If you've googled "best coloured contact lenses for brown eyes" in the last three years or so you've probably stumbled upon 50 bazillion reviews of the famous Italian brand Desio and their 3 month Sensual Beauty cosmetic lenses, most likely in Creamy Beige.
So like the rest of the world, I thought I'd be fashionably late to the bandwagon and give them a try. But being in Australia and not in a huge need of coloured lenses (I outgrew the ugh-my-brown-eyes-are-boring-I-wish-they-were-anime-purple phase in my late teens/early 20s, after trying every shade of Freshlook's Natural Blends and a bunch of others lol) I applied via their web form for a sample pair.
And never received a reply....on to plan b!
I'm back! Huzzah!
As the days grew shorter and the temperature dropped, it probably seemed like I'd crawled off into a cozy cave of forgetfulness and Netflix to wait out the chilly winter months, instead of being a diligent content creator and tending to my blog. But alas it was more a hurricane of hectic-ness than humble hibernation that kept me away!
It seems that no matter how many makeup products I buy, I will always be on that eternal hunt for my holy grail foundation. From high end to drugstore, mineral to liquid, sheer to heavy, BB to CC and every bloody thing else on the market these days, I still can't find that perfect base. But one does come awfully close, Giorgio Armani's gorgeous Lasting Silk.
Below are all the reasons why GA is so damn good and the one tiny issue that keeps it from being a HG for me.
Have you ever taken a product for granted? You use it everyday, it lives in your makeup bag, follows you everywhere like the proverbial old faithful and yet you don't give it a second thought? That was my relationship with my brow liner.
Until it ran out last week and I realised two things; 1) holy shit I now *hate* doing my brows in the morning and 2) my k-palette brow liner is the holiest of grail brow products known to mankind. NO joke. For realsies guys.
Needless to say I'll never take it for granted again!
You're probably sitting there thinking I've finally lost the plot, I mean how good could a brow liner really be? Well sit back and let me tell you how I found this little gem and how it changed my life brow game.
It feels like eons was two years ago this month, when I first posted about my makeup organisation/workspace. I'd just bought my Alex drawers and new vanity and couldn't wait to share my new storage/organisation excitement. So with that it mind, I thought it was the perfect time for an update!
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| and yes that is a banana for scale |
Since the original post I've rearranged my workspace a few times, finally settling on the most recent version as the best. I've also reorganised the hot mess of a makeup stash shown above into a colour-groups-by-type system, so keep reading if you'd like to see how I try to keep it all under wraps =D
Warning: pic heavy & lengthy, you may wanna grab a cuppa!
So recently the “no-makeup, makeup look” seems to be trending all over the place and with this comes the need for a natural or nude lip colour. In my search for the perfect natural lip I would often see gurus and bloggers referring to lip products as their “MLBB” and after some googling I discovered it meant “my lips but better”. Love it! Such a great term!
As everyone has different skin tones, finding your perfect MLBB isn’t a one-shade-fits-all scenario. I also feel that there’s a bunch of different MLBB tone or shade possibilities you could have, you don't need to be limited to just one. Different shades will compliment different hues that exist in your natural lip colour, letting you decide which ones you want to emphasise.
So to help anyone out there with tea rose coloured lips, here are some of my favourite MLBB combos for myself.
So apparently the age of contour has come to an end and the latest trend is 'strobing'. And if like me, you're sitting there thinking, "great here's yet another technique I need to learn, more products I need to buy and setting my alarm another 30 minutes earlier to get this shit done before work"......fear not!
First off, you don't actually need to 'strobe' (just like there's no real need to contour unless you like it/can be arsed doing it) and secondly, if you're already down with contouring then you already know how to 'strobe' up yo face.
Essentially it's just a fancy tagline for the same highlighting technique you would do with basic contouring. By applying a lighter product to the high points of your face, you add more three dimensionality to your facial planes which achieves a similar effect to that of contouring. This is especially helpful if you want to fake/reshape portions of your face or add back in some of the luminosity you may have lost from the complexion flattening that can happen with a full face of medium/heavy foundation.
