Nail Polish of the Week: OPI SkyFall 'Bondettes' Collection

As crazy as it sounds, I’ve never used OPI nail polish before this week, mostly because it’s so hard to find in Ireland. Fleur De Force mentioned the Skyfall ‘Bondettes’ Collection in one of her LA haul vlogs last week, so when I saw the four piece set in a local nail bar for only €20, I knew I had to buy it. If you follow me on Twitter (@KeiraGilleechi), you’ll know how excited I was about this! I’ve recently learned that €20 is a little overpriced, since Fleur got it for $12.50 in LA, but everything is cheaper over there and €5 per bottle for OPI nail polish isn’t bad! (At least that’s my justification for it!)

I was going to review my favourite from the set, but since you have to buy them together, it makes more sense to review them as a whole and then rate my fave at the end. :)

GoldenEye:

The first nail polish is called GoldenEye, and it’s a bright gold, glittery formula. I definitely wouldn’t normally be into this colour, but it’s just so eye-catching and sparkly that I couldn’t help but love it! I put on two coats in this picture, and I think it has really decent coverage for a glitter nail polish.

It’s pretty chip resistant too, and I found that there was more of a wear down process around the tips after a few days, rather than any big chipping incidents! I really like this nail polish, and I would definitely repurchase it if it came in the regular sized version. It’s very versatile too, even if you’re not into garish colours; one thin coat looks great over other nail polishes. I especially liked it over copper or brown tones. I give GoldenEye a rating of 8/10.

The Spy Who Loved Me:

This polish is really unusual for me. I never buy red shades, as they usually remind me of old ladies or prostitutes. However, it’s such a unique colour; it’s sort of scarlet but with tiny gold glitter particles that are barely noticeable except in direct sunlight. They really add to the pigment of the polish though, and I feel like from far away it’s just a gorgeous red shade, but up close you can really appreciate the multi-dimensional aspects of the colour. I love when nail polish has this effect!! I used two coats here, but you could definitely get away with one.

Like GoldenEye, it’s very chip resistant and application wise, it goes on very smoothly. It’s such a perfect shade for Christmas, as it’s more than just a plain red colour. Someone with more skill than I have could probably create a delicious festive combination of The Spy Who Loved Me and GoldenEye, but unfortunately I can barely manage to paint my nails in a straight line. If this came in the larger bottle, I would probably purchase like ten of them and give them to all of my friends for Christmas. Really great shade. I give The Spy Who Loved Me 9/10.

The World Is Not Enough:

This is probably my least favourite from OPI’s Skyfall ‘Bondettes’ Collection. It’s an original shade, sort of pale silver with tiny multi-coloured glitter particles. However, one coat of this has little to no effect. It just looks like a nail polish I wore for my First Holy Communion, very Spice Girl-esque. Having said that, after layering three coats it does come into its own, forming a nice pewter-y shade.

Even though I was pleased with the end result, I still find myself quite lacklustre whenever I look at this polish, and it was the last one that I tried out of all the collection. I didn’t wear it for very long, so can’t comment on its staying power, but it’s a similar formula to the others so I imagine it’s quite good in this regard. I probably would never have bought this polish in the first place if I saw it in a store, nor would I repurchase. I give The World Is Not Enough a rating of 5/10.

Live and Let Die:

This, my friends, is a complex nail polish. When I first looked at it I was like ewwwwww. But it definitely grows on you. Based on other reviews of the Skyfall Collection, many nail polish addicts named this as their favourite polish of the entire collection (there were 12 shades in all, or 3 box sets)! It’s a really dark mossy green colour with, you guessed it, tiny gold particles throughout. Like The Spy Who Loved Me, it’s VERY multi-dimensional. From far away it just looks like a simple black nail polish, but up close you can see how many different colours there are going on! I used two coats here, but really only one is necessary.

The formula is very thick but not at all gloopy or hard to apply, and I wore it for 4 days with no chipping, even in work! This is a really great shade for someone who wants a dark colour but is looking for something with a little bit more substance than just plain black or brown. Despite its virtues, I doubt that I would repurchase this shade again. It’s mysterious and unusual, but not really something I would wear all the time. If I’m looking for a dark shade I generally pick boring neutral colours and matiffy them, so I don’t think this one would get much use.  I give Live and Let Die a rating of 7/10.

So I guess overall my favourite polish is pretty straightforward, no ties today! It has to be The Spy Who Loved Me, because although the others are all pretty great too, it’s just such a Christmassy colour and so different to all the other shades of red I’ve seen before.

What do you guys think? Would you have picked a different favourite? Or has anyone tried any other polishes from the OPI Skyfall Collection? I’d love to try Tomorrow Never Dies!

You can purchase these nail polishes here for around €15.

Fleur De Force reviews GoldenEye here. 

Here’s an overview of ALL the OPI Skyfall polishes by someone who knows a lot more about nail polish than I do.

