Pros:

• Neatens eye brows
• Holds brows
• Virtually no smell and clear

Cons:

• Tends to look murky and contaminated fast
• Doesn’t hold stray strands well

Price: $12.95AU

Rating:

Where: Priceline, most pharmacies and supermarkets

I am currently on my 3rd tube of this, I made a brief deviation over to Dior’s and MAC’s version, both which are just as great at this. In fact, they are exactly the same, but at almost double / triple the price, hence why I decided to come back to and stay with Maybelline.

The gel used is clear, and is applied with the brush supplied. It helps tame messy brows and helps keep them styled throughout the entire day (so long as you don’t touch them!!) They will make your brows feel a little hardened, but if you aren’t touching them it should be fine. Your brows won’t appear to have any product on them at all.

Unfortunately for the ultra stubborn strands this only sometimes works But the ickiest part is the level of contamination that can occur. Even if you don’t have any other makeup on your face, you are still picking up any oils on your face and dunking it back into the clear tube, which over time will turn into a murky cloudy colour. Appealing, I know

I recommend this for people who don’t need to fill in their brows, as applying this over filled in brows is likely to hasten the contamination problem. Or you could just be prepared to change out the tube more often

So tell me, do you use a clear grow gel? If so, what kind?

Pros:

• Fantastic pigmentation
• Very long wearing
• Does not dry out lips

Cons:

• Feels dry upon application

Price: $39AU

Rating:

Where: Myer.

This is one of the two lipsticks by Illamasqua that is part of their latest Toxic Nature collection, this one was kindly sent to me for this review.

The pigmentation on this is fantastic, bold, strong, it’s a real stand out shade. I would recommend using a lip brush for application if you are worried about messing up, something I recommend for all darker lipsticks with rich pigmentation. The finish is a semi-matte sheen, very unique and looks great in photographs.

I would suggest you wear a lip balm before applying this as the formula feels drying upon application, though strangely is not actually that drying once on the lips. If you are worried, top it off with a gloss.

One of the upsides to this formula, like the cream pigment is the grip this has to your lips is amazing. It really does last much longer than most lipsticks.

So tell me, have you tried anything from Illamasqua’s Toxic Nature collection?

Pros:

• Light coverage
• Claims to whiten skin tone
• Creamy texture makes for semi-easy application
• Very good oil control

Cons:

• Contains a lot of shimmer
• Formula could stand to be a little thinner for easier application

Price: $30~40AU

Rating:

Where: Ebay.

If you haven’t heard of BB (Blemish Balm) Creams before, they are basically a foundation, moisturiser and sunscreen cream all in one and are extremely popular in Asia. Often they can contain anti-wrinkle, anti-acne or whitening properties. Whether they live up to these claims, I have no idea because the ingredients and most reviews for them are always written in either Chinese or Korean, languages I can’t speak / read (Don’t judge me, I’m an ABC aka Banana).

Hanskin is a Korean brand and one of the leaders in BB Creams, so seems only suitable to give them a shot. I’ve been wearing their cream for a decent amount now and have concluded that this isn’t the cream for me.

Upon application, I think the formula was a tad thick, but still applies easily with my fingers. The coverage is nice and light and feels fine throughout the day, but the amount of shimmer in it just put me off. I know it says glossy, but made me look like I had been dancing in the club all night aka oily and even sweaty.

I think this would be perfect if used strategically to add a bit of glow to certain high points of your face for that lovely glow. But put it all over your face and you may find yourself applying a stack of powder.

That said, what did amaze me was the level of oil control it had. Ironic, right? It makes you appear oily, BUT it doesn’t become any oilier during the day. When I powdered my face, my face stayed exactly the same for the next 10 hours. I didn’t have to touch up or anything~ Very odd, but pretty cool behaviour.

I also must add that I do quite like the smell of this cream, it’s strangely refreshing?

Overall, this isn’t a bad BB Cream, it’s actually quite good and would certainly be suitable for certain types of people. I am just not that type. If you love dewy skin, give this a go~

My turn! Have you tried BB cream before? What are your thoughts?

Introducing Face of Australia’s latest limited edition nail polish collection called LUXE. These polishes were provided by Face of Australia and I love them! Each bottle is only $4.95AU, great value for money.

I failed to mention last week that as Australian blog myself, each post is actually classified under the Local Luxe series that I have running. But not only is Face of Australia an Australian owned brand and cruelty free, the products are also MADE in Australia. The only other Aussie brand I’ve found that do this are Natio, so if you consider yourself a patriotic Australian, then this fact itself may sway you.

