What I wore: Winter Daisies

I wore this last week when I had a job interview in a clothing store (didn't work out by the way, boo!). I bought this dress back when it was warm, just after I got home from England. I only got a few wears out of it in the warmer weather, it shrunk a little in the wash so it was a little too short for me to wear without tights. But now it's winter, I can chuck a pair of tights on underneath and a cardigan on and it's perfect. Because this dress is very neutral, I can really go out there with colours for everything else, and I love coloured cardigans and tights. Kmart have a bunch of pink and purple tights at the moment for only $3. I may have gone a little crazy and bought at least one pair of each colour. So far no holes, so I'm pretty happy! You can also see my tattoos through them, which I love. As for the cardigan, both Cotton On and SES had a bunch of coloured cardigans last Autum/Winter, but I haven't seen them this year. Modcloth have a bunch of rad coloured cardigans, but are a little more expensive.

Revlon Colourburst Matte Balms in Unapologetic and Showy

These have been around for a while now, and Ive seen that most people have picked them up. They just came out in the UK before I left England and was tempted there, but didn't end up picking any up until I saw a $10 off Revlon products in Myer a few weeks ago. I was a huge fan of the Just Bitten Kissable balm stains, and couldn't pass up a matte version!

First I'll just comment on the packaging. I found the writing on the side rubbed off the old kissable balm stains super quickly, and these have been kicking around in my handbag for a good fortnight without anything coming off. I think that alone is impressive. They're wind up, which I love - nothing worse than a thick lip crayon that you have to sharpen!

They have the same minty scent as the kissable lips balms, which I love.

Unapologetic is a lovely coral colour, my favourite lip colour! Showy is a nice bright pink.

As for the formula, they're so lovely. You can see in the swatches below that they can cling to dry patches, which is pretty common in matte formulas anyway. They're so easy to apply too. They aren't entirely matte, like Mac Ruby Woo is, but they're good enough for me.
I found Unapologetic lasts a fair bit longer than Showy, and after applying a couple of times is hard to get off when you're taking your makeup off at the end of the night because it's stained your lips. Showy needs a bit more touching up, and rubs off when eating.

Unapologetic and Showy  

Unapologetic (top) and Showy (bottom) - Sunlight

Natural light

With flash.

Showy (bottom) compared to Kissable balm stain in lovesick (top). Their packaging is very similar in colour, but you can see they're quite different, something I was worried about when I bought Showy.

If I can find a deal as good as that again I'll definitely be picking up more. What are your favourite shades of the matte balms?

Weekly Nail: Strawberry Ice Cream

Sorry this is a day late! Today is my Friday, and I've had a really busy week at work. I get one day off and then have to get straight back into it! I can't really complain though, gotta work to make money. I wasn't too sure how I was going to do my nails this week. I've been trying to decide what nail polish I should take overseas with me, and now I just need to figure out which pink to take! I have a lot of pinks, so I think I need to use a few to see which is my favourite.

Wish List: I just need to spend!

This week the fact I haven't been buying makeup has really taken it's toll. I've been good since I did my MUA haul in early Feb, and have only bought a handful of items since, and now I really just want to go into Priceline and buy everything! I'm trying to hold out though, because even though there have been some awesome new releases here, there's even more products over in England for me to buy that we don't have here! I guess I'm just going to have to shop my stash a little longer to get me through (or maybe just buy one little thing?).

1. Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation    2.  Revlon Colorstay Whipped Creme Makeup
3. Rimmel Lasting Finish Kate Moss Matte lipstick 103 (l) and 107 (r)
4. Real Techniques Expert Face Brush
5. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Painted Purple (l) and Pomegranate Punk (r)

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation - I really want a new foundation. I've been using the same one since late last year and I'm ready to try something new, and definitely something with a little more coverage. I haven't even really looked at this one in the shops, I'm too scared that if I swatch it I'll just want to buy it even more!

Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation - The same goes for this, I just want to try more foundations! The ridiculous price definitely stops me, but I've heard so many great reviews and this is full coverage so I'm so tempted to pop into Priceline and get it now during their $25 Revlon foundation sale. I did actually have a look at this in Priceline today and now I want it even more - it blended in so well and gave really good coverage.

