Everyone once in a tale of beauty woe comes along that is just so unbearably horrific that you quickly bless yourself and thank God/Budda/Allah/Jimmy Choo that it didn’t happen to you. It could be a tale of hair colour catastrophe, a botched Brazilian wax or simply the injustice of shiny new super expensive bronzer coming to a messy end after shattering on the bathroom tiles. But what about when it happens to you?? Sit back ladies while I tell you a heart-rending story of grief, sorrow and great loss…..

So, only last weekend I was on my merry way to the airport to meet the gals for our soon-to-be married friend’s hen party. Every element of the hen party had been carefully planned for weeks in advance, most importantly the outfits, the hair and the make-up. This weekend was going to require some seriously glamification!!! Me being the good little cailin that I am I carefully put all my liquidy bits into my regulation sized plastic bag the night before; bottle of Estee Lauder Double Wear, new bottle of Marc Jacobs Lola perfume, pot of Liz Earle Skin Repair Moisturiser, tube of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, Bobbi Brown Extreme Party Mascara, Mac Fluidline Gel Eyeliner and Chanel Aqualumiere Lipgloss. I was far too excited to be bothered with boring stuff like toothpaste and shower gel at this point. Anyway pretty substantial beauty booty oui??

To cut a long story short, we had a an absolute ball on the weekend. The dresses, the hair and the make up were nothing short of fabulous! And then, disaster struck!!!!!!!! Dublin Airport, Sunday evening, waiting at taxi rank I notice my handbag is suspiciously light. I was briefly distracted by the whole rigmarole of getting everyone into the taxi and dropping them to their final destination so it wasn’t until I got through my own front door that I had the chance to check my handbag. Now brace yourself ladies…..I peered into my bag only to find that my bag of liquids, i.e. super expensive make up, was GONE!!!!!! Some had stolen my bag from my hand bag!!! Basically the majority of my make up kit was in that bag and had now disappeared. I stared in disbelief at my empty handbag before letting out deep guttural at the brutality and injustice of it all!! Oh the horror, oh the humanity!!!

A week on and I’m still not over it. The fact that I’m smashed after the hen weekend means that I can’t afford to replace any of the make up so I’m surviving on samples of moisturisers and foundations I have lying around and using a two-year old mascara. Yes I know, a serious beauty no-no using old make-up but I’m in mourning, rules don’t apply right now. It’s my horror story and I’ll cry if I want to. What irks me the most is that there is some thieving chav running around smelling of a lovely Marc Jacobs perfume with gorgeous Chanel glossed lips all bought with my hard-earned moolah!!!!!!

Ok must breathe or I will start throwing things in a rage again. Not cool….

2. The nail on the index finger of my left hand is sporting an almighty chip in the nail varnish, ruining an otherwise impeccable manicure.

3. My boss is making jokes about giving my job to someone else. Not funny in a recession buddy!!

4. Even though every other bank does, Ulster Bank do not have a branch down in the IFSC meaning I have to traipse up to city centre this wet and blustery lunchtime.

5. My house has no heating and no water making early mornings sheer agony.

6. Hot guy from Finance caught me storming through the corridors looking way less than my usually perfect self. Morto….

7. My lovely sweet kind best friend is thinking about going back to her weasel of a boyfriend for the bazillionth time!

8. My skins simply refuses to wear foundation this week and everything in ending up in a lovely tide mark on my jaw by afternoon.

9.  Office colleague just stole the last chocolate teacake, and he’s a man!!!

10. My other lovely, sweet, kind best friend is being stolen away from me by her evil boyfriend and taken to Boston.

That is all…..

So being the strong, independent woman I am I have decided I’m in need of a change and where better place to start than my lovely gruaig.  I have been contemplating a new style for a while but the boyfriend’s love of my long hair has always held me back. However now that he can’t be bothered thinking about my feelings why should I take his into account?! In this spirit, I have been thinking of a hairstyle that is the complete antithesis to my current hair which is long, naturally light blonde, big curls and a heavy fringe. While it was lovely six months ago I’m now concerned it’s looking a bit Jessica Simpson. I’m thinking of a modern sleek, bob somewhere between jaw and shoulder length with a straight blunt fringe and some platinum highlights to make my very light blonde hair look that extra bit icy! Also my hair is naturally poker straight so a sleek bob could look very well indeed!