How To Be A Girl: Going to the Gym

Last week my How to be a Girl article focused on something that all girls ‘need’ to do: tanning. This week, I’m motoring ahead and staying true to the Guido’s: I’m going to talk about going to the gym. Because girls need to look hot and shit. Personally, I haven’t really mastered that yet, but God loves a trier. If any of you figure it out, let me know how.

1. Buy Cute Gym Clothes. I can’t stress this enough. When you drag yourself out of bed every morning and throw on the oldest of old sports clothes you used to wear back in secondary school, you know what you’re saying to yourself? I don’t give any shits about the gym. I do not respect the gym. If you did, you would invest just as much time in picking an outfit for it as you do for all the other places you go. I’m not saying that you should spend an hour getting ready for the gym, I’m just saying that you should get some proper gym clothes which will make you feel good about going and inspire you to work out! LuLuLemon are known for their amazing(but expensive) workout clothes, and they now ship to Ireland for free, while Victoria's Secret have the most UNREAL sports clothes in the cutest colours.
   
2. Sort Out Your Music. I can’t count the times I’ve either been late to the gym or decided not to go because my iPod wasn’t charged or my songs weren’t updated. Playlists are obviously key so you’re not fiddling with your iPod every two seconds in the middle of a run. Some people favour heavy metal like AC/DC or dance music like Avicii, anything with a good beat really. Personally I prefer chart music or music by hot independant girlo’s so I can be like ‘Beyonce runs on a treadmill every day, so I gotta do it too!’ Whatever you prefer, make sure you have it ready the day before and don’t spend hours procrastinating when you’re supposed to be at the gym. RunHundred compile the most popular work out songs as voted by their email subscribers on a daily basis, so that’s a really good source of inspiration that’s always current and up to date.
   
3. Look Up Motivational Stuff Online. You may have noticed that steps one, two and three don’t actually involve going to the gym, but bear with me. No matter how committed you are, you’re gonna have those days when you just wanna sit in your PJ’s and watch Law & Order SVU. When this happens to me, I visit sites like LiveStrong and AddictedToSuccess, which have ENDLESS articles about how awesome it is to be fit and healthy. Just remember, reading them WON’T actually get you ripped.(I’ve tried.) You have to go to the gym for that. I think.
   
4. Plan Your Workout. Don’t just arrive at the gym and hop onto the nearest cardio machine, put in a mediocre effort for an hour and then bop off home delirraaa with yourself. Decide what areas of your body you’re going to work today, and stick to it. I’m always hearing the guys in work talking about ‘arm day’, ‘leg day’, ‘back day’ etc and although we might not be trying to get as bulky as them, I still think it’s a good system. (and by the looks of them it works!) It means you won’t get bored of your workout, because you’re not doing an hour on the treadmill every day. Vary it up a bit, say do cardio Monday, Wednesday and Friday, do arms Tuesday, legs Thursday and abs Saturday. That sounds like a lot of working out, but you get the picture.
   
5. Do You Want To Be The Girl That Wears Loads of Make-Up? You know the way there’s always one girl at the gym wearing WAY too much make-up? I’m talking false lashes, lip liner, fake nails, and enough jewellery to put J-Lo to shame. Usually wearing a teeny top and a push up bra, sometimes even a skirt(seriously, I’ve seen that before). Now I’m not saying DON’T be her. But if you do decide to wear make-up, go hard or go home buddy. Go all out. Dress as if you’re going to a nightclub. Put on fake tan. Wear heels, I don’t even know. At least it gives the rest of us something entertaining to watch as your necklace gets caught in the cross-trainer handles.
   
6. Avoid the Creeps. Dressing like the above is bound to get you a loada gym creeps. I think every girl I know has a creepy guy that she always sees at the gym, who watches her and shit, sometimes even FB’s or Tweets her. I had this one guy who used to come into my work and always talk about how he saw me at the gym and how he could help me work out if I wanted. Fucking weirdo. Guys: do not be this person. Girls: the best way to combat this is to look as UGLY as possible. Hair tied back, obviously. No make-up. Red face. Lots of sweating. It works a charm. (Trust me.)
   
7. Take some classes. Maybe. I have mixed feelings about gym classes. I’ve gone to Zumba in my local community centre a few times, so I thought I was relatively good enough at it to try it out in my gym. Big mistake. It’s a totally different ball game. The girls there were SHIT HOT. They all looked like Jessica Alba, a far cry from the not-so Yummy Mummy’s that frequent Littlepace Community Centre. Their sports bra’s matched their leggings which matched their runners. They knew all the dance moves. I flayed about at the back making up my own steps and sneaking off to drink some water whenever possible, counting down the minutes until it was over. I’ve put it down to a bad experience, in that I’ve had two left feet since I was born, so I’m going to try some other ones like Spinning and I’ll let you know how that goes. Gym classes in general can be great, you are motivated to keep up with class and you can burn between 400 and 600 calories an hour while having fun! Also, a lot of them are free, so you may as well take advantage of them.
   
