Saturday, August 30th 2014 Makeup
My indie makeup collection is growing, because a friend sent me some samples of Victorian Disco Cosmetics eyeshadows. I love indie makeup, because they have such cool products, and I love supporting small businesses. Definitions of what makes something indie vary, but primarily it’s considered to be brands that are either just one person, or just a couple of people, and is independently owned – not owned by one of the big cosmetics houses. Indies are almost always cruelty free, and many of their products are usually vegan, and if not I find that they they are usually clearly labelled. Victorian Disco is cruelty free and vegan. Right, now onto the shadows!
Thursday, August 28th 2014 Uncategorised
Today I’ve got more empties! It feels like my last post of used up products was only yesterday, but I’ve been trying hard to get through my stash of samples, so here we are. Prices are correct as of time of writing, and are in NZ dollars at NZ retailers. For samples, I’ve listed the price for full size products.
Tuesday, August 26th 2014 Makeup
Today I’m going to show you a makeup look I did on my mum recently! I like playing makeup artist, it’s a challenge compared to doing makeup on myself – different skin types, different eye/lid area, just a totally different canvas to work on. All week she, my friend, and I had been joking about wearing ‘double makeup’ – twice as much as you would usually wear, so that was part of my ~creative vision~ for this look. Mum wears makeup most days but usually her eye makeup is fairly neutral so I decided to make use of colour in this looks to really make her pretty eyes pop!
For the base of this look I used my NYX anti-redness primer – mum hasn’t really used primer before so it was a novelty for her. Then I applied her Revlon Colorstay foundation for normal to dry skin in shade 240 Medium Beige using my XOBeauty flat top brush. It had to be my brush as she doesn’t really believe in using brushes for foundation but I must say she was impressed with how it turned out so maybe we have a convert. There was no need for concealer but I put some of the highlighter from my ELF highlighter/concealer duo under her eyes to brighten things up a bit. Next up I was very intrigued by these shimmer balls from Lacura Beauty so I swirled my brush around in them and applied to her cheekbones. Disappointingly, they didn’t seem to be very pigmented so I went over the top with my ELF blush in Peachy Keen.
I was really excited to see this huge palette of Models Prefer eyeshadows, and then I opened it up fully and just about fell off my chair! It has 98 eyeshadows, 70 lipglosses/lipsticks, 3 blushes/highlighters, 6 cream liners, and apparently came with eye and lip pencils and a mascara too (their location is presently unknown). Mum was given it for a gift a couple of years ago but google leads me to believe it cost about $30 which is such a bargain!
I started with my Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer, because mum doesn’t have one, and this is great. Using a large Sephora eyesahdow brush I applied this light green shade all over her eyelid and I then picked up a darker colour and put in in the crease. At this point my highly demanding client requested some glitter, so I obliged and used the silver shade from one of her Maybelline quads on the outer v of her eye. Madam looked disappointed when I went to use my black pencil eyeliner on her top lid, but the only liquid-ish one I had with me was the Benefit gel liner mini which I haven’t had much success with, and I didn’t want to fail and ruin her whole look with it. I applied a green eyeliner from a brand I’ve never heard of called ‘MIB’ to her waterline for extra pop as after all we were going for double makeup! I finished it off with my Maybelline The Falsies Big Eyes mascara and made her apply it herself after how much of a mess I made when I put mascara on my friend Caitlin!
For her lips, I chose a dark terracotta shade which I think balanced the eyes out nicely. I initially went for red but she didn’t want to look too much like christmas which I think is a good call!
Here is the final look – I think she looks gorgeous, and everyone else agreed.
I realised later that all of my pics of her eye makeup were pretty rubbish, so this is the best I have – sorry!
For a bonus, here is me and mum together that night. She doesn’t think we look alike but everyone else on earth pretty much does.
Friday, August 22nd 2014 Makeup
We were so spoiled at a meet up I went to recently – one of the many things in our goodie bags was a packet of samples from Oasis Beauty. I had tried a couple of their samples in the past but the range seems to have had a fair bit of change, so it was great to get the chance to try them again. Oasis Beauty is a New Zealand owned and made range of skincare and also BB creams, and it’s also cruelty free. The samples I got were Rhino Repair, BB Cream – The Monroe, and Apple A Day SPF 25 moisturiser.
Wednesday, August 20th 2014 Makeup
By the time you read this post I will be on holiday in Australia, for a girly holiday with my friend Laura and staying with my mum, yay! I always like looking at peoples’ travel makeup bag posts, so I’ll share mine with you now. It was hard to whittle down my collection, but I managed to fit it all into a reasonable sized bag!
