MAKEUP BAG ESSENTIALS

We're going back to the roots of this blog (circa 2015) with a classic beauty products post! Today I want to share my most-loved, everyday, absolutely essential makeup products! These are my tried and tested, ride-or-die products that I can't live without (figuratively speaking, of course), the products I wear on the daily and will take with me everywhere to keep me looking my best!

Beauty Blender Bounce Liquid Whip Foundation

I picked this foundation up on a whim while browsing Sephora a year ago, it was half price and I'd been wanting to try a new foundation for a while so I thought 'why not?', not thinking I'd love it as much as I do! I've tried a bunch of different foundations, but had been loyal to MAC Studio Fix since I was in high school (and it's still #2 for me), and this was the foundation that finally took the crown from MAC as my new favourite! I have combination skin, and I like a medium-to-full coverage that doesn't separate after a few hours or look cakey and gross - this one doesn't do either of those things! It leaves my skin looking flawless and is a great base for other products - j'adore!

Benefit Hoola Bronzer

I've been using this bronzer religiously since 2015, and honestly it's amazing. It's a cool-toned matte, but still has enough warmth to give you a beautiful glow. I just have the OG shade, which I find perfect for me even with pale skin, but if you're super pale or if you have dark skin then they've also got light and dark Hoola options! It also lasts forever - I've been using mine since the end of 2015 (yeah, I probably should've replaced it by now but it works perfectly still and no irritation sooo)!

Ofra Pillowtalk Highlighter

As a pale gal who loves anything pink, this highlighter is right up my alley! Ofra highlighters came onto my radar back when they were trending with Beauty Vloggers, and I'm thankful they did because I honestly don't know what I'd be using right now otherwise. Fair warning, these are pretty intense (no matter the shade you pick), but if you're light-handed you can easily use them for everyday, and then when you want your highlighter to really POP - this product has got your back!

Colourpop Flutter By Palette

This is literally my ultimate neutral, everyday eyeshadow palette. It's a cool-toned neutral palette, but not so cool-toned that things look grey or muddy. It's the perfect in-between with cool browns, neutral taupes, and some pink/lavender toned shimmers, along with some deeper chocolates and a shimmery wine shade. The shadows themselves are great quality (as usual with Colourpop, in my experience) and easily comparable to much pricier high-end options. I hope they never discontinue this one, because I haven't seen anything that compares personally!

Lime Crime Plushies Soft Liquid Lipstick 'Milk Tea'

This is literally my perfect nude shade - I've got light/fair, neutral-toned skin, and I've always found it SO difficult to find a truly flattering nude lipstick. Most of the time, they pull orange on me, or if I try something cooler it pulls grey/purple - I've gone through so many lipsticks looking for just a nice, soft cool pinky/brown nude (who knew it would be so hard?!), and when Milk Tea arrived, I finally found it! As well as being the perfect shade, the product itself is really lovely - it's halfway between a regular matte liquid lipstick and a lip blush effect, it's easy to blot and layer to get the look you want, and it doesn't crack or dry out your lips! I'm currently awaiting a delivery with a replacement plus some other colours I'm excited to try out!

Lime Crime Wet Cherry Gloss 'Disco Cherry'

The comeback of lip gloss is something I didn't expect but am absolutely happy about, and Lime Crime's Wet Cherry Gloss' are by far my favourites! I love Disco Cherry in particular because it's the most versatile - I can use it when I'm wearing no makeup or just something minimal, or I can layer it with a lip liner or over a liquid lipstick for some extra shine and sparkle! Plus, I love anything glittery and this gloss definitely delivers on that!

Glow Recipe Lip Pop

This lip balm is my all-time fave - it's a lip balm that doubles as a scrub, tints your lips a pretty, plump pink, is super hydrating, and smells delicious! It comes in two flavours, watermelon and blueberry (both smell delicious and are very similar shades), and I honestly take it with me everywhere. It's great for no-makeup days, applied before bed and in the morning to keep your lifts fresh and smooth, or even a little on top of lipstick that's been on a while and drying out a bit!

Maybelline The Falsies Lash Lift Mascara

As someone who is too lazy to apply falsies often, and scared to get extensions (sensitive eyes/skin, not to mention the cost), I like to have a good mascara that gives me the biggest, lushest lashes possible. This mascara does just that! I've been using Maybelline mascaras for years and they're definitely some of the best on the market, and while I do change things up occasionally, this is the one I seem to keep coming back to!

xx Chontelle Louise

BEAUTY | The Perfect Lash Edit

Longer, thicker, blacker, and more beautiful lashes. That's what every girl wants, am I right?

