How to fix dried up gel eyeliner

The other day I had the urge to use a gel eyeliner, but when I found mine from the bottom of my make-up box it was all dried up. There was still plenty in there and I really didn't want to throw it away. So after some googling I found a way to save it.

Dried up, but still plenty left.

I found several different methods, but most included adding things to it and mixing it, e.g. almond oil. Because I use my eyeliner in my waterline I really didn't want to add anything to it in case of eye irritation.

This  method was the one that appealed to me.

You need

Dried gel eyeliner

Cup of hot water

Zip lock back

Step 1 - Place the eyeliner tub inside the zip lock bag (ensure the lid is on tightly)

Step 2 - Fill up a glass with hot water, place the bag containing the eyeliner inside the cup.

Step 3 - Leave for 20 - 30 minutes
Step 4 - Stir with a cotton bud

Step 5 - You're done! Eyeliner is as good as new... well, as new as a half full tub of eyeliner can be! The warm water melts the dried up bits and restores it back to life.

Now lets compare them side by side.

Yep, definitely can see the difference.

Hope you fnd this useful! Let me know if there are any other how to-s you'd like me to show you.

Review: Illamasqua Bronzing Duo

Meet my new favourite bronzing and highlighter duo, Illamasqua Bronzing Duo in Glint & Writhe.

Illamasqua is fairly new to Australia and I must admit when I went to Myer the other day in the hopes of checking out this new brand, I didn't have a shopping list as such. In fact I'd never heard or read reviews about this particular duo so when I saw it sitting there looking all gleaming and pretty I just had to swatch it...and buy it!

The colours have some shimmer to them, but not in an over the top way. It makes your face gleam, rather than shine. The darker colour is perfect for contouring, it's not too shiny for it. And the lighter colour gives a beautiful glow to the face. 

In winter I'll probably stop using the darker colour as it's more of a warm bronze which will look out of place during the colder days, but the lighter colour is neutral enough to be used no matter the  weather. 



With flash, artificial lighting

   

It was really hard to capture the effect on film when I swatched it on my arm. In the pic above it actually looks very shiny, not really how it looks on your face. The pic below is a better representation of it... I have used the darker colour around the cheekbone and used the lighter one to highlight.

Have you tried Illamasqua yet? Let me know what you think.

Goodies from Germany

Regular readers may remember it was my birthday earlier this month. Just when I thought there were no more birthday presents to come, I received this huge pack of goodies from the lovely Sandra of *Sternchenslove* blog. It was such a lovely thing for her to do, and she really didn't have to go through all that trouble to post of from the other side of the world no less, but this is most appreciated and so thoughtful of her. Thank you Sandra!

She sent me some full sized and sample sized make up and skincare from MAC, Givenchy, Shu Umera, Alessandro and more!



Make up from MAC, Givenchy, Alessandro




Perfume samples from Givenchy




Skincare from Givenchy and Alessandro, and haircare from Shu Umera

The parcel arrived earlier this week and while I haven't had a chance to play with everything in here, I can tell I'm going to love them all!

Over the course of the next few weeks I'll review things as I use them, in the meantime here are pics of the MAC lipglass and the mascara that I have used already.



MAC Lipglass in Hush Hush Rose



Hush Hush Rose layered over MAC lipstick in Lustering... perfect match!

The MAC Lipglass is a beautiful rose shade, perfect for the summer and I've worn it several times already since I received my gifts.



Givenchy Mascara in Phenomen'eyes.

The Givenchy mascara is just amazing! It comes with those little round ball shaped wands (which feels weird at first) it gets right down to the start of the lashes to give amazing length, volume and curl. I mean look at the pic above, you can see how thick and long my lashes look.

Thank you again Sandra for the wonderful presents, they're absolutely fabulous and I hope I can return the favour some day!

Link Love

Since this week we had Australia day (26 Jan), I'm presenting you the Aussie beauty blogs that got me glued to the computer this week.

