Gold and Brown Autumn Leaves Konad

Since we're leaving the summer season, I figure I might as well start getting my Fall on. Thus, this konad of autumn leaves! Seriously, it's been a looong time since I last konaded, so I was all like, "OMG I hope I still haz my konading skillz" when I did this. Fortunately it wasn't too bad at all, considering the last time I konaded was this holographic zebra stripes konad with GOSH Holographic, a few month's back.

For the base I used Nails Inc Belgravia. It's a nice brown shade with the slightest shimmer, and very chic and understated. You gotta love browns like these - some browns look like crap on me (pun totally intended), but this one doesn't. Look ma, no poopy hands! Just a very classic shade. I think I did have a previous NOTD up on my blog from waaay back when, and I loved it then and still love it now, so I guess it has stood the test of time.


For the leaves I used Orly Luxe and the konad plate I used was M77. It isn't strictly a falling-leaves kind of design (in fact, it kinda looks like palm leaves? more than anything else), I know, but I felt like when paired with the colour scheme, it worked for me.

I don't know about you, but a mani like this just makes me want to sing, "The falling leeaavessss, Drift by my windooooowww"! Wait, some of you don't know the song? Aw shucks...I can't be that old now, can I? *Crickets chirp*


Okay. Anyway, I guess I'd better end this post before I make myself sound any older than I already am. While this look doesn't really break any major boundaries, I still feel like its something I could wear for a discreet konad, since it's not too flashy.

Girly Punk Valentine's Day Nails: Neon Pink and Black Roses

Nothing says girly punk like hot pink and black. And nothing says romance like roses. So when I decided to do Valentine's Day manicure, I decided to combine these two aspects, although I'm not very girly, punky, or romantic. I keep seeing all these sterotypical reds, pale pinks, and sheers coming out near Valentine's Day, and I keep thinking - why shouldn't I do something different?

So here you are: neon pink, black, and roses. The horror!



To be honest, I didn't quite like my nails when I first wore them. I thought they were ugly (and I'm sure some of my readers will think they ARE ugly), but for some reason they grew on me, and I can't quite figure out why either. Maybe I got used to the ugliness. Or maybe the hot pink colour matched my funky Valentine's Day eye look. LOL. But it did grow on me, and yes, I was walking around with blinding hot pink nails with OTT rose designs. Yeeha!



For the neon pink base, I used Eyeko Punk Polish for Neon Nails, which is a one-coater if you're careful. Like other Eyeko polishes I've used before, the consistency is a little on the thick side, so if you prefer a thinner polish consistency, one or two drops of thinner would be more than sufficient. Oh, and this polish is NEON. Like eyeball searing, highlighter pink kind of neon. I know it doesn't look like it in the photos, but that's because I just couldn't capture the blinding neon-ness of it on camera.

For the black roses, I used my favourite konading black of all time, Wet n Wild Black. It's dirt cheap (if you don't count the cost of shipping it outside of the USA), easily available, and opaque in one coat. Perfect for konading!

The konad plate used was M65. I figured I could get away with such an OTT rose design only around Valentine's Day!



So this isn't your traditional Valentine's Day sweetheart manicure. But I have those too! If this is making you puke, feel free to try some other sweetheart, Valentine-appropriate posts: there's one with girly chic, a feminine pastel purple that's holo to boot, a nude with a touch of flowers, and the near classic jewel pinky-purple holo. Probably more traditionally Valentine Day-ish than this sad excuse to wear hot pink, LOL!

I'm not much of a romantic, and I really couldn't care less for Valentine's Day. But I figured, since it was the occasion for it, why not go all out in dressing up my nails? It's the perfect reason to get away with whatever I want!

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

Chinese New Year Nails: Year of the Rabbit KOTD!

I know I just posted a Chinese New Year NOTD just awhile back, but hey, since Chinese New Year comes only once a year, why not do another one? This time, I have cute little rabbits on my mani, you know, because it's the year of the rabbit!



The absolutely adorable kawaii rabbit imprint is, of course, thanks to the wonders of Konad! I'm using plate S10, and it's full of kawaii animals. There's a rabbit, a cow, a cat, a bear, a dog, and so on. Very cute, if you ever want to do a zoo-inspired mani.



The polishes were different this time, because after the glitter of the last CNY (Chinese New Year) NOTD, I decided I wanted this one to be a creme. So the base was a colour from the Face Shop's Nail Talk range, RD302. The first coat produces a pinky-red colour not unlike Benefit's Benetint, but in nail polish form. The second coat produces the primary straight-up red you see in the photos. It also comes in a very kawaii bottle, although the bottle is quite tiny.

