Choi's nails: Duo Chrome

China Glaze's Choo-Choo Choose you

Bundle monster

Monday, December 01, 2014
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Barry M's Pacific - Duochrome nail stamping

Barry M

Wednesday, October 08, 2014
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OPI Every month is Oktoberfest

Duo Chrome

Friday, September 19, 2014
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Nails Inc's Chancery lane and Mortimer street swatch

Duo Chrome

This is the last two polishes that were part of the lucky dip deal I received for my order last year but I'll be showing these as nail swatches rather than a full manicure. It feels unfair that these were the only ones I didn't wear but I couldn't find the right mood for these.

Here's Nails Inc's Chancery lane which is a mix of blue with medium silver hex glitters, holographic ones and part of what seems like you'd get in a concrete polish; it has that sort of gritty texture. I've actually given this a try way before these nail swatches were done but it was the reason why they didn't end up being shown as a full manicure.

Here, the picture shows three coats with no top coat and it was pretty patchy. Recently when my job didn't allow me enough time for my manicures I'd try to find 30 minutes before work for some quick nail dos but Chancery lane just didn't work out well. Application was hard and it required more time to work on the uneven and patchy parts so in the end it all had to come off.

The concept of this polish is 'one bottle no mess' so they mixed in a few things together. It's no mess all right but application was a much trickier than I had imagined. Did actually look forward to this one as well. Below is a closer picture of what it looks like.

Next up is Mortimer street an off yellowy caramel shade, a shimmery pearl duochrome? See some of that pinky purple colour showing through? At one point I thought I saw a little bit of green too but that might my lighting playing tricks on me.

The swatch only took 2-3 coats with easy and smooth application. There's some obvious brush strokes but usually polishes of these finishes end up with some of those. This one didn't seem to match my skin tone I weren't feeling this one. Hopefully I'll find a use for it in future. Nail art maybe?

To finish everything off, here's both swatches side by side. Chancery lane and Mortimer street.

Would you wear any of the two? If so which one? Have you ever had a polish that gave you some hassle?

Saturday, April 05, 2014
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Models own's Aqua violet

Duo Chrome

Monday, April 15, 2013
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NOTD: NAIL SPAM featuring a picture of my left hand :)

Bundle monster

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.

This manicure was done around the time I started using a new top and base coat which I’ll review some time later most probably when I’ve come close to finishing both bottles.

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.

I used:
Poshe fast drying base coat
Two coats of Essie’s Blanc
China Glaze’s First mate, Stella and Swing baby
INM’s out the door fast drying top coat

All colours were from China Glaze since it’s the dominating brand in my collection, it even has a drawer of its own. The blue crème is First mate from their Anchors away collection; this was one of the colours I made my first blog post about which you can review Here. The purple shimmer is Stella but you can’t really tell the finish from the photos, sometimes it even looks like it has a hint of pink to it too. Swing baby is the last shade I used which is a gold shimmer with a foil finish. I never knew it could look that pretty in a water marble design. I remember when I first wore Swing baby on its own and I wasn’t impressed.

Orly's Flicker
First two photos taken indoors and the last taken outdoors all in natural light with a wee bit of rain

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.

Orly’s Flicker is a rust duo chrome Shimmer. This one seems to shift from orange to red and I see some sort of gold-ish yellow flash to it in the bottle. The duo chrome effect isn’t so obvious once it’s applied to the nails though so I see more orange than anything else. Ever since I’ve tried my first Orly I’ve never been disappointed in their formula and application and there’s no exception with this one. Everything went smooth with two thin coats of flicker.

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

The last picture shows my left hand and being a righty I found it pretty tricky positioning and take photos of my hand at the same time. I wanted to show you the design I had on my left since I added some dots.

Ahh this took me long enough to write up.The photos seemed to look much better on the camera screen than here but hope you still enjoy this post.

Out of the bunch which NOTD was your favourite?

Thanks for reading!

Monday, January 07, 2013
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Choi's nails

China Glaze's Choo-Choo Choose you

Barry M's Pacific - Duochrome nail stamping

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OPI Every month is Oktoberfest

Nails Inc's Chancery lane and Mortimer street swatch

Models own's Aqua violet

NOTD: NAIL SPAM featuring a picture of my left hand :)

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