What I wore: Sweet Hearts

I've been thinking about doing some more outfit post, especially after finding a few really rad clothing items lately.

Face: Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting concealer, Body Shop Extra Virgin Mineral foundation, touched up with Maybelline Dream Matte powder.

Benefit Hervana blush, touched up with Essence Cherry Blossom Girl blush

Covergirl LineExact Liquid eyeliner, Covergirl LastBlast Volume mascara

Revlon Kissable BalmStain in Romantic

Admittedly, this dress is from my work (Cotton On, $29.95 if anyone is interested). When I first saw it when we were unpacking stock I thought the print was a little tacky, and the shape was horrible, and it was too thin. Then I decided to try it on, just in case, and I was pretty much blown away (shhh, I know you've all had moments when you basically fall in love with an item of clothing!). Turns out on second thoughts, I think the print is super cute, the shape is super flattering on me, and the fabric isn't as thin as it first appeared. I'm also stoked that this dress could easily be layered to be worn in the cooler months.

I have a real interest in anatomy, so I think this necklace is super rad. 

George wanted to play while I was taking pictures.

Lately I've been hanging out with my friends a lot, going out to dinner and ice cream and coffee dates, and it's been super fun. I usually spend a lot of my down time at home doing not much, so it's been a nice change. I've been offered to stay on at work after my Christmas contract runs out, which is awesome! I really like working in a clothing shop (yep... I'm liking working in retail!!), and it's a great change from what I've been doing for the last 5 years working in coffee shops. Hopefully I'll manage to swing enough shifts so I can save enough money for when I head over to the UK at the end of May. I also got my marks back from my final class, so I will be graduating university in March!

What I won: Sweetaholic Beauty's Christmas Giveaway

I recently won my second ever blog giveaway, which was Jasmine from Sweetaholic Beauty's Surprise Christmas giveaway! The prizes were a surprise up until the winners were announced which was exciting. She's also hosting a Valentines Day blog swap, so head over and check out her blog if you're interested (blog swaps are always super fun!).

Here's what I won - I've also managed to try a few of these things out already!

MUA Undressed: I already have this palette and love it! I'm still undecided if I should keep this as a backup or give it to someone (I love giving people products that I love). I'm going to the UK at the end of May and my palette will probably last till then. See swatches here.

Essence quattro eyeshadow: In the picture on Jasmine's blog it looked like the quad I already had from Essence, but I was pleased to find it was different! This is a grey-toned neutral palette with 2 matte - the lighter shades, and 2 slightly shimmery shades - the darker shades (The shimmer didn't come up in either photo, sorry) . I love my other quad so this will definitely get a lot of use.

Lush Snow Fairy: I wanted to try this but never got around to getting it (I never go into the City where our only Lush store is), so I'm so pleased to get a chance to try it. It smells great, like the bubble gum lip scrub. The sweet smell means it's not something that you could use daily, and it leaves a really nice scent on your skin which isn't as sweet as from the bottle. A little bit of this also goes a long way.

Costal Scents Kabuki Brush: Yay! I need a new kabuki brush! This one is so soft, and it's PINK!

Face of Australia Once in a Blue Moon polish: This is another product I already own and love. Again, I may keep it as a backup (although I doubt I'll ever finish my first one because I have so many polishes), or give it away to share the love. See NOTD with this polish here.

Daiso Body Wash Mitten: I've been meaning to get something like this for a while so it's great I won it. It's quite soft so it'll be ok to use regularly.

Lovisa ring: This was the surprise Jasmine mentioned that she didn't show when she announced the winners. This isn't the kind of thing I'd usually wear but I can see it growing on me.

Montagne Jeunesse Very Berry face mask: This is a moisturising and cleansing mask with blueberries and cranberries. I've been meaning to try one of these masks and it's great this is a moisturising one as I have very dry skin. I also love cranberry scented things at the moment!

Daiso false eyelashes: I've only used false lashes once before and we didn't really get along (this was many years ago), so it will be interesting to see if I can get them to work this time around.

Coral Polish.

After my last (last as in previous, and because I'm no longer allowed to buy polish) nail polish haul, I've had a look through my nail polish collection. It's grown enormously over the last 6 or so months, and I'm starting to get a lot of similar colours. I've had a bit of an obsession with corals lately, meaning I've collected a fair few coral polishes. Here are the 6 corals (or close enough) that I have in my collection. I do love all of these, but I am still on a hunt for the perfect coral (which would be OPI Tropical Punch, which is discontinued and I can't find it online). However, these will tide me over until I use up some polishes and am allowed to buy more again.

OPI - I Eat Maily Lobster. This is my favourite of the 6. I got this for Christom my Dad (my sister had also bought it for me online but Dad didn't know, woops) after I've been wanting it for months. It's the darkest of the 6 and also has a slight gold shimmer to it.

