Choi's nails

For this manicure you'll need:

• One coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's Protein base coat)
• Two coats of OPI's Ski Teal we drop.
• Using Barry M's Gold foil and the maple leaf design on the Bundle Monster BM04 plate, stamp the design randomly on the whole nail.
• With a dotting tool and the gold foil polish gently dot the empty spaces.
• Seal the nail with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I use INM's Out the door.)

Simple right? The design unintentionally and thankfully looks a little festive to me. Given that I'm usually very bad at creating seasonal/themed designs I'm glad this can be pulled off as some sort of Christmas nails.

Well, thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good time with Christmas around the corner. 7 days! Where did time even go?!

After trying the dark tips I wanted to give those two tone flowers a try. I don't think I did so well on that but the least the flower look is distinguishable.


For this manicure:

• Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
• Apply two coats of Barry M's Plum.
• With a sponge and basic black polish sponge the tips until preferred results - As I mentioned this step doesn't show up as much in person so it's really optional.
• Using a toothpick and two different shades place one dot on the nail and another in the second shade overlapping half of the first. With the pointy end of the toothpick pull the dots into the middle to give it the flower look.
  Polishes used here were OPI's A grape fit and Barry M's Silver foil effect.
• After you're done with the flowers, randomly dot OPI's A grape fit on the middle and ring finger nail.
• Finish off with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

What's your favourite dark polish?

What's everyone's plans for Valentines and/or Chinese New year? Have you thought of your Valentine's manicure yet? :)

This colour really reminds me of Christmas. Ahh thinking of it, I just can't wait. 

What do you think of the colour? Does it remind you of anything?

Anyone saw that Boxing Day haul post that I published a while ago? Well there was two OPI’s that came in the order and right now I’ll be showing you one of them, OPI’s underneath the mistletoe.


OPI’s UTM is a deep red jelly filled with silver and raspberry glitter and flakies. Application was alright with the polish having normal to thick consistency and so it only took two coats to reach full opacity. Its old news about OPI and their big brushes but this one made it harder for me to cover the sides without having to specifically go over it again.


It’s a little fast drying so as I was painting it felt a little draggy but its gorgeous shimmer is worth the time and effort. Even during clean-up it didn’t leak to give the ‘sore cuticle’ look which some reds tend to do.


The colour is beautiful but it washes out my skin tone, my hand’s actually look paler in these pictures. UTM seems too good and too much for work so I think I’d be leaving this polish for day outs or special occasions.

Did you pick up this polish when it first came out? What other OPI polishes are on your favourites list?

Sorry about the quality of the photos. The pieces were too big to fit in my light box that I had to look for alternative ways to photograph them at night but thanks for reading ;)

Definitely pleased with the overall look of this one. It still looked a little fresh even between 1-3 days of wear especially after a nail file down. Looked similar to how it was after it was first done.


Most times I like to picture the base colour on its own before I go ahead with any design just in case things don't turn out right. Experience learned from all the other times that it didn't. This is OPI's STWD without a top coat.


This one had smooth application and normal consistency. Like most polishes the first coat is sheer and but to a minimum, just a few patches here and there. There's no complaints after two coats because everything was covered. 


So what do you like to pair your silver polishes with? What's your favourite teal? :)

It's almost 3am here in London so I'm going keep things short and sweet here. Work has been crazy since the amount of overtime I've done is making me feel like a full time worker. On top of that I've been preparing for an upcoming interview this Monday. Ahh stress! All my energy is shared out between work and my sister's pet bunny that I have very little for blogging but I'm going to do what I can. I'd hate to give up on this blog!

Anyway, this was a manicure done a year or so ago. Whilst flipping through my old pictures, I thought it would've been nice to recreate again.

Light box photo.

The base is OPI's Lucky lucky lavender, just a very pinky lavender shade which is definitely underused in my collection. It required at least three coats for me due to the first two being sheer but everything looked okay on the third. The formula itself was thin and runny and apparently clean up didn't feel smooth either (or so that's what my manicure notes in scruffy handwriting says LOL.) This is LLL on it's own without a top coat.

Light box photo.

Using the Konad stamping polish in white I stamped the image from the Bundle monster plate 224. If you look properly you'll see I also added pink rhinestones on each nail apart from the pinkie, as to why I left that one out? I don't even know myself.

Indoor window photo.

My manicure in a different hand position to let you see how it looks. Light box photo.

