Miss Prissypants v2.0

Random Things That Irrationally Irritate Me

2012-03-11T16:52:00.001+10:30

Anyone who knows me personally knows I am pretty much in a constant state of annoyance about something, and it's usually something smalll, like some old lady trying to push in front of me at the supermarket, or teenage boys walking around with their pants falling down (what the hell is with that?). 99% of the time whatever it is that's annoying me doesn't actually have any effect on me, but that doesn't stop me.

The following is a random list of things that have been irritating me over the last few months. You may find something on this list that you love, but don't get offended. Just think smugly about what an angry little person I am, and how much better you are because you're above judging people for the shoes they are wearing. Also, I'm old, so I'm allowed to grumble about pointless things that don't affect me. I'm going to write angry letters to the TV after this.

1. Gladiator shoes. God, I hate those things, and they just keep hanging around and hanging around. They are hideously ugly and I want them to be gone.

2. Those big chunky plastic watches that look like they were purchased at a service station.

3. Professionally manicured nails. Particularly French manicured nails. They make me think of porn stars.

4. Really thick eyebrows. I cannot watch Jennifer Connolly movies because I am constantly distracted by the urge to take a pair of tweezers to those caterpillars dancing around on her face.

5. Facial piercings - a controversial one I know, since there's a good chance that half of you reading this have one. They're super popular, but I hate them. I don't understand why people want something on their face that looks like a giant zit.

6. Really long hair on women over 40. I know - JUDGEMENTAL.

7. Open-toed shoes on men. Men wearing sandals or thongs just - ugh. UGH.

8. Rolled up jeans on men. Did you just come from splashing about in a rockpool? No, you didn't. Roll your pants down, you look like an idiot.

9. YouTube vloggers who feel the need to explain what a favourites video is. EVERY FREAKIN' MONTH. I know I rant about this one constantly, pretty much monthly actually, when they all start doing it again. WE GET IT. IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

2012 Inventory Loose Shadows and Samples

2012-03-10T17:56:00.000+10:30

Okay, strap in folks - this is it. My eyeshadow collection. I am breaking this one up into several posts, because it's beyond ridiculous, starting with loose eyeshadows.

In my defence:

many of these are samples, although to be truthful there is enough product in most of them that I'm not likely to run out any time soon
they are SO cheap and the shipping is usually pretty good too, so it's hard to resist stockpiling these
the colours are GORGEOUS.

Right, excuses out of the way, so let's get on with it. I've linked to swatches where I have them.

Aromaleigh

More Aromaleigh

Even more Aromaleigh

And still more Aromaleigh

1. Aromaleigh Dulcinea, Pillow Talk, Le Mystere #105

2. Aromaleigh Le Mystere #106, Arabesque, Trillum, Forget-me-not

3. Darling Girl Chimera, Witch & Famous, Candy Corn Pixie Sprinkles

1. Pure Luxe Trailer Trash, Forest, Pandora

2. Pure Luxe Rose Gold, Boy Toy, Chocolate Blueberries

3. Glamour Doll Eyes Girlfriend Sweater, Premonition, Trend Setter, Hello Brooklyn

Everyday Minerals

1. French Films, 11:59pm, I'm Keeping Your CDs

2. Rock Anthem, Vintage Denim, Volcano Blossom

3. Silver Spoon, Carpool, Ballet Slippers

4. Come What May, Beach Towel, Floating Feathers

Evil Shades and a random Darling Girl (note, I would not wear this colour in a million years but it's spectacular - I must swatch it so you can see)

Silk Naturals

More Silk Naturals

Sassy Minerals

The She Space/Heatheresque

1. Dance Past Doubt, Find Your Voice, Make It Happen x 2

2. Lives For Drama, Round The Town, Smoky Mirror, Glossed Over

3. Ruler Of The Land, Cocktails In Camelot, Sweet Like Sugar, Euphoric Madness

4. Swim With The Fishes, Acidic Reign, Moral Enemy, Next Stop Oz

5. Crazy For Kisses, Scatterbrain, False Pretence, Diligence Does Good

6. Side Stepped, Suspicious Step Mom, Curious Georgette

1. Ben Nye Peacock, Ben Nye Turquoise, Fyrinnae Adam & Steve, Fyrinnae Painted Roses

2. Shiro Cosmetics Bulbosaur, Detrivore Cosmetics Machine 27, Silk Naturals Sizzle, Face Atelier Champagne

3. Aromaleigh Serenade, Aromaleigh Catteleya, Darling Girl MVP, Darling Girl Peep Toe, Darling Girl Iris

I don't feel guilty about this because I know people who have massive collections of loose shadows, like, in the high hundreds. So ner.

Inventory 2012: Lip Gloss and Lip Pencils

2012-03-09T16:43:00.000+10:30

I have actually done pretty well in reducing my lip gloss stash down from what it was two years ago. I know even back then that wasn't a quarter of what a lot of makeup junkies I know own, but bear in mind I'm someone who doesn't actually like lip gloss. I might wear it once or twice a month, and even then it will be a swipe in the morning and maybe another one after lunch if I can be bothered.

Silk Naturals Lip Stain Vamp and Doll. These remind me of the Benefit Lip & Cheek Stains. They're not actually a gloss, but I forgot to include them in lipsticks, so here they are! I haven't used them much, but I do quite like them despite being a little drying.

Urban Decay Lip Junkie Naked. This comes with Naked 2. I haven't tried it yet so I have nothing to say about it.

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Sweet Heart, Gold Pink, Smokey Look. As lip glosses go, these are my favourites. HUGE range of colours, and cheap - especially if you grab them from Cherry Culture or Nonpareil when they have their sales on. They're not sticky and they don't have that weird plastic smell that the NYX Round Lip Glosses have.

Australis Lip Gloss Happy. I picked this up for $3 in Target from a clearance bin and it's still sealed. It's the old Australis branding so who knows how old it is. I'm not sure I want to open it...

Maybelline Super Stay 10 Hr Stain Gloss. Again, not technically a gloss, but this is freakin' awesome. They're not available in Oz yet - and who knows when or if they ever will be. *sigh*

Sleek Pout Paint Milkshake. The povo's OCC Lip Tar. I just bought this in the recent Crush Cosmetics sale out of curiosity. It's okay, but I don't love it. It's too much work - you can't be slapdash with these things.

From top to bottom:

Prescriptives Sheer Lip Pencil Sheer Candy
Jordana Easyliner For Lips Retractable Pencil Rock'n Rose
LA Colors Auto Lipliner Nude
Benefit D'finer D'liner
Maybelline Super Stay Lip Liner Icy Beige
NYX Lipliner Pencil Tangerine
NYX Lipliner Pencil Nude Pink
NYX Lipliner Pencil Natural
NYX Lipliner Pencil Citrine (plus 2 back ups)

I think I've that's all the relatively 'normal' sized collections done. Next stop, Crazy Town!

Inventory 2012: Eyeliners and Brows

2012-03-09T11:04:00.004+10:30

I rarely use eyliners, because I'm lazy and because I just don't seem to have a knack for it. I used to - when I was in my late teens and obsessed with Doris Day and Grace Kelly I was a dab hand with the black liquid liner. These days I just can't seem to get it right. I could probably improve again with practice, but you know... there's TV and Twitter and Cracked.com. It's a busy time, man.

Top to bottom:

essence kajal pencil #19 All I Want (this is pants, not soft enough)
Milani Liquif'eye Metallic Eye Liner Pencil #05 Brown
Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil #040 Purple Passion
Rimmel Soft Kohl Kajal Eye Liner Pencil #061 Jet Black
Mirenesse Tight Liner Saphire (sic!) Blue
Bourjois Liner Feutre #11 Noir
Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner #07 Fearless Teal
Prestige Total Intensity Eyeliner #06 Powerful Purple
NYX Slide On Eyeliner #08 Platinum
Mirenesse Magic Point Eye Highlighter Duo
(not pictured) Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Brow and Eye Liner Black (I have 4 of these as they came with the eyeshadows that J from Just Peachy sent me with the Naked 2 Palette)
(not pictured) Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil mini Zero (also from J with the Naked 2 palette)

Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Charcoal and Aubergine. Jade gave me these, and I've actually been a bit keen to get into them, but I'm holding off until I know I'm going to use them, rather than just open them, poke around a bit and then throw them into a drawer where they will be neglected and dry up and die.

Elf Cream Eyeliner Black. I do use this one occasionally and it's one of Elf's better products. A good cheapie.

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Yoghurt, Pots & Pans, Slate, French Fries, Milk. I have a bit of a like/hate relationship with these. I think they're totally over-rated (even Milk), but they can be good as a base if they're used properly. They crease like a mofo, which is annoying. They're cheap, which is good. I often use Slate in lieu of eyeliner (hence its size compared to the others).

Clockwise from top left:

NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder Taupe/Ash
Silk Naturals Brow Powder Medium Ash
Silk Naturals Brow Cream Medium Ash
Silk Naturals Brow Powder Light Brunette
Milani Easybrow Automatic Pencil Natural Taupe
NARS Eyebrow Pencil Ipanema
essence lash and brow gel mascara

Okay, I probably have too many black eyeliners for someone who doesn't wear a lot of eyeliner, but I don't think that's too outlandish a stash, is it? Is it....?

Inventory 2012: Concealers and Highlighters

2012-03-04T08:53:00.001+10:30

With most of the other inventory photos I've done, there's been a dawning revelation that I own much more than I thought I did, and I've been deluding myself that I have a 'normal' amount of makeup (and I mean normal by makeup junkie/blogger standards, not normal by normal person with one makeup bag and maybe an extra eyeshadow palette for getting tizzy on nights out standards). When I pulled out my concealers yesterday I discovered the opposite - I have far fewer than I thought I did. That's good, right? Or does it mean I need to go shopping for concealers...

Benefit Erase Paste No. 2: I have yet to find something that completely covers the dark circles under my eyes (permanent due to continual lack of sleep - I have always been a terrible sleeper), but this one does better than most others.

MAC Studio Finish Concealer NW20: I don't use this very often because I don't find it creamy enough for under the eyes, and I break out when I use it on my face.

Silk Naturals Cream Concealer #1 and #2: I wasn't going to include these as they are samples, but they seem to be lasting a long time even though I've used them a few times. I quite like them but I don't think I'd buy a full size - there's nothing spectacular about them.

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment Concealer Light and Medium: Again, doesn't quite cover the dark circles, but still a pretty good concealer. I reviewed it here.

Clinique Line Smoothing Concealer #02 Light: This is a shocker - it doesn't conceal lines at all. If I use it under my eyes it actually makes the lines more prominent. It's quite a thick consistency so it's useful for concealing redness in the cheeks, that's mostly what I use it for now.

Physicians Formula Concealer Twins Green/Light: I've been buying this for years for the green end - it's the best one I've found for covering redness on the cheeks and around the nose. I usually end up using all the green and then turfing it with the light barely touched. It's not that it's bad, I just never seem to remember to use that end. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to get hold of these - the Physicians Formula shelves of every Priceline I've been into for about the last year are looking sparse and craptastic. Not sure if they're discontinuing carrying the brand or if they're rebranding/repackaging or what. (Either way, it's pretty disgusting, Priceline - get your act together and clean up your dirty, empty displays once in a while. The Reject Shop is cleaner.)

I'm not a big fan of highlighters - they don't seem to do much of anything on me, and they seem like just an extra thing that someone out there has convinced us all we need.

Masquerade Professional Shimmer Powder: Not a company I'm familiar with - either Jade or Su sent me this ages ago. It looks like a weird olive colour in the photo (thanks to yet another overcast day in good old Radelaide), but it's actually a super shimmery off-white. Possibly too shimmery for me - I must have a bit of a play with this, I've never even used it.

inuovi Cosmetics Lumina: Another one I've never used - this is not as shimmery as the Masquerade, and more of a cream colour. Again, I really should have a crack at this and see what it's like.

Touche Éclat No. 2 Luminous Ivory: Meh. This is so over-rated I can't even. I use it all the time and it does absolutely nothing - I'm just using it because I'm determined to finish the damn thing.

Pixi Eye Bright Kit No. 2 and No. 1: More things I hardly use. The concealers in these are a bit greasy and too sheer to really do much of anything. I do occasionally use the pink highlight colours in the inner corner of my eye, though I recently found a light pink powder in an eyeshadow palette that I prefer for that purpose so these are not getting much of a look in at all nowadays.

I have to say I'm finding these posts are quite useful in convincing me I don't need to buy anything else. There was a fleeting thought in my head the other day about a nice blush I saw somewhere, immediately followed by 'ARE YOU CRAZY???'

50 Book Challenge

2012-03-03T13:37:00.000+10:30

Totally random picture that has nothing to do with the post, it just makes me laugh.

It has not been a good start to the year with books. I have been in a reading slump that seems to have lasted about a year so far. It's annoying - I have so many books that I want to read, but I just can't seem to give any of them my attention for more than a few minutes. I'm shamelessly padding my challenge list with comics - I READ THEM. THEY ARE BOOKS.

2. Kick Me - Paul Feig. I've read this before a few years ago, but as I've said many times, I have the memory of a goldfish and can re-read books every couple of years without remembering much about them. Paul Feig created what is probably my all-time favourite TV show (it's either that one or Twin Peaks, I can't choose definitively), and seems to have used quite a lot of his own life for the basis of the show. This is a sweet, funny childhood memoir about a kid who was a nerd before nerds were cool. I'm not a huge fan of most memoirs, because so many of them are just churned out to cash in on someone's 15 minutes, but this low key set of anecdotes is just gorgeous. I can't recommend it highly enough.

3-9. The Walking Dead Books One to Nine - Robert Kirkman et al. I've been banging on about the TV show to anyone who will listen, and despite its flaws I'm still absolutely adoring it and hang out eagerly every week for the next episode. I read the first of these books and was a bit meh about it, because I'm not overly a fan of comic books in general, and the animation is (deliberately) ugly, which didn't appeal to me. However, I found myself getting sucked into the story and spent a week or two devouring about 8 or 9 years' worth of them.

10. Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict - Avis Cardella. This is a really tedious book about an aimless woman who drifted from one quasi-glamourous job to the next, latching on to a series of wealthy men to help pay for her fashion addiction, which she describes in excruciating detail. Yet another book that proves that just because you can write an enthusiastic blurb in a glossy chick mag about the latest Dior, it doesn't make you a writer.

February Empties

2012-03-01T18:29:00.001+10:30

Al'chemy Conditioners Macadamia and Wheat and Unscented Wheat Free: I hate that I always run out of conditioner before I run out of shampoo - it ruins my love of symmetry! I really like these conditioners - I've already bought another bottle of the unscented one.

Palmolive Naturals Shower Milk Milk & Olive: An old staple, though I usually get the one with the brown lid. I'm trying to go more natural with this sort of thing, so not sure if I'll buy it again.

Silk Naturals Intensive Moisturiser: I was a bit iffy about this at first - it didn't seem overly moisturising - but once I got used to it not having all the silicones and slippy fillers that come in commercial moisturisers I liked it quite a bit. I would repurchase this, but not until I've used up other things I have. Trying not to be wasteful!

Balmain Ambre Gris EDP 5ml decant: Love this, even though it's a cheesy old lady fragrance. What am I saying, I adore cheesy old lady fragrances. I would definitely buy a full bottle - in fact it's on my FB list - but I'm on a total perfume ban for the forseeable future, so not sure when that will happen.

Silk Naturals Coconut Argan Cleansing Conditioner: Noodles used this and really liked it, so I'll probably get her a full size next time I do a Silk Naturals order.

Silk Naturals Vitamin C Peptide Serum: Really liked this and will definitely buy it again, but as above with the moisturiser, I'm using up other things first.

Clinique Turnaround Concentrate Visible Skin Renewer: This came in a GWP a couple of years ago and I never used it. It's been knocking around for a really long time now, so I'm chucking it.

Inventory 2012: Primers

2012-02-28T09:50:00.000+10:30

Primers, eh? Some people love them, some people think they're a giant scam. Then there's the search for the exact right one for you. Me, I'm on the fence. I use them, but I don't really love them. My favourite is Face of Australia Face Base, but it doesn't do a lot to extend the life of my makeup, it just feels nice and adds a smooth base so my face doesn't feel tight during the day. As for eye primers, I'm one of those who thinks good old UDPP is highly over-rated. It does nothing to combat oily eyelids and creasing for me - in fact, I prefer my $7 NYX eye primer, and even that's not so great. I haven't tried TFSI, which I'm told is the bomb. It's on my wishlist - I intend to get some this year. Lately I've been having some luck with Coastal Scents Shadow Worx - it's way better than UDPP for me, and seems to stay the distance pretty well.

Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector Daily All-in-One BB Cream: I hated this stuff when I first used it, BB cream my arse. I thought I'd thrown it out, and when Anita did a post about how she used it for primer with great success, I was all, "Awwww, missed opportunity. Sad face." But then I found it in a drawer (it was the medium one I gave away - early Alzheimer's alert!) - it really is a miracle! It does make a nice enough primer. Terrible, terrible BB Cream, though. Terrible even for a tinted moisturiser, which is exactly what it is.

