Thursday, May 29th 2014 Makeup
My friend Jordy tagged me to do this Lip Product Addict tag in her latest youtube video. She also blogs and you should definitely check her site out – A Little Pinch Of Wonder. After you’ve finished reading this post of course!
This tag is for lip product addicts, and I certainly am one, as you can see by this picture. I probably have more tucked away in drawers and in handbags too, but this is the bulk of my collection.
SO MANY LIP PRODUCTS!!
1. Favorite balm/treatment?
Burt’s Bees Nourishing Lip Balm with Mango Butter. This is the lip balm that gets the honour of living in my handbag, as you might be able to tell from the fact that the label is completely rubbed off.
How it looks when new
My lip balm with totally worn off label
2. Best eye-catching red?
Revlon Super Lustrous Creme Fifth Avenue Red. I got it through a reddit exchange as mentioned in this post, and I am so delighted with it. It’s just a really classic red, which makes sense as it’s from the 1950s.
3. Best luxury & best drugstore?
The closest I have to a luxury brand is NARS Velvet Gloss lip pencil – the shade is New Lover. They sell for $51 in New Zealand but I got it in a Sephora gift bag. It’s a pink with gold flecks in it, perfect for parties.
My best drugstore product is this Milani Gloss Stain in the shade Mango Tango that I also received from my reddit exhange. It’s glossy but stains, and is quite long wearing. I probably wouldn’t have chosen the shade for myself but I really love it. It sells for $6.50 in the US which is very affordable.
4. Best MAC lipstick?
Syrup! So smooth and pretty, and it just works with so many different looks. It’s one of my most worn lipsticks by far, and it made it to my top 6 lipsticks.
5. The most disappointing?
ChiChi Creamy Matte Liquid Lipstick – not matte, nor long wearing like they claim it is. A sandwich and a glass of wine left me with only a faint tinge. I do love the colour, which is the shade Show Stopper, but it doesn’t live up to it’s description or my expectations. I’d seen so many people rave about them, and I really just don’t understand the love for it.
I wore it to a party last week and had to reapply three times
Swatched on my hand
6. Liner – yes or no?
No. I have too many shades of lipstick, it’d be crazy to try and match them all. I have a couple and use them if I want really long wearing lip colour but generally I go without.
7. Best gloss?
This product by Natio is technically an ‘Antioxidant Lip Shine’ but really it’s a gloss. It’s fairly pigmented for a gloss, and not disgustingly sticky like many of them can be. The shade is called ‘Love’ which is quite sweet. It has Jojoba Oil and Shea butter which makes it slightly moisturising.
8. Something extra!
My L’Oreal Infallible long wear lip duo really lives up to it’s name. Last year I swatched all of my lip products on my arm for a forum post, and this lip duo lasted for so long. I gave my arm a good scrub but it wouldn’t budge, eventually it came off the next day. The colour is ‘perma-pink’ and that is the perfect description!
The picture of them all swatched shows just how much my collection has grown in the last year since my make up addiction has grown! It also has one of my beloved Clinique Chubby Sticks that I have since lost tear.
What do you think of my answers? Do you agree or disagree? Jordy listed the ChiChi matte liquid lipstick as a favourite, so it goes to show that different people have different tastes!
If any of you that are reading feel inspired to do this tag, link it in the comment section and I’ll check it out
To me, blogging has always been a more honest form of writing than most journalism. I had thought this when it comes to politics, or pop news, and it’s always something I’ve thought was true about beauty blogging too. Everyone knows that magazines are full of ads, and ‘advertorials, and even things that aren’t officially ads have never seemed very genuine to me. Everyone knows beauty editors get sent boxes full of new products, and of course if they’re writing an article about foundation they’ll say that you should buy this $70 one. That’s why I never trusted their recommendations, and was delighted to find online beauty blogs and youtubers who were just people like me, sharing their opinions.
