Kmart Haul: Cosmetics sale

Hello everyone! I do apologise for my absence, I'm seriously lacking consistency in this whole 'blogging' thing. It's still totally new to me.

If you weren't already aware, I love Kmart. I mean I seriously LOVE Kmart. There is one right near my house, so I honestly visit Kmart about 2-3 times a week. I have scored so many shoes, handbags, accessories, clothes and cosmetics for as little as $1. 

Today I walked into Kmart, as I do, walked around the store for a while and before leaving I decided to check out the cosmetics. I don't often buy cosmetics in Kmart as the stands are always empty and often full price. Today however, I actually had a lame moment where my heart started racing. There were $5 and $2 pricetags EVERYWHERE. It didn't take me too long to fill up my shopping basket with a few cheap goodies. I will warn possible buyers though:  The stands were very empty with not much left, but like any good bargain hunter, I quickly got my hands on some really cheap steals.

All of the goodies that I picked up

The Rimmel products I hauled

Majority of the Rimmel products were on clearance. However, I found that only certain shades were on sale. I am not sure if this is just because they haven't marked down everything else, but some shades were scanning at sale price, yet others were full price. For examply, they had all of their foundations on sale for $5, but the shade I wanted wasn't marked down. The receipt didn't print the RRP prices, only the price I bought them for. I will include the sale price in parenthesis next to the product.Here is what I got:

Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Eyeliner in 'Taupe' ($2)  - I absolutely adore these kohl liners for my waterline. I bought a couple when Chemist Warehouse were having their 50% off sale (making them $5) but they were out of stock of Taupe. You can imagine my excitement when I scored this for $2.

Rimmel Sexy Curves Mascara in 'Black' ($5) - Never tried this mascara, but I love mascaras that curve so I thought I'd give it a go.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Nail Polish in 'Lively Lilac' ($2)  - I have also never tried these nail polishes because I never thought they looked worthy of their full retail price of $6, but for $2 I decided to give this a go. The display had heaps of Rimmel nail polishes left, so if I like this I may go back and get more tomorrow.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick by Kate Moss in '103' ($5) - I have never tried any of the lipsticks from the Matte collection, but I own a few of the regular Kate Moss Rimmel lipsticks and love them. The bad thing about the cosmetics department in Kmart is that there are no testers, as all of the cosmetics are in packages hanging up on a silver rod thingy. I was unsure of which colour to get but I grabbed 103 which appears to be a medium pinkish-berry colour. 

Cosmetics from various brands

Covergirl Lash Blast Mascara in 'Black Brown' ($5) - I have also never tried this mascara, but for $5 I couldn't resist. Ideally I would have preferred black, but they only had this colour. 

Face of Australia Budge Proof Eyeshadows in 'Violet Rays', 'Poison Ivy' and 'Midnight Sky' ($2 each) - I haven't even heard any reviews about these, but if they aren't fantastic then they only set me back $2 each! They look like a cheap version of the Maybelline color tattoos, as they are a metallic cream shadow in a little glass pot. I actually just found this post about a comparison between the two products if you're interested: http://bubblesandblush.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/review-face-of-australia-budge-proof-eyeshadows/

The three that I purchased are a deep emerald green, a dark violet/taupe colour and a very dark midnight blue colour. I will do a review on these when I try them out and get some use out of them. These retail for around $6 I believe, so if you're looking for a cheap alternative to the Maybelline shadows then these could be for you. 

Face of Australia Glossy Lip Crayon in 'Pie a la Mode' ($2) - These lip crayons are relatively recent for the Face of Australia collection and I own the purple shade in 'Berry Brulee' which I absolutely love. The shade that I purchased today was the last one left, but I would have purchased all of the other shades if they had have been there. Pie a la Mode is a dark nude colour. They do retail for the very affordable price of $4.95 at Priceline though, so I may pick a few more up.

Face of Australia Lip Quench SPF30+  lipstick in 'Mocha Latte' ($2) - This was also the only shade left out of the range. I would most likely have picked up a few more as they were only $2 and contain jojoba oil and shea butter which appeals to me. This is a nude brown type colour.

BYS  18 colour eyeshadow palette in '01 Neutral Charm' ($2) - I think it is a pretty common fact in the beauty world that BYS is a crap brand. I mean, they do have some good products that I use often, but I normally steer clear of their nail polishes, foundations and eyeshadows. However, this palette was only $2 for 18 gorgeous neutral shades. There are warm bronzes, golds, roses, olive greens and deep mauve colours. As expected, they are all shimmer eyeshadows but I'll enjoy playing around with these and using them for some different looks.

