Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
Hope you are all having an amazing day with your family and friends and received many many pressies lol.

I'm having a very lazy Christmas as usual. I had a bit of a sleep in, then opened all my presents with my family and I've been watching movies and eating all day. I'll probably go to bed early tonight to prepare myself for Boxing Day shopping!! and I'm also working, so it's going to be a killer day tomorrow.

Anyway thought I would share my Christmas pressies I received today.

I got Kylie Minogue - Couture eau de toilette from my aunty.


My sister gave me a Conair light-up makeup mirror. I've been wanting a makeup mirror for ages!


She also got me this train case from Inglot, with a bunch of goodies inside.



+ Inglot black eyelash curler
+ Inglot travel brush kit
+ Inglot Long and Curly Mascara
+ Inglot Milk and Tonic Make-up Remover Wipes
+ Inglot Eyeshadow Palette with 6 shadows


Enjoy the rest of Christmas everyone!

8 Question Tag

I was tagged by the lovely Dawna from Beauty and a Budget about a month ago to do her 8 Questions tag. (I'm so sorry Dawna for taking SO long!!) Anyway, here we go!

1. What book would you recommend we read ASAP?

I'm actually not a big reader at all. I hated reading books all through primary school and high school. Whenever we had to pick out a book to read I would pick out the skinniest looking book possible. I was just really lazy. I'm a great law student aren't I? lol

2. When is your favorite time of day on a typical Wednesday?

When I still had uni, my Wednesday would begin really early because I live quite far from uni so it would take me a while to get there. Wednesday was one of my shorter uni days this semester so I would finish early around 2:00pm. On my way home I would normally do a quick round of Melbourne Central shopping centre. I LOVE to shop.

But now that I've finished uni for the year, Wednesday is spent chilling out. I'm pretty much a professional couch potato. I can sit and do nothing for hours and hours.

3. How do you feel about getting/being married?

I would love to get married. Definitely want to marry the man of my dreams and spend the rest of my life with him. And of course I would love the magical wedding, beautiful dress, etc. lol =P

4. Who knows more of your secrets than anyone else?

That's a toughie. It would probably be a toss up between my older sister, my best friend and my boyfriend. It's really hard to choose just because I think each knows more about certain things than the others. So they pretty much know different secrets.

5. Where do you go to unwind?

I love going shopping, so I would say a shopping centre. I like shopping on my own. I find that very therapeutic and I think it's important to spend time with yourself. I also like going to my bedroom, laying a bunch of my eye makeup on the floor in front of my mirror and experimenting with looks. It's a creative outlet for me.

6. Why do you get up every morning?

Because if I didn't, it would be crossing the line between lazy and just strange? lol... I don't know really. I guess it's the feeling of wanting to do something with my day or with my life. Although some days I wish I could just lay there.

7. What are your plans for Thanksgiving (or November 25th if you don't celebrate)?

Well we don't celebrate Thanksgiving down here. Since I'm doing this tag super late, I had to refer to my diary to see what I did on the 25th November. According to my diary I was working lol. Nothing special.

8. Whose face would you like to spit in tomorrow if you could without any bad consequences? : ]

Oh wow...lol. There are a number of people I hate for numerous reasons, some for good reasons and others for petty reasons. I know this is horrible but sometimes I judge people pretty quickly and it isn't that hard to get on my dislike list.

But if I had to pick someone right now...hmm... High school was good to me, however I did have my share of rough moments. I would pick those people, who at some stage of my high school life, picked on or bullied me or my friends or spread rumours about me.

That's all the questions =) Thank you Dawna for tagging me. They were really fun and interesting questions to answer. Anyone who wants to do this tag, I tag you!

MAC Viva Glam Cyndi review & swatches

This was SUCH an impulse buy for me. I rarely purchase high end makeup at all, and when I do it often involves a lot of testing, thinking and planning because it is a lot of money after all. Especially with the ridiculously high prices on makeup here.

Anyway, so I had a $10 voucher to spend in Myer's fragrance and cosmetic department. Initially I was just going to spend it on something random and cheap, around $10, so I would basically be getting a little somethin' for free. But then I thought "how often do I get a $10 discount on any makeup I want?" Eventually I decided I would grab a MAC lippy. I had no idea what shade I was going for or what look I wanted so I was kinda just grabbing shades willy nilly lol. Then my eyes came across Viva Glam Cyndi and I remembered all the videos and blogs I had read ranting and raving about this baby. It didn't look particularly spectacular in the store, it was just ok, but I grabbed it anyway. Here, MAC lipsticks cost $35AUD.


