Spectraflair Comparison

Just came across this post and I thought I'd share it with you guys!  

http://polishandpigments.blogspot.com/2011/09/arrival-of-spectraflair.html

When I was reading morenailpolish.blogspot.com, she said the SF she was selling (SF-35, the coarser grade) will give a "brighter rainbow" when added to polish but I couldn't really tell a difference from her pictures but the pictures from the link I gave above really shows the difference between SF-14 (which is the one some of us ordered) and SF-35!

Now, I'm wishing I ordered SF-35! :( My friend tipped me off that Lori (the lady we ordered our SF-14 from) may have some SF-35 so I just dropped her a message to check! If she does, I might be doing another SF spree soon! (Oh, my love for holos will be the death of my bank account!)

31 Day Challenge: Day 2 (Orange)

Can you believe it took me a 31 Day Challenge to realise I have no proper orange polish in my stash of 200+ bottles? Guess I never gravitated towards the colour. Eeeeks!

The closest thing I have to an orange polish is this really bright, almost red polish I bought from Sasa but I do see some orange hue in it and I called it my "carrot polish" when I bought it 2 years ago so this it will have to do!





It's really bright and cheerful! I used 3 coats here even though it was opaque in 2 because there was major streaking. No top coat so you can see how glossy thing polish is!

Next up, yellow nails! (Spoiler alert: I just cut up some fimo sticks so stay tuned for that!)

October's Haul

There's still a couple more days left in October but since I'm on my polish ban (apparently until Christmas or so, although I'm already starting to crack),  I don't think I'll buy anymore polishes in the next few days. Maybe when November approaches...hehe, my birthday's coming up soon so maybe, just maybe, I can get away will another haul. EXCUSES, I know, but I need to be cheered up among all the studying I have to do!

Now, I bombed ALOT this month and I bought so many polishes, that the normal "background" I use to take my pictures, which if you are interested to know, is the cardboard backing of my foolscap pad, wasn't large enough so I had to resort to using the cover of one of my Ikea boxes to take the next few pictures. LOL!

Presenting, the haul that put a big fat hole in my wallet...



Really really really, my savings this month is abysmal. I only manged to save a couple of bucks. I am so thankful I'm only hooked on nail polish and not other forms of makeup as well. Phew. To be totally honest, I got 3 more polishes but because I already spent so much in October, I pushed to to November's Haul! HAHA! Earnings (or rather, expenses) management.

Gonna show you close ups with names now..



Chanel Blue Rebel, Chanel Blue Boy, OPI DS Glamour, OPI Last Friday Night and Elianto Indigo Shine



Elianto Glittery Nickel, Beadstreet Barney's Suit (there are no names so I shall christian them! HAHA! Love how Barney, from HIMYM loves suits but this is obviously for Barney, the purple dinosaur), China Glaze Snow Globe, China Glaze Atlantis and Essie Bobbing for Baubles



Essie School of Hard Rocks, Beadstreet Enlistment (again, it's my own name for it), OPI Warm and Fozzie, Elianto White, Beadstreet Brick It Up and Beadstreet You Mustard! (HAHA! I love my corny names for the Beadstreet polishes!)



And lastly, four bottles of Sasatinnie Q10. I first saw swatches of them on a nail blog by someone who lives in HK so she had easy access to Sasa and I didn't think our local Sasa would ever bring them in but when I was there a few weeks ago and I saw these babies, I went ballistic. I bought four bottles in total, two for me, one for my (future) giveaway and I only got the last one because it was retailing at two for $5 so I might as well get four. From swatches I've seen, it's a good substitute for OPI Merry Midnight so go grab it if you want Merry Midnight and don't want to buy Orly Fowl Play. It's so cheap so just BBBMTL (Buy Buy Buy, Mai Tu Liao, which loosely translates to Buy Buy Buy, don't wait any longer / procastinate)!

