Victoria's Secret: Wild Raspberry, Bright Strawberry, Juiced Berry (Beauty Rush) Fragrance Mist

Apologies for the break, I was in Auckland for a few day's and came home and I've been working, plus the hour's and month's seem to be flying past (daylight saving has ended) and before we know it, it'll be Christmas!

Today, I'm writing about a Victoria's Secret fragrance I found on TradeMe. I have 3 of the VS body mist's (Love Spell, Coconut Passion and a Plum and Freesia) fragrance so when I saw this one, which is a little different, I bought it - it's brand new (250ml) and I paid NZ$10 including postage.

I've been wearing this scent for about 9 out of the past 12 day's and I like it, it's Autumn/Fall here in New Zealand but because of the juiced berry I think it could also work well in Summer. It's a bit stronger but I find it last's on my skin longer and I need to use less product too which is nice.

VS describes this scent:

A flirty fresh fragrance sensation. Weightless formula treats skin to a sexy pop of scent. Spritz on the scent of Juiced Berry, a sparkling mix of Wild Raspberry and Bright Strawberry.

I wish we had more VS product's available in shop's here in New Zealand. I'm really keen to try VS beauty (makeup) but sadly it's not sold here unless it's online from an independent trader but for now I'm trying to save so I'll have to add VS beauty to my ever-growing wish list.

Of the 3 other scent's I have, I find this one is just as nice so I'm really pleased because buying online without sniffing it in person can be a bit of a gamble. If you like Berry scent's, you'd like this one.

Do you have any VS body mist's, fragrance's and if so what's your fave scent?

Ecoya | Vanilla Bean Mini Metro and French Pear Mini Metro + French Pear Handcream

A few month's ago I went shopping at Bayfair Shopping Centre in Tauranga and I don't go there as often as I'd like because it takes two buses and a journey time of 1 and 15 minutes each way.

Bayfair has a few of my favourite shop's and one of those is one of the bigger shop's called Farmers (similar to Australia's Myer, David Jones and the UK's Debenhams, John Lewis). There's a small Farmers store outside of my town but because it's small they don't have a big Home Fragrance section.

I was looking around nail polishes rack's and I found a 4 tier stand stocked full of Ecoya with an Offer if you spent $25 you get a $29.99 (75ml) Ecoya handcream of your choice so I decided to buy two Ecoya Mini Metro candle's NZ$24.95 each and receive the Gift With Purchase handcream, then I remembered I had $20 in Farmers points redeem so this meant one candle would cost just $4.95!

Ecoya are an Australian luxury brand and I really don't know much about them. I hadn't heard of them before moving to the UK so I wanted to buy one and try it out, the candle's cost over $20 each but I don't mind paying a little bit more for a candle that's going to actually fragance my flat with a beautiful scent with a clean burn. I don't like cheap candles with fake or chemically scent's when they burn I find those give me a headache but Ecoya doesn't because it's a Soy candle and the throw is pleasant.

The mini candle's will burn up to 18 hour's which I think it's pretty good for a mini.

Ecoya mini candle's are called Mini Metro 50g (1.07oz) $24.95 each.

They had a few scent's so I sniffed all of them and I decided to go with Vanilla Bean because I adore Vanilla.

Ecoya say's:

A velvety and rich, full-bodied vanilla bean extract is deliciously wrapped in creamy tones of butterscotch to create a rich, indulgent and luxurious fragrance. A beautiful soy wax candle. Delicately poured into a contemporary glass jar and presented in a colourful box. Enjoy up to 18 hours of burn time. 

French Pear smelt wonderful and because I liked French Pear I chose it for the Free Gift With Purchase Handcream. The essence of a crisp, tree-ripened pear is captured and blended with a hint of the creamiest vanilla. This sophisticated and rich combination is then infused with star anise for a scent akin to freshly baked apple crumble. A beautiful soy wax candle. Delicately poured into a contemporary glass jar and presented in a colourful box. Enjoy up to 18 hours of burn time.

I haven't tried the French Pear handcream or the Vanilla Bean candle but I'll review these separately in the future. As for the scent's; I definitely recommend the French Pear and if you like Vanilla then I believe you'll like the Vanilla Bean. Ecoya also make Home Fragrance, Body Care and Gift's. The larger candle's come in a Madison or a Metro in two different sizes along with the Mini Metro (above).

Have you tried Ecoya before, do you have a favourite scent, product?

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Disclosure

This post is not Sponsored by Ecoya or Farmers. These product's were bought with my own money. All opinion's are 100% honest and are my own word's and photograph's! Please don't reproduce content, but you may post a link, Like and share this post on social media with a link to my original post and credit BalmainBeauty balmainbeauty.com, Thankyou.

