Bourjois Gift with Purchase

Three words that are kryptonite to someone on a spending ban: gift with purchase. Especially when the conditions are reasonably relaxed (spend $19, score three full-sized products). I've seen the current Bourjois promotion at Priceline featured on a couple of Aussie blogs (see Kat and Mishelle), and I was resigned to the fact I'd most likely make my own post about it. Sure enough, after coming across a Priceline that stocks Bourjois (my local one doesn't), I found myself casually disregarding my supposed spending ban with minimal to no resistance.

What's inside a gold makeup bag:

• Délice de Soleil Bronzing Powder SPF 15 in 14 
• Effet 3D Gloss in 03 Brun rosé academic 
• So Laque! Ultra Shine nail polish in 27 Beige Glamour

To get the GWP, I briefly contemplated picking up another blush pot in Cendre de Rose Brune, but settled on the Healthy Balance Unifying Powder in 52 Vanille. I've been using the Australis pressed powder in Deep Natural but I'm not fully convinced of its mattifying properties. It only tones down initial shininess but doesn't do much in terms of oil control for the rest of the day. I also think it's perhaps a touch too dark and a little heavy (not light/translucent/undetectable enough for my liking). I'm hoping this Bourjois powder will fare better. I use and love Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum, so I'm already partial to the matching powder. I also like the compact shape and mirror which makes it convenient to carry around in your makeup bag for touch ups.

The Délice de Soleil bronzer comes in two shades (12 and 14). The included one is the darker shade, which is described as being for olive/tanned skin. It contains a mirror that can pivot 360 degrees, though I'm not sure why you'd need the mirror to face away from the powder itself. The nifty thing is that it can also lie perfectly flat, so you can transform the compact into a portable mirror (with the powder inside) if so inclined.

I've had my eye on Bourjois bronzers for a while (particularly the one that looks and smells like a chocolate block), so this gift with purchase seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally get my hands on one. The only issue is that the shade is much too dark. The only way I could use it is if I dabbed some product onto my wrist/hand first before putting it on my face, then blended everything out with my foundation brush to soften the colour. That seems like an awful lot of effort when I could just use my Stila bronzer (or even Benefit Hoola) straight from the pan.

I'm not a lip gloss girl, but the Effet 3D gloss is good quality and a very wearable neutral colour. The shade 03 Brun rosé academic is a medium brownish pink with faint silver shimmer. It's a touch too dark for my liking, though the colour is very similar to the natural pigmentation of my lips. It feels plumping and slightly heavy on the lips, a sensation common to lip glosses which puts me off wearing them. The applicator is a small floppy brush that is loaded with product each time you use it.

The nail polish is almost like the matching colour of the lip gloss. A medium to dark brownish rose. I can't say this is my favourite colour, but it's a safe, office appropriate shade with a really nice formula (very reminiscent of the Rimmel 60 Seconds range). It was opaque in one coat, but I did two here. The polish glided on and dried very quickly. However, I find that I don't wear reds or neutrals with hints of red very often, mainly because those shades really accentuate the natural redness in my hands/cuticles.

The lip gloss and nail polish aren't really my thing, and the bronzer is too dark for me, but I'm such a fan of Bourjois products that this gift with purchase still seemed like a good deal. I'll probably give away the other two products and keep the bronzer. If you are thinking of already buying something from the Bourjois range at full price, then this deal would be a pleasant bonus. But I don't think that it's such an amazing offer that it's worth rushing out to the shops to take advantage of (unlike the time Target were selling Bourjois blush pots for under $5).

Paint It Glitter

Spotted at Terry White Chemist — new Ulta3 glitter polishes. For a comprehensive review of all the polishes in the collection, please head over to the More Nail Polish blog. I managed to limit myself to three, though at $2 a pop, I could've easily taken home all six. The only one that I wasn't particularly keen on was Pot of Gold, as it looked much too yellow. These polishes consist of differently sized hex glitter in a clear base. They're fairly densely packed to give that chunky, three dimensional glitter effect. I ended up with New Years Eve (blue glitter), Twinkle Toes (silver glitter) and Over the Rainbow (red, pink, blue and gold glitter).

l-r: Twinkle Toes, New Years Eve, Over the Rainbow

Some negatives. These polishes smell overpoweringly foul. I suggest painting your nails outside as a legitimate health safeguard. Not that nail polishes are known for smelling pleasant, but these are putrid on a whole new level. They emit a strong chemical smell, like industrial glue. They also take an age to dry. I did four coats here plus a top coat, though I could've stopped at two. It's been over an hour, and they're still in a fragile state.

