My favourites

Lou’s Faves – May

Is it just me, or do these monthly favourite blog posts rock around super fast?

Jordana Blackberry Lipstick

Jordana blackberry lipstick
I slipped putting the lid back on the lipstick. Forgive me for the slightly dodgy shape!

Right, let’s get this out of the way, yes, I bought a $4 lipstick from my local 1,2,3 Shop (i.e. $2 shop) and it’s CRANKING HOT. It’s so good my work colleague Lauren went and bought one as well and she’s rocking it daily. It’s the perfect winter shade, it’s a deep berry colour with a slight sheen finish to it and it applies smooth and pigmented. It’s also got a scent that is reminiscent of my youth when I played with Strawberry Shortcake dolls (but I can’t remember which doll). I mention this as some people will be put off by this.. Oh and the packaging is as you’d expect for $4 (pretty shoddy). Skin tone wise Blackberry is pretty versatile: It looks great on my super ghostly winter complexion and Lauren looks like a supermodel wearing it with her deep tanned olive skin tone. Beauty on a bargain. Happy times. PS I reckon lovers of MAC’s Rebel lipstick will adore Blackberry. Price: NZ$4. Available: Keep an eye out for a Jordana stand at your local $2 or 1,2,3 Shop.

Jordana Blackberry lipstick
Jordana lippy and Motion Lotion in my wavy hair (I did the latter with my hair straighteners, I’m rapt I’ve finally learnt how to do it – I’ve been trying to master the ‘wave technique’ for years!)

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The shopping grumbles of a petite curvy chick

petite curvy girl fashion tips
I love these boots as much as I love Clinique Take the Day Off Balm. The Yoga, from Overland Footwear: NZ$279

I went on a mini shopping trip recently to Mt Maunganui and Tauranga with my good friend (and shopping legend) Lisa. We were both keen to stock up on a few winter staples. For me that meant ankle boots and a winter coat to replace the stunning tailor-made 100% cashmere Armani rip-off coat I had made in Thailand 18 months ago for NZ$150 – i.e. the one that I lost… I’m still not over it.

I’m curvier at the moment than I’ve been for a while. I’m making no excuses, it’s my fault, end of story. Anyway, despite having a clear list of ‘wishes’ and the result of the trip being a very fruitful shopping expedition, I got really frustrated. Why? It, sucked (for lack of more articulate words) trying to pack my dinky-but-voluptuous size 14 (on a good day) hourglass frame into, well, most things I tried on. Lisa on the other hand, who has a figure to die for, along with some decent height on her, can wander into any clothes store, try on a paper bag and look glorious.

Look, big picture, the mission was a tonne of fun with my girlfriend. The outing was ruled a shopping success. However, as a petite lass, I spent the day pondering the frustrations of:

  • Being extremely vertically challenged (I’m 5″1, but I make up for my height with a big personality) and;
  • Having serious curves.

You see, this combo isn’t conducive to easy clothes shopping.

This is a real shame because, in all honesty, if I batted for the other team, frankly, I’d want a woman with some meat on her and, having had some very tall boyfriends in my time (one was 6″4, everyone took the piss out of us) I’d want someone a bit more compact. I’ve been there and got the t-shirt regarding neck strains gleaned from too much pucker-up” action, undertaken whilst standing. This is shame as I do enjoy a good “pucker up”.

So, what grinds my shopping gears, you ask?

Here’s my frustrations of shopping for my petite curviness:

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Lou’s April Favourites

Here’s the round-up of my beauty and foodie favourites for the month of April!

