Things I would tell my 16 year old self

Happy Tuesday everybody! I saw a post recently on Her.ie about the things they would tell their teenage selves if they could. It got me thinking, if I could go back ten years, and give myself some advice what would it be? After a bit of thinking I came up with what I think would have been really important advice for me at the time. So, lets get cracking shall we?

1: YOU ARE NOT FAT. I had to put this one in caps locks to really get the message across, because when I was 15, I was convinced at the time that I was a big blob of fat and that I was ten tonne Tess (sorry Tess) in comparison to all my friends. Looking back now, I know I was definitely not. I was fit and healthy due to playing volleyball and Gaelic football, so in hindsight I was probably fitter than a lot of the girls in my year were. As long as you're healthy it doesn't matter the size of your waist, we all come in different shapes and sizes and there ain't nothing wrong with that!

2:  Go easy on the black eyeliner. Less is definitely more when it comes to eyeliner, especially when its black, and especially when its being used on the waterline. I used to wear it really heavy every single day, so I wish someone only told me to go easy on it!

3: Don't waste time straightening your hair: I spent most nights trying to get my frizzy mop of hair to just sit straight, but alas it wasn't to be. I now understand that was because I actually didn't have frizzy hair, but instead I had a head of curls! So many people now comment that they'd love my hair, so really I would have just thrown my hair straightener away if I'd known!

4: Do NOT get a fringe: Another hair related one but seriously, fringes and curly hair do not go well together! It ended up wonky because it hadn't been cut right, and no matter what I did I  ended up with a cows lick and my mother saying 'I told you so'. Needless to say I let it grow out, and never let it make an appearance ever again!

5: Don't worry about what boy's think of you: When you're 15/16 years of age, boy's are the b all and all of your life. Do they like you, do they not, do they think you're cool and all the rest. Forget about them! Enjoy being a teenager, spend time with your friends, go out to disco's without the intention of getting 'the shift' and just enjoy yourself. Boy's will come and go but your friends will be there through thick and thin and that's all that counts.

6: Your parents aren't your enemies: Seriously, they're not! And ten or fifteen years down the road they will actually become you're friends and you'll feel horribly guilty for all the door banging and stomping up the stairs like an elephant you did. (Or maybe I'm the only one who did that). Treat your parents with a bit of respect, at the end of the day they only have your best interests at heart, and some day when your in the same position you'll realise it.

7: Don't put too much pressure on yourself about what you want to do: All you hear about at 16 is the CAO and what you  want to do in college and where you want to be in 10 years. I'm here now at 25 still trying to figure out what I want do and where I want to go. As my granny says 'If its for ya it won't pass ya'.

So there you have it ladies! Is there any words of advice you'd give your younger self?
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

Make Up Monday!

Hey lovely ladies! Hope your Monday isn't going too bad so far.. In a bid to make it a little less dull, I myself decided to sport a red lip, just because I can! I got some funny looks when I went up town to do a few bits, but who cares!
Besides that, there wasn't any particular make up I had been loving this week, mainly because I was really wearing the same bits as last week.
One thing I did really like though was a brush. And no before you ask, it isn't a Real Techniques brush, (we all know by now how good they are.)
Instead it is the EcoTools Large Powder Brush.  I had previously heard of EcoTools but had never tried any of their products, so when I saw this brush in TK Maxx for only 6.99 I decided to pick it up! I've been having really problems with shine and redness on my nose and although I do use powder I had only been using the little sponge that came with the one I'm using at the minute, (Rimmel Stay Matte if you're curious).

The brand itself are renowned for being leaders in  eco conscious beauty products, and are favourited by celebrities around the world. Their brushes are 100percent cruelty free, have recycled aluminium ferrules, and sleek bamboo handles. Not only this, but they are so so soft! It sounds a little strange but I just sat stroking it for a few minutes after taking it out of the packet, its that soft! Anyway weird girl part over, on to the actual brush itself. It has a large brush head which is packed full of hairs and it makes it so so easy to apply powder1 Its slightly tapered aswell which helps disperse the powder more evenly over the face. Like I said I had been using the little sponge that came with the powder to apply it, but since I started using this I've realised that the sponge actually just caked the powder on and it didn't look natural. This brush just mattifies the skin and gives a nice looking natural looking finish to your make up without looking too heavy or caked on.

