taryn k.

taryn k.

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My name is Taryn. I'm in my twenties. I come from the land down under. I'm married. I work full time. I like pretty things. My favourite food is watermelon. I hate dancing. I like to talk. I tend to contradict myself. I hate snails. I like you for reading my blog.

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21 January 2012, 11:12 AM

Bit of nail chat, bit of interior chat

Trying the capture the sparkli-ness of Chi Chi's Disco Diva, but to no avail. Probably would help to use a real camera and not just my iPhone. You'll just have to trust me that this is the sparkliest mother I have ever seen.

It's a sparkle polish in a clear base with so awesome multicoloured glitter going on. It's also quite opaque - I did two coats to get a chock-a-block full of glitter nail. Worn as an accent over OPI's Skull and Glossbones, which is one of my absolute favourites, definitely the best from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. I love the way it can look quite different depending on the lighting - indoors it looks a light grey, outdoors it takes on more of a beige-y tone. <3

The plan was to head out to ikea today to pick up some new organisational/storage furniture for around the house, but I've turned into a bit of a lazy bones so I don't think it's going to happen. I want to get these few bits -

Bedside table will be used as a telephone station - at the moment we've got everything piled haphazardly on our kitchen ledge and it just doesn't look pretty. Trolley will go in the main bathroom as extra storage - at the moment the cupboards are filled with out beach towels, but since that will be the baby's bathroom, we're gonna be needing some more space in there. I wish ikea would sort out their online ordering/delivery policy so you could sort it all out online rather than order it, have them ring you with a quote, pay over the phone, then get your goods. Surely if other online stores can do it, so should ikea. Wah wah.

Labels: Baby K, Blah blah blah, Chi Chi, Interiors, Nail Polish, OPI

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08 October 2011, 2:37 PM

Lust Have It!: September 2011

Ooh, my first Lust Have It! box arrived last week. I snuck in with my order, just in time to receive the September box, so I was very excited since I thought I'd have to wait until October for my first set of samples.

I've managed to try everything except the silver nail polish - it's not really to my taste, but would probably come in handy, so I'm happy to have it. So far, I'm quite the fan on the Lancome Doll Eyes mascara. I don't necessarily think its revolutionary, but it's one of the better mascara's I've tried. The brush has a conical shape, which I like since you can get pretty much all you lashes with the smaller end, but brush through with the larger end. The formula is quite nice, although I did notice a little smudging on my crease on Tuesday, which never happens to me, so that was a little annoying.

Even though shimmery nail polishes aren't really my thing, I've actually enjoyed this Nicole by OPI colour. Perhaps because the shimmer is very subtle, but it is there. I've tried a Nicole polish before, it's definitely inferior to OPI, formula-wise (this particular shade, anyway). It took me three coats to get this opacity, and even so it's still a little see through in bright light. It's worn well though, day three and no chips, so that's a big plus. The applied colour is also true the the bottle, so that's great too. The only thing I find frustrating is that the colour names aren't on the bottles, or listed on the product guide. I think the silver might be "Imagine If" and the purple possibly "Make A Change".

I wasn't sure about the Urban Rituelle hand cream, but it's really grown on me. I wouldn't recommend if you don't like the smell of lemongrass as it is quite strong. It doesn't leave your hands greasy, and is quite think and luxurious feeling. I'll definitely use this one up. I used the shower gel for the first time this morning - nothing overwhelmingly special, in my opinion. The scent is nice and quite subtle, not at all what I was expecting. Probably not something I would purchase (especially at $27.95 for a full size), but I'll have no problems using up the sample.

I've only used the Keratase Elixir Ultime once this week, and I was pleased with the results, but I did use it in conjunction with my regular MoroccanOil. I'll have to try it alone before I form a proper opinion on it, but it does contain Argan oil, so I imagine it will give very similar results to the MoroccanOil. The price point is very similar at $48.50 for 125mL (MoroccanOil is $52 for 100mL).

Overall, I've loved my first experience with Lust Have It! and will continue to renew my subscription for at least another few months. I've loved testing out products I probably never would've tried otherwise, and the price point fits nicely into my budget. I feel like this box was worth it for the mascara alone.

And excitingly, I received email notification from the company that my next box is already on it's way (which, by the way, I love the email notifications, gives you an idea for when to expect the package). Can't wait to see what's in my next box!

Labels: Hair, Hauls, LustHaveIt, Nail Polish, OPI

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23 August 2011, 8:39 PM

The Nail Files #17

I just had a look through my old posts because I was sure I had already done a post on this polish. No. Apparently I have not.

Below is "Lincoln Park After Dark" by OPI. I'm sure you've all seen it before, since it's a couple years old, but in case you've been living under a rock, it's a very blackened aubergine colour - from a distance it just looks black, but up close you can pick up the purple.

