Monday 31 October 2011

October Empties

I am an empties machine at the moment, I'm finishing up so many products, it's great! This has been another great month for empties, I'm determined to keep this up. I've been in a spring cleaning mood lately so have been slowly going through my collection and getting rid of products that I don't like or that are old and using half finished products so that I can get rid of them.
Imperial Leather Foamburst foaming shower gel - I really like this. It's a bit of a gimmick in that it comes out a gel and then foams when you rub your hands together and that's why I bought it (I can never resist a novelty product). The scent is beautiful and it's very moisturising, I'll buy it again.

Nivea Visage Sensitive Balance soothing cleansing milk - I used to use this years ago, it's a great, gentle cleanser. Found it in hubbys shower so decided I'd finish it.


Wild Elixir bubble therapy - I loved this but don't think it's available anymore.


Delicious warm vanilla sugar shower gel  - This costs $2.50 from The Reject Shop, can't go wrong for that.

L'Oreal Perfect Clean Glow face scrub - I won't buy this again. It was okay but nothing special. I used it on my body to get rid of it. 

Haus of Gloi Parkin soft bubbling scrub - This is the most amazing scent, I wish it was part of their permanent line.


Face of Australia gentle make-up remover - Love this, I've already purchased another one. I use it to remove all my make-up and it's gentle enough to use on my eyes.

Living Proof Full shampoo, conditioner and thickening cream - I only got one use out of these but loved them. I use and love the No Frizz range and the Full range seems just as good.


Mukti Botanicals gentle facial exfoliant and cleanser - These are both beautiful products, I'll certainly consider purchasing them.

Super 3 Minute facial mask - I love the way this makes my skin feel, however it makes my skin really red and for that reason I won't purchase it.


Guerlain Divinora cream eyeshadow - I've been using this eyeshadow for years, it's my favourite cream eyeshadow. It never creases and the colour is gorgeous. Unfortunately they don't make these anymore, if they did I'd buy another one.

Bloom Rhubarb lip stain - I love this lip stain and have already purchased another one. 

Benefit Bad Gal lash mascara - This is a great mascara, however it smudges on me. I've never had a mascara smudge on me so I'm really surprised that this did. 

Estee Lauder foundation sample - I wish I knew which Estee Lauder foundation this was because I really liked it.

 
Burt's Bees cranberry and pomegranate sugar scrub - This wasn't a favourite. It's very hydrating so would be great for dry skin, however I don't like scrubs that leave an oily film on my skin. 

Rexona Sport Women deodorant - This was a total disapointment. I've used the male version for years so was hoping that the female version would be just as good. It's not. It was totally ineffective as a deodorant and it irritated my pits so I ended up with a rash.

Dove Energy Glow brightening moisturiser - This is my holy grail moisturiser. I've tried so many different ones but always come back to this.

Lush sugar scrub - This was horrible. It was way too harsh for my skin, a total waste of money. 


Nivea Invisible deodorant - This is a great deodorant. It doesn't leave white marks on my black clothes and doesn't leave yellow stains on my white coloured clothes. I'll be repurchasing this one for sure.


Le Tan SPF 30 classic lotion  - Nice but not amazing. I prefer my Neutrogena sunscreen.


WotNot naturally nurturing face wipes - my holy grail face wipes. You can read my review of them here.

Herbal Essences Hello Hydration shampoo and conditioner - I only got one use out of these but they seemed pretty good.

Garnier Body Intensive 7 days moisturiser x 3 - I liked this and would probably buy it.


I don't have a photo of all the products I got rid of, but this is a few of the old and expired products that I threw out. The Bepanthen expired in 2008!

Thursday 27 October 2011

Online friends

It's no secret that I love the internet. Since I got sick it's been my lifeline to the world. When I was really sick and housebound it kept me sane and was often the only interaction I had with people all day. It helped fill in the lonely days that I had and I really don't know how I would have coped without it. 



