2016 Make-up Favourites

Happy New Year!!! 2016 has been and gone so it is time to talk about what products I loved in 2016. This is a huge post so let's skip the intro and get into the details...

Smashbox powder Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder

When I wandered into Mecca I wanted something that would my make-up lat longer and provide a bit of extra coverage. After receiving amazing customer service I walked out with this powder from Smashbox. And I absolutely love it! I was warned that with a heavy hand this could look a little cake and whilst that is true, it is avoidable. Instead of just having a tub of loose powder you "shave" the powder up into the accessible part of the tub which minimises wastage and helps you get only the amount of product you need.

Urban Decay All Nighter Liquid Foundation

2016 was the year of high-end foundation experimentation for me. I received a sample from Mecca after hearing mixed reviews but instantly fell in love and rushed back to buy the foundation after wearing the foundation for a handful of days. This foundation gives fantastic coverage, lasts really

Maybelline 'Rose Poudre' Nail Polish

In previous years I had different polishes on my nails every 3 days or so. In 2016 I started working full-time and my nail polish obsession faded away. Having said that I still love a good nail polish! 'Rose Poudre' is a gorgeous dusty pink colour that can be applied in one coat. It dries quickly and applies really easily, thanks to a great brush. I'm probably half-way through my current bottle and will definitely be repurchasing this polish.

Maybelline Lash Sensational Mascara

This mascara was actually in my 2015 beauty favourites but I thought it deserved to be in this post too. I have had this mascara in rotation all year and have repurchased it numerous times. The Lash Sensational does a really good job of separating and fanning out my lashes as well as adding volume without making them clumpy or gunky.

Mac Lipstick in 'Syrup' 

This lipstick from MAC is literally going to become the first lipstick I have ever completely used up. I have the tiniest nib of product in the tube which I have reluctantly working towards using up. This is a fantastic lipstick to wear as it is perfect for any situation and time.

Mac Lipstick in 'Shy Shine'

'Shy Shine' is the more neutral and lazy day version of 'Syrup' which I just talked about. It's semi-sheer and quite shimmery so it will go with any look and can be easily applied on the go. I've seen it described as a warm coral but I was going to describe it as a nude-ish pink with a slight coral undertone to it? It is more shimmery than the typical lippy I wear but I absolutely adore it.

Urban Decay Vice Lipstick 'Naked' (Cream)

In 2016 this was my "special" lipstick which I wore whenever I was going out. These lipsticks have amazing pigmentation, feel really creamy on the lips, don't dry out your lips and

Naked | Syrup | Shy Shine

Sally Hansen Complete Care 7-in-1 Nail Treatment

A good base coat is really important for a great looking manicure and healthy nails. This 7-in-1 nail treatment from Sally Hansen is a really good base coat. It dries very quickly and I have noticed my nails have been in much better condition since using this base coat.

April Beauty Favourites

For me April was a nail polish month. I fell in love with so many gorgeous polishes. But before we talk about stunning shades lets talk about my new favourite base coat. A good base coat can be a game changer! The Complete Care 7 in 1 Nail Treatment from Sally Hansen is a fabulous base coat. It dries quickly and has been doing wonders for my neglected nails. It dries clear and shiny.

The shade 'Rose Glass' from Sally Hansen's Salon Manicure collection is now one of my all-time favourite polishes and that is saying a lot for somebody who has hundreds of nail polishes. It is a gorgeous warm-toned pale pink that is so very pretty. It isn't nude but is still appropriate for any occasion.

'Show Us Your Tips!' from OPI's new 'New Orleans' collection is like no other polish I own. It is an amazing periwinkle blue-toned mauve (does that make sense) with silver shimmer. The formula is quite thin so you definitely need more than two coats. However I am more than willing to overlook this because once you build this up to be 100% opaque it is 100% stunning. Go google some swatches, it might look meh in the bottle but on the nail it is stunning. Seriously.

