My hair has never been as long as it is at the moment. I am really enjoying having it long and I’m currently taking vitamins to get it as long as possible for my wedding in October. I have also reduced the amount of heating elements I use on a day to day basis to help avoid my hair breaking however once I have an occasion to go to I love playing around with my hair.

Above are my favourite 3 tools. First up is my hot air styler, would you believe I got this about 18 months ago in Lidl on special offer for about €17. I originally thought it was going to rotate like the BaByliss Big Hair, it doesn’t but I absolutely adore it. (would you believe I favour it over my BaByliss Big Hair?!). It’s great for every day, I sometimes whip off the attachments and roughly dry my hair, then put my hair into sections & style it with either of the two brush heads pictured.I have managed to find the Essentials by BaByliss 5265SU Shape & Smooth HotAir Styler here for only €12.99.

Since laying off my GHD daily usage, I only reach for my straighteners for special occasions . My “go to” hair straighteners for many years have been GHD’s but I believe the other brands like Babyliss, Philips & Vidal Sassoon have stepped up the mark now. I have also heard great things about Cloud Nine brand although the prices are top end, I have yet to try them.

My hair dryer is boring apart from the colour which is why I included it

Although I lusted after the BaByliss Big Hair for many months, I’m really very disappointed? I found the size of the brush ( 50mm ceramic barrel) was too big, making it awkward to use & the soft bristle brush which are to help with shine & softness just felt like they weren’t getting through even a small amount of hair. I can honestly say, out of my whole Twitter community I’m the only one in the world who doesn’t rave about this product!  Maybe I’m using it wrong! I must prefer my Lidl special!

I couldn’t find my Babyliss Conical Wand when I was taking photos but I do own this too & when I have the time, it works really well. My arms just start to ache when trying to do a full head

Along with my plug in products I also swear by a flat paddle brush, mine is Aveda and I got it free when I bought the salon size bottle of my shampoo & conditioner. I use the metal tail comb when I am straightening my hair, it smooths down the hair better than a brush after each section.

If you fancy trying the out some new hair tools, be sure to keep an eye out here for some great deals on all haircare stylers & tools including hair straighteners at Argos.

Mwah

* Sponsored Post

One of my favourite shops is Finn McCool’s Surf Company in Dingle, Co. Kerry. But as ye all know I am hibernating at the moment, saving for the wedding so no staycations or lovely trips to Dingle. So I was delighted when last year (at 11.11 on 11.11.11) Finn McCool’s launched their online store, so now I can shop with them all the time.

Do you remember my Weight Watchers Victories Off The Scales post? Finn McCools was where I bought my first size 12 item of clothing!!!! It was a dress from Animal that is similar to this seasons Lillee Dress in navy priced at €39.95. It was a great addition to my holidays last year for going down to the pool or beach & can’t wait to include it in my Honeymoon wardrobe!

If your looking for something a bit more suitable for evenings on holidays, I would go for this Animal Livya Maxi Dress which is a bit more pricey at €64.95. The floral print is bang on trend as always for Spring / Summer but I like its subtle nature, more wearable for your normal girl

I also love these cute polka dot runners, brilliantly priced at €39.95 available in a pretty pink or a mint green. The perfect match a casual jeans look with any of the cute tshirts also available online at finnmccools.ie and prices start from as little as €14.95.

There is also a full menswear range available online & in store for those lucky enough to be heading to Dingle (make sure you say hi to Ben the owner!) and as a surf shop a number of bikinis both branded and a new range of great value swimwear which you can check out on their Facebook page.

Finn McCool’s are kindly offering all readers of Mwah.ie a voucher code for 20% off your next purchase. All you have to do is enter this code: MWAH203105 at the checkout to get your discount. The voucher expires on the 31st of May so you’ll have to be quick!

Don’t forget while browsing the homepage to sign up for the Newsletter so you get all the special offers & promotions and for full news & events Like on Facebook & Follow on Twitter!

Happy shopping!

Mwah

While trying to save my pennies for our forthcoming nuptials I managed to shop my stash & borrow a perfectly matching handbag (thank you Karen )

First up is the TFNC Dipped Hem Chiffon Dress which I got from Littlewoods Ireland in the sale for €49.00 reduced from €67.00 – bargain.I loved the colour blocking of the cream & rich purple & the dipped hem is very in-style this season.

I originally planned to pair it with a pair of nude court shoes I own from Dunnes but in the end I decided to make the look more bright & summery for a May wedding – although someone needs to tell the Irish weather it’s not November!!! Instead I opted for my Calcagni wedges from Aldo. I picked these up just after Christmas in Aldo Dundrum, they were €100 but I can see on the Aldo website they are now reduced from £80 to £41.99 so I assume they are around €55-60. They are very comfortable, the hidden platform helps. I was on the dance floor in them and everything I got the moves like Jagger!!! Oooooooo ( The song is playing as I type!)

And when I decided to go for pink shoes, I knew which shawl to route out. This dark to light pink shawl was made by my very own cousin, Caron Miller in Santa Barbara. I last saw Caron in New York in 2006 but we will be visiting her on our Honeymoon trip and I can’t wait.

The bag was a perfect match to the purple in dress, it is Star by Julien MacDonald from Debenhams.

My bracelets which originally featured on Mwah.ie in Feburary 2010 are from Crystals & Co. and just helped match the purple & the pink.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it’s been ages since I’ve done an OOTD and I must say I’ve really enjoyed it !

Might even go for a FOTD next, never done one of them before! Woo

What are you planning to wear this wedding season? Do you try and incorporate the latest trends or invest in something that will stay current no matter whats in the shops?

Mwah

I first saw this nail varnish on www.makeupandbeauty.ie and it was something I have never experienced with nail varnish before – love at first sight! I frantically searched Longford and Mullingar for it but nowhere had the new Sally Hansen colours in. I asked on Twitter had anyone seen it and a lovely lady offered to send me one from Limerick. Then I remembered I was going to Dublin with the lovely Lee for NKOTBSB (who were amazing, we sang , we danced, screamed like teenagers). After picking me up Lee asked what I wanted to do, all I wanted was to find this nail varnish.  Low and behold didn’t Lee have it and would give it to me if I agreed to do a NOTD post, of course I jumped at the chance!

Now I have to admit that I got the name of this wrong, I was telling everyone I was looking for “Gorgeous Greige”.  No wonder people couldn’t find it for me!

To me greige is a grey-beige colour, which “Greige Gardens” is not. It’s a purple/grey ( grurple!) crème finish that leans more purple against my skintone.  In certain lights I think it looks more lilac. I found it hard to capture the colour with my ancient camera; it looks grey, especially against the purple of my dress.

Now I am useless at applying nail varnish, cuticle flooding, smudges, and needing to clean up nail polish from my fingers is the norm. I have no such issues with the Sally Hansen range. No need for base coat or top coat and they apply like a dream, the brush is fantastic. I wore it to a wedding Friday and like every wedding the varnish was applied in 2 minutes while I was trying to eat breakfast and do my makeup, queen of multi tasking! Well it was an early start, on the road at 9.30 (thank god for concealer!). As the application was so rushed I was not as careful at applying it as I was the first time. The first time it lasted 2-3 days without any noticeable tip wear and no chipping, a miracle for my hard working hands! I notice tip wear today which is probably due to my slapdash application.

This is my favourite nail varnish since since, well maybe ever and I plan to do an accent nail with “Petal to the Metal” which I won in a giveaway on www.lovelygirliebits.com .

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure  nail polishes cost €8.95 and are available in pharmacies, department stores and grocery stores nationwide.

Mwah

However, since last Wednesday something must have clicked in my brain. It is nearly 6 months to our wedding & there is no way I’m going to shift the final pounds to get back to goal if I continued the way I was…

The last stone is always the hardest – if I’m honest, I wish I had maintained better and I wouldn’t be in this situation… Hindsight is a great thing!

So this week I bought enough supplies for breakfast, lunch & dinners.

I have had major cravings for cheese, specifically Laughing Cow. Although I’ve never personally tried the Laughing Cow Extra Light, I have heard it’s not as nice or as spreadable but you can have 2 triangle portions for only 1 ProPoint. I naturally tweeted to see the feedback from my followers. Most opt for the Extra Light. I had already purchased the Light version so I got out my online ProPoints calculator and low and behold, you can also enjoy 2 triangles of Laughing Cow Light for 1 ProPoint.

Woo Hoo!

My other great find of the week is these Weight Watchers Oat & Wheat crackers, these are only 2 ProPoints for a portion of 4 crackers. They are also individually wrapped into little packs of 4. Very handy for the 11 or 3 o’clock slump in the office. Perfect partners for my Laughing Cow without going near bread.

I can’t remember the price of these actually but just to let you know Laughing Cow is on special this week in Dunnes, only €1!

On Monday evening, I did my Beneath The Surface workout from last year. It felt good.

Yesterday, following a push from my good friend Pamela, I downloaded the Run 5K app for my iPhone. I managed to complete Workout 1, Week 1 last night. There was a point in the middle where the lady was telling me it was time to run again and I felt I couldn’t. Instead of giving up at this point ( I have done this before!), I simply paused the work out & continued walking until I felt I could cope with running again. When I made it to the end of the 30 minutes the sense of accomplishment was fantastic. I enjoyed it. So did Muffin who kept looking at me funny when I slowed down from my jog, she would have happily kept going!

