Saturday, 23 April 2011

Happy Easter!

Warning: This is a pretty lengthy post.

Happy Easter everyone! I got my inspiration at this post from www.frmheadtotoe.com. Ya know, I didn't really think about doing a tutorial till I was done with both hands. Shows you how smart I am huh.

Anyway, here is what I used for my Easter nail art. I used pastel colours as a base, and painted a rabbit on my index finger, a chick on my ring finger, and painted the rest to look like Easter eggs. I googled "Easter eggs patterns" so I know what to draw heehee.
First I used a Faceshop basecoat, and the polishes are named accordingly from thumb to pinky.

Thumb: Gargantuan Green Grape by OPI
Index: PP401 by The Faceshop
Middle: BL602 by The Faceshop
Ring: Fiercely Fiona by OPI
Pinky: 63 by Rainbow (a random brand from Sasa)

To paint in the bunnies and dot my nails, I used my two-way nail brush and pen. It really is very handy and I find it so much easier to do nail art now as compared to using brushes or tape-stencils* or matches/toothpicks.

Unfortunately the two-way nail brush and pen does not colour code their nail polish so I can't tell you exactly what I used.

Thumb:
Because the thumbnail is the biggest nail I decided to do the most intricate pattern on it. On top of a pastel green I used a hot pink to zigzag across the nail and then an orange to outline it. It was supposed to be a sparkly orange, but somehow the sparkles didn't transfer to the tip. It still looks ok though. The nail still looked empty, so I accentuated it using yellow dots.

Index:
Have you ever realised that when you point at things or order something from the menu you would be showing your index finger (unless you normally point with your middle finger). So I used the most eye-catching pattern on my index finger. I used PP401 by the Faceshop as a base, and outlined a bunny before filling the rest in. That pink is so cute! It's got a pearly sheen and it's such a delicate pink. Perfect for bunnies. I suggest putting in as little black as possible. After that dot two ovals for eyes, and one red dot for the nose. Then dot the eyes with a tiny bit of white. That way it'll look more lively :)

Middle:
The middle finger is still reasonably big, so I drew purple stripes across the blue nail. I must say it turned out really nicely. Definitely doing this for all my nails someday when Easter is over. I did vertical stripes for my right middle finger. If you do try out vertical stripes, draw thinner stripes.

Ring:
The chick is probable one of the easiest to draw, because all you really need to do is dot the eyes (both white and black), and draw a little triangle for the chick's beak. I don't really know what I can do to make it look more chick-like. Jen from frmheadtotoe had jagged white eggshells at the bottom which I didn't bother myself with. But when I showed it to my sister she thought it was a happy face. So now I can't look at my chick without thinking about happy faces xD

Pinky:
The easiest to do! I like dots. Somehow something that is so simple can jazz up your nail. I used white from the two-way nail brush and pen to dot all over. But using a toothpick or matchstick (depending on how big you want your dots) will do fine too. I over-dotted my pinky in the picture. But on the other finger, it has less dots and it looks better than the over-dotted pinky.

So in case you want to attempt nail art from one of the nails without attempting the whole thing, here they are in order of difficulty from most difficult to easiest:

1) Rabbit
2)Zig-zag easter egg
3) Stripes
4) Chick
5) Dots

I feel like this is a really text-heavy post. I should take more pics during the painting process. This whole nail art probably took me about 3 hours including drying time. I topped it all off with the Faceshop top coat. That is all for today. Bye~

*I don't know what the real name is called but to do nail art easily you can cut out the shape of your nail art, stick it onto the nail and colour in the background. Yep. So. Much. Effort!

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

OPI Review: Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous is simply marvelous indeed. It took me three coats to get to that colour, and I am so impressed with the colour. The photo does not do it justice. Not only is it a dark silver, it also has greeny-pink microglitters all over it. I love this colour so much.

This colour is so amazing that I actually don't want to do anything on it even though I've taken out my Konad plates. That's how good it is.

New favourite nail polish? I think so. :)

Saturday, 16 April 2011

OPI Review: Gargantuan Green Grape


I loved the colour when I first saw it but when I put the first coat I was honestly shocked. It was so streaky! And I had such high hopes for OPI too after hearing rave reviews about it and how it was 'the high end product for nail polish'. But, I realised that if you don't press the brush down too hard (which I do alot), you'll get a thicker and smoother coat. After two - three coats (three for me) it'll be fine.

Nowadays I apply the Faceshop nutrition coat under my base coat, but if I just apply base coat with the green on top somehow the colour goes on alot easier.

