Catch up: Nails, Kisses & KPOP

Hello Lovlies, 

Long time no chat...let me update you with my "wild" nanna tales.

You've heard the saying "drugs, sex and rock'n'roll" right? Well this is the tame nanna version : Nails, kisses and kpop.

butter london no more waity kaity, ulta 3 enchanted

In the beginning of November, I was able to meet Natalia of cats_n_nails blog. It started with a swap (above) and ended with a shopping haul. I was in fangirl mode at meeting someone else who shared the same enthusiasm for nail polish. She's like the yoda of nail polish! Padiwan nana learnt a lot! 

lush : lemon fluttery cuticle butter and solid perfume in orange blossom

Natalia is a crazy enabler but I managed to resist and at the end of the day only bought one nail polish and a couple of lush products. You can see Natalia's nail haul here. I had a lovely time and we discussed organising a Perth meet up for bloggers next year! Anyone interested, let us know. 

Nail polish - more than just coloured chemicals

If my house was on fire and I had only one thing to take.....well I'd take my car keys. Did you think I was going to say my nail polishes?! That would be insane but they are what I hug at night, other than my future cats. (I don't own any pets at the moment).

Love from Hong Kong (swap)

 

It was another bleak Autumn day but a box on my door step from Hong Kong brought a smile to my face. 

I contacted Jacq after following her beauty blog and was jealous of the amazing products she reviewed and had access to in Hong Kong. 

My first venture into the Ulta-terestial (Ulta3 nails)

Let's go back a few years, when I was an oil-soaked working teen in the fast food industry. When I got my pay I would spend it on comics or soft toys. I never bothered with beauty products but on the rare occasion I would go buy myself a $2 nail polish from the pharmacy. They were absolutely horrid; streaky formula, needed a thousand coats and smelt like death in a bottle. I never looked back when I got my hands on my first china glaze bottle.


Yet, the beautiful ladies on the Australian vogue forum had created a 250 page thread on an Aussie brand nail polish I had never heard before. Ulta 3 is a pharmacy-bin-diving-$2-trendy-range of nail polishes. With the fear of horrible nail polish instilled in me verses the bargain brain, curious cat that I am....the cat won. 

Etude house shini star bb lotion review

Etude House Shini Star limited edition range was promoted by Korean boyband Shinee (You can say they are the one direction of Korea) in late 2011/early 2012. I bought the tinted lip balms which you can peruse here and 2 more colours are still up for review. 

Being a sucker for Shinee and bb cream, I had to try out their Shini Star bb lotion. The BB lotion claims to promote moisture and brigthen the skin to enhance the natural complexion. The use of oatmeal formula soothes, softens and promotes healthy tissue growth.

Clinique Mascara Exchange (Australia).

Dearies, letting you know that Clinique in selected David Jones and Myers across Australia is holding a Mascara Exchange till the end of April. I ran to my mum's make up drawer and grabbed two random branded, absolutely unusable mascaras (she likes to keep them...) and dragged my mother to our nearest Myer. 

We had two available choices out of clinique's high impact and high lengths. It is a sample size of 3.5ml and lasts 6 months of use after opening. Click here to find which stores are holding the Mascara Exchange. 

So who is going to run down to clinique's counter tomorrow? 

xoxo

thrifty lashes,

nana

Chanel Peridot & Dupes

Well that's one off the wishlist. I have been obsessed with this colour because it reminded me of gold metallic nail foils. I was lucky enough to get this off Polish Haven's blog sale. Kristy was an absolute sweet heart who gave me a freebie nail polish and mints. Peridot (531) is a duochrome green and gold from Chanel's 2011 Fall polish line. It is one of the most unique nail colours I have ever seen but it makes me feel like a swamp monster or a gladiator. Sexy, I know.

The Revlon Conspiracy: Where is Revlon NOT on sale?

[L-R] lip butters: peach parfait & strawberry shortcake
 nails : sheer blossom, lilac pastelle & cloud 

Good day Dearies,

I picked up some revlon products from the "Buy One, Get One Free" (BOGOF) promotion for Revlon lips and nails range currently at priceline till the 23rd April. Except for cloud, I got that at Gloss for $4.95. Finally, this promotion makes the revlon lip butters much more affordable and lessens the rage I have for overpriced cosmetics down under. If you purchase $60 on selected brands at priceline you get a massive beauty bag of goodies for free. My wallet thanked me however for deciding to stop at 2 lip butters and nail polishes.

