Chimera Nail Polish Swatching

by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 10, 2010 | Nails, Review

If you read a lot of nail polish blogs you will know that Australian polish brand Chimera has had problems in the past, bloggers that I respect and consider to be friends were affected and I do not in any way condone what went on. Since then, Chimera have apparently made a lot of internal changes and I believe in second chances so when they asked me to review these polishes I said yes. I will only be commenting on my opinions and experiences with the actual polishes. The polishes were provided by Chimera and all opinions are 100% honest and mine.’Nuff said.

*EDIT* Ok so it has come to my attention that the problems mentioned above have not stopped. As Chimera continues to engage in behavior like this I cannot recommend their polishes. I do not condone spam. I do not condone underhanded blogging tactics. I believe in second chances but I also believe that those chances need to be used well not squandered. My opinions on the polish stand but I do not support the brand AT ALL. */EDIT*

So let’s talk nail polish!

I received 8 polishes in total so here are the basic details, specific polish details will be with the relevant photos below.

Brand: Chimera

From: Their website

Price: $14.95 per polish

Volume: 15ml

Ingredients: N-Butylacetate, Nitrocellulose, Ethyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol

Bottle: I do like square bottles because it makes them easier to stack and keep tidy. The lid has an odd texture which is kind of grippy.

Brush: Very thin flexible brush.

Drying Time: Pretty much the same for all of them… quite quick.

Colour Name: All of the colours have names on the website but only numbers are printed on the bottles so I can’t remember what the names are >_< This is number 121

Description: Dark grey polish with lots and lots of silver glitter.

Thoughts: Decent coverage with 1 coat, great with two coats. The polish itself looks a little matt so it reminds me a bit of gun metal. I like how dense the glitter is.

Good for: -Industrial style nails -Matte background for designs -Possibly good for Konad as it’s highly concentrated, haven’t tried though.

Bad for: -Glossy nails, would need a good top coat

Colour Name: 124

Description: Purple with pink tones and a silver shimmer through it.

Thoughts: Very pretty light purple, quite metallic but not in a cold way. This is exactly the kind of blingy colour that I like ^_^ Very opaque too.

Good for: -Cute french tips -Flowery nail art -Possibly Konad because it’s very opaque but I haven’t tried it.

Bad for: -Layering over other colours as it’s very opaque

Colour Name: 70

Description: A kind of sea blue with gold shimmers.

Thoughts: Opaque in 2 coats, a little streaky but that makes me think of the ocean even more haha!

Good for: -Ocean themed nail art -Swirly 70’s-ish nail art

Bad for: -Super smooth base coats -Probably wouldn’t be very opaque over dark colours

Colour Name: 101

Description: Very light pearlescent pink.

Thoughts: Very thin polish, took 3 coats to be really opaque. I suspect it is supposed to be used in natural looking French manicures. It reminds me a lot of the colour my Barbie dolls used to wear XD

Good for: -Natural French mani’s -Office appropriate nails -Cotton candy themed nail art

Bad for: -Standing out

Colour Name: 88

Description: Slightly darker than the previous pink, this is a bubble gum-ish pink pearl with gold tones.

Thoughts: Opaque in two coats, the colour you get with one coat is quite cute too. It has quite a pleasant shine to it but is a little thick for my liking.

Good for: -Sweet, girly nails -Nail art on darker colours

Bad for: -Cold colour themed manicure

Colour Name: 68 (or possibly 89 >_<)

Description: Light purple with a pearl finish, more on the blue side of things.

Thoughts: This polish is a bit of an odd colour, it is quite streaky but it layers in an interesting way. The difference between 1 and 3 coats is quite large. It’s quite opaque in 1 coat but if you continue to layer it becomes quite dark.

Good for: -Odd interesting layered designs -Possibly very good for Konad stamping over matte bases

Bad for: -Super smooth bases

Colour Name: 64

Description: Very pale plain pink.

Thoughts: Very pink. Nice and smooth, opaque in two coats with quite a high shine factor. This is the sort of colour that is very versatile because it’s understated enough to go with lots and lots of other colours. While all of the pinks I’ve reviewed in this post are very similar I like this one the most because from a nail-art point of view it can be used in so many types of designs.

Good for: -Super cutesy nail art -Natural French manicures -Office friendly manicures -Possibly good with Konad as it’s very opaque

Bad for: -Mmm… can’t think of any!

Colour Name: 117

Description: Deep chocolaty brown with a shimmery finish.

Thoughts: -Very very opaque creamy brown, it is absolutely spot on the colour of chocolate! The application of this one made me very happy, really smooth and shiny and I couldn’t stop thinking about melted chocolate.

Good for: -Leopard or animal themed nail art -Chocolate themed nails

Bad for: -Plain manicures

Conclusion:

I was really pleasantly surprised at these polishes. After actually trying them I was really happy with the results and I use some of them very frequently now. While being quite pricey I thought the quality was really good, they went on very smoothly and the finishes were overall very pretty and shiny. They have a very wide range of colours (especially pinks!), the shipping was very fast and the customer service that I experienced was very polite and I got same day answers to everything I asked.

