Shop With Me: Manning Hair and Beauty Supplies (Taree)





This Shop With Me is a little left of field as this store is up in Taree rather than my usual Sydney haunts. I have family that lives in the area, so I went up to visit a few weeks back, and as I was away for a week and didn't think to bring any nail supplies with me, I dropped in to pick up some acetone to remove my nails (I don't break my nails often, but when I do it's always when I'm not in a position to easily fix!). But considering that this was one of the first areas to get hit badly by the bush fires, I was also determined to buy lots of local goods so it worked out - you should see how much cheese also came home!
Although this store may not be the size of some of the Sydney ones we have, I was very surprised by what an awesome range of nail items they had! They mainly carried Hawley and Joss/Perfect Nails items, both IMO are great ranges but they had a great assortment of nail art goodies like crushed shells and coloured acrylic, stamping polishes and scented cuticle oil that had me very excited. Coz hey a girl can never have too much cuticle oil right?
They also had a section of waxing supplies and a back area dedicated to hair. 
The haul I left with wasn't huge, but I was very happy - a cuticle oil, acetone and holographic stamping polish (for an upcoming post I am working on)! 
This is a trade only store, although I don't think they're too worried if you are after items that you can't do damage with (like bleach and monomer....). I will 100% be visiting next time I'm in the area, and if you want to support a fire affected town as a nail tech, this might be a good place to look for. 

Scroll to the bottom of the post for a couple of bonus snaps that I took at Wallabi Point - the coastal area just off Taree. It's pretty devastated but it rained the entire time I was there and there were shoots of green coming back which was nice to see. 

Manning Hair and Beauty Supplies
4/47 Crescent Ave, Taree NSW 2430
Phone (02) 6551 5277






Born Pretty January Roundup

Born Pretty have changed up how they do PR a bit and send things more or less at random, so this latest set I got sent for review wasn't exactly all my choice, but I'll never say no to having more gels in my collection. They also wanted their items to be linked to their various sales platforms, although of course all these items are on their store and I find always cheaper on AliExpress.

The first polish I have here is SST01 - its thermal AND UV colour change! The light/dark blue is inside and the light/dark purple is outside. It also is packed full of fine glitter which is silver and holo! Here I am wearing 2 coats with their white stamping polish.
http://bit.ly/2lnEBFb .


Next up is Midas Touch. This is a gorgeous opaque gold. I paired it with the BP gel stamping polish to paint on the black leopard print (pity even after curing it was a little smudgy!). I am wearing 2 coats but this was very opaque for such a metallic shade which is nice!
http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-glittery-nail-polish-holographic-sequins-pink-gold-silver-soak-p-45999.html

I can't say I adore gel stamping polishes, they look great but are a pain to clean up! But this is a very pretty metallic green. As with all gel stamping, it picks up fine lines really well and give you all the time in the world to you it right. I know I’ve said it before but these stamping gels make for the best hand painting! They’re so pigmented that they are very versatile, and this particular shade is very shimmery and pretty!
Check out their full range of colours at http://bit.ly/2m5T09D .

Next is Confidante. This is a case of looking stunning in their pictures, but looks totally different in person. Theirs looks like an opaque holo pink, but in reality it's a sheer pink flakies. Here I am wearing 3 coats (which is why they look so thick and a little misshaped) and topped with some stamped stars with glitter which I think still looks very pretty, just not what I thought! Still this range of gels does have a few gems in it.
Check them all out here: https://amzn.to/2kooTtG .

The last of the gels is Morning Gorgeous- a shimmery SUPER sheer pink. From their swatches I didn’t expect it to be quite so sheer, I’m wearing 2 thick coats here, but it does have a nice sparkly elegant feel to it. To jazz it up I stamped over it with plate BP Flower Tango S001 with Pure white stamping polish.
http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-glittery-nail-polish-holographic-sequins-pink-gold-silver-soak-p-45999.html

This last item was a bit of fun - alcohol ink brush pens that you can just draw straight onto the nail with. It works just like if you took a sharpie mixed with alcohol and painted on, so you might want to use a little pure alcohol to move the ink around on the nail, but it is certainly a fun way to use this kind of product and comes in a bunch of colours.
http://bit.ly/2m3EG19 .











