little Boots haul

I took a little trip to Boots the other day and here's what I left with:

Barry M nail polishes in the colours: Mint Green and Lemon Ice Cream. I took advantage of the 2 for €8 offer for these.
Collection 2000 kohl in brown and Glam Metallics liquid liner in Punk.
And last but most definitely not least: a FOUNDATION!!!!! Yes, a drugstore liquid foundation that won't make look like an orange!!!!!!!! It's Revlon Colorstay for normal/dry skin with SPF 15(always a bonus for me when makeup has SPF :-) !), in the colour 110 Ivory.
A review of the foundation is to come in the next week or 2, I want to test it for a few days first so I can give proper minute details.
Oh and also got some cotton pads, you can never have enough of those.
Let me know if you guys would like reviews of the other products as well.
Ciao for now,

Lil

Garnier UltraLift with Pro-Retinol Anti-wrinkle firming roll-on

Our friends at Garnier HQ say:

A complete skincare range enriched with naturally derived Pro-Retinol, specially designed to target pronounced wrinkles.

Anti-wrinkle firming roll-on
Our first anti-wrinkle roll-on with Pro-Retinol derived from nature; target wrinkles where they are most visible.
Its precision applicator and formula help target wrinkles where they are most pronounced.
- Crow's feet
- Forehead
- Lip contours
- Leaves skin feeling firmer

I say: "Holy moly, it DOES!!!!".

I pride myself as being someone who has always looked after her skin, especially because I'm aware of how easily my "special" skin can get damaged.
I have always tried my best to protect it from atmospheric agents and the Sun, but no matter how hard I tried, there was something I could have done nothing to prevent: wrinkles!! Around my eyes, on my forehead and nose.
And the reason why I couldn't do anything to prevent them is because they were caused by years and years of almost constant squinting that comes with my condition.
I never really cared much about them to be honest, as they weren't too bad, but the stress from the last year or so has really worsened them and made them deeper. Fortunately they didn't grown in number, "just" in depth.
As you may all be aware I am not exactly swimming in cash and because I always thought cheaper end anti-wrinkle products wouldn't do much, I just didn't bother trying to fix them.
Until recently, when checking out the Boots website for reviews for another product I stumled upon this little baby and its uber brilliant reviews.
Honestly? I was curious... I thought "how could such a cheap anti-wrinkle product get such great reviews?!". So I put my researching cap on, and found an ocean more of extremely positive reviews. It goes without saying I found myself reaching for a little short of €12 in my wallet and buy one the following time I got near a Boots.
Well...let me tell you, I was ASTONISHED!
I was positively surprised because my super sensitive eyes didn't shed a tear nor did even realise I was putting something around them!!! Fantastic!
I also REALLY liked the application: the little metallic ball soothes and cools down the area around your eye SO well! Bye bye cucumber slices.
As for the results, after about ONE hour I could already see a difference in the wrinkles under and beside my right eye(the "worst" one)!
After about a week I could see results in all the areas I was using it and I considered myself satisfied had it not improved any further. Only...it did! It's been now about a month and the situation is as follows:
- under eye wrinkles completely gone under my left eye and almost completely gone under my right one
- crow's feet only slightly visible if I squeeze my eyes really tight(which I never do anyway)
- lines on the forehead are almost gone too, although I think in order for them to be gone completely I should probably stop being so Italian when I talk
- lines on the nose are half as deep but I reckon that's because there's no flesh whatsoever under the layers of skin, it's just bone.

So, if I had to give this little miracle a rate from 1 to 10, I would probably go for... 11 !!!
I shall most definitely purchase again....or maybe not. Seeing as it's doing such a great job, I may not have to look after those lines for a while yet after the little "bottle" is empty.
I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who will care to listen.
Thanks for reading

Ciao for now,

Lil

How to create beautiful curls with your straighteners

easy flower design nail tutorial

This is what I used:
(all products are China Glaze)
- Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
- In The Lime Light(neon)
- Caribbean Blue
- No Chip Top Coat

Hawaiian Raspberry: make up tutorial

17 Cosmetics waterproof mascara in brown black
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Coastal Scents 88 shimmer palette
Lancome waterproof kohl in black
L'Oreal waterproof Voluminous mascara

May Loves Makeup 500 followers giveaway

This is my entry post for the lovely May Loves Makeup blog, for the chance of winning all these goodies

The Ms Makeup 'On the Go' Brush Set

Barry M Nail Paints in the much coveted shades of 'Mushroom' and 'Boots Limited Edition'

17's Instant Glow Medium Bronzing Pearls

17's Fast Finish Nail Polish in 'Pink Grapefruit'

Bourjois 'Rose Exclusif' Lip Gloss

The Mascara of the moment! 17's Wild Curls!

