5 makeup items you need

I am no makeup guru, however I do have some idea through trial and error of the items that you should have in your makeup case.

1. Eyebrow pencil/mousse/powder.

This is a relatively new item to me, as in the past year or so. Before I got eyebrow mousse, I wondered why my brows always looked so untidy and fair. Enter eyebrow mousse and my brows started to shape my face well and I could darken them slightly so it didn't look like I had half a brow anymore. I use the benefit brow mousse called Gimme Brows which you can buy here.

2. A good mascara. 

I never used to care at all about mascara and I'd just buy what was on special in priceline. I was then gifted a Chanel mascara and it changed my life forever. It stayed on all day and didn't clump up as most others had. I now buy Benefit 'They're Real' mascara as it goes on well, doesn't clump and provides the thickness that I like on my lashes. You can buy the Benefit mascara here.

3. A good contouring palette.

Contouring was such a foreign word to me until probably last year. I used to just wack a bit of blush on and that was it. I went to Napolean one day and was introduced to the magic that is contouring. I don't contour every day, but if I am going out and doing my makeup nicely, then I put in the effort. I always use highlighter and blush even if I don't contour my whole face as it really brightens up my face. I got the contour palette from Napoleon and you can buy it here

4. A good BB cream. 

Ok, I will admit I am yet to find a good one, but I love wearing it anyway. I hate wearing makeup everyday because I feel like my skin should be able to breathe and heavy makeup doesn't allow that. I use BB cream most days at work and on weekends if I'm not going out. It provides enough coverage to make my skin look even, has SPF in it and is nice and light.

5. A good skincare regime. 

The key to good looking skin is a good skin care regime. You don't need to buy expensive products to have a good skincare regime. I make sure I wash my face (I use dove shea butter soap), tone my skin and moisturise morning and night. Since I started doing this consistently, my skin has been a lot nicer and less dry. 

What are your makeup must haves?

Spring Lovin'

I never knew I was a warm weather person until I went to Bali. Something about beaches, beanbags and mojitos firmly engrained in my mind that the beach and warm weather is where I need to be. So with the arrival of the warm weather (and then cold and then warm), I've been loving being outside. I'm not sure about you, but every time it warms up all I want to eat is salad. Refreshing, refreshing salads. A new favourite of mine, which can be eaten hot or cold is charred corn. This is probably not new to you, but if it is then all you need to do is put some corn on your open gas flame on the stove and cook the corn on all sides until it starts to cook. You'll know when, because it will look burnt. As per a recommendation on twitter, I top mine with coriander, parmesan cheese, salt, paprika and a bit of sour cream. Divine! 

I thought I used to love layering and wearing warm jackets and boots until the warm weather came along. Give me a pair of shorts, a tee shirt and sandals over layers any day. Seriously, how easy is it to dress in less clothing. For maximum laziness, I choose to also wear a hat to cover the hair I haven't done yet. Easy. 

Too bad the beaches in Sydney don't have bean bags and mojitos otherwise I would be at the beach every weekend. Unfortunately for me, sitting in my backyard with a book will have to suffice because another thing about Sydney beaches is the horrendous traffic and who's got time for that? Not me. 

Back to food, I'm trying to eat a little healthier after I ate whatever I wanted for a couple of weeks and over the weekend I threw together these pancakes. Not sure where I found the recipe previously, but I have tweaked it a little. It's just 2 bananas, 2 eggs, a bit of oat bran and a bit of almond meal. Mix or whizz it together and then cook them. So delicious and so easy to make. I topped mine with fresh blueberries, greek yogurt, almond meal and a bit of honey. The mug is my Husbands...he loves spreadsheets.

What do you love about Spring and the warmer weather?

Bali party

When Steve and his friend planned a Bucks for T to Vegas, I immediately got fomo. About a week later, I had found some girls to go on a Bali trip with me and booked it soon after that.