BYS Longwear Lipstick in 'In Love' ($2) - I have a few BYS lipsticks that I am not a huge fan of, but I have found that the lipsticks in the longer tubes (as opposed to the regular short tubes) wear a lot better than the rest of the BYS range. This is a nice everyday medium pink.

Maybelline Colorsensational Lipstick in 'Juicy Bubblegum' ($5) -There wasn't a lot of the Maybelline range on sale, but a few of the Colorsensational lipsticks were. I absolutely love this line of lipsticks and was so shocked that they were only $5, as these retail for $16.95. In hindsight, I probably should have picked up some more of these but I was in a rush. 

Although this isn't actually makeup, a lot of their skincare and hygiene type products were also on sale, so I just grabbed a couple of items.

Kmart Brand Coconut and Lemongrass body wash ($2) - I think this only retailed for $5 to begin with but it is a very large 750ml size body wash. Lemongrass is my favourite scent so I decided to try this out.

Kmart Brand Frangipani and Passionfruit Hand Cream ($1) - I also believe this retails for only $3 but seeing as this was only $1 I had to try this out. Passionfruit is my favourite fruit so I'm looking forward to seeing how this smells.

So there we have it, my bag of goodies I purchased from Kmart. I will have a lot of fun taking all of this stuff out of it's packaging and swatching it all. I love a good bargain! Let me know in the comments below if you liked this haul and if you manage to grab any good bargains during this Kmart sale. 

Until next time :)

Target Haul!

I have been spending way too much money lately. It's a bit concerning when I'm spending more money than I'm earning - woops!

Today I went into Target and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they had 30% off all Essence products, which is good considering how cheap they are already! They also had all of their Ulta3 nail polishes for $1. I already have around 90 Ulta3 polishes and consider myself a bit of a collector, so I couldn't resist. Just when I was walking out of the cosmetics section my Mum picked up a Revlon gift pack that was reduced to clear at $14, and when I saw that I had it had the Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in the much raved about shade 'Honey', my heart fluttered and I did not let that baby go.

Here is what I picked up:

Revlon Gift Set in 'Dazzling Pink'

As mentioned, this set was only $14. This was sitting on a random shelf with no price tag on the shelf; it only had the orange price sticker on it. I'm not quite sure how much this retailed for before it was reduced.

This set contains:
Colorburst Lip Butter in 'Sweet Tart' - This is a gorgeous berry pink type shade. It is very girly with no shimmer. I love this!
Nail Enamel in 'Sparkling #261' - This is a very dense pink glitter polish in a clear base. This pink is really different. It's like a dusty rose type colour, like no other glitter I own.
Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 'Honey' - I cannot even express to you how excited I was to see that this pack contained this shade. This has been on my wish list for so long and I was most likely going to pick it up for around $9 in Chemist Warehouse's current 50% off sale. You can imagine my shock when I saw it in a gift pack with other products for only $14! This balm stain alone retails for $17.95 full price so this was an absolute steal.
Lipstick Case - I would have bought the set if it just came with the other three products, so this was a bonus. It is a cute little zip up case with black floral-type embroidery on it. This will be good to keep a few lipsticks in my handband to avoid any accidents with lids coming off and destroying everything in my bag (which has happened to me a few times before!)

New additions to my Ulta3 collection

From left to right:
Disco fever - This is a red glitter polish in a clear base. This would have come in handy for Christmas time! Oh well, there's always next Christmas...
Stardust - A sheer metallic pale pink with tiny gold glitter
Poppy - A frosty metallic pale pink. I don't normally gravitate to shades like Poppy and Stardust mentioned above as my Nan wears these shades but they are a good addition to my growing Ulta3 collection
Plum Violet -  A deep berry pink/plum colour. This is a creme polish with no shimmer which I absolutely love

Essence products

I couldn't resist trying a few new products from Essence seeing as they were 30% off.
Nightclub glamour-to-go eyeshadow in '03 dance-til-dawn' - This palette has eight different shimmer colours, with mauve hued and smoky coloured eyeshadows.
Kajal pencil in '22 Taupe Me' -  Simple matte taupe eye pencil
Lipliner in '07 Cute Pink' - Rosy coloured pink lipliner
Stays no matter what eye pencil in '02 Stunning Brown' - Dark brown matte eye pencil. I swatched this on my hand it won't budge!

Left to right: Wear Berries, Coral Calling and All About Cupcake

Lipsticks are an absolute obsession of mine at the moment and I highly intend getting some more Essence lipsticks. They have really impressed me so far.

