Monochrome Madness

Hey y'all! I just got back from Bangkok yesterday and during my trip there, I went a little crazy with all the monochrome clothes there - polka dots, tribal, floral, stripes and everything you can think of!

When it was time to do my mani, there was still some residual monochrome madness so this was what I came up with.

I used China Glaze White On White for the base and Beadstreet S79 for the black details. It didn't quite turn out as neat as I wanted it to be but it's my first nail art in a long time so I'm still pretty pleased with this.

Hope you guys dig the nail art! :)

31 Day Challenge: Day 31 (Re-create Your Favourite Challenge)

WOW, last day of the challenge! Can''t believe I actually managed to finish the challenge although I took a total of 76 days.

For this last challenge, I had to re0create my favourite look and I really liked Day 15: Delicate Print. I really liked the lacey look and wanted to try another similar look, this time with konad.

The inspiration for this manicure came from here and mine is so much messier but I couldn't wait to finish the challenge so I didn't restamp my nails even though some of the lines were blurry.

First, I painted Essie Jazz then stamped on a fishnet design using konad plate m57.



Totally hating myself for not doing a better job on my index finger and pinkie.

Next, I stamped on what I call the "toilet paper" design using konad plat m71.



There you go, lacey nails in a snap. So much faster than the crazily intricate lace design I drew on my nail wheel for Day 15!

Polish used:
- Essie Jazz
- Elianto Twilight

YESYESYES! I'M FINALLY DONE WITH THIS 31 DAY CHALLENGE! I'm so happy and not to mention tired from painting my nails almost every night. I'm totally going on a one week break after I post the next entry I have lined up, as a promise to a friend!

31 Day Challenge: Day 29 (Inspired By the Supernatural)

The first thing that came to mind was to use all the Halloween themed images on my Bundle Monster plates for this challenge but it would be highly unoriginal because that was what most people did.

So I went googling around and I saw this! Gosh, all my friends know I'm in love with the Supernatural TV series! I've been faithfully watching it since 2006 I think and I love the Winchester boys so much! The plot has gotten a little lame over the years, with the whole apocalypse thing and now the leviathans and I really miss the good old days where they used to hunt different demons every episode.

The inspiration was season 7's title card with the smashed up mirror:



And this is what I came up with:



I painted a navy base with TFS BL604 and stamped on a broken glass image from the Bundle Monster BM 208 plate using China Glaze Millennium. I had some difficulties when I did my pinkie and the image didn't transfer properly the three times I tried so upon the third try, with fragments stamped on, I resorted to painting on the remaining line, which explains why some lines are thicker than others.

Look like I have to practice stamping more!

31 Day Challenge: Day 8 (Metallic)

Metallic nails, metallic nails.

I initially wanted to do a konad manicure with stampings in either gold or silver, on top of a black base but I worried if it was metallic enough for this post so I just painted my nails with ChG Awaken.



This was one coat and the best thing about polishes from China Glaze's Romantique and Khrome Collections are that they are very opaque and they dry extremely fast! The only down side is that they tend to leave brush strokes so you have to paint your nails nicely. But, they're actually perfect for stamping and with that thought in mind...



I whipped out my bottle of ChG Millennium and decided to do a houndstooth stamping with konad plate m63! I like the pattern on my middle finger the best. It's the clearest out of the lot and even though the rest seems smudged and blur, they're not that bad irl cuz the picture is really zoomed in!

The best thing is I love how fast the manicure was done! I only did the 4 fingers in the picture (yes, I cheat a lot with the swatches you seen on my blog) and it took me less than 10 minutes! (:

Testing out my Bundle Monster

I've only recently had the time to test out my Bundle Moster plates and I picked these 3 designs to try out first!

I was having problems with the leopard print one (on my ring finger), especially with black polish (from elianto)! I even used my special konad polish and buffed my stamper but nothing worked! The stamper would actually grab onto the polish but it just wouldn't transfer well onto my nail! So I ended up using China Glaze Millenium (on my pinkie). I guess it was a little bit better but still, not as good as I wanted it to be!

That said, I do LOVE the tribal print one (on my middle finger)! I used Essie Jazz as the base colour and then stamped it on my black elianto polish (great for konad cuz it's a one coater!)

The zebra print one was also a pretty fun design!

I guess the bundle monster was really worth the money considering the price difference between konad plates and the bundle monster! Hopefully you'll see me spotting more konad designs instead of just plain colours!

PS: Just asking, is anyone interested in getting Nfu Oh polishes? They have gorgeous holographics and flakies (#61 and #51 respectively to name two) and Jamie from (squoval)licious can get them at around SGD 20 to 22 per bottle! She's taking orders now, till to tomorrow (20th August) and the more bottles ordered, the lower the price can go (I guess due to shipping)!  Let me know if you're interested and I'll help you email her!

June's Haul

Welcome everyone to my monthly haul segment! I know I shouldn't be proud that I bombed so much on polish (and other related items) again and trust me, I'm not. Actually, this month, it really hit me how much I'm spending on polish so I'll be trying to cut the habit once OPI and China Glaze (fine, and maybe Zoya too) release their fall collections. Then it's cold turkey for me until the Winter collections come out. No more buying old colours. (Oh, and as I'm typing this, I've already bought a few polishes in July but they don't count as they're already a sunk cost.)

Moving on to the lighter side of things, peeeektures! Here's a group shot before I break it down for you!



First up, the polish related items:



Finally received my Bundle Monster plated from Cherub's Lips! Gonna try it out once my internship is over! I have one week between the end of my internship and the reopening of school and I'm jamming that week with mani sessions, nail swatching, jamming with my friend as well as sleeeeeeeeping! Right, I digress but going back, I also also got OPI's nail lacquer thinner. I chose OPI over Seche Restore because OPI's one is Big 3 free while Seche Restore isn't so I can add it to my Big 3 free polishes without ruining them! I also have a thinner from Sylvie (a cheapo brand) that isn't Big 3 free so I'll use that for my less precious polishes!
Next up, the shatters / crackles!



I got the Navy and Red Shatter from Smoochiezz's Expo Flea and China Glaze's Lightning Bolt from Estella! Just swatched Lightning Bolt on one nail and it seems pretty solid! I was a little apprehensive after I ordered it and worried I'd get post-purchase dissonance (HAHA! I can still remember my Marketing concepts, not bad!) but after trying it out, I must say I'm pleased! It isn't as sheer as I had feared it would be (I tried it over Essie In Stitches, which you will see later on in the post) and it cracks pretty okay for me!
Moving on to the dark blues / greys...



L-R: OPI Light My Sapphire, OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees, Zoya Caitlin and Zoya Kelly. I've swatched OPI LMS and SSITP here so I won't elaborate on those two any further. As for the two Zoyas, I have swatched them and they apply like butter. Very smooth, very opaque, very easy to use! Definitely worth their price!

Now for the mauves / red / coral



L-R: Sinful Colors Vacation Time, Essie In Stitches, Milani Fashion Design and OPI Vodka and Caviar
Swatches of Vacation Time and Vodka and Caviar will be coming up soon so keep your eyes peeled for them! As for In Stitches, I just swatched it on one of my nails and it's damn opaque. Nearly a one-coater. It's one of those grandma colours and I love such shade and my mum does too so we share shades like these and she doesn't give me a hard time about buying polishes like these because she uses them! HAHA! I haven't swatched Milani's Fashion Design but I read it's close to Chanel Orange Fizz. I personally don't think it's that close cuz Milani has more pink to it!

And now, presenting the greens...



...we have OPI Stranger Tides (swatched here), Essie Absolutely Shore and Milani Dress Maker (the Chanle Jade dupe!!!)

I love Stranger Tides (and it's Essie sister Da Bush) if you don't already know by now. As for Absolutely Shore, I haven't swatched it yet but from the bottle and other swatches I've seen online, I can;t wait to test it out! Just hope it won't been a streaky mess! Dress Maker, what can I say about it? It's green, it's shimmery, it's damn pretty. Sadly, it does take 4 coats to be opaque but I cheat a little but painting a green polish (try OPI Mermaid Tears or Hey! Get in Lime) and then a layer of Dress Maker on top!

Last but certainly not least, I got myself the OPI Top Coat (also form Smoochiezz's Expo Flea).



I got sick of my Poshe / Seche topcoats chipping in huge chunks so I decided to try out OPI's Top Coat. It does dry rather slowly though. The first time I tried it, I managed to smear the surface of my nail polish despite already having painted my polish on 4 hours earlier. This polish is really not for the chor-lor (clumpsy, rough) people and it does take a little patience to get it to dry fully. Will revisit this top coat again after trying it out to see if it helps keep polish wearing longer!

Yay, I've finally reached the end of this Haul post. Hoepfully I'll be hauling much less in the near future. I think Estella will miss me (I'm such a regular customer she started throwing in freebies for me, like those rubber strips you cut and stick on your nails, OPI pouches and she even gave me an OPI swatch plate today) but she has so much more customers these days anyway! Hopefully you guys have been more succesful at controling your polish lemmings than I have!

Konad Attempt #2

I've got some smearing problems but I think overall, my konad skills have improved! Can't wait to do a konadicure soon! I think I shall impose another polish ban on myself soon and rely on konads to jazz my my manicures (instead of constantly buying new colours). I wanna try the second konad pattern (the houndstooth one) with a grey base soon! 

Really happy with the 4 konad plates I got! Thinking of getting the Bundle Monster though! It seems very worth its price! 

First (Failed) Konad Attempt

Dropped by JP after school today and visited this shop called Beadtle Sweet because I heard they sell konad plates and I'm so glad I found the shop! It's at such a convenient location because I normally take the train from Boon Lay after school everyday!

So, I did my research and found out which plate numbers I wanted and ended up buying 4 plates! I bought 3 of them in a package ($39.90), which also included 4 konad polishes as well as the rubber stamp and a plastic scrapper. I purchased the other konad plate at it's regular price of $7.90. Ended up with m51, m60, m63 and m64. The shop didn't have m60 and m63 so they had to order those two plates for me.

So here is my (very humble) first attempt at konad:

 

 

 

I really like the last one and the 3rd last one! I only kept the last konad on my nails because it looked the most decent! Most probably going to paint my nails with the base color (China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le) then do the same konad on my right thumb. I have no idea how I'm going to do that though, maybe I'll ask my mum to help! Oh, do note that the colours of the polishes in the pictures are not really accurate, I just wanted to show you guys the konad patterns!

Hope you don't laught too much at my feeble first attempt!