Posts

affordable makeup favesI’ve harped on about some of these products online too much now. I thought I needed to do a dedicated post showing you them a bit more in depth. So here are my current affordable makeup Spring faves 🙂Affordable Makeup Faves Spring

I apologise in advance if you’re sick of me talking about the PS Bronze Shade & Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette. I did a whole post here dedicated to this Penneys Collection. I believe it’s in stores pretty much as we speak.

irish beauty blogger

I didn’t swatch the palette though and I really think it deserves it now. I have honestly reached for this so much since I was given it. And not because I felt I had to if that makes sense? Being a beauty blogger, I do have to make a point to try products again and again. For €6, you get nine warm eyeshadow shades. They’re a mixture of mattes and shimmers and all compliment each other. Are they the softest, most pigmented shadows I’ve ever used? No, but for the price point they are pretty bloody awesome!

Penneys eyeshadow palette
irish beauty blog
irish beauty blogger

irish beauty blog

Continuing on from the palette, another affordable makeup Spring fave from Penneys, are their cream eyeshadow pots. And a disclaimer, I am only calling them makeup Spring faves because it’s Spring now. These are fine all year round ha.

top irish beauty blog

I picked up two of these while I was in Edinburgh a while back from the PS Nudes Collection.top irish beauty blogger

A matte and a metallic one just to try. I went to the launch of this collection and they were one of the things I was most intrigued about. Also at €2.50 each I thought they were worth the financial risk 🙂

top irish beauty blogger
beauty blog ireland
beauty blogger ireland

I did however take the bloody stickers off them absentmindedly and they had the names on them, so I don’t know what they’re called. But they’re creamy and pigmented so I’ll forgive them not putting the names on the containers.

I’ve another two from the Bronze Collection too.

top beauty blog ireland
beauty blog
top beauty blogger ireland
beauty blogger

They’re super easy to work with and pack a real punch as a cream eyeshadow base. They’re a little slippy in texture so I don’t know how well they would fare on their own, without powder on top. I find the pots a bit of a pain. Fingers do not fit very comfortably inside them, but a synthetic brush works grand. That’s what I used to swatch them above.

The eyeshadow base I have been using for last couple of months is the Zoeva Matte Eyeshadow Fix.

zoeva cosmetics ireland

Don’t let the word matte deter you. It has more of a velvet finish in my humble opinion.

affordable makeup favourites

I just think it’s a damn good eyeshadow primer. I have super oily lids so I’m generally a decent judge of what’s good and what isn’t in this department. A little goes a long way, it doesn’t interfere with whatever you put on top and it helps fill in fine lines too. €8.95 is a decent price for it.

The Madison M5 brush has been another firm favourite of mine over the past few weeks.

madison makeup ireland

This comes as part of a 12 piece brush set available here for €39.95.top irish beauty blogIt’s a super soft synthetic brush. I have been loving it for setting under my eyes. I’m enjoying quite a few of the brushes from the set, this one in-particular stands out though as I reach for it pretty much everyday.

My last affordable makeup Spring fave is a new in lippie from Essence.

irish beauty sute

This kind of shade is a no brainer for me really. I am a mauve lipstick whore. It’s called 10 Rosey Glitz.

essence makeup ireland
irish beauty sute
top irish beauty site
dublin beauty blog

When I’m not reaching for a matte finish day to day this is a great sheer, you don’t really have to think about applying it colour. It’s super flattering and feels really nice on the lips. I also think it retails for about 3 quid. Bargain!

And there you have my affordable makeup Spring faves 🙂

xxx

*******PR SAMPLES INCLUDED*******

This was a pretty off the cuff video idea. I say that a lot, I know 🙂 Currently I am on a job hunt and I was about to get ready for an interview. I thought I would pop the camera on and create a video on my job interview makeup look.

irish beauty blogjob interview makeup

Just a side note, this was not for a corporate position, so I didn’t have to be too formal. I would describe my job interview makeup look as my everyday makeup look, just a bit more polished. I kept everything pretty simple and neutral. A bit of shimmer on the eyes and a glossy mauve lip.

irish beauty bloggerjob interview makeup

I used eyeshadow for liner to give everything a softer look and used a neutral eye pencil in the water line to make me look more awake. Of course, typical timing, I have a cold at the minute so I tried to disguise that a bit too.top irish beauty blogger

I used some reliable products, but I did throw in some new ones too. As always, I will list everything, as I do go through them quite quickly 🙂

Fenty Beauty Instant Retouch Primer.

