Things I've Loved This Month

As I haven't been around these parts much to do a weekly Friday Favourites, I thought I would just tell you all about what I have been loving for the whole month! Please let me know if you would rather I stick to my Friday Favourites or if you would all just like a monthly post. Oh, and Happy Easter!

This month it has been cold, super rainy some days and even some crazy amounts of snow for Ireland. As I'm sure you can imagine weather like that makes your hair dry and your skin sore, so I have kept my magic carmex original lip balm in my pocket at all times. Everyone will tell you I get slightly overly upset when I leave it at home or can't find it. It has become a staple in my hand bag and I will be picking up another one soon, I think I might even try other flavours in the range too. The tube has lasted for ages and you only need a little to cover and fully protect your lips with its formula of menthol and camphor that helps to sooth and calm irritated chapped lips. 

A cold tired body loves a hot warm bath and thats just what I've been doing. I wanted to get a cheap and cheerful big bottle of bath soak so I could enjoy more bubble baths without having to ration out my Lush bath bombs like a crazy girl. And hey presto, Boots sleep well bath foam 750ml in a lovely lavender scent for €1.19. I'm not sure if it was the relaxing smell, the huge bottle or the next to nothing price that did it, but I ran to the check out and couldn't wait to get home for a bath!

A blog that I love and follow is Tattoologist. People send in pictures of their tattoos with translations and explanations of why they got them and what meanings they have. Its kind of like pinterest for tattoos only! Go check it out over here . You can follow the blog on bloglovin' too, makes it easier to keep an eye on! I personally love to see other peoples tattoos to be nosy, for inspiration and then just to give out about. - The feather and star tattoos that are far over done and the pain in the ass for artists.

I love Ted and the Ted Talks on YouTube are a must watch for me. There are so many different topics and after listening any of the stories I always come away with something new to research or think about. This story made me laugh and feel inspired. If this boy, thousands of miles away at the age of 13 with limited education can do this and help animals and aid his community, what can I do? Have a watch:

I love my candles and the Yankee candles have to be one of my favourites, purely because 1, they smell good and 2, they last ages in the cute large jars. A limited edition Easter candle 'Chocolate bunnies in a jar' is just the thing to get then and Stephen surprised me with one the other night (the little pet!) I thought it would smell over powering but it has a lovely soft sweet scent that doesn't make you feel sick if you have been lighting it too long. I however can't find them in the Irish Yankee candle shop or online in the American shop either. Heres a link to the place Stephen got this one for €9.99. Otherwise if you need to ship it you can find it all over Amazon.

So I may have a sneaky order coming to me from Fragrance Direct, expect a haul blog once the post man comes! I have only recently become familiar with this site and oh my god, lads go check it out right now over here! Theres loads of well known brands for a fraction of the cost. The products say if the box is damaged but other then that everything seems to be in perfect condition. The shipping cost to Ireland wasn't expensive either which was great.


I'm not sure if I should admit this willingly but my series of the month that I have watched every single episode of is um, Rugrats All Grown Up! on Netflix. Stephen and me were hunting for something to watch one night and this popped up, oh the childhood memories! ''Every birthday my mom and dad would say, your another year older, another year wiser but I still go to school...'' Who needs nights out on the town when you can stay in bed and watch childrens programmes instead? I may have also watched one or two shows of Little Bear. Fingers crossed Netfilx release The Animals Of Farthing Wood soon! The child in me is clearly still very much alive.

Something that I have been wearing loads of this month is my many coloured scarf. I love scarves and if I could use a room just for them I so would. My most warn one has to be the Top Shop multi coloured one that I bought about 4 years ago. It goes with so much, brightens up any outfit and is lovely and warm for those snow filled days! Scarves.net has a gorgeous one here for $9.71 that is as similar to mine as I could find. If your looking to splash out on a colourful statement piece for your wardrobe House of Fraser has a drool worthy one over here.

I am nearly certain I have mentioned the fab HelloGiggles.com more then once here, but I need to tell you about them again! HelloGiggles was set up by three lovely girls Zooey Dechanel, Molly McAleer and Sophia Rossi which now has a wide and really interesting range of reads being updated daily for your fashion, beauty, life, ect needs! This particular article caught my eye and made me laugh as I'm sure everyone can relate to it, moving back in or not. Go check it out and see if you have anything you could add to it.

Thats all from me for now, hope your all having great long weekend! 

