Where I buy my Makeup!

Hi all, I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

For today's post, I wanted to share with you a few of my favourite online beauty stores, where I purchase my makeup from. The items I purchase from these stores, aren't available in Australian drug stores or department stores. These are my three favourite store to buy from, so keep on reading to find out more!

The first one I absolutely love is www.discountbeautyboutique.com.au. This store is an official stockist of Morphe products, Milani, Gerard Cosmetics and also stock a whole range of other amazing brands. I have purchased a few products from here and am so impressed with how fast shipping is! Also, if you spend over $100, you receive free shipping. Such great value for money. A lot of the stock does sell out quite quickly, but the website is regularly updated so you don't miss out. I highly recommend checking this site out if you haven't already.

The next website I want to share is www.adorebeauty.com.au. I love this site, and there are so many gorgeous products to choose from. There is a lot of great skincare products such as Dermalogica, as well as homewares and gifts and of course makeup! I love the range of products that can be purchased from here. When you make a purchase, you also receive a few free samples as well, which is always a lovely little surprise. Definitely check them out if you haven't already!

My other favourite store is www.crystalminx.com.au. I have purchased from this site several times and have been super impressed with delivery times! They stock a range of awesome products, I bought my Too Faced sweet peach palette, and a few other things. They also stock Kylie Cosmetics, Anastasia Beverley Hills and many more awesome brands.


I hope you enjoyed this post. As I said, definitely check these sites out if you haven't already. They are all amazing in their own way and you are sure to find something that will appeal to you.

If you have an online store or website that you love, let me know!

Current Trends I'm not loving

I love keeping up with the latest trends in beauty and makeup, and love how there is so many great products on the market to try.

But occasionally, something comes out that makes me think what were they thinking! So I have gathered a few trends and products that I am not loving and most likely not going to try!

Eyebrow wigs

I recently saw this on Facebook and can't believe it's a thing! If you haven't seen it or heard of it, it's basically a sticky thing that's eyebrow shaped that you can place over your regular brows to give the appearance of having fuller eyebrows. It just seems a bit silly to me, I am quite happy filling my brows in!

Unicorn and Rainbow themed products

This is a very cute trend, but something that really doesn't appeal to me. I'm talking about rainbow highlighters, and rainbow/unicorn  themed brushes amongst other things. I think it's a bit of a gimmick, especially for some companies who seem to be releasing the same type of products, but with rainbow colouring or the 'unicorn' theme.

Fake freckles

I have had freckles my whole life, and I appreciate that they are the rage right now, but I spend a lot of money covering mine up, and always have! It is definitely not something I would personally do, but of course that doesn't mean people shouldn't do it!

Embellished Eyes

This is quite popular with the festival type looks, but I am seeing it more and more with regular makeup looks. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks so pretty, but I can't see myself wearing diamantes around my eyes!

So that brings me to the end of this post. I think makeup is a great way to express yourself and have fun, these trends are just a few that I personally wouldn't do!

Hope you enjoyed, let me know what trends you are not loving xx

Product Empties #1

In today's post, I just wanted to share with you my product empties for the month of may. I don't have a lot of empty products, but would like to share with you the ones I do have and my thoughts on them.

BYS Primer Spray

First of all I have a spray on primer from BYS Cosmetics. I love this product, it's the first spray on primer that I've used and I found it works so well on keeping your makeup long lasting. It's also a very inexpensive product, only costing me 10 dollars from Kmart

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water 

The next empty product is the Garnier Micellar water. This is a regular in my makeup/beauty routine. I use it to to take off my makeup at night, and also in the morning to remove any dirt or impurities that may have built up over night. If you haven't used it yet, I highly recommend it. It's great for sensitive skin as well as having no scent.

Lush Snow Fairy Body Wash

One of my favourite places to purchase bath and shower products from is Lush. I particularly love their Christmas range, so when they had their boxing day sale, I stocked up on my favourite Snow Fairy body wash. This surprisingly has lasted me quite a while, and I have only just finished using the bottle. I can't wait until Christmas time, so I can purchase it again!

Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner

For my hair, I regularly use the Pantene Ultimate 10 shampoo and conditioner. I love how soft and silky my hair feels after use, and have been using this shampoo and conditioner for ever!

