♥

The long search for the perfect lip balm is well and truly over! Hooraay! You can thank me later…

After over 10 years, my search for the perfect lip balm came to a very welcomed screeching halt as of Monday this week. If the idea of slathering your pout with carcinogenic petrochemicals and other nasties found in 99% of balms out there (yes, including the so called ‘natural’ ones) doesn’t really float your boat, then you best be sitting down with pen and paper and writing the name of this product down.

Brauer’s new PawPaw All Natural Lip Butter – and it’s made right here in Australia… Bingo!

♥

My new fave pot full of goodness! It has been a long time coming!!!

This compares to some luxury cosmetics’ companies balms … Trust me I worked in the industry for 10 years, and I am happy to announce that this is right up there with the best of them, better for you and your wallet… Wait for it RRP$ 4.99 yes, no typo here.

Now down to business:

Ingredients-Check
Paw Paw- Fermented and known for its healing and antibacterial properties.
Certified Organic Beeswax- used to seal in hydration…read plump and baby soft!
Vitamin E & Shea Butter
Carrot Oil- to rejuvenate, rehydrate and packed full of vitamins… yes please!
Stevia- a natural herb, 300x sweeter than sugar, minus the calories… Yum!!! Lick away ladies!!

Texture– Check

Perfect Not too heavy not too light, not a greasy pout in sight! This was really the selling point for me and where this balm is up above the rest, many natural ones I have tried just totally failed on the texture front…Too grease ball and gone in 60 seconds!

Flavour – Check

Natural Stevia makes this oh so yummy and sweet!

Price – Check

$4.99 per pot… I pay more for my soy flat white… I rest my case. I’ll take 10 please!

I found mine at Chemist Warehouse North Perth… Run in before everyone else catches on!!!

Did you know that the popular Lucas Papaw Balm is petrochemical based? How about trying a natural alternative? Let us know what you think!

Review by Martina…Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined!

♥

A little while ago I did a callout on Facebook to rustle up the names of some of your favourite yoga dvds, as I’ve long been yearning for a home practice for those days that I don’t feel like venturing back out of the house after work.

One recommendation really caught my eye and since receiving the DVD’s I’ve been unashamedly having a bit of a love affair with them. Meet the first two members of my yoga video library (which I hope will grow with time!) – Yoga Easy and Yoga 2 Easy by the lovely Yolanda Pettinato.

Yolanda is truly inspirational, having overcome obstacles in her life that would defeat most people, she is the glowing example of everything that yoga represents – tranquility, wisdom, inner peace and honouring your body.

What you will need:

♥ Yoga Mat – I use my Mukha mat (which I wrote about here)
♥ The desire to stretch and strengthen your body, calm your mind and feel fantastic! (And who doesn’t want that?!)

That is ALL you need, and the DVD of course. If you want to ramp the relaxing factor up a notch you can also throw in:

♥ Oil burner with bergamot oil, my favourite
♥ A dark room

♥

Yolanda has a gentle, soothing voice and she comes across as a real sweetheart. For a woman in her late 50’s, she has a body that most women would in their 20’s would envy. I can feel her encouraging kindness traveling through the screen and into my living room when she softly says “good, that’s good” after many of the sequences, and I find it a comforting and reassuring addition to the practice.

The practice on both of the DVD’s is quite short – 30 minutes – but is enough to wind me down after a stressful or tiring day, it can also be used in the mornings to set you up for the day ahead and is a great way to ground yourself. In fact the length of the session is one of the best things about it, if you’re anything like me it can be hard to find an hour / hour and a half to head out to a yoga class, and that doesn’t include driving there and back! 30 minutes is just enough to be easily manageable, but also gain real results.

While this is by no means a cardio workout, there are some sections focusing on strength that are challenging, and the great thing about yoga is that because you’re working with your own strength and flexibility, there is always room for improvement as you begin to get stronger.

As Yolanda says “just do your best, and your best will get better” – I love that phrase!

Doing either of these yoga DVD’s leaves my whole body feeling stretched and relaxed, with a sense of peace and stillness of mind that I really look forward to. The class flies by and before you know it you’re lying in Savasana thinking how lucky you are to have this wonderful experience in your life.

She also has some meditation CD’s which are no doubt great (she has the perfect voice for it) and even her dogs have been convinced by her to try meditating 😉

Cost: $24.95 each, free shipping if you purchase more than one item
Suitable for: Beginners – experienced who are looking for a relaxation based yoga class with strength elements
Where to buy: http://www.yolandapettinato.com

If you have any questions about the DVD’s please let me know, I would be only too happy to answer them as I think I’m Yolanda’s new biggest fan!!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

♥

Hello! Did we all enjoy the past week? I hope so 🙂 I’m finding that beauty & wellbeing crushes keep flying at me from all angles… which I guess can only be a good thing, lets jump into this weeks loves shall we?

1. Wonderful Makeup Artists

I find it can be a bit intimidating going up to a gorgeous looking makeup artist in a department store, when you’ve just been working all day, not a speck of makeup left on your face and a fresh zit popping out to say hello to the world. Not to mention the hard sell. Lately I’ve had two fantastic experiences that I’d love to share.

♥ MAC Makeup Counter, David Jones Perth City – I went in here looking for a red lippy that I’d seen my friend pull off beautifully the weekend prior, a lovely girl happily tried on a few colours on me to find the most suitable one and then when I mentioned I was looking for a new foundation too, she tested those and then provided me with two generous sized samples (each lasted about 5 full face applications!). I will DEFINITELY be going back and picking up my new best-match liquid foundation (MAC Studio Sculpt NW 15).