• Anita from Love Vulcanella has me reaching for peachy nailpolishes with her review of China Glaze polish
• Beautifully Glossy is very brave, attempting to do a project 50 pan for lips!
• Dannii from Dannii Beauty shows us her China Glaze nailpolish
• Dee from Miss Prissypants has been swatching her e.l.f. collection... this is after she got in trouble from me for swatching her fab NYX collection!
• Emma from Emma Bovary Beauty has done an Aussie inspired FOTD in green and yellow
• Emma from Mind Body Soul reviews Miranda Kerr's book Treasure Yourself
• Emily from Emily's Anthology has me reaching for my Sleek Palettes again with her beautiful FOTDs
• Jade from Jade Musing has done the most amazing Vogue Paris inspired FOTD
• Jen from My Funny Valentine has been experimenting with OCC Lip Tars
• Tara from Keeping Up With Me got me lusting after NARS multiples
• MzStaceyD reviews her Lush haul
• POPblush shows us her favourite listicks
• Has POP Makeup found a possible dupe for NARS Orgasm?
• Femputer from Shop My Stash does the most amazing eyeshadow swatches
• Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries gives some exciting news about Moroccanoil pop up salon coming to Sydney

Have a good weekend everyone!



Make up and macaroons picture courtesy of Google Images



Jewellery storage idea

I have a lot of costume jewellery from Diva, Collette, etc., and when looking for a storage solution, the answer came to me from Bunnings!

While we were renovating our house last year we went to Bunnings a lot... while the husband was looking at sanders and paint brushes, I was happily browsing the storage section. I found these clear plastic boxes for around  $5 aud each which are just perfect for my dangly earrings and chunky necklaces.




This one is deep enough for me to store several necklaces in the one compartment





This small one is for jewellery I use most regularly... I change the items in there based on seasons.





This big one is for storing things that are not in season, or that for some reason or another I don't wear as often



You can buy similar boxes from habedashery stores, they're designed for storing pools of threads, buttons, etc, but I find they're perfect for storing earrings and other little knick knacks.


How do you store your jewellery?

FOTD - super quick smokey eye

I was having a bit of a blah morning yesterday, feeling too exhausted  to put much effort into my appearance, so I thought I'd do my super quick no-effort smokey eye.

This literally takes me 5 minutes to do, and sure it's not the most creative and not the most perfectly blended look but it does the trick on those blah days. I didn't even use an eyeliner, just smudged a dark brown e/s in the  lashline.

Products used

 



Satin Taupe -  lid colour



UD e/s Virgin - highlight



UD e/s Darkhorse - liner

 
Face
Concealer - elf all over cover stick in Apricot Beige
Foundation - Maybelline dream liquid mousse in Sandy Beige
Powder - Translucent powder from the Crush Cosmetics Contour & Blush Palette
Contour - NARS Laguna
Blush - NARS Orgasm

Eyes
Eyelid - Mac eyeshadow in Satin Taupe
Highlight - UD Naked Palette e/s Virgin
Lashline - UD Naked Palette e/s Darkhorse
Mascara - Givenchy Phenomen'eyes

Lips
Mac lipgelee in Straight to the Head




OK I don't know what's with the weird expression on my face! I need to learn to pose better!


I guess this is the face equivalent of an LBD, something I turn to when I'm having a blah day. Oh and I seriously need to decide what I'm doing with my fringe because it's getting out of control, I don't know whether to grow it out, cut it in straight bands, or in a sideswept style. Decisions, decisions...

Do you have a trusty look you do on those blah days?

Review - Nars Blush and Bronzer Duo

Well I finally bit the bullet and bought a Nars blush. With all my cosmetic purchases, you might ask why I hadn't jumped on the Nars bandwagon earlier... it's because Nars is absolutely ridiculously expensive here. I'm talking $58AUD (about $53US) for a lipstick, or $85 for a blush duo similar to the one I bought.

So anyway I decided I'm not letting my hard earned cash go to MeccaCosmetica with their overinflated prices so bought it from the international ebay site for less than half the AU prices, including postage! Sure it took almost 3 weeks to arrive, but the savings are worth it!

I bought the colour combination in Orgasm (blush) and Laguna (bronzer) and I'm in love. The quality is amazing (as is expected!), and the colours are perfect. I'd always wanted to try this blush, and I probably have a tonne of dupes for it too, but the price of it here in AU kept me and this beauty separated for so long.

Even though the bronzer seems to have glitter in it, it actually goes on fairly matte so is perfect for contouring. And the blush gives just the perfect amount of sheen to my cheeks.




Lightly contoured with Laguna and topped with Orgasm


Normally I like my cheeks a bit brighter, but this is perfect for when I want to do a bright lip and don't want to look like a clown with bright lips and bright cheeks.

Would I buy Nars blushers again? Yes please! But I'll be going online for my future Nars products.
What are your thoughts on the overinflated prices of Nars in AU? And what Nars products do you have?

Thanks for the awards!

Before I resume my normal posting I just wanted to say a quick thank you to 3 wonderful ladies that awarded me Blogger awards.

