The Ethics of Beauty Dupes & Copycats | Rivet Rant

ABC News Sydney exposed an ugly side of the beauty industry that we bloggers (and influencers), have definitely contributed to in a way, but even if it's legally okay, is it ethical?

ID: An infographic of an edited image of beauty products superimposed on a dreamy watercolour background (full image further down with description) with a big red X on it and text next to it that reads "Nah, I'm done with this lot". There is handwritten text at the top that reads "#RivetRant" and bottom that reads “(at)rivetlicker”, a sparkly pastel pink/purple/blue border, and an illustration of Lara with an angry expression, holding her palm up in the bottom right corner.

Let's wake up the old school blog format with a good ol' #RivetRant!

LET'S TALK LUPUS || Because Lupus Sucks And Everyone Gets It Wrong || Rivet Licker

In July 2021, I posted a four part series about Lupus on my Instagram grid. Lupus is one of the conditions I have that affects my day-to-day living, and pretty much everything I do, right down to the most mundane tasks!

Image description: Collage on a white background. An askew Polaroid frame with a Bitmoji of Lara sitting on a red couch, gesturing for the reader to sit down with dark blue text above that reads "We need to talk. This is serious.". At the bottom of the frame is black text that reads “let’s talk lupus in detail” in all caps. In the corners of the frame are clip arts; clockwise from top left; an illustration of a medical doctor who is a woman with long black hair and brown skin, wearing a lab coat and stethoscope; a purple butterfly; an illustration of a character crying in pain and resembling Lara, wearing all black and has pink hair, pale skin, and red shadows to represent rashes around the cheeks, neck & arms; a purple lupus awareness ribbon.

This blog post is a collation of those four posts (copypasta), edited for the blog, with added extras I couldn't fit in Instagram captions!

TW: Medical Talk, Disability, Mental Health, Menstruation, Pets with Lupus, Medical Transphobia, etc

I DID AN AT-HOME LASH LIFT || Curled Lashes Eyelash Lifting & Eyebrow Lamination Kit || #RivetReview

A lash lift, or lash perming, can have some dramatic results, including making your eyes look bigger, your lashes look longer and fuller, and just overall make you look like you have lashes if they're dead straight. Eyebrow lamination, performed with the same products, can also save you grooming your brows by having them sit the way that you'd like without the use of brow gels.

Image description: Flatlay of Curled Lashes packaging, opened to show various elements; a white box with various sized tubes, bottles, and cardboard containers in the upper right; white/pink mascara wands sitting atop a lilac card with white text that reads “Curled Lashes” in the upper left; and the white and lilac outer sleeve with the Curled Lashes logo in the lower centre; on a white with pink/blue/black watercolour splatter fabric background.

These have become very popular beauty services that are available in salon, but can you achieve the same results with a kit available to anybody? Let's find out!

A NEW WAY TO COOL, REFRESH, SOOTHE, & HYDRATE SKIN || Hydromerse Skin Recovery System || #RivetReview

Sometimes, skin just gets so irritated from environmental stressors, or after an intensive skin treatment, that you feel like you need to throw a bucket of ice cold water over it in the hope it calms down.

Image description: Retail packaging for Hydromerse. 3 containers; a large white tube, a clear spray bottle with a white lid, and a lip balm tube laid out on a white and pink watercolour background.

Don't worry, Hydromerse is here to give you a better way to cool, refresh, soothe, and hydrate your skin without having to hose yourself down!

BATTLE OF THE PINK HAIR DYES || #RivetReview

They say "beauty is pain", and I can tell you, keeping bright hair is a pain unlike any other. After having the same shade of turquoise blue hair for 6 whole years, I jumped onto the pastel unicorn hair train, but I found that 2020 was the year I had to go bright pink.

Image description: Four different pink hair colours in various packaging arranged on a white with pink/blue/black watercolour splatter background.

In this post, we are going to be trial four different NEON PINK semi permanent, direct dye hair colours and seeing which ones do the job right. Be warned, a lot of pictures ahead of my head!

I SHAVED MY FACE || Hollywood Browzer Brow Shaper and Dermaplaning Tool || #RivetReview

Women and femmes have been told that facial hair is gross and unfeminine for a long time, which is really just misogynistic, but let's face it (no pun), most of the population have have facial hair, even the peach fuzz that is mostly invisible from afar. What is gross is shaming us for having facial hair, but it's also very gross to shame those who do choose to remove it.

Image description: Pale skinned person with pink hair looking at the camera with her hand focused in front holding an opened gold coloured Hollywood Browzer tool. 

The latest trends in facial hair removal have gone back to simpler methods; a razor. Why a razor? Well, you'll have to read this to find out!

