2 NEW Essence Colour & Go

Essence has changed it's display, which means: NEW colours!!! There were so many beauties to choose from and  it was hard to make a decision. I ended up choosing these two: no. 69 It's Khaki Time! and no. 67 Make It Golden.

I used two coats of IKT which looked a bit darker than on the bottle. The formula is very user friendly and drying time was quite fast. This shade of green is new for me and I think I'm in love.

Then I layered another new member of the Essence Colour & Go family: Make It Golden. It's filled with 3 levels of bling bling in a transparent base. There is the smallest shimmer, the glitters and the large hexagons. The golden shimmer gave IKT! a beautiful olive green colour.

Here is a close-up of the bling bling:

Have a wonderful one!!!

NOTD: Coated Biscuits & Cupcakes

Today I have just a simple NOTD for you. The nail polish that I am going to show you is from the Istanbul haul back in January: PASTEL no. 66.

PASTEL is a Turkish cosmetic brand which has a large variety of cosmetic products. If you want to take a look at their gorgeous nail polish collection, you can find it here. Unfortunately, it seems that no. 66 is no longer available on their website. But luckily I can show you how amazing this one is. PASTEL no. 66 is filled with golden and purple glass flecks in a light plumish transparant base. The golden and purple glass flecks are more visible on the bottle than on the nails, which is too bad. In normal daylight, only the golden glass flecks are noticeacible on the nails. The formula and brush were very fine to work with.

It took me a while to come up with a suitable base colour for PASTEL no. 66. At the end, I choose for Catrice Biscuits & Cupcakes from the Urban Baroque collection. Since no. 66 has a light plumish transparent base, I thought of something in the same colour family so I picked pink. Biscuits & Cupcakes is also very sheer and it took 3 coats to reach opacity. Then, I layered 3 coats of no. 66 to make sure the nail surfice is fully covered with the beautiful golden and purple glass flecks. Come to think of it, that means there are SIX layers on each nail, eeks!!!

Well, that was really the last picture. What would you recommend as base colour for PASTEL no. 66?

Have a great one!!!

Free Hand Flowers Look-alike

There's the final look:

What do you think? It may not be a strong look-alike, but these flowers do remind me of the free hand painted ones. I started with 3 coats of Essence Ahoy! for the white base. Then I stamped the flower design of Konad image plate M83 with Catrice no. 410 Pool Party At Night to create the dark purple flowers.

Now it's the turn for the free-hand-look-alike step. I used Essence Colour & Go no. 42 Dress For A Moment to change the white petals into beautiful lilac ones. This step may seem simple, but I don't have a steady hand, so the flower on my middle finger blossomed into a slightly mutated one.

To brighten things up, I randomly made dots with China Glaze Millennium. I think I overdid the dotting on the middle finger, blame it on the mutated flower... At last, I used Konad Topcoat for a glossy seal. All the colours used above are totally optional, I would definitely try other combinations with this design as well.

Have a great one!!!

In The Mood For Fall

It's still summer here, but I am already in the mood for a fall mani. The cause of this crazy mood change has to do with the launch of the 2011 fall collection of both OPI and China Glaze. The moment I saw the swatches of OPI 'Touring America' and CG 'Metro' collections, I just wanted to use similar colours to create something.

These are the colours/ tools that I used:

~ H&M Spring Nails Set: White
~ H&M Spring Nails Set: Brown
~ Etude House Petite Darling Nails: GR607 Sand Green
~ Dotting tool (you can also use a toothpick)
~ Konad image plate M77
~ Konad special polish: White

I have already swatched all four colours of the H&M Spring Nails Set in a previous post. Who would have thought that these tiny beauties are suited for fall mani's as well =] As for the other beauty, Etude House Sand Green, this is the first time to swatch it, although it's been in my stash for a while now. Sand Green (don't quite get the name) is a dark sheer green polish that reaches opacity with two coats. Just like the other Petite Darlings, the application was easy and smooth. I really like the way this polish blended with H&M White; it looks like a green gradient.

This mani is very easy. The method for the index, middle and pink is the same. I simply layered thick coats of the brown, white and green polishes first. While the polish is still wet, I used a dotting tool to make stripes beginning at the tip of the finger to the cuticle. Due to the thick layers, the dry time is a bit longer than usual. As for the accent nail, I used Konad M77 along with Konad special White polish to stamp the feathers.

Have a wonderful one!!!

Sea Sparkle

Today's mani has colours that reminds me of the sea.

There are two coats of KIKO no. 341 Verde Cobalto. It was really hard to capture the accurate colour of Verde Cobalto, because it leans more to green/ teal in real life. So I tried to change the colour of the picture above in order to show you how it really looks like. The application went very smooth thanks to the fine brush and the layers dried quite fast. 

Then I layered two coats of CND Effects no. 559 Gold Sparkle over it. Gold Sparkle is the very first bottle of CND in my tiny collection. I really like the formula and the brush of this CND polish. The shape of the bottle is also a bit different than the usual round ones that I own. Gold Sparkle is filled with golden glitters and flakies and it has an extremely  glossy finish. I am totally in love with 'effect' nail polishes as they can give your mani an extra something special =]

For the accent nail, I used Konad image plate M76, which is one of my favourite image plates at the moment and Konad special polish in white.

Have a wonderful one!!!

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!!!