There seems to have been a few rather exciting bits and bobs making their way into my letterbox lately. It'd only be polite to share them with you all, right? There's a bit of variety here, from high-end to the more affordable pieces. There's even a mask that I love and am fast becoming obsessed with. Here's what's made its way into the beauty stash...

Benefit Dew the Hoola*-Benefit's Hoola Bronzer is a cult favourite for a reason. The matte bronzer seems to flatter a wide range of skin tones and it's a staple in many a girl's makeup bag. Dew the Hoola is a liquid bronzer designed to be applied under, or on top of makeup to add a hint of warmth and subtle glow to the complexion. I apply this after my primer and before foundation. It adds the subtlest of tints, no Oompa-Loompa vibes in sight.

Beauty Blender-I finally caved and bought a Beauty Blender. It's only been something I've deliberated for the last year or two but it's happened and I am hooked. I wanted to get the nude one, mainly because I thought it'd mask the foundation and concealer stains a bit better than some of the more brighter colours. I'm sure you all know how a Beauty Blender works by now so I'll skip the description. Compared to other sponges, this feels a lot softer and bouncier. It's hard to explain but it makes such a difference to blending in products like concealer and foundation. I have only used this once but I can see it becoming a firm favourite.

Benefit Hoola Zero Tanlines*-There's also a body bronzer in the expanded Hoola lineup. It comes with a twist-off sponge applicator that you apply the product to and then blend in circular motions. It sounds intriguing, and products like this do tend to intimidate my paler self but I have seen positive reviews from porcelain babes online so I have high hopes. This tanner novice will keep you posted...

Australis Banana Powder-These yellow-hued powders seem to either only come in contour palettes, or as a loose powder, the latter which I'm not a huge fan of. So when I saw Australis, one of my favourite budget brands had bought out a single powder version I had to grab it. Again, I have only used this once-to be fair it arrived a day prior to me writing this. I'm a bit undecided about this one, the powder's a bit too thick for my liking and I felt like it settled under my eyes a bit. This could be because I've been forgetful with the eye cream lately though so I'll keep playing around with it. 

Ardell Glamour Lashes & Demi Lashes*-In an attempt to push myself out of my narrow beauty comfort zone, I was sent some Ardell lashes. I think lashes are a thing a lot of us avoid because they are fiddly and require practice+patience. I have worn some Ardell lashes before though and found them really comfortable to wear. If I have an eyelash win, you'll spy it on the 'gram. 

NYX Intense Butter Gloss in Napolean-This was totally an Estee Lalonde inspired buy after watching her March Favourites video. I'll be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the original Butter Glosses but I thought I'd give the revamped ones a shot. This colour reminds me a lot of Impassioned lipstick x MAC, it's a vibrant, coral pink. This gloss feels a lot less tackier than some, which is a major plus and I love this colour.

Oasis Beauty Fruit Smoothie Exfoliating Face Mask*-Correct me if I'm wrong but exfoliating face masks don't seem to be a common thing so naturally when this one turned up I was very curious. The fact the name also contains the words fruit and smoothie further enticed me. What we have here is a mask combined with a scrub. You apply this like you would any face mask and then dampen your hands to work the scrub in. It smells amazing and it works wonders, especially on uneven skin and somewhat angry, blemish prone skin. It's organic, and all-natural, the microbeads are actually jojoba ones. This mask is a new staple in my routine and it's one of those products I look forward to using each week. I'm not sure if Oasis Beauty are available outside New Zealand but kiwis, you should definitely check them out.

-What beauty products have you been trying lately?

*PR Sample

It's no secret that I'm rather fond of eyeshadow. Creams, powders, glitters-I love it all. A couple of weeks back I adapted the blush tag to suit eyeshadow and here's the finished product. The editing's a little choppy in places and I forgot to mention the questions a few times, thank goodness for the handy text tool in iMovie. A few YouTubers have been tagged too so stayed tuned until the end to see who I want to do this next. My next video will probably be my October Favourites but there'll be a lot more activity on my channel next month. October is packed to the brim with assignments and exam revision so I just don't have time to blog, film and do Uni+everything else all at once. 

