Face of the Day! Featuring Mac, Chanel, Lancome & more!

This is my very first "face of the day" post, please let me know if you like these sort of things and I will try and do it more often!

So on Saturdays I wear a lot more makeup, basically because I have plenty of time to apply it! On weekdays when I am at work, I am lucky if I have time for a quick flick of mascara and a bit of blush.

So here are the products that I used...

I just realised there are a lot of high end stuff here.... I used to be such a lover of budget beauty but now I tend to buy just one "luxury" thing at a time, and I got quite a lot of this stuff for Christmas.

First I applied my Chanel Bronze Universal all over my face. I love this so much, I am not much into bronzers but since I got this I have worn it very frequently. I then used some MAC Face and Body over it. I used the YSL Touche Eclat under my eyes. I don't want to sound overly dramatic, but this little product has changed my life! At last my undereye area looks fairly decent and more like a 25 year old instead of a 70 year old!

For my eyes I used my trusty ArtDeco Eyeshadow Base, my new MAC Veluxe palette (applied using damp brush) and my favourite ArtDeco liquid eyeliner. My favourite mascara of all time is Lancome Hypnose, it works brilliantly for me. And I filled in my brows with the Essence eyebrow pencil.

I used only the beautiful shimmery coral blush out of this Lancome Blush Subtil palette, and finished it off with the Lancome Rouge in Love lipstick!

I just headed into town for some lunch, and now I am in my sister's house for some dinner and a bit of craic! It has been a really awful day, pouring rain all day! Roll on Spring!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

How Much Is My Face Worth?

I saw this tag on a few blogs, and I was so intrigued to do it myself.... I'm frightened of the result though!

These are the products I would use on weekends when I have a lot more time to do my makeup. During the week when I work I just use whatever is the quickest and easiest! But I enjoy taking time to do makeup for going shopping, going for lunch, etc.  So let's take a closer look at what I use and how much they cost...

Illamasqua Cream Blush -  £9.00 - I absolutely love this blush and I use it every day. The RRP is £18 but I got this when Illamasqua had their 50% off sale. This is the shade "Dixie".

MUA Highlighting Powder - £3.00 - I don't often use highlighters to be honest but I am trying to get in the habit of using them. I love this MUA one, and I actually prefer it to the more expensive ones like Benefit High Beam.

Lancome Teint Idole Foundation - £27.50 -  Oh, I cannot say how much I love this foundation! It is on the expensive side, but it isn't comparable to any other foundation in my opinion. It's just the best and is so beautiful to wear.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer - £5.49 - This is a recent purchase. I am constantly trying out new concealers. I am completely paranoid about my undereye area. This one is probably the nicest one I have tried so far for under the eyes.

MAC Prep & Prime Line Filler - £16.00 - I told you I was paranoid about my undereyes! I got this recently too and although it makes only a small improvement, it is a great product and leaves the skin silky smooth.

Urban Decay Naked Palette - £37.00 - I am so in love with this palette. All my other eyeshadows have been neglected since I got this! All the shades are excellent and I use them all. This was so worth the money, if you break it down it costs around £3.00 per shadow.

Art Deco Dip Eyeliner - £9.00 - This eyeliner is fab. I am terrible at using liquid eyeliners, but for whatever reason I can apply this no problem. The applicator is just the right size/shape for me, and the formula is just the best and lasts all day.

Art Deco Eyeshadow Base - £8.00 - Many bloggers recommended I get this to prolong eyeshadow, so I went ahead and ordered it from BeautyBay.com and I have never looked back. It is, by far, the best eyeshadow base I have ever used (even better than Urban Decay Primer Potion, in my opinion). I use this every day I wear eyeshadow, and even after 12 hours of wear my eyeshadow still looks perfect.

Lancome Hypnose Star Mascara - £22.00 - I love this mascara so much! Sadly I am using the dregs of this one, I have put this mascara on my Christmas wish list though! I don't think I can go without it! What makes it so good, I think is the wand. It is just brilliant and it makes my lashes so long and full.

Essence Eyebrow Pencil - £1.50 - I have pretty horrid brows, but you can forget your fancy HD palettes and waxes, give me a brow pencil and I am a happy girl. This pencil is of an excellent quality and I wouldn't really bother spending any more than this when this one works so well for me!

