Illamasqua you are my hero

I find that living here in Australia can screw you over in terms of product prices. Everything seems to be double the price of the rest of the world. This ranges from clothing, make-up, food, take your pick. I think it comes down to the per capita ratio (we have a small population), lack of choice (we can’t just go to another country) and taxes both importing and exporting.

However one amazing make-up brand has taken a stand and dropped the price of their products up to 50% to match the rest of the world. Illamasqua!

Illamasqua have listened to the Australian population and take things into their own hands given the Australian consumer the option to buy nice reasonably priced beauty/make-up products.

Now I already had a bit of a love affair going on with Illamasqua and I generally recommended their products to people who were looking for a new foundation or eye shadow because they are truly great products, but now I feel even more inclined to.

(Illamasqua's new collection is out now! Check it out!)

I also think this is a very smart move on Illamasqua’s part. They have the love of the Australian consumer. If I’m looking for a new make-up product I’m going to go there 1^st because of the fact that they seem like they actually care. Plus their products are amaze balls.

So if you are in the market for some make-up, stop off at Illamasqua and support them on their crusade to give a fair deal to the Australian Consumer.

Nat xoxo

What to take on Holidays...

So next week I'm going to Europe! Which I'm oh so excited about. The hard thing about going overseas is decided what to pack, or more like what not to pack since I know I'll be after getting a few things.

So after much decision making this is what I've decided to take away...

1. Benefit's POREfessional

2. Youngblood's Rice Powder

3. Benefit's Boi-ing

4. Nars' Laguna Bronzer

5. MAC's Mocha Blush

6. MAC's Leopard Luxe Eye Shadow

7. Illamasqua's Neutral Palette Eye Shadow

8. Benefit's BAD Gal Mascara

9. Nars' Bourbon Street Eyeliner

10. Stila Lionfish Eye Liner

1. Environ AVST Cleansing Lotion (In a smaller container)

2. Environ AVST Moisturising Toner (In a smaller container)

3. Environ AVST 1 Moisturiser

4. Alpha-H Liquid Gold

5. Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Eye Cream 

6. Dermalogica Daily Resurfacer

7. Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Lightweight Sunscreen
8. SK-II's FTE

I'm planning on buying a few things while I'm away, so I'm trying not to take too much with me. Just the basics which I use on a daily basis. 

Nat xoxo

Product Review: Illamasqua Neutral Palette

My next eye shadow post is of a great eye palette that I absolutely love. I know last week was supposed to be eye shadow review week, but I didn’t get a chance to post this one.

I first must confess that it isn’t actually mine, but my mums. She lent it too me while she’s on holidays and I’ve been making very good use of it.

Introducing Illamasqua’s Neutral Palette. This is a very Illamasqua neutral palette. So as well as having brown and cream, there’s black and a very striking gold. 

This palette is great. I really love it. All the colors are lovely and work great together. They are also great staples for your make-up bag as well.

The cream is a great neutral that you can use as a base. The brown is a great matte color. I tend to use this on top of the gold one to add some more depth. The gold is really lovely. It’s not just a straight gold, but has a darker smoky look to it. The black is just a great black shade. I use it as a liner as well.

All in all I would have to say that it’s a great palette to have in your make-up bag and you really can’t go wrong with Illamasqua.

Nat xoxo

Met Gala Review - I love their lips!

I thought I would do a different style of review from the Met Gala. I love the Met Gala because the dress and couture is always beautiful and amazing. But in stead of doing a regular post on what I liked I thought I would break my favorite 2 trends from the Gala: the deep berry lip and the nude lip. They seemed to be the big make-up trends of the red carpet at the Met.


The Berry Lip up first. 3 lovely ladies were rocking the Berry Lip in a fabulous way.

Camilla Belle in Ralph Lauren rocking an amazing Berry Lip

Lana Del Rey in Joseph Altuzarra rocking both a berry lip and a cape! How awesome.

Kate Bosworth in Prada rocking an amazing fringe dress and a Berry lip

My favorite Berry Lip sticks are...

Nars in Fast Ride

Illamasqua in Growl

Nars in Russian Doll

Illamasqua in Drench

Now on to the lovely Nude Lip ladies. Equally as glamourous.

Rihanna in Tom Ford with a very natural Nude Lip

Alexa Chung in Marc Jacobs also rocking a Nude Lip. I personally love the business shirt. 

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Burberry also going ah la natural with a Nude Lip.

Carey Mulligan in Prada looks oh so glamorous and the Nude Lip looks amazing.

My favorite Nude Lipsticks are...

Nars in Belle de Jour

Illamasqua in Sonnet

Amazing dresses and amazing lip colors = pure perfection.

Nat xoxo

Colour Me Happy!

I’m not afraid of colour. Anyone that knows me knows that I don’t mind rocking a bright shirt or some pattern clashing jacket and jeans. And don’t even get me started on my shoe and handbag collection. But one place I don’t generally add heaps of colour is in my make-up.

When it comes to cheek colour I generally keep it fairly “natural” looking, most of the time I don’t rock a lip colour and if I do it’s generally red or pink and most of my eye shadows are naturals/ earth tones whether it be matte, metallic or dark.

However I do inject some colour in with eyeliners. I find eyeliners are such a great way to jazz up (yep I just said jazz up) a make-up look. I also like that you can get really playful colours and because you only apply them on a small portion of your face they aren’t too over powering.

So my collection consists of…

Mirenesse’s Tight Liner in Sapphire Blue. 

Illamasqua’s Fine Pencil in Classic and Uncanny. Illamasqua’s Precision Ink in Alchemy. 

Nutrimetics’ ShimmerEyes in Neon andTwilight. 

Nars’ Larger Than Life in Bourbon Street. 

MAC’s Eye Kohl in Phone Number. MAC’s Tchnakohl Liner in Purple Dash. 

Stila’s Smudge Stick in Lionfish.

My favorites are Stila’s Smudge Stick and Nars’ Larger Than Life. They not only have great colours but they also apply really well and last a really long time (I’m talking these babies are still on after a Bikram session). I’m going to Europe later this year so I will defiantly be getting these in a few more colours!

Nat xoxo

Sephora Beauty Haul

I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking “you didn’t go overseas Nat”. And yes you would be correct, but my parents did and I gave them a shopping list!

Now I would like to point out that I did give this shopping list to my parents before the ABBW. With that said I most likely would have gotten everything anyway because, well because I wanted them: that simple really.

What features in my lovely haul you ask! Check out the list:

1. Benefit’s Cha Cha Tint 2. Benefit’s Finding Mr Bright 3. Benefit’s POREfessional 4. Stila’s Smudge Stick Waterproof Eye Liner in Lionfish 5. Nars’ Single Eyeshadow in Fez 6. Nars’ Duo Eyeshadow in Cordura 7. Nars’ Lager Than Life Long-wear Eyeliner in Burbon Street 8. Illamasqua Nail Varnish in Scorn and Vice 10. Illamasqua Powder Blush in Lover 11. Nars’ Bronzer in Laguna 12. Boscia’s Pore Purifying Black Strips 13. Boscia’s Luminizing Black Mask 14. Boscia’s No Pores No Shine T-Zone Treatment

Also because Mum spent so much I also got this awesome little sample pack from Sephora. I know just what I need EVEN MORE beauty products.

Well all I know is I won’t need to buy anything beauty for a really really long time

Nat xoxo 

IMATS - Finally!

As I have mentioned numerous times, I attended the IMATS as part of the ABBW. I was really excited about the IMATS because as being part of the ABBW I had the opportunity to e-mail interview Elessa Jade, Donna Mee and Napoleon Perdis prior to the IMATS event.

So by the time the event came around I was pretty excited and I’m very happy to report that the event was excellent. The overload of beauty stands and information was overwhelming, but in a very good way. I was able to find out information on some really great brands that I hadn’t heard of or tired before. I could really write an endless post about everything from the IMAST, but I have summarised it down to my highlights. 

Illamasqua were selling products for about 1/3 of the price that they are normally. I haven’t tried Illamasqua products before but I have heard friends, blogger and make-up artists all mention how great their products are. So I thought while they were so cheap I would take advantage and grab a few for myself.

I picked myself up a nail varnish in Propaganda (Love the name! LOVE!), 2x fine eye pencils in Classic and Uncanny and a precision ink gel liner in Alchemy. So far I have tried the fine liner in Uncanny and the precision ink in Alchemy and love them!

I’ve heard some really great things about Inglot, who also had a stand at the IMATS. I have wanted to try Inglot’s Freedom Palattes for a while, so I picked myself up a really awesome palette with 4 x rainbow palettes.

I know I could have gone all out and got some crazy colors, but I wear neutral colors all the time so I thought it would be the best way to try them out.

Not to brag, but since we were part of the ABBW we did get some special treatment. We were offered a free lucky drip gift from Serge Louis Alvarez. SLA is a make-up company from France and will be launching a new bio collection soon. I spoke to one of the brand mangers about the range sounds really nice.

On to the lucky dip!

I got a blush mirage in Peach. This product is actually really cool. It looks like a lipgloss and goes on like a powder. Once blended in it turned into a cream-like blush. It’s pretty impressive.

We also had some lovely VIP treatment from Royal & Langickel. They booked a private area for all the ABBWers where we could relax, have some nibbles and also get our make-up touched up and nails done. If that wasn’t enough they also gave us a lovely brush kit.

This actually came at a really good time because my brushes are starting to look a bit gross and I’ve been thinking about investing in some more.

While I was at the IMATS I thought it would be good to see one of the speakers that they had. And I saw Elessa Jade do a make-up demonstration.

I was also able to do a short interview with Elessa Jade after, and I have to say she is so lovely. She is really friendly and also really easy to talk to (which makes interviewing a lot easier! Trust me!).

Elessa Jade said that when she started her beauty site pursebuzz.com she didn’t start a blog, but it ended up getting labelled that way. She also said that it was important to find your niche when blogging a stick to it. Moving on to make-up, Elessa said that due to the brights and prints that Australian women wear, they tend to stick to “natural” make-up looks. A good way to introduce colour into your make-up routine is through eyeliner. It’s a very subtle way to add colour without being over the top.

I would also like to point out that Elessa was wearing Jeffery Campbell shoes.

And that was my IMATS experience!

Nat xoxo 

Trend Alert: Skittle Nails

So if you read my blog yesterday about my outfit on Sunday, you would have seen that I mentioned Skittle Nails.


I first head about this concept at the International Beauty and Spa Expo when I was talking to some lovely make-up and nail artists. Basically the idea is that your nails don't match. So you can have each nail a different color or a few different colors on each hand.

The main point of it is to have your nails clashing. What Mandy (who I spoke to specifically about Skittle Nails) said is that it's all about mixing different types of colors and textures. For example having brights with pastels or mixing matte and glitter finishes. So think glittery black with a matte hot pink or pastel purple with a deep green.

Here is a re-cap of my attempt at skittle nails!

I've still got my Minx Gold color on my pinkie (my bf calls it my "grill" lol) and I'm also wearing Essie's Sand Tropez and OPI's Bastille My Heart.

Mandy did say that the best nail polish brands are Illamasqua and OPI, although her favorite is Illamasqua because they do amazing textures.

So what do you think?

Are you a fan of the skittle nails?

Nat xoxo