Wednesday 29 April 2015

Drugstore Haul #7: Off the Bandwagon Edition

It is so, so easy to say, "That is IT! I've had enough! No more spending money!" It's quite another resist a 40% off sale at Priceline when "window-shopping" with your makeup partner in crime. Truth be told, I'd wanted nothing for myself -- I'd mostly wanted to pick up a few extra things before my giveaway began (which you can still enter, by the way!).

Of course, life doesn't always go to plan. You misplace your car keys when you're already late, you burn a special dinner... you enter Priceline for a quick look and spend a week's salary.

But that's the curse of being a blogger, right?

With their massive 40% off sale, I simply couldn't resist throwing item after item into the basket that my trusty friend Jo-Anna held for me, even with unhelpful comments such as, "Do you need another one?" "Oh my God, that's a lot of lip products." and, my personal favourite, "Step away from the mascara."

I could say that Jo-Anna, like Jon Snow, knows nothing, but she's as bad as me. Let's look at what I got!


Rimmel London Apocalips Matte Lip Velvet in "Burning Lava" and "Meteoric Matte" || I was slightly concerned when I bought these -- I thought it might be possible that Rimmel had created a monster that combined the dryness of a liquid lipstick with the feathering of the original Apocalips lip lacquers. I'm glad to say that I was wrong! So far both shades have been very comfortable to wear, and while they look matte after a little while, they still feel creamy on the lips.

L'Oreal Paris Glam Matte Intense Matte Gloss in "Fuchsia Flare" || I bought this thinking that it might be a dupe for MAC Viva Glam Miley Cyrus, but it definitely is not that. It's much brighter than Miley Cyrus and is slightly drying over time.

Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lipstick in "Ringa Ringa Roses" || I think that Rimmel might be discontinuing this shade, as it had a reduced to clear sticker on it -- I still got the additional 40% off though, which was awesome. It's a really pretty, natural pink and I've gotten several compliments when I've worn it.

Maybelline Color Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in "Pink So Chic" || This isn't exactly what I'd have called a pink. It kind of leans towards a plum-ish mauve tone, but other than that, I love this! It's basically a short, fat lip pencil, but it's quite creamy in comparison to a normal lip pencil.

Maybelline Color Show Lip Gloss in "Barely There Pink" and "White Glitz" || I bought these as potential dupes for the MAC Cinderella lip glasses, although I obviously haven't tried them out yet to see how they compare. I think Barely There Pink will look great on its own, although White Glitz may look best if it's layered on top of something else. We'll see!

L'Oreal Paris Miss Manga Mega Volume Mascara in "Indigo", "Turquoise" and "Purple" || Can you believe that Priceline didn't have this mascara in black? I hadn't even realised that this came in colours -- I'd picked up the Turquoise tube thinking that the light blue meant it was waterproof, but I quickly realise what was going on and raided the counter for other shades! Of the three, I've only worn Purple properly so far, and it doesn't show up all that much but that's likely because my eyelashes are so dark. Turquoise really seems to a pack a punch of colour, and I haven't yet opened Indigo.

Maybelline Dream Wonder Fluid-Touch Foundation in "Classic Ivory" || I was excited to try this at half price because I'd kept hearing great things about it, but I have a couple of bones to pick with this line. The first is the size: only 20ml in comparison to the standard 30ml -- considering that this is Maybelline's most expensive foundation, I was surprised. The second is the lack of shade range. Classic Ivory is too light for my skin -- I can usually wear it fine, don't get me wrong, but on warmer days it's just way too pale, and the next shade up was way too dark.

And that's the end of my haul! Have you purchased any of these items recently? Which of these is your favourite? Let me know!

Shae xo

Sunday 26 April 2015

Bellabox | March 2015: #Selfie

I think Bellabox are undergoing some troubles at the moment. Late March rolled around and the March box still hadn't arrived on anybody's doorstep. I hadn't been particularly concerned, but then I'd forgotten that it was something that was supposed to arrive (the Padawan Curse strikes again). My personal theory is that perhaps Bellabox were having issues with companies to supply samples of products; I can't think of any other reason why a) the box would be so late, and b) the box would still have such a relatively small value. I'm not saying that I need all high end all the time, but previous boxes have been worth around the $50 mark, and mine was worth half that -- others, even less.

