Sam is back to give you the latest from bb...

Talking about!

While I love high end brands and in my beauty career spanning two decades (god, that makes me sound old), I have worked for just about every major luxe brand at some point, here in Australia or over in London. Like a magpie, I like shiny things and a glimmering metal tube of lipstick or a glossy compact with rose smelling powder is like my Kryptonite - I go weak at the knees around them and only adding them to my collection can cure this affliction!

Les Merveilleuses de Laduree is a beauty line by Parisian macaron purveyor, Laduree. Whenever I am in Paris, I make a beeline for one of their stores and eat as many of their rose macarons as I can physically stuff into my stomach. I am so excited that they are rumoured to be opening in Sydney next month. Anyway, their beauty line has just hit the shelves and while it is not available in Australia, I searched high and low to find a place I could get my mitts on this beautiful brand. I eventually found a website and while typing in my credit card details, I was desperately trying not to look at the total, which amounted to a ridiculous sum that one normally spends on investment shoes. Could I really have spent that much on face powder, just because the packaging is to die for? Yes, I could. And I did. And I bought the blush as well. And the lip gloss.

This started me thinking, what about amazing products out there, that are not expensive and sometimes get overlooked because they are not a big name brand, or they are considered cheap. Mostly because I had no money left in the beauty budget, I went back to basics and picked up a few products from brands that I have overlooked for some time. I adore baby wipes for taking my makeup off at night, love Johnson and Johnson unscented ones, a good lip balm costs under $5 Lip Smackers or Carmex are the best, and a good moisturise with SPF under is $20, bargain!

For colour, especially when its fashion colour, there are so many brands out there that deliver great products but don’t cost a bomb. One brand that has complete blown me away was DB Cosmetics. Yes, it’s the brand that you see the advert for comparing prices of high end products and theirs. Their range is huge, and their formulas are excellent. I had no idea that they invested so much money into their product development to ensure their products are the same standard as the high end brands. I received an eye shadow quartet in magazine ages ago, at the same time I bought a big brand one, it wasn’t much pigmented and then I dropped it, but my DB eye shadow was highly pigmented and is still going strong. I will definitely be purchasing more of this brand...

Landed!

It has been crazy busy here at bellabox this week, I have been out and about meeting lots of new brands and trying new goodies to pack your bellaboxes with. When things get busy, I use products that can do more than one thing in order to save time.

One product that does this is one that we sampled in November last year, Erborian BB Crème. I love this product. It’s a moisturiser, a sun screen, a pore minimiser and it evens skin tone as well. I couldn’t do without it and was very happy that more stock has landed in our warehouse this week. Try Erborian products, I bet you will love them. When you’re placing an order in the bellabox shop, ask for some samples of Erborian, the skin care is amazing as well. The Yuza Sorbet is my favourite product after the BB Crème.

Smelling

This week I purchased some proper grown up tea cups and pot in gorgeously bright colours. It was mostly because I wanted them to look pretty when I have visitors to my office, but also because I wanted to try a tea made by Miller Harris. Inspired by perfume, the tea is so much more complex than normal teas and smells divine. I served Thè Fumè to my guests this week and we all loved the smoky notes underscored by creamy vanilla.

Are you a tea drinker? Do you use bb cream? And what are your favourite beauty steals? Let us know below!