Butter London Trout Pout: Pinky-Coral and Springy!

Butter London is one of the brands I've become enamoured with lately - despite their hit-and-miss quality, as well as their high prices, there's just something about those cute rectangular bottles, with their pretty colours and cheeky names, that makes me just want a few more shades. And so here is one of my latest Butter London acquisitions, which I think is perfect for whatever warmer Spring weather is coming up - Trout Pout!

Butter London Trout Pout

I happen to be wildly in love with this colour at the moment - it is so perfect for the season, as we look at all the Spring-themed collections and products the various brands are putting out. Just look at that gorgeous colour!


Butter London Trout Pout: A perfect colour for Spring

Illamasqua Velocity: Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid-ish Nails!

In a previous post, I've been going through my Pantone Colour of the Year Radiant Orchid makeup items in my stash. And this time round, I'm looking at another nail polish shade - this time it's Illamasqua Velocity!

Illamasqua Velocity: A Pantone Colour of the Year-ish colour!

I already have quite a few Illamasqua nail polishes, but I'm always game for more because the quality is pretty darn good. I've never come across a dud yet, and every Illamasqua nail polish I've tried has been fantastic.

Etude House & Rose Review and Swatches: Rosy Lip Tint and Flowering Nails

Etude House's & Rose Collection has just launched, and it is indeed a gorgeously girly collection. Etude House claims that the & Rose Collection is inspired by the fairy tale ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and is supposed to capture the magical moment when Princess Rose is blossoming out into a alluring lady from a pure little girl. So that explains the name of the & Rose collection.

Etude House & Rose Collection: Pink and Pretty!

Name aside, I've had a chance to try the & Rose Rosy Lip Tints and & Rose Flowering Nails from the collection. Both have really impressed me! Both have really impressed me, and I think they are worth getting! I'll start off with the & Rose Collection Rosy Lip Tint and then move on to the & Rose Flowering Nails sets.


Etude House & Rose Collection Rosy Lip Tint: A range of 8 shades of pinks and roses.

Illamasqua Collide: Neon Hot Pink Nails for Summer!

If you're a beauty junkie like me, you'll know that one of the benefits of summer is wearing neon nail polish! I kid you not. I always feel so much more like wearing neon polish when the weather is warmer. And you know what the classic neon to wear on your nails is? That's right, neon pink! It just so happened that I recently bought a bottle of Illamasqua Collide nail polish during the Illamasqua sale, so what better time to bust out this baby and put it on my nails?

Illamsqua Collide Nail Polish: Perfect hot neon pink creme!

As it turns out, Illamasqua Collide was pretty darn neon. Since it's a creme finish, there's no shimmer to detract from its happy brightness. I'm not sure if you can see it in photos, my camera went a little wonky trying to capture the brightness. But in case you don't get the picture from my photos, just feel free to imagine a highlighter kinda pink and you're all set.


Collide is so named because with this on my nails, I'm too busy staring at my nails to notice other people in the street. Just kidding, LOL.

Edamame Nails! AKA China Glaze Westside Warrior

Don't you love it when your nails match your food? What, you mean you've never had that happen to you? :P I had painted my nails with China Glaze Westside Warrior, and also, I happened to have lunch at a Japanese restaurant. And one of the things we had was edamame! Yummy, yummy edamame! And I couldn't help snapping this photo with my iPhone, resulting in crappy iPhone quality pic I'm now sharing with you.

Look, my nails match my food!

Yellow Nails: I Actually Lurve Them! (AKA NOTD With Etude House Glittering Bloom Yellow)

Summer is coming, and all the brands are starting to put out their summer collections, and my nails are officially yellow! This is actually a really rare thing for me. If there are any longtime readers of my blog (love, love, love you guys!), you may vaguely remember that a long, long time ago, I had actually painted my nails yellow before, and I couldn't actually quite make up my mind as to whether I liked it or not. So I painted it that once, decided that maybe it wasn't really my cup of tea, and then I never wore it again. Or at least, I thought I would. You can see how that one turned out!

St Patrick's Day Gold and Green Gradient Manicure!

