Urban Decay Launch at Mecca Maxima!

It’s official! Urban Decay has finally landed in Australia! Mecca Maxima online store and their stores all over the country launched the brand at 9:00 am this morning. I went to my local store at Westfield Garden City here on Brisbane’s south side and was lucky enough to be able to have a chat to one of the beautiful staff members, Tamara. She was kind enough to let me ask her a few questions and I had a chance to browse and give in to one of the lip glosses (more to come about that in a minute!). Just a warning: this is going to be a long post. Today was a very exciting day for me!

I was thankfully stuck in a uni lecture this morning and missed all the craziness of the opening at the Garden City store. According to Tamara there were over 100 people waiting by 8:00 am. “We had people turning up at about 5:00 am, which was commitment, you know we weren’t expecting people to really turn up until about 7:00 am,” she said. I can’t even comprehend a crowd that big for a makeup brand that is launching permanently. I’m glad that it was far less crazy when I went this morning.

The setup is fairly standard for Mecca stores, but this isn’t to say it wasn’t beautiful. They had everything sorted in a way that made it look shiny, appealing and basically just fabulous. I was very pleased with the range of products they had. I really didn’t know what to expect. Mecca was very good at being coy about what products they were getting. The advertising was heavily focussed on the Naked line. Mecca has most of the things that most people would be wanting to try out. They of course got the Naked stuff like the three big palettes and two Basics palettes, the foundation and concealer, the powders and the Flushed palettes. Bright colour lovers will fawn over the Electric palette. Here’s what Tamara had to say about the Electric palette:

“It definitely can look a little bit scary at first. The colours are beautiful and so workable as well. And you can use it in multiple ways. I’ve used it as a hair chalk. I got to play around with that a little bit and turning them into lip glosses or lip stains. So they’re super pigmented, but used in all those different ways, it’s just amazing. Even taking that electric green, because I know it can be a little scary looking at that, it’s so bright, but it just adds that pop of colour to everyday wear. Lots of people like to use the white in the inner corner, but that green just opens up the eye and just makes it pop. I like it because it’s really whatever you’d like it do. If you’d like to make your own lip glosses or stains, or if you’d like to use it as hair chalk. I mean, even in dark hair it’s so pigmented.”

After hearing her thoughts on the palette my thoughts are cemented in my desire to have it in my life… and soon!

 Until today I’d only ever tried one UD product and that’s the Naked Basics palette which I got last year. It’s one of my favourite palettes of all time though. It’s just amazing, so I knew I was in for a treat with any products I bought in the future! I asked Tamara what her favourite products were. Understandably it was a very hard choice! “I love it all! I’m excited to try the foundation. I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, so that’s one of my must-tries. I’m loving the Naked 2 palette and also the All-Nighter setting spray. Just using it multiple ways as well. It’s definitely a setting spray for 16HR wear, but I also like to spray my eyeshadow brush and then go in with my shadow and it just makes it more pigmented and really just lovely and creamy to work with,” she told me.

I personally wasn’t overly excited about the Naked palettes. I know, I know! How could I not be?! Honestly, I was all about tracking down the original one for ages last year, but then I found the Chi Chi Nudes palette and I lost interest in the UD one. The Naked 2 and 3 didn’t interest me all that much either just because I didn’t find the shades to be ones I would use regularly. Cut to me checking out the real life palettes in-store today. I was right about the Naked 2. I just wouldn’t use the shades, but the Naked 3. Can we just stop so I can take a moment to picture it again in my mind. It is exquisite. It’s filled with rosy and rose gold-y shades. I never imagined that I would love it so much, but now I desperately need it in my life!

 

Let’s talk about pricing. I know Australia has become notorious for having ridiculously price makeup, among other things. This is why I’m happy to see that Mecca has made UD reasonably priced. It may seem expensive at first glance, but when you compare it to U.S. pricing and factor in the exchange rate it works out fairly even. “It’s somewhere from I think maybe a $2 to $6 difference and with some products it actually cheaper. When you think about having to buy it online and then you have to think about shipping and the exchange rate, I know it’s a struggle sometimes. You can’t even get shipping to Australia sometimes and you have to use external shipping. It can become super expensive just to have it shipped here. It’s nice to be able to give our customers a nice easy way to shop,” Tamara said when I asked for her view on the pricing. Check below for a little list of UD products and pricing from the Mecca website.

Eye look using 24/7 Pencil in LSD

The products I got today were: Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss in Walk of Shame, 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in LSD (sample size) and a sample of the Naked Skin Foundation in the shade 0.5. I’ll do a first impressions on the foundation sometime next week, when I get the time, but I was able to try out the gloss and the pencil this afternoon before I head back to uni. The gloss, which I purchased myself, is a beautiful peachy/coral shade. It’s not completely sheer, but it just gives a nice flush to the lips. I wore it on the top of my nude Essence lip pencil. I’ll write up a full review on it over the weekend once I can wear it a little more. The eye pencil is a great colour too. It’s a deep dark blue with lighter blue shimmer through it. I really loved how it looked with the eye look I did. I swiped it across the upper lashline, smudged it out and then added a little bit of Crave from the Naked Basics palette over it. This colour pencil has helped me fall in love with blue/silver eyeshadow looks again!