I picked it up on a whim in TK Maxx, and really didn't think it was going to be that good, but I'm so impressed! It does say it was originally 16.99 so I definitely got a bargain! I've no doubt that I shall be picking up more from EcoTools in the future!

What have you all loved this week!
Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx

Valentine's Day Wishlist

Hey ladies, hope you all had a lovely weekend. January is finally over, although you wouldn't think it with the rotten weather that we've been having. Seriously, what is with all this rain?? Anyway, it now being February means that a lot of people are already thinking about Valentine's day and gift giving and all the rest. Me, not so much, because I told my other half not to get me anything because we're going to New York in April so I figured we could just save any money we would spend on presents for our holiday. Sensible me eh! However, it has definitely not stopped me eyeing up a few bits online.. So am.... Paul, if you are reading this.... Wink Wink.... ;)

I have really gotten into my statement jewelry in the last few weeks, and this neck piece from The Button And Bow Factory has really caught my eye! Its has such beautiful pastel shades in it that would really stand out in the Summer with a plain white tshirt and jeans and pumps... Ah... I don't know what else to say except I REALLY WANT IT!! Its 21 euro HERE and they also offer free shipping worldwide! Yay!

I know I'm seriously late to the party with this one, but I've been so close to buying it on so many occasions, even today I nearly did but the angel on my shoulder just holds me back! The colours are so pretty in it and this one is just way more appealing to me than either of the other Naked palettes. Unless someone buys this for me, or MUA bring out a dupe for it, I think I shall be picking it up in the US OF A. 

Our house has always been a Yankee Candle house, and there's always some fragrance burning in nearly every room! I've really gotten into burning the wax tarts in my bedroom lately, but I would love to try some of the large jars. I'm more into the fruity sweeter scents, but this Strawberry Buttercream one just sounds divine! Although it will probably make me hungry! 

 Pandora are renowned for their charms, and anyone that knows me knows how important a role my family play in my life. I am yet to have something to represent that on my Pandora so it would be nice to get a little charm like this to put on it! 

Ah good old LUSH! You really can't beat them for gift's for any occasion! This Lots Of Love gift set is made up of 5 of Lush's most well known products which are perfect for your loved one this Valentines. It contains Prince Charming Shower Gel, Sex Bomb Bath Bomb, Ro's Argan Body Conditioner, Neon Love Soap, and Tender is The Night massage bar. 

These are just a couple of things that caught my eye so far, I'm sure there's plenty more to come! However, just to be clear, although it has become quite a tradition to give gifts for Valentine's day, presents aren't the most important thing! Whether it be your mother, your granny, your best friend or your boyfriend, you don't need gifts to show them you love them! Who knows, maybe I'll just buy some of these myself... ;) 

Any of these catch your eyes? 

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx

Wet N' Wild Sweet As Candy Trio

I have tried to restrain myself from writing this post too early, but I can't help it. I have fallen head over heel's for these eye shadow's so I may aswell just be upfront about it and admit the truth! I have been lusting after the Naked 3 Palette as soon as I heard about it, there's something about the pink hues in it that are calling out to me! It is possible that it will eventually be mine, but when I spotted this trio I thought it would be a good alternative for the moment. OK I KNOW all the shades aren't pink, but I figured that it will give me a fair idea if the colours in the Urban Decay offering will actually suit me.

So as you can see from the picture (and from the description on the actual eyeshadows, there's a highlight for the browbone, a brown crease shade, and then a pink for all over the eyelid!

I have to admit that the name of the actual trio kind of encouraged me to buy it aswell, I'm a sucker for sweeties! 

Everyone and their next door neighbour raved about the quality of Wet N' Wild eyeshadows, and I understand why. They are some of the best quality eyeshadows I've ever used. Soft, creamy, easy to use with little or no fallout, and lots of pigmentation. I mean look at the picture below with just one swipe of my finger!

I'm not usually one for effort with my eyeshadow, its usually just one colour over the lid and that's it. But this year I am going to attempt to get a bit better at my eye makeup and doing more blending etc. 

I have tried to take a picture of how this looks on my eyes, but the only thing I can see is the big line across my nose from my glasses! :(

But really I do quite like how it looks on my eyes, and although you can't see the highlight in the picture, it does look really nice. I'm so impressed with the quality of Wet N Wild make up so far. Everything seems to be such good quality for such incredible prices! 

