Polish Addict Nail Color Jellyfish I: Like Glitter and Snow (and Jellyfish)!

Continuing my thing for indie polishes, today I have to show you another indie polish - Polish Addict Nail Color's Jellyfish I! I bought this from Mei Mei's Signatures sometime back when the brand was on sale. Apparently Jellyfish I is so named because there are multiple Polish Addict Nail Color shades named Jellyfish. There's Jellyfish, Jellyfish I, and Jellyfish II. Looking at other photos and swatches I've seen, they all follow the general formula of a white crelly base that flashes some other shade, and varying colours of contrasting glitter.

Polish Addict Nail Color Jellyfish I: White crelly base with purple and blue glitter bits

Jellyfish I is a white crelly base that flashes gold, and has small round purple and blue glitters in it. It does kind of remind me of jellyfish, but with this season, it being Christmas and all, I'm also vaguely reminded of snow when I look at the nail polish. Snow with bits of dirt and rock in it. Slushy snow.


Polish Addict Nail Color Jellyfish I: Reminds me of jellyfish, reminds me of snow

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!

Glitter Sandwich: A Happy Birthday manicure!

Remember the time I first got Lippmann's Happy Birthday nail polish? I layered it over white and I was so excited because it worked glitter magic over a plain ol' white.

This time, I tried it out again, in the form of a glitter sandwich! I thought the colorful glitter would make it a perfect candidate. Plus, I've been wanting to do a glitter sandwich for ages, so I thought - now's the time!



I used one coat of GOSH Snow, a sheer white jelly, as a base. Then I layered Lippmann Happy Birthday over. I used one coat, but had to dab a little to get the glitter coverage to be more even, and followed up with another cost of GOSH Snow.



Maybe I'm a layering idiot, but this kinda underwhelmed me. Perhaps it's because the glitter fiend in me is protesting, "You have an awesome blingy glitter, why are you covering it up with another cost of colour? You're hindering it's blingy-ness! That's evil! Evil!" But hey, sometimes you gotta try new things.



I guess, despite my initial doubt, this mani is growing on me. I feel like I need to play around with the colours in my stash a bit more to find more colour combinations to play around with, so expect to see more glitter sandwiches soon!



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

My $1 Version of Revlon Runway Pearl: Sally Hansen Platinum

Recently, there's been a lot of hype over Revlon Runway Pearl, as it's one of the newer Revlon polishes to be released. When I saw it in Walgreens while I was on holiday, I was intrigued by it, but in the end I didn't bother, since it seemed like just another frosty ol' white, although with an interesting pink flash in the colour.

Next thing you know, I'm walking past the Dollar Tree, and lo and behold, I see this little baby. And although it, too, also looks like just another frosty ol' white with a pink flash, hey, I guess for a dollar, I could just buy it first, and rationalize later, right?



So here you go. Picture spam! I suppose it's what I expected to be, nothing more, nothing less. That is, sheer frosty-ish white with a pink flash. And as such, it's just an okay-ish kind of manicure. This here is three coats, and it's pretty opaque at three.



I suppose I wouldn't have bought this if I hadn't caught sight of Revlon Runway Pearl first. I don't know how the psychology goes, but I suppose it's the equivalent of seeing a more branded product (say, Jergens Hand Lotion), feeling like maybe you want it, and then seeing right next to it is the Walgreens own brand version of the same hand lotion. I don't know about you, but I end up going for the Walgreens sometimes. Human psychology, I guess...



Anyway, this isn't a bad colour. It looks very light, clean and pearly on my nails. And I think the pink reflects make it a tad more interesting, too. I tried getting more photos of the colour to show you the tinge of pink reflect, but I couldn't really get it on my camera.



Although this isn't really a colour I'd wear typically, I don't mind, it's a good palate cleanser once in awhile. And for a dollar, I can't complain. And although it required three coats, it applied well and wasn't streaky or anything weird.



For me, this is good, it helped me to squash my half-hearted lemming for Revlon Runway Pearl. What about you? Do you like these types of pale, pearly shades, or are they just not your cup of tea?

My First Franken! (In Which I Sort Of Dupe a Lemming)

Remember the last time I whined about how I couldn't get my hands on the Lunasol Nail Polish I really wanted? Well, after months of lemming from afar, I decided to take matters into my own hands, and franken something similar!

I knew I probably wouldn't be able franken an exact dupe, but that was okay with me. I really was just after the concept of a sheer white base with variously-sized gold glitter. And I had my own requirements too - the polish had to cover in 2 coats, and I was open to having not just gold glitter only. And i didn't want my franken to be so glitter-heavy that you couldn't see the white base. So with that in mind, I took out my various polishes and started to franken!



