Purple Flying Dragon

Hey everyone, I'm finally back! My computer is up and running again. Since I've still been painting my nails regularly, I should have enough content to post up as soon as possible too. More updates on my life, I've passed my driving test yay!! And I turned 19 last week :) I'm starting university on the 12th of August which means I will be working less and can definitely paint my nails more since school doesn't have a 'nail-code'!

Today, I have something new to show you. It's a gradient! Remember, I bought a set of make-up sponges a few weeks ago? Well, I've finally put them to good use!

I started with OPI A Grape Fit.

After a day (I wasn't intending to do a gradient but I got bored with the nail colour haha), I sponged on China Glaze Flying Dragon (Neon)

I think it looks quite nice! For my first attempt. I found the sponging up and down hand movement a bit awkward or maybe I just need some practice huh? It definitely looks better from far though! The second photo's brighter cos I wanted to show the gradient more colour-accurately and it somehow ended up making my fingers look whiter LOL.

Now, that I've got past my first gradient! I can't wait to do more!! What do you think of this one? Any tips on gradients or sponging to offer me? :)

Polish Haul Saturday #9

Hey all! I'm back and rested after my holiday just in time to prepare a Polish Haul Saturday post for you all! :) I dropped by Sasa today and decided to grab a couple of stuff that I needed.. or wanted. I'll let you guys be the judge whether the stuff's actually necessary or not.

From left to right, I got nail stickers, make-up sponges, China Glaze Flying Dragon (Neon) and a nail polish thinner.

No close-up photos of the make-up sponges because I figured they're pretty common? I'm planning to attempt gradient nails finally so wish me all the best! :)

Nail stickers! No idea what brand this is, but I didn't want to spend too much on nail stickers when I wasn't even sure if I would like them or know how to use them. These would be perfect for accent nails that I'm really into recently.

China Glaze Flying Dragon (Neon) - I don't normally get nail polishes from Sasa because they sell it at a slightly higher price but I've never seen this shade in my life. And it is GOR-GEOUS. Seriously. Look at the pretty blue glitter inside! I have a feeling this is going to be a very well-loved colour in my collection.

And last but definitely not the least, nail polish thinner. I realise my Orly and Catrice polishes like to thicken, maybe because I tend leave them uncovered the whole time that I'm doing my nails.. I hope this does the trick though!

Well, I've shared with you all everything that I bought the past week. I thought all the stuff I got were necessary. Maybe I could have done without the nail stickers but I've been meaning to try them out and they were quite cheap so I thought 'why not?'

Thanks for reading! :)

Polish Haul Saturday #6

Hi guys! Aren't you all excited to see this week's new polishes? I know that I'm excited to share them with you! This post is gonna be posted a day late but I'm typing this on Saturday so.... the title is still legit. Heh. Anyway, it's been a while since I've treated myself to so many new polishes at once so without further ado, let's get to those photos!

All the six new polishes. I'm sorry for the hazy looking photo but I had to play around with the photo settings because my lighting is non-adjustable and too bright so it blinds my camera and prevents it from capturing the colour of lighter shades. The first bottle of polish is actually a pastel green which is totally not visible. From left to right, we have Essie Navigate Her, Essie Jamaica Me Crazy, Orly Boho Bonnet, China Glaze Not In This Galaxy, China Glaze Exotic Encounters and OPI DS Radiance.

Next up we have the close-ups which are as colour accurate as I can get them.

First up is Essie Navigate Her. A pretty pastel green that I can't wait to use!

Next, we have Essie Jamaica Me Crazy. This one's a fuchsia shimmer that reminds me of jewels.

Orly Boho Bonnet. A blue grey creme.

China Glaze Not In This Galaxy. I've swatched this one already. In my previous post. Here's the link if you haven't seen it: http://nailsandcolour.blogspot.sg/2013/05/second-holo.html

China Glaze Exotic Encounters. I've been lusting after this polish since it came out last year but I never bought it. Well, I finally caved in last week. Can't wait to try this one out! It's a pretty teal.

Last but definitely not the least, OPI DS Radiance. This one was a spur-of-the-moment buy but hey, one can never have enough silver polish! And it's OPI too!

What do you think of my new buys? Do you own any of them?

Second Holo

Hey ladies! I have a new polish to show you today. It's not in any of my Polish Haul Saturday yet but it will be in the upcoming one! Along with 5 of my new polishes so I hope you're as excited for that as I am! I couldn't wait to use all of my new colours but I decided to start with China Glaze Not In This Galaxy. So this polish is a holo but this range of holo polish wasn't very holographic and sparkly thus, I kinda had a problem catching the beautiful sparkle.

The last photo is the closest I got to capturing the holo so I had to show it despite it being blurry. I hope it at least gives you a vague idea of the shade though.

Even with the holo being visible only under strong and bright lighting, I still found this shade very pretty on its own. I would definitely wear it more!

Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge - Day 7 - Black and White

Hello ladies! I think I'm about to finally catch up with the 31 Day Challenge. This is good news because it means I can show you all more than just manis that are for the challenge. I only have enough time each week nowadays to paint my nails up to 2-3 times so I have to plan early what I want to paint on. I should stop working so much huh? :( But the pay allows me to buy more nail polishes so I'm torn between working lesser or not being able to satisfy my nail polish desires. I have so many new polishes on my wishlist, especially indie polishes! I've been seeing a lot of swatches around lately and I'm tempted to get myself a few. The only problem is that I've to get them online and I'm not completely sure but Singapore has some strange shipping restrictions on nail polish from Europe and USA.

Okay, on to my Black and White themed mani :) I did a saran wrap mani. I'm sorry, it looks so messy around. I totally didn't realise it required clean-up till I viewed these photos on my computer and by that time, it was a bit too late. I hope you can ignore the mess! I really love how this turned out though!

The following photos are with top coat. I think I like the more marblelised look it has.

My weekend mani

I have a simple weekend mani today! I was aiming to do an accent french braid nail but I totally failed at that so I just used my black polish that was supposed to be part of the accent nail to cover the mess I made. 

Anyone have any good french braid tutorials to recommend? Feel free to attach links if you know of any good ones! :)

Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge - Day 5 - Blue

Hey ladies! This is gonna be a quick post just to show that I'm making progress on my Extra Relaxed Challenge. Today's manicure features the colour blue. I've been wanting to use China Glaze For Audrey for a French mani look and I thought this would be perfect for today. And because I thought it looked a little dull, I freehanded silver lines (if I can even call them lines LOL) I must have used a wrong brush or polish because it looks like a mess of silver polish :/ It looks decent from far so I guess it wasn't a complete failure.

Easy Glitter Removal

Today, I have my weekend nails to show you. I was in the glitter mood last weekend so I decided to do something simple and go with China Glaze I Herd That. I should have used another layer or two of top coat because it wasn't as shiny and glossy as I would have liked it. It is a gorgeous glitter though!

One of the reasons why I decided to do glitter was also because I wanted to try using the glue base coat which makes glitter removal a breeze since all you have to do is peel it off. True to what many bloggers believe, it does make glitter removal so much easier! Most of the glitter coats came off in one piece and I was really amazed. However, it doesn't last as long as I would have liked :( Within a day, at least one or two nails chipped and the polish on my right thumb nail totally disappeared. I didn't even know it fell off LOL. Oh well, but it is a good way to wear glitter and not have to worry about how much acetone and scrubbing it will require to remove the glitter. 

Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge - Day 4 - Green

Hello ladies! Trying something new today for my Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge along with the theme of green nails. I'm trying accent nails! I've seen my nail bloggers who do accent nails almost daily and I'm always in love with their manis and I've finally gotten round to trying my hand at one of those so yay :) The green polish used is China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. It was a slightly tough colour to photograph.

My first photo was taken in natural light and I think my camera refused to focus so it's a little blurry. This was what I started with. 

And when the silver polish dried, I stuck chevron stickers and painted black polish over it. And the final result is below :)

I'm super proud of it! It looks gorgeous and it's my first accent nail manicure. It's definitely encouraging me to do more of these and come up with more creative ideas.

What do you guys think of this? Have you tried accent nails before?

Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge - Day 3 - Yellow

Hello! I'm still playing catch up with this challenge. For yellow nails, I decided not to do anything special, not because I was feeling uninspired but because I realised I haven't actually won yellow nails out. EVER. And I own at least three bottles of yellow nail polish so it's kinda wasting away right now. So I decided to just use yellow nail polish by itself since I haven't done it before. I believe nail challenges are for trying manicures that I haven't done before and not just for coming up with tons of nail art. So here are my yellow nails :)

I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz which is a pastel yellow polish. I used 3 coats because I found that there were still bald patches after two coats. The colour was tough to photograph so I hope you at least have a rough idea of what this polish looks like.

