September + October favourites and empties

Double posting because I meant to post this bi-monthly favourites and empties earlier, but I wanted to get a review together to stuff in between. The stupid thing is that the reviews that are mostly complete, I don't have pictures for and the pictures I did take in a massive picture taking spree last month are mostly for as yet unwritten reviews, *sigh* for boss organisational skills. 

Favourites

Lady Jayne ‘smoothies’ hair ties

Lame ass name but these velvety hair ties that I was sent for beautyheaven trial team actually work really well. Because they’re covered in velvet (and because the elastic is tight and stiff) they grip hair really well and STAY in my hair all day. They’re kinda chunky tho so not great for smaller work, but if you want your hair out of your face for the day then these are perfect.

Empties

    So I chopped off my ponytail in September which meant that my hair was a lot shorter so I don’t have any hair empties this time (I definitely would have finished off my shampoo and conditioner otherwise) and I finished the giant bottle of bodywash I’ve been using (p.s. if you thought I went through a lot of shower gel based on my previous empties, I share that bottle with my cousin so yeah, 2 people can go through a lot of shower gel) a week into November, so I can’t include it either.

Natio eye contour treatment gel 

I have a review on this up already, so suffice to say it’s a good moisturiser and there’s a lot of product left in the tube. I started having problems squeezing much out at the start of September and I realised that was partly because there were cracks in the tube (after so long, and because I kept flattening the sides) so I couldn’t use air pressure anymore. So I squeezed the tube as flat as possible and squeezed all the gel I could possibly push out of the tube into a small tub with a twist lid. The total gel that came out lasted me like a month and a half, that’s liberal use + I used it to mix with tea tree oil to treat pimples.

Blistex lip conditioner review

    Like pretty much every person with dry lips in Australia, I grew up with chapstick and because I’m a girl, lipsmackers were bloody everywhere as well. I had no interest in lipsmackers because I didn’t see the point in making something smell yummy and put it on my lips, if I wasn’t meant to just eat it. Also because there was way too much pink in the marketing for me. I hate pink.

    So in an attempt to stop me from continuously peeling dead skin off my lips, my mum bought chapsticks for me regularly and when Nivea’s lipbalms came to her attention, those too. All in all, I spent most of my childhood picking at my lips anyway because for me chapsticks didn’t moisturise, just kept more water from leaving my lips, and since I only ever remembered to put lipbalm on after they were already dry, it didn’t do much. (8 year olds have more important things to think about than drinking water regularly).

    I can’t remember why I picked this up, especially since I’m not found of pot packaging for lipbalms, but this lip balm opened my eyes to the possibility that lip balms COULD ACTUALLY FIX DRY LIPS O_O, instead of just being this weird waxy layer on my lips that I would soon eat along with my lunch. This is how the magic went: I had dry lips, I put this lip balm on, forgot all about it until I realised my lips weren’t cracked and flaky anymore. A MIRACLE! And then to top it off, since you don’t need to use a lot, this 7g pot will last you forever (alright not literally but if you apply it once everyday it’ll still last you over 2 years).

 

unsealing a fresh pot muhahaha

July + August favourites and empties

Yay back on time~ (sort of)

I meant to post this a couple of days after the others, so it'd only be a few days late, but I dithered over whether I had a favourite because these 2 months were the busiest so I spent very little time wearing makeup or paying attention to my skincare. 

Favourites

Chichi baked single in I’m every woman (matte medium brown) 

    Chi Chi? Chichi? Anyway, completely matte baked eyeshadows are something I’ve never seen before (or since) so I was quite interested when I saw this. I’ve been looking for a good transition shade for ages and though I had my eye on a MUFE shadow, I also really wanted to try this, especially because these swatched so pigmented and so smoothly. I love this shade, it’s not exactly what I was going for but it’s so versatile and it blends seamlessly into skin even without primer.

