Life Update - #2 - My 18th Birthday

My 18th was the one thing I've been most excited about all year, not just because I can now vote or that I can purchase and consume alcohol, but because of the symbolic importance of this "coming-of-age". I have been planning the day for a few months alongside my mum and my twin sister (who's birthday was also yesterday, go figure) and we had picked out a restaurant and placed our requests for a cake or in our case, a cheesecake.

The day was jam-packed with social meetings, more so for me than my sister who unfortunately had to spend her night studying for an exam the following morning and had to postpone her party till tonight. First off we dropped my brother at school and it was kinda sad that he couldn't have the day off but it was really lovely to spend the day with just the girls. Making our way from his school we stopped by Roberto's Cheesecakes in Springwood and if you've never heard of them, well, there's not enough words to describe how heavenly these cheesecakes are. Myself, personally had been wanting the caramel one for a really long time but it was a little pricey so mum always protested until yesterday. Since my sister isn't a big fan of caramel we ordered a half passion fruit and half caramel cheesecake, as pictured above.  Now the three of us weren't going to just go back home an eat cheesecake, no no no, we drove over to my grandma's, who was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the cheesecakes. It was so lovely to spend some time with my grandma and I'm not sure how the VMAs came into topic but her reaction to Miley Cyrus was priceless.

After the heavenly divine cheesecakes and coffee we drove over to Southbank for lunch at Aquitaine, a little french restaurant on the river. We had got there a little early but the restaurant staff were fine with letting us get settled in. After staring at the menu for at least 20 mins we finally ordered, I got a salmon pizza with pomme frites (fries), complementary wine and it was gorgeous. Everything was perfect. The weather, the people, the food.

When lunch ended it officially became "my" birthday and not "our" birthday, and i started to meet up with my friends to begin our nighttime adventures. Now I'll keep this sweet, so I met up with two of my male friends in the city at roughly 2pm and then we just chilled in the city as I worked off lunch. At around four we went and bought some drinks and headed to Katie's place for the pre-party. When we got there we just chatted and ate chocolate and I also convince Katie's roommate, Caitlyn to come out with us that night, which she did and enjoyed thoroughly. People arrived at the pre-party and as it neared seven we had some dinner then met up with everyone else in the city. We basked in the excitement of Queen Street on a Friday night and watched a magician and took our time to walk to the Port Office Hotel, where we started drinking. Later in the night we decided to go dancing and moved over to The Exchange Hotel and we stayed there for the rest of the night, until about 1am when my mum picked Josh and I up. I intelligently stayed up a little later to drink a water bottle and as i did so, introduced Ferris Bueller to Josh (I couldn't believe he hadn't seen it).

The day and night was more than I could ever ask for and I cannot thank my friends enough for giving me the best present of all, which was their company. I will love that night for the rest of my life and I doubt I will ever forget it and the people I spent it with.

The Skincare Tag

1. Philosophy Purity Cleanser 2. Nivea Moisturizer with Jojoba Oil 3. Origins Checks and Balances Face Wash 4. Clinique Anti-Blemish Toner 5. Nivea Visage Daily Scrub for Normal to Combination Skin 6. Yes to Cucumbers Daily Moisturizer (LOVE LOVE LOVE) 7. Nivea Cleansing Mousse for Dry and Sensitive Skin

I was so excited to do this tag when I was tagged by the wonderful and beautiful Kate Flint from The Minted Beauty. I've seen a few of these around and was excited to get the chance to share with you some of my skincare secrets (not that any of these are really a secret) since I change everything up quite often.

Describe your skincare routine in five words...

A nightmare, wake me up!

What's your skin type?

I have combination skin with oiliness being around my cheeks, chin and forehead and then I have extremely dry and sensitive T-zone. Yes it's a problem :O

What’s your favourite skincare product?

At the moment without a doubt I would have to say the Yes to Cucumbers Moisturizer. Like holy shit I love this product, and I am aware a lot of other people do but for me I have just never been more in love. I know some people don't particularly love the smell of cucumbers but I find it really refreshing and just love applying it.

August Wishlist

1. MAC Prolongwear Concealer in NW20 - $32.00


2. Lime Crime Eye Shadow Helper - $20.00


3. Lime Crime Opaque Lipstick in Geradium - $15.99


4. Benefit Hoola Bronzer - $51.00


5. Yes to Cucumbers Eye Gel -$23.99

Now I probably won't be able to purchase any of these items since I'm on a very tight uni life budget but these are the things I had continually on my mind with the intent to purchase for the past month.

