Beauty and the Bleach

Oh to have the luxurious, sun kissed hair of a Victoria's Secret model! That's the dream folks. Many a brunette babe has felt the irresistible pull towards the hairdresser's chair and their bleach kit. I've had balayaged hair for almost a year now (I used to go to the truly excellent Balayage Hair Studio back home) and I firmly believe that once you start highlighting your hair, it's very hard to stop. Maybe there's something addictive in ammonia fumes but there's just something about having lighter hair... perhaps blondes really do have more fun. That being said, bleached hair is much like having a very high maintenance pet - you have to wash, feed and groom it in the hopes that someone will tell you it's pretty! *Sigh*

Ciate ColourFoil Manicure Tutorial + Review

Now this is a post I've been meaning to put up for weeks now. I've just been too busy/lazy to write it up and post it. My bad! I bought this Very ColourFoil Manicure kit at Kit Cosmetics at enex100 a couple of months ago and was super excited to give it a whirl. Ciate always comes up with innovative nail art kits that always look gorgeous but may not be the most practical things in the world (Caviar nails, I;m looking at you!). Read on for the tutorial!

DIY Cocoa Butter Milk Bath

Continuing on with my obsession with DIY beauty treatments; and also because I have ridiculous amounts cocoa butter left, I give you: Cocoa Butter Milk Bath! Cleopatra was notorious for bathing in milk and apparently, so is Charlize Theron. Great company to keep if your ask me. Milk baths are great for dry skin as the lactic acid helps to loosen the proteins binding together the dead skin cells and this makes it easier to exfoliate them away. The cocoa butter helps to moisturise your skin (I've talked about how awesome cocoa butter is before so don't worry, I won't go on about it.) and not to mention, it smells delicious! This DIY is as simple as grating some cocoa butter, mixing it with some powdered milk and cornstarch and... that's it. That was quite anticlimactic actually. Read on for the recipe.

Review: OCC Lip Tars in Queen & Pretty Boy

When you stalk as many beauty blogs as I do, you start to notice trends amongst the products reviewed/swatched. Urban Decay Naked palettes, Ciate Nail Art Kits, Stila Foil Finish Eyeshadows... the list goes on! Such was the case with Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars. Fellow beauty addicts will relate: when you're lemming for a product this hard; nothing, not shipping restrictions, not customs tax, nothing can get in the way of you getting your grubby little hands on your precious! So you can understand my utter joy when I discovered these beauties in the Bellabox Shop. Not only that, I had a discount code; SCORE! I ordered these maybe a week or so before Christmas and to my delight, they turned up just a few days later. Bellabox for the win! I purchased two shades; Queen (neon red coral) and Pretty Boy (rich fuchsia). Read on for the swatches and review.

Revlon 2013 Spring/Summer Collection Colorburst Lip Butter Review - Sorbet & Wild Watermelon

Just a quick one today! I recently picked up these two lovelies during one of my ritual Priceline binges and fell in love almost immediately. I was already a big fan of the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters and these two shades from the 2013 Spring/Summer Collection are utterly perfect for the warmer weather now upon us! Wild Watermelon (left) is a lovely bright pink/orange that builds up to opacity in just a few swipes. Sorbet is an intense blue based fuchsia that again, can be layered for an opaque colour. Both shades are sheer cremes that don't have any shimmer or glitter. They kind of remind me of jelly! Read on for swatches.

DIY Cocoa Lip Scrub

In anticipation on the blisteringly hot Perth summer and the blisteringly bright lip colours I hope to wear, I made a handy dandy lip scrub to whip my lips into shape. Winter was a cold hard mistress and my lips definitely suffered! I used to just give my lips a quick scrub with my toothbrush after brushing my teeth but I decided that this delicious sugar lip scrub is a way more fun way of getting the same job done! Read on for the recipe!

Nude is the new black

Confession time. I'm a little over nail art. There, I said it. I'm just too impatient to spend hours painstakingly drawing unicorns on my nails these days. I do love the old accent nail though, which is as easy as unscrewing another bottle of nail polish. What I'm also a big fan of, is nude nail polish. I mean, just check out my girl Rihanna up there with her adorable beige talons. Gorgeous. Nude nails are definitely having their moment in the sun after years of being shunted to the side as the supporting act to a French manicure. Nude nails, unlike dark, vampy colours, look great on both long and short nails. When I say nude nails I think of colours that are either delicate and whispery or shades similar to your own skin tone which have the miraculous ability to lengthen the look of your hands and make them look super elegant. Think mannequin hands. Okay, maybe that's not the best image to sway your opinion but trust me, nude is the new black. Read on for swatches of my favourite nude shades.

Homemade Cacao-Coconut Body Butter

Have you ever had a lipgloss or a shampoo or something that smelled so good you just wanted to eat it? This is exactly like that... except you probably could eat it if you really wanted to! I've never really been one to worry about the effects of chemicals on my skin (in my own twisted logic I figured the more preservatives in my cosmetics, the more preserved I would end up. WRONG!) but lately I've been more and more interested in natural beauty alternatives. Not to say I'll be turning my back on lab produced goodies but once in a while, it's nice to give your skin a bit of a break. After all, it does such a marvellous job of holding in all your organs, the least you could do is feed it something good! This lush body butter has only 3 ingredients; cacao butter, coconut oil and sweet almond oil. It smells like a coconut truffle. If you've ever wanted to smell like an expensive box of chocolate then this is for you! Read on for my recipe.

Matte vs Glossy Mani Tutorial

As Perth finally heads into it's most glorious time of year; summer, I thought I'd give moody winter nails one last hurrah before giving in to 6 months of neons brights and pretty pastels. Today's tutorial is super duper quick and easy and all you need is a matte topcoat. You could even use this to refresh a fading mani! The effect is very subtle but unfortunately, as anyone who's used a matte polish before will know, short-lived. Hand creams, body lotion and generally living your life tends to dull the matte effect. Boo! And for those lucky enough to reside somewhere that truly appreciates the sanctity of Halloween; wouldn't this be an awesome mani to get you into the Halloween spirit? Read on for the tutorial!

September BellaBox Review

So I've been suffering from a bit of the old writer's block and as such, have been super lazy with my blogging lately. My bad! Anyway... here is the very late review of the September BellaBox. BellaBox subscriptions are AUD$15/month and in my opinion, are great value! This month's box was in partnership with Cleo Magazine in preparation of the warmer party season. The packaging for this month's box wasn't as slick as Lust Have It's August box but that may have been down to the fact that there was so much stuff jammed in there! I received a Schick Hydro Razor, the current issue of Cleo Magazine, a full size Ambre Solaire Self Tanning Spray, Manicare GlamEyes false lashes, Elegant Touch Nail Wraps, Footcare Gel Pads, a Montagne Jeunesse Mud Pack sample and an ASAP Pure Mineral Lip Liner. This box was particularly great because it was full of things that I use in my regular beauty routine anyway (self tanner, false lashes, gel pads etc). Read on for the rest of my review.

August Lust Have It Box Review

In anticipation of the upcoming arrival of my inaugural BellaBox, I thought I'd post a review of the August Lust Have It beauty box that I bought a few weeks ago. I actually placed the order for a Lust Have It box last month but it was unfortunately lost in the mail. Luckily, their fantastic customer service department quickly fixed that and re-sent my order. 

The box was beautifully packaged in an aqua coloured gift box with all the goodies nestled in swathes of black tissue paper. I received a good mix of cosmetics, skincare and haircare; I also received 2 full size products! (Clockwise from top left): La Roche Posay Thermal Spring Water, La Roche Posay Lipikar Body Balm, Revlon Nearly Naked Sampler, KMS Californa Add Volume Volumizing Spray, Sinful Colors Nail Polish in Under 18 (Full Size), Revlon PhotoReady Skinlights Illuminator (Full Size), KMS California Free Shape Conditioner, LUSH Gorgeous Facial Moisturiser.

Cat Eye Liquid Liner and False Eyelash Tutorial

My go-to eye makeup look is the good old liquid liner cat eye. It can be glammed up or pared back as much as you like. I don't like to mess around with eyeshadow in my day to day because I'm super lazy and this look tricks people into thinking I actually put in some effort. Clever or what? When I want to step it up a notch, I throw on a pair of false eyelashes and a bit of illuminator and call it a day. My old mate Adele up here knows what's up! Sure, she's got some hardcore contouring and highlighting happening but the headline act is definitely the slick liner and lash job there. Check out my tutorials after the jump!

In Defence of Drugstore Makeup

Alright, I'm just going to come out and say it. I love drugstore makeup. While I also covet the highly pigmented, luxury makeup brands like MAC, Illamasqua and NARS, I find they can be a bit much for the everyday makeup routine. I have 3 reasons why I love drugstore makeup:

1. One of my biggest, admittedly irrational, fears is running out of makeup. Crazy, I know! But being able to buy these products from just about any Priceline or department store is very comforting. I do realise how insane that makes me sound but then we all have our little peccadillos! 
2. As someone who wears makeup almost everyday, sometimes applying it twice a day, I go through products at an utterly ridiculous rate. I'm also a bit of a germaphobe so I definitely stick to that old 3-month mascara rule. This means that makeup can be quite an expense for me so buying my everyday stuff at L'Oreal prices rather than Chanel ones definitely hurts the wallet a little less.
3. It's fun! I love walking into Priceline and checking out the staggering number of displays and picking up a couple of new lip colours or nail polishes for less than a pineapple ($50 note for those not accustomed to Aussie slang). High end cosmetics seem to be marked up so much more here, whether because of import taxes, shipping etc and it's hard to justify paying $60 for a lipstick you may only wear twice. Read more about the cost of high end cosmetics in Australia here.

Maybelline Fit Me Foundation is super light on the skin and comes in a load of different shades and undertones. I mix this with Revlon ColorStay for Oily/Combination Skin which bumps up the longwear factor and increases coverage as well. Also, Revlon foundations are a little bit too pink for my skin so the golden undertone of the Maybelline foundation helps to counteract that a bit. 

The Restorative Powers Of Bright Lipstick

Anyone else think lipstick has magical powers? Whenever I'm feeling a bit blah or like I'm stuck in a bit of a makeup rut, nothing thrills me more than swiping on a bright, cheery colour. It's like serotonin in a tube! As you can see from the excellent Cara Delevingne and the plethora of lovely ladies below, bright lipstick doesn't really need much more than a bit of mascara, some blush or bronzer and maybe a spot of eyeliner. With lipstick, prep and application is everything. Bright colours will obviously bring attention to your mouth and matte textures in particular, will highlight dry, flaky lips like nothing else. So give your kisser a bit of a scrub after you brush your teeth and use a lip brush for precise application and you'll be totally golden.

Eyebrows: There should be two!

If there's one facial feature I'm absolutely fanatical about; almost to the point of obsession, it would be eyebrows. To me, Miss Megan Fox has UNBELIEVABLY perfect eyebrows; dark, defined and highly arched. In my opinion, eyebrows can make or break a look; they frame your eyes and balance your face. For lack of a better word, they just make you look very finished. 

Now because I spent the better part of my teenage years plucking my eyebrows into utter oblivion, I obviously can't grow the lush caterpillars required to emulate the lovely Ms Fox, but I can do a pretty good version if I do say so myself! Check it out after the jump!

1930's Half Moon Manicure Tutorial

So today I have a very simple nail art tutorial to show you; the classic half moon manicure. Dita Von Teese usually sports the traditional crimson version with a bare moon. I'm doing a bronze and burgundy version today. This is a deceptively easy nail art look that looks pretty darn impressive in my opinion!