Peacock Nails

Ever wanted your nails to look like peacocks? Well they can now by following the simple steps below! It's actually much easier than it looks surprisingly.

My creative sister painted these on her fingernails and this is how she did it:

-Paint a base coat of shimmery dark blue over the whole nail

-Use a small paintbrush and paint a wide stroke of a medium green across your nail whilst still allowing the blue to be visible underneath

-Paint a thinner stroke of light green over the top

-Swirl a gold/green metallic colour over the top

-Drop a blob of yellow in a circle from the polish brush itself

-Drop a smaller drop of the light green inside the yellow circle

-Drop the smallest drop of dark blue in the middle of both circles (the colour you used for the base)

-Finish by painting a glitter top coat over the top of it all

And voila, there you have it! These are sure to attract a lot of compliments and attention, just like the bird itself!

See the picture down below for the exact colours of polish used for this design.

L-R: OPI's It Colour, OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard, Illamasqua's Nomad, OPI's Unfor Greta Bly Blue, OPI's Did It On Em, OPI's Metallic 4 Life

So what do you think of these nails? Isn't my sister a clever cat? 

OPI 'The Top Ten' Gift Pack Review

What an incredibly clever gift pack for OPI to bring out right before Christmas. Their top polish colours ever, all wrapped up nicely for the price of two big OPI polishes? Yes please!!!

If ever there was a way to quickly expand your nail polish collection... this is it! And who ever gets through a whole big polish bottle anyway? Now I think about it all of mine have gone gunky before I could use the bottom dregs anyway. So this is a great investment, and a brilliant Christmas gift idea.

We bought this gift pack as a congratulations for finishing uni present for my sister. She has posed as the hand model to demonstrate all of the colours below. The red and brown full polished hands pictured further down are my own, because those were the two colours I hadn't tried anything like before, so I was excited to wear them.

Left hand L-R: Alpine Snow, Kiss Me On My Tulips, Tickle Me France-y, Big Apple Red, Vamsterdam.
Right hand L-R: You Don't Know Jacques!, Bubble Bath, Lincoln Park After Dark, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, I'm Not Really A Waitress.

See order above

Alpine Snow: We already owned a mini from another gift pack and a large of this colour. It is a great plain white, but I don’t know of many people who just wear plain white on their nails. I suggest it would make a great French manicure tip, base for a neon or bold polish to make it pop/opaque, or to layer glitter over the top. Kind of reminds be of painting my nails with white out at school though… not so classy now ay?

Bubble Bath: A pretty perfect sheer pale pink, that needs at least three coats to look nice on it’s own. Or it performs brilliantly as a French manicure pink. Makes you feel girly, pretty and classy when wearing this on your fingertips!

Tickle Me France-y: I feel this colour is the let down of the pack. It’s a neutral brown-pink, that’s kind of a nothingy colour. It’s an ugly pink or a pretty blargh brown really.

Kiss Me On My Tulips: A beautiful bright and Barbie doll pink. Perfectly opaque and creamy, and is a great Spring/Summer colour. Gorgeous colour.

Red Lights Ahead…Where?: This is a nice opaque red with slight orange/yellow undertones, but it’s not for me. I already know with my pink undertones and fair skin that this will not suit me at all. However it looks gorgeous on my olive skinned, yellow undertone sister. Extraordinarily bright, it really makes a nail statement.

Big Apple Red: Now this is the kind of red that will suit me! This is a blue based red without a hint of orange/yellow. This is also a bright red but a bit more subdued that the previous red, as the blue base tones it down slightly. This colour reminds me of Frenchy/nautical outfits, and I can’t wait to wear it with a white and navy striped top!

I’m Not Really a Waitress: This is a Snow White-esque, metallic divine red. Absolutely amazing, and I’m not even a red nail fan. Shines like no other polish before, and looks so mesmerizing and magical on. A great festive choice!

How Snow White is this!? Love it!

You Don’t Know Jacques!: I’m not a huge brown nail fan, but this one is a nice brown. A taupe, creamy mid-tone brown.

Vampsterdam: Gorgeous, sexy, intruiging. It’s a dark, purple metallic colour that looks incredibly magical.

Lincoln Park After Dark: Extremely dark purple colour that is basically black, but without the harsh black gothic edge. More flattering. Wish it looked more similar to how it does in the bottle though.

L-R: Alpine Snow, Kiss Me On My Tulips, Tickle Me France-y, Big Apple Red, Vamsterdam.

L-R: You Don't Know Jacques!, Bubble Bath, Lincoln Park After Dark, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, I'm Not Really A Waitress.

And there you have it! This gift pack was $39.95 from David Jones (can also buy them from Myer in different packaging).

