Sensationail - Long Lasting Gel Manicure! {Review}

I know that this time of the year, a lot of people will be planning their Christmas and summer holidays. When you are super busy or are going away on a holiday, you will definitely want your nail polish to last a while! Who wants to be re-painting their chipped nails on holiday?!

Today I have a review of Sensationail for you. Sensationail is a gel polish system that will give you up to 2 weeks of wear! Perfect for this busy time of year, or for your summer holiday. Or a perfect Christmas gift for someone special in your life!

I have a few Sensationail products to talk about, but I'll start with the Starter Kit.

The Starter Kit comes with a Pro 3060 LED Lamp (which you must have to use Sensationail products, as it's used to cure the gel - the polish will not set without it), the gel primer, gel cleanser, base & top coat, the coloured gel polish (choose between Scarlet Red and Raspberry Wine), as well as some lint free pads to use with the gel cleanser, a nail file and a cuticle stick, and the instructions, of course.

(If you're interested in seeing HOW TO apply/remove these products, check out the How To page on the Sensationail website. I won't be going over that in this post, as I have already done so in other posts.)

Here is Scarlet Red, the day after I applied it. It's a gorgeous, classic bright red. I used just two coats. I've tried a few red gel polishes and this would have to be one of the nicest. However, when I was applying the top coat, I did experience some of the red transferring to the top coat brush. Other than that, I had no problems at all!

Here is Scarlet Red after 1 week of wear. There is no visible wear, apart from my nails having grown out, obviously. It still looks exactly the same as when I applied it, and is still very shiny! I definitely think it would last the two weeks that they promise. I get tired of my nail colour after a week, however and wanted to change it up.

You can also buy Sensationail colours separately. Here I have Pink Chiffon, Pink Daisy and Taupe Tulips.

So far I have only had a chance to try Taupe Tulips but I hope to try the others soon and give you a look at those.

Here is Taupe Tulips after about 6 days of wear. It looked exactly the same as when I first applied it! Perfect and shiny. I used 3 coats for this one, as it was a little sheer with just two. This is such a nice nude colour. I absolutely love it.

Here are a few other items that are in my opinion, optional but are definitely handy to have:

The Gel Polish Removal Kit includes a 125mL bottle of Gel Polish Remover, as well as 30 foil removal wraps. (Nail file and cuticle stick are also included - not pictured).
I really liked this but honestly, I wouldn't purchase it when I run out. I usually use pure acetone to remove my gel polish, with some regular aluminium foil and cotton balls and it does the job. But it is a nice kit to have.

I really like the Gel Polish Removal Tool! However, I would not say that it is the most "gentle way" to remove gel polish. If you use a heavy hand, you could definitely damage your nails with it. You must be very careful when using it.
I don't know if it's intended for this, but I actually like using it to push my cuticles back! But again, you have to be extremely careful!

The only problem I had with Sensationail, was the removal. I found it a bit harder to remove than other gels I have tried. You have to file the top surface of the nail first, to remove the top coat and then soak as normal. I soaked my nails for 15 minutes but found that I had to re-wrap my nails another time because it was very hard to scrape off. I also had some base coat left over even after buffing my nails. But if it's harder to remove, that means your polish will last longer so it has it's pros and cons. Having said this, I still recommend Sensationail. I think the removal process is worth it.

I absolutely recommend Sensationail to anyone who is interested in trying out an at-home gel manicure kit! It's the best one I have tried so far. I love that their products are so easily accessible.
You can purchase Sensationail products online (free shipping over $50!), as well as Priceline, Target, Terri White Chemists, Woolworths and Chemmart.

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

Review: Charlie's Planner Goodies

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry about the absence here on my blog lately. Things have been hectic to say the least but I have a few posts planned for the coming weeks so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things for you guys. I miss blogging a lot.

Today I have a review of a planner item to share with you!

This item is from a fairly new shop, Charlie's Planner Goodies. She sells her items through her Facebook page.

She sells cute items for Filofaxes/similar planners including dashboards, monthly sticky tabs as well as dividers.
I have one of Charlotte's handmade dashboards to show you today, which has an elastic pen loop attached to it! The one I have to show you is a Pocket sized dashboard, but she does them for all the Filofax sizes.

Her dashboards is made of a sturdy card stock and is covered with a patterned paper of your choice. They have a thick elastic pen loop on the right hand side.

