Mink Lash Extensions (My Review)

Yesterday I got mink lash extensions applied in Lana's Hair and Beauty Salon Athlone, Ireland. I had read online that the procedure takes around 1.5 hours but my friend who is a beauty therapist said that it could take longer if the technician was new to the practise.

When I arrived I was asked had I had this done before and when I said no she replied "Well, just so you know it takes around 2 hours". Ok. I had expected this. She asked how long I wanted my lashes to be and I answered that I wanted them really long and dramatic... "Oh! Like a drag queen?!" she said. "No. Not like a drag queen". Duh!!!

Here's what my eye lashes looked like before...

I lay down on the bed and she took a look at my lashes to see how many milimetres she could add to them (You can only get a certain length as your natural lashes need to be able to support the false lashes.). This is when she exclaimed at how long my natural lashes were anyway... She was so suprised! I've always had nice long lashes however- just like my hair- they are extremely thin. She told me that the extensions would thicken them up. Great!

Then she said that my lashes are around 12mm naturally, so she was going to apply 14mm extensions and some 12mm ones. It ends up that 14mm were the longest she had in stock- Looks like I'm getting drag queen eyes afterall!!

So we settle down to work: She tapes down my lower lashes so that they don't stick to the glue on the top ones- Ouch! Next she starts applying the extensions one by one, lash by lash.This is meant to be really relaxing- I've read online that most clients fall asleep. I did not fall asleep. It was not relaxing. I lay on that bed/table thing for so long!! I was covered in a blanked and it was cosy for maybe the first half an hour. By the time she finished the first eye I needed a break so I went to use the bathroom- one eye done, the other with tape all around it :)

The second eye seemed to take even longer, I swear. Coming up to the end I was so sore from lying still for so long. She must have noticed my getting agitated and fidgeting as she started to assure me that she was almost finished.

Finally it was done so I slowly sat up and she spent the next five or ten minutes cleaning excess glue and un-sticking my lower lashes. Next she took protos for her portfolio and the salon's facebook page- At this point she realised that she'd forgotten to take a before picture, oops! I had taken some that morning so I promised to send them to her.

Here's how my lash extensions look!

So I left the salon after paying €45 for my extensions (refills are around €25) and I checked my watch. I was4.11pm! My appointment had been for 1pm! I couldn't believe how long it took! She said that it took so long because she didn't want to ruin the way my natural lashes looked or something, she said it was harder because they were longer. I was getting miffed at this point and wondering whether it was all worth it at all, until I got home and got to spend some time checking them out in the mirror- They are amazing!!! I'm not sure if I'd sit for 3 hours again but I definitely think they are worth going getting the refills done every three or four weeks (She said these sessions would be less than half an hour).

                                      

Before and After :)

All in all, I'm so happy with the way they look! At the moment I have no makeup on, but the lashes make it look like I do! I'm all set for my trip to Las Vegas, leaving on Wednesday.

Binary Pixie xx

Sunday in Dublin

It's nice to leave Athlone everywhile and get back to the "big shmoke". Here's what I did last Sunday.

My sister and I attended the "Call A Spade A Spade" demonstration. This was to show solidarity with Rory O'Neill and to oppose homophobia.

We estimated the crowd to be a few hundred but there were reports online of over a thousand. It it had been a 'pro-life' rally the estimates would probably have been in the tens of thousands, lol!

 Senator Norris gave a really motivational speech which got the crowd whooping and cheering. He thoroughly is an amazing public speaker.

We went to Synnotts for one drink and to watch the rugby. I had a vodka with diet coke but Enid mixed her vodka with tonic water because she's off artificial sweeteners. I couldn't do that!!

We left Synnotts pretty quickly because the vibe wasn't great and our view wasn't good either.

We took a quick trip to Starbucks, before which Enid was panicking because she had no cream to put in her coffee. Luckily I remembered that I had read online about people ordering butter in Starbucks to bulletproof their coffee. We got two pats of butter each, it was lovely and creamy :)

Enid the imposter used my name to order the coffees. She's just jealous ;)

I then popped home for a bit to see my parents. I randomly decided to ask my dad for a lend of a ukulele so I one here in Athlone with me. I'm already addicted, it's so easy to learn to play and sounds so cute! It's ruingng my nails though- I always need my nails to be perfectly manicured!!

Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love,

Kitty.

Rockin' Joes, Galway

Quinnsy and I made a daytrip to Galway last weekend to get some makeup in Brown Thomas (Nowhere to buy good makeup in Athlone at all!). We decided to get some lunch in this diner that we jokingly called 'Fake Eddie Rocket's...

It was only when we arrived directly to the front door that we realised it was an Eddie Rockets! 

