Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat

I am always on the lookout for cheap beauty tips.  A tip was to buy cheap nail polish and cover it with a nice expensive top coat to make it look and last like an expensive nail polish.  This sent me on the lookout for a top coat.  I found the Sally Hanson top coat.

 

Here are two photos taken on the same day after 3 days of wearing a cheap R10 nail polish.  The one hand had top coat, the other had nothing.  The nails both chipped and looked bad, but the chips were in different places.  With the top coat, the nail polish seemed to peel off from the sides and without the top coat the nail polish chipped from the front of the nail. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sally Hanson Top Coat made the polish look more professional and finished, but did not help it last any longer.  However, it had these weird cracks which you can see on the first photo.  All in all I am not very much impressed.  I did like other Sally Hansen nail products very much, just not this specific top coat.

December 2013 Rubybox

I stopped my subscription to Rubybox, and then last month I decided to spoil myself with only one Rubybox.  I know it is a subscription service, but I decided I wanted one box only and would  cancel it after one month.  I did cancel the Rubybox, but got billed for another one and received another one.  This time I called their hotline to cancel the subscription.  So a warning out there, double check whether your Rubybox subscription is actually cancelled.  Mine said:  Waiting for cancellation and was never cancelled.

I received the December Rubybox, even though I did not want to.  I was fairly upset when I got a message from the courier that the box is on its way.  I wanted a refund and wanted to send the box back.  Of course when it arrived I had to look what was inside and then decided I would keep it.  This is therefore the first Rubybox ever that I decided I wanted AFTER I saw the contents.

What hooked me on this box was the smell.  It smelled absolutely divine when I opened it, all due to the lovely body lotion.  It included a full size product and it had some really large samples.  One of the best boxes I received in a long time.  If they were all like this, I might actually still have an annual subscription.

What did I receive?
Emanuel Ungaro L'Amour Fou Body Lotion, 50 ml. 
This lotion smells divine.  I love it.  It is incredibly expensive, R360 for 200 ml.  There is no way I would have been able to afford a full product.  It smells lovely, but moisturising wise, it is a fairly average lotion.

John Frieda Brilliant brunette colour protection moisturising shampoo and conditioner
Both of these were 50 ml sizes.  They came in lovely tubes.  This is a perfect fit.  I do not spend a lot of money on expensive shampoos, but always love to try them out.  (I think in an attempt to convince myself I am not depriving my hair of anything.)  I started using it immediately and cannot say that I am blown away.  My hair kind of feels like it always feels.  This was also a perfect fit with my beauty profile.  I have brunette coloured hair.  Thank you Rubybox for customising so well.

Nair ultra hair removal.
I received 2 30 ml sachets, which is fairly large.  I am keen to also try this new to me product. 

Rubybox beauty smooch stick in Tangerine Tango
This was a Rubybox product and is full size.  It is valued at R129.  I am not sure whether I can really rock very bright Tangerine lipstick, but have enjoyed wearing this.  It is a very greasy product.  I am not mad about the taste, but it is not awful.  It is very dark, with lots of pigment and it has staying power.  It feels a little bit sticky on the lips. This might be one of the longer lasting lipsticks I own.  I know orange is very fashionable, it might just not be me.
You can see a review here.

All in all a lovely box. I calculate the value to be around R277.  Not bad at all.  I have used 4 of the 5 products within days of receiving it.  Sometimes I just store away the samples till I need them.