Or so I thought. As I’ve followed beauty blogs and youtube channels more closely, it has started to become more obvious that a lot of them are just raving about things that they got for free. I find it especially obvious among the smaller community of kiwi beauty bloggers – there aren’t as many of them, so if I see a bunch of articles within a couple of weeks about how GREAT the latest lotion and potion by X brand is, I feel pretty confident that it’s the case. This is more glaringly obvious if one or two of them say – oh, by the way, this was sent for me to review by them. I mean, of course it’s possible that they all just really like the product, but it seems unlikely that not one person is going to say something about how expensive it is, or that it was irritating to their skin, or that they didn’t like it’s staying power. I even begin to wonder if they’re not just getting the product for free, but even actually being paid to write about it.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has guidelines about how bloggers and youtubers should disclose that they are being paid to promote a product, or that they were given it for free with the expectation that it would be written about. I find that most bloggers based there are quite honest about this, and also with identifying where they will profit from you purchasing things through affiliate links. As far as I’m aware, no such guidelines exist in New Zealand, and I feel as if it is quite apparent when you read some blogs and channels that are based here.
I really like that some of my favourite bloggers, like Meagan from IAmMeaganKerr and Morgan from Hyacincth Girl disclose this, but there are plenty of others that don’t, and I want to know why? What do bloggers have to lose by disclosing that they got a free item? My personal theory is that bloggers know that PR companies and brands want posts to seem genuine, so if they disclose it, they may not receive freebies in the future – and everyone likes getting freebies.
Bloggers, I’d love to hear your take on this topic, and ask some questions. If you get sent a free item, do you disclose so? Why, or why not? What happens if you don’t like something – do you review it honestly, or just not review it at all?
I asked these questions to some bloggers that I know, and they all said that they disclose when they are sent free items. They had a variety of answers to the question about not liking a product. One of them said that they try to keep the review relatively neutral, and give reasons for liking and dislike. Another person said that she reviews the product in the same way whether she paid for it or not.
I’m genuinely really interested to see the responses to this post, no doubt it might be unpopular with some but hopefully I’ll get some insights!
Monday, May 26th 2014 Nails
Beauty Review is a great New Zealand-based website that sends out full sized beauty products for people to review on their website. You can also review products not sent to you by them, chat on the forum or read the interesting articles that they put up. Four times a year they have a ‘vault’ sale which is where you use the points you earn by reviewing and participating on the site to buy products. They held one a few weeks ago and today I’m going to review the products that I received.
My haul from the Beauty Review Vault
Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Lip Gloss Set – RRP $59
Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Lip Gloss Set
I chose this with the intention of giving it to my mum for a belated Mother’s Day gift – a bit of a cheapskate, I know, but my mum loves a bargain just like I do. And yes, she knows I was going to swatch them for the blog. She’s so long suffering. Anyway, on to the review – to be honest I was a bit disappointed with it – the glosses are quite small and weren’t anything special compared to just about every other lip gloss I’ve tried before. They work out to be $3.70/ml, whereas an Australis lip gloss is $2.50/ml. At least with this set you get to try a variety of colours, which is nice, because who ever finishes a lip gloss – not me that’s for sure. Passion Fruit and Coral Kiss are my favourite colours out of the set.
Elizabeth Arden Beautiful Colour Lip Gloss Set – swatched on hand
Avon True Colour Eyeshadow Quad – Romantic Mauves. RRP $35
Avon True Colour Eyeshadow Quad – Romantic Mauves
This eyeshadow quad is another gift for my lovely mum. I know she likes pinkish eyeshadow shades and they really suit her green eyes, so I thought I’d grab it for her. The packaging is nice and sturdy, and it comes with a good sized mirror which would be useful for travelling or doing your make up on the run. When I swatched them they didn’t appear to be terribly pigmented, but they might be better applied with brushes rather than the little sponge applicator that the quad came with.
Avon True Colour Eyeshadow Quad – Romantic Mauves swatch
Avon Ultra Color Rich Lipstick – Very Violet. RRP $25.00
Avon Ultra Color Rich Lipstick – Very Violet
When I saw this lipstick listed in the Vault I knew that I just had to have it. An Avon lipstick is one of my favourite lipsticks, and I have had ‘purple lipstick’ on my wishlist for months because they are such a hot trend for this winter. When I opened it and swatched it on my hand, I was in love. It’s a fairly warm purple, compared to the darker colours that are out there, but it’s a good way for me to dip my toes into the world of bolder purple lipsticks.
I eagerly applied it and posted this picture to instagram, despite my lack of makeup – that’s how excited I was! I really like the way this looks, and it’s going to be in frequent rotation this winter.
