I’m a teeny bit late with my June Favourites, apologies. I reckon this heat is making us all a bit loopy and unproductive though, right? 🙂
June was my birthday month, and although life is a bit of a rollercoaster at the minute being by mam’s side while she’s so ill. (Fuck Cancer!), every awesome person around me made my birthday bloody awesome. I got treated to afternoon tea by my bestie, had a BBQ in my honour in the gorgeous sun and was just generally a spoiled brat.
There wasn’t many stand out June Favourites for this year. But I managed to sit down and think of a few. One skincare, of course makeup and even an oul fashion fave that I got for my birthday.
Yep, I am talking about the giant sunglasses upon my face :). They’re from Quay and I got them on ASOS.
I am on my second tube of the Pixi Rose Cream Cleanser, so I definitely thought that was worth chatting about a little bit.
The Clarins Summer Bronzer is something I’ve already harped on about before here too. I haven’t used another bronzer since getting it though, so it really had to be in my June Favourites.
Then finally my go to lip combo for the past two weeks which I demonstrated on Instagram here.
And that is my June Favourites tied up in a blogpost and video bow 🙂
Hope you have the greatest July. Try to be present and take in the awesome weather we are having. Safely of course, we don’t know how long it’s going to last.
Edinburgh definitely wasn’t supposed to be a shopping holiday. We were only there for two days. Myself, John and my Mam went. We explored the city (which is awesome by the way). We did some of the tourist attractions. Camera Obscura is definitely something to do if you go, and ate and drank ourselves silly. On the last day our flight was in the evening so we pottered into the city and the shopping just happened. My mother is a professional shopping in fairness so she took us all along for the ride 🙂 I ended up getting some fashion bits, beauty and homeware bits too. Compiling it all together I realised I had enough to compile a haul 🙂
Also myself and John casually got married in Camera Obscura.
My brother paid for the very intimate ceremony. £2 to be exact. Don’t worry it wasn’t official, if we ever do get married I probably would’t wear a veil…or a denim jacket 🙂
Edinburgh city is really great place to shop as well as sightsee. It’s not too big so you can get around pretty easy by foot and there’s lots of great stores to peruse.
I was particularly excited to see Anthropologie. I’ve never been inside one of their stores, although I have lusted after their products online. I have seen UK YouTubers I follow with their amazing Slivered Geode Coasters. I knew I wanted at one strictly for Instagram purposes 🙂 They are 14 quid a pop! I ended up with two. My brother bought me one (wedding present ha), and then John kindly bought me one too.
I also got the prettiest monogrammed mug which was on special for £8.
Primark aka Penneys got hit a little as well. They seem to do a thing where you can buy some stuff in certain stores but not in others so it’s always good to have a little looksy.
Apologies, I have no idea if any of these are available in Ireland.
I picked up two pairs of trousers.
I have a really similar black pair from New Look and get a lot of wear out of them so I thought I would pick up a couple more.
This super cute t shirt was £8.
Definitely more for Spring, but you have to act fast in Penneys so this went into the basket too 🙂
I chose two of the cream eyeshadows from their newly released In The Nude Collection.
I actually went to the launch of this collection here in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and these were one of the products I was impressed with. They were only £2!
The last thing fashion related thing I bought is probably my favourite.
Yes, they are Disney themed!!! I just fell in love with them, they’re so cute right? They have Mickey and Minnie AND lipstick kisses on them! And they were only £10. I am a child at heart for sure.
A quick look around Superdrug just to see if they had anything different than in Dublin made me leave with two things.
Although I’ve tried a fair few items from Makeup Revolution, I’ve never tried anything from their I Heart Makeup Range. Now I’m fully aware that these are a complete rip off of Too Faced, but sure look they were cheap 🙂
I will keep you posted about how I get on with them.
I decided on this trip that I was going to keep a look out for a baker boy cap. How fashion forward of me. Initially I had bought this one before Christmas from ASOS. I bloody love it but unfortunately my giant head is too big for it as it’s made from quite a ridged material.
