Giveaway Winnings from The Beauty Box

I was so very lucky to win Erin's giveaway from over at The Beauty Box. Her blog is a new discovery of mine and she is such a brilliant blogger - please go and have a look at her blog!

Anyhow, I received the most incredible prize ever and Erin was so kind to throw in a few unexpected extras into the mix too! I am in love with everything I received!

First up is the Versace Bright Crystal perfume which I was so excited about! I absolutely love perfumes but don't have too many because they're so pricey, so this was such an exciting thing to win!

I was also terribly excited to see a gorgeous selection of nail polishes. Erin has wonderful taste in nail polishes, all of which I am so darn excited about using! I received polishes from the brands Essie, Bourjois, Sally Hansen and Rimmel as well as some nail stickers from the brand Kiss. My nails are going to be looking beautiful these holidays!

Last but definitely not least is the gorgeous assortment of lip products. Long time readers of mine would know that lip products are my weakness and I squealed when I saw the selection of Revlon products since Revlon makes amazing lip related cosmetics! I am so excited to use everything!

Thank you Erin for the amazing giveaway and your wonderful blog and I look forward to trying out all these amazing goodies! If you would like to see a review on a particular product let me know in the comments!

Collective Haul - Fashion, Beauty & Jewellery

I'll get all the warnings out of the way - this post has about a billion pictures but they're pictures of pretty things!

I've acquired lots of things (from both my own purchases and gifts from others) over the past two months in the areas of fashion, jewellery and beauty and I thought I'd do a little massive haul.

Fashion
I was in the mood for dresses this month and when they're $15 dollars or so you really can't go wrong! I also found some absolute bargains in Ally Fashion and a gorgeous clutch in Colette. I needed new pyjamas and of course managed to buy a scarf on the way!

Temt floral dress - $15 down from $30
Temt blue dress - $20 down from $35
Temt Black and White Dress - $15 down from $30
Ally Fashion tank - $2.50 down from $10
Ally Fashion Jacket - $7.50 down from $30
Colette Clutch - $20
Rockmans Scarf - $5 down from $20
Kmart Pyjama pants - $3.50 each

Temt black and white dress

Temt floral dress (front)

Temt floral dress (back)

Temt blue dress

Ally Fashion Jacket

Ally Fashion Jacket

Colette Clutch

Scarf and pyjama pants

Beauty
Target is just magical for its beauty bargains! I picked up the Essence and Ulta polishes for an absolute steal, as well as the much raved about Loreal Colour Infalliable eyeshadow in Tender Caramel for only $2.10! Can you believe it? I then grabbed a candle (it's terrible, don't get it!) and FOA matte top coat from Priceline. In a different trip to Priceline I spotted the greatest bargain of all time - 2 Revlon lip butters and nail polishes for a total of $10 or $2.50 each! Essence was also calling out my name that day too...

Priceline Candle - $2 down from $5
FOA matte polish - $4.95
Essence Studio Nails Ultra Strong Nail Hardener - $2.75
Essence Quick Dry Top Coat - $1.45
Ulta3 Polish in Flashback Fuchsia - $1
Ulta3 Polish in Gold Rush Fever - $1
Loreal Paris Colour Infalliable Eyeshadow in Tender Caramel - $2.10 down from $20
Revlon Fascinate Gift Scent - $10 (products value $71.80)
Essence XXXL Shine lipgloss in 24 Just gorgeous - $1.50 down from $3
Essence Extra long lasting eyeliner pen - $2.50 down from $5
Invite Concentrated Vitamin E cream - $11.49
Bio Oil - $14.99

Jewellery
There were just too many bargains in the Jewellery stores so I picked up some pieces that I fell in love with.

MOSH (charity fundraiser) red ring - $2
MOSH (charity fundraiser) gold ring - $2
Equip Leaf bracelet - $3.75 down from $15
Equip Lace necklace - $3.75 down from $15
Colette White teardrop necklace - $5 down from $10
Colette Leaf earrings - $2.50 down from $5

My Glitter Polish Wardrobe

As I mentioned in this post, I never was interested in glitter polish. Unlike many other girls with an innate glitter, sparkle and sequin radar, it just didn't take my fancy. Then suddenly something changed and before I knew it a significant number of glitter polishes had accumulated, none of which I ever wore.

I decided to make this post in an effort to remind myself to actually wear these polishes and also because I thought some of you nail polish loving ladies might appreciate it. I've linked some NOTDs I've featured on this blog to the names of each of the polishes.

I would also love some suggestions of colour pairings, because for some reason I really struggle to think of complimentary base coats that would look good with the glittery polishes...often I try things that look horrendous!

Face of Australia Glitterati Polish in Studio 54

I chased this polish all over the country, I wanted it so badly. It's a stunning rose gold polish, all the glitter one shade and hexagon shaped. It's quite a dense glitter which I like because it means you don't have to apply twenty layers.







Face of Australia Glitterati Polish in Dancing Queen

I've not really seen another glitter combination like it, but the gold and black really works in my opinion, although I've been having a hard time deciding what a nice base coat would be. Theoretically any shade should work but I'm not so sure...








Face of Australia Glitterati Polish in Looking for some Hot Stuff

This polish is actually gorgeous. It's a combination of stunning red and purple hexagon glitter with a couple of silver bar glitters dispersed throughout. I don't particularly like the NOTD I showed it in, but I think it would look so girly and romantic on a red base coat.








Face of Australia Glitterati Polish in Heart of Glass

This is the most gorgeous, sweet and girly pink polish. It has a pink base and contains a variety of square glitter in purples, reds and pinks, silver bar glitter and the occasional red heart shaped glitter. It can be a little hard to work with at times because the hearts are so large, but it is so worth the effort.

Face of Australia Glitterati Polish in Funky Town

It's actually a small miracle that I even liked this polish because I very rarely actually like blue polishes. It has a blue base leaning towards the purple side, with blue, black and silver glitter scattered about. It definitely does not need a base coat which is convenient, but unlike the clear glitters it doesn't allow for much variation or polish combinations.

Ulta3 Nail Polish in Confetti

Of all the glitter polishes I own this is my least favourite. It's not because there is anything wrong with it, not at all, rather it's just a funny kind of colour combination that I'm not used to. It contains purple, light blue and grass green tiny glitter which to me is a bit of a weird trio of colours. Once again, I don't know what kind of base colour to put under it, especially because I just don't wear blue or green polishes which is what I probably would tend to gravitate towards for this polish.

Maybelline Colour Show Sequins in Rose Bling

This was such an impulse buy that I grabbed solely because it was so cheap. Thankfully, I really loved the pink glitter and immediately made a glitter gradient NOTD that I was thrilled to bits with. It's lovely and dense and dries quite quickly, features that I like from a glitter polish.

Australis Top Coat in Specktacular 

This is a gorgeous polish when layered over black, but that's kind of the issue. I find black to be really quite intense and don't often wear it, which means this polish rarely gets to see the time of day. In the bottle it looks so drab and unappealing but it's quite incredible the transformation that occurs when it is layered over black.

Essence Snow White Special Effect topper in Evil Queen

This had the potential to be so beautiful however it kind of fell short. This contains gorgeous, quite large hexagon glitters in a clear base but it's not very dense and requires a lot of fiddling around to actually get it on the nail in an even, appealing manner. On a creamy purple base I think this could look incredible.

BYS Nail Enamel in Silver Moon

I've worn this once, over a shimmery silver polish, and in my opinion it looked quite lovely, like little water droplets on my nails. Admittedly the formulation of this polish is rather poor but it is tolerable. If I was to wear it again I think it would probably end up over the top of a light pink.



These are the ten glitter polishes that I own and now that I've made a post about them all, I realise that I seriously do need to make use of them more often because it is such a waste to have them sitting in the darkness of my drawer!

Are you a glitter nail polish fan or do you, like me, stick with the plain old kind of polishes.

Glitter Bomb!

As I was going through my makeup collection for my Shopping my Stash post, I came to realise that within my ever growing collection there are a number of products that get pushed to the back of the drawer due to one simple fact - they are ticking glitter bombs.

I like a bit of glitter and shimmer in moderation. Key word: moderation. You see, there are some products, like highlighters for example, that must be shimmery because that is their job. There are other products, say...lipsticks, that I do not feel should have half of the galaxy's worth of glitter in them. We're going for glowing goddess - not round disco ball - here guys.

Here are some of my most glittery makeup products, both good kinds of glitter and bad.

FOA illuminator in Angel Flame - this product contains the good kind of glitter! This illuminator has popped up numerous times on my blog so I won't ramble on too much, but this is one product that will be staying up the front of my drawer from now on!

Loreal Anti Dull Skin Primer - Well this certainly is an anti dull skin primer, it makes you unbelievably glittery. Yes, this is a product that contains the bad kind of glitter...the really, really bad kind of glitter.

Face of Australia Bronzing pearls - I haven't decided whether this product is full of good glitter or bad glitter yet, I guess it depends on the way that you hope to use such product. It is definitely not suitable for contouring, but for an all over glow I guess it would be useful...then again it does have a lot of shimmer.

Loreal lipgloss in Tempting Pink - If there was a glittery winner and all these products were the runners up, this would take first place. This is packed so unbelievably full with huge, silvery chunks of glitter. It is lucky that I received this product for free, because there is no way that I would pay for this, no way I would ever wear this in view of anyone, not even my dog.

Dle lipgloss in Jess Barely - This sneaky little thing appears to be all innocent and then BAM, you find your lips coated in a thick layering of silvery/blue shimmer. Don't be fooled!

Avon lipstick in Shiny Rouge - There is a reason I didn't recognise this lipstick - I have never worn it before!  It is almost identical to the Loreal lipgloss in colour, but has a little less glitter. Nevertheless it still deserves to be featured in this post, because only the most intense glitter loving sorts could pull this off.

Ulta Nail polish in Confetti - Once again, this is the good kind of glitter where it makes you want to squeal in delight and run around in circles like a small child. Is that just me? This collection of tiny blue, pink an green chunks of glitter gives you a party on your nails.

BYS nail polish in Silver Moon - I think it is pretty obvious that this contains the good kind of glitter - the best kind of glitter in fact. This polish is just awesome.


I am curious as to what glitter products you are keen on, and which ones you could do without. This was a really fun post to do, I might have to make way for the glitter in the future!

L-R: Avon, Loreal, Dle