Empties #17

It's empties time again! I'm a wee bit overdue this time around so I have a lot to talk about! It feels good to be finishing up products. I also did a wardrobe AND makeup declutter this past week so I'm feeling extra good about myself haha! I got rid of a tonne of makeup that I just wasn't using (or was super old) and my collection is a lot more streamlined. That being said, I still have a huge collection and way more than I actually need... haha. :P Anyway, let's dive into products I've actually finished!

Monthly Favourites // February 2018

Well February sped by pretty quick hey!? I didn't do a favourites post for January mostly because I didn't have anything new to talk about, but also because I did my yearly favourites and didn't want to bombard you guys with favourites posts! Regardless, I've got a few new and old faves to share with you for the month of February! Surprisingly I haven't been buying many new beauty things (mainly just massive Colourpop orders here and there) so you may see a few repeat products popping up over the next few months! I guess that's a good thing though because I need to appreciate my collection and stop buying stuff I don't need!

The Best of 2017 // Beauty

I'm a little bit late to the 2017 roundup party, but better late than never! I'm also thinking of doing a skincare favourites of 2017 since I haven't done a skincare routine post in a while! Anyway, I tried to keep my 2017 favourites to products I actually discovered in 2017 and were new to me last year, but there are a few (three to be exact) repeats from 2016, and also a few products that I got in 2016 (perhaps toward the end of the year), but really loved in 2017. Do check out my 2016 favourites because I still absolutely love all of those products and many of them are still in my everyday rotation and could have easily been mentioned here! Also it wasn't purposeful, but I've actually got 17 products here, so it's my top 17 from 2017!

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!

Collective Haul // November 2017

The last haul (hurrah!) of the year! November was FILLED with sales - almost too many sales for that matter. Was it just me, or were black friday and cyber monday absolutely crazy this year? It felt like every single shop and online store was having a sale, it was quite frankly overwhelming! Buuut that didn't stop me from doing some damage haha. My bank account definitely took a battering and yet I still haven't even finished my Christmas shopping. Oops. Onto the haul!

Bridal + Bridesmaid Makeup

A couple of months ago, my sister got married and I had the honour of doing her makeup! When my sister first suggested that I do her makeup, I was very hesitant...Me?! Doing your makeup on the day that you'll forever look back on!? But what if I screw it up! I'd like to think I'm pretty good at makeup on myself, and on other people, but hey, I ain't no makeup artist. That being said, I have done both of my sisters' makeup numerous times in the past, and they both seem to really like the finished results. So, the more I thought about it, the more I warmed to the idea. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a makeup artist when I can do it for free? I mean, we all know I have all the products and the fact that I could do a bunch of trial tests on her was appealing to the both of us - and trust me, we did a bunch of trials (she's fussy!). Eventually though, we settled on this look which thankfully, she really liked and was super happy with. I also had to do mine, my other sister's bridesmaid makeup and my mum's so to say I was a bit rushed the morning of is probably an understatement, but luckily everything turned out amazingly!

The Best of 2016

Aaaaaand...we're back! I hope you guys had a relaxing break and lovely holiday period! I didn't intend to take such a long(ish) break but I ended up being super busy with work (yay retail) and spending time with family! It's about that time though for a big ol' round up of all of my favourite products of the past year! I hope y'all aren't too bored of seeing these posts! :P As always, I'm mentioning the products I loved last year, regardless of whether they're new or old! I tried not to go too overboard, but I also didn't overly limit myself. If you're a seasoned reader of mine, none of these will be a surprise (I don't think!)! Let's dive in!

The Daily Makeup Edit

It's been a loooong, long time since I've done any sort of "daily makeup" routine post on the blog, and seeing as I've stuck to a pretty solid routine for the past several months, I figured I should update you guys! This post will also serve somewhat as a September favourites as I haven't really been using or loving anything new, just the same old shiz! I think that will change in the coming months though as I've broken my spending ban (a pretty lax one at that) and made a Colourpop order, and I anticipate I will be buying a bunch more with the impending holiday releases! I'm pretty proud of myself though, I pretty much hadn't bought anything since the Sweet Peach Palette which was all the way back in May! Anyway, if any of y'all are OG readers, some of these products might take you waaay back into the archives! I should say, I don't necessarily wear this makeup everyday but this look is typically my go-to for work (without the eye products) or long days at uni!

Monthly Favourites // August 2016

So we are well and truly on our way to the end of the year - mind boggling isn't it?! August has been pretty busy! Last week was assessment-heavy, but from here on out I pretty much have some sort of assessment every week which should be fun... Also - in case you missed it, Brisbane (where I live) was hit with Thor-mania! It was a bit hilarious actually, but Thor Ragnarok is currently filming at the Gold Coast and they came up to Brisbane for a few days to film some "city" scenes. They legit "transformed" Brisbane into New York City and disrupted traffic which got some people pretty annoyed but they also attracted huge crowds (me included...). What can I say, nothing ever happens here and that was pretty damn exciting! After waiting a solid few hours (in the rain!), I got a photo with Chris Hemsworth! Actually not my photo, but I sneaked in the background ;P Unfortunately, I didn't get one with my one true love Tom Hiddleston, but maybe it's better this way.... *CRIES* Anyway, I wasn't sure if I was going to do a favourites post this month because been using all the same stuff, but there were a few products that I've been using a lot that I haven't mentioned in a while! 

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!). 

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. 

What's In My Travel Beauty Bag(s)?

