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

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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.

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!

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! ❤

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.

Glitter Gradient Nude!

I wanted to paint my nails a nice nude for a change because my nails have either been super bright or pastel recently. Decided to go with OPI's Barefoot In Barcelona, which is a lovely, dusty pink creme polish I love.

This picture is from a while ago, because I didn't manage to take a picture before I got bored with it! After a couple of hours, I decided it was too boring & I wanted to add a little something to it. 

I sponged Deborah Lippmann's Some Enchanted Evening on the tips and I got a pink based glitter gradient which I thought was really pretty :D

Nail Polish Overview Part 1: Reds & Nudes

A friend who reads this blog suggested that I do an overview of the nail polishes I own. And I thought it was a pretty good idea because 'nail polish collection' post of sorts has been requested on my Tumblr quite a few times, but I didn't know how to go about doing it. Anyway, we decided I could probably group them according to color. So here's part 1!

Reds

First row: Sally Hansen's CSM in Right Said Red, OPI's Big Apple Red, Essie's Very Cranberry

Second row: OPI's Quarter Of A Cent-cherry, Deborah Lippmann's Supermodel

You can find reviews for these polishes (except DL's Supermodel, it's new in my collection) on my old Tumblr (here).

Nudes

First row: China Glaze's Innocent, OPI's Bubble Bath, OPI's Tickle My France-y

Second row: OPI's Barefoot In Barcelona, China Glaze's Dress Me Up, Sally Hansen CSM in So Much Fawn.

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It's such a hassle to take pictures, because I don't have a good camera & I prefer natural sunlight. I don't really have the time to take pictures on weekdays, especially since I only get home at night. Part 2 will probably be pinks/oranges/corals!

OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard

This is from the OPI Spiderman collection, and it's an almost exact dupe for Chanel's Peridot.

It's a green/gold metallic duochrome polish and it's GORGEOUS. This needed 2 coats to be opaque and you can see the slightest brush strokes, but it's not a major deal & not that noticeable.

I didn't wear a base or top coat over this, and I've worn it for three days (photo taken on 3rd day). There has been very minimal chipping, save for my broken nail, which doesn't count!

Colors for Spring/Summer ☼

These are my nail polish picks for Spring/Summer! I'm totally feeling pastels now, and these colors are top on my list now. I don't really like any finish other than creme right now so... they're all going to be creme polishes.

   

Left to right: OPI's Panda-monium Pink, Essie's Nice is Nice, Sally Hansen's Mint Sorbet, China Glaze's Kinetic Candy

Panda-monium Pink is a pretty blue-toned pink creme polish which can make it look slightly lilac in some lights. You can see the swatch of it here. 

Nice is Nice is a pastel lilac color which is really pretty but kind of annoying to apply. I use 3 coats because it's pretty streaky. Here's an updated swatch because I don't like the one on my Tumblr.

   

Mint Sorbet is your typical mint green color, it's a good dupe for Essie's Mint Candy Apple and Revlon's Minted. Mint Sorbet has the best formula of all, to me at least. It's completely opaque in 2 coats and not streaky at all. You can see a swatch of it here. 

Kinetic Candy is baby blue creme polish, and it's a pretty close dupe (not exact) for OPI's What's with the Cat-titude. I prefer this polish over WwtC because it's completely opaque in 2 coats,  and WwtC takes me at least 4 coats. Look at the swatch here !

Let me know if you have any great Spring/Summer colors you'd like to recommend, I'm definitely looking for more polish to hoard try ;)

Manicure Monday?

I painted my nails with OPI's Mermaid's Tears (thumb, pointer & pinkie) and China Glaze's Goddess (middle & ring finger). I really like how these colors look together!

After a couple of days, the polish started to wear away at the tips a little and I thought it'd be the best time to try half moon manicures (which I have been wanting to try) because they cover up the tips. I layered China Glaze's Kinetic Candy on top. 

I thought it was a pretty fail manicure because the half moons were shaped weirdly. I should have stuck the tape further down and left less of Mermaid's Tears visible!