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Exclusive salon-only brand Lendan, along with Wellness WA, are going to make three lovely readers VERY happy. We’re giving away three prize packs and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment stating why you want to win, simple as that! The winners will be drawn on the 8th February 2010 at random. Looking forward to reading all of your entries!

But first a bit more about Lendan…

♥ Does not use any animal derived ingredients (yay!)
♥ Does not test on animals (double yay!)
♥ Uses recyclable packaging
♥ Lendan’s Philosophy is based on respect for Nature, Scientific Research and Salon Only.

Comprising of Shampoo, Leave-in Cream & Hair Mask, this Rich Nutrition set is packed full of Brazil nut oil (fabbb for your tresses) which will get any hair woes you’ve got sorted in no time!

While this one isn’t technically a ‘pack’, it’s a pretty special product. If you’re anything like me and love to smell like sugary sweet desserts as you go about your daily business you’re going to love this. Add to that it makes your hair glossy and shiny as can be. Did I mention it smells delicious? Vanilla icecream, in case you hadn’t guessed. Yummy!

Deeply moisturising and soothing to the skin, this baby is based on scientific research into skin hydration by two Nobel Prize winners! Dry skin, begone. This pack also includes 2 x tubes of Beauty Flash, which acts to eliminate signs of fatigue, smooth wrinkles and provide firmness and a healthy glow.

Leave a comment below to win one of these great Lendan prizes!

PS. WA folks only 🙂

Be well,

xoxo

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♥ First up, briefly tell us a little bit about yourself!

Hello! I run a blog called April Rose. It started as a space for me to ramble and upload inspiration, but its slowly morphing into a fashion blog.

I currently post about my life and my outfits, but next year when I am studying my Diploma of Specialised Makeup Services I’m hoping to also use my blog as a portfolio of my makeup work.

Jurlique Soothing Day Care Lotion from $48 RRP.

♥ Tell us about your daily beauty routine.

Ever since I was a teenager I have cleansed toned and moisturised morning and night.

Cleanser – Clean and Clear Cream Cleanser, the classic old school one, I’ve been using it since I was 14. In Winter time I like to use something from Aesop , as my skin gets very dry.
Toner – Witch Hazel.
Moisturiser – Jurlique Soothing Day Care Lotion (this stuff is AMAZING).
Scrub – At the moment its just the St Ives one, I’m not too fussy about scrubs as I don’t use them that often.
Mask – I love the Skinvitals range from Priceline, they are cloth face masks and they are so so good when you are flying or just need a pick-me-up!

I have very sensitive skin, prone to eczema and my face can also get swollen and inflamed from certain products, so I don’t really stray off what I’m used to (that’s why I’ve been using C&C since i was 14!) I’ve tried so many different products and had to throw them out after a few weeks.

Sounds like a lot but its habit for me.

♥ What’s the one beauty treatment you can’t live without? And your favourite place to have it done?

I love getting my nails done. Love it. I feel like a lady when I get them done, and my nails grow better once they are filed professionally.

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♥ Who do you trust with your hair in Perth, and why?

I used to be solely committed to Hall and Jones in the city and when they closed down I cried a little.
Now I go see Bee at Peggy Sues. I did a post about her skillz once. Check it out.

♥ Favourite budget / at home beauty treatment?

Umm I don’t really have many at home treatments I do but I do like to have a long hot shower after a bad day, put a treatment in my hair, shave my legs, and take off all my makeup and wear track pants. Instant mood lifter for me.

Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentrate

♥ Your three, absolutely cannot live without, favourite products?

Witch Hazel – I use this as a toner, I use it after waxing, and I use it on my face when I have allergies or my eczema is playing up…

Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentrate – Its thick so oily skinned gals may not like it too much but I use it as a primer/moisturiser.

It’s hard to get in Aus but you can track it down online for around 40 dollars. Its becoming one of my Makeup Kit essentials.

Illuminator – my favourite is MAC Cream Colour Base in Hush. This shade works for so many skin tones and I put it EVERY WHERE with a foundation brush.

♥ Do you have any secret tips you use to keep looking / feeling great?

Prep your skin by washing, toning and moisturising before whacking on foundation, the foundation will last longer and you won’t have to put as much on!

Sheer dusting of translucent powder to set foundation and prevent shine yet still let the glow through.

Use a bold lip colour and a bare eye if you are feeling tired or run down. It will bring the attention away from the tired eye area.

Retreat-y Bliss!

♥ What beauty treatment/ wellbeing activity would you love to try but haven’t yet? (Due to time, money, scared etc!)

A yoga retreat! I would have to learn how to do yoga first though..

♥ Describe a typical day of eating for you.

I don’t eat red meat so that limits a lot for me. I eat heaps of nuts, fruit, salads, and pasta.
As a treat I love a good comfort meal like creamy pasta or Thai.

