Haul: Nail polishes + Swatches

Nail Polish Haul

So, I went a on a little white nail-polish hunt yesterday. I’ve actually been looking for a good white nail polish for a while and as you might know from my last post that included a white Sally Hansen, I was pretty disappointed due to its streaky-ness. I typically think that nail polish is a low-involvement product that is relatively cheap (the ones I buy anyway) so I never really research on what brand has the best stuff. However, I decided a few days ago that I would do my research before I went in stores. I found that most of the recommendations were to get OPI’s Alpine Snow and some suggest other brands like China Glaze, Sinful Colours as well as other brands that are not even easily accessible in Australia. Actually, from all the brands above, the only really accessible brand is OPI. But I refuse to pay more than $10 for a colour nail polish so OPI was definitely out of the question (unless there’s a crazy discount on them) as it retails for AU$19.95 here in Australia. The only accessible drugstore brand here in Australia that I saw people had suggested was Sally Hansen’s Xtreme Wear.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Gunmetal & White On, Models Prefer Make A Million.
Photograph taken under white LED light.

I don’t typically buy Sally Hansen’s colour nail polishes as the cheapest retails for between AU$6-7. However, Priceline had a promotion of buy 1 get 1 free! So I took a leap of faith and bought the white nail polish and got myself a gunmetal colour as my 2nd item. So that’s 2 nail polishes for $6.95 (or about $3.50 each).

I previously owned a Sally Hansen Xtreme Nail Polish in Flirt (#38) which I used to use quite often (it’s not with me at the moment hence I can’t wear it right now) so the consistency didn’t really surprise me. It’s a little thicker than my Revlon polishes and the Models Prefer nail polish but I think it works quite well.

Sally Hansen “White On” is exactly what it is. A white creme polish. I don’t know what else to say about this other than it is white, shiny and I love it. I think the shine takes the “I-have-white-out-on-my-finger-nails” look away and I am actually considering painting all of my 10 fingers in white.

Base coat, 2 layers of colour and Sally Hansen’s Mega Shine top coat.
Photograph taken under yellow light.

Gunmetal” I picked up because it is almost winter here in Australia and I love me some good dark coloured nail polishes. It seems like winter is the more-appropriate season to wear dark polishes (but hey, I wear whatever colour I feel like whenever I feel like it). It’s got a slightly purple undertone and a slight shimer. The name fits the colour – it looks like a gunmetal colour.

As I was walking around Priceline after I’d picked out the two nail polishes, I saw that Models Prefer had a promotion going on too. It was a free blender sponge every time you purchase at least 1 product. I’ve never tried a beauty blender and I am a sucker for nail polish and VOILA! I got sucked into buying this really pretty light bronze/gold colour even though it costs $5.99 ($1 over my limit). However ended up being my favourite nail colour I’ve ever had so far. And the bonus blender sponge is probably worth more than $1.

To me this colour screams out luxury and expensiveness. It’s subtle enough to wear everyday but I’d imagine it would look fabulous with a champagne-coloured, shimery but elegant dress or to dress up a little black dress.

Models Prefer Make a Million + Blender Sponge

The formula is wonderful! It’s got a thin but opaque consistency and it’s got a really really big brush which I actually kind of like. It applied really well and it has a smooth finish.

I also bought a few other things which I might mention in another post but this was all the nail polishes! All in all I was really happy with my purchases and I can’t wait to wear these polishes again and again!

Let me know what you think of the colours and if you have any of them, do let me know what you think of them!

Lots of smiles,

Sita

Glad I have you: Leather Puncher

Hello lovely smiles,

Leather puncher in its packaging

About a month ago, as some of you might remember, I bought an AUD$1 belt at a sale about a month ago and they were way too big for me. I talked about getting a leather puncher so I can customise the belt to my size. Well, I’m telling you today I’m glad I decided to buy this little gadget! Now, I can surf the sales all I want and since my size is normally the one that is gone first (XS/S) and therefore found it hard to buy belts on crazy sales in the past. Now, I can buy larger belt sizes and will still be able to wear them!

If you are petite in build like me, then I definitely recommend this investment. I suggest buying the revolving one with multiple sized “punchers” (for lack of a better word – I don’t know what you’d call them) since different belts will require different sizes. Especially those fastened with a push button.

I researched DIY alternatives and they are very tedious, uncertain and the results are not satisfying at all! (messy, rough, etc) Trust me, $10 will be paid back in a flash! (e.g. I recently bought a supposedly $14 belt for $1 which was too big and I had to punch a few extra holes with my leather puncher at home. Now, I think by having the leather puncher, I saved $13 — BAM! Leather puncher paid back.)