The theme of March's box was #Selfie -- something that I can always get behind, given that it's something that nearly every blogger does. I think all of the products in the box were selected with the idea of achieving the 'perfect Selfie', and a lot of fuss was made about two particular brands: Stabilo and Colour Theory.

Let's take a peek inside the box, shall we?


Lonvitalité Collagen Crystal Eye Mask || The most expensive item in the box, this product is an eye mask that is meant to target dark circles and fine lines. While I'm glad that Bellabox gave me an item from a brand I hadn't heard of before, this isn't a product that I really need, so I'll be passing it onto my mother. A six-pack of these costs $32, and I got a packet of two worth $10.67.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturizing Day Cream || I feel as thought Palmer's is a brand that gets featured quite often, but that could be my imagination. I don't usually get excited by any of their products, but I have been using day creams more and more frequently, so I'll be sure to give this a go. I'm not sure if it's going to beat the incredible Neutrogena moisturiser that I got in February's box, but hey, you never know! A 75g tube retails at Priceline for $14.99 and I received a 15g tube worth approximately $3.

Stabilo Neon Highlighter - Pink || I could hear all the question marks in the air when I earlier mentioned Stabilo as a brand name that got a lot of attention. I think many people were confused about the inclusion of a highlighter in a beauty box, but Stabilo were sponsoring a competition run by Bellabox, so... y'know, I guess having a product in the box was to be expected. I personally don't mind, because I use highlighters all the time (although, I can't lie, I was kinda hoping I'd get a yellow one!). I think I actually prefer this design to the original, too, because I remember that the old ones used to occasional hurt or cramp my hands if I was highlighting  documents for a long period of time; this new one seems for ergonomically friendly. These highlighters apparently retail for $1.60 each, but I can't seem to find them for sale anywhere.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Creamy Cleanser & Makeup Remover || This is something that I will definitely use, especially as my favourite cleanser has run out and I'm trying to get through my samples before I buy anything else. I find that these products don't always remove all of my makeup, however, so it'll be interested to see how well this one measures up against the rest.  A 150g tube retails for $9.99, and I received a 15g tube worth around $1.

Chapstick Strawberry Lip Balm || Are Chapsticks a regular occurrence in beauty boxes, or is it just me? I have enough of these to last me a lifetime -- I bought a 3-pack tin the other week, erroneously thinking they were Lip Smackers (Shae, you moron) -- so I'll be passing this onto one of my brothers. I received a full size product worth $3.99.

Colour Theory Eye Pencil - "Charcoal" || This brand got pushed a little bit in emails from Bellabox, and I'd been slightly underwhelmed when I took my eye pencil out of the box; I'd been hoping for one of the more exciting colours in the line. Still, Charcoal is a really soft light pencil grey -- not the black that I'd thought it was -- and it takes a little bit working with for the colour to show on my lower lashline. These are worth $4 exclusively from Amcal pharmacies, and I got a full-sized product.

Revlon PhotoReady Airbrush Effect Makeup - Natural Beige || This was a little bonus sample, which might be a nice way to try new foundations, but I think that the colour might be a little dark for me. I won't know until I try! A 30ml bottle is $35.95, and my sample had 1ml that was worth $1.23.

Price: $15
Bellabox Product Value: $25.49

Overall, this box was more underwhelming than disappointing. The value of previous boxes has been almost double this, and I know that other people have received more samples in their box, but have had a lesser overall value. Bellabox have also started to charge an additional $2.95 for shipping (it was previously free), which I know will be a turn-off for some people -- but I'm hoping to see some kind of qualitative increase because of it.

Or, at the very least, no Chapsticks for a while.

How did you go in this month's Bellabox? Have you tried any of these products?

Shae xo

PS. Don't forget that there are still a few days left to enter my giveaway, but hurry -- time's running out!

Monday 20 April 2015

Mecca Beauty Loop L3 Unboxing

What's a post on my blog if not a late post? I received my Beauty Loop box from Mecca Cosmetica around the same as I got my February Bellabox, and I did the same thing with it as the subscription box -- I put it in a drawer for safe keeping and promptly forgot about it. I'm surprised that this post didn't write itself up any quicker, because I was actually really impressed with the items that I received.

Don't get me wrong, there's usually at least one stand out item in every box that I've gotten, but this particular box had some seriously awesome stuff that I wouldn't try purely because of the price tag attached. These are things that I'm not going to be able to afford until I'm earning a full-time wage!


