29 Jan 2012

HOLOGRAPHIC SHOWDOWNZZZZ

HERE IT BEGINSSSSSSS

Walking around in the basement of City Link Mall searching for a make-up forever shop...
I spotted a Make Up Store, with the same type of decor and signature black.
Yay I thought, finally i could get another loose powder.

Apparently Make Up Store not = Make Up Forever
Can they make things a little less confusing for normal people like me?
No wonder people spend millions protecting their brand.

Anyway.
While the store lady was attending to someone else, I spot a nail polish rack...and painted samples.

HOLOGRAPHIC NAIL POLISH? As shiny as the legendary NFU Oh one i have at home!

They had a few variations too, with slight tinges of colour, pink and blue ones as far as i can remember.

But when you see it in bottle its not as prominent as the NFU Oh ones.
Most people would get the basic colour first anyway right?

So i bought this one. So curious to find out the difference.

< Make Up Store Greta 8ml : $17 (was 22 but on 20% dc)
> NFU Oh 61 17ml : $38 (might be able to find on Ebay for lesser but hardly for 61)

 I feel that Greta is more holo?
and even taking the ml into consideration, Greta is still CHEAPER?

Of course i feel a little ripped off.

And I have this ominous feeling some NFU Oh people are coming to get me
for ruining their legendary status in Holographic polishes.

Without flash,
it becomes quite obvious which is more holo right?!

Good Morning Ocean

 Did this one in the style of one of my recent manis, see here

I'm beginning to really like this style even though it is a little more troublesome than usual.

And if i can find those paper punch hole reinforcement stickers instead of plastic stickers.
Plastic stickers are more rigid and don't stick completely at the sides.
Might have to dig through Daiso for that one.

I used:
Base: Essie Blanc
Arc: OPI Skull and Glossbones
Special blue polish

After I was done with the mani,

I realised

HEY!

It reminds me of Good Morning towels!

Its a very famous brand of towel in the 70s 80s 90s Singapore/Malaysia/China.

The mani also reminded me of Japanese seafood brand logos.

For some reason there's always a lot of blue and white.

Visiting

 My mum's cousin (my aunt) came visiting, her family stayed over for a few days...
On her second last day with us I painted this one for her.

Doesn't it look fab! With the crystals too!

I used: China Glaze Outrageous
Special black polish
Yellow crystals

Did this one for her elder daughter, whom is 13, I thought the pink was very age appropriate.

So age appropriate that I might not be able to wear this colour without feeling overly young. lol.

I love this one. very nice.
For once i managed to get the complicated musical sheet design on. (see ring finger)
All time favorites.

I used: Savina Cotton Candy
Special black polish

Painted this one for her youngest daughter, whom is 11.

Shimmery pink and little girls go together! Like barbie dresses.

I love the hello kitties and dots and all that. All time favorite!

Toy Outpost doesn't allow this plate to be sold, reason being it not authorised by Sanrio
I think its bullshit.
I don't believe even 1/8 of the Rilakuma, Spongebob, Hello Kitty
handphone covers/Plushies/whatever is authorised by Sanrio/Nickolodeon/whatever.
But oh well, you just gotta follow whatever they say. Makes everyone's life easier.

I used: OPI Princesses Rule
Special black polish

Finally, because of all the manicures,
my previous one was ruined and this one done in its place.

I used: OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys
Special white polish

26 Jan 2012

Well Hello There

Isn't this awesome bananas!

I used:
Base: Essie Capri
Grey: Deborah Lippmann Waking Up in Vegas
Special black polish

Method:
1. Paint base, seche vite, wait dry
2. Paste hole puncher reinforcement stickers at nail bed, paint 2nd colour over, seche vite, wait dry
(don't remove sticker yet)
3. Stamp over 2nd colour, remove any special polish that got onto base with cotton bud
(don't rub too hard, gentle!)
4. Remove sticker, clean sides, seche vite

TADA!

I actually did this one pretty quickly, and it seems to be a hit with everyone.

I personally like the colour combi quite a lot.
The stamping is just icing on the cake.

Mandarin Madness

Do you know those little orange trees that people use for decoration during CNY?

Um, the miniature mandarin oranges CAN be eaten
(despite my bf insisting that it is purely decorative)

My grandmother used to have one of those little trees planted outside her house...

and every time we went to visit, she would give them to the children.

Its one of the fondest memories I have of her,
perhaps thats why I love mandarin oranges
(even though I wouldn't touch a normal orange)

The mini ones are just fantastic, easy to peel, mostly seedless, and mostly sweet!

I used: OPI In my Back Pocket, special white polish

24 Jan 2012

Flea Market nails!

