Perfect Dress #4 - Ava Adore

dress: c/o dahlia | jumper: target | belt: vintage | shoes & hat: rubi

let's be honest, when dahlia offered to send me one of their dresses i jumped at the chance. i find really transparent advertising in blog posts as unwelcome as the next person, so i wouldn't have accepted the offer if i didn't think it was relevant to me or my blog. but because it's a brand that i have loved for years and from whom i own at least 5 pieces that i've bought myself, i was thrilled! in fact i'd already written my previous post dedicated to this dahlia dress before i was even approached by the brand.

i thought this dress was quite brave for me, it has a lot of detail so i found that the best way to wear it is to keep it as simple as possible. i love the gold buttons and the scalloping and lace, and of course the fringing! it's like a really feminine cowgirl dress, which is right up my alley! i have a serious weakness for cowboy shirts and western themed clothing so this dress is no exception.

Perfect Dresses #3 - the Biscuit Dress

it's about damn time i took proper photos wearing this dress. designed and illustrated by the always lovely caitlin shearer, this dress was my present to myself when i got my current job almost a year ago. covered in watercolour illustrations of biscuits (as the name would suggest) this dress is perfect in every way for a lover of baked goods like myself. also if you look closely, i'm smiling with teeth in the top photo! i don't even have any issues with my teeth i just never show them when i smile for photos, but apparently there's a first time for everything.

Make Up Crazy

korres lip butter in pomegranate, bobbi brown orange rich colour gloss, too faced eyeshadow in deep space, maybelline moisture extreme lipstick in peach colada, maybelline mineral powder blush in true peach, revlon super lustrous lipstick in toast of new york, revlon just bitten stain & balm, stila lip glaze stick in orange, korres mascara, origins pinch your cheeks tint in coralberry

i don't know what it is, i can't explain it, but some sort of beauty obsessed demon must have possessed me in the last few months because i have gone make up CRAZY. i'm fully aware that i could have continued my life without buying any of these things, they're completely unnecessary and haven't enriched me as a person in any meaningful way, but it's just become so much fun. i've always had an obsession with lip products; glosses, balms, stains, lipsticks, all of it. but i've suddenly found myself totally infatuated with blushes (especially coral shades) and have spent hours poring over cosmetics websites trying to find the cheapest deals on products my new favourite youtube beauty bloggers have recommended.

this post isn't anywhere near all my recent purchases, after discovering a whole host of affordable websites and one hell of a priceline sale (40% off all cosmetics, be still my beating heart) i have quickly amassed a pretty decent collection of both drugstore and some high end products. probably not by beauty blogger standards but i think my demon is satiated for now. i'll also just note that apart from the priceline sale almost everything else i've bought has been online. make up in australia is pretty expensive so i definitely haven't paid full price (what i would be paying in a shop here) for probably anything i've bought. i may like to buy things but i'm smart with my money and i'd happily spend an hour or two online looking around for a bargain than go to the shops and pay full price - not that anyone's opinion of my financial situation is even vaguely interesting to me, but just so you know i don't drop $45 on a high end lipstick every other day.

i figured i'd do the beauty blogger thing and write little reviews while i'm at it, after all there's no point in just looking, if i were reading this i'd rather know if they're any good or not. the too faced eyeshadow in deep space was completely unnecessary as i hardly even wear eyeshadow but isn't it the prettiest thing you've ever seen?! it's navy blue and white with a pale blue shimmer throughout. i don't even know where to begin with blue eyeshadow (i'm going to have to look up some youtube tutorials) but for now it was worth buying just to look at!

i'd never used anything like the stila glaze stick before but it's a lightly pigmented lipgloss in crayon form. i don't know who thinks of these things but i quite like using it and it's a good quality product that i'd probably buy again. unfortunately i was really disappointed with the revlon lip stain, i found that it barely pigmented my lips at all and didn't go on evenly or really look all that nice. if you're after a lipstick alternative skip the balm stain and go for the revlon lip butters, they are amazing! the two lipsticks were a bit of a chance and neither of them turned out to be what i expected. the revlon one is a lot more brown than i would normally wear but i think if i wore it with an orangey lipgloss over the top it'll come out more of a deep coral. the maybelline peach colada lipstick is really sheer and a lot more like a lipgloss than a lipstick and it's also a bit too glittery for my tastes. the bobbi brown lipgloss is really lovely, i was hoping it would be more pigmented it but smells great, isn't too sticky on the lips and isn't glittery, despite looking like it is in the tube.

nars blush/highlighter duo in albatross and orgasm

stila glaze lip liners bought in a pack of 8

korres lip butters in pomegranate, jasmine and guava, and above korres liquid lipstick in raspberry and lip butter glaze in jasmine

of course being newly blush obsessed one of my first purchases had to be nars' orgasm. i'm know they have lots of other beautiful shades and this is by far the most hyped, but i thought it'd be a good place to start, and it's in a duo with a gorgeous highlighter so what's not to love? i haven't had much of a chance to use the stila lip liners but they came in a pack of 8 and i think almost all of the colours will suit me so i've managed to buy all the lip liner i'll ever need in one go. the korres lip butters are fantastic, they're lightly pigmented and lightly fraganced and feel so lovely on, i started out with just pomegranate and had to buy a few more!

i know there can be problems with buying online, the most irritating one being when you receive a product you thought would suit you and then finding that in real life it looks terrible on your skintone or that the quality isn't up to scratch. i know it's not foolproof because every person and their skin is different, but to minimise the risk, i'll look up just about everything i buy on makeupalley first and read the reviews and check the product rating. if you're worried something is going to be cheap and nasty have a look and if it has 100+ positive reviews and a 4.6 on makeupalley, it's probably worth buying! i also try and google swatches so i can get an idea of whether or not the colour will suit me before i part with my money. everything in this post was bought from all cosmetics wholesale which is one of the best stores i've come across. their shipping is quite expensive but if you average it out across the number of products you're buying it only adds a few dollars to their very affordable prices so i'll definitely be buying from there again.