Choi's nails

Hot pink cloud mani with Barry M, Color Club and China Glaze

Everybody, give way for this pink cloud manicure. This is the first time trying this design as well as the base which belongs to Barry M's nude. A VERY natural shade that even after two coats it has little difference to a top coat except maybe a hint of nude is more obvious if they're compared side by side. That's how it is in real life but the camera has seemed to pick up some colour. I didn't expect it to be so clear and it also applied with some streaks but it's not that noticeable.

After Barry M's nude base the rest is made up of Color Club's Endless, a baby pink and flamingo which is a neon pink. The original plan was to leave it with that until I realised the colour proportions just didn't look right and that's where China Glaze's I'm not lion came in. The whole thing just looks really girly and barbie-ish. Flamingo really stands out here making it the gem in this design.

The drying time of the whole thing wasn't impressive though. This was 5 coats including top coat; even though it was finished in the afternoon by night time it still felt squidgy.

Overall I'm still satisfied with the whole design. I didn't brighten my photos as much on purpose to show how bright the pink is *points to a few photos up* so forgive me if they look a little dull :)

Just finishing off with a little update about my nails. I finally bit the bullet and filed down my nails into the almond/stiletto style.. on my right hand. The hand that is never captured under the lens and I can say they're alright so far. The last time I attempted this, only the thumb nail was done, this time I took it further and did all five nails. All the ones I've seen on Instagram look gorgeous but I'm not quite sure they're for me. It's really weird not having the 'edges'. I can't bear to change the one's on my left because I'm thinking my squares are still looking neat! Now I'm left with a different nail shape on each hand. As weird as this might sound I think I'm going to leave it like so until these almonds grow out on my right just to see how it looks longer. I'll need it a little longer if I was to change it back to my squares anyway. *Sigh. A long wait. I blame instagram!!

Thursday, August 28, 2014
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Barry M's Indigo

Barry M

I remember first seeing Indigo on someone else's blog but who exactly I'm not quite sure (sorry!) They did a good job at capturing the beauty of this shade because I was pulled in. It went straight on my to buy list after but didn't make it back home with me until way way later.

Indigo is this sort of purple blue which is that type of midnight shade. You're looking at two thin coats here but one thick coat would also suffice. Smooth application throughout the whole process but this time no top coat was applied. I was planning to add a design, if only time wasn't something holding me back.
After a whole rough day at work, this manicure only suffered minor tip wear which is good enough without top coat.

Hope everyone enjoyed this post!

What's your favourite midnight blue/purple shade?

Monday, August 25, 2014
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Double up the stamping!

Barry M

From my last post you saw a whole bunch of swatches from the Barry M matte collection, that is where the base colour of this manicure comes from.

It is BM's Vanilla, a matte greyish purple which looked like it needed some colour to it. I started wondering whether stamping different colours on top of each other would work without it looking too tacky and overcrowded so using Color Club’s bright nights, an electric blue and Color Club’s In theory, a nice coral to stamp on the leave design from plate BM 208.

I personally feel that CC’s bright nights stamped on alone looks good but then it also looks as if it’s lacking something. When both polishes are stamped over each other, it fits, but there’s also something a little odd about it. It might be the contrast between both colours with bright nights overpowering the coral which made me feel unsure at first. It grew on me eventually though.

The whole design was left matte except the ring finger nail where I wanted to show the difference if I had decided to go all glossy. If bright nights was the only colour stamped I would’ve left it matte but for the overall design I’ll have to go with the glossy version.

Which do you prefer? The matte or glossy version? Single or double stamping?