Friday, June 22, 2018

15 Ways To Cheer Yourself Up


Not everyone is susceptible to feelings of depression, but for those of us who do get the sads, I've put together fifteen ways to cheer yourself up. Have a read through and pick out what resonates with you and please leave your own suggestions in the comments below. I want to know what you do to combat the Winter (or any season of the year) Blues!





1. Chat with a friend on Messenger. I'm not big on phone calls, but I'm always happier after discussing my problems with a friend on Messenger. Whether you're after advice, compassion or just someone to listen to what you're going through, letting people, even if it's just one special person, know how you feel will lighten your burden and make you feel better. Just don't pick your dickhead friend, they're only good for laughing at on pub trivia night.


I made these!
Tiny Teddies at the Pool!


2. Get cooking! Put on an apron and try baking a cake you've never made before, or decorating some cupcakes to a theme! This will distract you and get your brain to engage full-on panic mode as it encounters an insurmountable task. Imagine the sense of achievement though, if you do pull off the impossible and produce a masterpiece! Not to mention the delicious cake you'll get to eat. If you fail, now is the perfect time to audition for the next season of Nailed It!

3 Grab a tube of BBQ Pringles and Netflix-binge your favourite show. I say BBQ Pringles because those are the best kind. Don't argue with me on this. Now I would be going a comedy, such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Good Place or Santa Clarita Diet. You can check out my Netflix Recommendations here and here. It goes without saying, you're going to want to give 13 Reasons Why a miss.


This stuff is the best!

4. Enjoy some 'me' time. Have a pampering afternoon with your favourite products. When I have a shower and use my Soap & Glory The Breakfast Scrub it immediately brightens my mood. The title is a piss-take of an iconic 80's movie and it smells like pancakes with maple syrup, how can you go wrong? (not sponsored). My other mood brighteners are Oh Deer Sugar Rose & Passionfruit Shower Moose (pictured above) and Natura Siberica Oblepikha & Honey Body Scrub. Keep in mind jasmine, peppermint and orange fragrances are known for their mood lifting properties. I love citrus scents in particular!


Surely this effort deserves an award?

5. Get creative! Get out in nature and snap some photographs. Try scrapbooking to a theme, eg travel, or scrap your precious family memories. Make an inspirational vision board! Write down your thoughts in a journal. Paint something! Enjoy makeup? Google themes, eg Halloween makeup and go crazy seeing what looks you can create! Have fun. Look at my terrible effort in the above photo and laugh, knowing you could 100% do better.

6. Exercise. Hit the treadmill at the gym or go for a walk. Dance to your favourite song or put on a workout DVD and follow along. The important thing is to move! We've all read about exercise releasing endorphins that inhibit your perception of pain and trigger positive emotions and a feeling of well-being. Use this to your advantage! Choose a type of exercise you enjoy, get happy naturally and improve your health while you're at it!



Family fun with board games

7. Have kids? Take some time to play with them. It's so easy to get caught up in work and not give your kids the time they deserve. Trust me, they'll be thrilled you're spending time with them, so get out the UNO cards, unbox the Monopoly board or fire up the Playstation and just play. No interruptions. Seeing them happy will make you happy and the important things will become clear in no time.

Sally Hansen Color Therapy polish in Pampered In Pink*

Sally Hansen polish in Back To The Fuchsia*

8. Paint your fingernails a bright, cheery colour. Forget goth black, deep plum or boring khaki, coat your talons with your brightest, boldest, most fun colour to trick your brain into thinking you're happy! Some of my go-to mood-lifting shades include turquoise, azure blue and fuchsia. Colours can actually affect our mood, so you can even try yellow for energy or orange for enthusiasm. Or go all out and paint each nail a different colour to show off a rainbow of neon hues!

9. Clean the house. Bear with me on this one! Tidying up your home in and of itself is not the most fun you can have with your pants on, you're absolutely right! But remember the feeling you get afterwards? When your house is clean and tidy, and everything has been put away? That's the feeling we're going for here. I feel amazing when I've cleaned up. I feel a sense of achievement and everything is just sort of better. Try it!



Watch some DVDs or hit up your local cinema!

10. See a movie. I'm a huge movie fan, so this one's a no-brainer for me. What better way to take your mind off things than to escape into a world of make believe for a few hours? Hit up your local cinema, grab some hot buttered popcorn and get ready for big screen action/romance/laughs or if you're into horror, may I suggest Hereditary, which is out now! Check out my movie review of it.

11. List your unwanted goods on eBay. Sorting through everything will certainly keep you busy, as will photographing and writing up your listings! Other advantages are a tidier, less cluttered house and the extra coin you'll make when stuff sells. You can also use the opportunity to get rid of things that may be holding you back. Out with the old, in with the new, making a fresh start and all that jazz!