During the lead up to Bali, I was excited but nervous of what was to come. I’ve heard stories as I’m sure most people have and those stories didn’t paint a pretty picture. I needn’t have worried, because the place was amazing. Bali is nothing like Sydney. Footpaths are mismatched and everywhere you go, there are people sitting by the road waiting to sell you their goods. It is in this organised chaos (as I like to call it), that I fell in love with the place. With the people who are so friendly and humble, the many places to eat and the various places to see, I’m not sure that you couldn’t fall in love.

We flew in around 9:30pm, however didn’t arrive at our accommodation until about 11pm where we were greeted with cheerful reception workers and delicious fresh juice. We were upgraded to a deluxe pool villa, a welcome upgrade. The first evening was quite laid back since it was already so late. We wandered down the street in search for some bottled water and snacks and found a small minimart that also had Indonesian cider.

The creatures of habit that we are, we didn’t venture too far or wide for meals. By far, Biku, Seminyak was our favourite and we went there about three times during the trip. Biku offers both Indonesian and Western food and is open for breakfast until late. It seems to get booked out often, so if you go, make sure you book. They also have wheatgrass shots!

Frankenstein’s Laboratory was a fun night out. The drinks are served in IV bags and shots in syringes. Zombies come around to get photos with the diners or if you’re like me – to scare you every time you look away. They also have a live band and two cabaret shows per night making it a really fun night out. The food is mostly Western, but there are some signature Indonesian dishes on the menu.

Most nights, we also went down to the beach to try out the number of beach bars scattered along. My personal favourite was Capil Beach bar, probably because it was the closest to walk to. We ate dinner there one night and it was ok. Nothing amazing, but not bad either. I know everyone raves about La Plancha, but I just thought it was the same as all the other beach bars but with overpriced drinks.

A highlight of the trip was our day trip(s) to Finns Beach Club in Uluwatu. We almost skipped this to go to Potato head for the day and I am so glad we didn’t. Finns has a bar, restaurants, bean bags, beach umbrellas, water sports etc and most of that is included in the 250,000 rupiah ($25) entry fee. Finns doesn’t get crowded and it is spaced well so you don’t feel like you are surrounded by people. This is a big plus for someone like me who hates being near people at the beach.

Taken at Ku De Ta

Taken at Ayana

Seminyak markets sell basically the same things as most other markets you will find in Bali. You are given the price and then told they will do a good deal for you and then the bartering process begins. I wasn’t too in to bartering, so I didn’t try and go too much lower. I ended up with some dresses, a silk scarf and some other bits and pieces and each dress was around $10 - $15 or so. I also managed to get a leather jacket made for $130 on a whim. My sister in law went to a tailor to have some tops made and I was talked in to getting a jacket made. Glad I did, it turned out really well and for $130, it’s such a bargain!

I’ll definitely be back to Bali. It was such a relaxing and fun trip. I’m so glad I got to do a girls trip with two of my favourite people ever!

What should I be doing?

I know I have done a similar post to this in the past, but I got thinking again today and here you go, here’s another post.

 

Every now and then, I sit at my work computer and wonder what I am doing with this job. I won’t go in to exactly what I do, but it involves analysis etc. I graduated with a Bachelor of Business with an Economics major. Was this what I wanted to do? No. I started off wanting to be a Nurse, then decided I didn’t like the hours. I moved on to Landscape Architecture then wondered where exactly that idea came from and eventually landed on International Relations. Luckily, of those three ideas I only started a degree in one, International Relations. After a year, I wanted to move home to Sydney and transferred in to the Bachelor of Business when I realised a Bachelor of IR wouldn’t get me very far.

 

I’ve never had the overwhelming desire to land myself in any field. I never desperately wanted to be a Nurse, I never even thought about the job I’m in now. Not once did I think ‘yeah, being an analyst would be amazing’. I fell in to this job and while I am really grateful to be here and can see myself here for this chapter of my life, I can’t see myself here forever.

