THROUGH BEAUTY EYES LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING GUIDE

Crowded. Human Traffic. Late night trading hours. All the boxes have been ticked – Christmas is approaching. In fact, its gonna be here within a blink of an eye. WHO’S EXCITED HERE? I know I am. THREE MORE DAYS till 3 weeks off work and a short trip to Malaysia and Singapore. Damn straight I am.

I know many of you would have probably came across heaps of Christmas Gift Guides posts over the blogosphere over a month ago. And yes, yours truly is good at being last minute and there’s no exception to Christmas shopping this time. #awesomeatprocrastinating 

So, here you go. A Last Minute Christmas Shopping Guide.

Remember, you don’t have much time to “decide” whether a green dress is better than that pink blazer. Or having to choose between a fuchsia lipstick or an electric blue nail polish. A list is essential if you’re doing your shopping this time of the year – head to the respective store and BAM grab your stuff and head to the next store.

Your list should consist of:

1)    WHO are the pressies for? Is it your bestie, a work colleague, your family/ siblings, partner or even Kris Kringle?

2)    WHICH “categories” do these people belong to? This is why Step #1 is important. Is your bestie an eyeshadow person? Your work colleague is obsessed with hair products? Your sister has a wide accessories collection or your KK has always wanted to try the new Sports Girl lippie? Simply categorise them under “hair, “make up”, “gadgets”, “nails”, “fragrances” and so forth – whatever you think is suitable.

3)    WHAT gift to choose? Once you have categorised the “receivers”, its gift planning time. Unless he/she is a super close friend of yours and you know specifically what he/she wants, most (if not all) brands offer Christmas gift packs for hard times like this. :P

I have a few quite a number of beauty-related gift packs ideas (sorry blokes!), which hopefully will be useful for you to complete your final, last minute shopping. :D

MAKE UP

Illamasqua Midnight Bite 

($55 available at Illamasqua counters)

Create your own Midnight Bite duo for your loved ones with your choice of any Illamasqua lipstick or lipgloss. Have I mentioned how much I love their lipstick? (and I love collecting their gloss). Check out my FOTD wearing Illamasqua Corrupt HERE and my Intense Gloss haul from IMATS HERE.

Benefit Limited Edition Ticket To Glossytown 

($49 available at all Benefit Counters)

This six glitzy shades that enables you to paint the town pink, berry, coral or any colour you fancy. Super adorable packaging, six gorgeous shades at the best thing is value for money (less than 10 bucks per gloss!), what more can you ask for? 

Benefit Limited Edition I'm Glam Therefore I am Kit

($69 available at all Benefit Counters)

Get the Christmas/ New Year party started with this essential kit! At $69, you get a 4 shade eyeshadow palette, glamming face powder with brush, Girl Meets Pearl Liquid Pearl, lip gloss in Life on the A List, a little bit BADgal lash mascara and a double-ended sponge applicator. This kit just screams bargain! 

Jane Iredale Chocoholicks Lipgloss Palette 

($50 available at Margifox - Jane Iredale)

Chocolate and Lipgloss? YES PLEASE. Craving for chocolate but that waistline is getting a tad out of control after all the festive food? What's better than Jane Iredale Chocolaholicks Lipgloss Palette? This palette contains lipglosses in Blood Orange, Espresso, Very Berry and Chilli Pepper, along with a retractable lip brush. 

HAIR

 

Remington’s Style Collection 

($53.95, available from all leading electrical retailers)

With a powerful hair dryer (with 6 heat/speed combinations), straightener (with ceramic plates to lock in moisture) and a tong (with a 19mm ceramic barrel), this styling pack is the ultimate gift for your (girl) friend/sister/mum if she enjoys styling her locks.  Who said you need to be a celeb to have ever-changing hair style? All you need is Remington’s Style Collection for Christmas. :D

KMS California REAL LIVES. REAL PEOPLE. YOUR STYLE Christmas Sets

($54.95 available in salons nationwide) 

With 13 varieties of gift sets to choose from to compliment your individualised style and hair care needs, combining MOISTEREPAIR, COLORVITALITY, SILKSHEEN, ADDVOLUME, CURLUP, FREESHAPE, HAIRPLAY and HAIRSTAY. 

Goldwell Color Christmas Sets

($39.95 - $44.95, available in salons nationwide) 

Designed with a difference and an element of "Christmas Chic", Goldwell Duo, Trio and Quad Sets come with a sleek and versatile clutch in either Gold or Classic Black. 

BODY

Loccitane Delice des Fleurs (Rose & Violet) OR Loccitane De´lice des Fruits (Lemon & Clementine)

(Eau de Toilette 75mL - $49.95; Solid Perfume 10gr - $9.95; Shower Jelly 250mL - $24.95; Body Milk 250mL - $34.95; Hand Cream 30mL - $9.95; Rose Lip Gloss 5gr - $14.95; Violet Lip Gloss 5gr - $14.95; available at Loccitaine stores and http://au.loccitane.com/)

These two new collections introduced by Loccitane specially for this festive season offer a wide range of irresistible scent and delicious body products and even candles! *smells self* LOL

Soap & Glory Limited Edition You Cube 

($39.95 available at Kits Cosmetics or www.kitcosmetics.com )

This travel-sized favourites consist of Righteous Butter (150mL), Flake Away (150mL), Clean On Me (75mL) and Shower Puff. I purchased a full-sized Righteous Butter, Clean On Me and Flake Away a while ago (hauled HERE) after finding out how awesome Flake Away is after my Asia Haul last year. This is definitely THE gift for someone who is a sucker for anything that smells good. 

MoR Lip Macaron in French Kiss and MoR Luxuria

(Lip Macaron: $12.95 and Luxuria: $19.95 available at selected David Jones/ MYER or www.morcosmetics.com )

MoR carries a HUGE range of body, face and lip products, which by the name of it sounds absolutely delicious. You Had Me At Marshmallows, Lychee Luxe, French Kiss... you get the drift. Simply headover to  www.morcosmetics.com to find out more about the awesomeness of MoR. 

OTHERS

Illamasqua Bespoke FREAK Gift Set 

($200, available at all Illamasqua counters)- $200

Included in the gift set are the intoxicating first fragrance and your choice of any shimmering Pure Pigment, awards- winning Nail Varnish and Sheer/Intense Lip Gloss. You are getting the best of every world. :P This Limited Edition Gift Set would be the perfect gift for your girlfriend (IF and only IF you know her favourite scent well though).

  

YANKEE Candles 

($19.99 for a Housewarmer small jar or $37.99 for a Reed Diffuser. Available online at www.yankee.net.au )

Christmas At The Beach reminds you of summer heat with its delicate, aromas of exotic summer fruits with a twist of pina colada.

Happy Christmas encapsulates the scents of a European holiday with a blend of evergreen pine trees, sugared fruits and warm hearths.

Christmas Cookie is a recipe of spices, eggnog and buttery rich icing. (Sounds like something I would put into my mouth :P)

I hope this Last Minute Guide helps you lovelies who leave shopping till last minute. :D

Have you done all your Christmas shopping? 

What are your favourite picks this Christmas?

XOXO,

A

Collective Haul - Part 1

Happy Saturday everyone!!!

I spent all Saturday being a slob, watching Sex And The City in bed with my pjs on all day although the weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was nice and warm with the sun shining brightly, just exactly what Sydney needed after those insanely chilly days. I have been busy with events, catching up with friends, Fashion Weekend after my CA paper so it's good to finally have some relaxing "me time", doing absolutely nothing! 

If you followed me on twitter, you would of probably known of my impulsive online shopping spree during my study break (and maybe a couple more before that :P). Imagine being cooped up at home for a week studying, the least I can do to make me feel better is some retail therapy. You know you went a little overboard when people at work thinks you have a problem due to the constant delivery. LOL. That's the reason why I will be splitting the collective hauls into parts. 

Without further ado, I will stop babbling any further and share my purchases with you guys. :)

LOVISA

If I had to choose to wear only ONE kind of jewellery, rings definitely tops the list, especially statement rings! How can I miss the opportunity when Lovisa was having their $5 sale?! I rarely pay full price for rings cos I can be quite a tight arse sometimes they usually go on sales at a really reasonable price too. 

My favourites are the knuckle ring and the watch-ring (although the watch doesn't work.lol).
Which one is your favourite?

LUSH

There's nothing better to end a crap day at work than to have some retail therapy at LUSH and get some awesome body products. Ok, maybe zumba and a CC dry helps too but thats besides the point. :P

WHOOSH - shower jelly with revitalising essential oil blend of refreshing grapefruit. I picked this up because I was rather intrigued by its wobbly jelly texture and all you do is rubbing WHOOSH is between your palms before applying it all over your body. 

Rub Rub Rub - body scrub which smells a little bit like my toothpaste. =/

Charity Pot Hand & Body Lotion - Hand cream that smells like chocolate.

I have mixed feelings about this product - whilst it works pretty good as a hand cream, a hand cream that smells like chocolate is a tad weird. To me at least. Just in case you don't really know, I am all for scented products! But chocolate scented hand cream just doesn't really do it for me.

Skin Drink Face Moisturiser Sample

HOT DOLLAR, BURWOOD

Hot Dollar in Burwood actually carries stuff from Japan for only $2.50. EVERYTHING for $2.50! They have HEAPS of random, cute stuff in the shop, not exactly useful but extremely adorable! It takes ALOT of effort for me not to buy the entire store. I did, however picked up a few stuff including an awesome umbrella (which got stolen when I was at the gym! Pffft) and some random gym towels. Lol. Don't worry, I wouldn't be boring you with those randoms just the beauty-related ones. :)

Heart-shaped ash tray (at least that's what I think it is) 

I don't smoke but I thought these will be an awesome home for my newly purchased rings from Lovisa. :)

A storage thingamajig, which I knew would be perfect to store all my lip products! I'd love to own one of those awesome lipsticks holder but 1) They are way too expensive for a make up storage 2) I would probably need more than one to be able to fit all my lip products. 

$2.50 and it fits ALL my lipsticks and lipglosses. Perfecto! 

I know I should place a lipstick ban on myself but I just LOVE lipsticks. I am currently lemming for MAC Candy Yum Yum lipstick but I have quite a few bright fuchsia lipsticks but they aren't one of those everyday colours suitable for work. SHOULD I?

Another make up storage box, which I used to store my eyeshadow trios/quads. :)

Cute bloating paper - My face is anything but oily but I use this to bloat my sweat without smudging my make up. 

Super cute falsies box.

SOAP & GLORY from KIT COSMETICS

I got my first Soap & Glory product - Flake Away during my trip to Singapore last year and I absolutely LOVED it. But knowing Australia, we are deprived of alot of awesome brands and being the noob I was, I had to ask around on twitter as to where can I get Soap & Glory products. Thanks to the lovely Jade who told me that KitCosmetics stocks them and they were having free shipping at that time. BOOM! An order was made within minutes! 

I was so happy when the delivery came the next day at work, totally made my day! I love receiving packages when I am at work, especially when I had a shit day. :)

Clean On Me Shower Gel - $14.95

The Righteous Butter Body Butter - $27.95

Flake Away Spa Body Polish - $17.95

Definitely my HG body exfoliator!!! I used this twice a week and it leaves my skin extremely smooth after and it smells so yummy too! 

I will be doing a review on these Soap & Glory products soon as I really love them. :)

SHOPBOP.COM

I have always wanted the original Ray-Ban Wayfarers and when a friend of mine kindly informed me that ShopBop was having free shipping during Easter in between one of our "study breaks", I knew it was time. Gotta take advantage of the strong Australian Dollars!

Ray-Ban Oversized Wayfarers - Approximately $135 (if I am not mistaken).

This is definitely a steal, considering it retails for at least $200 in departmental stores. #OnlineshoppingFTW

You know you spent a little too much when you are unable to fit all your shopping hauls in one post. My credit card statement just arrived yesterday and it wasn't that pleasant. I think its about time place a shopping ban on myself. We will see about that. 

Stay tune for Collection Part 2. :)

What have you haul-ed recently? Anything exciting?

XOXO,

A

ASIA TRIP HAUL PART 1 - SINGAPORE :)

Hello lovelies!!

How was your weekend? Mine was awesome while it lasted and now it's back to work again! Weather was absolutely glorious for the first time all summer and yours truly managed to FINALLY got herself tanned yesterday and maybe slightly burnt. Lol. I had the usual Friday night drinks with the crew and attended Vclub (my gym) New Year - Mad Men themed party on Saturday. Will post some photos from the party once I got hold of the ones from my friend's camera. =)

What did YOU get up to during the weekend? :D

ANYHOOS,

my long awaited Singapore-Malaysia haul post is HERE alas! It has almost been a month since I got back! I will separate the stuff I got from Singapore and Malaysia as some stuff are only available in Singapore and it's too long to put them all in one post!

 Did I mention how much I LOVE WATSONS Singapore? (It's equivalent to Priceline in Australia and Walmart in the States.) My sisters think I am weird for wanting to go in every Watsons I saw LOL They have SO MANY awesome Asian brands like Canmake, Skin 79, Kate, Liese, Palty, Essentials and the list goes on! 

SINGAPORE HAUL

I got a couple of Essentials stuff  (and MANY other stuff lol) from WATSONS as I have heard heaps of good reviews about them in the past. And after all the heating I have done to my hair, I really should be showing my hair more TLC. 

L: Essentials Anti Frizz Serum

R: Essentials Nourishing Care Lotion

I barely touched the Anti Frizz Serum as I have recently chemically straightened my hair and they are still nice and non-frizzy. I do however, apply the Nourishing Care Lotion after I wash my hair each time.

Essentials Ultra Honey & Shea Butter Hair Mask

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this product SO FREAKIN' MUCH!!! If you followed me on twitter, you would of seen the random raves I had about this product! 

This is my new HG hair mask and I definitely swear by it! It leaves my hair SUPER soft and smooth after using it. I have been using it every 2 days as my ends are pretty bad at the moment. I wish I stocked up more on this hair mask! 

BIORE Make Up Remover Wipes - To be honest, I reckon all make up remover wipes are pretty similar. The genius me forgotten to put in my make up remover before I left for the airport because I had shitloads of one too many drinks during my Christmas Party the day before and I really needed one. And since XiaXue raved about this product so much, I decided to give it a go! 

I bought this Rimmel Lycra Pro Professional Finish Nail Polish because my Leopard Printed Nail Wrap was peeling and for those of you who don't already know, I can't stand unpainted nails. So there you go! 

CANMAKE Crack Lac Nail - which created this awesome "nail art" in less than 15 minutes with just one generous layer on top of Rimmel Lycra Pro Professional Finish Nail Polish. 

For full tutorial, click HERE. 

I really like this Crack Lac thingamajig! I wished I have bought more colours though. :( See what I meant by Singapore's Watsons offers awesome stuff? 

DUO Eyelash Adhesive - My HG eyelash glue, nuff said. 

CANMAKE Cheeks Powder in PW 19 - My current favourite blush!!! :D 

Have I mentioned how much I love CANMAKE products? I wished I hoarded more of them when I was there though =.="

Maybelline Volum' Express Waterproof Mascara - It's Hello Kitty and it's pink, need I say more? :D

LIESE Bubble Hair Color in Milk Tea Brown and Cassis Berry

I bought them because I have seen them around the blogosphere and I can be quite a hoarder like that LOL. I really wanna try Milk Tea Brown but my current hair colour is pretty dark and I am still abit iffy about the whole hair dye thing because the last time I dyed my hair with the most gorgeous mahogany colour, I had the worst allergic reaction. (Think: deformed face, swollen eyes and face, "burnt" scalps". Yes, it was that bad that I needed steroids.) We shall see about that...

SEPHORA is definitely the place I was most looking forward to visit, after Marina Bay Sands and Universal Studio of course. For those of you who don't already know, we don't have SEPHORA here in the land down under. =.=" Even if we do, I am pretty sure the price will be ridiculously inflated too. 

I was expecting to go crazy in SEPHORA but only managed to grab 3 stuff, way below my expectation LOL. 

URBAN DECAY - THE BLACK PALETTE!

I was actually debating between this one and their Limited Edition NYC Palette but there are 2 very similar colours in that palette and I doubt I will even use it and thought this Black Palette looks pretty good too, and well, not as main stream as the NYC Palette. (Although I doubt I will use this as often as my Naked Palette because it's just too pretty to be used! )

Look at how pretty these colours are! And it comes with a travel size primer and a full size Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On in Zero (which found its way back to my every-day must haves!)

SEPHORA Mineral Foundation Compact - I bought this simply because I wanted to try a "Sephora" brand make up LOL. I was on a lipstick ban (which I kinda regretted not buying now BOO!) at that time and I wasn't really looking for eyeliners or eyeshadows so yeh. 

 The last item I got from SEPHORA was Soap & Glory's Flake Away Body Scrub! Claire recommended me this product and I gotta say best recommendation ever because I absolutely love it!! I feel so "clean" and refreshed after using it and it smells amazing too!!! I am definitely a sucker for anything that smells good! :) 

As for the BENEFIT SOME KIND-A GORGEOUS Foundation Faker, I got it from Raffles City if I wasn't mistaken. I was contemplating about it when I was in SEPHORA as I don't really need another "Foundation" (Tinted moisturizer and BB Cream are my best friends!) But yeh, clearly I gave into temptation. Lol.

That pretty much sums up the Make Up I bought from Singapore! I LOVE SINGAPORE's shopping!  I bought a couple of shoes and a bag from Charles & Keith and Steve Madden too and some other random stuff too. 

Let me know if you want a detailed review of any of these products. :) Have you tried any of these products? Any favourites?

ASIA TRIP HAUL Part 2 - Malaysia is coming up soon!!! It took me ages to have this post up, so the next one is probably in the next couple of days. STAY TUNE! 

XOXO,

A