Pret a Party

I'm at that wonderful stage of the festive season when my shopping is complete and I have the freedom to peruse the craziness of the shops without stress - and sneak an extra present or two under the tree for myself, I'm not going to lie! For those who are also being cheeky or the others who are still gathering gifts for their loved ones, I thought this was a ripper of a gift set that might lead you into Myer for a quick gift purchase. Benefit Cosmetics are known for being fun and cheeky and the holiday release of gift sets definitely embodies that - bright and interactive metal tins filled with their staple products! This Pret a Party* tin contains four little goodies that the brand are well known for which I thought was a good idea.

In theory this tin is an entire makeup look in one, albeit a very natural one (safe to say I pack more on than this each day as a blogger!) The 7.5ml POREfessional to smooth the skin and prime, Fakeup Concealer mini in Medium to cover any redness in the skin, full size They're Real Mascara and full size Benetint for your cheeks and lips! Since I've tried a few of these products and the concealer wouldn't match my pale skin tone I gave this to my best friend Candice to enjoy and trial for me, and she was impressed by the tin and said she'd be storing her makeup brushes in it as a way of recycling which I thought was a great idea. They're Real Mascara isn't one that works well with my lashes so I thought it would be interesting to see how it fared on her lovely eyes, since it seems to be a favourite of almost everyone I speak to online! So far she has used the Fakeup and it was a great match so I want to get my hands on the lighter colour for myself one day, along with Porefessional when I finish my current silicone primer.

The Pret a Party tin retails for $69 and is available from Myer. If these products don't float your boat they have a stack of other cute tins like the Party Hopping Kit with High Beam Highlighter, or the Frisky Six Starter Pack which is my personal favourite.

-Emma x

 

*Product provided for consideration. Honesty, always.

Nice is Nice

I was lucky enough to receive a mini bottle of Essie's Nice is Nice polish from my US Makeup Swap (post here). I hadn't tried Essie before that, though I did have some other minis in my collection.

A gorgeous pale lavender shade, this applied with ease and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the formula of the Essie shades I've tried so far!

I chose to top my accent nail with The Face Shop in PK107 which is a pink tinted jelly base with round glitter, small bar glitter and a few stars for good measure. I didn't realise that the base was so tinted and it really changed the tone of the lilac underneath, which made me regret doing it!

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Candice chose Nice is Nice as well, we were house sitting and watching Interview with a Vampire and eating Crust Pizza. Lilac was indeed the colour of the night indeed! The photo above was taken when we had parked the car, she wasn't driving don't worry! She got engaged a few days after Chris proposed,  hence us showing off our rings in that photo.

Candice chose to coat her accent nail with essence Space Queen which is fine glitter in a clear base, I prefer the look of it to my own accent nail as it kept the lilac underneath intact.

Which accent nail do you prefer?

What other Essie shades do you recommend?

 

a golden guest

A make up artist by no means, I still love to slap some of my collection onto other peoples faces for fun. My girl Candice and I were getting ready to go to a hen's night (we had to look good, I was maid of honour!!) and she let me do her up.

Candice's dress had golden tones in it, so we went with a full on eye (compared to what she normally wears, anyway)

I laid out the Urban Decay Naked palette before her and let her have free reign. Half-Baked it was, and I snuck Virgin as her highlight and chose Mercury from TopShop for her crease (amazing colour, post up ASAP!)

I made Candice line her own eyes as I wasn't confident of my capability to liquid line someone elses eye, and she used Maybelline Line Define (which has been discontinued, to her horror) and a Maybelline mascara, too.

I think her eye shape and skin tone works really well with this look, and the smudge of Half-Baked under her eye makes such a dramatic difference to her normal eye look. I'm not sure what made me pair Mercury with the golden tones, but I really like the contrast and it made her eyes really pop. She wore a nude lip gloss with this look, and the face looked just as good on the way home in the early hours of the morning as it did when we left for the hen's night!

You can't really see how nice her eyes look when they're all scrunched up, but you can most definitely see how much of a cutie she is! And don't mind my pose, it comes naturally after a champagne or two! I am super washed out in this photo but I love it anyway, it was taken on the party bus on the way to the second or third club.

What night look do you lean toward?

Are you a bright lip-lover or smoky eye wearer?

get some good karma!

 

This is a well-loved eyeshadow compact indeed! I bought this Australis duo in 'Karma' for my best friend Candice (who blogs over here) a while ago, even though she wasn't huge on wearing makeup. I suppose it is part of my role as a beauty blogger to push products into the hands of those around me, to try and spread the beauty obsession.

I've slowly but surely gotten her into makeup (eyeshadows at least!) and I love seeing what looks she comes up with when we meet for brunch. I found this in a clearance tub and knew I didn't need it, but couldn't pass it up and thought they colours would look great on Candice- I was right!

Candice already has a really nice almond eye shape, but the way she's done her liquid liner really excentuates it.  I often have trouble applying shadow to my lower lash line as it sometimes irritates, but Candice does it all the time and it really completes the look in my opinion.

Candice swept the golden champagne shade from the palette across her lid and popped the turquoise shade in her crease and outer third and along the lower lashline. This is a quick and easy look that is really pretty, and I know Candice can do it in a flash because a little birdy told me it's her fall back look ;P

What is your fallback look?

What do you think of Candice's EOTD?

week in review

A random mix up of what I've been up to over the last week or so!

