Max My Movies: October Wrap-Up!

Well. This shouldn't take long, because I only saw five movies in October! Which totally means I accomplished one of my October Goals though, so yay, I guess! I'll be posting the movie reviews I wrote on my Letterboxd account, with some extra notes thrown in for good measure.

MINIONS

Stars: (voices of) Sandra Bullock, John Hamm, Michael Keaton, Jennifer Saunders
Genre: Family/Comedy/Animation

Jesus Christ, you guys. I was ready to hate these annoying little fuckers. But blow me down if I didn't find the yellow idiots moderately cute. Hey, they made my son laugh, although so do farts. I actually enjoyed the '60's soundtrack, although this is WAY WAY WAY before my time. Okay?
3 stars

Notes - If your kids loved the Despicable Me movies, they will surely have fun with Minions.

JUPITER ASCENDING

Stars: Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne 
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Adventure

This was shit but at least there was guyliner and Channing Tatum with wings. I ate a Mars Bar whilst suffering through this film and the Mars Bar was good.
1.5 stars

Notes - If you're a Mila Kunis fan you may enjoy this, but it is a bit of a ridiculous mess.

PIXELS

Stars: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad
Genre: Comedy/Action

It's no secret that overall, this film is terrible. I pretty much cringed non-stop for the first 45 minutes. Peter Dinklage is just awful in this. Josh Gad screams his way through the entire film, yet for me he was probably the best thing about Pixels. Michelle Monaghan can get fucked and don't even get me started on Sandler. Oh I almost forgot. Kevin James plays the role of US President, that's how redonkulous this film is. My son enjoyed Pixels, so maybe you have to be 8 to get it. Thank Christ I won a free double pass, because if I had to pay to watch Pixels, I would be seriously depressed right now.
1.5 stars

Notes - I think Adam Sandler stopped caring years ago, but it's never more evident than in this movie.

THE WAY WAY BACK

Stars: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alison Janney, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amanda Peet
Genre: Comedy/Drama

How weird is it seeing nice guy (well that's my perception of him!) Steve Carell playing an arsehole? It's unsettling and reminds me I still need to see Foxcatcher, so I can freak myself out some more. This is a beautiful coming-of-age film, that's touching and heartwarming. Sam Rockwell's character is a joy to behold!
4 stars

Notes - I cried a fair bit. But in a good way!

INTERSTELLAR

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain
Genre: Sci-Fi/Drama/Adventure


Flipping long and I still hate Anne Hathaway. But apart from that, it's epic and reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey. *smacks Matt Damon on the bum*

4 stars

Notes - This is well worth seeing. You won't be disappointed (hopefully!).

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Have you seen any good movies lately?

Bobbi Brown Freebies With Purchase. I Can't Help Myself!

Soon I'll be starting my third little pot of Bobbi Brown Corrector! This is my absolute favourite makeup product for covering dark eye circles and is definitely a Holy Grail for me, because the results are outstanding and no other product I've tried comes close to achieving the same effect. You can read my review in this post:  Product Rave! Bobbi Brown Corrector. Just Wow.

Holy Grail status: Bobbi Brown Corrector in Porcelain Bisque

Now you may remember me having a bit of a meltdown over Bobbi Brown online's shitty customer service (if not, hit up Bobbi Brown Goodies & A Customer Service Fail) so let me explain why I bit the bullet and ordered from the site again.

1. I need this product, so it's either buy it in-store or online. Last time I bought one in-store I received no freebies. Not a one. However, last time I bought one online, I received two good-sized freebies (Long Wear Eye Pencil in Jet and Long Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Golden Pink) plus 4 free samples with my order, that I got to choose.

2. The main problem last time was the email confirmation stated I would be emailed again in 1-2 days to let me know when my order had shipped. I never received such an email, even after 7 days. When I tried contacting the company, their customer service line went to a recording prompting me to leave a message and they would call back. They never called me back. So it was a bit of a worry. Given this previous experience, this time I decided not to worry about the shipping notification email they promise (true to form I still didn't get one lol) and not bother contacting them (pointless anyway). And my order actually arrived pretty promptly!

3. Bobbi Brown online offers free shipping on foundations, correctors, concealers and powders. So there's no added cost to get it delivered; my total would be $40 whether I got it in-store or online.

When all is said and done, the fact remains they do offer great freebies as an incentive to order online with them. I'm still using the 7ml Extra Repair Moisturizing Balm pot from my last order. It's a great way to try different products from the brand, for free, when you buy something you were going to purchase anyway. Here are the freebies I got this time:

~ Instant Long Wear Makeup Remover (30ml)
~ Long Wear Gel Eyeliner and Ultra Fine Eyeliner Brush
~ Extra Repair Moisture Cream (7ml)
~ Extra Eye Repair Cream (2.5ml)
~ Hydrating Eye Cream (sample sachet)
~ Intensive Skin Serum Corrector in Light Bisque 2 (sample sachet)

Everything here was free!