Have you tried anything from Wet N Wild yet?

What are your thoughts?

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx

January Favourites!

So thankfully January has come to a close! I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds January to be so long and boring and basically just a fairly depressing month. But to cheer you all up I decided to come along and tell you all what I've been absolutely loving this past month, and maybe encourage you to try some of these during the months ahead...

Soap and Glory The Righteous Butter: I had used this constantly for a couple of years, and then I just got distracted by other products in my collection and forgot how good this was!s. The consistency is amazing its nice and light and melts into the skin almost instantly, and leaves your skin feeling soft and hydrated for the day. And the smell! Its the typical Soap and Glory smell, so if you generally like that smell then you'll be happy with this. On some days after using the Clean On Me shower gel teamed with this, I haven't needed any perfume at all, the scent just lingers for the day! The scent is made up of beautiful  fruity scents such as bergamot and mandarin, and some more grown up slightly musky scents such as oakmoss and amber. I'm glad I rediscovered this and I'm never going to let it out of my sight again! 

No 7 Beautiful Skin Hydration Mask for Dry/Very Dry Skin: This has been an absolute saviour for my skin this month, and to some that may sound like a very large claim to make. But after the Christmas and the excess food and drink, and the cold weather my skin was feeling excessively dry. I had got this before Christmas as part of a gift set I treated to, and can't believe how well it worked on my dry skin. It does say to leave on for 3 minutes or else 10, so I tend to pop it on when I'm heading in the shower and letting it really sink in! I have mentioned this before in previous posts so I won't go into too much detail, but if you do suffer from dry skin I think its worth giving this a shot! 

CK IN2U Perfume: I have been a fan of Calvin Klein perfume's for a few years now, and I think this one is quite possibly my favourite out of all the scents I've had. Its a very sweet and girly scent, but yet very grown up all at the same time. It contains notes from pink grapefruit fizz to bergamot to vanilla souffle so there's a bit of everything in there! This bottle is a 150 ml size which will last me for ages, but its my second time buying this perfume, and I don't think I'll ever be sick of it! 

Benefit 'Dandelion' Blush: I have a feeling I've mentioned this in a favourite's post before, and if I have I'm very sorry but I can't help how deeply I've fallen for this blush, really. It's the most beautiful shade of pink with a slight shimmer going through it, and it just adds a nice pop of colour to the cheeks without going over board. I've really been loving it for days when I'm going for the really natural looking make up look. 

Benefit 'Sun Beam': Everybody raves about Benefit liquid highlighter 'High Beam' but I have never heard Sun Beam get a lot of love. Well let me tell you, its getting it now, from me! OK so I only have a teeny tiny size bottle, but its going to last me for ages, because a little goes a long way with this bottle of gold liquid goodness! I dab a little bit on to the highest point of my cheeks and blend it in with my Real Techniques Stippling Brush. It just gives the most beautiful effect to my cheeks, it almost makes me feel like a supermodel. If only I was really tall with legs that go on forever. I can dream I guess!

Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara: I have mentioned this in a Make Up Monday, so I'm not going to go into huge much detail again, but seriously this stuff is amazing! It makes my eyelashes look so long and fluttery and gorgeous! (May be a bit bigheaded, but seriously just try it and you'll understand). This mascara also contains 'Grow Lash Complex', which claims to help lashes grow and appear up to 117 percent longer in just 30 days! I'll keep ye posted.. ;)

So there you have it ladies and gents, 

this months top picks. I know there's not a lot of make up in there, but sometimes its nice to have a break from the norm isn't it? 

What have you all been loving?

Thanks for reading,

Alisha xxx

Make Up Monday: Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara

Hey ladies, hope you all had an amazing weekend, and did lots of wonderful things. I unfortunately didn't have such a great few days myself, and without going in to do much detail here I've been very down in the dumps the last couple of days, but as all my lovely family and friends have told me, things will work out and things will work out for the best. However it does mean I will have more free time to work on the blog, so hopefully I can do wonderful magical make up things with it. Fingers crossed!
Onto today's task however, and that is telling you about this week's must have product.
 I recently finished up the mascara I was using, and so I decided to try one that I knew I had in a drawer somewhere, and I've heard numerous people raving about it, including Miss Budget Beauty, so I knew I was onto a good thing!

