PRICELINE 40% OFF SALE STEAL! 

Australis 'AC ON TOUR' Contouring and Highlighting Kit: First Impression

Image source: My Instagram: bridgetmidgetdigit

Well, well, well. The highly acclaimed Australis AC ON TOUR kit is now in my possession! I snatched this bad boy up today at my local Priceline during their 40% off all cosmetics two day sale (what a steal!) I have heard so much about this palette already so I thought I simply had to try it myself. So without further ado, here is my first impression/review of this contouring and highlighting kit!

This palette/kit provides me with three contour shades and three highlight shades. I think this creates great versatility for any person with any skin tone (props to you, Australis). For me, I will probably only use the middle contouring shade of the three (for my skin tone), and most likely all of the highlighting shades because ooh they're pretty!

The outer two contouring shades to the left and the right are more brown/orange for my skin colour, so I will only use the middle shade. The middle shade is great for contouring as it has grey tones to it, mimicking the 'shadows' of your face and therefore enhancing the depth of your contours. 

The highlighting shades, just, oh my. On the left is your simple matte highlight shade for all the high points of your face, of course. The middle shade is a beautiful yellow/banana colour, perfect for your under eye area to set your conceal and counteract any dark or purple circles. The right shade is your shimmer highlight, perfect for the top of your cheekbones or a little down your nose or cupid's bow. I love all three of these shades as they can really lighten up your look.

One factor of this kit that has been commented on numerous times, is it's extremely high pigment in the product and often a 'muddy' application for the contouring shades. Upon using this product myself, I learned that you do in fact need not load up your brush with this product. I little goes a loonnnggg way. Hence why I think people have said it's easy to have a muddy application. My advice, start off with a spec of product on your brush and build it up from there to your desired contour intensity. The pigment of this product however is highly advantageous for those beautiful highlighter shades!

To apply this product, I used my e.l.f Professional Bronzing Brush for the contour shades and my Models Prefer Highlighter and Contour dual use brush. These worked a real treat! You can use any other face brush to apply this product that is not too dense or big and is precise enough for the smalls of your face.

One thing that I found would be super helpful to those who have no idea what to do when it comes to putting brown shades two to three shades lighter than your skin on your face (say what now?)... is the instructions on the back. Hooray!

You have no hope of reading the instructions from that photo (sorry about that), but the illustrations of where to put the contouring and highlighting shades can be super helpful. However, keep in mind that this is just a general guide, so it is no way specific to your particular face shape. For example, someone with a smaller sized forehead may choose not to shade around the top of their forehead along their hairline, as this makes that area appear even smaller. So remember to contour and highlight to your unique face shape!

Here is the result of using this kit on me, with a full coverage face:

You may be able to identify that by highlighting and contouring my face, my cheekbones are slightly more prominent and my nose appears slightly more narrow and straight. The lighter shades of the kit really helped in brightening up my face and giving it that beautiful glow. Ahh, the beauty of makeup! On my application, I did not use a heavy hand as I was using it for the first time, but you can play around with intensities to achieve your desired look!

I hope this first impression/review helped in informing you of this product.

Stay splendid!

Melted Toasty Mind

Instagram: bridgetmidgetdigit

First Impression: Formula 10.0.6

Allow me to start off by saying OH MY GOODNESS HOW PRETTY IS THIS PACKAGING.

It goes without saying, I could easily see a reason to just try these products simply because you are instantly drawn to them by their colourful and bold packaging. Hence why three products of this brand are now in my possession.

Right, now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk about what these beauties do.

SO TOTALLY CLEAN DEEP PORE CLEANSER ORIGINAL FORMULA:

So this little one actually came as a bonus to my purchase of the moisturiser that I will talk about later on. The packaging, again, is uber-appealing, but what the actual cleanser like? Well for my first use I was surprised to find that the product itself is the colour orange, not so much the packaging. It was an odd colour for a cleanser as products that I have used previously usually consist of a white or transparent 'colour' to them. So that was different. Moving right along, I also found that this product is quite 'liquid-y', or maybe a better word is 'watery'? Either way, it isn't a gel, mousse, foam or cream like other such cleansers. So because of it's consistency, the directions state to use this cleanser on a cotton pad and apply to face and neck, avoiding the eye area (this won't be an eye make up remover!) So doing just that, I felt the effects of this cleanser on my skin, giving me that cooling and refreshed feel to my face. I really enjoy that 'clean' feeling, it makes me feel like I'm making an effort. Unlike other cleansers, you don't have to rinse this baby off so, yay less work in your skin care routine! All in all, I am yet to see if this product does in fact 'deep pore clean' my face as I have only used it once, however it has motivated me to have some kind of skincare routine and leave me feeling 'so totally clean'. Yeah.

KEEP YOUR COOL BREAKOUT CALMING MASK:

Not going to lie, I bought this because it smelt damn good. Also because I do quite frequently suffer from breakouts and other face demons, but that was more of a second thought. BUT OH THE PEPPERMINT. It just smells so nice, and takes me back to the 'Mean Girls' days where Regina George accidentally rubs foot cream on her face but Aaron Samuels says, "Your face smells like peppermint!" Yeah, the feels. But no, I didn't just buy this so I could reenact a scene from that legendary movie. The 'calming-ness' claims to it was also very appealing as my occasionally flared up red acne could use with a chill out sesh. Of course, again, I am yet to see if this actually works, but I'm keen to keep using it. One concern I did have with this product was it's directions of use. Whether I'm illiterate or clearly missing something, the directions say to wait for the mask to settle into the skin for 5 minutes then massage the gel into your face and blot the excess off with a tissue. *Five minutes later* Where is this gel you speak of? My face was left feeling cool, again, however there was no gel. So, like the great problem solver I am, I attempted to massage my face again (which achieved little, whatever I was trying to achieve) and blotted my face with a tissue whether there was excess product or not. Overall, I will most likely continue to use this product to make my face indeed smell like peppermint, however I feel like there are layers of product just soaking into my skin as I am directed to not rinse any of them off.

SERIOUSLY SHINE FREE MATTIFYING OIL-FREE MOISTURISER:

Yay a moisturiser for my face that won't make me look like a disco ball! Just the product name of this moisturiser was instant appeal to me, having combination skin and an oily t-zone (tmi anyone?) But yes, I found this moisturiser that I found I can routinely use, full of vitamins, salicylic acid and all that jazz, this should do me well. However, much unlike the other two products mentioned previously, this product has a warming sensation on my skin, which I haven't decided if I like or not. It is probably the salicylic acid doing it's thing, which is hopefully good. This moisturiser is pretty light weight and definitely shine free in most areas! I say most areas because for me, there is no product that has conquered the shininess of my nose. But I can deal with that slight loss. I totally look forward to using this every day or night!

I hope my first impressions of these three products helped you. (This post is by no way sponsored, ahahaha as if!)

Formula 10.0.6 website:  http://www.formula1006.com/

For cool images like these and more, my instagram is: bridgetmidgetdigit 

Stay Splendid!

Melted Toasty Mind