a winter daze: beauty

I love me some nail polish. A lot. Basically I have far too many, yet I also can't seem to stop buying them. They're all hidden away neatly in a drawer to stop mum witnessing my ever growing collection and telling me off. Cause I still live at home and still get told off. Though I don't know why I hide them in a drawer because mum seems to think it's okay to go through them. But that's another story for another day.

But back to the point of this post. I have a lot of nail polishes. In a whole range of shades. But I don't wear them all. At all. I actually think there may be a few in my collection I've never worn before. Oops.

But if I could whittle it down to only a few shades, I would stick to these:

BLACK

If I could only ever where one colour on my nail (obviously redoing it every other week because of chipping) it would be black. I find it one of those colours that will compliment any outfit. Even if you're wearing the sweetest white summer dress and pastel pink accessories, black nail polish will just give you that slightly badass goth aesthetic everyone should be aspiring for.

However, some people find black to harsh a shade for them. And me being ghostly white, I should probably avoid it too. But I don't. And won't. But for those day where I just don't want to wear black, I have a couple of alternatives. The first being a very very dark navy purple. It looks practically black, but with a gorgeous subtle shimmer. The other being a very recent purchase. It's a satin finish polish - ooooh- which is almost a mix between a normal shiny finish and a matte finish. The colour itself is a dark 'gunmetal' grey, with a hint of a silver shimmer.

WHITE

If you're slightly more tanned, or a paler person tanning up in summer, you can't go wrong with a flawless white shade. There's just something about the contrast of darker skin and white nails.

I personally have tried this look, failing miserably. Something about the whole fingers fading into nails look doesn't work for me. However, I've found a shade that's not quite white, but I feel I can pull it off without looking sick. It's a beautiful pale baby pink, with just the slightest gold shimmer. The shimmer helps add a bit more dimension back into the nail. And the best bit- it's candy floss scented. Couldn't ask for more.

I've never tried a nude shade before, only because I've never seen a shade in the bottle I can imagine will work. However, I'm constantly keeping my eyes peeled - there are so many other nude shades out there everyone should own one.

PASTELS

This is definitely more of a category than a shade. But in summertime, there is nothing that I personally think suits nails more than a pastel. Seeing as purple is my most favourite colour, it fits that the shade I'd 1000% recommend to everyone and anyone is 'You're Such a Budapest' by OPI. It's got to have been mentioned on the blog somewhere. The reason I recommend it is because it's a perfect lavender shade, which compliments a lot of different outfits - trust me. It does have a slight silver shimmer in the bottle, but when it's on your nails its very very subtle.

Another recent purchase is a yellow pastel polish (I hauled it here). For three dollars I couldn't say no. And it's currently sat unworn in my drawer, waiting for the warmer months. I never use to be that particular with my nail polish and keep them waiting seasonally, but now my collection has grown, there are definitely some shades that shout 'summer' more than others. (Equally, some shades yell 'winter' too. Clever polishes.)

GLITTER

Everybody needs to own a glitter. Or two. (Or 5. Oops.) Whenever I wear a glitter polish, I usually just stick to one accent nail. Both because I love the look of an accent nail, and glitter polish is just too hard to get off ten nails.

Even if you just own one glitter polish, it will give more variety and options to the ways you can paint your nails. I would definitely recommend 'Snowflakes in the air' by OPI, or any identical cheaper dupes. Its a plain silver glitter polish, with the glitter in two sizes. However rather than being plain silver, they are 'ranbowy' in the light. Super hard to describe. But super pretty.

BASE AND TOP COATS

Definitely buy a base and top coat. Not only do they prolong the life of your chip free nail polish, but they also help protect your nails. And we all want healthy nails.

Get both a clear top coat and a matte top coat. Don't question it. Just do it. Having the option of matte vs shiny basically doubles your nail polish collection. Not to mention you can mix and match shiny and matte at the same time to add accent nails. I've only ever used one brand of top/base coats and that's OPI, they work fine for me, and I can often go chip free for two weeks. However, I know other people who swear by other brands so definitely shop around if you find one that doesn't work so well on your nails.

THE GOLD

If there's one colour everybody should own, that's 'Glitzerland' by OPI. It is THE MOST PERFECT gold. EVER. It's not too yellowy, goes perfectly paired with black and is so so so glittery. I love painting all my nails in a lavender colour and just having one nail on each hand in this shade. Perfect for Christmas time as well!