Empties

Sukin facial moisturiser

    Technically I still had a little bit left but I dumped the bottle and scraped the little bit out into a tub so . . .  (edit: I finished it off on the 6/9 so not far off)

This was an ok moisturiser in a kinda hard to explain way. It felt moisturising but it left my face shiny afterwards, in a freshly moisturised kind of way not a greasy/oily way but still. It was a good basic moisturiser but not helpful with my oily t-zone. I think this would make a great basic moisturiser for dry skinned people, and I think it might have mild calming/soothing properties as well so good for dry and irritated skin. The smell, though mild, was certainly in the calming range. 

Cheap blush brush

    After I bought my new gloss blush brush I honestly don’t know why I didn’t dump this straight away, I mean I did like the shape of this one as well but it’s not like the shape was all that unique I didn’t need to hold onto this for comparison *sigh*. So I dumped it after I remembered this fact.

Maybelline forest smokes quad + Revlon satin eyeshadow single in shimmering sienna (packaging)

    So like a month before I bought the z-palette I dropped my favourite Maybelline eyeshadow quad (it’s my only Maybelline quad but I was quite fond of it) and broke the lid so I couldn’t travel with it, which was rather annoying. I forgot to put it in the z-palette straight away because at first I just wanted to get rid of all the single eyeshadows that were bugging me. The Revlon one I always meant to transfer to a z-palette as I love the colour but I can never be arsed to open the singles lid when I’m working from a palette. 

Sephora in Australia (rant I meant to post like 5 months ago)

    So this was meant to be a bit more of an analysis which is why I held back on this mostly finished post, but it's been a while, I kind of can't be arsed to care about Sephora anymore and if I'm going to write anything more, it would make more sense to me to just write a new post so here is a slightly outdated Sephora in Australia post. (It's also good for breaking up the litany of empties *sigh*)

[A few things that have changed:
- the Australian dollar dropped dropped to below $US0.70 today, a 6 year low, which again makes prices in Australia seem better
- Sephora will be opening a second store in Maquarie shopping centre this month, so if you live on the north shore but didn't already hear about this, now you know (I hear they're planning on opening Melbourne ones soon but I don't know when)
- I checked on the Bite Beauty pencil again 3 months after my first visit and it was ~$30 so I may have actually remembered that incorrectly but that's still a high price (but bite beauty was never cheap so)
- it's now been almost a year and the other prices haven't changed
- although they now have a website, it's not an online store, the Australian website doesn't even have a catalogue, just the brand names available (wait quick check shows they now have some products listed)
- they do now have the ABH contour palettes and they have brought the Kat Von d shadelight eye palette in (slightly faster than the above) ]

Oh and as an aside to Sydney-siders who want Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics lip tars and pencils, they're available at Scotty's makeup and beauty store next to Broadway shopping centre for $2 cheaper.

Oh look a post that’s not a review/empties, how strange!

    So the Sydney Sephora store opened on the 5^th of December 2014 and it was causing a buzz before and after that. And I figured I’d put my thoughts on that on my blog, because what else are blogs for?

    To start off with when people caught wind of the news that Sephora was planning on opening a store Down Under (and another couple more after that) consumers were excited and it only got bigger when Sephora claimed to be bringing US pricing to Australia.

(and of course Sydney-siders let out a cheer when it turned out that the new Sephora store would be in Sydney not Melbourne but anyway)

March + April empties (and favourites?)

 . . . Hi. 

Um . . . all I can say is uh, you were forewarned? ^^; 

yeah my project has sucked my life into a pile of denial and yeah 2 months late but better than not at all, right? . . . maybe?

So I love watching/reading monthly favourites as well as empties, however I usually don’t have a lot of things to talk about myself, what with my relatively infrequent use of makeup, so I decided to combine the favourites and empties of every 2 months, like Fables in Fashion does, though she limits it to 2 favourites a month. I may not even have 2 favourites in a month so I’m just going to leave it at whatever number of things I’m loving at the moment. (P.S. if you haven't already heard of Celina, check her out she's awesome.)

Favourites:

Australis budapash velourlips

I’m making this a favourite for the sole reason that I love this colour. I only wore it like once or twice in April (bought it in late March) but every time I just wanted to stare at my lips in the mirror because this colour was so perfectly what I wanted.

