Beauty Blog

Mondays Mary Make and Do

April 4th, 2011
When it comes to testing lotions and potions we at L’Onglex consider ourselves to be no more than human Guinea pigs for your beauty amusement.
Simply, if a product looks like it might beautify our pretty little faces we’ll slap it on no matter what the cost to our skin and post up the results on these very pages and having recently tried a compact containing what turned out to be toxic blusher toward the end of last week we thought it about time we made a healing face mask and let our skin calm down a little.
The face mask in question is a soothing Aloe Vera remedy designed to calm skin and can be made in a jiffy. Guaranteed to work for rashes, sensitive skin, breakouts and even sunburn you can get hold of pure Aloe Vera online or at many good pharmacies for a fraction of the price of most creams. For the face mask all you’ll need for our latest Mary Make and Do recipe is the following ….
3 tablespoons of aloe Vera Juice
1 table spoon of Aloe Vera gel
Rose essential oil
Here’s how it’s done ….
To make the mask simply mix the three ingredients in a bowl until they’ve blended and then apply to the face and neck. Allow the mix to work into skin for five minutes before rinsing away the mask with water and cotton wool.
And finally ….
Although it may cost a few quid it’s one of those things that can be used neat and is great for hand repairs and intensive treatments, as a final reminder don’t forget to apply your moisturiser afterwards as although it does a great job at repair, Aloe Vera can leave skin a little dry afterwards.

aloe_vera

When it comes to testing lotions and potions we at L’Onglex consider ourselves to be no more than human Guinea pigs for your beauty amusement.

Simply, if a product looks like it might beautify our pretty little faces we’ll slap it on no matter what the cost to our skin and post up the results on these very pages and having recently tried a compact containing what turned out to be toxic blusher toward the end of last week we thought it about time we made a healing face mask and let our skin calm down a little.

The face mask in question is a soothing Aloe Vera remedy designed to calm skin and can be made in a jiffy. Guaranteed to work for rashes, sensitive skin, breakouts and even sunburn you can get hold of the masks main ingredients (pure Aloe Vera) by buying online or at good pharmacies and all for a fraction of the price of most creams.

For our latest Mary Make and Do recipe is the following ….

3 tablespoons of aloe Vera Juice

1 table spoon of Aloe Vera gel

Rose essential oil

Here’s how it’s done ….

To make the mask simply mix the three ingredients in a bowl until they’ve blended and then apply to the face and neck. Allow the mix to work into skin for five minutes before rinsing away the mask with water and cotton wool.

And finally ….

Although it may cost a few quid Aloe Vera is one of those products that can be used neat and is great for hand repairs and intensive treatments. As a final reminder don’t forget to apply  moisturiser afterwards as although it is good at repair, Aloe Vera can sometimes leave skin a little dry after use.

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Posted in Beauty treatments, DIY beauty, Face creams, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty, Organic beauty, Skincare |

Mary Make and Do: Perfectly Preened Paws from Porridge

March 20th, 2011
In an ideal world L’Onglex would be eating our porridge in Highland hideaway with a gentle but rugged scottish fisherman type who comes complete with his own kilt and a soft lilting voice.
Given that such men are thin on the ground these days L’Onglex is reduced to trawling the internet looking for homemade recipes for the cobwebbed packets of porridge in our kitchen press.
So. Having left our trusty gloves on the Luas months ago and looking for something to undo the damage of tapping out our daily blog posts we found this recipe for an oatmeal hand mask which promises to smooth away the dry bits and give hands some serious conditioning. You will need ….
1 + 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons of porridge oats
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1/4 of a cup of water
Here’s how it’s done ….
Mix the porridge with 1/4 cup of water and leave to soften for 10 minutes. Once the oats have soaked up the water add your lemon juice and olive oil to the porridge and mix well. Coat your hands with the treatment, place your hands in sandwich bags and put your feet up for ten before you rinse the mix with warm water and pat dry – eh volia – perfectly preened paws from porridge.

oats

In an ideal world L’Onglex would be eating our porridge in a Highland hideaway with a gentle but rugged scottish fisherman type who comes complete with his very own kilt, a soft lilting voice and a roaring open fire.

Given that such men are thin on the ground the reality is that L’Onglex is reduced to trawling the internet looking for homemade skincare recipes which might offer us the chance to use up those cobwebbed packets of porridge that sit at the back of the kitchen press.

Having left our trusty gloves on the Luas months ago and looking for something to undo the damage of tapping out our daily blog posts we found this recipe for an oatmeal hand mask which promises to smooth away the dry bits and give hands some serious conditioning.

You will need ….

1 + 1/2 teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons of porridge oats

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1/4 of a cup of water

Here’s how it’s done ….

Mix the porridge with 1/4 cup of water and leave to soften for 10 minutes. Once the oats have soaked up the water add your lemon juice and olive oil to the porridge and mix well. Coat your hands with the treatment, place your hands in sandwich bags and put your feet up for ten before you rinse the mix with warm water and pat dry – eh volia – perfectly preened paws from porridge.

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Posted in Beauty treatments, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty, Organic beauty, Skincare |

Mary Make and Do: A valentines face mask

February 11th, 2011
Now that the weekend of lurve is finally upon us we at L’Onglex have been on the hunt for a beauty boost in time for Sunday. You know the sort of thing, romantic, decadent, luxurious and .. well … cheap ! Finding the above was not an easy task but after some dedicated searching we came across just the recipe.
Inspired by the Strawberries and Cream facial at none other than the Ritz Carlton Hotel ( our bank balance won’t stretch to actually buying five star spa luxuries) this delicious mask is great for waking up tired skin. The natural acid in the strawberries works as to gently exfoliate while the cream will moisturise and leave skin super soft ….
You will need….
1 cup fresh strawberries
2 tbsp. heavy cream
1 tbsp. cornstarch
To brew the mask simply pop your strawberries and cream into a blender and pulse blend until you have a thick even paste. Next add the cornstarch and blend on a low speed for about 20 seconds. Once the mixture is consistent pop it into a glass and let it set in the fridge for 8 hours. All that’s left to do is apply the mask onto a cleansed face, put your feet up for twenty and rinse with warm water.

strawberry_facemask

Now that the weekend of lurve is finally upon us we at L’Onglex have been on the hunt for a beauty boost in time for Sunday. You know the sort of thing, romantic, decadent, luxurious and .. well … cheap ! Finding the above was not an easy task but after some dedicated searching we came across just the recipe.

Inspired by the Strawberries and Cream facial at none other than the Ritz Carlton Hotel ( our bank balance won’t stretch to actually buying five star spa luxuries) this delicious mask is great for waking up tired skin. The natural acid in the strawberries works as to gently exfoliate while the cream will moisturise and leave skin super soft ….

You will need….

1 cup fresh strawberries

2 tbsp. heavy cream

1 tbsp. cornstarch

To brew the mask simply pop your strawberries and cream into a blender and pulse blend until you have a thick even paste. Next add the cornstarch and blend on a low speed for about 20 seconds. Once the mixture is consistent pop it into a glass and let it set in the fridge for 8 hours. All that’s left to do is apply the mask onto a cleansed face, put your feet up for twenty and rinse with warm water !

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Posted in DIY beauty, Mary make and do, Organic beauty, Scrubs, Skincare |

Blog of the week: Mwah.ie

November 29th, 2010

mwah_irish_blog
When not busy updating our very own L’Onglex Blog with a raft of make-up goodies we like nothing more than to drool over over someone else’s.

Thinking that it might be high time for us to share our favourites this week we caught up with Lee Kutner, the writer and make-up muse behind the ever fabulous MWAH.ie, to see what’s in her beauty bag, on her make-up hit list and exactly why it is that blue shadow looks so awful on her …
What’s in your make-up bag?
All my current can’t live with outs:
MAC Her Blooming Cheek Blush – I am all about the cheeks at the moment
The Body Shop – Baked to Last Bronzer
Mac Superslick Liquid Eye Liner in Defiantly Feline
Concealer – Barbara Daly for Tesco in medium
Mac Viva Glam Cyndi Lipstick & gloss (I had to get both, love the coral colour & it goes with my colouring!)
Chanel Paradoxal
Who’s your make-up muse?
I have to say Cheryl Cole and Kim Kardashian, I think they while they are both natural beautiful they use make up to accentuate what they have and they don’t look absolutely caked in makeup.

Do you have a favorite beauty trend this season?
For Christmas it’s all about glitter & sparkle.  I do love a smokie eye with greys, navys & browns.

Where’s your favorite place to shop for a beauty fix?
If money is no object Brown Thomas, it has the top brands under one roof but I also love a good look in Boots or Superdrug because the chemist brands are really great too.

When it comes to beauty buys do you prefer the bargains or are you
 more high end?

