xmas + holiday goodies

So I finally got paid and the first thing I do is go on a spending spree. What with Christmas coming up, I decided to finish up by buying some gifts and some holiday goodies for myself...

(I hope my parents, my sis and her boyfriend don't read my blog!)

For my sister's boyfriend...

Hehe. 

I bought my poor sis the Models Prefer Eyeshadow palette that I gave a lukewarm review about a couple of weeks ago (I bought it at the same time as mine! Priceline was having a 40% off sale!). So to sort of redeem myself, I bought her a metallic eyeshadow palette by BYS. I quite like these eye shadows as they give quite strong colours and are half the price of ordinary eyeshadow palettes! 

And now some holiday goodies for myself...

A Sydney Dance Company t-shirt (represent!)

Some De-Stress Sea Salt Therapy from Ikou (I love sea salt products! They are natural exfoliates and make your skin feel smooth. Plus this one smells really good and comes in the most adorable packaging!)

And a shirt from ZARA:

AND to end my post, here are a couple Instagram snaps of the wrapped presents and of my cat enjoying our Christmas tree (it's his first Christmas!!!):

Review: Models Prefer Fashionista Colour Palette

This is a great example of the classic rule: don't judge a book by its cover. Technically I didn't really do that since I've used other Models Prefer products before and I was very happy with their results but with this one I'm a little bit underwhelmed.

Let's just start with the elephant in the room: the eyeshadows. Although, the palette provides us with a total of 48 eyeshadow shades, the brighter shades (pinks, greens, purples and blues) are barely strong enough to make any visual impact. Given I have dark skin, I decided I should use the trick of applying on white eyeshadow first before I made any solid conclusions. The result: it barely made a difference with only a thin layer of colour being visible around my eyes.

The only solution to combat this is to apply copious amounts of eyeshadow to my eye lids but with the small serving sizes of each colour, I'll run out within weeks. 

However, there are some positives that are found in the blush and the darker eyeshadow shades. Unlike their brighter counterpoints, the darker shades create a much more defining look and with the variety of colours, allows for some interesting blending. The blush however is the cream of the crop. The variety of shades allows you to create a variety of looks from just slightly tan to a cute doll face. The brown square pot is also great for contouring.

All in all, I've got mixes feelings for this product. I would rate it 2/5.