I strolled around for a while and noticed some sort of Revlon conspiracy. Everywhere I looked Revlon was on sale or it could be sale season. Here's the deals :

• Target $5 off lip and nails range ( Ends 18/4)
• Myer $8.95 nail polishes & BOGOF skincare (Ends 29/4)
• David Jones ~25-30% off selected ranges (Saw this at my DJs, not sure when it ends)
• K Mart $8 off colour stay range (Ends 18/4)

Wonders of bb cream - my ramblings

[click image to enlarge] my bare skin vs. etude shini star bb lotion 

Blemish Balm (BB) cream is described as a multi purpose product which claims to be have skincare properties while being a cosmetic product. You can read more about it here in Labmuffin's post.

Battle of the sheer lippie. Fight!

 

L'oreal Nutrishine|Dior addict|Revlon Lip butter

Sheer lipsticks are a great way to look polished even when you are having one of those bummer days. 

An easy look for summer and spring. Doesn't require constant check up and easy to apply without a mirror. These lipsticks are the love child of lipsticks, lip glosses and lip balms.

 Don't ask me how that works. 

Who would be the champion in this lipstick jungle?!

Contender one : L'oreal Nutrishine in FR102 Shiny Grapefruit

shimmery pink with coral undertones

3.5g, RRP $22AUD, contains Royal Jelly and Shea Butter

Contender two: Dior Addict in 465 Singuliere

pale pink

3.5g, RRP $49AUD

less wax than a normal lipstick and a reflecting gel

Contender three: Revlon lip butter in 050 Berry Smoothie

medium pink/plum

2.55g, RRP $22AUD

contains Shea, Mango and Coconut butter

3,2,1 ......Fight!

Wishlist: Nail polish collections 2012

I'm just going to quickly run over some of the upcoming nail polish collections and point out my favourites.  First off is a collaboration that makes more sense than pirates, spiders and cowboys with nail polish and it is the Hed Kandi (House music brand) x Model's Own nail polish. The collection will be released in early April in the UK. Ibiza mix makes me want to dance but upon the realization that shipping costs to Australia ($20-50AUD alone!) from Model's Own website is a major party pooper. 

So back to my crazy cat lady stories...

So this is my new nail swatch...don't mind me, forgot to shave. Jokes aside, this is actually a new discovery for me. Pet nail polish. I was searching for some nail polish and stumbled across a version of designer dog nail polish. O.P.I had released an animal friendly nail polish range in 2007 called 'pawlish', fortunately/unfortunately it has been discontinued. This is just bizzare for me and unneccessary. It reminds me of playing computer games where you dress up your neopet but this is applied to the non electronic version.

Are you going to purchase these for your little diddums?

Shini star lip balm! because girls are like magpies....

Shini star tinted lip balm is a limited edition product brought to you by Korean brand Etude House. Etude house has used a pun on popular korean boyband Shinee to name its product and market the balm. I crossed the pedo border and bought Taemin's favourite flavour in guava.(I'm the same age as their oldest member...so so so it's okay) 

Crystals are a girl's best friend

the face shop BK901 black nail polish, australis crystal colour top coat

I lie, when I said crystals are a girl's best friend but hey these flakies try their best.

Dearie, these flakes look bland in the bottle but on coloured nails they turn shiny, shiny colours in the sun!

Depending on their properties, you can get flakes that come in one type of colour or multiple colours (like the Australis one I bought). 

You can tell I'm an ozzie ozzie ozzie by my use of u in "colour".

I really wanted to try a colourful holographic flake top coat and picked up an Australis crystal colour top coat (RRP $8.95AUD). I actually got them for $6 at Big W. I'm a penny pincher! A friend told me it looks like nail polish vomit but I feel it reminds me of a show I used to watch as a kid called "Art Attack". Whatever you call it, here's some places to get your own splash of colour. 

Australian market alternatives:

• Chi chi crystral coat (myer/target)
• picture polish in festival, hypnotic or splendour  (online only / international shipping avail.)
• inglot dream collection range 

International market alternatives:

• Nubar in 2010
• Finger paints - special effects range
• Sally hansen in hidden treasure (discontinued-try ebay)
• Zoya 2012 fleck holographic