Mecca Maxima: Mini Haul and Review

It was my 23rd birthday last Saturday, hooray! Why am I talking about my birthday? Birthday gift cards of course! Besides from the usual suspects of Myer, David Jones and Country Road, a new beauty popped up this year. A nice little Mecca Maxima gift card to the tune of a sweet $100. 

So last Sunday I went in and just wandered around swatching everything on the back of my hand in a lipstick induced trance. After I left, the back of my hand looked like a Jackson Pollock piece. I waited a week to write this post so I could use all the products everyday and see how they measured up.

Clinique Chubby Stick in Woppin' Watermelon

I am already a massive fan of the Clinique Chubby Sticks; I have about 3 floating around in my handbag, 2 stashed in my car and a couple more in my bathroom. I prefer these to lipsticks in the daytime as they are hydrating and create a natural looking lip colour without being over the top. Very similar to another chubby stick I have in Curvy Candy but minus the sparkle, Woppin' Watermelon is the perfect daytime shade of pink and I don't have a bad thing to say about it. Go pick one up right now. I'll sit here and wait, off you go.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner in Intense Black

According to Stila, this eyeliner is 'waterproof, easy to use and lasts all day', and for once a cosmetics company isn't sugarcoating things. I tested this little beauts staying power last night when I fell asleep with my makeup on after one (or five) too many Beefeater London Dry Gins with Indian Diet Tonic. And when I woke up this morning smelling of gin, Dior, and a little bit of regret, it was still in tact. That is until I rubbed my eyes and smeared it everywhere but considering that I applied it at 2.30pm Saturday and woke up 8am Sunday morning, and that is pretty good in my opinion. I usually use the Maybelline Eye Studio Master Precise Ink Pen in Black, which is a pretty good dupe at a fifth of the price of Stila. Both come in a felt tip pen style that make it so easy to use, especially when doing a fabulous cat eye. The Stila has a lot more staying power; the added feature of being waterproof and the colour is a lot more intense. I'll still continue to use the Maybelline liner for everyday outings, but for a long night out, your best bet is the Stila liner.

Nars Sheer Matte Foundation in Light 2 Mont Blanc and Nars Foundation Pump

Oh Nars, why are you that guy? You know the guy I’m talking about. That shifty guy who sells a foundation separately to the pump. You hang around with the other baddies like Estee Lauder who just don't make a pump for their foundation at all. No one, and I mean no one likes to have to carefully pour foundation on to the back of their hand to apply it with a brush. That aside, the colour of this foundation is a perfect match for me, absolutely spot on. Which is saying a lot because many foundation brands don't cater for either really dark or really light skin tones. If your one of those sun kissed, spray tanning, olive skin toned beauties, the foundation world is your oyster. Tip? DO NOT APPLY THIS WITH A BRUSH. I used my favourite, the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and it looked dreadful. Absolutely dreadful and super streaky. It's one of those foundations where you have to get back to your inner kindergartener and apply with your fingertips. Which is super messy and I’m not a fan of, so it loses a lot of points for that. It's also a very light coverage foundation, so if you're having a bad skin day, steer clear as this foundation will not show you any mercy. 




Bonus off topic story

When typing up about Nars being that shifty guy, it reminded me of a story from my third year at Uni. I was waiting out the front of building 80 (RMIT represent!) to meet a friend for dinner after a late night economics class when i saw a father and his daughter who must have been about five, who were obviously waiting for someone as well. Then, next thing you know this guy who looks like the Unabomber in a crazy long trench coat comes up and starts talking to this little girl and her father who were both visibly disturbed. "Want me to show you something?" he said. Then he starts to open up his coat, and I obviously assume that he is going to flash them. Nope. He opens up his coat flasher style, to reveal all these pigeons. In his pockets. Pigeons in pockets. Like some sort of weird Roald Dahl story. Oh Melbourne, you are crazy charming. Emphasis on the crazy.

Conceal Don't Feel

It pained me to write that title, because unlike millions of people around the world I actually didn't like Frozen. But I thought it was appropriate. Tangled was A LOT better and much more sassier in my opinion. Anyway, back on topic.

Unlike Instagram filters would like to lead us to believe, we aren't all blessed with perfect skin. There are apps, filters and lots of little tricks to help us become flawless. But unfortunately we cannot walk around in real life with Valencia filter over our complexion. Actually, no I take that back. We can. And it's called makeup, yay for makeup!

