Post Exam Goodies!

There's nothing like a little after exam haulin' to make u feel better. After a stressfull 2 weeks I was greeted by 3 packages that I had purchased during my exam period. Oh the joy of opening them up and swatching away! 

My Cherry Culture haul that I purchased during one of their 20% off sales arrived with the new Nyx Matte lippys and some round lip-glosses .  The next day I received my Sleek order and the following day I received my eBay order with all the Wet n Wild stuff. It was like Christmas in August!

And the lovely boyfriend bought me the Lush Coco Lotion as a "please stop stressing so much, you will do fine in your exams" present. So sweet :)

I will be doing swatches of the lippys over the next few weeks so stay tuned.

NOTD- Opi Skulls & Glossbones & Sally Hansen's Disco Ball

I had been in the mood for grey polishes lately, i know it'a a little weird since the weather has been all sunshine and beautiful spring days. Maybe it was just because I was stressing out due to exam season. Opi Skulls & Glossbones is such a lovely murky cream grey. Really been loving my cream polishes lately and this is no exception. 

However as i was painting my nails I thought to myself, i think i need a little sparkle in my life. So out came  Sally Hansen's Disco Ball. It's definitely not an* in your face glitter polish* rather it just adds a little bit of sparkle to my nails. Personally I hate glitter polishes with a passion!! Don't get me wrong, they look so pretty but they're a B*** to remove and honestly I don't have the patience for it. Nevertheless once in a while I do bust out the few glitter nail polishes i own cause they're still too pretty to pass up:)

The glitter is not that obvious in pictures but I kinda like it that way, a little understated glitter nail.

Urban Decay 24/7 Liners

Sorry about the lack of consistent posting guys, i'm in the midst of exam season and i am a massive stressball at the moment. Have just taken a few minutes here and there to write up some post. I promise normal posting will resume after the week is over. 

Anyways, today i'm gonna talk about eye liners of the pencil kind. So I know Urban Decay 24/7 liners are pretty much the Maserati of this category but I'm not too sure about that. I feel the Milani Liquifeye could give them a run for their money but I still do like the Urban Decay as they have a wide range of colours and do a pretty decent job.

I know they need sharpening:)

I picked up a few mini liners in a set from Sephora  while back just to give them a go. I personally find they apply better on the upper lash line than the waterline. That being said I usually use them as a pop of colour on my waterline especially on my "no eyeshadow days", which have been pretty frequent recently. I guess if you layer it on, it does apply more pigmentedly than if you only did one swipe. They last pretty much all day and come of easily with any eye makeup remover. I like them because not only do they have a wide range of colours but different consistencies as well i.e. some of them have micro glitter flecks to give an extra sumthing sumthing to your eyes :) 

L to R: Whiskey, Zero, Bourbon, Crash, Underground & Gunmetal

I love trying out different brands of coloured eyeliner but I have to say Milani Liquifeye *my HG liner* wins hands down. Hopefully they come out with a wider range of colours but till then these babies do a lovely job.

Blush Love- Nyx Cream Blush

Lately i've been on a cream blush kick. I love layering a cream blush under my powder blush just to give a slight dewy finish and make my powder blush pop. I started out my cream blush craze with Nyx and all though I have tried other brands i find myself reaching for my Nyx cream blushers more frequently than the others. These are the blushers I have in my collection at the moment and i thought i would share it with you guys.

Now these blushers are extremely pigmented and sooooooo creamy. When i say creamy i mean CREAMY:) I would even go as far as saying they're much more creamier than my Mac Cremeblend blush, so yes it's a big claim but I love 'em. They blend flawlessly, look amazing and all thought they may not last the whole day, i'm pretty happy with the product overall. Definitely high on the twinxntrax recommend list.

Clockwise from bottom right: Glow, Hot Pink, Rose Petal, Tea Rose

L to R: Tea Rose, Rose Petal, Hot Pink, Glow

I have to admit that out of the 4, Glow is hands down my all time favourite. It's a very natural colour that actually does to my cheeks what it says, glow! 

 You can purchase Nyx Cream Blushers at CrushCosmetics or CherryCulture.

Have you tried Nyx Cream Blushers? What are your thoughts?

NOTD- Essie French Affair

Oh Essie, just when I had given up hope on you i.e streaky application, sheer colour, the need for 3+ coat you suprise me once again. I'm in love with this colour!! This is from the I believe Spring /Summer 2011 French Affair collection which also includes the lovely St Tropez.

French Affair is a soft pinky lilac colour that is oh so cute, very work and uni appropriate. Perfect for the coming spring months. Funnily enough all though it did apply slightly streaky initially, it only took 2 coats for this opacity. So keep it up Essie!!! You have some really gorgeous colours, if only your formula worked well all the time:)

Product Fail- Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream

Maybe fail is a little harsh, but the one an only BB cream that i have has failed me or rather have i failed it? 

I was heaps excited to get my hands on a BB cream and decided on getting one from the Missha store in Sydney. I knew in general BB creams tend to run a little light and don't really cater for us tanner/darker skinned gals so i didnt want to make a purchase online. I thought, I would just go in and see what they have  we all know that never works. The SA recommended the darkest colour no23 Natural Beige obviously, and she put a teeny tiny pea size amount on my face and worked it in. Of course in the store and due to excitement being surrounded by makeup I gave in and thought, I can work with it but I couldn't :(

Don't get me wrong, it performs well i.e stays put the whole day, lovely finish, etc but the colour is the problem. It's too light for me bordering on ashy. So i thought, because its not really a heavy duty foundation all I had to do was blend it in...rite, but boy I had to do a heap of blending in to make it work! That ended up taking the most time in my makeup routine.

I know online they have recently started selling some darker shades and hopefully they will get them in store sometime soon. I've not given up just yet on BB creams, I willl find the prefect one, hopefully:)

Have you tried BB creams? Any recommendations?

Life's a Peach

Just a quick post on my fav blush combo at the moment. Been layering Nyx Hot Pink Cream blush with Mac Melba. I am so in love with Melba, its my new blush obsession. It's a peachy matte blush that is very natural and when layered over the Nyx cream blush looks like the prefect peachy pink combo. Even by itself,  Melba is a gorgeous colour for just about any skintone. The perfect peach imho.

On another note I think I have to go on a blush ban, in fact an overall makeup ban but I thought I would start off with blush. I was going through my collection and i realized I have to many blushers that it's bordering on ridiculous, lol. So wish me luck cause it's gonna be hard. No promises but I shall try to refrain from buying anymore blush *fingers crossed*

Mac Melba & Nyx Cream Blush Hot Pink

Hot Pink & Melba

What's been your favourite blush combo this week?

Tag Would You Rather...

So I pinched this tag from the lovely Emma from Emmabovarybeauty . I thought it was an awesome tag so here goes!
1) Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, and lip-glosses or lose all of your palettes and eye shadows?
Palettes and eye shadows...I need mascara and lipsticks in my life!!

2) Would you rather chop off all your hair or never be able to cut it again?
Never be able to cut it again, its my security blanket to hide my chubby cheeks.
3) Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek?
Coral, I think coral definitely suits me better but I seem to have a lot of pink blush still:(
4) If you had $1000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup?
 Can I split it lol..if i was asked this a couple of months ago would have definitely said makeup but I've recently been very much into fashion so for now clothes..*yikes*
5) Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick?
Lippy as eyeliner for sure, don't know how that would work but definitely not vice versa


6) Would you rather only shop at MAC or Sephora?
Sephora. Love it!! Always feel like i died and went to makeup heaven when i step into one:)

