September BellaBox Unboxing

This month's box was: 'Beauty Reboot', I guess in honour of Spring finally gracing us with her presence (yay). I sure know I'm more than ready to shake off those Winter shackles and have myself a little pamper sesh to ring in the new season.

Here's what I got this month:

As usual, I'd like to apologise for the embarrassingly shitty quality of my photos. I'm getting a new camera for Christmas, until then, bear with me.

Coffee Organics Coffee Peppermint Body Scrub

Coffee scrubs seem to the 'the thing' nowadays, and I'm somehow yet to try one out. I suppose they all claim to do the same things: boost circulation, help with cellulite, assist skin renewal, but with the addition of peppermint oil, I'm excited to give this particular scrub a whirl.

RRP: $14.95

MooGoo Cover Up Buttercup SPF 15 Moisturiser

It's time to amp up the SPF now that the days are getting sunnier (even though you should wear SFP all year 'round - whoops). With an SPF 15 rating and the addition of Zinc, it's perfect for Springtime wear. I've actually stated my love for MooGoo in one of my recent favourites posts, so I was stoked to discover one of their samples in my box. This doesn't irritate my sensitive skin, nor leave a greasy residue in it's wake but the fact that all the ingredients are natural (throughout all their products) is the biggest tick of approval in my book.

RRP: 29.90 (200g tin)

Carmex Jasmine & Green Tea Lip Balm

Good old Carmex. The smell is mild and pleasant and it goes on nice and thick (yet somehow not sticky), meaning it has some serious staying power, and is insanely moisturising on my Winter-dry lips. With SPF 15, I know I'll be using this throughout the next few months.

RRP: $5.99

Jurlique Purely Age-Defying Firming Treatment Mask

This paper mask claims to improve the plump-ness of the skin and help reduce the seven signs of aging. The ingredients list shows that this is absolutely packed with natural botanicals and the fact that it also covers the neck area as well as the face impressed me. I've always been too lazy to give myself a facial regularly, but I'll be trying this one out as soon as I'm able.

RRP: $69.00 (5 masks)

Nude by Nature Pressed Mineral Cover

Despite seeing their products all over my beloved Priceline, I've not once tried any of Nude by Nature's products but I must say, I'm impressed by this powder. It delivers a lightweight, semi-matte finish and the 'medium' shade I received happened to be a perfect match for my complexion. It provides a medium coverage, which I can easily build to full-overage if need be without looking cakey. I may just swap out my old trusted Stay Matte powder for this bad boy in the future. Maybe.

RRP: $39.95

BONUS: Natural Cycles Ovulation test

Yes, I laughed when I saw this sitting atop my beauty goodies.

Not photographed

RRP: $88.00 (one year subscription)

BONUS: Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula with Vitamin E

Not photographed

RRP: $7.39 (250mL)

Lace on the Beach.

Photography by Marife G

Skirt: Izabel London* | Crop top: old similar here | Sandals: Boohoo

I love the femininity and the Springtime vibes that lace portrays. This skirt has become a staple in my wardrobe of late, as have gladiator sandals - a perfect combination (if you ask me) for a day spent at my number one favourite place: the beach.

*I selected this piece from the Izabel.com website to be sent to me free of charge.
All styling, comments and opinions are 100% my own.

Springtime Brights.

Photography by Marife G

Dress: Izabel London* | Heels: Wayne Cooper similar here | Watch: Michael Kors

Just looking at the bright colouring of this dress in the morning puts me in a good mood, and there's something so effortlessly classy about a boat neck. This is the perfect outfit for a day spent shopping in the city in the warm weather (if I do say so myself).

*I selected this piece from the Izabel.com website to be sent to me free of charge.

All styling, comments and opinions are 100% my own.

Friday Finds.

Here are a few of my finds (and loves) from over the week just passed.

\\  One can never have too many peach crumble recipes amirite?  //
\\  I love this textured version of the French twist.  //
\\  How cute are these printable monster mini cupcake holders?!  //
\\  Brown butter-oat pancakes with caramelized bananas and bourbon whip - Strange things are happening in my pants right now.  //
\\  Dinner for the rest of my life will be this basil gnocchi with roasted garlic tomato sauce recipe.  //

\\  I'm dead over this freakin' zucchini, rice and cheese gratin. WHAT?!  //

My Birthday Wishlist.

September is amongst my favourite months for a few reasons:
1. Spring is here.
2: Festivals and events start gearing up for the warmer months.
3: It marks one month until my birthday. *throws confetti*
Yup I'm one of those narcissistic ass hats who would rather celebrate my birthday over Christmas.

It's about this time that I compile a little birthday wish list.
Okay, I lied, this shit's been sitting in my drafts since January. Don't judge me.