 One more thing before I end this post. I'd just like to announce that:

OPI's RN has a lovely formula. Each layer goes on nice and thin but I'd say two coats is ideal. The first coat is almost close to opaque. Close but not quite there yet unless you do more of a thicker coat. OPI is known for their wide brushes and the brush on this one is no joke. For my average sized nails they worked alright without being too troublesome.




Other than the lightbox photo I also included one taken indoors with the sun shining on it just to bring out the sparkly side for you to see and two outdoors on the balcony. Lovely isn't it? Shame the shimmers go into hiding as soon as they're out of the light.


Even though RN is full of pink shimmers they just weren't enough for me so I added Barry M's Amethyst glitter on top which matches great against the base. I applied one coat to every nail except the one on the ring finger which has two. The next day I realised a minor chip on my index finger though, I'm guessing maybe some of the glitters I left hanging off the edge clung onto somewhere. That's okay, it just gives me an excuse to redo my nails :)

What do you think of OPI's RN? Do you prefer it with or without the Barry M glitter?

Very simple manicure today :)


 
Products I used:

• Two coats of China Glaze's Below deck as the base
• Black striping tape to line the tips
• OPI's Russian navy to line the tips on the accent nail
• Flower image on plate BM03 stamped with Konad polish in royal purple
• Light blue rhinestone placed in the middle of the flower

 

All photos taken indoors.

China Glaze's Below deck is actually more of a purple-brown but it looks just like a normal brown in all the photos I took.

I used OPI's Russian navy thinking it'd show up against the base but it turned out looking black. It was almost the same case with the Konad polish. 

I was planning to stamp just one flower onto the middle of my accent nail but as you can see I totally missed the spot. Ended up adding more flowers on the side plus a rhinestone to make up for the mistake.

The striping tape didn't last long either. Taped it onto my nail in the morning and it started peeling by the night.

What do you think of my manicure?

It’s officially Spring tomorrow and already I'm bringing out all my pastels and brights.

Photo taken indoors with artificial light

• Index: Essie's Absolutely shore as base
  Using striping tape to line the tips and paint over with Essie's Van D'go

• Middle: Absolutely shore as base
  Sponged with China Glaze's Lorelei's tiara on tips

• Ring: Van D'go as base
  Using striping tape again to line the nail and paint over with Absolutely shore
  Stamped the lollipop image from plate BM02 with OPI's Conquistadorable color
  Went over the image with China Glaze's Ring in the red since OPI’s CC didn’t seem to show properly

• Pinkie: Van D'go as base
  Sponged with ring in the red on tips

All other photos taken indoors, natural light

It's a little late but hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and a very happy new year.

I fell into the lazy trap for a month or so that's why I haven't been keeping up with my blog posts, that doesn't mean I've slacked on the photography part though. I've managed to capture most of the manicures I've done, just the post writing part puts me into a deep sleep. I'll try and include a brief description of what I can remember from each.

I  kind of hate to bring my old manicures into the new year but since I never managed to post them when I was supposed to I decided on a nail spam post. It feels incomplete to not show these anywhere. If you haven't realised from my posts, I like to upload quite a few shots of the same manicure with little difference between some or all of them so don't be surprised to see the same thing happening here.

Most of these are mainly fall polishes, I didn't get a chance to purchase any winter ones. This is by far the longest polish no buy I've been on. It's been months already which makes me think I'm doing quite well. 

China Glaze's Exotic encounter Taken in indoors, natural light with a bit of sun :)

Exotic encounters is from China Glaze’s On safari collection, it looks like a teal crème that leans more green but I eventually ended up calling it green. The consistency of this one is a little thick but you could still work with it. If I remembered right I think I used two coats with this one, it couldn’t pass off as a one coater in my opinion.

I received a compliment at work; it didn’t convince me to keep it on for much longer though.  My feelings towards exotic encounters didn’t beat the excitement I had for doing another water marble design so I ended up removing it after two days.

Water marble with China Glaze's First mate, Stella and Swing baby All photos taken outdoors in natural light

This water marble didn’t come out as good as the others. I messed up on every finger even with the nail on my ring finger just that the mistakes aren't as obvious. I managed to tear away a small part of polish whilst removing the tape around my cuticles and that's not the first time I’ve done so. I didn’t cover every part of the other nails when I dipped in my finger so I double dipped my middle finger and pinkie, not a good idea.

