OPI Who The Shrek Are You?

I have had my eye on this one for such a long time! Very happy that I have finally got a bottle to call my own. 

I had looked up so many pictures of WTSAY and loved them all. They were all different shades and greens so it was a little bit of a mystery as to what I would actually end up with.


I have 3 coats on here as it was a little bit streaky. I may try it next time with a thicker base or maybe even a ridge filler.


I absolutely adore the colour though. I am on a lime/chartreuse/lavender kick at the moment and have a shirt this almost exact colour. 

I think this last picture is the most colour accurate. I was afraid that Shrek was going to be your typical apple-green-lime-green but it does actually have quite a bit of yellow in it. A dirty yellow though, almost mustard-y I think. I just love it. 


I was also interested in OPI's Fiercly Fiona as I am wanting that true chartreuse colour. But I saw a comparison of Fiona with China Glaze's Electric Pineapple. EP looked like much more my cup of tea so I think I will wait for that :)

Orly French Polynesian Spa Travel Set

I came across this little travel set in a chemist the other day for $6.99. Normal price was $24.99. I had looked at this set a few times but couldn't bring myself to pay $25 for the travel sized kit. 

Let's take a look at what you get.

PARADISE POLISH - RENEWING HAND BUFF:

De-crapped, it's a scrub. Goodness knows how many different scrubs there are out there, but they are basically all the same, aren't they? The only difference being the smell, colour or texture. But they all do the same job.

This scrub was nice, I thought the granules disappeared too quickly for my liking and it does leave an oily layer on your hands. However it did scrub my hands and leaves a pleasant scent behind.

HOT LAVA - SELF-WARMING HAND REPAIR MASK:

Rational speak, it's an oil and clay.

From all the different types of masks I have used in the past, this was quite different. It looks like clay mixed with oil and it leaves an oily sheath on your hands. Mine was sort of separating but I think most masks are like that as the oils don't mix well with other ingredients. 

As for the self-warming bit of it. Did it raise my hand temperature by half a degree? I don't know because I didn't feel anything! My boyfriend was trying this mask with me too and he also felt nothing but didn't want to say anything in case his hands unable to feel it. But with two of us feeling no difference....

TROPICAL DEW - MAXIMUM MOISTURE HAND BUTTER:

Take away all the fancy words and it's a moisturiser. 

A very thick moisturiser. It took quite a while to absorb and was a little bit hard to rub in. It also left my hands quite greasy for some time. I suppose it is like a spa experience though, so I think you shouldn't be doing this when you have things to do as oil is very hard to remove from your hands.

OVERALL:

I do like the overall scent in this set and it has managed to stick around for the next day. Even after showers and hand washes so I do quite like that aspect. The scent in this set is Tahitian Coconut & Tiare Flower.

My hands do feel nice and soft today, a little bit dry but some hand cream will fix that. The scrub was great at getting the little bits of dead skin off around my cuticles. I don't know if the mask really did anything, maybe I am expecting too much?

I think it is a nice little travel set and would be really nice to take away on holiday with you. The non-self-warming mask was a bit disappointing though. 

There is one major big let down in this set. Instructions. There's info on how these things will change your life on everything but no instructions! I know it seems like a simple thing to do but I would have liked to have known how long to keep these things on or what would be the best way to use them. Not read all this empty-worded-glorified-bullcrap.

"This relaxing self-heating treatment helps nourish, detoxify and rebalance skin with mineral-rich volcanic clay, while Tahitian coconut oil and Tiare flower wrap skin in a velvet blanket of hydration therapy. Hands are supple and feathery soft."

I know you want to wrap your skin in a velvet blanket of hydration therapy.

I found this deal at Dress-Smart, Onehunga. They also have Orly polishes for $9.99 and two minis for $8 at the moment.

Misa Sunny Smile Makes Me Go Wild

I found these old photos I must have taken ages ago! I realised I never ended up posting them.


It is Misa's Sunny Smile Makes Me Go Wild. A very bright yellow.

Two coats shown here. I can't stop looking at my old nails... my new goal, to get them to this length here. 

Three coats here, still visible nail lineage going on there. 

Three coats and in the shade, we've got a lovely variety of shots here. There really isn't much to say about this polish as I honestly can't remember it and have no idea why I ever bought it. I usually don't go for neons or yellows.


