Essence Australia: Good Girl Bad Girl & Unforgettable Kiss Collections

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More Essence Trend collections are coming! Here’s what’s launching in Australia in the next couple of months…

Good Girl Bad Girl (available March-April 2015 in Priceline)

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Quattro Eyeshadow (bright, dark) ($5.75), Blush ($5.10), Lipstick (dark purple, fuchsia) ($4.70), Effect Top Coats (rose gold, silver) ($4.10), Like a Good Girl Fragrance ($6.95), Like a Bad Girl Fragrance ($6.95), Lipgloss ($4.10), Multi Style Eyeliner Pen ($6.15)

Not pictured: Nail Polish (6 shades) ($4.10)

This collection is half good girl themed (pastel shades) and half bad girl themed (brights and darks), which means there’s something for everyone. The eyeshadow palettes are really lovely – the shadows are prone to a bit of fallout, and the textures aren’t that exciting except for the rose gold which is gorgeous. One quad has pink, peach, rose gold and light purple while the other has fuchsia, rose gold, black and dark purple. I’m a bit partial to the darker quad, and while pigmentation isn’t amazing, the sheerness makes them quite wearable.

The blush is quite similar to the Silky Touch Blush in peach in their standard range. The lipsticks are quite nice – there’s a fuchsia (Caught in the Middle) and a deep plummy purple (It Wasn’t Me!). It Wasn’t Me! is my must-have pick of the collection – it’s a really unusual, gorgeously rich shade, though it wears off quickly with food.

The eyeliner is a three-pronged eyeliner, which is meant for helping you dot eyeliner between your lashes, giving them a fuller look. While I love that Essence have caught onto this trend early, the ink of this eyeliner is not that waterproof and a little sheer.

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Essence Australia: Beach Cruisers & Wave Goddess Collections

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Essence have a bunch of trend editions coming out in Australia over the summer, and I’m giving a sneak peek of them today! As usual, their collections are full of fun, innovative, great value products, and excitingly, Essence are finally bringing their fragrances to Australia. The two summer collections are Beach Cruisers and Wave Goddess.

Beach Cruisers (available January-February 2015 in Priceline)

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Blush ($5.35), Nail Polish (red, coral, gold, aqua) ($3.65), Bronzing Powder ($5.35), Waterproof Mascara Topcoat ($4.25). Body Spray ($5.35), Wet Bikini Bag ($7.35), Lip Gloss ($3.50)

Not pictured: Wet & Dry Eyeshadow (yellow, peach, turquoise) ($4.25), Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner (metallic copper and turquoise) ($4.25)

This collection has a few interesting products. My favourite is the body spray that smells like the Essence fragrance “Like a Day in Paradise”, which smells to me like peach, apple, vanilla and coconut, though it’ll be better as a winter scent in my opinion (it’s a bit heavy). There’s also a waterproof mascara top coat which adds a waterproof layer to any mascara – I don’t think it actually dries, so it’s actually a waxy water-repellent coating.

The nail polishes are the textured sands which were so popular last year. My favourite is Keep Calm and Go to the Beach, a teal creme with green and gold shimmer. The blush has a pretty gradient effect which lets you pick how intense your blush is, based on how much sun you’ve been getting – it’s like the Blush Up blushes, but it’s a more wearable deep coral-to-light peach with subtle shimmer. From other reviews, the eyeliners look gorgeously richly pigmented.

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Winter Scents

I haven’t done a scent post in a while, so here’s an update on what I’ve been sniffing lately… I recently discovered an Aussie melt seller on eBay – VH Reflections from Melbourne. She has a discount melts section where she sells slightly deformed discounted melts (usually melted in the sun at the markets and resolidified with random crystal patches …

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Bath-free Lush Christmas offerings 2013

I don’t take many baths – mainly because I’m never patient enough to wait for the bathtub to fill! Unfortunately, that means that I can only use Lush’s amazing bathtime goodies about 4 times a year (usually on holiday, in a nice clean hotel bathtub I don’t have to clean afterwards – score!). If you’re like me, never fear! Lush …

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Do aromatherapy and essential oils actually work?

As a scientist whose PhD involved natural product synthesis and pharmacology (that’s where you get chemicals out of nature (plants, bacteria, marine sponges etc.) in the hopes that they’ll become, or lead to the development, of a useful drug one day), I find alternative medicine very interesting. While a LOT of it is hokum, designed to trap innocent people into …

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Perfume science: body chemistry and why you love the smells I hate

I hope you enjoyed my guest week! I’m back today with some hardcore beauty science, looking at the fascinatingly confusing world of perfumery. Do you love the smell of roses? It may reveal more about you than you think! People have been using perfumes for over 5000 years. But what makes one person like a scent and another hate it, …

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Lush Fragrance review – Big, Twilight and Furze

Attention Aussie ladies! Lush’s annual forum special perfumes are available this weekend only at their online store – every year, the Lush forumites vote for fragrances to be made based on the scents from particular products, and the super limited edition perfumes are available online for a very very short time. This year the options are Big, Twilight, Snowcake, Creamy …

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My 10 favourite scented products right now

Sometimes when I’m feeling down, a whiff of a scented product can make me feel a tad better. Here are ten of my favourite “scentsations” (I apologise profusely for the pun, it’s Monday!): Elume Creme Caramel Candle – I haven’t even lit this yet but I’m already in love. It occupies a permanent place on my bedside table, so I …

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