A temporary (I hope!) sign had been erected declaring the restaurant to be called 'Rockin' Joes'. However, it was hard to miss the typical red decor or our favorite Eddie's.

The jukeboxes had been gutted but they were definitely the same ones as used in Eddie Rockets, as was the red tumblers that our drinks were served in. 

Luckily none of the food had changed either: The cajun sauce on the buffalo wings was just as tasty as I was expecting!

This is our Rockin' Joes receipt listing off all the locations of Eddie Rockets restaurants! 

All mention of Eddie was gone, there were very little signs on the walls for example- But the characteristic bar and stools is unmistakeable!

Some clever re-use of already-present information... Lol!

On our way out we asked the waiter what was going on. He told us that they had changed three weeks previously- All the Eddie Rockets in Munster and Connaught are now Rocking Joes because they are all owned by the same business man. After some research on the internet there seems to be two possible reasons for this change: 

1. The owner decided to break out of the franchise and go alone
2. Eddie Rockets did not renew the franchise

Either could be plausible- I don't care as long as my food still tastes great!

Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love... Binary Pixie x

Nick's Coffee Ranelagh

I swear,  the tastiest coffee in Dublin is to be got only from Nick's coffee house in Ranelagh. It's tiny: just one barista squashed into a corner and only a few benches outaide. So hipster! It's amazing coffee though. This morning there was a queue out the door! 

Also at Nick's,  when you buy coffee beans you get a free Americano! Yay! 

Graffiti on a bus stop in Ashtown, Dublin.

I thought these looked quite cool! 

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone vandalism in any way at all but I thought these sprayed on images were quite artistic. I'm not really sure as to the symbolism behind them though...

Graffiti on an Ashtown bus stop, Dublin 7

Dublin Bus number 1969

Ashtown, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

It's that time of year again... Study, study, study...

I hate exams and I hate assignments. It's a wonder that I've managed to do six consecutive years in university now! I'm currently gearing up to finish the college-based part of my Msc and I'm desperately trying to rescue my grade up to an acceptable level.

I've set up my desk with everything I need: Laptop, pens, paper, water, coke zero etc...

I find one way to motivate myself is to have all my deadlines visually represented in front of me. It's a lot easier to get scared of an upcoming assignment due date if I can see it on a calendar rather than thinking "Oh, I've got five more days before I need to start that!". 

'To Do' lists are always a great help also! This is my to do list for the next few weeks in general.

My Calendar with Deadlines Marked and To Do List

I also like to 'drill down' into my to do list to make it more attainable. For example, I also have a daily to do list. I find that it's very motivational to see things being checked off your list so I always add a few things that I know I'll definitely get done, such as have a shower! It makes me feel better!

Also if I have a very large job I'll break it down into parts. I've done this with some videos on Backbone.js that I need to watch, There are four of them and each one is at least half an hour long. By ticking off each one as I got it motivates me to tick off the whole assignment on my daily to do list!

Nikon D3100 Non VR Kit Camera - Black.

I'm going to be making quite a large purchase tomorrow morning!! Yep, that's right, I'm getting myself my first digitial slr camera! I've wanted one for so long now, and finally I found one within my price range: Check out this amazing deal on at argos!!

Can you believe it?! A whopping €205 off! 

There was a bit of drama actually acquiring a reserve code for this product. Mr. Kizzy came upon the deal on boards.ie, a really good Irish message board site. Unfortunately by the time he saw it the deal had already been live for a few days. I quickly searched every argos store in Ireland (this was around lunchtime yesterday) and found none for sale at all- Sold out everywhere! Later that evening, however, I checked again and actually found a few available. There were none in stock in Dublin but we reserved one in Sligo and also in Monaghan. Then we had to devise a plan to get to either Sligo or Monaghan! The problem was that you can only reserve an item for one day. This meant that at 6pm today those cameras we reserved went back on sale online. We figured it also meant that cameras in other stores might go back online too!

This evening I rushed to the computer as soon as I could to check if there were any to be got within reasonable distance of us (we can't really be skipping college at the moment, lot's of work to do!). I found one in Dun Laoghaire so I quickly reserved that one. I then rang Mr. Kizzy excited that I had one within travel distance of us! He replied that he had reserved one in Portlaoise also (We have a friend there who could have picked it up for us)! Spoiled for choice! It was only after clicking around a bit after that I came upon one available where else but in the middle of Dublin city centre! What luck!

This item also includes 35euro cash back from Nikon, amazing!

I'll offer the reserve codes I'm not using up on boards.ie in case if anyone wants to use them. Here are the stats for the camera:

I'll make sure to post a review as soon as I can!!