8. DON’T EAT LIKE SHIT WHEN YOU GO HOME. This is the biggest mistake girls make ever. I have heard SO many of my friends say ‘I actually put ON weight when I go to the gym’. Bitch shut the fuck up, that’s not because of the gym. It’s because you went home thinking‘omg I was SO good today I burned 200 calories so I can DEFINITELY eat this 1000 calorie large pepperoni pizza’. I think that’s genuinely something I have said myself. It’s such an easy trap to fall into, but don’t waste all of your hard work on a few shitty packets of crisps or a burger.

Review: My 1st Visit to Nando's (It's no Eddie Rockets)

I’ve been hearing about how amazing Nando’s is for ages now and I’ve been dying to try it because I’m obsessed with Peri-Peri flavoured things. So when it opened in Blanchardstown on November 14^th I was super excited to give it a go. My experience didn’t really live up to my expectations, and so I thought I’d write a blog about it. For no reason really, I think I’m probably the last person in the world to eat it so I doubt anyone still needs a review of it. But YOLO.

I should probably preface this by saying that I’m a vegetarian. So I’m probably the worst person ever to do a review of Nando’s. Or.... The best? You decide. I don’t even know. Basically it could have the most delicious chicken in the world. But I won’t be commenting on that.

My first impressions were: 'woooo this looks cool'. There were little trees and benches and bushes and stuff. I felt like a valued customer already because they had gone to such lengths to please me by buying all of these expensive decorations! Unfortunately, I was not thinking of blog potential, so I didn’t take my own photo’s, but I’ll include a generic internet one to help you along the Nando’s journey with me:

We had to queue for about 15 minutes (well Barry mostly had to queue, as I was late), but I don’t really mind that because you have to do that in Eddie’s a lot so I was sort of expecting it. There was TONNES of staff. Like probably 30. And they were all super busy, bless them. Anyway, we got seated eventually, and that’s where the fun began.

So FIRST of all, the seats were pretty shit. We kinda got lucky, because we were in the corner, but other people had to sit at like a lunch hall style thing, with people directly to your left and right. It just felt a bit crowded and squishy. Like you couldn’t even have a proper conversation because it was quite loud and everyone could hear what you were talking about. (I was mostly talking about how much I missed Eddies, and Barry was mostly sighing.)

THEN came the surprise. Yer one tells us to pick what we want and then stall it up to the till to order. I wasn’t sure how to feel. At first I felt a bit violated, kinda vulnerable. Then I got stage fright about having to stand up and wander around aimlessly in front of all these chicken lovers who clearly knew what they were doing. But I didn’t want to make a fuss. When in Rome, y’know. So since I was getting the complicated vegetarian option, I volunteered to wander across the room and queue, as if I was in Bewleys or something.

Barry ordered the Chicken Butterfly with Mango & Lime sauce. It didn’t really look like a butterfly so I don’t know what that’s about but there you go. I tried to order this thing called a Beanie, which is like a burger or wrap with chickpeas and lentils in it. Unfortunately, I wanted it with no cheese but apparently the cheese was already INSIDE the burger. Another setback. Regardless, I kept on trucking, and ordered the Couscous Salad, which I was HORRIFIED to discover cost €8.60. Or €12.60 if you wanted to add chicken.

I asked for tap water and was handed a warm glass and told to go fill it up at this little station thing. That’s also where you get the cutlery, Peri-Peri sauce and other drinks like Coke and Fanta etc. I normally love spicey food but the sauces were so complicated looking and had too many ingredients and I just wanted Tabasco Sauce from Eddies and I was too overwhelmed. So off I went back to my seat, sauceless.

Our food arrived surprisingly quickly, which was fab. My salad was pretty big, but the chip portions were much smaller than Eddies. (I’m sorry this whole thing is a comparison to Eddies ok?? I can’t help it. It’s all I know and love.) I got charged 15cent for Peri-Peri salt, but that’s a whole other issue.

The food itself was pretty decent. The chips were good and the salad was delicious. Barry wasn’t overly fond of his chicken, but that’s because he doesn’t like sauce and yet he ordered it with sauce. Men.

Overall, the food and the staff in Nando’s were fab. No complaints there really. What I was NOT a fan of was the price and the set up. It came to nearly €30 for the two meals. Which would be fine if we were in a restaurant, but alas, dear readers, we were not. We were in some sort of restaurant-canteen hybrid. Apart from the fact that you get shown to your seat and get your food brought to you, everything else was pretty much just a canteen. Like pick one or the other! You go out to dinner for the comfort of having a nice table, friendly staff, and your meal brought to you. No foostering around looking for cutlery and condiments. You might pop into a canteen on your lunch break for that kind of carry on, but you certainly don’t pay €30 for the privilege. Nando’s seems to be stuck in between these two types, the service of a canteen with the price of a restaurant, and I just don’t need that in my life. Give me some €3.50 chips in Eddies any day.

