Emu Cream anyone?

Target was having 25% off sale on all their beauty items and although they had all the big drugstore brands like Revlon and Maybelline, they were far too expensive for me to warrant this 25% off. I mean looking at a $25 Revlon lipstick really turned me right off of looking at all the cosmetic stands which was a shame because I could do with a couple more of those Australis lipsticks. Instead, I picked up a couple of body creams (you always need body creams right?). What seems to be really booming here in Australia at the moment are emu creams and oils. I'm not sure where the craze came from but you always see some really cheap emu or sheep creams around all the drugstores and chemists.

There was a time when the vitamin E or goat's milk creams were booming and you can get a big tub of the creams for $2. I feel like once this hits the rest of the interweb world, these puppies will cost alot more than just a couple of bucks.


I picked up a tub of the Australian Cream Emu Oil cream as well as their Lanolin Oil cream to combat against the harsh German winter.

The packaging states: Australian Emu Oil Cream is a rich moisturiser formulated with Emu Oil and Vitamin E to help hydrate and soothe dry and overworked skin and make skin feel fresher and smoother. Australian Emu Oil Cream contains natural Australian Emu Oil obtained as a by-product of farm bred Emus. Not tested on animals.


I'm still a little divided on the whole "putting emu fat on my skin and be ok with it" kind of thing and I guess it'll be a while yet until I try this on as I still find it a bit of a weird concept. Perhaps I'll ease myself into it by testing out the sheep fat on my skin and see how it goes, but one thing's for sure - if Australians are using it, it must be good for dry skin because the summers in Australia can make your skin dry up like an over-cooked chicken.

Where: Target and Big W ($2.98AUD for 250g)
With the 25% off they were $2.25

Palmer's Purifying Mask

This is a relatively new thing from Palmer's (I think it came out some time last year?) and since I'm such a fan of their lotions in general (I love the cocoa scent!) I figured that I would also like this. The packaging states that it contains vitamin E and it's a purifying mask that draws out impurities and tightens and cools. It also contains green clay and sweet almond oil.

Upon application the mask starts to tighten slightly but not at all uncomfortable as it cools at the same time (it almost feels like you've put cucumber slices on your face). It's recommended that the mask be left on for 10 minutes but I normally put this on while I watch t.v. so I normally leave it on longer, just until the whole mask has completely hardened and pale - almost white in colour.


The term "clay" mask really describes exactly what this product is, the mask comes out quite dense and thick despite the fact that it spreads easily. It smells clay-like and very earthy with a hint of mint which gives me the feeling that it's detoxifying my skin. I don't feel like it has drawn out any impurities (ie. I haven't had any pimples come up to the surface after putting on the mask) but my skin has been looking pretty good lately. It has however slightly taken the grey and dullness out of my skin a little bit but perhaps I will need to really do the mask more often (the packaging says up to 3 times a week) to notice more of a difference.

I'm liking this clay mask so far as it is not so harsh and drying on my skin and I like the fact that the packaging is so unassuming that you would think it would do nothing for the skin but it's actually a great little product that really does what it claims to do. Perhaps when I get back to Germany and try it again I might change my mind but so far so good.

Where: Priceline, Target, Kmart, Big W, Chemist Warehouse and supermarkets ($9.99 for 120g)

Face of Australia Lip Quench in Lychee Crush

No longer had I found the Australis Colour Injects did I discover Face of Australia's Lip Quench. I did read up on this before I bought it and it seems like the primary concern was the smell. This is true. What drew me to this lipstick in the first place was the fact that it had spf 30+ but like previously mentioned, the spf makes the lipstick smell like the zinc cream in sunscreens - so herein lies the predicament. Personally, I would rather have the spf in it than having it smell pleasant but I do have a slight obsession with sunscreen.

So when something has the word "quench" in it, I thought that it would be something super moisturising and would quench my lips - just like biting into a watermelon on a hot summer's day. Ok so I was half expecting this to be like the Revlon lip butters but even more moisturising - I thought wrong. Although it glides on smooth, it kind of just sits on top of the lips and if you have flaking on your lips, it will stick to them unfortunately. Not ideal for my constant dry and flaking lips.

The colour I chose was Lychee Crush - actually it was again a toss up between this one and Iced Almond but unfortunately Iced Almond was a little too cool toned and too concealer looking on my lips. The Lychee Crush, when swatched was a beautiful peachy-pink nude colour that popped out against my skin but on my lips (perhaps I got too tanned in the meantime) it was a little too close to my skin tone so it looked more like I did have concealer on my lips. Perhaps it would look alot better with some heavy, smokey eye make-up but for a daytime look I think it's best to wear it with a dewy sun-kissed face.



Where: Priceline, Kmart, Big W and selected pharmacies Australia-wide ($9.45AUD for 4g)

Lacura Daily Defence spf 30+ Anti Aging Sunscreen

So I went to visit an Aldi Supermarket whilst in Australia (as you do) and as I was in there two things happened: I realised that I have lived in Germany long enough to visit a German based supermarket and find it exciting and the second thing was finding this little gem of a sun screen at the back end of the supermarket.

