Jamberry Nails! Words of Wisdom from a Jamberry Noob

Jamberry! Oh Jamberry! Even if you're remotely interested in Health & Beauty products, you must have heard about these fancy nail wraps in some form or another. Be it for their trendy designs, holiday collections, nail stencils, controversies or pushy sales consultants. When I was offered to try out their products, I'll admit I was a little hesitant. I'm an honest blogger. I say how it is. If I don't like it, I'll say it and if I do, I don't want all the Jamberry consultants out there throwing eggs on my Instagram post. In a way, I'm a little relieved that I actually really like them.

As a Jamberry newbie, I have done pretty well on my first try. To be honest, before these I've never tried anything remotely artificial on my nails, nail wraps included. So I had zero clue how to go about the procedure. I looked at 2 online tutorials on Jamberry's website- An application video and a tips & tricks video. I pretty much followed these two tutorials to the T and got it right! Something so rare.

Christmas 2016 Gift Guide- We are doing our first Christmas ever!

Have you sorted your Christmas gifts yet? Did I tell you we are celebrating Christmas for the first time ever this year and that the struggle is real? Never before did I understand the rush to sales and the amount of thought and energy that goes into each gift. Never before have I felt so baffled with the umpteen choice of ornaments for a pine tree. Never before have I investigated and compared tree prices and never in my life I had to think of what we'll be eating on that day when all shops will be shut and there's no restaurant where I can hide and just eat my heart out without worrying about the dishes.
We do not have much family here in NZ but whatever we have is a cool bunch. No oldies so I'm kinda the decision maker and the actual enabler of things. We have no traditions to guide us and no experience to fall upon. Think of it as a European trying to celebrate Diwali. Its weird right? But I really wanted to get on board this year. Having been in NZ for 8 long years, I really wanted to feel the thrills of this day for once. Who knows we like it so much that we end up making our own little traditions!

Gifts! Lets just talk about gifts today because OMG the amount of stalking and personal attention they require. I literally hear every word that my flatmate says so I can make out what she really wants as a present. Hey! I'm a very practical person and more of a thrifty one too so I want to give people gifts that they'll actually need and use. I have no problem in asking what the person needs so I can give them that exact thing. Yes! There's no surprise but then there's no chocolate box either. Me and husband have got each other what we really NEEDED (scroll below) and will wrap them on the day to put under the tree. My brother-in-law paid for my Anastasia Beverly Hills haul from their Black Friday Sale so I get to have the exact eyeshadow shades I always wanted. I think we are doing pretty good in this department.

But hey! if you are clueless of what to gift to a makeup, lipstick or skincare addict like me, I have a list of things that may help make your mind a tad relaxed.
Here are my top picks from this season-

Greetings & Freebies from Oh Natural

OMG I just made a DIY Z-Palette for $2.50 - True story!

There aren't many blog posts I get so excited about that I post them the very day an idea germinates. This one is it! I'm super excited coz I've just made a Z palette for $2.50. You know what's a Z palette right? Duh! Its a very well known brand for empty magnetic eyeshadow palette cases, so makeup artists and enthusiasts can create and customize their own eyeshadow palettes. They can select a million single eyeshadow pans and then stick their favorites together in one palette. Yep! That's a Z palette and they cost a bomb! An empty Z palette is an easy $30+ and in NZ you can't even get one unless you get it shipped from overseas with a hefty shipping charge ($20 plus).

Long story short, Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) had their Black Friday Sale a few weeks ago, where their single eyeshadow pans were reduced to like $4 from $12 each, so obviously I went a lil crazy in there. Normal practice is that ABH send you an empty palette along with so you are good to go. I bought 12 eyesshadows and expected them to send me a 4 pan and an 8 pan empty palette along-with. They didn't. They just sent one 4 well empty palette. I was disheartened! I researched Z palettes, they were damn expensive. I researched Z palette DIY's. They were do-able and this one I tried was a success in one go. So here's a step by step tutorial for your very own Z palette. It literally took me five minutes to assemble this and I'm so crazy obsessed with it already. Now I just have to figure out a way to depot all my MAC single eyeshadows. #ExcitementLevelOutOfRoof

Here's the step by step instructions with photos-