Autograph's New York Perfume

I'm a big fan of perfumes but I don't have a huge collection. Once I find one or two that I really like I stick with them, purely because new nice smells can be hard to find and theres always the possibility of me having a bad reaction or asthma attack to a one. So its best to keep to what I know for the most part.  

Marks and Spencers New York is one that I was gifted a few years ago and have loved ever since but only recently just picked up a little bottle again to see if I was still as in love with it as ever. I got a little purse spray bottle thats 10mls for €7. Not a bad deal and it smells oh so good. The black box that that it comes in looks super luxurious and the gorgeous gold lettering just makes it magic.

The smell itself is blends of top notes of dergamot and apricot with heart scents of damask rose, jasmine and warm woods and sensual base notes of velvety musks, creamy sandalwood, vanilla and heliotrope. Yup, thats what I thought myself.. Considering I can never describe scents at all, its either sweet, spicy or bitter. But you really do get a beautiful jasmine and sandalwood smell, maybe its best if all you lovely people go have a sniff yourselves next time your passing a M&S to see what you think. 

M&S have some great perfume jems and also the makeup will surprise you too if you give it the chance. Take a look here for it. 

Stupidly Big Pennys, Boots And Lush Haul

I know right? I have nothing to say, I can only declare that it wasn't my fault and eh.. The fact that I have come to hide Boots and Pennys under my bed in shame means something is seriously wrong, that or I'm just cleaning the lazy way. Yeah? Now just to clear it up before you think I've money coming out my ears, I bought these things over time and just haven't done a haul on them so there getting all squashed together into one. I have a few fashion bits that I've picked up too but will do another post on those so you can see them better. So, here we go!

First lets start in the cheap and cheerful Pennys. From L-R, a purple owl mug I got as a Christmas present (the seasons started!) for my sister €2 (you can't go wrong!) before you think I'm uber mean, I have forked out a lot more for her but it's nice to have a few other bits to open on the day. / Also some lovely coloured ribbons for €2.50 / €6 batttery operated lights that you can see all lit up in the next photo. So in love with them! Might get a few more sets.. 

Then in another visit a while ago I got €1.50 tweezers / €3.75(?) Cartrice camouflage concealer in ivory that I'm dying to try out / a pair of black leggings / a €1.50 sticky flint roller with an extra roll. The floral pattern is so cute and the added bonus of a plastic holder so the sticky part isn't ruined. Handy or what?

Now Boots thats again L-R, I should have shares in this shop by now. It was 3 for 2 on make up so I got a repurchase of 17 Phwoarr Paint eye concealer in fair €6.99 / 17 Miracle Matte pressed powder in Ivory €6.09 / 17 Supreme Shine in pinking shear €5.09 / I also got a buy one get one free Pantene ProV shampoo and conditioner €4.79 for my mom / Lastly I picked up a repurchase of Jerome Russel Bblonde lift cream peroxide and a cheap as chips Nivea roll on deodorant for €1.49.

I also got a repurchase of Boots own brand cotton pads that I use all the time, they are buy one get one half price / Collection hot looks in shimmey shake €4.99 /Picked up a buy one get one free on Impluse white musk - can't remember the price / Jerome Russel Bblonde powder bleach that was like €6 / a few handy hand wipes €1.75(?) / a bottle of nail varnish remover as mines not that good and I wanted something else to try that was less then €3. 

Lastly I picked up an amazing offer in Tesco. A box of Cadburys milk tray for only €4. I went into SuperValue later and saw the same box for €11, super buy!! / My three favourite buys from the day that I can't wait to use! / Umhumm, Lush shopping again! This time I picked up 2 of their Christmas things, bath melt star light, star bright €4.50, a bubble bar of Christmas penguin €3.85 and a chunk of rock star soap €8.23 for Stephen who loves using it. I was also given some samples of celebrate body lotion. / Lastly 2 magazines for €2 each - reading bargain of the year!  

So yeah, stupidly big haul but I didn't want to do loads one after the other as thats just a boring and repetitive reading! Hope everyone is keeping happy and well. Stay fab x

Lush Lord Of Misrule Bath Bomb

Unlike the Soot Ball that I bought the other week purely on looks, I wasn't too taken with lord of misrule because well, it didn't look as pretty! (don't judge a book by its cover huh?) But when I was in Lush I picked it up and smelt it - it was a good move. It smells amazing, its massive and it actually looks really cool. Apart from the obvious Halloweeny green it has dots of pinkish reds, white and yellows too.

What I later learnt was that the design on it was based on the hats you find in Christmas crackers! Bit odd to be advertising them as Halloween editions. I've only just found out that they are in a good few of the Christmas gift sets and staying in the shops until the Spring. Don't get me wrong, it may sound like I'm complaining but what I'm really doing is rabbiting on autopilot while planning my next trip to Lush. Making a mental note to bring an extra bag too. Lord of misrule is just that good.


This uber big bath bomb has fair trade absolute vanilla to make you silky soft, black pepper and patchouli oil. It has a little surprise of some popping candy and amazing colours that fizz out leaving deep red bath water when its all dissolved. When I used my first one of these I ran the water and then added the bath bomb to watch it work its magic, so there weren't very many bubbles at all. However the second time I used this (yes, I have used a few since..) I let the water run as I dropped this little beauty in and I was amazed at how many bubbles it made. It kind of reminds me of a bubble bar.

Looks cool, leaves your skin feeling soft and moisturized and makes the whole house smell divine. Along with you too of course. Theres nothing I can even think of to say thats negative. It costs around €4.25 which isn't too bad for its size and compared to the prices of other bath bombs.

The Dublin Meet Up #3

I'm sure a lot of you will have seen my first post about the day and my second about the bloggers themselves. This is my last post about the day even if it is super super late - sorry about that! I'm so baffled at the amazing generosity of the sponsors who gave each blogger a goodie bag that was filled with so many lovely things that I have been trying out over the past while. Once I'm happy that I have really tested out the products well I will do a few reviews for all you lovely people! There is already one or two shiny things that I can't get enough of and will be ranting and raving about them. My gran is in love with the Dove soap bars and has robbed them from me, cheeky thing! But after all, sharing is caring.

The Cosmitic Outlet was one of the main sponsors of the day and oh my did the goodie have a some beauts inside! As you can see from the picture below there was a YesTo cleanser, GOSH eyeshadow trio and blue eyeliner, a MaxFactor mascara and a lovely Models Co. foundation. I have full plans of going to visit this place soon to find some great bargains and maybe a few sneaky surprises for Christmas stockings too.

Next up is Derma V10 who kindly gave everyone a massive selection of all their lovely products! Below is a moisturizing face cream, mascara, dry skin cream, lipcare lip balm and a body moisturizer. I know right? The big tub of moisturizer smells edible, just to tell you.  

Two other main sponsors were Niume Skincare who kindly gave us a pretty white bag with some gorgeous skin care gems inside. And the last main sponsor was Peter Mark who gave us a full sized Keratase product, courtesy of Style Club North Earl Street which is about to celebrate 1 year in business! 

Other things that were added to our bags was a Numa Brush which is so lovely and soft,  Baby B Browne full size tan, Orifalme daily boost shield, Antomicals facemask, Wapo and Neals Yard Remedies samples and Dove soap bars that my gran loves. 

Check out Samantha's blog AllTheBuzz, shes the lovely lady who made this day possible and I still can't get over how much work she put into it!

Also a shout out and big thanks to David of davidmcauleyphotography  who took the pictures for the day and kindly let all the bloggers who attended rob them to use on their blogs, with permission of course! He is so down to earth and friendly, not to mention an amazing photographer, Check out some of his amazing work!

The Catch Up

Hi, hello. Yes I am here. I haven't posted in a little while and I thought I'd have a bit of a catch up with you all. I think recently the best way to keep an nosy eye on what I'm up to is to follow me on Instagram as I've been most active there. 

You know, the world is a big scary place sometimes and it can be hard to get your head around it when your sat behind the safety of your computer screen blabbering away about a face mask or a new blog your loving at the moment. But I sat and thought about the people that are potentially reading this blog (or not!) and started comparing myself to other people. Next thing you know I'm curled up in bed rocking back and forth under the covers hoping I'll never again have to face the world. I'm not sure if its a type of anxiety, but whatever it is I'm not letting it get in the way any longer then it has. 

Heres a few things that have been happening lately that I've snapped and want to share with you all. Posts will be back to normal from today and I've lots of hauls, reviews and rambles I can't wait to share with you all! For example, I got a new tattoo!! I know, I'm overly excited about it. I dyed my hair a few colours and my Halloween giveaway is closed and a winner was picked by random selection by rafflecopter. 

Halloween bun that I made loads of with my gran/ Lush Sex Bomb bath bomb/ My not so scary Halloween make up (and dyed hair!)

Chocolate muffin on a really nice girly day out/ We caved the pumpkins!/ Dodie wanted a bath too 

 

I went to IKEA and got overexcited about the teddies/ Gran made yet even more buns/ My Halloween giveaway is over and won!

