The Review || Napoleon Perdis Love Birds Collection

I was having a casual day wandering around David Jones when I first laid eyes on this gorgeous bag from Napoleon Perdis. I had to have it, just because it looked so pretty. I didn't care if the products were gross, the beauty of the bag justified the price. It's been released as a Valentine’s Day Gift Set, I know I'm a little late to write this post...

The art on the front of the bag has been done by an Australian artist, Felicia Aroney, of two Australian Fairy Wrens. It's too nice to use as a makeup bag and I would never, ever fill it! I use it as a sort of "essentials bag" as I mentioned in my “what’s in my handbag post”. It's filled with makeup bits, mints, hand sanitiser, and so on.

Included in the set is a nail polish and a lip gloss, both named White Swan. Strangely enough, the colours of the two products are quite different. The lipgloss is one which is AH-MA-ZING, in the tube it looks like a clear, pearly gloss, but it’s got a fantastic purple glow to it, very similar to the YSL Glossy Stain in Naughty Mauve. It’s a tad on the sticky side, and the lasting power isn't great, but what do you expect from a lipgloss? The nail polish is also a favourite, the colour is the most perfect lilac, really opaque and shiny. Someone asked me if my nails were shellac whilst wearing this. I've rocked it on my fingers and not suffered too badly with chipping, enough to earn a tick from me.

If you spot this set floating around on shelves anywhere, swatch the lip gloss, grab a bag and march over to the till. Or pop it into your shopping cart if you are browsing online. You won’t be disappointed. 

X Suzy 

The Review || Organic Care Shampoo and Conditioner

I've gone through quite a few conditioners in my time. I had favourites from Pantene and Sunsilk but it wasn't until last year when I realised all the benefits from using natural products and the harm that chemicals can do. Since then I've tried both of the Sukin conditioners and I was unimpressed. I stumbled upon the Organic Care Dry Nourish Conditioner when my sister tried the conditioner, didn't like it and let me have a try. It was instant love. The ingredients are fantastic, but there are some chemicals in there. However these are derived naturally from plants, which make them friendlier. The result is beautifully conditioned hair which is deeply nourished form natural oils, not coated in silicones. If you're used to the feeling of a silicone heavy conditioner, this may take a little bit of getting used to.

After going through a couple of bottles of the conditioner, I thought I might give the Organic Care Conditioning Shampoo Anti-Dandruff a try. It's much the same as the conditioner in the sense that it's not 100% natural as it makes out, but the chemicals are sourced from natural plants. It foams up really well, giving my hair a good clean. My dandruff is also kept at bay when I use this.

These truly are wonderful hair care products, the balance between natural and chemicals is just right. I get mine from Coles, each for $3.50. Great price, great quality.

Have you tried any of the Organic Care range?

X Suzy     

The Review || Real Techniques Brushes

With a bit of my Christmas money, I picked up some of the Real Techniques Brushes. Extremely hyped up in the beauty blogging world, yet they laid untouched to me in the isles of Priceline. I grabbed the Setting brush, the Stippling brush and the Duo-Fibre limited edition collection containing the Duo-Fibre face brush, contour and eye brushes. On the whole I love them, the quality is so much better than the other brushes I've tried.

My favourite brush of the bunch is the Setting Brush. Although its intended use is for precision powdering, I like to use it for concealer, particularly under the eyes and around the nose. It does a fantastic job at blending out my MAC Studio Finish concealer to give a very natural yet flawless finish. It also comes in handy when applying mineral foundation around the nose and under the eyes.

The Duo-Fibre face brush is also very good, I've been using it for both translucent powder and mineral foundation. When used for translucent powder it deposits the perfect amount, nothing over cakey or chalky. With mineral foundation, it's a dream to use. This gives my skin such a flawless look, a concealed and even skin tone which looks natural.

The stippling brush is also very good at doing its job of blending out liquid foundations. I'm having a moment with my BareMinerals Foundation Powder, so this brush hasn't had as much use as you would expect. The finish however is just as I would hope, proving medium coverage with a BB Cream or a Tinted Moisturiser.

The Duo Fibre Eye Brush and the Duo Fibre Contour brush are the least used in my collection, mostly because I'm not an everyday wearer of eyeshadow or contour. However, these brushes do their job, blending out eyeshadow and contour nicely. I'm also known to use the contour brush for blush and it does a decent job at that.

It is no question, I love these brushes. The outstanding quality of these brushes apply the product so well, creating flawless makeup. I only have one minor problem: they have a "free standing base" which means that they can stand up on their own, but they can't all fit inside my brush holders. I think I can handle that though. Although I'm pretty well sorted with brushes for a while now, I've got my eye on the fine liner brush which will no doubt make its way into my collection shortly.

Have you tried any of these brushes?

X Suzy

The Review || BareMinerals Original SPF 15 Foundation

Ahhh BareMinerals. Quite possibly the most well known natural brand of makeup, and claims to be the world's number one foundation. Honestly, that's a bit of a big claim to make, this isn't perfect by any means. However, this has become my choice of foundation during the summer where I need a little bit of coverage and a little bit of SPF. Do take note that if I were to be spending more time outside in direct sunlight, I would layer this over a sunscreen. 

I wear the shade Fairly Light N10, and it is a perfect colour match for me. I LOVE the texture, so lightweight and, well, dry. This is my first powder type of foundation, and I love this formula. I would say the coverage is light but can easily be built up to a medium coverage. It's a tiny bit heaver than my usual tinted moisturiser preference, but I still need to conceal underneath. The only negatives is that  it dose settle into my pores after a while and when applied it can look a tad patchy if you have too much product on the brush. I prefer using a powder brush rather than a kabuki brush because it deposits less product. The packaging is also great, it has a little sliding lid which can be closed so that the powder doesn't go everywhere when its not in use. 

All in all, this is the perfect foundation for everyday activities and running errands on the weekend. It also works well over the top of a sunscreen, making it more useful for those days at the beach when you feel as though you need a bit more coverage. I brought mine at Mecca Cosmetica for $35 AUD. 

Have you tried this foundation? 

X Suzy   

The Review || MAC Prep and Prime BB Cream

My go to base of late is this the MAC Prep and Prime BB Cream in Light Plus. It's the perfect all-in-one for rushed winter mornings. It's worth mentioning that I put a full skincare regime in underneath my makeup - regardless. I don't believe that one cream can do everything including moisturising, blemish zapping, protecting, brightening and concealing. Sure, it may help with your skin ailments, but it should never, ever replace a good skincare routine. Strangely enough, this BB cream claims to do none of those things. It does however claim to be foundation, a primer and have SPF protection, all of which I can vouch for. This makes it the perfect base for winter in the mornings, if it were summer or I was spending more time in the sun, I would opt for an actual sunscreen. 

The coverage of this BB cream is quite heavy for a BB cream, more like a light weight foundation. I find that this is so perfect for me, it covers up all my spots, but my skin and freckles still shine through. The texture is quite thick however, which led to some problems with the application in the first place. When I first brought it, I was using just my fingers to apply it, and this was horrible! It went all patchy and clung to my eyebrows (anyone else had this problem?). Then I started experimenting with my brushes, and I have found that it's best to use a buffing brush or a kabuki brush to apply it. I tend to need a little bit more coverage on my pimples, and so I use the MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NW20 on top. Also, I powder my T-Zone with the Jurlique Citrus Silk Finishing Powder. Bronze up the cheeks and add some mascara and I'm good to go.  

The Review || Jurlique Herbal Recovery Advanced Serum

As promised, here is my review for the Jurlique Herbal Recovery Advanced Serum. Prepare to board the rave train. I am obsessed with this product. Actually, that's an understatement, but I can't fathom a more appropriate word to use. It has recently been reformulated, and its predecessor, the Herbal Recovery Gel has been discontinued. What am I doing with an anti-aging serum I here you ask? Well, I think Jurlique have marketed this completely wrong, instead it should be called overall skin miracle serum rather than a youth defence serum!

The main difference in this re-formulation is the addition of what Jurlique calls “Naturadiance PB18+” this is a combination of 15 botanical extracts + three breakthrough ingredients. The ingredient which gets me interested is the Niacinamide (not natural at all), which is an essential ingredient for anti-aging and clearing acne. Jurlique ran some trials, and the result was 100% of women saw a difference in their skin. At first I was sceptical but…

Ermigawd this works. I have noticed such a difference in my skin with this serum. I had one line across my forehead that was worrying me just the tiniest bit, and it's gone now. You know those small pimples that just sit under the skin without a head? Almost gone. I brought this about 5 weeks ago and my skin has never looked better! I still get the odd pimple, but they are about half the size and are popping up not as often. I need less makeup, some days I can get away with just a mineral powder. My skin is so moisturised and clear, this is an absolute staple in both my morning and evening skincare routines. A HOLY GRAIL PRODUCT. 

The HRAS retails for $75 in Australia for 30mls, there is also a larger size of your interested. I had a store credit of $30 so I used that to buy it, I probably wouldn't have brought it at the full price to start with, but I know I will be repurchasing this for many years to come. It can be found at Myers, David Jones and the Jurlique Stores (duhhh) and selected pharmacies nationwide. Visit a Jurlique store for a sample, they are more than happy to give them out - you'll thank me later!

X Suzy