A moment of weakness... (Haul post)

After my last payday, I decided to treat myself to some new skincare. My skin has been acting up lately, and I figured maybe it was time to try some new products. However, things are never that simple, and in the heat of the moment, I managed to come away with a much heavier haul than initially anticipated, as well as a far lighter wallet:(

Yeah... Just a tad more than expected

I bought most of these items from priceline. I blame them for my gross overspending. I always get swindled into their '3 for 2' deals and free gifts with purchase. It's practically criminal. Not that I'm complaining:P

First off, I picked up some deodorant. Everybody needs deodorant, and at $2.79, there is no way that I can feel guilty about this one. In fact, it would be a disservice to the general public if I didn't buy it. A smelly Risa is not a fun Risa.

Next was this dry shampoo. I'm a huge fan of dry shampoo for one main reason: I'm way too lazy to wash my hair every other day. Dry shampoo sort of freshens it up without me having to worry about the arduous task of coating every strand in many many layers of product. I saw that Batiste was on sale and made a beeline for the dry shampoo shelf, but this brand ('Polished London') was at full price and still cheaper than Batiste (it was $4.95). I thought I'd give it ago. I bought the scent 'Cornwall Coconut'. 

I've seen the new Kate Moss mascara hyped up on a few youtube channels, so I jumped on the bandwagon too:) (It's got to be that sleek packaging). Considering that this is a fairly new product, I was thrilled to see it on sale for $10 :O While at the Rimmel stand, I also grabbed these two nail polishes (there was a 2 for $10 deal) in 323, don't be shy (the pink), and 507, round and round in circles (the yellow). Keen to try them! Most of my nail varnishes are darker colours so I thought these'd be cute additions for summer.

Now onto actual skincare. I picked up the Garnier Micellar cleansing water, which seems to be a clear copycat of the similar product from bioderma. I've used and loved bioderma before, but it is just so expensive! I'm hoping this stuff (which was only $11.99) will be just as good (and from what I've seen online, my hopes may be fulfilled). Recently, I've been using a cleansing oil by MAC as a make-up remover, but I'm nearly out, and I don't think I will be repurchasing that one. Here's hoping I've found a new staple skincare product:)

I don't have much to say about this product except that I needed a new moisturiser, and this one fit the bill with the added bonus of being super inexpensive at just $10. I think I've tried a haircare product from this brand before and liked it, but I suppose we will see. 

This product was recommended to me by a friend. It claims to help stop breakouts before they appear.  St Ives is a fairly popular Australian scrub brand so I hope that it lives up to its name. They were sold out of the full-size at Priceline, but I still bought the little 30ml tube for $3.49 to test out the product. We'll see how we go:)

I bought the Avene 'Cleanance' purifying, mattifying toner for $30, and received a 50ml thermal spring water (valued at $9.99) as a gift with purchase. The toner was more expensive than the skincare that I generally use but I thought that maybe this was the time to invest in slightly higher quality products. I just hope it wasn't a waste of money:/ I'm not sure what the exact purpose of the thermal water is, but I've read online that it makes for a good make-up setting spray? Anyways, I'll give it a go and see what happens...

Moving on to non Priceline goodies! I got my hands on an Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream. This cost me $25 from Terry White, and I hope it lives up to all the stellar recommendations. I bought this because although my skin seems to be as oily as Severus Snape's hair, somehow my lips are eternally parched. Tanya Burrs new book lists it as a must have, and therefore I decided, I must have it :P

And the final things I bought were some NYX products from Target. I bought a brow crayon in the colour 'Charcoal' which was reduced to $6.71 and the 'Golden Horizons' gift set which was on sale for $13.50. I thought it was a great bargain as it comes with quite a few products and a very handy little makeup pouch. Inside the pouch, there was a butter gloss in the shade 'Tiramisu' a lipstick in 'Violet Ray', a blusher in 'Apricot', a black eye pencil, a mascara and a 10 colour eyeshadow palette. I'm super keen to try these out:O!

Wow that was a long post! Hahaha let me know if you've tried any of the products mentioned above, or if you had any thought on the post in general.

~Risa~

#Salem

Lime Crime. It's an absolute phenomenon and I am so excited to finally be a part of it. I bought the Salem velveteen, which is essentially a brown, and I love it. 

First of all it smells AMAZING. Sometimes I am very much tempted to stick my tongue in the tube, even though I know that there is no way it tastes like a caramel milkshake. The formula is not at all thick and once it has dried, this baby will not budge. I can't see any reason why you would ever have to touch up your lips unless you were actively trying to cause friction-damage to your mouth. 

I wore these fab lips with extreme-contouring and a simple winged liner. I do wish I had been a little more careful with the application, but YOLO ammiright?

The January Bookshelf

*Decides to actually start posting*

I've always loved reading, and this month I've done a lot of just that. At the beginning of 2015, I set a goal to read 25 books during this year (which doesn't sound all that impressive, but trust me it's hard). Having travelled quite a bit during January, I managed to bite off of a sizeable chunk of that goal. I thought I'd do a little mini review of each of the books I've read this month. This might end up being a recurring post, or it might not. We will see:o

1. The Great Gatsby

I was really excited about this book. Obviously it's a classic, and some people have gone so far as to say it's the 'greatest American novel'. Personally, I didn't love it as much as I'd hoped to, but I can certainly see the appeal. There are parts where the grandeur and mystery of Gatsby's lifestyle can leave you in awe, but for the most part I was pretty bored. Don't leave it off your 'to read' list though, I think I might be the outlier in terms of opinion here.

2. it

This book isn't a novel; it's a coffee table book. It's a style guide, written by Alexa Chung, filled with anecdotes, tips and intriguing photography. I quite enjoyed flipping through the pages and dog-earing the ones I thought I'd come back to.

3. Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and park is the second novel I've read by Rainbow Rowell and I absolutely adored it. I'm a huge sucker for teenage romance and this is one of those slightly unconventional, but completely adorable parings. I loved this novel, and I think Rainbow Rowell is slowly becoming one of my favourite authors.

4. The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks

Great. Book. I though this one was a huge eyeopener to the ways in which girls, particularly teenagers, are seen by others and themselves in a relationship. True, there are times where Frankie, the main character, can be a little annoying to the reader, but I think that this book is something which every teenage girl NEEDS to read. 

5. Confessions of a Sociopath

Not gonna lie, the cover drew me in on this one. I didn't realise that this book was more or less the memoirs of the author; I kind of assumed it would have a plot. It didn't. I started it, and at first It was really quite interesting; a fascinating glimpse into an alternatively wired brain, but the book got really repetitive, really fast. And I got bored just as fast. It didn't help that the underlying message of the entire thing was essentially that sociopath's are far superior to normal people (or as we are named in the book, 'empaths'). I'm still plonking my way through the last chapter, but really, you could read the first two and get the point.

And those are all the books I read in January! As I said, this was quite a heavy month and hopefully these 'bookshelf' posts won't be as long as this one on a regular basis. Let me know what you've read this month as I'd love to add more books to my 'to read' list. Also, let me know what you think if you've read any of these. I really like to discuss books:o

Risa xx