Week in Outfits - March 2014

Hey hey everyone!

So a few weeks ago I took some outfit pictures and I've just forgotten to put them up, so here they finally are! There's only four because I forgot to take pictures once or twice/had work and wore my standard outfit. So I was pretty cute and got my mum to take the photos for me, and as such, there's some high quality, blurry snaps, but hopefully you get the gist!

Monday - Uni

Dress - A small boutique on the South Coast

Jacket - Peter Morrissey for Big W

Boots - Target

Necklace - Chain was a gift and pendant is from a market

Lip Colour - Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick

Thursday - Uni

Coat - Kmart
T-Shirt - Miss Shop from Myer
Jeans - Hot Options from Target
Shoes - Pavement

See below the actual pattern on the pants, similar to a Black Watch Tartan

Friday - Work

Top - Target
Jeans - Target
Shoes - Converse
This one is pretty basic because this is my work outfit, I have to wear a black top and dark wash jeans with enclosed shoes. 

My face, cannot remember for the life of me what lip colour this is, I think it might be Nyx's Malibu. Eye shadows are from the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette.

Friday Night - Party

Top - Miss Shop from Myer
Skirt - Avocado from SES
Socks - Pulp Kitchen from Myer
Shoes - Pavement
Jacket - Lee Cooper for Big W
Lip Colour - Revlon Colour Burst Matte Balm in Audacious

Matt
Shirt - Jeans West
Jeans - Dr Denim (I think!)
Shoes - Converse



Sorry for the generally low quality of these photos, I'm looking into getting a better camera soon, and until then, training my mum up in her photogs skills. I really enjoyed taking these photos and picking my outfits everyday, so I'm thinking I'll do more posts like this one in the future. 

talk soon
xx

Palette Profile: TooFaced Chocolate Bar Palette

The Stats

Brand: Too Faced

Palette: Chocolate Bar

Price: AU$68.95 (from Mecca Maxima)

Contents: 16 shadows; 6 matte shades, 8 shimmer shades and 2 more glittery shimmer shades.

For the love of sweet chocolate, this palette is pretty incredible. It smells so delicious I could eat it. I'm not going to lie, its enticing smell is a big part of why I bought this palette. On top of that, it's full of great neutral shades, with a few slightly different shades to add a little bit of interest to 'safe' eye shadow looks. As always, the Too Faced formula is really lovely, and I'd even go as far to say that this is their best palette yet, in that this time around, they've omitted the far-too-glittery-am-I-a-vampire shadows that leave you shimmering in the sunlight, and instead have 16 shades that don't fall or crease even after a day of wear. As per usual, Too Faced get a 10/10 for their gorgeous packaging, it looks just like a bar of chocolate and has a convenient magnetic closure.

Let's swatch on! In each swatch you can see the line of Nyx's Milk Jumbo Eye pencil that I have underneath as primer. This provides a comparison between with and without a base.

Top Row

L to R: Gilded Ganache, White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Black Forest Truffle, Triple Fudge

Middle Row

L to R: Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Candied Violet, Amaretto

Bottom Row

 L to R: Hazelnut, Crème Brulee, Haute Chocolate, Cherry Cordial, Champagne Truffle

The names of these shadows are so sweet, I love how Too Faced keeps to the themes of their palettes so well. This palette makes doing your make up a pinch, it comes with shadow ideas, and the colours all work so well together, its completely impossible to get wrong. I will say that a lot of the looks end up looking similar, but I think that's typical of a neutral palette, you tend to end up with similar combinations.

Lastly, here's my face! I believe on this day I used the shade Haute Chocolate with Semi-Sweet in the crease. 

So, do you need this palette? Maybe not. But, I think it's Too Faced's best yet, and well worth a look, or at the very least, a sniff ;)

xx

talk soon 

What Makeup Means To Me

Hey guys, so this post is a little bit different to my usual ones, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

Something that may seem a little surprising, is that I didn't start wearing makeup until I was 16 or 17. Of course, like most girls, I had played around with it a little, tried some things out, but I didn't start wearing makeup on a more full-time basis until around then. First I should explain that by "wearing makeup" I literally mean a bit of eyeliner and mascara. Even still, it's not all that often that I wear a full face, and I would consider eyeliner and mascara to be my everyday routine. The truth is, I'm blessed with relatively blemish-free skin, and I don't mind the way I look without foundation or concealer. So for me, makeup has never been a necessity, just something to play around with.

