Valentine's Day Nails: Purple Holo Hearts!

February would not be complete without a Valentine's Day manicure - I mean, without fail, V-day is one of the biggest highlights of the month - not just for us as individuals, but also, I'm sure, for the companies and retailers that bastardize the occasion every year in order to hawk their cheesy, red-and-pink-hearts-and-roses-bedecked wares, haha. Well, you know how I feel about crass commercialism, but a little (or a lot of) money-making never stopped us from enjoying the season!

This year, my Valentine's Day nails are purple! and holo! and they have hearts on them! and the hearts are holo too! So, what's not to like? For the base polish, I used Color Club Fashion Addict, which is a gorgeous lilac polish with a holographic finish. Unfortunately, the holographic effect in this isn't that strong (in a super old KOTD I've tried and failed to capture this lilac holographic finish). I then added on these cheap purple holographic hearts I got from Daiso. And then I was set!


For this look, I just added the hearts in a more or less random fashion. As long as they looked good, I didn't really bother where they landed. Each nail had three, except for my tiny last nail which only had two. Also, as you can see from the photos, I had trouble capturing the holo-ness of both the hearts and the polish in my photos. Bah, humbug!


So that's it - this one is really easy to do, and not even all that much work! And I think it looks fab in real life - purple holo hearts on purple holo polish is like, totally hawt! What are you guys doing for V-Day?

P.S. Want to see my older Valentine's Day nail art from past years? I get inspired in all kinds of ways, so I have a Valentine's Day nail look with no pink at all, an obnoxiously over-flowered V-Day mani, a V-Day mani that was hot pink and black, and an annoying-looking red-and-pink nail look, so you guys know this year's is already one of the "better" ones. I even have an Anti-Valentine's Day manicure!

Gold and Green Leopard Print Nails

Look at my nails! I don't konad often, but I was inspired by the colours of green and gold. And I have leopard print nails!

I used my favourite konad plate of all time, M57, for this KOTD (konad of the day). For the base, I used China Glaze Westside Warrior (which has made a brief appearance on my blog before, and for the gold, I used my favourite gold of all time, Orly Luxe (also featured on the blog before, not once, but twice).



I rather like this, it has a very safari-like feel. I'm also actually thinking this colour combination would make a great eye look - in fact, I have done a gold and green eye look before.



So there you have it, my nail look of the moment! What are your nails like right now?

Fall/Winter 2012/2013 French Manicure

Remember my last post on the Fall/Winter 2012/2013 nail trends? Well one of the things that was huge on the runway was this French manicure, with a nude base and dark tip:

I decided to try it out for myself to see how good it was in tea life, and I have to say, that this is pretty wearable.


Here, I used Rimmel Beige Style (totally the most underrated nude ever - why this isn't a cult favourite like OPI Tickle My Francey is beyond me), and I used Nails Inc Victoria, the perfect "oxblood" (that's what those runway folks are calling it, not me!) type colour for the season. It's also pretty opaque (one coat gives you full coverage) and so is perfect for these types of nail tips.


I actually freehanded the tips myself, and my key takeaway from this was that I should never attempt to freehand those tips, upon pain of death. I know I keep saying that I shouldn't freehand those tips, and then I keep on doing it, but it's because these things always look so much simpler than they really are! So I'm always thinking "I could do this!" until I actually do it, and then I'm like, "Oh crap."


I like the look, as these are very chic, but I feel like these aren't as practical as they look - once the tips start chipping, it becomes obvious that something is wrong with your manicure. But it does look great though, so maybe it might be worth the trouble for some.

Deconstructed Nails: Deborah Lippmann Marquee Moon and Some Bling

One of the key colours for nails this Fall/Winter season has been grey - specifically light grey (a la Chanel Frenzy). I've also been inspired by the idea of deconstructed nails lately, so I thought I'd combine the two to get a deconstructed-looking nail!

When I googled "deconstructed nail look", I got a lot of pics of crackle polish (yawn, so yesteryear), and that look Emma Watson wore on a magazine cover (which IMHO doesn't look deconstructed, just destroyed). I personally prefer my polished nails to actually look like polished nails, so I set about thinking about how the nails could look deconstructed but not ruined. I guess in the end it just had to do with random placement of sequins and gems.

