Right Now I'm loving... (the internet in general really)

1. Hayden Williams: Fashion Illustrator

This chap is one of my Instagram discoveries and I am so delighted to have found him. His illustrations are very cool. 

Guess who??

He also has pretty cool pictures of Jennifer Lopez and the Olsens twins. 

All his stuff is up on Tumblr and it's well worth looking through because he does some pretty cool things with Disney Princesses and villains too.

2. New Girl Season 2

I love you Schmidt.

3. Pixiwoo

I did a little post a while ago about beauty blogs that I love but I have also been getting really into makeup tutorials too. Particularly those of sisters Nic and Sam Chapman of Pixiwoo.

Here are a small collection of my favourites...

This one is for Eva Green and she actually ends up properly looking like her!

They are coincidentally all from the Bond Girl series they did. 

I only started watching the videos after buying the Real Techniques brushes (go buy them now, they're available in Boots for the Galwegians!) and I have already learned so much! Also, now that Halloween is fast approaching they are going some Halloween inspired makeup. Well worth a watch. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Images via HERE and HERE, Videos via Youtube

Cosmetic Consumer

Here is a little update on some makeup that recently made its way into my life.
So last month for the first time I tried gel eyeliner. Afraid it would be a disaster and because I am a sucker for cheap beauty products I picked up the Essence Gel Eyeliner in Midnight in Paris (I'll admit the name is one of the reasons I bought it) in Penneys (Primark) in Sligo. I have nothing to compare it to but I will definitely be ditching my pen eyeliners as it is very very good.

taken with Instagram

taken with Instagram... Oh ya, that's my face. 

It stayed in place all day which of course meant that it was quite difficult to remove but I suppose with every liner you either get easy to remove but smudges a lot or doesn't smudge but is harder to remove. I know which one I prefer so I'm willing to work with that. It is much easier to apply than liquid eyeliner - which I was never pretty good with anyway - so it wins extra browny points for that. To apply it, I use Bobbi Brown's eye definer brush as unlike the Maybelline Eyestudio Lasting Drama gel liner that first made me curious about trying gel eyeliner, it doesn't come with a brush. The gel is really smooth but you need two coats to make it really black, which may be why it's quite hard to remove. I would definitely recommend it and for €3.49 sure where could you go wrong?! Verdict: Will definitely be repurchasing.

So next up, if you are from Sligo and familiar with buying beauty products in Sligo town, you'll know that Cara Pharmacy in Quayside Shopping Centre stocks - what I can only assume to be - last season or discontinued products because they sell stuff for just ridonkulously cheap prices. I picked up a €5 "pack" which contained a Stila Sun Gel, a Stila glitter eye liner and two eyeshadows, which for €5 is pretty ridiculous.

Stil Sun Gel, Stila Glitter eyeliner in Silver Lilac, Collection 2000 colour intense trio in (11) Mocha Choc, WetnWild USA mono eyeshadow in Plum Silva

some swatches

Included in the package was Stila Sun Gel, which was kind of the main reason I bought it as I have really started to prefer using a gel bronzer on my neck and décolletage instead of a powder bronzer because powder rubs off on everything but once gel has dried in, it doesn't. It's not quite as good as the Honey Bronze Gel from The Body Gel that I wrote about HERE back in January but it's still quite good. Verdict: I'll probably just stick to The Body Shop's Honey Bronze.

Also picked up in my little makeup round-up last week were two Rimmer products including the Wake Me Up foundation in 103 True Ivory - which I strongly recommend because it really is an exceptional foundation - and some Stay Matte pressed powder in 001 Translucent as I have never tried pressed powder before; and some MAC Pro Longwear concealor in NW20 and an Impeccable brow pencil in Taupe.

I won't do a review thing on the Wake Me Up foundation because the internet is rife with them but I will tell you that it's worth a try. Not sure how I feel about the pressed powder yet but I'll continue to use it because it does minimise the shine. Verdict: Wake Me Up foundation, I'll probably buy it again; Stay Matte powder, undecided; Pro Longwear concealor, I want to be buried with this stuff; also preferring the brow pencil to the usual Rimmel eyebrow pencil in Hazel which I've used for years.

