Simply Foxy Order featuring Royal & Langnickel and Flormar

Not Sponsored/No Samples

Hi!

Firstly, this is NOT a sponsored post, nor did anyone ask me to write it, NOR were any of the items here provided for review. I found Simply Foxy through word of mouth and have ordered from them a few times, so I just wanted to share! 

Simply Foxy is an Irish website that stocks a huge range of products - including favourites of mine like Catrice, The Wet Brush, The Balm, Cocoa Brown, Flormar, Sleek, Rimmel, W7, NYX - brands that can be a little elusive online sometimes. I was browsing a few weeks ago and decided to place an order, delivery is free over €25 and my orders usually arrive within 2 days. I've received a free sample with every order too, sometimes a face mask but this time there was a little Vita Liberata sachet included. 

MODA Total Face Brush Set by Royal & Langnickel - €19.99

The colour of this set caught my eye as did the brand name - Royal & Langnickel are renowned worldwide for their paintbrushes, so I was intrigued by the notion that they have a makeup brush line too. The brushes feel heavy, they're sleek, the colour is so vibrant, they're vegan, and they're really soft. The set contains a powder brush, flat foundation brush, angled eye shadow brush, smoky eye brush, lip brush and brow brush. They're really nice - and they're available in purple too. They aren't full size - they're about an inch smaller than my Blank Canvas ones - but they're just so pleasant to use. 

Real Techniques Blush Brush - €8.70 (Reduced from €12.99)

I'd say the world and its mother have this brush by now, but if not - this is a really good price for a really good blush brush.

Catrice All Round Concealer Palette €5

This is a great concealer palette, it has green concealer to combat redness, peach concealer to combat dark circles, and three other shades of concealer. The second last shade is always the one I use up first, this is my fourth or fifth one of these over the past few years.

Flormar x10 Lengthening Sculpting Mascara €7.95

Flormar recently relaunched in Ireland, and Simply Foxy carry a huge range of makeup from the brand. I hadn't tried the mascara before, so I added this to the order. It has a large brush, and promises to make lashes look longer. I find big brushes tricky sometimes, and this was no different - I did smudge it a bit, but a tiny bit of micellar water on a cotton bud did the trick.

I have hooded eyes so any help at all in the lash department is very welcome - I think I would buy this again, it's a good price and it did make my lashes look a lot longer.

I'll definitely be ordering from Simply Foxy again - it's a great site and one to keep in mind for gifts coming up to Christmas (from here on in expect to see the C word pop up regularly).

Have you tried anything from Flormar? Or do you spot anything you fancy on Simply Foxy?

Throwback Thursday - Cereal Toys of the 90s

Hi!

A lot of you won't know that in 2011, before I started this blog, I had a nostalgia blog where I posted about all the things I remembered from my childhood or teenage years. It had movies, music, clothes, pop culture, makeup, toys - I took it offline two years ago after it was just overrun with spam, but I decided that I'm going to repost something from The Irish Nostalgic here for Throwback Thursday every week.

Or until I forget.

This week - I'm focusing on Cereal Toys.

Ah, cereal - the staple diet of a whole gaggle of hungry children in the 80s and 90s. Cereal was usually eaten in the morning before school, again when I came home from school, and later before I went to bed. We rarely had chocolatey cereal - it was usually Cornflakes or Rice Krispies - but on rare occasions, my Mum would buy Frosties or Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms were discontinued in Ireland and the UK by the mid-90s, but I think they're available in those shops that sell US food.

The best part of cereal in the late 80s and early 90s was the free gift - there was something in almost every box. You name it, we had it - frisbees, pencil toppers, stickers, cars, monster in my pocket, puppy in my pocket, bike reflectors - just about every single cheap plastic thing available at the time was shoved into a cereal packet. The best part, if you had siblings, was the dash to help bring the shopping in - then spot which bag the cereal was in, rip the top off the box, shove your hand in, and grab the toy before anyone else in the house even had a look-in. In the summer holidays when we went shopping with her, it was a mad dash across the back seat of the car - you'd be finding Rice Krispies down the back seat of the car for weeks. Many a row we had because my sister would open the box pretending to be hungry when she was really just after the toy.

It's a wonder my bicycle wheels could rotate at all, the amount of Kellogs cockerel reflectors I had on them (I always seemed to get yellow ones). I loved the series of holographic "Casper" stickers that came with Frosties in the mid 90s - presumably around 1995 when the film was released.

