COVER • Yellow Flicker Beat | Lorde

Hey Lovebugs!

My attempts to sort out my life with blogging and YouTube videos have kinda gone down the drain in the month of November... whoops! But hopefully this is the start of something a little more organised! I've been trying to post this new cover since Friday but my laptop had decided that it didn't want to play ball until this afternoon. Nevertheless, I come baring a new video!!

I'm kinda obsessing over Lorde's 'Yellow Flicker Beat' from The Hunger Games Mockingjay Pt 1 soundtrack at the minute, and not only because I'm all over the movie (it is amazing though!). Enjoy and don't forget to subscribe - there should be lots of new content appearing this month now that I've semi got my act together! 

XO, G.

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The Beauty Blender • Is It Worth The Hype?

The Beauty Blender. I'm sure we've all heard about how amazing it is by now. From YouTubers to celebrity makeup artists, just about everybody has been hyping up this little egg shaped sponge as a miracle worker, but is really worth all the buzz that surrounds it?

If you'd have told me back in January that by Christmas I'd start using a sponge to apply my foundation again I'd have laughed in your face and thought 'not a chance'. Memories of using those little wedged sponges that you get in boots with a foundation a good 3 shades darker than my skin tone kinda haunt me. Apart from that, as an avid brush user, I like being able to buff my foundation into my skin to give it a flawless finish... but that takes time, time that I don't always have at 7 o clock in the morning before work, so theres that too.

So what's it supposed to do?
Basically you use this sponge damp to stipple your foundation / concealer onto your skin and it claims to leave a completely flawless (gotta say it like Beyonce) finish. You can also use it to apply powders but the thoughts of mixing wet and dry products on the sponge kinda freaks me out. I wouldn't do it with a brush so I most likely won't be doing it with this. Haha.

The sponge doubles in size as you dampen it, leaving a broad side (great for fast foundation application) and a more tapered side (ideal for under eye concealer and getting into places like the sides of your nose).

What'd I think?
My fear of sponges is ready to be boxed away after using this little thing - I've been converted. Although I do still love the finish that buffing foundation into the skin gives (and I'll continue to use that method when doing makeup on others), I think that the Beauty Blender gives just as good of a finish in half the time which is kinda perfect for early mornings when the last thing that you want to do is sit for 10/15 mins applying foundation and concealer.

The only drawbacks I can think of are the cleaning of the sponge (which doesn't look like its gonna be too fun) and the fact that you're bound to use up a little more product with the Beauty Blender than  with a brush - there's really no avoiding that with a sponge though.

I'd definitely give it a thumbs up just for the sheer speed that I can apply foundation in - an extra 10 minutes in bed is always good - but if you're still feelin' a little sceptical there are LOADS of BB dupes out there for half the price, so give them a whirl first and if you're feeling good about it, you can always upgrade!

Have you tried out The Beauty Blender?
What did you think of it?

Let me know in the comments lovers!

XO, G.

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Not Your Ordinary Stationary • Kate Spade

Hey Lovebugs!

Yes, I'm one of those stationary obsessed crazies who lusts over cute sticky notes and quirky pens and pencils. I can't be the only one who's favourite part about going back to school / college was doing the stationary run for brand spankin' new copies and pencil cases. Haha.

Anyhoos, when I heard that some of, New York designer, Kate Spade's stationary had hit the shelves at Brown Thomas' Marvel Room, I made sure to drop a few not so subtle hints to the fam just in time for my birthday and lucky for me those extremely obvious hints didn't go unnoticed - I woke up to these fab little bits and pieces last weekend!

Talk about a stationary lovers dream!

From highlighters, to sticky notes and those unbelievably cool paper clips (I mean, come on. There's a hashtag there!!), I'm in my element. I'm one of those people that needs to write lists / notes for everything, so I'll be getting a crazy amount of use out of these!

My little Kate Spade obsession has grown considerably since Erika from Retro Flame moved to New York and is forever posting drool worthy pictures of the New York store on Instagram! BUT lucky for us Irish fans, Kate Spade has recently opened a boutique in Kildare Village of all places! You know what that means - you can get all of this stuff and lots more at discounted prices! Amazing Christmas prezzies, no? I'm ridiculously excited to get down and clear out the store. Haha.

Anyone else have a Kate Spade obsession?

Or even just a stationary obsession?...

Let me know in the comments! 

XO, G.

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The Perfect Present

Hey Lovebugs!

I'm sure you're all well aware by now that I celebrated my 22nd birthday over the weekend. I was absolutely spoilt by my nearest and dearest and I really wanted to give this little box of wonder pride of place on the blog because, basically, I think it's the most perfect gift for the beauty lover.

At this stage, I think we're all kinda wracking our brains for Christmas presents so this might help those of you who have come to a dead end.

Every year, MAC release the most gorgeous Christmas gift sets and somehow Mommsss managed to get her hands on one of this years releases before they all flew out of the store! Ladies & Gentlemen, feast your eyes on MAC's 'Objects of Affection' pigment & glitter set. These gift sets come in 2 colour ways, as far as I know. This is the 'Gold & Beige' set and the other is packed full of more cool toned shades.