Now at 20 something years old I know I’m far to old to have a Spice Girl as my style idol but when I came across promo pics of Emma Bunton recently I couldn’t help but adore her hairstyle. I’d love my hair like hers in this picture:

but more so this one:

What do we think?? Yay or nay?? Is it a fabulous funky hairstyle or is it one of these styles that looks great when it’s all styled up with the right outfit but walking down Grafton Street could just look a bit blah??  Please, please let me know what you think in comments before I do something drastic and just go for the chop!!

This little gem has recently been converted into a hit Broadway play by sisters Nora and Delia Ephron. Read a great New York Times review of the show here.

Now, my issue my dear friends is that I can’t find this book anywhere in Dublin. I have checked the usual Eason’s, Hughes & Hughes etc with no joy. As for Amazon I just don’t have the patience to wait for delivery. I want it ASAP!!  So if any of you ladies can offer some help with finding this book I would greatly appreciate it! Please leave your words of wisdom in a comment below.

Before I return to the torture that is first day back at work after Christmas, I would like to say a big Happy New Year to all my readers and wish you the very best for 2010.

The lovely Cheryl, a baby of 26 looked like a trussed up Dynasty matriarch with her eighties bouffant up-do and huge ruffled padded shoulders. Or shoulder should I say. This look just made her look mature beyond her years in my opinion, and not in a good way! She is still a stunning cailin though. Anyone else heard the rumours of cheek implants??

Simon moved away from his trademark black and made a bold statement in his silver suit. Mad thing he is!

Danni had the most beautiful pink asymmetric dress on and promptly ruined it with thick black tights and hair that I can only describe as a cross between a mohawk and a row of sausages. I know it looks pretty tame in this pic, but trust me, from the side, a row of sausages! What I will say though is that I usually heart Danni and her super cool hair, the versatility of her bob hairstyle knows no bounds. We will forget the week with the horrible crimped quiff and the nasty mullet from week two. Ugh….

And now on to the guests. What can one say about that red leather onesie that gave Alicia Keyes a bad case of camel toe……Hideous!!! Someone really should have warned her….

Rihanna, unique and talented you are, Grace Jones you are not! Bouffant undercut +mushroom coloured dress + matching elbow length gloves + conveniently forgotten bra = looking like a Porcini mushroom. Not cool. Production on her performance of Russian Roulette, very cool. Really liked the Sharon Stone/ Basic Instinct references.

And last but not least poor little Lloyd. The little lamb looked like a scrubbed up prisoner in his non-descript beige/grey shirt buttoned up to the neck. What is with the stylist this year???? Mad for the shirt buttoned up the neck with no tie! An extremely unattractive look on some very handsome young men.

Phew I think I need a lie down after that rant! As always, comments, opinions are most welcome. While the views expressed in this blog are entirely my own this does not mean, under any circumstances that I will not be tuning into X-Factor with trepidation next week. Fact!!

So before I begin extolling the wonders of Rimmel’s new improved Stay Matte foundation, let me offer a little background to this post. My foundation of choice is the super duper Estee Lauder Double Wear Light. Fade resistant, longwearing yet light and glowy at the same time. Just fabulous. But boy is it not cheap! €34 for a very small bottle not cheap to be exact! So while I love buffing it on for fun stuff like nights out, dinner dates, girly lunches etc etc, I’m quite reluctant to use my lovely expensive foundation every day for work. I know many ladies share my sentiments on this, some say they just can’t be bothered putting on nice make-up just for work, which is fair enough, others say it’s just a waste of good make-up. For me, I feel that my soul-destroying job is just not deserving of my gorgeous expensive make-up.

So determined not to waste any more of my lovely Estee Lauder Double Wear Light on my stupid job off I set to Boots to pick up a replacement. Now I have tried a few budget foundations in my time with varying degrees of success. The only one that really stood out for me was Bourjois Eight Hour Sleep Effect foundation, alas while it gives a beautiful finish it just isn’t as long wearing as I’d like. Anyway, I was not to be disheartened! Before long I came across the all singing all dancing Rimmel stand. Bright, sparkly and hot pink, I was intrigued. I spied Rimmel’s latest Stay Matte range, which the alien-faced Lily Cole has been promoting all over the place as of late. I tried the Stay Matte translucent powder recently when my Mac Blot Powder came to an unfortunate end on my bathroom floor, and was mightily impressed. At €5.45 a bottle I thought I’d nothing to lose and promptly popped it in my shopping basket.