 

Over the past year or so, I’ve started to explore my hobbies a little more, hoping that maybe one day I can create an income from them. I know I love to help people, I know I am caring and like writing, sewing and taking photos. But I don’t know if I like any of them enough to make a job of it. The thought of re-skilling doesn’t appeal too much, so I want to focus on the skills I have now, to find out what it is that I should be doing in life. I often get the feeling that I am not where I am supposed to be. Maybe right now I am, but not for the long run, but I also find it hard to pinpoint where it is I should end up. I guess I am no clairvoyant :-P

 

One of the hobbies I have come to enjoy is writing. I know I am not all that consistent on this blog, or my new one for that matter (I blame Bali and my laptop cord breaking!) but those are not the only platforms that I explore writing. I am not a great writer, but I try often to explore my style, try new styles and better myself in general. I don’t have great hopes that this will lead to a job or income, but if it’s something I love to do, then why not spend time doing it.

 

I love to hear stories of how people ended up in their career, or how they have made money from their hobbies or previous jobs or even what their hobbies are (regardless of if you make money because money isn’t everything).

 

So, go ahead and tell me your story.

 

Do you have a business you run? Did you always want to be in the career you're in or did you 'fall' in to it? Do you want to be doing something else?

Why I don't care what's in your travel bag

I find it interesting when people write posts about what’s in their travel/hand bags. While I do enjoy reading them, I never go away and think ‘wow, I am going out today to buy those things’ and within ten minutes, I’ve forgotten what they even wrote.

 

The reason for this post was that I was going to write a ‘what’s in my travel bag’ ahead of my trip to Bali this week. I sat there, thinking of how to structure the post and then thought to myself, ‘no-one gives a shit what you’re taking to Bali’. The thought process went on to conclude that 1. No-one gives a shit and 2. Writing about it just makes me someone that’s rubbing in the fact that I am going away and they are probably not. Which is a bit sad really, isn’t it?

 

People don’t come here to read what’s in my bag, although I don’t really know what people do come here to read. It’s never been a very ‘informative’ blog, but rather a blog about day to day happenings.

So instead of telling you what’s in my bag because let’s be honest here, I haven’t even packed it, I’ll tell you about my new blog, The Riz.

I started The Riz recently as a way for me to enhance my writing skills because I love writing. I felt with Ebb and Flow that I had carved out a community that wanted to know about me and what I am up to etc. and changing that to the new path I wanted to take didn’t feel like the right thing to do. The Riz will take a more informative approach, with less personal stuff about me and more about places, cafes, restaurants, travel, fashion etc. I haven’t thought of the exact path yet because I am of the belief that you carve that out as you build your blog and so I can’t tell you what exactly to expect. I haven’t decided how personal I will make it, if at all. It may or may not feature ‘what I packed’ for holidays, because I feel that sort of post is better suited to that blog.

 

I’m not sure if any of that makes sense, and maybe it doesn’t need to just yet. I am just trying to find my feet in writing and in my writing style and this way; I can approach it from two angles. I will still write here, at Ebb and Flow because I do enjoy documenting my life and interacting with those that come back to read the blog. I don’t know how often I will write here because life is busy and I now have two blogs to update. Although, when I say busy I don’t mean busy full of exciting things because if that was the case, I’d blog about it. It’s just busy in general full of stuff people don’t particularly want to read about and so my presence here has dwindled of late.

 

I know when I read blogs in the past; I loved the personal aspect and what people were doing in their day to day lives. What I like to read has shifted slightly and while I’ll keep going back to read my favourite blogs, I have also added others to the list that take a different approach. I enjoy reading about fashion, how to do things, tips on restaurants, travel tips etc. Since I enjoy reading about it, I felt like it was something I could contribute to, as well.

 

Anyway, I have rambled on long enough here. Please do pop by The Riz and have a look if you get time. I welcome any (constructive!) feedback, too. There isn’t much there just yet, but stay tuned and there will more posts up shortly.