February.

I was having a little fiddle around on my beloved polyvore the other day when this idea came to me - monthly mood boards sharing little tidbits that I have planned for the month/things I am loving. With February just around the corner I was excited to get this post up to share with you all.

The Products

A few beauty related products are mixed into this and they are most products I've wanted for a while and have intended on getting. Nails Inc. Porchester Square has been on my wish list for a while and I'm reminded frequently when it pops up on Anna's blog/youtube. I've finally found somewhere to source it from though which is a real nuisance with Australia because shipping restrictions stop the shipping of nail polish from overseas essentially but it is available through David Jones online (and potentially in store). Not that I really need a new polish but the heart wants what the heart wants.

Origins Clear Improvement Tube Active Charcoal Mask (wow that's a name) is quite a loved product online and has a lot of positive reviews. It's not overly pricey as far as skincare goes and I have found it in two stores so you can actually for once smell before you buy if you're like me and scent can be a deal breaker. Mecca Cosmetica and Kit Cosmetics (it's slightly cheaper through them) which has a counter in Myer both stock it as well as a load of other Origins products which I am very intrigued about.

Bioderma Crealine H2O Cleanser & Make Up Remover is another cult product which is missing from my collection, mainly because my interest in skin care has only developed very recently. Available from Priceline in Australia, this product was put off for a while for me because of the price tag. Although not extortionate, its appearance as a cleansing water made me hesitant but I am ready to bite the bullet for the sake of my blog.. and my skin.

It saddens me greatly but the Revlon Colourburst Matte Balms won't be released in Australia for the foreseeable future, I can't pinpoint why Australia gets left behind with product releases but it's all too frequent. I however will be pining over them until I can get my hands on some.

I ordered my Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Eyeliner from BeautyBay upon Estee's recommendation through twitter after it made an appearance in her Sephora Haul. She was absolutely lovely and sold it for me. This months project is to perfect my application method so I can start wearing it more and more.


Lifestyle

The job hunt has begun! Nothing too serious and I have accepted that I'll just have to tolerate something pretty dull until I gain experience or decide what career path I am taking but it's exciting all the more. I am super nervous about potential job interviews but I have to learn somehow.

The job hunt all ties in with my travel plans. Europe 2015 is a very real possibility if I can save sufficiently, I'm not exactly thrilled by the thought of youth hostels so I need to save as much as possible in the next year and a half so I can travel in a certain level of style (i.e. not with a backpack on my back). I am looking at Contiki trips and hopefully by the time I am raring to go I'll have a travel companion to keep me company.

The pictures will seem like a more obvious choice when I post the video from the shoot but I have been enlisted to help my best friend shoot a little music video for a cover she is doing. I am excited to have a go and we have been brainstorming ideas to make sure it is the best it can possibly be.

Recently I got a new camera in the form of the Canon Eos M and this month I want to learn more how to use it the best of its ability. Up until now I have been using it like a point and shoot with more automatic settings to ease me into my camera upgrade but with a bit of practice I think my photography skills will improve significantly if I learn what half the functions do.


Miscellaneous

Whilst on holiday recently I popped into a little vintage store and it was the kitchen wear and storage that got me. I am a vintage lover and I think old tins are amazing for storage but also are like an art form, being perfect expressions of the past. A lot of the glassware caught my eye as well which would look very sweet on my mantle or on my desk.

Winter seems like a distant dream away right now as the hot temperatures of the Australian summer have taken their toll but the spotting of Chelsea boots whilst shopping recently has gotten me excited for those winter months where you can wear more than one layer of clothing without self combusting. There are some really lovely designs coming out, both flat and heeled and I think they're the perfect winter shoe and completely versatile with whatever you're wearing.

The last part of my month is a childhood character costume party which I am very excited about since I have come up with the perfect costume which is comfortable/isn't slutty/doesn't look ridiculous/the demographic will understand. Australian 90's kids should know who Nannette Manoir from Angela Anaconda is but for others it's worth a google image search. My beret is on its way and I have to perfect my ringlets for the evening by playing around with rag curls until they're just right. I will definitely post my outfit on some form of social media/on this blog so keep an eye out towards the end of next month.


What are your most exciting moments for the month coming? Let me know in the comments below.

Nailed It!

I don't think it would be an exaggeration to call me a bit nail polish obsessed.. With almost 40 lined up on my mantle in the past few years I have gained quite the collection but I have a few go to colours that I wear year round, no matter the trends.

Ever since they became easier to access in Australia, I have been collecting Essie nail polishes. Every now and again they come out on sale for about $10 and I pick up a shade.. or two. The quality of the polish is great, I can wear them for over 5 days easily with only slight tip wear without a top or base coat and if my nails are buffed and filed it looks very much like I've had a professional gel manicure. I do however wear about five shades in rotation almost constantly.

