Make-up is lowering our self-esteem ... um what?

I recently saw some articles and debates circulating online that made me quite mad. Now I need to put this straight, I am not a hardcore no bra wearing radical feminist, and nor do I bow down helplessly at the feet of a man - but I do believe in women's rights. I believe that we should have an equal say, treatment and opportunity, I believe women should do whatever the hell they want with their bodies, and pursue any career path they damn well choose, whether that means being a full-time mother or full-time engineer. So when I read that make-up out of all things is holding women back from true equality and is damaging our self-esteem, I wanted to stab myself with my stippling brush (probably wouldn't do much damage but hey, you catch my drift).

A little beauty haul

It seems like my little (or not so little) obsession is getting the better of me. For the past month, I've been trying to commit to a 'no spending' ban, because really the amount I spend on beauty products is getting a tad out of hand, and also because I am going overseas next month and need to save up for that. Clearly, the ban didn't work (*sigh). What started as a trip to the shopping centre to buy some little bits and pieces ended up being a beauty haul after seeing those super bad red 'sale' tags that lure me in every time. Oh well, a little bit of new products never hurt anyone right? RIGHT?

So I guess the 'drugstore' equivalent store in Australia is probably Priceline, and at the moment they have a 25% off sale on Rimmel products and 20% off Bourjois products. Obviously I needed to snap that bargain up, and I finally bought the healthy mix and 123 perfect foundations, the healthy mix concealer, and the Rimmel stay matte powder in translucent. I've heard mixed reviews about these products, but I thought I would give it a go for myself. Hopefully I'll post some reviews on all these products in the near future! The real techniques stippling brush was just a little something extra that I decided to buy (not on sale unfortunately).

This Palmolive coconut body scrub is honestly one of the most delicious scrubs I've smelt, ever. I originally intended to buy the Mango body butter body wash, but seeing this little gem on shelves changed my mind entirely. I personally prefer scrubs that are in a bottle/tube than in a tub. I hate opening them in the shower and because I am such a clutz, I either drop the tub or get water in it, yea stupid I know.

And finally some eye and nail products. I decided to try out the Revlon colour stay nail polish in Bare Bones after seeing Essie Button rave on about it on her blog, let me tell you she did not exaggerate.  I am currently wearing them on my nails and I am in LOVE. I would say it is more on the grey side than being a true 'nude' but I love it regardless. I also bought some colour tattoo eye colours in bad to the bronze and tough as taupe, both on sale for $7, I will probably buy some more. And lastly, my favourite Rimmel eye liner, exaggerate waterproof eye definer in noir. I have extremely oily lids and my liner smudges pretty easily and this one of the liners I have found that doesn't smudge at all.

There you have it, my first beauty haul post! What beauty products have you purchased recently? Do you have any of these products? What do you think of them?

Urban Decay Naked Basics | Review & Swatches

I can safely say that I am huge fan of the Urban Decay Naked eye palettes. I just love the neutral colours of both palettes, and I am particularly fond of the matte ones. So when I heard that they would releasing this minature addition it was a no brainer for me to jump on board.

At the moment I am hitting the pan on the nude colours of my Naked 2 palette, in particular 'Foxy' (one of my fave colours to use as an eyeshadow base) so it gave me even more reason to buy this palette. And if for some reason that wasn't enough to sway me, the palette was on sale on Beauty Bay for $28 (the beauty Gods were practically begging for me to buy it).

The palette itself is a lot smaller than what I expected and is a more 'rubbery plastic' texture, kinda similar to NARS packaging. While I knew that it wouldn't be any way as big as the original naked palettes, I still expected it to be slightly bigger than what it is. As you can see in the picture below, the palette fits perfectly in the palm of my hand, which I guess makes it a lot easier to hold and much easier to travel with. Despite all of that, the eye shadows are the same as the full sized palettes, so you are receiving the exact same amount of product.

Like the other Naked palettes, the colours are fairly pigmented. Even on my pale skin you can still make out the swatches of the more nude colours (though just barely). To my delight all the colours on the palette are matte except Venus which would be used as a highlighter.

From left to right the colours are as follows: Venus (soft, off-white demi-matte), Foxy (a matte light yellow/beige), Walk of Shame (a matte light pink nude) Naked 2 (greyish taupe matte), Faint (a matte mid-tone dusty brown), and Crave (dark brown matte). The shadows are incredibly smooth and silky, apply easily and in my opinion are long lasting (consideing I have oily lids). Only 4 out of the 6 colours are originals, (Foxy is in Naked 2, and W.O.S is in build your palettes), and some of the colours are similar to other shades in the Naked range - Venus is similar to Bootycall in Naked 2 and Crave is similar to Blackout.

All in all, If you're not a fan of nudes and/or matte colours I would suggest that you skip this palette as it clearly wouldn't be for you. However, if you are like me and love matte and nude colours, I say that this is a must have for you. I personally love this palette and would be ready to recommend it.

Do you have the Naked Basics Palette? What do you think?

Hello!

Welcome to cece & grace, I'm pretty bad at the whole introduction thing, but anywho my name is Chantalle and this is my second attempt at blogging.

I had previously been running a personal blog/whatever tickles my fancy shindig over at Tumblr for a few years now under the name chntlove. However, at some point in time I guess you could say a hit a quarter life crisis, lost my muse and had no idea what I was doing anymore and therefore stopped blogging completely. Now, I have finally decided to re-emerge and take a crack at blogging in a more 'professional' environment. Please be ever so kind to me, I can't say I'm new to this thing per say by golly gosh Blogspot has been a scary/forbidden place for me to enter, but here I am ladies and gents, round of applause please. 

So what will my blog be about anyway? Well basically a bit everything, pretty much like me who likes a bit everything. There will be some personal stuff (but nothing gory or sappy I promise), some beauty or fashion related posts (but mostly beauty because who am I kidding I ain't fashionable), some ranty/complaining posts about life, society and whatever else (because apparently I am whiny, judgmental person who can't keep my opinions to myself), some reviews, and whatever else. I hope that you will embark on this journey with me as I try to navigate the blogger hemisphere!