If You Go Down To The Woods Today

The weekend before last I went to Electric Picnic to film for Cock and Bull TV. The crew was a lot smaller than last year as Donnacha is currently doing almost everything himself. We filmed six sessions with some Irish bands in the woods outside the campsite. Here's what we got up to;

My sister Kate helped us out by recording sound

Luke, my fellow camera operator

Adventure Time T-Shirt!

There was a lot of waiting around (and even more insects!)

Spook of the Thirteenth Lock

Niall was on photographer/drinking duties

These lovely sisters are called Twin Headed Wolf

Eric McGrath (and company)

The Main Arena

Coffee Break

Candy Floss

Drinking Break

The Cure!!!

John Blek and the Rats

Doesn't this look like a mask from a Horror movie?

Not to sound ungrateful for getting to go to EP for free, but the line up this year was definitely not as good as last year. It was a completely different experience because there was lots of people on the crew last year and we had so much fun and I was probably over-excited because I'd never been before. This time it was much more laid back and we actually left early on Sunday because there were no bands we wanted to see that evening. We spent most of Friday and Saturday in the Media Area and the woods filming. We did get to relax and have a few drinks and watch some amazing performances. We saw Grizzly Bear, The Vaccines, Alabama Shakes, Patti Smith, The Cure (who played for 3 hours!) and Not Squares who were a bit of a highlight for me. 

After being fortunate enough to experience a festival this way and having access to nicer bathrooms, a private bar and seated area, having a lift to and from Donnacha's parents house nearby where we had nice warm beds and showers and proper food, I don't think I could ever camp at a festival. It's just not for me. I also think it's so hard to get into a performance because there are so many people in the audience just passing through or chatting to their friends or killing time or waiting for the next and on that stage. The atmosphere is never as good as when you're surrounded by true fans who have all paid to see the band play.  I don't know whether it's me getting older but I just found myself getting annoyed at people for having full blown conversations in front of me while I'm trying to enjoy someone play, or having smoke blown into my face on purpose because the person knew I was getting annoyed at him and his friends. Ok, I think I am getting old! 

Rude people aside, I had a great time and got to hang out with my sister and my friends and saw some bands I'd wanted to see for years and danced and ate gross food and wore wellies and laughed a lot. 

On a side note, we have to move out of our apartment due to circumstances we can't control. We are both really sad and wish we didn't have to move but we do and so the apartment hunt begins. There is very little available of good quality in our area for our slim budget so it's going to be stressful. I'm going to try and keep blogging as much as I can to distract from the stress and worry of it all but I'll be packing and going to viewings and all that so you might not hear from me much over the next few weeks. Please pray (if you're so inclined) that we find somewhere nice within our budget.

I'll leave you with two of the films we made at the Picnic in the woods. Remember to watch in HD!

Emma x

A Little Chat

I wanted to do a special post just catching up and telling you what's going on in my life at the moment because there are a few things I wanted to share and I didn't want to just tag it onto the end of a post about something else. Don't worry it's nothing bad!

So first of all my blog is officially 2 years old! I can't believe I forgot about it again this year, I guess I was just busy gearing up for the Forbidden Fruit and enjoying my week off work to remember. Oops! Maybe next year, if I'm still around! 

In other exciting news, I'm going to Paris in November! Donnacha and I are going with Kate and Eric for a week including a trip to EuroDisney! I can't wait to recreate this with Kate...

Has anyone been watching Mad Men this Season? ( kinda spoiler alert so if you haven't seen it you may not want to read the next sentence). We just finished it and for me it was the best yet. Episode 12 made me fall to pieces, I think I cried for a half hour. But I'm very much looking forward to Breaking Bad starting next month! We've also been watching Homeland, we're only 4 episodes in and I'm hooked already.

I've seen some really great films recently too. Young Adult was incredible, Charlize Theron was so damn good in it and made me hide behind a cushion with cringeyness!  Womb which was the creepiest film I've ever seen. True Adolescents with Mark Duplass which I really liked. Some Days Are Better Than Others with James Mercer from the Shins was a cute indie film.  Also Everything Must Go with Will Ferrell which is such a a change from what he usually does, I love him anyway but especially in Stranger Than Fiction so I love seeing this acting side of him. 

Out of all the films I've seen recently Take This Waltz was my favourite. It's directed and written by Sarah Polley (who I love). I really can't recommend this highly enough. It's got the adorable and lovely Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen like you've never seen him before. I was seriously shocked by how amazing this film is, it really gets into you.

Source

I've also seen some great films in the cinema including Beauty and the Beast in 3D, Jeff Who Lives at Home (the latest Duplass brothers film) was really good and it has Jason Segel so you can't really go wrong with a bit of Nick Andopolis, Prometheus and the gorgeous Moonrise Kingdom which was the most darling film. As you probably already know I'm a huge Wes Anderson fan, what blogger isn't really? The kids in the film, all of them were such good actors and I just loved the set design as usual! 

Source

Another viewing recommendation I have just in case there wasn't enough there is The Staircase. This is an 8 part documentary about the death of a woman in North Carolina. That is all I'm saying because the less you know about this the better. If you can get your hands on it it's a great documentary if you're anything like me and are interested in true crime. 

My internet recommendation is for this tumblr. I hadn't heard of the 'Nancy' comics until I saw some scans from it on tumblr and I'm now obsessed! It's unbelievable how much I can relate to a cartoon drawing of a little girl. If you like Calvin and Hobbes you should definitely check out Nancy!

Source

As for music, I've been loving Real Estate recently, I can't stop listening to this song...

