My top 5 favourite beauty gurus.

Hey guys!
So in my free time, I watch a lot of beauty videos on YouTube, and there's a few beauty gurus I find myself always coming back to for new product reviews, their favourites or even just general updates on their life. So I thought I would share them with you so you guys can have the privilege of checking them out!

5. Lindsey Hughes aka beautybaby44


Lindsey makes beauty, fashion and hair videos. I love her because she's fun, flirty and super girly! Her videos include things like hauls, reviews, monthly favourites, tag videos and tutorials. She also has a side channel called LivinLikeLindsey where she uploads vlogs and updates about her life. I love all her videos, but I especially love her lifestyle vlogs as it gives us a better insight into the funny, fun and amazing side of Lindsey that doesn't always come across in her beauty videos.


4. Meghan Hughes aka MissMeghanMakeup



Yep, if you didn't guess it from the last name, Meghan is Lindsey's younger sister! Also making videos along the same line as Lindsey, including, beauty, fashion, hair, haul, tags etc, Meghan has a completely different video style to her sister. Meghan is so unapologetically herself, which makes her videos so fun to watch, and a fun mix up from regular beauty videos. She manages to make me laugh in every video, and when she gets together for a video with her best friend, Neven, things get a bit cray cray. She is such a unique vlogger and person, and her and I would get along really well.

3. Emily Eddington aka emilynoel83


Emily is a new anchor turned beauty guru and believe me, I could not be happier about it! Emily's videos are unlike any other. She does a lot of reviews, and she thoroughly goes through every product and answers questions about it that you don't even know you have yet! She always gives her honest opinion and like I said, always does her research and tests thoroughly before she gives us an unbiased opinion on the product! She's cute, quirky and super easy to watch. She's my go to guru to get the low down on the latest products. She has also just created a side channel called BeautyBroadcastExpress, where she does quick 5 minute reviews on even more products. Go check her out for the 411 on everything beauty!

2. Casey Holmes aka itsbl0ndie


Casey is one of my all time favourite beauty gurus. She puts out videos so regularly, and never fails to disappoint. She's one of the most versatile vloggers that I watch. Most of the gurus I watch either mainly do tutorials or reviews or hauls, but Casey does them all, and she does them to damn near perfection! She is super beautiful and girly, but at the same time her fashion style is grungy and very on trend. She's very honest and upfront about the products she reviews, and she often adds a cute sense of humour to them as well. She is so easy to watch and I've even had the privilege of having some replies off her on twitter - in which she is always humble and talkative. I cannot say enough good things about her, so everyone go and check her out!

1. Bunny Meyer aka grav3yardgirl


Bunny is my Swamp Queen, my saviour and my life. I stumbled upon her entirely by accident around 2 years ago. I never watched YouTube unless it was to look for a music video, and one day, on my recommended videos, I seen a thumbnail of this bizzare looking girl with crimped hair and bright red lipstick. (click this link here if you want to check it out). I don't know what made me click on the video, but I could not be more glad that I did. I watched that video from beginning to end with undivided attention, and after it was done, I went through and watched all her old videos. From that moment on, I was hooked on her infectious personality. Bunny has grown so much as a person and as a vlogger, especially over the last 2 years and I am so glad that I have got to watch her. Not only is she an amazing beauty guru, she is also an advocate for anti-bullying campaigns and often talks about her own experiences with bullying and gives advice to try and help. She is also very open with the fact that she suffers from a severe anxiety disorder, which often can take over her days and her daily lifestyle. However Bunny never lets it get her down for long, and always takes her misfortunes in her stride and comes out on the other side a little bit stronger each time. She recently just hit one million followers, which I think is truly deserves. She loves all her subscribers, and refers to us all as her "Swamp Family". She lives in Texas on a swamp, and signs off all her videos with "If you subscribe you'll give an alligator it's wings". She's weird, wacky, individual, unapologetic, beautiful and there is nothing I don't love about her. I enjoy every single video, and I very much hope that one day I can meet her. I love you Bunny!!!

Stila review!

Hey guys!
So yesterday morning I traveled down to Sydney with Bert, his sister and her friend, to take them to One Direction. Bert and I didn't go, but the girls needed a lift down and Bert needed company so I went along too. When we arrived, we pretty much headed straight to Parramatta Westfield for a bit of retail therapy! Parramatta Westfield is my new favourite place to shop, as the Myer there stocks Benefit and Mac. The trip was a bit unexpected, so I didn't really have much money. Nevertheless, I was umming and ahhing over some Benefit products, but managed to pull myself away. However, while browsing around the stores I came across a store called Mecca Maxima. I was immediately drawn in as I noticed Soap and Glory products on the wall (Soap and Glory is a UK skin care and cosmetic store which you can't get in Australia - or so I thought). While I was deciding what to get, Bert got my attention by saying "Nars Laguna Bronzer", and as I turned around it was like everything was going in slow motion. Every single brand I had ever heard of on YouTube but never seen in real life was right in front of me. Too Faced, Nars, Stila, Bobbi Brown, Hourglass, SmashBox, bareMinerals, it was all there. Now, I watch a lot of YouTube, and I'm always so jealous of the beauty gurus who have these products readily available to them in stores, or without having to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. For an Aussie beauty girl, discovering a place containing make up I've only ever dreamed about was like finding nirvana. I was browsing the Stila display and found a duo that contained the much raved about Kitten eyeshadow, and another eyeshadow which I can't remember the shade of. I finally got to try the infamous kitten eyeshadow, and let me tell you, the hype around this shadow is well deserved. For those who don't know, kitten is a gold-y, champagne-y, iridescent colour, which can neither be described or captured in a photo, so if you have the chance, GO CHECK IT OUT. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED I PROMISE. I immediately knew I had to have it, but as it turned out, they didn't have any of the duo I was looking at left. Then I tried to find a single one, but they didn't have any single ones either. I was starting to get sad, cos I really didn't want to leave the store without that damn eyeshadow. I then noticed they stocked the Stila "In The ..." palettes. I started frantically looking through them, and found one that contained the kitten shade which is the "In The Light" palette. You might be thinking "you bought a whole palette for one eyeshadow?!" so I'm going to insert the pictures now so you know why I'm not crazy.

Every single colour in this palette is absolutely gorgeous! I would recommend it a thousand times over. I have the Urban Decay naked palettes, which I love, but this palette knocks it out of the park. The colours are SO pigmented and so opaque, yet they're all really natural so you can get an every day look as well as using the darker colours for a smoky, sultry look. The 5 colours on the top of the palette from left to right are: bare, kitten, bliss, sunset and sandstone. The colours on the bottom from left to right are: bubbly, gilded gold, luster, night sky and ebony. Then you also get a smudge stick waterproof eyeliner in damsel, which is a very dark brown, which almost looks black. There's a lot of very shimmery, iridescent colours but there's also more muted colours like ebony and sandstone which still have glitter in them, but it's very, very discreet. They have a very soft, velvety consistency but still hold their own really well without too much fallout. This palette is so versatile and in my opinion is a must have in anyone's make up collection. Beginner, expert, absolutely everyone should experience these eyeshadows. Stila really hit the nail on the head with this one. I'm very impressed and also very excited to try out some more Stila products! 10/10.

Check out Mecca Maxima here if you're in Australia.

Check out Stila directly here if you're anywhere else!

Afternoons spent with you doing nothing are never wasted.

There is nothing I love more than being tangled up in your arms on a spring afternoon, lazing around in bed. The sunlight sneaking in through the slivers of closed blinds and lighting up your hazel eyes in a kaleidoscope of beauty. 

I love watching your long eyelashes flutter with every blink, as I softly trace the outline of your mouth with mine. I can feel the way you shudder into my body as I run my hands up and down your spine. As I look up at you, and you look down at me, I know right then and there that this is our perfect moment. Some people have their perfect moments atop bridges, or gardens, or in restaraunts or in great displays of grandeur, but for us it is none of those. For us, our perfect moment is the simplicity of our bodies being close enough that our hearts beat against each other in a symphony of happiness. It is the feeling of safety and warmth that only comes from being wrapped up in another person. It is the knowledge that when you look up at that person you know that in 10, 30, 60, 100 years time, you will have a thousand more perfect moments like this, each even more special than the last. 

No, afternoons spent with you doing nothing, are never wasted. 

Retrospect.

It's funny, isn't it? The way your world can change in an instant.
People make fun of the saying "life is short". "Life is the longest damn thing you'll ever do", they say. I used to agree. I'd laugh jovially in agreement. I used to hate life. Loathe it. I spent 90% of my teenage years longing to die. I tried it, once. To take my own life. I downed some pills and bottle of vodka and spent the night retching up nothing on my bathroom floor. Looking back, I can't help but feel I didn't try too hard. The human survival instinct is one of the strongest things we have in this world, and I think that is what overcome my senses the night I took a handful of headache tablets and drank cheap liquor.