I put it on and although I liked it it’s not as universal as just a plain black one. I was about to put it back the mammy whipped it off my head and bought it. It stayed on my head for the whole day after that and I love it. Although the boys kept calling me a train conductor 🙂
I was still on a quest for a plain black one, and ended up spotting this corduroy one in Topshop.
Because of my big mallet, I didn’t want one that was too puffy and if it had hardware I wanted it to be gold, this fit the bill perfectly.
The Mammy then spotted the same cap in pink and insisted on buying that one for me too. It’s not on the website so I can’t link it sorry.
Yes, she is a shopaholic. So now I am the proud owner of THREE baker boy hats! There’s a grey one too that she wanted to get as well, I had to reel her in at that point 🙂
The last thing I got was this little gold star and moon pendant from Topshop also.
It was on sale for £3 and I absolutely love it.
And that’s it for my Edinburgh fashion, beauty and makeup haul. We had the best time there. Myself and John are already planning to go back. Have you been? Click here to check out our Brussels vlog.
It’s been a while since I uploaded a vlog! We live at home at the minute ie: with the parentals, so it’s not really something I’m too comfortable with doing here. We’ve been trying to do it when we’ve something on or we’re away though.
John secretly likes it and it gives me practice with the camera and talking to the camera in front of him and strangers! I’m still not too great with it, but baby steps and all that 🙂
So if you didn’t know we went to Brussels for John’s birthday for a couple of days. He is majorly into his craft beer, so where else would you be heading with a hobby like that, right?
I am also majorly into chips, waffles and chocolate, who isn’t? 🙂 It’s definitely the place to explore that too.
We were broke after Christmas, so this was predominately a more budget friendly trip. The flights were super cheap in the Ryanair sales and we booked a really affordable AirBnB. I do a little tour of it in the vlog here if you want to see it up close. It was a gem of a find!
If you want to see Brussels and we went to Bruges for the day too from a touristy perspective, this vlog is for you. We just wandered around, taking in the beautiful buildings. And also eating and drinking what the cities had to offer.
We weren’t sure what to expect, but we had the best time. The people were lovely and considering they already speak two languages within the one country, their English is bloody brilliant. Also, their infrastructure makes it really easy to get around too. We went for two days, we could have easily had one more to take in even more sights and maybe go to a museum or two as well.
The shopping is pretty great in Brussels and Bruges, if that would tickle your fancy more. I managed a quick trip to Kiko, which I was pretty delighted about. I did a haul here if you fancy checking it out.
All in all we had the best time. I didn’t vlog everything just because I’m damn awkward, but hopefully you get a taste of what the cities have to offer.
I did my beauty favourites for 2017 in video form here not too long ago, if you fancy a beauty hit. There was non beauty related bits and bobs that I wanted to give a shout out to though aswell. So here I am writing a blogpost all about them 🙂
I actually scrolled through my Instagram feed for inspiration for this. I adore the beauty world, but I do have other interests too. I’m not always comfortable talking fashion for all to see. I’m not particularly comfortable within myself. But I love fashion too. Now I don’t mean keeping up with all trends or buying all the latest designer releases, (maybe one day). I mean just putting outfits together, making myself feel a bit better when I look in the mirror. My lovely friend Lorraine of the awesome blog (John It’s Only Makeup) gave me a bit of a boost and told me I should start doing ootd’s (Outfit Of The Day’s) on Instagram. I’ve done a few over the past couple of months.
These boots are definitely on my non beauty favourite list. Now I will say these are not the best quality over the knee boot out there and won’t last the test of time. But, they fit over my larger calves, have a bit of a heel, are comfortable to walk and stand in and they were a bloody bargain!
Another shoe favourite is from a different spectrum. I picked these up simply because they are sparkly.
