I'm back from my holiday!

I've been away on holidays which is why there's been a lack of posts on my blog. I went with some friends down to Jervis Bay which is about 2.5 hours south of Sydney and we had an amazing time going to the beaches and hanging out in the beach house.

I don't have any reviews typed up yet as I haven't taken any photos recently so I thought that I'd share some photos of my holiday with you and also of a really special present that my boyfriend bought for me :)

My boyfriend really hates makeup and he equally hates that I buy so much of it so when I wanted the LORAC pro palette, he said that he'd never buy me makeup but that he'd get me anything else that I wanted (he didn't know what to get me for my birthday last year so this is kind of like a late present). I'd been wanting the Tiffany pearl stud earrings for awhile so we went to the city to buy them but on the way, we popped into Chanel to look at their earrings and I fell in love with a pair from the current collection so we decided to get them instead. I feel sooo guilty as the earrings were way overpriced for what they are but I totally don't regret giving up the LORAC pro palette for them :P

Chanel earrings

Anyway, onto the holiday photos... I'm not in many of them as there were other people in all of the photos that I was in and I didn't think that they'd appreciate having their face plastered all over my blog :P

And for people who don't live in Australia, we don't have kangaroos in our backyard (well not in the metropolitan area at least!) but the people in Jervis Bay have them in their front yards! We came across some in the neighbours front yard but I can't find the photos :(

But I do have photos of the beaches which were amazing! The sand was so white and the water was so clear that you can see right through it and see the sand bed. The beaches are also really quiet unlike most of the beaches in Sydney which get really busy on hot days.

Caves Beach

Caves Beach

Hyam's Beach

Hyam's Beach

Dinner on the first night :)

Groceries for the first 2 days!

Halfway through our trip, we woke up really early in the morning to go to a lake to do stand up paddle boarding. It's basically like kayaking on a surfboard.

Stand up paddle boarding!

On our way back home, we saw a really cute self-serve Fudge & Toffee fridge on the top of a mountain in Kangaroo Valley. We had to stop and buy some :P

Self service Fudge & Toffee fridge

Self service Fudge & Toffee fridge

And that's it :) It was a really relaxing holiday but now I'm back in the real world! I'm looking forward to planning my next holiday!

Valentines Day

I hope you guys all had a good Valentines day :) My boyfriend and I went out for dinner and I took the opportunity to take lots of photos. This is a pretty disjointed post as there isn't much to talk about but enjoy my amateur photos :)

He got me a Pandora Charm and made me a card :) It was a pop up card but he didn't like the way it turned out so he would only let me take a photo of the front :P

Pandora must've made a killing over Valentines as every guy I knew was buying Pandora charms for their girlfriends/wives.

Pandora :)

Such cute wrapping!

Card made by my boyfriend

It was kind of warm on the day but it was still cool enough for me to wear one of my new Country Road oversized knit tops with jeans and flats :)

Country Road top

Country Road top and Ksubi jeans

And my new Mimco bag that I got on sale :)

Mimco Mini Turnlock Zip Top Bag

In the morning, I was going through some new posts from my favourite bloggers and I saw that Ingrid from In Glossy Beauty had some really cute heart shaped Krispy Kreme donuts so I made my boyfriend go Krispy Kreme chasing with me :P We got the Lovers Box even though he doesn't like Krispy Kremes but I think it was going to cost the same amount to buy the box as it was for me to buy just 4 Krispy Kremes. Yep.. I was going to eat 4 Krispy Kremes :P

Krispy Kreme Lovers Box

I ate 3 of the donuts in the car on the way to dinner :P My boyfriend was kind of disgusted as he eats pretty healthy in comparison to me but he knows that he can't stop me and my junk food.

We had dinner at the Black Angus Grill in Parramatta (NSW) and it was a really weird experience for me to sit on the sidewalk for dinner. It was one of those restaurants that had indoor and outdoor seating and it was in a pretty busy location so there were heaps of people walking around and every time people walked past, they would stare at you and/or your food.

