Maybelline Color Show - Sapphire Stitch (Brocades Collection)

Hello lovelies! Today I have a simple post for you on a new polish I recently picked up and immediately fell in love with: Sapphire Stitch by Maybelline. Before I get to the pictures, I just need to mention how confusing it is that Maybelline renamed this collection. Originally I picked up two colours from their Limited Editions Sequins collection and a few months later when I wanted a backup for Silver Gleam I found out they had renamed the collection. Now, I'm very pleased about this because they are all amazing glitters but I was just slightly confused and a little annoyed because now I have two silver glitters that are exactly the same but have two different names and I'm not sure what to call it anymore.

But anyway, onto the swatches! The other polish is Liberty - W7.

(Still can't get the whole 'holding the polish bottle' pose right!)

I got a new lightbox yesterday, an actual proper one that isn't handmade, and while I love it because it's big and easy to pack away, I dont think I love the lights that came with it. It was hard to edit these to get the right skin tone (I'm not as tan as the picture makes me look). But I must say the polish colours are pretty much spot on! As you can see, the polish has small purple circles and what I think are hexagons and tiny gold flecks that show up really well in real life. 

I enjoy this polish, it builds up very nicely with only two coats and no need for a base colour underneath. The base colour of the polish itself is a nice dark, almost black purple, which I absolutely love! So it's a really great polish and while I got this on sale for half price, it's only about four or five dollars normally, so it's a good purchase.

That's it for today, I'm now off to play around with my lighting and try get future pictures looking less warm tinged! 

May BellaBox Review

Before anyone thinks it (if you haven't already upon reading the title), yes, this isn't a nail post and I'm very much only a nail blogger, BUT I love all things beauty as well and I've found myself wanting to blog about that side of things. So welcome to my monthly review of the bellabox. Before I get into the review, let me talk about a few details on these type of posts.

Every month I will be posting a review on that month's bellabox; they'll probably be quite wordy posts as I want to get into the reviewing side of things a lot more than posting a bunch of photos on the products I get. That doesn't mean they won't be enjoyable posts though, I want to share my personal experiences with the products I get and let everyone know what I think of them. So far, these will be the only posts unrelated to nails except for my monthly favourites, but that doesn't mean my blog will be drastically changing anytime soon, believe me, I'm still a little all over the place with my nail posts so if anything was to change, it'd take a while to happen.

Now, onto the actual post! I was very excited to get my first bellabox, which if you don't know is a monthly subscription service that delivers at least five beauty/lifestyle products to your door in a cute little box for you to try out. They're all sample and trial sizes so that you can use them, decide if you love them and buy the full sizes if you'd like!

I absolutely loved the May edition, which had a theme of 'Come Fly With Me' for good travel products and I think it was a good first box to get. 

1. Appelles Rosemary Body Bar: I absolutely adore this soap. I'm not a huge fan of bar soaps because they don't seem to last that long, but I would happily buy this when it runs out. It smelt lovely and lathered up amazingly. Plus it's all organic, which is always a nice bonus. According to the description, it had dried rosemary in it which I found that when it becomes exposed, it acts as a slight exfoliator. There's nothing to fault with this soap, because ultimately, it's soap and it does a good job.
2. Chapstick Lip Conditioner: I'm sure everyone knows what chapstick is, so this really doesn't need much explanation. I am glad I got this though because you can never have too many lip balms. 
3. Timeless Truth Q10 Caviar Nourishing Mask: (the link on the bellabox website wasn't working so I found another) This mask, like it claims, is very nourishing. I think almost too nourishing for my very oily skin, but it was still such a lovely feeling and left my skin super soft and smooth. It's a cloth mask, that stretches to hold behind your ears so that it stays on while you wait the fifteen or so minutes. I didn't have a reaction to the mask, which I thought I might have, so that's definitely a positive. A few days after using this though, my skin did start to clear up after a bad few weeks of slight acne, whether it was this that helped or the new skin routine I've started or the combination of both I don't know, but it is making me consider buying it.
4. Wen by Chaz Dean - Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner: Oh. My. God. This is one of the best products I have ever used on my hair. Seriously. This is definitely something I would buy, just not yet because it's quite expensive, but I reckon it would be well worth the money. It's super easy to use and because it's a cleansing conditioner, there's no need to use shampoo beforehand which I love the idea of. I did have one fault though, because it's a thick product, it tends to leave that slippery residue on the skin when washed out, which takes a little extra effort to wash off and it's a very small problem, which is mostly just a personal preference to me, but it wouldn't stop me from buying it because it's an easy fixable problem. It's left my hair silky, smooth and less frizzy and I can't stop touching it because it feels that amazing. Oh, it also smells very pleasant, albeit the mint is a little overpowering, much like the chest rub you use when you're sick, but it comes in other scents if you're not a fan of mint smelling things.
5. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Gel - Clear: This is definitely my favourite product of the whole box. Well done brows are necessary and mine are always done but I've only recently gotten into using brow gel to set them. When I first used this, I realised how good a brow gel can actually be. This product is $39 so it's going to be a very sad day when I finish it because I don't think I can justify spending that much on two rows of hair on my forehead. It's amazing, don't get me wrong, but I think I'll only be using it on special occasions so that it lasts longer and I can truly appreciate how well it sets my eyebrows after using my other product in between.
6. Invisible Zinc Tinted Daywear SPF30+ - Light: This was the bonus sample and I'm glad it was just that. I really wasn't happy with this one, but I think it's more of a personal preference because I have very oily skin so this just felt heavy and thick on my face. Of course being a tinted zinc there wasn't great coverage and I need medium to full coverage. So the only reason I wasn't happy with this one was because it just doesn't go well with my skin, not because it's a bad product. It just wasn't for me.