Rimmel Kate Moss Matte lipstick - I heard about these a long time ago and for some reason it didn't even click that they weren't available here, I just thought Priceline and Target were being lazy! I'm a bit confused why our colour range is so small - I would have loved to get 110 or 101, but I would definitely settle for 103 or 107 (see swatches on Beauty with the Beautifool here)

Real Techniques Expert Face Brush - I'm sure this has been featured in another of my wishlists, and I still want it. I've said before that I have a very small brush collection, and I really want to make an order for a few Real Techniques brushes off iHerb! I had a look at some buffing/stippling brushes in Priceline today and it just reiterated the fact I want a Real Techniques one! I've just been using my hands for my foundation lately, it does the job but I'm using way more product than I need.

Maybelline Color Tattoos - Pomegranate Punk and Painted Purple - I'm probably the only person in the world now who doesn't own one of these. I've got a couple of Essence Stay All Day long lasting eyeshadows (which are being discontinued!) which I like, but would love some of the colours available in this range, and to be honest I just want to experience the hype! Pomegranate Punk seems really close to MAC's Cranberry eyeshadow and I think they'd work really well together.

Do you ever get those moments where you just need to spend money?

What's on your wishlist at the moment?

March Favourites

This month, even though I've been stuck in a bit of a makeup rut, has found a bunch of new (and a few old) favourites!

Revlon Lip Butter in Peach Parfait

I found this hiding at the boyfriends place late last month after it had been missing since before New Years! I've been using it almost daily since then because it's such a great subtle lip colour.

MUA Shimmer Kisses Bonzer

Yes, I was disappointed in this product but that doesn't stop it from being amazing in a totally different way than what I was expecting. It's a great highlighter!

Ulta3 green mini polish from the Be Mine pack

Holy dooly, I love this polish! I've been after a green like this for ages!

Essie Bikini So Teeny

I've been using this polish quite a bit with my 'nail art' (if you can call painting each nail a different colour nail art) and it's just perfect for it. Ok, maybe I want to just add every polish from this weekly nail to my favourites, but if I had to pick one it would be this blue.

Revlon 3D mascara

I hadn't really given this a fair go until now after getting it in a gif with purchase last year (and not opening it until January). I find that it's really runny and more often than not I end up poking myself in the eye when applying it. But when I actually get it on it's fantastic for lengthening my lashes and the thin brush means I can get really close to the lashline, and in turn not have to bother tightlining (which I never do because I hate doing it).

Non-beauty
Author: John Green.  I read The Fault in Our Stars last month and absolutely adored it. I haven't done much reading in the last few years so it's great to finally find an author I love again. I then read Paper Towns and couldn't put it down! I've been to the local library to try and pick up more of his books, but seems everyone is loving him at the moment and all of his books have a long wait list!

Drink: Cointreau Fizz. I've been loving this drink this month! It's just Cointreau, lime and soda water but it's real delicious! I got the recipe from watching Dita Von Teese on a morning show. I've also been enjoying Southern Comfort and lime over ice (with a teaspoon of sugar stirred in).

What were your favourites this month?

What I wore: Confetti dress

excuse the duck face

I bought this dress towards the end of last year off Modcloth and I really love it. It was reduced from like $90, and I was contemplating buying it at full price, but then it went on sale for half price! I had to get it then, but left it too late and they had sold out of my size. Just when I was about to order it a size down, my size came back on sale! Fate! It is a little frumpy, the bust is huuuge! I could probably get it tailored but I don't really mind. Possibly the best thing about it, after the awesome print that makes me think of confetti, is that it has pockets! It's still been reasonably warm here. We had a nice week where it was really cool, but now it's hot again. I really really cant wait for the weather to cool down more so I can start wearing tights and cardigans again (I bought some lovely scarfs and a granny jumper that reminds me of Grifindor from work recently and I can't wait to be able to wear them!).

Products:

Nude by Nature Undercover Airbrush Mineral Primer

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 51

Rimmel Stay Matte powder in Peach Glow

Essence Renesmee Red Blush

MUA Shimmer Kisses Bronzer

MUA Pro-Brow eyebrow kit

L'Oreal Color Infallible Tender Caramel

MUA Undressed palette shade 1 and 4

MUA single matte shadow shade 19

Revlon Photoready 3D volume Mascara

Ulta3 Lipliner in Honey Bun

MAC Angel

This is basically what I've been doing with my face lately! Neutral eyes and lip, no liner, bronzer. I dug Tender Caramel out recently because for some reason I didn't get much use from it after i bought it and I've been loving it lately! Same goes for the Revlon 3D volume mascara, for some reason it sat in my draw unloved... but it gives amazing length (not so sure about volume though). The formula is a little wet and I've managed to poke my eye with it more than once, so it took a little to warm up to it. I've also dug out my Essence Renesmee Red blush from the Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 collection, which I hid because it's scary lookin'. Candice from YouReview inspired me to give it another go after reading this post and I've been applying it with a very light hand and we've been getting along ever since. The Rimmel Stay Matte is a new purchase and so far, so good!

