More Chevrons Please!

{China Glaze's Kinetic Candy, Liquid Leather & I'm Not Lion}

I loved & missed my previous chevron manicure so much (you can see it here), I asked my friend if she'd paint them for me again. Voila! I love how these turned out, and my left hand looks even better, but I can't seem to take pictures with my left hand.

{OPI's My Vampire Is Buff, Pirouette My Whistle & When Monkeys Fly!}

I know I said I was on a shopping ban, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened. I keep getting tempted by new collections & makeup I see :(

I bought these OPI nail polishes the other day, I couldn't resist, they're soooo pretty! I want to wear My Vampire Is Buff and When Monkeys Fly so much but I don't want to remove my chevrons :( #firstworldproblems

----------

Also placed an order with Teavana for the very first time and I LOVE the selection of tea they have, they all sound delicious and the ones I got taste amazing. I'm not really loving loose leaf teas though, they're much more inconvenient than tea bags.

Ice Cream Nails!

Dark colors are all I've been wearing lately, I've been stuck in a dark red polish rut (I own 11 dark red colors, the last time I counted). 

Then I decided to force myself out of my comfort zone and go completely pastel. And... I loved it!

L to R: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Lacey Lilac, OPI's Panda-monium Pink, China Glaze's Kinetic Candy, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Mint Sorbet and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Lacey Lilac again.

All my favourite colors on my fingers. Just looking at this picture makes me happy (:

Then, I had some time on my hands and decided to add something fun to my manicure.

Yep, I painted ice cream on my nails!

Honestly, my nails are having a bit of an identity crisis. They can't decide if they're ice cream or cupcakes. Help them out?

Essie's Turquoise & Caicos & China Glaze's Whirled Away!

I purchased a couple of the polishes from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil collection a month ago (I posted it on Instagram), but I completely forgot about them until I chanced upon swatches recently. I loved Whirled Away the moment I saw it but I had no idea how to wear it. 

I looked through the swatches on Google and decided that I liked it best over a pastel/light colored base so I whipped out Essie's Turquoise & Caicos ♥

Turquoise & Caicos has to be one of my favourite mint green/turquoise nail polishes. It's SO gorgeous & the formula is pretty great. The first coat may look sheer and patchy, but the second coat evens everything out. I have no problems with the formula at all. 

I had a bit of trouble applying Whirled Away though. In all the swatches I've seen, all the "glitter" pieces seemed to be well distributed & even. However, when I tried to paint it on, it was pretty hard to get the pieces to go on evenly. I actually had to fish out the white hexagonal pieces and put them on using a dotting tool.

I really love how unique Whirled Away is and I love how these two polishes look together. Whirled Away is definitely worth the extra effort it takes. 

New Year's Day Nails!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! May 2013 be the best year you'll have so far!

I wanted to go all out, glitter bomb for my New Year's Day nails. I love glitter, and what better occasion is there to wear glitter?! So I pulled out my most bimbo pink and brightest silver/gold polish and piled it on my nails :D

I used OPI's Teenage Dream & China Glaze's I'm Not Lion.

I layered a layer of OPI's Panda-monium Pink under 2 coats of Teenage Dream. I only had to use ONE coat of China Glaze's I'm Not Lion, I adore it!

I usually only use glitter polishes for accent nails or nail art but I went all out this time. And I really like how it turned out!

Snowglobe Nails! ❄

My friends came over to my place for some coffee & cake, and we decided to do our nails too because, why not? :D

I used China Glaze's Kinetic Candy, Shooting Stars and White on White. You can tell how much I love China Glaze ♥

I sponged White on White over my Kinetic Candy base, then did a coat of Shooting Stars over. My friend also brought over Christmas nail stickers and I couldn't resist the Christmas tree & snowflake ❄ There's also a bow on the middle finger of my right hand but I can't take a decent picture with my left ☹

OPI's Bubble Bath & The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights was the polish I was  most excited about from the Skyfall collection and I've been looking for ways to wear it ever since I got it! 

Then I saw the best way to wear TLD ever on Killer Colours (I adore her blog, she's such an AMAZING makeup artiste, I can't emphasize it enough) and on Chalkboard Nails. It was soooo pretty I had to try it out!

