I Hauleth Bath and Body Works

I haven’t posted any pictures of any shopping hauls in a while now, so I thought I’d show you my recent purchase from Bath and Body Works. I loved Bath and Body Works when I was in the US, and it was so difficult narrowing down the things I wanted. I decided more on things for the home this time, since I have enough body lotions to last me a lifetime.

Stef organised the spree (what a darling), did all the hard work liasing with HopShopGo, Excel-sheeted all of us involved, etc. Her mum had quite a fright of the boxes that arrived at her home 😛

Bath and Body Works Shopping Haul
Candles, hand sanitisers, antibacterial sprays, pillow mist and lipbalms

You’d think that from the amount of hand sanitisers and antibacterial sprays that I’m some sort of a clean freak. I assure you I am not (well, not to that extend anyway). The hand sanitisers were only US$1 each, and the candles US$5 each. Including the hefty shipping fees, they weren’t too bad. Oh and those C.O. Bigelow lipbalms and gloss are awesome, and highly recommended 😉

Have you purchased anything from Bath and Body Works before? What are your favourites?

6 comments

MattePerfect Facial Blotters

There are a few things I cannot go without in my purse. Tissues. Lipbalm. And most importantly (yes, even MORE important than lippie), facial blotters. I use at least one sheet on a daily basis. Regardless of the makeup or skincare products I use, there is none that will keep my nose shine-free for more than 2 hours. Hence, my religious need for blotters. This was kindly sent to me to try out by the good people of MattePerfect.

MattePerfect Facial Blotters 1

MattePerfect Facial Blotters 2

Description:

MattePerfect is a natural silk facial blotting paper that is used to absorb oil and sebum, leaving skin radiant and shine-free. The papers are beautifully packaged in purse-friendly sachets of 50 square sheets. Designed by the French and made in Japan, from a rich blend of Japanese kimono silk and natural flax linen with no additives or artificial ingredients.

MattePerfect Facial Blotters Description

First impression of the blotter was that it’s quite large. It measures 90mm x 85mm, which is almost double the size of my usual tea tree facial blotters from The Body Shop. It absorbs the oil very well, leaving a matte finish on my skin. There’s also no powdery residue on the papers.

Do I like it? Heck yes. My husband usually needs two sheets of facial blotters for his oily face, and with the MattePerfect, he only needed one. I like the texture of the papers; it reminds me of very fine linen. I call this my “posh blotters” 😛

MattePerfect Facial Blotters retail at AU$16.50 per sachet of 50 sheets, and is available on the MattePerfect website. It’s certainly more expensive than my usual blotters, but the size and quality make up for it.

What I like about it: Beautiful linen and silk texture, relatively large in size. Leaves a lovely matte finish on the skin without stripping makeup off.

What I do not like about it: Expensive. The packaging could have been better for the price.

Note: At the time of writing, the website is currently having a 30% discount on the facial blotters. Enter code MATTE50 and you’ll get the blotters at AU$11.55.

2 comments

Playing 40 Questions on Skincare & Makeup

Nicked this from Clever Rabbit (a new beauty blog I happened to stumble upon. Go check it out!), thought I’d try it out for a bit of fun. Every now and then, in the midst of reviews upon reviews upon reviews, it’s good fun to do questionnaires like this. Breaks me out of the reviews routine, and for you to know me better 😉

SKINCARE

Skincare

1. How many times do you wash your face daily?
Depends on how often I take a shower. On average, that would be twice daily.

2. What skin type do you have?
Combination skin. Normal cheeks and chin, but very oily T-zone, especially around the nose. It’s a pain in the, er, face.

3. What is your current facial wash?
I use Cetaphil’s gentle skin cleanser in the morning, and I’m currently using Sukin’s Cream Cleanser.

4. Do you exfoliate?
Oh definitely. I, erm, overdid the whole exfoliating bit with the Clarisonic not long ago, but now sticking to twice a week. Worked like a charm.

5. What brand do you use?
Clarisonic. For scrubs, it’s Olay’s Thermal Skin Polish. I find the popular St Ives Apricot Scrub too harsh for the skin.

6. What moisturizer do you use?
Day – Dermalogica mediBac Oil Control Lotion, Evening – Clarins Daily Energiser Cream-Gel.