But at the end of the day, these are $2 nail polishes, and they're pretty fantastic for the price. Twinkle Toes looks like a good substitute for Essie Set in Stones. New Years Eve fills the blue glitter hole in my collection, from the absence of glitters like OPI Absolutely Alice or Last Friday Night. And Over the Rainbow ... no justification required. There's plenty of scope to get creative with what base polishes to pair these glitters with, should they be used as a top coat. Just don't forget to hold your breath when you're using them.

Not Another Pink

I have a weakness, and it's pink lipstick. When selecting which MAC lipstick shades to buy, I mainly wanted everyday colours that were easy to wear and not too heavy. I had already settled on Shy Girl for a more peachy nude, but I couldn't resist a pink option as well. Enter MAC Creme Cup. It was a toss up between Creme Cup and Hue, but Hue looked a little too pale and beige on my lips.

Creme Cup is a light to medium, slightly blue-based milky pink. There's still a bit of rosiness and warmth to it, and thankfully it's not as purple on my lips as my other cool pinks. I find it creamier and more comfortable on the lips than Shy Girl, which feels more matte and drying. Creme Cup has often been compared to Angel, the shade made famous by Kim Kardashian. From swatches online, it seems Creme Cup is a touch brighter and sheerer than Angel, which looks more cool-toned and pigmented. Though the two are very similar, being the pink lipstick tragic I am, I'm still curious about Angel, especially since you can only really gauge what a lipstick looks like by factoring in the natural pigmentation of your lips and your overall colouring.

l-r: MAC Creme Cup, Revlon Primrose, Revlon Strawberry Shortcake, Revlon Pink Pout, Australis Jive

Surprise, surprise. I have quite a few shades close to Creme Cup. The four other lipsticks are very similar (they're all about the same darkness of pink), with only subtle differences. Revlon Matte lipstick in Pink Pout looks to be the closest in colour, but it's drier, more pigmented and a touch purplish. Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick in Primrose is almost a dupe of Pink Pout, but cooler, a touch darker, and a bit more mauve still on the lips. Revlon Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake, like the Cremesheen formula of Creme Cup, is more sheer and moisturising than a straight up lipstick, but it's a brighter pink and less pastel. Australis Colour Inject Mineral lipstick in Jive is a darker, more muted rosy pink, whereas Creme Cup is lighter and warmer.

While I don't find myself reaching for Creme Cup that often, I like that it's a wearable baby pink that doesn't pull too purple on me (a perennial issue for these blue-based pink lipsticks I keep buying and being disappointed with). Despite how many pink lipsticks I own, I don't have anything exactly like Creme Cup. I like the warmth and milky quality that it has, while not being too pale, bright, dark or mauve.

A Touch of Sun

I've never been particularly into bronzer, but when I saw the Stila Sun SPF 15 Bronzing Powder on sale for $9.50 on StrawberryNet, I thought it was as good as free. Not the most logical deduction, but I fancied the thought of adding a Stila product to my already bloated makeup collection for such a low price. Of course, I had some concerns about why it was on sale in the first place. I can't help thinking it's ancient stock that they really needed to move. It's back its usual price now, which I find somewhat gratifying. Helps to convince myself I genuinely nabbed a bargain (even though if it weren't on sale, I wouldn't have looked twice at it).

l-r: NYX Taupe, Stila Shade 01, Benefit Hoola

Before purchasing, I had a look at reviews on MakeupAlley. I didn't know whether to get Shade 01 or Shade 02. In the end, I settled for the lighter shade, as it seemed to be the safer and more obvious option for my skin tone. From reading some comments online, it seems like Stila at some point reformulated the bronzing powder, so the original (and now discontinued) Shade 01 is a different colour to the new Shade 1. Browsing the Stila website, I also noticed the ingredients are different to that listed on the box I received, in part due to the lack of SPF in the new one. It's all a bit confusing.

Some initial comments about the packaging — when I first opened it up, the pan was completely loose as it had separated from the base of the compact. The glue had dried up. My suspicions about it being a really old product were more or less confirmed at that point. I ended up using some sticky tape to adhere the pan to the compact. Not the most effective method, but it did the trick.

The powder itself is distinctly orange. It's nicely but not overly pigmented, soft in texture and easy to blend. I like that it's not chalky or powdery. I can see very faint shimmer particles in the pan, but applied to the skin, it's more or less matte. However, it doesn't quite work as a contouring bronzer because it's too orange. Shade 01 could almost pass for a soft apricot/tangerine blush. I find it works best with a light hand, otherwise at some point, it will appear overly orange and unnatural. Applied to the parts of the face where the sun naturally hits, Stila Sun Bronzing Powder does give a golden, lightly bronzed touch to the skin. I'm looking forward to getting decent wear out of it this coming summer.