EOFY Sales & Window Shopping..

Not a good combination! Window shopping should never mean anything but buying windows for your house of car.

Skipping the gym on a Thursday night to go window shopping with Little Sis was a bad idea since the recent recovery of my credit card. I ended up buying a viscose wrap from Portmans at 60% off, a very yellow umbrella from Esprit (not on sale), a split ticket for tomorrow’s $90 million lotto jackpot and a cute teapot from one of my favourite stores T2.

I love heading into T2, its always so inviting with tiny samples of their variety of teas that most of the time I end up buying something. Earlier this year, my KK bought me the loose leaf Chamomile tea in the tin canister, I must admit the quality is better than other brands I’ve tried as when it’s brewed it becomes slightly thicker than other Chamomile teas and goes well with honey.

T2 teas are admittedly a bit pricey, so if you know better places to go to get standard teas like Green Tea that’s good quality and cheaper, get it there. A specialty tea that I bought this month from T2 that is worth it is Very Berry Fruitea. My best bud EC introduced me to it and is a tea we always have when I visit her place. It’s made up of various dried fruit like strawberries, elderberries, black berries, raspberry with rosehip and hibiscus when brewed produces jelly pink coloured tea. It’s caffeine free and not overly sweet and is perfect for a cold winter night in front of the telly.

The cute hand painted tea pot I bought, brews enough for a large cup perfect if you don’t feel like sharing or having much tea. What’s great about it (there’s not usually much great about a tea pot) is the tea strainer inside the pot sits close to the well of the tea pot, so it continues to infuse up to the last drop which some other pots do not do.

Some of my other purchases this week having free entry to the Every Woman Expo, I bought a couple of bottles of award winning olive oil by Dash, heaps of snacks to take home and these fresh-water pearl stud earrings. It was great value at less than $20, mainly because the backings and pins aren’t silver or gold (it’s the same quality you’d expect from Sportsgirl). I love the colour!

Anyway gtg, lots of love Little J!

Lush Bland?

Oh yes, it’s Ultra Bland! I’ve been looking for a very long time for a cleansing product that really gets rid of the makeup you’ve worn during the day or even for a night. A few months ago I went to Lush because I heard about their Henna range (a chemical free hair tint treatment) and was curious to what cleansers they had.

Every time, I go there it seems they push the Angels on Bare Skin cleanser simply because it’s their most popular cleanser and scrub all in one. The sales girl also showed me Ocean Salt and Ultra Bland trying them both on the back of my hand. The Ocean salt smelt refreshing with the Coconut with hints of lime and grape fruit, but felt a bit too rough. The Ultra Bland embodies it’s given name: Bland; on the back of my had it felt oily and slightly lard-ish, with no fragrance if any, maybe smelling a bit like glycerine. At the store I wasn’t convinced, but somehow I left with a 5 gram sample and only a month ago did I discover how great this product was.

I have to admit it’s hard to convince me to buy cleanser/scrub that has been tried on the back of my hand. Simply because we never cleanse/scrub/treat the back of our hands like we would on our faces, that of course any product would reveal beautiful, glowing and refreshed skin.

Anyway, this sample had been sitting there for a month or so before I decided to use it. It looks very much like hair wax and you use it in the same manner, except on your face. All you need is to pick a small amount with your finger, rubbing with a bit of warm water into the palms of your hands to heat it up before massaging it into your face. After a quick splash of warm water to the face, using a dry cotton pad you would wipe your face clean of the Bland; you’ll realise the magic of the product when you look at the pad. When I first used it I was gob-smacked by how dirty the cotton pad was with all the makeup I had worn during the day, everything from foundation, mascara and eye shadow. It seems the oil in the product binds itself to all the makeup on your skin and when you wipe it off, it wipes everything in its path.

What I love is most after using it, is that your skin feels amazingly baby soft, not at all greasy and doesn’t feel like makeup is still sitting deep in your pores. Reading the ingredients listing, I shouldn’t have been surprised, with stuff like the softening Honey and Peanut oil, clarifying Rose water and the Beeswax that does all the binding.

It’s definitely worthwhile trying if your cleanser can’t get rid of all the makeup residue left in your skin. I would recommend getting the 45gm instead of the 100gm as it’ll take you ages to go through the small one. Or better yet, pop into Lush and ask for a sample!

Lot of love, Little J.

Designer fashion sale!

If you are into designer fashion and your credit card is not worse for wear, check out this website they have a sale for up to 70% off Australian designer brands like Lisa Ho and Mad Cortes. The shipping costs are quite reasonable of $13 to anywhere in Oz. My only recommendation for shopping for clothes online is that you check the sizing chart with a tape measure on hand, so you know it fits you when the package arrives at your door.

I'm sure you want to know how to enter the comp, just sign up as a Loreal Beauty club member at http://www.lorealbeautyclub.com.au/ and they should send you the links.

Til next time, Little J.

First Blog

Hello, gorgeous people :) first blog... it’s something I keep on saying I’ll do and only now has it come to fruition. I’ve always wanted to share my comments on my favourite shopping conquests and yummy places I’ve eaten... so here goes...

One of my recent favourite purchases is the So French So Chic album, I absolutely love it cos it reminds me of Nice on the French Riviera... the cobble stone beaches, the fresh scrumptious pastries, puppies at cafes and the very relaxed atmosphere, if I could have a soundtrack for my time there it would definitely be this soundtrack. What does it sound like? It’s a mix of French pop, Indie & Chanson and is the unofficial soundtrack of the French Film Festival for 2009.



I went to the French Film Festival in Perth and saw Paris 36 (better than Moulin Rouge!) and after going through the album the first time, I definitely didn’t recognise any songs from the film. I read somewhere the soundtrack that it introduces and very often establishes up and coming French artists. Although it’s hard to single out, the songs I love from this soundtrack are 7 Heures Du Mat by Jacqueline Taïeb, Pourquoi Pas Moi by Stella and La vie à deux by Zaza Fournier.

How I came across this album, was for my birthday my boyfriend KK (his initials, I still haven’t decided if I’ll use people real names yet, this is the internet!!) took me to a lovely restaurant in Subi, Bistro Felix. It was the perfect night with cocktails, delicious beautifully presented European food and relaxing atmosphere. I asked the waitress we were talking to when we were paying, about the music they were playing and she was happy to tell me about how much the restaurant loves the album. They have the whole collection and play it there all the time. The So French So Chic albums have been out every year since 2005, I’ll be collecting them down the track once my credit card lets up.

If you want to have a listen, I found a website that lets you taste test the songs for yourself. http://cartellmusic.com.au/so-frenchy-so-chic-2009/
Enjoy! Lots of love Little J