MAC Whole Lotta Love Pro Longwear Blush

I’ve had this hot pink/red blush for ages, lost it, refound it again (under the passenger seat of my car) and I’m not letting it out of my sight. Whole Lotta Love is a Pro Longwear blush that was recommended to me at Britomart’s Pro Mac store.  I mentioned to the sales assistant that I was in the market for a new blush, something that had no coral or peach tones (as I seem to own a tonne of these). I was steered in the direction of some bright pink in the form of Whole Lotta Love. I was nervous I’d ended up looking like a dolly, but clearly, I didn’t.  Certainly a super light hand is needed with this bright pink blush, but I love the ‘just got back from exercise’ look it gives my complexion, along with the awesome pigmentation and long lasting wear. This is my first Pro Longwear Blush – and I’m going to predict it won’t be my last. Note the pic below doesn’t quite show how vibrant it is!mac whole lotta love blush review

 

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Micellar Water – Miraculous or over-hyped?

loreal micellar water reviewI know this is probably the worst introduction to a piece of writing, ever, but it’s taken me six weeks of procrastination to write this blog post about micellar water.

In case you missed all the hype, micellar cleansing water popped up on the NZ beauty market recently. Beauty PR teams were creaming themselves largely over Garnier’s Micellar Water which is widely touted as a dupe of Bioderma’s micellar water (which has done the beauty equivalent of ‘gone viral).

Being an avid reader of beauty blogs I first learnt about this so-called ‘miracle’ cleansing water a few years ago and I was itching to road test it to see how it compared against my beloved (albeit kinda pricey) Clinique Take the Day Off Balm which I use every night to take all my makeup off (or Coconut Oil when I’m attempting to reduce my beauty spend, snort…). After the ‘face is off’ I move onto proper cleansing (using warm water, a flannel and a cleanser).

As you can imagine, after learning micellar water had hit NZ shores six weeks back, I was in like Flynn. There commenced serious stalking of all my local supermarkets, Farmers and pharmacies daily (don’t judge me, I was on holiday after just moving to Rotorua). Finally, I found some. Having given up trying to find Garnier’s offering, instead, I purchased L’Oreal’s equivalent (which, I’d heard was better than Garnier’s). So, with micellar water finally in my hot little hand, I skipped home with alacrity to take off all my makeup. It was 10.00am, I didn’t care. This is research people, research. (more…)

Empties – A round up

I haven’t done one of these ‘beauty empties’ posts before!   I stumbled across one recently on another beauty blog and enjoyed it and figured I’d give writing one a crack. This thought was superb timing as a heap of my beauty products have run out all at the same bloody time (grumble).  Here’s a whistle-stop tour of my thoughts on each product!

empties

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Lou’s March Favourites

Here’s my usual (random) round up of beauty foodie favourites for April. Enjoy!

Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes Waterproof Mascara

Lancome Hypnose Doll Eyes mascara reviewI’m actually embarrassed to include this mascara in this favourites post, as I know I always bang on about “this mascara is my favourite” and “mascara is definitely where you can save money!”  Yeah, well,  I’ve got a new favourite mascara and it isn’t exactly cheap. Before I launch in I hasten to add that Volume Million Lashes is still my No1 ‘drugstore’ mascara (followed closely by Maybelline’s The Falsies). Geez, am I sounding defensive?!

I treated myself to this high end mascara after my friend Mel gave me a trial size and I was blown away at the long spidery lash effect: So much so I was compelled to treat myself to the waterproof version in a full size (I only wear waterproof mascara, as it keeps the curl to my artificially curled eyelashes!). The packaging promises a doll lash and wide-eye look and, frankly, it over delivers. I’ve been asked a number of times, including by random strangers, whether I’ve got false eyelashes on/who did my sensational eyelash extensions (result).  There’s no flaking with this bad boy, nor smudging. You can easily build up the application without any clumping.  Oh, it also smells really nice and it is suitable for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers. By the way, the packaging also promises 24 hour hold, I’m not about to road-test that claim: You know how anal retentive I am at taking your ‘face off’ at the end of the day…

The Exec Summary of this Hypnose Doll Eyes is that it’s so crash hot it will be a DEFINITE repurchase for me, in fact, I’m going to get another one for my professional kit. This is the first Lancome item I’ve tried and I’m thinking it won’t be the last. Any other Lancome items that are a must have? Let me know in the comments below!
Price: NZ$58. Available at selected pharmacies and Farmers.  I got mine from Life Pharmacy Rotorua (my new favourite local!).

Lancome Hypnose Doll eyes mascara review

 

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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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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…)