St Patrick's Day is coming up, and I always love any excuse to wear green! This time, for my St Patrick's Day nails, I decided to attempt a gradient manicure - sideways!

For this look I used three shades - a darker green, a lighter green, and a gold. The darker green was Etude House Petit Darling Nails GR609, the lighter colour was Nicole by OPI One Time Lime (OMG Yes I actually own a Justin Bieber polish! Well it was on sale and I was in the US on holiday...), and the gold was Collection 2000 (now known as Collection Cosmetics) Aztec Gold (which I really love and have worn before as an NOTD by itself).

Teal Fishtail Braid Manicure: Inspired by Knitting!

My sister has recently taken up knitting, and one of her first projects is a scarf! I was totally inspired by her scarf to do some nail art - and so I did my first ever fishtail braid manicure!

For this manicure I used Exposed Aruba 52, Exposed Aqua Baby 59 (I've swatched the Exposed polishes before), and Boots Totally Teal. I wanted the colours in my mani to match my sister's scarf! I first did a base of Exposed Aruba 52, then painted diagonal lines of Aqua Baby, and Totally Teal, before starting again with Aruba. So basically it's just painting diagonal lines on top of each other, until you reach the end of your nail!


I didn't use any special brushes to paint the lines on - I just used the nail polish brush that came with the bottle. I topped it off with PA Premiere Grande Nail Polish in AA42 - a gorgeous green-blue flakie! I love flakies, although I don't wear them nearly enough. Another thing I wanted to say - you can't really tell the difference between Aruba and Aqua Baby in the photos, but they are different enough in real life. I'm not sure why they didn't show up on the camera!


For the fishtail braid manicure, it's probably a good idea to use colours that are opaque in one coat - of you use one of those loser "4 costs and you still see VNL (visible nail line)" typo polishes, then you'll need multiple passes to cover the polish underneath. Both Totally Teal and Aqua Baby were quite opaque, but for Aruba, I had to do two coats over the same line to get it to be really opaque.


So there you have it - my first ever fishtail braid manicure! I really like this - it's a great piece of nail art, and do easy to do too! I can't wait to try out other colour combinations!

Gold and Green Leopard Print Nails

Look at my nails! I don't konad often, but I was inspired by the colours of green and gold. And I have leopard print nails!

I used my favourite konad plate of all time, M57, for this KOTD (konad of the day). For the base, I used China Glaze Westside Warrior (which has made a brief appearance on my blog before, and for the gold, I used my favourite gold of all time, Orly Luxe (also featured on the blog before, not once, but twice).



I rather like this, it has a very safari-like feel. I'm also actually thinking this colour combination would make a great eye look - in fact, I have done a gold and green eye look before.



So there you have it, my nail look of the moment! What are your nails like right now?

Fall/Winter 2012/2013 French Manicure

Remember my last post on the Fall/Winter 2012/2013 nail trends? Well one of the things that was huge on the runway was this French manicure, with a nude base and dark tip:

I decided to try it out for myself to see how good it was in tea life, and I have to say, that this is pretty wearable.


Here, I used Rimmel Beige Style (totally the most underrated nude ever - why this isn't a cult favourite like OPI Tickle My Francey is beyond me), and I used Nails Inc Victoria, the perfect "oxblood" (that's what those runway folks are calling it, not me!) type colour for the season. It's also pretty opaque (one coat gives you full coverage) and so is perfect for these types of nail tips.


I actually freehanded the tips myself, and my key takeaway from this was that I should never attempt to freehand those tips, upon pain of death. I know I keep saying that I shouldn't freehand those tips, and then I keep on doing it, but it's because these things always look so much simpler than they really are! So I'm always thinking "I could do this!" until I actually do it, and then I'm like, "Oh crap."


I like the look, as these are very chic, but I feel like these aren't as practical as they look - once the tips start chipping, it becomes obvious that something is wrong with your manicure. But it does look great though, so maybe it might be worth the trouble for some.

Scary Halloween Nails: Bloody Scarred Nails

My last Halloween nail art was nice, but it wasn't really scary. So this time, here's my shot at trying to scare you, LOL!