In the last year or so, my obsession (yes, I'd call it an obsession) has grown to almost unhealthy proportions, with much of my weekly pay checks going towards trying something new out, or buying the eyeshadow palette I've been eyeing off. But you know what? I don't mind so much, and here's why...

I love makeup. Now I know, I know, you'd argue that most girls do, but I mean I really love it. Some people are passionate about sports or music or politics, and I always thought that I was just a person without a passion, a girl who wasn't particularly interested in anything, but quite liked playing around with makeup, just like most girls do. It's only recently, now that I've started university, I've begun thinking about my end game and what I'd like to do with my life. The thing is, I'm passionate about makeup. It brings me a sort of joy and excitement, and I'm thinking about it constantly. I've realised that, I want to work with makeup, not as a makeup artist, I'm not even sure what I want to be, but I know it has to have something to do with the cosmetics industry or I'll never be happy with my job. 

For me, makeup is all about being who you want to be, and expressing that through how you do your makeup. In the morning, I sit down and I think "Who do you want to be today Georgia? Is today elegant, or grungy or retro?" and the beautiful thing about makeup, and probably my favourite thing about it, is that it doesn't matter who you are, or what you look like, you can still use and enjoy it. On the bad days, when I feel horribly huge and think that all of my clothes look terrible, you know what still fits perfectly? My makeup. You can never be too big or too small or too tall or short or just plain the wrong size, or too young or too old for makeup. You can't be too anything It's just one of those things that is universal.

You know what else? Makeup gives people strength. While my skin may have been incredibly kind to me, there are others that aren't as fortunate and rely on makeup to make themselves feel okay about the way they look. People may argue that they should be comfortable in their skin, and not feel the need to cover it up, but I'm just gonna say it, that's stupid. If someone wants to slap something on their face to make themselves feel beautiful, what's wrong with that? 

For me makeup is empowering. It helps me to be whoever I'd like, to enhance my natural features or create something different, and that's an incredibly powerful tool to have. Some people might dismiss this industry as vain, or demoralising, and yes, it can be, I believe there's a long way to come in terms of advertising and product design, however makeup isn't about telling women they need to be beautiful, it's about providing them the means to be whatever they want to be.

YOU CAN BE ANYONE YOU LIKE

OOTN: 18th Birthday Party feat. Liv!

Hi guys!

The other night I went to a friend's 18th Birthday party, a chilled gathering at his house with heaps of food and good company. Beforehand, my friend Olivia and I took some happy snaps to capture our outfits. So here they are!

I'm wearing:

* Dress - Princess Highway from Myer

* Kimono Style Jacket - Glassons

* Shoes - Rubi Shoes

Liv wears:

* Bodysuit - Markets

* Skirt - Lipsy London from Myer

* Shoes - Lipstik from Myer

* Hiking Thermo Socks - Unknown

* Necklaces - Opshops

* Hair Scrunchie - Coles

* Lip Colour - Rimmel London in Rose Sorbet

* Eyeshadows - Chi Chi

How freaking amazing is the back of this bodysuit! We got it at the markets that morning, such a good find and a bargain at like, $15! More posts like this coming soon, since I have to dress myself for uni every day I'm wearing way more outfits and I think it would be fun to show you guys. Also keep an eye out for a Priceline Haul in the next week, I went a bit crazy in their 40% off cosmetics sale!

Talk soon

xx

P.S. Excuse the not fab photos, the sky was grey and I enlisted my mum to take these, let's just say she's not the most technologically savvy person ever.

Face of the Day: 13/3/14 - A Day at University

This Thursday marked the end of my third week at university, which is a bit of a scary thought, it feels like I was just at school. Anywho, along with the challenge of the course, comes the dilemma of what to wear, and how to do my makeup every day. On Thursday I decided to be bold and rock a neon pink lip, something completely out of my comfort zone. You know what though? I loved it, and I got a few compliments as well, which was a definite boost. This winter I'll definitely be rocking monochromatic looks with a pop of colour - on my lips!

