Back from my hiatus :) Mini beauty haul + review of Sally Hansen Sheer Cream Blush

I certainly missed this blog! An entire 4.5 months has gone by so fast I barely got to catch my breath.  I am finally done with my Masters Degree!! Woo hooooooooooo :D There has been many ups and downs both in my professional, university and personal life, but I am still hopeful for that silver lining behind the cloud.

So to celebrate my completing the degree and also to cheer myself up from a rough time this past weekend, I decided to go on a mini shopping spree. Retail therapy teehee!

There's currently a 50% off promotion for the entire Rimmel range in My Chemist, so I decided to take advantage of it and went to test out the oh-so-famous-on-youtube "Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation".

After testing it out on my hands though, I must say that it's not for me. There are obvious shimmers in the foundation, which may suit skin that is more dry and perhaps smaller pores. Personally though, I don't quite like shimmer all over the face, but rather in specific locations - which is why I am particularly fond of highlighting my cheekbones and the inner corners of my eyes. My pores are relatively large and because of this I fear that the shimmers/glitter will only accentuate them. I also have oily skin, so I don't see this working for me.

I was rather disappointed, but then I turned to play around with other Rimmel foundations and fell in love with the texture and finish of their Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation! It's a light perfecting foundation, which give a satin finish - a perfect balance between glowy/dewy and completely matte.

The shade that I have is called Ivory 100!

Rimmel Match Perfection in 100 Ivory & Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Sheer Cream Blush in  01- Beaming

Ivory 100 is the lightest shade in the yellow undertone side of the range, which fits my skin tone perfectly. I have yet to actually try it on my face, but I think this might be one of my soon-to-be-favorites this next month!

The other beauty item I got today was the Sally Hansen Natural Beauty Sheer Cream Blush in 01-Beaming. I purchased its sister in 05-Bloom a few months ago (I think this was in a previous haul) and ended up loving it so much that I decided to get this shade as well.

The texture is not too creamy or sticky and blends in with the skin very nicely. It dries to a satin-finish which is very natural on the face.

In terms of longevity, because of my oily skin, it does tend to fade a bit, but I find that it works best as a base for other powder blushes as well! If I want the exact color, then I would powder very lightly. Otherwise, I layer another blush on top and it stays on all day for me.

Here are the pictures of the two shades and also the swatches!

Left - 01-Beaming// Right - 05-Bloom

 

 

 

Left 05-Bloom// Right 01-Beaming

Bloom is more of a medium pink, whilst Beaming has more of a peach undertone. The swatches on my wrist are more true to color than how they look in the pan in the pictures above.

Top - 01-Beaming// Bottom 05-Bloom

I highly recommend the cream blush as they are generally low-maintenance, appear very natural and are especially great when you're pressed for time.

xoxo

Nail Swatches + Review - Bourjois 27 Beige Glamour

Some time towards the end of 2012, I posted about a Bourjois Haul at Priceline which included a nail polish called 27 Beige Glamour.

Well, let me just say this. I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEE IT!!! It's absolutely incredible. Here's a picture from the Haul:

So Laque! Nail Polish in 27 Beige Glamour

And a more close-up look:

This s a very pretty, office- appropriate shade. It's a mix of pink and beige - my favorite colors! The brush (may need to take a picture of it some time soon and then update this post) picks up a good amount of product and the application was very easy. The formula of the polish was beautifully creamy.Without a base and/or top coat, this polish still looked very pretty. Of course it won't last near as long though, especially since I work in a restaurant and I always wash dishes, clean things, take orders, etc. etc. i.e. I'm not very careful hehe

But seriously. Every single time I wear this polish, I get compliments on it. My friend said that it made my hands look very nimble, complemented my skin colour and was a very sweet touch to my outfit overall. 

Here are some swatches. These pics were taken from my iPhone 4 camera, with no filter or effects added. Pictured are two coats + top coat.

This was taken outside in the shade.

And here's a close-up.

Isn't this just pretty?? I'm in love. This is my go-to nail polish and is in my number 1 nail polish of 2012. Cannot get enough of this! If you can get a hold of this polish, and are looking for something that is girly but classy, I would totally, thoroughly, absolutely recommend this polish.

xoxo

Review + Swatches Rimmel Match Perfection Blush in Light vs. Essence Silky Touch Blush in Babydoll

In this post we'll be comparing the Rimmel Match Perfection Blush in Light and Essence Silky Touch Blush in Babydoll!

*Photos were taken from my iPhone at 2am Melbourne time - will update with photos with different lighting when I have time.

The Rimmel Match Perfection Blush comes in three different colors - I happen to like the one in Light the most, as it seems like a very natural, everyday color.

