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!

Christmas Green and Gold Glitter Gradient Nails with Etude House Lucidarling

Christmas is coming, and it's showing on the nails! Today's nails are Christmas-inspired in the seasonal holiday colours of green and gold, and to add to the festive spirit, there's glitter involved. I attempted to do a gradient manicure with the gold glitter, but it was a big fail.

The green nail polish is Nails Inc Fitzhardinge Street, a deep, dark forest green that's so dark as to be almost black. And the glitter was Etude House's Lucidarling Fantastic Nails in 04 Sequin Crystal Gold.

Here's a shot of my gradient fail Christmas mani:



I love Nails Inc Fitzhardinge Street - it's almost black, and looks black in most lights, especially with 2 coats. What you see on my nails is one coat, so it still looks green. But any thicker and it will look black on the nails.

I also really like the Etude House colour, 04 Sequin Crystal Gold. For those unfamiliar with Asian brands (and how is that possible, I wonder :P ), Etude House is a Korean drugstore brand that can be found in Asia, and they have cute and girly packaging. The colour, 04 Sequin Crystal Gold, is part of their Lucidarling range, and it contains two sizes of glitter - a small gold glitter, as well as larger circular holographic glitter. And they do have really cute packaging! Take a look at the awfully girly bottle:



So now that I've shown you the kawaii-ness of the bottle, let's get back to my nails. I attempted to do the gradient by painting my tips, and then extending the glitter area a little outside the tips. I don't think I did well, but I guess it was my first time:



I know it's not as awesomely blingy or nail art-y as it could have been, but this was the easiest way to sneak in some Christmas spirit without my boss at work noticing!

Nubar Purple Beach: Duochrome, Triplechrome, Multichrome Awesomeness!

Nubar ranks number one on my list of "most underrated nail polish brands ever". I don't know why they aren't conquering the world like they really ought to be doing. Their polish has near flawless application, they retail for less expensive than OPIs, they have one of the longest staying power for nail polish I've seen (on me, at least), and they make some of the best colour effects I've seen - duochromes, glass flecks, mattes, suedes, you name it - they have it. I just don't think they have a holo, but I may be wrong on that.

Anyway, one of the biggest draws about Nubar is that their duochromes are AWESOMELY DUOCHROME. It's not one of those wimpy duochromes that are like, "hey I'm a duochrome, but you have to tilt me at an 89.95 degree angle to see a slight flash of blue in the upper right corner of your nail". Noooo, Nubar duochromes are shameless little things - they scream "I'M A DUOCHROME AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TILT YOUR NAIL TO SEE IT!" That's why I love them so much. Sometimes, you even get a colour that is called a duochrome but is far more complex than that.

Like Purple Beach. This one is billed as a purple/green duochrome, but I'm going to show you that calling it a duochrome isn't quite doing the polish justice. I prefer to call it multichrome (and I just made up a word, woo!)



That's Purple Beach straight on in natural lighting. Notice that you don't have to turn and twist your hand into awkward angles just to see a hint of duochrome. I love purples, and I love duochromes, so this makes me VERY happy.



In this photo above, you can really see the green duochrome. And some brown. Woohoo, so this thing flashes brown, green, AND purple. Tri-chrome goodness!

Want to see more duochrome? I knew you'd say yes, so here you go:



And lastly, here is a picture of Purple Beach in indoor lighting. This one really brings out a different side of it. Here you can see it's primarily bronze/brown, with some flash of green-gold at the sides. Really gorgeous.



This lasted for almost a week before chipping, which is a record time for me! I'm absolutely in love with this shade. I love duochromes, and Nubar is my newfound love!

Nails Inc Elizabeth Street and Fitzhardinge Street Leopard Spots KOTD

Today's KOTD is using two Nails Inc colours, Elizabeth Street, and Fitzhardinge Street. I konaded using plate M57. As you can see it wasn't that great - I'm still struggling to put on a full nail design properly.

Nails Inc Elizabeth Street is a sheer-ish, pale milky pink creme, very subtle, very pretty, and work appropriate. The first coat is a little streaky, but it applies well after 2 coats, and evens out after that. Nails Inc Fitzhardinge Street is a deep, deep green that looks like black, also another creme. It looks a little more green when you konad with it, because you only use a thin layer of the polish for konading. I guess this isn't the best konading job ever - as you can see, there are patches in the leopard print.

Anyway, here is the not-that-great konad job, in natural shaded light:



I really love Nails Inc, I do believe they're just about the best polish brand I've tried out there. And I keep saying it everytime I use something from them, but I can't help it. I'm starting to have this dangerous need to collect every Nails Inc colour out there. I've always found the application and wear to be pretty good. Elizabeth Street isn't as awesome as some of the others, but it is still really decent. I suspect this relative lack of quality might be due to the fact that I got Elizabeth Street when they were giving them out free with a copy of Glamour, and maybe the free bottles aren't as good as the bottles in stores? I really wouldn't know though, it's just a guess, since all my other Nails Incs apply soooo smoothly. Fitzhardinge Street had the usual awesome Nails Inc application. This konad lasted for about 3-4 days before chipping, which is about average for me, so wear time is decent as well.

OPI Jade is the New Black Dupe? Asos Paints by Ciate Pixie

Of course, we've all been looking at pictures of OPI's upcoming Hong Kong collection that will be released in Spring, and while I was browsing the gorgeous pictures of many a beautiful finger, a thought suddenly struck me - Jade is the New Black looked hauntingly familiar. In fact, it kind of looked like something I already had in my stash, and that was released in Winter!

Ooh. Just goes to show you that these types of emerald-jade slightly dustied jewel greens are awesome and chic year round, be it Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. Anyway, regular readers of this blog will probably be able to guess what I was talking about, because awhile back, I posted bottle pics of potential-dupe-in-question here. But of course bottle pictures are inconclusive. And as it so happens, I've actually used it for a mani since then!

Behold, a potential dupe-or-not for OPI's Jade is the New Black. Maybe it's not a dupe, but it's definitely in the same family, or if not, a close neighbour. From what I could tell based on other bloggers' swatches, the main difference is that Pixie is a little more blue-toned, while the OPI is more yellow-based. I do think they are close though. I only wish I had the actual OPI colour so I could do a side-by-side comparison. But anyways, this maybe-it's-a-dupe-maybe-it's-not isn't too shabby either. It's cheaper (for the UK ladies, that is), it's beautiful and creamy, it covers in one coat (although I used two out of habit) and it's none other than Pixie, from the Asos Paints by Ciate Winter Collection!

Observe it's beauty, in natural light:



And here it is indoors:



Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I had to pair it with $OPI's Run With It, a beautiful, albeit streaky and sheer, silvery grey, and I konaded over the ring finger with Pixie, using Konad plate M57 (I think. I'm bad at remembering which plates I used).

Anyway, can I just sing the praises of Pixie again? Oh Asos and Ciate, you have done it again. Beautiful, pigmented, creamy, good texture, and very smooth creme. Unfortunately, it's let down by a brush that likes to skip and make application not as great as it could be. Which is really unfortunate, because the formulation of this was near perfect, and it was a shame that it was let down by the brush.

I also really liked Pixie, because it is something of a chameleon, colour-wise. Indoors it leans a little blue, and sometimes I swore it looked rather teal on my fingers. But outdoors, it looks most mostly green. And this isn't a wimpy mint-jade green (haven't we had enough of those already?) but it's a much sexier, much more sophisticated, much more chic older sister of those green wannabes. It's deep, but not too deep, and it's a mix of emerald and jade colours, and is bright but still a little dusty, making it eyecatching but still very wearable. And of course it likes to tease me by being bluish and teal sometimes.

So OPI, don't say I didn't warn ya, but you have competition! I only wish I could get my hands on OPI Jade is the New Black to do a side-by-side comparison!

Nails Inc Half Moon Street and $OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart: My Nails are Nubbins!

The main reason why I hate travelling is because it ruins my nails. (I know, I have a problem.) This is what happened after a 12-14 hour flight:



Just to compare, this is how they were before the flight (they were longer, but I was waiting for them to grow out a lil more before I filed them into the right shape, hence the uneveness in length and shape):



That NOTD was $OPI Absinthe Makes the Heart. That one I love. I don't normally like greens, because I'm a colour wimp, but I LOVE this one. It's a greyish green - or a greenish grey - with super cool foil effect, and a good amount of glitter. I really love how it looks, and I think it would look cool with a matte topcoat over it too. Somehow, my skintone seems to draw out the extreme colour possibilities in it - on me, sometimes it even looks positively emerald green, while other times it looks like a metallic gunmetal grey. I really like this one. It's like, deep, jewelled green with tons of grey. Cool. It applied a little sheer, so this is 3 coats. 2 would have covered most areas, but I wanted to cover everything.

Anyway, back to the sad state of my travel-worn nubbins. They're all short and uneven now. I'm hoping they'll grow out soon. It just makes me want to cry, because that was 3.5 weeks of growing out my nails down the drain (yes, my nails grow slower than snails move, and they break and peel, so that was my record length so far). If only there was a way to travel that wouldn't ruin my nails...I'd love travelling so much more.

