Mind F&%k Friday - the dress that broke the internet

My morning routine consists of waking up, checking all my social media sites, and then finally jumping out of bed at the last possible second for me to have a chance in hell at being ready to leave for work on time! This morning while on Facebook, a friend had posted an article from Buzzfeed, and asked us what colour we thought a particular dress was. Intrigued, I clicked the link and started reading. I looked at the "obviously" white and gold dress, then looked at the comments below. Truly believing that others' claims that the dress was black and blue were a joke, I scrolled back up to have another look at the dress, and to by complete disbelief, it briefly looked black and blue, then turned to white and gold again!

It seems that after Tumblr user swiked uploaded the image of the dress, the internet has been divided as to what colour the dress is. After some frantic research (I only had about 5 minutes before I seriously needed to get out of bed) I managed to find out that the dress in question was indeed blue and black. This article confirms that the dress is in fact the very same dress as the one below:

Now this dress is clearly blue and black to me, so howcome the first image looks white and gold?! Is it the fact that I love the colour combo (hence my blog background), or have I suddenly been struck down with colour-blindness? It seems that the answer is neither of the above - from what I could deduce from this article, it all has to do with the brain's perception of the lighting in the photo. Those who see white and gold perceive the lighting on the dress to be poor, and those who see black and blue are taking it that the lighting on the dress is good.
Even though the truth about the dress has come out, I am not alone - according to the poll on Buzzfeed, a whopping 72% of people see it as white and gold (percentage correct at time of publishing!).
Maybe Kim Kardashian should have taken a photo of herself wearing an optical illusion - her nudie photos didn't even make a slight dent in the internet compared to this innocent little dress!

Clicks Deep Purifying Nose Pore Strips Review

I have to admit something - I have never used nose strips before. Ever. Not that I haven't been plagued by those horrid blackheads on my nose, but I haven't ever thought about using nose strips in the past. I always noticed them on my nose, but slopping on some foundation and covering them up seemed like a pretty good solution until my husband got me a L.E.D magnifying mirror. With 5x magnification, those little blackheads look like giant beasts. No amount of concealer, foundation and powder can hide them. So when I was out at Clicks buying my favourite makeup removing wipes, I saw a pack of 6 for about R36 and decided that now was the time to try!

The six strips come in individual foil packages housed inside the cardboard box above. In case you are a bit of an airhead when it comes to instructions, they are printed on both the back of the box and on each individual foil sachet, but they are pretty straight-forward!

Instructions: 1. Make sure your face is thoroughly cleaned 2. Open sachet and remove strip from the plastic liner (ooh it looks like a cute little moustache!) 3. Make sure nose is wet with water 4. Apply strip to nose (sticky/shiny side down) 5. Wait 10 - 15 minutes (seems to take forever!) 6. Slowly remove and inspect remains!

Stunning, doll!

I followed all the steps, but found the strip to be a little more difficult to remove than I thought it would be! I knew it would be sticky, but it did hurt quite a bit when I pulled it off, and there was a brief moment in time where I panicked and didn't know if I could continue to rip it off. But, as usual, vanity prevailed and I managed to get it off without any tears.
Now I don't know if you guys really want to see what came out (I did take photos in case!) but I was hella impressed. There was tons of "stuff" stuck to the strip, and after checking my nose, it did seem like quite a few of the beasts were gone. The pores were big, but they were empty, and that made me feel very satisfied in a way that only those of you who like popping and squeezing zits (BAD habit - don't do that!) can understand.

The strips do remove the natural oils and can irritate the skin, so you need to treat the skin in the affected area really well and get it moisturized and happy again! The strips recommend that you wait 4 days between uses, but personally I would only do it once a month, maybe once a week at most, depending on your skin sensitivity and severity of blackhead infestation. I wanted to do another one directly afterwards to nab all the others that didn't get removed, but thankfully I resisted temptation!
If you do want to see what was left on the strip (my husband was so grossed out and didn't think anyone would want to see something so disgusting!) then let me know in the comments below and I will post it. I am one of those people who does want to see proof of how effective a product is, but I can understand that it can gross out other people who don't want to see that sort of thing!
Do you guys use another brand of nose strips, or do you have home recipes that you make yourself?  

L.A. Colours 3D Blush Contour Review

Contouring has been around for years, but only became "mainstream" as part of a regular makeup routine last year, with many people posting their contouring tutorials online for those of us who are clueless about the whole process!

Admittedly, contouring has seemed quite intimidating to me. I see the photos of tutorials a la Kim Kardashian and cannot understand how they properly blend everything to end up looking "normal" afterwards.

How do you go from orange and white to the final product?!?!

Nevertheless I have tried contouring with different products, but never found something that I felt worked the way I wanted. It was either too severe, or not noticeable enough. Then I found this gem at my local Dischem!

This is a great little set with a contouring colour, a blush and a highlighter. The back of the case shows you how to use the different colours. It doesn't come with a brush, but luckily I had a contouring brush that works well with it. There were multiple different shades to choose from, and I think there should be one to suit most people's skin tones. I am quite pale so I went for the lightest set called Lovely. Each set is only R40 so it is very easy on the pocket. You can check out all the different sets they have here.

What I like best is that it is a powder, and powders are much more forgiving when contouring than a liquid. It is also buildable, so you can start with a little, and then add should you wish.

I have been using this every day since I bought it, and I think that I am getting much better at my contouring. The effect isn't dramatic, but I don't want to look like a drag queen. I am sure that if I wanted a more dramatic look, I could just add more.

The lasting power is pretty good as well - here are comparison shots from the morning and late afternoon on a sweltering day during the heat wave:

As you can see, my skin is a bit more shiny, but my cheeks still look pretty good! This is with no touch ups (hence the lovely oily look!)

I am pretty impressed with this product - I have never used anything from L.A. Colours before so did not know what to expect, but usually cheaper products have a reputation for not working as well as more expensive ones. This might not be as pigmented as a more high end brand, but it does exactly what I want, and I really love using it. Bonus is that L.A. Colours is cruelty-free which is very important for me!

What products do you guys like to use for contouring?

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick in Smoky Review

As I mentioned in my last post, L.A. Girl has 4 different Beauty Bricks - Nudes, Smoky, Ultra and Neons. I snatched up the Nudes as it looked like a great dupe for Urban Decay's Naked 3, and I was not disappointed at all!

Following my excitement in the Nudes Beauty Brick last week, I decided to get the Smoky one to try out too. The packaging is similar, except that the hard plastic that houses the eyeshadow is pink instead of beige. The outer part is hard cardboard and I think there is a magnet in the lid as it closes nicely. There is also a handy mirror in the lid. It comes with the two-ended brush and 12 shades that are great at making a smoky eye.

The shadows are varying tones of greys, whites and browns. There are about 4 matt shades and the rest are shimmer. I thought that that some of the shades were more blue, but once swatched you can see that the colour in the palette is not necessarily the colour once on the skin.

The photo doesn't show the colours so well (especially #7!), but they are well pigmented and very soft. These swatches are done without any primer as well, and with primer, the colours are much more vibrant.

I was in Dischem and saw they are having a big Beauty Fair sale at the moment, and these Beauty Bricks were all just over R50 each! I bought the Ultra Beauty Brick as well now to test out for you. I don't think I will get the Neon palette as the colours are a bit too bright for me, and not really my thing, but the fact that I now have 3 of the 4 makes me want to get it just to complete the set ha ha!

If you have managed to get your hands onto these yet, what is your favourite palette?

L.A. Girl Beauty Brick in Nudes Review

I am so damn excited for this product that I seriously struggled to wait to fully test it out before slapping it up on my blog!

I have lusted over the Urban Decay Naked Palettes ever since I saw them, but haven't been able to get my hands on them - they are not readily available in South Africa, and when I have found them, they are way too expensive (like over R600!). So imagine my surprise when doing a little makeup shopping at Dischem, I discovered this little beauty (brick) at just R70:

Now I know that just because something looks similar to another product that it doesn't necessarily mean that the product is a dupe for it, but I have seen a fair amount of reviews that claim this is very similar to my coveted Urban Decay Naked 3 palette! Plus they look so similar :)

L.A. Girl has this new range of Beauty Bricks which are palettes of 12 shades of eyeshadow. They have Nudes, Smoky (blues, greys and browns), Ultra (nudes and purples) and Neons (bright, rainbow colours). I snatched up the Nudes palette as soon as I saw it as I mainly wear these colours on a day to day basis, but the other palettes looked awesome as well.

It comes in a cardboard outer box and the inside is a hard plastic. The double-tipped applicator has a brush on one end, and a sponge on the other. The lid has a mirror on it (not pictured as my camera was reflecting too much in it!) The brush is actually fairly good quality, although it is a little small for my liking to apply eyeshadow all over. In my opinion it works better to apply shadow in the crease.

Now for the swatches! There is a good mix of matt and shimmer shades - here I have swatched them all on my arm:

The colours are quite pigmented and the lasting power is also pretty impressive - I applied in the morning before work, and after a ridiculously hot day in Joburg (thanks heatwave!) I took as shot of how it looked when I came home in the afternoon. I didn't do any touch-ups, and as you can see, it has lasted really well considering I didn't use a primer and was sweating all day!

So there you have it - at just R70 from Dischem, this Nudes palette from L.A. Girl is an absolute steal - especially for those of you who, like me, have been drooling over the Urban Decay palettes and never had a chance to purchase! In fact, I loved it so much that I went out and got the Smoky palette too and will be reviewing that for you too shortly.

Have you had the pleasure of trying these palettes out yet? Please let me know what you think!

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish

Hello! Sorry I have been gone for a while - but more about that in a later post!

Just a quick post to express my excitement for a new product I just saw in Dischem - Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish!

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Nail Polish

According to the info, this is a gel polish without the UV light! All you need is two coats of the base colour, and one coat of the specially formulated top coat. Plus it is as easy to remove as regular nail polish - no buffing/soaking/filing etc! Best part is, it is supposed to last for an impressive 14 days! Cost is about R110 per bottle from Dischem and there are 47 shades to choose from. My faves are Birthday Suit, Rosey Riviter, Tea Party and All Chalked Up.

All 47 shades

Have you guys tried this out yet - what did you think? I can't wait to get my hands on this and try it out :)

I have a post planned on another product that I am super excited to tell you guys about, but I am still in the testing phase - watch this space!