10 favourite beauty products of 2012

2012 was a good product year for me, I tried a lot of new things and now have some new loves.

So I'm just going to throw skincare, makeup and hair products in at random as I think of them.

As always, my beloved Ultrabland must make this list. I have not been able to try something else without always coming back to Ultrabland. It's good shit. Can be inconvenient - requires hot water, a wash cloth, can be difficult to get off, people freak out about washing your face with oils, etc. but it makes my skin happy.

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer is my favourite under eye concealer of all time. It covers really well, looks natural, stays on well, doesn't dry out the eye area and blends easily. What more could you want?

Perfect Potion Rosemary Conditioner is an awesome chemical-free conditioner for dry hair. It makes my hair feel super soft and moisturised without the use of chemicals and silicones, which I love. Plus it has very little scent, so I don't have to worry about it mixing with my fragrance (I like to spray perfume in my hair because it lasts longer than on skin).

Lush Eyes Right Mascara is a great everyday mascara that is easy to remove and doesn't damage lashes. It lasts all day and doesn't require scrubbing to get it off. Also it's quite a wet formula so it doesn't clump and looks more natural.

Benefit They're Real Mascara makes my lashes looks more dramatic than Eyes Right without clumping or being difficult to remove. The packaging is cute and I like the wand, I'm usually opposed to the plastic kinds of wand, instead of the spooly kind, but this really works. The product lasts nicely on lashes too, so I don't have to worry about a little light rain.

Lily Lolo Mineral Foundation and Concealer is my favourite mineral foundation (and foundation in general) of all time. It's cheap (£12.49 for 10grams that lasts me a little less than a year), covers redness and discolouration like a champ, comes in many shades, samples are available, doesn't wash off for swimming, doesn't irritate my skin (something unheard of for me) and blends in easily. The concealer is really nice too, also cheap, covers pimples really well (I wouldn't use it for under eye darkens as it can be a bit dry) and lasts all day too.

By Terry Rose De Rose Sheer Liquid Blush in Fresh Rose is my favourite blush of all time. It goes on really smooth, blends in easier than any other liquid blush I've ever tried, has subtle shimmer that highlights nicely and isn't too intense, so it's easy to apply quickly. It makes me looks healthier and looks natural and pretty.

Lush Catastrophe Cosmetic Face Mask is the best face mask for irritated or sensitive skin. It works really well on sunburn too, I burnt my back up a few months ago, apply Catastrophe Cosmetic on it when I got home and it was completely gone when I took it off a few minutes later. Catastrophe keeps my skin from freaking out too hard if I'm not being as careful with it as I should be.

My new 3 prong black wattle wood hair fork from this etsy shop is awesome. I've been having difficulty with buns lately because my hair is dry and damaged now thanks to the dye, whenever I put my hair in a bun it went all crinkly, angry and even more dry in the ends. I assumed it was the ends being squished under a hair tie so I bought a hair fork from Votepalantine and am so pleased with it! It holds my hair securely (even more securely than a hair band) and doesn't screw with my ends, win win! Also it looks pretty sweet because I bought this one but in black wattle wood, that looks kind of like the fire nation hair things that Azula and Zuko wore in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

Moroccan Oil Hydrating Styling Cream is my replacement for the sadly discontinued The Big Tease from Lush. It has silicone and chemicals and all that, but I only use it sometimes, so I haven't seen any damage form it. I like this cream for straightening out kinks from having my hair in a ponytail and for smoothing down flyaways.

End of the world?

I'm actually kind of worried that the world is going to end the day before I get my new horse. Obviously I know it's not going to happen and nothing out of the ordinary will happen tomorrow, but it's still a little worrying. I will be quite devastated if the world ends right before I'm getting my new horse, probably more devastated than the dying horribly part.

So here are some photos of my new horse.
Here is her at one week old:

Her name is Iddy, she's a 6 year old 16.3hh holsteiner and I love her. She likes cuddles:

Which I think is really cute and sweet.

The woes of a natural hair product user - Restoring damaged hair naturally

In my last post I talked about using aloe vera juice as a light leave-in conditioner for damaged hair. I've been thinking about how since I've dyed my hair it's been a lot more fragile and harder to maintain, so I figured I would write a post on what I've been doing with it.

1. For starters, I wash my hair as little as possible and I do it strategically. I try to not wash my hair for three days at least, but usually get to four or five. What I do is I wash my hair right before I have to go to anything where I want my hair to look good (shopping with the gals, etc.) and leave it until I'm going to be doing something active that will make my hair greasy and sweaty (horse riding, etc.).

I disagree with dry shampoo. It's an awesome idea and good if you're hair's gross and you have to go out, but it dries up the oils in the hair like shampooing does, obviously not to the same extent. You really have to leave your hair oily for a day or two for your scalp to realise that it doesn't need to produce that much oil. So eventually your hair will be able to go longer between washes if you let it get oily.

