NOTD: Summer stripes, and Nail Polish Tag

We’ve had a few nice days of summer here, so getting into the spirit of things, I did a summery, stripey manicure. The stripes were painted on freehand with an eyeliner brush – even though it was a bit bumpy at first, a healthy coat of Seche Vite smoothed things out. <3 Seche Vite!     Purple – franken Green …

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Bridesmaid nail polish frankens

For my friend’s wedding the bridesmaids are wearing medium grey satin dresses with nude shoes and dusty pink roses. I’ve been frankening some possible nail colours for us – we have very different skin tones which makes it a bit difficult, but we’ve agreed on soft pink.  These were all made by combining ulta3 Sizzling Red (only a few drops, …

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Lab Muffin guide – how do holo nail polishes work?

How do holographic nail polishes work?   The main types of polishes with holographic effects that I know of are linear holo (e.g. Nubar Reclaim, China Glaze OMG collection, Nfu-Oh 61), scattered holo (China Glaze Kaleidoscope collection, Milani HD) and holo glitter (a lot of glitter polishes have holo bits in them – OPI Teenage Dream is one example). They …

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My top 8 of 2011

These are the 8 health/beauty things I couldn’t do without this year, in no particular order:     1. Seche Vite – quick dry, smudge-fixing, shiny goodness.     2. Shea butter – all-round awesome moisturiser. I use it straight out of the tub, but I’ll probably scent and whip it soon.     3. Eyeliner brush – I do …

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NOTD: Gold and black crackle

  My boyfriend suggested this when I received my China Glaze Cracked Medallion in the mail from eBay, and despite my initial skepticism (his other good ideas include things like rainbow board shorts and jumping off tall buildings in wingsuits), I think it turned out really well!     It’s alternating gold crackle over black, and black crackle over gold. …

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Review: Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Balm

  Summary Main moisturisers – sweet almond oil, beeswax Texture – greasy balm Packaging – cute tin Price – $0.88/g, but you won’t need to use much Burt’s Bees is an American company which has gotten a lot easier to find here in the last couple of years. Their Lemon Butter Cuticle Balm is the first product I’ve tried of …

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Nail product ingredients – how bad are they?

  If you’ve ever looked at the ingredients list on the back of any of your cosmetics, you’ll see a massive block of scary-sounding names, with a few familiar ones in the mix (hello water!). Nail polish is probably the most unfriendly cosmetic product most people own – it smells nasty, and it’s hard to clean up after. You’ve probably …

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NOTD: Ancient urn

  A simple NOTD today. This has the distinction of being the only manicure of mine that a 70 year old man has complimented 🙂 Unfortunately since it was so simple, I wasn’t too impressed by it until I recevied compliments on it, but by then it was all chipped and nasty. So only one picture of the completed manicure …

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