My favourite products to give yourself the best home manicure ever!

ORLY Nailtrician and Cutique $19.95 each available from www.orlybeauty.com.au  Out the Door Top Coat $10.95 available from www.thenailshop.com.au Sally Hansen Acetone Free Nail Polish Remover $5.45 available from www.priceline.com.au Rational Anti-Aging Hand Cream available from www.rationale.com

Let's face it weekly nail salon visit are too costly and time consuming for most of us, but here are my fave products to give yourself the best home manicure ever, the only thing missing is the massage chair and foot spa.

ORLY NAILTRICIAN 

This is the only treatment base coat that has made any difference to my nails, the nail surface is smoother and they are definitely stronger. TIP: If you are only wearing this on your nails to strengthen them then sealing with a topcoat this helps the nailrician stay on your nails longer.

ORLY CUTIQUE

The best way to start any manicure is to clean up your cuticles, I mean really clean them up! It helps polish last longer and looks a lot neater. Cuticle removing gels are a great way to treat cuticles at home, simply apply to your nail beds leave on for 10mins or so and then push cuticles back with an orange stick. There will be little gross bits of skin that will come off when you do this, which is a good thing. 

OUT THE DOOR TOP COAT

Top Coats have become one of the most important steps in a manicure, they are the not-so-secret finishing stage which allows you to achieve high gloss gel like nails. It's very easy to distinguish between a good and bad top coat, for me the deciding factor is dry time if your nails aren't touch dry in 10mins then it is crap. Out the Door and Seche Veit are the two most popular in the professional nail game, but if you cannot get your hands on these then Revlon's Gel Top Coat is a great easy to find very comparable alternative.

SALLY HANSEN NAIL POLISH REMOVER

This is my go to remover, it isn't as potent smelling as other brands, I use a Non-Acetone remover on regular polish and straight up 100% Acetone to remove gel or shellac polish. 

RATIONAL ANTI-AGING HAND CREAM

This very extravagant hand cream is my new fave, it isn't too heavy on the fragrance and doesn't leave my hands feeling greasy. The best advice I can give you is to carry and hand cream with you in your hand bag or in your car that contains SPF, when driving your hands are always in direct sunlight and UVA rays go through glass ageing your hands with sun damage. To avoid horrible age spots on your hands apply your SPF hand cream every time you get in the car.

xx Nella

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Christmas Gift Guide : B.F.F (Best Friend Forever!)

What to get your Bestie for Christmas can be tricky, probably because she is your shopping partner/enabler most of the time, so trying to sneak something past her at the check out is nearly impossible. That's why all of the gift suggestions below are available to buy online and even better are under $100!!! 

Jurlique Essence of Rose Roller Ball 11ml $28.00

Available from www.jurlique.com
Jurlique's Essence of Rose Roller Ball is a very classic, pure scent encased in an extremely convenient roller ball applicator - perfect to pop in your hand bag. Applying fragrance from a roller ball to your pulse points, feels more intense and lasts a lot longer than a spritz from a spray bottle. Rose is making a resurgence on the fragrance scene at the moment, a throw back to sophisticated and clean traditional scents with a single crisp note. If your bestie is perfume obsessed this is a cute new take on a classic she will totally love.

ASOS iPhone 5 Case with Oversized Crystals $22.18
Available from www.asos.com
Anyone who knows me, knows I am freakin' obsessed with cute and bedazzled phone cases, the bigger and more sparkly the better! ASOS has some pretty cool iPhone cases at the moment, from the mildly tame to the O.T.T blinged out case above. This is the perfect gift for a tech-head B.F.F who also doesn't mind a crystal or 10!

DKNY Wish List Cheeky Boxed Long Sleeved PJ Set $83.18
Available from www.asos.com
If you and your best friend are anything like me and my best friend (Hi Josephine!) you travel a lot together. Cute PJ's are a great gift to give your travel buddy, ready to pack into her overnight bag for your next adventure together. These DKNY bright pink leopard print PJ's from ASOS are also ideal for a slumber party, lounging about watching movies on the couch together whilst eating enormous amounts of Christmas chocolate.

Orly Sashay My Way Nail Polish $18.95
Available from www.orlybeauty.com.au
Nothing says 'Best Friends Forever' like glitter nail polish...Nothing! Especially if you are on a budget and $20 is your limit. Orly make a great selection of glitters but nothing is more christmas-y and festive than gold glitter. If you haven't seen the 'Festive' Mariah Carey YouTube clip watch it immediately...HERE! And bring on some festive cheer.

Grown Alchemist Intensive Hydra-Body Gift Set $19.95
Available from www.grownalchemist.com
Grown Alchemist has released some amazing bang-for-your-buck gift sets my favourite is the 'Intensive Hand Cream in Persian Rose and Argan Extract & Intensive Body Cream Rose Damascena Acai and Pomegrante' combo which is all wrapped up with a chic black satin ribbon. Also a great gift idea that wont break your bank for anyone who is obsessed with chic skin care that usually costs more than half your weekly rent.

Coming up next week in Beauté Gazette's Christmas Gift Guide series: What to give a Mum who always says every christmas 'Darling just make me a card and bring me a cup of tea in bed'.

xxx Nella

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MANICURE Monday! Orly Nail Lacquer in 'Pixie Powder'

Orly Nail Lacquer in 'Pixie Powder' $18.95 available from www.orlybeauty.com.au

Orly polishes are one of my favourites, they are so easy to apply and always give a faultless finish no matter what the colour. I decided to go with 'Pixie Powder' from Orly's new Surreal collection, which is the prettiest fine glitter mix and looks like you have dipped your nails into fairy dust. From some angles it gives a translucent gold look to your nails and in direct light it is more of a moonstone pinky-purple. It is the type of polish I would have begged my mum for when I was little, shimmering pretty glittery pinks have always been my weakness and although I don't wear them often they make me so happy when I do.

What's the reason for such ritzy glittery flashy-trashy nails? Oh I am just going to a cocktail party for Jackie Collins at The Star tonight with Theresa from www.theladida.com no big deal....UMMM YES IT IS A MAJOR DEAL!

If you don't know who Joan and Jackie Collins are, well you should get to googling because they are total icons. Hopefully I will able to wrangle a photo with Jackie which would be an incredible instagram WIN.

xxx Nella

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Beauté Gazette LOVES Orly Nailtrition

Orly Nailtrition $10.95/9ml $19.95/18ml available from www.orlybeauty.com.au

My nails have in a terrible way at the moment... flaky, chipping tearing, thin, weak and discoloured. I have even been going nail polish free to try and get them to a more healthy looking state rather than having gremlin crypt keepers nails. 

Then I tried Orly's Nailtrition, it smells different to any other nail strengthener or polish a more medicinal smell - which I am really into. Considering that I enjoy the smell of nail polish because it makes me feel relaxed, its not that weird at all. The formulation is thicker than a regular polish, but is just as fluid and not sticky at all. The finish of Nailtrition reminds me of a french manicure base, slightly pink-toned and with a reflective mirco-shimmer - so basically its not clear. The longevity of it is absolutely incredible, only the box it reads 'remove after one week' after reading that in my head I was thinking 'yeh right, as if it will last that long..give it 2 days' but it totally did! I ended up removing it after 6 days without any chips or any nail catastrophes. 

After removing the nail treatment my nails surface texture was smoother and my nails were definitely more healthy looking. The ingredients list collagen, bamboo extract, protein & keratin, I'm not sure how these help your nails but they did and I am going to continue to use Nailtrition on its own and layered under polishes.

 xxx Nella

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Neon Orly Mani's at Edwards and Co

Having the blondest of blonde hair takes a lot of maintenance, like A LOT! I am at the salon having my roots bleached and lifted, then toning and trimming religiously every 6 weeks. It is a 4 hour session minimum, as a hyperactive chatty cathy I was so excited that Edwards and Co now has an in house manicurist! The amazingly talented and lovely Fiona - Australian Ambassador and Creative Director for ORLY. Instead of sitting there flicking through magazines wanting to scratch my burning scalp off I was distracted and pampered by Fiona giving me a very luxurious manicure.

I decided on half moons using nudes and neons, a design which I always mess up when trying to attempt them at home. I cannot tell you how much of a treat it was having someone else do my nails - usually I am in Fiona's position. The nude base is ORLY 'Glow' - which I am obsessed with and need to have in my collection ASAP it is the perfect balanced nude. Half-moons are my preferred two-toned design it elongates your nails, rather than a tip which on shorter nails just makes your nails look even shorter. I couldn't choose between ORLY's Beach Cruiser (pink) and ORLY's Glowstick (neon yellow) so I had both. Too much? As if! 

Manicures aren't the only cute distraction at Edwards and Co....Meet Cash, Jaye's adorable puppy who scamppers around the salon getting lots of pats and cuddles from clients.

Check out the Edwards and Co Blog HERE!

Edwards and Co
9212 7516
Level 1/255 Riley St Surry Hills