Rainbow gradient with Orly, Essence, BYS topped with OPI Lights of Emerald City & Pirouette My Whistle

Happy Easter Sunday! Thought I would do a colorful mani for the occasion and hence the lengthy title :p

Used the following polishes, from left: Orly Prelude to a Kiss, Essence Peaches from Marble Mania, Essence Destination Sunshine from Ready for Boarding, Orly Jealous Much?, Essence Sure Azure and BYS Scented Pastel Purple

Below shows 2 coats before applying the gradients and glitter top coats.

Sure Azure is a light sky blue creme, Jealous Much a minty green creme, Destination Sunshine a pastel yellow creme (that doesn't clash with my skintone! :D), Peaches a pale orange jelly and Prelude to a Kiss a slightly peachy pink pastel. Destination Sunshine and Peaches will be better with 3 coats and Prelude to a Kiss probably as well since I found it quite streaky.

After apply the gradients with sponge, I put a coat of OPI Pirouette my Whistle. The glitter added to the mani but the hexes were not distinct enough for my liking hence I added OPI Lights of Emerald City after that. This time I turned the bottle upside down and shook it furiously before trying to fish for the white squares :p I must say I like it very much over the pastel gradient, especially with the iridescent squares.

Think I will keep this on for a couple of days ;)

Thanks for viewing!

Essence Nude Glam polishes stamped with China Glaze Awaken and BM315

I had meant to do the swatches of the Essence Nude Glam polishes and remove them for a new mani but ended up too lazy hence the skittles :p

China Glaze Awaken is dark metallic grey and is good for stamping but pretty thick on its own, had difficulty painting the tips because of its consistency.

Anyway, found that Awaken looks great with Essence Iced Latte (index and pinky), think I shall do another stamping with this color combi another time :)

Thanks for viewing!

Essence Nude Glam comparisons Iced Latte, Toffee to Go, Cafe Ole

After I used Essence Toffee to Go in my previous post, I decided I really wanted to get a back up. However, there was no stock where I went :( And instead.....I ended up with these :p

From left: Iced Latte, Ballerina's Charm, Oh my Glitter!, English Rose

So since I had 3 Nude Glam shades, thought it might be useful to put them side by side.

From left: Iced Latte, Toffee to Go, Cafe Ole

Iced Latte is from the revamped range hence a different bottle.

Update: I just got another Nude Glam, Cookies & Cream, if you would like a swatch as well, let me know :p

Click on read more for swatches on nails.

Essence Toffee to Go nude with colored tips and DIY nail decal

This is my favourite nude in my stash, Essence Toffee to Go! It matches my skin tone very well but doesn't look like mannequin hands and just gives a clean look. Probably the only fault would be that it is just a tad streaky. Above is 2 coats as I wanted to finish quickly and sleep :p After applying it, I think maybe I should get a back up :D

The tips are Orly Cotton Candy and Essence You Belong to Me.

For the strips, they are from cutting up a DIY polish decal. Previously I had painted on a plastic bag for a detailed design but I had to apply quite a thick polish coat as I found it difficult to peel it off otherwise. However, I found out by accident that it is VERY easy to get it out in one piece if you paint onto scotch tape. I was peeling off the Color Club Eternal Beauty vs Wild at Heart scotch tape when I realised it was falling off by itself and remained a complete piece without tearing. See below for what I mean.

You can cut it up or apply the whole piece on wet polish and with a top coat, it is firmly attached to your nails. The decal I did was a dry marbling with Orly Cotton Candy, Essence You Belong to Me and Essence Absolutely Blue. Thinking of getting patterned craft scissors so that the cut outs will be more interesting :)

Will you try this out as well?

Thanks for viewing!

Innisfree nail polish #49 and Essence One Kiwi a Day ruffian

This is my 2nd ever attempt at a ruffian mani (the first was so horrible that it was never shown on this blog :p) and I decided to use my one of my long untrieds, Essence One Kiwi a Day (which was actually purchased along with Mashed Berries) and one of the Innisfree polish from my Korean polish haul.

Here is 2 coats of One Kiwi a Day, a lime green with darker green glitter. Would need 3 coats if I were to wear it alone.

I applied 3 coats of Innisfree nail polish #49 as it was rather sheer. It looks orangey in the pic but is actually more pinkish coral and has lots of holographic glitter in it. 

I was considering dotting on black to make it watermelon-like but decided it was too kiddish for my workplace and the color combi reminds me more of pink guava instead :p

Thanks for viewing!

Etude House Fashion Queen medium and light blue nails

After using the darkest one of the 3 in the Etude House Fashion Queen set, have put on the medium and light ones here. The medium blue creme is actually more dusty/faded than in the pic and reminds me of the Nubar Boyfriend Jeans. It applies well in 2 coats and I really like the color. See below for plain swatch with no top coat.

The lightest shade is a very very light blue/almost white base with various glitter: white and blue bars, dark blue and light blue medium hexes and large and tiny white hexes. As I only applied to 1/3 of the nail, hope the photo below is able to show you some of the glitters. Had to fish a little for them but generally the glitter is easy to apply.

The dots are Color Club Over the Moon.

Thanks for viewing!

Etude House Fashion Queen dark jeans nails

I had previously shown the bottle and sticker shots of Etude House Fashion Queen collection and have finally sat down to use it.

Above is 2 coats of the darkest shade, dark navy blue with lighter blue glitter. 3 coats would have been better as it is quite sheer but I was rushing for time. The beige on the ring finger is Orly Nite Owl, my first nude shade and it is a great nude with silver shimmers, one of my favourites. Was trying to do stitches across the nails with Sally Hansen Celeb City but probably should have used a finer brush. This is already with 1 layer of top coat and still kinda gritty, so would probably need a gel kind of top coat if you wanna get it smooth.

Below is a pic without top coat, which is grittier and less shiny. In the pic on the box, it looked gritty as well so maybe Etude House actually meant it to be a textured polish?

Btw, this is the first time I'm using nail stickers and they were thinner than I thought they would be. Love the zipper sticker, hehe, will place them on more fingers another time....

In any case, I like this dark blue with hidden shimmer and the jeans theme goes well with my dress down Friday coming up ;) Can't wait for the weekend...

Thanks for viewing!

OPI Lights of Emerald City vs OPI Pirouette My Whistle

After the struggle with OPI Lights of Emerald City yesterday, I just wanted to provide a bottle shot and swatch comparing it against another OPI glitter in clear polish, Pirouette My Whistle, which is one of my favourite glitter topper and doesn't give me trouble with application.

Bottle shots: Left - Lights of Emerald City, Right - Pirouette My Whistle

Swatch on Essence Galactic Black (I don't have a plain black actually so had to make do with one that has glitter): Left - Lights of Emerald City (LOEC), Right - Pirouette My Whistle (PMW)

I probably should have waited for the base to dry longer but in any case, I only managed to fish out the white squares if I don't try to scrap off the clear polish and I tried to push the squares around to position them, but in the process, I ended up in mixing the clear polish with the base and hence the murky look (>_<)

On the other hand, PMW could be applied normally. You might need to fish a little for the white hexes but it is not too difficult and you can spread the glitter out on your nail easily. The white hexes are smaller and not as opaque and stark like the squares in LOEC so it has a less jarring look as well.

Although LOEC might be more unique, overall I am much happier with PMW than LOEC.

Do you have them as well? Which do you prefer? :)

OPI Lights of Emerald City over Golden Rose minty jade green and China Glaze Cherish

So here is the other glitter topper from my mini haul, OPI Lights of Emerald City. It's so pretty in the bottle but the application was tough! Much like the movie, I was kinda disappointed. As the white squares were so distinct, you had to get a number of them on the nail otherwise it would look weird but it was hard to fish them out. Most of the time, when I scraped the excess polish off, I ended up with only the iridescent squares. When I managed to fish the white squares out, it was with lots of clear polish so the surface became a little bumpy. Simply had a hard time getting an even distribution (>_<)

Anyway, I began with China Glaze Cherish, a metallic light green. Although metallics are normally 1 coaters, this is sheerer and definitely needs 2 coats if you are wearing it on its own. But I was planning just use this as a base to reduce the number of layers I had to put on for my sheer polish so it was fine.

After that I applied a layer of Golden Rose polish on it, a sheer minty jade green polish with hidden green shimmer which will take many coats to build up on its own, hence the need for Cherish. Btw, I couldn't find the name of this polish on the bottle :( Love the color,  maybe I will wear this again without the glitter ;)

I then applied 1 layer of OPI Lights of Emerald City (LOEC), a layer of Golden Rose, then another layer of LOEC before top coat.

The end result wasn't too bad but wish LOEC was easier to apply. If you have any tips on better application, do share!