Bikini So Teeny - the light blue shade that it seems most have in their collection. It adds a perfect pop of colour for a monochrome outfit and is the perfect pastel blue.

Mint Candy Apple - another shade that pops up in a lot of people's nail polish collection and I don't blame them. For a person who hates green, I really love this colour and just for that I put up with it requiring three coats for it to have a perfect finish.

Go Ginza - a lavender/pastel purple that is the most recent colour in circulation of what I put on my nails. It's bright, it's happy and perhaps a little juvenile but the most colour I wear is on my nails so I think it's acceptable. A dupe however which is over half the price is the Covergirl Outlast nail gloss in Lav-endure which is almost identical, just a little bit more lavender than pastel and has reasonably good staying power.

Lapiz of Luxury - not my favourite of the five polishes but still a great colour if pastel polish is not your thing. Again on me this requires three coats but that could just indicate I am rubbish at painting my nails.

Forever Yummy - the perfect red, it's dark without being dull and exclusively wintery and cheery enough to be worn at Christmas time. I wear this on my toe nails almost permanently and if I'm going on holiday this is my shade of choice because it is so versatile (although I wouldn't recommend it if you're going swimming on this holiday, it will chip like nobody's business if in water for too long like most polishes). Pair it with a little black dress or shorts and a t-shirt and it works.

What are your favourite Essie nail polish shades? I think I might have to start keeping a wish list and put away some pennies in preparation for them going on sale.

At the start of 2013 I made it my mission to actually stick with something. I have major project commitment issues so my sort of but not really New Years Resolution was to follow through with a plan.

If you have a tumblr account no doubt you have seen various posts about this idea: "Start 2013 off with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. Empty it on New Years Eve to see what good things happened that year."And I succeeded, well sort of. Every month or so I would remember it was there and write a bunch of things down and gradually it filled up. 

2013 was a year of sadness and stress and I probably will always remember it that way but looking through my little notes I realised I had a bunch of great moments amongst them all. 

Tweets were a big part of this year and I was lucky enough to interact with a few awesome people on there from bloggers/vloggers (Lily Pebbles, Estee - essiebutton, Anna - viviannadoesmakeup, Jim Chapman and Sorted Food) to some of my favourite musicians (Lewis Watson, Gabrielle Aplin, Hudson Taylor and Orla Gartland).

I had a few big life moments as well. My Year 12 ball, finishing high school, starting this blog and gaining a new little cousin amongst others.

I got to see some amazing artists live as well starting off with Ed Sheeran, Gabrielle Aplin, Passenger then Birdy, Lewis Watson, Lakyn to the unexpected of the lot One Direction (I had the best fun at this one, serious fangirl) and to finish off an outdoor concert seeing Josh Pyke and Lisa Mitchell. My ears were graced with some incredible musicians and it was the biggest expense of the year but the most worth it.

This years New Years resolution? See the world with eyes wide open. It's vague and can be interpreted how you choose but for me it's about observing more of what's around me. My city in particular, I often loathe how small, isolated and lacking in culture where I live is but I aim this year to see more of what it has to offer and go out of my comfort zone to do just that. I plan on doing a few blog posts on the gems I find along the way.

Here is to 2014 - hopefully it is a whole lot better than last year.

What were your New Years resolutions this year and have they already been broken?

The New Foundation

When my skin started playing up these past few months I tried desperately just to cover it up. I'm pretty unfamiliar with spotty skin despite my infantile acne and made it through high school with barely a pimple (I do consider myself so lucky for this to be the case) but for some reason spots have started appearing around the left side of my nose recently where it gets oily. The spots were only small but they were red and the skin became dry around them making it appear if I had been in bed sick with an endless stream of tissues at my nose.

In my attempts to cover it up I applied layer upon layer of foundation (no spots normally defeats the necessity of concealer in my collection) to cover up the redness but to no avail. It just looked worse and the product clung to the spots before I realised the only solution was to address the root cause.

The skin misbehaviour coincided with my birthday and Christmas so I was spoilt to a selection of Aesop skin care including the Fabulous Face Cleanser, Mandarin Facial Hydrating Cream (the scent on this is addictive) and the coveted Parsley Seed Masque. Even after just one use of all these products together my skin was glowing and I noticed that the redness had settled down and the spots were less visible. I do this at night purely for convenience (not a morning person) and because I feel like it gives the moisturiser a good amount of time to really settle in.

The trio seems to be working well for me and I feel like it's a solid introduction into the skincare world, the Origins counter better watch out because I am venturing there when my budget as an aforementioned unemployed student expands.

Tell me in the comments if you think the Parsely Seed Masque is worth the hype and what other skin care products work really well for you.