Benefit The Porefessional Primer.

La Girl Pro Matte Foundation.

Zoeva Graphic Brows Pencil in Cinereous.

Freedom Brow Duo in Soft Brown.

Benefit Gimme Brow.

Benefit Ready, Set, Brow.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Concealer.

Zoeva Matte Eyeshadow Fix.

Penneys PS Bronze Shade & Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette, their Metallic cream eyeshadow in Heatwave and bronzer. There’s more info on these here.

theBalm Mr Write nude liner.

Tarte Shape Tape Concealer.

Catrice Lashes To Kill Pro Mascara.

Mac Extended Play Mascara.

Nyx Contour Palette.

Milani Luminoso Blush.

Isa Dora Blotting Powder.

Wet n Wild Megaglo highlighter.

Mac Whirl Lip Liner.

Essence Colour Up Shine On Lipstick in 10 Rosey Glitz.

LOV Fix Spray.

beauty blog ireland
beauty blogger ireland
top beauty blog ireland

A lot of product I know, but I kept it pretty simple I think? Let me know sure 🙂 If you want to see my Job Interview get ready with me video in full, just click on it above, or here.

xxx

*******PR SAMPLES USED*******

Penneys PS Bronze CollectionI was very lucky enough to attend the launch of the new Penneys PS Bronze Collection. This collection includes a full range of tanning products. It covers prepping the skin, the tanning itself and the removal and application. They’ve literally thought of every product. I just have a few of them here to show you, including a pre tan exfoliator, pre tan primer, mousse, instant tan gel and a tan eraser. Everything is under a fiver!Penneys Tan

The Penneys PS Bronze Collection also comes with a bucket load of new makeup products too.Penneys PS Bronze Collection

You know I am ALL about the makeup, so I am going to give you a good oul look at the products I was lucky enough to take home from the event. The prices range from €1.50 up to €8.00. Penneys Beauty

First up we have the PS Bronze Shimmer Glow Powder Highlight in Golden Sands.

Primark Beauty
affordable makeup
Penneys Makeup
irish beauty blog

There is a matte bronzer called Bronze Queen. I have the shade Sunrise.

irish beauty blogger
Penneys PS Bronze Collection_4297
beauty blog
beauty blogger

We have Instant Radiance Drops in Goddess.

beauty blog ireland

I have two shades of the Bronze Loose Highlighter Powder.

beauty blogger ireland

Vacation and Island Life.

top irish beauty blog

I just opened the lighter one so I can keep the darker more bronzed shade to give away to someone more suited to it.

top beauty blog ireland
top irish beauty blogger

There is Gloss Metals within the Penneys PS Bronze Range too.top beauty blogger ireland

There’s two here, Malibu and Tahiti.

One of the products I was super excited to see was the Metallic Cream Eyeshadows.

top beauty blogger
dublin beauty blogger
dublin beauty blog
irish makeup blog

I bought two of these from the Nudes range and really like them. These are in the shades Heatwave and Bronzed.

This collection comes with what they are calling a Dewy Glow Highlighting Face & Body Butter.

budget makeup
penneys beauty
budget beauty
primark ps bronze collection

We have a Contour & Shape Contour Stick. This is the shade, Shape, ironically 🙂

Penneys PS Bronze Collection

The cheapest products I have from the collection are actually two of my most used since I got them. These are the Nourishing Lip Oil Balms.

irish beauty blog
top irish beauty blogger
top irish beauty blog
affordable makeup

I have two shades, Cannes and Cuba. Cannes is nude, Cuba has a red tint.

There is three palettes in this collection.

penneys eyeshadow palette

First up we have the Vacay Vibes Complete Face Palette.

primark eyeshadow palettetop beauty blog irelandirish beauty vlogger

It contains a peachy blush, two highlighters, a matte bronzer, four eyeshadows and four matte lipsticks.