I've also been filming a bit for Cock and Bull TV, here's one of the videos I helped out on recently, it's a great song too! 

Lastly I just wanted to talk quickly about how my blog content has changed a bit recently. Well not really recently but more like the past 6 months maybe. I was a bit worried some of my readers may not be interested in posts about make up or beauty products but then I realised that it matters more that I write about what interests me otherwise I'll get bored and won't want to do it anymore. The way I see it any style blog is the exact same as a beauty one, it's all about the look that we create for ourselves and about our personalities and how we feel on a given day. 

For me looking after my skin is one of the most important things because of my family's history with skin cancer and I get excited trying out new products and using old faithful ones again and again and I want to share my tips with people and not just keep them to myself. I enjoy deciding what lipstick I'll wear when I'm getting ready each morning or what way I'll do my eyes. For me make up and and clothes go hand in hand, every morning I think about what I'll wear that day and then decide on my make up or vice versa. I'm excited to have this passion because it makes me want to write.

It also struck me when I was at the Museum of Style Icons last week how important make up and beauty products were to icons such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe and how without they're signature "looks" they wouldn't be remembered like they are today. 

Every reader won't be interested in every single post a blogger writes but as long as you're true to yourself and your interests and you don't compromise then you can't go wrong! 

So after that monstrosity of a post please tell me how all you guys are, have you any film/music/tv anything to recommend to me? I'd love to know!

Emma x

Clarins Lips

I'm always looking for hydrating lip products that still give a great colour to your lips. I've been wearing the Clarins Colour Quench Lip Balms for at least 7 years now. It's probably the first make up product that when I tried it I knew I had to always have one in my make up bag. I don't think I even realised until a few years after I started wearing it that it's not a gloss but actually a Lip Balm. Essentially It's a gloss with the hydrating effects of a lip balm which to me is the perfect combination, especially for Summer when I tend to go for glosses over lipsticks. 

The formula of these is so light and non sticky, they smell so gorgeous and fruity and the colour payoff is comparable to the best lip glosses (if not better)

Unfortunately Clarins have recently repackaged their Colour Quench Lip Balms (which now retail at about €17) and gotten rid of the old colours and brought in eight new ones so I won't be able to get my two favourite Poppy and Blood Orange again. I assume they've done some reformulating too but I haven't tried the new ones yet as I'm trying to lay off buying new lip products at the moment, but when I do try one out I'll let you know what I think. 

You can see what Blood Orange looks like below.

I bought a Clarins gift set this in the January sales this year, I got a full size Beauty Flash Balm, and trial sizes of their Instant Definition mascara (which I love, but that's for another time) and one of their new Instant Light Natural Lip Perfectors in Rose Shimmer.  The formula contains shea butter, wild mango and vitamins A and E among it's other ingredients. I adore this product, the amazing sweet vanilla scent, the smooth texture and the colour which you can see below. It's the perfect lip product for when you want a subtle lip with some shine but still want to have your lips moisturised and healthy looking. 

They come on two colours, the second being the more peachy toned Apricot Shimmer. They retail at about  €16 and are a must have for anyone who suffers from chapped lips!

I was hoping to have an outfit post for you today but it literally has not stopped raining since the start of April  and unfortunately I can't work the whole drowned rat look so I'm praying for sunshine and dying to get back out there again!

These indoor friendly beauty posts will have to suffice for now!

PS. Check out this video I helped film yesterday,

Emma x

Oxegen- Friday and Saturday

I've been a naughty blogger, living my life and not blogging. I promise to not do it again! I had a great week last week. Donnacha, Kate and I went for dinner and cocktails with my parents which was really fun because we've never really done that before. I had some yummy whiskey sours! Then on Friday a bunch of us including Kate and my brother Jack went to see Harry Potter. I cried. I haven't read the books but I have to say I have come to love the world of Harry Potter. I think the films are really cute and funny. The supporting cast is incredible, some of my favourite ever actors (Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman) are in the films so that's the big draw for me! Did any of you go see it?

The past few days I've been helping Kate with wedding plans. I found her wedding invitations which Donnacha photo-shopped to suit Kate and Eric. They are really cool, I can't wait to show them to you! I'm getting more and more excited about it, the next thing is to order her dress and then mine!

So I'm finally sharing with you the photos from Friday and Saturday of Oxegen. Donnacha Siobhán and I took these photos, let me know what you think!

Weezer

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis

The Vaccines

Braids

Little Green Cars

The Vaccines

Eels

The first few photos of the mud and clouds and general grossness pretty much sum up what Oxegen has become. The only other time I've been was five years ago where Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Strokes, The Who, James Brown and Death Cab For Cutie played. There is a completely different, much younger crowd that goes to Oxegen now and it's basically a 4 day drinking session (It now starts on a Thursday). Some of the bands we interviewed and the bands we saw live made little comments about it being like the Apocalypse and that they were only doing it for the money and experience which to me is the only reason to do it because any of the bands we saw had the smallest audiences in attendance which is very disappointing for them and a very bad representation of Irish gigs.

I wasn't there on Friday but Saturday the weather was really nice for most of the day which we spent in the Press/VIP area until we went to the Red Bull dance tent (a little bit of hell on earth in my opinion) to do an interview which we didn't end up getting. The highlight of Saturday was seeing Eels who actually played 5 years ago too but I wasn't as into them then. They were amazing and had the best style (see above).

I'll be telling you all about Sunday in tomorrow's post!

Hope you're having a great week so far. I missed this, even though it was only a week.

Here's our interviews/acoustic sessions from Saturday, if you get a chance to watch any of them let me know what you think! (Can you guess who's hands those are at the start of the videos, again?)

Emma x