Through the online world I've met some beautiful people who I consider to be friends even though we've never met in person. These are friends who share my day to day life in a way that most people in my life don't. A lot of them also share my passion for beauty, which none of my real life friends do. Whilst I have friends who like beauty products, they aren't obsessed like I am and won't sit around discussing make-up with me all day.

My online friends know things about me that my close friends and family don't. For example, most of my friends and family have no idea what I really went through when my Crohn's was bad. Other than my friend LaLa, none of them have read my blog posts about it and so they have no idea. Some of my family know that I have a Crohn's blog but they don't know the address and wouldn't be able to find the blog. 


It works the other way too, my online friends don't know a lot of things about me that my close friends and family do. I don't talk about my work and other things online, which means that when I come online it's an escape from real life.

On the weekend I was lucky enough to meet Natalie. We met up in the city, had coffee, did some shopping and had a great time. Even though I'd never met Natalie in person, it was just like meeting up with an old friend. There was no awkward silences or uncomfortableness. We chatted away about anything and everything. It was great to get to know the person behind the blog. Meeting Natalie confirmed to me that my online friendships are just as real as my real life friendships, they are just friends that I haven't met in person.


I'm so glad I had the chance to meet you Natalie, you are just as lovely in person as you are online :)

Wednesday 26 October 2011

My take on the sample boxes

We finally have access to the sample boxes in Australia and they're all launching around the same time. Naturally, I subscribed to all of them.

So far I've unsubscribed from Lust Have It and Beauty Box. I got two boxes from both of them and wasn't very impressed. The reason I wasn't impressed is they didn't excite me. There were a few products that I hadn't tried before, but they were things that I could easily have gone and got samples of for free and paying $15 for something I can get for free is just silly.

I've just received my first Bella Box and I was really impressed, so I'm staying with them. There are two reasons I'm staying with Bella Box. Firstly, I got products in my box that I haven't tried before, in fact I'd never even heard of two of the brands. Secondly, they customise the boxes to suit the person. I don't think the first one was customised, but from what I understand they will be customised in the future.


I'm expecting my first I Love This Box to arrive next month and will be interested to see what it's like. They have some great companies on board so hopefully it will be as good as the Bella Box is.


Having said that, I'm pretty hard to impress. Being a beauty blogger and beauty fanatic, I've tried most products. When something new comes on the market I buy it, so it takes a lot to get me excited about something.

I think these boxes would be great for a regular person who isn't a beauty addict and who's looking to try something new.  

Friday 21 October 2011

Current wishlist

I saw this post on Tara's blog and decided to copy her. Seems I'm having a copycat week.

CK Shock perfume and aftershave. I received samples of this in my latest Beauty Box and fell in love. It smells amazing on hubby and the female version is beautiful.


Narcisco Rodrigues perfume. I used up my bottle of this about a year ago and haven't got around to buying another one. It's one of my all time favourite perfumes.


Michael by Michael Kors perfume. I've loved this perfume for years but have never bought it. I will one day.


Chanel Coco Mademoiselle perfume. I use this one up over two years ago and I still miss it.


Benefit They're Real mascara. Everyone is raving about this. I've seen photo's of it and it looks amazing, so I want it.


Chantecaille Faux Cils mascara. I'd never heard of this until my friend Courtney posted a photo of her wearing it on twitter. She looked like she had false lashes on. Clearly I need this in my life.

Cream blushes. I'm having a cream blush phase at the moment, they're so easy to use when I'm in a hurry and I love the way they look.



Anything by Illamasqua. We don't have access to Illamasqua in Perth and I'm dying to try it.

Tom Ford Lipsticks, need I say more?

The Lip Slip by Sarah Happ. I've seen so many rave reviews about this but for some reason I've never purchased it. 

Chanel Chance lipstick. I hadn't heard of this before until my beautiful friend Karen purchased it. Once I saw the photo's on her blog I realised that I need this lipstick in my life.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

The tale of the drama queen and his unsympathetic wife

Today girls and boys I am going to tell you a story about a man who we will call Drama Queen and his wife who we will call Glossy.