Here are also some pieces of clothing that I recently bought to try to make my wardrobe a little more summery as the vast majority of my clothes are black.

 - New Look top - River Island sweater - Penneys (Primark) two-toned skirt 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Damn, Girl Special Edition: Beauty Youtubers

As my very first Damn Girl feature, I am doing a special edition. My current obsession is YouTube beauty bloggers. I have been a fan of general blogging for a while but only recently have I discovered the multitude of fantastic bloggers - or vloggers - on YouTube. If you found yourself in The Click List recently then you will have seen a couple of the channels to which I am subscribed. Because of this, I decided to compile a little list of my favourite beauty and fashion ladies and why I like them so much.

5. Beauty Crush
Sammi was the first beauty blogger that I subscribed to and it was through her that I subsequently found all of the other numerous beauty and fashion Youtubers that I am currently following. She has a keen eye for dupes of more expensive products which in my opinion is fantastic.

image via www.gramfeed.com/labeautycrush

A Bit Of Tumblr Inspiration

So I have been, for quite some time, a fan of Tumblr. I've been tumbling (yeah I just said that) for about two years now and I have to say that for a scrapbooker like myself Tumblr is an absolute haven. I always see people posting various style inspiration pictures on their blogs and even though I don't normally do that, there are just so many fantastic pictures floating about at the moment that I couldn't resist. So I just chose a few little pictures that I am finding particularly inspirational at the moment.

This girl is probably the coolest individual on the planet...

The Uncommon Oscar

The other day I had another look at the dresses of the past award season. Going through them and still standing by my decision that Octavia Spencer's Oscar dress was the most well-chosen dress of the  entire award season, I realised that this year was pretty short of risk-takers on the red carpet. This prompted me to compile a list mini-list of my favourite Oscar unusual dress choices.

First on my list and rivaling Martha Plimpton for the spot as my absolute favourite is Carey Mulligan's 2010 choice of a strapless Prada gown adorned with miniature kitchen utensils. When Mulligan, who had been tipped for Best Actress, arrived, few people knowing what to make of her cutlery adorned frock with the Huffington post claiming that she wore "a long black Prada number bejeweled with flowers, studs ... and what looks like nuts, bolts, forks and knives".  

image via google.images.com

The Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy dress that Cate Blancett sported at the 2011 Oscars was the subject of some debate. This Japanese warrior costume inspired dress is from what is quite probably my favourite couture collection ever (alongside YSL's Spring 2002 career retrospective) so I am possibly a little biased. Still though I think that Blancett's risky choice deserves a lot of kudos. The intricate beading and brazen colour pop showed that being 40 plus shouldn't deter Hollywood women for making a fashionable statement. This is aided hugely by the fact that Cate Blancett looks like Cate Blancett and could therefore wear a potato sack and still be utterly gorgeous.

image via google.images.com

When a dress can be described as mermaid-meets-Vegas bride it does not inspire confidence in the either the wearer or designer. However when Marion Cotillard arrived at the 2008 Oscar ceremony (at which she won Best Actress for her role as Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose) in this Jean Paul Gaultier number, mermaid-meets-Vegas bride suddenly did not sound so bad. Although I would have forgone the navel-length necklace, I do think this dress is a show-stopper. With a nigh-on Veronica Lake hairstyle and the rosy lips, Cotillard definitely scored highly for this one.

image via google.images.com

Diane Keaton's 2004 Oscars outfit caused quite a stir. While I probably wouldn't wear this Ralph Lauren morning suit and bowler hat myself, the reason this has landed itself on my list is because of the absolute balls it took to wear this outfit on any red carpet not just at the Academy Awards. I'd like to see any actress today attempt to wear this, as nowadays it seems like that in 2012 a 'red-carpet risk' involves shock tactics rather than the attempt to be innovative or fashion forward. Like it or not though, you cannot deny that Miss Keaton is undoubtedly pulling it off. She became the queen of menswear with the release of Annie Hall back in 1977 and still is an icon of androgyny and even though this is a little too chancy for my liking, Keaton proves that with a confident smile and a bit of a nonchalant attitude, you can pull off pretty much anything.

image via google.images.com

Now to my personal favourite.

