Australis Ready Set Go finishing powder - product review

Hello beauties!

Today we bring you a review of what I honestly believe to be one of the best loose powders on the budget beauty market - the Australis Ready Set Go Finishing powder.

You get a very decent amount of product for the affordable price of AUD12.95. The powder is very very fine and comes in sleek black and white packaging. The idea is same as with most loose powders - you put a small amount of powder into the lid and use a brush to apply it. I personally use a small dome-shaped fluffy brush with natural bristles but I'm sure it would work just as well with a synthetic brush.

The powder is so fine I find it doesn't settle in any of the fine lines once applied and does not cake up no matter what foundation it is used over. Since my skin is not particularly oily normally I only tend to use this powder to seal in the concealer, particularly under the eyes and over blemishes. In summer to ensure my skin stays matte I'll also apply it lightly over the t-zone.

Pros: 

• it does keep makeup in place very nicely;
• it is quite long-lasting;
• it is a true translucent powder and will work for any skin tone;
• the relatively small jar will last you a long time as you only need a small amount of powder at a time;
• great value for money.

Cons: 

• it gets messy quite quickly - the product easily spills into the lid when the lid is on;
• you want to make sure you use a small amount and blend the powder well after you dust it on - otherwise it does leave white residue;
• this powder probably won't completely take the shine away on oily skin - then again, it doesn't set out to fulfill that task!

Overall, a lovely product to have, and I think you should give it a try if you're after an inexpensive loose powder, this is definitely one of the best ones out there. Let us know if you liked it or not, just leave a comment below!

Take care my lovelies, and I hope your day is going along nicely today :)

xoxoxo

Anastasia

Beauty on the go - what's in my makeup bag

Hello fellow Beauty Scrooges!

I normally try to make my Sundays days of relaxation and lazy lounging around, but my Sunday a couple of weeks ago turned out to be a busy one right from the start! I had a casual event to attend at 8:30 am and when i woke up (having slept right through 2 alarms), the clock read 7:55 am which gave me 5 mins to get ready and 30 mins to complete the 40 minute drive to where I needed to be - oops.... lucky for me, I could delegate the driving part, and prettify myself in the car. The little mirror and the harsh daylight aren't exactly parts of my favourite environment to do make-up in, but oh well, sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Since I had very little time I grabbed the essentials - here are the products that made the cut!

• Rimmel Match Perfection Light Perfecting Liquid Foundation (shade 102 light nude), SPF 18
• Australis Paparazzi Perfect High Definition Concealer
• Rimmel Sexy Curves Full Volume & Curve Mascara (shade 001 Black)
• USHAS 5 Eyeshadow Palette - looks almost exactly like Revlon's Customeyes palette - keep an eye out for a separate blogposts on "dupes"!
• French Science velvet baked blusher (shade 04) - purchased in Russia, unfortunately unavailable in Australia.
• FFleur lipstick in a pinky-brown shade - also purchased in Russia, unfortunately unavailable in Australia.
• Fluffy crease brush by Models Prefer
• Large eyeshadow brush by Models Prefer
• BOE eyeliner (shade #5 Praline) - used as brow pencil
• A double-ended blusher/angle brush - Savvy, and came in a set of several double-ended brushes I purchased a while ago.

Other non-makeup, but still beauty related products in my bag are a Cocoa Butter Lip Conditioner (I've had mine for a while so the name has actually rubbed off of it), an Olivara moisturising skin cream by Michael's and a cotton bud/q-tip!

Here's the final result of express makeup! A very natural look, really, as my aim at the time was to hide skin imperfections more than anything else.

If you only had a couple of minutes to get ready, what make-up items would you reach for? Let me know in the comments below!

Have a great day all, and thank you for stopping by!

xoxo

Anastasia

Cosmetics prices: USA vs Australia.

Hello hello,

Over the past couple of weeks I have been researching the price differences of make up between Australia and the U.S. There is a buzz about the high cost of living in Australia all over the interwebb world and quite a lot of talk about beauty products that are substantially more in cost in Australia than other countries in the world. I am not an economist by any stretch of the imagination so please don't take any of what I say as educated fact, however I know that the average wage in Australia is higher than the average wage in America also taxes need to be considered... And so on and so forth... However just to give a clear idea of the price difference of make up I did some research and went on to Target online Australia (http://shop.target.com.au/) and the Target online America (www.target.com) and got the prices of identical products on each website. (I viewed these sites on the 31st of May 2013).
I will also make note of the current exchange rate and attempt to give as clear a picture of the inflation of products in Australia. Please know this is not me complaining or winging about prices this is just to see side by side the difference.