Lanolips Intense Hand Balm is a balm that you warm up and then it sinks into your skin. This balm is great if you have very dry hands. I like to spot apply it onto my cuticles and fingers however I wouldn't recommend them applying it all over your hands until the end of the night because you can "feel" it on your hands. Or maybe I just apply way to much?! Either way I know this will be great for the coming winter months.

Prada's 'Candy' Perfume has been my go-to perfume. I have been looking for a perfume that can replace my beloved 'So Hooked on Carmella' from Benefit which is discontinued. This one isn't identical but it is still a gorgeous perfume. I'm rubbish at describing scents so I googled it and apparently it is caramel, sweet, warm spicy, musky and balsamic. I say just go and have a sniff next time you are near the perfume department :)

Not technically a "beauty" favourite but it is beautiful so I'm going to quickly mention the Medium Supernatural Pouch from Mimco, isn't the print divine?!!!!!!!!

At the end of March Priceline had their famous 40% off all make-up and I brought enough foundations to cover the surface of Earth...well maybe not quite but nearly! Anyway there is not a single foundation I want to talk about. Some of them are promising but none of they instantly gained holy grail status. The search for the perfect foundation continues...let me know if you have any recommendations.

Want to check out what I loved in April last year? Here is the link to last years April Favourites: http://theblogforbeautifulliving.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/april-beauty-favourites.html 

Have a wonderful May :)

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Review - Greyfitti

A couple of months ago I raved on and on about the 'Dig Fig' shade from Sally Hansen's Miracle Gel collection of nail polishes. Today I am going to tell you all about another polish from the collection, the shade 'Greyfitti'. 'Greyfitti' is a beautiful pale grey. Whilst it has slight undertones of blue you definitely don't look at the polish and think it is blue...it is grey.

My proper camera is out of action so I apologise for this substandard photo. The polish looks way more amazing in real life...trust me!

The formula of this nail polish is a little thin and streaky on the first coat but all is resolved once you do your second coat. The formula itself was very easy to work with and apply. After applying those two coats I waited a couple of minutes and then applied the special top coat.......and then after that I put on my usual Insta-Dri Sally Hansen top coat. The extra top coat is not necessary though. These miracle gel polishes last really well and endure a lot! I can get easily a week out of these nail polishes before any noticeable wear starts appearing. Typically I only get 2-3 days out of a manicure.

I completely adore this nail polish and highly recommend it. It is a very versatile colour, has a great formula and lasts well. 

Sally Hansen - Raisin the Bar: Swatch and Review

'Raisin the Bar' from Sally Hansen is a pinky plum colour with a metallic finish. As always with the Complete Salon Manicure collection, the brush was perfect. Nice and wide, and flat! The thin formula worked best when applied in thin coats. The polish is pretty opaque so you can get away with one coat easily. As with a lot of polishes with a metallic finish, you can sometimes see the brushstrokes, however I think with a topcoat it looks fine! (I'm using the Insta-Dri top coat from Sally Hansen).

2014 - Favourite nail polishes

My favourite nail polishes of 2014!!! Writing my thesis meant I didn't have time do experiment with much nail art or tedious nail polishes this year. I wanted nail polish that was easy to apply, with a great formula, quick drying, durable and long wearing. So these nail polishes might seem a bit run of a mill but I promise you, these polishes are amazing! 

Lets begin with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Top Coat. It gives your nails a lovely extra shine, makes your polish last longer and helps to dry your nail polish faster. I love this top coat and will definitely repurchase it. I am one of those people are very prone to ruining their freshly painted nails within minutes so this a very loved top coat.

When Revlon released their Parfumerie collection of polishes I wasn't expecting much. Could nail polish actually smell good? Yes it can!!! I was really impressed with how nice the polishes from the collection smelt, plus how the scent lingered for a couple of days. All the scents do differ though in their strength and longevity so keep that in mind...my favourite polish, scent wise is 'Apricot Nectar' which has quite a strong sweet fruity scent. Plus the polish itself is a gorgeous peachy orange colour that is super bright, nearly neon.  It has a cream finish that is vey easy to work with. 'Bordeaux' is a stunning burgundy colour with a crelly finish (cream jelly). I don't notice the scent as much on this one but still adore it for the colour alone.

