Bourjois Paris Sucre Spring 2012 Collection

Spotted this collection around 1-2 weeks ago. Although it seems a bit out of place in Priceline because of the way it's set up, the bright colours still caught my eye. Priceline seems to not carry the pink eyeshadow and has 2 different mascaras rather than one.

A little display box with the products sitting neatly inside.

After trying the Anti-choc No-chips polish last time, i am in love with them! They are very pigmented and dry quite fast. Usually 2 coats is all i need for perfection. I'm not a fan of the slanty brush though. I always miss one corner of my nail and i have to go cover the undried parts to get into that corner which leaves potential for clumpy polish.

Currently Bourjois at Priceline has a spend $25 and over to receive a free gift with purchase.

I couldn't say no to the polishes because the colours were too cute. At $13 each they are still pricey considering i can get O.P.I for $12 at ProNail supply. But there was a GWP so it was all justified!

The blush and 2 eyeshadows

swatches!

The blush is very nice and pigmented unlike most Bourjois blushes. It is a very pinky coral with shimmer from what i recall. The eyeshadow pots are super pastel and remind me of macarons!

 Here is what i got :)

The 2 limited edition polishes. RRP$13.00

This is what was included inside the GWP. An eyeshadow palette (pinky brown tones), mascara and nail lacquer in Magenta Show. Valued at $62.

I've used these polishes and they're nicely pigmented as expected. Spread on like a dream. And the colours are way too cute. I think i need to get backups! I hope i find a store that's not sold out. My total for the 2 polishes was $26 which just qualified from the GWP. I might consider getting the blush later too :)

Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation Review

Got my hands on this a few months ago but haven't gotten around to using it till recently. And i hate to say it but i absolutely HATE this foundation. It is very thick, doesn't spread and has no coverage at all.
I can always tell how well the foundation spreads by the little hairs above my brows. With the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundations i can't see the foundation on my face when i smooth it all out. But with this Rimmel foundation, there are clumps and dry looking patches on my face.
Not only that, it doesn't spread yet is thick like a cream. I found the best way to use it is to pat it into my skin like a night cream. It clumps up on little hairs on the face and you can add more to fill in the gaps but it feels so thick already so i wouldn't want to do that.
After managing to get it on the skin without it being patchy, i was sad to see no coverage at all. On my freckles i can understand why, but on the minor pinkness in my skin? NO foundation has ever let the redness show through.
In conclusion, this foundation is horrible. It is more like a tinted moisturiser yet worse because it doesn't spread nicely either. It might work better on oily skin i suppose but the coverage is 1/10. It works great if you want almost no coverage and look natural but as i said, it clumps up on fine hairs on the face so you're better off with a tinted moisturiser.
I'm around NC20 in mac and the shade 100 Ivory matched me pretty well. Usually i got for the light-medium shades so i'm pretty surprised 'ivory' suited me. Maybe the Bourjois foundation is just too amazing and my standards have gone through the roof? :)

Massive Mixed Shopping Hauls :)

I've somehow got lots of beauty shopping photos in a folder and yet no interesting story behind them. So i thought it would be fun to just throw them all together in a post :)

Firstly is the Lush Buttercup gift box which i got from a friend for my birthday a while back.

I love the smell of the Honey I Washed the Kids soap, but sadly it is a soap and the filmy feeling it has really annoys me. I'm too use to my Dove cream beauty bar and sadly soap will always feel grimy to me :(

Next up is the Shu Uemura Morphorium Blue Palette! I've been unattentionally trying to collect these lovely Shu Uemura palettes for a while now. I only had 2 so i was super excited to spot this at David Jones. It was reduced and on sale for around $60 also! I know the colours aren't colours i will use. And i would only be buying it to 'collect' it but i just couldn't say no! It was too pretty. And hunting down these palettes is hard work! I know because just a few days back i managed to score the Shu Uemura Reindeer Kiss XXXX palette. I found it online and i'm so glad to get my hands on it. The packaging is the prettiest packaging i've ever seen. It was not cheap on eBay but it is rare and i had to have it! Again, the colours i will be unlikely to use but it is too pretty to say no to :)

The swatches are amazing as well. Super soft silky powder and amazing pigmentation. Shu Uemura is definitely one of my favourite beauty brands.

Next is a lipstick i picked up from Chi Chi. I love Chi Chi products as well. They are an Asutralia brand and i've found their eyeshadows to be extremely high quality. That's why i decided to try their lipsticks earlier this year and got Hollywood Heiress. I love the colour and it is very moisturising on the lips. However it doesn't have very high staying powder as most cream lipsticks and tends to slip around during application. They retail for around $18.95. Target had a few shades on sale for $10 so i picked up the shad Flirt which is another cream lipstick. It is a lovely colour but sadly a little too dark for my liking so i don't see myself using it as much.

