May Favourites

It's been a while since I've done a monthly favourites post! So here you go!

Food Friday: Pineapple Cupcakes

I love cupcakes, and I love trying to play around with recipes. While I have been trying to cook a lot of healthy food lately, you have to have some cake once in a while! I have a go to cupcake recipe, which is basically just the below recipe, but using milk instead of pineapple, and adding vanilla paste after step 2. It's so good I have it memorised, and I love to customise it by adding things like peanut butter, cocoa, different flavoured essences (like mint or coconut). This time I wanted to try making pineapple cupcakes, because I've been dreaming of a tropical holiday!

Wish List: Cruise Kitsch

For a few weeks now I've been dreaming on going on a cruise. I've spent my days off trawling forums and finding out everything I can about cruises and different companies, and now I have my heart set on an 11 day pacific islands cruise on Carnival (They have not one, but TWO waterslides on their ships!!!) The boy and I have convinced a bunch friends to join us too, so all that's left to do now is get some money together so we can book this thing! Now I'm searching for some outfits to wear while away. I'm totally one to wear kitschy hawaiian dresses with bright, tropical print. Think trashy vegas. I do (unsurprisingly) already have a few dresses that are perfect, but it's 11 days, and I'm starting to think I'll be needing quite a few more.

Forever 21 Tropical Floral Woven Dress $19.80   //   Seashell belle sandals $34.99

A Little Bit of Prettiness Earrings tropical and flamingo $8.20   //   Costal Break skirt $54.99 

Sourpuss Tropical Tiki Skater Dress $44 // Sourpuss Shark Bait Skater Dress $44 

Anchor Values swimsuit top $49.99 and bottom $39.99

Tropical print dresses are my top pick for cruise outfit. You can throw one over your bikini when you're done swimming and want to do some drinking (or eating, I guess) somewhere that's not the pool deck. This one from Forever 21 is just perfect for that. As are the Sourpuss dresses, and holy moly, look at those prints!! I honestly can't decide which one I prefer, Sharks or pineapples and tikis? All I know is I need them, both! They're both a style that I really like to wear (Thick strap, skater skirt) so I think I'll get more wear out of them than just a cruise.

I imagine I'll be spending most of my onboard time wearing thongs, most likely plain old cheapy Kmart ones. But, if I wanted to get some that were a little more dressier, these are perfect! How cute is the shell on top!?

I love stud earrings, they're all I can wear because I used to have my ears stretched. These ones are super cute, and I especially love how they're miss-matched. They're from an Australian ebay store, filled with tones of really cute pieces, which are also super cheap.

For something a little more fancy for the evening, a longer skirt with a plain white shirt would be perfect, and this skirt is beautiful.

Last, but probably most importantly, is a bikini (or several). With all the water slides and pools on board, and beautiful clear beaches at each port, I don't think there'd be a day spent out of the water. I used to really struggle finding a bikini to fit me. There is no way I could ever get away with wearing the usual triangle bikini, or worse, a strapless bikini! I need support! Luckily though, bikinis with thick straps and underwire are starting to show up everywhere, so bikini shopping isn't a complete nightmare. Modcloth have a huge range of great bikinis, Seafolly (although expensive) do some rad ones too. Even places like Cotton On are selling bikinis for bustier women now. Yay! My tip? If you want to buy off Modcloth, wait until the end of Northern hemisphere Summer... they have great clearance sales so you'll be paying around $30 for a top instead of $70!

Have you been on a cruise? Got any tips?
Or are you dreaming of a holiday somewhere too?

Illamasqua Blush in Katie

Another first in my series of new high end blushers! I haven't tried Illamasqua before, it's not sold in Canberra. I don't even think I came across the brand in my travels, but I've heard lots of people rave about their blushes, along with the rest of their products. A few weeks ago I went out shopping with my friend, and we found our way into Mac and Mecca. I looked at a few Mac blushes, but decided to have a look to see if I could find a Nars blush that I liked. I did, Gaiety, but unfortunately they didn't have it in stock. But fortunately for me, I went home and searched Asos and found this gem!

Wish list: Modcloth

1. Work to Play dresses in Navy and Eggplant      2. Great Wavelength dress  
 3. Rad To the Bone dress     4. Foxtail and Fern Dress in Leaf
5. Spirited Sojourn flats in coral and blue
6. Love is the Arrow necklace    7. Perk me up bag in Toffee

I used to be obsessed with Modcloth. I haven't bought anything from them in a long time, and while I was away I didn't even bother to look at it. I'm in a bit of a rut with clothing and I feel like I want to buy an entirely new wardrobe, and Modcloth is the worst at the moment. I want to buy everything off there! I'm mostly looking for work appropriate clothing at the moment, as I want to get a lab job.

You can totally tell from this wish list that there's a certain style of dress that I feel most comfortable in. I have a dress very similar to the Work to Play dress (see an outfit post with it here) and I just feel that its the perfect cut. These dresses, pared with a cardigan or light jacket, stockings and some cute flats would be perfect for colder days or even for work. Dress number 3 is really rad, I love anatomy so anything with bones on is awesome in my books. Want to hear the best part? It glows in the dark! My sister thinks it's a bit naff, but I love it!

I don't really wear much jewellery apart from earrings, but I think it's nice to have a couple of necklaces to pull out every once in a while. I have an arrow necklace I scored from Colette for $10 or something ridiculous, but I've work it so much it's starting to rust a bit. This one is really delicate and cute, and would make the perfect replacement.

The tale of 3 lipsticks: 3 Rimmel formulas.

As much as I love Rimmel, they're a brand I often pass by. Sure I hopped on the wagon for some of their releases (Apocalips!) but for some reason, even though I love the products of theirs I own, I hardly buy their products. But I do own 3 of their lipsticks. One Lasting Finish by Kate Moss in 20, one Moisture Renew lipstick in 380 - Dark Night Waterl-Oops! and most recently, Lasting Finish Matte by Kate Moss in 101. Rimmel are a brand with several different formulas, and I know choosing one can be pretty tricky, so I thought I'd compare them to help choosing a little easier.

Mac Blush in Peaches

This was a spur of the moment decision in Gatwick airport just before we hurried to our gate to get on our plane. I had pounds to spend, and if I had more time I probably would have picked up something else like a foundation, but I literally looked at the blushes and picked within a minute. I haven't even really looked into getting a MAC blush before, and I don't regret the split minute decision at all.

Peaches is a lovely peach coloured blush, which I think we all know by now, is my favourite colour of any makeup. It has a very small amount of shimmer to it, which mostly comes up as matte (as shown in the swatch in natural light).

This is one of Mac's sheertone blushes, which means it's not overly pigmented. Which is fine, because it means you can't go in too heavy handed, and layer to get the right amount of colour. It's not chalky and is easy to blend. I don't really find it lasts much longer than any of the drugstore blushes I own, which is a little disappointing, but that might have more to do with the bases I use.

swatch in natural light - heavy (l), blended (r)

Swatch with Flash

Do you have any Mac Blushes? What's your favourite shade?