Mastering Your Makeup: Irish

Zinc Hair & Beauty- My Hair Journey!

17:38:00
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Madison Makeup Launches in Ireland- Review

Hello Lovelies,

Today on the blog we are taking a look at a new brand to my life, Madison Makeup. Unfortunately due to work I missed the official launch of this new brand in what looked like an out of this world event in Dublin's City Hall at the end of last year. But after Christmas I was sent two of the new products from the range to try out and review for you all.

About Madison Makeup:

Madison Makeup has been created and developed by Irish beauty industry veteran Paul

Mooney, and is his latest in a long line of innovative products. Paul’s vision is to create

obtainable luxury, while still providing uncompromised quality and Madison Makeup is

leading this vision. Madison Makeup has been created with the Millennial Irish girl in mind; its trend driven colours allow you to replicate the most current makeup looks. (press release email)

Berry Bold Eyeshadow & Hightlighter Palette- €19.95

This is an essential eyeshadow & highlighter collection with 14 shades in light , neutral & berry tones.

Highly pigmented formula for complete build-able coverage

Finely milled formula for the most seamless blend

Shades range from pink champagne to rich berry with a mix of neutral browns & 4 highly pigmented highlighters that open up an unlimited amount of makeup looks to choose from to suit every type of style. (madisonmakeup.ie)

This palette is really pretty. I also have to say that the size of the palette is very good. It's certainly big enough for the pans to work out at a brilliant cost of only €2 per eye shadow or the four highlighters at only €5 each if they were to be in a palette separately. The tones in the berry bold palette are exactly the type of colours I like to work with. Oranges and Burgundy's are my go to shade for my blue eyes especially when I have tan on, I love to make my blue eyes pop as much as possible. I also think that the shades can be used as a stand alone colour for a quick day look. I like to use the shade burnt when I want this look and sometimes I take it slightly browner with neutral. My absolute favourite shade from the palette though has to be berry itself I just love it!

The highlighters in this palette are not for the faint hearted, or I advise you to use them sparingly. The glow is unreal. I've been using them alone or sweeping my brush across them all. I find when I have tan on, they look even better on my skin. Although, doesn't that apply to every aspect of my life? Always better with a bit of tan on!! Daisy is my favourite highlighter shade from the palette and the one I used the most, it's not the lightest but I love the gold hue it leaves on my skin. I think if you are sallow skinned then fifi would be absolutely stunning on!

Contour; Contour Highlight & Blush Palette- €19.95

A kit to expertly sculpt and define your features with these highly bendable – 6 cream sculpting shades, 1 cream radiance highlighter & 1 powder coral blush
Each of the 6 contour colours can be inter mixed and custom blended to create a tailor made shade to expertly sculpt your features !! (madisonmakeup.ie)

Before we go any further, this is a disclaimer, I am not really into cream contouring. I have to be honest, I just panic when it comes to adding cream contour to my face. I always worry that I look really muddy and then if I do make a mistake, I'm trying to add more foundation ending up feeling like I've a weeks worth of product on my one night face!

That being said, I do think this palette would make a brilliant gift for someone who is into cream contouring or for yourself if you're growing in your cream contouring confidence. The blush shade takes my breath away the beautiful rose gold shade is stunning and I am OK with using the cream highlighter, again be light handed, it is creamy but you always want to be careful about the placement of a cream highlighter.

In the description of the contour palette on the Madison Makeup website, it's says that you can blend the shade to custom colour your contour shade... I will admit I tried this but it didn't work too well on me. I clearly thought my foundation was darker on my skin but I made the contour too dark so started again. Little by little I could see myself starting to add some of the cream contours for a night time look but at the moment, I like to use them more as a concealer. Carving out my brows using Contour 1 or sometimes adding a little of 4 as a concealer, it's deffo something if you're into cream contouring you'd love.

I hope you found this post helpful in deciding if you'd like to try out Madison makeup products. Being tailor made to the young women in Ireland, I think this brand will do very well. I think the price point is smart and this is reflected also in the packaging, it's young and funky and totally appeals to the young makeup lovers of Ireland.

15:10:00
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Healthy Eating with The Healthy Kitchen!

Healthy Kitchen

18:39:00
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LanaiBLO Hair Dryer- A Game Changer! (Press Release)

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Press Release:

Introducing LanaiBLO; the professional, time-saving tool that your hair and your lifestyle have long been waiting for.

For the first time in hair history, Katie-Jane Goldin - Serial Hair Entrepreneur, is putting the peerless power of a professional, salon-approved hairdryer in the hands of discerning Irish women. Katie Jane knows that for Irish women and herself included, a good hair day can be life-giving, but why should it have to be a rarity? What's more, why should it take so long? With the right tools, each and every at-home blow-dry can finally be of a salon standard. Named after the villa in which Katie-Jane tied the knot with her husband, Barry, LanaiBLO is an undisputed, beauty industry gamechanger.

Here's why:

Technology aside, one of the most loved features about the LanaiBLO hairdryer is the super long cord, making styling at home a hell of a lot easier.