Bubble Bath is a perennial favourite and needs to introduction. TLD is a polish with gold, silver, orange & green glitter pieces in it, it's quite unique, I'd say. 

I used 2 coats of BB, 2 coats of TLD and then another coat of BB. I love how it turned out!

I'm Not Afraid Of Spiders

Happy Halloween! ☠ I hope you've had ( or are having) a great time!

Decided to have a bit of fun with my nails with OPI's Skulls & Glossbones and a nail art pen from The Face Shop.

I shall name my spider Harry (Hairy, get it hahaha), and his twin brother (on my other hand) shall be named Scary. They'll stay with me for a couple of days ☺

New In: OPI Skyfall & More! ☁

I finaaaaally got my paws on the polishes I wanted from OPI's Skyfall Collection! I thought about getting the entire collection because I loved the swatches I saw online but I came to my senses and decided to just buy the ones I REALLY liked. After all, how many variations of red nail polish does 1 girl need?!

So, these are the ones I decided to get in the end.

L-R: Skyfall, The Spy Who Loved Me, Casino Royale

L-R: Live And Let Die, Goldeneye, The Living Daylights

I also decided to pick up a couple of darker Fall colors because I don't own too many of them. I tend to lean towards pastels so darker polishes rarely catch my eye.

L-R: Here Again... Aragon Tomorrow, We'll Always Have Paris

I've worn HAAT but I didn't really take a picture of it. I have a picture of it with nail art on top on my Instagram (ohheyclaudia) but it just looks like it's black. It's actually a very dark green! Opaque in 2 coats, but you can probably get away with wearing 1 thicker coat. I love polishes like that!

 This is most definitely my favourite polish from the Skyfall collection!♡ Skyfall is a deep, dark red creme polish. It looks so pretty on the nails & the formula is amazing too. It's opaque in 2 coats, and it's pretty glossy!

I probably won't be buying anymore nail polishes anytime soon. I've got to set myself on a strict nail polish ban. I'm running out of space to store my collection ☹

Pink & Glitter Nails ❤

I wanted to paint my nails the other day but I couldn't find any of the newer polishes that I wanted to use. So I pulled out a couple of oldies but goodies!

These are OPI's Rainbow Connection (from the Muppet's collection) and Strawberry Margarita (IDK which collection this is from, it seems to be one of the polishes that have been around for forever!). I adore both of these polishes, especially Strawberry Margarita, I use it sooo much & will definitely repurchase it when I use it up!

I've seen my friend wear a coat of Rainbow Connection on top of Strawberry Margarita and it was SO pretty. I wasn't prepared to have to wrestle glitter off 10 fingers so I decided to have an accent nail on each hand instead. I really like how it turned out!

That is 2 coats of Strawberry Margarita and 3 coats of Rainbow Connection! ❤

China Glaze's Harvest Moon

This is part of the The Hunger Games collection from China Glaze. I remember being SO obsessed with this for  months before it launched, and when it finally did, I went out and bought almost the entire collection. I have 9 out of 12 of the polishes. I passed on Mahogany Magic & Riveting because I didn't like those colors. 

I wasn't really a fan of Harvest Moon when I saw it too (orange really doesn't appeal to me at all) but I thought it might be alright for Fall/Winter.

This is the first time I've worn it!

I think it looks better on than I expected, doesn't make me look like an oompa-loompa, I hope? 

I quite like the metallic finish of this polish and it applies really well too. The first coat is a teeny bit streaky but the second coat totally evens it out & makes it opaque. The only downside to this polish is that it takes slightly more effort to remove as compared to the normal creme polishes. It's not a big problem though, especially if you're used to removing glitter polishes!

Etude House's Juicy Cocktail Gradation Nails ♥

So this is the other thing I got from Etude House the other time I went! Isn't it pretty?! I  can't pass up anything that comes in a set, does that sound weird? I saw these nail polish sets that make doing gradient nails much easier than they already are, and I decided to get one!

