Review: Mineral Therapy Illuminating Pearls

When I first got my hands on this, I was struck by the novelty of the design. It's a cute jar full of multicoloured pearls, with a brush that screws onto the top, and a clear lid that goes on the top.

There's a lot more to this product than novelty value though. It's a really lovely illuminator for night time wear.

The pearls are full of tiny speck of glitter, and they give the skin a glow and a sheen wherever you put it. This makes it a bit too shiny for daytime for me, but for night-time it's great.

Like all illuminators with shine, you need to be careful where you put this - if you have fine lines around your eyes it will highlight these, so put it a bit further down on the crest of your cheeks - right above where your blusher would sit.

If you're wearing something low cut, go ahead and sweep some across your collarbones as well.

All the FOA products are super cheap for the quality they are - this is a great way to experiment with illuminator without spending a lot of money. Check it out if you get the chance.

Review: Glossybox March 2012

Finally, I got my Glossybox!

They've changed the cards, there's now a list of all the products in all of the boxes, of which you get five. Of course human nature being what it is, it just makes you scan the eighteen products and sigh over the interesting things you didn't get. Five out of eighteen doesn't seem like a lot. They've also taken the retail price off the cards, which is a pain.

Realistically though, it is a lot - this is a great box with some awesome stuff in it.

So what's there?

• Proactiv Cleaning Bar - a full size sample.
• Avene Gentle Toner
• KMS Free Shape Hot Flex Spray - according to the instructions you spray it on while your hair is wet and then use a straightener or blow dryer - heat activates the product, apparently. 
• Absolutely Gorgeous Essentials - Macadamia Face Cream
• Panda Pen - these things are really cool looking! It's a makeup corrector/cleaner you use under your eyes if your makeup wanders. Looking forward to trying this out.

There's something else in this box. I don't even want to say the name of it because I don't want to give the dodgy people that make these things any more hits on google. The ACCC has outed these things as a scam and anyone who was foolish enough to buy one of these things was due a refund.  I was surprised and disappointed to see it in the box - and if I was one of the other brands, I'd be pretty angry about being put in a group with such a nasty product.

That unpleasantness aside, this is another excellent showing with some great products that I'm looking forward to trying out.

How to fix your nails on the bus, fast!

We've all been there, it's Monday morning and you're on your way to work, thinking rather sullenly of all the places you'd rather be than headed to work (Paris, Rome, back under your doona...)

You look down at your nails.. and.. uuugh... chipped, nasty nail polish. Very unprofessional looking and not something you ought to take into the office at all.... but how to fix them, fast?

I found something to do the trick - these little beauties. Cost about $5 from the chemist at Flinders St Station... they're called Nail Polish Remover Pads and they are made by Swisspers Nails.

Nothing terribly complicated about the concept, they are just round (cotton?) pads soaked in an acetone free nailpolish remover. They come in a plastic jar with an airtight lid..

I had a gold glitter polish with red crackle over the top - not an easy combo to shift, even chipped - glitter polishes are notoriously hard to get off your nails, so I was expecting to have to go through a few of these pads to get it all off.

To my surprise, with a bit of scrubbing, I only needed one of these little pads to get all the polish off. The other pleasant surprise was that there was no noticeable "nail polish remover" smell so I didn't disturb any of my fellow passengers while I took care of this.

The mess, fuss, and stink of trying to manoeuvre a bottle of nail polish remover would be really hard on a bus, but these make things easy to fix up your nails wherever you are.

They're going to be lurking in my office drawer from now on, just in case..