DIY: Spa Night

Hey ladies...

I'm pretty sure every girl loves a bit of old fashioned pampering?!

Even though going to a spa is a very stereotypical girly past-time, and actually having worked in a spa for 2 years, I've actually only gone myself once when a treatment was included in a bridesmaid package for my sister's wedding. It was gorgeous don't get me wrong, but being a poor student, I've always wondered why I should spend money on something I can easily recreate myself! 

So over the following weeks on The Beauty Boutique Blog, I will be introducing loads of different DIY spa treatments you can recreate in your very own spa, in the comfort of your own home, without breaking the bank!

Setting The Mood...

Spas are notoriously relaxing and soothing, so creating that atmosphere at your own home spa is the first step! 

Here are some simple tips for capturing that relaxed vibe in your own home:

1. Candles, candles, candles. Scatter a few simple tea lights around your bathroom or whatever room you are using. Use scented ones like lavender or vanilla for an extra relaxing effect. Turn off any bright lights and allow the candle's flicker to fill the room :)

2. Make some herbal tea and fresh fruit to nibble at, or if you're really treating yourself, maybe a chilled glass of wine ;) Remember to drink plenty of water to keep hydrated, as spa treatments can quickly drain you.

3. If you are doing a treatment that requires some waiting time, like painting your nails or leaving a hair mask in, set up some magazines or a relaxing DVD to watch while you wait.

4. Cut off all forms of contact whilst in your spa zone. Real spas don't usually allow you to bring your laptop into the treatment room, so neither should you. Lock away your laptop, mobile, and whatever else and just enjoy being un-contactable for a while. 

5. Create a "Spa Night" playlist on your iPod or pick a favourite relaxing CD and play it on a low volume throughout your spa treatment.

6. Heat any towels you will be using in the hot press/on the radiator so they'll be nice and toasty when you come out. (Oh, and slippers!)

 

 

DIY Spa Night Recipe - Brown Sugar & Honey Body Scrub

This body scrub is perfect for dry skin types, and is excellent to exfoliate particularly rough areas, such as elbows and knees before tan application.

What You'll Need:

• An Empty Jar
• Brown Sugar
• Sea Salt
• Honey
• Olive Oil
• Lemon Juice

For recipes like this I never pay much attention to measurements, depending on the size of container you are using, it can vary. You will be able to guess how much yourself will fit in the jar you are using.

Mix together some sugar, salt and olive oil. The sugar and salt grains act as the exfoliant. They will help gently buff away dead skin cells without being too harsh. The olive oil is bursting with moisture to re-introduce to that dry skin.

Melt the honey lightly in the microwave. Sometimes honey that has been left in the cupboard can get a little dried out. When it has cooled, mix the honey in with the rest of the ingredients. (If it is too hot it may melt the sugar and salt grains, which we need to stay hard as exfoliators!) Squeeze half a lemon into the rest of the ingredients and you're done!

I like to leave this jar in the shower, and use it every 2/3 days. It's important not to over-exfoliate! Lightly massage the mixture onto the skin, concentrating on typically dry areas like backs of your elbows, and then leave it to soak in for a few minutes. Rinse off as usual and be sure to moisturise afterwards.

If you're a fake tan junkie, repeating this every few days will really help avoid any streaks and dark patches by removing the dead skin that fake tan loves to cling to!

DIY Hair - Sea Salt Spray

In my last post, Festival Fever, I mentioned possibly using "Sea Salt Spray" as a way of creating an easy and laid-back but pretty beachy do.

While of course you can buy a Sea Salt Spray straight from the shops, it's always more fun to create your own products.

So here is my own DIY recipe for a simple and easy Sea Salt Spray that you can use time and time again and it'll barely cost you a penney!

By the way... how hot does Mandy Moore look here?!!

Sea Salt Spray Recipe

What You'll Need:

• An empty squirt/spray bottle, (you can get these in places like Penneys or Boots in bottle travel packs)
• Sea salt
• A nice smelling oil - coconut or almond for example
• A small amount of hair gel - you can steal your boyfriend's/brother's/dad's etc ;) 
• Warm water
• A tablespoon
• A measuring cup

How to Make It:

In your measuring cup, add enough warm water to fill the spray bottle. It's important the water is warm so that it allows all the ingredients to dissolve fully.

Add one tablespoon of sea salt, half a tablespoon of the oil of your choice, and half a tablespoon of hair gel to the water and mix well until fully dissolved.

Since salt can be drying on your hair, the oil aims to reintroduce some moisture. Coconut or almond oil also give the spray a gorgeous smell so your hair won't only look good, it'll smell good too! The hair gel aims to add a little extra holding power to the spray.

