Weekend Makeup Bag

This weekend I’m up in Rye on the Mornington Peninsula, celebrating my sixth anniversary with Mister Bovary. I’m pretty excited that this is the last ‘dating’ anniversary before we get married, and we’ve planned to try some new restaurants and head down to Portsea to walk through the Point Nepean National Park. I’m hoping that it doesn’t rain too much during the day so that we can take Charlie for a nice long walk through the hills too, but we’ll have to play that one by ear.

I tried to stay relatively minimal with my beauty considering we’re only away for two nights, but nice breakfast dates and heading out to dinners gave me excuse enough to bring along some of my beloved pink lip products. I bargained with myself, allowing one blush and one eyeshadow palette along in order to make up for the craziness that is my lip stash. I tried to cut down on heavy items too (even though we’re heading up in the car) so I brought some perfume samples and my new YSL mascara sample to play around with. Some of my skincare is mini sized too but I didn’t snap a picture of that bag. I think I'm just gearing up really early for a honeymoon full of mini-sized products - I'm getting so ahead of myself with lots of wedding things still to plan!

I forgot to include my Rimmel matte BB cream in the photos but I popped it in the skincare bag along with the new La Roche-Posay sunscreen I’m trialling (will be important for our walks!) I thought long and hard about which eyeshadow palette to bring with me and ended up with my Too Faced Natural Eye palette, I haven’t used this one very much at all so this will be a nice way to push myself into it (I definitely won’t be using that horrible glittery shade though! Really glad they reshuffled this palette and took out the dud shade, but sad that I already own the old version…)

Hop on over to Instagram if you want to see snaps of my weekend – I hope you have a wonderful weekend whatever you get up to!

Emma x

Flower Power and Flowerkissed!

It's a well-known fact that Essence is at the top of my all-time favourite cosmetic brand list, so it's no surprise that I've fallen in love with their latest collection!

An appropriately themed spring collection, Blossoms shines with a range of fresh goodies, including two-toned eyeshadows, pastel polishes, a fragrance, powder and two glosses. I chose to take a few pieces home when I spotted them at my local Target store, and thought I'd show them to you today.
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The Blossoms  range is full of pretty products, and the one that stood out to me most was the Multi Colour Powder in 01 Flower Power. Flower Power is an intricately designed daisy patterned powder made up of shades of bronze, pale pink, coral pink with and creamy beige. Slight shimmer runs throughout all of the flowers, with the beige and coral pink containing the most visible shimmer.
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Though I probably didn't 'need' a multi colour powder, it was was too pretty to pass up. It adds a bit of light to your face when you use it, I sometimes dust it all over my face but generally use it as a sheer highlight on cheekbones and along the bridge of my nose. It isn't very pigmented, so looks nice on top of other blushes to give a bit of dimension, too. This powder retails for $5.95AUD and contains 10g.

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The other item I picked up from the collection was the lipgloss in 01 Flowerkissed, which is a candy scented pink gloss in a fun dark musky pink shade.
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It is quite opaque and more pigmented than a lot of the glosses I own,slightly less pigmented when compared to something like the Revlon Colourburst glosses. Long-lasting and not sticky in the slightest, I think you'd be crazy to miss this one.
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It is a long slim tube with a doe foot applicator inside and some beautiful fresh white flowers printed on the outside of the tube. The attention to detail is a testament to the company and their effort amazes me when I see their tiny (and I mean tiny!) price tags.
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This is one of two lipgloss shades available in the collection and retails for a mere $3.50AUD for 4ml. I also grabbed one of the duo eyeshadows but will not review it here as I haven't used it yet.
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The Essence range is now available at Target stores Australia wide, and selected Priceline stores. I am unsure of where this is available internationally, please let me know if you know. Hop onto the Essence AU facebook page to find product images and new release notifications!

A Grey FOTD for a Grey Day

Yet another cloud-filled day on Saturday in Melbourne, and I had grey on my mind. Trying to take nice pictures of my IMATS and ABBW haul had me frustrated,so instead I snapped a few shots of the look I went with. I recently bought a cute grey Sportsgirl handbag, and I've been loving all shades of grey ever since.

A simple grey eye with pink lips and strong-ish brows (got them tinted at Benefit cosmetics over the ABBW weekend)

I really like the way the cool tones of the shadows go with a sweet pink lip. Usually when I wear a grey eye I go for a super baby pink shade on my lips, but I had just bought new warmer pink shades from Essence so chose them instead. Really liked the way it came out, felt like it was a a really pretty look for such a miserable day.