Nail Polish of the Week: Models Own - Pink Fever

Out of all the issues in today's complicated world, I decided to do a blog about nail polish. I kinda have mixed feelings about the stuff, I used to go for months without wearing any, or when I did wear some it would get chipped immediately and I would hate it forever. However, once you finish a BA you start to realise how much time you have to do stuff you previously considered unworthy of your time.

And so I found nail polish.

For the last few months, I have been ruthlessly buying at least one nail polish a week and religiously painting my nails every Sunday, using Fleur De Forces incredible nail polish collection as inspiration:

Like how insanely jealous does her nail polish collection make you? The worst thing is that video is a year old, and she now has TWO sets of drawers full, which you can see in this video (which is a little bit more long winded but skip to 5.45 if you just wanna see the nail polish!):

Anyway, I decided to do a nail polish of the week review! This week I’m reviewing Models Own Pink Fever polish, which is sort of a pinkish-purple iridescent colour. I’ve been a fan of Models Own for a few years now because their bottles are so simple and cute and they have such a great variety of colours, but I had forgotten about them until recently when a new section opened up in my local Boots.

Here’s Pink Fever:

My first thoughts after painting my nails were ‘I am so not a pink person.’ I had kinda thought that, despite the name, the colour would be a bit more purpley. Unfortunately it just turned out very shiney and pink, which sort of reminded me of every nail polish my Mum used to wear in the 90’s.

So I did what I do every time my nail polish doesn’t turn out as expected: I put a layer of Rimmel PRO Matte Finish on top. I discovered this product a few months ago when I was trying to achieve this slick matte black look, without spending a fortune on SpaRitual polish:

It’s around €7.95 in Boots, which is a lot cheaper than some of the other mattifying nail polishes I’ve seen. Personally, I’m in love with it, and couldn’t recommend it more. Before I started using it I never really did the whole ‘top coat’ thing; as I said before, I barely used one coat. My polish used to always chip within a day of application, but I’ve found by using a matte top coat I can get 4-5 chip free days out of them!

So anyway, I threw a bit of the Rimmel PRO Matte Finish on my nails, and voila, they became semi-respectable:

It definitely does take away some of the ‘charm’ of the original polish, like the shine and the iridescence is pretty much gone. But for me, that’s a good thing. I know I’m a bit late to the matte trend, which I think happened like two years ago, but what do you guys thing? Do you prefer Pink Fever by itself, or with PRO Matte Finish?

Overall, I give Models Own Pink Fever a rating of 6/10. The price (€7.99) was quite good, and the polish itself is great quality. With two coats you get really decent coverage, and I've had it on for 2 days now with no chipping so far. The only thing that let it down was the colour, which I suppose is a  bit more of a personal preference issue! I definitely wouldn't repurchase this shade in the future, but I will be sticking to other, more muted, Models Own nail polishes.

Also, if you have any recommendations for nail polishes I should review next week, let me know! I’d love to try your faves!

House Phones are Ripping the Absolute Piss

Picture the scene: you’ve just come home from a tough day at work, you settle down on the couch to watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians; feet up, wrapped in a blankie, perhaps with a mug of tea in your hand. Then suddenly, just as Kourtney is pulling another child out of her own vagina, the house phone rings.

The dilemma begins.

You know it’s not for you, because your friends aren’t absolute fucktards. It’s 10 feet across the room, there’s no way you’re getting up to answer the phone when it’s not even for you. The obvious thing to do is to ignore it. Let someone else answer it. Only problem is, everyone else is upstairs or in a house phone free room (the stuff dreams are made of!). ‘So what’, you say, ‘sure I’ll just let it ring out, they’ll call back’.

But then the house phone pulls out its secret weapon: mystery.

Who could it be? Maybe someone calling about one of the 217 jobs you applied for? Perhaps your Mum asking do you want anything in the Chinese? It could even be a Nigerian Prince calling to let you know you’ve just inherited 1 billion euro. The possibilities are endless. You’ll never know until you answer it!
So you pause the Kardashians, set your tea on the table, unwrap yourself from your blankie, and trapse across the room shivering to answer the elusive call. You then see it’s your Mum, and the conversation goes something like this:

‘Hello?’
‘Hi Keira, can you put your Dad on the phone?’

I’m sorry WHAT? You did not sign up for this. You’ve already done everyone a favour by getting out of your comfort zone and going to answer the phone, and now you’re being asked, nay, ORDERED, to make the long journey upstairs to hand the phone to your father. This is beyond outrageous. You don’t know what to make of things.

‘Why didn’t you just call his mobile?’
‘Oh, I didn’t even think of that!’
‘Well can you just call it now, he’s upstairs.’
‘Keira, just put your Dad on the phone.’

Fury. Rage. Hatred. These are the only words to describe how you are feeling at this exact moment. Why would anyone even call a house phone anymore? Why is it considered acceptable for this random person who isn’t even IN your house to order you to do something PURELY because you had the DECENCEY to answer their phone call in the first place??

