February BellaBox Review

Today I have my first bellabox review of this year. I did receive the January box but wasn't in much of a blogging mood and didn't find the box very 'review worthy' so I didn't bother posting about it. But I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging and I'm starting with this review!

This month bellabox teamed up with three Australian magazines, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. I was lucky enough to get to choose which magazine I wanted and I picked Elle, because it's a magazine I've never read before and thought there might be some good items in the box!

I felt a little indifferent towards the products though. I received some products I've gotten in the past and also products that I shouldn't be receiving at all according to what I put in my beauty profile on my account.

Let's get into the product reviews!

1. Essie Nail Colour in Truth or Flare (RRP $16.95) - As a nail blogger it's a no brainer that I'll love this product and any nail polish or nail art item that comes in my bellabox. Every member got an Essie polish and there was a range of colours sent out. The polish I got looks significantly different to what the colour on the official Essie website does so I'm wondering whether they changed or renamed the polish. But either way I love this colour. It's kind of a slate colour with strong blue undertones. It's so nice on my nails! See below of swatch pictures.
2. Indio Multi V-Serum (RRP $139.00) - I don't mind the brand Indio, I've gotten their samples before and even purchased their products but as I've probably mentioned before I had an allergic reaction to the salicylic acid in one of their cleansers so I just sent all the products back as it was easiest to just start over with a different brand. This smell of this serum reminds me of beer or some type of alcohol and I don't enjoy it. I only used it once so I can't vouch for it's effectiveness. It does mention that it's a hydrating serum though which isn't something I need so I won't be using this or buying it myself.
3. Burt's Bees Mini Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream (RRP $14.99) - Another product I can't help but love... except for the fact that I already received a sample of this back in August. I'm happy I have another sample which now brings my total tins of cuticle cream up to five (six if you count the sample of this my mum got in hers this month which of course she'll give to me), but I am annoyed I received something I had already gotten in a past box. So I definitely have enough cuticle cream to last me at least a year, probably two actually.
4. Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel ($24.99) - This is the product I'm most annoyed about this month. This is the opposite of what I need. My skin does not need hydrating, it needs moisture sucked out of it really. I did try it though because in the end it was free and it's a sample but within half an hour my skin was a shiny mess so it's definitely a no go. I'm pretty mad about receiving it though because my beauty profile clearly skin my skin is oily and NOT dry. They obviously don't take note of that.
5. Aveeno Daily Moisturising Lotion (RRP $14.99) - I definitely got my fair share of moisturisers in this box. This one I can use though because it's mostly for the body and I tend to get dry legs a fair bit so I'm happy with this one.
6. Kerastase Paris Nutritive Nectar Thermique (RRP $48.00) - I received this product back in December so that's another product I've already received but I really did love this one so I guess it's okay that I got it again.

 (Essie - Truth or Flare)

Overall I wasn't too happy with this box. I shouldn't be receiving one two products that I've already received before, it just seems like a waste. And I definitely shouldn't be getting hydrating moisturisers according to my beauty profile.

I am considering cancelling my subscription but I'll give it another month because I really do enjoy getting a box of goodies at my doorstep each month and for only 15 dollars it's not at all expensive. Here's hoping next month is better!

- Melissa.

January Round Up

So, long time no posting! But I did warn that it would happen so there's no surprises there! But I thought I would do a round up post for the times I don't post much and round up what I've been doing recently. I've actually found that I get a lot more nail art done when I'm not worrying about writing the blog post to go with the pictures so if you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I was posting a lot recently.

Let's look at some nail art!

I absolutely love this colour combination for the leopard print below. The silver and coral polishes go really well together and I'm glad it turned out as good as it looked in my head.

I filmed a tutorial for this design below (see end of post for video). I love the colours and this design is definitely in my top ten favourite things to do.

This post and the one above were posted on my instagram while I was away in Queensland for a few days. It's a sort of plaid like design that is super easy to do.

After my little holiday I took a mini break from nail art just because my nails were in bad shape from being in the pool a lot, but I came back with this awesome splatter nail art. It's one of my favourites that I've ever done, the colours just go well together and the splatters are perfect sizes!

This ended up being the base of some nail art that is under this post but I thought I'd chuck it in here seeing as I did post it on my instagram.

Painting the black sections over this gradient just bought it all together for me and made the gradient look smoother and neater. I used to tape to get clean, straight lines.

I've only done this design once before in a mix n match mani but I thought I'd incorporate a few colours and see how the pattern turned out and I love how it ended up. I did this in about ten mins (minus the white polish drying time) so I think this will be my go to mani when I'm short on time or lacking inspiration.

And here's the video for the striped nail art.


That's all for this round up post! I actually have a few exciting posts coming up, but I'm not exactly sure when they'll be so keep an eye out for any posts over the next month or so! I'll try to make posts for at least one mani every few weeks, but I enjoy doing these round up posts till I get back into the flow of blogging.

Thanks for reading!

- Melissa.