Latest news with #Nikki
The Irish Sun
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
What are the viral Labubu dolls, how much are they and where can you buy them in Ireland?
LABUBU dolls are the latest craze to have taken over the internet, going viral on TikTok especially. The new viral trend has reached Ireland leaving 5 You've probably already seen these online Credit: TikTok/ Katleynnbrownn_ 5 Unboxing them online is the latest trend Credit: TikTok/ Tropicalnikki 5 The design is from a Hong Kong based artist Credit: Getty Images But what actually are Labubus and why is everyone so obsessed with them? The Labubu doll is an animated character with large eyes and several pointed teeth. The toy comes in multiple different colour options with purple, pink, blue, green, red and even a rare grey fur. They come on a keyring with people attaching them to their keys, bags and decorating their READ MORE IN MONEY The Labubu character is actually from a book called The Monsters Trilogy by artist Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung. They are inspired by Nordic folklore and are part of a collection of toys by Chinese company PopMart. The fluffy creature comes bagged in sealed packaging and you have to open them up to reveal what colour you got in your box. Celebrities have been spotted wearing them as their latest accessories and unboxing the toy on camera has become an online craze. Most read in Money Katelyn Brown, who posts under She even went back to buy more when she didn't get the colour she wanted first time around. I found Labubus at my local Centra and now I have a huge collection Posting the experience online she told followers: "We're in the Centra in Littlebridge." Revealing the desire for them around the area she explained: "I was in the Centra in Cookstown yesterday and the girls in the shop were telling me people were ringing looking to get Labubus off them." Katelyn revealed to followers she paid £8.99 for the furry friend which is around €10.50. However, prices across different stores in Ireland vary and can range from €10 up to €20 or €30. 'THEY'RE SO SOFT' In Dublin, Forbidden Planet in Temple bar are selling Labubus for €19.99. Content creator Nikki, who posts under Bursting with excitement she said: "I just want a cute little Labubu for my bags. "Let's just get into it because I actually just can't wait anymore. "I actually can't believe I just randomly walked in there and they just restocked them. Let's go." And taking her new toy out of the package she revealed a green Labubu, showcasing the excitement of the surprise reveals. Delighted Nikki said: "That's literally the one I wanted there's no way." She added: "They're so soft. That was such a success." 'MY CHILD HAS ME TORMENTED' Taking to the comments of Nikki's video viewers were equally as excited. One person said: "So jealous" Another added: "I run out almost in my pj to see if they have them" One person added: "I want please." A parent even added: "My child has me tormented." WHERE ELSE CAN YOU BUY THEM? Shops across the country have been scrambling to stock the colorful little dolls as the online craze grows. Here is a list of some places across the country who are selling Labubus: Conway's Centra, Derry Forbidden Planet, Dublin One Kick Ireland, Dublin Hugmie Liffey Valley, Dublin Greens, Belfast McNally's Centra, Monaghan Hugmie, Drogheda Lee's Centra Group, Limerick Togo Store, Wexford Dunman Centra, Tyrone Togo Store, Limerick Candy Cloud, Westmeath Togo Store, Carlow HOW TO KNOW IF THEY ARE REAL There are fake versions of the dolls retailing on the market, known as Lafufus. There are a few easy steps you can take to make sure you've snagged a real Labubu from PopMart. Real dolls will have nine teeth on the mouth and will come in matte packing with muted colours. There should also be a QR code on the care label of the accessory that you can scan. 5 They're quickly selling out across the country Credit: TikTok/ Tropicalnikki 5 They are worn as little bag charms or keyrings Credit: TikTok / Tropicalnikki
Times
a day ago
- General
- Times
Joe Wicks: ‘We had a chaotic childhood — Dad was a heroin addict'
I'm one of three boys. Mum met my dad and had Nikki at 17, me 18 months later, then my brother George ten years after that. We grew up in Epsom, Surrey, in a chaotic home. Both my parents suffered with poor mental health: Dad was a heroin addict and Mum had eating disorders and OCD. It was quite unstable. Nikki and I are both emotional but we have different personalities — I'm quite reactive and impulsive, while Nikki is calmer, more considered. He's very sensitive and really caring. If anything happens in my life he's my first port of call aside from my wife, Rosie. When we were teenagers we argued a lot. There were times I'd irritate him or grass him up for coming home late. But when Nikki was 18 he spent the summer working in the States, supervising students at Camp America. I really missed him. When he came back our arguing and annoying each other had dissipated. We realised we were brothers and we needed each other. From that point we had a strong bond. Saying that, we did have a huge row in 2009. It was on a cycling trip from Madrid to Barcelona, over a lilo I'd got for Nikki to sleep on. It wasn't a punching fight but I was on top and we were just screaming. He went off to ring Mum; I was ringing her too. It was a pivotal moment because we got all that childish aggression out. I've never raised my voice or been angry like that since. We might have a little row on the phone if I feel like my ideas get shot down, but we don't hold grudges. • Joe Wicks: 'I would have turned to drugs without exercise' My first connection with fitness and dealing with stress was when I was about nine. Rather than get angry and bottle things up, I thought I'd run around instead, do a karate club, anything. It was an instant shift. It calmed me down and gave me something to focus on. In 2012 I did a personal training course. I borrowed £2,000 off my mum, then my dad lent me £1,500 to get my equipment. I did my first fitness boot camp in Richmond — it was friends, family and one other person who didn't come back. I had a bike and trailer and would cycle there, five miles from home. I thought, 'If I can have boot camps in Surbiton, Cobham and Clapham and a few trainers working for me, that would be wonderful.' That was as far as my vision went. It was weeks before it got any traction. I remember sitting on the carpet one day and I burst into tears. I said, 'Dad, no one came — I'm never going to pay that money back.' Nikki could see I was deflated. It would be seven in the morning, pissing with rain, I'd just walked in the house and he would be, like, 'Did anyone turn up today?' He could see how hard it was for me. Nikki was working on a magazine in Singapore in 2014 when I started to take off on social media. I asked if he'd come back and help me. He had reservations about mixing business and family, but he came home and became my social media manager. Now he's my manager, agent and CEO. He's an amazing leader. I trust him with my life and he has given me the freedom to do what I love and be with Rosie and our children, Indie, six, Marley, five, Leni, two, and Dusty, one. We're really proud we're self-funded — and we've got to this point because we've worked hard. In the year after the first lockdown began in March 2020, my YouTube channel PE with Joe got 100 million views globally. We still get two million views a month. • Joe Wicks: Anti-obesity drugs are a temporary fix I had no idea I was going to build this big brand, but we've done it together as brothers. Nikki asks me the questions no one else is asking. Hand on heart, half the success you see is me, half is Nikki. Joe and I have such different memories of childhood. It's almost like two different lives. Joe was wild and fearless, while I was anxious and scared of everything. I used to think the police were going to come and take us away. I was very aware of what was going on with our parents but I don't think Joe was. When he did the BBC documentary Joe Wicks: Facing My Childhood, that was the first time he'd spent proper time thinking back. But I understood when I was young that my dad had problems with addiction. I'd know instantly if he'd used and would try not to let Mum find out. I'm 41 now and realise I took on the role of protecting everyone. As kids Joe and I were inseparable. We were both naughty and we had no boundaries. We'd play 'knock down ginger', go out at eight o'clock in the morning and come back at eight o'clock at night. We had the same friends and all the same things, but in different colours — we were obsessed with the Ninja Turtles. And we fought constantly. I've got two boys and I've realised being together and fighting is weirdly a sign of closeness. At Camp America I really missed Joe. When I came back it was like a switch had been flipped. We lived with Dad in his flat for a while. I was working as a journalist on the London Olympics and Joe was doing his boot camps, and he would come home at 7am as I was getting up. I remember feeling sad for him when he said no one came. We were on a bike ride one evening when he said he'd thought of a name for his business: the Body Coach. I said, 'I love it.' • Joe Wicks: I've taken my five-year-old out of school When he asked me to come and help him, the question in my head was: if I don't, will he end up with someone who takes advantage? I told him I'd do the thing I'm good at, which is content — we'd set up a blog and a YouTube channel. My plan was to have my own content agency; but I never had time for any other clients. I say I'm an accidental CEO. We were building a tech team for the app and someone asked who they should report to. I told Joe, I think I need to be the CEO as people want to know who's running the company. We're both bad at acknowledging the impact of things we've done. When we did the HIIT workout world record in Hyde Park in 2017, almost 4,000 people came. I cried; his boot camps with no one there felt so recent. People would tell Mum, 'Your kids are going to end up in all sorts of trouble.' Even now it's a shock that Joe and I have been successful together. We've built this whole thing on our instincts. I was in his ear during PE with Joe, doing shout-outs and making sure the camera didn't cut out. He says his MBE is half mine, but I don't feel that. Joe never wanted to be famous. I think being a dad has changed him more. It's 13 years since he started and he is still talking about the same things he'd have said at his first boot Joe Wicks Festival at Kew is on July 6; For more information, visit Joe on NikkiNikki is unnaturally grumpy in the morning. I've learnt not to speak to him or make eye contact until he has downed his coffee Nikki on JoeJoe is annoyingly energised in the mornings. When we travel together he tries to get me up at 6am for a workout
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
As a carer, I'm not special – but sometimes I need to be reminded how important my role is
