Dupe Tuesday | Moroccan Oil Vs Aldi Miracle Oil

Welcome back to Dupe Tuesday!

This week I’m looking at a hair product that I recently discovered in Aldi! I’m never in Aldi but I’m house sitting for my brother and his local store is an Aldi. I was pottering around one if the days and spotted their Miracle Oil, firstly I thought I had seen a bottle of Moroccan Oil so that’s what peaked my interest. At closer inspection I found it to be very similar looking, it’s a hair oil that promises to “Strengthen, smooth and seal in shine”.

I had never bought a proper bottle of any of the Moroccan or Argan oils but at a beauty show a couple of years ago I was given a good few sample bottles of the Moroccan Oil. I’ve used it on and off when my hair has been looking a bit frizzy or dry and its worked wonders. I never thought I’d buy a proper full bottle of the stuff seeing as its €40 for a bottle, so when I saw this little bottle for only €3.99 I figured it was worth it even if it wasn’t going to work out for me it’s not as if I had just wasted a tonne.

My hair had been drab and dry the last couple of months, I get my hair dyed blonde so the dye does nothing to keep it healthy looking. I’ve used this nearly every time I’ve washed my hair the last 2 weeks, I pop only about 3-4 drops into my palm and rub it all over into the ends of my hair and anything left over I pop all over. I dry my hair normally and the result is the softest hair I think I’ve ever had! It’s so good I haven’t stopped touching my hair and telling others to do so to, and you know it works when your boyfriend even notices!

The great thing about this stuff is that its multifunctional, you can use it as a leave in conditioner if you want a treatment, as a finishing product and as an overnight treatment so you get even more bang for your buck!

I know there’s plenty of oils you can get in the likes of Penny’s/Primark for probably the same price, if not a little cheaper but I definably recommend this stuff. You can’t go wrong with an oil that will give you the same results as the top brand stuff and costing a tenth of the price.

Head down to Aldi today and get the Carino Professional Miracle Oil with argan oil.

Thanks for reading :)

Love Sarah xoxo

Beauty Travel Tips

Beauty Travel Tips

I love to travel, I have the constant urge to get away all the time. When I do travel like most people its short journeys around Europe on budget airlines, which means a lot of the not checking in bags.

The hardest part of packing for me is trying to fit everything into that little plastic bag! What product do you sacrifice so you can fit everything in is one of the toughest decisions, but I think I have found at least one way to lighten the load.

A few months ago I was in MAC getting some foundation testers as my skin colour had gotten paler. I got two little pots and they came with loads of product in them. When I was done with them I just put them away but when I was tidying up a few weeks ago I had a Eureka moment. 

I’m going away to London at the end of the month and I know that bag will be bursting with makeup so I washed out the little MAC pots and when it comes to packing for London I’ll be putting my foundation into them.

Hopefully it will give me a bit more space than I usually would have by putting a bottle of makeup in the bag.

What beauty travel tips do you have??

Love Sarah xoxo

Weigh in Wednesday

Fat, flabby, chubby, large, round, I could go on, but on a daily basis when I look in the mirror these are the words that pop into my head.

Like many of you I’ve struggled with my wait for the best part of my life, I've gone from size 8 to size 16. I've gotten larger over the years and reached a massive 13st 5lbs two years ago but thanks to Weight Watchers (my 2nd attempt) I managed to drop to just under 10st. What spurred me on was my boyfriend going to Australia, he went for the year and I really want to look like a new woman for when he returned. But since he came back I’ve slowly put the weight back on. I had put about a stone back on and had managed to keep it steady for a good while, in the last 3 months though I have seriously ballooned up and I am ready to lose it again, so each Wednesday I will be talking about how much weight I have lost (hopefully), what I do at the gym and what I’ve been eating.

Once I get into losing weight I do become very motivate and really into it so I’m excited for that.

I think I have gained a lot of weight in the last few months because I have been moved to a different location in my job. I have a Fitbit Flex which counts my steps and working in the city every day and running around the office meant I was getting 10000 steps each day (the recommend amount we should all be doing a day) and now I've been moved out of the city and I’m getting the bus straight to and from the door of the office and I’m sitting at my desk from the time I get in to the time I leave. I'm also very lazy and once I’m home its soap central, from 7 till 9 I'm watching soaps, I love that trash.