The dashboard I have, is a very cute pastel polka dot pattern. Here it is inside my Small Lilac Kikki.K planner.

The elastic pen loop is quite thick and will hold most pens. I used a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto pen and a thick Sharpie Pen in it, and it held them very well.
I think the loop is too wide to hold something like a Frixion Slim pen (it may slip through), but if you do want it specifically to hold a slim pen, I'm sure Charlotte would accommodate that for you.

When I first tried out this dashboard, to be honest, I was a little worried that it would not hold up over time and may be flimsy, but was proven wrong. I used it for a couple of weeks and it was fine and has held up nicely! I wouldn't go tugging on it like crazy, or trying to fit a huge pen in it, but if you treat it nicely I'm sure it will last you quite some time!

This dashboard will be great for anyone who wants to add an extra pen loop to their planner. I definitely could have used these when I had a Kate Spade planner as the pen loops on those can be very tight and it was hard to find a pen to fit in! But even if your planner's pen loop is fine, it's always nice to be able to carry an extra pen.

Charlotte's dashboards are $6 for Mini/Pocket size and $8 for Personal/A5 size.

Charlotte also sells some other planner items such as monthly tabs and dividers (in particular superhero/comic dividers which look so awesome!). Be sure to check out her Facebook page to see what she's got to offer! Send her a message or write a post on her page. She's super nice!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you'll come back soon as I hope to get myself back into the swing of things on here, especially in the new year! ♥

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

{Unboxing} Kikki K Pink Textured Planner

Hi guys!
Ah, I feel like I say this every time I post but I'm so sorry for the lack of posts. Argh, I feel really awful about it. I'm sorry! I have been pretty busy with my Etsy shop lately, and other stuff. You know how it goes!

Anyway, I shared a video on my YouTube channel on Friday showing an unboxing of my new Pink Textured Kikki.K Planner! You can check it out here, or watch below! :)

I hope to have a video up later this week or early next week, showing how I'm using this planner and my current planning system. I'm trying to figure out what works best for me, but it just keeps changing!

I'm able to film more videos now, which is great, so if you have any video requests, be sure to let me know!

Thanks for reading/watching. ♥

20% OFF LONG WEEKEND SALE!

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend so far. I'm excited that it's a long weekend here in SA! :)

To celebrate the long weekend, I am offering a 20% off code in my Etsy shop!

Use the code WEEKEND20 to get 20% off your entire order!

I have just added many new items to the shop today, specifically new stickers! I have lots of new stickers that have been created to be perfect for the Erin Condren Life Planner, which I now own! :D Post on that coming soon!

{Click here to sign up for Erin Condren & get $10 off your first order!*}

Please head on over to my shop & check out my new items! ♥

*referral link.

Filofax Original Patent Purple {First Impressions}

Happy Filofax Friday friends! :) 

Today I have another Planner First Impressions. {Check out my Large Kikki.K Lilac First Impressions & my Small Kikki.K Lilac First Impressions.}

This is the Filofax Original in the Patent Purple colour, in Personal size.

I kind of bought this on a whim from eBay, to be quite honest. I was looking at a few different Filofaxes, and this one was the cheapest {and was located here in Australia} so I bought it. {If you are looking for one of these, Peters of Kensington usually has them in stock.}

A day or two after buying it, I was having second thoughts.

I have had a Filofax Original before {in Fluro Pink} and loved it, but I had watched some videos on YouTube of the Patent Purple and wasn't sure how I'd feel about it. Being Patent Purple, it's shiny and glossy, whereas the Fluro Pink had much more of a matte look. A medium tone purple like this isn't something I would usually reach for, either.

Plus, the package took a whole week to get to me from just two states away, when it really should have only taken 3-4 days max. {Not the seller's fault, of course.} That was a bit frustrating, because I'm super impatient with mail.

I thought that when I received this, that I wouldn't be impressed and I'd just want to sell it straight away. 

Buuuut I actually really like it!

The leather is shiny as expected, but not in a tacky way. Some photos and videos I'd seen had made the shine look a bit tacky and unattractive. But in real life, it's much nicer! :) I love the feeling of the leather!

I'm happy to report that this Original that I have is the newer version.

The first release Original Filofax had a shorter strap and people were finding it hard to fit a lot in. The newer version's strap is a bit less than 4 inches long, and the older one was 3.5. It might not sound like much, but apparently it makes a huge difference!

