Pretty Picture Post: Waiting on Winter

Where I live, at the moment, it is technically Autumn. In North Queensland, in Australia, you don't tend to get a lot of cold temperatures or falling leaves like you do in the southern states. I call it Spring #2 and it usually isn't until the last month (or the last weeks of the second month) of Autumn that you can actually tell the season is changing.

It is starting to get dark earlier now, And it's starting to get a lot cooler in the afternoons. It is supposed to be cold tomorrow morning, though I know before lunch it will probably start to get quite warm again. For me, the end of Autumn is a time when coats are carried around and left in cars (in case it gets cold later), And dials on air conditioners or fan switches are fiddled with constantly; to get the temperature just right. It's a time when I start to forget about staying hydrated and using sun protection; even though I still need it. My skin starts to dry out drastically and I start to buy all of the beauty products.

I don't love cold weather, however I dislike this in-between weather.

I long for winter months, just because it means it will be easier to choose what to wear for the day. Cool weather makes me want to eat warm sweet foods and to spend time indoors enjoying my many hobbies. Though this weather also makes me want to go outside and enjoy the warmth of the sun. At the moment the weather is still warm enough for summer dresses, so I look forward to putting on some of the woolly clothing items that don't get much wear-time in this part of the world.

At the moment I am really starting to enjoy some of the more subdued "Fall colours". I don't usually wear seasonal colours, however I have really been enjoying greys, mauves, beiges, rust colours, brick reds, dusky pinks, browns and wine colours. I really like to pair these with metallics, black and dark greens or blues. I am really enjoying shimmery neutral make-up with a dark lipstick or a glossy mid-toned lip. I thought in this picture post I might share some pretty "Fall colours" type images (hopefully nothing I have shared previously). Quite a bit of black actually (mostly because of black&white photographs)...

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Many of the items featured in this post are not items that I own. I once owned a thick red winter coat which I never wore and ended up donating to a local charity. I don't own any real fur, though I have a fake fur collar and one fluffy pink cardigan. My winter wardrobe consists of tights, jeggings, cardigans and a few jackets that I can mix in with what I already have. There aren't really a lot of fall colours in there either (unless you count grey, beige and black). I am looking forward to wearing more "fall" type colours from my summer-wardrobe and attempting to mix them in with my winter stuff though. And, I am looking forward to donning every shade of Chocolate, Rum, Wine or Raisin coloured lippy.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures I selected and that they inspire you in some way. 

Your Favourite Blogger,

Natalie

My Winter Favourites: Beauty and Style

*  I love to snuggle on the couch with the dog and watch TV or a movie in winter.

I have seen a fair few of these 'favourite' posts circulating the blogosphere and I thought I might have a go. While I would prefer to just review everything in detail (and I suppose I still can) it definitely is less time consuming to write a brief introduction to a product that I love. While it doesn't get too cold in the part of Australia where I currently live (tomorrow they are predicting a minimum temperature of 6 degrees Celsius and a max temp of 23) we are all climatised and therefore the weather still does affect us. 

I especially dislike winter, because my sensitive dry skin really likes to play-up in the cooler weather. I have found a few products this year that I think really help and I would like to share them with you. I was going to take pictures, but the natural lighting is severely lacking in this weather, so please just enjoy a few random Pinterest pictures and I will try my best to get the accurate product names up in case you are interested. 

*I purchased all of these products with my own money. 

• The first two things on this list are the Nivea In Shower Smooth Lotion Skin Conditioner  and the Nivea Pure & Natural Body Lotion. These were both products that I originally didn't think I would like as I have tried other products by Nivea before that didn't really work out. I used to go through bottles of moisturiser like crazy, but that's slowed down a bit since I started using this one. The only negatives with the in shower lotion is that It doesn't come in a pump bottle. My shower doesn't have shelves... Both of these products are great quality and I totally recommend them to anyone with dry skin.

• Palmolive Naturals Milk & Honey Shower Milk smells really sweet and doesn't dry or irritate my skin. In colder weather I usually go for the Bathox version of this, but my local supermarket didn't have it, so I bought this one instead. I think I actually prefer this one. 

• Thankyou Patchouli and Vanilla Hand wash is a really gentle hand wash that smells like musk sticks. I have the hand lotion as well, but I always forget to use it and I have a slight phobia of greasy hands so when I remember I end up talking myself out of it. 

