Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Wedding Themed manis!



The day is here and us Beautyholics can't wait.

We've decided to paint our nails to mark the occasion.

Yummy Mummy

I agonized over the choice. I had polishes with really obvious names like Blushingham Palace or Who Needs a Prince? but I decided to go with Aphrodite's Pink Nightie and Show it and Glow it on my bling finger (all by OPI). Why??

Well firstly it's rumoured the royal couple may honeymoon in Corfu so Aphrodite's Pink Nightie (APN) being from the Greek Isles Collection seems perfect. The similarities don't end there! Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love and beauty which is apt for a honeymoon as are pink nighties!

Show it and Glow it from the Burlesque Collection is also pink and if I had Diana's sapphire and diamond engagement ring it's definitely be showing and glowing!


My version of APN (and I've seen a few thanks to OPI's bad quality control!) is on the lighter side and very frosty. This made application a royal pain! It's also sheer so I needed about 4 coats which made for soft polish which shows brush marks and smudges easily. I fixed a few fingers then gave up. I'm on meds which make my hands shake worse than usual so please excuse the poor application in the photo!


Designer Diva
I chose Agent Lavender by China Glaze to honour the royal wedding. The Agent part reminds me of my favourite British spy, James Bond, and the Lavender reminds me of the lovely lavender-blue dresses that my bridesmaids wore for my wedding four and a half years ago.
Agent Lavender is my favourite mauve nail polish. It goes on opaque and lasts for at least 4 days with a top coat. Above is 2 coats. The closest in colour I have seen is Liacism from Essie, where the formula is crap, it goes on streaky and takes forever to dry. Happy wedding fever!


Shoestring Shopaholic

For the Royal Wedding, I decided to go with the very apt Dating A Royal by OPI. Its the most beautiful rich royal blue colour and it is a creme finish. I love OPI in general and love the extra wide brush. It makes it so much easier to apply. But back to the Royal Wedding.....Dating A Royal is so appropriate.




Kate Middleton was dating Prince William all through their university days and the couple finally wed this week. It just goes to show that anyone can 'date a royal'.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Nail of the week -25 April




Designer Diva

 




















I recently bought Fifth Avenue by China Glaze. I love dusty pink, and I picked it off the shelf because it looked like the perfect deep dusty pink colour. When I saw the name I was sold!

While the colour is really pretty in the bottle, it came out a little too reddish on my nails (above with 2 coats). Perhaps another coat might have made it more true, but I don't mind the colour at all!



Shoestring Shopaholic



This week I have chosen China Glaze’s Light As Air from their Up And Away collection. It’s a soft crème pastel pinky lilac colour soooooo PRETTY! I think it will be my new favourite colour. Its girly, its soft and completely wearable. It would also look fantastic under a black crackle nail polish.

My Easter gift this year

Instead of going on my usual Easter egg chocolate crawl from shop to shop, trying to look for 50% off chocolate eggs, I decided on getting myself a new Pandora bead. There was a particular Easter bead that i was dying to get this year and i decided that since i was giving up my usual chocolate haul, this bead would be soooo much better. The bead is of a little baby Easter chicken coming out of an Easter egg....SO adorable!


Here is a photo of my bracelet with the new Easter bead.....

ANOTHER China Glaze haul!

aI have given up buying my takeaway coffee in the morning just so i can put that money towards nail polish....sounds crazy but lately I have been getting so much enjoyment out of my nail polish collection and there are soooo many pretty colours out there! This time hubby took me and I bought 6 bottles.

Here is a pic of the 6 bottles:




Here are some close up photos and the names of the colours I got:
From left to right: Don't Touch My Tiara, Rainbow, Caribbean Blue.




Left to right: Prize Winning Mare, Admire, Eyes Like Sapphires.


I LOVE nail polish!!!!!!!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter egg inspired nails


I was inspired by a posting by Elle Fowler of elleandblair.com, who suggested OPI sweetheart with a layer of Teenage dream over the top. So pastel, so pink and so Eastery!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Last week's nail polish haul

I rather spoiled myself and visited the nail shop 3 times last week! I worked really hard the last couple of weeks at work and had some long and crazy shifts so i decided to go and get some nice new polishes. I wanted the most for my buck so i stuck with China Glaze polishes. I am excited to expand my collection with CG nail polishes and this was such a good opportunity.