What are your favorite nail polish shades?

xx

Last Wednesday, my friend and I headed out to our third Big Bucket Sale of the year. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically a room full of clearance/cheap make up, nail polish, perfume and 'health' care stuff. You grab a bucket, and fill it with what you want - simple. After second trip to the Big Bucket sale, I hauled it here!

This time I didn't really know what I wanted. I knew I didn't want to spend much money, so avoided putting a couple of perfumes in my bucket.

The first thing that 'fell' into my bucket was the Revlon Cotton Candy nail polish. Mum bought this at the first sale this year, and won't let me use it </3 It's a gorgeous pale pink polish with a gold shimmer. It's a very wearable shade - what I have on my nails at the moment. And best of all - it smells of Candyfloss!

A little story - last week I put my work pants in the wash, completely forgetting both my lip balm and my locker keys were in the pocket. So I needed to pick a new lip balm, and went for the Maybelline Baby Lips two pack. I got 05-Quenched (just a sheer balm) and 30-Peach Kiss which is a glittery bronze shade, which is super sheer- leaving only a little extra glisten to your lips and not much colour. I was hoping for a wider selection of the baby lips, but this pack was the only one they had left.

I got a new Batiste Dry shampoo for dark and deep brown hair. I love this stuff, and because it's brown rather than white it's easy to use and doesn't leave you looking like you have grey roots.

The last thing I picked up I'm quite disappointed. There were no 'open' ones to swatch, and both my friend and I grabbed this because it looks really nice. It's the Rimmel 3-in-1 powder blush in the shade 001 Spring Flower. The palest shade is SUPER glittery - I personally am going to avoid using it because of that. I find the darkest shade on its own to be too dark for my skin tone. However, the middle shade, for me, is just right and also not too glittery. They are all really pigmented, so a little will go a long way.

(I changed the brightness after I took the pic, which is why it looks a bit odd)
SWATCHES: Left - Baby Lips 30- Peach Kiss.
Right- Top to bottom; lightest to darkest blushers in the Rimmel Trio.

After the sale, we popped to Kmart to check out the E.L.F stand - they didn't have any of the products we wanted. And then a trip to Westfield to pick up some lunch ended up with a snoop around JB Hifi, and the purchase of Ed Sheeran's new album X. I was VERY excited to get this, after hearing a few of the songs at his iHeart Radio show, and I hasn't disappointed! I would definitely suggest EVERYONE go out and buy this!!

The other day I popped into my local Farmers looking to get some new BB cream. I wanted the Rimmel BB cream, but unfortunately Pukekohe farmers doesn't stock Rimmel. </3

Whilst over at the Maybelline stand finding the right BB shade, I saw the 'Farmers Club deal' sign. I'd been wanting to try this nail polish remover for a while, and seeing as it was on special, I couldn't pass up the offer! (It was $7.49, rather than the usual $9.99)

Maybelline Express Remover:

It's an Acetone free remover, that claims it 'Removes nail polish in one dip'. The instructions are basic - '1. Dip, 2. Turn, 3. Close [the lid]'.

I had a few chipped nails, and wanted to fix them up before I started work, so I thought I'd give this a go! I had two coats of colour, and both a top and bottom coat on my nails, which usually takes a bit of patience holding a soaked cotton ball on my nail.

I liked the ease of the remover. Sticking your finger in a pot and spinning it is a lot easier than rubbing with a cotton ball. I stuck my finger in and spun it in a full circle and then took my finger out expecting to see a result - there was no obvious change. I stuck it in again - a lot further into the pot this time, and gave it a good few spins and it took most of the polish off. Another quick spin in the opposite direction and it was all gone.

It's definitely a quick and simple way to remove polish. It's going to make it super easy to take the nail polish off one nail if it gets chipped, without worrying about holding a cotton ball the right way to not ruin other nails.

Naturally, there's always going to be con's. I found the smell overpowering. I usually like the smell of nail polish remover (odd, I know), but this wasn't the generic smell. I'm still trying to put my finger on what it reminds me of. The other con is that I found it very drying. I rushed to put a bit of moisturiser on my nails afterwards.