Having a (Monster's) Ball* with a Lush bath

12. Enjoy a hot bubblebath. Pour yourself a glass of wine, put on a face mask and relax in a tub of scented bubbles. Go all out and light some candles, too, while you're at it. If you have kids, put hubby in charge and lock the door, for the love of God. Throw away the key!* (*Don't actually throw away the key, you may need to get out of the bathroom at some point).


Mecca Maxima Haul, Exhibit A: I have no defence, your Honour.

13. Go shopping. Treat yourself to an online haul. Better yet, get out of the house and wander around your local mall for the afternoon. Snap up a bargain or two! We all have our favourite shops; mine are Typo, Kikki K, Lush, Priceline, Mecca Maxima (this one's dangerous!), Kmart (aah, that's better), the list goes on. Photographic evidence of how dangerous Mecca Maxima is above.

14. Just treat yourself. Whether it be with a new hairstyle, a massage or a manicure and/or pedicure, put yourself first for once. You're worth it!

The Rustic Fig Cafe
Dolcetti Espresso Bar, delicious icecream*


15. Meet a friend for coffee or enjoy a meal at your favourite restaurant with your partner. It's also exciting to try the menu at a place you've never been to before. Order champagne and savour the taste of delicious gourmet creations. Don't forget to indulge with dessert! That piece of lemon meringue pie will not eat itself! Great conversation with loved ones whilst enjoying the finer things in life really can't be beat! For a little foodie inspiration, check out my drool-worthy Instagram account @imhungrymax

Do the thing that makes you happy! Watch your favourite YouTuber's videos. Cut recipes out of magazines and make a recipe folder. Meditate. Go on Instagram. Take a yoga class. Listen to your favourite band play their most iconic songs. Watch 80's movies. Redecorate your home. Enter competitions. Find your happy and do it!

Reach out and talk to your friends and family, your Doctor, Health Care Professional or LifeLine (13 11 14). Remember there are people who can help. You are not alone.

You may be interested in Top 7 Beauty Purchase Regrets!

Linking up with Open SlatherLife This Week and Mummy Mondays Link Ups!


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Disclaimer: Products marked * were gifted for editorial consideration. There are no affiliate links in this post. Please see the Disclosure page for further information.

What do you do to cheer yourself up?

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

May Empties!


Hi guys! A short and sweet empties post from me today. I only finished seven products last month, but then as soon as we went into June, the empties started piling up, so next month's post will feature a lot more products. In the meantime, here's everything I completed in May.




Batiste Stylist XXL Volume Spray
This is still not as good as my favourite Batiste XXL Volume Dry Shampoo (that they discontinued - boo!) but I'm learning to like it more I guess. I'm settling. I'm still pissed off that I can no longer buy the best volumising dry shampoo I had found on the market though. Can you tell?

Hask Coconut Oil Nourishing Shine Hair Oil
I wish this wasn't so hard to find because I flat out love it! The coconutty fragrance immediately transports me to a tropical island/white sand/blue water/laying on the beach/sipping cocktails type sitch, and it makes my hair look healthy as well. I couldn't find it in-store to repurchase, so I'm trying the Argan Oil Healing Shine one (featured in this Priceline 50% Off Haircare Haul post) instead!




Clinique Youth Surge Age Decelerating Moisturiser
This was a little sample pot that still managed to take me forever to finish. It was nice enough but I've got other moisturisers to get through, so I won't be buying it.

Oh Deer Sugar (Oh) Candy Cane Mint & Coconut Body Scrub
I actually won this in a Giveaway two Christmases ago (eek!) so I thought I better get a wriggle on and use it up! I wasn't a huge fan unfortunately, despite loving most Oh Deer Sugar products. I find their dry scrubs quite harsh on the skin, and much prefer the softer, gentler formula of the Soda Pop creamy scrubs. It did smell minty and fresh though!

Oh Deer Sugar (Oh) Confetti Fawn Jellybean & Popping Candy Shower Moose
The Oh Deer Sugar shower mooses (moose, deer, get it??) are my most favourite line from this brand! I adore the creamy, whipped formula and they are an absolute delight to use. I did enjoy Confetti Fawn but I won't repurchase as I want to try all the fragrance varieties in the range. You can read my thoughts on the lovely fruity Peachy Keen one and the Rose & Passionfruit one in my March Favourites and September Favourites blog posts respectively.

L'Occitane Divine Eye Balm
The L'Occitane store at Westfield Marion was handing out these samples as I was passing by so I thought I'd try them. I haven't tried much from this brand (maybe a hand cream?), and I have a particular interest in eye creams, however I couldn't really form much of an opinion from this tiny sample. The product was fairly thick and moisturising, as you'd expect from a balm.

L'Occitane Divine Eyes
This is a much lighter formula than the Eye Balm and was nice enough, but again I couldn't really test it properly from the sachet sample, as it just lasted a few goes. A good way to make my expensive eye creams last longer, via the use of free samples in the interim though?