Black Angus Bar Menu

Dinner

He was being healthy and had salmon and salad. I was really full from the Krispy Kremes and the complimentary warm bread so I couldn't finish my "chargrilled warm haloumi stack".

And that's it :) We didn't do anything exciting as we're going on holidays soon. What did you do for Valentines Day?

Blog Sale. Lots of MAC items are available :)

Here's another update to my blog sale! I'm trying to cut down 9 drawers of makeup to 3 :)

A number of items don't have photos as I don't have time to do it. I'm getting ready to go away on holiday so photos will be done if I still need to when I'm back :) If you want anything from the blog sale, I'll be going down to the post office on Monday morning and then for any purchases after that, I won't be back home until the 23rd (Saturday) so I won't be able to send anything out until then.

Blog Sale:

1. MAC lipstick $10

- Lustering (swatched once. The top was a little melted due to the sun. See link)

2. MAC Marilyn Monroe lipstick in Love Goddess. Used 3 times. $14

3. MAC liglasses $14 each. Opened but never used.

- Viva Glam Nicki 1
- Pink Lemonade

4. MAC eyeshadow in cork. Used 2 times. $14

5. MAC Bronzing Powder in Matte Bronze. Used 3 times. $15

6. Dior Diorskin Forever Wear-Extending Invisible Retouch Powder in 002 Transparent Medium - Used twice $20

Image Sourced from: Link

7. Dior Serum de Rouge Lip Treatment in 650 Peach (more like a pink) - Used 2 times. $15

Image Source: Link

8. Urban Decay Vintage Complexion Primer Potion Brightening - Used 3-4 times. $15

9. Bourjois flower perfection translucent loose powder (opened but new) $5

Please leave a comment below if you would like any of these items and I will give you a quote for shipping costs. Otherwise, please email me at shoppingqueenjen@gmail.com for a quote.

I'm based in Australia so while international buyers are welcome, please note that international shipping costs can be high. All shipping is done through Australia Post.

I accept Paypal and Bank Deposits as payment.

Bellabox February 2013

This post is going to be really short and sweet as I don't have much to say about the box. I'm also sorry about the bad photos as I really wanted to get this post up but it was dark by the time I got home.

Anyway, you'll see that I don't have that much to say about the box because I'm not terribly impressed. This is my last month with Bellabox as I was over the whole "beauty sample boxes" thing months ago but I always got suckered back into Bellabox or Lust Have It! I've actually signed up with a fashion box 'Her Fashion Box' which launches this month so I'll be doing a review on that when I get it.

Firstly, I know that beauty boxes are probably at the mercy of the beauty companies that they're partnered with. I don't know for sure but they probably get sent the samples and do their best with what they're given. Also, they can't please everyone as they obviously have a lot of subscribers but in my case, I've found that I've never used any of the samples that I've gotten and I've mostly given them away or they're sitting in a drawer so it's time to give up the $15/month subscriptions and save my money.

My February Bellabox contained:

February Bellabox

1. U Skin Solutions Clean and Go Exfoliating Gel Cleanser (about $1.20. There was no size listed on the jar but it was probably about 5mL) - The pot wasn't filled up so I don't think it can even cover my face.. or if it can, I'll only get one use out of it so I'll never really know if I like it or not.

2. Banana Boat Sport SPF 30+ Sunscreen ($1.10) - This is a sachet and like everyone else, I can't stand sachets. This would be handy to take to the beach so that I wouldn't have to lug a bottle around but.. it's too small for my body. I'll be able to test it out on my face and neck so I won't need to worry about trying to "save" leftover product in the sachets because there won't be any.

3. Batiste Dry Shampoo ($3.30) - I don't use dry shampoo so I'll be giving this away to one of the girls at work.. Batiste must never make any money if they're always giving them away! I swear I've collected so many.

4. John Frieda Frizz-Ease Dream Curls Curl Perfecting Spray ($2.60) - I have dead straight hair and I never curl it so this will be given away too.

5. Fing'rs Nail Makeup ($9.95) - These are nail stickers that would only look good on a 5 year old. I'm too embarrassed to give them away.

