June 2016 Favourites

This was one of my worse months in a while but I'm writing this and you are reading so I think we made it okay. My sister says life gives you lemons, you think you you're making lemonade but when you drink it, it's p*ss.

These are the thinks I liked this 5 week month:

Painting nails with a cosmetics sponge

I recently bought sponges specifically for that. You can do an ombre effect or a galaxy effect. The polish dries fast and a top coat helps to blend colour together. I picked mine up at PnP

Garnier Ultimate Blends Honey Treasure System.

This range had me intruged when I first saw it at Clicks (but it's pretty much everywhere now) as it's Paraben free. (That is a preservative that is believed to trigger cancer) I pretty much saw the difference in my hair from the first wash. You can read on their FB Page about how people love this product. Buy at Clicks, Dischem, Takealot and PnP.

PnP Real Clothing Pajamas

I know this isn't really fashion BUT it is winter and I'm an indoors kinda person then. I'm not really into the onesie trend. I don't want to undress every time I need to go to the toilet. This is also the cheaper option @ R180.

Eating the last of the food in the fridge.

So many times I 'keep things for later' then end up throwing it out because it's old/ rotted/ got freezer burn. Every few months I like to empty the fridge and deep freeze and getting creative with food. A real life “Chopped” episode but instead of Ted telling you you're chopped, your family tells you to rather not make it ever again.

Roasted Beetroot

Set your oven at 200°C. Chop the beet into ½ and then into 3. Glug with oil (I choose you olive oil!) and add salt, pepper, and herbs and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Roast for 45 min to an hour.

Webtoons

I downloaded it for Helios: Femina and stayed for Yumi's Cells, Siren'sLament and The Blue Chair.

Takealot.com window shopping

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It's only costs a little data to browse all the awesome things on Takealot. Here are a few things I found that you might not know is on there. (Click on pic to go to the link)

Boom! That's my story.

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The R30 product that will boost your Winter beauty routine: Hoelson Sisters Coconut Face Oil 7 ways.

I am super obsessed with Fruit and Veg Food lovers market. I probably fall out there every two weeks, get a Seattle Coffee Company Grande Soy Latte/ Cappuccino (They look out for us lack toast and tolerant basic bit*hes) and do a walk through. That's how I found that they stock Sumac and always contemplating getting Jelly belly jelly beans(Ice cream flavour). But in general everyone knows the drill: Buy the weekly deal (Winter it's a deal with butternut squash, onions and potatoes and summer the tomato, cucumbers and lettuce) Buy some delicious fresh baked good, buy spinach you'll never eat and go to the till. That's where this discovery was made, at the till.

Damn I love this stuff. The last 3 years are the time of the beauty oil. Many people get weird because they think of cooking oil like sunflower. How can your hair and skin improve by using something you fry food in? Others thing of sebum, the stuff that makes for dirty hair and oily face. Not the same.

You can buy a few loose essential oils and blend them but it is so costly. But why tho'? Helen Hoelson did that for you already. This it one of the products I was stocked about picking up at the till. Here is my take on using Hoelson Sisters Oils 7 ways:

Hair mask/ Oil

With the new bottle design that dispenses drops, just use 5-10 drops and apply to hair ends. Especially with dry Gauteng winters it makes my hair more manageable. When I use it as a mask I massage about a quarter of a bottle into my roots and comb it through with a wide tooth comb. Because it is a natural product there are no chemicals that can cause damage. So you can leave it in for 30 minutes or over night.

Enriching any cream.

Instead of buying a winter specific cream I drop a few drops of oil in my face or body cream.

Hand and cuticle treatment.

I filled a roller ball with some oil to keep close to easely apply some oil to my hands and nails. I haven't had hangnails in a while.

Assist in smoother aplication of foundation

Here is the video of Wayne Goss. It also moisturises and so plumps up skin.

Makeup remover

Rub about 10 drops on your face and maybe a bit more on your eyes. I wipe everything off with a tissue, I guess the right way is with cotton pads but meh.

Eyelash conditioner.

I cleaned an old mascara tube and filled it with oil. I apply to my lashes and brows at night.

Make a scub

For the face I add a bit of oil to some Bi-carb and for hands and feet I mix it with sugar or salt.

*Bonus tip: Use it for shaving. For the last year I've been using oil to shave and am yet to get a cut.

I am still to try the lemon/ peppermint and cinnamon/ tea tree ones but so far I finished two of the original Lavender Rosemary. Here is their Facebook page. (They even had a stall a Cosme Tokyo 2016. BOOM. That makes me proud.) Here and Here are more of this company's awesome story.

Have you seen these awesome oil mixes?

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Spring 2015: How I'm getting ready for spring and trend forecast

This year winter was very sort lived in Gauteng in the middle of August I was already walking around in shorts and a short sleeved shirt. I haven't posted in forever as my office looks like this:

camp/ craft table chic. Yes, that is my build-a-bear My Little Pony

Here are the ways I'm getting ready for real spring and a forecast for things I think will be cool in the warm season:

Quick nail session:

Though warmer, GP winters are unforgivingly dry. I like to also wash my hands a bit extra and don't moisturise after. That leaves my hands dry and sometimes cracked. With winter we always wear shoes or socks so we never care for our feet as much as we do when its slop and sandal weather.

For hands supplies are a base and a polish, coconut oil for a cuticle oil, Epsom salt and olive oil for a scrub, a file (mine is glass) and a cuticle pusher.

