Mascara Time: Maybelline Volum' Express Falsies Flared

Maybelline Volum' Express Falsies Flared is the newest mascara from Maybelline to hit the shelves here in New Zealand.
I was lucky enough to be sent one for review, so have been using it religiously for about 2 weeks now.

The patented spoon curler brush is designed to fan out the lashes from corner-to-corner and the Pro-Keratin formula is supposed to provide instant volume without clumping.
But does it work?

After using the Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara for so long, I found the formula on this to be extremely dry. I also found that it didn't really hold a curl that well either, and my eyelashes tended to droop a little by the end of the day.

The brush itself was quite good at getting all the individual eyelashes, and seperated them quite nicely without too much clumping - but again I didn't find it to be very helpful at actually curling the lashes. Curling is essential for me, so this was a bit disappointing.

Overall, I didn't think this was a bad mascara, but probably wouldn't repurchase it.
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Findation... Find Your Foundation Match!

Ever wanted to buy a foundation online but were unsure about which colour to choose? Findation is here to help!

It has never been easier to find a foundation match. Findation helps you find a foundation by using an algorithim to recommend similar shades, based on the matches entered by other foundation users.

Basically what you do is sign in (with either Twitter or Facebook) and enter in the foundation matches you already know. For example, I know for sure that MAC Face & Body in C2 is a perfect match for me, and so is Graftobian Hi Def Foundation in Ingenue. I can then use those choices to find my recommendations for other brands. It's genius!

I actually can't even begin to show you guys how excited I am about this, living in New Zealand makes it hard for me to shop for foundations, because the range here is so limited. I rely heavily on online shopping, and this is going to make things so much easier.

Thanks to the amazing GlossQueen for posting about this site, or I probably wouldn't have found out about it!

Hope you all find this as helpful as I have.
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Swatch Watch: Yaby World Of Pearl Paints Palette

Yaby Cosmetics. By now, you've probably heard of them and like me, have drooled over all their beautifully pigmented products.
You may have already seen my review on the Yaby Dramatically Neutral palette and know that I am a huge fan of their eyeshadows - but the World of Pearl Paints palette is even more amazing than I expected.

The colours are intensely bright and the formula is to die for. They feel more like a cream but in powder form. They blend effortlessly and once again I'm shocked at how little you actually need to use! Would you also believe that they're waterproof? What more could you want?!

I decided to swatch the whole palette for you to see, beware, after this you'll be dying to get your hands on it!

Sooo pretty!
If you'd like to get your hands on one of these amazing palettes, head on over to Yaby Cosmetics.
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Review: Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara

I was lucky enough to be chosen to review the new Rimmel Scandaleyes mascara, which I’ve been using religiously for over a week now.
I am always on the hunt for a good mascara, and am hardly ever satisfied with one – so I tend to go through quite a few! I actually have a few unopened ones that are waiting to be used, but really wanted to try this one first.

The first thing that struck me was how big the brush is – this thing is huge! I know it says it’s 50% larger and everything, but I was still surprised when I saw it.

The formula itself is a little more liquidy (how’s that for a word?) than I would like it to be, I feel like it takes longer to dry – which can be a little annoying.  It is very black though, which I love. There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than buying a black mascara and it turning out to be more of a dull dark grey.

I have to say, I wasn’t really expecting great things from this. I have used Rimmel mascaras in the past, and haven’t been that impressed. They’ve always been fairly good, but never anything that I would actually repurchase.

At first, I found it quite tricky applying Scandaleyes, because the size of the brush felt so awkward! After a couple of uses though, I soon got used to it. As I said before, liquidy formulas annoy me because of the drying time – but oh my goodness, once it dries it really holds a curl! I mean, really. It also thickens and lengthens my lashes quite nicely, which every girl wants, I’m sure!

Overall, this is a mascara I will be purchasing and wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it. Give it a go for yourself and let me know what you think!

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Since I've been MIA...

And am home from work today because I have a massive sinus infection, I thought I would do one of those tags. :)

Vital Statistics:

-Name: Christel

-Nicknames: Chrissy, Kitty, Choo Choo, Chriddle etc.

-Birthday: 16 September 1987 - so old!!

-Place of Birth: Auckland, New Zealand

-Zodiac Sign: Virgo!

-Male or Female: Female

-Occupation: Pharmacy Assistant/Freelance Makeup Artist

Appearance:

-Hair Color: Currently my natural colour of 'medium brown'. Growing out the black that it has been for the past year or so!

-Hair Length: Long? Although not long enough, if you ask me.

-Eye color: Brown/Hazel.

-Best Feature: I dunno? My eyes possibly, I think I get the most compliments on them.

-Height: 5'4'', Yup - I'm a shorty!

-Braces?: Never needed them, thank goodness! My sister did, and they always looked so painful :(

-Glasses?: Yes! I'm short sighted, so I have to wear them full time. I choose to wear contact lenses 90% of the time though - although I have to say that glasses are so much more convenient to wear!

-Piercings: I have 14 ear piercings and 1 nose piercing. I used to have my navel and labret pierced back in the day, but they actually both grew out (which was quite disgusting!) and I haven't bothered getting them redone.

