Reverse Chevron Manicure Tutorial with OPI Nicki Minaj Shades

When I got my Feburary Vanity Trove, my mind was just racing with all the possibilities for some nail art fun. Finally, I settled on these pink and black glitter Chevron nails.

These were pretty easy to do, too. The tutorial below shows you just how easy it is.

1. First, paint your base colour. (I'm assuming you already have base coat on, of course.) Here I used OPI Pink Friday from the Nicki Minaj Collection.



2. After the base layer is dry, stick tape on top of the base layer in your desired Chevron shape.



3. Then, paint the top shade from the taped area to the ends of the nails. Here I used Wet n' Wild Black.



4. If you want to jazz up your Chevron, add a little glitter! This is OPI Save Me from the Nicki Minaj Collection.



5. Wait for the polish to dry, then peel off the tape, and viola! Chevron nails, with glitter on top!



Lastly, here are a few final tips I hope you'll find useful. Firstly, before you lay the tape over your base layer, make sure the base layer is really, truly dry. If not, the tape will peel the base layer off your nail. Also, for a sharper Chevron edge, wait til the polish is dry (or mostly dry) before peeling off the tape. If the polish is too wet, it will smudge when the tape is being peeled off.

I like this combination very much, I like the contrast of pink and black, and I also feel like the holo and silver glitter in Save Me really stands out against the black. I actually got these polishes in my Feburary Vanity Trove, so if you're interested you can check out Vanity Trove.

Nicki Minaj Super Bass Inspired Nails: White and Hot Pink Crackle!

Say what you will about my music taste, but I gotta admit that Nicki Minaj single, Super Bass, sure is catchy. (I know the song isn't eactly new now, but believe it or not, I've listened to this song so many times that I can rap the entire song by heart! Who says nerdy Asian girls can't rap, huh?) I really like the video as well - so bright, colorful, and candy-like. I mean, just look at her outfit!

Source

Anyway, while I was watching the video and singing/rapping along, I thought - I could do my nails just like her outfit! So I did, and here is the result:

This look is really simple to do, thanks to the awesomeness of shatter polish. Here I used Wet n'Wild White for the base, and over it I put BeautyUK's Shatter Polish in Punk. Punk is a bright neon pink, which I absolutely love - I don't think there's a shatter polish colour quite like it.



I know Nicki Minaj's outfit is more animal print-ish than shatter polish, so I guess if you have a Konad plate that has a similar pattern it would probably work as well. But I don't, so I just cheated using my shatter polish.



I know shatter polishes aren't quite the trend anymore, but on the occasion that I use one, it still makes me smile. And I was just inspired by Nicki Minaj's outfit to bring it out!

Anti-Valentine's Day Nail Art: Shattered Hearts!

Not everyone loves Valentine's Day. Some don't have a significant other, some don't like the crass commercialization, and some just aren't the type to make a big deal out of things. So, here's my Anti-Valentine's Day nails - shattered hearts!

I figured, since I already paid my dues by having Valentine's Day nails (not once but twice! C.f. my Valentine's Day nails with a touch of spring and my Neon pink and black Valentine's Day nails), why not do an Anti-Valentine's Day mani? I decided to work with the theme of being heartbroken, and decided to have a girly pink base with broken hearts.

The pink base was Orly Rage (I've previously compared Orly Rage and GOSH Frou Frou), a gorgeous opaque, non-streaky and non-brush-strokey pink foil. (Is non-brush-strokey even a word?) The black hearts were made with OPI's Black Shatter, although any black crackle polish would have done too.



In my head, this seemed like a good mani, since shatter polishes naturally crackle, so they lend themselves well to the "shattered hearts" look I was trying to achieve. The hard part was getting them to take the shape of a heart! I tried everything - freehand, tape, self-made stencils using paper and scissors - and nothing worked really well. They just looked like random shapes, not hearts. In the end, I just filled out the heart shapes more fully using my Wet n' Wild Black nail polish.



I don't know if these look anything like hearts to you, but that was probably the best I could do. I liked the concept and the "shattered hearts" idea, but I'm feeling a bit meh about my execution. But still, here's my Anti-Valentine's mani! What do you guys think? Shattered hearts, or just mere blobs?

