5 Beauty Products You Didn't Know You Needed

As I'm sure you can tell from the title, I thought I'd give a little run down on the top 5 beauty products that you didn't know you needed. Of course plenty of bloggers have put these kind of lists out there but why not add to the already long list and give you my own little insight.

Micellar Water

This stuff is absolutely amazing! I'm sure you have all heard of Micellar water by now, and a lot of brands are releasing this. It removes makeup effortlessly - everyone needs it. I use the Garnier version and find that it works really well and it's affordable. However, I have heard good things about the Bioderma one as well which I definitely think I will try out sometime, although it is a little pricey.

October Fabs&Drabs

Fab    -    short for fabulous, generally used by teens or young women who are part of the 'in' crowd
Drab    -   totally useless and boring, describing anything lifeless and boring

That basically addresses the gist of this post... October favourites, and the not so favourites - the fabs and drabs! There isn't really much of list but at least there is a few things I can tell you all about.

Firstly, I will start with my absolute favourite product this month and something I need to repurchase soon. The Original  Source Vanilla and Raspberry shower gel! Oh my god. If you have ever been into a Peter Alexander store, this pretty much smells like the store does as soon as you walk in. So perfect and sweet! It's also a vegan product which is pretty dandy. 

This mascara is my go to mascara now. I love it! Maybelline the Falsies BigEye mascara, it has two little spoolie things and the formula is quite volumising. The smaller spoolie is perfect for lower lashes and, obviously, the larger one for the top lashes. The smaller wand is perfect for separating top lashes as well.

  

The nude basics palette from Models Prefer has lasted me such a long time! Given, I mainly use the lightest colour as a highlight and the darker matte brown to line the bottom lash line - but the colours are really great! They are also long lasting and don't crease which is also a mega plus.

NYX matte lipstick - where have you been this entire time?! I am not a fan of lipsticks but this one has been my absolute favourite and I think if I had bought this ages ago, I would be a bit lipstick junkie. Its the MLS06 Summer Breeze lipstick, and the colour is amazingly pink! Almost like a barbie pink? Anyways, amazing colour and lasts a long time too.



 Now, I have a few items that aren't beauty related but that's no big deal, I have been loving these things a lot this past month, or two. Firstly, Yankee candles. I found a place on the Coast that actually sells them and I need to buy more. I currently have the vanilla cupcake one and it smells so good! I find myself burning it all the time, I am obsessed! My last favourite for this month are these beautifully written books by Beau Taplin (beautaplin.com). I finished Hunting Season and The Wild Heart the other week before the latest book, Playing with Fire was released and they are just perfect. I strongly recommend these books.

 I only have one product that I didn't like this month - the Protane Moroccan Argan Oil Hydrating shampoo. I bought it for, like, $4 at Aldi, thinking the moroccan argan oil would do wonders for my hair. Well, was I wrong. Even though it's a hydrating shampoo - it dried out my hair? A little confusing, right? So basically, it made my hair feel horrible, I only used it maybe once or twice before I got rid of it. Although, the conditioner that came with it is really good, and my hairdresser said my hair has been really good since I used it, so I'm not really sure what is going on there.

Do you suggest any products that I can try out this month that could possibly be added to the next fabs&drabs list?

monnii
xx

Brush Day

Well, the day has come for a new post! Going to start getting back into posting once a week, hopefully, so let's start off with how I clean my brushes. This is probably pretty boring/basic to some of you, but I have a super awesome product that makes my brushes look new after I clean them.

To start off, I run the brush under warm-ish water and try to squeeze out as much product as possible. Usually, I just swirl the bristles in my palm for a bit before I add any soap or shampoo to the brush.

Before I found the 'miracle product' I was using just any ordinary baby shampoo because it is gentle and won't damage bristles, but now I use the Puff and Sponge cleaner from Daiso. I add the smallest amount of the detergent to the brush and swirl the bristles, again, in my palm until the water runs clean. Same goes for my beauty blender/sponge, except I add the detergent directly onto the dirty areas and squeeze the product out.

Once the water runs clean, I squeeze out any extra water and then sit the brush somewhere so that the handle is tilted upwards and the bristles face down so that any water that's left behind doesn't soak into where the bristles are glued to the handle.


Incase anyone is wondering, I have a few different brushes, the ones that are gold are Jessup brushes, the pink/orange/purple handled brushes are Real Techniques and the rest are just brushes that came in my brush roll from school.

monnii
xx

Everyday Skincare Routine

I have come to the conclusion that I am horrible at sticking to a schedule thus resulting in a late post, sorry! I thought I would show you guys my 'skincare routine' although my skin isn't really at its best lately hopefully sticking to this regime will get it back on track. If you want to know what products I've been using (I will try and add links where I can) and loving then keep reading (:

Let me begin by letting you know the products that I have been using (L to R): Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, Dove Protective Moisturising Lotion, Bioré Pore Cleansing Scrub, Bioré Deep Pore Charcoal Cleanser and Manicare face brush. I've only recently purchased the Micellar cleansing water and the charcoal cleanser - but so far they are very good products. The only downside is that the cleansing water stings my eyes so I recommend that you don't use it to remove eye makeup, however, it takes all the makeup off my face with ease every time.

Morning Skincare

During the morning I usually start out using a cleanser.
The charcoal cleanser has been pretty good at cleaning
my skin and leaves my face feeling quite smooth. I love this
product because whilst it's on your face it has a cooling, tingly
feeling that just feels really nice in the morning. Then every 3-4 days I use the face brush to just buff my face with the cleanser. Although the brush is gently enough for everyday use I refer to use it once or twice a week because I scrub at night.

Nighttime Skincare
Usually before I wash my face at night I use the micellar cleansing water to get off any makeup - avoiding the eyes - or use face wipes. Because I've been wearing makeup during the day I like to use a scrub at the end of the day just to exfoliate and buff my skin clean. It's an oil-free scrub which is great because my skin is oily/combo and it doesn't dry out my face either.

After Cleansing/Scrub
Both in the morning and at night I use the cleansing water as a toner substitute and just to soothe my skin. I let it air dry while I do my makeup or brush my teeth and once it's dry I use the Dove moisturiser just to, obviously, add moisture to my skin. Like I said previously, my skin doesn't dry out that much but because it is Winter in Australia I like to use it as an added barrier before I put on my makeup. At night, I don't fully rub it in, I just let it soak into my skin because I usually have a really hot shower at night which draws out a bit of moisture from my skin.



So that is my everyday skincare regime at the moment, I don't think it will change that much as the year progresses because I have been using most of these products for quite a while now and I really like them.
I know the charcoal cleanser is pretty new so if any of you
have used it, let me know what you think of it.

monnii
xx

Come Play With Me: Wing It Out

My dear friend, Monique, asked me choose the next theme for the Come Play With Me series. I thought long and hard about this one as I didn’t really want to use some generic, cliché challenge. I finally decided to settle on the Wing It Out theme, so basically creating your best or go-to winged eyeliner look. I will be honest, I suck at winging out eyeliner and don't wear it often but I thought everyone else might like to join in and, I may as well practice and push the limits.

I firstly applied my everyday natural look, which you can find here, and added a bit of a nude/natural colour to my eyes on top of an eyelid primer from Elf. The colours I used were from the W7 Naked Nudes palette which I bought from Chemist Warehouse for $5! Also, obviously there is only 4 colours but I needed more natural toned eyeshadows so it was a bargain. The pigment is mediocre, and you have to really layer the colour to get a good build up. I applied this with my Real Techniques Domed Shadow Brush. 

The eyeliner I used to create my winged look is the Gorgeous Cosmetics Felt tip Liner, which is honestly the best product I have ever purchased. It makes the neatest line and is a product that is perfect for beginners, like myself. To finish it off I used the Plush mascara from Maybelline, an Essence Kajal white eyeliner on my lower waterline and filled in my eyebrows using the Elf eyebrow kit - which is also a product that I swear by! (After a second look at my eyebrows I think that the colour may be a bit too dark, what do you think?

I'm sorry that this weeks post is super late, but everything will be back to normal schedule on Monday, however, I might have to change the day in a few weeks because Monday is now a uni day and a tafe night so we will see how it goes.

monnii
xx