The konad colour was China Glaze Hi-Tek, a gorgeous orangey-gold chrome that is absolutely beautiful for konading. I love the China Glaze Khromes, and if you're a konader, you need the entire Khrome collection, since they all konad very nicely.



As you can see from the photo, my konading skills are obviously quite lousy - there's a konad fail on some of the fingers. Oops. But still, my mistakes don't detract from how cute the rabbits are!

And just so you can really see all those rabbits on my nails up close, including my mistakes:



Since the year of the rabbit comes once every 12 years, I may as well get a kawaii rabbit on my nails while I still can, right? Happy Chinese Year, everyone! :D

China Glaze For Audrey + Konad Fishnet = Awesome Nails!

It rarely happens, but I actually managed to wear un-boring nails to work for one entire week! It was during the Christmas season, so I didn't have any client meetings, and both my bosses were on leave for the holidays. So a thought popped into my head - since I wasn't going to be doing much work that required me to look professional, why shouldn't I jazz up my nails? Thus, I promptly combined China Glaze For Audrey with the awesome fishnet/lace print on my nails.

China Glaze has a few colours that are famous, and For Audrey is one of them. It's purportedly named after Audrey Hepburn for her role in Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the colour was apparently created to be the same shade of blue-green as a Tiffany's box. Now is that cool or what? I know most people who are more colour-shy won't see turquoise as a colour is classic, or for that matter, classy. But if you think about it, what can be more classy than a Tiffany's box? And if a Tiffany's box is classy, why shouldn't we wear that gorgeous colour on our nails?

So behold, my awesome manicure the colour of a Tiffany's box! It's absolutely gorgeous, and in some lights it looks more blue, but in others it looks more green. I can't quite decide whether it's more of a blue or a green.



Oh, right, I have to admit, that mani was made slightly awesome by the fact that I smudged the konad design on my ring finger after having painstakingly stamped it on. But it doesn't make it any less stunning, doesn't it? Right? *Awkward silence*

Alright, yes, I was a klutz with the konad. I used my all-time favourite (and oh-so-cheap) black nail polish for the fishnet/lace print, Wet n' Wild Black. And the design came from one of my favorite konad plates of all time, M57. Back then when konading was a new thing, the M57 plate was so hard to get hold of, because every nail polish fanatic wanted one, and it was perpetually out of stock.



After applying China Glaze For Audrey, I can definitely see why it's a classic. This colour was trouble-free in it's application - in fact, it virtually applied itself. It was fully opaque in two coats, although I suspect if you do thicker coats, you could get away with one. And it didn't streak at all. I enjoyed painting on this colour. Wet n' Wild Black, which was used for this konad to imprint the lace/fishnet pattern, is one of the fan favourites of nail polish addicts for konading. It's cheap, it's black, and it works well with the konad stamp and plate set. What's not to like?

Lasting power was about average - it lasted about 4 days on me before the first chip appeared, which was pretty usual. I don't have any complaints about the lasting power of China Glaze polishes in general. Some brands have trouble staying on my nails (ahem, Zoya and Barielle, I'm looking at you!), but China Glaze isn't one of them.



I don't know about you, but I was in love with my nails for the time I wore it. Everyone I met commented on my nails, from fellow colleagues to sales staff I would encounter on the way hhome from work. It actually pained me to remove the colour when the holiday season was over and work started picking up again at the office. Of course I had to take it off and replace it with a more sensible, work-appropriate colour. But at least I got to have funky nails for awhile!

Illamasqua Jo'mina and China Glaze Sci Fi KOTD: Purple and Silver

Illamasqua released Jo'mina (is it Jomina or Jo'mina?) some months ago, with the Body Electrics collection, and out of all the three nail polishes in the collection, Jo'mina was the hot favourite. I snagged it for 50% off because it wasn't "in season" anymore (sigh, I guess you know autumn is coming when the Spring/Summer collections start going on sale). But you know me, and you know I don't give a hoot about what's trendy or not - I wear what I like, regardless of season. And a 50% discount is timeless :P

Here it is in sunlight. I think this was the most colour-accurate I could it to be, but it's still not quite there. The base for the konad was Jo'mina, while China Glaze Sci Fi was used as the design. The konad plate was M65. Man, my fingers look fat.



