Maybelline Colour Drama – Lip Crayon Review

Your comfort zone is a beautiful placeWhen it comes to lipstick I’m so stuck in my comfort zone, it’s ridiculous. I am a massive fan of a bold smokey eye and a nude lip. So much so that, even though I own more bold lipsticks than I care to admit, I’m constantly rocking variations of the same thing, day in, day out: Bold eyes and, more often than not MAC’s Syrup lipstick (which is the same colour as my lips, but better). Anyway, off the back of hearing a quote which really struck a chord with me recently (“your comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there”)  I decided not to get too deep and meaningful on it, rather just have a have a sweep out of some cobwebs and revisit my boring lipstick ways. Start small girls, start small.

Maybelline colour drama lip crayon reviewEnter a trip to Taupo with an hour to kill whilst my hubby was at the accountant recently. I figured there was no better place to invest an hour than at Farmers, aimlessly browsing the beauty aisles.  Yes, it’s true. I didn’t even get as far as the clothing or accessories: In the beauty aisle I stayed.  I must say, I found it very hard not to tap into my former retail/customer service and sales training background and serve overwhelmed beauty customers. Anyway, I digress (just for a change).  There I am at Maybelline stand when… Shock! What’s this? Jumbo lip crayons in an array of pretty colours? When did these get released?  A while ago it seems (early 2015). Clearly I’ve been living under a rock. I wasn’t impressed: Usually I pride myself for being bang on with beauty trends. Sniff.

I’m mortified to admit that it took at least ten minutes of indecision to choose from the rather limited selection of scrummy colours. I tossed and turned between two bold colours ‘Pink so Chic’ (which isn’t really pink at all, rather a deep plum) and ‘Berry Much’ (a deep berry colour). At a very affordable price point of $11.99 I don’t know why I mucked about: These lip crayons are so bloody good, I should have snapped a couple of ’em (at least). Finally I settled on ‘Pink so Chic’ and I’m LOVING it and it hasn’t left the makeup bag that resides nearby in my handbag (as opposed to the makeup bag in the top draw of my bathroom, or the makeup bag that’s on top of my makeup trolley, or my professional makeup kit, oh, or the emergency makeup stash in the car…)

Maybelline colour drama lip crayon review
Maybelline Colour Lip Drama in the colour ‘Pink So Chic’

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Zucchini & Tomato Bake

zucchini tomato bakeI used to make this deliciously simple zucchini bake dish all the time but I forgot about it until I was gifted a sh*tload of zucchini last month…I had zucchini coming out the wahzoo. I beavered away in the kitchen making zucchini salad, zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini curry, zucchini fritters (anyone else thinking of Forrest Gump right about now?) when something jolted my memory and a little voice in my head said ‘hang on!’ – what about zucchini/tomato bake? And I’ve made it three times since in the last few weeks, it’s that good.

Note, it might look a tad dry on top, but trust me: Once you cut into it, the moist goodness of the melted zucchini and tomato hits you. I love the crunchy topping as a contrast. Mmmm.

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Super Speedy and Foolproof Bronze Eyeshadow Look

Super speedy eyeshadow is my favourite. So is a bronze eyeshadow look.  

I watch a lot of makeup tutorials on You Tube and read a lot of beauty blogs. I’ve been musing lately how detailed and complicated makeup is becoming with a lot of the beauty gurus I follow (not all, but definitely some). So much so, I was inspired to go against the grain and do something a bit more simple. Something you can whack on and be out the door in 5 minutes and it looks like you’ve gone to oodles of effort…

Products used

Super Speedy and Foolproof Bronze Eyeshadow Look
See where the brush is placed? That medium matt brown colour? That’s what I used. It’s Creme Brulee from Makeup Geek and I FREAKING love it.

If you are a bit of a newbie when it comes to makeup, the product above might still look like a lot but I promise, you only need a few things! (more…)

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Lou Loves – January Favourites

I’m sure I only just hit ‘publish’ on my 2015 favourites – and now it’s time for January’s faves! I struggled to limit what made my ultimate favourites this month, as there’s been loads of makeup I’m loving, partly as a result of my USA haul arriving when my little brother paid a courier delivery man on his holiday home to NZ. I tried to talk my brother into becoming a courier so he could deliver all of my goods himself on the regular. I even found him a cheap van and hire and reward van insurance but he was having none of it. He pulled through in the end by finding this man, though! Here’s what made my relentless cull!

L’oreal Volume Million Lashes Mascara (waterproof)

I’ve had a few doozies with impulse purchase mascaras in the last year, but I hit the jackpot this time with Volume Million Lashes Mascara: It’s a game-changer that has BOOTED Maybelline’s Falsies Mascara out of my first place ranking. Why? We’ve had a hot and muggy summer here in Hawke’s Bay and even with the Falsies (waterproof), I’ve got unattractive black mascara smudges up around my browbone (cheers mugginess and oily eyelids). I had resigned myself to just putting up with smudging in the summer. Cue Volume Million lashes: Boom! No smudging, no budging: This stuff stays put all day and I have long spidery and super volumised lashes!