Face of Australia Face Base 3 in 1: I love the original so I had high hopes for this version with sunscreen included. It's very sunscreeny. That's all I have to say about it. I do use it in summer, though - every little bit counts. (Oh, and by the way - Miracle Skin Perfector - no sunscreen!)

Face of Australia Face Base Primer with Vitamin E and Chamomile: Aaaaah, my old favourite. I've been using this for a few years, ever since a lovely girl on the Beauty Heaven forums (who seems to have disappeared, as I did from there when it kept getting too dramariffic) recommended it. Cheap as chips and gives me a nice base to work over. As I said above though, does nowt to increase the longevity of one's face. On me, anyway.

Benefit The Porefessional: Meh. Super expensive product that in my opinion isn't worth the price. It does initially do some smoothening (it's a word - I made it one ages ago) of the pores and wrinkly bits, but it makes my face feel greasy after a while, no matter how tiny an amount I use. And it certainly doesn't keep my makeup on all day. I use it occasionally around my t-zone and that's about it.

L'Oreal Base Magique Transforming Smoothing Primer: I was sent this to trial by Beauty Heaven, and I find it has similar issues to The Porefessional. I also really dislike the jar packaging - I hate sticking my fingers in primers and things. It should at least come with a wee spatula like the Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch (which this is very similar to) does. No likey.

NYX HD High Definition Eye Shadow Base: Looks, feels and acts exactly like UDPP, but on me lasts a bit better. Not fantastic, but good enough for most normal days.

Urban Decay Primer Potion: Along with Clarins Beauty Flash Balm and Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair, one of those cult products that everyone loves but does pretty much nothing for me. I always seem to have at least one around because they come free with palettes and stuff, but I've never bought one.

Coastal Scents Shadow Worx: Surprisingly good! I'm not a fan of Coastal Scents in general, but they knocked one out of the park here. And you only need a teeny bit so it will last FOREVER. I think they come in different formulations (matte, shimmer, etc), but I just have a bog standard one. Definitely my most used.

Detrivore Cosmetics Eye Primer: Not really a "primer" primer as such - more of a base. I still need to have UDPP or Shadow Worx or something under it as it does nothing to stop creasing, but it's great for making colours brighter. I use it with any loose shadows as it helps them to stick as well.

NYX Eyeshadow Base White: Again, a base rather than a primer, and does nothing to stop creasing or fading. It does make colours brighter though, pretty much a pot version of the NYX Milk Jumbo Eye Pencil, but not as thick. I usually use it for swatching and not much else.

So that's it, again pretty much a reasonably sized collection. Don't worry, folks - Crazy Town is definitely on the itinerary. We'll get there soon!

Inventory 2012: Foundations and Powders

2012-02-26T11:01:00.001+10:30

I don't tend to go too crazy with foundations - mostly because I have a holy grail that I mostly stick with (Chanel Mat Lumiere), and because it galls me to pay the price we do here for drugstore foundations. Of the drugstore ones I have, 3 were given to me and two were bought during a "3 for $30" sale in Priceline.

Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream SPF42+++ Light Beige: I kind of hate this - it's very grey and though it's meant to adapt to skin colour I don't feel that it does entirely. It also feels quite heavy. I'm going to try adding some tinted moisturiser to see if I can make it work any better for me.
Chanel Mat Lumiere in Cendre: My holy grail, sliiiiightly too yellow but the next one down is way too light for me.
Maybelline Fit Me in #220 (too dark/yellow) and #120 (too light/pink): Mixed together they are a good colour for me; I want to try to get hold of a pump bottle so I can mix a good amount instead of having to do a teeny bit every time (I always end up with too much and then it gets wasted).
Maybelline Age Rewind Eraser Treatment Makeup #190 Nude: Again a bit too yellow but I can get away with it, and as drugstore foundations go, I really like this one.
Face of Australia Photo Finish Compact Foundation Ivory: I don't know in what world this could be considered Ivory. I have light (though not pale) skin, and I generally use the 2nd or 3rd colour in a range. Anything called Ivory is usually a bit too light for me. This one is way too dark. I don't like the feel of it either - it feels very masky. However, I have found that it makes a nice, super subtle contour colour so I keep it around.
Random sidenote: I have recently noticed a great similarity between David Jones makeup and FOA makeup. I have a suspicion the same place makes both brands, so might be worth checking out if one or the other is cheaper.
Face of Australia Stick Foundation Outback Beige: I have a secret love of stick foundations (you couldn't prise me away from my Max Factor Pan Stik in the early 90s), so I really wanted to love this but it's too heavy, too thick and too yellow. It's also too dark, but again works well as an almost imperceptible contour (got that idea from a YouTuber, by the way - either Wayne Goss or Pixiwoo, can't remember).
Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser SPF20 Nude: LOVE. This is absolutely the best tinted moisturiser I have ever used, and worth every cent. It gives nice coverage without feeling heavy or greasy, and it lasts a good while. Holy grail.

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural Medium: I'm not that big a fan of MAC so I only discovered this fairly recently - maybe a couple of months ago. I LOVE IT. I use it with the Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser and it provides the perfect hot weather coverage - lasts most of the day, doesn't feel heavy and doesn't look cakey. I buff it in with my Everyday Minerals flat top kabuki.

Chanel Poudre Douce #50 Mimosa: I never use this anymore - it's several years old and looking a bit mank, but I can't bring myself to throw it out. It's Chanel!
DMK Cosmetics Pro-Set Loose Powder HD Clear: I think Jade sent me this, and I've only used it a couple of times, but when I did I quite liked it because it's super finely milled and doesn't sit heavily on the skin. It's very similar to the ELF High Definition powder, which is itself a dupe of MUFE HD powder, so I'm assuming this is DMK's version of those kinds of things.
Palladio Rice Powder Translucent: This was so cheap - $5US from Makeupgeek. I don't really use powder all that often as I don't much like it, but when I do, this tends to be the one I reach for most often. It's just a very finely milled translucent powder. Nothing fancy, does the job.

There you go - not too bad, eh? With this and the mascara post, I think I'm coming off as a pretty regular type of chick. Which is why I'm saving the eyeshadows until last...

Skin 79 BB Cream Miniature Set

2012-02-25T13:03:00.000+10:30

A couple of months ago Wayne Goss did a video about BB creams, where he just announced that they were all pretty much a scam and not to bother with them. After people quickly pointed out that there was a huge difference between Asian BB creams and Western BB creams, he wrote a disclaimer in the video notes stating that he had been talking about Western BB creams. Considering that Asian BB creams make up about 90% of the market, and he hadn't stated in the video he was talking specifically about Western BB creams, he made himself look like a dickhead. And there is no point to me telling this story other than to say, do your research before you shoot your mouth off, lest you look foolish in front of your audience.

Having said that, it is true that there is a difference, and that Western BB creams are - by and large - not really BB creams, but tinted moisturisers (looking at you, Garnier). Asian BB creams are hardcore.

I heard about these ones in a video that Kat from Beauty by Kitty did recently. Honestly, BB creams are not really my thing - I've tried a few and wasn't overly jazzed with them, but I had a look at the My BB Cream website while I was watching the video and found that they had a trial kit of 4 different creams for $18, so I figured it wasn't much of a loss to have a go.

Shipping was about $6 and it arrived really quickly - from memory I ordered it on a weekend and got it on the Tuesday. It comes in a little box, and there were several sachet samples thrown in as well. I think it would have been better to include samples of different products from the ones I was actually buying, but oh well - a freebie's a freebie, amirite?

Now this is going to be a mega post, so I'm cutting it. Click the linkie if you wish to continue!

The website descriptions of these products are pretty much useless gobbledygook - banging on about the premium skincare effects of jewel and peptideMX complexes. What does that even mean? I'll just give you my thoughts on them.

For reference - nekkid cheek:

Nice big zit there. Zits and wrinkles together = totes unfair!

Skin 79 Diamond Prestige Beblesh Balm

In the trial kit, this is the light pink tube. This one was very thick and felt a bit like a sunscreen (and you all know my feelings about sunscreen). Surprisingly, given how heavy it felt, there wasn't a lot of coverage and it wore off pretty quickly. It also had a weird sparkly cast to it that made me feel a bit like I was in Twilight. I do feel this one gave the best initial coverage, though.

Skin 79 Super Plus BB Cream Triple Function

This is the hot pink tube, and the triple function is supposedly whitening, wrinkle improvement, and sun protection. It contains SPF25 PA+++, but I don't think that's to Australian SPF standards as we don't generally have SPF25. Like the others, this one has a grey cast, but more so than the rest. They all adapt pretty much to the skin tone once applied, but I still feel like this one threw a bit of grey even after application. This one was also thick, but more like a rich moisturiser than a sunscreen. Later on it felt a bit dryer, and I don't feel like it gave a huge amount of coverage or lasted the day. I should probably add that these would last longer if set with powder, but a) I wanted to see how they did on their own, and b) I hate powder and only use it if I have to.

I couldn't get a blended in swatch of this - they all came out blurry and unfocussed. Ignore the writing on my hand. I'm old school - that's how I remember things.

Skin 79 Super VIP Super Plus Beblesh Balm

As with the hot pink one, this gold tube also claims to have triple functions of whitening, wrinkle improvement and sun protection, with a factor again of SPF25 PA+++. This one was my favourite of them all - the coverage was medium, it felt nice and lasted pretty well. It did feel a bit dry after a while, that seems to be a quirk of BB creams, or at least the ones I've tried.

Skin 79 Diamond Luminous Pearl BB Cream

And finally the silver tube, which doesn't seem to be available as an individual purchase on the site - perhaps it's discontinued. This was the most liquidy of them all, and felt more like a tinted moisturiser. It was quite light and the least grey of all as well. There were lots of sparkly bits in this one - Twilight factor again. If not for the big chunks of sparkle, this would have been my favourite, as it felt the nicest.

See the sparkles!

Final thoughts

Overall, I think my experiments with BB creams are done. I've never really liked any of the ones I've tried, and I don't think I have the right skin for them. They don't give enough coverage for my liking, and the shimmer and/or grey cast most of them have just makes me look weird.

However, I don't think these are bad products in themselves, and if you're looking to experiment with some BB creams, this is a reasonably priced way to try out a few different ones. The website sells other brands too, such as Missha and Etude House. So check them out if this is the kind of thing you might be interested in.

Have you checked out any BB creams? Love them? Hate them? Spill all.

Inventory 2012: Mascara

2012-02-23T17:46:00.000+10:30

This is a blatant attempt to redeem myself after last week's blush debacle. This is my mascara inventory. One open and one back up. Like a normal person would have.

I AM A NORMAL PERSON.

Elf Cream Eyeshadow in Eggplant

2012-02-19T11:17:00.000+10:30

Like so many other low end drugstore brands (Milani, NYX, etc), ELF has been fancifying itself of late. This means that newer products are not in the same price range as their previous offerings, but it also means that that quality is far, far better. If you've ever had any experience with those rubbishy $1 cream eyeshadow duos they have, you'll know what I mean.

I was only vaguely aware of the newer cream eyeshadows and didn't have much interest in them, as I'd pretty much written ELF off as a brand I wasn't going to dally with anymore. They do have some good products, but they are so hit and miss that you have to sift through a lot of duds to find that occasional gem. However, when I was hauling in the recent Crush Cosmetics sale, I happened across them and figured why not just go totally random and try some things I'd never tried before? I wanted the bronze coloured one but it was sold out, so I got Eggplant instead.

The packaging is quite bulky - as you can see it takes up a good piece of real estate on my chunky paw. I imagine these would be a bit of a pain in the butt for storage and travel if you had a collection of them, and since the product itself doesn't take up much space inside, the packaging seems unnecessarily over the top. The container is plastic, but it's quite solid and has a nice, hefty feel. I don't feel like the lid is all that tight and secure though, so I do wonder how long these will last without drying out.

It takes a bit of work to smooth this out - not much, but if you just do a quick swipe it's a bit uneven, and you have to come back and smooth it over. For the price, that's not a deal breaker for me. It's quite opaque and the colour I chose is lovely - it reminds me a lot of NARS Ondine, and in fact I intend to try layering that over the ELF sometime this week and see how they look together.

Swatch in natural (overcast) light.

Swatch under Tungsten light.

I tried out this eyeshadow yesterday when it was 35 degrees here in Adelaide (I stayed inside but don't have air con), and it lasted all day without creasing. I have oily eyelids, so I was mightily impressed with that, I can tell you. I had such low expectations of this, and I was amazed when I went to take my face off after dinner and the shadow was all still there!

In short, for a drugstore cream eyeshadow, this is a performer. The only downside is the bulky (and possibly not completely air tight) packaging and the fact that the shade range doesn't seem all that great, though that might just be what's available to us Aussies. You can get ELF from Crush Cosmetics (currently 25% off at $7.50AUD) or the Australian ELF website ($9.99AUD). The cream eyeshadows don't seem to be available from the other Aussie-accessible source, Nonpareil. Bummer.

Yesterday I spent the day wearing a lot of weird, random products on my face because I was testing out various things and I knew I wasn't going anywhere for most of the day. There was a bit of a Baby Jane thing going on - I'm pretty sure I freaked Noodles' BFF's mum out a bit when she came to pick up her kid in the late afternoon. Anyway, one of the first things I applied was this eyeshadow, because I wanted to get it on early and see how long it lasted. The first thing that struck me is how nice it is for green eyes. Observe:

And no, there will be no subsequent Baby Jane pictures.

Tell me if you have any of these and what you think of them. I want more, but I am trying to resist, as my inventory is freaking me out a bit. Luckily there aren't any other super exciting colours available that I would be itching to get my hands on!

Inventory 2012: Blush

2012-02-19T08:50:00.000+10:30

After nail polish and bronzer, the beauty product I have the least interest in is blush. I have naturally red cheeks and spend a lot of time and effort concealing them, so to then pile on a ton of colour on top of that seems silly to me. I like a smidgeon of a sheer, low pigmentation blush just to make myself look alive and that's pretty much it. For quite a few years I had two blushes - a peachy-pink matte one and a brownish one with a tiny bit of shimmer. And despite those being my only ones I never got through them - I ended up throwing them out when they looked scuzzy. That's how little blush I would generally use.

So what went wrong...

The interesting thing about doing this inventory is how deluded I am about what I own. In Liz's blush inventory post, I commented that I thought I had about 15-20 blushes, and even when I was writing that comment I distinctly remember thinking it was probably closer to 15, and possibly not even that many. So how many do I have? 31. Yes you read that correctly.

In my defence, with the exception of one MAC blush and one Joey New York blush, they are all drugstore brands. Given my general disinterest in these things, I would never consider paying for a luxury brand blush. I know lots of people do and adore them, and more power to them. I've seen many that look absolutely gorgeous, but I know that I would never give them the appreciation they deserve.

Also, I have only acquired the Beauty UK and the NYX Stick Blushes in the last week, so at the time I commented to Liz, I wasn't as far off on my estimate as I am now. Okay, I'm reaching. DON'T JUDGE ME.

Beauty UK Peaches and Cream and Wild Berry, MAC Honour, Milani Luminoso, Rose D'Oro, Luminous

iNuovi blushes Aura, Chiffon, Whisper, Entice

NYX Angel, Natural, Peach, Taupe

ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder Duo, ELF Glow, Innocence, Shy

Face of Australia Pressed Powder Bronze (technically a bronzer but mega shimmery so I use it as blush), Revlon Matte Rose Rapture, Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Pearlescent Pink, Sleek Rose Gold, Joey New York Faith, some random from unknown brand that came in one of those monthly boxes

NYX Cream Blush Boho Chic, Rose Petal, Maybelline Dream Mousse Peach Satin, Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush Fresh Pink, NYX Stick Blush in Hibiscus, Orchid, Tulip

Let me know if you want swatches, and tell me how many you have (unless you only have 5, in which case I hate you). I'll be in my shame closet thinking about what I've done.

Crush Cosmetics Sale Haul

2012-02-18T09:41:00.000+10:30

I don't normally pay much attention to Crush Cosmetics, because most of the time the stuff I would want from there I can get cheaper from Nonpareil or Cherry Culture, even when shipping is taken into account. The only advantage to buying from Crush is that you get the package within a couple of days, and since I'm used to buying online from overseas, the waiting part doesn't faze me. I'm on their mailing list but I usually bin their emails without even looking at them.

However, recently they had a sale with 20% off everything, and sent out an email saying, "Only a few hours to go! Hurry up, everyone!" and for some reason, I clicked those links at 10pm at night and there I was. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that they now carry Beauty UK products, I probably wouldn't have bothered with anything else. But I am a GRADE A SUCKER for UK drugstore brands so I was reeled in. And of course, once I'd bought a couple of products from that brand I had to throw in a few other things to make the shipping worthwhile, and then I hit a certain level where I qualified for free shipping, so hey - in that case why not grab a couple more things? Yeah, you all know the online shopping freefall.