In 1989, River Phoenix was nominated for an Oscar for his part in the movie Running on Empty. To the Oscar ceremony, he brought his nineteen year old co-star and current girlfriend Martha Plimpton. Late 80s fashion was a time of experimentation, and apparently it seemed like a good idea to conduct these experiments on the red carpet. If you don't believe me just look at Demi Moore self-designed tapestry/bicycle shorts fiasco. Martha Plimpton however got it just right. Mixing one of the most glamourous items of clothing of all time - a 1940s style bias-cut dress, a favourite of the likes of Jean Harlow - with the androgyny of slicked back hair, Plimpton put a new spin on the a classic Hollywood look. Completely unadorned with jewellery, the main focus of the Plimpton's look was how an iconic Hollywood starlet dress can be juxtaposed by a nod to the emergence of the Grunge subculture in the late 80s and early 90s. A definite unexpected look at the Oscars and one that Rooney Mara, in her post Dragon Tattoo glow, seems to be channelling. 

image via Life photo archive hosted by Google

image via http://www.pinterest.com

image via Life photo archive hosted by Google

Cheers for reading,

Jane

make up and diet coke

So this past Saturday, I popped into the Get Glam event in Debenhams hosted by Benefit and Diet Coke. I recently won some Benefit make up through the Diet Coke promotion that they are running at the moment so I was only too happy to see some of these products in action because I am still waiting for mine to arrive. While there I had a lovely chat with Ciara from WildChildStories who was presenting the event for DietCokeTV. 

Once I was finished having a gawk at every single Benefit product available, and as you can see from the pictures above there are quite a number a number of them, I ventured over the MAC counter in Brown Thomas to see some lipsticks because none of the Benefit ones took my fancy. While there I picked up this lovely one (that I so "expertly" photographed below) in Hot Gossip. 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Backcombing Brush

So the other day I was casually walking around Penneys (Primark), minding my own business, when this little brush caught my eye. I am not really that bothered about styling my hair - I dye it a lot and occasionally curl but most of the time my hair is either just tied up or left straight down, I also wear an unhealthy amount of hairbands - but I am not immune to the odd bit of backcombing. At €1.50, I wasn't going to leave this little gem behind.

So there it is (above) still in its packaging. As you can see my hair is a little flat so this is an ideal product for me. Y'know the way you can have combination skin? Well I have combination hair. Because of the blonde dye, the ends are quite dry and a little frizzy (I know this probably isn't a good thing but I actually rub moisturizer into my hands and then pat it through the ends of my hair which helps an awful lot), yet my roots get greasy quite quickly. This isn't helped by the fact that I have quite fine hair, it's healthy hair despite all the dye - no snappy ends or anything - but fine all the same. 

So here is the wee brush in all its glory. The end of it looks vaguely like something you'd polish your shoes with but as a backcombing brush it's quite fantastic. At the opposite end of the brush there is a little pointy thing for lifting hair up which will also I'm sure prove quite handy for parting (not that I experiment much with my parting).

I wasn't going for an all out backcombed look but as you can see from the picture below and the picture  at the top, it does create quite a bit of extra volume particularly in the little quiff thing that I have going on. Finish it off with a bit of hairspray and you're ready to go. I use Toni and Guy's stuff because it holds really well as you can see in my Halloween costume post.

So there you go. Pop into Penneys for your very own backcombing brush because it really is very good. I did not go all out for a mad backcombing look but if I do attempt a bouffant in the coming weeks then I may post a quick picture of it so you'll be able to see how well this wee brush works. 

Also, dear reader, if you do happen to be a follower/regular reader of my blog, you'll probably have noticed that I'm not really a posed picture kind of gal. I don't take pictures of myself for the purpose of this blog - I once did a makeup post but I took it down because I couldn't bear the Photobooth-style pictures of myself but I'm quite happy with how there photos turned out so I'll leave them up, and maybe I'll even do a few more.

Plus, for anyone who is interested I'm wearing MAC's Vintage Vamp on my nails. I just bought it last week and I so love the colour!

On an unrelated topic, Diet Coke and Benefit have recently joined forces with their Get Glam makeup kit competition and guess who just won a set!?! Just got the email this evening and I am so thrilled! It is the perfect start to my 21st birthday month! Cannot wait for it to arrive. Hopefully it will be here in time for my birthday. I kind of doubt it though because it said in the email that it would arrive within six weeks. Still super excited for it though. Yay!! 

Cheers for reading,

Jane

Everything You'll Need In My Handbag

I made a decision some months ago, that I was sick of not having makeup in my bag all the time. In deciding to put together a makeup that would stay in my bag all of the time, I discovered something quite phenomenal. Evolutionary, if you will.

I am demon for changing handbags. I don't carry a rucksack or a backpack so I change my bag according to how many books I will have to bring into college on that chosen day. Sad, I know but anytime  I go into town to actually buy a rucksack I get sidetracked by something prettier, girlier and with a great deal less practicality. Now back to my discovery...

It's a mini bag. A bag inside a bag. A bag with everything you need that can be pulled out at a moment's notice and thrown into another bag without rummaging for tissues, tampons or other things in your handbag begin with a T (to carry on the aliteration of course). It really is the best idea that I have ever come up with, having made my life immeasurably easier. So here are the contents of my bag and how they have so greatly improved my life.

Elizabeth Arden's 8-hour Cream

This stuff is one of those products that once you buy it you'll wonder how you ever managed without it. A bit of flaky skin? Apply it. Chapped lips? Dab it. Dry hands? Rub it. A small graze? Smear it. A hole in your shoe? Stroke it. I was just kidding about the last one but the stuff really is very good. You can pick it up in Brown Thomas and pretty much any good pharmacy. The 8 Hour range includes a number of moisturizers, lip balms and treatments. The orange balmy Eight Hour Cream Skin Protectant really is the best one available, as it is a saviour for elbow, hands, lips and even for keeping your eyebrows in place!

Benefit’s Tan About Town

You know how annoying it is when you’re out and about and you wish you had thought to throw some makeup into your bag? Well fear not. Benefit has the remedy for your forgetfulness and the name of this remedy? Tan About Town. This phenomenal little trio of Benefit classics is a godsend. I picked mine up in Brown Thomas before Christmas for a measly little sum of money and it is quite spectacular. Included in the cute little box that it comes in is Some Kind of Gorgeous Foundation (investing in a good little travel-sized concealor brush will make this a handy little 1.8g sample into an on-the-go lifesaver), Badgal Lash black mascara (the great thing about this is that no expense was spared on the brush) and finally Hoola Bronzer (another travel size powder brush is also necessary for this little beauty). These products are small enough to fit into a handbag but big enough to be useful. Not really meant for every day use but perfect for having in your handbag for minor emergencies.

Stuff That Smells Nice

Remember those little free sample perfume sprayers that you always thought were completely useless? Well I have Stella McCartney's Lily and Dior Addict in my bag and they have proven to be dead handy. I don't actually wear Lily or Addict but Chanel don't issue sample vials so I have to make do. Also those tiny handbag size Nivea deodorants are invaluable.

Other Essentials Include...

A bunch of hair ties and bobby pins, a couple of tampons (it's handy to keep them on-call for friends too), a pack of Kleenex, a mini packet of 10 wet wipes, compact mirror, one of those high-vis armbands that I have never actually used but like keeping in my bag just in case, an iPhone cable, chewing gum and finally plasters because if you know me, you'll know how necessary they are. 

And finally the magic bag that holds it all...

Studded clutch from River Island. It used to have a little wristlet thing on it too but that unfortunately came off the night I stupidly decided to use it as a going out bag. This bag doesn't seem to be available in black anymore but is is in cream, which I personally think wouldn't be a great choice as since the bag would be for day to day use it will probably get a little grubby. All in all this little baby has become my ultimate go-to for on-the-go emergencies. You're welcome ladies!

