Australis Creme Colour in Flirtatious Pink | Review, Swatch

I love using creamy products in Winter, as I think we need all the moisture our skin can get, so I was interested to try out one of the Australis Creme Colour cheek and lip tints in Flirtatious Pink.

Product Claim

Soft crème colour for cheeks and lips creates a sheer finish for a subtle, candlelit glow. The rejuvenating and refreshing formula reduces dehydration and signs of fatigue.

2 in 1 product! Ultra smooth texture, so smooth that it melts into the skin leaving a subtle glow for lips and cheeks.

A cool bonus for this blush/ lip product is that it is also vegan!

Now on to the review...

I think this is another solid offering from Australis. The colour of this creme product on the cheeks is the perfect pink-flushed glow that looks great on everybody (except darker skintones may have trouble making this show up).

The formula is sort of a waxy texture that does absorb into the skin nicely. I even quite liked this on my lips, but it does need a gloss overtop as it can be a little drying, and has a very slight taste of something mildly unpleasant, but with a gloss overtop that goes away.

Heavy Swatch of Australis Creme Colour in Flirtatious Pink

The same swatch above sheered out. This is more accurate as to what it looks like on the cheeks.

Staying power is pretty good but not amazing, but I find with a powder blush layered over top in the same light pinky tone it lasts all day.

Overall, I think this could be a nice wee addition to anyone's makeup bag. I especially think this could be great for travel when you don't want to lug around heaps of products too!

PRICE  Around $17NZD

AVAILABILITY  Farmers Stores and selected pharmacies in NZ. 

RATING  A

Chi Chi Lipstick in Fashion Police | Review, Swatch & Photo

Recently I've started to brave wearing a bolder lip colour, and spotting this lipstick in the Chi Chi stand at Farmers, thought I'd give it a shot.

Product Description

Viva La Diva … all will hail when they notice your dramatic, richly coloured, matte pout. These super saturated, ultra pigmented lipsticks glide on effortlessly leaving a velvety-smooth, long wearing, hydrated finish. Enriched with Beeswax, Calendula, Vitamin E, Evening Primrose and Jojoba Oils these lipsticks are non drying, moisturising whilst at the same time drowning your lips with super rich, fashion hues …. This is the perfect lipstick, its what made our lipsticks famous… Why would you use any other lipstick?

I do agree that these lipsticks are incredibly pigmented, the following swatch only took 1-2 swipes to build up crazy colour.

I purchased the shade 'Fashion Police' which is a bright watermelon pink, verging on a red. If you are not used to wearing bright shades, this may be a bit of a stretch as it is very bright, but you can blot it to create a very pretty toned down bright lip (which is what I have been doing).

The lipstick is a matte finish, but glides on smoothly and doesn't feel dry at all on the lips. There is only a very slight scent to them as well which I appreciate. 

Staying power is actually pretty darn good, and even once most of it wears off it leaves a nice stain on the lips.

The only real downside to the lipstick I can find is that it tends to accentuate any dry patches on your lips, so exfoliating them beforehand is necessary!

Chi Chi Lipstick in Fashion Police

Fashion Police

Note from the picture above, the shade is even brighter in real life, hard to capture on film!

PRICE  Around $22NZD 

AVAILABILITY  Farmers Department Stores in NZ

RATING  A

NYX Round Lip Gloss in Pink & Whipped | Review, Swatch, Pics

On my last Beautyjoint order I grabbed a few glosses to try, these two being some of them. They are certainly very cheap and nice to have to chuck in your purse for during the day.

Product Description

This NYX Round Lip Gloss provides sheer coverage with robust color to accentuate a pretty pout. Made with mineral oils and Vitamin E. Comes in 36 shades!

The two colours I got were Pink & Whipped, Pink being the more pigmented of the two that goes on quite a bright pink but dulls down slightly after wearing a while. Whipped is a pretty nude beige gloss that is pretty good for toning down bright lipsticks or if you were going for a nude lip and wanted a bit of shine.

NYX Round Gloss in Whipped, Pink.

Staying power is actually quite reasonable for a gloss, except if you are eating or drinking of course. They don't really have any overpowering scent too which is good if you don't like that kind of thing. In terms of formula they feel nice on the lips and aren't sticky feeling at all. Not bad for a cheapie!

Pink, Whipped. Notice how Pink is much more opaque than Whipped.

NYX Round Gloss in Pink

NYX Round Gloss in Whipped

PRICE  Around $2-3USD 

AVAILABILITY  I purchased mine from Beautyjoint.com

RATING   B+

Everyday Minerals Multi-tasking Concealer | Review & Photos

Everyday Minerals Description:

One of our most versatile concealers, Multi-Tasking is a very wearable shade of beige—perfect for Fair to Light complexions—that covers up blemishes, corrects under-eye circles, and can be used as a highlighter to draw attention to your best features. Use a little in the corner of your eye for an instant perk up.

Suggested Use

Sprinkle the concealer powder into the lid of the jar. For best application, use a concealer brush. Dip your brush into the powder and apply directly onto the area of your skin in which you want extra coverage. Concealers perform best when applied before your foundation.

Supplement Facts

Mica (Cl 77019), Lauroyl Lysine. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (Cl 77891), Iron Oxides (Cl 77491, Cl 77492, Cl 77499), Ultramarines (Cl 77007).

Mica: Is a naturally occurring mineral noted for its transparent sparkly luster.

Lauroyl Lysine: An all-natural amino acid derived from coconut fatty acid, contributing to the products silk like creamy texture and spreadability qualities.

Titanium Dioxide: An inert white mineral that is used as a color adjuster.

Iron Oxides: Cosmetic pigments used to add depths of color.

Ultramarines: An inorganic vibrant pigment used to add color.

To start off with, I'll mention packaging. It's obviously not the highest quality packaging (but you are really paying for the product not the exterior with cheaper makeup brands aren't you). Saying that, the lid twists shut firmly and the three small dispensing wholes give off just the right amount of product onto the lid for use which is nice as you don't waste product.

As you can see from the pic above, the concealer powder is very light, definitely reserved for fair/light to maybe medium skintones. I'm NW20 and this suits me fine. The consistency is very smooth and soft. Darker skintones maybe could use this as a subtle highlighter along the cheekbones?

As for performance, they recommend you use this concealer powder pre-foundation, which I found to be next to impossible unless you are using a mineral foundation. Powder under liquid just doesn't work I'm afraid! I tried this powder on bare face (scary) to see what kind of effect it has, and it does tone down redness subtly. If you are looking for a full coverage concealer look away.

Here I have a photo of a light application of the multi-tasking concealer on my bare skin (please muffle your screams...) so you can see what is does without any other product interfering. 

I tried to make the lighting as similar as possible in each photo. As I said, this is a light application on bare skin so the results aren't going to be amazing, but you can sort of tell that my undereye area is brighter and more awake looking. I think the end result actually comes off better IRL.

Oh and also, if you have a dry undereye area, this does settle into fine lines if you don't wear it over a liquid concealer or foundation (as you can see above). 

In terms of blemish coverage, this is useless. But I did find that over top of my regular liquid concealer and foundation this set my undereye area and helped lighten up the whole area which is always helpful, especially if you suffer from dark panda eyes like moi. 

Because they have marketed this concealer as multi-tasking, I'm not going to rate this product as highly as if it were purely an undereye brightening powder (which I think it should be). I didn't find any luck with this on blemishes, but if you are looking for a simple and cheap undereye powder, this may be worth your money.

PRICE  $5.99USD

AVAILABILITY  Mine was purchased from iherb.com

RATING  B

Ecotools Six Piece Essential Eye Set Review

Picked up this beauty for less than $10NZD on iherb.com, keep reading to find out more!

Ecotools is an amazing cruelty free company that has very decent products at great prices- sounds too good
to be true right? But they prove that you don't have to pay a lot to have decent makeup brushes.

Product Description From Ecotools

• Includes On-the-Go Travel Bag!
• Earth-Friendly Beauty
• Beautifully Soft with Bamboo & Recycled Materials
• Look Beautiful and Live Beautifully Every Day

Our reusable cosmetic bag is made with natural materials & EVA.

EVA is free of phthalates and PVC.

This brush set makes it easy to complete any eye look. Use the large eye brush to blend a base shadow over the entire eyelid. The angled crease brushadds definition to the outer crease of your eye, while the petite eye shading brush is perfect for an accent color. Use the highlighting brush to accentuate the brow bone and inner corners of the eyes. Complete the look with the smudge brush by smudging the shadow and liner along the lash line for a smoky finish.

Essential Eye Set brushes are made from soft, cruelty-free bristles, recycled aluminum ferrules and sleek bamboo handles.

The brushes themselves are pretty soft- not the softest I've ever felt but definitely not at all scratchy or uncomfortable.

They are shorter than regular brushes but not so short that they are hard to use, and appear to be well made. I haven't struck any shedding yet which is good!

As you can probably see from above, the large eye brush is massive and almost covers my entire lid! It works pretty well at placing nude shadows across the whole lid quickly, but I wouldn't try it with any darker shadows as it will get a bit messy (understatement).

The angled crease brush is also pretty large, but I do like this for putting a darker shade on the outer V and lightly along the crease.

The highlighting brush is named weirdly, as this is obviously more of a standard crease brush and works well at its job.

The last two brushes are actually my favourites and why I bought the set. The petite shadow brush is perfect at getting a targeted area like the outer V or doing a cut crease. It's very small and able to pack on colour very well. The smudge brush is even smaller and amazing at smudging out liner or shadow along the lower lash line and also highlighting the very inner corner.

Pug Photobomb!

PRICE  $7.99USD (under $10NZD)

AVAILABILITY  I purchased mine from iherb.com, cheap and quick worldwide shipping and great first time shopper bonuses.

RATING  A