I think I'm going to stick with my normal nail polish remover (Sally Hansen - for weak nails), and pull this out when I have to fix one or two nails - or if I'm in a rush.

xx

I've been a fan of Tanya Burr for a while now, and when I heard she was launching her own lip gloss and nail polish line, I was so excited! I'm not so much of a lip gloss wearer, but I do have an obsession with nail polishes, and couldn't wait to get my hands on some.

And then reality hit - being in NZ the lip glosses are easily available through websites like feelunique.com, however getting nail polishes shipped from anywhere but within New Zealand is pretty much impossible. I considered getting my aunt to send me some over, but again, shipping restrictions would stop that.

But, my parents and younger brother and sister were heading over at the end of April to catch up with the family. I saw this as my opportunity! I looked online at all the different shades and tried finding 'swatches' of them, and made a shortlist of two colours, before settling one on. I wrote this on the bottom of my list, with instructions on where to find them. 3 Superdrug's later, mum finally found a bottle.

I tried getting a picture of the colour on my nails - the colour is so dark it's difficult to get a picture showing the colour

Midnight sparkles!

There's nothing I love more than sparkles, dark nail polishes, and purple - so this colour was ideal. I do love the lighter colours in the collection, but I do have colours similar, so decided on this colour as I would get some good use.

Packaging:

In pictures, this bottle looks so cute - I liked the square shape, rather than the normal round bottles. However, 'in person' it wasn't as great. I thought the heart on the lid was printed directly onto the lid, however it was sticker. On my bottle, it wasn't stuck down properly, and did have dust underneath it. That's probably me being suuuper picky.

After opening the lid maybe two or three times, the lid broke. Nothing major, it just makes it a bit more difficult to open. As you can see in the picture, the 'square' lid completely comes off, leaving just the basic round lid. The round lid makes it easy to open, and I just pop the 'square lid' back on to make it easier to hold and paint. I don't know whether it's meant to be glued - but there's definitely no 'dried' glue on either parts of the lid.

The actual nail polish:

I had to put it at an awkward angle and lean it on the radio - but at least the colour is visible :)

I like it. It's not too runny, nor is it to thick. Even with one coat, the colour was consistent and could be left like that with the second coat just deepening the colour.

I Love the colour. I have an OPI nail polish which does look similar to this in the bottle, but when it's on the nail it's actually navy. However this colour looks the same on the nail as it is in the bottle. It's so gorgeous I can't help but stare at it (and move them around in the light to make them sparkle even more!) I wish I'd asked for more shades!

I've had it one my nails now for three days and it's still flawless. I can't wait to see how long it will last - I applied my OPI Base coat and Top coat as well, so I'm hoping at least a week, 10 days maybe.

xx

I've watched quite a few of these videos, including Lily Pebbles' - who created the tag. I'd never thought to do it as a blog post - until I saw Sophie's yesterday!

My dream make up collection - Chanel <3

So here goes...

You have to get rid of all your foundations and you can only keep one high end and one drugstore. Which do you keep? I'm not going to lie - I don't own ANY high end foundations. However, I've promised myself once I get a job, my first paycheck will be spent on a good high end foundation. I'm torn between Nars Sheer glow, Mac Face and body and Chanel Perfection Lumiere Velvet. I think the Chanel foundation may just win - nothing to do with my obsession with all things Chanel. The drugstore foundation I would take is my favourite foundation - Rimmel Match perfection (I wrote about it here).

You go for an interview and the lady interviewing you has lipstick on her teeth. Do you approach the subject or ignore it completely? Definitely ignore. I'm so awkward anyway, bringing it up would make the whole situation to awkward to handle. And hey, don't tell them and they won't know when it appeared - 5 hours ago or 5 minutes ago.

You're not feeling your best and need a pick me up. Which lipstick do you put on to make yourself feel beautiful? My Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in shade 106. It's a beautiful bright pink, with a slight blue undertone. I think it works perfectly with my skin tone, and I love wearing it. I try and find as many excuses as possible to wear it.

You go back in time for a day to your teenage years, how would you do your hair and makeup differently? A thinner fringe, definitely. It was one of those thick fringes that would block out any sight of my forehead. I wanted less Zooey Deschanel style, more Rory Gilmore. I would tell myself I really didn't need to go through that eyeliner faze in about year 10. And that I should have asked my parents for some concealer earlier - I was always super insecure about my skin.