Mascara

My final product is mascara by Maybelline. It's the Colossal Big Shot MascaraThis is a great mascara for adding volume and length to your lashes. Also, I love the bright, shiny packaging too, I'm a sucker for great packaging!!

So that was my product empties for the month of May. I hope to make this a regular post, maybe once a month so I will see how I go.

Let me know what your product empties were for the month of may, down below, I would love to know!

Beauty Throwbacks

There are so may awesome beauty products on the market right now and it's so hard to keep up with all the new and amazing things that are out! I have been collection makeup for a while now, and I decided to go through my collection to find products that I used to use all the time. There are a few that you might be able to still find, but for the most part I think these products are either discontinued or were limited editions. Anyway, here is my beauty Throwback!

I have been a fan of Essence for a while and I especially like their limited edition ranges that come out monthly. A while ago, they had a Circus themed range, and I purchased the highlighter powder from the range. It is a gold toned highlighter, that is quite pigmented. It has a lovely shimmer to the skin and it's something I used a lot.

Another product from Essence is a little eyeshadow Quad, with blue shades. I didn't use this a lot, but I like the colours. The eyeshadow is quite pigmented and great quality for the price. 

I have a couple of products from Rimmel. As a long time fan of their products, and one product that was hot a few years back is the Apocalips Lip Laquer. This was a very popular product in the beauty world with the laquer being high shine and very pigmented.

The other product is Vinyl Max Lip gloss and this was another favourite of mine. I was big on pink lip products a few years ago, which is why I have this colour. 

Onto another lip product, this time from Maybelline. This is the colour Sensational Lipstick, in the shade 900 pink pop. It is a very bright, electric pink colour which I did like at the time. I don't think I wore it much, but i bought it because I really liked the colour at the time! It's funny how makeup trends change so quickly!

Eyeshadows for me weren't as much of a must have as they are now. I used to be quite happy just using one particular palette or colour The main one that I would regularly use is one from NYX called the Dusk till Dawn Palette. This palette has very neutral tones and I loved to use it. 

From Revlon, I had one particular bronzer that I would always use. It's in the shade Peach Glow, and this the one I would wear on a daily basis. It added just enough of a bronzy glow to my skin to give the that sunkissed glow.

That was all the products that I dragged out today, I will go through the rest over the next few weeks and see what else I have that I used to love. I might make this a regular thing on here too, just to look back on what makeup I liked and don't use as much anymore.

I hope you enjoyed this post, I had fun looking at all my old makeup stash! Let me know what products you have that you loved and don't use anymore!

Simple Makeup Tips

Over the years, I have pretty much taught myself how to apply makeup and figure out what works for me and what doesn't. This is due to the large amounts of tutorials that are available and also a little bit of trial and error. So today I wanted to share with you a few of my tips that I have picked up over the years.

Before Makeup Application

• Basically, you want to start with clean skin. Using a gentle cleanser or even a toner to wipe away any impurities from your skin. I use Garnier Micellar water which is amazing!

Foundation

• For my foundation, I always make sure I have moisturised and primed my skin before I apply my foundation. I also wait until the moisturiser has sunk into my skin and the orimer has set before I apply my foundation.

Mascara

• I can be very fussy when it comes to mascara, but when I find one that I like I tend to stick with that one. I just apply my mascara using the wand horizontal to my eye, which works great but for an added bit of volume I will use the tip of the wand to add more product to my lashes. This makes my lashes look fuller, without having to apply false lashes.
• Placing a card or Tissue under your bottom lashes when applying mascara help to prevent you from messing up your makeup.

Eyeshadow.

• Eyeshadow has taken me a while to get the hang of, and I am still always learning something new. I used to be a strictly one colour eyeshadow person, which now seems so boring! The main thing is to start small then keep adding colour. It's easier to build up than it is to take off! Also blending with good brushes makes a huge difference. 
• An eyeshadow primer is also a good idea when applying eyeshadow. Using concealer and setting it with powder is a great alternative for a primer. By applying a base to your eyes, this will help your eyeshadow stand out and easier to blend.

Lips

• I am a big fan of Liquid lipstick, preferring the more creme finish rather than a matte as matte tends to dry out my lips. If you do want to give your lips the illusion of being a bit more on the fuller side, apply a lighter shade to the middle of your lips then the darker shade to the outer sides. 
• Also adding a lip liner just outside your lip line can also give the appearance of fuller lips.

