"Never judge things by their appearance. Even carpet bags."

I've always wanted a giant carpet bag like this one from ASOS. Probably because they remind me of one of my favourite moments from Mary Poppins.



If only unpacking and redecorating were always this easy.

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Black velvet

...actually, any velvet is good velvet at the moment. I've snagged these babies from TopShop.

as well as a second-hand black velvet mini skirt. Am now thinking very seriously about this black velvet blazer from J Crew

or this Ecote velvet tee from Urban Outfitters.

Until I make a decision, I shall leave you with this... because it is BADASS.


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Baggu

My Baggu Duck bag basically goes everywhere I go. Rain, hail or shine, this bag can withstand anything. Fits everything I could possibly need in there, as well as other things I don't need but carry around with me anyway. I do a lot of walking and having a bag that is lightweight is really important. I used to carry a second-hand carry-on bag to class but it was too heavy on its own for it to be worth it. Baggu Duck bags are also made from recycled cotton canvas - easy on the eyes and your conscience!

Baggu have also launched a leather range, which includes a tote in small and medium sizes and pouches in apricot, black and platinum. The pouches are made from scraps from the tote bags. Black or apricot? Hmmm...

Image from Fabrica Verde.

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MakeupShow

I had picked up the following brushes from 7Bella at the start of the year and they have taken a regular spot in my makeup routine. They come highly recommended - take a look!


H01 Powder brush

After almost fainting from seeing how much the tapered Face Brush from Suqqu cost, I had been trying to find a more affordable version. From what I can see (I've never seen Suqqu brushes other than on my Mac), it's not as tapered and the bristles aren't as long. This is the softest brush I have ever tried though. My powder is always really well blended because I love putting this on my face!

20P01 Powder/Blush brush

The brush head is slightly smaller and I find this one great for powder compacts for more coverage on days I can't be bothered with foundation. It is more dense than the H01 and not quite as soft (which actually says more about how soft the H01 is) and would be good for blush as well. I prefer my blush brushes to be quite small so I don't personally.

5E05 Pencil brush

Perfect for around my eyes, as the brush head is smaller. Great for smudging eyeliner and a precise application of eyeshadow.

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Holy. Crap.

From TopShop.

Un-freaking-believable.

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Welcome, Zara!

2011 promises to be an exciting year not just for myself personally. Melbourne's shopping pull will be more enticing with a Zara store to open on Bourke Street Mall later this year. Naturally, I decided to hold off from my abstinence from the Zara website for, uh, research's sake to whet my appetite.

Starting with my Zara favourites (looked at their sale section only - had to keep my head in check!).

Straight Coat.

Double Breasted Tailored Jacket with Leather Applique.

Boat Neck Dress with Pockets.

Tulip-skirt Dress.

Pleated Twill Trousers.

Sweater with Epaulets and a chest pocket.

Two-tone Shoulder Bag.

...I could (and will) be here all day.

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Tempting...

I'm loving these Vans, not that I need another pair of shoes. Should I or shouldn't I? Hmm...

Nonpareil Boutique haul!

How did you spend your Christmas morning? I spent mine swatching and playing with my purchases from NonpareilBoutique.com! It was a great way to start off what was a great Christmas!

I've been wanting to try NYX and E.L.F products for a long time. We don't have an equivalent of either brands in Australia. Though the Australian based webstore CrushCosmetics.com.au have some NYX and E.L.F products, the range is limited and the products that I do want to try are often out of stock. I decided that to treat myself, I was going to have to turn to the US-based NonparielBoutique.com instead and pay extra for shipping if it meant getting all the items I wanted from the one place. Overall, I'm really impressed at the quality and pigmentation of the products I purchased! Not only that, but shipping time was reasonable considering the distance and none of my items were damaged or lost. Christmas has been great so far! Now, here come the swatches... click on the picture to see them bigger. The files took ages to put up because they're so big!

E.L.F All Over Colour Stick in Pink Lemonade.

