My Go-To Lipsticks This Summer

You can count on me to wear lipstick pretty much everyday - or at least every time that I wear makeup. I only really started wearing it back in late 2015, but since then it's been one of my favourite parts of my makeup routine. I love how it can pull together and complete or change a look so easily, and there are always so many fab colours to choose from (too many, really, but I'm not complaining). 

While I wear all of my lipsticks regardless of the time of year, there are definitely a few that are getting some special attention this summer, which I've rounded up and listed below!

L-R: KVD Cathedral, MAC Amorous, MAC Faux, Stila Patina.

Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in 'Cathedral'

This is my absolute favourite lipstick at the moment, and it's the perfect shade to wear with any neutral or warm toned summer look. Cathedral is described as a 'matte coco rose', which is pretty much accurate although I've found that on me at least it has a bit more of a reddish undertone also which I absolutely love. It looks great paired with bronze or warm brown eyeshadows in particular, which has become my signature look this summer - I'm obsessed. I'm pretty sure this shade is universally flattering, so you can't go wrong!

MAC Satin Lipstick in 'Amorous'
Another MAC lipstick I've been loving for summer, Amorous is a gorgeous shade described as a 'lovestruck cranberry', though I see it as more of a berry toned deeper pink. I find this colour super flattering on my pale cool toned skin, and if you have brown eyes then I definitely think it really makes them pop!

MAC Satin Lipstick in 'Faux'

Faux will always hold a special place in my makeup collection as my first ever high end lipstick. It's the perfect 'my lips but butter' shade for me, a soft pink neutral lipstick that can be worn with any look. The satin formula is super comfortable especially in this Queensland summer heat, and while it reapplies nicely, because it's a 'MLBB' shade you don't need to worry about constant reapplication - low maintenance, perfect!

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in 'Patina'

This was the first liquid lipstick I ever bought and actually liked. I can be pretty picky with liquid lips because I find a lot of them bleed, crack, go patchy, and just feel awful on the lips, but Patina is none of those things. It's a lovely dusty rose pink that is so flattering on my pale cool-neutral skin - deep enough to remain in my comfort zone but still bright enough to 'pop', and it just screams 'Spring/Summer' to me. If you're looking for liquid lipstick in an understated shade that's comfortable and cute, then this is the one for you!

What are your favourite lipsticks to wear over summer? Let me know in the comments below!

x Chontelle

New Mac Lipsticks | Twig & Blankety

Less than a year ago, I purchased my first Mac lipstick. I've quickly become obsessed. I've been slowly growing my collection over the year, so of course I was ecstatic when my Aunt got me two new lippies (chosen with my guidance, of course) as an early Christmas present while I was staying with her in London last month.

I'm one of those people who are crazy about lists and checking things off of lists, and these two were up near the top of my 'lipstick wishlist'. 

Twig

I wanted a deep pinky-brown, and Twig was the ideal lipstick to fill that void. The colour is described as a 'soft muted borwnish-pink' which is totally accurate and falls perfectly into the brown lips 90's trend that's big right now (and I personally love). Twig is a Satin finish, which is my favourite as you still get the look of a Matte lipstick but it's more comfortable and seems to look nicer throughout the day. The colour is really flattering on my pale skin and brown eyes, it's not too dark but dark enough to stand out.

Blankety

Blankety was one I wasn't too sure about as I loved the colour but a) wasn't sure if it was too much of a light nude-pink for me, and b) didn't know if I'd like the Amplified Creme finish. Nevertheless, it remained on my wishlist and I've ended up really liking it! Blankety is described as a soft pink beige, which is about as good of a description I could come up with although nude may be a better descriptive than beige. Still, it's lovely. The colour shows up a bit more nude on my lips than it does in the swatch, which I feel is fine however I think it looks better over a deeper nude/pink/mauve lipliner. The Amplified finish is actually really nice, and the colour is just as opaque as it is with a Matte or Satin finish, so A+ for that! Blankety is really just a lovely everyday wear kinda colour, which I'm happy to have in my collection.

