Weekly favourites #2

It’s that time again where I tell you about some products I love at the moment. I’m really enjoying weekly favourites as it gives me a moment to reflect on products I am using the most, and which ones I should be giving more attention to. Let’s see what I’ve got for you this week!

Covergirl Outlast Foundation in Buff Beige: This handy little foundation came as part of my glosscars prize pack; I can see why it won the foundation award. It has great coverage and the lasting power is really great, with and without a primer! I’d say the coverage is medium, and on a good day I don’t need to conceal under my eyes!

For extra flawless skin I’ve been crazy about the Real Techniques Stippling Brush. It blends out the foundation really nicely and doesn’t pick up too much liquid which is great! Creates a lovely natural finish no matter what product I use, including a BB or CC cream!

For my gorgeous locks of hair, I’ve really loved the Herbal Essence Honey! I’m Strong conditioner. I’ve been using this in conjunction with my Organix Coconut Shampoo and my hair is so much easier to dry and brush in the mornings and my fly aways have shrunk dramatically!

I’d also like to mention the Garnier Olia Hair Color, I haven’t got a photo of this but I did post about my experience with it here. Since recoloring my hair back to brown, the condition of my hair seems to have improved a lot. It doesn’t look like straw and again my fly aways have shrunk!

Bondi Sands

Today I want to introduce you to a gorgeous home grown brand and product, Bondi Sands.

You may already be aware of this brand and kudos to you for already knowing about its greatness! 

Bondi Sands is an Australia brand that has developed affordable, salon quality tanning products! They range from tanning milks, to mousse! I was lucky enough to receive the Bondi Sands Mousse in my glosscars pack, I received the shade ‘dark’. This was a surprisingly good shade for my pasty white skin, I was expecting it to be super dark!

So let me tell you about the application process. I used a mitt, which just happens to be a St Tropez mitt, but it works just the same with any other brand. I pumped a few times on to the mitt and then I swiped down my leg from the top of my thigh. I do this because I don’t want heaps of the product at the base of my leg and on my feet, looks tacky! So I rub this around a bit until the front of my leg from thigh to foot is covered, then I do another pump and apply the same way to the back of my leg. Make sure that you do thoroughly wipe the product on your feet or you’ll get brown legs and pasty white feet!

The good thing about Bondi Sands is that you can leave the tan on for an hour and then wash it off, St Tropez for example requires 3-6 hours for developing. I actually left the tan on overnight which was fine as I liked smelling like a toasted coconut!

That brings me to my favourite part of this fake tan product, the scent! I love me some coconuts! Unlike other fake tan products where you get that awful fake tan scent that just seems to linger on for ages and you can smell it in everything! Bondi Sands smells like coconuts! Yay!

As for the fake tan itself, it develops perfectly! Doesn’t streak at all or look orange, it’s a green based product so you’re going to look brown not orange. It really does look natural, and the dark shade was fine for my white skin, I think I would have been disappointed if I had the lighter shade, I wouldn’t have noticed it much! 

So if you're already a fake tanner or you're looking to start out this is the perfect product for everyone!

Home Hair Colour 101

For summer I decided I wanted to go lighter, I had the image in my head of what I wanted, but it turned out nothing like that at all. It didn't worry me, I still had lighter hair. But over the last few months my natural hair colour was becoming more prominent and the blonde foils looked more obvious than I wanted. So I decided it was time to colour it back to just brown. I was waiting for my glosscars prize to arrive because I knew it had a hair colour in it. Unfortunately I got blonde, I know some people took theirs in and swapped it but I kept forgetting. Then on Beauty Heaven I saw some of the reviews for the product the Trial Teams were testing, Garnier Olia. This really appealed  to me because it uses oils and not as many ammonia as usual hair dyes. The reviews seemed great, I even did more googling to find more reviews with pictures (I've learnt I like pictures, before and afters). I picked out the shade I desired from seeing reviews, 4.15 Iced Chocolate.

