NEW! No7 Dramatic Lift Mascara | Review

No7 do mascaras really well- I often use my Boots vouchers on them actually. While YSL Shocking is my most favouritest mascara ever, I like to use a less I'm-wearing-three-pairs-of-false-lashes mascara for daytime, especially for work but I don't want to lose out on defined lashes. 

Step in then Dramatic Lift from No7*.

So here's the story;
it's created with flexible polymers and building waxes to make your lashes look thicker. Added to that is a stylised brush that helps to lift each individual lash from the root to the tip to leave you with a wide awake, weightless feel. 

Sounds good, eh? But how does it measure up in reality?

I really like this one. Even on days where I wear no make-up, I'll just put on a coat of this and I immediately look more awake and a bit more together. It doesn't irritate my eyes, it can be built up with a second coat and it's easily removed. You'll also spot from the photo that there is a noticeable difference between the before and after application- it actually is a dramatic lift (it sounds like I'm being paid for this but I'm not, I promise!)
While it's not going to take the coveted place of my most favourite mascara ever (that firmly belongs to the YSL), it's an excellent high street alternative and a great choice for spending your Boots NO7 vouchers on.

It's in Boots stores nationwide right now for €17.50 and is available in black and brown.

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*Press sample, gratefully received. All opinions my own, as always. 

Beautiful New Books

This is an amalgamation of birthday books, airport shopping and a trip to buy books for someone else that resulted in me buying four for myself too.
Good times.

Quite the stack, eh? Doesn't that just do your book-loving heart good? 

Ah sure lookit, I know. Don't judge a book by its cover and all that but some of these are just strokeably beautiful. 

Himself and I were in Chapters on Parnell St buying books for someone else and it was there that I was introduced to some truly stunning editions. Himself told me he actually buys most of my book gifts in there which makes sense now- he always gets me the most gorgeous tomes and I never knew where they all came from until now! 

I've read Fahrenheit 451 and loved it but that was on audio so I didn't hesitate when I spotted this stunning hardback cover for €9.99! 

I haven't read Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit but I've been meaning to for a while now and this glorious edition was only €4.99. 

I've read most of Ira Levin's books (he also wrote The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby, for example) and Sliver looks like another brilliant read. This was again, only €4.99.

I gave in and bought Go Set A Watchman after I found it reduced online. I've been reluctant about this one..I read To Kill A Mockingbird as a fourteen year old and it helped shape my brain for the better and having read the reviews of this, a prequel that Harper Lee apparently never intended to publish, well, you can understand my misgivings. Regardless, I have to know for myself! 

Jaws was also a nostalgia-driven purchase and again from Chapters. Jaws has always been one of my most loved films so when I spotted this hardback for €4.99, I had to get it. I've read it since- review coming soon!

I haven't read a Nick Hornby book in years but picked this up on offer in the airport (it was buy one get another half price but I'm not even showing you the other book as it was pretty awful). I haven't read Funny Girl yet but I've heard good things.

These last six were all birthday presents. I know, I'm super jammy. 

My Mum gave me The Crafty Minx at Home, which is packed with frankly drool-worthy photos for how to turn your living space into a vintage, floral heaven. Inside there's over fifty handmade and upcycled projects to help you beautify your home. This is very much my style and I've already earmarked several different ideas to try.

All Things Sweet is the latest baking book from Rachel Allen and a gift from my sister. Although I generally never watch Rachel on tv, I do love her books and this is now the second of hers to happily take up residence on my cookbook shelf. 

Highlights that I'll be trying include; Apple Crumble Ice-Cream, Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, Poached Peaches with Raspberry Sorbet and Ballymaloe Vanilla Fudge (himself's favourite!)

Another from my sister is Secret Dublin, An Unusual Guide. This is such a cool little book. It takes Dublin and divides it into areas and from there, all the little odd places and things that you might not have even known or heard about before. Even from just a brief perusal of it, I've realised how many brilliant things there are to see and do that I was completely unaware of, even in my own locality. 