2. When I do wash my hair I use a sulfate free shampoo and an intensely hydrating conditioner. Sulfates dry out the hair and can irritate the scalp, they're only really needed if you use a lot of silicony products in your hair. I've been using Avalon Organics Nourishing Lavender Shampoo and Perfect Potion Rosemary Conditioner and have been loving them.

I have a kind of shower routine to optimise my shower time. I start with shampooing my hair before anything else, then condition and tie my hair in a bun and leave it like that for the rest of my shower, rinsing it out after everything else is done. Also, every second wash or so I do the whole shower routine and leave my hair in the bun with the conditioner in it for about an hour after the shower, then rinse it out.

3. I had been using jojoba oil as a leave-in conditioner before I dyed my hair, but now my hair needs something even more moisturising. I take a tiny amount of my conditioner and apply it focusing on the ends while my hair is still wet. Then once my hair has dried if it's still dehydrated I apply another tiny amount. I still use aloe vera water in between because it's much lighter and dries quickly.

4. I avoid using heat on my hair. I don't blow dry because drying naturally is so much better for the hair and I rarely straighten or curl, mostly because I can't be bothered.

I'm going to start putting some Manic Panic hair dye in a smaller bottle of my conditioner just to use on my ends soon. I'm thinking I'll just use the manic panic with the shower where I don't leave it in for an hour, since I don't want my whole head to be purple.

Aloe vera juice for dry, damaged hair

I got my hair dyed up to my ears purple last week because I finished school and now I can do whatever the hell I want with my hair! So my ends are quite dry and damaged and I've been looking for non-silicon ways of hydrating my hair since my hair doesn't respond well to silicon.

I started using aloe vera juice on my hair a few days ago. I put it in a spray bottle and spray my ends with it whenever they're looking dry. It's especially good if I get my ends quite wet with it and let it dry naturally or if I got to bed with it in. It's made my hair much shinier and more hydrated than it was before and I think with continued use it will repair the damage.

I also like aloe vera juice for my face, its very calming and cooling. It's also good to spray on after mineral foundation to make it look less powdery, melt into the skin and look dewy.

I've also been enjoying using jojoba oil on my hair as it's so moisturising and soaks in easily. I use a few drops, warmed between my hands, and smoothed over the ends and the rest towards the roots.

The downsides of aloe vera juice are that it only seems to come in giant bottles and it only lasts 3 months after you open it. Also, you're supposed to refrigerate it, but I assumed that was for if you were going to consumer it, I think it should be fine on the face and especially the face unrefrigerated.

Holy shit I'm not in high school anymore

What even is this? I'm up at 6am to go to Moreton island for Schoolies and it just hit me that I'm not a high school student anymore. I'm a regular adult that does things on week days, heck maybe I'll even get a job and start drinking coffee.

This is a really weird feeling, it's not exactly pleasant, I feel like I have all sorts of responsibilities now. Which is weird because I actually I don't. That's kinda the thing with gap years, you can do whatever you want.

It keeps hitting me that I never have to wear my uniform again, I can wear whatever the hell I want! I'm pretty stoked about that.

I think what I'm most excited about is being able to dye my hair a crazy colour. I'm getting it dyed in a week to be gradient plum. I'm also super excited about being able to paint my nails. That is one of my favourite things to do.

Vichy Capital Soleil SPF 30 Mattifying Face Fluid Dry Touch review

I bought this sunscreen while I was in Rome a couple months ago. My skin is super annoying with sunscreens (and everything), it completely freaks out, breaks out, goes red, etc. So I had pretty much just stopped wearing sunscreen on my face, my foundation has SPF 12, so I figured that was better than nothing. Until, I went to Italy, discovered that it's ridiculously hot and sunny there and that I needed sunscreen. Off I went to the nearest pharmacy, bought like five different kinds of sunscreen, I was super excited about all the italian and french skincare brands.

So I've been wearing Vichy Capital Soleil SPF 30 for the past few weeks and I love it a lot. It's for combination to oily skin, which I don't have, but it worked out fine for my dry skin. I really like that it doesn't leave the skin all oily and gross, it dries matte and stays that way all day.

It hasn't irritated my skin at all and doesn't leave a white cast.

The main thing I like about this sunscreen is that it doesn't feel gross like so many sunscreens do. The matte dry is awesome because it works really well as a makeup base too, keeps makeup looking pretty and matte even in hot weather.

Vampy purple eyes tutorial

So I did this for my vampire halloween costume and thought at least one of you might be interested.