Soap&Glory's Glad Hair Day

If anyone saw how many Soap and Glory products I have in my bathroom they would most certainly point and laugh. For a very long time. Really. Only in the past few months have I started to explore the S&G world in great depth, and I have to say, I'm finding new favourites and a few never agains too. I could be wrong but I think Stephen got me this shampoo and conditioner for valentines day (he listens to my beauty related rants, bless his socks) I had waited to finish off my other hair products before I treated myself to the luxury that is S&G Glad Hair Day shampoo and conditioner. And might I just point out that the packaging is, as always, something to drool over being so funky and retro! I'd love to look like one of the S&G pin up girls!

Google Images

These products are for all hair types and claim to have a no build up formula, so you wont have to go chopping and changing shampoos if you really like this one. First off the smell of these are not that strong in their bottles with raspberry fruit vinegar, but once in my hair I wasn't very happy. Its hard to explain right but it just didn't do much for my nose. The shampoo is meant 'to gloss, smooth repair and strengthen', while the conditioner is 'to help detangle, gloss, protect and strengthen'.

 I have what looks like loads of thick hair, but my hair is medium to fine and not that strong at all. I wash it every single day - I know, awful for it, but I try to give it some love back with intensive hair treatments and condition it lots to make up for the fact. After a week of using both of these I noticed my hair started to feel greasy when I dried it just after the shower. First I thought it was me being a dope not washing it all out but  after washing it the next day the same thing happened. So I was back straight away to a herbal essence shampoo instead, as I hate the feeling of unwashed hair. 

These products didn't suit my hair type at all and I was very unimpressed as they had been advertised for 'all hair types', back to the drawing board for your hair products Soap and Glory! However, no posh products go near the bin with me, they are now off to be used by my mother who has totally different hair to me, and there are some very good reports coming back from her! I also didn't think to take a quick picture of them before I gave them to her, hence the little help of google images in case anyone was wondering.

I wont be going near S&G's hair products again, not just because they didn't suit my hair type but also because I didn't like the smell of them and they are a bit pricey at about €6.50 each. Oh well, lots more shampoo/fish? in the sea... 

I Swear I'm Alive

Well, hey there people! I know, I know, you have full rights to give out and whine on at me about disappearing from the blogger world for almost a month now. But life seems to get in the way a lot of the time and it has been no different for me. First of all Stephen and myself had to up root and move house, and then I started a new job that entails me leaving the house at about 10am and not coming back until about 11pm. So as I'm sure you can imagine its a little difficult not to fall in the door at night and go to sleep on the front mat, let alone try magic up a decent readable blog post for you all! 

If I'm honest, I think the mad new life style couldn't have come at a better time as I was starting to find it a little difficult to stay on top of blogging, new products and that sort of jazz along with cooking, cleaning, friends time and other life-y stuff. But never fear I will always pop back cos' I love my blog and all the posts I publish here are not only little pieces of me, but also serious time, effort and love have gone into them.

So over the next while I have a lovely list of new posts I can't wait to write and share with you all! To name a few in random order are;

• Whats in my bag post
• A review of LUSH Mask of Magnaminty
• Soap&Glory's Peaches and Clean 
• My new love, The Natural Collection's eyeliner 
• Book review of Hurry up and Wait
•  Soap&Glory's shampoo and conditioner
• My every day make up routine
• A post on my plans for my upcoming tattoo

That is all in store for you lovely guys and girls. I hope you will forgive my lack of presents the past few weeks but I'm very excited now to be back though and fingers crossed I'll  be posting at least twice a week from now on, if not more. As always I hope everyone is having a fab weekend!

25 Things About Me

I love reading tag posts so when I saw Sprinkle of Glitter and Overdressed and Unprepared 25 things about me tag I thought I'd give it a go too! I know some of you wont be fans of tag posts but I thought it would be nice to get to know each other a bit! I totally encourage everyone to do it too and leave your link in the comments below, or even give a few things about yourself in the comments. So lets begin:

In the Bad Ass Cafe with an umbrella in my hair, as you do!

1. My favourite food is either peaches or toast.

2. I live with my boyfriend Stephen.

3. I'm allergic to fish and hate the smell of it.

4. I can go for about a week before I break down and clean everything in sight.

5. When I was little I had a hard time pronouncing words that began with 'v'. So video was wideo and vampires was grampires.

6. I can not go a day without human interaction, I hate being on my own. 

7. I have 2 cats at my mom's house and love them like children.

8. I went to see Warm Bodies recently and really liked it but was terrified too. 

9. I love going around charity shops and finding real gems.

10. One of my best friends nick name is Poodle (don't ask).

11. Big groups of people scare me.

12. I was named after my gran.

13. When I was 2 I got a pebble stuck up my nose and sneezed it out while at the doctors later that day. My mother was at her wits end.