Sparitual Strength: My Gorgeous (Nearly) Belated BCA Mani

I know it's Halloween and all, but I figure before October ends I'd better get in my BCA (Breast Cancer Awareness) mani. So here it is, just in the nick of time! And despite my almost-lateness in posting a BCA mani, this is one heck of a gorgeous pink shade!

Behold Sparitual Strength, one of three shades released for Sparitual's BCA collection. Most BCA shades aren't all that interesting, and tend to gravitate towards light, pastel pinks, but Strength is unlike your usual pink. It's a medium pinky-purple with gold glitter. Even in the bottle, it looks super interesting. I have a mini bottle of Strength, which I bought some time back but never got around to trying until now. You can see the glitter dancing around in the bottle.



Okay, so much for the bottle. Now here's Sparitual Strength on my nails. Be prepared for awesomesauce! I love how blingy the glitter is on my nails, and I love the pinky-purple shade, too.

SQUEE! Isn't it gorgeous! I love how the glitter is densely packed in the base shade. It's definitely eye-catching, but the pinky-purple base tames makes it look pretty and feminine at the same time. Sparitual Strength is really a good combination of glitter fun and girlyness! Here's Strength from an angle, so you can see how the glitter catcheses the light, and how the polish is really infused with this glitter.



Application was very smooth, even for my mini bottle. I've been told that the brand is discontinuing their mini bottles, so I guess for us, that's an excuse to buy the bigger 15ml bottles, LOL. But I did like the minis - they're cute, and they let me collect a colour without feeling as bad as if I bought the full-sized bottles. Being a glitter, you'll need one coat of topcoat to make the polish smooth to the touch. But that's a small price to pay for such a great colour. I love how the glitter even looks kind of glass-flecked. It's not quite a true glass fleck finish but it sort of looks like it, as you can see in the photo below. It looks so pretty and glassy. And this is without topcoat!



Anyway, if you haven't gotten around to buying Strength yet, and this seems like it would be your kind of colour, it's really worth checking out. I have nothing bad to say about the Strength - I like the colour, the glitter, the application, and the wear. And for a BCA mani, this sure is beautiful.

Sparitual In Pink Collection Swatches

Sparitual is a US-based brand that has a line of vegan nail polishes - I know vegan and nail polishes sounds so weird, but apparently these are just that. The line also sells some body care and spa treatment products, such as hand and foot products, as well as soy wax-based candles. I guess you could say that Sparitual is looking at more than just nails!

One of their collections launched recently this year, In Pink, is actually created to raise awareness about breast cancer, with 20% of the proceeds going to the cause. Of course you can buy your nail polish because it's vegan and for a good cause, but it helps that the colours in the In Pink Collection are quite pretty too. There are three shades in this collection - Strength, Knowledge, and Clarity.

Top - Bottom: Strength, Knowledge, Clarity

The entire In Pink Collection is made up of varying types of pink glitters, in keeping with the theme of raising awareness for breast cancer. A lot of the glitters are actually quite big and chunky, so if big blingy glitter is your thing, these colours will make you one happy nail polish addict. These swatches are from the official Sparitual colour wheel. I apologise for the lousy lighting in the photos, as they were taken at the recent Sparitual blogger's event, and this was as much as I could tweak it for better colour accuracy.



L - R: Strength, Knowledge, Clarity

Now, for actual finger swatches! I do think that my finger swatches are probably a more accurate representation of what you would probably see if the polish is applied. Again, apologies for just swatching on one lousy finger - like I mentioned earlier, these were all swatched at an event, and I have to admit that I was in a lot of hurry to try and swatch as many as I could for you guys! Yes, I actually didn't bother to listen to the PR spiel, or eat the food served, and al things considered probably came across as being anti-social because I just kept swatching and swatching and swatching...Man, the PR folks must think I am so weird now.

Anyway, up we have Strength. This is my favourite colour hands down, because it has such a pretty finish to it. It's a glitter, for sure, but the glitter colour also bears some sort of duochrome shift - the colour sort of shifts between pink, bronze, and hints of purple. And it glints gold in some lights, too, so it's truly a very multidimensional colour. Definitely the most unique colour of the bunch. This was opaque in two thick-ish coats.