I just bought it because I was afraid I would run out of my face sunscreen and just wanted to get something cheap and that would do its job. I was half expecting this to be a 'meh' product but as soon as I tried it on I was so impressed!

It goes on rather light on the skin and doesn't leave this silvery-white residue as it is a chemical based sunscreen. Unlike other chemical based sunscreens which can irritate the skin or leave red marks, this one has a very stable formula. It's also not the type of sunscreen that you have to massage and work into the skin as it has a light consistency and not at all greasy or break me out which is very important to me as I have combination skin. Most importantly there is no heavy sunscreen scent.

I'm not sure whether they sell this in Germany as I've never seen it there before, maybe it's only available at the Australian Aldis. I'm hoping they will release this in the summertime in Germany, shame I didn't buy a backup because it has become my favourite sunscreen so far.


Where: Aldi Australia ($5.95 for 60ml)

Australis Colour Inject Mineral lipstick in Samba

I wasn't planning on buying a lot of beauty stuff whilst in Australia because their prices gave me a heart attack but I was sniffing around my local Priceline and came across the Australis stand. The thing that attracted me to these lipsticks is their naming system (all the lipsticks in this range are named after dance types) and also the fact that they have an spf 15+.

If you have ever lived in Australia for a long time or grew up there (or currently living there) then you will have probably developed a slow but growing obsession with products having spf in them. That is because the summers in Australia are quite unforgiving and if you are silly enough to go outside in the middle of summer without an spf 30+ sunscreen then good luck to you and your skin because you will literally burn them off.


So, back to the Colour Injects. I was kind of trying to decide what colour to get, actually I wanted to get more because although the drugstore lipsticks in Germany are relatively cheap (no more than €3) the colour range in Australia has a bit more variety in terms of them being suitable for more skin tones. But I wasn't sure just how moisturising they are so I wanted to try one and see how I get on with it. It was a toss up between "samba" and "mambo" but the colour "mambo" seemed to lean very cool, almost with a purple undertone so I settled on "samba". This is more of a muted rose, mauve-pink colour that was very close to my lip colour but darker so I knew this would suit me well.



The press release states: Long lasting, moisturising and nourishing lip colour. It’s an injection of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It contains Kakadu plum which is the world’s highest known source of vitamin C. Vitamin C is not only soothing, but also naturally stimulates collagen formation. Moisturising, smoothing and lip defining peptides are added to help make this the hottest thing on everyone’s lips!

I tried wearing this whilst in Australia and it didn't go down too well because while I used sunscreen on my face for the Autumn weather, I seemed to have forgotten to put sunscreen on my lips and as a result, I suffered from cracked, dry lips throughout the trip. So not as moisturising for this type of weather nor was it nourishing on the lips although it did slightly soothe but I think if would be quite alright for the German summer.


Where: Priceline ($12.95AUD for 4g)

Travels: Long haul in-flight bag

Having to go on long haul flights more times I can care to count I have always had the trouble of having my skin so dry that pimples appear and they show up pretty much as soon as I get off the plane. I have a super long haul flight coming up, Germany - Australia, a whopping 25 hours! This is my little saviour kit of health and beauty things, I figure it's better to be safe than sorry so I try to bring anything and everything I can think of.

One thing that I've noticed is that while taking care of your skin on the outside helps alot, taking care of the inside is even better. Sometimes I would get sick while on the planes, perhaps the changing weather or time zones or simply because I'm getting older, so I always try and bring an array of vitamins with me when I can.

I always more or less take the same thing on my flights in terms of skincare (sometimes I put in a serum or eye cream in here) so I have this pre-packed beforehand and just replace the things when they run out. I also carry with me a separate mini kit sometimes with random things like aspirin and stuff but if I can fit it in this kit, I would put it in here.

Hygenic hand gel
Nice to have nearby, especially when you are sitting in the window seat and don't want to climb over the person in the isle seat to go to the bathroom to wash your hands before a meal or before you do your skincare routine.

Multi purpose cream
At the moment I have a small 50ml tub of Nivea Soft which is the same height as my in-flight bag. The great thing about this is that it can be used on hands, face and any dry patches.

Hydrating face mask
They normally look like a clear gel that you can put over your face to hydrate the skin. Normally by take-off, my skin would have sucked this baby up so that my face doesn't look like I'm extremely sweaty.

Tonic water
I like to have this in a spray form because instead of wasting my face mask by re-applying it when it goes dry, I just spray some tonic water over my face every once in a while and it re-hydrates the hydrating mask (if that makes sense). I also use this sometimes (when I run out of face wipes) to wipe all over my face before I use the mask.

Toothpaste
They sometimes include this on the flight but I find that it's only enough for one use and sometimes on long flights I like to use it on the plane as well as during transits so that I don't feel yucky.

Toothbrush
I find the toothbrushes they give out on flights either hurt my teeth and make my gums bleed or they are too soft and don't clean properly so I'd rather take my own.

