MANICure Monday 29 September 2014

Time for another manicure!

This one is my absolute favourite, because it combines the best polishes I have used in a long time. Also there is no top coat - and the polish lasts at least FOUR DAYS without chipping *gasp*

Here is my look (the middle finger is not chipped - I just messed it while it was still wet!):

To achieve this I used the following:
Sinful Colours in Real Teal

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Angel Wings

Essence Special Effect Nail Polish in Party In A Bottle

And here are all three together - what a pretty threesome!

I will be reviewing the polishes a bit later, but thought I would share with you their awesomeness today in the meantime :)

Have a great week everybody!

Post Heritage Day Catch Up

As much as I love having a day off, this mid-week public holiday thing has made me so confused as to what day I am on! Now today feels like a Monday, but I know that Friday is tomorrow so what the hell?!

Tonight I am off to Sexpo for the first time and am very much looking forward to it! I will let you guys know all the gory details ASAP. Hopefully I can take a couple of NSFW photos too, (wink wink)

I also have a ton of product reviews to do, I just don't have the time to write and photograph swatches and make videos at the moment, but I seriously don't want to put up a half-assed review with one lame stock photo! I have been testing out for a while and here are some of the reviews you can look forward to:
- Catrice camouflage concealer
- Yardley Suntori bronzer
- African extracts vanishing cream and moisturising cream
- Yardley Absolute Translucent loose powder
- Tangle Teezer brush

Also I see that one of my favourite brands, Essence, is coming out with some new and fun cosmetics! Click here to have a look. I see that they were supposed to have launched on Monday already but I have been to two different Dischems and there is nothing there :( As soon as I see them I will be buying the Lash Princess mascara, a couple effect lipglosses, some effect eyeshadows (UK Stonehenge and Brazil Sunset look awesome!) and a few of the new effect nail polishes to try out. Let me know what you are most excited to try!

OK so that is it for the upcoming blog updates, and hopefully I can get some reviews out soon. I pray I don't have to work too much this weekend so I can write up and photograph like mad for you!

And I have a new sign-off woop! Hope you like it

Summer tag :)

Shoowee I have not posted in ages, bad Karley!

I was given this challenge to do by the wonderful Lizna from Pieces in Pink, and I honestly have not had any time to do it until today, sorry!

Now that I finally have some time to spare, I am very excited to answer my questions :)

1. What is your favourite thing about Summer?
I love the warmer weather in the evenings and being able to be outside for longer at night! I like going to a braai and being able to sit outside all night without dying of either hypothermia or smoke from wood fires!

2. Do you have a favourite summer drink?
Oh yes, and it is a newly-discovered one! For ages I have heard Americans (especially in the south) going on about sweet tea, so I decided to find a recipe and make some for myself. It is basically black tea and sugar but it is ADDICTIVE! Especially nice to put a South African twist on it and make rooibos sweet tea :)

3. Is there a location that you like to go each summer?
My dad lives in Cape Town so I love to go visit him each December, but I don't always get a chance. Cape Town is a great destination for any season, and it feels so different from Joburg that it's a great break. I just wish the ocean wasn't so cold!

4. Favourite makeup look for summer?
I am in love with Essence's CC Cream at the moment (it has SPF 30 so perfect for summer!) and I like to wear that coupled with some waterproof mascara. I don't like to wear too much makeup in summer as the heat tends to make things melt off. Having my permanent eyeliner helps a lot!

5. Dresses or skirts?
Dresses fo sho! I prefer maxi dresses even though I am short, but I wear shorter dresses too. Not those short-short crotch-grazing ones where you can't bed over though, I think I probably about 65 394 gym visits away from being able to pull that look off, ha ha!

6. Sandals or ballet pumps?
SANDALS! I normally like to be bare foot so in situations where I have to wear shoes, I like to wear as little shoe as possible.

7. Do you prefer to wear your hair up or down for summer?
This is a tricky one - on the one hand my hair looks so much better down, but on the other wearing it down is like wearing a woolen scarf in the middle of summer. It depends on the day if I am willing to choose comfort over style I guess! If I wear my hair down I always bring a hair tie or clip with me in case I get too hot.

8. Deep smokey eyes or bold lips?
I like a bold lip for summer - it goes well with my minimalist eye makeup and doesn't melt off my face the way a smokey eye would.

9. Favourite perfume for summer?
I adore Davidoff Cool Water or any DKNY Be Delicious for summer - they are all fresh and remind me of summer.

