COSTCO HAUL!

Last year Costco opened its doors in Auburn, in Sydney's West, and in Canberra.
Since its opening, J and I have been itching to go visit but neither location is super convenient for us, and you need to be a member to both get in, and shop.

J's dad and sister in law both have a membership, so when we visited Canberra last weekend we were determined to visit! Each member can bring in 2 guests, so J's dad dropped us off, and his SIL (also a J!) and brother picked us up and took us through the checkouts.

So what did we buy on our first visit to the land of supersize and bulk buying?

As you can see, we didn't really buy that many things, but the stuff we did get is in pretty big quantities. We tried to pick up stuff we needed at home / stuff that is normally quite expensive. I was going to include how much we paid for everything, but I appear to have lost the receipt! Sorry! All up we spent just under $80.

J was determined to pick up some nuts - so we got a 1.3kg pack of pistachios.We were also out of barbeque sauce, so picked up a bulk 4L bottle of that to refill our smaller bottle at home. We grabbed a 3 pack of aioli, and a 4 pack of Waterthins wafer crackers (easily my favourite but so expensive at Woolies!)

I picked up a massive 1.2kg bag of Carman's gluten free muesli (so yum!), and almost a kg jar of sundried tomatoes. We picked up a box of Maltesers ($5 yo...as if you could say no?), and some Australian beef jerky.

We also picked up two pieces of smoked chicken breast, but I'm a doofus and forgot to include them in the photos!

Bargains aside, the best thing about Costco is the free samples. So many people set out with little tables happy to give you something to nom on while you shop. Incredible! We nommed on some of the smoked chicken (which is how it ended up coming home with us), apple juice, Korean beef and Korean chicken, jelly belly jelly beans (I may or may not have gone back for seconds thirds on that one), sliced up fruit rolls, chocolate croissant...
now I don't know if you remember that Simpsons episode "Lisa Gets an A" where they head to the grocery store after church and Homer just runs around eating everything he can stick a toothpick into? I felt like that. So much free food, I actually felt a little guilty taking it all and eating it.

What's the best free food sample you've ever had?
Ever been to the land of bulk buy and bargains?



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Nails of the Week #6

I have to preface this post by saying that absolutely all credit for this design goes to Jess from Neko Aesthetic. Go check out her youtube if you haven't already - she's a great Aussie youtuber who has some excellent tutorials!

So onto the nail design!

Is that not the cutest design you've seen in your entire life?

If you're an old subscriber to my blog, you may be aware that my nickname is 'Moo'. Don't even ask me why, I've just had it my whole life. This little nickname of mine has since developed into a full-blown collection of cow-related objects. So when I saw Jess' video for a cow print themed nail, I immediately got out my nailpolishes and did it myself!

Obviously this design is really simple - so only black and white is needed, with of course a base / top coat. Jess' video calls for a 'dotting tool' to be used. Now, I've never even heard of such a tool so I got creative and cut one of the ends off a cotton bud and used the stick end instead. It worked great! 

Colours used:

• Revlon - Coconut Crush
• OPI - Black Onyx

I personally love the sheen given by the Coconut Crush. I find it adds a bit more dimension to the design, than if I had used plain old white. 

You can check out Jess' tutorial here. 

Do you have a nickname? If you do - what's the story behind it?

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International (UK-AUS) Blog Swap - Haul!

Back in September, Jessie from The Bode Boutique tweeted me and asked if I would be interested in doing an international blog swap with her.
Of course I jumped at the idea!

If you're unfamiliar with what a blog swap is, it's actually really simple: you swap items with someone who has a similar blog / or similar interests to you. Beauty swaps are really common, and lots of fun! They can be done domestic or internationally. Jessie is from the UK so obviously this was an international swap. You each set a spending limit, and then shop for goodies for each other! Jessie and I worked out if there were any items we each wanted that weren't available in our countries, so we had a good mix of surprise items and  things we were expecting!

We both posted on the same day (taking into account time difference) and were both really happy to see that they arrived within a couple of days of each other!

Now, I'll take you through what I got, as well as a quick review / thoughts. I haven't had a chance to properly try them all yet though, so expect better swatches and more thorough reviews / tutorials / FOTD (that's face of the day for those playing at home) looks in the upcoming months!

So on to the haul!



As you can see, Jessie did an excellent job with a range of items - 4 lip products (you spoil me!), 2 blushes, and 2 eye palettes. Even better, these are all brands / products we don't have here, so I feel a bit special!

 

This Sleek blush is in the colour 'Rose Gold' and ohmygod I love it. It's such an apt name, and describes the shade so well! It's such a beautiful, shimmery pink with a hint of gold shimmer. I think this will be such a perfect colour for summer! 

