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.

Acid Wash Jeans Nail Art

I've been wearing my jeans alot on weekends lately, so I thought, why shouldn't I do a jeans-inspired nail look? I also saw a couple of people posting such looks on Instagram, so I thought, I'd add my own take to the mix!

If you follow me on Instagram (I'm also Musicalhouses there), you would have seen me Instagram my acid wash jeans mani too! But that's a tiny photo, so here it is in it's full glory.

To get this look, I started off with two coats of Essie Aruba Blue as a base let to dry. I love this shade, and have featured Essie Aruba Blue as a standalone mani before too, back in the early days of my blog. But this time, I layered a white creme over it. Any white will do, I used my good ol' Wet n' Wild White.



And next, comes the fun part - destroying your mani! I created the acid wash effect by taking nail polish remover, and basically remove the white bits and blend the two shades together a little. You can use acetone if you prefer, I just used nail polish remover because it was what I had on hand, but as a result I got some blue stains on my cuticles. I suspect acetone may leave less stains? Anyway. The Instagram tutorial I saw used a Q-tip, but I personally preferred a small brush, like the kind you use for cleanup. I guess it's just a matter of preferences.



So after applying three coats of nail polish and removing part of it, I get this really cool acid wash effect on my nails - just like jeans! And it's pretty easy to do too, since all you do is destroy your mani artistically. I'm actually pretty tempted to repeat this with other colour combinations!

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...

Tribal Nail Art: Summer Colours and Geometric Shapes

One of this Spring/Summer's trends is the tribal print, combined with eye-catching, bright colours. While I'm not actually a fan of wearing tribal print, I thought that it would be awesome to do a tribal-inspired mani on my nails. I've also been seeing a few tribal-inspired nail looks too, so I thought I'd join the club.

Let me show you a few photos that were indicative of the trend that inspired this nail art. The tribal feel is acheived by a mix of bright colours and geometric prints.

(Source)

Here, less geometric shapes, but bright colours nonetheless!

(Source)

For this look, I was really going for the bright shades and geometric shapes feel. The base is Essie Fondola Gondola, the green bit is Nails Inc Spring Mews (which I've used in an NOTD before), while the coral shade is Eyeko Coral (which, if you don't know yet, makes a fantastic pedi colour for summer. The gold lines were done with Orly Luxe, which has to be my favourite gold polish ever, because I keep raving about it.



All this was done freehand. I simply painted Essie Fondola Godola, then I painted Nails Inc Spring Mews and Eyeko Coral at an angle to get the geometric shapes. I then painted over the lines with Orly Luxe, and painted in a small triangle with Luxe as well. It isn't the neatest nail art around, but it was quite fast to do, and if I probably had a bit more control the lines would turn out neater. Oh well, nail art isn't exactly my strongest suite. You can see I really messed up the gold lines badly.



I liked the combination of colours - so gorgeous and summery and girly, as I liked the geometric shapes, but I think it was marred by my own crappy application.



What about you guys? Have you tried a tribal-inspired manicure yet? Tell me!

Nail Art with China Glaze Full Spectrum, Essie Foot Loose, and Striping Tape!

Ever I bought my China Glaze Prismatic Collection polishes, I've been experimenting with these babies, and boy, are they awesome! Even if you don't like how they look on their own (and how can you not?), I love how they really add that extra zing to any mani.

As proof, here's my NOTD (Nail of the day)!

This was a base of Essie Footloose, and then jazzed up with China Glaze Full Spectrum. Essie Footloose is a creme pinky-purple shade that's just perfect for Spring/Summer (which I've featured before), while China Glaze Full Spectrum, as one of the much-hyped Prismatic Collection polishes, needs no introduction. I've swatched Full Spectrum before (together with other Prismatic polishes), but I thought it would still be cool to share my mani with you guys!



This look was actually really easy to acheive. I first painted Essie Foot Loose as the base, then added on China Glaze Full Spectrum. After that, then I added on the white striping tape, which I got from Born Pretty Store. The good thing about adding on the striping tape is that the tape actually hides my messy edges when I painted out the shapes with Full Spectrum. In these photos, you can see the striping tape sticking out at some of the edges of my nail, as I wasn't very good at estimating lengths. I ended up using a nail clipper to clip off the extra striping tape sticking out! (Please don't laugh at me, it was my first time using striping tape!)



I really like this mani - it's girly, but still fun and eye catching, and has just the right bit of glitter for those who are glitter shy. And I have to say, I think the Prismatic polishes look fantastic layered - the different sizes and colours of glitter really add a bit more dimension to the nail. I'm definitely glad I got these, and I'm still looking for more ways to experiment with them!

