Monday, December 22, 2014

Tanda Modern - Review

I have a lovely candle review for you guys today.
About a month ago while I was sipping on my wine and flicking through my Twitter feed I came across a tweet from Tanda Modern (@tandamodern) about looking for a blogger to review some of their candles.

So  like the opportunist and candle lover that I am I quickly swallowed my wine, opened up my email and sent off a quick email before settling back onto the couch and continuing with my night.
I was lucky enough to be chosen to review a few products and the review I have for you today is the medium candle in lavender, cucumber and sage.*

I told Alyson of Tanda Modern to send me any fragrances. 95% of the time when I buy a new candle it will be a bakery or sweet fruity fragrance and while I love those sort of scents I was in the mood to try out something different.

And I'm so glad I did!
I'm not someone who will generally pick a herb fragrance (unless it's mint because I'm addicted to that stuff!) but this is one that will be going on the repurchase list.
While the fragrance is strong and fills the room, it isn't overpowering. The one concern I had with this candle was possibly being only able to smell one scent and that isn't an issue. You are able to smell each scent and the combination of scents is a pleasant one.

Update on the smell - I was burning another candle (we won't discuss that one because it was horrible) and I could smell this candle over the other one. It's one strong candle!

The scent throw is amazing and fills my room, with the wax pooling nicely and evenly as it burns.
Overall I'm quite impressed with this candle.

Tanda Modern candles are based in Melbourne, Australia.

All candles are vegan, kosher and animal friendly and made with soy wax and use a cedar wood wick.

Tanda has a range of 11 fragrances along with special seasonal collections. Along with candles, you can also purchase melts, reed diffusers and a bunch of different votive holders.

The medium candle burns for approximately 50 hours and is only $30.

If you wish to purchase a small candle the burn time is 30 hours and $20 with the large candle being $40 and having an amazing burn time of 90 hours!



Or if you prefer something smaller/prefer something without a flame the melts come in a pack of 6 with 10 hours burn time a melt and only $10.

*While these items were sent to me all opinions are mine and mine alone.

Mecca Maxima and Lush haul.

The day has come where Perth finally has a Mecca Maxima! I feel like waiting three weeks after the grand opening was a good time to go. It wasn't packed like it would have been opening day but still a decent amount of people.

Now onto the haul. Letting you all know now my Mecca haul isn't a big one but wih Christmas less than two weeks away and having told my sisters to get me things from there I couldn't go too crazy.
So after browsing the entire store three times (yes, three times) I walked out with three products and a free sample.

Soap & Glory Oat, Sugar and Shea Butter Scrub
Like any product that is going to be applied to my skin I has to smell it to make sure it would smell good. So I twisted off the pink lol and gave the scrub a good sniff.
If you like sweet, yummy smelling things and you haven't smelt this scrub already then you need to march yourself down to your nearest Mecca Maxima or Kit and give this scrub a smell. This scrub could very well become my all time favourite scrub because for $16 and 300ml of yummy goodness it is a bargain. And for those of you who don't scrub regularly or alternate between a few different scrubs this scrub will last you a good two years.
Side note, the scrub is not edible. Yes, I did have to check that because yes, it does smell that good.

Nars Audacious lipstick in Bette
Next up is the one thing I really wanted to get. Nars Audacious lipstick in the shade Bette. I was browsing instagram and came across a photo of Bette. The red lip addict in me told me that I wanted, no, needed this lipstick. That it will complete my life. And then my friend told me it was Christmas in a lipstick so of course into my basket it went.

Soap & Glory Hand Maid antibacterial hand gel
Last but not least for $5 I picked up the Soap & Glory Hand Maid antibacterial hand gel. I use a lot of this stuff for work but I can't stand the chemical smell of most of them. This one however has a pleasant fruity, florally scent.

Too Faced Primed and Poreless primer
And as I paid and bonded over the sales girl, who may just become my new BFF because she also thinks Bette is the most perfect red, she handed me a sample of the Too Faced Primed and Poreless primer. Have any of you guys tried it out yet? I'm yet to hear anything about it.

A I walked downstairs clutching my little gold bag of goodness and talking to my friend I caught a whiff of my all time favourite smell.
Lush.
My fellow Lush addicts know what I mean. It's that combination of Lush products that you can smell before you can even see the store. So of course I went in there and spent more money!

Golden Wonder bath bomb $7.50
From the outside this bath bomb looks like it will fill your bath with gold and glitter and I was in no rush to get it. And then Dani over at @kaboomcosmetics posted a photo on her Instagram and it's the prettiest blue in the middle and makes your bath the most gorgeous colour. So thank you Dani for making me need it! Golden Wonder is a Christmas limited edition bath bomb and smells Le sweet orange and lime.

Space Girl bath bomb $5.95
Space Girl is fizzy, purple and contains popping candy to go with its sweet black currant scent.

Dragon's Egg bath bomb $5.95
Dragon's Egg is fizzy with a citrus fragrance. I haven't used this one before so I'm keen to try it out.

Butter Ball bath bomb $5.50
Butter Ball is my all time favourites yes it may be small compared to the other bath bombs but it has the perfect combination of vanilla, yang ylang and cocoa butter to make it the perfect one for after a long day at work.

Avobath bath bomb $6.75
Avobath was another repurchase and contains avocado and lemongrass to help you wake up in the morning. 

Melting Marshmallow Moment bath melt $8.50
I don't remember seeing this one before but it contains marshmallow herb and cocoa butter and smells yum!

Ro's Argan body conditioner $7.95 for 45g travel size
Lush needs to stop putting travel size tunes of things at the register. Last time it was Rub, Rub, Rub scrub and this time Ro's Argan body conditioner. It smells like Rose Jam shower gel and contains cocoa butter, shea butter and argon oil.

That's it for today's haul. Now I'm off to smother myself in the breakfast scrub before doing my makeup and wearing Bette to friend Christmas dinner. :)

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Random Beauty Tag.

I was browsing KaBOOM! Cosmetics YouTube the other week and came across a tag video she did.You can check out her video here.
So because I have no desire at this point in time to do video, I have instead decided to do a blog post. :)

1. Is your hair curly or straight?
It's fairly straight after it's just been washed but after a couple of days it goes more wavy. But it does also depend of the weather and how I dry my hair.

2. Do you dye your hair yourself or go to a salon?
Both. My hair is pretty damn thick so it is expensive to get done at a salon but I do like to treat myself a few times a year and will go to the salon then.

3. Do you have the same style everyday or do you change it up?
I'm going with Dani on this one, is it meaning makeup, hair, clothing or all three?
It's more the same during the week because of work with simple makeup and hair up in a bun. Weekends I tend to do a bit more with both as I have more time to think about it.

4. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon for one?
I tend to do it myself. I have ticklish feet so there's no way someone else is doing my pedi. I will just about always do my own mani, I have this weird sense of accomplishment about being able to a good mani myself without having to pay a lot for it.

5. How often do you change your nail polish?
I'd say normally about once a week, normally on a Thursday or Friday before my weekend plans, just because I will always chip it, no matter what.

6. Do you polish your toes in winter or just in summer?
Honestly I very rarely paint my toe nails. If I've painted my toe nails it's normally for a special occassion.

7. How long does it take for you to do your makeup?
Oh gosh.
Before work is about 10 minutes.
During the week if I'm actually doing something is a little bit  closer to 15 minutes.
Weekends/nights out would be closer to 45 minutes.
And this is going to sound so bad but special occassions it would probably be pretty close to an hour, maybe even an hour and a half. (nobody judge me!)

8. Do you do your face or your eyes first?
Probably face 95% of the time, unless I'm actually going to spend the time to do pretty eyeshadow and then I will do my eyes first.

9. Do you collect makeup or only buy what you need?
Collect, most definitely.
I'm pretty that 99% of beauty bloggers will have to agree with me on this one.

10. How often do you wear fake lashes?
I have worn them once and it did not go very well at all.

11. Do you wear a full face of makeup everyday?
 Gosh no, I am too lazy for that.

12. Do you wear makeup when you're home alone or with your family?
Yes, normally though because when I'm home alone I'm trying out new things and practicing different techniques.

13. Do you leave the house without makeup?
Rarely, I tend to at least always apply foundation or a BB cream and concealer where it's needed.

14. How many high end products do you have?
Not that many actually, and it's probably a good thing.

15. Is your OOTD planned at night or no?
Kind of, I tend to plan part of the outfit the night before and then do the rest when I'm getting ready.

16. How often do you change your handbag?
I would say maybe every 3 or so months. I carry so much crap around and emptying that all the time would annoy the crap out of me.

17. What is your wakeup time and go to bed time?
I do night shift two days a week so sleep time is about 1:30am with a wake up at 7am when my shift is over. Rest of the time it would be about 1am and get up at 10am.

18. Do you list products that you want from watching someone else's videos?
All the time, it's the best way to find out about new products.