Christmas/New Year International Giveaway!!!

Hi lovelies!

First of all, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who entered my Birthday/Blogiversary Giveaway. Thank you for all your tips, I have definitely taken them to heart and will be working on some tutorials for 2013. A big congratulations to the winner, Michaela T! I hope you enjoy your prize!

And now on to the good news, welcome to my Christmas/New Year International Giveaway! I've actually been planning my Christmas giveaway for a while but as I will be away for almost a month (returning early February 2013), I won't be able to send the prize out until I return, so I thought I would just let it run until I get back. 

Christmas is probably my favourite time of year, I get to spend time catching up with the family, enjoying warm weather, and all that delicious food and drink! Plus, it's great fun shopping for your loved ones (and sneaking a gift or two for yourself into your shopping basket in the bargain)! I really couldn't not do a Christmas giveaway, it's my way of celebrating Christmas with all my lovely readers! I adore Lancóme cosmetics, it's one of my favourite high end brands (I adore the luxurious products and packaging) so I thought I'd do a Lancóme giveaway for Christmas! Here's a peek at the prize pack on offer!

Giveaway contents.
Lancóme Colour Design All-In-One shadow palette containing five shadows and a liner in Violet Magnetique (I own this palette, scroll down for swatches)
Lancóme  Ombre Hypnose single eyeshadow in Rose Etoile
Lancóme  mini eye crayon in Noir - black (I own one and love how very dark it is, it's perfect for waterlining)
Lancóme mini L'Absolu Rouge lipstick 

They say a photograph tells a thousand words, so here are several!

The Lancóme prize pack!

The palette.

The single shadow.

Mini lipstick and mini eye pencil.

These swatches are taken from my palette. You will get a brand new one!

I'm very excited to be sharing this giveaway with all of you, and hope it goes to a lovely home!

All you have to do is answer a simple question, as specified in the Rafflecopter widget below.

Please note, if you do not answer the question that I have asked, I will have to eliminate your entry from this competition. Following me by GFC is mandatory, so please provide your GFC name in your comment. Illogical answers will also be eliminated. As always, you can tweet once a day for more entries. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wishing all my readers a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Good luck!


Much love,
MM.
x

PS- I will still be updating every now and again, but make sure you follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as I will be more active on those social platforms!

PPS- As some of you may have noticed, I have extended the date of my giveaway as I had to delay my return to Melbourne due to recovering from surgery, so figured I'd give you all more chances to enter!

Event Review: The Body Shop Festive Treats.

Hi lovelies!

Thank goodness it's Friday! It has been super busy lately, I think it's something to do with the fact that December is party central, so I've been spreading myself really thin with social events, farewell parties, blogging and preparing for my upcoming holiday (I leave in ten days, woohoo!).

Anyhow, here's a post I've been dying to share with you for a while but only just managed to find time to write! A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to The Body Shop launch party for their Christmas collection (entitled Festive Treats). Now, I have a bit of a soft spot for The Body Shop, as it's a brand I have been using since my early teens. In fact, I'm quite sure that my first perfume and first few makeup products were actually from The Body Shop!

The Festive Treats collection is aptly titled because everything is centred around a mouth-watering, candy oriented theme. This includes the gift sets and the design of the packaging, all of which took about a year to bring to fruition!

The inspiration board behind the Festive Treats range.

The gorgeous ladies from The Body Shop marketing team talked us through the collection and explained a little about the new limited edition (yes, I did say those two magical words) makeup collection, as well as their new skincare/body lines.

The gorgeous ladies from The Body Shop talking
us through the range.

The limited edition makeup range.

Look at the cute accessories in the skincare/body range! I love the little Christmas pudding shaped sponges.

The limited edition skincare/body range.

Here's a close up of the makeup range. It has two shadow palettes, four metallic eyeliner pencils (also perfect as bases for the shadows), two glitter powder puffs, a kabuki brush to apply the glitter, and two lipsticks (a coral and a bright red). I have heard that the coral is sold out at most stores though it still appears to be available from their online store (at the time of writing).

Back: Smokey Copper eyeshadow palette on the left,
Smokey Moonstone palette on the right.

I took some quick swatches of the shadows and found them to be smooth, buttery and pigmented. This is the Smokey Moonstone palette. I think this would be better suited to cool toned beauties.

Swatches of the Smokey Moonstone palette.

Here are swatches of the Smokey Copper palette. I think this would be better suited to warm toned beauties.

Swatches of the Smokey Copper palette.

Swatches of the two Colourglide Shine lipsticks, Rare Coral on the left and Ruby Sparks on the right.

Rare Coral on the left and Ruby Sparks on the right.

We were also treated to a little makeover demonstration, using Alix as the gorgeous model, while a Body Shop trained makeup artist explained the range to us in full.

The limited edition skincare/body range comprises of gingerbread, vanilla and cranberry scented products, available in body lotions, body butters, body scrubs, scented oils and many others.

The packaging is also collectible and reusable, meaning you can use it to store your keepsakes once you've used up the products inside! It was also explained that the tins are suitable for storing food, for example, biscuits.

One of my favourites from the collection was this gorgeous gingerbread man shaped tin, containing products from the gingerbread line!

It had the following items inside.

What a gorgeous, collectible gift set.

And last but not least, this adorable gingerbread man mitt, which adds a bit of fun to every shower, for young and old!

We were also treated to a gorgeous candy bar, and some very delicious savoury treats, together with glasses of bubbly, wine and juice.

At the end of the night, we were given a little goodie bag of candy to take home!

We also received a goodie bag containing some of the limited edition range! I was so excited to see both palettes in there, because I couldn't decide which one I wanted more!

Never fear if you aren't located near a Body Shop store, you can also purchase from their online store! In fact, I have noticed that some items that are sold out in stores are still available on the website, like the coral lipstick! Click here for more information on the limited edition makeup collection, and here to read up on the skincare/body range.

I hope you enjoyed that little review, lovelies, and hope that it's given you some amazing ideas for Christmas presents! I must say I have already fallen in love and purchased a couple of the limited edition products as gifts. Next on my wishlist is a couple of the eye pencils, they were so pretty when I swatched them on my hand, and I'm lusting after Copper Brown and Golden Brown!

Sending a big thank you to The Body Shop for inviting me to their Festive Treats event! I really enjoyed getting reacquainted with the brand and learning about what happens behind the scenes.

What did you think of the collection, lovelies? Is there anything you are lusting after from this collection?

Much love,
MM.
x

Channelling Maleficient - Disney Villain Inspired Look.

Hi lovelies!

It's Wednesday again, which not only means that the weekend is a short two days away, but also that it's time for another installment of the weekly makeup tag (hosted by the gorgeous Aqeela, click here to visit her blog). This week's tag was Disney, which I decided to interpret by channelling Maleficient, the wicked fairy godmother from the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. If (like me), your fairy tale days are a wee bit further back than you'd care to remember and you need a refresher, you can read all about Maleficient here, and this is what she looks like.

Now, I realise that this probably isn't what comes to mind when you think Disney (let's face it, most people are likely to go with the Disney princesses)...fair enough, but I thought Maleficient was such an interesting look to pull off! She's sometimes portrayed with green skin, but I decided to do with a more modern, 'ugly-pretty' version of her!

Products used:

Eyes
Black shadow to form the arched, angular brows
Models Prefer purple eyeshadow pencil as a base, applied over the lid up to the brows
Models Prefer black eyeshadow pencil on the waterline/lower lashline
Miscellaneous Venomous Cosmetics eyeshadow samples over the mobile eyelid
Maybelline Master Precise eyeliner
Maybelline Falsies waterproof mascara with ModelCo fibrelash mascara on top

Face
Colorrevolution Creme Caramel mineral powder foundation
Sleek blush by 3 palette

Lips
Shisheido lipstick sample
Vani-T lipstick in Screen Siren

I hope you enjoyed my Disney inspired look! Don't forget to visit Aqeela's blog to see what the other ladies have come up with. Maleficient is such an interesting character, don't you think? Who was your favourite Disney villain?

Much love,
MM.
x

Product Review: BYS Magnetic Polishes.

Hi lovelies!

I put out a question on my Facebook profile a few days ago, asking what you all wanted to see next on the blog, and the answers were heavily skewed towards a nail art post, which is what brings us to today's post on the BYS Magnetic polishes!

If you are new to the concept, magnetic polishes are a special range of polishes containing metallic particles. The theory is you hold a specialised magnet (usually located in the cap of the polish) close to the polish after painting your nails (this must be done while the polish is still wet) and you get a ripple effect forming where the metallic particles are drawn to the magnet. It's really a very easy form of nail art as different magnets can give you waves, spirals, stars and many other designs.

BYS magnetic polishes.

I'm not new to the magnetic effect, as I have Ulta3 and Layla magnetic polishes in my stash (I promise I will eventually get around to reviewing them) but it can be a little fiddly to get used to initially. My advice is to always get the nail as close to the magnet as possible, but without being so close that the magnet can smudge your wet polish. Remember to always align the magnet in the same direction so that all your nails look similar (unless you want different patterns, of course)!

BYS Magnetic polishes
L-R: Jupiter, Venus, Fuchsia-ristic & Titanium.

I was sent four lovely shades, called Titanium (gunmetal grey) , Venus (metallic purple), Jupiter (gold) and Fuchsia-ristic (fuchsia), with two of the wave patterned magnets and two of the diagonal striped magnets. Like the BYS graffiti polishes I reviewed earlier, these polishes are truly stunning on their own, even without the magnetic effect applied! I must admit I did struggle a little with some of these, sometimes the patterns developed beautifully on some nails but not so much on others!

BYS Magnetic Titanium

BYS Magnetic Fuchsia-ristic

BYS Magnetic Venus

BYS Magnetic Jupiter

I then thought it would be fun to do an alternating magnetics manicure with Fuchsia-ristic and Venus, and this is what it turned out like!

As you can see, some of the polishes have a very striking pattern (like Fuchsia-ristic and Venus), while the others have a more subtle pattern (like Titanium and Jupiter). Overall, though, these are gorgeous shades and a complete steal at $6.95. There are nine shades in the BYS magnetic range (purple, pink, grey, gold, silver, red, blue, green and maroon), and they are available from Fashion Addict or from BYS stockists like Kmart and discount stores.

What did you think of these easy nail art polishes, lovelies? Are you into the magnetic effect? Do you think you might purchase these?

Much love,
MM.
x


Note: This product was kindly provided for my consideration. This has not affected my opinion in any way. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Fall/Autumn Inspired Look!

Hi lovelies!

I can't believe that December is almost upon us! Christmas is a meagre 28 days away!

Anyways, it's Wednesday today, and that means it's time for the weekly makeup tag! The theme this week was fall or autumn inspired makeup.

I do apologize for the quality of some of the photos; I was really struggling with my camera, it was refusing to cooperate and then the battery died on me, so I had no choice but to use my iPhone for the full face photos.

Products used:

Eyes
Black shadow from the Beauty UK Day and Night palette
Essence black gel liner (on the upper lashline)
Harlotte black eyeliner for lower lashline
Maroon, platinum and orange shadow from the Me,Me,Me Fire Eyes Quad (review to follow soon)
Maybelline Falsies waterproof mascara

Face
Youngblood mineral foundation in Toffee
Inglot blush (not sure which number it is as it's in the palette)

Lips
AB lipstick in Micro Galaxy

I was inspired to create an eye look with the colours that come to mind when I think of fall, gold/orange/maroon, and the lipstick is actually quite a dark brown/maroon, but for some reason, it's appearing more red in the photos! The blush was also quite strong but again, not showing up too well in the photos.

I hope you enjoyed that, don't forget to visit out Aqeela's blog to check out what the other participating ladies have come up with!

Much love,
MM.
x

PS - Have you entered my international birthday/blogiversary giveaway? It ends in 3 days so get in quick! You can also tweet once a day for extra entries. Click here to enter!