Flora of Flora and Makeup

Jed of Chubby Little Buddy

Alex of All the Pretty Things

There are some rules accompanying these awards, but I had done it before in the past so I will not bore you with the details again. I'm still humbled to have won this award in the past, so to get it again is really encouraging! Thank you! And please do check out these ladies' blogs if you haven't already!

NOTD - Coral nails for the weekend

After doing nude nails all this week, (as reviewed here), I decided to brighten things up a bit by doing coral nails.




Inglot nailpolish in 104

The nailpolish is from the brand Inglot which is quickly becoming one of my favourite brands. Their nailpolishes are $15AUD and are really good quality and long lasting. On my nails they wear a good 4 days before starting to chip around the sides, and 4 days for me is excellent.

The colour itself is a beautiful coral colour which looks more orange indoors with a flash, and more pink in daylight. Either way I love it.

What nails are you sporting now?

A dash of red lipstick, a little bit of street food and a necklace.

I've got weekend on my mind... two more days...

Last friday evening the husband and I went to The Rocks Markets by Moonlight for a bit of a look around. These markets are at Sydney's Rocks district, generally held every friday night in summer (Dec - Feb) from 6pm onwards. They have all kinds of goodies there, from clothes and jewellery to food and ice cream. They also have live bands playing at 6pm and 8pm.

I was sporting a new reddish lip combo.

The colour is actually a mix of two lipsticks, my BYS lipstick in Red Hot, and my NYX lipstick in Fig over the top of it as I felt that the red alone was a bit too dark for my liking... both colours were swatched previously here.




L/R: BYS Red Hot, NYX Fig


Back to the markets... did I mention they sell food? Now I love street food! Something happens to me when I'm at the markets and I spy food items sold at little make-shift tables or stalls. Even if I'm not hungry I'll start craving whatever weird and wonderful thing is being sold.

This is me, going crazy as I had just spied one of my favourite market food items!

And the yummy goodies I'd spied? Poffertjes! These are Dutch mini pancakes which I loooveee. I normally have them with icing sugar and strawberries, but served with chocolate sauce and ice cream is also popular here.

Anyway after gorging on way too much food, which included ricotta cannolis (yummm), we walked around the markets where I spied and duly purchased this gorgeous red and black metal necklace.

... which I wore straight away because I it matched my lipstick!

Overall a very fun evening out indeed... now if you're in Sydney and haven't been to the Rocks markets yet, what are you waiting for? It's so much fun!

Do you like markets? And what are your plans for the upcoming weekend?

Urban Decay palettes



Top: Vegan Palette
Bottom: Ammo Palette


With the Aussie dollar so strong against the US one, I went a bit nuts and made a whole heap of online purchases from US sites. Two of the purchases were these fab palettes from Urban Decay... I know they've been around forever and swatched to death, but considering they're not sold in AU I hadn't purchased them before (and I don't usually have the patience to wait for international delivery in order to buy online).

I bought the Vegan Palette and the Ammo Palette.

This is what the gorgeous Vegan Palette looks like, which comes with a primer in the colour Sin and eyeliner in Zero.


The swatch above is from Makeupgeek. I bought the Vegan palette for my friend so I don't want to put my germy fingers all over them by swatcing.

The Ammo palette however is mine, so no worries about swatching this one!



Top L/R: Smog, Mildew, Oil Slick, Last Call, Chopper
Bottom L/R: Maui Wowie, Shattered, Polyester Bride, Grifter, Sin

I love all the colours and I'll definitely use them all. The pigmentation is excellent, as is expected from UD shadows, although some of them (Polyester Bride and Grifter) do have a bit of a fall out.

My favourite is Grifter, it's probably my new favourite purple/lilac e/s. And I also love Maui Wowie... but it could also be because I love saying Maui Wowie!

Have you got any of these palettes? What are your favourite UD palettes?

NOTD - Nude nails

I don't know why it's called nails of the day considering most of us don't change our nailpolish everyday. Nevermind... NOTW doesn't sound as catchy as NOTD.

Well this is now week 3 of being back at work after the Christmas break and I feel like I'm well and truly back in a work-y mood, i.e. I don't even want to bling up my nails with anything glitzy... so I went back to one of my favourite old time shades, Nude by Sportsgirl.

The Sportsgirl polishes are surprisingly good quality, are super creamy, fast drying and last for 4-5 days without chipping (for me that's really good considering I'm hopeless at taking care of my hands/nails).




no flash


What are you wearing on your nails now? And are you like me, thinking that the holidays were a looonggg loonggg time ago?