 

i know it looks a bit bloody but trust me it's gorgeous

Batiste dark & deep brown dry shampoo

This colour is harder to find than the brunette one, some pricelines don’t stock it I think so I didn’t realise they had this, but I love that it’s dark enough that you can’t really see it in my hair.

 

picture from boots.com

Gloss professional angled blush brush

Up til now I’ve been applying blush with my fingers or a cheap rounded brush which I didn’t like ‘cause it was scratchy. I’ve been eyeing a couple of blush/contouring brushes online but then I went to Gloss and actually touched a tester. So soft and smooth~ and it was angled so contouring would be easy right? This brush is so much more comfortable to use and softens the blush so much faster than my fingers (obviously).

Empties:

Daiso face powder

Well I didn’t finish this so much as I dropped it and it fell down a grate ;P. but I hit major pan before that happened so I came really close! I bought this powder because its colour (pale yellow, you know asian here?) was a good match for me in terms of tone though it was noticeably lighter. My T-zone would start getting shiny looking after ~4 hours, which I’d say is pretty decent for a $2.80 powder. It wasn’t the finest milled nor the smoothest when applied, and if I reapplied it didn’t last as long but for the price, not bad.

Otaku pomegranate mask

Was nice? I think the pomegranate one was meant to be brightening and it might have, but I was so tired the day I used it I’m not sure anything could’ve made a difference. It did leave my skin feeling moisturised and I think it was good for my forehead which may get oily due to dehydration, it’s kinda debatable whether it’s that or just excess oil period.

Klorane dry shampoo with nettle – oil control

So now I know I don’t have OILY hair as according to Klorane because this stuff was hardcore. It sucked all the oil out of my second day hair to the point that my roots were a little powdery and dry feeling and this is with minimal spraying. Also it apparently takes me only 2 months to go through an average bottle of dry shampoo (in this case a 150ml), and that’s with semi-regular use. I clearly have too much hair. Now I really want to try the dry scalp one. And maybe a bigger can.

February empties?

Ok so I stopped posting because I was busy with uni and now that I've got a small break in submitting things, I've squeezed this post in. Until I work out exactly when I have to do things, posting will be sporadic if at all here, and honestly it might be sporadic throughout the year.

So I have an obsession with watching/reading other peoples monthly favourites and empties post/videos so I figured I’d try to do them myself. However considering I don’t wear a lot of makeup or use a lot of skincare my empties posts may not be monthly, probably bi-monthly at best.

Actually let’s just call this the January + February empties post yeah?

This month there’s a bit more because I dumped some makeup products because they were too old.

p.s. I don’t have a picture of all my empties all together because I hate having empty stuff lying around and I dump them all straight in the recycling. :P

next time I’ll try and get a picture of all of them, maybe independently and stick all the pictures together heh.

Australis mousse foundation in buff beige

    I’ve been meaning to do a review of this but in the end it was too old to keep any longer so I dumped it. I’ve got the pictures and I’ll probably post the review later, but in short this foundation catches on dry patches and can’t control oil, so unless you have the most perfectly balanced skin that doesn’t dry out or get oily I can’t recommend this to anyone. It was comfortable to put on but the colour was off for me. There are only 6 shades in this range and none of them really matched me, which is no surprise considering I have yet to find a good match in any ‘pharmacy’ brand. 

Maybelline One by One mascara waterproof version

    This was the third mascara I bought, and I thought long and hard trying to pinpoint what I wanted in a mascara, amongst all the completely over the top marketing bullshit that mascaras seem to excel at. I chose not to buy the falsies by Maybelline because I mainly wanted length and curl, not so much volume, but I kinda want to try it just for comparison now. This mascara didn’t do that much for my lashes, it sorta made them slightly thicker, which made them seem a bit longer as the tips became more obvious. It could hold a curl but if I put on more than 2 – 3 coats my lashes started to droop. I like this mascara for not clumping my lashes like the old Revlon one did, though they do start clumping after 2 – 3 coats. It’s more of a definition kind of mascara in that sense.

