Drops of Pearl

Do you have a favourite mouthwash? I don't, I usually buy what's on offer and I couldn't tell you what's best. As soon as I saw on London Beauty Queen that Pearl Drops has released a whitening mouthwash, I was excited to try it - not as excited as with false lashes, obviously but excited nevertheless because of the look of the bottle. Let's face it, mouthwashes are not the prettiest bottles sitting in your bathroom (I am looking at you, unsightly Colgate Plax) are they? So I think, Pearl Drops have done an pretty amazing job with this bottle.







Is it to going to make my teeth whiter? I doubt it. But with such a sleek elegant bottle and at better than half price at Superdrug (£1.50 instead of £3.99) it would have been mad not to give it a go :)

 

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What happens when you don’t wear a base coat on your nails: before and after and my attempts at nail brightening

How many of you scrupulously wear a base coat before painting your nails. I think this is one of these things you learn with experience and unless you're not bitten / stung you'll never learn. It was time I learnt and I wanted to share with you the results of my carelessness.

About 2 or 3 days ago roughly, I applied a gorgeous dark blue nail polish from Asda without applying a base coat. It was the first time I was testing this nail polish and I applied it on my 'photo hand' my left hand. Right hand stayed bare. 24 hours after, when I removed the nail polish, I noticed the carnage of my carelessness: my nails got really badly stained.

On the photo below, the "before" side shows the hand where I didn't apply evil nail polish. After picture shows the results of my carelessness, where I applied the nail polish without a base coat.





Now if this is not encouragement enough to always wear a base coat, I don't know what is, especially when my nails were decent colour before.
I am not going to lie, I got a bit depressed by it. Most of all, I was a bit embarrassed at work. How embarrassing for someone to blog about nails in their spare time to end up with such badly stained nails like that.


In an attempt to reduce the stains and regain the natural colour of my nails, I googled for some homemade remedies. Results yielded to resorting a homemade mixture of bicarbonate of soda and fresh lemon juice to apply to nails every day for a period of 6 weeks. 6 weeks? I just had to find another solution and I wanted to try the 'denture whitening tablets' method.
So I went to Boots and bought a 'extra strength' tube of Steradent at £1.62. I was very happy to read that the first ingredients listed was sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. The stuff is probably a bit too harsh for nails but I really wanted to have a go. Poured some hot water on a fizzy tablet in a small glass and left my left hand soaking there for a while.

 
Results? I was very happy. My hand was super dry the following morning when I woke up (which was this morning) but nothing that a hand cream couldn't cure. There is still some staining, but I feel it has lightened a lot! I am happy :)





Nail base coat are like condoms, god knows what happens to you if you don’t wear one :P

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