So I didn't finish up that many products last month, but blogging about them has inspired me to try harder and I think I'll aim to write an Empties post every month. That way I can actually bin my finished products instead of hanging on to them for a blog post I never end up writing!


You may be interested in my April Beauty Empties post!

Linking up with the Lovin' Life Linky

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Disclaimer: Reviews are my honest opinion. There are no affiliate links in this post. Please see the Disclosure page for further information.

Have you tried any of these products? 

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Low Budget Makeup Haul!


Hi guys! For some reason I'm not as excited about buying new makeup lately, although I will always love applying makeup and wearing it. Even though new releases are not catching my attention, I still have to re-purchase back-ups of my staple makeup items, so here's a very budget friendly drugstore brand makeup haul, where the aim was to stock up on my every day eye makeup items. I also got some extra stuff I needed while I was there. Both Chemist Warehouse and Priceline were having sales, so everything here was at a bargain price!




Chemist Warehouse had 50% off Maybelline (yassss!) so I picked up my fave eyeliner, the Maybelline Masterliner in Black. This was $5.99, usually $12.50. I was going to get two of them, but then I saw the Maybelline boxed Kit for $7.00 which contained a Masterliner eyeliner,  Falsies Push Up Drama Mascara and Eyelash Curler! Just a dollar more and you get two bonus items... score!

I also spotted the Maybelline Master Precise Skinny eyeliner and Maybelline Brow Precise Micro Pencil, both of which I've never tried, but I thought at half price, now is the best time to give them a go! Also, it's really hard to get defined wings with the Masterliner as the end rounds out after a few uses, so hopefully the Skinny pencil comes in handy there.

I spent $26.37 at Chemist Warehouse and the receipt tells me I saved $38.53 (woo hoo!). At first I was like, whaaaaaa? because everything was 50% off, but then I saw the boxed Kit was originally $24.95, down to $7.00. Bitch can shop.

The eyebrow pencil I swear by, Ardell's Pro Brow Mechanical Pencil was actually on special (this rarely happens) at Priceline, so I obviously got two. Also, it's not stocked at my local Priceline and can be hard to find, so this was a no-brainer.

I can't find my makeup pencil sharpener at the moment and all my nude lipliners are super blunt, so instead of doing the normal thing and buying a new sharpener, I bought two new nude Essence Soft Contouring lipliners instead (Nude Painting and Lost In Love). Don't judge! Bargain buy recommendation alert! You can't go wrong with Essence lipliners; they perform well, the formula is great and they are only $2.00 each. Get on this, people! I also picked up an Essence Kajal eyeliner while I was perusing the Essence stand, because why not?


You may be interested in Priceline 40% Off Makeup Haul!

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Disclaimer: All products were bought by me and there are no affiliate links in this post. Please see the Disclosure page for further information.

Picked up a bargain recently? Tell us about it below!

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Movie Review: HEREDITARY




{SPOILER-FREE}

Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro and Ann Dowd
Director: Ari Aster
Genre: Horror/Supernatural
Rating: MA15+
Australian Release Date: 07/06/2018

Hi guys! Last night I was lucky enough to see the Adelaide Preview screening of American horror/supernatural film HEREDITARY. There has been a lot of hype surrounding this movie, so I was super keen to see it for myself, and I have to say, it lived up to the hype, and then some. Horror is not my favourite genre, but this disturbing movie was amazing. Everyone in my screening was enthralled and you could have heard a pin drop at one point! This movie is still playing over and over again in my mind, and I think it will be with me for some time. 

When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited as it slowly destroys everything they know.

Toni Collette, in the lead role of Annie, gives a brave, raw performance that's believable and even harrowing at times. She really gives this her all. In fact, the acting across the board is excellent; look out for Milly Shapiro who is so creepy as Charlie, Annie's daughter. Hereditary was written and directed by Ari Aster in his directorial debut, and honestly I can't wait to see what he does next, if this film is anything to go by. It's so impressive for a first time effort. The musical score was also pretty spot-on, perfectly building tension and giving a gloomy atmosphere of foreboding.



This is a spoiler-free write up, as I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but there are some chilling events in this film that have to be seen to be believed. Hereditary slowly builds the tension, but as things go from bad to worse, it had me hooked and engrossed. It's chilling, scary, disturbing and above all, unsettling. Go see it, Hereditary is worth the hype.

Fun Fact: On Anzac Day, a movie theatre in Western Australia accidentally played a trailer for Hereditary before a screening of the family-friendly film Peter Rabbit, no doubt freaking out a bunch of kids and angering their parents. Oops!





You may be interested in Max My Movies: March Movie Challenge

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Disclaimer: I was invited to a preview screening of this film. Reviews are my honest opinion. There are no affiliate links in this post. Please see the Disclosure page for further information.

What's your favourite horror film?