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation and Powder - First Impression

This starts off a little sad since the main reason I was even looking for a new foundation is because I'm nearly finished with my bottle of Revlon Colorstay which as you all know, is amazing and I absolutely love it. I was seriously just going into Priceline to get a refill but their new foundation and powder combination caught my eye. One, because they had a special to get both items for $30 which is crazy since each product retails for about $26 each so I was stoked and jumped at the purchased and two, because from all previous experience with Revlon foundations, I was fairly certain that I would like their new line.

With every makeup purchase comes a makeup promise and with Revlon's Nearly Naked foundation and powder there is no exception. Revlon's byline for this foundation is:

"Makeup so refreshingly light, it melts right in, creating a fresh even look. So the only one that knows you are wearing makeup is you. Blends seamlessly, buildable coverage."

Alongside the ad campaign featuring Emma Stone, I was drawn in and their promise of a 'nearly naked' finish that is also buildable.

When I met inside Priceline with the product line I was firstly impressed with the very helpful color wheel that accompanied the display as well as readily available and well labeled testers. I also pulled out my phone and went on their site to ensure that I picked up the right shade, which happens to be 130 Shell for the foundation and 010 Fair for the powder.

In regards to the packaging, I think that the simplistic design is great and very appealing to the eye but I must say that I am quite disappointed that there is no pump included but I suppose with such a lightweight formula is might've been hard to include it. The powder's packaging is a little big for my taste since I do like putting my powders in my purse when I'm on the go but it is very consistent with the foundation is staying simplistic and nice on the eye. My only bad thing to say in regards to the packaging of the powder is the little powder puff that's included has kind sharp edges, so learn from my experience, only press down, don't swipe underneath your eyes.

Today was the first time I used both products separately and together and I feel that I'm just going to fall head over heals for this one just as I did with Colorstay. The coverage is medium to light but definitely buildable and from the small amount I poured onto my hand (about 10-20 cent coin size) I felt that I got adequate coverage. Paired with the powder, everything just came together and it added a sense of being polished but at the same time flawless. I didn't find it cakey at all but I suppose on the amount of product you use that might change. I have oily/combination skin and I felt that at the same time is was controlling the oils it wasn't bringing out any of my dry patches.

In my opinion, this foundation and powder combination is perfect for people that want light to medium coverage that would be perfect for everyday work/school wear.

Foundation Routine

Haul Time with Swatches

If you didn't already know my 18th birthday is next week and boy, am I pumped and since I've never been out on the town before, I made it a clear excuse to do a little bit of last minute shopping. I'd already bought my dress and sorted out my outfit which I should hopefully have an OOTD for on the actual day and then realised that I was wearing all black and only owned one clutch, which was also black. Another excuse to go spend my money. So I headed around and found this one here at Miss Shop in Myer for $40. The picture above makes it look yellow but it's actual a light pink, as pictured below. It is actually quite large but I really like it and think I'll get heaps of use out of it. Also the handle is detachable  :)


Also another fact about me which says quite a bit. I plan everything. I had my dress picked out and ordered over a month ago. My mum, sister and I booked the restaurant for lunch nearly two months ago. And now that I had checked off everything major detail wise, like where I was going, who with etc, i went even further into detail and started experimenting with what I wanted to do for my makeup. I watched this video by TheBeautyVault on YouTube and decided to pick up the two major shades she had in the look since they are fairly inexpensive as well as a white eye liner by Essence since I don't own one. I want to try and do my own version of her look. The shades I picked up were Shrimp Me Up which is the coral shade and Dance All Night which is the shimmering gold shade. Here are some swatches.



Well this turned into more of a personal blog than a haul but non the less those are the things I picked up in preparation for my birthday next week, and life in general.

Vera Wang Rock Princess Perfume

Just as I was looking over my past couple posts I realized I hadn't mentioned any perfumes and to be honest, I'm a little obsessed to beautiful fragrances and thought I share with you one of my favourites. This beauty right here isn't a new one for me, I purchased it a little over two years ago, but because of it's incredibly scent i tend not to wear it on an everyday and save it for the special occasions. In regards to the scent, I love it, I am hopeless at describing scents but when I spritz it on my body I have to admit I feel a tad regal. Look at that packaging. It's gorgeous. I just love that little crown on the top of the bottle. That there is the 100ml bottle which I'm fairly certain is the largest size and I'm glad that I forked out the money for the larger size because it will last for quite some time and definitely add that royal touch to special occasions.

Liebster Award | I've been nominated!

Hey all the gorgeous people who stumble onto my blog, I've been nominated for the Liebster Award by the absolutely darling, GothicBeeza, to do the tag. I was just so excited when I got this so how could I not do it and share it with all you lovelies :)

The Liebster Award Rules: 
You must link back the person who nominated you.
You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominee before you.
You must pick 10 bloggers to be nominated for the award with under 200 followers.
You must come up with 10 questions for your nominees to answer.
You must go to their blogs and notify your nominees.