Which of these lipsticks do you like the best? Let me know your thoughts below!

x Chontelle

Mac's 'Diva' Lipstick | Review

Okay, so I've got yet another Mac lipstick review for you today. I know, I know - Mac lipsticks are clearly fast becoming my downfall, but they're just so good!

As you know, I love my pinky-nude lipsticks. But, I've also always loved deep, vampy reds. After a bad experience with the Australis 'Doo-Bai' Liquid Lipstick looking awful after a little bit, I was scared off of not only liquid lipsticks, but deep red lipsticks (the latter doesn't make much sense, but that was my logic at the time). However with an upcoming late autumn trip to the UK and Europe, and it being the middle of winter at the time, I decided that I'd finally give a deep red lipstick a go.

And I knew just the one. I'd been lusting after Mac's Diva for at least a year or two, it was the perfect deep, vampy, wine coloured red, and I knew it had to be mine. My mum actually bought it for me as my Birthday present (thankyou mum!) so I didn't have any 'financial investment' in it to pressure me into loving it, but alas, I did!

Diva is the most gorgeous deep red lipstick, and I honestly think it's an autumn/winter staple for any makeup lover! I have neutral-warm undertones and pale skin and I think it's very flattering on me, and I've seen darker girls or people with pink undertones look fab in it too!

I will say, the only downside to this lipstick is that because it's such a deep and bold colour, if your lips are dry then it'll be kind of obvious up close where the 'flaky' bits are. But that's super easy to fix, just moisturise your lips and I'd recommend using a lip scrub beforehand as well - Lush has some great ones in the flavours Popcorn, Mint Julip, and a Candy Floss one (I think, basically a sugar-y one)!

As you can see from the swatch, the colour comes up pretty opaque which is great, sometimes darker colours come up kinda patchy and need extra effort to make them look good. Not this one! It's a matte finish, but it still has this beautiful 'sheen' to it that makes it 'pop' that little bit more.

I'm honestly so happy with this lipstick, and I'd definitely recommend you check it out next time you go past a Mac counter! 

Do you own Diva? What do you think of this lipstick? Leave a comment letting me know!

x Chontelle

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in 'Patina' | Review

I've had the Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick's on my beauty wishlist for several months now, but I'd been holding off on actually purchasing any because I was hoping for the extremely popular Baci or Caramello. However, a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of spare money to spend and decided 'why not?', picking up my third choice from Mecca on a whim - Patina!

Honestly, the main reason this wasn't in my top two was only because I was worried it would pull too dark on me, like most lipsticks do. However, it didn't and I'm honestly so glad now that I've bought it! Patina is a gorgeous, deep and dusty pink with mauve undertones on me. It leans neutral to cool, which is perfect for my cooler skin tone and pink undertones. However, I really feel like this colour would suit most skin tones, pulling differently to compliment everyone - I have a friend with completely different colouring than me who looks just as good with Patina on, albeit pretty different!

I love the long wear on this lipstick too, it lasts for hours (though I wouldn't necessarily say it 'stays all day')! I wore it to the hairdressers recently, where I had two coffees (cappuccino's with all that foam and chocolate powder so I had to wipe my mouth a bit too) and a biscuit, as well as some water. It stayed on almost perfectly through all of that, which I was amazed (and very pleased) with! It only came off later in the evening when mum and I had an early dinner of steak and chips and Hog's Breath, which was understandable because of the oil and the messy nature of the meal! Still, it lasted a good 6 or so hours and probably could have done longer without that meal!

The applicator is also a plus, it picks up a good amount of product and glides effortlessly across the lips. It's just pointed enough that it is easy to fix up the edges of the lips for a smooth line. Honestly, I am so happy with this product and after trying so many awful liquid lipsticks, I'm glad to have found one that I'm more than happy to use - at last!

Have you tried any of the Stila Stay All Day liquid lipsticks? What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment down below, I'd love to hear your opinion!

x Chontelle

What I Got for My 20th Birthday!

