The two goodies I spoke about today are sadly not available in supermarkets but do not fear they have many other amazing products available online here: http://www.klaracosmetics.com/

*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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The word dupe is thrown around a lot when it comes to makeup and sometimes a 'dupe' shows two products that don't look slightly the same. Today's post, is not one of those times. In this post I will be showing you a 100% dupe for the YSL Couture Kajal Eyeliner* - the Maybelline Master Kajal.


As many of you in the makeup world would know, both YSL and Maybelline are owned by L'Oreal. What this means is that in many instances some products that you are paying premium price for are actually already available under other L'Oreal brands, at a much more affordable price. 
Packaging wise is literally the only way that these two products differ. YSL has a matte barrel and a gold lid vs Maybelline's with a glossy barrel and transparent lid. The YSL barrel is also slightly longer in appearance, yet both of these products hold the exact same amount of product.  Application is the exact same for both of them and so is the pigmentation.
They both also claim to be waterproof and trying to remove then both, they showed the same effect. Soap and a light scrub and the lines smudged and faded slightly. They were both fully gone once I used my trusty Garnier 2-in-1 waterproof eye makeup remover. 
Oh and I may have slightly told a fib. Another way that these two products differ is yep you guessed it, the price. Holy moly. The YSL Couture Kajal is $60 AUD vs the Maybelline Master Kajal at $11.95.
What do you guys think about this dupe?  What is one absolute 100% dupe that you have found?
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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Sometimes you just come across some gorgeous makeup packaging or pretty makeup products that make you go wow. Today's post is packed full with some of my favourite wow makeup items.
Originally totally not a fan of Benefit They're Real Mascara, I'm happy to say that it's finally growing on me! I'm definitely with the majority of users out there who say that it just needs to dry up a bit so the formula isn't as wet. I've now got quite the collection of these mascaras and last week the limited edition Benefit They're Real Mascara with Swarovski* crystals popped its way into my PO Box. I couldn't stop looking at it. The packaging is matte with the gorgeous crystals on the lid and I can't stop looking at it. What a fantastic collaboration.

Next up is the stunning YSL Couture Variation Eyeshadow Palette* which I've done a full in depth review + swatches that you can find here. This palette is so aesthetically pleasing on both the outside and inside. The shadows themselves are also incredibly pigmented and gorgeous. Definitely a high end product that I would suggest adding to your collection!
Of course I've included the Too Faced Perfect Flush Blush in Something About Berry. I think that this was the first 'really pretty' item in my collection. The packaging is stunningly girly and playful. All three blush colours are gorgeous on their own and mixed together also. If you are a fan of pigmented blushes, this ones for you - plus it's just so cute!

This product has received lots of buzz lately in the makeup world for all of the right reasons. I totally agree with all the praise. Laura Mercier's Face Illuminator in Indiscretion* is so incredibly beautiful. Honestly, how much detail has gone into the appearance of this illuminator in the pan!? So many brands invest a heck load of money in external packaging and forget the actual product itself - definitely not the case here! This is one of my absolute favourites for highlighting. I'm curious to see what happens to its lovely in pan appearance once I keep using it.

Last but not least of course are the lipsticks that most of us run to buy when we start our makeup collections. YSL Rouge Volupte's are by far the nicest lipstick formula I've ever used. They glide on the lips literally effortlessly. If anyone says a lipstick applies smoothly, I always think, well is it rouge volupte smooth!? The packaging is glamourous to the tee. I mean what isn't beautiful about gold!? 
What are the prettiest products that you own? 
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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YSL is a brand that continually impresses me and makes me want to keep trying more. If you are a sucker for gorgeous eyeshadow palettes, I also have a review on the YSL Couture Variation Palette here. In today's post however I'll be talking about some of the other beautiful products in YSL's Couture range. 

First up, I'll be talking about the product that I am fairly certain lured you into reading this post. The YSL Couture Palette in Metal Clash* has 5 colours that are 'ready-to-wear'. I guess I'll start with the packaging. Well, wow. Gold along the edges and top is this really interesting plasticy bouncy sort of material that you just wan't to keep touching. On the inside, you're greeted by five gorgeous colours that as you can see swatch quite beautifully. I haven't used this palette yet but wow I am excited to! They are all so smooth and pretty pigmented too.


Next up is the YSL Couture Brow Mascara in #2 Ash Blond*. The product itself looks gorgeous again. I love the formula and the brush, however this one isn't in my shade *sigh* ! If I can get my hands on the colour Glazed Brown, i'll let you all know how it goes. 
Top: Couture Kajal Eyeliner | Bottom: Couture Brow Mascara

Couture Kajal #1 Eyeshadow / Eyeliner* is named as a 3-in-1 product. The three uses are as an eyeshadow, eyeliner and tightline eyeliner. As an eyeliner, I definitely love this product. It stays in place unless you want to smudge it and it does require a waterproof eye makeup remover or some light rubbing. To use it as an eyeshadow, you do have a little bit of playtime to try and blend it out a bit, but I would definitely apply it to one eyelid at a time so it doesn't dry too quickly. The packaging as you can see is gorgeous and matte black with a gold lid, in an almost bullet shape. The tip is like a cone and this helps make the product super easier to use. Not sure how it'll go as the product becomes smaller, but at the moment I really like how this works and how quickly a nice line can be drawn. Oh and how familiar does this product look? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Master Kajal Waterproof Eyeliner by Maybelline? Hmmm, both YSL and Maybelline are owned by L'Oreal, so who would love to see a comparison post? What YSL or high end products are you currently lusting over?
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'd know that I'm very picky when it comes to mascaras. They usually make my lashes look horrible or wonder if I've actually applied any mascara in the first place. I'm happy to say that for the first time in a long while, I have gotten lucky with mascaras. In today's post i'll be talking about the new Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara*.

First glance at the wand, it doesn't look too special or fancy. This really doesn't bother me, infact I quite like it. I'm getting a little tired of all the gimmicky mascara wands that are too difficult to use or hold too much product creating a messy mascara situation. The wand is simple and straight to the point. 
Application, the formula is of a normal consistency. Not wet, not dry. I always curl my lashes before hand and with many mascaras, after application they instantly droop which is why I decide to reach for waterproof formulas. This particular mascara however, did not droop!!! It deserves all three of those exclamation marks honestly. My lashes were lifted, separated and also had extra volume. 
Few hours later okay my lashes were not as on point, but they still looked mighty fine. Having oily skin and oily eyelids is really problematic for me with normal mascaras and throughout the day I usually get little black marks all over my eyes, but this mascara lasted without panda-ness for a solid 8 hours when I tried it.
Overall, I definitely think that this is a great new 'drugstore' mascara to try. I used to love Maybelline mascaras an incredible amount especially in later high school and don't really know why I stopped using them. After this I'm going to be more open minded and be sure to try out a few more once my current ones run out. 
Have you tried the Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara before? What is currently your favourite mascara? 
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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Benefit Cosmetics recently released coloured versions of their highly hyped up Theyre Real Mascara and Eyeliner. In todays post not only will I talk about the packaging, formula, longevity as well as how I overall feel towards these products, but also removal! You might think why bother about removal, isn't it self explanatory!? Well you'll soon see!


For starters, lets talk packaging. The packaging that these products come in is pretty self explanatory from the above photo. I mean, raised box right? The external packaging of the actual mascara and eyeliners itself is something I really like, except that they are really difficult to photograph in natural lighting because of their reflective nature #beautybloggerproblems. The mascaras in particular feel cool to touch and both products packaging are very smooth. The internal packaging or product design features of these products is where things get a little different. 
The mascara wand is quite rough and towards the tip it is slightly rounded. When you drag it through your eyelashes it has a pulling effect which in turn is supposed to nicely separate, lift and create volume. I guess this is where my review comes in. With me, I personally find this mascara to be insanely clumpy. It is also a very wet formula. If you're used to wet formulas, then no worries. But if you prefer dryer mascara formulas, you'll see that this stuff will go absolutely everywhere. The mascara was also a bit too heavy for my stubborn lashes and although my lashes looked incredible after application, they shortly soon after drooped. 

Now, the eyeliner. This is supposed to be some sort of ingenious packaging decision and to be completely honest to sum it up - I really do not like it. The idea is great, but the execution? Not so much. When you open this product for the first time you have to wind it up a lot to bring the product to the tip of the applicator. Where the problem begins is that you cannot see any product working its way up and by the time you see some of the product, you've probably done to many winds already and too much of the product comes out - instant waste. This problem is definitely reoccurring this happens every time you use the product. You can try put the little orange stopper back in, but even then when, you open it the next time some excess product may have already come out whilst you've been storing it. What's interesting about this product is that the formula itself is great and the angle of the applicator is great. I just think it would have been better for them to create a separate eyeliner brush and put this product in a tub - something like a gel eyeliner that you dip in and be done with. No crazy spurting out and wastage of product. 

The colour pay off for the mascaras is okay, nothing special. The eyeliners however are pretty decent. The formula was smooth and relatively easy to work with, except for the blue one which you can see in the picture wasn't as nicely swatched. 

Longevity for both of these products is insane. They last an incredible amount of time colour wise, yet on my oily eyelids and skin I still get a bit of transferring or smudging. They are definitely waterproof. This leads me to my next point of how to remove this stuff!
This product is one of the most underrated products I use and I can't understand why! It literally removes everything. It is none other than my holy grail eye makeup remover Garnier Clean Sensitive 2 in 1 Gentle Makeup Remover. Definitely a mouthful. It's super accessible here in Australia from places like Priceline, Chemist Warehouse and probably everywhere else that you can get your hands on Garnier skincare products. As you can see the eyeliners came straight off with very little rubbing - horrah for no red skin. 

Wow I feel like this post has been a rant and a half. Please understand that these were my own personal opinions from usage with this product; with my skin type, eyelash type and all that jazz. I've heard of these products working wonders for other people, but sadly not me.
What has your experience with these products been like? Will you be picking up any of the Benefit They're Real line anytime soon? *The Benefit products in this post have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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Eye of Horus has always been an Australian brand in my line of sight. I've always thought that their packaging was gorgeous and whenever I saw swatches, I was definitely impressed. Today I'll be sharing how I went with some of their goodies and letting you know which ones I think are definitely must trys and also telling you what didn't work for me.


 Smokey Black Goddess Pencil| Babylon Brown Liquid Define
Before we get into the products I wanted to mention that most of these products claim to be "easy to apply, waterproof, smudge-proof". This was a pretty interesting product trial for me and should be a pretty interesting read for you considering that I do have oily eyelids and stubborn lashes.

When it comes to mascaras and my experiences with them, you may have seen quite a few reviews here on my blog. You would know that nearly all of them have been horrible and not worked with my lashes and skin at all. The Eye of Horus Goddess Mascara* however, well! The brush looks simple and ordinary, but this mascara oh my. The formula is the exact formula that I love. It's somewhere in between a sort of wet and dry formula, along the lines of L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes. This is not the mascara that is dry and you have to drag through your lashes, nor is it the mascara that flicks everywhere when you blink. It does hold my curl fairly well and I have started using this as my everyday mascara.

I used to love pencil eyeliners and about a year ago, without really knowing why I switched over to liquid liner. This product, the Eye of Horus Smokey Black Goddess Pencil* is so smooth and pigmented and has made me feel like moving back onto the pencil bandwagon. It's definitely waterproof and long wearing, where it doesn't even move about in my tightline.

Typically, I don't opt for brown eyeliners. I'm definitely the type of girl that loves black, on fleek eyeliner. But the Eye of Horus Babylon Brown Liquid Define* is actually really good. I still prefer black eyeliner, but I have tried starting to use this for more of a natural look on quick-get-out-of-the-door days because it's really easy to apply.

Eye of Horus Goddess Pencils in Teal Malachite and Bronze Amulet* are definitely impressive. I should note that on the packaging it says that they are "easy to apply, waterproof, smudge-proof". This, I can definitely vouch for. They're incredibly smooth and turn up very pigmented. To remove them, you really need a good waterproof makeup remover. This makes me so really happy because lots of products that appear super pigmented just melt away on my oily skin, but these don't - yay!

Out of all of the products, the one I don't really understand is the Eye of Horus Dynasty Brow Double Parfait* It is dual sided and the gel side is okay, but the actual brow product itself is really dry and does scrape on the skin. I tried using it on a couple different occasions, thinking it dried out so I kept it in a warmer sort of environment, but it was still rough. Definitely a miss.

Overall, I'm really impressed. Especially with my oily skin type being really demanding, most of these products actually withstood the test of time and only came off after waterproof makeup remover. If I could recommend two products, it would be the Mascara and Black Pencil.

Have you tried Eye of Horus before? 
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.



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Today I'm going to review Maxfactor's Excess Volume Mascara* & Face Finity All Day Primer*.  As someone who is personally quite picky about mascaras and primers, this should be quite interesting. 

Firstly we have The Excess Volume Mascara. As you can see, it has two sides which look very promising as both of the brushes appear clearly different from one another. 
When applying this mascara, what I noticed is that this formula is very wet and as with most dual sided mascaras I find it difficult to find the benefits to both sides. As in, I didn't notice a significant difference on my lashes before or after the second side. Straight away the wetness of the formula made the product move to other areas around my eyes - not cute. This formula is also a little too heavy for my short stubby lashes and as a result I don't get much lift.
Sadly, this mascara made my lashes fairly clumpy. Overall, this mascara isn't for me. But if you have long, strong lashes and not an oily skin type this product might be worth trying as I've heard many other positive reviews about this product.
On the other hand, I've discovered a holy grail in the Face Finity All Day Primer. It is INCREDIBLE. The primer goes on feeling slightly wet and it made me quite worried that it wouldn't sink in. But it actually did and very quickly. It wasn't dewy and felt very smooth. When I touch my face, it feels a if I just applied a really fine setting powder. This primer is an amazing base for both powder and liquid foundations. Usually primers are a waste of time for me, but honestly since using this product once, I haven't stopped! This primer has joined my everyday makeup routine and I have noticed a significant difference in how smooth and easily my makeup applies because of it. Also note (to my new readers), my skin is very oily and this primer actually adds longevity to my foundation, rather than making it look like an oily mess. Cannot recommend it enough.
Have you tried either of these Maxfactor products before? What is your current favourite mascara & primer? 
*Products marked with an asterisk have been provided for editorial consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.
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