Clarisonic Mia

CLARISONIC MIA

I started using earlier this month.  I had seen a few positive reviews on these from America and liked the sound of it so I went on the hunt to find it in Australia as the shipping on these from America was expensive and varying between $30 and $40.

I found them available online at a few places in Australia but I chose to purchase mine from Active Skin because it was one of the cheapest in Australia at $134.10 and I could get free shipping on purchases of $140 or more and they had the lavender ones in stock.  To make it up to $140 I also bought some Fudge Dynamite Conditioning Sachets.  I also received  alot of free samples of cleaners & moisturisers from Active Skin too. 

I don't understand the sonic technology behind this but I can tell you I can see a difference in my skin in the short time that I've been using it.  My skin is brighter, clearer and fine lines have diminished.  Blackheads are also a thing of the past since using this. 

I like how it's on a timer and as long as you count once you switch it on, it won't turn off before you've finished.  The recommended time is 20 seconds for forehead, 10 seconds on each cheek and 20 seconds for nose/chin area.  I've been doing only 10 seconds on my forehead so I have an extra 10 seconds to do under my chin and down to my neck. 

It has a pLink charger which is really neat and you just sit the unit on top of the charger and a light on the handle of the unit tells you when it's fully charged.  The unit is completely sealed and waterproof so you can use it in the shower which is why it has this type of charger.

The Clarisonic Mia comes with a sensitive brush head which is to be cleaned once a week and replaced every 3 - 4 months depending on how often you use it.  There are different types of brush heads and I found the cheapest brush heads on ebay.  I purchased 2 brand new heads for $25 + $5 postage from America.  So I'm set for quite a few months in regards to brush heads. 

I really am so glad that I bought this because I can see the benefits in my skin but I do struggle to see why it's so expensive but I do love it and I love that they have all different colours available and that I got a lavender one.  Apparently lavender is a limited edition colour.

If you like the sound of this but not the price tag then have a look at the one that Priceline have on sale until 7 May 12.  It's a Harmony Ultrasonic Cleansing Brush.  It sounds very similar to the Clarisonic Mia and is on sale now for only $89.

Thanks for reading. 

Debbie

Winter Berry and Fairy Dust

Hello

Was looking through some older photos last night and found these ones.  Checked the date on them and they were actually my valentine's day nails.  I remember I was rushed for time and just wanted some sparkle on my nails. 

I asked my daughter to choose a red polish for me and she always chooses China Glaze Winter Berry.  She really likes that one but I prefer a deeper red so to jazz it up a bit I layered China Glaze Fairy Dust over it.  Once the Fairy Dust was on I liked Winter Berry alot more than when it's on it's own. 

Thanks for reading

Debbie

Karine - WOW WOW WOW

POLISHES FROM KARINE

Wow wow wow oh wow was what I said when I opened the package that contained these polishes.  These are the handmade creations from Karine and they are way better and prettier than I expected and I apologise now that my camera does not do these justice. 

These polishes are jellies with flakes and glitter.  On her  blog she held a poll asking which of her polishes was your favourite and the one with the most votes would be the one that you would receive for free if you purchased 2 or more of her polishes.  Yes for free !  Very generous of her.



Noir Desir, Ooh La La, Naiade



Noir Desir won the vote so I'll start with that one.  This one is black jelly with flakes and glitter.  I layered this over a black creme except for the pinky which is 2 coats of Noir Desir on it's own.

Shade - Noir Desir over black, pinky is Noir Desir 2 coats on it's own

Partial Sun - Noir Desir over black, pinky is Noir Desir 2 coats on it's own

Naturally one of my choices was the purple one called Ooh La La.  Once again I layered this over a matching purple (I used China Glaze Grape Pop) to bring out the purple in the jelly.

Shade

My other purchase was a way off one for me.  Normally I stick to purples and pinks but this one is a turquoise colour called Naiade.  I layered this over China Glaze Gussied Up Green and I really liked that.  I actually tried this one over alot of different greeny bluey colours and I liked all of them.


Artificial light



Then my 9 year old daughter, Montana, said I should put them over white.  Don't know where she came up with that one from but they look great over white! 



Naiade over white, Ooh La La over white, Noir Desir over white

Overall, I really like these polishes.  I think they're very versatile and I will definitely be wearing these again.

* I found them really easy to apply compared to some other jellies. 

* These ones stay where you put them. 

* You get a good amount of glitter and flakies on the brush.  