I got:Left to right: Joy, Coral Star, Black Diamond


Left to right: Lemon Fizz, Jetstream, Hybrid


Left to right: Custom Kicks, Tempest, Conga To My Cabana


Left to right: Good Witch?, Four Leaf Clover, Midnight Ride

All in all, i love these colours and just cannot wait to be able to wear them all one by one!

Monday, April 18, 2011

My Fragrance Collection!

Ok, I LOVE perfume! In fact I love it so much that I thought I would share my entire perfume collection with you all. There are so many fragrances out there to choose from and sometimes its really hard choosing a scent that is right for you. Personally, I like to wear a different scent every day. So I make sure that I have at least 3 or 4 at a time to choose from. The only down side to having this many is that the perfumes can go 'bad' or start smelling a little different to how they originally do. My favourite kinds of scents are florals, sweet vanilla scents and also fresh spring scents. I LOVE my collection and there are some fragrances that I would hate to run out of so I hope they always make them!
So, without further ado, here is my collection!!
Back Row: Tommy Girl - Tommy Hilfiger, Lola - Marc Jacobs, Paris Hilton (self titled), Glow - Jennifer Lopez
Third Row: With Love - Hilary Duff, Princess - Vera Wang, Daisy - Marc Jacobs
Second Row: Curious - Britney Spears, Brit - Burberry, Bright Crystal - Versace
Front Row: Touch - Burberry, Kim Kardashian (self titled), Lovely - Sarah Jessica Parker

Nail of the week -18 April

Designer Diva

Significant Other Color by OPI from the Brights Collection 2005

I had a shortlist of colours to choose from this week and my nephew picked this one for me!



Shoestring Shopaholic

You Can by Nicole by OPI

This week I have chosen Nicole By OPI's You Can. It's a gorgeous frosted
blush peach/nude colour. I felt like I needed some more subtle this week
since I had bright red a few days ago. I needed something more
work-appropriate as well because we will be getting a visit from upper
management this week. This is the first time I have worn this nail polish
colour and I am really happy with it...super cute!



Yummy Mummy

Black Cherry Chutney by OPI from the India Collection

I wanted something dark and a little more sophisticated than what I'd been wearing lately.  I'm not super thrilled with the pic thought.  It looks like a creme but this polish does have a red shimmer and is a gorgeous dark cherry colour.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Yummy Mummy's Sigma Unboxing Haul

My brushes from Sigma have arrived!!!

I'm so grateful to our postie for timing her package deliveries a good hour after DH leaves for work.

First some rambling...

I've been wanting to try these for some time now and what better opportunity now that the last of my cheap-and-nasty brushes got ruined.

That would be by the same person who ground several Clinique lipsticks, creams and perfumes into the carpet...and the same person who dusts his toy cars with MAC Studio Fix to get a rugged, desert look.  

Anyway the decision on what to choose was SO hard!

Initially I thought either the Complete Kit or the Premium Professional Kit were the way to go buuuuut...I wanted some of the brushes from BOTH kits.

I briefly entertained the thought of buying both but I'd end up with 27 different brushes!  Several were very very similar and given I'm not a professional MUA, I wouldn't benefit from the subtle differences...plus I didn't want to spend that much on brushes I'd never tried before.

I also didn't want to buy individual brushes since the kits are much better value.

That's when I noticed the Travel Kit and Premium Travel Kit.

There were 2 kits - one to complement each of the above brush kits and each contained 7 most popular brushes from full sized kit.

There were other advantages...the main one being these kits come in the lovely pale pink colour I love.

Another plus is that each kit comes with an extra free brush so it makes a total of 16 different brushes - the best of both kits.

The only downside for some people might be that the brushes are travel sized.  This turns out to be another plus for me.  I frequently am rushing around and often the only time left to do makeup is while driving to wherever it is that I'm going.

Well maybe not exactly while driving...more like red lights and traffic jams.

If I like the travel kits enough and need more brushes then I can always buy the full sized sets in the future and not worry about doubling up since they'll be for use at home as opposed to in the car etc.

Now onto the exciting bit!

Once I cut through all the tape this is what I saw:

The free E25 from the Premium Travel kit was just jumping out of the box!


I love how the brush sets are packed!


Starting with the Premium Travel Kit since the E25 was so eager to get out.  Each kit comes with a brush guide and care instructions


All the brushes come in plastic sleeves with bristle covers


Close up of the brushes with the free E25 at the top.



Now for the regular Travel Kit.  Love the organza bags they use for packaging!



Just as nice as the other one...


With the free foundation brush!