When I started watching the Disney+ show Dying for Sex, I was wary that the cancer storyline might hit a bit too close to home, after our teenage son was diagnosed with cancer in 2022. The series follows Molly (Michelle Williams) who decides to leave her marriage and pursue sexual pleasure after being diagnosed with stage four cancer. And yet while it's a difficult watch for obvious reasons, it wasn't the 'cancer stuff' that hit me where it hurts (everywhere); it was the portrayal of Nikki (Jenny Slate), Molly's best friend, who takes over as carer when Molly leaves her husband. Nikki loses her job, her relationship, her house, her own mental health. And it's very rare that we see the role of a carer highlighted in pop culture in this way. When I took my son to emergency with odd symptoms, I initially assumed I'd miss a day or two of work. That was over two years ago. My work computer still has a tab open from Googling his symptoms and a Slack message saying I'd be offline for the rest of the day. I haven't been back to the office since. And our landlord did what landlords do and landlorded so hard (increased our already staggeringly high rent) that we had to find affordable, wheelchair-accessible housing in the middle of a rental crisis while our lives imploded. What Slate's portrayal of Nikki does is give caregiving the value it deserves. We see the duality of care, how she does so imperfectly, but from a place of deep-seated love, not obligation or duty, and yet we also see the cracks form as she faces the reality of the tasks she has to perform. One day at hospital, I had forgotten to put my mask on as I walked back inside. One of our son's very senior doctors, who had only ever seen me from the bridge of my nose up, looked at my face, seemingly baffled, and said, looking right at me: 'You're not Natasha.' It took a while for me to realise there was a disconnect between how he imagined I looked versus how I actually looked without a mask. But before I registered that, there was a weird moment where it sounded like a prophecy. I was no longer me. Because that's how I felt. On many days, as the physical and mental toll renders me a hollowed-out version of my former self, I hear his words echo back to me. You're not Natasha. We deal with everything by leaning into the absurdity of our situation. And although what we have to endure individually and collectively as a family is always too much on any given day, there is grace and humour and a ridiculous number of memes. And this, I suppose, is also what I loved about Molly and Nikki's relationship. There is heartache and devastation but also beauty and laughter, and above all else, friendship. It's hard to reconcile that while as parents we desperately wish we could give our son his health back, we also feel the very real privilege of the time we get to spend with him each day that we wouldn't otherwise. My husband and I do not possess any special qualities that have prepared us for our new roles as carers. We are not special. And this is the point. There are 3 million unpaid carers in Australia. Caring for siblings, for parents, for friends, for children. Some caring for multiple people at the same time. Some do so out of choice and some have no choice. Some balance paid work, some do not. All are forced into systems that exist to seemingly help the chronically sick and disabled but actually create barriers to accessing help and place further burdens on carers and the people they care for. The 2024 Carer Wellbeing Survey found carers are being left behind in most of the key indicators of wellbeing including loneliness, psychological distress and financial hardship. Being a carer is not exceptional, though we may have to do so in exceptional circumstances. When our son was first discharged from hospital, and the reality of his complex medical needs hit, I joined a Facebook group for carers, assuming I would find some tips and tricks. But instead, each day was a barrage of posts, desperate carers asking for help. 'I'm at breaking point ... ', 'I don't know what to do ... ', 'I can't go on like this ...' It seemed I was doing everything right then: existing at breaking point was part of the job description. There is a Post-it note on my laptop placed there by my husband: 'Best Mum!' He has a habit of hiding notes around the house that I always happen to find exactly when I need them. 'Keep it up!' they say. 'You're doing so well!' I think of the doctor and the look on his face when he said: 'You're not Natasha.' I add another Post-it to my laptop. 'Remember who the fuck you are,' I write in thick black sharpie. What we're doing feels impossible. And sometimes we need to see ourselves reflected back to us (in books, on the screen) to remind ourselves that we are doing this important, beautiful, impossible thing. Natasha Sholl is a writer and lapsed lawyer living in Melbourne. Her first book, Found, Wanting was published by Ultimo Press in 2022
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Makeup artist helps bride's mother regain confidence by covering her eye bruises, winning hearts online: Watch