Finished look with Pencil and Gloss

My last question for Tamara was about which product she would recommend to a newcomer to makeup. This is what she had to say:

“Honestly, I’d probably start them off with one of the eyeshadow potions, purely because it makes such a difference. And for someone just starting out and learning how to do their eyeshadow it just makes it so much easier to work with. It just creates a really blank canvas. Some of the potions, like Sin, which is beautifully champagne and pigmented then adds that colour without you having to do a lot to the eye look. So, I think starting yourself out with one of the eyeshadow potions is great because I think your going to find it easier to work with, really simple to build you confidence as well and just to see that longevity and have it stay there all day makes it a good one to start off with.”

Overall it seems like the UD launch at Mecca was a success. Mecca has done a great job in their advertising, pricing and in obtaining a fantastic variety of products. I want to say a big thank-you to the girls at Mecca Maxima at Westfield Garden City for always being so helpful and kind. And a massive thank-you to Tamara for taking the time to talk to me on such a crazy busy day! You were absolutely beautiful to chat to and I really appreciate it!

If you live in the area pop in and check out UD at Mecca Maxima Garden City and say hi to all the wonderful staff members! If you don’t live near a Mecca Maxima store there’s always the internet. You can check out UD and all Mecca’s other awesome brands at: www.mecca.com.au

Here’s a list of some of the products Mecca launched today!

Naked 1,2 & 3 palettes - $78 each

Naked Basics 1 & 2 - $42 each

Electric palette - $70

Naked Skin Foundation - $56

Naked Skin Concealer - $36

Original Eyeshadow Primer Potion - $30

All Nighter Long-Lasting Makeup Setting Spray - $44 (4.0 fl oz.)

Naked Ultra Nourishing Lipgloss - $30

24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil - $30

There’s a ton more products to check out on the site and in-store!

What are some of your favourite products or some of the products you’re dying to try out? Let me know! 

+Mecca Maxima 

Christmas Haul Pt 2.2: Boxing Day Sales

And finally we come to the end of my Christmas Haul series. This post covers the final things I bought at the Boxing Day sales. I’m really happy with all the things I bought and very lucky to have been able to get them. I will do reviews on things that I think are more interesting over time. In the meantime let’s get into it!

VALLEYGIRL LONG CARDIGANS:

There’s not heaps to say about these. I think they were only about $10 each. I wear them all the time now. They look great both dressed up and casually. I love pairing the black on with jeans and the cream coloured one with my favourite black maxi skirt. These are so comfy and I love how I feel when I wear them!

GOLD FEATHER PENDANT:

I got this for $15 from Prouds when I bought my watch. It was half price and so cute I couldn’t resist it. It looks to dainty and pretty on the chain that I’ve got it on. I like to pair it with a longer gold necklace with a bigger pendant (like a locket or something) on it.

DAVID BOWIE T-SHIRT:

I love this! I’ve been looking for a decent Bowie shirt for years and there it was hanging in a shop in Maroochydore. I picked up immediately. I love Bowie. He’s my favourite music artist. I’ve got nearly all his concert DVDs and most of his songs. And now I have a shirt with his face on it!

HARRY POTTER BOXSET ON BLU-RAY:

I had all of these on DVD, but this boxset was so cheap I couldn’t resist. I’ve always loved Harry Potter and I still love breaking out the DVDs (or Blu-Rays now) having a marathon. The quality is really great on the blu-ray, I can see getting many, many, many more hours of enjoyment out of the movies with my upgraded quality!

TOO FACED NATURAL EYES PALETTE:

And finally we come to the last makeup item I bought. I got this with my Mecca Maxima giftcard that my parents got me alongside the M.A.C. one. I really like this palette. I was tossing up between this one and the Chocolate Bar palette, but my impatience made my mind up for me when the store was completely sold out of the Chocolate Bar palette. I have to admit though, I’ll probably get more use out of the Natural Eyes palette anyway. The shadows are so nice and creamy in texture. It has a really great balance between matte and shimmery shades too. It’s just a great everyday palette.

So, that’s it for my Christmas Haul. It only took four posts and a few weeks to get through it! I hope you guys enjoyed this little series. I really just wanted to share with you what I got and what I thought about it all. Like I said before, I’ll do reviews on some of the stuff, so look out for them! Hope everyone is having an awesome day!

Christmas Haul Pt 2.1 - Boxing Day Sales:

Okay, so I decided to quit being slack and finally get a few posts up that have been stuck in planning stage. This one is part 2.1 of my Christmas Haul, so it’ll be covering things I bought during the Boxing Days sales. For anyone who doesn’t know what they are: they are the massive sales that start on Boxing Day (duh) where shops put on some of their biggest savings of the year. My mum likened it to the Black Friday sales, but nowadays it’s not allowed to only go for one day, so it goes until around New Year’s Eve. My sister, our aunt and I go pretty much every year on Boxing Day and brave all the crazy shoppers (and become crazy shoppers!).

So, here’s some of what I got:

JAG BLACK SATCHEL HANDBAG:

I got this from Myer. I think I saved around $50 or $60 on it, which was pretty good. I absolutely love it. It’s not too big or small and I seriously haven’t used a different bag since I bought it. I really love satchel type bags. I love having a longer strap. This one fits all my crap in it, including my ridiculously overfilled A5 planner I put together at the start of the year. It’s one of my favourite bags that I have bought in ages.

ELITE ROSE GOLD WATCH:

I have been looking for a watch exactly like this for ages! I really like this larger round faced style, but a lot of them look crazy big on my wrist (I think because my arms are pretty short), so I was pretty chuffed to find this in Prouds at Maroochydore (where we went shopping). I love the simple white face with the rose gold hands, etc. Prouds is great with watches too. I needed another link for it and with them you can get (I think) the first 2 free. I only needed one and it arrived pretty quickly once it was ordered.

GIRLS SEASONS 1 & 2 (no pic sorry!):

I popped into JB Hi-Fi on my way back from my Christmas holiday on Boxing Day and was lucky enough to find a 20% sale on all DVDs and Blu-Rays, so I picked up these 2 seasons on Blu-Ray. By another stroke of luck the ‘Girls’ seasons were part of a buy one get one half price deal, which brought the total for both seasons down to a pretty little $25. I love this show. I’ve gushed about it before, so I won’t again, except to say that I think it’s fantastic and recommend it highly.

M.A.C. CREAMSHEEN LIPSTICK & BLUSH PAN:

I bought these with my giftcard that my parents gave me for Christmas. The lipstick is in the shade Peach Blossom and the blush is in Lovecloud. I really didn’t want to feel like I wasted my giftcard. M.A.C. is expensive and I wanted to make sure I got stuff I knew I would use all the time, hence the nude lipstick and blush. I love both of these. I was correct in my choosing because I do use them all the time, the blush especially. I’ve actually been using it more than my favourite, which is the Estee Lauder Pure Colour in Peach Passion. Lovecloud has a sheen to it that is so subtle and pretty. I prefer blushes like this, because they’re not as flat as matte shades, but they don’t make you look like your face slammed into a bowl of glitter. I really love the lipstick too. It’s only the second M.A.C. lipstick I’ve ever owned and it definitely makes me want more. It’s co creamy and pretty. It’s the perfect nude-type colour for my lips because it has a nice pink tone to it. I just love it!

NOVO BASIC BLACK STRAPPED THONGS:

Thongs, flip flops… whatever. Here we call them thongs. I love these. They were only $15 and they are so comfy! I don’t usually like thongs for anywhere but the beach, but I’ve been wearing these all the time. They look especially great paired with a maxi skirt.

CITY CHIC BASIC WHITE TEE AND SINGLET:

There’s not a whole lot to say about these. Think they were only about $10 each, which is super cheap for City Chic. I really love them both. I think I do prefer the tee to the singlet. The cut is just a little more flattering and I like when shirts are a little longer. Like I said, they’re only basic, but I prefer basic stuff and doing more dramatic makeup and whatnot. 

Christmas Haul Part 1.2: Christmas Presents

Okay, so this post contains my thoughts on the final lot of presents I got this Christmas. As I said in my last post, I am so very lucky to have been given all of this stuff. A lot of thought went into each and every present and I appreciate every single one of them and the family and friends who gave them to me! 

Steampunk Belle Print:

Can we just… ugh! I can’t even describe my giddy little girl joy when I opened this very extra special present from my gorgeous bestie. This is created by a local (Brisbane) artist. It’s absolutely beautifully done and every time I look at it on my wall I smile. I’m an intense Disney fan and Beauty and the Beast is my all-time favourite movie. I just love this picture and can’t get over what an amazing choice my bestie made in getting me this!

Southern Vampire Mysteries Books:

My wonderful tutoring clients got me a couple of the Southern Vampire Mysteries books. I know, I know, I am so late to the party with these, but oh well. I got the sixth and thirteenth books and already had books one to three. I haven’t really started the series yet since I’m on a bit of a biography kick at the moment (reviews to come), but I can’t wait to get stuck into the series.

The Big Bang Theory Clue Boardgame:

This was a gift from my cousin who is my kindred nerd spirit. He, my sis and I all love boardgames and having boardgame nights, so this was a perfect gift. We’ve played it a few times since Christmas and it’s a lot of fun. I think I like it better than the original Cluedo (Clue in America).

Gift Cards and Money:

I got a few different gift cards to different places and some money for the Boxing Day sales from various family members. I know a lot of people think that these kinds of gifts are impersonal, but not for anyone who knows me. Anyone who knows me knows that I love picking out my own things (it’s possibly a control thing) and that is something that is just as special to me as getting an ‘actual’ gift. Besides, without these presents of money and gift cards, my trip to the Boxing Day sales would have been a hell of a lot less fun.

That was it for the Christmas present I received. The next instalment will be sharing what I picked up during the Boxing Day sales. I think that will be another two parter, because, if I'm being real, I bought A LOT of stuff (well for me anyway, it may not seem like a lot to other people). 

Christmas Haul Part 1.1: Christmas Presents

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year everybody!!

This was supposed to be up on Monday, but I'm running behind schedule. I had every intention of getting two posts up today (yesterday actually, since this is currently being uploaded at 1 in the morning), but that didn't happen either. Fingers crossed I'm a better blogger today and am able to catch up to the schedule I created for myself!

This is part one of at least two posts (more if they end up being too long). I got quite a bit of stuff over Christmas. Some of it was presents and other stuff was bought in the Boxing Day sales (partly using money and gift cards I got for Christmas). So to not use up too much space let’s just jump straight into it. I’m staring out with the presents I received for Christmas. I was a very lucky girl and I’m very appreciative of all the love and thought that went in all of my presents.

Too Face Melted Kisses Pack:

This one’s from my awesome little sister. It’s a pack of four mini versions of the Melted lipsticks. The shades included are: Melted Nude, Melted Peony, Melted Fuchsia and Melted Berry. I’ve been wanting to try these for ages, but at $26 a pop and with so many colours to choose from, I never took the leap. Thank goodness my baby sister knows me so well, because this little pack is the answer to my Melted dilemma. I really like all four shades in the pack, but Melted Berry and Melted Peony are probably my favourites. They are fairly longwearing and feel really nice on the lips. I can only imagine how long it would take me to get through a full-sized on of these because I can’t see me using the mini ones up all that quickly. Not when you through them into the mix of all the other lip products I have. As I’m typing this I’m thinking I maybe want to do a full review on them, with lip swatches and everything, so stay tuned for that!

Gold Knot Earrings:

My other wonderful gift from my sister. I love these so much! My usual earrings are a pair of gold ones with crystals in them. They’re really nice and I rarely change them, until Christmas came that is. I opened these and put them in before I even cracked open my lipsticks. I absolutely love these earrings. I haven’t taken them out since (except for the odd wash and photo). I’m not really into bling on jewellery or anything else really, a fact which my sister is aware, thankfully. These earrings have just the right amount of pretty without being ridiculously girlie.

Versace Bright Crystal:

I mentioned this in my October Favourites video, and decided that it is my favourite perfume of all time. So, naturally I was pretty much beyond stoked to get a big arse bottle of this for Christmas from my lovely parents. I can’t even describe the scent of this stuff, except to say once again that it is intoxicating and amazing. I can’t imagine liking another fragrance better than this one.

Photo Finish Makeup:

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of this brand, but from just swatches I can say that I am pretty impressed with the pigmentation of the eyeshadows. They’re all pretty shimmery, but from a little swirl of the finger in the product I got a lot of colour payoff. This is another thing that I want to do a full review on and create a bit of an eye look with. I’ll have to mull over what kind of look to create, but that post will be coming up soon too! I haven’t played with the lip glosses yet, but they are pretty darn cute in their little cupcake shapes.

Okay, so that wasn't everything I got. The post was becoming waaayyyy too long so I decided to split the present post into two. After the next present post I will be doing Part 2, which is the haul from the Boxing Day sales I got. 

I hope you all have an amazing day! Until next time! xx

Haul Video: Drugstore & Highend!

Hey everyone!

My second video is finally uploaded! I'll have a list of the products mentioned below. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel! :)

Products Mentioned:

Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette

KUU Konjac Sponge

Garnier Gentle Cleansing Milk

M.A.C. Pro Palette - Single

LimeLily Eyeshadows in Goldmine, Calico, Liberty & Aquatic

Inglot Eyeshadows in 131 & 116R

Essence Liquid Ink Waterproof Eyeliner in Black

E.L.F. Zit Zapper

E.L.F. Healthy Glow Bronzer in Sun Kissed

E.L.F. Eye Reresh

E.L.F. All Over Stick in Golden Peach

E.L.F. Eyelid Primer in Sheer

E.L.F. Matte Lip Colour in Rich Red

E.L.F. Small Stipple Brush