haircare Archives - Irish Beauty Blog Beautynook

Beauty Stocking Fillers

I 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

December 5, 2018/by Gem

October Favourites Beautynook

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 🙂

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.

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 🙂

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

CONTAINS PR SAMPLES***

November 2, 2018/by Gem

Monthly Favourites, Youtube Video

February Favourites 2018

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

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

As 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!

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.

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.

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*******

March 2, 2018/by Gem

Hair, Youtube Video

L’Oréal Steampod Review And Demo

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.

I 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.

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.

‘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.

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.

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

January 19, 2018/2 Comments/by Gem

Youtube Video

What I Got For Christmas 2017

I’ve done it! I know it’s a controversial kind of post, but I love having a nose, so here’s my offering of ‘What I Got For Christmas’ 2017. We didn’t go to mad on pressies this year, but I did get some lovely bits and though I would chat through some of them 🙂

I’ll list some of the main things in case anything takes your fancy or you want to add anything to your list for next year.

John got me the L’Oréal Steampod. He bought it directly from Peter Mark in one of the salons. But you can find it online here.

My red lipstick for this season was the Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Lipstick in 56 Rouge Charnel. You can get in from Debenhams online here.

My very fancy lip balm is the infamous ByTerry Baume De Rose. He picked it up from Spacenk in store, but it’s online here if you want a closer look.

My future Fenty purchases will be from Harvey Nicks in store, but they also sell online here. You just can’t use gift cards on their website which is a bit of a pain.

Here is the candle I chat about close up. It’s a Malin + Goetz Dark Rum candle and John picked it up from Spacenk here.

My Chanel Mademoiselle Body Oil is from Brown Thomas here.

The Casio watch is from Asos. It’s not there anymore unfortunately. However they do have a a yellow gold one (which I want now as well), here. The bracelet is from TK Maxx so I can’t link it.

Anything else, just holler 🙂 The full video is over on my YouTube channel here.

So, I’ve told you what I got for Christmas this year. It was a really nice chilled affair. I ate and drank loads and I’m still recovering. Now you tell me, what did you get?

Happy 2018. Hope it brings loads of lovely happy memories.

Thanks for sticking around.

Gemma

xxx

January 3, 2018/by Gem

Fragrance, Hair, Makeup, Skincare

Beauty Advent Calendars 2017

I get asked every year to do a beauty advent calendar post, and I’ve always not ended up doing one. I generally always like to be able to use and give a physical opinion on products when it comes to the blog. I’ve been doing this four years now and that’s what kind of feels natural to me. To talk about products I have road tested and used. But sure there’s always exceptions and I’ve realised that now.

I’m a little blogger fish in a big pond and I can’t buy or get sent all of the fancy beauty advent calendars every year. So, I thought I would just compile the ones that are really taking my fancy in the run to Christmas for 2017 🙂

The first one is the one I am really considering buying for myself, although I have yet to justify it. This is the Beauty In Wonderland from Look Fantastic

This is retailing from their website here for €98. They say it contains product worth up to £300.

It’s a mixture of all different brands and all different types of beauty products. Also the packaging is pretty gorgeous. i blame Sharon Leavy from Behind Green Eyes for making me lust after this so much 🙂

Feel Unique do their own version too here. This costs €42 which is a little more palatable, I know.

They also give you a list of the products enclosed if you don’t want to wait until the Christmas countdown.

Clarins always do a really lovely beauty advent calendar and this year is no exception.

This is what would be deemed the more feminine version but there is a male offering too. This will set you back £52.50 here. This has been the cheapest I’ve found it online. It contains 12 minis including one of their Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors, one of my personal faves.

Lancôme have a ridiculously lovely one this year with a 25 day countdown.

This costs €130 from Boots here, but you do get 25 mini products, ranging from skincare to fragrance.

If you want exclusively skincare, L’Occitane have a beautiful 25 day calendar chock full of it.

I actually think this is a really good deal at €59 from Debenhams here.

If Charlotte Tilbury is your go to brand, you’re in luck! She has released a Naughty & Nice Magic Box for this year.

It contains 12 makeup and skincare goodies. This is the most expensive one of the bunch coming in at €180 here.

If lipstick is your thing, Nyx have released their Kiss & Tell Advent Calendar again this year.

This is €67.57 from Asos here. Although if you buy in pounds it generally works out cheaper.

It contains 24 lip colours to suit any mood.

I know these are all pretty pricey, so if you are looking for a more budget friendly beauty advent calendar, hopefully I can cover you here.

The Tanya Burr 12 Sweet Days Beauty Calendar contains 12 products including nail polish and glitter liners.

I included this because you can still get your beauty hit with it, and it’s on sale from Feel Unique at the moment here. They also have it on 3 for 2 if you’re shopping for anyone else.

Asos have a budget friendly option too here from Mad Beauty.

This is a range of hair, skin and nail products and will only set you back €14.85.

My last choice is this years Makeup Revolution Calendar. This contains 25 full sized products.

It is on sale at the moment from Superdrug here. It was £50 and now it’s £30.

And there you have my beauty advent calendar countdown. Any take your fancy? Have you already bought one? Let me know 🙂

November 13, 2017/by Gem

Posts

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

Ok, over to Look Fantastic now.

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

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

Last stop on this journey is Debenhams.

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 🙂

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

********CONTAINS PR SAMPLES***********

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

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.

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

Gemma

xxx

I’ve done it! I know it’s a controversial kind of post, but I love having a nose, so here’s my offering of ‘What I Got For Christmas’ 2017. We didn’t go to mad on pressies this year, but I did get some lovely bits and though I would chat through some of them 🙂

So, I’ve told you what I got for Christmas this year. It was a really nice chilled affair. I ate and drank loads and I’m still recovering. Now you tell me, what did you get?

Happy 2018. Hope it brings loads of lovely happy memories.

Thanks for sticking around.

Gemma

xxx

I’m a little blogger fish in a big pond and I can’t buy or get sent all of the fancy beauty advent calendars every year. So, I thought I would just compile the ones that are really taking my fancy in the run to Christmas for 2017 🙂

I know these are all pretty pricey, so if you are looking for a more budget friendly beauty advent calendar, hopefully I can cover you here.

And there you have my beauty advent calendar countdown. Any take your fancy? Have you already bought one? Let me know 🙂

CONTAINS PR SAMPLES***