But not every blemish, dark circles, acne scarring, redness, general badness, can be masked by the same product. 

The general rule of thumb is that the order of base makeup goes: primer, colour correcting concealer, foundation, good ol' regular concealer, under eye concealer, face powder. Maybe that's not a rule of thumb, but it's certainly worked for me. 

So you've got some face issues that your regular old foundation just can't cover up? Lets chitchat about it!

Dark Circles/Pigmentation/Discolouration

Trust me, as someone who has just finished her degree with one of the last assignments being a dissertation that was over 50 pages long, I know a thing or two about late nights and their resulting dark circles. The best solution to this besides a 3.30pm nap is a concealer that concentrates on brightening and reflecting light off the darkness, such as the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser. This baby brightens the shizz out of dark circles and you'll find the best results through putting it over the top of your regular foundation. Can also be used as a subtle highlighter on the cupids bow, cheekbones and nose. And if you have found yourself with uneven skin tone/darkness/discolouration that can sometimes be the result of nasty things like sun spots (stop right now and put on sunscreen ASAP, none of this tanning business thank you) you will need to get use a brightening concealer as well but one with a bit more coverage. I cannot rave enough about the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. It's just marvelous and covers everything perfectly. Invest in one of these babies and you will not be sorry!

Redness

Take your mind back to grade five when you first learnt about colour wheels. Or in my case, last year at university when I was forced to take a unit of graphic design as an elective that was taught by a hot hippie in Birkenstocks. Because you only want the colour red on your lips and not on your skin, sometimes regular foundation just doesn't cut it coverage wise so you need to use a green concealer. Why? Because green is opposite to red on the colour wheel. Hey, all those thousands of dollars paid for that semester elective of graphic design is starting to come into play. The best green concealer I’ve used both coverage/quality/price wise is the Maybelline Green Correction concealer that I picked up for a nifty $4.50 when Chemist Warehouse had a massive cosmetics sale. The only downside with this is that it’s in a lipstick style container that I went a bit heavy handed with and snapped it in half. Man, I’m so aggressive. 

Pimples

Because pimples are just so darn fabulous and extroverted, they need all sorts of coverage. You will need to use a green concealer, as mentioned above to knock the redness out of those pesky spots. Then follow up with your regular foundation, and if they are STILL peeking through because they're being all Iggy Azalea on you (fancy) you will need a good concentrated skin toned concealer to fix that problem. Depending on the level of the emergency situation on your face, I’ve found two concealers have worked best for me over the years. If your whole face is just looking like one giant pimple that needs covering, the little pot of goodness that is MAC Studio Fix will sort that straight out for you. It's a really thick, concentrated concealer that could probably cover the stripes on a zebra if need be. And if the situation is a little less severe, Benefits Boi-ing is amazing. Like the NARS Creamy Concealer it is an absolute powerhouse and I find it actually does a great job of concealing most skin concerns, for me it's worked on everything from dark circles and pigmentation to pimple problems. It's a lot lighter in consistency than the MAC Studio Fix so I much prefer using it to MAC. Because the MAC Studio Fix is such a heavy concealer, I only save it for drastic situations so my skin doesn't end up congested. 

So there you go, you could probably conceal a pie in a bakeshop with all these beauts. And I have personally used all these products, so there is no pesky magazine style marketing to be seen.

Conceal away!

Lets Get Naked

I used to be a makeup hoarder. 

On a scale of 'Too Many Lip balms' to 'Hoarders: The TV Show" I was about an 8. I'm talking five different foundations at the same time, countless eye shadows and sparkly palettes that I would have never used. Then I decided to start shopping my collection by not allowing myself to buy any new products and forcing myself to use the stack of makeup toppling out of my bathroom cupboard each morning. That was a few years ago, and now when buying new products I’m a lot more conscious of how I spend my money and how versatile a product can really be. Like the perfect pair of plain black knee high riding boots (no buckles, no weird cutouts or textures) I spent years trying to find the perfect everyday go to palette. Enter 'Naked Basics' by Urban Decay, which is THE 'holy grail go to everyday makeup staple.'

I love the brand Urban Decay; they are an American brand with a strict policy against animal testing, with all their products carrying the cruelty free logo. Other brands claim they are cruelty free (*cough* Jurlique *cough*) and then sell their products in China, who require any cosmetics and beauty products to be tested on animals before they can be sold in the country. So brands like Jurlique can still claim to be cruelty free because technically they don't test on animals themselves; but because they still don't want to lose that big slice of the economic market that is China, they allow their products to be tested on our poor furry friends through external testing. Those damn loopholes. 

