February Favourites

I can't believe it's March already, this year is flying by. I am loving the slightly longer evenings and brighter mornings, it can only mean summers on its way, hopefully we get some nice weather! I thought I would do a small blog on some of my favourite products which I bought this month. I like to try out beauty products before I mention them so I can really see how they react to my skin over a period of time first.

For some reason my skin is going mad at the moment and I am having a few break outs, I felt like I was getting clogged pores across my nose, I have tried loads of cleansers and exfoliators but wanted to try out some nose strips and see how I got on. I just went for the Boots Witch Hazel strips, they are so easy to use, just place the strip across your nose and dampen with water, then it will harden which feels a bit weird. After a few minutes you peel it off and Ta-Da, no more pores. I like these, my skin felt soft afterwards and they got rid of any blackheads.

I wanted to get a new pressed powder to wear for work and stuff like that as I am wearing my Mac powder all the time and it gets used up so fast. Boots were doing a 3 for 2 deal and I was getting a Bourjois eye liner so I was looking at the powders they had in their range. I liked the Healthy Balance 10 hour powder, basically because it said it lasted up to 10 hours and as an oily skin sufferer this sounded great. I got it in Beige. I really love this powder now and adore its fruity scent.

There was a lot of talk about the new Soap & Glory concealer, and as a big fan of their products I thought I would try it out. Its not bad, I'm not sure if I am 100% in love with it, mainly as I feel it is a little greasy, which leaves my face feeling oily and shiney, so maybe for that it shouldn't have made my favourites blog, but as a concealer it is really great. It covers any blemish and under eye circles.

Samantha Chapman, make up artist and beauty blogger at Pixiwoo has launched her own range of make up brushes. I have wanted to try out a a stippling brush for a while and couldn't really find any reasonably priced ones, so when I saw this one in her collection I snapped it up. It's a really cool all round brush, it can be used for all sorts of foundations, powders, blushers or highlighters. There is also some information on the box about Samantha's website and links to video demonstrations which is really cool as it gives you a quick guide on how to use the brush.

As most of you will know, I am a total tanaholic, and I am always trying out new tans. I am really loving the Irish brands which are on the market at the moment such as Tanorganic and Wow Brown. I have been using the Wow Brown Tanning Liquid for a while and like that I only need about two layers for a nice tan. The last time I was buying it the girl in the pharmacy said she loved the Tanning Lotion as it gave a deeper tan, so I decided to try it this time, and I love it. I literally put on one layer before bed, and when I woke up I had a lovely golden glow, plus it doesn't have the usual biscuity smell like most fake tans and I wasn't sticky for ages afterwards, I could throw on a loose top and sit down comfortably without having to stand waiting for it to dry in. I think this might be on my favourites list for a few months running.

The last of my favourites is my Models Own nail polish in Utopia. I was looking for a white/pink shade and I came across this one, I really like the coverage as I put on two coats and was finished. I normally find with light shades you need to build up layers to actually see the colour. I am trying to think up a new nail art design which I can use this in, I feel a bit weird having plain nails after having jazzy ones for so long.

On a non beauty or fashion related note, I bought this secented cupcake candle in Pennys and I just adore it. I recently bought some new Yankee Candles but I bought this one mainly because tit was in a cute cupcake jar, but it has a really nice vanilla scent which is gorgous when you light it. Definatly worth all of the €2 I paid for it, what a steal!!

So there you have it, hope I didn't make it too long. I probably missed out some things that I really loved but I can squeeze them in to another blog soon. I have so many blog ideas which I need to get around to doing, it takes so much time getting good pictures, typing up and I have been trying to do more video blogs so between the filming and editing I am a very busy girl! Hopefully I can get a few out over the weekend. I promise to do plenty of fashion blogs to catch up with all my beauty and nail art posts.  As always I would like your feedback and suggestions for anything you would like to see me cover and if there are any products you have been loving lately.

Thanks for reading

Sinead x

Candy Stripes

Pastel shades are every where at the moment, so I thought I would paint my nails with this in mind. I thought stripes would be easiest to do. They aren't exactly dead straight, I was going to be really precise and use a stripe of tape to give me super straight lines, but in the end I just went free hand, I think they look ok.

I used three Barry M shades, Peach Melba, Mint Green and Berry Lilac.

Firstly I painted my nails peach, then when that dried I did three quarters in the green, then did the tips in lilac. Its a pretty simple look, You can seal it all in with a clear polish over the top which I always like to do.

I think this will look nice in the summer, maybe I will have perfected straight lines again then! Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas for me I would love to try them out.

Love

Sinead x

Tribal Tips

I was feeling a bit colourful so thought I would try out a new design on my nails. There's a real tribal/aztec trend going on at the moment so thought I would recreate this on my nails. It was a little time consuming, but that was mainly because I couldn't decide what to do after each step, so the aim here is to just be as creative as you like, if you feel like doing a different pattern on each nail - go for it, or even if you have longer nails maybe just do the tip or even just one nail per hand.