Next up, we have Knowledge. Knowledge is also a pretty shade, although not as interesting or unique as Strength. Knowledge has big bits of pink glitter, mixed in with big bits of holographic glitter, so although the entire polish isn't holographic, you do get pretty rainbow glints here and there as the individual holographic glitter pieces suspended in the polish reflect the light. It's basically a mix of big pink and holo glitter, and as a result, you will probably need 3 coats or so to make it opaque. What you see here is two pretty thick coats, and you can still see some bare spaces on my nail, and VNL (visible nail line). The polish isn't actually as glitter-dense as the official Sparitual nail wheel makes it look. Still, a very nice colour.



Lastly, we have Clarity. Out of all the shades in the In Pink Collection, I have to admit that Clarity was the one that I didn't get excited about. Clarity essentially comprises of pink glitter suspended in a clear base. It's nice, but not terribly unique. Also, the glitter is quite sparse, so even after the two thick coats you see on my nail, there are still plenty of bare spaces. I think this would probably make a great layer over another colour because the glitter isn't very dense, so any colour underneath would definitely show through.



I can't comment on wear time or lasting power though, since these were just swatches at the event, but application was good on all the In Pink shades, considering that they are all glitters, and glitters can be tricky to apply without leaving bald spots. Even in my hurried swatches, you can see that the glitter bits are pretty evenly spaced out, and more or less are nicely spread out to cover the entire nail area. I also quite liked the brush. It's thicker than Orly's brush, but thinner than OPI's. I personally prefer OPI's Pro-wide brush, because I have man-hands and huge nails, but these are probably a happy in-between in terms of brush size. I'm definitely loving Strength the best out of all the colours, and if I only could get one colour from this collection, Strength would definitely be it. I also like Knowledge, because of the holographic glitter.

Lastly, my Singaporean girls can all get 10% off on their Sparitual purchases with the code sparitual_musicalhouses - all you have to do is email squovalicious (at) hotmail (dot) com to place your order (she's the Sparitual ambassador in Singapore), and put the code sparitual_musicalhouses in the subject line of your email. And ta-da, instant discount code! I'll be swatching more Sparitual collections for those interested in taking advantage of the code and want to see swatches, so stay tuned!

(Some information supplied by PR at an event. Photos and content are my own. Post is my honest and complete opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

BeautyUK Shatter Polish: Swatches, Review, NOTD

The BeautyUK Shatter Polishes have landed! And once BeautyUK puts them out, they do not one, but three amazing colours! The Shatter Polish comes in three colours, Goth, which is a matte black, Glam Rock, which is a silver with a foil finish, and Punk, which is a matte hot pink. A matte hot pink - can you imagine that? I'm excited!



Anyway, I'm sure you don't want me to blabber on unnecessarily, so without further ado, here are swatches!

First of all, let's take a look at Goth. This is a pure black, simple as that. Here it is over another drugstore brand, Collection 2000 Aztec Gold. I rather like this combination!



One of the things I found when applying Goth was that it really shatters into tiny bits, thus displaying very prominently the colour underneath. So if you would like the under-colour to be more visible, this is a great one to choose. However, I found it a little clumpy even in the bottle, and hard to work with. It was a little difficult to get an even coat on the nail. Still, the effect it gave was gorgeous.



The next colour is Glam Rock, which is silver foil. I was so excited for this, as the large majority of matte polishes up to now have been mattes, so it was great to see them come in other finishes! Here it is over Boots No. 7 Totally Teal. I love how the deep teal base makes the silver just pop!



Like the Goth shatter polish, I found this a little tricky to work with. However, it wasn't as lumpy as Goth for some reason, and I applied it with reasonable ease. Another thing I noticed was that this didn't "split" as much as Goth did. When I wore Goth, you could see big patches of the base colour showing through where the polish had split. Here, the gaps were much smaller, and if you apply too thick a coat, the polish won't shatter very nicely. You can see this on my index finger, where the shattering effect was pathetic as the coat was too thick. A little goes a long way with this one.



Lastly, we have Punk! I was so excited for Punk - after all, how many hot pink shatter polishes are there out there? So I just had to try this. Here it is over Wet n Wild Quartz of Course. On hindsight, maybe I could have picked a more contrasting colour to pair Punk with, but hey, it still looks gorgeous right? And I'm not sure how clear it is from the photos, but Punk is HOT NEON PINK! Woohoo! Retina-searing, breath-bating, ice-melting hot pink! Such a beauty.



