Archive for October, 2011

Oct 26

Sponsored post – the one where I get my brows done

I have a love/hate relationship with my eyebrows. It was all hate until a beauty-savvy girlfriend of mine showed me how to fill them in – then it was love (when I could it right!!) I have always wanted to get my eyebrows ‘professionally shaped’ but never really got around to it.

Soooo when the lovely peeps at Groupon.com.au contacted me and asked if I would like to a few vouchers to experience some of the group-buying deals that Groupon offer, I jumped at the chance! Who doesn’t want eyebrows like Kim Kardashian?? (oh, you don’t? Ok, but I do)

I want her eyebrows, oh who am I kidding, I want her life!

Knowing that I am sucker for budget fashion and beauty, the awesome guys at Groupon suggested that I try out one of the beauty offers, and blog about it! What a great idea.

Their next suggestion was EVEN BETTER! “How about we also give you a voucher to give away to one of your lucky readers! Genius!

So my loves, I have 1 x $50 Groupon voucher to give away, but first I need to tell you about my Groupon.com.au experience.

1. Finding the right deal for me….

Like I said, eyebrows were my number one priority so I signed up to get the daily emails from Groupon about deals in my city, but I made sure I had a quick look on the site every couple of days for the national deals too.

After a few days, bamo! An eyebrow offer! Super!

The Groupon deal that caught my eye (brows)

2. Securing the deal.

So I nabbed this deal right away! Kim’s eyebrows here we come! The Groupon website was easy to use, a couple of clicks and the details of the deal arrived in my inbox! I called the number on the deal to book my appointment with the lovely girls at Beauteazy in Teneriffe.

(Just a side note, these girls also do Shellac nails, and we know how much I LOOOOOOVE Shellac nails – don’t remember how much? Read about it here.)

3. Redeeming the deal.

D-day for me and my eyebrows. I rocked up to Beauteazy in the midst of a thunderstorm (I can’t do anything without a bit of drama) and was greeted by the lovely Talitha who was my brow consultant. She sat my down and gave me a mirror and told me to talk about my relationship with my brows (this felt like a brow-counselling session, but it felt good to get all the angst out!). Then Talitha told me what she needed to do with my brows to make them Kim-worthy!

Talitha: We just need to correct your shape

Me: yeah, those little bits there never grow

Talitha: Oh that’s ok, it will only take 6-12 months to get them right

Me: so they won’t be right by this weekend then?

It’s ok though, in the mean time, Talitha waxed the bits she wanted to get rid of, tinted the bits that needed to stay (yes, I’m still talking about my eyebrows) and showed me how to fill in the blanks (so to speak) while I wait for my hair to grow back. She also told me that she was putting a lighter tint on my eyebrows than maybe I have had before because she didn’t want them to be too dark with my hair being slightly lighter (remember that time I went blonder? Well it’s still blonder)

I was also lucky enough to get an eyelash tint included in the package, (this adds some volume to your lashes so you don’t have to wear as much mascara) and a wicked head massage!! If you are in need of a new beautician in or around inner Brisbane, this girl gives the best head (massages!) around! And she is sooooo lovely to boot!

Ok, enough with the girl crush, want to see the results?

Here is the before (please be kind, I am wearing NO makeup!):

My naked eyebrows

Once more for fun:

DON’T look at my blackheads ok? Focus on the eyebrows people!

Ok, want to see the fabulous results?

ignore the crazy-person stare – how much better are the brows!

See how much thicker and fuller they look??

Do you likey? I likey! Just think how amazing they will be in 6-12 months times when Talitha has worked even more of her magic!

So here is the part you have all been waiting for! How to win you very own Groupon voucher to spend as you wish!

All you have to do is leave a comment in the section below and tell me what you dream beauty treatment on a budget is?? Simple huh!

Good luck! xx

Sorry, this competition is now closed.

Oct 22

1 Comment

The one where I like to shop a lot….apparently

Sooooo you know how I said that I was taking a break from blogging until I finished my Masters thesis??! (12,000 words down, a few thousand more to go) well yeah, then I saw this…..

: I’m not really a shopaholic….well OK, maybe….

So yeah, that’s me! Talking about how good I am at shopping. Which we all know I am (have you seen my shoe wardrobe?!?!)