You can check out my full review of 'Bordeaux' by clicking here and my full review of 'Apricot Nectar' by clicking here.

Essie's 'trophy wife' is a polish I reach for when I want something a little bit special adorning my nails. Teal is my favourite colour and not only is this polish teal but it has a metallic like formula that is very bright and makes the polish look like it is glowing. A very stunning polish that you really need to see in real life to appreciate. Photos just don't capture it's whole beauty. I went to find the link for the full review of this polish and apparently I have never reviewed it here on the blog! I am absolutely gobsmacked that I haven't reviewed it and will make sure I post a review of it in the coming week.

Inglot's 720 is a gorgeous polish that I frequently wear when I want to wear a pretty but bold colour on my nails. This is another polish that I desperately need to post a review on.

'Monroe' from Face of Australia's Screen Siren limited edition collection has been my go-to nude polish for the year.  It is a very flattering warm nude colour. With 2 coats, a decent drying time and lasting power it is a no nonsense polish that has saved me numerous times when I quickly wanted to paint my nails but needed something appropriate for meetings at university and etc.

Cheers :)

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Colour and top coat review - Dig Fig

Earlier this year Sally Hansen released their "gel nail polish that doesn't require a light" collection of polishes. A lot of different brands have jumped onto this bandwagon this year. However what attracted me to Sally Hansen is that they sell these sets that contain both a coloured polish and the special top coat. Normally each of these costs $16.95 but the set costs $19.95, which makes it a very good deal!  I chose the colour 'Dig Fig' which is a oxblood burgundy colour, perfect for the festive season! 

Before we get into the actual review lets quickly talk about what Sally Hansen claims about this nail polish.

The brush is the same brush from Sally Hansen's 'Salon Manicure' collection of polishes which is a good thing because it's a great brush. It is a wide, flat brush that is slightly tapered at the ends. I find it very easy to paint my nails with the brush without having excess polish ending up on my skin. 

The formula initially appears to be the same as usual. It applies easily (again, just like the 'Salon Manicure' collection) and is not streaky. With a thin coat it also seems to dry quickly BUT it isn't actually dry...after two coats that were relatively thick everything was quite wet and very easy to smudge. Luckily for me, if you smudge a nail you can paint over it with another coat and it seems to work out okay. 

Once you have your two coats of colour, step two is to grab the special, clear, top coat and apply that over the still kind of wet coloured polish. The top coat worked well and didn't streak. However the brush did get a bit stained from the red polish so I am not sure what is going to happen if I go out and buy some more colours? Whilst the top coat did provide some additional shine it isn't super duper shiny. 

Drying time was good, very comparable to normal nail polish. Durability also seems to be better than other polishes. My nails feel stronger than usual when wearing this polish. Now, what I'm sure you really want to know is how well it wears? They claim 14 days...on day 2 it was still perfect and the shiny top coat had not diminished. I didn't notice any tip wear or chips until the 4th day of wear and on that 4th day the tip wear was extremely minimal and you could only notice it if you held your nails up in front of your eyes and examined your nails closely. It was only on day 6-7 that the tip wear became more obvious. It still wasn't extreme though and there were no chips. I decided to take it off on day 7 because I wanted to change the colour.

To begin with I was skeptical but this nail polish definitely wears a lot longer than your typical nail polish. I usually have to change my nail polish after 2 or 3 days but I made a week with this easily. I am pretty rough on my hands so I suspect some people could get a couple of more days out of it... I'm not sure about the 14 days though? Overall I am super impressed by this miracle gel polish from Sally Hansen and will definitely be buying more polishes from the collection. Love it! 

Sally Hansen 'Bittersweet' Nail Polish Review + Nail Art

A couple of days ago I painted my nails with Sally Hansen's 'Bittersweet'. I wrote up a review of it but thanks to work, uni, winter rain and lack of light, photos didn't happen. Then today when the sun came out I realised my nails were too chipped to swatch. So I decided to do a bit of lazy nail-art.