When I got home I tried it on again properly and I fell in LOVE! MAC's site says that it is a "light coral-red" however I find it more like a pinkish red. It doesn't have any shimmer. The colour isn't that unique, but I find the smooth, slightly sheer, lustre finish is what makes it so amazing. The more you apply, the more red it appears, so you can control the intensity. I like to apply a few good swipes to get a kind of 'natural red lip,' if that makes sense.


I've read that this baby will be discontinued in February next year! It's a real shame that I decided to try this out so late, I know like every blogger was going nuts about Viva Glam Cyndi and Gaga quite a while back. Now I know how much I've been missing lol. I think this lipstick is definitely worth trying, especially for those who want to start venturing into the world of red lips but are still a bit scared about going all out.

I can't believe the two MAC lipsticks I have are limited edition lipsticks, hence are/will be discontinued. I really need to get onto the permanent lines lol.

UPDATE: Christmas is almost here!

We only have a little over a week to go! ARGH lol

For the past week I've been running around getting Christmas presents, trying to fit in some time to go out and working. If you've been following for a while you would know that I work casual/part time at Diva. Since I've finished uni for the year and it's getting very close to Christmas, that means extended trading hours, more customers and more shifts. So I have been super busy and tired lol.

Despite buying presents being quite stressful, one thing I love is that it gives you the opportunity to check out and try a bunch of more expensive items that you wouldn't normally. For example I rarely buy high end makeup, but around this time of year you have an excuse to visit those counters and some of the time, sales assistants are more helpful than usual because they are desperate to meet their increased Christmas budgets lol.

Over the next few days I'm going to try to find some time to dish out a bunch of long overdue posts.

For now I'll leave you with some photos of Christmas decorations from the shopping centre where I work.



How funny is this Christmas tree?!


Santa is the centre piece of all the decorations. He is so BIG! You can see the person on the side is only as tall as his boots!

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick - Pink Please - Swatches & Review

A while back, after seeing Youtube makeup guru, Hollyannaeree, rave about this lipstick, I HAD to have it! lol


It is a pale, slightly blue-ish tone pink, with maybe a tinge of peach. It has medium pigmentation and no shimmer. The colour looks very pretty and I so wanted it to work for me, unfortunately, it doesn't suit me. I have a bit of a tan and very strong yellow undertones to my skin and this just washes me out.


And to add my 2 cents worth to the debate about the smell of this lipstick. Some people have said that it smells nice while others say it smells like Play Doh. I find that my lipstick smells kind of sweet, vanilla-y and coconut-y.

I'm going to work with this a bit more and see if I can make this work. I will update you guys if my opinion on this changes at all.

By the way, some of you may have noticed, a few days ago I changed my blog profile pic. Thought it was time for a change =) It's just a picture of me doing a bit of cam whoring before heading off to a Christmas party lol

Beauty and a Budget presents 12 Days of Christmas

Christmas is arriving so fast! I'm sure many of you are finding it difficult to fit in blogging, or reading blogs, etc. in this busy time of year. You're all probably freaking out and panicking about finding the perfect gift for a special someone.

But I hope you all can take some time to relax and enjoy the holidays and visit Dawna on her blog Beauty and a Budget. I know this is very last minute, but she is spreading some Christmas cheer with her 12 Days of Christmas giveaway, the giveaway ends on the 8th December 2010, so you only have a small window of opportunity left.

One of the things I love most about this time of year is Christmas decorations being put up all over the city, in shop windows, on the streets, on houses... Just looks amazing and beautiful. This year, my Christmas wish would be...to be able to spend the Christmas holidays with my boyfriend one year, hopefully soon. We've been together for over 3.5 years, and I've spent all past 3 Christmas' without him as he travels overseas at the end of every year with his family or other reasons. Hope he'll stay here one year.

Hope your holidays are filled with love and joy. Only 17 more sleeps!

Bring on some colour

Although a lot of the eye looks I post are quite colourful, I've always actually been a neutral eye makeup person with my million shades of brown. Spring has almost come to an end and over the last few months I have been delving into more colours to liven up my look and just to have more fun with the more 'happy' weather.

In my last post you would have seen that I am in LOVE with NYX Single Eyeshadow in Pure Gold. So I've been pairing it up with other colours, my favourite combo would be the Pure Gold and NYX Single Eyeshadow in Red Bean Pie.




