Get Ready With Me: College Ball.

Last week I went to Kilkenny city for a dinner/dance ball type thing for my boyfriend's college. It was such great fun... good music, good food, good company and above all, a really good excuse to get my roots done (eventually!) and get dressed up. I wasn't going to do a post like this, but I thought it was a nice way to make my blog a bit more personal, whilst still keeping it on the beauty spectrum. I also got a couple of questions regarding my dress/makeup etc on the night so I thought it would be a good idea to lump it all together and show you everything; jewellery, makeup, nails. Essentially, an OOTD, FOTD and NOTD post all in one. I think these posts could be good for special occasions and might even give people a few ideas for debs/prom/wedding season coming up. Hope you enjoy! :)

Shane borrowed an American's hat and thought he was the next Dirt Nasty. 

Shoutout to Shane's camera for making my dress look dirty!

Tried this look with and without the dark lip and I think it looks good both ways!

Token super attractive and not at all serious selfie.

Never ready for photos. Ever. 

                                                              The Dress:

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a full length picture of my dress but it was a basic maxi style skirt with a small slit along one leg. I borrowed it from a friend who bought it about a year ago from ASOS so although I'm 90% sure its unavailable now, I'm sure you could still find something very similar on their site! It's a beautiful burnt orange/burgundy colour which isn't something I normally go for but it looked beautiful on her and we have similar colouring! It has 3 cut out panels at the top and is belted at the waist with a thin gold belt. For my shoes, I just wore a pair of black strappy peep-toe wedges from River Island that are very comfortable but very, very old. I thought I'd save everyone the horror and not photograph them seeing as they were looking worse for wear but, River Island have a very similar pair in right now (link here), just a bit higher!

                                                              The Nails:
I looked everywhere for a colour that would compliment the burnt orange/burgundy coloured dress. It's a pretty unusual shade and not one I wear too often but I finally found a perfect combination! I went with an amber/gold duochrome base with a speckled multi-coloured glitter overlay. Both polishes are by Ruby Wing and are Cinnamon Bun and Chocolate Mousse. These polishes change colour depending on the light and look so stunning on the nails. In laaaaaaaaaav.

                                                       Accessories:
I'm going to sound like a very typical Irish 'ah jaysus Penneys, €2!' girl but my clutch is from Penneys/Primark (last year maybe?) and was no more than €12. Even though I got this last summer, I've seen these in recently just in different colours and I think they're a gorgeous, more casual beachy style clutch.
Jewellery wise, I wanted to wear a mix of bracelets and rings but decided to skip on a necklace because of the dress neckline. I wore some midi rings from Penneys and River Island and a statement ring also from Penneys (seeing a pattern here). The pink and blue bangles are my grandmother's and they came from Austria as a present from my granda about 30 years ago ("it was my mom's in the 80's" Mean Girls quote forever). The rose gold bracelet was so hard to photograph on but looked beautiful against my watch. It has blue and dark purple stones in it and reminds me of a peacock. It came from Bijou Brigitte in France about a year ago, but they always have those types of bracelets in stores. Finally (and as always) I wrote my Michael Kors rose gold watch - one of my favourite pieces.

                                                         Makeup Breakdown: 
For skin, I wanted a full coverage, bronzed on the outer portion of the face and quite a good contour. I stupidly forgot to photograph any decent pictures of my eye makeup so the one above is the best of a bad bunch! I basically went for a medium dirty gold/bronze on the lid, a soft burgundy crease and a subtle olive green on the lower lashline with some winged linger (typical) and fluffy lashes. Finally, I was between 2 minds about what lip colour to use. In the end I went for a dark red lip with a lot of brown in it to compliment the dress but I also photographed it without a dark lip and thought it looked great too if bold lips weren't your thing!

                                                            Products Used:
Benefit Stay Flawless Primer
MAC Pro Full Coverage Foundation
Makeup Forever Full Coverage Concealer
MAC Bronzer - Refined Golden
MAC Blush - Harmony (contour)
Nars Blush - Sin
MAC Mineralise Skinfinish - Perfect Topping

Urban Decay Primer Potion - Eden
Urban Decay Eyeshadow - Naked 2 (transition shade), Foxy (browbone highlight), Venus (inner corner highlight)
Sephora Eyehsadow - Red Wine (crease)
MAC Eyeshadow(s) - Woodwinked (lid), Sumptuous Olive (lower lashline)
Essence Liquid Liner
Urban Decay Liner - Perversion
Ardell Wispies

MAC Lipliner - Whirl
Wet n Wild Lipstick - Cinnamon Spice