Dermalogica Precleanse VERSE Napoleon Perdis Foaming Makeup Remover | Product Comparison Review |

For the past six or so months, I have been playing with the idea of 'precleansers'. I am ADDICTED to my Mary Kay 3 in 1 Timewise Cleanser (click on pic below for a review by @jordysbeautyspot [a fellow Australian blogger and friend of mine] below). This cleanser is my holy grail cleanser and I simply do not think i could live without it! I love that it is 3 in 1 and so saves me time and money by removing my makeup, cleansing my skin and providing it with a daily light exfoliation all at the same time! 

 

 So with one product which does all of the above there is simply no need to go out and buy an additional precleansing product to remove your makeup. But alas. The curse of a beauty blogger. I just haaaddd to go out and test some of the precleansing products on the market. Come on guys. I had no choice. I did it for you. ;) ...One of the greatest things of being apart of the Australian beauty blogging and vlogging community is that it is a FANTASTIC excuse to just buy buy BUY and always be trying new and exciting beauty products. I can justify my beauty product/shopping addiction with the fact that I am helping people be reviewing the product... haha

So the first precleansing product I chose to try was Dermalogica's PreCleanse.

Now, initially I had issues with this product. SERIOUS issues. I had the worst outbreak of ACNE of my entire life around the time I was using this product. It was seriously that bad. I stopped using this product (and all the products I was using at the time of the outbreak) and switched up my skincare. This essentially cured my ACNE, along with various other measures I was taking which can be seen on my ACNE vlogs on my youtube channel. However, since then I have one by one been trying each of the products trying to isolate which product it was that sparked my ACNE. And I think I have isolated the product. It was the Dermalogica Clearing Skin Wash I was using at the time. It was simply too harsh a cleanser for my skin. I have a feeling though that this precleansing product did not help the situation, contributing high oil content daily to my face. This is an oil based product so it makes sense that if you are someone with acne sensitive skin or oily skin this may not be the product for you. It does, however, effectively remove your makeup. I have tried this product on waterproof and standard makeup as well as foundation and eye makeup and all is removed effectively. The product works by first massaging the product around your face without any water for around a minute. Then adding some water to the mix. The substance turns a milky a colour once water is added and removes all final traces of makeup (often I feel this is the waterproof makeup dissolving part of the process). Finish by washing the product of the face. Your face is left feeling a little bit oily yes, which I suppose would be quite lovely for a dry to normal skin and would replenish the skins moisture balance. However, for an oily skin (or even combination skin if you are worried about oiliness) I would not recommend this product. With the oily residue however comes the most silky finish your skin has possibly ever felt. Restored and moisturised with the oils of the product, your skin feels supple and soft. As the name 'precleanse' suggests, this is just the initial step of a skin care routine; breaking down the organic compounds of your makeup so that your cleanser (the next step) can penetrate to the deeper layers of the skin. The biggest plus this product has going for it is its scent. It smells so divine it could be confused with an Aromatherapy Co. product! Beautiful for an evening (when its use is intended) as the scent is so soothing and calming I am certain it puts me to sleep! The fragrance of the product is Lavender and Chamomile, a combination from another world. Heavenly.

Secondly, I have been trying out the Napoleon Perdis Foaming Cleanser. 

This product would be a much better option for those of you who experience Combination - Oily skin or even ACNE sensitive skin. It is of a lightweight, foaming texture and smells of Marshmallows. The Pump Top packaging makes the product easy and mess-free to disperse, in comparison to the Dermalogica Precleanse which can leave you with runny, slimy oil EVERYWHERE. However, I do not feel this product removes makeup as effectively as the Dermalogica product and definitely does not feel as luxurious on the skin or leave such a lovely soft and silky finish.

The Verdict:

Both products remove both waterproof and standard makeup to various degrees. With the Dermalogica product being the most effective of the two. If you are looking for something with a luxuriously soft finish and do not mind the oily residue, I would opt for the Dermalogica product as I do believe it is the more superior of the two. However the Napoleon Marshmallow Foam is an appropriate alternative for those of you with a more oily, or acne prone skin type who still wish to partake in the precleansing process. 

Let me know which of the products you use and which you prefer.

Adelaide - City of Churches, Home of the Serial Killer

I’m from the city of light, with a sky of vanilla,
Known as the city of churches home of the serial killer,
And in the summer it feels like a hundred degrees...
And in the winter, the city sleeps dead in the freeze.

Australia's very own Hilltop Hoods sing these words about Adelaide, or so I have been told. Not being one to follow the aussie rap scene too closely I cannot verify that these words were written about that city. All I know is that when I returned home from my recent trip to Adelaide, almost everytime I mentioned the Australian capitol city's name I was met with the words "city of churches, home of the serial killer."

