Hi All,

Saturday morning I got on the M50 and headed off to Urban Dolls Hair & Beauty Blanchardstown. The lovely owner Sarah had been in touch with me a few weeks ago about visiting the salon and doing a feature post. We had initially spoke about getting a makeup application and then she mentioned they are now sticking Great Lengths Extensions to see if I would be interested in these. I am very lucky to say, I have been growing my hair for the last three years and I now have lovely long locks which are quite thick. I explained this to Sarah but I did say I would help her find a blogger to feature these and she has now linked in Sinead from The Beautiful Truth, so keep an eye out for her FB page in the next few weeks and she should have them fitted.

After many mails with Sarah we arranged that I would travel out for 10am last Saturday morning and meet the team and get my treatments. I have to say ladies I was over excited to get to the salon as I was in for a real treat, I was getting my hair coloured and cut, my nails painted and my makeup done!! I mean this was an amazing opportunity for me as a blogger so I really wanted to do this post proud. I took so many pics on the day I really hope you enjoy this post and see what a fab time I had.

So firstly I felt I was being so spoiled I needed to come with something to the salon, so I nipped into Centra when I got there and picked up a few nibbles for the girls tea break. The location of the salon is pretty close to the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre only about a five minute drive. Without sounding too 'country' or 'naive' I feel it's important to say here please please don't judge a book by it's cover, the salon is located in an older shopping centre units but it has plenty of parking space outside and Urban Dolls cannot be missed with it's fantastic bright pink sign.

Inside the decor is amazing and it's a real 'me' kinda place. Marilyn Monroe wallpaper in black and white, pink accessories everywhere and black outlining the rest. I love black and pink together there really is no better combo! There was such a buzz about the salon for early on a Saturday morning, ladies in getting the hair styled, nails getting done at another station and another young lady was getting her make up done as I arrived. There are a team of five fab ladies and I was lucky enough to have three of them work on me over Saturday morning. Sarah is the owner and set up Urban Dolls in this location a year ago this June, she has over 8 years experience in the industry. For a new salon, the place is booming, they have a great number of regular clients and I can really see why seeing as all the staff are fantastic and so friendly.

I was greeted by Sarah when I arrived and we got talking hair.... I was so excited for this part. I got my hair dyed last 10 weeks ago for my Bday back in January and took the plunge and added red to my locks, this was all lovely but I had been warned, getting red out of your hair can be quite difficult. My pan for my hair this summer is to add my blonde highlights back under my hair and possibly on top also. Myself and Sarah had a good chat about my hair and we decided to add a base colour 6 (Medium Brown) all over add a few highlights under my hair to see how they take. I was under no illusion that I was not going to be blonde straight away but it was a good test to see how well my hair would take the colour. We left my hair to develop and I headed over to get my nails done. Once the nails were finished, Alison (nails) washed out my colour and gave me a lovely head massage, this was possibly the most relaxed I felt all morning, I don't generally like people touching my hair but I will deffo go back to that head massage alone!! I went back over to Sarah then to see if I needed a cut but I don't so that was great news (I hate people cutting my long hair) and she gave me a curly blowdry. I love when my hair is different to its usual straight self and Sarah pinned all the curls up while I went to get my makeup done and then we had the big reveal :)

This is my hair before picture and after picture.... I love my curly blowdry, so different to how I usually wear it straight!




I was then passed on to Alison over at the nail station. I had a Gelish application already on my nails for the previous 3 weeks so my nails had grown and the polish was growing off. I couldn't wait for a change, I am extremely impatient when it comes to my nails, I get bored easily and then want a new fancy design or a mad colour so we chose a themed nail similar to the salon, pink nails with a black thumb and a black with white polka dot ring finger. I love them!! Alison took great care when doing my nails and we chatted loads about nail care, choosing the Mani-Q by Young Nails products over Gels and Acrylics and also about tattoos. Alison has two fan tats on her arms in memory of her Grandads and I was fascinated by these as I too have a tat for my Grandad which I love. Alison buffed and soaked off my Gelish polish, prepped my nails and applied two layers of the pink and the black, added the spots and applied a top coat. I found personally the Mani-Q slightly lighter than the Gelish polish so I'll keep an eye on my nails over the week and see if I need to get more top coat added. I have extremely weak nails and I always forget this after having my nails done for so long so I'm hoping they won't break on me.

Here are pics of my fab nails....






Finally then with my hair all pinned up I headed over to the make up station to be worked on by Caroline. In Urban Dolls they use Push Make Up. I had first heard of this brand at the From Matte to Metallic workshop I attended last month. This is an Irish brand created by Katriona in Dublin. You can check them out on Facebook or http://push-makeup.com/ I really like the products, I think the lipsticks come in amazing colours and also the foundation sat on my skin beautifully for the day with only a little powder needed to keep away the shine. I have actually just been in touch with Katriona and will hopefully have some products to review on the blog soon but this is a brand to keep an eye on and one i really like!

I had said to Caroline to do whatever she liked with my face I was at her mercy, I do like to look quite done up when I head out and although I initially had no plans to head out Saturday night after all my treatments I felt I needed to show it all off. I had gotten my HD brows maintained the day before so thankfully they were nice and tidy. The products Caroline used to create this look were:

Push hd Foundation c35 
Push bronzer 
Push c25 concelar
Push softness creme blush 
Push eyebrow and brow pallet used on eyebrows 
Push black caviar eye liner 
Push black intense mascara
Push Rio Lipstick  (Thank you to Sarah for sending on the details)

Here is my before and after pic within the salon. I am completely barefaced and pale with my lovely tan on show so excuse this....







When I got home, I was on a mission to find an outfit for that evening seeing as I had no previous plans, I had recently purchased a burnt orange top which was the look Caroline created the makeup for but of course I hadn't tried it on and it was terrible on me so change of plan! I loved my orange lips so I decided to wear black instead. My lipstick was such a bright orange colour I didn't want it to come off and I was so delighted when Sarah gifted me the fab Push lipstick to have, that made my day as I'm such a lippy fan!! I felt with the black outfit my eyes looked a little to heavy so I did take some of the shadow from high in the socket back down. My individual lashes were just amazing and looked so natural it was great not worrying had an edge come off as I sometimes do when I wear strip lashes, there is nothing worse on a night out than discovering one of the corners has lifted and you have no glue!!







All in all I have to say I loved my time at Urban Dolls Hair & Beauty and would love to return again. It is a short trek for me about 30 mins in the car but work has me close to Blanchardstown at times so i will make it my business to get back to being a blondie with the help of Sarah and her fab team of ladies. The other two members of the team who work in the salon are Danielle and Sarah-Jane. 

It's not easy for a 'country' girl like me to find a salon that can be a one stop shop for all your beauty needs but I have to say Urban Dolls Hair & Beauty are excellent at what they do. Every girl in the salon can multi-task being trained in a number of areas, Sarah has created a fantastic team around her and you can really feel the love between them and the passion for the job. Every customer that entered while I was there for the five hours on Saturday was warmly welcomed, everyone seemed to be local and well known to all the girls working and the place was booming with chats, tea and coffee.

I didn't feel the time passing at all and for me, a serous talker, I loved all the chats I had about blogging, makeup, boyfriends, moving to Dublin and all things in between. I never felt a nuisance and that is all down to the team working in the salon. The decor as I mentioned before was fantastic and I especially love this quote on the wall which is situated just to the side of the nail bar....




The salon offers you a range of services such as;

• Hair Salon
• Great Length Extensions
• Nails- Polish, Gel, Acrylics
• HD Brows
• Make Up
• Waxing
• Callus Peel for feet