In a lot of ways Drama Queen and Glossy had their roles reversed. Whilst Drama Queen was a big, strong, capable man, he was a bit of a girl in a lot of ways. He took ages to get ready and required at least three total outfit changes before leaving the house, he constantly checked himself out in the mirror and was always buying new clothes. Glossy on the other hand wore the first outfit she put on, rarely checked herself out in the mirror and rarely purchased new clothes.

In terms of personality, Drama Queen and Glossy were complete opposites. Drama Queen was a real worrier, Glossy had a 'she'll be right' attitude.

Due to his extremely worried, over anxious mother, Drama Queen had anxiety issues, which were made worse by some stupid things he did in his younger years. Glossy was trying her best to beat these anxiety issues out of Drama Queen and he was a lot better, but still had some way to go.


Drama Queen wasn't very good at looking after his health and for a long time had been suffering from reflux. After having this problem for well over a year (and complaining constantly) he finally decided to see the Dr. The Dr did some tests and discovered that the reflux was caused by gallstones. He gave Drama Queen some medication and a referral to a specialist to have his gallbladder out. In his infinite wisdom, Drama Queen decided not to take the medication and not to see the specialist.

Unsurprisingly, the reflux got worse and worse, to the point where it was also giving Drama Queen chest pains. When this occurred, Drama Queen thought that he was having a heart attack, which then caused a panic attack, which was not much fun for him. Being the clever fellow that he is, Drama Queen still did nothing about this and continued to suffer and annoy Glossy with his constant complaining. Glossy told him that she didn't want to hear about it until he got some treatment and that he was stupid to expect things to get better if he didn't take any action.


Things continued this way for approximately another year until a dramatic event which occurred last night. Imagine this:
Glossy was blissfully asleep in bed after finally getting bub to sleep and finishing a few household chores, when she was rudely awakened by Drama Queen coming into the bedroom and turning on the light. Glossy complained about being woken up in such a manner and Drama Queen sat down on the bed and told her that she had to listen because it was important.
He then proceeded to tell her that he had really bad reflux and chest pains, that his hands were cold and he'd rung Health Direct who'd advised him to go to hospital and get checked out.

Being the unsympathetic wife that she was Glossy told him that it was the gallstones and reflux and that he was fine. She explained to him that the reason his hands were cold was because it was a cold night and then told him he should go to sleep.

Being the worrier that he is Drama Queen insisted on going to the hospital. Glossy really didn't want to wake up her sleeping baby, so they had to decided how Drama Queen was going to get to hospital. He didn't feel that he could drive himself so called his brother who was too busy drinking to help out. 
Finally they called a friend who kindly got out of bed and came over to take Drama Queen to hospital.


Glossy stayed at home with her sleeping baby. Drama Queen spent five hours at the hospital and unsurprisingly was told that he had reflux and a panic attack. After being poked, prodded and having a lot of blood tests he came home. 

Whilst Drama Queen was at the hospital it occurred to Glossy that perhaps she should take him more seriously as there could actually be something wrong with Drama Queen. She also realised that she should be a little more sympathetic to Drama Queen as having panic attacks wouldn't be very much fun, even if they were self inflicted. 


So the result of this dramatic night was two very tired people as neither Drama Queen or Glossy got much sleep. The good thing was that thinking he was having a heart attack scared the living daylights out of Drama Queen so he went straight to the Dr the next day and arranged blood tests, medication and everything else that he should have done two years ago.


And that was our night last night. Oops, I mean that's the end of the story girls and boys.

Audra James Baby Oils



In the late stages of my pregnancy I 'met' Audra James on twitter. I found her to be a fountain of knowledge about all aspects of aromatherapy. She's a lovely, friendly person who's more than happy to share her wisdom and clearly loves her job.

After I'd had bub I purchased two baby oils from Audra. The first one was the Newborn Baby Oil, to use when the bub is under three months old and the second one is the Baby Oil 3 months +.


I absolutely love both of my oils and consider them an essential product for all new parents. The reason they are so amazing is that they do everything. You could literally only have this for bub and you'd be set.

For example, I used my Newborn Baby Oil in the following ways:
As a moisturiser, massage lotion, cradle cap treatment, bath oil, on any dry spots, rash healer and as a stomach rub to help relieve wind and constipation.

How amazing is that? I only needed one product and it did everything. I use the 3 Months + oil in the same way, the only difference is that this oil is scented and it smells lovely. It too can be used to do everything. 


Both of the oils are super gentle and can also be used on adults if required. They come with directions for use and instructions on how to do a baby massage.


Audra has a whole range of amazing products and will custom blend products to suit the individual, so you get exactly what you need instead of a product that's made to suit the masses.


I paid $15.95 for each 50ml bottle of baby oil. You can purchase a 100ml bottle for $22.95.


(Photo from the Audra James webstore).

Monday 17 October 2011

Candles

I saw this post on Karen's blog, thought it was a great idea and decided to copy her :)

Aside from all things beauty, another one of my loves is candles. I always have candles burning and am constantly seeking out new brands and scents. I love finding new candle brands and was really excited a few months ago when I discovered a Yankee Candles stand at my local shopping centre. They have some beautiful scents that I haven't been able to find in other brands.

I've been burning their melts and have to say they are the best melts I've ever used. Other melts are only good for one or two uses, but the Yankee Candle melts last me for weeks. I have them on all day (in an electric oil burner) for at least seven days before the scent fades. The scent is really strong too, enough to make my whole house smell nice.


Some of my favourite scents are Fluffy Towels, Clean Cotton, Lavender Vanilla, Stress Relief and Creamy Caramel. I've been looking for a Lavender Vanilla scented candle for years so was really excited when I found this one. For those of you who remember the Origins Lavender Vanilla scented body products, this smells exactly the same. 

We use the Macintosh Spice Yankee Candle air freshener in our car. They cost $7.99 or you can get three for $15.00. Ours last for around three months before they need to be replaced. 


Yankee Candles melts cost $3.99, the tea light candles cost $4.95, the small jars cost $19.99 and the large jars cost $49.50.


Two of my newest candles are from the Dusk Temptations range. They have some amazing scents, I had trouble choosing just two.  I purchased Grandma's Spice Cookie and Liquorice Heaven. 
Licorice sounds like a strange choice for a candle but it smells lovely. (As a side note, licorice lip balms are amazing too!)
These cost $15 each or two for $25 and have a thirty hour burn time.

My other favourite candles are by Glasshouse. They have an amazing range of scents and the smell is beautiful, enough to scent my whole house. We used the limited edition Leura candles as our wedding candles.  
The large jars cost $36.95 and have a burn time of eighty to one hundred hours.

Yankee Candles Fluffy Towels, Clean Cotton and Ocean Blossom were sent to me for consideration. All other products I purchased myself.

Friday 14 October 2011

A great new Aussie blog to follow

My gorgeous friend Karen has just started a blog called The Pink Powderpuff. She is going to write about all sorts of amazing products that we all need to know about.

Karen is already having her first giveaway of a Pure Shampoo and Conditioner. Click here to enter.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

In Essence Pulse Point Roll-Ons

It's not secret that I love In Essence products, I love everything that I've used from their range. One of my more recent buys is the Pulse Point Roll-Ons. Currently I have two of them, Precious Perfume and Relaxation.  They are both beautiful, long lasting scents. As the name suggests, they come in a great little roller ball bottles so are ideal for carrying around in my handbag.

Precious Perfume is a heavenly floral that smells amazing and is a 'feel good' scent for me. I wish they made a body lotion in this scent, I'd definitely buy it!

Precious Perfume:
A sensual and enticing essential oil blend of the most precious petals for pure indulgence and sensuality.
Ingredients: almond oil, grapeseed oil, orange oil sweet, jasmine extract, sandalwood Australian, copaiba balsam, neroli oil, rose oil, vitamin e, bergamot oil, melaleuca quinquenervia oil, cananga oil, cedarwood Himalayan oil, lavender oil, cedarwood atlas oil, sandalwood Pacific Island oil, cinnamon oil.
Contains natural limonene, linalool, benzyl benzoate, citronellol, eugenol, geraniol and citral.

I'm one of those strange people who use relaxation scents to perk me up. I know that's not what they are meant for, but it's how they work for me. Because of that I use Relaxation as a perfume and love it. This is an earthy, natural scent that I find to be very grounding and calming.
 

Relaxation: 
A calming peaceful blend for rest and relaxation. A clarifying and balancing blend to proote serenity and inner peace. Ideal for preparing the body for a restful night's sleep. 
Ingredients: almond oil, grapeseed oil, vitamin e, geranium oil, clary sage oil, lavender oil, bergamot oil, marjoram oil, lime oil, cedarwood oil, guaiacwood oil, copaiba balsam, coriander oil, ylang ylang oil, bergamot mint oil. 
Contains natural linalool, limonene and citronellol.

I paid $19.95 for each 10 ml bottle.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Dear Baby Chai

Today you are seven months old. It has been the most happy, amazing, rewarding and tiring seven months of my life. You are a beautiful child, very alert, curious, active and happy. You have a beautiful smile that lights up your whole face. Your laugh is infectious and makes everyone who hears it laugh along with you.

You are so curious about the world, it all fascinates you. I'd love to know what you are thinking as you watch and take everything in. Lots of people tell me that you are an old soul as you are so alert. You've been that way since you were born. You love to watch people and are fascinated by other babies. You talk to them and touch their faces and really try to connect with them, it's beautiful to watch.

You are a very determined little man and want to do everything that Dad I do. You drink out of my water bottle or cup and eat off my plate. If you don't want to eat the food that I'm trying to feed you, you will always eat whatever I'm eating. You are great at eating, the only food I've given you that you don't like is natural yoghurt and I can't blame you for that one. You love to feed yourself, I can see an independant streak already.


At the moment you are trying your best to crawl. You can get up on your hands and knees and rock forwards and backwards. You've figured out how to launch yourself forwards, which usually ends in a faceplant. Luckily you are tough so this doesn't usually bother you, unless you land on something hard. You can also balance on your hands and feet and are trying to pull yourself up to a standing position. You love to stand up and are so delighted with yourself when I hold your hands and you pull yourself up, you stand there with a huge smile on your face looking so proud. You can sit up for about a minute and can nearly push yourself back into a sitting position from your hands and knees. At the moment you haven't figured out how to push yourself right back to a sitting position so you end up half sitting.

You can now roll the whole way over and spend a lot of time rolling around on the floor, playing with your toys. At the moment your favorite toy is a body lotion bottle with rice in it. You like it because the top is the perfect size to fit in your mouth for you to chew on.


You chew on everything. If you can get it in your mouth you'll chew on it and if you can't get it in your mouth you'll suck on it. You love sucking on Daddy's tattoo's and have left love bites on me.


This week you got your first tooth. It's the bottom right one. You had a really fussy day on Monday and your tooth came through on Tuesday. I think the other bottom tooth will be making an appearance soon as you've been a bit fussy for the last few days and that's unusual for you.



You still don't like your pram and prefer to be carried so that you can see all the action (and smile at all the girls). 

One of your favourite things to do is look at yourself in the mirror. We do that every day and you spend lots of time smiling and talking to yourself.

For the last three weeks you've been sleeping in your own room. The first few nights were difficult but since then you've been sleeping a lot better, so it was obviously the right time for you to have your own room. 



I can't imagine my life without you, I spent a long time waiting for you and am so delighted that you are finally here. You are everything that I hoped you would be and more. 

Thursday 6 October 2011

I just couldn't keep my mouth shut

I don't normally bother making comments on people's opinions that are reported by the media, however this time I just can't help myself. Barry Walters, a Dr who works at KEMH in Perth has said that it's selfish of women to wait until they are in their late 30's to have babies. He's also said that when the child is in it's 20's the parents will be geriatrics. Clearly I can't keep my mouth shut when I hear something like that.


I've just had my first child. I was 3 months off my 38th birthday when I had him. My decision not to have children earlier wasn't selfish, it was due to my circumstances. In an ideal world I would have loved to have my first child in my late 20's or early 30s, however that didn't happen.

One of the reasons is that I was single. Now maybe I'm crazy, but I thought it'd be a great idea to be in a secure relationship before I had a child. Sure, I could have gone out and had a one night stand and got pregnant, butthat was not what I wanted for myself and my child. So having a child before I met hubby wasn't an option for me.



Hubby and I have been together for 5 1/2 years now, so why didn't we have children earlier? I would have loved to, however circumstances didn't allow. A year after hubby and I got together I got crohn's disease. I was very sick for around three years. I did get pregnant during that time but had a miscarriage as my body wasn't healthy enough to sustain a pregnancy. When I told my GP I was pregnant, his first words were "Oh no". That's not what you want your GP to say when you tell him you're pregnant. At the time I was still on immuno suppresants which weren't safe to take during pregnancy. If I hadn't miscarried I don't think I would have had a healthy baby as I wasn't healthy myself. 


It wasn't until recently that I became healthy enough to sustain a pregnancy. That wasn't my fault and was not something that I could control, but according to Dr Walters it is selfish of me to have waited until I was healthy enough to have a baby. Would he rather that I got pregnant and had an unhealthy baby? Would that be less selfish?

In an ideal world we'd all meet our perfect partner in our 20's, get our career sorted, be financially secure and healthy and ready to have children in our late 20's or early 30's, but life just doesn't work like that. In my opinion it's better to bring a child into the world when you are ready and in the circumstances that suit you. 

If you're ready when you are in your 20's then that's great. But if you aren't ready until you're in your late 30's then that's okay too. As long as the child is loved I sure it won't care how old it's parents are.

And as for people being geriatrics at 60, that's just stupid!

Monday 3 October 2011

Things I probably should have known about taking care of bub

There are a few basic things I've learned about taking care of bub that I didn't know. They are probably things I should have known, so no-one mentioned them to me, but I didn't know. I figure that if I didn't know these things, maybe someone else doesn't either. (Or maybe you are all cleverer than me, in which case you can skip reading this post).

1. Nappy rash cream treats nappy rash, but it also helps to prevent it. You put it on at every nappy change to make sure that bub doesn't get nappy rash. That was a revelation to me. I thought it was just for clearing up nappy rash. It wasn't till bub was about three months old that one of my friends kindly informed me that nappy rash cream prevents the bub getting nappy rash. Brilliant idea!

2. Huggies newborn nappies have a wetness indicator. It's a yellow line down the front of the nappy that goes blue when bub has wet the nappy. I didn't know that, so when we were in hospital we had the midwives worried because we thought bub hadn't done a wee all day when he'd actually done several wee's. If someone had told us about the wetness indicator we would have know.


3. At around three months when babies start drooling a lot and putting everything in their mouth, it's probably not cause they are teething, it's because they are getting ready to eat solids. When bub started drooling and chewing on everything I assumed that he was teething really early. You can imagine my relief when I learned that he was just getting ready to eat.I really didn't like the idea of my little baby having teeth that he could bite me with whilst feeding. 


4. It's important to start settling and sleeping routines when bub is around two or three months old. I wish someone had shared that one with me!
 

5.  You need to use a gentle washing detergent to wash bubs clothes so that his skin isn't irritated by your usual detergent.

So far that's all I've got, however I'm sure I'll come up with some more in a few months time.


Product Loyalty

My post on brand loyalty got me thinking further about the products I've been using for at least five years. To my surprise there are quite a few of them.

MAC Lingering eye brow pencil
L'Occitane Shea hand cream
Jurlique hand cream
Shizen lip balm
Crazy Rumors lip balm
Vintage Sister lip balms
Ardell clear brow gel
Dior face powder
The Face Shop BB cream
Clinique cream eyeshadows
Clinique Super City Block
Fudge 1 shot+
Fudge Dynamite
Lush soaps
Moon Haven soaps
MAC Syrup lipstick
Carmex
Nivea firming body lotion
Palmers body lotion