Gone Baby Gone-Part II

On with the products I’ve finished up lately…

Year round fake tan

Well, these are not exactly finished but almost, and I’ve been using them non-stop since about May (not sure that counts, but hey).

The Summerbody is a moisturizer with fake tanner. It keeps my skin well moisturized and has able to maintain the color that I got this summer. To be honest by now the color is almost gone but at list thanks to this a have a healthy color and I’m no scary white like I’d otherwise would be…

The Loreal’s product is a gel. I like it because it’s very easy to blend and gives a naturally tanned color. I don’t specially like the smell but I can cope with it. This has alpha-hydroxy acids which smooth my skin and make it fresh and helps disguise the small/thin (getting much bigger!) lines in my forehead.

N7 Lift & Luminate-night cream

I finished this up before the summer (I used Nivea’s with anti-wrinkle cream Q10 coenzyme with light tanner this summer for daytime). I wanted to give my skin some glow while getting rid of the dullness after the winter months. It wasn’t something instantly obvious but I think by the end of the pot I was getting there and saw some improvement. This is around £20. Not cheap but not the priciest either. I recently purchased this again for daytime using one of the Boots £5 off for N7 products (willing to give another try) so I’ll keep you posted.

Last but not least:

Sally Hansen's Insta-DRY

This has been the ultimate life saver, well, more like nail polish saver.

Since I use this I have been able to apply two coats one after the other, then this and after a few minutes (except when very humid) my manicure is done and stays for 4-5 days. That NEVER happened before.

This has lasted a good three years. In the end it was so thick I could hardly apply it but on the positive side I think it made my polish last even longer. I finally opened a new bottle now.

Bought in the US but I think I’ve seen it in some big Superdrug stores.

Shiseido Benefiance Pure retinol Eye mask

I bought this (a bit of a splurge for me!) as an present for my birthday  (yes, I give myself presents every year!). This is a set of 12 pairs and I’ve only used once so I cannot give a through review just yet. Wanted to used them at least once a week but already forgot last week so…

That’s it!

Gone with the old in with the new! I will be posting some of my new purchases this weekend.

I’m really trying to be good and stop buying things but I’ve been pretty bad lately…

Purple in my Nails

Hey! I’m Back! I’ve been quite busy lately, thus the lack of posts  but my intention is to post more frequently this month, we’ll see. At least that’s one of my new month’s resolutions…

Early this week (Tuesday) I tried one of the nail polishes I bought in NYC in September (and believe it or not I still haven’t gone through everything I got there…)

Keeping with my  purple obsession (it also helps that it matches most of my outfits this time of the year) I tried Purple Luck from Sally Hansen.

Here’s how it looks:

Plum Luck without flash

...and Plum Luck with flash

I LOOVE the deep color, very flattering for my pale hands.

This required two coats and is easy to apply although the consistency is a bit thick. I don’t like the brush applicator, too wide and big to my liking but it does the job well nevertheless.

In terms of how long this lasted on my nails, I took a picture of them this morning and this is how they looked  (so 4 and a half days later after I applied the nail polish):

Plum Luck after 4 days and a bit

You can see the nails had lost the just painted finish luster and you can vaguely start seeing some signs of chipping around the edges but  I think they look pretty good for day 4.

I have to say that most of my nail polishes last this amount of time on me, whether they are cheap (Barry M) or pricier (Essie, OPI). I really think this is due to the top coat I apply, Insta-Dry, which I ‘ve already talk about here in a previous blog. To me this is really what makes the difference.

Before that my nail polish used to last about 2 days. That and the fact that I do wash my dishes with rubber gloves, which I think kind of helps too…

Unfortunately this evening they really chipped badly so I had to remove the polish.

How long does your nail polish last on you and what do you do to prevent the chipping?

Introducing Comander in Chic

I’ve been painting my nails for more than 2-3 months now.  This weekend when I took the last bits of nail polish off (gorgeous OPI Louvre me Louvre not, a pretty purple with tiny redish sparkles, that I had on during my last manicure in the Big Apple) I decided that was it, my nails needed a break!

I put one coat of “Sally Hansen’s INSTA-BRITE nail whitener” and then one coat of Sally Hansen’s MAXIMUM GRowTH Plus in 05 Innocent Nude“…yeah I know, not exactly bare nails but …

Anyway, that lasted less than 24h…Yesterday evening after having my nightly dose of “Mad Men” (my current obsession, I’m renting now the second season DVD in Lovefilm) I  decided to start using one of the many shades of nail polishes that I recentlybought: Comander in Chic.

I love the name of this polish but I love the color most. Not sure how much this costed though but since this is a drugstore brand I don’t think it was too expensive).

Shown are two coats (with of course a good coat of INSTA-DRI on top). It has a good consistency but wasn’t the easiest to apply due to the brush that is pretty massive. But, hey, I like the result.

One  “dirty” color as Laurel from lollipo26 calls these type of shade. Something between a dark grey, and a brownish  mauve. Actually it looks different on different lights: daylight (more brown) versus indoor (more grey).

Here’s another picture:

Actually it is difficult to photograph this color as it looks different in every picture I’ve taken!

What do you think?

Which are your “dirty” colours this autumn?