Avon Ultra Color Rich Lipstick – Very Violet on my lips
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength French Manicure Pen Kit Ballet Bare – RRP $35
I am yet to actually use this product, as I had newly painted nails when it arrived. So really, all I can comment on is the value. Sally Hansen polishes are usually around $12-14 each, and the top coats are more like $16-19 each, so buying it in the kit is as if the white tip pen comes free. I have always found French manicures difficult, having to use the little sticky strips that can ruin the base coat, or having a wobbly line for the white tips. I’ll be trying this out soon and posting a full review when I do.
If you would like to join Beauty Review and start earning points from reviews to use at the next vault sale, you can use my affiliate link to sign up here.
Monday, May 26th 2014 Skincare
Yesterday I read the ingredients list of my Aveeno Smart Essentials Daily Detoxifying Scrub and I discovered something sinister. I realised that I had been scrubbing my face with tiny bits of plastic that were then being washed down the drain, to end up in the ocean! Recently there has been a lot in the news about the use of microbeads in scrubs, body washes, and even toothpaste. Plastic microbeads are too small to be filtered by most wastewater treatment, therefore ending up in oceans and lakes, and they are beginning to cause real trouble in the food chain. Despite having heard about the hazard of these microbeads, I naively assumed that since the scrub I use most often from Aveeno, whose tagline is ‘Active Naturals’ that it wouldn’t be an issues. OH HOW WRONG I WAS.
The ingredients list is below for Aveeno Smart Essentials Daily Detoxifying Scrub, and I have bolded Polyethylene – which is the most commonly used plastic in the world. Interestingly, and unsurprisingly, they don’t state this clearly on the packaging or website,instead waxing lyrical about how”the natural loofah and coconut pulp-enriched formula gently polishes away pore-clogging debris, revealing a brighter, smoother look, and prepares your skin for your daily moisturizer.”
Water, Glycerin, Amino Methyl Propanol, Polyethylene, Glyceryl Stearate, Lauryl Glucoside, Acrylates/C10 30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Caprylyl Glycol, Fragrance, Sodium Hydroxide, Cetearyl Olivate, Oryza Sativa Bran Wax (Rice), Luffa Cylindrica (Luffah Cylindrica) Fruit, Cocos Nucifera Fruit (Coconut), Chlorphenesin, Sorbitan Olivate (Source Olive Oil), Citric Acid, Tetrasodium EDTA, Capryl Hydroxamic Acid, Butylene Glycol, Artemisia Abrotanum Extract (Flower/Leaf/Stem), Hydrolyzed Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum, Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum
This is yet another example of how companies greenwash their products. People will have bought this scrub, thinking that it was natural and therefore good for your skin. Well, I did find it to have good results for my skin BUT it’s not good for the environment at all, and besides, it cannot remove toxins which is a ridiculous claim in the first place. I am certainly going to be throwing this product out, along with any other products in my bathroom that have plastic in their formulas. The idea of actually consuming plastic through toothpaste is very concerning to me, but I was relieved to find that all the toothpastes in our bathroom are free of plastic – words I never thought that I would write.
A lot of products have microbeads in them – the picture below shows just how much plastic is in each of these very common scrubs. I took the picture from a really great article on The Huffington Post which I would urge you all to read –Tiny Plastic Beads Are Invading The Great Lakes. Here’s What Scientists Are Doing To Stop It
If you want to check your scrubs, toothpastes and body washes for microbeads, the most common think to check for is polyethylene (PE), but they also can be polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and nylon.
The US state of California recently passed a bill to ban the sale and manufacturing of personal care products containing tiny,synthetic plastic microbeads, with other states such as New York and Illinois looking set to follow. Thankfully, a lot of multinational companies are phasing out the inclusion of microbeads in their products but it will take a while before they are fully gone. Johnson and Johnson, parent company of Aveeno, as well as Neutrogena, Clean and Clear and others, have made a statement on their website that “Our goal is to complete the first phase of reformulations by the end of 2015, which represents about half our products sold that contain microbeads”. Unilever, parent company of brands such as Dove, Simple and St Ives, has stated that their products will be free of microbeads from 2015. Beat the Microbead has a more comprehensive list of various companies’ statements about their use of microbeads – you can find it at http://beatthemicrobead.org/en/industry.
I really encourage all of you that read this to check your products out and throw them away – those little bits of plastic are causing havoc, polluting oceans and lakes, and being found in disturbing quantities inside fish. Let me know in the comments section what you find in your bathroom, I’m sure the results will be quite shocking! This is a bit of an unusual post for a beauty blog but as someone who is passionate about the environment, I couldn’t NOT write about this.
