by VioletLeBeaux | May 21, 2010 | Beauty, Review
Mitsu over at Universal Doll is full of awesome and win and recently she showed her beauty favorites.
I am definitely not biased about her awesomeness even though she has dubbed me as the “MacGuyver of Hime style” ROFL!
So for this post I’ve blatantly copied her in the hopes that some of her awesome will rub off on me 😛
Ok so that’s not totally true but last week she posted about her current beauty favorites and she asked to see ours… so here are mine…
Skin care beauty favorites!
I have become completely obsessed with skin care lately so these first products are the most important things in my whole bathroom.
Skin MD Shielding Lotion-
This is my first step to my day after showering. It doesn’t matter what moisturizer is best for your skin, using it is the important part! Very yummy food for your skin 😀
Neutorgena Oil Free Make Up Remover-
I searched long and hard for a good make up remover and came up with a big fat zero. I had pretty much lost hope until SuperKawaiiMama recommended me this Neutrogena one. It is FANTASTIC. I can’t say how much I love this, it’s so important to take off make up before bed especially if you have sensitive skin. This isn’t greasy, it doesn’t hurt your eyes and it removes every trace of make up. I’m going to do a proper review of it soon and show you all how well it works!
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Bases!
Bourjois Brush Concealer-
Haha ’nuff said!
Innoxa Satin Sheen Buttermilk Foundation-
I use this to get a nice even finish and I top it off with the Innoxa pressed powder too. Innoxa is one of the only brands I found that actually make things that suit my skin tone. I like this foundation because I can throw it on and still feel like I’m just wearing moisturiser but come out with pretty even skin!
The eyes!
Lash Me Type 1 Eyelash Adhesive-
I love my lashes and I just couldn’t use them without a good glue! While This glue is a little questionable in quality compared to other glues I’ve used… it still does the trick and it doesn’t irritate my allergies which is a major plus. It does contain latex but it is paraben free. I really wish it came in a better container though, it’s so runny that this one is just wasteful 🙁
Bourjois Volume Glamour Ultra Curl Mascara-
I may have bought this *partially* for the pretty packaging but it’s actually one of the best mascaras I’ve ever used! A girl always need a good mascara even with no other make up! It gives really good length and it give my eyes minimum irritation. LOVE the cute packaging and love the formula.
Bourjois 06 Noir Cobolt Eye Shadow-
Plain good old black eye shadow. I use this wet as my eyeliner and dry and a shading shadow. It blends and wears well, has a really dark colour and after 6 months of every day use I’ve barely made a dent in it.
Bourjois 90 Blanc Diaphane-
A nice while eye shadow is again a staple of my make up wardrobe. With a good white and a good black shadow you can create the base for almost any look. I like this one especially because it has a slight pearl finish to it so it’s not harsh
The Face Shop Jewel Powder in pink-
Another one recommended to me by SuperKawaiiMama when we were in Melbourne last. This is a really pretty shimmer powder that I use to highlight and emphasize the corners of my eyes. Even with no other make up this will really make your eyes pop!
I like that the Bourjois powders also come with mini mirrors so you can take them on the go!
Lips!
Bourjois Lip Stain 88 Cyber cassis-
This is my favorite lip stain ever. It stays on all day and only requires lip gloss touch ups. The colour goes with pretty much everything I own and depending on how you layer it and work with the lip gloss it can give you a variety of shades.
Bourjois Effect 3D Cosmic 23-
This is the top coat I use almost every day with my lip stain. It is choc full of glitter which is why I love it and unlike a lot of other glitter glosses I’ve used it doesn’t have that sandy chunky feel. Nice and so sticky that your hair gets caught all over your face in the wind 😀
Hair!
Cedel Hair Lacquer- Black
Surprisingly enough I tend to go through a lot of hair spray. I’ve tried a lot of different brands but this is the one I always go back to. The hold is amazing, I swear you could go rock climbing and come back without a hair out of place! I love the smell too, it reminds me of when I worked in a theater ^_^
Vidal Sassoon Velvet Hot Rollers-
I have notoriously hard to curl hair so when I want beautiful bouncy hime style curls this is what I go for. It’s quick and easy to do and doesn’t damage hair as much as other direct heat products can. I think my favorite thing about hot rollers is that you can pop them in, go have something to eat or check your emails and then come back to big beautiful hair!