7) Would you rather only use one eye shadow color or one lip color the rest of your life?
One eye shadow colour* lippy lover here*
8) Would you rather wear winter clothes in summer or summer clothes in winter?
Summer in winter hands down. Love layering my clothes!
9) Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round?
Dark nails. 
10) Would you rather give up your favorite lip product or your favorite eye product?
favourite eye product, unless its mascara
11) Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a ponytail or a messy bun?

messy bun, ponytails are so teenage like for me.
12) Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lip-gloss?
Never use lip gloss, i paint my nails every 2 days.
13) Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all? Or sharpie them in everyday?
No way will I ever shave them, i need my eyebrows and love them.
14) Would you rather live without makeup or nail polish?
I can't answer this..to hard for me. Ok maybe nail polish *cringe*

twinxNtrax Mini GiveAway Winner Announcement

Congratulations to Cendana from Blushfully!!! Thanks everyone for participating and once again thanks for all the support in making my blogging journey heaps enjoyable. Stay tuned for more:)

FOTD- Tipsy

Here's another FOTD featuring another one of the Tarte blushers I picked up recently. Tipsy is a highly pigmented matte coral colour that is very natural, looks like my natural flush. I'm really getting into corals and peachy colours, I thinks they suit me much better than pinky tones but hey my taste could change in a week. I'm very finicky like that:) 

Face- Maybelline Mineral Power Foundation in Nude Light 4,  Clinique Airbrush Concealer 02 Medium

Cheeks- Chanel Soleil Tan De Chanel, Tarte blush in Tipsy

Eyes- Urban Decay 24/7 Liner in Gunmetal, Mac Haute & Naughty Mascara

Lips- Maybelline Colour Sensational Lipstick in Pink Petal

While I'm at it, I have a product rave. I picked up this Models Prefer Professional Brush in MPP100 Airbrush a while ago from Priceline. I didn't think much of it at first but I've been recently using it to apply my blush and i love it!! It's so soft and just the perfect size for the apples of my cheeks. Its also really easy to blend in with if you accidently like myself, go a little blush crazy and apply a little too much. 

Review Soleil Tan de Chanel

After reading countless reviews and watching a ton of videos about it, I took the plunge. It was a little painful but it's Chanel, so it's justified?:) There has been plenty of hype surrounding this wonderful product that I thought it's time I gave it a go. 

I was requested by a reader (my first request *yay*) for a review on this product as she has similar skintone to me. Just for reference i'm a NC40 in Mac Foundations. So I decided to give it a test run before writing up this post. Now initially I wasn't blown away as I thought I would be, but I persisted i.e trying to get my money's worth. Used it for a good 3 weeks and i've come to a decision that yes it is worth the hype. Here's why:

Loves

• Consistency, its a creamy texture that blends flawlessly on your face, there's no need of really spending time buffing it in, it just blends into your skin magically.
• The look, a perfect glow to your skin, just right for my skintone.It has no shimmers but because its a cream product it gives a dewy glow to your face which if you can't tell im a massive fan of:) 
•  No obvious line as you sometimes see with other contouring products but more of a natural contour that's perfect for my skintone. Basically I sucked at contouring till now. 
• A little goes a long way with this product, I bought this now almost a month ago and have been using it for a good part of the month and have hardly made a dent, so i guess its bang for your buck* i would like to think*

Loathes

• The scent, now I know a lot of people love it, but I just can't put my finger on it. It doesn't bother me or break me out but I wouldn't mind if it was unscented.
• Price, this cost me a little over AUD$65 so yes its pricey.

Heavy swatch & blended in.

I found the best way to apply this was with my ELF kabuki brush. Now the SA at the Chanel counter recommended using a sponge but I thought it applied a little streaky that way.The kabuki brush gives a  perfect application just right for blending without any streaky mess. Only problem, it does leave some hairs in the product but since its for my personal use, I don't really mind:)

So obviously it's not a perfect product. You would either love it or hate it and since it comes with a hefty price-tag, I would advise to look up reviews before you take the plunge. In my opinion, all thought there might be some negatives, overall I would repurchase it. 

Have you tried the Bronze Universal? What do you think?