SPOTLIGHT: 3rd Quarter 2016 Fave LOTD's, Berries & Purples...

In a rush to get these up as it's almost time to post the 2016 winners! I think that of all the lipstick shades I wear, berries and plums score me the most compliments - I guess it's a skin tone thing, plus the fact that I look far better in deep bold hues than pale pasty ones. Purples are also high on my list of loves, but I'm still in search mode for "the" one...

From memory this Max Factor Intense Plum stick has appeared in almost all my fave LOTD posts - there's something about it that grabs me every time, and I love it so much I have a spare in my drawer ♥ The Rimmel Starry Eyed has a tad more pink, and the formula is super comfortable too ♥...

L'Oreal makes such rich and moisturising lipsticks, and I think you'll agree this Persistant Plum is a deliciously pigmented fruit-fest ♥ The MNY Velvet Lip Pencils are still right up there on my hot lip products list - so easy to use, so comfortable, and this shade is so flattering ♥...

Plum Please is the MNY Color Blur shade that's most dear to my heart, and the semi-matte finish is perfect for my dry wrinkly lips ♥ And what collection would be complete without one of Rimmel/Kate's Lasting Finish lippies - #30 has lots of pink content, but I still classify it as a berry...

The NYX Intense Butter Gloss range is my most recent discovery, and I'm sold on the formula - glossy suits me way better than matte, and this Spice Cake is a stunner ♥ And how about this Husband Shopping by Chi Chi? Sooooo bright, and so much fun ♥...

For value it's hard to go past this W7 Neon Purple - I buy their Liptember Lipsticks every year (around $7), and this hue is divine ♥ And then of course we move onto the always awesome MBA Cosmetic purples - Grape Crush goes with quite a few pieces in my wardrobe ♥...

MBA Stargazer is another one that appears regularly on my list of top picks - just the right amount of pink and blue to make the prettiest purple. And I've included the Immortal Matte for those who are keen to try a purple, but maybe one that's not quite so glary. While I prefer the feel of their lipstick formulas, this is a truly gorgeous shade ♥...

Final set will be up this week - Oranges!

If you missed the others, here are the reds, corals mauves & pinks, nudes bricks & bronzes...

Take care of you,

kats xxx

SPOTLIGHT: 2nd Quarter Fave LOTD's, Berries & Purples...

I make no secret of the fact that I'm not a Winter fan. There's no denying it does have some benefits though, like covering up all my bumps under layers of clothing, boots (LOVE boots!), and of course I get to (officially) indulge my passion for deeper hued lip products. Berries, plums and purples probably suit my skin tone best of all, and consequently I have absolutely no intention of restricting my adoration of these rich shades to the chilly season - some of these are just so darn gorgeous, I'll be wearing them all year round ♥ Below are just a few of the ones that have earned a forever place in my heart over the last three months...

The Max Factor Intense Plum has an almost metallic finish - I love it so much I already have two spares tucked away. And Chi Chi Lady Bump will always be in my kit ♥

The Maybelline Color Blur pencils are (in my opinion) one of the best lip products that MNY has ever released (rave review HERE) - SO easy to work with, super comfortable formula, the perfect (not completely) matte finish for me, and the stain lasts for ages. This is the only repeater from the first quarter lineup. Adore the Milani Chilled Brandy - I only discovered how brilliant Milani lipsticks are earlier this year. Lovely and moist, amazing pigment, and the packaging is classy ♥ 

These two a very similar, but sufficiently different to warrant their individual purchases right? I think I have almost the entire set of MNY Velvet Lip Pencils (yet another rave review HERE) - cheap as chips, and I also use them as a lip liner for other lipsticks. The BOE Primped has just a wee bit more pink, and of course I need every possible shade variation ♥ These lippies are absolute bargains, must buy some more lol ♥...

Ahh Revlon - I'm not even sure they make these shades any more. From memory I picked these up from a bargain table in Myer - unusual from this brand as they don't make too many purpley ones. Actually I've just checked their website, and Violet Frenzy is still listed - yay! ♥

Here's Revlon Seduction again - I included this extra LOTD to show you what happens when I use a brighter and more pink lip liner underneath. It's quite sheer and I find it needs some support or else it turns out a bit blotchy - maybe that's why it's been discontinued? The Australis Velourlips formula is a tad drying for my wrinkled lips, but I find it so easy to apply, it lasts well, and this particular shade is a stunner ♥

And last but not least are the MBA purples - all their lipsticks are beautifully bold and sassy, moist, long lasting, and I reckon they do purples better than anyone else ♥...