‘DAAAAAAAAAAAD! MUM’S ON THE PHONE’, you shout upstairs with your feet firmly remaining in the sitting room, in a last ditch attempt to save yourself from these abhorrent orders being barked down the phone at you by an unseen individual.

‘Bring it up to me, I’m busy.’, he’s busy??? HE’S busy?? What does he think you’re doing, just sitting around WAITING for the house phone to ring so you can eagerly bring it to him?? This is the worst day of your life.

Eventually you relent; the house phone wins this one. But no more. Never again shall it be answered.

My Top 5 YouTube Stars

So I’m pretty obsessed with YouTube, but rather than just watching funny cat videos, I tend to follow a lot of YouTube ‘Stars’ who are basically my life. I don’t really know if anyone cares about this at all but I never used to like YouTube much until I found Jenna so things can change and you should at least watch SOME of these people so that you can find new ways to be late for work and never do your college reading.

#5 – Clisare

Clisare is the only Irish YouTuber in my top 5. Even though Leanne Woodfull and Little Kiva have a lot more subscribers and views, I'm not really that into the whole 'beauty haul'/make-up tutorial videos. I'll watch them now and then, but they're not something you can watch every day. Clare shot to fame when her ‘Shite Irish Girls Say’ video went viral last year, but since then she hasn’t really as much success. Having said that, she’s really committed to YouTube, she won YouTube Next Comic this year (which is basically like funding YouTube give to promising beginners so they can afford to make more videos), and she makes such an effort to update regularly, bless her!

She does Dare Clare ever Monday, where her viewers dare her to do stuff like the Cinnamon Challenge and all that, but personally I prefer her rant videos! She moved to Australia a few months ago, so her vids about life over there are pretty good too! She wouldn't be the most charismatic YouTuber, but hey, she's Irish and she's trying SO hard to make it with the big dogs like Jenna Marbles & Daily Grace.

This is her original viral video - Shite Irish Girls Say, for those of you who haven't seen it:

And here's one of her newer ones 50 Shades in 50 Seconds - a summary of 50 shades of Grey!

#4 – Kingsley

Kingsley is what brought me to YouTube, he was the 1st Youtuber I watched regularly and he introduced me to Jenna Marbles. <3  He’s basically this 21 year old gay black guy, and he is the KING of rants. He can make absolutely anything hilarious just by the way he describes it. He’s also the next Perez Hilton, he loves showbiz and all that carry on, which is why he moved to LA earlier this year! (YouTubers are ALWAYS moving to LA). The only thing I’ll say is you can’t watch a whole lot of Kingsley; there’s only so much of his rants you can take!

Your Baby's Name is Ridiculous:

Lil Kim vs Nicki Minaj:

#3 - FleurDeVlog

I have mixed feelings about Fleur. On the one hand, she is the most gorgeous human being on the planet and has the most perfect life imaginable. On the other hand, that makes me hate her. She's basically this posh girlo from the English countryside. She has a degree in Geography from the London School of Economics. She is obsessed with make up and clothes and is loaded enough to buy all the designer brands her heart desires. She's been going out with her boyfriend Mike for about 4 years now, and he just proposed (with the biggest rock EVER) in August, which means she's now planning her wedding. (Videos for this can be found on her BrideDeForce YouTube channel). All this and she's only 24.

Oh and did I mention she has the most beautiful hair in the world? And every month she's jetting off somewhere foreign, mostly LA, and taking us along for the ride. She has a beauty channel which features reviews of beauty products and 'outfit of the day', which I'm not that keen on since I own a total of one moisturiser which I never use and for a good 6 years UGGs were the only shoes I wore (I'm branching out now though!). I prefer her vlog channel, purely so I can lust after her incredible day to day life. Honestly, I don't think anything has ever gone wrong for her ever. However, she has a tendency to be a bit rambley and go off the point a lot, which can make her videos quite long and a little bit annoying. Editing is your friend Fleur!!! But I do think they're quite addictive, you tend to be watching one and thinking 'I give absolutely no shits about the fact that she's going to circuit training tonight' but then it's over and you're like 'hmmm... I wonder what she did last night?'. AGH. so bittersweet.

Here she is arriving in Los Angeles last January:

Here are her favourite workout clothes, which should inspire you to go to the gym!

#2 - DailyGrace

I'm a little bit devo that Grace is only  #2 on my Top 5, because she is definitely my favourite YouTube Star at the moment, but I guess I have to reserve #1 for Jenna! Grace is 27, and she's been YouTubing for a LONGGG time at this stage. She's also an actress, and she has numerous other YouTube channels including MyDamnChannel, but DailyGrace is where she uploads videos every day, five days  a week. Monday is miscellaneous, the videos can be about anything. Tuesdays are when she comments on comments that people have left her. Wednesdays are when she reviews stuff, it ranges from movies to 1D songs to ice cream. Thursday is my fave, its her 'How To' day, when she shows us how to do stuff. Friday is 'Sexy Friday', whatever that means.