Essie - Cute as a button. This is my second favourite colour. It's more of a pink toned coral. However, it's probably my least favourite formula of the lot, with an annoyingly small brush and long drying time. I'm not a fan of Essie's formulas, but I do like the colours once I've actually got them on my nails.

Ulta3 - Watermelon. This is the darkest coral I own, and my favourite of my Ulta3 polishes. I've talked about how much I love Ulta3 before so I don't need to say any more.

Rimmel 60 Seconds - 415 Instyle Coral. This coral is more orange toned. It also was the polish that went on the most un-evenly.

Australis - Todays News. Ok, this one might not be exactly a coral, but I'm adding it in because it reminds me of tropical punch. I prefer my corals to be more pink toned than orange, so I think this is a fantastic colour.

Face of Australia - Would you Like Some Orange Sherbet. Ok, again, not a coral, but if the Australis polish is included I thought this should be. I like the pink tones in this orange (which, ok, I may be imagining) so to me it's kind of a pastel coral. Click here for NOTD using this colour.

Clockwise from thumb: Today's News, Cute as a Button, Instyle Coral, I Eat Mainley Lobster, Watermelon.

Sale haul pt. 1

Even though I've been working almost non-stop since Christmas, I still managed to find time to find a few good sales. I did buy a few things online which are yet to arrive, so this will just be part 1.

My friend Tegan let me know about the sale on these gift sets in Kmart, and I thought I better take a look and check them out.

Rimmel Nail Polish Gift Set

This set contains Sky High, Instyle Coral and Portobello Pink. These are all lovely shades, and all are nice formulas. Instyle Coral and Portobello Pink both are opaque with 2 coats, with Sky High needing an extra coat. Portobello Pink also has a lovely shimmer to it. I also really like the large brushes, and they dry really quickly (not sure about 60 seconds, but it is pretty darn fast). This was $7.50, reduced from $15, with a $23 value.

Australis Parisian Pretty

This contained Mint Condition Lip Gloss in Meow with your Mind, Nail Polishes in Today's News and Sinfully Sweet, and a pair of 'gold plated' Love stud earrings. Today's News is my favourite from this set, being a bright pink, and I also think the earrings are pretty cute. Sinfully Sweet and Meow with Your Mind are pretty, but shades I usually wouldn't wear. This set was $10, reduced from $20, with a value of $24.85.

Australis NYC Nights

This contains Mint Condition Lip Gloss in An Evening With?, Double Decker Eye Duo in Moon Rocker, Nail Polish in Foil Spoil and a pair of 'crystal stud earrings'. I bought this mainly for the lip gloss because I don't have a red, but I also wanted to try one of Australis' Double Decker Eye Duos. Unfortunately, I have no idea how I would wear this combo, and I'm pretty disappointed with the blue cream. The powder seems nice and I look forward to trying this out. The nail polish is also very similar to my Revlon Silver Dollar, which I really like, so I doubt I'll get much use out of it. I'm also not a fan of the earrings. This set was also $10, reduced from $20, with a value of $26.85.

Lovisa
I checked out Lovisa as they were having an 'up to 70% off sale' and managed to pick these up. I would have got more but their eftpos was down and I only had $10 cash on me. However, I'm super happy with both of these necklaces.

 Swatches - all taken in natural lighting

Australis Meow with your Mind and An Evening With?

Australis Moon Rocker

Rimmel Sky High, Instyle Coral, Portobello Pink, Australis Today's News and Sinfully Sweet

Australis Foil Spoil.

Favourite beauty products of 2012 TAG

I was thinking of doing something like this instead of a December favourites post (especially considering they'd probably contain all the same products), and then Kat from Kitsch Snitch tagged me to do a beauty favourites of 2012 post! I'll have to start this by saying, I really only got into wearing makeup during this year, so my collection is quite small. I guess that just makes it all the more easier to pick my favourite products, but it also means I haven't used many. But here goes anyway

Lip Products
I've used some amazing lip products this year and I have so many lovely lipsticks, so this is hard.

MAC lipsticks. I got given 3 MAC lipsticks this year as Christmas presents and they're fantastic (I got 2 lots of Vegas Volt because my friends are great at picking presents, so I get to choose another colour to swap one of them with... so hard)! In particular, Vegas Volt is a fantastic orangey pink colour. Angel is also the perfect nude, as I prefer nudes that lean more towards pinks. They're creamy, smell lovely and last a decent amount of time.

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter. I started using these kinda by accident when I found them 40% off in Target. I now own Strawberry Shortcake, Peach Parfait and Sugar Plum and I think they're great products.

Eye products

MUA Undressed. Everyone can already guess why this is my favourite. It's a great palette and if you're ever going to do an order from MUA, I insist you get this!

It's hard to choose a runner up here because I've used a lot of great eye products and they're all so different from one another, so I'll briefly mention some products I love using: Covergirl lashblast volume mascara, Covergirl lineexact liquid liner, Australis eyeshadow primer.

Makeup Base Product
Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation in 51. For me, this is a great foundation. It gives a light - medium coverage, smells great, and doesn't irritate my skin. I probably don't need to talk too much about this seeing as everyone's already reviewed it!

