FIRST IMPRESSION | ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS ILLUMINATORS

They're here! The long awaited illuminators by Anastasia Beverly Hills have arrived.

Not gonna lie, I kinda stalked the shit out of these for their launch to make sure I got all four shades. I received these in the mail yesterday so I haven't had the time to play around with them although I have thought seriously about layering them all up on my cheeks just to see how far I could take it... Okay enough. 

Upon opening the compacts and seeing a full mirror and the unique design of the powders - I knew straight away I'd like them. So different to all the highlighters I own. Swatched, the powders come off very buttery and really pigmented. They go for $28USD each on the ABH website and personally, I think they are of really high quality and value for your money - as is all of their products I've tried. 

I wore Peach Nectar today cos it was the shade I was more curious about and it wore amazingly throughout the day. It's really only a slight sheen of peach, nothing too overpowering. I can't wait to try these powders with a wet fan brush - Norvina's recommendation for a higher intensity highlight. And you know I'm all 'bout that life.

RIVIERA

STARLIGHT

SO HOLLYWOOD

PEACH NECTAR

COLLECTIVE BEAUTY HAUL

Makeup shopping is by far my favourite type of retail therapy. Whether I'm in a store or shopping online, it never fails to make me feel like a little kid in a candy store.

Are you ready?

Here's my collective makeup haul for the month of August! Most I've acquired online and some I've bought in store. Let's start off with the online purchases, shall we?

False lashes from LOVeyelashes - this is where I usually stock up on my lashes, which I've needed to do for a while now. I chose mainly wispy but long lashes this time around and I'm so happy I've got a good range to choose from!

Cocoa Blend eyeshadow palette, two eye and two face brushes from Zoeva - a blush brush, highlight brush and more blending brushes. One can never have too many blending brushes. This palette is amazing. Come on, look at these shades - could you pass up this beauty? I've used it twice now and find the shadows so buttery and blend so easy. 

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow from Beautylish - This is something I've been lusting over for ages, but I found the original two shades just weren't right for my skintone. Then recently, CT  brought out a Med-Deep shade, so you know I snatched that up quick.

TooFaced Glitter Glue and Urban Decay lipgloss in 'kinky' from Mecca - This nude lipgloss by Urban Decay is absolutely beautiful (not sure about the name though...). Super pigmented and not too sticky. The glitter glue was purchased with my MAC le disko shadows in mind, and boy, does it make a world of a difference.

MAC lipsticks in Whirl, Antique Velvet, Stone, Persistence, Cyber and lip prep+prime straight from the MAC website - Obviously had to get the new MAC matte collection as soon as they came out (minus Cyber) - loving them so far but I did get a lot of stares with Stone on my lips. Not sure how I feel about that.

In store purchases include the L'oreal Infallible 24-hour matte foundation - I'm not a matte finish type of girl but seeing it on Desi Perkins definitely made me want to try it. Inglot Duraline was purchased specifically for my Inglot 77 gel liner - 1 drop of this baby livened my liner back up again! Lifesaver. 

Went into Sephora Sydney for the very first time since it opened late last year and purchased the Tarte Tartelette palette, another all matte palette I didn't need but had to have, Becca Mineralised blush in 'Songbird', a Jaclyn Hill recommendation, Kat Von D 'Lolita' lipstick and a back up of the MUFE mist+fix since I'm almost out and it's my holy grail finishing spray!

I know I went a tad bit crazy butttt... okay I KNOW this is a shitload of makeup to buy in a span of 3 weeks. But trust me when I say I don't buy anything I won't use. I do my fair share of research, look through countless reviews and make sure I'll get use out of a product. So... Don't judge me. K!?

 Let me know if you've got any of these products and what you think of them, I would love to hear your thoughts! And if you'd like an in-depth review or swatches of any of the products, I'd love to do that for you. 

'Til next time.

MAC DAZZLESHADOW MINI HAUL & REVIEW.

The Le Disko Collection launched in stores first thing on Monday in Australia, and after seeing my favourite beauty gurus like Jaclyn Hill, Desi Perkins, MannyMUA and NikkieTutorials rave about their glittery goodness I made sure I got my hands on them (shout out to Beez for going into MAC as lost as he was to pick them up for me, you da best).

The whole collection features twelve dazzleshadows, five dazzleglasses and one brush. While the dazzleglasses didn't quite catch my fancy, the shadows are pretty special.

