Essence Lip Liners | Review

As you may know, it was my birthday not long ago, and with birthdays come lots of discounts and gift vouchers from clubs and email lists you're signed up to. One of those, for me, is the Priceline Sisterhood Club. I received a $5 gift voucher to spend in store, and since I don't have much money at the moment, I needed to find something relatively close to the $5 mark if I was going to be able to make use of this voucher! After narrowing down my search to either a single use face mask or something from the cheapest brand Priceline stocks - Essence, I went with the latter.

Essence is one of those hit and miss brands, where you'll either love something or hate it. These essence lip liners, which retail for only $2, fall right on top of the love category. I decided to pick out three so that I could use up the gift voucher but also so that I could test out a variety of colours!

The three that I picked out were 11 - In the Nude, which is a perfect browny-nude colour that would be perfectly paired with Mac's Velvet Teddy; 06 - Satin Mauve which is the prettiest, muted cool-toned purple shade; and 12 - Wish Me a Rose, which is quite a bold rosy pink.

All of them glide on the lips so well, I wouldn't say 'effortlessly' but the level of effort required to apply this evenly is minimal.

They also have pretty great lasting power for a $2 product, especially around the actual 'lip-line'. These can be worn either by themselves, or with a lipstick (my personal preference is a satin or velvet finish lipstick as I'm not overly in love with matte on matte).

All in all, I'm pretty happy with these lip liners and will probably keep an eye out for some of the other shades on offer! I definitely think you should check them out too, here in Australia you can find them in your local Target or Priceline!

x Chontelle

Lady Gorgeous by ESJ Organic Skin Care | Review

Recently, I was contacted by the team over at ESJ Skin Care about trying out their popular skincare product for women, 'Lady Gorgeous'*.

ESJ (Emanuel Sam Joseph) is an Australian organic skin care retailer stocking quality skin care products for men and women that have proven results. Founder & Managing Director of the brand Emanuel Sam Joseph has personally suffered from problematic skin, so you know that a lot of time and care has gone into creating a product that will actually deliver results rather than leave you disappointed. I took to google and the ESJ website straight after hearing from the ESJ team, wanting to know what this product was all about and how others who have already tested out the product felt about it. My search was met with an abundance of great reviews from extremely happy customers, which is always a positive sign!

When I received the package two weeks ago, I was in awe of just how beautiful the packaging was! First impressions, people, they're important!

ESJ really has that 'luxury' feel, and upon opening the box I felt like I was at a luxury hotel and spa. There were fresh rose petals scattered throughout the box, and inside were two classic light pink bottles of product shaped like a woman's body.

The product itself is really nice. It can be used on your face and body on a daily basis, and is a really easy two-step process of cleanse and moisturise. Lady Gorgeous is, as the name suggests, the perfect skin care duo for us ladies! You get a cleanser and a moisturiser, so it's nice and simple and you won't be overloading your skin.

Lady Gorgeous retails for $89, which is quite a good price considering you get two 200mL bottles of product. They also have a version of this product available specifically for men, called The Gentleman! If I've peaked your interest in the product then you can read more about it over on the ESJ website here!

Thankyou for reading!

x Chontelle

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

Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette | Review + Swatches

I finally own the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette! At last, it's mine!

As one of the most hyped, cult-status eyeshadow palettes in existence, and something found in just about every girl (and guy's) beauty collection, I certainly took my sweet time in picking up this beauty! I'll be honest, I tried very hard to ignore the hype, thinking nothing could beat my trusty UD Naked palette. Ha, was I wrong!

If the delicious, chocolatey scent that hit me when I opened the palette wasn't enough to make me fall in love, then the smooth and buttery texture of the shadows and the way they blended so easily when applied certainly sealed the deal!

The Chocolate Bar comes in a sturdy tin case that keeps the product safe, making it a great choice to bring along with you when you travel. I've got the 'new and improved' packaging, which is slimmer than the original and also has the shade names printed above each shade - which is a huge step up from the old plastic sleeve that everyone seemed to lose and really just dislike.

This palette has a versatile range of neutral, cool and warm toned shades that'll suit just about (if not) any skin tone/eye colour combination. There are 16 shades in total (6 matte, 10 shimmer) ranging from golds to browns, pinky/highlight shades, and even some 'stand-out' shades such as 'Cherry Cola' and 'Candied Violet' that add a nice albeit suttle touch of colour to any look.

Shades pictured (left to right) - Triple Fudge, Black Forest Truffle, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate, Gilded Ganache.

Shades pictures (left to right) - Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Candied Violet, Amaretto.

Shades pictured (left to right) - Champagne Truffle, Cherry Cola, Haute Chocolate, Crème Brulee, Hazelnut.

As I mentioned before, these shadows are buttery and smooth and blend like a dream! For the most part, they're very pigmented (unfortunately 'Strawberry Bon Bon' and 'Candied Violet' are lacking in this department), so you only need to tap lightly to pick up a fair bit of product on your brush.

At only $72 from Mecca Maxima here in Australia, this palette is great value for money and you won't be disappointed!

My favourite shades in this palette, and the ones I see myself using the most are; Marzipan, Hazelnut, Semi-Sweet, Milk Chocolate and Amaretto! But let's be honest, they're all gorgeous!

I'm extremely happy I finally jumped on the Too Faced Chocolate Bar bandwagon, and now I'm excited to try even more of the brands products - I've got my eye on the Cocoa Contour Palette and the Melted Chocolate Honey liquid lipstick, for starters!

Do you own the Chocolate Bar palette? What do you think of this palette?

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