I can't possibly pick a #1 fave out of this selection - love 'em all for different reasons!

The final installment in this series (Oranges) will be up before the end of next week - regrettably only six. I tend to wear orange more in Spring and Summer, and I haven't added very many to my collection of late, mainly because none of the ones I tested were up to scratch finish-wise - does anyone else struggle to find orange lippies that apply evenly?

Take care of you,

kats xxx

REVIEW: NYX Ombre Blushes...

Well there I was, placing an on-line order during the recent Priceline 40%-off-skincare sale, and I thought I'd just take a sneak peek at the NYX page, and then it happened - I spotted their hot pink/purple Ombre blush (Code Breaker) and I was a goner. Not many companies make blushes that are even close to this royal hue, so it landed in my cart in a heartbeat. Of course I also checked out the other colours in the range (there are six altogether), wanted them ALL, but restrained myself as I was already spending up pretty big on the skincare bargains. But as fate would have it I called into the store yesterday to eye-ball the new stand (Max Factor and Face of Australia were ditched to make room for its vastness), did a quick eeny-meeny-miney-mo, and nabbed the Mauve Me one as well...

My passion for sculpted blushes knows no bounds, yet I've held off buying any as I have a rather large collection of cheek cheerers already, but show me one in an ombre style and it's all over red rover. So here they are in all their gorgeousness...

I've swatched them on my pasty inner arm over a colourless primer - three finger swipes, top, middle and bottom as they appear in the pans...

Mauve Me has a slight shimmer content, and the pale pink top section is closer to a highlighter than a blush, but that will come in handy for the top of my cheekbones. It's also the more blendable of the two, invariably the case with shimmery pigments. Code Breaker is almost a matte - probably just as well as it's pretty potent lol! Adore them both for different reasons, but at the time of writing, Code Breaker has my heart ♥ Here's a pic of me wearing it...

Haven't taken a photo of my face adorned with Mauve Me yet, but you'll see it in a post very soon. For animal lovers, the back of the case says "Cruelty Free", but they're made in China. These stunners are $17.95, and next pay day you can bet I'll be picking up Soft Flush and Sweet Spring - my Priceline doesn't have testers, but I'm confident they'll be just as divine...

Take care of you,

kats xxx

P.S. A reminder to check out the great reads on Ingrid's amazing Monday Makeup Madness Link Up Party ♥♥♥

EOTD: Yellow, Black and...Purple!...

Wow how scary is it that February is almost half over? I'm way behind with my EOTD posts, in fact this is my first for the month, so I'm not going to waste any time blabbing, except to say that this was yet another experiment that didn't turn out quite as I'd planned lol...

Can you guess this was to match a black and yellow outfit? Actually I don't have very many yellows in my kit - they're mainly on the golden or orangey side of the fence, but I do have this sunny pineapple shade in the bhcosmetics Take Me To Brazil palette. It's a matte so I used the slightly shimmery Chi Chi Midas Touch Waterproof Gel Eyeliner as the base, and Eye of Horus Smokey Black Goddess Pencil underneath the matte black. When it came to the waterline, I immediately reached for the EOH black liner again, but then thought that choice was a bit ho-hum because that's what I ALWAYS do, so instead I took a chance on the Amethyst Jewel one. Hmmm - not sure that purple was the best option here, but I ran out of time to do anything about it, so purple waterline it was ha ha...

As you can see, after two weeks, my hair is still smooth and straight, and I'm STILL tripping that I don't have any frizz! For my face I applied Mirenesse Liquid Silk Foundation, and cheeks were Maybelline Master Glaze Blush Stick in Make a Mauve, with a sweep of Laura Geller Blush-N-Brighten in Berry...

Lips were one of my favourite plummy lippies, DB Cosmetics Longwear in Perfect Plum...

And here's a new little feature - I've started taking a quick and dirty pic of the jewellery of the day (JOTD), on a back drop of the top half of my outfit. These photos seem to be popular on my Instagram page, so I'll include them here in case anyone's interested ♥

Hope you're having a brilliant summer lovelies, and if you're on the other side of the world, that you're keeping warm ♥

Take care of you,
kats xxx

EOTD: MBA Cosmetics Pink Glitter...

If there's one thing I love, it's glittery eye looks - it's also something I find a considerable challenge to create (along with eyeliner on my top lid!). All that fiddling with glue and cleaning up fallout means it's reserved for special occasions only, so here's the look I put together for New Year's Eve 2015...

Turned out reasonably ok, although as most bloggers are painfully aware, it's exceptionally difficult to capture the mesmerising sparkle of glitter with the average camera. Still you can get an idea of how pretty it was in the both-eye pics below. I used MBA Cosmetics Pressed Glitter palette in the shade combo Fruit Punch. Gorgeous, GORGEOUS pinks and purples! 

I find this palette easier to work with than loose pots as the sparkles are compacted, and there's no risk of glitter flying around the room if I sneeze (it's happened before lol!). All the pans lift out and are interchangeable with any of the other palettes...

For my base I used MBA Cosmetics Glitz Fix, a special adhesive created specifically for the eyes, non-irritating, and holds the glitter particles in place for (in my experience) up to 6 hours. I started with the palest pink on the inner corner, then went for the magenta in the middle, and finished with the purple on the outside...

I blended pink from the Chi Chi OMFG palette over my eyeliner along the lower lashline, and lined my waterline with Eye of Horus Cosmetics Smokey Black Goddess Pencil. In the crease, I added a little purple also from the OMFG palette, just to set things off. In all honesty, I spent more time cleaning up this look than I did actually creating it, but that's part of the deal when working with glitter ♥...

And to finish off the whole extravaganza, I slicked some Chi Chi Creamy Matte Liquid Lipstick in Drama Queen onto my pout...

I just adore these pinky purple hues - they're so feminine and fun hey. There's lots more colours in the pressed glitter range too - there's a link to the site at the top of the page ♥...

Did you create a special look for NYE?

Take care of you,
kats xxx

REVIEW & EOTD: Eye of Horus Goddess Pencils...

I've been meaning to place an order with Eye of Horus Cosmetics for well over a year, and finally got my act together towards the end of last month. I was specifically interested in their Goddess eye pencils, as I'd heard and read rave reviews, and my stash of long lasting crayons was dwindling away to nothing. I tend to use coloured eye liners as the bases for my pigments rather than primers so I'm always on the lookout for something that doesn't budge, and the waterline is an area I like to fill in to give my EOTD's some extra oomph, as well as disguise some discolouration. So with the promise of a velvety smooth and waterproof formula, 12 colours in the range, PLUS the Ancient Egyptian theme (which is so dear to my heart ♥), these pencils sounded like they were made for me...

At the time of my order, there was a special deal of a free Emerald Tabula pencil with any two products purchased, so I jumped at the chance to get my hands on three crayons at what worked out to be $20 each (RRP $30) plus free shipping on orders over $50. The other two colours I chose were Jewel Amethyst and Lazuli Blue. All three are stunners, but my favourite is the Emerald (no surprises there, given my eye colour), and unlike the others that are shimmery or contain micro glitter, the green one is matte ♥

The swatches below are over bare skin, and a couple of strokes of each. My camera doesn't pickup the gorgeous sparkle in the purple, nor does it do justice to the pretty multichrome effect in the blue...

Top to bottom: Jewel Amethyst, Lazuli Blue, Emerald Tabula

The formula is most definitely long lasting - brilliant in fact. I haven't had much success with the Lazuli Blue on the waterline so far - although I can build up the density on my lid, on the waterline it's quite sheer, but another blogger suggested waiting till it dries before adding the next layer, so I'll try that next. They do take a few minutes to set, which gives time to smudge them with the sponge on the other end of the pencil. They are a generous size though, considerably longer than the mainstream liners out there, so they should last a while. I also bought the matching sharpener ($10) and so glad I did as it's far superior to the others I have in my kit. One other thing to mention is that the colour product is quite soft, so I'm thinking I'll keep these in the fridge once Summer well and truly sets in, especially before sharpening...

Below are a couple of looks I've created using the pencils. This first one is Lazuli Blue on the top lid and lower lashline, and Emerald Tabula on the waterline...

And here is Jewel Amethyst top and bottom, and Emerald Tabula on the waterline...

The Emerald Tabula is such a joy to wear on the waterline - it's soft, soothing and magnificently dense, and almost feels like a balm. It wears off a wee bit of the outer section after a few minutes (as does ANY other liner or kohl that I've tried - my eyes water a lot!), but stays put on the rest of my waterline for almost the whole day - bliss!

Absolutely in love with these pencils, in fact I've just ordered Smokey Black, Teal Malachite & Scarab Sapphire, and I'll review these in due course. Incidentally I found a code on the internet to receive a 15% discount - just enter "Review" at the checkout. This took $13.50 off my order, so thank you to the Syeda Sisters ♥

Eye of Horus products are Paraben free, made from natural ingredients, are alcohol-free, suitable for those with sensitive eyes (or contact lens wearers), and they don't test on animals. Perfect...

What's your favourite eye liner pencil?

Take care of you,

kats xxx

P.S. Adding this to Ingrid's Monday Makeup Madness Link Up Party - be sure to drop by and checkout the beaut listing of blogs from 6:30am xxx

EOTD: bhcosmetics Wild At Heart Pink & Purple...

Well try as I might, the struggle to upload eight EOTD's every month has sadly become too great, so I'm having to bite the bullet and lower my goal to six - there's just not enough hours in a day, boo! I'm not one to back away from a challenge, or throw in the towel for that matter, but something has to give until I can re-work the demands of my day job, so here we go with November's number five...

This is such a super-pretty palette that I reach for fairly frequently - bhcosmetics Wild at Heart. The two pinks and the purple are stunners, and the most loved pans in this set of nine ♥

It will probably come as no surprise that I used essence white kajal for my base - if I want a pigment to really show what it's made of, then this is my go-to crayon. And for $2, you'd be hard pressed to find a greater bargain in the makeup world ♥ (Hint: apply in short feather strokes, smooth it down with your pinky to make it nice and even, and then push the shadow onto it). I pressed the brightest pink onto the inner corner, then added the deeper more magenta-ish shade up to the half-way mark, and finished off with the purple. A wee bit of blending with a soft fluffy brush and I was ready to spruce up the waterline - Chi Chi Beauty School Drop Out Waterproof Gel Eyeliner was my choice because it lasts for hours. For the crease I used SleekV2 matte Highness, and Noir on the lower lashline...

Face-wise my foundation was DB Cosmetics Longwear 24 Hour, cheeks were Maybelline Pink Fever Master Glaze blush stick topped with essence Pink Flow Blush Up, and lips were W7 Liptember Pinks in the shade Cutie...

Wishing you all a relaxing and pleasure-filled weekend - TGIF ♥

Take care of you,
kats xxx

EOTD: Colourpop Dare & Sleek Orbit...

I swear something's happened to time - my clock tells me there are still 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day, but almost half of November has up and vanished in the wink of a makeup-adorned eye, and I've only uploaded one EOTD!

I actually created this look last month when I was playing around with the NYX Color Mascaras I won from the lovelies at Bloggers United AU. I do so love purple and teal together, and this was my first experiment with the lavender Forget Me Not mascara. Given I hadn't used anything coloured on my lashes before, I was a bit nervous so I didn't apply anywhere near enough, but I thought it was a pretty look anyway, with the mascara creating a kind of feathery effect on my lower flutterers. My base was Face of Australia Purple Budge Proof Gel Eyeliner, and I pressed my fave purple shadow Colourpop Cosmetics Dare over the top, and smoked the outside and underneath with Sleek Orbit. Waterline was Chi Chi Caribbean Queen Waterproof Gel Eyeliner...

On my face I applied DB Cosmetics 24 Hour Foundation, Maybelline Master Glaze Blush stick in Make A Mauve, and lips were Chi Chi Husband Shopping with a slick of Chandelier Lip Gloss in The Privileged...

Is it just me or are the days and weeks flashing past at the speed of light for you too?

Take care of you,
kats xxx

REVIEW & EOTD: Lacura "Define" Eye Shadow Palette - Lavenders...

If you're lucky enough to have an Aldi store near you, then keep your eyes peeled for this palette, especially if you love lavender eye shadows - it's a beauty, and it only costs $9.99. I meant to do this post a month ago when I first picked this baby up, but I was able to find another one just a couple of weeks back, so if you're lucky, you may still be able to grab one...

The colour range includes silvers too, a couple of neutrals and very pretty reddish brown - all the shadows are creamy, there's minimal fallout, they're all reasonably well pigmented, and have a delicate shimmer. There's a generous mirror inside the lid, and it comes with a couple of those fairly useless sponge applicators, but we won't worry about those at this stage ha ha...

Here are the swatches - not bad for the price, and the box is sturdy and stylishly glossy black, closes firmly too...

For this look I used the top four pans starting from the left, and applied them in the same order, from inner corner to outer. Base was Chi Chi Beauty School Drop Out Waterproof Gel Eyeliner, which I used on the waterline as well...

My foundation was DB Cosmetics Full Coverage 24 Hour (review soon!), cheeks were the reddest blush from the bhcosmetics Glamorous Blush palette, and lips were Lacura Lipstick in shade 83...

Can't help myself - safe to say I'm a fairly committed Aldi fan, and Lacura is sure upping their game in the makeup stakes. Can't wait to see what comes out next in their range ♥

Take care of you,
kats xxx