When the mixture is well dissolved, mixed, and has cooled, you can pour it into the spraying bottle. Make sure to shake before every use.

How to Use It:

Use this spray on dry hair, that has been sectioned into 3 or 4 parts. Evenly distribute light sprays over each section and then "scrunch" the hair, emphasizing volume at the root. For girls with naturally curly hair, this is probably enough to create a beachy look. For those with more naturally straight hair, you can take one inch sections of the hair and wrap around a 1-2inch curling tong to create a few strong curls to pull the whole look together. When you're happy with the amount of curls, spritz with some hair spray to reinforce and you're good to go! 

If you use this spray on freshly washed hair, it's likely you could get two days out of this Sea Salt look. Just top up with the spray and possibly the curling tongs when you feel you need it!

So there you have it - a recession friendly solution to getting instant beach hair!

Until next time, i'll leave you with some beach hair inspiration. Xo

Festival Fever

Hey ladies,

Considering it’s the middle of July, it’s pretty much a given that no matter where in the world you are, a festival or outdoor concert won’t be far away! For any of you lucky enough to be heading along to one, here’s my ultimate Festival Survival Guide. From beauty and fashion, to simple tips for surviving such a messy weekend. For the rest of us poor souls who won’t be attending the likes of Glastonbury or even Coachella (…one day…), who says we need a festival as an excuse? Everything mentioned in this post can be applied to just a day at the beach or maybe even your summer holidays.

Fashion

First things first. A great outfit can set the mood for your whole festival experience. I love getting dressed up to the nines as much as the next girl, but there’s a time and place, and a muddy field in the middle of typical Irish weather probably isn’t the best place to debut your new Louboutins. (or in my case, my new €15 heels from Penneys). If you really want to enjoy yourself at a festival, it’s important to be comfortable in what you’re wearing. You want to concentrate on having a good time, not worrying whether or not you have a VPL.

Below are some outfit ideas for festivals I put together on Polyvore (http://thebeautyboutique.polyvore.com/)  that incorporate all different festival styles, like biker chic, boho, or dressy casual. 

Denim & Red

Mellow Yellow

Bandeau Beauty

Maxi - Day2Night

Boho Biker 

Beauty

When it comes to festival make up, less is more definitely more. The make-up should be fresh faced and energetic, not melting off your face Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz style!

-         Base - I can’t recommend primers enough, you’ll soon be hooked. Promise! Primer aims to help minimise pores and create a smooth, flawless base for your make-up, helping it to stay put for longer. I have been using Catrice’s Prime & Fine for a few months now and I think it’s brilliant, AND it only cost about €3. The texture of it is honestly so velvety, it makes whatever foundation I apply after go on perfectly. I see now that Catrice also have introduced an illuminating Prime & Fine Primer which would be perfect for festival goers to give that gorgeous glow. Catrice is available nationwide in pharmacies and even in some Penneys outlets.

                                      

It seems that the beauty world has been taken over recently by BB and CC (colour correct) creams. I’m ashamed to say I have neither so I can’t comment much on either until I’ve tried and tested them for myself. However from what I’ve heard and seen, it seems that BB creams are basically primers that also contain some colour pigment, giving you a more even base, without the heaviness of foundation. Perfect for festivals!

Personally I think that maybe with a slight touch of concealer under the eyes, along with a sweeping of bronzer around the forehead, hollows of cheeks and the chin, and just a touch of a cream blush, you really could get away with no heavy foundation at a festival.

When you think about it, the less make-up you apply, the less there is to melt off, so the better the chance that you’ll look just the same 8 hours into the night as you did when you first applied!

Eyes & Lips - Festivals are a great time to experiment with some colours you wouldn’t ordinarily.  Where else can you get away with bright green eyeliner in the middle of the day! Personally I think fake eyelashes might be a bit too high maintenance, you don’t want to be running back to a tent in a manic search for eyelash glue! So make the most of your eyes in other ways, colour coordinate your outfit or accessories with some crazy eyeshadows or eyeliners.

When it comes to buying items like this, which are great at the time but realistically you probably won’t get much use out of them, I think brands like Essence are perfect. The quality is great and you won’t end up spending a fortune on something you probably won’t use every day. Plus there’s great variety. Be sure to use a good eyeshadow primer before applying any mad colours, to avoid any clumping or fading of the colour.

 You could also use some of your eye pencils to create festival face art like these:

Hair

Festival hair should be laid back and relaxed but still pretty. There's no point putting too much effort into a structured do as it will more than likely just fall out. Instead embrace your hair's natural texture! Use a curl enhancing  mousse or even try a sea-salt spray to encourage natural beachy waves that don't need too much maintenance. If you want a bit more glamour, why not braid a few pieces, or even use some flowers as accessories!