So here are the questions I must answer:

1) What is your go-to colour of lipstick?

I tend to always go for something on the darker side but my absolute go-to colour of lipstick is MAC House Wine which is a dark toned pink which I think is just very complementary on any occasion.

2) Do you prefer buying your beauty products online or in-store?

Well the selection is so vast online but I just love the experience of shopping in-store, I love swatching this, that and the rest, and on most occasions I get to have amazing conversations with the counter staff. So definitely in-store for me.

3) Have you ever bought anything “limited edition”?

Sure have :) My sister and I went shopping ages ago can't even remember exactly when and it was when MAC had that Island collection called Surf Baby! and I had a little spurlge (and so did she) and I purchased the My Paradise Blush with the gold flower pattern on the top.

4). Which do you prefer: Liquid liner or Kohl liner?

When it comes to liner I'm still in the baby stage, just trying to learn all the tricks but overall I just love kohl liners. I feel that I get better use out of them with my current skill set and I can do most of the looks that I want.

5) Is there any celeb who's style you covet?

Not really any Hollywood celebs although I admire Jennifer Lawrence and Karen Gillian, when it comes to style I absolutely covet over Zoella's  (she blogs and does YouTube) style. I just think her elegance is portrayed beautifully through her sense of style.

7). If you could start your own line of cosmetics, what would you call it?

Oh God, I have no idea haha. Let me think about this....Sunrise. This is such a second thought but the idea is that when you put on your makeup it's a new day, even if you're reapplying, you feel new and that's how Sunrise would work into a makeup line.

8). Do you go out of your way to buy cruelty free products?

Unfortunately I don't go out of my way but when I do find products that are cruelty free well I don't second guess whether I should buy it or not. I so try though in regards to skincare and that's why I really like the Yesto brand :)

9) What makeup items are currently sitting in your handbag?

I have my little ArtsCow bag in my handbag at most times and I don't normally take that much makeup with me, unless I'm spending the night at a friends, but right now I have an Avon Compact, MAC House Wine and Covergirl Clump Crusher Mascara. Like I said not much but that was all for yesterday when I went to the Courts for a University assignment and I didn't want to take to much since my bag was gonna be scanned.

10). Smokey or Neutral?

AHHHH so hard, but I'm gonna have to go with Neutral. I think most neutral looks just work really well for almost every occasion and they're not too hard either and if you mess up while doing it, blending won't go too far to fix it up.

 

So here are the lovely ladies I tag:

1. The Minted Beauty


2. BeaushionDiva


3. MadeUpbyMakeup


4. BiasMuch


5. Jasmine Cara


6. Bbubbles16


7. Barbie's Beauty Bits Blogger


8. Oz Product Junkie


9. Savannah Sellers


10. Gritty Pritty

 

And here are my questions for you:

1. High-End or Drugstore?


2. What's your favorite perfume right now?


3. What's your biggest pet peeve with other people's makeup?


4. Is there any makeup or beauty related skill that you think you could improve?


5. Top 5 Nail Polishes?


6. In your opinion, what are the most essential elements to a decent skincare routine?


7. If you can recall, how did you get into makeup/skincare and what sparked your interest?


8. Let's say $1000 popped into your bank account, what would you spend it on? Makeup, Skincare or Fashion?


9. What's your opinion on 'appropriate' lip shades for 'appropriate' occasions?


10. If you could go back and tell your teenage self one makeup tip, which would it be?

 

I hope you lovely ladies enjoy doing this tag as much as I did, so excited to see your responses :)

Nail Color of the Day - Sally Hansen Nude Shimmer

Just wanted to share with you my little night time manicure. I love this color and to be honest I was being a little lazy and just wanted something that wasn't too bright. As you can kinda see from the last picture, It's been a favorite for awhile and it's been very well loved. I topped this polish with Sally Hansen's Dry & Go Drops. Also with the last picture I apologize whenever I take pictures at night in my room they all turn out yellow, the other two I did in better lighting in a different room.

Review: Revlon Double Ended Smokey Eye Brush

So you may have seen that I bought this and featured in one of my recent hauls, and I only have good news about this brush. Now I don't own that many brushes but when it comes to eyeliner brushes I've tried a few and well the ones that normally come with gel liners are too thick and sometimes with liquid liners the control is just too tricky (well maybe just with me). This brush is amazing. 10/10. I just picked it up because of the sale that was on and boy am I flippin' glad for it.