17's Mirror Shine lipstick in 'Beehive'

Fingers crossed guys!!!

OOTD sunday, august 15th

So today I made the best of the beautiful weather(a rarity here in Dublin) and went for a lovely walk in town and a pic nic in the park.
Everything I'm wearing I bought in Italy 6 months to 3 years ago so I can't really talk much about them.
The top is just a vest with poofy sleeves and front attached to it, it#s not a full on white frilly shirt.

Here is a detail of the shoes. Unfortunately I have pretty damaged knees because of all the years of sports I did so I can't really wear heels (boohoo! a shoe lover that can't wear most of the shoes she admires). So I just settle for wedges.
I liked these ones straight away because they're not stark white, meaning you don't have to wash them every 3 seconds. I also loved all the colours as they basically go with most outfit colours, and they cover the wedge as well, which makes the shoe more interesting rather than just a plain wedge.

And this is the famous Rocco Barocco bag you saw in my previous OOTD . I got LOADS of questions about it on Twitter and Facebook and because I haven't had the chance to do a "what's in my bag" video yet (sowwy!), I thought I'd show it better to you. (you can click on the photo to see a larger version).
I hope you liked it and I'll see you guys soon.
Ciao

Lil

Easy glitter gradient nail tutorial

I used:
- Colour Club French Tip
- China Glaze Flyin' High
- China Glaze Glacier
- China Glaze No Chip Top Coat

My first TAG!!!

Aaaawwww I'm SO excited!!! My first EVER TAG!!!
Thank You to the lovely Lisa Marie at http://lisamarie337.blogspot.com for tagging me :-)

Anyone feel free to do this and leave a link in the comments box so I can read it

* What's your Favorite Makeup Look?
I don't have just one. I love a simple mascara, neat liner and highlight as much as I love a bold colourful look or a classy smokey.

* What part of your Body do you Love?
That's very hard to answer... I guess my hair must be the part I like the most. I also really like my fore legs because they are very athletic from all the years of sports I've been doing. I REALLY like my bum as well, it's perky and round without being too big.
Until recently I used to REALLY love my boobs, it used to be my fave part, but then because of stress and anxiety I have lost quite a bit of weight very quickly and unfortunately the chest went south a bit.

* Who is your beauty Icon?
I have to be honest with my skin and natural hair I have always found it hard to find a beauty icon to "copy". Having said that there are a few women I REALLY like admire. First of the amazingly gorgeous Marilyn Monroe, stunning! Then I would go for Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Pamela Anderson and Bridget Marquardt.

* What Beauty Product makes you Feel instantly Good?
I have a few:
Palmers body butter because it leaves my skin super soft and it makes me wanna take a bite out of myself, it smells so nice.
Mascara & brow liner: because they instantly give colour to my otherwise "dead" hued white lashes and brows and even if I don't put on any other make up, I still look very well put together.
Face coloured powder: I rarely use foundation for a variety of reasons, and powder is the subsitute. I love how it instantly hides all the veins around my eyes and on my lids.
Lip balms: I have VERY dry lips and I have the very, VERY bad habit of constantly toying and playing with my lips, Plus I hate the feeling os "stuff" on my lips. Anything other than a balm or a lip gloss would just be a waste of time and money.

* How do you look after your skin?
I guess the answer has to be split in 2 parts: body and face.
Face wise. Until three years ago I used to absolutely DESPISE my face skin. I used to have the most horrible cistic acne that no cream or drug would clear. Then after years of doctors trying to talk me into it but my mother saying no, I finally decided to do some tests: turns out I had the most horrendous hormone inbalance which was causing the horrible acne. Well I was put on the strongest contraceptive pill on the market and ever since I probably get one break out a month. Now I ALWAYS get complimented on how perfect my skin looks and that I really don't need any make up. I scrub my face, like the rest of my body, about twice a week with Garnier Body Tonic Sugar scrub, or with a gentle shower gel mixed with sugar. Sometimes I will even do a concuxion of sugar and olive oil for my face. I have recently started to use scrubbing gloves as well.
I don't use any cream at night because my face needs to "breathe" at night. During the day if I know I'm going to be mostly indoors I use Vichy Aqualia, otherwise a face cream with SPF. I have very recently started using Garnier Ultra Lift anti wrinkles roll on and it's the most amazing product EVER!!!! Fantastic results after ONE day.
As for my body as I said I exfoliate twice a week and then use a body butter, I have been using Palmers with SPF.
When I was 18 I had skin cancer, it was the hardest time of my life and something I would never ever want to deal with again, which is why now I take extremely good care of my skin and try to protect is as much as I can.

