If I have a chipped nail I feel like I wan’t to die. I nearly deleted that after typing it out ‘cos it’s soooo dramatic, but that’s how I feel. There are certain things about which I’m super OCD and mani chips make my throat close up (because clearly I have mental problems). So I do my nails a lot. But if I spend time painting, I have to spend time drying and being paralysed by wet polish is just the kakkest of kak. So that’s where my love of quick drying products comes in. Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dry top coat is a fave, but so are nail drying sprays when you really have a need for speed. Enter my latest discovery – Essence Express dry spray. It’s just R49 for a 50ml which is much more economical than what I was buying before. (Revlon’s drying spray which is R160 for 75ml.)

Something else I like? Arden’s new fine fragrance mists. The brand’s brought out a bunch of it’s more popular scents as well as some of the brands that fall under their umbrella. (You knew they made Britney Spears’ and Jennifer Aniston’s perfumes, right?)

You’d think that being a ‘mist’ would mean rubbish staying power, but that’s not the case. Some are quite potent (Brit’s Perogative), other’s are decent (Green Tea) and some are more subtle (Jen’s Beachscape) but at R199 for a hulking 236ml you can afford to stash it in your glove box and top up with wild abandon. This is what I’m doing with Beachscape. It’s a very ‘clean’ scent that smells like you’ve just got out the shower but spent the day at the beach. Very, very nice. If you’re into aquatic fragrances like Armani’s Acqua di Gioa or Davidoff’s Cool Water Woman but don’t have deep pockets then be sure to give the Beachscape fragrance mist a sniff. I think you’ll like it.

Last, but not least, I went looking for a new self-tan mitt the other day as I lost my old one somewhere in Thailand. Clicks and Dis-Chem didn’t have anything on the shelves, Clicks had sold out online and Zando was selling a mini mitt which is only good for your face. Bleh. So I ended up snapping up a Le Tan one from Takealot for R109.

It turned out to be great quality and with a nice velvety texture, exactly like that of other more expensive mitts I’ve tried in the past. If you’re ever looking for a mitt and wonder if you should take a gamble on this random brand, know that it’s a goodie. Also, if you regularly apply self-tan and haven’t used a mitt before, please for the love of God make a plan and buy one. It’s not just about protecting your palm from staining. It improves your ease of application (super smooth, crazy speedy!) in such a biiiiig, dramatic way that the thought of reverting back to using your hands is positively Philistine. So ja. Self-tan mitts. You want one.

Love, love

Leigh