China Glaze Lubu Heels + Nails Inc Trafalgar Square = Awesome Bling!

Don't you just love how cool my nails look right now? I love how this looks - just like red stars in a deep, black sky, or burning embers in a bed of lava. This look was actually two polishes layered together. For the base, I used China Glaze Lubu Heels, a black jelly with small red glitter, one of the classics in their permanent collection. However, it wasn't quite blingy enough for me, so I layered Nails Inc Trafalgar Square over it. Nails Inc Trafalgar Square consists of large chunks or red glitter in a clear base - perfect for layering over Lubu Heels!



I'm always been a fan of both China Glaze and Nails Inc, and both of these were polishes I bought awhile back but never used as often as I liked (although I've previously used Trafalgar Square in another NOTD, one that's really old.)



Both these brands generally work very well on me, and the application for China Glaze and Nails Inc was quite trouble-free for glitter polishes. As always, since the glitter does tend to clump up in some places, you do need to work a little with the brush to try to ensure as even a distribution of glitter as possible. Otherwise, I had no issues with application.

Both China Glaze and Nails Inc wear well on me, so this lasted for around 3-4 days before chipping. That's pretty decent for me, so I have no complaints about lasting power.



I love my nails, and I love the glitter and bling. Although I don't always use glitter polishes, I can't wait to do another manicure like that again!

Chinese New Year Nails: Year of the Rabbit KOTD!

I know I just posted a Chinese New Year NOTD just awhile back, but hey, since Chinese New Year comes only once a year, why not do another one? This time, I have cute little rabbits on my mani, you know, because it's the year of the rabbit!



The absolutely adorable kawaii rabbit imprint is, of course, thanks to the wonders of Konad! I'm using plate S10, and it's full of kawaii animals. There's a rabbit, a cow, a cat, a bear, a dog, and so on. Very cute, if you ever want to do a zoo-inspired mani.



The polishes were different this time, because after the glitter of the last CNY (Chinese New Year) NOTD, I decided I wanted this one to be a creme. So the base was a colour from the Face Shop's Nail Talk range, RD302. The first coat produces a pinky-red colour not unlike Benefit's Benetint, but in nail polish form. The second coat produces the primary straight-up red you see in the photos. It also comes in a very kawaii bottle, although the bottle is quite tiny.

The konad colour was China Glaze Hi-Tek, a gorgeous orangey-gold chrome that is absolutely beautiful for konading. I love the China Glaze Khromes, and if you're a konader, you need the entire Khrome collection, since they all konad very nicely.



As you can see from the photo, my konading skills are obviously quite lousy - there's a konad fail on some of the fingers. Oops. But still, my mistakes don't detract from how cute the rabbits are!

And just so you can really see all those rabbits on my nails up close, including my mistakes:



Since the year of the rabbit comes once every 12 years, I may as well get a kawaii rabbit on my nails while I still can, right? Happy Chinese Year, everyone! :D

China Glaze For Audrey + Konad Fishnet = Awesome Nails!

It rarely happens, but I actually managed to wear un-boring nails to work for one entire week! It was during the Christmas season, so I didn't have any client meetings, and both my bosses were on leave for the holidays. So a thought popped into my head - since I wasn't going to be doing much work that required me to look professional, why shouldn't I jazz up my nails? Thus, I promptly combined China Glaze For Audrey with the awesome fishnet/lace print on my nails.

China Glaze has a few colours that are famous, and For Audrey is one of them. It's purportedly named after Audrey Hepburn for her role in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the colour was apparently created to be the same shade of blue-green as a Tiffany's box. Now is that cool or what? I know most people who are more colour-shy won't see turquoise as a colour is classic, or for that matter, classy. But if you think about it, what can be more classy than a Tiffany's box? And if a Tiffany's box is classy, why shouldn't we wear that gorgeous colour on our nails?

So behold, my awesome manicure the colour of a Tiffany's box! It's absolutely gorgeous, and in some lights it looks more blue, but in others it looks more green. I can't quite decide whether it's more of a blue or a green.