Firstly I asked the ladies on BH if anyone had foils and did they find it worked ok, some people said to be careful the blonde doesn't turn green. So I tested a strand of the really blonde hair and left that in for 15mins it didn't look green so I continued with the rest of my hair. I actually applied it in sections to ensure even coverage and because the bottom layers of my hair had the blonde so I wanted them to sit for longer.

The instructions were easy to follow, just typical home hair colour instructions really. I was mostly impressed with the size of the conditioner! You'll definitely get a few uses out of that! After 15mins my hair was starting to look really dark, so I chose to start washing it out. It was easy to wash out and didn't feel too dry, I lathered on the conditioned and then brushed it through with my tangle teezer before rinsing it out fully. I left it to partially dry naturally, this started to scare me because it was dark! Once I used the hair dryer to finish it off, it wasn't as dark as I thought. It took me until the morning to realise it wasn't really that dark, and when I put the before a after picture together I saw that it was only about a shade darker than before. So that's fine with me, and the blonde has been covered.

I documented my progress in pictures so you can see that below and I've listed some pros and cons.


Pros:
- Easy to use
- Great colour selection

- Smells really nice and floral
- Great conditioner size
- Hair feels healthy afterwards

Cons:
- Bottle is hard to hold

during application

after rinsed out

Left: Before Right: After

Glosscars Prize Pack

It’s finally here! My beautiful Glosscars prize pack arrived, complete with around 54 products!

Every product that won an award in the Beauty Heaven Glosscars is in here, well except for the La Prairie Eye and Lip Plumper, but that’s ok it’s replaced with two other La Prairie Products that I’m probably more like to use!

So my plan is, every week or so I’ll be telling you a bit about some of the products I recieved and what my first impression is of them. Some of them my take a bit longer to review, like the Babor Cellulite Cream (let’s be honest there will be no results for a few months!), and some I’ll be giving away to friends and family! I do have a few first impressions to share with you this week.

YSL Manifesto – it’s described as spontaneous, free spirited and courageous; a scent of full passion and emotion. I have no idea if it’s really any of those things, to me it smells amazing and I feel like a grown up woman wearing it! To me it has hints of vanilla and slightly woody and floral but with also a fruity layer. Supposedly the top notes are Blackcurrant and Apple, with Lily of the Valley and Jasmine and the bottom notes are Sandalwood, Vanilla and Tonka bean (I don’t know what that is). I really recommend you go and test this; you’ll be surprised how wonderful it is. And the longevity is amazing, I sprayed this after a shower at night, and I could smell it the following morning and all through the night!

Benefit Rockateur Box O’Powder – This is a Rose Gold shimmery powder you can apply over your cheeks for a ‘show stopping flush’. It actually wasn’t as shimmery on the cheeks as I thought it would be. Apparently the initial shimmer on the product is just an overlay can be brush off. It does provide a nice subtle flush to the cheeks without being too pink or too overbearing, very natural! I’m pretty impressed, but you’d want to be at $55! The staying power is pretty amazing too, i've posted two pictures one taken at about 9am and the other at about 4pm. The blush is still there! (the after pic is more flushed because I was actually a bit hot)

heavily swatched

lightly applied at 9am

still applied at 4pm

Stay tuned for more reviews some wonderful products! 

This Weeks Favourites #1

I decided this week I’d do a weekly favourites, something different and also because I know I’m going to have a whole lot of new favourite products to post about at the end of the month! My Glosscars prize pack is on its way to me right now! I already know there will be lots of product reviews coming courtesy of this prize pack, and no doubt a whole lot of favourites at the end of the month.

So before I forget about my current favourites I want to share them with you right now, right this second! Let’s do it!

Firstly, you all know I love the Pure Fiji products, but just recently I have discovered a scent I never knew existed, a scent I need in my life for the rest of my life, Star fruit. In my recent Pure Fiji Haul post you would have seen I purchased a small sample size set of the shower gel and lotion. I’m bummed I didn’t get a bigger size to be honest! This scent is the most amazing thing I’ve smelt in a while. Fruity, yet it makes you smell ‘clean’ I honestly don’t know how to describe it, but the scent stays around for ages. If you get the chance please sample it! (You can even eat this fruit, cook it and make jams out of it!)

