Archive for category: Reviews

Lash flares. I mean, why wouldn’t you do this? They’re basically DIY eyelash extensions that you can wear for about four days/nights, they’re fairly easy to put on and they look great. My buddy Sara wrote/drew up a very detailed and helpful tutorial over here so I don’t really have anything to add in terms of telling you how to stick them on. My favourite brand is Revlon Beyond Natural(same ones Sara uses in her tutorial, Aussies can get these from KMart for about $10), I also tried these ‘Eylure’ guys from ASOS but they are a little bit too long even for my liking and the glue you get with them isn’t that great. I’m actually using a combo of the Revlon and Eylure ones at the moment but if you just want to get one set, I would recommend just getting the Revlon ones and the Revlon Precision Lash Adhesive glue.

As you can see from the top photo my eyelashes are short and stubby and generally pretty crap. I have to load them up with a heap of mascara to make them visible, but with the lash flares I’m wearing no mascara on my top lashes and I’ve quit wearing eyeliner on my upper lids most days too. So not only do I look like I have crazy Bambi eyelashes but I’m actually saving time when I’m putting my face on! Get on it.

So the babes over at 17 Sundays sent me their ‘One Way Or Another‘ dress to review. My favourite thing about it (besides the animal print, obviously) – the sleeves! It’s a pretty versatile dress so I decided to show you guys a day time and a night time kind of look with it.

Let’s start with night:

This is a pretty tried-and-true look of mine – cute dress, leather jacket, black tights and heels. I think the animal print really pops against the black leather jacket.

And for day time:

The majority of my dresses are a fair bit shorter than this and at first I thought this was a bit long for me but after wearing it around with bare legs for a while I actually really liked the length. It was kind of nice not to be pulling my dress down to avoid showing everyone my underwear haha.

Now you guys know that I am a member of the ‘no unnecessary belts club’ and I haven’t defected but I know a lot of people like belts and 17 Sundays sent me their Mercy Belt so I thought I would show you guys how it looks with the dress:

My final thoughts – I love the sleeves, the print, the length and I think it hangs really nicely. The material is a bit thick though so I don’t think this would work too well on a hot summer day but it’s great for warm-ish evenings or cooler days. And even Garfield approved:

First of all can I just say man it sucks to try and take photos of yourself! I’ve been lucky enough to pretty much always have somebody around to take photos of me for this blog but today nobody was home so I thought I would try out taking photos of myself. First of all the remote for my camera wouldn’t work for some reason and then it took me about half an hour to figure out how to attach my camera to my housemate’s tripod. I seriously took about 40 photos and these are the only ones that turned out even half-way alright. I have a new found respect for bloggers who take photos of themselves, it’s hard work! If any of you guys have any good tripod/taking photos of yourself tips please let me know!

Anyway! The babes over at We Love Colors sent me these leggings to review. I’m wearing the style 6101 leggings in black here and yes, I am wearing them as pants because “fashion rules” are silly and I am a big fan of leggings as pants. These leggings are thick and very stretchy and have a bit of a shine to them. They remind me of American Apparel’s disco pants (but without the guilt of supporting that creep Dov Charney! Yay!) or the pants Sandy wears at the end of Grease (that outfit actually inspired my outfit a bit). These were actually thrown in as a bit of a surprise and I’m so glad they were because I’m really into them. I’m not much of a pants wearing person but I think I will wear these a lot.

leggings: c/o we love colors, tshirt: tbc, jacket: angry young and poor, shoes: buffalo (these are actually for sale on the Fat Aus Blog Shop but after wearing them today I don’t know if I want to sell them anymore…)

I thought I would tell you guys about my favourite and most used make up products. These are the things I use on pretty much a daily basis.

Clinique Redness Solutions Daily Protective Base. I have a blotchy/uneven skin tone and this stuff is really great for making my skin all look the same colour. I find that if I put this on first, I don’t need to wear as much concealer or foundation.

Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel. This stuff is meant for preventing chub rub but it is actually a really awesome primer. It looks, feels and works almost the exact same as a Smashbox primer I’ve got that cost more than double this stuff. Similar to the Clinique base, if I wear this I notice that I need to use less concealer because of the way it smooths out my skin and makes everything look more even and last longer.

MAC Studio Sculpt Concealer. This is a full-coverage concealer that I find really easy to blend which is exactly what I want.

Chanel Pro Lumiere Liquid Foundation. This is, for me, the absolute holy grail of liquid foundation. To the point where sometimes I wish I’d never used it because then I could be perfectly happy with >$40 foundation but seriously once you go Chanel you can’t go back and this stuff is so great that the price doesn’t even seem outrageous to me. It’s full coverage but it goes on thin so you can kind of layer it or just wear a little depending on the look you want. It sets nicely so you can wear it without powder if you like and basically I am in love with this foundation. I’ve been using it for two or three years now and nothing else I’ve tried has even come close to being this good.

Smashbox Halo Perfecting Powder. I had read really great reviews of this powder online so when a friend of mine went to the USA I asked her to get me one (since Smashbox, and most other make up, is about twice the price in Australia as it is elsewhere). It is really great at smoothing out wrinkles! I am a bit obsessive about the fact that I’m getting wrinkles but this stuff hides them all and makes me look like a fresh faced girl of 18 again! Also it comes it this cool compact with the powder in a kind of block thing underneath this metal bit that shaves off bits as you want them, sort of like a cheese grater!

Benefit Brows A-Go-Go. I’ve written about this product on here before, it changed my (eyebrow) life. I fell victim to the early 00′s trend of overplucking my brows and they have never really recovered which sucks because I love the current trend of big/bushy/more natural brows. I started using this sometime last year and I’m at the point where I won’t leave the house without filling in my eyebrows. I can happily go shopping or to lunch or wherever without a full face a make up but without my brows done, I feel naked. This little kit is awesome because you get brow wax, powder, highlighter powder, a little eyeliner and a little brush – everything you need for great brows. It even comes with a little instruction manual teaching you how to use everything – and if you lose that you can always view it on the Benefit website.

Benefit Bad Gal Lash. This is a long wearing, thick mascara with a big brush. Sometimes I’ll wear another mascara underneath it, something a bit thinner with one of those comb brushes that separate the lashes because this can get a big clumpy on it’s own. I don’t really mind a bit of clumpy mascara though, it makes my fairly unimpressive lashes look thicker and longer.

MAC Fluidline Gel Eyeliner. I love the gel formula of this stuff. It’s so, so easy to use. I’ve been using liquid eyeliner for a long time so I’m pretty comfortable with it but I think that even if you’ve only used pencils you could easily switch this and find it simple to use. It lasts all day and still looks really crisp and fresh at the end of the day/night.

Hamilton’s Lipz Lip Balm. No other chapstick or lip balm or lip gloss can beat this stuff. If you have dry lips this is the stuff to use. You only need to apply it about once a day, it lasts so well and rehydrates your lips almost instantly. The only downside is that it’s a bit difficult to find – my boyfriend has actually special ordered it into pharmacies a few times.

MAC Lipsticks. The matte finish ones are usually my favourite since they last for hours even with eating and drinking or smoking (which I guess won’t matter to me anymore now that I’m a non-smoker) but the satin finish ones are good too. I find that MAC lipsticks are a good combination of affordable, long wearing and available in colours I like so I don’t really look at other brands too often except for occasionally Chanel or YSL.