Shu Uemura Paddle Brush - Review & Giveaway!

So lots of recent trips to the salon to get my hair in order.  It was the summer, so beachy, slightly messy, boho hair, slightly too long hair (that really needed a tidy but what odds) was just fine.  And as it also kept catching in the crook of my elbow every time I bent my arm, and was therefore driving me berzzzzzzzzzerk, it was time for the chop.  Although I hate cutting my hair.

Keep reading!  The important bit is coming up!

MontyC's Monthly Favourites: August 2014

MontyC's August 2014 Favourties

Hi folks and welcome to a new planned monthly post featuring my favourites from the previous month (these may or may not be products I've blogged about during that month).  The products may not always be new but they'll still be winners by my reckoning!  As this is something I've really just cooked up, my August post is a little late, but the plan is that once a month, likely at the start of each month, I'll write a blog post on  my favourites the previous month in the Mondays with MontyC slot.

The Hair Diaries - recap post

Weirdly, or strangely, or what have you, I've had a lot of questions and queries about hair lately.  Although it's not my forté, (a) I'm trained as a stylist for more basic upstyles, braids, blowdries and so on (because it makes sense to pair that, on rare occasion, with makeup) (b) I'm a complete product junkie and (c) I change my hair colour more often than is probably a terribly good idea, and I like experimenting with colour, hair pieces, wigs, chalking, clip-in highlights, fake plaits, faux fringes, and lots of other jeejaws... so I have more than a passing (unhealthy) interest in All Things Hair, and I write about hair products and processes as much as skincare and/or makeup...

Onwards, enough of my rambling, and let's take a look at recapping some of my hair posts in the last while...

Babylis Pro Perfect Curl v Babylis Curl Secret

L -> R: Babylis Pro Perfect Curl, Babylis Curl Secret

I recently purchased the Babylis Pro Perfect Curl and I've been using it away for a couple of months.  I have to say, I absolutely love it.  I used it on my mother and she loved it so much I promised her I'd get one for her for her upcoming birthday.  Unfortunately, all the salon services / trade stores that I searched were fresh out of the Pro version, so I did some research into it and decided that, for her use, the consumer version, called the Babylis Curl Secret, and available in Boots and a few other places, would do the trick just as well.

To prove this to myself, and because I'm a product geek (!), I went ahead and purchased the Curl Secret and gave it a whirl to test its efficacy.  For natural curls, it is every bit as good.  I'll get to the geeks stuff shortly (difference between temperature and timer settings), and some how-tos for creating different looks with these tools - but first up, let's do a quick review of these products.

January Guest Posts

Two blogs for the price of one yesterday!

My guest post on Nina's Bargain Beauty blog is a review of the Mane 'n Tail Hair Strengthener - please look here!

And Nina's guest post, a review of the Blank Canvas Cosmetics F25 Powder/Bronzer Brush on Make Up For Dolls is here.

Xx thanks to all for reading xX

2013: The Year in Review

I started out this post thinking I'd do a recap of the products that I discovered this year and loved, then realised, nope, Make Up For Dolls has come a long way in the last year, and I wanted to do a recap, not in a boasty way, but just as a reminder of some of the highlights - things I got up to, things I posted about, stuff that was fun and different and interesting!

Of course the absolute crowning moment for me this year was the creation of my very own red lipstick, following on from a lot of researching and back-and-forth on the subject with the fabulous folks at Cosmetics a la Carte in London.  Read all about it here.  Go on.  I'm not remotely excited about this one, still, a year on :-)

As for the rest?  Well... read on!
 

Ireland's Only Pro Makeup Store

Situated on Royal Avenue in Belfast, this is Ireland's only real Pro makeup store, stocking a huge range of products.  Me = overly excited kid in happy little candy store for the half hour I allowed myself to browse.

This place stocks a huge range of products... huuuuuuuge.  The more I looked, the more bits and pieces I saw buried beside, underneath, behind things... skincare... cult products... face lace... amazingly stunning eyelashes... straight makeup... theatrical makeup... special effects makeup... great brushes...

Suqqu Cheek Brush - review

so much fuss over such a little thing...

Imagine some barely contained, inside-voice squealing, to accompany this post.  And some general sighing.  And another squeal or two for good measure...

