giveaways

Get it while it’s hot – free The Body Shop samples! :)

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post tonight before I head to bed… heading to bed early tonight as gotta get up early tomorrow!

Wanted to let you know that The Body Shop‘s Aussie stores are giving away free samples of the serum from their new Nutriganics range. This range is paraben free and over 90% of the ingredients included in products in this range are “natural in origin” (not quite sure what they mean by that, as petroleum based ingredients could arguably meet that criteria, but paraben free is good!).

I picked up a sample last week, after buying the perfume. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet; the sales assistant advised me that the sample package should last for at least 2 applications. Grab one while you can! 🙂

This is the full size version of the serum (image: ebay.com).

Parcel is in the post! :)

Evening all!

Simply to show people that I am honest with my giveaways, I’m uploading some pix of the parcel sent off to Anja who was the lucky winner of my recent Xmas Giveaway!

Anja this is on its way to you! Hope it arrives safely. 🙂

Giveaway Competition ~WINNER~!

image: strategicprofits.com

Good evening all! 🙂

As promised, tonight is the night! Time to announce the winner of my 2011 Christmas Giveaway competition.

I asked you guys to tell me:

What is the best health or beauty advice that you have ever been given?

The quality of entries was high and in the end I couldn’t decide the winner on my own. As I personally know some of the entrants, I enlisted the judging help of a friend of mine who does not know any of the people who entered. We each picked our favourite 3 entries, and discussed these, and in the end we agreed on a winner!

The winning comment was….

Create your own individual beauty! It’s great to try new products, styles and colours and then combine them in a way that fits you best and that you feel comfortable with.

… from Anja Ka! Congratulations!!!!!!!!! 😀

Anja, as you are a Facebook fan of my blog I will be contacting you via Facebook tonight to organise shipping of your prize. 🙂 Please respond to my message on Facebook within 7 days to be eligible to claim the prize, else I will award it to the person in 2nd place!

Thank you to all entrants; I am considering doing a Christmas in July giveaway so there will be more giveaway opportunities in the future! 🙂

Empties! (December)

Heeeeyyyyy!!! 🙂 Hope you all enjoyed your New Year’s Eve and are pumped for a kick ass 2012! 🙂 I spent my NYE at a friend’s pool party, with a live band which was fun! It was very hot in Adelaide – high 30+ degrees C (and today’s even worse – 41+ degrees C!), so being at a pool party or beach party was wise! 😉 (With plenty of sunscreen etc etc of course!)

I’ve worked out my resolutions – these include exercising at least 3x a week (including weights! Historically I’ve done cardio only), to eat less processed foods, to start singing lessons (yeah! I think it will be fun! ;-)), to work to develop new and maintain current friendships, and to continue to blog regularly. What are your resolutions? 🙂

Ooh not long till entries close for my GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!!!! It is easy to enter, just click here! 🙂
(Entries close midnight 4th January 2012 Adelaide time – GMT +09:30. So hop to it!)

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Unfortunately I was a bit too efficient in getting rid of my empty stuff for December – due to the renovations = mess everywhere (!) – I’ve tried to ensure that anything I don’t need is in the bin or given away (if in give away condition!). So my product pix today are from the web. 😉

This month I only used up 2 things, as follows:

image: http://www.epharmacy.com.au

Imperial Leather Luxurious Mango Butter & Frangipani Bodywash

Price range: I picked up 2 shower gels from this range for $5 AUD, which is good value I think!

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets and chemists.

This product is awesome. Smells yummy, lathers well, and lasts a long time! I find that formula is quite moisturising. I would certainly buy this again, but next time I think I’ll pick up a scent from the range which is made in Australia (I noticed that my  boyfriend’s Lime fragranced one was made here but the mango one was made in Indonesia or Thailand, from memory).

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5

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image: bobbinsbeautybox.blogspot.com

NIVEA Visage Refreshing Facial Wash Gel

Price range: depending on where you buy it, ranging between $8 to a bit over $10 AUD.

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets, as well as chemists. I have found it to typically be cheapest at my local Coles supermarket.

I have been using this product for years and years and years! I think I have kept repurchasing it for so long as 1) I like gel cleansers that require water to wash off (as my face seems cleaner that way), 2) it has minimal fragrance so doesn’t irritate my skin. Unfortunately I am noticing that as I get older, despite my skin being combination – slightly oily, it tends to increasingly leave my skin feeling a bit tight and dry.

As such I might have to start looking at new cleansers – any suggestions?!

However I would recommend this product for those with oily skin or young (<25 yrs) combination to oily skin as it really cleans well without irritating.

I notice that the packaging says it’s for “normal and combination skin”… Hmm as I’ve suggested above, I wouldn’t recommend it for “normal” skin – I think it would be likely to dry the skin out too much!

Beautiful rating: quality 4/5, value 5/5

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Whee! Whilst I’m typing I’m listening to (and half watching!) a Black Eyed Peas concert on my TV (downloaded ;)). I really like them I find their music very catchy and good to wake up and/or exercise to! What types of music do you like? Any BEP fans out there? 🙂

looking towards 2012

Hey everyone! 🙂

If you celebrate Xmas, how was yours? 🙂 Mine was quiet but also relaxing – I caught up with my parents and brother for lunch at their house. My grandparents also attended. Despite it being summer here, we had the “traditional” lunch of roast turkey etc etc!

Here’s Bonnie using her Xmas gift! 😉

For the remaining days (we had public holidays on the Monday and Tuesday) I was helping my Dad with the kitchen renovations.