One: Free People Boots  ||  Two: Ben Nye Banana Luxury Powder
Three: Tiffany & Co Necklace  ||  Four: Louis Vuitton Neverfull
Five: Night Out,  ||  Six: Eiffel Tower,  ||  and Seven: Pineapple Pandora charms
Eight: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1  ||  Nine: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush 'Diffused Heat'

Ten: MAC Mineralize Skinfinish 'Lightscapade'  ||  Eleven: MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick

My Month on Instagram - August.

If you've been following Christie's Take on Life for any amount of time, you'd surely know by now that I'm a major lover of Instagram! It's the perfect outlet for posting inspiration and little snippets of life, and seeing what my favourite bloggers and friends are up to.

There are so many times my Instagram posts never make it to my blog, and that's a damn shame because I consider myself to be quite the photographer..

..Not really, but it's a shame nonetheless.

Instalife the past month looked something like this:

You've probably seen this photo all up in my monthly goal posts, because I'm a resourceful little blogger. These were basically all my work days throughout our office revamp in August. Free hot chocolate, muffins, and lazy days were A-Okay by me.

Jesse took me bowling on one of our weekly date nights. Turns out, bowling is not my forte. At all.

I FINALLY BOUGHT A PAIR OF FREAKIN' HUNTERS! I've been wanting these babies for years and they're finally mine! Retail therapy like a bawss.

I attended my very first blogger's meet with Bloggers United AU. I had an amazing time and met some wonderful people.

Enter, the goodie bags (which you can read about in the aforementioned post). To say we were spoilt would be an understatement; I'm still to try out about half of what I received.

The famous Instagram board. Mischelle and I basically had to fight to the death to get a photo in this thing.

My goodie bags, unbagged. Is that a thing? Unbagged? Sure. Let's go with sure.

I love finding new bloggers on Instagram; leave your account deets in the comments!

Friday Finds.

Here are some of my finds (and loves) from the week gone by:

\\  Basically, I need this brunch tee in my life.  //
\\  I love these cotton candy balloons! They look so real!  //
\\  Simple and pretty festival hair. Yes.  //
\\  Amping up my next batch of s'mores with buttered popcorn marshmallows. Yass.  //
\\  How clever is this sweet grape body scrub DIY? Must try. MUST.  //

\\  This black and gold feather nail art is life.  //

Happy Friday, kids!

August Look Back & September Goals.

A lookback of August's goals:

Goal: Re-visit old blog posts

Back in my beginner blogger days, I'd post almost daily. These posts would MAYBE be seen by a few people, and have since disappeared into the blog post graveyard. I've been poking around in those old posts lately, and I'd like to think my #BloggerSkillz have improved since then. I've seen there is more that I could squeeze out of most of my old content, things I can improve, font colours I need to change.. Even the sub-par posts can be repurposed in some way - the ideas are good, but the overall post is of amateur production. I recently recycled an old beauty hack post and it already has over 4x the amount of  views as the original.

--

Cross: I tried. Sort of. I edited a few font colours here and there, but nothing substantial enough to count this one as a success.

Goal: Leave more comments

To me, it seems pretty asshole-y not to leave a thoughtful comment on a post you enjoyed reading, and you're pretty ignorant to assume people will comment on all the things if you don't reciprocate. It's something that used to be second nature to me, but I've since gotten shamefully slack. I aim to leave around 5 meaningful and encouraging (read: not shitty spam - I actually hate you) comments per day on blog posts that I liked.

--

Cross: Again, I tried. I left a few comments here and there, and admittedly, it's more than I have been commenting recently, but definitely nowhere near what I'd like.

Goal: Lose 3kg

My gym sessions are still consistent, but I'm falling back in to bad habits food-wise. If I can muster up the will power and monitor what I put in to my body more carefully, there's no reason why I can't lose at least 3kg this month. Because after photos amirite.

--

Tick: Those goals you forgot you had, but achieve them anyways are the best. It felt so good to see that I'd lost 3.2kg over the month. I'm sure I've put that and then some back on over my holiday, but for now, I'm happy.

Goal: Respond

I've been getting lazy with my responses lately. Responses of all kinds, from blog-related emails and comments, to personal Facebook messages. Not only does it look bad from a professional point of view, but I'm missing out on a lot of information and events.

--

Tick: Yusss. Every day I responded to new emails and got back to my Facebook messages within two days of receiving them.

September goals

Make business cards

I recently attended a Blogger's United meet (read) and I think I was about the only person there without blogger business cards. Whoops. Not that anyone minded, but I think it's about time I got some.

Plan birthday

MY BIRTHDAY IS A MONTH AWAY (!!!) and I have zero idea what I'm going to do to celebrate, which makes me uncomfortable because I usually have this shit down come June. I'd definitely like to do something with all of my friends, the question is.. what?

