A Thousand Words #4

I've been slacking a lot on posting recently and even though it's the first day of June, I wanted to share some of what I got up to during April. If you want to see more, check out my instagram. 

Summer florals haul from Accessorize

L'Oréal Pistachio Dragée; No7 Golden Sands; BarryM Greenberry

Clarks Carousel Ride, the perfect nude ballet flats

Roses de Chloé, my new favourite scent

The beginnings of Summer in Stephen's Green

OOTD in Dun Laoghaire

Pre-gig Blue Moons

Kurt Vile in Whelans

Seeing my face on the No7 leaflet for the first time in-store. You can read about my experience here

TBT- Kate and I, My first school photo, Myself, my cousin Sean and Kate on the north beach in Skerries

Gorgeous floral themed windows in Brown Thomas

Chocolate chunk cookies with Dairy Milk and Milky Bar

Reading some Moomin books

Beauty in the strangest of places

Grafton Street looking beautiful drenched in sunshine

Pear and almond tart in Le Petit Parisien; Chocolate, pear and almond tart in Queen of Tarts; Chocolate cookie ice cream sandwich in Eddie Rockets; Carrot cake muffin in Avoca

Celebrating Record Store Day with the first record I ever bought

Mother's Day

Kitser

Ramen in Wagamama

Moxie, the loveliest dog

Moomin, courtesy of my BFF Lisa

Looking through my school art projects while moving

All you can eat Chinese food with the BFF

Filming for Shemazing.ie in Boots

Cronuts at the Kate Moss X Topshop breakfast launch

Featured in U Magazine

Coral dress, lips and nails; Testing out the new Bourjois lipsticks; Blood Orange San Pellegrino; The first iced coffee of the Summer

As you can see I had a pretty action-packed April. I try to keep my instagram photos happy and positive, but what you don't see here is all of the heartache and sadness as I moved out of my apartment. Unfortunately Donnacha and I have gone our separate ways and I wanted to write about it here because this blog began as one that documented my life and for almost 8 years, my relationship with Donnacha was one of the biggest parts of my life. He was also the biggest supporter of my blog and without his love and constant help with everything from taking my outfit photos to proof reading, this blog would most definitely not exist. 

Sometimes it's hard to understand things that happen in our lives, we can feel like we've lost control and would give anything to have that control back. It's sometimes very difficult to understand yourself, let alone explain to the people around you how you feel and make them understand. I'm not a perfect person, I am flawed, I am human, I make mistakes, probably on a daily basis and sometimes you really don't know what to do or what decisions to make and it can be overwhelming. 

Obviously I don't want to go into the ins and outs of my relationship on such a public forum, I don't think that would be fair or necessary. I just wanted to acknowledge that Donnacha is an amazing man, one in a million in the truest sense of the phrase. Anyone who is lucky enough to know him knows how special he is. I want to thank him for being there from the start of Ol' Green Eyes. He was there when I came up with the idea of starting a blog, he patiently took countless beautiful photographs for me, taught me how to use editing software and allowed me to use his camera whenever I wanted to. He was always the first person to read every one of my posts even if 99% of them didn't interest him at all. For these things and so much more I am truly thankful. 

Change is hard. You find yourself adjusting because you have no other choice, I've gone through a lot of major life changes over the past year and I am still learning, about myself and about other people, I am making the best of difficult situations, it's the only thing I can do. 

"You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them", I always loved that quote from To Kill A Mockingbird, but I never really understood it until recently. 

I also wanted to share this with you to explain why things have been so sporadic here over the past few months. My living situation is still up in the air as is my work situation so it's been difficult trying to get back to regular blogging, both reading and writing, with so much going on, so thank you for bearing with me. 

I hope you all are well, thank you for your continued support, you don't know just how much it means to me.

Emma x

Bourjois Lips

I wanted to share with you some of the most recent lip releases from Bourjois for Spring/Summer. The first of the three products is an Effet 3D Lip Gloss in Rose Allégoric No. 59. This was part of the Belle Époque collection from Spring 2014 which consisted of various products including nail polishes, eyeshadows and eyeliners in shades inspired by the sea and sky.

