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One of my absolute favourite things about make-up is the fact that you can use it to express yourself creatively. It’s your face and quite frankly you can do anything you want to it…and then wash it off later. For me, this includes the nails. If it were practical, I would get those super long nails that you can paint all kinds of nail art on to- sunsets, space scapes, mountains, animals- but I would be rendered pretty much useless like that so I have to look for another option for my much shorter nails.

What about the b nail polish collection by Bloom? Aside from having every colour under the rainbow designed to help celebrate your bold spirit (ahhhhh right after my own heart!) they now have a Crackle top coat in Black.

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The possibilities here are endless. Paint your nails any colour you so desire (you need some polish on your nails for it to work even a clear base coat would be fine as long as there’s something there), I painted mine green on one hand and half purple/half pink on the other hand, and then you paint the Crackle top coat over it and watch the magic. As the black coat dries it quite literally cracks revealing the colour you painted underneath. Over the green it leaves my nails looking like lizard skin and over the pink and purple my nails look like delicious little Easter eggs. I had to try more! Over red my nails look like volcanic lava, over yellow it looks like graffiti, over silver it looks like the moon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I can achieve that space scape after all? The best part is you don’t have to be super neat in your application of the Crackle top coat because it’s going to crack when it dries anyway leaving a pretty rustic kind of look. My only tip would be that after you apply the Crackle top coat you should apply a clear top coat because the black does look a little bit dry and can be a bit rough after it cracks. This just makes sure that your lava graffiti moon manicure lasts a bit longer!

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I cant wait for this Crackle top coat to come out in more colours (I hope you do this Bloom), especially pink so then I can paint it over red to wear my favourite colour combination around on my nails all the time. And then I can’t wait for white. And then neon orange. And then EVERY colour. Imagine the possibilities then! AND, Halloween is coming up, maybe to get in the spirit you could paint some of the black Crackle top coat over orange, maybe then your nails will look like pumpkins!

It’s such a fun way to do something a bit different with your nails, try some over your favourite nail polish shade to give your manicure a new lease on life.

I’ve really only skimmed the surface here…what other colour combinations can you guys think of that I’ve missed?

b Collection by Bloom – Black Crackle
Price: $12.95
Where: Exclusive to Target

Review by Adriane Daff, colour enthusiast, nail polish lover, excitable human being.

Be well,

xoxo

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My Dad has always said, ‘people just look better with a tan’, and maybe he’s right- a little bit of colour can give you that confidence you need when it’s time to shed the winter layers. BUT, and this is a big but, my Dad has also had more than his fair share of skin cancers in the past decade. Hm. So if you are curious to see whether or not you really do look better a different colour, fake tan is really your only safe option.

♥ Jane Iredale Tantasia – $54

And it’s not so bad! Fake tans have come a long, long way from the streaky orange cream days and there are so many on the market that surely there will be one out there for you. But whose got time or the desire to try them all? ME. That’s who. Recently I tried out Jane Iredale’s Tantasia, a self tanner that claims to build ‘your own tan’. This idea seemed intriguing, how would this seemly standard bottle of auto-bronzant know what my tan was? How? Was Tantasia going to magically, fantastically, intuitively know what colour to turn my pale, pale skin?

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To start with I prepared my skin for the tan (very important) with Kit’s Tan Prep Body Scrub ($29.95), a grainy scrub of shea butter, beeswax and Australian sea salt. It’s scented with a light coconut fragrance that smells very summery and instantly transports you from your bathroom to a tropical beach somewhere, no complaints there. The scrub is very effective in getting rid of dry patches and evening out your skin to provide the perfect canvas for your tan.

So it’s tan time. The texture of Tantasia is not as creamy as others, it’s quite a light lotion which means you work a bit harder to rub it in, but it makes up for this by going on as a colour so you can see what you’ve tanned and what you haven’t, which of course prevents streaking. The colour of Tantasia is quite an orangey brown, which had me a bit concerned. I certainly didn’t look like a carrot or anything like that but it wasn’t as brown as I had expected. The smell on application had a faint citrus scent but a couple of hours after I was getting waves of that normal fake tan smell that you get from nearly very fake tan (to be honest I don’t think any product out there has successfully eradicated this smell and I think we’ll just have to live with it for the time being).