Next up is an old product that I’ve fallen in love with again, my Naked 2 Palette. I had a little break from this when I purchased my Sigma Palette, but I’ve since given it a bit more love and I’m enjoying it all over again! The colours are lovely and suit all skin tones, and the colour pay off and pigmentation of these shades are amazing! I don’t seem to need to apply as much as I do with the Sigma Palette. They work great for a day time look and even better for evenings!

This is probably the most luxe product I own, the Nuxe Lip Balm. I’m crazy about this baby! It’s great to apply at night before bed time and let the goodness soak in overnight, but I also use it in the morning before applying my lipstick. Honestly I apply it at about 8am and my lips are really moisturised until literally about 1pm, even with a morning coffee and lots of water!

And another oldie but a goodie is my Chanel Mat Lumiere Foundation. I’m not sure why I suddenly like this more than I did originally, I swear before it was too dark for me and that was during summer! Now it seems to be ok, and doesn’t oxidise as much as it did before. Applies flawlessly and doesn’t accentuate my dry patches nor look too matte either!

To help my skin look a bit more glowing without the ‘oily’ shine look, I’ve been enjoying a liquid highlighter on my cheek bones. Currently I’m using the So Susan water-based luminizer, which I received in a beauty box subscription!  Leaves a subtle glow on my cheek bones, truly lovely!

What are your favourite products this week?

Every day look with Naked 2

 Today I’ve decided to shop my stash and create a look using the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette which I have neglected for a few months since I purchased the Sigma Warm Neutral Palette. I’ve also found another product I haven’t used for a while, MAC Paintpot in Groundwork, so I thought I’d add that to the look as well. So let’s see what I created and what I used.

I was getting ready for work so I’ve kept this appropriate for work or every day wear, less Victoria Secret shimmer, more subtle. I primed my lids with the Elf Eyeshadow Primer which is inexpensive and great quality, you can purchase this from Kmart or iHerb. Next I applied my MAC Paintpot in Groundwork, I used a small Furless brush which is usually used for concealer but I find it’s great for paintpots. I took my Furless blending brush with no colour on it and blended out the edge so it looked smoother. Next I took my new Sigma Tapered Blending Brush and the shade Tease from the Naked 2 palette, I applied this to the centre of my crease move back and forth, ensuring I didn’t let it go too far down to the corner of my eyelid. Once the colour was applied precisely I took the Furless blending brush again and blended out for a smoother look.

I used the double ended brush from the Naked 2 Palette, and using the shadow end I applied the shade Suspect to just my eyelid. This creates a bit of shimmer without going all Victoria Secret-esque. I then applied Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Liner to my upper lashes only, followed by Chanel Inimitable Intense Mascara.

This is a really easy look to create using only a few products, you don’t even need the shades from the Naked 2 palette, just take any light brown matte shade to the crease and add a bronze shimmer shade to the lid, easy peasy! Great for beginners too as it doesn’t require any complicated skill work.

I apologise for the quality of my photographs, as I get up early for work there is no decent natural light so I have to rely on the crap fluorescent lighting in my house and work.  In future I’ll aim to do looks on the weekend where I have access to natural lighting.

Real Techniques Haul

Finally my Real Techniques Brushes arrived, if you read my blog you'll know I posted here that I was getting some new brushes, my Sigma ones arrived quickly but the iHerb ones took over 2 weeks. Note to self, next time go for the $8 postage, bit quicker!

So I'll tell you what I got an my first impression of the brushes. I really love the Expert Face brush from the Real Techniques range, so i decided to get another face brush to see how that compares, in comes the Stippling Brush. I'll be honest I don't know how to use this, I started to just tap it all over my face, that wasn't really working for me so I just used it as a normal brush and buffed the foundation into my skin. Worked really nicely and created a flawless finish, it's a lot bigger than the Expert Face Brush and I guess kind of easier to use, but i'll have to play with it a bit more. I applied the foundation as usual, to the back of my hand first.