Boasting an impressive power rating of 2400 Watts, LanaiBLO employs fast-drying technology, meaning the days of hours spent creating the perfect blow-dry are at last behind us. As Irish women continue to work hard and achieve all of their goals, saving on time is a necessity, especially for those of us wearing hair extensions.

Not only will your hair dry faster, you'll never be left trying to tame static tresses, thanks to LanaiBLO's incredible ionic technology.

Introducing the Cold Shot feature. With this, you can lock in the look you have spent your time creating with heat by quickly cooling the temperature of the air being generated by your dryer, cooling your hair and setting it in place. Another industry insider secret!

For the ultra professional finish at home, LanaiBLO comes with two different sized narrow nozzles, allowing you to control both heat and air flow.

What's more, the LanaiBLO hairdryer, despite being incredibly powerful, is super lightweight and ergonomically designed to make your life easier. Maximum style, maximum comfort.

Lastly, the LanaiBLO Tourmaline crystal components help to seal in moisture to counteract frizz. This feature also helps achieve a smooth and shiny finish. Control 6 Speed / Heat Options. The more options you have the more control you get!

And if that wasn't enough, there's also a range of colours to choose from, and you can have your own LanaiBLO personalised with your name, making it the perfect beauty gift as the festive season beckons.

LanaiBLO, your perfect hair day - every day - awaits.

Link to High Res Images: http://www.lanaiblo.com/press/

The LanaiBLO Professional Hairdryer is available from www.lanaiblo.com for €99.99 with FREE DELIVERY NATIONWIDE and a PERSONALISATION OPTION!

Instagram @lanaiofficial - Facebook @lanaiofficial - Snapchat @katiejanegoldin

14:51:00
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Nima Brush- The Donna, Fuzz, Terrie & Harley Review

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Hey Lovelies,

Beauty lovers all around Ireland will see the title of this post and somewhere deep down in their beauty psyche they'll stir up a little FOMO if they don't read this post...It's true! A true beauty lover will have a slight obsession with brushes...the tools of the trade, the magic wands that can transform your face and turn you into a better version of you for a day or just an evening, makeup brushes are my absolute love!!

To someone who is not at all into makeup brushes, you will have read that top paragraph and assume I have no life or that I am an OCD to buy the latest brushes whether I know what to do with them or not...you my friend, are correct! I see a new brush, I want it...but let's not get too crazy I limit myself to two maybe three brands of brushes that this happens for but in the last 12 months none more so than Nima Brush.

Niamh's first workshop in Citywest was a huge success!

I am going to pretend for a minute that I am the only obsessor of brushes here and give you a little background to Nima (just in case you live under a rock or to be fair if you are a newbie looking to invest or better still you are thinking of gifting someone with some brushes)

NIMA Brush is an Irish professional Makeup Brush company specialising in Professional Make Up Tools & Accessories. The company was established by long time Irish makeup artist, Niamh Martin, who has over 15 years experience of working as a professional within the Irish and UK beauty industry, as well as numerous years of teaching experience. So it is safe to say, Niamh knows her stuff and knows what people expect from their makeup tools and accessories.

Niamh’s aim was to provide fun, professional, and affordable tools to enable both professionals and non professionals alike to invest in high quality makeup brushes for their everyday makeup application needs.

After years of educating college students and professionals in the art of makeup application it came to the stage where Niamh wanted something more and, with the support and back up of a fantastic family, NIMA BRUSH was born!

NIMA Brush are manufactured using the most natural fibers and strongest brush ferrules. This will ensure your make up brush not only lasts for you, but is of the highest professional grade. Something else you may notice about Nima Brush is that they are instantly recognisable. (http://www.nimabrush.com/about-us/)

There's myself with Nima Niamh herself at the event in June. Niamh has become quite a good friend as well as a fantastic business woman, I have been purchasing Nima since day dot of my blogging journey and will always support her hard work and want every single brush she ever launches.

Where you first see the word Nima in this post I have linked the website which I really encourage you to check out. There is a new website coming really soon and this will include videos on how to use the brushes so if like me sometimes you buy before you know what it's used for you can always go back and take a little look see afterwards. I will also link the Facebook page HERE

So for today's post I am going to look at the newest of my Nima Brushes. In case you're feeling a little hard done by that I am only looking at four of the brushes then all you have to go is go onto the blog and type in Nima into my search bar you'll see there's many more a Nima Brush I have reviewed already with a lot making my favourites not to mention the two loves of my life for brows the Daneille and the Emma brush,..say no more people just buy them!!

The brushes launched at the event in June so of course I had to own them

The four brushes I want to look at today are the Donna €12, the Fuzz €12, the Terrie €16 and last but by no means least and possibly the greatest brush love you will have so far in 2016 is the Harley €19.

(all italic information is taken from the nima brush website to give an exact description)

The Donna: The Donna is a beautifully tapered blending brush handmade from brushed goat hair. Use this brush to apply shadow to the socket line of the eye and also to quickly and seamlessly diffuse out shadow for a perfectly blended finish. The Donna is the perfect blending brush to have in your kit.
Using a circular motion will buff out any harsh lines of eye shadow to create that perfect seamless smokey eye.

