Win: Jurlique Mothers Day Sets

My mum has been amazing and without her, I wouldn't be able to run my life as smoothly, helping me out with the boring but important daily tasks. And over the years, we have evolved from the traditional "mother-daughter" relationship to become more like great girlfriends. We enjoy each others' company and love going shopping together!

So with Mothers Day only a few short weeks away, I'm faced with coming up with ideas on what to do or buy for her to show my gratitude and thanks for all of her love and support.

Good thing brands out there make it easier by providing some gifting ideas.

Jurlique has this year released 4 different boxed Mother's Day sets featuring their best selling products to pamper mums around the country .

Jurlique In Full Bloom set  - RRP A$34 (valued at A$39)

This set showcases Jurlique's iconic rose products and suits those on a tight budget. Includes Rose Balancing Mist 30ml and Rose Love Balm 15ml which will save and soften those chapped lips and skin.

Jurlique All About Rose set - RRP A$89 (valued at A$124)

Mum will be smelling all rosey with the Rose Shower Gel 300ml, Rose Balancing Mist 100ml and Rose Handcream 125ml.

Jurlique Hand Picked set  - RRP A$45 (value at A$56)

A duo of best selling Rose and Lavender hand creams 40ml  to keep mum's hands looking smooth, hydrated and softly scented.

Pick of the Bunch set - RRP A$75 (valued at A$96)

Containing the top 2 best sellers, mum's will be chuffed when she receives this to keep her complexion radiant and fresh. Herbal Recovery Gel 30ml and Rose Balancing Mist 30ml.

Win these gorgeous sets

To celebrate and express our gratitude to all the tireless mothers who unconditionally love and support us every day, Jurlique has kindly sponsored a giveaway to show our token of appreciation to our beautiful mothers (or yourselves if you are a mum) on her special day.


That's right, you can win mum any one of these four sets.

To enter you must:

1. Follow Jurlique on Twitter and,
2. Follow me on Twitter and tweet "I'm entering @lilpil99 giveaway to win 1 of 4 gorgeous @JurliqueAust Mothers Day set: http://bit.ly/I52p5U". You may tweet this once a day for extra entries.
3. Those with no twitter accounts or want extra entries, leave a comment below and tell me how you plan to pamper your mum this Mothers day.
4. For another entry, comment on Things I Love's Facebook wall telling me you want to win a Jurlique Mothers Day set. 

Giveaway terms 

• This competition is open from 24th April until midnight 4th May AEST Australian time and is open to readers with an Australian postal address. 
• There will be 4 winning entries.Only one prize will be awarded to each winner.Winners will be chosen randomly by a random generator and prizes awarded in order of entries drawn. 
• The prize pool contains a Hand Picked set, In Full Bloom set, All About Rose set and Pick of the Bunch set. Total prize pool = A$243. 
• Winners will be announced 5th May. The winners will have 24 hours to get in touch with me with their postal address to ensure prompt delivery of the prize in time for Mothers Day. 
• If winners do not get in touch within the prescribed time, their prize will be forfeited and a new winner will be redrawn. 

Good Luck with your entries everyone!

How will you be treating your mum on her special day?

Jurlique Mothers Day boxed sets are available at Myer, David Jones and Jurlique boutiques now.

Lancome's Rouge in Love: 159B Rouge in Love

The year's greatest lipstick launch to-date would undoubtedly have to be Lancome's Rouge in Love. Launched last month, the lip colour boasts 6 hours of perfect wear with high-intensity colour with a feather-light feel.

The ad campaign is fronted by one of my favourite girls Emma Watson who's now all grown up from her Hermione Granger & Harry Potter days.

The signature shade of the new collection is shade 159B Rouge in Love which is what Emma wears in the advertising campaign. And let me tell you I am indeed in love with this rouge the moment it touched my lips.

159B Rouge in Love is a bright ruby shade on my lips and although it is not as deep on my lips as it appears for Emma, it is fresh, vibrant and equally sexy and appealing.

