December Bellabox 2013

December Bellabox is here! I feel like after receiving my third Bellabox, it's kind of growing on me. I guess it's cause I keep receiving and discovering new products that I would never buy for myself, but would be useful to have. Kind of like those cool things you see on infomercials and want, but would never get as you don't really need them in your life, but they'd be handy nonetheless.

I do want a shamwow though. It will be mine someday.
 

So here's what I got this month:

 

A small canvas tote bag (its quite thin).

And a description of the items sent out this month.

I'm quite excited to try this sample of the daily calming lotion since I do have a lot of redness in my face, though I have tried a Palmer's Cocoa Butter facial lotion before, an SPF one, and it was a bit greasy, despite them claiming otherwise. Hopefully this one won't be.

The moment I saw this dusty greyish purple nail polish, I fell in love. I have the shade French Lavender. It looks more purple here, its a lot more grey in real life. But it is such a gorgeous colour, its very muted shade that could go with any style, classy or grungy. The brush applies the polish also applies so smoothly, and the polish comes out very opaque, so opaque that you could get away with just one coat of polish.

God I love this nail polish. It will definitely be staying on my nails for the next month. Do check out this brand, it's a tad bit more expensive, but it's definitely worth it. Check them out here.

Chirp Chirp

I'm pretty sure I caught my birds gossiping about me today as I sat beside them reading a book.

Look at those pitying, judgmental faces.

Daiso Base Coat Mascara

After watching Jenn from Clothes Encounters in her October favourites last month and seeing her rave about her new mascara primer, I remembered that I saw one in Daiso the one time I had been there. For those who don't know what Daiso is, its a store that stocks japanese products which are all priced at $2.80. Its a worldwide franchise, but from what I know, it's only been around in my city for about a year or so. I went there for the first time a few months ago, but didn't end up getting anything, partially because the friend that led me there didn't actually want to be there and only came with me because I insisted on seeing what the fuss was all about.

This time however, I went with a friend that wanted to pick up one of their eyebrow pencils (apparently they're not bad), so I decided to go with and pick up a mascara primer. The day I went, there were two mascara primers available, and in the end I admittedly chose the one with the nicer packaging. Since the descriptions were both in japanese, I couldn't decide which one was better and obviously the product with the nicer packaging means that it is a better product (don't fail me now irrational logic).

So here's the one I got.

Wow cute packaging

Now I'm the type of person who has to use waterproof mascara. Its not by choice, its because its only waterproof formulas keep my lashes curled. Believe me, if I could get away with non-waterproof mascara I would, I don't know why anyone would voluntarily go through the pain of removing waterproof mascara. When I apply ordinary mascaras to my lashes after I've curled them, I just watched my lashes fall, go straight, and hang downwards again. I had secretly hoped that this mascara be waterproof despite no mention of it on the packaging and the sales assistant telling me it wasn't, who by the way couldn't understand my non-waterproof mascara dilemma no matter how many times I explained it to her (she must've been one of those blessed with naturally curly lashes). I bought it regardless, it was only $2.80, so I hoped maybe, just maybe, it'd do something good to my lashes.

Review
It didn't do shit.
Alright, sorry that might've come out a little harsh, but its true. I guess maybe it gives my lashes a slightly more fanned out, less clumpy look, but its not really worth buying it, or wasting your time applying it. As expected, the mascara made my top lashes drop, so I thought maybe they'd be great to help enhance my lower lashes. Nope.
For some reason, I couldn't really get any product on my lower lashes (it worked fine on my top lashes), and the only way I could really get any product on my lashes was by using the excess mascara goop that sticks to the end of the mascara wand when you pull it out. When I tried to use the mascara wand to brush out the product, the product just disappeared again and I ended up with goopy mess (not unlike craft glue) under my eye. Also, when I applied normal non-waterproof mascara on top, the white base made my lashes less dark and black.
Maybe I'd use this if I had plenty of time to do my makeup and I wanted to add an extra step to my makeup routine out of boredom, or I'd use it for some fancy dress party to make my lashes look white. Overall, its quite a disappointing product, despite the misleading adorable packaging.  I will note that the sale assistant really liked it, so maybe it'll fare better on people with nicer lashes than mine, which is like 80% of the population.

Bellabox Pout Pencil in Ruby Tuesday

Hey y'all. This month's Bellabox package came with their new "Pout Pencils" which is really just another fancy name for a lip crayon. The colour I got, Ruby Tuesday, is a true red colour with a blue undertone.

It has the same amount of product as the Bourjois lip crayons, which is about roughly 4 cm of product (about 2 1/2 inches for imperial weirdos). The crayon twists up, which is great since I hate sharpening lip pencils as I'm lazy, I hate having to clean my sharpener afterwards and I feel like its a waste of product. Mostly because I'm lazy.

