by Annette @ Wellness WA | Dec 2, 2011 | Other
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We love you, we love you, we love you! To show our appreciation for the love, support, comments, questions and likes over the past year, we’ve teamed up with Lush to make your chrissy extra sweet n gifty.
Lush have an amazing range of limited edition christmas themed treats and glorious gift-packs, ranging from the perfect secret santa present, to the ultimate love inducing goodie boxes.
♥ Christmas Tweets – $24.95
First up, we’ve got 5 x Christmas Tweets packs to give away. The pack includes:
♥ Three Gold Rings bubble bar
♥ Tiny Hands solid hand serum
♥ 60g Snowcake Soap (in a star shape)
♥ Butterball ballistic
Yummy!
♥ A Few of My Favourite Things – $29.50
The second offering under the e-christmas tree is 5 x ‘A Few of My Favourite Things‘ packs! This box includes:
♥ 100g The Jilted Elf shower jelly
♥ 100g Gloog shower gel
♥ 100g Candy Cane soap
♥ 100g Snow Globe soap
How good do both of the prizes look?!! I am in love with both of them.
To WIN one of the 10 prizes on offer, and be the happiest elf this side of the North Pole (or are they unhappy there because they’re working all the time?) all you need to do is:
1. Like Wellness WA on Facebook.
2. Leave a comment below with why you’d like to win!
3. Cross your fingers and give the person closest to you a big hug. (Optional)
The ten best answers will be drawn on the 14th December! Please note that winners will randomly receive one of the above, but they are both fantastic so never fear 🙂
Please note that there is no guarantee that the prizes will arrive before the 25th December. We will certainly do our best though!
Best of luck to you all, Merry Christmas, and heres to a brilliant festive season and new year!
Be well,
Annette
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Dec 1, 2011 | Products, Reviews
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As a makeup artist it’s really expensive stocking a makeup kit. Like, really expensive. This is why I jump for joy when I discover cheap and wonderful makeup products. Better yet, cheap and wonderful Australian products. Bloom has been popping up in my kit for a while now, and these latest additions from the ‘Belle De Jour’ collection have been welcomed with open arms.
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Inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s long-time muse Catherine Deneuve in Luis Bunuel’s cult 1966 French film of the same title, the ‘Belle De Jour’ collection oozes French simplicity. April Greaves, the makeup artist who teamed up with Bloom, wanted to achieve contoured eyes, perfect brows, luminous skin and glossy lips, as this is the fresh look worn by Deneuve during the film. Inspired by all that talk of French beauty, I decided to pin down our Editor here at Wellness WA to recreate a wearable version of the image above.
Belle de Jour range.
After evening out Annette’s skin with a light tinted moisturiser we popped a soft crème blush on her cheeks to keep that glow factor going. Using the Bloom Brow Pencil in ‘Brown’ (RRP $25 AU) I filled in Annette’s already wonderfully shaped brows with the slanted end of the brow pencil. The pencil has a matte soft finish which is easy to blend through the hair. To set the brows just untwist the other end and use the clear brow gel. Genius!
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We then whipped out the Long Wearing Eyeliner Crayon in ‘Black’ (RRP $25 AU) This crayon comes with a handy applicator on the other end, which I used to smudge the crayon colour into the lash line.
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As we were keeping this look very fresh, all Annette needed after the crayon was lashings of mascara to enhance her blue eyes. To finish the look we pressed the Lip Duo Lipstick in ‘Day & Night’ ($28 AU) onto Annette’s lips and swiped the matching gloss on top.
Doesn’t she look darling? The Belle De Jour SS11 collection is easy to apply and can be used for any occasion, whether you want a soft feminine look like we have on Annette, or a darker version that was demonstrated on the model above.
So Frenchy, So chic!
Belle de Jour Colour Collection available now at selected Myer stores, David Jones and online at http://www.bloomcosmetics.com/
What do you think readers, do the prodz look easy too use?
Do you think you would like to wear this beautiful French look?
Don’t you think Annette is the cutest?!
Review by Jacqui Bradfield, Makeup artist, Blogger and Croissant eater.
Be well,
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Nov 30, 2011 | At Home, Products, Reviews, Wellness Tips
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I’ve recently found a new friend on my wellbeing journey, he goes by the name of Dr Russ Harris. The good doc often chats to me in bed at night, and while this sounds like something that could make my boyfriend jealous, I’ve occasionally brought Dr Harris along when the boy has stayed over and he has been more than accommodating of his presence. 😉
Before anyone gets too carried away, I am of course I’m talking about a CD!
Dr Harris has put together his Mindfulness Skills (Volume 1!) CD and it’s the perfect accompaniment for anyone who leads a busy or stressful life. That’s most of us right?
So what exactly is mindfulness and why should you be interested in it when there’s a million other things on your plate?
Dr Harris defines it in the following way:
“Consciously bringing awareness to your here-and-now experience, with openness, interest and receptiveness.”
At the outset he makes an interesting point that relaxation is not the aim of listening to the CD, although it often is a by product of working towards mindfulness… tricky tricky.
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So why do I love this…?
♥ There are 4 different tracks that you can listen to depending on how you’re feeling and what you’d like to cultivate.
