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What’s seldom is wonderful. I am back with a fashion haul. It’s been a while I know. But I’m brutal at them though ha!

fashion haul

I love clothes, I just don’t love my body. So it’s really hard to put it on show online. That means a fashion haul for me is more just showing clothes to the camera and trying to describe them. Maybe one day I’ll be comfortable enough for the fancy cutaways showing the clothing on. For now, I hope this method is ok.

fashion haul

I chat in abundance about what I bought and why I bought it in the video above or here. And then I will put pics and links down below of everything I can.

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I think everything I bought from ASOS, Zara and River Island altogether cost just over €200. For the amount of things I picked up online, I think that’s a pretty good price!

My Zara fashion haul is first!

Striped giraffe shirt which I’m wearing in the video.

zara haul

zara summer fashion

This is available online here.

Buttoned linen dress.

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Available here.

Paper bag bermuda shorts.

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Available here.

High rise jeggings with taping.

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beauty blogger

Available here.

Next up is ASOS. I only picked up two things from them.

First up is these fringed sliders from a brand called Kaltur.

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I actually wore these the other day and I did end up with blisters on the tops of my feet. Just something to note. They are available here.

ASOS own brand ruffle wrap lip top.

asos shopping

top beauty blog ireland

Available online here.

Last but not least in my fashion haul are the bits I picked up from the River Island sale.

Black stipe puff sleeve wrap over blouse. I think my fave item from what I got.

online fashion shopping

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Was still available when I was writing this online here.

Next up is this lemon cut out blouse.

top irish beauty blogger

top irish beauty blog

Available here.

The dud of the haul is probably this pom pom t shirt, just because I sized up and it was already an over sized item.

beauty blog ireland

beauty blogger ireland

Available here.

And then finally the second pair of shoes I picked up were these backless loafers.

river island

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And that’s it for my birthday money fashion haul. Let me know what you think and I promise I will try with the try on cutaways some time in my blogging future 🙂

xxx

irish beauty siteI 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.

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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!

irish beauty bloggerI actually picked them up my mistake. Sinéad from The Beautiful Truth was chatting about a similar pair she got from New Look, so I went on to have a look and thought these were them. They aren’t, but they were on sale for €29.99 here, originally €59.99. From a quality point of view, they aren’t worth the original price. But on sale, they are!

Another shoe favourite is from a different spectrum. I picked these up simply because they are sparkly.

non beauty favouritesI 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.

non beauty favouritesI’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.

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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.

beauty blogger irelandI did choose it myself from Asos. I like a more masculine watch.

top irish beauty bloggerI 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.

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For a long time, I was a vodka and diet 7up kinda gal. It’s all I drank. Since John has gotten really into the Irish craft beer scene though, I’ve become a little bit more adventurous. I’ve realised I actually like the taste of gin. It has become my tipple of choice. I’ve also acquired a taste for Prosecco. And now I am dipping my toe into wine. Just a little bit and only white or Rosé. My palette isn’t distinguished enough for red. But I find myself trying to do a little research and think more about it and I’m quite enjoying it.

And that’s it! There’s some of my non beauty related favourites of the minute. Let me know what you think.
Gemma
xxx

This is my very first Black Friday Deals blog post, so I am really hoping it ends up being helpful to people 🙂 I did my pick of Advent Calendars here for this year and it went down really well.Black Friday Deals I always declare, but just to be extra transparent, I do use affiliate links. This doesn’t mean you pay anymore as a consumer. It just means if you buy anything through the links I share I make a really small commission. And it all goes back into buying makeup so I can keep writing (and filming) for Beautynook.

So, now that’s out of the way, let us get onto the Black Friday Deals for this year. I’ll list what I can, as early as I can. And then, if I spot anything else worth sharing, I will update this post throughout as things change. Some codes may only work on Friday.

