OOTD- Autumn in Spring

My final exam of the year was today! *hollers* So much excitement and relief flooded through me- even though I probably didn't do too well- I'm so glad they're finally over. This year more than most, I'm looking forward to the break and being productive, getting my life started and reaching my goals finally seems possible. Challenges are abundant, but bring it on (I say for once)!

This isn't my usual style, but what can I say? I'm not one to be closed minded. I felt so girly and feminine, it was an awkward change haha. Still fun and perfect for this weather while still being modest!

Dress: Forever 21/ Bag: Zara/ Flats: some random store in Malaysia

HAVE AN AWESOME BREAK TO EVERYONE STUDYING! IT'S BEEN AN EYE OPENING YEAR!

UO+Inlovewithfashion Haul!

Mini Beautyjoint Haul! NYX, Elf

 This one came super quickly! Here's my mini haul and a brief review and first impression of the products I ordered, there are only four things.

I basically ordered again because I have my school formal fast approaching and I realised that I needed a few things whereas the huge haul the first time I ordered was more of a splurge for fun with my New Year's money. I wanted to rock the red lippy look but there are so many different red lipsticks and I didn't know which one was similar to the shade I wanted so I went by their shade samples [which unfortunately, were not very accurate ): ] I ordered 2 to be safe, the Matte Lip Cream by NYX in Monte Carlo, and their round lipstick in Elektra aswell as a lip liner pencil in burgundy and Elf's Tickled Pink blush which is a huge hit all over the net.

Lets start with the round lippy.

NYX Elektra

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Of the two products this was the one closed to the shade I had hoped. The formula is delectably creamy and the packaging was very nice and classy for a product that is $2.50. It has great colour payoff aswell. Definitely would recommend!

I was pleasantly surprised by Tickled Pink. It's lovely and a muted light pink shade that would be wearable on my skintones. I haven't tried it out on my face yet, but swatching it, it had a nice matte finish and product can be dispersed and applied easily as alot comes off from a gentle swipe.

This lip cream was probably the worst of the lot. For all the reviews it had been getting plus the $5.70 pricetag that is more than double the round lippy, I had high expectations. Unfortunately the product is a violent red with strong magenta undertones and much to loud for me. I was so disappointed because all the swatches I had seen online were a rich, dark, warm red, which is what I wanted.

Not only this, but the wand applicator does not pick up much product at all and I found myself needing to do a second coat, but the staying power was so bad that when applying the second coat, the first one is wiped off! I would NOT recommend this shade to anyone!

Here are the swatches for all the products:

hehehe I love how my watch matches perfecting with these swatches. Anywaaay. The bottom four are the products mentioned. I've swatched some similar red shades of my other products for a comparison. The jordana lippy doesn't show true to colour, (it's so much brighter) but the others I would say are.

  Fabulous Fig (009) from Revlon's matte line matches the NYX burgundy lip pencil almost to a tee! I'm glad :) Really Red would probably be the most warm shade of red, even though it's the lightest it's still my favourite. I honestly just wanted something in this shade but abit darker (I had hopes for Monte Carlo!) But Elektra I would say is the closest to true red and Monte Carlo is leaning to magenta.

 If you look at the two lippy's, the Matte Lip Cream is even glossier than the normal round lipstick! It's so extremely disappointing honestly. If you want a nice lippy, go for the normal lipsticks. For more than half the price, they have about 10 times more shades too.

Huge BeautyJoint Haul! Nyx, Klean Color, Milani, China Glaze + more!

Oh New Years money, I see where you went ):

I've always wanted to try American drug store brands, as there has been huge hype of them all over the internet. Cheap AND great performance? Who wouldn't want to! So when A friend of mine told me about a site that has a great range and okay pricing (okay I mean not that good if you buy heaps of stuff ): ) , yeah. I got a little carried away.So here's what I got! Jump to the bottle if you want the review of the site :)

LtR: Nyx pencil "deep red", Nyx Retractable lip pencil "Natural", NYX Jumbo Crayon in Purple Velvet, Cottage Cheese,  LA Girl Jumbo Eye Pencil in Waves & Sandcastles

I got 2  Nyx Jumbo Pencils and 2 LA Girl Jumbo Pencils and two lip pencils. I'll do a detailed comparison of the NYX and LA Girl later :). The NYX ones were $3.50, and the LA Girl ones were $1.75 I think.

the colour payoff of the Milani Once Coat glitters were enough for me to splurge and get 3. I love the One Coat Glitters, they really are one coat, but they look better with two or more.My Favourite is the black/silver one, it's very gunmetal and wearable. Even though my favourite colour is red, it's probably my least favourite just because it doesn't sparkle as much. I really wanted to like it. :/

The 3D Holographic ones fascinated me to no end. I have the silver one one now and it's absolutely amazing. I'm constantly distracted by it sparkling in rainbow colours in the light, it's dazzling yet in normal shade it becomes a subtle, wearable silver with a bit of sparkle. The gold, I have swatched and is a tad disappointing. The yellow is a dirty yellow and pales in comparison to it's beautiful rose gold One Coat counterpart. All these polishes were $3.99, a steal!

here are some miscellaneous beauty items I bought. I LOVE the Seche Vite Base Coat. Initially I thought I ordered the top coat (which I've been hearing alot about) but this is good too. :)

The Jordana matte lipstick is a light pink and so pretty! It smells so good, plus the formula is creamy plus affordable. I also got the E.L.F All over cover stick in white, which I have been using as a highlighter. For the price, it's very satisfactory and has a creamy, easy to blend formula. On a random note, I purchased the Acnes Mentholatum BB cream, which is something I haven't heard much about but have been curious about since the powdery lotion and tinted moisturiser are a huge hit with me. It's okay, I really like it except that I've been breaking out recently but it might not be the bb cream.

I've got Dorothy Who, which is a blue with a few glitters, Inner beauty-  a pinkish nude and the Patent Leather Top Coat. Dorothy Who suits a top coat, but isn't opaque and isn't as dazzling as the one coat glitters. I haven't swatched Inner Beauty, but I love the top coat, it's great. :) The China Glaze polishes were probably the most pricey items I bought at about $3.99 each and the weight of these babies drove the postage up alot.

 I also got these Klean Colours pastels in teal and orange. They're super cheap and not wow worthy. Comes in a decent size and is okay. But nothing amazing unfortunately.

My experience with beautyjoint:

Overall I'd say ordering with them was a positive experience. I was always very afraid to order makeup online due to my horrible experiences with leaking products etc. I did my research and found all this hype about beautyjoint and Cherryculture but found out that beautyjoint's postage is cheaper and that they also offer a larger range such as the nail polishes that Cherryculture does not. Even though I was totally satisfied with Beautyjoint and their customer service (they even gave me a discount code for a large order!) one of the China Glaze polishes came rather empty and had dried residue on the outer rim. I have emailed them and hopefully it can be resent ):

unused, but there was missing formula that made it seem used. ):

I ordered with a creditcard and the total was around $150 on a group order with my friends (don't worry, I'm not THAT crazy to spend that much myself! haha) and the postage for 46 items to Australia was $50.55, which even though I felt was very steep, it was justifiable considering the range of products and their lack of availability internationally, and the price of the products themselves were cheap. Personally I think they could really improve customer service by offering free shipping on orders over x amount or something similar for large orders because I know I'd definitely order off there much more if they did. I hate paying expensive shipping costs, it's the one thing that can really be a decider for me when ordering online.

The package arrived just about two weeks after I had ordered in a box with styrofoam noodles and everything was packed away really well in bubble wrap. My friends and I were like little kids in a candy store opening them up! I'm still wondering how the heck the polish has leaked through that great packaging job ): Anyways, all the products were alright besides the jordana lipstick which had some dewy vapour on the outside, though I am presuming it was from the intense heat in Australia and that is not a huge problem for me as it is still perfectly working.

I have already place another tiny order from them and hopefully I will be able to do so again in the future! I do recommend the site to us Aussies that only have a limited selection of products on our shelves.

Random Beauty Haul

 Yesto Carrots clearing moisturiser, wet ones sensitive, wet ones original, Thursday Plantation Tee Tree Medicated Gel for Acne, Fashion Tape, Cutex Nail Polish Remover,Models Prefer teasing comb, Vs Sassoon Curl magic, Aveeno Moisturiser, Umberto Gianni Sex Bomb Hair mousse

Went to the city recently and found myself stocking up on essentials! Can't believe I spent that much, though to be fair I actually desperately needed some of these which are every day items for me. The Aveeno and Tea Tree Acne Gel are my HG moisturiser and acne treatment! I can't live without them! I was using the Garnier moisturiser but figured I could try a new one. The Yes to Carrots moisturiser is a whopping $23.99 for 50ml, I almost cried handing the money over. So far so good, but we'll see how it goes. The other items are all in preparation (in some way) for my ball in March! (a ball is the Australian version of Prom, but we only have it once in the final year of highschool. It's a pretty big event.) I was going to do my makeup and hair myself so I wanted to try out this Curl magic. It's very good but since my hair is super long, I'm actually regretting this purchase since I didn't get it on sale and it was pricey... ):

Various jewellery. The Chain necklace- doesn't it look pimpish? Not really sure how I'll style it. Abit of a regret buy.

  got these for $4! Aren't they a steal? 

unfortunately these weren't on sale, $12.99 was so pricey. ):