Well, I'm no longer a teenager! Yesterday I turned twenty years old! I celebrated in small doses over the past week - a week ago mum and I had a sweet treat at Max Brenner (instead of cake, whichI actually don't like that much), and then Thursday night we had a birthday dinner at the Groove Train - which was delish! We grabbed coffee yesterday morning and I got some lovely presents, and then to finish off the night I grabbed dinner with a friend before heading out to the Valley (aka. club & bar central here in Brisbane)! 

But enough about that - the point of this post is to share with you all some of the exciting gifts I received today! I'll add the inevitable disclaimer in here and let you know that I'm honestly not trying to brag, but I'm just super excited about these gifts and wanted to share them with you guys! 

So without further adue, let's see what I got!

The two 'big' things I received for my birthday were the Too Faced Original Chocolate Bar Palette and the Rosefield Silver Bowery Watch with a Grey Leather Strap. Both of these items have been on my wishlist for a pretty long time now, but because of the heftier price tags ($72 and $115 respectively), I hadn't gotten them yet. However, if a Birthday isn't an excuse to get something special, then what is?

The Chocolate Bar palette has seriously exceeded my expectations. I almost regret purchasing Urban Decay's Original Naked Palette as my first 'high-end' palette, because this one is honestly the best beauty product I own! The shadows are super pigmented and it smells absolutely amazing! The colour selection contains a lot of cooler to medium neutrals which is perfect for me, but it has some lovely shades like 'Cherry Cordial', 'Amaretto' and 'Candied Violet' that give a bit of a 'pop' of colour to enhance any eye look! I'm super excited to play around some more with this palette!

I first saw Rosefield watches on instagram (I follow a lot of European bloggers) and fell in love with the minimal, classic styles they had on offer. Rosefield is a Dutch brand, with a gorgeous selection of watches that are super affordable compared to similar brands here in Australia like 'The Horse' and 'The Fifth' (anywhere from $35 to $85 cheaper per watch). To be fair, the discount is mainly because if you live outside of Europe you don't pay VAT taxes so we basically get to skip out on GST because of an international loophole - I'm certainly not complaining, though! I chose the grey leather strap because grey is one of my favourite colours, but also because though I wanted to go with the black strap and buy a grey one later, the grey only comes with silver hardware when it's with the watch itself, whereas the black strap by itself can have either rose gold or silver hardware.

These silver pieces of jewelery from Colette were a great bargain, I think they were around 50-75% off each and came to about $13 all up! I basically only wear silver jewellery and I've gotten rid of a lot of old junk so it's nice to have some new, on-trend pieces to dress up my outfits!

How to Be Parisian was another item I got to check off of my wishlist, as I've been wanting this one for ages! With my obsession with all things Paris and dream of one day living in Paris, this book kind of had to be mine! It's a great read, full of helpful and humorous life, beauty and style tips, and looks perfect displayed on my desk ;)

Again, another wishlist item, Mac's Diva lipstick is everything I'd hoped it would be, and more! It's the most gorgeous deep red, something of a wine/blood/vampire red shade, and looks seriously stunning on! It's also my first proper red lipstick - ever! I know, I know! Still, it's the perfect start to my inevitable collection of red lipsticks!

I also got a few bits and pieces of clothing and accessory items! The grey cropped cross-over front top was only $30 from Bardot after using my $20 birthday voucher, which was a great deal! Both the clear/gold patterned iPhone cover and the striped phone case/wallet were sale buys from Forever New, as was the Playboy bra & undies set from Bras 'n' Things.

My friend Meg also got me a present, a seriously lovely scented candle, which I unfortunately don't have a picture of as I had to leave it at her place (but I'll be sure to add a picture a.s.a.p)!

All in all, I had a great birthday and got some amazing presents that I'm seriously grateful for! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and feel free to leave a comment down below! 

Have a great weekend!

xx Chontelle

MAC's Viva Glam II

Hi again lovely readers!

The last week seems to have flown by pretty quickly, and I've mostly been working, binge watching TV shows on Netflix (you can check out my top 5 shows to binge on post here), catching up on blogging and sleeping a lot. So a typical start to the holidays!

A few days ago I was in the city browsing stores, I had a jumper I didn't absolutely love that I wanted to return to Zara and since the only Zara in Brisbane is in, well, Brisbane CBD, that meant a trip to the city and some time to kill. I browsed Zara for a bit, but despite finding some lovely pieces (and being obsessed with buying clothes more so than makeup), I made the return and left empty-handed.

Well, until I strolled into the beauty section of Myer and found that this MAC concession store had all of the Viva Glam lipsticks in stock! I had a look at all of them, but ultimately (as you already know) decided on Viva Glam II. It's just such a gorgeous, muted nudey-pinky-mauvey colour and comes in the special packaging - I couldn't resist!

As the third MAC lipstick in my collection, I can already tell you that this one is my new favourite! It's such a gorgeous shade, it's a satin lipstick (which I think is my favourite finish from MAC), and it looks so lovely on - it definitely compliments pale skin and dark eyes! Not to mention, as a part of the Viva Glam collection, all of the proceeds from this purchase go to the MAC AIDS Fund, so it's good to know my money is going somewhere it can do some good for others!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this lipstick - do you own it? Would you like to? Or what other MAC Viva Glam lipsticks do you have on your wishlist? Leave a comment below letting me know!

Have a lovely weekend!

x Chontelle

MAC's Velvet Teddy

Velvet Teddy, thanks to Kylie Jenner and the 90's nude lip obsession/trend, is possibly MAC's most popular and well known lipstick right now. I'll be honest, I'm not huge on trends and usually like to stick to the classics, however since Velvet Teddy kind of is a classic, neutral nude colour and totally gorgeous, I figured it would be worth the $36 splurge.

And it definitely was - the colour, as many have noted, looks completely different on everybody but also super flattering on everybody. On me, it's the prettiest nudey-brown with a warm beige/almost orange tinged undertone (usually not my type of colour but I actually love it on me)! It's so unique, definitely channels that 90's vibe and is perfect for an understated but still noticeable everyday lip colour.

Velvet Teddy is a matte finish, however it's not at all drying on the lips and doesn't crack or rub off and look gross after a while the way so many other matte lipsticks do. It's also surprisingly super soft and hydrating on the lips, given its finish (no complaints here though, I love it)! The colour lasts pretty well - it gets me through a full 9-5 day at uni with just one or two touch ups in the centre of my lips (keeping in mind that I'll be eating, drinking water and coffee all day to get me through uni)!

All in all, I'm super happy to have Velvet Teddy added to my extremely small but slowly growing collection of MAC lipsticks!

Have you got Velvet Teddy? What do you think of it? Share your thoughts down below!

Have a lovely week!

xx Chontelle

BEAUTY | MAC's 'Faux' Lipstick

My very first MAC lipstick - you have no idea how excited I was to finally pick this gorgeous lippy up! I'd been contemplating doing so for some time, always backing out because $36 seemed a lot of money for a lipstick. But now that I've hopped on the long-running MAC lipstick bandwagon, well, I've been converted!

This is honestly the most gorgeous colour, a beautiful, slightly muted mauvy semi-nude pink. I think a major drawcard for MAC lipsticks is that the colours are so unique, and as close as other brands may come to creating similar colours, MAC seems to get it just right.

Faux is a Satin finish, which means it has a smooth and moisturising finish that isn't as drying as a matte lipstick, but also isn't as glossy as a cremesheen. I'll have to try the other finishes first of course, but I already feel like I'm a Satin kinda girl!

The lipstick is long-wearing and only really needs a light touch-up after eating, which is great because it means you're not wasting heaps of product, making it last longer.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this lipstick and I'm super excited to continue to grow my collection in the near future (Velvet Teddy, Blankety and Diva, I'm looking at you)!

What MAC lipsticks do you guys own and love? Leave me a comment letting me know down below!

Chontelle xx

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