Lust-Haves: Pop art!

I think it's safe to say that everyone and their grandma can easily recognise Andy Warhol's iconic artworks. If you are one of the rare people that can't, here's a Google image search I prepared earlier. Known for their bold pops of colour, NARS has used his work as inspiration for their new Holiday Color, Pop and Silver Factory collections! Eyeshadows, eye & cheek palettes, lipglosses, nail polishes, and gift sets have undergone the Andy Warhol treatment - and true to form, it's fun, irreverent and colourful. The collections will be available in Australia exclusively from Mecca Cosmetica in about a month's time (14 October). 

Here's a few snippets of the collections: 

Images via Musings of a Muse, Bella Sugar, College Fashion

Lust. 

Giveaway Time! Shu Uemura Ultime8 Cleansing Oil.

Shu Uemura is one of my favourite beauty and cosmetics brands - I could write love songs about their eyelash curler, but I don't because I am not a songwriter, plus I think professing my love to an inanimate object in song would just make me "crazy weird" instead of "cutely weird". You may also remember my conniption over their limited edition collection a few months ago. 

If you share my love for the brand, you will be happy to hear that a new cleanser has joined the coveted Shu Uemura family. Introducing: the Ultime8 Cleansing Oil, combining the powerful yet gentle cleansing of Shu Uemura's famous cleansing oils with higher skincare benefits - all in one step! It treats your skin while it cleanses, thanks to the 8 botanical oils in its formula. 

Each oil brings a different skincare benefit - after 4 weeks of use, users have reported that their skin felt revitalised, more translucent, more radiant, nourished, refined, smoother, suppler and moisturised! 

Want to try out this cleansing oil? You have come to the right place! The lovely people at Shu Uemura has kindly offered you gorgeous Wendy & Co. readers a chance to win one 150mL bottle of the Ultime8 Cleansing Oil, valued at AU$65! 

To enter, all you have to do is make a few clicks and type a few words! 

Like my Facebook page (it is newly set up and feeling very lonely)

And leave a comment in this post with your name and your email address!

Terms & Conditions

This giveaway will run for 10 days, and will end on Wednesday 26 September at 11pm AEST.
This is open to Australian readers ONLY.
The lucky winner will have one week to reply to my email and provide their mailing address. Otherwise I will draw a new winner.
I will be verifying each entry, and drawing the winner using a random generator.

Good luck!

Review: Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser.

You may remember that I bought the Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser when the Kiehl's Chatswood Chase first opened. No? I don't blame you, because I wrote about that a month ago - this really shows how bottlenecked I am in my blog post backlog. 

You may also remember that I have a less than friendly relationship with facial exfoliators, and have been faithful to my Kosmea Daily Facial Exfoliant, the lone rose among the many exfoliants I've tried. I don't want to be premature (not that I really am because this post is way overdue), but I think I may actually love this Kiehl's find even more! 

 

This exfoliator is a dream for those with sensitive skin like yours truly. The formula is mildly foaming, and is made of such purifying and soothing ingredients as Amazonian White Clay (which also helps reduce the appearance of pores), Aloe Barbadenis, and Diatomaceus Earth (try saying that five times really quickly). It does say it's specifically formulated for normal to oily skin types, but this dry skinned girl has not gone dryer from using this baby. 

This is a really gentle exfoliator, and I find that a tiny dollop (about the size of your pinky nail) is enough to cover your face AND neck. Economical for the win! Gently massage it in a circular motion (try to move in an upward and outward direction) for best results. The cleanser is ridiculously true to its claim of being non-stripping - my skin feels as smooth as a baby's bottom afterwards. 

The best thing about it is that I can use it in the shower! In fact, the lovely sales assistant at Kiehl's TOLD me to use it whilst in the shower. And who am I to disobey?! I was also told that it's not a problem to use it everyday, but I'm extremely risk-averse so I use it every 2-3 days.

A 150ml bottle of Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser can be yours for AU$30, making it a no-brainer. It is really good value for money considering how little you need per use. 

What gentle exfoliators do you swear by? I swear by this one, so give it a go!

Lust-Haves: Rockcandy.

I want candy, I want candy... Rockcandy that is! Hello Darling's new "nail art innovation" has all the qualities to make me bring out my credit card. It has a unique mix of being both luxe and fun looking - what other nail polish range can make your nails look like caviar (in the best way) and fairy bread? 

Here are my picks:

Millions & Billions

Sugar Coma

Cake At Midnight

This collection of rockalicious nail bling retails at AU$24.95 each. Shop the whole range here!

Lust.

Kiehl's New Chatswood Chase Digs!

For some reason, I hadn't ventured into the Kiehl's forest of skincare goodness bar the godly Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado. But when a brand spanking new Kiehl's boutique opened up in Chatswood Chase, I couldn't resist at having a peek and coming out with one more product to try - the Deep Pore Daily Cleanser from their Rare Earth collection. A full review will be coming up soon!

In the meantime, I will leave you with some snippets of the new boutique. When the store had its 'opening ceremony' a few weeks ago (that was a very lame Olympics pun), my body was running to some delayed internal clock and I completely missed seeing Sarah De Bono cut the ribbon. Fail Wendy. But the store itself is gorgeous and the staff are super friendly and helpful.

Before I go, I also want give a little plug to the Kiehl's Australia website - in case you can't make it to Chatswood Chase. Not only do they offer free shipping to orders over $70 and whack in some samples with every order, but they have an ingenious idea to help you find the perfect product. Behold the "Shop By Concern" tab:

Whether you have dry skin, fine and damaged hair, or want to whiten your skin - a Kiehl's solution is just one click away. Kudos to the web design team!

Lust-Haves: Hairy Business.

Don't let the title of this post scare you. Don't let it remind you of Austin Powers' chest, THAT scene from the 40 Year Old Virgin, or Brazilians (the wax, not the population - you can think about people from Brazil, they're unfairly attractive). I am talking about the hair that resides on the top of my head, and I have a confession to make.... 

I have not had a haircut in over a year. In hindsight I should've gotten at least a trim before I ombre dyed my hair 7 months ago, but I was impatient and didn't bother (that coupled with having an impulsive streak really doesn't help me in many areas of life). Now my hair is a mess of tangled bristly strands that I'm sure even Rapunzel would recoil at. Evidence:

Yeah, not pretty. Hair masks and smoothing sprays have helped, but it's time for the scissors to come in. Being in the round-faced crew means that only certain lengths and styles will prevent me from looking like a cherub faced prepubescent.  So I've combed through the interwebs and "trimmed" my hairspiration to a few styles:

Images sourced from Google Image

Pigs must be able to fly because I now have a picture of Selena Gomez on my blog. If you have more haircut suggestions for me, let me know in the comments!

Lust.

Lust-Haves: Paint the Town Red.

If you follow my 140-character ramblings on Twitter, you will probably know that I hate Mondays. Emo Wendy emerges every Sunday evening, cursing the fact that Monday morning is around the corner. Yolanda from Shopping Intervention can't quite cure my Monday-itis, but she did recommend a genius coping mechanism: wear red lipstick as the ultimate "f#ck off Monday, nobody mess with me" statement. And this means only one thing - I must stock up on red lippies! 

From left to right:

NARS Semi Matte Lipstick in Shanghai Express

MAC Lipstick in Ruby Woo

Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick in Legendary

Lancome Rouge in Love in 185N Rouge Valentine

Guerlain Coque d'Or (120) Rouge Automatique

Lust.

Lust-Haves: Let Off Some Steam.

It's been a long time (a month to be exact) between drinks for these Lust-Haves posts. In all honesty though, I've been feeling so poor and low on spare time that I haven't shopped (online and physically) all that much. So I have honestly not been lusting after anything. Shock horror, I know.

But I succumbed to looking at ASOS tonight and now I want all the SteamCreams they have in stock. All. The. Steam. Creams. In case you didn't know, SteamCream is a cream (duh) comprised of natural ingredients, which are combined together via a shot of steam (double duh). Their tin packaging comes in many designs - and the way they hook you in, and keep you buying more, is by having them all sold as limited edition versions. 

Disco Fever Tin | Flower Print Tin | London Tin

Cat Tin | Paula Polka Dot Tin | Koku Floral Tin

Lust.

Rimmel Woke Me Up With Their Foundation.

Hello, I'm not dead. 

I really have no excuses except to say that I completely lost my blogging mojo for a couple of weeks. Fellow bloggers will understand (I hope) - when the "I really should blog" thought pops up in your head and all you can say in response to that is "Yeah....I'll do it later". But I am glad to report that my mojo, while not 100% there, is showing signs of life! And I'm sorry to use this pun, but it may have been woken up by the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation!

I picked this baby up because I liked the orange lid. And boy am I glad I did. It has a nice dewy finish and has subtle shimmer flecks through it to instantly brighten your complexion! The pump applicator controls the output nicely (no jokes please), and one pump gives you enough for a medium coverage of your whole face. 

BUT - and there is a but - even with a dusting of loose mineral powder over it, the foundation was not a pretty sight on my face by around the 5-6 hour mark. I seriously looked like I just ran the marathon, or put my face in a vat of oil. To this I say, blotting paper is your friend. 

It's still a winner foundation for me though. The packaging, the initial effect, and shimmer won me over. Take a look for yourself:

This foundation can be yours for a non-bank-breaking $19.95 from your local Priceline. Thank you Rimmel for waking me up from my blogging slumber!

Lust-Haves: Hey Sailor!

Oh, my kingdom for a job as MAC's brand/marketing manager. MAC will forever has a place in my heart  for their amazing collections. Their latest collection, 'Hey, Sailor!', showcases the brand's creativeness perfectly and complements my 80% blue wardrobe! This 40-piece collection appeals to my love of all things nautical (duh), with its blue and white lined packaging and preppy, summery tones. 

Here's a snippet of the collection:

Image via No Boiz Allowed

Image via Icefrost Beauty Diary

I believe this collection is available at Australian MAC counters from June 1. Free free to sling mud at correct me if I'm wrong.

Lust. 

Lust-Haves: Shu Uemura Mamechiyo Collection.

The reason I have no creative title for this post is not to boost my SEO (although that would not be a bad by-product), but I thought that "OMG SO KAWAII*. WANT" would not do me, or this post, any justice. 

So here's the news: Mamechiyo, a renowned Kimono artist, has teamed up with Japanese cosmetic giant Shu Uemura for a limited-edition packaging line. OMG SO KAWAII*. WANT! The Cleansing Oils, the UV Under Base Mousse (Primer) and the foundation compact case have undergone extreme floral makeovers in this collection. Each product comes in 4 unique designs inspired by 4 spring flower girls - The Wisteria, Cherry Blossom, Japanese Plum, and Peony. Butterflies, geometric shapes and Japanese florals mix together to form some truly lust-worthy designs. 

Image via Shu Uemura

Image via Sassy Hong Kong

Insert "hearts as eyes" emoticon. These beautiful designs are available at any David Jones store that has a Shu Uemura counter. Which is not many. So hop to it!

Lust.

*Kawaii = Cute in Japanese. I am so cultured. Heh.

Kiss My... Nail Dress Stickers.

I blinged my nails this week! Ch-ch-check out my review of the Kiss Nail Dress Stickers over at Breakfast With Audrey.

MBFWA: Backstage at Bowie.

Oh Bowie. You're so cute, stylish and personable. And you design achingly beautiful clothes to boot. I resumed my "photographer help" role for Through Beauty Eyes last night backstage at Bowie, and boy was I glad to be of assistance.

Kevin Murphy created feminine, wavy hairstyles to complement the elegant and intricate designs of Bowie's AURA collection. Napoleon Perdis continues the aura theme on the make-up front, incorporating the four natural elements - wind, fire, earth, and ice. Key products used were the Light Patrol Luminizer Palette to add an ethereal shimmer to the skin, China Doll Gel Eyeliner in Silver and Loose Eye Dust in Ice Storm to create a frosty lid, and the DeVine Goddess Lipstick in Nymphe mixed with Lip Lacquer in Clearly Glam for a rosy yet icy lip.

The collection itself was otherworldly, with sublime intricate details and a beautiful mix of soft and structured forms. I felt so lucky to be able to see (but didn't dare touch!) the creations up close.

Enjoy the visual feast.

All images © Wendy Ko

MBFWA: Backstage at Ginger & Smart.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia (MBFWA) is here! I was lucky enough to get a peek of the backstage action at the Ginger & Smart 10th Anniversary show last night, courtesy of Through Beauty Eyes - who I was helping out with some (amateur) photography - and the Napoleon Perdis team. Napoleon Perdis was at the helm make-up wise, while ghd was in charge of the very funky hairstyles that the models sported. 

The clothes were a celebration of everything Ginger & Smart is revered for: PRINTS and COLOUR. And the hair definitely matched the bright and fun vibe of the collection. To counterbalance all this, the make-up focused on dewy skin, shimmery eyes, and voluminous natural lashes. Products used include: Off Duty Tinted Mosturizer, Mesmer-Eyes Mascara, Colour Disc in Orange Sherbet, and Loose Eye Dust in Copper Element to add a metallic shimmer to the eyebrows. Beautiful!

Sadly we didn't get to see the actual show, but the clothes already looked good on the hanger!

All images © Wendy Ko

Image via Oyster Magazine

A huge thank you to Through Beauty Eyes and the Napoleon Perdis team for letting me experience a little bit of the fashion week excitement! xx.