Hey ladies

Good old random.org says number three is the winner!

Congrats Ama!  Flick us an email

to joanna [@]prettyprettypretty[.]com and we’ll post out your prize post-haste!

Every time I saw Americans writing about Birch Boxes and other similar beauty subscriptions I got insanely jealous. But luckily New Zealand now has our own great product to try- Sample Bar.

Mine turned up on the courier today and I have to say

it seems to be off to a very promising start!

So the basic principle of the beauty subscriptions is that you get a number of high-end samples (and sometimes even full sized) of various makeup, skin care and other such similar items. The samples are really decent sizes so you aren’t been short changed at all. I was definitely ‘order cialis online not disappointed with what I got for $25.

I’ll review the products in detail when I have had a chance to try them all. I have had a bit of a play with the Model Co- heated eyelash curler and am pretty impressed with the curl and lift it gives your lashes. I had debated buying it a few times previously but have always passed due to the price this was a great way to get it.

There is also a decent sized sample of a Dermalogica daily microfoliant, a cloth face mask, EVO the great hydrator hair mask (I think this is the one I am most excited about trying! As well as a few other things.

I hope it is just teething issues been the first month it is on the go but I found the sign up, wait list process a bit confusing. I probably would of liked more actual make up products but will definitely keep subscribing as you fill in a beauty profile and they say that as it goes on

you get a more personalised selection of samples.

Have you tried any similar packs overseas or do you think you might give Sample Bar a go here?

There are many tricky aspects to being a lady, not all of which can be solved by a blog post. However, we live in the future and have the Internet, so there are lots of things that we can learn from blogposts, videos and general web-based shenanigans. This blogpost is about informative Internet videos – sorry if you fall down the spiral of Youtube…

First up: how do I tie a scarf?

Okay, my outfit looks awesome, but I feel shy about my acne:

Smooth-faced and neatly draped. However, my hair is a nest of vipers in this spring “breeze”:

Hair looking like it’s straight off the runway, excellente. But

OH DANG I left my interior light on and my car battery is flat*:

Truly, you can learn all kinds of things on the Internet. What useful stuff have you learnt on the Internet?

*yeah, I threw this in because I didn’t know how to do this and I feel like “call the AA” needs to stop being my stock standard answer for How to Fix Car Trouble.

My heartfelt thanks to Leimomi for her wonderful suggestion that I look into vintage makeup brands such as Bésame.

Bésame is a brand that celebrates the concept of femininity, and encourages customers to enjoy the rituals associated wi

th being a woman. I know that makeup doesn’t get everyone’s pulse racing, but when you hold

the weighty Bésame products in your hand you can really feel the luxury and romance.

I emailed Bésame through their main website and they immediately referred my query to the New Zealand representative, Claire of The Vanity Case who very kindly provided some items to me for review purposes*.

I was intrigued that there was an online business in New Zealand selling these products, and was therefore delighted when Claire let me have a nice long chat with her over a cup of tea, so I could get to grips with both the brand and the concept of the vintage lifestyle.

Claire has a pre-existing interest in the vintage lifestyle, and as a red head was searching for the perfect red lippy (I understood implicitly having recently been a faux-red head for several months). Her search led her, via forums and chat rooms with other vintage lovers, to Bésame and their extremely clever 6-shade tester system of red lipstick (more to follow on this product!). Claire is a nurse by day, but saw an opportunity in her life to represent a brand that she really liked, and so about a year ago became the sole distributor of Bésame in New Zealand.

Times they are a-changing but, and excuse me while I wax philosophical, in these times of “having it all” there is huge value in making small efforts to inject a little fab-ness into every day while you haul your butt all over the place wheeling and dealing and generally being amazing. That’s why I eat my breakfast off a gorgeous vintage plate and store my milk in a blue glass carafe – small things that make each day a little bit more special. Similarly, since I love make up, putting on good quality products, taking time to make myself tidy and well-groomed, and having a beautiful golden compact for touch-ups and post-coffee lipstick application is just…nice. It’s like wearing your red skirt on a dull day.

Claire and I also discussed another concept that is increasingly close to my heart: rather than buying LOTS of cheap stuff, why not buy one or two really nice things? It’s not always easy to ignore the mass-produced siren song of trends and acquisition (trust me and my shoe collection when I say this). But it is nice to hark back now to the idea of always buying the best you can afford (and less of it).

So, I love the philosophy of both this particular brand and their niche, but the big question is…did I love the products?

Review time

I had four products to try: the cashmere powder, the crimson rouge, the 1930s mascara and the classic color lipstick.

