Vote for me!

I do apologise if that sounded like a demand, it was meant more as an excitable suggestion.

As I'm sure many of you beauty savvy so and so's are aware the beacon of all beauty-related knowledge, tips, trends as well as the occasional Lancome Juicy Tubes-coated pig-in-blanket (they're all the rage, apparently) Primped is currently holding a competition to find a lucky-as-a-pig-in-mud (wow, lots of pig references today) beauty reviewer from each state to basically get free products and review them. That's right, FREE products, for FREE (ie. none of that pesky money has to flee your precious lady wallet in order for you to get lots of awesome beauty loot), and all you have to do in return is review the lovely things they send you.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well you'd be wrong wrong wrongity wrong, I said a-wrong wrong wrongity wrong (a-wrong wrong wrong) - How I Met Your Mother anyone? No?

In actual fact it is completely true, and I suggest if you love all things beauty, get a literary tingle in your nether regions from writing, and love Primped you should really enter RIGHT NOW (oh and you should probably live in an Australian state or territory also - sorry Uzbekistan, I don't make the rules).

Or failing that, (can you sense the impending shameless self-promotion) you could always vote for little old me!

That's right, oh readery ones, you can vote for me (or Sara from SA as I am formally known) and make me one happy little chappy. Or you could just go and get a banana Paddle Pop and forget all about it, but I'd really prefer if you'd vote.

Toning Up

Ahoy there maties,

Thought I'd just write a little something (not about my current Tae Bo-centric exercise routine which you may have concluded from reading the title - is referencing Tae Bo very outdated?) but in actual fact about the recent re-appearance of toning that has popped up quite unexpectedly in my face washing routine.

Now I used to be quite the avid toner, if I do say so myself, toning around the place like a crazy rose water scented fool. I think I had Clinique to blame for this early obsession as their 3-step skin care system cleaned up my pimple-prone teenage butt (and by butt I mean face - or do I? - yes, yes I do) really well until my $5 a week pocket money allowance made all things Clearasil seem much more financially viable (not nearly as kind to the skin though).

I finally gave up on the entire premise of using a toner, figuring that since cleansers no longer contained animal fats and the like that in the olden days (you know, like the time before krumping was socially acceptable) would require the use of a toner such as rose water to remove any residue left on the skin after cleansing, they were no longer necessary. But oh how wrong I have been proven to be, namely due to this little cheeky number:

This A'kin Hydro Essential Lavender Cellular Brightening Mist ($24.95) first caught my eye due to its somewhat outlandish statement that it would brighten my cells - jury's still out on that one unfortunately. Fortunately however, this lovely mist is very refreshing and calming and really accentuates the cleansing power of my cleanser (if that makes any sense at all) by refreshing my face-skin and making it feel as though it is utterly clean but still full of moisture, which is a feeling a lot of cleansers can strip away.

I have noticed that my skin has been much calmer and less prone to freaking out and showing me a very unwelcome face full of red splotches in the morning - oh how I detest a splotchy morning, really ruins my vegemite toast. Thus I think I'll be jumping back on the toner bandwagon for the foreseeable future.

But I am interested to know how others feel about the good old toner. Necessary? Waste of 20 precious seconds? Really yum when sprayed/sloshed/rubbed on pineapple?

Personally, I like it on Hotdogs.

Put a goat on it

Well hello there gorgeous, aren't you looking lovely today. What? No of course I'm not just complementing you to get you to read me more - you're a stone cold fox, you know that.

Anyway, enough about our petty arguments, there are some real issues to be discussed here and some of them even involve goats and whether or not a modern lady should feel comfortable rubbing them on her eyelids. Others of them involve cucumbers and natural yogurt, or maybe that was my lunch, who can really be sure. But I digress...

I have been feeling a tad morally unsure of late, ever since I was given a bonus gift at Priceline of an Australis Eye Shadow Brush Set. As I perused the list of materials I found that two out of the three brushes in the set contain none other than - goat's hair. Now here comes the part of the conundrum that I'm not quite sure about...wait for it...is this weird/creepy/gross/unethical, in a nut shell - should I be concerned?

Here's a picture of the brushes for your observation:

and another after they had successfully escaped from their plastic and cardboard prison (from left - angle brush, fluffy eye shadow brush, large fluffy brush):

So in order to put my concerns in a biscuit tin and toss them off a bridge (or in other words, get rid of them) I had a bit of a search around on the old netty net to find out what most makeup brushes are really made of. Because in all seriousness, what had I thought I'd been sweeping all over my mug? Leprechaun eyelashes?

I found quite a good run down here which informed me that the most common material used for makeup brushes IS goat hair which is medium soft and very good at holding powder, adding to ease of application. Other hairs that are used for makeup brushes include sable, pony (fortunately not of the My Little variety), something called camel (which apparently is not camel at all but rather a combination of squirrel, goat and pony hair), and (you guessed it) squirrel (which is apparently the softest of the hairs, but for some reason just feels wrong). There are also synthetic brushes of course, which might sit a little bit better with the conscience. However, from what I read the hair is obtained through shearing rather than 'knocking off' the animals.

The two goat hair brushes in the Australis set (the fluffy eye shadow brush and the large fluffy brush) do feel very soft and do apply product well, as opposed to the synthetic angle brush which is a bit scratchy and hard (never the best feeling close to ones eyeballs). So in conclusion I'm still not really sure how I feel about them, can I live with the thought of a herd of goats being cold just so that I may have something soft to apply my eye shadow with?

Any thoughts?

Merlin's beard, that's shine-sational!

(Professor Slughorn reference anyone?)

Good day friends, countrymen and fellow ghetto-blaster toting fiends (oh yeah, I walk around with my own personal soundtrack, Spice Girls and Right Said Fred mostly, but enough about my uber-cool life).

Only the other day I was contemplating why on earth they don't make pina colada flavoured lollypops (pineapple growers conspiracy?) when I happened to notice how lovely and shiny my hair was looking. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not usually the type to wander about simply 'noticing' how wonderful I look, far from it in fact, but in this particular instance I was given a bit of assistance in looking quite hair-tastic (in more of a Farrah Fawcett fashion as opposed to Harry and the Hendersons) by a wonderful little product I have come to truly adore. The little beauty in question is the Ginko & Jojoba Intensive Moisture Vitamin Masque ($17.95) brought to you by the lovers of all things natural, Al'chemy, and looking suspiciously like this:

I first gave this hair mask a whirl after I had developed a slight addiction to the Pantene Pro-V 3 Minute Miracle hair treatment masks ($7.99 for a pack of 3) and was rapidly turning into a pack-a-week user. My hair was delighted with the situation but my bank balance was less so, which led me to search for a product with a bit more longevity. My hunt through the Priceline shelves turned up this little gem which as well as being lovely and sulfate and paraben-free also lasts me and my mid-back length, thick as thieves hair months and months even with 3x weekly uses (I know, I know, I have a problem).

The texture of this hair masque (do fancy names make for better products? In a word, yes) is nice and creamy and it's very natural-smelling - like sticking your head in a rosemary field or a mossy wood. The instructions say that it should be left on for 5 minutes in order for the natural goodness to take it's full effect but I find that just a few minutes (or however long I have after my shampoo, conditioner, shower flamenco routine) is sufficiently long for the shininess to take effect. And take effect it does, giving even my lanky, winter tortured locks a nice swoosh and shine.

So, til next time, shine on you crazy diamonds.