'Bittersweet' is a dark brown polish that looks a lot darker on the nails compared to what it looks like in the bottle.

Drying time was pretty good with this polish considering my coats were quite thick...oops! The formula was non-streaky and quite thick which is something I normally like but I found that despite this colour being very dark I needed two coats. My first coat was pretty opaque but I felt like it looked patchy.....hence the second coat. I don't know if that makes any sense because how can it be opaque and patchy at the same time???

To hide a couple of chips I stuck on some french manicure tip guides from Essence and painted over the chips using Revlon's 'Fall Mood' nail polish. I thought this actually turned out pretty well and it was super quick. With a coat of Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri top coat this took no time to dry. Yipee :)

NOTD - Sally Hansen Gunmetal Nail Polish Review

On my nails today is Sally Hansen's 'Gunmetal' nail polish from their Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear range. This is the first nail polish I have brought from this particular range however I am already a huge fan of Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure range of polishes. 'Gunmetal' is a combination of a denim blue colour and a grey gunmetal colour. This polish is very shimmery. I absolutely adore this colour.

The formula of 'Gunmetal' is quite thin. Two coats were necessary for opaque colour. I'm notoriously bad at applying nail polishes with thin formulas as I find my coats are way too thick. Nonetheless drying time was reasonable. Despite the thin formula the polish applied relatively easily. For a shimmer polish I didn't find the formula to be too streaky. I applied Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri as a top coat.

Depending on the light (as always) this polish can look really blue and then when the sun is hiding you can see more of the gunmetal grey colour. My new favourite polish?!

Pink and plum dotticure

I am absolutely hopeless at titles for blog posts that are not reviews, have you noticed?! As the rather bland title tells you this is a pink and plum dotticure. 

The pink polish is 'Champagne Kiss' from Face of Australia and the plum is 'Plums The Word' from Sally Hansen. 'Plums The Word' is a lovely autumn/winter polish if you are somebody who wants to wear darker polishes in the cooler months and vice versa. A very versatile plum polish with a great formula.

I love dotticures for a manicure that is a little different but still very easy to do and doesn't take too long.

Cheers :)

Sally Hansen Sugar Coat - Lick O-Rich

Sally Hansen's Lick O-Rich from the Sugar Coat collection is a black textured polish that feels like gravel or sand paper. In the past I haven't fallen head over heels in love with textured polish but I must say I loved how bumpy this polish felt. Couldn't stop running my fingers over it! 

The formula was amazing, very easy to apply and it dried quickly too which was good since I didn't want to use a top coat. One coat would definitely be enough but I ended up doing two just because I could. The brush wasn't like Sally Hansen's usual brush, instead it was flat and straight. It took me a little bit to get use to it as with any black polish perfection is a must...well with any polish really but smeared black polish on your fingers is definitely not a good look! 

Overall, a very good textured polish that I would definitely recommend if you are looking for a textured polish. 

What textured polish do you think I should try next?

Thanks for reading, cheers. 

NOTD: Revlon Girly Accent Nail

Hi guys :) Hope you are all having a relaxing Sunday afternoon. Since I seem to be wasting time today and being unproductive I thought I might as well write a blog post. I'm going to show you my NOTD from yesterday. A couple of weeks ago Revlon released Girly in Australia and I brought it immediately. However it sat in my drawer for awhile because I knew it was going to be sheer and I don't like sheer polishes and I don't go all crazy over glitters (usually). Yesterday I finally decided to pull it out (yes, I know, it took me awhile!) and use it over Sally Hansen's 'Plums The Word' which is a deep brownish plum colour. Really lovely for the winter. 

Girly, as I expected was a sheer polish but over Plums The Word it looked great, although it did lighten Plums The Word a little, but that's okay in my book. Application was super easy and no glitter placement was needed at all which was great. Although not a super dense glitter you got plenty of glitter in one coat. I was really surprised at how easy the glitter was to apply. I did two coats of Girly and found that the glitters all dried flat. I did put a coat of topcoat over all of my nails. 