I decided to go with some bright contrasting colours, I used Sally Hanson Insta-Dry in Lime for the main body of the nail, then I used a selection of my nail art pens for all the detailed parts. A lot of brands are now doing some colours in nail art pens, such as Models Own or you can buy them online or from a salon service shop. If you don't want to buy them, you could try using a fine eye liner or lip liner brush and just use it with your regular nail polishes. I sometimes use a cotton bud as they too are small enough to create patterns with.

OK, so to start I just painted my nails green, then I did a white stripe, followed by a black one. With a steady hand I painted a red zig zag on the white stripe.

I then got a yellow nail art pen and did some stripes and spots. As I said it's all about using your imagination and just creating a funky design. To finish it off I did some red stripes at the top.

To seal it all in I put on a layer of my favourite O.P.I. clear top coat. this stopped them from being all lumpy with all the layers of paint.

I hope you like them, I would love to see some of your creations, let me know what you think of mine.

Sinead x

I Heart Nail Art

Hey Lovelies

Hope you are all keeping well, and that you have plenty of nice plans for Valentines day. I am going to my cousins wedding so it will be a super romantic day for her and her new husband. Cant wait to see the dress and be part of their special day. I promise to post some pics from the day.

So being in a romantic mood I thought I would create a Valentines inspired nail look for you. It is really simple to recreate as most of the nails are plain red. However if you are felling very creative you could do all your nails in the design or add little spots or hearts to the plain red nails.

What I used:

Rimmel white polish

Sinful Colours in Gogo Girl Red (got this in New York, its practically the same as O.P.I)

Nail Star Nail Pen in red (can buy a large range of these pens on eBay)

Nail Star Nail Pen in black

All you need to do is paint your nails red, leaving one which you paint white. Then when your white has dried, write out your valentines message. You will need a steady hand for this, keep the text short and sweet so you can fit it all in. Ask a friend for help if you find it tricky to write on your own hands.

There you have it, a very sweet nail look. Now who says romance is dead.

Let me know how you get on with it, and if you get any nice surprises for Valentines day.

Happy Valentines

Sinead x



In Love with Litas

I just adore high heel shoes and platforms and when I first saw these shoe boots I was on a frantic hunt to find out where they were from. I searched high and low and finally discovered they were by Jeffrey Campbell. Then it seemed every blog or video blog that I looked at featured the Litas. They come in a whole range of colours and styles. I was so tempted to get the full on glitter ones but wasn't sure if I was channelling Ziggy Stardust too much, then there's the original black leather ones but I have a million pairs of black shoes or boots so finally decided on these red beauties.

If you don't happen to be in America any time soon where they are everywhere you can get them in Office or online. Lots of places are doing really fab replicas so keep an eye out. I got mine on a recent trip to Liverpool and can't wait to wear them.

Reality Bites

My boyfriend got me the best present for Christmas, a weekend to Liverpool, and anyone who knows me will know that I just love that City. Also, if you know me, you will know that I am obsessed with any sort of reality TV and so I thought it would be nice to send a quick tweet to some of the Desperate Scousewives cast telling them about my pending trip. Not expecting to hear back I started planning what to pack when my sister called to say Danny had tweeted me back with some info on his launch party in Monique's the weekend I was going over. Then a few days later Jaiden sent me a message saying he would put me on his guestlist for a party he was throwing at Boutique. So I ended up with two parties to attend on the one night!

Myself and Blain flew over on the Friday. We did tourist things, plenty of shopping and chilling out, was so nice to just get away for a few days. Both parties were on the Saturday night so we got all dolled up and painted the town red. Was really nice to meet the cast of Desperate Scousewives, Chris and Mark complimented me on my "Gill Bob" which was really sweet.

There was a few other TV stars there such as Billie from The Only Way is Essex, who said she loved my dress and Gary from Geordie Shore.

Sean Clancy was also very nice and posed for a pic, as well as Jaiden. We had a really fun night although my feet absolutely killed by the end.

I had a really great weekend and such a laugh with Blain, I didn't want to come home! My yellow dress is from Asos.com, I promise I will do a blog on all my purchases from the weekend very soon.

Put A Ring On It

I have a new obsession with rings and love wearing a few together. I think many people will automatically think of someone like Becky from Coronation Street when I say wear a ring on every finger but it's actually really on trend at the moment. Keep the look modern by wearing a funky nail polish as well.

Here are a few of my favourite stories at the moment.

                                                              

                                                     Colour Pop

Large Purple and gold oval, light blue and silver rectangle, bright pink and silver oval and orange and gold rectangle all from Primark.

                                                           

                                                   Animal Magic

Black, gold and diamond panther from Aldo, cream and brown zebra (I got this as a Christmas pressie) but it's from Topshop, and the silver bird is from Primark.


                                              Glitter Gems

Silver sparkly bow is from Primark aswell as the large gold and diamond ball. Large round silver and diamond ring from River Island and silver and diamond band from Aldo.



                                                  Tooty-Fruity

Large red strawberry with gold band and small pink strawberry with gold band, both from Primark.

                                                   Golden Wonders

The love and hate rings were a set from Aldo, and the thin gold cross, gold peace ring and eye ring are all from Topshop.