14. I'm the baby of the family.

15. I hate sport, all of it and can't do any.

16. I've had about 20 piercings done, but currently only have 7.  

17. My natural hair colour is blonde.

18. I sleep walk and talk if I'm stressed.

19. I need glasses to see things far away but rarely use them.

20. My favourite thing in the world is to volunteer with old people.

21. My guilty pleasure has to be squeezing spots.

22. I have green eyes with a yellow ring around it.

23. - is my favourite number.

24. I have 3 tattoos and counting.

25. I used to sing opera.

Friday Favourites #8

This is the perfect way to describe me right now!

Hello everyone! Now I'm sure you might think something is a little off and your very right. I'm posting this on a Sunday, oh dear. I got really sick on Friday night and have been in bed trying to sleep it off since with doctors orders. I have been totally out of touch with the world for far too long, I wasn't even aware that it was snowing all Saturday until Stephen opened the blinds and made me have a look. (I felt like hissing and demanding he closed them like a vampire from the bed.) So please forgive the lateness of this! However, in my absence from blogger and the internet in general there has been an increase in the number of followers here! I am super excited about this and want to wave madly and talk 90 miles an hour to you all. So hello, welcome and thank you for following me! 

Product: Rimmel Match Prefect Foundation

This is my second bottle that I've picked up in the past few months and I really am loving it. It has great coverage, a lovely finish and the colour matches my skin tone perfectly (I use the palest shade, Ivory). What more could one ask for? I will be doing a everyday make up routine in the near future so I will be giving a much more detailed review of this product, but for now you can go buy it in Boots, I really recommend it!

Film: A Dangerous Method

I was pottering about Netflix and came across this. Not having heard of it before I wasn't pushed about it but then I noticed it had Keira Knightly in it. An hour and a halfish later I was a little better for having watched it. Released in 2011 this is a historical fiction about the beginnings of psychoanalysis. The impossible case Sabina Spielrein is handed to Dr Carl Jung to be his deeply disturbed, yet highly intelligent patient. Dr Jungs method is taken from his master and father figure, the renowned Sigmund Freud. This woman takes both under her spell and is eventually let back into society, but not before leaving her mark. I was shocked at Keira's role in this and how well she played it. Its really not your everyday run of the mill drama. Now the underlining theme here is sex, so don't watch it with your easily shocked granny, but do give it a watch as it is an amazing film.

Blog: Thunder&Threads

The reason I got the confidence to start blogging? Right here! I have followed Leanne from the start, she is the most amazing Irish blogger you will ever come across. She is also a YouTuber and just a fantastic reviewer of all things fashion and beauty related. She has the most amazing style and is full of class. Go check her out here, I don't know anyone who doesn't love her. 

Book: Lazy Ways To Make A Living

This is one of the books I nabbed on my crazy charity shop book haul of about 7 books. I know I'm a total nutter but I can't turn a good book or bargain down! I might have also done some awful spur of the moment buying on Amazon Kindle and got a tonne of new lovely reads. Expect a bombardment of new book reviews! This is slowly but surely becoming a book blog, not a fashion/make up one!

Its not often I take embarrassing pics, so this has to be big!!

Product: Lush Mask Of  Magnaminty

When I was in Lush just before Valentines day to pick up a massage bar for Stephen, I got a sample from the lovely Karla. - Side note here, not only was she lovely, friendly AND gave me a free sample, but she had the most amazing eye make up I have ever seen. I have since used the cleanser a few times and wow, it makes my skin feel yummy! It smells like tooth paste and is green, but it works a treat. As you can see, I like to make an eejit out of myself by posting this sort of thing on Instagram. 

Drink: 7up

The way to do it in Ireland, if your sick you drink 7up! and that is what I have been doing since Friday night. Lovely stuff but kind of very very bubbly all the same. I think I'll stick to a nice cup of tea. Oh I tried vanilla tea for the first time the other day, it was nice but nothing could replace a cup of Barrys!

Thats all from me for now, hope everyones weekend has been nice and relaxing and were all ready for getting up early in the morning for work and school! (eh, not.) I'll be back to posting normally from tomorrow, promise! Have a comfy night :)

My Night Time Skin Care Routine

Most nights when I'm not being super lazy using my Soap and Glory Fab Pore Hot Cloth Cleanser that I did a review of  over here, I have my night time routine of taking off all my make up and giving myself a little pamper before I go to bed. I keep all my things in a Lush valentines box that Stephen got me last year, it was too pretty and useful to throw out! 

