Trying out Savvy by DB

Sorry for my absence in the blogging world, I've just had exams for the Masters degree I'm currently doing, but now they're finished and I've got a whole week of holidays (gosh, so much time I could travel the world). 

Anyways, at the Priceline sale a little while ago, I picked up a few Savvy products. As far as I know, this brand is exclusive to Priceline and a little bit mysterious - they don't seem to have a website!

I picked up two lipsticks, one of which I'll show you because I absolutely love it! For $3.50, I'm so happy I decided to buy it.

 Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

L-R 

Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

Savvy Lipstick in Sugar Rose

Savvy Mineral Baked Blush in Blossom

This lipstick is called Sugar Rose, its a gorgeous pink with a hint of shimmer. The formula is nice to apply, a little drying but that improves wear time. I've been wearing it as a MLBB lipstick quite a bit.

Now we have the mineral baked blush in Blossom. When I saw it, I instantly snatched it up, it was too pretty to ignore. This blush is a really nice colour, but I can't go overboard with it because it'll look like I've been punched in the face. The pigmentation is average, but that doesn't bother me too much because of the colour. Also, maybe I'm just crazy but I find this hard to blend?? It's hard to buff out the distinct lines from applying the blush, whereas I don't have any trouble with my other blushes so it's not my brush or my technique. For this reason, I choose not to use it on a daily basis because I don't really have any longer than 5 minutes to do my makeup each morning (if I'm going to uni that is, and lately I've barely gone anywhere else!). 

All in all, I think this is a great budget brand, I'm definitely going to try out another lipstick when my beauty ban is over. And because I'm blush crazy, I'd be interested in trying out another blush but perhaps not from the mineral baked blush range.

Have you tried Savvy products? What are your thoughts?

My Beauty Buying Ban

A common problem issue (or joy?) with beauty bloggers is that we just seem to buy sooo many things, use them a few times and then they retreat into the black hole known as the cupboard (or wherever you store things). I have acquired 5000 versions of the same thing, so I'm going to ban myself from buying a few things for a while...

1. Skincare 
I have so much skincare to exhaust, most of which I didn't pay for. I either got it from beautyheaven trial teams (was anyone else on the Nivea pure and natural trial?), blog giveaways and free samples including the recent Neutrogena samples and I also have some Arbonne skincare samples. I have enough to last me a year or more, so I won't allow myself to buy anything for a looong time!

2. Hair treatments. 
I have quite a few leave in conditioners, deep conditioners, oils etc so I have to use a few of them up before I buy any more. This doesn't include my styling products (such as heat protectant) or shampoo/conditioner.

3. Lipsticks.
I haven't ever used up a lipstick in my whole life, so until that happens, I'm not allowed to buy new ones. 

4. Foundation/BB cream
I have 3 liquid foundations, 2 BB creams, one pressed powder and one mineral foundation. That is more than enough for now. Although, I've hit pan on my pressed powder which I use the most, so I might be repurchasing that soon.

I think that's enough for now. I don't think I'm being too hard on myself, so hopefully I can stick to this plan. Wish me luck!

Are you on a beauty ban? Or have you tried before and failed? (or succeeded?)

Maybelline Color Tattoo's: Bad to the Bronze and Painted Purple

At first, I wasn't really too interested in the Color Tattoo craze. But now I'm very glad I've jumped on the band wagon!

My first purchase was Bad to the Bronze, as it's a wearable colour that can be glammed up but still works as a fairly neutral look. I find it looks great with a black dress for a night out!

At a recent Priceline sale, I was hunting for Bold Gold but it was gone :( so I opted for Painted Purple, because it is a really gorgeous colour.

Maybelline New York Color Tattoo

Left: Bad to the Bronze

Right: Painted Purple

These are both beautiful colours! As you might be able to tell, I haven't used Painted Purple yet, except for this swatch! I found it was a bit patchy upon application and harder to blend. I researched this and it seems to be a common issue with this colour. That aside, I think it's still super pretty.

Bad to the Bronze has been used a lot since I bought it a few weeks ago, and the staying power is incredible.   I wore it to a festival (see my festival post) and it lasted 12+ hours on a hot day with lots of dancing. When I got home late that night, I was amazed to see that it had not smudged, creased or worn off at all. Winner!

I'm really glad I decided to join the crowd and purchase these. 
Do you have these colours?

Festival Makeup

On the weekend, I attended the Groovin the Moo festival in Maitland. Despite having my friend's car break down on the way and being stranded after the NRMA told us the car needed to be towed, we were rescued and managed to get a lift there and had a fantastic day! 

Anyway, I thought I would do a post about what makeup I wore that actually lasted the whole 14 something hours I was out for.

 MUA Heaven & Earth

Arbonne Blush in Blossom

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Lovesick

Maybelline Master Precise liquid liner

Too Faced Shadow Insurance Eye Primer

Rimmel mascara

Maybelline Color Tatoo in Bad to the Bronze

Arbonne blush in Blossom

The blush lasted ALL day even though I didn't use a primer! I was so surprised when I came home to see I still had a gorgeous peachy glow.

 MUA Heaven & Earth shade 5

I used shade 5 to deepen the crease of my eye and add a bit of dimension. It held up all day.

Maybelline New York Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze

This little baby is a true gem! 

L-R

Revlon balm stain in Lovesick

Arbonne blush in Blossom

MUA Heaven & Earth shade 5

MNY Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze

The balm stain lasted about 6 hours, so about half the day. When I got home, there was a faint hint of pink left so I think that's pretty impressive!

What are your favourite long wearing products?

Neutrogena Sample Gift Pack

I was so pleased yesterday when my sample gift pack from Neutrogena arrived. It was a cute little gift box, packed full of goodies! I thought I would share this lovely offer with my wonderful readers.

To get your gift pack, go to this link
https://apps.facebook.com/neutrogenagifts/

The adorable gift box

Deep Clean Scrub 15mL

Hand Cream 14g

Oil Free Acne Wash 14mL

Oil Free Acne Wash 14mL

Sunscreen lotion 14mL

I think it's safe to say that this is a very generous sample box. But wait, there's more...

Woolworths vouchers for Neutrogena products

I haven't had the chance to use these yet, I wanted to post first and get the word out. Will you be claiming this sample?

April Empties

I hope you've all had a great month :) mine has been pretty good!

Now on to the empties...

What is that phantom bottle on the left, you say? It's a product that I trialled for beauty heaven in a secret trial where we didn't know what the product was until the trial ended. It's actually Clearasil Vitamins & Extract wash mask

Biore daily facial scrub

1000 hour lashes in Daring Black

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Rimmel I Love Lasting Finish in Disco Ball

Clearasil Vitamins & Extract Wash Mask (see more at http://www.clearasil.co.uk/vitamins-and-extracts-wash-mask)

I'm not even sure if this has been released in Australia, or if it ever will be. Either way, I liked it. It smelt nice and did a good job of cleansing/removing makeup without being too harsh on my skin. I'd probably repurchase it in the future, but I have a lot of skincare to get through first.

Biore daily facial scrub

It's not empty, but I don't like it anymore. It smells weird, it's a bit too harsh and it doesn't do much for my skin. Not repurchasing.

1000 hour lashes

I loved these! I got so many compliments whenever I wore them. But I've had them for over 6 months so its time to chuck them. I may repurchase in the future, but I've just ordered a few Ardell lashes from ebay so I'm pretty excited about receiving those :)

Seche Vite

Same problem as always, the last third becomes too thick to use. I've repurchased two bottles.

Rimmel Disco Ball

I'm not happy about this at all...a few months ago, this polish was fine. The other day, I went to use it and realised there was only half left in the bottle and the rest was all dried up. I have no idea why, but it's unusable. I've only had this polish since late last year, and the lid was screwed on tightly. I don't want to repurchase because if this happens again, then it's simply a waste of money.

Why do you do this to me?! I've turned the bottles upside down and they're so thick they don't even move. Sigh.

 

What have you used up this month?

Current favourites

So while I'm sick in bed with an infection, I thought I'd share some of my current favourites with you. I don't do a monthly favourites post because when I like something, I tend to use it for several months. So this is just a one-off post :)

Top left - Sleek blush in Honour

Top middle - Revlon Colorstay Combo/oily skin Natural Tan

Rimmel x10 volume flash mascara

Covergirl clump crusher masscara

Middle: Arbonne lipstick in Jam

Maybelline NY Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze

Bottom: Nivea lip butter in caramel cream

Ulta3 'New Years Eve'

OPI 'Pink Yet Lavender' 

Sally Hansen Gem Crush 'Be-Jeweled'

Bad to the Bronze swatched

I am so late to the Color Tattoo party! I wrote them off as another hype and wasn't too interested. Also I have far too many eyeshadows anyway. But after seeing some beautiful swatches, I was so intrigued that I decided to try out this one. It cost me $10 from eBay. I absolutely love it, the formula is so creamy and glides on well. The colour is really pretty, perfect for someone conservative like me. It's also long lasting. 

Sleek blush in Honour

I've had this for a while, but haven't used it too much. I've just recently started using it and I love this colour and how nice it looks on my skin. 

L-R

Arbonne lipstick in Jam

Sleek blush in Honour

MNY Color Tattoo Bad to the Bronze

Jam is a gorgeous lipstick. I wore it to a friend's party recently and it went so well with the black dress I was wearing. It stands out in photos and it seemed to have good staying power, which is great considering I was enjoying cocktails that night ;)

Revlon Colorstay

This foundation tricks me into thinking my skin is really good, then I wash it off and realise my skin isn't THAT good. That's exactly what you want a foundation to do, right? It looks very natural, has excellent coverage and lasts all day (and some). It can be a bit difficult to get off, so I'd suggest using an oil-based remover. Also, why does it smell like paint?! The smell is so strong. None of my other foundations smell this horrible...

Covergirl Clump Crusher mascara

It gives great length, separates lashes and does not clump at all. 

Rimmel Mascara

This is similar to clump crusher, but it has a wetter formula so I feel like this gives my lashes extra thickness. I picked this up on sale and I'm really glad I did.

Nivea lip butter 

I love Nivea products and this one is no different. It smells like caramel popcorn :) 

and as for the nailpolishes...they're all glittery! I'm going through a huge glitter obsession at the moment. I think it's a great way to brighten up a mani and not have to spend loads of time doing so. I do love nail art, but I am so busy these days that I'm finding it hard to do exciting things with my nails. 

Do you like any of these products too? What are you currently loving?