Pretty good, right?

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What freebies or GWP's do you take advantage of? Who do you think offers the best freebies with purchase? Comment below!

Fully Baked: Zach's Birthday Party Food!

Multiple nervous breakdowns later.....

My son turned 8 last month, and as usual, I spent three days baking, freaking out, madly decorating cakes, buying Tupperware and generally being a crazy bitch. LOL. I thought the Party Table turned out rather well, though, so it was all worth it. Here's everything I made....

Celery & Carrot Dips Cups to balance out all the sugar on the table. LOL. This did nothing to balance out all the sugar on the table.

Teddies swimming and sunbathing in the pool! Lazy bastards.

The most creative I've ever been. The kids gave zero fucks btw.

Strawberry & Marshmallow Skewers with Chocolate Drizzle! These disappeared quicker than Ben Affleck's personality when J.Lo forced him to wear suits and be all dapper and shit during their ill-fated 2002 engagement.

Shitty photo of my Clinker Rocky Road 'cos stress + 14 kids + multi-tasking. Can you spot the Katy Perry Mad Potion promo confetti on the table though?

Teddy Bears Skiing Cupcakes!

Pierre, the show-off on the right, is a seasoned pro with a holiday house in Les Deux Alpes and a rich French girlfriend called Bernadette.

Barry is a Plumber from Wodonga with absolutely no skiing experience. It's safe to say he's shitting himself.

Two round Coles chocolate cakes stuck together, re-iced and decorated! Hubby's idea. One kid's Mother told me it looked like boobs.

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Will Barry overcome his fear of dying in a horrible skiing accident and go on to represent Australia in the Men's Downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics?

Manicure: Essie 'Bikini So Teeny'!

I'm beginning to see why beauty lovers rave about Essie nail lacquer! The formula is smooth and easy to apply and the colour range is really impressive. I fell in love with 'Bikini So Teeny' recently and had to have it! The pretty cornflower blue/pale lavender shade with shimmery particles is eye-catching, mood-lifting and the perfect way to add a cheery pop of colour to my mostly dark-coloured outfits. Bikini So Teeny was slightly streaky with the first coat, but only one additional coat was needed to achieve a smooth, even, opaque finish.

Essie: 'Daring meets darling in pretty yet provocative cornflower blue. This sparkling nail polish bares it all with a wink and a smile and no strings attached.'

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I'm adding this post to the Fabulous And Fun Life Monday Makeup Madness Linky Party!

What's your favourite Essie polish?

'Lifestyle' Native Box: Fitness Frenzy!

Despite them being all the rage in the beauty community, I'm not really big on subscription boxes. I like the idea of receiving a mix of surprise samples and goodies to trial each month, but to be honest, I'm already swimming in samples and beauty products, so subscribing to a monthly box would just add to my dreaded clutter. However, if I win a box, then I'm all for it! Like I did with the August Lifestyle box from Native Box. I won it in September and they sent me the August one. No complaints here! The theme is "Fitness Frenzy" which frankly wears me out just typing it. LOL. Here's what came in the box!

~ Essentially Natural Organic Coconut Chips
~ Anerah Skincare Relaxation Bath Salts
~ Anerah Skincare Sensitive Face Mask
~ Anerah Skincare Face & Body Scrub
~ Ivadore Tanning Treatment
~ Naturalus Paw Paw Ointment (tube + sachet)
~ Naturalus Paw Paw Gel sachet
~ Naturalus Aloe Vera Gel sachet
~ Hello Fresh $35 Gift Voucher

I'm quite happy with this box! Of course I have nothing to compare it to, so I don't know how this measures up to other Native Boxes or other lifestyle and beauty box brands. Also, everything was free and I don't look a gift horse in the mouth (strange saying alert!). It says on the information sheet that the Bite Smart Trail Mix was out of stock and they replaced it with the Naturalus products. That's fine by me because I'm still wondering what the hell do to with the coconut chips! You put them on cereal, right? That's literally the only way I can think to use it. 

Guys?????

I just looked it up out of interest, and the Lifestyle box is $19.95 per month including shipping and it seems to be more cost effective if you buy multiple months at a time (eg, 3 months is $55). They also have seasonal Beauty boxes which are $24.95 per quarter. I still won't be subscribing to any boxes because I will win this Clutter War, god damnit!

