Honey, Honey...........

To celebrate the launch of my memoir 'His Name is Rebecca' and all the great things that have been happening in my life lately I decided to indulge myself and bought a pair of shoes to die for in 'Buffalo'.

Granny used to say 'pride comes before a fall' and flip her, she was right. The shoes were rubbing my feet and I developed a big blister. But I grinned and bore it. Pride feels no pain. Faboush shoes are hard taskmasters. Two weeks after the launch the blister was still there and still extraordinarily painful. I was visiting my dear friend Libby in Granard Co. Longford and she suggested I try Manuka Honey on it. I'll try anything once so Libby kindly applied a mixture of warm water with the honey melted through it on the sore spot and placed tissues over it. Off to bed I went and I swear when I got up in the morning not only was there no blister but not even a sign of a blister! Magic!

I'd love to develop a face cream or pack with Manuka Honey in it. Imagine what those healing properties could do for tired stressed skin.

As you know I had a little operation last week, all went well and I'm on the mend, so I'm rubbing the honey on my wound to help it heal as I need to jump back into my busy schedule. Manuka Honey and work, both great ingredients to getting me back to full belt health.

The big story at DeHavalland Models this week is our preparation for 'Fashion Rocks' a major fashion show we are organising to raise funds for 'Womens Aid'. The De Havalland team organising this major event include Bernie Cafolla, Maria Fusco, Danielle Mulvey, Louise Hession, Mari O Leary and Geraldine O Callaghan. With a team like that Dublin will not know what hit it.

So mark it in your diaries NOW. 'Fashion Rocks' in the Burlington Hotel on December 1st for the worthwhile cause of 'Women's Aid' Tickets will be €25 a head(available soon) and all of the major Irish fashion houses will be represented plus a few surprises!!I can't wait.

Must dash, have to catch a flight to London where I'm meeting up with a UK publisher interested in buying the Uk/Commonwealth rights to my memoir. Ooooh! I love it when a plan comes together!

Life is a whirlwind............

I have been terribly neglectful of my blog lately but honest to God I
haven’t had a minute.

I decided that Becca’s Bits n Bobs was number one on my priority list
for today so here I am! Life has been very sweet to me for the last
few weeks but incredibly busy.

My book launch –‘His Name Is Rebecca’ which is in all good bookshops and on Amazon of course - went off without a hitch in the Bellini Bar of the Burlington Hotel on
September 2nd. It was wonderful to be surrounded by family and friends
as they helped me celebrate what has been, to say the least, an eventful life. The wonderful Maria Tecce treated us to a stunning unaccompanied version of ‘Amazing Grace’ and that really set the tone for the whole night. Large amounts of good fun was had by all and we adjourned to Lillies Bordello to party the rest of the night away. A great night, one that will be a very special memory for me for many
years to come.

It has been all go since that, radio and tv interviews, and lots of press coverage. I have an ache in my wrist from signing books for all my wonderful readers and long may they keep reading and asking me to sign! De Havalland Models is going from strength to strength, Geraldine O'Callaghan of 'The Apprentice' has joined us as a celeb model and is available for work - a beautiful and determined young woman with a fantastic future ahead. We intend having a big feature on our stylist extraordinaire, Maria Fusco, on our new website which will go live at the end of this month or early October. We have lots of interest from really fabulous clients and all the top notch photographers and fashion houses in the country - busy busy, busy. Next stop the world!

I feel incredibly proud and privileged to be working with Team De Havalland and watching all my lovely models get work and find their well deserved niches in the tough world of high class fashion. Go Team!

Lulu and myself have settled nicely into our lovely new home and you know, every morning when I open my eyes I take a breath and say ‘Thank You’. Sometimes I wonder ‘why me Lord’ and then I laugh and say ‘why not?!’

Carpe Diem.

Miss Ireland arrives...........

What a week, it's all happening. Last week I told you how Maria Fusco, fashionista extraordinaire had joined the agency. Maria's unerring sense of style will ensure that Team De Havalland's has the top fashion stylist on our books.

Then the divine Louise Hession,who was quite definitely Ireland's top model in the Eighties hooked up with De Havalland Models. Joy! For me it is full circle as Louise worked with me many moons ago in Tallon models while she was home from the international fashion scenes in Munich, London, Paris and Tokyo and all before she was the ripe old age of twenty. Louise will be heading up the PR and Events Management arm of De Havalland Models. Louise organised events in the Parlour Bar (now Brooks bar) in Clontarf in Dublin from 2005 to 2007 - it was definitely one of the busiest hot spots at the time, and I'm sure she will be working her magic for any events that De Havalland are involved in in the future.

