The night time routine I wish I could follow...

I've been watching a lot of get ready with me and night routine videos on youtube and have been astonished to find that other people's lives appear to revolve around beauty and unrealistic glamorous routines. Honestly, these youtubers appear to spend hours on social media, making ten cups of tea and carrying out lush beauty treatments after they get home from work/school. I myself arrive home with exhausted eyes and change from my wrinkled school uniform into pyjamas and school socks, dump my ten kilo bag on the floor and collapse ungracefully onto my unmade bed in a bellyflop whereby I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

I was thinking though, if I lived in a perfect world, had nothing to do but pamper myself all day everyday, I would have an elaborate night time routine whereby I undergo a ten stop process to moisturise, soothe and freshen from head to toe. This is what I would do...

Face
- Clean & Clear Morning Burst Facial Cleanser
- Arbonne RE Advanced Regenerating Toner
- B liv Shrink and tighten serum
- B liv Off With Those Heads serum
- Luminesce Night Cream
- Blistex Lip Conditioner

I'm already pretty good with my skincare and never go to bed wearing makeup however it usually stops at the simple steps of a quick cleanse followed with some moisturiser. Ideally I would chuck in a few other treatments too.

Body
- Luminesce Essential Body Renewal moisturiser
- My New Skin balm
- Bio Oil

In terms of beauty, my body is easily the most neglected area because I just forget! I have some great products listed above, I just need to use them more often and consistently!

Hair
- Vitamin E formula mascara
- Salon Confidential R:04 Repair Ends Mender

Last of course is hair, another area in which I am rather careless. My hair is in desperate need for moisture and focus on the split ends. I also won this lash treatment in a giveaway and feel that I should probably put it to good use because who wouldn't want better looking lashes?

But....I just can't see all of this happening! Life is too jam packed with a million other more important things to get done before completely crashing and I just don't think I could squeeze in this elaborate routine too.

For now I guess I'll be sticking to my dodgy ways...

Arbonne Got You Covered Mineral Powder Foundation - Ivory

Mineral foundations are as familiar to me as tightrope walking (ie. not familiar to me at all). When I think of powder foundations I have visions of powdery old ladies smelling of roses with wrinkles full of cakey foundation that smears on your gorgeous black dress as they come to give you a kiss. Of course, this is all based on my imagination for I have never actually tried a powder foundation in my life, but prior to receiving the Arbonne Got You Covered Mineral Powder Foundation I really didn't have high expectations.

As usual when it comes to things I have judged before trying, I was wrong, really wrong. This stuff is kind of great, though it did take a bit of experimentation for us to be friends.

When it first arrived I decided to slap it on as I would a normal foundation, though because it was a powder I simply assumed I would need to apply it excessively and with careless abandon...A word of advice - don't do that. As you might expect, it looked awful. My visions of wrinkly grandmas came true and my face was a fluttery mess of strangely coloured splotches where every time I moved my face powder would burst into the air like a mini explosion of skin coloured confetti. It was bad, my god it was bad.

Nevertheless I can be persistent and chose to be more sensible in my application the second time around. With care and a steady hand I was able to create a respectable base that I could walk out of the front door wearing. I found that there were a couple of issues though:
- It wasn't terribly pigmented. Now I'm not a huge fan of full coverage foundation (I only wear it for special events) however I like a little bit to cover my blemishes. This didn't really do the trick though and I ended up using so much more concealer than I normally would to compensate.
- It didn't last very long. After a couple of hours I felt like I didn't have anything on my skin at all which obviously isn't ideal in terms of practicality. I expect all powders are like this because they can't possibly have the staying power that liquid foundations do, but I was a little disappointed.

A little disappointed in the outcome I chose to give it one more crack and use it in conjunction with my favourite BB cream. It's perfect! I always struggled with oil control and coverage with my BB cream. It was a little too light when my skin was having a bad day and after a couple of hours my T-zone felt a little greasy but these products are a match made in heaven. The Arbonne powder adds a little more coverage that looks so natural but also keeps my face matte throughout the day. I also think when combined with the BB cream it lasts significantly longer, so the performance of both products are amplified when used together.

On another note, I just love the packaging of this product because as is the case with all Arbonne products, it's beautiful and classy, sleek and practical. There is a net that prevents too much powder coming out but isn't too controlling that it doesn't let anything through. The screw top lid and clear bottom looks attractive and is very practical.

I can tell that this is going to be a staple product for my everyday routine although I'm not sure that I will repurchase it, simply because I am a poor high school student with no money to pay $53 for a powder. Still, I really like this product and would repurchase it if I could!

Monthly Favourites - June

I'm really late with this Monthly Favourites but I suppose it is better late than never!  I have quite a strange collection of favourites this month but hopefully you find them interesting.

I think I'll begin with the face product, a new collection to my skincare stash. I never ever thought that I would run out of moisturiser because being a beauty blogger it seemed to be coming out of my ears, but lo and behold, it happened. I had no idea what I wanted to try so I ended up going with what was on special, which happened to be Garnier's Moisture Match Illuminating light lotion. I quite liked the sound of a moisturiser that would make me look more awake however I was a little worried it would be packed with shimmer. Fortunately that is not the case and this has easily been my face favourite for the month of June.

Next is lips, another basic product. I have had so much trouble with dry lips of late and the only thing that has been helping is my Blistex lip conditioner. I've spoken a little bit about my strange relationship with this product before, but basically it is very much a love-hate kind of thing!

Then we have the eye category and this was so easy to choose! After having read so much about the Maybelline Colour Tattoos, I really wanted to try them out but was too stingy to pay full price. When Chemist Warehouse had a half price sale I grabbed two shades and Barely Branded has taken over as my favourite eye product for the month. It is a beautiful shimmery champagne shade and works perfectly as a bright base. I love it and will be doing a review soon!

Then comes the nail favourite which has undoubtedly been my first Essie polish in the shade Mamba. It's just a gorgeous flattering nude shade that I haven't stopped wearing since I bought it!

Last but definitely not least is the other category which might seem to be a little strange this month. For as long as I can remember I have hated poetry with a passion and then something really strange happened this year. Some of you may not know that I struggle with depression, and it's been really, really awful this year. Anyhow, I have found literature to be the most therapeutic thing to help, in particular poetry. It's so ironic that I have gone from hating it to loving it, but I guess that just shows how people change! My favourite poet of late has been Seamus Heaney, a poet we've been studying at school who I think is just wonderful!

Well, there are my favourites for June! It feels so good to be back blogging again after a long break. Thanks for sticking around!

Collective Haul - Books, Boots and Beauty

I've not blogged for a while, and in that time I've managed to accumulate a couple of things here and there which I thought I'd share with you all.

Beginning with the beauty stuff, I was so lucky to win Angel's giveaway which was for the Clearasil Vitamins and Extracts Daily Wash. She was so generous to also include a Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips and the Maybelline Illegal Lengths mascara.

A while ago when Chemist Warehouse had 50% off cosmetics I snapped up two Maybelline colour tattoos as I was dying to try them out after seeing all the hype. I really wanted the Bronze shade but they had run out so I ended up purchasing Barely Branded and Bold Gold, both of which I have enjoyed using.

I was also at Target and saw that they were selling the Party Girlz (ugh that brand name makes me so uncomfortable!) dry conditioners for $1 and dry shampoo for $2 and I simply couldn't resist!

For fashion I made three purchases in Target because they were having a 50% off sale. I really needed some Winter shoes and fell in love with two pairs of boots. The black boots were only $20, down from $40 and the tan coloured boots were $24 down from $50.

I also bought a summery T-shirt (even though it's going to be months and months before I can wear it) for $12. The photo isn't terribly good and does not do it justice but it is a flattering sheer floral collared shirt.

And then comes the books...my goodness have I gone crazy with books lately. I will say though, I only purchased one from a bookstore full priced and the rest were from second hand shops or libraries getting rid of old stock.

The second hand books
- The Piper's son by Melina Marchetta          Free
- The Kite runner by Khaled Hosseini           $3
- My sister's keeper by Jodi Picoult              $3
- Ursula by Eileen Naseby                           $3
- One foot wrong by Sofie Laguna                 $1
- Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut            $2
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman      $2
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen            $2
- Geisha by Liza Dalby                                 $2

The old library books
- A stolen life by Jaycee Dugard                                         $1
- What the birds see by Sonya Hartnett                              $1
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy                                     $0.50
- Room Temperature by Cath Kenneally                            $1
- Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill                                              $0.50

The bookstore book
- Running with scissors by Augusten Burroughs    $20

I think it is pretty obvious that I am such a book worm and am obsessed with collecting books. I am so thrilled that I am able to get some amazing books for such affordable prices. Often I struggle to find decent books in second hand stores but lately I have hit the jackpot.

I feel obliged to give a little warning to some of my readers - I have read some of the books (not all) and many of them aren't appropriate for younger readers. Running with scissors, One foot wrong and A stolen life are ones that I have read which are pretty full on and have disturbing elements within them that would impact any kind of reader, especially younger ones.

Well, that's my haul and I am so excited to play around with all my new things. If you have read any of these books I would love to hear your thoughts because there is nothing more exciting that chatting about books with other people!