Blog Awards and Beauty Link Love

I was lucky enough to receive four blog awards over the past week and it’s such a complement that Beauty Soiree was even thought of for a nomination so thank you to the beautiful blogging beauties Katelyn, Megan, Jenn, Ana, Joan and Olivia.

For those who I have nominated – congratulations, I did take some time carefully handpicking these blogs to share some link love and I think these nominations are well deserved but please feel no pressure to pass these on, I know it can be a little daunting to find blogs to link these awards back too as there are so many amazing blogs out there and I’m sure you, as am I are discovering new favourites everyday.

Best Blog Award

Rules:

1.       Link back to the person(s) who awarded you.

A HUGE thank you to the beautiful Katelyn and Megan from Crosswire Dreamers as well as gorgeous Jenn from Pinkpurse21.

2.       List seven random facts about yourself.

·         I have a fear of crossing busy roads. I’m always the one that gets left on the other side while everyone has quickly run across. I will go out of my way to ensure I cross safely at a crossing.

·         I have commitment issues especially when it comes to big purchases, for example my poor car is on its last legs but I can’t seem to let it go and look to purchase a new one.

·         I fly to Queensland’s Hamilton Island in 35 days, I’m so in need of this holiday and I cannot wait.  

·         I just discovered I carry around 15 lip glosses/lipsticks in my bag - no wonder my bag feels so heavy.

·         I collect programmes from stage shows and concerts,  so far I have collected programmes from: Jersey Boys, Wicked, Christina Aguleria Back to Basics, Lady Gaga The Monster Ball, Mamma Mia, Grease and Dirty Dancing… just to name a few.

·         I have just discovered my love of plum eyeshadows, I have always been conservative with colours and stick to neutrals but I currently love a plum hue blended into my crease.

·         I love scarves, I have an every growing scarf collection and they are my favourite clothing accessory all year round.   

3.       Award 15 of your BEST blogs.

Beauty Princess Diaries

Crosswire Dreamers

Eat Paint & Sniff Glue

Chic-spirational

Savvy Sid Speaks

Life as ICEY it…

Life My Way

Lucky Ducky Loves

Makeup Downlow

My Funny Valentine

Raachel Paachel

Shopping Intervention

The Glamorous Life

TwinxNtrax

Yessy Pea

4.       Answer the following questions:

Your favourite colour: Purple and Turquoise

Your favourite song: Chris Brown – She Ain’t You (love the sample of MJ’s Human Nature)

Your favourite desert: Sticky Date Pudding or Tiramisu.

When you’re upset, you: Either get really snappy or sulky, I’d rather be alone then off load my feelings.

Your favourite pet: I don’t have a pet (yet) but I share my sister’s dog as she lives next door and she has a little Jack Russell cross named Jack.

Black or White: Black, they say its slimming.

Your biggest fear: Paranormal activity; totally freaks me out yet I’m somewhat intrigued.   

Everyday attitude: Treat others how you wish to be treated yourself.

What is perfection? Good question… is there such thing as perfection? I think it’s very subjective and as long as you feel content within yourself that’s all that should matter. Look what happened to poor Natalie Portman’s character in Black Swan when she was striving to reach someone else’s perception of perfection.

Your guilty pleasure: Reality TV – some of my favourites are: The Kardashian Series, Jerseylicious and Don’t Tell the Bride UK.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Rules:

1.       Link back to the person(s) who awarded you.

A HUGE thank you to the creative Ana from Beauty Princess’s Diaries.

2.       List seven things about yourself.

Please see “Seven Random Facts” above.

3.       Award 15 recently discovered new bloggers.

Please see “15 of my Best Blogs above”.

4.       Contact these bloggers and let them know they’ve received the award(s).

Top 10 Award

Rules:

1.       Link back to the person(s) who awarded you.

Another HUGE thank you to Jenn from Pinkpurse21 who was kind enough to nominate Beauty Soiree for two blog awards.

2.       List your top ten favourite products.

Benefit’s Bella Bamba box powder

Inglot Freedom System Quad Eyeshadow Palette

Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua

Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin

GHD Professional Styling Iron

Moroccan Oil

St. Tropez Self Tan Bronzing Mousse

Benefit’s Creasless Cream Shadow in R.S.V.P.

Clinque’s High Impact Mascara in 01 Black

Napoleon Perdis Mosaic Bronzing Powder

3.       List your top ten favourite blogs.

Fleur De Force

Hollygolightlyxox

Keeping up with me

Cosmetic Cupcake

Little Jo….

Ms Madame Makeup

The Swatch Girl

Me, My Best and I

Miss Chew

Miss J. Shopaholic

Liebster Award

Rules:

1.       Link back to the person(s) who awarded you.

A HUGE thank you to Joann from luckyduckyloves and Olivia from The Unknown Beauty Blog (who does amazing things for up and coming beauty bloggers).

2.       Award three blogs who have less than 300 follows and that you believe should receive more attention and recognition for their wonderful blogs.

Beauty in the Sky

Pinkpurse21

All Things Beautiful…

BOLD Lips

Reds, oranges, hot pinks and plums - I'm loving the BOLD lips for winter 2011

I HEART Inglot

I first discovered my love of Inglot cosmetics way back in 2007 when a small counter appeared in my local Westfields. It was covered in a vast array of colourful powders, pigments and polishes offering professional product for a reasonable price and I always stopped by for a sneaky swatch but unfortunately the next year they closed down leaving the only two counters left in Sydney at Westfield Chatswood and Bondi Junction.

Inglot is well known for their Freedom System, which allows you to personally customise your own palette featuring countless colour combinations of face products.

When I recently discovered that Inglot launched an online store, I was so excited to get online and customise an Eye Shadow palette for myself and relive the love affair that began four years ago.

The colours are richly pigmented and really smooth and buttery to apply.  I chose a quad palette to try as I had previously read some reviews that sometimes colours can slightly differ in life to what they appear online (somewhat the case but either way I was very happy with the colours I chose).

Colours left to right;

395 PEARL, 397 PEARL, 460 DS, 378 MATTE

I purchased this palette online at inglotcosmetics.com for $45(AUD).

The POREfessional

Those of you who follow Beauty Soiree would know I purchased Benefit’s The POREfessional in April 2011 (featured in my Benefit Haul) and since then I have been using it on and off as my opinion has been quite mixed and I have been fence sitting for some time.

The POREfessional is a lightweight balm that is applied by lightly patting the product into your t-zone (forehead, cheeks, nose and chin) before or as I recently discovered, after your makeup application to erase all visible signs of enlarged pores creating a flawless base.

What they say….

The POREfessional; quickly minimize the appearance of pores! Apply this silky, lightweight balm for translucent pore coverage and smoother-than-smooth skin. Pores...now you see 'em, now you don't! Complements all skin tones.

What I say….

The product applies silky smooth and quickly soaks into skin. Pores are less visible however; I find that it doesn’t make a huge difference on my pores (but that maybe because I didn’t really have over enlarged pores to begin with) but I find the POREfessional acts like a “filler” to ensure an instant smoothing effect.

After learning that this product can also be applied after makeup, I find this way much more effective for me as I can really notice a difference where as when I applied under my makeup I was always straining to see if there was any noticeable improvement.

The product is lightly tinted (yellow toned beige) however once applied it offers little coverage so for those who are lucky enough to have darker complexions don’t be put off by the tint as it will provide a slight brightening effect (if anything at all).

The POREfessional comes in a 22.0 ml. (0.75 US fl. OZ.) tube which is a beautiful fresh turquoise colour and allows you to easily squeeze the right amount of product. A little goes a long way.. as I have had this product since April 2011 and have been using it at least three times per week and I have plenty left.

Purchase the POREfessional online at Benefit for $28.00(USD) with free international shipping on any $115(USD) order or from Adore Beauty for $53.00(AUD).

Nail Art – My First Attempt

I purchased some Nailene Bedazzle (for fingers and toes) today to try my hand at Nail Art. I always love reading/viewing nail art blog posts and one of my favourites are from Cosmetic Cupcake – she does really super cute designs and also has beautiful long nails.

The Nailene Bedazzle pack contains four sheets of nail art stickers - not the best selection of patterns but they were the only ones in the store and would do fine for my nail art experimenting.

Easy to use, I applied each sticker to my nail using tweezers; they are quite sticky so make sure you carefully place them in the desired position as repositioning can cause your nail polish to peel. I chose this pattern as it reminds me of little tiaras on each of my nails.

I purchased Nailene Bedazzle from Big W however Nail Art stickers are widely available at Priceline, drug stores and nail supply stores – just to name a few.

Nail Polish is Eyeko Vintage Polish in Jade Green.