Unlikely Style Icon: Me Da

Be the hokey. Must tell Dad that he is the height of fashion at the minute.

And ask him is he missing any items of clothing.

Paulo (Nutini, above left) was snapped wearing one of Dad's favourite scarves at the 2010 Meteor Awards, while fashion guru Annemarie of WhatSheWears.ie recently procured one of Dad's many flat peaked caps for her fella from Urban Outfitters (above right).

Maybe I should give up on raiding the little sister's wardrobe and start nosing in Dad's instead...


Pix via stylebitches and urbanoutfitters.co.uk

I can haz '80s mix tape/iTouch yoke?

Feeling retro today. This may be a music hangover from Friday night in The Players Bar in London, where the live music/singalong was largely 70s and 80s and showtunes a go-go, and we mostly spent the evening howling "Tuuurrrrnarrrouuunnnnd...." at each other long after Total Eclipse Of The Heart had ended.

Oops.

Q. How much beauty stuff does one bird need for a weekend break in London?

A. Quite a bit, actually.

Unpacking my make-up bag after our weekend trip to London, I decided to take a few snaps to show you how low maintenance I am, how lightly I like to travel.

(Tongue so firmly in cheek am in very real danger of rupturing my mouth.)

Yes, there are two pairs of false eyelashes in that photo. And three hairbrushes.

Less is more, etc.

Now, before you fret yourself silly over the dearth of cleanser or mascara (as you surely will), I better show you what I picked up on the way through Duty Free and in London town itself...

L-R: Eve Lom cleanser, Seche Vite topcoat, MAC Lustre lippie in Surprise Me, Essie Matte About You topcoat, Optrex Eyedew brightening eyedrops, MAC Lipglass in Pink Lemondade, Lancôme Virtuôse mascara. And Liberty bag. And billions of Eve Lom samples!

There. Don't that put your mind right at ease?

By the by, if you're thinking about making purchase of some Eve Lom cleanser, for God's sake get it shipped down from Space:NK in Belfast or get a mate heading to Sterlingland to pick some up for you. 200ml of cleanser (about a year's worth of once-daily usage) costs €120 in Dublin, versus £78 in Liberty of London - I'll update this post when the charge hits my credit card, but that's in or around €88. And while I paid one assistant, another busied herself wrapping my purchase... and stuffing my bag full of Eve Lom samples. 

Without having been asked/begged/grovelled to.

I love London.

I'd like to thank my Mom... and Jesus... and my agent...

Looking through the longlist of nominees for the 2010 Irish Blog Awards this morning and earmarking some new-to-me blogs for perusal at a later date, I noticed a familiar little website address in the Best Personal Blogs category.

This one!

While I don't expect to make the shortlist, I am absolutely chuffed that someone took the time and effort to nominate this little blog for the IBAs, the Oscars of the Irish blogging community. Thank you so much.

I've been to the Evint before, reprezentin' for Beaut.ie at the 2009 and 2008 awards, where we picked up gongs for Best Beauty/Fashion Blog and Best Group Blog respectively (having scooped both Best Newcomer and Best Designed Blog in 2007) but it really gave me a warm fuzzy feeling to see my longstanding personal hobby of an effort listed, as well as spot the three nominations for Beaut.ie. Reminded me of the sensation you might get after a particularly lovely cup of tae.

Or a late night should-really-have-headed-home-an-hour-ago shot of Sambuca.

If you're looking for some new online reads, why not take a trip through the nominees - congratulations to one and all. And big thanks to Damien The Blogfather and everyone who does such a great job organising the whole shebang every year, as well as to (deep breath) Microsoft Ireland’s Developer and Platform Group, who are sponsoring Best Personal Blog.

I can haz Microsoft Surface now, yes?

The 2010 Irish Blog Awards take place on March 27th in Galway.

Giving it lashes, Nicola-stylee.

Decided to take some new false eyelashes for a drive today - playing with beauty stuff always cheers me up - and thought you might like a peep at them.

These are the "Nicola" lashes from the collaboration between Eyelure and Girls Aloud, worn here with an extremely fine line of black liquid liner just to even out the lash line. (Ha - I sound like a L'Oréal ad disclaimer!)

You’ve probably read about these Girls Aloud eyelashes, or tripped over a stand of them in Claire’s Accessories or New Look or Debenhams or Boots or the local farm supply place. They’ve been widely available for the last couple of months, and because each pair of lashes is really quite different but wearable-looking I dithered and dithered and dithered over which set to buy… and then my sister came along and got me the gift set of the whole lot of them as part of my birthday present.

Nice one.

Nicola's lashes might appear well OTT in the packaging – they’re by far the longest and featheriest-looking of the bunch – but I actually think they’re not too mad looking once they're on. They’re tapered, so shorter at the inner corners than at the outer corners, and while they mightn't exactly look completely natural they're flirty without being too obvious. (I think. Although generally I am a "more is more" sort.)

Individually, these lashes go for about €6 a pop, and you should get lots of wear out of them if you treat them right. Just carefully and gently remove any old eyelash glue using a tweezers after each wear, making sure you don’t accidentally crimp the lashline which can ruin the shape of the lashes.

And, obviously, don’t pull out any of the lashes themselves.

Now I’m usually a bit of an eyelash glue snob, but since I’ve run out of my Duo Adhesive I just used the Eyelure glue supplied in the pack which seems to be working fine. I’ve been wearing them for a couple of hours now and no sign of a budge.