In reality, I'd never pop into a MAC store myself and start playing with pigments - I usually get sucked into the lipsticks or eyeshadows. You know, when you're spending that amount of money on products, you wanna make sure you're gonna get good use outta dem babies! Hence, why I think this makes such a great little present - it's not something you'd buy for yourself, but something you wish you could bite the bullet and splurge on. It's also glittery and fabulous, so there's that too. Haha.

The set contains 4 pigments (L-R: 'Lithe', 'English Gilt', 'Pretty It Up' & 'Deep Brown') and 1 glitter (Centre: 'Gold'). These things will, guaranteed, last you a lifetime. I have 5 pigments from years ago that I still use today. Needless to say the pigments are stunning and the gold glitter will definitely be added to my beauty arsenal around Christmastime!

Are you a fan of MAC's pigments?
Loving the idea of finding this under the tree on Christmas morning?

Let me know in the comments!

XO,G.

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22

Hey Lovebugs!

Over the weekend I celebrated my 22nd birthday (I'm currently sitting writing this in a room full of a mixture of helium balloons, a gigantic foil '22' and Christmas decorations - yes, already. Haha).  The whole weekend was so chilled - a night in with the girls (with enough food to last a week) and a few nice meals here and there. Myself and himself finished off the celebrations by staying in Dublin after a ridiculously good meal in Marcels (I've wrote a blog post on it HERE, if you're in Dublin you gotta go! Lots of good noms!) and this is what I wore the following day shopping! I'm kinda going backwards with outfit posts but whatevs. Haha.

It was frickin' freezing and obviously I was gonna be doing a lotta walking (trekking from shop to shop is more or less a marathon, right?), so I opted for comfort! I picked up this turtle neck jumper and skirt in Zara last week and couldn't wait to wear it! Now that it's getting quite cold it's so nice to be able to snuggle up in a cosy knit but still look somewhat put together, so my jumper was a real score! I feel like I'm gonna be living in it all Winter! To finish off, I threw on my oversized MK watch, a little cross body bag and my tortoiseshell cat eye glasses from River Island!

Is the turtle neck trend one that you'd rock or avoid completely?

Let me know in the comments!

Hope you all had a good weekend!

XO, G.

 Jumper: Zara | Skirt: Zara | Boots: River Island | Bag: Michael Kors | Watch: Michael Kors (Similar HERE) | Glasses: River Island | Ring: Pandora

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Celebrity Inspired Makeup Look | Cheryl Fernandez Versini

HAPPY FRIDAY LOVEBUGS!

For today's post I'm gonna throw it back to last weekends X Factor... no I'm not getting into the Cheryl miming scandal, but I am going to obsess over her makeup look for just a little bit! Gurl was workin' the purple smokey eye look, so I've decided to recreate it myself!

If you're one of the few lucky ones that haven't gotten sucked in to the X Factor (again) this year, here's a little snap of CFV smizing her little heart out - Tyra would be proud! I HEART it!

To be totally honest, this look is super easy to achieve... as long as you've got a few purple eyeshadows knockin' about your makeup collection - I used a few from Inglot (346, 377 & 441)! You take the standard steps to create a smokey eye (3 different tones of the same colour and keep the darkest against your lash line), add a few falsies, a slick of a berry toned lipstick (this is 'Eggplant' lip pencil from Fuschia) and you're good to go!

I thought I was gonna have to wipe this all off and slap on my usual neutrals after I was finished snapping photos for this post but I think I'm gonna keep it on! I don't experiment with coloured shadows as much as I'd like to and the purples kinda make my eyes pop... so this look's a keeper!

For now, I'm off to start my 22nd birthday celebrations! So expect lots of birthday content next week! 

Let me know what you think of this look in the comments!

Do you like to play around with colour or are you more of a neutral gal?

XO, G.

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Current Style Crushes

Hey Lovebugs!

I put together one of these style crush posts wayyyy back at the start of the year, so I thought it was about time that I updated that shiz! My style crushes are constantly changing (with the exception of an odd few, one of which you might see below - obvious hint. haha), I'm always finding someone new whose style I can totally relate to.

When it comes to my personal style, I wear a lot of neutrals (for the most part) - black, white, camel, grey, cream - and mostly accessorise with colour. I like simple shapes, tailoring and anything that's gonna keep me toasty, so layering always gets a thumbs up at this time of the year! 

For me, the gals below are totally killing it at the minute when it comes to their personal style. 

Ever wonder who that fierce lookin' blonde teetering behind Kendall Jenner is? Yep, that would be this stunner - Hailey Baldwin. Somewhat of a new 'it' girl, she's earning a name for herself in her own right (never mind her actor father Stephen) as the new face of REVOLVEclothing.com. Since she chopped her hair up into that bad ass blunt bob her style has just been blowing me away. Something about it just screams casual chic but then she goes and rocks something as elegant as that white, tailored strapless jumpsuit and has me drooling all over again! Love love love!