I took these pictures close to dusk so the colour definition isn't great, but I was itching to get the photos done so I could start sticking my fingers in things.

Brush Guards: A whim, one of the things I added once I hit free shipping. I have some fluffy eye and face brushes that have gotten a bit splayed (bloody Sigma) so I'm curious to see if these help get them back into shape.

ELF Eyelash Curler: I had been wanting a Tweezerman curler for years and I finally lashed out (ha, see what I did there!) and got some at Christmas after my old drugstore ones had kicked the bucket and I HATE them. I don't know if one of my eyes is a weird shape or what but they pinch the lid of my left eye, and if I position them so they don't, only half my lashes get curled. Total bummer. So many people rave about the ELF ones (and emilynoel83 is always singing their praises), so I figured for a few dollars it couldn't hurt to give them a go.

Sleek Pout Paint in Milkshake: One of those things I was vaguely curious to try one of these days and a sale seemed as good a time as any. The colour selection didn't look all that great on the website - after Googling for swatches this was the only one I liked out of the shades available. It's quite bright but I think I can make it work. It's a stayer - Noodles was complaining several days and at least two showers later that the stain was still on her hand.

ELF Cream Eyeshadow in Eggplant: I don't know a lot about these and I'm not sure whether they're not widely talked about because they're crappy or because not that many people know about them. I wanted Bronzed but it was sold out so I went for a purply one. It's a pretty colour - I will swatch it over the weekend some time.

Beauty UK Baked Blushers in Peaches and Cream and Wild Berry: I know nothing about these. As I said above, I'm just all over any chance to try UK drugstore brands so here they are! The packaging is flimsy and cheap and a bit rubbish, but the colours are pretty so I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Beauty UK Eyeshadow Palette in Earth Child: Again, know nothing about these. I've swatched a couple of shades and the pigmentation is good. It looks a lot like the 88 palettes so I'm assuming it comes from the same mysterious Chinese factory that they come out of. I soooo don't need another neutral palette (or, let's face it - any palette ever again), but I can't resist one that has greens in it.

Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Trio in Walking on Eggshells: I owned this for a while after buying it on Nonpareil, but it sat unopened in my drawer so I ended up getting rid of it in a blog sale. I always half regretted it though, especially after I saw emilynoel83's MAC dupe video where she compared this to some MAC shadows whose names escape me at this moment. So I bought it again. And this time I opened it (yet to use it, though).

They also sent a free Wet'n'Wild lipstick, but I'm not keen on that particular WnW lipstick and it's a yukky brown colour so I'll probably just bin it.

If you want reviews or swatches of any of this gear let me know - happy to oblige!

Inventory 2012: Lipsticks

2012-02-13T08:08:00.000+10:30

I've mentioned before that Liz's blog is one of my favourites, not least because she posts regular inventories of her stash, and the only thing better than poking around someone's makeup collection is virtually poking around someone's makeup collection.

I could have sworn I did a makeup collection post a couple of years ago, but I can't find it, so maybe that just happened in my mind. Anyway, I've decided to steal Liz's idea and take inventory of what I have, since my attempts to curb my frittering this year have been pretty pathetic - the last couple of weeks alone I've done online shopping on eBay, Crush Cosmetics, Darling Girl, My BB Cream, Echolife (shampoo - legit purchase) and the Livejournal BPAL community. Then there was a rummage through a clearance bin in a random chemist where I picked up 4 lipsticks and a couple of eyeshadows. I'm like a bloody magpie.

The picture above is my current collection of lipsticks, which I keep in a box in my fridge. I actually think that isn't a bad number - over the past year or so I've sold, given away or thrown out probably about 50 lipsticks, and this is what I have left (including the 4 chemist ones from the other day). The problem really is that there are so many similar ones - several nude-ish pinks that are almost the same, for example. I definitely have a colour preference when it comes to lipsticks.

Anyway, this is what I have right now. I've probably swatched and/or reviewed quite a few of these, but if there's anything you'd like to have a closer look at, let me know and I'll do my best to oblige.

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipsticks Luminous Cocoa, Mochachino, Bronzed, Warm Latte, Barely Brown, Nearly There

NYX Darling, CoverGirl TruShine Petal Shine, NYX Thalia, Maybelline Color Sensational Luminous Lilac, Ice Tea, Beige Rose

Maybelline Color Sensational Mauve Diamond, Rosy Dream, Stila High Shine Natasha, CoverGirl TruShine Lilac Shine, Face of Australia Mineral Lip Shine Fairy Floss

Rimmel Airy Fairy, NYX Black Label Diva, Heiress, Dusty Rose, Maybelline Color Sensational Born With It, Lacura #108 Soft Rose

L'Oreal Colour Riche Belladonna Mauve, Maybelline Color Sensational Pink Quartz, Pink Me Up, Revlon Colorburst Carnation, MAC Syrup, Rimmel Vintage Pink

Back row: Wet'n'Wild Mega Last 904B Rose Bud, 903C Just Peachy, NYX Matte Angel, Perfect Red. Front row: Prescriptives Azalea, Revlon Colorburst Peach, Stila High Shine Sarah, NYX Watermelon

Back row: Maybelline Color Sensational Warm Me Up, Plum Riche, Maybelline Rose Metal, Lacura #100 (can't remember the name), NYX B52. Front row: NYX Peony, NYX Heather, Wet'n'Wild Mega Shield Ring Around The Rosy, Revlon Colorburst Rosy Nude

I am hoping that recording all of this will encourage me to shop my stash more and resist the urge to buy all the things. But it's SO HARD. Just now I went to Nonpareil to find out the name of one of the Wet'n'Wild lipsticks and they have a sale on new NYX products. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

And for reference, here's Liz's last lipstick inventory post. Now where's yours?

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles Treatment Concealer

2012-02-12T09:08:00.000+10:30

Jiminy Crickets, that's a mouthful. As is always the case, these concealers have been available in the US for ages, probably a year or so. We only had them released in January. I was sent some by Jade when she had a destash and forwarded a TON of her unloved wares to moi, because she's fab.

Although I'd been itching to get my mitts on these since forever, at first they just sat there, pristine and unopened, because concealers are something of a weakness of mine, and I already had about a dozen on the go. "No," I said to myself firmly. "I am not opening these until I've used up at least a couple of the ones I already have going." That lasted about 2 weeks and I couldn't stand it anymore so I ripped into one of them. Jade sent me a light and a medium, and after studying them carefully I decided to try the medium first, figuring the light was probably best left until winter.

The packaging is a glass bottle with a sponge at the top and you twist it to make the product come out of the little sponge holes (sidenote: I have a friend who has a phobia of little holes - you should see her freak out over lotus boob*). There's a part of me that loves this, because I am a sucker for a gadget, but there's another part of me that wonders how hygienic it is to be directly applying that sponge to your face over and over. I imagine that would put a lot of people off this product.

I did take before and after pictures, but I don't think they really conveyed how well this stuff conceals. It applies really smoothly and feels very light. You need to blend it quickly as it sets pretty fast, but once it sets it stays there for a good long while, and you don't need powder to set it (I never, ever set concealer with powder anyway - it just instantly falls into the lines and makes me look about 100 years old).

Before

After

I can't tell you exactly how much this is because Maybelline's useless Australian website as usual hasn't been updated and doesn't list it at all. According to random Googling, it's about $19.

In conclusion, I love this concealer - it doesn't cover all of my under eye horrors (only a smear of cement could do that), but it does enough to keep me happy. It doesn't feel dry, cakey or heavy and it sets beautifully. If you're not squeamish about the sponge applicator, I'd recommend trying it.

*DO NOT Google lotus boob if you are at work or of delicate constitution.

A Rant About Australia Post - AGAIN

2012-02-11T09:28:00.000+10:30

On 30 January I bought something on eBay which may or may not have been this. DON'T JUDGE ME. It was shipped to me on 31 January from Brisbane. By 7 February it hadn't arrived, which seemed kind of weird, so I had another look at the eBay purchase and noticed that the shipping had tracking. I went to the Australia Post site to check the tracking number and found that my package had supposedly been delivered on Friday 3 February and signed for by someone called D. David. I am not D. David and no D. David lives here. I assumed the seller must have accidentally sent it to the wrong person so I wrote to her, but the address she sent it to was mine. She said she would follow up with Australia Post.

I was in the post office the next day sending my mum a birthday present and picking up some customs forms for an international package I'm sending off next week (that's you, J!), and I asked about it. They told me I needed to ring the call centre. They also told me the contract delivery guy in my area was new. I said that explained a bit because lately when I have had packages delivered I've been coming home to find my gate wide open, and once I found the gate closed but the package just lying on the ground and it had obviously just been thrown over the fence. My fence and gate are quite high and not see-through, but I live in a terrace house, so it's only a couple of steps from the front door to the street. With the gate open, anyone and his dog can walk past, see a package sitting there and think, "Thanks, I'll be having that!" I also live just down the road from a strip of restaurants and cafes and several homeless shelters and homeless drop in centres, so a) it's busy during the day, and b) you never know who is lurking around.

So I asked the post office people if they would tell the guy to shut the gate. A simple enough request, one would have thought.

The next day I was working at home in the afternoon because Noodles was sick, so I happened to be there when the contractor delivered a package from Sarah (woo!). The first thing he said to me was, "Did you make a complaint about me not shutting the gate?" WTF? Attitude, much? I explained that I did ask the staff at the PO to ask him to shut the gate, and I explained why. He started giving me some spiel about how they have to drop things off in a certain time and blah blah blah. You know what, mate? I don't give a shit. If you have cause to open a gate, you shut it after. It takes SECONDS.

So then I asked about the package that hadn't shown up. He said it must have been dropped off and then someone took it (wow - maybe because the gate was left open!). I said it was supposedly signed for. He said in that case there would be a card in the letterbox. I said there would be a card in the letterbox if it was requiring a signature and there was no one home to sign for it. This package was signed for. He said, "What was in it?" Again. WTF? How is that relevant to the delivery guy? He would not have seen what was in it anyway! Then he said he knew nothing about it and he would talk to 'the guy' who delivered packages on that day. I already knew from the PO that 'the guy' was him. THAT FUCKER HAS MY DARYL.

Well, truthfully, I don't know that for sure. I do know that the previous contractor had an annoying habit of dropping packages off that were meant to have a signature on them, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if this guy did the same thing, left the gate open, and then someone walked past and grabbed it. However, I was home almost all that day, except for a couple of hours when I was at the doctor's in the morning, and I don't remember coming back and finding the gate open, so I don't think anything was delivered then. I don't know who D. David is, though the Australia Post call centre asked me if I was "sure" that someone of that name didn't live there. Pretty sure, but let me check the attic...

The seller contacted me again and said that Australia Post had 'no information' about the package, and she had to lodge a form for them to follow it up further, which would take about a week. How on earth could they have 'no information' when they know exactly when it was delivered (4:15pm apparently, when I was at home not having a package delivered) and by whom?

Damn it, Australia Post - you are not a bloody casino. We should not have to just take the chance that something may or may not get to where it's meant to be!

Everyday Minerals Brushes

2012-02-07T09:14:00.000+10:30

Long time readers will know I haven't much time for Sigma brushes, thanks to this and this. The eye brushes are not bad, but the face brushes - in my experience - are pretty craptacular. However, I had been considering the Sigmax brushes, as even people who had previously disliked their standard brushes said these were good.

While cleaning out a drawer the other day I found some Everyday Minerals face brushes I had forgotten about, and they seem like a pretty close dupe of the Sigmax ones (well actually, these are pre-Sigmax, so technically the Sigma ones are the dupes). I used to buy a lot of things from EDM, but it's one of those indie companies that seemed to be endlessly surrounded by drama, and the owner's habit of putting pictures of herself EVERYWHERE irked me no end. With every order there would be 2 or 3 postcards featuring photographs of her, and when you go to the website there she is again. I don't know why it bugs me, but it REALLY bugs me. Anyway, the point is I drifted away and kind of forgot about them, but I have to give credit where it's due - the brushes are really nice. These are the ones I have.

concealer brush, pencil/smudge brush, flat shader brush, angled fluffy brush

Although EDM is primarily powder products and presumably that's what these brushes are meant for, the concealer brush in particular is great for cream products. It has a bit of a pointy end so you can get right into the corners. I don't use the pencil/smudge brush much, but it would be good for someone who puts a bit of eyeshadow under the eyes (I don't - it would draw attention to the dark circles and the lines). Again, the flat shader brush is good for cream eyeshadows, and powders of course. I've never really used the angled fluffy brush much - it's very soft and I've never quite figured out how to use it effectively. Something to work on this year, I suppose.

eye kabukis and junior eye kabukis

I think I first heard about these from Anissa. I bought one of the eye kabukis and loved it so much that I bought another one. The junior eye kabukis both came with eyeshadow kits. The eye kabukis are soft and very dense, and fantastic for blending and softening shadows - if you've been a bit heavy-handed in the crease these are great for toning it down. Because of their density they're not great for precise blending as they do tend to remove some of the eyeshadow if you go crazy with them. I use the junior eye kabukis for applying a highlight to the inner corners, and also for blending concealers and cream highlighters like Touche Éclat. Of all my EDM brushes, these ones get the most use and are in constant rotation where I'm using one while waiting to wash the other one.

flat top kabuki, round top kabuki, angled kabuki

These look like Sigmax brushes, don't they? Not sure what's going on with the shiny shininess there - they don't look like that in person. It's very overcast here today so my flash might just be going nutso. These are suuuuper soft and dense and lovely for applying either powder or cream products. I use the flat top kabuki for cream foundation, the round top for a light brush of powder when necessary (I hate powder, so I only use it if I have to and with a really light hand), and the angled brush with both cream and powder blushes.

All of these brushes are very soft, very dense and very sturdy. The handles are made from bamboo. I've had most of these for several years, but most of them are still available and range between $6US-$12US.

January Empties and Chuckers Part 2

2012-02-06T08:51:00.000+10:30

I already did a January Empties post in the middle of the month because things were starting to pile up. The second half of the month was slower, so there weren't that many more after all.

EMPTIES

Cetaphil Oily Skin Cleanser
This belongs to Noodle Arms, though I used it a few times. I'm undecided about whether to repurchase - at the moment she's using Silk Naturals cleansers, and after reading the ingredients on the back of this I'm not overly impressed with its contents, so I'd say probably not.

Nature's Goodness Olive Leave Mouthwash
I talked about this in my Echolife haul post, so I won't say any more about it except that it's a definite repurchase once I finish the Listerine Zero bottle I'm working through.

Garnier Clean Sensitive Gentle Eye Makeup Remover
I found I had to do a bit of pulling and rubbing to get eye makeup off entirely with this, so I wouldn't repurchase it.

Silk Naturals Pore Refining Toner
This is the third bottle Noodles and I have gone through - it's a really lovely hydrating, moisturising toner. It's really annoying that it only comes in 60ml bottles, though. Definite repurchase.

Silk Naturals Awesomesauce 5ml sample
Another of Silk Naturals' many serums. I liked it, and I'd probably buy a full bottle at some point, but I've got the Vitamin C one still going at the moment.

CHUCKERS

Apologies for the hair there - gross! I'm afraid my bathroom always has stray hairs around no matter how diligently I clean it, because I shed like a mofo.

Maybelline Lash Stylist Mascara
I'm pretty sure this was discontinued a couple of years ago - I picked it up a while ago for $5 in a Chemist Warehouse clearance bin. In theory I love mascaras with a comb instead of a brush, because I hate clumpy lashes and they do a good job of separating them. Unfortunately, in practice I got sick of poking myself in the eye at least 4 times a week, so it's going.

Bioeffects EGF Serum 3ml sample
This was some high-falutin' serum sample that came in one of those monthly boxes and I was using it under my eyes because I didn't really know what else to do with it. However, after reading this article that Sarah posted on Twitter, I stopped immediately, and frankly I wish I'd never touched it now. :-/

Random Things I Have Been Enjoying Lately

2012-02-05T11:36:00.000+10:30

1. Coconut Water
Coconut is the buzz word in the world of healthifying these days - everyone and his dog is preaching the miracle properties of coconut water and coconut oil. I'm not sold on the supposed benefits of coconut oil but that's a rant for another day. However, coconut water is my new favourite thing. I've only tried a few brands and this one is really the only one I enjoy so far - the others are tetra paks and have some weird aftertaste. I haven't tried a fresh one as yet - it's on my to do list.

2. Watching Dead podcast
I'm years behind everyone with the podcast thing, for several reasons. Firstly, I absolutely detest radio - it makes me super ragey and one of the things that drives me nuts at work is people who have radios on their desks. IT'S 2012, GET A DAMN IPOD. I have always put podcasts in the same basket as radio and therefore never bothered with them much aside from Ricky Gervais, who can do no wrong. However, lately I've been checking out some movie and TV podcasts. Most of them are kind of crap - it's like radio where no one is getting paid. A couple of people who fancy themselves as comedians sit around cacking themselves at their own crappy jokes. I have a rule of 3 minutes. If it's 3 minutes into the podcast and the hosts are still making stupid jokes and talking random garbage that no one cares about like what what they did on the weekend I'm out.