For this look I used two costs of Deborah Lippmann's Marquee Moon, which is silver hex glitter in a silver base. I swear, this polish deposits it's glitter anyhow it wants! Sometimes (more often than not) I get less or no glitter, sometimes I get a bunch of glitter all in one clump. I like the concept of the polish, with its idea of playing on textures, but man, this was driving me nuts. I then put two square pieces of gemstones on my nails randomly on each nail. And ta-da, deconstructed nails with a nod to the season's colour trends (not that the colour trends matter, really).


Anyway, there you have it! My deconstructed Fall/Winter nails. It's quite a fun look, and pretty easy to do, as my nail art tends to be (because my skillz suck). The best thing I like about this look is that it is quite neutral colour-wise, and would go with just about anything, although its also edgy enough not to become a wallflower nail look.

Stuff I Tried And Didn't Like: Face Shop Top Coat

Don't you just hate it when you do your mani and it looks great at first, and then ding it hours later because the topcoat takes too long to dry? It's so frustrating. Well, now you know which topcoat to avoid if you don't want this to happen to you!

Face Shop has a few topcoats, and the offending one I used was the Face It Nails 04 Long Lasting Top Coat. There seems to be two types of top coat with this name (Korean brands, particularly Face Shop, do this sometimes - remember my Face Shop PP409 which had not one but two other polishes with the same name?), a pink one, and a clear one. I used the pink one, shown below.


Source
Anyway, let me proceed to complain about how this lousy topcoat ruined my manicure. The other day, I decided to paint my nails - just a quick, two-coats-and-I'm-done thing. It was awesome, by the way. China Glaze Westside Warrior. Military olive green, deep but not so dark you'd mistake it for black, and a totally chic edgy neutral.

I had used another Face Shop Base Coat, the Lovely Me:ex Nails No.2 Base Coat. I didn't really have all that much to say about it. It was okay-I-guess.


Source
So base coat, two coats of Westside Warrior, and that lousy topcoat. I waited for a few minutes, and then carried on with my day. With other topcoats (Seche, Nails Inc, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) this hasn't been a problem, but with the Face Shop topcoat, the next thing you know, the surfaces of a couple of my nails got dulled and roughened, just because I was doing things like typing at my computer and getting cash out of my wallet. That was a first sign things were bad. The best topcoats I've used are dry to the touch (though still dentable) within the first half an hour after application, so typically I expect that a good topcoat will allow to do most everyday activities (gently and cautiously), and then be fully dry (or at least no longer dentable unless you use force) an hour or so after that. This one felt like it was soft and dentable the entire day. Look at the photo of my nails below, after one day. You can see all the surface scratches and smudges. And this is already the better looking hand. SIGH.

Anyway, I figured that since I painted my nails in the afternoon, when I went to bed at night, I shouldn't get sheetmarks. Right? Nope, WRONG. I woke up the next morning with more dull nails and a couple of dings. Because, y'know, more than 12 freakin' hours isn't really long enough for a good topcoat to do its job and dry completely. HAH.

So now you know. I tried out a sucky product so you don't have to! Would I recommend this? Well, if you're looking for a topcoat that's still not fully dry and still dentable after 12 hours - be my guest. Else, save the money, and thank me later.

Halloween Nail Art: Purple Glam, Stars and Scars

Halloween is coming up, and I just feel so inspired to do some Halloween nails! I'll be frank - the Halloween nail art that I did last year sucked, so I thought that this year, I had a lot of room for improvement. And this year, I present to you this!

This year, I used the classic Halloween of purple and orange. I used Zoya Yasmeen as a base. I have to tell ya, Zoya Yasmeen is da bomb. I've done a Zoya Yasmeen NOTD back in the day waaay back when, and I still love it!


I then placed these orange stars randomly on my mani, and then I added in the white scars freehand with a long nail art brush.


I actually really like the overall effect, the stars over the purple add a little bit of glam, while the white scars added a little bit of an edge. It's glam but still very much a Halloween manicure! Actually it already looked good enough with just the orange stars, but I figured out that a little edge to the nail look couldn't hurt!


Actually, I don't really celebrate Halloween at all, but I kind of just like utilizing some of the colours for nail art just to go along with the festive mood of the season. Anyone else having fun with Halloween on your nails?

Pink and White Gradient BCA Nails

So after my first Breast Cancer Awareness month manicure, I decided to do a second BCA mani! This time, I used the same pink and white colour scheme, but I used a bit of glitter as well! And of course, the pink ribbon is there on the accent nail.

