How to wear colour

I love a pop of colour on the eyes but I know it kind be a bit daunting and out of your comfort zone. The best way to wear colour is to chose a colour to compliment your own eye colour. The way to do this is the law of  'opposites attract'. What ever colour is opposite your eye colour on the colour wheel is what will suit you best as you can see here.

I have green eyes which sometimes have a blue tint so I find purples and oranges bring out the colour of my eyes the best.

Also less is more, if I'm wearing colour on my eyes I'll wear a nude lip and if I'm wearing a strong coloured lip I'll barely wear any eye makeup.

Thanks for reading 

Claire xo

I bought this playsuit on Missy Empire a couple of months ago and I've been dying for somewhere to wear it, It's been so long since I got dolled up for a night out. My gorgeous girl Jessica's 30th at the weekend was the perfect excuse to get the legs out.

This is the tan I got in my goodie bag at the LMD makeup master class. I love it!!! Its so natural  looking, this is is rinsed off after around 4 hours. I applied the Cocoa Brown golden goddess dry oil afterwards.

Playsuit Missy Empire | Bag Mulberry | Shoes Penneys | Chain River Island

Holy Grail products for fine hair

I have such fine hair and so little of it that I've toyed around with different products for years to add volume. I have the type of hair that doesn't hold a style so if I curled it, it would be straight a half hour later. I've tried different shampoos and conditioners as well as different 'beach hair' products

 but just never got the effect I wanted. But I've finally cracked it!!

I spray this VO5 'plump it up' spray into my hair after I wash it and blow dry roughly, turning my head upside down for added volume.

This spray is an amplifying blow dry lotion with heat defense. It gives the hair more volume and leaves it slightly more gritty so that when you straighten or curl it, the hair hold the style.

Once my hair is dry I spray this Batiste styling spray, its like dry shampoo but its called backcombing spray because it gives he same effect.

I swear by these two and have got my family hooked on them too. Lately I picked up this hair spray for setting my curls and I really like it.  Its the L'oreal studio pro fixing hairspray in strength 5. Make sure you are completely happy with your look before you spray it because it wont be budging once you do. Hopefully if you have the same hair problems as me you'll find this helpful. 

Thanks for reading 

Claire xo

LMD Make Up Masterclass

Top is a H&M dress | Skirt H&M | Boots River Island | Jacket Penneys | Bag Rebecca Minkoff

My gorgeous friend Carly recently invited me to join her at a makeup class in The LMD salon. They had a live demonstration of the below look and we picked up lots of tips. I'm slowly making my way through the very generous goody bag and really loving some of the products which I'll review once I've been using them for a while but so far I'm obsessed with the Bellamianta tan and the bPerfect eyebrow kit.

 The fab goody bags

Some bits I bought on the day. This blush is so beautiful. The palette is the pigments used on the models eyes, they are pressed pigments so no annoying fall out.

#4

Usually myself and my better half go back to our wedding venue to celebrate our anniversary each year but this year was a little different. Unfortunately he was finishing off  a project at work which meant he needed to be in Dublin all weekend. So this year we changed things up and stayed in Dublin. 

Coat Misspap | Trousers Freddy | Boots River Island | Bag Rebecca Minkoff

We went back to the venue of Marc's companies Christmas party the Castleknock hotel. I absolutely loved it at Christmas and couldn't wait to go back.  The rooms are amazing and the food is something else. (Vegetarian options are gorgeous I've yet to be able to finish my dish there) We started off our weekend with some shopping, of course. I picked up the new NARS cream concealer and the light reflecting powder. And I picked up this top and jacket from Zara.

We headed out to our hotel to relax for a while before dinner and had this lovely surprise waiting on us from Marc's work followed by another one at dinner.  After dinner we had a few drinks and listened to the music in the lobby which was an acoustic solo set. It was so chilled out and relaxed.

Top Berska | Skirt Zara | Bag Mulberry | Shoes Penneys

Sunday himself had to check in on work which happens to be beside my favorite treat The Rolling Dounut,(try the vegan raspberry its heaven!!) so after far too many dounuts and a walk around the Green we were off to finish our weekend with a visit to The Guinness Storehouse. We completely lucked out with the weather by the time we made it to the top the sun had come out and the view was amazing!!

Top Le Butons | Trousers Freddy @ Le Butons | Shoes Penneys | Bag Rebecca Minkoff

Thanks for reading 

Claire xo

Budget Highlighters

Highlight is without a doubt  my favourite part of makeup. I love a soft dewy glow, makes your skin look so much healthier and younger. I'm always on the hunt for new ones but keep coming back to these same two.
And while I love my Mary Lou from the balm for my kit on clients, the two that are my favorites  to use on myself are actually budgets buys. Both picked up from local pharmacies for around €5. The first is this one by Catrice called High glow mineral highlighting powder in the shade 010 light infusion. This one has a pinky hue to it, which is lovely when using cool colours.

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Nails

After months without my much loved gel nails I've started going to a new nail tech who I love!! These are my new ones at the minute, I'm obsessed with this mermaid dust. If your not following her already on Instagram or Facebook, check her page out.

L'Action Paris Face Masks

I tend to use a face mask one or twice a week to give my skin a little extra TLC. I usually just grab some of the ones we have at work or I used one from the Forever Aloe range. Lately we've started to stock the L'Action ones so I picked up a few to see what they are like and the fact that I'm sitting down to write this means I love them!!