But since I'm all stuck with short nails for however long they take to grow out, I'm going to wear all the bold and vampy colours I can while the nubbins last. So, you know, the next few NOTDs are going to be bold and dark! No more nudes!

So for now, my mani is Nails Inc Half Moon Street. This is an exclusive I believe, but I cant remember what exactly it was exclusive to. I believe it was one of those "Wow-you've-spent-so-much-money-on-our-stuff-so-here's-a-little-something-for-you" free gifts they give you if you place a big order on their website, which would absolutely explain how and why I have it. Its also very beautiful. It's a glowy magenta-pinky-red type of colour, with a lit-from within look, and a finish that defies description. I'd call it a shimmer with a metallic leaning. It has superfine silver shimmer that shows up as a sort of metallic glow. Very lovely. I don't really like bright pinks in general, but this one really has me staring at it all day long.

Application, as is usual for Nails Inc, was a dream. This one was very pigmented and smooth. I did two coats, although if I had better skills I could have gotten away with one coat. Love this one.

Here it is in artificial light, and you can see the shimmer in greater detail here:



And because I do so love this colour, here is a close-up shot of my nails. Take a look at the glowy goodness emanating from this thing!



I'm really starting to like Nails Inc a lot. With the exception of Elizabeth Street which was a dud (and I'm thinking it may be a dud because it was the free polish that came with Glamour Mag, and maybe they cut corners for the freebie), every Nails Inc polish I've tried has been nothing short of fabulous. The only thing is, most of their interesting colours tend to be exclusives, leaving the permanent line of colours a little dull. They've only just started coming out with mattes, months after all the big players have made their moves, and they've yet to come out with a duochrome, a flakie, or a holo. Awww come on, Nails Inc, I'm tired of waiting already!

And since we're hurrying the world along, while we're at it, let's tell my nubbins to hurry up and grow out! I'm waiting! And my polish stash is waiting!

Asos Paints by Ciate Winter Collection Bottle Pics

Ciate is a UK-based brand of nail polish founded by celebrity nail technican Charlotte Straughan, and is hard to find, even within the UK (or at least in Central London, where I'm at). I end up ordering most of mine online. They also aren't very well-known or popular (unlike fellow UK-based nail polish brand Nails Inc), but those who are in the know will have at least heard of them. They also have the cutest bottles ever. I don't have enough Ciate to form a good opinion of their quality in general, but I've heard raves from some, and I've also heard from others that it's a hit-and-miss brnad (like every other). In general they seem pretty good though.

Ciate also has a line of nail polish specially created for ASOS, called Asos Paints by Ciate, kind of like how Sephora has their Sephora by OPI collection. These have a similar packaging, but it's not exactly like the regular Ciate collection. The bottles are smaller, being 9ml instead of 13.5ml, and the bottles are also square instead of rectangular, and have a shorter handle. Each season, ASOS also releases a limited edition Asos Paints by Ciate. I just got the Winter 2009 Asos Paints by Ciate collection, because it was on sale at Asos, so that explains why I'm reviewing these after the fact. I'm sorry, but I'm not gettin' any swag down here, so everything I review either comes from my own pocket, or me squatting at counters and swatching their testers. What can I say, it's tough being a small-time blogger, LOL.

Anyway, the Asos Paints by Ciate Winter 2009 collection consists of 3 pretty exciting colours that are awesome all-year round. I haven't gotten around to trying them out yet, but here are bottle pictures! I know bottle pictures aren't preferred, and most people would rather see on-nail swatches, but I couldn't wait (and not just because I'm overdue). This collection's pretty cool - it's a good digression from the usual pale pinks and sheers. Without further ado, here are pictures!



Here's the entire collection altogether. This photo isn't very great, the individual bottle pictures are more accurate.



First up is Pixie, a emerald-jade green, that's NOT a Chanel Jade dupe. It's a darker, deeper and more jewel-toned green, more emerald and less pastel. I LOVE this colour, and I don't even normally like greens! This is a creme finish, very smooth looking.



Next up is Agyness, a medium-to-dark royal purple with multicoloured shimmer. I love purples, so this is right up my alley.



Lastly, we have Mary-Kate, which is a really awesome black with fine glitter. I can't really discern all the glitter in this colour, but from the bottle it looks to be gold, but it also has hints of orange and green. Super cool. It's hard to tell if the black is opaque or jelly-ish, but I'm hoping it's a jelly! I totally want to try this one out. This is probably my favourite of the bunch! It kind of reminds me of $OPI 212, except that 212 has bigger chunks of glitter. The glitter in this one isn't too big.

So that's it for today, and when I do get around to trying this out (my untrieds list of nail polish is so long right now), I'll be sure to do an NOTD post!