Although this mani is simple, I actually used a total of four different polishes. For the white and pink gradient, I used Wet n' Wild White (duh), while the pink was RBL Lulu, a very pretty pastel pink of the BCA variety.


The pink ribbon is Wet n' Wild Quartz of Course, and I freehanded the ribbon again this time. And then I topped that with OPI Princesses Rule! which actually is tiny glitter in a base that has a slight tinge of pinky sheerness. I kinda overestimated how sheer the polish was, and when I applied it over my mani it actually made everything look pinker. Oops.


So that's my second BCA mani! Hope you guys like it! Stay healthy and pretty everyone, and take care of your health! You can read up further on breasts cancer here, and there are lots of other resources available too. Breast cancer is the 5th top cause of deaths, so if you're in the at-risk age group (50 to 74), the best way to detect breast cancer is to get a mammogram once every 2 years.

Fade to Black Gradient Manicure

Look! Gradient nails! And with three colours, too! I don't know about you, but I recently started experimenting with making gradient nails with a sponge, and I'm loving it! For these nails, I did a gradient with three - yes three! - shades. I think this is a first for me, LOL. I used Wet n' Wild White, Wet n' Wild Black, and Essie Chinchilly for the grey.

I first painted my nails with Wet n' Wild White as a base, then I took a sponge (I just use whatever I can get my hands on - I use the sponges that I have at home to wash dishes), and did three stripes of paint in each colour next to each other on the sponge. Then I transferred the polish from the sponge to my nail. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the "sponge marks" on my mani. Maybe I should have used more polish on the sponge, or a different type of sponge? Anyway, when I figure it out, I'll let you guys know.


The trick to this, I think, is to blend the polishes on the sponge before transferring them to the nail. Also, I think it helps to use polished that are opaque and give good coverage.

The downside to this is that you get polish all over your cuticles and skin around the nail, and cleanup can be a pain. Especially if, like me, you used black or a dark shade, then it's quite hard to remove all that crap that gets stuck at the base of your nails. But the end effect is so cool, I think it's worth it!


So ta-da, my gradient manicure! I'm really loving how this looks, despite the pain it was to clean up, it has a very moody-chic vibe to it.

BCA Manicure: Pink and White Freehand Nail Art

Breast cancer awareness month is every October, and so I thought I'd do my little bit by doing a couple of BCA manicures.

This manicure is pink and white. For the pink, I used Orly Rage, which is a very pretty BCA-ish metallic pink, even if the name of the polish isn't BCA-like at all. I mean, usually BCA polishes have very uplifting and inspiring names right? Like Courage, Hope, Strength, etc etc. I find it rather amusing that this is called Rage, nevermind that it isn't actually supposed to be a BCA polish. For the white, I used my trusty old Wet n' Wild White. Still the best white around, oh yes it is. Opaque in one coat, but I used two here to even out the surface.


All the art was done freehand with a skinny nail art brush (as you can probably tell). It was really quite easy to do. I just painted two coats of the base colours on the nails, then freehanded the ribbon and pink lines. Not much else to say, I guess!


So that's my BCA mani! Breast cancer is the 5th top cause of deaths, so if you're in the at-risk age group (50 to 74), the best way to detect breast cancer is to get a mammogram once every 2 years!

Under the Sea Jelly Sandwich Manicure

So the last time I did a jelly sandwich manicure, I was kind of on the fence about it. So I decided to give it another go, to see if I really loved it or not.

This time, I used China Glaze Lorelai's Tiara, and Nicole by OPI Somebody Teal Love. Yes, I used a Justin Bieber nail polish. No, I am not a fan of Justin Bieber, I'm a little older than his target demographic (although I'm sure if I were 10 years younger and in my early tweens, I'd have such a huge crush on him). Yes, I am ashamed. But it's okay. It's nail polish. At least I didn't buy his CD!


Anyway, Somebody Teal Love is very, very sheer. Like man-this-is-the-fourth-freaking-coat-of-polish-and-why-am-I-still-seeing-VNL-with-four-freaking-coats kind of sheer. So, I thought it would be perfect for the purpose of a jelly sandwich. Lorelai's Tiara, of course, has all this big happy glitter, and I just love it.


I used 2 coats of Somebody Teal Love as the base, then two coats of Lorelai's Tiara, and 2 coats of Somebody Teal Love. So this mani ended up being a little thicker than I was used to, but I still liked it! I actually quite like this combination, it looks like there are jewels beneath a sea embedded in my nails, twinkling from below the surface... (I'm all waxing poetic now, aren't I?)


Anyway, I think the jelly manicure may actually be growing on me. I think I just need to experiment with more glitter and jelly types!

Elianto Burnt Umber: Rich Autumn in a Nail Polish!

So I have on my nails Elianto Burnt Umber, and all I have to say is, OMG this is one gorgeous polish. Yeah sure it's brown, but it's not an ugly, poopy kinda brown. This one is so beautiful and wearable it just pops out at you! I previously blogged about this polish (and a few other things) in my haul post from a super long time ago, and I'm only starting to wear it now!

See what I mean? Unfortunately it was already late afternoon when I painted my nails, so you guys won't get to see this baby sparkling in all it's glory. But this is good too - its pretty from any angle! I bought this like eons ago in the polish fanatic's world (in the real world it's more like one year, but the polish world moves quickly), and I only just got around to trying it.


Burnt Umber is a rusty browned-burgundy base, with loads of gold and (I think) orange shimmer. This mix of colours is what makes it amazing. In most lights it looks like a rusty brown with rich gold shimmer, but sometimes I feel like it looks slightly more burgundy instead. From some angles, I even see some sort of green tinge to the glitter, although it doesn't translate as well on the nail.

And the best thing is, because Burnt Umber isn't like, brown brown, but reddish brown, it's incredibly flattering on my hands and fingers. I imagine the fact that it leans red makes it more wearable (I mean, red is a classic colour for nail polish, right?). And the shimmer really makes the shade look so luxe. It even looks good in indoor lights because the shimmer reflects the light and catches the eye.


Application was also a breeze. I didn't have any major application issues, and two coats gave full opacity. The polish pretty much applied itself. I have to say, if all of Elianto's polishes apply this way, I need to get them alllll. What's not to like? I tried this with my PVA glue base coat (Elmer's glue), and it stayed on pretty well! At the end of the 4th day, I wa starting to get a few chips at the corners of my nails - which is pretty good for me, since I usually get chips into my 3rd or 4th day. It could have lasted longer, but I got impatient and peeled it off.


The autumnal look of the polish, as well as its fantastic shimmer, was what made me try it on (albeit one year later!), and I find I'm really loving it! It kinda looks like the colour of falling leaves to me. Anyone else loving rich colours like this one?

Nubar Night Sparkle: Glitter Made Glamorous

So remember how in a previous post, I showed you guys how awesome my experimental PVA glue base coat was? Well some of you may recall the nail polish I used for demonstrating the base coat - Nubar Night Glitter! Well I loved it so much, I decided Night Glitter needed its own post!


Nubar Night Glitter isn't really the type of polish I would have bought at first glance, but I received this in a swap, and I'm glad I did! Because it looks so much more impressive on the nail than in the bottle.


In the bottle, Night Glitter looks somewhat boring, compared to the fancy-schmamcy glitters you see nowadays. For one, all the glitter is the same shape. And size. And colour. But once I painted my nails with it, I could totally see why it was the standout of the entire Nubar Sparkle collection. Because it's just so darn friggin' gorgeous.

On the nail, Nubar Night Sparkle is a very pretty royal blue glitter that twinkles and sparkles like the night sky. It always looks visibly blue, and although it sparkles more in the sun, it equally beautiful in the shade. The light reflecting off the glitter is indeed a beautiful sight. It looks like a gemstone on my nails! The name Night Sparkle is quite apt in the case of this polish. Night in a gemstone. Me likey.


I also didn't have any application issues. The texture was slightly thick (like most glitter polishes), but the glitter was dense enough that two costs gave good opacity, and there wasn't much glitter clumping. You don't have to layer these, I think they're really better worn alone.


The best thing I love about Nubar Night Sparkle? Although it was originally released in Spring 2010, it's pretty much something you can wear year round, not just Spring. The glitter is perfect for summer days when you want some glitter that catches the sunlight and don't feel like a neon/bright shade, and the deep blue shade goes well for Fall/Winter too. And heck, it's pretty enough to wear year-round, whether you follow those colour fashion trends or not. Now let me smack myself for waiting 2 years to open my dusty bottle!

Fall/Winter 2012 Nails: Classic Nude, Brown and Pearls

In my last post, I commented that this season's Fall/Winter 2012 nail trends were kinda boring, especially where colours were concerned, since this season's shades were mostly all dark vampies and fleshtone neutrals. So, I set out to jazz it up with a little bling, while still retaining some element of its classic, timeless feel. And here is the result - classic bling, in the form of pearls!

For inspiration, I actualaly looked at this modified french manicure, with a nude base and a vampy tip. It was making the rounds on the runway as part of the Fall/Winter 2012 trends this year. When I saw the look, I thought to myself, "That's a classic colour scheme, but I wonder if I could do something to it - it looks like it could use a teeny bit of bling."

(Source: Vogue)
So, I did just that! I retained the colour scheme - don't wanna mess with a good thing too much - but added the pearls, and changed the shape of the painted tip.


For the base, I used Rimmel Beige Style, which is seriously one of the most underrated polishes out there. It's cheap, available, and a classic shade that would probably look good on most people. Beige Style is a fleshtone nude creme (I think it's a creme anyway - it has the slightest of shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show up on the nail). For the nail tip, I used Megan Miller Ganache, which is a rich chocolate brown creme. I basically free-handed the curved tip using Ganache. It doesn't have to be THAT neat because the smile line will be covered by the pearls.


Can I digress a little at this point? I love Megan Miller polishes - the two I have are fantastic in terms of colour payoff, texture, and brush shape/size, but man, I really hate the bottles. The cork cap really annoys me to no end, because fluff and dirt and dust get onto the cap really badly. I have to like, do some dust removal every now and then. I think my cork cap is eventually going to get all moldy and gross (I live in a very hot and very humid climate near the equator), and I'm not looking forward to it. But anyway, moving on.


For the pearls, I used three different sizes of pearls and aligned them along the smile line from large to small. For handling of the pearls, I used the ever-helpful wet toothpick tip - basically you dip the tip of a toothpick in water, and the wet toothpick will pick up the pearls due to the surface tension of the water. When the pearl touches the wet nail polish, the pearl will stick to the polish. Much easier than using tweezers!


Anyway, this is my slightly-more-blinged-up-but-still-classic take on this Fall/Winter's French manicure. I'm really liking it, as it's easy to do, and looks great, even if you aren't into crazy nail art. In fact, my non-nail-polishaholic sister commented that she actually liked this look! I think it would be great to try this with other colour schemes too.

Face Shop Face It PP409 Nail Polish: Total Glitter Gorgeousness!

I've been seeing photos of The Face Shop's PP409 nail polish online, and I finally decided that I absolutely HAD to have it. I mean - it's purple, and it's glitter, AND the glitter is multi-coloured and multi-sized! Awesomesauce! Turns out this is one of Face Shop's newer releases, perhaps for the upcoming season (I don't really keep track of Korean nail polish trends, I gotta admit...)

So I ran down to my nearest Face Shop store, and prompty bought up this little baby! There were only two left in the display when I went down, so I felt like I had really scored, LOL. I am proud to say I am now the new owner of my very own bottle of PP409! PP409 is from the FaceIt series of nail polish, so if you're buying online, take note that it's not this other Face Shop PP409, or this other OTHER Face Shop PP409 - do check the nail polish range in addition to the colour name! (If you want to know how some Asian brands name their nail polish and why this makes for confusing names sometimes, you may wish to check out the last paragraph of this post.)


Face Shop Face It PP409 is a gorgeous glitter polish - it's got a mix of lilac and blue glitter in various shapes and sizes, so if you're a glitter lover like me, this is totally right up your alley. There's larger hexagonal lilac glitter, normal darker purple glitter, and normal blue glitter, all mixed up in a clear base. The glitter isn't very thick, though, so this is really more of a layering polish - if you want to wear it alone, I imagine you'd need 4-5 coats for full opacity.


I layered mine over Barry M's Vivid Purple, which, while stunning on its own, really brings out the gorgeous glitter (I've previously tried out a combination of layering Barry M Vivid Purple with Orly Fantasea, and the results were fantabulous). I think a deep purple polish is the perfect base for PP409 - although I'm pretty sure deep blue (like navy) or black would also rock. Actually, you know what, I think a lighter lilac or even white would be reallly pretty, too, for a more ladylike, subtle look.


So there you have it - my current favourite nail polish at the moment! And it was less than S$10, too, so it was a great deal. Knowing The Face Shop, these may or may not be permanent (the shop assistant I bought the nail poish told me she thought that this shade was limited edition, but I could tell she was pretty clueless herself, so make of it what you will), so if you're keen to get a bottle, don't hesistate.