NOTD: Orly Breathable treatment + color in Nail Superfood (20919)

You know how you walk into a store and you are drawn to the same thing over and over again?  And no matter how long you try to be sensible, at some point you just think "ah crap, let's just get it over with and buy it already"?  (Please don't answer no to these questions because you'll make me feel like a freak)  Well, that's what happened to me and this color.  Every time I passed it I just had to take it off the shelve, look at color, roll the bottle in my hand, only to decide that I already have so many similar colors and at €13,49 this is not a cheap nail polish (in my book anyway).  But one day I gave in, I just needed a little pick me up after a day at work (yes, I blame work!).  And can you blame me? If this color doesn't get you in the springspirit than I don't know what will.

Orly has always been a bit of a mysterious brand to me.  I never really knew much about them but at one point a few years ago, there were a lot of beauty bloggers talking about their Bonder base coat and that became my first Orly product.  I loved it!  But when it came to their polishes I never really felt like there was a buzz surrounding them like there is with other brands like O.P.I, Essie, Zoya ... Recently I noticed Di had started selling Orly and my interest was sparked.

According to their website the Breathable formula prevents chipping an peeling, is infused with argan oil, Pro Vitamin B5 and Vitamin C.  No top or base coat is needed and is a 13 free formula*.  It is marketed as a treatment + color for stronger, heathier nails.  I can't really say anything about the treatment part.  My nails are in pretty good shape and really don't wear nail polishes long enough for them to work as a treatment. 

Nail Superfood is described as a Bright Watermelon Creme color, to me it's a warm bright pink color. The formula applies easily, there was no trouble with streaking and it took me 2 thin layers to get the result shown on the swatch.

The brush is great, not too small, not too thick and the bristles don't feather around.  I also love the grip of the top, it feels a bit like rubber (which will make it hard to keep clean) which, combined with the engravings, give you a solid hold on the brush while applying you polish.

*ORLY Breathable Treatment + Color is formulated without: Toluene, Formaldehyde,

Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde Resin, Camphor, Ethyl Tosylamide, Xylene, 

Triphenyl Phosphate (TPP), MEHQ/HQ, MIT, Parabens, Animal Derived Ingredients or Gluten

Where to buy:

In Belgium you can buy Orly at DI or online at Orlybelgium.be, the Breathable treatment + color polishes retail at €13,49.

Emptied and replaced in November and December

A new emptied and replaced covering November and December, a roundup of everything I emptied out and what I replaced it with.  I want to apologize for the pictures, I was wearing a bright pink sweater when I took these and it shows (and I'm not that good of a friend with photoshop so I don't know how to remove the pink shadow popping up), lesson learned!

Facial care:

I emptied out my Neutrogena Pore Refining toner, the one I used at night with the Alpha and Beta acids in it, and replaced it by KIKO purifying pads.  I'm not really impressed with these so far, I really have to force myself into using these at night.  Secondly there's my Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair serum, I'm really bummed that this one is empty. Instead I'm using a luxury sample of  Biotherma Blue Therapy Serum which I'm really liking.  I love the feeling and consistency of this serum.  The Body Shop Vitamin E facial mist that I was using as a toner has been replaced by the Vitamin E toner, this toner is so soft and gentle and the smell kind of reminds me of babies (freshly washed by the way).  An empty bottle of Mac Fix + (I wasn't sure if this counts as skincare or makeup) was quickly replaced by a new bottle but I went for the cucumber smell this time.  My Kiehl's eye alert eye cream went in the bin and so far I haven't had to open a new eye cream yet, I'm using up all my eye cream samples instead.  And than last but not least make up remover wipes, from Aldi and Demake'up (that I got because there was a cash back promotion going on).  Now, before you start judging me: I mainly use these in te morning to wipe the make up off the back of hand after I'm done putting everything on. It's just the easiest way to get my hand clean.  That's also the reason why I go for the cheapest ones I can find.

Hair care:

My Aussie Volume Shampoo and Conditioner were replaced by Kiehl's Amino Acid Shampoo and Conditioner.  I love the smell of Aussie and I really miss it when I'm washing my hair but the Amino Acid range of Kiehl's is just so good!  The price is somewhat higher but my long hair deserves this shampoo from time to time.  Also my Elnette Flexible hairspray got replaced by a new one and the Pantene Aqua Shampoo got replaced by Nivea Classic Shampoo.  I don't think I've mentioned this before but my hairdresser advised me to use a drugstore mild shampoo to wash all of the product residue out of my hair and follow up with a more expensive/ specific shampoo.  First you clean your hair to make sure all the good stuff from the second shampoo can reach your hair.  Sounds logical doesn't it?

Make Up

My Benefit Rolleball mascara was replaced by the brown version of Benefit's They're Real mascara.  Love them both!

Nail Care:

Another bottle of nail polish remover was emptied and replaced by a full one.