You ask your hairdresser for a shoulder-length Pixie Lott haircut but they hear wrong and give you a pixie cut. Do you a) Smile, say thank you, leave & call your Mum hysterical? B) Cry in the chair and things get awkward. C) Complain to the manager and demand a refund. I think after the shoulder length hair cut of year 9, I don't think I would ever cut more than an inch or two off my hair. Though at the beginning of the year, the hairdresser I went to told me after I sat down that my hair was too long, and cut a lot more off than I wanted. I did the awkward pay, leave, try not and cry the whole way home and complained to mum when she got home. Definitely not going back there.

Your friend surprises you with a 4 day city break and you have 1 hour to pack. Which ‘do it all’ palette do you pack in your makeup bag? I'm lusting after the Naked 2 palette and have been for a while, so if I had that, it would be my number one. I do have a Revlon palette with neutral shades that I always tend to wear - I match it with a little eye liner and a bright pink or red lip.

Your house has been robbed, don’t worry everyone is safe, but your beauty stash has been raided. What’s the product you really hope is safe? I almost feel like none of my make up is really worth saving - if it's all gone, I can pretty much rebuy it all (though that may be a bit essential). I guess I'd hope I still had my Rimmel Match Perfection foundation and concealer, so I could put something on my face before I had to go out and repurchase. Oh - I would be mad if my Fudge Urban goodies were gone - one of them was hard to track down, and I just love them so much.

Your friend borrows your makeup and returns it in awful condition. Do you a) Just pretend you haven’t noticed or b) Ask them to repurchase it or c) Secretly do the same to something of

theirs? I would be annoyed, but would just pretend I didn't notice. I hate confrontation, and none of my makeup is too expensive so it would be relatively cheap to replace.

xx

Photo c/o imabeautygeek.com/

I have a confession to make. I'm obsessed with Rimmel. I find all the products work for me, and they're all very affordable.

Match Perfection Light perfecting radiance foundation - shade 010 Light Porcelain- I LOVE this foundation. It gives a medium coverage which I prefer. It has a SPF18, which means with a layer of sun cream underneath I feel happy that I can wear it all day and I won't get sun burnt (I usually have to reapply sun cream during the day). It leaves you with a natural finish - not too shiny but not too matte. I find it difficult to find a foundation light enough for me but this is a pretty perfect colour match. Set it with powder and it lasts all day.

Match perfection 2-in-1 concealer and highlighter - shade 010 Ivory- I love this concealer. Just like my foundation, I find it difficult to find a concealer light enough to use under my eyes to brighten them - I'm usually the lightest shade - so the fact this is a highlighter as well is ideal. It blends so easily which is perfect for the under eye. I usually hate concealer applicators where the brush is on the end of the tube, but for under eye I really like it with this product. I don't use this on all my other blemishes though- I prefer to use a different brand as this is not super thin, but not thick enough to cover spots and blemishes.

Fix & Perfect primer- 001- When I first opened the tube, my eyes nearly fell out of my head. It is orange. It freaked me out, but once applied and blended the colour is gone. I don't find it minimised my pores, but my foundation did last longer.

Stay Matter Powder- there's surely not a person out there who hasn't heard of this powder. All the reviews or people I have heard talk about this product just rave about it. It reduces shininess and helps fix your make up. I have this in two shades 001 transparent and 003 peach glow. Peach glow was an accidental purchase. I find if I use this, I find that I have a lovely orange glow. I tend to use this as an eye shadow just to neutralise the colouration on my eyelids. Transparent is what I use on my face.

Glameyes eye shadow - 200 Spicy bronze- I got this last year in a 'mystery make up bag' from Grabone. It is a beautiful bronze colour, perfect for your crease. It's easily blended and very glittery. I like to do a neutral paler colour over my eyelid and this is in the crease and blended into my lower lash line.

Lasting finish colour blush - 120 pink rose- The jury's still out on this product. I love the colour in the pan - a beautiful dusky rose- but I think it's the wrong shade for me (I think it's too dark). It is easily blended and sits beautifully on the skin with only a light shimmer. I think it will be ideal for someone with a skin tone slightly darker than my own. You will need a light hand though- it is very pigmented.