The reason I want to lose weight is because I’ve put so much weight on none of my clothes are fitting me now and I don't want to buy anymore when I’ve a wardrobe full of really nice clothes. It's also almost summer and I'm going to loads of outdoor concerts and I want to wear my shorts and dresses, and finally my birthday is in a month and I really want to look pretty and really it all boils down to looking pretty!

So keep an eye out for my post every Wednesday to see how I’m getting on.

Thanks for reading!

Sarah xoxo

Dupe Tueday | Benefit High Beam Vs MeMeMe Beat the Blues

Hi Girls, I hope you're all recovered from the bank holiday weekend, I feel like I need another day especially after doing the Mini Marathon yesterday.

Anyway this is Dupe Tuesday where each Tuesday I will be showing you cheaper options of high end, more expensive brands. 

Today I have a dupe for Benefits High Beam which retails for €27.50 (£19.50 - the mark up for Euro's is crazy).  If you don't know already High Beam is highlighter for the face and I suppose you can use it on the body too. I bought my High Beam at the start of the year and and I use it on my cheek bones, a bit on my brow bone and anywhere really that the light hits my face just to give me that glow in the dull Irish weather and sometimes I mix it in with my foundation if I really want to look dewy and glowing.

I've been loving my high beam until a month or two ago when I received the MeMeMe Beat The Blues in Pearl Pink in one of my monthly Glossybox's. It is literally the exact same, if not better than the High Beam. It blends in really well leaving your skin glowing and retailing at just €6.99 (£5.99) it is well within everyone's budget.

MeMeMe is sold only in pharmacies in Ireland, the list of stockists can be found on their Facebook Page.

High Beam (Right) Beat the Blues (Left)

With a price difference of €20.51 why would you bother buying the Benefit High Beam.

Thanks for reading guys!

Sarah xoxo

May Favourites

Hello my loveys!

 I can't believe May is over already, how fast did this month go by!

Here are my favourite products I have been using this May, starting off I have the Nivea Daily Essentials Regenerating Night Cream. A few months ago I got a facial and the girl told me I needed to start using night cream and once you turn 25 everyone should be using it. It took me a while to figure out which one to buy and I finally ended up with the Nivea night cream.

I love it, it's thick and cooling and stays on the skin for the whole night. My skin is so smooth and plump the next morning, I don't know why I wasn’t using it before.

I've been going on crazy online spending sprees the last 2 months and these Whitening Lightening Color Your Smile have been a result of that. I have used these pretty much every day for the last month. They have a mirror on the side and when opened it lights up. They are blue toned which helps your teeth look whiter. These are so pigmented the colours are really amazing and whether it’s intentional or not they make my lips so soft!

I’m a serious MAC junkie and I love my Pro Longwear concealer. I misplaced mine in April and found it again in May. Being without it for a month really made me fall back in love with it when I found it. It covers so well, and last for pretty much the whole day. Luckily my skin doesn’t need too much concealer but I do use it on my under eyes to help with highlighting.

My hair has been a mess lately and has been getting greasy so quickly so I remember about 2 years ago buying a Toni & Guy Shampoo that got rid of all my build up and left my hair feeling fresh and squeaky clean. I went to Boots and tracked it down, it’s from their Cleanse range and it’s the Shampoo for Advanced Detox. You only need to use it 2 or 3 times a month so it lasts for ages and is a god send for my hair!

No your eyes don’t deceive you I have put a toothpaste into my monthly favourites. I've been using whatever my parents have bought for toothpaste and it really wasn’t doing anything for me so when I was on my shopping trip to Boots I spotted the Colgate Max White One and I think what sealed the deal for me buying this was that you got a free Nails Inc. polish with it. I haven’t tried the polish yet but I love the toothpaste, it's left my mouth feeling so fresh and so clean. It whitens your teeth after every brushing but it's only temporary, but I think over a time your teeth will whiten.