I wore this look so much at the start of Spring. It is dead easy.
+ Just pat the gold all over your lid and a bit under your eye in the middle.
+ Apply the purple under your eye towards the outer corner.
+ Highlight the inner corner and your brow bone with a shimmery cream/white shadow.

And that's it for eyeshadow! So quick and easy and you can also use whatever colour combination you like.

Hope you all have a great week.

Latest additions to my NYX Single Eyeshadow family

I got these two NYX Single Eyeshadows to add to my little collection a couple of months back. To see the photos and swatches of the other shades in my collection, click here.


Pure Gold
I love this eyeshadow. It's a kind of bronzey colour. I wouldn't say it's a gold. It's very very pigmented and shimmery/metallic. My camera wouldn't take a good photo of it as you can see above. For some reason it decided to make the edges dark and the middle light. The actual shadow is in between those two extremes. Definitely recommend this. I used this religiously for a while. Very pretty and glowy, great for Spring.


Dark Gray
This one was a bit disappointing. It's a medium matte grey colour. But the pigmentation is poor. No where near as pigmented as the Pure Gold.



Please ignore the bluish skin lol. My camera and lighting were not working for me. But I tried my hardest to edit the photos so that the swatches themselves were as true to colour as possible, even if that meant turning my skin blue lol.

First MAC eyeshadow - Twinks - Review

I was pretty excited when I got this due to all the ranting a raving about MAC shadows. My friend ordered this eyeshadow a little while back for me from Strawberrynet for about $16.50AUD which was a pretty awesome deal given they cost $32 here.

Twinks is a shimmery brown shadow with a hint of burgundy. It appears darker in the pan than it does on, which was a bit disappointing for me because I was looking for a deeper shade. It is pretty pigmented but I wasn't totally blown away, again because I wanted it to be stronger and deeper and instead it was just a more medium tone. It is very smooth and blends easily.

Overall it's a good eyeshadow and I use it as much as I do my other shadows, it's a pretty colour, but I think I feel a tad disappointed due to all the hype. I was expecting to be absolutely blown away. Plus my friend had just introduced me to the Inglot Freedom System shadows which blew my mind and are cheaper than MAC shadows. I will be reviewing my Inglot palette soon.

New hair cut - update long overdue

Hey guys!

My exams are over so I will have more blogging time and hopefully can catch up on my 'very behind' posts.

Anyway I got my haircut about a month ago lol but being so busy I never got to share it with you guys. The two photos were actually taken on different days. I didn't get the chance to take a direct "before" photo because I was running SO late to my hair appointment. The "after" shot is quite gross lol. After my haircut I went out and so the photo was taken late at night after a long tiring day lol.

Before
I had a side fringe that had grown out a lotttt. I didn't have any layers and my hair was pretty full.


After
I got a full fringe and layers added. I'm not crazy about the back, because the hairdresser cut it in a V-shape, if you guys know what I'm talking about. I prefer it more straight/round at the back. Believe me when I say the full fringe looks MUCH better in person. I love it! The photo does not do it justice =P I've had a full fringe before and I thought I'd go back to it.


Hope you guys have an amazing weekend!

Exams! & my first Forever21 order experience

Hey guys! Sorry I've been away for a while and my posts are getting SOOO behind. I even got a haircut a few weeks ago and haven't even loaded those photos up :S I'm actually in the middle of exams at the moment, 2 down, 2 to go. So far it doesn't look good and I'm fairly certain I'll be repeating some units next year *sigh.*

Anyway, I wanted to get this post up as fast as I could even though I have hauls from months back that I haven't posted about yet. I just thought this would be good to put up first because everything I bought are full priced items and you guys can still get most of them now. Whereas most of the other things I've bought are sale items hence you'll unlikely be able to find them.

So this was my first time ordering from Forever21. I didn't get many things because I wasn't sure about their quality/sizing, the shipping cost is quite expensive for international orders and they limit you to only 20 items and I was ordering with some friends.

Ordering & Delivery
I ordered on the 14th Nov, my order status changed from "new" to "packaged" on the 21st and then some hours after that, it changed to "shipped." From there it took 4 days to arrive (Melbourne, Australia). I got a tracking number which was great and I was able to track my package's exact whereabouts.


Packaging
When I opened my order everything appeared to be carefully packed into the box. However I wasn't too impressed with all the clothing roughly folded and just rolled up in some tissue paper. Compare that to ASOS where each item is perfectly folded and has its own individual plastic wrapping.