So what do you think? Do you like the colours in this gift pack? What is your favourite? 

If you want to take a look at some of OPI's many other great gift packs, check out my reviews here.

Spa-mazing!

Last weekend was a rare four day weekend for me, due to the Melbourne Cup celebrations. So I thought I would spoil myself with some much needed pampering. 

I thought as it was approaching Summer, it would be great to incorporate a full body scrub into the treatment to get my wintery dry skin summer ready. I also wanted to include a massage as I have been feeling pretty stressed and anxious lately, and had quite a few muscle aches and pains.

I wanted to go to Endota Spa (view their website here) because they are one of the few spas that are conveniently located everywhere, whilst also being luxurious and fancy. Plus I’ve been to them quite a few times before. 

After much deliberation I decided upon the treatment package called the Scrub + Glow, which was a 1 hour 45 minute treatment involving:

- a 10 minute billabong footbath, where they scrub and massage your feet and lower legs (surprisingly amazing!)

- a 50 minute full body scrub with essential oils, herbs and salts. Then oil up your skin and sprinkle the salt mix on top, rubbing it in in little circular motions.

- a 45 minute full body massage including moisturiser application

A sneak peak of the treatment room - with massage table and shower

So how did I find it? 

The billabong footbath sounds average, but it’s actually incredible. It was one of my favourite parts of the treatment. Perhaps you wouldn’t love it if you are ticklish on your feet though. The scrub has left my skin the softest it’s ever felt, and so glowing and healthy looking. The actual process was a bit rough though. I think the salts were quite large for exfoliating purposes, meaning they worked brilliantly to get soft skin, but it wasn’t the most pleasurable application process. Some parts felt almost painful like it was irritating my skin (it wasn’t though!). But I’ve had a scrub before which was incredible and even more pleasurable than a massage, which is what I hoped this scrub would be like. The massage was so relaxing and amazing that I think I fell asleep for a few minutes, which I have never, ever done before!

In this treatment after you’ve had the scrub element, you then have a quick shower in the in room shower/bath to get all the salts off. This just adds to the relaxation and cleaning process.

All in all I would highly recommend this treatment, or a scrub/massage combination that's similar. 

This is the first spa type treatment I’ve ever purchased myself, and I have to say I feel it was totally worth it. I spend $150 on a dress or on a 15 minute specialist medical appointment for instance, so why do I feel so guilty about spending this amount on two hours of pure bliss that makes you feel so much healthier and happier, helps your muscles and aches, revitalises your skin and is extremely relaxing. I feel everyone should try to treat themselves to something like this at least once a year. The benefits are countless and it's just great to take some time for yourself every now and then. 

My tips:

• I think a half hour massage is too short, as you often spend a lot of a short massage worrying that it’s about to end. The perfect massage length is 45 minutes to an hour, which allows them to do the full body.
• I’ve learned to ask for a firm pressure massage. As medium is too soft for me, and firm isn’t too hard. So I always opt for the hardest pressure as the masseurs I’ve had have never pressed hard enough for me. And it’s not like I like being beaten into the table or anything, just firm feels like a normal massage.
• I find getting treatments that are most pleasurable (massage) or have longer term benefits (scrub) to be the best, whereas I find facials for instance aren’t as relaxing because essentially it’s just someone putting on and taking off creams to your face.
• Drink lots of water, as often you can feel dehydrated during/after a treatment like this.
• If you come out of a massage feeling a tad achey, you can use a heat pack on the area to help soothe it.
• Try to choose a spa location away from a shopping centre/mall. The point is to avoid stress and hustle and bustle!

Do you ever have a spa/pampering day? If so what is your favourite treatment/combo to get? 

DIY Lip Scrub

I went into Lush the other day and whilst I was there I checked out some of their lip scrubs. They look really cute and smell nice and everything but when I found out you could lick the substance off your lips it occurred to me that surely a lip scrub would be extremely simple to make. And unnecessary to spend money on.

So when I had an at home pampering night the other day which included a bath, facial, manicure etc, I decided to try my hand at making a really quick simple lip scrub.

I figured it needed to taste nice and be a good combination of scrub and stickiness to hold it together. 

So I decided to use brown sugar as the scrub, and honey to hold it all together. I filled a small bowl with brown sugar and drizzled honey over it until there was enough to balance out the sugar. Then I mixed it all together.

This is what the mixture looked like

When I was ready to apply the scrub, I just scooped up a little bit on my finger tip and gently rubbed it against my lips. After rubbing it all over my lips thoroughly, I then licked the residue off. Afterwards I slathered my lips with a moisturising lip balm (Burt's Bees Honey Lip Balm - very honey based lip treatment this was!)