And finally we have Pog Fro Yo, I love this place. They opened up a few months ago on Bachelors Walk serving salads, juices and fro yo. I love the salads, you fill in a slip and choose everything that you want in your salad and they chop it up for you, they are so fresh and the size of the boxes they really fill you. The frozen yogurt is just awesome, you can go super healthy with nuts and fruit on top or if you’re like me you go for the biscuits and chocolate. 

So these are my favourites from the last month! My June favourites might be a bit on the light side as I’m on a spending ban till the end of the month. 

Thanks for reading!

Love Sarah xoxo

Dupe Tuesday | L'Oreal vs Benefit

Dupe Tuesday
L'Oreal Nude Magique Blur Cream Vs Benefit Porefessional

On my rampage of Boots the other day I was creeping around the L’oreal stand and my eyes lit up when I saw the L’oreal Nude Magique Blur Cream.

It was in the BB cream section and I almost passed it by because it looked the same as the other BB creams, but luckily I noticed NEW on the packaging and that caught my attention. I think it’s only released in Ireland and the UK in the last month.

The Blur Cream contains micro blur technology and promises to instantly give flawless skin by immediately blurring pores, imperfections and refining skin texture. It comes in two colours for either Light to Medium Skin or Medium to Dark Skin, I chose the Light to Medium. It does say you can wear it with or without makeup but both colours end up translucent so I’m not too sure how great it will look unless you have absolutely flawless skin other than a few large pores and as it ends up translucent if you’re in the shop and they only have the darker tube then get it because it won’t make any difference to your skin colour.

(Left) Benefit Porefessional (Right) L'oreal Nude Magique Blur Cream

Just like the Maybelline Baby Skin and Benefit Porefessional they are silicone based. I would rank it in the middle of those two primers as it shares good qualities from both.

I would rival this to the Porefessional, it’s similar in colour, texture and the results are pretty much the exact same for half the price. I have really oily skin and my pores are super large so any primer or any cream that can cover them in is my new BBF (beauty best friend).

On application the cream leaves your skin with that silky silicone feeling, some people like this but I think it just feels a bit greasy and that goes for any silicone based primer I have tried, so I just leave it on my skin for a bit and let the product dry as much as it can into my skin.

I tried it on my MAC, Revlon and Rimmel foundations, and worked well on them all. I’ve heard other reviews saying that it helped their skin stay matte throughout the day, it didn’t have that effect on me but my skin wasn’t any more or less matte than usual.

Basically this for me is gives the exact same results as the Porefessional for a fraction of the cost. If you don’t want to fork over €34 at a Benefit counter then head over to Boots or any good Pharmacy that sells L’oreal because this beaut only costs €14.99.

Love Sarah xoxo

Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pens | Review

Sally Hansen I Heart Nail Art Pen

This was the worst nail buy I have had in a looooooooong time!!! It was an absolute impulse buy, I just saw the pictures that they had advertising the pens and thought what I saw was what I was going to get. I suppose there should be some blame on my part for buying a product I didn't know anything about but that's what happens when you’re in boots during a 3 for 2 sale and just put stuff in your basket without thinking.

Firstly I thought what I was buying was a pen with a small brush tip, because to me that’s what the pictures looked like it was but what I got was a hard tip like you would get from a felt tip marker!

When I got home and tried them out, it took me forever to get any product out and when I did it was a pretty miniscule amount.

I wish I could find a picture of the advertisement that I saw in boots when I was buying the pens to show you how I thought it was going to look because it really made it out to be a really flowing varnish with a very easy movable tip.

In the end I was just really disappointed with the pen and in the end I didn’t like them because:

They were too difficult for the product to come out

The colour came out very opaque and for a nail pen I would want something more pigmented

Too expensive, at €8.95 per pen that is just too expensive for myself, especially on something I won’t be using again.

So that’s what I think about these oul pens, I won’t be buying them again and for such a good brand like Sally Hansen I thought they would have been so much better.

Thanks for reading and if you have bought these pens too then let me know what you thought about them.

Love Sarah xoxo