Samples/travel sizes/individuals:

I used a bunch of samples and empties this travel size of Kiehl's facial cleanser, this cleanser has been on so many vacations with me but after the last one I felt like the end was near so I emptied it out at when back home.  

And that's it, not too much (especially not considering this was over a period of two months) but I have a feeling January is going to produce a lot of empties.

Catrice nail polishes leaving soon (part 2): Luminous nails 5 in 1 care polish

Technically this isn't really a nail polish I guess, it's more of a nail care item but since this range carries different colors I'm swatching it nevertheless.  There's one color leaving this range: 20 Petit Café Au Lait.

I can't really say much about this polish because there's nothing exciting about it but that's normal given that it's nail care and not nail color.  I already had another 'color' of this range and I use that one on days when I want 'naked' nails, which has been a lot lately.  I don't know what's wrong with me but the nail polish winter collections that came out did nothing for me, probably because the weather isn't cooperating in the winter department.  I'm now on the lookout for the spring collections that will be launching soon!
I can't really say anything about the caring part as my nails are pretty strong on their own

You can still get this one all through January, after that it's gone!!

Where to buy:
I bought mine at Kruidvat for €2,89.

Emptied and replaced in October

October went by fast and I have a feeling November is even going to go by faster.  Just 3 more weeks of work and then I'm off to somewhere sunny for 10 days.  Much deserved, even if I say so myself ;-)

Anyway, I was on a roll in September, emptying a lot of products and I'm forcing myself to continue this process.  So here's what I emptied out in October and what I replaced it with:

Facial care:

I used up my Neutrogena Alcohol Free Toner and replaced it with Body Shop Vitamine E face mist.  Technically not really a toner but it works the same to me and since I had half a bottle left I decided to use it and not buy a new toner until the face mist is empty.  Also my much beloved Neutrogena Raphid Wrinkle repair moisturizer has been emptied.  I'm so bummed by this, it's not available in Europe and I love this one so much (I do need to put a hydrating serum under this).  Yet another reason to plan a trip to the US soon.  I replaced it by Vichy Normaderm Tri-Activ Anti-Imperfection Hydrating care that I found laying around, I think it was in a Deauty box at some point.

Body care:

Bath and Body works time!!  I finished the Beautiful Day hand cream and got started on my tube of Crisp Morning Air Handcream.  The Maui Mango Surf body cream replaced my Love & Sunchine body cream.  I also found this Clinique Water Therapy foot smoothing cream somewhere in the back of a closet, it was almost empty, I only got 3 more uses out of it and I replaced it by the Body Shop's Spa wisdom honey & beeswax hand and foot butter that I found in the back of the same closet.  I remember I was hooked on this stuff at one point and then they stopped selling it.  So I'm kind of hoping I don't get hooked again since it's no longer for sale.

Makeup:

My sample size Photo finish primer by Smashbox lasted until the end of the first week of October and I replaced it by 2 primers.  Kiehl's Micro Blur Skin Perfection (which I love by the way, you can find a review of this on the blog real soon) and Too Faced Hangover replenishing face primer.  I intended to alternate between both but I'm loving the Kiehl's one so much that I haven't tried the Too Faced primer yet.  When it gets colder I probably will start alternating more because the Too Faced one is more hydrating and that's what my skin needs in winter.  And than there's my Guerlain Lingerie de Peau bb beauty booster ... this one got me through 2 summers.  It's so lightweight it feels like a bb cream but gives a foundation like coverage.  I'm happy this one is now empty.  As much as I loved it, I was so sick of it by the end, I really wanted to try something new and the damn tube kept producing product. I'm now using the Cover Girl Ready Set Gorgeous foundation in the color 110 as my everyday foundation, especially for workdays.  It's very lightweight and gives you that pretty healthy finish.  Another Neutrogena favorite is their Healthy Skin foundation (shown here in 110 Classis Ivory), since the formula is a bit heavier I  currently only use this one on special days or if I'm going out at night. And last but not least one of my all-time favorite Mac eyeshadows: Satin Taupe, that one got replaced by itself.

Nail care:

There they go, my two favorite nail care products of all time, in the bin: trend nail balsam and nail repair.  Trind products are definitely among the best nail products on the market and I already have backups of them at home but I decided to go with Sally Hanssen Vitamin E Nail & cuticle oil and nail hardener and I'm liking them so far.

Miscellaneous:

I've been a very good girl lately cleaning my makeup brushes every sunday.  I usually use the same colors every day when I'm working so it wasn't really necessary color-wise to clean them often but of course it's more hygienic to clean them regularly.  So on sunday I clean brushes!  I emptied my Mac brush cleanser and replaced it by a new bottle.

