Monday, 25 January 2016

Whats In My Travel Make-Up Bag?

I travel a lot, and I've made a promise to myself to travel even more abroad, so I'm curating my travel make-up to get me through both short trips and trips overseas. From Dublin to The Dam, this is what I carry with me when I'm on the hoof! 



The make-up bag I carry with me was a gift from a friend in the USA and it's a blue floral Modella brand pouch with a sturdy handle. It fits everything and then some! It also has little holders for mascara, liner, etc, like pen holders almost! Handy as, I think you'll agree. 

Face Base

To prime my skin I always use Benefit Porefessional Primer. I love the Benefit brand, and this baby primer is perfect for taking on the go since it's so tiny! To get a flawless base I go for the Rimmel True Match Foundation. Everyone should try this foundation, I'm really impressed with it, it's great coverage and it's under a tenner. I don't think it rivals my Estee Lauder but it's a worthy adversary for travel. To set my t-zone, I take Essence Pressed Powder on a big fluffy brush. I've been using this powder since I started blogging and I'm still as in love with it now as I was then. It's cheap and cheerful, it's not cakey and there's a whole host of shades for all skin tones - including my snow white self. Now comes the time to break out my Isa Dora Color Correcting Concealer*. 

Travelling makeup should do the job well, and it should be built to travel - to me this means the more cream products the better. Liquids could burst, and that would be disastrous. This is a four-pan wheel with all the shades you could ever want, including the most beautiful pearl highlight. To contour I always take my Isa Dora Face Sculptor*. Another multi-pan, compact product. Even when I'm at home, at my vanity, this is a well loved product. My shade is Warm Peach and it's perfect, from contour to highlight and the blush is beautiful 
and buildable without caking. 


Eyes and Brows

Urban Decay Naked Basics. This palette is the travel companion of my life!! I bring this with me any time I go away, whether its a weekend with Dex or a trip down the country or overseas, this little 6 pan love affair is the best thing ever. I use Faint, the second deepest shade on my brows and set it with the W7 Style Eyes* clear gel. The other shades I use to create a lovely neutral smokey eye which is the handiest for travelling. For liquid liner I generally stick with my trusty Rimmel Glam Eyes Black liquid liner which has a brush applicator and makes for the quickest, most precise application you could want! When it comes to mascara, I travel with something cheap and cheerful, if you couldn't tell. I picked up this Catrice Better Than False Lashes mascara the last time I stayed away from home and I had forgotten my trusty Roller Lash and, well, I'm converted. When your boyfriend notices your lashes, you know you're on to a good product!

Lip Service

It wouldn't be a Red Lips; Red Hair beauty post without some lip products. If I'm travelling, I want the standard stuff for the face but I'll happily take more lippy than is strictly necessary. I'll take a couple of nudes, a deep vampy shade and a classic red - well I am Red Lips, Red Hair after all!! 
L-R Urban Decay Shame, RimmelXKate 01,
Pantone, RimmelX Kate Nude 45

Currently, my lip colour picks are: 

RimmelXKate Nude 45 - a neutral pink toned nude, perfect for day time wear.
Pantone Universe 18-1438 - a deeper brown pink for sultry day looks
RimmelXKate 01 - possibly my all time favorite red (yes, I said it)
Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Shame - deep black purple with red tones. 

So there you have it, my travel make-up - minus the brushes, hopefully I can walk you through my travel brushes in a later post! The products in my travel kit don't change very often, save for the lipstick.

So what are your travel makeup essentials?


As you can see from the asterisks, there are products mentioned in this post that were sent to me for consideration. I only talk about products I use, abuse and adore. 

Saturday, 23 January 2016

25 Questions About... Red Lips; Red Hair!

Good morning all! I was thinking about the redisgn of my blog, and I decided that the best thing to do with that would be to do a few tags over the coming weeks for my readers to get to know me. I believe that the best thing about bloggers are that you can get to know them in a way that is far superior to any other media. So here we go, 25 Random Questions About RL;RH!

