IndieAna- In Search of the HolyGrail

I have bought from the brand BYS in the past, but I can't say I've actually sought out anything from them. Well, that was until I saw swatches popping up on my Instagram feed of the Berries palette.  It's a 12 pan palette and has a similar vibe going on to the much loved and raved about ABH Modern Renaissance palette. Of course, I do not own the pricier ABH palette, but I just had to have the Berries palette. Taken from BYS - "BYS Berries Eye Shadow Palette features an array of 12 expertly chosen, highly pigmented matte and metallic eye shadows. The 12 piece palette comes housed in a modern, embossed tin. featuring a mirror and 2 dual end applicators." The tin packaging of this palette is really cute, it reminds me of the Naked 2 and 3 palettes. It is a little bulky, but I like it. Let's take a peek inside Oh yes, I'm all about those warm orange and plum tones. There are 3 shimmery shades and the rest are matte. Here's the sw

Another makeup product that I tend to hoard collect is lip products, mainly lipsticks. I will begin by showing you my lip liners. I've come to appreciate lip liners as I have gotten older. Getting those horrid barcode lines around my lips will often lead to lipstick bleeding, liners help to prevent this unsightly problem. My collection of lip glosses. I rarely wear lip gloss, so I don't have an excessive amount. I had a huge declutter of lipsticks, which I'm finding is much more manageable. I also have lipstick crayons, lip hybrids from House of Beauty and some MBA Cosmetics samples.                           These are my collection of BH Cosmetics Colour Lock lipsticks. They are a matte formula and really nice to wear. In the photo is also my one and only MAC lipstick. I was gifted it and adore it. I would love to add more MAC lipsticks to my collection, but I struggle with spending so much just on one lipstick. This is my collecti

I've always been aware of the Swisse brand because of their range of vitamin and mineral supplements. When I discovered that skincare was also on offer, I was very intrigued and had to try a product. It so happened at the time I needed a night cream. The Hibiscus Night Cream sounded perfect for my anti-aging needs. Taken from Swisse - "Swisse Hibiscus Anti-Aging Night Cream is natural, deeply nourishing and nutrient enriched. The active ingredients in this cream work during the night to replenish depleted antioxidant stores in the skin, while also replenishing natural lipids and hydration, allowing you to wake up with beautiful skin. Your skin will also be protected during the day from environmental free radical damage and premature aging. Your skin will be left feeling hydrated and repaired." The cream comes in a 50 ml jar. Ugh, I really wish open jars were not still a thing when it comes to skincare. I hate that I have to dip my fingers into the product and I a

I have been on such a huge liquid lipstick kick lately, and when I say lately I mean the last 12 or so months! Lol. My latest additions are from BH Cosmetics. I restrained myself by only purchasing 4. I bought 2 of each regular matte and metallic finishes. Taken from BH Cosmetics the Mattes  and Metallics - "Put more pow in your pout with our BH Liquid Lipstick, a luscious long lasting full coverage formula that goes on wet and dries to a soft matte finish that won't smudge, budge or transfer." The lipsticks come in a round tube with typical doe foot applicator. I can't seem to detect any fragrance. The lipsticks have a creamy consistency. They apply smoothly to the lips. Once dry you can barely feel them. They are pretty much transfer proof, I do notice the slight traces on my coffee cup, but doing a "kiss" test on my hand didn't reveal any product at all. They wear for hours before beginning to fade in the center of the lips. I

Now that I have my own makeup area, re-organizing my items seemed like the best excuse to do a much needed declutter. I must say that I got rid of A LOT. I probably could have been more brutal in my declutter, but it's really a work in progress. I decided to post an updated stocktake of my collection. The last one was July/August 2015!  Today I will show you my face products. Starting with foundation and BB/CC Creams.  I have 4 BB creams and 1 CC cream. I have used them all and so far the Garnier BB cream for oily/combo is still my fave and I will be repurchasing when I have finished some of these. I have 5 foundations. The only one opened is the Rimmel Lasting Finish. Unless I have to review a foundation, I am quite strict about having one open at a time. I have 9 concealers. The W7 Catwalk Concealer I use to colour correct my under eye circles. The YBF compact is currently in use. It is a neutralizing cream concealer, it has a yellow base. Works well to

I can't believe I'm only reviewing the NIOD Sanskrit Saponins now. I bought it during the Deciem Black Friday Sale, but have only just gotten around to trying it. Only half a year has passed since buying it! To be fair, I've had so many products to use up in my skincare stash that I had to let this product collect dust for a bit before being able to reach for it. Taken from NIOD - "...SS is a cleansing balm that concentrates Ayurvedic saponins. They're unrefined and messy. They borrow their colour and smell from a place far away from today's madding crowd of refinement. But their near-perfect equilibrium between deep cleansing and respecting skin integrity is evidence that -somehow, somewhere- they connected to mankind." (there is much more info on the NIOD website)  The product comes in a 90ml aluminium tube. It has a simple screw top lid, which is fine for this product because it is quite thick and balm like in consistency. This clean

Another product that I picked up during Beauty Heaven's last Beautorium event was the Maybelline Color Jolt Intense Lip Paint in Stripped Down. I had been tempted to buy one in the past when they were first being sold in Australian stores, but kept resisting because it just wasn't something that I needed. Anyway enough of that, I now have my very own! Taken from MNY Australia -"Go beyond gloss with a jolt of intense colour . Maybelline's vibrant lip paint delivers 8 x more pigment in every drop." The Colour Jolt is packaged in a squeeze tube with 6.4 ml of product. It has a screw-top lid that when removed reveals a sponge tipped applicator with small hole. It has a faint sweet watermelon scent which disappears quite quickly. The consistency of this lip product is quite thick. To apply, I just squeezed the tube until I could see product seeping through the sponge. Then swept the sponge across my lips. Surprisingly I didn't find the process

For years I have gone through phases where I  just have a nail polish frenzy. Thankfully, I have since quit being so obsessed, I can't even remember the last time that I bought a nail polish.  Don't get me wrong, I still love nail polish, but I think I'm now ok in that department. Here's  my blog post of what I had in 2015 and I'll show you what my collection looks like now. I had to stick 2 photos together to show my nail polish shelves. I also have a plastic set of drawers. ...and of course a fancy cardboard box. My last count of nail polishes was 407, since then I have done some de-cluttering, giving away quite a few and binning dried up polishes. So my total now is 335! I am happy that I have reduced the amount that I have, but I still don't think I'll be buying any more polishes for a very long time. Oh, except for black and white, those colours I always replace.