Top 3: Hand and Nail Care

Lately my hands and nails have fallen into ill repair - meaning I've had to bust out the heavy duty products. I thought I'd share, anyone with brittle or easily chipped nails and dry hands will benefit from these three wonderful pocket sized products.

One. Start to Finish Top and Base Coat, OPI.
I've used this one for years and it's great in my books partly because it kills two birds with one stone. Rather than having two products you can use this for creating a smooth canvas to put colour on over the top and helping prevent chips. It really helps maintains the condition of your nails as well - I don't get that peeling or cracking on the top layers of my nails (unless I pick at it when it chips...). A tad on the pricey side but if you paint your nails a lot this will be well worth the investment - I get through a bottle in a little under a year and that's with painting my nails every week too.

Two. CND Solar Cuticle Oil.
A recent addition to my collection but this is a super nail saver - particularly if you're into getting gel or Shellac nails. It helps the nail to grow out strong while it's still forming. Applying this every day makes my cuticles less cracked and dry and my nails a lot shinier and healthy feeling too. Aside from that it smells like marzipan - which might allude to the almond oil that's a main ingredient (along with jojoba). This wee bottle is pretty generous and will last quite a while - for 20NZD it's actually pretty cost effective too. 

Three. Burts Bees Banana and Beeswax hand cream.
I've mentioned this one in my recently rediscovered products post here. It's the only cream I've ever found that really combats that painful dry skin that can arise from dermatitis and really lasts on the skin too. It smells beautiful, sinks in and really helps repair your hands. I love applying this one after I've washed my hands - I find that's the best time to apply because the warm water softens your skin and allows it to absorb more easily and skin is more delicate when it's been in water (particularly if you have dermatitis/eczema). 

Having soft and well tended to hands always look lovely and prepare your nails for polish - something that always makes me feel more put together. 

Claire x

The Weekend Post: Painted Paws

Well, as promised I've had a slightly more interesting and beauty related weekend this weekend. It's Sunday now and I'm sitting with a green tea editing photos and listening to Ed Sheeran with my claws tap-tapping away on the keyboard.

Essentially I finally got around to getting my nails Shellac'd (how does one Shellac? Shellac'd?) anyway - I went to my favourite, yes Newmarket again.

I visited The Nail Studio on Osborne Street and had my nails done by Lianne - who was lovely by the way. I wanted to get the pointy shape for a change seeing as I highly doubt I'd be able to shape them properly myself I thought I'd go for it yesterday. Then as I'm indecisive about colour and get bored easily I went for a classic white nail - with a little shimmer on top at Liannes recommendation which I must admit looks bloody lovely. Highly recommend these guys - the paint on my right hand bubbled a little bit when it was first applied but Lianne fixed it for me taking extra time and didn't seem bothered/didn't rush me at all.

The pictures don't do the shimmer justice really but in short I love them. The only downside is texting and typing are really quite awkward because of the points eeep. I'd say it's a worthwhile pay off though. 

Nails aside, it was pay week this week and I was in Newmarket so...you know...I did a spot of shopping. 

Can you tell I'm preparing for summer? I love this new hat - if you're in New Zealand it's free shipping if you're urban - and they ship internationally too if you're from overseas. I bought it from Pagan Marie - I always love to support Kiwi businesses if I can and the service from this site is amazing. I'm strictly speaking a "rural" address, I ordered Thursday at around 10 and received it first thing Friday morning. 

My other purchases included some Body Shop bits for my car - hand cream for my dry little mits and hand sanitiser because I hate that "grubby" feel they can get when you've been shopping or at the gym. Having dermatitis means this isn't fantastic for my skin...but that justifies the hemp hand cream right? (And I had a 10 dollar voucher so this only cost me about 12 bucks). 

I've added another lipstick to my MAC family - Brave this time. It's a lovely purpley cool toned lipstick in satin finish (my favourite) so isn't too drying and the colour payoff is great. It's my take on the Kylie Jenner lip combined with Subculture lip pencil it's perfect. 

Last thing was Eau Roma Water from Lush - I was running low and I can't live without this stuff for getting my makeup/cleanser off. 

The weather yesterday in Auckland was awful so I think I actually ended up spending less because I didn't want to hang around the shops too long. Mixed blessing? 

Now it's Sunday it's that usual laundry/gardening and now I'm drafting up some more posts for this week - tappa tappa tappa. 

Claire x

P.s. I think I've nearly got the layout of my blog how I like it...