7. Do you have freckles?
Unfortunately yes. Despite my religious use of sunscreen, more and more freckles are popping up on my cheeks. It’s a gene thing. My mum’s cheeks are peppered with freckles.

8. Do you use eye cream?
Yep. Although I do admit it’s more a part of the skincare routine than anything. I haven’t found one which could perform miracles yet. If you have, be a dear and share, yes?

9. Do you or did you have acne prone skin?
I’m blessed to not be inflicted with acne when I was younger. I get the occasional breakouts, hormonal or from testing too many products not suitable for my skin.

10. Did you ever have to use Pro-activ?
Nope. I’ve always categorised Pro-Active as a celebrity-endorsed brand, which doesn’t really bode well in my books. But if it works for you, good on ya!

MAKEUP

Makeup

11. What foundation do you use?
Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua Ultra-light Skin Perfecting Makeup – it’s my go-to foundation to date. Incredibly light, gives me just enough coverage without feeling cakey, heavy and overly made up. Costly, I know, but worth every cent.

12. How about concealer?
I admit that I don’t normally use concealer. Not because I don’t have to, but I usually forget to apply concealer before slapping on makeup. On the days when I do remember, I use YSL’s Touche Eclat under the eyes. The foundation usually covers the blemishes. I don’t apply foundation to my entire face, but just the areas that need evening of skintone. I don’t like that cakey bit of concealer on a spot.

13. Do you know your undertone color?
Okay, this is embarrasing because I don’t really know, but erm, yellow? I am Chinese, after all 😛 Some people call it olive undertones, but I’m not sure. If you know the exact term for Chinese skin undertones, please let me know in the comments.

14. What do you think of fake eyelashes?
Looks great when done correctly. It also depends on the look you’re after. For the evenings, dramatically done-up eyes with fake lashies can be really gorgeous. Unfortunately I’ve seen those during the day, and I think those girls are just trying too hard.

15. Did you know that you are supposed to change your mascara every 3 months?
Yes. But do we actually listen? Nope 😛

16. What brand of mascara do you use?
I have tried a lot, but I always go back to Majolica Majorca’s Lash Enamel Glamour Neo mascara. I cannot recommend this mascara enough. Vamps short lashes right up.

17. Sephora or MAC?
Brand or store? It doesn’t matter. Sephora all the way. Unless I absolutely have to get something from MAC (e.g. the Studio Fix compact powder, which I actually love, or makeup brushes), I avoid it like the plague.

18. What makeup tools do you use in make up application?
I prefer using my fingers for base makeup application, e.g. foundation, concealer, primer. For the rest, I rely on my makeup brushes.

19. Do you use make-up base/primer for the eyes?
Unfortunately, I have to. My eyelids are too oily to hold any eyeshadows in place for longer than an hour. I swear by Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance.

20. For the face?
I used to use heavily-siliconed primers for the face, but after a while, I realised I didn’t need to. If you get a good foundation, moisturise the skin well before slapping foundation on, the foundation will stay put. Sure, I still need to blot my T-zone with facial blotters, but it’s just a minor inconvenience. Less layers of makeup on the face, the better.

21. What is your favorite eyeshadow (color or shade)?
Pewter. I just love the colour.

22. Do you use pencil or liquid eyeliner?
I’m usually too lazy to. I tend to use it for evenings out. IF I remember 😛

23. How often do you poke your eyes with an eyeliner pencil?
Good question! I used to, no thanks to my unsteady hand. That’s why I need to be alone in the room when I’m attempting to apply eyeliner. Any distractions will cause my hand to move and jab the eye. Tsk tsk.

24. What do you think of pigment eyeshadows?
They give such a pop in colour when applied wet or even dry, but damn, they’re messy! I love the ones by Illamasqua; the sieve makes the pigments easier to handle.

25. Do you use mineral makeup?
I used to. I even swore by it once. But it broke me out after a while, and even after switching brands, the breakouts continued. After I stopped, the breakouts stopped. Oh well. We had good times, mineral makeup and I.

26. What is your favorite lipstick?
At the moment, it’s Estee Lauder Pure Color Gloss Lipstick in Night Bloom and Bobbi Brown Treatment Lip Shine SPF 15 in Nectarine.

27. How about lipgloss?
Sephora lipgloss in Hot Coral.

28. What is your favorite blush to use?
Ooooh this one’s difficult since I love blushes to bits (my favourite bit of makeup). But if I have to pick one, that would be NARS Deep Throat. Gives me a beautiful but soft pop of colour on the cheeks.

29. Do you buy your makeup on eBay?
I bought two eye makeup items on eBay a couple of years ago, a Revlon cream shadow palette and a Smashbox Tokidoki palette. They looked good in the pictures, but didn’t like the textures. Haven’t bought anymore makeup after that.

30. Do you like drugstore makeup?
Of course. There are good ones, like Prestige (they have good, pigmented single eyeshadows), Maybelline mascaras, Innoxa lipsticks, Ecotools makeup brushes, Rimmel nail polish, etc. These are drugstore gems.

31. Did you ever consider taking make-up classes?
I attended three makeup classes, one in Malaysia, one at Chanel last year and one just last week. To be honest, you can learn how to put on makeup from YouTube. But when you’re with your girlfriends, having a great time, makeup classes are just the icing on the cake. It’s no fun doing it alone (hello YouTube).

32. Are you clumsy in putting on makeup?
I can be, especially when it comes to applying liquid eyeliner and mascara. I’ve over-clamped my eyelashes with a eyelash curler, accidentally clamped the skin instead, causing much pain. I’m still a clumsy clod at that.

33. Name a makeup crime that you hate?
Over-tweezed brows. I’d rather have bushy ungroomed brows than overly-tweezed, pencil thin ones. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of Asians with pencil-thin brows and I’d think “Oh, honey, NOOOO!!!” It’s not true that just because Asians have delicate features, hence they must also have thin, sparse brows. It just makes you look scary.

34. Do you like colorful shades of makeup (lipstick, eyeshadow) or neutral ones?
I love colourful shades, but am usually too chicken to really give them a go. More often than not, will stick to neutral colours for the day, and slightly more daring ones in the evening.

35. Which celebrity always has great make up?
There are so many! So far the ones that hardly go wrong are Eva Longoria, Christina Hendricks, Taylor Swift, to name a few.

36. If you could leave the house using just ONE make up item, what would you use?
Lippie, surely! Brightens up the face instantly.

37. Could you ever leave the house without any makeup on?
Yes, and I do, quite often too! 😉

38. Do you think you look good even without any makeup on?
Hahaha, a very narcissistic question. I hope to think so, but without any blush or lippie on, I tend to look pretty washed out.

39. In your opinion, what is the BEST makeup line?
Oooh this is a toughie. There are just so many out there! My favourite would still have to be NARS though. Love the highly pigmented colours.

40. What do you think of Makeup?
There’s only so much makeup can do if the canvas is not properly taken care of. But on good skin, it does absolutely wonders to a face.

Fancy playing 40 questions? 😛

7 comments

Aurora Spa Rituals Vanilla & Honey Lip Moisturiser

Aurora Spa Rituals Vanilla & Honey Lip Moisturiser

Description:

An ultra-intensive lip treatment to nourish and seal in long lasting lip moisture. Featuring papaya, to dissolve dead skin cells, combined with cocoa butter and vitamin E, for the ultimate hydration, and Botanical extracts such as pure essential vanilla oil, carrot, castor seed, coconut and jojoba seed which has been used by Native Americans for hundreds of years. Free from synthetic fragrance and colour.

Aurora Spa Rituals Vanilla & Honey Lip Moisturiser Ingredients

This has become a fast staple in my makeup bag, and I bring it with me everywhere I go. It’s a lovely lipbalm to use, and makes a good base for lipsticks and lipgloss (I don’t wear lippies without lipbalm first). It has a creamy consistency, not drying like many lipbalms I’ve tried and it keeps lips moisturised for hours.

Now for me, lipbalms can be all kinds of moisturising, but if it tastes awful (or of coconuts), then I’m never going to use it. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. That’s why I’m happy to say that this lipbalm gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me in that department. It tastes yummy, all vanilla-y but not sickeningly so.

*stamp of approval* PASS!

Aurora Spa Rituals Vanilla & Honey Lip Moisturiser retails at AU$25 for 10ml and is available at Mecca Cosmetica.

What I like about it: Tastes great, very smooth consistency, easy application, highly moisturising.

What I do not like about it: Expensive, no SPF.

3 comments
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