It's Still That Same Old Movie That's Haunting Me

This is what I wore on a day off recently when we went to meet friends for lunch and a movie (we saw About Time, I cried like a baby). 

Outfit Details:

Jacket- Penneys/Primark

Top- Monsoon

Skirt- ASOS

Belt- Pieces via ASOS

Sunglasses- eBay

Boots- Marks and Spencers

Bag- Zara

Ring and Scarf- Accessorize

Lips- Revlon Adorned

Nails- No7 Jammy

Autumn came on quite suddenly, one minute it was sweltering, the next I was digging out my heavy scarves and gloves. Autumn is my favourite season, I love that it's chilly enough to wear light layers but not freezing. I also love the Autumn colours in nature as well as fashion and make up. For now I'm wearing a transitional wardrobe keeping some bits from my Summer wardrobe like this bag and scarf. I bought the scarf at the start of the summer and wore it non-stop over the past few months. You may already know scarves are my style weakness. I got these boots as a birthday present last month, they are very similar to the ones I got last year and are so comfortable, they're great for wearing when I'm on my feet in work. I wanted this Michael Kors Buckle ring for ages and then I saw this one in work and figured I'd get that instead as it was much less expensive and a bit too much of a trend to spend so much money on. 

For make up I'm still going with just mascara on my eyes, full brows and bright lips. It's so quick to do in the mornings and makes me look put together for work without spending too much time on the application. I do love the whole matching nails and lips thing and I couldn't resist pairing my new Revlon lip gloss with one of my favourite No7 nail polishes. I am excited to start wearing darker colours coming into October and I already have some ideas for make up looks I want to try out. 

What's your favourite thing about Autumn?

Hope you all are having a lovely week so far!

Emma x


*Roxy Music- Same Old Scene

Evening Opulence

As I've mentioned numerous times before, Revlon is my favourite drug store/pharmacy make up brand. I always get excited to see their new releases and this years Autumn collection was no different. The Evening Opulence Collection by Gucci Westman is described as "full- fledged glamour and colour... with over the top brights and rich jewel tones".

The collection consists of three new ColorBurst lip glosses in the shades Bejewelled, Adorned and Embellished, two ColorBurst lip butters in Provocative and Invite Only, four Nail Enamels in the shades Rich, Elusive, Divine and Seductive, a PhotoReady eye palette and a double ended PhotoReady Kajal eye liner. 

After looking at all the products I ended up buying the Rich Nail Enamel and the Embellished and Adorned ColorBurst lip glosses.  

Rich is a gunmetal/pewter shade with micro gold glitter. As with all of the other Revlon polishes I have, this applies beautifully and lasts very well. I can't fault this formula, it's such a pleasure to use. I love the shade too, it's a great Autumn/Winter shade that's so eye-catching on the nails. 

When I first saw Adorned and Embellished I was completely taken back by how beautiful they looked in the packaging. One thing I will say about both of these lip glosses is that they are significantly less glittery when applied than they look in their packaging which I find makes them more wearable for daytime. Embellished is a wine/burgundy shade that's perfect for getting that berry lips look for daytime. Whereas Adorned has a bit more of an impact. It is a very bright pink with a lot more colour pay off than Embellished. In  the campaign photographs Olivia Wilde and Emma Stone wear these glosses with jewel toned eye make which I actually really like for a dramatic evening look. I'm looking forward to wearing this particular shade as it looks so stunning on. 

The formula of the ColorBurst glosses is one of the best I've tried, they look amazing on and are comfortable to wear. The also have a very subtle inoffensive scent which I can't imagine would bother too many people. I already have Bordeaux, Peony and Pink Ice and I wear them all the time. I'm quite picky about lip glosses and these are some of my all time favourites. 

This collection is still available in Boots, but if you see something you like, get it while you can as most stands I've seen have been almost empty. The Nail Enamel is €9.15 and the lip glosses are €11.20 each.

What do you think? Do you like wearing dramatic make up?

Emma x

PS. I just wanted to let you know that I have been shortlisted in the Best Beauty/Fashion blog category for the Blog Awards Ireland 2013. I just wanted to say a huge thank to anyone who voted for me as it was a complete surprise! Thank you to everyone for your continued support of my blog, you don't know what it means to me. You can see a list of the nominees here, check them all out! 

Loftus Hall

I read about the legend of Loftus Hall years ago in a book that we had at home about Ireland. I was probably too young to be reading something like that at the time but it always stuck with me and I have wanted to visit it ever since. As recently as a year and a half ago I started reading up about it again and found out that it had been in a state of disrepair for years and was on the market. I had seen some photos that people had taken of the exterior all boarded up and this further fuelled my desire to see it in person and to see what was hidden away inside. 