See - like an eggplant. I likes it.

Now, I haven't noticed before, but this time when I wore this colour it seemed to chip within a day or two. I love dark nails when they are nice and neat - I don't think there's anything more chic - but as soon as they chip...they just look skanky. So that was a little disappointing, but ah well. You get that.

I'm going shopping on the weekend - I've already planned it and am looking forward to it ENORMOUSLY. I have already armed my wallet with all my birthday gift cards and made a list of all the bits and pieces I've had my eye on. So I should have a haul for you this weekend. Squee!

Labels: Nail Polish, OPI

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07 August 2011, 5:10 PM

The Nail Files # 16

"Did you run out of grey nail polish?"

"No."

"Why do you have one black nail?"

"Because I like it."

"Is this, like, a trend?"

"I'm not sure, I just thought it looked pretty."

"Do you think other people will start doing it?"

"Maybe, but I doubt it'll be because of me."

"I've never seen anyone else with nails like that."

"I don't think I'm the first..."

"..."

"Here's your money, have a great day."

An actual conversation betwixt a customer and myself the other day when I was wearing this combo. If nothing else, I find nail polish to be quite the conversation starter. Although it always baffles me when someone goes "Oh, I hate your nail polish". Would you go up to someone and say "Oh, I hate your hair."

No. You wouldn't. Unless you were kind of a bitch.

So this is my "Skull and Glossbones" by OPI and "Blackout" by Rimmel London combo from a week back. I personally love it. "Skull and Glossbones" is one of my favourite polishes of all time. I feel like it's classy and understated, yet a bit unusual and a little edgy. Just how I like it.

Sorry about the bluriness - it was nighttime, and I wanted to take a couple of quick photos before I removed it, so not my best photography (<sarcasm>coz usually I'm so very photographically talented </sarcasm>).

Labels: Nail Polish, OPI, Rimmel London

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19 June 2011, 4:52 PM

The Nail Files #14

Hello my dears! I'm not feeling particularly well this wintery Sunday afternoon, so what else is there to do but blog? My latest nail polish haul from Beautyzone2007 came though about a week ago - I've had a chance to try most of them - and I'm excited to show you what I got. Plus, I have a rather amusing fail to share as well.

Skull and Glossbones, Mermaids' Tears, Steady As She Rose, Sparrow Me The Drama, Lubu Heels, Below Deck, Island Hopping.

All the OPI polishes are from the recent Pirates of The Carribean: On Stranger Tides collection, the others are from the last couple of years. I've worn all of them, besides Skull and Glossbones and Steady As She Rose.

I tried Steady As She Rose as soon as I got the package, but with my cuticles as bad as they are right now it looked terrible. So maybe one day down the track when I manage to stop attacking my poor, innocent cuticles I'll be happier with it.

I feel like Sparrow Me The Drama is a bit of a dupe for Essie's Splash Of Grenadine. I'll have to do an actual swatched comparison. I did enjoy that colour though and I got a few compliments. It chipped pretty quickly and was kind of sheer when first applied.

Lubu Heels is AMAZING. I absolutlely love it. It's a black polish with red glitter and it is gorgeous. From far away it looks like a brown shimmer, but when you get up close you can definately see the dimension and the glitter. Reminds me a lot of My Private Jet by OPI.

Below Deck is pretty much Merino Cool by Essie, so we already know I love that one. It was opaque in one coat so that was great. Chipped a little bit, but nothing drastic.

At the moment I'm wearing Mermaids' Tears.

I love it. I really love the minty green polish trend, but I haven't been able to find a shade that suits my skin tone (I've tried Re-Fresh Mint by China Glaze and Apple by Sportsgirl FYI). MT isn't as minty as the others I've tried, probably more of a spearamint-green-Tiffany's-blue, but I feel like it's within the same family. It actually looks a litt more blue in the photo than it does it real life though.

Now for my nail polish fail. So I bought Island Hopping by Essie. When I already have all of these.

I don't even know which is which, besides Merino Cool and Angora Cardi. I have a problem. *sigh*

Labels: China Glaze, Essie, Nail Polish, OPI, Sportsgirl

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19 May 2011, 6:43 PM

The Nail Files #13

Ooh, it's been a while since I've done a Nail File. To be honest, I've not really had anything new to show you - I've been revisiting old favourites that I've already blogged about, or not feeling like a polish was worth a post. But I have been enjoying this combo, so here you go.

My friend Helena said I looked like I have 'fairy nails'. I like that, I think it's cute.

