Friday, September 30, 2011

SEXY BOMB!


***WARNING!***
***LOTS OF***
***PICTURES***

Here I have for you a new brand of polish called SEXY BOMB!! I bought these from a local Asian make up store called "Cara". This is a new line they are carrying, and many of the polishes are duochromes! These polishes don't have names, but this one is labelled "S66".


I love everything about this polish! The bottles are gorgeous, it's a foil-y duochrome, it applies well and dries fast.

The brush is also really great! It makes application a lot easier. It is flat and wide, but not as wide as the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's, so it's easier and less messy to use. The end of the brush is also curved, which makes it easier to get close to the cuticles.



S66 is a gold foil that shifts to a greenish-blue depending on the light.

Here is what the polish looks like most of the time:
This is only 2 coats!

Most duochromes I've dealt with need lots of coats, so this one is a winner!

Check out the duochromeyness!

Hope you enjoyed!



Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Epic Nail Mail!!!

Here is some epic nail mail I recently received from my friends Traci and Chelsea!
Click on their names to check out their blogs and sales!
Let's have a closer look at what I got!





Here is:

~Gamer Glam~
~Electra Magenta~
~Techno Teal~

From the China Glaze Tronica collection



Here is:


~Kaleidoscope Him Out~
~Visit Me In Prism~
~Don't Be A Square~
From the China Glaze Kaleidoscope collection


  Here is:

~CG In The City~
~Skyscraper~
From the China Glaze Metro Collection
and~Liquid Leather~
~OPI Nail Envy~


The China Glaze Kaleidoscope holos are my favourite type of holo! They are both linear and scattered and sparkly, even when there's no sunlight! I was first introduced to them when I found 2 dusty hunting (searching for old hard to find polish in salons). Chelsea is officially my kaleidoscope hero, as they are very hard to find!

The Tronica's are also a bit holo and I'm super excited Traci could get me some because I was unable to find them locally. I love with these colours, holo or not!

I just can't wait to try all of these out! Oooh I also got my nail brushes today from ebay! I forgot to take a picture though... =p

That's all for now! Hope you enjoyed =D

My New Franken!

Hello! Today I want to show you a new franken I just made!
For those who don't already know, a franken is a polish that you make by mixing other polishes, glitter, pigments etc. together to make a polish your own! It's super fun and a great way to create colours you dream of but can't find!

I wanted to experiment with making my own suedes/mattes. So here is my first attempt and I'd classify it as a satin, not entirely matte and not entirely glossy!

Take a look and tell me what you think!


For this polish I was inspired by the OPI Suede collection. I love the way they sparkle when you add top coat, and the glitter really shows in their natural, suede form. You can see a little bit of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede (with top coat) here.
 For this franken I started with a matte/suede base
Revlon "Powder Puff"
then I tinted it teal with
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Teal-y Fast"
then I added some sparkle with Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Celeb City"


~You can see here, that the polish isn't really matte or glossy, it's in between

~Initially, I wasn't sure if mixing matte/suede polish and normal glossy polish would work. 

~The first time I swatched my fraken it separated on the nail, kind of like when you apply a nfu oh holo. It was a disaster! 

~I figured out that the key to applying this glossy-matte franken was to shake it like crazy beforehand!! This way, the 2 type of polish are well mixed together and apply like a dream! It also dries super fast!


The bottles I use for my frankens right now are ones I got from Daiso, a Japanese store. I bought a whole bunch of their holo collection and decanted the small 5ml bottles into larger 15ml ones, and now I use the empty bottles for frankening! 

Most of the empty bottles I've seen at supply stores have the cheap skinny round brush that makes my application even more horrid! A plus side to doing this is that these bottles have a nice flat, thick brush that applies like a dream! (I took these photos without any clean-up. Partly because I'm lazy, and party because I think I did a pretty good job!) 





Here's a close up of the glitter! 
Click to enlarge











Aside*** Since most of the polishes I own have already been swatched to death by other bloggers, I think I will try to post more about my frankens as well as my international + unique polishes that are hard to find on google. I don't do the swatch thing very well so I will entertain you with the various stuff I like and not bore you with my horrid nail art (just got my brushes in from ebay btw!). I want to keeps things interesting!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Canucks!


The other day I went to watch the
Canucks
!! 



They had an open Training Camp that you could watch for FREEEEEE =) Which is super duper awesome! (you don't want to know how much $$$ me and my bf paid for tix last year...)


Here's a quick peek at what I used, accompanied by a lovely picture of Henrik's back...boy wouldn't turn around!


