To Chop Or Not too Chop?

As you may have seen on my Facebook page "It's All About M.E"  after quite a long time of contemplating about getting my hair chopped up  I finally braved it and I got the chop two weeks ago. I left my hair grow for just over a year, with the occasional trim to prevent split ends, but of course, getting highlights in my hair and also using  a straightener/ curling wand on my hair on a daily basis didn't help the process of keeping my hair thick and healthy ,so I just felt I needed to get a chop to get rid of the brittle ,damaged ends and also as I said in one of my previous post,  when I am having a bad week with my M.E symptoms, I can struggle with having to wash/dry my hair as my hands go extremely weak, so I couldn't give my hair the care that it required in order to keep it long and healthy.
As you can see in this picture, the ends of my hair were quite broken.

I am thrilled that I finally braved the chop, as my hair has regained its thickness and it is now in a great condition. This time around, while leaving my hair grow, I am trying to avoid anything that will cause damage to my hair ,like applying colour or using heated appliances, but of course,  I do have to use a hairdryer as I have naturally wavy hair, otherwise I would be like Shirley Temple. So when I finally decided that I was chopping my hair I was terrified that I'd be stuck with the same style 24/7 but I proved myself wrong.    I've decided to share 3 different hair styles with all of you in case you are  indecisive as to whether or not you will  get the chop .  These 3 simple styles might require the help of a hairbrush, a bobbin, and also some hair clips,  but with those essentials anything is possible. so here's my 3 favourite everyday hair styles suitable for both long/short hair.

1.Straight
I'm aware this is an obvious one, but as I said,  I have wavy hair so for me I have to style my hair to achieve straight hair, so technically it's one of the three style options . I absolutely love my hair when its straight, but of course in order to achieve that straight look, heat is involved and I'm trying my best to avoid it unless there's a special occasion.

2.Baby Braids
Braids are the "in thing" nowadays and I am a massive fan of braids myself, as they are extremely easy to do.  They keep the hair out of your face and also I think they look kind of funky. When I got my hair chopped up, I thought my braid days were well and truly over as I was struggling to get it into a decent pony tail, but you never know until you try and guess what? I tried it an thankfully Baby Braids were a success!!

3.The Hun Bun
Of course were all familiar with the good old reliable "Hun Bun".  It is my all time fav hair style as it takes less than a minute to achieve.  Like the braids situation I also thought my days of the "Hun Bun" were long gone, but I was actually extremely surprised with the result besides the fact that it's quite small . 

So there you have it my top 3 everyday hairstyles. You may think that if you cut your hair, that you're limiting yourself as to what you can actually do with it on a daily basis, but you'll be quite surprised with the results you get. When my social life picks up and I start going out socialising, I'll pop up a post on going- out hairstyles. I hope I've helped those of you who couldn't make up your mind. I've loads more lined up for you all in  the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.
Until Next Time,

Much Love,
Caoimhe x

Saturday night Socialising..

Having plans for the weekend always sounds like a great idea when your having a pretty crap week, until it actually comes to the weekend and you have to make yourself some bit presentable to go out and socialise, but I suppose that's just the joys of being a girl.  I'm not going to lie, I probably spend more time getting ready to go out, than I what I spend when I am out. I can get tired quite rapid when I am out , it probably doesn't help that I spend about 2 hours getting ready. I don't drink, so I often find myself being the" party pooper"who just wants to sit in the corner, so overall I don't have a huge interest in going out  unless there's an occasion on like for instance a birthday party. So,  yes , I'll admit I am  not your average 19 year old.

Despite being boring last night, I headed to Cahir House Hotel for the DVD night of Cahir GAA's "Strictly Come Dancing" which I took part in last month.  It's not like ye didn't know that already, as I could have slightly bombarded my Facebook page with all things "Strictly", apologies by the way!  I decided to make the most of my rare appearance out on a Saturday night and I headed for dinner beforehand with my Momma and Fairy Godmother, Deirdre. I find I can get quite wrapped up in everything going on in my life and I sometimes tend to forget about all the other important things around me, so I love getting the chance to spend time with two very important people in my life. I left the house on Saturday night, and if that wasn't enough, I tried new food.  So now, to the best bit of me going out - the tan prep, the make-up, and of course the outfit.Personally, I LOVE getting ready to go out, what girl doesn't love playing with make-up?

