Kirstie & Aisling McDermott: beauty bloggers
HOW LONG DO YOU SPEND ONLINE?
AISLING:We spend hours and hours online. We're obsessed. Our site, , is really busy, so we spend loads of time on it.
KIRSTIE:My entire working day is spent on the internet. I'm a web designer, so it's perfectly legitimate! Then I come home in the evening and the laptop comes out, and I spend most of the evening with it on my knee.
WHAT DO YOU USE THE INTERNET FOR APART FROM UPDATING YOUR SITE?
AISLING:I love looking up where next to go on holiday, booking flights, anything like that. I use Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, and Lastminute.com for their reviews and price guides, then I go straight to the hotel site. I buy most of my make-up online. Strawberrynet (www.strawberrynet.com) is unparalleled.
KIRSTIE:We also look at a lot of other beauty sites. We love the Cosmetics Cop, Paula Begoun ( www.cosmeticscop.com); this woman tells it like it is, no holds barred. I regularly find myself giggling at her more acerbic reviews. MakeupAlley (www.makeupalley.com) is a great site to read reviews of products, and we also love www.kissandmakeup.tv, a UK site that's fab for finding out what's new and wonderful. We're also part of the beauty blog network ( www.beautyblognetwork.com), a portal site collecting together loads of really good blogs.
DO YOU BUY ONLINE?
KIRSTIE:I buy CDs, DVDs and books online from Play.com (because you don't pay for shipping) and from Amazon.co.uk. I also buy limited-edition screen-printed gig posters of bands for myself and my fella, from www.theshameofrockandroll.com. It's a great way to buy relatively exclusive artwork for a really affordable price.
DO YOU SELL ONLINE?
AISLING:I've never sold anything online, but we teamed up with the Beauty Swap Shop, a UK website, who set up Beauty Swap Siopa for Irish readers. So now I can swap my unwanted products and cosmetics via the Swap Siopa message board (www.beautyswapshop.co.uk/forum/ forum.php?id=11).
HAVE YOU MET ANYONE THROUGH THE INTERNET?
KIRSTIE:I have several friends I met through Thumped.com, an Irish site that's a great resource for the underground and independent music scene. We've also met an awful lot of really nice people through blogging. The internet is a great leveller, and it's a great way to meet like-minded people.
HOW HAS THE INTERNET CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
KIRSTIE:I wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for the internet. My job is 100 per cent online. And, of course, Beaut.ie exists because of the web, too.
AISLING:Because I'm a librarian I deal with finding information and leading people to sources of information. The internet has exploded the amount of information available, so it has changed the nature of my job as well as everything else.
WHAT ANNOYS YOU ABOUT THE INTERNET?
KIRSTIE:It annoys me that it has no built-in spellchecker - people's grammar and punctuation drive me nuts. Also, broadband provision in Ireland is appalling. The whole point of the internet is that it's available everywhere, or should be.
AISLING:One thing that bothers me is that blogging is a great way for people to make anonymous, nasty, hateful comments and get away with it.
In conversation with Fiona McCann