It’s got to be said – I came to the whole makeup / beauty party a bit late in the day.
Early on, I relocated to the UK and began my backpacking days – camping around Europe etc, cheap hostels and the like. Whilst there were some girls who managed to cart cool makeup around with them, and apply it like professionals in ratty bathrooms, I was not one of them.
Back then my main priorities were to ward off insects from feasting on me, protecting my lips from sun burn & wearing ‘thongs’ (or flip flops so as not to confuse anyone!) in the communal showers – eek!
By the time I hit my mid twenties, I was investing in higher end moisturisers and foundations, but that was about it.
To this day I don’t even recall how I used to apply eye shadows (which I owned all of about three!).... I think it might’ve been with those crappy sponge tip applicators that came with many of the cheap brands.
Yep – I was a makeup heathen!
In the space of about 2 years, I’ve become almost obsessive about beauty products. I LOVE freebies and samples! I love trying out new stuff. I adore makeup tutorials on you tube – even though it’s slow going teaching myself how to get techniques to work on my face....or eye shadow application to look halfway decent.
At any rate – moving to Oz right at my burgeoning makeup awareness kinda sucked. Prices are extreme here.
I constantly lament the fact I could’ve bought MAC etc in London for far cheaper prices had I just known more about beauty stuff and the outlandish pricing in Australia!
Which brings me around to the fact the Aussie Dollar is finally booming against the UK £ & US $
Hurrah!
With my savings plan about to be implemented as of January, I’m figuring the next three months are my time to live it up & get the shopping fix that I’ll be deprived of in 2011.
I’m not going too crazy, but it will tide me over for a number of years I suspect. It’s so hard to predict if the Australian dollar will stay strong or if prices will ever drop significantly in our stores to make it worthwhile purchasing in our own country. I’ve heard Sephora are meant to be setting up shop some stage in Australia – but that doesn’t mean any of the products will be fairly priced as they are overseas....
So, on that note – anyone doing some major shopping right now to cash in on the great exchange rate?
Any great websites you can recommend for me to check out?
I’m thinking now might be a good time to seek out some Etsy sellers or finally dive in to the whole BPAL website....
I'm shopping up a storm at the moment buying up from US sites... too bad shipping is still quite steep and I always think that it could have gone into a great product that I could have added into my cart ....
ReplyDeleteStill great time to be the mass consumer.
Do you like cheap makeup or fancypants stuff? cherryculture.com, nonpareilboutique.com and shopcraze.com are great for cheaper brands like NYX and Milani. allcosmeticswholesale.com has a lot of MAC, Urban Decay and so on (genuine), but they can get a bit stupid with postage at times. You can tell before you hit the final order button what the postage will be, though.
ReplyDeleteFor nail polish, I use nailetc.com and http://uk.beverlybeaute.com.
Etsy is a goldmine for perfume oils, soaps, earrings, etc.
I'm kind of bummed that the dollar is so great at the moment, because I'm completely skint. SAD FACE. And as much as I'd love to see Sephora here, the prices will be comparable to Myer and David Jones and so on. It would be interesting to see if they're more generous with samples, though. Stores here are notoriously stingy about that sort of thing.
I've been very restrained and bought nothing, but I am so tempted. If you want Nars and Laura Mercier kissandmakeupny.com is great, I've purchased from them a few times. And like Dee says, cherry culture and all cosmetics wholesale are great.
ReplyDeleteAlso, paypal has started a new shopping service at hopshopgo.com so if there is something you want from companies who don't ship to Australia you can use them.
I'd love to think that if Sephora comes to Australia it'll have reasonable prices, but I doubt that it will.
Cheers Ladies :) I really don't need to shop for anymore products...when the BFG gets back from the US he will hopefully be bearing brushes from mac, urban decay stuff & a couple other bits n bobs.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to learn better eye shadow application & work with the ton of stuff I already have - sigh. I just WANT to buy buy buy all the nice stuff whilst the prices are affordable with Oz dollars ha!
But I do want more perfume oils (& soy candles - a whole other obsession), so I shall trawl your blogs to see what gem sellers I can spy n buy from :) I'm now telling myself xmas is around the corner & to think about gifts for the family...!
I have, like, a MILLION samples of perfume oils from a bunch of places - if you email me with your details (my email's on my blog), I'd be happy to send you a few to have a play with before you spend money. Just tell me what kind of notes or style you like and I'm sure I can come up with a few.
ReplyDeleteOh wow - thanks Dee! That's very generous of you. I'm just checking out sites now...I just asked Su on her blog how she applies the sample perfume oils ? I'm used to bottles of Eau de Parfum...and my other perfume oils come in the roller ball bottles... do you just wipe the oil on your skin and wait for it to dry or rub it in ? I think I'm being a dunce & missing something obvious LOL - sorry!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the proper way is to apply them (I'm sure there is a "proper" way, people get very precious about their perfumes!). I usually use a cotton bud. I rub it in - it's not really like a commercial perfume that might "bruise", so I don't see the harm in it and I don't want oil all over my clothes. Most of the sample vials come with a little wand thingie that you can use too.
ReplyDeleteJust email me when you're ready - I have to go to the post office on Friday because I have a couple of other things to send off to people, so if I hear from you before then I can post you some smellies at the same time. :-)
Cheers! I just ordered samples from a couple of etsy sellers.....couldn't help myself! It's addictive - especially with the great currency exchange right now. I'm gonna place another order with a third seller today.....obsessed much, moi? ;P
ReplyDeleteI want to buy everything... naked palette, ammo palette, MAC MAC MAC.... lucky for Miss Dee and I a mutual friend is hitting the states soon and we get to clean up BIG TIME.
ReplyDeleteDee's put you onto a lot of sites I use as well but for nails I actually recommend Head2toe (www.head2toebeauty.com)- they have China Glaze and Color Club (my favs) but also Orly and Essie. No OPI so it depends on what you like nail wise.
Happy shopping :)