March has again just flown right by, in which it consisted of; uni, work, blogging, uni, work, blogging [and a little bit of shopping, of course!] So here are the snaps I shared during the month of March.

I've blogged about them before, and I'll blog about them again as they are just that good! You can see my first post featuring one of the L'Oreal Color Infallible Eyeshadows in the shade Tender Caramel here and today I am back featuring another shade called Cosmic Black. I managed to pick this one up from Farmers for only $5 in one of their clearance bins (unfortunately they only had the one shade, sad face).

I've been using this concealer for a little while now and it's taken me a long time to sit and write this review purely because I was in two minds about my opinion. In some ways I really like it, and in other I don't; but I shall share with you my pros and cons none the less!

When I was contacted by Living Nature and asked if I would like to try some products, I couldn't have said yes faster! I had seen a few reviews on other blogs about their Skin Minis (my thoughts on them coming soon) and had browsed the site so was fairly familiar with the brand. They are New Zealand based, founded in 1987 and working out of Kerikeri. They work with 100% natural ingredients, producing skincare and makeup for all skin types.

I was consulted before they sent me the products, ensuring I was getting the right products for my skin. I am oily/combination and blemish prone; with that in mind they were kind enough to send me this little wonder product the Manuka Honey Gel*, aimed at trouble spots.

Rimmel know their stuff when it comes to lip products; their Kate Moss lipsticks are amazing and the Apocalips have a bit of a cult following. The Moisture Renew line from Rimmel is one of their classics and they have recently had a revamp and repackaged, but the ones I have are in the older packaging, but still have the same great formula.

A few posts ago I shared with you my rather large Postie haul (see it here) and this was one of the polishes I picked up. I got this for $6, but they are usually $8 at Postie and around $18 at Farmers and pharmacies, so Postie is significantly cheaper.

iHerb is always such a tempting place to shop online, I've done numerous orders from there and it is a great place to buy Real Techniques (the cheapest I have found) and e.l.f. products, as well as other brands such as Eco Tools, Physicians Formulas among many others. This particular visit to iHerb was all purely to buy the RT powder brush and naturally a few other things jumped into my cart.

Today's nail polish pick was a slightly different choice for me, usually I like bright pastels and neons or really dark colours but I opted for this quite unusual pastel olive by OPI called Stranger Tides.

Some days I just feel like doing a bit of beauty shopping and one of my favourite places to go is Postie. They have a lot of very cheap makeup (which I think is parallel imported) from brand like Revlon, Maybelline, L'Oreal, as well as cheaper brands such as BYS and Kleancolor. They have just got in Boots No.7 makeup and skincare so I was looking forward to seeing what they had on offer.

When it comes to fake tan, I am a bit of a novice. I've mostly used the moisturisers that build up a tan over time, or used a one night wash off type product for special occasions. I just felt like it was so much of an effort and that it would be messy etc etc, but lately I have been wanting that nice tanned look so have been trying out a few self tanners. I have spoken about Beauty Review before (read about it here if you'd like) and this was the first product I managed to get on a trial team for to test and then review on the site. I was so excited when I got the email saying I had been selected, and nabbed the spot as quick as I can (you have to be pretty quick on the site to ensure you actually get a place!). I am going to simply copy the review I wrote for it on the Beauty Review site to my blog to share with you all as it sums my thoughts up perfectly (but I have also included a little more as well).

When one of my good friends offered to pick up some things from Sephora in L.A. for me I thought Christmas had come early. I scoured the site and made a wee list for her to bring back and this Too Faced Beauty Blogger Darlings Set was one of the items. I had not tired Too Faced before so I thought this would be the perfect introduction to the brand and a way to try products that are loved and recommended by beauty blogger and vloggers. This set is only USD $20 for 4 mini products, said to be a $42 value.





Apparently, this was the very last one in the Sephora my friend went to and the lady had to go and search for it out back. I am so happy they even had one, even if the box was looking a little battered - the makeup items were in perfect condition.

I had ran out of a couple of my staple E.L.F. products so hoped onto Beauty Joint and naturally couldn't resist adding a couple extras to my cart. It was all justified - have to make the most out of the shipping cost!

Most of the time I take living in Christchurch for granted, when new things crop up rarely do I go and check them out and get stuck in going to the same mall, same bars etc. I've only been to the Re:Start container mall a handful of times and haven't ventured around much since the earthquakes happened, but there seems to be so many exciting things cropping up around the city that I really need to get out more and explore them. So I have decided to have a little series devoted to my hometown of Christchurch (aka. CHCH) where I will go and find and explore these exciting new developments around the city. The Tannery was at the top of my list.

 When I went into Farmers yesterday, as I usually do if I am out shopping at the mall, I walked past the Revlon stand and was instantly drawn to the big $20 red sale sign to find all the Revlon gift sets were marked down to $20 each! My makeup radar was on full overdrive and it took me a good 10 minutes deciding what set to actually get as they had a bunch of different combo, some fragrance ones, others with more makeup items in them. I decided on the Splendid set, as I was drawn to the lip butter and nail polish and the perfume sounded like it would smell lovely, or 'splendid' should I say.

These are left over stock from Christmas time as I remember looking at them over the festive season and now they are in full sale mode, obviously to get rid of the last sets. It comes in a lovely box that can be reused and with 4 full sized products.

MUA (or Makeup Academy) was a brand I discovered a year or so ago and I instantly feel in love with the brand and their range. Since then I have made quite a few orders, which you can see in various haul posts on here [use the search bar if you would like to read them] and I feel like I have used a number of their products. MUA are UK based, but they ship worldwide, which is a novelty especially for a UK 'drugstore' brands.  They have a great selection of eyeshadow palettes and the one I am reviewing today is named the 'Glitter Ball' palette.

I feel like a Nail of The Day post is well over due, so here is one coming atcha! I've been loving more neutral colours on the nails at the moment and the nude trend seems to be coming through with a lot of brands like Maybelline who have just released a whole collection of nude lippies and nail polishes. To hope on board I decided to go for Essie Ladylike.

OPI do mini nail polishes set really well; offering a set with each new collection they bring out, usually with only 4 polishes. If you are a reader of my blog, you'll know that I love me some OPI polishes and have a fair amount of the brand in my collection. I also have a couple of the mini sets and if you want to check them out, here are the links to reviews I have done with swatches too: Mariah Carey Four Holidays Hits, Oz The Great + Powerful, The Amazing Spiderman, and James Bond 007 Skyfall minis. The mini sets are the perfect way to try a number of shades without committing to a full sized bottle, so when I saw the Take Ten set my nail polish sensors went into overdrive.

I am a sucker for a cute clutch or bag and this ASOS Cat Ears bag was just to hard to resist! It is a great size for throwing in the essentials and keeping everything close at hand. Oh, and did I mention, it has cat ears on the top - I mean, come on!

Before you say/think it, I know I am well aware that it is in fact the end of February, but if you saw my January unboxing post here, I actually didn't recieve this until around the 20th of January and then posted my unboxing slightly later. Technically a month has past, so I am going to give my thoughts on the 5 products received in the final ever Sample Bar Glam Pack [they have closed down now, sad face].

It's time to talk trash! Well not exactly, but this post is all dedicated to products I have used up in the month of February, including my thoughts on them and if I'd buy them again. You can see January's instalment here and this month many things seemed to come to an end all at once; a grand total of 9 products, ranging from skincare, makeup and a hair product too.