 Sometimes, cereal companies (mostly Kelloggs, I can't really remember having any other cereal bar the Lucky Charms) would have tokens on the box, so you could collect them and send off for something really good. You'd have to sellotape a big old 20 pence piece to the cardboard form, sent it off, then sit and wait for the guts of a month for your coveted item to arrive. I remember collecting tokens for a Polly Pocket - took ages to arrive, but it was so worth it! Years later, I collected tokens to get my first Discman. It was an AIWA one, and I loved it - even though it went through batteries quicker than Kylie Jenner goes through lipliner. A major collectors item in 1998 was the Kelloggs Cockerel radio. We never had one. *sob*

I don't know why they stopped putting toys into cereal packets - you'd imagine the fact that kids wanted more cereal boxes would have appealed to Kelloggs. I know that the tokens still pop up from time to time for spoons or bowls, but I haven't come across a toy in a cereal box in decades. It seems that lots of people were pretty fond of the bike reflectors - the ones in the picture there on the left sold on eBay in 2011 for over €25.
There are still others listed - we had so many of them! There's a lot on Snapchat at the minute about advice to your 18 year old self - well if I could give advice to my 12 year old self, I'd tell her to hang on to all her stuff, because one day she'll be 32 and wishing she took better care of it.

Truffleshuffle have an amazing range of vintage Kellogg's memoribilia in stock - I picked up the little Frosties mirror a while ago, and it just brings me great joy whenever I see it in my bag. You can check them out here.

At the moment, Kellogg's have a promotion going to collect cereal bowls (with 3 sons that means 9 tokens.....I finally understand why my mother made us eat so much cereal if we wanted to collect something), you can check that out here.

Do you remember cereal toys? Anything in particular?

Becca x Jaclyn Hill Shimmering Skin Perfector in Champagne Pop

Hi!

I talked about this briefly in last week's Sephora Order post, but here she is in a post all to herself.

I'm not familiar with Jaclyn Hill at all. I know that she has had an eyeshadow palette with Morphe Shadows (I reviewed mine here) and that she has done other collabs but I don't really watch any U.S youtubers so I hadn't seen much hype about this until it hit twitter and blogs.

Fellow bloggers Aisling , Sinead and Orla (aka Enablers #1, #2 and #3) were equally responsible for my level of want, but Sophistikat's snapchat contributed too. (It's also U.S Sephora exclusive, and I'm fairly sure that was half the reason I wanted it so much).

Here she is in all her glory!

I've never used any Becca products before, so I wasn't sure if this packaging was limited edition or not but the rest of the range seems to be the same, so it's just the box that's different.

Mine had a small crack in the powder that I just smoothed over but I was so glad that it didn't arrive shattered after all the handling between Sephora and Longford! The powder is soft, buttery, finely milled, and really pigmented.

I was a bit worried when Orla mentioned in her video that it tends to cling to problem areas because that's the one issue I have with the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders. I swatched this on my arm and found it a bit daunting because of the pigmentation:

But I really like it on my face. This next swatch is a bit of an overload, and I wouldn't wear this much every day, but I'm really happy with it!

I love to wear it along where my cheekbones would be if I had any, plus on my browbone and a tiny bit down my nose - I was putting it on my top lip but it looked ridiculous, it's too pigmented to wear there (on me anyway). Also, moustache.

You can order the Becca x Jaclyn Hill Shimmering Skin Perfector in Champagne Pop exclusively from Sephora.com - Sephora ship to Ireland via Parcel Motel. I have a guide to using Parcel Motel here. I didn't incur any customs charges on my order.

It's not going to be for everyone - I'm surprised I even like it so much given the disappointment with some other lust-haves - but I'm so glad I went for it and it's gone straight to the top of my favourite highlighters list.

Sephora Order + Sephora Give Me Some Lip

Hi!

Sephora - even writing the word brings out the makeup fiend in me. Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved anything from America - my sister and I used to buy the U.S. Teen magazines all the time and read about Mandy Moore and N*Sync. We were lucky enough to have some family friends over there who would regularly send over little treats that we treasured - so when I heard that Sephora would finally deliver to Ireland via Parcel Motel, I was overjoyed.

I waited for months but finally decided to take the plunge upon the release of the Jaclyn Hill/Becca highlighter (and after watching Orla's videos). I know that some people have had issues ordering to Ireland but I had none - I used an Irish debit card and my Parcel Motel UK address and it went through fine.

If you're not sure how to use Parcel Motel, I did a post here that should explain it. Basically it's a delivery service, if you want to order from a site that doesn't post to Ireland, you can sign up at www.parcelmotel.com and for a fee, they will receive your package in Belfast and courier it down to your nearest locker so you can retrieve it with a code.