To summarize, the Travel kit comes with the following brushes:
Pencil - E30
Tapered Blending - E40
Eye Shading - E55
Large Powder - F30
Large Angled Contour - F40

Duo Fibre - F50
Concealer - F70
          Free Travel sized F60 Foundation brush

The Premium Travel kit comes with:

Small Eye Liner - E10
Short Shader - E20

Small Tapered Blending - E45
Large Fluff - E50

Duo Fibre Powder/Blush - F15
 
Tapered face -F25
Large Concealer - F65   
Free travel size E25 blending brush
I'm so happy with these brushes!  They so soft and feel heavy in your hand.

BBL with a review!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

More China Glaze Hauling.

Well it seems to be a weekly habit that we get together and visit the nail supply store on Tuesdays and yesterday was no exception.

Designer Diva limited herself to some Seche Vite (but she has something waaaay more exciting on the way ;-O )

Shoestring Shopaholic got:
Re Fresh Mint
C C Courage
Dorothy Who?
Cowardly Lyin'
Lighthouse
Classic Camel
Flying Dragon
Lasso My Heart
Metallic Muse
Gussied Up Green
Light as Air

Yummy Mummy Got:
C C Courage
Dorothy Who?
Watermelon Rind
Secret Peri-wink-le

Our collective haul

Monday, April 11, 2011

Nail of the week -11 April


Designer Diva

Parlez Vous by OPI from the France Collection

Parlez vous OPI is from the OPI France collection, and is a wonderful deep greyish purple which is very unique. I decided on this colour this week as I wanted a colour that packed a little more punch than Sweetheart, which I wore last week, but was not super obvious as I wave my arms about at work.



Shoestring Shopaholic

Thunderbird by China Glaze from the Retro Diva Collection



I chose this colour because I really love wearing 'jewel' tone nail colours in the autumn/winter months. I think the shades really suit the cold and dark changing weather. So this CG colour thunderbird seems like the perfect deep luscious ruby colour. It's got a slight shimmer but the red colour is so deep and beautiful. Loving this look!



Yummy Mummy

Electric Eel by OPI from the Brights Collection


I've had pinks with black shatter the past 2 weeks so it was time for something different.  Given SS and DD chose red and purple I felt either green or blue was in order.

I went with Electric Eel.  I've been dying to try this one!  I'm not sure whether it qualifies as HTF but it certainly isn't readily available. 

I loveLOVE the irridescent/duochrome effect.  It flashes a gold/pink/orange.  You can't really tell in the pic...also IRL the colour is more intense.  It looks kind of washed out even thought I didn't use a flash. :-(

I applied about 4 coats over natural nails but I've seen it applied over black and it looks AWESOME.  Must try that next!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

China Glaze birthday haul

So I had my 27th birthday on Saturday and my workmates all decided to put in and give me some money as a birthday gift. My immediate thought was.....nail polish! I headed down to the nail shop this afternoon and i picked up 6 China Glaze nail polishes.
From left to right: Peachy Keen, Strawberry Fields, Avalanche, Reggae To Riches, Agent Lavender, Ruby Pumps.
All these colours are fairly different from one another and I LOVE them all. A big thank you to all my work friends!

Be The First To Know....Sigma Beauty is getting MAKEUP

Ok, this is VERY exciting news! Sigma Beauty, best known for selling great high quality makeup brushes (comparable to M.A.C!), is introducing makeup to their brand! They did have a range of eyeshadow a year or so ago but it was a small line and they stopped selling it. Now, there is a brand new range coming soon. The very first pictures were put up on Twitter by the creator of Sigma herself so she did say it was ok to spread the word. At this stage, I'm not sure about proper details such as price points, release dates, quality etc but knowing Sigma and how fantastic the brushes are, these will be of the highest quality I am certain. Stay tuned for more info on the release dates......

Saturday, April 9, 2011

More Bloggy Giveaways...

Varnish Vixen has some awesome prizes up for grabs!

Carina from Gilded Nails has a couple of bottles of BB Couture up for grabs

Mon coin a moua is having the most awesome giveaway where you can pick from 100 items

Beautyburg is having two giveaways!  The first is for 1000 FB Fans and the second is for Spring

Girly Addictions has a gorgeous gift set up for grabs

Nail Fanatic is spring cleaning and giving away a massive 100+ polishes!

Life and Polishes is giving away China Glaze Island Escape Collection!