I believe you are to do 3 runs per week. I’m going to do my best and continue my walks & resistance too.

I feel great this morning & my tummy muscles are aching so I’m doing something right!

Stepping on the scales this morning, I was just happy to be back in the zone. I was more than delighted to see a weight loss of 1lbs from my Weigh In 2 weeks ago. It was the barrier I needed to break, I am back into the 10 stones…!!! Goodbye 11 stones hopefully this time FOREVER!

The week ahead will be a challenge, I have a number of meals out planned. I’m going to order well & continue with exercise!

7lbs back to goal!

Mwah

PS I just had a quick peak back to this week last year… It’s like I’m re-writing things exactly again – I hit the 10 stones on April 20th last year! Crazy coincidence!!!

On Saturday, 21st April, Benefit Cosmetics will attempt to set a new Guinness World Record title for ‘the most eyebrow arch services performed in a 24 hour period around the world.’ Benefit Brow Bars and Boutiques from all around the world including the US, Ireland, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, Hong Kong and Australia, will be participating in this record breaking brow event.

We are delighted that Benefit has chosen Arnotts (@arnottsdublin) to be the Irish store to help them achieve this record.

Benefit Cosmetics are experts in brows for over 30 years and have over 650 brow bars globally.

Everyone paying for a brow arch on the day will receive a free mini bad gal lash mascara and each brow arch will be €14.

The official start time is 10.30 and all are welcome.

To make an appointment please call Arnotts Dublin on +353 1 805 0400

I finally had the chance to unleash my Micro-Pedi that I was sent around Christmas time.

First things first, I took out these products from Baylis & Harding, their sole revival pack which came with the Micro-Pedi press pack. Complete with bathing crystals, foot lotion & even a pair of fluffy slippers!

I used the crystals included in warm water in a basin to soften the skin. It was just like being in a beauty salon!!!!

The Micro-Pedi was very easy to use, I did have to scramble around the house to find 2 AA batteries but once I got it going it worked like a dream. There are two choices of rollers, a pink for coarse skin, and blue for extra coarse skin.

The unique roller spins 360 degrees at 30 times per second removing even the roughest of skin on heels and feet, safely in seconds, even Brian’s feet were silky smooth in a matter of minutes.

I finished the treatment with the foot lotion from the Baylis & Harding pack & we slipped our silky feet into our slippers!!! Haha

Mwah

I’ve been keeping a low profile on the social scene as all my funds are pretty much tied up with the mortgage, bills & of course, the wedding.

The most stressful part by far was booking the Honeymoon. It wasn’t that Brian and I didn’t agree on destination or anything but just nailing down how many days here, there, everywhere & when to leave after the wedding and what airlines to fly etc = STRESS!

To help us with our planning we contacted Dairine McGarrity from Travel Counsellors, she was fantastic and very patient with us Eventually we worked out how to breakdown the trip, and Dairine really did work out the best price for us. We did have a meeting with Trailfinders initially however they were slow to respond to requests and come back with pricing etc and in the end with went with Dairine as we felt we were getting a more personal service and at the end of the day, a better price.

So where are we off to?

Our first stop is Mexico. We are spending a week at the 5* Secrets Maroma Beach, it’s an all inclusive resort and from the picture on their own site & the traveler ones on TripAdvisor, I can’t wait to get there! We also have a Secrets Honeymoon Eternity Package booked including a meal for 2 on the beach, and some couples treatments! Woo

We then fly on to San Francisco for 4 nights, then drive down the California coastline to Santa Barbara, LA & last but not least VEGAS, baby!

We will be away just over 3 weeks and we cannot wait.

October seems soooo long away when everyone in the office is chatting about their Summer holiday plans so I was delighted to get it all booked & secured so we can have it to look forward to.

Now I just need to overcome my fear of long haul flights as its 11 hrs from London to Cancun! Eeek!

Photographer was the next big thing on my hit list. We short listed a number of photographers before Christmas, it was going to be a hard task to get around to see all of them however when I dragged Brian along to the Wedding Journal Show in Jan it was great to have a number of them altogether under one roof. We met the lovely Tara Aherne who photographed a number of my school friends weddings, we really impressed with Tara and her packages available but our heart lay with Gingerpixel Photography.

Claire Wilson is Gingerpixel, with her background in animation, Claire moved to photography as a profession in May 2007. She describes Gingerpixel Photography as uncontrived, funny, emotional, honest, surprising, individual wedding photography. Pictures that tell your story. Which is EXACTLY what Brian and I are looking for. We sat down with Claire and discussed the packages available and our budget. We were delighted to work everything out and have even chosen the photo album already

In other news, we have ordered the Bridesmaids dresses. We visited Bridal Heaven again in Swords but unfortunately I was disappointed with the quality of the Dessy dress range. The fabric wasn’t as luxurious as it looked online and although the range looks so vast online, the Irish stockist can only hold so many styles. I would have liked a One Shoulder dress for the girls but they were both against it !!!

