♡ October Favourites 2015 ♡

Hello my friends,

It is time for ANOTHER extremely late monthly favourites post!

(Do forgive me, exams are ruining my life right now…)

 

Ignore Mr. Catrice Concealer, he will make an appearance in a later post!

Let’s start with the skin care products, because they have been my life source this month…

Now if you’re not aware, my skin is a spotty, oily catastrophe. I have used so many different treatments, including prescribed ones, to try to get my skin to just chill out, and I think I have finally found something mild yet effective to maintain semi-clear skin:

Come forth, Benzac AC Wash!

This stuff is perfect for my fussy skin, as the dryness eases back the more you use  it. I will say that, at first, I morphed into a reptilian beast from how parched my skin became (this was fixed with some of the lovely items yet to be discussed!). HOWEVER, over time my skin stopped producing a ridiculous amount of acne, and that’s good enough for me. This is a relatively fool-proof product, as it combines cleansing and acne-care into one. If you’re a lazy shit like me, give this fella a go!

This product retails for $19.99, but is regularly on sale at Chemist Warehouse.

Next, we have my lord and savior, Sunsense Moisturising Face SPF 50+!

If you are currently using topical creams for acne, you NEED this. Go right now and treat yourself, my friend! This stuff sinks into the skin SO well, and completely healed my dry patches in a matter of days. Forget expensive creams and serums, your hero was hiding in the sunscreen aisle! My only qualm with the product is it can make my chin look overly shiny, but eh, my skin has reached celestial goddess status. I 200% recommend you give this a try if your skin is crying out for moisture, you can’t go wrong with revived skin and SPF 50 to boot!

This product retails for $14.49, but is regularly on sale at Priceline and Chemist Warehouse.

Now that we have talked about sunscreen, let us again talk about sunscreen!

Reef Dry Touch Sunscreen Lotion is hands down the best sunscreen for your hot bod. I used to skimp out on sunscreen throughout summer (I can hear the beauty gurus cringing from here) because I just could not stand feeling greasy and smelling, well, sunscreen-y. This stuff smells of coconuts, and if that’s not your thing you needn’t worry; the smell will disappear after a few minutes. After using this my skin feels like velvet, no joke. You can say goodbye to being a sweaty, greasy mess in the summer time with this bad boy! It’s amazing, what more can I say?

This product is $12.99 RRP, baaargain!

Lastly, I have quite an odd skincare product I’ve been loving.

Bring in the Blistop!

This stuff is the bomb diggity for blister-prone feet. I have used it to wear in new shoes and didn’t feel the slightest bit of pain. I’m definitely taking this with me to Europe next month so my feet don’t die during my adventuring!

This product is currently $4.99 at Chemist Warehouse, which is an absolute steal!

Moving on to makeup!

Let’s talk about HGs, ba-by.

My pride and joy, NYX BB Cream in ‘Nude’.

I’ll admit that I never used to wear foundation until I was 19, and that BB cream used to rock my world in the year leading up to that. Being myself I wanted to try EVERYTHING, and I can say that years and years of cakey, drying foundations lead me back to good old beauty balms.

This product has a “your skin but better” effect. My general redness gets masked in one light application, which is totally bananas if you ask me. I do still need to spot conceal some areas, but that’s okay with me if it means my entire face isn’t covered in thick goop.

NYX BB Cream will give you a natural, glowy finish, which might not be an oily-skinned person’s cup of tea. However, my skin is now a mixture of oiliness and dryness, and stayed on my fussy face for 15 hours. I swear I am not bullshitting you. I had this product on from 9am to midnight and I still looked good enough to go outside. Craaaaaazy!

My only con is that this product is not boyfriend proof, but what is?

It also has a true yellow undertone, praise to the makeup gods!
(no really, tell me in the comments!)

This product retails for $18.95, but Target has 30% off sales on NYX from time to time throughout the year.

As I have a glorious moon tan, I mix my BB cream with this lovely concoction:

There’s not really much to say about this product. It is literally pure white goop to make foundations match your skin tone. It has a whipped cream texture, but I haven’t found that it reduces the longevity of my base. If anything, I think it may be increasing it! If you have as much trouble as I do finding a foundation that matches your ghostly complexion, I really recommend investing in this!

I bought this product on eBay for $11.99.

It’s lippy time!

LA Splash Lip Contour Liquid Lipsticks are absolutely amazing. They’re cruelty free, gluten free, AND longwearing! I am still getting the hang of creating sharp lines with the applicator, but practice makes perfect, right?

Latte Confession is a beautiful browny pink that suits my skin tone really well, while Venom instantly transforms me into a badass. If you make a mistake during application it will be quite difficult to fix, but I’m sure that is the issue with all liquid lipsticks.

These are quite pricey, as they are not available in store in Australia. However, BeautyJoint sells them for a reasonable price if you’re willing to wait 3 weeks for them to arrive!

Speaking of products I’m quite new to using, the Chi Chi Mattes 2 Palette has made its way into my collection!

I absolutely ADORE the colours in this palette, as I can easily create autumnal smokey looks that compliment my skin tone. These eyeshadows are highly pigmented and very easy to blend, making them perfect for beginners like me! I do wish they had a paler colour for highlighting the inner corner, but I can live without it.

This product retails for $22.95, but I got mine for 50% off at Myer. Look out for sales!

Let’s finish off this favourites post with a bit of hair-care love.

Enter Organix Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum!

Now, I will admit that I used to use this product back when I had long hair. When I cut all of my hair off I didn’t think I would really find a use for this product, but I diiid (I’m so frugal…).

Instead of using this coconutty goodness as a defrizzer, I use it as a heat protectant before straightening my hair. Conventional heat protectants were  weighing my hair down, and because I wear my hair like a cockatoo that just would not do. This product simply prevents my hair getting too damaged between haircuts, keeps it silky soft, and smells really good. In conclusion, it’s the shit.

This product retails for $17.99, and is currently half price at Priceline!

We’ve finally reached the final product!

Say hello to Moosehead Demon DustThicken-Up Styling Powder!

This stuff does what you’d expect: fluff your hair up like nobody’s business. This is a cruelty free duperoo for the Schwarzkopf powder I used in my first hair tutorial, and I don’t really have any complaints about it. I don’t think it really provides the extreme hold that it claims, as I still tease, wax, and hairspray my hair afterwards for intensive hold. Overall, it’s a decent product that will give a little bit of grit and oomph to start off the styling process.

This product retails for $8.50 if you’re looking for a cruelty free alternative!

Aaaaaand that’s all folks! I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know in the comments what your favourite lover-proof products are, and if you’d like to see a tutorial on my cockatoo pixie hair!

♡ Until next time ♡

♡ LOVE it or FUCK it: Australis Go Camo Full On Coverage Concealer ♡

Hello again, makeup lovers!

It’s time for another installment of Love it, or Fuck it!
(Settle down, settle down. Withhold your cheers.)

Today, we’re going to take a lookie at the Australis Go Camo Full On Coverage Concealer [x].

I'll come out and say it, it is very difficult to find full coverage, long-lasting products that are catered for oily skin AND cruelty free. However, I have been incredibly spotty lately, so it was time to explore the local products available.

Here are the claims listed on Beautyheaven, as I honestly couldn’t find them anywhere else:

“Australis Go Camo Concealer is an oil-free concealer that has been formulated to fight blemishes while offering coverage, too. It also features a long-lasting and water-resistant mattifying formula that comes in an easy-to-use tube. Available in three shades: Light, Medium, and Dark.”

Sounds GREAT, right?!

Are you ready to see the flawless, full coverage capabilities of this concealer?

Before:

Look at that fierce zit.

After:

PSYCHEEEEEE.

This is a light-medium coverage, sticky, hot-mess of a concealer. If you want to draw attention to the fact that a big, angry zit is raging on your face, this is the product for you.

I tried using a sponge, NOPE.

I tried using my fingers, NOPE.

I tried mixing it to make a tinted moisturiser, NOPE, NOPE, NNNOPE.

This stuff is like tinted super-glue. It dries in precisely half a second, giving no time at all to blend it seamlessly into the skin. I will acknowledge its water-resistant properties, as this was clinging to my face like a love-struck stalker on steroids.

The only redeeming quality of this concealer was that it is ACTUALLY light. Too often do I swatch ‘light’ concealers to end up with Dorito hands.

However, this isn’t really enough to make it a passable product.

VERDICT:

Fuck it, and never call it again.