6. Eye of Horus Eyeliner in Charcoal Obsidian Goddess Pencil ($30) - I was really excited to get this as I know that some people got the bronze one which I really wanted but then I found out that mine was black. I was still pretty happy as I just finished 2 eyeliners but I put it on and... there's silver glitter in it. BUT I was still happy since I could test the eyeliner out and buy the other one if I liked the formula... but then I found out that it was $30 which is more than I've spent on any eyeliner before. Luckily for me, the eyeliner doesn't last more than 30 minutes on my eyes before it fades and needs to be redone so I won't be buying it.

That's all I really have to say about Bellabox this month. The overall value was about $48.15 but there is no way that any sane person would pay $30 for that eyeliner. I don't think that I ever really complain too much about what I get since it's all about trialling new products but this is such a dud box.

Did you get a better box?

Maybelline Coloured Baby Lips

Over the last few weeks, Maybelline has quietly released the coloured versions of their baby lips in Australia. I picked up 2 from Chemist Warehouse without realising that there were in fact 4 new shades but I managed to find the other 2 shades at my local Priceline. They're priced similarly to the normal baby lips which are normally $3.95 each.

I haven't seen any reviews of these yet so I thought that I'd do a quick one for people who might be interested in picking up some of them. I love them to bits so I do recommend them but I hope you'll find my swatches useful as I know I was surprised by the colours and the pigmentation that they gave off (they're super sheer!).

Left to Right: Pink Lolita, Berry Crush, Rose Addict
and Cherry Kiss

I found them to be a little more buttery than the normal baby lips. They were more likely to melt if I pressed down too hard but they are so moisturising! The range consists of 4 colours which are between light pink to red.

In the tube, they all look pretty similar in colour. All of them are really gorgeous colours though and apply in different colours to my lips. I didn't do any lip swatches as I think that they would probably look different on everyones lips depending on how pigmented your natural lips are.

Left to Right: Pink Lolita, Berry Crush, Rose Addict
and Cherry Kiss

The wear time on these is about 1.5 hours before the colour fades but my lips stayed moisturised for another good hour or so. The swatches on my arm will show that they're only slightly tinted which I love as they're really good for work (my workplace is really casual). If you want to look like you've made an effort but don't want to put a lipstick or lip gloss on, wear one of these and you'll still look polished as they make your lips look really glossy.

Left to Right: Pink Lolita, Berry Crush, Rose Addict
and Cherry Kiss

You can tell that they're really sheer as each swatch was about 7-8 layers of the lip balm. They might look sheer but they look amazing on the lips! All of them could give you a "my lips but better" look. These are amongst my favourite lip balms ever!

Don't forget to check out my YSL glossy stains post from this morning :) You can check it out here.

YSL Glossy Stain's rave!

I kept seeing the YSL glossy stain's feature in other blogger's "favourites of the month" or "holy grail lip products" and I could never understand why they loved a "lip gloss" so much as I've never been quite a fan of most lip glosses. I ended up buying 2 from Sephora as I wanted to try them out anyway and they blew me out of the water! I don't know how I lived without these!

YSL glossy stains number 7 and 15

The YSL glossy stains are basically like a sticky liquid lipstick/lip gloss that wears down to a stain on your lips. Imagine that they're like Revlon Kissable Lip Balms but a lip gloss version. I'm in love with these and I can see myself expanding my collection soon. After doing lots of research, I picked up 2 colours, Corail Aquatique (7) and Rose Vinyl (15) and they're definitely colours that I would wear on a day to day basis.

The packaging on these is pretty simple but really pretty. They have the standard gold YSL cap, a black tube with a clear panel in front so you can see what colour it is and the brush which is a little different to what I'm used to. It's like a little foot that comes up on an angle and it deposits colour pretty evenly on my lips. The only thing that I don't like about the packaging is that dust attracts to the black tube really easily as you can see in the picture on top.

Brush - front on view

Brush - side on view

The wear time on these is phenomenal! They're really pigmented so I found that the gloss lasted for well over 2-3 hours before I started to eat and drink. It held up really well when I drank soup and I only needed to touch up my top lip. When the gloss wears off, you're left with a really nice tint to your lips so overall wear time is about half the day at least.

Left to Right: Corail Aquatique (7) and Rose Vinyl (15)

I left it on my arm for a few minutes and wiped it off with a makeup wipe to show you how well they stain.

Left to Right: Corail Aquatique (7) and Rose Vinyl (15)

Corail Aquatique (2 coats)

Rose Vinyl in outdoor lighting (2 coats)

I think that Corail Aquatique is a "my lips but better" shade for me. Rose Vinyl is a gorgeous pink and looks better when it darkens a little after 10-15 minutes. When I was doing research into these, some people commented that they have a bit of a smell which I agree with. The scent is pretty sharp and someone described it as acetone (nail polish remover) but the smell does dissapear pretty much straight away. I didn't even notice it once it was on my lips!

I picked these up from Sephora for $32 each but they retail for $50 here in Australia. I've spent the past week looking for some decent lipsticks but I've stopped searching now that I've found these. They're totally worth the money!

Maybelline Colour Whisper's Review

I'm super sorry for not posting lately! I was really sick 2 weeks ago and I'm still recovering from it. I have a lingering cough that makes me cough at the most inconvenient times (like when I'm talking to customers at work!) so I've been staying away from my makeup and pretty much.... the world :P I took a week off work where I just sat in bed and then I ran out of sick leave so I had to haul my butt to work. Anyway, you'll hear more from me now that I'm a lot better :)

I also wanted to add that all the giveaway prizes have been mailed now. For those of you who have emailed me, they don't have tracking as the post office worker sent them by large letter in order to save me money ($2.50 shipping compared to like $15 each). He thought it was silly to send them as parcels when they were only one eyeliner or one lipstick per envelope. In addition, if you bought anything from my blog sale, I've also sent that out and I'll be updating my blog sale shortly with lots of MAC lipsticks and other high end makeup. Anyway, onto the review :)

I first heard about the Maybelline Colour Whispers earlier this year and they didn't wow me as I have enough lip products as it is but I still bought 4 of them from eBay so that I could do a review of them. They aren't available in Australia yet but when they do arrive, I'd assume that the price of these would probably be similar to the Revlon Lip Butters at about $21.95 each so it was cheaper and faster to just order them from a US eBay seller.

Maybelline Colour Whispers

A lot of people have been comparing them to the Revlon Lip Butters but as these are like tinted lip balms, I thought that they would be more affordable versions of the YSL Volupté Sheer Candy glossy balms (sheer tinted lip balms). However, now that I've used them, I can see why people compare them to the lip butters.

The colour whispers are incredibly pigmented on the lips and are super buttery so they just glide on. You kind of have to be careful as well since they're pretty slippery! I was putting it on and my hand slipped and I drew myself some clown lips :P

From left to right: Pin Up Peach, Pink Possibilities,
Cherry On Top and Coral Ambition

From Left to Right: Pin Up Peach, Pink Possibilities,
Cherry On Top and Coral Ambition

Again, these are really pigmented on the lips and are pretty moisturising. I noticed that while they can't withstand food and drink, they last quite a few hours. They aren't sticky at all but they do slip and slide a bit so I found that I couldn't apply these blindly and I definitely needed a mirror.

Now for the cons, I hate the taste of these! When I wear them, I sometimes accidentally lick my lips and  they taste awful! Another thing is that Coral Ambition doesn't spread evenly on my lips and it kind of clumps together on the dry skin unlike the other 3.

In terms of the packaging, like the Revlon Lip Butters, the lids can be hard to get off as there's only a small base at the bottom of the tube for you to grab onto to get the lid off. Also, the silver tube inside is a lot skinnier than a normal lipstick tube so it's a bit odd but you get used to it.

I think that these are great as a glossier alternative to the Revlon Lip Butters but they're not "better". They're more hydrating but the taste really puts me off!

Have you tried any of these yet? If you blog, leave a link to your post as I'd love to check it out :)