Overall I'm really pleased with how this turned out and think I will be wearing Girly again soon :) 

Cheers and thanks for reading. 

Teal Dotticure

I absolutely adore teal and I think it is pretty safe to now say it is my favourite colour! I don't think I've ever really had an absolute favourite colour. Usually, I've been on the fence and named black, blue and red. 

I decided to do a dotticure because I love dotticures and it's a type of nail-art that is usually harder to mess up. Hahaha, I can mess anything up :p 

I used one of my favourite polishes, Jungle Gem from Sally Hansen. Despite my ever-growing collection of polish I have lost count of how many times I have reached for this polish this year. It's a stunning teal colour, one-coater and has a great formula. Need I say more? Probably not! The silver polish is Icy Princess from Essence. 

I was super excited that the sun had came out the day I did this NOTD because it's been overcast, windy and cold for awhile. The fact that it gets dark pretty early too doesn't help my attempts to take semi-decent photos for the blog either! Can't wait for spring to come :)  I think this dotticure worked quite well except for the bit where I got impatient and put my topcoat on too soon, smearing my silver polish everywhere!!! 

Thanks for reading.

Cheers

Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat - Wool Lite

Recently nail polish has all been about texture, whether it s feather, cement/conrete or leather-look polish, it's been hailed as the trend by many. Me? I haven't been so sure. But I decided for the sake of the blog (or at least that was my excuse, hehehe) that I would try out Sally Hansen's Fuzzy Coat polishes. I believe these are limited edition and are currently on the shelves at places like Priceline. 

Out of all the polishes in this collection I picked up Wool Lite which is a cute pale pink bar glitter (is that what you call it?) or perhaps I should call it a feather polish? I nearly picked up 'All Yearned Up' because it is a little fugly and I don't mind a fugly polish or two but I thought Wool Lite would look awesome over a brown polish. So here it is, Wool Lite over Sinful Color's Nirvana which is a lovely basic brown. This manicure reminds me of chocolate cupcakes with pink sprinkles - yummy!!!

The formula was really easy to use and these pictures show one coat of Wool Lite. All the bars dried flat and don't feel too rough so top coat isn't a must which is good for a polish like this! Overall, for what it is, it is a great polish because you don't have to waste time placing the glitters where you want them and you get a decent amount per swipe and they dry flat. The only problem I have is a personal opinion, I just don't know if I love how this looks? But as I said that's just me and if you want to try an easy "texture" polish this could be a great place to start. 

I went to IKEA and got myself a Lekaryd lamp which I hope will act as a lightbox kind of set-up for me. With these wet, overcast winter days I felt like my photographs were rapidly decreasing in quality and considering they were never very good to begin with action needed to be taken! I'm still mucking around with it but please feel free to let me know what you think about the pictures...

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week :)

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Hardener Review

To be honest with you I have no clue why I haven't shared this product with you before. I'm on my second or third bottle of the stuff and it has been used as a base-coat for pretty much all my nail posts for the past year or so. What am I talking about? The Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Hardener.

The Diamond Strength Hardener is 3-free and claims to prevent your nails from splitting, cracking and peeling by giving you stronger nails within 5-7 days. I use it as a base-coat when I paint my nails and find it dries quickly which is great because I don't have much patience! When using this product I do notice that my nails feels stronger and they break less :)

The only bad thing I can say about this is that it goes a bit thick and gloopy after you've had it open and been using it for around 6 months. But I don't mind because it is often on sale and I use it a minimum of two times a week anyway so the bottle is probably nearly empty by the time it starts getting thick.

So even though it's not a pretty coloured polish or a sparkling glitter I think this product deserves somebody to pat it on the back because it has served me well, acting as my base-coat for a very long time. Nobody wants stained nails, split nails and weak fragile nails do they? Well if you do, don't buy this but if you want strong, healthy nails and a good base-coat for your manicures I think you can guess what I'm about to say...
I highly recommend this Diamond Strength Hardener from Sally Hansen. It retails for $16.95 and can be found at places like Priceline and Myer.