The first thing I noticed is that it feels like a balm and even has the shine of a one but the pigmentation is intense and the lightest signature lancome scent of the rose.
I used a brush to apply in the below pictures but it only takes a few swipes and my lips were bursting with colour.

From a wearability perspective, it has a medium and easily buildable to opaque coverage. And because it feels so moisturising, I forget that I'm wearing lipstick when I have this on - it certainly is very suitable for the dry weather or even the office environment where air conditioning and heating is cranked up high all the time.

Because of its hydrating nature and shine factor, it also does a great job of smoothing lip wrinkles and lines and gives the illusion of luscious full lips. 

The colour stays on for hours as well before drinking and food obviously wears it down quicker than normal. I did not test for the full six hours as I cannot go a few hours without snacking on some food or drinking from a glass.

If you are looking at swatches of other shades, be sure to head over to Ponikuta's blog where she has swatched 159B Rouge In Love, 377N Midnight Rose, 322M Corail In Love

I'm head over heels with Rouge in Love and know that I'd be collecting a few more shades in the range in the coming months.

Have you tried Rouge in Love yet? What type of lipsticks do you like?

Lancome Rouge in Love is available in 21 shades. RRP A$45 for 4.2ml at Lancome counters in Myer, David Jones and selected pharmacies.

Win: Soft Silky Hair with Silky Colouration

Having colour treated and chemically treated hair, I always have to battle dullness, dryness breakages and the dreaded split-ends on a daily basis.

Thankfully, the hair care and styling products have come a long way to make my daily grooming so much easier, allowing me to have hair that looks healthy, is full of lustre, and shine, I looked like I have just gotten a blow wave from a salon.

Two of my favourite hair care products I've been using on a regular basis the last 2 months are from Silky Colouration.

Silky Colouration is an Italian professional hair care brand that is relatively new to the Australian market and already going to make waves with its amazing products.

Silky Hydrating conditioner – This leave in conditioner can be used on wet or dry hair and I spritz itin between washes on dry hair before styling/brushing to re-hydrate hair, give it softness, and shine. It’s a two phase solution with silk amino acids and hydrolysed proteins to help strengthen hair – something that I need given the damage on my hair and abuse I put it through.

Hydrating Conditioner ingredients

Silky Crystal Serum – this finishing product is not just another hair serum. It gives maximum shine without weighing hair down at all. In fact, this light watery fluid is more effective than Morrocan Oil at taming my fly aways, and giving me gorgeous mane with a mirror shine. I definitely am looking at repurchasing on this bottle when I’m finished with it.

Crystal serum ingredients

Silky Colouration products are available at great hair salons. Visit here for stocklist details.

Win A Luscious Silky Colouration Pack

Do you want to have soft and silky hair and a chance to try out Silky Colouration products? Then you’re in luck as I have 2 great Silky Colourations haircare packages values at A$98 each to give away.

The prize pack consists of

• Silky Nutrix shampoo
• Hydro herb Mask
• Nouvelle Double shot
• Silky Nutrix serum
• Silky Zero crystal serum

 All you need to do is like the Silky Colouration Australian&NZ Facebook page using the Rafflecopter widget below. 

You can get extra entries by liking the Things I Love Facebook page and by tweeting about this giveaway.

And for those of you who don't do Facebook or Twitter, then subscribe to this blog via email and comment in this post that you want to win this great Silky Colouration prize and include your subscribing email address in the comments for validation.

Good luck everyone!

P.S - this give away is  open to Australian and New Zealand residents only as per the promoter's request.

Wonder Water: Bioderma Crealine H2O

When you think of removing makeup, especially heavy eye makeup, you would always think to reach for your makeup remover or oil cleansers to do the task, wouldn’t you?

Well that was my theory until recently when I was introduced to a cleansing water that has consistently on the favourite list of celebrities (Kylie Mingue, Gemma Ward) and makeup-artists alike and can often be seen the back stages of fashion week.

