Rimmel Provocalips

Now I am a girl who loves a long staying lip product. I hate reapplying, and dislike having to worry if I have lipstick all over my face. Enter Rimmel Provocalips, the more long lasting cousin to the Apocalips.

Firstly, I have to admit I wasn't that big a fan of the Apocalips. For me, the colour didn't last long enough, they tended to bleed, and somehow they always seemed to end up on my teeth.

The Provocalips on the other hand, last through eating, drinking, (and yes they even live up to their 'kiss proof' claim).  With these ones you apply the colour, let it dry, then apply a clear gloss that locks in the colour and adds shine. I don't really like having to faff around with multiple steps, but the fact that this extra step allows the product to last for hours more, is enough for me to let it slide.

I have a few problems though... As a matte lip lover, the glossiness of these (especially with the bright colour -Little Minx - that I chose) was slightly off putting. Also the gloss layer is also quite sticky throughout the day. And as other bloggers have mentioned, these are hard to get off your lips at the end of the day, (but I guess that's what you expect with a supposed 16 hour formula).

The shade range of these is quite good, with a few nudes, a few pinks, and a few reds. I'd definitely be interested to try more, because even though there are a few small problems, the lasting power has definitely won me over.

Have you tried these? Which shade should I try next?

Beth. x

The Topshop Concealer Palette

I ordered the Topshop Concealer Palette on a whim, as a way of avoiding the ridiculous shipping costs on the website... I was glad I made this decision, because I have been quite impressed with it!

I hadn't really tried any Topshop cosmetics until this palette, but I've heard so many good things, and I was not disappointed.

The palette comes in compact, silver mirror-like packaging, which looks pretty to begin with... But does get fingerprints and scratches on it easily.  However the product inside the packaging is really good. There are four sections in the palette, (which come with handy instructions of how to use them).

The first section is a colour correcting concealer, which you layer under the other two concealers, depending on what tones you wish to conceal. As a colour correcter it works really well, however it's not as creamy as I would like.

The second section is an under eye concealer. It's slightly lighter than the other highlighter, to allow for highlighting.  It's quite creamy, and conceals under the eye quite well without the colour correcter. I found that if I layered the colour correcter and the concealer, things got a bit cakey, and creased very easily, but that could just be my sleep-deprived skin. It works to conceal and correct colour just by itself; it does crease a bit, but again, I think I have more bags/creases under my eye than the normal person.

The third section is a blemish concealer.  It's slightly darker than the under eye concealer, but just as creamy.  It covers blemishes really well, and if your foundation rubs off during the day, it doesn't look too bad blended out to fix patchy bits either!

The fourth section is a setting powder, which is a handy addition to have when you're on the go.

The sponge applicator that comes with the palette I found wasn't useful for application of any of the products in the compact. I found it much easier to apply and blend the concealers with my finger and use a small fluffy brush to apply the setting powder.

Overall, a really good concealer palette, that is perfect and compact to take on the go. At about $22 Australian, it's fairly reasonably priced, so definitely worth a look!

Have you tried and Topshop make-up? What should I try next?

Beth. x

Zoella Beauty

Zoella is one of the biggest YouTube commodities around at the moment, with more than 5 million subscribers, this fun-loving, girl-next-door reaches people from all over the world. Like many other vloggers, Zoe has ventured into the land of merchandising, releasing her own range of bath and body products, (aptly named Zoella Beauty), and it has been going from strength to strength, which isn't surprising with her millions of fans (including myself) wanting to get their hands on these beautiful products.

Now to the products... The Zoella Beauty range is available in Superdrug in the UK, and FeelUnique (for us overseas beauty lovers). The packaging of all of the products is beautiful, (and very much fitting with the Zoella brand), and very affordable too! (All of the products are less than $18 AUD).

I picked up the Zoella Beauty Eyes Beauty Bag, the Fizz Bar, the Soak Opera Bath Soak and Shower Cream and the Creamy Madly Dreamy Body Lotion. I also desperately wanted to try the body mist, but sadly it can't be shipped overseas.

My favourite product out of the lot is the Creamy Madly Dreamy Body Lotion. First of all, the name is incredibly cute, but the product itself is really good too! The smell is to die for, and it sinks into the skin really quickly, moisturises well, and doesn't leave any stickiness at all.

The beauty bag has just enough space for all the beauty/skin products you'll need for a night away, and can fit make-up brushes too, (if you don't have too much other stuff in there).

The fizz bar, does what is says on the package and fizzes away. It leaves the water in your bath nice and silky, but doesn't add any colour or bubbles... It does smell glorious though! (Just like the body lotion and the bath cream).

I always use the fizz bar with the bath soak, as the bath soak adds bubbles into the mix. Again, this product smells glorious, in a subtle, girly way, that doesn't overpower you.  The only problem is that the bubbles don't last that long, (but if you're just having a relatively quick bath, then you won't have a problem).

Overall, I really enjoy the range, and I'm looking forward to new additions in the future! It's well worth a look, if you want to pamper yourself.

Have you tried any of these products? What did you think?

Beth. x

Lush festive loving.

Normally I'm not that big a Lush fan... I have super, super sensitive skin, so a lot of the products don't agree with me.  However, at Christmas time I can't resist popping into a Lush store to pick up a few (or many) of the festive bath bombs! Bath bombs don't seem to upset my skin (yay!), and the Christmassy scents make me incredibly happy.

This year I picked up four different types of bath bombs to try out.

First of all I got "Cinders." This one is my all time favourite Lush bath bomb, and I bought three of these, so it will hopefully last me a while! This bath bomb smells like cinnamon, and has popping candy in it, to make your bath fizz.

Next I picked up the "Luxury Lush Pud" bath bomb. This one looks amazing both on your shelf and in your bath. It smells like lavender and ylang ylang, and is supposed to be super calming.

Another one from the festive range, "Dashing Santa" made it into my basket.  This one is the cutest of the bunch, and smells like citrus.

And finally I picked up the "Honey Bee" bath bomb. This one has a yellow and grey stripe, (hence the name), and smells like honey or caramel. It also contains Moroccan rhassoul mud to deep cleanse and soften your skin, so you get a spa-like treatment for a fraction of the cost! 

Have you tried any of Lush's festive range? What is your favourite?

Beth. x

Can we talk about Red Ink for a sec?

Red Ink, the indie pop/rock four piece from Melbourne, released their debut self-titled album in February this year. I have been listening to that album since then, but uni, work, and pretty much everything else has gotten in the way of me writing this post.  However, this album has been the soundtrack to my long commute to uni, more times than I can count!  I wanted to wait until I had time to do this properly, because these boys deserve it, and this album is really good.

This album, to me, is the best of both worlds from their previous releases. Combining the synthy, more laid back vibes of 'The Colour Age - EP' and the 'Audrey - EP,' with the more punchy, in your face rock of the 'Catching a Killer - EP' and the 'What My Friends Say' single, in the best way possible.

The album starts with the crackle of speakers, then kicks into the pulsing drums of 'Hourglass,' a perfect start to the album. The chorus is one that you will instantly find yourself singing along to, 'I Live In a Garden' is good in this respect too, it also has that pulsing drum, that gets you tapping straight away. 'Adolescent Minds' gets extra points for it's jackhammer use in the instrumental part, and for John's evil laugh. And while John's vocals are flawless throughout, 'Tunnel Vision' takes it to a new level. 'Ballerina' along with 'Going Insane' tick all the boxes for radio-worthiness, and 'Puzzle' has deceptively deep lyrical content.

My favourite tracks on the album would have to be 'Going Insane' and 'Fireworks,' (although all of the songs are brilliant for their own reasons). 'Going Insane' is incredibly catchy and upbeat, lyrically it is brilliant. For example, "You move like you broke an ankle, you smile like a stuttering lamb, you dance like an open bar, and you dance away." And honestly, you can't help but dance like that, the song is just infectious. 'Fireworks' has so many layers that keep building as the song progresses, and the subtle harmonies in the chorus really sold me on this one, (there's also a sneaky little extra track tacked onto the end of this song, which is a nice surprise).

If you know me, you know I love a good harmony, and this album is full of subtle, yet effective harmonies, that I have tried far too many times to master during my car sing-a-longs.

The only problem I have with the whole album is with the song 'Hard To Leave.' While the instrumentation is lovely, and the chorus is really catchy, the vocals in the verses are really hard to make out, because they get drowned out.

But all-in-all this album is hard to fault. The vibe of the album is kind of lo-fi, but done in a really nice way. The lyrical content is lovely, thought provoking, (and interestingly inspired by books John found whilst strolling Berlin). The actual instrumentation is innovative and interesting, and makes you want more and more, like a book you can't put down. And for those of us who were lucky enough to support it through the crowd funding  campaign, we got some pretty cool extra stuff too! (Like the lovely handwritten lyrics you see on this page).

So if you want to check out Red Ink (and their album), you can do so from the links below.

https://www.facebook.com/redinkmusic?ref=ts&fref=ts

https://www.youtube.com/user/REDINKMUSICGROUP

https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/red-ink/id815413887?uo=4&at=11lEW&ct=smartTab%7C10344500988%7C2014-10-31

Beth. x

Icehouse and Michael Paynter = Stellar.

You're probably already sick of me telling you that I love music... It's true... But here is some more music love for you.

I was lucky enough to go and see Icehouse and Michael Paynter perform recently, and it was amazing.

Icehouse

If you're not Australian, then you might not have heard of Icehouse, but they are a band that were dominating the radio waves in the 80's. Michael Paynter, on the other hand is a Melbourne singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist-allroundniceguy, who was born in the 80's.

Michael Paynter doing his thing.

Michael Paynter is a favourite of mine (as you can see here), and when I heard that he was coming to my town playing in Icehouse, as well as being the support act, I was incredibly excited. This was my fourth time seeing Michael perform live, and I was back at the venue where I had first witnessed his amazing talent. He did not disappoint.  Armed with just an acoustic guitar and his stellar voice, he managed to keep the excited crowd quiet. He started his set with a stripped back version of 'Another You,' from his album 'Weary Stars,' and filled the rest of his set with new takes on songs from the album, ('Love The Fall,' 'Weary Stars' and 'Let Go,') as well as some back catalog stuff ('Freedom's Not For Me' and 'Closer'). A cover of Elvis' 'My Babe' also made it into the mix.  All songs performed to perfection, with Michael's trademark range and vibrato. And not to forget the between-song banter that Michael does so well, making fun of himself for audience amusement.

(A tiny snippet of Michael Paynter playing 'Let Go.')

Next up were Icehouse, who after 20+ years of playing and touring have got it down to a fine art. Watching these guys was like watching them jam in the studio, nice, relaxed and fun.  Iva Davies' voice is as good as it is recorded, and he commands an audience when he sings. And you can tell the band has been playing together for a while, purely by the way they interact on stage.

The man himself, Iva Davies.

They played all of their hits ('Electric Blue,' 'Crazy,' 'Hey Little Girl,' 'Great Southern Land,' 'We Can Get Together,') and so many more. Each band member had their time to shine, with sax solos, guitar solos, drum solos and keys solos left right and centre. Michael Paynter even got his time in the spotlight, taking the lead on 'Touch The Fire.' The only disappointment of the night, was the fact that 'Man of Colour' didn't make it into the set.  I've seen many a video of Iva and Michael performing it together, and it's a shame I couldn't witness it in person.

Michael and Iva performing 'Touch The Fire.'

All in all, a brilliant night of music, and despite ending up with seats in the nosebleed section, it was still phenomenal.

Have you seen any good gigs lately? I'd love to know.

Beth. x

Rimmel Lasting Finish by Kate Moss Lipsticks.

Hi, I'm Beth, and I am a lipstick addict. I have way more than is humanly necessary... Many of these lipsticks are the Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipsticks by Kate Moss.

And let me just say, I love them. I love everything about them.
The formula of these is lovely. They're creamy, pigmented, they smell nice, and there's a great shade range, (even though I stick mainly to reds).  The ones in the red packaging dry matte, and last and last. I used to wear these with lip liner and lip cote (see my post here), but I realised, for these ones you don't need to bother faffing around, they just last. The ones in the black are slightly more glossy, and don't tend to last quite as long.

As a poor university student, these also aren't too bad on the bank balance! They retail for about $12, but are often on offer, which makes it far too easy to pick up multiple shades at once.

L-R: 103, 107, 111, 10, 09.

I currently own (in the red packaging) 103, 107, 111, (in the black packaging) 09 and 10.
103 is a muted pink, with a hint if brown, that is great to throw on for everyday wear. 107 is a dark wine/red colour, that you'll often see Zoella sporting, (and not going to lie, that is where my love for these started). 111 is a bright red, but it doesn't have an orange tone to it. 09 is very, very similar to 107 and 10 is very similar to 111, but you've got to have one in each formula!

Have you tried any of these? What other shades do I need?

Beth. x