Scandaleyes thick and thin eyeliner- This is a basically a liquid liner felt tip with a pointed tip, allowing you to easily draw both a thick or a thin line. I love this pen. I find this so easy to use. You can start with the pointed tip to get your perfectly thin line and then build it up from there. The pen itself is so light and thin that it's super easy to grip and use.

Scandaleyes waterproof Kohl eyeliner - 001 black- This is the perfect pencil for the tightline and waterline. It has good staying power and is so smooth and easy to apply. You barely need to apply pressure and it will go on. Both the Scandaleyes products I have are easily removed by make up remover.

Top to bottom- 106, 03 and 111

Lasting finish by Kate Moss lipstick - 03, 111, 106- I LOVE these. There's such a range of colours, and I've stuck to just these three for the moment. They're are all so easy to apply and stay for a good amount of time. 03 is a dusky pink nude. This is the only non matte shade I have and I like to wear it as an everyday lipstick. 111 is a bright red matte shade and 106 is a matte bright pink. These shades I like to wear as a bold colour, or use a brush and blend it so the colour isn't quite as bold. I tend to wear them more if I'm going out. They all have individual scents which are just delicious.

What's your favourite 'drug store'/affordable make up brand? Comment below

xx

If you follow me over on twitter, you would have seen my tweet not long ago about how happy I was about the quality/healthiness of my nail right now.

I'm obsessed with painting my nails, and as a bit of a perfectionist, every time they chip, I have to fix them. Towards the end of last year, I want through a phase of changing my nail colour every couple of days, just so they stayed perfect.

As you can imagine, that isn't very good for the health of your nails. So, I decided I needed to do something about it - and now my nails are so healthy I don't know how I'm going to be able to cut them without them cracking lower down.

So, here are a five tips and the products I use to keep my nails healthy:

1- Nail polish remover:
My new go to nail polish remover is the Sally Hansen Strengthening nail polish remover. The easy way to remember this is that its the pink Sally Hansen bottle.

Before I switched to this I used a supermarket brand nail polish remover and when I used it I would notice how dry my nails were. Not a good look. The Sally Hansen nail polish, however, always leaves my nail nice and 'shiny'. They look naturally healthy and shiny without any effort.

A supermarket brand costs about $4, and in comparison, Sally Hansen nail polishes are about $6, BUT at Farmers they sell two packs of remover (you may have to ask if they have them, in my local store they were kept in the storage room) and they are only $8, so comparable in price. The few extra dollars spending is worth it for the health of your nails.

2- Nail moisturizer
No matter which nail polish remover you use, you will definitely need to use a moisturizer. This is to replenish any moisture loss, and to improve your nail quality.

My go to hand and nail moisturizer is Vaseline healthy hand and nail conditioning lotion. This product is something I have been using for as long as I can remember, and it's also something my mum swears by. We've always had a bottle on the table in the lounge for us all to use.

I tend to dab a bit of the moisturizer onto all of my nails and rub it in, and then rub any excess product over my hands.

3- Take Breaks
Definitely let your nails be 'naked'. Even if you can only manage a few hours, it's better than nothing. Every couple of weeks I try and go a day or two without nail polish just so my nails can breath.

4- A good base and top coat
For me a good base coat and a top coat is necessary. Not only does a base coat protect your nails, but combined with a top coat it extends the lifespan of polish on your nails. Less chips = less often you need to take your nail polish of and redo them.

My go to base and top coats are both by OPI. I can't personally recommend top/base coats from different brands - I haven't tried any others. BUT with my OPI base and top coats, I got to about a week before any chips on my last nail colour. My mum tells me the Sally Hansen base/top coats are good too - and I think they're a bit more affordable too.

5- Acrylics and gel nails
I have never had either. I'm lucky that I have nails which grow quickly and easily and I'm happy with their shape so I've not felt the need for acrylics for that.

Acrylics weaken your nails. Taking breaks from them to let your natural nails replenish and strengthen is good. Short nails can be cute if you go for the right colours -pale/light colours, as darker colours make your nails look short.

For me, the removal of gel nails put me off. The idea of soaking my nails in acetone for ten minutes makes me fear for their life, basically. If you prefer gels, definitely give them a few days break between colours, and moisturize frequently to get them back into tip top condition.

Do you have any other tips on getting healthy nails? Comment below!

xx

(excuse the awkward 'taken on a pillow slip' picture - I went to take a photo, and then realised there's no white surfaces in this house to take a photo on!)

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