Moi, cycling by the river.

♥ Describe your fitness routine.

Haha zilch. I ride my bike for fun but that’s about it!

♥ Do you take part in any alternative therapies or take supplements? If so, discuss.

I take a Women’s multivitamin and Vitamin B12. I don’t eat meat so these things give me a bit of a boost.

Thanks Jacqui!

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments 🙂

Be well,

xoxo

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Sleek and attractive packaging? Check. Inside mirror for touch-ups? Check. Affordable? Absolutely.

Budget beauty specialists Australis deliver again with their cheap and cheerful range of new lip butters, which grew on me the more I used them.

The ball shape means they are light and easy to pick out amongst a plethora of items when you dive into your handbag.

I found that the pigments looked much more concentrated in the packaging than they turned out on the lips, but considering they are a butter, not a lipstick, I don’t think this is a big issue.

‘Tall Poppy‘ (pictured above), one of the five shades in the range, looked from the packaging to be a bright Barbie-pink colour, and is described on the Australis website as “clear with a hint of bright pink”. To my mind, a ‘bright pink’ pops on the lips, and this doesn’t. It is, however, a very pretty and demure shade, and a deeper colour is possible with more layering of the product. It’s actually very similar to one of my favourite lipstick shades, Lancome’s Vintage Rose.

Mmmm! ♥

The second shade I tried, the cheekily-named ‘Brownie Points’, had light caramel tones and is super subtle, but gorgeous with a dark smoky eye and a sweep of bronzer. Both shades would suit any complexion or skin colour, but one tip: don’t eat them – they don’t taste great!

Retailing at $8.95 the butters are a very reasonable purchase. Though not super-nourishing, they provide your smackers with a bit of protection, with aloe vera and vitamin E among the ingredients. My lips did tend to feel a bit dry and dehydrated by the end of the day, and I felt myself reaching for the paw paw ointment for some relief by late afternoon.

Australis though, are the stalwart of being able to create great looks on a tight budget, and these butters are a great addition to their range.

Review by Athanae Lucev, a freelance journalist and writer with a keen eye for a pretty bargain.

Rodial Brazilian Tan – Light 150ml, RRP $65

I once joined a Facebook group called ‘Pale ‘n’ Proud’. The group’s poster child was Keira Knightley. I later left this group because, let’s all admit it, joining a group called ‘Pale ‘n’ Proud’ (not even Pale AND Proud) is kind of lame and the other reason was because the poster child was Keira Knightley. But I think the other OTHER reason, deep down, was that I didn’t want to commit to being one thing (and proud of it) for the rest of my Facebook days.

Ms. Knightly, flying the ‘English Rose’ flag.

In the same way that sometimes as a brunette I get really curious about being blonde, as a pale person I sometimes just really want to be tanned. Especially in summer. Pretty much every year. Like clockwork this same curiosity rises and I don’t see any particularly good reason that I shouldn’t indulge it (I know I should be comfortable in my own skin but who said I couldn’t dye the skin first? RIGHT GUYS?!) So, of course, going out and attempting the mega burn aint no good for you and is going to have you looking like an old boot age 29 so this article is going to be about one of your fake options.

I decided to try out the Rodial Brazilian Tan (Light) a tinted medium strength self-tanning gel for the face and body pretty much because I have liked Rodial products when I’ve used them before and because this was specifically light and medium strength. When you have pale skin (as I’m sure even non-palers would know) you cant roll in guns-a-blazin with your full strength guy because that kind of behavior is going to leave you streaky, patchy and all kinds of orange.

Mmmm.

Straight out of the bottle I knew me and Rodial Brazilian Tan Light were going to be mates because of one simple fact- this product is neither orange nor brown but the colour of PURE CARAMEL I TELL YOU. Literally the colour of caramel topping, go down to McDonalds right now- get a sundae- that’s what you are putting on your skin. Secondly as a gel it hydrates as it tans so you don’t feel stiff as a board and it leaves a slight tint on your skin so you can see where you’ve been thus eliminating streaks!

It didn’t leave any marks on my clothes or my sheets (although I did wait for it to dry properly) and better yet it didn’t leave my hands discoloured! And this is huge because normally I have to wear gloves to apply fake tan (this includes the ever popular St Tropez) so this time I was worried because gloves were not available to me (read: I was too lazy to walk down to the 24 hour chemist to get some) but never fear, after thoroughly washing my hands with warm water and soap I was on Easy street.

So there’s a number of wins for this product (and look I’m not going to lie I really do think the people at Rodial are fighting a good fight- the actual tan doesn’t even SMELL tan-y!) but the biggest thing I would take away from this is that the colour of this is so perfect that it’s letting even the palest amongst us girls (me, Keira, all the gang in ‘Pale ‘n’ Proud) have a little go at getting a tan.