Some scrubs that do not contain microbeads include:
- Trilogy Gentle Daily Exfoliant
- Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant
- Goodness Every Week Face Scrub
- Burt’s Bees Radiance Facial Cleanser – jojoba beads
- Time Bomb Cleansing Cream – magnesium oxide crystals (naturally occurring)
- Sebamed Clear Face Gentle Scrub – plant wax scrub particles (hydrogenated jojoba oil and hydrogenated castor oil)
- Freeman Charcoal & Black Sugar Polishing Mask – sugar
Sunday, May 25th 2014 Nails
There are few things more upsetting than spending time painting your nails with a gorgeous colour, and having it chip off within a day or two. I want mine to last for about a week, and using these techniques I generally achieve that.
You will need:
- A base coat – I use Orly Bonder
- Nail polish, whatever you fancy.
- A top coat – I use Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
- Nail polish remover and cotton balls
- Tiny paint brush
- Paper towel/tissues
The very first step is to make sure that your nails are free of any oils before you start – use nail polish remover on a cotton ball even if your nails don’t have polish on them. If there is any oil on your nails, from hand cream or even food then that will cause the polish to not adhere as well to your nail, and that can cause it to chip. Next you apply your base coat – I really like Orly Bonder, I’ve tried a few others but this is the best so far. I buy mine from eBay as it’s about half the price as buying it in store, but you can easily get it at Farmers.
Now there’s the big step, which is using your polish. Apply it carefully, and try to avoid getting any on your cuticles. If you do, that’s okay because you can clean it up later. I typically do two thin coats, and don’t generally leave much time between them – not as a conscious decision, more just because I don’t like waiting around a lot. I generally make sure to ‘wrap the tips’ – that is, to paint the edge of my nail with polish. I find that it’s one of the things that has made a major improvement in the wear time of my manicures. A post from Michelle from All Lacquered Up is what inspired me to start doing this, and it has been really valuable advice – her post is here. The picture below is from her tutorial and gives an (exaggerated) idea of what to do.
Wrapping your tip – picture by AllLacqueredUp.com
Top coats also make a big impact on the length of time that a manicure will last. For a long time I used Seche Vite, the top coat that is touted all over the internet as being the best ever, but I found it very frustrating at how it got gluggy quickly and required excessive use of nail polish thinner. On that note, don’t add nail polish remover to your polish to thin it as it ruins it. A proper thinner like Orly’s will mean that your polishes will live long and happy lives. Aaaaaanyway, nowadays I use Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat which I think is better than Seche Vite. It makes my polish dry very quickly and makes my nails really shiny, as well as making it last for a long time. You should wrap your tips in the topcoat too, like in the tutorial I linked above.
Despite my best efforts I typically get some polish on my cuticles, or even on my skin. I used to just peel it off, or leave it there, but I found that doing so meant polish would peel off my nail to which is not what I intended! So now I use nail polish remover to tidy up by removing any polish in my cuticles – it looks better and helps my manicure to last longer too. I pour a bit of nail polish remover into the cap of the bottle and use a tiny brush I got with a nail art kit. A cotton bud will do it a pinch but it’s not as precise. Wet the brush with nail polish remover and work your way around the nails, wiping off the polish from your brush onto your tissue or paper towel. If you want to see how this is done, aLoveTart has a good tutorial on youtube: How to: Remove Nail Polish From Your Cuticles
I hope these tips help you to have a longer lasting manicure! Try them and tell me how you get on in the comments section, or Facebook or Twitter.
Thursday, May 22nd 2014 Skincare
Garnier NZ has recently launched Moisture Match 24 Hour Hydration Tailor Made moisturisers which are a “new generation of moisturisers with a variety of sensorial textures, customised to match specific skin needs.” According to their promotional material the five different moisturisers all offer 24 hour hydration to suit your skin.
The types are as follows
Protect and glow – for normal skin
Goodbye Dry – for dry/very dry skin.
Start afresh – for normal/dry skin
Wake me up – for dull skin
Shine be gone – for combination/oily skin
Last month Garnier NZ had a contest on their Facebook page to win of their new moisturisers. I didn’t win a full size, but they did send out samples as a consolation prize which was nice. They have five different types, and according to their quiz I should use Goodbye Dry – for dry/very dry skin. This was correct, I do have dry skin. The quiz/contest has finished on their facebook, but it’s available on Garnier UK’s website.