We also went to the Town Bride in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre where we met the lovely Colm. Even though the sample dress was miles too big for the girls, Colm’s expertise had it pinned to perfection to show the full effect of the dress and how it suits both shapes. We all thought about it for a few weeks and finally about 2 weeks ago, we sent off the deposit.  The make we went for is True Bride. I hadn’t heard of it before and it was a little over budget (what isn’t!) but with certain aspects of the dress tying in nicely with mine and with both girls looking lovely and most importantly comfortable, it was worth the extra € € €.

The band are also booked & confirmed but I’ll save some info for next time!

Mwah

From Paddy’s weekend in Galway for a Hen I lost the run of myself. I think I used my impending work trip as an excuse to eat ANYTHING! I spiraled out of control BUT last Friday as soon as I landed back I regained my focus.

I met Brian for lunch & ordered a salad I unpacked put a wash on! And stood on the scales… I didn’t gasp immediately, as in my noggin I knew… I was A STONE, a stone, a stone over my goal… SH*T

My jeans had been uncomfortably tight while away… It was my TOTM but I knew it wasn’t ONLY that to blame.

I was annoyed but only had myself to blame. Instead of raiding the cupboards to drown my sorrows in calories, I took my sorry, tired, ass up Killiney Hill with Muffin. I WAS BACK…

I thoroughly enjoyed my walk, I drank a lot of water and I got my head around the fact that I need to get back to goal.

On Sat, I shopped for the week. I planned every meal including packed lunches. I have been eating well, my friends, fruit & water are back in my life along with exercise and we are doing well.

This morning I stepped on the home scales and I’m delighted to say that I am back down 6lbs… Phew

My jeans have some room in them again and I feel good.

Even though it’s a long (chocolate filled weekend ) ahead, I am hoping to stay in control and have a loss next week… We’ll see!

But if I could go from…

These 8 lbs better watch out!

Mwah

Brian took me to Seafield Hotel to celebrate my 29th birthday. It was our 3rd visit there. I absolutely LOVE it.

From the moment I arrive,  I feel like I instantly relax. We had lunch in the bar and then decided to spend the afternoon in the Spa using the Thermal Suite (free of charge to all guests) even though my facial appointment wasn’t until the next morning.

Oceo Spa boasts 14 treatment rooms including a Couples Suite. The Thermal Suite includes a hammam suite, rasul chamber, aromatherapy suites, monsoon showers, ice grotto, relaxation area, outdoor vitality pool (amazing whatever the weather) and a 16 meter hydrotherapy pool. The products used in the Spa feature the exclusive Payot range, LCN, Biodroga products, Jane Iredale mineral based make up, Neom Organics & Vita Liberata orderless organic tan.

The Oceo Spa is a finalist for Professional Beauty Awards 2012 – Best European Spa of the Year, one visit and it’s easy to see why.

There is also a fantastic relaxation room although unfortunately we were rushing off after my treatment so I didn’t get to enjoy it. I fully intend to for my next visit.

My next visit will be in September as I have booked it for my Hen weekend We had such an amazing time both at the Spa and in the hotel itself, I booked it the next day.

As I’m not a big drinker or a fan of crazy nights out, a day of pampering & a nice relaxed meal with the girls will be perfect, yaay!

Anyway, back to my treatment, I opted for the Intense Hydrating Ritual, it was €95 for a 60 min treatment. The steps of the treatment are below:

Bathe your skin with thirst-quenching Orange Sap Water, Honey, Chestnut and Sea Algae extracts to regain radiance and luminosity.

A micro-abrasion allowing an intense and in depth exfoliation of the skin is combined with soothing Vanilla and Patchouli Essential oils, followed by a 20 minute 42- step Modellage boosted with intense hydration from Kunai Grass. Finally, your skin is re-hydrated with a Collagen Mask infused with Witch Hazel, Orange Blossom and Liquorice.

All signs of dehydration are melted away, leaving you with a glowing radiance.

On my Hen each chick (!) gets a choice of a 30 min treatment, there is a mini facial as one of these option but I think I will choose something else for 30 mins & go for the Hydrate & Glow Ritual as it will be only 5 weeks before the Big Day!

Have you been to Seafield or Oceo Spa? Do you love it as much as I do? I would love to know if anyone has has their Hen here too…

I can’t wait to have my nearest & dearest to me getting manis, pedis and relaxing together over a glass of Prosecco!

Mwah