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I am very hesitant to call this a hair curling tutorial. I’m forever hesitant to use that word anywhere on Beautynook to be honest. But, it’s what people search for, so I’m just jumping on the bandwagon. Don’t think any less of me 🙂

irish beauty blogger

Myself and hair styling would not be the best of friends. I’m lucky in that my hair isn’t too unruly so I can get away with doing the bare minimum with it most of the time. There is really only two facets to my ability. Straightening, which I use the L’Oréal Steampod for. (Review here). Or, I can curl it, which I’m doing a lot of lately.

irish beauty blog

At first when I was asked a few times by you lovely lot on Snapchat and Instagram how I curl my hair, I kind of got embarrassed. I just think of myself as so shit at hair. I decided to give a ‘hair curling tutorial’ a go anyways though and as I got into it, I realised, maybe I do have a couple of tips that people might learn from. We all do these things differently, right?

hair curling tutorial

I generally curl my hair when it’s freshly clean. I know most people don’t do that, but I have oily roots and if I did it on second or third day hair, it just wouldn’t be worth my while. I’ll use heat protection spray before drying and then just blast dry it. I used the fancy Dyson hairdryer in this video because we’re house sitting. Sad to say, I definitely don’t have one of these at home 🙁

top irish beauty blog

I’ll link the vent brush here too that I use in case you like the look of it 🙂 I let my hair cool and let my really old but favourite Babyliss curling wand heat up. I like less uniformed waves rather than full on curls. That’s of course personal preference though.

irish beauty blog

I do one side of my head at a time, taking approximately one inch sections. I like the tousled look, so I don’t think too much about it, once all the hair has a bit of a wave I’m happy. Click on the video above or directly here to see the whole Hair Curling Tutorial in action. You’ll get a better sense at how crap I am at hair and of the finished result 🙂

hair curling tutorial

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, as always.

Gemma

xxx

**********INCLUDES A PR SAMPLE*************

Can you believe Christmas is over? 2015 has come so quickly. I hope you all had a fantastic break and the start of your new year is going well.

Christmas was very good to me and I wanted to share with you some of the goodies we were lucky enough to receive as gifts. I love seeing what people got so we hope you don’t mind us getting in on the fun 🙂

The boyfriend did good this year (as he does every year).

First up I got this rose gold faced Accurist watch.

Accurist Rose Gold Watch

Black Leather Accurist Watch

 

I have wanted one of these for ages, ever since I saw Youtube’s Lily Pebbles rocking one, so I was very happy to open this on Christmas morning.

He also got my the coveted Hourglass Ambient Blush Palette.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette

How beautiful is this? It is so pretty and pretty extravagant looking. The colours are very wearable and have a lovely glow to them. I love owning this palette 🙂

I of course had to get the Soap & Glory Next Big Thing set. I get this every year and love it. It contains all of the Soap & Glory items you will ever need for shower time.

Soap & Glory Next Big Thing

He got me the Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot Palette, which was an absolute bargain, considering how expensive Benefit boxed blushes are.

Benefit Cheeky Sweet SpotBenefit Boxed Blushes

It contains 5 of their cult blushes as well as Hoola, a sample of Watts Up and a little brush. I love Benefit blushes so this is a very welcome addition to my makeup collection.

A new hair dryer was amongst the gifts on Christmas morning.

Babyliss Hair Dryer

I didn’t think I needed this, but it has 2100w and is so much stronger than the one I already have. I have a whole lot of hair so this will not go to waste.

Diptyque’s Mimosa Candle is on my Christmas and Birthday list every year, it’s my favourite scent, so I was very happy to receive a nice new one. Yum yum yum 🙂

Diptyque Mimosa Candle

Another gift I got from him was all from his own findings. A couple of years ago he surprised me with the Anna Sui Minnie Mouse Lipstick and Eye set, which I love so much I can’t bring myself to use it and I think this is going to end up the same way.

Anna Sui Lipstick M

How pretty is the packaging? The lipstick inside doesn’t disappoint either.

Anna SuiAnna Sui

We always do a present on Christmas Eve because we are children and cannot wait to exchange gifts, so this year my Christmas Eve pressie was the Charlotte Tilbury Mini Lipstick Charms.

Charlotte Tilbury Mini Lipstick CharmsCharlotte Tilbury Mini Lipsticks

These are such a cute gift for any makeup lover, as well as being lovely pigmented lipsticks.

Kris Kindle goes down in the boyfriends house at Christmas time. We make a list and then the person who gets you can pick what they want from the list up to €100. This year mr father in law (to be) got me and it did very well. He made the money go very far. A couple of the stand out things were.

The Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette.

Urban Decay Vice 3 PaletteUrban Decay Vice 3

The shades Brokedown, Sonic and Alchemy make me squeal with delight 🙂 Can’t wait to get properly stuck into this.

He also got me an Alex and Ani bangle.

Alex and Ani Bracelet

This is the Path of Life charmed bangle, which I think is quite fitting for me at the minute. These are a really lovely and reasonably priced gift with a lovely sentiment.

The Mammy got me a couple of lovely goodies as she always does including these cute pj’s from Marks & Spencer. I can’t wear these enough, they are so cozy.

marks & spencers pj's

And the Lush Merry Christmas Gift.

Lush Merry Christmas Gift

Is it bad that these are all nearly gone already?

I was such a lucky girl this year. My brother kindly gave me a very generous gift card for Brown Thomas and so I went in over the Christmas break and bought a couple of extra presents. #brat I know 🙂

I picked up Charlotte Tilbury’s eyelash curler.

Charlotte Tilbury eyelash curler

Adore that this is rose gold, it’s so pretty. I’m not too fond of it unfortunately though, I much prefer my Shu Uemura 🙁

The other thing I bought is one of my new favourite things for sure though. I think it deserves it’s own blogpost, so stay tuned for that.

