December Bella Box

Here is the other beauty box subscription I ordered.

Like Lust Have It!, Bella Box is $15/month and you get five 'prestige, boutique and cult beauty products from around the world'.

Now unlike Lust Have It!, the packaging of the Bella Box was exquisite.

This is how it arrived in my mail box:

Gorgeous.

Then inside was another, equally gorgeous box.

For the box alone, I would get this subscription, lol.  I already have ideas of what to store in this box and future boxes.

But, alas, this subscription does not just get you a pretty box.  Like Lust Have It!, here is a list of what may have been in the December box with more details on the products themselves.

All so delicately wrapped in tissue paper.

John Frieda Frizz-Ease Finishing Creme - I am pretty excited about this product.  I totally forgot it was in the box and actually went to the hairdresser the other day asking for a product to do very similar things.  I suffer from the dreaded 'sticky-uppy-frizzy-bits', especially more so now that I am using my AWESOME (yet uber powerful) Christmas present of a ghd Hair dryer.  I'm new to the whole hair dryer scene, so I'm an yet to discover the must-have products to make my hair look salon styled.  I can't wait to see if this product really will tame my frizzy tendrils.

emerginC Cleanser and Cream - As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a devout Clinique skincare follower.  But I will try these lovelies and see whether they do what they claim to do which is 'turn back the hands of time'.  Let's face it, I'm no longer a spring chicken and if I take care of my skin now, I may just look younger for longer...

Compeed Blister Patches - just what every girl needs.  We all know the pain and agony of breaking in new shoes, and these bad boys are supposed to act like a second skin to help prevent new blisters from forming while soothing and healing the blisters that already exist.  I don't have any blisters right now, but when I do, I'll be sure to give these a whirl.

Allegra Rhodes Hand and Nail Cream - I love hand creams and this little beauty is so tiny, it will fit easily in my handbag.  Obviously there is only a few uses, but it smells heavenly.

And now for the big ticket item Bella Box was raving about in their emails.  As you can see, most of their box products are sample size.  But this next item is 'real size' and according to their website, worth $110.  So either they are over-exagerating to the extreme (come on, the whole box only cost $15, how can they justify a product worth over $100?!) or I chose the perfect time to join.

Savoir Faire Limited Edition Kit "C'est le ton qui fait la musique" - This was a surprise.  I am always looking for new make-up to add to my collection, and while I don't tend to lean towards make-up kits, the eye shadows in this have me hypnotised.  They are full of sparkle and shimmer and I can't wait to use them.  The eye-liner, mascara and blusher will also most likely get a go, but I can't see myself using the lipgloss.

So that was my first Bella Box.  All in all, I'm fairly impressed, though I do believe there is more value in the Lust Have It! box (not including the allegedly $110 make-up kit...).  I am unsure as to whether they have big ticket items in all of their boxes, or whether this was just a Christmas treat.

Another notable aspect of Bella Box is that you can purchase most of the box products in full-size on their website.  Which is great, as there is nothing worse than liking a sample product but then having no idea how or where to purchase it (I think Lust Have It! may have something similar, where you can purchase box products in their 'shop').

I look forward to receiving my next box. 

Hopefully some nail polish will make its way in to one (or both) of these great beauty box subscriptions.

xx

*Again, this post is not sponsored by Bella Box in any way.  I purchased this subscription myself with my own money*

Lust Have It! December Beauty Box

Many nail bloggers from overseas were raving on about their subscription beauty boxes and I was curious to see whether Australia had something similar.  

I have discovered two so far and received my first boxes last month.  

Lust Have It! is a beauty box subscription.  For $14.95/month you get a box full of 5-6 'premium' samples.

The idea of the beauty box subscription is to introduce consumers to new products that they may not otherwise have tried.  Many of the products in the box are sample size, but still a good enough size for decent usage to test the effectiveness of the product.

I wasn't sure what to expect with these beauty box subscriptions.  I decided to give it a go for a few months and if I didn't like it, I would cancel my subscription.  I received my Bella Box first (which I will blog about later), and my Lust Have It! box arrived a week later.  The Lust Have It! box was, in my opinion, much better value.

