If, like me, you enjoy scenting your home with candles… you probably feel a pang of guilt every time you head toward the bin with the empty receptacle.
But who the heck has time to wash out those things? All that scrubbing and scraping does neither your nails nor your dishcloths any good. As Half Man Half Biscuit once said, “There is surely nothing worse than washing sieves”. Well, they obviously hadn’t ever tried to wash out an empty votive.
Well, this is an old trick that I used to use on my oil burners after exhausting those Yankee Candle tarts of their scent… I’m sure a few of you are already familiar with the process, but incase you’re not… it goes something like this…
Take one manky candle holder…
…and nestle it safely in the freezer for a few hours, I usually completely forget about mine and retrieve them a couple of weeks later.
While the wax is still “frozen”, carefully prise the remnants away from the container with a knife. Most of it will come off in chunks. For any leftover bits, fill the jar with super-hot water and leave on the side to cool. The remnants will melt, float to the surface and then re-harden, allowing you to scoop them out with ease.
Ta-da!
It’s an almost effortless way to secure yourself some pretty, new brush-holders. Upcycle your votives and give them a new life on your dressing table. Those large Yankee jars are particularly brilliant for re-using in the bathroom as cotton-wool holders.
Do you recycle your candle holders? What do you use them for?
(long before my no-buy, don’t worry) and I’ve started to dismantle them. It’s not the most interesting post in the world but I thought it might help someone out there who’s considering doing the same thing.
You see, I like freestyle palettes. Those of Z-Palette, Yaby, and MUFE fame. I don’t like their price tags though, at least… not in the quantity that I want to buy. And so instead, I dropped about £6 (including postage) on these three simple alternatives on eBay. I decided that I’d have a play with them and see how they fared in my mission to depot my stash, thus getting more use out of some of the lovely things I’ve bought over the years. The palettes come from China (what doesn’t?) and they’re horrifically cheap-looking. The stuff of nightmares.
That being said, they’re pretty well-constructed and if you can stand the aesthetics (or be arsed to somehow disguise it), you could be on to a winner.
The ones I bought come with 15 pans included, the pans are non-magnetic and bend when I blow on them. I can’t see myself using these for pigment pressing, they’re just so flimsy. Upon opening the lid, I was pleased to discover that the material which separates the individual pans, was not plastic… but glued foam. This meant that I could remove and discard the innards without any fuss at all just by pulling it off carefully.
I’ve also bought some magnetic sheets and will cut them to size next weekend in preparation for phase 2. If you’re thinking of following along in my quest to transform el-shitty palettes into makeup cases of beauty and wonderment (I’m exaggerating), don’t buy thin magnetic sheets… take it from someone who’s already wasted a fiver. You need something with more strength – I ended up with 0.9mm sheets which, so far, seem to be heavy duty enough.
I bought my palettes from here, and my sheets from here.
Remember my post a couple of weeks ago about bringing salon-style beauty to the comfort of your own home? I wasn’t convinced that DIY options generally lived up to the expectations or convenience of salon service. Well, the people atSensationail rose to the challenge and sent me the Sensationail Starter Kit* to give it a whirl for myself. I’ll do the review in two-parts, today is the application and initial results and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to let you know how the manicure lasted.
I should also preface this by saying that I’ve had two gelish/shellac-type exeriences in a salon and both were poor, with lifting after only a few days. That’s Groupon on for you I guess? Basically, I’ll admit that my expectations aren’t all that high.
The kit is frankly over-priced at £85 in the UK. Over-priced? I hear you say. Yes, not because it’s lacking in quality (although the bottles I received did have the writing peeling off them and the labels weren’t fully stuck down which didn’t give the best impression of quality) but because in the U.S., our neighbours across the pond are charged $59.99 for the same kit. That’s around £35.
Cross-border rip-offs aside, in theory – you should still be able to break even fairly easily with this kit against the cost of getting your nails done in a salon. The average price in my area for shellac/gelish nails is around £22 – so you’re looking at around 5 manicures before you get your money’s worth. Which is all well and good, providing the kit lives up to its name and actually provides a good quality gel nail that lasts the course.
I’ll admit that application was indeed, very simple and didn’t cause a single problem for me. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, the lamp worked just as it should (although I did wonder how I was going to fit all five fingers and thumbs inside until I read that you er, don’t).
In the starter kit, you receive: an LED curing lamp, gel cleanser (basically an alcohol solution), gel primer (nail dehydrator/bonder), gel base/top coat, gel colour, and some lint-free swabs.
Following the instructions, from start-to-finish, I was completed in around 30-minutes and the nails were completely bone dry at the end of it. The beauty of the UV-activated gel is that you have ample time to get your manicure applied neatly, my biggest tip would be to keep the coats as thin as possible. The base/top coat in particular had a tendency to pool in my cuticles while I was completing the other nails, not really a fault of the system… simply a sign that my coats were not thin enough.
If you do get some gel on your skin, make sure you wipe it off before curing…. not only will it feel pretty uncomfortable with this hard resin stuck to your skin but it will also cause your manicure to prematurely lift at the edges.
Here’s my finished result… basically, it looks and feels great.
I’m going to embed a tutorial video which I found on the Boots website, you may notice that she hasn’t capped the tips of her nails with the polish (you can see this at the end) – this is a pretty crucial step when it comes to making gel nails last. If you want them to stay the distance, you need to take a little more time to ensure that you’ve bullet-proofed your manicure.
I haven’t been able to fault the application process but the bottles in the starter kit are tiny and feel/look cheap. The UK price hike is outrageous. Ultimately, my final thoughts on Sensationail’s worth will come down to how long this manicure lasts on me. I’ll be back with an update soon, but hopefully not too soon eh?
Check out the brand’s UK Facebook page for more information, they’re also active on Twitter (something this Twitter-addict always likes to see!)
You can purchase the Sensationail Starter Kit instore and online at Boots.com, priced at £85.00(individual colour gels are priced at £15.00 each)
Put down the hammer, I don’t need any shelves straightening…. it’s these things I need help with:
Twenty neat little eye sheet masks (£1.50) that I picked up from Muji the other week!
Tell me, what can I soak ’em in to make me look 10 years younger? I also have some of the face size ones too… all suggestions welcome!
The only thing I can think of is boiling up some green tea and letting it cool… there must be some other great DIY concoctions for sheet masks and the like? I’ve done a quick Google, but I’m mostly finding thicker, gloopier type mask recipes.
Ignore the 3 on the right, I totally cheated and shoved 3 MAC pans in there for the photo whilst my last 3 pigments were drying.
The palette is mostly made up from The She Space pigments, I find that one full size pigment fills a pan fairly nicely. I’ve also sneaked in a BarryM Dazzle Dust and a few Elemental Beauty shadows too!
What ya reckon? Any of you ladies press your own loose eye shadows? Any interest in a pictorial on my pigment pressing methods?
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