Thanks for viewing!

Innisfree peel off base coat review

As I mentioned in the previous post, I used the Innisfree peel off base coat. And would just like to report that it worked great! :D As you can see from the polish at the bottom of the bottle ;)

Update:

Realised I didn't mention about staying power and normally I'm in no position to comment as I remove my polish after 1-2 days :p But as I was busy the last few days, I had my polish on from Sun morn/afternoon to Wed night. Below is after 4 days. Original is in this post. You can see there's a bit of growth at cuticles area but otherwise, the polish stays on well :)

Will show the pictures again: just applied (left) and dried (right)

Found the consistency great (like a jelly polish) and dries in 5-10mins. The brush is pretty easy to handle as well. I wanted the Essence peel off base coat initially but couldn't get hold of it so Innisfree is a good alternative.

Believe you can get it online but in case you are going to Korea and wanna get it, below is the shot of the back of the bottle:

Hope this has helped if you are considering getting it :)

OPI Polka.com over Max Factor Fantasy Fire and China Glaze Manhunt

Couldn't wait to play with my new polishes so here are 2 of them: OPI Polka.com on the tips, with Max Factor Fantasy Fire over China Glaze Manhunt :) Polka.com is a pretty pink and blue medium and tiny hexagon glitter and dense enough to not require dabbing. Max Factor Fantasy Fire is what is giving the red/orange sparkle and the base is China Glaze Manhunt which is a cobalt blue creme.

Please click read more for step by step pics ;)

Mini haul - OPI Polka.com and Lights of Emerald City and China Glaze Manhunt and Hey Gorgeous

I gave in to temptation again (-_-)" Had been eyeing OPI Polka.com but when I saw Lights of Emerald City, found it pretty and too unique to pass up. And China Glaze Manhunt and Hello Gorgeous were ones which I had liked but resisted until this time as they were on sale. So now, my number of untrieds have yet again grown :p

Update, used them in following links
OPI Polka.com and China Glaze Manhunt
OPI Lights of Emerald City over green and over rainbow gradient
Hello Gorgeous

Can't wait to try the glitters, they look so lovely! :)

What polishes have you bought lately?

Thanks for viewing!

Color Club Over the Moon from Halo Hues 2013

This is Color Club Over the Moon, last of my Halo Hues 2013 haul (I didn't pick up Kismet). This is 2 coats, consistency similar to Eternal Beauty and has a linear holo. Below shows the holo better but above is more true to color.

Then I got itchy fingers and added studs from Born Pretty Store (you can use BNNMK31 for 10% off)....after which I thought there was not enough contrast with the base, hence added Max Factor Fantasy Fire to it. Guess I should have left it alone in the first place (-_-)"

After trying out the 5 polishes, I would probably say that Miss Bliss was my favourite (and I'm not usually a pink polish person :p), Over the Moon, Cosmic Fate and Eternal Beauty were tied 2nd and Beyond last as I felt its holo was the weakest.

But no regrets getting any of them ;)

Which do you like best from this collection?

Thanks for viewing!

Color Club Eternal Beauty and Wild at Heart stamped with BM322

4th color from Color Club Halo Hues haul - Eternal Beauty on index and pinky, with Wild at Heart on middle and ring, stamped with Eternal Beauty and houndstooth print from BM322.

Eternal Beauty is a lavender purple and has a strong holo like Miss Bliss and Cosmic Fate. It applies well in 2 coats, found it to be very slightly thicker than Miss Bliss and Cosmic Fate but Beyond is still the thickest.

Also, previously had some bottle shots of Eternal Beauty vs Wild at Heart in this post but finally put them on my nails :) More pictures after the jump.

Etude House nail polish Fashion Queen nail collection

Haven't changed my polish from Cosmic Fate :p So thought in the meantime, I would provide a close up of the Etude House nail polish Fashion Queen nail collection set that was part of my Etude House and Innisfree nail polish haul.

This has a jeans theme, hence the light blue, medium blue and dark blue polishes, kinda like the Chanel and Nubar Jeans collection, but these are not cremes - the light blue has various shapes and colors of glitter and the dark blue has blue glitter as well. You can see close up shots below.

Also, they provided zipper stickers for you to match with the polishes, which I thought was so cute, hehe....

Can't wait to try them out once I'm done with the Color Club Halo Hues polishes ;)

Thanks for viewing!