Bridal Survival Kit - review

Carmel and Oonagh at Galánta Events, an Irish Event Planning/Management Service business based out of Waterford are clearly doing well, as they've won the Best in New Business/Enterprise Award at the FAB Waterford Women in Business Awards in 2012.  I noticed their call out, some time back on a recent Irish blogger site, looking for guest contributors, and while I had my hands sufficiently full with my own posts at the time, a few clicks later I found something that caught my eye - a product they've put together called the Bridal Survival Kit.  Being involved closely with brides, I contacted them and asked them if they'd be interested in me reviewing it.  So they agreed, and kindly send me one in the post.

How I ... do my makeup

This one is more of a "where I" than a "how I" :-) but without getting hung up on a choice of interrogative pronoun, and in continuation of my "how I..." series, this one is a quick peek at my personal makeup station and features a mini-review of the Make Up For Ever desktop rolling makeup case.

How I... store my pigments

Messy things, pigments.  Seriously messy.  Especially when you buy an expensive, limited edition, hard-to-get, now discontinued, highly pigmented stupidly opaque crazily hot pink one.  And spill it all over your mother's brand new cream carpet.  Not that I *ever* did that, of course.  So how do I store 'em?

How I... store my MAC palettes

I'm planning a series of posts, showing how I store makeup, tools, etc

Today's post is on my MAC palettes.

Illamasqua Blusher Brush v MAC 109

Illamasqua Blusher Brush #1  v  MAC 109

Another of my recent Illamasqua purchases, I mainly got this one to see if it was as good as the other Illamasqua brushes I have thus far (angled brow and liner brushes, new blush-up brush, three eyeshadow/blending brushes, all brilliant by the way).

Curlformers Review (Or "How to look like a demented seven-year-old")

Curlformers.. ringlets in disguise... (promo image)

I can't stop singing the theme song to "Transformers - robots in disguise" along with this post.  Annoying eh.

I think I got these about a year ago, and it's taken me up until now to remember that I have them, and that I should try them out and see what they were like.

Inglot Milk & Tonic Makeup Remover Wipes

Make Up Wipes... actually these are not bad

While at a recent Inglot event, I was kindly given these to trial by one of the staff and although I'm not a huge fan of makeup remover wipes, on occasion, let's face it, using something like these is better than using nothing... when you're caught short on makeup remover, or when you're unexpectedly away, or when you're at a festival or...

Cheap-ass v Fancy-ass? Shiseido v Lidl in the Battle Of The Cotton Pads

The humble cotton pad / cotton round...

Today's post was written in two halves - by both myself and my friend @MontyC.  It's a review of something we all use and need; for makeup removal, for toning the face, for refreshing the eyes, for nail polish removal... the humble cotton pad.

essence trend edition for summer 2013: guerilla gardening

Guerilla Gardening is essence's summer trend-based makeup collection release, featuring botanical shades of both bright and dark green, earthy browns, bright pinks and intensive reds.
 

Recapitulation...

It's been a funny old week.  I have had a hectic time and although I'm genuinely inundated with releases for which to produce content, I am also genuinely lacking in the time to do it!  At the weekend I plan to spend some proper time with this machine of mine and get cranking...

For now, I wanted to recap on some of my older posts, in case some newer readers haven't seen 'em yet!

KIKO Cosmetics Review

While in Venice recently, I chanced upon a cosmetics store called KIKO, selling their eponymous brand of makeup.  It's a reasonably new venture, founded in 1997 in Milan and now has stores all over the world, including an online shopping branch in the UK as I've recently discovered while doing some further research at home.

Vying with Inglot for volume of shades and formulations of both makeup- and skincare- products, and looking a lot like a candy store, I was hooked.

Blog Posts: What to write about

Snapshot of some of the stats Google Blogger provides for a particular period of time
(these are for this week)

I took a look at my viewer stats this morning to see if I could get some inspiration on what to write about today.  I have a few posts started, but nothing near completion (or even near where they should be for editing down).  So instead I took a trip down memory lane on my postings in the last fiften months.  It was an interesting trip and revealed to me what people read the most.

If you're a blogger, or an aspiring blogger, perhaps this might prove useful.  If you're a reader, then maybe you'll discover some posts you haven't seen before!