Chanel Body Oil

Well, this has now been added onto the lust-have list. I wasn't aware that there was a bathing range added recently to the Coco Mademoiselle Perfume line. I will be checking this out in store on the weekend :)

Behold the Chanel Coco Mademoiselle Velvet Body Oil!

Description online reads:

Velvety oil perfumed with the feminine and sexy, young and exciting scent contains emollients, moisturizers and conditioners, for a pampering treatment that softens, hydrates, soothes and scents. The stunning, sheer, dry oil texture gives skin a beautiful satiny sheen and leaves it feeling as soft as velvet. Sprayed onto the skin, it releases a fine shower of droplets that sink in immediately, so you can get dressed shortly after application.

RRP:$105
200 ml

I love a good body oil, and I really think layering of a chosen scent works well to keeping a longer lasting fragrance on the body. This will be on the wishlist I suspect.

Do you know of any other lovely scented body oils I should check out?
I've recently finished my last bottle of Apivita oil, which I really liked.

Nars Junkie at Sephora

So far I have been avoiding the Sephora website for fear of a major spending splurge to coincide with their Family & Friends 20% off store wide offer......

Then I saw this !

Beauty In A Box: NARS Junkie ($121 Value) only $69

Comes with a how to guide & contains (via Sephora website):

* Essential Eye Palette - 5 x 0.05 oz Eyeshadow in Night Star (sheer peach with gold pearls), Galapagos (rich bronze with gold flecks), Nepal (rose with shimmer), Ondine (plum with gold shimmer), Thunderball (midnight gray) plus 0.03 oz Cream Shadow in Unconditional Love (peach beige shimmer)
* 0.28 oz Lip Gloss in Ophelia (strawberry nectar)
* 0.14 oz mini Multiple in Orgasm (peachy pink shimmer)
* 0.08 oz mini Bronzer in Laguna (brown with golden shimmer)

Have I mentioned how much I adore neutral palettes before ?! I so don't need another one, but this set has really grabbed my attention. I haven't tried any Nars products before - other than the freebie from Mecca Maxima recently.

I only wish it contained a more matte / less shimmery brown colour eyeshadow in the palette to use on my eyebrows.....I think the black would be too dark & harsh, but it's a small gripe & maybe the brown would be ok to use in a fix (despite all my makeup stash, I often discover I've left my most used products at home - when travelling or staying at the BFG's - can make for some interesting trial & error application efforts with the 'reserve' items!)

Will you (or have already!) be taking advantage of the Sephora sale?

I'm considering finally trying out  Hop shop go as a parcel forwarding service - anyone used it yet? Let me know if you think they're good or know of an even better service best for Australians to use.

Cheers!
Melbournite x

Spotted : Freebie at David Jones

Hey there, posts have been put on hold whilst my misplaced camera cable makes its way back to me :(     

Without it, uploading photos is a nightmare. Hopefully by the weekend I'll be up & running again.

In the mean time, spotted the below in the MX newspaper this afternoon. David Jones are offering a Rimmel Freebie Sample Bag from Thursday 28th to Saturday 30th October.

Get in early (first 75 customers only per day to receive sample bag) to avoid disappointment. 
I should clarify - this was advertised for the Bourke Street Mall store in Melbourne. Unsure if it is a national offer advertised for other DJ's stores interstate. 
Let me know if you manage to get one - I'll try myself too :)

Melbournite x

Long Lasting Manicure

Ever since I saw reports popping up about the CND Shellac Manicure I've been dying to have one done.
But, my hands & nails are in such a state right now, that it wouldn't be worth the high cost of trying out......yet anyway.  Then I saw this!