These are places that I have bought from before myself and are tried, tested and generally sell awesome products. In my humble opinion of course 🙂
  • ASOS have 20% off their website with the code WIN20 here.
  • Look Fantastic have 15% off with UNLOCK (exclusions apply) on their website here.
  • Feel Unique have  on their website here.
  • Cult Beauty have 15% off orders over £20 with the code 15BLACK and 20% off ordered over £200 with the code 20BLACK here.
  • Boohoo have 30% off their website with code GOGOGO here.
  • Beauty Bay have 30% off more or less everything on their website here.
  • Debenhams have 10% off all beauty including their gift sets on their website here.
  • Superdrug are doing to half price savings on their website here.
  • Boots are doing up to half price savings on their website here.
  • Missguided have dresses from £8 on their website here.
  • Littlewoods have up to 30% off on their website here.
  • Joanie Clothing have 30% off all full priced items on their website here.
  • River Island have 20% off full priced item (minimum spend £75 on their website here.
  • Pretty Little Thing have 30% off everything with code ITSON on their website here.
  • Cloud10beauty have 20% with BLACK20 on their website here.
  • Glitz n Pieces have 20% off site wide with the code BLACKFRIDAY here.
  • House of Fraser have 10% off all beauty site wide and up to 40% off everything else here.
  • Office have 20% off site wide with the code SHINE here.
  • Arnotts have 20% off ‘almost everything’ here.
  • Brown Thomas also have 20% off ‘almost everything’ here.
  • Nasty Gal are doing a whopping 50% off everything with the code GIMME50 here.
  • Lifestyle Sports have 15% off with the code EARLYBIRD here.
  • Topshop have up to 50% off and free shipping worldwide here.
  • Selfridges have 20% off gifts and 10% off beauty and fragrance with the code SELFCCE here.
  • Public Desire are doing 20% off everything with the code CYBERBAE here.
  • Harvey Nichols have….on their site here.
  • Zoeva Cosmetics have 20% site wide using the code ZFS2017 here.
  • The Body Shop have 30% in store on Friday.
  • The Body Shop (UK site) has 40% off hundreds of items here.
  • TRND Beauty have 20% off site wide from midnight on the 22nd until midnight on Friday the 24th here.
  • Carraig Donn have 20% off site wide all week here.
  • Elf Cosmetics (UK) have 50% off site wide on orders over £30 with the code CELEBRATE here.
  • Nike have 25% off site wide with the code EPIC25 here.
  • Blank Canvas Cosmetics have 20% off everything with BLACK20 here.
  • Schuh have up to 40% in store and online here.
  • Only have 25% off all full priced items in store and online here.
  • Inglot have 25% off their Signature Collection in store and online here.
  • New Look have 25% off everything in store and online here.
  • Stila UK have 20% off site wide with the code FRIDAY17 here.
  • Missoma jewellery have 25% off their entire site with the code BF25 here.
  • Deciem (The Ordinary, Niod skincare etc) are doing skincare bundles that are heavily discounted here.
  • Robes4You have 10% off everything with the code BLKFRIDAY here.
  • Platinum Hair Extensions have 10% off everything with the code BLACKFRIDAY17 site wide here.
  • Pestle & Mortar have 20% off everything in stock online here.
  • Emma Hardie have 25% off everything online with the code BF25 from Friday here.
  • Zara have up to 50% off online here.
  • Sigma Beauty have 30% off site wide and free worldwide shipping here.

black friday dealsLet me live vicariously through you and let me know what you pick up 🙂

Gemma.

xxx

 

Let’s be real who doesn’t have a Black Friday haul to talk about? 🙂

black friday haul

I didn’t go to crazy and to be fair did pick up some pressies (for other people) along the way. That didn’t stop me from having a little splurge myself though. So, this is what I picked up in my version Black Friday haul. There’s not a whole lot, but enough to warrant a waffle :).

black friday haul

I did some Christmas clothes damage on Asos, Office and Littlewoods. Just some comfy casual clothes to wear on Christmas day. I have what I can link, linked on their names.

Then I also picked some stuff up from Colourpop. They had free shipping and are so affordable I couldn’t resist. I picked up a brush from Zoeva too. Just the one, although I would buy all of their brushes if I could, not gonna lie! I bought two Milani products from Beautybay aswell. They had a good chunk off of their Milani stock.

