The Grange and Di Palomo

Today I went for lunch in the The Grange, a cute café and gift shop in Ballyboughal. I tend to go when I have time off work or college, so I went today with my time off for recovery. The café is part of the Gourmet Food Parlour family, a chain of  little gourmet food by day, tapas by night establishments. The menu offers things like gourmet sandwiches, soups and salads using a selection of rustic breads, goats cheese, stuffed olives, sundried tomatoes...things like that. I had the warm goats cheese salad, pink lemonade and espresso.

After lunch we visited the shop, which sells Avoca-esque things. Aside from little knick knacks, kitchen and homeware, the shop stocks health and beauty brands I have never heard of before such as Di Palomo. Di Palomo is an Italian inspired British brand of perfumes, soaps, bath and spa products. They offer three different ranges at the moment, with each range consisting of bath and beauty products with the same scent. These ranges are Orange Blossom with Wild Honey and Olive, White Grape with Aloe and the most recent addition, Wild Fig and Grape. 

 

I sprayed a little bit of the Wild Fig and Grape eau de parfum on the inside of my wrist and I can't stop smelling it, I've had my hand to my face on and off all day! I can't describe the scent really, it's unique, sort of haunting? It's definitely hard to describe but I'm ordering some online as soon as I get paid. Here is the perfume description:

"A rich, modern fragrance with top notes of grape & gardenia. Middle notes of ripe fig, orange blossom & mimosa rest on a sensual base of sandalwood, amber & vanilla."

The scent doesn't fade either, so I would highly recommend it...it was over €30.00 in the gift shop at The Grange but on their own website, it's around €24.00.

♥ ♥ ♥

Award season serial hairstyle - The Fake Bob

This look caught my eyes and I would imagine it would be incredibly flattering on any face shape. It looks bouncy and has an element of softness due to the loose coiled tendrils. It's also extremely easy to achieve. Click here for a two minute video on how to get yourself a (fake) new haircut.

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Say no to H2o?

Has something as simple and accessible as tap water lost it's title as the number one essential in facial cleansing?

Browsing through the beautiful blog of Garance Doré (garancedore.fr/en), I found an entry on her skin routine which includes advice from her dermatologist who advises her to avoid cleansing her face with tap water at all costs. This poses the obvious question, how will facial cleansers foam? How will soap lather into soft smooth bubbles that visit every sullied pore?
I wasn't really surprised when I read it, as many cleansing and beauty routines (featured on intothegloss.com) belonging to those in the fashion industry have too abandoned the idea of tap water, favouring spring water or 2011's most popular choice, rose water.

Sure, it's a rosy idea. Having totally pure fresh and glowing skin, with no harsh contaminants tap water allegedly brings, providing you are hydrating yourself within, using facial products that don't include harsh chemicals and don't smoke, of course.

While I can't promise myself that I'll always make wise choices in terms of product ingredients and realistically don't have the income to abandon good old fashioned water as my primary tool in facial cleansing, I have been using rose water for a while and it's true that it's amazing for the skin.
It is said that rose water is a fantastic anti-inflammatory, it reduces wrinkles and fine lines, tightens pores,  reduces acne and is extremely gentle on all skin types and cleanses gently while restoring mositure to the skin. While I can't vouch for the wrinkle comments, all the rest is true. It smells great, it's incredibly soothing and is a very gentle and effective cleanser. When around my two pet cats, I rub my eyes like a maniac due to my allergies and I end up with bloodshot, puffy, red eyes. When I put some rose water on cotton balls and place them on my eyes for 5 minutes, my eyes are restored to their pre-cat-company selfs and always look bright and refreshed.

When I feel my skin tone is uneven, I use a combination of rose water to remove my makeup, cetaphil and rosewater to wet my face and my clarisonic  (highly recommended sonic facial cleanser, read about it here - www.clarisonic.com) to even tone and smooth dry areas and afterward my skin squeaks.

If you suffer from any skin problems in terms of acne, uneven skin one
or dry patches, I highly recommend rose water (about a fiver a bottle on ebay) for cleansing combined with the Clarisonic. Neither will disappoint and both are worth every penny!

♥ ♥ ♥

Favourites

I'm very cynical when it comes to products, in the sense that I don't think anything really works as described; or does what it should for an extended period of time. Sometimes I get excited over a new shampoo and conditioner in shiny packaging offering magical results (blinding shine you say? follicles as strong as an ox?!) or a face wash that will give me perfect glowing skin...only to find that the second time round, it doesn't prove as successful or give me the effect it did initially. So I have a bathroom cabinet full of things I never use. However, it's a small price to pay in Operation Process By Elimination as at least I know which tried and tested to stay far, far away from. I have also realised I should probably take the time to invest in skincare that suits my extremely sensitive skin, like every other person does for their type, and start taking care of my skin properly, with the right aids.

Above are some products I've been using for over six weeks now and not one of the above has let me down or turned me off or in the case of the facial products, irriated my skin in any way! They have all secured a permanent place. All I need now is a makeup remover that doesn't sting...

1.) Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser - Gentle, no fuss cleanser. Doesn't irritate the skin or dry it out

2.) Jurlique Rosewater - Just simple rosewater, used in Spas everywhere really. Cleanses, tones and moisturises. It's very refreshing and works well on cotton pads on the eyes.

3.) My FAVOURITE. Lee Stafford's Hair That Never Grows Past A Certain Length growth treatment. This is my second tub, the first one lasted quite a while, despite the instructions to use an egg sized amount each time you wash your hair. At first I wasn't sure that it would be any more than a conditioning mask, as it just left my hair extremely smooth and shiny. But after 3 or 4 applications (in between shampoo and conditioner) I started to notice my hair felt stronger, had definitely grown a little, felt thicker and extremely shiny. It smells extremely clean, people always comment on the scent. Every time it makes hair feel fresh and light, it never feels weighed down. The instructions on the tub say to leave it on for 5 minutes, but depending on what I'm doing or where I'm going, sometimes I leave it on for 5 minutes, sometimes 30. My absolute favourite product at the moment...I will most likely get three tubs in Boot's 3 for 2 promotion at the moment so it will be roughly €20.90 for three.


 

4.) Lancome Nutrix Facial Moisturiser - I received this as a gift from a friend who knows about my sensitive dry skin very well! It's for very skin that's prone to dryness, so it's extremely thick. I use it at night time, just before bed. It smells a little weird, but not off putting as the scent is more or less forgotten after a minute or two. It will fix an extremely dry patch overnight, removing any redness leaving everything smooth. It doesn't sting so it can be applied anywhere really. I doubt many wear it as a day moisturiser as it would be a nightmare as a makeup base but I might consider doing this during the harsh winter weather.

5.) Vasaline Intensive Moisture - This is a body lotion but it's gentle enough for use on the face. It keeps the skin moisturised and plump so it's so easy to apply makeup, it literally glides on. This cream is also ridiculously cheap. I've had it over 6 weeks, maybe 8 and there's still a good week left in it!

6.) Oral B Pro Expert Toothpaste. This is more for health and dental hygiene purposes, obviously! But it's very effective and quite new, as far as I know. It has tiny little beads in the toothpaste that you can crunch between your teeth, which obviously drag out the dirt and get rid of stains. Strange writing about toothpaste, but it's definitely worth a try...it whitens, protects against tartare and plaque..freshens breath, good for gums..all the usual things but more impressive than the others out there at the moment.

All I need now is a makeup remover that doesn't sting and one of these Clarisonic things. The Clarisonic slogan sounds very promising - 'One minute a day for the best skin of your life'. They cost $235 each but all the models use them, so they must be great! Hmm.

♥ ♥ ♥