Jo'mina is a gorgeous beautiful bright lilac purple. I'm not sure quite how to describe it, and unfortunately, my photographs aren't that colour-accurate because it's also really hard to photograph! It keeps turning out a lot more blue than in photos. I took a gazillion photos, and they all turned out blue-purple. And I tried colour-editing it, but with my limited photo-editing skills, there was only so much I could do. I'm sorry I couldn't get a more accurate portrayal of this, so just try to imagine this as being a lot more red-based purple instead of a blue-based violet, okay?



I've read a lot about how Jo'mina was a total PITA to apply, so I was totally prepared to struggle with this one when applying it. To be fair, it isn't the best, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either. I used two coats for all my photos. To be fair they were thick-ish coats, so if you used thinner coats you might need more. Still, I didn't get as much pulling, tugging, or unevenness as I expected. Weird right?

China Glaze Sci Fi is awesome to apply and opaque in just one coat, which makes it perfect for konading. Of course, that's evident from these pictures!



I really love this KOTD. I mean, I love purple, and I love chromes, so combining them makes me a very happy girl!

KOTD: Orly Foil Luxe and Wet n Wild Black

A few weeks back, my programme had a boat party for the postgraduates, and of course I had to go - it was free for students, and they provided dinner, and you know I'm all up for a free meal :P The dress code was formal, but in rebellion of the utter impracticality of wearing tuxedos and gowns in summer, our class chose to go informal anyway.

Anyway, the whole point of me telling you this is because it actually has something to do with today's NOTD. I started building my outfit around my nails, as I am increasingly wont to do lately, and I decided that I wanted to wear blingy gold nails with some konad. (Note to everyone: only weirdos like me start thinking about their nails before thinking about their clothes.)

Naturally, I picked out Orly Luxe, from the Foil FX Collection, and I stamped it over with Wet n Wild Black. I used Konad plate M81 for the design. And tada:



This is two coats of Orly Luxe, under natural light, konaded over with Wet n Wild Black, which is a really opaque black creme. I just LOVE Orly Luxe. It's probably the best gold foil ever, and definitely the standout of the entire Orly Foil FX Collection. I mean, good gold foils are hard to come by, and this one is smooth, easy to apply, and opaque in one coat (ooh, gold foil konad coming up!). And not to mention I love the colour - it's a shade of gold that isn't too brassy or too warm, and would be perfect on almost anybody.

After I had done my nails, I realized that my nails matched a skirt I had just bought a few days ago (on sale from H&M, yay for 50% off summer sales!). So I ended up wearing the skirt, just because they matched my nails! And yes I know I'm a freak for matching my clothes to my nails, and not the other way around. What can I say - I probably have more nail polishes than I have clothes.

Here's a photo of my nails against the skirt. See, see? They match!



And of course, since it was a boat party for postgrads, I managed to find something else that matched my nails:



That was my friend's bottle, LOL. I don't drink very much, primarily because alcohol is full of empty calories, and I've never thought it was worth putting on weight for, with the possible sole exception of pear cider, LOL. I know, I'm a weirdo, but that's a pretty convincing argument to me, LOL.

Anyway, that was my KOTD, and I promise the next post won't feature any alcohol :P

KOTD: Revlon Plum Attraction and China Glaze 2030

Today's KOTD is a little old, but I thought I'd post it up anyway. I love this combination of purple and gold together - something about it makes the combination seem so regal and royal.

This has a base of Revlon's Plum Attraction, which is a beautiful plummy purple, and China Glaze 2030, which is a fabulous gold chrome that's opaque in one coat, and thus perfect for konading. I also used Konad plate M76 for the design, but I had trouble with it. My konading skills just aren't up to par :X

Anyway, here it is:



Plum Attraction was nicely opaque, and a very pretty plum colour with pretty subtle shimmer. China Glaze 2030 is a straight up gold chrome, but what I like about it is that the gold isn't too orange warm-toned even for cool-toned girls. It's really quite neutral for a gold, which is great for anyone looking for a gold but who might find most options too warm for them.

Application on both was good. This is two coats of Plum Attraction, which was opaque and went on smoothly. I think it could even be used for konading over lighter colours, because it's nicely pigmented. I didn't have any issues with wear either, this one lasted well on me.

Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm and Orly Foil FX Shine KOTD

There are times when I really hate my photo-taking skills, my camera, and my crappy looking nails, because on the rare times when I really like a KOTD, my photos never ever seem to do it justice. Today's KOTD, using a holographic polish (OOOHHHH HOLOS!) and an Orly Foil FX, is one case in point.

