20 Awesome Uses for Coconut Oil!

Okay so it's been a minute since I've blogged but I am back with a product I have been absolutely obsessed with.... Coconut oil! This one product is probably the ultimate multi use product and I just had to share some of the amazing uses I've found for it. Be sure to buy organic coconut oil. Most super markets carry it on the aisle with other cooking oils I get mine in Tesco, health stores like Holland and Barrett will also carry coconut oil. 

1. Moisturiser - simply scoop some out of the jar and apply it all over your body including the neck and face 

2. Eye cream - apply underneath the eyes to reduce puffiness, bags and wrinkles. Use on the lids in the evening. 

3. Pre shave - coconut oil will prep the skin for the pending damage caused by shaving. 

4. After shave - coconut oil will help heal your skin after shaving without clogging  pores. 

5. Deodorant - coconut oil alone can be used as deodorant but even more effective if used with cornstarch and baking powder. 

6. Hair conditioner/deep treatment - use as a leave in conditioner by applying a teaspoon of the coconut oil to the ends of your hair then running your fingers through your hair to distribute the rest. For a deeper treatment rub a tablespoon of coconut oil onto your scalp and gently work through to the ends, put a shower cap on to prevent transfer onto bedsheets and leave overnight and rinse out the next morning. 

7. Hair gel/defrizzer - rub a little between your palms and scrunch, for curly hair, or finger comb through from scalp to ends for wavy or straight hair. 

8. Toothpaste - there are numerous recipes out there but I just mix coconut oil and baking soda and bad a little of the mixture onto my toothbrush. 

9. Makeup remover - use a cotton swab and a bad of coconut oil, you'll be amazed at how well it works. 

10. Lipbalm - just rub a little onto the lips, it not only softens but coconut oil has an SPF of about 4 so you get a little protection from it as well. 

11. Massage oil - pretty simply, grab some and rub! 

12. Stretch mark cream - coconut oil is great at nourishing damaged skin, it won't fully remove but from personal experience it has greatly reduced the appearance of mine. 

13. Nipple cream - this is one for any mams out there, coconut oil works great at nourishing cracked, sore or dry nipples. Apply to a cotton pad and leave on your nipples between feedings. 

14. Nappy rash - very comforting on nappy rash without any harsh chemicals, this is also safe for cloth nappies. 

15. Breastfeeding mams - consuming 3 and a half tablespoons of coconut oil daily will enrich your milk. 

16. Body scrub - mix coconut oil with sugar and rub all over. You can also add in essential oils if you want a specific smell. 

17. Healing - when applied on scrapes and cuts, coconut oil forms a thin layer which protects the wound from outside dust and bacteria. 

18. Bug bites - when applied directly to a bug bite, coconut oil can stop the itching and burning sensation as well as hastening the healing process. 

*I use coconut oil when cooking because of the following reasons. 

19. Digestion - the saturated fats in coconut oil have antibacterial properties that help control indigestion. The fat in coconut oil also aids the absorption of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. 

20. Fitness - coconut oil has been proven to stimulate your metabolism, improves thyroid function and raises energy levels, all of which help decrease unwanted fat while increasing muscle mass. Coconut oil also helps control cravings. 

I hope you guys learned some useful tips.

Love, 

A x 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade Review

This is probably one of the most raved about products of 2014 and rightly so. The product comes in a small glass pot with a black plastic lid with the ABH logo in gold on it. The product is creamy and extremely pigmented. A little definitely goes along way so this pot will last a long time. It's also waterproof so it will last throughout the day, rain or shine. 

This is different to any other eyebrow product I've used before I'm more used to gel and powder products but this is more textured and stiff compared to gel so it took me a couple of times to get it just right. I got the colour 'Auburn' although it is slightly too red toned for me I can still make it work. I want to repurchase in a different colour, I think next time I'm going to get 'Soft Brown'.

I use a double ended brush from Crown to do my eyebrows. I start off by combing through the brows. Then I outline under and on top of the brow and extending the tail next I blend out those lines by brushing inwards adding more product where needs be. Finally I brush through again with the comb and set my brows with a clear brow gel. I use Garnier Express 2in1 eye-makeup remover to take off this product as its oil based the makeup literally melts away and it gone is seconds.