I love the simplicity of the interior of the Filofax Original, but lately I've actually been utilizing the pockets in my Filofaxes - I never used to use the pockets. So it will be a bit different to go from lots of pockets in my Malden, to almost no pockets in the Original.

I also love how the Originals almost lay flat right out of the package. This one doesn't lay quite as flat as my Fluro Pink one did but it's still quite flat. The one thing that annoys me about my Malden, is that it doesn't lay totally flat on the table.

My Original didn't come with everything that a brand new Original is supposed to come with, which is the only thing I'm a bit bummed about. The seller did mark it as Brand New, but in the description they said that only the 2014 Diary, dividers, note paper {it ended up being only the grid paper}, ruler and note pad were included. I would have really liked to have gotten the top loading envelope because I don't have one {I sold all mine when I thought I wasn't using Personal size anymore. D'oh!}, but oh well. I'll get one eventually.

The Filofax itself is definitely brand new, though. I can't see any signs of use and I received it in the plastic protective packaging.

 My Original & My Malden. ♥

 As you can see, the leather of the Purple Original is pretty shiny, because you can see my reflection in it!

 Purple Original in the sun. :)

I'm super glad that I decided to try out the Purple Original. It is really nice!

Thanks for reading! ♥

Hollish Patisserie Collection | Swatches & Review

Hi guys! Today I am so excited to bring you my first indie nail polish swatch & review post since March! Wow. I can't believe it's been that long. I hope I can do these polishes justice that I'll be sharing today!

Today I have the new Patisserie Collection by Hollish to share with you! :)

There are 6 polishes in this collection and they are all pastel crelly (creme/jelly) polishes with metallic and holographic silver micro-glitter as well as other glitter.

All of these polishes are gorgeous, and so perfect for the spring time. I am super impressed with all of the colours!

Small Kikki K Lilac Planner Update

As promised in my Small Kikki.K Lilac Planner First Impressions post, today I have an update on the planner! :)

I also got a new camera, so I can give you some better photos!

Here is my little pretty. I have been using her for about a week now.

In my first impressions post, I had said that I was a little disappointed with this planner.
I felt that the quality wasn't as nice as my Large Kikki.K planner*, and the rings weren't as great as I had hoped. They are much smaller than my other Pocket size planners, and they also had some slight gaps.

{*The Large Kikki.K planner is actually on its way to a new home! Not because I didn't like it, I loved it! But I am not using A5 size planners anymore. I bought the Small one, because I still wanted to have one of these gorgeous planners in my collection.}

However, after my week of using this beauty, I'm much happier!

I do feel that this one is a little more stiff than the Large planner was, but I actually don't mind it now. It makes it easy to write on when I don't have a table to lean on.

I did have to reduce the amount of inserts/information I keep in my planner when I moved into the Small Kikki.K from my Filofax Malden {that baby holds a lot}, but it's okay. I would prefer the rings to be a little larger, but oh well.

I do still think that this planner would work better as a wallet, or for someone who doesn't want to keep much in their planner.

It's not my favourite planner, but I do really like it now. :) It's very cute!

I will also have a set up video of this planner on my YouTube channel ASAP, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading. ♥

Mani Monday: Arte Clavo - Cake Pop

Happy Mani Monday friends! Hope you had a fantastic weekend & Father's Day {for those of you in Aussie-land}. What did you get up to? :)

I can't remember if I mentioned here on my blog or not, but my nails are very damaged at the moment. I committed a nail crime a couple of weeks ago when I was wearing fake nails, and pulled them off, instead of soaking off like you're supposed to.
Needless to say, my nails are now extremely weak, peeling and awful! They were also super painful at first, which was horrible. Thankfully they aren't really painful anymore.

Since my natural nails are awful, I'm trying to grow the damage out. I decided to try and stick to mostly gel manicures for a while, as they last longer and many people also say that gel manicures add a layer of protection to your nails and help them to grow, which I do believe is true.

This is a gel polish from one of my favourite brands, Arte Clavo. I don't know a lot about the brand, to be honest, but I found them by accident on eBay. They sell very affordable gel polishes, and almost all of them are dupes {or similar - some aren't exact dupes} for CND Shellac polishes. I don't know about you, but I'd never be able to afford all of my favourite colours if I used Shellac polishes. Which is why I love these Arte Clavo polishes. I use them along with my Gelish Foundation & Top It Off base and top coats. :)

This polish is called Cake Pop. It is a gorgeous light pink creme. I needed 3 coats for opacity.
I don't believe it's an exact dupe for the CND polish, but it is similar. {I think the CND polish might lean a little more on the blue-y side of pink, and is a little lighter.}

I totally love this colour! Lately I have been gravitating towards light pinks and other pastel colours. I guess that's because springtime is starting.