Here is the link to a website that helped to put into perspective the difference between cost of living comparing a variety of every day products, it also makes note of the difference in the median salary of both countries.
www.numbeo.com

And here is a link to a forum thread about make up costing in Australia, New Zealand and other countries that have high prices for beauty products.
www.makeuptalk.com

..............................................................................................................................................................
The exchange rate as of the 7th of June 2013 is For every $1USD it is $1.05AUD.

So that it is easy to see the difference I will put both the USD and the AUD equivalent next to each item...

These are the prices I found on the target online stores.
.................................................................................................................................................................

Revelon colour stay make up (liquid foundation) 

Target Australia  $34.95AUD = $33.20USD

Target US $9.49USD = $9.97AUD

Loreal shine caresse (lipstick) 

Target Australia $23.95AUD = $22.69USD

Target US $7.99USD  = $8.43AUD

Maybelline volume express falsies (mascara)

Target Australia $19.25AUD = $18.24USD

Target US $4.99USD = $5.27AUD

Cover girl cheekers blush

Target Australia $9.95AUD = $9.43USD

Target US $3.74USD = $3.54AUD

....…………...............................................................................................................................................

There isn't really any conclusion to this post, it is what it is, just trying to shed as much light on the topic as I can in regards to this. I am sure I am not the first to do this.
If you have a blog post relevant to this one put the link in the comments so I can check it out and if you have a request for a similar blog post for a different country then comment, I will try my best, like I said I AM NOT AN ECONOMIST.... If you are an economist/mathematician/ expert in cost of living then feel free to weigh in on the conversation.

Thanks for reading

X
Anna

Savvy Volumising Mascara - product review

Hello fellow beauty Scrooges!

Today we welcome you to read our opinion on Savvy Volumising mascara. The mascara retails at AUD $9.99 and is available from any store that stocks Savvy products - we got ours at Priceline.

For the money you pay you get a decent black mascara that comes in a 9.5ml black tube packaging. There is subtle pattern along the tube which does make it look nice and more expensive that it really is.

 

The wand is nice and long so it is easy to work with. The wand is an interesting shape: I think Savvy's original idea was to make it hourglass - wider on top and bottom and slightly "pinched" and narrow in the middle - which is great for a mascara, and would have worked a treat if it was perhaps a bit more pronounced (like the Sexy Curves mascara by Rimmel). The fairly large tip also makes it a bit difficult to get into the corners of the eyes.


Subtle hourglass shape of the wand 

The bristles are synthetic and spread the colour nicely and evenly. The formula is not too wet in itself but does take that little bit extra time to dry once on your lashes. The mascara does not clump, does not smudge or flake even after 12 hours of wear which I find quite impressive.

After
 

Before

My lashes are fairly long and curled on their own but they do lack colour, so this mascara worked quite well for me - a few coats of it lengthened my lashes visually, and kept them separated.
However, I can't honestly say that I found it to add a great deal of volume, so in that respect I feel the mascara did not quite live up to its name.

Pros:

• Good formula - not too dry, not too wet.
• Mascara has good staying power - does not flake and does not smudge easily.

Cons:

• The wand makes it hard to get to shorter lashes in the corners of the eye.
• Mascara comes only in the colour black - would've been nice to have at least a brown as well!
• I find the mascara lengthens more than it adds volume, and while that's a great result, it's not quite what the mascara manifests it will do..

Australis JUMBO Mineral Bronzing Powder product review - a lifetime supply of bronzer in one box!

G'day beauty lovers!

If you are still on the hunt for an inexpensive bronzer, you may have to search no more after reading this post. In fact, you may never have to even think of purchasing bronzers ever again for the rest of your life, because the one we will talk about today has lifetime supply in one GIANT compact!

In fact, scratch the word "compact", there is nothing compact about this baby!

Yes, you guessed it, we are talking about the Australis Jumbo Mineral Bronzing Powder that comes in a whopping 35gr net weight packaging. It looks very pretty and reminds me of sand dunes - perhaps that was the idea?



Before applying bronzer

It's a lovely brown shade that is not too orange and not too muddy with just a tiny touch of golden sheen that works very well on my medium-toned skin.  It is very buildable, and I can see it working well for darker skin tones, too; light skin-toned beauties may want to use a very light hand when applying it - otherwise the risk of it coming off quite muddy and unnatural is quite high.

