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What's in my bag 2013

Reaching the end of 2013, I've been wanting to pick up a new everyday handbag, something that better suits what I think will work for me. So, might as well see what's in my current bag that I can transfer to a possible new one. I've been using a tote bag that my mother got me from Canada (that my dad apparently chose), a Danier Genuine Leather handbag, but it's starting to get a bit of wear now, so time to empty and move to the next one. 

The bag itself has held up pretty well, considering my use of it. I love the pockets on the side and front, and inside there is a pocket for pens and a pocket for my phone too. It would get quite heavy, because this is a medium to larger sized bag, so I would tend to just fill it up with whatever and not empty things out. For now, it's been a bit better due to the fact that I have to now travel further for work, so I don't want to have a big, heavy bag slung on my shoulder.

The basics, of course. Keys (house in my wallet and car keys), a wallet that also contains my phone, a pink bear-shaped coin purse (because I don't like coins in my wallet) and my glasses. Granny-style glasses that had the optometrist pretty shocked that he asked to ask if it was really 19-year-old me that picked them. The wallet is also Danier, also a gift from the parents in Canada; my sister-in-law has the same one and I always start to grab for hers, but then realise that it's not mine.

What beauty addict doesn't have a plethora of lip products in their bag? This is pretty much standard, give or take about two or three products. The newest 3CE lip laquer in Super Coral that I acquired recently, two of the Shu Uemura Lip and Cheek Tints (the plum one and the fuschia one), a YSL glossy stain in beige anarchiste, a MAC lipstick in lovelorn (my new favourite shade) and two sample sized products: Too Faced Lip Injection Extreme and Clinique All About Eyes Serum (which obviously is an eye serum and not a lip product, but still). 

A little bit more interesting now. Can you tell I work in tech? There is a micro USB cord (not too techy), but then three USBs. I usually have four, but one is in use at the moment, so not in my bag. My external harddrive would be added to that pile, but thank god for cloud. A hand sanitizer by Fortune Cookie Soap (from the Tribute range, I think it was called; this one smells like bread), keys to my parents place and two nail glues, one Nailene and the other IBD. I do keep the nail glue just in case I need to stick down a loose false nail, but also as a quick super glue fix, say, for a broken heel on my shoe. Handy and effective!

And the last dregs of my handbag: a pencil case with pens etc. inside, a ear phone plug by Shu Uemura for their Christmas 2013 range that came with the Lip and Cheek Tints I purchased, female sanitary items (the box spilled in my bag), a couple of bags of ballerina tea and some fragrance tester papers with the new Estee Lauder Modern Muse and the other new one by Roberto Cavalli (I don't know what this one is called, it was just handed to me when I entered Myer the other day). Of course there is additional rubbish like receipts and candy wrappers... An embarrassing amount of candy wrappers to be honest, as my boyfriend found when I asked him to grab something from my bag. His giggles said it all. 

I've got my eye on what type of bag I want next: one that's small to medium sized, with compartments, like a zip in the middle with two openings on either side (if that makes sense). I don't know why, but the kitty seems to like the current bag (constantly dipping his head into it, sometimes even napping on it), so perhaps I will pass it onto him rather than tossing it out. I actually had a browse in David Jones the other day for a new bag, and I absolutely fell in love with a certain Annapelle bag that was not only the exact functional bag that I wanted, but so stylish too. Alas, it was a bit of my price range (AU$249 to be exact), so I might have to browse around for a more affordable option (and perfect like that Annapelle bag (I have a bit of a grudge)).

Em Cosmetics Beach Life Palette Complete Overview

It really has taken me quite a bit of time to get around to doing a whole overview of the Beach Life Palette by Em Cosmetics, the makeup line that took two years to create by famed youtube beauty guru Michelle Phan. 

In this massive palette, you receive 24 eyeshadows, eight lip products and four blushes. Each quadrant is separated into different possible looks that you can achieve; that is, the more complimentary colours go together in each section. Essentially, it's four different palettes put together to make one big customizable one. I don't want to talk about each quadrant individually, as I have done whole posts on each section already, but more of some thoughts about the entire palette in general.

I honestly having been using this palette all too often since I got it, it is quiet large and, to be honest, I haven't been too chuffed on some of the results. However, I will say that it is a nifty idea with the travel palette being included as well as the depotting tool to access your favourite colours easier or have the shades for a certain look. The packaging is a lot more sturdy than a lot of people think, but it's still doesn't reach that "luxurious" quality it's supposedly meant to have.

To start with the eyeshadows: they're pretty much (VERY much) hit or miss. In order to get consistent swatches, I had to either swatch once (mostly the brighter colours with shimmer), or had to continually go over the same swatch again and again (mostly the darker, or matte shades). I even had to scrape a couple in order to get any pay off at all (mostly matte shades again). So the shimmery bright colours were the best, the neutral shades not as much, but I feel like some of the shadows have been pressed particularly hard. Like, while some are soft, a few are very hard to the touch. Most tend to be smooth though, so that's alright; nothing really clumps or balls up. The shadows apply a lot better with natural fibre brushes and do fare better on the actual application rather than swatches. They all blend very nicely though, par for maybe one or two highlight shades, but, again, I think that may be due to the hardness of the shadow.

The lip glosses and the lip sticks... I do not like at all. They're sticky, the colour payoff is pretty meager and the lasting power is less than favourable. To be fair, I have heard that the bullet form lipsticks are actually amazing, but the ones in the pans are just terrible. They just feel so goopy too and considering the proximity to the powder products in the palette, it is not a good idea. A lot of people wonder about mixing cream or liquid products in a palette with pressed powder products, and I think it is indeed a bit of an issue in this palette, especially considering that dark eyeshadows tend to be the closest to the glosses. 

The blushes are the redeeming factor of the entire Life Palette. These blushes are really, really nice. Smooth, pigmented but easy to blend, why can't the shadows have the same texture and properties as the blushes? They're quite soft too, but not too soft. I think I love them so much due to how smooth they are, so I definitely recommend the blushes. Not one of them was hard to work with too. 

For US$75 (I actually ended up paying a total of about $150 due to using a forward shipping company to get it into Australia; Em does not currently ship internationally), it is quite a big portion of anyone's budget considering what you get. I still think the palette idea is pretty good, but so far, they don't have individual pans out on sale, so there's not really an incentive of to purchase the whole Life Palette due to the inconsistent eyeshadows, and the not-so-great lip products. You would think that considering the quality and the look of the palette, that this could be geared towards a newbie to makeup so they have a number of choices and options to get started and see what looks they like... But the cost is just too much to be able to justify it. 

I'm not actually too sure how well Em Cosmetics are going, but I've heard they've had quite a few sales lately, so maybe not as well as some would have hoped. While they tote themselves as a "luxury brand at affordable price" or something along those lines, I see neither characteristic really fulfilled. So, unless you're a die hard Michelle Phan fan, or want to test out and own all the makeup the world has to offer, I'd probably skip by this particular palette. But that's not to say that it's all not worth it, the best way to find out how a product performs is to try it out for yourself!

To see the individual reviews of each section, click the links below:

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

Post 4

And more pretty pictures/an unboxing post:

First impression

Australis Velourlips

What's this? What's this amazing offering that I am giving a review of today? I love matte make up. I love a matte face, matte eyeshadows and especially matte lips. And, while I can't get my hands too easily on the famous NYX Matte Lip Creams or the Sephora equivalent (can't remember to name off the top of my head, lip cream stain?), I was enticed to look into the Velourlips Matte Lip Cream by Australis after I watched a favourites video by Sharon Farrell.

These come in five different shades, but I picked up the nude shade (PAR-EE) and the fluoro-pink shade (MAL-I-BOO). I first got the nude shade, but then I fell in love with the finish and the lasting power and the scent and the price, oh god, just everything really. So I had to pick up another one, of course. I wasn't feeling the bright orange too much, nor the red; I already had a pretty purple matte cream lip product. Well, I love pink, so why not go fluoro, right? The tube is a nice size that comes with a doe-foot applicator, but it doesn't dispense too much product which is a tendency of a number of lip lacquers. The scent (that I've already said I love) is somewhat fruity but still makeup-y. I don't know, there is something about it that I like. 

MAL-I-BOO

PAR-EE

left to right, without flash: mal-i-boo, par-ee

With Flash

This product is fully opaque in one swatch. It dries completely matte, but somehow has this slightly weird texture where it's a tad sticky but it's not drying and doesn't make your lips flake. The lasting power is absolutely fantastic too; I really don't need to touch this up at all. I mean, I go to touch up out of habit and then find myself maybe dabbing on a half millimeter of product. It even holds up pretty damn well through eating too, and it a tad tricky to take off at the end of the night as it does stain a bit. However, I suppose that is a bit to be expected considering the amazing opacity and lasting power. 

God, I can't praise this Velourlips enough, I've even recommended them to my sister-in-law (possibly picking her up a couple for Christmas!). The texture, finish, colour payoff and lasting power is just fantastic, hitting all the points that you really want in a product. I never really looked in to Australis because it was a "drugstore" brand, and Australian which was incredibly foolish of me. I always preferred to use Asian cosmetics and mostly US, but how can you say you love makeup without giving it all a go? I've actually starting looking more into other products from Australis as well as other Aussie brands. Go homegrown. 

Too Faced Chocolate Soleil

I have an undying love for bronzer. I used to think that I was too tan for bronzers, but they really do add depth and warmth to even tanner skins. (I don't get as tan as I used to, but in high school, I could get brown as a berry). As such, I'm always curious about whatever bronzers are on the market. You've got to have been living under a rock to not have heard about the Chocolate Soleil bronzer by Too Faced. It comes in two shades, the regular one (don't know the shade name) and the deeper one I own, medium/deep matte bronzer. 

Nice, cute-looking, bronzey-gold packaging with the brand name embossed on the front. It's made of plastic, however, so it takes the classiness down a peg (gold plastic? A bit ostentatious, no?). The clasp is pretty average, but it holds nicely, and the mirror inside is of comparable size. There is no puff or brush included, which makes me wonder why the packaging is so bulky considering the product itself is only 10.0g, the pan filling maybe half or a third of the packaging base. Of course, I can't go further without commenting on the gorgeous chocolate powder scent. I say chocolate powder as it reminds me more of the powder you use to make hot chocolate, rather than creamy bars of chocolate itself. 

left to right, without flash: heavy swatch, single swatch, blended

With Flash

This bronzer is completely matte, there are no shimmers or hidden glitters, just a straight up matte product. I suppose you could build it up a bit, but it really doesn't go too dramatic at all: a nice, easy, everyday bronzer. But my main qualm with this is, although it looks lovely and somehow glowy when I first apply it, somehow it wears off unevenly. That is, it looks a tad patchy or blotchy. It doesn't ball up and I've tried a number of ways of applying it (although, how many ways are there really to apply a powder bronzer), the wear time isn't too fab.

This product could be so good, in fact, a lot of beauty enthusiasts love this bronzer too (but more go for the milk chocolate one, I think), and I wish I could love it too. It smells wonderful, looks great on first application. But for the time being, I just can't seem to get it to work for me and stay looking good.

Shu Uemura Lip and Cheek Tint Fun-tasy

It's so undeniable how clean and chic the look of the products that Shu Uemura offers, so when they teamed up with famed anime artist Takashi Murakami for their Christmas range, it was too cute to resist. As much as I loved the 6hearts Princess palettes, (and that gorgeous traincase too), what I really wanted from this collection were the Lip and Cheek Tint Fun-tasy: a cream to powder product in a cute tube that can be used on both the lips and cheeks.

I definitely had my eyes on fuschia fun-tasy, but when I swatched it in store, I fell in love with the texture and decided I needed another one, so I also chose Heroine Rose, a shade I wasn't too sure about, but I'm glad I got. Included was also a cute phone charm of the heart flower mascot, so adorable! You can see for yourself from the picture how adorable the artwork on the packaging is, I absolutely love the Christmassy-ness of the tubes too. The lip and cheek tint does not have an applicator wand, it's just a squeeze tube, so that helps with hygiene what with applying for both lips and cheeks.

Fuschia Fun-tasy

Heroine Rose

left to right, without flash: fuschia funtasy, blended, heroine rose, blended

With Flash

I absolutely love the texture of these, so easy to blend. Fuschia Fun-tasy is a bright pink shade, almost pastel which I love on both the lips and cheeks, it especially looks fantastic as a gradient lip which the texture of the product makes it easy to do. Heroine Rose is pretty much the perfect my-lips-but-better, which I found really surprising that I loved it so much. I've never been too big a fan of those type of shades, but this one blended in so nicely, although I do love the slightly faded version of it rather than the full strength pigment. Which brings me to the lasting power: it doesn't really last all too long if you eat or drink, but if you're careful, it can last about three hours, fading pretty evenly so you don't get that weird ring of colour around the edges of your lips (I hate that). They dry matte too, but they don't sink into the lines of your lips which I love too; on the cheeks they give a nice powdery look (but not that bad type of powdery if that makes sense?). It's basically an even flush across your cheeks that can look really natural or built up to be a bit more intense.

To be honest, this is the first makeup item I've purchased from Shu Uemura (the only other thing I own is a fantastic orange-red lipstick I got as a gift). I don't know what took me so long to look into them, it took super cute limited-edition products to get me interested, but from what I've heard, they're pretty consistent. Either way, I'm glad I got to purchase these, because they are selling out fast, and I think may be my new love. I've been using one every single day since I got them!

I purchased these from David Jones for AU$35 each.

The Face Shop Haul

I'm a bit here or there about The Face Shop. I was elated when I found one in Perth and dipped into the Korean products I'd never tried before; I loved them, but slowly as I tried products, they were pretty much... Maybe average with a bit of appeal of Asian skincare being available in Perth. I swore to their BB cream, and I've tried a range of products from both their skincare and from their makeup, and I will admit that some are pretty damn good. But for some reason, I can't bring myself back to that level of fandom I once had. Either way, on the way home, I passed through Piccadilly Arcade and The Face Shop just seemed to invite me in, and give them a second chance.

I only picked up four items: two mascaras (one is a base), an eyebrow powder kit and a face sponge for cleansing, but I always get given chocka samples, and this time, a free toiletry bag too! Lord knows what I was thinking when I decided I needed more mascaras, but those were what I looked at and what I decided I wanted. I had tried out one of their waterproof fibre mascaras before and that was actually fantastically shocking; it gave me dark, full, long lashes with a curl and didn't smudge, but it started clumping pretty quickly which was it's downfall. However, these weren't that much more than drugstore mascaras (in Perth at least, and actually cheaper), so I picked up FACEit All About Mascara Base (01) and FACEit All About Mascara Long Lash (05). They're both fibre mascaras although I didn't actually realise the base was one too until I opened it up at home (it didn't seem like one in store based on the tester), but I like that too. Versatility to use with other not-so-building mascaras. 

More eyebrow products, I know, I know. But I haven't actually had a new powder for a while, and the one I had previously (Benefit Brow Zings) no longer really matches and is getting a bit groddy. The Face Shop one looked pretty nifty, I liked the colours, and I've never tried an Asian brow product, so hey, let's give it a go.  

Finally, I was wondering around the last legs of the store, wondering what else I "needed", and, while I loved the lipsticks, I decided they were a bit too pricey for now and went to look at the nifty tools that The Face Shop had to offer. I was contemplating on purchasing the face cleansing brush (don't remember the exact name), but it was a small, round, flat top brush that you use with your cleanser to help clean your pores better. But then I thought hey, didn't I want a face cleansing sponge for a while? And I found they offered one, so I chose it (probably pick up the brush next time round, it was so cute!) and was good to go. It was actually moist when I took it out of the packaging, I suppose to make it look more appealing being fluffy? But I will have to rinse it out before use because of the slight chemical smell doesn't seem too wonderful.

All-in-all, I'm quite please. Didn't go super extravagant, but picked up some essentials, so I don't think I'll be all that let down either way. Perhaps not a love for now, but a reliable friend?