I think it was my heart that had me write about this brush first and I am telling you now, one in my collection is just not enough. It's so soft! I use it every single time I create an eye look in myself to blend out lines, it's white hairs pick up the colour so I need to clean it so often I was afraid it would start shedding but from using this brush for every single dark look or night look I have created since June it is in perfect shape. For €12 I think this is a total bargain and I will 100% pick up another at the beauty show. The tapering at the top means you can be more precise, sometimes over blending just spreads the shadow too much and everything becomes a 'blown out' look which is not what you wanted at all. Honestly folks if this was a scoring post this brush gets a massive 10/10 from me.

The Fuzz: The Fuzz is a large shader brush made from extremely soft Sable hair. This brush is absolutely perfect for applying eyeshadow across the eyelid. The tip of the Fuzz is also great for applying a transition colour into the socket of the eye and for softly smudging colour under the eye. Using the flat side of the brush, simply pat the eyeshadow onto the lid, and use the tip and a window wiper motion to apply a transition shade in the crease.

The Fuzz was and still is part of the elite collection basics set but was given it's very on individual brush and name due to it's popularity and I can see why. I don't know about the rest of you but a hard flat brush for applying eyeshadow can sometimes set my watery eye off and will undo all the hard work I put into my crease work and countless blending moves. The Fuzz for me allows me to apply a lid colour with that panic, it is so soft that you never have to worry as even if you do poke yourself in the eye it won't cause too much damage (trust me it's a point I need to make as I often do it)

The Terrie: The Terrie is a miniature version of our ever popular Flat Head Kabuki and is made from Taklon Synthetic fibers which can be used for powder or cream/liquid products. It is a non-porous synthetic brush that will not absorb too much product therefore preventing waste. This brush is best used for a more precise foundation application or for buffing out concealer under the eye or on smaller areas of the face.

Named after Niamh's wonderful and stunning brand ambassador Terrie McEvoy the Terrie brush is really good to have in your personal kit. I love a flat head kabuki brush to apply foundation, I think it makes your face look flawless and you can build layers of coverage if that's what you need. Sometimes if I don't want to add more product to my whole face, I find a full flat head kabuki brush will spread the product too much. The Terrie brush is the perfect companion so if for instance like me you get breakout flare ups at certain times of the month, when you are doing your makeup you can apply a small amount of extra foundation onto the Terrie brush and work it just into the small area to build that little bit of extra coverage.

The Harley: The ‘Harley’ is a face brush handmade using brushed goat hair and is unbelievably soft. With its long wispy hairs this is the Creme De La Creme of face brushes. The Harley is extremely versatile and can be used for a Variety of different applications such as highlighting the raised areas of the face, for a light sweeping of blush on the apples of the cheeks, bronzer application and can also be used to create a soft shading effect to the contours of the cheekbones.

Last but by no means least is the stunning Harley brush. I loved this brush once I first saw it online. When I attended the Art of Nima event in June there was nothing else I HAD to return home with than the Harley brush. I was actually so scared I wouldn't get one before they sold out as I was convinced everyone would want one and you know what? They did! The Harley brush is almost, almost too pretty to use. The bristles are so long they just flow along your face. I usually use my Harley brush for highlighter as I just love the feel of the brush. It picks up the product really well without too much fall out as it's so soft. You can dust the Harley brush along your face not only for highlight that just happens to be my favourite product to use it with. For simple daytime looks I will use it for blusher just to give my cheeks a lick of colour so I don't look too flat faced.

I can only imagine the immense pride Niamh had in naming this beautiful brush after her little girl who I have had the pleasure of hanging out and getting sneaky cuddle off. It's such special piece to have in the collection and because it's a brush that not many other brands can even claim to have I can see it constantly selling out.

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You can shop for individual brushes on the Nima website but also now you can buy the new release bundle for only €50 for all four new brushes. You can add a Nima tube (a must have for brush lovers who need to travel for an extra €15) Your brushes are always safe when contained in one of the tubes and they come in a range of colours. http://www.nimabrush.com/product/the-new-release-bundle-set/ You can also go onto the website and custom build brush bundles so the brush world literally becomes your oyster so you only get what you really need which is such a good feature to have when selling so many brushes. We've all had the sets with at least 3 brushes we'll never use so this way that doesn't have to happen.

With the beauty show only a couple of weeks away, if you're planning a trip to the RDS and brushes are on your list then I really do encourage you to pop over to Niamh and the Nima Girls on her stand and check out the brushes and treat yourself. There are always discounts the weekend of the show so you will grab yourself a bargain and tools that I promise you, you will love.

If you have any questions on Nima brushes like which ones to get starting off or if there's any other info you'd like please do get in touch with me and if I can't answer I will be sure to ask Niamh herself.

It's not often that you fall for a brand that you are willing to invest in constantly regardless of what they launch even if you have 10 brushes just like a Nima Brush, it's not a Nima Brush so you gotta get it!