My new favourite highlighter! Jemma Kidd Dewy Glow All Over Radiance Creme in Iced Gold Review

Phew - the title was a bit of a mouthful!

Sorry I've been absent for over 2 weeks. I flew to Hong Kong for my wedding banquet and then onto Maui to get married! There really wasn't much time to blog :) Hope you'll forgive me! Onto the review...

I have to admit, I'm a bit lazy when it comes to highlighters. Sometimes I forget to do it, sometimes I just plain can't be bothered. So I probably don't need a new one. That's not going to stop me though!

After watching numerous videos from Tanya Burr (pixi2woo) and always being in awe whenever she decides to use the Jemma Kidd All Over Radiance Creme in Iced Gold, I knew I had to have it.

First, I love the packaging. It reminds me of the rubbery texture that NARS packaging has. It makes it feel like a very luxurious item.

The highlighter in the pan looked so beautiful that I didn't want to touch it. (Does anyone have the same problem of never wanting to touch their new makeup products when they are new because you don't want to ruin the look of it?)

The texture is beautifully creamy. To compare this to my NARS Albatross highlighter, I have to say that I love the Jemma Kidd one much, much more.  Don't get me wrong, NARS Albatross is beautiful too and I use it brighten the inner corner of my eyes but the gold shimmer in it can make it look a bit too obvious when you put it on the top of your cheekbones.

The Jemma Kidd Iced Gold just gives you a beautiful dewy glow that catches the light and makes you look completely natural and vibrant without shouting "Hey! I've got highlighter on today!"
It has great lasting power and I didn't have any trouble with it staying on my face. It is winter here though so maybe I'll have to edit this post later when I try it out in summertime.

This isn't much of a swatch! It basically just comes across as a subtle glow - but you can imagine how natural this would look on your face!

This highlighter makes me want to put in the effort to use it even when I'm feeling uber lazy - and I know that's a winner when that happens!

Jemma Kidd is a bit harder to come by. As far as I know you can't get it in Wellington, New Zealand.

In Australia, they have a select few products of the Jemma Kidd range under the Kit Cosmetics make-up stands in participating Myer stores. I've visited a couple of the Kit Cosmetics stands including Chatswood and Sydney city and neither have anything that I really wanted to try.

The best bet is to buy it online. Beautybay.com sells it for US $25.30 and offer free worldwide delivery.

What's your favourite highlighter?

Monday Questionaire: 10 September 2012

It's a bright, beautiful day and it suits my mood because today we're off to Hong Kong! I'm crossing my fingers and toes that it will be a smooth flight and I have no issues taking my wedding gown on the plane (I've made prior arrangements but it's a hugeeeeee garment bag and I hope they don't spring any last minute surprises on me!)

It will be a long haul flight with a stopover in Auckland on the way so I've charged up my Kindle (any book recommendations?) and my iPhone, hoping it will keep me occupied enough that the time just melts away!

Do you remember how excited you were to get on a plane when you were little? I used to count the number of sleeps left till I got on one, and also soothed myself on the way home from vacation that it was not "over" yet because I still had the plane ride home.

Oh how times have changed, now seeing a 11 hour flight on my itinerary makes me think of aching legs and sore necks!

Onwards to the questionaire though before I ramble on too much!

1. Mood: I think I answered this already!

2. Do you shower in the morning or at night before bed?
At night before bed. I can't understand showering in the morning, I like to feel clean after a day of being outside and running around before I go to sleep!

3. Which movies would you *never* want to see remade?
PLEASE don't remake The Sound of Music or Grease, it would just ruin the classics for me.

4. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be an astronaut and go up into space. My favourite image used to be the one of the Eagle Nebula. Little did I know that I would suck in Physics :(

5. What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday?
I was hanging out with my friends and their little boy Jordan who is about 1 year and 8 months old. And I was singing Do-Re-Mi with him, he's learnt to chime in at the beginning of each line - simply adorable!

6. Let’s order a pizza! Where should we go, and what topping should we get?
I don't order pizza often but if it's from a chain like Dominos or Pizza Hut, I like the ham and pineapple. But if it's from an Italian restaurant, I always go with Margherita - yum!

7. Have you prepared at all for the holidays?
Christmas holidays? Not at all! It's still a bit early, no? But we will be going back to Sydney to spend time with the family.

8. What’s one of someone else’s habits that you wish you could change?
Punctuality. I'm suck a stickler for it that I always end up being anywhere early whereas everyone else is usually late. I end up standing/sitting alone for ages looking like a moron that has been stood up.

9. What sound reminds you of your childhood?
I don't think I have any sounds that remind me of childhood in particular...smells have a bigger trigger for me.

10. Weekly goals:
Try not to get sick!! I've been fighting feeling ill the past few days and I need to keep it up because my wedding banquet in Hong Kong will be this coming Saturday! I need to look my best!