The packaging is a twist-cap plastic. It's nothing fancy, but that means that it may be a bit more difficult to travel with. 

I talked about this blush a while back in one of my beauty hauls, and I am still loving it! If I have time, I'll use the darkest color to contour my cheekbones a bit, then the pink or peach for the apples of the cheeks. As I'm always running late, I usually just either pick one color to use all over my cheeks, or swirl everything together.

Left: Rimmel Match Perfection in Light

Pigmentation - The blush gives me a pretty, subtle wash of color.It is rather sheer - which is great for when I'm in a hurry (all the time lol)

Texture - The color contains some small shimmers, but on the cheeks, it still looks very natural. It can be a bit powdery sometimes, but still good nonetheless.

Affordability/Price - It's very affordable plus you get 15g of product!    

Longevity, this blush does pretty well on my oily skin, so I would definitely recommend this blush ;)

Now onto the Essence Silky Touch Blush in 20 Babydoll

This blush is a clear plastic and is more compact than the Rimmel one pictured above. 

Color + Pigmentation - It's a watermelon - corally shade with lots of gold shimmers. Very pretty, especially for nighttime. Great pigmentation, and given the shimmers it has, it requires a more careful application. Too bad the pictures don't do the gold shimmers justice at all.

Texture - very silky. For once, the stuff promised on the packaging is true!

Affordability - again, excellent quality for the price. 

Left - Rimmel Match Perfection Blush in Light//Right - Essence Silky Touch Blush in 20 Babydoll

Longevity - The color stays on pretty well on my cheeks, but be warned - the shimmers will slip and go pretty much everywhere on your face after a few hours. The dispersed shimmers give you a 'glowy skin' effect like that seen from certain brightening BB creams or foundations. 

All in all, I do like both blushes for different occasions and would recommend both!

xoxo

Bourjois Special Promotion + HAUL :)

So I was looking for a new waterproof mascara in Priceline when I saw the advertisement in store about the new Bourjois promotion! For a limited time only, if you spend $25 or more, you'll get a free makeup bag with three Bourjois items inside!

So to make that $25 cut-off point, I got two things - the Volume Clubbing Mascara in Waterproof and the So Laque Nail polish in Beige Glamour.

I really wanted to get the Volumizer Mascara that has the two-step mechanism, but it doesn't say that it's waterproof on the package, so I decided not to. Non-waterproof mascaras have an extremely high tendency to not hold curl and more importantly - they tend to create 'panda eyes'!! :(

Close up of Beige Glamour.

Beige Glamour is a bit darker in real life, with a more beige/brown tint to it. Pretty, feminine and appropriate for all occasions, especially for work. I tried it today and  the color is creamy and absolutely lovely. It is now my holy grail nail polish!!

Now onto the freebies!

The bag itself is pretty cute - loving the bright pink stripes. It's made of plastic - it has the exact same smell and texture as those lifesavers at the pool haha

All of the bags contain the same items -

One nail polish in bright juicy watermelon pink (43 Magenta Show), one mascara (Volume glamour max definition) and one eyeshadow quad (05 rose vintage).

My favorite color is pink, so obviously I'm thrilled with all this pink overload.

Volume Glamour Max Definition - 51 Max Black

Sadly this one isn't waterproof, but I will give it a try some time, probably with mascara base underneath.

43 Magenta Show - a fun, super bright watermelon pink!

Having tried Beige Glamour, I am definitely excited to give this one a go later on, especially in the summer!

Eye shadow quad in Rose Vintage

The colors look almost brown in the photo, but in person they are definitely pink. The light color on the left is a light white-pink, the middle color is a slightly darker pink-white, whilst the bottom right color is a deep burgundy-like color with pink-purple undertones. Hm I've just realized how bad I am at describing these colors lol btw all of these are shimmery!

Swatches -

The pigmentation for the two lighter colors is okay, but the darkest one is actually quite nice.

Gotta love freebies and spacial promotions, eh!

xx

A little Priceline/Gloss Haul (Bourjois, Rimmel, V05, Sally Hansen)

Thanks to Jodi from GooRoo Beauty -
(she's a gorgeous beauty blogger and youtuber from Australia - one of my absolute favorites! <3 You can find her blog here: http://www.gooroobeauty.net/)

I found out about a bourjois offer online that gets you $10 off of any bourjois purchase at Priceline! You can just go to www.bourjoisoffer.com.au and you will receive a barcode and numbers. Just show this number (I showed mine from my iPhone) to the person at the cashier and receive your $10 discount :) This offer is valid until AUG 31st.

