My ELF collection - part one (pic heavy)

ELF, or e.l.f. or elf, or however you like to write it, has not been easily available in Australia in the past - the US site doesn't ship here. I discovered yesterday that we now have an Australian ELF website, though it's kind of rubbish. Actually, there's no "kind of" about it - it's rubbish. The range is very limited, and the prices - while they may seem super cheap at $3.99 for most products - are almost four times the price of the same item in the US, so it's still the same old gouging going on. You can also buy ELF from Crush Cosmetics, but again the prices are jacked way up and the range is fairly limited. I usually buy mine from Nonpareil Boutique, whose range is getting bigger and bigger all the time.

The thing about ELF is that it's extremely hit and miss. Some products are great (for the price they are, at least), and others are just crap. It's trial and error finding which is which. Anyway, blah blah blah - let's look at some pictures. I was going to do this in one mega post, but it's a bit too much so I'm breaking it up into two.

Pretties!

Like a weight watcher the day before hitting the lettuce and treadmills, I had a bit of a shopping binge on Sep 30, before I hit No Buy Month in October, and one of my orders arrived today:

I've been seeing and hearing about these Sleek palettes a lot, and after seeing Dazzledust25's swatches of the Storm palette (the second one up there) I just had to have one. But when I went to order it I saw the Original palette (top pic) and couldn't decide between the two, so I bought both. I was hoping to get swatches done but Noodle Arms went on a sleepover last night and stayed up all night, so when I got home from work she was starfished on the day bed, snoring her head off. Hopefully tomorrow! I bought mine from Crush Cosmetics, but I found out later that I could have bought it directly from Sleek, and it would have been cheaper. Oh well.

As well as that, Chloeblue brought me in some nail polishes that we had ordered a while ago - I realised recently that I didn't really have any Spring kind of nail colours; mine are all dark or brownish. I got some Essie ones - Turquoise & Caicos, Demure Vixen and Lapis Of Luxury. Noice!

Whinge, whinge, whinge

See, this is why I only bother painting my nails every two or three weeks, even though I love nail polish. I applied this last night and this morning it was chipped already - it happens to me all the time, no matter what treatments I try or bases, topcoats, sealants and so on that I use. My nails grow really quickly, but they're soft and peel and split very easily. Once they hit a certain length they start falling apart and I have to cut them off and start again. Very annoying.

NOTD: Essie Angora Cardi

I don't usually do Nail of the Day posts, mostly because I don't often wear nail polish - even though I love it and own quite a bit of it. I have terrible nails - they're weak, they split easily, and they peel - and I've tried a million different treatments to no avail. That's why they're short - they grow very quickly but I always have to cut them back because once they get over the fingertip they just start splitting and peeling. Very annoying! Aside from that, nail polish always chips on me within hours. ALWAYS. See, there's a tiny chip on my index fingertip. Grrr.

However, sometimes I make the effort, and since I have the week off, I've had time to sit around fixing chips and whatnot. I find this is one of the better Essies - they're a bit hit and miss as far as formula, in my opinion. It's an overcast day here in Adelaide today, which may have affected the colour outcome in the picture a little. It's a wee bit brighter purple than that in real life.