Summer skin preparation

I don't know about you, but I seem to end up with scaly, dry legs in winter because I am just too lazy to bother! My legs and arms are always hidden with clothes during the cold months, so why bother?

Now that its warming up, I need to fix this issue. Just this week I've started using a few things that have helped IMMENSELY and I'm seeing a huge difference already! :D

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Palmer's Cocoa Body Scrub

Palmer's Hydrating Gel Lotion with Aloe & Cucumber extract

Veet EasyGrip Wax strips

Remington epilator

Palmer's Cocoa Body Scrub

So I've had this for a while but not used it since last summer...I used it a few days ago and was totally shocked and amazed at how much of a difference it made to my legs. They felt sooo much smoother and nicer, the best they have felt in months. It smells deliciously cocoa like and is creamy while being abrasive at the same time.

Palmer's Hydrating Gel Lotion

I was actually looking for the cocoa butter tub but I couldn't find it (I prefer the tub because you can get the most amount of product out when compared to the squeeze bottle), so I opted for this. It smells like traditional Palmer's (however it doesn't have that strong chocolate smell) and its really lightweight, absorbs quickly and is great at moisturising! I really like this but I still want the tub.

Veet Wax Strips*

These make hair removal SO quick and easy. As for the pain factor, yes it hurts, beauty is pain. 

Remington epilator

Whoever told you that epilating would give you smooth silky leg is a liar. It gives you a lot of ingrowns and bumps at first, but once you work out a routine that minimises this, all is well. I prefer epilating to shaving because it lasts longer. I like using this in conjunction with the wax strips for spots that I've missed. This is also great for my underarms, nothing makes them as smooth as an epilator. 

What sorts of things are you doing to get yourself ready for the warmer months?

PS - If you want to follow me on other social media, come and chat with me on Twitter or Instagram :)

* product was provided for consideration

Beauty tips

So here are a bunch of tips that you may not have known about before. These are little things I've stumbled across myself so hopefully this list will be somewhat unique!

Coconut oil as an eye makeup remover

Waterproof eye makeup? No problem, just smear a small drop of coconut oil on a cotton pad/tissue and gentle wipe off your eye make up. I prefer to use this method when the coconut oil is in solid form but it will melt anyway. I use this to get rid of waterproof gel eyeliner and if I'm wearing a lot of eyeshadow. I'm sure you are aware of benefits of coconut oil for hair, so surely it must do some good for your eyelashes too!

Using a loofah in the shower to remove nail polish on skin

Showering a few hours after a mani to remove excess polish is well known but sometimes I still have residual polish around the edges. Using the loofah, gently buff over any excess polish to remove it.

Bobby-pins for nail art

Dotting tools may be cheap to buy off eBay, but if you have spare bobby pins lying around, they can be used for all sorts of nail art. You can also use toothpicks, the tip of a dried out pen and paperclips. These can also be used as to draw fine lines. Why buy a dotting tool when a bobby pin is almost the same? :)

Mix different lipstick shades together
I have done a separate post on this - if you can mix foundations, surely you can mix lipstick! I buy a lot of my  makeup online so it can be hard to guess how it will look on me, and as a result I've ended up with shades too light/dark. See my experiments here!

Don't sit your brushes upright to dry after cleaning
Place them lying down on a hard surface, otherwise the water will drain downwards which can ruin the integrity of the handle. Also, the water will eat away at the glue meaning the bristles will shed faster thus shortening the lifespan of your brush!

Add eyeshadow to lipstick
I tried this for Halloween, I wanted black lips, but wasn't too keen on buying a lipstick I'd probably only use once. So I used a red lipstick on my lips, then dipped my finger in matte black eyeshadow and rubbed a bit on my lips. This doesn't feel too great (don't lick your lips!) but if you're going to a costume party, this is a good thing to keep in mind. 

Tuck the ends of your hair in
When you are keeping your hair tied up, make sure the ends are tucked in (like how they would be up in a bun). If you have your hair in a ponytail, friction from clothes etc will cause the ends to split faster.

Makeup wipes for spot cleaning brushes
I use makeup wipes for an everyday clean of brushes by wiping them off. I still clean my brushes properly as well (using organic shampoo!).

Thanks for reading, I hope you found something new to try! Feel free to share your tips :)

Gold!

After seeing a post by Bloomin' Beauty on gold makeup products, I was inspired to do the same! I love gold shadows and polishes.

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Kleancolor Baked Eyeshadow in Taupe

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania in Oro 

MUA Undressed palette which features a few gold shades

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Kleancolor Baked Eyeshadow - Taupe

NYX Ultra Pearl Mania - Oro

MUA Undressed Shade 6 (dupe for UD Half Baked)

Sleek blush in Rose Gold

Face of Australia Illuminator in Angel Flame - this has gold undertones to it!