Garnier Moisture Match Goodbye Dry samples
I received 5 sachets, which was great – it meant I was able to properly try out the moisturiser for about a week before reviewing it. When I first opened it I was surprised that it wasn’t as creamy as you would expect from a product for people with very dry skin, but I used it anyway after my nightly skincare routine. It felt nice, and it wasn’t sticky or slimy which is an important consideration, especially if you were to put this on in the morning. In the morning I did feel like I needed to moisturise again, which I don’t typically do as part of my skincare routine. I wouldn’t say that this gave me 24 hour hydration, but that’s not really a terrible flaw in the product, I think many people moisturise twice a day anyway, especially if they wash their face twice a day. I probably won’t be throwing out my existing moisturisers to start using this moisturiser instead, but once I’ve finished what I currently have I would consider buying this moisturiser. I might be inclined to use this before make up as it’s non-greasy and dries quickly, and it has Dimethicone in it which is an important ingredient in my favourite primer. Garnier doesn’t have the ingredients list on their website but it has been entered to CosDNA which is a cosmetics ingredient database – check it out here.
Garnier Moisture match moisturisers are available in New Zealand at supermarkets, Farmers, Kmart and presumably other places too. In the process of writing this post I’ve found that they’ve been out in the UK for at least a year, but I’m not sure about availability elsewhere.
Have you tried this, or are you interested in it? I’m curious to see what the other products in the range are like, and if they are drastically different.
Wednesday, May 21st 2014 Makeup
I’m going to be honest with you, dear readers. Despite being quite vain, I’m also incredibly lazy. This causes a bit of a conundrum for me on weekdays – I have to leave the house by 7:30am, and I also love to sleep in and eat breakfast while staring blearily at my twitter feed. A lot of the time I do just go to work barefaced, but sometimes I like to make the effort to get made up. In this post I’m going to demonstrate two of my go-to lazy girl’s work make up looks, for days where I want to wear make up but have minimal time. I apologise in advance for the photos, the lighting situation is not ideal at that time of day!
Both of them start with me doing my usual base routine as seen here. Sometimes I use a BB cream instead but currently I’m too dark for my garnier one and too light for my Maybelline one, so foundation it is! I also always fill in my brows, using one of the techniques I outlined in my previous post on eyebrows.
Look number one is almost no-make up make up, with the exception of the shimmer in the eyeshadow. One of my favourite products is this Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo Eyeshadow, in the shade Bad to the bronze. It’s very easy to apply, I just use my index finger to rub it all over lid. Maybelline advertises that it will have 24 hour wear without creasing or fading. I haven’t tested it for 24 hours, but I’ve worn it for about 15 hours and it still looked great, even without eye primer which I find isn’t actually necessary with it.
If I have a bit more time I will use my Bobbi Brown gel eyeliner, but mostly I just use a brown eyeliner pencil to line against my lashes – no time for laboring over winged eyeliner when I’m rushing out the door. Then I’ll apply a couple of coats of mascara – lately it has been a deluxe sample from Smashbox – and a fairly neutral lipstick like Natio lipstick in Sugar or Revlon Lip Butter in sugar plum, both of which live in my handbag. This look is really simple and easy, while making me look much more put together on a busy morning.
The finished look
One of my other lazy make up looks has been developed more recently, as I got more brave with my make up choices. The goal of this look is to distract people from the absence of much eye make up with VERY BRIGHT LIPS. It happened purely by accident the other morning – I’d spent too long perfectly buffing my foundation and then realised I only had a couple of minutes left. I quickly put on some mascara, and grabbed the nearest lipstick that had been left out. It was my Kardashian Beauty En-Joystick in Rose Parade, – I briefly thought it might be a bit much, but then I figured YOLO and rolled with it. I put it on and off I went to catch the bus.
Fairly early in the day a male coworker, older than my dad and definitely not a fashionista, came over to my desk and jumped back in mock-shock at how bright my lipstick was. He said it was very nice though, which was a relief. The girls in the office complimented it too, and it lasted surprisingly well. I was left with a faded red lip colour after a cup of coffe, numerous glasses of water and a pizza lunch – not too bad. I reapplied my lipstick after lunch which lasted okay until I got home. In my book, if a lipstick is still visible by lunch time, then it’s done it’s job. I don’t expect all day wear, as anything which is able to do so is typically quite drying.