After applying Australis Jumbo
Mineral Bronzing Powder to cheekbones

It's great for contouring as the brown shade is quite neutral - in photos on the left I used a big fluffy fan brush (purchased long-long time ago in Russia and made by a brand Jenny I've otherwise never heard of) to apply it right along the cheek bone. I love this brush because it sits perfectly along my cheekbone line, and is quite dense so I can gently blend the colour out and up to my temples.

I also run the bronzer up over my forehead along the hairline, lightly dust it over my neck, and I often use it on a fluffy eyeshadow blending brush through my eye socket for a nice contour .

The product is great for bronzing up your neck or décolletage - just grab a big fluffy brush, apply lightly, and blend well!

Pros:

• A fantastic affordable (RRP AUD$19.95) bronzer that will last you a very long time - amazing value for money!
• A great investment for makeup beginners as it is easy to apply.

Cons:

• The size of the product packaging unfortunately means you can't slip it in your handbag for touch-ups throughout the day - I'd love this in a smaller compact as well just for that purpose!
• The packaging does say the product has SPF in it - however, the exact sun protection factor is nowhere to be found.

Savvy Lip Stains - product review

Hello fellow beauty lovers!

Anastasia wearing Savvy Lip Stain in shade Grape
 

Today The Beauty Scrooge is bringing you a raving review (there, so much for suspense!) of a lip product Anastasia is currently love-love-loving - the Lip Stains by Savvy.

Anastasia: I am fairly new to the world of lip stains, and when you're trying something potentially unsuitable (the risk is always high with make-up - so much that could make things go wrong!), you usually don't want to spend big. Well, combine that with the mission statement of The Beauty Scrooge and you see why I could not pass up these beauties currently retailing at Priceline for AUD$8.99 a pop.



The shades are Grape (top) and Watermelon (bottom). Do not be fooled, they neither smell, nor taste of the deliciousness - would be fantastic if they did! - but they are not unpleasant. The colours are beautiful, and indeed very bold, which perhaps makes them more suitable to medium to darker skin tones. The shade changes from darker (wet, freshly applied product) to a more true colour as it dries to a matte finish. Grape shade is a deep blue-based fuschia and Watermelon is quite a carrot orangey-red. The marker-like slanted tip makes application easy, especially when outlining your lips. Lip stains are by definition extremely long-lasting products, and these are fantastic example of gorgeous colour lasting very, very long time. Have a look at the swatches here:

On the left on my hand are fresh, 60 second old swatches of Savvy Lip Stain in Watermelon (top) and Grape (bottom); on the right are the exact same colours 18 hours, 2 showers and countless hand-washes later - VERY impressive! Now, they do last a bit differently on the lips, however, for a budget lip stain I will still highly recommend these and give them a 9 out of 10.

Savvy Lip Stain in shade Watermelon 6 hours after application, no touch ups

Word of warning: You have to be very careful when applying this product as a) it dries extremely quickly; b) it virtually won't budge once it dries.

Handy tips:

• Use a lip liner in either a similar or nude shade to outline your lips before reaching for the lip stain - this will give you a frame to work with and will make it harder to try and go outside your natural lip line.
• When applying lip stain, rest your elbow on a sturdy surface to give you a steady hand.
• As is the case with many long-lasting lip products, these can be a bit drying, so make sure to condition your lips overnight with a lip balm, or at least put some lip balm on before you start applying the rest of your makeup and making the lip stain the last thing you put on.
• If you do make a mess - rather than trying to rub the lip stain off (which will only result in it smudging all over giving you the Joker look!), quickly grab a cotton pad, soak it in make-up remover and hold it to the skin for a few moments before gently wiping.

What long-lasting lip products are you loving right now?

Hello World

Hello interweb world!

We are Anna and Anastasia - two friends who have decided to start up a blog. Anna: I came up with the idea mostly because I feel like I can add a new dimension to the world of beauty blogging. I don't know huge amounts about beauty and makeup, but I love it. Anastasia: I happily jumped on the bandwagon when Anna invited me to join in the blogging because I've been wanting to get involved with beauty blogs for a while and just never sat down to do it! I love trying new things when it comes to makeup and I really enjoy helping others get more comfortable with makeup and find bargains.