Products used (obviously you can use whatever you want or have on hand):
- Lush Feeling Younger illuminator
- MAC Crush Metal Pigment 1 (a dark purple and pinky lilac)
- Lush Eyes Right mascara
- Benefit Benetint cheek and lip tint
- MAC Fluidline eyeliner in Blacktrack
- MAC Carbon eyeshadow
- MAC Painterly paint pot
- Revlon Colorstay eyeliner in Black

You're going to want to start with a base or primer of some sort, to keep the shadow from creasing, fading, making sure it's as vibrant as possible, etc.

Apply Painterly (or something similar) all over the lid and brow bone. Wait a minute for it to set.

I bought these from AllCosmeticsWholesale.com here. And so far all that I've bought from them has been real, so I'd recommend this website for cheap and discontinued makeup.

Anyhow, apply a shimmery lilac eye shadow to the lid and a little bit above the crease. Then apply a dark purple in and above the crease in a sideways v (so the purple is in the crease as well as going towards the outer corner), there should be some colourless space between the shadow and eyebrow. Apply some MAC carbon to the outer corner of the v to darken it. Take a fluffy brush with no colour on it and blend the dark purple outwards to get rid of any harsh lines.

Line the upper lid thickly with a black gel eyeliner (MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack) getting thinner towards the inner corner. Then line the upper and lower waterlines with a black waterproof pencil eyeliner (Revlon Colorstay) 3/4 of the way in.

Apply whichever mascara you like, waterproof is best, but I really like Lush's Eyes Right because when I wash it off it doesn't take any of my eyelashes with it.

Apply a red cheek tint (Benefit Benetint) to the apples of your cheeks and an illuminator (Lush Feeling Younger) to your cheekbones and cupid's bow

Then apply a dark lipstick if you want it extra vampy.

So apparently everyone had imaginary friends except me

I think this may be the reason why I'm so messed up. Everyone talks about imaginary friends like 'oh yeah, I totally had those' and I'm starting to realise that I never had one, or at least I have no recollection whatsoever of having one.

Are imaginary friends an important part of childhood?

Totally just bought 4 500ml bottles of Lush's limited edition Twilight shower gel

I love this shower gel so much. It came out about a year ago (for like a week because it was so popular) and I bought an itsy little 100ml bottle, which I have regretted ever since. It would have been better to get none over that tiny bottle. I love it so much that it has ruined my shower gel life. This is the only shower gel I want to use, but I can't use it all the time or it'll be gone.

It's friggin' delicious smelling, I wish I could drink it. I'm not a huge lavender fan, only when it's dried, but this shower gel smells so good. Its like lavender and musk and malty deliciousness.

Also it leaves my skin soft and doesn't dry it out.

So you should go buy it before it's not available anymore. It's awesome. I don't think it's available in Australia, not sure if it will be, it is available in the UK and US. I'd recommend buying it online from the UK website because it's a bunch cheaper than anywhere else.

Spidergate

Yet another spider has ventured into my room. This one is quite a lot larger than the rest.

He was hiding behind my laundry basket and scared the bajeesus out of me. This was three days ago...I haven't seen him since, I've been scared of touching anything I can't clearly see ever since.


In other news, my dog keeps on looking at me like this:

And I don't know what he wants.

A creepy guy on the bus creeped me out and that makes me mad

So this guy on the bus yesterday morning was being generally creepy, asking for my number, trying to get my home address, telling me that I smelled nice, etc. and it made me really uncomfortable and I'm pissed off about that.

I'm a feminist, so I'm pretty well versed in women's issues, specifically rape. I keep on reading all these stories about women being harassed and followed home and stalked and such and it freaks me out a lot. I've never had this kind of thing happen to me before, this is the first time a guy has hit on me and I've felt trapped. Usually it'll be at a party or something, they'll say whatever and I'll walk away. But on a bus I didn't have the option and that scared me.

This guy was sitting behind me, he introduced himself when I got on and asked if he could sit next to me, I said "...okay" and I now know that that was a bad response because he didn't take that as, 'she obviously doesn't want me to sit next to her, I should leave her alone.' he took it as me saying 'Okay! I would love for you to sit next to me.' So he sits next to me and I'm like, 'Oh shit, what do I do now?' He asks me all sorts of questions, all of which I give fake answers to, except when he asks me if I have a boyfriend. Stupidly, I say that I don't have a boyfriend. I could have ended all of this by saying that I had a boyfriend, I'm sure he would have left me alone if I had.

It makes me so mad that someone is allowed to make me so uncomfortable to the point that I feel like I have to lie in answer to all of his questions. I shouldn't have to worry about whether this guy will somehow find out where I live or that he'll stalk me and maybe rape me. It's complete bullshit that I have to feel so paranoid and anxious on a bus. I was literally shaking in my seat terrified of what was going to happen next.