Find a car

You may have read a while back about my accident. Insert knife emoticon here.

It's about time I got my own vehicle again though she'll never compare to my baby.

Go to a dermatologist

The itchiness of my legs that I always seem to post about when I review moisturisers is getting worse and I'm scratching myself to the point of bleeding all over my sheets at night. Perhaps I have a mild case of eczema? I've been meaning to see someone for a while now so I guess now's a good a time as ever.

Lose 4kg
I've been so proud of my 3kg loss last week that I've decided to push myself to lose that bit extra. I know I've put on some over the course of my holiday, so I'll have to work that bit harder this month.

Friday Finds.

Here are a few of my finds (and loves) from over the past week:

\\  I died and went to vegetarian heaven when I saw this veggie lasagna stuffed portobello mushroom recipe.  //
\\  This is some of the prettiest Wintery nail art.  //
\\  How awesome a piece would this DIY terrarium side table make?  //
\\  I salivate every time I see this cinnamon sugar bourbon peach upside down cake recipe.  //
\\  So, vanilla bean buttermilk ice cream with cherries & pretzels. You're welcome.  //

\\  This shirt describes my life perfectly. Too perfectly.  //

August Beauty Favourites.

One: BlenderCleanser
Beauty bloggers: look away.. I never clean my make-up brushes/sponges. Okay, I did once.. Yesterday. Don't judge me. I bought a multi pack with two blenders and the cleanser online a while back. I FINALLY got around to hosting a much needed make-up brush/sponge cleaning extravaganza on my day off and this stuff did the job on all of my tools better than I had expected. It has a eucalyptus-y, lavender-y scent and the dispenser is pretty clever, convenient, too! You flip the top, press the blender onto the top of the dish-like dispenser and the product absorbs deep in to your sponge. For brushes, I diluted a few drops in a bowl of water and gave them a swirl. Both ways worked so well to clean all that gunk build-up off my tools, leaving them soft and clean.


Two: Bioderma Atoderm Crème

If you recall, I got a sample sized bottle of this holy grail in my July BellaBox. I used that bad boy up in about 5 days and immediately went out to buy the full sized bottle. On top of being sensitive, my legs have always been dry and unbearably itchy and no matter how much cream I slather on, nothing has worked long-term - it wasn't pretty, guys. This has been the only thing to nourish my skin enough and stop that terrible itch. It absorbs quickly to where it's needed most, calming all irritation without leaving a waxy or greasy residue. I owe my sanity to BellaBox in this case.


Three: ChiChi Creamy Matte Liquid Lipstick in 'Flirt'

I received this in one of my (many) goodie bags from the Bloggers United meet I attended last month, and I've used it almost daily since. The shade 'Flirt' is a pinky beige, and compliments my skin tone beautifully but the thing that impressed me the most was the formula. It got on smooth and creamy and quickly dries matte. Somewhat new to liquid lipsticks, and a matte lip virgin, I wasn't sure how well it would wear but man, does this shit last! All day long the colour stayed with me and is pretty damn transfer-proof once it dries. Never has it feathered or left my lips with that dry, creased looking texture like so many matte formulas do.

Four: B.Sweet Popping Candy Highlight Serum

Can I start by saying this is the most aesthetically pleasing product I have ever used! It's adorable! Pink pearly bubbles encased in a light serum, which once pumped, mix together to transform into a liquid, all stored in a pretty tube topped with a candy cane striped lid - squee! My friend in the UK purchased it from Superdrug for me (I love you) and I've used it every day since it's sweet, sweet arrival to my doorstep. The first thing I noticed was how hydrating the serum felt on the skin. It looks especially radiant as a cheekbone highlight but at the same time, is so versatile! It can be used as a highlighter, as an illuminating base under make-up, or mixed in with your foundation (my preferred method of application) leaving my complexion looking bright and healthy.

Five: Elucent Whitening Day Moisturiser

This was another Bloggers United gift. Elucent kindly

supplied us all with full sized bottles of their entire whitening range. Just a FYI ('cause the term 'whitening' is kind of scary), this skincare line is designed to even out the skin tone by reducing pigmentation and balancing out the appearance dark spots, freckles, age spots, etc. NOT 'whiten' your skin with bleaches and scaries. We received so much that I'm yet to try everything, but of the products I have tried, the day moisturiser has impressed me the most. It has a heavier consistency than I usually use due to the tendency my skin has to clog under thick creams, but this hasn't been the case - my skin has remained clear and non-greasy, and feels more moisturised than it has in a long time. The fact that there's no fragrance also means that there has been no irritation to my sensitive skin and dries slightly tacky, which I actually love because my foundation adheres so much better and lasts much longer when I use this, to the point that I no longer need to use a primer.