What it looked like spread over my skin

I'm amazed it worked so well! I don't recall my lips ever feeling smoother. It got rid of any dry skin and flakiness, and left my lips looking so soft and healthy and feeling so smooth and shiny. Plus lipstick has gone on so much nicer now my lips are so smooth!

Plus the mixture was so yummy I may or may not have just eaten the rest...

This was simple, free, quick, effective and tasty to do. All in all a pleasing result I feel!

Have you ever tried a lip scrub? What are your thoughts on it?

October Favourites 2012

Now that October has ended, it's time for a rehash of my favourites for the month!

Beauty Favourites...

Beauty

– Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation (in the colour Beige Rose 10)

I purchased this foundation a few weeks ago after all of the hype about it inspired me to get my hands on it. I’ll do a full review of this soon, but I will say it has a gorgeous finish and is so luminous and gorgeous on the skin. It seems to even get better on my skin as the day progresses somehow! It's a great every day foundation, and I'm really happy with it so far.

Nails

–Essie’s Boxer Shorts

Without flash

With flash

This polish was purchased online because it’s not available in Australia for some reason. Boxer Shorts is a bluey purple creamy polish, that looks different in different lights. I was convinced it was blue until everyone said it was purple and then I’ve felt confused ever since! It’s so gorgeous on every skin tone and it is a really pretty, happy colour. I think it’s hopped into my top five nail polishes of all time already! I just love it more than most polishes I’ve tried ever.

Skincare/Bodycare

– Dior One Essential Skin Boosting Super Serum

This is just incredible. Goes on after toning and before moisturising (I do it at night before bed). It just leaves my skin baby soft and it looks so glowing and fresh in the morning after I’ve used it. You know how sometimes your skin feels a bit rougher and you can sometimes feel tiny little bumps on your forehead caused by dehydration? This completely wipes them out and rehydrates your skin, leaving it softer and smoother than ever.

General Favourites...

Food

- Sweet and Salty Popcorn (Coles brand)

Source

I don’t even like popcorn, but I love this. This is actually addictive. My friend brought it over and was like Kate you will love this. I initially was disbelieving as I never eat popcorn because to me it tastes boring, but this is something special. The salty sweet thing just works, and creates a dream team of flavor that is unbeatable in my opinion. Perfect for movie nights and a relatively healthier snack if you feel like junk food.

TV Show

– The Vampire Diaries

Source

This show has escalated so fast up the line of my favourite shows that it’s jumped into my absolute best top favourites. And keep in mind I watch an insane amount of TV shows! To be honest it seemed stupid before I watched it, but after a few episodes I was addicted to the drama, the thrill, the characters and the romance. The best romance ever, mind you. I LOVE DAMON! If you watch it let me know who you are rooting for Elena to end up with! If you don't watch it, then start now. You won't be sorry.

DVD

– Man on Fire

Source

Source

I wanted to watch this movie because my friend said the film Taken ripped the idea off from this film. It was very similar, but as a whole I preferred Taken as I just love that film. But this was still really good, but kind of dark and depressing and a bit slow in parts (which Taken is definitely not!). 

I feel that this film's iconic status can basically be attributed to the littlest actor in the film - Dakota Fanning. She is an absolute star and she acts better than most adults I've ever seen. When she acted scared or worried or anything in the film I felt like my heart was being ripped out and felt like crying! Look how cute her little face is in that picture above awww! After watching it I googled Dakota Fanning's other films, and put them all on my list of must see films! She made this film.

Film

- Argo

Source

I saw this recently as my boyfriend picked it as our movie choice, and it was actually amazing (good choice Rich!). It's based on a true story where Iran takes some American hostages and it centres around the CIA's elaborate and crazy plan to smuggle them out unnoticed. They do this under the guise of filming a (fake) Hollywood movie, and the plan is just so crazy it might actually work... see it to find out what happens! It's full of thriller, on the edge of your seat moments, with humour and drama too. Ben Affleck directed, produced and was the lead actor in this film, and I think he did mighty well!

Clothing

– Black lace peplum top from Portmans

This top is amazing for many reasons. It’s feminine and girly and pretty, and the sheer lace up the top looks so lovely. It’s so flattering as black is slimming, it cinches in at the waist and slightly flares out into a peplum design over my stomach. But it’s very subtle for a peplum which I like. It looks great over a skirt or jeans and is very office or just general life appropriate.

Jewellery

– Rose gold and silver coin pendant necklace from Mocha

My lovely auntie bought this for me as a present and I just love it! I wear it almost every day and it goes with everything. I love rose gold teamed with silver, and the design is so pretty. The necklace feels nice and sturdy and really good quality whilst still having a delicate chain. I just love this necklace so much and it goes with everything in my wardrobe.

