Fall Beauty Survival Kit

Hi Pretties,

I hope you're having a fab Easter weekend.

Just before fall arrives, I wanted to share my beauty favourites with you.  The cold weather can wreck havoc not only on your skin and hair, but also on your mood right?  Unless you're me that loves cold weather ;) -- The only product I didn't photograph that is a must have is the Garnier Moisture Rescue for Dry Skin (it's a pink bottle), my skin gets extremely dry and flaky, and this moisturizer works like a charm (oh by the way I forgot to pick it up recently and wanted to get this post up, sorry)!

1.  Glamour Magazine

Nothing beats reading a magazine with a cuppa on a cold morning, it's one of my favourite things to do and the heat is instantly turned on with the gorgeous Jennifer Aniston on the cover! 

2.  1D Cheek Tint in Coral Cutie - R43.95

I know you're giving me the look, it's okay lol, but no I'm not a 1D fan whatsoever although I do love some of their catchy tunes.  I've totally been into dewy skin, and was looking for a creamy blusher in Clicks, there's not really a lot to pick from so when I saw the stand for 1D I had to have a squizz, and this coral peachy colour instantly got my attention.  And what does it look like?  It's a really pretty colour, it goes with any look, whether you have a dramatic eye or simple one.  The blush is quite pigmented, it's creamy and blends out very well, I just dab it on with my fingers, there's no shimmer in it and it dries within a minute or two and lasts throughout the day.  Very impressed with it so job well done lads!

3.  Lush Bubblegum Lip Scrub - R95.00

I have dry lips throughout the year, but in winter it's so much worse.  There's no point piling on lip balms if you don't get rid of the dead skin cells, and a good 'ol scrub is a must, especially if you're daring and going for a dark lip during winter.  DIY lip scrubs work just as well, but this Lush one is just amazing!  It smells divine, you just dab on a bit, scrub a dub and then you can lick it off or wipe away, depending how bad your OCD is ;) and you'll have smooth and nice smelling lips for the rest of the day.

4.  Placecol Gentle Exfoliating Treatment Safe AHA Exfoliant Weekly Booster - R320.00 **Sponsored Product**

I've been a fan of Placecol for years and have done many reviews on this brand, it's one of those brands that you know works, and is affordable.  An exfoliant for your skin is so important and if you'd like to have a smooth skin all year round, it is recommended that you exfoliate 1 - 2 times a week.  This product doesn't only help keep your skin smooth, but it reduces fine lines and wrinkles
and is moisturizing. What is an AHA exfoliant? 

"AHAs are preferred for sun-damaged and dry skin because they exfoliate on the surface of skin and have the added benefit of also improving moisture content."Paula's Choice

5. Clicks Hair Rescue Soothe & Nourish Extra Strength Silicon Serum - Price Not Available

Hair takes such a beating with all the heat and things we put on it, and one of the things I never go without is a good serum. Up until recently I used the Jean Pepe serum, which in my opinion is the best, but since it's finished I opted to try this one out. It works really well, not as good as the Jean Pepe but it's a great drugstore alternative.

6. Oh So Heavenly Cool Comfort Lavender Talc - Price Not Available
I love body powders, especially at night once I've had a bath, I literally shower myself in powder instead of wearing perfume to bed. This powder smells so nice, it's very calming and perfect for nighttime, and it helps keeps you fresh and dry throughout the night. Imagine the delight wearing this with your fluffy pj's (yes please).

7.  The Body Shop Cocoa Butter Body Butter - R150.00

Oh my goodness, this body butter smells so cosy and delicious.  Body butters is a must during the colder months and I tend to steer away from fruity smelling ones as they're too summery for me.  What I enjoy about these ones is that they are really nourishing to your skin, but soaks in within minutes and leaves no layer on your skin.

8 & 9.  Essence Colour & Go in be berry now! R24.95 and Essie in Size Matters R120.00

These colours are my go to's for this winter, I definitely stick with darker colours, and the previous winter I enjoyed wearing bright red and blue.  But this winter I'm leaning towards these types of colours, and I can't wait to pop it onto my nails.  They're quite similar in tone, but the Essence one is more purple and the Essie one is more red.  Both are so pretty though and are brands that I love as they're both long lasting and pigmented.

10.  Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturizing Body Oil

Okay, I have to admit, the one part of my beauty regime that I absolutely don't enjoy, is slathering on body moisturizer!  I hate that part, I don't know why but it feels like such a chore haha.  So this nifty little beauty is perfect for lazy girls like me.  There's several ways you can use this.  Just pop a bit into your bath water, then instead of rubbing yourself dry, gently pat the towel into your body and you'll be left with a light layer of this oil, voila - super easy!  I've also used this on my face, it smells just like chocolate and I got no breakouts from this.  I've also used it on my hair as an all over treatment (it works great if you get dry scalp like I do), this truly is a multi-functional product.