* What is your Signature Scent?
Here is the thing. I find most scents SO overly priced it's ridiculous! And there's way too much choice out there. So what I do is I let other people buy me scents as presents. It's a lot easier for me! For the past year or so I have been using JEan Paul Gaultier 2 a lot.
I am addicted to anything that smells of vanilla or caramel/cinnamon. (candles, soaps etc)

* What's your hair care secrets?
I wash my hair once every 4 or 5 days(and no, it doesn't stink nor looks manky) just so not to ruin it. I use a protective product before drying and styling my hair, and I just don't use too many products that may attack/damage it. Shampoo, conditioner, heat protecting spray and then if I'm after a particular style, a bit of hair spray or wax.

* How do you pamper yourself?
I can't really afford to pamper myself much, really. Other than routine skin/hair care, I do my nails myself about once a week.
Sadly, that's all.

* Finally How do you have a Beauty Philosophy??
This question is really open to so many different answers. I think beauty is everywhere around us and each and everyone of us feels it differently.

First lash tint...

(I know it looks scary and like I have no brows, but I promise I DO have brows, the lighting and flash just didn't show them...)
So I finally went and got my eyelashes tinted.
Now...it didn't quite turn out the way I expected. I thought it would look a lot darker, especially on the tips. but I guess it's because I went for dark brown. The girl did suggest I tried blue/black but I was scared it would look scary...
I have been advised by a few people that have it done regularly, to go for blue/black next time. Hopefully it will turn out EXACTLY the way I want it.

Ciao for now,

Lil

PS: if there is a particular post you want me to write or a topic you want me to cover, please leave a comment or get in touch with me on Twitter. Thank you

OOTD tuesday, august 10th

First of all....I know I look short and large, especially my legs, but my 6' 2" tall boyfriend took the picture so it's the perspective that makes me look like that.
Anyhow...moving on to the outfit.
The top is from the Dunnes summer collection, it was €8. I Know the colour is not very complimenting of my skin tone, but with the strap of my coloured bra showing, I think it looks a lot better. The design of the blonde girl is what made me buy the top, it's simply GORGEOUS! I love how the hair on the picture gives the illusion of my hair being longer and fuller!
The jeans were from a chinese shop back in Italy, €10. They have little hearts attached to the zip on the front and back pockets and a sequin detail on one of the back pockets.
I can't actually remember how much the pumps were, I bought them about 4 years ago for about €20, they are very good quality leather.
The bag is a Roccobarocco I bought 3 years ago for €40. I will be doing a "What's in my bag" video soon for my channel, so you can see it better.
Where I used to live in Italy there's a very good outlet about 50 miles from my home town. There is this amazing shop in there that sells designer bags for a fraction of their price: Roccobarocco, Versace, Valentino, Laura Biagiotti.
In about 3 years I've bought 3 Roccobarocco's, 2 Phard's, 1 Laura Biagiotti and each for under €50...AMAZING!
And last the shades are from a market in Italy, I think they were around €10 or so...

I hope you enjoy it !

Ciao for now,

Lil

My cosmetic disadventures (part 2)

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now but for reason I haven't...
This is a follow up on my blog regarding my disadventures in Debenhams.
As promised they popped a parcel in the mail and I got it straight away.
I have to say fair play to them, even though what they sent was none of the brands I was after, they sent stuff that would have cost me A LOT to buy, and except for one, they were all proper size, not samples.
So here's what they sent with a quick review.

- Fake Bake, Bronzy Babe bronzer(full size)
This is way too dark for my normal-non-fake-tanned skin tone, however if applied under a bit of powder to soften it up, it looks REALLY good, (see photo). Because it's quite dark, on fair skin I would just use it as contour, NOT as a bronzer. I have introduced it in my make up routine for a tiny bit of contouring, I have very defined cheek bones as it is, I don't want to over enhance them.

- Elizabeth Arden, Pure finish, Mineral tinted moisturiser, with SPF 15 (full size)
and
- Caudalie, Tinted Moisturiser for fair to medium skin(tester size, but still a good 30 ml/1 oz)
Both way too dark to use by themselves, unless I have some fake tan going on on the rest of my body.
However the Caudalie one was very wearable with a bit of my face cream to lighten up the colour, even without fake tan all over my body. Left my skin quite soft and the smell is not too bad.
The Elizabeth Arden one smells REALLY bad, it might be the SPF or not but it's really not nice. A lot darker than the other one and to be used without an all over fake tan I had to use A LOT of my face cream to delute the colour with. Otherwise it's just pure orange in a bottle.

