I completely forgot I had this sitting in my drafts waiting for me to finish labelling the photo. So without further ado...

OK, getting down to the nitty gritty. So I’ve got my Bamboo Beige samples – you can check out how my Swatch n Compare of some of the shades in the middle of the range went here. As I have normal skin the lovely sales assistant at Sephora Melbourne Central gave me a generous sample of both the Moisturizing and the Oil Free formulations since the foundation stand listed the Moisturizing as ‘Normal to Dry’ and the Oil Free as ‘Normal to Oily’. I road tested them over the space of a fairly warm week (still summer here) with a minimum of 10 hours wear time each day to see how it would hold up.

 

I had acne in my late teens and early 20’s until my sister’s wedding prompted me to finally sort out my acne situation with a course of Roaccutane. But until I was 35 my entire skin care regime consisted of using St Ives Apricot Scrub on my face in the shower, the occasional clay mask and a basic moisturiser with SPF during the day which did nothing for my acne scarring or textural/tonal issues. With so much beauty blogger/vlogger coverage of what Retinol can do to help renew your skin, it was a given that eventually I’d start looking for a product that would address these issues.

I tend to be fairly brand loyal. When I find a product that really works for me, I am compelled to try out the rest of the range that the brand offers. Peter Thomas Roth is one such brand.
 

After researching dark circle treatments and reading heaps of reviews, I worked out that PTR Power K Rescue Eye Treatment might be the thing for me. The very generous Rachael at Kit Cosmetics Doncaster (now Mecca Maxima I think) was so lovely and gave me a HUGE scoop to try as a sample which gave me enough product to try properly for a full 2 weeks and in that time I saw a remarkable improvement in my dark circles. After that first successful trial I earmarked a bunch more products to try and buy within the PTR range and have slowly collected the following which have become core items in my beauty arsenal.

Priceline had a 40% off sale on all haircare about a month ago so I took advantage and got a heap of products to try. I’ve never tried the ‘Not Your Mother’s’ brand before and was excited to see they have a detangling spray (has anyone else noticed these are becoming increasingly hard to come by with so many brands switching to masks and leave in treatments) and a dry shampoo, both of which promised big things.

I passed a stand of these lippy's at Priceline a few months ago when they first came out and though I'm not normally a fan of Revlon, I swatched one thinking that with the cheap looking packaging these will be crap. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong but at the time I couldn't justify buying another lipstick I really didn't need. Instead I made a mental note to keep an eye out for a sale and about a month later Chemist Warehouse had a 50% off all Revlon sale and these 4 came home with me.

3 years ago my bathroom cupboards were overflowing with bottles of things I had bought to try or because they were on special yet had never really bothered to use. So to stop the wastage and make myself accountable I started a Project Pan to make sure I used them all up. In the process I discovered that I had been buying the same things over and over that I didn't really like because I hadn't noticed that it had simply been repackaged or because I forgot why I didn't like it the first time around.

My project pan quickly evolved into a log of my monthly empties, complete with short notes of what I thought of the product to remind myself whether it was worth repurchasing and more importantly when NOT to buy it again.

In 2014 I managed to finished 126 beauty items from 4 categories: skincare for the face, skincare for the body, haircare and makeup, with these 31 being from the last quarter of the year.

October

My love affair with serum’s started at a Dior counter a few years ago and while I didn’t find one that worked for me, the thin silky texture and the softness they gave my skin had me hooked. Many months later when checking out a foundation at a Lancome counter I was given a couple of samples of the Lancome Visionnaire Advanced Skin Corrector and the romance began in earnest.