3 Products - ISO Episode 1

Let’s kick off this month with a temperature check. How is everyone? Are you coping? Are you bored, miss your friends? Is your other half driving you batshit crazy or have you vowed never to bad mouth your child’s teacher ever again? All of the above? Look I’ll be honest I don’t really have a lot of spare time to be bored but pretty much everything else is a feeling I’ve felt in the last couple of weeks if not the last couple of hours! I definitely miss painting faces so I’ve been spending a bit of time playing and just having fun with some looks that I wouldn’t normally do. I’ve also been really indulging in my skin care. Now is the time to get all those little samples of face masks, and exfolliators and deep clean cleansers out of the back of the cupboard and give them a try. See what you like, throw out what you don’t. It will make you feel as though you are having a bit of a treat in an otherwise pretty treat-less situation. If you are looking for new products to get your hands on, (Mecca are still delivering and I’m pretty sure it’s free express because they are GOOD), read on! Perhaps your next treat is only a paragraph away.

Drunk Elephant F-Balm Electrolyte Waterfacial

Bear with me guys, I know what you are thinking. This chick is banging on about another Drunk Elephant product….. well I wouldn’t bang on about it if it wasn’t good! Trust me. Made with Vitamin F (yeah, I didn’t know there was a Vitamin F either!) to really hydrate the skin, this overnight mask works its magic while you rest your weary head. It’s full of antioxidants and fatty acids which replenish and re-hydrate even the driest of complexions. By the way, fatty acids are what you should be looking for in your skincare if you are wanting to keep your skin hydrated, plump and younger looking as they help to produce the skins natural oil barrier. It’s perfect for stressed and sensitive skin and prevents the appearance of pigmentation. As with all the DE products it works splendidly if you combine it with others, for instance Virgin Marula Oil for even more hydration or TLC Framboos for a light exfoliation. When I applied this product there was some light tingling however I could feel how rich and luxurious it was straight away. Used as the last step of your night time routine this mask will leave your epidermis feeling soft and supple and bring a smile to your face in the morning. If like me you’ve jumped on the DE train then you want to give this product a red hot go!

NARS Afterglow Overlust Cheek Palette

Palettes are my weakness. Every time a new one comes out from any of the brands I fan girl over I just have to have it, and lucky for me that counts as a tax write off. So Nars have recently released the Afterglow collection which includes a lip balm, a stunning eye palette and of course a cheek palette with their signature 3 highlighters and 3 blushes. This palette got me good, I think it was the promise of the “innovative gel-to-powder” highlighter that had me hunt one of these down when they were no longer available online. Luckily Joondalup Mecca came to the rescue before they had to close their doors ‘sigh’. So what’s it like? Well its great of course. The 3 neutral toned blush shades are versatile and give a lovely colour payoff. There’s pretty much a colour to go with anything and whilst I wouldn’t say they are completely matte, they aren’t really pearlescent either so they are super flattering. But the hero of the palette is definitely that buttery, gel-to-powder highlighter. Each one matches perfectly to the corresponding blush shade so that you can wear them on their own for an ethereal lit from within glow or layer them with the blush shade to take your cheeks to another dimension. Under or over, or both! You are going to end up with a luminous, glowy complexion that will work with a full face of makeup or over sunscreen when you are in a hurry. I cannot wait to use this palette on my brides for a natural looking yet dazzling glow. The Overlust Palette is a great example of how Nars create cosmetics for effortless and natural looking beauty.

Mecca Desert Queen Palette

Yep it’s palette month alright. I decided to pick this lil number up because I’m loving all my Mecca Max cosmetics at the moment. They are really reasonably priced, have a great range and the products do what they say they will do so you can’t really go past them if you ask me (again, not sponsored). The Desert Queen palette is $38, boasts 15 oversized pans of buttery, matte and shimmery goodness and can provide you with a number of combinations for different looks for eyes, cheeks and the entire face. Yes, you heard me. I am using this baby to apply eyeshadow, blush, contour and highlight. The shades provide a natural looking coverage and can be built up to be more dramatic. The highlighter shades give your skin a gorgeous glow up without looking glittery and are perfect for adding a bit of drama to your eye look. I cannot do my makeup of late without adding a touch of highlighter to the high points of my face and particularly the end of my nose but given I’m rarely wearing a full face of makeup, I need it to look natural, and these highlighters do. They also layer seamlessly with the matte blush shades to add dimension and luminosity. There are some really beautiful mauve tones which look gorgeous if you just want a quick no-makeup look and some deeper chocolate and burnt orange shades for, well for when Isolation is over! Whichever way you like to wear your makeup there is something in this palette for you so I highly recommend you ‘add to cart’ before they are all sold out.

Thanks for joining me for another month of beauty buys. This month did have a bit of a palette focus so I hope you found it useful. If you like the sound of the Mecca Max Palette I’ve completed a video tutorial/review which you can view here. If you’d like to be the first to receive these blogs you can sign up to my mailing list here and if you have any questions or comments or would just like to see me review a product you are interested in, get in touch here. Stay tuned for next month’s beauty must haves!