And that's it!  I'm liking this process a lot: empty out one thing before opening another.  It's working well for most products but in case you're wondering; I'm not even going to try to implement this in my nail polish and eyeshadow collection because I'd never be able to write a post like this if I did that ;-)

Emptied and replaced in September

I know, we're already halfway October but I still wanted to share this with you because I feel so proud of myself.  At the beginning of September I made a promise to myself to try to use as many samples and as many almost empty products as I could and I think I did well.  I had a moment of shame when I was going through my things, there's just so much and everywhere I looked I found something that I had already forgotten I had bought at some point.  So I introduced a no-buy for skincare, face care, primers ... mostly all liquid products that aren't nail polish.  And here's the result, a picture of everything I emptied and what I replaced it with:

Facial care:

I emptied out my favorite facial cleanser: the pore refining daily cleanser bij Neutrogena but luckily I still had a spare one, the last back up so I think it's time to start planning a new trip to the States ;-)

Body care:

I used up my Oahu Coconut Sunset bodylotion by Bath and body works, a Lady speedstick in wild freesia and a shower foam by Rituals and replaced them by  Love Sunshine bodylotion, Lady speestick in spring blossom and a random body wash.

Hair care:

My Take The Heat leave in conditioner went in the bin and was replaced by a Miracle moist leave in conditioner (both by Aussie) and my Phyto 7 hydrating hair day cream was replaced by Paul Mitchell Smoothing Super Skinny Serum (which I got in a Deauty box a long time ago).

Makeup:

I used up 2 (yes 2!) facial primers, both very loved ... Mac Prep+Prime Natural Radiance and Porefessional by Benefit, I'm currently using a sample size of  the Smashbox foto finish foundation primer.  One of my all time favorite foundations, Neutrogena Healthy Skin in the color Buff had only 3 uses left so that one was easy and my Mac eyebrow pencil in Fling was replaced by a combination of Mac Fling and Anastasia Beverly Hills brow powder duo in blonde.

Nail care:

This bottle of nail polish remover didn't make it through the month either and I emptied out these 3 packages of remover pads. They weren't new, I had already opened them and I know that when I'm going on vacation I'll just buy a new package instead of taking one of these so I decided to just use them.  I don't really like these, they just have a 'greasy' feel to them but I do prefer taking these while traveling instead of a bottle of nail polish remover.

Perfume:

My Victoria's Secret Angels Only perfume was replaced by Marc Jacobs Daisy Dream perfume.  I'm not the type of woman who has a lot of perfume, I usually buy a bottle and when it's empty I replace it by something else.  I find perfume to be one of the hardest things to buy, it's just so personal and sometimes I smell something on someone that I like and when I put it on it's just sickening.  Marc Jacobs never lets me down though, especially not his Daisy range.  And I think that Victoria's Secret Bombshell in Bloom will be mine next time I visit a VS store (another reason to start planning a US trip!).

Samples/travel sizes/individuals:

This was definitely the most satisfying of all.  Look at all those empties!!  I always kept sample sizes "for when I'm traveling" but when I travel I just want the products I know and like.  So I used it them all with an exception for Kiehl's samples, I kept those for when I'm going on a citytrip for a few days.  The Nivea travel sized shampoos I emptied and cleaned them out so I can fill them with my own product when I'm traveling. No need to buy travel sized bottles when you can reuses these.

The biggest fan of all of this has to be my man!!  The space he gets for putting his things in the bathroom is very limited and he loved seeing all these bottles disappearing.  October has been good so far also, I think I'm on a roll here so you'll probably get another post like this at the end of October.  It's just so satisfying and feels a bit relieving somehow.  I think I'm on a roll here! 

Strong nail: how I do it.

When you’re an avid nail painter you have to take of your nails.  If your nails are in bad condition there’s just no way that your polish is going to stay on there without chipping away.  I get a lot of questions about my nails, most people think they are fake or that I’m wearing some sort of acrylic nail under my polish.  But no such thing, my nails are exactly that: MY nails, nothing fake about them.  When I let people feel them I always get the comment that they are so hard, you can’t bend them unless you put a lot of strength on there.  So I thought that this time I’d show you the products I use to keep my nails healthy and strong.

First up: TRIND products.  These products have literally changed my life.  I think most of the credit for my strong nails goes to them.  After I take off my nail polish, I always put a coat of Nail Balm on them.  I let it set for a while and then I massage it in.  It conditions and hydrates your nails like nothing else.  When the balm has disappeared completely in my nails, I put a coat of Nail Repair Natural (nailstrengthener) on them.  Usually I put my nail polish on next but if I’m putting on a color that might stain my nails (like red) I put an extra base coat on first just in case.

TRIND cosmetics is a Dutch company that specializes in nail care products.

