Coral Dream

Let's say hello to Coral Dream. 

I've mentioned previously that I'm an absolute nail polish addict hoarder. I own a fajillion bottles and I could always own more. This polish came from my ELF haul last month for only $2!

This colour is a very pink-peach colour, with a slight orange undertone. It's apparently one of their newer colours as well - very summery! I applied about three coats on but you really could do with just two. Surprisingly for $2, the formula is comparable to those of OPI, Essie and Zoya. I actually think this might be better than Essie's polishes. I find that their formula is quite streaky and their brushes are TINY. ELF's polish is indeed the opposite - it glides on with a thicker brush. Many people do complain about how it juts out when you close the bottle fully, as in it seems to not fit on properly. That is unfortunately true but fear not, because it still keeps polish quite sealed, so it won't dry out (if that's your concern).

Enjoy your weekend!

♥B

In the mail part deux

Having thought that I had yet to receive my delayed order from e.l.f I was prepared to send a furious e-mail. After making a trip to the mailbox I kinda had that gut feeling that it would be sitting there waiting for me.. and to no surprise there it was. HA! Overall, I was very satisfied with all my purchases and definitely see myself ordering from e.l.f again. So let's cut the the chase and show off these goodies that I am absolutely ecstatic to share.. (Belle, FINALLY! This one's for you!)

The packaging of the e.l.f products was pretty compact and convenient. Nail polishes came in a bubble wrap and as for the rest of the items, they came in a clear drawstring plastic bag. As you can see.. a summary of my purchases are: eyelid primer, studio blushes, mineral lipsticks, matte lip colour and nail polishes (matte finisher, desert haze, and nude).

A closer look at my lip stuff. 

Mineral lipsticks in: natural nymph (left) $5

 runway pink (right). $5

Matte lip color pencil in: coral $3

Last but not least.. I am not a blush user but I am now. I felt like being adventurous and adding some colour to my pale face and in general to my life. I picked up studio blushes in:

 giddy gold (left) $3

candid coral (right) $3

These pictures really do no justice in how the colours look in person. They both have specks of gold which really give them a brighter feel and slight shimmer rather than a dull matte colour (in my pov anyways).

***

Swatches soon to come! Hopefully when Belle and I have the chance and start to make use of all our new purchases we'll have some swatches for you. Keep updated!

♥M

In the Mail

Just a warning that this post has a lot of words and pictures!! Okay okay, so last month I put an order in online at e.l.f. because they had free shipping and I finally received my package this week! For those who are unaware, e.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) is a cosmetics and beauty company that sells most of their products online for a ridiculously cheap price. They say they have the ability to charge so low because they don't spend money on advertising. Instead, they use word of mouth. I thought, "their quality must be so cheap and crappy" but I read so many reviews I just had to order.

Contratry to my belief, their products turned out quite well! I ordered this on March 17 and I received it April 17 so I'd say their 2-4 week timeframe listed on their website (for Canada) is quite accurate. The only thing was that shipping wasn't actually free. I still had to pay $8 because I'm in Canada.. They only gave me $6.95 off otherwise shipping would've totalled nearly $15. Additionally, they said that if I spent more than $20, I would be charged some amount because of duties and our taxes. Those also didn't happen. Instead, this was stuffed in my mailbox and I gladly accepted my duty-free package.

I don't intend to do a review in this post because you'd be here reading all week so I'll just talk about them as I use them. Here's what I got and the prices:

Essential Eyelid Primer in Sheer

$1

Essential Brightening Eye Colour Quads in Drama and Butternut

$1 each

Studio Powder Brush

$3

Studio High Definition Powder

$6

Studio Eyebrown Lifter & Filter in Ash/Ivory

Studio Kohl Black Eyeliner

Studio Concealer Pencil & Brush in Light

$3 each

Matte Finisher Clear Polish

Nail Polishes in Coral Dream, Mint Cream and Metal Madness

$2 each

That was my little haul :) I spent a total of $29 which I thought was amazing (and so did Hubs!)
Mel also put in an order around the same time so I can't wait for her to show what she got because she hasn't told me yet - she wanted to leave me in suspense :P

Hope you guys enjoy your weekend and happy 4/20 to those who celebrate it, haha.

♥B

feeling gold

Nails did. Excuse my dry skin around the cuticle area.. woops!

Base Coat: I forgot what I used but any nude will do

Top Coat (x2): American Apparel Glitter in Meteor Shower (53778)

I had my nails painted nude while I was in the midst of going through a bunch of interviews. After that was over, I knew my nails needed something extra. Gold flakes! To my surprise, the AA polish works super well.. it goes on smoothly and evenly and the brush is just great! There's not much else to say about the polish itself except that I'd highly recommend it and that it comes in a ton of colours that won't disappoint you. A while back, I had bought an online deal allowing me to choose 5 AA polishes for only $15 - a deal and a half right?! Months after, I still haven't had the chance to swatch them all but it will happen... stay tuned!