10. Last but not least, favourite music for summer?
Anything on Tuks FM makes me happy :) I love rock and alternative music and Tuks FM plays just what I like.

Unfortunately I am a little bit of a newbie to this blogging world and I don't really have any bloggers that I can tag, and that makes me sad :( But thanks Liz for the tag, this was fun!

MANICure Monday

Happy Spring Day!

After the horrific cold front last week, I am super keen for Spring (and Summer!) and in celebration, I did a cute little mani with nude nails and dotted accent nails.

The dots are very easy to do, even if you don't have nail art tools. All you need is a pin and you just dab the head of it onto the nail polish brush and then onto your finger nail! Easy and effective, it also doesn't chip :) I used a french manicure pink for the rest of my nails and added a top coat all over. All the colours I used are from Essence - they are great value for money and because they are so affordable, you can get a ton of different colours to experiment with!

What do you think?

Eyelash tinting - is it worth it?

Having light lashes, I have always been envious of those who naturally have dark lashes. I am going to have permanent eyeliner done again this weekend (I will put a post up for that too!) so I decided to get my lashes tinted as I won't be able to wear mascara for a while after that!

I wasn't too sure what to expect, but after image searching before and after photos I was hoping to have quite dramatic change.

I arrived at my appointment eager to get started. I lay down on the bed, had some sort  of cream applied to both eyes, got a piece of cotton under each eye, and finally the dye was applied. Then the wait began. At first it was ok and I felt like I might have a little nap, but after a short while my eyes started tingling a little. I tried to forget the images of women with swollen eyes that I had seen while image searching earlier, but as the tingling started to become stronger, I was seriously worried!

From the little research I had done before this, most salons had said to do a test patch 24 hours before to make sure there was no allergic reaction, but I thought that was being over-cautious and as I had dyed my hair in the past with no problem, I reckoned it was unnecessary. But lying on that bed with my eyes squeezed shut, feeling my skin and eyes burning, I started thinking that maybe a test patch would have been a good idea!

After what felt like forever (but was probably only 10-15 minutes), the beautician came back into the room and started to clean off the dye. A little of the water got into my eyes and I had to sit up so she could continue to clean it up without getting it in my eye. Finally I was able to open my eyes without burning and I was so excited to see the results! She gave me the mirror and I looked at my eyes, expecting to see lashes that seemed longer and thicker. Instead what I saw were eyes that looked a bit puffy, and lashes that seemed almost exactly the same as when I walked in.

I was quite disappointed with the results, my lashes didn't look anything like some of the before and after photos that I had seen on the internet. They are darker, but don't seem longer and thicker. I still feel the need to wear mascara, and the whole point was that I didn't have to wear mascara after I get my permanent eyeliner. Maybe I was just hoping for a miracle, but at least the whole process only cost about R50 so I didn't feel too put out! And my lashes do look slightly better than before.

Here are the before and after shots:

Would I do it again? Probably not, as I love wearing mascara so there is no need really. I have heard about a semi-permanent mascara though that is applied similarly to tinting, but I have yet to find a salon near me that does it! I would try that for sure because who doesn't want to wake up looking "naturally" beautiful?!

 As I mentioned, I am going to get semi-permanent eyeliner done again this weekend, so I am nervous and excited for that! I had it done earlier this year (you can see in these photos what that looks like) but now I want it just a bit thicker, especially on the bottom. I just hope it turns out ok!

Have you ever had a beauty treatment that didn't turn out how you expected? I would love to know! Leave a comment with your experiences :)

Baking Time! Gadget Reviews

When I get into the mood to bake, I get into the mood to bake! Last night I spent over 2.5 hours in the kitchen whipping up some baked goods, but it was so worth it.

Last night on my way home from work I decided to pick up a couple of ingredients and try out some of my baking gadgets that I haven't had a chance to use yet.

I decided to make chocolate sugar cookies and use my cookie stamp, and also vanilla cupcakes with melon icing and test out my cupcake corer and new icing kit.

I will post the recipes later if you like, but for now I'm just going to review my gadgets :)


COOKIE STAMPER - TYPO
First up, the cookie stamper from Typo. I could not resist this stamper - it was on sale and it says "S%#t Hot". I have such a sailor-mouth so I had to have it!

I made a basic chocolate sugar cookie dough, cut out circles using a glass, placed them onto silicone baking mats and then pressed the cookie stamp into them. I sprinkled a bit of icing sugar on top juts before they went in - here's how they looked:

Cookies!