Oh, right, I have to admit, that mani was made slightly awesome by the fact that I smudged the konad design on my ring finger after having painstakingly stamped it on. But it doesn't make it any less stunning, doesn't it? Right? *Awkward silence*

Alright, yes, I was a klutz with the konad. I used my all-time favourite (and oh-so-cheap) black nail polish for the fishnet/lace print, Wet n' Wild Black. And the design came from one of my favorite konad plates of all time, M57. Back then when konading was a new thing, the M57 plate was so hard to get hold of, because every nail polish fanatic wanted one, and it was perpetually out of stock.



After applying China Glaze For Audrey, I can definitely see why it's a classic. This colour was trouble-free in it's application - in fact, it virtually applied itself. It was fully opaque in two coats, although I suspect if you do thicker coats, you could get away with one. And it didn't streak at all. I enjoyed painting on this colour. Wet n' Wild Black, which was used for this konad to imprint the lace/fishnet pattern, is one of the fan favourites of nail polish addicts for konading. It's cheap, it's black, and it works well with the konad stamp and plate set. What's not to like?

Lasting power was about average - it lasted about 4 days on me before the first chip appeared, which was pretty usual. I don't have any complaints about the lasting power of China Glaze polishes in general. Some brands have trouble staying on my nails (ahem, Zoya and Barielle, I'm looking at you!), but China Glaze isn't one of them.



I don't know about you, but I was in love with my nails for the time I wore it. Everyone I met commented on my nails, from fellow colleagues to sales staff I would encounter on the way hhome from work. It actually pained me to remove the colour when the holiday season was over and work started picking up again at the office. Of course I had to take it off and replace it with a more sensible, work-appropriate colour. But at least I got to have funky nails for awhile!

China Glaze Atlantis: The Very Last Days of Summer

Okay, so summer was over a long, long time ago, but I thought that I'd better wear this while there was still some semblance of sunlight over dreary London. Also, I'm graduating from University and starting work soon, so I figured that I'd better make my last manicure before I start work a good and fun one, since once I start work I'll be subject to the tyranny of boring sheers, pinks and nudes. Not that there's anything wrong with pinks, sheers, or nudes, but I'll be darned if I have to wear ONLY those...

Anyway, China Glaze Atlantis is gorgeous. It's a teal jelly with holographic glitter chunks, so with it's eye-catching, bold, bright and defiant nature, it's totally appropriate for the last days of summer, before sunlight slips away (as well as the last days of being a freewheeling student, before I slip into the working world)...Pictures really don't do this justice, because my camera can't capture the awesome holographic fullness of this beauty. It just looks like plain old glitter, but it isn't. I need you to imagine that every one of those glitter bits below is twinkling in holo goodness.



Atlantis is a chunky glitter, and while I usually hate chunky glitters, I'll make an exception for this one. When I first applied it, I hated it. I was thinking "WTF HUGE CHUNKY GLITTER?! At least it's holograhic..." but once I wore it for a bit more, I started loving it. I think it's acquired taste, especially if you're colour-shy. But it is a lovely colour, and one that's totally unique.

I like how the teal base is a jelly that's not too opaque, so even after two coats, you still see every single glitter bit. The suspended but still visible glitter really adds a dimension to the colour. I think Atlantis is absolutely appropriate as a polish name - it really looks like the diamonds of an ancient city sparkling at the bottom of a deep blue-green sea, forgotten and twinkling beneath the waves.

See what I mean? Who knew polish could tell a story? But this one does. It's almost poetic.



Before you guys think I'm off my rockers, I'd better get to the more mundane aspects of polish description. Like application. As with all chunky glitters, Atlantis wasn't exactly smooth going on - the glitters do tend to all clump together at wherever your brush first lands on your nail, so you do have to maneuver carefully to ensure the glitter is as evenly distributed as possible. But otherwise, I didn't have any problems with this.

Despite being a jelly, it was easily buildable, and what you see on my nails is just two coats. I don't know how China Glaze does it, but Atlantis isn't so sheer that it's annoying, but it also isn't so opaque that you can't see the glitter bits embedded in the polish.

Here's a close up shot so you can see the awesome holographic glitter. It really is more holographic in real life, but my camera has issues:



Of course, it's obvious how much I love this colour. When I move my fingers it sparkles and twinkles, and I absolutely love the bling effect. If you're not colour-shy, or glitter-shy, this one is for you.

Illamasqua Jo'mina and China Glaze Sci Fi KOTD: Purple and Silver

Illamasqua released Jo'mina (is it Jomina or Jo'mina?) some months ago, with the Body Electrics collection, and out of all the three nail polishes in the collection, Jo'mina was the hot favourite. I snagged it for 50% off because it wasn't "in season" anymore (sigh, I guess you know autumn is coming when the Spring/Summer collections start going on sale). But you know me, and you know I don't give a hoot about what's trendy or not - I wear what I like, regardless of season. And a 50% discount is timeless :P

Here it is in sunlight. I think this was the most colour-accurate I could it to be, but it's still not quite there. The base for the konad was Jo'mina, while China Glaze Sci Fi was used as the design. The konad plate was M65. Man, my fingers look fat.



Jo'mina is a gorgeous beautiful bright lilac purple. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, and unfortunately, my photographs aren't that colour-accurate because it's also really hard to photograph! It keeps turning out a lot more blue than in photos. I took a gazillion photos, and they all turned out blue-purple. And I tried colour-editing it, but with my limited photo-editing skills, there was only so much I could do. I'm sorry I couldn't get a more accurate portrayal of this, so just try to imagine this as being a lot more red-based purple instead of a blue-based violet, okay?



I've read a lot about how Jo'mina was a total PITA to apply, so I was totally prepared to struggle with this one when applying it. To be fair, it isn't the best, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either. I used two coats for all my photos. To be fair they were thick-ish coats, so if you used thinner coats you might need more. Still, I didn't get as much pulling, tugging, or unevenness as I expected. Weird right?

China Glaze Sci Fi is awesome to apply and opaque in just one coat, which makes it perfect for konading. Of course, that's evident from these pictures!



I really love this KOTD. I mean, I love purple, and I love chromes, so combining them makes me a very happy girl!

How to Fix a Broken Nail With a DIY Tea Bag Wrap

There I was, opening the freezer door to get some food. I was hungry, therefore I was impatient, and therefore I wasn't really thinking too much about what I was doing. While opening the freezer door, my fingers slipped off the door handle - except my third finger, which caught onto the door handle. I felt a snag on my finger and a bit of pain, and it took me a few seconds to realize that I had just torn my nail.

I was so upset I had to Twitter about it, and my non-nail fanatic friends were laughing at me because they thought it was so funny that I could get so worked up over a nail. But you know how it is with these things. You spend months growing them out, shaping them, caring for them with hand lotion and cuticle cream, and then, just when you think "My nails don't look like rubbish after all", they tear. It's heartbreaking, really, because if you trim them all the way down after a tear, you start from scratch, all over again.

Have a look at the damage. The freezer needs to DIE. I'd have smashed it to bits, but it had three tubs of ice cream inside, and I didn't want to ruin the ice cream.



I didn't want to trim my nails all the way down and start from scratch again, so I decided to try a DIY wrap with a tea bag to hold the nail in place until it grew out. I don't do this very often, so my skills at making teabag wrap are really Noob-ish, so you'll have to put up with the lousy skills here.

You'll Need:
1. Nail Polish Remover or Acetone (swipe over nail before applying the wrap)
2. Cotton Pad (for swiping acetone over nail before application)
3. Nail Glue (not base coat or nail treatment)
4. Tea bags (cut to just slightly smaller than nail size)
5. Scissors (for cutting tea bag wrap to size)
6. Tweezers (for placing the tea bag wrap over your nail surface)
7 Orange Sticks (for holding down the wrap while they dry)
8. File or Buffer (for smoothing out the wrap after application)



I'd like to point out that it HAS to be nail glue that you're using, as I had a question from a reader asking if she could use base coat or nail treatment instead. These weren't made to funtion as adhesives, so if you use them, the tea bag wrap won't stick to your nail. Any kind of nail glue will do, as long as it's a nail adhesive. I used the Nailene Ultra Quick Brush On Nail Glue, which dries fast, and also dries clear, which is useful if you don't want to sit around waiting for the nail glue to dry.

I also used a tea bag. Yup, your normal average tea bag. Cut it out to the size and shape of your nail. I just used a pen and a scissors for that. The cutouts here shown are the actual shape of my nail, but before you apply them you might want to make them a bit smaller than your actual nail size, so that you don't accidentally glue down the wrap onto the skin around your nail (which was what I did).



Step 1:
First, swipe your entire nail plate with acetone or nail polish remover. This helps get rid of the oils on your nails and helps the wrap adhere to your nail more securely.

Step 2:
Seal the tear with a bit of nail glue. You don't have to do this if the tear is small, but for a huge tear where the torn bit doesn't stay in place and might move around, it's a good idea. I think I put a bit too much here. You only really need a little bit to seal the tear. Too much and it will cause a bulge on your nail, which will make it harder to apply the wrap on top. You want to keep the surface flat so the wrap goes on more easily:



I don't have pictures for the next couple of steps, because you have to work quickly, so there wasn't time to stop and take photos.

Step 3:
Apply nail glue over the entire nail. Leave a little gap at the sides and at the base of the nail, near the skin and cuticles and the sides and bottom of the nail. This is important because you don't want to glue your cuticles or skin to your nail wrap!

Step 4:
Then, working quickly, use a pair of tweezers and place the nail-shaped tea bag cutout over your nail. Use tweezers, and not your fingers, or you will glue your fingers to your nail. And that's painful. (Um, not like I would know....*looks away and whistles*)

Step 5:
After the wrap is on the nail, use an orange stick to press down and hold the wrap in place while the glue dries. Remember, use an orange stick and not your fingers, or you'll get your fingers glued to your nail. This step will take a few minutes or longer, depending on how fast your nail glue dries. The important thing in this step is to make sure that there are NO air bubbles under your wrap, between the tea bag material and your nail. If there are any air bubbles, moisture could collect in them, and lead to bacterial growth, on the nail. So if you do see air bubbles, it's better to redo your wrap at this point. Better safe than sorry!

This is what my nail looks like at this point:



As you can see, I am a DIY nail wrap noob, and I glued my cuticles and skin to my nail wrap, because I accidently put too much nail glue and cut the size of the nail wrap a little too big. I ended up using a bit of nail polish remover to un-stick my skin.

Step 6:
Next, put another layer of nail glue on top, and let it dry. The nail glue will saturate the wrap and make it turn clear (or at least, clear-ish). This way, the wrap will be secure, and it won't look as obvious.

Step 7:
You're all done. All that's left is to lightly file or buff down the surface of your wrap to smoothen it out. Don't overdo it, or you'll end up buffing through the wrap. Once you're done filing or buffing, and you can proceed to paint your nails with whatever colour you want.

Here's a photo of the finished wrap (pardon the lint and the remnants of previous polish, this was a photo of the wrap taken later in between manicure changes):



This wrap, noob-ish as it was, lasted me for around 2 weeks. Eventually I redid it because my nails were growing out, and for some strange reason a corner of the wrap chipped off. (Seriously, how does that happen?!)

Here's my fixed-up and pretty-fied nail. You can tell its the middle finger that broke, because the too-big wrap is sticking out from the sides of my nail. Oops.



I love China Glaze LOL, it's an awesome royal purple holo. The only thing is that I feel sad about is that the holo effect was a little bumpy and rough on my broken nail, because the surface of the wrap isn't totally smooth, even after filing. And here's a slightly more flattering photo of my nails:



I guess this means I'm not going to be able to wear holos for the next couple of months until my tear grows out and I don't need the wrap :( And yes, this does mean that you'll see my nail wrap sticking out of all the next few NOTDs, unfortunately. They get less obvious as the wrap grows out, but I hope you guys can pretend it's not there! :X

KOTD: Revlon Plum Attraction and China Glaze 2030

Today's KOTD is a little old, but I thought I'd post it up anyway. I love this combination of purple and gold together - something about it makes the combination seem so regal and royal.

This has a base of Revlon's Plum Attraction, which is a beautiful plummy purple, and China Glaze 2030, which is a fabulous gold chrome that's opaque in one coat, and thus perfect for konading. I also used Konad plate M76 for the design, but I had trouble with it. My konading skills just aren't up to par :X

Anyway, here it is:



Plum Attraction was nicely opaque, and a very pretty plum colour with pretty subtle shimmer. China Glaze 2030 is a straight up gold chrome, but what I like about it is that the gold isn't too orange warm-toned even for cool-toned girls. It's really quite neutral for a gold, which is great for anyone looking for a gold but who might find most options too warm for them.

Application on both was good. This is two coats of Plum Attraction, which was opaque and went on smoothly. I think it could even be used for konading over lighter colours, because it's nicely pigmented. I didn't have any issues with wear either, this one lasted well on me.

Nail Polish Haul: OPI, Essie, China Glaze, and Orly!

Awhile back, to reward myself for getting through a particularly stressful period of school (believe it or not, despite all my professors' assumptions about the "copious free time" we have, us grad students are actually a relatively busy bunch), I decided it was time to place an order of my lemmings. Hey, don't judge me - my groupmate bought himself a camera, so I figured it was perfectly reasonable for me to buy nail polish. And so I did. And these babies arrived all the way from the great USA, the land of cheap Chinaglaze, etailers of nail polish, and buy-1-get-1-free drugstore makeup promotions. Oh, just thinking about it makes me so jealous!

Anyway here is my amazing haul. Please pardon the crappy pictures, they were taken at night under my yellow lamplight, and I suck at using photo-editing software:



Ooh, China Glaze Khromes! I've been wanting these FOREVER for konading purposes! I got China Glaze Sci Fi, Robotika, Millenium, and 2030, in that order from left to right. I'm going crazy just imagining the konading possibilities! Oh, I also got Essie Chinchilly. Mmmmm, grey. But this is not any ordinary grey. This is grey with the slightest green tinge, so chic and unique.



Ooh holos! And duochromes! And my favourite nudey greige mushroomy colour! In order it was Orly Golden Halo (this one is supposed to be sheer though, darn), Orly Country Club Khaki (my favourite! I know I have enough greige nudes, but I can't help it...I need to collect them ALL), and OPI DS Signature and DS Extravagance. I kind of prefer Extravagance, because it has that jewelled quality to it in the base colour, but DS Signature shows more of the holographic "rainbow" in the bottle. I can't wait to try these on my nails - I just KNOW they'll be amazing!

So that's my stress-induced haul. I know I can't be the only one hauling during times of stress, and hey, I figure at least getting a few more pretties is a better way of coping with stress than smoking pot, gambling or drinking :P Yeah, yeah, I know I'm full of excuses...But I can't help it, they're all so pretty!

China Glaze Lubu Heels and Color Club Perfect Plum NOTD

Today's NOTD is the cult favourite, China Glaze Lubu Heels, together with Color Club's Perfect Plum. Lubu Heels, named after the shoes, are a hot favourite, due to its unique combination of a black jelly base and red glitter. Perfect Plum isn't so much plum as it is red, which is why I used it as an accent colour on the ring finger. And as you can tell by the terrible cuticles, this is also an old NOTD. Trust me, you and I both wish I could photoshop the cuticles out, but my skills really don't reach those heights of digital manipulation.

Here's a shot of it in natural light, two coats of Lubu Heels on all the fingers, except the ring finger, and two coats of Color Club Perfect Plum on the ring finger:



While you can tell Lubu Heels isn't just black-black because the red glitter is still somewhat visible through the black jelly, but I still kind of wish the black jelly was a little bit less opaque, so that we could see more of the red glitter. Perfect Plum, meanwhile, isn't so much plum as it is a beautiful jewel-toned red with shimmer.

Here's a shot of it indoors:



I think that Lubu Heels is one of those colours that looks better indoors than outdoors, because the red glitter really shows through much more indoors - here you can see how beautiful it really is. You can also see the shimmer and glow of Perfect Plum in here.

Application was good for both Lubu Heels and Perfect Plum, and wear time was also decent - about 3-4 days, which is average for me. I didn't have any quality issues with either polishes in either way.