Pretty Pretty Pretty

Win the ultimate Skinfood prize pack July 31, 2008

Oh my stars we are so very very very excited about this. You know that we’ve been loving on Skinfood’s body-butter since before we started this site, right? Well the lovely Stephanie from Skinfood has given us a set of every Skinfood product to give away! I think that deserves a few more exclamation marks. !!! That’s a $85 retail value, because their products are so reasonably priced. There’s bodybutter, moisturiser, scrub, a masque and more (and unfortunately, I left the box of goodies on my desk at work, I’ll update when I can), and part of the awesomeness of Skinfood is that it’s Unisexual, so both boys and girls can share the love. We kind of don’t want to give this away, but on the other hand, we do love to share the goodness around. So, how can you win the pack, or our runner-up prizes of giftboxes from the first PPP party? The rules are after the jump.
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Dud trades: Microfibre facecloth July 27, 2008

I bought this “hydrating cleansing cloth” from the Kirk’s sale for like $3. Total rip-off. Though I kinda knew it would be.

It doesn’t feel as exfoliating as the usual toweling facecloth, and the only thing hydrating about it is the water you moisten it with - which counts… i guess…

But if anyone else would like to try it, I’d be happy to send it to you. Just send me an email amy(at)prettyprettypretty(dot)com

French manicure without the manicure… July 25, 2008

…and without the French… anyway, you’ll see what I mean…

Here are my super-see-through nails.

And here they are using the Manicare nail pencil on my last two nails

Alls you do is wet the nib of the pencil and apply the white UNDER your nail. It lasts quite well, and takes like two seconds to do. And is cheap as chips to buy (around $8 at pharmacies). You may get splogdes of white on your fingers too, but just clean it off.

Torrid Sale - wanna split postage? July 24, 2008

So Torrid’s having another of its regular 50% off clearance sales, and you know I’m all over that like umm something good on top of something else, because I want this swimsuit top (finally a non-halter! I could swim lengths without pausing to rearrange myself and without pervy old men looking at Mary-Kate and Ashley falling out!) and probably some other things (like this parasol, which isn’t on sale and I so don’t need it but it’s so damn cool!). But of course, ordering from Torrid means a $35US + delivery fee, so I was thinking if anyone else around was inclined to order things as well, we could combind and split the shipping. Who’s up for it? I mean, even if there’s nothing in clearance that you want, you could always get prepared for Halloween with a slutty Red Riding Hood outfit or some platform red sparkling mary-janes from their costume section! Or maybe a sexyass wedding dress? Comment before Sunday please!

In the news: natural cosmetics

From the NZ Herald - two articles on natural cosmetics and skincare. We’re lucky in NZ to be able to buy a range of natural brands at reasonable prices (my favourite’s Living Nature, which is uber expensive overseas). And there’s Skinfood, another PPP favourite. And of course our very own Jo has been in the kitchen making lovely, natural scrubs and bathbombs for some time now.

The 9 ways to green your cosmetics

Looking good without the chemicals

Review: OPI nail lacquer July 22, 2008

I bought OPI nail lacquer in “St Pertersburgundy” from the Kirk’s Sale recently - for only $12!!

I hadn’t tried OPI before, but it is the brand a lot of professional nail technicians use, if that counts for anything.

The colour on my nails was a lot better than I expected from the bottle. It’s far more blood red than the burgundy I expected - which is good because I only chose the burgundy because they didn’t have any reds in the sale.

It’s quite easy to apply. The consistency is smooth and doesn’t glug up quickly like others I’ve used. And it’s been a full 24 hours since application and no chips!

Get rid of oily hair in an instant

This from lifehacker.com

I have also tried translucent face powder since i didn’t have baby powder, which works OK. I tried talcum powder too, but it left my hair looking white!

Post-PPP party pics July 21, 2008

It’s already been nine days since the PPP party! It seems like only yesterday we were swapping clothes, eating cupcakes, supping cocktails, and singing our little hearts out on singstar.

Here’s some pics for those of you who missed it…

Cocktails & cupcakes

Pretty nails & candy corn

Pretty nails and a PPP cocktail

Kelly & Maria (I think) steaming it up

Brenda & blogging

How to: Green eyes

Here’s a little demo vid of how to create a smokey eye look with greens. lots of greens. My video capture is crapola, so sorry for the poor quality. If you would like to see the video with better graphics let me know and I will re-process it better, But I won’t bother if you don’t request it.

I used:

• soft green eye pencil (kohl, by Nutirmetics)
• MAC eye shadow in ricepaper
• EL eyeshadow in like a light green
• Napolean Perdis eye sahdow in avocado
• Green liquid liner by Urban Decay

The Kirk’s Sale has begun

If you’re in the market for some cheap cosmetics and whatevers, now’s a good time to pop into Kirk’s in Welly for their SALE. OK, so ‘pop into’ probably isn’t the best description - more like ‘dash madly to the scrum of purple-rinses at the perfume counter’.

Good luck! Oh and socks are always a good thing to stock up on there too. And if you do go, tell us what your best finds were.

TIP: I used to work at Smith & Caughey’s in Auckland, and for their bi-annual fair they would bring in cheap crappy stock especially for the fair - i.e. not genuine mark-downs. So make sure whatever you buy is a true bargain - i.e. a genuinely marked-down product. If there’s a whole table of a particular style of candle-holder, ask yourself “would Kirk’s usually be selling a table of this candle-holder?”. If not, then they probably bought the stock in to sell cheaply at the sale.