When using this product I'd highly recommend a very thin angled brush for the best outcome and sleek, smooth lines. I previously used a thicker brush and the lines it created were thick and smudged, good for blending but not for outlining. I love this Crown C158 angled/spoolie brush, it's the perfect brush for this product (and a hell of a lot cheaper than the ABH version). For more of a sculpted brow or 'Instagram brow' I would clean up the outer lines with concealer and a small flat pointed brush, I tend to do this for special occasions or nights out I personally think it's too much for everyday wear. 

I would definitely recommend this product to everyone looking to perfect their brows. I got mine from BeautyBay.com for just €12.30 and there's free delivery on orders over €14. 

Have you tried the Dipbrow pomade or any other Anastasia Beverly Hills products? 

Until next time guys, Alison x 

My Top 5 Red Lippies perfect for Valentines Day!

Now that Valentines Day is upon us, what better time than to rock a red lip.

Here are my top 5 Red lipstick picks! 

1. MAC Russian Red - A perfect blue toned red with a matte finish. Extremely similar to MAC's Ruby Woo but a lot less drying on the lips. Retails for €19.50 or free with the Back2MAC programme (bring back any 6 empty containers to get a lipstick or lipglass).

2. Wet n Wild Spotlight Red - You simply can't go wrong with Wet N Wild lipsticks, I can't praise them enough. There are a few shades of red in their collection but this one is my favourite. It's creamy on the lips with fantastic pigmentation and it is not drying what so ever. Spotlight Red is slightly pink based with a glossy finish. Wet N Wild can be found in Penneys, Dunnes and selected pharmacies, these lipsticks retail for just €2.99.

3. Rimmel London 170 Alarm - The texture is similar to that of the Wet N Wild lipsticks but the colour of 170 Alarm is a brighter orange toned shade of red. This one was my first ever red lipstick and years later I'm still going back to it. Retails for around €6-7. 

4. Sleek Matte lip cream Rioja Red - This one comes in a lipgloss tube and applicator but is essentially a liquid lipstick that dries matte but isn't drying on the lips. The staying power of this is unbelievable, it does not budge! This products retails for €6.49 

5. Urban Decay F-Bomb - Shade wise this one is probably the closest non matte colour match for MAC's Russian Red. This is a deep red with a little shine. Retails for €20 (the one in the picture isn't full size)

Tips for applying red lipstick* 

1. Make sure to exfoliate and moisturise your lips before applying lipstick especially if it is a matte lipstick. This can be done simply with a dampened toothbrush rubbing gently over the lips followed by a moisturising lip balm. 

2. Line your lips with a red lipliner to avoid the colour bleeding and to prolong the wear.

3. After applying your lipstick, blot with a tissue and apply a translucent setting powder over the top to help prolong the wear. 

Until next time guys, Alison x 

What I Got For Christmas 2014!

Better late than never right? I wasn't going to do this but I loved reading other bloggers posts about what they got for Christmas so I thought maybe someone would enjoy reading mine. I was spoiled this year and I am genuinely so grateful to all my family and friends for all the wonderful gifts. This is in no way bragging, I enjoy reading & seeing what others get for Christmas so I hope you guys enjoy mine. 

I was over the moon with all of the make up I got! What more could a girl want! I got some gorgeous Benefot Christmas sets the Beauty Bonbons set, the Cheekt Sweet Spot set & the Sweet Tintations set. I also got the Urban Decay full frontal lipstick stash, Maryln Monroe nail varnish set, Alien perfum, Muji storage drawers, a MAC vouchers, French connection lipgloss set and Michelle Phan's makeup book. My family know me so well! 

What is Christmas without getting cosy pyjamas and heaps of chocolate? Gifts like these are perfect for the lazy holiday season! 

I got some gorgeous storage boxes, a cute Jack & Jill candle with the proceeds going to the charity & there is a gorgeous diamond ring in the bottom on each candle but in a hand full of candles the diamond in the ring are real diamonds so fingers crossed! I also got some money which I will be getting a tattoo out of.

Honorary mention to my brother who got me a MAC vouchers, unreal gift! I got 2 lippes Rebel (darker purple one) & Brave (nudey mauve one), a lip pencil in Vino, 2 eyeshadow pans in Swiss Chocolate (the lighter brown shade) & Antiqued (the darker brown one with reddish undertones) and finally I got a holy grail product a MSF in Soft & Gentle (a gorgeous pink shimmery highlighter).

Shoutout to Jessie for her amazing work, as per usual! It turned out exactly how I wanted, beyond delighted with it! 

So that's what I got for Christmas 2014. I am so grateful for everything I got. Share your favourite & let me know if we got any of the same pressies. 

Until next time guys, Alison x 

New Year, New You! Doing 5 new small things a day could change youryear!

So I got a little side tracked over Christmas and I never go to finish my 12 Blogs of Christmas but I've finished all my exams and I'm back with some great ideas and high hopes for 2015! I've decided I don't want to make any major resolutions this year. I want to make small changes and do more of what makes me happy. The whole 'New Year, New Me' thing may be cringey to some people but why? If someone wants to better themselves, we should be encouraging them for that, and what better time than starting off fresh in the New Year! So here a 5 simple things you can do everyday that may just change your year for the better! 

1. Get organised! Keep a handwritten dated diary and start an address book with contact information, birthdays and any important dates. Phones are handy, until they die (which in the time of the iPhone is very likely). Have you ever been stuck somewhere with a dead phone and no charger, you thought you had some phone numbers memorised until you had to try punching in their digits. Even worse than forgetting someone's number, have you ever forgotten someone's birthday? I always wondered how my Mam remembered the entire families and extended families birthdays, anniversaries, phones numbers and addresses. Well she has a little red book with all this information, not more forgotten birthdays or anniversary cards 'lost in the post' because you couldn't remember the date or address. Things can often get forgotten about or even deleted from a phone by accident. These gorgeous little notebooks are from Penneys from just €2! 

2. Drink more water. Seems simple right? Drinking water and keep hydrated will improve the condition and appearance of your skin. This also helps improve concentration and weight loss as your body performes better when properly hydrated. Sometime drinking plain water can get a bit boring and often this is why people find it hard to drink as much as they should. One trick I've recently started doing is adding lemon slices, mint leaves and occasionally cucumber slices into a large water jug with ice cubes and putting it in the fridge over night, then I have a refreshing detoxing drink which will keep me going the entire next day.

3. Plan your meals. Create a corkboard with your favourite easy healthy recipes & shopping list for easy access and organisation. This will help you when shopping and over time save you money as you'll notice you won't have as much food wastage. Have some variations and switch it up each week so you don't get bored but remember to include all the major food groups. Another tip I've found super helpful is having a list of healthy snack idea on this cork board too, instead of just grabbing that packet of crisps because you can't think of any healthy snacks you'll have a list of healthy alternatives at hand.

4. Starting a coin jar. At the end of every day collect up all that annoying loose change you accumulate during the day, between pockets, coats and bags. Throw it in a jar and over a couple of weeks you'll notice how much money you've saved. Now a days you can bring money into banks and shops and get it changed from coins to notes. As the saying goes, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. 

5. Switch for 30 minutes every night. This may be the hardest one for some people. Switch off from technology at least 30 minutes before you go to bed, log off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, turn off the TV and your phone. Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day and read it from cover to cover. Switch off from technology and have some winding down time, it'll be the best nights sleep you've probably had in a long time. 

These 5 small steps could change your year and even your life for the better. Let me know of you've started doing any of these things or if you have any other New Years resolutions. 

Until next time guys, Alison x 

12 Blogs of Christmas : Day 9 - Party Season Day to Night Makeup

With Christmas just around there is going to be a lot of nights out or events you may have to attend and you might not always have time to go home to get fixed up. Whether you're a working girl or a college student (or let's face it maybe both) here's some quick ways to get yourself Christmas party ready and out of the office. 

I'm going to start of with a basic face of makeup. I went for flawless matte skin with minimal blush and contouring. Then I filled in my eyebrows, applied an eyeshadow base and created a light brown smokey eye, applied 2 layers of mascara and finished off with some lipgloss. This is perfect for heading to work because you have your base for everything done making touch ups quick and easy. 

So it's the end if the day and you haven't got long to get ready to head out after college or work, here what I did to transform my makeup from day to night. 

1. I started off my darkening up the outer corner of the shadow then taking a gold loose pigment and pressing onto the centre of the lid, making sure to blend out any harsh lines with a medium brown shade, I smudged a darker shade of brown on my bottom lashes and applied a flesh tone liner to my water line to make my eyes appear bigger, I highlighted my brow bone and inner coner with a white eyeshadow. Then I created a thin winged liner and applied some lashes over the top. 