I really wanted a small dense eye shadow brush to apply shadow to my lids, something that will pick up more shadow. Originally I planned to buy the Sigma E55, but I just wasn't sure so I purchased the Real Techniques shading brush. It seems the E55 is smaller, so that might actually be more what I was after. But to be honest the Real Techniques does the job and is more dense to the Furless eye shadow brushes I have. It picks up shadow really easily and a lot of it, which is what I wanted and it's easy to apply to the eye lid. Overall I'm quite happy I purchased this brush and I think if you are starting out you should definitely buy their eye and face brush kits.

Whilst on iHerb I also picked up some chocolate which i've photographed as well as the little iHerb peg they sent with the package.

If you're interested in purchasing Real Techniques Brushes, you should head over to iHerb, they have 20% off at the moment and if you use this code JTN740 for your first purchase you'll recieve $10 off! Bargain! iHerb now also sell in Australian Dollars! Great news as you'll save on fees from bank conversion fees!

Sigma Warm Neutrals Palette

Today I wanted to do a feature on the Sigma Warm Neutrals Palette. I purchased this from Rouche Boutique for $42.70 I have also discovered that Redefining Beauty is a certified Sigma reseller and they sell the palette for $42.90. The palette features 12 neutral shades ranging from frost, matte, shimmer and duo-chrome finishes. The palette is actually quite small a bit bigger than a table coaster, but perfect for travelling as it is not very heavy.

T: Oyster sand, sugar milk, mild mannered, dove
M: Fawn, cinnamon, russet, balanced
B: Cozy, innocent, optimistic, warm stone

The actual shadows are amazing, they are lovely and pigmented but also really soft and can be built up to make the colours bolder. I’ll be honest some of the shades I haven’t even touched yet, but I’ll be looking for more tutorials on how to use the palette. At the moment I tend to use the shades Sugar Milk (a great blending colour) and Mild Mannered (a perfect lid colour) occasionally I’ll use some of the darker browns and mushroom colours for my crease or all over lid.

L to R: Warm stone, optimistic, innocent, cozy

Warm stone: Dark brown with subtle gold glitter. I actually haven't used this shade yet, and this was the first time i had swatched it. It looks a lot nicer on the skin than in the palette, i'll be looking for ways to incorporate this into looks now. 

Optimisitc: A deep pink with shimmer. Another I haven't swatched before, i'll have to try and find away to work this as it is a really lovely shade.

Innocent: A light matte pink. I have actually used this before usually just as a blending colour. It's quite nice because it is matter. 

Cozy: A light brown matte colour: I usually use this as a crease colour when i'm doing lighter more subtle looks. It's really nice in texture and blends really well.

L to R:Fawn, cinnamon, russet, balanced

Fawn: A silver colour with shimmer Another I hadn't swatched before, it looks really shimmery in the pan, but is not as shimmery on the skin. I think i'd use this more for night time and going out. 

Cinnamon: A tan matte colour. I haven't acutally used this that often because it is quite orange and doesn't fit in with any looks I try to create. Might have to look into ways of using this colour more. Great texture though. 

Russet: Deep matte cranberry. Another shade I don't use that often, it does work quite well in the crease sometimes and blend really nicely. 

Balanced: A shimmery cream/light brown colour that's really nice to use all over the lid and works nicely in the inner corner also, regularly used.

L to R: Dove, mild  mannered, sugar milk, oyster sand

Dove: A shimmery dark brown, works really nicely in the crease or as an all over colour. 

Mild Mannered: A shimmery light brown, used regularly as an all over colour on the lid. 

Sugar Milk: A matte cream that is used as a base for most of my looks, is really great for blending as well. 

Oyster Sand: A shimmery light pink, really nice for a highlight colour or on the lids as a base. Too pink and shimmery to use all over the eye lid and brown bone though.