For this franken I used my Etude House Lucidarling Fantastic Nails in 04 Sequin Crystal Gold, Etude House Lucidarling Fantastic Nails in 01 Glittering Bare White, and my trusty Wet n Wild White. I used about 1/3 Etude House 01 Glittering Bare White, 2/3 Etude House Sequin Crystal Gold, and about 10 drops of Wet n Wild White. And this was the outcome!



Okay, so it's not really a dupe or anything. But it's not too bad right? I tried frankening once before, and that one sucked. This is a lot better, trust me. Here's my proud first ever (successful) franken on my nails!



Although it's not exactly a stunning dupe or anything, I'm happy with what I made. And it met all my franken requirements (cover in 2 coats, white base with variously-sized glitter, including gold). Maybe one day I'll put more gold glitter in there, just for more bling, but for now this is good enough. And I'm just glad that I did this all without making a huge mess of my desk! Do you guys franken? Any fun frankening stories to share? I'd love to hear them!



A Side Note: Asian (or just Etude House, really) Nail Polish Naming Conventions

For Etude House nail polishes, the naming conventions for these are really complex. Basically Etude House has a few "product ranges" of polishes, usually with different price points (e.g. Lucidarling Fantastic Nail, Nail Decoration, Dear Darling Nails, etc - and no I'm not making any of the names up), and under those range of polishes, each shade will have a number (e.g. 01, 02, 03 etc) and a shade name (e.g. Rosy Pink, Bare White, Coral Jewel, Tender Mint, etc). So in order to make sure I'm describing the exact shade name, I use the brand name (Etude House) followed by the product range (Lucidarling Fantastic Nails) and colour name and number (01 Bare White). Sometimes, like in the case of the Lucidarling Fantastic Nail range, they have product "sub-ranges" (e.g. Sequin, Glittering, Shimmer etc), so this complicates things a little more - the real shade names should be Etude House Lucidarling Fantastic Nail Sequin 04 Crystal Gold (using the format of brand, product range, product sub-range, product name and number). But because it confuses some readers, and because some websites jumble up the sub-range and product name, I choose to lump the sub-range and product name together to form a super long product name (hence 04 Sequin Crystal Gold instead of Sequin 04 Crystal Gold). For Asian readers who buy your polish in person, it probably isn't a big deal, but I imagine it can cause a lot of confusion for someone in the West buying polish sight unseen, and online. Hope this helps my confused Western readers who may be buying nail polish online!

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!

Lunasol Shiny Gold EX33: Why I No Haz?!

Isn't it frustrating when you see a polish you like, and want to buy, but just when you decide to part with your hard-earned money, find out it's OUT OF STOCK? That just happened to me the other week!

Anyway, Lunasol Nail Finish Polish in Shiny Gold EX33 is part of the Lunasol Fall/Winter collection. I hope it's not that dreaded Limited Edition, because I still want it! (Knowing my luck, though, I'm pretty sure it is.)

Here's a finger swatch of the shade. Isn't it absolutely beautiful? It's a sheer off-white base with varying sizes of gold glitter. The colour is light enough to be pretty and feminine, but the glitter gives it an edge that really brings the shade to the next level. And it's opaque in two coats!

Anyway, if anyone still sees bottles of these lying around, quick, let me know! Or if anyone can suggest a dupe for this, let me know too! Or even frankening suggestions? (Although I don't generally franken my polish - I tried it once and it was a fail.) Man, I hate it when I cannot get my hands on a lemming.

Laushine Crackle Polish in White: Budget Beauty Shatter

Shatter/crackle nail polish seems to be a trend that is still very much alive! Almost a year from the time this wave of crackle/shatter polish trend started, all the brands are still going strong. High end, low end, you name it, there's probably a shatter in there somewhere. So of course it's no surprise that eventually coloured shatter would make its way down to the cheapest brands available.

Today's shatter polish is available on Born Pretty Store, and is a nameless Chines brand called Laushine. The crackle polish comes in a variety of colours, but I picked the Laushine White Crackle Polish, at the very reasonable price of US$5.50 per bottle. At that price, it's not bad at all.




The texture of this polish is quite thin, and it dries fast. I recommend applying a slightly thicker coat, but I wouldn't advise applying multiple coats, otherwise the polish takes on a very odd looking texture and looks a little bit thin and brittle. You can see this on the ring finger - there's this bit in the middle that looks a little bit different from the rest of the nail, and that happened when I applied a second coat on that part of the nail. Otherwise, application was smooth and easy, and I have no complaints.



The polish was pretty opaque with a slightly thicker coat, and dried fast and crackled pretty nicely. All in all, I don't have any complaints about the polish at all. For the price I think it's a pretty great buy, and the Born Pretty Store has these shades in a wide range of colours. Must-have colours are white and black, of course, but some of the shades, especially the shimmer ones, are quite unusual and would interest anyone who wants a greater variety of shatter shades (e.g. green shimmer shatter, anyone?).