Someone mistook this mani for the crack polish

I did mention that this plate is sorta like crack polish except it looks like it cracked up PERFECTLY
(perfect cracking is almost non-existent with crack polishes)

As usual NFU OH polishes are amazing.

I used: NFU OH 64

I did this one for the flea market cos I thought it would look FABULOUS in the sun...

but silly me the flea market was in basement 1 of Scape! Hahah!

It was fun, but I'm not a good salesperson, I don't really like to push myself onto other people...

and!

I always have this BIG dilemma:

Should I say hi and let the shoppers browse themselves, wait till they ask me questions

or should I say hi and explain and offer assistance without them asking?

I'm that kind of person who prefers to browse by myself,
if I have questions I'll ask but of course a greeting is lovely.

But i'm not everyone so yeah big dilemma.

I just went with my guts for the flea market, and,
I must say, my guts sucked, not very accurate.

To my gut's defence, I was very sick.

LOL.

Happy Lunar New Year

 You know,

Lunar New Year means red packets and goodies when I was young...

and when I grew older,

it still signifies the same thing to me, except I learnt the importance of it.

This isn't really a very oriental nail i admit but i didn't want that anyways...

The look i was going for was: Controlled glamour

and this advertisement inspired this nail:

yes duh i know there's nothing controlled about this glamour.

But sometimes its the opposite that inspires, right?

 I used: Chanel Peridot, special black polish

This polish is very special, it reminds me a little of an insect wing,

when you look at it from different angles the colour changes slightly.

It has this gold base with greenish tint. Fabulous.

So the whole night while i was having my reunion dinner i wondered:

How would this look if matted!

And TA-DA!

It is also pretty! I think closer to the Controlled Glamour thing I had in mind.

But it also erases the nice tint to the polish.

I like it all anyways.

Fly Me to Hong Kong

I really do like Hong Kong,
the temperature around this time of the year is just right for me
about 15-16 degrees, chilly but tolerable.

I used: OPI Designer De Better, Special Dark Blue polish

I only went to Hong Kong's Dolphin Lagoon once, when I was very very young.

But was feeling aquatic enough to do this one.

I used: Etude House BL 502, special dark green polish
The breakfast pancakes they serve at HK Intercontinental is indeed world famous.

My uncle's friend who works for Intercon recommended it, so of course she knows what she's talking about.

The butter is home-made, definately won't be able to find it in the supermart...

it's looks like solid ice cream but taste like butter minus the greasiness plus the creaminess.

Heavenly.

But pancakes had nothing to do with this manicure
other than the fact that I took this pic while waiting for it to arrive. 

I used: Faceshop PK 101

I must say... this range of Faceshop polishes are extremely beautiful!

Its like coloured aluminium foil, SO SHINY.

21 Jan 2012

Flea Madness

Today was the first time I went to a flea market as a vendor!
It was very fun and tiring.
Mostly because I have a huge flu and sorethroat!

Hello to all the new readers!

I hope you have a fun time reading my blog, I try to make it not just about nails.

I feel this online thing is blog first, shop second thing, afterall its main purpose is to inform not to sell right?
heh.

Please feel free to ask me questions, (about nail or not), in the comments section.
And be nice to me ok! I get cranky when people are mean.

I bought a ton (cue: 4) nail polish in Shanghai,
they have the full range of brands like Deborah Lippmann! and Butter!!
Although it was so expensive -.- (like 30+ sgd each)

I'm super excited to try the colours!
Will post pictures of my nails while I was in Hong Kong and the new colours very soon.

Hold your breath!

Shanghai Nights


I was abroad (in Shanghai and Hong Kong) from 14th to 20th this month...

This one I wore to board the plane and for the first day.

It was supposed to have this oriental feel, but toned down.

I used: Savina Coy, Special pearl polish

This feels frosty huh!

Well.. It was SIX DEGREES in Shanghai
(already considered warm, was ZERO degrees the week b4 i went)
So yeah hence the frosty-ness.

Also, I wanted another oriental thing,
because my uncle made me watch The Flowers of War while Marilyn and I were lodging at his place.

Wow, sad movie you know, one of those that pulls you down to earth.
Obviously its about a war, specifically, the Nanking Massacre, which i find very very sad and disturbing.

The story is about a group of prostitutes finding shelter in a Catholic Convent,
and what they do to survive alongside the convent girls. Watch it.

Somehow their coats and qi pao swaying in the wind made me choose that manicure.
Something frosty & delicate.

I used: China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Purple flames

It is a flame looking thing right?

At least to me...

I just wanted this one to have a non-firey feeling.

I'll do the super firey-feeling colours one day.

heh.