The base products I chose were Clinique Super City Block, NYX Photo-loving primer, Clinique CC Cream light, MAC Studio Sculpt NW20, Rimmel Stay Matte primer, ELF blush Peachy Keen, and ELF Under Eye concealer and highlighter in light. I wanted to have the option to do a full coverage base, as well as just swipe on some of the CC cream. I haven’t featured the CC cream on here before – here’s a swatch.
Eye makeup was another set of difficult decisions! The mascara was a no-brainer, I chose Maybelline The Falsies Big Eyes which I’ve been using for a little while now and loving. The Sephora eyeliner pencil is handy because it’s got brown and black, and the NYX wonder pencil is perfect for the inner rims of my eyes. Then there’s Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner in Espresso Ink, Chi Chi Rock With You baked eyeshadow, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze and Maybelline Color Tattoo Pure Pigment in Potent Purple. I’ve got my ELF brow kit of course, and Urban Decay eyeshadow primer potion, as they’re essentials for me. I’ve also packed my Benefit They’re Real eyeliner sample so I can continue to experiment with it.
I whittled down my lip product choices to only five! NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Milan, NYX Butter Gloss in Strawberry Parfait, Art Deco lipstick #23 Sandal, Milani Power Lip gloss stain 07 Mango Tango and Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Sugar Plum. Although to be realistic, more might be chucked in my handbag at the last minute!
Brushes are always an essential for me. I’ve got here my Ecotools concealer brush, XO Beauty flat top foundation brush, a random angled brush I use for my brows, Sephora blush, eyeshadow and eyeliner brushes, and my Ecotools travel kabuki brush. I love ectools brushes so much – I get mine from iherb.com because they are so cheap there.
I was terribly slack and didn’t take photos of my skincare, but I’ll tell you what I’ve got with me! For a previous trip I decanted my Cetaphil cleanser into a bottle from the $2 shop, so I’ll be taking that along with me. I’ll also take some Simple makeup remover wipes, and a mini Simple eye makeup remover, for stubborn mascara. For acne treatments I’ll take my usual Differin and Benzac. Of course I’ll take my Paula’s Choice Vitamin C serum which I have previously raved about. I’m taking Dove SPF 15 moisturiser as well as a mini Trilogy Rosehip oil, and the Linden Leave eyes treatment which I received in last month’s Goodie Box.
I’m meeting up with Sarah from BowsandPleats for some shopping, so keep an eye out on my instagram and other social media for pics of all the makeup I’m certain to buy!
Monday, August 18th 2014 Makeup
Celebrities have been featured in advertising for cosmetics for years, and now they are even launching their own brands or lines. Today I’m going to review a couple of different make up items from brands or lines of products that bear the names of some major celebrities.
Kate Moss has been a face of Rimmel since 2001, and in 2011 she launched a range of Kate Moss for Rimmel lipsticks. Lasting Finish, and Lasting Finish Matte lipsticks have been hugely successful products that are sold around the world. One of my most frequently worn lipsticks is Lasting Finish Matte #107, which I’m wearing in the photo below. It’s a darker red than I would typically wear, somewhat vampy but still office-appropriate which is perfect for me. The matte finish isn’t drying on my lips, and doesn’t look patchy as it begins to wear. It will easily last through lunch time on me, which is impressive as I seem to eat all of my lipstick off quite quickly. It is also a quite affordable product, selling from $14.99 at The Warehouse, Farmers and Kmart stores.
One of my not-well-kept secrets is that I’m a big reality TV fan, especially of the Kardashians. That’s what drew me to the Kardashian Beauty stand in Myer, but once I swatched some of the colours I was really impressed with the quality of them. I bought Kardashian Beauty En-joy stick lip lacquer in the shade Rose Parade.This is a warm red lipstick in a pencil shape, not the traditional ‘bullet’ format most lipsticks come in, which makes outlining my cupid’s bow easy. It has quite a creamy texture, which does mean that the wear time isn’t the greatest but that’s okay with me. It’s not sold anywhere in New Zealand that I know of, but if you find it overseas or online, pick one up! I purchased my one for $15.95 AUD at Kit Cosmetics within Myer in Melbourne.
Even boys are getting in on the action – One Direction has a line with UK brand Makeup Academy which looks suprisingly good – I wouldn’t mind the ‘Rock me Louis’ lipstick! Justin Bieber also had a range of nail polish with Nicole by OPI back in 2011.
MAC is a brand which always has celebrity collaborations – this year alone there have been collections with Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, Lorde, and Rihanna recently announced she will be having another collection of Viva Glam products which of course I have my eye on!
Personally, I would love it if there was a Nicki Minaj brand or line of products – are there any celebrities that you would like to see have a makeup collection? Let me know in the comments section, I’m sure there are some interesting answers.