Polka Dot Mani Fail with Essie Foot Loose

Edited to add: Get 10% off your Born Pretty Store purchase with coupon code MH10K31 - expires Oct 31, so you can purchase happily til then! (Note: I don't profit in anyway from the code. I'm just sharing it with interested readers.)

After seeing all those awesome cool manicures featuring dotting tools, I decided that despite my lack of hand-eye coordination and general clumsiness, I just HAD to try one out. That, and I wanted to bring on a summer colour on my nails. That's how I ended up with this monster of a manicure. I have to admit, while there wasn't anything wrong with the tools I used, my dotting skillz are teh suckz. Seriously.



I got my dotting tools from Born Pretty Store, which has been popular lately among bloggers and nail polish lovers for its ready availability of cheap and cheery nail art suppliers, including crackle polish, stickers, rhinestones, etc. The dotting tools I got were just under US$5 for a set, and are available here.

These dotting tools are of good quality, and quite handy to use. You get a set of 5 dual-ended dotting tools. All five have two ends.



One end is all the same size, a standard size that would be handy for most designs:



The other end of the tools is more interesting for girls who really want to dot in all sizes. The ends of the tools range from really big to positively tiny, and would definitely satisfiy any dotter's needs.



For the dot manicure below, I used Essie Foot Loose because it was such a lovely summer colour - girly, bright, and still a little spunky. And since it's in the colour family of pinks (in this case bright purply-pink), it's wearable to the office! And unlike other Essies which tend to be sheer and streaky, this is a one-to-two coater, depending on thickness of application.



For the dots, I used the dotting tools and Wet n Wild White. One of the best white konading polishes ever, now used for dotting. FOr the variously sized dots on my nails, I used the large end of the green dotting tool, and the large end of the pink dotting tool. I also, for smaller dots, used the white dotting tool.

I know the dots don't looks as nice as they could be, but that's realy due more to my lousy application than anything else. After all, all dotting tools are the same right? But looking at these photos makes me feel like from far, they aren't THAT bad, right, right? *Crickets chirp*



Anyway, I love the colour of my mani, even if my dotting skills suck. It kind of reminds me of summer - bright, and polka dotted, and just generally cheery!

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

Nail Art Fun: Essie Chinchilly and Viva la Nails!

I love nail stickers and nail gems, because they can really dress up a manicure, and they accommodate people of all sorts of inclinations. If you don't have much time, simply slapping on a sticker will do. On the other hand, if you want to do intricate little designs with nail gems, that's also perfectly possible!

For this NOTD, I wanted to make a girly, yet not all pink-and-swirly NOTD, so I dressed what was otherwise a boring grey NOTD. I used these nail stickers and nail gems from Viva la Nails. Aren't they absolutely adorable? I used a pack of nail stickers that had teeny tiny little rhinestones on some of the stickers, and a pack of black gemstones.



For the base I used Essie Chinchilly, which by the way is the most gorgeous grey creme I've seen. It's grey, but it doesn't have much blue in it, and in fact it does seem to have a tinge of green compared to other greys, so it's perhaps the most ideal grey I've seen for warm-toned people. I love this one because it's not too cool-toned. And application and pigmentation was excellent, to boot.

Then, using a pair of tweezers, I picked up the black gemstones one by one and stuck them along my smile line on the nail, parallel to the free edge. Or at least attempted to, since not all my lines were perfect. And then I stuck on some flower nail art stickers for interest.

This is the final result:



I don't know about you, but I'm absolutely in love with it! I loved how the Viva la Nails art stuff totally glammed up my grey mani. And I love how it's fun and feminine without being OTT, you know? It's a very happy medium as far as nail art is concerned.

I wore these for a good while before I finally decided to remove them, and I didn't have any problem with them falling off or peeling off my nails. I applied two coats of topcoat (one slow-dry and Seche Vite on top of it), so I think that really secured them.



I'm totally enjoying the Viva la Nails nail art stuff, I have a bunch of their stuff, and it's really good quality - no tacky stuff that falls apart here! I love that they have individual gemstones, stickers, and even some less conventional items like feathers! (I'm still trying to figure out what to do with a feather on my nails, but if I ever do, you can bet you'll be hearing about it!) They're UK-based, and shipping is cheap (2.95GBP and up) and fast when I placed my order, so if you want to get anything from them, I highly recommend it!