All in all, I think maybe I just have to get used to the nail polish, and wait a little longer for it to dry. I can tell that it definitely doesn't wear down as quickly as other nail polish. But for the streaky first coat, I think it's not really my favourite nail polish. Gorgeous colour though.

P.S.: I have already sent in the orders for the spree, but if you still have any last minute orders
for the next few days, I'll see what I can do :)

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Spree!

Hi everyone! There's a spree going on at lets-nail-it.blogspot.com where they're selling US brands like OPI, China Glaze, Orly, and Seche just to name a few. Best part is, they are all going at as low as $9.50 per bottle!

I'm buying quite a lot of products from them and buying in bulk will result in a cheaper price so email me by this Thursday (14/4/11) at amberyam@hotmail.co.uk if you want to cash in with me.

I will deliver the products to you if you want so there's less hassle and I must say the China Glaze stuff looks really awesome!

The new products like the new Shatters will only arrive in May. They only cost $14! The cheapest price I ever got was at $23.55 at Metro. Such a steal!

Link to this awesome site will be at the side in case you ever want to get quality products below $20. And in case I get the urge to shop again ;)

Thursday, 7 April 2011

OPI Nail Polish! (And new matte nail polish)

A few days ago I decided to to a zebra print konad print with white and black. As you can see, I failed terribly. Might buy the actual Konad top coat soon. For some reason, large prints smudge alot easier.

Anyways, my school constantly has bazaars around the canteens, the foyers, any public area. And just so happens I found this stall selling O.P.I. nail polish at only $14 each! It's $39 for 3 bottles. I bought Fiercely Fiona (yellow), Gargantuan Green Grape (green), and Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous (dark silver). I also got this matte polish from a random brand. They had the colour palette there with awesome matt shimmery pastel colours and I fell in love with this one.

Things I used for this manicure are:
Asianail 043
The Face Shop Nail Nutrition Coat
The Face Shop Nail Base Coat

The end result. There was no top coat cos I wanted to leave it matte. It feels so nice to the touch! Also, this is the result of two coats and for some reason it goes on really smoothly. This is one of the easier nail polishes to apply.

The downside? Maybe it's because I use my hands alot, or because I scratch my head or type alot, but the tips of the nails are starting to wear off already. It's also pretty expensive. It was $12 per bottle. But the colours are a definitely win. I have been looking for some lime green colour for ages. It's surprisingly hard to find a clean green for nail polish.

I can't wait to try out the O.P.I. nail polish! I especially can't wait to try out the yellow with black stripes across to make it look like a bumble bee (buzzzz buzzz). After hearing such good things about O.P.I., I will have high hopes for them!

Friday, 1 April 2011

Haul from Ebay!

So! I went on a shopping spree on eBay last month and the stuff arrived the past week. It's so exciting getting packages in the mail. I love opening packages. Anyway! Here are details about the products, like how much I got it for, and where I got it, etc. Because I know it's so hard to find cool stuff for nails in Singapore at cheap prices.

Konad Nail Art Image Plate M61:
I bid for this on eBay because it's slightly cheaper. In Singapore you can get it from stores for $7.90, but on eBay through careful bidding I only needed to pay US$5.14 for this (which is $6+ SGD). Shipping is free, and it is from the Konad brand, so if you don't mind waiting I think it's good to just bid and buy it on eBay. Check out the seller here.

120 pcs Fruit Fimo Slick Nail Art Rods Stick w/ Glue:
I bid for this one and through pure luck, it at just US$1.50 heehee. You can go ahead to search for them and look for cheap ones. The seller sells quite a lot of cosmetics (like acrylic nails, falsies), you can check her out here.

1800 Nail Art Rhinestones Glitters Round Wheel:
Rhinestones are bought at US$1.80 with free shipping, there are 1800 pieces in that whole wheel. Colours are so pretty! Because it's so cheap, some of the pieces might be oddly shaped or not the same size. But that's ok, once you put it on the nail you hardly notice the difference! If you're interested you can get it for US$2.80 here but once again, I suggest you search for it on eBay and buy the cheapest one there.

48 pcs Two-way Nail Art Brush & Pen:
The pen is a nib where you can just squeeze out nail polish to either dot or draw on your nails. The brush is a really thin brush for you to do french tips or just to draw designs of your own.

This whole set (all 48 pieces!) cost me US$28 ($14 for the product, $14 for shipping). I bought it from the seller butterflybeauty168 so you can check out her shop, or even just search for this on eBay. I'm sure you can find it cheaper than what I got.

In case you're lazy to search, you can check it out here.

So here it is. What I bought, where I bought it and for how much. I'm such an eBay junkie and as long as people keep putting cheap stuff up, I will always go to eBay for good deals.