Our plan is to take it section by section and get as much ticked off as we can!

My mum also gave me this book from Carol Ann Duffy. The Other Country is her third collection of poetry. I've never read anything from her before but I'm looking forward to this one- it's been far too long since I read any poetry. 

My lovely sister-in-law and her boyfriend gave me the Joss Whedon, Geek King of the Universe biography for my birthday and I genuinely may have squealed when I opened this. I've been a big Buffy fan since I was a teenager; all of those Whedon-isms have helped shape my sense of humour and my own pop culture references and I've always been interested in Whedon's feminist perspective and unique writing style so I'm very excited about reading this!

Lastly, my sister (I know, I have very generous family) also gave me A Passion For Birth by Sheila Kitzinger; a natural birth activist and author of loads of books on pregnancy and childbirth. This book follows her life from early childhood with the influence of a feminist mother to her pioneering work campaigning for women's rights and improvement in the maternity services. As I'm working in that area of healthcare myself and I'm also a feminist, this is pretty much the ideal book for me. Kitzinger is a fascinating woman and her life story looks like quite the read. 

And that's my big beautiful book haul! I may have bought a few (ahem) on kindle also so I'll probably do a post on that too. 

Tell me, have you bought any lovely new books lately?

Let me know in the comments!

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Get Glowing Skin With These 3 Products!

I'm back! Hello! I returned to work last month and so have been in a world of early mornings, extreme brain focusing and some minor physical exhaustion. It's all good though, I'm loving it. It has meant the blog has taken a step back, which I think is fine too. We can't all do everything all the time. There has to be give and take. Anyways I'm getting back into things today with a look at three of the best skincare products that I've used in a really long time. I've noticed an immediate change to the appearance of my skin with all three of these and felt that that required some celebration, blog stylee.

First up is the Flash Rinse 1 Minute Facial from Ren. I'd heard great things about this fella but had put off buying it as it is rather pricey. However I recently availed of a 15% off offer on Cloud 10 Beauty and I knew from the second I used this that I loved it. 

Here's what Ren have to say about it: 

A transforming treatment that instantly revitalizes and visibly rejuvenates the skin. Formulated with potent water-activated Vitamin C it will neutralize urban grey in a flash, leaving skin looking firm, toned and smoothed, while reducing the signs of fatigue, photo-ageing and skin imperfections. Skin instantly glows with renewed health and radiance.  

I can wholeheartedly agree with that. Recommended use is three times a week- you apply it to your face and neck, wet your fingertips and massage using circular movements to activate the Vitamin C and leave for a minute, before rinsing off. It has a strange texture- almost grainy to start with. As you massage with the water however, it becomes a little bit paste-like and you can actually see it, removing the dead skin! It's unreal. What was particularly amazing however was how soft my skin was afterwards. I've never used an exfoliator, face mask, cleanser or anything that left my skin looking like this. I can't recommended this enough. Gone are the days of tired, dull looking skin. You might be hungover or shattered but this means your skin at least won't look it! Lash in some eye drops, make your hair 90% dry shampoo and use this- you'll be sorted! Bite the bullet, spend the money, it's very much worth it. Available HERE for €37.95. 

I hadn't actually tried anything from Irish skincare brand Kinvara and then I only went and won a hamper of their products at the Irish beauty Blog Awards recently! Hurrah! While I've yet to try their well loved Oil Cleanser or their moisturiser, I've been addicted to this. 

The Rosehip Face Serum is the business. This is intensive care for your face day or night and contains a blend of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories (something my poor puffy mug needs), vitamins and herbal extracts to help leave your skin softer, supple, hydrated and nourished.

If you follow me on snap chat (nursefancypants), you'll have spotted me raving about this before bed recently. It's a rather intimidating shade of bright yellow and feels quite heavy to be a serum but my god, once you blend it in, it's so good. 

