The Best of Bought by Birdette 2012

Hello everyone! How did you enjoy the holiday period? We're glad to be back in business here at Birdette Headquarters to bring you all a wrap up of the most popular posts of 2012. Did your favourite make it in?

Most read Beauty Post:

How to Hair  - Serena van der Wooden's Ponytail

Always a goodie, sad to see it for the final time on TV last week but unfortunately for Gossip Girl lovers the show just wasn't what it used to be.

Most Pinned DIY:

Make Your Own Easy Fabric Bunting

A surprising success, and I do have to admit I still haven't entirely finished mine! It's about 7 metres long, I just keep running out of tape or missing flags to finish it off! I know there's a few more flags somewhere... lol.

Purchase of the Year:

Zara Plaited Leather Shopper Bag

Still a Favourite for readers all over the world, this classic bag is high up on many shopping lists.

Best Discovery:

Trilogy Rosehip Oil

If you don't already own this, I still highly recommend you give it a try, nothing else has helped me with my uneven skin tone more.

Best Tips and Tricks:

How to make your Eyes Brighter

How very well timed! I can imagine more then a few of us will be sporting bleary red eyes after partying tonight! Here's how to minimize the the appearance

It's been a good year here at Bought by Birdette and we're very happy to have you all as readers! You've been steadily growing and spreading the word and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you. If you don't already, please take this chance to follow us to keep up to date. You can choose from Twitter, Facebook, Google Friend Connect, or Bloglovin, and please keep in touch! We love to know what you're loving, and want to see more of. (Comments and Shares! Yay!)

Thanks again for an awesome year and your continued support, I hope you all have a fantastic New Year, Be the best you can be, and take care of yourselves.

Happy Holidays from Bought by Birdette!

Hello Lovelies, Just a quick one to let you all know I'll be out of reach for the next few days. Celebrating the Holidays in a remote area of Queensland in a house that's entirely solar powered.

I hope everyone has a wonderful break, take care of yourselves, and stay safe.

I can't wait to get intovthe sales on my return!

Source: Pusheen

The Quick Drying Faux Glow Advantage - Le Tan Tanning Gel

Tanning is something I used to do a lot of while I was in Fashion School, I had a strange perception of what was a healthy size back then as the vast (VAST!) majority of classmates were a size 10 or under. I felt huge in my then smaller size 12-14 frame. I used to give myself a little self esteem by at least having a great fake tan. It's something I haven't done in a few years, but at least I have a great array of new products to try!

Le Tan Tanning Gel in Bronze (Product does not come with mitt)

One of the first I purchased is Le Tan's Tanning Gel in Bronze, being pale skinned and a novice again I didn't want to try the deeper tone. What particularly drew me to this product is that because it's a gel, it dries fast and works better with oily skin. All the better to defeat that icky product coated feel you can get with creams.

It's a clear formula with only a hint of the colour that's to come, This is fantastic when you're trying to keep the colour off your clothes and sheets but very problematic when it comes to knowing where you have applied the Tanning Gel. This can be alleviated with the use of those great application mitts you can usually find right next to the Tan range at most stockists.

My first impression is great as this is certainly one of the better smelling Tanning products on the market, there's a subtle coconut smell that doesn't start to resemble fake tan until a few hours later. If you pop the gel on just before going to bed, you won't even notice it. The products glides on nicely and there's no need to really works with it, just make sure you have applied it evenly before it quickly dries. As you can deepen the colour by applying a second layer once they first one dries. A big positive is that it won't rub off once it has dried the way that some others can, once its set it's pretty much unstoppable.
With one layer the colour is nice and subtle and hard to pick as fake, but I have to recommend you stop there, if you want to go a little deeper you ought to apply a tanning moisturiser over the top. Two layers of the gel was just too much when I gave it a go. Of course to keep the colour looking as good as possible you need to moisturise at least once a day, twice is ideal.
So in summary:

What I liked about it - 
The quick drying formula and scent.

What I disliked about it - 
Transparent formula.

Have you tried this product? What did you think of it?

GIft Guide 2012 - Priceline Stocking Stuffers

This is part of a series of gift guides I am putting together and posting up until Christmas. Please be sure to check out the others Here! 