As usual, a "quick stop" by Priceline for "just one product" never works. I ended up getting two other products hehe. Here's an overview of all the things I got (Priceline + Gloss)

An overview of the items from the little shopping spree!

With the $10 discount, I decided to jump on this opportunity to get the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation that has so many people have raved about!  I wasn't sure about how to match my color, so the lady in Priceline helped me pick out one, and she recommended me the shade 52 - Vanilla.

I do not own any foundations because it feels uncomfortable on my skin. I have sensitive skin that sways between the two extremes of being very dry and then at times very oily. My dermatologist told me once that I had oily skin, but it gets dehydrated very easily.

For this occasion I specifically wanted a foundation or BB cream with NO SPF because I wanted to wear it during night time when I go out, as anything with spf will flash back when photos are taken. Not to mention it makes my face glow weirdly in certain club lighting (I've had parts of my face glow in the dark before, and trust me, you don't want that -__-') With this foundation, I would still be able to put on my sunscreen underneath for day time wear as well. Yay for doubling up!

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in shade 52 Vanilla

I tried this foundation on my skin in the store and fell in love with the finish. It was not overly matte nor dewy. It had the right amount of glow without making me look oily. The texture was nice as well, not overly runny nor thick. It felt comfortable to wear on the skin. I have yet to wear it for a whole day so I can't comment on the longevity of the product (though the 16-hr claim is unlikely), but so far, yes, it is simply a beautiful product.  Love this!

V05 Hot Oil Treatment

With the harsh winds from winter and constant hot showers, my hair has been getting more and more dry. I wanted to get a hair treatment that is budget-friendly (this one was around $5-$6) and one that I can use perhaps once or twice a week. This little set came with 4 tubes, and one tube is more than enough to thoroughly coat my long hair. I Probably won't be using it any more often than that, as it is very rich and I don't want my hair to get too oily. I tried it yesterday and so far, with just one use, I definitely feel the difference! My hair felt more smooth and soft, so again, LOVE LOVE LOVE. If next week the results are the same, this would no doubt be my holy grail hair treatment product.

Rimmel Match Perfection Blush in Light

There was a 20% off the entire range of products for Rimmel @ Priceline, so I couldn't resist. This blush was absolutely beautiful. It's a perfect everyday neutral beige-pinky-peachy shade shows up more peachy on my yellow skin tone. For approx. $11 for 15g (!!) of product, this is a great deal. I use this with my Eco Tools Buffing Brush and it works wonderfully! Here's another picture of the product which I edited - just so you can see the imprinted design on the product more clearly.

Will you look at the beautiful design pressed onto the blush? So cute!! The packaging is just like the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder line. There are two other colors - Medium and Dark. I am considering going back to Priceline to see the other colors since I love this one so much.
(Better save money? lol) Anyhoos. LOVE LOVE LOVE this.

And lastly, my nails have been peeling like crazy, so I wanted to try a Sally Hansen Nail treatment. I love nail polish, but I also work in a restaurant, so my hands and nails really suffer from that. (Think detergents, cooking, handling food, etc. etc.) I found this one at Gloss for approx. $5, which wasn't bad at all. So I decided to give it a try.

Sally Hansen Marine Extract Nail Treatment

I have been using this for maybe two days now, and to be honest, so far it is actually kind of working! I'm quite surprised. My thumb nail was peeling so I put on two layers of this product before I go to bed. Now the nail looks more moisturized and the peels are smoother. I'll give it the full 5 days to compare with the claims on the package, but so far, again this is a good product.

It appears I got really lucky this round, since I am loving all of the items I bought in this haul so far! Yayyyyyy

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by ^___^

xoxo

Australis Perfection Brush On Lip & Cheek Tints: Da Vinci Peach and Portrait Pink

I was in Priceline a month or two ago and they had (and still have) a bunch of things on clearance for $2.99 each so I went ahead and picked up their Perfection Brush On Lip & Cheek Tints in 'Da VinciPeach' and 'Portrait Pink' :)

Here's what the packaging looks like -

Love the names for the tints :)

So what you do is you click the bottom of the stick (where the color names are located) which is kind of like clicking pens when you're studying lol and the product will be dispensed out of the brush applicator.

Left: Da Vinci Peach. Right: Portrait Pink

I think the idea behind this is that you can just brush on the product directly onto the skin and blend using your fingers. But NOOOO. The dispenser is terrible! I click it many times and have to really wait until the product is dispensed, and when it actually does, the amount of product is very uneven. If I am impatient, way too much product comes out and it's a bit of a waste. :(

Portrait Pink

 Da Vinci Peach

Portrait Pink is a pink with mauve and slightly purple undertones, but when blended onto my fair yellow-based skin, it looks like a grape-red color. It's actually a nice color, and the texture of the product is like a slightly thinned out cream. Maybe somewhat similar to a semi-liquid concealer.


