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top beauty blogI did this a couple of years ago in a different format. It went down pretty well. So I thought I would do it again. This year we’re definitely dialling it back for Christmas. Well as much as we can, I love buying presents. So whether you’re on a budget, want to pick up a token gift, or even something for yourself. Here is my list of beauty stocking fillers for 2018.

I picked from websites that are easy for us to order from in Ireland and that generally have decent discounts and sales on product too. I know everyone has different budgets as well, so I tried to cater to all, and to the skincare and makeup lovers in your life.

I’ll go in shop order to make things hopefully a little cohesive. Let’s start with beauty stocking fillers from Cloud 10 Beauty.

First up is this Best Of Bright Travel Kit from Pixi Beauty for €23.

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I am such a fan of the brand, and this is a really lovely affordable introduction into their skincare.

Cloud 10 Beauty have some awesome Stila gift sets too.

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I thought this Shimmering Heights one for €31.95 would make a lovely beauty stocking filler. It’s three of their Shimmer & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows.

Lastly from Cloud 10 we have this Alpha H Petite Holiday Collection for €25.

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Minis of some essentials, including their Liquid Gold, which I have yet to try so I have my eye on this in particular 🙂

Ok, over to Look Fantastic now.

This Caudalie Hand Cream Trio would make a great beauty stocking filler in my very humble beauty obsessed opinion. It will set you back €11.45.

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I don’t think you can go wrong with hand cream as a gift idea.

Another super affordable suggestion is this Garnier Hydrating Sheet Mask Selection for €14.95.

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Five Moisture Bomb Sheet masks for different concerns.

Beauty Bay is next on my beauty stocking filler hit list.

This Holiday Facial Spray Trio from Mario Badescu is €14!

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Facial Sprays are a nice treat within your skincare routine, and it’s a great way to sample all three versions the brand have on offer.

If someone in your life is a fan of sleep sprays the This Works Sleep Tight bauble is awesome and is only €15.

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You get two teeny pillow sprays and a stress check roller ball.

I got carried away on Cult Beauty, I must admit, so bare with me 🙂

This Peter Thomas Roth Meet You Mask Set looks awesome and it’s only £20.50. Sorry Cult Beauty don’t covert to euro, this is good for our exchange rate though!

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I’ve never tried this brand and have always wanted too. It’s not the most affordable so I thought this would be a great way to dip a toe or two in and give it a go.

Nest up is one of my personal faves. This is the Becca Cosmetics Golden Trio and it costs £35.

It’s mini versions of Champagne Pop, Opal and Moonstone highlighters.

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I’m fairly obsessed with this 🙂

This Sweet Indulgence Set from Beauty Blender would have us sorted for makeup sponges for all of 2019. It costs £52.

beauty stocking filler ideas

It contains 4 Beauty Blenders and 4 solid cleansers to keep them clean.

I got the original Zoeva Plaisir Box a couple of years back from John and I bloody love it. This is a mini eyeshadow palette version and it retails for £31 so thought it was good beauty stocking filler material.

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It contains three small but mighty eyeshadow palettes, and the display box is gorge too.

Last stop on this journey is Debenhams.

I actually nearly pulled the trigger on this Urban Decay Starfire Heavy Metal Trio in store yesterday. The only thing that stopped me is that it contains the infamous Midnight Cowboy liner and I already own it.

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These retail for 20 quid a piece. To buy them as a set is €46.

Last but not least on this beauty journey, let me introduce the Kat Von D Limited Edition Best Of Nudes Mini Studded Lipstick Set.

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This is currently on sale for €32.01 which I thought was a great deal for 6 mini lippies. It would make any nude lipstick lover happy.

And there you have my beauty stocking fillers for this year. No pressure, just sharing my research 🙂

xxx

 

I definitely didn’t do any favourites for the month of September. I was too busy sunning myself on holiday and completely forgot. So we’ll scrap that month and just go into October favourites here on Beautynook. Hope you don’t mind 🙂

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My October faves are all beauty related and 100% reflect the changing of the seasons. They are definitely skincare heavy with a touch of hair care and makeup talk thrown in for good measure.

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As always, here on Beautynook, I’ll list all the products and link what I can. Just in case anything takes your fancy and you want to explore it more. I use my favourites to just have a casual chat about what I’ve been enjoying. I don’t go too deep into reviewing. Sure it’s just a bit of fun 🙂

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First up is the Alfaparf Semi Di Lino Diamond Crystalli Liquidi. That I definitely wasn’t able to pronounce in the video. I referred to it as hair oil. It is lovely though.

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I’ve been testing out more than just two products from the Alex Steinherr X Primark range. But these are the two that have been standing out for me and I’ve been using religiously since picking up.

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I have been obsessed with the Ella & Jo 3 in 1 Hyaluronic Skin Mist since getting it too. The ladies behind the brand are going from strength to strength and sure jaysis, aren’t they Irish? 🙂 It’s such a lovely product.

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I picked up the Palmer’s Coconut Body Oil completely on a whim. I wanted something extra hydrating and it was on special. What more can a girl ask for? I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it too.

Lastly, I chat about the JCat Extreme Access Pocket Eyeshadow in Walk Of Stardom. This little €9.95 beauty caught me completely off guard and I totally need the whole collection now.

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And that is it for my October Favourites. You can catch up on all the ramblings over on my Beautynook YouTube channel here. Thanks for clicking.

Gemma

xxx

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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 🙂

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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.

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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?

