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!

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!

Etude House nail polish PBK803 on Golden Rose Rich Color 31

Colors used:
Base - Golden Rose Rich Color 31
Glitter - Etude House nail polish PBK803 + Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple

Had always been fascinated by the Lynnderella Connect the Dots and when China Glaze Bitz n Pieces came out, considered getting one but in the end, I saw the Etude House version and decided to get that instead since it was right in front of me and cheaper :p

Etude House's has light pink, white, black and silver glitter in it and there are squares, hexes and bar glitter. Above is 2 coats and orange flashes comes from Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple.

Golden Rose Rich Color 31 is a plum creme and opaque in 2 coats. However, it is a "one step maxi brush" design, so the brush is rather wide and hard to control, especially since I found the polish a little thick. Below shows it without the glitter.

This shows 1 coat of glitter (dabbing method) without Chunky Holo Purple.

It looks rather dull in the pics, but I promise it actually looks nicer in real life :)

Thanks for viewing!

Holographic butterfly wing nails using Glitter Gal Silver 3D Holo

Colors used:
Blue - Essence Sure Azure
Pink - Orly Miss Conduct
Holographic coat - Glitter Gal Silver 3D Holo
Black - Essence Galactic Black
White - Golden Rose whtie

Not sure where I saw the monarch butterfly nail trend from but decided to try it out. Have used Silver 3D holo as a top layer previously so knew it wouldn't overwhelm the original base colors. Couldn't quite capture it but the holo was pretty prominent in the sun :)

I sound like a broken record, haha, but again, I should have waited longer before adding top coat. But it was late and I was dying to go to bed, hence the bleeding of the lines and the dots (>_<)

Thanks for viewing!

Snowy blue white gradient with Essence Hard to resist and stamped with BM323

Colors used:
Blue - Essence Hard to Resist
White - Golden Rose white
Glitter - Essence Prince Charming
Stamping polish - Konad White
Plate - BM323, BM318, BM213 and BM319

After using plate BM323, which stamped well in previous mani, I wanted to do a snowy look with it and I was really happy with the result :) Think I wore it for 5 days which is a record :p

This was near Christmas last year, so I guess I should be catching up to my current manis soon! haha...

Thanks for looking!

Essence Mashed Berries stamped with BM317

Colours used:
Base - Essence Mashed Berries
Stamping polish - I believe it was Golden Rose Magnetic Nail Lacquer 08
Plate - BM317

When I saw Essence's Fruity collection, I was instantly drawn to the polishes as they looked so much like fruit drink with seeds in it :p I got Mashed Berries and One Kiwi a Day (which is still an untried *guilty look*) and the former was pretty sheer. Above was 2 coats, stamping, and another coat.

Guess I was too obsessed about using my stamping plates as I think it would have looked better just by itself, since my stamps were a mess and with stamps, it didn't look like a fruit drink with seeds anymore :(

Somehow I don't find stamping easier with practice, sometimes I get a decent mani, sometimes (maybe I should say "most times") it's a disaster which I can't wait to take off. And looking at my favourite blogs' picture perfect stamping only makes me wonder when I will ever reach somewhere near their level....maybe 500 manis later? Or maybe just not in my lifetime....haha....

Essence Lime Up! stamped with BM321

Colours used:
Base - Essence Lime Up!
Stamping polish - Golden Rose (white, no name)
Plate - BM321

Lime Up was more of a Shrek colour, whilte the pic shows it a little brighter. I barely managed to get the design out using normal polish so I decided to get a proper white stamping polish in addition to a black (after failing in using Essence Galactic Black in this post).

But I like this stamping design and should probably try this again with other colour combinations...

Red roses stamped on white BM323

Colours used:
Base: Golden Rose (white, no name)
Stamping polish: Essence Applause, Applause (from Circus Circus collection)
Stamp: BM323

When I got my Bundle Monster 2012 plates, the roses image caught my eye instantly and I googled to see what have others done with it. I saw a red on white that looked gorgeous, hence I decided to follow the colour scheme, and I'm glad I did! Think this is my favourite stamping design so far and I'm even more pleased that although Applause, Applause look straight up red, it has a pinkish tinge to it when stamped.

Do you like this stamp as well? :)

Pink striped with daisies

Wanted to practice stripes and flowers so here was the result....

Colours used:
Base - Couleur Inc Botein
Stripes - Sally Hansen Golden-I
White - Golden Rose (can't find name)
Blue dot - China Glaze For Audrey

This reminds me somewhat of Kate Spade, what do you think? :)

Pink with flowers

Colours used:
Pink - Couleur Inc Nocturne
White - Golden Rose (can't find the name)
Centre of flowers - Can't recall exactly but should be Revlon Mad about mango
Dots - Jessica Iridescent Eye

Nocturne appears in bottle as a cool pink with gold shimmers but looks a bit warmer on my nails. But it's a pretty polish and I applied 2 coats above. Somehow this ended up having a Japanese kind of feel? :p