Estée Lauder Makeup Brush Cleaner (235ml)

A couple of month's ago I noticed a bottle of Estée Lauder Makeup Brush Cleaner in my local Unichem for the bargain price of NZ$10 (normally $35) so I thought I'd give it a try.

I've never tried a professional makeup brush cleaner before and until now I'd been using a gentle Baby Shampoo to clean my brushes. I knew it wasn't deep cleaning, but professional makeup brush cleaner's are expensive so getting this one and trying it for $10 has impressed me - it's a total game changer.

Why I will repurchase this product

Firstly, you get 235ml which is a decent size so it should last quite a while. I've used mine for around 3 month's and I've only used up to the top of the Estée logo. I've been cleaning 4 makeup brushes every 3-4 day's. It's not thick, it doesn't smell like alcohol or another nasty chemical smell, in fact I can't even smell it, it's tinted pink but if it wasn't pink you'd think it was water. It has a little press up section on the lid to open it but you can unscrew the blue lid and remove the entire lid if you want, however I wouldn't do that because I find once the press up bit on the lid is open you just need to pour slightly and you don't need to squeeze the bottle. It is a runny, water liquid so pour carefully.

I'll definitely repurchase this product because it deep clean's but it's gentle on my brushes, since using it I've had no hair loss from any of my brushes (I don't know how it'd work with animal hair brushes because I only use synthetic brushes). If you've not tried a professional brush cleaner I think you should give it a go, we spend so much money on makeup and we should take better care of our tool's too.

If you'd like me to write a post on How I Use This Product, please comment below. 

Have you tried a professional makeup brush cleaner before, how do you think it compares to using a baby shampoo, do you prefer using baby shampoo and also, how often do you clean your brushes?

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Disclosure

This post isn't Sponsored by Estée Lauder. This product was bought with my own money. All opinion's are 100% honest and are my own word's and photograph's! Please don't reproduce my content, but you may post a link, Like and share this post on social media with a link to my original post and with credit to BalmainBeauty at www.balmainbeauty.com, Thankyou.

Nivea Soft | Face Body Hands (75ml)

I don't know why but I've never tried a Nivea hand cream. I was in The Warehouse and I picked up my usual brand and then saw this next to it so I thought I'd try this one instead.

What I made me decide to buy is it say's it's for Face, Body and Hand's and it contains Jojoba Oil and Vitamin E Cream and it's a refreshingly soft moisturising cream. I started using it right away and after 24ish hour's it has really moisturised my hand's and they are soft, feel and look cared for. It's now been 3 day's since I started using it on my hand's to get them looking nice again and I've been applying it 4+ time's a day and I can see considerable difference and I feel it's even giving my nail's some tlc.

It's 75ml and it's approximately NZ$7.49 which is a little bit more than I'd normally pay but I now feel it's worth it because it feel's nice, it doesn't take too much work or time for it to sink into your skin, it's not greasy and the scent is pleasant plus it's doing a better job than what I normally use by another brand (in the past some hand cream's I've tried have been an absolute waste of money because they didn't do anything, they were greasy and too strong) but this one definitely tick's all the right boxes!

It may look like I'm using more than I should but I also add a bit more to apply to my elbow's and arm's each time I apply to my hand's and I've taken a closeup photo so it look's like a lot but just use a normal amount, unless you want to have enough for elbow's and arm's or face and body.

Unfortunately, I've got a bit of a cold at the moment so my sense of smell isn't great but it smell's nice and that's the best way I can describe it it's not a strong scent and the scent is less noticeable after the cream sink's into your skin - I'm sorry I can't describe the scent in more detail and the back of the packaging doesn't really list ingredient's in non-scientific names. This product contain's Alcohol but it's definitely not drying out my skin but what work's well for me may be completely different for other's.

The description on the reverse of the product say's:

Nivea Soft, a moisture sensation! We love this highly effective formula with Vitamin E and Jojoba Oil becuase it is quickly abosobed, leaving your skin sensationally soft and smooth. Enjoy the revitalising feeling of long-lasting moisturisation on your face, body and hands everyday. Skin compatability dermatologically approved. 

What I also like about Nivea as a Brand is they're Cruelty Free and that's very important to a lot of people. I also notice this cream doesn't contain Parabens, which is also important so I'm definitely going to repurchase this and try out other product's by Nivea. Nivea is fast becoming one of my preferred brand's and it all started with a lip butter recently so I won't go back to buying the other brand I'd bought repeatedly, this one trump's what I've been using and is perfect for an everyday hand cream.