You wouldn't think it, but achieving the perfect lashes can actually be pretty darn difficult - but don't fret, I'm here to help you out and show you how to perfect your lashes! 

Personally, my lashes are the most important part of my daily makeup routine. I really don't think I could leave the house without having done something to make them 'pop'.

I consider myself quite lucky, my lashes are naturally quite long and relatively thick, and I've never really felt the need to wear falsies as unless they're super dramatic, they don't seem to make much of a difference for me! However, if you have much shorter or thinner lashes and really want that extra 'vavoom', then go ahead and apply a pair of your favourite falsies.

So now, onto the good stuff. I always start by curling my lashes. I used to think curling was completely useless and never understood why so many people did this step - until I picked up an eyelash curler for myself.

I love this Revlon Eyelash Curler that I picked up from my local Priceline for only $12.99! It does the job well, doesn't pull at my lashes and comes with a second cushion curl pad for when the first gets a little worse for wear.

Now for the mascara. I am absolutely obsessed with mascara, I have so many different ones and I just keep picking up more. But, despite trying likely more than half of the mascaras on the market (possibly an exaggeration!) I have always come back to the following two.

Benefit's They're Real: I'll start off with a newer purchase of mine, the They're Real mascara is quite pricey at $40, however if you want to splurge (or better yet, can grab it either on sale or as part of a gift set - or both as I did, you can see my unboxing video of the 'You're So Party Gift Set' here), I think it's definitely a really lovely product. This mascara is great for separating and lengthening your lashes, and is also extremely black (which is an important area that I find some mascara's to be lacking in). Also, it's next to impossible to get this stuff off - it simply doesn't budge, so if you're looking for a good quality, long-lasting mascara then this may just be for you!

Maybelline's Lash Sensational: This is the best drugstore mascara I've ever used, and actually my holy grail mascara (yes, even over my Benefit They're Real Mascara). It does an amazing job at thickening, volumising and lengthening my lashes in just one coat, however I often like to add a second coat to really enhance the effect of my lashes. The only possible downside to this mascara is that often throughout the day I'll need to touch up my foundation under my eyes as it will leave a slight black smudge in the area, which can be annoying but is nothing major and nothing I can't fix in a matter of seconds, so no biggie!

I hope you found this post helpful and interesting - I'd love to know what some of your favourite products are to get the perfect lashes, or if you also use some of the three essentials I swear by! Leave a comment letting me know!

Have a lovely week!

Chontelle x

BEAUTY | Benefit & Sephora Haul

I have a problem. I tried to restrain myself as much as possible, and while I feel I did alright, I definitely spent more than I intended to.... Oops!

So today I've got a quick high-end beauty haul for you all!

I'll start with the main reason I was at the shops anyway, which was to pick up the Benefit 'You're So Party' Gift Set from Myer.

This set is such great value for money, and the fact that I picked it up on SALE ($55.30 down from $79) just added to the great value for what I was getting! It comes with a full sized Hoola Bronzer (let's be honest, this is why most people pick up this set!), a full sized They're Real Mascara, a mini POREfessional and a mini Hoola Ultra Plush Lip Gloss!

I'm not going to say too much about this gift set as I've actually made a full video on my youtube channel unboxing and talking about the set and products.

And then as I was on my way out of the shopping centre, I decided to stop into Sephora and pick up two lovely products (and my very first Sephora purchases now that the store has opened in Melbourne, it was all so exciting)! The Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye Contour Palette (well that was a mouthfull!), and the Zoeva 227 Blending Brush.

I'm so so happy with these purchases! The Kat Von D palette ($65aud) is all matte and covers the warm, neutral and cool bases - basically, with this palette, you've got the basics to begin to create almost any look! The shadows themselves are so smooth and buttery and highly pigmented! You only need to use a very light hand for great colour payoff, so this is going to last me a long time I think!

The Zoeva 227 ($17aud) is the ultimate blending brush - I couldn't believe how easy it was to make my eyeshadow look smooth and flawless using this brush - I'm officially a fan of Zoeva and will be saving up to purchase a full set of brushes from the brand in the future!

So that's it for today's post! I hope you enjoyed it - do you have any of these products? What do you think of them? Let me know in the comments below!

xx Chontelle Louise