Silly me forgot to take an "after" shot when they came out of the oven, but the icing sugar had melted nicely over them and they looked great! They weren't as sweet as I would have liked, but it was the first time I tried this recipe.

In terms of the stamper, it worked pretty well. It is a wooden stamp with a silicone stamping part (not sure of technical term!) that is removable for washing. I did find that sometimes a bit of cookie dough got stuck in a groove of the stamp, but it was easily removable with a wooden skewer. I love the contrast between the cuteness of the cookie, and the naughtiness of the swearing :) I give this stamper two thumbs up!


COOKIE CORER - MR PRICE HOME
Next up was the cookie corer. I bought this at Mr Price Home for R20. I love putting fillings in my cupcakes, and thought this corer would help greatly in making the holes.

Here is a picture of what it looks like:

It is pretty simple to use - just stick it in, twist it around, and then pop it out! Very effective and such a handy tool. This also gets two thumbs up!

Easy Peasy

ICING KIT - PICK N PAY
I bought this icing kit from Pick n Pay for a super cheap R40! It has a silicone body with a plastic screw lid, and a set of 6 plastic nozzles. What I immediately liked about it was the large opening to fill with icing.

I was a little bit concerned about the icing leaking through the lid as it didn't seem to close 100%, but it worked a dream! The only negative that I found was that the nozzles can be a bit tricky to get on, but once I got it right it stayed put. Unfortunately I messed up the icing so it was too runny, but you can get the idea of how it works still! I give this two thumbs up.

And that is that for my baking escapades, now I'm off to gym to work off the 20 cupcakes and 30 cookies that I will be eating over the weekend :)

Catrice Longlasting Eye Pencil Waterproof Review

Happy Friday everybody!

This is just a quick review for Catrice's Longlasting Waterproof Eye Pencil.

I went on the hunt for a good, long-lasting eyepencil the other day, and after testing a couple out (basically drawing on my hand and rubbing over them with my finger) I found that the best budget eyeliner was a toss up between Catrice's Longlasting Waterproof Eye Pencil, and Essence's Gel Eye Pencil Waterproof. I decided on Catrice as not only was it slightly cheaper at R38 instead of R43, but I prefered the colour selection, although the colours were quite similar.

On my preliminary test, both the Catrice and the Essence eyeliner stayed put, even after the other eyeliners had completely come off! The L.A. Girl's Semi-Permanent eyeliner was around the same price and came off almost completely with the first swipe! By the end of the evening, both Catrice and Essence were still on my hand, and in the morning, only Essence was still showing. Pretty impressive if you ask me - I will have to go back and get an Essence one now too to try out properly!

Anywho I chose a grey and a green Catrice pencil and tested their staying power on my eyes.

Here is a pic of the packaging. It is a retractable pencil I love that there is a secret sharpener in the bottom of the tube, but I haven't felt the need to use it yet :) Essence didn't have a sharpener, but it is also a retractable.

And here is a pic of the product in action! This is halfway through the day, and you can see that there is a little bit of fading, but no smudging or running, which is super important!

Pros:
- Price
- Retractable pencil
- Sharpener included
- Metallic finish

Cons:
- None that I can think of

All in all I would say that this is another hit from Catrice!

Have a great weekend y'all :)

Birthday Earthquake

No better way to celebrate a 28th birthday than with gym, a carrot muffin and an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter Scale!

Happy birthday to me!

In my 28 years I have never felt an earthquake before, so the one today was pretty scary! At first I wasn't too sure what it was, but then things got a bit hectic (I think some things might have shifted on the shelves) and I jumped up, ran for the door, realised I was locked in and then ran around looking for keys before it just stopped.

Luckily the effects weren't so bad here in Joburg, but apparently (as of the time of writing this) there was a fatality in the epicentre of Orkney. Scary stuff!

Let's hope we can get through the rest of my birthday without any more earthquakes/tsunamis/sharknados

Woolworths Complexion Perfector Review

I am plagued with red, blotchy skin and the occasional break-out, and am constantly on the lookout for something that can even out my skin tone and make my skin look healthy.

I saw this green colour corrector at Woolworths, on sale for R35 and couldn't pass up the opportunity to give it a try. It comes in a 20ml plastic tube, is liquid in consistency, and as with most colour correctors for red skin, it has that scary green hue that you worry will make you look like Kermit! There is no shimmer which I like as on top of my red, pimply skin, I also suffer from oiliness (yay me.)

Here is a photo of the tube, as well as the list of ingredients:

My skin is pretty much at its worst right now, so this test was really putting this colour corrector through its paces! It did seem to work well on my cheeks and forehead where I have general redness, but it didn't completely cover the redness from the pimples.

For comparison sakes, here is a photo of me with nothing on...my face :)

Bare Face

Here is a photo with just the colour corrector on:

Just Colour Corrector

You can see there is less red, but the pimples are still a bit visible.

Here I am all made up with foundation and powder on:

All Made Up

Pros:

- Low price

- No shimmer

- Works well on red patches

Cons:

- Doesn't cover pimples too well

You can see there is a difference, but I wasn't completely blown away by the coverage on my pimples. For 35 bucks though, it's well worth a go!

Monday blues no more

Monday mornings - that ineffable period of our lives where we wake up wondering if getting out of bed is worth it. That black hole between trying to figure out where the weekend went, and accepting the inevitable and getting ready for work. It is the same for most of us - I am sure we all feel that slight panic on a Sunday evening (normally around Carte Blanche time) when we realise that our freedom is about to end, and all those plans that you had the best of intentions for doing on the weekend will have to put off until the next weekend because you were too busy lying on the couch catching up on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (or is that just me?!)

But Mondays don't have to be that bad. Seriously. I have an almost foolproof way of getting through your Monday depression-free, and all it requires is a little planning.

What I like to do is plan events for during the upcoming week and weekend so that I have something to look forward to. They don't have to be big or costly, it can be anything from a braai with some friends, to shopping for a new pair of shoes, to a date night with your significant other. So for example this week I have a few of my favourite shows lined up to watch, I have a yoga class, I am planning on doing a review on a new product, and I am going to bake some cupcakes and try out my new icing contraption. Now I completely understand that these seem pretty mundane and boring, but learning to appreciate small things like these get me through my Monday morning lull!

Now when you wake up next Monday, instead of thinking dark and horrible thoughts of how your life is over, you can think "Yay, I'm having hamburgers for dinner tonight!"

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Friday Fun Time - 25 July 2014

Being a huge fan of all kitschy-cool things, Typo is one of my favourite shops. Every time I walk in there, I have to keep my hands in my pockets to keep me from buying everything in the shop. On my last visit I saw this adorable bobble-head deer, and just had to get him!

Here is a little video of him rocking out on our drive home:

Happy Friday y'all :)

Things I need - 24 July 2014

Once a month I will be creating a "Things I need" post for things I have seen around the web and that I, in my opinion, need! My birthday is coming up so.... here is a list of some things I NEED:

1. This car:

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen? I would break both my legs just to be able to get into it! Source: The Flying Tortoise

2. Star Wars Xbox 360:

Yes, I already have an Xbox 360, but it's not this one! I'm not a massive Star Wars fan, but I can appreciate the cuteness of the R2-D2 console and matching C-3PO controller. Someone donate their old one to me?

3. Classic Kit Cat clock

There is something so mesmerizing about the swinging tail and swishing eyes. My love of all things kitsch and cool would mean this clock would fit perfectly in my lounge! Here's the official website: Kit Cat clocks

4. Gummy Bear Anatomy 

This little guy is the perfect mixture of cute and creepy! Some food for thought for the next time you dive into a bag of gummy bears :) This is the creator's blog: Gummi Bear Anatomy

5. Kashmiri Spice Tins

These fun spice tins would brighten up any kitchen. Just wish they were available here in South Africa :( Website: Not On The High Street

So that is it for this week's edition - remember you can always show your appreciation by sending me something from this page!

Essence Colour Flash Volume Mascara Review

Normally I go for the natural look, but when I saw these fun mascaras I had to give them a try! They come in five different colours. They are:

Green - 01 miss early-greenbirdy
Dark Blue - 02 miss sue blue
Dark Pink - 03 miss mary berry
Turquoise - 04 miss louise turquoise
Purple - 05 miss lila deleila

The colour is quite intense and shows up well with just one coat. I didn't notice great volume, but I bought it for the colour not for volumising so that didn't bother me.

The colour lasts well and I did not have any fall-out or smudging under my eyes.

I see that you can use it in your hair, but I haven't tried that yet.

One of the things that I noticed that I really liked is that although I used black liquid liner, when my eyes are open the colour blends in and looks like it belongs.

Here are a couple photos of how the green looks:

My favourite colours are the green and turquoise - I haven't tried out the pink, but the others look good too.

Pros:
- great range of colours
- lasts well with no smudging
- low price
- bright colour

Cons:
- none that I can think of

I definitely recommend it if you want to play around with colour! Two thumbs up :)