The other blush was this cream blush by Revlon in 'Flushed Rougissant'. Jessie said she loves this one as it creates a nice flush and glow to the cheeks! It looks like SUCH a bright pink in the tub, but when swatched it's actually a little lighter, so I'm sooo keen to try that one out for a nice "just been running" glow. 

This is the MUA palette in 'Heaven and Earth'. This looks like such a lovely, neutral palette, I'm so keen to try out looks with it. I really love that there's a few darker colours in this one! The colours are so pigmented, and last for ages! I've only had a small play with it, but will definitely be creating some looks out of this one. I  swatched these on my arm to get a photo of them, and even after scrubbing at my arm, they didn't come off that easily, so that is definitely a good sign!
Unfortunately, I chose to do this at sunset so the photo quality of them is pretty poor. You can expect a more comprehensive review soon!



This is the Sleek Storm palette - check out how vibrant and beautiful those colours are! This one is a firm favourite of Jessie's, and I can totally see why. I am already just dreaming up the number of looks I can create with this one alone! The plastic hinge snapped in transit, which is a bit unfortunate, but I suppose it could definitely be worse! Imagine if one of the actual eye-shadows had snapped!

This was one of the only products I requested, and that is the much-discussed and loved Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains. Revlon's answer to Clinique's Chubby Stick, these are not available in Australia just yet (although I've heard murmurs that they're arriving on our shores soon!). Jessie got me 'Crush' (on the left) and 'Lovesick' (on the right). I've already become obsessed with Lovesick and it has been a permanent addition to my handbag for the last week. 

And last but not least - here's a quick swatch of the two MUA lipsticks she sent me! I've only ever read great things about these, so I'm really excited to add them to my collection. On the left, shade number 13 - a really bright, gorgeous red, and on the right, shade number 3 - a gorgeous, pretty pink. I think the pink is super feminine, and agree with Jessie in that it will be great for Summer!

I cannot say a big enough 'thank you' to Jessie for asking me to do this with her! I had such a great time picking out products for her, and I hope she enjoys her goodies as much as I enjoyed receiving mine. I feel like I got to know you so much better with all our back-and-forth emails, and you're so lovely!
You should all go check her blog out here! A little birdy has told me that soon you'll be able to see what I sent her ;)

Have you ever done a blog swap before? I'm always up for doing more if you're interested! 
Have you ever used any of these make-up items before? How much cooler is it to receive 'exclusive' things from overseas!




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My Week in Pictures #14

NB: This is a picture heavy post!

  

This has been such a busy week for me! I have been in 3 different states in 7 days! Crazy, huh?
We flew back on Tuesday from my nan's funeral in Queensland. The flowers were so beautiful, and I'm glad I got a photo of them (even if it's not that great of a photo) They were the most beautiful roses. Although it's not the greatest of circumstances, I was able to catch up with my extended family up there as well. I also met my newest baby cousin - such a cutie!
I had one day at home before heading to Canberra - so I got in plenty of snuggles with the kitty cats; a bed is not properly made unless there's a cat snoozing at the end!
I had lunch with Mum. These watermelon juices were just what we needed on a really warm day.

Got plenty of snuggle time with Tosca and Dixie in Canberra! Dixie (the white one) is such a beautiful, pretty cat but she's so neurotic! Tosca is so lady-like; check her out crossing her paws over!!

 

 

 

We did a few tourist-y things on the Friday with J's mum and cousin. We had lunch at the National Treasures Gallery, checked out the black swans on the Lake, wandered down past where all the flags are waving (Is there a name for this place?) We walked past my future office (HAHA....that's the High Court of Australia for those playing along at home). We also checked out the National Portrait Gallery. I'm honestly not much of an art fan but portraits are really awesome to look at. We got to see the one of the Queen done for her Jubilee year - AMAZING! I wish I could have taken photos but no photography is allowed :(

That last photo is of New and Old Parliament House is perfect alignment! Not seen in this photo, but directly behind where I was standing is the War Memorial. That's the thing about having a planned and designed city - you can have cool stuff like this! 

We also had our first trip to Costco! Oh it was exciting! We bought a few things, so keep an eye out for my haul post!

And then...of course, the whole reason we went down was for T&C's engagement party.
It was at the Yacht Club, right on the lakeside. They had rented a marquee, and as you can see, it had plenty of windows, letting in plenty of natural light, and also allowing a nice view of the lake.

It was a really great afternoon, and I really wish them all the best!

What did you get up to this week? Are you an art fan? 



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