I got a lot questions about these on social media. They’re from Penneys and they were €7 just before Christmas. I’ve literally worn them everyday since I picked them up and they’re lasting well. They have a rubber sole too which is handy if you need to pop out the bins or something like that. Looking at them makes me smile 🙂
Next up is another Penneys buy. I only picked this sweatshirt up for €10 a few weeks ago, so it’s probably still there.
I’ve been just using it for loungewear ( I have it on as I type). It’s so comfy, washes really well and sure it makes you a fully fledged unicorn trainer.
I have been a bit obsessed with buying costume jewellery on eBay. Specifically earrings.
They take an age to come and there is definitely hits and misses. But when something comes that you actually like and it only cost a couple of euro, you feel pretty damn smug. I always use PayPal and order from reputable sellers. I also never spend a alot.
Another jewellery fave has been this Casio watch John kindly bought me for Christmas.
I did choose it myself from Asos. I like a more masculine watch.
I also thought the rusty rose gold colouring was a little different to what I’ve had before, so I was just drawn to it. A watch to me is more an accessory than a necessity. And I think this fits my style quite nicely.
My last favourite is wine. Now if you know me, you’ll know this is a very new scenario.
I asked on my Facebook page, would you lovely lot be interested in seeing my Christmas Wishlist for 2017. I toyed with doing gift guides this year. But, I feel a bit weird recommending things that I haven’t tried myself. I’m not really in the position blog wise or financially to get lots of lovely things together myself…maybe one day 🙂
You guys were so supportive of a Christmas Wishlist post. And so was John too may I add. He’s very excited to have a list of all the bits and bobs I would love under the tree. Makes his job a bit easier 🙂 Now, I am not expecting all of these, don’t worry. And also, we’ve decided not to do really big pressies this year either. In an ideal world, I would be getting a Dyson hairdryer, an iPhone X and a new bed, but that’s a big excessive. I would also be totally sticking a Nintendo Switch down on my list too if money was no object.
Oh and also if I didn’t have carpal tunnel from playing Mario on the DS. No, I am not ashamed of it 🙂 But we’re being somewhat sensible and going for more medium range pressies and some little bits and bobs for each other too this Christmas.
Enough jabbering on. Let’s get on to my actual Christmas Wishlist.
So many of my blogging friends have literally said this has changed their hair lives. I’m still using a first edition GHD which is pretty shameful, I know. This would be a lovely addition to my hair tool collection. This is the 2.0 version. You can find it currently on offer from Look Fantastic here.
The Mac Snowball Mini Lipstick Kit has been something I’ve been eyeing up for ages, but definitely do not need.
It contains 12 mini lipsticks of some of Mac’s best selling shades. I actually couldn’t find it available online anywhere else now except John Lewis here. It’s the cheapest I have seen it in the past though. Only thing is they won’t ship it to Ireland so you would have to use Parcel Motel or Address Pal to ship it to a UK address and then get them to deliver it here. Not the worst though. It’s a very reasonable and effective way to do it.
Another beauty product on my list would be the By Terry Baume De Rose.
I do love a fancy lip balm so I do. It’s a lovely treat. And lip balm is something I use consistently everyday. This one is full of lovely ingredients and has SPF. It can also double up for dry skin or cuticles aswell. You can find By Terry in store from Space NK or online here. They have a Christmas ornament version of it too, which is super cute.
I waffle on about the L’Occitance Almond Shower Oil all the time. (I only hauled some of it here recently).
Well this is the body oil version of it and I really want to try it. I am currently obsessed with body oils at the minute. The colder weather definitely has something to do it it. This 100ml of the oil is actually on special at the minute from Debenhams here. Such a lovely gift to get someone.
The last more beauty related item on my list is something quite practical. An electric toothbrush!
I have to be honest, I picked this one from Boots here for a couple of not so logical reasons. It’s currently half price at €45.99. I figured that was a good deal. And it’s an Oral B. They are the only reasons. I’ve tried electrical toothbrushes over the years and they’ve always been crap so I’ve always gone back to manual brushing. But they’ve come a long way since then and they’re meant to clean so much better than just using a standard toothbrush. Ok, I’ll shut up now, I sound like an advert.