Thanks for reading :)

Autumn Dotticure

I've been thinking about it and I have decided autumn is my favourite season. Admittedly, this autumn has been amazing with days hovering around 25 degrees still as well as the chillier weather that I don't mind in moderation.

I used 'Plums The Word' by Sally Hansen which is a lovely colour for autumn/winter and then I did some dots using 'Toffee' by Maybelline. I picked these colours randomly but now looking at it on my nails it looks very autumn-y and I absolutely love the combo <3

In some lights this nail-art isn't very noticeable but then sometimes you go WOAH look at that beauty :) This next photo I took quickly with my mobile when I was out and about because the lighting was really good. Yep, I'm a crazy nail blogger...

Thanks for reading :)

The Battle Nail Challenge - Holographic vs. Matte

Okay so continuing on with The Battle Nail Challenge today I have for you the battle between holographic polishes and matte nail polishes. I think both holo and matte polishes can look fantastic however I find that both don't tend to last long on my nails :( Holographic polishes are definitely my favourite although I think this love comes more from swatches rather than actually wearing it on my nails - weird I know!

I decided to do a "matte" manicure for this post but if you want to see a holographic post click here to see fishwife by butter london or siw by make up store.

For this manicure I used the following polishes:

• 1 coat of 'Jungle Gem' an indigo teal by Sally Hansen 
• 2-3 coats of Speck-tacular a flakie top coat by Australis
• 1 coat of 'Matte Top Coat' by Chi Chi

I love how flakie top coats look when covered with a matte top coat and same goes for glitters. They still sparkle and have that "light-shift" property but it looks more mysterious. 

I promise I didn't forget about this challenge but somehow ended up starting other challenges and sadly haven't done this for a long time! Bad me!!!! Hopefully I will be able to get back on track now. 

Thanks for reading and take care, 

Cheers

Sally Hansen - bonus gift alert for Priceline shoppers

Hi guys! I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday. I wanted to get this post up super quickly so if you wanted to take advantage of this great deal you can do so before it ends! So I went to Priceline today (what's new? I swear I spend more time there than at home, lol!!!!) and they currently have a deal on that entitles you to a bonus gift valued at $53.30 when you spend $20.00 or more on the Sally Hansen range. Unlike a lot of "bonus gifts" this isn't just a heap of useless products that you probably wouldn't buy normally.

Spend $20 on Sally Hansen products:

 And get this free:

The bonus gift consists of:

• No more ridges nail shaper & buffer block
• Diamond Strength Nail Hardener 13.3ml (full size)
• Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat 13.3ml (full size)
• Complete Salon Manicure in 'Frutti Petutie' 14.7ml (full size)

I have previously brought the Diamond Shine Base & Top Coat and I am currently using the nail hardener and love it so I was pretty thrilled to see that you these products as the bonus gift because usually bonus gifts leave me feeling disappointed. Not this time though!!!!

Also, the Complete Salon Manicure collection, usually $14.95 is currently $10. 

I am super excited and wanted to share this ASAP as I think it is a great deal :) I love a bargain.....

Have a great weekend, cheers

 

Aussie Christmas Nail Challenge - Christmas Tree

The theme for today's challenge is 'Christmas Tree' and I decided to do a manicure inspired by my own Christmas tree. Every year we decorate our tree with silver tinsel (correction, LOTS of tinsel) and silver and blue baubles. Therefore this manicure is silver based.

If only polishes looked as good on nails as they did in bottles!

This is the first time I have worn or swatches this polish and whilst I'm not thrilled with the density of the glitter in the clear base I think I am always going to be one of those glitter-haters. If anybody knows of any good glitters that are DENSE please let me know :) Cheers. 

Anyway 'Party Popper' is by Models Prefer and contains silver/holo??? bar glitters and small glitter particles in a clear base. I layered it over Sally Hansen's 'Pedal to the Metal' and I think the result is quite nice - it's a delicate manicure that it isn't too showy but you still get a nice surprise when you step into the sunshine. Next time I will probably use more coats of 'Pedal to the Metal' though.

Cheers, 

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