The Bronze Me Up Highlight & Contour Face Palette contains a matte cream contour and highlight.

irish beauty youtubertop irish beauty vloggertop irish beauty youtuber

Matte powder contour and yellow toned highlight. And then two shimmery powder highlighters.

Then finally, probably my favourite thing from the whole collection.

beauty blog irelandtop beauty blog ireland

This is the Shade & Shimmer Eyeshadow Palette. Mine got a little damaged in transit, apologies for the dent 🙂

irish beauty blog beautynook

It contains 9 eyeshadows. Four shimmers and five mattes and smells like coconut. For €6, I am super impressed with this palette. Out of all the products, this is what I think I personally will get the most use out of.

The Penneys PS Bronze tanning products are in stores now. The makeup starts rolling in from the end of March.

Any of it tickle your fancy?

xxx

*********PR SAMPLE*********

 

Top blogger ireland

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 🙂Edinburgh Castle

Also myself and John casually got married in Camera Obscura.

Edinburgh weekend

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.

anthropologie haulirish beauty blogirish beauty blogger

I also got the prettiest monogrammed mug which was on special for £8.beauty blog ireland

You can shop the Gilded Shapes mugs here.anthropologie coasters

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.primark haulpenneys haul

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.beauty blogger ireland

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.penneys makeup

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!primark makeuppenneys nude collectionbeauty blotop beauty blog

The last thing fashion related thing I bought is probably my favourite.top irish beauty blogger

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.top beauty blog ireland

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 🙂

The Chocolate and Peaches Palette went into my basket. It was £7.99.superdrug makeup hauli heart makeup peach palettetop beauty blogger

Keeping on the peach them then, I got the Peachy Pink Kiss Blush. This was £4.99.superdrug hauli heart makeup

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.

This striped one was spotted in Zara.zara haul

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.topshop haul

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.top irish beauty blog

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.dublin beauty blog

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.

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.

irish beauty blog

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.

beauty blog ireland

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.

top irish beauty blog

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

Surely you know Gemma that good glow can come for way less than a tenner? Yes, yes I do, but I want to talk about all day glow. Highlight that sticks around blinding everyone all damn day long 🙂

top irish beauty bloggerI know for me, all day glow means layering product. I won’t get it by just applying liquid or cream highlighter. And I won’t get it from just powder. Applying them together though, gives me a way better chance of keeping hold of it from day to night.budget makeup

This is the time of year where we all tend to have a lot more on. It’s also the time of year where your hard earned money is going on lovely things for the good people in your life. So I’m here to show you that you don’t have to sacrifice your party shine as a result. I have two products here that you can layer up, or just wear on their own to jazz up a makeup look.

First up we have the PS Custom Glow Liquid Highlighter.

top beauty blogger irelandThis is in the shade Pearl Blossom. On it’s own it gives a pretty muted pink shine to the skin. I will say the packaging isn’t the best. The pipette doesn’t tend to work, so I just take the product from the build up on the applicator.

irish beauty blog
beauty blog ireland
irish beauty bloggger
beauty blogger ireland

These come in three colours I believe and set you back €5 for 9mls of product.

To allow us to ‘glow all day’, I would tend to add a powder highlighter over the drops. To lock the shine in place and even make it more glowy. You can always top up powder too if you need to retouch your makeup. Liquid isn’t so easy. If you want a similar shade for a similar price point, this is the Mink Pink Highlighter again from Penneys.

This is actually a really pretty powder highlighter in it’s own right. top beauty blog irelandAgain, I believe these come in three colour ways too. You get 7.7 grams of product for €3.50. So together, for both products, you are paying €8.50.

All day glow
all day glow
All Day Glow For Under A Tenner_2702

Sandwiched together products tend to have a better chance of standing the test of time in my humble oily skinned opinion 🙂

top irish beauty blog

I know I’ve been bigging up Penneys/Primark beauty of late. That’s simply because they’re upping their game and I’ve been enjoying alot of it. My last couple of posts on their makeup brushes and single eyeshadow pans are here and here too.

Have you tried either of my glow all day suggestions?

Let me know 🙂

xxx