Looking at these photos makes me slightly sad because it was the manicure I done the night before my last day at work. It's remembered as my leaving work manicure but on the brighter side it’s the first time trying an orange polish. It is quite a bright orange but it didn’t scare me off which I’m quite happy about. Now I can include more oranges on my to buy list.

China Glaze's Prey tell First two photos taken outdoors and last two taken indoors. Natural light.

Feels ever so long since I had such a dark colour on my nails and I’m quite surprised with this one in fact. Prey tell is a very deep blood red that's close to black. Application didn’t go as smooth this time though, not because of the formula but the amount of time I was working with. I hardly ever let myself polish my nails in a hurry but I felt it was impossible to attend the social gathering I had with bare nails. I happened to smudge the same finger 3 times and it had to be that middle finger. It only needs two coats though. One if you're willing to apply it a little thick and evenly.

China Glaze's Man hunt All photos taken outdoors in natural light. Man hunt looking more colour accurate in the last two

Here's China Glaze's Man hunt, a slightly dark, rich blue with a sort of thick formula but you could still paint two coats with little problem. This shade was nothing too special for me so I pulled out my stamps and plates on it. Using Essie's Blanc I stamped a design on the Bundle monster plate BM10 on my index, middle and pinkie. With a flower design from the same plate I decorated my accent nail and finished off with some dots using Orly's Flare.

This design reminded me a little of Christmas. Maybe because the colours brought my memories back to Primary school days where we used to participate in the Christmas plays. The words Frankincense and Myrrh comes to mind with this manicure though I Googled some images and they don't seem to relate. 

I would say the photos with the design is a little more accurate. It isn't as light as you see it in the first two.

Water marble design with Orly's Rapture and Flare All photos taken outdoors in natural light.

Another water marble design. I love them just not so great at them. I still haven't managed to solve the air bubble mystery as you can see on the nail on my ring finger. Accidentally ripped a part from my pinkie too otherwise this manicure would have been acceptable.

The dark shade is Orly's Rapture which I paired with Orly's Flare on two coats of Essie's Blanc as the base. I was aiming to do the light and dark contrast design but the outcome was a little surprising. Turned out looking more like an animal print to me.

China Glaze's Elephant walk All photos taken indoors with natural light.

This one is China Glaze's Elephant walk, a grey with small silver shimmers that I quite liked though the shimmers were pretty subtle to me. Formula is a little thicker than normal but I didn't come across any problems with it. Two coats is what I'm wearing in the photos.

China Glaze's I herd that All photos taken indoors.

Only after looking closely at these photos on a computer screen did I think 'What a bad paint job in some places' but let me introduce you to China Glaze's I herd that. It's a mixture of yellow-y gold and orange glitter in a clear base and it really isn't that orange like the last three photos. The first two I would say is a little more accurate.

The polish is pretty dense but I applied around two to three coats just so my nails were jam packed with glitter. It does dry to a matte finish though so bring out the topcoat if you prefer the glossy look.

Orly's Ignite First photo taken indoors with a bit of sun. Second and third taken outdoors, natural light.

This one I quite like and it's Orly's Ignite which is a deep red jelly. I thought it'd be some sort of blood red but it dried a little brighter than that. It's also a little sheer so if you look closely you could see some VNL and that's just with two coats. I preferred to keep it at that rather than adding to it since I'm not so bothered about the sheer look. Application was great as with the others I've tried. Really liking this brand and the fact that it provides 18ml of product I'd happily go and purchase more.

China Glaze's Kalahari kiss Photo taken indoors, natural light.

This one I don't have much to say about except I wasn't too fond of it. Didn't turn out too bad in the end because for a moment I thought it looked al right. China Glaze's Kalahari Kiss is like a rusty creamy camel yellow. It is a little thick though but yet again it does fine with just two coats. The formula does take a bit to get used to.



Here's Orly's Rapture which is a deep chocolate brown. Start flashing it under some light and you'll see the brown side of it much clearer. I went ahead with just two coats with this one and the formula was as smooth as butter. 

I decided to do some nail stamping just so they didn't look so plain. I pulled out my Bundle monster plate BM14 and used the snowflake design on every nail apart from the one on my ring finger which I layered with OPI's Divine swine. Using a dotting tool I added some glitter to the middle of each snowflake. It looked better in person in my opinion. This ended up being my only Christmas manicure I did.

Orly's Rapture with Divine Swine and design from plate BM14 All photos taken indoors apart from this one.

Left hand design :D