I had forgotten all about it until I was reading a leaflet about tourist attractions in Wexford when we arrived at our hotel and I saw Loftus Hall was one of them. It had been bought and opened for tours last October and I was determined for us to visit it while we were down there. Luckily it's just down the road from Hook Lighthouse so we visited it on our way home on the same day. 

Our tour guide told us all lots of stories about the house that would make your skin crawl, especially while standing in those old dark rooms. The most well known story and the one I read about years ago, is that of the Tottenham family (Charles, his wife and his daughter Anne) who were staying in the house back in the 1700s. The story goes that one night a ship arrived at Hook Head and a man who was on the ship called to Loftus Hall and was invited to stay. After being there for a few days he struck up a rapport with Anne Tottenham and one evening the family sat down to play a game of cards. The man dealt a hand, but Anne was missing a card. She bent down to get it from beneath the table and noticed the man had a cloven hoof in place of a foot. She let out a scream which alerted the man to what she had seen and with that he disappeared through the ceiling in a cloud of smoke. Not long after the incident Anne was confined to her room after a breakdown and apparently she spent the rest of her short life staring out the window at the sea waiting for the stranger to return.

There's obviously a lot of speculation about the events that occurred and there are some theories that the young woman had some form of mental illness and the family were embarrassed and tried to explain it away with this story about the stranger.

I personally do believe in spirits, although I'm not completely convinced of this story. However some of the other ones we heard on the tour would really make you believe that something haunts the house. Either that or just a lot of very strange coincidences. Even if you didn't believe in all that, I challenge anyone to go through that house and not feel a tiny bit creeped out.

After the tour we walked down to the small beach beside the house. It happened to be a gorgeous afternoon and it made me feel a lot better after being freaked out by the house. If you get the chance, it's definitely worth seeing the inside of the house, the detail in the decor is unbelievable. The wooden staircase alone is worth seeing, it is one of only three made, the other two being in the Vatican city and on the Titanic.

If you want to see the interior, there are some really great photographs on flickr that someone took in 2008 where you can see the kind of state the place was in before it was finally sold. I loved looking through these photos as we only got to see certain rooms of the house because it's in such bad condition and is unsafe for visitors.

Would you be interested in visiting Ireland's most haunted house?

Emma x

Fluff and Fripperies Guest Post

I'm delighted to tell you that I was asked to write a guest post for one of my favourite blogs, Fluff and Fripperies. Head on over there and check out my post on my top five favourite lipsticks. Thank you so much Emma for having me. 

Hope you're having a great Wednesday!

Emma x

Pirate

It's almost been a year since my trip to Paris and seeing as I'm going again this November, I've been thinking about what lipstick to buy this time. Before that however, I thought I should show you the one I bought last year, Chanel Rouge Allure in Pirate. 

Top: MAC Russian Red, Bottom: Pirate

Other Products Used:

Monu Illuminating Primer

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation in 100 Ivory

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Fair

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Sin

Revlon Matte Eyeshadow in Rich Sable

Essence Liquid Ink Waterproof Eyeliner

Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler

Maybelline The Falsies Volum' Express Mascara

MAC Blush in Well Dressed

Dior Poudre Shimmer in Rose Diamond

No7 Perfect Loose Powder in Translucent

Caudalie Lip Conditioner

I can't believe I've waited this long to tell you about Pirate. I knew I wanted to buy a Chanel lipstick before we went to Paris last year as I had never tried one before and what better place to pick up my first one. It took me a while to finally decide the formula and shade that I wanted and in the end I chose a lipstick from the Rouge Allure formula as it was described as "Luminous, full colour, longwearing lipstick" which is exactly the kind of lipstick I like to wear, especially when it comes to reds. 

This shade is more blue/pink in tone than MAC's Russian Red which I have compared it to above as it's the closest shade I had to it in my collection. It applies very smoothly and has a beautiful satin finish with a rich colour. It's fragrance free so it won't annoy those you you with sensitive noses. As you would expect with anything Chanel, the packaging is so beautifully sleek, to open it you push down the gold Chanel symbol at the top and the lipstick pops out which I thought was a nice touch and a little different to other high end lipstick packaging. 

I don't have a bad word to say about this, it lasts really well, even longer with lip liner and along with Russian Red is my go to lipstick for glamorous red lips. I've been trying to save it for "special occasions" but I think now that we're coming into Autumn again I'm going to try and wear it more often, there's no point in saving something so gorgeous only for special occasions.

These cost around €30.50 and they are worth every cent. 

Are there any products you're looking forward to using more in Autumn?

Emma x