Tocca Eau de Parfum - "Cleopatra" || Cleopatra is one of my favourite historical ladies of all time -- although I'd wager that she's a favourite of many -- so I'm pretty excited to wear this out and about! (See also: at work, because I never go anywhere else.) I've been really into sample perfumes lately because they're so handy to take with you on the go. I can quickly dab some on myself for a quick pick-me-up during the day without having to carry around a big glass bottle. These fragrances by Tocca retail at $92 for a 50ml bottle, making this 1.5ml sample worth about $2.76.

Verso Super Facial Serum || I've also really been into serums for a little while, if only to use up all the little samples that I've been getting. I haven't tried this yet, but it's supposed to be a great anti-aging serum that can be used on a daily basis. Now, anti-aging isn't necessarily a quality that I need, but I love the Lancôme serum sampler that I got late last year -- I'm determined to get every bit out! -- so I enjoy comparing serums to see how they make skin look. A 30ml jar costs $159 (ouch!), so my 2ml sample is worth $10.60. Jeepers!

Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner - "Moray" || I now have so many eye liners that I'll never need to buy another one again, but Moray is a pretty interesting colour that I don't really have. It's a kind of metallic olive-y/khaki green that is really neat for adding flair without being overdramatic -- great for an everyday look! It seems as though I received a full-size product as well, making it worth $26, but if the website is any indication, it doesn't seem like you can get Moray from Mecca online.

Mecca Cosmetica Hands On Transforming Hand Cream || Hand cream is something I'm honestly not huge on -- I don't like how my hands feel, even if they are as smooth as the underbelly of a hippo. Still, this is supposed to make your hands feel like cashmere, so I don't mind putting it on my hands every now and then, especially because the feeling didn't last. (So, if you're into super moisturised hands, this might not be your thing.) I got a 30ml tube, and a 100ml tube is $40, making my sample worth $12.

By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra-Powder || By Terry is one of those brands that I won't be buying until I have stable, full-time work, so I love when I get their products in my Beauty Loop box. As I understand it, this is supposed to be a kind of overall setting powder, but this sample jar is so small that I need to use a small flat foundation brush -- so I pat it gently on the areas where I tend to get shiny. A 10g jar of this will set you back $79, and I got a 1.3g jar worth roughly $10.27.

Beauty Loop Box Value: $61.63

This has been one of the most impressive Beauty Loop boxes I've ever received from Mecca, and it was worth more than double that of the most recent Bellabox! (That post is still to come -- so it'll probably be published when Jon Snow takes the Iron Throne.) I'm really excited to try out all of these products too, and they have the potential to be products that I'll find myself re-purchasing once my funds allow it.

Have you tried out any of these products before?

Shae xo

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Sorry, Not Sorry | 5 MAC Collections I'm (not really) Glad I Missed Out On

I feel as though MAC has become a brand notorious for releasing several collections a month -- some of them smaller ones that are usually available at PRO stores if you're not lucky enough to get them when they come out online, but also the larger ones that sell out within an hour or two anyway (MAC Cinderella, anyone?).

It's really, really easy to get caught up in the hype of a collection that you don't really care too much about -- when the MAC Toledo collection was announced, the colours and the packaging made me want to purchase every item in the collection, even though I didn't really need another four red lipsticks or a green mascara. I'm glad I had the lack of funds time to recover and think logically (see also: the announcement of the Cinderella collection).

That being said, there are some, dare I say, legendary collections of the past that are referred to every now and again, and one in particular prompted me to spend way too much time looking into past collections, to see if there were any others that I might have sold half my liver for. There were many which were interesting, but only five filled my head with lust so extreme that I know I would've bought out as much of the collection as possible.

And I can't lie: for the sake of my wallet, I'm sort of glad I missed them, but I'm more sorry that I couldn't own them.


In order from fifth to first, here are a list of MAC collections that would've driven me nuts!

(Source)

5. MAC x The Simpsons (August 2014)

People in general seemed to be divided on whether or not this was a collection worth buying pieces from. With some unique lip glass colours, super awesome-looking shadows, and blushes with excitingly cute names (take a peek here if you need a refresher), the only items that I wasn't lusting after were the nail stickers, and the lip glasses called "Grand Pumpkin" and "Nacho Cheese Explosion" (call me crazy, but I don't think I can pull off pumpkin orange or cheese yellow on my lips).