These are the polishes that came in that set! The first layer is a shimmery, light peachy pink. The second layer is a fine gold glitter polish with slightly bigger silver glitter pieces. & the last layer is a big, gold chunky glitter polish. You're meant to paint the peachy color over your entire nails, then paint the second layer slightly higher up your nail and paint the chunky gold glitter on the tips, super easy right? You don't even have to use a sponge!

(Please excuse my terrible cuticles, I had to remove the glitter polish I was wearing before that, and remover makes my nails really dry!)

This is 2 coats of the peachy color, 2 coats of the fine gold glitter and one coat of the large gold glitter. The polishes are great, they're really easy to apply, very smooth & no streaking at all! The large gold glitter polish was a little tricky because I had to push the glitter off the brush so that it'd stick on my nail bed. If I hadn't, there would probably be only 2 or 3 glitter pieces on my nails. It's not a biggie though!

I think this set is great, if you're lazy like I am & you don't have to have to sponge or think of color combinations when doing glitter gradients. On the other hand, it's probably  if you wanted to make a dupe of this set by buying similar polishes from other brands!

Ppppolka Dots!

I went into Etude House ( a Korean makeup/skincare/beauty shop) with my friend because she wanted to check out their skincare range. She didn't get anything but I did walk out with 5 polishes (2 individual bottles and 3 in a set) and a pore pack mask >.<

You have no idea how much self control it took to not buy the whole selection of nail polishes. It did help that they were not inexpensive though. I saw this pastel range and I wanted them all :'( 

This is the range of polishes they have, but it's in a different packaging! I know the picture says matte, but the ones I have are glossy heh.

Credit: Etude 

Anyway, this post is going to be about 2 of the polishes I bought, both pastels! Their names are CGR702 (blue one) and CBE101 (the yellow one). I don't know if they have real names.

The formula of these polishes are pretty good! The blue one applied really really nicely, no streaking or patchiness but the yellow was slightly trickier. It was more sheer and needed 3 coats to be fully opaque, unlike the blue which only required 2 coats.

It's a pretty small bottle, only 7ml, as compared to the usual 15ml OPI/China Glaze bottles. 

I definitely want to try out more of the polishes they have, it'd be nice to have the entire collection hehehehe. 

OPI's Strawberry Margarita & China Glaze's I'm Not Lion

I decided to do the two-accent-nails thing again (did it once HERE), not a very novel idea, I know!

I wanted to paint my nails something simple & fun so I decided on OPI's Strawberry Margarita and added China Glaze's I'm Not Lion as an afterthought to jazz it up.

Strawberry Margarita is one of the most classic OPI colors, it's just a bright pink creme polish that everyone loves. The formula is perfect too, it goes on so smoothly and it's completely opaque in 2 coats. No streaks, no patchiness at all.

China Glaze's I'm Not Lion from the On Safari collection is another winner. It's a glitter polish and I'm positive it consists gold and holographic glitter. It does look different in different lighting though, sometimes I think I see silver and other times I think I see bronze. I swear I'm not cray-cray though hahaha.

Bunnies Here, Bunnies There, Bunnies Everywhere!

I'm more than slightly bunny obsessed at the moment, so I decided to do bunny nail art :D I initially intended on painting bunnies on all my fingers but I realised it would have been an overkill!

Colors used: 

• base/bunny noses: OPI's Panda-monium Pink
• brown bunny: OPI's San Tan Tonio Texas
• white bunny: China Glaze's White On White
• black: China Glaze's Liquid Leather

Surprisingly, the bunnies on my right hand turned out cuter than the ones on my left. Maybe because I had a bit of practice after doing the left. 

Polka Dots ☺

My friend & I decided to get our nails done at a random salon when we went to Bangkok a week ago because my neon pink nails were chipping and manicures are SO inexpensive in Bangkok.

We went to a small nail shop at Union Mall (at Phahon Yothin MRT station, in case anyone is wondering, the shopping there is fantastic) after a long day of shopping. It was really enjoyable because we got to rest and the manicurists there were really patient & took so much care in doing our nails.

