(Not a) Selfie Sunday

Hey there.

Dat Sleek Face Form highlight doe!

Usually on Sundays I upload a selfie, give a list of everything used my my hair and skin and focus on one item mentioned. But this week myself and Kris are using a voucher from last Christmas and going to the spa! I imagine that I'll be having security trying to wrestle me from the relaxation suite as this goes live (Ellie Bell's will be getting spoiled by Nanny and Opa), so this week I will be telling you all about the Debenhams #DebsBeautyBuzz #FoundIt event myself and a few other lovely girls (and yes we all have lovely bottoms) were lucky enough to attend on Friday night.

Early last week Debenhams Ireland reached out to some local Cork and the surrounding areas bloggers to invite us to their event in Mahon Point SC on Friday 04/12. Kris was working 'til 9pm, so very kindly Nanny stepped in and said she'd babysit, so after a girls day in town, my Boo came and collected me and we bombed off to Mahon for 6pm. When we got to the Insomnia upstairs in Debenhams, we were greeted with glasses of prosecco and the most delicious little cakes and chocolate dipped strawberries. It was such a lovely opportunity to sit down and talk with other Cork based bloggers, and any moment I get with a glass of prosecco is always welcomed!

Before we went on our beauty counter tour, we got a talk about the Debenhams Personal Shopper service. It's a free service, 7 days a week, with 4 personal shoppers being available in the Mahon Point branch. You can block book anywhere from a 30 minute visit up to 3+ hours. They cover accessories as well, not just clothes and there's no hassle with queueing and requeueing for the fitting rooms- they have a personal shopper room you can take advantage of to use as a changing room! And you get to skip the queues at the registers, if you choose to buy anything (which there is absolutely no obligation to do) you'll be brought straight up to a register by whoever is with you and served as soon as! But my favourite thing? The service is twinned with Benefit and Urban Decay, so not only can they help with your Christmas lists (and not jut beauty related) but you also get a free makeover by one of the brands, and this time of year, with work Christmas parties, this is an absolute gift from above!

First on our whirlwind beauty tour was the Benefit counter! Each and every Benebabe we spoke to were lovely. We were treated to a Benebrow tutorial, with one very brave girl from Bare Minerals baring her brows and getting waxed for our education. We were shown how Benefit map out the brows, why they wax from above and the importance of the tint for shape and the appearance of fullness. Benefit also guarantee "no double dipping"- a clean stick is dipped into the pot for each wax application. The Benefit in Mahon Point stands out for many reasons (lovely staff, cute decor, so much space for myself and a potential buggy, I could go on) but it's the first Benefit in Ireland to host it's own in store beauty boutique! Outside of the South William St. boutique, it's the only Benefit to offer a full range of body waxing, and has a tanning room too, equipped with a Vita Liberata stocked tanning gun. Out on the visible floor there are 6 stations where brow waxing and tinting, upper lip and face waxing (you should see how crisp it makes a contour line!) can take place, all of which are done with a warm honey wax, the same wax used for underarm, arm and leg waxing. They use a hot wax for intimate waxing. I know it's a necessity to some, but even typing "intimate waxing" makes me cringe. They offer a modest bikini wax to the sauce pot of waxes, the Hollywood.

 Before                                                           After

Next up we got a wonderful skincare demo from the lovely ladies in Clarins. Those red uniforms scream "I don't faff about with my skincare and I won't let you". Well, sternly say, I don't think if you work in Clarins you're allowed scream? Firstly we were told about their All in One, Cleanser and Toner. I love my Garnier miscellar water, for a first/lazy and I'll never admit it out loud cleanse, but I feel my skin needs and wants more. I doubt I could afford this every time, but I really do want to try this at least once. Just imagine being slightly hungover and how smug you'd be with your vague recollection of using Clarins to remove your slightly too smokey eye from the night before, because yes, this is gentle enough, but stern enough to remove eye make up. We were also told a small bit about the Double Serum- their number 1 selling serum- it contains 20 vitamins and is great to introduce to your arsenal as an early anti wrinkle product. It also hydrates and plumps, which I am all about. It gave instant radiance, and most importantly, boosts moisture. What I found most interesting was the application process- in Clarins they don't rub in moisturiser etc, they massage it between the fingers and press it into the skin, to help the product penetrate as deeply as possibly, meaning your product is used as effectively as possible, and you're not pulling and dragging the skin. Between the after glow of the Double Serum, and how relaxing the application looked, this product is very firmly on my New Years Resolutions list (will explain more in a later post!).

And lastly, oh my goodness, we got to see a make over performed by the talented Shirley from Urban Decay, using the stunning Gwen palette. It's their first celebrity collaboration, and the packaging screams Gwen. It looks like it's a prop that's been shrunken down from The Sweet Escape video. This is a compliment. I bloody love that song. 3 shades are repromotes (Blackout is the only one I'm sure of the name, sorry). What excites me even more is the palette comes with 4 samples of lipsticks ( Feb. 2016 release date)- a true red, ultra matte finish; 2 cream finish, an amazing hot pink with metallic purple going through, and a deep, dark red; and a sheer finish nude. All shades have been named by Gwen, which I think adds a little something to the range. The mirror in the palette is bigger than Eloise when she was born! It is just amazing. Nearly worth the price for the mirror alone. I was so enamoured with the palette, I ended up buying it. I'll be doing a blog post in 3 weeks time about the palette, and a full range of looks I've managed to do with it!

After we'd done out shopping, the very kind girl from Bare Minerals, who got some new Benebrows, called us over and gave myself and two others some samples. They weren't part of the event, but were so kind to give us samples. I got two BareSkin foundations, one in my own shade and one a few shades darker, so I can attempted some liquid contouring, and a tiny sample of the Lash Domination mascara as well. Both Benefit and Urban Decay gave us very generous gift bags too. I'm going to do a full blog post about what we were gifted. I just want to say a huge thank you to all the brands for their generosity, as well as Debenhams for extending the invite. Emma thank you so much for organising everything, and the prosecco too! And to all the girls who were so friendly and warm at my first event, a very special thank you! And a very big thanks to Monster Makeupxx for letting me use all these photos, my phone is a disgrace! Thank you Boo!

Check out Kelsey! 

As always, thank you for taking the time to read, any comments or feedback, feel free to comment on this post, on Instagram, Facebook, or Tweet me! Anything other than an UDxGwen review, and of course, a nose through my swag bags you want to see?

Love,

MyBuzzyBeauty