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!!!!!!!

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!

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!

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

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!

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.

Katies sale: Mini haul!

I got an email from Katies telling me that they were having a 2-day massive 30% - 70% off sale and if you had a Katies Privellage Card then you would receive an extra 25% off the already reduced price....BARGAIN! I just could not say no to this temptation, even though I had already told myself that I have purchased enough in the last fortnight.

So I went to Katies and to my purse's luck, there was not a huge range of stuff left (I went on the 2nd/final day of the sale). I rummaged through and found a few items that were really good mix-and-match staple pieces. I got:

* 2x tank tops - in blue and red. These were from $15 down to $4.50 each.

* Cute little crocheted bolero style cardi in cream. From $59 down to $17.50.

* White baby doll style top with detail around the neckline. From $30 down to $7.50

I didn't go as crazy as I would have liked but I am so happy with the pieces I bought. There is a heap in my wardrobe already that will really tie in nicely with these new pieces.

More OPI

I went back to the nail supplies place to pick up some nail wheels to use for swatching.  We'll be doing that next week so look out for them!

I picked up a pump bottle for polish remover and a few extra OPIs at the same time.

I didn't use a flash but besides the the two left-most bottles (and maybe the third) the colours are still not very true.  This is starting to annoy me!

The colours are: The Color to Watch, Blue My Mind, Black Cherry Chutney, And This Little Piggy, Meet Me on the Star Ferry and Pearl of Wisdom

SERIOUS Nail Polish Haul

I'm kind of speechless actually.

Since the Spa Day at Ella Bache, I've had an overwhelming need to increase my OPI collection from 2 to...well as many as I could get.  My pedi is still perfect 10 days on!

Yesterday I happened to come across a kiosk selling them for just under $12/bottle.  I got 5.  They didn't have as good a range as I hoped and several colours I had on my wishlist from online googling simply didn't look the same in real life.

From left to right:  It's all Greek to Me, Louvre Me Louvre Me Not, Melon of Troy, Overexposed in South Beach and Aphrodite's Pink Nightie.

The colours in the photo don't look anything like the real deal!  They're MUCH nicer in person.

Moving along to today...We gathered at Annette's place since she found a place near her selling OPI for $10!  Just as we're about to pull into to the carpark she informs us that at least that's what the post on a forum from 2008 said!

Obviously no nail outlet anywhere so dejected we go home and cook lunch.  I investigated the matter further since I wasn't going home without nail polish!  More thorough reading showed the place had moved and was still very close by.

Success!!!!!!!  OPI for $11/bottle.  Very comparable to the USA after you take postage into account.  They also had other brands like China Glaze, Essie, Orly, Seche etc and all manner of nail art accessories.

Below is the combined result of our trip there.

Alex Got:

OPI An Affair in Red Square

OPI Blushingham Palace

OPI Cuckoo for This Colour

OPI My Private Jet

OPI Not Like the Movies

OPI Pompeii Purple

OPI Purple With a Purpose

OPI Russian Navy

OPI Significant Other Color

OPI Strawberry Margarita

OPI Teenage Dream

OPI Teal the Cows Come Home

OPI Who Needs a Prince

OPI Black Shatter

OPI Natural Base Coat

OPI Top Coat

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Nails Alive Aromatherapy Drying Drops

Annette Got:

OPI Sweetheart

OPI Glitzerland

OPI Moon Over Mumbai

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Helene Got:

OPI Sweetheart

OPI Cajun Shrimp

OPI Fiji-Weejee-Fawn

OPI Jade is the New Black

China Glaze Thistle

China Glaze Her Fabulousness

China Glaze For Audrey

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Beauty confession...*I spent $250 on nail polish in less than 24 hours*

Stay tuned for swatches!!

A bit of a haul...

I've gone on a bit of a make-up binge in the past fortnight and here is the aftermath...

Cheap and Cheerful

Rimmel Eyeshadow quads and trios on clearance from the chemist.  I haven't used this brand before, but for $6 each I figured it was worth a try even if they aren't as pigmented as I would like.  Stay tuned for a road test coming up soon!

Clinique Gift Time at Myer

My skin had changed and become more oily and prone to breakouts so I'm switching over to  higher strength 3 Step Daily Skin Care and incorporating some of the Anti Blemish range too.

No better time to stock up than Gift Time!  I was almost out of Clarifying Lotion so DH (of all people!) suggested I get more.  I decided to go from a #2 to a #3 rather than #4 or Anti Blemish.  We'll see if it's strong enough!  I still have plenty of the soap and moisturiser so I'll use them up before switching over.

The other thing I got which I'm totally in love with is the Anti Blemish Solutions Liquid Foundation.  It contains salicylic acid so it fights those spots while hiding them instead of making my skin worse.  It's a little on the sheer side so a powder on top would work for days when more coverage is needed but what I love most is how it feels.  My skin feels much nicer and cleaner with it on.  I can't feel it and it doesn't make me itch.

The gift set contains:

All about Eyes Serum.  I'm in love with this stuff and am waiting on an order from Cosmetic America to arrive with a full size tube of this stuff!

Superdefense SPF 25 Age Defense Moisturizer.  I'm really impressed with the size for a sample.  Haven't tried it yet since I'm busy defending my face against spots at the moment.

Dramatically Different Moisturizer.  What Clinique gift set is complete without it?  I must have a handful of various sized containers of this stuff.  I'll probably give them away and switch to the anti blemish moisturizer.  Again, a really generous size for a sample.

Deep Comfort Body Lotion.  You can never have too many body lotions lying around...especially with winter on its' way and the drying effect ducted heating has on skin.

High Impact Mascara.  I never have to buy mascara these days!  It's always in one gift pack or another.

Take The Day Off Make Up Remover.  For lids, lashes and lips.  These are the areas I struggle to remove make up from.  I'll be buying a full sized bottle for sure!

Long Last Glosswear in Air Kiss.  Very sheer and nude. I prefer something that shows up better but it's SPF 15 and can be worn everyday and goes with all colours.

Colour Surge Eyeshadow Duo in Peach Plum and Blush in Smouldering Plum.  Awesome colours!  Love them all.  I wasn't sure how well the peach and plum would play together but they do.  Very wearable colours and great for travel.

The Bag.  Love these bags that hang on the back of the door.  Great for travel where storage space is tight.  I would have loved this when I was in hospital.  I had to put my toiletry bag next to the small sink and it barely fit and was impossible to find what I needed.

NYX Eyeshadow Palettes

My sisters introduced me to NYX this month.  An affordable yet highly pigmented range of makeup.

I got a couple of gorgeous eye shadow palettes from the new Caribbean Collection:

I Dream of Barbados - Pinks, purples and silver/charcoals

I Dream of Antigua - Green/blues and silver/greys

Haven't really played much with them because I'm holding out for new make up brushes.