What I like about this lip crayon is that it's matte, which I currently don't have in the form of a lip crayon. As I write this, I realise that there isn't much difference between a matte lip crayon and a matte lipstick and I'm wondering why I was ever fooled to want both products, even though they're a pretty much the same thing. As its matte, it is a tad dry on the lips after a while, so I would probably put a lip balm under it. It didn't glide on as smoothly as the Bourjois ones, it barely glides at all; I don't know if its just because its matte, whereas the Bourjois ones have a more balm like glossy finish, or if its just a worse product. It can be long lasting if you don't eat or drink too much, it came off pretty easily when I ate and didn't even leave behind a stain, which I guess can be a good thing.

Voila, here's what it looks like on the lips. Apologies for my foundation-less skin and the red face.

Overall, its not a bad product, but considering it retails for the same price as a Bourjois lip crayon, I'd definitely go for the Bourjois one (its pretty damn good).

November Bellabox 2013

For my birthday last month, my friends decided to get my a years subscription to Bellabox, which is where subscribers are sent a couple of beauty and skincare samples each month, products which I assume are trending or popular at the moment.
I've never really bothered with services like Bellabox before, simply because I'm not really into expensive skincare products and the products just seemed a bit of a hit and miss for me, miss mainly, but hey, it was a present so why not use the most of it?

I did get a Bellabox package last month, but it was rather disappointing so I didn't bother posting about it. This month's package wasn't so bad, so I thought I'd show you what I got this month.

Here's the box it comes in.

And here's what I got this month.

 Since I am super lazy, I will let Bellabox's little info card explain each product for you.

 
I've only had two Bellabox packages so far, so its too soon to tell how it is, but so far its below average, I wouldn't recommend it.

Current Nail Polish Favourites

I've never really been a person that picks their nail polish based on what season it is, though I do seem to favour darker nail polishes in the colder months. It's currently spring where I live, but I'm not really feeling the pastels at the moment. I guess I'm just a bit sick of the whole pastels trend,  especially in terms of clothes. Anyway, I thought I'd show you guys my current nail polish favourites, regardless of what season it is. The lighting has also washed out a bit of the colour of the nail polishes, they're all a bit brighter and bolder than they seem in the photos.

First up is the Sally Hansen nail polish in Blue Me Away. I'm sure you've seen this nail colour everywhere in the beauty blogger/youtube universe last summer. I'm pretty sure this is the Australian version of the infamous Pacific Blue by Sally Hansen. The staying power of this nail polish is amazing; I wore it while camping and it did not chip despite me banging the tent pegs roughly into  ground with a rock for about an hour.

Add caption

 Next up is the Rimmel London "I love lasting finish"nail polish in Misty Jade. To me, this is kind of like the new mint green nail polish. I'm also a bit sick of the mint green nail polish trend, and this light creamy green is the perfect replacement. I guess it's a true light jade colour, much more green that it appears in the picture. I've always liked Rimmel nail polishes, they don't cost too much, they always have nice shades and they have good staying power.

This one is obviously more of a winter colour, but its so pretty I'm going to wear it anyway. Its Avon's Nailwear Pro in Violetta Sparkle. Its just a really gorgeous deep metallic purple with gold flecks running through it. Avon nail polishes are quite nice, they have a good brush, one that is quite similar to the Sally Hansen ones. They have great staying power, though I did try one from their Matte range and it was horrible. I applied it a few hours before I went to bed and I woke up the next day with severely chipped nail polish, so stay away from their Matte range. The normal range is great though.
It's bit hard to get Avon, I don't really know where except from those Avon advocates that are paid to sell Avon products from their homes. I borrow mine off my friend, whose cousin is one of those aforementioned advocates.

 

Finally, here we have two top coats: Sally Hansen's Disco Ball, and Australis' Fairy Bread. I feel like glitter is more of a wintery thing, so while I do really like it, the charm might be starting to wear off on me now that the weather is heating up fast. I do find that large glitter (Australis' Fairy Bread) only really works in darker nail polishes. I feel like when I use it on lighter ones, it kind of resembles a kids art project. I have seen large glitter being used on lighter nail polish nicely, but I haven't quite gotten the hang of it. It looks amazing on deep purples and navy.  Disco Ball is a lot easier to use and match, I'm planning to use this on the Avon nail polish above to really amp up the gold flecks. Though as I said before about glitter, when it comes to bright nail polishes in spring/summer, I prefer the look of just plain bright nail polish. I feel like the glitter ruins the bright, clean effect.

I do have two more nail polishes that I'm really loving, but as I'm not currently living at home, I don't have them with me. I just thought I'd get this post up, and update it when I do get home. Until next time :)

Youtuber Baubles

My university friends and I had a Christmas party last week, early I know, but its hard for us to meet up on the holidays since we all live so far from each other. Anyway, we all decided to have a craft station and bought plain foam shapes to fashion into our own baubles. Wanting to try something new, I decided to make myself a Joseph Gordon-Levitt (♥) bauble, but accidentally messed up his hair. My friend, who was shaking her head and judging me, asked me to make her a danisnotonfire one. Having messed up the hair, I turned the bauble into a danisnotonfire and gave it to my friend. I decided to make myself a crabstickz one instead, and my friend requested a kickthepj bauble, which I ended up trading for the one she made of ninebrassmonkeys.