I thought I’d compare this to some of the other palettes I own such as the Naked 2. I tend to use the Sigma palette more than the Naked 2 as the finishes in the Sigma palette are more matte and not as frosty or shimmery as the Naked 2. I find that for every day work and weekend looks the Warm Neutral is more functional and practical. Don’t get me wrong I love my Naked 2, but I find it’s best for nights out or when I want more shimmer and more brown tones.

I can’t really compare it to my NYX palette as I haven’t used that enough, but I will say the NYX Butt Naked palette I own is more pigmented when you first apply, but the shades don’t last as long throughout the day.

Overall the Sigma Warm Neutrals has been a great investment for me, and I’m really glad I purchased it. I can’t wait to use it with my Sigma Brushes when they arrive. 

A little bit of luxury

It's that time when Priceline members are rewarded with their quarterly pay pack cheques! This week I received a whopping $14, that's not such a good thing when you think about how much you need to spend to get that much back! So I had a little think about what I might like to spend my voucher on, I though about nail polishes, I thought about make-up, but I decided to treat myself to two product i've been eyeing off but never been able to justify the purchase, based on price.

If you read my blog regularly you'll know i'm a lip gloss, lip balm, lip stick lover! So it's only natural my product was of the lip variety, of course they are more on the beneficial side. I bring you, Lanolips Ointment 101 and Nuxe Reve de Miel.

I don't know why I haven't got on the Lanolips bandwagon before, it's a bit like the Lucas Paw Paw bandwagon, a cult favourite that's Australia! Lanolips is made from Lanolin which comes from freshly shawn sheep's wool! I swear as a child I used Lanolin before, but I don't recall it being this pretty in packaging, so maybe it was something else! On first impressions the packaging for this is super cute, pink (my favourite colour) and features an adorable sheep! As for the actual product, it's a lot firmer than I expected more firmer than Lucas Paw Paw, but once applied to your lips it settles nicely. There is actually zero scent or taste to this, so I love that and it seems really moisturising! Overall I am quite impressed with Lanolips and I can see the craze behind it. I'd be interested to try more of their products, like their tinted ointments. You can use this on cuticles, dry skin and those annoying sore noses you get after a cold! Winning!

Nuxe, a luxurious French brand infamous for creating amazing and nourishing products from Multi-use body oils to hand creams and lip balms! I'll admit this is my first Nuxe product, mainly because i'm not into body oils and I have a lot of hand creams I need to use up and the price always puts me off. This lip balm is $19.95, so not as higher a price as some of their other products. Its a concentrated formula which helps to nourish, repair and soothe lips with ingredients including, honey, lemon, shea butter and grapefruit essence. Sound pretty delicious really! It comes in a cute little jar with 15ml of product, it's actually quite firm to touch but you don't need to apply a lot to your lips. The texture is pretty nice, just a typical lip balm/butter texture to me. And the scent? Oh em gee! It's like a citrus party in my nostrils! Not too citrus though, as the honey brings it down a notch and makes it quite plesant. It feels quite nice on the lips, but I haven't tested it long enough to find out it's lasting power. I'll be sure to let you know.

I really wish I had known about Nuxe products when I was in France! I would have bought up a storm! In future I won't completely rule out Nuxe just based on their price, i'll wait for those 40% off sales at least!

Are you a fan of these products? Or are you like me and haven't got on that bandwagon yet? You really should!

Sigma Brushes

As a new comer to beauty, well at least caring about my skin and what products I use on it, I have come to learn a lot about the benefits of  good brush! You have previously seen I've invested in the infamous Real Techniques Brushes, which I love to death! I also have a set of Furless brushes which I order. As much as I love all these brushes, I feel I'm still missing a few from my collection, and my Furless Angled Eyeshadow brush seems to scratch my eyelid!! I took this as an opportunity to research some more brushes, specifically eye brushes.

I don't think I'll ever afford a MAC brush, I find them way too expensive! So I ruled that out of my research and I limited it to two brands, Real Techniques and Sigma. Obviously Real Techniques are a lot cheaper, and I had never considered Sigma brushes before, because I thought they were too hard to buy in Australia, it turns out they aren't!