I've been wearing these Bourjois glosses since I was a teenager, in fact, they were probably the first pharmacy brand lip products I really loved. The glosses have been reformulated and repackaged for their 10th anniversary and the formula is now paraben free. They are designed to leave your lips feeling hydrated for 8 hours while keeping that 3D shine effect. 

I love everything about this gloss, the sleek packaging, the sweet scent and the new and improved brush all combine to make what has continued to be my favourite "drugstore" lip gloss range. The shade is a very pretty muted coral with no shimmer. It's the perfect Summer lip gloss shade that would go with practically any eye look. The new brush applicator is more compact than the old one making it easier to use and the application more precise. 

I don't really wear lipstick all the much anymore as I'm a true lipstick fan but when I do fancy a glossy lip, these really are beautiful. It helps that the texture is smooth and the formula doesn't settle into the creases in your lips either. Wear time on these is supposed to be 8 hours but let's be honest I don't know anyone who doesn't top up their lip gloss several times a day, isn't that half the fun?

The next two products are the Rouge Edition Velvet liquid lipsticks in the shades Olé Flamingo 05 and Personne ne Rouge 01. I absolutely loved these from the moment they touched my lips. They are both gorgeous shades (Olé Flamingo is definitely my favourite of the two), the texture is light and creamy (unusual words to describe a lipstick, I know) and the applicator makes it easy to apply with precision. I have found that Personne ne Rouge needs a few coats for complete colour saturation whereas Olé Flamingo is more pigmented. It takes a few minutes for the product to dry to it's semi-matte finish. You can see the difference in the two photos on the right below, the middle photo was taken just after application while the second was taken a few minutes after application. 

Rose Allégoric, Personne ne Rouge and Olé Flamingo

The lasting power on these is very impressive, I've really been enjoying wearing them to work as I can apply them knowing they aren't going to wear off throughout my shift, yet they don't feel drying on my lips. As with any lipstick but particularly mattes, prepping your lips makes a world of difference. Every night when I'm doing my usual skincare routine I like to apply a little bit of my exfoliator onto my lips and buff it off using a face cloth to get rid of any dead skin that can make matte lips look unsightly. Alternatively you could use a scrub specifically for lips like the Lush or Fresh ones. The NUXE Reve de Miel lip balm is also great for wearing under matte lip products as the product won't slip around on top of it like it sometimes can do with other lip balms. 

Olé Flamingo

The glosses are €10.49 and the Rouge Edition Velvets are €10.99.

So have you tried any of these products? Are you a fan of glossy or matte lips?

Emma x

YouOrganic! Orange and Ylang Ylang Night Balm

Recently I've been trying out and loving more natural and organic skincare brands like Trilogy and Weleda. I love the idea of using natural ingredients and it seems like my skin is all the better for it. I was recently invited to try out Irish organic skincare brand YouOrganic founded in 2012 by Ursula Elmes who was an Acupuncturist and a Holistic Skin Therapist. Ursula began experimenting with Organic skincare after she had a bad reaction to a skincare product and this sparked an interest that would later develop into YouOrganic. 

For the past while I've been using the Orange and Ylang Ylang Night Balm which is a 100% natural product that promises to nourish and rejuvenate the skin and also contains antioxidant ingredients. I absolutely loved this product from the first use. It contains essential skincare ingredients like Vitamin E, Aloe Vera and Cocoa Butter as well as Almond Oil, Neroli, Bergamot and Ylang Ylang. 

Like it says on the packaging, a little goes a long way and the 20ml pouch has lasted me a long time. The only thing I found a bit tricky was dispensing the correct amount from the pouch as the texture of the product can change depending on the temperature of the room it's stored in but if you're careful and take your time it shouldn't be a problem. 

As I've probably mentioned before I have normal/combination skin so I found using the balm every other night has worked best for me. I've used it alone and beneath a moisturiser as more of a treatment/serum but to be honest I found it worked so well alone that you don't even really need a moisturiser on top of it. I love the mild citrus scent and the texture which is easy to apply and absorbs into the skin quite quickly. I've really been enjoying using this and I feel like it gives my skin such a nice overnight treatment and has helped with any dry areas which I can suffer from on occasion.