I ordered four items from Sephora, because they offered £6 postage on orders over £75. Spend money to save money, yes? Makeup junkie logic at its finest. There are some brands that won't ship to the UK - Bobbi Brown and Hourglass being two - but there's still a huge range to choose from. There were no customs charges.

 Sephora Favourites Give Me Some Lip: $25 | BITE Agave Lip Mask: $26

Becca/Jaclyn Hill Shimmering Skin Perfector: $38 | Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette: $36

I also received some samples:

Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector, Philosophy Renewed Hope in a Jar Eye Cream, Living Proof Style Lab Hair Serum, and Philosophy My Philosophy layering fragrances in 'Grateful' (watery floral) and 'Compassionate' (creamy vanilla). I don't remember clicking a button for the fragrances so they must have been an additional sample.

The palette and highlighter will get their own posts, but I wanted to talk about the lip set today. If you want to see a review of the BITE Agave lip mask, head over to Karen's post here (that's why I bought it).

It contains a full-size Smashbox lip gloss and five other sample sized lip products. Apparently it's valued at $90, which I find a little hard to believe, but it cost $25. The dollar and euro are pretty much neck and neck at the minute, there's not much in it, so this isn't necessarily great value for us but I thought it was a good price for a chance to try some brands I'd never be able to try otherwise.

Smashbox Be Legendary Lip Gloss - 'Pout'

 | Full Size |Other Shades Available Here | Price £16|

This is okay, it's not overly pigmented but it does give a small wash of colour to my lips. It's a little pale for me, a bit sixties, but it isn't sticky or tingly. 

BITE High Pigment Lip Pencil - 'Meritage'

| Deluxe Sample | Available Here | Price $24 for Full Size|

This looked scary in the crayon and I was sure it'd be like the Lord & Berry one from the Iconic Hollywood Glossybox - but it's actually more of a brownish brick red. It's very wearable and very nineties. It's really pigmented and lasts ages, feels lovely on my lips. These are described as matte on the Sephora website but this one definitely isn't, maybe other shades in the range are. 

Marc Jacobs Lust for Lacquer - 'Kissability'

| Mini Sample | Other Shades Available Here | Price for Full Size: $28|

I don't like this at all. It's sticky and really tingly - not a pleasant sensation, it's reminiscent of the Too Faced lip injection, and I wasn't expecting that from Marc Jacobs. I thought it'd be a nice luxury gloss, not a sticky lip plumper.

Buxom Full-On Lip Cream - 'White Russian'

| Mini Sample | Available Here | Price for Full Size: $19| 

This is a pale nude pink lip gloss. I think the word 'cream' is a little misleading in the name, but it's a nice gloss. Again, this has tingling - not as bad as the Marc Jacobs, but it's there. It applied a little unevenly, but it wasn't a huge issue. It's not very pigmented at all.

NARS Lip Gloss - Orgasm

| Deluxe Sample | Available Here | Price for Full Size $26| 

I've never tried a gloss from NARS so I was excited to try this, especially as it's such an iconic shade in the range. It's very similar to the Orgasm blush, peach with gold shimmer. The shimmer is fairly strong, but it's more flattering on the lips than I would have expected. It was glossy, not sticky, not tingly.

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick - 'Naked'

| Mini Sample | Available Here | Price for Full Size: £15.50 | 

This is tiny, it reminds me of those little pretend play lipsticks from the late 80s! As tiny as it is, it packs a punch - it's really pigmented and it's exactly the same quality as the other full size lipstick I own from the Revolution range. I think that this might be the first ever lipstick I actually finish.

Overall I'm really happy with the set - it's lovely to be able to try so many new (to me) brands at the one time and I definitely will get use out of everything apart from the Marc Jacobs.

Please do let me know what you'd like to see next - the Too Faced palette or the Becca highighter.

Affordable Skincare from Ziaja + Original Beauty

Not Sponsored/No Samples

Hi!

Earlier this year, I was sent a couple of items from Polish Brand Ziaja's Olive Leaf Range to try out (review here). I was so impressed with the quality and affordability that I wanted to try a few more bits from the brand. There's a huge range available on www.originalbeauty.ie so I placed an order a few weeks ago. They offer free delivery on orders over €30, so.......this happened.