Kit Tan Prep Body Scrub – $29.95

The last thing I did once I had finished applying the tan was wash my hands. They always suggest you wash your hands ‘thoroughly’ and I really take that advice on board, washing mine almost obsessively because my hands are so pale and quite dry. There is nothing worse than orange hands- it’s almost enough to make you throw in the towel on fake tanning completely, so this time I used some of the Kit Tan Prep Body Scrub on my hands just to make sure it was all gone and it worked a treat, I don’t know why I had never thought of that before. They should really consider calling it a Tan Prep and Post Body Scrub. Although I guess that doesn’t have the same ring to it.

None o’ this thanks

The next morning, I very pleased to discover that any concerns I may have had about orangeness were gone. The colour of the tan was a very light golden sort of brown, dare I say- the same colour that the real sun would turn my skin if I were to lay out without sunscreen. Hang on a second…does that mean that Tantasia really did help me build my own tan?! YES, yes it does. Oh Tantasia, you’ve done it again. And although I was happy with the colour one application gave me (remembering how pale I am here guys) you can apply Tantasia everyday until you get a shade that you are happy with, it’s all about finding your own tan, wherever it may be out there, to see if my Dad was right.

What do you guys think; do people look better with a tan?

Tantasia is available: here for $54.

The Kit Tan Prep Body Scrub is available in Kit stores or here for $29.95.

Review by Adriane Daff, Queen of the Pales, lover of the beach, daughter of a man who doesn’t understand the dangers of the Australian sun.

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Honestly, you won’t want to share this. I’m just going to say that right up front. It’s effective and (more honesty here) it’s expensive. You’ll want to set an alarm and get up in the middle of the night to use it if that means you wont have to share it. Sure, you’ll recommend it, you’ll even perhaps have conversations about the EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor, more on that later) because it’s interesting and perhaps the futuristic side of skincare but you wont want to share. Let’s just be honest about that right away.

Sif Cosmetics are the smarties behind this EGF Serum that goes simply by the name of BIOEFFECT. The key ingredient in the serum that sets it apart from others are cellular activators made in plants, barley specifically in this case (no bacteria and no animal cells!), that mimic that action of the cellular activators found naturally in humans and have the ability ‘to speed up the rate of cell turnover within the skin’. Let’s recap; there’s no human bits in this (don’t laugh, I thought that at first glance), so the EGF which only makes up for 0.9% of the serum is all barley and you use it to help your complexion appear fresher, revitalized and glowing.

An anti-ageing treatment that battles the skin’s problems by getting it to repair its own cells is a pretty nifty concept, and although it might seem like the product of a ton of research and development (and of course it is) its also quite a simplified product- only nine ingredients and no preservatives, no fragrances, nothing unessential, it seems to me to be a harmonious mix of science and nature. Ah, let’s touch on the science for a moment and allow me to point out that this product does involve some genetic engineering, a fact I think the consumer should know, namely in that the barley in the serum is genetically engineered. I don’t claim to know a whole lot about genetic engineering but in comparison to other products, BIOEFFECT does not contain EGF from genetically modified bacteria or hamster cells. It’s all barley. Which made me feel good about it. BUT of course if you think you might like to use a product with EGF in it you can make the decision as to which one would be best for you.

I really enjoyed using this (I dramatically screamed out ‘NOOOOOOOO’ when I accidentally dropped the little bottle on the floor and it rolled into the abyss under my bed, don’t worry it was fine) and I am dreading the day the last drop runs out. I’ve gotten lots of compliments about my skin since I started using this, mainly about it looking clear and even ‘glowing’ and I noticed a real improvement in the texture and an evenness in the tone of my skin and I guess what I am really trying to say here is, how am I going to go back after this? HOW will I go back? Please little bottle, don’t end. Please be a magical bottle. Because in the real world buying BIOEFFECT is going to be an every now and then special treat purchase for me because of the price unless I figure out how to tap into the properties of barley all on my own. So considering the likeliness of that I think it’s better to put my bet behind the possible magic properties of the bottle.

C’mon bottle, what do you say?