Today I'm going to my university graduation! 3 years of hard work (ok, just work) and I get a degree! Yipee!

What have you been wearing a lot lately?

Win the MUA shimmer kisses bronzer and undressed palette in my giveaway!

Weekly Nail: Pistachio and Peach

This week I thought I'd share a mani done with two polishes that are new to my collection. Both polishes I've actually never used before, and I couldn't decide between them so I went with both!

I used Revlon Peach Smoothie, from their scented collection, and MUA Pistachio Ice Cream from my latest MUA haul.

Peach Smoothie is a lovely pastel orange colour with a slight shimmer, which I managed to pick up at Priceline for $5 a few weeks ago. It applies quite sheer but builds colour easily, with only 3 coats needed to get opaque. It was definitely the easiest of the two to apply. It does have a little peach scent to it when it's dry, but it's quite a chemically smell and not that strong, so I wouldn't purchase if the only reason you're getting it is for the scent. For some reason it dried with a lot of bumps! All the nails with this polish on seem to have them.

I was really expecting a more greeny colour from Pistachio Ice Cream, so I was a bit disappointed when it dried more blue than green. This is without a doubt the streakiest polish I've ever used! The brush is really coarse and small, and to get a decent coverage you really need a lot of polish on the brush. It wasn't too bad after 3 coats (2 heavy coats would have done, but I made the mistake of doing a really thin first coat) and it evened out a little. The wear time on this is not great. I had chipping on almost all of the nails with this polish the day after I applied it (and used Sally Hansen Diamond Shine Base and Top Coat). None of the nails with Revlon nails had chipped yet! I'm a bit dissapointed with this polish, but I can't really complain for a polish that's worth all of about $1.50 (and I got it half price too). I would like to try some more MUA polishes when I get to the UK and I have my eye on Mud Pie, so hopefully that works out better.

January Favourites

Over the last 2-3 months I've been using pretty much the same products all of the time, but there are a few products that have stood out to me this month that warranted a favourites post. I think I'll try and pick 5 favourites each month, to keep things short and sweet.

Lush Snow Fairy
I won this in Jasmine's Surprise Christmas Giveaway and I've been using it almost every day since. It smells so good!! It smells just like the Lush Bubblegum lip scrub, which smells like bubblegum and sweet lollies. It leaves a nice mild scent on you that's only noticeable if you smell your arm. I'll definitely be buying this one next Christmas!

The Body Shop Cranberry Joy Body Butter
This is another product that I've been using almost every day. I love the smell and how hydrating it is. I've got really dry skin so I can get away with using this daily. It's been a while since I've used Body Shop body butters and I've had some horrible experiences with cheap body butters that are really oily, but these are great.

Australis Colour Inject Mineral Lipstick in Lick the Icing

I bought this product because I thought it would be cool to photograph for the photo competition Australis was holding for their birthday celebrations (I think that's what it was for anyway). I thought it was a lovely colour, but was pretty sure I would struggle to use it, especially for just regular everyday make up. But this month I've managed to pull it out quite a few times and I love wearing it. It's something different as I'd usually wear reds or darker pinks as lipstick.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balmstain in Romantic
I've been wearing this at work a lot. I usually don't have time to re-apply my lippy during the day so I need something that's going to last me until my break. It also doesn't transfer easily so I don't end up with red down my face if I accidentally wipe my face or something. The colour took a while to grow on me, at first I thought it was far too dark, but now I love wearing it! As you can see from the picture I've been carrying it around a lot - the writing has almost all come off!

Covergirl LineExact liquid eyeliner

Lately for work I've pretty much just been doing winged eyeliner for my eye makeup. This is the first liquid eyeliner I've managed to use successfully (although my first was super cheap and I never really tried!) and now I love using it, a lot more than pencil liner. I know it's not really a blogger favourite, and there may be better ones out there, but this one has been working great for me.

Lick the Icing, Romatic, LineExact thick and Thin Lines.

Weekly nail: Bikini So Teeny

Since I've decided (been forced!) to stop buying nail polish, I thought it might be a good idea to try and go through my current nail polish collection and start posting my nails weekly. I have a ton of nail polish (some I haven't even used yet!) so it shouldn't be hard to find colours that I want to use.

