Choi's nails

Whenever fall comes around this is practically the colour my mind comes across most of the time. Something about these colours that just keep pulling me in again and again. This is Orly's Smolder. I'm blogging about this shade for the second time but with the help of the lightbox the colours appears more vivid here.

Orly's Smolder is a deep wine shimmer and the consistency of this polish couldn't be any better. Each layer applies thin and two coats is enough to let this polish show its full beauty. It's also nice when the shade makes my skin tone look a little brighter and even.

Right, less reading and more viewing. Enjoy!

I had purchases this Alexa Chung collection set from Nails Inc a while ago whilst they were having their sales and this is the first time trying out their polishes in the new bottles.

If you had owned some polishes from their previous lines you would know or might have seen their old round bottles so the change here is pretty obvious. But I do like this change, in fact I prefer their new packaging because it's just much more snazzy.

This polish is Alexa Pink cashmere. From the bottle it's more like a shimmery pink but only after applying I realised it's one of those textured polished. The subtle textured ones. I must have missed out that part of the description somewhere because that came as a little surprise. Not so much of a texture polished person but with it not looking and feeling as rough as the others then this one I can accept.

I've had this polish in my possession for quite a while but it hasn't made its appearance on my blog until now. Reason being the past few times I've given it a try it ends up being removed long before I go ahead with the pictures. I did think that sort of pearly silky finish just weren't my thing but this time I decided to stick with it and pair it with some stamping to see if my feelings about it will change. Hmm, I could say a little bit.

For this manicure:

Brightening up the day with this bright hot pink. Essie's Super bossa nova.

I think ageing is affecting my preference for polish. I remember a year or two ago I used to wear this shade thinking it was the bomb. But today I think the purple shimmer is not doing it for me any more.

Regardless it still is a good colour. Two coats, good consistency and capable of making my skin tone look quite yellow against it under the camera lens which is why there's only one picture for show here.

I've missed wearing a full pink manicure without layering any design over it. Usually I'd go for more of the pastel pinks because hey they're still very gorgeous but as I was rummaging through my drawers and drawers of polish I came across this. 

China Glaze's Dance baby. This one is more of a blue based pink and it's good enough at two coats here. Good consistency and even application. 

The polish featured in this post was one of the souvenirs that a friend bought back from Japan for me. Only now have I to give it a try. 

This Canmake shade is a blue with very fine silver shimmers that dries matte. I couldn't care less about the matte effect because I knew I wanted a top coat over it from the start but its matte look is still quite nice. Do note though, that matte shades are more prone to chipping.

I had analysed the label and whilst it's all in Japanese there is no sign of a possible polish name for it. That is unless there is just that it's in another language and I can't read it so I'm assuming these Canmake polishes just go by number.

The brand Canmake is actually like a stranger to me, apart from when I'm browsing the Sasa website which is site full of Asian health and beauty products I hardly come across it. First impressions? So far so good. The brush it comes with is standard and the polish formula is nothing out of the ordinary but it does apply evenly and smoothly. The results below took about two coats with the cleanup process being more than easy.

I had to think twice before posting this one because things just didn't feel right. I eventually decided on posting it because I liked the design stamped on top.

For so long I've wanted to do a swirly stamping design on a dark base so I went ahead with it after seeing some awesome swirls on the Moyou Suki collection plate No.7. Before doing so I did a test design on my thumb nail where I sponged the tips with a white and stamped the design in both gold and silver. The silver and white combined made things look quite frosty and cool, the effect looked good but to be on the safe side I ended up stamping everything in gold. I couldn't help thinking back at the silver on gradient try out so after taking this off I used the base colour again just to do the design on every nail. My nails ended up looking like duck nails in the photos so here's the gold version only. I will give that design another go though.

One other thing that really got me was the base colour. Essie's Garden variety is a teal shade and it's a stainer! I didn't notice my nail colour the first time I removed it but after the second I found my nails were no longer yellow from too much polishing but instead they had turned green. For those thinking of giving this polish a go I'd say invest in a good base coat and still prepare yourself for some staining.

Look here! This post is a girly glittery one. Do excuse this manicure though because I had some air bubble problems going on . Here's Nails Inc's Bow street layered over just a basic white because it was nice to let the colours stand out on a simple base. 

Bow street is full of  pink, light pink and purple hexagon glitters in what seems like a lightly tinted pink base because the white didn't look as crisp after applying it over.

I think this is one of them polishes that looks much prettier in the bottle. I expected a bit too much from this one, it's not bad though. Application needed a bit more effort with having to manually position the glitter after applying each stroke unless you're happy with keeping things a bit patchy. The colour combination of the glitters look perfect though, that was definitely what got me most excited to try it out.

