Couleur Inc Garnet stamped with Pueen 15

Here is 3 coats of Couleur Inc Garnet, a very very sheer aqua with silver and light blue glitter, over 1 coat of OPI Solitaire, mattified and stamped with Essence Let's Get Lost and Pueen 15. As my poor stamping skills left quite a big gap in the design on my ring finger, ended up sticking on a nail sticker :p

Quite disappointed that Couleur Inc Garnet is so sheer as I was looking forward to getting the color that is in the bottle (>.<). Even over a white base, the color barely shows up.

Anyway, click below for more pics.

Comparison: Catrice Marilyn & Me vs OPI The Spy Who Loved Me

When I put on Catrice Marilyn & Me in my previous post, I was reminded of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me so decided to put them side by side to compare.

The bottle shots seem pretty close right? For the swatches on sticks, OPI The Spy Who Loved Me looks slightly warmer and has finer glitter. Click below for comparison pics.

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

Etude House WH901 over China Glaze For Audrey & Essence Enchanted Fairy

Love this pretty Etude House glitter polish, WH901, with white/ yellow/ blue/ pink hex, diamond and heart glitters. Index and pinky is Essence Enchanted Fairy, middle is China Glaze For Audrey and ring finger has the 2 polishes along with OPI Do you lilac it.

Think this is my favorite Etude House glitter so far, with its soft pastel colors and different shapes/sizes :D

Thanks for viewing!

OPI Give me the Moon! and Eternal Basic with flowers

Base is OPI Give me the Moon! and I added chervon tips with Eternal Basic mini-m18 (Japanese brand) before drawing on pink flowers with acrylic paint. OPI Give me the Moon! is a very light grey sheer with blue shimmer, while the Eternal Basic polish is a pretty blue polish with flakes that flash pink (which you can see in the bottle). Click read more for plain swatch of OPI Give me the Moon!

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.

OPI Into the Night, Polka.com and Orly Miss Conduct

Here is 2 coats of OPI Into the Night as base, Orly Miss Conduct sponged onto the tips and 1 coat of OPI Polka.com over them. Also added a sticker as an accent. Was rushing for time when doing this so didn't even take a plain swatch shot (-_-)" but I just got some swatch sticks so maybe I'll share via that instead :)

Thanks for viewing!

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.

OPI Bond Girls Solitaire and Pussy Galore

Here is 2 coats of OPI Bond Girls Solitaire and Pussy Galore applied - Solitaire is a sparkly white with white/silver glitter and Pussy Galore is a baby pink with fushia glitter. I then dotted the middle and ring fingers with the opposite color. It doesn't show up too well in the pic but is clearer in real life.

I find that although I prefer smooth finishes, I can still bear with the OPI liquid sand finish. My only peeve with it is that my Innisfree glue base does not work  with it as it will break off in pieces instead of peeling off neatly, grr....but at least taking it off using remover is not as difficult as glitter hexes :)

Thanks for viewing!

Comparison of Essie Come Here! with OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?

When I saw Essie Come Here!, it reminded me a lot of OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where? from the Holland Collection, hence decided to put them side by side - from left: OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?, Essie Come Here! and China Glaze Poinsettia.

Essie Come Here! is slightly lighter than OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where?, but I think for a non-nail-phile, they are not dupes but pretty similar. Have swatched China Glaze Poinsettia just to show the orange tinge the other 2 have.

Both the Essie and OPI were minis in the sets I purchased so I didn't have much of a choice, but I probably wouldn't buy the both on their own, as I'm not that into this shade and they are close enough for me. Do you find them similar too?

Thanks for viewing!

OPI Jinx and Vesper from Bond Girls collection

I was playing around to try out the liquid sand polishes and I must say that OPI Jinx is very pretty with its coral base and gold sparkles. OPI Vesper on the other hand did nothing for me, just a deep eggplant color (>.<) Texture wise, it is still bearable but I feel that the formula tends to chip easily on me.

Was kinda bored so tried out a freehand pattern (no tape) on my left with Jinx, Vesper and OPI Solitaire and added studs from KKCentreHk  as seen above.

Unfortunately, it is not my intention but I think it looks rather superhero-like? Haha....or maybe varsity colors?

This is the other design (chevron) I tried out on my right hand.

But I guess maybe I should have just left them alone and just wore them plain :p What do you think?

Thanks for viewing!

Comparison of lavender/ pink polishes

When I got Essie Under Where?, I thought I might have something similar but turns out that the polishes that I have are pretty distinct *phew* And I was too lazy to paint and remove for comparison, hence the scotch tape :p

From pinky, anticlockwise, is:
BYS Scented pastel purple
OPI Do You Lilac It?
Essie Under Where?
Essence Enchanted Fairy
Essence Ballerina's Charm (half thumb)
Orly You're blushing (half thumb)

Bottle shots, same sequence as above, from right.

Ballerina's Charm and You're blushing might look quite similar here but not really in real life. See this post for more pics.

Thanks for viewing!

Full size vs minis - OPI, Essie, Orly

Since it's Mother's Day, thought it would be fun to show the mommy and kid polishes together :p 

Size-wise, Orly minis are largest at 5.4ml, Essie next at 5ml and OPI minis only have 3.75ml :(

What is more annoying is that names are not printed on the OPI minis and this means I have to try to recall which collection it was from and google it to search for the name so that I can put it down in my posts o(>< )o If Essie and Orly can do it, I really don't see why OPI can't put the name somewhere on the bottle itself.

Anyway, just realised that perhaps I should have taken pics of the different brushes. Would that be useful? Let me know if you would like to see it :) 

Thanks for viewing!

Minis haul OPI Bond Girls, Essie Resort 2013, KKCenterHk nail foil and star studs

Just a very quick sharing of my recent mini haul of minis :p

OPI Bond Girls minis (Jinx, Vesper, Pussy Galore, Solitare) and Essie Resort Collection 2013 minis (Come Here!, First Timer, In the Cab-ana, Under Where?). I also have gold star studs and flower nail foil with glue, courtesy of KKCenterHk. Can't wait to try out the nail foil! Hope to show you a mani with it over the weekend ;D

Update, click on below for manis:
Essie Under Where? and Flower nail foil
Essie In the Cab-ana with Glitter Gal Silver 3D Holo half moon + flower nail foil accent

Thanks for viewing!

OPI Live and Let Die stamped with Jessica Iridescent Eye BM323 & with studs

OPI Live and Let Die was from the Skyfall collection last year and part of the mini set which I got but I never got around to using it till now. It is a lovely dark, near black forest green with gold shimmer. The stamping was done using Jessica Iridescent Eye (Chanel Peridot dupe) and BM323, but with too much+uneven force I'm afraid :(

Since I wasn't too happy with the stamping, decided to freehand strips of Iridescent Eye and Live and Let Die with the polish brush itself (hence the crookness :p), and added some gold studs from Born Pretty Store, which I thought went well with the polishes :) [P.S. Use BNNMK31 for 10% off if you wanna make a purchase]

Click read more for pics of stamping and plain swatch.

Essence Oh My Glitter and OPI Polka.com

Essence Oh My Glitter is a pretty purple polish with pink/blue shimmers and I immediately wanted to top it with OPI Polka.com which has similar pink and blue glitter. I put on 2 coats of Oh My Glitter (index has 3) and 1 coat of Polka.com. Polka.com is really a great glitter polish, no need to fish for the glitter and they spread out easily :)

Pls click read more for plain swatches of Oh My Glitter.

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!

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!