I have swatches of the new Urban Decay Full Spectrum Palette that I bought from Siopaella, so I will link that here if you want to see it up close.

I also used ‘Midnight Blaze’ from the palette on my eyes in the video.

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I am pretty brutal at shopping the sales generally. But it’s handy if the stuff is online and there’s a code rather then specific markdowns. I did all of my shopping in my pj’s, happy days 🙂

As always you can watch the video above by clicking or you can head on over to my Youtube channel here and watch it directly.

Did you Black Friday Haul yourself? Go on tell me what bargains you got and make me jealous. I missed out on loads because I’m just too damn lazy to research and source them. I might try to be a little more organised next year!

xxx

 

If you follow me on social media, you’ll know instead of giving big gifts this year myself and my family went to Spain for the week of Christmas. We had a really great time. The weather was so good to us and we spent most of Christmas day in the ocean, so I ain’t complaining 🙂 I did by myself some goodies  throughout the week though so I thought I would compile them into a holiday haul if you fancy a rummage.

Time ran away with me in the airport and I was gutted I didn’t get to shop in the Loop, I’ll just have to be sure I make up for it next time I fly.

We went to Lanzarote which is a tax free Canary Island. There’s not a whole load to be buying there, it’s a very holiday orientated town, so lots of tourist shops and the likes. Perfume is a good chunk cheaper there though, so I made sure to stock up on a few.

Don’t laugh, but I bought Britney Spears Fantasy.

irish beauty blogBritney Spears FantasyThis is the only celebrity perfume that I’ve ever really bothered with throughout the years. It smells like sweets, I was feeling nostalgic and it was only €15 🙂

My brother and John (the other half) know I love Lady Million from Paco Rabanne, so I got a couple of bottles to keep me going ha!

lady million paco rabanneI bought another nostalgic perfume for myself. I use to wear this so much when I was younger. It’s Gucci Rush.

irishbeautybloggucci rush 2Luckily it was cheap, because I think I’ve grown out of the scent now…typical.

My fanciest pressie to myself was a bottle of Tom Ford Velvet Orchid. Well in Dublin this would be the fanciest, this set me back less than 40 euro over there which I don’t think is bad at all.

irish beauty blogtom ford velvet orchidThis is a cologne. And it would be classed as a unisex fragrance. John has Black Orchid, and I adore it, Velvet Orchid would be a ever so slightly sweeter version in my opinion, but still a very musky night time fragrance.

Of course there’s a big Zara where we were, it’s a Spanish company, so I had to have a look. I ended up only picking up two things. A dark green faux leather over the shoulder handbag, with gold hardware. Very Chloe-esque I thought?

zara green bagAnd a long sleeved wool jumper of all things! I couldn’t leave this behind though 🙂

zara jumper #instamood From one of the little boutique shops on the strip, I bought this really cute delicate rose gold plated bracelet.

christmas holidau haul

If you’ve been to Lanzarote, you will know they have a stand alone Flormar store there, which is pretty cool. The brand has just been reintroduced here in Ireland, so I had to take a look and pick up a few bits. On a side note, they had different more seasonal products within the store, but the price point was the same as Ireland.

flormar irelandI got their Matte Velvet Mattifying Foundation. This is in Vanilla, but it’s a good bit darker than my skin tone (my fault), so I’ll have to keep it for when I have tan on.

irish makeup and beauty blogI got one of their nail polishes, this colour is just unusual and caught my eye. it has a duochrome effect.

irish makeup and beauty bloggerflormar irish beauty blogI get searches everyday here on beautynook for the Flormar Lip Primer, so I had to pick one up and give it a try.

flormar lip primerI bought one of their eye primers too.

makeup and beauty blog irelandflormar eye primerI liked this one because it has a concealing effect on the eyelid, so it will cover imperfections.

beauty blogger irelandThis eyeshadow stick was from their Christmas collection and I just thought the colour was so pretty. The formula is really nice too.