 First off I cleanse with Nivea's Refreshing Cleansing Lotion for normal and combination skin. Its enriched with lotus extracts and vitamins that makes you feel good about putting on your face and smells nice too. Its thick and takes off make up no problem. It can sting my eye area a little which is off putting but overall it does the job fine. I also just finished Nivea's Pure and Natural Cleansing Lotion from their Pure and Natural range which was a little softer on the skin and around my eyes. I think I'll be picking that up again after I've finished my bottle of refreshing cleansing lotion.

Next I use Boots Vitamin E Toner for all skin types. I picked this up months ago as it was quite cheap and I needed a toner. I'm not a fan of toners in general so I guess I'm biasit when I say I wasn't a fan of it. It has a alcohol sting feeling to it and I don't think I will be getting it again, I'll go looking for a softer to the skin one.

After all my make up is off I use either Germolene Cream or more recently Soap and Glorys Dr Spot. Germolene is an antiseptic cream with local aesthetic that you would normally keep in your first aid kit! But its also great for putting on spots and helps reduce big break outs after one nights use while calming the red areas and making them feel less sore and throbbing. The Dr Spot is a new addition that I picked up a little over a week ago. I'll do a proper review once I have used it more and seen the results.  

Latly I use my little sample of No7 Protect and Perfect Intense Beauty Serum. I've only just started to use this so I have't any major thoughts on it yet. I'll post an updated review once I use it more. For my lips I throw on some of Boots own brand Lipsalve in strawberry and Johnsons Body Care 24Hour Moisture Radiance Hand Cream with shea and cocoa butter. These are both so lovely to use and smell great. My lips feel more moisturised in the morning and my hands feel softer - sometimes I put some hand cream on my elbows too to try soften them a bit, they are really rough and dry most of the time. 

If I'm having a no make up day I'll use Derma V10 Tea Tree Cleaning Wipes that you can pick up in Tesco for €1, bargain of the year! And ICare Eye Make Up Remover Pads from Pennys are also good if I just have a little eyeliner or eye shadow on. (Anyone notice how bad and lazy I can be about taking off my make up? Shocking!)

So that is everything I use right before bed and it all seems to do the trick! I will put up those reviews once I have used the products more to get a proper idea of what they do or don't do. Hope everyone enjoyed this and are as always, having a fab day! I will catch up with you guys tomorrow for my Friday Favourites post :)

Book Review: Take A Chance On Me

I got this book in the in charity shop along with two others for €2, big spender right? So because I was in a bit of a girly mood I picked up the cheesiest romance novel I could find that had the most girl meets boy story on the back, and I came away with Jill Marsell's If you haven't found the one Take A Chance On Me. 

This story follows Cleo Quinn in the English countryside of Channing's Hill where she has lived all her life and now works happily as a chauffeur for a limo service. She has found the man of her dreams, gorgeous attentive and smart Will. Next pops up the old childhood enemy Johnny who bullied and made a fool of her in school. And she still remembers it. Hes now a big shot sculptor, rich, not to mention very good looking. Everyone in the little town loves him and women are just short of openly drooling, but Cleo is immune to his ways, thankfully. 

After all those 'charming' men we get introduced to the best friend, Ash. He lives next door to Cleo and is a real pet who is a very popular DJ for the local radio, his only problem being he is nothing like his on air personality when he meets an attractive woman, que the awkwardness! And then of course there is the sister, lovely solid Abbie and her equally lovely and solid husband. Or so it seems but then things kind of go pear shaped with the perfect couple just as we wave goodbye to the now awful Will.  

I'm sure you can now guess there is a new love interest involved and there are lots of thing happening in the village of Channing's Hill to keep all the residents on their toes. Will Cleo be able to overcome her dislike of poor Johnny? And whats going to happen with Abbie now that she has to move out of her home and away from her husband. Can Ash get over being tongue tied around beautiful women or will he head to Australia just as its too late?

In the end I liked this book and even got a bit must-not-move-until-I've-finished, but I wouldn't be quick to re-read it like some books. This was a nice, easy read and the story line was simple enough that you could pick it up on any page. Not a crazy fan of this one though, being predictable and a little slow to develop. It is relatable and has somewhat of a Bridget Jones feel in parts but not in a laugh-out-loud way. Picking it apart? If there was one or two side love interests before Cleo goes head first then I think it would have worked better. Oh and the side line story with Ash dragged an extra 80 pages out. Oh well, it was something I hadn't read before! I have another Jill Marsell book to read so perhaps that one will do better justice to her writing abilities.  

What are you reading at the moment?