First off I wanted to use some of the nail stickers I got from the Christmas blog swap. I also dug out my mini Essie polishes from the bikini so teeny collection because they're great summer colours. I used Essie Bikini So Teeny and Revlon Silver Dollar, and used Seche Vite as a top coat. I'm not a huge fan of applying these Essie minis, or really any Essie polish. I find they tend to go on pretty unevenly. This took me 3 coats, and it still ended up being a bit splodgy in spots. I was rushing it a little, so that could have had something to do with it, and I'm sure if I took the time it probably would have only taken 2 thicker coats. I only used one coat of Silver Dollar, as it's a very opaque polish. I do love this combination together and I can't wait to see what else I can do with the rest of the collection!

I'll make sure next week I take a bit more time so my nails aren't so messy.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain review

I'm a bit late to the party posting about these, but I guess you can never have too many review about things. This product has had so much hype about it. I usually buy products based on good reviews, so I thought I'd give these a go. Priceline were having a sale for 2 for 1 on Revlon lip and nail products, so I decided that would be the best time to try them out. I ended up with Romantic, Lovesick and Honey (I got a 4th as a present for someone).

(l-r) Lovesick, Romantic (I accidentally wound it up with the lid on, hence no point) and Honey

Firstly, the smell. Everyone seems to be complaining about the minty smell these have. I actually like this smell, and it's definitely not as strong as everyone makes it out to be. They apply the same way as the Face of Australia lip crayons, but with a much more intense colour payoff. I found that these don't apply very evenly and need a few coats to get even. I've also noticed the writing wears off fast. I've kept Lovesick in my handbag for only a few days, and the writing is already coming off!

Lovesick, Romantic and Honey

Lovesick is a bright pink. Romantic is a deep red. I wish it was more of a true red, as I think I'd use it a lot more. Honey seems to be the colour that everyone is talking about, and I actually bought it without swatching it, as there was no tester for it in priceline, and am a bit disappointed. I found it to be a deep pink colour - almost plum like, which isn't really the kind of colour I was after. In hindsight I probably should have bought Cherish.

I found these to be pretty long lasting. I wore lovesick out to dinner (with Sportsgirl bombshell over the top to brighten it up) and when I came home 4 hours later my lips were still red, and lovesick lasted a 5 hour shift at work (only just, but I did put other products on my lips with a light application of the stain). Overall, I'm a little bit disappointed with these and to me they weren't really worth the hype. Maybe I just need to wear them a bit more? However, I would like to get my hands on Rendezvous, and maybe Cherish.

Lovesick with flash (The pictures I took without the flash were so unevenly applied!)

Romantic in natural light

Honey in natural light

Ok, I admit, it looks good here. How come it never looks like this when I wear it out?! 

Have you tried Revlons balmstains yet? What colours do you have and what did you think of them?

November favourites

December already!? This year has gone crazy fast. I've been pretty busy the last wek with parties, working and finishing the last of my uni assessments (it looks like I've passed all my units this semester, so I get to graduate!!!). Everyone seems to have already done their November favourites posts, but better late than never.

I had a whole heap of favourites this month, which I think is a combination of buying a whoooole lotta new products, and finally having a job where I can wear make up without it smudging off and my face getting covered in chocolate powder. I guess these are the products I've used the most.

Nude by Nature tinted moisturiser in nude beige. This has been my favourite thing to put on my face this month, it's light so great for the hot weather we've had this month - along with the sun protection.
Benefit Total Moisture facial cream is a real good face cream. It feels so nice and doesn't irritate my skin. This is a sample and it doesn't have much left and I'll be sad when it's finished (it's too expensive for me to buy again in the near future).
The Body Shop Cranberry Joy hand cream. I love this range! So so much! I love the ginger sparkle too but I like the cranberry a little more (probably because of my love for cosmopolitans). If you haven't smelt it, get your butt into a Body Shop ASAP! The smell reminds me of when I was in the UK for Christmas 2 years ago and it snowed - so it reminds me of the good bits of Christmas (I'm usually the grinch, but having a white Christmas was really amazing). I've yet to buy anything more from the range - only because I can't choose what else I want and I don't want to buy everything. Also, if you use the cranberry and the ginger hand creams together it smells even more amazing.

Covergirl Lashblastvolume mascara. This is my go to mascara at the moment (and I have 7 mascaras!). I won it in a facebook comp and am so glad I got introduced to it. It makes my lashes huge.

Revlon colorburst lip butter in Peach Parfait. This gives a subtle reddy pink colour to my lips with a nice shimmer. I think everyone knows why it's here, but I've been using this colour more than strawberry shortcake.

MUA undressed pallet. This is my first neutral palette (and first neutral eyeshadows) and I've been using it a lot. Shades 2 and 9 are my favourites. Read more about it, and see the other shades here.