EOS Lipbalm - £5.99 - Today, I cannot really be bothered wearing lipstick or anything that needs touching up! So long as my lips feel hydrated I will be happy enough. I am using my EOS which I love. The scent is lovely and the balm feels so nourishing. I wish they were tinted balms though, but nevermind. I ordered this one from Naturismo.

So the total is.... £144.48 .... I must say I am in total shock! I really didn't think it would be so much! Although this really is cheating, I should be dividing this amount by the number of times I will use these products, which will be many more times of course. But the final figure is quite shocking initially!

If you have done one of these posts, please leave me the link below because I would love to have a look!

Five Nail Polishes I can't wait to wear for Autumn/Winter

Ah glitters and dark colours. How I have missed you! It's time to ditch the bright colours and start wearing beauties like these! I wore these a lot last year, they were may favourite Autumn/Winter polishes. Here is a closer look...

Essence Breaking Dawn LE - Alice Had a Vision
The most gorgeous dark, purple, shimmery polish. I adore this one. I guess it is a black base with purple shimmer. It is fabulous. I am just raging I only bought one of these bottles at the time :(

 Essence Breaking Dawn LE - Jacob's Protection
Yes I loved this collection...despite not being a Twilight fan. Similar to the purple one, this is a black base with deep blue shimmer. One of the nicest and most unusual polishes I have ever seen.

 Essence Special Effect Topper - Glorious Aquarius
This was my all time favourite glitter polish, it looked amazing over any turquoise polish. Essence really are fabulous, aren't they? The only bad thing is trying to remove them! I switched all my glitters for bright neon plain polishes over the summer months, but I have to say I did miss a bit of sparkle!

 China Glaze - Champagne Kisses
This one was from China Glaze's 2012 holiday collection. I got this one to wear on Christmas day last year! I absolutely adored it, the only thing I didn't like was the gritty kind of texture, but I overlooked that because the shade was just so gorgeous.

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps
..I saved the best for last. I cannot even describe how much I love this one. Red polishes can of course be worn all year round, but this one I felt was a little too festive looking. I even love the name of this one, being a huge Wizard of Oz fan. I honestly could look at this one all day!


What are your favourite Autumn/Winter polishes?

Essence Volumizing Lash Powder

I saw this rather interesting product while I was shopping in Penneys at the weekend. I had heard about it before but never actually saw it at any Essence stands. It was only about €3.00 so thought I might as well get it to try it. You all probably know how much I love Essence anyway. 

I am not big on false lashes at all, I just cannot wear them. But I do love a full lash, so I would try anything in the hope of achieving that!

In the pot, it just looks like a ball of fluff. Upon closer inspection, it is actually tiny little fibres, I'd say about 1mm long! 

 The application process is you apply one coat of mascara, and while the mascara is still wet, brush the fibres onto your lashes, then apply another coat of mascara. It's all a little bit fiddly for me, but I got there in the end!

 This is no mascara on..

 This is 2 coats of mascara and the lash powder.

It actually has made a bit of a difference, and does give a kind of a false lash effect. I wouldn't have time to put this on every day, but it would be a nice touch to enhance your going out make up if you are like me and hate false eyelashes. You've got to be careful not to get any of the actual fibres in your eye. I wonder if this product is comparable to the ModelCo Fibre Lashes mascara. I have never tried it, but this Essence Volumizing Lash Powder may be a cheaper alternative or even if you just wanted to try it out before splashing out on the ModelCo.

Dublin Haul & Cocoa Brown Lovely Lady Lunch

A few days ago, I received an email from the lovely ladies at Cocoa Brown, inviting me to lunch on Saturday at the Shelbourne in Dublin. I was so thrilled to be invited, the Shelbourne is a magnificent hotel and I couldn't wait to meet some bloggers in "real life". I arrived in Dublin a little early on Saturday morning, so I did a little bit of shopping! And I do apologise in advance if this post turns out to be a little picture-heavy.

I love Forever 21, their clothes are super stylish and extremely affordable too. I especially really like their skinny jeans, they are a perfect fit for me and so comfortable. Recently I ordered online some lovely coloured skinny jeans, and I thought I'd buy some nice tops to go with them.

 I thought this top was real nice. I love the beautiful colour, the floaty style of the top and the pretty gold detailing on the front and the cuffs.

 I got this nice coral shirt for casual wear

And because it's still a bit chilly out, I got this nautical style cardigan!

Then of course I had to stop by Penneys, I wanted a few more tops for everyday wear, and I wanted to check out the Essence stand too!

 These tops were just €3 each, cheap and cheerful for everyday wear

I thought these two tops were really pretty, I think they €6 each. 

 I was so impressed with the last Angelica nail polish I got I just had to pick up another couple of colours! Can't wait to try these!

I got these from the Essence stand. I recently included the Gel Tint as part of a beauty swap I took part in, and I really wanted to try it for myself! I also can't wait to try the Volumizing Lash Powder. 

OK, now it was time to head to the Shelbourne. I have never seen such luxury, it is the fanciest hotel I have ever been in! It was so nice to meet Marissa and Sarah, and of course some fellow bloggers. We had an amazing lunch, here is a peek at the menu...

The food was just to die for, I have never tasted anything like it in my life! I had to take a photo of the dessert, it was so beautiful!

It was so great to talk to Marissa about her amazing tan, it is for sure the best tanning product I have ever used, and I really mean that. We all had a really great time, and we were all very generously given these amazing goody bags...

You will see included is the new Night and Day tan, which was taken off the production line just for us bloggers to get a sneak peek. A review will be coming very soon! 

I had the most amazing day out, and I want to say a huge thank you to the lovely Marissa and Sarah, I feel so honoured to have been invited to the Shelbourne. To all the bloggers who were there, it was so great to meet you and I hope we will meet again soon.

So all in all, a very productive Saturday! I cannot wait to try out all my new products!

Essence Lipstick - Sparkling Miracle

As part of my mini Essence haul, I lifted this very cute lipstick. I think it was around about £2.00. I chose this shade as I thought it was a little unusual and I don't have anything like it already in my collection.

What I like about Essence lipsticks is that the packaging is the same colour as what's in the tube, it would be a lot easier to find your favourite colour in your collection! 

There is a nice berry scent of this lipstick. They are nice and creamy and feel very rich on your lips. They fade nicely too so that even after a couple of hours there is a nice hint of colour. I would definitely like to try more shades, usually cheaper lipsticks can be very dry (like MUA) but these are not like that at all. So for the price I am most impressed! This is why I love Essence! My all time favourite lipsticks are the Benefit Silky Finish lipsticks, but at £14.00 they are very much a luxury item for me. I love being able to find something cheap but products that also exceed my expectations! 

Essence Superfine Eyeliner Pen

So I got this as part of my Essence haul. I cannot remember the price but I think it was around £2.50. I only use my Clinique gel liner at the moment, and I am rubbish at trying to apply liquid liner. I liked the felt tip pen style of this liner, so thought I should give it a go. 

It was actually very easy to apply! I was pleasantly surprised. The thicker style tip was much easier to use than a regular liquid liner. It was really easy to do a cat eye flick too. 

The only thing I do not like about this liner is that it is extremely hard to wash off! Even if you think you have removed it all, there is still a faint mark from where you had lined.

Essence 2-in-1 Volume Mascara

I picked up a few Essence pieces when I was in my local chemist...they don't really have a huge selection of products but they did have a few things which I had not seen before. So of course I had to get them to try - it's not as if they would break the bank! I think I will so a mini series of Essence reviews then, so as I can review each product individually. 

This mascara was actually the most expensive of everything that I bought, it was £3.50!

This is the "Look 1" wand. The actual wand is very thin and flimsy so I am actually scared removing this one from the tube incase it breaks! The brush is surprisingly full looking though.

"Look 2" has a slightly fatter brush, but there isn't really that much difference in appearance between the two. I tried to take a photo of the wands side by side, but you can't remove the two wands at once. So lets see how they differ when you apply the mascara!

 This is me with nothing on my eyes at all.

This is "Look 1". Wow! I love this one so much! It gives a very defined appearance and it has lengthened my lashes so much! It looks very natural and doesn't really look like I am wearing mascara at all!

 This is "Look 2". I do not really like this. My lashes look thick and really clumpy. I hate this kind of a look! Perhaps it would different if the rest of my eyes were made up, this might be nice as a finishing touch for a dramatic eye make up, but as it is I am not really fussed on it.

I think this is a really nice product, it's nice to have a bit of a choice in your mascaras. It's amazing how different the two look on your lashes. I much prefer Look 1 and I will definitely be wearing it more often!