BIOEFFECT is available online at http://www.bioeffect.com.au/ and is $180 AUD for 15ml.

Review by Adriane Daff, barley skincare babe.

What are your thoughts on genetically modified skincare? Would you do it if the results were incredible?

Be well,

xoxo

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A little while ago I did a callout on Facebook to rustle up the names of some of your favourite yoga dvds, as I’ve long been yearning for a home practice for those days that I don’t feel like venturing back out of the house after work.

One recommendation really caught my eye and since receiving the DVD’s I’ve been unashamedly having a bit of a love affair with them. Meet the first two members of my yoga video library (which I hope will grow with time!) – Yoga Easy and Yoga 2 Easy by the lovely Yolanda Pettinato.

Yolanda is truly inspirational, having overcome obstacles in her life that would defeat most people, she is the glowing example of everything that yoga represents – tranquility, wisdom, inner peace and honouring your body.

What you will need:

♥ Yoga Mat – I use my Mukha mat (which I wrote about here)
♥ The desire to stretch and strengthen your body, calm your mind and feel fantastic! (And who doesn’t want that?!)

That is ALL you need, and the DVD of course. If you want to ramp the relaxing factor up a notch you can also throw in:

♥ Oil burner with bergamot oil, my favourite
♥ A dark room

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Yolanda has a gentle, soothing voice and she comes across as a real sweetheart. For a woman in her late 50’s, she has a body that most women would in their 20’s would envy. I can feel her encouraging kindness traveling through the screen and into my living room when she softly says “good, that’s good” after many of the sequences, and I find it a comforting and reassuring addition to the practice.

The practice on both of the DVD’s is quite short – 30 minutes – but is enough to wind me down after a stressful or tiring day, it can also be used in the mornings to set you up for the day ahead and is a great way to ground yourself. In fact the length of the session is one of the best things about it, if you’re anything like me it can be hard to find an hour / hour and a half to head out to a yoga class, and that doesn’t include driving there and back! 30 minutes is just enough to be easily manageable, but also gain real results.

While this is by no means a cardio workout, there are some sections focusing on strength that are challenging, and the great thing about yoga is that because you’re working with your own strength and flexibility, there is always room for improvement as you begin to get stronger.

As Yolanda says “just do your best, and your best will get better” – I love that phrase!

Doing either of these yoga DVD’s leaves my whole body feeling stretched and relaxed, with a sense of peace and stillness of mind that I really look forward to. The class flies by and before you know it you’re lying in Savasana thinking how lucky you are to have this wonderful experience in your life.

She also has some meditation CD’s which are no doubt great (she has the perfect voice for it) and even her dogs have been convinced by her to try meditating 😉

Cost: $24.95 each, free shipping if you purchase more than one item
Suitable for: Beginners – experienced who are looking for a relaxation based yoga class with strength elements
Where to buy: http://www.yolandapettinato.com

If you have any questions about the DVD’s please let me know, I would be only too happy to answer them as I think I’m Yolanda’s new biggest fan!!

Be well,

Annette

xoxo

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♥ First up, briefly tell us a little bit about yourself!

I love being creative and discovering new things. I’m a stylist and writer (style editor) at Scoop Publishing where I work across everything from men’s and women’s fashion, health and beauty and homes/architecture. Every day is different and exciting. One day I’ll be running around picking up clothing for a fashion shoot, and the next I’ll be writing about an amazing new furniture brand in WA or international home. My job keeps me on my toes and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve also started a website (www.clareryan.com) to showcase some of my favourite work and I blog there about fashion shoots I do in a behind-the-scenes style. Between work, my beautiful friends and family and exercising – well trying to – it can be hard to find some time to myself…but the beach solves that problem. I feel at home when I’m at the beach and the best time is in the early hours of the morning.

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♥ Tell us about your daily beauty routine.

I don’t do much to my skin in the morning. I have a shower and wash my face with Neutrogena Deep Clean Cleanser – I’ve been using it since I was 15 and it has always worked for me so I haven’t changed. I know people say you need to change products as your skin gets older and has different needs, but I figure I’ll change when it stops working. In summer I use Invisible Zinc sunscreen and in winter i just use my NARS primer that has 15 plus protection. I’m at my desk for most of the day during winter so I can get away with only 15 plus.

At night I cleanse my face again and then depending on how dry or oily my skin is (it always changes) I either use Trilogy Certified Organic Rosehip Oil, or Olay Total Effects. I have quite a few other beauty products that i use – it comes with the job – so I trial different products all the time. This sometimes results in my skin freaking out so I always return to my basics.

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♥ What’s the one beauty treatment you can’t live without? And your favourite place to have it done?

What did women do before waxing? It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is I always have my set appointments at Strip Womens Waxing in Subiaco, Siobhan is amazing!

Lucky second is a light natural spray tan from Aussie Bombshell, Penni is the best! And knows how to make my pasty skin glow.

♥ Who do you trust with your hair in Perth, and why?

Zoe Harris from Be Ba Beau in Highgate. She is a pro when it comes to my hair. I’ve been seeing Zoe for years and she’s amazing and I always get compliments and asked who does my hair. Not only is she incredibly talented (she’s won a list of awards) but she knows how my hair needs to sit/be cut so it’s easy for me to easily style every day. There’s been a few times I’ve walked into an appointment and mentioned certain styles, and I can tell by the look on her face that it is a bad idea! I think that’s what makes her a fantastic hairdresser.

♥ Favourite budget / at home beauty treatment?

An eyelash tint always goes down a treat. It saves me time in the morning and its fantastic in summer because I can wake up, go for a swim and not look like a panda…there’s nothing worse than seeing a girl with black mascara running down her face at the beach. I go to Jana Beauty in Subiaco, the girls there are so sweet….I think I’ve fallen asleep once or twice while laying there.

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♥ Your three, absolutely cannot live without, favourite products?

Eeek that is really hard. Lucas Papaw Ointment is always in my handbag. Um, I’m addicted to Batiste Dry Shampoo, it’s a lifesaver! I don’t have time to do my hair every day so as soon as it gets oily I just use a little dry shampoo and its good as new and smells yummy. I can’t live without De Lorenzo Elements Ocean Mist, it makes my hair look like I’ve just been at the beach. My hair has a natural wave in it already so it defines the wave and gives it a fresh and tousled effect.

♥ Do you have any secret tips you use to keep looking / feeling great?

It’s not a beauty secret, but I honestly try not to drink alcohol during the week (which is very hard), drink lots of water and get enough sleep. I can tell when I haven’t had enough sleep because my skin struggles to keep up and looks dull and dry. For my wellbeing I head to the beach and sit on the sand and just relax for awhile – there’s something soothing about the ocean and I think the fresh air is good for you.

♥ What beauty treatment/ wellbeing activity would you love to try but haven’t yet? (Due to time, money, scared etc!)

I would love to go on one of those crazy detox retreats overseas. But I don’t have the time or money and I’m not sure I could live without chocolate for two weeks.

♥ Describe a typical day of eating for you.

I love food and find myself munching on something all day! I start with eggs or whole meal grain toast, then I have some fruit or rice crackers and lunch is either sushi or a tuna salad – I work opposite Grill’d, so burgers have been popping up here and there. I’m often on the road so I try and grab something healthy like a salad sandwich. Dinner really varies for me from pasta to chicken and veggies or a catch up dinner with the girls.

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♥ Describe your fitness routine.

I go to the gym twice a week and either do cycle or pump and I go for walks along the beach whenever I can in winter and most nights in summer.

♥ Do you take part in any alternative therapies or take supplements? If so, discuss.

I’ve been seeing a naturopath (Val Allen) since I was little…at the moment I’m on iron tablets which is no surprise because I’m always burning the candle at both ends. I also have regular sessions of kinesiology by Coleen McClymans from Empowering Dynamics, I’ve been seeing Coleen for a few years now and I’ve really noticed a difference, she helps in all areas from injuries to day to day stress.

♥ How do you like to relax? What are your favourite ways to de-stress?

When I have the money, an amazing exfoliation/treatment from Bodhi J always relaxes me, otherwise it’s a long walk along the coast where I grab a coffee and sit on the beach and do nothing!

Thanks Clare!

If you have any questions for this lovely Style Editor, please leave a comment below!

Be well,

xoxo