Anyway, the video is here for your viewing pleasure along with links to the products I mentioned. Enjoy! x

Products Mentioned:

Mac #217

L'Oreal Infallible in Amber Rush

By Terry Ombre Blackstars

Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in Iced Mocha

Marc Jacobs Twinkle Pop Eye Stick

Mac Pro Longwear Paint Pot

Stila Magnificent Metals Foil Eyeshadow

Urban Decay Naked 2 Basics Palette

It's February favourites time! This month I gave my makeup bag a good old reshuffle and even did a bit of a cull in the packaging, perfume and lip product departments. In fact, every month from here on in I've decided to shuffle products around a lot more-variety is the spice of life after all! Anyway, here's what I've been loving during February..

NYX Powder Blush, pictured are Mocha, Summer Peach and Taupe-These blushers are great quality given how inexpensive they are. They're pigmented, long-wearing and such flattering shades. All of these haven't left my makeup bag this month-Summer Peach is my current favourite and Taupe is great for contouring if you've got a fairer complexion.

Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara-Mascaras don't tend to smudge on my lashes but during the day mascara on my bottom lashes tends to which is frustrating if like me you don't carry mascara around with you. Bottom Lash will solve your problems. It has a tiny mascara wand, perfect for getting in close to the root of your lower lashes. It stays put and there's no black spots under my eyes by the end of the day. 

Bobbi Brown Hydrating Eye Cream*-I love this eye cream from Bobbi Brown. It has a lightweight, gel-like formula but it is still incredibly creamy so you know it's going to be hydrating. I'm prone to getting dark circles, more so if I've not been sleeping. Using this nightly makes those much less obvious. You can also wear this underneath makeup as well because it is so lightweight. Love.

So it's that time of the month again! I've been putting the above American beauty products that Hannah so kindly sent me to the test. It's been so much fun trialling all these products and I have to say NYX in particular has taken me by surprise. Their blushers are brilliant. Stay tuned for the final installment of these posts next month, and if you missed part one you can catch up here. 

Too Faced Shadow Insurance Primer, sample size-I'm pretty loyal to the Nars eye primer so when I spied this Too Faced primer in my package I was interested to see how it compared. I've already mentioned this primer here so you can read up on it. If you have drier eyelids you'll like this primer as it is incredibly creamy to apply. I did like this primer and found it really enhanced the colours of my eyeshadows. Unfortunately though my eyeshadows did crease a bit when using this underneath so that was a bit disappointing.

NYX Powder Blush in Mocha and Summer Peach-Along with their lip products, NYX are known for their great blushers. Mocha is a matte pink, pictured on the right. It looks a lot more red in the pan than how it does once applied. Summer Peach is more of a peachy pink shot through with flecks of gold glitter. It's similar to Orgasm by Nars but the shimmer is a lot more subtle. These blushers deposit a fairly light wash of colour so I think it'd be hard to overdo it with these. Whether you apply these lightly or build the colour up though they look stunning.

If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen the amazing parcel I got from one of my blogging friends Hannah last month. She knows I love beauty so she sent over a ton of products for me. I decided to split them all up, trial everything for a month and then write about them all over the next three months. If you're in New Zealand some of these things may be harder to track down but there are links so you can see where everything is from.

Fresh Sugar Lip Polish-Lip scrubs are designed to remove the dry flaky patches from your lips to make them smoother and softer. This scrub has a lemon and brown sugar scent to it. Unlike traditional scrubs this has more of a gel-like feel to it and the texture isn't chunky pieces of sugar as such. I rub this in to my lips, pat the excess off with a facecloth and then apply a lip balm. You will be left with super smooth, hydrated lips by the next day so this is a great one to use if you're wanting to wear a particularly matte lip product out.

NYX Butter Gloss in Merengue-When we were in Melbourne last November I found the NYX counter in Target. They must have just had a sale though because practically every product was sold out. These butter glosses receive a lot of love online and they totally deserve it. These are super creamy and have a cake frosting scent to them. These are not sticky or tacky in any way so if you find yourself having hair meets gloss moments then you will like these. I have the shade Merengue which is described as a lilac pink. I didn't think this kind of colour was going to suit me but it does at the moment, thanks Summer skintone(!). 

Burt's Bees Refreshing Lip Balm, Grapefruit Scented-I'm not sure if I have ever declared my love for all things grapefruit scented on the blog before but Hannah knew I love it and sent me this lip balm. We can get Burt's Bees in New Zealand but I don't think I have seen this particular balm before. Anyway, aside from the fact that I love the scent, this lip balm goes perfectly with the lip scrub as well. My lips always feel fantastic after using this and a scrub together.