When I saw Lisa Eldridge use this in her Morning After Makeup videos (parts 1 & 2) I knew I had to try it. I'm pretty sure it only costs US$1 and the amount you get is tiny but it's so pigmented that I think it will last me a while. Great for achieving a dewey face, which is my daily look. Twisty mechanism is pretty pathetic but the product inside is great. Does smell of sickly sweet, fake oranges which isn't great, but considering how much I paid for it I can let that slip. I wore this today for Christmas and stopped noticing it after a while.

NYX Cream Blush in Tea Rose

I think I'm going to have to get more of these in other colours! Probably wouldn't be good for acne prone, oily skin but the texture is creamy and easily blended. Super pigmented, this shade is a great tawny, apricot one which I have been missing from my blush collection. I love this.

NYX Slim Eye Pencils in (l-r) White Pearl, Sapphire, Velvet and Charcoal.

These pencils go on really smooth. Velvet was a bit more gold-y than I expected but I think it's my favourite out of the 4 pencils - would be great to brighten up a smokey look in the inner corners! Will be using Charcoal for during the day as black can sometimes look a bit heavy in my opinion.

NYX Single Eyeshadow in (t-b) Black, Charcoal Brown and Nude.

I cannot believe how fine the powder is in these eyeshadows. I only used my fingers to swatch these and you can already see how pigmented they are! I'm not sure I was able to capture the pearl finish on the Nude but it is a great match for my skin tone and would be a great highlight for my brow bone or even my cheek bones, I think! I think Charcoal Brown would be great for filling in brows as well as it is a good mix of ash and brown.

(T-b) NYX Round Lipstick in Snow White, NYX Tinted Lip Spa in Juicy and Vintage.

I think I have just found my holy grail in red lipsticks. I cannot believe how creamy Snow White is and it's the perfect bluish, blood red shade that I've been trying to find for ages! I also have to point out how much harder I had to scrub to get the lipstick off my arm!
I've been interested in the tinted lip spas for a while and wore Vintage for Christmas because I didn't want to be worried about my lipcolour between meals. It went on really smooth and the colour is buildable. Not crazy about how they taste but they do condition the lips really well. Cannot wait to wear Juicy to work tomorrow! Such a pretty colour! I would definitely recommend the lips spas for people with dry lips who want to experiment with bright colours for everyday but either don't have the guts (like me!) or need them not to be the focus of their face.

E.L.F Mineral Blemish Powder with Brush.

I've been keen to try this powder for a while after reading reviews on MakeUpAlley.com. The brush it comes with is absolutely horrible and I threw it out not long after taking this picture. I plan to use the blending brush from the EcoTools 5 piece eye brush set instead, as it is too big for blending eye makeup but really good for patting on powder on areas of the face, like under the eyes. I patted this powder on top of my blemishes (of which I had plenty!) underneath my regular powder and I swear, my pimples HAVE gone down. Not sure what it will be like in the long term but so far, I love it. For US$8, I cannot rave about this enough!

Last but not least... Tweezerman Tweezerettes in Red.

This is super cute and really does pick up every hair! I didn't really NEED new tweezers per say - mine were doing ok but couldn't really pick up particularly stubborn ones and I bought these because they were red (!). I'm really loving these so far - it'll pick up hairs I don't even see and because they're red, I won't lose them as easily!

So I hope you enjoyed my first ever swatching. It gave me a chance to practice my photography skills which are neither plentiful nor praiseworthy... but I am working on it!

This is a pic of me just as I was running off to have Christmas lunch with my boyfriend's family after doing the swatches. My fringe wasn't doing what it wanted, but hey, my skin was looking good (thanks to some of the products featured in this post!) and that's all I cared about! I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as I did - I'm about to burst for all the food I consumed!

EDIT: E.L.F have an Australian website! The range available is very limited - checked it out and none of the products I purchased from Nonpareil were there. Hopefully as word of mouth spreads, the range made available here will expand, fingers crossed!

Stellaaaaaaaaaaaa

Innovative, fierce, creative, sexy... but would you expect any less from Beatle-offspring?

Stella McCartney has unveiled her line for Target Australia, which will be available from today in Target stores across the nation.

I always get excited when events like this happen. For a uni student on a tight budget living in Australia, the Designer for Target range is one of very few avenues where you get to flirt with high fashion without needing deep pockets. Until Zara opens its first store in Australia next year, this is probably the only chance I will get to get this close to bridge the luxury/thrifty gap until then.

LOVE

Must. Resist. Temptation.

Cheap Monday dress from NastyGal.

Am imagining this over a black slip, back seam tights and black ankle boots, with a biker jacket on top and fierce red lips to finish it off. But I really shouldn't be buying stuff... I guess I can dream.

I have a problem...

4 new pairs of shoes in 4 weeks.

This stops now.

Sigh...

Urban Outfitters no longer ship overseas for free for purchases over $150... I knew it couldn't last forever...

It's, uh, Spring...?

I hate the cold. And by cold I mean Melbourne cold, which I realise that it really isn't that cold on the cold scale but it's just as miserable and annoying nonetheless. The start of September is supposed to mean the start of Spring but alas, none of the trees have blossomed, nor have any flowers bloomed and my allergies have not yet made an appearance.

I'm not going to lie. I am one of the laziest people you will ever meet (ask my boyfriend, he'll vouch for me). I hate getting dressed. I mean, I love clothes and fashion, but at the moment I'm totally over layering and thinking about how many tops I should be wearing thinking about every little miserable element of the weather - the chill, the wind, the cloud cover...

Don't get me wrong - I love coats and my leather jacket is one of my favourite things that I own and sometimes, adding more and more things to your outfit can be fun. But I long for the sun when I can slip on no more than 3 garments at once and be out the door. When you wake up every morning to gloom it starts to get a little uninspiring. That's what seasons are for - to break things up so that by the time you get sick of one thing it all changes and you can start afresh.

Mostly, I'm annoyed because I want to break out these shoes I got from ModCloth a couple of weeks ago. I've been dying to wear them and got excited about Spring only to find that it's starting a little later this year...


I love these shoes so much I got a similar Chelsea Crew pair in black from Lulu's. I've just ordered them and can't wait until they get here! Hopefully it'll be warm enough to wear them by then but being a lifelong Melbourne resident, I know better than to expect that the weather will be predictable.

IQQU Beauty International Product Review - one person's honest opinion.

I have something to admit that I'm a tiny bit embarrassed about. I watch Michelle Phan YouTube videos religiously. Lame, seeing as how I can barely wear makeup because A) I can't be bothered and B) I have stupidly shaped eyes which means I can't be creative with it even if I wanted to.

That said, I try to take really good care of my skin so I don't have to cover anything up. I will be completely honest. I never knew how to take care of my skin until I turned 18. My skin was terrible, especially in my T-zone. When I finished high school, my mum decided that enough was enough and made me go to the doctor to get advice about my skin. This was pretty embarrassing as I hated talking about my acne problem and because I hate going to the doctor anyway. He prescribed antibiotics which cleared my skin up pretty much right away. While I was on this course of antibiotics I did heaps of research as to how to look after my skin so I never had to go through all that again. I never let it effect me outwardly but it was something that I was always secretly upset about.

After years of trying out different things, I decided to try IQQU. I figured I should try everything once. I was a bit of a skeptic at first but after a few weeks... well, here are my thoughts. Oh and before you jump on your sassy horses, I am not affiliated with Michelle Phan (though I wish I was!) or IQQU and I am simply a paying customer with an opinion. So here goes...

Advance Sunscreen.
This product seemed to be the one she was the most excited about. It's SPF 35 and protects against UVA and UVB rays. As far as a sun protector goes, it is great. It is also really light on the skin and evens out the skin tone really well. However, I would not recommend this for dry skin. My skin is on the dry side so it's not so bad for me but I do find that I need to use a little more moisturiser before using this. Reapplying is no problem and does not ruin and makeup that you're already wearing. I did let one of my friends use this who has really oily skin and she loved it. Food for thought...