Tan prep
As you may have seen in my last post "March Must Haves", I featured this body moisturiser and it's one of my fave products at the minute. So I always tend to tan myself the night before I go out, to give the tan time to develop, as I personally love quite a dark tan. So for me, my prep began Thursday, as when I finished exfoliating, I covered my body head to toe in Cocoa Brown Chocolate Whip so that my body would be hydrated for the tan to stick. On Friday night, before applying my tan, I then reapplied Chocolate Whip to the areas where tan tends to get clogged up - ankles, wrists, knuckles and elbows. When I was finished moisturising, I applied the Cocoa Brown 1 Hour Dark Tan to my whole body using the doubled sided Tanning Mitt and I woke up Saturday morning looking lovely and bronzed.

Make-Up
I have several different brands of make-up but as I knew, I wouldn't be staying out all hours of the night, I decided to use drugstore foundations. Starting with my face, I mixed both my L'Oreal True Match foundation and L'Oreal Infallible  stay fresh foundation together and then used Mac Mineralise Skin Finish powder to set my foundation, I used SoSu Complete Contour Palette for my concealer.  contour and highlight.  For my eyes , I used the Naked Palette, Benefits Bikini Tini Cream eyeshadow, and also Benefits Push Up eyeliner. As I was wearing red shoes, I decided to opt for my good old reliable Russian Red Mac matte lipstick and lastly to set it all off I used my Mac Fix Plus spray.

Outfit of the night
Since I was going for dinner, then onto watch a DVD I decided I wasn't going to wear anything too, OTT so I opted for my good old black Molly jeans which are €50  from River Island ,as they are a stretchy material so extremely suitable for eating dinner, always be prepared,  as you never know when your gonna get a food baby !!  I themed my Molly's with a black lace up top from Penneys  which was down to €3 what an absolute bargain!  My balck sequined jacket,  also from Penneys in Blanchardstown at the cost of €16 and lastly I added my favourite red heels which I got in Debenhams for €13.50 ,that's probably the only the plus side to having tiny size 3 feet the shoes are always for nothing.

 Dinner
Anyone who knows me will know I am possibly the fussiest person around when it comes to food.   I am the definition of a " plain Jane", so once I  find something that I like the taste of  in a Restaurant, it tends to be the only place that I will eat out from and for me. my favourite place to eat out at the moment  is of course Cahir House Hotel which is situated right in the centre of the square Cahir. As I mentioned I am "plain Jane"and normally stick to one specific dish so this time I decided to change it up a bit and  I opted for their Chicken Curry( half-portion)  and there's only one word to describe it ..WOW. Their food,staff and service is top class which makes eating out even more enjoyable .. so  the next time that you are arguing  with  your partner/family as to where to go for something to eat, how about you just avoid the argument and get yourself to Cahir House Hotel ASAP.

So that's a quick run through of my Saturday night. Obviously there was plenty of fun,  laughter and embarrassment involved with watching the DVD from "Strictly" but besides that,  I've told you basically everything about my rare night out socialising.  I'm aware it's not very exciting, but you have to start somewhere,  Who knows, this could be the turning point to the social side of Caoimhe Hickey. I said earlier this week on my Facebook page,  that I've been caught up with assignments for College  so I do hope to be back on track this week with my blog.
That's all for now, Thanks once again for reading my posts.

Much Love,

Caoimhe  x

"March Must Haves."

 Yes, I'm aware that It's now April so you're  all probably thinking why on earth is this blog post called "March Must Haves" well the answer is,I've been quite boring so far this month and I haven't really made any recent purchases in comparison to Last month. I've been fortunate enough since December, that Its been Christmas ,My birthday and Valentine's Day, so I couldn't just stop that 3 month trend of getting gifts!! I decided that I'd treat  myself to a few bits and pieces. Here are my top 5 March purchases.

1. Estée Lauder- Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup.
   I have tried almost every make up brands including Rimmel, Maybelline and L'Oreal and also the more expenisve brands such as Mac,Benefit and Lancôme, but I've never been 100% satisfied. I've had my eye on double wear for quite a long time now and whilst down in Cork  last month I just bit the bullet and I popped into Brown Thomas. I can tell you it was well worth the wait, it is AMAZING. If your like me and your that stereotypical irish person, with pale freakled skin and your looking for a foundation that will give you good coverage without looking caked you need to treat yourself to this foundation. I Purchased the foundation in shade "1N2 ECRU" sounds like some sort of weapon, but yes oddly enough that's the shade of my makeup. This specific make up is well known for its long lasting coverage and I can assure you it does exactly what it says on the bottle it literally does not budge from your skin from the minute you apply it, Unfortunatley the cost might turn you off purchasing as it retails at €38 for a 30ml bottle but as the saying goes "Price is what you pay, value is what you get".

2.Estée Lauder Take it Away Make Up Remover.
 When I purchased the Double wear, The sales assistant (who was extremely helpful by the way) informed me that it can be quite tricky to remove the foundation as its supoposed to give you 15hrs of coverage so I decide to treat myself once again and I picked up this absolute gem. Previously, I used the Garnier Micellar Cleansing water, But this product has brought removing make up to a whole new level. I actually enjoy removing my make up ever since I purchased this product. My make up is literally gone in seconds and that's one of the reasons I love it, its a must have for those nights all you want to do is jump into your bed but you still have your make up on, this product will solve all your problems with just 2-3 pumps and cotton pads. The other plus side I've found to this make up remover is that its super effective even when it comes to matte lipsticks. I know specifically when I wear Mac Russian red lipstick I can struggle to remove it and my lips stay kind of stained after, which of course Isn't a bad thing for a night out, but also its not the best for the day after.So after attending an event this weekend I put the remover to its ultimate test, I was wearing my double wear foundation and the Russian Red Mac Lipstick and the result was phenomenal, spotless in seconds. This product can be found in any Estée Lauder stockists nationwide including Brown Thomas, Debenhams and selected pharmacies and it retails at €24 for a 200ml bottle.

3.Cocoa Brown Chocolate Whip.
Onto something more affordable,This Oil-Free Body Moisturiser is my holy grail. Do any of you lovley ladies notice that tan can tend to build up in your knuckles, elbows, knees and ankles (even after exfoliating) which in result leave the areas looking 5 shades darker than the rest of your body? Well fear no more, Marissa Carter , the genius that she is has solved all our tanning problems, so ladies if you want to leave a blotchy tan free life get yourselfs to the nearest store that stocks "Cocoa Brown products and stock up on this moisturiser.Another great thing about this moisturiser is that you don't just have to apply it while you are wearing tan, you can aslo apply it when your not wearing tan as it leaves your skin feeling super soft and smooth so you really get the best of both worlds with this moisturiser and its an absolute bargain buy, retailing at only €5.95 for 200ml and is available from all Pharmacies and Penneys stores nationwide 

4.Penney's Make-Up Brush Holder.

speaking of Penney's where would us gals be without it? it seems to be the answer to all of our problem and last month I had a brush problem but guess what? Penney's saved the day once again. I have quite a lot of brushes as they are something I buy on a regular basis, but it can be quite hard to find somewhere to store the brushes so that the bristles don't get damaged. I spotted this Make up brush holder online and unfortunately mainly all the city stores get the best bits so us poor country gals loose out. So I got on the case straight away and took full advantage of having a sister living in Dublin. She picked this up in Penney's on Henry street for just €4. I managed to fit 6-7 brushes into my  holder so the only downside to the holders is that they aren't very spacious. I've decided to put my most essentuak brushes into my holder and I put the rest into a case that I got with my Real techniques brush set. For €4 I just had to get my hands on one as they are so handy for when you are travelling as its nice and compact.





5.Carino Miracle Shampoo and Conditioner with Argan Oil.
 Damaged hair is something I've struggled with in recent months. I was naturally born ginger and now as you can see,that Im a slightly altered blonde but of course that colour change didn't happen by itself. I've been getting highlights for 4-5 years now so as you can imagine it takes quite a lot of work to maintain the colour and condition of my hair. I have tried a wide variety of products to try and revive my damaged hair but nothing seemed to help only getting inches cut of my hair to leave it grow back thick and healthy,But we all know when we say just cut off the bare ends that its never just the ends and you leave the salon with what you feel is a bob, yes us women can be quite dramatic when it comes to our hair. I picked up a bottle of both the Carino Miracle Shampoo and Conditioner in my local Aldi store and thought what's to loose at €1.99 a bottle and  I was actually shocked with the result of how well this shampoo and conditioner worked together, my hair was left soft, full of life and also frizz free. so ladies if you have dry and damaged hair that you want to bring back to life get yourself to your nearest Aldi store.

So there you are that's my top 5 March "Must Haves". Some products on the more pricey side and some on the more affordable side, as you can tell I went from shopping in Brown Thomas at the start of the month to shopping in Aldi by the end of the month. Budgeting wouldn't be my strongest skill but I suppose that's just the joys of been a girl.!! I'm looking forward to letting you know more about other products that I've tried in my upcoming posts so stay tuned.Thanks for reading.

