Yet to be formally named, the time for the second round of Cat and Stephii's Seasonal Care Package Swap has come, and it is better than ever! Granted, we had to make the agreement that our seasonal care packages were making our significant others weep at the massive dents in our finances. Now it's down to twice a year. 6 months is a long time to wait for a package swap, but at least this way we can carefully think about what we would like to send to the other person halfway across the world. This also gives me time to find brands that are Australian-owned. The premise of this care package swap that we've got going on is based on getting the other chick stuff that they cannot get locally, and this includes beauty, skincare, food and, in this case, decoration.
This time around, I included a lot of new brands that Cat had never tried or heard of, including Chi Chi (ironically, I've never tried this brand before), Sugar Baby, and Face of Australia. I also sent her a packet of our iconic lamingtons and two bars of Cherry Ripe. Oh, and Milo! According to Cat, her husband has taken the can of Milo and devoured the bag of Twisties that I included in the parcel.
I'm assuming you're all dying to know just what Cathy has bought for me this time around, and while I knew about some of the stuff before she sent them, she also snuck in a few pieces that sure surprised me!
Cat got me and Sean a bag of popcorn each, and I had the Cinnamon Bun flavour while Sean had a mix of Cheddar Cheese and Caramel popcorn. It was interesting to try a different type of popcorn that's not your usual standard butter and salt (and garlic powder in my case) and the cinnamon bun one, though not quite like the real thing, is sweet and delicious.
In the previous care package, Cat included a lot of sweets (that I've yet to go through because I don't have a sweet tooth) and racked up such a huge shipping cost, and I had to forbid her from sending me too much this time around. It was to make it cheaper to send the parcel over here and to give myself the time to nibble my way through the chocolates and Jelly Belly beans she sent me last time. This time, aside from the popcorn, she also sent me a small amount of green chilli powder, and I just cannot wait to try them out! I love setting my mouth on fire! She included some Dutch chocolate as well, and this one is in the letter S for my name - how cool is that?
She also included a little gold mirror in the parcel, about 6" tall, which completely surprised me! There's actually a funny story about this one. I'm helping her set up her desk properly because she also wanted a pretty vanity. She was out one day and showed me a photo of this mirror in store and I told her to get it for her desk, but she told me she didn't get it because it was too small. Little did I know, she did actually buy it, just not for herself. It's so little and so adorable! I love how it adds a little bit of glam to my vanity with the faceted beads. Just gorgeous!
Cat sent me a little souvenir from when she went to Sequoia with her husband and his family for a few days, and I just love how thoughtful she was to get me that slice of agate! She also sent a mini notepad with gold detailing, and I think it's really pretty. It has a magnetic clasp and lovely printed pages on the inside.
While I'm all too aware that we do get YesTo products here in Australia, we don't get everything that they produce. These masks are not obtainable here, so Cat got them for me, especially because I couldn't find vegetarian and cruelty-free sheet masks that didn't cost more than $5 a pop in the drugstores. I also received a rosewater toner in the parcel, as well as my first ever LUSH product. I know, I've never used LUSH before, how horrific is that?! I actually thought that the thing was a tea tree bathbomb because of the powdery texture and the scent, but it's actually a bomb for steaming your face, which I think is seriously creative!
Cat got me the Lime Crime Velvetines liquid lipstick in Pumpkin. I wore it today and it's gorgeous! The Pixi eyeshadow duo and bronzer I think came from an Ipsy subscription, as well as the Nude Dude eyeshadow, and quite possibly the Pacifica shadows too, so she passed them on to me. I'm all for new brands to try and I've always been curious about the Pacifica and Pixi brands. She picked up the e.l.f. Cosmetics Illuminating Palette and the Wet n Wild Photo Focus Eyeshadow Primer at my request, the latter because I wanted to compare it to Wet n Wild's primer from the Fergie Centerstage range. She also got me two new shades of the Milani Amore Matte Liquid Lipsticks and they look amazing!
Cat actually bought the Makeup Revolution Vivid Baked Highlighter in Radiant Lights for her cousin's wedding but decided not to use it on the bride as she thought that it looked too glittery. Knowing that I latch onto highlighting products like white on rice, she sent it to me. She also bought theBalm's Balm Voyage Vol 2 palette, something that I got so excited about because it looks like the perfect palette for travelling, and the eyeshadows look gorgeous. This palette got a little bit damaged on the way here and one of the blushes chipped, but I managed to fix it with some isopropyl alcohol.
Lastly, Cat bought me this set of BH Cosmetics brushes to replace my Real Techniques Bold Metals brushes that I sent her in the mail. She so wanted shiny metallic brushes for use as props in her blog photos. I also figured that she would get more use out of them as I barely used them. This brush set came with a matching case which looks so cute and is perfect for storing makeup for travel. These brushes are so incredibly soft and silky, and it's got the perfect amount of face vs eye brushes especially because I needed more eye brushes. I'll be posting a review on these brushes in a month or two once I've gotten some use out of them and given them a few washes to get an idea of how well they last.
Cat really outdid herself with this care package, and I'm just so excited about trying everything. I can only hope that she feels the same way about her parcel.
Have you guys tried anything from this haul?
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