So readers, do you have any lazy girl make up tips for me? What sort of make up do you typically wear on work day? Tell me in the comments section, or on Facebook or Twitter.
Lena x
I spend around 40 hours a week sitting at my office desk, and for someone as beauty obsessed as me, that means that I need to keep some supplies with me. Of course I have a fair bit of things in my hand bag – lipsticks, hand cream, hair brush etc, but I like to have them at my desk as well. The people I work with find it a bit amusing but they have benefited from it from time to time. I’ll be showing and explaining what they all are, and why I think they are essential. Your needs and situation may vary of course, so let me know in the comments section what you have at your work.
Top left: Deodorant – pretty self explanatory why this might come in handy. Next is Batiste dry shampoo which is an incredible invention, and it’s useful if I get to work and realise my hair is a little bit greasy. it has a pleasant cherry smell which is a nice bonus, and doesn’t leave any white residue. Then there are some eye drops for if my eyes get dry from staring at the screen all day. The hair brush is for if my hair is knotted, or needed to brush the dry shampoo through. I have a hand sanitiser because the world is a gross place, and our bathroom soap at work dries out my hands. Next up is Clinique Moisture Surge – this is great if my skin is dry during the day. It was $10 for this little pot at Mecca Cosmetica which is probably excessive but it’s nice to feel fancy sometimes. Then I have a sample of Marc Jacobs Dot perfume which is really lovely – I sometimes forget to put perfume on in the morning and I like to smell nice. Nivea Lip butter in Caramel cream is an incredible lip balm, smells delicious and is very moisturising. Speaking of moistursiing balm, I have Lush Lemony Flutter. This cult item is a great cuticle butter and all over hand lotion. Again, it smells delicious – scents seem to be a bit of a recurring theme here.
I got sent the Carmex lip balm for free, and I don’t even know why I’ve kept it as I was not a fan of it at all. You can read my scathing review on Beauty review here. The small bag with cotton buds and balls and a nail file were part of my gift from my Twitter Secret Santa, and so were a few of the other times coming up. The fresh breath spray comes in handy after coffees or a garlic filled lunch. I do also have a toothbush and toothpaste which aren’t pictured here. My secret santa also included the Malin + Goetz lip balm and moisturiser. I’ve never seen these products in NZ stores so that was a bit exciting for me. The Kiehls body lotion sample and the Dr Hasuchka hand cream sample were also from my secret santa. The Lucas Pawpaw ointment is one of my favourite lip balms. If I have a dry nose in winter from being blowing it a lot, or just the dry wing, I can even put some on there. Last of all is my Planet Earth hand cream. I don’t use it as much recently since getting the Lemony Flutter but it is an old favourite.
It may look like a lot of products but most of them pack away into the bag from my secret santa. My most recently used products sit out by my computer monitor so that I can easily access them.
I feel a bit high maintenance for having so much of that stuff there, but I like to be prepared. I also have a big tea and food stash as well, which has been very useful to me. I’ve never been a scout or anything but I do like to be prepared. I don’t really have any make up there, mostly because I don’t have duplicates of any of my products because a lot of them are fairly pricey. I rarely retouch anything but lip products during the day as my base routine and use of primers means that my foundation holds well.
What sort of things do you keep at your work? Are you inspired by this beauty hoard and are going to stock up your desk? Let me know!
Lena x
Thursday, May 15th 2014 Nails
Today I’m going to do a review of a couple of Sinful Colors nail polishes that I purchased recently. It’s a brand that I had seen online, but never seen in person until recently. They were $5.99 each, which is a really good price considering OPI and Orly are around $25-$30 each. The colours are Dancing Nails #835, which is a shimmery red, and Frenzy #922 which is a glittery purple.
Sinful Colors Dancing Nails (left) and Frenzy, (right) polishes
The formula of Dancing Nails was a little bit difficult to work with. I found that it was a bit runny, which meant my manicure looked a bit sloppy, until I got the hang of using much less in my brush. The photos below show that it my application wasn’t amazing but I think in future it’d look better.I wore Dancing Nails on my fingernails for 4 days and then removed it as my friend wanted to use me as a model for her nail tech course. My polish was just starting to show wear on the tips of some of the nails, and I think I easily could have worn it for a week without it chipping. I did use Orly Bonder base coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Top coat, as I always do, and that prolongs wear. I hate chipped nail polish, I always take it off as soon as possible when it happens as I think it looks really unprofessional. I’m planning an article about how I paint my nails to have long lasting manicures soon, so keep an eye out.
