a Spock Funko Pop after swearing them off as creepy, ugly figures that are too scary to have in your room. But this is my only one, promise. (I hope). And I picked up one of the 'good guys' from plants .v. zombies. I think hes cute and a little funny. He looks like a few people I could mention when they first get out of bed or are in a grumpy mood!

Thats all from me for this months favourites, not my normal post just about beauty and products but last month I got super excited for loads of things! Has anything here caught your eye? Do you collect comics?

Christmas Bloggers Meet Up

On Saturday night I had the pleasure of being invited to a Christmas blogger dinner all organized by the amazing Lisa from PinkSugarSparkles . She hosted the most loveliest (totally a real word) event and went above and beyond with all the preparations and getting amazing sponsors for it too! You can see her fab self above, along with one of our sponsors, wonderful girls from Preen hair and beauty on Dame Street. I expected a few fancy frocks considering it was so close to Christmas but all the girls turned up looking stunning - meow!

We went to Bel Cibo in Smithfield for some wonderful noms and lots of chatting and catching up with old and new faces. Above you can see I might have had a sneaky glass of wine along with some pasta. The restaurant was really bright and modern, I'd love to have a bite to eat in there again some time soon! After all the fun was had and the poor staff were trying to politely kick us out, someone got the bright idea to go for 'just the one' cocktail in Oscars bar right beside the restaurant. Best/worst idea that ever was! I had a total ball and myself, NurseFancyPants, AllTheBuzz,  GirlFriday and TotalMakeUpAddict all got a few drinks in, many many laughs and a lot of chatting that will forever stay a secret. I myself got a bit OTT with the G&T's so I must say sorry to bloggers, Sams poor friend that I had brief chats on the phone with, bar staff and men of the pub! 

I snapped a sneaky photo of Chloe and Sam on the sly, don't they look lovely glammed up!? Also our drinks and a lovely photo on the wall - you are not alone. Struck a chord with me, I can get down a lot, even in the company of such great people so this was a nice reminder. After that I'm sad to say that not a lot of photos got taken but a lot of memories were made! 

 Lisa went a bit crazy getting all us bloogers some amazing goodie bags and really jazzing them up for us, such hard work that she really didn't have to do - total star! Above is one of the lovely surprises I got in my bag and honestly can not wait to wear it, a rose gold bow necklace from BettyandBiddy.com. I never ever wear gold or rose gold so this is such a treat!

How could I not add in photos of all the little extra special touches Lisa added in? Some cute and sparkly Christmas glittery snowflakes, snow men and lots more. She added beautiful glittery bows on the bags along with Christmas decorations and Christmasy tissue paper. How gorgeous an idea is that?! And I think we all know how much I love glittery little bits!

If the bows and sparkles weren't enough Lisa wrote us lovely little Christmas cards - Its a pink hello kitty, need I say more! One of my #Idie surprises was a Sigma eyeliner brush that is to die for, my pictures do not do it justice at all!

Other wonderful things L to R included; NYR mineral blusher and samples, a handy nail file, two amazing Body Shop perfume and shower gel set, Kardashian lipgloss, Zap omega body cream, Lots of Nimue goodies, two REN body products and a Ciate nail varnish (- squeals!!)

Also some Mane and Tail samples, Image skincare goodie bag and I won a Bia Beauty skincare gift set. Lisa had a prize for everyone which was so amazing of her - I've never won a thing in my life so I was pleased as punch!!

Photo credit to AllTheBuzz.com

My blog is now just a year old and when I signed up to Blogger this time last year I did not for one second think I would come to the end of 2013 with such amazing friends and such a supportive online community that are the girls and guys of the blogging world. Everyday it amazes me how lucky I am to know the wonderful people I do and I'm still meeting more and more daily. So to my blogger buddies and to all you fab readers, thank you for making my life extra great and special by being in it. x

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