NARS Love Triangle // Hot Sand + Rita

Hey guys - I hope everyone is doing well as we ramp up for Christmas! I'm pretty hectic busy working those gruelling Christmas shopping shifts, and I still need to finish Christmas shopping myself (oops!). This will probably be my last post for..this year?? Maybe? I will be taking a bit of a break next week as I hang out with the fam, and we are going camping for a couple of days which should be fun! Today I'm reviewing a holiday release from this year, the NARS x Man Ray Love Triangle in Hot Sand and Rita. Unfortunately this is sold out online at Mecca - but neither of these are limited edition shades. The Audacious Lipstick in Rita is available permanently and Hot Sand is a highlighter shade that pops up pretty frequently. It seems to be available permanently in the US, but unfortunately not at Mecca!

Desi x Katy // Dose of Colors

Hello chickens! Chickens seems like an appropriate greeting for this post seeing as chickens are Desi's ~thang~, holla at me if you a part of her coop! I am finally getting my act together and writing my review for the Dose of Colors Desi x Katy collection! I managed to get my hands on a few of the products when they first launched, and they are having their third and final restock on October 18th at 9am PST. So I figured I should probably get my review up before these become impossible to get! If you guys didn't know, Desi and Katy are my absolute favourite Youtubers - they are hilarious, talented and their relationship is so genuine and adorable! If you follow them on Youtube, be sure to hit them up on Snapchat too because that's where the good shit is ;) It took all of my willpower to not get the entire collection - everything is so gorgeous! From the packaging to the products, the collection screams Desi and Katy and from other reviews, every product performs absolutely amazingly! Spoiler I guess - because I love what I got from the collection! I bought their Eyeshadow Palette aka "The Girls", lipstick in More Creamer Please and the two Liquid Matte Lipsticks in Hot Fire and Saváge.

ColourPop Reviews #2

It's been a minute (aka months) since I actually hauled these Colourpop bits, so I thought I'd better get my ass into gear and review them! Also I figured I'd start a new "series" featuring Colourpop reviews since whenever I buy anything from Colourpop, it's usually quite a few items so review posts with a bunch of products tend to pop up quite often here! I've been using these for the past few months and really been enjoying them, so it's time to share my thoughts and some swatches!

In the Spotlight // Matte Liquid Lipsticks

I've been meaning to do a round-up post of my matte liquid lipsticks for the longest time (same with highlighters - I'll get to those soon!!), but I always had some excuse that I didn't have enough or I would wait until I got all the ones on my wishlist. Well, it seems like a lot of the beauty community is starting to get over the intense trend that was the liquid lip, and I think I'm among them! Don't get me wrong, I still love a good liquid lip and I have found a few really good formulas that aren't too drying but are still long lasting. But, I think I've gotten all of the ones that I've wanted and don't have an itch to check out any of the new launches (*cough* Urban Decay *cough*). So, I guess now is as good a time as any to share my collection with you guys!

Colour Families // The Vivid Violets

It's been a minute since I've done a colour families post but I fully intend to keep it going! In case you're unfamiliar with my little 'series', I'm going through my collection and rounding up my products according to their colour. I've already done a couple of posts on rusty reds and berries and burgundies. Today, we're all about the vivid violets! Extra snaps when the title has alliteration ;) I have always been a lover of purple but it's been over the past year or so that I've really gotten comfortable wearing them in makeup! I've since moved on to more of the grey-toned purples (you can bet I'll have a post about those), but since summer is still in full swing I figured I'd round up the bright ones. I thought I had a bigger collection of shades like these, but my other purples tended to be more muted. It's basically just lip products and nail polishes because I can't imagine wearing a violet blush or eyeshadow!

Rimmel The Only 1 Matte Lipsticks

Rimmel is back at it again with their lip releases, and like their last launch, The Only 1 Matte Lipsticks* are pretty great! This range is a spinoff of the original The Only 1 Lipstick formula which was touted as being an all-in-one, moisturising, intense and long lasting lip product. If you read my review of the originals, you may know I wasn't the hugest fan of them. I found them to be a bit too creamy, shiny and slippy, and tended to smear and transfer easily. So, when Rimmel announced they were coming out with a matte version, I was super excited as I knew they would be much more up my alley! Keep reading for my full review and swatches of the available nine shades...

Two More MAC Nudes

My MAC lipstick collection doesn't often grow (thanks to the ridic markup here), but when it does, it's probably a new nude shade. If there's a brand that knows nudes, it's MAC. That being said, their entire shade range is pretty incredible! I managed to get my hands on two new (to my collection) nude shades thanks to my friend's recent trip to the US! I got Mocha and Spirit which aren't new shades, but they're definitely ones that haven't received much hype in the beauty community! I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts and some swatches!

A Melted Merry Kissmas

I didn't get too many Christmas sets this year, but I was lucky enough to receive the Too Faced Melted Merry Kissmas Liquified Lipstick Set as a secret santa gift at a bloggers Christmas party (excellently organised by Dani and Kate - thanks gals!). I figured I should pop up a review sooner rather than later seeing as this set is limited edition - but if you like what you see, the featured shades are all permanent! I should say thank you to Maddie whose secret santa gift this was part of, but also to Sarah who actually stole this gift from me but let me keep this portion of it because she saw how devo I was haha. She's a sweetie ;) So technically, my real secret santa gift was a soap giftset from Lush which was also lovely. That santa remains a secret though - but thank you too! Anyway - let's dive into the review!

New Colourpop Additions, Reviewed

As you may have seen, about a month ago I hauled some new products from Colourpop during their free international shipping promotion, which they've since extended to the end of the year! I've had enough time to try the products that I got - some of them new formulas for me - and figured I would share my thoughts with you! I have already tried a bunch of Colourpop products before which I wrote about in a brand spotlight post. 

Rimmel & Kate Moss // 15th Anniversary Lipsticks

Rimmel is once again killing it with their releases - the one drugstore brand I can always count on to come out with awesome new products! Their latest release is a particularly special one. They are celebrating their 15th anniversary of having Kate Moss as the face of their brand! It's quite impressive that she has been with the brand for that long, and during her tenure she's collaborated on some of their most popular products! I particularly love her lipstick ranges, so its fitting that the 15th anniversary collection is a selection of Kate's favourite nude and red shades in the Lasting Finish by Kate formula*! 

In The Spotlight // MAC Cosmetics

I'm resurrecting a somewhat "old" series today, and coming at you with a brand spotlight post! I haven't done one of these in a while and I'm not sure why because I still have a lot of brands in my collection that I need to go through and document! Anyway, today I'll be walking you through my MAC collection. MAC is probably the brand you think of when you think of makeup. It's arguably the brand with the widest range of products and shades, and one that I'm sure all of us have had an obsession with at some stage. It was only when I was pooling together my MAC products for this post that I realised I actually have quite a few of their products, but there are only a few that I use really often! Like most brands, there are products that I love and hate from them!

Colour Families // The Berries and Burgundies

Although winter is almost gone for us Aussies, I thought I would squeeze out another colour families post featuring my favourite winter-appropriate hue - berries and burgundies! I absolutely adore these vampy purples and reds on the lips and the nails, so I have quite the collection to share with you all (plus an eyeshadow and a few blushes!). 

Sheer & Shiny

Although we still have a full month left of winter, it already feels like spring here in Australia! Seriously, the other day it was like 30 degrees celsius, how is that at all a winter temperature?! Makeup brands have already begun to roll out their spring releases, one of which is from Rimmel. They've released a brand new line of lipstick - the Moisture Renew Sheer & Shine lipsticks, an offshoot of their traditional Moisture Renew line. I was very kindly sent the whole range and am here to review them for you!

Colour Families // The Rusty Reds

You guys may or may not know, but I have a bit of a thing for colour coordination - especially when it comes to makeup. I like the whole monochrome thing of keeping all elements of a makeup look in the same colour family - it's highly doubtful you'll see me mixing warm and cool tones! So, the idea of starting somewhat of a 'series' on documenting my makeup collection through colour family sort of came naturally. I mean, here's an OG post of my colour coordinating makeup skillz. So, hopefully I keep this series up because I do love organising shiz by colour. The first fam I thought I'd showcase are the rusty reds aka super warm, orangey, terra cotta reds that have been super trendy of late, and are perfect for the current autumn/winter weather! Shockingly enough, I thought I'd have more products but turns out it's basically all lip products. Any eyeshadows I thought would fit are a bit too orange, though using various shades in the Morphe 35O palette can achieve a rusty red eye look. 

Creamy Matte Lips

Like the rest of the world, I've been pretty obsessed with matte lips lately. Especially with recent formula improvements, matte lipsticks aren't as drying as they used to be and I find myself reaching for them on the daily! Luckily the drugstore is hopping on the bandwagon as well, with Maybelline's fairly recent offering of the Colour Sensational Creamy Matte lipsticks. These have been getting raves from UK and US girls alike, and I'm super glad we've finally got them here too! Unfortunately we don't have as many shades as the US, though the ones we do have are pretty gorgeous!

New In // Rimmel London

One of my favourite drugstore brands, Rimmel, has been on FIYAH lately with their new releases! The past couple of months has seen the launch of a new lipstick line, lip liner shades, cream shadow sticks, a tinted primer and a contour kit! I've been lucky enough to have been sent some of the new goodies and have been testing them out quite a bit! Keep reading to hear my thoughts...

Lips That Stay All Day

Ah, matte liquid lipsticks. The bandwagon that everyone and their mother is on. I actually had not tried any proper matte liquid lipsticks until late last year, with my first foray into them being the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks. I picked up the set of minis that was part of their holiday collection of last year, however all of these shades are permanent (I believe!) so I hope this review and swatches is still helpful! I'd read very mixed reviews on these, it was pretty much love or hate so I was very curious to try them for myself...

Sigma; Summed Up

Today I have another brand spotlight post for you all, but with a witty-ass title ;) The brand in question is Sigma and the nerdy side of me wanted to incorporate some maths (sigma in maths means the sum of .... whatever you want really). Anyway, if you got it from the get go, ILY but also I don't miss maths at all - BITCH BYE. A little while ago I was accepted into the Sigma Affiliate program which was suuuper exciting for me, and they very generously sent over a welcome pack with a range of amazing goodies! This is my first experience with Sigma and I must say, I'm impressed!

The Quintessential Mauve Lip

Mauve lips have had a massive surge thanks to one and only, Kylie Jenner. Deeper mauves, cool toned browns, browns in GENERAL have all become incredibly trendy. There are a plethora of those lipstick shades out there now! I have a few products to share today that fit right into that family, the Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lip Trio in Mauve. The set itself is limited edition but the three full size products it contains are permanent! It includes their Marvelous Moxie lip liner in Thrilled, lipstick in Break Away and lipgloss in Smooth Talker. I'm already quite the fan of their lipsticks, so keep reading to find out my thoughts on their other two lip products!

In the Spotlight // Crop's Cosmetics

Crop Natural Skincare* is a relatively new brand that came out with a small range of skincare a little while ago, and just recently launched their makeup line! Crop is a natural brand with no nasties like parabens, mineral oil, petrochemicals, etc. It's suitable for sensitive skin and doesn't test on animals! The whole ethos behind the brand is very admirable and you can read more about it on their website! I was very generously sent almost the whole range of makeup (thank you so much Crop!) and have been testing them out for the past few weeks. Before I get into the reviews, I do want to mention the packaging! It's lovely and minimal and looks quite classy - I'm into it. Oh and, unfortunately I couldn't really test the liquid foundation or brow pencil as they are the wrong shades for me! I will try and keep this post concise and I've split the products up into recommendations, 'eh' products and ones that I wouldn't recommend, so keep reading for my thoughts!