I've worn Rumples Wiggin by itself a couple of times, but it always seems a little too pale for me - I much prefer Chi Chi's Label Queen which, surprisingly I've never blogged about. It's still a lilac colour, but a little more dusky and grey. I'll do a post on it in the coming weeks and do a side by side. Rumples Wiggin is a little streaky. I had to use three coats, just to get rid of the streakiness. So not the easiest polish to work with, whereas Label Queen applies like a dream.

Now I know I wrote a blog a couple months ago saying that the Electric Lilac was a bit crap and it slid right off my nail. That was when I was using it all by itself. It hasn't done anything like that when applied over Rumple Wiggin. I'm going to try it over Chi Chi's On The Prowl now, see how that goes.

Well off to eat my dinner - we're being a bit naughty and having pizza tonight - and then I'll probably be back for my 30 Day Challenge Post. Gotta find a photo that makes me happy.

Labels: China Glaze, Nail Polish, OPI

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06 May 2011, 10:46 AM

Coveting: OPI Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection

Good morning, y'all! I've just done something I haven't done since highschool - spent the entire morning in bed reading. I feel a little bit guilty but hey, that's what holidays are for! I just finished Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris, the most recent release in the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood book series - but more about that later.

I just did my obligatory morning scan through facebook/blog updates and noticed xsparkage - the first beauty guru I ever subscribed to on youtube - had uploaded some swatches of OPI's new collection inspired by Disney's new Pirates Of The Caribbean movie. OMG. I love, love, love every single colour in this collection. They are gorgeous. Head over to Leesha's blog to check out her swatches, since I don't want to steal her photos (I know she puts so much time and effort into them).

Both these product photos are courtesy of xsparkage.com

Steady As She Rose, Sparrow Me The Drama, Planks A Lot

Skulls and Glossbones, Stranger Tides, Mermaid Tears

I can see myself wearing all six of these colours, but my favourites would have to be Steady As She Rose and Sparrow Me The Drama. I love Mermaid Tears as well, but I doubt I'd like it once I applied it to my nails. This kind of colour doesn't seem to sit well of me. Leesha has swatched all these colours with the silver glitter shatter polish as well, which looks awesome. I so have to get my hands on this collection. :)

Talk to you later!

Labels: Nail Polish, OPI

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09 April 2011, 3:45 PM

The Nail Files #11

Okay, I'll start with the good news - I love OPI's Baguette Me Not from the French collection a couple years back. I've had this for a while and worn it once or twice, but I always almost never reach for it. I always think of it as boring when I see the bottle - but it comes out so lovely on the nails. I'm not even sure how I would describe it - almost a dusty coral?

Then we have the bad news. I was so excited to try Electric Lilac by China Glaze. It's such a gorgeous glitter polish, and although it took three coats to get to this opacity, I was really impressed. that it ended up the same as the bottle.

Until the next morning when it all fell off. I'm not talking chipped off. No - it came off like a fake nail would come off, all in one piece. SO bizarre. Granted, I wasn't wearing a base coat, but I've never had this problem before. I wasn't even doing anything that would usually chip my nails - I was driving when the first two came off! Everything was gone by mid-morning, so I spent the rest of the day nail polish-less. Oh the shame ;) I'm gonna try it over another polish soon, see it a similar thing happens before I give up on this polish - it is really too gorgeous.

I bought some cuticle oil from my local beautician yesterday. It smells like "Honey Suckle" and so far I really like it. It's the brand 'Chemistry' and was $8. I really don't think this is going to be an easy habit to break, but dammit, the thought of biting my nails freaks me out now, so I have faith that I can do it.

Fingers crossed.

Labels: China Glaze, Nail Polish, OPI

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02 April 2011, 4:18 PM

The Nail Files #10

Okay, back to my regular Nail Files format. This week I wore some of the polishes from my last haul. I've already shown you "Lemon Fizz", which wasn't as exciting as I thought it was going to be :( Since I've already shown it, I won't bore you with it in this post.

First we have OPI's My Private Jet. Absolutely. Freakin'. Love. It.

This is actually as glittery on the nail as it is in the bottle. Not that I have many glitter polishes, but this is the first I've seen that applies this well. I think this is what Bloom's "Mena" is trying to be - except it fail miserably.

Next up is OPI's Vodka and Caviar. I said in my haul post that I bought this colour for my friend as a Christmas gift last year and that I've wanted it ever since. I am so glad I finally purchased it for myself - it's a very classy red, but I can't get it to photograph properly.

It really isn't quite this...tomatoey. Definitely a deeper, more classic red. I do have red polishes similar to this, but they are NP Set polishes and I haven't seen them for sale anywhere since I originally got them.

At the moment I'm wearing China Glaze's "Recycle". It's just a nice, flat grey. I love it. It's similar to my "High Heeled Housewife" by Chi Chi, but without any brown tones. It applied beautifully, lovely formula, nice and opaque after two coats.