Finishing spray

• Using a finishing spray is a great way to keep your makeup long lasting and avoids your face looking cakey. There are many brands on the market that have a finishing spray, I currently use one by Models Prefer and I love it. 

Here are another few quick tips also

• Using a clean brush or beauty blender really helps in giving that flawless finish
• To intensify your eyeshadow colour, apply a bit of setting spray to your brush before picking up the shadow
• Setting your foundation with a powder will help to prevent you skin looking oily 

And Finally........

The one tip that I think is probably the most important is getting a good nights rest. This is a great way for your skin to rejuvenate and give you that fresh glow. Oh, and don't forget to remove your makeup at the end of the day too, otherwise your skin will suffer!!

Hope this was helpful to some of you, let me know if you have any tips, I am always learning something new!

Rose Gold Oval Brushes Review

The latest fad in the world of beauty recently has been oval brushes.  For those of you who don't know what they are, these are makeup brushes that have the bristles coming out of the side of the brush instead of the top of the brush. Almost like a toothbrush!

I have seen these brushes around for a while, and have been intrigued as to how they work. I was lucky enough to be sent a gorgeous set of Rose Gold Oval Brushes from www.simpleglamgirls.com to try out.

Upon receiving these unique brushes, I was very eager to open them and try them out. The bushes are very pretty, and the bristles are quite dense but very soft. They are very light to hold and they feel lovely on the skin. I used the largest one to apply my foundation and found it gave a really flawless finish. There wasn't a great deal of foundation left in the bristles of the brush either.

I used the medium sized one to apply a bronzer, and was impressed but how much product it picked up. I was equally impressed by the amount of product that went on my face, instead of being soaked up by the bristles. The only problem i had was trying to blend it out. It kind of just stayed in the area which I applied it, but I was eventually able to blend out the bronzer.

To apply my eyeshadow, I used a smaller one. This was great to blend out my eyeshadow, but a little difficult to pack on shadow to my lid.

I do have to say that they are quite difficult to manoeuvre, compared to regular brushes, but I think it just takes a bit of getting used to. I have been doing makeup with regular brushes for some time now, so using these were definitely out of my comfort zone!

These are a cheaper alternative to the more expensive Artis Oval brushes, but they are great if you want to try oval brushes, or just starting out in makeup and want to try something a bit different.

Overall, I like these brushes. I find them to be quite soft on the skin and don't scratch or feel harsh. As for the design, I love the rose gold with the black handle. I think they look very classy and glamorous!

If you are interested in purchasing these as a set or one on it's own to try, go to www.simpleglamgirls.com and enter code Jane at the checkout to receive 20% off your order. So go on over and grab a bargain!

My Favourite Highlighters

Today I want to talk about highlighters. There are so many out there at the moment, and so many on my wish list, which makes it extremely hard to pick one! So today I just want to share the ones that I have in my collection and I will also post the ones that I wish I had! So without further ado, here are my current favourite highlighters.

The first one that I want to talk about is the Models Prefer Radiance collection, Ultimate Illuminating Palette (wow, what a mouthful!). This little palette has three powder highlighters to suit any skin tone and makeup look. They use the natural light to enhance your skin for a beautiful, radiant glow. The formula has a very smooth and buttery consistency, and blends out really well.

Onto my next highlighter that I am loving and that is the BYS Cosmetics Highlighting trio in 01 - Beige. I love this little palette, it has three shades, one matte and two highlight shades. The colours are quite light on the skin, and have a very smooth consistency. The blend-ability is also very impressive, leaving your skin with a lovely, radiant glow.





















My last, but certainly not least highlighter is the famous Mary-Lou Manizer from The Balm. As you would know, this is a very popular product in the beauty community, and rightly so. I don't really need to go into too much detail with this item, as there are so many reviews on it already, but it is my Holy Grail highlighter. I love the  texture and formula and how glowy my skin looks after application. Also, a little bit goes a long way, which is a good thing!

Highlighters Wishlist 

The first one, which does have a lot of hype surrounding it, and for goor reason, is the ABH Nicole Guerriero Glow kit. This product looks so amazing, and the packaging is gorgeous! I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it.

I'm also keen on trying any of the TooFaced Prismatic Highlighter. I think the packaging looks so cute (I can be a sucker for cute packaging) and the colours look quite appealing. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my post today. If there are any highlighters that you are loving, drop me a comment I would love to know!

Talk soon xx