I can't wait to try out more products from the YouOrganic range, particularly the Orange and Mandarin Lip Balm and the Orange and Cinnamon Wood Wick Candle.

The Night Balm is €29.99 and can be purchased from the YouOrganic site with Worldwide shipping as well as from several Irish stockists. There is also a Botanical Apothecary Studio on Mary Street in Dublin where you can book an appointment for an organic facial.

What do you think about Organic skincare?

Emma x

No7 Matchmade Campaign

If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook you may already be aware of my involvement in the new No7 Matchmade campaign. I wanted to share everything here but I thought it would be better to wait until the campaign was launched so that I could give you the full story and show you my final campaign image.

On November 1st of last year I saw a post on the Boots Ireland Facebook page looking for someone to be the face of a new national campaign. In a moment of utter madness I decided to go for it so I emailed a photo of myself and a little explanation as to why to wanted to be involved (I included the photo below as I thought you might like to see what photo I went for). To be honest I regretted it straight away and I thought to myself "what the hell was I thinking!" but I honestly didn't expect anything to come of it.




The following week while I was in Paris, I got an email with a questionnaire attached asking for a little more detail about myself so I filled it out and sent it off thinking that was it.

Shortly after I returned from Paris I got a phone call from the No7 Casting Director asking if I would take part in a casting via Skype as they were based in London and wouldn't be able to see me in person. I agreed to do the Skype casting (a totally foreign concept to me, I didn't even really know what a casting was!). Monika called me and we had a lovely chat. She just wanted to know a little bit more about me and see me "in person". At this point I still didn't know the details of the campaign and once again I expected for that to be the end of it.

Towards the end of November I got a phone call one evening and to my absolute shock I was told that I got the job and would be going over to London in December for the photoshoot. My first reaction was, "Oh no. What have I gotten myself in for? Can I actually do this?". Then I thought about it some more and I figured that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that even though I was terrified, not just of taking part in a proper photoshoot but also flying over to London by myself for the first time, I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it.

I was then told a little more about the campaign, No7 were relaunching their Matchmade service and I would be one of seven "real" women (as in, not professional models) taking part in a national (UK and Ireland) campaign to promote the service.

I flew over to London (my first solo flight) on the evening of December 16th as there was an early call time for the photo shoot the following morning. I was the first to complete me shoot because they wanted me to be finished early to be on time for my flight home.

The first thing we did was some pre-shoot filming where I was asked to run around a huge studio filled with all of the different shades of foundation on big cardboard stands and choose which one I thought was my shade. The one which I thought was the palest shade ended up being 4 shades darker than what I thought. After that I had my make up done (this was also my first time having my make up done by someone else). My nails were painted in the shade Moonlit Shadow (which I actually bought in the airport on the way home) and my hair was left quite natural, only using the curling iron a little bit.

I was then fitted for the top I would wear for the photoshoot. As it was just a mid shot, the styling team only had tops and I actually didn't have any bottom half with me as I was wearing a dress so I ended up wearing my pyjama bottoms during the shoot which was quite funny and probably helped to loosen me up a bit. We ended up going for a pale pink top as it worked best with my skin tone and against the background in the test shots.

My photographer was Frederike Helwig, an incredibly talented photographer who has shot for Elle US and UK, L'Officiel, Muse, Harpers Bazaar and Bergdorf Goodman and has shot some of my favourite actors and musicians including Jason Schwartzman, Rebecca Hall, Matt Smith, The Stokes, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Bryan Ferry. It was such an honour to be shot by her, she was a dream to work with. As I had never modelled before Frederike was very conscious of helping me come out of my shell and to relax and have fun and to get the most natural looking shot to suit the campaign. By the end of the shoot I was dancing around and screaming, it was so much fun!

After the shoot we did a little more filming and an interview which you can see a snippet of in this video. In the past month I've also been doing some press to promote the campaign in Ireland including a feature on the Boots Ireland site in which I review my seven favourite No7 products which you can read here.

