Last Saturday, I was invited to a quaint little makeup workshop, held at Muse by Watsons, by the latest brand to grace their shelves - Mary Quant cosmetics.

The brand is inspired by fashionista Mary Quant from London, and features loads of colours and textures, aimed at 'bringing fashion to faces'.

We were treated to a makeup demonstration by Mary Quant's senior makeup artist, and then given the opportunity to play around with the products. In particular, Mary Quant's Action Lashings mascara and Eye Gloss stood out to me - more on that later if I get the opportunity to trial these products. In the meantime, I have a couple of products that I did receive to trial, and here are my thoughts on the brand.


Mary Quant Malaysia have 20 shades of Moisture Rich Lipsticks, ranging from the light to the very bright. I was lucky enough to receive a shade of lipstick that I definitely enjoy wearing - this is the P-05 lipstick, and it is a soft, rosy pink shade. It has a slight mauve-y undertone to it which makes it the perfect soft pink for warm skin tones, and is sheer enough so that a tiny bit of your natural lip colour shows through. These lipsticks are very moisturising and easy to wear, but make sure that you don't have little flakes on your lips (check out my lip tutorial here to find out how to rid your lips of flakes before applying lipstick) or this lipstick will catch on those flakes and create unsightly lines on your lips.


I also received a beautiful peach blush, shot through with extremely fine gold shimmer - the Blush Baby in #11. Think of a toned down, very natural version of NARS Orgasm. The colour is an absolute beauty, and would match so many different kinds of skin tones. Don't worry about the shimmer because it does not show up in even the harshest of lighting. Mary Quant have perfected the glowing skin effect without the need to use harsh shimmer or glitter. It also layers well for extra pigment and colour. If you're looking for a natural blush that will take you from day to night, this is it!


I also received two eyeshadows - the FP-07, pictured in the palette with the blush above, and the M-07, pictured here. Both eyeshadows are beautiful and smooth, and I am particularly impressed with the pigment and the smoothness in the matte brown eyeshadow (FP-07) - good matte eyeshadows are so difficult to find, and this one passes all tests! There is not a bit of chalkiness in this matte, and it blends and applies beautifully.
But my absolute favourite among the products I received, by far, is the gorgeous M-07 - a opalescent silver with an amazing amount of iridescence. This gives the most beautiful sheen of silvery colour to your lids, and can easily be used as a higlighter in the inner corners of your eyes, on the tops of your cheekbones, and in your cupid's bow. Again, this is nowhere near as harsh as a stark silver, and has a tiny bit of lavender shot through it. This makes the colour more wearable on warm skin tones.

Here are all the products swatched side by side:



The brand's logo is a black daisy, which you will find incorporated into all their packaging. I love most of the packaging, but was quite disappointed with the fact that all their eyeshadows and blushes come with slimy, sticky goo on the bottom (presumably so they stick to the palettes), because for their price range (between Inglot and MAC for single eyeshadows) I think they should be able to stick some magnets in there somewhere.

Overall though, the product formulations truly impressed me, because the colours are beautiful and soft, yet can be layered for more colour or coverage. Their eyeshadows are smooth and buttery, and so are their blushes. There are a large range of colours across the board, from lipsticks to eyeliners to eyeshadow. If you're looking for quality colour options with colours that are formulated specifically to match a wide range of skin tones, then this is where you should look!

Mary Quant is available at Muse by Watsons outlets and is out on counters now.

Everyone should love a nude lip. I live in nude lips, I have a drawer brimming over with nude lipsticks, and I constantly find newer, better nude lipsticks to covet.

But over my years of trying new lipsticks and rediscovering old ones, there are a few products in my lip product arsenal that I've discovered really works for me. Here are my favourite products, listed in order of application, for your reading/viewing pleasure.

And trust me, this really works.

The first thing you need to do is prep that canvas. You need to hydrate and moisturise those lips, and make sure that you remove all lip flakes.


My go-to everyday lip care product (this is something I discovered about a month ago and have been using non-stop since) is the Kanebo Sensai Cellular Performance Total Lip Treatment*. I am convinced that this lip treatment was sent straight down from heaven, because it worked miracles on my dry, chapped lips (I always have dry, chapped lips). Now, I know a lot of lip care products that can restore my chapped lips, but this is the only product that also made them look plump, moist and, for lack of a better term, juicy. My lips started looking better than they ever had, and I became hooked. I usually apply this before bed as a sort of lip mask. It works a right treat, and I think everyone should own this!
Side note: You are also meant to apply this product on the skin around your lips (and I'm guessing this is why my lips looked so plump and juicy) because it actually helps to restore the skin in that area and reduce and prevent the formation of pout lines.


Then comes the 'chuck-in-your-purse' lip care product that has been my fail safe for about a year now - the Simplicité Angelica Lip Care Balm. This lip balm is light and non-greasy, and lightens the colour of the lips just a little bit - perfect when applying nude lipstick. It is moisturising and convenient to carry around, and I love the light texture that makes it so easy to apply and wear.

Now it is extremely important to remove all flakes and chaps in your lips when you apply any sort of lipstick, and there is an easy way to do this. Before you start applying any makeup to your lips, slather on a thick layer of this lip balm onto your lips. Then, move on to the rest of your face. When you finally come back to the lips, take a cotton bud and rub it onto your lips in small rolling motions - this will catch any chaps in your lips, and the lip balm will have softened these flakes enough so that they will be easy enough to remove.

Moving on to the actual makeup application, here's what I do achieve the perfect, full nude lip.


Lip liner is not essential, but is perfect when you want fuller lips, or want to correct uneven lips. It provides a nice base for your lipstick to stick to, and makes it easier to apply your lipstick because you know exactly where it needs to be applied (I don't use lip brushes and apply straight from the bullet with nude lipsticks, as they are more forgiving than darker lipsticks). My favourite nude lip liner is one from No 7 - their Perfect Lip Liner in Nude. It is the perfect colour for most lip and skin tones, and is affordable enough that you can use it everyday to colour in the entire lip without feeling guilty about it.
In the picture tutorial below, I applied the nude lip liner to only one side of my lips, to show you the difference between the lips before lip liner, and after.


Next, apply your nude lipstick. As I mentioned before, nude lipstick can be applied straight from the bullet because you don't need perfect lines. Another thing I like to do is rub the lipstick in a little at the edges, because this gives you the illusion of a fuller lip by 'erasing' the lip line and allowing the overall lip shape to 'extend' a little bit. My absolute favourite nude lipstick is the Tom Ford Private Blend Lip Color in Blush Nude*. This is a gorgeous beige colour with a hint of pink, and isn't too light, so it won't wash you out. I recommend this for anyone with skin tones from the very lightest to about medium, and if you have dark skin and are a fan of light-light lips, this still won't wash you out as long as you have a lip liner well-suited to your skin tone applied underneath. Tom Ford is available on counter at David Jones both in Melbourne and Sydney.


Finally, if I really want to highlight my lips, I apply a lip gloss. My current favourite is from Candy Doll, because these sticky lip glosses are really long-lasting and hardly require any touch ups at all. The colours are moderately pigmented and add just the right amount of colour to nude lipsticks, if that was what you were looking for. I personally like layering the darker pink lip gloss on top of my beige lipstick, because then it gives you that 'milky pink' look that I adore. The only people I wouldn't recommend these to are people who live in windy areas, and who like to wear their hair down. Your hair will stick to it like it was super glue.
The amazing Candy Doll range is available at Sasa and Watsons outlets, as well as online on Tokyoniki.com.

Below, I've attached a little picture of my overall lip routine, I hope you enjoy it!


So that is more or less my full, nude lip routine! I hope you guys found a useful tip or two from reading this post, and if you have any questions at all, let me know :) Thanks for reading!

* These products are available for purchase online with worldwide shipping at www.harrods.com.

Estée Lauder has, again and again, managed to impress me with new formulas, innovative new collections, and beautiful, vibrant colours. Now they've done it yet again, with a brand new collection of makeup, this time formulated in a gel texture with sheer but beautiful colours, in their Pure Color Cello Shots collection.


I was sent three products to trial from the collection - the Pure Color Sheer Rush Gloss in Hot Fuse (Ltd. Ed.), the Pure Color Cheek Rush in Hot Fuse, and the Pure Color Sheer Rush LipShine in Hot Fuse.

The colour 'Hot Fuse' is what I would describe as a deep raspberry red, but the textures of these products make this deep colour pretty wearable. Swatches shown below come out looking pretty different because of the different textures, though the Cheek Rush and the Lip Shine are pretty similar once applied. The Gloss is a little lighter and less deep, which makes for a beautiful combination when paired with the LipShine (shown in the picture below).


The Pure Color Cheek Rush in Hot Fuse is by far my favourite of the three - it is a lightweight, jelly-like blush that really settles into the skin and creates a lovely, sheer stain. Only a teeny, tiny bit of this is needed (about the amount shown in the picture below) per cheek, because this is really quite pigmented. This was formulated as a stain, so even though it is pigmented, it pretty much disappears into the skin once you start blending. To get a stronger wash of colour, simply apply another layer. Blending is easy, but needs to be done quickly because once this product settles, it really doesn't move! Be careful not to go overboard though, applying too much of this tends to make your makeup look quite unnatural. If you're looking for a stronger wash of colour on your cheeks, best to stick with a cream or powder blush.


This is what a thin layer of the product looks like on my cheeks, worn here with the Pure Color Sheer Rush LipShine in Hot Fuse.


The LipShine is another beautiful product - so easy to apply, and it looks great on the lips! I have lips that are slightly more pigmented closer to the outlines of my lips, so almost all sheer lipsticks look pretty bad on me. I was afraid that this lipstick would be the same, but surprisingly, it hid the outlines of my lips well, so that there was an even wash of colour. It is very moisturising and easy to apply, and does dry down to a nice, raspberry-toned stain. I was both surprised and pleased with the performance of this lipstick when I wore it on a night out. I was expecting to have to touch up my lips every couple of hours or so. Instead, it just went from a glossy raspberry red to a beautiful red stain, shown in the picture below:


Finally, here is a shot of me wearing the Hot Fuse lip products together:


I am highly impressed with the quality of these products, and I will definitely check out the lighter colours in this collection to see how they fare on my skin.

Hey guys! This tutorial is a little bit more fun, so I'm sorry if it's not as informative! I wanted to show you what it's like to film with my sisters, and also to showcase some fabulous products that I have been absolutely loving. A few mini reviews are also shown below.



Products used:

L'Oreal Paris Nude Magique CC Cream - a green-based CC cream to cover redness and even out the skin tone. It blends beautifully and offers medium coverage. It has great oil control and yet allows some of the skin's natural glow to shine through. All in all, a great offering from L'Oreal.

Face of Australia High Definition Eyebrow Kit - I love that more affordable brands are putting together eyebrow kits like these! I love powders for eyebrows because their application is absolutely flawless and a lot less harsh, which works better for girls like me, with really sparse brows. These lean slightly warm, so I don't recommend them for girls with black hair and fair skin.

L'Oreal Paris Nude Magique BB Cream Powder
This is an amazing powder that covers your skin beautifully without covering its natural glow too much. If you have oily skin but still want that youthful, natural glow when you use foundation, this is the product for you. It comes in a couple of different shades - I wear 'Light' and my sister wears 'Medium'. We're both big fans of this powder.

NP Set Contour and Highlight Palette

Australis Curve Ink Eyeliner - this eyeliner features a unique curved handle which, once you get used to it, helps stabilise your hand so that eyeliner application is easier, and more precise. I love using this and I like that I can control the brush a lot more with the curved handle. I would have preferred a thicker applicator, but if you like being able to draw extremely thin lines, you'll love the brush on this.

Face of Australia Blush in Dolly

Maybelline Super Stay Lip Liner in Red

NYX Round Lipstick in Snow White

Thanks for watching! x