Initially I used it purely for gel eyeliner since I was disappointed with the brush that came with the Maybelline gel liner and I found it so much easier to apply and the control made it better it make it easier to build, just in case I felt like going a little out of the norm of a simple wing. In this instance I am talking about the angled end of the brush. The bristles are very thin but like I already mentioned the ability to build is very easy. I gave it a wash and then tried it with eye shadows the other night to create a smokey eye and well I'm continuing the theme of "let's keep lovin this brush". I used it with some of my purple shadows and well it's just perfect for the looks I tend to go for.

On the other end, the rounded pencil brush, it is perfect for either blending upper lid liners/shadows but i much prefer to use it to blend lower lash shadows and liners to round out the eye look. It isn't too dense or sparse and works superbly, the shape is just brilliant.

The only thing slightly negative thing I have to mention about the brush is the fact that since it's double-ended when I place it in my brush holder I am scared about damaging the bristles of one end. Revlon did place a brush cover for the shader end and I recommend keeping that so that the brush is protected.

All in All 10/10.

FOTD - Uni/Shopping

This isn't gonna be too word orientated just wanted to share with you my face of the day. I was just really happy with how this turned out, I was just going shopping and to uni so obviously not too fancy, but it is clear that this cut crease can be dressed up with more eyeliner, darker shade and a darker lipstick. If you want to know what I used just let me know in the comments. Hope you enjoy :)

Life Update - #1

I am aware that this post isn't beauty related and that's the point, I would like to put some posts up here about my life and I understand if it's not everyone's cup of tea but be assured that I am not going to stop posting beauty and makeup posts, these are going to be the minority.

Firstly, I apologise for not posting regularly this week, it's been tough and hence this post is being created. Half because I need to vent somewhere and half because I feel that I owe you some sort of reasoning.

My life has been getting progressively more hectic in the last weeks with uni starting back and therefore making new friends and connecting with old ones, which is always fun and always enjoyable. I am loving my new units but am also excited to change degrees at the end of the year. (Which I just found out is easier than I thought it was going to be)

Now onto why this week in particular has been hectic, I will try honestly to not go into too much information. The one constant in my life for the past two years has been my amazingly awesome Aiden. We meet in 2011 and everything went from dull and boring to beautiful and energetic. His energy gave me life and inspiration. Now with any serious relationship at this age, we were sure to face problems and that we did, but we were such a strong couple I think we may have established an invincibility complex of some sort. So on Tuesday (6th August) it was heartbreaking when he broke up (for the second time) with me. He called me on Wednesday and wanted to see me, hoping that I would forgive him but it's incredibly hard to get hurt multiple times by the person you love and I decided it would be healthier for me if we kept this permanent. It was one of the hardest decisions of my life since we were still so in love and he is my best friend and I his.

The next couple weeks are going to be difficult as hell, but I know with a little help from my friends (Beatles reference) I'm going to be okay. Plus I have a lot to look forward to. One thing being my 18th towards the end of the end of this month. Also going full force with this new blog, I have so many ideas and honestly not enough time, but I will endeavor to be consistent. I have a feeling that being single for the first time since I was 16 is going to be weird but I'm in a relatively good place in my life and I think there is a chance that life will surprise me in the coming months.

 

Till Next Time

July Favourites

I know everyone says this but I can't believe that it is August, and it's not just because this year is traveling so fast but the fact that I turn 18 this month and August is normally really packed with things to do so I am super duper pumped. With August starting it calls for a few favourites and I am trying really hard not no mention too many things because I feel like favourites should be what i was addicted to for the majority of the month. So I have a few beauty items and a few randoms.

• Revlon Colorstay Foundation in 200 Nude Combination/Oily  - So I picked this at the end of June when uni took it's break because I was in desperate need for a new foundation and well what can I say, this baby is flippin' amazing. The coverage is exactly what I need and I feel that the formula is perfect and am 100% glad I picked up the combination/oily one because it helps matteify as well.


• Philosophy Purity Cleanser - Needed a new cleanser and I wanted to try something a little bit high-end and boy was I glad I payed the $15 dollars for this little bottle. It makes my skin feel suuuper duper soft and clean. When I used it at my boyfriend's place I came out and he touched my face and said it felt like a baby's bottom! Loving it and gonna be very sad when I run out.


• Maybelline Fit Me Bronzer in Light Bronze - I've had this for ages but only have just started learning and loving how to contour and highlight and I just love this for the days I don't want to do too much for my face makeup but still wanna shape and add a little color to the paleness. As you can see I've hit pan, which I think speaks for itself when I say I love it.


• Chi Chi Quad in Showstopper (Top Left Shade) - It's that shade in particular I've been loving since in July I have been embracing my brows and been using that shade to help define and fill them in.


• Models Prefer MPP120 Crease - Finally bought a blending brush (well at least that's what I use it for) and since buying this brush I have been nothing bar impressed. Love the density and the bristles are super soft and I haven't had any fallout :)

For randoms