March Favourites 2014

People like to do this sort of thing, right? I'm not totally sure what the protocol is with "monthly favourite" posts, but I get the general idea that it's about new products you get over the previous month. I bought most of the products in the post well over a month ago, but I have loved using these. I also don't really buy enough makeup every month to really warrant doing these monthly, unless people want to read repetitive posts -- which I'm pretty sure most people don't.

So, here we go. You're going to have to forgive the poor photo quality, they were taken at 5:30am on my phone.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush in "Radiant Magenta". I'm not gonna lie, blushes kinda scare me. A lot. I'm very, very paranoid about putting on too much and having clown makeup -- but, at the same time, I don't want to wearing so little that nobody can tell I'm wearing it. I was nervous about buying this shade for this reason. You can see that the colour looks incredibly rich, even though it is marbled through with that medium-ish brown colour. However, the review on Makeup and Beauty Blog in January had this to say:

Picture this: your work crush grabs you by the shoulders when no one is looking, presses you up against a file cabinet, kisses you squarely on the mouth, and then quietly, nonchalantly, walks away without saying a word.

That -- that right there. That natural flush on your cheeks? That's the kind of flush these Ambient Lighting Blushes can create.

And I have to say, Karen is right. A couple of swipes on my blush brush gets me a really nice, natural-looking pink flush. I find that the product seems to kind of stick to the brush, because the more I run it over my cheek, the more colour spreads out, so I don't have the need to keep applying product to my brush. However, that could be due to the brush itself, or that could just be how every high-end blush works and my ignorance has just further earned my title of Beauty Padawan!

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes come in six shades and are available from Mecca Cosmetica for $50.

Napoleon Perdis China Doll Gel Eyeliner in "Equinox". I seem to have bad luck with eyeliners. I'm always losing them, misplacing them, putting them in that "safe spot" that seems to delete itself from my memory. Once I bought one and it dried/ran out (no idea which) after two uses! It was for this reason that I went to Napoleon Perdis. I'd been hearing good things about their gel eyeliner for a while, and I decided that I may as well put my money towards a decent product rather than risk more trial-and-disappointment.

I use this product nearly every day, whether I'm using it for a thin line near my upper lash line, doing a winged look (my skills there are all thanks to Danielle's tutorial on Confessions of a Beauty School Dropout), or a probably-dodgy cat eye. It glides on very easily and although the pot looks teeny tiny, I usually don't need a whole lot of product. It wears very well during the day and it doesn't smudge very badly, even when I accidentally forget I'm wearing it and rub my eye. Something I've noticed is that sometimes the colour does wear out a little in my wing (is "fade" the right term? I'm not totally sure.) but for all I know, I've just not used the same amount of product as I have in other places. It's also possible that on those days I've forgotten to put on eye primer, so it might have to be something that I experiment on to figure out.

Napeoleon Perdis China Doll Gel Eyeliners are available in two colour from Myer for $35. Alternatively, you can buy the China Doll Eyeliners (honestly not sure what the differences are) in seven colours from Myer or Napoleon Perdis for $39.

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Eyeshadow Palette. Of course, of course, of course I was going to include this! I have been lusting after this palette since Danielle's review in January, and there seemed to be absolutely nowhere that shipped it to Australia! I was disappointed, but luckily I seemed to be able to find rough equivalents of the some of the shades in other makeup palettes I have.

Then, a miracle.

I discovered Tarazz in the depths of cyberspace (or what passes for the depths for a Beauty Padawan), and then received confirmation from Kit Cosmetics that they would start stocking it at the end of February (so you can see that I've been looking for this for a while) -- and I was so excited!

I've been able to create a number of looks with this palette, mostly from Danielle's blog or from the little pamphlet that comes with the palette. Two weeks ago I bravely experimented with it and tried out an look inspired by Elsa from "Frozen" -- I'm not gonna lie, it was kinda cute! Also, have I mentioned that it smells of cocoa? It smells of cocoa. :)

Of course, as this is a high-end brand not readily available in Australia, it costs a lot more for us than our American friends. You can buy the palette for $62 from Tarazz or from Kit Cosmetics for $68.95. Something to take into consideration is that Tarazz will charge an additional $15 for postage, so I would recommend physically going into a Kit Cosmetics boutique (at Mecca Maxima or selected Myer stores) to pick one up. However, for some reason, at time of writing it isn't listed on the Kit Cosmetics site (I've linked their general Too Faced page in case it gets put back on), and I know that they keep selling out very quickly, so that could be why.

Soap & Glory Flake Away Spa Body Polish - Travel Size. Oh gahhhd, how I love this product. I normally have super gross, untouchable elbows -- they're all dry and hideous to look at (although thankfully elbows don't usually get a lot of eyeball time), but when I spotted Soap & Glory wall at the Kit boutique at Myer, I decided that I ought to try it.

I nearly bought the regular 300ml pot, but I wasn't sure how much I'd need to use or how well it would work, so I decided to try out the smaller 50ml pot. As it turns out, I don't need to use a whole lot, so I seemed to make a good buy. Flake Away smells really nice (of what, I can't quite tell you, my nose is rubbish at discerning scents) and I'm loving the sea salt/sugar texture -- it just feels so nice on my skin.

You can buy this from Kit for $5.95 for the travel size, or $16.95 for the 300ml pot.

Bioré Blemish Clearing Scrub. Everybody but the truly fortunate gets face demons from time to time, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of us have tried a lot of different products in any attempt to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I've tried several different brands with varying success, but I find that this one takes the cake.

It has a really nice smell -- mandarin and mint, I think, which I'm normally not keen on, but this isn't overpowering. It has a refreshing, tingling sensation on my skin, but not the full on KA-POW that some products like to give you. The thing that stood out to me is that I actually noticed results almost immediately, as opposed to after repeated use. It's also very good at getting rid of my makeup and it doesn't irritate my eye area (yes, yes, I know, I should use proper eye makeup remover -- but I'm lazy).

Neither Woolworths or Coles stock this online, but I believe it retails for around the $10 mark. You can get it on sale from Priceline for $7.69 (regular price $10.99).

And that just about concludes my March Favourites for 2014. Have you used any of these products? What were your March Favourites?

Sarah xo