Click this link for a more in depth description of what each product does and what was included in the box.  Note, not ALL products listed were in the box, this is the list of what they chose from, so the December box would contain 5-6 of these products.

To be honest, I haven't had a chance to really test these products, but now that I have taken them out of their box, I will make a concerted effort to try them.  I hope to review the actual products effectiveness in future boxes.

Here is the box and it's contents (please excuse the crappy photography, I am still getting used to my camera and only just discovered the macro setting in the Bella Box photos...):

Here's the box in all its seam bursting glory.  Apparently this is the first time they have not put the products in a nice bag.  Instead, it was just shoved in a box (with packing ribbon to cushion it).  I didn't know any different, so I was cool with it.

Marc Jacobs Daisy sample - I was a bit excited to see this in the box.  I have coveted this perfume for quite a while, however with its exxy price, I have put off buying it.  This sample is more than enough to quench my hunger for it, and may just make me decide I do in fact NEED this perfume in my life.  I have a birthday coming up...

Pelactiv Facial Refiner Deep Cleansing Scrub - I am curious to use this product.  I am a devout Clinique user and have felt the wrath of my skin every time I try to change to a different skin care product (uh, hello uber expensive Lancome, sorry, but my skin HATED you...).  I am always looking for a good scrub.  One to use once a week to give my pores a good clean out.  Clinique has a good one, but I will be giving this bad boy a try tonight.

Benefit Mascara They're Real Mascara - I have a love/hate relationship with mascara.  I NEED to use it.  My eyelashes almost look non-existent without it.  But I am yet to acquire the skill required to apply it flawlessly.  My lashes often look clumpy and due to my habit of subconsciously rubbing my eyes and fiddling with my crusty mascara riddled lashes, I am prone to panda eyes.  I am using a Clinique mascara at the moment that washes off in 'bits' in warm water, so that bit I like, but the wand leaves a little bit to be desired.  I'm gonna give this Benefit mascara a whirl the next time I go out.  The wand looks quite impressive and according to their spiel, it doesn't smudge, budge or dry out.  Three things I like in a mascara.

 Glasshouse Fragrances Nourishing Hand Cremes - I LOVE their candles, so I can only assume that the fragrance in their hand cremes will be just as awesome.  I have desperately wanted to use these, but they almost seem too good to use.  Don't despair, I will be giving one of these beauties a whirl later on this afternoon.  With my new found obsession with polish comes the necessity that is acetone to remove polish and to 'clean-up'.  This has dried my poor phalanges and I am always on the lookout for awesome hand creams.

Naked Tan Goddess Shimmer - This lovely smells divine and leaves a gorgeous sparkle on the skin.  However, I'm stumped as to where I would wear this.  To the beach?  Out to dinner?  Just because?  I'm sure I'll find a reason to wear it, if not only because I love sparkles!

Catwalk by Tigi Sessions Series Finishing Hair Spray - I'm kinda new to the hair product world.  I have been slowly acquiring hair products over the past couple of months, however I have steered clear of hairspray so as to avoid 'crispy' hair.  Funnily enough, I bought a light weight hair spray just two days ago...   This hairspray claims to be brushable and light-weight.  So I will surely give it a whirl and due to its compact size, it will most likely travel with me.

Lust Have It! Exfoliating Glove - When I first saw this in the box, I wasn't sure what it was.  For a small while there I thought it might have been a mini hot water bottle cover.  Turns out it's an exfoliating glove.  I love exfoliating gloves and use my trusty Body Shop ones every night.  I'm not sure if I will use this one though.  There is no loop to hang it in your bathroom and I quite like the actual glove like qualities of my Body Shop gloves (they have actual FINGERS).

All in all, I LOVED this box.  For just $15/month, that is HEAPS of value.  Lust Have It! have a lot to live up to in their next boxes, though from looking at what has been included in previous boxes, I'm doubtful that they will disappoint.

*This post was not sponsored by Lust Have It! in any way.  I purchased this subscription myself*

China Glaze - Running in Circles

Today I have a GORGEOUS emerald green polish to share with you.

China Glaze's Running in Circles is from their recent Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away collection.  This collection was full of very many pretties, and I managed to restrain myself and only purchase two - I'll show you the other one when I eventually wear it.