Focallure Review and Looks

I've seen a lot of people online talking about the brand Focallure, it's crossed my feeds before, but as it is a brand directly from China and available on Aliexpress I have been a little suspicious of it. But in the last big Ali sale I decided to bite the bullet and but a few things to try out. They claim to be cruelty free (and have the bunny logo on the packaging) - although I would love to get that verified. 
I got a black liquid eyeliner, a holographic glitter eyeliner, 2 liquid eyeshadows, and a lippy. 
Glitter Eyeliner
Shade5 - Party
This was pretty disappointing, although I'm sure I will find some use for it. It's just so sparse that you can't see it unless you really layer up hard. I can see you might be able to work with it as a topper over black eyeliner if you just wanted to add a little sparkle, but I think there are much better items out there to get the look with. I just wish there was more holo makeup on the market!
You can see the subtle metallic golden effect. It's super elegant!
Chameleon Liquid Lipstick 
#40 Rose
I actually loved this lippy. The colour had a very slight duochrome effect to it with a gold shimmer to it. It wears pretty nicely too - just good luck getting it off! Definitely long wearing! It dries down to a slight sticky feeling, which can be a tad annoying, but I have faarrrr more expensive brands that feel worse! This is definitely worth picking up and I will be grabbing a few more shades.
My glorious panda eyes from the eyeliner
Black Eyeliner 
I am yet to find a really cheap eyeliner that works how I want it to, so I didn't have high hopes for this guy. It wasn't to bad to apply and was a nice opaque black, but I wore if for a day in my air-conditioned office and by the time I got home I had the worst panda eyes known to man. For once I was grateful I wear glasses so it wasn't as obvious! And yes it was the eyeliner - the mascara was my usual Benefit that I swear by and doesn't budge. This isn't something I would add to my makeup kit, but I'm adding it to my emergency car kit as it is fine if you're popping out for dinner but don't expect it to be long wearing.
Diamond over my normal basic nude eye look. You can see it's sheer but grabs the light.
Liquid Eyeshadow
1 Diamond, 13 Amethyst Crush
Oh boy these liquid eyeshadows, oh boy. They. are. STUNNING! Both have the same problem a bit that they want to work their way into your creases and folds and you need to do some careful patting application, but they are so beautiful it's worth it!
The Diamond was a sheer white with a wild blue kick - you will want to put this over another colour. It's definitely a topper buy the shimmer is out of this world!
Amethyst Crush I would describe as a rose gold with a gold duochrome effect. It's still a tad sheer so I think it would still be best over something, or layered with a really good primer. But it's very metallic and in the right light the shift is superb. Both of these I have added to my daily kit and will 100% be grabbing more shades.
Amethyst Crush - Still a tad patchy so best over a similar colour, but very shiny and pretty
This is a terrible shot, but I did this so you can see the duochrome effect that pops out in the right light
Rubbed down with some water. That lippy did NOT want to come off!
Wearing the Diamond liquid eyeshadow and Rose lippy. 
I did also want to quickly throw in a note that as much as I quite enjoyed their products, they do have a subscription box called Babebox. I wanted to mention this as I am always seeing ads for it on FB with the whole 'get your first box free' - I mean nothing is really free but I've seen a lot of people complaining because they then make you buy the box after it even though it doesn't say it anywhere in the T&Cs that you're obliged to. That and considering how cheap their stuff is on their site and Ali, I'm not sure it's worth it. But hey they are apparently trying to get more brands on board so maybe it will improve. Just don't get sucked in atm.

If you want to check out their full range, you can check their Ali store here, or go directly to their website here.