Cheers for reading,

Jane

cosmetic consumer

Some recent make up purchases...
The lipstick is 17 Lasting Fix in Poncho Pink and when they say lasting they mean lasting. It is quite possibly the best lipstick that I have ever owned. It does not budge all day long. I wore it out one night last week and when I woke up the next morning you could still see the pink gleam of it on my lips. And all for something like a fiver in Boots! 10/10
I have been meaning to get more concealor for a while now. I wear MAC ProLongwear in NW20 but since I have such horrible dark circles under my eyes I want something a little more heavy duty so off with me to BT's where I picked up the Studio Finish Concealor in NW20. It is much much better at covering dark circles than the ProLongwear but not quite as good for other blemishes, of which I unfortunately have many. 9/10


Excuse the shoddy photography. Although it is a fairly basic Canon (Powershot SX130 IS) I still have yet to figure out how to actually use it properly in inside lighting so alas I am back to the good old reliable iPhone.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

make up and tea

- honey bronze bronzing gel for face from the body shop and urban decay loose pigment -

- urban decay loose pigment brush -

- copco reusable 16oz coffee cup -

This bronzing gel from the Body Shop really is quite fantastic. I have never been a fake tan person and probably never will be but this is handy for rubbing on your neck and décolletage if your going out makeup is darker than your everyday makeup. When you first apply it it looks a bit blotchy but it dries really well and certainly does not look like fake tan. Also if you're not really in a make up mood, slapping it on like a tinted moisturizer followed by some light powder works pretty well. I bought it after reading about it HERE. At €18, it is a fairly decent price when it comes to finding a decent tinited moisturizer or bronzing gel light enough for the face. 9/10

I picked this Urban Decay eyeshadow up in Cara Pharmacy in Sligo and although the brush is pretty much unusable as it flickered pigment all over your face the eyeshadow itself is very good. Highly pigmented and a nice colour (smog) considering its meek price tag. 7/10

I picked this reusable coffee cup in Home Store and More in Sligo yesterday when I was buying a weighing scales (along with six other people in the queue - 'tis January after all). I couldn't resist it  even though I don't actually drink coffee but it's nice a big and perfect for holding lots of tea!

Cheers for reading,

Jane

cosmetic consumer

I have been lusting after an atomizer for an extremely long period of time. Since developing my obsession with old movies at a young age, I have always thought that atomizers were just the most glamorous addition to any dressing table. Imagine my utter delight, when nosing around good old reliable TK Maxx, I came across this.

It was initially just the packaging that drew me to it. It was standing amongst the shower gels and the shampoos and I simply could not resist resist having a peek inside. As soon as I saw what it was, straight to the counter with me, for fear that I may mistakenly leave it down and it would be snapped up by someone else.

Now I am entirely aware of the fact that buying a perfume, based on the packaging and the spraying contraption, is an insanely idiotic thing to do. I know. How could I resist this though? At the measly expense of €9.99! My current perfume is soon running out though, and I want to wait until Christmas to get a new one, so this will tide me through until December when I will drop down from eau de parfum to eau de toilette anyway. I want something to wear something a bit lighter because I think Chanel No.5 eau de parfum is a teeny bit too grown up for me. Even though I do love wearing the same perfume as my Granny. I will save some of the good stuff for special occasions though.

Since, as I said in a recent post I have broken out the fur, I have also decided that I want a nice wintery red lipstick to go with it. Unfortunately I don't have the complexion for pillar box red so I had the lovely task of tracking down a softer red that wouldn't make my face pink. I picked up one of the Elizabeth Arden Limited Edition Red Door lipsticks. Now I am no fool and I know that they were released about a year and a half ago, so since when did limited edition become 18-month-long edition? So I reckon it was like rediscovered old stock or something, which would explain why I got it for under a tenner. I also got a Revlon Makeup Corrector Pen which should come in handy and gets fairly positive reviews on TotalBeauty.com* and a CK Calvin Klein Duo Palette Eyebrow Kit that contains, without a shadow of a doubt, the most minuscule tweezers that I have ever seen.

Cheers for reading,

Jane

* TotalBeauty.com is really worth a look. It's kind of like Beaut.ie but .com instead of .ie, if you know what I mean, as in outside the domain of the Irish Channel. Handy little resource if you're between two minds about making a purchase.