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

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

IMATS

In a month I have the pleasure of participating in the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (or ABBW). For those of you that don’t know, the ABBW is a weekend long event for about 80 beauty bloggers here in Australia. Since numbers are limited I really do feel special lucky to get to attend. I know just what my ego needs!

Anyway it’s going to be an amazing event with some amazing beauty bloggers!

Part of the event is going to the IMATS or International Make-Up Artist Trade Show. This is going to be fab because it’s pretty much a whole bunch of make-up crazy people and brands in the one place together. As well as being stalls from a number of different companies, there are also keynote speakers, a make-up museum and even has its own after party.

Some of the speakers are amazing. Napoleon Perdis, Donna Mee, Rae Morris and Nicole Thompson will keynote speakers. How awesome it that??

I’m personally really excited by some of the brands/companies that will be there! I will definitely be checking out:

MAC

Inglot

Napoleon Perdis

Naked Cosmetics

Smiink

No doubt I will find a lot more things to entertain myself once I’m there as well. Just want to make a special call out for Smiink. They do fake eyelashes. I have used them before and they are awesome! And they wear really well.

The IMATS is an international event that is held in Sydney, Toronto, London, Vancouver, New York and LA. Lucky Sydney is part of it all! Check out the images for each city:

Sydney

Toronto

Vancouver

New York

London

LA

How amazing are they?? Personally I love New York and Vancouver. Really such amazing work. If these images are anything to go by it really is going to be an amazing event!

The IMATS will be held on the 24^th & 25^th of September and for a 1 day pass it is $40 and for a 2 day pass $65. Personally for an extra $25 I think it’s totally worth going both days since there is going to be so much to see and do.

Hope to see you all there!

Nat xoxo

Get The Look: Jean Paul Gaultier’s Haute Couture collection make-up look

My 3^rd and final make-up look is Jean Paul Gaultier’s Haute Couture collection look.

Nothing about this look is subtle. The black eyeliner and the striking red lips aren’t for the light-hearted, especially when worn together. Normally this might be a bit much, but the eye make-up is purely winged eyeliner at the top and outlined at the bottom with mascara, so the look isn’t too over powering. My eyeliner recommendations for this winged liner look are:

Bobbi Brow's Gel Liner

Shu Uemura's Gel Liner

Now on to the red lips! I really do love a red lip and there are quite a few good options for getting this look. I have included my favorite lipsticks and lipglosses to create this look and they are:

MAC's Ruby Woo

MAC's Russian Red

Lipstick Queen's Big Bang in Energy. This is really a gloss but it's such a great colour and lasts for ages. So if you don't want to wear a lipstick it's a great option.

In my Chanel post I covered off mascara, so if you want to know my mascara picks, pop over there.

Well I hope you like my Haute Couture make-up run-downs! If you didn’t see Chanel or Valentino’s check them out J.

What do you think of Jean Paul Gaulter’s runway make-up look?

Do you like the winged liner and red lip look?

Nat xoxo

Get The Look: Chanel's Haute Couture collection make-up look

So last week I did a series of posts on the Paris Fall 2011 Haute Couture Collections. If you haven’t had a look yet, check out my posts for Chanel, Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior and Givenchy, or check out my summed up version.

As such I have decided to do a post on the make-up styles that were on display during Haute Couture collections. It’s a sort of how-to, but not. And for those of you who don’t understand my vagueness, what I mean is I will show the looks, talk about what is going on and make product recommendations on how to create the look yourself! (So a kind of how-to but not really)

Also for these looks I’m only looking at the eyes, cheeks and lips. If I went into foundation etc we could be here all night.  Also I have just finished typing out the full blog and it’s a bit long! So I’m going to break this up into 3 blogs for each look that I’m focusing on.

Let’s start with my 1^st look, Chanel!

So the Chanel look was all about the eyes! The black lace was a really interesting look (that I personally loved, but then it is Chanel so they could pretty much be wearing clown masks and I would love it lol), but I also liked that they did add a smoky eye underneath. It really made the eyes pop and really draw you in. What I also loved, once I noticed, is that it’s not a traditional smoky eye; they have used navy blue, I’m assuming to match the nail colors. It really ties the whole look in nicely together.

Now to get the look you could always just walk into the Chanel store and ask for all the colors they used in the runway show, buy them and call it a day. Or if you don’t have that much money, you could try using the following items! YAY!

I love a good make-up palette and there are some really good smoky eye ones other there. I recommend:

Benefit's Smokin' Eyes

Too Faced Smoky Eyes

The Benefit palette is the more traditional smoky eye look (plus it has a mini brow kit, LOVE), but the Too Faced palette does have a really nice navy blue so you can re-create the Chanel look.

 Also you can’t forget mascara! Pretty much all the looks require mascara, so I’m only going to feature them once. And the two I recommend are:

MAC's Opulash

Benefit's They're Real!

Now Benefit’s They’re Real hasn’t launched here yet, but if you HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW you can buy it from the benefit website and they ship to Australia! YAY!

Finally the eyeliner! Let’s face it no smoky eye look is complete without the eyeliner and these are my recommendations:

NARS's Eye Kohl

MAC's Eye Kohl

What do you think of Chanel’s smoky eye look?

Are you going to try the smoky eye look with navy blue?

Nat xoxo