- Estee Lauder, Bronze Goddess Bronzing Gel
Colour wise is the same as the 2 above, closer to the Caudalie, it's lighter in colour than I had expected. It's got quite a bit of sheen to it so I am not sure I would wear all over my face. Maybe can be used as a touch of bronzer on the cheeks for a fresher look than powder bronzer. The smell is not as strong as the others.
Texture wise I didn't see much difference between this gel and the 2 tinted moisturisers.

- St Tropez, Whipped Bronze, self tanning mousse
I haven't tested this yet. I am a bit scared actually that it's just an orange nightmare on my skin. I will do a little trial on an unexposed area and will get back you guys.

Veet Face Strips Review

Firstly....I think it takes a lot of guts for a woman to admit she has to use face wax strips, secondly it probably takes even more courage to talk about it and what she does for it.
So, there....a lot of kudos for me before I've even written my review(wow...I'm getting better at all this blog writing malarky, not to mention English isn't even my native language. Hold on... woohoo even MORE kudos! YAY). Anyway....

At some point a couple of years ago I had in my hands a sample of the Veet Strips for legs, and because unfortunately I cannot wax my legs(long story, will talk about it more in depth in a future post/video), I decided to try it on my face.
And I have to say they worked wonders! I just had to cut the big strips in smaller ones, but I swear they worked wonders on my face! And the following days I had no red "dots" or anything.
Hence why I decided to try the real stuff for the face.
Well... I shouldn't have bothered!
For starters, as you can see below, the strips aren't clear. You'd think who's responsible for new product ideas would be smarter than that?! (or it's a man and he has NO idea a woman would like to see what she's doing when she's WAXING her face off) You really can't see anything through it, you just have to guess.
So I wamred up the strips, tried to apply to the desired area as best as I could without actually seeing anything, and then removed it: HALF of the wax was left on my skin. I had to find a "free" area on the strip to try and take the wax off.
The box claims "grabs hair as short as 2mm!", eeerrrr.... no, it doesn't! It doesn't grab short hair, it doesn't grab long hair. To be honest it doesn't grab much at all actually.
As for the "perfect finish" wipes I'll tell ya what they are...a perfect mess!! they are DRIPPING with solution that made my skin burn, I could have fried chips on it! It left my hands and face awfully greasy until I decided to scrub them raw to get rid of the oil on them.
So I was left with half the hair there, meaning I had to spend a long time the day after "cleaning up" with my tweezers, left my skin burning and greazy as well.
Not going anywhere near them EVER again. I'll just stick to the normal kind for legs I guess...

POTD: "Candy" water marbling

This is my first EVER attempt at water marbling...and I have to say I am pretty impressed, what with my eyes not being able to see much in detail and everything.
I know...I have to somehow get a lot better at cleaning the cuticles and around the edges but i promise I did my best :-(
If you don't know what water marbling is, just do a quick research on YouTube and you will see.
I used my base coat(name of the brand has vanished from the bottle from being handled)
then I did one coat of Color Club French tip so that the colours would be more vibrant
the colours I used for the marbling are: China Glaze Rich and Famous and Caribbean blue, and Colour Club French Tip.
quite satisfied with it.
will definitely experiment with more colours and "designs" in the future
Ciao for now

Lil

July '10 favourites

products I didn't like:
L'Oreal collagen filler eye
Olay complete care daily, for sensitive skins, with SPF 15


products I LOVED:
Palmers cocoa butter with SPF 15
China Glaze Blue Hawaiian
Garnier Body tonic sugar scrub
Garnier Ultra Lift roll on for wrinkles

FOTD tuesday, august 3rd

Products used:
Urban Decay primer potion
most eye shadows are from the Coastal Scents 88 shimmer palette
Frontcover Eye Spy Palette, colourse used: Burnt Toast and Tallulah Pink
MAC carbon for the outer lid
17 Waterproof mascara in the colour brown black
Lancome Waterproof Khol in the colour Raisin Noir
Fake Bake Bronzy Babe, bronzer
Lancome Tropique Minerale smoothing loose bronzer
GOTbeauty powder

how to repair a split nail with a tea bag

POTD: China Glaze Electric Lilac

This is from the same line as Blue Hawaiian, meaning tons of pretty tiny glitters with a base colour. The photo unfortunately doesn't do it justice, there's tons of different colours.
Unlike Blue Hawaiian though the base colour is not as solid, even after 2 coats it's still a bit shear. I adore it but not as much as Blue Hawaiian, which I'm totally in love with !
I reckon Electric Lilac would look REALLY pretty over a matte or shimmery purple polish, I will sure be trying that some time soon