♥ Mindfulness of Breathing: As the name suggests, this track focuses on getting you to be mindful of your breathing through a variety of exercises.
♥ Mindfulness of Emotions: Ever get anxious about being anxious? I do. This track helps you to see and accept your emotions as they are, that even though they may be uncomfortable, they are just emotions and will pass. This is perfect to listen to when you feel overwhelmed by any particular negative feelings.
♥ Leaves on a Stream: My favourite track and the one I find myself listening to the most. Place any thought, feeling, sound, or vision that comes into your mind onto a leaf and let it float away down a calm river, even if that thought is “this activity is ridiculous!”, you can place it on the leaf and send it away. I love this so much, my river has a lot of leaves 😉
♥ The Observing Self: Probably the trickiest mindfulness exercise on the CD, this one requires you to notice that you’re noticing something. A really useful exercise that is mostly too brain-bending for me at night, so I recommend working on this during the day when you have some time out.
♥ I feel peaceful afterwards. Despite being told not to expect relaxation, it often shows up and I’m happy to let it snuggle right next to me as I drift off to sleep.
Could you do with some mindfulness in your life? Ever tried it? If you have any tips or questions I’d love to hear them!
Mindfulness Skills Volume 1 by Dr Russ Harris is available for purchase through Exisle Publishing for $24.99 – a bargain price for the benefits that it delivers.
Be well,
Annette
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Nov 29, 2011 | Products, Reviews
Most beauty lovers will know about cult product, Yves Saint Laurent – Touche Eclat, which is a staple for anyone who wants their under eye area brightened up. It works, magically, and was a favourite of mine until I discovered that YSL is owned by L’oreal, who do not deny that they continue to test their products on animals.
For a long time since this discovery, my eyes have gone unbrightened, until I was lucky enough to stumble upon an alternative product recently that has three big things going for it:
♥ NOT tested on animals! Yippee.
♥ Mineral makeup, free of fragrance, oil, talc, dyes, heavy fillers and pore-clogging ingredients.
♥ Perth based company owned by lovely gal, and namesake of the brand, Alison Jade!
The Alison Jade Mineral Illuminator comes in the same click-pen-brush format as the Touche Eclat, and is used in the same way.
♥ Upside down, upside down!
For best results, draw an upside down triangle under each eye and gently pat until the triangle is no longer visible. I’ve found the following makeup the best for me:
♥ Moisturiser / primer
♥ Concealer
♥ Foundation with tinted moisturiser mixed in (coverage including eye area)
♥ Mineral Illuminator triangles under eyes!
♥ Blush
♥ Mascara
I definitely recommend putting your blush on post-illuminator, as the triangle technique is designed to brighten a large-ish area under the eye, which may mingle with the blush zone if done afterwards.
PS. It is important to note that these products are NOT concealers! They are designed to be the brightening star on top of your makeup christmas tree, so I would still suggest using your regular under eye concealer and makeup / tinted moisturiser.
The Alison Jade Illuminator has become a part of my daily routine and I’m so happy to have found a more people/puppy alternative to YSL 🙂
It comes in 4 shades, and retails for $48. Available for purchase online.
What do you think? Would you be willing to give another brand of under eye illuminator a go if it was better for you and our animal pals?
Be well,
Annette
xoxo
by Annette @ Wellness WA | Nov 28, 2011 | At Home, Products, Reviews
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There is no better way to describe the effects of Privé’s Concept Shampoo and Conditioner than to explain in picture form how it transformed my hair after one of the most important hair events on my social calendar, Halloween.
I take Halloween pretty seriously. It’s all about dressing up and for me this year it was all about big hair, lots of teasing and a whole lot of hairspray over TWO nights of Halloween festivities.
♥ First Day of Halloween
♥ Second Day of Halloween
♥ Picture three. Day after Halloween/s
This shampoo and conditioner repaired my hair after treating it so abominably for two days, returning it to a state that was even better than before I teased the you-know-what out of it. My ends felt so good, was it the Amazon acai or the babassu oil? I don’t know, but there’s a combination of active ingredients in these products that really made my hair feel light yet voluminous, clean, soft, shiny and best of all…healthy.
Foamy!
If this productive was just effective, that would definitely be enough, but something that makes it unique is the texture. Both the shampoo and the conditioner squirt out like a foam (think shaving cream and you are pretty close) and then it turns into a gel RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR VERY EYES.
Both have a delightful lemon/lime citrus smell- the shampoo works up into a really great lather, and the conditioner works through the meanest knots in the world. Considering the performance of Privé’s Concept Shampoo and Conditioner in my hour of post-Halloween need I really have no choice but to give these guys an enthusiastic two thumbs up.
Visit their website for more info, usage tips (you can get way more out of this shampoo and conditioner because of the aforementioned non-aerosol mousse) and of course to BUY them, which I highly recommend. The Concept Vert Shampoo is $28 and the Concept Vert Conditioner is $30. They are also available at David Jones.
Oh wow, I just like knowing that I can fully indulge in Halloween without ruining my hair, don’t you?
Review by Adriane Daff, halloween costume, hair and makeup extraordinaire!
Be well,
xoxo