* You get good coverage and don't have to do any patching up later.

* They spread very well and easily.

Karine is currently out of stock on most colours but is still taking orders as backorders.  Which is a really good way to operate because it means you will get what you want and don't have to stalk Etsy and end up missing out.

I hope you like these as much as I do and hop on over to Karine's page to see her other colours.

Thanks for reading

Debbie

Purple Crackle Nails

PURPLE CRACKLE NAILS

Hi all, hope you are all good! Public holiday here for ANZAC Day so I'm working on some more blog posts but in the meantime here's a purple crackle that I did a while back when my nails were a bit shorter.

I did a base coat of China Glaze Avalanche which is a silvery purple metallic colour. As you can see, it shows the brush marks but I wasn't too worried as I was putting China Glaze Fault Line over it.

I quite like the finished effect! But then again I like anything purple.

Thanks for reading

Debbie

Darling - just a little frosting

Hello Darling - just a little frosting

This is a beautiful pinky mauve shimmer from Australian company called Darling.



Just a Little Frosing - outside filtered sun

It's a nice thick polish that was easy to apply.  This is 2 coats.  I was lucky enough to get this on sale.


Just a Little Frosting - shade

I also bought Sugarplum Fairy at the same time.  That one is more purple than pink and darker than Just a Little Frosting.  Both gorgeous though.

Sugarplum Fairy - Just a Little Frosting

Check http://www.hellodarling.com.au/ to see if they have anything else on sale if you are interested. They are also currently having a pre-sale on their new polishes.

Thanks for reading

Debbie



Beauty Basket - March

Today I received my first Beauty Basket. I missed the mail lady this morning so had to go to post office to pick it up and it needed to be signed for as well.

I signed up for Beauty Basket for 3 months for around $45 and that includes one beauty basket containing 5 products and one copy of Just Be magazine every month.

Last month I received my first Glossybox and was not happy with it at all. So I cancelled that on the same day I received the package and signed up for Beauty Basket.

This is the March beauty basket. They were a bit late getting them out because so many new people had signed up with them in March.

The products actually do come in a basket with pink shredded paper and pink ribbon, which is cute and I like that. There's also a little info brochure on all the products.

What was in the basket:

Innoxa Nail Polish (full size) I got Candy Apple. Very nice! RRP: $13.95

Avon Supershock MAX Mascara (full size) RRP: $22.99

John Plunkett Advanced Instant Wrinkle Filler (Received 10ml trial size. Full size is 20ml RRP:$39.95)

Goldwell Dualsenses Rich Repair 60sec Hair Treatment. (Received 50ml trial size. Full size is 200ml RRP: $20.95)

ULittleBeauty Dinki-Di Day Cream. Received 30ml trial size. (Full size is 75ml RRP: $22.95)

Overall I'm very happy with what I received in my basket and will be able to use all of the products in there. Money well spent I think. I think it's a good way to try new products without paying full price for them.

Available from http://www.beautybasket.com.au/

St Patricks Day Nails - better late than never

Better late than never! 

I didn't have a blog back on St Patricks Day but still took photos because I was hoping to enter a competition with this design but then couldn't enter because to enter that certain competition you needed to do your nails with that company's green polish which I don't have any of.

So anyway for this I did a base coat of China Glaze Re-fresh Mint and I think I put some sort of flaky coat over that then I taped off the top corners and painted China Glaze Outta Bounds on the corners, then I randomly placed emerald and lime hex on the re-fresh mint portion of the nail. Then to finish I did a gold glitter stripe across where the two colours meet then top coat as normal.

Thanks for reading

Debbie

piCture pOlish - Ozotic 513

Hi everyone

Hope you are all well.

Today I have some more purple nails for you. This is another one from Australian company, piCture pOlish, and is called Ozotic 513.

It's a purple holographic shimmer polish and I love this so much, mostly because it's purple but also because of all the other colours that the holographic shimmer throws off.  Also it doesn't contain any glitter which means it's easier to remove.

This pic is 2 coats taken outside in the shade but with filtered sunlight. It reflected too much to photograph properly in full sun, so imagine if you can, how holographic it is in full sun! All the purple holographic goodness! I love it (did I tell you that already?)

I purchased this online at http://www.picturepolish.com.au/

Thanks for reading.

Debbie

Mid Week Haul

Hi everyone

Just a quick post here to show you all things I've bought or received in the mail this week already and it's only Tuesday night!

