Wish List: Nail Polish

Nail polish is the product that basically ignited my love for makeup. I started collecting them around the start of last year and now I have a collection of over 60. My family seems to think I have all the colours I would ever need, but I'm sure you can all agree with me that you can never have enough nail polishes!

1. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On  

2. Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Pink Can   3. China Glaze For Audrey   

 4. OPI Berlin There Done That     5. Australis Space Jam    6. Essie Matte About You

I don't actually have a white nail polish and it would be great to use in nail art (I recently accidentally bought Maybelline Marshmallow thinking it was white and was very disappointed). I saw I Pink I Can on Lilit's blog as a match for MAC's Viva Glam Niki Lipstick, a lipstick I love the colour of but don't (yet) own. I love pink polishes and don't have a shade like I Pink I Can yet (although might be close to my BYS Isn't She Lovely polish - which isn't a great quality polish anyway). I'd also love to try the Complete Salon Manicure range.

I don't own any China Glaze polishes yet, and of the few (Ok, I want all of them) I want, For Audrey really stands out. I love pastel bluey greens, and I don't think I have anything like it in my collection.

OPI Berlin There Done that is another polish unlike anything I own. I really want a nice taupey shade and this looks perfect. I'm a little obsessed with the entire German/ Holland/Euro collections because I'm excited about going to Europe this year, haha.

Space Jam is from the new collection of glitter polishes that Australis has brought out. It's a purple jelly with blue glitter, and although some reviews say it's quite gluggy, for some reason I still want it anyway!

I don't have any matte polishes and have been thinking about getting a matte top coat so I can turn any of my polishes matte (doubling my nail polish collection with just one polish? Yes please!). I was going to get the BYS one, but after seeing some reviews it doesn't seem to work that well. Essie's Matte About You seems like one of the better matte top coats, and I'm going to try and hunt it down when Myer has an Essie sale (they always seem to be on sale there!). I also noticed that Essence have a matte top coat that is comparable with the Essie one, but after a quick look in Target and Priceline it doesn't seem to be available in Australia! If anyone knows of any great matte top coats that I could find easily in Australia, please let me know!!

What polishes are on your wish list?

January Empties

This month is the first month I've actually had something interesting to post about as an empties post. I've been aiming to use up a lot of things, as I don't want to have a lot of stuff (especially skincare) lying around here while I'm in the UK for 7 months! I mostly used up a bunch of samples from subscription boxes.

Lots of Mascaras
Rimmel X volume Flash, Australis Lash TLC conditioning mascara, Maybelline One by One Volum' Express and Rimmel Scandaleyes Show Off. 
Not shown: Maybelline waterproof define-a-lash.
These mascaras were the main reason I did this post. I didn't actually empty them, I just threw them all out! I somehow managed to accumulate a lot of mascaras last year, most of them I didn't actually purchase - winning them or getting them in a subscription box. Most of these are hardly touched, but I never use them so they're just sitting around wasting space. These were either really clumpy or dry. I did use the Rimmel Scandeleyes and the Maybelline One by One for a few weeks, but then I got the Covergirl LashBlast Volume and started using that every day. I threw out another this month, the Maybelline waterproof define-a-lash. I used to LOVE Maybelline mascaras all through high school, (this one and Great lLash) but this one was pretty awful. Maybe it was because I had it for a while, but I do remember first opening it and not being as impressed as I used to be.
I wouldn't repurchase any of these, seeing as Covergirl LashBlast Volume mascara is way better!

Brushes - Rimmel X Volume Flash, Australis TLC, Maybelline One by One and Rimmel Scandaleyes

Maybelline Baby Lips Cherry Velvet
This is the first lip balm I've actually managed to use all up! I have a habit of loosing them. This one I may have had some help finishing from the washing machine...
I really love baby lips lipbalm and I'll definitely repurchase.

Sally Hansen Maximum Growth
When I first bought this I used it as a treatment (applying every day for 7 days) and it worked ok, except I got impatient and peeled it off a lot. Then I got lazy and just wanted to use it as a base coat. It's not really empty but it's too old to keep using. I would repurchase this again, but for the time being I need something a little more stronger and I'm trying the Diamond Strength top and base coat.

4me nail polish remover
I got this in a bellabox and love them. Usually removing nail polish for me is a nightmare but these are pretty great. I can usually manage to take off glittery polish using just one pad (it is a struggle though!).
I would definitely repurchase - once bellabox restock them!

Swisspers make up pads
I don't really need to talk about these, everyone knows why you need them and of course I'll be repurchasing - this, or whatever brand is cheapest at priceline.

Benefit Total Moisture Facial Cream sample

I got this sample when I did an order before Christmas and it's the best facecream I've used. I would love to repurchase this but it's a little too expensive!

Swisse and Allegra Rhodes Ocean Mist handcream samples
These were both great creams and both smelt nice. The sample size of the Swisse one meant I got to try more of that so liked it better. I also like it's price tag better and would be more likely to repurchase that! I may use my bellabox points to buy a full size of the Allegra Rhodes but it's big and doesn't seem like it would be a good container for travelling.

Bioderma Créaline H2O sample
This stuff was great at removing heavy eye makeup with ease. I would repurchase, but not for the Australian RRP. Maybe I can find some cheap when I travel!

USPA Supernatural Wheatgrass Solar Energy Leave-In Serum sample
A leave in conditioner. Good for the hair but it doesn't smell very nice. I wouldn't repurchase as there are plenty of other haircare products I could buy that smell better than this!

Not pictured: Palmolive Strawberry Soother body wash (which I loved and would repurchase if I ever ran out of body washes!), Yankee Candle Autumn Fruits (I'm going to buy a ton of Yankee Candles when I'm in the UK) and some toothpaste (Had to repurchase for obvious reasons. Have you ever had to buy toothpaste? There are so many options!)

Weekly Nail: Italian Lemon Drop

This manicure was inspired Sophia from Tattooed Tealady's manicure, where I thought the pastel pink and yellow (which turns out was actually an orange, but looked a little yellow in the photo, whoops) looked lovely together.

I decided to use Rimmel's I love lasting finish in Lemon Drop and OPI Italian Love Affair, and use Sally Hansen Diamond Shine base and top coat.

Lemon Drop could possibly be the worst polish I've used. Sure, the colour is lovely but it is such a pain to apply! It took 3-4 coats to get opaque, and it still wasn't really even. The polish doesn't even out at all like most do, so you end up adding more and more coats to try and get it even. The first 2 light coats dried in a reasonable amount of time, but to get the polish even you need to use a heavy coat, which took ages to dry . Apparently this is supposed to be scented when dry too. Couldn't smell a thing. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for this (it was in a Priceline goody bag I got during their 30 days of priceline). I have 2 other colours from this collection, Pop! and Misty Jade, and although Misty Jade is basically just as bad, Pop! seems to apply just fine.

I decided to pair it with Italian Love Affair, which is another polish I usually have problems with, but it turned out to be great this time. Just one coat over the yellow was enough.

As for Sally Hansen's Diamond Shine base and top coat, I'm not sure if it's the kind of base coat I need to be using (My nails are horrible, and I accidentally picked this out instead of the Diamond Strength Instant Nail hardener) but I might be replacing Seche Vite with this as a top coat (as Seche Vite isn't 3 free).

It's a real shame that the yellow is so bad, as these colours go so well together. It also seems that I'm finally getting the hang of using nail guide stickers. Most of the lines on this manicure turned out really well. :D

Do you have any polishes you just can't stand? What are you wearing on your nails at the moment?