♥ Jane Iredale Makeup, Skin Resus Floreat – a mineral makeup virgin, I went in not sure what to expect. I had such a great experience which you can read more about here! It’s so nice when you find one place you love, let alone two!

2. Hairfree Centre

Having IPL/SPL is definitely one of the best things I’ve done to lower the amount of time I spend on grooming maintenance. While so far I’ve only had my abdomen, bikini line & underarms intense pulse light-ed, I would love to have my upper legs done too! It’s just so convenient! Tell me, have you had it done? I have a bunch of $50 off for your first session vouchers to giveaway for Hairfree Centre in Subiaco, so email me with your address if you’d like one sent out to you, I’d love to share the joy!

♥

3. The Jojoba Company Prods

I lurve jojoba! I think I have been quite vocal about this in the past. Most nights after a shower I will massage a few drops into my face and wake up with supple skin, however if I use too much, suppleness quickly becomes oiliness. The great thing about these products is the gorgeous packaging design, besides looking like a little like a giant pear drop, the pump is such that you can really control how much product comes out and therefore tread the tender line between glowing and greasy. A big fav of mine!

♥

4. Benefit Positetint

Alright, I almost can’t rave about this one enough. This is one of the most excellent cheek tint products I’ve come across to suit pale skins, aka, moi. The container/application technique is initially bizarre, you paint a couple of thin lines of fluoro pink nailpolish-esque liquid onto each cheek, then blend.

Unique application aside, this baby has earned itself a position in my “must always own” list due to it’s ability to last all day without reapplication. Even if you only apply a little like I do, one line, the subtle pink will be there when you come home at night, even when the rest of your makeup has long since packed up and left home (your face).

♥

5. Burts Bees Tinted Lip Balm

I have been loving these sweet slicks of colour which contain an abundance of fab ingredients, including olive oil, coconut oil & vege oil. They come in the dreamiest range of shades, my current faves are hibiscus and rose (pictured above) and they are perfecto for everyday use, when you don’t want something TOO over the top, but you still want a lil sumin sumin on your lips. My only qualm with this crush is that it unfortunately contains lanolin (fat from sheeps wool) which I personally prefer to avoid due to lamb love, so Burt’s Bees, you lose a couple of points there – nix the lanolin and you’ll have me as a lifetime devotee of this product!

Be well my cuties!

Annette

xoxo

♥

Another budget beauty product that I have read about on the Vogue Forum is the microfibre cloth. According to my research (read: Google and Vogue Forum), microfibre cloths are able to eliminate oil, cleanse makeup with just water, exfoliate skin and deep clean pores. Plus, the household microfibre cleaning cloths are a LOT cheaper than the beauty specific ones and still get the job done. Needless to say, I was hooked! I just had to try them out.

As I have mentioned in my previous article, my skin isn’t the greatest. Unfortunately, I am not one those girls blessed with naturally perfect, glowing skin – mine is oily, prone to break outs unless I am very disciplined in my cleansing regime, with large pores and rough patches.

So, I toddled down to my local supermarket and found a microfibre cloth in the household cleaning aisle. That night, I decided to try it out. I wet my face, wet a corner of the cloth and massaged it over my face in soft, circular motions. Let me tell you right now, the cloth really delivers! It managed to clean ALL of my makeup off (moisturiser, primer, foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara and concealer) with just water. No harsh rubbing and it took barely any time at all. After, I toned with witch hazel and there was no makeup residue on the cotton pad – none! At all! Even when I cleanse with Cetaphil, there is still usually a bit left. The cloth managed to get right down into my pores and sweep everything off.

In addition to removing all my makeup, the cloth also eliminated the oil from my face (not long term – it was back the next day) and my skin was left feeling very soft and smooth. The cloth acted as a very gentle exfoliant. In fact, it is so gentle that I feel comfortable using it everyday – there is no redness, rubbing or scratching. As the cloth is quite large, I have been using various corners of it so far, but once I have run out of clean patches I will just chuck it in the washing machine and voila! Good as new. Love it.

Cloth in packaging (so you can spot it in the shops!)

The Nitty Gritty

Cost:
$4.72 for Chux All Purpose Microfibre Cloth (pack of one)

Pros:
cheap as chips!
instant results
feels great during and after
re-useable

Cons:
results aren’t AMAZING OH MY GOD THIS IS A MIRACLE, but still really good

Recommended Usage:
I think that it would be totally fine to use the cloth everyday – I certainly am and haven’t noticed any adverse effects so far.

Rating:
4.5 / 5

Review by Cassandra, beauty lover on a student budget and Pilbara correspondent!

Be well,

xoxo

♥

Free spray tans in Perth. Free spray tans in Perth. FREE SPRAY TANS IN PERTH!

I hope I have got your attention now! So I wanted to share with you this super cool secret that those who are already in the know will be cursing me for sharing. Sorry guys!

Aussie Bombshell is a fab new Perth based fake tan company who are responsible for tanning Sam and Renee from The Amazing Race Australia, but to my knowledge not the lovely ladies from Big W, (though I’m sure they would too!) as well as the Miss Universe Australia Perth girls! And many more notable devotees.

In order to be lucky enough to score a free spray tan, you just need to be a member of the Aussie Bombshell Facebook page, and be online when they announce their TRAINING TAN days, if you get in quick enough with a comment or phone call you can swoop yourself a spray tan from a trainee, which I hear should look just as fabulous as a regular one!

They’re only available on training days 🙂 If you would like to try an Aussie Bombshell tan without waiting for a Facebook announcement then check out their stockists page or phone Penni on 0408 123 245 for more details.

Hope you enjoy this little treat!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo