I was delighted to be invited on TV3’s Ireland AM along with Deirdre Featherstone, a fellow Irish breast cancer blogger who’s blog is called “Kicking the Shite out of Cancer” on Thursday 15th October.
I arrived into Dublin the day before to be styled by Judy Gilroy at Oasis. Her room was super cool with an amazing view of St. Stephen’s Green and an uplifting soundtrack of buskers floated up to us from outside.
For all of my TV appearances so far, I decide what neck-piece I’m going to wear first and then I choose the outfit to match it. Insane? Yes!! But hey, I’m a Chemo Queen and Bling is My Thing! On a table I set out all the neck-pieces I brought with me and we decided that my Mr T silver neck-piece would be the one.
I felt really sorry for Judy as my body decided to put up a fight and not look nice in any of the first options we picked out together. Finally, just as I was about to throw in the rag, we found an outfit that ticked all the boxes and complimented the neck-piece perfectly. Mental Note: I really need to get back into shape!
The evening before I tried out Mr. Blanc teeth whitening strips which I’m happy to report were gentle on my sensitive teeth and I noticed an instant improvement. As I had to start getting read at 6am, I thought I would make my morning preparation as easy and as stress free as possible by organising the make-up I would be using into a bowl the night before. I used Barry M Dazzle Dust in Grey on the inside of my eyes and Black MAC eye-shadow on the outer corners. Since I don’t have super white teeth, I’ve learned from my last Xpose TV appearance that coloured lipstick makes my teeth look greyer than they are on TV so now it’s clear lip gloss all the way.
Another thing I have learned is to not bother with acrylic nails for TV and events anymore. For me it’s waste of time and money as straight afterwards I cut them with a nail clippers so I can play the piano! Instead I pick up Boots Perfect Finish fake nails in either Bordeaux or Coral and they usually last a week. Also, when they do come off, they don’t ruin your nails underneath like acrylic do.
Once at TV3’s HD Sony Studio, I met the lovely, bubbling and hilarious Deirdre Featherstone. I loved learning about her story with breast cancer and what her approach has been. The one thing that struck me about the studio was how relaxed and chilled everything was. For the other TV shows I have done so far, they always tell me what questions they are going to ask me at least 5 minutes before I go on so that I have some idea what to say. For Ireland AM we didn’t get any prep on the questions, but we were told it was just going to be a “chat”. And chat we did! Presenters Sinead Desmond and Mark Cagney are true naturals; they made us feel so comfortable the minute we sat on the couch cracking jokes with us that when it was time to go live, I had forgotten the cameras were even there!
The one thing I now have to remember when I’m being introduced is to smile: ALWAYS! You never know when the camera switches to you. The funny thing was I was smiling the whole time they were leading us in but I stopped smiling for a few seconds and boom, the camera was on me! This TV thing is a learning curve!
What I wore:
- Outfit: Grey long sleeved dress, faux fur waist coat, black leggings and black boots: Oasis.
- Neck piece: All my amazing big neck-pieces come from: 365 Fashion Ebay http://stores.ebay.co.uk/365fashions
- Earrings: In a rush the day before, I grabbed some nice subtle ball shaped silver earrings from Boots for Eur 4.
Readers: Remember to like “aheadwithstyle” on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram so you are kept up to date with what I’m to and for daily doses of Chemospiration! Update: I have been invited to be part of RTE 1 Today Show’s Breast Cancer Special on Tuesday 20th October from 4.10pm – 5.40pm so make sure to tune in or press record.
Watch my Ireland AM Appearance here:
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