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disappointing makeup productsI have been in a bit of a creative rut this week. I asked on Instagram stories what kind of content you like. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to message me and fill my head with awesome ideas. I appreciate it so much. A big shout out to my lovely friend Sinéad aka The Beautiful Truth for giving me the Disappointing Makeup Products idea.disappointing makeup products

I generally talk about products I really disliked on social media. When I review products I try to be as logical as possible. I like to give the pros and the cons. I rarely dedicate a post to things I have and just generally don’t get on with. But it’s fun to change things up 🙂 Now this won’t be scathing. Everything is up for interpretation and just because I dislike something doesn’t mean everyone does. This is just my opinion.

First up of my six disappointing makeup products, is the Kiko Smart Cult Eyeshadow Palette in Matte Revolution. I did a post swatching this when I first got it here.irish beauty blog

I bought this in Brussels after seen it plastered all over social media. The colours looked so cool and generally I am a big fan of Kiko.irish beauty blogger

This just doesn’t do it for me though. On first swatch some of the colours are grand, but trying to blend them on the eyes is way too much of a chore. They blend away to nothing. Yes, I can make it work if I need to, but this palette has just ended up lying in a drawer not being used. It wasn’t expensive, but still, it was definitely a waste of my money.

My second choice is controversial. So many people would declare this their holy grail. This is the Clinique Beyond Perfecting Foundation + Concealer.

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For me, this foundation is too thick. I don’t like the doe-foot applicator, and I just find it hard to blend.beauty blogger ireland

I don’t mind a thicker foundation, but I would put this in the same category as Esteè Lauder Double Wear. Although I do say in my review it isn’t as thick, but it nearly is 🙂 It’s just too much for me. At least Double Wear stands the test of time on my oily skin, this only does an ok job. I find it grand, but I haven’t reached for it much at all since buying it.

Third up, is the LA Girl Pro Primer Eyeshadow Primer.

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This just doesn’t keep my eyeshadow in check. I have relatively oily lids so I am generally a good judge of eyeshadow primer. This is in the shade Nude. I think it’s more yellow toned, so unless I am covering it completely on the lids, the tone will poke through a bit.beauty blog

It just doesn’t cut the mustard. I like that it’s in stick form, it’s easy to use and super affordable, but not for me 🙁

The Zoeva Strobe Gel was completely bought on a whim because the jelly like texture intrigued me.top irish beauty blog

I have the shade Halo.

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If you like a more subtle highlight, this might work for you. For me, it just looks like nothing on my skin, especially when applied with a brush. Applying it with your fingers is tricky though, as the formula just doesn’t allow itself to be picked up with your fingertips too well. I tried to incorporate it into my makeup and to make it work, but I just end up reaching for something else. It’s a cool concept, but gets a thumbs down from me.

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My next two disappointing makeup products will again, be controversial.

I only have a travel size of the Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara. I got it within a PR pack.

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Waterproof mascara is more my jam, most of the time. But I do try lots of non waterproof formulas and do review the ones that meet my extremely high mascara standards 🙂top irish beauty site

So many people adore this mascara. I don’t! I deem it grand. It coats the lashes, helps a little with volume and on me, flakes like a bitch. If a mascara flakes after a long ass, productive day, I can live with that. But this does it a couple of hours into wear on me. For that reason, it’s made the list 🙂

Ok, my last disappointing makeup product is the Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talkirish makeup blog

Now hear me out because this is definitely a more personal disappointment. I am just not wowed by it. The texture is a bit drying, especially for the price. It’s also super super similar to my lip colour, so it tends to look more brown on me than pink.top beauty blogtop beauty blogger

I have the lipstick too . (I have a blogpost about it here). You can see both of them swatched in that. I reach for the lipstick way more, although I am not a huge fan of the fragrance, but I can get over that. I have the lip liner literally years, and it’s still very much in tact as you can see. Give me Rimmel’s Eastend Snob liner over it any day!

 

Do any of my disappointing makeup choices shock you? Are some of your holy grails in here? This is what I love about makeup, one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure 🙂

xxx

Lush The Man In The MoonDon’t be jealous, but last week I popped into Lush in Grafton Street to have a look at some of the new Christmas stock. Yes it’s not even Halloween yet and I’m talking about Christmas. This is the way of the retail world 🙂 I got to hang out, play with some bubbles and even got to make my own Butter Bear! I also very generously got to take home a goodie bag with me. Mine contained the new Lush The Man In The Moon Christmas Tin. Do you want to see what’s inside?

Lush Dublin

Lush The Man In The Moon comes in a really cool Christmas Tin. When I first saw it I was saying if you wrapped it up and gave it to someone, they would just assume it was a box of Roses or Quality Street. The theme of the tin is very much night time relaxing and helping you to drift off to sleep.Lush ChristmasLush Christmas 2017

 

It comes with eight products within. Two bubble bars, one sparkle jar, three bath bombs, a shower gel and a body lotion. You can have a look at it in full on the UK Lush website here.

Lush The Man In The Moon

First up we have the gift’s namesake, the Man In The Moon Bubble Bar.