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Disclaimer: The box was a prize and this isn't a sponsored post. Just wanted to let you all know what was inside!

I'm linking up to the Fabulous And Fun Life Monday Makeup Madness Linky Party!

What do you think of the Native Box? Would you subscribe?

The Love/Hate Tag

<3 <3 <3

Hi guys! I was tagged by the lovely Isaya from Remember Her to write a Love/Hate Tag post. You can check out her post here. I thought about writing purely beauty-related likes and dislikes, but thought a wider scope would be more interesting. If you're reading this, and would also like to write a Love/Hate post, consider yourself tagged!

The Tag is simply 'list 10 things that you love and 10 things that you hate (or dislike).'

TEN LOVES

1. Unicorns, rainbows, ladybirds, puppies and kittens. Especially puppies and kittens playing together. Basically, anything cute!
2. Drew Barrymore and Leonardo DiCaprio. If they ever star in a movie together, I will die. Then my ghost will see that movie five million times. (Poison Ivy doesn't count as Leo was only in it for three seconds tops).
3. Conspiracy theories. From the plausible to the ridiculous, I love reading about them and find them intriguing and fascinating, even if I don't believe them.
4. Being alone in peace and quiet. I love my own company. I think this in an introvert thing. I also love shopping and going to the movies by myself.
5. Stationery. Pens, pencils and notebooks, oh my! I love writing in cute notebooks. I write a To Do list every single day, and feel so happy when I'm crossing stuff off!
6. My favourite stores; Lush, Typo and Priceline. OMG, I can't even. I adore these stores and can't go to the shopping mall without visiting (and purchasing from) all three.
7. My family. Obviously! I only have a tiny family, my husband, son and Dad, so they are all extra-precious to me. (This should probably have been number 1).
8. Makeup and skincare. I think you knew that already.
9. Candy Crush Saga. I'm hella addicted. I play it every night before bed to wind down. I'm up to Level 947, lol. I play Candy Crush Soda too, but Saga shits all over it.
10. Winning competitions! I've been Comping for years. It's fun and there's nothing more exciting than getting a WPC (winning phone call), WEM (winning email) or just having prizes arrive at your home unexpectedly! My family appreciate the free trips we've taken and all the experiences we've had thanks to prizes I've won. And we hardly ever pay to go to the cinema!

TEN HATES

1. Summer. How anyone enjoys sweating it out in the stinking hot Aussie Summer is beyond me. I like Winter a million times more.
2. Being messy. I wish I was a neat freak. I dream of having a clutter-free home where everything is perfectly arranged and I'm totally organised. I am working on this, but de-cluttering is such a mammoth task I often get overwhelmed with it all.
3. Relying on other people and being constantly let down by them. Story of my life.
4. Small, enclosed spaces. Yeah, I get claustrophobic. FFS, don't watch the movie 'Buried' if you're claustrophobic. My recovery time was approximately three weeks.
5. Spiders can get fucked.
6. I hate the following foods (you'll notice most are vegetables); broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, brussels sprouts, asparagus, olives, anchovies, pickles, mushrooms, beans, oysters, salmon, tuna, beef jerky, duck and kangaroo meat. And I wonder why my son is fussy. LOL.
7. Gardening. There ain't nothing fun about pulling out weeds or getting covered in dirt. Manual labour sucks!
8. That my driving 'comfort zone' is so small (my suburb and the next two closest suburbs in our area), as it would be nice to be able to drive to more places. I'm such a scaredy-cat!
9. The words 'placed' and 'treat'. 'I placed a dog treat on the ground'. No, no, no!
10. Talking on my mobile phone. I can't stand talking on my mobile. I'll do everything but call someone from it and prefer to get calls on the home phone. 

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If you've done one of these posts I'd love to read it! Link it up in the comments below!

Adore Beauty Haul + Gift With Purchases!

What GWP's, you ask? The ones from five weeks ago, because that's how late I am with posting this! Adore Beauty were offering the choice of a skincare or haircare GWP with a qualifying spend, an absolute no-brainer for me! I will always go for skincare over haircare products. Besides, the Skincare Discovery Pack was so good. I'm glad I jumped at the offer toot sweet, because I checked back a short while later and it had sold out. So obviously I wasn't the only one to beautygasm over the skincare pack! LOL, sorry.

Not only that, my Alpha-H Liquid Gold had nearly run out, so I was excited to see a Liquid Gold GWP, too! It's always great to get a bonus product when you're going to be buying something anyway. Although, I'm not going to lie; I often finish a beauty staple and wait for one of my favourite online stores to have a special promo, deal or GWP offer before repurchasing. I'm sure we all do this, right? I wasn't sure if the system would allow two Gift With Purchases in the same order, but it did. YAY! Way to go, Adore Beauty!

