FOTD: Party Time Look

The silly season is coming up. This means plenty of parties, school formals, weddings, BBQs and social gatherings. To help get into the festive spirit, I’ve created a look to inspire you this week.

This is a soft look that is both chic and glam and actually quite easy to achieve. The curls are a sure fire way to add to the soft feminine look

Key Products Used 

Eyes & Brows

• Bobbi Brown Ultimate Party Palette* RRP A$130
• Shu Uemura Glittery Mascara (LE holiday collection by Wong Kar Wai)* RRP A$55
• Kiss Me liquid eye liner US$12 from Sasa & reviewed here
• Three Trees Faux lashes  #112 （set of 10) US$5 from Ebay
• Dollywink eyelash glue US$10.20 from Sasa
• Illamasqua brow powder in Motto RRP A$27

Face

• Illamasqua Skinbase #9* RRP A$55
• Illamasqua concealer in UC200* RRP A$33
• Bobbi Brown powder blush in Apricot RRP A$58

Lips

• Cover Girl Smoother lip liner in pink velvet RRP A$13.75
• Tinsel (pink shade) from Bobbi Brown Ultimate Party Palette* RRP A$130

Tools Used

• Bobbi Brown foundation brush RRP A$68
• Shu Uemura Wong Kar Wai  Flashing Gold 4 piece mini brush set with pouch* RRP A$98 (featuring goat hair blush brush, sable hair eye shader, synthetic eye shader, sable eye/lip liner brush)
• Shu Uemura eye lash curler RRP A$39
• Mac #263 angled eyeliner brush RRP A$39

Top-bottom: Illamasqua Under Eye Concealer, Bobbi Brown Ultimate Party Palette, Shu Uemura eye lash curler, Bobbi Brown foundation brush, Shu Uemura WKW mini brush set, Illamasqua Skin base, Bobbi Brown Apricot blush, Cover Girl Pink Velvet lip liner, Illamasqua Motto brow powder, 3 Tree false lashes #112, Dollywink eye lash glue, Shu Uemura WKW glitter mascara

Look Breakdown:
This look is focused on having playful and precious looking smokey eyes and the feature product to achieve this is the new LE Bobbi Brown Ultimate Party Collection Palette. Its double decker compact palette features a collection of cool metallic and shimmer shades to ensure your eyes sparkles in the light. It also comes with 4 glitter lip glosses underneath which are all very pale in colour pay off and work best when layered over a richer lip colour.

1. Start by framing the face by filling in any area of sparse brows with a brow powder for a soft natural look. Motto is a greyish taupe shade that is natural looking on dark coloured brows and doesn’t look drawn on like some brown or red-brown based powders

As the eye colours were quite sophisticated, I only had to use 3 shades from the palette to achieve the look. 

Bobbi Brown Ultimate Party Palette

2. Apply Navajo (metallic champagne -A) as a highlighter on the brow bones,  Pewter (a silvery olive -B) on lids and along the lower lash line, the crease was darkened with Plum Steel (black purple plum -C).

3. Dolly eyes are created by lining the top lid with liquid eye liner and are glammed up even more with false lashes and this season’s hottest gold glitter mascara by Shu Uemura. This clear gel mascara won’t volumise or lengthen but its fine iridescent glitter particles means that your lashes will sparkle and glisten through all hours of partying.

Tip: curl natural lashes first before applying false lashes so they have a curl and blend in with the false lashes.

Shu Uemura KWK Glittery mascara

Face1. After applying skincare (a must before any makeup application to protect and hydrate the face), dot some Skin Base and blend with a foundation brush into skin with short quick patting strokes. 


2. Apply undereye concealer to hide dark circles and other marks on skin (applying concealer after foundation ensures that you don’t blend away the concealer while blending in the foundation).  
 
3. The cheeks are swept with Bobbi Brown’s Apricot (although it looks like a bright warm pink in the pan, it’s a pinky peach on my skin and the perfect spring shade) before a light dusting of NYX loose powder to set everything in place. 
 