He got off at the same stop that I did, walked next to me for a while even when I went an unconventional route. Eventually he had to go in a different direction to me. What makes me even madder was that he tried to kiss me, I turned my head so he just got my cheek, but it makes me so mad that someone feels that they have the right to do that without my permission.

The rest of the day I couldn't stop looking around me. It pissed me off that that ruined my day, I still had a nice time shopping with my friend, but I was paranoid and anxious all day.

Oh God, what did I just do to myself?!

I just drank two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a cup of water. The internet told me it would cure me of my sinusitis (yeah, I'm sick yet again), but half way through drinking this cup of death a thought occurred to me. From my understanding, my stomach is in no way connected with my sinuses. I may have just drunken that horrible concoction for no reason.

Drinking apple cider vinegar, even diluted in water, is the worst thing ever. I'm not sure why, but I didn't expect it to taste quite as bad. Maybe because I saw "apple" and thought, 'hey, I like apples'. Let me tell you, it does not taste like apples. It tastes like it will make me worse than make me better.

I'm worried that apple cider vinegar is supposed to cure the sore throat that can accompany sinusitis, but I don't have a sore throat.

If this doesn't cure me I am going to be so mad.

There's a cat in my garden so I fed it tuna

Sounds like the opening line of a storybook, right? Nope, there's a cat in my herb garden and it scared the bajeesus out of me.

There I was, weeding my garden, growing increasingly frustrated that the taps around my garden don't work and therefore I can't water my plants. When suddenly I hear a growling sound as I reach over the other pots to pull some weeds from around my chives plant. I pause like, "what the truck was that?", realise that something is growling at me from the bushes and jump back, my hand at my throat. Not even kidding, I had a flash of that scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where there's a wolf thing growling at Harry from the bushes as he waits for the Knight Bus.

Anyway, it turns out it was cat. A very angry cat from having me disturb its hiding place. Well it shouldn't have been hiding in my garden, now should it?

So I brought it some tuna hoping to make a new animal friend, but that just seemed to make it angrier.

August Lust Have It! box

I was so stoked when I received this, I've been looking forward to it all month. I was a little disappointed that it didn't come in a little makeup bag like it did for the past two months. It came in a white box with a black ribbon tied around it, looked nice, but I couldn't use it for anything.

tanGo Tanning Glove

I don't really know what I'm going to do with this since I don't self tan...I can't think of any other uses. Objectively, it seems nice. It's one of those microfiber towels (not a glove), small, soft.

Tigi Rockaholic Rock Out Shine Blaster

I was so excited to try this! I am a huge fan of Tigi products, I love the packaging and concepts behind the products.

Rock Out feels silicon-y and smooth when smoothed through the hands and applies to the hair without leaving a residue or weighing it down. It softened the hair and left it with a nice shine. I think this would be really good for after using heat styling products, especially after straightening.

Appelles Body Booster Skin Lotion, Body Bar Vegetable Soap, Skin Detox Shower Gel - all in the Wild Berry scent

Over all, these products smell amazing. Really delicious. My first thought when smelling them was apple and raspberry. It's a really sweet fruity scent and I love it.

I haven't tried the shower gel yet, so if I think it's any good I'll review it later.

Appelles Body Bar Vegetable Soap

My favourite of the three, I use this as hand soap by my bathroom sink and every time I wash my hands I end up smelling them for ages afterwards. So delicious.
It's a lovely red colour, lathers into a milky foam and the scent stays on your hands for quite a while. I wash my hands a lot because I'm a bit weird, so my hands smell like it all day.

Appelles Body Booster Skin Lotion

I was well excited for this also, has the same scent as the soap and moisturises quite well. It's an oil based lotion, so it packs a good moisturising punch and it isn't tested on animals, so that's a plus. It comes in quite a small bottle (I believe the one I got was full size), so I'm not sure you would get many uses out of it or how cost effective it is. Probably wouldn't buy it again because of this, but I love the scent, so I'll definitely buy the soap.

ModelCo Eyeliner in Black

Not a very creamy eyeliner, it's quite...thick? If you can describe a pencil that way. Like it doesn't go on very smoothly and is kinda dry, so the colour isn't very black and it would be hard to make precise lines.

However, the dryness of it makes it surprisingly waterproof. I took this photo yesterday and still have a bit of the eyeliner on my hand. And I tested it on my hand before I tried the Appelles soap, so even with soap and water it didn't come off. It's possibly too waterproof, I don't know how you'd get it off at the end of the day.

Marc Jacobs DOT

I'm not a huge fan of this perfume, probably won't purchase the full size, but I think I'll use the tester atomiser.
It's a bit too chemically for me, I'm a big fan of natural scents, mostly florals. This smells kinda like passionfruit and pineapple and chemicals at first spray. As it dries it's a lot softer, and goes kind of sweet and musky. I want to describe it as vintage or heirloom, but I don't think perfumes are generally described that way.