Unfortunately for me (or, financially-speaking, fortunately), the collection went online when I was at uni -- and by the time I'd gotten home, six hours later... everything had sold out, even "Nacho Cheese Explosion".

(Source)

4. MAC Wonder Woman (March 2011)

This collection came out four years ago, back when my makeup collection consisted of a single bottle of CoverGirl foundation, an Estee Lauder crayon eyeliner and whichever mascara was on sale when I finished the one I was using. I couldn't have cared less about makeup -- after all, I had better things to do with my time, such as studying archaeology and, y'know, Tumblr.

Rest assured, however, that if this were a collection coming out this year, I would be all over it. I know that it was generally met with a negative reaction because of the number of repromotes, dupable products and dubious quality of some of the products, but that wouldn't have bothered me too much. As many MAC lipsticks as I own (about a dozen or so?), all of them but two are limited edition, so it would've been nice to have some standard shades in pretty packaging, even if there is a mark-up in price.

Rest assured, after looking at a line-up like this four years after it came out, my bank account is glad I hadn't heard of MAC!

(Source)

3. MAC Archie's Girls (February 2013)

I am so, so sorry that I missed out on this collection. I wouldn't say that I "grew up" with Betty and Veronica per se, but I did grow up in a library that had a really nice selection Betty and Veronica comic books, so if I got bored of reading normal books, those were what I gravitated towards. I always wanted Betty to end up with Archie -- not that I really had any conscious idea that I shipped the two of them, but I connected more with Betty than Veronica.

Back onto the subject of makeup, Shae.

I know that I said this about the Wonder Woman collection, but I can absolutely guarantee you that I would have tried to buy every single solitary piece in this collection.

And yeah, I know that there were many, many pieces in this collection. I don't care. Just looking at pictures makes me so excited that I almost forget that it's a collection that came and went long ago. Pigments, blushes, eye shadows, lipsticks, nail polishes... The collector within me lusts after it all!

(Source)

2. MAC RiRi Hearts MAC | Summer, Fall, Holiday (2013)

Rihanna's music has had an absolutely massive impact on my life. We never had a radio at home, so I relied on my friends to supply me with new music to listen to -- and I found Rihanna when I was 15 through my friend Jo-Anna. Good Girl Gone Bad remains to this day as one of my favourite albums of all time, and Rihanna one of my favourite artists -- and that's why my bank account I'm glad that I hadn't heard of MAC, because I would've gone absolutely nuts over this whole series.

As I understand it, RiRi Hearts MAC was released in four different instances: the first was just the lipstick RiRi Woo, released while she was touring; the second was the Summer collection, which had additional lipsticks, a blush duo and lustre drops; the third was the Fall collection, which had additional lipsticks, lip glasses, eye shadow palettes and other equally desirable products in an absolutely smashing rose gold packaging; the fourth and final collection was released for the Holiday season, which had just more awesome stuff again.

If I fell through a temporal shift and ended up back in 2013, there's no way I would've missed this. Bloody hell, 2013 must've been an expensive year for MAC lovers!

(Source)

1. MAC Venomous Villains (October 2010)

There were four parts to this collection: Dr Facilier (the voodoo douche from The Princess and the Frog), Cruella de Vil, Maleficent, and -- the person who would likely make me go out and buy the whole lot -- the Evil Queen. It was full of lipsticks, lip glasses, pigments, eye shadow singles and what I've heard called some of the best nail polishes to have ever come from MAC.

Now, 18-year-old Shae wouldn't have been too interested in a collection such as this when it came out. Not only did I have my final exams coming up, but I was also seriously ill, and even though it might have piqued my interest had I heard about it, I'm sure the price tag would've put me off.

Not anymore. (Cue evil cackling.) If this collection were brought out tomorrow, I know I'd race out to snatch up every single piece, and I'd hold up my MAC bag while triumphantly pronouncing, "Now I'LL be fairest in the land!

While I feel like some of the packaging on particular products look a little cheap and tacky (mostly the eye shadow singles -- I feel like something more should've been done), it's this collection that I'm most sorry and yet financially pleased to have missed out on. I cannot imagine the amount of money I would've had to have forked out.

(Source)

Honourable Mention: MAC x Maleficent (June 2014)

This gets an honourable mention because while I didn't completely miss out on the collection -- Danielle sent me the lipglass and my mother managed to track down the eye shadow quad plus a couple of other small things -- but would I have bought the entire collection had I not discovered it a few weeks after it came out? You betcha.

The one thing I am truly sorry to have missed out on is the lipstick. I've been hoping for MAC to release something similar to True Love's Kiss ever since I found out about it, but so far there hasn't seemed to be anything that similar.

Did you purchase anything from these collections? Which past releases from MAC have been your favourite? Do you have posts to link me to? Share all your answers in the comments, because I want to read them like I want another Harry Potter book.

Shae xo

PS. My Australian drugstore haul giveaway is still running -- go have a peek!

Tuesday 7 April 2015

The MAC Cinderella Haul

With the release of the MAC Cinderella collection looming, I was trying to save some money to prepare my bank account for the KO I was going to deliver it. I also made myself the following promise: after delivering aforementioned KO, I was going on a self-imposed spending ban for a few months.*

I went in to buy the Viva Glam Miley Cyrus set at Myer and asked the girl about the collection; she said it was due to come out on a Monday and that if I wanted a play with the samples with a chance of buying, it'd probably be best if I tried to get to the store when it opened, at 9am. I had every intention of doing so, however the stars were aligned in such a way that I had a paper due at 8am that very same Monday morning -- and at 5am that paper was not finished.

I did end up getting to MAC.

At 10.30am.

And a lot of the stuff there was already sold out.

The beauty powders were sold out, as well as all of the lip products except one -- they were low on everything else. I asked if perhaps the MAC next door at David Jones might have anything, and the girl who was helping me out with my barrage of questions -- Connie, according to the receipt. Thank you, Connie! -- told me that they'd received even less stock than they had, and that most of theirs was gone.

Even so, I managed to get my hands on most of the stuff that I went in for. It ended up being... a lot.

MAC Cinderella Collection -- "Evil Stepmother" pigment, "Reflects Pearl" glitter, "Pretty It Up" pigment, "Macroviolet" fluidline, "Free As A Butterfly" lipstick, "Glass Slipper" lipglass, "Stroke of Midnight" eye shadow palette

So what did I get? Let's take a slightly closer look.

MAC Cinderella - "Evil Stepmother" pigment, "Reflects Pearl" glitter

Evil Stepmother Pigment || Described by MAC as being "black plum with plum pearl", Temptalia nevertheless gave it a poor rating, citing relatively poor pigmentation. Having never worked with loose pigments before this collection, let me just say this: I expect them to be messy. Hell, I can get fallout from pressed pigments! What kind of magical colourful hell would loose pigments unleash on my face?

Reflects Pearl Glitter || I believe this is part of the permanent PRO line, and I have no problem with this repromote whatsoever. If I ever get through this and feel that I can't live without it, I'll simply purchase a new one and transfer it into the Cinderella packaging. Or is that too ambitious and naïve of me? I feel like it might be a truly Padawan thing to try.

MAC Cinderella - "Macroviolet" fluidline, "Pretty It Up" pigment, "Evil Stepmother" pigment

Macroviolet Fluidline || I got this because I thought that it might be a really neat purple liner that would go really well with the eye shadow palette. I have gotten a chance to play with this a couple of times, and so far... I haven't been blown away. I do need to keep testing it, however, because I have recently started to get it working for me.

Pretty It Up Pigment || Apparently this was released in a previous MAC collection, although I'm unsure as to which one. It's kind of dirty olive colour, and I've had the opportunity to play with it two or three times. My thoughts on pigments were correct: messy without proper care and totally not Padawan friendly.

MAC Cinderella -  "Free As A Butterfly" lipstick

Free As A Butterfly Lipstick || Alas, not the lipstick that I wanted, but a lipstick is a lipstick at the end of the day. I bought this from David Jones and I think I actually bought the last physical lipstick in the store. Fun fact: the Australian MAC website has this listed as "Secret Lover" by mistake (a shade apparently similar to this released in a collection a few years ago), but I appear to have been the only person on the internet to have picked up on this.

MAC Cinderella - "Glass Slipper" lipglass

Glass Slipper Lipglass || Such an iconic name, and yet not the lipglass I'd hoped to get, either! With Temptalia remarking that "Happily Ever After" looked more like a glass slipper than "Glass Slipper", I was hoping that I might be able to snag that if my purse strings couldn't cater for both -- but alas, it was a match as ill-fated as Jack and Rose. (Or, if you're like me and hate Titanic, Rose and the Doctor. Take your pick.) Still, in the tube this looks like a very pretty lipglass and I know I'm going to love wearing it anyway.

MAC Cinderella - "Stroke of Midnight" eye shadow palette

Stroke of Midnight Eye Shadow Palette || The one thing that I hoped to get my paws on if I couldn't get anything else. The price of MAC limited edition palettes has always put me off with its $72 price tag, but hell, this is Disney. I don't know if there's much I wouldn't do for Disney products in a fancy packaging. ("Oh whatever do you mean, Shae?" You'll find out in the future. There's some intentional foreshadowing going on here.) Five of the shades in this palette are repromotes from the original line, which I know caused some frustration with long-time MAC users. Me, being relatively new to it all, I don't mind so much.

Now let's take a peek at the products without their delightful cardboard clothes on them.

MAC Cinderella collection

Gorgeous, no?

I will be testing and reviewing these products slowly over the next few weeks. I say slowly for the following three reasons:

One | 2015 has been nothing short of an academic nightmare. I don't get holidays anymore, and as if the fact that I'm cranking out half the number of posts as normal isn't enough of a giveaway, I really do need to focus on my studies. It is my degree, not blogging (sadly), which will help me earn a decent living.

Two | I've given the products to my mother for safekeeping. The last thing I need is to be distracted by shiny, glittery pigments! We've got an arrangement going where I get one piece back for every assignment that I finish -- so I should have them all back by the end of May. (Ugh.) My consolation is that I have three of them already.

Three | I know that many ladies weren't able to get their paws on this collection -- especially those in the UK who were involved with the #DebenhamsMACgate incident** -- so I'll be looking to find dupes among old and new items in my collection. I'm on a spending ban at the moment too (MAC, I blame you), so if I don't have said dupes in my collection, trying to track them down and swatch anything I can't/don't want to buy in my already busy schedule will take some time.

That's all I got -- ("That's all," she says!?) -- in this very special MAC collection. It's no more spending from me (especially when you see the next haul post that I have planned -- bad Shae!) for a long time, especially when I know that MAC are probably already planning collections that will slay us better than Buffy. No, seriously, with the announcement of both Beauty and the Beast and Mulan being made into live action films, I can practically hear them rubbing their hands together with glee (evil cackling optional).

Did you pick up anything from MAC's Cinderella collection? Or, perhaps, do you have any items in your collection that are similar? Let me know!

Shae xo

PS. There is still loads of time to enter my giveaway! You could win all kinds of awesome Australian cosmetics from Chi Chi, Australis and Face of Australia -- some of which are limited edition!

*Terms and conditions apply. Such as if MAC announces a killer new collection.

**All you basically need to know about this is that there was a glitch on the Debenhams website that caused the collection to go live several hours early. It subsequently sold out before most people were aware it'd been made available, and many women promptly lost their shit. (Seriously, ladies, it's just makeup -- unfortunate, yes, but dupable makeup.)

Wednesday 1 April 2015

First Blogiversary Giveaway!

I've written a lot over the last year. Product reviews, recipes, hauls, tags... It's been a lot of fun! I've made a lot of blogging friends along the way, learned hundreds of tips and I've graduated from using my phone camera to using an actual proper high-resolution camera.

So about a couple of months ago, I said to myself, "Sarah, your blog's almost a year old. Make you should think about doing a giveaway." I was going to wait until I got 100 followers on Bloglovin', but... nah. Rather, I thought I'd hold a giveaway for sticking it out for a whole year -- because, let's be honest, I wasn't sure that I was going to stick it out for as long as I have!

Given that a good number of you are located overseas, I wanted to give one lucky a person a nice stash of popular Australian drugstore products that might be difficult for some of you to get your paws on. They're not all products I own (because, y'know, student life = poor life), but I've done my best to find products that other people have raved about.

Let's take a look at what you could win!


Chi Chi Glamorous Gel Eyeliner Set || This set has ten eye liners that claim to be highly pigmented, waterproof and smudge-proof. It was a limited edition collection that came out around Christmastime, and it's no longer available for purchase in stores. This set has the following colours:
  • "Lo Cal Chocolate" -- rich brown in a matte
  • "Midas Touch" -- an easy to wear gold in a metallic finish
  • "Caribbean Queen" -- turquoise green in a shimmery metallic finish
  • "Black Is Black" -- the blackest black in a matte
  • "Diamonds In The Sky" -- glamorous black with very fine silver glitter
  • "Like A Virgin" -- white matte
  • "Boys Boys Boys" -- a pretty baby blue matte shade
  • "Dream Lover" -- a cobalt blue in a shimmery metallic finish
  • "Beauty School Dropout" -- the perfect purple in a slightly shimmery finish
  • "Hopelessly Devoted" -- a bright hot pink that you will want to wear on your lips as well
Boe Beauty Fruity Kisses Lip Gloss in "Peachy Fruity" || I have one of these lip glosses and they smell so good. Boe Beauty is the home brand cosmetic line of Big W, a department store chain in Australia. This isn't necessarily a high quality gloss by any means, but it smells so nice and the colour isn't too out there.

Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayon in "Sundae" || Similar in shape and form to similar products by CoverGirl and Revlon, this lip crayon looks like a natural brown that would be great for fuss-free everyday wear.

Face of Australia Lip Paints || I've got three of these to give to the winner, in three super-pigmented shades: "Tangerine Queen", a bright vivid orange; "Poison Apple", a red fit for any queen; and "Very Berry", a super vampy blackened plum. These can be applied straight from the tube, but they can get a little messy -- you might want to think about using a brush! I think these might now be a discontinued line, as I haven't seen them when I've been in Priceline lately.

Face of Australia Lip Quench SPF30+ Lipsticks || I decided to add two of these to prize pack yesterday -- after almost very much keeping them for myself! These have jojoba oil and Vitamin E, amongst others, and contain SPF30, which makes them the perfect product for either summer or winter! The shades I included are "Power Surge" (which looks like a bold red -- there weren't any testers in the store!) and "Pink Champagne" (a really pretty pink that could lean towards the nude side -- I'm thinking something like Julianne's Nude from the L'Oreal collection).

Australis AC/ME Cream Eyeshadow in "Bronzonce" || Let me just say: you pronounce it "bron-zon-say" (rhymes with Beyoncé) not "bron-zons". That's what I'm rolling with, anyway. This metallic gold eye shadow is in my collection and I absolutely love it. I find that I get the best results when I apply it using my finger, and it lasts all day. It is, without a doubt, the best shade from this limited edition collection.

Australis AC/ME Velourlips Matte Lip Creams || The Velourlips range are arguably the star of the Australis show, and I have two colours for you in this giveaway! There's "Grandmaster Pash", a brownish red colour, and "Rhi Rhi Wine-d", a more natural brown shade. These lip products dry down to a matte finish, but are somewhat more comfortable to wear than products in the regular Velourlips range.

Australis Colour Inject Mineral Lip Gloss in "Fandango" || This is a really pretty natural red-toned coral that smells rather nice. It's not as sheer as other lip glosses I've tried, but it's not completely opaque either, so it's great if you want to bring some colour to your lips without packing a punch.


You can enter in the following ways:

  1. Commenting on this post. One comment will give you one entry. You cannot comment more than once.
  2. Tweeting about the giveaway on Twitter. Tweeting will give you one entry, and you can do this daily.
  3. Liking my page on Facebook! Doing so will get you three entries.
  4. Following me on Twitter. This will get you one entry.
  5. Following Diary of a Beauty Padawan on Bloglovin' -- this will give you three entries.
  6. Following me on Instagram. This will give you one entry.

House-Keeping (aka Rules):

  1. This giveaway will open on 1st April 2015, at 12am Australian EST and will close on 1st May 2015, at 12am Australian EST.
  2. There will be one (1) winner, selected at random using Rafflecopter.
  3. This giveaway is open internationally. So, yeah, whether you live in America, Australia or Sweden, you can enter!
  4. If you're under 18, please have your parent's permission before you enter.
  5. The winner will be contacted via email, and will have 72 hours to respond. If the winner does not, another winner will be drawn at random.
  6. I am not responsible for damages to any products. Sometimes the postal service gets careless, and there's nothing I can do about that.
  7. Please enter only if you know you can definitely receive the prize. Postage is expensive from Australia, and I'd hate to have a parcel returned to my doorstep after I've spent so much!
  8. I will be personally checking each and every entry on this giveaway. Cheating is not awesome, and will result in immediate disqualification.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck to everyone who enters!

Shae xo