Long lasting lipstick in '09 Wear Berries' - This colour is so stunning. It's a purple toned berry lipstick.
Long lasting lipstick is '01 Coral Calling' - A true orange toned coral. In love with orange/coral lipsticks recently and this is just perfect!
Essence Lipstick in '53 All About Cupcake' -  This is a classic 'my lips but better shade'. Really subtle, neutral pink colour. Love it.


So there we have it, my Target haul! Hope you enjoyed it. I'll be back with more hauls soon :)

Beauty Joint Haul: e.l.f & Jordana

It is no secret that as a rule, university students are poor. Although I am on my Summer holidays now, being a full time nursing uni student during the year unfortunately means minimal time to work and earn some cash. During the year I was only working an average of 5-10 hours a week due to uni clashing with work times, and the money I do earn generally goes towards petrol, phone bill, etc.

Anyway, the moral of that story is that I LOVE CHEAP THINGS! I am such a tightass. If I can save money anywhere, then I will.

After doing some research via YouTube and blogs, I learnt about inexpensive American brands like NYX, Milani, ELF and Jordana, to name a few. I had seen a few people mention beautyjoint.com as a relatively reliable place to buy these products at the US price. I decided to give the site a go and try a few new products. After adding a million things to my 'cart', I managed to get rid of a few and narrow it down to these products.

Here is my small first haul from Beauty Joint:

 I received a total of 7 products, and had it shipped to Australia for less than $30. As you can tell, the products are still in their packaging so I don't have any opinions about them yet. I will review these products at a later date when I use them and form opinions.

e.l.f studio Cream Eyeliner

I have been wanting to try a cream or gel eyeliner for a while now. I always use a liquid liner, my most recent one being the Maybelline Master Precise liner. I do find that liquid liners work well, but have seen a lot of people using cream liners. Instead of spending a lot on something like a MAC fluidline, this is a cheaper alternative to experiment with.

Cream liner out of box

I haven't used this on my eyes yet but I did use the brush that this comes with to swatch it on my hand, and from what I can tell the brush works quite well. I'm looking forward to trying this out.

Jordana Eye Primer/Base

I have been looking for an inexpensive eye primer and have seen this in a few YouTube videos and it looks okay. I did actually use this on New Years Eve and my first impression is that I like it and it did make my eyeshadow show up brighter. I'm still unsure about longevity so I'll keep using it to see what I think.

e.l.f Essential Eyelid Primer

As I mentioned, I have been wanting a cheap eye primer and this was roughly the same price as the Jordana one (about $2) so I thought I may as well try this one out as well.

e.l.f Studio Eyebrow Kit in 'light'

One of my favourite YouTube beauty gurus Shaaanxo uses this kit in most of her tutorials. I loved that it was a wax consistency. I currently use an eyebrow pencil by BYS which I actually really like, but I loved the look of this and she raves about how good it is for the price so I couldn't resist.

Eyebrow kit opened

The kit comes with the darker brown wax and a lighter brown powder. Most people that have reviewed this product don't actually use the powder, but I will have a play around with it and see what I can do. It also comes with a pretty dodgy looking applicator - I think I will use an angled brush to apply this.

e.l.f Wet Gloss Lash & Brow Clear Mascara

This is another product that Shaaanxo on YouTube recommended. I often have problems with my eyebrow colour lasting all day so hopefully this will not only keep my brows perfectly in place but set the colour in too.

e.l.f Essential Liquid Eyeliner in shade Black

I absolutely love eyeliner and am always up for trying new brands. This was only around $2 so I thought why not?!

Jordana Forever Flawless Pressed Face Powder in 'Nude Beige'

 Hold tight guys this post is almost finished! The last product I got was this pressed powder. I do have a few face powders that I like but I am always willing to try more, especially inexpensive ones like this. To be honest I'm not expecting great things from this one but seeing as I was already placing an order on beauty joint I decided to try it out.

I should mention that the shipping from the US without tracking cost around $10. It took 3 weeks to get here - I ordered it on the 10th of December and it arrived on the 31st of December. I could have paid an extra two or three dollars for tracking for peace of mind but I didn't and it still arrived. I actually kind of forgot about it so it was a nice surprise when it arrived! Overall, I would make another order from Beauty Joint. I am constantly ordering things from China and Hong Kong from eBay, so I am used to waiting for parcels.


Well everyone, that was my first proper post on this blog and it felt damn good! It's definitely satisfying uploading a post and actually sharing my love for beauty products with the blogging world (even though I doubt noone will actually read this hehehehe)

Until next time!