The thing about Grace is that she has such a weird sense of humour, that it takes a few videos to actually get used to it. None of her videos (that I know of) have ever really gone viral, however she still manages to consistently get between 70-100,000 views on each one, meaning that she's probably more loaded than Jenna at this stage. Another reason why she only got the number 2 spot is that I never feel like her videos are long enough, I always think she could have done more. But maybe that's part of the charm.

Here's Grace reviewing Instagram:

& this is How to Survive Your Period:

#1 - JennaMarbles

As soon as you saw the title you all knew where this was headed! Who else could I put as #1?! A quick bio of Jenna for those who don't know her: She's a 25 year old blonde from New York. She moved to Boston for college where she also worked in a tanning salon and as a GoGo Dancer. She achieved fame when her video 'How To Trick People Into Thinking You're Good Looking' went viral in July 2010, it now has 46 MILLION views, and she is the most subscribed female EVER on YouTube.

In July 2011, she moved from her shitty ass apartment in Boston, to a giant 3 story townhouse in Santa Monica, LA, with her long term boyfriend Max. All of this was paid for by YouTube, so she is essentially living the YouTubers dream. She makes new videos every Wednesday with the help of her Italian Greyhound Kermit, and her Chihuahua Marbles.

Here's the original How To Trick video:

And this is a more recent, but equally funny vid about decoding text messages:

Let me know what you guys think, do you love/hate any of these YouTubers? Or maybe I've left out some stars that you think should be in the top 5?

Best Places To Emigrate: #1 - Toronto

As we all know, from the days of the Famine through to the 1980’s, emigrating has always been a rite of passage for many Irish young people. Given the state of our weather, our economy,our politicians and of course, our alcohol prices, it’s no surprise that at this stage emigration has become as Irish as Guinness and Leprechauns.

A lot of my friends have emigrated, and like many others I’m currently thinking about it myself, but I’m not really sure where I’d like to go. I thought it might be a good idea to ask my friends a few questions about each of the cities they live in, a sort of pro’s and con’s list, so that we get a nice little collection of top emigration destinations!

My friend Caoimhe moved to Canada with her friends Catriona and Andrea in June 2012, and is currently living in Toronto. I asked her to tell me a bit about what it was like to emigrate and what life is like over there:

Why did you decide to emigrate to Canada?

We had been thinking of emigrating for a while, and the main reason that we started to consider Canada was because at the time none of us knew anyone going to Canada, it was always Australia and we wanted to be different. Also, you didn't need as much money in your account to get into the country, and there is always the option to travel to America while you're there!

How are you finding the experience so far?

Overall, I'm loving it. It's harder to get work than they make out though, unless you're in certain sectors like construction, which most people who come over here aren't. Even for the likes of bar work or retail there are certain times of the year when it’s easier to get a job, but nobody ever tells you that before you come over, so you could be left stuck if you're relying on that. Having said that, it is a cheaper lifestyle and we see so many things that are that we would never have gotten to see if we had stayed in Ireland, and we've made so many friends, both Canadian and Irish, so overall it’s really fun!

What was the hardest part about emigrating? 

The hardest part was definitely getting a job. It took 7 weeks because we came over at the wrong time for what we wanted. We were out every Monday-Friday applying in stores and then we'd go back to the computers and apply online. Also, it was kinda hard to find a place to live, because most places don't accept foreign people when they don't have a job, so that adds to the stress of setting up over here.

What’s the best thing about living in Toronto?

The best thing is the people and how different it is from Ireland. You meet so many different people here especially on nights out, like I’ve met people from places like Venezuela and Dubai, and it’s so interesting to hear all the stories of how and why people moved to Toronto. I’ve also made loads of friends from all over Ireland, as well as Canadians, and my Spanish friend Carlos’s family live next to Amish people!! The city itself is frickin huge, at night all you see is lights and every single building is like 30 stories high. Sometimes you're just like woahh. I just like how different it is to home. The nightlife is also very good here, you just have to find your own scene really :) But they offer everything, from pubs to clubs to pub-clubs to karaoke bars and theres just loads to do at night!
The weather in the summer is amazing, we got here in June and it was constantly sunshine & shorts until late September!

What’s the worst thing about it?

The worst part of living here would be missing home. I don't dislike anything about the city and the people are much friendlier than in Ireland. The only thing that makes me think I would like to go home is the days when you're feeling down and all you wanna do is talk to your family or one of your friends. But I guess that's what it would be like living away from anywhere… so I'm gonna say the worst thing about Toronto itself is the winter weather, it gets mad cold!

Describe your average day/night in Toronto.