11.  Lush Karma Bubble - R38.50

No beauty survival post will be complete without a Lush product.  Now can I just say, this one smells freakin amazing!  I had a little bag with all of these products ready to type up my post, and the whole bag smells of spicey oranges!  Yum!  It also looks really pretty and will surely brighten up any winters day.

12.  The Body Shop Solid Oil Lips - Argan Oil Lip Tin - R60.00

After scrubbing with your lush scrub, pop this lip balm on, especially at night before going to bed and in the morning, and you'll have soft baby lips throughout the year.  Oh, this also smells really nice, and feels buttery on the lips.

13 & 14.  Essence Longlasting Lipstick in Oh So Matt! R44.50 and Essence XXXL Shing Lipgloss in True Love R34.95

I'd say a nice nude and a darker shade lip product will complete any outfit during winter.  Although I love my MAC lippies, Essence has always been a drugstore dupe.  Really, if you haven't given their lippies a try do so!  The nude lipstick isn't deathly nude, I actually think if you're after a Kylie Jenner lip, pair it with a lipliner similar to MAC Spice.  I quite like matte lips in winter, as well as darker lips, however, I don't have nearly enough confidence to pull off a matte dark lip, although I think it looks so beautiful with all the jewel toned clothes that are in.  So a good alternative if you're anything like me, is to go for a gloss.  That way you can choose a desired pigmentation that you're comfy with.  This lipgloss is a stunning brown red with a blue undertone, so it will make your teeth appear nice and bright.  And of course you can mix the lipstick and lipgloss as they both will go together like toast and tea!

I hope you enjoyed my list of beauty must-haves to feel gorgeous and pretty even during the colder months.

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NOTD: Let's Get Lost

Hi Pretty Friends,

I hope you've had a fab week?

Today is an awesome day, it's overcast but very cold and I'm loving it ~ yes, apparently I'm weird like that ;)

The other day I received these two Essence nail polishes, you know that I'm a bag fan of Essence in general, and I'm obsessed with these colours.

Essence Colour & Go - Purple 132 Break Through {R19.95}   /   Turquoise 128 Let's Get Lost {R19.95} - Available from selected Clicks and Dischem stores nationwide

 

Both of these colours are so pretty, truthfully my camera doesn't do the purple justice, it's more vibrant in real life and just looks amazing.  Essence has 44 trendy shades and these two colours are new ones that just came out., I decided on doing just a simple accent nail with polka dots and of course my mandatory glitter, I don't think I ever have nails where I don't use sparkles on at least one nail.

 

What I love about the Colour & Go is that it is very glossy with a gel-shine finish, it's also fast drying which is a must for me as I love switching up nail colours often, especially if I have something special on I like to accessorise with my nail polish too, does anyone else do that?  The application is really fast, for such an affordable polish the bristles is really good quality and gives an even finish.

 

The packaging is really cute and I love the colour coded caps which is true to the nail polish colour.  I love their nail polishes especially for trendy colours, the pigmentation is medium so for a full coverage I'll suggest two coats and you'll end up with a lovely glossy mani.

 

Keep warm on this chilly Saturday, I'm super excited because hubby and I have been invited to a wine farm in Franschoek this coming weekend to attend the Bastille Festival, I cannot wait to experience fine French cuisine and wine tasting {PS - I've been trying to get wine fit as I'm not a big drinker but so far it's Alcohol 1 Me 0 LoL}, so in true French tradition I'll leave you with ...

 

Au Revoir!

 

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Get Big Lashes *Essence Mascara* {Review}

Hello Beauts,

It's Tuesday ~ which means we're one day closer to the weekend :)

Okay, I have non-existent eyelashes, really, they're like barely there lashes, you know that I adore Gosh cosmetics and their mascara but they're only available at Edgars stores so I needed a mascara available from a local drugstore like Clicks or Dischem.  You know my love for all the Essence products right?  I have never tried their mascara's and this one stood out because I certainly want big lashes.

Essence Get Big Lashes Volume Boost Waterproof Mascara in Black ~ Available from Dischem and Clicks

 

I've been using this mascara for about a month now, and it's become a firm favourite, and I aptly chose Victoria Beckham's book {that extra half an inch} because I want my lashes to be longer and fuller - though I can't imagine what I'd look like with that extra half an inch on my lashes, and this nifty little beauty certainly delivers!

 

As you can see the brush is big, it not only gives me mega length but volumizes too, I'd say it easily gives me 3 times volume and almost doubles my lashes in length.  That is worthy of an applause!  Most of the time I don't use it with an eyelash curler, but coupled with an eyelash curler and my Essence Fibres I get a super dramatic and glamorous look.

 

And when it says that its a waterproof mascara, not only is it waterproof but also beauty product proof.  This is my only concern with this mascara, it's such a struggle to remove this fully, and because it's on the tender eye area which means you could pull and tug on what is a very delicate area, I have to use 2 products to properly remove it (one being oil based which helps tremendously).  Now I understand I can hardly complain because it does say it's a waterproof mascara LoL ;)

 

But aside from that, I am still using it because at the moment it gets top marks as my drugstore mascara choice.  I know that they have the same one that isn't waterproof and might give that a whizz this month.

