BeautySnippets.com is now LIVE

Hi guys,

Beauty Snippets is now being hosted on its own domain *YAY* so please update your bookmarks, readers, feeds to the new domain 🙂

http://www.beautysnippets.com

We’re Moving

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to let you know what’s going on. I have bitten the bullet and purchased my own domain!! I feel quite restricted with what features I can and can’t have and I’ve been contemplating this for a while now. I finally understand everything thanks to Little Hero Hosting and thought why not?

As a result, there won’t be many, if any, blog posts for about 2 weeks as I try and get this project up and running 🙂

I’m quite excited and I want to thank you all for being such a great audience to write for.

Love, Beauty Snippets xx

BBQ Madness, Parramatta

Before I met my boyfriend 6 years ago, I did not know of one Malaysian person let alone eat Malaysian food. Oh how sheltered my life was! I absolutely love Malaysian food now and it’s become one of my top 5s when it comes to food.

Last Saturday (1st October), I dragged my boyfriend to Parramatta despite the abysmal weather and had a lil look around at the BBQ Madness event held by Malaysia Kitchen Australia.

Alvin's cooking demonstration

They had Florence Tan (a well-loved Malaysian chef, apparently), Wanitha Tanasingam (another famous Malaysian chef), Adam Liaw (Masterchef 2010 winner) and Alvin Quah (Masterchef 2010 contestant) do cooking demonstrations. Unfortunately, we only made it just in time to watch a bit of Alvin’s demonstration.

The crowd listening and watching Alvin

He was awesome – really interactive and natural 🙂 Billy Law (Masterchef 2011 contestant) also made an appearance.

Look - it's Adam and Billy

They had a 7 Malaysian restaurants from around Sydney participate in their ‘BBQ Madness’ which was set up hawker-style. Essentially, you just line up, purchase tokens for $5 each and swap the tokens for the food on offer by each restaurant. We arrived at 1pm and it was madness! With an hour left of the event to go, there was still a massive long line to purchase the tokens and an even bigger line inside the square to purchase the dishes! I derived a strategy and my boyfriend happily obliged LOL it was the only way we could get our food ASAP and get out of the busy crowd.

Tokens!

As it was nearing closing time, we only ended up getting the ayam bagus (which were HUGE) from Kampong Boy and a plate of char kway teow from JackieM (one of my favourite Malaysian restaurants!).

Char kway teow from JackieM

Just wanted to have a little rant here – while we were in line, a lady behind me started having a little bitch about how ugly the food was presented and how it didn’t look appetising etc Really? You’re paying $5 for an entree size dish from what is essentially a market stall. If you wanted 5 star presentation, then please make your way to an actual restaurant and not a market stall.

The busy square

Anyways, that aside, the food was great. Jackie M never fails me 😉 And the chicken wings were a bit messy to eat but they tasted delicious. The chicken was tender and the peanut sauce was yummy. Obviously, my inept ability at describing food is the reason why I’m a beauty blogger and not a food blogger!

Ayam bagus from Kampong Boy

The restaurants were also offering laksa (Oriental Tucker Box), nasi lemak and ais kacang (Ma’Leisia Cafe), lobak and roti canani with curry chicken (Penang Cuisine), otak otak and chicken satay with tumeric rice (Temasek), Malaysian satay and pulut panggang (Albee’s Kitchen Malaysian Delights). Kampong Boy were also selling beef rendang and teh ais limau but alas, we got there too late and I think most things were already sold out by 1pm!

Oh and there will be a Malaysia Festival this Sunday (9th October) at Darling Harbour so come along and have some great food 🙂 For more information, click here.

OPI La Paz-itively Hot with OPI Silver Shatter

OPI La Paz-itively Hot is a bright hot barbie pink with violet shimmers. It makes for a gorgeous Summer pedicure shade and works well on your fingers too.

OPI La Paz-itively Hot

OPI Silver shatter is well..a silver shatter. It dries and looks like foil! 🙂

OPI Turquoise and Silver Shatter

I have nothing much to add to these comments. I didn’t *love* OPI Black shatter but the Silver shatter works great. And OPI La Paz-itively Hot provided a great contrasting background to the Silver shatter.

