dani the girl xo

Thursday, 14 August 2014

July Subscription Boxes - HFB & BellaBox

Hello lovelies!

Welcome back to KaBOOM! Cosmetics. I know it's been a while since I've posted a video but sadly, my work takes me away from civilisation for part of the year. I'm back home for a break and both my Her Fashion Box and BellaBox subscriptions were waiting when I got home so I filmed an unboxing video. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to subscribe!

Stay beautiful!

Dani xx

Sunday, 10 August 2014

NYX I Dream of Nevis Palette

dani the girl xo 17:18 0

NYX is fast becoming one of my favourite makeup brands. They are really affordable and their range is just amazing, they have every colour and product a girl could dream of! Speaking of dreaming, I am doing a review of NYX’s I Dream of Nevis Palette from the Caribbean Collection. I have been lucky enough to travel to the Caribbean (twice!) and absolutely loved it so when I saw this palette, I couldn’t resist a little trip down memory lane.

The Brand – NYX

You can brush up on your NYX history by reading my post on their wonderful primers here. Basically, NYX was founded to bring bright, beautiful makeup to the world at affordable prices. Every time I look, NYX has brought out something new and a lot of their products are really good dupes for the higher end brands. They literally have every product you could ever want and even better, they are available in Australia (thank GAWD for that).

The Product – I Dream of Nevis Palette (The Caribbean Collection) ($13.95 from Lipstick Republic)

This is one of 10 palettes released as part of the Caribbean Collection, I have no clue if they are limited edition or not. They have every colour of the rainbow and I Dream of St. Lucia is particularly bright and tropical! There are 5 colours in the palette and the packaging itself is very nice, a little black palette with a palm tree motif on the front and a good sized mirror inside. It also comes with two eye shadow applicators (which I hate, not just these one, I hate all of them, they’re next to useless). I was a little disappointed to discover that the individual colours don’t have their own names. NYX could have done so much with the names like giving each one the name of a town on the island. But that aside, the colours are really nice. I Dream of Nevis is a neutral palette, there is a cream colour, a light taupe, a shimmery light brown, a shimmery silver and a deep brown (swatches below).

Using the products

The beautiful thing about this palette is how well the colours work together, it’s so easy to create a pretty good look with minimal effort. My two favourite colours from this palette would have to be the light taupe and shimmery brown, they look really good together. I am not a big fan of the silver though. The other colours are nicely pigmented and are very smooth to apply, the silver has a completely different consistency and just kind of fades away to nothing when you attempt to blend it. Having said that, I still like to use it as a bit of a highlighter on the inner corner of the eye.

Overall Score

The Good

Good colours (excluding silver)

Easy to create a nice look

Good pigmentation

Smooth to apply (except silver)

Budget friendly

The Bad

Silver is not as nice as the other colours

Horrible eye shadow applicators included

Limited Edition, might be hard to track down

KaBOOM! Cosmetics gives NYX I Dream of Nevis Palette:

So overall, a nice neutral palette with a good range of colours. Have you tried any of the other palettes in the Caribbean Collection?

Stay beautiful!

Dani xx

Thursday, 7 August 2014

Perfect Pout Products

dani the girl xo 17:00 6

Ladies, it’s time to talk about lips. Whether you love to wear a bright lip or prefer to keep it natural, lip care should be a high priority. If you’ve ever suffered from a cold sore or even just endured chapped lips, you will know how much better life is when you look after your lips. So I have put together a few products that will help care for your lips in the long term and leave them looking completely kissable!

1. Santa’s Lip Scrub by LUSH ($9.95 for 25g) – This little pot of awesome is a limited edition that LUSH brings out for Christmas every year. Like their other lip scrubs, it’s sugar based but it’s a much finer sugar than either Mint Julips or Bubblegum (both of which I DEVOURED and loved). It’s cola flavoured and has these cute little (edible) silver hearts, very sweet. It’s very easy to use, you just scoop a little out on your finger and give your lips a good scrub then lick or rinse off, whichever you prefer! Because the sugar is a bit finer, this scrub is a little gentler and there are lots of lovely essential oils to nourish lips too. I always have at least one LUSH lip scrub in my bathroom, if not more. Highly recommended for a pretty pout.

2. Glamourflage Bella Blaze Lip Balm in Honey Lemon ($13.95 for 20ml) – This lip balm was something I received in a beauty subscription box (now idea which, I never keep track). I didn’t realise they were quite so pricey until very recently but I think they are well worth it. This one is Honey Lemon flavour but it reminds me of Jaffa Cakes, it totally smells like chocolate and orange! It’s so rich and moisturising and I find myself reaching for it over and over. It is quite long lasting, I tend to apply it before bed and wake up with lovely soft lips. It’s worth buying this just for the mouth-watering smell but it does actually deliver on the skincare side too. The packaging is also super cute, it’s a little round tin with a vintage lady on the front, LOVE!

3. Urban Rituelle Lip Balm in Mango($10.00 for 20g) – This lip balm was also part of a beauty box, the January Her Fashion Box (yes, I remembered one!) and while the box overall wasn’t fantastic, the lip balm was one of the better products. This comes in so many delicious sounding flavours and Milkshake, Guava and Cherry are all on my wishlist. The Mango one is pretty nice too and does have a nice tropical fruit scent but I don’t know if would have immediately picked it as Mango. What I do love about this is the lovely, rich consistency. It is somehow a bit thicker than other lip balms I have tried without being gooey or heavy. It’s a lovely summery type lip balm that will guarantee lovely lips….if you can open the tin! I had huge struggles getting the bloody lid off!

4. Lip Smacker Glosses in Vanilla Coca-Cola and Sprite ($2.79 for 2.8ml, these are limited edition and were on sale)– So remember back in primary school when the most popular girl in the playground was the one with the biggest Lip Smacker collection, which she would inevitably carry around in her super fashionable neon bum bag? Well Lip Smackers are officially back on the cool list with these retro soft drink flavours! I picked these up from Priceline in their post-Christmas sales and I am so glad I did. I cherish a burning hatred for lip glosses, I find them gooey, sticky and generally unpleasant and avoid them like the plague…until I discovered these. They are clear and manage to be both glossy and moisturising at the same time and the soft drink scents are an awesome idea too. No gooeyness, goodbye sticky lips and hello to the rebirth of my Lip Smacker obsession, now all I need is a new bum bag!

Top tip – This last one is not a product but a (slightly weird) lip care tip. I was applying one of my matte lipsticks the other day and noticed how awful my lips looked underneath (happens to the best of us, even with all these products). Thankfully, I have one fail safe tip to quickly plump up and exfoliate your lips. Grab an old toothbrush, (not the one you use to brush your teeth) and either some olive or avocado oil or nice thick moisturiser, I like to use Ultrabland. Pop a little of the oil or moisturiser onto the toothbrush, hold your lips tight into a smile (channel the Joker!) and GENTLY buff the lips. Rinse off any excess and feel free to thank me for your beautiful lips.

Every girl needs to know how to look after her lips and there are a few guys who could stand to learn that lesson too! These products are just a few that can help you look after your lips, I would love to know what your top lip care products are too.

Stay beautiful!

Dani xx

Sunday, 3 August 2014

The Sparkling Soirée

dani the girl xo 17:00 4

Usually this time of the month would be the July Rundown BUT as most of you probably know by now, my work means that I spent most of July living in a tent in the bush. So instead of me telling you all about sleeping in a swag, driving 4WDs and trying to avoid extreme sunburn, I thought I would tell you about the one time this month that I actually attended a blogging related event, the Sparkling Soirée!

This was the inaugural year for the Sparkling Soirée and it was held in Melbourne. I'm a Brisbane based gal but I had a little time off from living in a tent and it was very conveniently timed to coincide with the Sparkling Soirée. So I hopped on a plane (thank you Virgin Frequent Flyer program!) and jetted off to Melbourne for a long weekend.

I stayed in a super cute, heritage listed hotel right in the middle of the city (the BreakFree Heritage, if you're interested) and it was directly across the road from H&M, dream come true! I met up with Mel aka Melissa Bubbles and Kat from Kitsch Snitch, who very kindly showed me around their home city. We also filmed a few videos, you can check out KaBOOM! Cosmetics, Melissa Bubbles and Kitsch Snitch on YouTube to watch them all.

My hotel from the outside, such a beautiful building!

Now, on the to Sparkling Soirée! It was held at the Galley Room, a super chic function room with long leather couches and roaring fireplaces right near the river. When we arrived, we learned that Mel aka Melissa Bubbles and Jasmine from Sweetaholic Beauty had actually organised the entire thing, and what an amazing job they did too!

The day included a facial demonstration from Erin (The Beauty Box), a talk about John Plunkett Skincare, an interactive session with the Benebabes from Benefit (!!!) and a chat with Rochelle from LonVitalite.

And to top off the amazing day, we all got a fabulous goody bag, chock-full of amazing products to try out. BEST DAY EVER! I was really lucky to get to meet some of the wonderful beauty bloggers from Melbourne, they all made me feel to so welcome (check out Instagram using #sparklingsoiree for all the pics). I can't wait for the next installment of the Sparkling Soirée!