Twas The Manicure Before Xmas

It's Christmas Eve!! I've spent the day dying in the heat, cleaning my house and watching A Nightmare Before Christmas. Now i'm heading out to our family Christmas Eve dinner (Italian side).

So I thought I'd better do my possibly last Christmas manicure of 2012. It's pretty simple just 2 coats of China Glaze Poinsettia with a glitter gradient of China Glaze Twinkle Lights (they came in a pack together in 2011).

Hope you enjoy and have a lovely Christmas!

LUSH Christmas Bathtime!

This was meant to be posted much earlier then 2 days before Christmas... but there is a silver lining! SALES!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, or my old blog you would know I'm a bit of a Lush fan (Lushie). One of my favourite Lush releases of the year is Christmas! Not only does it mean I can stock up on one of my all time favourite products (Snow Fairy). It means they bring out a bunch of great products and gift packs for the festive season.

Earlier in the month I went on a trip to Adelaide with my mama (she is also a Lushie!) and whenever we go away together if there is a Lush store in the vicinity we pick something up for a night of pampering and since where we were staying had a bath we both went for Christmas bath bombs.

Mum purchased the Father Christmas Bath Ballistic RRP $6.95AUD which is a citrus smelling bomb with mandarin oil  and orange flower so a bit better for our climate (I find a lot of the bath bombs tend to smell wintery and since we have a hot summer don't really apply). When she put it in the bath she said it turned red and then green..FESTIVE! 

I picked up the Golden Wonder Bath Ballistic RRP $6.95AUD mainly because when you shook it there was something inside! and it was shaped like a present with a big bow...I'm a big kid after all :)

Again, like the Father Christmas this was citrus smelling so again much better for our Christmas climate. It smelt good! However, the real magic was when you put it in the bath it started off turning the bath a golden colour, then a blue, then a bit green and it settled on this amazing teal colour and the sound in the middle? SPOILER ALERT! It was tiny golden stars which when they came out I thought they were amazing and then thought "Oh shit, I'll have to clean these up". Nope! They dissolve! 

Lush make great Christmas gifts and have many amazing gift packs for those people who are hard to buy or you need to get a last minute gift for. 

Also, keep an eye out in the sales... most years they do a buy one get one free on all Christmas goodies! I always stock up and will be buying a few of the Golden Wonder Bath Ballistics and some more Snow Fairy (you can never have enough Snow Fairy)

If I don't manage to post beforehand, have a lovely and safe Christmas! xx

Gloss Cosmetics Parramatta Store Launch - Manicams Galore!

This is a sponsored post for Gloss Cosmetics.

On Saturday I attended the grand opening of the new Gloss Cosmetics store in Parramatta Westfield (Shop 2154, Level 2, Westfield Parramatta).

If you love beauty and accessories, and let's face it if your reading this blog you probably do! This store is a mecca for both, coming in at at least 4 times the size of the previous Gloss Cosmetics store it's bright, colourful and full of shiny pretty things. The store is full of affordable brands with something for all budgets. If your a fan of BYS you will find the entire collection here including a whole aisle dedicated to their nail polishes!

One of the amazing new additions to this store is the Gloss Nail Nation nail art they are offering for customers. This will cost you $25 or FREE! If you spend over $50 in store, which really isn't too difficult....for me anyway. You get to pick any of the 10 designs below which suit all styles and trends at the moment.

The store has an amazing range of gift packs at the moment for Christmas, so why not buy a few pressies and get a manicure while your there? It's a win win situation for all really :).

 I was lucky enough that at the store opening they were offering a free nail art design by the team from I Scream Nails in Melbourne check out their Twitter, Instagram & Facebook. Diana did my nails (who you can see below) and is one of the permanent nail artists at the Parramatta store and she was absolutely lovely! Check me out below getting mah nails did! 

What design do you think I went for? It was a tough choice and since there wasn't a choice of skulls or studs I went with the cute Watermelon design! My nails look so summery!

One of the other fun things they had at the opening was the first ever Manicam! This was a concept thought up by the Gloss team. Basically your nails walked the red carpet... such a cute idea and so much fun! I had flashbacks of those Yellow Pages ads (let your fingers do the walking). I must say my chubby fingers need a bit of runway practice; but I managed to get a little video of their debut on the red carpet. 

