Choi's nails

Barry M blue ombre stripe attempt

Don't you just hate when you think your manicure is the bomb but when you go over the pictures of them they don't look half as great. That's exactly how I'm feeling with this one.

Skipping right into the instructions.

For this manicure:

Apply one coat of your preferred base coat (I used Essie's protein base coat.)
Apply two coats of a basic white. I used Models Own's Hygerpel White light just because the one from Barry M is coming to a finish.
Use striping tape of nail vinyls to section the nails by applying them vertically.
With three different shades of blue apply them lightest to darkest from left to right. Or the other way round if you wish. The blues used here are (lightest to darkest):
Barry M's Blueberry
Barry M's Blue grape
Barry M's Blackberry
Finish off with one coat of your preferred top coat. (I used INM's Out the door top coat.)

The look is very simple but this design feels satisfying to look at. I guess the boldness of the colours has a thing to do with it.

What other ombre ideas would you like to see next? What do you think of this one?

Monday, October 05, 2015
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Barry M Plum with two tone flowers

Barry M

I love purple! It's still my favourite even after all the other different shades I've come across through polishing. A dark purple especially.

My base is Barry M's Plum from their Gelly Hi shine collection. This was one of those with a slightly thick consistency and only took about one coat to be opaque. It's always two for me though, just in case.

I wanted to give my base a dark edge to it so the tips were sponged with Misa's I will survive, a basic black. It didn't work out so well with the base being that dark it's hardly noticeable in person.

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?

Monday, October 05, 2015
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Nails Inc's Alexa Pink cashmere and hearts

Glitter

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.

This collection carries some large glitter top coats like this one. Alexa Heart and it's pretty much the one best matched to the base in my opinion but you will need to manually place each one. To save time, I placed it only on the ring finger nail in a flower shape and let the rest be.

Still 50/50 with this one and even though the glitter polish is little bit of a hassle for me it's still very pretty in bottle. Meh.

What do you think of this polish? Do you own any textured polishes? What's your opinion on them?