Spring-ing

Wow it's been a while since we both updated! As you can imagine, we're busy enjoying the spring weather outdoors. I went out with the family today and it seriously felt like summer already. Anyway, Saturdays mean prepping food for the week - things like baking, or pre-cooking and freezing food. Today it means CHICKEN STOCK/BROTH! If I'm lazy, I tend to resort to chicken cubes which are in fact high in sodium and probably a bunch of other things that aren't necessary to one's body. Instead, I make my own! It's a nutritious alternative to store-bought stock or broth because you control what goes into the stock.

Ingredients: fresh parsley, celery, carrots, onion, tomato, garlic and raw (bone-in) chicken

That's all. You literally put all that in one pot and cover it with cold water. Let it boil and simmer for at least 4 hours so that all the ingredients can really flavour the water.

No, seriously... Just throw it all in one pot. It's so easy you could probably do this blindfolded.

So hopefully, it'll inspire you guys to make your own chicken stock as it really is healthier. If you're a vegetarian, you can just omit the chicken and you get vegetable stock!

* * *

What else to do while you wait for chicken stock to boil for a few hours?

Finger paint!

 Essie - Chinchilly (3 coats)

Happy Saturday everyone!

♥B

Happy St. Patty's!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! A great excuse to get trashed for most people, but since hubs is working and we've got no one to watch the little ones, it's a stay-at-home day for me. I'm sure most people did their nails green so I jumped on the bandwagon.

Nails: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Green with Envy

I hate how hard it is to capture the real colour of nails in photographs. From the left, I shot that at night. Second picture from the left, that was during the daytime. Both look like two completely different shades. But the best way to describe the true colour of this would be "celery". Yup, I was chopping celery earlier today and realized that it was an identical match. This was about 3 coats with top and base coat.

As for dinner...

Chinese Ginger Beef on Rice

Hope everyone's getting completely wasted tonight!

♥B

Minty Fresh Manicure

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I'm surprised with the quality of this polish from forever 21. It applies smoothly and opaque with few coats (I used 2). Definitely a great dupe for those "tiffany" colours but for only half the price. The only downside would be the brush which is pretty much terrible.. it's frayed and rough and makes it tricky to apply but still manageable (I think this was a common fault that Belle also came across)! Just remember to apply carefully or use another brush. Enjoy and have a drunk St. Patty's weekend! :)

Nail Polish: Forever 21 - Mint 

♥M

Event Ready

Hi all. After a long and insanely busy week (or two...) I'm finally DONE with the event that has been eating up my time. I didn't get a chance to take as many pictures as I would've liked but here you go:

Nails: Anacapri Pink by Borghese | Ring: RW & Co | Dress, top and blazer: H&M | Shoes: Ardene

I work at a non-profit organization that prevents the sexual exploitation of children and youth. Our organization's colours are fuchsia and gray, hence my slight touches of pink here and there. I didn't want to be overtly fancy at a business formal event so I went with all black but popping accessories paired with some nudies on my feet tee hee :) Thought I looked damn professional.

Anyway, the event turned out so successful and we got great feedback for it so it is definitely rewarding despite the fatigue that comes along with it. We were able to fundraise a good sum of money so I'm just happy that nothing went wrong. I also ate like a pig last night with all the unlimited food there so I can certainly say I feel like I gained a few pounds. The end.

♥B

Chocolate Dipped Tips

Had some much needed rest and relaxation last night following a few hectic days... Well, what to do when you have hours on hand? Paint your nails! If I have any beauty obsession, nail polish is one of them. I was sorting one of my boxes of polishes last night. Take a peek below! :)

So yeah.. A little extreme but I can't help it! I used to change my colours almost everyday but lost the habit for a few months. Now, I'm starting to get back into it! Possibly because it's spring season and all the newer collections/sets come out during this time. It's hard to avoid good sales ;) So I did a quick mani and got my nails all prepped for a couple coats of liquid looooove.

I decided to use the polish I just bought this week: OPI - Suzy Loves Cowboys. It's a dark chocolate brown creme colour. It was sort of weird putting it on because the first coat is SO SHEER. However on the second coat, it somehow made it almost opaque and I just used 3 coats to make it even. The colour is gorgeous and honestly I keep thinking my hands are messy from eating chocolate. Yuuumm.

So that went well UNTIL the top coat. My HG top coat is either Seche Vite Dry Fast or China Glaze Fast Forward but I decided to give FingerPaints TopCoat a try. Sally's was having a 2 for 1 sale for FingerPaints and I got the base and top coat. The base coat worked fine in terms of setting a good base and has been protecting my nails from yellowing. However, the top coat on the other hand completely screwed up my manicure. Look!

If you look closely at the pictures, it came out all bubbly and streaky! Prior to applying the top coat, the nail polish glided on and left a nice smooth surface. After putting on FingerPaint's top coat, I kid you not, it actually ruined my polish. I literally sat there and did nothing to avoid getting marks on my wet nails but that didn't help. Not only did it take more than 30 minutes to dry, it created this weird surface on my nails. Just take a closer look at my thumb:

Tell me that doesn't gross you out one bit? I'm so disgusted! I honestly contemplated just removing it right away but thought I would document it so all you others won't have to experience this polished heartache. I don't really like giving such bad reviews for products but really, a top coat shouldn't look so disastrous on your nails. Have you guys tried this before? I would love to hear suggestions on different top coats out there.

