Estee Lauder Corporate Shop

So turns out heaps of ladies know about this store - you need some kind of invitation to attend usually from staff who work with Estee Lauder, or at David Jones etc. But it's not that hard to get your hands on one apparently. Thanks to my good old high school friends I moseyed on down ready to spend monies I don't have for spending and went a little cray cray. Mostly with foundation.

So this is everything I bought, the Estee Lauder compact foundation was for my mum and I ended up giving away the Mac Pro Longwear foundation (the moussey stuff) because I was a complete idiot and picked up the wrong shade (NW20), when I thought I was holding onto a NC25. I spent around $180/$190 or so, which is obviously a huge saving but a massive splurge at the same time.

I never thought Aveda products were expensive. But they are. I have so many problems with my hair and scalp (tangly hair, oily and itchy scalp), I thought I would treat my hair a bit, since I usually buy myself cheap shampoo and conditioners (except the Paul Mitchell ones which were $12 each). I love the smell of them, it's like a combination of Aesop and Perfect Potion. The scalp remedy worked really well the first couple of times but I think it might be losing some of the effect. I decided I'll only use it every now and then, not every two days so I can get maximum use out of it. Needless to say, neither of these products makes my scalp itchy which says a lot - only head and shoulders doesn't make my scalp itch (but it's loaded with chemicals...)

This was my biggest splurge - I have been wanting Jo Malone stuff for sooooo long, especially just the scents Earl Grey & Cucumber, Wood Sage & Sea Salt and Nectarine Blossom & Honey. The store didn't have any of the scents I wanted in a perfume, but had this one as a lotion. It was half the original retail price so... I snagged one and use it sparingly - the scent lasts a while like a perfume so I totally scored.

I've rarely tried Mac products, let alone foundations. Aside from the Pro Longwear foundation (which seemed to have nice coverage when I tested it) being an accidental purchase, the Studio Careblend Pressed powder was completely worth the money. Shade blends well with my foundation/skin, it has a tinsy bit of coverage when I dust it over like a setting powder. So it's great for using with ultra-light foundations for a basic everyday look, but also matte at the same time. (Since matte foundations tend to have higher coverage.)

So the shade is "Light Plus" - it was the lightest shade there. I thought it was too pale testing it on my hand but after I tried it on my face it seemed fine. I've been using it almost every day now!

The Invisible Fluid Makeup was for myself, and it was a reduced item which I think is due to the shade - it was N1, the lightest shade. I thought it would be too pale, but turns out it actually works really well with your own skin tone and blends in seamlessly. It says on the packaging that it sorta blends with your own skin tone. I'm pale, but I'm not usually the palest shade in foundation, but it worked out well anyway. 

So this is the "base" using a combination of the Estee Lauder Invisible Fluid, the Mac Studio Careblend, and the Clinique foundation which I got MUCH darker than normal on purpose - to use as a contour powder. (It has a more ashy but not overly grey colour, so it looks more natural to use for contour vs. a bronzer or an actual contour powder.)

The Invisible Fluid is super watery, lightweight and has a light coverage. Take note of the patchiness and discolouration
of my skin on my hand because the end result actually looks like it has decent coverage.

You can see how lightweight it is when I blend it in!

Once fully blended, it leave a very sheer and dewy finish on the skin.

I topped it off with the Studio Careblend Pressed Powder, and viola! It all feels incredibly lightweight and has the perfect
amount of coverage I want for everyday makeup.

So this Clinique Anti-Blemish Solutions foundation is in the shade vanilla - I would say is 2-3 shades darker than my natural skin tone. It works really well as a contour because of the perfect balance of
orange and grey tones - since it's meant to look like darker skin, AND IT'S COMPLETELY MATTE! Yay no more sparkly bits on my face! Because it looks weird when your contouring is sparkly...

It look s tad darker on my face than it does on my hand.

Excuse the shoddy lighting - that's the finish of my skin after the 3 products I've used. Looks like no makeup doesn't it?!

More food - Hatch & Co.

I went to Hatch & Co. at garden city with some friends to check out the place, I think I was the only one who had never been. I would rate it 6/10 - the food is nice but kind of overpriced, but the drinks menu was pretty awesome and affordable. I think everyone enjoyed the food but to the honest, we probably felt we could eat another meal after 30 minutes anyway.