If you're looking for cheap crackle/shatter polishes that come in a wide range of colours, and if you don't mind ordering online, the Laushine Crackle polishes aren't a bad deal. The Born Pretty Store ships internationally, and shipping is pretty reasonable as well, so they are worth checking out.

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

Halloween Nails: Cobwebs and Blood Splatters

Halloween, one of the few times of the year you can get complimented for dressing absolutely crazy! Since outrgeous and scary costumes are de rigueur for Halloween, I took the liberty to do some Halloween nails! I thought nothing could scream Halloween better than cobwebs and splats of blood, so I attempted to incorporate both of them into my NOTD (Nail of the Day).

In the nail look below, it consists of two red blood splatters and a black cobweb on a white background. I don't know about you, but I kinda feel like this isn't quite as scary as I'd have liked. I really wanted to spook everyone out with my nails, but I actually ended up getting compliments on them - twice! At least, they thought it was nice until I explained how those cute designs were supposed to be spider webs and blood...Oops.

The photo below shows what I used for this look. The white base was Wet n Wild White, the red blood splats were created by konading with Eyeko's Saucy Polish, using Konad Plate M21. I used the design of two paint splats on the M21 plate. The cobweb was created by using Wet n Wild Black, and my new favourite plaything for nail art, my nail art brushes.



I've never actually tried freehanding nail art with a brush before, so using the nail art brushes was totally new to me. I got mine from Born Pretty Store, and these are being sold in sets of three each, for the awesomely cheap price of US$2. Here is the link to the nail brush set that I bought.



You get nail brushes of varying lengths, so these are perfect for drawing lines, curves, or, if you're skilled enough, I can imagine them being used for french tips and other similar nail art. I personally didn't notice much difference between using the longer or shorter lengths, but some others might - it really is personal preference. The bristles are thin and flexible, so you can really draw both thick and thin lines with these.



For the cobwebs on my nails, I used the shorteset brush, dipped it in Wet n Wild Black, and basically just freehanded the lines. I did the straight vertical lines first before doing the horizontal lines. It's definitely not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at using nail art brushes! Here is a close up shot of my nails so you can see the lines created.



I painted on the cobwebs after konading the blood splatters. I used Eyeko Saucy Polish for the konading of the blood splats because in my previous Eyeko Saucy Polish NOTD, it was opaque in pretty much one coat, so I thought it would be ideal for konading as well. Turns out, the blood splats looked a bit pinker than I'd like, but well, it does look like blood splats!



Although I have to admit my Halloween nail art is a little bit noob-ish, I'm still enjoying it! I had never thought of doing nail art for Halloween before, but I was just so inspired by seeing all the different Halloween nail looks around the blogosphere. I'm so glad to be rocking my own Halloween nails!

(Bornprettystore product was sent for review. All other items were purchased by me. 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.)

ManGlaze Mayo: A Matte White Christmas!

Okay, so it's not Christmas yet, but somehow, that was what I thought of when I was wearing ManGlaze's Mayo. Mayo is one of ManGlaze's latest colours, and an addition to their immensely popular matte nail polish range. And this one, unlike Manglaze's usual range of dark colours, is white! From what I know, the white has been requested for a while, but it took awhile to get the formula right. And on the ManGlaze website, they even tell you that "this stuff takes a skilled hand" to apply.



ManGlaze, despite its relative newcomer status, has already been rapidly garnering a fan following, because of its grungy, edgy image. In a world where most polish brands produce masses of pinks and reds, and tack on everything from flowers to bows to annoyingly girly paraphernalia to boost sales, ManGlaze stands out, like that devil-may-care rocker chick wearing studs in a sea full of pink princess-y girls toting Hello Kitty bags.



Anyway, enough about Hello Kitty and goth girls, let's get to the nail polish. Yes, this colour is hard to apply, and yes, you do need a skilled hand and a good base coat. Mayo, when compared to ManGlaze's other colours, is trickier to apply. Unlike Fuggen Ugly, it doesn't go on nicely in smooth, thin and even coats. Mayo goes on thicker, and more unevenly. My personal experience was that it's better to apply this in as thin and even coats as possibe, and do two coats, rather than attempt to apply one single thick but even coat, because this doesn't even out that nicely.



Now that I've gotten the negatives out of the way, let's talk about the positives. Have I told you how cool this colour is? It's not jet-matte-white, like OPI's Alphine Snow Matte (which honestly I think is a little boring). But this one has some very fine flecks of glitter dotted throughout the polish. Once applied however, this glitter is invisible to the eye (I myself can only see it in the bottle), but I feel like it adds a little something to what would otherwise be just another matte white.

So, do you need this? Sure, if you don't have a matte white, and you want ManGlaze's punk-rock take on it, and you can deal with the application issues. You gotta admit, there is just something attractively cool about ManGlaze's aesthetic. But if you think you might have trouble with application, I suggest you go for Fuggen Ugly, or another colour.

(This product was sent to me for review. I am not affiliated/compensated for my review.)