4. Finally for a long lasting lip colour, use a light pink lip pencil to lightly shade in lips and blot away the excess and then apply a light shimmer gloss (Tinsel - D, a soft glitter pink from Bobbi Brown’s Ultimate Party palette) for soft fresh lips.

Hair

KMS Freeshape Hot Flex Spray*  RRP A$31.95
KMS Silk Sheen Styling Crème * RRP A$31.95
KMS Curl Up Wave Foam* RRP A$36.95
Remington Tribal Compact Tong* RRP A$33.95

1. Prep hair with a heat protectant (KMS Freeshape Hot Flex Spray) and some curling mousse (KMS Curl up wave foam) to help enhance curls when using with curling tongs.

2. I used the Remington Tribal Compact Tong, which is a mini version of its bigger sister that gives smaller ringlet curls and is exceptionally handy for travelling. The only downside to its size is that it takes longer to complete the look, particularly if you have lots of hair like me – the plus side is pretty tight curls! To prevent too much volume, I only curled the hair from below the ears.

3. Finish with KMS Silk Sheen Crème to lightly smooth away any flyaways on top of head and added some gloss into hair and provides a softer more natural shine than silicone based serum products.

You can also pop on a floral headband for a cute youthful look. I picked mine up from Forever New.

Shu Uemura, Bobbi Brown, Illamasqua are all available on counters now.
KMS products are available at Hairhouse warehouse, Petra Hair and selected salons.

Products marked * were provided for consideration or received at events. All other products were purchased.

Gaga over KMS California's FreeShape range & the Real Project Competition

Top hair-care and styling brand KMS California decided to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a makeover!

Not only have the packaging been updated to bright bold block colours on its existing product lines, but it has also introduced 12 new products and brought out the latest hair technology called technology nature by fusing natural ingredients in advance formulas.

This now brings KMS products lines to a whopping 52 products across 9 ranges in the growing collection to cater for any individual style and hair condition.

The most exciting news of this newest additions for me was the Freeshape range - this heat activated styling and protectant line is something I need daily as I subject my hand to the constant abuse of blow drying, curling, colouring and chemical straightening.

So it was a good thing I was lucky enough to try first hand some of these items in the latest range and let me tell you, my hair would be humming happy tunes all day long if it could sing!

1. FreeShape Quick Blow Dry - 200ml RRP A$39.95
I have very thick hair - I get it thinned out every time I get a cut but there is still alot hair left on my head. So when this stuff promised to cut drying time by half, I wanted to be all over it.

And guess what? It really does work! My blow dry time is reduced by 40-50% depending on the humidity of the day, a saviour on cold nights when I dread washing my hair. This 2-phase product needs to be shaken to mix the solution before being sprayed onto damped towel dried hair and not only will it speed up the drying time, it will also provides anti-static properties to reduce friction between hair and gives it extra conditioning properties to leave hair more manageable and fly-aways tamed without any added weight.

2. FreeShape Hot Flex Creme - 150ml RRP A$39.95
I wouldn't ever go near a curling tong/ wand or straightening tong without this product on hand any more. This must-have light-weight creme gives hair a layer of production, especially ends which normally gets fried during extreme heat styling sessions.

Smoothed over from the mid lengths down to the end of damp or dry hair before using your heat tools for lustrous protected strands. Results are non-product overloaded glossy hair with plenty of natural movement.

3. FreeShape Hot Flex Spray - 200ml RRP A$39.95
If you are after some hold in your heat protectant to give your style some shape, then you can't go past this heat protectant. Natural curls are easy-peasy to achieve with the help of this spray. Just sprtiz on the section of dried hair you are working on for shine, medium hold and protection. The end results are beautiful bouncy curls that still moves naturally as it's not weighed down by heavy products which also means your shape holds for longer - score!

I'm gaga over these three heat-protecting styling products; they will be staples on my hair care regime and I can't wait to try the other FreeShape products in the lineup. If you haven't fallen in love with KMS California yet, I guarantee you will when you try the latest FreeShape range.



KMS The Real Project Competition

KMS California is kickstarting its latest product relaunch with a competition called The Real project to celebrate self-expression and individuality - the core philosophy of the brand.

