Pahlish My Oblivion

Hey polish lovers! Today I have Pahlish My Oblivion to show you. My Oblivion was one of those polish I just HAD TO HAVE the moment I saw swatches.

I started with two coats of Nubar Dark Wash Jeans. I absolutely love this polish. It's dark with a perfect hint of smokiness.



Then I added two coats of Pahlish My Oblivion. It's a royal blue jelly with gold holographic hex and bar glitters.



Purdy huh?



I love how the jelly finish lets the gold glitter shine through and gives the polish such depth!





You can't really see how holo the glitters are until the sun hits them and they start glowing! This picture below was taken under direct sunlight.



Here is a close up of three coats of My Oblivion, sans any base colour, and you can see how much lighter My Oblivion actually is without anything underneath.



One last one for the road. This isn't the most colour accurate picture but I love how precious My Oblivion looks. It somehow reminds me of gold coins lying in the bed of the deep ocean!




Till next time!

Pretty & Polished Sand Art

I started out with three coats of Nubar Faded Jeans. I think I'm starting to love this baby even more. Coco Blue was the only Chanel Les Jeans polish I didn't get so I'm glad I got Faded Jeans! :)



This is one coat of Sand Art over Faded Jeans. Sand Art is a matte glitter mix in a clear base. It is a pretty sparse glitter so I'd recommend painting it over a base rather than wearing it on its own.



Sand Art's like a colourful Floam! My favourite bit about it is the berry coloured glitters that just POP.



I have Hearts & Daggers, the last of my P&Ps, coming up soon! Till then!

Pretty & Polished Pool Party

I hauled a couple of Pretty & Polished polishes a few months ago and Pool Party was one of them.

I started out with three coats of Nubar Faded Jeans.



This one's a close dupe for Chanel Coco Blue. I love the subtle shimmer in Faded Jeans.



And now, for the star of the show, Pool Party.



This is two coats of Pool Party on top of Faded Jeans.







I love how fun Pool Party is. It reminds me of, well, pools and all kinds of inflatable floats! It's a perfect polish if you're need of a little more fun in your life!

Nubar Reclaim

I'm probably going to get stoned to death for saying this but I never quite saw the appeal of Nubar Reclaim...until now. Prompted by Candy's mad love for this baby, I casually added Reclaim into my Beautybay cart and now I know what the fuss was all about.

This is two easy coats of Nubar Reclaim.





Reclaim applied real smooth. It wasn't a nightmare to paint on, as some linear holos can be, which was very surprising for me. Reclaim has the same holo effect as FNUG, Layla and Nfu Oh holos but it applied like any other polish. It flowed so easily, and I didn't have to put in any extra effort. 
I'm an official convert.

Polish Days: Bling

I've been sitting out the past two Polish Days because I've been so busy with work and I just couldn't miss the last Polish Day even of 2012! This month's theme is.....



BLING BLING BLING!

Since I'm still very much into the whole jelly sandwich thing, I decided to do one with some pretty gold glitters. I'm wearing Etude House MO2D1, sanwiched between Nubar Dark Wash Jeans. And to bling it up even more, I couldn't resist painting an accent nail with three coats of OPI Bring On The Bling.



Here's a close up shot.



I really wanted to get my polished paws on HAREpolish Archipelago during the Llarowe restock but unfortunately, I don't think that baby got listed so I tried to come up with a lookalike by layering on another coat of the Etude House Gold Glitter.



I just wish Dark Wash Jeans was more jelly so the gold glitter underneath would shine through more. That said, I'm in love with the colour combination of navy and gold! <3         

Check out all the other bling-tastic nails:

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!!!!!

31 Day Challenge: Day 11 (Polka Dots)

Had the colour combination for this polka dot mani in my head since forever and ahhhh, the manicure is soooo cute! :D



The trouble I experienced was that the dots look so irregular. Boooo.

For this mani, I used Nubar Boyfriend Jeans (the Chanel Blue Boy dupe) and some white acrylic paint I bought. I thinned it down a little with water and it's so much cheaper than actually using white polish. Plus it's so much more opaque. And in case you're wondering, the white acrylic paint only cost $2.55 from Popular Bookstore!

Anyway, thought I'd try a different "pose" cuz I always see swatches with the bottle in the picture!



You like? :D

I was a little curious how this polka dot mani will look like matte because well, it seemed like agood idea at that time.



On my index finger, I layered on a coat of Nailtek Foundation II. I know it's meant to be worn as a bse coat but since it dries matte, I wanted to test whether it can be used as a matte top coat. And you can, except that I got little white specks on my nail. I read that most matte top coats eventually get these white specks but my Nailtek is BRAND NEW. So obviously, unless you don't mind the white specks, I wouldn't recommend you using this as a matte top coat.



Here, I used Essie Matte About You, a proper matte topcoat and it dried to perfection, without any white specks.

I actually quite like this mani mattified and I got quite a few compliments when I had this on!

November's Haul

My friend has been chasing me to do this haul post and I've been busy with interviews and my course registration for school so I apologize for the lag.