Today I'll post about the Sigma Brushes as the Real Techniques haven't arrived yet.

When researching Sigma brushes, I went to their US site and they listed some distributors in Australia. I picked Redefining Beauty, mainly because they were cheaper and the postage was cheap too about $5. It took me ages to decide what brushes i'd buy, and limit myself to only a few brushes. Obviously I ended up with the Angled Eyeshadow Brush the Medium E70 $12.73 +gst, I also decided I'd like another blending brush, something a bit smaller and will fit into my crease nicely, the Small Tapered Blending Brush E45 $12.73 +gst. All up these cost me $33.50 including postage.

These brushes are really soft on my eyelids and blend really nicely. I've used them both in the crease, and I find the tapered one is a lot more defined, whilst the angled brush provides a softer blend. The angled brush also works really well just on the eyelid, for a softer touch.

I'd be really interested to try more of their brushes in the future, especially some face brushes! Maybe the F80 Kabuki next!

What are your favourite Sigma brushes?

Moroccan Oil Clarifying Shampoo

Today's post is my first impression of the Moroccan Oil Clarifying Shampoo. You may have seen my post recently on Sulphates where I discussed my plan to switch to sulphate free products, and you would have seen I had purchased their Clarifying Shampoo. Having really fine hair my scalp does get a lot of product build up, and therefore causing it to become itchy. I have never used a cleansing shampoo before so i'm interested to see what difference it makes to the condition of my scalp.

I purchased this off Ry as I had a $15 voucher to spend. This costs about $35 but with cleansing shampoos you only use it every two weeks, so it should last quite awhile. This product is meant to cleanse the scalp and hair whilst helping to restore moisture balance.

The smell of this product wasn't as bad as I thought. It was fruity and floral all at the same time and not too overwhelming, it doesn't linger afterwards either. The colour is a light shiny brown gel.

It applies really well and foams really well considering there are no sulphates in the product. I applied it to my scalp and massaged it in. You definitely do need to apply some conditioner to the ends though as it feels a bit rough. However don't apply on the scalp or that defeats the purpose. My scalp felt great ans wasn't itchy at all and my hair was shiny ans soft on the top. Even the next day when I didn't wash my hair it was still shiny and not greasy!

Overall ill be looking forward to continuing my use of this product to cleanse my hair and scalp regularly. Id also love to try more of the moroccan products later on.

I love purchasing my products from Ry because it's reasonably cheap, but seriously if you're going to offer two free samples I don't expect one to be your own nail file... I have received this twice now! But I am excited to try the eye mask!

A sulphate free experience

It has been well over a week since I decided to cut out products with sulphates. I have to say it was actually a lot easier than I thought. Not only did a lot of the products I already used were without sulphates but it wasn’t that hard to find additional sulphate free products.

I’ll firstly tell you what products I replaced, and what I replaced them with. My John Frieda shampoo was replaced with Organix Coconut Milk Shampoo. This actually lathers up really well for a sulphate free shampoo and it cleans my hair and leaves it soft and shiny for literally days. I replaced my Hope’s Relief, Goat’s Milk Shower gel and Philosophy Melon Daiquiri Shower Gel with the Goat’s milk cleansing bar and also my Pure Fiji Mango and Coconut Shower Gels. I took my Philosophy Purity Cleanser out of the shower and put it on the bathroom sink; I swapped that with my First Aid Beauty Cream Cleanser. I still used the Purity Cleanser of an evening as I used a face washer to clean it off and it didn’t go on my affected area.

I did change my laundry liquid as well, I swapped the Purity Sensitive with Earth Choice, they are still the same brand but the Earth Choice has a more gentle sulphate than the Purity one.

Before

After

I have added some before and after shots of the rash on my stomach. The before shot shows a lot of tiny red bumps, these eventually calmed down and became just flaky skin. To calm down the inflammation I was applying pure Aloe Vera gel and taking antihistamines. When the inflammation died down I was left with dry flaky skin, for this I applied Lush’s Dream Cream in the mornings and some Rose Hip Oil of an evening. All of these products helped to restore my skin back to its normal self. I do still have a few red spots here and there, but I’ve had that issue for years.

If like me, you suffer from sensitive skin and often find yourself breaking out in rashes I seriously suggest you take a look at the products you are using, it doesn’t have to be used directly on that area to cause an irritation. I will continue to use sulphate free products to ensure this doesn’t happen again, or I’ll at least be more wary of what I’m putting on my skin. I’ll be sure to let you know if the issue arises again. 

Wantable Intimates Box - April

It's that time again when subscription boxes are flowing around the blogger and social media pages. This is the final subscription box that i'll be receiving for Wantable, I chose to cut back on my expenses and $50 a month is a decent amount to cut back on.

Wantable is a great subscription box, unlike all the other's it actually follows your profile! You won't receive anything you dislike, and will definitely recieve items you like or love. I was really impressed with the last box, although a few items I haven'y used, but that was easy to fix for the next box I just changed my profile. I unselected shape wear and selected socks and changed a few of the other selections too. I was hoping to receive some super cute and colourful socks like I had seen others receive... well let's see what I got!

1. Cotton Sub Racerback Tank in Cream - $8.49 - I wouldn't call this cream in real life, but I think it will be very useful. Designed for lounging around or working out in!

2. Honeydew Cami Head Over Heels Black Lace - $36 - This is super cute! And I will certainly get some use out of this! Worth the same as the entire box so that's good value.

3. Creme Bralee Lingerie Bikini Plum with lace - $14 - I don't like this at all. It looks like a grandma's underwear, I don't think my mum would even wear these.... They certainly won't fit me either they don't have a lot of give in them. Disappointing.

4. Sock It To Me Brown Bird Socks - $12 - Another disappointing product! Not fun or colourful! I'll have to think about if i'll use these or give them to my mum.

This month's box was obviously hit and miss for me, I guess it depends out what items you select that you love. I selected Neutrals as a 'love' obviously they took that really seriously! Not as fun in colours as my previous month's box, but not a complete waste!

Are you signed up to Wantable Intimates?

Pure Fiji Haul

For those who follow my blog regularly you'll know I developed a love for Pure Fiji products. Since switching to sulphate free products my love for Pure Fiji has increased even more. Their products are full of fresh and natural ingredients! At first I was skeptical because how do they get the shower gels to foam so well without nasty ingredients like sulphates? The answer, they use natural cleansers from coconut and sugar cane.

Previously I have purchased the travel sized Pineapple Body Lotion, Mango Shower Gel, and a Duo size of Coconut Shower Gel and Body Lotion. I love all of these products, the scents are amazing and they are super hydrating both the lotions and shower gel.

Pure Fiji recently had a 4 day sale for Mother's day where they offered 15% off all products, I took this as the perfect opportunity to purchase some more products in different scents. You all know my love of travel sized products, and at the moment I still haven't finished the current ones I have so I know they last awhile.

I purchased more travel sized products and another duo set this time in Starfruit (28ml ea $9.95), I have read this as being quite popular among other Pure Fiji fans. I also bought the Coconut Milk and Honey Body lotion (90ml $14.95) I can't wait to try this it sounds like it will smell delightful. And finally I bought another body lotion in Coconut (90ml $14.95).

I'm so glad I discovered Pure Fiji, there is a salon near me that sells the products but I find the website to be cheaper and I like the travel sized products. When purchasing during their sales your postage is pretty much free depending on how much you spend.

Not only do Pure Fiji have a wonderful range of body products but they also have skin care, hair care and items for men as well as an extensive range of beautiful gifts for your loved ones. Whilst researching for this post I also saw they have candles and hand cream! Can't wait to try more of their products!

Travel Cosmetic Bag

I am currently away with my family so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to prepare an updated 'What's in my travel cosmetic bag' post. Obviously since my last 'Overnight bag' post my products have changed as i've received new travel size products and have changed my skincare routine.