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Blush swatch

Illuminator blended out

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OPI Goldeneye

Revlon Metallic enamel in Gold Coin

OPI Gold Shatter

Is there a certain colour that features heavily in your makeup collection?

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - Lovesick

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain review, as requested by Cindy from Aussie Hearts Beauty (check out her blog, she does great reviews of Australian brands!). I purchased the colour 'Lovesick' from Ebay for less than $10.

There has been so much hype surrounding these lately that I just had to jump on the band wagon, and I'm very glad I did because this product is amazing!

Lovesick is a bright fuschia colour. It is a gorgeous colour, great for a night out, but for someone conservative like me, not really for everyday wear!

Application is super easy and the stain is very moisturising. I found that the crayon tip makes it easy to get a precise application (more so than lipstick). The colour can easily be built up. 

It looks gorgeous when applied, a bright pop of colour. It smells minty, but it is not noticeable after a while.  In its initial glossy stage, the stain will transfer to cups etc, but the colour stays vibrant. After a few hours, when the gloss has worn off, the colour is still as bright as it was when I first applied it (minus the shine, obviously). One thing that really appeals to me about this is that the colour does not fade towards the inner part of the lips (clown lips are so unattractive!). When it does start to fade away, it fades evenly - hooray!

To keep my lips moisturised, I apply a lip balm over the top. After 8 hours, my lips still look bright, and the next morning they still had a hint of the stain left - talk about staying power!

Would I recommend this product? Yes x 1000! If you would like to know which Ebay seller I purchased this from, feel free to ask below :)

Face of Australia Illuminator - Angel Flame

I've already written about the other three shades in this collection (click me), but after seeing a 25% of FOA sale at Big W, I figured I may as well pick up Angel Flame too. The sale price was $10.83. 

I'm wondering why I didn't buy this one before, it's probably my favourite shade of them all. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Yes, I am also showing off my NYE mani here - OPI Diva of Geneva and OPI Goldeneye on the ring finger, in case you were wondering! Anyway, Angel Flame is a gorgeous pink that can be used as blush or a highlighter. It contains shimmer.

Swatches 

(I have no idea why these pictures are inserting upside down! I will try to re-insert the images at a later date so they come up the right way)

Angel Flame is said to be a dupe of NARS Orgasm Illuminator. While I haven't tried it myself, there seems to be a lot of similarity between the two. I think this shade would flatter almost any skin tone. If you're interested in these illuminators, I would recommend this shade the most out of them all because of its versatility - a blush and a highlighter.

Do you own this illuminator? What are your thoughts?

Homemade foundations and BB creams?

I came across this concept when I Googled whether mixing BB creams and foundation was a good idea to achieve a better shade match. Then I read this post about homemade BB creams and I was amazed. Such a simple concept, why had I never thought of it before?

Anyway, to paraphrase the above linked post, mixing moisturiser, foundation, powder, sunscreen, primer etc you can create your own BB Cream. 

First, I started by mixing my Dove Essential Nutrients moisturiser with SPF 15 (I love this moisturiser!) with a mineral powder foundation. This powder foundation is my summer foundation, as it matches my skin when I am a bit darker in the summer months (although, after working so much these holidays I've barely tanned at all). I played around with this a bit and found that depending on how much powder I added, I could control the coverage and thickness of the cream. I applied with my fingers and it looked very natural.

Then I tried mixing moisturiser with my Revlon Colorstay Stay Natural foundation. It seemed to make the foundation turn a lighter colour, but it wasn't noticeable when applied. As this foundation is a light coverage anyway, I didn't think mixing with moisturiser made a huge difference.

BB Creams are said to brighten your face. So I used Face of Australia's Mineral Therapy Illuminator in Angel Glow + moisturiser. When I mixed it on the back of my hand, it looked quite dark, but when applied, it gave a sheer, bronzed look. NB: I would not recommend this for light/pale skin tones as it would be noticeably orange. 

And then, I mixed everything together. 
Rimmel BB Cream in Medium + moisturiser + foundation + illuminator = winner!
I tried to add equal quantities of each product, but you can vary each to suit your needs. The final product was quite thick but it gave good coverage. I will probably do this occasionally in the future, and when I can determine optimal quantities of each product, I'll make up a larger volume and keep it in a fresh jar. 

A dot of moisturiser, foundation and BB Cream (they've turned into one blob) and a touch of illuminator.

You can mix anything you like really, I didn't use sunscreen as the moisturiser, foundation and BB cream themselves contain SPF, and I didn't use primer as I don't own any (yes, you can laugh at me). I've also seen liquid concealer being thrown into the mix, but I wondered if this would be too cake-y.