I didn't want to get anything TOO fancy so I went with polka dots. My friend decided to go all the way & she got floral nails & 3D polka dots on alternate fingers (the polka dots were formed with beads). Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of her nails :(

The manicurist used a white polish for the base, and then she mixed blue acrylic paint for the polka dots. My friend got her floral pattern painted on with acrylic paint too. She also decided to get a gel overlay so her nails would last longer, but the manicurist didn't cure the gel properly so her nails didn't dry & they were ruined after a couple of days :(

My simple polka dot manicure costed me US$6.40 and lasted me an entire week. It could have lasted longer if I didn't get bored with it!

Mint & Gold ♥

I saw a post on The Beauty Department on Robin's Egg Nails and I thought they were GORGEOUS. I decided that I had to recreate that manicure soon.

If you click through the link to look at that TBD post, you'll see that my manicure generally doesn't really look like that one. I do still really like my version though! They actually look better when they're not THAT up close.

 I used Sally Hansen's Mint Sorbet and China Glaze's Solar Flare. I've done a review on Mint Sorbet on my old Tumblr (here) and it's great-- 2 coats for complete opacity. I used one coat of Solar Flare for this mani because it's meant to be a glitter top coat, not a polish on it's own, Topped that off with 2 coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast, and tadahhhhh!

China Glaze's Manhunt & I'm Not Lion

I got a couple of polishes from China Glaze's On Safari collection the other day! I meant to get the entire collection when I first saw it a couple of months ago, but the colors don't appeal to me anymore. I still think they're gorgeous, but they're not colors I'm into right now. 

I had to get Manhunt because it's my favorite color from the collection, and I'm Not Lion because lions are THE BEST animal in the world.

I'm sorry about the TERRIBLE paint job on my pointer finger. I forgot to wipe the brush on the corner of the bottle and it glooped (such a professional term LOL) around my cuticles :/ I usually wait for my nails to dry, then take a shower so all the excess polish peels off. Didn't do that for this one, obviously.

Manhunt is a dark blue which I thought would be a dupe for China Glaze's First Mate but it isn't really. Manhunt is noticeably brighter. It's opaque in two coats and not streaky at all. Great formula! I'm Not Lion is a glitter polish with flecks of silver, gold and holographic glitter. I put on 3 coats, but that was just to be safe. 2 coats would probably be sufficient! 

I really love doing two accent nails :D

Sally Hansen's Lacey Lilac

When I first saw Lacey Lilac, I thought it'd be a dupe for Essie's Nice is Nice, but it isn't really. It's a lot more... saturated(?) and purple, while Nice is Nice is a true pastel color.

As you can see from the picture, I did a pretty bad job at applying this polish. The formula was okay, slightlyyyyy thick and needed 2 coats for complete opacity. The brush, on the other hand, was SO hard to work with! It was uneven, clumpy and didn't fan out well. It was really hard to paint the polish on evenly.

I have tried a couple other polishes from this line, and I've never had problems with them AT ALL. I think I got a wonky bottle. I do love the color of the polish though!

Deborah Lippmann's Shape Of My Heart & Some Enchanted Evening

I just purchased Deborah Lippmann's Shape Of My Heart and another polish that will make an appearance in a separate post. I know I'm on a nail polish ban but some of the DL polishes were on sale and I couldn't resist!

Shape Of My Heart was created as a collaboration with Shape magazine to support the fight against breast cancer. It's a very sheer pastel pink creme polish which I think was meant as a french manicure shade. This is definitely not one of my best paint jobs because I put on 4 coats to get this opacity, but I really love this color!

I was looking for a way to wear Some Enchanted Evening so I decided to sponge it onto the tips to get a glitter gradient! I hate removing glitter polishes so I figured I could wait for my nails to grow out then cut the tips off so I wouldn't have to remove the glitter.

Deborah Lippmann's On The Beach & Mermaid's Dream

I adore Deborah Lippmann. I have tried all but one (Some Enchanted Evening) of the Deborah Lippmann polishes I purchased, and I've been impressed with every one. 

Right now, I'm wearing On The Beach on my thumb, pointer and pinkie and Mermaid's Dream on my middle & ring fingers as accents. I love how these colors look together!