Oh, I also love how it applies quite dry. Let me explain: Have you encountered how some new mascaras apply really wet and you end up with it everywhere? This drives me nuts: With new mascara I always wipe excess mascara off the wand with a tissue, which upsets me because it’s super wasteful. Anyhow, with Volume Million Lashes you kind of have to yank the (anti-clump) wand out of the mascara tube and, ah, because it’s got a really tight hole you don’t end up with a truckload of mascara on the wand. Genius. I can’t wax lyrical about this mascara enough. I even love the packaging. Be warned though, you need a good waterproof eye makeup remover to get this waterproof goodness off (Neutrogena is great, Clinique’s Take The Day Off Balm is even better). Price: NZ$35 (9ml tube). Get it from Farmers, Kmart, Pharmacies, etc.

volume million lashes loreal review

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Bacon, Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad

bacon broccoli and cauliflower saladI’ve been making this delicious salad for years, however it recently got an extreme makeover! My friend Emma sent me her cauliflower and broccoli salad recipe, which is really similar to mine, but it had a few extra ingredients that I just knew would take the recipe to a whole new level.  Emma’s addition of sweetness and vinegar in the creamy mayo dressing, as well as cauliflower a main ingredient, well… Oh yes. See for yourself!

Thanks Emma for the inspiration x

Bacon, Broccoli & Cauliflower Salad Recipe

Salad ingredients
1 head broccoli, cut into small pieces
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into small pieces
8 slices streaky bacon pan fried till cripsy, cooled, then chopped into little pieces
1/2 cup Craisins (you can use raisins or sultanas too)
1/4 cup sliced almonds (you can sub with other nuts)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (”   “)
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (dry fry them in a frying pan)
½ cup red onion chopped (Top tip: Finely dice the onion, cover it in cold water, drain the water out after five minutes, pat the onion dry with a paper towel. This step takes the acidity out of the onion!)
1 red capscium, finely sliced
2 heaped tablespoons of fresh herbs (you choose, I use any of the following: Flat leaf parsley, basil, mint – use what’s on hand!) – reserve some for ganish!

Dressing
1 cup of my Homemade DIY mayonnaise (click here) – if you don’t fancy making your own mayo, Best Foods or Hellman’s Mayonnaise are your next best options
1 tablespoon cider vinegar (rice wine and standard white vinegar work too!)
1 tablespoon of runny honey

  • Place salad ingredients in a large bowl.
  • Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a separate bowl.
  • Add the dressing ingredients to the salad – mix well. Top the salad with the reserved herbs as a garnish.
  • Chill for half an hour before serving
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Couscous with herby feta and pomegranate

I made this yummy and rather festive looking salad over my recent (glorious) summer holiday in Ohope. It would have been gorgeous on the dinner table on Christmas Day – check out those colours!  I actually wanted to make this dish using Israeli couscous but we couldn’t find it anywhere! It didn’t matter a bit, regular couscous worked super well and I’ll definitely be making this again.   Bonus too, as well as being delicious this salad was super easy to prepare.

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Lou’s 2015 Beauty Favourites

Alrighty, this is a big blog post! Rather than do my usual December favourites round-up of beauty foodie items that are spinning my wheels, I’ve done a serious navel gaze and come up with my Tip Top Beauty Faves for 2015 (and a few books). Upon reflection, I’m surprised, yet really pleased, at how many products fall into the ‘super affordable’ category. It just goes to show – it pays to shop around to get beauty bang for buck. Note, I toyed with including foodie faves in here: But the post is already bigger than Ben Hur. So beauties: Enjoy!

Hair

Remington Hot Pink Curl It ReviewRemington Hot Pink Curl it – I’ve got a blog post coming soon on this ceramic conical hair curling contraption. Frankly, it deserves a full write-up as this impulse purchase has me grinning like a Cheshire cat. It’s got 10 heat settings, ranging from 120C to a high heat setting of 210C. Simply by winding your hair around the tong you get a stunning shiny curl in 7-10 seconds. Since having lots of my hair lopped off I can get a head full of bouncy curls in under 10 minutes. The girls at work were admiring my curly locks recently and asked me to take this into the office to do a demo. They were sold and I understand this affordable hair gadget made a few wish Christmas wish-lists! NZ$53 from Briscoes in one of their mega sales (I point blank refuse to pay full price for anything at Briscoes). (more…)

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Pesto Crusted Salmon

Pesto crusted salmonI’m a little bit excited about this recipe. Salmon is easily my fish of choice – I just can’t get enough of it. It definitely is a wonder food which is why we should be promoting sustainable aquaculture to ensure that we still have access to this amazing fish! Add pesto into the same sentence as salmon and you’ve got me grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Bonus too – this has sod all ingredients (I know my recipes can get a tad lengthy – so enjoy this!). This definitely falls in the ‘easy mid week’ dinner category – despite looking like it’s something you’d cook for a flash dinner party (that’s my kind of dinner!). (more…)

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