Every Monday-Friday I work from 9:30-5:00 so that's what my day consists of on average.
Then me & Triona go home and we make our usual dinner: beans, eggs & toast. Then we have our showers and chill out until bed time :)
At the weekend, I usually have the place to myself on Saturday so I get whatever needs to be done done, like the heavy cleaning and if we need anything picked up or anything that’s when I do it! Then we get our drink on with the friendlings, there’s so many bars/clubs here we just go a wandering until we find one we like :)

Where do you work? What are the wages & cost of living like in relation to Ireland?

I work in Bulk Ville, which is a store that sells stuff like food items etc in bulk for cheaper prices. I'm on minimum wage which is $10.25 an hour and I find it cheaper living here than at home. (That's probably because of the amount of money you used to spend in Heaven! -Keira)

We live in a 1-bed with the rent at $1050 so between three thats $350 a month. The only problem with bills I have is the phone bill, everyone seems to have similar thoughts on the Fido network being a rip off though, so I ain't worrying about that too much!
We also live in central downtown so I do know people who are paying much higher rent especially in shared housing downtown, but it's because it's where everything is happening! Like if you go out 7 stops east on the subway there is a very spacious 2-bed apartments for the same price we are paying now. So it depends where you want to be located that reflects how much your cost of living will be!
I find everything else overall to be cheaper than home though, when it comes to groceries and stuff then yeah but it could just be that we buy what we need when we need it, instead of doing a big weekly shop!
Also, be careful of items being sold in shops here, because they have a certain price tag but when you go up to pay for them the tax is then added on to it so that catches you like a bitch!

Would you consider moving back to Ireland any time soon?

No, I ain't planning to move home anytime soon! I wanna spend all next year traveling different parts of Canada/America and then the following year I want to see different parts of the world like Australia/NZ.

What are the top 5 things Toronto has to offer? 

1: Public transport is a BIG thing in Toronto! It's frickin amazing! They have subways running every single minute, there are buses going all different routes from subway stations & then there are streetcars on tracks! Nobody ever has an excuse not to go somewhere because everything is so easily accessible! I'm in love with the subway here, and they are expanding it in the next few years too. There’s a lot to see here as well, but it would mainly be during the summer months that I'd recommend the sightseeing side of things!

2: The CN Tower is amazing; it was built as a broadcasting tower, and it sends radio & TV signals all over the city! You can get an elevator up to the lobby of the tower and walk right around it looking out the window and seeing the entire city, and then you can pay extra to go up further, to the highest point available to the public and see it from a caged surrounding. Very windy! There's also a glass bottomed floor up there, where you can get professional pictures or jump on it or lie down or whatever. This is pretty much what the view is like:

3: The Ex. This is a giant festival on every year which is whopper big, like a huge carnival with loads of shows on and garden shows and ice skating shows and a farm and air shows all mixed into one. Every single week of the summer there is a new festival on, just walking through them is so fun!

4: Yonge Street is another unique thing Toronto has to offer, it’s the longest street in the world and is packed with everything you need!

5: Niagra Falls is one of the must see landmarks if you ever hit up Toronto. You can get a bus to it; Greyhound & Megabus are the best bus services to take! They're cheap (around $10 each way) and they leave from pretty much every part of Canada/America. The journey takes just under two hours each way to get to the falls! You get to do the Maid of The Mist for like $20 which is a boat ride right under the mist of both the falls :) you get frickin soaked man, I advise it to be done on a hot day where you just dry up! Here I am loving life:

What advice would you give to someone thinking about moving to Toronto, or even just Canada in general?

Don’t go through an agency because they charge you like €1000 just to help you fill out the visa application forms, which you can easily do yourself. Also, then you have to buy their travel insurance which is like €400, whereas I know other people who have gotten it independently for as little as €100, it’s a pure rip going through USIT! It’s also a good idea to research how to change your CV to a resume, because they’re pretty different. If you have resumes prepared straight away to start handing out when you get there it makes getting a job a bit easier.

Follow Caoimhe's Canadian Adventures via her Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaoimheMurphyy

Next Week: #2 - Sydney 

How To Be A Girl: Tanning Beds

So let me start this off by saying that tanning beds are REALLY bad for you. I mean, I’m not gonna go into statistics and stuff but I read something like if you’re under 30 and you use them like once a week you double your chance of skin cancer? But I could have just made that up. I honestly don’t even know where I pull this out of, but trust me, they’re super bad! Before you even BEGIN to think about tanning, here's a great article on the dangers of tanning: http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/tanning

Howwwwwwwwwwwwever. A few months ago, I started using them. I know its not exactly the best decision ever, but I don't smoke so I figured it was time to  take some risks or sum? Also, my friend Elena had and I got really jealous of her tan, so I did some research on them and thought ‘hey, one or two beds isn’t gonna kill me.'

When I was thinking about using them and doing all my googling I found that there wasn’t much info out there for the complete beginner. And I mean COMPLETE. Because I’ve only been on 3 sun holidays in my entire life and as you know Ireland isn’t known for its summers. So I thought I’d write this guide for anyone who is wants to start tanning but isn’t really sure what it involves or what happens and is just a complete noob.

1. So basically, the first thing you need to do when you’re thinking of going tanning is shave, exfoliate and moisturise. Try to do this at least a few hours but preferably a day before going, so that your skin isn’t too sensitive/oiled up, which will make you burn easier! Also, this will make your tan last longer since all the dead skin is gone and all the sexy skin is showing!
2. You then need to make sure you’re not wearing any make up or fake tan, although tbh I never really stuck to this rule because I would usually go tanning before going to college or on the way somewhere etc.
3. Whatever amount of minutes you think you should do, HALVE IT, and do that instead. Honestly. I can’t stress this enough. I did 4 minutes the first time and was burnt for two weeks. Like I could barely get dressed or sleep properly for 3 days, that bad. Meanwhile, Elena did like 7 and Niamh did 6 and both of them were fine. That’s because they already had base tans though, and I, contrary to what you might see in my Facebook pictures, am white as a ghostly ass ghost.
4. When you get to the tanning salon, don’t be afraid to ask questions, like what sort of machines they use, which ones are better for beginners, which ones bronze you etc. There’s all sorts of different types, but as this is an amateur tanning blog I’m hardly going to into them. I made the mistake of getting on a really high strength one the first time, which was probably another reason why I burnt so bad.
5. Tell the tanning bed operator how long you want to go on for and then they’ll click it into their little machine. I would maybe advise asking them how long they think you should go on for, based on your skin type and all that jazz, but mine were useless at that so I wouldn’t trust them too much. Just litch go in for like 3-5 mins the first time, depending on how sun allergic you are.
6. Basically then you go into this little cubicle and whip your clothes off. You can leave your undies on or whatever you want, but some people prefer not to have tan lines. The salons clean the machines after every use, so I suppose it’s pretty hygienic.
   
   
   
7. PUT ON THE GOGGLES. Just put them on. Seriously. Elena never does, and it drives me crazy. Because the only type of cancer that sunbeds DEFINITELY 100% cause is cancer of the eyelid. Ok maybe that’s not the actual name for it, but look it up and you’ll see.(PUN!!!) So the goggles are SO important. And I know they squish your eyes, and I know they ruin your hair, and I know you can’t see anything, but suck it up bitch.
8. Get in the bed, and close the door over and press the little button that will turn the tanning bed on. This might sound pretty obvious but I was really confused about how far it was supposed to close and when the bulbs would come on and stuff. There’s usually a little gap, so I always keep my phone handy in case any Final Destination moments arise. Also, try to bring a friend with you who will alert people if you are trapped in a bed.
9. Most of the newer beds have lots of controls inside, so you can turn up the music, turn on/off the air-con (or focus it on certain parts of your body), spray some water on yourself, or turn the bed off at any time, again, eliminating any Final Destination type situations. (As you can see, this was a big concern of mine when going tanning.)
10. Finally, when you get home, moisturise! Don’t go tanning more than 3 times a week and go up by a minute each time, so you don’t overdo it.

There’s a whole lot of stuff that I didn’t include here, like tanning accelerators and deep bronzing beds, but I honestly know nothing about them and if you’re at the stage where you wanna know about them, this blog really isn't for you!

Prelude to a Blog?

While I am a self-confessed Facebook and Twitter addict, and I follow numerous other blogs (HackCollege, JennaMarblesBlog, FleurDeForce etccc) I still have absolutely NOOOO idea how to use this aspect of social networking. I mean I get I’m supposed to write stuff, but if no one “like”s or RT’s it, does it even really exist?

Howwwwwwwwwwwever. Whenever I start writing an essay I usually just write anything and everything that comes into my brain, rather than sitting there waiting for the perfect introductory paragraph to magically materialise, so I guess I’ll take the same approach with blogging.

Today was a typical postgraduate student day. I watched YouTube videos, tweeted (a LOT) and played with Diego, all from the comfort of my electrically heated bed. Somewhere in between all of that I managed to write my PhD Research Proposal for Oxford, which I’ve been trying to do since last Friday, but I kinda got backtracked with work/History Soc/the election/being hungover/Skyfall etc. If I do get into Oxford, lets all remember that I wrote the proposal in one day. If and when I don’t get in, let’s remember how extremely difficult it is and that there are plenty of other good uni’s out there.

I honestly don’t have any clues as to what this blog is going to be about. I could review nail varnishes or fake tan…. But then I’d need money to buy nail varnish and fake tan.. Or I was thinking of making it all about Dublin since I enjoy reading blogs from people in other cities and  the only city I’m in is shitty old Dublin. Also I was hoping that might persuade Caoimhe to come home. Or I could do a load of study tips since that’s about the only thing in the entire world that I am good at. Or I could write about all of my work antics… which would probably be the most entertaining but also the least consistent and perhaps my managers would not be in favour of it……

If you’re one of the two people reading this let me knowwww what you think and if you have any ideas yourself then, well you could go and make your own really awesome blog, or you could be lazy and tell me so I can steal them.