 

Do you have any favourite drugstore mascara's?



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Tutorial: Wearable Smokey Eye

Hi Beauties,

I hope you're having a fab week so far?

I'm literally counting down to the weekend, well truthfully I've done so since Monday.  This is going to be a proper movie weekend as two of my favourite movies are being released:  Hangover 3 and 3D Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  As you can imagine I'm going to do minimum blogging this weekend, but I really wanted to get this tutorial up, it's one of my favourite looks all year round.

This is one of my go to looks, I adore purple shades and it works particularly well if you're dark-haired with brown eyes, and you can create a wearable smokey eye with colours other than black or grey.  It's also really easy, if you're not very good with make-up applications I assure you that you'll get the hang of it quickly:

Optional Step: 

 

Start with an eyeshadow base, I love this one from Essence, I find that if you do wear a good quality foundation like the Gosh X-Ceptional wear, that you don't particularly need a primer or base, I normally do this if I want my look to last the whole day.  Just spread a dollop of this all over your eyelid, it dries quickly and also helps create a crease-free look.

Take a highlighting colour, I don't know what the name is of this as NYX haven't listed the names on their palette, normally 2 - 3 shades lighter than your skintone is the perfect highlighting colour.  Dab a bit at the arch (or highest area of your eyebrow), this helps to define and lift your brow bone.

The colour I've chosen is 'irresistible purr-ple' which is such a gorgeous and flirty colour, take the deep shade and pat it onto your lower eyelid area.  I use a patting motion instead of sweeping, which helps intensify the shade of the eyeshadow, and also minimises any fallout.  Take the eyeshadow only up to your crease line, when you look directly into the mirror you are suppose to just see the purple line sticking out very slightly.

Take a big fluffy blending brush, and in a downward movement blend, I'm not using a transition colour here, lightly use small circular movements from left to right and blend it in lightly.  The reason you're holding your brush in a downward motion, is so that your eyeshadow colour doesn't drag or smudge out (like I mentioned before you don't want your colour too high up from your crease line, if you hold it upwards you'll drag the colour up and out and go far above this line), instead when you hold your brush downward you're merely blending.  As a test try it out, you'll notice a massive difference.  Be careful not to overblend, blending is merely creating a soft line, if you do struggle use a transition colour, that is a shade that is 1 - 2 shades darker than your skin tone, which you lightly buff over the area you're trying to blend in and it helps create a smooth soft line.

Using a lighter colour of your choice (white also works well), dab into the inner corner of your eye, this creates the illusion of bigger eyes.

 Optional Step:

 

By now you should have a really lovely and wearable eye, if you're not used to wearing make-up I'd maybe suggest that you skip this step and instead try it for a night out.  Of course I'm used to wearing loads more, so this is a wearable day look for me ;)

 

With a tapered brush, dip into the dark charcoal eyeshadow of the NYX palette, and create a horizontal v-shape, rub off excess eyeshadow and lightly blend with the tapered brush, then in a downward motion blend all the colours with the big blending brush. 

Using this Essence liquid eyeliner, which is my absolute favourite!  I much prefer a tapered felt liner than a brush, but everyone likes different application methods so you may have to try various ones to see which you are most comfortable with.  The easiest way to draw a winged eyeliner, is get a smaller mirror (free standing), rest your arm on something (a table for example), then draw a line at the outer corner of the eye.  Don't worry if you messed it up a bit, you can either draw over it and manipulate it the way you want, or if you made a big oopsie take a q-tip or earbud, dip in a teeny bit of water and rub off.  Once you've drawn your little line which acts as the base for the liner, in small strokes extend from the outside to the inside.  To make your eyes appear bigger and give it a lovely shape, make sure your liner is thicker on the outside and tapers into a very thin line to the inner corner of your eye. 

 

If you're not familiar with liquid eyeliners, it'll take some practise to get used to it and figure a style that you like.

 

Alternatively:  For a more wearable look or for any novices out there, use a normal black kohl or eyeliner on the top lid then lightly use the back of the liner to smudge the line, creating a softer but still dramatic enough look that gets you noticed.

 

PS:  I didn't wear any eyeliner on the bottom and I rarely do, I find that it makes my eyes appear very small, plus my eyes go red very quickly, and that seems to aggravate it a bit. 

For a wearable look I don't pack on mascara, however, the Gosh Boost Your Lashes is very buildable and you can create very dramatic eyelashes if you want to.  I didn't curl my eyelashes with a curler, I used one coat mascara, whilst still wet I applied the Essence fibres, then packed on two more coats of mascara.  Don't forget to do the top of your lashes with your first coat, especially if you need volume, it really helps loads to do a quick sweep at the top of your lashes then the "underside" - LoL is that event he right word?

 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that some of my tips and tricks have helped you.  Let me know if there is any tutorials you'd like to see?

 

Hope you have a fab Friday tomorrow! 



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