Skittles: Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoats

Hi everyone,

Only one more day to go before we finish 2011!

This quickie post is to share some pics I took a few weeks ago when I was playing with my new Crackle Overcoats from Sally Hansen.

I created a little skittle manicure, alternating shades over a white base (Essence's White Secret).  Although I did a pretty shabby job here because I was just mucking around, I was impressed with the obvious cracking effect of this polish. It was a lot more effective than the OPI shatters (with the exception of Black Shatter) have been for me.  These crackle polishes dry uber-quickly so you have to have a quick and steady hand to apply them.  Two quick strokes and you're done!

Both pics taken in full sunlight:

L-R:

Vintage Violet, Fuschia Shock, Cherry Smash

My preferred shades are Fuschia Shock and the slightly shimmery Vintage Violet.

That's all for now.

Vita :)

Napoleon Luxe Lipgloss Collection (self-gifting!)

It's always nice when I get spending money as a present.  It means I can go ahead and indulge myself a little without any tinge of guilt.  Of course for me that usually means indulging in cosmetics!

I'd spied Napoleon Perdis' limited Luxe Lipgloss Collection in the days leading up to Christmas and after some quick swatching in-store (very bad move because they were all gorgeous, classy shades weren't they!!) I was very tempted by the idea of trying five full-sized glosses for $55AUD, less than half the actual product price of $125AUD if I was to buy five individual NP glosses.  Well, I was strong and held out until after Christmas but when I saw the collection selling at 50% off at the Boxing Day sales - and I had Christmas gift money from my dear Dad in my wallet - that baby was mine!

So this is my little gift to myself:

Here's a little closer look at the tubes all lined up in the package.  As you can see there isn't a single Barbie shade in there and they cover the spectrum from deep plum to creamy nude.  Unfortunately the shades aren't labelled so I don't know if these are from Napoleon's core line or are limited edition.

Swatched in daylight in the same order as above:

According to the Napoleon Perdis website these luxe lip glosses are, "...packed with lip-loving ingredients like Green Tea and Pomegranate, ...and are... deliciously flavored with Lychee Extract..."  From my first impression these lip glosses feel weightlessly moisturising on my lips and provide a sheer colour with a high gloss patent finish.  I also love the lychee flavour and scent.

The Luxe Lipgloss Collection is currently retailing for $27.50AUD and is available from Napoleon stockists and their online store here while stocks last.

Did you indulge in any self-gifting this Christmas? 
What did you treat yourself to?

That's all for now.

Vita :)

REVIEW: Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer

Long time, no review.  Just another sign I've been busy I guess.

You may recall I did a comparison post on concealer pens here. While I decided at the time I'd found the best value for money product in L'Oreal's Touche Magique, I now have a new find to share, just a little more affordable, and perhaps the best of the bunch so far...

Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer

Although I liked the coverage and wear of L'Oreal's Touche Magique, by the time I'd finished it I decided not to buy another because of a little problem with the brush.  As the bristles were so stiff they ended up getting badly bent and misshapen from replacing the cap, making it difficult to apply the product precisely.  Looks pretty nasty, doesn't it:

While browsing the 'net for an alternative illuminating concealer to try,  I found the Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch highlighting concealer recommended by Beautyheaven  as a budget product so it piqued my curiosity.

Now the packaging of these two products is suspiciously similar (see below) and they both work the same way, dispensing the concealer into the brush by twisting the end of the pen.  I haven't done my research into this, so does anyone know if there's a connection between L'Oreal and Maybelline?

Top to bottom:  Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch

 L'Oreal Touche Magique

The difference between these two is Maybelline's brush is noticeably softer on my skin and more pliable than  L'Oreal's.  After one month of use it's still in a tidy condition with only a few hairs out of place:

The product itself is a similar quality creamy opaque concealer/illuminator to L'Oreal and it effectively blends over my under-eye circles (read raccoon eyes) to conceal and reflect light, making me look refreshed.  It lasts all day on my skin, and doesn't creep into my lines, so I don't need to touch it up at all.  Best of all this product is only $17.95AUD, significantly cheaper than $27AUD for L'Oreal's almost identical product.