It was so, so hard for me to limit myself while looking up swatches but these three immediately caught my attention:

say it isn't so // let's roll // boom boom room

say it isn't so // is described as a "dark grey with pink sparkles."
It's a very muted grey with silver and pink sparkle with a metallic finish. It is super sparkly, so I'll definitely be applying this one damp so it adheres better to the lid.

let's roll // is described as a "red bronze with sparkles."
It's a bright copper-red with orange undertones to it and pink and copper sparkle. It had a semi-opaque coverage when swatched dry with my finger.

boom boom room // is described as a "light burgundy with emerald sparkles"
this shade was the reason why i wanted to get my hands on these shadows in the first place. i saw mannymua wearing it on his lid and straight away knew i had to have it. it's a reddish-burgundy with coppery undertones. some have compared it to MAC's blue brown pigment but even though it has that similar duo chrome effect to it, it is very unique.

all swatches applied dry with finger 

This collection as far as I know is limited edition so if you've been tossing up between picking something up, I wouldn't think about it for too long.

'Til next time!

MINI MAKEUP HAUL.

New makeup!!! Who doesn't love NEW makeup?!

(My boyfriend, that's who... And who can blame him, my makeup addiction is taking over my life - wow, bit extreme)

Moving right along. 

These products I've accumulated over the past two weeks and they're a mixture of high-end and drugstore. Most of them I've been wanting for a while and some are new products that I've been dying to try.

I'm so drawn to all matte palettes so naturally when I saw the new Too Faced Natural Matte Eyeshadow Collection palette - especially swatching the last shade - I knew I had to snag that baby up real quick! I also finally hunted down the two new shades of the Australis Metallix Cream shadows in Pearl Jammin' and Guns n Rose Petals (one more shade and my collection is complete!) . These are so, so beautiful and pigmented, as you may have already read in my May Faves post. The cute baby NARS single eyeshadow in Galapagos is one I've been wanting for a long time that's been out of stock online and in stores so I got lucky when I saw  it looking for a different shade. It's a bitter chocolate shade infused with gold and absolutely amazing. Bareminerals' stroke of light eye brightener/illuminator is a product my sister raves on about so I thought I'd give it a whirl since I've been wanting a new highlighter for under the eyes. MAC's peaches blush, nightmoth lipliner and soft ochre paintpot are all products I've been meaning to purchase for a while and I'm so happy I have them now. Savvy's chestnut lipliner and Maybelline's colour sensational lipstick in coffee craze just called out to me as soon as I saw them. 

Safe to say I'm a happy girl and this satisfies my makeup addiction... For now.

Below I share a mini review using some of the new products on my face for the first time.

'Til next time!

Too Faced matte palette on my eyes over MAC soft ochre paintpot: the paintpot made the shadows go on much more intense, and the shadows are so buttery and easy to blend, 
Bareminerals stroke of light eye brightener under the eyes over a little bit of the UD Naked concealer: does a good job of brightening but definitely needs to be used over a concealer if you have some darkness under there,
MAC peaches blush on the cheeks: so easy to apply and builds up nicely,
Savvy chestnut lipliner to line the lips and Maybelline's coffee crazy lipstick all over: such a beautiful nude combo, lipstick is very creamy and hydrating

THE FIRST OF MANY.

Hello again! Welcome to the first of many beauty posts! 

Last night, Beez and I decided to do some late night shopping. We got a bite to eat, shopped around for mother's day gifts and of course a little something for ourselves. I popped into Mecca to collect my quarterly beauty loop benefit box and wasn't at all surprised to find out that I had gone up a level (meaning I'd spent more money this year - no ragrets). My level 2 beauty loop box included a 3ml tube of  REN's Instant Firming Beauty Shot that is so intriguing to me, a GlamGlow Powermud Dualcleanse Treatment that I have actually been dying to try, and two sachet samples by Josie Maran and Soap & Glory. I'm not really down with the samples in little sachets so I was pretty pleased that the box came with two minis. 'preciate it, Mecca.

I picked up the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion mini, I'm excited to compare this to my drugstore shadow primers - which I love - and see how it goes. And I finally found and purchased Stila's Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in the shade 'Patina'. This particular shade I'd been hunting down online and in store for weeks and just kept missing it. So naturally, it felt like fate seeing the last one on the shelf just sitting there waiting for me to take home! A little dramatic? I don't think so. This is my second liquid lipstick from Stila, my first one in the shade 'Dolce' which is a beautiful nude. Patina is more of a mauve shade, a perfect dusty rose. I can't wait to play around with this and pair it with some lipliners. I always make sure I exfoliate my lips and apply a little lip balm before applying liquid lipsticks because they can be a little drying but I'm sure I will be getting a lot of wear out of this shade. Obsessed. What do you think of liquid lipsticks? Love them or hate them? What brands would you recommend for me to try?! Comment and share them with me. Thanks for tuning in! X