Running in Circles is an incredibly gorgeous emerald green with super duper shimmer.  For a while there I thought it was made up of mainly glitter, but I was mistaken.  Application was a breeze.  It required three coats for full opacity with the only issue I could see being the drying time.  It seemed to take forever to dry between coats, but that may be due to our disgustingly humid weather!  Clean-up was also VERY easy.  I imagined having green cuticles, but that is not the case (however the photo is showing some reflective green on my skin, it is not there in real life).

I love this polish and can't wait to try it's blue sister very soon.

xx

Recycled Bikini makes a Splash!

Again, another lame title, lol.  Get used to them.

Wow, two posts in one day.  Maybe this new direction was a good idea after all.

As I mentioned this morning, I had plans to recycle my blue Essie manicure by adding piCture pOlish Splash as a topper.

It was gorgeous.

The piCture pOlish applied like a dream.  I didn't have to fish around for the glitter and it contrasted well with the other blue shades.

I applied two coats of Splash, and in hindsight, one would have been plenty.

xx

Essie's Smooth Sailing in a Teeny Bikini

Okay, I admit it.  Lame title, lol.

Today I have my current manicure to show you.  It's my first manicure using Essie polish.  I purchased 13 Essie polishes for the fantastic price of $6 each from Ozsale just before Christmas.  Essie is well known for their simple, but staple colours and their fantastic formula.

I used three coats of Essie Bikini So Teeny and then three coats of Smooth Sailing on my accent finger and thumb.  I then topped it with a coat of my current fave top coat - Sally Hansen Insta-Dry (with a base coat of OPI Nail Envy-Soft & Thin).

These blues are absolutely gorgeous.  My only complaints would be the smell, with Bikini So Teeny slightly worse than Smooth Sailing.  I also had some issues with Bikini So Teeny levelling out evenly, but that is only really noticeable close-up.

I will be recycling this manicure very soon by layering piCture pOlish Splash on top - a gorgeous blue glitter. I will post the results from that addition later.

Oh, here's some more nail mail!

On the advice from the lovely ladies from the Aussie Nails facebook group, I purchased my first bottles of Duri Rejuvacote from an ebay store.  I also couldn't resist and bought some lovelies I have been lemming for a while, in particular:  CG Ruby Pumps, CH For Audrey, OPI Samoan Sands, CG Running in Circles, CG Water You Waiting For, CG Secret Peri-wink-le and CG Dorothy Who.

This will be my last nail mail for a while.  I am desperate to purchase some more pretties, but am on a no-buy this month.  But that's okay, because it's my Birthday Group Month!  So in the next few weeks I will be receiving 11 lovely nail mail packages from the gorgeous girls in my Birthday Group!  Yay!!

xx

A slight change in direction...

I have been pondering for a while what I should do with my blog.  I had big intentions of posting more regularly during the holidays, but lo and behold, there is little over a week to go until I head back to work and I haven't posted over the holidays at all.  I have been a little unmotivated to be honest.  I've put on some extra kgs over the past few months, and while I'm not as heavy as I was this time last year, I am nowhere near where I wanted to be.

So the blog pondering began.  Do I shut it down?  Or do I move it into a new direction?

Obviously, I chose the latter.

And I have changed my blog design to mark the occasion.

My love of nail polish has been no secret.  I have mentioned nail polish in a number of my posts during 2012.  However, in the past six months, my love of nail polish has exploded.  I have never been someone to do things by halves.  My collection has continued to grow thanks to Ozsale and Brands Exclusive sales.  I started reading tonnes of nail blogs and discovered a fantastic Facebook group dedicated to Australian polish lovers like myself.  The gorgeous ladies in this group have not only fuelled and enabled my love of polish, they have also inspired me.