There are a lot of products that fit into my Clinique Travel Bag, unfortunately I forgot to post a pic of the bag, but you can view it here. I'm going to start with the shower products that I take with me, I like to take my own products due to my sensitive skin, especially now that I am going sulphate free. For a shower gel I am currently using the Pure Fiji Coconut Milk Mango Gel. This lathers up really nicely and smells delicious! I pair it with the Coconut Milk Body lotion which is super moisturising and also smells divine, the scent actually lingers on the skin for hours after use. Not pictured as I hadn't prepared it yet, but I have decanted some of my Organix Coconut Shampoo into a old travel size Lush shower gel container.

Next up we have my skin care items, this is quite extensive and I don't always use all the products at one time I just like to ensure they are there for when I need them. For freshing up my skin in the mornings and of an evening if I don't have time to properly cleanse in the Wotnot Face Wipes, these are really handy to use and makes my skin feel really clean. Thanks to a beauty box I have a travel size of Bioderma Ceraline H20 which is great again for when I don't have time to properly cleanse, this ensures the makeup that my wipes don't pick up are properly removed and it's great at removing makeup. For those days I have a few pimples or aren't properly cleansing my face at night I use the Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting Gel, it does a great job at making my pimples disappear. When my undereyes are feeling dry I like to use my Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream, it's really moisturising and doesn't sting the eyes. Thanks to the freebies Beauty Heaven gave away with Beautorium purchases I have a lovely Lapurete night creme which I am loving, leaves my skin feeling really lovely and soft even the next day. In the mornings I cleanse with the Lapurete creme cleanser and toner another BH freebie! This is great because it doesn't have any sulphates and doesn't dry out my skin. Finally my moisturiser is the Clinique Moisture Surge Intense, I have actually found this too moisturising for my skin now so i've been using it regularly to use it up. 

On to the makeup products I carry in the bag, I keep these pretty basic and opt for a natural look. I have the MAC BB cream in Light, I love this very moisturising and has a light coverage. I also use the MAC  Natural Skinfinish in Medium to add some extra colour to my skin, on top of that I use the Essence Silky Touch Blush. I use the Real Techniques Setting Brush to apply my blush and also to set my concealer, which I forgot to photograph. The kabuki brush is from Nude By Nature and I use that to apply the MAC Skinfinish. Finally I have my Benefit They're Real Mascara which adds a nice amount of length to my lashes, and the Rimmel Apocalips in Solstice which is a nice natural pink colour.  

There you have my current products in my Travel Cosmetic Bag/Overnight Bag. 

Cleaning Makeup Brushes

I'm here today to discuss the products that I currently use to clean my makeup brushes. Not only is cleaning makeup brushes important to remove excess colour and product from your brushes but it is also important for bacterial purposes. Brushes can contain a lot of bacteria, whether it's a foundation brush or an eye shadow brush. Those pimples you're brushing over with your foundation brush are spreading bacteria to the rest of your face.

Now I know no body has time to thoroughly wash their brushes everyday, particularly when it takes ages for them to dry, especially in the colder months. But I have a solution for you, the Models Prefer Brush Cleaner, $11.95 from Priceline. This cleaner is in a spray form, which you spray directly onto the brush 3-4 times and then you gently wipe the brush on a clean cloth (I often use face wipes as well). This spray contains Isopropyl Alcohol (the anti-bacterial ingredient) and fragrance. You'd assume with the alcohol it would stink and be potent, but the fragrance is a lovely vanilla scent which counteracts the alcohol scent. The spray is used in between uses, so day to day to ensure bacteria isn't spread all over your face.

For a more thorough clean I use a cleansing detergent I purchased from Daiso in Melbourne. I apply the liquid to a wet brush and swish it around in my palm, I run it under water and continue to swish it around until the water runs clear. This does take awhile to dry afterwards, so I usually pic a day when I know I won't be using the brushes the next day, so a Sunday usually. I set them in the sun usually on top of some paper towel, but ensure that the brushes are not flaying flat. So best on a window ledge.

This is how I clean my brushes but i'd love to know how you clean yours?