Dashing Diva Magic Press Instant Manicure - MOTHER & DAUGHTER EDITION || #RivetReview

Apologies for my absence! I've just had my head in music making recently, which means I've had to neglect this poor platform since the beginning of the year, but now I return with some fun, featuring my mum, Regina!

Image description: Flatlay of products from Dashing Diva; three sets of false nails and gel sticker retail packaging in a presentation box on a pastel pink faux-fur background.

This product review is something a little bit different for me, as I'm not a nail person, but my mum is! I have collaborated with Dashing Diva to trial and review some of their Magic Press nails with her.

10 THINGS BEAUTY BRANDS NEED TO STOP DOING IN 2020 || #RivetRant

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Image description: Rivet Licker logo on a white background with text above that reads "10 THINGS BEAUTY BRANDS NEED TO STOP DOING IN 2020"

I hope everybody had a wonderful end of year holiday season and are ready to rock in 2020! Since it's tradition to make new years resolutions, here are some that I'd love to see from beauty brands!

HOW THE HECK DO YOU GET PR MAIL?! || And other things you need to know about Beauty Media || Rivet Licker

Seeing your favourite Beauty Community figures opening packages they seemingly got for free from brands makes a lot of folk wonder why do they get so many freebies? How do they build up to it? Can I do it too?

Image description: Rivet Licker logo and website on a white background with text that reads "HOW THE HECK DO YOU GET PR MAIL?! (And other things you need to know about Beauty Media)"

Here in this story, I will lay down the nitty gritty of what it means to be Beauty Media, or an "Influencer", and explain the ins and outs of the illustrious PR mail perks.

MICROBLADED BROWS, SANS MICROBLADING || MCo Beauty Tattoo Brow Microblading Ink Pen || #RivetReview

Microbladed brows are still a huge thing in the beauty industry. It offers those with sparse or no brows the natural look of hair strokes via a special tattooing method. Microblading is an expensive service and one I have yet to try, but it remains popular as ever.

Image descirption: MCo Beauty retail packaging for the Tattoo Brow Microblading Ink Pen. The packaging is pastel pink and white, containing a pen shaped product and a close up of the slanted, four pronged applicator printed on the package.

Microfine brow pencils and tattoo liner pens are also on the market, with many brands from high end to drugstore offering that thin hair stroke look for fuller brows, as opposed to completely filling them in and having them look blocky. In this post, I review one I picked up on a grocery shop!

SpaScriptions Has Landed in Australia! || #RivetReview

SpaScriptions is the latest brand to launch in Big W stores all over Australia.

Image description: Three women smiling at the camera; Theresa from The Ladida, Lara from Rivet Licker, and Lily from Lily Not Louise. Photo by Esteban La Tessa Photography.

The US based brand sought to enter the market to feed the gap between budget and luxe skincare, but still offer high quality formulas with active ingredients, at drugstore prices.

10 More Shitty Things Nobody Tells You About Life With Chronic Illness || #RivetRant

Here we are, back again, with a chronic illness post on a platform independent to a problematic website whose name rhymes with 'She Fighty'. Last year, I brought you 10 Shitty Things Nobody Tells You About Life With Chronic Illness, now here are another 10 things that are just as shitty as the last! 

Cartoon depiction of Rivet Licker, the author of this blog. She is a tired looking woman with short purple/pink hair and has thermometer in her mouth. She is wearing a bath robe and holding a mug of coffee in one hand, and the other is placed on her face. Text reads "Chronic Illness Is Shitty". An additional purple box is superimposed over the bottom of the image that reads 'now with even more shit! poo emoji'.

This post contains many trigger warnings, including, but not limited to discussion of mental health, dismissive doctors, financial woes, ableism, quackery, bodily functions, hormones, flashy GIFs, and a shitload of swearing.

BEAUTY HEAVEN NATURAL BEAUTY MONTH 2019 || Event Recap + Haul || #RivetReview

Happy birthday to me! On the very day I turned 31, I attended the annual Beauty Heaven Natural Beauty Month event!

Image description: Collage featuring images found further in this post, the Beauty Heaven logo, and the Rivet Licker logo, with text that reads 'Natural Beauty Month Event + Haul'

This event takes place in August every year, and showcases Australian and international brands helping to promote natural beauty trends. Beauty Heaven members are invited to this event held at BH HQ in Sydney's CBD and are given products to trial and review. This year's event was sponsored by Sukin.

BellaBox 'Welcome to Wellness' Seasonal Subscription Box || #RivetReview

Australia has a very unique beauty market, but there are things missing; there aren't many beauty subscription boxes. BellaBox is the most well known, starting at $19.95AUD per month for a box of beauty products delivered monthly, and has also expanded into Men's Grooming (BelloBox) and Mum & Baby (BellaBaby) boxes.