Have you tried doing this?

December Empties

Another month ends and another bunch of products have been used up. But before I get into it, I hope you are all having a relaxing and rewarding Christmas break! I hope Santa brings you lots of fabulous goodies :)

Australis Mineral Inject Foundation

This isn't empty, but I've had it for over 12 months so it's time for it to be chucked out. I did like this when I started using it, but after a while I didn't like it anymore. The packaging is excellent, but the product is average. I don't like the strong sunscreen smell to it and it doesn't last very long. I won't repurchase this, as I have chosen to go for a slightly more expensive option - Revlon Stay Natural foundation.

The Body Shop Strawberry Body Butter

Amazing stuff, smells delicious. I get tons of compliments whenever I wear this. The smell is quite strong and does last a while, it's also very moisturising. There was a little bit left that I was going to use, but from the erratic hot and cold weather that has been happening lately, this is what happened to it...

Wow! It's looks like a hard gluey mess. Luckily there wasn't much left. I think I'll wash out the tub and use it for storing things. Will I repurchase? Yep, already have! I'm a huge fan of the Body Shop.

Nail Tek Foundation II Base Coat
I know this looks full when I lay it down flat, but it's about 1/3 full and has reached that gluggy, unusable state. At the moment, when I use it, it has the same effect as using Clag glue on my nails. However, this is an excellent base coat that dries opaque, fills in ridges and strengthens nails. It is probably my HG base coat. I also like that because of it dries as a milky white colour, it means you can use less coats of polish to achieve an opaque colour. Will I repurchase? Absolutely. 

Ophelia Makeup Rounds (top)
I think these are from Aldi? Either way, they are very handy for removing polish and eye makeup. Cheap and great quality. If I visit Aldi soon, I'll repurchase them, but as Big W is closer to me and are selling the Swisspers cotton pads in bulk, I'll probably go for them instead. 

L.A Girl Endless Auto Liner
I prefer the wind up crayon eye liners. This was okay, but the crayon was quite hard and I had to use a bit of pressure with it. In fact, I had to use so much force that I managed to snap half the crayon off! Ooops. Luckily it was only $2.50 from beautyjoint.com.  I won't repurchase this.

What have you used up this month?

Face of Australia - Mineral Therapy Illuminators

Good things come in threes, right?

Okay, I know this set actually includes four different shades of illuminators, but at this point in time, I've purchased three of them. I have bought the shades Angel Mist (the white, classic highlighter shade), Angel Blush (pink toned) and Angel Glow (bronze). I'm missing Angel Flame which is said to be a dupe of the NARS Orgasm Illuminator. Not sure yet whether I will buy it, but they retail for $14.95 (although I paid $14.44 at Big W) so theres a good chance I will. These are 50mL tubes so they are excellent value for money. 

The NARS illuminators are $48 each (according to Mecca) which is waay out of my price range, also they are smaller tubes (30mL). Considering you can buy the whole FoA collection for $50 (see link at end of post), it makes sense to buy all 4 for only $2 more than a single NARS one :)

Angel Mist
This can be used with foundation for fairer skin tones, but I use this as a highlighter at the top of my cheekbones. It adds a sparkly glow to my cheeks which I really like! As for pigmentation, my skin is 'medium' toned, so there is not much colour evident when I apply Angel Mist. I can't confirm this, but from the swatches I've seen, this looks similar to NARS's Copacobana Illuminator.

Angel Mist swatched
Left - blended out, but on my face I would blend it out more, I didn't blend it as much here so you can see it better. 

This is what the packaging looks like, tube with a screw top lid. You can probably see that there is enough product around the mouth and in the lid to highlight my cheekbones.

Angel Blush
This was the first one I bought and after a few uses, I was hooked. It gave a peachy glow to my cheeks. This one is probably my favourite.

Angel Blush, swatched above

Angel Glow
This one is less shimmery of the three and has more colour to it. I have read that you can mix it with your foundation for a bronzed look, but I found it made me look orange. I use this as a bronzer and/or blush for a natural summer glow. To me, this looks very similar to NARS's Laguna Illuminator.

Angel Glow, swatched above

What I don't like about these - the packaging isn't great, I find that a lot of product leaks out of the hole and goes into the lid which is wasting the product. I would highly recommend laying them down flat rather than upright, because product leaks out and can get messy when you open it. Example...

After leaving it upright for a few days, a lot of product has leaked into the lid, and dried up around the edges :(

Before I end this post, I'd like to say thank you to Mishelle from Mishelle's Sleepy Time for recommending these illuminators to me! 

Have you tried these illuminators?