I personally felt that Punk was the easieset out of all the three polishes to apply - it wasn't lumpy in the bottle, and application was good. I had no issues with this. As you can see in the photos, it also shattered very nicely, and I didn't have big bald patches or tiny shatter lines. As with most shatter polishes, though, the thicker the coat, the larger the shatter pieces.



Since I'm a huge fan of shatter polishes, I'm absolutely in love with BeautyUK's latest offerings. Goth, as your standard black shatter, has been done before by other brands, but I especially love Punk and Glam Rock, both of which are of good quality and are unique in the colours. I don't see many coloured shatters by readily avaialble drugstore brands, so these are definitely worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Polka Dot Mani Fail with Essie Foot Loose

Edited to add: Get 10% off your Born Pretty Store purchase with coupon code MH10K31 - expires Oct 31, so you can purchase happily til then! (Note: I don't profit in anyway from the code. I'm just sharing it with interested readers.)

After seeing all those awesome cool manicures featuring dotting tools, I decided that despite my lack of hand-eye coordination and general clumsiness, I just HAD to try one out. That, and I wanted to bring on a summer colour on my nails. That's how I ended up with this monster of a manicure. I have to admit, while there wasn't anything wrong with the tools I used, my dotting skillz are teh suckz. Seriously.



I got my dotting tools from Born Pretty Store, which has been popular lately among bloggers and nail polish lovers for its ready availability of cheap and cheery nail art suppliers, including crackle polish, stickers, rhinestones, etc. The dotting tools I got were just under US$5 for a set, and are available here.

These dotting tools are of good quality, and quite handy to use. You get a set of 5 dual-ended dotting tools. All five have two ends.



One end is all the same size, a standard size that would be handy for most designs:



The other end of the tools is more interesting for girls who really want to dot in all sizes. The ends of the tools range from really big to positively tiny, and would definitely satisfiy any dotter's needs.



For the dot manicure below, I used Essie Foot Loose because it was such a lovely summer colour - girly, bright, and still a little spunky. And since it's in the colour family of pinks (in this case bright purply-pink), it's wearable to the office! And unlike other Essies which tend to be sheer and streaky, this is a one-to-two coater, depending on thickness of application.



For the dots, I used the dotting tools and Wet n Wild White. One of the best white konading polishes ever, now used for dotting. FOr the variously sized dots on my nails, I used the large end of the green dotting tool, and the large end of the pink dotting tool. I also, for smaller dots, used the white dotting tool.

I know the dots don't looks as nice as they could be, but that's realy due more to my lousy application than anything else. After all, all dotting tools are the same right? But looking at these photos makes me feel like from far, they aren't THAT bad, right, right? *Crickets chirp*



Anyway, I love the colour of my mani, even if my dotting skills suck. It kind of reminds me of summer - bright, and polka dotted, and just generally cheery!

(Dotting tools were sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Girly Punk Valentine's Day Nails: Neon Pink and Black Roses

Nothing says girly punk like hot pink and black. And nothing says romance like roses. So when I decided to do Valentine's Day manicure, I decided to combine these two aspects, although I'm not very girly, punky, or romantic. I keep seeing all these sterotypical reds, pale pinks, and sheers coming out near Valentine's Day, and I keep thinking - why shouldn't I do something different?

So here you are: neon pink, black, and roses. The horror!



To be honest, I didn't quite like my nails when I first wore them. I thought they were ugly (and I'm sure some of my readers will think they ARE ugly), but for some reason they grew on me, and I can't quite figure out why either. Maybe I got used to the ugliness. Or maybe the hot pink colour matched my funky Valentine's Day eye look. LOL. But it did grow on me, and yes, I was walking around with blinding hot pink nails with OTT rose designs. Yeeha!



For the neon pink base, I used Eyeko Punk Polish for Neon Nails, which is a one-coater if you're careful. Like other Eyeko polishes I've used before, the consistency is a little on the thick side, so if you prefer a thinner polish consistency, one or two drops of thinner would be more than sufficient. Oh, and this polish is NEON. Like eyeball searing, highlighter pink kind of neon. I know it doesn't look like it in the photos, but that's because I just couldn't capture the blinding neon-ness of it on camera.