The blurb for this product says that 'Rimmel's advanced ultra lengthening formula delivers up to 80% longer looking lashes instantly'. It really really does! My eyelashes are naturally quite fair, and because of this I find it makes them look shorter and stumpier than they really are. But just one coat of this and they instantly look much longer. I generally use black mascara because my eyelashes are so fair, but I somehow ended up with this in brown, but I really can't tell the difference once it's on my lashes.
Rimmel also claim that if its 'used daily over 30 days, our innovative Grow-Lash Complex helps to strengthen, renew and nourish lashes, promoting natural lash growth to create lashes that appear fuller, lusher and up to 117% longer.

Now I haven't been using that long, I've been using it maybe 10 to 12 days at the most, but I'm looking forward to seeing if it does live up to these claims, as I would only love to have longer lashes, because to be honest, I'm not too good with falsies!
Its not badly priced at 10.99, considering a lot of other drugstore mascara's are now up around the 15 euro mark!

Have any of you tried this mascara?
Does it make your lashes grow?

Thanks for reading,
Alisha

Wet N Wild Haul!

So every beauty obsessed lady in Ireland were delighted to hear that Wet N Wild had crept into some Dunnes Stores in Dublin unknown to us. I had given up hope of finding it in Galway for another few weeks, (the official launch is next week), so I'd resigned myself to waiting patiently. Until last night!
After work myself and my better half headed into get dinner in the city, and after stuffing ourselves with chicken in KFC, we went for a romantic stroll in Dunnes. The first aisle we headed for was the beauty aisle, but no sign of it there so just incase we headed upstairs. (My other half was just dragging his heals behind me, can't blame him really). After a bit of wandering I came across Rimmel, and there was a stand the far side which I thought was Catrice, until I walked around and nearly jumped out of my pants, WET N WILD WAS HERE!!!! Needless to say I picked up a couple of bits, so I thought I'd show you all what I got, incase like me you want to hotfoot it down there straight away! ;)

                                                  My stash of Wet'nWild

Wet'n'Wild's best known products are probably the eyeshadow palettes. So of course I had to pick up 3! Comfort Zone is probably the most well known, so even though I definitely did not need another neutral palette I picked up anyway. The right hand side appealed to me more because I don't really have any green colours for my eyes, so thought it would be nice to try. The next one I bought was Poster Child, which is made up of 8 bright and fun shades. I really stick to the same colour eyeshadows all the time, so I thought this palette would be a nice way of trying bright looks for my eyes once the warmer weather hits. The yellow and turquoise look like a really interesting combo! These are great value at only 6.49 each!

I also picked up one the trio's of eyeshadow's because I just thought the colours were so pretty. I have actually used this today and it seems lovely so far! Its called Sweet As Candy. The name alone just sold it to me! The price of these again was so reasonable at only 4.49!

 I had heard that the blushes were also very good, so I picked up the shade Heather Silk. Again I tried this today, and all I can say is, go easy with your brush! Its so so pigmented, and I had a lot of work to do to try and tone it down after application because I went in to hard with my brush! Oops.. But don't make my mistake and you'll get along just grand! There was a great selection of colours and it didn't break the bank, again at only 4.49!

 Another thing I had heard a lot about were the lipsticks, so I had it in my head when I heard Wet'n'Wild were in Ireland to try them. I picked up two colours in the MegaLast Lip Colour, Mauve Outta Here and Rose Bud. I couldn't not really try them, they were only 2.99!! They both seem like really natural every day colours, so when my lips heal up a bit as they are very cracked on both sides, I'll definitely be trying them out.

And of course I had to try the Megaslicks Balm Stain. I don't know what it is with me and lip crayons! This was the only thing I didn't swatch on my hand, so I don't really know what it'll be like, but it just like it'll be a nice fun Barbie pink! It was only 3.99, so not the end of the world if I don't like it!

So that's all I got! I was so delighted to see it in Galway I got slightly excited and wasn't really sure what I wanted, but in the end I calmed myself and picked out what seem to be the stand out products! It was great to see the stand pretty much full, and no products opened and tested bar the actual testers, which always gets on my nerves! I picked up my bits in the Dunnes in Briarhill, so I would assume it would be in the other stores in town now, or else soon enough!

Thanks for reading,
Alisha xxx