First up I bought Ulta3 from Coles for $2 each. Naturally they are all purples! Just can't help myself when it comes to purple nail polish.

Then I went to Priceline and they had $3 off all Sally Hansen products so I grabbed two bottles of Gem Crush in
Be-Jeweled and Big Money for $6.95 each and one bottle of Xtreme wear in Pink Satin for $3.95.

While in Priceline they also had buy 1 get 1 free on Revlon so I got Girly & Midnight Haze.

Then these arrived in the mail from Karine on Monday. These are her own creations and they are gorgeous. I will be showing you these colours on my nails very soon.

Also on Monday I received Confetti and Spring Fling from Paris Sparkles.

Then waiting for me today when I got home was 2 mini's from Pretty & Polished, Dream Queen and Candy Coated.

Also today I received Lipstick samples from Just Pure Minerals and Cinema Secrets Moisture Spray and empty lipstick palettes.

There's quite a few things still to arrive that I've ordered so it could be a big exciting week of opening presents at my house this week.

Well for me at least!

Thank you all for reading.

Debbie





Hello everyone

I hope you have all had a very nice Easter weekend. The long weekend continues for me as I'm  lucky enough to be on holidays for the rest of this week.

This is my first ever post to my first ever blog. I've been thinking about doing this for a while and now I have a page here so we will see how it all goes.

So first up before anyone asks, yes the nails in the pics are my natural nails. I do not and have not ever worn acrylic nails because I've never needed to as my natural nails grow long and strong. Also my camera is not that great so I do the best with what I have at the moment but am  planning to get a new and better camera in the near future.

Today I have China Glaze Dance Baby with Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly on top. Hello Dolly is described as white, pink and lavender hex glitters and tiny pink prism  glitters that give off a holographic shine.

I first put on 1 coat of China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
then 2 coats of China Glaze Dance Baby
then 1 coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
then 1 coat of  Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly
then 1 coat of China Glaze No-Chip Top Coat

I normally don't put the Insta-Dri on until all coats are finished but I just thought I'd give it a go because I found it was taking way too long to dry and was getting smudged even after 2 hours. I think it'd worked pretty well. I just wish the camera would pick up the sparkle a bit more. I love this combination. It's very pretty. I really need that new camera.

If you are interested in purchasing a Pretty & Polished handmade 3 free  polish please visit her shop at the following link       etsy.com/shop/prettyandpolished

Thank you so much for reading
Debbie

piCture pOlish - Peacock

Hi there

I can't believe how quickly that week off work went. It's back to work tomorrow for me.

So I just wanted to show you a polish that I bought from an Australian company called piCture pOlish.  This is from their Opulance range. It's called Peacock and it's the only one I have from this range at the moment.

I would describe Peacock as a mix of emerald and blue glitters suspended in a purple base. It's very pretty but does need a top coat to bring back the shine and sparkle as it dries matte.

My pinkie finger is 2 coats of Peacock and was a bit patchy so on the other fingers I did a base coat of purple (sorry can't remember which one I used) and then I did a coat of Peacock then the top coat and I was alot happier with it as it showed more purple which always makes me happy.

piCture pOlish are now retiring some of their other shades are they are now on sale. You can order online at http://www.picturepolish.com.au/

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

Debbie

Purple Nails - China Glaze and Nubar

CHINA GLAZE FIRST CLASS TICKET AND NUBAR PURPLE FIRE

Hi everyone

I'm still on holidays and am taking my daughter to see the Scooby Doo show in the city so of course that means a new manicure.

Today I've chosen China Glaze First Class Ticket which is described as blue toned deep purple shimmer. It's gorgeous and gave really good coverage with only one coat as you can see here (below). It's really hard to photograph.

I did do 2 coats though just cause that's what I do. This is First Class Ticket with 2 coats (below).  Not much difference except to deepen the colour.

Even though I love all things purple and this is a beautiful colour on its own, this is plain for me so I then applied a coat of Nubar Purple Fire which is a sheer purple based polish loaded with different size holographic glitters. I tried to show you the holographic nature of this by taking an extreme close-up kind of out of focus not too much light pic (below).

I purchase my China Glaze polishes from Head2Toe Beauty in America http://www.head2toebeauty.com/

I purchase my Nubar polishes from Beauty Bay in the UK http://www.beautybay.com/ Beauty Bay are excellent because they have free shipping to Australia and worldwide and they normally ship the next day after you place your order.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all have a great day no matter what you are doing.

Debbie