February Bellabox 2014

This month in 'Useless stuff that I don't need - red carpet edition'

We have the following products as described by the lovely info card.

Here are the products:

And here are some lipstick closeups - Om SHE Aromatherapy Lipstick in Choice

 I was really disappointed in this lipstick, the fomula is great, very moisturising and super creamy but the colour (urg) its very brown with very little red in it. It looks a lot more brown in real life than it does in the photo. It just reminds me of the 90's brown lipstick trend, or lipsticks my grandma used to own. Really not my colour or most people's colour really, a bit disappointed at Bellabox for sending me a colour that has such a small niche.

Glittery nude nails

 Ulta 3 nail polish in Manicure Pink as the base (don't get this, it chips like craaazzaaay and doesn't seem to dry properly), Australis glitter topcoat in Fairy Bread (love this) around the edges, added loads of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat because the Ulta 3 nail polish shade is the worst nail polish I've ever tried (Ulta 3 is generally alright though) and added a Sally Hansen glitter top coat in Disco Ball on my middle and ring finger to add a bit more sparkle.

Summer university outfits

University starts soon for me (insert sarcastic cheering), so I thought I'd compile some outfits I'll probably wear. I always dress quite casually for uni so these are my dressed down looks. I don't wear makeup on a regular basis, I just fill in my brows and apply a lippie. Here, I'm using the Rimmel's eyebrow pencil in black and the Bourjois colour boost lip crayon in orange punch. Oh, and I cut my hair.

Outfit 1 - The midi skirt

This is my go to look when I wear a midi skirt: singlet, belt and skirt. The type of single/belt/skirt varies depending mainly on what skirt I'm wearing. Ballet flats are just so easy to pop on, I really needed new black flats (these are actually a dark navy) as my old ones are dying, so I got these from Novo the other day for $20. I don't normally shop at Novo, but my friend wanted to go in there to look for sandals so I checked the sale section while we were there.

Outfit 2 - Classic t-shirt & shorts combo

I've had this crop tee for about 4 years now, its probably my most worn tee ever. The cut and the colour is so flattering and there is a small exposed back detail that's not shown here. I've matched it with countless shorts over the years, currently been loving these shorts from Jayjays. For comfort, I put on some daisy print sneakers from Rivers.

Outfit 3 - The dress

A dress is the easiest thing to pull on when you're in a rush. I got this dress a few years back which I rediscovered recently and I added the red flats to intensify the look.

Outfit 4 - Slightly dressier top and shorts combo

 I got these cool shorts from Valleygirl which I wish were in a thicker material (would've loved white leather/leather look material). I thought why not go all white and added the lace top and white shoes.

Outfit 5 - The Printed Skirt

 A printed skirt does most of the work for you when styling an outfit and can be matched with the most basic of tops. Chuck on a pair of shoes - ballet flats/sandals/anything - and you're set.


Today was such a hot day, I was sweating so much the whole time doing this blog post and the clothes were sticking to me as I was changing. It was too hot to even have my hair down, the shots where I did have my hair down were hell. Anyway, I hope this gave some inspiration for what you could wear for uni/school. Until next time :o)

Want: River Island Payton Flat Chelsea Boots

So I was doing my usual Asos browsing, as you do, and I came across these beauties.

River Island Payton Flat Chelsea Boots, $88.20 - a price that is currently out of my budget. Besides, I really need to tone down on my black boots collection. I've been searching for some comfy, good quality loafers for a while, if you guys know of any, please do let me know.

Adventure 3 - part 1

 Last December, I went to China for two weeks in the city of Quanzhou in Fujian. It's a camp sort of layout, where everyone under 23 can go to a city of their choice with all expenses paid, bar the air fees.
I've been to about three of these so far, the third being the one I went to last year.
Since its supposed to be an educational trip ("You're here to learn! Not shop and play around," said the moody camp guide), we spent a lot of it in a classroom, studying a range of subjects: learning chinese, music, calligraphy, kung fu and chinese chess. Chinese class was by far the most boring, the cafeteria food at school was always the same and the food wasn't that good to begin with.

Oh and we all had to wear yellow jackets, so that we were easily seen, just in case one of us wandered off I guess.

We had the occasional day of touring in between. We went to a temple and visited some museums and galleries. The temple was quite nice, but it was pretty boring, but I did take this photo (spot the creeper).

Afterwards, we went to a museum and a gallery. I didn't take any photos of the museum, but the gallery was quite interesting.