This was the fist time I saw the leaflet in my local Boots with my photo on the front of it




I did a day of filming for Evoke.ie, you can see the video here




I also did a quick photoshoot for an Advertorial that is featured in this month's U Magazine

Like I said in my initial email, I was already a big fan of No7 products as you will know if you've been reading my blog for a while, so to be involved with a brand that I love is such an honour and something I am so proud to be a part of. I'm so thankful for such an incredible opportunity that I feel has really helped me to grow and learn more about myself. I want to thank all of the lovely people I met though out the journey including the other beautiful models who I met on the day and especially Catherine, Sarah, Maria and Jane.

Emma x

PS. Irish website Shemazing.net also did a video about the campaign which you can here.

PPS. Do go and avail of the match made service! I really did love it!

A Thousand Words #3

This is some of what I got up to during the second half of March.

Outfit of the Day- March 10th

I love LOVE Magazine

Yummy cupcakes at the Next Spring/Summer '14 Press Evening

Marta from Addicted To Fashion Forever, my friend Vanessa and I at the Next SS14 Press Evening

St. Patrick's Cathedral turns green for Paddy's Day

One of the best films I've seen this year

Throw Back Thursday- My love of sunglasses began at an early age!

Gorgeous vintage Bourjois packaging!

I finally watched Paris, Texas and absolutely adored it. Harry Dean Stanton is unbelievable

Next goodies for Summer. Sunglasses, Bag and Bracelet

Throw Back Thursday- Me in 1989

Cocktails with the birthday girl Brina in The Mint Bar

Outfit of the Day- March 23rd

The Grand Budapest Hotel Exhibition in The Lighthouse Cinema

My favourite Zara Taylor rings

Early morning in the gorgeous Grand Canal area of Dublin

Erm...

Limited Edition Tove's Jubilee Moomin mug from my cousin's trip to Helsinki. Such a nice surprise!

Mother's day with my precious mama! 

Oh behave Mini Me

Outfit of the Day- March 30th (my new favourite thing- H&M Kimono)

Nails of the day- Essie Cute As A Button; Barry M Matte White; No7 Peachy Keen; Essie On A Silver Platter

March was both one of the best and worst months of my entire life. There is so much I want to share with you all and in time I will because no matter what this blog has always had a personal element to it and I never want to lose that. 

I'm delighted to share that I've been asked to take part in a weekly Ask The Experts post for one of my favourite Irish beauty blogs- Make Up Monster. Please head over there to ask us any beauty questions you have or just to read our answers. 

Don't forget to follow me on instagram (so I can follow you all too!). I shared some very exciting news there this week that I plan on doing a full post on very soon. 

Emma x

The Colossal

I received Maybelline's The Colossal mascara in my December Glossybox and I loved it so much that I repurchased it in the waterproof formula as soon as it ran out. 

This is going to sound completely ridiculous but my taste in mascaras seems to have changed over the past year. Before I would have been looking for length and definition over volume but after trying out some different mascaras recently, I found myself really liking the voluminous, lashy look reminiscent of the sixties. I especially loved it during the Christmas period when I was wearing a bit more eye shadow than usual. It's also great with minimal eye make up and a bright lip or winged liner and nude lips for that Jean Shrimpton look.

 The formula is enriched with collagen so it's supposed to give your lashes lots of volume which it definitely did for me. I found the non waterproof one slightly better than this one and I'd go for that one over the waterproof when I buy it again. I was already a fan of Maybelline mascaras but I hadn't gotten around to trying this one yet.

I usually shy away from big mascara wands, but I love this one. I usually apply two coats depending on the look I am going for, one coat gives a more subtle effect. The formula is similar to The Falsies, the perfect medium of neither being too dry nor too wet so that it's easy to work with. I use an eyelash curler with all of my mascaras and I find that this holds the curl well and doesn't drag it down like some mascaras can do. I can attest to the fact that this is properly waterproof (yes, I have cried whilst wearing it, for review purposes only!). You will definitely need a waterproof eye make up remover for this one. It retails for approximately €9.99 which is a very fair price compared to some other high street brands.

What mascara are you using at the moment? Do you have any recommendations?

Emma x