This was actually quite easy to do, and I imagine anyone could do it, really! For the base, I used a mannequin hands shade (a shade that matches your skin colour closely - it was all the rage back a couple of years ago), Nails Inc Basil Street, one of my all-time favourite polishes ever. I guess you could use any shade for the base, but I wanted a skin-like colour that would stand out against the red blood layered over it.


For the "blood", I sponged on some red nail polish. In this case I used Eyeko Saucy Polish (also previously blogged about before), and sponged it over my nails for that gradient effect. For this, a rougher sponge with larger pores would actually work better for the "splatter" effect than a finer sponge. I really just used a sponge that I had on hand for polishing shoes. LOL!


Lastly, I freehanded on the scars with a black polish and a long skinny nail art brush (I got mine from Born Pretty Store, I wrote about them in a previous Chinese New Year nail art post. I didn't really think too much about where I was placing the scars, which is why perhaps the placement isn't always optimal for all nails. But still, it was cool. Lastly, to keep in the scary Halloween theme, I deliberately didn't cleanup the nail polish, so it's supposed to make my fingers look bloody and gross, LOL!

So I guess my nails are all ready for Halloween! Now all I need to do is dress up like a mummy or something, and I'll be ready to go!

Stuff I Tried And Didn't Like: Face Shop Top Coat

Don't you just hate it when you do your mani and it looks great at first, and then ding it hours later because the topcoat takes too long to dry? It's so frustrating. Well, now you know which topcoat to avoid if you don't want this to happen to you!

Face Shop has a few topcoats, and the offending one I used was the Face It Nails 04 Long Lasting Top Coat. There seems to be two types of top coat with this name (Korean brands, particularly Face Shop, do this sometimes - remember my Face Shop PP409 which had not one but two other polishes with the same name?), a pink one, and a clear one. I used the pink one, shown below.


Source
Anyway, let me proceed to complain about how this lousy topcoat ruined my manicure. The other day, I decided to paint my nails - just a quick, two-coats-and-I'm-done thing. It was awesome, by the way. China Glaze Westside Warrior. Military olive green, deep but not so dark you'd mistake it for black, and a totally chic edgy neutral.

I had used another Face Shop Base Coat, the Lovely Me:ex Nails No.2 Base Coat. I didn't really have all that much to say about it. It was okay-I-guess.


Source
So base coat, two coats of Westside Warrior, and that lousy topcoat. I waited for a few minutes, and then carried on with my day. With other topcoats (Seche, Nails Inc, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) this hasn't been a problem, but with the Face Shop topcoat, the next thing you know, the surfaces of a couple of my nails got dulled and roughened, just because I was doing things like typing at my computer and getting cash out of my wallet. That was a first sign things were bad. The best topcoats I've used are dry to the touch (though still dentable) within the first half an hour after application, so typically I expect that a good topcoat will allow to do most everyday activities (gently and cautiously), and then be fully dry (or at least no longer dentable unless you use force) an hour or so after that. This one felt like it was soft and dentable the entire day. Look at the photo of my nails below, after one day. You can see all the surface scratches and smudges. And this is already the better looking hand. SIGH.

Anyway, I figured that since I painted my nails in the afternoon, when I went to bed at night, I shouldn't get sheetmarks. Right? Nope, WRONG. I woke up the next morning with more dull nails and a couple of dings. Because, y'know, more than 12 freakin' hours isn't really long enough for a good topcoat to do its job and dry completely. HAH.

So now you know. I tried out a sucky product so you don't have to! Would I recommend this? Well, if you're looking for a topcoat that's still not fully dry and still dentable after 12 hours - be my guest. Else, save the money, and thank me later.

Fade to Black Gradient Manicure

Look! Gradient nails! And with three colours, too! I don't know about you, but I recently started experimenting with making gradient nails with a sponge, and I'm loving it! For these nails, I did a gradient with three - yes three! - shades. I think this is a first for me, LOL. I used Wet n' Wild White, Wet n' Wild Black, and Essie Chinchilly for the grey.