Body Shop Extra Virgin Minerals loose powder foundation in 105. This is the first powder foundation I own that I've actually used, and I think it's great. It's a little pricy at $40 for 5g, but this is great for my dry skin, lasts all day (without primer) and doesn't irritate my skin.

Cheek products
Benefit sugarbomb. This is a super lovely blush, it smells good, and applies lightly enough that you can build it to the colour you want.

Australis High Lights Mineral Face Highlighter in Gold. I think this gives a great glow to your cheeks and I really need to get my hands on Pearl too.

Nail Products
Ulta3 polishes: These are by far my favourite nail polishes, mostly because they are super cheap, are pretty decent quality considering and come in most of the colours you'd ever need. I've bought a whole bunch of these this year, with my favourites being Watermelon, Precious and Earl Grey.

Beauty Tools
Australis 6 piece brush set. This was less than $20, and so far has suited my needs. I really only use the eyeshadow and blush brush but I think they're pretty good.

Skincare products
Lush Ro's Argan Body Conditioner. I got this in my first Bellabox (as my first Lush product, too!) and after figuring out how to use it I really love it. I have super dry skin and this stuff is great - especially after shaving my legs. I've given it as presents to 2 people this year because I love it so much and want to spread the word about it around.

The Body Shop Cranberry Joy Body Polish. Fine, I only just got this but I love it so much that if I got it at the start of the year I'd have totally used this all year. I'm bummed it's limited edition because I'd love to use it all year round, but I would also be happy to use the strawberry version.

Perfume
DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom. I got a sample of this in a beauty box and loved it, and was lucky enough to get given it for Christmas from my sister!

Hair Care 
This year I've been batling with getting my hair into good condition. Last year I decided to dye my hair pink, and the bleaching involved with that completly destroyed it, to the point I had to cut it super short because it was so thin. Anyway, it's getting pretty healthy now after using different shampoos and conditioners in the L'Oreal Elvive range. Particularly the 'conditioning repair spray' helped when used before brushing my hair.


I tag:
Tegan from Lucie Daisy
Sammi from Material Gurl88
Candice from You Review
Lu from Glaring Embers and Stark Twilight
Nay Denise from Tres Beau Glamour

...and everyone else who is reading this post!!!

What were your favourite products of 2012? Have you used any of my favourite products?

2012 in review

Me at my 21st

Holy Moly. What a year! This year feels like it's gone by at warp speed.

2012 was an incredible year for me. So many great things have happened to me, and I've met some incredible people.

Definitely the highlight of my year (more like highlight of my life) was in June meeting my favourite band ever, Simple Plan, not once, not twice but THREE TIMES! A friend and I did a road trip to see them play in Sydney, Newcastle, Sydney again and Wollongong in the space of 6 days! It was such a fun trip and we met some incredible people at the shows who we keep in touch with. They played with a band who I've also loved for a while - We The Kings, and it's safe to say that they're now my #2 favourite band, and I've been listening to them almost non-stop since June.

Me and David <3

The rest of the band

The best night... the second Sydney show when the lead singer was sick

so the bassist sung a few songs. Oh yeah, and we were right up in front

of the stage and there were only 20 people in the room. So fun!

I also got a new Italian Greyhound puppy - George, went skiing twice, had a fantastic 21st party where I had some forum friends from Sydney and Wollongong come down for, got the best birthday present - a Kitchenaid mixer from my boyfriend and did a whole load of baking, went to plenty of awesome parties including a weekend down the coast for a friends birthday, finished a freaking university degree, took some really interesting classes (biosecurity and microbial forensics - learning about viral outbreaks!), and finally started to move on from the job I've been at for 5 and a half years.

View from my friends house down the coast.

George.

Skiing

Kitchenaid mixer.

This year was great, but I know next year will be even better. My boyfriend and I are planning on moving to England from the end of May till (hopefully) after Christmas. It's going to be our gap year that we never had. We'll hopefully manage to travel a lot during that time and we want to at least go to Paris and Germany (and see ALL of the UK).

NOTD: Ulta3 Fruit Tingle

I've been wanting to use this ever since I got it, but because of Christmas I put it aside for more 'festive' manis. But I put this on the other day to try it out and I love it! It does look kinda scary in the bottle, but it applies into a nice barbie pink colour that is totally wareable. I did find it chipped quite quickly, but I'm attributing that to the fact my nails are in horrible condition. It also was opaque in 2 coats, but I needed 3 to get even.

I've been super busy the last week. I've been working long busy days because of boxing day sales and today has been my only day off since Christmas day, and I've been busy organising to go camping overnight for New Years. I didn't have much of a chance to look at any sales, but I did manage to buy a lot of sale items from work (Cotton On) and found some bargains in Priceline and Kmart (Australis and Rimmel gift sets half price!). I'll make sure to do a post on everything once I receive my stuff from Priceline.