Acne Serum.
I use this in the morning after applying my toner and before my moisturiser. The first thing that strikes me is the smell, which is very pleasant. The texture again, is very light. I really love this stuff! It is really great for preventing acne and treating existing blemishes. That isn't to say that I still don't get zits because at certain times of the month, nothing you slather on your face can change the tide. Still, this stuff is great.

Skin Rejuvenator.
This is the day moisturiser that I use after the Acne Serum in my morning routine. As far as my skin is concerned, I thought the gel texture might have been too light for me but it still does really well at restoring moisture to my face. It is winter so I have to use a little more than I did during the summer. Light, inoffensive and does the job great, especially if you plan to wear primer and foundation and the lot on top!

Replenishing Cream.
This is the night cream in the IQQU line up and is definitely my favourite skincare product from the brand. Like all the other IQQU products, a little goes a long way. I use just one pump of all of these and it is enough for my entire face. I started using these in January and I've got heaps of it left. The night cream is a great way to treat your skin after a long day of tediousness or a fun night out. It's not too heavy but still luxurious.

And last but not least, the new Eyeliner Brush.
I was so excited about receiving this brush in the mail that I tried it out when I got home at 11pm that night. When seeing Michelle Phan using the brush in her videos, I thought that the precision in her execution was because of her own skill. And half of it is. The other half is the brush. I'm NOT kidding. The bristles aren't synthetic, which normally doesn't work with a cream texture but the IQQU brush is still amazing. The hairs are so soft that it doesn't hurt to line your water line and it is great at getting accurate lines and details. My only complaint is the handle which is unfinished ebony wood. While it looks great, you're not supposed to get it wet which is a little tough when you go to wash it afterwards. Otherwise, this is my favourite IQQU product to date.



So that's my review of the IQQU products that I've tried to date. The customer service was also excellent. After ordering both packages, I received an email from Michelle Phan warning me of a 2 week wait (which I normally don't care about) but both times I got my packages the week I bought them only having to wait 7 days. All in all, I loved Michelle Phan before and after buying her products... I love her more!

Also, be mindful of the fact that not everyone's skin is the same. There are also negative reviews of some of the IQQU products out there so just because these products worked for me, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all remedy or we'd all have perfect skin!

Oh, and in other news - I'm SO happy that Krista won ANTM over Raina. I can't stand overly happy people. GROW UP.

What time is it?

Adorable.




From ModCloth.

Clean, shop and think Green.

If every person does one small, good thing for the Earth, our grandchildren will be thankful for it.

In one of my favourite episodes of Decor it Yourself, Meg Allen shows us how to make environment friendly cleaners for le casa.


DrugStore.com does accept PayPal but only ships internationally if you have an account with Myus (check it out... it helps if you do a lot of international online shopping). You can purchase Seventh Generation products from this wonderful Australian-based-Paypal-accepting store, Organics Australia. Mrs. Meyers and Method products cannot be purchased in Australia.

If you don't like the smell of moth balls, it's probably because of the chemical pesticides used to make them. Instead, use lavender sachets as a better-smelling alternative. You can make your own or buy yours at Etsy.com (from where I've bought 5!).

My favourite Earth-friendly activity is recycling - not just paper, but clothes, books and music. Buying secondhand means that there'll be less pollution-causing manufactoring.

Savers is my favourite stop, with 5 stores in Melbourne. Fat Helen's on Chapel Street is also fantastic, offering clothing, accessories, homewares, toys and back issues of Playboy. While you're on Chapel Street, you may as well check out Shag, Shappere and Eurotrash, which are also great for all things vintage.

Dixons is where I buy a lot of my music. They sell secondhand CDs and guarantee that they are in top condition (I've had nothing to complain about so far). There are 5 stores in Melbourne in Camberwell, Fitroy, Prahran, Dandenong and Blackburn.

Happy secondhand shopping and organic-cleaning one and all!

- K.