Much Love,

Caoimhe x

Living with M.E

Living with M.E can be very difficult at times.  Of course there's living with M.E (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), and on the other hand there's living with ME Caoimhe hickey, and let me tell you both of them are not that easy to live with. People may look at me and think that there's nothing wrong with me, but unfortunately  looks can be quite deceiving and Make-Up can be powerful. The past four years have been none the less quite eventful, you name the Hospital and I've probably been there.  

May 2012 is when my journey began after being admitted to Crumlin hospital, just two weeks before my Junior Cert was due to begin.I was admitted with the intention of being tested for "pheochromocytoma" a rare tumour on my piturity gland,the master gland of the body based at the bottom of the brain as I was showing all the signs and symptoms but thankfully my scans showed up clear,now with the worst ruled out we still didn't have the answer the ultimate question, what was wrong with Me? Of course ,I had people say  "you're a teenager you're just hormonal get on with it" and "We're all tired but we can't sleep all day" naturally, I began to feel like it was all in my head? Was I just feeling sorry for myself? I had been to all sorts of hospitals, I had done all sorts of tests with various results coming back abnormal but yet no one could pin point the cause of why I was constantanly getting fevers, sore throats, dizziness,swelling and pain in my joints and of course why I spent the majority of my life sleeping.  There were days I wouldn't leave my room I'd cry all day long out of sheer frustration. I was spending each day in excruciating pain. My appetite decreased and my weight increased purely from not leaving  the house which also didn't help the whole situation as my weight is something I would have always been extremely conscious of growing up. It  just seemed like a terrible nightmare that was never going to end. After a further number of tests and 8 days in Crumlin I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue syndrome which is  the alternative name for M.E. 

So after reading down through this article you might now be wondering what is all this M.E  malarkey about? So here's a little insight to what my life has been like since diagnosis. To begin I'll elaborate on the meaning of M.E  Myalgic= Muscle Pain Encephalomyelitis= inflammation of the Brain&Spinal cord. Its sounds a lot more complicated than it is and it's a bit of a tounge twister so we'll stick to the initials. Don't think I am alone with this debilitating disease as there are also over 12,000 people in Ireland; equally Both Males and Females, young and old  who are also suffering in silence. This is why I've decided to speak up and create some awareness, as it's not the most common illness in the world.

The unfortunate thing about being diagnosed with M.E is that there is no specific treatment for the illness it's all about management both activity and energy management so basically your life becomes controlled by this illness as you have to sit down and plan a full 24hours ahead before you leave the house. As I was 16 the February after I left Crumlin I was no longer considered a child so I  was referred to several specialists around the country who were mainly disinterested in my symptoms the only answer I got from most specialist was"Sorry there's nothing I can do for you, but that will be €180, you can pay my receptionist on the way out" despite the fact that M.E is recognised as a neurological illness by the world health organisation they just didn't seem to bat an eye lid at it, as far as they were concerned I was only wasting their time which is the downside to suffering with M.E in Ireland as no one wants to know about it. 

This exact day two years ago, the 7th of April 2014 i finally attended Dr.Speith an M.E specialist from London who officially once again diagnosed me with M.E and put both mine and my family's mind at rest as we had finally gotten an answer after 2 years. Even though I had officially  been diagnosed it didn't mean I would be miraculously cured, this was only the beginning of the road to recovery., but that's when reality set in for me I struggled big time with acceptance of the illness along with surviving school, I had just seen the massive contrast from Junior to Senior cycle in school. Throughout the 3 years of Junior  Cycle I absolutely  loved school. At the age of 14 what's better than having the lols with your friends each day. Doing subjects that you've chosen yourself you're not forced to do something that you have no interest in, ( science being the only exception) so relistically  you actually enjoy learning for the first time ever, oh and of course not forgetting for many of us it's the first time that you're in a class mixed with boys.  If you lovely ladies went to an all girls school like me you'll understand that you think all of your Christmas's have come at once (how wrong were we). 

When it came to the academic side of things ,I took school quite serious and never once failed an exam in the 6 years I attended secondary school.  Transition year I decided to take a break from the books and to look after my health , this was the toughest decision for me as all my childhood friends had gone on into 5th year.  I missed out on quite a lot during Transition year as its such an activity based year. I still tagged along to most of the trips and didn't leave them go completely to waste, as I became TY's official photographer.  5th and 6th year just seem to be a complete blur for me. I was probably at home more than I was in school, as I was doing 2-3 day weeks and as a result I had to drop levels in certain subjects in order to actually complete the Leaving Cert and avoid yet another relapse. 