2. Now you can clean up any eyeshadow fallout and move onto the rest of your face. I took a powder and touched up my foundation, deepened my contour on my cheeks, forehead and nose, applied some blush and highlighted my cheek bones, nose and Cupid's bow. 

3. Finally I applied some red lipliner and lipstick and sprayed my entire face with a setting spray to make me makeup last all night. 

My tips for transforming your makeup from day to night : 

1. Bring multi use products eg. Use your contour shade as a crease colour on your eyes or to fill in your eyebrows, use your highlighter on your eyes aswel as on your cheeks, if you forget your liner you can use an angled brush and dip it into your mascara and apply it as eyeliner. 

2. Brushes you can use for several different things, use the same brush for contour and blush, use one eyeshadow brush for highlighter and light shades of eyeshadow.

3. MINIS! Mini products or product samples are perfect for this kind of situation because they don't take up much space and you don't have to worry about lugging around a huge makeup bag. 

That's how  transformed my makeup from day to night. Hope this helped. 

Until next time guys, Alison x 

12 Blogs of Christmas : Day 7 - Sweater Weather Tag

I've seen a lot of people doing this tag not only on YouTube but on their blogs too. I'm trying to get myself more in the winter & Christmas spirit and I thought this tag would do just that, so here we go. 

1. Favourite candle scent? 

I love vanilla scented candles and burn them all year round. I love really sweet scents but in the winter particularly around Christmas I like to change it up a bit and I'll burn some type of cinnamon scented candles. IKEA have a great selection of scented candles, they're cheat and cheerful and possibly my favourite place to get candles.

2. Tea, coffee or hot chocolate? 

I am definitely a coffee kinda girl! My favourite type of coffee to get is a caramel latte, especially from Starbucks #typicalwhitegirl hahaha.

3. What's the best fall memory you have? 

This is a hella long time ago but when I was around 9 or 10 we had our first "real snow" that I remember in Ireland. Like I mean schools, roads and even shops closed for nearly 2 weeks! At the time my dad was the caretaker of my primary school and he had the keys to the school grounds. Me, my dad & my two older brother all got to go over the the school and make proper snowman, snow angels and we had a massive snowball fight. Then we headed home changed into cosy pyjamas and our mam had the fire going in the sitting room & a stew on for dinner. It was the perfect winters day in my opinion. 

4. Which makeup trend do you prefer : dark lips or winged liner? 

Can I cheat & pick both? Bold lips and winged liner are my ultimate makeup look but if I absolutely pick one I'd go with dark lips. Recently I've been trying the no liner/blown out shadow look and I find it goes really well with a bold lip. 

5. Best fragrance for fall? 

I generally don't change up my perfumes because I find it hard to find perfumes I really like so when I found one or two I like I tend to stick between them. As I mentioned before I love sweet/floral scents. At the minute my top perfumes would be Rihanna Nude & Ralph Lauren No.3, both sweet smelling definitely not your average autumn/winter scents.

6. Must have fall nail polish? 

Hands down any wine/burgundy colour is my go-to for not only autumn & winter but all year round. My favourite nail polishes are the BarryM ones, I love everything from the formulation to the colour payoff. They retail at only €5 each and are my nail polishes EVER... Especially the matte shades! Surprise surprise! 

7. Skinny jeans or leggings? 

Ooooh this is a toughie! I easily have 20 pairs of black leggings and I find them so easy to just throw on with a baggy jumper, a scarf and some comfy boots. However a good pair of skinnys can be so versatile. They're also so easy to throw on with a jumper, scarf & boots but you can also dress them up for colder nights out, so I think it's going to have to be skinny jeans for the win! 

8. Boots or uggs? 

Boots! Definitely boots! I hate such a love hate relationship with uggs, they are so good for pottering around the house and staying toasty or running out into the garden or even just a quick trip to the local shop but get caught in the rain and you are royally screwed! Let's face it, getting caught in the rain in Ireland is practically part ou everyone's daily routine. Nothing beats a nice pair of black boots for the winter.

9. Is pumpkin spice worth the hype? 

Definitely! I sound like an anti-girlo but I absolutely hate pumpkin spice, don't like it, never have, never will. Dramatic much but I just don't understand the craze? 

10. What is fall weather like where you live? 

Well here in Ireland the weather is pretty much the same all year round... Crap! We basically have all four seasons in one day and you can nearly guarantee rain! It's not as depressing as it sounds I swear! 

Until next time guys, Alison x