SOOOOOOO on the coat-tails of that article (which is basically about giving shoppers other options than shopping at the major centres now that Westfield are bringing in paid parking at some centres in Brisbane), here are my own personal tips for shopping outside the box:

Your local boutique:

Most suburbs have a great little set of shops, and more often than not, there is a little boutique somewhere hidden there too. It might look like a nana shop from the outside (sorry Grandma – I love your style) but there will always be hidden gems inside. One of my besties (Hi Kales!!) is always telling me about great finds in her local boutique at Graceville. As an example Cannon Hill, Cooparoo, Kenmore and Hendra all have great little shops, and I’m sure your local strip does too!

Op-shopping:

My friend Beck is THE best Op-shopper you have EVER seen! She has a knack for finding things that you never thought you would find! But you can do it on your own too! From Vinnies and Lifeline stores to consignment shops that are full of second hand designer clothes (click here to read about the awesome competition I am doing with Lifeline at the moment).

: Blue Spinach in Sydney – Op shopping at its finest

Two of the best consignment shops that come to mind are:

Blue Spinach in Darlinghurst, Sydney – labels like Trelise Cooper, Lisa Ho and Prada line the shelves

Cinderella’s Closet in Clayfield, Brisbane – great designer pieces at affordable prices

I love the uniqueness of Op shop finds – no one else is going to be wearing what you are wearing, in the way you are wearing it. It’s a real chance to let your own personal style shine through (and on a side not, the old crockery and vases you can find are a.ma.zing!!)

eBay:

If you are a regular reader of my blog (and if you aren’t I hope you now will be!) you know that I am a massive fan of eBay, in fact I wrote a post about how to get the most of your eBay sales here. eBay is a great resource for buying clothes but you do have to do a little bit of searching. I have found that eBay is becoming increasingly overrun with cheap imports from eBay stores, not real second-hand bargains, but you can still find some on there if you look hard enough! Try searching for a particular brand that you like, or narrow the search down by looking at auctions only.

Urban Villages:

Major shopping centres are no longer the only shopping hubs in your city. As the article in the Courier Mail said, Paddington in Brisbane is a favourite destination of mine. I love the mix of independent boutiques (both high end and cheap and cheerful) with chain stores and cafes. Make a day of it with the girls, or your partner if he is as silly as mine and likes shopping almost more than you do!

Here are my picks (any other suggestions are MORE than welcome in the comments girls, share the shopping-love i say!)

Brisbane:

New Farm
Bulimba
Hamilton
Paddington
Fortitude Valley
Wynnum (AMAZING for Op Shops)

Sydney:

Paddington (great shopping name that!)
Woolhara
Rozelle
Bondi (look in the back streets, some awesome boutiques are hiding from the tourists)
Mossman

Melbourne:

Toorak (Chapel Street – just make sure you avoid that Gasp! store unless you like being belittled by staff)
Richmond (Bridge Road)

Markets and clothes swaps:

Sydney, you are amazing at this, Bris-Vegas, you could do a little better but we are getting there. Don’t have much cash to splash? A clothing swap is a great idea! Either get a bunch of girlfriends together and literally swap clothes, or go to a registered clothing swap.

"you don't want that anymore? Oh don't mind if I do!"

Check out The Clothing Exchange for a clothes swap in your town – basically you take your clothes to be ‘priced’ and you are given a certain number of tokens depending on the value of your clothes, you then go and spend your tokens on everyone else’s clothes! Genius! The only cost to you may be an entry cost to be a part of the event, but a whole new wardrobe awaits!

For markets to get great deals on second hand clothes (or sell some of your own) try Kiribilli Makets, Bondi Markets or Rozelle Markets in Sydney, Camberwell Markets in Melbourne or The Diva’s Wardrobe in Brisbane.

So there are a few tips for avoiding the parking fees (although, I do have to say, Westfield parking is free for the first two hours and it’s only about $1/hour after that so it’s not that bad!).

If this is all too much for you, then call me – I am actually a personal shopper by trade, I don’t do it JUST for me…. well maybe sometimes…..

Oct 17

3 Comments

The one where you wish me luck!!

So I’m going to take a little bloggy break – don’t worry, just for a week or two while I finish writing my thesis (on fashion blogging ironically….) 15,000 words to go and my Masters is done-ski!!!!

I have to go concentrate on “serious academic writing” (picture me making the ” ” with my hands, cause that’s how I see it) this week so as much as I’d love to keep procrastinating by writing more incredibly awesome and witty blogs, I HAVE to concentrate.

So while I’m off on my “academic adjournment”, I thought I would re-hash some of my older posts for you – being that is also ONE YEAR exactly since I started my blog! (Happy blogging to me!).

Have you read this one?

If you’ve got ‘em, flaunt ‘em (pretty much my very FIRST blog post!)