Revolving leather puncher – multi-sized puncher

A great tip if you are in Australia – DO NOT buy this from Spotlight. I tried finding something like this there and it costs AUD$25+. I luckily went to Bunnings (a home-improvement/hardware store) shortly after and found this one that I bought for a little less than AUD$10.

Leather puncher packaging

I also searched online and found nothing worthy of buying less than $8. And that didn’t include shipping either. The wait times for delivery and such were around 1 month. Totally would have costed me more than $10.

Holes originally on the belt vs holes I made using the Leather Puncher

UPDATED: here is the hole comparisons – original holes vs punched holes. In my opinion the holes are really neat and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you stare at them really well. With my black belt, I had to make the hole bigger since I didn’t want to even attempt to make the slits.

If you would like to use this, then make sure you start from a hole that is a little smaller in size than what you think it might be. If you made a mistake in judging, you can always go bigger, but not smaller.

So that is all smileys, I hope you found this useful!

Lots of Smiles,

Sita

Harbour Town [Perth] Haul: April 2013

I admit I went a little crazy this past week and a half. I went shopping at Harbour Town Perth not once, not twice, THREE times. I was going to do a haul after my first trip but then I thought I would wait for my already planned 2nd trip with Cindy from Rose Gold Whimsy not too long after my first visit. After that, things got hectic and I was going to blog about this on Friday, but then my family decided to go to Harbour Town (again) last Saturday. So here I am on a Thursday afternoon trying to finally finalise and compile these hauls.

First, I would like to warn you that bargain is a recurring team. I don’t really spend anymore than $10 on a piece of clothing unless I really need it for something or if the item is REALLY that good and worth my money.

Coloured Jeans for $5 each – SES

On my first trip, I was on a hunt for long jeans. It’s particularly hard for me to find long jeans since the trend right now is to wear skinny jeans and I, unfortunately, am on the thicker-leg side of the *just made up* leg spectrum despite my petite height and upper body. I feel like I want to say about 90% of the time, skinny jeans don’t fit me even after going 1 size up. But on this trip, VOILA! $5 coloured jeans that actually fit me! I snatched every single colour they have on my size – though I admit they are not a perfect fit and I don’t normally wear coloured jeans. But hey! $5 Jeans! Time to start learning how to style them.

$1 Bow Belt – Factorie

I also snatched a TOTAL BARGAIN! This belt was marked to be $2 at Factorie. Already a bargain. Then when I went to the counter to pay, they said that all items with red tags were further discounted 50% off. So… I got this belt for $1. Unfortunately it was a size M/L but hey! you can always punch extra holes! I actually bought the puncher and I will haul that some other day in another blog post.

.

$4 Maxi Dress – SES

$5 Blue Top – SES

I then went with Cindy from Rose Gold Whimsy the 2nd time. And oh my, on that day, I was more of a shopaholic than Cindy despite the fact that she’s the one with a style blog. I was supposed to be hunting for work out clothes – Yoga pants to be exact. But in the end, I didn’t manage to find any cheap ones that is to my liking. (Work out clothes, why are you so expensive?) So my first purchase was at SES. I was trying on a dress that was cute but was a size too big for me – needless to say, that didn’t work out. But in the process, I saw a $4 Maxi Dress in the change rooms and while I was trying things on, I tried that on too! I loved it and it’s probably my favourite purchase that day! The fabric is really stretchy, light and super soft. Definitely worth $4 especially that you can wear a strapless maxi dress like that in many many ways!

Then, on the way out I saw a $5 simple light blue Top. So dangerous right? I thought this would make a great basic – pair with jean shorts, white shorts (not that I have/wear them), long jeans, skirts, so many things I can think of!

We also stopped by the sale at Lovisa and I got a $3 Rose Gold Bib Necklace and a $3 Blue Bib Necklace. Their rings were also on sale – 4 for $10. Cindy and I decided to share – I got 3 and she got 1. I am giving one away to my Aunty who is crazy about statement rings so I’ll just show you the two that I’m keeping.

$3 Rose Gold Bib Necklace – Lovisa

$3 Blue Bib Necklace – Lovisa

 

4 for $10 rings – Lovisa

The 3 rings stacked together – can be worn together or one by one.

The third visit, my family was there in search for supplies for my sister as she was going camping. She needed a plain shirt to iron her group’s design on and we found some shirts at Jay Jays which were 3 for $10. Since I have 2 sisters (so there’s 3 girls including me) we all picked one top each. This was my only purchase there and I’m quite happy with it!

3 for $10 White Singlet – Jay Jays

So the total from this haul was 3 pairs of jeans, 2 tops, 1 maxi dress, 1 belt, and 4 jewellery items. All adds up to about AU $41.83. Oh dear I need to stop shopping.

I hope you enjoyed that and do let me know what you think in the comments!

Have you taken advantage of amazing sales lately?

Lots of Smiles,

Sita