Sunday, August 17th 2014 Nails
Even before I was a blogger, I liked to share my nails and makeup with the world on instagram. I’ve done a bit of a round up of some of my favourite beauty-related pictures from my personal instagram account from back in the day, and I hope you enjoy!
In this picture from September 2012 we have my collection after 6 months of frantic buying, because I was no longer working in a job where I couldn’t paint my nails!
This is some pretty basic nail art from Valentine’s Day 2013 – Orly White Out over Nicole by OPI’s Kourt is Red-y for a Pedi from their Kardashian Kollection
My attempt at stamping wasn’t a great success and I haven’t repeated the experiment. Not sure what colour that polish is, I didn’t have it in the caption.
I invested in some french tip stickers and did this. The lighter pink is China Glaze Temptation Carnation and the darker pink is Orly Basket Case.
My long-suffering boyfriend assisted with this, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I only wrote that the pink was China Glaze and I haven’t narrowed it down because I have so many pink CG polishes. September 2013.
This is December 2013, when I started to get more into makeup. The eyeshadows are from Urban Decay’s Fun Palette, and the polish is China Glaze Tantalize Me.
More matching! The eyeshadow is a NYX Glam Shadow Stick in Enchanting Jade, and the polish is Rimmel 045 Misty Jade
If you want to see more along the lines of this follow me on instagram @lenatalksbeauty. For random bits and pieces from my life it’s @lenabethnz
Friday, August 15th 2014 Hair Removal
Hair removal is a something that has a lot of different methods, and I’ve tried most of them over the years – shaving, waxing, epilating and depilatory creams. Shaving always left me with irritated skin and stubble the next day, waxing and epilating hurt a lot and depilatory creams just didn’t work. I decided to get IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) hair removal a couple of years ago, after seeing my mum’s great results. I started with my underarms, and have since done my bikini area too – might be too much information but I’m all about being open here! I am so glad I did – the salon I go to says “Once you’ve tried IPL Laser Hair Removal treatment you really will wonder why you waited so long” – and that is SO TRUE.
The best explanation for how it works is as follows:
As the IPL treatment head is guided over the hair removal treatment area, light flashes are discharged on the skin. These pulsed light flashes are absorbed by the hair. When the pigment in the hair follicle absorbs this light, the energy is converted into heat, which damages the hair follicle. Hundreds of hair follicles are destroyed by each flash; the hairs then fall out in one to two weeks after the treatment.
– Terra Nova Clinic
Most people need about 8-12 sessions, spaced 4 weeks apart, to get the desired results and after the 8-12 sessions then you only need occasional maintenance treatments. I’ve had more than that, because my hairs are SO thick and dark – seriously, they exclaimed about how unusual it is to see that on someone of European descent like me. In addition, many of my follicles have two hairs in them, which makes it even harder to treat. I did get a bit frustrated at first with the slow progress of it, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Never having to think about wearing a tank top or a bikini because of the state of my hair has been so great – it sounds really minor but it has honestly changed my life! You can still shave between treatments, no need to grow the hair out like with waxing – they just ask that you don’t shave that day or the day before usually, which isn’t a big deal at all.
Depending on the different specials they have on offer, the pricing can vary, but based on a current deal it’s around $50 per session for underarms and $70 for brazillian. This is a bit more than waxing but the results are much better, so I think it’s worth it. One question I’ve been asked a lot is about how much it hurts, and I think it’s roughly equal to waxing. There’s a bit of a sting but it has gone away by the time that I walk out the door, there’s no tender skin that I need to baby or anything, life goes on as usual.
Here’s the real evidence – some pictures of my underarms before, and after about a year of treatments. There are still hairs afterwards, but they are so fine and pale that you couldn’t see unless your face is right up in there.
It’s important to make sure that you go to a good salon for your treatment – this isn’t something that I would want to cheap out on. You want qualified, experienced technicians and good quality machines. If you are in Auckland, I highly recommend Terra Nova which have salons in Ellerslie and Birkenhead.
If you have any questions about the whole IPL process, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Bear in mind I’m not a beauty therapist or anything, just someone who likes to read about this kind of thing!
Wednesday, August 13th 2014 Makeup
Last weekend Makeup Obsessives had a meet up, and it was AWESOME. It was great catching up with friends, and finally meeting people in person after seeing their pictures for months. We also got an amazing goodie bag which felt like Christmas and my birthday had come at once. I’m progressively working my way through and trying everything, but today I’m going to show you the four lipsticks I got – three were in the goodie bag and one was a gift from a friend.
Monday, August 11th 2014 Skincare
When I wrote my review of my Dermalogica facial, I said I would be reviewing the samples that were given to me once I’d used them all – and now I am!