OPI La Paz-itively Hot with OPI Silver Shatter

The ABBW – Part 1

If you’re following me on Twitter, then you will know that I attended the first ever Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend (ABBW)!

I’ll be blogging about the event in 3 parts as it’ll just be too wordy and picture heavy if I did it all in one go.

So for me, like a lot of other beauty bloggers, it all began on Friday 🙂 I made me way to the Benefit Brow Bar in Paddington to get a complimentary brow wax and tint. Whilst I was there, I bumped into Tara and we had a mini catch up. The brow tint got me all nervous as it was my first time getting a tint. The Benefit lady didn’t make the tint too dark or too light so as not to make me go into shock when I see my brows lol! She then filled in my brows – another first. I wasn’t used to having such dark and prominent brows but later that night, the girls said my brows looked good. I hope they’re not just saying that 😛

Benefit goodie bag

I left with a gorgeous Benefit goodie bag which included a cute hand held mirror and the brand new Watt’s Up, due to be released on October 8th. It’s a brand new highlighting product from Benefit and we all know I love my highlighters 🙂

Benefit goodie bag

After Benefit, I visited mum at work to show off my new brows lol and then headed to Alexandria for the Rae Morris event.

Rae's studio

Sweaty Betty PR organised a fantastic event – they had freaking macarons (macaroons?) which tasted lovely.

The spread at the Rae Morris brush collection launch courtesy of Sweaty Betty PR

We sat down for about an hour of learning about Rae’s new brush set and she also shared some great tips for make up application.

Rae demonstrating how soft her brushes are

What I learnt from Rae:

– Few select make up artists purchase their brushes from a man in Japan.

– These brushes cost a minimum of $400USD each. They’re all handmade.

– Rae used to purchase hers from this man but found herself still making adjustments to the brushes to suit her needs. When she was approached by Crown Brushes to make a brush set, she set out to make the best brushes in the world. Rae aimed to have her brushes to be as good and even better. As for the price tag, well, they can’t be more than $400USD! The brushes in the Rae Morris collection average around $35USD each.

– All her brushes have the PETA tick of approval.

– The brushes are made from blue squirrel – most expensive animal hair besides mink. The handles are made from recycled bamboo and for every brush set sold, a new tree is planted!

– THEY’RE MAGNETIC. This amazed me. Rae’s reasoning for this is when you’re a make up artists working shows, photoshoots etc, brushes just seem to go walkabouts. Having them magnetic means you can find them easily in a short period of time. She’s coming out soon with a magnetic tray which you can use to place the brushes.

– For every brush in the collection, there is a corresponding handmade (hand drawn?) face chart showing you what each brush does.

Rae’s brush launch includes a set of 26 brushes for $899.00 which may be out of reach for many of us. I reckon they’re an investment though and if I had the moolah, I’d so purchase it. If you break it down, it works out to be about $35 for a brush which really – is about the same or even cheaper than MAC brushes here in Australia for much better quality! Unfortunately, the brushes are only available as a set so for the mean time, I shall just dream about the brushes.

Rae Morris brushes (Image taken from the Sweaty Betty PR Facebook page)

Rae Morris brush collection launch

I was blown away. I left the event feeling very pleased 🙂 Rae was generous enough to gift each of us with either a radiance brush or a deluxe precision shader brush.

Generous gift from Rae

After all that excitement, I still had to get myself to Darling Harbour to register for the ABBW!

I was about 10 minutes late for registration but luckily Jacie and Kimmi stayed open for registration for a bit longer!

I was so glad to finally meet Jacie, who is so witty and has perfect nails and Kimmi, who is a professional at what she does.

Passes!

At registration, we were given our passes (this was what I was looking forward to) but what I didn’t count on were the goodie bags from LeTan, Australis, Dove and Garnier. These sponsors were so generous!

The generous goodie bags from Garnier, Le Tan, Australis and Dove

After registration, some of the Sydney bloggers grabbed dinber at Hurricanes. I love Hurricanes – it never disappoints which is why there is always such a long freaking line.

My dinner at Hurricanes

Dinner was lovely. It was good to grab a bite, have a drink (well some did) and share a few laughs (sweet and salty, anyone?)