After my first TheBalm haul from David Jones, i was shopping with the bf and ended up getting the Down Boy Blush as well. Of course i got another sample goodie bag with my purchase :) This was all paid for by a giftcard so i didn't feel too guilty about it. I still had $4 left on the card so the week after i decided i might as well get the third blush and collect them all... sadly when i got there i realised they had the Hot Mama! blush too. I couldn't decided which i should i did what i always do, and got both lol Paid for them seperately and picked up another 2 goodie bag. At this point i realise i'm just hoarding but it's already done! hehe

TheBalm's Meet Matt(e) palette

David Jones Beauty Deluxe Sampler Goody Bag :D

These are the O.P.I minis i got from the goodie bags. I think i got a very nice selection. I'm super excited about the brownish one because Bobbi Brown has a limited edition polish out right now that's exactly the same! And this was the only one in all the goodie bags so i'm happy :)

I ended up picking up some more polishes with the $10 off Bourjois at Priceline this month. I stopped by Pricelines randomly to pick these up. As you can see i ended up getting 3 of the same shade because i wasn't keeping track. These were normally $12 each but i got them at $2 with the voucher. Amazing bargain i think :)

I also picked up 2 lipsticks. Both in the same shade 06 because it's super lovely. It is also 100% natural which means it does smell a little funny but nothing that bothers me. If you've used Dermalogica products and don't find them an issue then you'll be fine with this lipstick. Staying power is not too bad on this and goes on quite nice. Not too drying but nothing like a lipbalm of course.

During the adorebeauty.com.au sale a while back where they had 22% off. I did some hauling myself but because i'm on a tight budget, my bf offered to get the Clarisonic Mia for me which i really wanted. Normally RRP$150. The site sells it for $135 and with 22% off it came down to $105! So much cheaper than in store. I have used it once and am not too impressed yet. It doesnt feel like its really getting in there and scrubbing but i'm sure it's suppose to be gentle enough on the skin. I'll see after a few more uses :)

Lastly is some Essie value packs and holiday mini set i got from Myer probably 2 months ago. The value packs are definitely worth it at $17.95. Cheaper than the cost of one polish!

Also a random photo of my nails :) China Glaze Tinsel Town with O.P.I's Serena glam collection polish, forgot the shade name.. this was a bitch to take off and i got finger cramps doing so! I'm reluctant to wear glitter polishes for a while now hehe

Will be doing another post later tonight i think! See you soon :)

The Balm @ David Jones Haul and Priceline Bourjois :)

L was super nice and gave me a $100 DJs giftcard last week. And for my day off today i was on a mission to spend it! 

So first i made a little trip to Priceline to pick up a Bourjois Anti-choc No chips polish in shade 16 i saw the other day and thought was a really nice bright coral. I had my Bourjois $10 off voucher with me of course :) So the polish came down to $3. I remember that it would have only cost me 40 cents last week during the 20% off sale but i would have felt too guilty when paying so i didn't buy it then lol

But $3 now i think is a good price and yet not completely free hehe When i was paying the girl was so lovely and gave me back my voucher saying i can re-use it over and over. And so i said 'even if i wanted to use it now?', 'yes', 'really? i might go get every shade then...', and so i ran back and grabbed every shade available and the girl was lovely enough to not mind doing 8 seperate transactions for me. And she was super fast at it too!

So i walked out one very happy customer :D Usually i get the worse service at Priceline. But i guess it really depends on who serves you and if they're in a good mood. There are certain people i avoid at certain Pricelines just because of their attitude every time.

Bourjois Anti-Choc No Chips Nail Polishes

Shades 17, 11, 14, 21, 19, 12 and 16 (left to right)

My next stop was David Jones. And i knew there was nothing on my list to get. But i went straight to the beauty section and headed for The Balm cosmetics. I love their Nude'tude palette so i was thinking of getting another of their palettes i've seen before. 

The first palette i saw had no tester and i couldn't see what shades were inside. I was fiddling around when the lady came over and told me that the palette was actually a gift with purchase! Spend $27.95 or more on The Balm products and you get this full sized palette! I knew right then and there i was going to buy something :) I can't resist a good GWP.

The Shady Lady palettes were nice and although there were 2 to choose from, i didn't think i would make good use of all the shades there. They were $49.95 each and i would have been better off buying a back up nude'tude. But i wanted to try something different. Their skincare line looks really interesting but i just recently got some new Clarins skincare even though i have more than enough already. So the next thing that caught my eye was the blushes. There were 3 shades to choose from, a peachy pink, neutral light pink and a mauvey pink. This was an easy decision as peachy pinks look best on my skin. The 'Hot Mama' blush/eyeshadow was quite nice as well and reminded me of NARS's Orgasm but i've learnt matte blushes look best. Sheen blushes tend to stand out too much yet lack colour and also look terrible if you're not having a good skin day.

I walked around a bit more and noticed they had another one of their Deluxe Samples Beauty Bag promotions. With the purchase of any beauty product, you can buy the deluxe samples beauty bag for $19.95. Valued at around $105.

The bag contains:

David Jones Beauty Foundation Brush

David Jones Men's Hair and Body Wash 125ml

Aromatherapy Co. Therapy Pulse Point 15ml

Grown Lip Balm 6ml

OPI Nail Lacquer 3.75ml

Plus 3 of the following:

Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant 22ml

Crabtree and Evelyn India Hicks Island Living Hand Therapy 25g

Natio Body Butter 100g

OR

In Essence Botanically Active Skincare Product

L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream 10ml

Model Co Shine Lip Gloss 5ml

all inside a small plastic cosmetics bag and DJs Tote bag.