-Tattoos: Two. One is of two phoenixes on my back, that my sister bought for my 19th birthday, and the other is a turtle on my lower back (TRAMP STAMP!). I love both and have been planning more for awhile now.

-Righty or Lefty: Righty!

Your 'Firsts':

-First best friend: Sophie I think.. back in primary, we were great buds, but we've since lost touch. I do see her around now and then, and always say hello!

-First Award: I actually don't know. I remember getting all these awards in primary, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were for.

-First Sport You Joined: Netball! I used to play Centre. Good times.

-First Real Vacation: The first one that I really remember was the first time my family and I went up north camping when I was 7.. it was the start of a tradition and we've been back every year since then!

-First Concert: 48may I think.. they were a pretty big local band over here at one stage, and to be honest, I had a major crush on the lead singer - Jon! We used to go to a lot of their concerts, and ended up being quite friendly with the band, up to the point where they started recognising us! Ahh good memories..

Favorites:

-Movie: Step Brothers, Anchorman, Titanic, Once Were Warriors, American History X, Forest Gump, The Green Mile, Inception, Blood Diamond, Pirates of the Caribbean, ALL Tim Burton movies, The Hangover 1 & 2, Elf, Talladega Nights.. and so many more!

-TV Show: Revenge! Omg, I am obsessed with this program - I even bought a new TV, just so I could watch it! Hahaha. Craaazy. I also love Home and Away, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Jersey Shore.

-Colors: Black, purple, turquoise, bronze.

-Song: Oh come on, how could I possibly choose? I LOVE music, and could never narrow it down to just one.

-Candy: Cadbury cream eggs and Kit Kats.

-Restaurant: I'm not really a restaurant person, I never go out to dinner or anything! Whenever I eat out, it's usually sushi or Subway. Hahaha!

-Store: DressMart is my favey!

-Book: I love the Twilight series! But am actually on the lookout for a new series to get into..

-Magazine: I like those foodie magazines... and That's Life! Surprisingly I don't often read fashion mags, I prefer to read articles and blogs online.

-Shoes: Wedges and ballet flats!

Currently:

-Feeling: Sick! :( And very sleepy..

-Single or Taken: Single

-Eating: I just had a doughnut... not particularly healthy, but what can ya do? :P

-Listening To: Revenge, hahaha.

-Thinking About: If I'll be well enough to go to work tomorrow, I hate being sick at home. It feels so unnatural!

-Wanting: My package to show up!

-Watching: Revenge! 

-Wearing: Trackies -  my awesome Ridgeline ones. Honestly, if you live in New Zealand, you need to get your hand on a pair of these track pants. They are SO warm and comfy. Also wearing this oversized grey t shirt from Supre.

Future:

-Want Children?: Yes, I would love to have kids one day!

-Want to be Married: I've always been against marriage, but to be honest, if it was the right person, I would definitely consider it.

-Careers in Mind: I'm starting to lean towards a career as a pharmacy technician.. but I am still undecided.

-Where do you want to live?: I would love to live up north, where we go camping. Since we bought a section there last year, one day that might be a reality!

Do You Believe In:

-God: Nope.

-Miracles: Not really.

-Love At First sight: I wish! But it seems pretty unlikely to be honest. :P

-Ghosts: Definitely.

-Aliens: I'm started to believe in them more and more...

-Soul Mates: Yes I do! Mine must be out there somewhere right? Hahaha

-Heaven: Yes

-Hell: Yes

-Kissing on The First Date:Yes

-Yourself: Everyone has to. :)

That was fun! Now I tag all of you to do it! If you do, please leave me a comment so I can take a look!

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Mail of the week! 19 - 26 March!

I LOVE GETTING MAIL!

First package was from Nzsale... a site I seem to be addicted to lately.
They were having a sale on Bershka jewellery, everything was $4 NZD - so thought I'd grab a few things..


Next came an awesome little black clutch from TVNZ, filled with U by Kotex goodies. It included a Flexinights Ultrathin pad, 2 Regular wing Ultrathin pads, 2 Breathable liners, 2 Xtra-thin liners and a pack of Regular tampons.
Love getting stuff like this for free - so useful. And the little black clutch is totally reusable! Be sure to get your own here.


A 5 day starter pack for combination & oily skin from Nivea.
I got this off their facebook page, by submitting a skincare tip - make sure you get yours too!


As part of the Nzgirl product review panel, I got sent this Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Eyeliner in Blackest Black. I am so looking forward to trying this out tomorrow!


I have been wanting a Z Palette for a long time, so when I saw that Gracie Lou Ltd had a sale on them, I had to give in and purchase a leopard print one. So excited! I put my Venomous Cosmetics samples in it, just to see how cute it looks..


Butter London nail polishes are soo beautiful, but are so damn expensive... so of course, when I saw that nzsale had them for $17 NZD... well.. I couldn't resist..
Left to right: British Racing Green, Marrow, Pillar Box Red and Jaffa


Ok, last package from nzsale! I promise! Atleast until the next one arrives.. hahaha.
Essie polishes at $7 NZD each? Can you blame me?!
Left to right: Protein Base Coat, Shifting Power, Vermillionaire, Sexy Divide, Smokin' Hot and Pretty Edgy


Can't wait to see what I get next week!
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Review: Venomous Cosmetics - I've been bitten!

Venomous Cosmetics was created by Tracy Porter, who combined her love of makeup with venomous animals. As a result, she strives to make colours that are as vibrant as their names suggest.

I first became interested in Venomous Cosmetics when I heard that they sell pressed eyeshadow samples. Who does that? At $2.00 USD a piece, they are very reasonably priced and are the same size as Yaby eyeshadows.


I picked up four eyeshadows: Fer-De-Lance (deep red-toned brown)


Chupacabra (medium plum purple with blue shift)


Gaboon Viper (cool toned smokey brown)


Caribbean Cruise (dirty teal with golden hints). Because the turn-around time was so long, Tracy actually upgraded my Caribbean Cruise eyeshadow to a full size one, and included some extras!


The extras she included were: Nightmare (periwinkle), Black Mamba (shimmery charcoal), Surfing the Gold Coast (bright medium blue with gold sparkle) and Purple People Eater (black with purple shift) loose samples, along with a pen. Yay!

Swatch time, left to right: Fer-de-Lance, Chupacabra, Gaboon Viper and Caribbean Cruise.


Left to right: Nightmare, Black Mamba


Left to right: Surfing the Gold Coast, Purple People Eater


I am really pleased with how pigmented all these shadows are. Both the loose and pressed varieties come out very true to colour, with a beautiful vibrant finish. The quality of these is definitely up there with Yaby and MAC in my opinion.
My favourite is probably Gaboon Viper, and I actually wore this to the Roger Waters - The Wall concert last month. Looked beautiful!
If you like the look of these, don't forget to check out their site and facebook page. I'm already planning my next purchase..

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

NOTD: Egyptian!

Ancient Egyptian things have always fascinated me, so when I saw a youtube video on this design - I knew I had to replicate it.
I took the photo with my phone, sorry that it's a little blurry!

I finally had the excuse to use my Milani One Coat Glitter polish in Gold Glitz. I used two coats of it as the base coat. I did all the designs on the nails with acrylic paints. Really happy with how it turned out!
I think I might stick to using acrylic paints for any intricate designs I want to do in the future, it is so much easier to use.

I have a question for my amazing readers, what kinda things would you like to see more of on here? Comment below!

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

NOTD: St Pattys Day!

I hope you all had a great time celebrating St Patricks Day!
I knew I wanted to do a St Patty's Day theme for my nails, but I couldn't figure out what to do exactly. In the end I settled on a light green french manicure with a dark green four leaf clover design! Love how they turned out!


Here's what I used:

• Kleancolor nail polish in Pink Sleepers as a base coat
• Orly nail polish in Fresh as the french manicure 'tips'
• Hello Kitty image plate, with Butter London British Racing Green as the four leaf clover
• Orly Won't Chip as a top coat

Thanks for viewing!
oxo

Recent Mail!

Hi all! Mail time!

It had been a long time since I had bought any new makeup brushes, so when I saw these ones on the Makeupandglow website, I thought I might give them a go!
Because I tend to get distracted easily.. and I had a $15 voucher to spend, I managed to talk myself into buying some more OCC Lip Tars too. Haha
They arrived in this cute little clear plastic box:


These brushes look so nice!


Right to left: 473-08 Special Shader/Ultra Mix eyeshadow brush, 473s-08 Ultra Eye Blender/ Special Mix eyeshadow brush and 461-06 Tapered Crease/Natural eyeshadow brush

I will definitely review these brushes as soon as I use them. The Special Shader brush really reminds me of the MAC #217 brush - if it works as well as that, then you can be sure I'll be purchasing more of them!

OCC Lip tars always excite me, I really wanted some more "wearable" shades for when I can't be bothered mixing.


Right to left: Hush, Memento and Grandma
And here's some swatches:


So pretty. My favourite so far is Memento, but I haven't worn Grandma yet so that could change.

Then unexpectedly, I got this little Nivea Creme sample in the mail.


And I died from the cuteness!! I just had to get a photo of it next to an OCC lip tar so you could get an idea of how small it is!
It's a proper little Nivea tin too, not a plastic container. I almost don't want to use it, haha.

Another unexpected surprise were these samples of the new Pantene Aqua Light range.


I actually used all of these, and bought full size versions of them. I really love the way they make my hair feel - light and clean! I would actually recommend this to anyone who has fine hair and hates how normal shampoo and conditioners weigh down their hair.

What fun stuff I've received!
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

First mobile post!

Hi all!
I just downloaded the blogger app onto my android. I thought it.might actually help me keep in touch a bit better - which we all know i need to do!!
Spent all day at the beach and I am sorry to say I am paying for it with some nasty sunburn! :( Thank goodness for aloe vera gel!!
Take care dolls,
Thanks for viewing!
oxo

NOTD: Summer Nails!

Here's a few nail looks I've been wearing lately - let me know what you think!






Thanks for viewing!
oxo