I first painted my nails with Wet n' Wild White as a base, then I took a sponge (I just use whatever I can get my hands on - I use the sponges that I have at home to wash dishes), and did three stripes of paint in each colour next to each other on the sponge. Then I transferred the polish from the sponge to my nail. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the "sponge marks" on my mani. Maybe I should have used more polish on the sponge, or a different type of sponge? Anyway, when I figure it out, I'll let you guys know.


The trick to this, I think, is to blend the polishes on the sponge before transferring them to the nail. Also, I think it helps to use polished that are opaque and give good coverage.

The downside to this is that you get polish all over your cuticles and skin around the nail, and cleanup can be a pain. Especially if, like me, you used black or a dark shade, then it's quite hard to remove all that crap that gets stuck at the base of your nails. But the end effect is so cool, I think it's worth it!


So ta-da, my gradient manicure! I'm really loving how this looks, despite the pain it was to clean up, it has a very moody-chic vibe to it.

BCA Manicure: Pink and White Freehand Nail Art

Breast cancer awareness month is every October, and so I thought I'd do my little bit by doing a couple of BCA manicures.

This manicure is pink and white. For the pink, I used Orly Rage, which is a very pretty BCA-ish metallic pink, even if the name of the polish isn't BCA-like at all. I mean, usually BCA polishes have very uplifting and inspiring names right? Like Courage, Hope, Strength, etc etc. I find it rather amusing that this is called Rage, nevermind that it isn't actually supposed to be a BCA polish. For the white, I used my trusty old Wet n' Wild White. Still the best white around, oh yes it is. Opaque in one coat, but I used two here to even out the surface.


All the art was done freehand with a skinny nail art brush (as you can probably tell). It was really quite easy to do. I just painted two coats of the base colours on the nails, then freehanded the ribbon and pink lines. Not much else to say, I guess!


So that's my BCA mani! Breast cancer is the 5th top cause of deaths, so if you're in the at-risk age group (50 to 74), the best way to detect breast cancer is to get a mammogram once every 2 years!

Fall/Winter 2012 Nails: Classic Nude, Brown and Pearls

In my last post, I commented that this season's Fall/Winter 2012 nail trends were kinda boring, especially where colours were concerned, since this season's shades were mostly all dark vampies and fleshtone neutrals. So, I set out to jazz it up with a little bling, while still retaining some element of its classic, timeless feel. And here is the result - classic bling, in the form of pearls!

For inspiration, I actualaly looked at this modified french manicure, with a nude base and a vampy tip. It was making the rounds on the runway as part of the Fall/Winter 2012 trends this year. When I saw the look, I thought to myself, "That's a classic colour scheme, but I wonder if I could do something to it - it looks like it could use a teeny bit of bling."

(Source: Vogue)
So, I did just that! I retained the colour scheme - don't wanna mess with a good thing too much - but added the pearls, and changed the shape of the painted tip.


For the base, I used Rimmel Beige Style, which is seriously one of the most underrated polishes out there. It's cheap, available, and a classic shade that would probably look good on most people. Beige Style is a fleshtone nude creme (I think it's a creme anyway - it has the slightest of shimmer in the bottle that doesn't show up on the nail). For the nail tip, I used Megan Miller Ganache, which is a rich chocolate brown creme. I basically free-handed the curved tip using Ganache. It doesn't have to be THAT neat because the smile line will be covered by the pearls.


Can I digress a little at this point? I love Megan Miller polishes - the two I have are fantastic in terms of colour payoff, texture, and brush shape/size, but man, I really hate the bottles. The cork cap really annoys me to no end, because fluff and dirt and dust get onto the cap really badly. I have to like, do some dust removal every now and then. I think my cork cap is eventually going to get all moldy and gross (I live in a very hot and very humid climate near the equator), and I'm not looking forward to it. But anyway, moving on.


For the pearls, I used three different sizes of pearls and aligned them along the smile line from large to small. For handling of the pearls, I used the ever-helpful wet toothpick tip - basically you dip the tip of a toothpick in water, and the wet toothpick will pick up the pearls due to the surface tension of the water. When the pearl touches the wet nail polish, the pearl will stick to the polish. Much easier than using tweezers!