Here's what I bought:


Dana Stacked Heels
Taupe
They fit me perfectly. Around the ankle is a tiny bit tight but I guess that's how they're meant to be so you don't slide all over the place lol. On the site they appear to be a tan brown colour, but in person, it's hard to describe, more like a faded browny colour, which I'm not crazy about. My photo is a pretty good representation of the colour. Despite that I really like these.
They also come in black now!

Crochet Embodied Skirt
Very pretty and girly high waisted skirt. Love it! However I see it being a pain to wear, since I'll have to be really careful not to get any dirt on it since it's white and kind of woolly.
I can't find this top online anymore so it must be out of stock.


Sheer Yoke Top
I was really excited about this top. But I find it a bit out of proportion. On the site I found the way the model was standing a bit odd as she had her arms pinned against her body (pretty much how I am above), but now I know why. The length and the waist fits pretty well. But the bust/chest area is too big. I have a very small bust, but I still think that it would be too big for an average person. The picture below doesn't quite show how loose it really is, but I could pull that much out on both sides. I can't really get away with it since it really sticks out, but I might try and fold it under and sew it.


Look how cute this tag is!! It belongs to the top. So adorable I had to share lol

Price & Quality
From the things I got, in terms of quality, I would say the skirt and the shoes are pretty good and the top is reasonable. The shirt I bought my mum looked cheap and not good quality at all. The prices are very good and cheap compared to clothing prices here. But pretty much everything in the States is heaps cheaper than here.

Hope you guys can excuse my extremely dirty mirror. I swear I cleaned it straight after I took these photos lol.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchases. Will probably do another order in the near future and take advantage of how amazingly strong the Australian Dollar is right now ;P

Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss in Passion Fruit - Review & Swatches

I got this gloss (full size!) as a gift with the purchase of Marie Claire magazine. This was only available in Australia and it was quite a while ago so this issue won't be available anymore =( At the time these glosses were only just released so the gift was obviously to promote the product and get people to try it.

On with the review...Estee Lauder's Pure Color Gloss in Passion Fruit has a shimmer finish (this collection comes in 3 different finishes: shine, shimmer and sparkle).


I adore the colour of this gloss, it's a vibrant red-y pink shade with pink and gold shimmer. It has a sheer-medium coverage, so the colour does show up while allowing your natural lip colour to show through. I would definitely prefer if it was more pigmented. If you have very pigmented lips, this would probably be a bit too sheer for you.

Bare lips:

With gloss:

Overall, I really really enjoy this gloss, it adds a nice bit of colour to your bare lips. I like using it on top of bright pink lipsticks such as NYX Round Lipstick in Rose. I think that this gloss is very fitting now that it is Spring.

All Made Up: 100 Followers Urban Decay Giveaway

Hey guys!

The lovely Joy has reached a hugeee milestone with 100 followers on her blog All Made Up! To celebrate she is holding an amazing giveaway where 1 lucky winner can win a whole bunch of makeup products from Urban Decay, NYC and lots more. The giveaway ends on the 30th of October 2010.

So hurry on over there and check out her blog and giveaway.

Ebay false lashes from oooushop

If you've seen my recent couple of posts (Aa Ball 2010 - Night of Luminance and Bold black and silver eyes), you probably would have noticed I was wearing false lashes. This was the first time I bought false lashes and the ball was the first occasion which I wore false lashes to. I have helped others to apply false lashes in the past...but never on myself before...I know...weird...lol

Anyway, since this was my first time, I decided to go with cheaper lashes so I could practice and if I screwed up I wouldn't be wasting like another $15 on good lashes.

I bought a box of 10 pairs from the oooushop on ebay. They were extremely cheap, I believe they were on special when I got them and they cost me only $2.35AUD including shipping (from Hong Kong to Australia). To see the exact pairs I got click here. The shipping was pretty fast, they arrived within a week from when my payment was confirmed and I had no issues with their service at all, however they could have had more secure packaging. They sent the box of lashes in an envelope but when they arrived the envelope was not securely glued down and was semi open. Plus the box was a bit squashed on one side.



These are not made of real hair so they can look plastic-y.  They have thick bands that aren't very flexible so can be pokey and uncomfortable to wear. 

Overall these lashes do add a lot of length and volume.  They looked 'relatively' natural against my heavy eye-makeup.  But without heavy eye-makeup, they would definitely look over the top and fake.


I probably won't be using these again.  They served me well on the night, but they were just a bit too uncomfortable especially now that I have used other brands.