Swatched & blended:

Pros:

 -opaque consistency that blends well

-effectively conceals undereye circles because of the illuminating properties

-covers minor blemishes

-does not crease or need touching up

-great value at $17.95AUD and is the same quality as higher priced alternative products

-convenient brush applicator

Cons: 

-may need extra help to cover major blemishes

-only 3 shades to choose from

Would I buy this again?

Yes I will - unless there's something else you want me to try!

Until next time.

Vita :)

Random post: My white Christmas

Hello again

I told you all about the unprecedented summer hail storm we experienced here in Melbourne in my last post. This quick post features the video footage my hubby recorded of the 'event'.  What a rude way to interrupt our Christmas afternoon:

A view from our front door - the poor cars!

 

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5339291298373143509

There's some pretty remarkable footage on Youtube but this is our little video.  I can look forward to a fine and hot New Years' Eve at least. 

Thanks for watching!

Vita :)

My Christmas Day mani: BYS - Tempt MeTangerine

Hello and Happy Holidays to everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful day :)

We celebrated Christmas Day with all the family having lunch at our home.  It was a massive feast as per usual:  My sis-in-law took care of the appetisers, bringing a load of homemade turkish dips and breads;  I did the full traditional main course with roast turkey, glazed baked ham, home baked bread, sauteed green beans & broccolini, maple glazed sweet potatoes, baby carrots and potato salad;  my other sis-in-law made two desserts:  white chocolate & strawberry cheesecake (I must get the recipe) and lemon tart.  My brother-in-law brought a fresh fruit platter.  Needless to say we all needed a nap after lunch!

It all got a bit exciting when a massive hailstorm hit late in the afternoon.  The wind was ferocious and it literally rained ice golf balls so we ended up having a white Christmas on a summer's day.  We suffered a neat little hole in the roof, courtesy of a loose roof tile falling from the second-floor roof down to the first in the midst of the storm.  My son thought it was great fun and ran outside barefoot once the storm had passed to check it all out and grab some of those hail stones- and ran back in freezing!  On a more serious note, all of our visitors' cars had been parked out in the elements and were hail damaged.  Not fun at all - It could have been much worse though.

Now onto some less than perfect pictures of my Christmas lunch mani.  In the end I settled on something to compliment my orange and red floral print summer maxi dress. I chose Tempt Me Tangerine from Australian budget brand BYS. This reminds me a lot of my favourite hot orange from Essence, Wake Up!.  It's a very bright red/orange creme and went perfectly with my outfit.  This manicure went through a lot of abuse, and these pictures were taken the day after. I'd done multiple loads of dishes, so the gloss has worn off and there's some tipwear.  You can still see the hotness of the colour though!

Both pics were taken in full sun:

What did you choose for your Christmas mani?

Until next time.

Vita :)

Festive fingertips: Kleancolor - Firework

I finished up at work yesterday for 7 weeks, and have completed my Christmas gift shopping today - Yay!

This post is to show you the OTT insanity my nails are sporting right now.  Kleancolor's Firework is a mash up of large blue, green/gold and red hex glitter, mixed in with green/gold microglitter.  I applied two coats over China Glaze's Ruby Pumps for an almost opaque coverage.  Now I like my glitter and bling but this nail polish is just a bit too much even for me I think.  It's very festive and makes my nails look like Christmas baubles but....I don't know?  I almost feel like hiding my hands!!!

See what you think:

Outdoors shade

Sun

Like or loathe?

Until next time.

Vita :)

Festive fingertips: China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

Shelley from Ageless Secrets this post is for you!

China Glaze's Ruby Pumps is technically not a holiday polish (it was from the Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection) but this spangly red sure hits the mark for the holiday season!  This is a warm red jelly base containing a generous dose of red glitter so it has that glitter suspended in space look and has depth of effect.  I bought this one from TransDesign a few months ago but have saved it until now and wore as my festive office mani this week.  For a non-Christmas polish this is the perfect Christmas tinsel red.

Full sun

Shade

Lamplight

I think this mani would also look great with a bit of green or gold embellishment - or both!

Until next time.

Vita :)

Festive fingertips: OPI - Show It and Glow It!

This festive polish is well known around the blogisphere!