There we have it! My first review of a bellabox. I hope you enjoyed this post, let me know in the comments whether you'd like to see a monthly post on this, or even if you don't like it! I'd really love to get some feedback on whether this is something people want to see or not! :)

Inspired By... #7

Hello everyone! After a few uninspiring weeks, I'm back with a new 'Inspired By' post. This week, once again, I was inspired by Candice from MrCandiipants. Technically this isn't cheating by being inspired by the same thing because when I first recreated this look from her Simple Layered Stripes tutorial it wasn't a part of this series.

This time around though, I went with a coral base and layered pink, purple/blue and yellow stripes on top of it. Originally I was going to do a darker blue instead of the yellow, but the dark lilac colour I chose sort of came out as blue and it wouldn't have looked right if I had used another dark colour, so I went lighter.

I'm loving my new watermark by the way, it's not so bold and out of place and fits in nicely! I'm super glad I learnt how to do the curved text watermark in Gimp. Also I fixed the ridiculous amount of shine/reflection I would get in my photos, so now you can see the whole design!

The colours I used were:

Base: Coral Crush - Maybelline

Pink: Pink Peony - Ulta3

Yellow: Unicorn - Sinful Colors

Blue/Purple: Grapetini - Savvy

I was very happy with how these turned out and I'm really glad I went with the yellow instead of the dark blue, otherwise I think it would have been a big mess.

Dark Sponging Design

Hello everybody! Please ignore the fact that I haven't been posting for about two weeks. I was sick and working and I just had no energy to sit down and do my nails properly. But today I have a dark sponged type of design that's sort of a gradient, but not in the traditional way.

With this design, I painted the three colours on the square base of a triangle sponge and then dabbed it onto my nail, rotating the sponge with each new nail so that the colours were in different spots each time. I really like how it turned out! It was opaque in two coats which was nice and it was a very quick mani to do, so if you're short on time but want something fun, try this out.

I started with a white base like normal, so that the colours popped (even though they're dark). I did one coat of dabbing on each nail before doing a second coat to make sure they were dry and that the sponge didn't stick to them too much, which didn't turn out so well for the middle finger as it's a bit bumpy. I then top coated the design which left it very glossy, as you can tell from the ridiculous amount of shine/reflection on the nails. 

The colours I used were:
Devil's Advocate - Essie (darkest colour)
Teal - Savvy
Hot Spring - Ulta3

Once again, I had the worst time photographing and editing these but I think I've worked out my problem and because of that, I've ordered a proper light box through ebay, and I'm considering buying a simple digital camera instead of using what I think is an SLR camera, so hopefully things improve soon!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Textured Dotticure (Face Of Australia Carnivale Polishes)

Hello everyone! I was very busy the first half of the week and I'm now rundown with a cold or the flu so I haven't done any new designs because I lack the energy to even take off my very chipped mani from Monday. So while I'm spending the day in bed I thought I would edit some photos from the other week and post about them! I had planned to post these eventually, I just hadn't had the time to edit them and sit and write this post.

I did these nails a few weeks ago and I freakin' loved them to death! You should all know by now how much I love nail art with a white base as it makes the colours pop and stand out waaay more than if I had just painted them on my natural nail colour. 

I've done a similar design to this using one of the same polishes, but with purple dots instead of white. I used two of the Face of Australia - Carnivale textured polishes: Bird Of Paradise and Summer Lovin'. 

Dotticures are a classic design and always super quick and easy to do if you want something fun and simple. And something as bright as this is always quite eye catching and you'll get people oogling at your nails all throughout the day, trust me, when I had this design on my nails, the lady at the bakery near my work couldn't stop complimenting them while I was getting some food, she loved them!

Hope everyone is having a better weekend than I am! Speak to you all soon :)

Inspired By... #6

This week my inspiration was a popular tutorial from Sarah at Chalkboard Nails; her blog was one of the first nail blogs I ever came across a few years ago and I fell in love with it instantly, it's definitely worth a look if you haven't already heard of her (but I'm sure at least 99% of people in the nail community have heard of her). 

