Lust Have It – ABBW Luxury Lust Pack

We really did get extra special treatment at the ABBW. Part of said extra special treatment was a special Luxury Lust Pack from Lust Have It.

This is my 3^rd Lust Have It pack and I have to say I’m really impressed. I wasn’t sure what the Product 

Sample Boxes would be like here in Australia and I’m pleased to announce that they have really lived up to expectations.

We did get spoilt with our ABBW Luxury Lust Packs as they did feature some full size product. Here is the full list of everything in our packs:

Mirenesse Secret Weapon Mascara – Before the Lust Have It packs I hadn’t really heard too much about Mirenesse, but from what I’ve tested they do nice products so I’m really looking forward to testing out this mascara. I also really like that it’s tube mascara, which makes for really easy to remove. No more panda eyes.

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark – This is part of the Touring America collection. It's a really nice dark purple color; it looks almost black in the bottle. I really love OPI nail polishes so I’m really looking forward to testing this out. 

Pure Fiji Coconut Milk Shower Gel – We got this is our last Luxury Lust Packs and I really love this shower gel. It smells great and is really hydrating, so I like that fact that we got more of it!

Kerastase Elixir Ultime – We also got this in our last Luxury Lust Packs last month, but I haven’t tested it out yet.

Laura Mercier Foundation Primer – I have heard really good things about this primer so I can’t wait to try it.

Nougat Rejuvenating Hand Polish – I’ve never heard of Nougat before so I’m eager to try this product out plus it smells really good.

Dermalogica Skin Hydrating Mask – I recently found out that apart from my really oily t-zone, I have dry-ish skin so this mask should be really good for me. I also love Dermalogica products so this should be really good.

BIOEFFECT EGF serum – We got this in the 1^st Luxury Lust Pack and I have been using it for a few weeks now. I have to say it’s a pretty good serum. My skin has improved since using it and a little bit goes a long way. I’m happy that I got another one. 

I love my Muff! – These are feminine refreshing wipes. So the “Muff” really is what you think. Personally I think these are a good idea and I’ll give it a go. Not sure if I’ll blog about it though; it is a bit personal so might not be something I was to post on the Internet!

I think that was a pretty amazing Luxury Lust Pack since it featured a full size mascara and nail polish. 

I also did a YouTube video about this Luxury Lust Pack if you feel like checking it out!

Nat xoxo

IMATS - Finally!

As I have mentioned numerous times, I attended the IMATS as part of the ABBW. I was really excited about the IMATS because as being part of the ABBW I had the opportunity to e-mail interview Elessa Jade, Donna Mee and Napoleon Perdis prior to the IMATS event.

So by the time the event came around I was pretty excited and I’m very happy to report that the event was excellent. The overload of beauty stands and information was overwhelming, but in a very good way. I was able to find out information on some really great brands that I hadn’t heard of or tired before. I could really write an endless post about everything from the IMAST, but I have summarised it down to my highlights. 

Illamasqua were selling products for about 1/3 of the price that they are normally. I haven’t tried Illamasqua products before but I have heard friends, blogger and make-up artists all mention how great their products are. So I thought while they were so cheap I would take advantage and grab a few for myself.

I picked myself up a nail varnish in Propaganda (Love the name! LOVE!), 2x fine eye pencils in Classic and Uncanny and a precision ink gel liner in Alchemy. So far I have tried the fine liner in Uncanny and the precision ink in Alchemy and love them!

I’ve heard some really great things about Inglot, who also had a stand at the IMATS. I have wanted to try Inglot’s Freedom Palattes for a while, so I picked myself up a really awesome palette with 4 x rainbow palettes.

I know I could have gone all out and got some crazy colors, but I wear neutral colors all the time so I thought it would be the best way to try them out.

Not to brag, but since we were part of the ABBW we did get some special treatment. We were offered a free lucky drip gift from Serge Louis Alvarez. SLA is a make-up company from France and will be launching a new bio collection soon. I spoke to one of the brand mangers about the range sounds really nice.

On to the lucky dip!

I got a blush mirage in Peach. This product is actually really cool. It looks like a lipgloss and goes on like a powder. Once blended in it turned into a cream-like blush. It’s pretty impressive.

We also had some lovely VIP treatment from Royal & Langickel. They booked a private area for all the ABBWers where we could relax, have some nibbles and also get our make-up touched up and nails done. If that wasn’t enough they also gave us a lovely brush kit.

This actually came at a really good time because my brushes are starting to look a bit gross and I’ve been thinking about investing in some more.

While I was at the IMATS I thought it would be good to see one of the speakers that they had. And I saw Elessa Jade do a make-up demonstration.

I was also able to do a short interview with Elessa Jade after, and I have to say she is so lovely. She is really friendly and also really easy to talk to (which makes interviewing a lot easier! Trust me!).

Elessa Jade said that when she started her beauty site pursebuzz.com she didn’t start a blog, but it ended up getting labelled that way. She also said that it was important to find your niche when blogging a stick to it. Moving on to make-up, Elessa said that due to the brights and prints that Australian women wear, they tend to stick to “natural” make-up looks. A good way to introduce colour into your make-up routine is through eyeliner. It’s a very subtle way to add colour without being over the top.

I would also like to point out that Elessa was wearing Jeffery Campbell shoes.

And that was my IMATS experience!

Nat xoxo 

ABBW – Day 2: Sunday 25th

Day 1 of the ABBW was a pretty epic day, so who knew day 2 would be just as amazing?!

We started the day with an Alpha-H event. This was a great event because we got to learn all about their Liquid Gold product. I’m not a sucker for advertising and a good PR spin, the results of working in the Media industry, but I was seriously impressed with this product. The lovely Alpha-H ladies knew the product so well you would have thought they had hand made it. They answered everyone’s questions and seemed to live and breathe the product. We were lucky to get an introductory Liquid Gold kit, which I have started to use and so far I love it!

Following our Alpha-H education, we had a Face Of Australia make-up training session. Face Of Australia started it’s 1^st Look-Book in August and we go to see the looks 1^st hand. Make-Up Artist Kirsty Dolores took us through the looks, plus the lovely people at Face Of Australia gave us each a bag full of full sized make-up products to create these looks ourselves.

I also found 2 really great tips:

1. Highlighting brings forth and Bronzing recedes. So when you highlight a part of your face it becomes more noticeable and Bronzing adds depth. I know that might sound pretty basic, but I’ve never thought about it like that before.

2. You need to change the way you highlight and bronze your face based on your face shape.

Another handy hint, if you can’t work out the shape of your face, trace it with eyeliner or lipstick or some cream product in the mirror. That will help you work out your face shape.

Can you believe the day did not stop there?? Procter & Gamble sponsored our final event of the day. They organized for Bahar Etmian the creator of rescu.com.au to come in and give us a keynote speech. I have to say, I loved this keynote. It was so great to hear Bahar talk about her experiences in the beauty industry and also hear her valuable advice. It was really inspiring and a great way to end the ABBW!

And that’s my summary of the amazing events of the ABBW! It was such an amazing experience and really helped further my knowledge of the beauty industry and allowed me to meet some really great people. I can’t wait for ABBW 2012; I’m sure it’s going to be bigger and better (if that is even possible)!

Nat xoxo

ABBW – Day 1: Saturday 24th

Day 1 of the ABBW was amazing, much like the rest of the ABBW! We started off the day going to the IMATS.

The IMATS was a pretty amazing and very overwhelming. There was so much to see and discover. I got a chance to see Elessa Jade display some of her awesome make-up skills and got the chance to do a mini interview with her, which I really loved and she gave me an awesome pink bow headband.

After the IMATS we had a seminar put on for us by The Beauty Directory. I really enjoyed this seminar because they covered off how bloggers should deal with PR and the media, gave so tips and tricks and also explained the etiquette. There was also a panel with Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries, Eleanor Pendleton the beauty editor from InStyle and Jackie Maxted from the Beauty Directory. The Seminar featured 3 niche/cult brands come and talk to us, Lapurete, Pure Therapy and Trishave. 

Here is a breakdown of the brands and their products:

Lapurete has a range of skincare products that are made from natural ingredients and features a secret that has the same effect as Botox. The secret ingredient in Lapurete is Okuru, which is a plant found in Western Africa. The seeds in Okuru contain a combination of peptides that minimise wrinkles. Lapurete has a cult following in the celebrity world and is starting to be talked about. Personally I love cult products, so I was quite excited to hear about this range. We got to choose between the Day Cream, Night Cream and Eye Cream; I chose the Day Cream.

Pure Therapy has a range of skin and body products designed for people with sensitive skin and for people with skin conditions. Pure Therapy is made preservative free and contain oatmeal and fatty acids. We got a few products in the range to try.

Trishave has a range of shaving cream like products and moisturising products for men and women. The Shaving Creams are desired to cleanse the skin, soften the hair for shaving and prevent ingrown hairs. The moisturising lotions are all SPF 30+, are really sensitive, non-greasy and also designed to sooth the skin after shaving. We received the entire range. I have given the men’s range to my boyfriend to try and so far he seems to like it.

After the seminar we also got bombarded with another amazing goodie bag and a special ABBW Lust Have It Pack!

We finished the day with an amazing dinner event at the Establishment hosted by Maxted Thomas. There will be an epic blog post on this event, because well the event was epic.

And that was just the 1^st day!

Nat xoxo

ABBW – It’s a wrap!

The ABBW is over and let me tell you it was EPIC! It was honestly one of the most amazing, crazy, information-overloaded, exciting and beauty packed weekends I’ve ever had.

I would say the key take-outs of the weekend would be:

1) There are some awesome beauty bloggers in Australia.

2) The IMATS is a pretty amazing event.

3) I didn’t know there were so many beauty products out there (trust me there are heaps and they are now taking over my living room until I work out what to do with them).

This was the tip of the iceberg trust me!

4) Companies/Brands seem to love bloggers and are REALLY generous with the products they give out. This really did surprise me!

5) Maxted Thomas PR throw amazing events and work with some really great brands.

6) Kimmi from The Plastic Diaries and Jacie from You’ve Got Nail are superwomen! They really are. The ABBW was fab and they pretty much did everything to make sure it was fab.

I’ve already covered off what amazing products that we got when we registered and would you believe it didn’t stop there! I will be doing posts summing up each day so you will have to wait to see the amazing bags/products we got. But I’m seriously going to be blogging about this weekend for the next year (pretty much until ABBW2012).

I just wanted to take some time to thank everyone involved for making this such an amazing weekend, for not only me but also the 83 other bloggers who I’m sure had an amazing time as well. It was so humbling and astonishing at the generosity and the time spent making sure that we had the best time possible.

Kimmi and Jacie, I really think you need to add Superwoman to your credentials because how you organized a weekend like this is beyond me.

More posts are going to follow this week showcasing everything that we got and also some products that I’m going to be trying out ASAP because they look pretty damn amazing. So watch this space!

Nat xoxo

ABBW - Registration (Pre Day 1)

Today has been a bit of an epic day. I went to the city, got an eyebrow wax, got tortured by a Benefit cosmetics counter woman who didn’t know how to apply make-up and almost made me look like a walking tomato, got my JC Litas from work (YAY) and registered for the ABBW! WOOHOO!

And let me tell you, the weekend hasn’t even started yet and already I have more beauty products then I know what to do with.

How amazing are these bags! They are amazing now but they weren’t so amazing trying to carry them all on the train lol.

Welcome gift number 1 from Garnier.

In the box: Garnier Caffeine Eye Roll-On, Keep Cup coffee cup.

Welcome gift number 2 fro Dove.

How cute is this tote bag?! And in the bag: Dove toiletries bag, Dove Anti-Perspirant Deodorant spray and roll on. We also got Dove Nutritive Nourishing Oil Care Shampoo, Conditioner and Treatment. These little puppies don’t launch until October 2011, so that’s pretty exciting that we get to try them before they hit shelves.

Welcome gift number 3 was pretty epic from Australis, Le Tan and Innoxa.

Again another really cute bag, perfect for the beach. The Australis products that we got were: Ready Set Go Finishing Powder, Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Blush, Lipstick in Quickstep, Colour Inject Mineral Lip Gloss, Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Tinted Moisturiser, Eyeshadow Primer, Make-up Finishing Spritz and Nail Colour in Citrus and Blue Tiger. The Le Tan products we got were: Face Tan Instant and a really cute Sarong. The Innoxa products we got were: Exhilarate Body Lotion, Exhilarate Hand Cream, Hydrating Body Wash and SOS Skin Tissue Oil.

Pretty damn amazing huh?? And I would also like to mention that all products we got were full size. It was really so lovely.

So the ABBW is off to a pretty amazing start. I can’t wait to see what is in store for tomorrow!

Nat xoxo

The ABBW is THIS weekend…

Yep you heard me, this weekend! I’m so excited!

If you don’t know what the ABBW is, you are missing out let me educate you. The Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend is a weekend for about 80 beauty bloggers to get together and discuss all things beauty.

We will be going to the IMATS (YAY), going to a number of beauty events and also have the pleasure of attending an amazing Gala dinner event on Saturday night. I don’t know about you but it sounds pretty awesome to me.

There are also some amazing Event and Product Sponsors on-board.

The event sponsors are the IMATS, Face Of Australia, Alpha-H, Maxted Thomas.PR, Rescu.com.au, P&G beauty & grooming and the Beauty Directory

The product sponsers are fashion addict.com.au, sukin, L’Oreal Professionnel, Australis, Innoxa, Le Tan, Dove, Shoemistress, Lust Have It, Goldwell, Neutrogena, Mirenesse, Ulta3, Tan-Off, Bio-Oil, SLA, KMS, Australian Hair & Beauty, Carmex, Pureau, Kevin.Murphy, Royal & Langnickel, VS Sassoon, Garnier, Taut and Ocean Spray

Pretty amazing brands and products huh?!

No dobut there will be lots to blog about after so watch this space next week for the ABBW blog posts.

In the mean time you can check out my IMATS blog post and my IMATS interviews with Donna Mee, Elessa Jade and Napoleon Perdis.

Nat xoxo

For the love of facials…

I have a confession to make; it’s only been in the past year that I have started to get facials. I know for someone who preaches all things skincare, I really should have started getting them earlier. Truth be told, I have had them in the pat, but I never enjoyed the experience so from the age of 16 I pretty much stopped getting them until…

I was taken to Danks St Beauty with a media owner as a thank you (I know hard job I have) and I loved every minute of it. My face wasn’t red, it didn’t hurt and more importantly my skin looked amazing. So I have been hooked ever since.

And it’s a might good thing I started going as well!

The lovely Danks St Beauty salon. It really is lovely. I highly recommend. They also use Dermalogica products.

See I have been told that your facialist (yep my own work) not only gets to know your skin really well so they know exactly how to treat it, but they can also help you with your skin routine. Because they are experts they are also able to tell you things about your skin that you might not even have known yourself.

See facials make you happy!

This was something that happened to me on Saturday. I went to get a facial and I found that that my skin was pretty dry. I have never though of my skin being dry because I have such an oily T-Zone. But apparently I have combination/dry skin with an oily T-Zone. Go figure. So I should be using hydrating products and then just treat the oil with make-up as opposed to skincare. It was a “are you serious” moment. But I’m really glad that I found out so I can amend a few things in my skincare routine.

So there you have it. Getting a facial is a really good idea! I think the main thing is finding a place that you like; make sure you like the products and like the person giving you a facial, because they are working on your face after all.

Nat xoxo