So how did it perform?? Better than I expected actually!! Rimmel Stay Matte goes on well with the Mac 187  brush, I like to buff it on to my skin. It blends well and leaves skin with a lovely matte finish without looking cakey or heavy. A wisp of translucent powder over my t-zone for good measure and I was off to work.  By lunchtime I was expecting my face to show early signs of an oil slick but no, I was as perfectly shine free as I had been at 9am that morning. By 4pm, my t-zone was showing slight signs of shininess, but was nothing a quick blot and a bit of powder couldn’t fix. It did go a teeny tiny bit blotchy around my nose but the foundation still blended well and I was able to fix the blotchiness easily. Coverage wise I’d say Rimmel Stay Matte is about medium coverage, sheer it is not! It doesn’t have the bomb-proof lasting power of Double Wear but it did last me all day without looking like I had layers of make up on me.

All in all I’d say this baby is a bit of a winner. It’s perfect for everyday use and performs impeccably well for a budget foundation. At €5.45 for a bottle that same size as the Double Wear Light you can’t go wrong! For those of you who prefer a more sheer foundation, Rimmel Stay Matte is also available a mousse formula. Both are available in Boots stores and pharmacies nationwide.

I know, I know, what a day to be talking about hair. Even the most carefully coiffed hairstyle wouldn’t stand a chance in that horrific weather. Lucky for me, it was Monday when I popped into House of Colour and not the blustery washout that is Wednesday.

I had been off down the country for the weekend at a birthday bash with my little sis and bezzie mate which involved copious amounts of pre-party backcoming, curling, spraying, plus a little vodka for good measure. In to me now, not the gruaig! Come Sunday morning the hair was piled up on top of the head into what I’d like to consider an elegantly mussed up topknot, no not a bird’s nest at all, not a bit.

Fast forward to Monday morning and my hair was just one big mess atop my head, the backcombing and hairspraying having created tangled knots that I just couldn’t bring myself to tackle. (At this point, I’d like to clarify that I am not a lazy cow who couldn’t be bothered to wash her hair. I had a very long drive, seven hours to be exact, to do on Sunday and was near midnight by the time I got home. Leaba was the only option at that stage).

Anyway I digress! It was clear it was going to take a professional to sort my head out. First port of call, House of Colour, Abbey Street. I called around 2pm on Monday and those lovely kind people fitted me in for a wash, trim and blowdry at 4pm, angels that they are. So off I popped at 4pm, fast as my little feet could carry me.  I was warmly greeted by the lovely Linda, who sat me down and we had a great chat about what exactly I was looking for. Of course, this involved the usual assessing of the hair, checking the length, running fingers through it etc. To say I was reluctant to take down my hair to show it to her is an understatement, I was feckin morto! One quick look a my mop and I was whisked off to the wash basin for the most glorious shampoo, conditioner and head massage. I was feeling better already!

Then back to the chair with me, where a yummy little cappuccino and chocolate were waiting for me. Here we discussed fringe length, face framing layers etc etc and once again I have to say Linda was fabulous. Endlessly patient, honest without being rude and really listened to what I wanted. When it came to my blowdry I expected a standard straigh-ish volume-ish job that would look grand but would more than likely be washed out and re-styled myself as soon as I got home.  You can imagine my surprise when I was handed a dinky little blowdry menu, complete with pictures and told to take my pick.  Now alas my friends I cannot remember what all the options were but I do remember there were five in total, the first two were variations on a straight sleek blowdry. The third was called The Bump, which is a blowdry that has lots of height and volume at the front, brushed back off the face almost like a quiff with long flowing locks at the back. Very fierce! But not for me. The second was called The Cheryl and you guessed it, it is a blowdry that looks like Ms. Cheryl Cole’s hair, with lots of volume all round, movement and a lots of kick at the end. Wag-tastic!! Last but not least was The Hills  blowdry, which is again lots of volume with soft flowing curls a la Heidi Montag/Pratt. Not my favourite person but I do like her hair. So I went for The Hills blowdry, certain that it would look beautiful for the first hour or three but as owner of the straightest hair in the whole wide world, it would undoubtedly fall out before long.