Every evening before I go to bed I put some Lemony Flutter by Lush on my cuticles.  It’s become part of my night time routine.  I put on some Lemony Flutter and slowly massage it in.  Since it’s a very ‚greasy’ product you have to give it enough time to really sink in but that’s what the night is for.     It’s also a great product to put on your feet or dry spots on your elbows.  Because it’s a lush product it has an expiration date but I find the formula stays great after that, the smell changes a bit though so for me it’s usually at that time that my Lemony Flutter transforms from cuticle cream to heel cream. 

You know all the articles that tell you about which foods to eat (or not eat) for great skin.  Well, the same applies for your nails (and hair).  Your lifestyle has a big impact on the condition of your nails, not enough sleep, too much stress, unbalanced diets …  So to give my nails that extra boost I do a special vitamins cure once a year. I usually go for the Oenobiol Cappilair vitamins, a 3 month cure where you take 2 tablets a day (preferably with a meal).  Upside is that they also strengthen your hair and prevent your hair from falling out (even my man notices that there are less hairs in the shower drain when I’m on the cure).

I also never ever cut my nails, not with a nail clipper and not with a nail scissor.  I always file them. I didn’t used to but I’m amazed at what a difference this makes!  

There are some body parts where the signs of aging appear faster than on others.  One of them is your neck, another one are your hands.  So it’s important to take care of them and hydrate them properly.  Hence all the hand lotion.  I always have hand lotion with me.  When I’m at work there’s a tube standing next to my computer and I use all day long.  You just have to take care of your paws, they are the only ones you have!  

And then there are the things that are ‚bad’ for your nails but I do them anyway:

• doing the dishes (or cleaning in general) without rubber gloves: I hate rubber gloves, when I take them off I just can’t get rid of that smell, I feel like it stays on my hands forever and I hate it.  So no rubber gloves for me!
• nail polish removers with acetone: my normal nail polish remover is without acetone, not because I feel like remover with acetone is bad for my nails but just because I don’t feel like it takes off the polish easier.  But when I’m done painting my nails I always use pure acetone to clean up.  That’s right: pure acetone!  But when I’m done, I always take good care of my nails so I don’t find it’s that harmful.

Creating a decent nail routine has taken me a while.  I sometimes try to switch products but I find I always come back to these.

Where to buy:

• TRIND: you can buy trind at bol.com, make sure you look for sets because they are cheaper than buying the product separately, the set I’m showing costs €19,99, the products separately are €12,99.
• Lush Lemony Flutter €10,65 at your Lush store or local website
• Oenobiol: at the pharmacy, if you can buy the set for three months it’s so much cheaper than buying three bottles separately (1 month is around €20, a 3 month set is around €40)

Review: Bourjois Soin Miraculeux

Do you remember a few years ago when Sephora came with the Instant Nail Polish Remover?  It was the answer to all of our problems, hallelujah!!!  We all went crazy of the simplicity and geniusness of this product.  You just dip you finger in, twist it around an begone nail polish!!!  I got sucked in the hype just like the rest of us, loving my little bottle of easiness, being sure there would be nothing that could make me turn away from it.  And then there was the day that I put my finger in there and it came out all reddish.  Granted, the nail polish was gone but leftover of red nail polish (from the time before maybe) stayed on my finger.  Putting my finger back in was no option, washing my hands didn’t solve anything so it was down to my all time classic bottle of remover to solve the problem.  Slowly my love faded away and once again it seemed that ‚the good old way’ was the best way.  

Memories of the Instant Nail Polish Remover came to me when I saw this little cutie by Bourjois.  Soin Miraculeux, the same concept but this time to nourish your nails an cuticles.  I looked at it again and again and decided to get it.  I could say I rationalized buying it (and I did to a point because the red stains on my fingers wouldn’t be happening here and aside from that it was very handy) but the truth is that it was just too cute to resist.  I mean, just look at it!!  Wouldn’t you want that sitting on your makeup table?  It’s just perfect: cute and handy, what more could a girl want?

But by now I know that there’s no such thing as ‚perfect’ and Soin Miraculeux only confirmed that.  It is easy, you just dip your nail in there for a second and let the jojoba oil do its work.  Sound good right?  There’s just one problem: there’s a finger behind the nail!  The whole tip of you finger gets covered in oil. NOT HANDY!!  We as women, we are usually multitasking.  Putting on cuticle oil and letting it sit there a few minutes while we buy that one pair of shoes that we absolutely need online (or whatever else you like to do) but when you have oil covering your whole fingertip instead of just your cuticles/nails there really isn’t much you can do aside from just sitting there making sure you don’t touch anything.  And after you massaged the oil in, you need to go clean all of your fingers.

Needless to say I was disappointed.  The product does its work and it smells good but the whole concept just doesn’t work for me.  If you don’t mind sitting there without touching anything than by all means, go ahead and buy it.  If not, just walk along when you hear the cuteness calling.

You can get Bourjois Soin Miraculeux at any drugstore, I paid €8,99 for it at Lookiss.