4 months ago, my grandfather died. He was the first person in my immediate family to pass. We don't have a very big family. I've had great grandmothers and great aunties pass, but I didn't know them. I didn't even know about them 'til the day they passed. But my grandfather's death hit my like a ton of bricks. I was at work, and my mother come in and she was crying. I thought my grandmother as passed as she has been hospitalised for almost a year. When all she said was Fardy (which is what us kids lovingly called our grandfather), my first instinct was to cry. I was numb and I didn't know what else to do. The realisation that this was the end of the life of someone I cared about didn't hit me until a day later. I was staying at Bert's house and I went and called my dad (it was his father) to let him know that I was thinking about him. My mother put him on the phone, and I wasn't prepared for the grief in his voice as he spoke. After that phone call, I wrapped myself up in Bert's arms and I wept and I wept and I wept. Ever since that day, I can't stop thinking about death.

Shortly after my grandfather's death, a young internet personality named Talia Joy lost her 6 year long battle with cancer. She was only 13. I religiously watched her beauty videos, all the while being astounded that someone so young could talk about her condition and the fact that she's going to die with such a nonplussing attitude. Upon finding out of her death, I spent the next few days in bed, holding close to my heart my grandfather and Talia. My grandfather was in his 90's when he died. Talia was 13. Neither of those amount of years seem to be long enough to me.

Then, almost 2 weeks ago, almost 3 months after my grandfather passed, my grandmother joined him. While again, my first instinct was to cry, I accepted her death a lot more quickly than my grandfather's. I would never be happy that someone is gone, I'm glad that she is finally at peace. As I said in a previous post, she was 92 years old, with terrible arthritis in her fingers which prevented her to be able to knit, bake, hold a book to read it, and pretty much anything she loved. She hated TV and music, and at 92 she was put on anti-depressants. Even after his death, she always asked when Phil (my grandfather) was coming to visit. It broke my heart. I think that when you are married for so long (almost 60 years) it gets to the point where you physically cannot live without the other one. While living to such an age is a blessing, sometimes old age is also a curse.

I cannot even fathom the fact that one day, I won't be here any more. That one day, I won't be able to breathe, or think, or know whether I'm dead or alive. And it terrifies me. It terrifies me that one day my parents will die, that Bert will die.. and I think about it all the time.

Life is so fucking short. It is a shooting star, a fleeting instance, a breath, a blink. It is over without warning and we are powerless to stop it.

My grandmother passed away last night.

I'm obviously devastated, but in some way, I'm glad she's at peace. For almost a year she was holed up in a nursing home. Her arthritis was so bad, she couldn't knit or do anything with her hands. She hated TV. Her eyes were gone so she couldn't read, and she could only listen to music for a shirt period of time before it aggravated her. We knew straight from the get go that she wouldn't be able to go home, but she always talked about going home. She was so depressed. They even put her on anti-depressants. The days must have felt like months in that place. After my grandfather died, she started to go even more downhill. She kept asking "when's Phil coming to visit?" and mum would have to remind her. "Oh. No more Phil." she would say. It broke my heart. I hope Fardy came to meet her to take her into the afterlife. It is a tragedy she is gone but I hope she's finally happy.

Busy busy!

So it's been a pretty crazy few weeks!
I worked 60 hours in 9 days, and I've never worked that much in my whole entire life - ever! So that took a lot out of me. I would wake up, go to work at 1pm, and not get home til almost 11 most nights. The only reason I worked that many hours is because I was doing some favours for some work mates. But I got through it, and now they owe me one so yeah.
Bert's been working such shitty hours and I've barely been able to see him which sucks. He stayed over last night and called in sick today to look after me due to some emotional and health issues which was wonderful of him. It was nice to be able to spend some proper time with him.
Due to being so busy I haven't even been able to try my new Avon products that I got! Look out for a haul and review coming on those.
Also today I received in the mail my Black Milk Blood Splatter suspender leggings!!!!!!!!!!! I could not be more happy. They fit great which I was surprised with, but also very happy. I also have a velvet skater skirt coming from ASOS so look out for some outfit posts on them.
I'm also accumulating a lot of stuff for my darling's birthday in a little over a month.
We're off to Sydney in 2 weeks for 2 days to accompany his sister and her friend to One Direction.
Then in 2 months we're off to Melbourne for Stereosonic!

Busy busy - but look out for some more posts soon.