As if that wasn't excitement enough for one week Adrienne Rock, former Miss Ireland (1987) also decided to join forces with us. Adrienne wasn't with me in the Tallon days but I would have worked with her on fashion shoots on many occasions way back when. Welcome aboard Adrienne!Adrienne will be heading up the grooming for younger models in De Havalland and will be available for press launches, tv, openings etcetera. Isn't it faboush darlings!The cream always rises to the top.

So all that and I'm up to 90 working towards my book launch. Twenty-two sleeps! Promise me ye will all go out and buy it? It'll be worth all the effort in the end.

Have to go, I need some rest as I'm off to Belfast in the a.m. with Louise and Adrienne for the launch of Belfast Fashion week. It's all go, go, go.

It's a whirlwind world

I’ve been so busy my loves I almost forgot all about you! But not quite, so here I am again with a quick update on my world over the past few weeks.

Things are swimming along nicely at De Havalland Model Management and we attended the Baby Max Wings of Love fashion show where De Havalland Team models Tara D and KellyAnne were part of the PR team. The winner of Norway's Top Model Event - Dublin heat - was part of the team of lovely models. Well done girls - I am so proud of you. We chatted to the organisers of Norway's Top Model and have offered to represent the three girls who end up in the final heat. Beautiful young women - I must learn some Norwegian - it looks horrendously complicated with all those round fadas! I met up with many old friends (not 'old' old just the other old) including the delightful Maria Fusco - stylist supremo.

I thought I’d get a break from business this month to spend some time with my beloved family, but business has started to pick up and I couldn’t turn down any opportunity to propel the careers of my beautiful models into the limelight they so-o-o-o deserve. So it was nose to the grindstone and network, network, network! I did the hairstyling for a shoot with the Irish Independent’s Weekend Magazine which is due out next Saturday. Faboush! I've got my groove back - not that I ever lost it you understand, I just sat it on a shelf for a while, and it's all the better for its little rest.

Did you all see my pic in the Daily Mail with Maria Fusco and Mr ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern! Don’t we make him look good – eye candy on either side of him. Here’s a link to the pictures of the night.

http://www.showbiz.ie/news/july10/19-models-spotted-actually-modelling-in-dublin.shtml


Advance warning - clear the diaries for the Models for Charity event supporting Women's Aid which De Havalland Model Management is reviving. This event was run originally in the 80's and fizzled out after a few years. The event is pencilled in for Monday November 29th in the Burlington hotel. Any models out there from any agency who would like to be associated with the event please contact us.

And jeg verne (that's Norwegian for mes cheris) – my booklaunch! Only 38 sleeps away! Yes, I know it’s childish but that’s how excited I am about it all. I feel like a child again, waiting for Santa to come. And this time I know he’ll bring me what I asked for! Ooooh! Ain’t life grand. Be there – it will be the literary event of the year. Burlington Hotel, 6.30pm Thursday September 2nd.

Au revoir or as they say in Norway 'Farvel'

A good foundation..........

I'm back! Apologies for not blogging in a while but life has been busy, busy, busy and today is the first day I have been able to settle myself down to pass on some little beauty gems.

I started using a new foundation lately and I find it absolutely fantastic. It's called Lycogel and comes in various shades - honey, beige and ivory - so there will be one to suit each skin tone. Lycogel is almost translucent, requires no powder, is long lasting, water resistant and doesn't stain clothing. As well as ticking all those boxes it has an SPF of 30, a must for anyone who wants to protect skin from the aging rays of the sun.


So for that perfectly made-up face to last beautifully from day into night my advice is that after cleansing you should apply Clarins Beauty Flash Balm and immediately apply the Lycogel shade that suits your skin tone best. Neutral lips and smoky eyes make for a beautifully natural look.

For those of you who are sensibly avoiding the sun but would like that golden sun-kissed look I still say that a St Tropez tan - professionally applied - is the best option. I have not yet found any self applied false tan to be completely successful. But I'm willing to experiment - so let me know if you come across one that you think works.

Enjoy the sun darlings - but protect, protect, PROTECT your skin. Keep it lovely - it has to last you a lifetime.

Hair today......