This was only for the launch (sorry guys!) but the lovely people at Gloss did say that it could be touring other stores. I will let you know if I hear anything about that.

I also made a small purchase in store. While I was waiting in line they asked if I could remove my nail polish ready for the nail artist and handed me some nail polish wipes to do it. I was wearing the polish in my last review (China Glaze Ruby Pumps) which is a glitter. The nail polish remover wipes took the colour off, smelt amazing and kind of moisturised my cuticles! The little gem is from Be Yourself (or BYS) and comes in a variety of scents. You get 50 nail polish remover pads for $2.95... getting my own pack was a no brainer! 

So if your around Parramatta Westfield be sure to check out the new Gloss Cosmetics store and have a fun nail art manicure!

If you'd like to read more about Gloss Cosmetics or just stay in touch with them check out the following places - Gloss Cosmetics Website, Twitter & Instagram

Thanks Gloss Cosmetics for inviting me to be a part of this fun event!

Christmas Manicure - China Glaze Ruby Pumps

 Just a quick one today, with the festive season approaching my manicures are getting more and more Christmasy so I thought i'd show you guys what festive manicures i'm sporting this year.

First up is one of my favourite polishes of all time (BIG CALL!). Not only is it a gorgeous sparkly red colour for really anytime of the year but I also think it's the perfect Christmas red, it kind of looks like the red sparkly ornaments you might put all over your Christmas tree.

China Glaze Ruby Pumps was part of the Wizard of Oz collection from a few years back, but I believe it was so popular it's now a permanent shade. If your in Australia you can purchase it from Crush Cosmetics (i've sent the link directly to the page, you're welcome)and it will set you back $10.95AUD from there. 2 coats, dream application yadda yadda yadda... I freakin love it!

Enough talk, let's look at the prettiness!



Are your nails getting in the festive spirit? If you've done any rad Christmas manicures leave a comment, I'd love to check them out!



Product Disclosure: Purchased with my own moola, and I would buy it again..and again..and again

Essence Haul! 3 Items for under $10!

This is just a small haul, being on a budget sucks! I however can still shop occasionally when I have brands like Essence at my disposal and can get 3 items for under 10 buckeroos!

The goodies I picked up were the Essence Kajal Pencil in All I Want (RRP $1.95AUD...not even kidding!), Essence Lipstick in Sparkling Miracle (RRP $3.95AUD) and Essence Nail Polish in Alice Had A Vision Again, from the Twilight Breaking Dawn Part II collection (RRP $3.95AUD)

Let's start with the Kajal Pencil...firstly need to shoutout to my homegirl Angela for talking about this on a YouTube video and making me wanna buy it! It's basically a skin toned liner which is perfect for putting on your water line for that "more awake" look. It works well and for the price i'd buy it over and over again!

Essence Lipstick in Sparkling Miracle is a berry with a bit of shimmer. I don't know who i'm turning into but i'm kinda loving purpley shaded lipsticks. I don't think they flatter me all that much but a girl can dream right? I actually quite like the texture of the Essence lipsticks they are smooth, creamy and pigmented. The one thing I don't like? The flimsy packaging... but for $3.95 a pop who can complain really?

The last item I purchased was on a whim, my friend Michelle had been after a particular nail polish from the Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 collection, so when I saw my local store had the full range I asked which she was after and it was Alice Has A Vision Again, so I grabbed it for her and saw how pretty it was so got one myself!

The colour is basically a dark purple with purple shimmer but then you go into the light and you see other colours shimmering away, it's a really beautiful shade. The other thing I love is the brush used on the Essence polishes, it's thick similar to OPI Pro Wide brushes.

You can still find some of the Twilight Breaking Dawn collection hanging around some stores but they are mostly empty to make way for the new Snow White collection (which i've already gotten my paws on!...post coming soon!)

Essence is found at Priceline & Target, but I find Target has the new collections more frequently (especially the commercial collections). You can also check out the Essence Australia facebook page for further deets on upcoming collections and what they sell!

Product Disclosure - All products were purchased by me with my own $10 note :)