♥B

Retail Therapy Sesh

I'm incredibly busy this week and will be next week because we're hosting a huge event at work, and yours truly is the planner/coordinator. Soooo, this will be a short post paired with a bunch of pictures! I went for some retail therapy yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff that I probably won't use much:

Blazer & Skirt from H&M | Shoes from Ardene | Purse from random store | OPI

I'm totally into the nudes and browns this season. How boring, I know. Meanwhile everyone is frolicking in bright reds and blues. I've never really liked too much colour, but most of where my colour is found in my tops. I have everything from teal to bright pink to yellow to purple, etc. Also, I didn't own any dark browns in my stash of polish so I decided to get this from my local drugstore. The lady working there told me to keep my eyes peeled every February because that's when most beauty companies discontinue their previous lines and have a huge sale. Most of the colours were gone but I managed to get my hands on the last decent colour available - yay! I paid $5.99 CAD for it as opposed to $10.99 CAD regular price :) Anyway, back to haulin' ass. It's Friiiiiiiday ♥

♥B 

Catching Up

Finally got the chance to blog. I'm typically busier on Mondays and Tuesdays than I am any other day of the week. The biggest reason being that hubs has these two days off, and work is always hectic on these days as well. Wednesday is almost one of those relief days for me since I get to just sit back and relax after a long day of work and errands. Errands being... cook, clean, tend to the daughter and whatever else that needs to be done.

Anyway, for the past couple of days, I've been eating such yummy food I had to take pictures and share them! Most of them were actually made by hubs (he's the chef in the family) but no recipes though. If you want them, feel free to email us at belleplusmel@gmail.com and I'd be happy to let you in on some secrets hehe.

A) Roasted Lamb with homemade fries, green beans and grape tomatoes - Okay, I can't take credit for this at all. Hubs totally made this for dinner on Monday night and mymouth had several orgasms.

B) Shredded Chicken open-face sandwich - Made with crisped up potatoes, some carrots and drenched in delicious gravy over whole wheat toast

C) Mapo Tofu with vegetables and spam - This is one of my daughter's favourite meals. It's literally just rice, tofu, green beans and little bits of spam. She already knows what comfort food is!

D) Chicken in mushroom gravy with asparagus and garlic whipped potatoes - This was just my dinner tonight :) Nothing special but still good.

Hopefully that made your stomach ache a little because it definitely makes me hungry all over again...

On another note, I have a clinical addiction to oranges lately. I seriously eat 2-3 a day almost everyday. I have one a day at least. I guess it's better than being hooked on someting unhealthy. So in celebration of having such a nutritious addiction, I painted my nails just that colour! Yay!

This polish is from Joe Fresh, most commonly found in Canada's Real Canadian Superstore (formerly known as Loblaws). I bought these for a ridiculously great price at $10 for 3 bottles or $4 per bottle. And these weren't even on sale... Surprisingly the formula was great. It's heavily pigmented which only required two full coats. The colour is Pineapple but as you can see, it's almost identical to my oranges! I would've thought pineapples were a bit more yellow but oh well. It's a really cute colour especially for spring. Definitely check out Joe Fresh if you can find their products.

Goodnight. 

♥B

Pretty in Pink

TGIF.
I decided to start my day off by pampering myself with a fresh mani! Unfortunately, my right big toe nail remains as only half a nail and growing due to a basketball injury so the pedi will just have to wait. Anyways, I got a bit crafty and mixed up a simple colour that I've been wanting for a while but just been way too lazy to get up off my bum and look for. I mixed it in an almost empty OPI bottle of polish that was a nude shade to begin with. I'd describe the final outcome as a 'dusty pink/rose/nude' (Haha I couldn't make up my mind..).. and at least that's what I was going for and it turned out beautifully. I tried to capture a picture with my iPhone camera but the picture does no justice to how the actual colour looks in person!

Thanks to these guys, I was able to create my colour!

From L > R: Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry in 'Pink Blink'

Sally Hansen's Diamond Strength in 'Pink Gleam Rose'

Revlon in 'Silver' (which is pretty much a flat light grey)

End Result: Ta DA!

Just when I thought I was done...
Try applying a pattern or sparkles to add some asymmetrical edgey-ness and fun! I used a bobby pin to dot the white polish for the index finger and Gosh's 'Magic Star #562' as a top coat for the ring finger which gave it a subtle sparkle! There's so much you can do - be creative!!

A sneak peak of a part of my continuously growing nail polish collection.. I really need to think of a new way to organize them but they ARE colour coordinated! ;) Any suggestions?

Ps. Hope you enjoyed our first nail polish entry! Many more to come. 

♥M