The problem with makeup in Australia is that it is so expensive. So after a few years of watching some beauty gurus and reading beauty blogs, Anna has decided it is about time someone came up with a blog about beauty that is affordable. Anna: The more expensive brands are fantastic but as a full time college student and mother of two I cant afford to spend $20 on a single lip colour let alone $50 on foundation. I have decided that the blog will be about finding the cheapest good quality products that we can find and reviewing them for anyone that might stumble across the blog and stay long enough to read it. We will give tips that we have managed to pick up, ones that work and that we use; some of them we will have found from other blogs and beauty gurus.  Basically we will write our way through learning more and more about make up and beauty on the journey that will be The Beauty Scrooge.

The reason for the name is simply this: do you remember Uncle Scrooge McDuck from Duck Tales? The reason he had so much money was because he was unwilling to spend it - well, like Scrooge, we are unwilling to spend huge amounts on make up, therefore we are The Beauty Scrooge =D

We hope that you enjoy this blog, and even if nobody ever reads these posts, we will enjoy having our say and learning!
x

The $20 make-up challenge

Hello everyone, and thank you for stopping by!

Inspired by numerous YouTube videos on the subject, The Beauty Scrooge decided to venture into Priceline to take on the $20 make-up challenge, made particularly difficult by the cost of make-up in Australia. Even "drugstore" inexpensive brands were still quickly pushing us out of the tight budget, but we persisted, and here we are, bringing you two different looks achieved by two people who each had $20 to spare in a "All your make-up products and tools magically disappeared - what do you do in this shock-horror scenario?" situation.

General Guidelines:

• $20 to spend on the essential beauty items, including make-up tools.
• Shopping in clearance/discounted items baskets is permitted and encouraged.
• The Beauty Scrooge decided to exclude the option of purchasing all-in-one palettes to keep the challenge in the challenge :)

Anna's bargain buys

Anna purchased:
Australis perfection brush on foundation in shade golden tan (clearance item $3.00 ), Australis paparazzi perfect high definition concealer (clearance item $3.00), Australis blush in colour sand dune (clearance item $3.00), Australis eye shadow quad in shade Moody Blues (clearance item $3.00), Australis intensifeye liquid eyeliner in black shimmer (clearance item $3.00) Savvy lipstick in pretty pink ($4.99). Grand total  $19.99.


I had to really blend the foundation.

I had all these grand ideas in my mind before starting of how easy this challenge would be, I WAS WRONG! I also had decided before hand that mascara would be the first thing I would buy, it wasn't. I ended up getting liquid eyeliner thinking i could try and use that as a replacement for mascara...The end result wasn't bad and a few of the products will probably make it to my favourites for the month.




Super dark eyes, not normally the way i roll!

I started with the foundation, it was completely the wrong colour I looked like i was putting a mud mask on because it was way too dark for my lily white skin. However with a huge amount of blending it wasn't too bad. the finish was quite light, it had a dewy finish and good coverage, i wish i could get this in the right colour. the concealer was AMAZING it was a great colour for me and i will be using this as my concealer on a regular basis. The blush was a nice colour i had to build it a bit but it came out really nice, the tiny blush tool that came with it was pathetic, but i used my fingers to blend and it worked well. The eye shadow was nice enough the colours particularly the black shade did a great job of blending with the eyeliner once again it was just the tool letting it down. i ended up just going intense black over the whole lid to try and hide the fact that my lashes were naked, slightly too intense for my tastes though. The eyeliner DOES NOT WORK AS MASCARA, however as eyeliner it was great, it was easy to apply because the tip was quite big and its a felt tip so nice and flexible. The colour has a slight shimmer to it so it broke up the black nicely and complemented the sparkle in the black shadow as well. I fell in love with the lipstick, it is my new favourite colour and was so moisturising, I will definitely repurchase this lipstick in lots of other shades. The look worked but i really missed having mascara, if i ever do this again the first thing I buy will be MASCARA!!

Product I would not buy again.... the foundation as it was the wrong shade for me, also the eyeshadow, it was nice enough but there was nothing very special about it.
  Product i would buy again... the lipstick and the concealer!


Anastasia purchased Savvy Volumising mascara ($9.99), Australis Paparazzi Perfect High Definition concealer (clearance item $3.00), Australis Eyeshadow in shade 82003 Violet Vamp (clearance item $3.00), Australis Colour Inject Mineral Lipstick in shade Hula (clearance item $3.00).
Grand total: $18.99.

Concealer used sparingly as a base

While I don't feel I'm in the position to skip a makeup base, I did decide to be adventurous, leave out the foundation and pick up concealer instead, which, placed strategically, seemed to do the job of evening out my skin tone and hiding imperfections fairly well! Emphasis on 'fairly' as the concealer is a shade or two too light to be using it as a foundation replacement; but it is
very buildable - a couple of thin layers applied with ring finger worked really well.
 