Image description: Photo of the top of the box with the logo saying 'Welcome To Wellness', with #RIVETREVIEW written above, and rivetlicker.blogspot.com and @rivetlicker written below.

The largest, most value packed box available is the seasonal 'Welcome to Wellness', which retails for $59.95AUD quarterly and offers $200AUD in value. The BellaBox team reached out to me to review this box, and I happily obliged!

THIS IS THE TINGLIEST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER TRIED! || Andalou CannaCell Glow Mask || #RivetReview

Hemp is here to stay! For a long time, hemp byproducts such as the oil and seeds were not allowed to be sold in Australia. It's weird, because hemp contains negligible concentrations of their psychoactive components, called cannabinoids, which means you won't get high or be able to treat medical conditions with plain ol' hemp.

Image description: stylized photo of a cut out hand holding a white jar with a green lid on a background of pink, blue and black paint splatter with a speech bubble reading 'this is the tingliest product I have ever tried!' in the top left corner.

Hemp oil and other hemp products were few and far between, but the widespread mainstream availability has brought this humble plant into our diets and skincare, with many brands boasting the benefits of the oil and other components of the plant for the skin. Andalou steps in with their CannaCell range!

I BOUGHT A PORE VACUUM TOOL || 'SUCK THE YUCK OUT OF YOUR PORES' || #RivetReview

If professional beauty tools get into untrained hands, bad things can happen. One tool I've never come across in a professional setting was a vacuum that was not part of a microdermabrasion machine.

Image description: Stylized image with pictures of the pore vacuum packaging, Rivet holding the device, the head of the device after use with a confused emoji over the top and text reading 'Yikes!', and a close up picture of  the packaging with text 'RIVET TRIES A PORE VACUUM!'

Well, the vacuum pore cleaner tool now exists, and has dupes all over the place. I picked one up on a recent shopping trip to give it a whirl, and here's the verdict!

WARNING: This post contains some gross themes and images, including blood. Do not continue past this point should you be uncomfortable with such themes.

WE ARE LIVE!

Rivet’s AUSSIE AS Cruelty Free Brand List


I've come across some major technical issues in getting the list from a Word document to html that would publish nicely to this very page (it didn't), so I've decided to opt for Google Docs.

.

Instructions:
I have set up the list as a Google Document that will show on the user end as a PDF, which will be downloadable via most desktop browsers. The list which you download will be dated as the latest edit. Please return to download the updated list regularly (monthly should suffice).

If you are using an iOS device, please use Safari to view, it works very nicely and you don't have to save the PDF to your device. Simply bookmark this page to come back!

Click the image below to view the list!

I hope this list helps Australians make ethical choices with their cosmetics!

.

If you own or represent a Cruelty Free Australian or NZ/Oceania based brand, please send an email to rivetlicker@yahoo.com.au.

VIX!N Apple Stem Cell Skincare ALL-IN-ONE || #RivetReview

We keep looking for the easiest way to care for our skin while also treating it with top performing ingredients. Fruit stem cells have been a major trend in the cosmeceutical field.

Image description: Outer packaging of VIX!N Apple Stem Cell ALL-IN-ONE with a VIX!N gift bag in the background.

VIX!N is an Aussie made and owned brand that offers all the benefits of Apple Stem Cell Smart Skincare in one single product.

I FORMULATED MY OWN PINK CLAY MASK! || 'Lala's D.I.Why?' Recipe! || Rivet Licker

Pink Clay Masks are still holding down the fort in mask trends. I've tried a few different masks, but I've been using pink clay as a dual action cleanser and colourant in my whipped soaps.

Image description: 4 Panel
1: two jars of open product
 2: top of jar packaging
3: jar opened with lid leaning against the side
4: Headshot of me wearing the product on my face

I've been working on soap making for my Star Trek fan club fundraising, and playing around with other cosmetics to give as gifts to family and friends (as LaLa's D.I.Why?, which started as my brand of poo spray I made as gag gifts for my friends' birthdays), but I kind of surprised myself when I managed to formulate my own clay mask with some ingredients I found at a local supermarket. I'm feeling generous, so I'm going to share the story AND recipe with my audience!

A very belated Deciem post.

I've been meaning to post about this for a long time, but I put it off for too long, and so better late than never.

Rest in peace, Brandon.

I'm sorry it ended the way it did.
I'm sorry that you were failed.
I can't ever forgive some of your sentiments,
but I'm just sorry for everything.

Deciem is a brand I will always support, so thank you for bringing us game-changing products.
xx
Rivet