See? Lovely.

I've really got to start working on my cuticles. I've definitely broken the nail-biting habit (hurray!!), now I've just gotta kick the cuticle-chewing habit. I need to buy some good cuticle oil to get me started. Hopefully next week will show some improvement.

I'm hosting my mother-in-law's 60th birthday tomorrow afternoon - it's a 60's theme, so I'm about to go paint my nail a pastel pink colour, which hopefully looks kinda 60's. I'll try to remember to take photos of my costume and decor, hopefully I'll post tomorrow evening. I've got a busy night tonight, I want to get everything prepared tonight, so I can focus on our costumes tomorrow morning. We'll see how I go - I'm not the world's most organised person!

Until next time!

Labels: China Glaze, Nail Polish, OPI

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25 March 2011, 8:07 PM

The Nail Files #9 - A Haul

Yay, happy Friday! Hope everyone had a fabulous week. Today I have a bit of a nail haul for you. And yes, this means I broke my spending ban. But, in my defence, I really needed a pale yellow polish for Easter *smiles innocently*

As usual these are from Beautyzone2007 on Ebay. I got "Vodka and Caviar" and "My Private Jet" by OPI. I bought "Vodka and Caviar" for my friend for Christmas, but I got jealous and had to get it for myself. "My Private Jet" has been on my wishlist for quite some time, so I'm quite excited to have finally found it.

Now I'm not entirely sure why "Vodka and Caviar" is looking so tomato/orange-y in the photo. It's much more of a blood red in real life - I'll be sure to do a post on it when I get the chance to wear it.

From China Glaze I got "Recycle", "Broken Hearted", "Electric Lilac", "Turned Up Turquoise (Neon)", "Lemon Fizz" and "Re-Fresh Mint".

"Broken Hearted" is my first crackle polish - I did a quick test-run with it earlier today and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. I'll do a proper post on in in a week or so, after I've applied it properly. I also tried "Electric Lilac" over "Lincoln Park After Dark" and it looks promising - I'll keep you posted :)

I'm about to go apply "My Private Jet", hope it was worth the wait!

Labels: China Glaze, Nail Polish, OPI

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12 September 2010, 11:59 AM

Nail Polish Haul

Oh, Ebay. How I love thee.

I've only recently jumped on the nail polish band wagon. I've been a nail/cuticle biter all my life. That's about a twenty year habit right there. Somewhere late last year, however, I decided that enough is enough, I'm gonna stop biting my nails. It's been tough. I find that whenever I'm deeply absorbed in a novel my nails will magically just end up in my teeth. Grr. Actually, scratch that - nail biting has pretty much ceased. It's the cuticles that are the problem.

So I started painting my nails pretty colours to try and deter myself. No one likes to look a cheap, nasty looking chipped nail polish right? And once my nails started growing a little, I decided I quite liked the shape of them, so I'm encouraged to keep going. I like to keep them fairly short and square, mind you, but at least now they're more than a centimetre long.

I've built up quite a collection in the last few months - mostly Chi Chi and Sportsgirl polishes, since those are the most readily available to me and are reasonably priced. But I've recently discovered the Ebay Nail Polish Holy Grail Store. They ship from the US, so the shipping is pricier, but at about US$4.50 a pop for OPI, Essie, China Glaze and many more, as long as you order a few, it all works out nicely in the end. My order came in the mail within two weeks as well - I think it was ten days, but don't quote me.

Seller is Beautyzone2007, store is Top Nail Store. They have quite a range of colour and lots of accessories/nail tools to browse and purchase. They also have sales regularly so you can really grab a bargain.

So what did I get?

L-R: Lincoln Park After Dark (OPI), You Don't Know Jacques (OPI), Vodka And Caviar (OPI), Baguette Me Not (OPI), Dulce De Leche (OPI), Jade Is The New Black (OP), Tart Deco (Essi), Splash Of Grenadine (Essie)

A couple of these colours are going to be Christmas presents, but I will be keeping Lincoln Park, Jacques, Tart Deco and Grenadine. I'm wearing You Don't Know Jacques today and I am quite enjoying it. Honestly, the formula consistency isn't what I was expecting. It was a lot sheerer than I thought, so I used three coats to make sure it was completely opaque.

Sorry for the blurriness, but the colour is fairly accurate. I have Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat on as well.

As a comparison, I have Milkshake from Sportsgirl and High Heeled Housewife from Chi Chi. Milkshake tends to dry almost identical to You Don't Know Jacques although it doesn't look it in the photo.

I'll do some more comparisons and reviews on the other colours another day. Enjoy what's left of the weekend!

Labels: Chi Chi, Ebay, Essie, Hauls, Nail Polish, OPI, Sportsgirl