I used:
Essie Tart Deco
Special purple polish

Nude


i really like this one (realise i say it a lot).

The idea was to have it look like a mannequin's hand. So far not bad right?

I managed to find a colour that after being matted, looks QUITE like my skin colour.

LOVE.

I used:
Essie Brooch The Subject
Special black and dark pink polish

In some ways its grotesque! Nice but so weird all at once.

8 Jan 2012

Birdy

I always wonder...

Do people choose
1. design first then
2. base colour 
3. what colour the design should be

or in some other sequence?

Because I choose the base colour first...
It makes me feel better that I'm using different polishes.

Also it helps my brain choose a design based on the base colour.

You know how some colours seem to be the best choice for most designs?
Like black on white or white on black. I'm trying to avoid that.

I used:
Base: Orly Blue Collar
Special gold and brown polish (gold first then brown)

Why two special colours right?
The gold gives it the shiny holo-ish effect like when you turn a peacock feather from side to side.

I realised the base colour was too dark for the brown to work nicely after I'd stamped it on.
Different colour next time.

Heart Strings

Pretty nice design eh?

This design was part of Bundle Monster's series 1 collection.

The whole-nail stamp designs were a little small,

not an issue for me.
Not that I have small hands,
mine are rather large for a girl's.

But I can imagine the designs might be hard to use for girls with uber long nails?

This one was a little tricky because if the design didn't come out clear,
the heart shape won't look like a heart shape, it will look like a blob instead.

I used:
Base: Essie Petal Pink
Heart Strings: Special red polish

See You Later, Alligator!

I have been conflicted about this one.

I really like it,
but somehow its missing the all-time favorites by just one cm of something i can't put my finger on.

Maybe in another universe I had used a different colour and it would have made the all-time chart.

I used:
Base: China Glaze Sea Spray
Alligator: Special dark green polish
Ah. So shiny.

You know this polish costs like S$38 and seems to be only sold at some beauty school near Bukit Timah.

Thats madness!

Fortunately we have the internet,
but because this particular shade of the holo series is SO POPULAR...

I still ended up paying 38 bucks online.
At least I don't have to drive down and buy it.

If you are not a fan girl or someone who remotely goes to the cinema,
this is a decepticon logo, the bad robot guys in Transformers.

I did the nail tips with queen Amidala's lips (Star Wars anyone?) in mind.
Next time I will make it shorter so it resembles her lips more.

hah! I LOVE IT. SO SHINY THIS MANICURE.

I used:
SHINE-YYYYY base: NFU Oh Holo 61
Decepticon: Special black polish 

Blocked


It was one of those days that it dawned upon me, oh my god I have this amount of nail polish

and its quite sad that I haven't even used some of the colours.

Hence the colourfulness. I'll try to stop myself if it happens again.

HAH.

4 Jan 2012

I Don't Need Too Much, Just Zom-body to Love!


Don't you just LOVE the weirdness of this?!

Btw, this is my only bottle of OPI glow in the dark.

I think its so awesome cause with light it looks like a leaf
(maybe too many veins for a leaf but you get the idea)

but in the dark... it looks like VEINS!!

like i took a torchlight and let the light shine through my fingers,
of course i don't have that many veins too.

Btw, this polish doesn't stay this bright in the dark all the time.
Like all glow in the dark stuff it needs to absorb light.
This glow fades pretty fast so yeah I worked fast with the iphone.

I used:
Base: OPI Zom-body To Love
Veins: Plate A20, special white polish

Curly Whirly Garden


A garden where Alice was lost.

Anyway, its overgrown like this hahaha.

I think this one might look really good with white base + strong coloured special polish...

I used:
Base: OPI A Grape Fit!
Crazy Garden: Plate A25, brown, neon pink, cream blue and mint special polish

I prefer the blue + mint one. You?

Do Plums Fall From Trees?

I like this one.

Ok here's how it went:

I was supposed to do one layer, dry, tape, do 2nd layer, dry, tape.

Turns out i have no patience and the tape ruined the first layer because apparently it wasn't totally dried.

So after maybe 4 failed attempts i just decided to freehand swipe across my nail.

One thick layer swipe, 2nd thick layer swipe, etc. SV Topcoat and stamped on~!

I didn't want to do blending, this one was a deliberate colour graduation in stripes.

Took this one to my bf's NY Eve family party.

I used:
Starting from lightest pink -
Essie Petal Pink
OPI Heart Throb
Orly Cotton Candy
OPI Charged Up Cherry
Plum Blossom: Special black polish, plate on picture

I think this would be a nice twist for CNY nails too.

By the way I really like Orly series of bright cremes!
Like the cloud blue mani, and the yellow from the post before.
This pink is fab too.