Super seedy Buddha (I joked to my friends that it was his 'Come to Bed' face)

More days of studying and then finally, time to tour! We went to Xiamen for a day where we had to sit through very long presentation about opportunities at Xiamen university. Then we went for a very short shopping trip - all the shopping trips were always limited to an hour or two, making it very hard to shop and we ended up catching a taxi at night to go do our own shopping. After lunch, we went to an island. I'd tell you the name, but I didn't pay attention when they were telling us. It was basically a  tourist shopping district, filled with little shops and pretty, overpriced goods.

One particularly colourful store. I couldn't get a better photo as a shop assistant told me photos weren't allowed.

The view as we drove along the river/ocean/sea - a body of water.

The next day, we visited some earth houses with are supposedly infamous and about 200 years old. They're basically their own little forts and back in the olden days, the villagers could sustain themselves purely on the things inside the fort without having to go outside, which was handy for sieges.

An 'Earth House'

Villages near the earth houses

Part 2 coming soon.

The smock dress: day to night

I searched far and wide for a smock dress, it hasn't really caught on in the local stores, the ones on Asos didn't really appeal to me and the ones that did were far too expensive. So when I finally found a smock dress on sale at Factorie last week, I was ecstatic. It was $10 and the material wasn't the general flimsy material that you'd normally get from Factorie, it was quite decent.

Day

Smock dress - Factorie

Shoes - Valleygirl

Necklace - H&M

Lips - Bourjois Lipstick in 04

Night

 Smock dress - Factorie

Shoes - Valleygirl

Necklace - Lovisa

Lips - Rimmel Apocalips in Across the Universe
(A lot darker than it appears in the closeups)

I planned this to be an easy and quick switch from day to night, all you have to do chuck a statement necklace and bold lipstick in your bag, but if I could bring more/ had more time to change up my look, I'd change my shoes to some nice boots or some heels and whack on some eyeshadow and winged liner. Once again I do apologise for my lack of foundation and barely there makeup; I don't wear makeup on a regular basis and I normally do these photos in the morning since I have a few hours to myself before my family members come home, so it's always quite rushed. I promise I can actually do makeup and I'll post up a look soon :)

Dupe for Topshop shoes

If you're like me and have been watching Sammi from Beautycrush's latest videos, then you would have seen her gush about her really cute shoes from Topshop that she loves. If you live in Australia, I've found a dupe for them being sold in Valleygirl as I was wondering around yesterday.

So here are the Topshop ones:

 

And here are the ones I got from Valleygirl for $24.95:

Pretty darn' similiar. The Topshop ones are leather, whereas the Valleygirl ones aren't, making your feet sweat a bit. I haven't worn them long enough to wear them in, so if and when I do, I'll let you guys know :) They do look really nice though, perfect to pair with a dress.

Model Co Fat Lash Mascara

I recently received the Model Co Fat Lash Mascara in the January Bellabox. Bellabox made it seem like the most amazing thing around. Knowing it wasn't waterproof, I knew it probably wasn't going to have an effect on my lashes, but maybe it could be usable on bottom lashes.
 

The wand reminds of me the Benefit They're Real mascara wand with the bristles at the tip of the brush, which I've always wanted to try. The brush is very thick though, it would possibly work with fuller, longer lashes, but for my sparse, short lashes, its really hard to get into the roots and I end up getting mascara all around my eye. It's a no from me, but who knows, it might work wonderfully on people with longer lashes.

New Look Chewy Chelsea Boots Review

I'm a bit of a youtube addict, so when ThePersianbabe and Sianshutterbug raved about their new New Look boots, I knew I had to get them. They're officially called the 'New Look Chewy Black Heavy Profile Chelsea Boots' and Asos was having a 20% off full price items discount,  so it was the perfect time. When I got them, they were just continuously out of stock, but luckily Asos (bless them) also repeatedly restocked the boots, thought it did take a few days every time. As the discount was ending that night, I desperately refreshed every half an hour, waiting for my size to be available. It generally does work, as people like to add items to their bag, but sometimes don't actually go through with the purchase.

So here they are:

These boots are super comfy, but the sizing does run quite large, which means my boots are loose. Even though I added an insole and wore thick socks, they still feel a size too large, which I'm really cut about since these boots are so comfy, the faux leather is so nice and the heel of the boot really wraps around the back of your heel (well it would for me if they weren't too big). I'm considering getting them returned but the boots are again out of stock and no amount of refreshing is getting me the size I need. If you're considering getting these boots, get them! But definitely remember size down.