Beach House

Some old favourites, some new products from my collection and a free morning at the beach house.

Chopped the poor fiance out of this one, cheeky!

Flamingo was one of the lipsticks I purchased from the Iris Apfel for MAC collection, and a few of you mentioned that you wanted to see more of it so here you go! My original post with swatches is here.

The pas des copper eye souffle from essence (haul here) is something I've been using under my neutral eye looks quite a bit, and I think it's going to look great underneath the new Illamasqua neutral palette as well. (Click here for a FOTD with the eye souffle paired with Bronx from Illamasqua.) This time around I used the eye souffle by itself with a lick of mascara, liquid liner and a shimmery shadow for a highlight, because I couldn't be bothered doing anything complicated while we were away.

Benefit Hervana was the only blush I took away with me, and I was hoping it would become my new NYX Peach, aka staple in my collection. I like it, but I'm not sure whether or not I love it on my face yet. It sure is pretty though! The Garnier concealer is actually Chris', and he stole it back not long after I took these photos. His skincare products are really appealing to me lately, they're just so quick and easy to use!

pas des copper is really pretty, I think it's a great product for a subtle eye look as well as the full on bronze smokey eyes I like to do. Nice and versatile, and worth grabbing if you can find one in store.

Do you wear makeup when you spend lazy weekends away?

Do you play around with crazy looks, or go bare faced

*All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me, except for the Face of Australia liquid liner. Honesty, always.

Ballerina Backstage by essence

This months essence collection focuses on a ballet vibe, with cute shade names and pops of pale pink colour. I picked up a few key items including the 3 lipglosses and the bronze eye souffle, but somehow managed to miss the gorgeous cheek souffle that is also on offer. Fear not, I managed to nab it once I realised my mistake, and will pop it on the blog soon.

The essence eye souffle in pas des copper is a stunner, no doubt about it. I didn't have high hopes and to be honest bought this for the hell of it, but once I swatched it my expectations grew.

The jar feels nice and sturdy, and I love the font they've chosen to adore the lids of this collection.

A golden shimmery deep brown shade that is far too pretty.

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Cute shade names!

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Wear Your Litle Tutu is a pale pink that makes my lips look icy. It has silver shimmer running throughout, and is pretty sticky on but less so than a MAC Dazzleglass.

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On Your Gracile Tiptoe is the coral orange offering from the Ballerina Backstage collection, and also contains shimmer and is quite a sticky formulation.

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Do A Floating Pirouette is such a pretty purple toned raspberry shade, and is of the same formulation as the other glosses.

I adore the little touches that essence has put into this collection, the lace detail and shoe images on the tubing is a really sweet idea. I personally don't mind having sticky glosses in my collection (I adore Dazzleglasses, though Chris doesn't) so I quite like these. The icy effect of Wear Your Little Tutu is something that surprised me but I am happy to have this in my collection, but I think the real must have from the collection is the pas des copper eye souffle, just an amazing texture and wearable shade.

The prices in this collection sit around the $3-6AUD mark, and are available in Australia from Target stores.

Have you picked up anything from this collection?

What do you think of Essence?