Holo Month Day 17: Milani HD

Continuing from my previous scattered holo post, here's another one from the same Milani 3D Holographic collection.

This is 4 thin coats of Milani HD, taken under artificial lighting.





Formula-wise, HD was a little thin and needed more coats to be opaque so I opted for 4 thinner coats. It did dry pretty quickly so I didn't have tow ait an eternity between coats, which was a plus point. Not much else to say so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.







Till my next post! :)

Holo Month Day 16: Milani Hi-Tech

After showing you guys a bunch of linear holo polishes, I thought I'd change it up a little for Holo Month and show you a scattered holo polish!

Scattered holos are similar to linear holos except their holo particles are larger and often times a little irregular in shape which makes them appear less holo. Sometimes, beauty lies in subtlety and this is what makes scattered holos so gorgeous.

This is three coats of Milani Hi-Tech, a yellow-based lime green scattered holo polish, with Cult Nails Get It On base coat and Wicked Fast top coat. The CN top coat didn't dull the holo effect by the way.

This polish was a little hard to photograph and I realised that most swatches online seem to show Hi-Tech as a pale green holo when in fact it really is more yellow-based. I did colour-correct my pictures to try and get them as close to Hi-Tech's colour as possible.

Gosh, now I'm starting to fall for scattered holos. I think I'm going to be broke just thinking of all the pretty Ozotics High Impact Holographics from the 600 series which you can pick up from Star Trinkets btw!

April's Haul

I haven't been really successful on my low-buy but hey, at least it's a marked improvement from a lot of my other hauls!



Got these Kleancolors from a tiny spree that Lynn, Candy and I did! (L-R) Chunky Holo Black, Chunky Holo Bluebell, Chunky Holo Purple, Chunky Holo Fuschia and Holo Chrome.



L-R: Milani Hi-Tech, HD, Hi-Res, Silver Dazzle and Gem

I'm pretty much in love with the first three holos! They're not your typical strong linear holos but under the sun, they do spread some holo cheer!



Got Cult Nails Living Water and Iconic because I wanted to utilise my 10% discount from Meimiesignatures and I got Revlon Chic because I heard it's a good dupe for MAC Blue India. I'm gonna tell you upfront, it's not a dupe for Blue India. I'll do up a comparison post soon to let you see how they compare.



Moving on to some cheaper polishes - Daiso polishes, a Golden Rose bar glitter and lastly Nubar White and Black Polka Dot!



And now, for the best part of the haul, FLAKIES! I got all these flakies from Cheeying! She's now affectionately know as Evillee, my evil polish cousin! :D I LOVE YOU EVILLEE!

YAY! Done with April's Haul! I'm sorry if March and April's Haul are less detailed. I'm rushing these posts out as fast as I can because I have yet to finish packing for my trip (by the time you read this I'll be in Korea!!!) and I still have a few other stuff on my mind so my concentration is really scattered for the timebeing. So sorry but if you need more info about anything, just drop me a comment and I'll try to get back to you when I come back from my trip! (:

And btw, if you haven't already entered my giveaway, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! It's open internationally and it closes in two days so go enter it now!!!!!

OPI Touring America

No, I didn't buy (or rather I haven't bought) any of the Touring America polishes yet with the exception of Uh Oh Roll Down the Window (which I have yet to receive) but I mamnaged to swatch a couple of them the other day when I was at Robinsons! I had to grow some balls to blatantly swatch all 5 of my fingers but I did it and not to brag but I think I did a pretty neat job too, considereing the fact that I was shaking (from being hungry as well as being a little paiseh) while polishing my digits!



L-R: Are We There Yet?, A Taupe Space Needle, Uh Oh Roll Down the Window and Road House Blues



And here we have Get in the Expresso Lane

When I went home, I went through my Helmer to search for dupes cuz we all know how much we love dupes (or at least I do)!



Potential dupes!!!



Road House Blue and China Glaze First mate but I think Road House Blues has much more purple to it so I pulled out OPI Dating a Royal.



Dating a Royal looks similar to First Mate in this picture but trust me they're not the same! Dating a Royal was too light though.



Now we have Essie Sew Psyched vs Uh Oh Roll Down the Window.



And here we have Khaki Vert vs Uh Oh Roll Down the Window. I was deperately trying to find comparison shots on google but I couldn't so I thought I'd find out myself!



Khaki Brun and A Taupe Space Needle, which I saw high potential dupe material.



Are We There Yet? vs Milani Fashion Design.

And then I painted on the potential dupes on the side(s) of the Touring America swatches! (PS: You can click on all the pictures to enlarge them, especially for the following two!) The order for the below picture is as follows:

Pinkie: China Glaze First Mate and Road House Blues
Ring: Khaki Vert, Uh Oh Roll Down the Window and Sew Psyched
Middle: Khaki Brun and A Taupe Space Needle
Index: Are We There Yet? and Fashion Design



Orders are reversed for the next picture! Please ignore the dust on my pinkie.



Sadly, no dupes at all. Fashion Design was pinker than Are We There Yet?, Khaki Brun is VERY similar to A Taupe Space Needle just that Khaki Brun was browner than A Taupe Space Needle, Sew Psyched and Khaki Vert were bluer than Uh Oh with Sew Psyched being the darker of the two and First Mate was too light.

They're all gorgeous colours too so please go out and get them cuz NO DUPES here!

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!