OPI's Show It and Glow It! is a glitter polish from 2010's Burlesque holiday collection.  This riot of a polish is an amazing combination of silver, purple, green...basically multi-coloured glitter in a pinky purple base.  As I love purple, this is one fantastic glitter polish IMO, and I wore it all weekend.

This is two coats of SIAGI! finished with three coats of Sally Hansen Megashine top coat.  This thirsty glitter base really soaked up the top coat and I can see I could have done with a fourth topcoat if I wanted a perfectly glassy finish.  Never mind, it's still a party on my fingertips.

Full sun

Outdoors shade

Until my next post

Vita :)

EOTD - Daytime neutrals

I haven't done an EOTD post yet this month so...

This look isn't festive but more functional and something I fall back on for wearing to the office to counteract a strong lip colour.  It's a daytime look for when I want to look fresh and natural but still a little bit polished.  I laugh at myself over how it takes me using no less than three shades of neutral shadow to look like I'm wearing nothing on my eyelids.  This post is dedicated to the artifice involved in looking natural!

For this look I used:

• Face of Australia primer - (matte) blended over lids
• MAC - Shroom all over lids
• Maybelline - Silken Taupe blended in crease
• Revlon - Not Quite White on brow bone
• Face of Australia eye definer pencil - Brown on upper lash line
• Napoleon - Whole Lotta Lash mascara (black) on upper lashes only

 

How many products do you use for a natural look?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Vita :)

Festive fingertips: OPI - I Get a Kick Out of Gold!

Happy Saturday!

First of all a big SORRY for my sporadic posting this month.  December is such a crazy month for me with all the social commitments, shopping, planning and trying to wind up all my stuff at the office before I head off on leave!  I can promise you January will be back to the usual routine and I have lots of ideas for new posts.  So many ideas, so little time but just at the moment...

Okay, continuing on the festive theme, here's another old holiday gem from OPI and I can't understand why I haven't worn this one before.  I Get a Kick Out of Gold! is from OPI's Rockettes 2006 holiday collection and is a sparkly white-gold foil.  I got a fantastic even finish from this in two coats and it lasted the entire working week so it's a very durable polish.  This mani looks like my nails have been dipped in precious metal.

Lamplight

Outdoors daylight (no sun)

Thanks for looking!

Hopefully your December's a bit less hectic than mine.

Vita :)

The nail polish tag

Well, Hello I received this great tag from the gorgeous Orange County girl,  Maria of Nails Made Simple and I thought I'd share the fun!

Here are the rules:

Answer the 10 questions below

Pass the tag to 5 bloggers and let them know

1. How many polishes do you own?
Okay, I did a really rough estimate and it's somewhere between 500 to 600. Yikes!!

2. What is your favourite brand of polish?
I'll have to pick my top three - OPI (because I have more of these than anything), China Glaze and now I recently added Orly to my list.

3. Do you like crackle nail polish or do you hate it?
I'd have to say I like it because I've got 7 bottles of it!

4. What is your first nail polish brand?
If you mean the first brand I remember buying, it would be Cutex.

5. If you were going to have a nail polish line what would you call it?
Hmmm...Bottled Rainbows....I just made that up on the spot!

6. What nail polish colour does not compliment you?
I have a morbid fear of yellow because I'm so pale.

7. What colour compliments you?
I love the contrast between vampy or bright colours and my skin.

8. Name two of your best nail art friends
Leanne of thatleanne and Polish Amor.


9. What was the best nail polish gift you have received?
That would be the glitter polish giveaway I won earlier this year!

10. Make a speech to thank the blogger who tagged you.
Maria has been a friendly follower of mine for several months and always has the most encouraging and lovely things to say!  She's a talented girl herself and has been venturing into nail art, doing twinsie Friday posts with her nail blogging "twin" Polish AMOR.   Thank you for tagging me Maria!

Its late in the evening and I'm having trouble deciding who to tag, so consider yourself tagged if you wish!

Vita :)  xoxoxo 

Festive fingertips: Urban Decay - Hot Mess + Ziggy

Hello again,  I've been crazy busy lately so I'm lucky to have been able to sneak in two posts in the last two days.  This is just a quickie...