Start off by combining the olive oil and salt and scrubbing your hands with it. The salt removes the dead skin and the oil moisturizes. Use an orange stick to push back your cuticles. Mine looked super horrible. Paint and enjoy. (Enjoy BEFORE IT CHIPS)

AAAHHHH Feet!

For my feet I soaked them for 20 to 30 minutes. I added green tea with mint. While the toe nails are soft, cut them and push back the cuticles. Remember to start painting with a base coat to protect the nails from discolouration.

Nail Truth

è trend prediction: I think colours on trend for the hot season will be white as well as matt colours rather than nail art. Toes are always bright. My fave white polishes are Signiture's Solid Ice and Essence's Wild white ways. Essence is also launching a matt white latex effect polish called The White Bunny.

I like the glow in the dark top coat.

Hair colour refreshing:

My attempt to propagate lavender there at the back

Spring is a time when most refresh their hair. If it's with colour or a hair cut. The preserve both best is with an awesome shampoo and conditioner. Tresemme's Naturals shampoo is lower in Sulphate that preserves your colour and the conditioner is Silicone free to prevent build up.

è trend prediction:I 

I think hair colour trends will still lean towards the unnatural. Grey/ silver hair, sand art hair and double processed blond is still going strong on social media. I predict hair care will come more to the forefront. It's easy to chemically treat your hair. The trick is looking after it.

Shiny temporary tattoos

It's a trend I think will carry on this season. I think some designs are so simple and chic.

Strobing aka Highlighting:

Yup its everywhere. I always have had an obsession with it because at every beauty sale I always look for the shiny white powders to highlight with. You don't necessarily need a specialised product. Though I did buy Catrice's Kaviar Gauche's blurring pearls and have been using that recently.

I prefer this to writing up about spray tan or tanning. Highlighting does less damage.

Planting stuff:

I think planting food is going to come into the forefront. I will post a tutorial on two ways I planted things recently. This is my yard at the moment:

A lot of nothing

There is a lot of space for improvement.

Cross stitch:

Another thing I think will be huge this season that has been popping up. Here is a unicorn I got off Instagram that I drew out. I'm still thinking of how to use it in a project. Some even cross stitch 8-bit pictures

Here's other awesome cross stitch inspired projects:

Cross Stitch Phone Case

Cross Stitch Mug Design

Cross Stitch Murial

That's my trend prediction and ways I'm getting spring ready.

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MacGyver Manicure

Now I know some readers may not know who Macgyver is (My spell check want it to be Maguire tsk tsk tsk). He is in the league of Chuck Norris and David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight. He would be hand cuffed to a rail, locked up in a steel cupboard falling from a plane plummeting into the ocean. He escapes and stops the bad guy with a bobby pin, toilet roll, an empty egg carton and a battery. All kinds of bad assery.

Here is my way of making my nails last:

Clean off previous polish push back your cuticles and file your nails. I choose to use nail polish remover for acrylic or gel nails as it doesn't dry out your nails. Wipe down the nail instead of trying to make fire wiping up and down and left and right. I also recently started using a glass nail file. It's much gentler than normal nail boards. I choose also NOT to buff my nails. They are already so thin I don't want to thin them out even more. Most base coats act as ridge fillers.

Start with a nail primer. This removes the oils from the nail for better polish adherence. Now we don't have Sephora with their Formula X here in South Africa. (Why? Is it because we are African?) So I tested a few DIYs like lemon juice and apple cider vinegar but the best so far is vodka. I bought a few nail polish bottles from Westpack, filled one with vodka and it just works. Paint it on and let it dry.

Next paint your base coat. Not clear polish. A base coat. I know some brands sell clear polish as base and that's just not good enough for me. I know Essence has the type I wanted. It's milky and when you paint it on the texture is a bit rough. But due to the stores I go to, don't really like to restock. WTF. So I resorted to make my own plan. I used Pink Armour “Nail Gel”(Yes I will put that in inverted commas as it's just normal clear nail polish tinted pink) and added some Maizena (Corn Starch) until it became milky. (Storing is tricky as the corn starch settles at the bottom over time. Before using I mix it up a little with a toothpick)

Paint your colour then base again. Then colour again. It's best to set aside at least an hour for nail painting. Make sure to leave proper time to dry. The more layers you add the longer it takes to dry. The best I can explain is that as you paint the next layer it 'fuses' with the previous layer it wets the layer making it fragile for squishing and smudging. 

Cool tip: Use Prestik to hold the polish bottle. 

Do your nail art. I enjoy Regular Show. As ain't nobody has time for intricate character designs I did the title screen background with sponging.

Even if you did not do a design, paint on a top coat. It gives it that extra shine and make the polish last that bit longer and seals in the design. With sponging it's like the blends better.

Clean up the edges with nail polish remover and either a q tip or a brush. Last step is the difference between a salon manicure and a DIY. Oil. You could go all fancy and buy a cuticle oil. I'm too cheap for that. I bought lip gloss roller bottles from wespack and filled it with extra virgin olive oil. You can also use coconut oil, sweet almond oil or a mixture. You can buy small bottles of each at clicks and dischem that are for medicinal use (Usually by the calamine lotion and caster oil.)

Smear it on each nail and rub it in to your skin. We've spent all this time removing oil and that dries the nail bed and cuticle out. The real trick is to cuticle oil every time you wash your hands. Just because I write it here doesn't mean I do it. I ain't gonna lie. I try to every night before bed.

You also have to top coat every night but by the time my nails chip or flake off (depending on the quality of the polish) I'm bored of my nail design anyway.

That is my Magyver way of doing my nails. What is you unusual trick to make polish last longer?

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