For this mani I used Gosh Blue Monday for the base, with Revlon Emerald and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White for the stripes. 

It's a bit messy because I did it quickly the night before and I have still yet to get my brushes I ordered from ebay 1 month ago...and I was too impatient to use tape. I also had to get up early the next day because practice started at 8:30am and it was general admission! Left home at 6:30am to pick people up, transit there, then line up in the Vancouver rain! But alas, I must say goodbye to summer...and welcome back our bipolar weather!

Blue Monday is gorgeous! It has subtle pink and purple sparkles and such and endearing texture to it!

Look how close I was sitting!!! Too bad Henrik wouldn't turn around!

Do you ever do up your polish for sports teams???


Subtle with a Chance of Sparkle~~~


Here is the mani I wore last week! It's
Joe Fresh Storm 
with an accent of
OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede
(with topcoat).

Joe Fresh is a Canadian Brand of Polish, famous for producing the flakie, Twilight... What I like about these polishes is that they come in 5ml bottles, so I can try a lot of different colours I might not normally buy. They also have a really nice flattented brush that doesn't leave streaks!

Storm is very hard to describe... I'd say it's mainly a neutral brown with purple and grey tones. It resembles the colour of chocolate milk, but a little more purple... and yes, I did compare it to chocolate milk (luckily there was some in the fridge) I just forgot to take a picture...

I wasn't going to do a post about this, but I was intrigued by how different Storm looks in different lighting. I apologize for the messiness and scratches...I took these pictures a few days after I applied the polish. 

Take a look at Storm under various lighting sources and watch how it transforms!
From Brownish...
...to less brownish...
...to more greyish...
...to more purplish!!!



I really like Storm...and I hardly ever wear cremes!

Lincoln Park After Dark Suede is also amazing! I found it dusty hunting and this is the first time I've used it. Here it is without top coat.
Click to enlarge 
-------->
It is just stunning! It's one of my new favourite polishes!


Look how LPADS sparkles with top coat!


Do you like Lincoln Park... better with or without topcoat???
Do you have any favourite neutral colours???

Do you like suedes or mattes???

Monday, September 12, 2011

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup...

Hello! Today I'd like to share with you 
Across the Universe!

I was so excited to get this polish. Not only are the Beatles my favourite band ever, but ATU is one of my favourite songs! 

My wonderful boyfriend surprised me with this polish! It is my first Deborah Lippmann =) I normally wouldn't spend this much on polish (ATU retails for around $18), but ATU is totally worth it! It has the perfect name and consists of my favourite colours (teals, blues, greens). After showing my bf countless swatches, one day we stopped at Holt Renfrew but they were sold out. So he went and ordered it online for me <3


I layered ATU over Revlon's Midnight Affair, a deep-almost black-navy. I didn't want to waste ATU as I had work the next few days and knew it would get eaten away.
Revlon Midnight Affair x1 // ATU x1 // Essie Good to Go TC x1
So reflective and even with one coat, the glitter is very concentrated!
(please ignore the messiness, I've yet to get my clean up brushes!)
Here's a close up before TC. You can see the variety of blue/teal/green hex glitter!



Next time I will try layering ATU alone. The jelly base and hex glitter creates depth when layered over itself! Before I saw swatches of ATU, I wasn't a fan of glitter polishes like this. ATU was my first hex glitter and has definitely changed my views on them!


A few things I found: 
** When wiping excess polish off of the brush, only wipe of the side that won't go on the nail or else the glitter will be wiped off the brush as well.
** Be careful not to brush the polish along the nail too many times, as the glitter will get pushed to the nail tips.
** The formula was fantastic! I can't wait to try it alone.
** Even with only 1 coat, ATU was difficult to remove, just like most glitters (worth the effort though!)
** The wear was fantastic! I kept it on for maybe 5 days and there was only minor tip wear. With dark polishes tip wear becomes very obvious, so I recommend doing a quick bit of touch up =)

Note: I also have the dupe from icing:
It's one side of a duality set and it's called
"Force of Love"
It's almost identical to ATU, except that it has tiny silver glitter instead of blue. FOL also doesn't have as much light blue hex glitter. It's a pretty good alternative if you don't want to shell out $18 for 
the Lippmann, but there are a few downsides:


-- Bottle shape: FOL comes in a weird double sided contraption that can make if very difficult to open the correct side (but the other polish "magnetic attraction" is also quite lovely)



-- Bottle size: I think the pair was around 8.50 CND (but they're almost always BOGO50%off), for not that many ml (not sure how much exactly) and I had to pick which bottle looked the lease USED! It also needed quite a bit of thinner, as it was not completely sealed... might as well get the real thing!