What are your beauty favorites at the moment?
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by VioletLeBeaux | May 19, 2010 | Craft, Life, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial
Lots and lots of you have written in and asked for a way to store necklaces and bracelets like a pretty jewellery display stand or something. Well this is how I store mine so I hope you find it useful!
Remember when I was talking about candy cane themed crafts? Well this is it 😀
To be honest because of the colours I used it reminds me more of an old carousel which is even cooler than candy canes!
What you need for this pretty jewellery display:
- An old tea cup tree, I bought mine at a thrift store for $1
- A sheet of felt
- Thick ribbon
- Thin ribbon in another colour
- Scissors
- Glue gun
- Premade bows or ribbon for bows
I find the easiest base to start with is an old tea cup tree, these were very popular in the 80’s over here so thrift stores are full of them minus the tea cups now. If you can’t find one you could always make one out of wire and cardboard or something similar ^_^
First thing to do is pull off all of the arms bits of the tree so you have a stump. The arms will probably be held on my screws but if not then you can just reattach later using whatever method you want.
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Then take your wide ribbon (I’m using velvet so it protects my jewellery) start at the bottom and spiral it up to the top. Hot glue it in place as you go and you get this:
Do the same thing on all of the arms you pulled off. Then you should add the thin ribbon to disguise the gaps between the thick. Do it to each pair of arms then screw them back in, you might need to poke holes in the ribbon for the screws to go through. Use a little extra glue to be on the safe side.
The ends of my tree were hollow so I poked the end of the ribbon in and glued them in place. This is what it looks like when it’s all put back together…
Now place your tree onto the felt and trace around the edge. You want two circles.
Cut them out 🙂
The first one is for the bottom so the tree doesn’t leave scratch marks on your bench, just hot glue it on.
The second one will be for the top. Cut a straight line into the middle and then a hole the size of the middle pole of your tree.
Put it on like this and glue it down:
Now we need to cover the edges of the felt/rest of the stand. Normally I would do this with the same red felt ribbon but I ran out so I used a matching red satin ribbon. Basically I wound it around the bottom edge until no silver was showing and glued it in place.
I added a gigantic bow to the top and smaller bows at the ends of the branches to disguise the holes/ends of the ribbon.
Totally cute right?
Now the only thing left is to add your jewellery!
Because there are so many arms it’s much easier to find specific pieces than if they were just thrown in a box and tangles occur less frequently.
And there you have it ^_^
Now I’m frantically trying to pack away my craft supplies today in time for the move *_* I hope you enjoyed the pretty jewellery display tutorial and it gives you some ideas about storage! |
by VioletLeBeaux | May 17, 2010 | Baking, Craft, Hime Gyaru, Life
We had so much fun with our other “Cooking with Susie” sessions that we decided to give it one more episode: Sushi erasers with Susie 😀
Because we’re moving, we’ve been trying to spend as much time with our friends up here before we have to say goodbye for a while.
What did we decide to cook? Sushi! Well not really sushi but erasers that are shaped like sushi in a a little kit thingy.
We bought the kit as a present for Susiewhile we were in Singapore so she brought it over to play with.
Basically it’s a little box that comes with clay and molds and when you put them in the microwave it magically transforms them into erasers. You can read more about it here.
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With these sort of things reading he instructions is very important. Even more so when they are written in Japanese!
You should fill the little molds with some water so the clay doesn’t stick to it!
Add some clay to each side…
Squish the sides together
Pull the extra off and you’ve got a piece for your sushi!
Use something pointy to wedge the clay out.
No matter how realistic they look don’t eat them!!! |
Bad Susie!
Keep making them until you’ve made all of the pieces!
This is the reaction you get when you tell two girls that you’re going to eat all their sushi…
These are some of the parts that will eventually make the wholes: rice, egg and roe! Susie made these ones so they are all perfect.
This is an example of the crappy ones I made… XD
Eventually she wouldn’t let me touch the clay anymore because of my shoddy workmanship mwahahaha! This mismatch of skills tends to lead to some jealousy.
But you know all of that can be fixed with our awesome dancing!!
So enough messing around, making sushi is serious business!
Fill the paper container that came in the kit with water and add the sushi pieces.
Wait patiently for them to come out of the microwave!
Then dump the pieces into cold water.
Cut out all the bits of paper for the nori wrappers etc!
This is a good point to exchange presents too… Susiemade me this awesome gigantic leopard print bow!! She is so talented and awesome. On the other side of that because I’m an awesome friend I got her…. my love and admiration 😛
And here is our finished sushi!
Yummy yummy yummy 😀 Congratulations you have successfully completed a craft project made for children! I will claim that the language barrier was the reason it took us several hours. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
But also even after it’s cooked you probably shouldn’t eat it.
Thanks for watching Cooking With Susie… and Violet!
Come visit Melbourne soon Susie!!! Let’s start a petition to make her come live in my spare room and do stupid stuff like this all the time?
Have you ever tried making this sushi erasers kit or any of these fun Japanese stye kits?
by VioletLeBeaux | May 16, 2010 | Outfit Of The Day
We’ve made it to Sneaker Sunday week 5 how exciting is that??
If you missed what it’s all about click here for the info.
How are you all spending your Sundays this week? I’m frantically trying to scan the last of my official documents so we have less paper to take with us on the move *_* Fun right?
When I’m having a boring day it just makes me want to dress up even more to cheer myself up!
Today’s outfit is a little bit fun and retro inspired…
Sneakers- Red Converse Knock offs from Kmart
Socks- Bodyline
Dress- Sam’s Warehouse Discount Store (kid’s department)
This outfit makes me smile because it’s not only totally cute but it’s very budget conscious too. The dress was like $12 in the kid’s section, the socks were $5 and the sneakers were only $9! Total- AU$26
For more Sneaker Sunday goodness head over to see Valerie’s post on her own outfit!
Have a good week everyone and don’t forget to send in your own photos and posts for the Sneaker Sunday gallery <3
by VioletLeBeaux | May 14, 2010 | Beauty, Review
Evening everyone, Cover Girl mascara review time 😀
I always have lots of trouble finding nice mascaras so I’m going to gradually review all of the ones I’ve tested out in the search for the perfect mascara! Today I’m comparing and reviewing two Covergirl mascaras, the Lash Blast and the Volume Exact…
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This was my go-to mascara for almost two years, if you layer it on thick it can give you some crazy lashes. |
It has a very fancy looking brush which is made of silicone like tendrils. Actually it kind of looks like those spiky silicone glow in the dark raver earrings that were popular for 2 minutes in the 90’s. The brush is very thick at the ends which is great for doing the outer lashes but can make it challenging to get small lashes at the inner corner of your eyes. It does however make it really easy to throw on mascara last minute if you’re in a hurry.
It does take a while to dry, I have bad hay fever too so I tend to sneeze and end up looking like a panda XD
The colour it produces is a really dark black and the formula is very thick. As you can see in the photo it does have a tendency to clump a bit but if you are wearing it with false lashes you can’t tell.
Allergy experiences: This mascara tends to irritate my eyes quite a bit compared to others I’ve now found. At the end of the day I would always have tiny chunks of black lodged in my eye (eww) which doesn’t seem to happen with others I’ve used.
I have less experience with this mascara but I used it for around 2 months. This mascara has a much thinner formula than the Lash blast and it goes on very easily. The brush again looks like one of those weird 90’s silicone pointy earrings but this one is quite thin and the end is nicely pointed to easily reach small lashes.
This doesn’t give the volume that the other does but it’s a good mascara in it’s own right. It goes on quite easily and seems to dry a little faster. It’s very useful for a more subtle day look. It’s a little lighter in tone than the dark black of the Lash Blast.
Allergy experiences: This one doesn’t irritate my eyes as much as the Lash Blast but at the end of the day I would still feel a slight puffiness.
I used one on each eye below so you can see the differences.
Comparatively speaking you can see that Lash Blast looks more clumpy than Volume Exact but the colour is definitely a bit darker.
Verdicts…
Lash Blast- Good volume, great for under false lashes. Brush can be too thick to get to small lashes without making a mess. BUT… can be clumpy and leaves yucky junk in my eyes. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.
Volume Exact- Nice formula, no clumps, good lengthening, easy to use brush and good for day looks. Possibly not enough bang for more bold styles but still very pretty. DO WANT.
So are you all getting ready for Sneaker Sunday this week? Hope you enjoyed the Cover Girl review! 😀