To me, Kendall's style is the epitome of 'off-duty model chic' - leather jackets, skinny jeans and fierce footwear. What I like about her style is that there's always something to give her looks an extra edge - like the blue & black panels on those white skinnies or the mesh crop top paired with those classic tailored trousers. But let's face it, at the end of the day the girl wears a lot of black, no wonder I like her. Haha.

Olivia. This is one of my style crushes, strike that, style icons that will probably never change. I think she nearly always hits the nail on the head when it comes to her personal style. There are so many words that I could use to describe this woman's dress sense - cool, elegant, chic, etc. etc. but one thing that I think I admire most in her is that she wears everything with confidence. She never lets a piece of clothing wear her. From an oversized blue coat to double denim, she always makes her outfits her own. HUGE girl crush.

I'd LOVE to know who your current style crushes are!
Let me know in the comments!

XO, G.

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The Berry Lip 4 Ways

Hey Lovebugs,

Slightly cheating with my post today as I've also included it in the latest edition of The College Tribune (UCD, Dublin's campus newspaper if you're not familiar with it! You should check it out. Lots of talented writers!) - but I couldn't let you miss out on all the lip product goodness!

Winter has well and truly made itself known here in Ireland at this stage (it's frickin' freezing - almost). I don't know about you all but Winter is my favourite time of year, not only is it my birthday but it also calls for cosy nights in with family and friends, chunky knits, lots of food, toasty fires, festive to-go cups (I don't know why I love them so much. Haha.) and CHRISTMAS (yes, I said the 'C' word)!!

In terms of Winter makeup, I can't think of anything more fitting than a berry lip but not everybody gets as hyped as I do about going over to the dark side (tee hee), so I thought I'd put together a few different ways that I like to rock the seasonal trend!

Berry lips are one of those trends that you can either dip your toe into or jump into wholeheartedly - hence why I've shown you 4 different ways to wear them. Those of you that want to give the darker lip colour a bash without it looking like you're clinging on to the last remnants of Halloween can opt for something a little more sheer / pale, like the options that I've aptly named 'The Everyday' (Dior Kiss – ‘Lychee Rose’ Lipgloss) or 'The Inbetween-er' (Fuschia – ‘Love Affair’ Lip Lacquer*).

If you're feeling like embracing the darker lip (something that I tend to do more often than not) then 'The Classic One' (Fuschia ‘Vamp’ Lipstick*) & 'The Night Out' (MAC ‘Rebel’ Lipstick) are the shades for you gurl! In the picture above I'm rockin' MAC's Rebel with a black liner blended in - not as scary looking as you'd think, right? Obviously you don't have to go as heavy on the eye makeup as I have but that's what my face was feelin' that day!

The number one thing that you've gotta remember about a berry lip is that it's a little bit like liquid liner, it can sense your fear. So as long as you approach that baby with confidence you'll be flying!

How do you wear your berry lip?
Do you have any of these shades in your makeup arsenal?

Let me know in the comments!

XO, G.

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*PR Sample

Dream Dots | Overnight Spot Treatment

Oh hey love bugs!

If you're as social media crazy as I am, you've more than likely heard about the little miracles that are Dream Dots* before. Their popularity has spread like wildfire amongst Irish bloggers and blog-lovers alike with just about everybody having their say on the miniature spot treatments. So I thought it'd only be fair if I had a ramble too.

My skin had been kinda too good over the past couple of weeks so everything was bound to go downhill at some point. That point was during the bank holiday weekend. FAB! On Saturday morning I could see what was the start of two little spots on my cupids bow - yes, one of the most horrendous places ever (in the history of spot locations) to get a spot, the pain is like no other (you know what I mean). By Saturday evening they were fully fledged spots, so I thought then was as good a time as any to crack open my Dream Dots and see what all the fuss was about.

I don't think I've ever tried anything similar to Dream Dots (cutest name by the way) to help heal a spot before. They're kinda like little round clear stickers that have a slight cushioning in the centre. You pop one directly on top of the spot and it starts to get to work drawing the impurities out of your skin. These things are perfect if, like me, you're just about to go to bed and you're panicking that the little red swollen bugger on your face won't leave you be in time for your night out.

As the name would suggest, you leave these on over night and remove the next morning. Obviously, depending on the type of spot, you might have repeat this process over 3 nights for it to totally vanish but I definitely noticed a significant difference after just one night. The pain and swelling had minimised but more importantly the redness around the area was completely gone - no more slaving away with makeup trying to cover up what looked like a busted lip! Haha.

I think these are a fantastic and most importantly effective treatment for those of you who get the odd breakout that you can't seem to get rid of (I wouldn't recommend using them on active acne as that's not what they're geared towards). They completely stop you from poking at the spot (don't deny it, we all do it. Haha), so the infection doesn't get worse or spread - winning.

Dream Dots cost €15 and come in packs of 24 with instructions on how to apply them. I don't really think you can go wrong with these for the price. Because they treat the spot so quickly, they're not going to run out fast - I still have the majority of mine! I'd totally recommend you pick up a pack and give them a whirl!

Have you tried Dream Dots yet?
Come across anything like these before?

Let me know in the comments!

XO, G.

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*PR Sample