The following was inspired by this tutorial which is a distressed, grungy sort of look. I tried this a few months ago and I wasn't happy with the outcome so I thought I would give it another go and I'm still a little unsure about it. I like the effect it made and the way the colours pop through the black. I did use a bit of a heavy hand on some nails to begin with before adjusting the way I used the brushes and they ended up looking okay I guess. My favourite part of the mani was how shiny it became when I top-coated it. It doesn't show that well in the following pictures, but in real life it was very smooth and glossy and I can't remember a top coat looking that good for a while.

I apologise for not putting the polishes up but I'm not near my desk and can't remember the names off the top of my head. But let me know if you'd like to know a colour and I'll tell you!

I have a few quick updates: you may have noticed I've changed how I watermark my photos. I learnt how to do the curved text using the program GIMP and it looks much nicer, I don't know why I didn't do this earlier. Also, I'm picking up an extra shift at work on Monday's from this week onwards, so I'll have to test whether these posts will still work on a Monday. Usually I do the nails over the weekend and have the post ready by Monday. So I'll just have to play it by ear for now and see if I can keep that up, which I can't see why not, but just a warning that maybe I'll have to change the day.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and have an even lovelier week!

-Melissa

April Favourites

Here are a few of my favourites for the month of April, instead of just nail favourites, I've decided to do a random array of things that I've been loving this month because it's a bit more fun and gives you all an insight into my life outside of nails! (Plus I haven't bought any new polish for a while).

Nail Related Things:

These four designs were my favourites for the month, I didn't do a lot this month, but I was particularly happy with the following ones. 

I've also been loving the Essence Studio Nails Caring Nail Oil - it's the first cuticle oil I've ever used and while it may not be the best it's very cheap and a little goes a long way. It's done quite a good job of moisturising my cuticles when they're very dry and in desperate need for some hydration. 

That's probably it for nail related things, because I haven't actually tried anything new in the past few weeks, I've mostly been trying to use what I have before I splurge on more items.

Make-up/Beauty:

This year I have started to really get into beauty related items, and maybe that's where I've been spending my money instead of on nails. But don't fret, I won't become a beauty blogger (maybe). My favourite things this past month have been the following:

• Rimmel Stay Matte Primer - I've never used primers that much before but I knew I needed one so I picked this up at Priceline and so far I love it. It makes my skin look smooth and gives my foundation a nice base, it's also made foundation application sooo much easier because of how smooth it makes my skin.
• Australis Make Up Finishing Spritz - this is just a lifesaver if you tend to go a bit powder crazy. I picked this up in March and it has been a favourite ever since then, it smells absolutely lovely and is just an awesome spray that really sets your make up and keeps it looking fresher for longer.
• Maybelline's Hyper Glossy Liquid Liner - I've only recently started using liquid liner and so far, this is my favourite of the few I've tried. It's smooth and super easy to use and doesn't smudge which is always a great bonus.
• Face of Australia Impact-Full Volumising Mascara - this is hands down my all time favourite mascara. I didn't like it at first, but this past month has really set it in stone as my favourite. I only need a few coats and I no longer need to use two mascaras to get the effect I want, this one does it all.
• Australis Fresh & Flawless Pressed Powder - I imagine a lot of people might already be familiar with this powder but I've only just started using it, and while the lightest shade is still a little too dark for my skin tone, I do use it when I want a full coverage look and it's amazing at what it does.

Skincare:

I've had troublesome skin for quite some time now due to reasons I can't change and while that bothers me a lot, I do my best to manage it however I can. 

• Lush's Mask Of Magnaminty - this is probably my favourite skin product ever. It's genuinely amazing. I was looking for a Lush face mask that was natural and good for the skin but I didn't want to fork out almost eighteen dollars for a mask that only lasts three weeks, so that's why I got this one, which lasts a few months. It's refreshing and exfoliating and leaves my skin feeling smooth and looking brighter. 
• Sukin's Foaming Facial Cleanser - just before the new year I had a bad allergic reaction to some skin products that had salicylic acid in it, so ever since then I've only used natural/vegan products and Sukin has been a lifesaver. I mostly use the Oil Cleansing Method to cleanse my skin, but I found lately that my skin needed something in between those nightly washes and that's where this particular cleanser of there's came in. It's light and fresh and does a really decent job of cleaning my skin in the mornings.

Other:

• I recently bought the Sony Reader and I've been loving reading books on it, it's so light and easy to use and I can't believe it took me so long to actually get one.
• The TV shows Person of Interest and The Following. One thing me and my mum love to do is watch TV shows together and these two have been our favourites. We can't get enough of them and are absolutely hanging out for the final episodes (by the time this publishes we'll have seen the finale for The Following). 
• Broad City - I watched this whole series in one night and I'm so glad it exists, so much so that I watched it all again the next week.

I think that's about it for this month's favourites! I'd love to keep up with this and do another at the end of May, so we'll see how many things become my favourites this month! If you enjoyed this slightly more in-depth look into my life then please let me know so that it encourages me to keep it up!