~ Technique ~
Generally speaking you want to apply your highlighter product of choice the to places on you face that catch the light/are the high or prominent points such as the top of your cheekbones, your T-section (forehead, bridge of nose and chin) and your brow bone. But there's no set in stone rules for this, whatever works for your face shape is the way to go.
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| here's my attempt at a face chart showing where I contour (rarely lol!) and where I 'strobe' or highlight for my face shape |
If you're after a natural as possible effect then stick to skin-toned matte shades that are 1-2 shades lighter then your natural colour. If you're after a shimmering, dewy goddess type look then you can try shimmery products but stick to ones that DON'T have glitter - you want more of a pearl/satin finish and in shades close to the undertones already present in your skin tone. Be careful of anything that has a really strong reflect/duochrome as they can leave you looking like a disco ball if applied too heavily.
It's been a while since I've done a QHG! This time around we have my holy grail blushes from theBalm.
Now don't get me wrong, there are a million blushes out there that are amazing and have a cult status (I'm looking at you NARS Orgasm) but for a product to reach HG status for me it has to be reliable, perform amazingly and be the item I reach for before all others. In the blush department that's theBalm for me.
First up apologies for the insane delay in getting this post done, as usual life stuff in the form of multiple birthdays, rent inspections and job hunting got in the way again but as I promised here is it is :)
femme fatale cosmetics
Femme Fatale Cosmetics Haul - First Impressions & Swatches Part 3 - Lights/Neutrals
Here it is, the last batch! If you haven't already, check out part 1 of my Femme Fatale Haul & Swatch series and part 2 for more swatches and first impressions.
Winter is finally here! And while it's still all bright blue skies and sunshine where we are, the temperature has started to drop and there's nothing more satisfying than hot homemade soup on a cold winter's night.
My favourite thing about making your own soup is it's pretty much fail proof. Take this recipe for example, I googled a few standard pumpkin soup recipes to look for tasty flavour pairings, threw it together in about an hour
On to the next batch! If you haven't already, check out part 1 of my Femme Fatale Haul & Swatch series for more swatches and first impressions.
In part 2 I've grouped together the cooler toned purples and blues out of my batch of goodies. All these shades have either a blue or sea green or purple base and most have a gorgeous duochrome shift.
Snapseed was already a kickass photo editing App and with the latest major update it's become an even more powerful tool to have in your kit!
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A while back I hauled the Aussie indie makeup site Femme Fatal Cosmetics. Then life happened and the ridiculous amount of swatches I needed to do got put on the procrastination pile lol.
But I finally got the time to swatch these babies for you guys and give you my thoughts/first impressions. As this was a haul, I ended up buying 20 mini eyeshadows plus I received 6 samples, so I've broken this into 3 posts to get through them all!
For those times in-between salon visits, or covering up salon mistakes or covering up regrowth or even when I'm being too slack to measure and mix up proper colours, this is my go to box hair dye - L'Oreal's Casting Creme Gloss (semi-permanent & ammonia free) hair dye.
All Day Luminous Weightless
NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation - First Impression & Swatches
While in Melbourne with the other half for the F1, I managed to swing by the
Mecca store on Toorak Rd (after an epic day of shopping!) and try one of the items on
my lemmings’ list - the new NARS
All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation.
I've never owned a NARS foundation before so I needed some
help trying to find my colour match. A lovely staff member
at Mecca (gah I can’t remember his name for the life of me!) asked how he could
help and I mentioned I had no idea what my colour match in the new NARS ADLW was
and before I knew it I was sat down, relieved of my ridiculous amount of bags
and handed a cold glass of water – talk ‘bout customer service!
Hey, long time no see!
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| the beautiful Bunker Bay |
So I wanted to write up a post to apologise/explain my absence these past few months.... and show you some of the adventures my other half and I have been on this past summer.... and update you on some crazy recent personal news.
ZOMG! That one word pretty much sums up my love for these two products :) Anastasia Dipbrow Pomande & Metallic Luster Liners.
As you guys may have seen, the last ABH "holy grail" rave product I tried was the famous Brow wiz. If you read the post you probably also know that I wasn't that impressed with the overall product. On the flip side I did manage to trade it to Kat who fell in love with it.
