Witchcraft Protein Hardener Review

This brand has been around for ages. My mother used this brand when she was trying to grow her nails and after years of torn nails I finally listened!

This product is $8.88 at Wal-Mart. It is a Canadian brand as well which is definitely something nice to know! I love supporting Canadian brands especially when they deliver outstanding products.


Claims from the Witchcraft website: Gives nails resistance, protects nails from daily tasks, and other damaging elements, stops nails from splitting and flaking. 
Contains essential amino acid found in brazil nuts and sesame seeds. 

The product is very runny and has a translucent blue colour that doesn't translate onto the nail at all. It has the typical nail polish smell and dries to an INCREDIBLY glossy finish. My nails look like I put a fresh coat of polish on all the time. It's fantastic.

My nail situation: I'm not looking for a miracle. My nails grow pretty fast so I'm not looking for a product that'll speed up growth. I'm looking for something that'll keep my nails from peeling and tearing.

The first week I applied two coats of this hardener the day I bought it and then I applied two coats of polish on top. As a base coat it works phenomenally. It kept my polish from chipping which is absolutely amazing because I work part-time at Canadian Tire (on the floor, no less!) so if my nails don't chip after the first day it's a miracle.

After a week of treatment my nails hadn't chipped or ripped or flaked and I was feeling pretty pleased.

Ten days in this happened. Then one day while I was working out my ring finger's nail just snapped and my heart broke! I wanted to quit but I said I had to give this hardener the benefit of the doubt and use it for at least a month.

The second week I took off the polish, moisturized my nails, wiped off the excess, and applied two more coats of the hardener and then added another coat for every day after. All of my nails have become longer, save for the ring finger which snapped off completley at work.

At this point I'm thinking of giving up, levelling all my nails and starting from the beginning but I want to see how much my non-broken nails grow with this protein hardener's help. If I get another split I was going to give up, no question about that and declare that this protein hardener didn't strengthen my nails at all.

The third week of treatment things just kept getting worse. Admittedly I hadn't been applying as many coats of polish daily as I should have been so maybe that was hindering development. My left hand looks good but my right hand has a wealth of problems.

I don't know if you can see it, but there are tears in the side of my nail, in the corner deep and far down. If it would tear, a good portion of my nail bed would have been exposed. There are two tears in the nail, so the polish isn't strengthening my nails at all.

There's a dent in my index finger's nail and then there's a rip in my middle finger. At this point I'm through with this treatment and I'm ready to level my nails and start anew with a new nail treatment. I really wanted to use this protein hardener for a full four weeks but I could see that it wasn't doing anything for my nails and I was wasting my time. This polish didn't strengthen my nails. It worked for ten days and then things all fell apart.

So I'm low scoring this treatment because it doesn't deliver on its promises of ending splitting, flaking and tearing.

Likes:

1. How glossy it is!
2. It works well as a base coat for polish
3. It temporarily strengthened my nails

Dislikes:

1. It didn't strengthen my nails for the duration of the period I was to use it
2. My nails felt as weak as usual

C

My Little Barefoot Venus Haul

   Barefoot Venus caught my eye because of their adorable vintage pin-up girl packaging and the hydrating claims their bath goodies promise. I've been scoping out the brand for a year and after much consideration I ended up ordering a few things from Well.ca. My goodies arrived today and I just wanted to share them with you guys.
    

 

    This beautiful tin houses Barefoot Venus' Bath Soak in the scent Ginger Snap. Smelling it dry it smells more of cinnamon and ginger with a bit of sweetness. I hope the egg nog notes come out when I'm actually taking a bath. I've included a picture here of the actual product itself which is a white powder. The opening does get messy easily but it's not a substantial amount of product and only occurs when I open it (as opposed to leaking all the time) so I'm not too bothered.

    This bath soak has some pretty nice claims and some impressive looking ingredients. For seductively soft sweet-scented skin, just add your little indulgence to steamy running water. Slip in and let the cocoa butter filled water tickle your fancy and velvetize your skin. This bath soak is filled with cocoa butter, shea butter, sweet almond oil and Vitamin E. Sounds hydrating! I know my skin gets extra chapped come winter, so anything that can hydrate my skin sounds heavenly to me!

 

     Now when it comes to these Bath Bliss' I could never find a picture of how these products actually looked! All I ended up seeing were snapshots of the packaging! I didn't know if the bath bliss was a solid object like Lush's bath bombs or if it was powdery like the bath soak. But now I know.

 

    There's the Vanilla Shake bath bliss right there. It's a powder packaged in a little bag. I haven't smelled it yet but I'm looking forward to trying it. Claims? Everything is sweeter when creamy mango butter melts into a sinfully scented bath, leaving  your skin totally irresistible. Being naked has never felt so Good! These are made with mango butter and sweet almond oil which also sounds seriously hydrating.

    Ginger snap is described as "a blend of rich, smooth eggnog and warming ginger are swirled together for the ultimate holiday fragrance". From what I've smelt it smells more like ginger and cinnamon. This season 10% of proceeds from the Barefoot Venus Ginger Snap line will be donated in support of Autism Awareness.

      I haven't yet smelled the Vanilla Shake bath bliss but it's described as "warm Madagascar vanilla growing in berry patch strawberries". I love vanilla scents so I'm looking forward to using this bath bliss.

     Maple Blondie is the newest scent from Barefoot Venus and I think it's a nice homage to Barefoot Venus' proudly Canadian Heritage. Barefoot Venus says Maple Blondie is "Autumn maple, perfectly paired with buttery vanilla and a hint of dark espresso." Sounds delicious! I'm not sure if this scent is limited edition or permanent but I'm guessing it's not because there is no mention of it being limited edition.

     All of these products are very affordable with the Bath Bliss' being $5.50CDN and the large Bath Soak tin being $12.99CDN. I'm always excited to try Canadian bath and body products, especially when they've got such great ingredients. So I'll be back with a review once I've tried them!



Cake Beauty Heavy Cream Intensive Hand Repair Balm Review

Cake was so right to call this an intensive hand repair balm. It's rather thick for a hand cream. This is also the perfect product to take me through the cold Canadian winters. This is my first purchase from Cake beauty and I'm entirely pleased.

Claims from the Cake Beauty website: This supremely hydrating formula renews and protects hands for immediate and long lasting results. Made with 20% shea butter, this warm french vanilla scent melts into skin. 100ml

I purchased this hand cream at Costco; it came in a pair of hand creams that cost $22. This lured me in immediately with the whole 20% shea butter claim. I've got constantly dry hands so that claim sounded like absolute heaven. True to their word, Cake has jammed a lot of shea butter into this hand balm. The cream is as thick as you would expect it to be.

I was very afraid of the French vanilla scent. Cake's sister line Be Delectable has a vanilla hand cream out and I've tried it and it smelt like rotten vanilla scented play-doh. But this hand cream smells amazing. It's such a rich, sweet smell. Almost like the Nyx Butter Glosses but with a hint of buttery richness. I love how nice it smells and the fact that it's not cloying.

This hand cream is very very hydrating but doesn't cross the line over into greasiness (unless you apply too much). My hands feels moisturized but not slippery.

Heavy Cream has shaped up into being a lovely purchase and I'm very glad I bought it.

Likes:

1. It is so moisturizing!
2. It smells wonderful
3. No nonsencial chemicals in the ingredients list

Dislikes:

I haven't got any to list and if I were to look for any I'd be nitpicking.

 A+