I’m so excited this week, everything is full steam ahead for the big Charity Fashion Show in Krystle on Friday May 21st. I have been over and back to the club co-ordinating everything with the organsers and the designers. The beautiful De Havalland models are being drilled and put through their paces to give a sleek professional performance on Friday night. I can’t wait! It’s going to be a fantastic night so be there or miss out on the launch of brand De Havalland onto the Dublin Fashion scene. I think everyone who has seen the De Havalland models (check my webpage for pictures)will agree that they are all natural beauties, enhanced by their shining bubbly personalities. With my guidance and encouragement these young people will all go far. So be there and in twenty years you can say – ‘I was at one of their first public appearances.’

http://www.dehavalland.com/

Of course hair and make-up will be provided by moi , thus guaranteeing the best foot forward for the all the models!
Speaking of hair, De Havalland models have been using Patrick Kazz of the Global Hairdressing Academy. The Academy and associated Global Hairdressing School recently moved into a fabulous purpose built premises in Dublin’s Digital Hub on Thomas Street beside Kennedys Pub. Global is a fabulous salon that employs some of the top hairdressers working in Dublin today. If you want to learn with the best or be styled by the best the Academy or School are the places to go. The long-established and much respected Jimie O’Dee is Artistic Director of the salon and school beside Kennedys pub. Well worth a visit girls and boys if you want one of the best re-styling experiences of your life. These people are the business, top-end of the industry and know that the customer is Queen (or King!).

So that’s my beauty tip of the week – no more bad hair days – off to the Academy with ye.

Candle in The Wind...........

Little did I know when I started this blog last week that my second post would be on such a sad subject.

For a dear old friend, someone I haven’t met for a number of years but whose public life I always followed, has passed on. I write of Gerry Ryan of course, that broadcaster extraordinaire, showman, friend, family man and above all that vibrant, glorious human being.
I decided to blog only about Gerry today, for to talk of anything else right now would feel disloyal and superfluous.

I worked with Gerry on ‘Big D’ radio many moons ago; myself, Gerry and Dave Fanning were among others who in the late 1970's all threw our youthful enthusiasm behind the pirate radio station in a bid to challenge what we saw as a staid state-owned broadcaster. We had great, great fun with the station and played some wonderful music for our many fans. Eventually we were raided by the Gardai and shut down and we all moved onto other things. Gerry and Dave of course stayed in radio, moving onto the very RTE we had all challenged, and I moved back to my first love hair-dressing.

We kept in touch on and off over the years and I remember in particular a great chat I had with Gerry on his show in June 1989. It was the morning of Mandy Smith’s wedding to the Rolling Stone’s Bill Wyman. I was hair and make-up artist to the bride as well as a guest at the wedding and I talked to Gerry and the nation from the hotel. We had such a laugh. That’s what I will remember most about Gerry - laughter.

I lit a candle for Gerry today and as I prayed for him I watched the little flame dancing in a draft from somewhere. Our lives are so short aren’t they? Some unfortunately shorter than others and we should all aim to burn as brightly as we can, dance with life and bring comfort and support to friends and family during our brief burning.

Gerry’s was a very bright and merry flame and it certainly burned fiercely whilst it lasted. It seems incredible that he is no more. Rest well my friend.

My very first blog!

Welcome to my world! I intend to blog at least once a week, maybe more, on a number of subjects. I will be sharing some of my personal hair and beauty tips with you all and keeping you informed about any exciting events in Dublin’s fashion and beauty industry. I might even crack the odd joke!

The big event next month on Dublin's growing fashion scene will be the Eastern European Fashion Show (and Auction Sale) in aid of that wonderful charity ‘to Russia with Love’. The most divine garments - designed by some of our innovative new Eastern European friends - will be modelled by my beautiful De Havalland models in the nightclub Krystle in Harcourt Street on May 21^{st ,}

C’mon everybody! This is going to be a great night out in aid of a wonderful cause. There will be an auction of some of the garments modelled and a date with one of my beautiful girls is also up for auction! Form an orderly queue gentlemen please! In fact - girls form one too, we might also auction off a date with one of De Havalland’s magnificent male models ! Contact the agency for tickets or risk not getting in on the night.

This week’s beauty tip is a little messy but pride feels no pain ladies! It involves hair, water, shampoo and conditioner and Hellmans mayonnaise. It HAS to be Hellmans, none of your Aldi or Lidl ‘I can’t believe it not Mayo’ mayonnaise, I don’t know why but this trick only works with Hellmans, some sciencey thing to do with the number of eggs they use.

So, shampoo and rinse your hair as normal. Then slather in handfuls of the mayonnaise until all your hair is well coated. Bung on a shower cap or towel and read a magazine or file your nails for half an hour. Then you rinse thoroughly and shampoo, rinse and condition as normal. When you have styled your hair I guarantee you will see a huge difference in your lovely locks. This treatment works particularly well for curly hair, giving it amazing shine and body. You will be the envy of all your pals and draw admiring glances from everyone you meet.

If you try my little experiment please leave a comment to let me know how you got on.

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