On to the polishes~ All swatches only required 2 coats, no top coat was used. The collection consisted of a distinct rainbow of colours, generally speaking I found the formula easy to work with, didn’t experience much streakiness and they dried relatively fast given I didn’t use any top coat.

Summer Spice

A crème hot red with a slight orange hue to it, this was probably the most pigmented out of the entire collection as I could have swatched this with only one coat, but decided to go with two for sake of consistency (I’m anal like that).

Beauty Queen

Barbie pink crème, it actually appears a little more magenta in real life. It’s a fun holiday / weekend sort of colour.

Lemon Sorbet

A pale yellow colour, like Beauty Queen I’d throw this into the fun pile. Not something to wear to work (assuming you, like me work in an office with a dress code). I’d take this on vacation with me for sure, it certainly has a “by the beach” feel to it.

Cotton Candy

A semi-nude pink / orange shade, possibly the most wearable colour from the collection, along with Foxy Roxy further below.

Minty Mojito

A mint green crème, I’ve seen this colour quite a bit lately from China Glaze and Essie, but having now come across this collection, if you’re keen to have this particular shade then get this one. They are honestly all the same between each brand, except if you live in Australia, this is the cheapest option.

Ocean Villa

A medium royal blue, surprisingly the only polish of the collection with a semi-matte finish. Not sure whether this is the case with all bottles or it was just mine, either way it’s an interesting finish that I quite like (and if you prefer shiny, top coat will fix that right up). Another very pigmented shade, it could almost be done in 1 coat.

Private Jet

A deep purple shade, probably one of my favourites from this collection, even though it was also the only polish I found a tad streaky. I don’t go clubbing anymore, but this is something I would have worn to the clubs. It’s fun and edgy, reminds me of city lights so I might take it to a fun dinner with me instead aka dinner with friends, not relatives etc.

Foxy Roxy

Finally we come to the nude taupe shade of the collection, an extremely wearable shade to any office! This is a classic dupe for some very popular shades released by Essie, OPI and Eyeko. Like I said above with Minty Mojito, if this is a shade you’ve been wanting for a while, go with this, it’s the cheapest of the lot and quality / finish is exactly the same.

These polishes are a great buy, I have a shamefully large collection of designer nail polishes which I always buy overseas, and even with postage I end up paying at least $10AU a bottle. So you can see what a bargain these are given the quality is pretty much the same. Check out your local Priceline for these before they run out.

HooDoo VooDoo is a red / berry like crème, it appears more pink / dark magenta in real life that it does in the photos below This is what I get for always being at work during daylight, so I can never use natural light to take any of my photos.

I only needed 2 coats for this, the formula is a little on the thicker side, but is still very easy to work with.

Pros:

• Strong pigmentation
• Long wearing, not prone to creasing
• Does not dry out lips
• Can be used on eyes, lips and cheeks

Cons:

• May need a lip balm if used on lips
• Difficult to use on cheeks

Price: $44AU

Rating:

Where: Myer.

Illamasqua‘s Toxic Nature collection recently hit the shelves in Australia late last week and they were kind enough to send me a couple of products to play with. The first was a cream pigment in Bedaub.

Bedaub is a pastel mint green crème, it is extremely pigmented. Just 1-2 swipes can give you a lot of colour, it is a lot drier than most cream products I’ve tried such as eye shadows and blushes. But surprisingly I didn’t feel much drag when I applied this to my lids or lips with my fingers. Using a flat brush will pick up the same amount of colour, but allows for a more precise application.

One of the benefits to having a drier formula is that it works as a great eye primer / base, I wouldn’t wear this colour on it’s own as it does crease after an hour of so.

For the lips, I recommend applying a lip balm first, or top it off with a gloss else you may notice that over time it will feel drying.

Now, based on the formula alone, I don’t think these would be the best for cheeks because it is quite a bit harder to blend out to achieve that “glow” to the cheeks, unless you’ve primed your cheeks to give it a smoother canvas like a primer. I felt like I needed to pull on my cheeks quite a bit to blend it out, perhaps a creamier formula would be more suitable for cheeks only (didn’t experience this issue for lids or lips).

But I don’t really know when you would use this pastel green colour for blush

Love this pigment, keen to see what sort of looks I can pull out of it

So tell me, have you ever tried cream pigments before? What are you thoughts?