We're getting down to the last week now, and it's truly heading towards panic stations. Unfortunately you don't have much chance of receiving anything from overseas in time now, so it's into the shops we go!
Priceline has a great range of stocking stuffers, ideal for tweens, teenagers, women, and the odd surprise for boys and girls too. As far as I'm concerned, to make an gift a good stocking stuffer it has to tick a few boxes:

• Bulky - Does it take up a substantial amount of room in the sack?
• Suited to the receiver - Men won't often appreciate a Hello Kitty bathwash.
• Good item to price ratio - Gives you change from a $20? Good. Gives you change from a $10? Perfect.

Here are my current picks from Priceline - 

A - Models Prefer Hot Hair Styling Kit

B - Batiste Dry Shampoo Bonus Packs

C - Umberto Giannini Hair Styling Kits

I love how retro glamour is coming back, this curling tool kit will get you well on your way to getting perfect curls. The Batiste packs are awesome, for about the same price as a normal bottle they have released two varieties with useful hair tools: A hair towel and a shower cap. I may have bought a pair just for myself, (I was in the market for a shower cap anyway....)

With the Umberto Giannini packs, I'm not sure if they're available from all Priceline stores as I only spotted them at Carindale. However, if you see one, snap it up. I don't think you will find a cheaper way of purchasing the tools included, hair donuts, tail combs, velcro rollers etc. and last I saw they had buy one get one free ...

Have you nabbed all your presents yet? Who do you still have to shop for?

Gift Guide - Stocking Stuffers

This is part of a series of gift guides I am putting together and posting up until Christmas. Please be sure to check out the others Here! 

Admittedly, I've gone a little AWOL on my Christmas gift guides, time is just running out! There's just over two weeks until Christmas and most online shopping retailers are starting to call time on shipping.
However, here's part one of some last minute stocking stuffers to help nudge you over the line!

1 - Soap and Glory Soaper Heroes gift pack available from Mecca Cosmetica

2 - Kit Cosmetics Lip Balm available from Mecca Cosmetica

3 - Whisky Stones Available from Mighty Ape

4 - DIY Party Pom Pom Kit available from Sportsgirl

5 - Wall Mounting Jewellery Rack available from Sportsgirl

More coming over the next week!

Bought! Sportsgirl Cut Out Boots

So a few weeks ago I posted about some gorgeous Jeffrey Campbell Cut Out Boots that I was in love with, but just couldn't justify on my budget. Hello wallet friendly alternative!

So Mischa likes the boots too, or the camera, I'm not sure.

Can you tell I'm in love? You can pick up your own pair from the guys at Sportsgirl, I found them to be a little tight in the width, so make sure you walk about the store a bit in them first, and I certainly had to buy the bigger size my foot size normally falls into.

Bought by Birdette has received a Liebster Award!

Woohoo! It's a very special post for Bought by Birdette as I have received the Liebster Award from the lovely Madam M of The Beauty Dispensary. For those who may not have heard of these awards before they are given out in the blogging community to up and coming bloggers with less then 200 followers, (so please get cracking and follow me if you haven't already!) Liebster is also German for Dearest, nawww.
So here is how it works:

a. Each nominee must post 11 things about themselves.
b. Answer the 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated them.
c. Create 11 questions for the 11 bloggers you nonimate.
d. Choose 11 bloggers to give the award to, link to this post and go to their pages to tell them.
e. No tagbacks allowed.

So here goes!

11 things about Birdette

1. Just quietly, I'm kinda nerdy. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, I love Final Fantasy video games, and my favourite is number IX.
2. Born and bred in Country Victoria in an awfully bogan place called Bendigo, I escaped (without children, a rarity for a teenager!) up to Brisbane when I turned 18 and haven't looked back.
3. I have never travelled outside of Australia, I don't even own a passport!
4. On that note, I don't have a driver's license either, and my L plates have actually expired. Oops.
5. Fancies herself as a pretty good cook, I've kept up a new years resolution of cooking something new at least once a week all year, and it's proving to be quite a lot of fun and effective.
6. Is a mad keen crafter, I love to keep my hands busy, but I have a real problem with starting projects and never finishing them!.
7. Loves hats, owns many but I hardly ever wear them. Hoping to change that.
8. I am of Yugoslavian, English and Welsh decent, so creamy skin, dark hair, almost black coloured eyes (no shit, people has trouble seeing my pupils). Cool toned FTW!
9. Incredibly wary of new people and very nervous until I'm comfortable with them. to be honest I've told very few people in my everyday life about this blog in case they don't like it.
10. I've studied "Clothing Construction" and "Multimedia" at TAFE, So I'm not half bad at sewing, and enjoy Photoshopping quite a lot.
11. Lucky last! One day I hope to have a house with a library (at least one wall full of books!) and a secret passage.