Cocoa Butter Body Lotion - 400ml - €5.99 | Cocoa Butter Shampoo - 400ml - €3.99

Cocoa Butter Conditioner - 200ml - €2.79 | Cocoa Butter Creamy Shower Soap - 500ml - €2.99

Cocoa Butter Body Butter - 200ml - €7.99 | Orange Butter Body Butter - 200ml - €7.99

Coconut Hand Cream - 80ml - €2.99 | Cocoa Butter Hand Cream - 80ml - €2.99

Ziaja Baby Baby & Kids Cream - 50ml - €2.59

I wanted to try the Cocoa Butter line because it's probably my favourite skincare scent - I wasn't mad about the body lotion, to be honest. I found it weak compared to my favourite Vaseline one. However, the body butter from the same line is gorgeous. It sinks in well after showering, it's moisturising, doesn't leave a greasy residue on hands, and looks like a big pot of chocolate mousse. The shower soap is lovely too, it gives a good lather and skin feels clean. The shampoo and conditioner are perfect for every day or if you've the type of hair that doesn't need much attention, they both do the job and they're good value. I don't think I'd repurchase just because I'm spoiled with my own shampoo but they're great for a family or would be a really lovely affordable duo for a teenager. The hand cream is lovely too, and a huge size for the price. 

The Coconut hand cream is a winner, as is the Orange Butter body butter. Genuinely, these body butters are every bit as good as The Body Shop ones for less than half the price. The baby cream is lovely too, it was lovely on the boys after a bath and did the job well. 

I know that Ziaja may be hard to find in-store (keep an eye on their Facebook Page for updated stockists) but there was no hassle at all ordering from Original Beauty. My order arrived safely via courier within 48 hours. There was a huge bag of samples included (also pictured are two face masks that I paid for, the Olive Leaf one and the Phyto Aktiv one, they were €0.69 each).

I love when samples are included with an order, it makes me feel appreciated as a customer and gives me a great idea of what I'd like to try next. 

My total order came to €41.69. I think I'll be paying another visit to the site before Christmas (yes, I said it) to stock up on a few body butters and masks for hampers - I get two rounds from the face mask sachets and my skin feels better after the Olive Leaf one than it does after any of my more expensive ones. 

This only scratches the surface of what the brand have to offer - I'm a big fan of good quality products at a low price, so do check out the site to see what else is there. 

Is there anything from Ziaja that you'd recommend?

Recent Stationery Buys + Wishlist

Hi!

I love this time of year because the shops are full of Back-to-School stuff - including moutains of stationery. I got a few bits from Tesco, Dealz and Paperchase, and I thought I'd show them to you today and talk about some bits on my wishlist.

Tesco

Sharpies: €4.50 | Sticky Arrows: €1.25 | Mini Sticky Notes Cube: €1.75 

I saw Sara with these Sharpies on Snapchat and had to copy her, they're gorgeous colours. I got the arrow stickers and post-its for book reviewing and studying for the Driver Theory Test. Tesco have tonnes of stuff in at the moment and most of it is very reasonably priced, I know they've got another large Sharpie pack for €10 - really good value considering the price of an individual one.

Dealz

Notebook: €1.49 | Gel Pen Set: €1.49

Dealz have a great range of stationery all year round - these gel pens are very neon and brilliant for headers or numbers if you're a list freak like me. The notebook is nothing special - but I thought the pastel colour was cute. The pens do run out pretty quickly - you can see from the pink one how much it has gone down and I only used it a few times - but for €1.49 who's complaining?

Paperchase

Pink Zip File: €2.25 | 10 Subject Notebook: €8.50 | Address Book: €7.00 | Planner: €5.50

What brought me to the Paperchase website in the first place was the mention of this planner by Joanne in the Lovely Girlie Bits July Monthly Favourites video. The rest of the stuff just kinda....fell into the basket. Here's a better look at the planner;

It's really helpful for planning out your day and staying on track, that weird satisfaction of ticking things off is really motivational. Not entirely sure why there's a ruler on one end, but anyway - if I were to find a gripe with this, it would be that I like to look back over what I've done and this is designed so that you rip the top page off when you've completed a day, so I'd love a cover on it, but it's not a major issue. There's some great offers on the Paperchase site at the minute - discounts when you spend over a certain amount, free delivery over €50 - I had my cart loaded to the hilt but whittled it down to just over €25 for all in the picture including postage. It would be very, very easy for a stationery fiend to lose the run of themselves on that site.

