Lancome Le French Touch Absolu Nu Lipstick in Cotton Candy - review and swatch

How sweet is this striped tube of lolly-inspired joy?! It makes my teeth ache just looking at it.

Lancome's Le French Touch Lipstick employs several of my favourite tactics - pretty packaging, prettier pink insides and le word 'le' used in le name. Le yay!

It applies sheer, but can be built up to amp up the pink. The above swatch shows a single stroke, then a few layers beneath. It's not a long lasting lip colour and you will have to reapply. The tube is cute, but it's smaller than your average lippy at a weeny 3 grams but for the same price which leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Normally cotton candy gets me all worked up like this...

Oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes

...and while a lipstick is no substitution for a real sugar-high, it does incite a similar reaction. Le yay!

OMFG lipstick!!

I picked mine up for a song (I'll Come To You by Hanson, to be precise) at a work beauty sale, so can't honestly say I would pay the A$49 for it as it's a sheer shade and for some reason I feel like it's a better deal if I'm buying a more highly pigmented lippie that stays put on my pout for the same price.

LUS Foot Exfoliation Peeling Sheets - review and discount code

Aren't feet gross? My feet especially. They are a whopping size 11 and all kinds of wide and finger-toed. I also have pretty rough skin from daily abuses like high heels, playing sports and stubbing my toes on the damn coffee table ultra-marathons. Not even a very accepting foot fetishist could love my baby dolphin sized stompers. I'm always keen to try something that makes them nicer. Like, as nice as feet can be anyway.

I recently received a package from Glow and Glamour packed with all kinds of nifty products. One of these being a pack of LUS Foot Exfoliation Peeling Sheets, an unknown brand to me (LUS seems to stand for Lovely Your Skin) from South Korea. Foot sheets are something I've never seen before, or even thought about. Sure, I've used foot creams and scrubs before, but nothing as involved as this. From the box's illustrations, I surmise that there will be peeling skin involved. My favourite!

NOTD - Revlon Midnight Affair - review, swatch and whinge

Peeping at my bottle of Revlon's Midnight Affair, it looks like a nice glossy dark blue with a slight shimmer, right? You'd think so, but it just so happens that Revlon apparently has a deep dark grudge against me and my nails and was waiting for just the right time to strike. Just waiting, watching, judging...

SOOOOOOOOOOOOON

Firstly, here are my nails with the three coats it took to build to an opaque shade, plus quick dry drops and top coat. Please ignore the shocking job I do of colouring within the lines, I've never had that hand-eye coordination thing down.

Ohh shiny!

I waited a half hour between each coat, then sat at my desk, fingers splayed while typing with my finger pads to avoid a smudge for just over three hours. They had to be dry right? Right?!

Nope

The little SOBs looked dry, and even felt dry, so I went and got lunch and did all my regular hand-related activities. The photo above is what they looked like twenty minutes later. I was so mad.

Those jerks

I was thinking maybe I just had a bad bottle, because I've never had an issue with Revlon polishes before, but then I realised every other colour I'd tried had been from their Top Speed line, not the classic line like this one. So Top Speed shades are a yay; regular formula, you get pushed to the back of my polish collection. I have about five or six bottles I haven't tried out yet, and honestly, I really don't want to now.


This concludes the Twisted Panties Story Hour, with your host Michaela. Stay tuned for next time, when I undoubtedly get my knickers in a knot over something trivial, but deeply annoying.


I bought this Revlon polish for A$5 at Gloss, in the QVB Sydney. Serves me right.

Guest post on Makeup Utopia

Today I've got a guest post up on Makeup Utopia showing my favourite make-up look for going from office to afterwork drinks to making bad decisions in a bar at 3am. Scoot your tooch over here to check that out.


In other news, I'm obsessed with Call Me Maybe. I know, I know, but aside from being a total earworm it's also so meme-appropriate. Can't stop laughing at this one.

Love you, internet!

Gorilla Perfume by Lush Breath of God - fragrance review

Another day, another Gorilla Perfume by Lush that I fancy the pants right off of. Breath of God is inspired by traditional Nepalese temples and this comes through in the use of smoky incense and damp earth notes that the scent is based around.


 It opens with a warm rockmelon and almost medicinal note - think a slice of melon rubbed down with Vick's Vapour Rub. Not the best image, but somehow it works. It then smokes that melon in a bonfire along with some freshly cut green sticks and lets it burn down to glowing embers, dropping in a bundle of incense and dried vetiver to smoke away and warm the damp surrounding soil. Winter comfort bliss in a tube. If you read my man fragrance post and are still undecided if guy's scents are for you (which they are, because I said so), try dipping your tentative nostril into this one as it's got the whole smoky green thing going on but is still softened by a background hint of rose, jasmine and neroli, plus that melon for all you fruity fans to cling to.

It's housed in the regular Gorilla black tube that is perfecto for travel as it stands up to the wear-n-tear hell my handbag's residents go through. The solid is a pretty blue colour and doesn't leave a coloured stain like that tarty Imogen Rose did. Like all GP solids, it's a push up tube. I think I would prefer a twist mechanism as my current method of lowering the raised solid (smushing it with the lid) isn't really the nicest way to treat a product.

Cedel Dry Conditioner - review

So we're all tried dry shampoo by now, right? Right! And we know it's super nifty for when you want to get rid of sweaty, greasy roots and can't be fricked actually washing your hair post-work out/four day bender/coitus or during that first and last time you go camping, right? Right! 


But, sometimes my hair feels a little, well, crispy after using dry shampoo. Something to do with the unholy combination of oily hair, powder product and vigorous brushing leaves my locks a little dried out. Serum or a spray conditioner won't help de-parch this time, as they will just pack my ass on the bullet train back to Greasetown. Upon seeing my distress signal light up the sky of Sydney (like the bat signal, but comb-shaped), Cedel immediately created a dry conditioner for me, designed to be used in tandem with its laziness-promoting brethren. 

That's the sound of angel harps and shit you hear

It's a foamy mousse that you work through your hair after using dry shampoo. I used about two Lindt balls worth of product which I very loosely combed through with my fingers.

NOTD - Mode nail polish in Luv-a-Lot - review and swatch

A super duper speedy nail of the day for y'all tonight*. Obviously I'm having a bit of a cheap thrill kick this week, after my last post on Ulta3 eyeshadow. Mode nail polishes clock in at teenie weenie A$2.45 each, as do the rest of the products made by the brand. This includes foundation, eyeliner and all kinds of el cheapo goodies. I'd never dream of trying a $2.45 foundation, but hey, after trying their polish and falling in love with its smooth application, opaque coverage and gorgeous colour, who knows? (Nope, sorry, I'm never going try a $2.45 foundation. You can't make me!).

Ulta3 Eyeshadow in Truffle - review and swatch

I'll admit I wasn't super interested in trying anything from Ulta3. This is because I can be a snob and I think things like "My precious eyelids are way too sensitive for something that costs less than a bag of hot chips. Begone, cheap and nasty, bring on the more suitable Giorgio Armani." Only the best for delicate flower Michaela. 

Not happening, Interwebs.

So of course I somehow ended up with an Ulta3 single eyeshadow from my local pharmacy (went in to buy Sudafed, left with bag of cosmetics and three types of gum). Of course it's an awesome shade which I've used regularly since, but have neglected to review it until now as its effectiveness is somehow an affront to my sensibilities. I know that makes zero sense, shut up!

Manning up - my five favourite men's fragrances ladies should try too

A girl on the M30 snuffled away next to me earlier this week. "You smell AMAZING!" she whispered. This is becoming a common scenario for me. Not because I totally kill with the public transport ladies, or because I have a lovely natural scent, a heady musk if you will. It's because I smelt like something comforting, something that she couldn't quite put her nasal passages on. I smelt just like her boyfriend in the best possible way. 

Having read the title of this post, you of course now know why I smelt like her boyfriend, right? It's because I was wearing her manfriend's signature scent. 

Now, I know hitting the boy's fragrance bottle isn't groundbreaking stuff, but there's a lot of ladies out there who may sneak a spray of their fella's fragrance once in a while, but don't dive into the men's perfume section at David Jones or what have you. By ignoring these choice scents, you're missing out on almost half of your possible options! What if your, and I mean YOUR signature perfume was one of the man-branded marketing miracles, and you are unknowingly missing out of years of nasal nirvana?! Silly, right?

As always, I'm here to confuse help, so buckle in for a nice long read. I personally feel that Autumn (which it is currently down Australia way) is a super time to man-handle your pulse points. Weather is cooling down, you're retiring your Summer scents, but may be hesitant on hauling out the cosy Winter warmers. A guy's pong in a bottle (I'm running out of words for perfume here!) could be the perfect inbetweener, as many feature notes like amber, musk and warm woods. 

Ready? Of course! Scared? No way! You're super brave! Here are my favourite manliest man scents for you non-men to try.

My number one man jam is the divine Amber Pour Homme Intense by Prada. Bergamot warms with its earl grey note, a clean patchouli and spicy myrrh creates a dark chocolate note, and the Madagascan vanilla makes it purr. I got this for myself and Boyfriend is the one stealing sprays when I'm not watching.

Try if: You like a woody gourmand, but want something more serious.

Reminds me of: A spiked Thierry Mulger Angel or one of many Black Phoenix Alchemy Laboratory oils on heat.