Garnier Anti Wrinkle Davina Challengy Thingy

I'm currently doing the Davina challengy thingy.  Y'know the ad where she holds up a little test card that shows what stage of wrinkledom you are at?!  Well I decided to take her up on it.  I'm 3 weeks in and so far, nada!  Niente!  Naturally I don't have one of those test cards to hand but I do have eyes and they don't see anything difference.  I will persist in using this product for one reason only and that's because I can't afford to buy anything else.  Perhaps after a few months of use there will be a difference but the ad did state in 14 days you'd see the difference.  Big fat liars!

Realistically, the Aldi Sianna anti wrinkle cream does the same job imo.  I wrote about this on Rollercoaster.ie and the thread got over 200 responses such was the adoration for this product.  It's since been renamed to Lacura but it's the same cream and I think for 3.99e it's uh-maz-ing! 

Myscara v Yumi Lashes

The MYscara product is a safe and eye friendly lash coating applied professionally in a salon. It has a similar effect to traditional mascara but lasts for up to 3 weeks. It won't smudge or budge no matter how much you get them wet. It is aimed at natural lashes but can also be used with semi permanent lashes if applied during the procedure.  Glamlash Ireland have the distribution rights for MYscara and can be contacted on 01-5035351

YUMI™ Lashes

YUMI™ Lashes is an advanced technique designed to boost and lift the lash without having to resort to false lashes. In other words, it is a powerful alternative to false lashes that enhances your own natural beauty and colouring. Yumi Lashes uses an acrylic to lift and curl your own lashes in a 5 step procedure.  Your lashes are then tinted for maximum effect.  Instead of doing a traditional perm that simply curves your lashes, YUMI™ LASHES turns the eyelashes upwards, gives them Length, Height and Volume, and an appearance of having longer and thicker lashes.  French Cosmetics in Trim, Co Meath have the sole distribution rights for YUMI™ Lashes.  Contact them on 046-9481091. 

Just to note that I haven't tried either of these products yet.  I plan to take at least one of them on once I trial them.  Check back soon for my opinion chics!

Suicide

In March 2010, my 37 year old cousin died by suicide.  He was one of the good guys.  You know the type of guy that adores his mam and his sisters, has a great group of friends that's he's had forever, actually likes hanging around with his Dad and Uncles.  The type of guy that stepped up to parent a child that biologically wasn't his.  Just a really good guy.  I was the same age as him.  My mam and his mam were pregnant at the same time.  His mam married my mams youngest and favourite brother.  My favourite uncle. 

I dunno if all families are the same but when I was growing up, every weekend all four of us kids would be bundled into the Hillman Hunter and we'd go to one of our aunties houses.  I grew up in Glasnevin.  My mams sisters and brothers scattered to the four corners of the northside so we had our pick of where to visit most weekends.  A lot of those weekends were spent in Dublin 5 with my uncle and aunt and their 7 kids.  My memories of my cousin are vivid.  We literally used to beat the crap out of each other falling up and down the stairs.  He had a shy demeanor but was well up for a laugh. As we got older I remember seeing him out and about (usually Blooms or Tomangos and my friends would also say "jaysus he's a fine thing" and I'd be like "ye I know, pity he's me cousin"!:-)  He was so handsome, the real looker of all the family. 

Nobody knew he was struggling.  He had gotten married only 9 months prior to his passing.  This scares the shit out of me.  How can we help people if we don't know they aren't coping?  Hearing the news that he was gone shook me to my core.  I actually don't know where the feelings came from. I didn't know him so much as an adult as well as I did as a child so it's not like we were besties or anything but when my dad broke the news to me, I sobbed like a child.  When I went down to his home that evening to try to comfort his family, I was appalled at the sobs that escaped my body.  I frightened my other half.  I frightened myself!

Suffice to say the next few days were shite! Just desperate sadness at every corner.  I could barely look his mam and dad in the face.  Since that day, many reasons have been thrown about as to why he did what he did.  The truth is, only he knows.  Nobody believes he suffered from depression beforehand.  Most believe he just snapped over something and couldn't see a way out.  I dunno, is it possible that one minute you can be thinking and acting normally and the next you snap and you end your life? I don't know what to believe.  How do we help people when they feel like this if they don't share their feelings? 