The first one I tried was the refining and exfoliating mask. It contains essential oils of rosemary and ginger which help to repair, stimulate and tone the skin. Its also contains seaweed which helps eliminate skin impurities. This one contains little beads which help exfoliate the skin. I left it on the skin for the 12 minutes and then it needs to be wet to be removed so I wet it with warm water and spent a few minutes exfoliating the beads into the skin. Afterwards my skin felt so soft and dewy. I'm very sensitive so I was expecting to feel some irritation after the exfoliating but it was very gentle on my skin. There is more than enough product in the sachet to do two different masks so I used half one night and the rest 2 nights later.

The next one I tried was the radiance mask which aims to illuminate and tone the skin. this mask contains essential oils of carrot and cypress, which helps illuminate the skin as well as the mineral complexes stimulating and energizing the skin. This one is a smoother consistency and just spreads over the skin and dries in. This is again to be left for 12 minutes and then washed off. Afterwards my skin had a lovely healthy glow.  

I'm really loving these products and cant wait to try the rest. I've already bought the clear skin one and am waiting to use it when I get my usual hormonal breakout. It aims to repair the skin using the soothing and calming effects of lavender.It also aims to regulate the sebum (skins oil) using cinnamon extracts. 

Inglot Dundalk

If like me you stalk the Inglot Instagram page you'll know that they opened a new store in the Marshes Shopping Centre in Dundalk. Which is of course where I work so myself and the girls I work with were counting down the days until it opened. When it finally opened last week we realized something pretty quick. We are not going to see much of our wages working beside it. Every time I've been in I've seen a handful of different things I want. I won't be happy until I have the entire store in my kit.

The unit itself is quite small and compact so you can get around everything and there is at least five girls thereat all times to help you with everything you need. Their really nice and approachable. Their prices are very reasonable in my opinion for the quality. E.g eye shadow, brow filler pans are €6, Foundations range from €20 to €33 I'll link their website here for to to check the stuff out for yourself. This is a look I did using some of the products I got as well as some of my own products which I'll list below. I used all Nima brushes for this look.

**I took my pics using the portrait setting on my camera which takes the photo twice, once normal and once softened so here's the two.**

Seriously though this highlighter is so gorgeous!!

Products:

Face:

Gosh classic Primer 

Botanics radiance balm

Sleek bare kissed Illuminator

Inglot YSM foundation in 41

Collection concealer in cool medium 

Set with Blank canvas contour palette 

MAC melba matte blusher 

Inglot sparkling dust in 02 to highlight 

Eyes: 

UB potion primer 

Inglot (the orange shade and the two brown shades, too hard to get them out for numbers ha)

Barry M sparkle dust applied with Inglot duraline to the lid

Inglot gel liner in 77 

L'oreal telescopic mascara 

Eye lure lashes in 101 

Inglot gel brow filler in 15

Lips: 

Flomar lip pencil in 201

Sleek matte me lip cream in petal

Rimmel Glam Eyes HD

I picked up this little palette in my local chemist a few weeks ago. I thought it would be perfect for doing everyday makeup for work but I ended up using it for the nights I went out over the bank holiday weekend. I used it to create two different types of smoky eye. The second of which I didn't take any pictures of but will redo during the week.

There were a few different shades to chose from and I picked 022 Brixton Brown to compliment my colouring. The palette includes 5 different shades as well as a guide at the back to put the colours if your unsure.

The colours are so pretty my favourites are the champange and cranberry and the colour payoff is really good.

Thanks for Reading

Claire xo

Makeup Storage

I've been on the hunt lately for something to store my own personal makeup in and spotted this little beaut In Dunnes home when I was working away from home in a different store. I'm so in love with it, it has four compartments on the top which are great for your brushes and tall bottles etc. Then it has two small drawers that are perfect for eyeshadows, blushes, lipsticks etc.

Thanks for Reading

Claire xo

Green

I dont usually tend to where colours on my eyes. I go for the brown shades or a grey smoky eye sometimes when I'm going out. But today while my daughter was napping I decided against doing the sensible thing which would be to clean my house and instead started playing with makeup! As you do.

I started playing with green colours and even went for some lashes to finish the look off which is another never for me. I recently bought the DUO eyelash glue in the dark shade and was curious to see if there was much of a difference and I loved it.

Product List:

Face: 
Kevyn Aucoin sensual skin enhancer SX10 mixed with Rimmel fix and perfect primer
Concealer Rimmel wake me up
Sleek face palette in fair 372 for highlight, contour and blush

Eyes:
Sleek propose in prague in crease
UB backdoor in the outer V and to deepen the crease
UB loaded on the lid with catrice liquid metal in 060 petrol pan on top
Gosh pigment in Azure in the tearduct
all these colours also applied under the lower lash line
Lashes eylure 107s

Lips:
Essence liner 06 satin mauve
Catrice lipstick 050 coffee and cream

Thanks for reading

Claire xo

Portlaoise Minibreak

Last week my other half and I took our daughters down the country to Portlaoise for a few nights for a much needed mini break. Excited at the prospect of having some new scenery to take outfit posts I packed wayyy too much clothes. But it turns out trying to keep an eye on two very active little girls in a town you don't know leaves very little time for taking pictures of clothes. The girls had an amazing time we on the other hand probably could of done with another break afterwards ha.

I was so happy to finally get using my Cath Kitson luggage Marc got me for Christmas.. its only been 7 months after all :)

Dress & Shirt Primark | Shoes Converse | Bag Louis Vuitton | Glasses Claire's | Luggage Cath Kitson

I went for this old reliable for dinner which I last wore over Easter weekend

Outfit all Primark | Bracelets Alex and Ani | Watch D&G

The devastation in the car on the drive down when I realised I packed all my makeup and no brushes!! I had to go back to the fingertip and cotton bud methods.

 

Another go to outfit I've been wearing over and over lately 

Top  New Look | Trousers River Island | Waistcoat & Shoes Primark | Chain Dorethy Perkins

Thanks for reading

Claire xo