For the base I used Diamond Cosmetics Chainmail Charm, also known in some circles as Chacha (you know, CHAinmail CHArm?). It's a beautiful black holo, and the holographic shimmer really shines through. Unfortunately, my camera didn't seem to like the holographic goodness as much as I did:



Please excuse the messiness, because that was a pre-cleanup picture (because I was going to konad over it). But the point is, that is a gorgeous holo which my camera didn't capture. I really like it, it's cool, and I love holos. Something about the colour-changing shimmer just captures me.

I could look at Chainmail Charm, but in one of my rare moments of brilliance, I thought I would konad over it, with one of the newfangled Orly Foil FXs, Shine (I've been trying to get Luxe - the gold one), using a full nail design from the Konad M78 plate.





I know it doesn't look like much in the photo, but can I pinky promise you that it looks soooo much better in real life? Orly Shine (and the other Foil FXs I'm told) make for good konading polishes, so I wasn't disappointed to konad with this. Shine is a Foil with plenty of bling to draw attention to any dull manicure! The Orly Foil FXs have not been disappointing so far - I've got Rage and Shine, and I've been trying to go after Luxe. I love the combination of black and silver, holo and foil, and bling and more bling! I just wish my camera and my skills were better at capturing this blingy goodness.

Nails Inc Elizabeth Street and Fitzhardinge Street Leopard Spots KOTD

Today's KOTD is using two Nails Inc colours, Elizabeth Street, and Fitzhardinge Street. I konaded using plate M57. As you can see it wasn't that great - I'm still struggling to put on a full nail design properly.

Nails Inc Elizabeth Street is a sheer-ish, pale milky pink creme, very subtle, very pretty, and work appropriate. The first coat is a little streaky, but it applies well after 2 coats, and evens out after that. Nails Inc Fitzhardinge Street is a deep, deep green that looks like black, also another creme. It looks a little more green when you konad with it, because you only use a thin layer of the polish for konading. I guess this isn't the best konading job ever - as you can see, there are patches in the leopard print.

Anyway, here is the not-that-great konad job, in natural shaded light:



I really love Nails Inc, I do believe they're just about the best polish brand I've tried out there. And I keep saying it everytime I use something from them, but I can't help it. I'm starting to have this dangerous need to collect every Nails Inc colour out there. I've always found the application and wear to be pretty good. Elizabeth Street isn't as awesome as some of the others, but it is still really decent. I suspect this relative lack of quality might be due to the fact that I got Elizabeth Street when they were giving them out free with a copy of Glamour, and maybe the free bottles aren't as good as the bottles in stores? I really wouldn't know though, it's just a guess, since all my other Nails Incs apply soooo smoothly. Fitzhardinge Street had the usual awesome Nails Inc application. This konad lasted for about 3-4 days before chipping, which is about average for me, so wear time is decent as well.

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!

Nails Inc Fulham Road and Piccadilly Circus KOTD: Annoying V-Day KOTD!

I'm not really a girly girl. I don't have a fondness for cutsey things, I HATE wearing pink, and I hate pink nail polish in general (which is really odd, considering that I'm one of the more colour-conservative nail bloggers out there). And I'm not that feminine in general. So obviously it must have been the effects of too much stress (or pear cider) that influenced me to do this:



I know, I know. The overwhelming pinkness and girly-ness of this KOTD really makes me want to puke too. But Valentines Day is coming up soon, I figure why not? Much as I think Valentine's Day is overcommercialized, and you shouldn't wait until Valentine's Day to show appreciation, etc etc etc, I have to admit, pink and roses is quite in the spirit of things. And I love trying out new things, even if it's something like pink polish with a KOTD of roses. (Now I'm not sure if that's me or the stress - or cider - talking.)

Anyway, the base is Nails Inc Fulham Road (NOT 80 Fulham Road, which is a totally different colour altogether), and the roses are Nails Inc Piccadilly Circus. And the konad plate is M65 really like both colours, although maybe to use them both together with the rose konading pattern wasn't the best idea ever.

Fulham Road is a very pretty frosty pink, with a hint of lilac. I think it's a good wearable way to take on the lilac trend that seems to be going on now, especially for warmer-toned girls who don't look good in deathly pale pastel purples. I swear the nail polish companies are just ganging up against me by releasing nail trends that don't suit me. First it was the death-hand inducing mint green, and now it's death-hand inducing lilac (thanks a lot, Essie Lilacism). But this one is more pink and less purple, and quite pretty. It has a really interesting purplish sheen to it that's unfortunately lost on the nails, so sadly it just looks pink on. But I still like it quite a lot, and it's not OTT frosty either, so you could probably get away with this at work. This one is a little sheer, but it reaches pretty good opacity in 2 coats, although if you want to really completely cover everything, you'll need 3. In this photo I'm using 2 coats.

And Nails inc Piccadilly Circus is a beautiful deep pinky-red creme. I really love this one. It's a lovely colour that works for all seasons, and I think this is pretty much the kind of colour you could wear all the way from Spring to Autumn, especially with the trend of bright nail polish going on right now (China Glaze Up and Away, anyone? I'm still wiping the drool off my mouth for that collection). So this one is really pretty and versatile. It's also a good way to wear something that is as statement-making as red nail polish, without actually having to wear straight up red, which some people might not like wearing. This one is a beauty, and is opaque in 1 coat.

And of course, both Piccadilly Circus and Fulham Road have that beautiful unsurpassable Nails Inc application - flawless and requiring almost no clean-up. I really love Nails Inc..despite the unwieldy cap on the polishes, they've done everything right. I love the consistency, the opacity, the brush, and the drying time (not that fast, certainly not as fast as GOSH, but definitely decent). In general, I just have much love for them, even if they're certainly not cheap.

So there you have it, the official worst Valentine's KOTD ever. But I thought I'd put it up anyway, because why waste a perfectly good KOTD, when you can put it up in a puke-inducing post right? :P

Ciate Sharp Tailoring and Velvet Tuxedo Lace Manicure Fail

So now that Winter's almost over, I'm finally wearing my Winter collection nail polishes. Go figure. Anyway, good polish is timeless! The perfect edgy neutral is always timeless and oh-so-chic all year round! And the two Ciate colours I happened to buy when they were on sale at ASOS are pretty neutral and chic. I bought Sharp Tailoring and Velvet Tuxedo.

First of all, bottle pics of both of them! I'm really digging these two.

Sharp Tailoring is a very edgy neutral greige (you know, a cross between a grey and a beige), and is one of those colours that I LOVE to death. This one isn't like the rest of them - it doesn't have any pink in it (unlike the other greige-y colours), and that's what makes it stand out. It also has gold shimmer that really amps up the colour.



Velvet Tuxedo is a blackened-grey, or is it a black? that has beautiful multidimensional shimmer:



I love those two colours, and I decided to do a KOTD with them, in attempt to replicate the "Lace Manicure" look that's been so popular lately. The KOTD itself turned out to be a massive fail due to my inability to stamp and align properly, but here you go anyway. I believe the plate is M57.

As you can see, in natural sunlight, Sharp Tailoring is a lot more grey, and a lot less beige.



In indoor lighting, you can really see it's beige-y-ness, and it's gold shimmer (which my @#$@% camera can't seem to capture. I think my camera has issues with shimmer). I do think it stands out best indoors, as opposed to outdoors:



Application-wise, both of them were a little mixed. Velvet Tuxedo gave me no problem whatsoever - it was opaque in one coat, and good enough to konad with. Sharp tailoring was a little sheer and streaky, but two coats took care of everything, so it's not a big deal. However, I do wonder if it was the polish or my lack of skillz that made this a little tricky to work with. But anyway, I've yet to see a dupe of this pretty little colour, so if anyone knows of a dupe with less application issues, let me know!

Revlon Snow Violet and GOSH Purple Haze KOTD

Today's KOTD is using my newly-arrived M57 plate, the coolest Konad Plate ever! Look Ma, Zebra stripes! Anyway, as my KOTD photo shows, I'm still struggling with the full-nail plates. Excuse the smudgi-ness, the blurry-ness, and the tipwear - I swear Sally Hansen InstaDri causes major shrinkage on me, but well, it's cheap and readily available, and it dries fast.

Revlon Snow Violet is the base of my KOTD, and I really LOVE this colour to bits. It looks like a pale pale white-lilac, but it's not (stupid camera). It's a pale cooltoned off-white with a violet flash. Yes it HAS a violet flash, I swear, I just can't get it to show up in photographs. (stupid me, and stupid camera) Also I think once I konaded over it, it lost its purple flash a tad. But it's really cool. This was one of their limited edition colours, that I bought maybe 7 or 8 years back, waaaay before I was into nail polish, and it's kept well since then. It was also one of my first 'proper' nail polishes (i.e. realy polish from a store, not kiddy-play-polish), so it has emotional value to me. Awwwww. But, this thing is a bit sheer and streaky, and what you're seeing is 3 coats. I'm imagining the possibilities over other colours...Mmmmm, purple flash.