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It’s very sweet and limey, but it has an underlying muskiness too. It will turn your bath green. Neroli and lime are the main components of the scent so that makes sense completely.

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The Magic Of Christmas reusable bubble bar in the other bubble maker in the tin. I’ve actually had this before. I got it a couple of Christmases ago in the Lush Wonderland set here.

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Cinnamon is definitely the main component for the Magic Of Christmas, which I’m sure isn’t surprising it all. The star is on top of a cinnamon stick 🙂

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Almond is another scent front runner here as it contains almond oil. It’s very much Christmas in bath form. I am not usually a cinnamon fan, but I actually really enjoy this. And it looks so pretty too!

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There are three Twilight related products within the Lush The Man In The Moon tin. If you like lavender, you will love these.

First up is the Twilight Sparkle Jar.

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This is a massage bar, so you use it to moisturise your skin. Your body heat allows it to melt and then you can massage in the product. It contains lavender oil, cocoa butter, tonka and chamomile. It also leaves behind a gold sparkle, so probably not for everyday use. But nice for a special occasion over the festive season. You can press something pointy into the dimples of the crescent to get even more sparkle.

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Next is the Twilight Shower Gel. You get a 100 gram bottle.

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This again has lavender and tonka within. It also has Ylang Ylang oil.

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Lush Cosmetics

The last Twilight offering is their well known bath bomb.

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This contains all the main ingredients that the shower gel has with added benzoin resinoid. This is an anti inflammatory. This is one of my favourite bath bombs.

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Next up we have the Sleepy Body Lotion. You get a mini 50 gram tub of this.

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It has all the lovely ingredients of the Twilight shower gel & bubble bar with added oatmeal. It’s made specifically with sleep in mind.

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The last two products are bath bombs. We have Shoot For The Stars.

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This is honey scented with orange oil, bergamot and coconut cream. It turns your bath blue with golden glitter from the bath melt stars.

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Last but not least is the Rocket Science bath bomb.

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Mine got a bit of a bashing in transit, but he’s still lovely.

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This is a slow fizzer so it’ll give you something to focus on in the bath 🙂 It has bergamot and lemon oil in it and turns your bath blue.

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And there we have the Lush The Man In The Moon Christmas Gift Tin. I am a huge fan of Lush, so cannot wait to get stuck in. If I were more fancy, I would have shown you them all in action, but I didn’t want to waste anything 🙂 I’ve linked all of the goodies individually so you can see what they are priced at alone. What’s your favourite Lush product?

xxx

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Another month another bundle of random products and things. Yep, it’s time for my August favourites for 2016 🙂 Summer is just about to come to an end. I am completely ok with Autumn coming, Winter is another story though…bleh!

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Anyways…my August Favourites bring a random array of goodies your way. If you are an eagle eyes reader you may notice that there is a makeup brush in my hand in the cover photo. First off well done for noticing 🙂 And also it’s nearly become a tradition for me now to lose chunks of footage from my monthly favourites videos and the brush clip was the unlucky one that just disappeared off of my camera. But, it’s a dual ended blending brush from Blank Canvas Cosmetics with the E26 on one end and the E25 on the other. It’s on their website here and I really like it, it’s so handy!

The rest of my favourites look a bit like this.

August Favourites

You can buy the Adidas Superstar runners from JD Sports here. I’m nearly sure John paid €88 for my ones in June for my birthday but the listed price here is €95.

I have a whole post about the Becca x Jaclyn Hill Palette here.

You can buy the Dermalogica Hyrda Blur Primer here.

I have a video about the Garnier Micellar Oil infused Cleansing Water here too.

The Guns n Roses T-shirt is from the men’s department in H&M. I found it on the website here. It’s actually €14.99, I got my pricing wrong, apologies.

And then finally, my random phone ring thing 🙂 I got it from eBay here and I regret nothing :).

August Favourites

So there you have it, if you need anymore info, by all means just ask. You can of course watch the video above on the website or you can watch it directly from youtube by clicking the link here.

 

I hope you have a healthy and happy September. Thanks as always for the support.

Gemma

xxx

I have already harped on about the other theBalm Meet Matte Hughes shade in my collection Charming here. I was browsing theBalm section in Foody’s Pharmacy and saw that they had the shade Committed and the rest is history 🙂

theBalm Meet Matte Hughes Committed

I love this shade so much, I felt like it needed it’s very own blogpost #obssessed or wha’? 🙂

theBalm Meet Matte Hughes

I think Committed is like Charming’s nude best friend. Like all of theBalm Meet Matte Hughes Liquid Lipsticks. Committed has a minty, but still sweet smelling (without being too overpowering), they have a creamy formula when first applied, are opaque and dry down to a matte finish on the lips. Although they are matte, they’re not super unconfortable to wear, although as I said in my previous post, it always helps to have your lips in tip top condition to get the most out of a matte liquid lipstick. theBalm Meet Matte Hughes are super long wearing and do little to no transferring unless of course you break into the greasy foods, it will start to separate.

Committed is the perfect pinky nude shade. I am a girl who likes a bit of pink in her nude, no that is not an innuendo, get your mind out of the gutter 🙂

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Really paled out lips just don’t suit me though so I’ll always opt for one with a bit of pink to it, I think it warms up a lighter complexion more.