I've tweeted about this before but I believe we are in the middle of suicide epidemic.  More young people in Ireland die by suicide than die in road traffic accidents yet we have a huge Road Safety campaign on the TV and on the Radio and nothing on the same scale for Suicide Prevention.  It's time we tackle the subject of suicide in the same way.  Set up a Suicide Prevention Campaign.  A national campaign that swamps the media in this country.  We need to make it that you can't turn on a TV, or radio or read a paper without the type of in your face coverage required to take the stigma away from suicide.  We need to have quarterly updates as to how our rate of suicide is falling, the same way we hear how the amount of deaths on our roads is falling.  We need to show people in distress how to live through their distress.  That there are many others who feel as isolated and helpless as they feel and if they just hold on, maybe they will see a way out of their situation. The ads that tell us to look after our mental health are a start and getting high profile people to talk about their own issues also helps but I'm talking about getting a long running campaign going like the campaign that the Road Safety Authority runs all the time.  Pieta House is an amazing organisation but again, this is not a big enough organisation to tackle the mounting issue of suicide in this country. 

I just feel so strongly about this subject, even before the death of my own cousin.  I just wish I knew how I could play my part in getting this campaign up and running.  Any ideas?

Catrice Budget In Price Not Quality

I've been keepimg me beadys open looking for a full range of the up and coming budget make up range Catrice for the past while and thanks to the lovelies at twitter @deefur to be precice (thanks doll) I found a stockist close enough to me.  I lashed the kids into the car at 5 on Friday last afraid that it would all be sold out before I got there (yes, it is that popular).  God, well she must have been looking out for me cos when we got there the sales assistant had just fiinished stocking the whole range completely.  Sweet Jesus I near keeled over with the excitement.  There was nobody else in the shop but us so I dispatched the kids to the NYC testers and away I went. 

First on my wantsies list was a load of their nail polishes.  They are good!!  They are actually very good.  At 2.49 it's amazing how good they are.  Massive amount of pigment means one coat is enough.  It's thick enough too without being gloopy.  I got shade 30 Meet me at Coral Island which is, surprise, surprise, coral.  A deep coral virging on shocking pink which looks amazeballs on your tootsies with a nice bitta tan.



Meet me at Coral Island


My favourite item from Catrice is without a doubt the eyebrow set.  It comes in a compact little box with two shades, a brown and a grey.  At first glass the brown looks too light as does the grey but when you apply them they are definitely dark enough.  I was happy enough with just the colours but upon giving the box a little shake I heard a rattle and discovered a hidden compartment. The excitement of me when I discovered a mini tweezers and a comb and angled brush for application.  Unfuppinreal!!  This set me back a ridic 4.49.  I mean serio, you wouldn't get a sambo for that these days.  Delireh!

I then got a Lashes to Kill mascara.  It promises an eye opening effect.  Charming!  The jury's out on this one.  I'm loathe to change if I find a mascara I like and I've been loving NYC's Showtime Volumizing Mascara (another bargain at a fiver btw).  The brush is a little on the fat side (so not been sizest) and I don't believe you get the same wiggle from a fat brush as you do from it's slimmer sister.  I also don't think it's as black a formula as you can get. Charcoaly would be my description.  Still, I'll perservere and see if 3 coats is enough!


The lipsticks are all kinds of awesome! Again, a massive amount of pigment is involved and it's such a creamy consistency.  One scoop on the brush and I was covered.   I have been on a quest for the perfect nude since birth and I think I may just have found it.  Coupled with the lipliner from their Lip Designer range 050 Caramel Brown (which has a lipbrush at the end of the pencil, genius), the Ultimate Colour lipstick in shade 010 Be Natural gives a perfect nude lip.  A tad on the beige side but only just.  A hint of a barely there pink gloss fixes that.  I used Sexy Motherpucker from the Soap and Glory range. 

I took a chance on the foundation.  I did so only because I splashed on the Armani Luminous Silk foundation a while back and suffice to say have not been blow away at all at all.   I thought it would be a carbon copy of the Armani Hydra Glow which I hearted madly.  But it's not.  It's more sheer, not as much covereage and a bit too dewy for my taste.  So I was in the market for a total coverage foundation for the days when I don't want to build up the colour with the Armani.  Enter Catrice Photo Finish 18 hours, oil free and with light reflecting pigments for only 6.99.....why yes please!  I was so impressed with it that I wore it on my big night out last night.  I would NEVER normally do this. I save the best of my best for nights like last night but it gave me the coverage and the lasting finish I wanted and needed especially in the sweatbox that is Harry's On The" Bleeding" Green.  Honest to God girls it's super! 

This is just a sample of the stuff I bought and I haven't bought half of what I wanted to.  Their range is unreal.
Check it out on their website http://www.catrice.eu/products.html.  I believe that Catrice is better quality than NYC, Gosh and at the same level as, if not better than Rimmel.  I love it!