My blue, green, pink and prrple hair/ Paint your own Santa present that I bought/ Totally addicted to coffee again

See you sooner then you think x

The Dublin Meet Up #2

As you will know from my last post, I was off having a lovely old time on Saturday at the Dublin blogger meet up organised by the lovely Samantha of All The Buzz. I got to meet some bloggers I love and discovered some new ones that I'm getting stuck into reading lots of their posts! Here are some of the bloggers I met. If your not listed here I'm sorry, I talked to so many wonderful girlys that day that I might have got a bit confused. Feel free to tweet or message me and I will add you in!

Killer Fashion  First girls I got chatting to who were so so lovely! Thank you for the photo and great natter!

TownMouseCountryMouse Both of these sisters were so friendly and stylish to say the least!

Zee-Railed  Zita was the one who told me all about this meet up so a big shout out and thank you to her! After all our talking and planning we never actually got to talk to each other which was awful but I'm going to go on a hunt if we are at the next meet up to say a huge hello!

GlitterMamaWishes Lovely lady who has a third baby on the way - good luck Yaz!

PinkElephantBloggin More gorgeous ladies who gave me one of their very fancy cards - next on my shopping list are cards!

SoPolishedIreland I bumped into Manal at the very end just before she was leaving and chewed the ear off her, the poor girl! She is so lovely and so so talented with nail art!

GirlFridaysBeautyBlog Last but not least Anne Maire was uber lovely to get to talk to, she showed me some picture layouts and said if I was nervous at meet ups she would walk in with me so I wasn't alone. How nice is she?

I hope to meet more bloggers and make lots of new friends. I am gutted I didn't get up the courage to go and talk to more bloggers as they were all so lovely. But theres always next time!!

Photo courtesy of David Mcauley Photography

Photo courtesy of David Mcauley Photograph

Have you entered my Halloween Giveaway yet?

The Dublin Meet Up #1

Last Saturday I attended my first every bloggers meet up and I was terrified! I even went off to the shops and got new tops because I clearly had nothing acceptable in my overflowing wardrobe... But I need not have worried as everyone was so nice! The event was organized by the wonderful Samantha Johnston who writes AllTheBuzz. Can I just say this girly was totally amazing to take on something like this, it doesn't seem like an easy job to do! We all met at The Church Bar and had a little place to ourselves to natter and mingle. When I got there I was warmly welcomed by Samantha and told to take some goodie bags. My gosh what fab things were inside too! 

Not only did I get to meet loads of bloggers that I love (que fan girl moments that I'm ashamed of!) and some new ones too, but there was also a demo by Niamh Martin, creater of Nima Brush. She has been a make up artist for over 10 years and did an amazing job doing Lisa of Pink Sugar's make up while throwing in some handy tips. The next speaker was Michelle McMahon of Her.ie who gave a really great inspirational talk on how she came up through the world of journalism and landed at her desk in Her.ie. As a massive fan of the site and Michelle I might have had a huge fan girl moment, evening asking for an autograph which is below in the biggest possible photo size setting. (I honestly have no shame.) After her talk I wanted to go straight to a computer and type, then run to Kerry and back, just for the hell of it considering how inspired I felt.

 While we were all chattering away Rosin from Reach Out Ireland which is a non profit, non government funded charity for youth mental health handed out post cards so we could all write positive notes to ourselves and they would get posted back to us! I thought it was a lovely way to give yourself a mini pick-me-up and to make you have a proper think about all the good things in your life. By the end of the event €150 was raised through buying raffle tickets for some great prizes. Go us girls! On a side note how amazing is Rosin's blue hair?

Photo on the right courtesy of David Mcauley Photography

 This was a really great day and I couldn't have asked for more. Everyone was so friendly and nice, the atmosphere was cool and the guest speakers were unbelievable. I can't wait for the next event to see them all again and catch up! I will be doing a separate post on all the bloggers who I managed to meet on the day as I feel they deserve their own part. And I will also be doing a post on what I got in my goodie bags and the sponsors who were so generous!

One last thing I must say before I sign off for now (I know, such a long post right?) Samantha put all this together herself without any prior experience doing meet ups. She wanted to meet other bloggers, help other bloggers build friendships and the blogging community and help with her fear of public speaking. I can't get over how amazing a person like Samantha is to undertake such an enormous task arranging everything. Down to the goodie bags, a thank you card, lovely cup cakes and glittery red lips to greet us on the tables. My little bit of inspiration for the week.

Have you entered my Halloween giveaway yet?