Verdict: If I had the money I would buy a lot of the other colours.

So if you decide to order from Chimera I have a discount code for you…

Enter the code “VIP” to receive 25% off your order.

Neutrogena Make Up Remover Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Aug 6, 2010 | Beauty, Review

Make up remover should be one of the *most* important weapons in your make up arsenal. It’s especially important when you have skin as temperamental as mine.

I was recommended Neutrogena Oil Free Eye Make Up Remover by Super Kawaii Mama.

I bought mine at Priceline but you can get it at supermarkets too, it costs around $7 if I remember correctly. The bottle is nothing special, I personally prefer pump bottles but because you have to shake it it wouldn’t really work in a pump.Inside there are two separate liquids on floating on top of each other. The best way to describe it is oil and water but seeing as it’s oil-free it’s clearly not XDYou’re supposed to shake it up and put it on a cotton pad, it pretty much has the consistency of water and you can’t really see it in the below photos…

The smell is nice… in that it doesn’t smell like anything and that’s how I prefer removers. It doesn’t have that heavy cosmetic smell either which I’m very pleased about.

This is me after I’ve removed my eyelashes. You press the wet cotton on your eyes and (very important) leave it there for around 5 seconds.

With one swipe to the side this is what came of:

With 3 stripes I managed to get everything off my eye. Much quicker than anything else I’ve used!

I quite liked the feeling afterward as well, it was kind of like a very expensive moisturizer XD I don’t really have any negative points at all, I really liked it and it’s one of my every day products now! Yay for having friends with good taste in make up products XD

Verdict: Cheap, quick, works very well and leaves a nice feeling. DO WANT!

Missha- Lucid Nail Polish Swatches

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 31, 2010 | Beauty, Nails, Review

I’ve been thinking about posting swatches of my nail polishes for quite a while now. Seeing as I’ve collected so many it seemed a shame to just have them sitting there already swatched and not post them! And I finally convinced James to take all the photos for me… even better!

So first up is this awesome glittery pink from Missha. It’s currently my faaavorite!

Brand:

Missha

Colour Name:

Lucid (?)

Bought From:

Missha store at Box Hill

Price:

Around AU$5 not completely sure though

Description:

Very highly concentrated dark pink glitter polish.

Volume:

7.5ml

Ingredients:

Not listed on the bottle. Bottle says “Against Animal Testing”.

Bottle:

Very cute heart shaped design. The design takes away from the volume but because it’s a fairly tall bottle it makes up for it.

Brush:

Very wide and flat. Really good design for being able to get almost an entire nail in one swipe. Also makes it very quick and easy to do French tips.

Drying Time:

One coat dries very quickly and looks great.

Thoughts:

I looooove this colour so much and I really love how pigmented and opaque the glitter is. It goes on surprisingly smoothly and maintains a good sheen even without a top coat. Very thick consistency due to all of the glitter. When it’s in the sunlight it is insanely shiny.

Good for:

-Fancy french tips -Looks cute plain on short nails -Pigmented enough to use for nail art

Bad for: -People who don’t like cutsy pink glittery things 😉

Lush Marilyn Hair Treatment Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 20, 2010 | Beauty, Review

I’ve been giving the Lush Marilyn hair treatment a try for a while now so I thought I’d share my results.

I love hair treatments, that’s no secret! I’ve been looking around for some new ones to try out but there really isn’t much variety here in Australia. This particular one had come with mixed reviews from a couple of my friends so I figured I would give it a try 😀

Even better, this one is specifically for blonde hair!

The clerk at Lush basically told me that it would lighten the blonde areas of my hair and to avoid applying it on the reds and browns so I would have the same colouring at the bottoms. It is also supposed to put more moisture back into damaged hair. So far my hair has mostly avoided damage from bleaching but I want to preempt any future damage *_*

The idea is that is has all kinds of natural lightening ingredients such chamomile and lemon juice so it should highlight your hair. It won’t give you a proper colour change if you’re not blonde already but it’s supposed to give a kind of boost.

The packaging is quite plain but has lots of deco-ing potential 😉

They thought with my length hair I could get around 3 uses out of this tub, though because I only used it on the top 1/2 of my hair I got 5 applications. At AU$25.95 per pot it’s not particularly cheap because even if you get 5 applications that’s still around $5 a pop.

The consistency is kind of gloopy and slimy! It reminds me of a mango smoothy XD

Like most Lush products I’ve used, the smell is reeeeally intense. I really suggest having a look at the shop and smelling it before you actually buy because once it’s actually on your head it gets very overpowering. If I had been clever and smelt it first I probably wouldn’t have bought it purely on personal preference.

It’s quite a messy job applying it in a fun sort of way! Make sure not to wear nice clothes though because it gets everywhere.

After washing it out my hair felt nice and smooth but to be honest I don’t think it was very much nicer than regular conditioner and by the next day it had pretty much worn off. Long term I didn’t see any noticeable difference in how soft or shiny it was.

I used the whole pot over a few weeks as recommended by the store clerk and I didn’t see any difference in colour at all in my hair. Among my friends who have also used it there was 50/50 split as to whether it actually made any colour difference.

Verdict:

While it made my hair smooth in the short term I didn’t see any long term colour or texture differences. Due to the lack of noticeable difference and the hefty price tag I probably wouldn’t buy it again. That said it was a nice treatment and I think it might work better on a different hair type. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. Can any of you girls recommend me a really nice hair treatment to try out? Have you tried the Lush Marilyn Hair Treatment with other results?

Sneaker Sunday- Home Foot Spa Reviews!

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 11, 2010 | Beauty, Review

Sneaker Sunday time!

We all love our sneakers, they are totally awesome but feet need pampering so this week Valerie and I are going to show you some options on how to give those feet what they really deserve!

To two reviews today.

Firstly the best $18 I spent the month we moved here:

At home foot spa from Kmart. Firstly I couldn’t believe that it was actually $18… So freaking cheap, I haven’t seen them in stores for less that $40!

Basically you pour water into it and turn it on. It massages, whirls heats the water. Awesome in theory but in this case you get what you pay for…

This is where the problems start… it only does 1 out of those 3 things: Massage

It doesn’t heat the water and it doesn’t whirl/bubble. I probably just got a faulty one but the train fare back to a Kmart is around $20 so it seems silly to spend that money when I would get $18 back!

But you know what? Even after all of that this was completely worth the money because after a long day of walking I pop the kettle on, fill the tub up and massage my feet to my heart’s content!

I read a great a magazine, put on some music and chill out.

By the time the water cools I am relaxed and feeling like a big pool of jelly. Having this feeling at home is something that I just love.

Verdict: If I hadn’t got a faulty model I might love it more. I’m not unhappy with the features I have but I am annoyed that the others didn’t work. I can’t vouch for the quality of any other models so I’m giving it a 3/10. If I was going to buy again I would spend the extra money and get a really good one from Priceline or something ^_^

Now once you’re finished your foot spa you, what better way to top it off than a delicious foot/leg treatment??

I tried out the “Tired Leg Gel” from Montagne Jennesse! I absolutely adore their face masks so I thought this would be a nice way to relax.

It comes in a little foil packet and is a thick consistency. There is a generous amount and even if you wanted to do your whole legs you would probably have left overs.

The smell was *very* cherry (which I’m personally not a fan of) and it has an insane cooling sensation when you rub it in. This sensation might be really overpowering for some of you, I found it to be a bit unpleasant because it’s the dead of winter here so I was freezing XD

In the Summer though I can see how this would be really lovely after a hot day.

I found it to be quite sticky even after rubbing in for a long time. It would go really well with an extended leg rub from your significant other! XD

Verdict- Very nice feeling, very relaxing but better for Summer but not Winter!

So neither product I used today was completely successful but the most important thing to take out of this is that you should take time to try things like this and pamper yourself and your feet a bit! They spend all week carrying you around so the least you can do is give them half an hour of loving!

Check out Valerie’s Sneaker Sunday post this week about her spa experiences!

The Face Shop Lashes Review

by VioletLeBeaux | Jul 3, 2010 | Beauty, Review

One awesome thing that Melbourne has is “The Face Shop” which is basically a Korean make up/beauty store which stocks lots of fun items like these lashes!

I bought 2 sets at $4.90 each which is a very good price for Australian standards.

This is the first set, the are criss-crossed 1/2 lashes which are good for layering or just on their own.

The obligatory “surprise lash” shot:

Quality-wise I really like these. They are soft, not plasticy and have a medium sized band on them. It means that they look nice and natural while giving you a little extra boost. Great for days with not much make up too!

For the first time I can actually review the glue that comes with them too because I’m not allergic to it 😀 The glue comes in the standard little metal tube which I can’t stand, and is semi-transparent when dry. With this glue it is really important to let it become tacky before applying the lashes or else you will end up with glue everywhere… and once it’s on it really doesn’t come off. Unfortunately what that means is that it’s damn hard to clean the lashes after use. While some other glues you can just peel the glue off in a nice line, this glue comes off in chunks and takes forever.

On a related topic can anyone tell me where I can get my regular glue “Lash Me Type 1” in Melbourne?? I can’t find it anywhere and it’s quite expensive online *_*

Verdict: Good quality and great price DO WANT.

I forgot to take a photo of these lashes in the box but there is one on this blog. These ones are basically The Face Shop’s answer to the very popular style of long flicks alternating with shorter criss-crosses between them

I LOVE THEM. The are the perfect shape and length for my eye, the quality is fantastic and at $4.90 the price is still perfect. They are slightly more plasticy than the previous set but I found that by using my nails to separate the strands of the long points they looked even better.

I found them to very super durable and very comfortable to wear all day. They work very well with both my standard make up and bolder looks.

Verdict: Out of everything I own, these are currently my favorite lashes, I will be purchasing them again in the future! DO WANT!

Have any of you tried lashes from The Face Shop before?