March 25, 2015

Essence Nude Lips

I'm quite a fan of the Essence (yes, that cheapie brand) mascaras but up until recently I hadn't tried their lipsticks. I was sent a lovely press pack from them of some of their new releases, and the following lip products caught my eye. And yes, you could say that I'm going through a Nude lip phase right now, lucky, because the Essence April releases are all about the Nudes.

Can we just take a moment to admire the beautiful bullet of these lippies? Don't they look luxe? Far more decadent than their $4.70 price tag! Yes, less than $5 each.

The colours I have, left to right, are:

Lipstick in Nude #01 Wearing Only A Smile - This is a fairly sheer milky nude. It's far too light for my colouring and I really cannot get away with wearing it. Maybe someone with a fairer complexion can get better use of it.
Lipstick in Nude #03 Come Naturally - Love this mauve/nude shade. It's a cool toned nude which looks almost purple under different lights, but it's an amazing shade that I'll get a lot of wear out of.
XXXL Lipgloss in #01 Shy Beauty - Very sheer, light milky beige. Could be a dupe for NARS Turkish Delight.
XXXL Lipgloss in #03 Taste The Sweets - Sheer medium nude, looks great worn over lipstick to add some dimension.


My thoughts on the lipsticks
They are incredibly lightweight, feel almost like I have nothing on my lips. They glided on nicely, though the lighter colour did accentuate the dryness of my lips but I think it had more to do with the colour than the quality. I love the packaging and the bullet with the "e" logo on it just screams luxury to me. As they're so light weight, they also did not last long on my lips. Maybe 2 hours. Personally I prefer a matte lip that I can get to last a whole day on me, so these aren't something I'd reach for all the time but I have been wearing the darker shade quite a lot on weekends when I don't want to feel like I've got a tonne of makeup on.

My thoughts on the lip glosses
I'm not really a gloss wearer, and I wouldn't say these converted me to a gloss chick. Worn alone they only seemed to add shine to my lips, but they did look great layered over lipsticks for that added dimension. Also, I was pleasantly surprised at how non-sticky they were, and best of all they did not bleed past my lip lines. So if you are a lip gloss wearer, do check them out as at $4.10 that's the price of a latte in Sydney!

And here are a few lip swatches.




Have you tried any Essence lipsticks? Or anything from the brand at all?


*PR Samples

March 14, 2015

Do you always use a face powder?

Before I started blogging, (actually, even after blogging for a few years) I assumed that everyone always used a powder to set their foundation. I would read blog reviews where the blogger would write about the lack of longevity of a foundation, and I'd be left wondering "what are you talking about, I have that same foundation and it lasts a whole day on me!".

Then I realised, of course! It's because they're probably not setting it with powder! A little bit of digging around and asking my (blogger and non-blogger) friends confirmed my suspicions, that not everybody uses a face powder every single time to set their foundation.

As for me, ever since I started wearing foundation (and that's a long time!), I have always, always, set my makeup with some kind of powder afterwards. I have fairly dry skin so it's not as if my makeup will slide off my skin, but I just prefer the smooth finish that a powder gives, not to mention the longevity.


Here are the ones I've got currently in rotation, clockwise from left:

Sabaya powder foundation #05 - This is a UAE brand which I picked up from Dubai a couple of years ago. It's actually quite heavy (it's meant to be worn without a foundation), so I only use it on special occasions or when my skin is looking particularly cr*p and I want to hide all blemishes.

L'Oreal BB Powder in Light - this is really nice and lightweight, I don't take any notice of the BB claims on it, but it sets my makeup beautifully. The colour is too light for me at the moment so I'm saving it for winter.

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural in Medium - As you can tell from the pan I use this a lot. In fact I have about 6 empty cases of these in my draw waiting to be Back 2 MAC -ed. It really doesn't look or feel like I have any powder on my skin, as the finish is really natural. But it does help prolong the longevity of my foundation.

Maybelline 24hr Super Stay powder in Sand - This is probably my HG powder. I'm never without one and use it almost every day. Forget the 24hr claim, but this definitely does make my foundation last all day.


Do you powder your face each time you use a foundation? Any favourite finishing powders?

March 05, 2015

L'Oreal L'Ombre Pure Eyeshadows in #201 Cafe Saint Germain and #502 Quartz Fume

I saw these at Priceline the other day but they didn't have the colours I was after. Lucky, as I next came across them at Big W where they were 30% off. Score! It was like I was meant to have them!

The L'Oreal L'Ombre Pure Eyeshadows are a fairly new release in Australia, and they have the most amazing pigmentation. They're very soft and almost gel like to the touch, but they apply and stay on like powder eyeshadows. If you've tried their Infallible range, they're very similar in texture but not as crumbly.

The colours that appealed to me most were #201 (Nude) Cafe Saint Germain and #502 (Lumiere) Quartz Fume. They are very typical me colours, and I'm sure I have lots of dupes for these but it was the finish that I couldn't go past. The two I picked are both metallic, but they also come in matte finishes as well.


March 01, 2015

Belly update: week 23

Can you believe I'm 23 weeks pregnant? No, me neither. It seems like only yesterday that I made the announcement about my pregnancy (it was actually 11 weeks ago!). I had visions of me doing a fortnightly update on how everything is going but as you can see I didn't. I'm sure you noticed that my blogging has been a bit sporadic lately too. Being pregnant while looking after a toddler and working almost full-time (4 days a week) means that by the end of the day I'm beat, but here I am finally with a belly update.

The biggest news to share is the gender of the baby... it's a

GIRL!!!!


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