Okay, end of haul. I'm gonna start planning November's Haul now! I already have 10 items on my to-buy list! :D

Color Morphing Pigments

Ever dreamt of owning the magical Clarins 230? Well now you can, without the crazy price tag, sorta.

Enter color morphing pigments! How cool are they! For 230, all you need to do is to mix some of the copper red to green pigment into a purple jelly (or a clear polish if you want to do layering on top of other colours)!

Click on the link for amazing pictures!

I'm pretty interested in ordering some of these mighty morphing power pigments (pun totally intended) and since one shipment can take up to 5g, I'm looking for people to share the shipment cost with! Drop me a comment if you're interested!

31 Day Challenge: Day 1 (Red)

First challenge, seems pretty easy, red nails, but the problem is, I don't really wear red nails that often. I love the concept of red nails and how chic it looks with any outfit but I never seem to be able to pull it off! I initially wanted to a mani with OPI From A to Zurich but I recently gave my (unused) bottle to my mum's friend for her birthday so I went digging around my mum's polish collection (yes, my mum has a polish collection too abeit a much smaller one!) and I found Sally Hansen Brick Wall. It's this dark, vampy red and I couldn't decide between that or Sally Hansen Cherry Red. I painted the both on my nails and they looked really good together so I decided to do an alternating red mani!



Here I have 3 coats of Brick Wall on my index and ring fingers and 2 coats of Cherry Red on my middle finger and pinkie.

I have showed you what 3 coats of Brick Wall looks like but if you want, you can also wear it just a little lighter, with 2 coats.



2 coats on the left and 3 coats on the right. Took this picture before painting on the third coat on my index.
I kinda like this whole alternating look. It's not too vampy and it's also a little playful! Perhaps a fun take on red! (:
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Oh, and the blog finally hit 40 followers! I've decided to do a giveaway soon and I really want to do one when I hit 50 followers but my exams are coming up so I'll probably only get down to doing it after (I'm hoping I hit 50 followers by December! LOL)! Already bought most of the stuff for the giveaway because I've been planning it for quite a while now! They're all polish-related so YAY! Of course, the higher the number of followers I have by the giveaway, the larger the giveaway and the higher the chances I'll open it internationally! (:

OPI DS Glamour

I received such an awesome nail mail last night. When I saw my package waiting for me on my dining room table, I think I did a little polish dance!

Couldn't wait to unwrap it! And I was a tiny bit worried it might break in the mail (yes, my polish has broke in the mail before, lucky I found out it was a fake OPI if I'd be even more sad), considering how much I paid for this baby. This is my most expensive polish to date, way more expensive than Chanel or MUS, simply because it's discontinued and super HTF. But after looking at the prices it was selling for on ebay, I think I got a good deal.

I finally managed to unwrap the bubble wrap without ripping it apart (I like to keep the bubble wrap)!

Look at this beauty! JOLIE! C'est belle! (Haha, I'm learning French now so might as well practice some vocab)

This picture was taken with flash to bring out the holo effect.

Since this polish cost so much, I didn't want to waste it by swatching all my fingers so I do apologize for only swatching one finger but let me make it up to you by showing you more pictures!

Remember my franken Glamazon? Here, I'm wearing Glamazon on my middle finger (left) and Glamour on my index finger (right).

Glamazon on top and Glamour at the bottom.

Glamazon on the left and Glamour on the right.

I was so in love with Glamazon but now that I have the real deal, Glamour is so much more, well, glamourous! The holoness is crazy pretty and although Glamazon by itself looked so fab, next to Glamour, it just paled in comparison. I'm thinking of adding some spectraflair into Glamazon once it arrives to spruce it up a little!

I am such a happy bunny (just picture Happy Bunny minus all the sarcasm) now that I actually own DS Glamour. Whoooo. My drawer full of blues will definitely welcome it into the Helmer family! Merci beaucoup to the two wonderful girls from inkypolisholicious for helping me to lay my polished paws on DS Glamour!