I finally had the opportunity to wear my new Urban Decay holiday polishes so I decided to try two at once!  Here I've applied the glass-flecked magenta pink Hot Mess as the main manicure shade with multicoloured glitter-bomb Ziggy on my ring finger as an accent.  This was the fun mani I sported to our pre-Christmas street party last weekend! 

Full sun

Outdoors shade

That's all for now.

Vita :)

Festive fingertips: OPI - I Love the Holidays! + Glitter top coat

This is my second officially festive mani and is courtesy of a HTF vintage OPI combination I've had in my stash for quite a few years.

I Love the Holidays! and ILTH! Glitter Top Coat are part of an old black label holiday set I bought way back in the early Noughties on the TV Shopping Network - good ol' TVSN!  I Love the Holidays is a shimmery coral pink with a slight duochrome which looks a bit retro when worn alone (stupido me didn't think to take any pics without top coat - Doh!!).  I added two coats of the matching glitter top coat, which consists of very fine warm pink glitter.  Sparkly like sugar, this manicure is sweet and nice for the holidays and a change from the usual holiday colour combinations...

Full sun

Outdoors shade - you can just see the duochrome in the bottle

I hope you have a great start to your week.  Less than two weeks of work for me then I'll have an extended break at home with my son.  Can't wait!

Until next time.

Vita :)

Haul post: From Vegas, Baby (and a swatchathon)!

Hello Lovelies

This post has been a while coming, as my Hubby's been back home from Las Vegas three weeks now.  Look at the major haul he brought back for me!

From my shopping list:  Wet n Wild eyeshadow palettes, YSL & MAC lipsticks, and Christian Dior Diorshow mascara.  

And as a surprise:   Urban Decay holiday collection nail polish & eyeliners and Sally Hansen crackle polishes!  Not a bad effort for a middle-aged male I've got to say.  You can understand why I married him! ;)

Now for a closer look and all the swatches of course.  Take a deep breath because this is gonna be pic heavy...

L - R:

YSL Rouge Volupte lipsticks - 26 (Tender Peach), 2 (Sensual Silk)

MAC Cremesheen lipstick (Modesty)

MAC Amplified Creme lipstick (Blankety)

I was very much in a nude lip mood when I made up my list as aside from Tender Peach, all of the other lipsticks are variations of nude.  The Rouge Volupte range of lippies are a new luxe addition to my collection and I'm in love with the packaging.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to score MAC lippies at half the Australian price so that's why I chose two!

Swatched in daylight L - R:

Tender Peach, Sensual Silk, Modesty, Blankety

Wet n Wild Color Icon palette:

736 Petal Pusher

I chose this palette to feed my purple addiction!

I can see lots of possibilities with it, from sweet to smoky...

381B Sweet As Candy

I think this will be pretty for everyday wear.

380B Walking on Eggshells

I've seen this palette feature in lots of beauty bloggers' posts so it was a 'must have' for me.

Another great palette for everyday.

334 I'm Getting Sunburned

Not for the colour-shy this has the most amazing rich gold shade, complemented with pink and a dark chocolate brown accent shade.

It was the gold that sold me on this one.

Urban Decay Electric 24/7 Travel Size eye pencil set

Well, hello, this was a surprise purchase by my husband and he chose well.  These eyeliner pencils are so creamy and intensely pigmented and the colours are amazing!  They're supposed to be waterproof so I should be able to put that to the test when the weather down here really heats up...

Swatched in daylight L - R:

Perversion, Ransom, Woodstock, Radium, Junkie

Urban Decay Holiday Nail Kit

Another surprise purchase.  My Hubby knows me well!   6 new gorgeous nail colours for the holidays.

Swatches shown in full sun and shade in the same order as in the pack above:

L - R: Barlust, Mars, Wrecked, Ziggy, Gunmetal, Hot Mess

Sally Hansen Crackle overcoats

L - R:  Cherry Smash, Vintage Violet, Fuschia Shock

Not exactly a surprise because Hubby showed me these via Facebook although they weren't on my shopping list.  I've not swatched them here so I'll do a separate post on these.

Christian Dior Diorshow Mascara (Black) - see intro picture.

I love this luxe mascara so I added it to the shopping list.  I've done a previous brief review upon finishing a sample tube here .

I hope you enjoyed this post.  

If you have any of these products I'd love to hear what your impressions are!

Until next time.

Vita :)