So this blog will follow my journey with nail polish.  It will not be perfect.  My nails are far from perfect.  For some reason, they get to a certain length (SHORT) and refuse to grow any further.  My painting and clean-up techniques are far from perfect.  My photos are not perfect.  I will not be constructing a lightbox any time in the near future.  Most of my photos will be Instagram or from my simple point and shoot digital (if I can be bothered to pull it out of my drawer...)  I do not own photoshop, so there will be no tweaking, cleaning or perfecting of my photos.  I am still to perfect the 'bottle' shot.  It often looks like I'm gripping the bottle for dear life as my stubby fingers struggle to grasp the bottle elegantly.  I will not be doing 'swatches'.  I refuse to apply polish to one hand just to photograph and then remove it immediately.  I actually enjoy WEARING my manicures for at least two days.  My cuticles could use some work and I am currently trying a variety of products to soften them.  I do not moisturise my hands/nails every 30 minutes.  I'm lucky if I remember to moisturise them once a day.  I will very rarely use the word 'mani' as it I think it sounds slightly dirty like 'panties'.  I am yet to venture into the world of nail art.  I can barely draw on an A4 piece of paper let alone a teeny tiny nail, but I aim to experiment with the 'simple' nail art techniques using sponges, striping tape, dotting tools, stamps and brushes.  This blog will still be a hobby.  I will not turn this into a part-time job like some of those awesomely dedicated (and talented) bloggers of the blogs that I read regularly.  I do not expect to attract a cult following and am happy to share with the two or so regular readers that I already have.

This blog will still chronical my journey with food.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I love to EAT and I love to COOK.  I still enjoy the challenge of finding delicious, low calorie meals to help me on my weight loss journey.  However, the food side of this blog will be small.

So to kick off my new direction, here are a couple of nail related photos I've take over the past couple of weeks.

My latest manicure - CG Concrete Catwalk with CG Techno on my accent finger and thumb.

My latest 'nail mail'.  My first piCture pOlish order.

More nail mail.  My very first Essie polishes.  I'm trying a couple of these pretties out today.

Butter London Henley Regatta.  Gorgeous, however this is FIVE coats.

Butter London Two Fingered Salute.  One of the most popular polishes of 2012 and I totally understand why.  I am LOVING that copper shimmer in amongst the green.

Sinful Colors is now sold in Oz.  This is SC Why Not topped with SC Nail Junkie.  I love blue, but I hate the removal - Smurf Fingers.

My first brown manicure.  Essence Sneezy topped with CG Golden Enchantment.

My Christmas nails.

Oh, here is a food pic to get your tummies grumbling.  I was so proud of myself for making this awesome Balsamic and Blackberry Glazed Ham for Christmas.  YUM.

Until next time...

xx

Nail Mail!

Wow.  I feel like I start all my blog post the same way...  It's been a while.

With today being the last day of the school year, I'm hoping to blog more regularly over the holidays.  There are quite a few new recipes I'm hanging out to cook, plus I think my blog might slowly get taken over by my ever growing obsession with nail polish.

Which brings me to today's post.

I mentioned in my last post that I had ordered some OPI polishes from the US and was anxiously waiting for their arrival.  It was a VERY long wait.  Or at least it felt like a VERY long wait.  I think in total it took about 7 weeks.  I guess that's not too bad in the grand scheme of things, especially since it had to cross an ocean and compete with the Thanksgiving day holiday.

I was starting to think it would never arrive.  As I was pulling into my driveway yesterday I noticed that there was no parcel slip hanging out of the door and mentioned to my sister that if it was not here by Monday I would be requesting a refund.  Little did I know about the surprise that was waiting for me IN the mailbox - the whole parcel was in my mailbox!  Yay!!!

I was so excited about this long awaited parcel that I took a photo of it.  I was going to post it on here, but had no idea how to remove my address from the photo...

Opening the parcel and unwrapping all the individually wrapped polishes was the best bit.  I had forgotten which colours I had ordered.

I also thought I'd only ordered 10 polishes.  But it turns out I had ordered 12.  Yay!!

I was surprised at the amount of red polishes I had bought.  Some were quite similar actually.  Oh well.  I can't wait to wear these pretties.  I think the first one I will wear will be the Breast Cancer duo.

I'm considering starting to post more of my polishes on here like some of my favourite nail blogs.  The only thing putting me off is the length of my nails.  They get to a particular length (SHORT) and then appear to refuse to grow anymore!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the whole reason I decided to order this polish from the US is because of the ridiculous price we are expected to pay for polish in Australia.  In Oz, OPI retails for $20.  I managed to get these beauties for $7 each.