Top row: Nail Tek Foundation II, Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat, OPI Samoan Sand, Coney Island Cotton Candy, Miso Happy With This Color, Let Them Have Rice Cake, Have a Tempura Tan-trum, Nantucket Mist and Baguette Me Not

Bottom Row: Glitter Gal Liazrd Belly, Green and Silver, China Glaze Millennium, Sally Hansen Grey Area, Orly Fowl Play, Nubar Dark Wash, Boyfriend Jeans and Faded Jeans

Sorry I only have one picture for November but I'm gonna break it down and gice you my comments on the polishes now!

Nail Tek Foundation II: I got this because there is this GINORMOUS crack in the middle of my toe nail that refuses to grow out and I just wanted something that would be able to help bond the layers together. And it seems to be working. Plus it dries a bit mirky so it's a great base coat for sheer polishes! It really makes a difference!

Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat: I wanted something other than SV or Poshe that could dry relatively quickly and after reading nunerous good reviews on this one, I decided to buy it during the Watsons Sale so I think I got it at 20% off. BUT boy, this is a horrible top coat. You cannot paint it over wet nails because the polish will adhere to the brush and I think becuase it has a thin consistency, you're supposed to use thin coats, unlike how I would apply SV with a bead of polish on the tip of the brush. You have to apply this like a sheer polish, in a really thin coat and that means no wet polish underneath. You can apply thick coats of this but let me just tell you, it will not dry. Don't you think it defeats the purpose of having a quick dry top coat if you can't paint it over wet polish? By the time I can paint the top coat on, my polish would be dried already, thereby eliminating the need for this quick dry top coat! -.- And the worst thing is I gave it another chance. I was doing my nail wheel designs and I let my design dry for two hours before putting on this top coat to seal the designs and it still smeared my design!!!! I even gave it a THIRD chance, letting another design dry ONE WHOLE DAY and it still smeared the design. If I lived in the US, I would have brought it back to the store to enchange it by now but Revlon in lucky we don't have such liberal exchange policies here in Singapore!

OPI nudes (from Samoan Sand to Have a Tempura Tan-trum): I've been really into nudes because of how work appropriate, cough *boring* cough, they are and how I'd be able to get some good use out of them once I start work. I actually really like these nudes and I've already swatched them up and done a review post that I will publish after I complete my 31 Day Challenge so look out for that!

OPI Nantucket Mist: Yes, you read right, NANTUCKET MIST. One of my most coveted polishes! I had my nails painted in this colour last Christmas when I went for a mani at Far East Plaza and I've been hunting high and low for this baby ever since. I actually found a bottle on eBay and I paid S$20.28 for it including shipping here and it's on its way now. I was already so happy to be able to own a bottle but a few days later, I found out that Timtam had 2 bottles of Nantucket Mist on her blog so I immediately got another bottle as backup since I love this colour so much!

OPI Baguette Me Not: This is another backup I got from Timtam. I bought my original bottle from eBay too but I paid around $13, which is reasonable considering it's discontinued. I decided to get another bottle and I gave it to my mum! It's my secret backup bottle too! HAHA!

Glitter Gal Lizard Belly, Green and Silver: THESE BABIES ARE SOOOOO HOLOGRAPHIC YOU NEED SUNGLASSES TO LOOK DIRECTLY AAT THEM! I got them at meimeisignatures. They're 9ml bottles, which makes them smaller than your average 15ml bottles and they are a little pricey ($19.90 per bottle) but I got them during the 30% off sale so they will just a little more affordable! The hoo effect though, is really really naise.

China Glaze Millennium: Got this as a backup (yes, another backup!) for stamping! Apparently I bought the last bottle off Naivibe and Cheryl is a little sad I got the last one! I will help you keep a look out for it okay Cheryl!

Sally Hansen Grey Area: WHOOOO! I was frantic when I saw this at Watsons during the sale! I took the last bottle actually. Ever since I saw it on shortnchic, I wanted it but because we have a limited selection of colours from the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear line here, I kinda forgot all about it until I saw it. But I visited the Watsons as Eastpoint just the other day and they have plenty of stock there so I think you should be able to find it pretty easily if you like the colour!

Orly Fowl Play: ANOTHER backup! I only got a backup of it cuz it's a pretty close dupe for Merry Midnight and I never ever feel like wearing Merry Midnight because of how precious it is so now I can wear Fowl Play as often as I want!

Nubar Jeans Collection: I reviewed the colours here and they're really close to the Chanel Les Jeans collection so it's quite a bummer because the three of them combined cost less than ONE Chanel! :(((

So that's November's Haul for you! Anyway, just want to add that I'm really really interested in doing nails during fleas and I've been decorating my nail wheels (I only have 15 designs so far so technically, it's nail wheel, singular) so if any of you are interested in sharing a booth with me, drop me a comment and maybe we can work things out! (:

Chanel vs Nubar Smackdown

Received my Nubar Jeans polishes almost a month ago and I couldn't wait to compare them to the Chanel Les Jeans one.