I've been hearing a lot lately about "hair chalking" which is a brilliant, non permanent way to have some fun with your hair.  You can use "soft pastels" purchased in any large art supply store, and you simply twist a piece of hair and colour it with the chalk. You can even use more than one colour to create a multicoloured, ombre effect. The chalk washes out easily and doesn't damage your hair, win win!

Here are some pictures of hair chalk from The Beauty Department, the website which Lauren Conrad is heavily involved in, if you haven't already you should definitely check it out!

                              Festival Look - Cara Delevinge

I really love this look on Cara Develinge. It’s perfect for festivals! It’s natural and fresh faced, but with a subtle pop of colour. After applying your base as usual, apply a heavy coat of Essence’s Long Lasting Eye Pencil in “I have a green”, or whatever other colour tickles your fancy, to the lower lash line. Apply a small amount of white pencil liner at the inner corners of the eyes to ensure to keep them looking large and open and not over-run by the green! 

Apply a few coats of mascara as usual to the upper and lower lashes. Ensure your brows are neat and filled in if necessary. To give them a bit of extra staying power, spitz some hair spray on a brow comb and then brush them into shape. Dust a small amount of highlighter over the upper cheekbones for a natural glow. Again, I’ve been using Catrice’s Prime & Fine highlighter powder in 001, Fairy Dust, for the last few months and I really can’t fault it! Again it was only about 3 or 4 euros.

Prep lips with a moisturising balm before starting to apply your make-up, then when everything else is done, apply a bright lipstain like Benefit’s Posetint which can double as liquid blush! A lipstain will last much longer than gloss, so you won’t have to keep topping it up!

                       

                           

Festival tips & tricks

1. Bring a mini first aid kit with a few bandages and painkillers, you never know how handy they'll come in!
2. Bring a ziplock bag to store your phone in. Even if the weather is fairly dry, odds are water will somehow find that precious iPhone!
3. Babywipes and more babywipes. The perfect all round product can be used as toilet paper, make up remover and a substitute shower. You'll be amazed all the uses you'll find for them.
4. Drink water and wear suncream. Boring I know, but dehydration and sunburn is no fun, simple as.
5. Take a few bits of food with you should you find that you don't like any of the food on offer! Potnoodles and the likes are perfect and you're sure to find a kettle somewhere! And cereal bars are perfect for a morning pick me up!
6. If you're wearing wellies with shorts, be sure to wear high socks! Ask anyone who's made this painful mistake, there's nothing worse than wellie-burned shins.
7. Try avoid jumpsuits or body suits, getting completely naked to go to the bathroom in a portaloo is not something to look forward to.
8. Test run putting your new tent up before you go as putting it up in the dark for the first time with a few MiWadi's in you won't be much fun!
9. Bring dry shampoo. It's practically made for festivals.
10. Enjoy yourself! Relax, have fun, make friends, and take lots of photos!

So there you have it! Hopefully I'll get away to a festival someday and I can do an "What I Wore" Series!

x

First Post!

Wahey!

So I've finally taken the plunge and started a blog! Already I have such respect for all the established bloggers out there, even getting to this first post was a LOT of hard work!
For as long as I can remember I've been (border-line) OBSESSED, with everything fashion & beauty. My friends & family always tease me for always knowing which model is fronting which campaign at the moment, what celebrities are trying out what trends, watching endless hours of (terrible, but addictive) reality t.v., and of course, spending at least two days preparing for a night out! So when fashion and beauty blogs started to surface, I felt a massive relief knowing I wasn't alone in my obsessions!


Sure enough, I began to practically stalk beauty blogger's sites, on an hourly basis! Eventually their wasn't a post I hadn't read, and my favourite bloggers just weren't uploading posts as quick as I was reading them! It was around then that the idea of creating my own blog started to tickle my mind. However, fear really did get the better of me for many, many months! It was just way too easy to hide away, sit back and let other bloggers do all the work! Then I realised, what if my favourite bloggers had done just that? Personally the likes of SoSueMe.ie, The MakeUp Fairy, and Maskcara, are huge inspirations to me, what if they had never started out? I would probably be going insane trying to get someone, anyone to listen to me about how amazing HD brows look or something equally silly! (Seriously, those brows are amazing.)


In all honesty, this blog is basically a way for me to express myself and hopefully share all these interests. If even one person out there looks forward to my next post, the way I have done for so many other beauty bloggers, I will be absolutely over the moon. 

x