Or this one?

Sport vs Science….. of shopping!

Or this?

How to sell a frock on eBay… from one dummy to another

Or there was the boy’s guest post?

The one where the boy has a say

Oh, and did I mention that I MET GOK WAN!?!!?!?

The one where I meet Gok, for reals!

Lastly, I want to leave you with some pretty pictures of stuff I like (most of these are from my Pinterst site – if you like pretty pictures, you should DEFINETLY check out this site!)

ooooooh! to have THIS many shoes!!

They are shoes, and they are pink. That’s all!

Anybody else relate to this??

oh how I wish I could ACTUALLY say that to people!

RYAN. REYNOLDS…… no more to say

And on that very luscious thought, bye for now (I’m not going too far, in fact I’ll still be on this same computer, just with a much more pained expression on my face…)

WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!

xx

Oct 11

8 Comments

The one where I meet Gok – for real!!

squeeeeee!!!! You cannot wipe the smile off my face! I got to meet Gok!!! I didn’t actually say anything witty, or funny, or intelligent….or anything at all except ‘hello’ really but I got a double-cheek kiss and a photo so I’m totally cool with that!!! But more on my personal encounter later!!

The real Gok Wan

So I was lucky enough to be invited along by Fashionista Events to go and see Gok’s Style Tour at Westfield Garden City earlier today (I wrote about my love of Gok, and the tour previously on the blog here). So armed with my media pass (the novelty of being ‘fashion media’ still HAS NOT worn off!), I wrangled my way through throngs of lovely ladies to my front row seat (I’m just going to keep mentioning my front row seat you know) and got camera ready!

Gok came onto the stage to cheers and whoops from the crowd and got straight into it! “I have an awful hang-over so don’t scream so loud ok?!” he says jokingly. With numerous jokes about the (non-existent) gay nightclub scene in Brisbane (well it was a Monday night) he had the crowd totally on side!

Gok telling jokes (most of which I cannot repeat because my Mum reads this...Hi Mum!)

For the hour that Gok was on stage, he pulled several ladies out of the crowd for live makeovers (he had a styling team back stage), answered questions about fashion, fame and boys (he even answered Nat from Fashionista Event’s question about how he gets his hair so perfect….. the answer started of with “drink a bottle of Gin…..“) and replied to tweets from the audience and from around the world.

Here are some of the results from the live makeovers – Gok just picked lovely ladies out of the crowd, talked about why they wanted a makeover, and sent them backstage to his team of stylists…..

The gorgeous ladies made over (you can see some of their 'before' photos in the background)

So Gok didn’t actually do any of the making over himself, it suppose it would be a little hard to do while trying to be on stage entertaining a crowd – I’m ok with that, I’ve seen him do it numerous times of his TV shows and he certainly knows what he is doing, but I’m sure a few people in the crowd would have been a little disappointed that HE didn’t actually do any of the making-over…. thems the breaks I guess.

Through the whole event the one thing that really stood out and the thing I really love about Gok is that he is passionate about making women feel GOOD about themselves, and more importantly, feel good about the body they have today, not the body they will have 5, 10, 20kgs lighter.

Aunty Gok telling us all to "get our bangers out and flaunt 'em"

This is something that I really hope comes through in my blog too! It’s really important to me that women feel good AS. THEY. ARE. Sure, there are things we would change about ourselves if we really could, but if we always think like that, we will never be happy.

Gok made every single person both on stage, and in the crowd, feel empowered, he told us to flaunt what we’ve got, and love and embrace being a women – Go Gok!!

Soooooo……. here is me WISHING that I got to meet Gok……………..

I have his book and everything!!

And here is when I really did!!!!

I didn't realise how tall he was!! (and I got a double cheek kiss, did I mention that already?!! Yes I know he is gay!!)

So my life as a fashion blogger is complete. see ya!

But if you want to find out about events like these, make sure you sign up for the Fashionista Events newsletter on their website - they have all the insider info and were kind enough to invite me along to this event, thanks Nat xx

Did you go to Gok? Are you going? Have you ever been as excited as I was about meeting an idol/guru/Gay Chinese Stylist??

Oct 10

7 Comments

My top 5 budget beauty products for summer

Eeeeeek! It’s getting warmer, the sun is shining, and my legs (not to mention the rest of me) are WHITE AS!!! This is always that scary time of year when you realise that you have been hibernating in trackies for 6 months (oh, is that just me then, ok) and you skin is not looking so beach-ready!

