Deluxe Samples, Mecca Maxima Beauty Loop, & Newbies

Life is short, Buy the shoes!!! (Get this rose gold & white polka dot quote card from Kikki K here)

Happy Sunday!

Incidentally, it's also Mother's Day! In my adventures purchasing a few of my favourite beauty products for my Mum, I managed to score a few freebie deluxe samples from Revlon and Mecca Maxima.

I'll get into the samples in a sec! But first, pictured above are a few new acquisitions:

Essie Buy Me A Cameo - a metallic nude shade that I've been eyeing for a while;

NARS Audacious Lipstick Natalie - you all already know how much I fell in love with Grace, so this was on my hit list this week! Beautiful rosy pink, and super pigmented;

Colette Off Duty Blogger clutch - gonna use this for travelling, probably put my vlogging camera & Macbook charger etc. in there :)

REVLON BEAUTY BAG

I believe it was a AU$39.95 spend to receive the beauty bag at Myer with 5 full sized samples.

I haven't included the free eyeshadow quad & nail polish in the photo, as I gave them to my Mum along with the makeup bag it all came in!

I did purchase a creme lipstick in Pink Velvet (one of my staples which I gifted to Mumma Bear also), and my daily Colorstay pressed powder, so I was well over the minimum to receive the beauty bag.

I kept the Photoready Skinlights Face Illuminator, Ultra HD Lipstick 830 HD Rose, and Colorstay Brow Fantasy crayon/gel duo in Brunette. Will post an update on how these products go in weeks to come - I already love the Lipstick shade, but it does have a scent to it which I don't know if I love or hate yet! Ha!

You can shop Revlon at Myer here! Hurry in to get your freebie beauty bag, I'm not for sure when the promotion ends.

MECCA MAXMIA BEAUTY LOOP SAMPLE BOX

This is what I love about member rewards at beauty and cosmetics stores! 

I've not tried any of these products before, but super excited to crack them open:

NARS Light Optimising Primer

Ren Micro Polish Cleanser

Too Faced Shadow Insurance

Terry Hyaluronic Hydra Powder 

The last one is especially intriguing! Hyaluronic acid finishing powder for brushing over night cream or over makeup. Will for sure be updating you guys on that one.

Head on over to Mecca Maxima and join the Beauty Loop - There are 4 sample boxes per year, and a ton of other cool perks.

Last but not least, a sneaky purchase from Forever New, how cool is this! The glitter moves all around - and we know how much I love my sparkles. 

Countess Sophia Fits iPhone 6, and you can find it here.

Let me know if you see any cool promos happening at the moment that I should be jumping on, or any stores doing awesome loyalty perks! 

And as always, I'll be sharing any I see with you guys on here :)

J x

Mini Shopping Haul and Elf Cosmetics Arrives At Kmart!

Firstly, can I just say how irritating iPhone's have become since the iOS 7?

I am included in the pool of people with a long and growing list of problems ever since the update. No sound from the speaker, woke up one morning with all my contacts deleted, and the latest - WiFi no longer functions on my iPhone 4S. If you're having these problems too, let me know!

This all leads me to the fact that yesterday, I was trying to conserve as much Optus data as I could, as without WiFi I am going through my data FAST. 

In my new-found state of pure iPhone data stingey-ness, I was apprehensively about to turn off my Cellular Data usage. No internet for a week. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email, Safari, Uno With Friends.... Scary. But absolutely needed if I didn't want to have a massive phone bill (This dramatic tragedy was almost going to be made into a blog post, but it didn't eventuate. See why below).

Finger on the Off toggle button, I saw that my sister mentioned me in an Instagram post. Just this once, I thought. I'll switch the internet off straight after, I told myself.  (**Side Note** no one will be shocked to know that this lasted a mere ONE day. It is amazing how much we rely on the internet on our phones! I couldn't believe it how weird it felt. Optus gave me a $10 1gb top-up of data for two weeks. Insert sigh of relief. Resumed use of Cellular Data immediately, and tragedy over).

The Instagram picture was a Kmart somewhere in Australia which stocked Elf Cosmetics! I had no idea that Elf was coming into Kmart. I think it was briefly at Target (same as in the US), but they stopped stocking it in Australia. Either way I'm glad it's back.

A lot of the beauty community are aware of Elf, but us Aussies have trouble getting a hold of it except online or overseas. In no way is Elf a high end brand, but from what I have seen and heard, it is great value and pretty good quality for the price.

V, The sister mentioned above, brought back an Elf eyeliner & lipgloss from the US a few months ago for me. I plan to do a US Make-Up Review in a new blog post soon, so keep your eyes peeled (Elf and Urban Decay). I'd say I was pretty happy with both products, not my absolute favourites, but if you're after some decent stuff at an affordable price, Elf is great. Really excited to get my hands on the products and review them!

Elf shelves empty at Kmart

Obviously I had to go and see this for myself, so I went to my local Kmart. Sadly, no stock as of yet, but the shelves were ready to be stocked and had the Elf labels everywhere. I went and asked an employee and she said that it would probably all be shelved by the weekend. My store is in QLD so you may want to check with your local Kmart and find out when/if you will get stock.

Anyway, with no Elf products in hand, I went out and searched for a few things I needed.

Here's my mini haul from today, I managed to get a couple of bargains!

Picked up this cute floral print playsuit / jumpsuit from Myer. I had a $20.00 voucher from Myer One rewards, plus it was reduced to $45.00. Then it was a further 30% off already reduced prices!!! 

I will be going away to Hervey Bay in two weeks for a belated Valentines getaway. So I thought this would go nicely with the location, lazy beach days and casual poolside relaxation.

Store: Myer

Original Price: $80.00

Total Paid: $11.50

Brand: Quirky Circus

IN LOVE with these coral pink sunglasses! Have been looking around for an affordable pair for a few months now. I already have two pairs of standard sunnies, so I didn't want to overspend with these ones, just love the idea of something bright in the Summer and Spring, and I can't go past pink.

These were on sale 50% off. Love me a bargain! Luckily they're also a category 3 lens protection, so definitely bringing these on my mini holiday for beach/poolside eye protection ;)

Store: City Beach

Original Price: $20.00

Total Paid: $10.00

Brand: Karyn In LA

The pens!! Ooooh the pens. I want to be a bit more organised with things at the moment, so I'm using my daily planner a lot more. I wanted a practical pen that was able to do what it needs to do, but something cute and not boring!

Enter White Rabbit Pen and Pencil Pen. 

Store/Brand: Typo

White Rabbit Pen: $3.95

Pencil Pen: $1.95

Pencil Pen is shaped (yep you guessed it) like a pencil, but inside it is a pearly/shimmery pink pen.

White Rabbit Pen's ears can both be pushed down, revealing either a black or blue pen. I love how adorable this is, but I also love that it is a dual colour pen that I can switch between when writing.

Uncapped and Pushed into action!

So that is it for today, I managed to pick up some really good items. Nothing too crazy but all were needed :)

Stay tuned for a blog post from my Hervey Bay Getaway Weekend, the US Make-Up review and many more things to come!

J xx