Very generous giveaway by Shadow's Nails

Nail Polish Obsession is offering a stunning set of Catrice polishes below:

Friday, April 8, 2011

Online Shopping: MIMCO




Due to the soaring Aussie dollar and the abundance of goodies overseas, its never been a better time to shop internationally online. However, I am on the email list of the fabulous Aussie company of Mimco and get info regarding sales and deals. They were having an amazing online sale on handbags, and as my MIL expressed a desire for a new handbag a while ago, I put 2 and 2 together and found myself buying a gem from Mimco online.

The bag came within about 10 days of ordering online in a Mimco paper bag within a brown box. Inside, there was a dust cover containg the gorgeous bag. It is the 'Under the Radar' day bag in the colour Fudge. It is made of the softest leather and finished impeccably. Large enough to fit all your daily handbag needs, but not so huge and heavy that you do your shoulder in. I have always loved this style (esp in the colour pancake!) but couldn't justify getting one myself (actually, confession: not true! Was pleasantly "discouraged" by a voice of "reason." Whatever) .

Without flash
With flash
Original price was $399 and the quality makes it worth every cent. However, the sale made this gorgeous bag only $149 with $20 shipping! The shipping is absolutely steep, but when you're getting such a great price on such an amazing bag it is no problem. I think this is an amazing deal and I haven't found this bag sold in Mimco stores anymore, so online may be the only place to get these. I do find that the Mimco online prices are actually much better than instore prices. Anyway, hurry while the deal lasts!!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Origins Vita Zing Moisturiser review

I have been watching a lot of YouTube beauty gurus lately and several of them have been talking about Origins Vita Zing moisturiser with SPF 15. What got me intrigued was that they were all calling this product a "miracle product" and so naturally, I wanted to know why. They were all swearing by it saying that it makes your skin look smooth, flawless and gives it a sun kissed glow. A couple of the gurus were even saying that you could substitute liquid foundation with Vita Zing. This immediately got me interested as i can never find a good foundation that is the right colour for me.

So, after much searching online and having no success, I found a store called Kit Cosmetics on Chapel St in South Yarra that stocked it! Like all cosmetics, I was worried that the price difference between the one in the USA and the one here in Australia would be dramatic...it wasn't! It was around $7 more here than in the USA and you would normally pay more for shipping it here anyway so I snapped it up.

VERDICT: Amazing! Honestly, I'm not joking. This stuff is magical. Its a small 1.7oz/50ml tube but you literally use a small amount (the size of a pea or a little larger depending on your face). It comes out of the tube as a normal white coloured moisturiser, but when you rub it in your skin starts to tingle and you immediately get the smoothest, clear and even complexion with a hint of tan. I am so impressed and I will definitely be re-purchasing this product.

The box that it comes in states that its an energising and multi tasking moisturiser. I would definitely agree. It gives me a tint, moisturises my skin, evens out the discolouration AND controls my oil. You have to try it to believe it!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

China Glaze Mini Haul

So we went back to the nail supply shop to check out a few colours IRL before placing a Transdesign order and they've increased the price of OPI by $2/bottle!!

Hmmm...wonder if it has anything to do with the fact we've bought 40+ bottles from them in the past few weeks???

Anyway not happy!



I got (from left to right) Re Fresh Mint which I can't seem to find online along with 3 polishes from the OMG range: GR8, TMI and FYI which aren't available readily online either so all in all I'm pleased!

OPI and Cherry Culture Haul

I'm so excited!

These arrived today:

and I wasn't expecting them so soon...or even on the same day!

I'm not going to do a full on unboxing haul because we'll have way more exciting stuff coming in the mail in the next few weeks. ;-P

So in the first package were 5 OPI polishes I got from Ebay:


From left to right we have: Venus di Violet, Upfront and Personal, What's with the Cattitude?, Black Onyx and Electric Eel.  They are yet to be added to our database.

They arrive in perfect condition and I was so relieved!  I'll be ordering more from this seller  in the next week or two.

The second package was from Cherry Culture.  They were having a sale and already cheap prices were 20% off!

First up we have some eyeliners.  I like autoliners and the two with gold caps are by Jordana and the other is LA Colors.  I haven't tried either of these brands before so we'll see how they go but they were REALLY cheap so worth a try. 


Next we have the NYX eyeshadow base and 2 of the jumbo pencils in Milk and Cottage Cheese


NYX auto lipliners in Coffee, Natural, Auburn and Plum


And lastly, my favourite purchase - three NYX trios!


Spring Leaf, Lime Green and Green Tea


Baby Pink, Cotton Candy and Spring Flower


Baby Blue, Pacific and Navy


The colours in the pics aren't as accurate as I'd like but they are fairly close.