31 Day Challenge

I've decided to embark on this 31 Day Challenge! It should probably do me some good as I haven't been feeling like painting my nails lately so I always end up just swatching my left hand and going to school with 3 colours on my left hand and nothing on my right! I think my friends have gotten used to my nails looking like that that they no longer look surprised to see them so mismatched! Doing this challenge would at least make my nails look my cohesive!

That being said, I'm obviously not going to do this challenge in 31 days, despite the title of the challenge, due to school work and whathaveyous! I may even take a short hiatus in between as the exams are approaching but rest assured I'll try my best to complete this challange by hook or by crook! I guess if I don't feel like painting my nails, I'll go get one of those nail wheels and paint on them instead!

I've already started planning out some manicures for the different days so I won't have to think so much later on! I look forward to showing you my red mani later this coming week! (:

Japanese Waves Nail Art

I picked up this lovely guitar pick with a really nice japanese waves pattern and I've been using it for a while now. I normally strum my guitar with my nails when I'm practicing at home but I need to use a pick during lessons so a little bit of the pattern has started to faded at the bottom.



Just the other day, I wanted to know how the pattern would look like on my nails so I used the blue nail art polish I picked up from Daiso and here's my attempt!



I drew the curves too arc-y on my indew so I tried a "gentler" curve for my middle finger nail.



Here's another picture with my pick! I'm loving this design so much!!! It looks so intricate but it's actually so easy to do!

By the way, the white base is Elianto's white polish. It costs only $2.90 and it's pretty darn solid. Two easy coats here and the best thing is, I tried using it for stamping and it works!!! Kudos to Elianto for making such good black and white polishes that are opaque and thick enough for stamping!

Another Polish-aholic!

Hey guys!

I've recently came across this site, Inky Polisholicious, and it's run by two fellow polish addicts in Singapore so I thought I'd spread the love because I love making new friends who are just as crazy as polish as I am! (:

The two girls were also very helpful and they managed to help me get OPI DS Glamour (something that I've wanted for a long time) and Paris Couture for Sure (super HTF and I couldn't resist)! I'll swatch them once I receive them in the mail!

Go visit their blog okay! Oh, and btw, if you like, you can request to join this facebook group called "Polish-aholics Anonymous". There are tons of fellow polish lovers there and they're all really friendly! (:

Linear Holographic Madness!

I received an awesome nail mail just the other day and it was my Nfu Ohs!!! I got #51, #61 and their aqua base and today, I'm showing you #61!

There's been rumours floating around that they made a new #61 that is less holographic than the original one and there are even pictures to prove it. Sadly, I seem to always be late to the holo party and end up getting the dud versions (that right, MPJ, Worth the Risque and Revvvolution, I'm talking about you three!) so the #61 I got was the newly formulated one.

So first, let's talk about the aqua base. I didn't notice a difference in terms of application of the holographic polishes. I still had to use 2 coats of Make Up Store Greta and 3 coats for Nfu Oh #61. The aqua base didn't really help in terms of bringing out the holographic effect more either. So really, unless it helps the polish last, I don't see why you need to buy the aqua base. At $20 a bottle, you can really spend the money on something more worthwhile. I must mention though, if you're gonna skip the aqua base, then just paint the holos in your base nails. Don't use any base coat because it will make the nail too smooth and application will be hard, with quite a few bald spots. I have heard though, that using Orly bonder as a base coat helps, so perhaps you can try "sticky" base coats.

Now, on to the main event, pictures! I have on the aqua base, 3 coats of #61 and Seche Vite on my index; aqua base, 2 coats of Greta and SV on my middle finger; no aqua base, 3 coats of #61 and no SV on my ring finger; and lastly no aqua base, 2 coats of Greta and no SV on my pinkie for all the pictures.





















All the pictures above were taken indoors, under my table lamp and the holographic effect seem to be more obvious under the lamp than in the sunlight, as you can see in the next two pictures.