This post is not much of an exciting one but I sure do like the shade I'll be talking about. I do own quite a few nudes but only a few I would say look great against my skin tone and here is another one that does.

This is Nails Inc's Colville mews. A cool toned nude looking good at two coats. There's nothing to pick about the formula, application and cleanup process because they were pretty easy to work through.

After going through so much colours it does feel nice to put on a nude shade once in a while.

Remember in my last post I mentioned my friend came back from Japan with some nail polish souvenirs for me? Well here's another one I tried and it's actually from the brand Sanrio. Any childhood memories of Hello Kitty, Miffy and the rest coming out anyone? It may not come as a surprise to some people but being so distant from everything Sanrio now I didn't even know they made nail polish! I can't seem to figure out what name this polish was given so throughout I might just have to refer to it as 'the Sanrio polish'.

Not so long ago my friend recently visited Japan and as souvenirs he bought me back some Japanese branded nail polishes. Yes he's a he and he did quite a good job with this polish.

Looking from the bottle the shade looks pretty much like a dark midnight blue glitter but turns out the base is pretty sheer. It did turn out a few shades lighter than the bottle but I do think these sort of blue glitters look nice.

Because of the sheer base you do need at least 2-3 coats and unlike most other glitters the clean up process was a lot easier. Usually there'd be random specks of glitter sitting around my cuticles but I didn't seem to notice any.

It actually bugs me a little that the photo for this post is pretty much unedited apart from having my watermarks pasted here and there. Usually I'd play around with the settings to make things look a little better but if I had done it to this one you totally won't see how much of a barbie pink this is.

This is Models Own's Radiant pink at two to three coats. Smooth application, easy clean up and very girly.

This is a bit too much of a barbie pink to wear as a full manicure but I think I wouldn't mind it for some nail art.

For today's post I'm actually quite proud of how the photos came out because the colour looks amazing and it's even making my skin look quite smooth against it.

Here I have Models Own's Heart Red which is a sort of orangey red. Very bright. It's one of the skin tone washing colours where it could make your hands look pale white. I think I've gotten less bothered about that as I wear more of these type of shades.

I've found another favourite from the Models Own's Diamond Luxe collection. It's Marquise Maroon which is a maroon red with the signature gold dust. I do have a thing for those falling in the deep red colour family.

Are you sick of all the Models Own polishes yet? I hope you're not because here's another one and you girly girls would like it.

This one is Models Own's Princess pink, a baby pink creme with the signature gold dust and it has become one of my favourites from the collection. 

A good two coats is enough for full opacity and I'm not if I've mentioned this already but with this new collection I've seen a change in their brushes, being a little wider making it little more easier to paint with. I've had little to no problems with all these new polishes and brushes except for Models Own's Pear purple from the diamond luxe collection. The brush was beyond stiff that I couldn't possibly paint without having the brush scratch off the polish. Luckily, Princess Pink had no problems.

Going nude today with Models Own's Trillion taupe from their Diamond Luxe collection.

This colour needed the standard two coats with smooth application. I didn't quite feel the shade was working with my skin tone so layering it with a dark colour seemed like the best idea to make it stand out. I wanted to see what a black on nude stamping manicure looked like so I did it. The results? Good but I'm not too concerned about it.

Following on from my swatch of Models Own's Oval plum, here's another one from the diamond dust collection. I've not been very good at capturing detail through these photos so you won't see the much of the 'diamond dust' unless you blow up the photos 10 times bigger. You can see a little more of it peeking out from the bottle. Regardless of that I think the shade is just a winner alone. It's so bright, so hot. It'll be great for when summer comes around.

This is Models Own's Carat Coral which is a bright red coral with diamond dust.

Here's about two coats without top coat because on it's own it's quite an outstanding colour, some nail art would've been welcome on this base. But in the end I kept it plain because it looked good as it was.

Can we just take a moment to enjoy this gorgeous blue by China Glaze. These sort of deep navy blue colours just never get old in my books and I hate to tell you that I removed the whole thing before even thinking of using it as a base for nail art. I can imagine doing many designs for this.

China Glaze's One track mind could pretty much be fulfilling on the first coat but here two coats were painted on just out of habit. This one belongs to the All aboard 2014 collection and I'd say this shade would be one of the favourites from the bunch.

Love how deep and rich in colour it is!

PINK. Just for breast cancer awareness month.

China Glaze's Wicked style from their Electropop collection.

2 coats. Smooth application, good consistency, easy clean up, great colour.

The colour is not exactly accurate here so forgive me ^^