Chanel Vitalumiere Loose Powder FoundationSo there you have it a dip into some of the wonderful gifts I was given for Christmas. It was a fantastic one surrounded by friends and family and too much chocolate…the diet starts now I swear 🙂

Happy New Year, hope 2015 is an amazing one for you!

So tell me, what did you get for Christmas? Go on tell, I love to have a nose.

Gemma.

xxx

 

 

 

TRESemmé Keratin Smooth

You  might have noticed I don’t get negative very often here on Beautynook. I try talk about things I like and feel positive about usually because that’s how I like to do it. Every so often something crosses your path though and you can’t keep the béal shut. The TRESemmé Keratin Treatment 7 Day Smooth is that for me.

Keratin Smooth

I had high hopes for this product. I picked it up excitedly in Boots, brought it home and washed my hair straight away. It claims to leave you with salon smooth hair with less frizz and more manageability (who wouldn’t want that!).You apply 8-10 pumps on medium length towel dried hair, without putting it on your scalp and comb it through. It has a cream like texture so it’s just like putting conditioner in your hair.

 

TRESemmé

Next, you blow dry your hair until it’s completely dry.Babyliss Hair DryerThen the instructions say to activate the thermal technology, straighten your hair in small sections, using a hair straightener at its highest setting. You need to repeat the process 3-5 times over each section. I can say honestly I abided by the instructions wholeheartedly.

GHD Hair Straighteners

So when you’re finished drying and straightening your hair of course it’s smooth and straight, you spent a long time straightening it, good stuff! However this stuff is meant to make this look last for up to four washes with minimal styling. When I bought the TRESemmé Keratin Treatment 7 Day Smooth, I bought it because lets face it I wanted less hair frizz but also with also with my blogger hat on. I thought it would be such a cool thing to recommend to people. I had plans on taking pics of my long fabulous locks and saying, you can get this too, but honestly this stuff did nothing for me whatsoever, taking a picture of my hair would be a complete waste of time.

I wash my hair every couple of days, so after a couple of days of putting on the treatment I washed it again. I have naturally straight full hair so I was not expecting anything amazing. I do get frizz at the crown of my head so I really expected this to be at least minimized…nothing.

I gave it to the mammy, made her stick to the regime and watched closely as she abided by all the instructions, left her for a few days, she washed her hair as normal and let it dry as she normally does. She has finer, shorter hair than me with more frizz. Her hair did not look any different, she handed it back to me and said “this stuff is shite”! (apologies for the language) :p

I hate being negative, but I felt it necessary with this product as it claims to do alot.

 

Have you tried it, or anything similar that actually works? Be sure to share it with everyone, don’t be shy 🙂

Thanks for reading you luscious locked lot!

Gemma

xxx

 

babyliss-curl-secret-perfect-curl-reviewLets start by saying this Babyliss Curl Secret contraption looks like some sort of torture tool. Don’t let that put you off though 🙂

babyliss perfect curl

I got this for Christmas off my lovely mammy this year, she knows me well. She bought it in Boots and paid 160Euro for it. You can get it from Boots here. It’s a pretty hefty price tag and I have to be honest it would put me right off buying it myself. I am brutal with my hair, I never leave enough time when I’m going out to do much with it, not that I am capable of it anyway. I usually spend all my time faffing with my makeup and then it’s a rush to do something with my mop. So this is where contraptions like this come in handy, it does the work for you you just have to follow the machine and do what you’re told.

I am a big fan of the curling wand, I think I have three, shame on me. But they are bloody dangerous (especially when you’re in a hurry like I am all of the time and don’t bother wearing the glove like I do all of the time). So the Babyliss Curl Secret is a safer option as there is no exposed parts that are going to give you third degree burns. It is heavy though so that can cause a problem if you are curling the whole length of your hair. I tend to just curl the ends, so it doesn’t be too bad on the arms.

So how do you use it. Here is a quick video of me demonstrating how easy it is:

Make sure your hair is dry and clean. There are two heat settings and 3 timer settings on it to choose to create the curl you want, you will want more heat for thicker hair and less for thinner hair.  It will take some messing around with to figure out what works for you. You can only fit a small amount of hair in at a time, which for me is a bit of a let down as I prefer bigger curls, but you can brush them out for a more beachy effect. You take your section of hair, and put it in the chamber of the curler starting at the top of where you want the curl to start, clamp the curler together and then the cool bit…your hair magically gets drawn in to it. You hold it there until the curler beeps four times, and then release it. You then have a pretty perfect curl. I really recommend playing around with this on a night you’re not up to much, because it does take some getting used to, but once you are, you can do your whole head in a short enough space of time without your hair getting caught (my hair got caught in it a couple of times when I used it first, so be careful!).

Overall I love this product, although I am a beauty junkie that loves trying all the new gadgets on the market if I can. I believe because your hair is been heated from all angles in the chamber of the curler, your curls last longer then if you were to curl your hair with a traditional tongs or wand which is cool and good for girls who have trouble keeping a curl in their hair. For thicker haired gals like myself using the Babyliss Curl Secret will take longer than using a wand as you can only do small sections at a time, but it only take between 8 and 12 seconds for a curl to form so that makes up for it I think. You can also use it without a mirror when you get comfortable with it. I really like this curler and it is great for people who just aren’t gifted in the hair styling department as once you know how to use it, there’s no thinking involved. The price is a bit steep, so I say go into Boots and give the Babyliss Curl Secret a test run, they usually have one out on display and you can see the coolness for yourself.

Thanks for reading and I hope this helps if you been eyeing one up but not sure if you want to drop the cash.

Gemma

xxx