Here's why I'm so mad about this one. I was absentmindedly touching my forehead a week or so ago (stay with me, this is going somewhere) and I suddenly realised- that part in between my brows and just above it, it's normally always quite dry. Make-up can be a bit patchy there, I have definite frown lines there too and overall it's the most "problem area" on my face. Not anymore! It's now smooth and super soft! What witchcraft is this, I mused. The only new product I had been using at the time was my Rosehip Serum. See? The business. It's not just that one weird patch either, my whole face loves it. Find out more from the brand on their Facebook page, HERE.

Lastly then, we have Radiance Balm All Bright from Boots brand, Botanics. This has been a beauty blogger favourite for a while now and is often hyped as being a dupe for MAC's strobe cream. 

While I've never tried the latter, I can confirm that the Botanics version is worth all the hype. This is a revitalising balm designed for all skin types and contains: 

Hibiscus for a brightness booster that leaves skin smoother, softer and radiant. 

I use this as a primer but honestly, this would work as well on its own for those days where you can't be bothered with make-up but still need a little sumin' sumin' to make you look less deathly (might just be speaking for myself there). 

While the Ren and the Kinvara will have more long term effects and this is really more of a surface only kind of result I'm still loving how quickly this can transform my face! 

So yes, I'm genuinely very impressed by how great this product is and even better, it's super bargainous. You can find it in Boots at the minute for only €3.99 HERE. 

Have you used any of these three miracle workers? If not, are they now on your to-buy list?!

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When In Rome Day 3!

Day 3 and sadly, the last day of our Italian adventure. Fear not though as we're currently planning a very exciting trip to the States in September. Stay tuned!

So far there's been the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, delicious food and terrible selfies on day one and Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Constantine Arch on day two. 

Lastly then is the Vatican and St Peter's Basilica, home to some beautiful art work and much queuing/walking/standing. A recommendation- wear respectful clothing as they will stop you if you're wearing shorts or a short skirt plus you need to have your shoulders covered. I saw several women who had been caught out at the security check and had to wear long scarves tied around their waists and shoulders. Be prepared!

Himself is the master of planning and so had booked our tickets into the Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel) where we visited first. This was possibly the best decision we made on this trip (being very generous to myself with that "we") because the queue to get in stretched right around the block in 30 something degree heat. That whole area is also covered in people trying to sell you their own tours etc. which aside from being a bit dodgy was also rather annoying. It was nice to be able to sail right past them. 

Panoramic view of St Peter's, surrounded by columns, statues and St Peter's Square to the front. 

Inside, the sheer size will astound you. It's classically grandiose as only the Catholic Church knows how to do- lots of gilding, lots of statues, much luxury. It's what Jesus would have wanted. 

All jokes aside though, it is very beautiful.

It was great to see the Pieta in real life too.

And lots of beautiful floors. 

The Vatican Museum is another immense building, crammed with art works of varying styles that have been collected by different popes throughout the centuries. It houses one of the largest collections of Renaissance art but also some Salvador Dali, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Van Gogh, Rodin, Kandinsky, Chagall and an impressive range of Egyptian art. 

Casual bit of violence there, himself impersonating this sculpture of a dog (I love this photo for some reason) and a small glimpse of the Egyptian art on display.

Rodin sculpture, Evil Santa hitching a lift off some fella in the nip in a Renaissance painting, random beautiful bust.

More beautiful floors.

And ceilings for that matter (although obviously their most famous ceiling is in the Sistine chapel but there's no photos allowed there!)

Lots of walls that look like this..

..and tapestries that look like this. G'wan missus, poke his eye out!

Even the stairs are a work of art!

I could easily keep showing you photos, because there are many but I'll leave it at that before you get Rome fatigue. To end our last day we went for dinner that night and then got gelato and sat at the fountains in the Piazza Navona, which was rather lovely. 

I would 100% recommend you book a trip to Italy's capital for yourself, we had a truly wonderful Vacanze Romane!

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Recently Read: May & June.