Hope your Monday is well! I will try to blog anything interesting that I come across in Hong Kong, if you have suggestions for food or shopping, let me know!

Eagle Nebula

 

 

 

 Do the questionaire if you would like!! The questions are below :)

Yve
<3

1. Mood:
2. Do you shower in the morning or at night before bed?
3. Which movies would you *never* want to see remade?
4. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
5. What’s the best thing that happened to you yesterday?
6. Let’s order a pizza! Where should we go, and what topping should we get?
7. Have you prepared at all for the holidays?
8. What’s one of someone else’s habits that you wish you could change?
9. What sound reminds you of your childhood?
10. Weekly goals:

August Favourites 2012

I'm excited to do my first monthly favourites! I've been pretty content with my makeup collection lately and haven't made a lot of new purchases (I suspect this will be changing next month when I go on my holiday - I don't know if I can hold back on buying some new beauty stuff!) so I've really just been enjoying some of my existing makeup.

My only new discovery for August is the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation which I did a review of it here. I love the way that it glides onto my skin without clinging to any dry spots. It makes me look awake and healthy. I love it, I've been using it every day since I discovered it!

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation

I've gone for minimal eye makeup this month and have really enjoyed using my MAC Naked Lunch Eyeshadow. I sweep it all over my lid to give it a shimmery-peach colour and follow up with either a winged gel-eyeliner look, or some dark brown eyeshadow smudged along the upper lash line. It's given me a chance to really appreciate this eyeshadow as it brings some interest to my eyes but it is also a very quick look to put together.

MAC Naked Lunch Eyeshadow

The blush I have consistently reached for this month is NARS Deep Throat. I know this is a much raved product in the beauty community and I think it deserves all the hype. Infact I think I used this blush throughout the entire month, save perhaps only one or two days.
I just put it on lightly and I love how it brightens up my face with its coral colour. I like that it's not as shimmery as the NARS Orgasm blush and I really do think it's great for everyday wear.

The Jemma Kidd All Over Radiance Creme in Iced Gold. It's a mouthful but it's completely worth it. Oh my, how much I love this. I have a review of this coming up soon so I won't go into it too much right now but I just absolutely love the dewy glow it gives me when I sweep it across my cheekbones. Looks completely natural and like your skin is just really healthy and had no help whatsoever in looking like that. Absolutely love it to bits!

Jemma Kidd All Over Radiance Cream in Iced Gold

Last but not least, is my buffing brush from Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman line. I can't tell you just how much I love this brush for my foundation. It picks up the liquid without absorbing it all into its bristles, and makes blending foundation into my skin a complete dream. I don't use any other face brushes for my foundation anymore, this is it! Although, Samantha Chapman did recently release the Expect Face Brush which does look fantastic so I might have to pick that up sometime and give it a go!

Buffing brush from Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman

So those were my August favourites! What were yours?

I hope you're ready for September! I certainly am gearing up for it considering one of the most important days in my life is coming up in it!

Yve
<3

Review: Clarisonic Mia

The Clarisonic Mia is by far the most expensive beauty product that I have bought. But it is also the product that I consider my best buy to date.

As you can tell, this is a rave :)

Whenever I try to describe this to my friends, I always say that it's like an electronic toothbrush, but for your face. It's like a mini-exfoliation but gentle enough to do it everyday. On their website, they say it is safe to use up to twice daily but in my opinion, I think that's a bit too much so I stick to once a day.

They claim that it removes 2x the dirt and oil an 6x more than manually cleaning with your hands.

Obviously I can't test these statistics but I really believe that it does do more than manual cleaning. My skin feels more soft and cleansed after each use and I walk away confident that I have removed every speck of makeup off my face.

If you go to the Clarisonic website, you'll notice that they have different types of systems. I won't go into the difference of each one because they have a fantastic comparison chart on their website.

The Clarisonic Mia, which is the one I decided to go with comes in 13 different colours (something for everyone!) and it is also the smallest of all their systems.

Picture from the Clarisonic website: a colour for everyone!

It is a little overwhelming trying to decide which system you want to get (and to find one that you like within your budget) but I wanted the smallest one so I could travel with it as well.
It only has one speed setting but honestly, I have never used it thinking "I wish there was a different speed setting that I could use." The one speed does its job for me!

One of the best features of it is that it is completely waterproof so you can use it in the shower or tub. This is fantastic for me, I always take it in the shower and I use it when I'm leaving my conditioner in my hair for a minute or two so I get the job done without having to add any extra time to my routine.
You can choose to use it with whatever liquid face cleanser with the Clarisonic. I currently use the Philosophy One-Step-Cleanser (review here!) with it and I think it works wonderfully together.

The charger magnetically attaches to the Clarisonic - easy!

The other great feature is that a fully charged Clarisonic gives you 30 minutes of use. This may not sound like a lot but the Clarisonic is timed to one minute per use (it will automatically shut off after this) and since I only use it once a day, the charge lasts me up to a month.
Which means if you want to cut weight from your luggage when traveling, you can eliminate the charger if it's a short enough trip!

It is a universal voltage charger making it easy to travel with and it attaches to the Clarisonic magnetically so there is no fidgeting with wire heads, you slap it on and go!

There are also different brush heads (like normal, sensitive, deep pore etc) you can buy to suit your particular needs but the initial Kit does come with one sensitive or normal brush head to start you off.

There are different choices of brush heads for different types of skin and are meant to be changed regularly to get optimum results

Before the use of the Clarisonic, I had average skin. I had the occasional breakout and the pores on my cheeks and nose were noticeable which has always been a problem for me. Now, after about 9 months of using the Clarisonic, my skin is smoother, my pores have shrunk (not that they have completely disappeared but I have noticed a difference), I barely get breakouts anymore and I have constantly received compliments from family and friends that my skin is looking so clear, bright and smooth.

Bottom line: if you're fed up with your skin cleansing system at the moment and it's not giving you the results that you want - then give this a try. I can't guarantee that it will work wonders for you too but I absolutely love it and I can't live without it now!

I got a friend of mine to buy it for me while she was in the States but to those in Australia and New Zealand, Ry.com.au sells these and offers free shipping in Australia for purchases over $150 and international deliveries as well. And as an added bonus, at the time of this post, they're offering 20% off the Clarisonic Systems! (I'm not affiliated with them, just happened to discover this when I was researching the links for this post).

I think I've raved on enough about this! Hope it was informative and let me know if you use it and love it, or will be giving it a go!

Yve
<3

Monday Questionaire: 3 September 2012

It's come around to Monday again! Nothing too eventful happened on the weekend for me. Just finishing some last details for the wedding (I'm leaving for Hong Kong and Hawaii in a week! Argh, I can hardly believe it!) and Phil had to go into work on Sunday so I accompanied him by bringing in my laptop and watching movies (yes it's a hard life!)

At least the weather was halfway decent and we got some sunshine :) Today is rainy and dreary - hoping to land into some good weather next week when we fly off!

Dreaming of using this infinity pool when we get to Maui!

So let's get this questionaire on!

1. Mood: Pretty relieved that all the wedding preparations are finished!

2. Wide-leg pants or skinnies?
Skinnies...this sounds counter-intuitive but I'm not confident about my thighs and I feel like wide-leg pants would make them look bigger but skinnies wouldn't? That sounds wrong because I'm guessing that wide-leg pants would balance me out a bit more. But in any case, I think a good pair of skinnies can be very flattering.

3. What’s your least favorite frozen treat?
I don't think I have a least favourite because I don't eat frozen treats very often but anything that is too sweet with liquid caramel is usually too rich for me.

4. Is there anything about yourself you’re currently working to change/improve?
I'm trying to learn to be a little less frugal but that's a difficult one for me because the part of me that likes to save money runs very deep.

5. When did you start driving?
My parents didn't let me start at 16 like all my friends as they thought I wouldn't be mature enough to make responsible driving decisions so I started at 17 when I got into university.

6. If you were going to record a song with a featured guest artist, who would your featured artist be?
I can't even sing so this is an odd question for me! But I'm loving Adele lately, her songs pump me full of energy so I think it would be fun recording with her!

7. How do you like your heels? Low, medium or high?
Medium. I do think heels make your legs look more flattering and you hold yourself differently when you're in them but I can only handle a certain height before all I can think is "hmm starting to give me a blister" and "how much long until I can sit down and take these stinking heels off?!"

8. Sometimes I wonder…
if I would ever make a good mum. I love kids but I wonder if I will be patient enough with them or not be so strict that they can't ever enjoy themselves.

9. Let’s blow off school/work and do something fun. Where should we go and what should we do?
I want to go to a shooting range! I got a taste of it at the engagement party my friend threw Phil and I recently and all I want to do is to learn to shoot better!

10. Weekly goals:
Make a list of things to pack for our big trip and hopefully forget nothing!

How was your weekend? Hope Monday is treating you well!

Yve
<3

1. Mood:
2. Wide-leg pants or skinnies?
3. What’s your least favorite fronzen treat?
4. Is there anything about yourself you’re currently working to change/improve?
5. When did you start driving?
6. If you were going to record a song with a featured guest artist, who would your featured artist be?
7. How do you like your heels? Low, medium or high?
8. Sometimes I wonder…
9. Let’s blow off school/work and do something fun. Where should we go and what should we do?
10. Weekly goals: