Revlon Ruby Ribbon & Color Club Halo Hues

Hi, I meant to post this on 1 Jan but was lazing around too much that day :p Anyway, happy new year! Took the opportunity to try out Revlon Ruby Ribbon (fushia glitter with magenta and holographic bar glitter), which is on my index and pinky. I have 2 coats over 1 coat of Essence Glamorous Life which appears similar in color. You can see the close up bottle shot below.

As it was New Year's, wanted to have an appropriate theme, so for middle and ring fingers, applied Essence Galactic Black and I haphazardly drew on the fireworks with Color Club Halo Hues shades.

That's all for my first mani in 2014, which I'm not entirely satisfied with, but I guess that means more room for improvement? ;)

Thanks for viewing!

Catrice In the Armee Glow with OPI Live & Let Die

I had Chanel Alchimie in mind when I chose this, but unfortunately, it's not a dupe :(

This is 2 coats of Catrice In the Armee Glow, a khaki green with strong gold shimmers, with OPI Live & Let Die drawn on directly with brush (thin enough as it's a mini) and Sally Hansen Golden-I with striping brush for the gold stripes. Application wise, it is fine, but I wish Catrice In the Armee Glow was cooler in tone. The gold shimmers were very prominent on the nails, so not exactly what I was hoping for, sigh....

Anyway, click below for more pics

Catrice It's All I Can Blue with Essie Under Where?

Finally had some motivation to do some nail art :D

Index and ring fingers have white base with Couleur Inc Snow White (very appropriately named :p) and I used the watercolor technique with Catrice It's All I Can Blue and Essie Under Where?

Middle finger is Catrice It's All I Can Blue with roses painted on with acrylic paint. Pinky is Essie Under Where? with a pearl stuck on and dotting with white acrylic paint.

Click below for more pics

Etude House PBL601 and Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop

This is from some weeks back when I still had time for nail art (my subsequent posts will be much plainer >.<). Anyway, this is Etude House PBL601, a milky light blue with multi color hex glitters in 2 sizes, and Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop, a pink base with multi color hex glitters as well. Please ignore the staining, which was caused by Essence Off to Miami (beware!)

Etude House PBL601 looks blue-er in the bottle than on the nails. On the nails, it was more whitish and I had to apply 3 coats to get closer to bottle shade. Will probably try it over a blue base next time.

Deborah Lippmann Candy Shop normally doesn't look too flattering on my skin tone but it works well here when mixed with Etude House PBL601.

The white lines were using acrylic paint and I like the resulting patchwork-like/wrapping paper look of this :)

Click read more for more pics

Soft look gradient with flowers

Wanted a soft look and to try out my new nail art brush, and here's the result :) Base is Essence Ballerina's Charm, then I used a fan brush to put on Essence Sure Azure and Destination Sunshine. Drew on the flowers and swirls with white acrylic paint and topped it with OPI Pirouette My Whistle.

Nubar Rockin' the Garden & Essence Miss Universe

Here is Nubar Rockin' the Garden on the index, middle and pinky and Essence Miss Universe on ring finger. I sponged on Sally Hansen Celeb City before sponging Essence Miss Universe on the non-accent fingers and drew on flowers with acrylic paint (I think my brush was too thin so it looks rather feathery? -_-"). Lastly added a square stud surrounded by blue rhinestones on accent.

Please click read more for more pics.

Essence That's What I Mint! with roses and pearls

This is my second shot at doing roses after a long time and I'm happy that it turned out much better than my first time :) Base is 2 coats of Essence That's What I Mint! and for the roses, the dark pink is OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips and the light pink and leaves are acrylic paint. Added pearls on the index and pinky to bring in more of a vintage look and I really love this mani (^_^)

Click read more for more pics.

Color Club Beyond and flowers

Was away for a while so will try to catch up on my backlog :p I had an urge to use my holographic polishes again so here is Color Club Beyond with some aqua blue flowers on middle and ring fingers and pearls on index and pinky. Below is the plain swatch.

Thanks for viewing!

Essie First Timer and Essence Ice Ice Baby with pearls

The first thing I wanna state is that the color of Essie First Timer is not accurate as the white lines and the green took on a yellowish tinge after I applied my Poshe top coat :(

I have 2 coats of Essie First Timer on all fingers except for my ring finger which has 3 coats of Essence Ice Ice Baby and a coat of More than Words from the Hugs & Kisses collection.

Pls click read more for more pics.

Barry M Lychee and flowers

Have always wanted to try out the multi-colored flowers since seeing it on others on Bloglovin (credit to Mr.Candiipants) and here it is :)

Base is 2 coats of Barry M Lychee, a nude that is luckily not a dupe of the rest of the nudes that I have. The consistency is a little thick, but also means 2 coats are sufficient. On a side note, it is not really aptly named as a jelly polish would be more appropriate for lychee :p

Click read more for plain swatch and names of the colors used.

Essie Come Here! and Etude House PBK803

Base is Essie Come Here!, a bright red shade with orange undertones, and for the ring finger, I drew some random white flowers with black dots. I was too lazy to do it for all fingers :p so I decided to tie in the black and white accent with Etude house PBK803, a black/white/pink hex+bar glitter.

Below is plain swatch of Essie Come Here! (2 coats). I don't normally wear reds but this is a great color for summer :)

Thanks for viewing!

Orly Cotton Candy with China Glaze Passion braid and Essence Make it Golden

Hi, it's been some time! I've been painting my nails and taking pics but there's an inertia after my holiday to actually sit down and draft a post (>.<) Anyway, this is my mani from 2 weeks back and base is Orly Cotton Candy, a peachy pink creme. I did the braid on the index, middle and pinky fingers with Golden Rose White and China Glaze Passion. Also applied Essence Make it Golden to the ring finger and tip of thumb.

I got the 1.6mm gold chain from BornPrettyStore as I wanted to experiment with other materials besides studs/rhinestone. It could be cut using normal scissors and comes in 100cm. Wanted to actually put the chain on the ring finger as well but I simply couldn't get it curve properly and remain untangled on the smaller surface. In fact, the chain is twisted on my thumb and doesn't lie flat but at least it was secure enough for me. It would be easier if you use it in a straight line or applying for someone else :p Nonetheless, I like the overall look with it :)

P.S. Use BNNMK31 for 10% off BornPrettyStore purchases.

Thanks for viewing!

Fail with nail art pen -_-"

Just a quick post on my try with the nail art pen I got from Primark, which turned out to be quite user unfriendly (>.<)

 I first used the pen tip and it was ok (ring finger) but after I used the brush, the pen tip kept leaking polish even without me applying pressure on the tube, leading to large blobs of polish and general messiness, argh....do let me know if there is a way to avoid this problem.

Anyway, it was supposed to be a black on nude design but since it turned out so badly, I tried to salvage it somewhat by applying Three Beauties Radiant Lavender, a sheer lavender with blue/purple shimmers. It is a pretty polish but best layered over a base color as it will probably take at least 3 coats to build up.

Thanks for viewing!

Barry M Grapefruit with rhinestones and simple nail art

Was away for a holiday for some time and am finally back (+ recovered from jetlag :p). Today I have Barry M Grapefruit, with a bit of nail art with rhinestones and flower-like strokes using a Primark nail art kit to get a summery look ;)

These are part of my tiny haul from London. Wanted to get things like Barry M confetti, Essence Studio Topcoat, Catrice, etc, but didn't come across them :'(

Anyway, Barry M Grapefruit is a bright hot pink with tinge of coral and is aptly named. Its consistency is a little thick but covers well in 2 coats.

Click read more for plain swatch and pics of tiny haul.

Color Club Beyond flowers on Essence Glamorous Life

Base is Essence Glamorous Life, a pretty fushia pink with pink glitter, which has unfortunately been discontinued (-_-)" [I got it some time ago but it was an untried until now]. I also sponged on Kleancolor Red Sparkle on the tips but guess it is not that obvious. For the nail art, I drew on the flowers with Color Club Beyond (black holographic), added black acrylic paint inside the flowers + the vines, and lastly dotted the flowers and around them with Beyond.

Lost a bit of interest midway so wasn't too conscientious with the painting/dotting, so pls excuse the messiness. And I only added Etude House PBK803 glitter to my other hand :p

Pls click read more for pic of right hand and plain swatches.

Mosaic nail art with Bourjois Vert Chlorophylle

Had been a busy week, so much so that even though my previous mani was pretty chipped, I simply had no time to change it :( But anyway, at least I managed to do this one during weekend.

Base is a shamrock green - Bourjois Vert Chlorophylle, the yellow is Bourjois Jaune Trendy and blue is Essence Date in the Moonlight. I applied Essie As Gold As It Gets on the green as well. The white lines are using acrylic paint. I always wanted to try out a mosaic design but gosh, I wanted to give up after the first nail (ring finger), haha.... But I persevered and really liked the result (^_^), even though the lines are not crisp.

Click read more for plain swatches of Vert Chlorophylle.

Cherry blossoms / sakura flowers on China Glaze Hello Gorgeous and Essence English Rose

When I discovered the cherry blossoms stamp on BM313 in my previous post, I decided I just had to do a proper cherry blossoms theme mani the next time, and China Glaze Hello Gorgeous and Essence English Rose were the perfect base for it ;) 

I first painted on the branches with acrylic paint, then stamped on the sakura flowers with Konad White. After that, I added OPI Pedal Faster Suzi to the centre of the flowers and dotted white paint around them. 

This is definitely one of my favourites, so I probably wouldn't be posting the next few days as I will keep them on as long as I can :p

A few more pics below cos I like them so much....haha

Thanks for viewing!

Essence Destination Sunshine and A Lovely Secret with flowers

The reason why I did this mani was because I saw the NARS Pierre Hardy Sharks Nail Polish Duo on Makeup and Beauty Blog and really liked the yellow-lavender pair :) But I figured I should have similar colors in my stash and decided to use them together. 

Base is 2 coats of Essence Destination Sunshine and I dotted white polish for the flowers before adding the lavender dots with Essence A Lovely Secret as flowers and in the spaces in between. I still need more practice with dotting but I like the spring-like look of this mani :)

Pls click read more for plain swatch of Essence Destination Sunshine.

Blue Japanese-like print with Essence Let's get lost, You belong to me, Glisten up

Yesterday I put on Essence Date in the moonlight and I wanted to do some nail art on it, so I ended up painting this gradient Japanese-like print that I saw from a magazine on my middle and ring fingers. The strokes are kinda messy but my freehand skills unfortunately are really only at that level :p

The index and pinky I tried doing the saran wrap technique for the first time, but I guess I should have dabbed off more of the add-on color and waited for the first layer to dry before putting the second (>.<)

Anyway, polishes used were from left, Essence Let's get lost, You belong to me and Glisten up. Glisten up is a very lightly tinted polish with turquoise blue flakies and glitter, and really pretty over the blues :)

Thanks for viewing!

Bourjois Jaune Trendy with abstract dandelions

Here is Bourjois Jaune Trendy, a mustard yellow, which appears orangey yellow here but I can't capture the right shade or color-correct no matter how I tried! (-_-)" Think I might have to try to get a picture in the sun to see if I can get it right.

Update: Tried another shot in indirect sunlight, it is a bit light but the color is more accurate.