As yet I haven't used it on my body, or face but I'm definitely going to give it a try and once I've done so for a good amount of time I'll review this cream for the Face and Body - probably early-mid June.

I'm keen to try their Makeup Wipes, Daily Face Wash and Cleanser but I've got a few product's I need to finish before purchasing new one's but I'll let you know once I've given them a good road test.

Have you tried Nivea product's before and do you have a favourite?

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Disclosure

This post is not a Sponsored post by Nivea. This product was bought with my own money. All opinion's are 100% honest and are my own word's and photograph's! Please do not reproduce content, but you may post a link, like and share this post on social media with a link to my original post and credit to BalmainBeauty at www.balmainbeauty.com, Thankyou.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain | Honey

I don't know about you but Revlon product's are my fave drugstore beauty brand so when the original Just Bitten's were released I went and looked at them in Unichem, but I didn't buy any because I had enough lip product's to use and I'm also not a big fan of lip stain's.

However, when Just Bitten Kissable's were released I sourced swatches online to find the best colour for me and I liked the look of Honey so I decided to buy one online.

Unfortunately, they're super expensive to buy in NZ so I ordered mine on eBay from the US where it ended up costing about half the price (including postage) of buying one in NZ so unless the price comes down or there is some kind of Revlon offer I won't be buying any in NZ which I'm sad to say. In NZ they cost $24-$26 each (£13) and if you find them for $20 and under you've got a bargain!

I apologise for this next photo. I took about 50 swatch photo's and they all looked terrible - this was the best I could do with what I have and natural lighting. I think it show's the colour and maybe the glossiness makes this hard to focus so I just couldn't improve on the quality of the swatch for this post.

What I like about Honey is how nice it feel's on my lip's and the colour plus I'm a sucker for crayon type lip pencil's (the Clinique Chubby and the Face of Australia's Gloss Stain's and more recently the MUA Cosmetics Power Pouts). I don't have a Clinique Chubby or an MUA Power Pouts to compare to the Revlon Kissable but as for the Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayons in Macaron and Cupcake, I think they're better quality than the Kissable and at A$14.95 for 3 they're better value. If you'd like to read my review of Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayon's, please click here. Unfortunately these are now unavailable. I bought mine from Fashion Addict and they ship to NZ.

What do you think of the Kissable's or are you a fan of the original Just Bitten's?

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Disclosure

This post is not a Sponsored post by Revlon or Face of Australia. This product was bought with my own money. All opinion's are 100% honest and are my own word's and photograph's! Please do not reproduce content, but you may post a link, like and share this post on social media with a link to my original post and credit to BalmainBeauty at www.balmainbeauty.com, Thankyou.

Maybelline Baby Lips Color | Pink Lolita

I'm super excited to tell you I found a tinted baby lips today in the shade Pink Lolita!

Unlike previous baby lips eg Pink Glow, Energizing Orange etc, this one is actually tinted, it gives off a nice shade of pink, you can wear on it's own or under a lipstick. I just bought it so I'll write a proper review of it in a week or two, but so far so good. I like the tint, how it feel's and look's on my lip's.

Thanks for your support by commenting, liking, pinning, reading, sharing, and subscribing. 

Are you as excited about this coloured baby lip's as I am?

If you have the other two colour's, please leave a comment 

below and if your a Blogger please leave a link 

to your post so I can read and share it.

BalmainBeauty - Social Media: 

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Disclosure

This post is not a Sponsored post by Maybelline. This product was bought with my own money. All opinion's are 100% honest and are my own word's and photograph's! Please do not reproduce content, but you may post a link, like and share this on social media with a link to my original post and credit to BalmainBeauty at www.balmainbeauty.com, Thankyou.

Haul | Colgate, InStyle, Maybelline & Victoria's Secret

I went into town to buy coffee pod's for my Kensington Coffee Machine and to look for some warm, comfy, stylish slipper's because it's getting colder so I decided to go into The Warehouse, which by the way has the coffee machine (above) on Clearance for $99.98 each, click here to buy (within NZ), so I was barely in the shop when I spotted item's I'd not seen before so I decided to treat myself and my rationalisation is why not - it's My Birthday Month! (does anyone else say that too?).

Victoria's Secret - Love Spell (Fragrance Mist) Cherry Blossom and Peach (250ml) NZ$19.00 each. Firstly, I'd never expect to see Victoria's Secret in The Warehouse so I'm over the moon to find it, they had a few of these in this scent and also in Endless Love, Coconut Passion (which I already own and love) and a scent with Strawberries (I can't remember the name of this particular one). They didn't have many there - maybe 2 or 3 of each of the scent's I mentioned so I don't know if they had more stock but these were flying off the shelf or if it's a test run to see if they sell but I'm hoping I'll find them in again in the future and would love to see a body lotion and some of the VS makeup and candle's sold there.

I've had Love Spell on my Wishlist for a long time but I wasn't quite sure from the list of scent's I'd read to describe it were for me, but I smelt it in person, I loved it (it's going to be a perfect scent for the cold month's) so I bought one. I would've bought the Love Spell Body Lotion too if but it look's like all they have (or have left) are the Mist's only.

Also, my local (Whakatane) store had 2 giant table's setup with perfume's marked down from over $100 to $75 each or less, perfumes by Beyonce, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Kenso, Calvin Klein, Katy Perry and more. I don't need anymore perfume right now - it's very hard to resist temptation to buy a new perfume for such a good price but I managed to do so this time. I'm guessing as these table's weren't there a couple of week's ago they've set this up for Mother's Day which is Sunday, 12th May this year.

Paris Eiffel Tower Pillow/Cushion $15 each (Global Collection). I saw this on a lounge just past the perfume sales table's and as you know I'm obsessed with Paris the city, the Eiffel Tower and other iconic places in Paris and I adore France, my room is slowly changing from Pink to Paris themed, some Paris item's you can find are tacky so I only have 3 thing's with a Paris theme in my room and I think it sit's on my bed nicely with Oscar the Owl.

My room is still not 100% done and I don't think it'll ever be completely happy with it as I'm renting and none of the furniture is mine and I don't want to spend money on furniture I like when I have what I need - if that also makes sense.  With the amount of knick-knack thing's, make-up etc. new HD tv and Stereo I've bought since I moved into my flat in August I'm going to need a semi-trailer to move my stuff to the next flat so I'm not ready to buy my own furniture. If you like this, you can also buy it online here (within NZ).

Also in The Warehouse I found another flavour of the Maybelline Baby Lips in Baby Pink.

I think as it's similar to Pink Glow and they may've been released around the same time but perhaps it was out of stock when I bought Pink Glow so it's probably not new but it's the first time I've seen this particular one so I decided to buy it to add to my Baby Lips collection (which until I saw it, I didn't realise I was now collecting these) $4.29 each (4g).

Colgate Optic White. I'd actually heard about this product in a Monthly Favourites video by a US beauty guru some time ago on YouTube (I can't remember who it was) so I've been waiting for this to be released in NZ.

I don't know how well it'll whiten my teeth because I have crown which was added when I was 21 and I've never seen the need to replace it, but I guess I might have to if this toothpaste super whiten's my teeth but it doesn't work on the crown.

I'm keen to try this and I'll review it once I've had a couple of week's using it. I also like and have used the Colgate Max White Toothpaste so I'm hoping the Optic White is a bobby dazzler! $10.99 each (160g) and I bought mine at New World. It say's on the box: brush twice a day. It has the Whitening Ingredient that Dentists use and 3 shades whiter teeth (after 4 week's use), individual result's may vary!

and finally, I picked this up about 2 or 3 week's ago and I haven't read it and haven't hauled it either so I thought I'd include it today. I don't buy this every month but I do love this magazine, which is the Australian version of InStyle, the only reason I stopped buying it regularly is because it comes out later here than in Australia (1-3 week's release difference) and it's $9.20 per issue. I know under $10 isn't much for a printed magazine these day's but that's $110 for 12 issues per year which I could be spending on something else or a few something else's (if you get what I'm trying to say) and also because I see the Subscribe page and want to join because the magazine work's out cheaper per issue and they have a cool subscription gift - when you first join they send you a present but that's only available in Australia! The International Shipping for this magazine is expensive so if I'm in The Warehouse and want a magazine then I'll pick it up but I don't religiously buy it like I've done in the past for the reason's I've mentioned but it is my fave Australian mag along with Cleo (Australia) which unfortunately isn't available in NZ because there's a Cleo NZ issue.

 Sofia Vergara is on the cover and it took me a while to recognise her, this is the April 2013 issue. I saw today at The Warehouse that the May issue is out but I didn't buy it as I haven't even read this issue yet and the May issue was partly obscured so I wasn't drawn in by the cover picture or text.

I did manage to remember to pickup one box of 12 coffee pod's for my machine, but I forgot to check out slipper's because I was side-tracked with joy about the Victoria's Secret and the Pillow, so I'll have to shop for some slipper's tomorrow afternoon after work, or on Saturday.