China Glaze Jolly Holly with Konad M71 and M80

Hi all! Finally here's another Konad-ing design. Man, I seriously need to brush up on my Konad stamping skills. The designs came on patchy (entirely my fault) but with a little practice perhaps I'll get as good as Siobhan from The Nailphile. Check her out, her nail blog is so awesome.

On to business! Jolly Holly is a deep shimmery forest green. As always, polish is super pigmented, and goes on real smooth. I love how rich the color is. It's just so...luxurious. There's no other way to say it. Add in the shimmer and now we have just about the best green there ever is. (I love green. It's my favourite color)

For this design I decided to use my ring finger as an accent nail. For some reason I still want to keep it classy, so having cartoons on my nails are out of the question (for now). So there's a flower french tip from M80, with a flower accent nail from M71. To jazz up the design a little bit, I put a rhinestone on my ring finger ^^ Rhinestones are fun!

Here are the things I've used (excluding base and top coat):

China Glaze Jolly Holly

Konad white special polish

Konad plate M80

Konad plate M71

That is all for today I guess, nothing else to add in. Till next time then, Byee~

China Glaze Peace on Earth and Laushine's Black Crackle Polish

I have been loving all the China Glaze colors I've tried so far. And this one is no different. It's not as pigmented as Millenium, but it still provides really good coverage on the first coat, super pigmented and it's sooo smooth! One thing I would say though is the brushes pick up so much polish, way too much for my small nails so sometimes the coat can be applied too thickly. But other than that, with gorgeous colors, smooth application and great pigmentation, who could ask for more?

This picture is not really the 'true' color for Peace on Earth. It turns out alot more golden-brown in bright artificial light and sunlight. I was slightly disappointed at first, but somehow after the first day I started to see more green.

A couple of days later, I received black crackle polish (among other things) from online. I was so excited I tried out the black crackle immediately and the result was in the first picture above.

Here're the products I used. Do I really need to say what base coat and top coat I used? I always use the same products haha. But anyway, here is what the black crackle polish bottle looks like. It's kinda matte when you first apply it, so you have to put a top coat on to make it black and shiny.

The formula is great! To get smaller cracks you have to apply a thinner coat multiple times. To get bigger cracks, just put a really thick coat. It's so good for me because I don't like overly large cracks. The crackle polish from OPI drifts so far apart that they look like patches of color on your nails. When I get crackle polish, I want cracks, not patches of color. And even with a super thick coat on they don't seem to drift further than that on my index finger.

So ends my post today. Maybe I'll do Konading for real next time! I need to brush my skills again. Byee~

China Glaze Millenium and M57 Konad

When I saw China Glaze's Millenium, I couldn't wait to try it out. It looked so super duper shiny and silver! I've used it in my French Flower Tip nail design which you can find here.

On to business! Millenium is VERY pigmented which I love. But it seems to dry up really quickly so I suggest applying it in a place with no drafts (no air conditioning, no fan). Also, if you happen to miss a spot, wait for it to dry before going over it or the polish will wrinkle. Here's the swatch:

Isn't it just gorgeous? Because this is such a cool colour, it didn't seem right to konad little cartoons onto my nails. So I used a really cute lacy french tip design from Konad plate M57 using black special polish. I haven't Konaded in a while so my skills are really rusty. Here're the things I used:

The Face Shop Base Coat

China Glaze Millenium

Konad plate M57

Konad Special Polish

The Face Shop Top Coat

Here's a closer look at M57. It's got scratches on it. Please ignore that.

I applied a top coat over Millenium so that I could use nail polish remover to remove any mistakes I made. It also helps to prevent smudging. Somehow that's how it works.

So that's all I have for today. I will probably continue doing Konad for now so that I can brush up on my Konading skills. Byee~

Blue Sparkly Gradient!

So remember that haul from lets-nail-it? Well I helped my cousin buy some too and I just couldn't resist trying out her Color Club sparkly nail polish. Look at it in all it's sparkly goodness!

OK so I did a really dark blue base from Faceshop. That polish was one of the first nail polishes I got. It was probably nearly a year old. And fit for the bin. It was gloopy and dry and everything a good nail polish shouldn't be. So yes. I did love that shade so it was a sad moment.

So, I used Color Club's Sexy Siren as the glitter and to do the gradient glitter you dab from the tip towards the nail bed. That glitter is very pigmented and fine. Which is great if you want to get glitter everywhere like it's a regular polish, but bad if you want a gradient. It didn't fade into the dark blue as gradually as I would have liked.

