Monday 18 March 2013

My Pamper/Relaxing Evening

Hi everybody!

How are you? I just came back from the gym and I decided I shop pop on and do a bit of another post after last nights came out so well. I thought I'd do a bit of a take on Zoella's Pamper Evening as sort of a blogger post response as opposed to a video response.

Don't forget to follow by clicking that button over to the right, and drop me a comment because I love getting comments!


Step 1: Ambience:
Now, I don't know about you, but I find the bath about fifty times more relaxing and nicer if I have some lovely smelling candles to go with it, just to place it on the side, and give it a bit of a more romantic atmosphere, and a beautiful-er aroma. I don't exactly know where I got the two large candles from, but they're probably not very expensive (probably just a garden store candle) but they do the job of making it pretty and nice. The middle candle is from "Glasshouse" which (in Australia) you can pretty much buy from any of your local decor stores (and Peter Alexander as well!!) and it's in the wonderful "Tahaa" flavour which is vanilla and caramel. I love this scent because it literally reminds me of winter and sitting by the fire on a cold and snowy day while drinking a liquid caramel drink and reading a good book.


Step 2: Beverages:
For me, it really depends how I'm feeling. Normally I opt for a cold drink of apple cider or lemon, lime and bitters with ice in a cocktail glass, but today, I decided to go a bit swanky and I went for this hibiscus vanilla tea from T2. I'm pretty sure it's called Vanilla Slice. It's very nice and it's bright crimson!


Step 3: Entertainment:
While the water is running, I hunt off to find a good book and at the moment, I am half-way through and hooked on The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (yep, that's the romance movie with the glorious Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams). It's such a good book, though different to the movie, I love them both so much (as well as my undying love for Mr. Gosling).

If I'm feeling a little more crazy, I bring in earphones and my phone and just listen to some nice music and have a snooze, but do keep an eye on those candles and don't place your book near them!


Step 4 (Optional): Cold Eye Headache Thing:
I got a Crabtree and Evelyn La Source package (which a lot of the products featured in this will be from) and in it was this really interesting little eyemask. You can either stick it in the freezer or put it through the microwave for a few seconds depending on your chosen temperature. As you can see, I've stuck it in the freezer so it balances the heat of the tea and the bathwater. It's really interesting and it's from this "Pearl technology" thing. There are little beads in them, and while I don't really know exactly how different they are to just a normal cool eyemask, they really relax you and they are good for headaches and just chilling out (pun intended!). They're also really cool to play around with.


Step 5: Body Oils and Bathbombs:
Now, you might be a tad confused about the change in scenery when you scroll down and find one of the next slides actually consists of blue water and not pink rose floating water. This is because I actually photographed this post at my dad's house (where the candles and  all the crabtree and evelyn stuff are) and at my mum's house (where the shampoos and hairmasks are). Yeah, it's inconvenient but I wanted this post to be as detailed as possible! 

Back on track, I tend to go for a bathbomb (I've used the Rose Queen from Lush) to give the water a bit of spruce and colour, as well as some essential oils which I've photographed above (Scully's Bulgarian Rose). This smells like luxury in a bottle. I highly recommend Scully's and it comes in a very cute little tin bottle with a retro tag. They make some wonderful stuff and I'm looking forward to trying out some more of their bath products.


Step 6: Wash your hair:
I hope you haven't got in the bath yet, haha! I'm just up to washing my hair with shampoo. I've used the L'Occitane Daily Use Shampoo because its just what I've had. I love L'Occitane because it's organic and it smells nice and leaves my hair feeling lov-a-ly. 


Step 7: Hair-Mask:
Hair masks are your hair's best friend. Just run the mask through your hair and let it sit for a bit before rinsing it out. I haven't got in the bath yet hahaha, that's the next step.


Step 8: GET IN!


Step 9: Washing up:
I'm using the Crabtree and Evelyn La Source body wash. I love the smell of it. It's fresh, and while it's more of a morning smell, it's very relaxing for the bath and it lathers very well.




Step 10: Face-Scrubs:
I then go into washing my face. There's nothing worse than being caked in make-up (not that I am caked in make-up, but you understand what I'm saying), and stepping into a steaming bath. It opens up your pores and lets all of the foundation and whatever into your pores, clogging it up and causing pimples and blemishes. It's good to wash your face with a gentle cleanser. Normally, I'd even just use the QV face wash because it's soap free and it washes very gently and well, but yesterday I used Natio gentle facial scrub and the gentle foaming cleanser.

The face scrub was really good. The beads are big enough to exfoliate your skin well, as well as being small enough so that it doesn't feel like rubbing sand on your face. It's very gentle and it smells really lovely too. The face cleanser is interesting. I didn't find that it foamed very much and it came out more like a moisturiser than an actual foaming cleanser. Am I just using it wrong, or what? I'll give it another go tonight and see what happens. 


Step 11: Chill it out:
This is the step where I'd just read a book or listen to music, I'd put on the pearl eye-mask, take a sip of the tea and indulge in a little Nicholas Sparks, before closing my eyes and just relaxing.

Hope this helped you out. What do you do in the bath? Hahah ,that sounds weird.
Xoxo 
Lucy



Sunday 17 March 2013

Haul: Rimmel, Chi-Chi, Burt's-Bees and Natio

Hi everybody!

Super sorry for the late update - I've been extra busy due to upcoming exams and assessments which is irritating because I'm getting so much work and no time for myself. I think it's important to have a balance between work, family and me-time and right now, I'm getting no me-time so I thought I'd take a stop to constant work, break my no shopping for about 3 months and start over.

The products I've got are...








These are the part of the new Kate Moss lipstick collection by Rimmel. So far, I've tried them on once each (because I only got them yesterday) and to be honest, I really absolutely love them! They're so pigmented, it's amazing, and they leave my lips feeling really soft. They also last a really long time - I think yesterday, I put the darker cherry red on at about one and it lasted till about nineish so that's quite durable and good considering I went out for lunch so I ate and everything as well. 

I got them in the colours 22 and 12, 22 is a darker, cherry red (which I bought because down under, we're going into Autumn and that means the start of the reds and more wintery colours). 12 is more of an orangey red which I'm going to use for Autumn in particular. Both are very lovely and highly recommended. 







 I popped in at Covergirl and got a new smokey eyeshadow palette called the Exact Eyelights Eye- brightening  eyeshadow (tongue twister haha) in the shade Vibrant Browns- while cheap, its cute and just adds a small glimmer to your eyes. It's not the best palette I've used, but it's handy if you're on the go and you need a little compact eyeshadow palette in your bag for the train or something.

I got this because firstly, I needed just a little palette to put into my bag as an on-the-go palette and secondly, because the phrase "for brown eyes especially" caught my eye. It intruged me so I got it. Not the best investment, but it was quite cheap so not a huge loss.

One of the only things I had with this is the packaging. I'm not really a fan of the cheap white plastic it comes in - I don't know if that's just me or what - but it makes it look a bit tacky and like something an eight year old girl would get as like a little play around thing, and it comes with one of those fiddly


 It also came with a brush to use, though I opted for one of my own ahaha.


I bought this L'Oreal Super Liner. First of all, the packaging, I just love it. It's cute, it's elegant and its GOLD!!

I love this because it's easy to use as it has a felt tip to apply it, so for beginners, I highly recommend  It's durable and long lasting, as well as not fading quickly and not smudging easily (yay!). It also has a very pretty matte finish which I do like as well.


Now....the very prestigious Rimmel Match Perfection. Everybody was raving about this product a few months back, and I finally decided to give it a go and find out for myself. I love the coverage on it and unlike the Wake Me Up foundation, it doesn't have the shimmery finish, but still holds a pretty glow after use. It also has an SPF of 18 which I love because unlike a lot of my fellow Australians, I have paler skin and therefore, am much more susceptible to sunburns as opposed to tanning.

It's not very expensive at all, so it's perfect for a beginner as well! I don't really like the blue lid...it looks a tad cheap haha but you know, it's the product that I bought it for, not the packaging!




I didn't actually buy this, I was given it by Natio. It's a definition mascara and what I find unique about this, is the brush. If you see the picture below, it's curved and graded which I really like because it provides a nice wing to your eyelashes. It does what it says which is defines and I really do like it!


Where are we without Burt's Bees?


These two new brushes popped it for me. My parents don't live under the same roof, and so hauling make-up from here to there makes it annoying and it's probably not the most convenient thing every, so I bought two new eyeshadow brushes. This first green one is just your basic two ended brush.

I love how soft and nice they both are and the green gives it a bit more excitement than the usual black or biege of the average brush, so I thought that was a nice touch. The only thing I don't like is the fact that its double ended. I hold my brushes in a box kind of thing and so I'm always constantly worried that one of the ends will get crushed or flattened from being placed on its end.



With the mascara, I also got a face scrub and a gentle foaming cleanser, and a night cream (which I AM IN LOOOVE with). I've used the face scrub and I'm going to feature it in tomorrow's post so I won't say too much other than it leaves my face feeling wonderful and exfoliated as well as being organic and smelling like wonderfulness. The gentle foaming cleanser I have yet to use, but the night cream I love! I've used it pretty much every night I've had it and it leaves my skin feeling clean and ready for bed, as well as being smooth and just generally having that feeling of niceness to it.

























Hope you have all been well and don't forget to leave a comment and follow me by clicking that follow button up the top there as well as my twitter (luceindia)!!

Xxxx

Lucy

Monday 11 March 2013

The Procrastinating Beauty Bloggers Tag!

Hello everybody!

Gosh, it's been millennia since I've last posted, the reason being I've been so focused on my music because I've got a gig coming up and maybe I'll post something about that on here soon, but in the mean time, I was tagged by the lovely Madeleine (Click Me!) to do this which is exciting, and I also still have to do my other tag award (Liebster Award) which I'm halfway through but today, I think I shall do the Procrastinating Beauty Bloggers Tag.

RULES...:
1. Copy and paste the rules to your post when you write it, it dosen't take long!
2. State that the tag was created by "The Beau Bow" and link it: www.thebeaubow.blogspot.com
3. Thank the person who tagged you at the start of the post (big hugs to Madeleine again!) and follow them if you're feeling nice!, and then at the end of your post, state who you tag and comment on their blog on the latest post to let them know you tagged them, and link your post so they can see what to do!
4. Title the post "the procrastinating beauty blogger tag" so everyone knows what it's about
5. HAVE FUNNN!

1. Name a beauty regime that you rarely do?
Paint my toenails because, like the title of this post states, I am a verified Procrastinating Beauty Blogger, and I just can't be bothered to do it, though when I do paint my toenails, I make sure to do it nicely hehe.

2. Is washing your makeup brushes something you do regularly?
Yep, because I actually read somewhere today that when you don't wash the brushes, you're practically putting the bacteria back onto the powder or whatever, and then putting it back onto your face, which is pretty disgusting in my opinion.

3. How long will you last with chipped nail polish?
It depends because being only a mere fifteen years of age, I still go to school and my school doesn't allow nail-polish on my fingernails, though on holidays I tend to paint them every three or so days to make up for it. Toenails are another story completely...

4. How long do you put off buying/replacing a beauty or nail polish product even if you need it? (i.e purchasing a new topcoat, or a new foundation etc.)
It really depends what the product is and when I have time. I generally don't really need to replace anything because I have so much stuff already that I can just replace it without buying anything new ...it's really bad.... 

5. What is your worst beauty habit?
Either a combination of buying things I don't necessarily need, not painting my nails, or taking off majority of my make-up, but not being bothered to take off that extra little bit of mascara on my eyelashes...I know it's damaging...I know I'll regret it later in life...I know...

6. Name something non-beauty related that you put off doing all the time?
Homework? Running? No...probably packing away the banjo when I've finished using it - I normally just prop it up against a wall and leave it until the next time...again, I know it's bad for it but I'm a lazy-poo.

7. When going out somewhere, do you leave getting ready until the last minute or not?
Depends where I'm going. If it's a nice night out with someone, then I take an hour or so, but if it's, say, something boring like going to the dentist, I leave it till the last second. Literally. This tag makes me sound seriously lazy, I promise, I'm extremely organised, but a little lazy.

8. Can you commit to spending bans?
Yep. Two months yesterday! BAM!!!

9. How organised is your makeup and nail polish collection?
Extremely organised. It's unhealthy how organised it is, but that's just my personality. It's in colours, and then if it's got some kind of snazziness to it like sparkles or neon or matte..Yeah, it's all sorted.

10. What is the longest amount of time you have gone without writing a blog post?
HAHAHAHAHAHA...you don't want to know.


I think I shall tag...:
Lorraine - http://lolalovessparkles.blogspot.com.au/
Janine - http://bakeglueandtrend.blogspot.co.uk/
Chloe - http://fashion4teens.blogspot.co.uk/
Em - http://plussizemillard.blogspot.com.au/
Alexandra - http://lipsticksandheels.blogspot.com.au/

Good luck!
Xx
Lucy

Friday 1 March 2013

What's In My Bag?

Hi everybody!

I have never done a what's in my bag post yet, would you believe, so I thought I would join the club and do a little post here for you!


This is my bag. It's from Oroton and was originally my mother's bag, hence it's several seasons old and a tad dilapidated and falling apart, but regardless, I do love it. I've always had a thing for big chunky bags that hold many random things, I find that they give an impression of sophistication for some reasons, so when my mother so kindly offered to pass her bag onto me, I fell in love with it immediately. 


My purse (or wallet) is from Tony Bianco. It's actually a shoe brand, I believe, and I actually remember that I bought this purse on special for about twenty dollars at the Boxing Day Sales and just never ended up doing a post on it, but here it is.

A lot of the time these days, you see a lot of modern "mainstream" purses with studs and geometrics on them and for me, I feel as though that this will go out of trend as fast as it came in so i decided to buy something a little less extreme and go for a pretty cream leather one with the only glitzy accessory being the brand name and the subtle fold in the leather. I feel that due to its elegance it may stay in a tad longer than geometrics.




This is my rather sexy glasses case. As you can see, it boasts a very funky, hipsterness about it that makes anyone looking at it fall instantly...heehee...I've never been good at sarcasm.


These are my very sexy glasses that live inside my very sexy glasses case. They are from Basque. I dont think Basque is too high-a brand, but I loved the shape and they seem to suit my face shape well (or so my mother says) and I also find the purple lens quite pretty but still following my elegance/minimalist theme that I seem to be following. 



A bottle of melatonin pills for my sleep :) and a bathbomb...you know...just a bathbomb and melatonin in my bag...just casually...


This is my make-up bag. It's from Typo and is actually (please dont judge haha) a pencil case. I originally kept my school stationary in here but I swapped it with my Mimco pencil case and now all my emergency/travel stuff is in here. I find this case really convenient (especially if you're an organisational freak like myself) as it has two sections in it which I categories as basically my emergency kit and a smaller make-up kit for when I'm on the go. 


Some little face pad things, a plectrum (you know...when you're a muso, you find these everywhere), Rescue Remedy (a lifesaver), a hair bobble, Chanel Allure, some hair grips, tissues, a plaster,
a pen I stole from work and never gave back, Panadol, hand sanitizer (cannot go ANYWHERE without), and floss, toothpaste and brush for when I'm away from home. 


Make-up compartment


Crabtree and Evelyn cuticle cream (works amazing and smells like Grandma's), Carmex (just a lip moisturiser), Revlon lipstick (my favvvourite), a lip stainer from Max Factor, Smashbox and Miss Shop lipglosses, Mor lip butter, Rimmel Wow mascara (bad but sufficient), Rimmel eyeliner pen (also bad but does its emergency job), and another thing of hand sanitizer :)


This diary is honestly the cutest! My brother got this for me for Christmas as he knows I love to plan things out properly and so he got me this pocket sized diary from Kikki K. I also have this book that my parents bought me in 2009 for Christmas. I carry this book everywhere. It's one of those feel-better books that puts difficult times into perspective. I'd highly recommend this book.


A packet and tin of girly things and a compact mirror from Equip.


What's in your bag?
Xx