Here are the products I used:

Bourjois Healthymix Serum Foundation #52

NYX Powder Blush in Peach

MAC Painterly Paint Pot

Essence Quattro in Chic-ify (pale grey shade in bottom left hand corner)

Chi Chi EyeShadow Dust in Door Bitch

Shiro Cosmetics pigment in Magneton

Avon Ultra Luxury Eyeliner in Black

Clinique High Impact mascara

Nutrimetics Recharging Hydration Mist with Ruby 

Urban Decay eyeshadow in Buck (from Naked palette, for brows)

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I used the Essence shadow over the paint pot before playing around with Magneton over the lid, and added Door Bitch in the centre of the lid to add a bit of brightness to the eye. (Everytime I say/write/think about the name Door Bitch I giggle, cheers Chi Chi!)

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And for the lips...

Two brand new lip products from Essence!

The lip stain at the top is from the You Rock collection which has just hit Australia (which probably means it's old hat to those overseas) and is called Let me in Rose. It's one of two lipstains from the collection, and I will be showcasing these shortly because I am in love with them. The gloss at the bottom is from another collection also just released in Australia Blossoms etc... This gloss is called Flowerkissed, and I love the way it looks when paired with the lipstain.

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In keeping with the grey obsession, I painted my nails!

I used Sportsgirl 'It Nail' in Storm with Sephora for OPI in I'm Wired on the ring fingers to spark it up a bit. Next I'm going to pair a hot pink shade with the grey.

What colours are you obsessed with at the moment?

Have you used any of the products featured in this FOTD?

emmabovary xx

A Perfect Pink Duo

Forever on the search for a perfect pink lip option, I recently stumbled upon a combination that is a match made in heaven. My Essence affair continues with their Stay With Me lipgloss in 'Me & My Icecream', which I'm loving layered over L'oreal Colour Riche Serum lipstick in Freshly Candy (these products were also featured here, in my July Favourites)



Essence 'Me and My Icecream'



Swatch on hand

The shade does remind me of strawberry ice cream, and though I don't think this is crazily long lasting, it is decent and lasts the same length of time as my other glosses. On it's own it's slighly milky and looks very sweet, it's something you can put on without a mirror so it's great to stash in your handbag for touch ups. The colour isn't opaque, so I find this to be a great layering gloss for popping on top of a lot of my pink lip shades.



Sturdy packaging, note a sticker on lid



The applicator for this gloss is a bit strange, it has two round sections with a dip in the middle. It applies a good amount of product on your lips when you apply using the dipped section, which looks like this:



Gloss being applied

The reason I point this out is that it's close to being too far into your mouth, almost as if you are eating the product. If you tilt it, it's not really a bother though. I tend to use the end of the applicator more often than not, and it's a lot more comfortable than I thought the round tip against the lip would be. Something I dislike about it? That the shade name is only mentioned on the sticker on the gloss lid. I like my makeup to look as best as it possibly can, but I can't take the stickers off for fear of forgetting the shade names!



Freshly Candy swatch, Essence swatch, then them both layered

I adore L'Oreal's Colour Riche Serum formulation, but sometimes feel that they are just a little too creamy for everyday. I love the way 'Me & My Icecream' tones down the lipstick formulation, and makes it much more wearable. The duo still looks nice and creamy, though, which is nice. Sadly, I'm a silly beauty blogger and neglected to take a snap of myself wearing Freshly Candy on it's own, so will post this sometime soon for you. This is what the two pink products create together:



The finished look!

This look is great to pair with smoky eyes, but I've also worn it on lazy days with nothing but a sweep of taupe shadow on my lids. I'm really enjoying the Essence glosses, so much so that I've been picking a new shade up each week! They retail for $3.95, so it's really hard to resist! The L'Oreal lippies are $26.95 and are available where you usually buy your L'Oreal.

Have you tried something similar to this combo that I could try?

Have you tried either of this pink prodz?

emmabovary xx

Bourjois Rouge Hi-tech Liptint

I am not the biggest fan of liptints, I am primarily a lipstick-lovin' gal, but this bad boy is the exception. He looks great on his own with a slick of gloss, or under a bright pink lippy to ensure even wear. This can also be used on cheeks, but I am yet to try that out.The shade I own is 86 Cyber Cassis, and beautydirectory.com states that two shades are available-praline and rose. Not sure if Cyber Cassis is now discontinued, I really hope not because it's a stellar shade, which I would describe as a deep hot pink.

Here is a swatch,unblended. Here is the swatch after blending.A light swatch on lips, colour can be intensified with repeat/heavier application.

I found this product perfect for me under a pink lippy as it can be a little drying (nature of lip tints) I am dubious about it's effects on the cheek, as you can see from the blended swatch above it stains super-quickly! This was literally on, snapped pic, blended and BAM! Stain was there through 4-5 scrubbings. Retails for an affordable $19, and it available at Priceline, Target among other Bourjois stockists.

emmabovary xx