The Grandiose Tour

This may sound like an overstatement but, after only having Lancôme's Grandiôse Mascara in my possession for a couple of hours, what came to mind was what a makeup game-changer this product is. The design of the brush is so clever it actually makes mascara application so easy, thorough and fun and the density of the colour leaves you with the most striking lashes you could imagine.

Since then, this mascara has felt like the coolest makeup toy I've ever used. Having been lucky enough to attend Lancôme's Grandiôse event in Brown Thomas, a member of Lancôme's elite team, Marc Sinclair, not only showed us how to use this product to its best advantage but the best way of applying any mascara and how black is the only shade up you should use up to a certain age.

Blush Up!

Cream blush adds the perfect pop of colour to the palest of faces on the drabbest of days and is such a great tool to create a rosy glow in seconds leaving an appealing flush however your feel underneath.

There is a certain stigma attached to blusher. Since there are so many products on the market to counteract skin redness why would you buy a product that creates it? But the flush of colour you can create and control with blusher is very different from unwanted skin redness. But the best thing about blusher, especially cream blush, is that when using it with a good foundation you can control the pinky glow leaving the healthy looking colour where it works best.

What a Stila

Stila has been a brand I've been admiring from afar for a long time. It's hard to find over here in Ireland so mostly I lusted over the pretty, innovative and quirky beauty range via magazines, internet reviews and recommendations and I was particularly intrigued by their highly-lauded Convertible Colour range.

Stila Convertible Colour in Petunia €21.50, Stay All Day Liquid Eye Liner €17.50

Finally, I decided I had to try it see what all the fuss was about and, after quite a far reaching department store search, I had almost given up when I was strolling in Harvey Nicholl's in Dundrum one day and lo and behold I finally found a Stila counter, and almost skipped over to it -  much to the amusement of the sales assistant!  And that was the start of a very exciting beauty relationship and a new priority on my wish list!