I disliked it so much I nearly removed it after three days and I would not stop picking at it. But because I put on two layers of top coat to smoothen out the glitter, pretty much nothing happened.

It did grow on me though, in dark places it looked especially magical, when random flashes of light hit my nails it would flash teal, green, blue. So gorgeous.

Now it's back to more adventurous Konading! *cheers*

French Tip Manicure Tutorial

As promised before, this is the tutorial I saw on Youtube on how to do a french tip manicure. She's awesome for simple nail polish designs too heehee. Unfortunately she doesn't allow her videos to be embedded so here's a link. http://youtu.be/lZEcHil7kDs

Tomorrow I'll show you the nails I have now!

Flower French-tip!

For this look I used:

Seaspray from China Glaze

Millenium from China Glaze

Base coat and top coat

Black two-way nail brush and pen

Seaspray was such a pleasure to paint with. I must admit the brush took a little bit of getting used to. It's pretty narrow, but once you get used to the amount of polish you're supposed to have on the brush it works like a charm. It does tend to dry on the brush though, so I suggest doing it in a room without any drafts. Meaning no fans and preferably no aircon. Both Seaspray and Millenium were so pigmented! I'm very impressed. Seaspray is a wonderful blue-gray, and under artificial light you can just about see shimmers in the polish. It sorta comes and goes. But I love it. My nails are so pretty they distract me from my revision. Ha!

For a regular french tip, put the tip on one end of the finger, and just rotate your finger and let the brush paint the tip of your nail. It's hard to explain, but I'll put the video where i learnt it from some day. To get a more natural look, you can follow the actual whites of your nails. Try to estimate it. Also, if you mess up, no worries. Sure I messed up too but no one can really tell from far. By the way, Millenium is SO pigmented. That is just one coat!

For the dotted look I must admit it was pretty hard for me. I wasn't well, and my hands tend to shiver especially when I'm trying to do something very delicate. For the bigger dots I used the pen tip, and smaller dots I used a toothpick. Alternatively you could use a dotting tool and a toothpick with a black polish (I don't have black polish!) Basically, you put three dots down the middle of your nail, two at the sides, and two tiny dots in between each large dot.

For the flower look, it's much easier. I did this because I completely messed up the dots when I tried doing it with my left hand. After putting the french-tip, just put five dots close together (but not so close that they touch each other) and then using a toothpick, drag the polish from the middle of the dot toward the centre of the flower. After that, I put some clear polish in the middle of the flower and placed a rhinestone there using a matchstick. The flower is so pretty!

This is one of my more elegant designs. I wanted to do a full nail konad, but it takes time and patience. Both of which I don't have at the moment, so I just did this. It makes me happy when I see it. Heehee! Feel free to change the colour around, the only reason I used Seaspray and Millenium was because I couldn't wait to try those colours haha.

Maybe I'll do a gradient nail art next time? We'll see ;)

China Glaze Haul from Lets-Nail-It!

Hey all! If you can recall, I took part in a spree with lets-nail-it.blogspot.com a few weeks ago. Yea I ordered all the China Glaze products. The colours from China Glaze are just so awesome! I also ordered a Silver Shatter from OPI, but because that's one of the new ones, I'll only get it later.

From left to right, I have Millenium, Bogie, Seaspray, Jolly Holly, and Peace on Earth.

I have already tried Seaspray and Millenium. The colours are so pigmented and they also dry faster than the average nail polish. Totally impressed! Can't imagine why OPI is getting all the glory.

Next post, what did I do to my nails with Seaspray and Millenium? Stay tuned! (I sound so cocky heehee)

Hello Kitty!

It's been so long! I'm in the middle of my exams at the moment. Should really be studying but somehow I can only study when I'm out of the house. Anyway! This is a really quick and easy manicure you can do. (Please ignore the wear around the edges)

Remember in my Easter nail art post I mentioned how your index finger is the finger everyone is mostly likely to see? Yea. I used that principle for this nail art too.

I bought stuff from this online store before, and because of that I am able to claim this Hello Kitty konad plate for free!

As a base colour I used Lancome's Vernis Magnetic series, 'Blind Date'. I was kinda tricked into buying this polish. It's a long story. But now it's one of the best quality polishes I have. It goes on really smoothly, dries quickly and it's also super pigmented, which means I only have to apply two coats! It does wear out at the tips quite quickly on two coats, so I suggested putting a third coat on.

That is all for today! I'll tell you about the haul I got from lets-nail-it.blogspot.com tomorrow!