Chanel Particuliere Dupes: Do They Exist? Comparison Swatches

I never bought Chanel's famed nail polish, Particuliere. I just couldn't imagine spending 16GBP on a polish, especially when Orlys, Nubars, OPI, and China Glazes go for less. But I was curious to know if there was a dupe, and to see for myself if any of the other taupe-brown-purple polishes were close enough. So I borrowed my friend's bottle of Particuliere, and made a few swatches. Mind you, these are very messy swatches, because I wanted to return Particuliere to her immediately (I'd feel bad hogging a 16GBP bottle of polish!), so I didn't really have time to be as neat as I wanted to be, and we all know haste makes a mess of nails!

First up of course, are bottle pictures.



L-R: Asos Paints by Ciate Sienna, Rimmel Steel Grey, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Chanel Particuliere, Essie Mink Muffs.

Nothing seems to be an outright dupe for Particuliere. Essie Mink Muffs does look similar, although deeper, in the bottle.

And here's how they fared in swatches. Once again, please excuse the terrible state of cuticles and my messy swatches. Like I said, they were done in a hurry because I wanted to return Particuliere ASAP. The swatches show two coats of each:



L-R (Thumb to Pinky): Essie Mink Muffs, Chanel Particuliere, Nails Inc Jermyn Street, Rimmel Steel Grey, Asos Paints by Ciate Sienna

Application-wise, I had no complaints about any of the colours. They all applied like butter, although the Nails Inc, Essie, and Chanel were better than the other two. And as you can see, nothing is quite a dupe for anything else.

I know Essie Mink Muffs and Chanel Particuliere look like dupes for each other in this photo, but in reality they aren't that close. The Essie is a little darker, and a little more brown than the Chanel. I don't think most people would notice, but if you're a nail fanatic like me, if it's not an exact dupe, it isn't a dupe! :P

Here's a photo that exaggerates the differences between the two. Essie Mink Muffs is on my thumb, while Chanel Particuliere is on my pointer finger. The differences aren't as massive as they are in this photo (stupid camera), but you get the idea:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, Essie Mink Muffs

And I remembered reading somewhere that Essie Mink Muffs is a dupe for Chanel Particuliere, if you lighten it by wearing it over white. So of course I HAD to try that. So I applied Essie Mink Muffs over GOSH Snow (a sheer white), and here are the results:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, 1 Coat Essie Mink Muffs over 1 Coat GOSH Snow, Essie Mink Muffs

Similar, but no dice. It's a tad lighter than Particuliere. The purple in Mink Muffs really shows up when you layer it over white. It's really cool.

So, I added on another thin coat of Mink Muffs on top of GOSH Snow, and the results were better:



L-R: Chanel Particuliere, 2 Coats Essie Mink Muffs over 1 Coat GOSH Snow, Essie Mink Muffs

As you can see, it's close, but not identical. Mink Muffs is now the same depth of colour, but just a tad browner than Chanel Particuliere, while Particuliere is a hair more grey than it's Essie counterpart. I think someone might be able to franken a dupe of Particuliere using Mink Muffs, white, and something to make it more grey.

So, which of these should you choose, if you only had to go for one of them? All the colours applied well, so your choice would depend on your colour preferences, and your skin undertones. Although all these colours are pretty neutral, in general, colours with a stronger purple/grey tinge to them look better on cooler skintones, while colours with more brown tend to look better on warmer skintones. And it also depends on your preference - do you want more grey, brown or purple in your colour? If you want more brown, Essie Mink Muffs or Chanel Particuliere are good choices. If you want something that's more grey, Rimmel Steel Grey is a good choice. And if you want something that leans more purple, Nails Inc Jermyn Street and Asos by Ciate Sienna are your best bets.

Nail Polish Haul: OPI, Essie, China Glaze, and Orly!

Awhile back, to reward myself for getting through a particularly stressful period of school (believe it or not, despite all my professors' assumptions about the "copious free time" we have, us grad students are actually a relatively busy bunch), I decided it was time to place an order of my lemmings. Hey, don't judge me - my groupmate bought himself a camera, so I figured it was perfectly reasonable for me to buy nail polish. And so I did. And these babies arrived all the way from the great USA, the land of cheap Chinaglaze, etailers of nail polish, and buy-1-get-1-free drugstore makeup promotions. Oh, just thinking about it makes me so jealous!