(l-r) Revlon lip butter, MUA undressed shade 2 and 9.

Face of Australia Pastels nail enamel in Would You like some Orange Sherbet and Castle on a Cloud. This range has been a huge hit, and is perfect for spring and summer. I picked up these, along with blue moon, but I've found myself using these ones more (I can't choose a favourite though). The photo below is 2 (relatively thick) coats. Usually they're quite hard to get looking opaque and even, but today they went on really easily.

Honourable mentions: Australis colour inject mineral lipstick in honky tonk, Palmolive strawberry smoother body butter body wash, and 4me nail polish remover pads.

NOTD - sparkle on a cloud.

I used Face of Australia's Castle on a Cloud from the new pastels range, and Revlon's Silver Dollar from their metallics range. I used masking tape as a guide.

I like how these colours look together, but I don't think they're different enough. For some reason, my bottle of Castle on a Cloud seems a lot more purple than every other bottle I've seen. Not that it's a bad thing though! I'm really loving Silver Dollar, and I can't wait to do this look with it and a whole bunch of different colours - I'm thinking FOA's Once in a Blue Moon, Rimmel's Misty Jade or Australis' Peek-a-Boo.  

Accidental Revlon haul.

I swear when I woke up today, I did not have the intention of buying so much. All I wanted was to go into Myer and buy a gift for someone (ok, and get the GWP), and go into Priceline just to look at the Revlon kissable balm stains. I also got my Priceline online purchase from Tuesday's click frenzy in the mail too (I got on at 8am to check it out. So glad I did). This isn't even all of it, because I was buying gifts for people too (which I wont include, just in case).

Firstly in Myer I got Revlon's Silver Dollar nail polish. I was a bit bummed about paying full price for this, but I needed to buy something small to get the free gift and I don't have a colour like this yet.  The gwp contains a clutch, colorstay nail polish in Pale Cashmere, colorstay eyeshadow quad in Adventurous, colorburst lip butter in Sugar Plum, photoready 3D volume mascara and photoready perfecting primer. I can't wait to use all of these!!

Then I went into Priceline. Always a bad choice when you don't have the intention of buying anything! They have a sale at the moment for 2 for 1 on Revlon products, so I had to buy the balm stains. I knew I wanted romantic, but I ended up not being able to pick a pink so I ended up just grabbing any of them and picked lovesick. I also got Essence quattro in To Die For (as I haven't tried their eyeshadows yet, and it's also the name of a really great song by Tonight Alive!) and a travel size St. Ives invigorating apricot scrub.

From the click frenzy sale I scored a Revlon colorburst lip butter in Peach Parfait for 40% off for myself (I got a few other things for gifts). They threw in some samples of Simple cleansing facial wipes and Sukin facial moisturiser (I've used this before and think it's great) and their intensive firming serum which was a great surprise!

I'm so excited to try all these products. I don't own any Revlon products apart from one lip butter I bought recently, so I'm excited to have all these products to try! Hopefully now these means I can ease off buying things for myself until at least after Christmas.

Wish list: Eyeshadow

Eyeshadows are one product where it seems you can never have enough of. I mean, putting the same shades on every day gets a bit repetitive. Currently I only have 1 decent palette - Australis paparazzi perfect HD in Snap Attack, which I think is pretty fantastic (especially when it came with a free eyeshadow primer), along with 2 essence stay all day creams (both neutrals and great) and a couple of shadows I got with my october bellabox. So it would be nice to be able to choose what colours I wear.

1. Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette   2. MAC pro pan refill in Cranberry   3. MAC pro pan refill in Shroom 
4. MAC pro pan refill in Sketch   5. MUA pretty pastels palette
 6. Revlon ColorStay 12-hour eyeshadow in precious metals.

Ok, so maybe my wishlist is staying towards the neutral side of things. I don't really mind. Of course I have a naked palette on my wishlist, although it's probably something I will never get around to purchasing. The MAC shadows are just 3 that caught my eye, and I think they'd work well together. I would love to pick some up when I travel next year and getting a pro palette seems like the way to go. I know when I do it's going to be tough to decide which shades to buy! The MUA pretty pastels palette is full of really lovely soft colours. They look lovely, but I've heard mixed reviews about how good they actually are. I'm planning on getting this one when they have their 35% off sale (read about that here). This Revlon palette caught my eye when OzSale had a sale on Revlon products. It was only $8, but I decided against getting it because I didn't really need it. I am kicking myself a little bit because they also had lip butters for I think $14? Maybe next time.