I stumbled across Watching Dead accidentally when I was just looking for general TV podcasts, and loved it immediately. It's hosted by two guys who like The Walking Dead but are not total fanboys, so they are quite critical of a lot of elements. I don't necessarily agree with all of their criticisms, but I think it's refreshing to hear honest points of view rather than just OMG YOU GUYS THIS SHOW IS SO AWESOME, as is inclined to happen when people who obsessively love a particular show start doing a podcast about it. They are entertaining and quite funny at times, though it's organic rather than the 'how can I squeeze a joke in here?' sort of forced humour. I'm a bit confused though - they talk about being from Indiana but they have Southern accents - one of them in particular quite a heavy one. Isn't Indiana in the mid-West? Or am I showing my complete ignorance of American geography? Anyway, this podcast has inspired me to go back and rewatch The Walking Dead (just in time for when it comes back in a week or so - woo!), and I'm picking up quite a few things I missed the first time around.

3. aLoveTart on YouTube
Mary is rapidly becoming my favourite YouTuber for reviews and comparisons. She is pleasant and easy to listen to, with good lighting so you can see the products clearly, and a confident manner in front of a camera. Unlike some of the more well-known reviewers she isn't snarky or dismissive and doesn't spend the first five minutes banging on about how she came to be in front of a camera that day. Her reviews are really informative and thorough. Well worth checking out if you're the type to be watching beauty vloggers.

4. Ron Swanson
If you've seen Parks and Recreation this needs no eplanation. And if you haven't seen it, you're missing out on comedy gold.

5. Perfume oils
This is an old picture and I no longer have many of these, but I still have enough perfume oils to keep me smelling nice for quite some time. I went off them for a while, preferring the ease of a quick spritz of a commercial fragrance, but I've recently come back to my little brown and green bottles of deliciousness, especially since I finally whittled down my stash to the ones I really liked and got rid of everything else. A lot of these have been sorely neglected so I'm doing a bit of a 'use it or lose it' project with them at the moment.

So that's me. What are you enjoying lately?

Green Smoothie Challenge Week #3 - the final

2012-02-05T08:52:00.000+10:30

My mum is one of those people who wins everything. She saves gold coins for when she goes away on holidays so she can play the pokies and she always ends up winning. She's won significant lottery amounts a couple of times. Unfortunately her luck is not hereditary, nor is it transferable, as I've discovered when she's visited and I've made her buy me a lottery ticket.

However, my luck may be changing, because for the second time recently I've won a prize! Yes, first UD Naked 2 (pat pat, stare at naked Paul Rudd), and now I have won a prize in the Green Smoothie Challenge, thanks to Echolife, who hosted the challenge, and are fast becoming my favourite online shopping store. If they sold food I'd never leave the house. I won a $50 gift voucher, which I've already spent because I couldn't wait - I spent ages on their site late last night deciding and ended up getting some Weleda Skin Food and some rosehip oil, both products I've never tried before but have heard good things about.

As for the challenge itself, it's now over, but it seems that quite a few of the participants (myself included) enjoyed it enough to continue. They do say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit! I don't think I'll be having a green smoothie every single day, only because I'm fed up with washing my blender so often. If I had a manservant I'd be all for it. I am having one this morning for breakfast, though.

I forgot one day in the last week - I don't know how I managed that. However, for 20 of the 21 days I faithfully drank my greens and I do feel a bit more springy for it. Thank you Sabine and Echolife for finding a sneaky way to healthify us!

Day 15: soy milk, banana, yoghurt, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, flaxmeal, baby spinach, baby cos lettuce

Day 16: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, flaxmeal, wheatgrass, spirulina, baby spinach, parsley

Day 17: oat milk, yoghurt, banana, blueberries, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, cinnamon, ground ginger

Day 19: oat milk, yoghurt, banana, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, flaxmeal, avocado, baby spinach

Day 20: oat milk, banana, yoghurt, wheatgrass powder, spirulina, muesli (home-made) baby bok choy

Day 21: oat milk, blueberries, honey, vanilla, wheatgrass powder, spirulina, flaxmeal, avocado, English spinach

Prize Haul Swatches

2012-02-04T10:57:00.000+10:30

I have finally managed to pin Noodle Arms down to get these swatches done for me so I can actually begin poking around in all the stuff that J sent me when I won her Naked 2 giveaway recently (warning: link contains Paul Rudd nakedness - this should actually read YOU ARE ABOUT TO GAZE UPON THE PERFECT SPECTACLE OF NAKED PAUL RUDD CONSIDER WHETHER YOU ARE WORTHY). I'm not going to swatch Naked 2 - you can find them all over the internet if you're interested, and I haven't been able to bring myself to mess up its pristine perfection as yet.

My first L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadow, but definitely not my last. This colour is Continuous Cocoa, which I haven't seen anywhere here so I'm not sure whether it's available in this country. The swatch doesn't do it justice - it's a lovely dark brown, perfect for the infamous outer V. The texture of this is as awesome as everyone says it is - a sort of creamy powdery pressed I-don't-know-what.

Chimera, Candy Corn Pixie Sprinkles, Witch and Famous

Witch and Famous, Candy Corn Pixie Sprinkles (swatched over Detrivore primer)

I had a bit of a decanting blitz the other day with eyeshadow samples so these have been moved from the little baggie wotsits to jars. As I said in the previous post, Darling Girl have been on my radar for a long time but I've never tried them before (because, let's face it, I'm not exactly hurting for eyeshadows). I like these quite a bit - especially Witch and Famous, which is a matte taupe with a teensy bit of glitter. You know I love my taupes!

The Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Glitter Palettes were a limited edition product that came out around the time of one of the holidays a while ago. This one - Tinsel Town - is kind of odd. The glitter is overspray, so once you poke through the top layer they're just bright cream colours, and I don't really mind that because I'm a bit old for too much glitter. They don't swatch all that well when you're using the top layer - you can see in the pictures they're a bit chunky and uneven. They're much better once the glitter layer is gone though, and I think they'll make nice bases. I've read mixed reviews of them and a lot of people say they crease easily, but they're a drugstore brand cream product so I wouldn't be expecting miracles. A good primer should keep them on there for a while. I love that green - can't wait to try that out properly.

Golddigger, Sellout, Platinum, Trashed

Trashed, Platinum, Sellout, Golddigger (swatched over NYX White Eye Base)

The pigmentation of these Wet'n'Wild Shimmer Singles is nowhere near as good as most of the regular WnW Color Icon singles, which is weird because this is a company that has really picked up their game in the last year or so. I don't mind though, because these are colours I'd prefer to be a little muted anyway - I don't think I'd be walking around with startlingly bright magenta or gold eyelids. They all came with a black eyeliner, which is very creamy and easy to use but doesn't set, so I'd be more inclined to use those when I wanted a smudged effect rather than a precise line.

Aussies are falling over themselves to get their mitts on these new Maybelline products, because they're not hitting our shores until the end of the year (shenanigans!) - they're scouring eBay and hitting up friendly US bloggers for shopping favours and it's no surprise because these are AWESOME. I know a lot of people have crapped on the Bouncy Blushes, mostly because they are lacking in pigmentation, but as I've said before, I find that a pro rather a con because I spend a lot of time covering the redness in my cheeks and I don't want to just whack a heavy streak of colour back on there. This one is called Fresh Pink and it's the perfect colour for me - I just love these spring time pink shades.

The Maybelline Color Tattoos in Bold Gold and Edgy Emerald will be getting a ton of use because after months of neutral obsession, I've just started getting back into using the many coloured eyeshadows I have. I'm particularly fond of green eyeshadow, so having a green cream base will be very handy! I absolutely must find a way to get hold of more of these. They are fan-freakin'-tastic.

I hadn't heard of the Maybelline Super Stay Stain Glosses before I received one, but now I want more, more, MORE. It applies like a gloss, with a sponge tip applicator, and is slightly similar to the 'liquid lipsticks' like NYX Soft Matte Lip Creams, except it's not matte. Once it sets it last for ages, fading a little to a stain but surviving through food and general daily wear (have not tested for pash-sustainability). The colour J sent me is Ruby Indulgence and it's really pretty - a very wearable red that applies semi-sheerly but can be easily built up. I really, really love this.

And here's Noodle Arms lip-swatching it:

Loverly.

So, to sum up I will be hunting down more of the Color Tattoos, the Bouncy Blushes and the Super Stay Stain Glosses with a vengeance. Good show, Maybelline - you're doing the drugstore makeup world proud!

And now I'm off to pat my Naked 2. Possibly while gazing at naked pictures of Paul Rudd.

Grimm vs Once Upon A Time

2012-01-29T10:17:00.000+10:30

I talked about both of these shows briefly in a post last year, but now that I've been watching a while I've formed some more concrete opinions. When Grimm and Once Upon A Time started late last year, it was the former I was more interested in. Described as a gritty police drama incorporating fairy tales, it sounded original and intriguing. The pilot was a bit clunky, but most pilots are, and it set up an interesting enough premise to keep me watching. I had zero interest in Once Upon A Time - to me it seemed like the kind of show that 40 year olds who still dream of being a Disney princess would be all over - and 13 year old girls, which is how I came to watch it. The premise of this one is that the entire kingdom of a fairy tale world has been trapped in a modern day small town in Maine, with no memory of who they really are. The doer of this deed is of course the evil queen from Snow White, who is the Mayor of the town in the modern storyline.

Grimm spends the first couple of episodes setting up a very specific premise about how the main character (a cop) is descended from a line of Grimms, people who fight monsters. Not only that, but monsters are everywhere, disguised as regular everyday people. He can see their true selves, and they can see his. So each episode involves him attempting to solve a crime in his normal cop persona, but it turns out to have something to do with monsters. The problem is that after the initial episodes spend a lot of time with his dying aunt impressing the importance of fighting evil and doing his duty and looking at dusty old books with lots of pictures of monsters in them, the monsters don't turn out to be all that evil. In most episodes, it's more a case of him having to protect or save the monster from something.

Aside from that, several plot lines were introduced in the very early episodes and we're now at episode 9 and they appear to have just been dropped. The cop's boss is a monster, but nothing has happened with that since about episode 3. He had a female sidekick who tried to kill the cop in the pilot, but again - she's just gone. What's that about? The cop's wife is a pointless character, existing only to be held captive every now and then or be under threat, motivating the cop to do something to prevent it or to save her. At the moment, the only thing that keeps me tuning back into this show is the cop's sidekick, a likeable (and of course, not evil) monster played by Silas Weir Mitchell. It's nice to see him in a sympathetic role for a change, and it was a clever bit of casting given that we usually see him in the 'crazy, dangerous guy' role.

On the other hand, Once Upon A Time defied my expectations and I am now firmly in love with it. Yes, there are moments of tweeness - I don't think any story that incorporates fairy tale elements can entirely avoid that - but overall it's innovative and clever, and balances the elements of the old world and modern world stories nicely. They are also not afraid to be daring - killing off one of their most popular characters in episode 7.

The running story is that in the old world, Snow White and Prince Charming married and had a child called Emma, and when they learned that the queen was going to inflict a massive punishment (which turns out to be moving them all to the modern day town with no memories), they sent the baby away through some magical wotsit (can't remember the details now) and she ended up in modern day America. After growing up in foster homes Emma works as a private investigator until a little boy turns up and tells her that he is the son she had and adopted out as a teenager and he lives in a town where everyone is a fairy tale character but no one realises it. Short version - Emma ends up in this town, mostly to placate the boy, though she ends up getting drawn in enough to stick around. The conflict is between her and the Mayor (evil queen), the boy's adoptive mother. The fairy tale characters all have their modern incarnations and storylines - Snow White is now a school teacher, Prince Charming is a vet who has had an accident and doesn't remember much about his life, including the woman he is apparently married to. Rumplestiltskin is wandering around being shifty in both worlds - in the modern world he is a rich but mysterious businessman. Red Riding Hood is a sexy waitress, Cinderella is a pregnant teenager and Jiminy Cricket is a psychiatrist. Each episode usually focuses on a different fairy tale element, though the show continually comes back to the running thread of Snow White and Prince Charming, both in the old world and the modern world.

I'm not too sure how much longer I will give Grimm - more and more often I find I am losing interest in what's happening on the screen and I start thumbing through my phone reading Twitter and emails while I'm watching it, as does Noodles. Once Upon A Time, on the other hand, has us both gripped - to the point where we rush home to download and watch it each week. I'm surprised by how much I love it, because without Noodles' insistence I would never even have bothered to watch it.

So tell me, are you watching or have you watched either or both of these shows? If so, what are your thoughts on them?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2012-01-29T08:36:00.000+10:30

Glossybox has learned very quickly how to get good publicity in the Australian beauty blogging community without actually being worthy of it: give out free stuff. Generally, the positive reviews I've read and seen on YouTube have been from people who have received a free box. Those who paid for it often tell a different story. Not true in all cases, but there's a definite pattern there and it seems to be the modus operandi for businesses trying to get a name for themselves in the beauty world these days. Never mind actually being good at what you do - throw a couple of parties and ply some chicks with champagne and macarons, give them a bag of goodies and sit back and watch the accolades roll in.

After getting the Lust Have It box a couple of times I realised that these monthly box things are essentially junk, so I cancelled it. Seeing everyone's monthly reviews of various boxes hasn't swayed my opinion, so why did I sign up for Glossybox? And more importantly, why did I sign up for Glossybox while watching a video where jodik76 slammed them for their craptacular customer service. What can I say? I'm impulsive. Actually, I looked at their brand list, and it looked pretty impressive. I should have known that it would be less Bobbi Brown, Clinique and Shu Uemura and more Mirenesse and Nivea. Foolish me.

The Good

Value wise, this is a major score - a 30ml bottle of Advanced Night Repair retails here for $105. (Unfortunately, this is the only Estee Lauder serum I don't particularly like, but that's not Glossybox's fault - I fit the profile as someone who would be perfect for this. I can probably swap it with someone for something I'd use). The alternate of this product was a Kosmea Daily Facial Exfoliant. The full size is $39.95 - not exactly a comparable product. And I don't believe that the one sent out was a full size. If I were on the receiving end of that and my mates all got the ANR, I think I'd be a bit pissed off. If they're going to alternate products to 'personalise' the boxes (really? what about me made you think I'd wear blue eyeliner on my tightliner?), they should be of roughly equivalent value. It would have been better to send ANR to old farts like me, and perhaps the Estee Lauder pore-minimising serum or the illuminating one to the younger subscribers.

The Bad

And here we have the TVSN clearance bin. There is no escaping Mirenesse - their tentacles are everywhere. I hate their stuff - it's overpriced junk. And I wasn't even aware Sheer Cover was still around. I thought that had died off 10 years ago when mineral makeup companies exploded on to the scene. A lip gloss in a pot (bleh), and a moisturiser that looks oddly like calamine lotion. As for the Nivea body lotion, seriously? I could buy a bottle of that at my local supermarket for about $5. Not exactly what I'd expect from a box business that throws around words like 'luxury' and 'innovative'.

The Ugly

Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of monthly cosmetic boxes, one thing that definitely does not come to mind is fake tattoos. Perhaps those Chanel ones that were around a couple of years ago for about 5 minutes until everyone got over the cuteness factor and realised how silly they were, but these? I saw them in Angela's review before I had even received my box, and though I was unimpressed with the other stuff, this was enough to make me cancel my subscription immediately. (Oh, and can I tell you how painful it is to leave this mob? They make you click box after box and respond to email confirmations and then click more boxes going are you sure you want to leave? Are you sure? This is what you're missing! Look at more of what you're missing? Are you sure? OH MY GOD GET AWAY FROM ME!)

There's a gap in those tattoos because Noodles decided to channel her inner bogan and get into the Oz Day spirit. And before everyone gets up in arms, it's not that I object to tattoos in general - I have two myself - but come on. If I wanted to shop at The Reject Shop, I'd shop at The Reject Shop. This garbage does not belong in a supposedly classy beauty box.

I don't even want to talk about the vouchers. VOUCHERS ARE NOT SAMPLES.

I'm not overly bothered that I spent $15 on this pile of crap. I've spent $15 on piles of crap many times before. It's the cost of a magazine and a coffee. I should have bought the magazine and the coffee. My final thought is that Glossybox should put less effort into arse-kissing bloggers and more effort into putting together thoughtful, good quality, comparable boxes and working on their customer service (I haven't had any issues, but I've heard a lot of horror stories).

And that's me done with the monthly box fad. Next!

Green Smoothie Challenge Week 2

2012-01-28T11:42:00.000+10:30

Still really enjoying this challenge, and in fact there has been discussion about having a Winter one with soups, which I'm all over because I LOVE soup, and I have loads of quick, easy recipes for them. Come on, cold weather!