Anyway, this is my slightly-more-blinged-up-but-still-classic take on this Fall/Winter's French manicure. I'm really liking it, as it's easy to do, and looks great, even if you aren't into crazy nail art. In fact, my non-nail-polishaholic sister commented that she actually liked this look! I think it would be great to try this with other colour schemes too.

Shard Glitter Coolness: Cirque Potosi Nail Polish!

Glitter nail polish has always been something I've always loved, and I feel like with my latest discovery, glitter has just been amped up a level. This, of course, is Cirque Potosi. Cirque is a US-based brand of nail polish with an artisanal slant, and Potosi is the lovely shade I tried.

Cirque Potosi is a clear polish with a happy mix of glitter types. There's your usual small round silver, of course, but what really makes Potosi shine is the multi-sized polygonal glitter that makes it look like silver shards on your nails. seriously, how cool is this?



The shard glitter is quite new to me - right now I don't really have anything like it in my stash at all! I'm in love with the effect - it's a little bit random-looking, but incredibly eye-catching. Like shattered shards of metal, or a mirror, on my nails.



Here I've layered it over 2 coats of a random nail polish I got from Sasa, Sasatinne SPN103. It's a deep, dusty blue-leaning teal, and I think the two go really well together. I used one coat of Potosi, and did a little dabbing at any empty spots to get a more even glitter spread. So as you can see, the coverage is fabulous.



If you aren't in the US, you can get Cirque polishes from Mei Mei's Signatures for S$16-19 apiece. She ships internationally, too, so great for everyone who doesn't have Cirque in their area.

(Cirque product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Megan Miller Coral Bliss: The Perfect Summer Coral!

Ooh, I think I have officially found my official favourite coral colour for summer! And it's no other than Megan Miller Coral Bliss! Isn't it amazing? I've never been one for corals very much but this is perfect!

Megan Miller is a US-based brand of nail polish with an eco-friendly slant, right down to the bottle. I mean, just check out the cool cork-top bottle. Definitely something different. I'm not sure how I feel about the clunky polish bottle or the cork-top, since it looks kinda big and easily dirtied, but it certainly is something different.



But as a grue polish fanatic knows, it's not about the polish bottle, right? It's about the colour and the application! And I'm pleased to say, this colour is gorgeous. i don't know why I've passed over corals before, because this just wowed me so much! It's a gorgeous coral that is opaque in 2-3 coats. It's slightly milky looking, and not too bright or too mild.



The application on Megan Miller Coral Bliss is also actually really great. I've never tried Megan Millers before (I think I have a bottle sitting around that is still on my to-try list) but if all their polishes are like this, then - wow. Although I thought the big cork brush handle would make application awkward, the polish applied smoothly without a hitch. The polish consistency is good too - it's a little on the thin side but it flows nicely.



If you're interested in buying Megan Millers, they are sold in Singapore via Mei Mei Signatures for S$18 each. There's a "colour of the month" that is sold at $13.50 only for that month too, so check it out if you're interested!



(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Girly Glittery Nails: Sally Hansen Big Money and Essie Nice is Nice

So you know those awesome Sally Hansen Gem Crush shades that were recently released? I've been having quite a bit of fun with these ever since I bought them in the USA - they're great not just alone, but also lots of fun when layered. Just check out my latest mani as a case in point!



I was going for a pretty pastel look, so I layered Sally Hansen Big Money over Essie Nice is Nice. Essie Nice is Nice was from last year's Spring collection, but it's a very timeless pastel purple creme.



Sally Hansen Big Money consists of small gold glitter and larger (but not too large) light purple glitter in a clear base. This would probably be fully opaque in 3 coats if worn alone, but I was going for a gradient effect, so I just sponged it onto my tips. I just used a kitchen sponge, no fancy equipment. And yes, I still can't get my gradient right. It makes me sad.



Best part? I got em both on sale! I got the Sally Hansen Gem Crush shades when they were buy-one-get-one-50%-off, and I got Essie Nice is Nice from Marshalls for US$3.50! Score! It really made the cheapskate in me happy, it did.



Anyway, I like the overall look - it's a very pretty and office-appropriate way of wearing the glitters that are a mainstay of Spring and Summer collections. Now, if only I could nail the gradient technique properly...