The last couple of months have been pretty poor for me reading wise, considering I've only managed six books throughout May and June but in my defence some of these were lengthy, arduous reads. Bet that really makes you want to read on, eh?!

The Secret Place by Tana French

Sure look, I've gone on at length about Tana French by now but just in case you're new here, she's an Irish crime/thriller author with five books now published about the fictional Dublin murder squad. I loved her four previous novels to varying degrees and so was really looking forward to The Secret Place. You don't need to have read the other books as they aren't technically a series but each book focuses on a detective that featured in the background of one of the others. This time then we have Detective Stephen Moran who works in Cold Cases but really wants a break into Murder. He gets a visit from schoolgirl Holly (who is the daughter of Detective Mackey from The Faithful Place), who brings him a photograph of a teenage boy who died a year prior with the words "I know who killed him", written across it. His body was found on the grounds of a prestigious boarding school where Holly attends and no one was ever caught for his murder. Stephen sees this as his chance and teams up with Detective Antoinette Conway, who originally worked the case. The time span of the book is a day that they spend in the boarding school interviewing the likely suspects (all of whom are teenage girls), until they finally figure it out. 

So, a few things here. Firstly, Tana French writes beautifully. In fact her prose often reads as poetry which doesn't seem to work as well here as it has done before. She has captured the tone of teenage girls very well though and has rightfully been complimented on how accurately she has accessed modern day teen slang and phrases but that aside she has also managed to grasp that feeling of youth; of being in love for the first time, the confidence that comes with being aware of your own coming of age and realising that everything is changing. That's a universal sensation, non-reliant on a specific time or generation- we've all been through that and I thought she portrayed that quite successfully. I have to say though that this book felt longer than all her others (it's roughly the same length though) and I almost had to drag myself back to it, which hasn't happened to me with her work before. It's a good mystery and there's enough potential outcomes that you will be guessing the whole way through but I felt the pace was just too slow and overall I found his book somewhat lacking, I am sad to say. 

Disclaimer by Renee Knight

Hailed as the big thriller of the Summer, Disclaimer has an interesting and original premise. Catherine is a happily married, middle aged documentary film maker. She picks up a book she finds in her house and starts reading it, horrified to discover that it depicts a dark, grim secret from her own life from years before when her son was a child. Its author is at first unknown but as the book progresses, we hear from him too- a seemingly deranged retired teacher who is out to destroy her. But how does he know her secret? What is their connection and can she stop him before he reveals the truth to those she loves? 

Being honest, I didn't love this one. Reading about the calculated and frankly unwarranted destruction of a woman's life for a perceived wrongdoing over the course of an entire book was tiring and unpleasant. Her supposed crime turned out to be far less exciting than you were led to believe and when there is a twist that her misdeed was in fact not what it seems either, I practically threw the book out the window (except that it was on audio so that would have involved smashing my phone). *SPOILER ALERT* but there is a rape scene in this book and similar to Apple Tree Yard (review HERE), this was a scene that was unexpected and to be honest, rather gratuitous. For once, I'd like to read a thriller where the female character's sexual assault isn't a shady plot device. I didn't think it was necessary here and although the author very much made a point about how women are judged by society for having sex compared to when they are a victim of sexual assault, I felt it was ham-fisted and again, not necessary. 

Ugh, I'm actually annoyed I read this one. 

No Safe House by Linwood Barclay

I forgot to bring a book in my case on holidays recently and got to the airport book shop with not long to spare before boarding. This was on offer so I picked it up along with the latest Nick Hornby. I knew I hadn't read it but there was something familiar about it and it wasn't til I was about two chapters through and drinking my Ryanair tea that I realised I had read the prequel No Time For Goodbye, which was released some 8 years ago. That had been a really big seller at the time and was about a teenage girl who wakes up one day to find her whole family have disappeared in seemingly mysterious circumstances. Anyway, that's all I remembered of that but in this book that girl is now grown up with a teenage daughter of her own who breaks into a house at night with her ruffian boyfriend to take a car for a joyride. Unbeknownst to them, there's someone else in the house with them and it's not the owners. Shots are fired and from then it's mostly pure confusion and a vague reintroduction of characters from the previous book that no one remembers. Overall it's a fairly benign crime thriller. I wouldn't be surprised to see this pop up as the storyline on the new (awful) Hawaii 5-0 or one of the many CSI's etc. 