Face wipes
Normally I just get the travelling size ones from DM that has 5 wipes in one packet so it's good for one journey. I use it to wipe off the face mask as well as to clean my face before the face mask.

Lip balm
This is always handy to have on the flight as the air-con makes my lips extremely dry (well I'm anyway prone to dry lips).

Sleeping eye mask
I'm one of those people who needs complete darkness to sleep so I always have an old airplane mask handy in case I go on a day flight and they don't give me a traveling kit on the flight.

Earplugs
Actually this is for the husband as he is sensitive to the humming sounds of the plane engine. It doesn't really bother me the slightest but I just have this in my kit in case I fly with him.

Water dissolving multi-vitamins (optional)
These are the ones like those Berocca things that you can dissolve in water and becomes a fizzy drink. Sometimes it's a nice way to flavour water during the flight instead of drinking plain bottles of water. Sometimes I take some sachets of electrolyte but this depends on where I'm going really.

A tin of tablets
This was just an old mint tin but it's the perfect size for my bag. This contains a couple of organic melatonin tablets (these help you fall asleep on long flights), a couple of fish oil tablets, some gum, and sometimes some multivitamins or vitamin C tablets.

Misc
These are just random things like aspirin or paracetamol, hair tie, bobby pins etc but like I said I also have another kit in my handbag to put these things in including wet tissues and dry ones.


I keep them all in this old Dermalogica travel kit bag. It's small and shallow enough for the products to sit next to each other without being on top of each other and it fits easily in my handbag. The lid of the bag is clear and unzips almost all the way around so the fussy people at customs can see what I have straight off the bat without me having to pull out all the things and put them in a separate plastic bag.

It's always interesting to see what people bring with them when they travel overseas, I'm always on the lookout  for better and lighter ways to pack so any hints and tips are always welcome!

Empties no. 2

I wanted to finish off some of the big bottles I had lying around that were about 3/4 finished so I'm quite proud of myself for knocking off two big half a liter of products from my beauty cabinet, they were haunting me!

Nivea Body Intensiv Pflegende Milk Moisturiser
This was a bitch to finish - all 500ml of it. From the consistency, it was more like the Nivea cold cream only quite runny but it is also a product that you have to vigorously massage into the skin in order for it to be a little bit absorbed. I was pulling and pushing at my skin just so that the cream didn't leave a white film on my body. I think there are better intensive creams out there so, not going to repurchase.

Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel
Thought I would never finish this! Again, another 500ml bottle and I didn't think it was anything special (for a special cleansing gel), it cleaned my face I suppose but so does a big pump of QV cleanser (which costs nowhere near as much). It dried my skin out everytime so will not be repurchasing.

A.S.A.P. Clearskin Gel
I only put this on my forehead and nose, where there is oil built up because I found that when I put it on my cheeks, it dried it out completely. The husband also puts this on beard area after he shaves to prevent the hairs from getting stuck inside his skin and worked a treat. Would repurchase the small bottle.

Dermalogica Dermal Clay Cleanser
I didn't really like the consistency, because it came out like a cream mixed with water and when applied on the face, it felt like it sat ontop of my skin while my hands were just moving a watered down cream around. It really dried out my skin afterwards so perhaps it is more suitable for oily skin, will not repurchase.

Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant
This was also a bit of a "meh" product for me. It felt nice on my skin, better than the clay cleanser but I felt like it was cleaning my skin too much and dried it out quite a fair bit, so to compensate I had to put on alot of moisturiser. Maybe this would work better if I had oily skin, will not be repurchasing.

Dermalogica, we need a break from each other

When I give a skincare brand a go, I give them a red hot go but with Dermalogica, sometimes I get the feeling like they are trying to rip me off. The size of their skin range is quite extensive but somehow they are all dependent on each other, and their salespeople always give me the impression that if I don't include one thing (or some things) from that particular range, that it will just not be effective on my skin. Perhaps it's like this with all brands but for me, it seems like the Dermalogica range requires me to: cleanse, pre-scrub, exfoliate, tone, boost, serum, moisturise and any other steps in between, and if I were to do that day and night I would never get a chance to leave the house.

Although I do believe in meticulously caring for my skin, I am also a firm believer in giving it a break so as not to have it be fully dependent on more than ten products in a routine. I know there are alot of Dermalogica fans out there, but I think I'm going to have to take a break from this brand for now. I just feel like, while they do the job in cleaning my skin, I'm more after skincare that does more than just...clean my skin...or is that just asking to much?

a.s.a.p. daily facial cleanser

I decided to try this cleanser out after my a.s.a.p daily exfoliator ran out. I figured since my face got on so well with the exfoliator, I might as well try out the facial cleanser. This smells alot like the Lavera body cream in that it's quite lemony and fresh. It's gel-like consistency reminds me of the Dermalogica gentle cleanser but acts very differently - for one, it does not dry out my skin even though it cleans my face rather thoroughly. I'm desperately trying to ration this as I'm a little afraid to try out a new cleanser (never know what it'll do to my face) so I will be quite sad when this runs out.