Coincidentally, this concealer looks like it’s on its way out from Priceline. If you want to waste 6 of your dollars on an el crappo concealer, you know where to go.

That concludes this instalment of Love it, or Fuck it! Let me know if there are any products you want me to review in the future, I’ll never say no to makeup shopping.

♡ Until next time ♡

♡ POWDER as a PRIMER? A poor university student's attempt to mattify her skin all day ♡

Heya pals,

Today we’re going to take a looksie at whether translucent powder can achieve the same results as makeup primer!

Now, we ALL know about Wayne Goss’ life-changing video about using powder underneath foundation to increase longevity. I will put a link below in case you haven’t been blessed with discovering his channel [x].

For this test, I wanted to see how my makeup would wear without using a makeup primer underneath the powder, because I like to live on the edge. I’m going to use this little fella to carry this out:

This loose setting powder by Mehron also contains antiperspirant, my logic being that it would reduce my sweat production and overall greasy yuckiness. However, you can use whatever loose setting powder you like for this little trick.

Let us begin!

This is my powdered mug, imperfections and all. As you can see, my pores still look quite prominent on the left side of my face, yet have been blurred on the other? Cool, face. Keep on being a weirdo.

My face is veeeery smooth and matte after application. Which is what you want, isn’t it?

12:50pm:

I put my makeup on at about 12:30, but had to edit an assignment before I headed out to live a busy life (ha), but I took the photo 20 minutes later. For the sake of evenness, every photo was taken around that time just to make things less confusing for y’all.
My makeup looks very matte and applied smoothly. My pores are still pretty large on the left side of my face, which isn’t ideal. Also, I am aware my undereye setting powder is waaaay too yellow, I won’t be using that again…

Face:
Elf Studio Undereye Primer
NYX Concealer in a Jar in ‘Yellow’
LA Girl Pro HD Concealer in ‘Porcelain’
MOMMA Highlighting Powder in ‘Light-Medium’ (do NOT recommend this for pale skin tones, geez louise)
Mehron Setting Powder in ‘Neutral’
MOMMA Semi-Matte Mineral Base in ‘Ivory'
MOMMA HD Mattifying Finishing Powder (I included this for fairness, as I use this with all makeup applications to smooth over the overall appearance)
Natio Blusher in ‘Peach Glow’

Eyes:
DB Cosmetics Lash Primer
W7 Absolute Lashes Mascara

Brows:
-Modelco More Brows in ‘Medium to Dark’

Essense Eyebrow Gel

Now to go out and be an adult, doing stuff and shit.

1:50pm:

I can’t see or feel any greasiness on my face, which is a pretty good sign! Neither my foundation or blush has faded, even though I had been walking around in the awful Australian heat.

3:23pm:

Remember how I said it’d be an even timing? Weeeellll, nothing goes to plan in this crazy world…(totally didn’t forget or anything).

We’re about 3 hours into the experiment, and only now am I seeing a wee bit of oil peeking through. The brilliance of mineral foundation is that, when such a horror occurs, I end up looking celestial rather than a human fry pan. I would probably blot at this point, but I toughed it out for you lot (pls like me).

Although there’s a bit of shine, all my makeup is still in tact and not going slippy slidey all over the place. I’m pretty impressed so far!

5:07pm:

So much for consistency.
My matte makeup look is starting to look more dewy now. Not that that’s necessarily bad, but it is something to consider if you don’t like that look. All of the makeup is still on though! I’m starting to feel the oil building up underneath my foundation now, but as long as it’s not showing, it’s all good.

6:54pm:

The last check-in of the night! The foundation has finally started to break down, but at the 6+ hour point I’m honestly not fussed. My blush is bright and beautiful, and I could still go outside with the state of my entire makeup look.

Final verdict:

I’m quite impressed that I got 6+ wear from just using a powder underneath my face makeup. Although this trick is pretty successful, I would only recommend it if you’ve run out of makeup primer and can’t afford to buy more (*cough* me), or if you don’t need your makeup to last for the entire day for work or play. In the end, this is a pretty nifty trick when you’re in a pinch, and it has been my go-to until my makeup primer goes on sale (dat struggle).

That’s all for now! Let me know if you give this a go yourself, I would LOVE to hear your experiences!

♡ Until next time ♡