After all that fun, it was time to head home and get ready for the first official day of the ABBW.

IMATS Haul

IMATS haul

(Sorry for the various lightings throughout the pictures. The sun was playing hide and seek.)

I attended IMATS this year as part of the Australian Beauty Bloggers Weekend. It was my first time attending IMATS and despite the amazingness of the show, I am undecided as to whether I will attend next year. I am not a big fan of crowds and IMATS was just PACKED with people. Hands were flying, trying to grab onto anything and everything.

Inglot

My first purchase was at the Inglot stand which was INSANE.

Inglot madness

Inglot haul

It was so overcrowded and Inglot didn’t have a very organised system. I was lucky I had my wonderful friends (Michelle, Anita, Tara, Angela and Angie) to help me decide on which shadows to get.

Swatching at Inglot

Seeing as I have never tried Inglot before, I thought it be best I stick with the 4 pan palette and just get 4 shadows to try. I made it my mission not to get any neutrals as I’ve got a truckload of neutrals to play with at home. It didn’t help with Anita grabbing some of the most gorgeous neutrals I’ve ever laid eyes on! After 15 minutes or so of swatching, I decided on: DS 504, AMC Shine 15, Pearl 452 and Pearl 446. I paid $28 for the 4 shadows (works out to be $7 each) and then $6 for the 4 pan.

This was handy. A pull-back sticker type for the shadows. Easy to remove the shadow from the packaging.

Top: (L) Pearl 452, (R) Pearl 446/ Bottom: (L) D.S 504, (R) AMC Shine 15

After I had made my first purchase from Inglot, I went to the neighbouring stall and got two pairs of false lashes whilst waiting for the other ladies to finish their palettes 🙂

Girlee Cosmetics stand

I got these from Girlee Cosmetics – 2 for $10.

Girlee Cosmetics haul

Whilst we were waiting for some of the girls to get served, which felt like FOREVER, some other ABBW attendees came past and informed us of the bargains at Illamasqua so that was our next stop.

Chaos at the Illamasqua stand

There was a very limited range available and a lot of the good stuff were already sold out. However, me being me, did not want to walk away empty handed from Illamasqua because the prices were amazing.

Illamasqua haul

I got Libido cream blush for $15!! and Petulant intense lipgloss for $10. Bargain or what? I’ve got 2 other Illamasqua cream blushes so I know I won’t be disappointed. They’re amazing – blendable, pigmented without being overbearing and long lasting staying power.

Libido cream blush and Petulant intense lipgloss

I also got my hands on a Make Up For Ever aqua cream ($25).

Make Up For Ever stand

Make Up For Ever HD foundations

We were at PM Studio and found that the prices were a bit more wallet friendly than the actual Make Up For Ever stand and there wasn’t such a huge crowd 🙂

Make Up For Ever haul

After some ooh-ing and aah-ing, I settled on #18, a lilac mauve shade. I’ve never tried them before so I’m looking forward to having a play.

Make Up For Ever aqua cream #18

Whilst we were walking around IMATS, I made sure to keep an eye out for traincases. I’ve been looking at train cases for a while now but the freight costs made me avoid purchasing them online. I found a lovely one at The Make-up Foundation. It was selling for a ‘special show price’ of $75 so I grabbed one. It was so heavy lugging it from the convention centre to my car which was like a 5 minute walk LOL Big thanks to Angie for helping me lug it 🙂

The Make-up Foundation train case 02

It comes with six trays in total, three on each side. It’s also got a deep bottom section. Comes with 2 keys and a strap in case you (or .. I) want to carry it around 🙂

The Make-up Foundation train case 02

My two last stops were for BRUSHES! That’s what I really came to IMATS for 😛 Made my first stop at Royal and Lagnickel.

Royal and Langnickel - organised chaos

 

Royal and Langnickle haul

– Small stippler c255 $7
– Angle fluff c505 $5
– Taklon pointed lip c656 $3
– Large smudger c445 $5
– Foundation c200 $10

Just wanted to say how much I LOVED Royal and Langnickel’s system. You grabbed the baskets at one end and make your way to the other then pay! So simple and effective.

My last stop was of course at Crown Brush which was packed even more than Inglot was! So many people. I did manage to get some brushes after some pushing and shoving (it helps to be small sometimes).

Crown Brushes haul

At Crown Brush, I got:

– Pro spoolie c115
– Oval shadow ib108
– Tapered blush ib105
– Round crease ib116
– Round angle blender ib111

The disposable sponge tip applicators and other spoolie are for my mother 🙂

And now, as if this post isn’t ridiculously picture heavy already, I’ll be leaving you with some more pictures! 🙂

SFX makeup

More SFX makeup

Orly Wandering Vine

Orly Wandering Vine

This is my first experience with Orly nail polish and Wandering Vine is lovely. It’s a lovely lush dark green. Very “vine”-ish lol. It applied evenly with no problems at all. I loved the finish. Even without Seche Vite, it dried to a very shiny finish.

Orly Wandering Vine - natural light

Per usual, this is two coats with Seche Vite on top. I really like the lid and how it’s grippy! I learnt that this was because the guy who started Orly wanted to design a bottle where you can open it with one hand. So handy when applying polish 🙂 (I learnt this tidbit of information from paticipating in the ABBW and on Saturday night, my table had to privilege of two Orly ladies sitting at our table. PS Stay tuned for some posts on the ABBW!)

Orly Wandering Vine - natural light

Giorgio Armani Rouge d’Armani 401

I can feel my wallet just quivering. I have slowly started branching out into the high-end of the cosmetics world and it ain’t pretty (for my wallet anyways).

I got my grubby hands on a Giorgio Armani lipstick in the shade 401 which is an orange-red as seen here on Rihanna.

Image from http://www.talkingmakeup.com

First, let’s talk about the packaging. Sleek, black and shiny. It fits nicely into your hand. The cap clicks into place thanks to a magnet somewhere inside the casing. And it’s very sturdy. So it’d be great for a night out as you can throw it into your make up bag and not have to worry about the lid falling off.

There’s an engraved GA on the lipstick bullet and where the cap meets the tube. Lovely. I love little details like these. Makes buying high-end cosmetics a bit more luxurious lol.

Now, application. Wow, as the word ‘satin’ on the box suggests, it glides on with no tugging. The first swipe gave so much colour. I did another layer because I applied this straight from the tube so I wanted it to be even. It didn’t feel heavy at all on my lips. Very lightweight and creamy. It’s marketed as a long-lasting lipstick and it’s definitely a stayer. Wear time is on average four to five hours for me and this is through eating and drinking. As with most, if not all, red lipsticks, it leaves a nice pretty red stain 🙂

The shape of the lipstick allowed for a pretty precise application straight from the tube. For ‘real life’ purposes, I’d probably play it safe and use a lip brush to apply it but for swatching purposes, I just applied it from the tube and had no trouble at all.

And yes, swatch pic for you all. I don’t do the best swatches but I find swatches so helpful and so…here you go.

These retail for $30USD (I couldn’t find an Australian retail price for these lipsticks. If you know it, please let me know and I can update the post) and contain 4g/0.14oz of product.

OPI DS Original

I’ve only got two OPI DS polishes in my stash and I love them both SO much!

OPI DS Original

Seeing as Spring has definitely arrived, I thought I’d pull out the holographic polishes and have a play.

DS Original is a lavendar pink with a scattered holographic effect. I did two coats thought it could probably have been better with three but I’m so lazy.  As always, due to me being clumsy, I always top it off with Seche Vite before I go and ruin another mani.

It applied easily with no problems at all and dried pretty fast too.

It was really difficult to capture the really pretty holographic effect so you’ll just have to take my word for it – party on your nails!

OPI DS Original - Natural light

Link Love #10

There’s currently a Garnier BB cream giveaway epidemic on the blogosphere at the moment. Increase your chances of winning win by entering here and here.

Check out this super pretty nail polish combo. I can so picture this on a pair of sexy heels!

I love reading about beauty bloggers’ faves as much as the next beauty blog reader but I equally love reading about their not so favourite products.

Check out how to maximise the potential of your mascara.

This may not be a Spring shade but check out the duochrome on this gorgeous polish.

And finally (continuing with the nail polish theme unintentionally lol), the perfect Barbie pink shade for the upcoming Summer! 😀