I hope you have a lovely week :) I will have some more product reviews for you later on through the week. If you have noticed any weird changes to Nail Juice recently, I am trying to get a different template and a new look. So don't freak out like I did if you see things all over the place!

Naturally Clean by Essie

Naturally Clean is Essie's go at remover. I was quite excited to get such a large bottle as a freebie *glare at OPI* and the packaging looks nice and fresh.

THE SMELL:

To me it smells like typical hand soap. It is a nice change as most removers can have quite a strong smell to them. This scent is pleasant to work with.

THE FEEL:

Naturally Clean kind of feels like an acetone-free remover to me. It does remove polish quickly but not much of it. I also managed to still have a tiny bit of polish and base coat left around my cuticles after I had finished. I didn't really like that as then I have to go back and scrub them with more remover to get a completely clean nail.

THE PRICE:

I found it at Radius pharmacy initially and they didn't have a price on them because they were free but I did find it at Smith & Caughys and it was $15. Zoya's is about $18 if I remember correctly and the large refill $40. No idea what OPIs is priced at, I do remember being shocked at the price awhile ago though.

IS IT WORTH IT?

I think there will always be people who like different things, I still prefer Zoya but others may love this one. The smell is really nice and soft but I feel like it doesn't quite get my nails as clean as Zoya's Remove. I will probably use this one as my 'travel remover' as it is quite a nice little size and won't be overly upset if anything happened to it.

Color Club Ms. Hautie

I was so excited when I first saw Ms. Hautie! She has a gunmetal grey chrome like base with pink shimmer and little bits of glitter. 

However, once I had applied Ms. Hautie and added the final coat of top coat, I was let down. Where did the pink shimmer go? That was the thing that I was attracted to most in Ms. Hautie. Also those pretty little glitter pieces were covered up by the thick grey polish. Some glitters are still visible though.

I have been wearing this polish for a couple of days now, hoping that I will find some lighting that will bring it to life! Sadly I haven't found one. Artificial, natural, shade... The sun does bring more of the chrome out which is quite nice.

Maybe it's a different look Color Club were going for? I'm not really too sure what Ms. Hautie is trying to achieve. Maybe if the polish was less opaque or less frosty, those little glitter pieces and pink shimmer might be able to shine through.

Mixed feelings on this one.

A Story & Collections In Store At The Moment

Yesterday we had the bug guy come and spray the apartment for bed bugs, again, (make sure you check your beds before you settle on renting the place!) and he said we have to leave for 6 hours. This was at lunch time so we should head back at 6pm. 

We decided on taking a only drink bottle each and $10 for food.

So we started walking into town wondering what we are going to do for the next six hours, with only $10 in our pockets and our drink bottles.

We decided we'd head into Borders as they've got a ton of books, nice seats and is inside. We had a quick look around the place and picked up about four or five different books to read and found a nice place to sit down. 

I think we managed to read one book before we were bored and our stomachs started telling us we were now hungry. 

As borders is in a... very poorly designed complex (escalators going in all sorts of directions, random passage ways on slopes and all sorts of crazy crap) with a food court, we thought we'd have a browse around as it's quite tricky to find something that I can eat these days. We settled on Burger King. I think we discovered I actually had a lot of coins in my plastic box of a wallet so we were pleased and ordered something nice. 

After that we headed down Queen Street, popped into Smith & Caughys, checking to see what OPIs and Essies they had. S & C is such a boring place nail polish wise, they never get the new stuff when Farmers does and when they do, no once really cares about it anymore.

Disappointed with their selection, we headed further down queen street. There seemed to be some sort of ceremony across the road so we had a look. Mr. Len Brown was opening a new public space that cars can no longer drive down. There is a great shop here called MakeUp Direct. They used to sell Zoyas and they currently sell old Revlons and that brand that copies NFUOh's bottle style. Nothing really exciting though.

Anyhow we decided to check out Farmers next. Here is what we found:

The new Revlons out. I remember when their polishes used to be about $14, maybe even $12 at one stage. Now they're $19! I wasn't too blown away by the colour selection here, silver, gold and bronze. How many times have those been done?



Next we saw Orly's Precious collection. We seem to be getting these in faster than we used to I think. Some pretty colours but we have seen them all before really. Mint greens, teal cremes, pale pinks, navy blues and a peach with gold shimmer.

