may beauty favourites!

Hey guys,

It's that time of the month again! Going through and showing you guys what I have been absolutely loving for the month of May. Some of these have been mentioned before on my blog or social media, some haven't been mentioned as much - some are even new products that I have been OBSESSED with for in the last few weeks of May. You guys know the deal - I'll show you the products and give you a little mini review of each one!

1. Elf Mineral Green Primer

My GO TO primer this month. Seriously, considering I paid around $8 for this I am so impressed. It corrects any redness I have and also makes for a great silicon base for my foundation. The other thing that has made me fall head over heels for this stuff is that it keeps my face on for a ridiculous amount of time. Loving that Elf is finally available at Kmart! You can find this in store at Kmart.

2. Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Foundation

I love nearly everything about this foundation. I have a complete review on it here, so I won't harp on about it to much. But I adore the finish, the coverage, how it feels on my skin... Everything except it's staying power, which I wish was better. But hey, every other aspect is spot on! I just have to remember to bring a powder to touch up. You can find this here on the Benefit website for $36US.

3. NYX Dewy Finish Setting Spray

I've always loved this setting spray, but I've been using it every single time I wore make up this month. It just really sets my face and also allows it to melt into my skin a little so it doesn't look cakey whatsover. I brought this from Target for $14.95AU, but you can also find it on Beauty Joint.

4. Appelles Vitamin B Bath Caviar

The most luxurious bath item I have ever I used. I'm actually someone whos really not that into baths normally - my hair goes all weird and the bath gets cold way too quickly - but OMG this stuff has me running to get in. It just looks so beautiful, like little teeny tiny gold pebbles that you sprinkle in your bath to dissolve. It makes the bath more moisturising and hydrating for your skin, rather than drawing the moisture out. Love this stuff! You can find it here on the Appelles website for $7.95AU!

5. Elf Eyebrow Kit

A bit late on the bandwagon for this item. I finally found this hanging out in my Kmart, the last one there and knew I had to dry it. On first using it, I used the powder and really wasn't happy with it. I was advised to use the gel side by my Instagram followers, and oh lordy were they right. The gel is amazing! It just looks so effortless and natural when applied, and best of all, it stays put. Again, amen to Kmart for finally bringing the goodness of Elf to Australia. You can find this in store at Kmart - I think I paid between $8-12 - or here on Beauty Joint.

6. Covergirl Flamed Out Mascara

Why have I not tried this before? Honestly, lord knows. I am so impressed with this mascara! I've never really liked alot of Covergirl products before but I was given the oppoturnity to try some of their products and I am so glad I found this gem. I will be doing a seperate blog post on it in the near future as it's most definitely a close dupe for one of my most beloved high end mascaras. You can find this here at Priceline for $14.95AU.

7. Whitening Lightning Color Your Smile Lipgloss in Nude

This is one of the newer additions to my collection, but you guys I'm so in love with these lipglosses. I ended up buying the Jaclyn Hill bouquet that consisted of four lipglosses including this for $59US (great deal considering these retail for $38US each), and I am so glad I did. Again, there will be a seperate blog post on all of the shades I got, so I won't harp on too much. But as someone who isn't really a lipgloss person, (#longhairproblems amirite?) but this is most definitely the exception. You can find the Jaclyn Hill Bouquet here on the Whitening Lightning website - I'm not sure if this is limited edition or not, so if you want to try these get in quick!

8. Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in Nudist

How I felt when I swatches this colour: the heavens opened up, a white light came beaming down and  shone directly on this colour. It is without a doubt one of the best formulas I have ever tried, matte without being too matte and completely non drying. Not to mention the colour - its absolutely gorgeous. So easy to wear without being a nude or bold! I will be purchasing some more of the shades at some point, but for now this is just amazeballs. You can find these here at Priceline for $24AU

9 & 10. Benefit Hydrating Lip Balms in Lollibalm and Posiebalm

Three words for winter: tinted lip balms. And these are so good, I won't even lie. I don't own any of their tints - I wanted Lollitint so bad, but held off because I actually wanted to use it on my lips and I've heard they are quite drying for your lips. It's like the Benefit Gods heard my dilemma and brought this down just for me. When they became on the Benefit Cosmetics website, I went straight away and purchased both Lolli and Posiebalm, and went away wishing that I brought the other two shades as well. These go on like butter with a sheer amount of colour, but it is slightly buildable. These are relatively new to my collection, but I'm definitely in love - and I will be getting my hands on those other shades. These won't be available in Australia until August, but you can get them here for $18US each from the Benefit website until they're here

11. Covergirl Smoochie in Luv U

Another tinted lip balm which is a perfect MLBB colour - plus it smells exactly like Lip Smackers. I love this its so hydrating and moisturising, and is perfect for those times where you just want something to give you a sheen without a ton of colour and to act as a lip balm as well, this your match made in heaven. You can find these here at Priceline for $4.95AU.

And that's all for this months favourites! What were some of your favourites this month?

Until next time....

xxxx

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

*This product was gifted to me, but that it no way influences my opinion of it per my Disclaimer 

review: benefit they're real push up liner !

Hey guys!

This time last week, I attended a top secret Benefit event for the launch of their new product - the They're Real Push Up Liner! A gel liner in a pen form, this was tipped to one of the best beauty releases of this year. And if you're someone like me, who loves the look of gel liner, but can never get it quite right, you'd be 100% right for anticipating it.

During the event, amongst extremely attractive Benefit cops, we were given a They're Real Push up Liner, a They're Real Mascara and another new arrival, the They're Real Remover (which is another amazing product, but one at a time!).

I won't ever claim to be an eyeliner expert. Nearly every time it looks half decent is honestly a fluke. I've tried to practise but really trying to squeeze in time between everything I have going on at the moment is almost impossible. Will this solve all my liner dilemmas? Probably not going to make me better over night, but I have to say using something like this had made putting on liner SO MUCH EASIER!

Read on to see my thoughts of the liner!

At the event, we were given this little booklet in our 'loot' bag, which demonstrates how to perfect your 'Benefit Wing', and how to achieve other looks with the liner. 

Look at this thing! The packaging is on point - but then again, is any Benefit product ugly really? The best part about this product is that it isn't like say, the Maybelline Master Precise. The product actually stays within the tube and winds up as you need it! That means there is no pen nib to dry out because you only ever use what you actually need from the product. Another cool addition is that the lid actually screws on! You'll never have to worry about the lid falling off and rendering your liquid liner unusable.

 The packaging and product is angled itself, to help you get it as close to your lash line as possible. Plus, you only wind up to get that teeny tiny amount you see in that photo, and that will be enough to create your wing.

Here is my wing that I create using this liner - the mascara I used is Benefit's They're Real ;) :

I am someone who had real life struggles with liner, and I am so impressed with the way this product applies! It makes it so easy for me to just first draw my wing, connect it to my eye, then fill it and thicken it up. Is it perfect? No, of course not. Like I said, my skills are not going to improve overnight! But, I definitely prefer this over my Maybelline Master Precise because of how innovative it is and how it caters to my poorly practiced skills. The angled tip makes it so easy to apply and look so matte, black and beautiful. I'm just completely impressed - love your work, Benefit!

This will be available to purchase at the end of June!

Until next time...

xxxx

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

*This product was gifted to me, but that it no way influences my opinion of it per my Disclaimer 

first impression: maybelline dream pure bb cream

Hey guys!

After having a disastrorous first round with original Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream, I was definitely turned off. Why would I waste my money on a product that complelety oxidised to make me look like an oompa loompa and did absolutely nothing for my skin except sit there looking ugly? When they came out with the newer version for oiler skin, I told myself I wouldn't buy it because of my experience with its older sister. But, of course, Chemist Warehouse has extremely tempting sales and before I knew it, I had walked away with this baby.

I had heard lots of nice things about this BB cream, and the fact that it has salycylic acid in it, which is supposed to be good for acne prone skin. I have normal to dry skin, that rarely sees a bad blemish, but other foundations meant for oily skin (such as the Neutrogena Skin Clearing Foundation) have actually worked really well for my skin and I. So what could it hurt to give this a try, especially with a 50% off sale?

On my display, there were two shades available: Light and Medium. I got the shade Medium, generally because I am always fake tanned and too light for Light. I'm not sure how this would work for darker skin tones as there doesn't seem to be a darker shade.. Pretty poor shade selection unfortunately.

 As I said, I had pretty low expectations. Did this change my mind? Read on to find out!

The BB cream comes in a squeezy tube with 30mL of product, which is pretty standard. So although it doesn't come with a pump, it's still pretty hygenic and you can control the amount of product you use. It also came with the seal cap on it so you know that what you are getting is completely untouched and waiting for you to undo that seal.

The first impression I get of this product is that it is gorgeously creamy and thick. Plus, the colour seemed to be spot on as well! 

Here is the coverage that this BB cream achieves. I'm pretty impressed - considering this is a BB cream, it really covers quite well! The only other BB cream I can really compare it to is one of my favourites, the Chi Chi Cosmetics Super BB Cream. You can only just see my veins poking through.

I have since worn this on a couple of a occasions, and am happy to report that it does not oxidise or slide off my face. I have worn it for about 8-9 hours with only a primer underneath and it has stayed put the entire time! I will probably save these for days where I have to work but do not have to wear a complete face of makeup.

Whether or not this actually works for oily skin, I can't say unfortunately, As I said before, I have normal to dry skin, but this still looks fabulous on me. But whether it will stop your oil, or prevent any breakouts, I really cannot be sure. I would recommend just looking up other reviews or just biting the bullet and trying it for yourself if you can't find a sample.

I found this here during the Chemist Warehouse sale (which is still on for us Aussies and will be on until this Thursday the 29th of May), but you can also get it here at Priceline for $15.95AU not on sale.

Have you tried this BB Cream? Are you as impressed as I am?

Until next time...

xxxx

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

bh cosmetics forever nude palette tutorial - collab with tarliescorner ! CLOSED

Hey guys!

So today's blog post is a special edition post, especially as I have never posted on a Sunday in my blogs life! This is a super special post as it is a collaboration with my gorgeous friend Tarlie from Tarlie's Corner! We both have this palette from BH Cosmetics, and thought that we would team up to both do a look using it. Tarlie did a look that will be appropriate for day time, whereas my look is completely night time appropriate.

BH Cosmetics are known for having such great afforable products, and this palette is no exception. It's such great value for money - coming with 6 eyeshadows, a highlight shade, a blush/bronzer duo and 2 lip colours. The palette is focused around beautiful neutral shades that can be used for any time or occasion, plus really the only things you need to use outside of this palette is your foundation and mascara as you're covered for the rest of your look.

There will be a special annoucement at the end of this blog post, so if you want to know what it is, just keep reading ;)

After doing my base, I got straight into doing my eyes. As this is a night time appropriate look, I decided to do a brown smokey eye - it's super easy to achieve and really goes with any lip colour or blush colour. I used the darkest matte brown (bottom on the right) to blend into my outer corner and into my crease. I focused the majority of the colour into the outer third of my eye, and blended whatever was left on my brush into the outer half. This is because I wanted a soft gradient from light to dark on my lid.

The next step I took was to take the rose gold shade from the top right of the palette, and pat it over the inner half of my lid, blending it into the darker brown as I went. I did go over the colour a few times, patting over to get it as vibrant as I wanted. Just a tip - if the colour isn't showing up as pigmented you want, take a setting spray and spray your brush before going into the colour. That will help it to have more of a metallic sheen and be more opaque.

After this, I took a big fat blending brush from Sigma and blended the edges of the shadow. I didn't blend too harshly though - as this is a night time look, I still wanted it to look quite smokey and dark. on the outer corners. I also took the matte highlight shade from the middle of the palette, and used it on my brown bone and inner corner, as well as taking the dark brown shade and running it under my waterline. I also took the rose gold shade and put it in the inner part of my lash line.

To finish off the look, I laid on some serious winged liner (seriously, I impressed myself), and put coat after coat of mascara onto my lashes, as I don't use falsies. But, of course, if you are someone who uses false lashes then go ahead and glue 'em on!

I contoured with another bronzer, as I didn't think the bronzer shade in the palette was dark enough to act as a contour for me. After that,  mixed both of the cheek colours and used them to create a bronzy-blush combo.

I then took the nude lip colour (which is a super close dupe for NARS Chelsea Girls lip lacquer - just FYI), and put it on my lips to finish off the look.

And your look is complete! 

And now for the exciting part!

Tarlie and I have not only teamed up to bring you these looks - we are also hosting a giveaway of the BH Cosmetics Forever Nude Palette! We are giving away a palette each, so there is double the chance to win. The giveaway will take place on our Instagrams, and I will be posting a photo after this blog post goes live that you will need to repost in order to have a chance to win. Here are the rules and regulations that you must follow for the giveaway:

- Repost the photo on your Instagram, tagging both Tarlie and myself, as well as using the hashtag #btforevernudegiveaway

- You must be following both Tarlie (@tarliescorner) and myself (@beautybybek) on Instagram

- ONE ENTRY ONLY

- No giveaway accounts

- Account must be on public at the end of the giveaway, or unfortunately, we will not be able to view your entry

- Australia only! We apologise for any international readers/followers, but we decided this as the postage to Australia from the BH Cosmetics website is astronomical. We feel that because of this, its only fair to let two lucky Australians experience the goodness for themselves.

If the above rules aren't followed, you will unfortunately be disqualified from the giveaway ;(

The giveaway will close two weeks from today, and then all entries will be placed into random.org so that a winner is fairly picked. Just a side note as well - this giveaway is not sponsored! These palettes have been purchased by each of us, with our own hard earned money, for the purpose of this giveaway :)

This is super exciting for Tarlie and I! Good luck to all my fellow Aussies if you decide to enter! And to my international followers, please don't be disheartend - I will be holding another giveaway in the near future :)

Until next time my loves...

xxxx

Other products used in this look:

ELF Mineral Primer

L'Oreal Lumi Magique Foundation in W3

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer in Fair

NYX Eyebrow Cake in Brunette

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Light

Nars Bronzer in Laguna

RImmel Lash Accelerator Mascara

Maybelline Master Precise Liquid Liner

Eyes, Blush & Lips - BH Cosmetics Forever Nude Palette

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

review & swatches: savvy high shine & matte lip lacquers

Hey guys!

If you're in Australia, you would hopefully know about the brand Savvy that is available in Priceline. It is a super affordable brand, and although I can't speak for all of their products, their lip products are the bomb dot com. They have recently released new lip lacquers in both a shiny and matte formula, which I suppose are a cheaper alternative for the Australis Velourlips and the Chi Chi Creamy Liquid Lipsticks. Given that are only $7.99, I thought why not pick some up?

These come in about five colours each - a nude, pink, red, purple and mauve. I wasn't drawn in by all the colours though, especially the nude, as it was really quite dark and beige coloured. I ended up picking up two of the high shine formula and one matte shade.

I haven't worn these for very long, so unfortunately I can't give you guys an idea of wear time. However, when I swatch them on my arm and lips, they are super opaque and creamy.

I haven't worn these for very long, so unfortunately I can't give you guys an idea of wear time. However, when I swatch them on my arm and lips, they are super opaque and creamy. The high shine colours stay a little tacky, but stay beautifully creamy and glossy for as long as I wore them. The matte didn't ever dry completely matte, but then again I didn't wear it for as long as the high shine. The high shine colours are the definite stand outs for me!

Honestly, for $7.99 we have to be real - these are probably not going to be as good as those that are more expensive. In seeing that though, I haven't experienced any problems! I'm definitely loving the idea behind them, especially as there are so many more expensive versions now on the market (ahem, Too Faced Melted Lipsticks, I am looking at you) and these are definitely better than spending $25-30 for a lip lacquer.

I have swatches below for you guys to take a look! They are a little shoddy - sorry about that!

High Shine Lip Lacquer in On Set

Ultra Matte Lip Lacquer in Hollywood Baby

High Shine Lip Lacquer in Walk of Fame

All of these swatches are with one swipe! You can see how pigmented and creamy these are. Considering their price, I will take any cons about this product. The fact that are just so beautifully glossy and gorgeous, I can deal with any shoddy wear time. I'll just whip it out and reapply!

I can't find these on the Priceline website for some reason, which may mean they are limited edition or that no one has updated the Priceline website. They are relatively new, having been released about 2-3 weeks ago, so if they are limited edition, head to your local Priceline and swatch some for yourselves!

That's it for today's post loves! Also, there were only two blog posts this week - I had a huge week and didn't have the time to write as I normally would. Everything will return back to normal next week!

One more thing, remember that you only have two more days left to enter mine and Tarlie's giveaway! Click the link at the end of this post to find out more information.

Until next time...

xxxx

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

check out my bh cosmetics forever nude palette giveaway!

review: benefit hello flawless oxygen wow foundation

Hey guys!

Last week, I had a relative go overseas. So of course, I asked if they could make a stop off at the local Sephora and pick up this baby for me. I have wanted to try this foundation forever, but it is so expensive here! I recieved a sample of this foundation in my Ulta Haul, and upon trying it knew that I should try the full size, as I had found my colour match. I personally just use samples to colour match, as I don't think that I can really test a foundation properly from a teeny tiny sample.

I posted my first impressions of this on my Instagram (link is at the end of every blog post, if you want to have a look), and thought that I would wear it for the rest of the week to give you guys a proper overview of the foundation and my thoughts on it. It is an expensive foundation, so this may help you decide if you want to try it or not!

This is what you get inside the packaging. The foundation holds 30mLs, which is pretty standard. It also comes with a small sample of their Stay Flawless 15 Hour Primer, which I already own and love!

The bottle comes with a pump, which is awesome because its so much more hygenic! Plus, its easier to comtrol so there isn't as much product wastage. Also, I've noticed that as you use product, the bottom of foundations creeps up and up. I love this! Every foundation should have this! I'll definitely know when I need to repurchase.

Here is the consistency and coverage of the foundation! It's quite liquidy and definitely lightweight, which is great because it doesn't feel like you're wearing a heavy foundation. As you can see from the bottom photo, it definitely covers pretty well! You can only just see my veins peeking through. As for the finish of the foundation, some have said that it is extremely dewy. I have to disagree! I don't think it is hugely dewy or matte, but it is more dewy than it is matte. That said, I would not recommend it for oilier skinned girls. This is definitely for dry to normal skin!

My only issue with this foundation so far is the wear time - which is a big reason why I wouldn't recommend it to those with oily skin. I did set it with a powder after wearing it the first time, but that didn't seem to prolong the wear time by much.

That said, I do really like this foundation! I love the finish and the coverage - and especially how lightweight it feels on my skin. The wear time isn't a huge deal, as I can save this foundation for days when I don't have to wear it for as long.

That's all for todays post! Is there any products that you would like me review? Let me know down below!

Until next time...

xxxx

in between blogging, you can find me here!

instagram: http://instagram.com/beautybybek

twitter: https://twitter.com/bekaaturner

check out my bh cosmetics forever nude palette giveaway!