Those words sing lyrically of a side of Adelaide I did not see. The weather was neither a hundred degrees, nor did we freeze. Our August trip down to the southern underbelly of the nation was met with the most divine weather; a warm springtime breeze with clear skies and a beautiful sun. A very different Adelaide I saw, to that which the 'Hoods' rap about.

Flying in over the city I was amazed at the size of Adelaide. Coming from the South Coast of NSW, I expected Adelaide to be on par with the hugeness of Sydney. I was surprised at the seemingly quaint community I could see from the sky.

God blessed us with a terrific display of His majesty from the sky coming into the city, with a stunning skyline sunset which made me fall instantly in love with Adelaide.

We quickly discovered Adelaide's main industry, wiiinnnneeee. Oh wow. New South Wales wine simply does not compare to the grandeur and deliciousness of South Australian wine. We had many a glass over the course of our three night stay with my boyfriend's family. On the Saturday, the whole experience seriously was a weekend from heaven, we ventured out into the Adelaide Hills and wandered into Barristers Block, a gorgeous winery set on a gorgeous acreage of pristine Australian countryside. I am not to sure whether it was the season of Spring or what but the land was immaculate, the wine of course wasn't too shabby either... Nothing quite compares to a South Australian glass of Sparkling Red in the Adelaide Hills on a balmy Saturday afternoon, mid spring.

As for the nightlife of Adelaide. Well. Lets just say we were impressed and we had a ball. We found ourselves in a fancy little bar called Distill which was just up our alley. Perfect, on the downstairs, for a few quite drinks. And then upstairs is awaiting and calling your name for when those drinks have hit and its time to dance! Unfortunately, we were unaware that upstairs existed until the next day, but loungeing around on the first floor with our Champagne Cocktails suited us just fine for a Saturday night in a foreign city. A few of the other nightlife spots we checked out included Apple (highly recommend for a good dance floor, popular location), an underground bar with a signature blue drink and a retro club up a spiral of staircases called Suga.

 The trip finished off with some nice cuddles on the lawn at a picnic with my boyfriend's family to celebrate Fathers Day down at the local park.

All in all we had a dream trip and Adelaide quickly rose to become my all-time favourite Australian city. Its just so cute and quaint and pretty yet sophisticated. The perfect blend of all the best Australia has to offer. Adelaide, we will be seeing you again shortly im sure.

The Age of the Blog

Something Lauren Curtis, Australia's top beauty vlogger, said recently has been echoing through my head. She said that she is constantly haunted by the thought of what will happen to her when blogging and youtube go out of style and die the same inevitable death that Myspace died.

It got me thinking, are we living in the age of the blog?

An age is just a passing fad, a generational definer, a marked period of time, a fleeting moment. An age can go out of fashion faster than one can blink and definitely faster than my little brother can pass the salt and pepper shakers.

I remember the first moment I ever experienced this magic thing called 'THE INTERNET'. I was young, quite young, maybe 6, I can't remember. We were waiting for a boat? Hmmm, where were we and why were we waiting for a boat? I'm not so sure. But what I do remember was this magical thing called www.barbiegirl.com! There was a computer in the terminal and the computer had free internet. My dad had just had an explore around and had quickley run to get me to show me this new and popular thing called the internet. Being the fantastic father he is, actually after 6 years of long hard labour I finally had him well trained into shape, he searched 'Barbie' in a search bar, that was not google (Heavens forbid) as google was yet to make its grand appearances on the internet scene. I played and played and played, as we waited for our boat and I fell in love with this magical thing called the internet, on which i could play with an electronic barbie doll. Could there be anything more divine to a 6 year old girl? I think not.

These things to a 6 year old are magic, pure magic.

I remember when my uncle (who's not really my uncle, just one of those crazy family friends that your parents make the executive decision to call an uncle because they are so close they could practically be family) called my dad and told him to start using an AMAZING search engine called 'google'. He said it would be the next up and coming victory of the digital age. My dad told him he was crazy to think all the world was going to use the one search engine. Ahhh darling dad you clearly overestimated the intelligence and capacity for diversity of the human race.

Next, I remember in year 7 MSN was all the rage, instant messenger. I had my boyfriends and my friends all lined up for hours of chat each night after school, I couldn't get enough. Then i got banned. Yes. I am the girl with the overprotective parents who put our families computer in the kitchen so they could monitor our every internet click and also banned MSN so I could focus on studying. In year 7. So what did I do but discover the magic of Meebo. Meebo basically was a third party website which facilitated for MSN chat conversations without looking like MSN. Yes, I was a sneaky minx.

It didn't take long for my parents to discover I was pulling one over on them and boy did I get in trouble. Oh and I forgot to mention that around that time, early social media websites were beginning to emerge, for 13 year old me that meant Bebo. Pretty sure my profile still exists. Remind me to delete that before my 21st (which by the way I am getting the worlds BEST PRESENT EVER for, wait till I blog about this one!!!!!!).

Myspace was all the rave around the time I entered into year 8/9. I, of course, had an account, complete with twelvie selfies (lets not kid ourselves now, check my instagram today [@kattrap93] and you will find nothings changed...) and a bit of simple plan blasting on my insite mp3 player. I was da bomb.... Literally... 2 kewl 4 skewl.

 Myspace was soon taken over by facebook, a much more highly advanced and sophisticated form of social media. I remember thinking it was boring and for adults, but before I knew it I was using it too. I still claim, however, to this day to be one of the first people to make the switch. But half the world seems to make that same claim so it kinda looses its validity...

So we had internet, games, google, MSN, bebo, myspace, facebook...

And now blogs. Video blogs (hosted predominantly by youtube) and written and visual blogs (popular on wordpress, blogspot and tumblr). I was just on a website called blogchicks (www.blogchicks.com.au) dedicated to the blogs of Australian women (of which I am one, it should mention that somewhere on my blog I am sure). The website has categorised heaps of Australian blogs and I am simply amazed at how many topics women find to write about. I am 99% sure blogs are the 21st centuries biggest form of procrastination. We are women. We want to avoid doing something, so we write. I find it rather classy, rather romantic, and i'm glad we do it.

I'm happy to live in the age of the blog. I find it fun and exciting. Its cool seeing all the millions of topics and areas of interest and passion people are into across the globe and seeing how they visually and linguitically express themselves through the medium of a blog, a personal website. I am a beauty and lifestyle blogger but I do find myself wandering often into lifestyle, home decor, cooking, weddings (yes especially weddings!!), crafts and lots more. I find the world of the blog a fascinating and endless place and I am happy to reside in it and waste away my time whilst procrastinating from the more pressing and urgent matters of life.

Inevitably the age of the blog will come to an end but always one to keep spirits high and be positive about life (seriously check out my youtube video on how to keep positive) I do not believe this a bad thing. In the same way that your sad when iOS7 comes out because you love your current operating system and it seems super fugly, you know that its only onwards and upwards from here. Apple aren't going to bring out a dud. And if they do whats the worst that could happen, apple will go broke and a better company will rise up to carry on the batten. Time ticks on. Days move forward. The world progresses further. Never backwards always foreward. Dont worry, iOS7 will soon either grow on you because everyone will have it (mass manipulation - I see a communist world thrust on us next!!!) or will be improved, either way you will be happy.

So lets rejoice in the age of the blog, knowing yes it is fleeting, but it is a heck of a fun way to express yourself and read up on the world and peoples interests today. Embrace the age of the blog. Be fully emerged, fully relevant, fully present. 

NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO

My Perfume Collection

Man I'm craving chocolate!!!!! 

But that's totally besides the point (but definitely the more pressing issue of the moment!). This blogpost is all about my fragrance collection.

If you follow my YouTube channel @beautyconsultancy you will know and be familiar with my OBSESSION for scents! I believe there is SUCH power in a smell. It can spark a memory, a response or transport you to any given memory at any given time! For that reason I allocate a specific perfume/scent to very specific memories. For instance I wear the one perfume to work, a different one to prac in schools, and then a different one for all the other time in each season! At the moment I am wearing Elizabeth Arden's new fragrance 'Untold' as my Spring 2013 perfume and my Spring 2012 perfume was Marc Jacobs Lola! 

The benefit in allocating specific scents to each season is that Spring 20132, for example, was the season I got with James my boyfriend. And whenever I get a whiff of Marc Jacobs Lola I get a funny feeling in my tummy about him and get instantly transported back to that sensation of young love.... It's utterly thrilling!!!!

I will be uploading a video to my YouTube channel soon of my fragrance collection so make sure you go and subscribe so you can get an update when that goes live! Also follow me on twitter @kattrap93 as that will alert youtube when that video is uploaded :) 

For now, I have taken a pretty picture of my fragrance collection which I will link below for you all to see!

But I want to know from you, my read, my follower, my friend, what perfume are you currently wearing and how do you wear perfume? Do you change it up day by day, does it match your mood or do you like me allocate specific smells to specific occasions in the hope that it will one day spark a powerful memory?