Gorgeous star cookies at my neices 6th birthday last weekend, which had a rock star theme. Stars hung from the ceiling and all the kids got their faces painted (I got a line of flowers up my arm) The weather was perfect and the party kicked on into the wee hours of the night with plenty of dancing and drinking (for the adults, of course!)

Been wearing these studs that are a cross between a cognac and champagne zirconia. Bought them a few weeks back when I visited the Queen Victoria Market, and since I usually wear my gold hoops it was nice to change it up a bit!

I was lucky enough to get tickets to ABC's First Tuesday Book Club taping with Jennifer Byrne (info here) and saw her interview Christos Tsiolkas. I adored his book The Slap, and it was interesting to hear him speak about the book, about writing and how it has changed his life. My best friend Candice came along with me and we had lunch at an amazing little place in Elsternwick (I'll be reviewing it soon) The above image is a blossom she plucked from a tree as we were walking. I'll be posting other photos from the day soon, because Candice looked amazing and I'll be showing you the makeup she had on.

Had an adventure to Doncaster and rocked my bug sunnies which were kindly sent to me from Fashion Addict...I think this is the longest a pair of sunglasses have lasted for me, so I am very impressed! I'm planning on buying some scarves from them soon too, and for all of my international readers the amazing Australian brand Face of Australia is online there for you to purchase too! Hop to it! Have also fallen back in love with MAC Ever Hip, which is on zee lips in the above image.

While at Doncaster, I spent the Westfield voucher I had kicking around at Mecca. A little Mecca hauling never goes astray, especially when it's my first real taste of Nars!
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So that is pretty much the highlights of my week, I spent a lot of time writing assignments and catching up on readings so it was nice to spend time with family and friends (and with Mecca Cosmetica)
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Scent of the week: Bulgari Rose Essentielle
Lotion of the week: Aveeno!
Colour of the week: Chocolate brown
Polish of the week: Coral from Kit and Sportsgirl
Song of the week: Nicki Minaj Super Bass
Book of the week: Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad
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Have you done anything exciting this past week, or bought yourself anything?
Let me know in the comments below:)
emmabovary x

Tis' the season to eat chocolate!

Whenever Candice and I are feeling down about anything or feel lik a catch-up, we head to Max Brenner to drown in delicious chocolate heaven. At the start of the menu, Max explains how he came to be a chocolate man. This quote makes me swoon every time:

"But the truth is that I wanted to be a writer. One who gets up at noon, sits in cafes, writes until the following morning and devotes a book to an impossible, eternal love." How can you say no to that?

Warning: If you do not like a wee tipple in the land of the choc and/or deliciousness, back away slowly now.

My little lactose intolerant bestie has only been able to succumb to dairy quite recently, so this trip was a special one.
A 'White Shake' was ordered, which combines the flavours of coconut and lychee, two of her fave flavours. The gorgeous 'drink me' glass is inspired by Alice in Wonderland, a little touch that I love. The flavour was really strong and refreshing, both Candice and I thought it to be super-tasty.

If this picture is not the best advertisement for Max's, I don't know what is!

The waffles...oh, the waffles. I hang my head in shame and admit that I'd never had good waffles before this plate appeared at my table. Drizzled with Max's melted milk chocolate, this waffles were warm, crispy and oh so soft on the inside. We shared a plate of two, and though I was wanting more at the end I think it's because I'm a greedy-guts and not that I was still in need of a nibble.

A staple in my order at Max Brenner is his White Chocolate Chai. For only $6 you get the biggest pot of this heavenly goodness, which equates to roughly 3 cups full. The chai tea is expertly blended with white hot chocolate and is very sweet, and comes in the cutest pot I've ever seen. To pour from it you must sit the pot on top of your mug and push down, as so:So very cute, and makes the experience just that little bit more special. Note the waffle plate to the left had already been demolished-whoops!All in all, Max Brenner is a chocolate heaven fit for a queen that comes highly recommended by moi.

White Shake:$7.60

2 Belgian Waffles:$10

White Choc Chai:$6

Tell me, have you visited Max before? emmabovary xx

EARL Canteen

EARL Canteen is my new favourite eatery, and twice this fortnight my best girlfriend Candice and I have made the trip all the way up Bourke St to enjoy it. The first trip we just had coffee (and I macarons) but after seeing the amazing lunch menu we knew we had to eat there. Gorgeous raspberry and dark chocolate macaron (couldn't wait to take a bite,oops!)

My flat white with raspberry and dark choc macaron, and white peach macaron, which was my favourite. On our second visit we had lunch, Candice chose the Duck Confit.

Confit duck, caramelised wild figs,walnuts,raddichio,onion jam & watercress on a gluten-free wrap $16

I will admit that I nabbed a bit of the duck and stuffed in into my ciabatta, flavour was strong and delicious!

I chose the Cheesy Mushroom breakfast, and even though the brekky menu was over they made it for me anyway, as they weren't too busy=)

Roast field mushrooms, melted provolone, thyme, spinach, ciabatta. $9.5

Mushrooms were fresh, cheese was perfectly melted, ciabatta crunchy but not too much so. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough spinach for my liking.

EARL Canteen is a place I think I'll be visiting frequently this year, the coffee, ambience and service is impeccable and it's a good excuse to visit the Southern Cross DFO nearby ;)

A thumbs down for the seating, however...Candice and I are 'staturely challenged' and I damn near fall off the high stools every single time! Other than that, I'm in love.

EARL Canteen

500 Bourke Street (enter via Little Bourke)

Melbourne 3000

Breakfast & Lunch from 7.30am Mon-Fri

www.earlcanteen.com.au