Wishlist

Ban.do 17-month agenda - Florabunda By now, you've all seen the ban.do "I Am Very Busy" diary that Sera took Snapchat by storm with. As the weeks have gone by, I've completely gone off it in favour of the floral version, or even the gold. I've got my pre-order in at Hippenings, who launch on August 28th. The agendas will be available in September. If you'd like to pre-order too, head over to the Hippenings Facebook Page.

Gorjuss Thank You Card Set Santoro's Gorjuss range is one of my favourites - I have a couple of the notebooks but would love one of these notecard sets. Postage from the website is a killer, so it's definitely a Parcel Motel job, but I can't justify it at the minute due to the bad €/£ exchange rate. Ditto with the magnetic bookmarks, they're so nice but I just wish they were a little easier to come by!

Bic Cristal Fun Pens this pack is under €3 in Tesco at the moment, so it'll be coming home with me on Thursday. Bic pens are my favourite, and I had this pack before but used them up. I USED THEM UP. Never happens. Okay, I lost one of the green ones but I used the rest!

Kate Spade Polka Dot Agenda & Chic Happens Journal Both of these are available from My Shining Armour at the moment (who also stocks ban.do) - I love that the journal has six ribbon bookmarks included. I love the look of all Kate Spade's stationery, it's clean and beautiful.

Do I need more notebooks or journals? Nope. But I'm also thinking now that I'd quite like another to-do list book or some heart shaped post-its or a glitter pencil case...........

It's a disease.

Rebecca Minkoff & Essie - Leggy Legend Fall 2015 Collection Swatches

Hi!

It's that time of year - the pastels from Spring and neons from Summer are slowly being shoved aside for the richer, warmer berry tones of Autumn. I love this time of year in the makeup world - jewel tones, burgundies, golds - give it all to me, please.

I bought the mini kit from this collection, it contains four of the six shades from another Rebecca Minkoff collaboration (the first being the Flowerista one that I swatched here) - here are all six.

I bought the mini kit from Beautyzone2007, my go-to eBay seller for the latest Essie collections. I stopped buying the full sizes a while ago because I've never, ever finished a nail polish so the big bottles were going to waste. 

The shades in the mini kit are (L-R): Leggy Legend, With the Band, In the Lobby, and Frock 'n Roll.

The two missing from the kit are the "burning red orange" Color Binge and the "intense midnight indigo" Bell Bottom Blues. Neither of those are my kind of colour so I didn't bother buying the seperate big bottles. I do think Bell Bottom Blues will be popular but I've gone off blue over the past year or so.

Here's a look at the four I have:

The collection is "a throwback to the Rock 'n Roll era of the Seventies" and that definitely comes through. The rich gold and lush burgundy scream Seventies chic, and are a very wearable way to enjoy the Seventies Revival trend.

Here's a look at them individually, swatches are inside (L) and outside (R) as usual.

Leggy Legend

This reminds me of a Tiger's Eye stone. It's a beautiful warm, rich, bronze gold (Essie call it "an alloyed bronze") that lends its name to the collection. It applied flawlessly in one coat, but I did two for the pictures just to make sure. It looks like it's lit from within - if there's one I would buy in full size - this is absolutely it, it's going to look fantastic with some knitwear over the next few months.

With the Band

This is one coat, lads. It's lovely - described as a "toasted spice burgundy", it's really flattering on pale skin and looks glossy and vibrant. I'm not a lover of red polish but this has just enough depth in it for me to really enjoy wearing it.

In the Lobby

Or "exotic cinnamon plum". This is another showstopper for me, it's almost syrup-like when it dries. It has an almost glazed feel to it, it's a dark, warm plum that was a little gloopy to apply - but I gave it some drying time in between two coats and the payoff was worth it. I love this one. Just a warning - it stains like hell, so do use a basecoat.

Frock 'n Roll

This is described as "shimmering rich espresso". This is the colour of coffee beans with a slight purple undertone, it leans more towards the blackberry side of things outside. There's a fine glitter running through this - it's not sparkly disco ball glitter, but it is there and it does translate well on to the nail unlike some other glitters. The pictures show one coat. It's nice - but it's not my favourite of the four and I don't think I'll get much wear from it.

Here's the closest I can get to showing you the detail in Leggy Legend and Frock 'n Roll:

My absolute favourite of the collection is Leggy Legend, but In the Lobby is coming in a very close second. I almost ordered both in full size, but I'll see how long the minis last before my head is turned by whatever Essie have in store next.

Again I probably should say that I don't have any kind of agreement with the brand, I buy the collections myself as they're released because they genuinely are my favourite nail polish brand.

Will you be picking up any of these? Or do you have a favourite colour for the Autumn months?