Buy from:
http://www.makeupexpress.com.au/cosmetic/face-makeup-face-of-australia-illuminator/face-of-australia-mineral-therapy-illuminator-collection.aspx

My 10 Beauty Discoveries of 2012

As this year is drawing to a close, I thought I would write a reflective post. This year has been a year of huge beauty discovery and change for me, here are my biggest changes..

1. Discovering eye primers
A few months ago, I discovered the importance of eyeshadow primer. I always passed it off as unnecessary but after purchasing Too Faced Shadow Insurance, my views changed completely!

2. Epilating
Back in February, I purchased an epilator to use on my legs. Now I'm also using it on my underarms. For my legs, it's alright, but I am considering going back to shaving as I get too many ingrowns and it is time consuming. For my underarms, I am really glad I have made the switch as they are super smooth and the hairs grow back thinner and sparser. 

3. Switch to natural deodorants
After aluminium based deodorants started to irritate my skin, I switched to a natural deodorant by Fresca. I like that it's much better for your skin, but I find myself still reaching for aluminium based roll-ons before I go to work, as the Fresca one doesn't seem to last all day.

4. Using organic products
I've been using coconut oil (cold pressed, virgin, unrefined) on my hair for a few months now and the results are incredible. I feel like I should throw out my other hair products as I barely use them now. 
I've also started looking at some organic skincare products too.

5. Nail Art
I have jumped on the nail art bandwagon this year. Thanks to Tumblr, YouTube and Pinterest, I have found tons of inspiration for different nail art designs.

6. Illuminators/luminizers 
Again, I thought this product was unnecessary and I wasn't that interested. But after I saw some Face of Australia illuminators at Big W, I couldn't resist! When I first started using it, I wasn't that impressed, but now I am really happy with the extra glow it gives to my skin.

7. Contouring my face
Another one of those things where I didn't see the point - how wrong I was! As I've said before, I look very young and I find contouring makes me look mature. I'm yet to perfect the technique and still need to purchase more tools to get the look right, but I'm getting there :)

8. Lip plumping gloss
I never looked into plumping glosses, I thought they contained sparkles/shimmer to reflect light and make your lips look fuller...then I bought the MUA Out There Plumping Gloss...bit of a shock that was when I used it! These glosses contain ingredients which give a mild stinging effect to dilate your blood vessels and swell your lips up. I was a little alarmed when my lips started stinging! But it seems like a good product to use every now and again. 

9. Using a base coat and top coat for nails
I was such a nail art noob before this year. I never used a base or top coat, until I read an article on beautyheaven about how to make your nail polish last longer. I can safely say that these products have changed my life! I'm now a huge nail polish junkie and can't go without my Seche Vite.

10. Blending eyeshadow
Again, before this year, I would only ever use one colour of eyeshadow on my eyelids, but thanks to YouTube and some great tutorials, I've learnt how to create a vast array of stunning looks! 

Now tell me, what beauty discoveries have you made this year? You can probably see that I've learnt a LOT of things this year and I hope my beauty education continues into the new year :)

Pure Destiny Aromatics cleanser review

Pure Destiny Aromatics - Complete Me 3-in-1 Cleansing Facial System

I won this lovely product from a giveaway run by The Beauty & Lifestyle Hunter (check out her blog, it's very informative and a great read!) and I'm very excited about using this as it's my first organic cleanser.

I have recently become more interested in organic and natural products. After buying coconut oil for my hair, I barely use any other hair products. I've also ditched aluminium containing deodorants in favour of natural deodorant.

This cleanser contains certified organic ingredients, and from having a quick look at the ingredients list, I see things like aloe barbadensis leaf juice, various fruit and seed oils, as well as jojoba beads. This sounds much nicer than things like ammonium lauryl sulfate and sodium benzotriazolyl and other things that are too hard to pronounce. 

The packaging is sleek and simple. I think it looks very classy and a lot less 'commercial' than cleansers by many well-known brands. 

The cleanser is easily dispensed in an efficient way, and one of the first things I notice is the pleasant smell - sort of like lavender and eucalyptus (I'm probably wrong). The consistency is quite runny and contains exfoliating grains. I massage this onto my skin in circular motions to exfoliate and leave it on for up to 3 minutes (as stated on the label). In this time, the cleanser absorbs into the skin and the exfoliating beads are left on the skin. I was quite surprised to find a refreshing sensation over time - not so much that tingly feeling from menthol, but more like a cooling feeling. According to the label, this is when the cleanser is detoxifying and cleansing the skin.

After washing off, my skin feels refreshed and smooth. Also, it doesn't feel dry/tight at all which is a winner in my books as I often find myself with dry skin after using cleansers. I can get away with not moisturising but I still do. I'll be using this twice a week, but it can be used about 3-4 times a week.

Overall, this is a really fantastic cleanser and I would highly recommend it!