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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 🙁

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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.

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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

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This is a bit of an all over the place February Favourites!

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The cabin fever has gotten to me and the tangents are mighty. Hope you don’t mind a bit of rambling 🙂

february favouritesAs I write this, the snow is still coming down strong and after three days indoors, I miss civilisation. Ok, I am being totes dramatic and I hope everyone who stumbles across this post in real time is safe and warm. Oh and has enough bread and milk to keep you going. 🙂

In my cabin fevered state, I managed to add in a favourite that I spoke about already in my January favourites. I could have edited it out, but then I thought, I loved it enough to talk about it twice, so I must really like it!

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It’s all beauty related chatter for February favourites 2018. I did try to see if I had anything else to add into the pot, but I want it to be genuine. Beauty is the thing I am consistently trying, hence the monthly turn around.irish beauty blogger

As always I’ll list and link everything below, just in case anything takes your fancy and you want a closer look.

Estée Lauder Double Wear Nude Foundation.

Maybelline Super Stay Full Coverage Foundation.

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r Instant Retouch Primer.

Urban Decay All Nighter Concealer.

Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette.

Kérastase Balancing Shampoo.

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And I think that’s it. It felt like so much more when I was talking to camera about them ha! I really hope everyone had a lovely February. March is off to a bit of a miserable snowy start, so surely it has to be all up from here?

Oh here is my Edinburgh haul in case you want to check it out!

As always thanks for clicking, I really appreciate it. Let me know if there was anything you were loving through the month of February.

xxx

*******PR SAMPLES INCLUDED IN THIS POST*******

 

January Favourites 2018

It’s time for my first faves of 2018! Yep, it’s January favourites time. I think I say this in every favourites post, but didn’t that month go fast? I’m actually in disbelief that it’s already February.

Quick disclaimer! My camera for some reason was on a low resolution setting while I filmed this. I am not too knowledgable about the technical side of all this stuff unfortunately. So as a result, this video isn’t in HD. I apologise profusely. I wanted to upload it anyways, because I think if I filmed it again, it would be more contrived as I would be repeating myself. Hope you don’t mind.

My January favourites for this year consist mostly of beauty things, (shock horror), with one ‘fashion’ thing thrown in for good measure. I also chat….in depth about one oral hygiene product. I honestly didn’t think I had that much to say on the subject and I was going to cut a lot of it out. But it ended up being a little personal story about me along with a good chunk of jabber so I kept it in. Hope you don’t mind. I always worry people just want to hear about the products and thats it. But then I remember I want to try make videos I would actually watch and I love a bit of life waffle amidst all of the beauty talk 🙂

January Favourites 2018

As always I’ll list the things I chat about in case you want to learn more about them.

Oral B Electric toothbrush is just from Boots online here.

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Design.Me hair products. The website is here. Salon Services has one of their products in stock online, so hopefully that means they will get more in over time.

Huda Beauty Smokey Obsessions Palette. You can buy online here. My review of the Mauve Obsessions is here if you want to check it out.beauty blogger ireland

Zoeva Matte Eyeshadow Fix is online here.beauty blog ireland

Catrice Lashes To Kill Pro Waterproof Mascara. It comes in non waterproof too. I actually think this was already a standing mascara, they might have just updated the packaging. Regardless, I bloody love it and have been using it everyday since it was sent to me. I can’t find it online, but it’s in Penneys and decent pharmacies nationwide now. I’ll do a full review of it soon so you can see it in action.

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My very last January favourite is a pair of runners. I think everyone in the world has at the moment. Old Skool Vans!

I have the suede ones. John got me these for Christmas and apparently people say the suede ones are easier to break in. He got them from Littlewoods but I found them on JD Sports here.

And I’m done! Let me know what you were enjoying especially in January. Click here to check out the video in full and as always thanks for watching 🙂
xxx    ********Contains PR Samples**********

As you probably know if you watched my ‘What I Got For Christmas‘ video. John very kindly got me a L’Oréal Steampod for Christmas.

irish beauty blogI say it all the time, hair is not my forte. I’m lucky enough that I have a decent mop on my head, so I don’t always think too much about it. I can straighten and curl it and that’s about as fancy as I get. I have quite the chubby face, so I wear it down most of the time, it’s kind of my comfort blanket. My previous straighteners was a GHD (that was around eleven years old). So a new one was definitely overdue.irish beauty blogger

After doing some research and listening to some of my awesome blogging buddies, the L’Oréal Steampod was decided on. I got the second generation one.L'Oreal Steampod Review

‘The Steampod 2.0 is a revolutionary hairstyling tool from L’Oreal. A combination of steam and pro-keratin technology helps to tame hair movement and leave it silky smooth, whilst protecting from heat damage’, according to L’Oréal.top irish beauty blog

There’s loads of videos and blogposts already on it. But I thought I would throw my opinion into the mix. And also give a very basic demo of it on my hair. I have a lot of hair, but it is quite fine and it tends to get limp very quickly. As always you can watch the demo and hear my thoughts by clicking on the video above. Or, you can click here to go directly to my YouTube channel.top irish beauty bloggerbeauty blog irelandbeauty blogger ireland

John got my L’Oréal Steampod directly from Peter Mark salon here in Dublin. I believe it was Liffey Valley. It’s generally cheaper online though. I found it on Look Fantastic here for the best price.

Let me know what you think. Have you tried the Steampod yourself? What’s your favourite hair tool or product?
Gemma
xxx