So I leave tomorrow for my three week trip to the US! I feel like I've been waiting forever for this trip to come, and now that it's here, I feel so unprepared! Why must I procrastinate in every aspect of my life?? I'm pretty sure I've never shared with you guys what products I've taken travelling in the past, usually it's nothing exciting, especially makeup wise as I'm never really bothered much in that department! I figured this trip I'd put more effort into my face as I'm going to some big cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Denver!). I tried to pack light, especially considering I'll be buying a WHOLE LOT while I'm there, but I may have overdone it on the skincare... :P My excuse is that my skin is actually pretty good right now and I don't want to mess it up! Plus I'm gone for three weeks so I cant just switch it up for an off week, y'know? Also, ignore the weird lighting in these photos. It was raining pretty heavily today! Plus, my camera decided to start acting up and basically died. Just before my trip of course!! I had to wipe the settings and I have no idea what they were to put it back to what it was lol. Ended up being a bad connection between the lens and the body which a quick clean fixed (for now...). 

The Best of 2015

Hallo humans! I'm finally getting around to wrapping up my favourites of 2015! I hadn't thought of what I would put in this post (was probably procrastinating lbr), but when I sat down to write up my list, there were quite a few obvious picks! I had quite a bit of trouble narrowing it down, and will probably throw in some honourable mentions too heh. I decided to go about picking the products I used and loved during 2015, not necessarily new products of 2015, though I did get quite a few of them last year. I'm also not mentioning products I got in the last couple of months, but you can catch up on those faves in my November and December favourites posts! Anyway, enough rambling, let's jump in before this post becomes 10000 years long!

One Shocking Moment

Holy wow Christmas is so soon and everyone's busting out their gift guides while I'm just here buying gifts for myself. wuuUTT WUUT. Anyway, I have to say the Holiday releases this year were pretty great, you can read about my picks here. I feel like the hype has sort of died down and hopefully everything hasn't sold out. I thought I would finally write up my review of the NARS x Steven Klein One Shocking Moment Cheek Studio Palette. Hopefully this review isn't redundant seeing as most people have seen/heard a bunch about this palette or...they own it, and you guys know I already love it but what da heck, this guy deserves a post all to himself!

Monthly Favourites // November 2015

Although I finished Uni at the end of October, November has still been a pretty hectic month! I've been working a bunch (does that at all justify the millions of hauls that happened in November??? Plus more in the mail WHOOPS) and my days off have mostly been trying to catch up on blogs and chillin owwwt watching shows, etc. I have quite a few new products to share with you, which I predicted I would last month. Lots of haulage = lots of exciting new products. Let's jump in!

HAUL-I-DAY 2015

'Tis the seeeason....FOR ALL THE HOLIDAY RELEASES. To be honest, the only reason I'm excited for this time of year is because of the holiday releases...just kidding (not really). On Tuesday, Mecca dropped all of their gift sets so I bought the last thing I wanted from this round of releases (can I just say though that Mecca's holiday decoration is BE-YOU-TI-FUL. THE BAG IS DRIPPING GOLD). I would say I was fairly restrained? Fairly??!? Well, none of my purchases overlap (ie one set for eyes, lips and face!). There are a bunch of things that tempted me but I've managed to resist (thus far). Things like the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit, the Laura Mercier baked trio palette with the highlighter/bronzer/blush, the Too Faced and Bare Minerals sets (the set of 10 mini lipsticks for $53 is amazing value!) and a bunch more. Here are the three things that actually made my basket...

The Lowdown on Lodhi

While the intensely pigmented lip crayon/pencil products have been the hot thing in the beauty community at the moment, perhaps the original pow-wow lip pencils came from NARS in the form of their Satin and Matte Lip Pencil. Last month I did a review on the Maybelline Velvet Matte Lip Pencils which are supposedly similar to the NARS Matte Lip Pencils, but today I have the Satin Lip Pencil in Lodhi to share.

Monthly Favourites // March 2015

March was a pretty busy month for me! It was basically my first month of uni where I actually started doing work, though...let's not talk about how I'm so behind on readings and should get back to doing the assignment that's due tonight! Favourites wise, I was actually grasping! Well, that's a bit extreme, but a lot is the same from last month. While I did get a boat load of stuff mid-month (thaaaanks Obsession!) I've been slowing starting to try things and wanted to test them out for a bit longer before I declared any faves! Though, there are definitely some gems in that bunch! Let's get stuck in here though!

Guest Post // Top 5 Blushes

Well hello there readers of Shiwashiful! My name is Gabbie and I am visiting from thebeautybabbler. Tasha and I decided it would be fun to do a "guest post" to mix things up for our readers. It took a little discussion but we came to the conclusion that both of us have blush collection bordering on obsessive and that it would be fun to share our top 5!

The Best of 2014 // Makeup

Kiddies, it's time for the big 'un. The pinnacle and summation of 2014, documented in makeup products. I didn't want to make this post too long, and really tried to pick the products I used and loved most throughout 2014. I also didn't want to repeat anything from 2013's favourites, so products like the Dolly Wink Eyebrow Powder or Lorac Pro Palette which I used and loved immensely, haven't been included. Speaking of 2013's faves, looking back, while a lot I still like, others I've completely ignored. Funny how opinions change! Also, APOLOGIES for the slightly grainy/off photos, the weather was shitty this day, and I had to edit the crap out of them! BUT anyways, I've done reviews for most of the products, so they'll be linked where applicable!