Beach trips, short skirts, bikinis (No! Not the ‘b’ word!) all become a staple part of my summer but unless I want people to think I am a walking Migaloo the white whale (google it), I’d better start getting into summer shape (don’t worry, this DOES NOT involve a gym)

So because I am doing NO BUY for-the-rest-of 2011 (see here) I’m not allowed to spend any money for the rest of 2011 on clothes, shoes and more importantly for this post, beauty products. Here is a list of products (or prodz, as my beauty guru Zoe Foster would say) that I already have in my beauty stash and that I HIGHLY recommend you all get your hands on to get ready for summer!*

Chasing Cait’s top 5 budget beauty buys for summer:

1.Palmers Coco butter Natural Bronze tanning moisturiser RRP $8.95

Fake it – DON’T bake it. Now I am a sun lover from waaaaaay back but the older I get, the more obvious the sun damage to my skin is becoming. I also don’t have the beach just down the road like I used to when I lived in Sydney (Bondi, I miss you!) so I can’t go and sit on the beach all weekend any more (not that I advocate tanning, I just LOVED lying on the beach!)

Gradual tanners are a really good way to get a nice golden glow without staining the sheets and driving your partner out of the bed because of the smell! This gradual tan + moisturiser from Palmers is amazing. It smells yummy (the boy says I smell like a bakery when I put it on), it sinks in VERY quickly and the colour builds up nicely.

2. Natio Glow skin brightening face balm RRP $16.95

I have always struggled with moisturisers for my face. My skin has gone from oily to combination and I kinda got onto the moisturiser bandwagon a little later than most. Normally, I find that my skin breaks out when I use most moisturisers so I have always been a little scared of them…..

Until I met Natio Glow! I actually won a Natio gift pack at a Rugby Ladies Day (so glamorous!) and thought I’d give it a go. I am now a TOTAL convert! This product is supposed to help even out skin tone and boost skin vitality (well that’s what it says on the Natio website anyway) and I’m sure it does all that, but I just love it because it works on my skin!

It sinks into my skin quite well without leaving an oily film on top, you can use it as a primer for you foundation, it has a really nice smell and my skin just seems to drink it up! Yum!

3. Garnier BB cream (Miracle Skin Perfector – or in normal–speak, tinted moisturiser) RRP $13.99

This is a brand new product to the market and I actually decided to buy it after putting a tweet into the tweeter-verse about needing a new tinted moisturiser. This resounding response was this product.

I have not been a big tinted moisturiser user (same reason as I mentioned before with normal moisturisers) but in summer, sometimes you don’t want to have to go through the whole whoopla of putting on primer, foundation, concealer, powder etc etc. A tinted moisturiser offers a sheer coverage (and SPF protection!) without too much effort.

This is available in two shades, light and medium. I bought the medium (I have light olive skin) but at this stage, I probably should have bought the light. The medium is quite dark so I would start with that colour unless you are pretty olive or tanned (medium should be ok for me in the height of summer).

Yummy smell, good coverage, SPF protection (excellent!) and light-reflecting particles, this is pushing it as my all time new favourite product! Try it! NOW!

4. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara RRP $14.99

One of the all time best beauty products out there. It is always in those Beauty Editors “must have” lists, and make-up artists are “never seen without it”. Now I’m no beauty editor or make-up artist, but this is the stuff. It’s black, it’s thick, it’s not going to be discontinued (I hope, for ever!) and it’s really cheap!!

It’s not waterproof but that is ok, I’d rather my mascara not be (it’s easier to get off at night). You should replace your mascara every 3-4 months so this is a good one to have on rotation, it won’t break the bank when you need to buy a new one.

Usually I find two coats on my lashes give me a thick, full lash, you could do three coats for a smokey eye or nighttime glam.

5. Garnier bodytonic sugar scrub

No I am not a Garnier ambassador (I wish! Anyone out there in Garnier-land this is reading this….hint, hint) I just find their products work really well for me. This sugar scrub is a great body exfoliator coming into summer. Use it before you apply a fake tan (I know one by Palmers that is alright too). This scrub is really good at getting rid of those little bumps that you get on your skin after shaving, or on the back or your arms (you know the ones right?).

I find it works really quickly! My skin can be rough and bumpy and red (eeeeewwww!) and after one scrub and a good dolup of moisturiser, my skin is glowing! This sugar scrub has real granules in it so you feel it working, but they also dissolve as you use it, so it doesn’t feel like it’s tearing up your skin either!

This is definitely one MUST HAVE summer shower product, it makes you skin feel so nice and soft after just one use, imagine how good your skin will be after a few weeks!