AContour Kit: Swatches and Review

I'm sure you have all heard of the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kits. They're all the rage at the moment, either powder or cream. So today I am bringing to you a cheaper alternative. ABH Contour Kit runs at $40US, this is roughly $50NZ. Since not everyone has a spare $50 lying around, if you can get your hands on it, pick up the Australis AContour Kit. This can be purchased from Farmers for $21.50. That's less than half of what the ABH Kit is worth! I have tried both the ABH kit and obviously the Australis one. I prefer the Australis one. Not only is it so much more cheaper, but I also found it to be a whole lot more pigmented. Both brands don't test on animals either, which is a massive plus in my book!

The only downside about the Australis contour kit is that it only comes in the one "shade". I'm super pale, (MAC NW15) and it still suits me fine. I'm not sure how it would work if you have darker skin.

Heres the ABH Contour Kit versus the Australis AContour Kit:

ABH Contour Kit

Australis AContour Kit

As you can see, they are pretty much the same. The quality is basically the same too, so it just depends on whether you want to spend $50 or $20. You really can't go wrong with either. 

I'll leave some swatches of the Australis kit below so you can see a real life swatch of the colours. 

Swatches of the highlight shades

Swatches of the contour shades

I hope this helps you out, and that the swatches help. I really love the Australis Contour Kit, and if you've tried it, let me know how you got on with it!

Shannen xx

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Battle of the Cruelty Free Eyebrow Products

As a strong lover of all things makeup, I am trying to build my collection in a cruelty free way. This can be quite difficult as there is limited products to choose from in New Zealand. It's also quite difficult to know who is actually cruelty free, because some sites are not very reliable. So here I am bringing you a post that will help you bring a decent cruelty free brand.

First topic of this maybe ongoing series is eyebrow products. Now we all know that eyebrows are important, they frame the face. So we need good products that will do that, and last.

The first product is a well known brand called E.L.F. I picked mine up from K-mart for $10 and it's in the colour Ash Blonde. This will also be well known as Shaaanxo uses it a lot in her videos. E.L.F. is a famous cruelty free brand, as well as being super affordable.

The second product is Australis Eyebrow pencil. This was about $12 I think, and is also from K-mart. Mine is in Blonde. This is much warmer than the E.L.F. product, but is really nice and easy for me to use if I'm in a rush.

The last product is W7 Brow Twister in Hazel Blonde. I got this from a makeup sale and I technically paid $5 for it. It was part of a 2 for $10 deal. This is my most recent purchase and is also the darkest out of the 3. I wasn't too sure about the status of cruelty free -ness on this brand. I had to do extensive research to find it out, and thankfully it is. It's also a UK brand, which I've been told has very strict rules and regulations on animal testing making it very difficult to actually test on animals.

At the moment, my W7 brow pencil is my favourite. Its not as quick and easy as my Australis pencil, but it doesn't take as long to do my brows if I used E.L.F. and a brush. I use E.L.F. when I have heaps of time to focus on really stencilling my brows on. E.L.F is definitely the perfect match for my brows, but I'm really enjoying the darkness of W7 right now. It might have something to do with me growing my hair out so my natural hair colour appears darker in comparison to the bleach, but I'm not really sure. Australis is too warm for my hair colour in general, but just to chuck it on lightly in a rush does the job, so I'm not going to complain.

If you have any of these products, let me know how you like them. Or if you buy one of them after reading this, let time know how they work for you.

Don't forget to check out my links listed below. If you have any idea how I can get all my links and social media to match my Instagram username, let me know. I've been trying to get them all to match for ages!

Shannen xx

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Matte Lip Creams; Swatches and Comparisons

At the moment, in the makeup world, there has been an insurgence of lip creams, glosses and stains. These are really good if you want a bright opaque colour, but don't like to reapply every hour or so. They are a great way to finish off any outfit, by either making it a stand out point, or matching it to an aspect of your outfit.

I have 3 Australis Velour Lips and 2 Lime Crime Velvetines that I am going to swatch and compare for you today. In my personal opinion, Velour Lips are a cheaper alternative to Velvetines, as they retail for about $15 whereas Velvetines are about $30.

Both brands are great if you are trying to abstain from purchasing cruel products, as they are both against animal testing. I'm not sure if either brand is completely vegan, but at least they are one step closer to being vegan.

I'm going to swatch Lime Crime first, as I only have 2. I also find that Velvetines are a much thinner formula than Australis. With every swatch, I'm going to include a photo with flash, and without so that you can get a better idea of what the colours look like.

The first colour is Utopia. It is a bright purple colour with pink, or warm, undertones. This formula is quite thin and I find two coats is perfect.

With Flash

Without Flash

The next colour is Wicked. Wicked is a dark, vampy red. This is thicker in formula than Utopia and only requires one good coat.

With Flash

Without Flash

The first Australis colour is called Rio'D. It's a very bright, even neon, orange. I find that the formula for these are very thick, and can be quite drying.

No Flash

With Flash

Second is called Ma-Li-Boo. This colour is a very bright pink. Its quite a true pink in my opinion, as I can't see it swaying towards warmer or cooler tones.

With Flash

Without Flash

Lastly, we have Ny-Cee. This is a real 50s pin-up kind of red. A lighter version to Lime Crime's Wicked. It's definitely blue based rather than orange.

With Flash

Without Flash

I hope this post helped you out with the different matte lip products you can get. This is just comparing two different brands, but there are countless more out there on the market. If you liked this post, let me know and I can see what other lip swatches and comparisons I can do.

Shannen xx
Photos taken on a Canon 600D
18-55mm lens used
PicMonkey.com used to edit photos

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Lipstick Collection!

Now I know that my collection of 15 lipsticks isn't a very large collection, but it is my favourite type of makeup, so I tend to buy more lipstick than anything else. I always thought that reds were my favourite colour of lipstick, but now that I've gone through all of my colours, I can now see that I seem to gravitate towards oranges. I honestly would never have picked up on that ever. 

I feel that lipstick really completes my look. Whether I have minimal make up or I've gone all out an have my winged eyeliner done too. Even if I'm having a low self esteem day, putting lipstick on makes my day a little bit brighter and bearable. 

Lipstick adds a little bit of fun to any look, and makes you stand out just that little bit more. Because I have blue hair, any colour will go, but when I had pink hair, I found it much harder to wear lipstick because pinks were out of the question in my opinion, otherwise I would be overloading on the pink. Reds were also out as I felt it was too much from one colour family. So while I had pink hair, I didn't wear lipstick much, and I felt like I wasn't putting any effort into how I looked. Once I went back to natural hair, my love for lipstick grew even more and that was when my collection really grew. I could rock any colour I wanted and it wouldn't clash with my hair. It didn't help that my beloved loves it when I wear lipstick, so I bought more so I had a greater variety to pick from and not just a couple to alternate between.

The furtherest left picture, going down, I have Jordana Cherry, Lush A Million Kisses, Revlon Colourstay Ultimate Top Tomatoe and a random freebie that my friend gave me.

The middle left picture I have, going down, BYS Duo in Kiss Me Coral, Collection Passionfruit, Collection Mango Tango, Nutrimetics Flame and Australis Velourlips Rio'd.

Middle right I have, Collection Sweet Tart, BYS I Don't Pink So and BYS Flirty Fuchsia.

Lastly, on the very right I've got, BYS Baby Doll, BYS Cranberry Red and Australis ColourInject Grunge.

Hope you enjoyed!

Shannen xx

All photos taken on a Canon 600D

18-55mm lens used

Photos edited on fotor.com

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