 June 2015 hit and I completed my Leaving cert. I decided to take a trip to my Local G.P and I basically demanded to come off all medication. 9 tablets to take each day doesn't sound very appealing does it ? And it was definitely not something I wanted to become dependant on. I was willing to do anything other than have to depend on medication. After much research I arranged an appointment for Accupuncture and I have never looked back. For all you ladies/Gents who might just want to take time out for yourself to  relax and unwind Accupuncture is the way to go. It definitley was my saving grace and I'm finally medication free and getting by just fine without it.

4 years on I am still learning how to manage this condition,although I have had some tough moments through the years. I count my blessings that I am now at the stage that I am able get up out of bed and get on with my life. I'm not going to say that I've made a miraculous recovery since I've finshed school because I haven't. Of course not having the extra pressure of having to come home after 6 and a half hours of school to study for my Leaving Cert has lifted a massive weight off my shoulders. Yes , I still have days where I don't feel physically able to remove myself from the couch or do simple thing that you'd take for granted like washing your own hair can be a struggle for me some days as my joints can swell and become weak. Yes, that's when I whip out the Hun bun ,all jokes aside yes I do still get extremely bad headaches,dizziness and throats on a daily basis but I've learned to get up and get on with it and accept that this is probably something that I'll have for the rest of my life but I've opened up and I've talked about the illness which is the first step you need to make in order to be on the road to recovery.  If you are reading this article and you seem to have the same symptoms that I've brought to your attention  ( keep in mind I've only taken the ones I suffer with mainly, there are a whole heap of other symptoms that go hand in hand with this condition) then don't wait any longer go seek medical advice straight away.  

The one thing that made the adaptation so easy for me throughout this major change in my lifestyle was having the most supportive friends, family, and boyfriend who never left me lie under the condition sometimes they may have forced me to get up have shower and get dressed but its times like that, that have brought me to where I am today. They also never once left my side on my dark days and I can assure you I wasn't the easiest to put up with throughout the tough times as I'm a terrible bad patient and at the end of the day I'm still your average teenage girl so I'm hormonal even on a good day. 

I'm going to leave it there for now, I hope I haven't bored you all too much, but mainly I hope that I have made you aware that there are several people fighting invisible illnesses on a daily basis. I have loads more information to share with all you lovely readers so keep your eyes peeled for my next blog post. Thanks For Reading.

Until next time.

Much love,

Caoimhe X 

Getting To Know Me.

Where do i even begin,Blogging is something that I've been thinking of doing for a long long time, But I've never built up the courage to take the plunge and just go for it. Some of you might know who I am and what I do with my life but for those of you who haven't ever stumbled upon me, My name is Caoimhe Hickey, I'm 19 years old, and I live in Cahir Co.Tipperary, I'm currently a Part-time student studying Broadcasting/Journalism in W.I.T, Other than that I'm not a very exciting person. For anyone who doesn't know me,I've attached a picture just below in case you're like me and tend to create an image of someone in your head,then you see them and realise that your imagination just ran wild and they look nothing like you had imagined.

So now that I've the boring part over and done with it's time to fill you all in on how I choose the name "Its All About M.E" and also the content I plan on sharing with you throughout my blog. Firstly the name,  I had spent months of typing  "Blog Names" into google (I'm not very creative), I was lying in bed one night while I was sick (yes I had looked at all my Snapchat stories so I had nothing else to do) and all of a sudden it just came to me, "Its All About M.E"   Some of you are probably reading this thinking "this one has notions already and it's only her first blog post", but there's a method to my madness, I thought that as this blog will feature all my own opinions, , things that occur on a daily basis in my life and also for those who are unaware I suffer with a medical condition called M.E (Myalgic Encephalopathy) or you may have heard of it called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) which is also something  I hope to create more awareness by featuring updates of living with M.E so in two extremely diverse ways it really is a blog that will contain all things About Me and M.E (Myalgic Encephalopathy).

Don't worry I've got lots more exciting things lined up for you readers it won't be completely based on me although no doubt you will get a few updates of a day in the life of Caoimhe Hickey which sometimes can be quite bizarre, other than that my blogs will  contain information varying from  health and lifestyle updates to the latest fashion trends, all things beauty and of course I'll include all the latest Celeb Gossip. That's it from me for today,I've manged to survive my first blog ,I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit about me, stay tuned to see what I have lined up for all you readers.

Much Love,

Caoimhe. X