Cute décor 

Grapefruit mocktail - I had a cold so I thought this would be okay even though it's iced :P

Cider?

I took pictures of nothing and left out some pictures of food and drinks... 

Share plate - roast chicken with polenta thingies (I had my first ever brussel sprout!)

Pumpkin mash was yummy!!!

Not gonna lie, pizza was pathetic as hell for a "gourmet". I could taste the flavour of raw dough...

Slow cooked lamb was good, but it was a bit bland. (less sodium is healthier though!)

Might go back if I am desperate and don't have much options, but yeah I wasn't wowed or anything. Food is food, I was with good friends, so it was good times!

Cream (cauliflower) of Mushroom Soup

So I made a cream of mushroom soup following the pizza. It turned out to be super easy and delicious! I pretty much winged the recipe - found a few online and combined them or rolled with what I had to make my own recipe. I literally threw everything into one pot and use a frying pan just for a few ingredients and a blender. (Unless you like chunky soup?)

1. Cut off the florets (I didn't worry too much about leaving in too much stemmy bits or anything)

2. Add a good amount of vegetable stock and milk (keep it dairy free if you want a vegan recipe).
Add in as much as you want - I probably did 750ml stock and 400ml milk or so.

3. Simmer away until the cauliflower is tender. I just left it there for about 15 minutes...

4. Meanwhile the cauliflower cooks, chop up yo' mushrooms.

5. Chop up yo onions. Every soups gotta have onion. Unless its a specific onion-less soup.

6. Fry off those onions with some minced garlic and a touch of oil. Add the mushrooms when the onions are brown.

7. Cook off the mushrooms until you think it's done. Remember to season with pepper and salt!
It took me about 10 minutes and I reduced it down until there wasn't much juices left as well.

8. Blend the cauliflower in a blender until smooth and pour it back into the pot. Season with some salt.
Slight warning: like most thick soups, once it is smooth it will spit at you and burn you. Don't be offended, it's normal.
9. Add rice or grains to the soup if you want to make it heartier - remember to add more liquid to cook them off.

10. Add the mushroom mixture and simmer away for another 15 minutes or so to infuse all the flavours together.
Add some more stock/milk if  the soup is looking too thick.
And feel free to add any garnishes (I added some scallions right at the end before I turned the stove off.)

Andddddddddd.... voilà! 

It's delicious. It's healthy. It got a mother's seal of approval. GO MAKE IT!

Cauliflower Pizza

Cauliflower is one of those weird vegetables you can use in anything and make it into a lot of strange things. I decided to make a cauliflower pizza base, as an alternative to a carb-heavy base which usually takes more effort to make by scratch.

Making the pizza base is really simple, but it takes a while mostly waiting for the cauliflower to cool down once it's cooked.

Step 1. Acquire one head of cauliflower.

Step 2. Cut off all the florets.

Step 3. Blitz it up in a food processor until the bits are the size of rice.

Step 4. Microwave dat shiz. It's faster than the boiling method, which also uses more utensils...

Step 5. Let it cool, before squeezing out all the moisture with paper towels.

Step 6. While the cauliflower cools, add some garlic, parmesan cheese, and herbs and spices to a bowl.
You can make this vegan/dairy free by omitting the cheese, but it made my crust takes very pizza-like!
The spices I added was onion powder, mixed herb (rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano etc.) and a touch of paprika.

Step 7. Add the cooled/squeezed cauliflower.

Step 8. I added some potato starch, because I thought it might help bind it together.

Step 9. I also added an egg because I thought it would help it bind and keep together as well.
Again, you can omit the egg to make it vegan friendly!

Step 10. Mix it up, and dump onto a lined pizza-pan.

Step 11. Press it down as compact as possible, and bake for 15-20 mins, 180 degrees Celsius. (I just guessed it, and mostly
waited for the crust to turn golden brown. Only the egg needs to be "cooked" to be safe to eat anyway.

Step 12. When the crust is cooked, finish it up with your favourite toppings, and bake until the toppings are cooked through!