I think the second photo, in natural light, looks closer to its actual colour. The colour is really pretty in real life and even though, I'm not a fan of yellow nails, I might actually consider wearing this colour out more!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Matte half moons

Hello ladies! I have something new to show you today. I'm procrastinating and not doing my extra relaxed challenge.. oops. The colour-themed nails aren't inspiring me and I don't think you guys just want to see plain colour nails with no nail art right? I'm trying to inspire myself by looking at other nail blogs so hopefully I get ideas soon and can spam you all with new posts :) 

Anyway, I've finally attempted half-moons and matte nail polish! Are you excited to see something new? I should definitely do more nail art right? Haha, but I think I shouldn't have done both half-moons and matte for the same manicure though. Okay, let's get to the photos!

I used 2 coats of China Glaze Platinum Silver and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat, let dry for about 15 minutes (which was too short actually) and stuck reinforcement rings at the base to create the half moon shape. Then, I used 1 coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather and China Glaze Matte Magic on only the black part to mattify my mani.

I think this was a cute look! Not bad for my first attempt at the half-moon look, my lines aren't perfect even with the stickers but I think that's because my base polish wasn't completely dry and I didn't know how hard I could press the ring stickers down. I should try the half-moon look on a day old mani then I wouldn't have all these problems. And I don't think I'm particularly fond of the matte look. They feel easier to chip and ruin as compared to my shiny nails normally protected by top coat :/ But maybe that's just me and my complete lack of care haha. I ruined my matte manicure within an hour!

What do you guys think of matte nails or the half-moon manicure? Which one do you prefer? 

Extra Relaxed 31 Day Challenge - Day 1 - Red

Hello! So guess what? I've decided to take part in this extra relaxed 31 Day Challenge after much consideration, I'm just too lazy oops :P This challenge is extra relaxed because it only requires posting once a week! I'm actually three weeks late so I probably should rush to catch up with the rest lol. But yes, for now let's begin with my red nails. I'm off to a simple start. 

I would have just shown plain red nails except I wanted to try my China Glaze Whirled Away. It really is a regret of mine to not have read the reviews before purchasing this. The black and white hex and bar glitter were so tough to pick up and spread on the nail. I was quite disappointed but I guess if you don't look close up, it looks alright because I kinda messed up the base polish while attempting to spread the stubborn glitter. 

Polish Haul Saturday #4

I know I said something about not having Polish Haul Saturdays for awhile but... I was looking for a matte topcoat for my friend and decided to just get myself one as well because I never know when I might need one. AND I took about a month to find a matte topcoat because it was always out of stock or just plain unavailable so I'm thinking of this as investing for future use ;) Haha, the excuses I come up with for buying polish! 

So this week's new polish in my collection is China Glaze Matte Magic! 

And because I can never, and I mean never, resist testing out new polishes/topcoats/other polish-related items, I've already tested it and it is GOOD. I've never tried a matte topcoat but wow this was seriously impressive! I hope to do a full matte mani soon and show you guys!!

What do you think of matte topcoats or polish? Are you a fan of them?

Towel Boy Toy

Hello ladies! I know it's been way too long since I last posted, I intended to post yesterday but was feeling feverish and I had a cold so I forced myself to sleep earlier since I was planning to work today. Anyway, today I have China Glaze Towel Boy Toy to show you. For this post, I did something different. I did a build-up post. Like I took photos after every coat because I wanted to show how sheer the polish was. If you don't remember what my bottle photo looked like, it's this:

Doesn't it look like it would be a really thick polish with good consistency?

Well, it isn't. :( 

Let's get to the photos! WARNING. These photos are all without clean up... it somehow slipped my mind until I decided to start on this post :/ 

One coat of Towel Boy Toy:

Look at how sheer it is! My second finger shows how sheer a thinner coat is. You can totally still see my nail!

Two coats of Towel Boy Toy:

Nails look a bit more covered but there's still visible nail line especially the second and last nail. 

Three coats of Towel Boy Toy:

I think three coats is enough for this polish to have a decent and even coverage. This blue is gorgeous and it actually dries a little matte. This colour is perfect for summer pedicures although technically in Singapore, it's always summer ;) Guess it's a colour I can wear on my toes all year round huh? 

What do you think of this colour? Love it or hate it? Let me know in the comments :)