Montagne Jeunesse breakout face mask + moisturiser

    I finished the mask in January and finished the little moisturiser pocket in February (mainly because I forgot I had it). Honestly not much to say about this mask, I didn’t feel like it did anything much it might have brought 1 – 2 pimples to the surface but I still got pimples while using it and my forehead still got oily so I won’t buy it again. The mask felt like any other clay mask, though it dried faster than the others, and the moisturiser felt tingly in that menthol way when I put it on, and smells like mint but otherwise didn’t really do much. Didn’t dry out my face so I guess that’s a plus.

Nivea Pure & Natural moisturising day cream

    I finished this on the first day of the new year and because I’d kept forgetting, I didn’t have another moisturiser yet, argh. I managed to buy the Sukin facial moisturiser the next day whew~!

Neutrogena alcohol – free toner

I was swapping between this toner and the Nivea pure visage toner before but since this bottle was nearly finished (and I cracked the bottle near the lid), I began using this one all the time to finish it off and I finally finished it in January I think. 

Nivea Visage pure effect stay clear purifying toner review

Whew that name is long! (actually it’s just all the friking ranges and subdivisions that skincare companies have, the name of the toner itself is just purifying toner)

    A couple of months ago, I was browsing Priceline when I found this, and was intrigued by the idea of a toner with a specific objective, beyond some vague variation of ‘moisturise’. I was more than halfway through my Neutrogena alcohol-free toner and I figured I could sort of compare them. Plus I like the idea of using toner to refresh my face during the summer, and might as well use an oil-controlling toner while I’m at it right?

Natio eye contour treatment gel review

    It hasn’t featured on this blog too much yet, but I love eye makeup. Eyeshadow, eyeliners, I love the colours and the awesome duochromes (and the fact that I don’t have to reapply is a distinct bonus), and it is actually why I became interested in makeup. Since I frequently wear eye makeup, I was worried that the skin around my eyes was drying out from the constant cleaning off of makeup, and decided to get an eye-cream for moisturisation.

    There are a lot of eye-creams out there and most are relatively expensive and trumpet their anti-aging properties like there’s no tomorrow. I chose this one because it didn’t specify anti-aging properties, which were not my main concern, and because it was cheaper. Plus I like Natio as a brand. Natio is an Australian skincare brand that uses plant based ingredients and is certified cruelty free, is overall vegan friendly with exception to some of their makeup, which contains carmine and beeswax, and some of their skincare products which contain beeswax and/or honey (the specific products are listed in Natio’s FAQ).

Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser review

Ok so it's technically not Tuesday anymore eheh, but I'm still awake so we're gonna pretend it's still Tuesday yeah? 

And I had to pick today to say that since my backlog is almost gone, I'm lowering it to one review each on Tuesday and Thursday. (Even though I still have some old reviews, I haven't figured out how to take the photographs for them yet so they're going to continue to sit on the back burner while I review other things) 

Today's review is on the already-reviewed-to-death-so-I'm-just-adding-my-2 cents Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser!

    I had high expectations for this cleanser as it's supposed to be for sensitive skin AND good at cleaning, where often 'for sensitive skin' just means doesn't do jack. But after using it for more than two months, I'm still a bit on the fence about it. I bought a smaller bottle that just came with a plain lid, no pump, and contains 250 ml of cleanser. The plastic bottle is light and flexible, and it’s shape can be annoying or convenient depending on where you put it. The flattened shape makes it easy to put on thin shelves, but it’s also quite wide, so since my shelf is lacking in space I end up just putting it on the floor of the shower.

Avene thermal spring water review

    As if a stingy hoarder like me would ever pay for friking water in a can right? If you haven’t noticed in my previous reviews, I pretty much only buy “drugstore” (i.e. Priceline) products and they’re almost always on sale. Since my mum liked to use one of their other products I figured I’d try an Avene product while Priceline had a sale. So now you get a review of one of those fancy shmancy French thermal waters! I never understood the deal with these thermal spring water spray-cans, but after trying the Avene one I can see at least part of the appeal. (note: I don’t know why they need to call it thermal, it’s not hot anymore, but I guess it sounds fancier than spring water)

(edited because out of focus)

Nivea Pure & Natural moisturising day cream (for normal to combination skin) review

    Ok so I kind-of-accidentally skipped uploading anything last thursday, my excuse is my brain was fried from heat and fanfiction and what I had prepared just wasn't ready. So heres Tuesdays reviews up early! (actually last thursdays shut up)

    I bought this cream almost on a whim, unlike 99% of my skincare and makeup purchases, because I was going on a trip and I needed a moisturiser stat. I didn’t particularly like the look of any of the other moisturisers on sale (because even in a hurry I never pay full price -_-), and I’d been meaning to try out the new Pure & Naturals line anyway. 

Formula 10.0.6 So Totally Clean deep pore cleanser original formula review

    Whew what a long name. Ok so today’s review is going to be on this no-rinse cleanser from Formula 10.0.6, which is honestly the only such product I know.

Like a toner you just soak a cotton pad, wipe and that’s it, no need to rinse, no need to get your hair (and shirt) wet if you’re as clumsy as me. And man does this thing do the job! I use this to clean my face in between showers and it takes off every bit of dirt that’s on your face, it’s really refreshing.

Neutrogena alcohol-free toner review

(late i know but i was distracted by inception fanfiction so please forgive me)

This is a well known and well loved product so this review is almost pointless but hey, I bought it, I’ll review it.

    I’ll be honest I don’t really know what toners are for, some say it’s moisturising, some say it’s for cleansing after your face wash, which is honestly one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, I mean if you need cleaning after your cleanser, get a better cleanser!

    Supposedly toners were originally used in England (and other European places?) because their tap water tended to be ‘hard water’ (i.e. water that contained dissolved calcium and magnesium carbonates), which can make your skin feel a bit weird, so after washing their faces they’d use the toner to take the ions off. This is not a problem in Australia unless you live in the middle of nowhere and your only source of water is bore water. As the Wikipedia page attests however, toners are marketed for a variety of things so if it claims to do something unique, go ahead and try it. It’s just that toners are a rather pointless step in skincare unless they claim to do something unique. 

(Also it’s kind of a waste of cotton pads.)

Garnier Clean Sensitive gentle cleansing milk review

    Ok so as far as I can tell, this product isn’t for sale anymore, however I think the new Garnier cleansing milks have a similar formula, and this could serve as a rough guide to whether you’ll like cleansing milks overall (that’s what I did anyway). I really should have dumped this bottle like 2 years ago but since I barely used it in the beginning, I had an almost full bottle and I just couldn’t dump it. (hello, it says hoarder in the blog title).

    First off, my understanding of the cleansing milk concept is that they’re sorta like a pre-mixed dual-layer makeup remover, containing both watery and oily ingredients emulsified together. You apply it to your face or a cotton pad and wipe the makeup off, no need to rinse after. This cleansing milk isn’t the consistency of milk but more like a cream moisturiser. It’s not runny and I feel the need to rub it into my face when I’m using it, to help break down the makeup. The bottle is sturdy but squeezeable, and the lid is great for keeping the product air-tight and making sure thers minimal mess. The only annoying thing is that since the lid is curved, I can’t stand the bottle upside down to get at the product at the bottom.

Natio Acne Clear Pores detoxifying face scrub with jojoba beads review

from the beautyheaven website because I finished mine last year

    This face scrub from Natio is part of the acne solutions range that came out last year I think, and since I generally have a favourable view of Natio's skincare products I figured I’d try a product. The line has 2 moisturizers, a cleanser, a scrub and a spot treatment. I was in need of an exfoliator, so I got this face scrub. I can't remember how much it cost but the Natio website puts it at 12.95 for 100g.

    To begin with, this face scrub isn't just gentle, it's kind of weak. There weren't a lot of beads in my scrub, and they were tiny and didn't exfoliate much anyway. I have slightly sensitive skin, and i'm pretty sure I could have gotten away with using this daily. I used it every two days and felt fine, no redness, no raw feeling etc. I didn't mind the herbally scent and it honestly wasn't that strong,

The Body Shop Seaweed range pore-cleansing facial exfoliator review

(So I've sort of decided to put out 2 posts every Tuesday and Thursday until I work off this backlog of stuff I meant to review, but I'll need to slow it down next year so the schedule will probably be 1-2 posts a week. P.S. at the moment I'm working through reviews but if there are other types of posts you're interested in seeing, let me know in the comments below ^_^. )

    Today’s review is on the Body Shop’s pore-cleansing facial exfoliator, from the seaweed range. I’ve always seen the Body Shop around, and I’d heard of their sustainable sourcing methods etc. and was interested, but their prices were always too much for me to pay, at least for a product that I’d never tried before. They have recently (as in like 3 months ago) lowered the price of many of their products by a few dollars, so if you ever thought the Body Shop was just a bit too expensive, check them out now and see if you’re happy with the new prices.

taken from the bodyshop UK website

Garnier anti-shine cleansing gel review

Oh look a review for a product that came out this year! Hurrah! 
(I’ve already finished it tho ;D)

So Garnier skincare released the moisture match product lineup earlier this year, where they had a moisturiser for each category (dry, oily, normal, dull), + an extra product, which varied depending on the category e.g. scrub for dull skin, wipes for normal etc. 

Neutrogena oil-free moisture . . . moisturisers review (sensitive and SPF15 versions)

Amazing, an old review for a product that HASN’T been discontinued or possibly reformulated~! (I’ve still got a lot of reviews to edit, but I’ll be mixing some of the newer ones in with the old reviews like this one)

    Anyway, I bought these way back (like two years ago?) and since I used the sensitive one first the spf 15 bottle was a bit old by the time I started using it. The packaging of either doesn’t seem to have changed, and I haven’t heard of a reformulation so these reviews should still be relevant.

    Also they put the ingredients list on the box (annoying), which I recycled way before I started the blog so I can’t comment on the ingredients used (darn).

Sensitive: 

    I got this bottle ages ago, and I don't think they had the combination one out then but I probably should've gotten that instead, since I do get a shiny T-zone. This moisturizer wasn’t too heavy feeling when I put it on, but I wouldn’t call it light either. It took a little bit to absorb and felt a little greasy but that went away after a while. While I didn’t mind it much I don’t think that would work well for people with very sensitive skin. The texture was about halfway between a lotion and a cream, not runny, but not like a rich cream either.

Clean & Clear essentials moisturiser review

So, working through the backlog of products I went through this year . . .

*I remember still seeing this moisturiser on priceline shelves like last week, but the Clean & Clear website (no Australian one) shows only a “Dual Action” moisturiser in their essentials range, so this review might not be relevant to that formula. It looks like it’s the same product + emphasis on salicylic acid though.

    The essentials range from Clean & Clear appears to be meant as a good basic range, for when your skin doesn’t have any particular problems ( you know except for acne because why else would you use a brand called Clean & Clear?). And that's pretty much how I felt using it too, ok moisturiser, not amazing, not terrible.

Neutrogena: Oil Free Acne Wash Pink Grapefruit Facial Cleanser

    wow that's a long name, but yeah today’s review is of the grapefruit cleanser from Neutrogena. Now I’ve heard they changed the formula recently, and I also noticed a packaging design change a couple of months ago, so this review may be slightly less relevant, but anyway. I finished my bottle months before starting this blog so I’ll just substitute with this picture from Neutrogena.com. ^^"

    The product itself was a translucent light pink gel, packaged in a clear pump bottle. You could control how much the pump dispensed, which I liked, because some pump designs just give you one big pump and you can’t stop halfway. The straw for the pump also goes all the way to the bottom of the bottle, which I love. It’s a pet peeve of mine when you buy a bottle of hand soap or something, and the straw stops just before the bottom. >:I That’s just stupid design. The gel was smooth and not too runny, and foamed up well. This cleanser smelt lovely, like sweet red grapefruit (as in a bit sweeter than a red grapefruit), and left my face feeling clean and refreshed without feeling totally stripped. I think the citrus scent aided in the refreshing feeling and I liked using it in the morning, as it wakes you up a bit.