Here are the questions posed to me by the lovely Madam M
                               

1.    Are you a morning person or night person? Night, oh god night, birds chirping to bring in the day make me want to own an air rifle.

2.    Gold, silver or platinum? Platinum, but I'll take what I can get ^_^

3.    What was the worst job you have ever had? I worked as a barista at a commonly known cafe chain, this particular one had a very high staff turnover because the franchisee was an utter stresshead asshole. He would yell at his staff all the time and generally be horrible, I used to get nosebleeds from the stress. I ended up leaving for another franchisee's stores, they were much nicer to work for.

4.    Are you allergic to anything? Bees, cheap metal, elastoplast, plus I have year round hayfever, fun times!

5.    Whats on the menu for dinner tonight? While I'm currently typing, it will be crispy chicken tacos with some friends coming over, by the time this goes live however I'm not sure...

6.    Who in your life inspires you the most? Christ, I haven't thought about that, I don't actually think anyone inspires me that much lol. One of my old school friends has the courage to do whatever she wants in life, regardless of what others think and she doesn't hide anything, I quite admire her.

7.    If you had a million dollars to give away to on person anonymously who would it be?
       I think I'd give it to my boyfriend, so he could share it with me lol.

8.    If you could live for one year in another country, where would you go? Ooooh, I haven't travelled outside of Australia, I would love to live in London, I wouldn't have to learn another language, I would have a snowy christmas, and so much cool stuff comes out of there!

9.    If you had to wear one nail polish color for the rest of you life what would it be? GLITTER! oh god, glitterrrrrrr.

10.  If you could have any type of animal as a pet what would you choose? Aww, I really couldn't pass up my gorgeous kitties!

11. What was the last movie you watched ? James Bond Skyfall, and I fricken loved it.

The Questions I now pose to my selected bloggers

1. What is the one store you couldn't live without and why?

2. What is your earliest memory?

3. What colour nail polish are you wearing right now?

4. Black and white or Bright colours?

5. Favourite way to spend the weekend?

6. Favourite place to spend a holiday?

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

8. Any hobbies?

9. The best thing you can cook?

10. Summer or Winter?

11. Autumn leaves or Spring Flowers?

My chosen bloggers, have fun!

BBBeauty

Vintage Owl Boutique

Dorly Designs

Just Plain Delirious

Beauty Behind the Imperfections

Stylise

Chic Beauty

Brie's Petite World

Peta Petal

Make up and Smell the Coffee

Buy Blog Sparkle

In the spirit of things, go and check out eachothers blogs! Thanks again to Madam M too!

Loving this week - Bargain leather goods and Mecca Maxima

December is here and that means I can officially get all Christmas-y without anyone cracking the sads that I'm getting in too early. Hurray for that! I love this time of the year because the weight of the year starts to lift off everyone's shoulders. Even people on the street seem to smile more.

Of course it also means great deals for shoppers too, so I've been pounding the pavement (or carpet in Westfield Carindale's case!)

Colette is a store I haven't paid much attention to, I noticed when suddenly they appeared in almost every mall overnight but I've been afraid that my allergy would prevent me from wearing the jewellery. However I was walking past the store when I saw new posters up talking up their new leather range, Always keen for a leather handbag I had to check them out.

Nice, simple and clean lines are a great first impression to make on the handbags. However, when you look a little closer the top corners of the bag actually clip together internally and form a new bag shape, and a gorgeous one at that! I'm sorry to say I couldn't find any pictures of the alternate way to wear it, but I think it's worth going to the shops and checking them out, it could just be your brand new handbag (and matching wallet!) It also currently comes in other shades of tan, dark blue, and a pinky coral hue.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I have waited this long to check out the new Mecca Maxima, or any Mecca Maxima in that case! I've been shy. It's like that feeling you get when you see the security guard on the doors of Louis Vuitton or Chanel, sometimes you don't feel brave enough and run away! But after entering I don't know why I felt that way. I almost squealed out loud at some of the cute stuff I found! Heart shaped foam hair rollers anyone? Don't mind if I do ...

Comes in a pack of six

I also picked up some Soap and Glory goodies that I'll talk about after I've given them a go. The tools section was of course unbelievable but the range of hard to find brands is awesome. I'm really glad to see that someone who has the means to has opened up the world of international niche cosmetics to Australians who would otherwise resort to eBay or overpriced international postage. After leaving the store I'm already plotting my purchases for next time in my head.