How wrong was I?!! Six hours later, hair was still looking faboo without any help from mousse or hairspray. Next morning, hair was still looking sleek and gorgeous, some of the curl had fallen out of the longest bits but in general still loads of oomph and waviness. I love it!!! Two days later and the compliments are still coming, I am only delira!

Girls, sorry for the long-winded post but I can’t recommend House of Colour enough.  Their Blowdry menu is a fantastic idea and eliminates the chance of your dream blowdry being lost in translation between you and your stylist. And they’re quite reasonable too, their wash and blowdrys range from €26-€35, see their price list for full details.  Apologies that I can’t remember the first two options on the Blowdry menu, if anyone knows please drop me the info in a comment! In the meantime, get thee off to your nearest House of Colour, check out their website for locations and contact details.

In my daily perusing of the media I came across an item that I felt was very important to share with you. Now I love a bit of harmless gossip as much as the next girl, but when it is of a deeply personal nature and as traumatic as Rihanna’s domestic violence incident with Chris Brown was, I prefer not to indulge into the tasteless gossip and speculation that surrounds it. However, despite the whole Rihanna/Chris Brown incident being a total media circus, I felt there is a very important message to young women here, which you will see for yourself when you watch the interview Rihanna did yesterday with Diane Sawyer on American talkshow ‘Good Morning America’. I have posted Part One of the interview below, I think Part Two is to air this morning, New York time so hopefully I will get hold of it over the weekend and put it up soon.

Ladies, remember if you are experiencing domestic violence or know someone who is, please don’t suffer in silence. Contact support groups Women’s Aid Online or Safe Ireland who provide advice and support for women and children going through domestic violence.

Oooo I’m a divil for a bit of all natural organic skincare so I am! I’d been looking for a richer night-time facial moisturiser these last few weeks and was mad to try one of those fancy new facial oils that the blogoshere has been raving about as of late. I’d heard great things about the Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil so I was only delira when I came across the range in my local Unicare pharmacy. Just a bit of background on the Trilogy brand: the brand was founded by Australian sisters Catherine De Groot and Sarah Gibbs, who came up with the idea of using the potent ingredient rosehip oil to create pure and simple natural skincare that was a contemporary, yet high quality alternative to the over-powering scents and heavy oily textures of the old fashioned natural skincare formulas that were available at the time (This was only in 2002 now, not the 1800′s by the way).  I could go on and on for hours on this blog about the Trilogy philosophy and how wonderful they are and still so not do them justice so the best thing to do is visit their website.

So, as I was saying, it was with great joy that I came across the Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil in my local pharmacy. I perused the range of glorious products that available – the Energising Face Lotion, the Balancing Gel Cleanser, the Aromatic Body Oil, the Everything Balm, before reminding myself that it was the week before payday and I could only afford the one. So I picked up Rosehip Oil in it’s lovely raspberry and cream packaging. This little baby is a lightweight, super-fine golden oil that contains Omega 3, 6 and 9 and essential fatty acids and antioxidants to restore optimum health.  Now I was a little dubious about using a facial oil on my oily/combination skin, however 2-3 drops just glides onto freshly cleansed skin and absorbs like a dream. After about half an hour my skin felt soft and hydrated without a hint of greasiness. The next morning, after only one night’s use, my skin looked clear and calm and not shiny and blotchy which some synthetic based night creams seem to do to me.

All in all this little baby is a keeper. My skin loves organic products free from chemical nasties and this one is no exception. Those with drier skins could easily use this as a day moisturiser if the lack of SPF wasn’t an issue. I however need a lighter moisturiser and a mattifier with SPF to make my oily skin make-up ready.

For a high-end product the price point ain’t bad either, €19.95 was the damage for the 20ml bottle which I can see lasting quite a while.  Trilogy products are stocked nationwide so check out the stockists page to find the nearest one to you. Alternatively, you can shop online at http://www.trilogyproducts.com/