• These next three (technically four) products are products that I haven't had for very long. I don't know if they are any good, but I really like them because they have a really great coconut smell that is really summery and sweet. These products are the Palmolive Naturals Intensive Moisture Shampoo for dry hair (and the matching conditioner), the Weightless Hydration Coconut Water Weightless Hydration Oil and the Palmolive Fig & Coconut Hand Sanitiser. 

• For a while now I have been mixing a bit of the Thursday Plantation Tea Tree Oil into my cleanser and I think it has made a big difference to my skin. I still have a lot of acne, but the spots are a lot smaller and less red now. when my cleanser runs out I think I will be purchasing the Thursday Plantation one. 

• I am really liking the Neutrogenia Naturals Purifying Pore Scrub (which I got as a freebie in a magazine) because the scrub is made up of finer particles than some of the exfoliators I have tried previously. I feel like this does more for my skin and that it's not as rough as the chunkier face scrubs I have tried. 

• I don't know if the Sanctuary 5 Minute Thermal Detox Mask with Charcoal is actually working, but it feels nice when the mask reacts with water and heats up. Apparently charcoal used to be used for cleaning teeth...

• I really like the Garnier Moisture Match Mattifying Fresh Cream as it is the perfect balance between oily and dry. I find a lot of oil-free or oil-managing moisturisers either dry out the skin or are deceitfully greasy. Not this one.  

*  My expression looks a little bit like this on most cold days. I prefer summer...

• I have really been liking the Avon Ideal Flawless BB Cream SPF 15 lately. It has better coverage than most of the foundations I own and it feels really nice on my skin. It can seem a little greasy on an oily skin day, but nothing a bit of powder won't fix.

• Garnier Under-eye BB Cream is a nice everyday under-eye concealer. It doesn't have great coverage, but it is very brightening, and sometimes I think that's all you need.

• I have tried a lot of different brow products and at the moment the Avon Perfect Eyebrow Kit is the most natural looking and feeling. It doesn't feel as tacky or heavy on my eyebrows and the colour is fairly close to my natural hair colour. 

• I have tried a few different wind-up kohl pencils by Avon before and as much as I liked them they did transfer after a couple of hours of wear. The Avon Glimmersticks Cosmic Eyeliner is the exception as this one stays put all day with-out fading or transferring. 

• I have been using the Revlon Colourburst Lacquer Balms a lot lately. I have gotten a few more colours and I promise to do swatches soon. I did Review and swatch one of the colours.

• I recently discovered the Limecrime Carousel Lipgloss and have three colours. I promise to review and swatch these at some point. They aren't mega sticky or drying and you can hardly feel the glitter.

• I have also  been using a lot of the darker colours from the  Limecrime Lipstick range. Here is a review and swatches. I have bought a few more of these that I need to swatch for you guys at some point. I find that the darker colours are a creamier formula than the lighter ones, so the colours that are getting a lot of wear are 'Retrofuturist', 'Glamour101', 'Centrifuschia' and 'Poisonberry'.

• Two lip products that work well are the Blistex Medicated Relief Lip Balm and the Rose and Co Rose Petal Lip Salve. I use the Rose and Co one every night to prevent chapped lips and I use the Blistex one to heal my lips if they do end up dry.

*  I like to sit out in the sun to warm up if it's not too windy outside. 

• I am kind of obsessed with the 'Velvety Touch' style tights(50D - 70D hosiery) that Woolworths and Target have started selling. They don't make my skin itch the way some tights do and they have this nice muted look to them. My only complaints are that these only come in black and I think that a range of other colours would be nice. A flesh-tone or a ballet pink or a grey... I also really like the fleece lined tights that Woolworths sells, but these only come in black footless style, which is really annoying. If it is cold enough for me to wear fleece lined tights, then my feet are going to be cold too. 

• The Mix Cardigans that are sold at Coles are so soft and affordable. I have them in a heap of different styles and use some as winter pajamas.

• I have been getting a lot of wear out of my Target Hot Options Jeggings in this weather. I especially like the cord ones  on extra cold days. 

I know this was a super long favourites post, but I can't see myself writing these too often anyway. I know some of you are not currently experiencing cold weather, but hopefully this list might still have some benefit. Do you have any favourite beauty products that you'd like to share?

Your Favourite Blogger,

Natalie