I created this look using:
* First Aid Beauty Daily Face Moisturiser
* ModelsPrefer Perfect Canvas Mattifying Primer
* Maybelline FitMe Concealer in the shade 15 Fair
* Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation in the shade 51 Light Vanilla
* Australis Pressed Powder in the shade Natural
* MAC Extra Dimension Skin Finish in the shade Superb (used as bronzer)
* Face of Australia Blush in the shade Primrose
* NYX Illuminator in the shade Narcissistic
* Urban Decay Naked 1 Palette shade Naked (used to fill in brows)
* Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in the shade Perversion
* Covergirl Clump Crusher Mascara
* Australis Velourlips Matte Lip Cream in the shade Ma-Li-Boo

Talk soon

xx

Palette Profile: The Balm's Balm Voyage!

The Stats

Name: Balm Voyage!

Brand: The Balm

Contents: 16 shadows + 3 lip and cheek creams

First off, let's say right off the bat that this palette gets 10/10 for its packaging. It's so retro and gorgeous, as with all products from The Balm, the way the product looks is flawless and is a massive draw for the palette. 

A neat feature of the packaging is that on the inside of the palette, it includes four "tickets" that have suggestions for colours to wear together and they're named after countries. This includes 'Smokey in Shanghai' featuring warm browns and black, 'Mauve in Montreal' with purples and pinks, 'Clubbing in Côte d'Azur' fresh greens and classy browns and 'Sun-kissed In Sydney' with blues and sandy yellows.

So, onto the actual contents of the palette. One thing that I'm not a huge fan of, is the names of the colours. They're named as though they're seats on a plane, and while I think it's cute and follows the theme of the palette nicely, I prefer when colours have names that better describe them. 

Left to right: A4, B4, C4, D4

Left to right: A3, B3, C3, D3

Left to right: A2, B2, C2, D2

Left to right: A1, B1, C1, D1

The shadows swatched more beautifully and pigmented than any palette I've ever tried before. In saying this, some of the colours show up on the eyelid far less true to pan. I feel this particularly about the colour A1 which I adore in the pan, and even as a swatch, but as soon as I put it on my eyelid it disappears, even with a primer. Perhaps I'll have more luck with a white eyeshadow base. Despite this, most of the other colours do come up very nicely on the eyelid, it's just the lighter shades to be weary of. 

What I love about this palette, is that it steers away from the plain, old neutrals, but is still very wearable, and does include some of our safe, brown favourites, like the shades B3, C3, and D3. There is a variety of shimmer shades and more matte shades, although I think even the matte-look ones include some shimmer, however slight. 

My picks for the best shades of this palette? I'd have to say my top three are A1, such a pretty pink champagne colour, A2, this purple is completely hypnotising and ever so slightly duo chrome, so pretty, and D3 a very wearable but still glamorous golden brown, it appeals to my neutral side. I'm a sucker for shimmer shades and as such these three are quite glittery.

The lip/cheek creams are interesting, because they remind me of the crappy toy palettes I had as a kid, that you would dig your finger into the part with the lipgloss. It's a sort of novel feature to me, as I didn't consider it something that would continue on once I started using "grown up" make up. The colours are very pretty, from left to right: Second Officer, First Officer, Captain. The three are reasonably different, and it's apparent that The Balm are trying to appeal to a variety of skin tones which I think is a really great thing.The colours can be built up from quite sheer to relatively opaque, and they're all pretty wearable depending on what opacity you go for. They're completely light weight on the lips, which is lovely (I hate heavy lip products). On the negative side, they aren't hugely long lasting, which is a pretty big problem considering that very few people would want to carry the whole palette around with them, just to re-apply their lip gloss. Second, is that you either have to use your finger, or a lip brush to apply, both of which I find inconvenient to be perfectly honest. 

All in all, I really like this palette. It's not one I'd use every day, but the shadows are buttery, in nice colours, and what more could you really want from a palette? It ticks all the right boxes and at $42.50 it's pretty good value for money. Do you need it? Maybe not, but I'm glad I own it and it's one I definitely reach for when I'm going for something a bit beyond my usual neutral eye.

Talk soon

xx

NYX in Australia?! *Haul*

Hello!