 From left to right: Crabstickz, Kickthepj's jetpack backpack and starfish Ninebrassmonkeys.
 

Bit of some awkward tongue action for you guys here.

Adventure 2: Camping

So I went camping two weeks ago for the weekend. It had been my first time actually camping with tents around a campfire. In the past, I slept in cabins and had food organised (it was primary school). I used loved the school camps, except for the horror of grade four camp, and its probably one of the things I missed the most about primary school - that and the considerable lack of stress of being constantly asked about my future and my studies.

 Anyway, we only camped there for one night, so I guess it still didn't really classify as proper camping as I never really started to get gross in terms of body hygiene. We got there, pitched the tent, and proceeded to go for a walk around the hills and along the river. Walk is putting it lightly, I totally underestimated how long the trails were and ended up getting a bit lost. It was a hot, sunny day and most of the trek tended to be uphill. An hour and a half later, we finally make it back to the campsite, cursing the trails for the ungodly exercise that had been forced upon us.

As night fell, we started collecting firewood and gradually coaxed a decent, cozy campfire. Me and my friend decided to go for a night time walk to go spotlighting, which is where you walk around with a torch/head torch and try to spot wildlife. Afterwards, we headed back to the campsite and sat around the fire until it slowly burned down and went back to our tents for bed.

Here are some snaps of the weekend, enjoy!

 

Super adorable toilet and shower huts

  Smores!

  I believe this is a rocket frog? Not quite sure.

 A green tree frog.

Such a pretty web!

 This dog (owned by the land owners) was the most loyal, friendly dog ever. It followed us around and looked after us the entire trip.

Thanks all for now, in the midst of exam block at the moment aka doomsday or doomsweek(s) in this case.

Winter Makeup

Hey Everyone! I thought I share with you the current pics for my winter makeup products.

 Cheeks:

Lately, I've been leaning towards more natural, nude looking blushes for winter. The ones I've been loving are the NYX blush in Terracotta and NYX cream blush in Tea rose. They both give a lovely glow to the skin, and pair nicely with a bold lip.

 

 Eyes: 

 

For a while, I had been looking for a perfect medium brown eyeshadow colour to put all over the lid and I finally found it in of the Essence quattro palette.  It is the perfect brown colour for my skin tone, and the darker brown is great for adding more depth. 

This Maybelline Eye studio palette in Give me Gold is highly pigmented and I alternate between the lightest champagne colour and the gold in my inner corner and use the dark brown to add sparkle on the outer corner of my lid.

I use the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze as an eyeshadow base, but on days when I'm feeling lazy, I just use this all over my eyelid, add some eyeliner and I'm set.

For mascara, I use Maybelline The Falsies mascara (not depicted) and separate and lengthen my lashes with the L'oreal Telescopic mascara.

Lastly, for eyebrows, I use the Rimmel eye brow pencil in 004 Black.

 I had heard great reviews about the Milani Eye Tech eyeliner and me being the idiot I am, ordered the wrong one; I ordered the Bold instead of the Extreme. So, now I use the Bold for lining the top of my eyes and use the Extreme to create my flick, which saves me time and I don't have to waste time with the thin felt tip repeatedly going over my eye to thicken the line. I really do like the Extreme, its very similar and in my opinion, slightly better, than my Maybelline Master Precise. I wouldn't recommend the Bold.

 I highly recommend this eyelash curler from Japonesque to everyone, it works wonderfully.

 

Lips:

 

I love winter as I can embrace my inner grunge and rock the vampy lipstick. During the day, I use the Bourjois lipstick in 04 and Revlon lipstick in Fabulous Fig. Fabulous Fig is a bit dark, so I use it as a stain by blotting it with a tissue. The other few are wonderful for night time and let me tell you, the Bourjois Lipstick in 14 is so gorgeous and rich.

From left to right: Revlon's Matte lipstick in Fabulous Fig, Revlon's Super Lustrous lipstick in Really Red,  Bourjois' Rouge Edition lipsticks in Rose Tweed 04 and Pretty Prune 14 and the L'oreal's Colour Caresses Wet Shine Stain in Juliet.

 From top to bottom, left to right: Revlon's Really Red, Revlon's Fabulous Fig, Bourjois' Rose Tweed 004, Bourjois' Pretty Prune 014 (is a lot more rich than it appears) and the L'oreal's Wet Stain in Juliet.

That's it!
Stay classy bloggers ;)

Adventure 1

I went around for a wander a few months ago and thought I'd share some of the snaps with you guys.