Just submit a 15 second video of who you are and what makes you unique and you could be in the running to win awesome KMS prizes and become a TV stars.

The 15 most popular videos as voted by social media will be used in KMS' next tv campaign. And if you need any further encouragement, the first 100 entrants will receive a KMS California Gift Packs worth over $100, plus there are 20 Sony Bloggiecamerasto be WON!

Get involved in this great competition now before it closes on 10th November!


Products featured have been provided for consideration.

GWP: KMS Travel Companion kit

Many great brands have embraced the mini-me market and have produced travel sized of their full size products that are less than 100ml in size to comply with the international airline regulations in wake of the security conscious society that we live in today. But sometimes, you just don’t want to fork out the extra dough to buy yet another albeit smaller bottle of shampoo and conditioner just for travels if you already have a perfectly fine big bottle at home.

This is where empty travel-sized containers, jars and bottles comes in handy. Traveling kits are one of those things that you don’t really think about until you need them, then you wonder how you went previously went on in life without them.

And from May 1^st KMS California is giving away travel companion travel kits with the purchase of any 2 KMS products (my pick – their moisture repair shampoo and conditioner, which does wonders to hair).

The KMS travel companion comes with 2 pop-up cap bottles – perfect for shampoo and conditioners, a refillable spray bottle for liquid based products and 2 medium sized jars for creams and lotions and hair styling products or if you are like me, detergent powder so you get to wash your undies (my pet peeve is not being able to wash underwear daily whilst travelling) all in a handy clear plastic travel bag to put this or organise your other toiletries in. It even has a plastic spatula for you to scoop your products into the jars and labels so you know what products is transferred into which bottle/jar.

this KMS travel bag fits a fair amount of bottles in it

These are so handy because they

• allow you to bring just the right amount of your favourite products with you whilst travelling, saving you precious luggage space for more important things (i.e. shopping purchases).
• are refillable, so that means that when you run out of them, you can always top them up ready for the next big travel.  The clear containers so allow you to see how much of the contents are remaining.
• are great for squeezing out sample products that we amass over time into jar containers that is more easy to use than straight from the sachet.

What's more, from May till August, you will also have the opportunity to go into a draw to win 1 of 5 travel vouchers with your KMS purchase. Too easy!

KMS products is available at selected salons across the country.

This product was sent for consideration.

Review: KMS Dry Shine Styler

If you live in Melbourne, you’ll know how humid it’s been lately despite the mild weather and lack of sun.

And that can only mean one thing for me – frizzy flyaway hair.

I knew I had to do something about this to prevent a bad hair day and am so glad to have this great little product on hand.

KMS Dry Shine styler

• Limited Edition product developed in consulation with KMS California International  Session Styler &Artistic Director Clive Allwright
• The Perfect solution for taming frizz as well as enhancing shine on-the-go. 
• This stuff is truly a handy little tube to have around.  Easy to carry in the handbag and packaged like a glue stick (remember the one you used back in high school?), with a twist at the base, the product out and then just gently swipe some across your hair to combat the dreaded flyaway and frizz and any bits of hair that is just not plain behaving (yes, I’m talking about those small bits of hair that just won’t lie flat on top of head along the parting line).  
• Just remember not to leave this in your handbag inside a car parked in the open sun if you don’t want a melted styling stick.

Depending on which area of the hair you are using this on, you can either rub some of the product onto fingers to warm the product up and apply it to hair (eg. ends and flyaway) or lightly apply the product directly from the tube (for those individual pesky strands). This beeswaxed based styler will tame your mane quick STAT.

It also adds shine and makes them easier to control and style. As a little goes a long way, I use it sparingly. It’s non-greasy and doesn't add much weight to hair at all – perfect for touch ups throughout the humid day. Given the amount you use, this little tube will last you up to a year.

The best thing is that it smells great– a light sweet honey caramel scent that makes me feel a million bucks again.

Dry Shine Styler ingredients listing

RRP A$19.95  for 18g at all great hair salons or you can try your luck at Hairhouse Warehouse or Petra stores. Given it's a limited edition item, be quick to grab one before it's gone for good.

This product was sent for review.