• Cashmere powder

Refill $25.00

This is a really divine product. The powder comes with a beautiful gold compact, inside a red velvet bag (mmmm, luxurious). However, that would be all for nought if the product itself was terrible. This is intended to provide coverage but I also use it with a light hand to set liquid foundation, which I then found lasted significantly better than with the other powder I was using.

The compact comes with a small puff applicator, which worked but I preferred to use a dense powder brush with this product. It is a smaller size compact in terms of surface area, so I have to concentrate a little with my brush, but I didn’t find it problematic. I think this would make such a beautiful gift for a friend to mark a special occasion.

Unfortunately the compact is currently all sold out. However, I have included it because my fingers and toes are crossed that it will become available again at some stage and, when it is, we will be sure to alert you all via Twitter with a link to this post so you know what we’re talking about!

• Crimson rouge

$42.00

My favourite product from those I reviewed, this rouge is now a MUST HAVE for me. You know those questionnaires about what you would take to a desert island? For me, this product is in my top three (see also: sunscreen and lipbalm). Gotta be looking adorable when the rescue boat shows up, ya know.

It is extremely red in the pan, so I gently tap (not rub, not gouge) this twice with my middle and ring fingers and then blend over my cheek. That’s all you need for a light, natural-looking flush. This means that although I feel compelled to buy a back-up, I am going to be tough on myself as I will still be using this same tin in a year’s time.

I was a little concerned that a cream rouge would fade or slip, but even when my skin is oily and sad this product stayed right there on my cheek. I was also concerned it would be hard to apply on freshly-powdered skin but it was absolutely fine (I also used this on holiday over a BB cream and it was equally fine on the more greasy base).

Please also note the darling tin, which means when I finally finish this product I’ll have a place to store bobby pins!

• 1930s mascara

$42.00

The Bésame pamphlet says “you will be delighted its surprising natural scent” and I quite agree. It smells like the delicious natural cloves that are used as the preservative in this all-natural wonder. I personally really love the smell but if you are sensitive to scent you might want to smell it before purchasing, to make sure it’s okay. I can usually still smell a teensy waft of the clove fragrance about a minute after applying but once it’s fully dry the smell disappears.

Again, the packaging of the product is divine. I did ask Claire if Bésame made refillable mascara tubes to slot into the casing as it seems such a shame to throw the gold casing out, but this is not something they offer at present (although goodness knows how difficult that would be to design – just a pipe dream potentially!).

The mascara creates a lovely natural effect. I found that one coat lacked oomph, but on the second coat I had separated, lengthened lashes. There is absolutely no clumping with this product. No spider lashes here!

• Classic Color lipstick

Full size lipstick $42.00

Red lipstick is a tricky one. Your skin tone, condition of your teeth, and of course hair colour will all play a part in determining what colour red looks best on you.

These lipsticks are highly pigmented and apply smoothly. They are described as semi-matte and this is an accurate description. This does mean that proper lip preparation and nourishment are important, and on a few occasions I chose to layer a very thin amount of gloss over the top. The lipsticks may feel drying to you if you are used to our modern hyper-moisturising formulas, but persevere as the long-lasting nature of the lipstick far outweighs any initial adjustment to the different texture.

Sadly this ingenious trial-size approach isn’t available at present. Claire also showed me the full-size lipsticks, and these are lovely in their gold bullets, so if you’re confident of your colour red you might want to graduate straight to the big guns!

Bésame states that satisfaction is 100% guaranteed, which is a huge call by any company. However, in this case I was more than satisfied with the products and I look forward to future orders!

You can find lots of information on the beautiful Bésame website here .

Claire also does vintage styling classes and workshops at Made on Marion in Wellington AND will come to your home and do a vintage makeup party! You just need to get 8 girls together and hey presto, you’re holding a “Springtime in the City” themed party in September/October. Yes please to a glam makeover and a night of cake – if you decide to host one flick me an invite!

*This does not affect my review – free and frank as always!

Hey girls

No doubt you’re all waiting impatiently for the big announcement.  First of all, thanks SO MUCH for your

suggestions, it’s awesome to get an idea of what you’re interested in reading about.  I will be drawing on that list for the

next wee while so keep your eyes out for your content!

I used random.org to generate the winning comment.  After I took out spam and comments from me and Jo, I had 36 entries (sorry Theresa, every suggestion is an entry – too bad!).

The winner is….

Number 14! Counting straight down from the first comment and ignoring spam, that’s Cesy!  Congrats lady!  Please contact us via our Official Contact Info:   joanna [@]prettyprettypretty[.]com  and

we’ll ship this out to you ASAP.

Quite a few of you commented on the scourge that is winter, so I’ll be blogging about that this week.  Keep an eye out for some recommendations and suggestions!