Image: The Go Agency USA


1. What is your middle name?
Catherine. Technically I go by my full name wherever possible, so Amy-Catherine. My dad calls me by my full title, and I prefer it that way. Only a select few are allowed to call me by my nickname Aims, and I've been known to tell people they can't use it to address me. I'd rather my full name in those situations.

2. Share you favorite subject in high school.
English and Art History. I was a bit of a creative nerd - sneaking into the Art room on lunch breaks, getting special permission to paint during free classes, having essays pulled for their content, I was the token emo kid by a country mile!

3. What is your Favorite drink?
Alcoholic? Gin and Tonic, Guinness or a good spicy Bloody Mary. Regular? Smooth orange juice. G'way with your bits, gimme smooth juice, ice cold!

4. What is your favorite song at the moment?
I mean, I guess it would have to be What Do You Mean? By Justin Beiber, but of all time, my favorite song is Venus Doom by HIM.





5. What would you (or have you) name your children?
I haven't a clue. I have no plans for small screaming sticky humans in the near or distant future.

6. Have you  participated in any sports?
I used to be a pretty decent shot with a bow and arrow. I've plenty of medals around, including national ones. I used to be a competitive runner too, went to the gym 5 days a week and was involved in Zumba. Archery impacted my life so positively, even though I don't shoot anymore, I'm proud to have my arrow tattoo.

7. What is your favorite book?
I could say The Harry Potters, but I actually have a real answer: Chase Your Shadow, by John Carlin. It's about Oscar Pistorious and its INSANELY good. It's a factual book about the trials and his life, and it's worth a read. I picked up my copy in Vibes and Scribes in Cork for under a tenner and I tore through it! Also worth a read is Angelas Ashes. All the women in my family read it and we all got something different from it!

8. What is your favorite color?
Orange, then black. All of my archery equipment was orange glittery with white, and I'm just forever a goth kid in my heart and soul. I also like a bit of blue, because it goes with my hair and colouring.

9. What is your favorite animal?
Pussy Cats!

10. What is your favorite perfume?
Prada Candy Original, it's my signature scent!

11. What is your favorite holiday?
I like Valentines, I guess. Christmas and Halloween can go and die in a hole.

12. On a scale from 1 – 10, rate your childhood.
5? I had an average childhood, outdoorsy, generally alright.

13. Have you been out of the country?
Portugal when I was 14, Wales a bunch of times, and Nottingham most recently.

14. Do you speak any different languages?
I have phrases in a lot of languages but I can hold a very basic conversation in German.

15. Do you have any siblings?
Three older sisters, 13, 15 and 16 years older respectively.

16. What is your favorite store?
Penneys!!! I also like Plug'd down in Cork.

17. What is your favorite restaurant?
Anywhere with a good burrito, Boojum, Tolteca, Little Ass, Pablo Picante. I also adore Yamamori and Kimchee. I like foreign food, particularly Oriental and I like spicy food.

18. Did you like school?
I'd go back if I could. It really was a grand place, it just felt like hell cause of my depression and anxiety. But, I liked being able to hide in the Art Room and skip Economics to hang out in the Woodwork room.

19. Who are some of your favorite YouTubers?
Nibbles, Carrie Hope Fletcher, Lindsey Hughes, my friend Kayliegh (get on that dear, miss you!), the list is long!

20. What is your favorite movie?
Dirty Dancing, that's my all time favorite. Closely seconded by Michael Collins, Singing in the Rain and the original Clash of The Titans! As you can probably tell, I like the classics.

21. What are some of your favorite tv shows?
Pretty Little Liars, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Prison Break, Downton Abbey, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, this list could go on and on!

22. PC or mac?
PC. When your boyfriend is a computer programmer java nerd you become swayed to the cause.

23. What phone do you have?
The Elephone S2 Plus 5.5. I had it imported from Hong Kong. It's a great phone!

24. How tall are you?
5'6" ish. I like to wear platform shoes and heels but I'm still shorter than himself and he's 6'2"

25. Do you have any pets?
4 cats, 3 women and a tom cat names Paolo :)

So there you have it, 25 Questions to get to know me. I tag everyone to do this!