For the black roses, I used my favourite konading black of all time, Wet n Wild Black. It's dirt cheap (if you don't count the cost of shipping it outside of the USA), easily available, and opaque in one coat. Perfect for konading!

The konad plate used was M65. I figured I could get away with such an OTT rose design only around Valentine's Day!



So this isn't your traditional Valentine's Day sweetheart manicure. But I have those too! If this is making you puke, feel free to try some other sweetheart, Valentine-appropriate posts: there's one with girly chic, a feminine pastel purple that's holo to boot, a nude with a touch of flowers, and the near classic jewel pinky-purple holo. Probably more traditionally Valentine Day-ish than this sad excuse to wear hot pink, LOL!

I'm not much of a romantic, and I really couldn't care less for Valentine's Day. But I figured, since it was the occasion for it, why not go all out in dressing up my nails? It's the perfect reason to get away with whatever I want!

(Eyeko product sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

NOTD: Nubar Twilight Kiss and Revlon Grapefruit Glimmer

Nubar Twilight Kiss is one of those "in-between-the-season" colours - it's not too dark or dusky for summer, and it's not too light for cooler weather. And when overlayed with a sheer shimmer, I think it looks pretty good. So that's today's NOTD is! The layering polish is a really old (and probably discontinued) Revlon goodie, the Grapefruit Glimmer from their ancient Glimmer Gloss range.



Nubar Twilight Kiss is a dusky light purple, and I think it's actually a pretty colour, and quite wearable to work. I kind of think it's one of those colours you can sneak into the office. Revlon Glimmer Gloss in Grapefruit Glimmer is definitely an office colour - it's a sheer pink with very fine, faint shimmer. Honestly, it's so sheer it probably won't look like much by itself. But I think Grapefruit Glimmer has a lot of potential over darker colours.

Here, I'm trying it out over a light colour, and I think it looks quite good. Just imagine the possibilities this one has with dark colours! In fact, I think that if you layer it over a dark grey-purple, you'd get a shimmer similar to Chanel Paradoxal. I mean, it does have that similar faint sort-of-pink shimmer, no? Not identical, but close enough, perhaps?



Application was pretty good for both - but then again I'm partial to Nubars and Revlons, they are some of my favourite brands. The brush size, shape, texture of the polish just works for me. Lasting power is average, these lasted for about 3-4 days before chipping, which is normal for me.



I like Twilight Kiss well enough, but I personally think Nubar has more exciting colours (like their awesome duochrome shades). Twilight Kiss by comparison is one of their more subdued shades, although it's still pretty. And Glimmer Gloss is a great work shade for someone looking for a slightly more interesting pink sheer. Not a bad combination altogether.

Eyeko Chi Chi Polish and Punk Polish Swatches!

Eyeko has launched two new shades, Chi Chi Polish and Punk Polish. One's a glitter and one's a neon, but they're both pink! Punk Polish is a hot neon pink creme, while Chi Chi is a rose pink glitter in a clear base.



You know I'm a huge fan of swatching, but unfortunately, it so happens that I happen to already have done my nails, complete with nail stickers and bling, and it would have been difficult to remove all that to swatch two polishes. (What, you mean you haven't seen my nail bling yet? See my nail bling here. And follow me on Twitter so you don't miss my future exploits!:P ) So I swatched them on some false nails I had lying around instead. I hope you guys don't mind, I promise that real nail swatches will be up soon!

Here is Chi Chi Polish for Girly Nails:



This is a not-too-dense glitter in clear base, and this was 3 coats. You'll probably need 3-4 coats for full opacity. This would probably work well for layering, because the glitter won't obscure the colour below it. As a standalone colour it's pretty, but you'll need to put more coats on. I personally love this colour, it's sweet and girly but it still packs a punch due to the glitter. It's not too boring.

Here's Punk Polish, for Neon Nails:



This is a hot pink neon shade. It's not retina-searing neon, but it's still a pretty bright hot pink nevertheless. This is a creme and it is nicely opaque in two coats. Otherwise, there's not much I can say - the pictures do all the talking, really :)

Application-wise, both of these were the usual Eyeko quality - that is to say, the texture is a bit thicker than some of the other polishes out there, but they apply quite well. And they're pretty good value for the price, too, so these are worth checking out if you like any of the colours.

(This product was sent to me for review. I am not affiliated with or compensated by the company. This review is my honest and complete opinion.)

NOTD: Nubar Petunia Sparkle: It's Freaking FUSCHIA?!

I bought Nubar's Petunia Sparkle, thinking it would look like a nice bright purple. Because that was what ALL the swatches I saw on blogs showed me. Purple. Straight-up purple. Nevermind that Nubar's own swatches showed a pink - I was thinking, bloggers don't lie, right? And they're usually much more accurate than lousy website swatches.

WRONG. In this case, all of you lied to me! :P But I don't blame you guys - it's just one of those polish that's a major PITA to photograph accurately, as I soon found out for myself.

See, when I took my photos of Petunia Sparkle, they all turned out like this:



Looks purple, right? That's the colour I saw in all the blog swatches I was reading, and that's the colour I thought I would get when I bought it.

But noo, it doesn't look like that at all - definitely not on me, at least. On me, it's more of a hot fuschia colour. Like, bright fuschia. Almost-neon-but-not-quite-but-still-full-of-bling fuschia.

This is how it REALLY looks like on me. And while I rarely edit my photos (I never photoshop them, although I do occasionally edit indoor photos for colour accuracy) I had to colour-edit this one picture below, because it was necessary. Despite my 2343252523 shots of Petunia Sparkle, it just kept showing up purple on my camera. But on me, it's not purple at all. It's really a lot more pink, a lot less purple, but still really hot.



See, see, see? I told you it was necessary, right? I know purples tend to photograph blue most of the time, and usually I can visually compensate for that, but somehow for this colour, it photographs so much bluer that the colour seems to be a different colour altogether! Of course it's still one hot sizzling colour - but when I bought it, I was really expecting it to be purple, not pink.

And it's really funny, because there I was thinking, "All those bloggers lied to me!" But when I tried to photograph it myself, ALL of my shots turned up purple, forcing me to resort to colour-editing. But I colour-edited them because I just wanted to show you guys what the colour really looked like on me. I don't want anyone who might buy nail polish based on my photos thinking it's a purple, because on me it's definitely fuschia!

(Before anyone starts thinking that I'm one of those bloggers who photoshops my cuticles and erases my pimples, I'd like to state my blog policy on photo-editing. My policy on photo-editing is that I do it to enhance colour accuracy, and that's it. I don't edit anything other than colour, period. I don't make my cuticles look neater, or my face look more contoured, and if you look my photos I think that's pretty obvious. It's a distinction I'd like to make clear, because I am indeed aware of the controversy that could potentially surround a post like this.)

OPI DS Extravagance: Awesome Holo Goodness

Ahem ahem *clears throat and looks awkward* Before I show off the awesome holo-ness on my nails, could you guys do me a teensy favour and vote for me? (I bet you knew that was coming..) It's a simple two-step (or one, even) process: Go HERE, and look for the girl called "Grace". Looks familiar? Umm well that's because that's me! So if you've enjoyed my blog and would love to see me swatch/review more stuff, be nice to me and click on the "Vote" button. :) You can do it once a day, but I don't imagine anyone's going to do that LOL, so I'd be happy if you just voted a couple of times. If you're really lazy, CLICKING HERE leads you directly to the voting form for me :D All you need to do is enter your email address, and you can uncheck the box if you don't want Stila's spam :P

Today's NOTD is one of my favourite holos of all time. There are some holos that are awesome because of the way they totally bring out the holo rainbow on your nails (like GOSH Holographic, from THIS POST) and there are some which have a more diffused holographic glitter - you get holo glitter bits, but not the entire holo rainbow. I usually don't fancy these types of holos, but OPI DS Extravagance is one I make an exception for.

Although the holo is a little more diffused in this one, I still love it nonetheless, and I can't quite say why. Maybe its because of its holographic sparkliness, maybe its the rich pinky-plum jewel tone that really feels extravagant (like the polish name, haha) and makes me feel like I've got little gems on my fingertips everytime I wear it, maybe it's the way it glints and winks in the sunlight. Whatever it is, I love this baby. And summertime is the perfect time to wear holos - the extra daylight just makes them so much more glitzy.

Here's two coats in natural sunlight:



Application on this one was good, as good as OPI's usually get. Not streaky, opaque in two coats, and generally trouble-free. I'm personally a huge fan of OPI's Pro-Wide brush, so I love the huge brush size because it lets me do my man-hands in fewer strokes, but girls with slimmer proper ladylike hands might not fancy it so much.

Like all holographic polishes, this one was a little high maintanence and chippy. It chipped after a couple of days, which is not unusual for a holo polish. I really love this one, and it's a pity the entire DS series was limited edition. I really wanted DS Original too, but I never got to lay my greedy paws on it before it wasn't sold anymore.

NOTD: Nails Inc Diet Coke Paris: A Lovely Berry Creme

I'm sure you already know this, but for this month, whenever you buy 2 500ml bottles of Diet Coke, you get one bottle of Nails Inc polish free, out of a choice of four colours. The colours are all named after fashionable places - London, Paris, New York, and Milan. In one of my previous posts I featured Nails Inc London, with some comparison swatches HERE, and this post I'm featuring another colour - Nails Inc Paris!

Despite being a freebie, Nails Inc Paris, as with Nails Inc London, applied beautifully, was well pigmented, and totally opaque in 2 coats. It has a lovely creme finish, as does Nails Inc London. But while Nails Inc London is a greige-y nude, Nails Inc Paris is a bright but still muted berry-toned plum creme. I really love this colour, it's perfectly in between plum and purple. It looks really delicious, it reminds me of berries and jam. Yum. Berries.

Ooh, stubby fingers:



And here's a picture with the bottle. I know it's blatant product advertising, but I actually think the Diet Coke logo on the bottle is kinda cute:



This is actually similar to Nails Inc Piccadilly Circus (which I used in a very unfortunate and ugly KOTD HERE). Both of them are cremes and of similar colour and depth, but I think Paris is a lot more purple than Piccadilly Circus, which is a more straightforward berry pink.

Orly Foil FX Rage and GOSH FrouFrou: Are They Dupes?

So the Orly Foil FX Collection, launched a couple of months back, has met with general aplomb from bloggers and nail polish lovers alike, being right on trend with its metallic take on golds, silvers and pinks. But of course, for us who aren't in the US, Orlys (is it me, or is it just that everytime I see the brand Orly I think - O RLY?!) are hard to come by, and when they are, they aren't cheap either. I know, doesn't it just make you want to cry? But I was lucky. One of my friends agreed to buy it for me and mail it here, so I have both Rage and Shine (I'm still trying to get my hands on Luxe). But not every girl could be so lucky, so I thought maybe I'd see if there isn't a dupe for it yet.

And sure enough, I found something I thought was dupey - GOSH FrouFrou! Actually, I had already done an NOTD with that colour! (Come to think of it - is it a NOTD? Or an NOTD? I know grammar rules say that if the first letter is a vowel, or has a wel sound, then it should be 'an'. So I guess since N sounds like a vowel, it should be an NOTD. But I always feel like typing 'a' because I'm seeing it in print, not hearing it in my head when I type...) Anyway, that NOTD was done waaay back when the only reader of my blog was my imaginary pet dog, but you can see it HERE. Wow, I never knew I was so ahead of the curve! Weird, I know.

Anyway the big question all my UK ladies want to know: are they indeed dupes?

Here are bottle comparison pictures:



L-R: Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou

They look pretty similar, don't they? They could be dupes!

Here are the comparison swatches:



My index and ring fingers are Orly Rage, while middle and last fingers are GOSH FrouFrou. That means L-R: Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou, Orly Rage, GOSH FrouFrou

Ooh, so close, sooo close. They're not total dupes though. Although both colours are metallic foil pinks, Orly Rage is a more beige, making it a beigey-pink, while GOSH FrouFrou is pinker. But otherwise, they're entirely alike - the way they apply is similar, the finish is similar, and both are just good metallic foil-y goodness that can be worn to work despite the bling, because the colour is so innocuous.

So which one should you pick, if you somehow have access to both but only wanted one? (I think this is purely a hypothetical scenario though, since Orly is available in the US only for most part, and GOSH is only available in Europe for the most part.) Well if somehow you could buy both but only wanted one, then it would depend on your undertone, and how beige or pink you wanted your colour to be. I think the beige tinge in Orly Rage would suit warmer girls better, especially if they find GOSH FrouFrou too pink and unwearable, while the pink might work better on cooler-toned girls. I don't think it really makes that much of a difference though; both colours are neutral enough either way.