Next of course was the Katy Perry collection. While I was having a look there seemed to be quite a few people running over to the OPI stand to look for them. Very popular it seems! Mum has asked around and said that they will be getting more Black Shatters in, so don't resort to paying for overpriced ones online! Plus Farmers always has 10% off on Thursdays.

I really like the blue glitter and had to seriously use my self control to not buy it. On the upside mum sent me a text to let me know that she picked up a bottle of Black Shatter for me! I am so excited to play with it and see all the different ways you can use it. Mums are amazing.


We did continue walking around town for hours, needless to say that we were extremely happy to be back in our apartment when we returned.

A Challenge For My Blog Followers

It's all over, rover!

Katy Perry in NZ!

According to what my mum says, which is according to what a magazine says, Katy Perry polishes should be in-store! 


I have linked to a few blogs below who have swatches to help you decide which ones you want to pick up.


Also Farmers who is a major OPI stockist is having a sale on this Thursday (I think every Thursday actually) with 10% off cosmetics. So if you want to get it a little cheaper, Thursday is your day. If that's not cheap enough for you I think they range for about $14-$16 on TradeMe (NZ and AUS only), but the Black Shatter is on there for around $30 or so. Might be cheaper in-store, I don't know yet. :)


I am still on the fence if I actually like them or if it is just the hype, glitter and shatter. 

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Essie + Gift With Purchase

Hi guys, just a quick post today :)

Essie at the moment at some stores is offering a free bottle of Natural Clean Essie remover (118ml) when you buy an Essie polish. I finally had some spare cash and went for a colour I have been eying up for some time now, Big Spender. 


Completely forgot to mention where I got this deal, it was from a Radius chemist.


The name seems quite fitting... I wish I was more like my sister and didn't feel the need to buy pretty things. Oh well, mid semester break is coming up at the end of this week, so I guess it can be a treat for getting this far :)


Anyway I will review the remover shortly and show you Big Spender soon :)

Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau & Si Vous Please!

Here shown we've got Color Club's Take Me To Your Chateau and Si Vous Please. These are another two from the Pardon My French collection (which I saw in a chemist the other day! Just thinking now, with the amount of times I actually visit chemists, someone might think I have a problem lol!). 

I really love this light blue. I wore it on my toes first, and it was just love at first sight. I took it down to my parents house and painted just about the whole family's toes with it! I met up with my mum and sister the other day and my sister still had it on :D 

When it was about to come off, I couldn't bear to take it off, so I re-applied it! I just really enjoy wearing Take Me To Your Chateau.

Si Vous I haven't really worn as i'm not really in a glittery mood. You know, you just have to be in a certain mood to wear some polishes. 

Si Vous Please is basically a clear glitter, nothing special but these two give me a nice wintery feeling. I think they go quite nicely together, Si Vous would go with just about anything though.

QTICA Nail Growth Stimulator Trial

Thanks to being born around this time of year has allowed me to be able to get my hands on another bottle of Qtica's Nail Growth Stimulator as it is on the pricey side. (Old photo shown, my goal is to get my nails back to that length.)


Why I am trying it again:
Qtica guarantees that it will give you a quarter of an inch (0.635 centimetres) growth in 14 days. I know I've tried it before and didn't get the amount of growth promised, but my lifestyle is quite different from back then so I want to give it another try.

The price and where to buy:
It is a lot easier to find (and cheaper!) in the states, the Art Of Beauty site sells it for $20US, I think I have seen it around for $8-$15 on other places. 


In New Zealand the only place I know of to buy it is from Sudo-Mistair. It is expensive though at $61.00 a pop. If you have a salon account though, it goes down to $38.12. Still quite pricey, maybe get it as a treat if you have been super good :)


What I will be doing over the next 14 days:
I will be documenting my progress with a photo each day and I will make a .gif so I can have an animation to show you of the growth within the next 14 days. I will also be continuing the treatment and documentation for one month.


Once my nails are at a likable length, I don't think I will continue on with this product as it is too pricey to keep as a main treatment. I will then carry on using Zoya Anchor as my main base/treatment as that is much cheaper at $14.38 (salon price).


Well I guess I will be seeing you in 14 days, if not before then :)