I’m a bit middle of the road. I am an eye shadow snob, I won’t use anything other than Mac or Urban Decay but as you can see I get my concealer in Tesco! I love brands like L’Oreal or Max Factor for mascara and I also find The Body Shop makeup range very good value for money.
mwah_blog What’s your all time must have beauty buy?
Liquid eyeliner… Never leave your house without it. I tend to try different ones, next in my drawer is The Body Shop liquid liner & I will definitely repurchase Mac Superslick. I have also repurchased Bourjois Liner Feutre quite a lot.

What’s on your beauty wish list?

Still searching for a perfect foundation… This is something I always struggle with. Mac eye shadows: Sketch, Antiqued, Woodwink, Parfait Amour (repurchase) Essie Nail Polish: Angora Cardi & OPI Bring On The Bling.

What’s been your biggest beauty disaster to date?
Hmmm, I’d like to pretend there haven’t been any but I think doing my brown eyes up in an awful blue eye shadow and candy pink lipstick. It did nothing for my olive complexion.

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Posted in Budget beauty buys, L'Onglex loves, Plucking and preening, Skincare |

Things we loved this week – LUSH lip balms

November 13th, 2010
We at L’Onglex have been suffering of late…. if we haven’t managed to find ourselves caught up in torrential downpours we’ve been shivering in the bitter cold and those extremities of ours we can still actually feel have been telling us we need to do something about the pinch.
Having bemoaned the state of our lips for the best part of two weeks we finally took our by now very numb bums over to LUSH, jumped on the Christmas shopping bandwagon and picked up three pots of lip balm. The logic behind buying everything in the store went something like “I know we don’t need three but since they’re so yummy anything we don’t use can be given away as stocking fillers to those we love.” All was well….. or so we thought.
Being now the proud owner of Egg Snog ( natural cocoa, shea and murumuru butters ), Snow Fairy ( Coconut Oil, She Butter and Japan Wax ) and Maple Taffy ( Maple Syrup, Illipe Butter and Coconut Oil ) our dilemma is that we now find ourselves not really wanting to give any of them away to anyone, because they are ours and nobody deserves them as much as we do.
At a massive push we’d might just consider giving the Maple Taffy and the Snow Fairy away but the Egg Snog stays. What this lack of generosity says about L’Onglex I cannot really say but as our lips are now super moist and we have slowly become addicted to the moisture retaining lemony goodness we have the strange feeling that our friend count is about to fall come January.

best_winter_lip_balms

We at L’Onglex have been suffering of late…. if we haven’t managed to find ourselves caught up in torrential downpours we’ve been shivering in the bitter cold and those extremities of ours we can still actually feel have been telling us we need to do something about the pinch.

Having bemoaned the state of our lips for the best part of two weeks we finally took our by now very numb bums over to LUSH, jumped on the Christmas shopping bandwagon and picked up three pots of lip balm. The logic behind buying everything in the store went something like “I know we don’t need three but since they’re so yummy anything we don’t use can be given away as stocking fillers to those we love.” All was well….. or so we thought.

Being now the proud owner of Egg Snog ( natural cocoa, shea and murumuru butters ), Snow Fairy ( Coconut Oil, She Butter and Japan Wax ) and Maple Taffy ( Maple Syrup, Illipe Butter and Coconut Oil ) our dilemma is that we now find ourselves not wanting to give any of them away to anyone because they are ours and we are special and nobody deserves them as much as we do.

At a massive push we might just consider giving away the Maple Taffy and the Snow Fairy but the Egg Snog is definitely a keeper amongst keepers. What this absolute lack of generosity says about L’Onglex I cannot really say but as our lips are now super smooth and we have slowly become addicted to the moisture retaining lemony goodness we have the strange feeling that our friend count is about to fall come January.

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Posted in Beauty reviews, Budget beauty buys, L'Onglex loves, Skincare |

Mary Make-and-Do … the quick skin pick-me-up !

November 5th, 2010
Mary Make-and-Do … the quick skin pick-me-up !
Seems like ages since we did a Mary Make and Do on the blog and with the cold weather bringing the chill factor to skin we thought we might find something homemade to bring our somewhat pallid winter complexion back to life.
Where we picked this up from we cannot quite say but as cracked lips, dry skin and chapped cheeks magically disappear we think it’s something of a keeper and since all you need to make  this is baking soda and natural yoghurt it’s as easy as pie.
So ….
Add 1 tablespoon of Yogurt to 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
Mix together well
Apply to the face as you would a facemask
Leave for two minutes
Massage gently into the face
Rinse with warm water …. and you’re done.
Simple, quick, natural and a perfect-pick-me-up dry winter skin. You can do this anywhere but we think it’s best applied during the ad-breaks for X-Factor … more Mary Make and Do’s coming soon !

home_made_cleanser

Seems like ages since we did a Mary Make and Do on the blog and with the cold weather bringing the chill factor to skin we thought we might find something homemade to bring our somewhat pallid winter complexion back to life.

Where we picked this up from we cannot quite say but as cracked lips, dry skin and chapped cheeks magically disappear we think it’s something of a keeper and since all you need to make  this is baking soda and natural yoghurt it’s as easy as pie. So ….

Add 1 tablespoon of Yogurt to 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda

Mix together well

Apply to the face as you would a facemask

Leave for two minutes

Massage gently into the face

Rinse with warm water …. and you’re done.

Simple, quick, natural and a perfect-pick-me-up dry winter skin. You can do this anywhere but we think it’s best applied during the ad-breaks for X-Factor … more Mary Make and Do’s coming soon !

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Posted in Anti ageing, DIY beauty, Face creams, Mary make and do, Natural Beauty, Organic beauty, Skincare |

Things we loved this week – Dr Nick Lowe’s Instant Face Lift

November 4th, 2010

nick_lowe_serum_facelift

Things we loved this week – Dr Nick Lowes Face Serum
Seeing as we’re the squeamish sort here at L’Onglex HQ anything that promises to keep our complexions looking young and beautiful that doesn’t involve physical discomfort, the breaking of skin or the for that matter the breaking of our bank balance has to be worth a mention.
Enter the latest instant skin pick me up to set tongues wagging which goes by the name of ‘The Secret is out Instant face lift’ and is by none other than the people at Doctor Nick Lowe. Promising to plump, tighten and tone with two handy pumps the serum was created by the UK’s leading dermatologists and is pretty much for use everywhere although to be fair at €36.99 you’ll want to keep it to the face and let the body go to pot.
Having feasted our eyes on the stuff and at long last got some L’Onglex has been quite impressed with the results of our very unscientific and quite haphazard testing. When it comes to the science bit we’re not quite sure of the goodies inside but as soon as we realised it was made by a Doctor we simply stopped caring and instead began a trip down memory lane with thoughts of George Clooney in the glory days of ER.
On the plus it leaves skin quite tight and tingly and although we’re not quite clear of fine lines just yet we will at the very least keep it as a booster for skin that’s suffering from the excesses of the night before. With the Christmas party season just around the bend we think we’ll be keeping this one quite close.

Seeing as we’re the squeamish sort here at L’Onglex HQ anything that promises to keep our complexions looking young and beautiful that doesn’t involve physical discomfort, the breaking of skin or the for that matter the breaking of our bank balance has to be worth a mention.

Enter the latest instant skin pick me up to set tongues wagging which goes by the name of ‘The Secret is out Instant face lift’ and is by none other than the people at Doctor Nick Lowe. Promising to plump, tighten and tone with two handy pumps the serum was created by the UK’s leading dermatologists and is pretty much for use everywhere although to be fair at €36.99 you’ll want to keep it to the face and let the body go to pot.

Having feasted our eyes on the stuff and at long last got some L’Onglex has been quite impressed with the results of our very unscientific and quite haphazard testing. When it comes to the science bit we’re not quite sure of the goodies inside but as soon as we realised it was made by a Doctor we simply stopped caring and instead began a trip down memory lane with thoughts of George Clooney in the glory days of ER.

On the plus it leaves skin quite tight and tingly and although we’re not quite clear of fine lines just yet we will at the very least keep it as a booster for skin that’s suffering from the excesses of the night before. With the Christmas party season just around the bend we think we’ll be keeping this one quite close.

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Posted in Anti ageing, Beauty news, Beauty reviews, Face creams, Skincare |

For anyone still wearing halloween

November 1st, 2010
The other day it occurred to L’Onglex that whilst we’ve plenty to say about the various degrees of success we may have when it comes putting the stuff on we’ve so far got very little to say on the subject of taking it off.
As of the time of writing L’Onglex has developed a trusted technique  for taking off the slap I am sure many of you will be familiar with. The simple method is divided into two stages and goes something like this …
Stage 1 – Rub face with the first thing that comes to hand
Stage 2 – Anything not rubbed in stage 1 can be left the pillowcases
Whilst I thought this approach had worked out pretty well so far trying to get rid of my Halloween face has made think their may be better apparently this is not the best technique and whilst I’m loathe to change my ways the ever brilliant Lisa Eldridge has a video guide which has made me see the error of my ways ….

lisa_eldridge_video

The other day it occurred to L’Onglex that whilst we’ve plenty to say about the various degrees of success we may or may not have when it comes to putting make-up on, so far we’ve got very little to say on the subject of taking it off.

As of the time of writing L’Onglex has developed a trusted technique  for taking off slap which I am sure many of you will be familiar with. This simple method was devised by myself and is roughly divided into two stages which go something like this …

Stage 1 – Rub face with the first thing that comes to hand

Stage 2 – Anything not rubbed off in stage 1 can be left to the pillowcases

Whilst I thought this approach had worked out pretty well so far trying to get rid of my Halloween face has made think their may be better way to go about the whole business. Whilst I’m loathe to change the error of my ways the ever brilliant Lisa Eldridge has a video guide which is pretty convincing ….

Click here to watch the video

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Posted in Ask L'Onglex, Make up tips/how to, Natural Beauty, Skincare, Videos |

Sing badly but care not … then this is for you

October 12th, 2010
If you’re currently suffering from Glee overkill you may wish to look away now …..
Not content with having invaded our screens with a selection of various musical smaltz and four chord uplifting vocal harmonies the snap happy songstrels are about to invade our vanity closets with a range of beauty products inspired by the series.
The new collection comes with the rather fetching GLEE logo and hits shelves in the form of fragrances, shower gels and other various assortments of unspecified tat which we are frankly too uninspired to discuss on these pages.
Guaranteed to have everyone under the age of thirteen singing away in the shower without a thought for those around them the range is thankfully only available on the shelves of UK retailer Superdrug but it’s only a matter of time before Ireland is graced with Glee.
Although we are assured the line includes the superlative beauty presence of products like Divas Free Your Glee and Music Is My Life the pictures above are the Don’t Stop Believing gift set (£10) and the delightful Glee Pom Pom Puff (£2.99) … Christmas awaits !

glee_beauty_products

Anyone currently suffering from Glee overkill you may wish to look away now …..

Not content with having invaded our screens with a selection of various musical smaltz and four chord uplifting vocal harmonies the snap happy songstrels are about to invade our vanity closets with a range of beauty products inspired by the series.

The new collection comes with the rather fetching GLEE logo and hits shelves in the form of fragrances, shower gels and other various assortments of unspecified tat which we are frankly too uninspired to discuss on these pages.

Guaranteed to have everyone under the age of thirteen singing away in the shower without a thought for those around them the range is thankfully only available on the shelves of UK retailer Superdrug but it’s only a matter of time before Ireland is awash with Glee.

Although we are assured the line includes the superlative beauty presence of products like Divas Free Your Glee and Music Is My Life the pictures above are the Don’t Stop Believing gift set (£10) and the delightful Glee Pom Pom Puff (£2.99) … Christmas awaits !

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Posted in Beauty news, Celebrity beauty, Skincare |

New Lisa Eldridge Videos

October 8th, 2010
Lisa Eldridge Videos
Sun damage, strong pigmentation, odd wrinkles or even skin tone that’s a bit higgledey piggeldey ? Don’t panic, we have just the tonic courtesy of the latest videos from Lisa Eldridge !
Managing to avoid every patronising cliche when it comes to older skin the always fantastic Lisa has just the solution with some reflective concealer and foundations to smooth and cover.
Being rather brilliant at everything she seems to touch on the slap front  it’s no surprise that the end result is a perfect combination of natural and glam. If you are lucky enough to have not yet have reached the age where these matters are of concern please feel free to bookmark the vid for 2020 or something !
<strong><a href=”javascript:popUp(’http://vkm2.com/vid_master/forty_five.html’)”><span style=”color: #654f72;”>Click here to watch the video</span></a></strong>

skin_tips_for_older_skin

Sun damage ? Strong pigmentation ? The odd wrinkle or skin tone that’s a bit higgledey piggeldey ? Don’t panic, we have just the tonic courtesy of the latest video from Lisa Eldridge !

Managing to avoid every patronising cliche the always fantastic Lisa has just put together a couple of videos with some excellent pointers on how to get the best from skin d’un certain age ! With some clever solutions to common problems by way of reflective concealer and foundations to smooth and cover we think this is brilliant.

As everything she seems to touch on the slap front  is so near the mark it’s no surprise that the products she uses are a perfect combination of natural and glam and if you’re lucky enough to have not reached the age where these matters are of pressing concern please feel free to bookmark the vid for 2020 or something !

Click here to watch the video

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Posted in Make up tips/how to, Skincare, Videos |


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