I then applied the lightest shade of eyeshadow all over the lid with my fingertip, and the purple shade in the corner and crease (applied with the sponge applicator and blended with fingertips). I then used some mascara on the clean end of the sponge applicator to create eyeliner - it worked a treat! Later I smudged it a bit using the darker shadow in the palette, and applied several coats of mascara to my lashes, curling them up with the wand.

Finished look

The lip colour  doubled up as blush, and here is the finished look!

Product I would not buy again.... the eyeshadow - not enough colour pay-off and chalky texture; the lipstick - a 'meh' product that feels a bit greasy on my lips, so I personally didn't find it particularly great. Plus the smell of it reminded me of old lipsticks my mum didn't use anymore that I used to find when I was little!

Product i would buy again... mascara - quite impressive for the price, nice wand, no clumps, no flaking, and the formula is just right - not too wet, not too dry; and concealer - very good consistency and colour, a great all-around corrector product!

  Lessons Learned:

• Prioritising is key - think long and hard of what you feel you absolutely can't go without and purchase those items first.
• Using one make-up product in several ways is a great way to keep the cost down while achieving a complete look.
• Keep an eye out for sales and clearance items hiding in the corners of the shop, on shelves furthest away or not at eye-level.
• Very often the reduced price items are hiding on the same shelf as full-priced products!

We had a lot of fun doing this challenge, hope you enjoyed reading the blog! What products would you spend your $20 on?

Anna's Online shopping haul

I have been told many times that you can save a lot of money on make up by shopping online, I have found this to be true enough however depending where you shop you have to pay shipping so often whatever you save can gobbled up by postage and handling. Last week I made my very first online purchase of make up (I know I am way behind the band wagon here) but I found it was a rather pleasant experience. The website I used was http://au.strawberrynet.com and because it was my first time purchasing from them I got some bonus items from them. I normally don't just have spare money lying around to spend on makeup but i sold some items on ebay and was able to use that money to treat myself. Strawberry net have free shipping anywhere in the world, which was what sold me on using their website to buy items, I wanted to spend my whole amount on the products not on shipping, so that was great. I made the order on a Tuesday evening and received the items the next week on the Wednesday, and the products were well packed and all in good order.
so I will start by talking about the two complementary items I got, first of all, I am totally stoked that I got free stuff secondly, I am even more stoked that it is GREAT stuff not just left overs!

The first item was Calvin Klein ultimate edge gel eyeliner in #301 Cocoa sheen, I haven't used this product yet but I have swatched it and it has kind of a bronze shimmer to it, its really lovely, (you cant really tell in the swatch) but I'm really looking forward to trying it, being a gel liner it should be good for the water line i think.








The next item was Korres soft touch lip pen (with apricot and rice bran oils) in #42 light orange. when it came up on my order i originally thought that it was a lip balm, but it is a lip color and a really nice one at that. It goes on really smoothly and doesn't leave your lips feeling dry or sticky. It is quite an orange color but its really pretty and not in your face- i would definitely recommend this product, not that i know what the price would be ordinarily.. :/



The next Product I ordered was the Mary Kay timewise 3 in 1 cleanser for normal to dry skin at $15.00. I have used this once so far, and my skin felt so soft and healthy after using it, it was a nice creamy consistency and i felt fresh afterwards... i will keep you posted though because you cant really tell much from using a cleanser once.








next was a bourjois petite guide de style perfect harmony shadow and contour in #14 mauve a croquer at a cost of $8.00. I would not normally go for a pinky purple shade in a shadow, but i feel that this little compact has a lot of potential  the shadows are not super pigmented but they bend well together, you just have to pack it on a bit. I think this will be a nice everyday shadow combination, also very cute packaging and convenient to keep in your travel bag.

Next is Loreal endless lip color in #830 naked ambition at a cost of $7.00- this color is very brown, well compared to what i am used to anyway, i put it on this morning and took it off straight away, i'm not really sure that it is my color, however i will try i few different gloss combinations over the top, i think it could be a nice color for winter.... it might just take some getting used to.








so that's what I got five items for a total of $29.40 and delivered to my door! I will definitely be using strawberrynet again, they do all sorts of special deals, it does take some hunting to find items, but it is so worth it.

feel free to leave a comment if you have any tips, questions or experiences to share.

xx