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I've wanted to read the Color Purple (kills me to leave out that u) for a while now and have avoided seeing the film version until I had finally picked up the book! This is the story of Celie, a young poor African-American girl living in Georgia in the 1930's. We learn early on how horrendous Celie's life is- her father rapes and beats her and her mother is dying. She has two children as the result of that abuse that are taken from her and adopted. She does have her sister Nettie though and they love and support each other. Celie is later sold off into marriage to a much older man (Mister) who needs someone to look after his unruly kids and his house and the poor treatment of Celie continues apace there. While it all seems very bleak, we're introduced to different female characters that all have a huge impact on Celie's life- how she sees herself and how she allows others to treat her. Sofia is strong willed and assertive and refuses to allow Harpo (one of Mister's grown up sons) to treat her badly. Shug Avery is a lounge singer and Mister's 'other woman' and soon becomes close friends with Celie, teaching her about her own sexuality and her worth as a woman. All throughout the book we read Nettie's letters to Celie- Nettie is now working as a missionary in Africa with a couple and their adopted children and through that we're treated to a whole other storyline. Although we can read these letters, Celie cannot because Mister has hidden them from her and so one of the big questions of the book is if Celie and Nettie will ever be reunited and can Celie find the happiness she so truly deserves? I won't give anything away but I did cry rather a lot, several times during this novel. It is wonderfully written- dark but humorous, upsetting but sensitively written with larger than life characters you'll be rooting for the whole way throughout. I also loved the meaning behind the significance of "the colour purple". Its description is rather lovely. In case that isn't enough to tempt you, it won the Pulitzer Prize back in 1983 and has been censored by several countries for it's depiction of African-American women's treatment by American society in the 1930's and for it's use of violence. I'm of the firm opinion that all banned/censored books need to be read and read by many! Go get it!

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
You might know Aziz Ansari from such television shows as Parks and Rec and eh, his stand up routines that are on Netflix. You might have expected then that a book penned by such an individual would be a comedic memoir, in the style of Tina Fey, Mindy Kahling or Amy Poehler but you would be wrong. Modern Romance is a humorous look at dating in today's technology obsessed world with extensive research, data, polled audiences, focus groups, actual text conversations and input from leading experts (the book is co-written with a University based social scientist) to explore how people meet each other and fall in love in this modern era. I really enjoyed this book and although there was nothing overly shocking or ground-breaking in it, it felt fresh because of Ansari's comedic approach.  I bought this on Audible because it's read by the man himself, which was a nice touch and great for listening to on walks but I felt I missed out by not getting the hard copy which featured lots of graphs and cool charts that helped explain some of the data discussed in the book. Regardless, I thought this was an interesting and entertaining read. 

The Last Letter From Your Lover by JoJo Moyes.
I've read a few books by JoJo now and have had varying degrees of success with them but I said I'd give this a go as the premise sounded interesting and it was buy one get one free on Audible that month. Ahem. Anyways, The Last Letter From Your Lover is a love story spanning forty years- starting in 1960 where Jennifer Sterling awakes in hospital with amnesia following a car accident. She's married and so is very confused when she discovers a love letter from an unknown author asking her to leave her husband. Fast forward to 2003 where a journalist, Ellie finds the same letter in the newspaper archives where she works and begins her detective work to discover if the letters lovers had a happy ending- something she is very keen to find for herself too. I did like this book while I was reading it but I don't think I was ever fully invested in it. Even now when I went to write this I found myself struggling to remember the storyline. It's grand like but not the best book I've read this year by any means.

What are you reading at the minute? Anything good?
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