Monday, October 8, 2012

Ozsale - The Balm Haul - Small Ozsale.com.au review

A while back, probably over a month ago, Ozsale had The Balm products on their site for sale.
I got the news from other beauty bloggers and went straight onto the site to check it out. I've never made purchases from these 'deal' sites so i wasn't sure how they worked. It looked pretty easy and before i knew it, i had over $200 of products in my cart. After i had paid and was offered free shipping for the next hour i ended up spending another $100 *hangs head in shame*.

I'm a little embarrassed to say i didn't really get a good variety of things. I didn't want to spend money on things i wasn't going to use or things that i didn't need anytime soon.
I may or may not have ordered excessive amounts of concealer. I had been eyeing it in store and fascinated by the quality when i had tested it, but i couldn't justify getting another concealer to play with at that price.
Here is what i got :)





I bought a few Nude'tude palettes, these will make perfect gifts! The concealer, foundation, 2 Shade Lady palettes, betty lou-manizer and the mary lou-manizer.

Everything is so soft and swatches beautifully. The concealer is as lovely as i remembered. And the foundation... it is like my beloved discontinued Maybelline dream smooth mousse but slightly thicker and more coverage! Now i'm kicking myself for not getting more since it's such a large product if i was to use it as a concealer instead. But now i have no regrets for buying a second one with my 2nd order :D
I'm lucky that the shades i chose fit me perfectly too :)

Shipping took 4 weeks which is more than the stated delivery time but is how long i expected from what the beauty bloggers have said.

My little review of Ozsale.com.au is 2/5 stars. They have good brands on their site now and then. But how long it takes for delivery isn't very good. Also the products weren't bubbled wrapped at all. They were thrown all together into a plastic envelope and i'm surprised nothing broke too badly. There are dents in the packaging but only one nude'tude palette suffered slightly. The authenticity of the products are questionable as well. I had compared the Nude'tude palette and there is definitely differences. The packaging is a little lighter than the one i purchased in store. Which could be a manufacturing thing. And a few shadow swatch differently. The Ozsale ones do have an extra ingredient listed which might mean they are authentic but TheBalm has changed the formula since?
Fake or not, the Ozsale palette swatches better than the one from in stores... so i'm not sure what to think of that if they were fake. I have high doubts they are fake simply because the website sold the whole range offered by TheBalm including their skincare. I know there tend to be fake copies of popular items but not of every product available from a brand.

I also had an issue with my order, 2 palettes were missing. It might have been due to ordering multiple quantities of a certain palette and they overlooked that. However i had contacted them to request they resend or refund on the missing items. They have ignored my contact for over a week now. I have to go through Paypal to sort it out and am waiting for a resolution at the moment.
Wow strangely enough as i was typing that an email notification popped-up and my paypal case was resolved with Ozsale refunding the amount for the missing items :)
It took them a few days to respond to the Paypal dispute though. Overall if you shop Ozsale.com.au, use Paypal! I called paypal with another Ozsale issue last time and the girl was very helpful and was definitely on my side. I will probably rant about that another time. I have a few more purchases from them. So expect another post soon! Or when i find the time :)


My new Prada 1M0881 Peonia Cardholder :)


Had no intentions of getting this but had a little bit of store credit left over. 
I love it more than i expected. A little too thin but is the perfect size to hold together with my phone in one hand. Love it.

Friday, October 5, 2012

I wish i had time to blog but i'm just too busy to even breathe right now. Maybe after next week.
A few exciting purchases i've made recently to post about!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Bourjois Paris Sucre Spring 2012 Collection



Spotted this collection around 1-2 weeks ago. Although it seems a bit out of place in Priceline because of the way it's set up, the bright colours still caught my eye. Priceline seems to not carry the pink eyeshadow and has 2 different mascaras rather than one.


A little display box with the products sitting neatly inside.

After trying the Anti-choc No-chips polish last time, i am in love with them! They are very pigmented and dry quite fast. Usually 2 coats is all i need for perfection. I'm not a fan of the slanty brush though. I always miss one corner of my nail and i have to go cover the undried parts to get into that corner which leaves potential for clumpy polish.
Currently Bourjois at Priceline has a spend $25 and over to receive a free gift with purchase.
I couldn't say no to the polishes because the colours were too cute. At $13 each they are still pricey considering i can get O.P.I for $12 at ProNail supply. But there was a GWP so it was all justified!

The blush and 2 eyeshadows


swatches!

The blush is very nice and pigmented unlike most Bourjois blushes. It is a very pinky coral with shimmer from what i recall. The eyeshadow pots are super pastel and remind me of macarons!



 Here is what i got :)

The 2 limited edition polishes. RRP$13.00

This is what was included inside the GWP. An eyeshadow palette (pinky brown tones), mascara and nail lacquer in Magenta Show. Valued at $62.

I've used these polishes and they're nicely pigmented as expected. Spread on like a dream. And the colours are way too cute. I think i need to get backups! I hope i find a store that's not sold out. My total for the 2 polishes was $26 which just qualified from the GWP. I might consider getting the blush later too :)






Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Rimmel Stay Matte Foundation Review

Got my hands on this a few months ago but haven't gotten around to using it till recently. And i hate to say it but i absolutely HATE this foundation. It is very thick, doesn't spread and has no coverage at all.
I can always tell how well the foundation spreads by the little hairs above my brows. With the Bourjois Healthy Mix foundations i can't see the foundation on my face when i smooth it all out. But with this Rimmel foundation, there are clumps and dry looking patches on my face.
Not only that, it doesn't spread yet is thick like a cream. I found the best way to use it is to pat it into my skin like a night cream. It clumps up on little hairs on the face and you can add more to fill in the gaps but it feels so thick already so i wouldn't want to do that.
After managing to get it on the skin without it being patchy, i was sad to see no coverage at all. On my freckles i can understand why, but on the minor pinkness in my skin? NO foundation has ever let the redness show through.
In conclusion, this foundation is horrible. It is more like a tinted moisturiser yet worse because it doesn't spread nicely either. It might work better on oily skin i suppose but the coverage is 1/10. It works great if you want almost no coverage and look natural but as i said, it clumps up on fine hairs on the face so you're better off with a tinted moisturiser.
I'm around NC20 in mac and the shade 100 Ivory matched me pretty well. Usually i got for the light-medium shades so i'm pretty surprised 'ivory' suited me. Maybe the Bourjois foundation is just too amazing and my standards have gone through the roof? :)



Saturday, September 1, 2012

Massive Mixed Shopping Hauls :)

I've somehow got lots of beauty shopping photos in a folder and yet no interesting story behind them. So i thought it would be fun to just throw them all together in a post :)


Firstly is the Lush Buttercup gift box which i got from a friend for my birthday a while back.
I love the smell of the Honey I Washed the Kids soap, but sadly it is a soap and the filmy feeling it has really annoys me. I'm too use to my Dove cream beauty bar and sadly soap will always feel grimy to me :(








Next up is the Shu Uemura Morphorium Blue Palette! I've been unattentionally trying to collect these lovely Shu Uemura palettes for a while now. I only had 2 so i was super excited to spot this at David Jones. It was reduced and on sale for around $60 also! I know the colours aren't colours i will use. And i would only be buying it to 'collect' it but i just couldn't say no! It was too pretty. And hunting down these palettes is hard work! I know because just a few days back i managed to score the Shu Uemura Reindeer Kiss XXXX palette. I found it online and i'm so glad to get my hands on it. The packaging is the prettiest packaging i've ever seen. It was not cheap on eBay but it is rare and i had to have it! Again, the colours i will be unlikely to use but it is too pretty to say no to :)
The swatches are amazing as well. Super soft silky powder and amazing pigmentation. Shu Uemura is definitely one of my favourite beauty brands.






Next is a lipstick i picked up from Chi Chi. I love Chi Chi products as well. They are an Asutralia brand and i've found their eyeshadows to be extremely high quality. That's why i decided to try their lipsticks earlier this year and got Hollywood Heiress. I love the colour and it is very moisturising on the lips. However it doesn't have very high staying powder as most cream lipsticks and tends to slip around during application. They retail for around $18.95. Target had a few shades on sale for $10 so i picked up the shad Flirt which is another cream lipstick. It is a lovely colour but sadly a little too dark for my liking so i don't see myself using it as much.







After my first TheBalm haul from David Jones, i was shopping with the bf and ended up getting the Down Boy Blush as well. Of course i got another sample goodie bag with my purchase :) This was all paid for by a giftcard so i didn't feel too guilty about it. I still had $4 left on the card so the week after i decided i might as well get the third blush and collect them all... sadly when i got there i realised they had the Hot Mama! blush too. I couldn't decided which i should i did what i always do, and got both lol Paid for them seperately and picked up another 2 goodie bag. At this point i realise i'm just hoarding but it's already done! hehe


TheBalm's Meet Matt(e) palette










David Jones Beauty Deluxe Sampler Goody Bag :D



These are the O.P.I minis i got from the goodie bags. I think i got a very nice selection. I'm super excited about the brownish one because Bobbi Brown has a limited edition polish out right now that's exactly the same! And this was the only one in all the goodie bags so i'm happy :)

I ended up picking up some more polishes with the $10 off Bourjois at Priceline this month. I stopped by Pricelines randomly to pick these up. As you can see i ended up getting 3 of the same shade because i wasn't keeping track. These were normally $12 each but i got them at $2 with the voucher. Amazing bargain i think :)
I also picked up 2 lipsticks. Both in the same shade 06 because it's super lovely. It is also 100% natural which means it does smell a little funny but nothing that bothers me. If you've used Dermalogica products and don't find them an issue then you'll be fine with this lipstick. Staying power is not too bad on this and goes on quite nice. Not too drying but nothing like a lipbalm of course.





During the adorebeauty.com.au sale a while back where they had 22% off. I did some hauling myself but because i'm on a tight budget, my bf offered to get the Clarisonic Mia for me which i really wanted. Normally RRP$150. The site sells it for $135 and with 22% off it came down to $105! So much cheaper than in store. I have used it once and am not too impressed yet. It doesnt feel like its really getting in there and scrubbing but i'm sure it's suppose to be gentle enough on the skin. I'll see after a few more uses :)






Lastly is some Essie value packs and holiday mini set i got from Myer probably 2 months ago. The value packs are definitely worth it at $17.95. Cheaper than the cost of one polish!



Also a random photo of my nails :) China Glaze Tinsel Town with O.P.I's Serena glam collection polish, forgot the shade name.. this was a bitch to take off and i got finger cramps doing so! I'm reluctant to wear glitter polishes for a while now hehe


Will be doing another post later tonight i think! See you soon :)







Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Balm @ David Jones Haul and Priceline Bourjois :)

L was super nice and gave me a $100 DJs giftcard last week. And for my day off today i was on a mission to spend it! 
So first i made a little trip to Priceline to pick up a Bourjois Anti-choc No chips polish in shade 16 i saw the other day and thought was a really nice bright coral. I had my Bourjois $10 off voucher with me of course :) So the polish came down to $3. I remember that it would have only cost me 40 cents last week during the 20% off sale but i would have felt too guilty when paying so i didn't buy it then lol
But $3 now i think is a good price and yet not completely free hehe When i was paying the girl was so lovely and gave me back my voucher saying i can re-use it over and over. And so i said 'even if i wanted to use it now?', 'yes', 'really? i might go get every shade then...', and so i ran back and grabbed every shade available and the girl was lovely enough to not mind doing 8 seperate transactions for me. And she was super fast at it too!
So i walked out one very happy customer :D Usually i get the worse service at Priceline. But i guess it really depends on who serves you and if they're in a good mood. There are certain people i avoid at certain Pricelines just because of their attitude every time.


Bourjois Anti-Choc No Chips Nail Polishes
Shades 17, 11, 14, 21, 19, 12 and 16 (left to right)

My next stop was David Jones. And i knew there was nothing on my list to get. But i went straight to the beauty section and headed for The Balm cosmetics. I love their Nude'tude palette so i was thinking of getting another of their palettes i've seen before. 
The first palette i saw had no tester and i couldn't see what shades were inside. I was fiddling around when the lady came over and told me that the palette was actually a gift with purchase! Spend $27.95 or more on The Balm products and you get this full sized palette! I knew right then and there i was going to buy something :) I can't resist a good GWP.
The Shady Lady palettes were nice and although there were 2 to choose from, i didn't think i would make good use of all the shades there. They were $49.95 each and i would have been better off buying a back up nude'tude. But i wanted to try something different. Their skincare line looks really interesting but i just recently got some new Clarins skincare even though i have more than enough already. So the next thing that caught my eye was the blushes. There were 3 shades to choose from, a peachy pink, neutral light pink and a mauvey pink. This was an easy decision as peachy pinks look best on my skin. The 'Hot Mama' blush/eyeshadow was quite nice as well and reminded me of NARS's Orgasm but i've learnt matte blushes look best. Sheen blushes tend to stand out too much yet lack colour and also look terrible if you're not having a good skin day.
I walked around a bit more and noticed they had another one of their Deluxe Samples Beauty Bag promotions. With the purchase of any beauty product, you can buy the deluxe samples beauty bag for $19.95. Valued at around $105.
The bag contains:
David Jones Beauty Foundation Brush
David Jones Men's Hair and Body Wash 125ml
Aromatherapy Co. Therapy Pulse Point 15ml
Grown Lip Balm 6ml
OPI Nail Lacquer 3.75ml

Plus 3 of the following:
Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant 22ml
Crabtree and Evelyn India Hicks Island Living Hand Therapy 25g
Natio Body Butter 100g

OR

In Essence Botanically Active Skincare Product
L'Occitane Shea Butter Hand Cream 10ml
Model Co Shine Lip Gloss 5ml

all inside a small plastic cosmetics bag and DJs Tote bag.

I chose the 2nd option even though the Dermalogica sample was most tempting. I've tried it before and didn't find it to do much for my skin so it was a better deal to get a full sized In Essence product. 
It varied and you either got the In Essence Gentle Milk Cleanser, Moisture Glow (tinted) or the Facial Scrub. I chose the Facial Scrub pack and the only other product that varied in the packs were the OPI mini polishes. Majority were a dark hot pink that they seemed to have last time as well. I got this shade last time and really didn't want it again but the only pack with the scrub had that shade. When i was going to pay i saw more packs at the counter and i managed to find the scrub with a different OPI shade :D So that made me happy. Total altogether was $47.90 for everything i got! I didn't expect to get such a good buy in DJs :D
Overall it was a very good shopping day for me as i got new things that i'm excited to try.

:)

very lightly swatched

The Balm Frat Boy Blush

I super hate when they stick these stickers on PAPER products. They destroy the packaging if you don't peel carefully!

The Balm Gift With Purchase