Celebrating Twenty.

                

Two weeks ago now, I celebrated the end of my 'teen' years and entered my twenties. It doesn't feel any different, although my last few birthday's haven't seemed as 'big' and 'important' as they used to when I was younger. However, the presents are always pretty great! Haha.

Nonetheless, my birthday only comes around once a year and I wanted to do something to celebrate! I didn't have a party or anything, but I spent some time with friends and family which I honestly would prefer over a big party any day!

I celebrated in a few small 'doses'!

The first, a week before my birthday, was a trip to Max Brenner in South Bank with mum. I didn't want a cake or anything, and while we'd thought of having dessert after my birthday dinner, we didn't really want anything that particular restaurant had for dessert. So, we separated the two, and ended up doing Max Brenner first! This was actually my first time at Max Brenner, despite the chocolate restaurant's popularity! I'd wanted to go for ages but honestly, I couldn't justify it - until it was for my birthday that is!

We just got the Fondue for Two - which had milk chocolate and dark chocolate, and strawberries, banana, marshmallows and banana bread for dipping! - and a hot chocolate for myself and a milkshake for mum. It was delicious! Seriously, if you haven't already, you need to try this place (or something like it)!

Then, the night before my birthday, mum took me for my birthday dinner at our local Groove Train. For those of you who don't know, Groove Train is a casual kind of restaurant with a pretty affordable price tag (main meals averaging $20-$30) that actually offers a wide selection of menu items ranging from pastas, pizzas and nachos, to fish & chips, steak, and Asian curries and noodles. Seriously, there's something for everyone! After sharing a starter of a selection of Eggplant chips, polenta chips, calamari, chorizo and bruschetta; we moved onto our mains. I went for the gnocchi with added prosciutto as suggested to me by the waitress (since it's usually expensive to add, however it was my free birthday meal so why not?!), while mum had battered fish and chips.

Then my friend Meg took me out to the Valley for my birthday! We went to Prohibition first, where they had $1 pizza (and it was massive pizza, just look at that slice)! If you're ever in Brisbane, definitely check out Prohibition. It's such a nice and classy club, with great music, and you need to see the bathrooms (just trust me on this one, talk about luxe)! We also went to Birdees for a short bit, before heading home!

And that's how I celebrated my twentieth birthday, I hope you enjoyed this little snippet into my life!

xx Chontelle

OUTFIT OF THE DAY | Print & Bow

My Outfit:

Top: Dissh

Shorts: Dissh
Bracelet: ASOS
Sandals: Kmart

Hey loves! Hope you've had a lovely week - I'm so sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days! I've been a bit busy (I got a new job at last, after almost 5 weeks back in Brisbane!!) and honestly a little bit unmotivated, but it's holidays and I knew I needed to get my butt into gear and get back into things!

Last weekend Dissh was having a 20% off all full priced items sale, so of course I picked up some things! The top and shorts normall would have totalled $100 but I grabbed them for $80 and I'm so so happy because I just love them! The shorts are the cutest and look really nice/dressy and classy, perfect for almost any occasion. And the top is high-neck (hello obsession) and black (hello again, obsession) and cropped (yup hello!!) so of course I'm loving it! And I think that put together they make the cutest lil' outfit that I wore to uni the other day actually!

What do you think of this look? Let me know below xx

Chontelle x

BEAUTY | What I Got for Christmas 2015

Hey lovelies, I hope you've had an amazing Christmas! Today's post comes with much excitement as I begin to unbox and play around with the beauty bits I got this Christmas. I'm really happy with the mix of products I received this year, which included a few surprises I didn't expect! I'll just point out in here that this post is not intended to be 'bragging', I simply wanted to share my little haul with you guys. 

This year things were kept to a minimum, both in quantity and price.

Smith Street Market Musk Stick Scented Body Lotion;

It doesn't really have much of a musky scent to it, or any scent at all really, but I absolutely adore the cute packaging and will probably keep it like this in the bathroom as more of a decoration.

Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm in Lychee Addict;

Everyone knows about baby lips lip balm by now, and I'm sure I'm not the only one with a small stash of them lying around in my room or handbag. This is a new scent/flavour (well, here anyway, who knows how long it's been available overseas before it arrived in little old Oz!), and it truly does smell like lychee's - which is perfect for me because I love lychee's! As usual, the balm is super moisturising on the lips and I'll definitely be getting a lot of use out of this one!

Essie Nail Polish in Wrap Me Up (Cashmere Matte);

My first ever Essie Nail Polish (I know, took me long enough)! I was really excited when I found this colour at my local Priceline - it's the perfect nude nail! It only took two coats to get this gorgeous opaque coverage you see above, however my only qualm with this exact polish is that as it is matte, it is absolutely essential to add a top clear coat if you want this one to last all day (which sucks for me right now as I've recently misplaced my only clear polish, boo). But regardless, it is lovely and I will definitely be wearing it more often when I have a clear top coat at hand!

Covergirl All Day Lip Colour Set (Moisturising Top Coat & All Day Colourant) in 598 Forever Fawn;

This is a pretty interesting pair. The set comes with a moisturising lip balm (supposedly a top coat but I feel it is better used underneath the colour, maybe that's just me), and an all day lip colour in the form of a creamy gloss/lipstick hybrid in a gorgeous pinky-brown 'fawn' colour. To be honest, I probably won't be bothered to use these two together, but it's nice to have a clear, unscented balm that I could potentially throw under matte and drying lipsticks in the future.

L'Occitane en Provence Cherry Blossom Hand Cream;

According to L'Occitane, their hand cream is an international best seller (I don't know much at all about this brand, this is my first product from them), but after some quick google research it seems to have a pretty good reputation. I'm actually not a big fan of hand creams as I feel so icky and uncomfortable about thick, creamy substances being on my hands (it's just one of those personal things), but I'm going to give this one a go because well, I didn't have to pay for it and I may as well try it once or I'll never know, right? It has a soft hint of a floral scent which is quite nice but not at all overpowering.

Creation Lamis Diable Bleu Eau de Parfum Spray 100mL;

This is the perfect drugstore perfume, and one I've been meaning to pick up for a while now. Honestly, if it wasn't for mum I probably never would have considered this perfume. It's pretty much her go-to everyday perfume which she uses in place of her YSL Paris (special occasions mostly), and it is somewhat similar in scent. It's really hard to describe this perfume in any other way though, so you may just have to test it out for yourself, but I will say it's absolutely gorgeous and for only $12.99aud, it's a steal!

Nutrimetics Lipstick in Sparkling Bordeux (discontinued);

This lipstick is really a gorgeous colour, and coupled with a creamy application and no sickly scents (you know, that awful cheaper-lipstick scent that is almost akin to rubber?), it really is a lovely product. This was a hand me down of sorts, unused but not 'brand new', this colour has been discontinued since 2011 which shows how old the lippy is - but that doesn't seem to have affected its quality, and if it has, then I can only imagine how nice it would have been brand new! That said, like most drugstore lipsticks or Avon/Nutrimetics pamphlet beauty products, it doesn't have the best lasting power and does transfer a fair bit. But it's still gorgeous for short spurts of use!

I really hope you've enjoyed reading this post, I certainly enjoyed writing it up and playing around with my new beauty goodies! I'd love to know what you got for Christmas this year, be it beauty, fashion, or other items! 

xx Chontelle Louise

Casual Chic

My Outfit:

Oversized Cardigan - Cotton On

Lace Pattern Crop - Factorie

High Waisted Shorts - Sophie Charlotte Italy

Bag - Colette

Suede Look Cut Out Heels - Izabel London

xx Chontelle Louise