I have my sights set on a couple of pairs of shoes this festive season. This first pair are these awesome buckle ankle boots from River Island.
I’m not usually a fan of faux crocodile skin, but I think it just works for these. I love the buckle detailing and I also love that they have a zip for ease. They’re flat for comfort, but still look super smart. They’re current stock on the website here.
My other shoe want are some Vans Old Skool runners.
Everyone and their granny has a pair of these at the moment I know. But they’re just so darn cool. I couldn’t find the classic black and white ones in my size online. But, I came across these all black ones here and I actually really dig them! Let me know what you think?
I was never one for particularly nice jewellery. Penneys costume would do me grand. Ever since getting my engagement ring though, I’ve become more interested in investing in some nice pieces. The Missoma website has become a bit of a haunt for me. YouTube definitely makes me do it. I’ve three pieces from Missoma that my eyes are currently on.
The first ones are their Talisman Evil Eye Earrings.
Super delicate and pretty. They’re on the website here.
Another pair of earrings are haunting my dreams too.
Again, super small and delicate. I have my ears pierced three times and already have actual diamond studs (how fancy am I?), in the third hole. John got me them last Christmas. So in an ideal earring world these would round out my trio of ear adorments 🙂 They are the Gold Vermeil Tiny Orb Hinged Hoops if you want to check them out here.
My third Missoma love is their Tiny Horn Necklace.
These come in different sizes, I just like the idea of wearing the small one on an everyday basis. It’s from the Lucy Williams collection here.
Another accessory I have my eye on (John actually knows all about this already) is this Casio Rose Gold Watch.
This has been in my ASOS Wishlist folder for ages. I often add things into it in hopes they go down in price and I can justify buying them. I love the masculine feel of this, but it’s still quite delicate and classic. You can check out more info about it here.
Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf is always part of my fragrance collection. But I thought I would add their newest release BonBon to my Christmas Wishlist for this year.
It’s much sweeter and more girlie. I think it would be lovely layered with Flowerbomb as well as worn on it’s own. I’ve tested it a few times in store now and really like it. It’s currently on sale from Debenhams here.
My very last wishlist item will only mean anything to you if you’re a fan of Gilmore Girls.
I fell in love with this print after seeing it in the background of Karissa Pukas’ videos. She told me she ordered it from Etsy. I found the seller here. Unfortunately the creator is in the States so shipping to Ireland is pretty steep, but I still definitely would. I really really love this.
And….we’re done. If you got to the end of this, well done you! Let me know what’s on your Christmas Wishlist for this Christmas?
Forgive me. I thought I would sit down and use some of the new makeup products that have come my way over the past few weeks. Some are PR samples, some were gifts from lovely people and some I bought myself.
Then, I thought I would sit down, play with some new makeup and answer some of your questions. Still OK.
It kind of turned into using new makeup and having a bit of a therapy session though. And as a result, the video is nearly 30 minutes long! It was also a bitch to edit. When I am rambling I say ’em’ so much, it is infuriating!
As a beauty blogger, I don’t delve into my personal life all that much. It’s not really that necessary. You come here for the beauty chats 🙂 I don’t hide it either though. If you follow me on social media, I do dip in and out of life updates.
I use lots of new makeup products in this video. Some I have used before, some are brand new out and some are just new to me. I give you a run down of my impressions and how they apply, as well as talking a lot of shit too 🙂
I have posts already on the Essence Collection here. Also the Tarte Shape Tape aswell here.
There’s some new products from The Body Shop and Catrice being put to the test too.
The makeup ended up being a simple bronzed eye with a pop of colour in the water line and a mauve lip. Very me and I ain’t mad at it 🙂
As always you can click on the video above to watch or go directly to my YouTube channel by clicking here.
If you manage to get to the end, I thank you with all of my heart 🙂