I’ll let you know if they end up in my pancakes later on.

Normal service will resume shortly.

I've been taking a bit of time out from posting here as my Granny passed away last Wednesday.

I spent almost every weekend and all of the summer holidays staying with her in Wexford when I was growing up, listening to Radio 1 and drinking oceans of tea and making teeny tiny mouthful-sized mini loaves of the best brown bread ever from the dough left over from the full-sized versions she was baking.

Imagine the best soda bread you've ever tasted... and now imagine it a thousand times more delicious. Well, that's getting somewhere close to how good Granny's stuff was.

She taught me to write - I still remember making armies of swans on paper for the number 2 - and to ride a bicycle and countless other things I didn't fully appreciate at the time.

I'll be remembering them all while having lots of tea and wishing she was here to put manners on the dog.

Forget that Cesar Milan fella. She'd have left him in the ha'penny place.

Sand-sational.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a house party for Himself's sister's 17th birthday - not as an attendee, but as a chaperone with Himself's other sister.

I know. I'm that old now.

And when I wasn't busy biting my lip to keep myself from accidentally blurting out things like "That's not a skirt, it's a belt!" or "Nice dress, when have you to go back for the rest of it?" or similar Dad-isms, I was biting my lip to keep myself from roaring laughing at all the very earnest not-taking-the-piss-this-is-actually-the-way-we're-speaking OMG-ing that was going on.

I mean, you'd be used to hearing it in Dundrum Town Centre but hearing it in Portlaoise is just bizarre in the extreme.

Anyway, I had a bit of an OhEmGee! moment myself this morning when I stumbled across an alternative use for sandpaper. No, not as an unwanted hair scuffer-offer or an extreme facial dermabrasion tool. Turns out that fine grit sandpaper is very effective at removing bobbles (or pills, if you're fancy) from clothes.

Now, I have a winter white coat from River Island that I adore - it's a fab dressy coat, great fit, and machine washable at 30˚C. I may have bought it in a panic in advance of our first trip to Monart because my good winter coat (a vay nice khaki military stylee number from Mango) was at the dry cleaner's. And if you think that's bad... well, let's just say that Himself may have fasttracked his plan to change his car because of the impending Monart visit and their valet parking ways.

Lovely and all as that coat is, however, it is an absolute beeatch for bobbling, regardless of whether it's dry cleaned or machine washed. (I don't do hand washing, so don't even suggest it.) I've tried those little hand-held comb things, but without fail they just make things worse. Usually I borrow a Remington fabric shaver gadget from Dad and give it the once over - his is an ancient, well-made model unlike the crappy ones with rough edges specially designed to stick in clothes that seem to dominate nowadays. (Jesus, I really am old.)

As recommended by Apartment Therapy, this morning I pulled out some 100 grit sandpaper to do the job instead and I actually think it worked even better than the Remington yoke! I used a lint brush to pick up any fibres that were left behind and my coat is now soft and bobble-free. In fact-ah, I'd go so far as to say it's as good as new.

And definintely ready for its next trip to Monart.

Late to the party. Blub.

Am supposed to be beavering away and doing lots of work so as not to have to be glued to the laptop all evening. So, naturally, I am continuing my Windows shopping instead.

I spotted and duly ogled and felt up the "Sasha" satchel from Marc by Marc Jacobs in BT in Cork a few weeks ago, but it's the lickle pouchette of the Petal To The Metal range that has really flown away with my heart. The birdie detailing is adorable without being saccharine, and the bag itself would be ideal for slinging your wallet, keys, and lipbalm in of a weekend.

My only problem would be choosing a colour - the black doesn't do much for me but I like all the other colourways - but fortuitously it looks like that's a decision I'll never actually have to wrestle with since the pouchette appears to be sold out everywhere...

Have Interweb, will shop.

I have just come over all Eddie Hobbs and checked my financial situation on Internet banking, only to discover that not only have I no money, I am actually minus money and overdrawn to the tune of €6.74.

Feck.

Time for a very virtual spending spree, so...

*Swoon!*

Am in love with this River Island dress (£24.99 on the website.) Now, I'm a total sucker for a few auld leopard spots anyway, and I think the 3/4 sleeves and mix of prints and pink on this little number keep it looking nice and Spring-y.

And, most importantly, a million miles away from Bet Lynch territory.

Talon-tastic Thursday: Teaser!

I know, I know. I so mean to you.

Tune in to Beaut.ie for all the deets!

I can haz Indo interview?

It's been a mild inconvenience for years - having to ask other people (me) to look up things online that she's heard G Ryan talking about or keep an eye out for "the cheap Ryanair flights" - but Mam is now properly raging that she can't work the interweb. That's because today I am on the Irish Independant website for their My Make-Up And Me feature and - merciful hour - there is a photo.

As you can see, I have yet to get the hang of not looking like a complete eejit in a profile pic. (Mam will, of course, think that I look lovely. The fact that I am not only smiling but showing some teeth will probably have her devoting novenas left, right and centre.)

If I'd just been practising taking my own photo for Bebo and De Facebuke for the last couple of years like everyone else I'd have this profile photo business down to a fine art by now.

Thanks so much to the lovely Sinéad Van Kampen (who you may know from such brilliant blogs as TheSavvyShopper.ie) for asking me to take part!