Top: Force of Love
Bottom: Magnetic Attraction // ATU
(click to enlarge!)










*** Do you own ATU or any other Lippmann's??
*** What's your favourite glitter polish??
*** Favourite Beatles song??

Sunday, September 4, 2011

New Nfu Oh vs. Make Up Store ~~~~ {part two} 62 vs. Madeleine

Hello again! Today I am going to show you 2 peachy pink holos, but first I want to clear up something from my last post. It may not have been obvious in my last post, but Nfu Oh 61 is still VERY holographic! It just looks dull in comparison to Greta! So here is 61 + Greta compared to some other silver holos:
L-R: Top Row = Greta // 61 //61
Bottom = Greta // Color Club Worth the Risque // OPI DS Coronation // Icing Glamorous
Compared to these duller holos, 61 stands out! Both Greta and 61 show a vivid array of colours, but the rainbow effect is more elongated and less scattered in Greta, as seen above. 

I also own 2 other Nfu Oh holos: 62 + 66. 62 is a peachy pink and 66 is like an apple green. I've heard that the MUS holos are very similar in colour to the Nfu Oh's (dupes). They don't have a green for me to compare to 66, but they do have Madeleine, a peachy pink. The other dupes are (blue) MUS SIW & Nfu Oh 65, and (pink) MUS Britt & Nfu Oh 63.
Madeleine // 62
62 // Madeleine
62 // Madeleine
From these pictures you can somewhat see that Madeleine is somewhat more holographic than 62, but the extent of this is nowhere near that of the 61 & Greta comparison. There is also a slight difference in colour, Madeleine is slightly lighter.

I'd say they are close enough that you don't need both, but you could always use 62 as a base and top off with Madeleine (since it only comes in 8ml bottles and is $$$). Also, from my experience, both apply equally poorly without the proper "aqua" base coats

I've yet to do a wear test on these, but IF Madeleine wears as amazingly as Greta did (which you'll hear about in a future post), it is an indication that the extra $$$ = extra high quality!!! If you're looking for affordability though, 62 is definitely a cheaper alternative!

***Thoughts??
***What are you looking for in a holo?? 
Lasting Wear?? Extreme holoness?? Hassle-free application??

Thursday, September 1, 2011

New Nfu Oh 61 vs. Make Up Store Greta {part one}

YAY! I have finally ended the procrastination and have created a blog! I hope you like =D

Today I have for you TWO Silver Holographic Polishes! that are NOT hard to find (As in they are still being sold in stores or online!!!) 


Here we have Make Up Store Greta & the new Nfu Oh 61:
My mum brought me back Greta from Singapore, but  Make Up Store is located around the world. In the states you can even also order by phone!

I got my Nfu Oh 61 from fabuloustreet.com! As far as I know, they ship to the US and CANADA =) check their site to find out if they'll send to you or find out if your country has a distributor.



**Make up store holos run anywhere from $14-$18 for only 8ml!! 

**While the Nfu Oh holos go for $12.50 US for 17ml at fabuloustreet.com with free shipping within the states, if you buy 2 or more polishes!  

After being sold out for what seemed like forever, I finally got my hands on 61 and it's companion, aqua base.

The Nfu Oh's also come in a gorgeous corset bottle, while the MUS polish comes in sleek bottles just a wee bit taller than those of Gosh. 

So aside from the drastic price difference and bottle shape, do the two differ? Let's take a look!
Pinky + Ring = MUS Greta over Aqua Base
Index + Middle = Nfu Oh 61 over Aqua Base
I can't quite capture it with my camera, and due to the lack of sun, I am stuck with my stove light. BUT as you can see here, Greta is wayyyy more holo than the new Nfu Oh 61! Take a look at them compared on a nail wheel:
L-R = 61 // 61 w. Aqua Base // Greta w. Aqua Base // Greta
Click the pic to see the awesoness even better =D
Here you can clearly see that Greta >>> new 61 in terms of holoness! I don't have the original 61, but perhaps in it's glory days, 61 may have rivaled Greta...

Also, if you look closely at that last picture, you can see that my new Nfu Oh 61 crackled over aqua base!!! Many people including me wondered if Aqua Base was necessary for these holos...MORE ON THAT LATER!! =) ...as well as a Greta wear test, an interesting find with 61 and application tips!

Here's one more look at Greta =D
***Thoughts?? 
***Do you have either or these?? 
***How do they compare to other silver holos??

Hello!

Hello everyone, welcome to my new blog!
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