Ahoy!

From the latest Essence's TE '50's Girls Reloaded', I bring you: No. 01 Ahoy!

Ahoy! is a simple white polish that requires at least 2 coats to be opaque. The application was less smooth compared to You're A Heartbreaker! due to the thickness of the polish. Furthermore, each layer resulted in visible brush strokes, but a layer of topcoat solved the problem.

I used 2 coats of Ahoy! and added some blue and gold glitters. As for the tiny ribbon on my ring and index finger, I used Konad image plate M03 and Konad special nail polish in black. Finally, I used a layer of topcoat to seal everything.

Have a wonderful one!!!

You're A Heartbreaker!

Essence has recently launched a Trend Edition that allows you to travel back to the 50's. With this newest collection, you can create the ultimate retro-look. The 50's Girls Reloaded Collection consists of eyeshadow, eyeshadow brush, eye pencil, 2 lipstick, translucent loose powder and 5 nail polishes. Just like any other TE, the nail polishes are the ones I want =] When I looked at the promotion pictures, I thought that the nail polishes where all transparent, so the moment I saw them in the store, I was quite surprised in a positive way.

The one swatched above is: no. 05 You're A Heartbreaker. It is a steel grey/ blue with beautiful green and purple shimmer. At first sight, you'll think that it's just silver shimmer, but if you look closely, then you'll see they actually shine green and purple. I took the picture above under artificial light at night. It does not show the exact colour, so when the clouds were gone for a second during the day, I took another one:

Please do ignore the tip wear, I did not pay enough attention to my mani during work. You're A Heartbreaker and the other 4 nail polishes of this TE collection comes in full sized bottles which contain 15ml! The application was smooth and 2 coats were sufficient to reach opacity. I used Konad image plate M03 and white Konad special stamping polish to stamp the stars.

What do you think of these Essence TE nail polishes?

Have a great one!!!

Over The Rainbow

A few months ago, I found out that there is a nail-art related application for Android phones named: NailCatalog.

When you open NailCatalog, you'll find a huge collection of manicures sorted according to base (one color, gradient, french or other) or color (pink, blue, purple, white/beige, yellow, green, gold, orange/brown, red, black, colorful and silver). The manicures are created by various nail salon's in Japan. So if you click on one design, you get to see a larger image of the mani and information of the nail salon that created it.

Today's mani is inspired by the above mani:

I used 3 coats of KIKO no. 204 to draw the clouds. KIKO no. 204 belongs to KIKO's French Manicure line, because it's a milky white sheer. I could have picked a white cream instead, but I wanted to create that dreamy feel to the clouds...not really sure I've managed to do so =S

As for the rainbow, I used Dolly Wink no. 03 (pink), no. 07 (lilac) and no. 09 (green) and Models Own Lemon Meringue.

Have a nice one!!!  

The Paradise Sunset

Summertime!!! Let's sit back and relax at the beach or anywhere else where the sun shines brightly ^^

Since it is summer, I picked a colour which I usually do not wear: orange. I think it doesn't look good with my skin colour, but who cares...it's a nice colour to wear during this period of the year.

At first, I painted the whole nail of my pink, but I didn't like it that much, so I continued my other nails with a gradient...LOL! I used ESTESSiMO TiNS no. 44 The Paradise Sunset (fabulous name!!!). It's a sheer orange with squared glitters that shines the colours: blue, green and orange. The formula was a bit thick as result of the many glitters, but it was easy to work with.

The process of the gradient contains 3 steps: first layer 3/4 of the nail, then 1/2 of the nail and finally just 1/4 of the nail (nail tip). I used Pa nail color A03 to smoothen out the three layers. I love to use Pa A03 as a glitter topcoat for the nice shimmer finish.

Finally I used some 3D nail stickers that I bought from the Born Pretty Store to 'decorate' the whole look.

Happy Summer Holidays!

Have a great one!!!

AQmore Vogue

In a previous post, I featured an amazing water-based nail polish that I bought from the Younique Nails website. This website goes by the name Uniqso now! Not only did they change their name, they also extended their collection - water-based nail polishes, nail art related products, colour lenses and many more. Make sure you check them out!

Now, let's take a look at AQmore water-based nail polish Vogue:

Vogue is a beautiful mauve with irregular shaped silver glitter particles. Some glitter particles reminded me of those tiny scrushed sea shells that are used for nail art. The formula was easy to work with, but I couldn't smoothen the glitters over the nails. So after 2 coats, the colour reached opacity but the surface of the nails was rather 'rough'.

Luckily I could fix this by using one coat of AQmore topcoat and that is how it looked like:

Have a wonderful one!!!

1st Blog Award

Yeah!!! It's already my 50th post...so what makes a better 50th post than one featuring an award. I am so grateful to receive this award from the two lovely ladies: KarenD and Monique. Thank you so much!!!

The rules of the Kreativ Blogger Award:

~ Share 10 facts about yourself

~ Tag 10 bloggers and let them know about it

Here we go:

1 ~ My favourite 'colour' is black. However, that is not the colour I usually wear on the nails. For mani's I prefer nude colours and turquoise.

2 ~ I change mani at least two times a week, because I have work-friendly mani's and work-unfriendly mani's. To be honest, I don't think colleagues and customers care about the colours I wear on my nails, but somehow I do not wear dark colours at work.

3 ~ There is this crazy thing about notebooks that I can't resist. I have a 'little' collection of notebooks with adorable covers and cute drawings inside. It's just..uh..I do not use them properly 'cos I haven't write anything in one yet.

4 ~ When it rains, I love to watch it pours down...

5 ~ Chocolate...chocolate...chocolate...do I need to say more?

6 ~ Everytime someone introduces himself/herself, I forget their names a moment later. It is really frustrating, because I do repeat it a few times in my head...but somehow...

7 ~ My favourite movie genres: action, comedy, fantasy and romance. What I don't like are horror and war movies.

8 ~ I am not a fan of a particular singer/group, but I do like music a lot!

9 ~ Song of the moment: B2ST - On Rainy Days (Korean)

10 ~ I want to learn to play the piano someday.

And the award goes to:

Cel 

Berry T

Bunny

KONADomania

Lisa

Lois

Nicole

Nikki

Have a great one!!!

Sorbet with Golden Topping

It's been a while...

Today I have for you a simple mani featuring OPI Houston We Have A Purple from the Texas collection. When this OPI Texas Collection was launched, the first colours that caught my eye were the beautiful red/purple ones. Little did I know that these came with a total different finish which OPI named it 'the sorbet' finish.

I'm still not used to wear any red-coloured polish just like that, so I had to 'cover' the colour a bit. I gave my index and ring finger a golden frame using Golden Rose's nail art striper no. 108. I stamped a design from Konad image plate M76 with China Glaze Passion on my middle finger. As for my pinkie, I placed golden metal beads on a layer of topcoat.

I really love this sorbet finish a lot. What do you think about this kind of finish?

Have a wonderful one!!!