PPP recently received an Australis mascara to review.  After several weeks of trying it out, I am finally ready to report on whether or not you should spend your pesos on this product, or whether it’s another well of big promises an

d empty dreams.

I have been using Covergirl Lashblast Volume for nearly two years, and it is a pretty serious love affair.  However, I was willing to put it aside for a bit and give another product a go – but my standards were rull high.  It would take a serious contender to push LB aside.

Here it is:

I didn’t do any research before I

started using it, and I observed:

• they weren’t lying about that length situation.  This coats your lashes to the very end and possibly beyond.
• it came off easily with my Dove foaming makeup remover, but in pieces rather than dissolving and washing off.
• I didn’t observe any transfer under myeyes.
• the wand is skinny, which I liked since it meant I could get every lash, including the ones right at the end and in the inner corner.
• it created a very natural look.  There was no clumping – essentially this just made me look like I had super long natural lashes.

Having made my highly scientific observations of the product, I had some feelings about it: this is nice.  But too boring for my liking. When I wear mascara, I want to look like I have double my actual lashes (which is why I use a volumising mascara).  This product does not do that.  The answer was clear – I had to try and combine this with LB and create a wonderful symphony of length and volume.

It worked like WOAH.  The Australis mascara dries quite quickly so I used a coat on each eye, then used the LB just at the very root of my lashes (i.e. I didn’t swipe it all the way to the ends).  This was a fab combo, as the ends of my lashes were coated with the Australis product while the LB gave thickness at the base and mid-length.  I will be using this combo every day of my dang life.  Yes, it may be ridiculous to use two mascaras, but since I already use two blushers and two concealers every day I figure, why not?

The Australis blurb on this product states:

All true.  This product retails for $11.95 on the Australis site and can be purchased from those lovely ladies at Farmers.

I’m including a tube of this in the prize pack I’m currently putting together for a giveaway in May – it’s my birthday so I figure you guys should be able to score some goodies (following what will hopefully be fierce competition).  In addition to this mascara, I’m collecting some of my fave products – lip gloss, hand cream, blush and much more – all you’ll need to do is answer a simple question on May 17 and I’ll select a random winner.  Easy peasy!  Tell a girlfriend and perhaps she’ll split the prize with you if she’s the lucky winner.

With the countdown now firmly underway, I’m more excited than the pre-teen girls of New Zealand in the face of a New Direction concert.  Much like those same pre-teens, I am asking myself the big questions, but instead of “will Harry Styles f

all in love with me from the stage?”

it’s “what on earth will I wear?”.

The group shows kick off at 6.30 on Thursday and Friday evenings, with doors opening from 5.30.  Since I am not a lady of leisure (yet), I have work all day and will be jumping in a taxi and racing across town in my effort to get to shows.  This means that whatever I wear has to be work appropriate, but since it’s Fashion Dah-link, I think I’d be a fool to turn up in the corporate uniform of Lambton Quay.  It’s a chance to dress up!

Luckily for me, my workplace does not require suits and so I should be able to cook something up pretty easily.  And so, I turned to a Google image search of “street style” to see what inspiration would strike.  It wasn’t my best search ever, but it did throw up these pretties:

From here

Digging the pink suit and the pastel contrast.  Probably would use the sleeves for keeping my arms warm though.

From here

Can you really go wrong with a black dress and geometric shapes? I can’t show that much leg at work, but the concept is sound…

From here

Killer coat and a pair of jeans (on Friday) – yes. Easy peasy but still smart.

From here

Oooooh, pretty blouse! I also love a cuffed pant.

 Turns out I like pants quite a bit.  Luckily I own pants in various bright shades so mayhap I can slap on a business appropriate blouse and some canary yellow pants and call it

a day.  What do you guys reckon? Should I seize the day and go fashion mad? Or should I keep it somewhere in the middle ground and retain my long term career prospects?

I love a love hate relationship with glitter nail polish- love because I love anything sparkly and hate because it is a pain and a half to take the stuff off.

If you are not as nail obsessed as myself you may not know the super easy but ridiculous looking way to take it off. I thought since everyone she have a bit of bling, bling for their nails on New Years I’d start my long overdue return to PPP with a quick tip to make things easier taking it off.

All you need is your normal nail polish remover (I prefer one with an acetone base it works faster so you don’t

have to rub as hard), cotton balls and some tinfoil. All you need to do is soak the cotton ball in the remover as per normal place on your nail then wrap in a strip of foil then scrunch it to make it tight to the nail. Leave it for 5-15 minutes depending on your patience and voila glitter off with minimal effort!

But trust me when I say one hand at a time!  I promise some far more interesting posts in the New Years- but at least I have the ball rolling again!