The Urban Decay Naked Basics features 5 matte shades and 1 shimmery shade, which means it's versatile to work from day to night and unlike a lot of other eye shadow palettes, I can guarantee you will use every single shade in this baby. So lets break it down shall we?

Venus

The only shimmery shade to be seen, Venus is perfect for using to highlight the inner corners of the eyes and along the brow bone.

Foxy

Foxy is a nice sandy yellow toned nude that is great for using all over the lid as a base to build up the other shades.

W.O.S 

Also known as 'Walk of Shame', is a cream ivory shade that is great teamed with both Foxy (all over the eyelid) and Naked 2 (in the crease) to create a soft daytime look. 

Naked 2 

Best used to define the crease/eye socket to add a little bit of shadow to define the eyes in the day time. 

Faint

I use this in my eyebrows every single day with the EcoTools angled brush. It is the perfect colour for brows and is also great to be used on the lid for a low-key daytime smoky eye.

Crave

The black shade in this palette is so pigmented and great for everything from a dramatic smoky eye to a more subtle line around the eyes if you want to use something less harsh than a black eyeliner pencil.

All the shades are HIGHLY pigmented, which means that you only need the TINIEST amount on your brush to create some amazing looks. Compared to other eyeshadows where you need half of the entire product on your eyelids to show that it's actually a magenta shadow. And all this comes in a neat little palette, complete with a mirror that makes it cosmetic bag, handbag, camping, horse riding, road trip friendly. 

The only bad thing about Urban Decay is that it's one of those brands that you can't just wander into your local Priceline and pick up on your lunch break after you've got yourself a double choc chip Subway cookie. I buy all my Urban Decay prodz (and other hard to find brands in Australia) from Beautybay, a neat online site from the UK that offers free worldwide shipping. They have lots of different brands and if you feel like spending only a few dollars extra you can qualify for premier shipping which means your package will get to you a bit faster, and not only that but you also get to pick out a sample size product for free. Who doesn't like samples? People who also don't like kittens, brownies and fluffy socks, that’s who!

You can hop onto Beautybay here to buy the Urban Decay Naked Basics (and it's on sale too): 

http://www.beautybay.com/cosmetics/urbandecay/nakedbasicspalette/

Battle of the Napoleon Perdis Primers

Primers are wonderful tubes of goodness that help give your makeup some staying power. While there are primers for all different parts of the face, a gal (or guy, makeup is for everyone after all!) only really needs two. One for the overall base of your makeup and another to pop on your eyelids.

For my eyes I use the Benefit 'Stay Don't Stray' which matches my skin tone perfectly, corrects any discolouration and stops eye shadows and liners from creasing or sliding. But enough about the wonderful world of eyelids, today is about that beautiful sexy mug of yours. 

So what do primers do exactly? Face primers go on top of your moisturiser, but underneath your base makeup, like your concealers and foundation. They provide something for your foundation to grab on to, like when Nicole grabbed Amber's weave in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Because your foundation has something to cling to instead of your skin, it stops your foundation sinking deep into your pores and looking too cakey. It also provides a smooth canvas for application, smoothing over open pores and scarring. Personally, I find my makeup easier to wipe off when I’m wearing primer, it's a lot quicker to remove because your foundation technically hasn't dried onto your skin, instead it's made it's self comfortable on a nice layer of primer.

The primers in question are the best selling Auto Pilot Primer and the NP Set Calming Pre-Foundation Primer for Redness. NP Set is a diffusion line off the main Napoleon Perdis brand and is primarily sold in Myer and Target for a fraction of the cost of the main brand. It's a battle to the death between two Napoleon Perdis primers. Why two different primers from the same magical man? Napoleon Perdis is known for his witchcraft-ery when it comes to primers, and he coined the whole "Not to Prime is a Crime" slogan, so you can bet your bottom dollar that he creates wonderful tubes of goodness.

Auto Pilot Pre Foundation Skin Primer - $59

I have so much love for this product. It rivals my addiction for the Mississippi Mud Cupcakes that Cupcake Central only release in winter (damn them), and like a Mississippi Mud Cupcake, it is chock full of lots of good stuff. No caramel or marshmallows sadly, but lots of soothing ingredients like chamomile and vitamin E. The soothing properties make it a nifty little product for dry skin or angry acne prone skin but can be used for all skin types. If you want to look a little bit more sun kissed, mix some liquid bronzer in and apply it under your base. It is an amazing, hydrating primer that is wonderful for every day use. The only negative is the smell for me. Some people love it, I loathe it. But it delivers results, so I can work through that!

NP Set Calming Pre-Foundation Primer for Redness - $33

I had such high hopes for this due to the fact that I love the original Napoleon Perdis primer. In the diffusion line that is NP Set, there are three specialty primers alongside the original, which are the brightening, calming and bronzing. Because I have redness around my nose and on my cheeks from having acne in the past, I decided to give the calming primer a whirl. The primer is paraben free, green in colour to counteract the redness on skin and ingredients like cucumber extract, aloe extract and peppermint help to soothe. Sounds flashy yes? Unfortunately it did not deliver on all that razzle dazzle. It is actually quite sparkly, so it leaves a sheen to your face, hands and bathroom towel. The green also doesn't really counteract much redness, compared to more concentrated green concealers but it does help to create a more soothed and hydrated base, so props to that. So the price doesn't really justify the results, especially when it doesn't deliver on the main promise it promotes, which is to lessen redness on the face. 

So I would just recommend just investing in the original Napoleon Perdis primer along with a green concealer like the Maybelline Cover Stick Corrector Concealer in Green and put that over your primer and under your foundation to counteract any redness. Also be sure to double cleanse your face after wearing it for the day because those babies sink deep in to your pores to create that wonderful base and that can lead to nasties like congestion and blackheads!

x

Why Natural Blondes DON'T Have More Fun

Being a natural blonde is not fun, is not cheap and is a hell of a lot of upkeep.

This topic is a favourite that is always discussed between myself and Andrea, the girl who tints my eyelashes every four weeks. "I was just walking around the house and my boyfriend told me I was starting to resemble a ghost,” said Andrea the last time I saw her.

I myself have had something of a similar nature said to me. Flashback to last year when I’m rocking jet-black hair and about 3 weeks of regrowth to go along with it. "Are you going grey? It looks like you're going grey,” said the guy I had been dating for about a month at the time. The same guy who thought that The Wedding Singer, one of my favourite movies, was an 80's movie. I now use this question to gauge possible dates of their potential. No I wasn't going grey, I just had blonde regrowth. Naturally my hair, much like my skin, is very fair so having such light coloured regrowth next to jet-black hair made my natural blonde strands look translucent. Like the guy I was dating, the dark hair was just too much up keep and I started going back to blonde hair to help save on hairdressing costs. 

Then there is the eyelash tinting. Oh good god, the eyelash tinting and the excruciating pain that comes along with it if you don't find yourself an excellent beauty technician. The first time I tried it, so much dye leaked into my eye that I couldn't see out of my left eye for three hours and I had to drive home temporarily blinded. But I found Andrea, also a natural blonde who understands my beauty struggles, and we have formed a uniting blonde bond ever since. Then there is the makeup disadvantage as well. For years I could never master liquid liner on my upper lash line, it would always look gappy and terrible. Then after an up close inspection with an iPhone torch and my bathroom mirror I discovered it wasn't my skills that were lacking in the winged liner department, but the fact that the base of my lashes were completely blonde, while the rest of my lashes were jet black. So blonde that it would create a gap between the liner and my lashes causing it to look strange. That was the day I took up eyelash tinting. And don't forget the eyebrow tinting as well. Otherwise you'll end up walking around looking like Frankenstein’s monster, all forehead and no brow definition.

I often wonder what the world would look like without body modification. No plucking, waxing, tinting, dyeing and just our natural selves. Would it be scary or refreshing? The beauty world is starting to take a turn towards a more natural standard of beauty. Think bushy brows, natural tone hair colours and barely there make up. The problem with the trend of barely there makeup is the barometer of which it is measured on. As they say, four successional screen shots of an amazing TV show say a thousand words:

Girl Code: You need to watch this show, so much amazingness

Without all the wonders of beauty tweaking, I would be walking around half the time looking like Casper the Friendly Ghost. But at least I’d be friends with Hilary Duff, so that helps compensate just a smidge. It is so easy as a blonde to look washed out and like you've been stuck in bed with the flu for 2 weeks. I wish I were a natural brunette, so damn much. They have to perfect colouring to pull off any look that they please. Oh well, the grass is always greener on the other side isn't it?