Christmas Gift Guide 2016

December 13, 2016

There are some fantastic gift sets out for the holidays! Here are some of my favourites out of the many I’ve come across – hopefully it might inspire you if you’re still stuck for ideas!

Skincare

I generally don’t suggest gifting skincare – skincare is pretty personal, so unless you know exactly what they use or if you know that their skin can tolerate most things, I’d recommend sticking with indulgent body products. Reactions and breakouts are much more common on thinner facial skin. For facial skincare, the least risky products are those that don’t stay on the skin for long, like masks and cleansers, or skincare tools.

Jurlique Rose Oil ($59 AUD for 100 mL) is based on safflower and macadamia oil. It’s an awesome indulgence for a friend who loves roses and isn’t sensitive to natural fragrances. Sephora also has a selection of their own little gift sets including konjac sponges ($20 for 2 – great for gentle exfoliation) and bath treats. Lush is also always great for bath products, especially with their huge Christmas collection. My favourite products are the bath bombs ($4.25-$8.95).

Makeup

There are a whole bunch of makeup sets out, and makeup is pretty easy – anyone can use more makeup! Makeup brushes are a sure bet: IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Must-Haves ($110) are a lovely set for your makeup addict friend. For younger makeup fiends, ulta3 have a range of affordable gift sets under $25, and Sephora have the fantastic Geometricolor palette ($69) if you want to set a budding makeup artist with a great starter kit. For someone who is a bit more conservative with their makeup, Revlon and Mirenesse gift sets are a great option. My personal favourite pick are the NYX vaults ($79), which have great pigmented formulas at a low price.

Lazy Skincare Loves: Multitasking Moisturisers and Multipurpose Balms

November 1, 2016

Lazy Skincare Loves: Cinch Face Cheat and Multipurpose Balms

I love my multi-step night time skincare routine and it’s done wonders for my skin, and you will pry my targeted serums out of my cold dead hands. But if I’m staying over at someone else’s house or I’m travelling with limited space in my baggage, a multi-step routine just isn’t going to happen, and convenience wins. Here’s where my newfound love of multipurpose, multitasking products comes in.

Although a lot of beauty magazines say that multipurpose products are a backlash against the 13-step Korean style skincare routine, in my opinion they’re actually complementary. Most of the products in a multi-step routine don’t multitask well, since they’re usually designed to treat a single skin issue with maximum efffectiveness and customisability. Multipurpose products are designed with the complete opposite idea in mind – you want a product that can do a whole bunch of different things reasonably well.

The two multitaskers I’ve been loving for this sort of lazy skincare are Cinch Face Cheat and Multipurpose Balms.

Cinch Face Cheat is the only product of its kind that I know of. It works as a light moisturiser that’s heavy enough for night time use in reasonably humid weather and primer as well as a hydrating mist that you can use under or over your makeup. As well as a host of humectants and occlusives to keep skin hydrated, it also contains Kakadu Plum extract which contains vitamin C. I tend not to use any skincare products on my face in the morning apart from sunscreen due to time constraints (i.e. I’m not a morning person), but I’ve started using Cinch under my sunscreen so I’m finally getting some skincare into my morning routine.

Cinch Face Cheat is also vegan, cruelty-free, and free of parabens and synthetic fragrances, if you’re steering clear of those.

NYX Butter Gloss and Intense Butter Gloss Swatches and Review

October 3, 2016July 15, 2016

I’m currently in love with NYX’s Butter Glosses. I know I’m a little slow to get on this bandwagon, but I’ve never been a fan of sticky glosses and these have the syrupy, stringy texture of honey so I was hesitant to try them. The delicious vanilla scent eventually won me over though!

NYX Butter Gloss Swatches and Review

NYX Butter Glosses are lightly tinted glosses that leave a natural finish on your lips. They come in a clear screw-top tube with a doe foot applicator, and NYX have done an amazing job matching the colour of the plastic on the caps with the colour of the actual product so it looks a lot like opaque packaging when new.

The Butter Glosses have a pretty stringy and sticky texture which worried me a bit, but after application, the texture is a lot less sticky and shiny. They remind me a bit of a tinted lip balm, like Revlon’s discontinued Lip Butters that I loved. They also have the moisturising power and low maintenance of a lip balm, but on the flip side they also have the staying power of a relatively long-lasting lip balm (a few hours without eating and with minimal drinking). I’ve found them very handy for layering on top of drying matte lipsticks halfway through the day, when your lip skin decides to leave the nest in highly unsexy flakes that only get worse when you try to apply more lipstick.

MAC Twig Dupes and Comparisons

August 8, 2017April 28, 2015

I’ve always been a fan of the brown/rose/mauve family of lipsticks, so when I got my hot little hands on the much-loved MAC Twig, I wasn’t surprised when I loved it. Then I realised that I had an embarrassing number of lipsticks in my collection in the same colour family…so why not do a swatch comparison post?

(This is only about a third of my pinky-browns. Like I said, embarrassing.)

MAC Satin Lipstick in Twig* – This is a lovely pinky-brown colour that’s great for my-lips-but-better looks on darker girls i.e. “Kylie Jenner lips”. It smells pleasantly vanilla. The formula is a bit drying on my lips, but my lips are very prone to dehydration (fat lip life) so most people will fare better. The colour payoff is magnificent, and it’s opaque with one swipe, with a not-quite-matte, not-quite cream finish.

Marc Jacobs Lip Crème in Infamous* – Close colour dupe. This is a tiny bit little pinker than Twig, but has the same sort of finish. It’s very creamy and moisturising for a satin lipstick, with nicely opaque colour payoff. The packaging screams luxury, with a cool magnetic closure that snaps shut with a satisfying click. It’s practically fragrance-free.

Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm in Sultry – Close colour dupe. The crayon format of this lipstick makes it very easy to apply, and I love the matte metal detail on the twist-up end, although I’ve found that these Revlon lids crack very easily and then slip off in handbags. The colour is a bit redder than Twig, but it’s pretty damn close! The colour payoff is great. Like other Revlon crayons, this has peppermint oil which gives a minty scent and a weird tingle.

ulta3 Matte Lipstick in Rose Bloom – Close colour dupe, slightly matter finish. It’s almost the same shade as Revlon Sultry and the colour is fantastically long-lasting. This is an excellent budget option – the main drawback is that the packaging feels flimsy, and the bullet is a bit wobbly in the packaging. Its floral scent also hangs around for a bit, which won’t be to everyone’s liking. It’s a bit drying as well, but for the price it’s hard to complain too much.

NYX Lippypalooza swatches and review

November 24, 2014November 21, 2013

As many Aussies know, the long lusted-after brand NYX has recently hit our Target stores, so I thought I’d share some of my favourite NYX lip products. I ordered these from Cherry Culture during one of their regular NYX sales. I chose all of these based on blog reviews and swatches only, so I was very pleased when I only …

What’s in my makeup bag? Autumn 2013 edition

July 5, 2017June 5, 2013

Almost a year ago, I posted about my everyday makeup routine. Since then, I’ve gotten ferncier, and here’s what my everyday look involves now: FACE Skin79 BB Cream – I’ve been slowly churning through a 4-piece mixed sample pack. This one’s supposedly whitening and improves wrinkles, but I don’t really care – it applies nicely without primer with just fingers, …

Current Favourites

October 3, 2015October 30, 2012

I haven’t done a favourites post in ages (since New Years in fact!), so I thought I’d share some of my recent finds and classic beauty/shiny favourites: The Grove Perfumery Half Baked – Made by the same people who do Glasshouse, this line is sadly discontinued. Half Baked comes in a cute punk-themed glass with an air-tight lid and smells …