Here’s the kitchen when we began to dismantle it – our first step was to take the doors off most cupboards (how 1970s is this kitchen?! )… Yeah the kitchen is pretty messy! 😮

Here are some step by step pics of what we’ve done so far….

hehe photobombed by Bonnie! 😉

…and this is how it looked when I returned from work today! (Yes I’m back at work already 😦 however I get a week off on the week of Australia Day – that’s 26/1! :-))

Hope that you have all had a great holiday weekend! 🙂 I will upload more pix of the kitchen as the renovations continue… Can’t wait till I have a functional kitchen again!

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I’m starting to think about my resolutions for 2012… Do you make new year resolutions? 🙂 I don’t do it every year but I try to do it most years as having some goals gives me focus! Health will be important in 2012 as well as career. I’m considering doing some further study but I’m not sure what area; also I must take into account that my Japanese classes restart soon so that will take up my Wednesday evenings (class) and Sunday afternoons (study)! Hmm and it would have to be an inexpensive course as I’ve had to spend a lot on the kitchen…

What are your resolutions for 2012? 🙂

A website that I find useful for goal setting but also other things is www.mindtools.com 🙂

Empties! (November)

Evening all! 🙂

Wow I can’t believe how close Christmas is… I’m hoping to write my Christmas cards for work colleagues and family tonight but I’m not sure if I will get through them all in one go! :-0

If you haven’t yet, do enter my CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!!!! It is easy to enter, just click here! 🙂 It is open to Australian and international readers and visitors!
(Entries close midnight 4th January 2012 Adelaide time – GMT +09:30.)

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An interesting way of reviewing products which I have noticed is to focus on “empties”, that is, to review products that you have used up recently. I thought it was quite clever so I am going to do it too! 🙂 So here are my empties for last month:

My thoughts on these products, from L –> R:

Bathox Dry Skin Shower Gel & Bath Foam

Price range: <$10 AUD

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets!

I use this when having baths, rather than as a shower gel, but it is certainly suited to both. It smells lovely and is a gentle formula, which doesn’t irritate my skin! It also creates a nice foam/lots of bubbles in the bath.

*They also do a cherry blossom scented one which is also lovely!

Beautiful rating: quality 5/5, value 5/5

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Garnier Fructis Style Elastic Power Fix Hairspray

Price range: <$10 AUD

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets, as well as chemists.

I have been using this product since the start of this year and am now on my 3rd (or so!) can. It smells nice and does its job, holding my hair in place well. It is also easy to brush out and your hair still retains natural movement (so is not like wearing a helmet LOL!).

However, if you want to keep a punk, emo, or similar hairstyle in place which defies gravity, this will not give you enough hold (despite its claims of being “mega strong”).

It contains bamboo extract but the packaging does not clearly explain what is so special about that!

Beautiful rating: quality 4/5, value 5/5

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NIVEA Invisible for Black & White Deoderant

Price range: <$10 AUD (haha everything so far in this review has a similar cost! ;))

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets, as well as chemists.

Nice scent, does what it is supposed to do (though there is no way it would really last “48 hours” as it claims; when I get home from work and get changed to exercise or attend Zumba I need to reapply!), and lasts a reasonable time. Most importantly, to date (I have been buying this one for approx. 6 months, prior to that I was using Rexona’s version of the same product which I found had changed formula and was not as effective for me :(), I have not had any white marks on black or darker coloured clothing nor yellow marks on white and/or light coloured clothing.

Beautiful rating: quality 4/5, value 4/5

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Nutrogena Oil Free Moisture: Sensitive Skin

Price range: approx. $15 AUD

Where can I get it? Most supermarkets, as well as chemists.

I bought this when looking for a light night cream. Unfortunately, despite me having combination skin, it did not provide quite enough hydration for me and I had to apply a lot for my skin to feel moisturised. (The back of the bottle indicates only “1 pump” is needed for your entire face and neck; for me it was approximately 3!!!!)

I think this would be best for those with oily skin.

Beautiful rating: quality 3/5, value 3/5 (based on my skin type)

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Hope that you all have a great week ahead; don’t forget to enter my giveaway competition!!! 😉

~ GIVEAWAY COMPETITION!!! ~

***5/1/2012 -This competition has now closed. To read the winning entry check out my blog post here!***

Hi everyone!

My combined Twitter followers and Facebook page fans have now reached >100! 🙂 Due to this, and the upcoming Christmas and holiday season, I am running a giveaway competition. I want to thank my readers, visitors and supporters and I thought this would be one of the best ways to do it!! 🙂

This competition is open to ALL, WORLDWIDE!

The prize will be a package of beauty goodies, including but not limited to (I’m likely to add a couple of extra things between now and competition close):

• AVON Personal Match Smooth Mineral Makeup Powder (SPF 10) in Almond (can be used as a blusher and/or bronzer if you have very pale skin);
• REVLON Super Lustrous Lipstick in Ginger Rose, #131;
• BURT’S BEES Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream & (mini) Coconut Foot Cream; and
• SCHWARZKOPF Q10 Recharge SOS Hair Repair Treatment!

***How to win?***

1. Follow me on Twitter (beautstoryblog) or become a fan on Facebook (www.facebook.com/pages/A-beautiful-story/112344835541832). AND

2. Comment on this post with your response to the following question:

What is the best health or beauty advice that you have ever been given?

3. Please include your Twitter name &/or Facebook name in your comment so that I can easily confirm that you are a Twitter follower &/or Facebook fan!

Competition will be open for 1 month – so from today 4th December 2011 until midnight 4th January 2012 Adelaide time (GMT +09.30). The winner will be judged by me based on what I think is the best response to the question.

Good luck!!!!! 🙂