It's the new Sally Hansen 14 day Nail Shield. Has anyone tried this out yet? I don't even know how much it costs, but I'll check tomorrow if I can find in any of the mentioned stores :)

Too Faced Enchanted Glamourland Holistic Palette

As soon as I spied this on the Sephora website, I just wanted it. I don't need it, I have palettes coming out of my ears at this stage ! but look how pretty it is :D

This set contains:- 15 x 0.03 oz Eye Shadows in: In The Buff, Exclusive Nude, George & Weezie, Velvet Revolver, Honey Pot, Teddy Bear, Exclusive Purple, Boy Toy, Peach Fuzz, Exclusive Green, Label Whore, Glamazon, Exclusive Plum, Ooh & Aah, and Stiletto
- 0.35 oz Shadow Insurance primer
- 0.12 oz Glamour Gloss in Pillow Talk
- 0.08 oz La Vie en Rose Blush
- 0.14 oz Snow Bunny Bronze
- Three Get-the-Look instruction cards

This is what I want in a palette!! As much as I'm coveting the Urban Decay naked one, this could over take the current lust-have. I just wish they would cut down on some of the cutsieness and make it smaller / easier to use....if possible. Not everyone have masses of bathroom / bedroom space to set these large kits down to use during application, me in particular!

So - what do you think - value for money or avoid?

Melbournite x

Mecca Maxima in Melbourne

Ok, I finally made it to the new kid on the block - that being Mecca Cosmetica Maxima (try saying that fast!) at Melbourne Central. And ya know what - I'm just gonna put it out there - I thought it looked on the small size ! I don't know if I had too high expectations, or all the press hype was misleading, but I swear it looks bigger in photos & on tv. I actually prefer the ever evolving Bourke Street Myer - in the midst of it's renovations & full of future promise.

That being said - the staff were lovely. Super friendly & helpful. I was disappointed to note that at mid-day on a Tuesday, the store was missing quite a bit of display stock, along with actual products - like from the Too Faced range, general make up brushes etc. It looked a bit slack & lacklustre in that respect - being so newly opened & all you'd think they'd want to be out to impress from the start. I also wasn't surprised to see the HUGE price tags still. I'll be very interested to see if they introduce sales etc to drum up business further down the line.

Anyway, I gratefully handed over my email sample voucher & was given the below - SCORE! :D

 A little 7.1 ml smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer to try out & a mini Nars 'the multiple' stick thing in the colour south beach. This has RAVE reviews on Makeupalley so I am really looking forward to trying it out. Pretty chuffed with that - Thanks Mecca!

Pillowcases

There is something distinctly unfair about having annual leave from work & ending up ill throughout the entire time ! Especially when you're not even at your own place. I enjoy spending time at the BFG's house, it's comfortable enough & I cart over a load of my girlie crap to be satisfied. But it's the small things that you forget about, and in this case, or whenever I go travelling in fact, I forgot & missed my silk pillowcases. Yep - I know that sounds lame, but it's kinda gross not only waking up daily feeling shite, but also looking it too! And after sleeping on silk - I can confirm - there is a noticeable difference when you swap back to the plain old cotton covers.

In my time, I've read up on numerous articles on how best to ward off the aging process (without resorting to injectables). One of the more laughable theories is to only sleep on your back to avoid wrinkles......I say laughable because seriously - have you tried it? Not as easy (or comfortable) as one would think. But something that stuck with me was the supposed benefits of silk pillowcases.

Apparently due to the slippery texture, it discourages facial crinkling / wrinkles whilst sleeping. Supposedly it also creates less friction on your hair, meaning no dreaded bed hair. To say that I had been coveting one to try out for some time is an understatement, but I refused to pay the extortionate prices being fetched. And then after a visit to Thailand (famed for it's silk), my parents brought me back some to try out. And I can confirm - they are GREAT!

Not to everyone's taste - many will find them too slippery & cold to sleep on. I've just been impressed with the no bed hair & the lack of 'sleep creases' on my face in the mornings.

So when I forget to pack one - it's a reminder the next day of WHY I'll not be returning to cotton cases any time soon. And it's on that note that I mention they do need protection whilst washing. And as I'm lazy & loathe hand washing, into the machine they go! Enter the delicates wash bag. I've bought the cheap $ shop netted ones, & they are just nasty & get ripped up fairly fast (at least in my top loader they do!). Which is why I stocked up on these when I spied them!

Found in Target on the weekend, reduced to $1.86 each......Bargain! Stock up now ladies, your delicates will thank you & last longer to boot :)

Mac Brush Sets

Woohoo - my MAC brush sets goodies have landed in my lap!

Haven't had time to unpack or play with them yet, but here's a (really bad) pic for starters.

They are the following & each set came in their own bag:

Do the trick buff & line brushes
Morning noon & knight everything brushes
Wave of a wand sweep and define brushes

All purchased from The Cosmetics Company Store in the US for $34.75 each.

The handles are shorter than I was expecting (& I knew being sets they would be smaller than the regular brushes), and I also got 3 other regular brushes to compare to my Sigma brushes. All up, still a better buy than purchasing them in Australia! Will post more pics / reviews once I've started using them :)

Clarisonic Mia

That's right - it arrived today! Got it charging as I type - since it takes 24 hours......sooooooo long to wait.

It has International voltage, but still requires a travel adaptor to use in Australian plug sockets - good job I have a couple already.

 Hopefully the hype is worth the price tag. Fingers Crossed!

I'll review after a few weeks of use - see how I'm getting on with it.


lilpil from Things I Love did a review on the Clarisonic Pro recently, which spurred me on with my purchase of the Mia :)

Urban Decay Primer Potion - Depotted

Don't you just hate it when a product you love is packaged badly? It really detracts from the otherwise all round awesomeness of it. Urban Decay Primer Potion is one of those. Why oh why did they package it in the weirdly shaped mini bottle, that doesn't allow you to use ALL the product you have purchased? People have been complaining about it for years, yet only just now have they launched a tube version (a freakin' LARGE one at that) of the original primer, but still continue with the crap packaging for the other colours. 

I love the 'Sin' colour primer and pretty much wore it daily (mostly through laziness to be honest) until it just became too time consuming trying to get enough on the applicator. I swapped to the Too Faced Shadow Insurance in a tube and had to start applying eye shadow again. That was until this weekend, when I finally got around to cutting it open - wasn't that difficult as it turned out - and I now have a wee pot to finish off over the next few months before repurchasing - YAY!

I've noted that if the pot doesn't seal properly, the primer will dry out - which is a total waste of product & effort. I'm hoping that the little clinique pots I salvaged recently will prove to be air tight enough - considering they held moisturiser  with no problem, I'm hoping I don't stand corrected. 

Eye Liner Pencil

This morning was one of those crappy starts to the day. Nothing in particular happened, I was just tired, disorganised and therefore running late to catch my train to work. To get to the station on time meant compromising on my usual routine – which I hate and sucks! I also didn’t get to play with my new eye shadow palette – wah.

So, today was a bare basics 5 minute face effort. Not something I’m fond of, but at least it makes me look human enough to get to work, run around the office for a bit before I can whisk myself off to the ladies and get a bit more slap happy!

It was here whilst rummaging around my handbag for products that I rediscovered the humble eye liner pencil. Yep the old school ones – nothing fancy like all the new  creamy ‘crayon’ types. Nope – this was the original Maybelline Expert Eyes Twin Brow & Eye Pencil 

I have no recollection of even purchasing this, nor the last time I’d used it. I’d noticed that in my rush I’d managed to get mascara onto my eye lid......messy makeup aint a classy work look! I wondered how I’d go trying to camoflage it with black liner along my top lash line.......but this pencil is the hard type & not the style I’ve been using for a few years now.

I sharpened it and gave it a whirl, and to my surprise – it worked great! It left a fine line of black definition along my upper eyelashes, and without any effort. I think it was even easier to apply than any of the other pencils I own at home or with using a brush, and gave a fantastic looking result! I think the key is to keep the pencil really sharpened to a point. I know this means using up the product really rapidly – but they’re cheap as chips if you can find them! I’m now going to hunt out some more.

Isn’t it amazing what you find in your handbag when you least expect it.

Does anyone else use these type of pencils anymore and can recommend some other brands to try out? Cheap brands especially!

Perfume Lust (again)

I work in an office, and being relatively new to Melbourne, I thoroughly enjoy heading out each mid-day to prowl the shops during my lunch break. Today’s effort was spent skulking around beauty counters picking up some samples to try out.

I happened to be passing the Chanel counter and decided it was the perfect time to acquaint myself with their fragrance lines.

Oddly enough – I have utterly no recollection of what the cult classic Chanel No. 5 smells like ! I house shared with a friend who had made this her ‘signature scent’ and I don’t recall it smelling unpleasant, but I do remember having brief sniffs of the Chanel range and thinking none of them were to my taste.

Today was heading into that direction again as I recoiled in horror from the Chanel No.19 bottle.......big turn off for me.

I dutifully sprayed the next bottle on a tester card, and fell into instant perfume lust. At last – something I liked!

That my friends, turned out to be

I think I’m starting to see a pattern of what scents appeal to me.

Notes listed are:

Top notes: orange, bergamot, mandarin, Tunisian curaçao

Middle notes: morning rose, Italian jasmine, ylang-ylang, mimosa

Base notes: Indonesian patchouli, Haitian vetiver, Bourbon vanilla, white musk, opoponax, tonka bean

I sprayed Coco Mademoiselle on myself to see how it fared for the rest of the day, but it’s been perfume adoration since first sniff. I’m now in fragrance lust and MUST HAVE it!

Haven’t yet checked what the perfume guide book says about it......I’m not ready to burst my happy bubble yet if they completely savage it!

Anyone else dig Chanel fragrances or you avoid it like the plague as I have done for years?

Bargain Finds

Hey, hope your week has started out well enough. I've been flat out busy along with trying to update my blogger template ... which is a work in progress!

However this morning I spied this lovely bargain & thought I'd mention it. With Christmas coming up fast - now is the time to be stockpiling gifts away without breaking the bank! This could make a nice gift for your Mum / Mother in Law, or you could even separate it out to make a few gifts for friends & family.

Buy some cute little boxes or bags and I'm sure the receiver would be chuffed with the thoughtful pressie :)

This, along with a few other beauty bargains can be purchased from
 My Chemist currently.

I like to keep an eye on these type of stores regularly for any such bargains!
Let me know if you do the same or can recommend any others for me to check out (online or nationally in Australia!).

Cheers!
Melbournite x

MBT Tambo Boots

Well my fandangled new boots finally arrived – hurrah – about time! Not used to ordering via these discount websites whereby it then takes them 3+ weeks to send the items out..... spoils the thrill of the purchase somewhat – but meh – ma boots made it to me!

And they’re not just any ordinary pair of shoes......they’re the MBT Tambo Boots – woo!

 If you’ve not heard of MBT before – where have you been?! They were pretty much the starter company with the trend of negative heel technology. This sums them up:

The uniquely-designed, multi-layered, curved sole is designed to simulate walking in sand (similar to the natural walking environment of the Masai in Kenya).  This creates a natural, uneven walking surface and forces the body to use all the major and stabilsing muscle groups, thus training the whole body to move correctly.

MBT’s are not running shoes – they are designed for walking in.

Some of the benefits claimed are:

They improve posture & gait

Tone & shape the body

Can help with back, hip, leg & foot problems

Reduce stress on knee & hip joints

I’ve been a fan / wearer of Earth shoes & Fit Flops for a few years now, so the above benefits are not new to me. However the curved sole is......it’s advised on their website that you watch a video tutorial on how to wear the shoes correctly !

So, that’s what I’m about to do and here it is for you to check out too if these type of shoes appeal.

I’m hoping to wear them to work tomorrow .

Yes - sadly Melbourne weather is still freakin’ cold enough to be wearing boots daily – sigh.