A little while back Siera asked whether I could do her makeup for a shoot she was planning for a character created by the artist Sylvia Ji. I wanted to test out the makeup on myself first to get a feel for the look, this is my second attempt which I stupidly started at 10pm at night and finished at 12:15am on a weeknight So I didn’t manage to do as much detailing as I had originally wanted since I was craving sleep instead :/

Given time and a third attempt I’d confident I could do a much better job, fingers crossed when Siera arranges a time for the shoot she’ll look many more times amazing

Face
MAC Prep + Prime – Skin Base Visage
Illamasqua Rich Liquid Foundation – RF100
e.l.f High Definition Powder

Patterns
MAC Fluidline – Blacktrack
MAC Fluidline – Macroviolet
Revlon Colorburst Lipstick – True Red
Rimmel Colour Rush Quad Eye Shadow – Smokey Noir
NYX Jumbo Eye pencil – Yellow
MAC Eye Shadow – Chrome Yellow
Savvy by DN Luxury Liner – Shimmering Slate
Maybelline Falsies Mascara – Very Black

Prime your face, and then apply white foundation all over the face, neck and upper chest. I’d considered doing the shoulders too if you’re planning a real shoot.

The rest of the look is actually very straight forward, simply copy step by step each detail from the original artwork to your face. I primarily used a black gel liner for all the black patterns and used a purple gel liner for the finer details (though it seems to have photographed black) Make sure you have a fine eyeliner brush and be prepared to constantly have to clean out your brush from the white foundation build up.

For the eyes, after placing the gel liner I would set it with a black eye shadow to prevent creasing.

For the yellow I used a yellow cream eye shadow then put on a yellow powder eye shadow to intensify the colour.

I don’t think there is much else I can say about the look tutorial wise, but if you have a specific question let me know in the comments~

Pros:

• Moisturising
• Glides on
• Delicious fruity smell
• Very good pigmentation
• Appears glossy

Cons:

• Slightly sticky
• Doesn’t last very long, 2+ hrs

Price: $42AU

Rating:

Where: Myer, David Jones or online.

Estee Lauder’s Pure Color Gloss Stick in Nude Almond, claims to actually improve the condition of your lips after 4 weeks of continuous use. That I have no idea, because I don’t wear lipstick everyday, but I will say that it is extremely moisturising, when I want good colour, I’d pick this over a lip balm.

If I were to show you what’s in my makeup bag, you will find this particular lipstick. I love it because the shade makes it office / everyday friendly (it’s like my lips but better), it’s very moisturising and it smells lovely. The finish for this is glossy, so no lip gloss is needed if all you want is a nice subtle shine. The pigmentation is fantastic too, I love applying this~

Couple of down sides though, since it’s glossy, it is a little bit sticky. So I find strands of my hair getting stuck to it on a windy day, and it doesn’t last very long. I find if I put it on in the morning, after about 2 hrs it’ll be gone (during those 2 hrs I’ve usually had my morning white hot chocolate).

Despite that, I’d still recommend it for people looking for moisturising lipsticks.

So tell me, what’s your favourite nude / everyday lipstick?

Pros:

• Highly volumising
• No smudging or flaking
• Lasts all day (10 hrs+)
• Instantly enhances eyes, especially smokey eyes

Cons:

• Easy to over apply

Price: $52AU

Rating:

Where: Myer and David Jones.

Covergirl Lash Blast, I went through about 2 tubes of the original Hypnose.

I actually have a 3rd unopened tube in my stash, just kinda don’t have the heart to open it (I’m cheap?) Lancome was kind enough to gift me this tube, which I started using with great earnest!

This review will be for Hypnôse Drama Noirs Perles, one of the variations of the original Hypnôse. And just like the original it does an amazing job at adding volume to my lashes. It instantly enhanced my entire look once I had applied it. I had no doubt it would be a great mascara thanks to my previous experience.

However unlike the original, I did find it very easy to over coat my lashes given how thick the formula was. So be sure to wipe down the brush against the neck of the tube and be careful when applying.

Overall, fantastic mascara, I would and do wear this everyday, but thick lush lashes may not be something everyone wants everyday, so some may save it for an evening look. It lasts an entire work day and then some, no smudging. If you are looking for a fantastic luxury mascara, then I’d recommend the Lancome’s Hypnôse range. And who knows, maybe when I find a way to make extra pocket money I well go back to using them everyday~

So tell me, what’s your HG mascara?

Final Face of Australia’s Opulent Eyes Baked Eyeshadow palette is called Sapphire Desire, what I would like to call the “fun” palette! Unlike the previous palettes, this is does not really contain any everyday / wearable colours and it doesn’t have as much shimmer either, but it is not matte.

The colours are certainly bright and lively! I understand that such a palette would cater for a more specific crowd of people, but if you are a more neutral person seeking to add a bit of colour into your look, you can consider using these as powder eye liners, especially on your lower lash line. Or use them as a soft blended colour on the crease to give your neutral eyes a colourful “glow”. If you really aren’t into brights, then consider the previous three palettes.

This palette is limited edition, it goes for $14.95AU at selected Priceline and Priceline Pharmacies.