I find that the Arte Clavo polishes apply great and last just as long as any other gel polish. I know that some people don't agree with using the cheaper gel polishes but I don't have a problem with it.
I wore this gel manicure for about 5 days before I got bored of it. I do think it would've lasted at least a few more days!

I also wanted to share with you a mini nail haul that arrived in my mail box today! :) I bought two items from the seller "enchantedbeautyspot" on eBay.

I made this eBay order mainly for the Nailtiques Formula 2 nail strengthener. I heard about this from Lindsay Does Nails on YouTube. You might know that my favourite strengthener has been Duri Rejuvacote for over 2 years now, but lately I haven't really been seeing results when I use it, so I decided to try something new! :) I will update you on my thoughts.

I didn't want to pay shipping for just one item, so I also bought the Orly Gel FX gel polish in Beach Cruiser! This is a super bright neon pink. I am sooo excited to try it out when summertime comes around! {Although I am not excited at all for the sticky disgusting-ness that comes with summertime.} I think it will be an amazing pedicure colour.
This will be my first time trying an Orly gel polish so that's exciting too! I only own a few "name brand" gels.

Thanks so much for reading. Especially if you got all the way to the end. ;)

What is on your nails this Mani Monday?! ♥

Kikki.K Small Lilac Time Planner {First Impressions}

Hi friends! I hope your week is going well so far. :)

Today I have another planner First Impressions for you! I did one of these about a month ago, here, on the same product that I'm going to be showing you today, but in a different size!

This is the Kikki.K Small Lilac Time Planner for 2015. {Review on the Large size.} This planner retails for $39.95 on the Kikki.K website. They can also be found in some Kikki.K stores.
The Lilac Time Planner line was released at the end of July. At the time of writing, all 3 sizes are available on the website.

FEATURES / LAYOUT

The Small Kikki.K planner is equivalent to a Pocket size Filofax, which is my current favourite planner size and what I am using every day.
This is my first time ever owning a Small Kikki.K planner. I have only ever owned Medium or Large.

The leather is a pretty lilac colour, with gold diamonds on the outside. The inside is plain lilac leather.

The insides of this planner are very similar to the Large one, obviously, but it's a little more simple.
On the left you have 3 card slots and a secretarial pocket.

The tabs that you get in the Small Kikki.K planner are different to the Medium or Large, as the planner is obviously a lot smaller.
The tabs and inserts that come in this planner are Monthly View, Weekly View and Addresses.

The rings in the Lilac planner are gold, to match the lilac/gold colour scheme.
I'm not sure what size these rings are, but they are definitely smaller than the rings in my Filofax Pocket Malden, which has 19mm rings.

At the back of the planner, there is slot with a notepad in it.

The planner has an elastic pen loop, and an elastic closure.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS / OPINION

I have to say, I was a little nervous when I was first opening up my planner. Although I had a great experience with my Large planner which arrived in good condition, I had heard a few people say that theirs arrived damaged and had some defects, especially regarding the rings. However, they were able to get a replacement or refund.
To be 100% honest, my planner did not arrive in "perfect" condition. I do believe that all of the rings have a small gap to them, which is unfortunate. But for me, not a deal breaker, unless they were very damaged. I'm not really the type of person to return something unless it is extremely damaged or unusable, so I won't be returning my planner.

While I love the look of the Lilac planner, I don't think that the quality of my Small planner is quite the same as the Large. I can't quite explain how. It doesn't feel as "squishy" or soft as the Large.

I thought it was also worth mentioning that the Small planner does not lay flat, unlike the Large planner which does. I'm sure you could get it to lay flat with some training.

I also was a little disappointed by the size of the rings. It feels much smaller than my Filofax Pocket Malden, which I mentioned above.
As soon as I received the planner, I moved right in. I'm the kind of person who likes to stuff my Filofax very full, and I just can't do that with this Kikki.K planner. I had to remove quite a lot of my inserts in order to fit everything inside.
I think this may work better as a wallet, rather than an everyday planner. However, I will try it out and see how it goes.

I thought I'd also mention why I purchased the Small size.
If you follow me on Instagram, or have read my last few blog posts, you will know that I am now using a Pocket {or Small in Kikki.K terms} size planner as my everyday planner.
I was using an A5 {or Large} size for a couple of weeks near the end of July and start of August, before realising that it wasn't working for me, which is when I decided to try out Pocket size.
I had thought I'd use my Large Kikki.K Lilac planner as my Blog/Etsy planner. Well, that didn't happen. I barely touched it since I started using a Pocket size.
I have decided to sell my Large planner, as I don't see myself using it again and didn't want to have it laying around, unused. {It is on hold for someone at the moment.} It is such a beautiful planner, but Large the size isn't great for me right now. This is why I have purchased the Small size!

I hope this post was helpful for you to see how the Small Lilac Time Planner from Kikki.K looks and what I think about it.
I'll hopefully bring you an update on it here soon, if not you'll definitely know by looking at my Instagram account.

Thanks for reading. ♥

Mani Monday: L'oreal 'Lacey Lilac'

Hi everyone! Happy Monday & HAPPY SPRING!
I am so excited that springtime & September are here. I really love this time of the year when it's starting to warm up a bit. {Although I am not looking forward to summer/heat wave season, but that's still a few months away yet.}
It's a little ironic, however. We had lovely, warm, sunshine-y weather the past few days, but the first day of spring has been a little chilly and rainy.

Being the first day of spring, I decided to paint my nails with a spring-y colour! The past few months I have really liked painting my nails to go with the seasons. In winter I enjoyed dark/muted colours, and now I'm reaching for more pastel/bright colours.

This is Lacey Lilac by L'oreal.

I picked up this colour at The Reject Shop for about $3, if I'm remembering correctly. They had a few pastel colours there, that looked like they had been sitting on the shelf for months, and I decided to give this beauty a try. {After Googling this polish, it seems it was from a limited edition spring collection from last year, so I'm not sure how readily available it would be now.}

Lacey Lilac is such a pretty spring colour. It's walking the line between pink and purple. Depending on what the lighting is like, sometimes it will lean very pink, and sometimes very purple.
The polish has a nice brush, with a slightly curved tip, making it easy to cover the nail.
It went on a little streaky on the first coat, but the second evened it out. I added one coat of Seche Vite top coat to finish off.

I can definitely see myself reaching for this colour again soon. Pinks and purples are my favourite in the spring!

PS. A lot of you requested more nail posts in my Requests/Suggestions post, so I couldn't ignore that kind of response! I've decided to try and put out a blog post whenever I paint my nails. I can't promise anything, but I will try to put up at least one nail post per week. :) But there was also quite a lot of you that said you wanted to still see my planners, so I will also be continuing those posts.

{Just know, I don't wear anything super exciting on my nails these days. If you follow my Instagram, you would probably know that I did a huge destash of my collection recently. I can now easily fit my collection into a shopping bag. I only own a few glitters, because I'm really only gravitating towards creamy colours.}

Some people had also requested to see things like nail care, polish clean up, etc. I actually have some videos on my YouTube channel relating to those things if you are interested. I also have a nail care section on my blog which contains some things like nail care, as well as other nail related tips & tricks.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic week. ♥

Call For Suggestions/Requests

Hi friends! I hope your week is going well so far.
I wanted to ask you a question today.

What would you like to see from my blog/me?

I'm kind of out of ideas, and unsure what people want to see from my blog.
I love writing, and taking photos, so blogging is something that I really enjoy, I'm just not very inspired at the moment.

I would really, really love to hear any requests/suggestions for posts that you have. You can request literally anything! Life, nails, planners, anything!

Please fill out this form to request! :)

Please feel free to follow me on Twitter {probably the easiest way to contact me!}, Instagram, Facebook & YouTube.
And you can also email me! I would love to chat with you. You can send me your suggestions there also.

Thanks for reading. ♥

Our Wedding. ♥

I know this has taken me way longer than it should have to get this post up. Buuuut here it is, finally.
Today I get to share with you, a bit of the best day of my life.

I can't show you all of the photos, because there are so many, but there are still a lot of photos in this post!

Thank you so much Rachael {Rachael Elizabeth Photography} for capturing our wedding day. We absolutely love our photos so much. You did such an amazing job! ♥

Here we go...

Before the Wedding

The Ceremony

Before the Reception

 Reception

And then my hubby surprised me with some songs. ♥