Overall, I thought the pizza was delicious. (So did my mother.) However, I must have left a bit too much moisture in the cauliflower because the crust was soggier than I wanted, but it kept together just enough to be eaten like a pizza. I also had nothing in my fridge, so I topped it with anything I had: organic ketchup (a lot richer and more concentrated than regular ketchup), sliced zucchini, onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and a tiny sprinkling of cheese. It tasted amazing though! You can literally chuck anything you have in your fridge, tis the beauty of homemade pizza ;)

Cotton Tees

I am reallllly picky with clothing materials, especially when it comes to basics and things I wear often. I always look for 100% cotton, because it is a natural material and feels great on my skin being more breathable, soft (and sometimes it's also stiff/holds its shape better) and non-irritating.

I've usually been getting cotton basics for the past how many years from anywhere, even including Big W, Kmart and Target because they sell the most basic stuff and I'm just looking for 100% cotton. Other clothing stores tend to have basics with other materials blended in, or 100% polyester (nooooooooooooo!) and it's usually more expensive too. I guess a lot of the time they LOOK nicer but I wouldn't pay more to get less comfortable material.

These tees are from David Jones, all Bonds brand. Original prices aren't too expensive compared to most clothing stores, but it will definitely cost more than places like Target and Kmart. However, brands like Bonds go on sale all the time! (And never at Target, Kmart, Big W etc.) I bought all of these at different times but during a 40% off sale. Myer also does these too but I find that David Jones stocks more 'clothing' items than Myer.

The grey/white striped crew neck was $14 or so, and I got it in a Large size for an oversized relaxed look. The ringer-style tees in the black stripes and plain black (perfect for work) were $18? I actually don't remember the exact prices but they were definitely under $20. The classic ringer style tees are thicker and more 'ribbed' like in material, and hugs your body more than the crewneck. I think Bonds is pretty good at matching the material of the shirt with the fit of it - but you can always pick random sizes like me for whatever look you prefer.

And great thing about all these - 100% cotton!!! Andddd they fit. These tees come pretty small I reckon - which I think is a good thing. Considering my AU6 size requires a size 10 in these Bonds tees. That way you can get a tight fitting top (which I quite like) or a loose fit. So versatile!

Thoughts and Reviews

It has been a while since I've been using these products. And I gotta say, I'm relatively impressed. Now that it's winter, my Antipodes Hosanna serum isn't cutting it for me because my skin sucks up the serum and still craves some more - and I'm not using 1/10 of a bottle in one go to satisfy my thirsty skin.

The moreish one is mostly natural ingredients which seem to work really well for my skin. Sunflower seed oil, meadowfoam seed oil and argan oil give it the thicker luxurious moisture and I think the cucumber and chamomile make it suitable for sensitive skin. It certainly hasn't caused any reactions or problems for me.

The eye cream on the other hand - all I can say is that I'm just using it because I think I should be using it. To be honest I don't know if it does anything beside make my under-eyes more hydrated and prepped for concealer, and it feels nice to put something and massage it into my skin. It hasn't irritated or cause any problems!

Speaking of concealer, I've developed a solid opinion on the Rimmel's Wake Me Up concealer. I LOVE IT! I actually think it's really similar to the Age Rewind in terms of colour, texture and coverage. But the doe foot applicator makes it a bit easier to control how much I use. Sometimes with the Age Rewind, because you wipe the entire sponge applicator on your under-eyes you can't really control how much to use. Also, the doe foot applicator makes it easier to put TEENIE TINY dots onto small blemishes to conceal vs. patting the whole rounded sponge top onto the spot with the Age Rewind.

I don't know if it's because I have been using more translucent powder to set my concealer, but I find that the Wake Me Up one causes some weird patches/clinging onto some patches on my under-eyes. It's really not that visible until you are 5cm away from the mirror, but it does bother me sometimes. The Age Rewind concealer though, creased without any setting powder whereas the Wake Me Up doesn't. So I'd say they are on par with eachother!

Onto a long-term use of a lot of these lip products and my recent additions - I have realised that I am a very dry-lipped person. I really can't be bothered to top up my lip balm or forget my chapstick etc so my lips are dry a lot, and makes it hard to even wear lipstick in the first place.

1. Starting from the left - is Revlon super lustrous lipstick in a creme 'Pink in the Afternoon' shade - a very nice pinky your-lips-but-better colour. It's nice to apply and doesn't look that weird when I have it on chapped lips. Doesn't taste that good though and also doesn't last that long (I'm always eating so hmmm I don't know about that).

2 & 3. Barry M lip paints - first in 'Sunset', and then the pink-cased one in a moisturising lip paint version in 'Black Cherry'. I'm not a fan of the bright coral colour, I think it doesn't quite suit my skin tone because I'm already yellowish, and bright orange on yellow skin is questionable. I love the vampy cherry one, and it goes on ALOT smoother and glossier than the non-moisturising partner. It's sheer though, but I found it good for swiping a thin layer for a plum colour or building it up for the whole vampy shebang lip-do. However, it makes it really obvious when my lips are flaky!

4. My recent purchase - the Maybelline Colorsensational in 'Totally Toffee' is good for dry lips because it's moisturising and buttery. It doesn't last AS long because of the fluidness/glossiness but I like it, and it pretty much suits any look.

5. And finally the Revlon Colorburst crayon in 'Sultry Sulfureuse', LOVE the colour, love the applicator (it's basically a lip liner and lipstick in one) but hate how it dries out my lips - or doesn't go on too well on dry lips. I guess that's the downside with matte lip products, but as long as my lips are well moisturised then it's a-okay.

Also, excuse my for not winding the lipsticks up all the way to really see the colour - I have an irrational fear that winding it up combined with my bad luck will result in tears and slabs of lipstick snapping off and falling on the floor.

Figuier Osmanthus Eau De Toilette by L'Occitane - A Dupe?

A few days ago, I saw a blog post  by A Model Recommends about Roger & Gallet and L'Occitane's new 'fig' fragrance launches and FleurDeForce talking about the Roger & Gallet one as well. I'm not that familiar with Roger & Gallet because I have never seen them in Australian stores, but I didn't realise the L'Occitane one was available in stores right away in Australia as well (since we're pretty slow in getting anything in, if not at all), and working right next to the L'Occitane store, I gave it a sniff.

First things first, I really like woody, musky and greeny scents that fig scents have - if you have ever eaten a fresh fig you will know what I mean when it say it tastes/smells like some kind of sweet tree nectar. Apparently most fig scents out there are predominantly woody smelling (well, that's literally what a fig smells like to me). And so, this new scent is supposedly meant to be a girlier and fruitier version of these strong, woody, fig smells.

The one and only thing that came to my mind when I first smelled it was Jo Malone's Nectarine Blossom and Honey perfume. I HONESTLY thought (and I still think it's pretty damn close) this was a replica of the very pricey Jo Malone perfume - it was uncanny because this literally smelled like peaches/nectarines. I don't know if it's just me.

At the first spritz, you can definitely smell the green woody fig scent, which disappears into this peachy-osmanthus scent (I also think osmanthus flowers smell peachy! And you can really smell if you have ever had osmanthus tea).

According to L'Occitane:

The fragrance opens with soaring notes of bergamot and blackcurrant, paired with a ripe,fruity fig.
The heart reveals another facet of the fig through its green leaves,
heightened by apricot tinted notes of the Osmanthus flower.
A warm base rounds off this delicious scent and leaves behind a woody trail of cedar and musk.

I had a little look online comparing these two perfumes, and turns out they both have a blackcurrant top note and an apricot/nectarine middle notes. I think 'Nectarine Blossom' comes pretty close to the osmanthus scent.

It smelled a lot girlier/fruitier than I thought, because I was really wanting a musky woody fig smell. But, I still really love it because it's not one of those sickly sweet smells, a little bit girly but also a little bit musky AND it actually lasted quite a few hours on my skin. And of course, the Jo Malone perfume smells wonderful as well, so being pretty similar this one smells amazing too.

Lo and behold what I think is an excellent dupe for the Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom and Honey perfume! The new fig & osmanthus perfume is $40 for 30ml, vs $90 for 30ml from Jo Malone. That's more than 50% off the price of Ms Malone's version!