I chose the 2nd option even though the Dermalogica sample was most tempting. I've tried it before and didn't find it to do much for my skin so it was a better deal to get a full sized In Essence product. 

It varied and you either got the In Essence Gentle Milk Cleanser, Moisture Glow (tinted) or the Facial Scrub. I chose the Facial Scrub pack and the only other product that varied in the packs were the OPI mini polishes. Majority were a dark hot pink that they seemed to have last time as well. I got this shade last time and really didn't want it again but the only pack with the scrub had that shade. When i was going to pay i saw more packs at the counter and i managed to find the scrub with a different OPI shade :D So that made me happy. Total altogether was $47.90 for everything i got! I didn't expect to get such a good buy in DJs :D

Overall it was a very good shopping day for me as i got new things that i'm excited to try.

:)

very lightly swatched

The Balm Frat Boy Blush

I super hate when they stick these stickers on PAPER products. They destroy the packaging if you don't peel carefully!

The Balm Gift With Purchase

Models Prefer Infinite Colour Shadow Pencil Review

I spotted these in Priceline last week and i think they're been out for a little while now but are definitely still new :)

The Model's Prefer Infinite Colour Shadow Pencils are like the smudge sticks, jumbo pencils, fat eyeliners kind of product.

They have a nice variety of basic neutral shades and a pretty plum purple and bright pastel blue.

They retail at $9.99 each which is a good price in the Australian market.

I swatched all of these and i am surprise They are SOOOO creamy! And so pigmented. They are like my favourite Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliners but fatter.

Not only that, these dry down and will not smudge at all. I gave it around 30 seconds or less and it had dried on my hand.

I think they're just so amazing. I'm so glad to see more products like this come out. The black is too glittery to be an eyeliner though and too much for day time wear i think. I love the nude, taupe and brown though. I may go back and pick them up the next time the range is on sale. They seem to be permanent products so i don't think they're going anywhere :)

Adore Beauty Haul! (adorebeauty.com.au)

Last week Adore Beauty had their 3 day sale. To celebrate Australia having 22 Olympic medals to date, they had a 22% off full priced items for 3 days.

Let me tell you about my first adorebeauty.com.au experience over 2 months ago. I had made an order on a few items and since i found a $5 off $50+ purchases code, i seperated my order into 2 so i would end up paying $0.95 on shipping each and get an extra 2 samples. Not a big deal, just paying 95cents for 2 bonus samples :)

I waited for my order to arrive. Weeks passed. It was my first time buying from them but even i knew parcels didn't take over a month to arrive in Australia. I had an email saying my order was processed and sent out ages ago. I had contacted them and they were helpful in trying to resolve why my parcels have not come. There was no way 2 parcels would go missing right?
They started an investigation with the post office and said they would contact me on the Friday. I wasn't contacted back. So a few days later i went to their website customer service chat again and requested help. They said they would get back to me in a few days.
Finally i called them a few days later while i was at work and the lady on the phone apologized that no one has gotten back to me and they will send me a replacement to a different address. She also added $10 store credit to my account.
I didn't have an alternate address to give them immediately so i said i will email it to them later. I did so when i got home and asked my bf for his permission to send it to his place.
Weeks went pass. Almost a month and my bf had not received a parcel from them. I was frustrated at this point. I emailed them very a firm tone saying it has been much too long, and they need to go speak to the person who is in charge of sending out parcels because i'm not getting mine. For two different addresses? Something must be up.
I got a email back saying the warehouse had made an error and failed to send out my parcels but they assured me it would be sent on that very day. Like they had in the previous email. My parcels did arrive at my boyfriends place a few days later. Sadly one item was out of stock by then and i got a refund on that item. They also did not send me 4 samples and only 2 since i said it was fine for them to post it altogether to prevent further chances of loss.
Overall it was a bad experience and the gifts i got were no longer needed. However i've online shopped a million times and understand things like this happen all the time.

So when they advertised their sale, i still went back to shop. I had $10 store credit to use up anyways right! :)
I had a massive list in my cart and was sure i wasn't willing to spend that much. But i didn't know what to cut out.
My boyfriend solved this dilemma and offered to buy me the Clarisonic Mia instead :D Happy me hehe I'm so lucky to have him. They were sold out and will take within 20 days till dispatch but that is no problem at all considering it sells for $150 at Myer and now it was for $104.95! Also shipping is free for purchases over $99! I can't wait to get my hands on it. My skin has been awful lately and i feel like scrubbing layers off!

So what did i end up buying?

Clarins Enchanted Palette 

Clarins One-Step Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser

Spend over $79 on Clarins to receive this GWP :)

Lancome Rogue in Love in 340B

Lancome GWP with any purchase

Samples

Overall i'm extremely happy with my purchase. Everything i bought had a very nice GWP. I only paid for 3 items and got all this! My total was around $115 with the 22% off :) Shipping was free as well. Did anyone else buy from the sale? I wonder if anyone got as good of a deal as i did hehe