I didn't really change up my ingredients much in my smoothies this week, mostly because we are coming up to two weeks now that have hovered around the 35 degrees mark or higher every day, and it's too damn hot to trek to the market for supplies. OVER IT. Aside from that, I have a ginormous bunch of English spinach that I've been working through. Hopefully next week the weather will finally cool down a bit and I can shop for something a bit different. On the bright side, spinach is good for you, so having a couple of big handfuls of that each day certainly isn't going to hurt.

Day 8: skim milk, banana, flaxmeal, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, English spinach, avocado, parsley

Day 9: soy milk, banana, yoghurt, flaxmeal, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, English spinach, cos lettuce

Day 10: soy milk, banana, yoghurt, flaxmeal, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, English spinach, parsley

Day 11: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, blueberries, flaxmeal, spirulina, wheatgrass powder, baby spinach

Day 12: soy milk, banana, English spinach, spirulina, wheatgrass powder

Day 13: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, English spinach, cos lettuce, wheatgrass powder, spirulina, flaxmeal

Day 14: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, English spinach, spirulina, wheatgrass powder

Attack The Block

2012-01-24T18:24:00.000+10:30

For quite a few years I worked with young people in a government welfare agency - primarily teenagers, and often teenagers in crisis. As part of that job I spent a lot of time visiting schools, drop in centres, homeless shelters, prisons and juvenile detention facilities (terrifying places - if you are trying to deal with a wayward teen take them to visit one; talk about scared straight). The biggest issue I ever had with teenagers was their irritating tendency to mumble responses when I spoke to them, making me feel like an old lady because I had to keep saying, "Sorry? Beg your pardon? Can you say that again?"

As soon as I stopped working with teenagers, they started to scare me. If I was walking down the street and I saw a group of young people I would become instantly tense, and if there were any possible way of not having to pass them I would find it. I don't know why - I've never been bothered or harassed by a teenager. I read an article on Cracked a while back that confirmed this was not just me. I think it's something to do with their air of confidence in groups, and the fact that they are (I'm generalising here) so fearless and impulsive. You never really know what teenagers are capable of.

The teens in Attack The Block are the kind you should be afraid of. They are menacing and violent, and the film opens with them robbing a young woman at knife point in a dark street. It's interesting that this film sets up these very unlikeable characters and then turns them into the heroes, and quite successfully. These are definitely the people you want on your side in an alien invasion. And that's exactly what this film is about - aliens attack a council housing estate and the kids battle to save their home and themselves.

There is not a moment wasted - it's lean and fast-moving and takes off running right from the beginning. Little is revealed about the characters, though the leader of the teens, Moses, gets a brief moment that sums up his personal backstory beautifully - it's a lovely, spare use of exposition.

It's lucky there is so much action going on as it's easy to miss plenty of dialogue, thanks to the heavy slang. I don't normally have a problem with accents (English and Scottish family and many years working with migrants and refugees), but I found myself rewinding a few times to catch what was said and it definitely benefits from a repeat viewing. However, missing chunks of dialogue doesn't detract from the story - it's pretty clear what's going on all the way through.

Although it's not strictly a comedy there are quite a few laughs - Nick Frost as a bewildered drug dealer provides many of them. Again, a lot of the comedy is in the throwaway lines of dialogue, which is why it is worth trying to pay attention to what's being said.

I'd never heard of Attack The Block before reading a Top 10 films post on Fruitless Pursuits, and it didn't sound like anything that would be my cup of tea but I had nothing better to do so I gave it a go. I was amazed by how much I loved it - I can't remember the last time I was so completely blown away by a movie (probably True Grit - another Mumbly Joe one).

What's Even Better Than Naked Paul Rudd?

2012-01-24T17:42:00.000+10:30

It's extremely rare that I would enter a blog giveaway - the only time I ever do if it's something I really want and can't easily get hold of myself. Like, say, Naked 2. J from Just Peachy had a giveaway of Naked 2 a few weeks ago and GUESS WHO WON.

If you said me, you're right. Me me, not you me. ME.
Okay, there is not one of you reading this who has the slightest need for this palette, but I'd bet that most of you either have bought it or intend to buy it some time in the future just because (except Liz). That's how I feel about it. I have neutrals up the wazoo, but eventually I would have ended up getting this when it became more readily available. So I was really thrilled to win it and have been itching to get my mitts on it, and yesterday it arrived!

Not only that, but J also included a ton of other goodies - almost all products I could also not easily get hold of. Everything was wrapped up snugly in layers and layers of tissue paper and you should have seen me squealing as I opened each little wrapped package and saw pretty after pretty after pretty. Thank you, J - AMAZING gifts. :-)

There are Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Shimmer Singles in the colours Platinum, Gold Digger, Trashed and Sellout. I've never even heard of these, and a quick Google search didn't bring up many results so they must be pretty new. I am very excited to get stuck into playing with these as you all know I love WnW eyeshadows. The Glitter Kit palette is a limited edition one from a while ago - they are the kind of thing that never turn up in places we Aussies can easily shop for WnW (Crush Cosmetics, Nonpareil, etc) as they're usually exclusive to one or two stores, so it was great to get one of those as well. So much pretty sparkle!

I've played with the L'Oreal Infallible eyeshadows in Priceline a few times but baulked at the price of them here, so I was jazzed to get one of those as well - I've looked up swatches of this (Continuous Cocoa) and it's a gorgeous dark chocolate brown. Can't wait to try it out. And of course, Darling Girl has been on my 'must try' list FOREVER, so I'm looking forward to testing out the 3 samples as well. Uh oh, what if I really like them....?

But wait! There's more! I also received a Maybelline SuperStay Stain Gloss in Ruby Indulgence (oo-er!), and a Wet'n'Wild lipstick whose colour name I can't remember because it's down the other end of the house in the fridge at the moment so it doesn't melt into a colourful puddle. Oh, and a mini UD 24/7 pencil that isn't in the photo. So many things I'm forgetting them!

J also kindly sent me a sample of the Silk Naturals Cranberry Passionfruit Cleansing Conditioner, as she reviewed it on her blog a while ago and I mentioned wanting to try it. And she sent me some body butter that she made herself that smells DIVINE - all foody and delicious. I tried some on my arm and wanted to chew it off.

The products that had me squealing the most after Naked 2 were Maybelline Color Tattoo eyeshadows in Bold Gold and Edgy Emerald and a Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Fresh Pink. I've seen Emily talk about these as well as a few other bloggers and vloggers, and aLoveTart did an awesome video swatching all the Color Tattoos.

I have been busting to get some, but according to Suzanne (who got it straight from the PR's mouth), they won't be arriving on Aussie shores until the end of the year. (Apparently they're sitting in some refugee camp awaiting their papers or something.) I mean, COME ON. Why does it take a year for a product to be released here? That's just beyond ridiculous. I was talking to Jade about it the other day and we discussed how there is so much buzz about them now that if they were released, people would be rushing out to buy them at Priceline, even though they will be stupidly overpriced here. As it is, bloggers and beauty addicts won't wait that long - they will be hitting up eBay and their US blogger mates and anyone else they can scrounge up and get them sent over, so by the time we finally do get them here we'll all be totally over it. And the money we would have paid for them here will have gone overseas. Smart one, Maybelline!

Anyway, I just wanted to show everyone the awesome prize and many, many lovely extras I received and say a massive thank you to J for her generosity. Two thumbs up!

*Swatches to follow as soon as it gets cooler - it's too hot here to be poking around in makeup at the moment. :-(

Random Update (with random picture just because)

2012-01-22T15:10:00.000+10:30

I have a bunch of posts I've been meaning to do but it's too damn hot at the moment so here's a bunch of random things for no reason.

1. I am now on Pinterest. As near as I can gather it's just Tumblr with the ability to organise the pictures, but it gives me somewhere to put all the pretty pictures I see around the interwebs. Especially house ones - I'm always collecting house pictures. I seem to have some invite wotsits too - only a couple, so if you want one let me know and if you're quick enough I'll send you one.

2. After nearly 14 years Noodles has finally learned to ride a bike. I tried to teach her when she was young but she had no interest and since she was a city kid I didn't push it. It's not like she needed a bike to get anywhere. However, her friend R is buying a new one and offered to give Noodles her old one so she had to learn, and now she's super jazzed with herself.

3. Work is annoying me. There's been awkward drama going down and where I sit is SO effing hot. The air conditioning is craptacular and I'm sweating like a weight watcher in a cake shop most days lately. Ugh.

4. My attempt at Frugal Fortnight - ie: not buying a single thing I don't need, as mentioned in last week's fritter post - has not gone well. It was supposed to start on Thursday, but today is the first day so far I have not bought something trivial and unnecessary. And that's only because it's too hot to get dressed and go anywhere.

5. I finally got around to updating my ScentBase, which was about a year out of date. I'm amazed at how much I managed to cull last year - I went from 300ish (mostly samples - I'm not ready for Hoarders just yet) to a much more reasonable 77 (nearly half still samples). I'm also surprised to realise that I bought hardly any commercial fragrances last year. I've really moved away from a lot of those because the ones I want (Frederic Malle Carnal Flower, Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, etc.) in full sizes are well out of my price range and I've not much interest in all the celebrity junk and cash-in flankers that flood the cheap to mid-range market these days.

6. It's really hot here. Did I mention that? I hate summer. :-(

7. I am currently testing out some perfumes from Sarawen, which I heard about via Suzanne (damn enabler). They're mostly headkicking oriental/gourmand scents, which long time readers will know is right up my alley. It's really a bit hot for those kinds of perfumes at the moment (did I mention it's hot here?), but I don't care. So far I'm loving them - proper review to follow soon. Here's a sneak peek pic.

8. I am also enjoying these cute owl earrings that I got from Ike and Co on Etsy. They're quite large but super light so they're easy to wear. I want some more in
different colours.

9. Finally, this is not really safe for work, but it made me laugh my head off when I saw it so I have to share it.

So, what are you guys up to lately?

Green Smoothie Challenge Week 1

2012-01-22T08:48:00.000+10:30

I'm quite enjoying the Green Smoothie Challenge. I can't honestly say it's made me feel much different (I eat a lot of vegetables anyway), but it's certainly not doing me any harm. My only complaint is having to clean my blender every day - normally I'd only use it once or twice a month.

Day 1: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, blueberries, flaxmeal, chia seeds, baby spinach

Day 2: soy milk, yoghurt, flaxmeal, banana, ice, baby spinach and parsley

Day 3: apple, butter lettuce, cucumber, water, ice

Day 4: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, chia seeds, flaxmeal, parsley, English spinach

Day 5: soy milk, flaxmeal, banana, butter lettuce, wheatgrass powder, spirulina

Day 6: soy milk, yoghurt, banana, butter lettuce, parsley, flaxmeal, wheatgrass powder, spirulina, ice

Day 7: a 'Green, Lean and Clean' from Boost Juice, which had pineapple, celery, wheatgrass and a couple of other things I can't remember

Random things:
1. I took Amy's advice and peeled my bananas then froze them. I already have a pile of unpeeled bananas in my freezer as I can't eat them once they get really ripe so I throw them in there for muffins. However, peeling them while frozen is impossible, and letting them thaw makes them turn to mush (which doesn't matter for muffins but defeats the purpose of having an icy cold banana in a smoothie).

2. I won't cheat and go to Boost again. It was ridiculously expensive for what amounts to a bit of juice, and no doubt it was packed full of sugar. And it gave me brain freeze.

3. I prefer the milky ones to the non-milky. I didn't really like the apple, cucumber and lettuce one. I would probably like it better if I had a proper juicer (I am saving but those things go for several hundred dollars so it will be a while), but the texture in just a blender was kind of slushy.

4. I don't know why I used soy milk as opposed to the regular skim milk I have at home. I think I just wanted something organic. I know you can get organic skim milk as well, so that's not really very logical. Oh well.

Sabine from Echolife has done a round-up of how other people have been getting into the challenge. Did you do it? How is it going?

Frittering Week #4

2012-01-17T12:11:00.000+10:30

I have been so busy frittering that I almost forgot to write my weekly frittering post. This was an eye opener, I can tell you. The big lesson here is that when it gets too hot to do anything and Noodle Arms and I get bored, we eat. There was not a day last week where we didn't have an unhealthy snack of some kind or other (chocolate bar, cake for morning tea, chips while watching movies...). Back on the healthifying wagon this week - last night's pizza notwithstanding - so hopefully that will be an end to it.

I failed my mini goal of not buying coffee for the 4th week running - it's a long boring story but the short version is that I was disorganised and found myself in the city late morning and getting a caffeine headache.

lunch $31.50 (!!!!!)
magazines $21.40
dinner $19.38
coconut water $3.75
coffee $3.90
breakfast $3.50
snacks (healthy) $9.78
snacks (unhealthy) $30.32 (!!!!!!!!!!)

It seems like all I did last week was eat and read magazines.

This week's mini goal is more of an experimental period of two weeks from the day I get paid next (Thursday this week), and that is to not buy one single thing I don't need. I don't mean groceries - I mean, I have enough staples that I probably don't need to buy food and could cobble together meals, but I'm still going to do a normal grocery shop and market shop. I mean the one off impulse buys - the chocolate, the magazines, the coffee, the morning tea macaron, the coconut water, the $5 mascara in the clearance bin at Chemist Warehouse, the sushi on the way home from work because I'm peckish, etc. It will be interesting to see how much I'm left with at the end of the fortnight if I don't fritter once. It will be more interesting to see if I can get through a fortnight (or a day, let's be honest) without frittering once!

Mid-January Empties and Chuckers

2012-01-15T15:14:00.000+10:30

I'm doing a mid-month empties post as I've done a bit of cleaning out recently and things are starting to pile up.

EMPTIES

Gaia Geranium and Palmarosa Creamy Cleanser
The smell of this is quite strong but that doesn't really bother me. I double cleanse with an oil cleanser first and follow with a cream cleanser. I usually use Clarins Cleansing Milk but this one's cheaper and I like it quite a lot, so I will be repurchasing this as soon as I have a chance to get to Priceline.

Bobbi Brown Cleansing Oil
One of those trials that comes in a monthly box. Meh. It's not bad but there are plenty of other cleansing oils out there that do the same thing for less money. I wouldn't repurchase this.

Silk Naturals Green Tea and Aloe Serum 5ml
I talked about this in my last empties post, when I used another one I had. Wouldn't repurchase for now as I have my beloved Oatmeal serum, though this is nice.

Kerastase Elixir Ultime
Another one from a monthly box. This is a hair oil that Noodle Arms used and LOVED. She wants me to buy a full bottle, but she already has a Macadamia one, a Silk Naturals one, and the Moroccan Oil that is technically mine but I never use, so I told her she can use all those first and then we'll talk.

NP Set Lash and Dash Mascara
One of Noodles' contributions, this came free with a Dolly or Girlfriend mag. She said it was crap.

CHUCKERS

Pantene Aqua Light Shampoo and Conditioner
At first I didn't mind the shampoo but I always hated the conditioner. And now I hate the shampoo too - it doesn't rinse out properly! No matter how much I rinsed, when I put the conditioner in it would get all frothy again. I'm not a Pantene fan, and I don't buy into their bullshit "myths about Pantene" campaign. Those "myths" are true, though to be fair, they're not the only shampoo and conditioner guilty of loading up with silicones. I didn't pay for these, and I certainly wouldn't buy them. I've been using them for a while now to try to get rid of them without being wasteful but I just can't stand them anymore.

Philosophy Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser
I can't stand companies that pretend to have a philosophy (see what I did there?), which is why I generally avoid The Body Shop and Dove. This cleanser is the same garbage you'd buy in any supermarket brand but it's marketed as something 'pure'. It even has COLOURING in it. I've had this in my shower for months as I like to have a quick face wash in the mornings with a foaming cleanser, but I can't seem to get through it. There's not much left but I just can't bear looking at it in the mornings anymore. It pisses me off too much.

Perfumatory Night Shift Body Cream in Death By Vanilla
The quality of the product itself is quite good, but it smells like a kid ate a bag of caramel lollies and then threw them back up. I would not repurchase.

Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Sand Beige
There's only a smidge of this left but again it seems to just keep going forever. I've had this for a couple of years and I've noticed it starting to oxidise fairly rapidly lately so it's time to go. I would repurchase, though not at the prices we pay here.

Naked Tan Goddess Bronze Self-Tanner
I'm starting to believe the monthly boxes are largely a glorified throwout table (particularly after reading Stacey's latest box post). This came in the first Lust Have It box in August and the use by date was December. Noodles was using it and she liked it, so she'd probably repurchase it.

Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm and Total Eye Care SPF15
Both almost full, both expired - wasteful of me. I didn't like either of them (hence sitting around being wasted) and I wouldn't repurchase.

NYX As If Stick Concealer in Green
I haven't tried the NYX concealer in the pot, but the stick and the liquid ones are craptacular. This is cheap, nasty, waxy, just bleh. And it doesn't work. Definitely would not repurchase.

L'Oreal Panoramic Curl Mascara
I'm pretty sure this was discontinued ages ago - I picked it up for $5 in a clearance bin at Chemist Warehouse. It was snatched up by Noodles, who used it for a couple of weeks and then announced that she hated it. When you take the brush out it has huge globs of formula on it. Ugh.

Bourjois Liner Feutre Felt Tip Liner in Black
Another one that Noodles took and the goober played with it a few times and then announced she didn't like it. She's been hoarding it for months so it's dried out and useless now. Grr! I quite like these so in theory I would repurchase it, though in reality I already have a ton of pencil eyeliners and I don't really use them that often anyway.

21 Day Green Smoothie Challenge

2012-01-13T12:30:00.000+10:30

Woo, I'm a blogging machine today! I decided to join in the Echolife 21 Day Green Smoothie Challenge after hearing about it on Twitter. I've been vaguely considering getting into these anyway as I've been reading some books about skin and health and they rave about the benefits of greenery.

Although I did buy some kale and parsley at the market yesterday, I wanted to start off slowly so all I did for day #1 was add baby spinach to what would be my regular smoothie recipe. I don't measure when I make these, I just eyeball it. So for my first time I used the following:

organic soy milk, probably a bit less than 2 cups
a few tablespoons of plain yoghurt
a heaped teaspoon of chia seeds
a heaped tablespoon of flaxmeal
a banana
a handful of frozen blueberries
two big handfuls of baby spinach
a smidge of vanilla extract (at Noodles' insistence, I wouldn't normally add this)

The colour came out more purple-green than the bright, lush green I was expecting, thanks to the blueberries. The taste was quite nice - it just tasted like a regular banana-blueberry smoothie with a little bit of a tang. Tomorrow I might try some parsley and throw in a bit of apple. It was quite filling - I had mine for morning tea but I could probably get into them for breakfast.

Noodles hated it, though more because of the texture than the taste. She's not a fan of smoothies because she doesn't like 'smooth' food. She also hates blended soups. Oh well, she eats her vegetables and salads so I'm not going to push her on this one.

Ever had a green smoothie? Did you join in the challenge?

Parenting Sacrifices: Where Is My Damn Medal?

2012-01-13T08:31:00.000+10:30

Recently Noodle Arms and I were out for a walk and she was yakking away as she does about this and that when she suddenly came out with something that shocked me so much I didn't know what to do.

She casually said, "Mum, I quite like chick flicks."

I was floored. FLOORED. She's grown up watching all kinds of artsy subtitled weirdness (thanks to film reviewing ex) and has also spent many hours with me watching the latest offerings from wanky hipsters like Wes Anderson and highly stylised film makers like the Coen brothers, Tim Burton and so on. It's not that I'm a film snob - I love a Judd Apatow bromance as much as the next person, but I detest chick flicks (and chick lit) with a rage that borders on pathological. They are so ridiculous that I'm angry they exist. Not kidding - ask any poor sucker who had the bad luck to casually mention a chick flick in conversation with me at any point in time.

Of course I asked why. "Why, Noodles? WHY? Where are you getting this from???" She just shrugged and said they were fun. Then she dropped an even bigger bombshell.

"I'd like to watch The Notebook."

That's where I drew the line. I agreed to watch some chick flicks with her, but I'd eat my own vomit before I'd sit through The Notebook. She agreed to watch that one with her friends, and I sat through 4 others on the weekend - probably more chick flicks than I've watched in the last 5 years.

Valentine's Day
There's something oddly likeable about Ashton Kutcher - I was watching him in Two and a Half Men the other day and I think he's actually improved that show. He's the main character in Valentine's Day, one of those dog's breakfast movies where there are a dozen different plots going on at once. This was riddled with the usual clichés - it was blatantly obvious from the first few moments where his story was going, and the same with pretty much all the others, though I will admit the Bradley Cooper storyline surprised me. Nice one - didn't see that coming. We had the dash through the airport to get to the girl (after helpful airport employee lets him through), the "Oh my god, he was under my nose the whole time" story, the comic relief best buddy... they even ripped off the lonely kid story from Love, Actually. And it seemed to go on FOREVER. I thought it would never end. Even Noodles was over it by the time it finally finished.

Friends With Benefits
I thought this one might not be too bad, as I'd read a lot of good reviews and I like both Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. This movie wallowed in smug Community-ish meta and was just infuriating. The main characters spent so much time mocking romantic comedy clichés, only to indulge in them all the way through the movie. It was so annoying. It even managed to almost ruin one of my favourite things (flash mobs). And why do people in movies always live in these MASSIVE apartments in New York city? The Justin character had been headhunted to become the editor of a magazine so maybe I could understand him having the bucks, but Mila's character (the headhunter) was nothing more than a recruitment consultant, yet she lived alone in this fancy apartment that had a bloody atrium in it! I just hated this one so much. Noodles didn't like it either - she said it was too long. Oh, and can I just have a wee rant about THE most annoying aspect of this movie? Woody Harrelson played a gay guy. We know this because he felt the need to mention his gayness EVERY SINGLE TIME HE SPOKE.

What's Your Number?
I thought this one might not be so bad. I love Anna Faris - she was great in The House Bunny. Two minutes in and I realised my mistake. Oh, the annoying but hot neighbour. I wonder where this is going? Oh look, icy, judgemental mother! Sleazy boss! Quirky hobby! 80s song! She's beautiful but a total klutz! Soooo tiresome.

Going The Distance
This was my choice - Drew Barrymore movies are usually watchable, and I like Justin Long. Unsurprisingly, this was the one I liked the most. It was smart and funny and had Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as whacky sidekicks, always a bonus. There were still the usual clichés - guy running through airport after helpful employee lets him through, judgemental female sidekick (Drew's sister), the cute-meet where they get together in the first place, and so on. However, as chick flicks go this was definitely one of the better ones. Surprisingly, Noodles didn't like it, and her reasoning: "It's not a chick flick." I don't know how she came to that conclusion, but I feel validated.

In the end she watched The Notebook with her friend at a sleepover, then came home the next day and went on about how it was 'soooooooo sad'. Pass me the sick bucket.

Silk Naturals Brow Cream

2012-01-13T07:40:00.000+10:30

When I did my last Silk Naturals haul before Christmas, I threw in samples of a bunch of things to try just because. I don't need any brow products - I have loads of them - but I don't have anything like the Brow Cream, so that was enough to get me to try it.

It's okay, we're all thinking it.

The sample came in a little clam shell container, and it's quite solid. I thought I might have trouble with it for that reason, but even with the flimsy #266 brush you just wipe it over the product a couple of times and you get a good amount to apply. I found it worked much better with my Illamasqua angled brush though, as that is stiffer.

I really like this product. It neatened up my scraggly brows nicely and it lasted well throughout the day. Medium Ash was the colour I got and it was pretty right for me, not too dark and no red in it. It's listed on the site under both 'new products' and 'holiday specials' so I'm hoping it's not limited edition as I definitely want to get a full size when I order from there again.

Full size is 2g for $6.50US and I imagine that would last for ages because the teeny sample I got barely has a dent in it and I've used it a few times. Samples are $0.99US.

How To Do Customer Service

2012-01-12T10:41:00.000+10:30

A while back I read an article in a magazine about chemicals in everyday products, including tampons. I'd never really given any thought to that before, but once the idea entered my head I was a bit freaked out by what I could possibly be - uh - putting inside myself. So I was on Twitter chatting to Jade about organic tampons and up pops Sabine from Echolife, who offered to send me some to try. I was happy to pay for them - I'd been meaning to do an order from the site anyway because Jade had already given it a massive thumbs up rave, and a tampon's a tampon. Even if it's not that fantastic, it's still gonna get used. However, I did ask if she had any samples of natural shampoos she could send with my order for Noodle Arms to try on her thick wavy mop.

As you can see, those 'samples' are actually a full bottle each of shampoo and conditioner! And both Noodles and I really like it, so that's going in the staples pile. So what did I think of everything else?

Organyc Organic Cotton Tampons
As I said, tampons are tampons - they have one job to do and these ones do it. I'm happy with them and I will buy them again. I wish I'd thought about it years ago though - 30 years of sticking who knows what (YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN) in my lady parts plays on my mind a bit. :-/

Nature's Goodness Olive Leaf Mouthwash
I've mentioned before that I'm paranoid about the throat cancer links with mouthwash that contains alcohol, and I try to avoid it as much as possible. Previously I'd been using Listerine Zero, but I like this one better. It has a nice minty citrus taste. My only complaint is that it bubbles up a lot so it's hard to gargle with. I'll still buy it again.

Wotnot Naturally Nurturing Facial Wipes
I have to admit I'm not entirely sold on these - they smell quite strongly of olive oil and they seem to leave a bit of a film on my face. I could be biased as I'm not keen on facial wipes in general - I keep them on hand for severe bouts of laziness, but I'm not a regular user. I'm undecided about whether I'd buy this brand again.

Organyc Organic Cotton Panty Liners and Cotton Ultra-thin Pads
I bought these for Noodles. I asked her what she thought of them.
"Fine."
"Can you be more specific? It's for the blog."
"Mu-uuuuum! They're FINE."
Okay, then. They're fine, apparently.

Echolife has free delivery in Australia and my order arrived within a couple of days. Sabine is also extremely helpful and knowledgable and has customer service down to a fine art. During a conversation I had with her I mentioned that I wasn't a fan of lip balms and considered them a necessary evil. A few weeks later at Christmas I came home one day to find a package in my letter box.

How awesome is that? Echolife is definitely where I'll be doing all my hippie shopping from now on. And also, as lip balms go, Burt's Bees are pretty damn good, I have to admit.

Frittering Week 3

2012-01-10T09:07:00.000+10:30

You know, this would be a lot easier if I had the slightest amount of willpower or ability to deny myself anything.

snacks (unhealthy) $11.46
snacks (healthy) $2.32
coffee $9.10
breakfast $11.40
beauty $108.75
dinner $22.30
magazines $17.35
coconut water $7.50
lunch $33.00
accessories $15.59
perfume $45.00

So the plan to not get coffee fell through after a sleepless night thanks to the rat, and then having to go pick Noodles up from the airport the next day. That also accounts for one of the magazines (though the other was just an impulse buy), and lunch.

"Accessories" was a random impulse purchase of earrings on Etsy. I have tons of earrings (and I never wear most of them), I definitely do not need another pair. I am blaming the perfume purchase on Suzanne. I have been pretty good at resisting the lure of indie perfume reviews over the past few months but she made these sound so enticing that I went a bit cray-cray. Grrr! And the beauty purchase... it's Strawberrynet - a Tweezerman mirror with a light (thanks to Karyn's video), a pair of eyelash curlers because I can't find mine anywhere, a Laura Mercier tinted moisturiser as I don't have any at the moment (I've been stealing Noodles' Body Shop one and I kind of hate it), and a MAC MSF Natural. Don't know why I bought that last item - I rarely wear powder. *sigh*

Mini Goal #1
Again, my mini goal is to not buy any coffee this week. Theoretically this should be easy - I have all week off, I don't have any major plans, I don't have to pick anyone up from an airport... so we'll see how that goes.

Mini Goal #2
No unhealthy snacks this week (chocolate, chips, cake, etc.). Noodles and I are back on the healthifying wagon anyway so this should hopefully not be difficult.

How's everyone else going with their New Year goals and resolutions so far?

Oh, and totally random - HELLO, DREAM KITCHEN!

Sampling Samples: Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation

2012-01-09T09:16:00.000+10:30

One day a long time ago I was standing at a counter in Myer waiting patiently for someone to come and take some money from me (and as anyone who's ever been to Myer knows, these days it's a long wait), and I saw a stack of these foundation samples sitting on the desk. Right there in the open for anyone to take. This may seem quite a normal thing to you North Americans and Europeans, but for Australians, a free sample actually being OFFERED is a rare thing indeed. I snatched one up quickly and scurried away into the night before anyone saw me.

As sample colours go, this one (111 Toffee) is a pretty decent match for my skin - usually they're way too dark - so I was able to test it outside the house for once. Oddly, this seems to be the darkest colour in the range - they must run really light.

It's quite liquidy so it has a light to medium coverage, but it is buildable. I added another layer to my cheeks and it blended in nicely. I usually apply foundation with my fingers and then sometimes buff it in with one of these if the 'finger finish' isn't cutting it.

I forgot to take a photo of 'after' before I put the rest of my face on, so I am also wearing blush in that second picture. D'oh! (As a side note, check out how much the redness in my cheeks has reduced since I started using Silk Naturals serums, compared to the last foundation sample post I did!)

The problem I had with this foundation is although it doesn't look heavy, it feels heavy - I was constantly aware that I had it on my face and it bothered me. After about 4 hours I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to wash it off, so I can't speak for its lasting power. It also didn't look especially radiant.

It's a shame about the feel because I did really like the look of it. A 30ml bottle of this will set you back $60 in Australia, but as much as I like Clarins' skincare, I'm never overly thrilled with their makeup. They won't be getting my buckaroos on this one.

5 Movies I Always Stop To Watch

2012-01-08T10:54:00.000+10:30

I was reading Tracy from Beauty Reflections' blog this morning and she did a great post on the 5 movies she would always stop and watch no matter what. I love this idea, so I'm stealing it. There aren't that many movies I can sit through over and over again, but there are a handful (aside from Burglar, which I've mentioned recently) that I watch every single time they are on television.

1. Miracle In The Rain
When I was a little kid I used to watch old movies on weekends with my mum while she was doing the ironing, and this was in the days before video recorders (also known as the 1850s) so you watched it when it was on TV or you didn't watch it at all. This one was shown every year or so and I would always make sure I watched it - even when I was older and had a life and places to go on a weekend afternoon. It's about a mousy spinster who meets a soldier and they fall in love. That's really all there is to it (though it has a weepy, tragic ending of course, as all these films do), but there's something so charming about it that it's always been my favourite of that particular genre.

2. This Is Spinal Tap
I'm not sure if this was the first mockumentary film ever made, but it was certainly one of the earliest, and I distinctly remember walking in when my brother was watching it on video, sitting down for 10 minutes and then turning to him and saying, "These guys are idiots!" Yes, I thought it was real.

3. National Lampoon's Vacation
This is such a silly movie, but that's what I love about it. My favourite scene is probably the one where Audrey's hillbilly cousin (a very young Jane Krakowski) talks about how she can french kiss and Audrey scoffs that everyone does that, and the cousin responds, "Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best."

4. Calamity Jane
Words cannot describe how much I love this film. Another one I used to watch with my mum, and in my late teens Doris Day was my style inspiration. She still is really, I'm just too lazy for the upkeep. I have the soundtrack on my ipod and it is frequently played, let me tell you.

5. The Wedding Singer
I don't like Adam Sandler at all, I'm not overly keen on Drew Barrymore, and I usually hate rom coms, but this movie is one of my all time favourites. It taps into my penchant for nostalgia beautifully (I spent a year or so walking around dressed the way Christine Taylor does in this movie), and it's such a sweet, funny, likeable movie that I can't resist watching it every time it's on. And it has Billy Idol in it! Any film that has Billy Idol in it is good enough for me, frankly.

So that's me - what are your 'always watch' movies?

50 Book Challenge 2012 Book #1: The Call Of The Weird

2012-01-07T13:15:00.000+10:30

Louis Theroux is a journalist who has made a name for himself in gonzo journalism through a series of television documentaries where he immerses himself in the world of the strange. Well, strange to the average BBC viewer, anyway. His works largely in America, where his schtick is to present as a slightly naive, slightly bumbling Englishman looking to learn more about the ways of the weird people he encounters. Somehow, he manages to elicit the most astonishing revelations from people and still remain utterly charming and likeable.

Louis' Weird Weekends series is a program where he visits a different person or group of people in each episode, each with their own specific quirk or agenda. They run the gamut from the odd but basically harmless (the main players involved in informercials, UFO spotters, porn actors), to the downright terrifying (white supremacists, South African separatists, survivalists, the Westboro freak show). His kind manner and finely-honed listening skills stop him from straying into odious 'gotcha' territory most of the time (though he does have a way of getting complete douchebags to unwittingly reveal themselves as complete douchebags), and he seems to genuinely care about the odd people he encounters. He has a knack for making subjects I have absolutely zero interest in (wrestling, demolition derby) fascinating. In short, I worship him.

The Call Of The Weird revisits some of those people he met in his TV series, including a dodgy motivational speaker who had been busted for fraud and other shenanigans, a not very successful male porn actor, a scary, hateful white supremacist and a strangely likeable right-wing militia survivalist who has since left the cause. It's not much more than a series of little 'so what became of them' stories, and there are not many surprises about what did become of these people. If you haven't seen the documentaries, the book will mean nothing, but for me it was a pleasant trip back to follow up on many people I remembered, and I'm exactly the kind of person who wonders what happens after the camera stops rolling.

Rat update

2012-01-06T17:21:00.000+10:30

So to answer everyone's questions from my last post, no I have not caught the rat. I haven't seen it in the house since Wednesday night, but I could still hear them scrabbling about in the walls last night, and consequently I have not slept at all the past two nights except for a couple of hours once it started to get light. I AM A ZOMBIE.

And of course, because I rent I have had the added drama of trying to get something done about it. I rang the agent 9am on the dot yesterday morning and she said she'd get back to me. She didn't, so I rang at 9am again this morning and left a message for her. Again she didn't get back to me. Rang a 3rd time at 3pm and she told me that the landlady had pointed out it was my responsibility. I was super pissed because a) when was she planning to tell me that, and b) why the hell is it my responsibility? What kind of stupid law is that?

I rang the pest control people and while I was talking to the guy I mentioned the possum in the roof, and he said that would make it more expensive because they had to set special bait traps the possum couldn't get into. However, he said if I wanted the possum removed as well, then the landlady had to pay for it and they would clear the rats at the same time. So, sorry Kevin - your right to squat in my roof is trumped by my right to have a decent sleep without the crippling, phobic fear that I will wake up and find a rat chewing on my hair. (I did check first to make sure they weren't going to kill the possum, and they don't.) So I rang the agent back again, who rang the landlady and got the go ahead (grudgingly, I'll bet).

The bad news is that the pest control people can't come until Tuesday and it's a several stage process. They have to get the possum out first, then come back and lay the rat traps. So it looks like it will be the end of next week at least before I can sleep at night again.

Lovely holiday I'm having...

AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!

2012-01-05T03:15:00.000+10:30

At the moment it's just gone 3am and I am sitting in my room with a broom beside me because there is a rat somewhere inside my house! I kept waking up thinking I could hear noises in the house but it was windy outside so I figured that's what it was, then I heard something scrabbling in the kitchen and got up just in time to see a rat run across the floor! Last I saw it was behind the TV in the lounge, and frankly I'm at a loss as to what to do about it. I am TERRIFIED of rats. When I was a teenager my friend's brother had pet rats and I couldn't even bear to look at them, they freaked me out so much.
So for the last hour I've been pacing around the house with a broom wondering what the hell to do. Now I'm just sitting on my bed, hoping doesn't come near me. I won't be going to sleep any time soon, I can tell you. :-(

Dee Finally Discovers It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2012-01-04T09:54:00.000+10:30

When I watched Horrible Bosses a couple of months ago, I had no idea who Charlie Day was, assuming he was from Saturday Night Live, which I don't watch. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I really discovered his comic brilliance when I started watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

As I so often do (The Big Bang Theory, Weeds, Cougar Town). I had ignored this show because I assumed it was just formulaic say-a-line-and-pause-for-the-canned-laughter crap. In my head I had imagined is as something between Cheers - with a bar for a set and a group of regulars sitting around saying whacky things - and the dire but bafflingly successful British sitcom Two Pints of Lager. However, as Noodle Arms has been away on holiday since mid-December (back tomorrow, yay!), I have been pottering around mostly on my ownsome for the past few weeks, and I had scraped the barrel of every single TV show I had the slightest interest in ever seeing, so I finally came around to this one.

It is nothing like I expected. Four high school losers grow up and buy a seedy bar that rarely has any customers. Okay, so far so Cheers. The humour is so much darker, but still outrageously funny. It's not really cringe dark, like, say, Louie, which despite its brilliance I can barely stand to watch at times. It's probably more like Seinfeld taken up to and beyond Curb Your Enthusiasm levels. Some of the episode titles should clue you in: Charlie Gets Molested, Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom, The Gang Finds A Dumpster Baby, Sweet Dee's Dating A Retarded Person, Dennis Looks Like A Registered Sex Offender, Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life. It's not for the faint-hearted. Or my mum.

The main characters are:

Dennis, a vain, shallow, possibly sociopathic womaniser
his twin sister "Sweet Dee" (they never explain why she is called that), an aspiring actress/comedienne who is as vain and shallow and possibly sociopathic as Dennis, but is also constantly derided and dismissed by the others
Mac, a self-serving coward who fancies himself as hard
Charlie, a borderline illiterate, glue-sniffing weirdo who lives in squalor and happily does all the 'Charlie jobs' in the bar like cleaning toilets and killing rats

In season 2, Dennis and Dee's father Frank - played by Danny DeVito - becomes a regular character. Frank is a wealthy eccentric who decides to move in with Charlie to be more adventurous, and embraces the life of a more-than-slightly unhinged scumbag. He likes to mess about in the sewers naked, hang out 'under the bridge', and entertain 'hoo-ers'. I've never been a particular fan of Danny DeVito, but he is brilliant at making Frank both disgusting and shockingly hilarious. The scene in the Season 6 Christmas episode where he slithers naked out of the lining of a couch is just... I'm still shuddering. And laughing.

My favourite character is Charlie, not least because Charlie Day reminds me a lot of Bobcat Goldthwait, one of my favourite comic actors from the 80s, and the reason I watch Burglar every single time it's on TV. His not-always-suppressed rage and inability to articulate himself makes the character a lovable, but slightly terrifying, lunatic.

There are a number of supporting characters who pop up occasionally to add to the hilarity and whose lives have usually been ruined in some way by the gang.

Dee's acting class friend Artemis is probably the most similar to the rest of them - she has an on and off relationship with Frank and doesn't seem to care what she gets involved in.
The waitress Charlie has a crush on (whose name is never revealed) turns up most frequently, and is most often the one who suffers the consequences of their disastrous adventures. She is in AA until Dee's bullying attempts at recreating a Sex and the City-type friendship with the waitress and Artemis results in her going off the wagon and sliding back into alcoholism.
'Rickety Cricket' is a guy who had a crush on Dee in high school and grew up to become a priest. In one episode Dee convinces him that she is in love with him (for her own selfish reasons), causing him to leave the priesthood. When she rejects him he becomes a homeless vagrant, turning up in occasional episodes looking more and more down and out.
My favourite are the McPoyles, a creepy, incestuous pair of brothers who come from a large family that look and act like hillbilly carnies.

The McPoyles and their equally creepy sister, Margaret.

The 7th season just wound up at the end of last year, and the show has been renewed for at least two more seasons. It does start to get patchy from Season 5 on, though there are still enough funny episodes and shocking moments to make it worthwhile.

If you have a strong stomach and you are not easily offended, this is the show for you. Although I'd highly recommend not eating while you watch it.

**As an aside, one thing I always find funny are those fake family portraits as shown above, and in the poster of Step Brothers. They just make me laugh every time I see them.

Frittering Week 2

2012-01-02T11:12:00.000+10:30

It's amazing how much I managed to fritter away this week considering that pretty much nothing was open for at least two of those days, and little was open on most of the other days. Adelaide kind of dies down in the week between Christmas and New Year - I had to trek a long way to get my coconut water!

Alcohol* $16.99
Beauty Subscription** $14.95
Breakfast $8.90
Coconut water $7.25
Coffee $14.70
Dinner $62.14
Lottery*** $9.05
Lunch**** $18.40
Magazines $8.95
Snacks (healthy) $0.85
Snacks (unhealthy) $8.05

*I bought a 6 pack of cider a few days ago when it started getting really hot. I still have two in the fridge as I've just been having one or two at night.
**Okay, I have no rational explanation for this. It's a Glossy Box subscription that I impulsively signed up to while watching jodik76's video bagging them out for their crappy customer service and shoddy organisational skills. This is truly a hardcore fritterer's fritter.
***I only ever buy lottery tickets when it's a jackpot. I may be walking around with $31 million and not even know it.
****I can't explain this. I bring my lunch to work, and I only worked 3 days this week. I don't understand where this came from.

All in all, better than last week, but really that's just because most of the time I have been at home. I'm on holiday this week and as soon as the heat dies down in a couple of days I'll be heading out the door to stretch my legs - that will be the testing time.

Mini Goal #3
Buy no coffee. Not a single one. I want to say I'm going to attempt my Mini Goal #2 and give up coffee entirely but I already have a non-stop headache from the heat and needing to have a fan on all day, I don't think I could battle a caffeine headache on top of that. I might leave that until next week, when hopefully it will be cooler (IT HAD BETTER BE).

December Empties and Chuckers

2012-01-01T15:46:00.000+10:30

It probably makes me sound like a complete saddo, but one of my favourite things of 2011 was really getting into the whole "Empties" vibe - actually using things instead of just buying them, playing a couple of times and then shoving them into a drawer or on a shelf. I've become much more aware of how wasteful I've been in the past (not just with beauty products, but consumables generally - I plan to talk about food waste at some point in the next week or so as well), and I'm mindful not to get trapped into the MUST BUY MUST BUY cycle in 2012. God help me, I think I'm turning into a hippie! You will never see me walk around barefoot though. NEVER.

Not too many full size products this month - though a few are teetering on the edge so January should be a bit more of an empties haul in that regard.

Face of Australia Gentle Makeup Remover
I reviewed this here so I won't say much more about it. I liked it enough to buy another bottle after receiving a freebie. Repurchase? Yes and no. In theory I would buy it again because it's a good makeup remover and it's pretty cheap, but I am loving the Silk Naturals cleansers for the moment. Maybe in the future.

Silk Naturals Pore Refining Toner
Love it! This is the third bottle I have bought because Noodles and I both use it morning and night and annoyingly it only comes in a 60ml size. Repurchase? Definitely.

Neutrogena Makeup Remover Cleansing Towelettes
A staple in my house, but more used by Noodles than by me. I'm not a fan of removing makeup with cleansing wipes other than as a last resort - I use them occasionally when I am being super lazy or am super tired. Noodles uses them to remove mascara before she washes her face. Repurchase? Yes.

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara
This was given to me by Harriet Archer, who received it in a showbag at the races or something. She is a sensitive flower who can't use certain brands, and Elizabeth Arden is one of them. I was unimpressed - the formula was quite dry and flaked like a mofo, and it smudged on my eyelids EVERY TIME I applied it, no matter how careful I was. I used it for about 6 weeks but it kept getting drier and flakier so I think it's done. Repurchase? Definitely not.

Shu Uemura Skin Purifier
This is a cleansing oil that was given to me - it came in one of those monthly boxes. It was nice enough but nothing spectacular. There are oils out there equally as good if not better that don't cost as much as this one. Repurchase? Doubtful.

Silk Naturals Oatmeal Serum 2 x 5ml (one not pictured)
Oh my, how I loved this stuff - it's gorgeously hydrating. I use it in the mornings under makeup. Repurchase? Already have - I bought a full bottle in my last Silk Naturals haul.

Silk Naturals Green Tea and Aloe serum 5ml
Similar to the Oatmeal serum in that it's a hydrating serum. It's lovely, but I didn't love it quite as much as the Oatmeal. I'm still using up the second sample - these Silk Naturals samples go a long way! Repurchase? Maybe down the track when I'm over the Oatmeal serum, but not for now.

Silk Naturals Argan and Goji Berry Moisturiser 2 x 5ml
A rich moisturiser that's nice to use at night. Repurchase? Undecided. Pretty much the only skincare product of Silk Naturals I'm not entirely sold on is their moisturisers, and I haven't worked out yet whether that's just because they don't contain all the silicones and slippy ingredients that make commercial moisturisers 'feel nice'. Kind of like how your hair looks like crap for a couple of weeks after you go from something like Pantene to a silicone-free shampoo and conditioner, it might just be a matter of getting used to them. I have full sizes of two other moisturisers of theirs so I'm pretty set for the moment anyway.

Silk Naturals Hemp Moisturiser 5ml
Noodles used this - apparently it's good for acne-prone skin. She didn't like it at first - again, seemingly because it didn't have the 'feel good' things in them, but she seems to have come around to it. Repurchase? I did already as Noodles said she wanted a full bottle.

Silk Naturals AHA Toner 5 ml
I used this every second night in place of the Pore Refining Toner. I like AHAs because I'm not keen on exfoliating with scrubs anymore. Repurchase? Yes, I've already bought a full size.

ASAP Sheer Tint Moisturiser SPF15
Another freebie, this was okay but nothing special. You may notice I chopped the top off it to scrap all the last bits out but don't get the idea that's because I loved it. I was just scrabbling around desperately one day for something with SPF in it to put on my face before I went outside. Repurchase? No.

The Perfumed Court 5ml decants in Jean Paul Gaultier Classique, Chanel Gardenia EDT, Miller Harris Coeur de Fleur and Fleurs de Bois
I'm fickle, especially with perfumes. No matter how much I love them I get bored and want something different, so because of that, and because I don't care about the pretty bottles, I buy a lot of them in small amounts from The Perfumed Court. Repurchase? No to the Miller Harris scents - neither of those were anything special. I've bought Chanel Gardenia a few times because it's a good Spring/Summer fragrance, but I'm getting sick of it. I might give that one a rest for a while. I'm considering buying a full bottle of JPG Classique as I'd forgotten how much I loved it - this was a favourite of mine when it first came out in the 90s, and every time I wear it, it takes me right back there to the days when I had a life. *sigh*

Schwarzkopf Deep Nutrition Instant Repair Treatment
Noodles used this - she loves anything hair-related. Repurchase? Unlikely, she has a ton of similar products already, though she did say it was nice.

Garnier Body Intensive 7 Days Ultra-Softening Lotion
Another one used by Noodles. She loved it, and I've already bought her a full bottle.

Kerastase Ciment Thermique Heat-Activated Reconstructor Milk
This came in one of those monthly boxes - there were 2 samples of this and two each of the shampoo and conditioner to match. All of these made my hair feel so gorgeous, to the point where I couldn't stop touching it. Repurchase? Normally I would be YES PLEASE NOW, but since I've resolved to go as natural as possible with hair products from now on (or at least when I use up what I have) for both Noodles and myself, and Kerastase is chock full of those things that hair hippies consider nasties, it's a sad-face no from me for now. :-(

Clarins Skin Illusion Natural Radiance Foundation
I intend to do a review of this as I took before and after pics while I was testing it, so I won't say much about it now.

NYX Tinted Lip Spas in Jewel, Vintage, Sake, Juicy and Copacobana
I've talked about these in the past and I do like them, but mine are all at least a couple of years old and generally kind of ugh, so they have to go. Repurchase? I don't think so - I have so many other lip products and although they're nice for hot weather there's nothing particularly awesome about them.

Clarins Lipstick #705
This was in a GWP and would have to be at least 3 years old, so it's going. Repurchase? No, the reason I still have it is because I never much liked it and it just sat in my box of lipsticks in the fridge.

Buzzplanet Chocolate Bacon Lip Balm
I hate to bag out an Etsy seller but this is pretty much the worst lip balm I have ever used. It does nothing - it's not the least bit moisturising. It's like rubbing a cheap Reject Shop candle all over your lips. And it doesn't smell or taste anything like either chocolate or bacon. Noodles has a chocolate macadamia one that is just as craptacular. Repurchase? Definitely not.

ELF Luscious Liquid Lipsticks in Pink Lemonade, Bark, Cherry Tart and Baby Lips
Again, these are just getting old. I was rummaging through a drawer the other day looking for something and I noticed that one of these was looking particularly crusty so I figured it was time they went. They had a good run though, and for about $1US each, I think I got my money's worth out of them. Repurchase? I think so, except for Baby Lips, because the name creeps me out.

Palladio Herbal Brow Gel
I can only put up with those clear brow gels going all brown and scuzzy for so long before I can't stand looking at them anymore. I got a couple of months out of this one and it was pretty cheap, so again I think I got my money's worth out of it. Repurchase? Not sure, it's not a bad product but it really doesn't do anything that a bit of hairspray on a spoolie couldn't.

Dermalogica Total Eye Care SPF15 and Multi Vitamin Power Firm
Both of these eye products are past their use-by date. See, this is what I mean about being mindful about using stuff. Repurchase? No, I didn't much like either of them and I'm not a fan of Dermalogica.

Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch
I have had this FOREVER and used it frequently but there's only a bit of a dip in it.

This damn stuff lasts forever. I am throwing it out because I'm just a bit grossed out by how long it's been around. Repurchase? Doubtful. I really wish companies would make smaller sizes of products that are likely to last a really long time. It would be so much cheaper and less wasteful for the consumers, and chances are they'd make extra sales too because who doesn't end up buying something else when they go to restock on a product?

Phew! That was a lot of stuff. I'm worn out from typing now. If you've done an empties post, link me up so I can check out what you're using. And if you've used any of these things and love or hate them, tell me all about it!

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-01T11:15:00.000+10:30

Noodle Arms on her first day of school in Adelaide. All shiny and new!

We all love shiny new things and new years are no different. Remember at school you'd get your brand new stationery at the start of the school year and you'd resolve to keep everything neat and draw your margins and whatever? The first half dozen pages of your exercise books would be laid out neatly and precisely, with your best handwriting... then the novelty wore off and the rest of it was filled with randomly scrawled notes and doodles in the corners that were block lettered, coloured-in words like "BORED BORED BORED STEVE NORMAN 4 EVA" written over and over. Or maybe that was just me.

I feel like I wasted a lot of last year because I wasn't well and I didn't do much of anything. I did watch a heck of a lot of TV though! This year I'd like to be a bit more adventurous and out there, but I haven't really decided what form that will take as yet, so I'll come back to that at another time. For now, here is my basic list of resolutions - I haven't included things like health and finances as they're ongoing goals that I intend to keep working on continually and will probably write about regularly.

1. Complete the 50 Book Challenge.

Since I wrote about 2011's failboat on that one, I have read one more book - Bossypants by Tina Fey. Not as funny as you'd think it would be, but it had its moments.

2. Disengage from work drama.

My work is a vortex of drama and there's always something going on. In the last couple of months I've been fairly successful in disengaging, but towards the end of the year things blew up in a big way and I was sucked right back in for a while. Enough of that. It's boring and stressful and since I have a fairly solitary job where I can hide away for big chunks of time if I need to, that's what I'll be doing. I'm going to be crazy busy too, so that will be a good excuse to not get involved.

3. Find a sewing class that Noodles and I can do together.

I asked her recently about doing something together like a cooking class, or yoga or even something like belly-dancing (to be honest, I was glad she said no to that one). She shot down most of my ideas so when I challenged her to come up with something she said she would like to learn how to sew. She is one of those girls who likes to 'tweak' her clothes to make them a bit more individual and she has a bit of an eye for fashion, so I am happy to encourage this interest. And it wouldn't hurt me to learn either - I can barely sew a button on a shirt.

4. Meet some of my favourite bloggers and internet people.

It's highly unlikely that I will be trekking overseas this year (unless I won that $31m lottery last night), but nI would really like do a few short trips and meet up with some people, such as Jade and Su in Sydney, Natalie in Melbourne, and pretty much all the WA girls, just to name a few. I don't do "events", which is why I've never gotten involved in the local blogging community, but individually there are quite a few people around the place I'd like to sit down and have a coffee or a cocktail with.

5. Stop reading the news.

Seriously, the news just makes me angry - mostly because of how utterly craptacular mainstream media is in this country. I just get riled up and ranty and it serves no purpose.

That's about it, really. I think they're all pretty doable. Now I'm off to read everyone else's resolution/New Year posts.

I call this one Bobby Hill.

Top 11 of 2011

2011-12-30T18:41:00.000+10:30

I was hard-pressed to find 11 products I wore this year, let alone 11 favourites. 2011 wasn't a big beauty product year for me, for a number of reasons - I went months without wearing any makeup when I wasn't feeling well, and after realising how much I had accumulated I spent most of the year trying to get rid of a huge chunk of it one way or another. However, when I started digging around I did come across some things that I just loved this year. Quite a few of these are not new, though.

Wet'n'Wild 8 Color Icon Palette in Comfort Zone This is an amazingly good palette of neutrals. WnW really picked up their game when they reformulated their eyeshadows and brought out new ranges. I loved many of their shadows this year, but this palette was my favourite. Reviewed here.

Wet'n'Wild Single Color Icon Eyeshadow in Nutty I was all about taupes this year. This was the one I probably reached for most often. It cost me about $2US, you can't do better than that.

Silk Naturals Oatmeal Serum I am loving almost all of the Silk Naturals skin care products I've been trying lately, but this little beauty is my absolute favourite. It's a beautifully hydrating serum that I like to use under makeup in the mornings.

Shadow Worx Eye Primer This is from Coastal Scents, an online store I generally avoid for various reasons. They had a sale on brushes a while ago and I wanted to get some #217 dupes, but I figured I should buy something else to make the shipping worthwhile, and this was the something else. It's surprisingly good - I think better on me than UDPP. I intend to do a comparison with the two while I'm on holidays so we'll see if I'm right or if I'm just imagining it.

Joey New York blush in Faith I have had this for at least 2 or 3 years, and I use it frequently but I haven't even made a dent in it. It's just a pretty matte light pink shade, exactly the kind of blush shade I like.

Maybelline Color Sensational lipstick in Born With It Perfect, perfect neutral pink. I love these lipsticks generally but this one is by far my favourite.

Lecora lipstick in... Something Rose? Soft Rose? This is an Aldi lipstick that Jade kindly bought for me as we don't have Aldi in Adelaide. Again, it's just a lovely neutral pink. I have a lot of neutral pink lipsticks...

Flourish Bath and Body Perfume Oil in Almond Milk Gorgeous. I reviewed it here.

Everyday Minerals Junior Eye Kabuki brushes These are the brushes that come with their eyeshadow sets and I never bothered using them before, and in fact I almost threw them out. But a while ago I discovered that they're perfect for blending in concealer and my Touche Éclat. Since then I've been using them every day.

NYX Slim Lip Pencil in Citrine I have a few of these NYX lip pencils and they're great. So cheap too - about $3US on Cherry Culture, I think. This one is my favourite because it goes well with all my neutral pinks. A while ago I was buying something on Makeupgeek and they had this colour only on sale for $0.99, so I hope they're not discontinuing it! I stocked up on a couple of back ups anyway. Swatched here.

Illamasqua Angled Brow Brush This brush is all kinds of awesome. It's very stiff so you can be super precise with your brow powder or cream. I have a MAC #266 but it's too floppy and a bit useless. This is probably my all time favourite brush, I love it to death. Reviewed here.

If you want to see more Top 11s, check out Jessica, Sarah, Lilit, Natalie, Suzanne and Jade.

Baby Haul (not paid for by me, doesn't count)

2011-12-27T11:31:00.000+10:30

You know what's more fun than spending money? Spending other people's money! Noodle Arms is interstate for Christmas with her dad and his family, and she said she hadn't gotten me a Christmas present yet as she was going shopping with her Grandma some time this week. I told her I was going to Priceline this morning and if she liked, whatever I bought could be her present for me. Since she hates shopping unless it's to buy things for herself (when she was young I learned that to get her to come along willingly I had to buy her something, but if I was smart I'd do it right at the end, because as soon as she'd gotten whatever her thing was she was over it and wanted to go home), she was happy to go along with that.

Everything shuts down in Adelaide over Christmas. EVERYTHING. Even the pubs near us were not open on Christmas Day, which is ridonk, because in the real world (ie: not Adelaide) loads of people go out for lunch on Christmas Day rather than mess about cooking it themselves. Amazingly, even though it is a public holiday, many of the shops are actually open today, so I thought I'd trek in to Priceline and have a look at their sale. I expected the mall to be bedlam, so I figured I'd just get in as early as possible, fight my way through the teenage girls pawing everything in sight in Priceline (and opening things - who raised you, you feral trolls???). Weirdly, there was hardly anyone around. The first Priceline I passed in a side street just off the mall wasn't open (of course), so I braced myself for the sardine can experience of Boxing Day (well, the day after Boxing Day) shopping and ventured into the other Priceline smack in the centre of the city. And it was DEAD. There were more staff walking around than customers.

Priceline had a '3 for $30' Maybelline sale going on, which probably sounds bizarre to you North Americans, but believe me, that's a bargain here. Those foundations are usually somewhere between $20-$25AUD each, and that mascara is around $18 or so. I ummed and ahhed for a while - I rarely bother with Maybelline (or any of the common drugstore lines available here) because it's so insultingly overpriced, but there were actually a few things I wanted to try - the Super Stay foundation and concealer, the Age Rewind highlighter and concealer thingie, the Define-a-Brow pencils, etc. In the end I decided to be practical - I don't need concealer and I don't need brow products - I have tons of both. What I do want is a more pocket-friendly foundation than my HG Chanel Mat Lumiere. I'm one of those people who firmly believes that you get what you pay for with foundation, but the drugstore brands have been making great strides in that area of late, so I want to give them another try (mind you, if I do find one I like I'll be seeking out a cheaper source than Australian retail). I actually have another bottle of Fit Me that someone gave me because it was a freebie that was too dark, but it's too dark for me too. I like the finish though, so I bought a lighter one to mix with it. I'm not generally a fan of Maybelline mascaras (too clumpy), but everyone raves about The Falsies, so I thought I'd give it a go.

When I came out of Priceline it was about 9:30 or so, and aside from a line of young Asian people outside the Swarovski store (is that a thing with Asian people?), everything was still looking pretty quiet. Noodles told me that when she and her dad went shopping yesterday in a Melbourne shopping centre, they had to park 15 minutes walk away and it was jam-packed inside. And here's Rundle Mall...

Adelaide, you're doing it wrong.

Frittering Week 1

2011-12-26T10:23:00.000+10:30

I thought that this week I might be less inclined to fritter, since I was aware that I would have to record it all here at the end of the week. Ha! Brain - you don't know me at all! So the following is the list of definitely unnecessary items bought this week, perhaps with some justifications...

Alcohol* $56.98

Breakfast $10.65
Coconut Water $21.05
Coffee $24.50
Dinner $73.90
Gum** $3.90
Ice Cream*** $11.80
Lunch $24.90
Snacks (healthy) $9.95
Snacks (unhealthy)**** $14.73

*That's more spent on alcohol in a week than I have spent on it in the last 6 months. In my defence, it wasn't all for me - Ben (ex) came over for dinner on Friday night and I bought him some cider, because I'm nice like that. And there's a bottle of wine still in the fridge that will probably sit there for weeks before I drink it.
**Not really a fritter as it was for Noodle Arms before she got on a plane to help blocked ears, but I included it because it's one of those small, impulsive purchases I would not normally buy but that adds up.
***This is well out of left field. I'm not a fan of ice cream - I might have one twice a year. I had a weird urge Saturday when it was really hot, and my local IGA only sells them in boxes so I bought some and only ate one. Noodles will hoover up the rest of them when she gets home - probably within seconds since there is hardly ever ice cream in this house.
****What can I say? It's been a snacky week. Mini chocolate Christmas puddings with coffee, BBQ shapes, an overpriced pastry at the airport... not keen on getting on the scales this week, I can tell you.

Mini Goal #1
My mini goal for the week is to cut the coffee purchases. I am only working for three days this week, and then I have a couple of weeks off, so this is the perfect time. I want to try to be organised enough to have my two morning coffees at home before I go to work, rather than one at home and then buying one (or sometimes two).

Mini Goal #2
During my holidays, I'm going to try to break the coffee habit entirely. Not sure how I'll go on that one, as I've tried several times before when I've had time off work and it's always been a crushing failure, with me giving in to the headaches by the third day and scoffing a large cappuccino. However, I am determined to try again. Caffeine - I WILL DEFEAT YOU....eventually....maybe.

So did you have a big spendy spendy week? Of course you did, who doesn't the week before Christmas?

Goal #4 Walk Away From Drama Magnets

2011-12-22T21:55:00.000+10:30

It's no secret I have a mouth on me. I don't like bitchiness for its own sake, but if I've got something to say I'll say it, and I'm not afraid of confrontation. I'm also not afraid of walking away from people who shit me, whether they're acquaintances, friends or even family. If someone pisses me off enough times, I will cull them. And I never regret it.

In 2012 I want to learn to cull quietly. There's no need for dramatics. There's no need for the "No, YOU suck!" sniping.

Just walk away. Leave the drama to the llamas. And the martyrs.

Goal #3 Get Good Hair

2011-12-22T17:25:00.000+10:30

Have you ever noticed that when women hit a certain age they start getting a bit zany with their hair? Look around at all the middle-aged women with asymmetrical crops, stripey chunks of various reds and blondes, or a purple over-dye - often a combination of all three. And then they go and top it all off with a pair of 'statement' glasses in a bright colour like green or red. Their uniform is 3/4 crop loose pants (who talked about that once on Twitter? Dempeaux?), linen overshirts and chunky Pat Butcher-style costume jewellery.

I dread the day that I become one of those women, as I'm closing in on that age group. Last night I was watching the Eastenders omnibus (hence the Pat Butcher reference - she's probably what made me think about it) and pondering my ever-growing list of 2012 YOTA goals, and it occurred to me that I would really like to find a good hairdresser next year. I had one when I lived in Melbourne, and I had one when I lived in Geelong, but I've been here in Adelaide for nearly 8 years now and I've never managed to settle on anyone. As a consequence, my hair is looking a bit... less than stellar. It didn't help that half of it fell out a couple of years after moving here, which made me too scared to really do anything with it for a really long time. In my mid-late 20s a friend used to refer to me as "The Girl With The Perfect Hair" (stolen from a Things of Stone and Wood album title), because my hair was straight and shiny and I never needed to blow dry or mess about with it to get it to sit just the way I wanted it (double cowlick notwithstanding). It always looked nice and I was very vain about it. Since losing so much of it, it's still straight but no longer shiny, and it just sits lank and forlorn and won't hold a style no matter what kind of product I put in it or what fancy tool I use. Usually, I just put it up away from my face and get on with it.

I haven't had a hair cut since July last year. INORITE! I was going to Liquid Hair for a while, but the hairdresser I liked went on maternity leave, and even though their customer service is exceptional, the way they push products on you all the time really got on my nerves after a while and I just stopped going.

I spent a few years in the late 90s with a chin length bob that I really liked, and I've noticed they've been making a reappearance lately, so I was half-considering going for the chop again. But without the same amount of hair I had before, I worry that it might just look like someone put a bowl on my head and cut around it. And my face is rounder than it was back then, so I run the risk of looking like Bert Newton in a Louise Brooks wig. I don't know... it's all so HARD.

So the goal is: find a hairdresser, get a really good cut, and decide on a colour. ONE COLOUR. No stripey chunks or single 'quirky' burgundy streak. I'm leaning towards light blonde. So expensive and so much upkeep, but I really like being blonde, and it suits me. Or maybe red. That makes my eyes look super green. Although, so does cherry black. Decisions...

Goal #2 50 Book Challenge

2011-12-20T18:01:00.000+10:30

I attempted the 50 Book Challenge this year, with spectacularly unspectacular results. However, I did read a book on the weekend (Bossypants by Tina Fey - not as funny as you'd expect it to be), so there's one more to add to that fail list, at least. I don't know what the problem has been the last few years - I've always been a reader, and not so long ago I would have churned through that challenge twice over easily, but I seem to have the attention span of a goldfish these days. Any book that doesn't instantly grab my attention is cast aside, and back to my (TV) stories I go, staring vacantly at a screen while vaguely feeling my brain cells die off one by one.

I am determined to complete this challenge in 2012. I'm intending to take up some kind of study as well, so maybe that will spur me on to read more. Jade asked me the other day what books I was planning to read, and I couldn't think of much off the top of my head. I've been pondering since and come up with a list I would like to check out. I'm going to start by revisiting some of the works of Paul Auster, and catching up with those I haven't read. I know he's kind of wanky, but he's wanky in a good way - not in the Tim Winton OH MY GOD DOES THIS NOTHINGNESS EVER END kind of way.

I'm also seriously considering a Kindle. In fact, I've all but made up my mind to get one. When e-readers first appeared on the scene I was a staunch hold-out for paper, but the cost of books and the bulk of storing them is wearing me down. OKAY E-READER, YOU'VE GOT ME. Who's got one? Tell me all!

Also, please give me book recommendations, bearing in mind I'm not a big fan of crime novels aside from one or two authors, and I hate chick lit with a fiery passion. And I don't want to read The Slap.

Goal #1 - Money Money Money

2011-12-18T13:10:00.000+10:30

I'm awesome at budgeting. Seriously. I can spend hours calculating the averages per month of every conceivable expense and fitting it all into a neat little chart that shows exactly what is coming in and what should be going out. However, what should be going out never seems to match with what does go out. Because I am what is known as a hardcore fritterer.

A fritterer is someone who spends a lot of money in small amounts, so it doesn't seem like a lot of money is being spent. A coffee here, a magazine there. Some Tic Tacs while buying milk, a new type of Black & Green's chocolate that I notice on the shelf at the local hippie shop while I'm stocking up on rolled oats and chia seeds. A $5 mascara in a throw out bin conveniently located while lining up at Chemist Warehouse waiting to pay for my vitamins. I think you get the point - I piss away a lot of money on fleeting, pointless, impulse purchases.

So my first goal for Year of the Tight Arse is to rein in the frittering. For the past few months I have been using an app called Toshl (there are loads of expense tracking apps out there, this is just one of them) to keep track of my spending. I haven't been religious about it, but just noting down for a couple of weeks here and there everything I buy. In one 7 day period I spent $36.70 on coffee. COFFEE. In the same period I spent $30.30 on lunch, and I have no idea how that happened, as I take my lunch to work almost every day. Other expenses in that week:

magazines - $16.90
macarons - $10.00 (note how they get their own category!)
downloads - $14.18
beauty products - $30.21
cakes - $8.45 (again - own category!)
water - $14.80

So you can see why what's in the budget doesn't match up with what's left in my hand at the end of each fortnight.

I haven't entirely figured out the best way to go about this. I am half-considering doing a summing up post each fortnight (as that's my pay cycle) of what I spent money on that I didn't need. Maybe seeing it written down might spur me to reduce that list each time. But I don't want to bore people senseless with lists of stuff. I don't know...

Are you a fritterer? Any tips to avoid impulse purchases greatly appreciated!

Hello!

2011-12-18T08:58:00.000+10:30

I created this blog to have something much more general and move away from the mostly beauty-related Miss Prissypants. This is not to say I'll never talk about makeup again, but really I just want to talk about whatever I want to talk about.

If you're reading this, thank you! I promise to do my best not to be boring.