You can see it here swatched on my lips.

irish makeup and beauty blogHere it is swatched beside Charming, just in case you want to see the difference between the two. Charming (on the right) is definitely more mauve.

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Committed is one of those really easy shades that will work with any makeup look no matter how simple or bold you might go. You can even just dab a little onto the lips and add a balm or some lipgloss under it or over top for a long wearing, but glossy version.

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You can pick up the theBalm Meet Matte Hughes of course from Foody’s Pharmacy, but you can also get them online from Cloud10beauty here for €16.50. Now, the question is….which one do I pick up next?

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

Check out my first impressions of the Revlon Ultra Volume Waterproof mascara. I only bought this mascara in Boots the other day. This was my first time to use the mascara, so I documented it in video form 🙂
As the formula is waterproof I also left it on all day and reported back to see how well it wore. Just click on the video for all the deets. Let me know if you like these sorts of videos and please please subscribe to my Youtube channel here, if you like it!

 

Thanks as always for stopping by.

xxx

Lush treated us bloggers and the press to an up close look at what they have in store (literally ha) for Winter and Christmas 2015. As a big Lush fan, I was very excited to see so many new and well known products back for the festive season. They have gift sets galore to suit any tastes and budget, and of course most of the products can be bought individually too.

We were very kindly gifted the fabulous Lush Winter Wonderland Gift Set, and so I wanted to show you what is inside, in case it’s something you would want on your Christmas list.

Lush Winter Wonderland 2015There are some old faves and some newbies up for grabs in this pretty huge gift box.

lush bath bomb Snow Angel Bath Melt is in there. It contains cocoa butter and leaves your bath glittery.

beauty bloggerWe have Yog Nog Bath Bomb. This is a cinder toffee soak with spicy clove and ylang ylang.

beauty blogThe Ceridwen’s Cauldron Bath Melt looks really interesting. This plops into the bath as is and melts. It has sandalwood oil,oats and wildflower inside.

beauty blogger irelandThe Candy Mountain Bubble Bar has sparkles and fair trade vanilla to bubble up your bath with.

irish makeup and beauty blogThe Peeping Santa Bubble Bar looks funny right? This has shea butter and strawberry inside, so great for us with a sweet tooth.

irishbeautyblogThe Yoga Bath Bomb is great for relaxing with. It contains olibanum and ho wood.

irish beauty blogYou can reuse this cutie. This is The Magic Of Christmas Bubble Bar. It has clove and almond in it. You can just sweep it across the water a few times and then put it somewhere safe to use again.

lush christmas 2015I get a Holly Golightly Bubble Bar every year from Lush. I think it just screams Christmas, and it smells like it too 🙂

irish blogOf course the Lush Winter Wonderland has a Frozen Bath Bomb this year. It contains grapefruit and Tunisian Neroli. Yum yum.

beauty blog beautynookThis is the Stardust Bath Bomb. It has vanilla and Rosewood in it.

irish beauty blog beautynookCinders is a lush classic. It smells like cinnamon.

top beauty blogI saw this Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bomb (mouthful)  in action when we were in Lush. It dissolves into the bath just how it looks in the bomb it’s really cool. It also contains lavender so good for a before bed time bath.

top irish beauty blogMy Father Christmas Bath Bomb got a bit bashed by its friends inside the box. He will turn your bath green though and smells like candy floss.

lifestyle blogI think bubble bars are where you get the most bang for your buck in Lush. You can just break pieces off and get as many uses out of them as you want. This is the Bar Humbug Bubble Bar. It contains Liquorice, not my favourite scent, but if you love DollyMix this one is for you 🙂

irish beauty bloggerThe Lord of Misrule Bath bomb makes your bath wine coloured, so you could drink wine while you were having your bath and you wouldn’t even noticed if you spilled!

Lush Christmas 2015 (6)makeup and beauty blogMy So White Bath Bomb didn’t make it in one piece, but at least it means I can show you what it looks like inside. It contains bergamot and rose…yummy!

irish bbloggerGolden Wonder is my all time favourite bath bomb from Lush. It has lime oil in it, so it smells really zesty and when it melts away it leaves little stars in your bath!

irish beauty bloggerThe Butterbear Bath Bomb is great for dry skin, it has cocoa butter in it like the Snow Angel…I might actually use these together for an extra hydrating bath time!

bbloggerThe Comforter Bubble Bar is probably my favourite out of all the Lush bubble bars and is one I purchase all the time. It’s really sweet but not in a sickly way. It contains cassis and cypress oil.

beauty blog irelandThe Twilight Bath Bomb is the last on the list. As you would assume by the name and the look of this bath bomb, this is another good bath time bomb. It contains lavender and tonka and according to Lush makes your bath look like the night sky…we’ll see about that 🙂

The Lush Winter Wonderland will cost you €117.50, it is one of the priciest gift sets instore. I think if you are wanting to buy a hardcore Lush fan (or yourself) a really special gift this is pretty perfect though.

Any of your Lush faves in here? Any you fancy trying? Let me know 🙂

xxx