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This twist up lipstick in the colour raspberry and I have 20 lippies in the same colour but I couldn’t resist. Love the packaging too.

top irish beauty blogbeauty blog irelandbeauty blogger irelandThe last thing I bought was a baked eyeshadow which they call a Diamonds Terracotta Eyeshadow.

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Upon swatching it, I see it as more of glitter to apply over other shadows to add a bit of sparkle. I’d like to mix it with a bit of Inglot’s Duraline too and see what happens (I have a review of Duraline here 🙂

makeup haul ireland

I bought a couple of random things on the strip too which we can get here easily, but sure I was on a spending roll so I just kept going 🙂

catrice makeup irelandI had just run out of primer so I thought I would give the Catrice Prime and Fine one a trial.

catrice irish beauty blogI also got a Catrice Beautyifying Lip Smoother. This is really similar to the Clarins Lip Perfector and a quarter of the price. There’s a few shades to choose from too.

Catrice Beautifying Lip Smoother

catrice makeup irelandThe one I picked up is in the shade Coffee To Go.

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I got a couple of Essence Longlasting Lipliners in the same place. The formula of these is actually pretty great!

essence makeup ireland lip linersThe pink shade is called Sweetheart and the peachy one is called Peach Beauty.

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The last thing I got is from a brand I’ve never used before. This is the Palladio Crushed Metallic Eyeshadow.

palladio crushed metal eyeshadow irelandirish makep blogmakeup blog irelandI swatched all the colours of these and I really regret now not picking up more, but I settled on this burnt bronze colour in Eclipse.

palaThere you have it, my holiday haul. All of the goodies I crammed into my suitcase and brought home to Ireland 🙂

Hope you had a brilliant Christmas (and new year). Hope 2016 is the most exciting year yet 🙂

xxx

 

 

Last night I was lucky enough to go to the preview of H&M’s Autumn and Winter Collection.

The stock is in store from tomorrow the 10th of September so you don’t have long to wait, thank god 🙂

H&M is one of my favourite stores to shop in, and the Autumn/Winter collection this year does not disappoint. There is pieces for every budget and all styles, shapes and sizes. There is some fab key pieces for your wardrobe too, that will take you through the entirety of the colder months…yep winter is a-coming’ time to get your woollens out of hibernation 🙁

The lovelies from Stellar Magazine were there greeting everyone coming into H&M College Green and the gorgeous gazelle Vogue Williams was on the decks pumping out the tunes.

Vogue Williams

Vogue Williams h&m

I snapped some pictures last night of what I thought would be wardrobe staples and thought I would put them together in a little blogpost, so you could get a jist of what will be in your local H&M store. Some of the pieces are even in store already.

There was lots of lovely accessories in store, but the shoes and boots particularly stood out to me. H&M wouldn’t be a place I buy alot of my shoes in, but I think I’ve been converted 🙂

hm autumn winter 2015 (34)

hm autumn winter 2015 (36)

hm autumn winter 2015 (37)

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I know I know they’re all black choices, but sure it is for Autumn and Winter…right 🙂

Next up coats and jackets. H&M have them in ambundance and for really good price points. the majority are under €100.

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h&m leather jacket

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hm autumn winter 2015 (33)

I think this one was my fave, love the collar and the length.

h&m tweed coat

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They have a cool vest option too if you’re not really a coat or jacket girl.

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hm autumn winter 2015 (32)Loved this 70’s inspired look on one of the mannequinns.

H&M Autumn Winter 2015The jeans look like they would be really flattering.

And this cute bow top.

h&m dublinIt would be a great transitional piece for wearing to work during the days then would still work jazzed up with accessories and heels for night.

I think it would work great with this faux leather skirt.

h&m pleather skirt

I was very restrained and only picked up one thing.

h&m sweaterThis little sweater was only €14.99. I love the colour and of course the slogan is really cute too right?

I just wanted to add one more thing in because this item was getting more attention, than probably anything else in the store.

h&m rocket bagThis is a handbag from the kids collection ha!!

The H&M kids selection would have you feeling totally jealous I have to admit. The items are amazing. Well worth a look if you are kitting out your little one.

Anything take your fancy?

xxx