Dancing Nails
Frenzy on the other hand was terrible, and I didn’t actually finish painting my toenails with it. The polish was really runny, it just ran right into the cuticles even though my foot was flat on the floor. Despite how it looked in the bottle, on the nail it looked more like a clear polish with glitter in it rather than a solid glittery purple, if that makes sense. I will probably keep this to use over the top of other polishes but I doubt I’ll use it on it’s own again as I have other, far superior glittery purple polishes. I strongly suggest avoiding this polish or others that look similar as it’s pretty much unusable. The picture only shows two nails as I gave up with it after that. It looks like I’m the sloppiest nail painter ever but really it’s just the worst polish ever. Also, my toes look gross that close up – sorry!
Sinful Colors has a great range of colours, and you can buy them in NZ at Kmart and also some pharmacies – I got these at Life Pharmacy in Takapuna, Auckland. Their website informs me that their polishes are free of formaldehyde, toluene and DBP, if that’s something that’s important to you. Although, Brightest Bulb in the Box says that polishes that do contain those ingredients are generally pretty safe anyway.
My overall conclusion is that glitters from Sinful Colors should probably be avoided, but their other kinds of polishes are worth a try. I’d like to know if any of you have tried them, and what you think – let me know in the comments section.
Lena x
Sunday, May 11th 2014 Skincare
Today I’m going to review Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub. When I was staying with my friend last month in Australia I was examining the products in her shower, as you do, and I opened up this body scrub. The smell was amazing, I almost wanted to eat it – it’s a maple scent, and it smells just like maple syrup. She said it not only smelled great but made her skin smooth, and I was sold. My skin on my legs, upper arms, and butt can be rough, so I was excited by the prospect of making them nice and soft. The tub is 300ml, and it cost me $18.95 Australian dollars, ($20.50 NZD) at Mecca Cosmetica. Unfortunately Mecca in New Zealand doesn’t stock Soap and Glory, but I have emailed them asking them to, so hopefully they’ll realise there’s a demand and stock it. That might be wishful thinking though. I’ve been using it once or twice a week now for a month and I don’t seem to have made much of a dent, so I think it will last me for quite a while. 
Soap and Glory describe it on their website as follows:
SMOOTHIE STAR BREAKFAST SCRUB: OAT, SHEA BUTTER AND SUGAR BODY SMOOTHER. Exfoliator with organic cupuacu bio scrubs, bananas, almond and honey extracts. Features a great new maple fragrance.
Being the curious person that I am, I had to look up to see what ‘organic cupuacu bio scrubs’ are, and it turns out that Cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) is a tropical rainforest tree related to cacao. The cacao tree’s seeds are cocoa beans, which we all know and love as that’s the origin of chocolate. The pulp of Cupuacu seeds are very hyrdating according to Wikipedia, which partially explains why this scrub is so moisturising. I’ve tried other body scrubs before that left my skin feeling dry and tight, but I don’t get that effect at all using this product. Shea butter is also a very moisturising ingredient which is present in the product, as is Glycerin which is the first ingredient. A full ingredient list can be found here.
The inside of a Cupuacu fruit, in case you’re interested
I keep the scrub in my shower, to remind me to use it regularly – otherwise it would likely sit in my box of products that may never get used up, and that would be a real waste. I’ve taken to using it when my conditioner is in my hair, as it helps me to fill in a couple of minutes. I just scoop up a bit in my fingers, rub it between my hands to soften it and rub it onto my skin, before rinsing off. I have to be careful to rinse out the bath as it can make a bit of a mess and I don’t want to make a slipping hazard in there as a result of my quest for beauty Since starting to use this scrub I have noticed a real improvement in the texture of the skin on my body, both the way that it feels as well as how it looks. I used it on my legs before shaving the other day and they felt considerably softer because all of the dead and dry skin had been removed. I plan to keep using it regularly during this winter, so that my skin stays soft and smooth. Often I get to summer and feel like I need to intensely scrub all the dry, flaky, skin off my body, but this time I’m going to stay on top of it! It seems that other people agree with me about this great scrub, after 24 reviews on MakeupAlley it has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5, and 91% would buy again. If you can find somewhere where this scrub is sold, I would definitely recommend that you buy it to get silky smooth and delicious smelling skin. Lena x