Item

- Glasshouse Christmas Party candle 

I recently posted about this candle in my Christmas haul. It has made my whole room smell like Christmas and the smell is just so incredibly festive and delicious and such a pleasure to my nose. It has an orange/ginger/nutmeg/sweet spicy smell. Pick it up before it all sells out because it is a limited addition!

So there you have my October favourites! Hope you all had a great October and Halloween, and if you are in Melbourne that you are enjoying the racing season and Spring! 

Hope your November has started off well :) I've got a four day weekend ahead of me so I am incredibly happy! xx

YSL Shocking Mascara review – Quite a Shocking Verdict!

I finally splashed out the other day on a new mascara because I’m still on my quest for my Holy Grail of mascaras! And I’d heard rave reviews about the YSL Shocking Mascara from like every Youtuber and beauty blogger going around.

I got the sales girl to try it on me before I bought it, and I was very happy with the immediate result even using the disposable mascara brushes which were different to the one that came in the bottle.

The Look I’m After: I want a big fan of long, thick, plush looking lashes. I want them to look really bold and almost false in appearance because they look so good and fluttery!

So after trying YSL Shocking for a week, what do I think of it?

The Cost: 

Very expensive and high end at $52. If it worked amazingly then I’d be alright with splashing out occasionally on a brilliant mascara. But not in this case...

The Packaging:

It is very luxurious and glamorous looking. I love the gold shiny bottle, the ‘Shocking’ written along the side, the twist top that clicks into place and how visible and bold it looks. One of the best mascara packaging I have ever seen!

The Formula:

The formula is very wet and creamy, and has an almost gel like and glossy texture to it. It’s very thick and when it’s on the brush it looks quite clumpy and lumpy. I do like the richness and the pigmentation of the black colouring. It is also scented with a quite strong rose fragrance, that actually irritates my eyes (I don’t even have sensitive eyes). Some people may appreciate the wetness of it because it allows you to layer better, but I just found it got stickier and clumpier the more it was layered.

The Brush:

The brush is absolutely terrible. The bristles are way too short and far apart, and tonnes of gunky formula gets stuck between them. The brush is supposed to distribute the mascara in a hexagonal distribution pattern, but it just makes for a clumpy, wet mess. I feel the brush is what lets the whole mascara down.

The Overall Look and Experience:

All the lashes end up getting stuck together into about 4-5 main points. There is barely any definition, and the ‘volume’ that occurs is just as a result of the wet formula gathering at the base of the lashes. I curl my lashes every day because they are very straight and because this formula is so heavy and thick, the curl drops to being nonexistent within a few hours. There is virtually no length added on and instead of volumising my lashes, it ends up making them look even sparser than before because all my lashes stick together and it makes me look like I have even less lashes.

Overall I just am insanely disappointed with this. My eyes feel irritated and heavy when I use it due to the intense fragrance and the heaviness of the formula weighing my lashes down. Without a curl my lashes just look bland and unimpressive. I wanted the look of a full fan of long and thick lashes, and this achieves neither. Plus it set me back $52!

Verdict: C- (and that’s probably being too nice)

Perhaps when I went to the store and they tried it on me first, their disposable thick bristled brushes worked with the formula way better and it looked far nicer. They were able to distribute the product in much better manner. But with the brush that it comes with, it just takes so much time and effort to get them looking even vaguely nice. Every time I choose to use this I end up wishing I had chosen one of my other mascaras. 

To be honest I should have simply paid more attention to what the Sales girls lashes looked like. She was wearing Shocking and her lashes were so clumped together there were virtually 5 points and it reminded me of a star. I don’t know whether she thought this looked good, but I remember thinking ‘it’s okay I can just apply it differently to get the look I want’.

So I am going to try and return this today (they let me phew!). What a depressing experience! I have heard that it works far better with a primer such as Dior’s Lash Maximiser underneath, but I shouldn’t have to spend over $100 to get nice lashes. It should just work brilliantly on its own. I don’t understand why this works so much better for others, how can so many people love it if this is how it works and looks? I’ve tried everything to apply it nicely as well, such a slow wiggle, doing the tips first, layering it, etc.

I thought this would be my Holy Grail, but now the search continues. I think I’m going to examine the Dior mascaras as I’ve used Diorshow Extace before and absolutely loved that.

Any suggestions from you guys would be enormously appreciated. Let me know what your favourite mascaras are and what you recommend I should try! And tell me if you’ve had an experience with YSL Shocking and what you think of it?