This last picture was taken under my table lamp, with flash.

So here's my weigh in on #61 and Greta.

Firstly, top coat seem to not really affect their holo goodness and since holos have a very bad reputation of not wearing that well without any topcoat, I'd suggest applying a top coat on top. SV did dull the holo effect just a little but I'd rather get longer wear then just a tiny tiny bit more holo, especially considering how pricey most holo polishes are.

Secondly, Greta is definitely mush much more holo than #61. That's not to say that #61 isn't holo but if I had to choose, I'd pick Greta. Now if I didn't already own Greta, I'd still be very much impressed by how holo #61 is but next to Greta, #61 just doesn't shine as much.

Thirdly, cost wise, #61 is DEFINITELY much more worthwhile to buy. I paid $20 for 17ml of #61 and $22 for 8ml of Greta. If I calculate the cost per ml, Greta actually costs more than all my polishes, including Chanel! It's actually the most expensive polish I own per ml. If cost is a concern, then I'd suggest getting #61 because it's still pretty holo and it's a linear holo, unlike the  scattered holo of the dud Worth the Risque.
Forthly, the holo particles in Greta seem to be just a little bit finer than those in #61. I'm not really sure if it makes a difference in terms of holoness.

Fifth, the base colour of #61 seems more obvious. It kinda looks like Millenium (which also incidentally makes me curious what would happen if I add some spectraflair powder into Millenium, or any silver foil polish) whereas I can't really see the base colour of Greta. I'm not sure of I'm making any sense but Greta just seems more "cohesive". This means that in low lighting, #61 tends to appear more silvery than Greta would.

Lastly, with regards to wear time, SV definitely helped. I have a bad experience with Greta and the worst thing that happened once was that the polish chipped off when I was sleeping. I went to bad with nicely polished nails and when I woke up, there was this huge chip! I don't see how much more violent or rough I can be when I'm sleeping. In fact, I'm probably more tough on my nails when I'm awake. and it isn't just me. When I was with my friend at Make Up Store, my friend swatched Siw (the blue version of Greta) on her nails and by the time she got home, there was already chipping! So, the main point is, wear a topcoat!
Oh, and since we're already talking about holographic polishes, I might as well show you some swatches of China Glaze 2nite and DV8, which I by some miracle, managed to buy second hand (but totally new) from a fellow polish-aholic from Singapore. I saw someone in HK selling LOL but I resisted because I know I wouldn't really wear it. With holos, they're more trophies I keep in my helmer than something I'd wear out. DV8 is the teal one and 2nite is the cornflower one!







2 coats each under my table lamp.



This one was taken in sunlight, and that's Glamazon (my holo franken) on my index finger!

As you can see, I'm currently very much into the whole holo craze. I really really really want to buy some spectraflaire and I'm wondering if anyone's interested too? We can save on shipping because shipping's a flat rate!

You can check out how spectraflair works by clicking here, here, here and here. Let me know if you're interested!!! :D

Chanel Les Jeans Collection

I headed down to MBS just the other night to finally catch Lion King before it ends (the show was really good btw so if you haven't seen it, go watch it before it ends on 30 Oct) and I was early so I went to Chanel to have a look. I've already seen the Les Jeans polishes when I was at Ion and I resisted the urge to buy them because my polish sister, S, decided not to get them. I liked Blue Boy but I didn't feel the impending need to have it so I passed too. Both of us were trying to save our money for better stuff!

BUT, when I was at the Chanel boutique at MBS, I showed my dad the polishes and asked him if I should get them and he said "Just buy lorh, they're limited edition right! Buy before them they're gone!" Haha, my dad is evil and that was just what I needed to hear to convince me to whip out my nets card!

I decided to get Blue Boy and Blue Rebel and I also got a bottle of Blue Boy for S because I knew she'd love it. The SA told me I was so lucky because those were the last two bottles of Blue Boy she had! I didn't get Coco Blue because the light blue shimmery shade just didn't call out my name. I love Nouvelle Vague (and unfortunately, when I learnt about its existence, it was already sold out across our island) and anything that is close but isn't Nouvelle Vague just won't cut it. I was rather on the fence on Blue Rebel because it just looked like your average dark blue and I already have China Glaze First Mate which I reckoned would be close but hey, limited edition right!



Here I have Blue Rebel on my index and middle fingers and Blue Boy on my ringer finger and pinkie.

I had a fracking hard time trying to accurately capture the colour of these two shades because my camera decided to go all wonky on me and none of the pictures I took even looked similar to the real colour so I had to resort to photoshop to correct the colours. Blue Rebel is a little less dusty and much more vibrant than in the picture, and Blue Boy is a teeny bit darker. They're both really shiny (unlike how matte they look like in the picture) and I used 2 coats for both. Blue Boy does look a little sheer and might have benefited from a third coat cuz right now, it looks like a jelly on my nail! Reminds me of Essie Lapis of Luuxry's finish!



This isn't the best comparison but here's First Mate on the top of my thumb and OPI Road House Blues at the bottom. Blue Rebel is close to First Mate and most people won't be able to tell them apart but First Mate is a little bit brighter than Blue Rebel. Road House Blues is just too dark and purple!



As for Blue Boy the closest thing I got was the Blue India franken I made (bottom of my thumb) but it was more warm while Blue Boy appeared cooler. Blue Boy does remind me of Blue India when I receive my bottle, I'd gladly do a comparison!

Zoya Caitlin

Oh, Caitlin was such a pretty colour! It looked so much more purple and much darker than in the swatches I've seen so I was a tiny but surprised.



But it was still really pretty so who cares how it compares to other online swatches! perhaps one reason for the dicrepency is that it dries darker than in the bottle!



Can't believe I took so long to wear this gorgeous colour! (:

September's Haul

Holy crap, I can't believe I bought 21 bottles of polish in September. *Shakes head in shame*



Top row: OPI Miso Happy With This Colour, China Glaze Awaken, China Glaze Westside Warrior, MAC Fatigues, MAC Deep Sea and Essie Going Incognito.

Bottom Row: Nfu Oh #51, Aqua Base, #61, China Glaze DV8 and China Glaze 2nite.



Top row: Various nail art polishes from Daiso. They're all $2 so I'm convincing myself that the haul wasn't that bad.

Bottom row: Various Michelle polishes from Beadstreet



I also got flakies! I was soooooo happy when I found them and I had a plan to create a flakie fraken but but but, after spending hours cutting the flakies smaller pieces, pouring the flakies into some clear polish, and waiting for a while, the darm flakes settled to the bottom of the bottle (probably because I don't have a suspension base) and the different colours of the flakies got lost and it was such an epic failure I don't know what to do with these gorgeous flakes now.

Anyway, look how pretty the Nfu Oh bottle is! It's supposed to look like a Victorian dress and it's the prettiest bottle I've ever seen!





Close up of the 3 glitter polishes I got from Beadstreet! I found them selling these outside Cineleisure and from what I've seen online, I think there may be more colours in their shop (inside Cineleisure) so I'm gonna check the shop out the next time I head over!



I'm probably giving this one away because I realised it kinda looks similar to the blue one that I'm going to show next. It's still gorgeous nonetheless! It's best for layering!



This blue one is gorgeous! Reminds me of OPI Last Friday Night!



One more for layering and this one is different from the above one because it has some blue shimmer running through it.



Really glad that beadstreet makes their own polishes and they're all so affordable! I also bought the flakies from beadstreet in case you're wondering!

Quite happy with this haul because I got to fulfill some major lemmings with this haul. The Nfu Ohs were soooo pretty, and I got my first MAC polishes! Oh, and the two polishes from the OMG collection which I never thought I'd ever own! (: