Saturday 28 December 2013

A few of my favourite things -




I'm currently on holidays and I thought I'd share a few items I bought with me that I am loving!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Eye Shadow Palette - "Sew The Seeds"
I am in love with Tarte as a brand, they have a range of vegan-friendly items and I haven't been disappointed by a single product yet. I have both vegan eye shadow palettes they have to offer and I love them both, very sadly however I dropped the other one and one of the shades is broken so I decided not to travel with it! Anyway, this comes with 4 shadows "Shimmering Olive" "Matte Softest Peach" "Shimmering Gold" and "Matte Espresso" and they are beautiful. They apply so smoothly, they're incredibly pigmented and I can wear them without a primer. I mainly use the Soft Peach shade all over the lid with Shimmering Gold in the crease and Matte Espresso to add some darkness to the look in the outer V. I am so impressed with these eye shadows!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush - "Imagined"
Another love from Tarte is this blush I was finally able to try out. This is a bit of a mean one because I got it in a set of 3 blushes through Tarte's limited holiday collection and the regular full-sized blushes aren't vegan as they contain Beeswax in them but I had to share my love of this blush. It's a beautiful candy pink shade as described, it blends out beautifully and applies smoothly across the cheeks, it's pigmented and incredibly long-lasting. I have definitely sent a couple of emails to Tarte recommending they bring in permanent vegan blushes because I can't get enough.


Happy Skincare - Pig In Mud Mineral Mask
If you followed my previous blog, you would have seen me talk about this before but as it was the mask I choose to bring with me, I thought it deserved some more praise. It's suppose to "detox, tone, revitalise, remove blackheads, reduce pores, smooth rough skin, reduce signs of ageing and recover from breakouts" - I think it does mostly everything that it claims to do (besides anti-ageing because I haven't noticed any difference in that) it seriously has reduced the pores on my cheeks and around my nose, fixed some of my problem areas on my skin and I love how my skin looks and feels after use. All you have to do is add a little bit of water to a small amount of the clay product and apply it to the face, it then starts drying and after that you can remove it with water. If you buy the full size (mine is only the travel size) you get a free brush and mixing bowl to help apply it evenly and easily. Also I'd like to mention that Happy Skincare have a wonderful customer service and I'm definitely going to try out more!


Real Techniques - Blush Brush 

I love Real Techniques brushes, they're obviously synthetic so they never lose shape when I wash them and I've experienced little to no shedding, they're really soft and I love applying my makeup with them. I hadn't tried the blush brush until recently as I had seen quite a few reviews saying it's too big for blush and I already had quite a few other brushes from the face range but as I was checking out of i-herb, I decided why not! I apply product to the tip of the brush then start in small side-way blending motions I apply it to the apples of my cheeks, I find just using the end doesn't apply a massive amount of product all over my face and the blush helps blend out my blush perfectly! I buy my Real Technique brushes from here as they are so much cheaper than anywhere else in Australia and the shipping is cheap too. I have a code that is: QDD049 which will get you $10 off your first purchase and you can try out a couple brushes for even cheaper!

Elf Moisturizing Lipstick - "Coral Cutie"
I recently did a big purchase from Elf's American website (more information on how I do that will be posted!) and I bought two of these lipsticks and I'm in love with both. I didn't expect much from a $3 product and not being too impressed with other lip products from ELF before but these are great, they're exactly what they are described as which is moisturizing, they take 2-3 swipes to apply the full blown intense pigment but they don't apply patchy and can be worn sheer, they last for 4-5 hours on me and I have no complaints. They're super cheap, super nice feeling and I'll definitely be picking up more. (Hopefully they come to the Australian website soon!!!)


I hope you liked some of the things I'm loving at the moment and thanks for reading! XO


Have you tried any of these products?

Introduction/OOTD -



 Dress - New Look / Cardigan - Modcloth / LipstickLime Crime "Countessa Flourescent"

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I know the majority of you will be from my old one but this one's a little different so let's start with the basics, I'm Samantha, I'm 22 and I live in Sydney, Australia. I spend weekdays looking after children and my weekends with my boyfriend (who patiently helped me take these pictures!) and my friends either eating delicious food or watching bands. I'm incredibly passionate about beauty and even more so about veganism, all products and food mentioned on this blog will be cruelty free and have zero animal by-products in them, I spend a lot of time researching brands and cosmetics and I love to help others out with alternatives. Besides beauty reviews and posts, I'll also be including outfits of the days (although my idea of fashion usually involves a dress, black tights and a cardigan) places I eat, food recommendations and easy recipes as well as DIY craft ideas and general things I get up to.

I try to approach life with a positive attitude and focus on the things that make me happy, hopefully this will be a reflection of all of that. 

Thank you for reading! XO