Here's what I ordered for my qualifying spend:

~ Alpha-H Liquid Gold 100ml
~ Benefit World Famous Neutrals Most Glamorous Nudes Ever Eyeshadow Kit
~ The Balm How 'Bout Them Apples? Cheek & Lip Cream Palette

Cute packaging, much?

Here's my Alpha-H Liquid Gold 50ml GWP plus two free samples....

I do love my Liquid Gold!

~ Alpha-H Liquid Gold 50ml
~ Alpha-H Essential Hydration Cream (5ml sample)
~ Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery (sample sachet)

Of course there was a free Tim Tam with my order as well, but that didn't make it into the photo. LOL

A closer look at the palettes I bought....

It took an Apples palette to pop my The Balm cherry!

Can't go wrong with Neutrals!

Creaseless Cream Shadows - My Two Cents (top), Birthday Suit (btm)

And here's the Skincare Discovery Pack GWP:

Packed full of goodies!

Contents -
~ 2 x Benefit The Porefessional (total 6ml)
~ 2 x La Roche-Posay Uvidea XL 30SPF Extreme Fluid (total 6ml)
~ Elizabeth Arden Prevage Anti-Aging + Intensive Repair Daily Serum (5ml)
~ ASAP Daily Facial Cleanser (15ml)
~ Philosophy Renewed Hope In A Jar Eye Cream (3ml)
~ Dermalogica Skin Hydrating Masque (22ml)
~ Alpha-H Instant Facial (30ml)
~ Skinstitut Glycolic Scrub 14% (50ml)
~ SK-II Facial Treatment Mask (1 piece)

Skincare makes me happy :)

I'm thrilled with the products in the Discovery skincare pack! There are brands here I've never tried before (SK-II and Skinstitut) and particular products I haven't tried from brands I already love, such as the Dermalogica Skin Hydrating Masque and Alpha-H Instant Facial. Can't wait to have a play with my new skincare goodies!

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What's your favourite skincare brand?

Our Hahndorf Getaway!

Last week we stayed in Hahndorf, Australia's oldest surviving German settlement. Hahndorf is a quaint, little town in the Adelaide Hills, known for its numerous eateries and cute little shops, all along the one street. I'd actually won a competition earlier in the year, so our little holiday was part of my prize! Pretty much all of our meals were free, as four $100 vouchers for The Haus were included, plus breakfast daily. We also got free family entry into The Hahndorf Farm Barn, which I highly recommend, especially if you have kids. It was so much fun to get up close and interact with the animals! My personal favourite places to check out if you're in Hahndorf are....

~ The German Arms (Tuesday nights they have a Magician/Balloon Artist for the kids)
~ Hahndorf Farm Barn
~ Udder Delights Cheese Cellar (oh hi, Triple Cream Brie!)
~ Beerenberg Family Farm (you can go strawberry picking November - April!)
~ Chocolate @ No. 5
~ The Haus
~ Menz FruChoc Shop
~ Hahndorf Sweets
~ Fairies In Your Garden (I left with a gorgeous Unicorn mug!)
~ Hahndorf Puppet Shop
~ Hahndorf Candlemaker (I bought an amazing Rainforest candle)
~ Otto's Bakery

The Old Mill and Hahndorf Inn are also amazing and Melba's Chocolate Factory (yes, a CHOCOLATE FACTORY) is 15 minutes drive away in Woodside, but we didn't remember to go. Aargh! Here are the photos....

Hahndorf Puppet Shop. It's wall-to-wall puppets inside this tiny shop!

The things you find 'in' the street!

Daily playground visit!

Beautiful wall art at Fairies In Your Garden

Haus Hawaiian Pizza @ The Haus

This Chicken dish from The Haus was seriously delicious!

Grain-Fed T-Bone Steak @ The Haus

Duo of Dips @ The Haus

The boy loves his Royal Copenhagen icecream!

Takeaway Salted Caramel Cheesecake from The Haus

Strawberry Patch Sundae, Chocolate @ No 5

Caramel Pecan Gourmet Icecream Sundae from Chocolate @ No. 5

Patting baby lambs @ Hahndorf Farm Barn!

Pony Ride time @ Hahndorf Farm Barn!

Snuffleupagus thing with horns @ Hahndorf Farm Barn

Biggish pony @ Hahndorf Farm Barn. The beauty!

Cheeky Camel @ Farm Barn

Oh Deer! I can't take this level of cute! Deer @ Hahndorf Farm Barn

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Have you been to Hahndorf? What's your favourite place there?