From thumb to pinkie: Nubar Faded Jeans, Nubar Boyfriend Jeans, Chanel Blue Boy, Nubar Dark Wash Jeans and Chanel Blue Rebel

OH MAN. I feel like kicking myself for cracking and getting the two Chanels. The Nubars are so so so so so close and I dare say they even apply better because of the wider brush. Between Boy Blue and Boyfriend Jeans, Boyfriend Jeans seems a little more saturated while Blue Boy looks just a teeny bit more dusty. Between Dark Wash Jeans and Blue Rebel, again, the Nubar seems more saturated and the Chanel dustier, but the difference between these two are slightly more obvious than the previous pair. I didn't get Coco Blue but judging from how close the other 2 Nubars are, I'm guessing  Faded Jeans ought to be close enough to Chanel to call this collection a good smackdown!

Nubar wins for being easier to paint as well as being more affordable!

China Glaze Sea Spray (with Nubar 2010)

I bought Sea Spray soooooo long ago and I haven't worn it before (I've only swatched when I first got it just to see what it'd look like on my nails, and then I took it off) so I decided to give it a test run. I was so in love when it when I first saw it on ALU and I just had to have it!

I had quite a rough time trying to photograph its colour accurately. It was either too blue or too grey and this was the best I could do!







I hope you can see the secret shimmer in Sea Spray in these pictures! Click to enlarge them!
I wore Sea Spray for 2 days just on its own ad then I got a little bored and decided to spice things up with Nubar 2010!





Here's how Nubar 2010 looks on top of Sea Spray, straight on. Mostly purple and blue flakes. I've been trying to get 2010 to looks purple on a lot of polishes as base but it never does. It always looks orange and green only so imagine my delight when I saw purple flakes on Sea Spray! Oh, but the magic had just begun!



When I placed my nails at an angle. I could see purple, orange and green flakes!

AND THEN THIS HAPPENED! You NEED to click on the pictures to enlarge them and get a better view of the flakes! The colours are so much more vibrant when the pictures are bigger.







This was my favourite picture of the bunch!



I must say, I almost took off Sea Spray altogether because I was getting a bit bored with the colour and I'm so glad I decided to layer on 2010 instead! I'm gonna try layering 2010 on top of lighter shades from now on to try and get the different colours of the flakes to shine. They appear mostly orange and green on most darker shades and I want to see more blue and purple coming out!

In other news, I just managed to snag China Glaze DV8 and 2nite from a fellow nail enthusiast! She had spare (unused) bottles and were selling them and I immediately jumped on this opportunity to own part of the China Glaze OMG collection! Now, it's not OMG but at least they're both still very pretty! Can't wait for them to arrive!!

Mavala Flakies

Finally got down to swatching the Mavala Flakies I went all the way to AMK twice to get. First time I went, the shop was closed for some event so I dropped by again after school. I actually took the red line from Jurong East till AMK (which took what, 40 mintues?) just for 3 bottles of flakies, see how bad my polish addiction is!

Right, so time for peektures!

L-R: Nubar 2010, Mavala Canopus, Vega and Orion (without flash) The Mavala bottles are really small, 5ml compared to the standard 15ml bottles that OPI and ChG uses. But I like the tiny bottle cuz once I'm done with them, I can clean them up and use them to franken polishes!



(With flash)



Canopus is a warm, off-white clear polish with shimmer and flakies.



Vega is cooler and has a slight-grey-blue tone to it. Of course when painted on, it's almost identical to Canopus unless you paint 3 coats and more.



Orion is clearly an orange-red polish and it's more opaque than the previous two. You'll see later.



Another group shot! I have no idea why Canopus has so much less polish in the bottle because it was sealed so it's not like anyone used it! But it was the last bottle at Pink Beauty so I grabbed it anyway.



One coat of each, (L-R) 2010, Canopus, Vega and Orion









With 2010, Canopus and Vega, you can barely see them on the nail with one coat. Orion on the other hand, already gave a red hue upon its first coat. Also, with the 3 Mavala polishes, the shimmer was more dominant than the flakies so most of the time, you can only see the shimmer.

Time for a second coat.




With flash, you can see that Vega is a little more opaque than Canopus and that Vega is starting to appear cooler than Canopus, which is warmer.



With the second coat on, the flakes in 2010 are more prominent and the shimmer in Canopus and Vaga are starting to show as well. The flakes are there but they're just harder to capture. With Orion, I noticed that it was hard to differentiate the flakes from the shimmer cuz they were the same colour!

On to coat number 3.







I really didn't want to waste my flakies so I stopped at coat 3. At this rate, it would probably take 5 coats to be totally opaque for Canopus and Vaga. 2010 will never be opaque because it was a clear base without any shimmer, just flakes. Orion was the only polish that got opaque so quickly but I'm not totally happy with its colour. It reminds me too much of CNY and I felt very cheena and obiang when I wore it!

Close ups:

2010



Canopus



Vega



Orion



So, that concludes my flakies posts! You've seen all 4 flakies I own and I hope you're now into flakies as I am! (: