Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!!

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with happiness, family and most importantly lots of food!

Festive Look

So Christmas is just around the corner and although the hot Australian weather has much stopped me from feeling remotely festive, I still thought I would try and get into the spirit with some sparkly festive make up. I tried to keep it very affordable as Christmas is expensive enough. 

I think I'll be spending my Christmas makeup free on a beach but I'll definitely be wearing something like this in the few days left running up to the big day. 

Face

-Precious Mineral Blooming Fit BB cream

-Revlon colour stay concealer

-YSL touche celait

-Bourjois Maxi bronzing powder

Eyes

-Elf beautiful browns palette

Australia Metalix guns and rose petals eye shadow 

-Maybelline the falsies mascara

-Maybeline master precise liquid eyeliner

--Maybeline brow satin in dark brown

Lips

-Maybeline colour drama in Light It Up

The perfect bargain Christmas palette

Elf was a brand that I used to love and would always place huge orders on there website. I loved how affordable the products where while still being really high quality. It recently seemed to disappear from the Uk, I think they had a problem with distributers or something which means that I haven't tried any of there products for a while. However, a couple of weeks ago now we popped into K-Mart for a bargain spree (travelling makes you poor) and I found an elf stand. I've never actually seen it in stores before so couldn't resist having a little browse.
I managed to find the beautiful browns palette which as well as filling the void my Naked palette has left (why I decided to leave that in England I'll never know) it also has all the perfect shades for a beautiful Christmas look. Now Christmas in Australia is definitely going to be different but that doesn't stop me paying tribute to an English Christmas with my makeup. I can't remember the exact price of this but I think it was around $4 mark. 
Despite the bargainous price range I've always found elf eye shadows to be very good quality, they're very highly pigmented and soft, similar to Urban Decay. I've used it most days (that I've decided to wear makeup) since buying it and I love it. If they haven't already I say bring back elf to the UK. 

Crazy cat lady paradise

On one of my first days in Melbourne I was told there was a cat cafe. This is what told me Melbourne was going to be one of my favourite places. I've recently learn that lots of cities have cat cafes but I've never ad the chance to go to one before and since leaving my own fluffy babies at home I couldn't wait to go and have a cat cuddle.
The Melbourne Cat Cafe is home to 14 lovely cats who have all been re-homed from shelters. They are all based in the cafe permanently now so they don't have to be re-homed again which is great news. The Cafe is basically in a converted house so you just feel like your sitting in a living room. The cats have the run of place with loads of rooms to explore and cat beds and climbing frames in every room. They also have a separate room that visitors aren't allowed in where the cats eat and can get away from every one if they chose to. I think I managed to see all 14 of the cats during my time there and they all seemed very happy and very sleepy. 
The Cafe does serve some food and drinks but it's definitely more about chilling with the cats than the dining experience. There is an entry fee which is common in most cat cafes, this goes towards food and maintenance of the cats which I certainly didn't mind paying.

If you live in or near a big city I would definitely give it a google and see if you have a cat cafe near you. I had such a lovely time and think I'll definitely go back before we leave. It definitely still miss my own little cats a lot but it helped fill the void for a while.

Sheet masks make you look CREEPY

I'd never tried sheet masks before so when I spotted a whole shelf full in a little shop in Sydney I was very excited to try them.  I picked up two that aimed to hydrate the skin, after a lot of travelling, air conditioned rooms and *cough alcohol my skin has been feeling very thirsty so I'm desperate to find a way to lock a bit of moisture back into it. They come in a pack with a plastic sheet on one side which you peel off, the other side feels like cotton and is soaked in the product, you then place this side on your face and immediately look like a serial killer! I mean look at my face!
In spite of how you look during, they feel incredible. They're so soothing I know it would be the perfect treat after a day in the sun. My skin has been feeling a lot better after using it too. It'w worth looking like a creep for 20 minutes.

My favourite BB cream

So I'd set off on my travels with my bare minerals foundation at the ready. I'd done the classic holiday move of bringing a paler shade and a darker shade for when I inevitably turn into a tanned goddess. One day however, my paler shade ran out and I hadn't yet blossomed into a goddess.....to be honest I'm still waiting. I was in need of an in-between foundation so when we were moving from one place to another I hit the duty free. 
I was looking at all the brands I know and love when I spotted this beauty. The cute and oh so feminine packaging definitely caught my eye. If you've been reading my latest posts you will know I've been dabbling in Asian skin care and loving it so I was really excited to have a look at some make up too. This is the Precious Mineral BB cream, blooming fit. I don't normally like BB creams and find that they normally feel really greasy and don't do much for my skin but I have been really pleased with this one. It feels more like a light coverage foundation than a BB cream and gives a really sheer and glowy finish which is perfect for when your in a hotter climate.
It only came in two shades and I went for the darker of the two as the product aims to whiten the skin,  I know this is quite a big feature in Asian cosmetics but I actually find it gives a really luminous effect which I really like. It also claims to be anti-wrinkle which I am all about.

I'm currently in Australia and thought that my days of rummaging through Asian skin care goodies are gone but I've already spotted a few specialist shops that I can't wait to have a look at.

A little catch up...

So due to a lack of Internet and a little bit of hostel living it's been a while since I've last blogged. I thought I would do a bit of a picture heavy catch up so you can all see what I've been up to since I first landed in Australia.

Sydney

Sydney was the first place we landed in Australia. I think it's probably one of the first places every one thinks about when you think about Oz but to be honest I'd heard very mixed things about it and really didn't know what to expect. I was also feeling a little bit nervous about my first shared dorm, hostel experience. I really had nothing to worry about with the hostel, it was a real mix of people in my room but everyone was so nice and we were chatting with every one straight away. 

For me big parts of Sydney were just like any other big city. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I really like big cities but it wasn't anything really exciting that I hadn't seen before, it actually reminded me of Glasgow. A part of the city I absolutely loved was Darling harbour, this was the part that felt really special. I sent my birthday evening sat at the harbour eating pizza and it was simply lovely. 

Camper vanning

After our week in Sydney we decided to head to Melbourne. We booked a camper van for a week and decided to head along the coast so we could take our time. We stopped off at loads of amazing places on the way. It was literally beach after beach. We also met some really interesting people, all of the people that ran the camp sites seemed so passionate about where they lived and couldn't  of had more recommendations on what to see and do.  One of the places we stopped at was Jervis Bay, it's known for having the whitest sands and bluest sea, the best place for a picnic. This is where we went to watch the dolphins. We managed to see quite a few and some had babies with them, they were incredible, it was definitely a highlight for me. We had missed the wales by a few weeks but we're planning on going to see them next year when they start to come back, I can only imagine how amazing that will be. 

Melbourne

We're planning to stay in Melbourne for a while, we'd already decided this before getting here but it just so happens to be a pretty amazing place. We started off staying in a hostel for a few days, it was actually the same chain of hostels we'd stayed at in Sydney called Base, I would definitely recommend them. This was in a place called St Kilda which is right by the beach and has some amazingly quirky cafes and bars. We've since moved into the CBD (basically just the centre, I've no idea what it actually means) which is very different from St Kilda but is equally great. It has amazing shops and restaurants and again seems to have lots of quirky and different areas. I'm currently looking for work here and I'm having lots of fun exploring the city during the process. There's a cat cafe round the corner from where I live and I can see me spending most Sunday afternoons eating cake and stroking a moggy.

So, so far so good. I'm feeling very lucky at the moment and I know I have so much more to see and do. I' already feeling like a year just won't be enough.....