The Bioderma Story:

In 1977, French brand Bioderma was launched by a skin pharmacist to bring bio-dermalogical products to help skin better perform its function. It boasts ingredients in its products that mimics the function of your skin’s own biological systems and creates the best and is recommended by leading dermatologists and pharmacists all over.

Bioderma has now made its way to the Australian shore and currently has 3 lines of products to address the most common skin concerns - oily skin (Sebum), sensitised skin (Crealine) and extra dry/eczema skin (Atoderm).

And last month, I was introduced to Bioderma’s product range and best selling product- their cleansing water that sells a bottle every 8 seconds aound the world!

Here’s a closer look at this wonder water:

•  This is a non-rinse water - so is great for those late nights home when you need to remove makeup but can’t be bothered with washing up. Just a cotton pad soaked to remove the makeup and a another clean pad with the crealine water to pick up any residues and your skin is clean soft and soothe again (I always believe in double cleansing – even if it is the non-rinsing variety!)
• It cleanses the skin of impurities thanks to the power ingredient ‘miclles’ which attracts oil/grease and keeps skin soft and feeling refreshed.
• Has soothing ingredients of cucumber extract to relieve skin of any tightness or discomfort and is alcohol, fragrance and paraben free with the same pH as skin to keep skin balanced.
• Removes all foundations easily and majority of eye makeup, including most waterproof mascaras. The only issue I found it took more effort to remove the Kiss Me Heroine waterproof mascara (my HG mascara) which just does not budge during the day and required longer contact with the wet cotton pad against the eye and few more wipes to remove.
• The most impressive thing for me was its ability to clean up eye liner and pen marks, look below and at my hand and after 2 slow swipe of the cotton pad, the writing has all but disappear. Suitable for sensitive skin as it is super gentle and you after using it to cleanse your face, you can immediately apply your skincare.

Pen marks removed in a few gentle wipes

 Overall, I love the Crealine H20 cleansing water. Having been used to cleansing my face with water most of my life, the no rinse philosophy took some getting used to but I felt it left my skin softer and less dry.
No wonder it’s an international best seller with the impressive statistics of one bottle being sold every 8 seconds!

Simple ingredients

 I’m glad Bioderma has made it into the Australian market to offer us fantastic products that has been enjoyed many in the international shores. Now that it’s here, I cannot wait to try out its other lines, particualary the Sebum line for oily/combination skin.

Crealine H20 250ml RRP A$39.95 - Bioderma products is available from selected Melbourne and Sydney pharmacies and will expand to other states soon. For stocklist details or direct orders you can contact the company enquiry. Their new website will also launch very soon and I'll update with info when available.

This featured product was provided for consideration.

Glossy Box: Lucky Dip March Box

Now that beauty box offerings are no longer a new novelty in the Australian market, to really capture subscriber loyalty, the services need to continually bring out exciting boxes each month with unique offerings.

Last month (I know, a bit late but I figure I may as well post late rather than not), the March GlossyBox arrived in my mail.

The beautifully packaged product had me excited from the get go. Did the contents inside stir me up just as much? Let’s take a look.

Glossy box has this month opted to for some variety and randomness by including 5 of 18 potential items as the contents of the box your receive – talk about luck dip!

Inside my box I had:

• Proactiv cleansing bar (150g full size) - 1% salicylic acid soap-free bar to help keep the blemishes at bay
• Dr. Hauschka cleansing cream (10g sample size) – I’ve previously used this cleanser and it delivers a foaming goodness and leaves skin soft and supple.
• Avene thermal spring water spray (50ml sample size) perfect size for the handbag actually.
• KMS FreeShape hot flex spray (30ml sample size) – although I love this product (reviewed here), I would barely get through a single use with such a small size (I have a lot of hair to get through)!
• Nougat hand cream in Fig & pink Cedar (sample size) - smells lovely and good for taking on holidays where space is precious and you don’t want to lug toiletries back home.

There is also a pink power balance wrist band to encourage you to be active and improve their strength and flexibility. I’m yet to see any of those effects on me.

And as extras, discount cards from Zanui, Dr. Hauschka and Panda Pen were thrown in for online purchases.

Pretty packaging aside, I have to say was a little underwhelmed this month. Although I would, and could see myself using all the products (barring that power balance wristband), there was no wow factor in it for me, no colour makeup to bring a pop into my beauty box life.

These are products I would buy if I was running low on my staples but I want products in my sample that allows me to be more experimental and I want to see things wouldn’t consider or have the opportunity to try – expectations much?

It could also be the fact that I was served a skincare lucky dip box rather than one with makeup as I saw that lip glosses were on offer in other boxes (the list is still heavily skewed to hair and skincare products though).

list of other products on offer in March '12 Glossy Box

Hopefully, April's box will excite me a lot more. I have faith it will because life is full of surprises and one of them will eventually delight me.

Glossybox and all other Australian beauty box subscriptions are A$14.95 each month delivered to your door. Sign up for one here. 

Winner: OPI Lil Shooters Nail Lacquer Set

Did everyone have a good Easter break?

I had such a busy but good time catching up with family, friends who I haven’t seen since Christmas that II haven’t been near a computer for the whole long weekend. But the weekend has come and gone and it’s another busy and short working week.

And tonight, I hope I can make it a great week for one of your out there by making you the winner of OPI Lil Shooter nail lacquer set.

Now there were plenty of entries but unfortunately some of them had to be excluded because they did not follow the rules of the competition. It just goes to show some people don’t even read the entry conditions and just willy nilly enter online competitions.

So from the list of valid entries, I used random generator to give me a number to draw the winner (entries were chronologically collated). So now we have to lucky winner tonight. A big congratulations to:

Kate Ryan

I’ll be sending out an email to you very shortly so watch for it in your inbox lovely.

A big thank you for everyone else who supported the Things I Love Facebook launch and the blog by entering the competition.

I’ve got a few more giveaway lined up and will be posting it in the coming days so if you don’t want to miss out on the announcements, make sure you like and subscribe!

Put the moisture back into skin with Jurlique Rose Moisture Plus

With the dry Autumn weather and constant bombardment of the air conditioner at work, I like to add back moisture into skin. I also like to use intensive mositursing products after using clay masks.

Jurlique Rose Moisture Plus Range

As you know, I’m a total sucker for rose scented products so it’s not a surprise that I love Jurlique’s Rose Moisture Range. I love it even more now that they have release the Rose Moisture Plus range - a cream cleanser, moisturising cream and facial mist all with antioxidant complex to help prevent the early signs of premature aging.

Moisturising Cleanser: 100ml - RRP A$32
A lightweight, high performance cleanser with an antioxidant complex and skin conditioning ingredients that help moisturise and protect the skin to address signs of dehydration.

I use the cleanser after rinsing off the mask and daily for gentle foaming action that adds hydration back into my skin after makeup removal in the evenings or when my skin is feeling tights in the morning. It leaves my skin feeling incredibly soft, supple and smooth and I swoon at the scent every time I use it.

Moisturising Cream: 40ml - RRP $A52
A rich, high-performance moisturising cream that provides the dual benefits of hydration and antioxidant protection with powerful plant oils and an antioxidant complex to help address signs of dehydration and premature ageing.

After any treatment serums and lotions used, I layer on the Rose Moisture Plus moisturising cream for a luxurious creamy feel that easily absorbs into skin and provides hours of deep hydration to skin.

It also contains anti-oxidants (tea tree, rosehip and soy proteins) to protect skin from environmental factors but for my skin, it need stronger anti-aging products and if I’m heading outdoors, a separate SPF product is always layered on top.

Tip: I also love using it to condition my lips as it’s has great hydrating properties and results are similar to that of the Guinot lip conditioner.

Rosewater Balancing Mist -  500ml RRP A$30
A daily hydrating mist featuring the relaxing scent of rose that restores and hydrates the complexion and is ideal for normal/combination skin types.

For added moisture the Rosewater Balancing mist contains aloe vera and rose essential oils to help keep skin cooled, fresh, lightly scented at a spritz of the bottle. It also makes for a wonderful for setting spray as the mist is so fine, it doesn’t cause any streaking or blotching of your carefully applied makeup.
Tip: Keep the spray in the fridge for an even more refreshing coolness in hotter climates.

Right - so I have my hydration sorted, I can spend more time perfecting my makeup application on a smooth and hydrated base.

Jurlique is available in David Jones, Myer stores and online.
This featured product was provided for consideration.

Beat the Grease with Dermalogica Skin Refining Masque

Lately, my face is getting oilier skin than normal due to the fluctuating weather of hot and cold and air-conditioned office environments adds to the havoc. My skin is in overdrive trying to compensate for the weather and in the process making a greaseball in the mid afternoon.

So here a product I enlist to try and rebalance the skin in this crazy weather.

Dermalogica Skin Refinining masque

Description:
A skin-clarifying masque with oil-absorbing kaolin and Bentonite clays plus zinc oxide to remove impurities and refine the skin’s surface, helping to reduce oily-skin breakouts.
Soothing botanical extracts of mallow, arnica and cucumber help soothe the skin while purifying nasturtium, lemon and ivy help revive dull skin. Contains no artificial fragrance or colour.

This clay mask dries up on my skin in 15 minutes and does an amazing job of drawing out oil and keep my skin looking less shiny thanks to clay and titanium dioxide combination.

Unlike other clay mask I’ve tried, the sebum controlling effect last about 2-3 days before the grease starts coming back into my skin so I’d recommend using this mask 2 times a week if you have extremely oily skin or once a week if you only have minor sebum issues you want to control. I currently use it weekly and apply another moisturising mask at the end of the week.

Dry skin types may want to skip this masque and try a more hydrating variety instead (try Dermalogica skin hydrating masque or intensive moisture masque).

As for skin refining properties, I haven’t really noticed much to be honest and prefer to use the Alpha-H smoothing and perfecting mask to refine my skin texture instead (the glycolic acid seems to agree with my skin more).

If you want to look less of an oil slick, then this will be the right facial mask for you.
75ml RRP A$59 at salons, selected David Jones stores and online at AdoreBeauty or the Facial Company.

Do you use facial masks? How often would you apply a mask?

This featured product was provided for consideration.

Estee Lauder Pure Lip Color – Crystal Honey

I’m a sucker for glittery and shimmer lips and have always wanted to expand my collection of lip products with a shimmer or pearl as I think they are most flattering on lips.

My recent purchase towards expanding my shimmer lipstick collection is from Estee Lauder Pure Color Crystal range.

Estee Lauder Pure Colour Crystal - Crystal Honey RRP A$45

With the signature light plum scent on application, the pure lip colour crystal range give a sheer buildable coverage that tints lips with just the right amount of colour and leave a medium shine.

They also have a pearl & iridescent shimmer finish that catches the light to give lips the appearance of extra volume.

It has a beautiful formula; creamy yet hydrating and sits comfortably on lips for a good 60 minutes or so before needing any touch-ups.

Crystal Honey is a honey beige shade with a warm undertone. It looks quite neutral on my lips and if not for the iridescent shimmer, would look quite bland. But as you can see below, shade is only one factor and add in the bling, and you turn something rather dull into an exquisite shade that I can happily apply throughout the day at work.

Don’t you think this shade gives beautiful luscious lips?

Do you like shimmer lip sticks? What lipstick finish do you prefer?

Pure Lip Colour Crystal range is available in 12 permanent shades and additional seasonal additional at Myer, David Jones stores. I think Crystal Honey was a limited addition as I don't see it listed on the Estee Lauder website.