Available at Myer stores and online at <Adore Beauty.

Review by Rodial fanatic & porcelain to tanned chameleon, Adriane Daff.

Be well,

xoxo

I LOVE themed parties! Give me an excuse to get into costume and play a character for the night and I will be there with bells on; and in this case Swarovski crystals as well.

On this occasion the theme for the party was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The look I wanted to go for was an “ethereal woodland fairy”, much like the mischievous characters from Shakespeare’s play.

I designed the outfit myself. The top was made out of a satin and organza skirt that I shredded into panels and draped strategically over my torso, leaving my back and most of my midriff bare. The flowing, long, white skirt complimented the baby pink top and I painted my toenails with a shimmering polish and went barefoot.

For my hair and make-up, I called in the professionals.

Slajana Spaseski is the founder and owner of the Perth based business, Make-up by Design. She arrived at my house equipped to completely transform me, and efficiently went about turning my bathroom into a salon.

♥ Slaj gives me the tip “during the day it’s always best to work in a room that has natural light”.

Julia before makeup.

Julia after makeup.

Over the next 3 hours, we planned and executed the complex transformation as you can see from the before and after photos. Slaj deftly moved from product to product and so I asked her to give me a rundown of just how she created this design.

Here is a step by step guide you can follow yourself:

Base

♥ Always begin with a clean canvas (baby wipes are best to clean the face because make up wipes often leave an oily residue which can make the base unstable).

♥ Apply a primer to the skin with a foundation brush. The primer will prep the skin for the foundation and will also make it last longer. I used Jemma Kidd Primer. It has light reflecting particles in it which give the skin a youthful glow.

♥ Next I applied Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation (Available online at StrawberryNet) all over the face.


Cheekbones

♥ Julia is naturally gifted with very chiselled cheekbones (thanks Slaj) and so I merely accentuated them by using a peach powder blush on the apples of her cheek.

♥ Then, from my Smashbox Contouring Palette I used the darkest colour powder in the hollow of her cheek and my Smashbox Mosaic Highlighter Palette to accentuate the cheek bone.


The Eyes, Eyebrows and the Mask

♥ I began by lightly dusting the entire eye area, up to the mid forehead, with a baby pink loose pigment.
♥ I then drew in the cat eye with a M.A.C eye crayon, extending the wing to the temple.

♥ The eyelashes were then curled using a heated eyelash curler (I loved this! I am going to pick one up from Priceline for about $12, much nicer than the old school eyelash curler!), following by lashings of black mascara.

♥ I applied false eyelashes with a pair of tweezers and Duo Glue.

Benefit – Brows a Go-Go!

♥ While we were waiting for the glue to dry, I gave Julia her dramatic eyebrows using my Benefit Brow Kit . I used the eyebrow wax to set the hairs into place and plot the desired shape. When I was happy with the shape, I accentuated the brows using the darker brow powder applied with a 266 Mac Eyebrow Brush.
♥ The mask was given some depth by drawing in both silver and black streaks using Kryolan paint.
♥ I then glued Swarovski crystals randomly within the mask using Kryolan Spirit Gum.

♥ The feathers were glued on the outer corners of the eyes using spirit gum to accentuate the winged eye make-up.

Lips
♥ The lips were lined with a neutral pink lip liner by Napoleon and filled in with a shimmer lip gloss by Modelco .

The tool kit!

Hair
♥ The hair was roughly blow dried and lightly sprayed with hair spray. Each section of hair was sprayed again prior to rolling with with Babyliss hot-rollers.

♥ When the make-up was finally finished it was time to pull out the rollers.
Each section was carefully removed so as to not disturb the curl. Each individual curl was then sprayed to hold.

Body
♥ Julia’s body was bronzed and glowing thanks to the application of Chi Chi Solarium in a Bottle.

It was a wonderful experience to get pampered at home and Slaj was very conscious of the time and making sure that I was able to get dressed, have something to eat and take lots of fantastic photos before heading out. The look was very dramatic and caused quite a stir at the party.

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People were surprised at how completely unusual I looked. I have never had curly hair and so I was very excited to get the ringlets.

If you want to learn how to create theatrical or natural looks you can attend one of Slaj’s workshops. Find out more here: http://make-upbydesign.blogspot.com/

Make-up by Design is a completely mobile business so Slaj can come to your home or hotel to prepare you for a big event. She says that now is the busiest time of year with parties and weddings in the warm weather.

She does everything from weddings to photo shoots for clothing labels.

Check it out on Facebook or contact Slajana on: 0433967900 or Slajanamake-upbydesign@hotmail.com. She is on call 7 days a week.

Review by Julia Hern, personal trainer and event junkie who loves to swim, but doesn’t need water to make a splash!

Be well,

xoxo