The shopping edit : September

There comes a time in every beauty blogger on a budget’s life in which a wish-list is naturally built.  Despite the fact that I actually have a cheeky haul post coming up coughcough, I’ve been quite good lately and have decided to post this wish-list as I muse over how much I really want these products.

Fan Brush: I’ve been using the Samantha Chapman for Real Technique’s Contour Brush to apply my highlighter for quite a while now, but I’m finding it too large to highlight as carefully and subtly as I need it to. A nice thin fan brush would be perfect for the job, so I am on the hunt and would appreciate any recommendations you have!

Too Faced Pretty Rebel palette: The Kit Cosmetics emails always tempt me, if I had any common sense I would unsubscribe and avoid temptation, but the store is just too darn awesome to do that! Too Faced eye palettes are my obsession at the moment, and the bright pink Totally Fetch in this Pretty Rebel palette is calling a siren song into my ears.

Hourglass Ambient Light powder: I’d always liked the look of this, but it was reading Tine’s post that this into official wish-list territory. The sensible side of me suggests I just grab out my pot of Guerlain Meteorite balls and use those instead, but the sensible side of me never wins.

Samantha Chapman for Real Techniques Blush brush: Back onto brush lust, but this time the apples of my cheeks are in need of some loving. I‘ve been so lazy with washing brushes since we moved in, so I need to add another blush brush to my collection to tide me over.

Do you use a fan brush for applying highlighter?

Have you bought any new brushes lately?

June Favourites

A few products really stood out to me this month, and I ended up using them over and over as the weeks went by. I also took these along with me for my anniversary weekend away and they served me well.

 

Samantha Chapman for Real Techniques Stippling Brush

This is brilliant for pigmented cream and powder blushes, and since this month was all about bright cheeks it was in constant use. It buffs out strong pigments so nicely and I’ve also found it great to use with shimmery or sparkly blushes (Milani blushes, I’m looking at you) I am contemplating buying another one of these so I don’t have to wash them as frequently…

BYS Blush Trio in On The Brightside + Coral Me In

I used the first two shades of each palette alternately throughout the month, and these two palettes were the only cheek products I took away with me for the long weekend. I love how the shimmer in some of the shades gives a great glow to the cheeks, and how the lasting power of every shade is just phenomenal!

iPhone quality and not the clearest representation of colour, sorry!

 

Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask

This smells edible and I adore the concept of an overnight mask, as I often dread washing off clay masks etc as they can be quite messy. This gives a really good dose of moisture to my skin, and I’m kinda crushing on the brand at the moment so I’ve been using this each weekend to keep the flakies at bay.

MAC lipstick in Girl About Town

I traded in some empty eyeshadow pots after a big depotting session to get my hands on this bright pop of happiness! I often swatched the shade on counter when browsing but never thought too much about it, until I saw the beautiful Ling of Six Inch Heel wearing it to one of our shopping sessions. It looks seriously HOT on her, and if I do say so myself, looks pretty damn good on me as well! I think the fact that I paid $0 for it makes it even prettier!

Clinique Chubby Stick in Whole Lotta Honey*

This is one of my very favourite nude lip colours, and I can see myself easily reaching the end of the crayon in this lifetime -quite an achievement with a collection the size of mine! The formula of these is ace, and I can’t wait to try out the new Intense colours they have just launched as I do like pigmented products for zee lips.

Whole Lotta Honey, Girl About Town, first two shade of On The Brightside, first two shades of Coral Me In

What were your favourite products in June?

Do you like the idea of blush palettes like these ones?

*I won this Chubby Stick in a Clinique Twitter competition. Honesty, always.

iHerb: Shopping for Real Techniques

I’d been looking through my brush collection and felt that it was lacking, and I had my eyes on the Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman range. After looking around online I decided to order them from iHerb.  Sadly not every brush from the range was available, but I ended up choosing the Stippling Brush and the Base/Flawless Core Collection.

The brushes I am most excited to try would have to be the Stippling Brush, Buffing Brush and the Contour brush.

*****

Of course, I wouldn’t be a true beauty blogger if I didn’t throw other items into my cart, and so I chose some lip balms and the Queen Helene Mint Julep mask. I chose a Crazy Rumours balm in Freshly Squeezed Pink Grapefruit Juice as I have been on a pink grapefruit hunt at the moment, and the Soda Pop Root Beer flavour is for my best friend Candice. I also threw in a Hurraw balm in Blue Chamomile Vanilla.

I decided to load up on the Queen Helene masks as they were only $3.84 each, and I had seen so many rave reviews about them. I’m happy to say that first impressions are looking promising, I have only used the mask once but feel I may be falling in love.

I will be reviewing all of these in detail once I’ve tried them out properly, but do let me know what you are most excited to hear about!

The total order came to $47.23 which I thought was really reasonable for the amount of products I received. Shipping to Australia was $4 and I received $5 off as this was my first iHerb order.  Everything came safely packaged and came within 2 weeks, which I was really happy with. If you are interested in purchasing something from iHerb be sure to use the code BEJ649 to receive $5 off your first order. To be clear, I receive some sort of iHerb reward points if you use this code (not sure of exact details) but all who make an iHerb purchase get this opportunity and the code is not blog-related. Happy shopping!

*I was not sponsored for this post and am not affiliated with iHerb in any way, I'm just obsessed with shopping!