GOSH Purple Haze is the design on the KOTD. Mmmm I know I've used it before in another KOTD here in this post, but I said that Purple Haze is a chamelon because it looks green in some konads and purple in others. Well, the last time I showed you that, it looked green, but now, it looks purple! I LOVE this colour. Unfortunately, I just use it for konading because when I do my entire nail with it, it just looks black :X

Once again, excuse the crappiness, tipwear, smudging, etc etc. I was just so excited that I finally got hold of the fabled M57 plate.

KOTD: Sephora OPI Metro Chic, Konad Special Polish White

Today's KOTD is $OPI's Metro Chic, and I used Konad's Special Polish in White for the design.

$OPI Metro Chic has been all over the blogosphere and back. It's a much overexposed, much over-reviewed little thing, but I do like it very much. I love these purply-grey-brown, mushroomy colours. They're probably my favourite colours for nails. Anyway, this isn't really good OPI - but then I've been told via hearsay that $OPI polishes are not actually made the same as OPI polishes, they just have the OPI label slapped on them. No idea if that is true or not though. This was 2 coats, although 3 would have been optimal. It's a litle sheer and streaky, although 2 - 3 coats covers nicely.

This was plate M36, I believe. Once again, sorry for the lousy lack of skills, as well as the raggedy cuticles - I'm very much a noob in the nail department, and I swear, I'm chronically plagued by terribe cuticles.

Color Club Fashion Addict and OPI Lincoln Park After Dark: KOTD

Hey guys! I'm back from X'Mas break and crazy laptop hard drive issues!

Today's KOTD is Color Club's Fashion Addict as the base with OPI's timeless LPAD for the flowers. Plate is M34 I believe.

Once again, excuse the frazzles, the pre-clean-up pics, and the general sloppiness of application - I'm so not a pro. I so suck at nails, but I promise I'm getting better. Slowly. Sort of.



I liked this, but it's not the most creative or the best KOTD/NOTD ever. I don't mind it though, This was 2 coats of Fashion Addict. Unfortunately the holo effect is rather weak on me - I don't know how other bloggers get their awesome holos to show on photograph, but this was under natural light in my room beside the window, and it doesn't look holo at all! I'm utterly crushed. Maybe I got a dud. Sigh.

I tried getting other pictures of this KOTD in other lighting, to see if I could get the holo to show up - warm light, white light, natural light, a mix of lights - and this was the best I could get:



Don't you just hate it when holos aren't holo enough?

Nails Inc Basil Street and GOSH Purple Haze: KOTD

Did I tell you I've been on a nude nailpolish kick lately? As of now I have 7 nudes in my collection, and I totally plan on doing a swatch comparison one day. But for now, here's a simple NOTD/KOTD for you!

Here's Nails Inc Basil Street:



Excuse the frazzle, and the fact that there are cotton wool bits stuck in my mani (I hate when that happens).

Basically, the perfect opaque non-pinky (or almost non-pinky, rather) beige nude. Perfect, perfect perfect. This one was smooth and easy to apply, and it was even and opaque in 2 coats. Unlike most nudes which can be often sheer or streaky or just a pain to apply (ahem, Essie), this covered well in 2 coats. Love, love, love.

Then, because I was bored, I just had to do this over it:



I know, I know, let's not talk about that smudge ok? :( And the fact that I suck at centralizing my designs :(

The interesting thing about GOSH Purple Haze is that it's a very dark, almost-black purple/green duochrome. AND it's opaque in 1 coat - thus making it ideal for Konading. The interesting thing though, is that depending on what color it is used to konad with, Purple Haze shows up either as a dark purple, or in this case, a dark green. It feels so weird to see your konad being green when you really used a dark purple, but I love this colour. It's like, self-adjusting or something. Really, really cool. So far when used with pinks it tends to veer purple, and here, with a beige it looks green. GOSH nail polishes are also in general one of my favourites, because they dry very fast. Sometimes I even wonder why I use a topcoat with them, but then I remember that I need to prevent the polish from chipping so fast. They also have a pretty decent wear time. Basically, I've pretty much liked everything I've tried from GOSH and Nails Inc.

Well, that's it for this post! I hope noone threw up from my terrible mani skills...