Da Vinci Peach is a warm peachy-coral color with small shimmers. You can't really see the shimmers once blended onto the skin though, which is totally fine by me.

Here they are swatched on the arm and then blended out.

Top: Life's a Peach. Bottom: Pink Portrait

These are very pigmented, so you don't need much at all. A warning though - these dry pretty fast, so do one small area at a time and blend with lightning speed!

I really must say though that the product itself is surprisingly great! The longevity of the tints is excellent and it looks very natural on the skin. They smell of roses which I don't really mind anyway. Be warned also that when you close the lid it needs to make a 'clicking' noise, but don't push on the end of the wand, as you'll just end up clicking the dispenser button instead (which I happen to do accidentally very often)

Overall, the only thing that is holding the product back is the darn dispenser. I might try cutting or removing the bristles so that the product will come out more easily and less product is wasted. But regardless, for AUS $2.99, I'd say not bad at all!

Pigmentation - 5/5
Longevity - 5/5
Dispenser/Design - 1/5
Overall 3.5/5

Soap & Glory: Body Butters!

I am a huge, HUGE fan of Soap & Glory. Their products are amazing, as they deliver what they promised - soft, lovely, healthy skin.

I'll be comparing two types of body butters from the line today - first up is the "Butter Up" Deluxe Body Smoothing Cream.

Butter Up Deluxe Body Smoothing Cream

Even though the package claims that it's a cream, the texture is very much like a body butter and is rather thick. The texture for both products in this post are so similar that I thought one picture should suffice (see below)

Smooth and thick - very moisturising :)

 This product is extremely moisturizing, which is why it's great during the winter time. I have very dry skin, so I use it before bed a lot of the time. The only thing which is a serious turn-off is the smell! :( Usually, almost all products from Soap & Glory smell AMAZING. But for some reason, this one smells different, and I can't quite describe it, but it's pungent - and not in a good way. I put it on and my sister actually said "Yuck, that cream doesn't smell good at all" T___T

So I found the perfect remedy - using this on my feet instead! It works perfectly fine, softening the skin on my feet (which are seriously dry), whilst being far enough from my nose that I'm not bothered by it :)

Next up is my favorite of all body butters I've tried - ever! It's my Holy Grail Body butter called  "The Righteous Butter" <3
First awesomeness - It's pink!!! Plus, it smells DIVINE...

The Righteous Butter

  I wouldn't recommend it for use during the summer in the day time, but then again it depends on your skin type. I smooth this on before bed and wake up to super soft skin. I even touch my arms in the morning for fun because they're so soft after the product sinks into the skin (as wrong as that may sound lol) >__< If you smooth it on right after a shower while your skin is still moist, your skin will absorb more of it and faster, thus it will be more effective.

Just can't get enough of this: My HG Body Butter!

They're a bit pricey compared to other brands in Thailand, and you can only get them from Boots, but there are constant sales like Buy 1 Get 1 Free or Buy one get the other for 50% off (which is when I stock up on these), so overall, I think you're getting more than your money's worth.

Overall score: "Butter Up" Deluxe Body Smoothing Cream = 8.5/10
                      "The Righteous Butter" = 10/10 (++ HG Product & Must-have)

NYX Round Lipgloss

I've had these three glosses for a long time now and have always procrastinated (as usual) writing a blog post about them :P But I'm finally getting around to blogging more, now that I've finished work and am in the process of preparing and packing for Australia!

Sorry for the fuzziness - my hand was shaking while taking photos from my iPhone lol

Here they are :)

The three glosses that I have from the Round Lip Gloss range are: Ballerina Pink, Peach and Whipped.

The colors shown in the picture above in the tubes are pretty true to color in real life, actually.

Here are the swatches:

Ballerina Pink (Right) is a medium pink with a pearly sheen/small shimmers
Peach (Middle) is a coral color with a red undertone with lots of glitter
Whipped is a nude pink beige color with a pearly sheen/small shimmers

The color pay-off is actually quite nice! 2 layers were swatched on my wrist. The glosses felt pretty sticky when first applied on my lips, but after using my fingertip to just blend the color out a bit and leaving it to set for about 30 seconds, I was a happy camper ^__^

The only downside - which I really don't like, is the smell. It literally smells like "Lemon Sunlight" - the dish-washing detergent. Yuck :(  It gets better after a while - or alternatively I just got used to it a bit more, so it was bearable. Still off-putting overall though.

Overall Score: 7/10