Anyway here is my amazing haul. Please pardon the crappy pictures, they were taken at night under my yellow lamplight, and I suck at using photo-editing software:



Ooh, China Glaze Khromes! I've been wanting these FOREVER for konading purposes! I got China Glaze Sci Fi, Robotika, Millenium, and 2030, in that order from left to right. I'm going crazy just imagining the konading possibilities! Oh, I also got Essie Chinchilly. Mmmmm, grey. But this is not any ordinary grey. This is grey with the slightest green tinge, so chic and unique.



Ooh holos! And duochromes! And my favourite nudey greige mushroomy colour! In order it was Orly Golden Halo (this one is supposed to be sheer though, darn), Orly Country Club Khaki (my favourite! I know I have enough greige nudes, but I can't help it...I need to collect them ALL), and OPI DS Signature and DS Extravagance. I kind of prefer Extravagance, because it has that jewelled quality to it in the base colour, but DS Signature shows more of the holographic "rainbow" in the bottle. I can't wait to try these on my nails - I just KNOW they'll be amazing!

So that's my stress-induced haul. I know I can't be the only one hauling during times of stress, and hey, I figure at least getting a few more pretties is a better way of coping with stress than smoking pot, gambling or drinking :P Yeah, yeah, I know I'm full of excuses...But I can't help it, they're all so pretty!

Essie Aruba Blue NOTD

An unfortunate accident has befallen my fingernails, so while I grow out the damage, I probably won't be taking NOTD pictures for a little while. Fortunately, I do have a backlog of NOTDs. Not a lot, and they're not very good, because they're from the days before I learnt about shaping my nails and cuticle cream, but they'll be sufficient to tide us over til my broken fingernails grow out again.

Anyway, today's featured NOTD is Essie Aruba Blue. Ahh, how I love this one. I know it's nowhere near summer yet - not here at least - but this is the perfect encapsulation of summer in a nail polish. It's a perfect blue, and I don't even normally wear blues! It recalls beaches, pools, and tans (not that I'm a fan of tanning, fake or real, due to the skin damage it causes). Just wearing Aruba Blue kind of makes me feel like the weather is warmer already!



The thing I really like Aruba Blue is that it's a good cross between a darker navy blue, and a brighter jewelled blue. I think it's a happy medium. And of course, how can you not love that glowy, reflective shimmer?

Application on this one was also good - it was pigmented and covered in one coat, although I did two out of habit. Wear time was also good, about 3-4 days before chipping. I usually don't like Essies because they're synonymous with boring pinks, sheers, and blahs, but when Essie decides to get a bit more creative, she does produce some really nice stuff. Come on Essie, we know you have it in you to give us something more than yet another ripoff of Ballet Slippers and all its sisters, brothers, cousins, half-cousins, and uninvited uncles, aunts, and in-laws. Will you now expand the family of Aruba Blue, please?

Barielle Lava Rock and Essie Angora Cardi KOTD

Today's NOTD is Barielle's Lava Rock, together with Essie Angora Cardi for the ring finger. I like both colours, and I like them together too. The splatter paint drop was made with Lava Rock and Konad plate M21. And as you can tell from the terrible skills and the lack of nice watermarking, this is a slightly older NOTD. I really need to get up to speed on my NOTDs, I just have this tendency to take photos and then forget about them :X





As you can see, Lava Rock is a black, sheer colour with purple pearl. I like this one, it has that glowy quality that really reminds me of lava. Also, as the Konad shows, Lava Rock is sheer and needs 2 coats to acheive opacity - the Konad was just barely opaque enough to show up over Angora Cardi. As the photos also show, I had slight application issues with this one, but nothing serious - it was probably just my noob skills more than anything else. The sad thing about this though, is that Lava Rock chipped on me within a day or two, which was really heartbreaking, since I do love this colour so. I don't know if it's just this colour, or Barielles in general, or just that I got a dud though, as this is the only Barielle I have (gasp, I know. But hey, US stuff is hard to get here).

Essie Angora Cardi is also a gorgeous mauve colour that is just deep enough to really make it pop. I love this, it's mauve and it's boring and mumsy, but somehow I like it. I don't know why. I love it, I really do. This one had no application issues and had good staying power - I had to take off my mani because the Barielle was getting all chippy on me, but Angora Cardi was still fine. Ahh, Essie, why do you bother to do three gazillion pinks and sheers when you work the dark colours so well? Please stop producing yet more Marshmallows and Ballet Slippers and Mademoiselles - much as I appreciate sheers in a work setting (because they're not noticable enough to garner snarky comments from mean co-wokers, and because even if they chip noone will really be able to tell) we have enough of them! Come on Essie, us nail fanatics are your greatest customers!