As you may be able to tell from the title of this post, it is a very unusual occurrence to find NYX makeup in Australia, and it is a brand that us Aussies often envy our US counterparts for, with its affordable prices and diverse range of cosmetics. So it's obvious how excited I was to find a whole stall dedicated to it in my local Target.
  
 While the prices are about double that offered in the United States, I couldn't stop myself picking a whole bunch of items up, considering that they were still cheaper than practically all of the typical makeup brands such as Revlon, Maybelline and Covergirl. 

The range at Target doesn't include anywhere near the full range of NYX products, however there is a good mix of face, eye and lip products, with at least a few different items in varying colour options from each category.

Eyes

 Pictured from left to right are the NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Sparkle Nude, Peacock, Strawberry Milk and Purple Velvet. Followed by the Glam Shadow Sticks in Diamond and Karat. Since taking these pictures I have also gone on to buy two Eye Shadow Base pots in Skin Tone and White.

First of all, let me say that I love the colours, they're vibrant, with brilliant pay off and they're unique, as are their names which I like. What I don't like, especially with the Jumbo Eye Pencils is that they feel sticky on your lid, and don't really work as a stand alone eye shadow colour, they need to be set with a powder, unlike say, the Maybelline Colour Tattoo Shadow Bases. In saying that, the Glam Shadow Sticks work fabulously as a sparkly inner-corner highlight and blend easily. As for the Eye Shadow Bases, I've encountered similar issues as with the Jumbo Pencils, they are sticky, and they crease like a mo fo if not properly set, however, as they are both neutral bases, they are unlikely to ever be worn alone anyway.

Face

 Top picture: (faint) NYX Illuminator in Narcissistic and NYX Powder Blush in Peach. Bottom picture: NYX Dewy Finish Long Lasting Setting Spray. Since taking these pictures I have also purchased the Pore Filler Primer.

I can't complain about the NYX powder face products. This highlighter has quickly become my favourite with its gorgeous peachy pink shimmery colour base and ever so slight gold glitter. This picture is atrocious at showing it, it's a difficult product to swatch, but you'll just have to trust me, it is so beautifully illuminating and it comes in a neat little compact. As for the blush, the colour is really pretty, with definite rose tones, as well as peach, as its name implies. The colour payoff is really great and it blends nicely.

I find it difficult to pinpoint whether primers or setting sprays work, as I don't tend to have many issues with my makeup shifting throughout the day, however I will say that this setting spray doesn't leave you feeling sticky or crunchy, it's nicely light-weight. The primer feels velvety when rubbed in, however it does have the tendency to ball up a little, but I haven't tested it enough to determine if it works in minimising the appearance of pores.

Lips

 Pictured from left to right: NYX Butter Gloss in Peaches and Cream and Strawberry Parfait. NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in Milan, Addis Ababa, San Paulo and Monte Carlo. NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Gold Pink. Since taking these pictures I've also purchased a butter gloss in Cherry Pie (red) and a Retractable Lip Liner in Black Lips. 

I'll start off by saying that I am not at all a fan of lip gloss. I hate the feel of it on my lips, how sticky it is and typically I don't usually love the shine, I'm much more of a matte lover. But, I do like the NYX Butter Glosses, as a lip gloss, purely because the colours look really lovely on the lips. There are still many product formulas that I prefer much more, but the colours of these do look really beautiful on, especially Peaches and Cream. Due to my matte-loving ways, I adore the matte lip creams. All the colours look pretty similar in the photo, but in real life, they do vary far more. You can sheer these out or layer them for a deep colour, and once they've dried, they don't transfer, even during a cheeky Valentines kiss! The Mega Shine Gloss is even stickier, but the colour was too pretty to pass up, and the hype is true, all of these products smell divine.


So there you have it, my NYX haul! I'm going to have to seriously stop myself from going into Target and buying even more products, I walk past there practically every time I'm at work and just linger, looking at everything. I have to admit, I do think that a massive part of my excitement surrounding these items is due to the fact I've seen them on YouTube for years and now they are so attainable, perhaps if I'd had access to them the whole time I wouldn't have wanted them so much, but either way, I'm happy and I don't regret purchasing any of them. Everything in the range is retailed from around $10-$20 with perhaps a few exceptions, so pretty affordable really.

For the rest of you Aussie bloggers, have you picked anything up? Do you think it lives up to the hype?

Talk soon

xx