Makeup is more than just beautifying one's facial features for glam. It's also empowering, letting people feel like themselves again and regaining confidence. This holistic philosophy was beautifully reflected in a viral Instagram video of a MUA (make-up artist) posted on March 6, which has gathered much love among netizens, garnering over 3 million likes. The technique the MUA used is colour correcting.(Instagram) Makeup artist Nikki Fraser Lemon helped Jan, who suffered a horrible fall just before her daughter's wedding, resulting in dark purple bruising under her eyes and a local hematoma on her forehead. For every mother, a child's wedding is one of life's most anticipated milestones, a moment where looking and feeling your best isn't just for yourself, but for your children too. But this unexpected injury left Jan feeling disheartened, unsure of how it would affect even her daughter on the big day. Which makeup technique did the MUA use to hide the bruises? This is one of the examples that shows the potential of makeup and how the right techniques can help neutralise any uneven skin barrier or tones. In this case, she rectified the dark eye bruises with the help of a colour corrector. For the uninitiated, colour correctors are tinted makeup products that help balance or cancel out certain specific skin tones, like hyperpigmentation or bruises. It uses a lot of colour theory to help even out the skin colour, concealing any discolouration. Colour corrector is added at the base, before foundation. Nikki did the same for Jan's makeup. Nikki explained, 'I counteracted the bruising on her upper eye, correcting and then also using warm tones for the eye shadow. Colour corrected under the eye with yellow first to first counteract the blues and purples, and then added a very peachy, almost orange corrector to cover even more and layered even more a few times with corrector. I used an aerosol foundation that won't disturb the colour corrector work underneath and then brightened with concealer. I blended a lot with using very soft brushes, trying not to disturb the skin, so we didn't want the skin to look patchy or dry." The makeup artist used aerosol makeup, also known as airbrush foundation, as it is lightweight and doesn't require repetitive strokes with sponges or brushes. This was helpful for Jan, as it wouldn't disturb the colour corrector work underneath. How did the internet react? The comment section buzzed with inspired reactions about Jan's transformation, while also appreciating the technical brilliance of the makeup technique and the MUA's skills. An Instagram user pointed out the core principle behind the makeup technique of colour correcting that was used to cover the bruises. They lauded, 'This is colour theory at its finest. A true artist." Another person commented on how important the transformation must have been for Jan and her daughter, saving the day, saying,'Not only did you make this woman feel better, but the bride too. I would not be able to enjoy my wedding when every time I looked at my mama she was all bruised up 🥺' A third user echoed a similar sentiment, appreciating the MUA's skill and sharing, 'I'm sure this made her year! You are a miracle worker👏🙌' Makeup is an art that needs precision, sharp mastery, and this example proves it. As one user appreciated the MUA and wrote, "This is a mastering of your craft that is just wildly impressive, it's also using it in such a beautiful, significant way! I hope you're proud of yourself!!!! You did so good. She so gorgeous." ALSO READ: Want your makeup to look flawless? 6 techniques for a long-lasting base that won't budge
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
The One Show star announces big change to BBC show and viewers will be sad
A famous face on The One Show announced that one segment of the BBC show will be taken off air for the summer A The One Show favourite made an announcement about the BBC programme as they revealed a major segment is set for a summer hiatus. In Wednesday's (June 25) instalment of the popular evening show, Alex Jones and Clara Amfo were joined by Matt Allwright and Nikki Fox to celebrate Watchdog's 40th anniversary. The episode was dedicated to celebrating Watchdog's milestone, with Matt and Nikki reminiscing over recent triumphs from undercover stings to significant policy shifts and hefty consumer refunds. As the episode wrapped up, Matt expressed his gratitude: "Happy birthday Watchdog and everybody who has worked on the show, amazing people. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us over the last 40 years because without you it would not mean a thing." Nikki chimed in with appreciation for the audience's input: "We can not do it without your stories.", reports Wales Online. She then dropped the news that her segment would be taking a 'break', announcing: "Watch Dog is going to be taking a break over summer and we are back in September so please keep them coming." The beloved consumer investigation show, first broadcast on BBC1 on July 14th 1985, has saved people millions of pounds as it has taken to task rogue traders, even uncovering fraudulent activity. Despite its end as an independent series in 2020 after 35 years and 1,084 episodes, Watchdog has continued to play a vital role within The One Show, providing essential consumer protection segments. Throughout the years, Watchdog has unearthed bewildering cases such as phoney banking apps, fake Royal Mail stamps, and fictitious complimentary flights. Ahead of the show, Matt said: "We've had instances of getting tens of £1,000s of pounds back for people. But the ripple effect of that is all those other people who look at that and use it as a negotiating tactic. Whatever we've got back for people, and it's millions of pounds without a shadow of a doubt, you can add a multiplier to that." He added: "I don't like bullies. I don't like people that use the strength of their position to get one over on other people. I think you know that sense of injustice, where you can see somebody who has got your money and doesn't feel the need to do right by you because they're a big company and they'll never see you again. "I feel a sense of pride that once a week you get the chance to turn that on its head and say, 'No, you're not always going to win'." The One Show airs weekdays from 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer
