Essence Stay With Me Lipgloss REVIEW!

I have really been loving Essence's Stay with me long lasting lipgloss' and I wanted to tell you all about them!
They are available in Target and Priceline in Australia and retail for only $3.95 each!!

I have four shades:
09 Hottest Pink
03 Candy Bar
01 Me & My Ice-cream
08 Deep Rose

I absolutely love all the colours, the applicator is amazing, the lip gloss goes on quickly, one coat and stays on for hours.
They have great colour pay off, it actually looks like really shiny lipstick, but it doesn't dry out your lips.
And A new colour has just been released (hottest pink) which is perfect for the upcoming summer season. As the name suggests, it is literally the hottest pink. Haha! But it looks awesome on!

September Bellabox: Spring in your step!

My September Bellabox finally arrived today! There was a bit of an administrative issue but I will get into that at the end of this post.

Bellabox produced another fantastic box this month and it was definitely worth the wait (and the $15!!)

It contained one full size product and five good-sized samples.

WHATS IN THE BOX?
1. 75ml (full size) You me & Everybody Sumptuous Skin Mousse: suitable for use on the face, hands and body, designed for dry skin relief using patented Proderm technology to "make your skin feel luscious and smooth". RRP$13.99

2. 30ml Uhaircare Style Beehold: create body in fine hair, curl retention in wavy hair and to provide thermal protection, plus humidity resistance. 150ml RRP$32.00

3. Savoir Faire Concealer Kit: Samples of 4 conceler shades and two finishing powders. Full size due concealer and finishing powder set RRP$35.00

4. 10ml Bioderma Sebium Foaming Gel: purifies skin with soap-free, alcohol-free formula, kind to sensitive skin.

Adorable tiny version of the Benefit eye cream jar :P

5. 5ml Bioderma Sebium AKN Purifying Corrective Care: moisturises the skin whilst aiding in the elimination of blemishes and blackheads.

6. 3g Benefit It's Potent! Eye Cream: works to fade dark circles and helps to smooth fine lines for brighter and younger looking eyes. (It also comes in the most adorable little jar! :P)

+ $15 off at theiconic.com.au



THE ISSUES
I have been subscribes to Bellabox for four months now and have never had a problem. Usually I would receive the box within two days of it's release. However, this month I still hadn't receved it about a week after, when Bellabox published the contents of the box on their Facebook page.
I looked on my Bellabox account an the september box had not shown up in 'my orders', meaning that it had not been shipped, however the money had come out of my account.
I emailed customer service, twice, but they did eventually get back to me. They said there had been some sort of system error which had meant that while my payment had gone through successfully my order was never actually placed.
While all of this was rather disappointing, they did respond very well. They sent me an apology Email, sent my box out straight away and added a few extra products to apologise for the inconvenience.
Overall, I thought their response was excellent after an unfortunate mis hap.

THE EXTRAS
These are the extra products I received as an apology:

1. Single use samples of Pangea Organics - Japanese Matcha Tea with Acai & Goji Berry facial mask, Turkish rose and white tea eye cream, italian red mandarin with rose facial cream and Australian Wild plum & willow Facial cleanser.
2. 15ml Neutrogena Deep Clean Gentle, oil free scrub
3. Full size yes to carrots, conditioning lip butter with SPF 15 in Pomegranate.

THE WEBSITE
www.bellabox.com.au
$15 a month subscription service.
One box per month filled with 5-6 high-end health and beauty products in a mixture of sample and full size.

Until next time :) xx

**This is not a sponsored post, I was not paid by any of the companies mentioned, all products were purchased with my own money, all opinions my own. 

MAC and Target in legal battle

Most of you would already know this, but in case you have been living under a rock, a couple of months ago Target Australia started selling MAC Cosmetics at selected stores as part of it's Designers for Target range.

The cosmetics were being sold at highly discounted prices (some things 40-50% off) and a lot of people were suspicious of whether the products might have been fake. At the time Target denied all claims that the products were not authentic, despite claims from many long-time MAC users that they could see differences in the products. MAC also claimed that they had not authorised the supply of any of their products to Target Australia.

We sort of stopped hearing about it for a while after that. Until this week that is. Over the last couple of days Estee Lauder, parent company of MAC, released a statement claiming that extensive testing in their US laboratories had determined that the products being sold in Target were Counterfeit.

While Target continues to deny the claims, they have removed all MAC products from their shelves and their website.

Target has also confirmed it is now involved in legal proceedings with Estee Lauder, although no details have been made available.

While I never purchased any of the products myself, I did believe they were real. Naive I guess, but I really didn't think a retailer as big as Target would do something like that. I assumed they would have known they couldn't get away with it, and therefore wouldn't dare do it. But alas, evidence would now seem to suggest that I was wrong.

I am highly disappointed in Target. It is hard enough to find affordable cosmetics in Australia and then a massive, trusted retailer goes and does something like this. I wouldn't be surprised if big brand cosmetics companies such as MAC begin to be much more reluctant to offer deals on their products in conjunction with larger retailers now. This can only be bad news for the Australian consumer.

On this note, I would like to draw attention to an excellent campaign being run by llamasqua, to increase competition in the Australian beauty market and drive prices down. Anyone whose ever bought make-up in Australia will know how unbelievably overpriced it can be here. Up to double sometimes almost triple what you would pay in the US or Europe (even taking into consideration the exchange rate), so a campaign like this can only be good.

Llamasqua has significantly reduced the price of it's own beauty products, and there have been rumours other high-end make-up brands are planning to follow suit. To join the campaign please sign the petition HERE.

While you're on the website you can also check out their new line Generation Q, which was released this week.

Until next time, xxx

Llamasqua Slogan in their fight for cheaper beauty products in Australia.