KBShimmer All Decked Out

So this is Christmas and what have you done,
Another year over, a new one just begun.

And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun,
The near and the dear ones, the old and the young.

A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fears.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Today I have KBShimmer All Decked Out to show you and to start the mani off, I did two coats of Orly Wandering Vine.



And now for the star of the show, this is two coats of All Decked Out on top of Wandering Vine.



I love love love how jolly this looks! I haven't felt such a strong Christmas vibe for a couple of years and I think this year's more special because I'm working and I cherish the public holiday more! HA! ;)





Have a happy holiday y'all! :)

Orly Enchanted Forest

Today I have Orly Enchanted Forest to show you! It was a CP from the US because the website that still has this discontinued shade only ships Orly polishes within the US so I asked around and a very kind soul was willing to help buy and send the polish all the way to Singapore. Liz, if you're reading this, THANK YOU! :)

Back to the polish at hand, oh Enchanted Forest, what a glorious, dusty green you are!







This was two coats of Enchanted Forest. It had a surprisingly runny formula but built up really nicely!
What I LOVE about Enchanted Forest is that it looks green in stronger lighting but in the shade, it looked like an almost-back green that reminds me of Deborah Lippmann Billionaire. It's a great take on dark polish especially if you don't want to wear black.

BEST THING? I was hard core guitar strumming for one whole hour and my polish didn't even chip! The cuticle on my thumb even bled from all that strumming but the polish refused to barge. TRUE STORY.
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Where to buy:
Orly Enchanted Forest: Head2Toe Beauty

February's Haul

Okay, before I start, I need to justify myself. If it weren't for BeautyAsia, Feb's Haul wouldn't look THIS bad.



I bought so many polishes that I had to grab them from my Helmer and put them into a plastic bag to transport them to my desk for their mugshots.



On the left is my BA haul and on the right is my "regular" haul. I told you my haul wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for BA!



This is my non-BA haul. They're mostly pretty cheap to boot so I don't feel as guilty!

Top row: Two bottles of Essence Nail Art Espress Dry Drops, Essence Hard to Resist, In Style, two bottles of Time for Romance,  a back up of Lime Up!, On Your Gracile Tiptoe and Essie Gold As It Gets
Bottm Row: Three crackle polishes I found at Aries ($4.20 each only!!!!), Tony Moly Milky Way (which is extremely close to Lippmann Glitter in the Air), OPI DS Original (courtesy of Gwen, who sold me her backup bottle), and Sally Hansen Harderning and Resistance Continuous Treatments (they were going for Buy One Get One Free!!)

Opinions:
I love the Essence drip dry drops. Fromt he reviews I read, it's pretty comparable to OPI's and it's only a fraction of its cost ($4.20)! It does leave a slightly oily feeling after it's dry but I like it because I just treat it as a cuticle oila nd rub it into my cuticle area.

I haven't tried On Your Gracile Tiptoes yet but I've been looking for the perfect coral and I haven't found one yet so hopefully this will be it. I like my corals more orange than pink and this one is slightly dusty and not too orange that it's just orange.

The crackle polishes come in a huge variety of colours and I just picked the ones that I found more interesting, like green, teal and slate blue! They're pretty okay and they do crack so I have no quelms!
The Tony Moly GITA dupe was purchased for me by a friend who went to Korea (shoutout to Annette if you're reading this!) and sadly, I haven't seen it in the Singapore stores yet.The glitter in the tony Moly polish is slightly bigger than the ones in GITA and it's also bluer but unless you paint them side by side, you won't know the difference so it's a good enough dupe for me!

I've been using both the Sally Hansen treatments on my toes. The hardening one for my second to forth toe nails because they always tear and I suspect it's because they're too thin, and the Resistance one for my first (big) and last toe nails because they're already hard so I just want they to be stronger and not crack as easily. My big toe nail was peeling very badly and I've tried a number of treatments (other Sally Hansen treatments and NailTek) which didn't work but after about a month's use of Resistance, it's peeling less! I've also noticed my other toe nails becoming thicker so I'm liking these two SH treatments!



BA Haul, picture one.

Top Row: Zoya Flecks, Skylar, Bevin, Yara, Neeka and Cynthia

Bottm Row: ChG Tronicas; Cyberspace, Digital Dawn, Electric Magenta, High Def and Techno Teal
Opinions: I grabed the Zoyas since they were only going for $7. I actaully regret not getting more! As for the Tronicas, I love them! They're so much more holo than all the swatches I've seen online!!! My only quelm is that Lynn bought a bottle of Digital Dawn on the first day and I got mine on the second, from the same shop, and hers is SIGNIFICANTLY VERY MUCH MORE HOLO than mine. Mine is pathetically scattered while hers is linear! D:



BA Haul, picture two.

Top Row: Nfu Oh #62, Orly Rage and Night Owl and China Glaze White on White

Bottom Row: Misa Indian Tan, China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Lubu Heels, Orly Out of This World, Haley's Comet, Misa Green with Envy and DL Glitter in the Air

Opinions: I LOVE THE NFU OH. HOLO TO THE MAX! It chips very easily though so I recommend using the Aqua Base Coat and SV on top. SV will dull the holoness but only minimally and it's worth losing a tiny bit of holoness for longer wear IMO. Don't really have anything much to say about the rest of the polishes.
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Okay, so overall, it's a large haul but I knew I was gonna do some major damage during BeautyAsia so I'm not all that disappointed with myself! March's Haul is set to be quite expensive even though it won't be as much polish. I caved and just ordered the entire Layla Hologram collection because holographic polishes seem to be my archilles heel, my kryptonite, my extreme weakness if you will. And I also purchased OPI DS Diamond during Nailvibe's recent discount special. Not to mention I finally managed to go down to DYON to get the OPI Holland and I want some Essie Sping colours too! As for ChG Hunger Games, I only want Smoke and Ashes and Stone Cold but I haven't had the time to grab them yet. Damn, March's haul will be an epic one too! :(

Super Random Swatches

I suddenly felt like swatching polishes so I picked out some colours I felt like trying.



This is 2 coats of Orly Wandering Vine. I've been on a green polish craze after I got over my nude polish phase and this was one of the shades I really wanted. Unfortunately, it was dicontinued a while back and a lot of etailers had already sold out of the colour. When I saw head2toebeauty selling it, I jumped for joy but then I was told that they don't sell Orly to outside the US. MEH. Luckily, some kind soul in the US agreed to help me buy it then send it to me! Liz, if you're reading this, thanks so much!!





This is one coat of Nfu Oh #40 over Wandering Vine. It shifts from green to aqua and blue! Really pretty! (:



This is two coats of Essie Topless and Barefoot. I bought this duing my nude polish phase and it's really nice and opaque for a nude shade!



This is 2 coats of Picture Polish Festival over Topless and Barefoot. It's a multi-coloured flakie top coat and it's s pweeeeetty! I just wished it was more dense because I didn't like having to paint multiple coats of it! It's too gorgeous to be used so much! :( I'm hoping Finger Paint Twisted will be more dense!



Essence Blue Addicted. Oh, you have no idea the amount of trouble I took to hunt down this baby! I visited the Watsons in Ngee Ann City three times and each time, it was out of stock. Then one day, when I went back to check whether it was finally in stock, I saw a lady stocking the Essence shelf and I thought it'd be my lucky day but not quite. It was still OOS but thankfully, the lasy told me to check out another building nearby (Lucky Plaza) which she had stock just previously. I immediately made my way there (despite being late for an appointment with a friend, Dani if you're reading this, SORRY!) and I was in luck! This was three coats. It's a really jelly base and considering how small the bottle is, my advice would be to layer it over a blue polish instead of wasting three coats.



This is two coats of Essence Choose Me! but I think three coats would have been better. I had to adjust the white balance of my camera to capture the colour as accurately as possible but it's really hard.



This was as close as I could get to accurately captureing Choose Me!'s colour. It's the one in the middle by the way. It flashes green at certain angles and I think it's really close to OPI Catch Me In Your Net.







This is 3 coats of Orly Galaxy Girl. It was an impulse buy at PNC the last time I visited the place. I love how it shifts from purple to blue!



I layered something over Galaxay Girl and look at how pretty it is! So colourful! Can you guess what polish it is?





It's Cult Nails Clairvoyant! I wasn't expecting the combination to work, just wanted to try it out for fun but WOWZA! The douchrome beneath Clairvoyant still managed to shine through, making it more complex and beautiful.



Here's a shot of Choose Me!, Blue Addicted and Galaxy Girl + Clairvoyant!

I then removed Choose Me! from my ring finger and tried on Nfu Of #52 next.



Another crazy colour that's hard to capture. This is what the polish looks like indoors, under low lighting. It looks like a darker purple as compared to under sunlight, when it looks lighter. Really quite cool actually!



Nfu Oh #52 is the righter most one. After staring at it for a while, I suddenly thought it looked really like RBL Scrangie and I sneaked this picture of #52 next to Scrangie before passing Yi Qi the polish which she won! I didn't swatch Scrangie of course, because it isn't mine to swatch!  Hopefully she won't mind the picture!



The shimmer looks similar eh? (:

And the last polish for today's post...



This was three coats of OPI Metallic 4 Life + one coat of Essie Set in Stone + one coat of my rock coat franken.

I liked how Metallic 4 Life looked in every swatch I've seen online but I could never seem to get any of the larger hex glitter on my nail so I improvised and layered on a coat of Set in Stone, which is a silver hex glitter top coat. Then to make it seem less shiny, I painted on a coat of my franken rock coat, which is essentially a super thin black jelly polish.

I suddenly felt like taking a picture of my nails with my guitar so here are some shots!









WOKAY, that's a lot of swatches! Hope you guys liked them! (:

January's Haul

I finally squeezed some time to do January's Haul! (The posts you've been reading for the past few weeks were done up a long time ago and were all queued because school's been kinda busy!



Did not think it was a big haul, after seeing December's EPIC haul but on hindsight...
Let's break it down shall we? (:



Decorative top coats (L-R): China Glaze Techno, OPI Rainbow Connection, Essie Set in Stone, Essie A Cut Above, Essie Shine of Times, Finger Paints Asylum and Finger Paints Twisted

So happy that Susan managed to help me get the Finger Paints, especially since they've been sold out everywhere! And my polish dealer (yes, that's what I call her now, because she's always helping me get polishes) Cheeying was selling a brand new Rainbow Connection, so I grabbed a bottle before I regretted not doing so!



Next, we have two of the Nicki Minaj OPI colours, Metallic 4 Life and Fly (which is not colour accurate here btw), as well as Stead As She Rose from last year's Pirates collection. I got the Nicki colours from DYON because Fred had them earlier than Smoochiezz but I visited Smochiezz at Juring Point so many times the lady remembered me! *embarrased*



Essence polishes! So glad the brand came to Singapore and I actually had to hunt around for Blue Addicted like a MANIAC! I'm still looking for more bottles for swapping but sadly, it's so elusive. From left to right, we have Choose Me! (which is a Zoya Charla / Orly Haley's Comet / OPI Catch Me In Your Net dupe), Blue Addicted (the Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe dupe) and Lime Up! (which I have found to be a close enough match to OPI Did It On Em, which was why I passed on that one).



Hoho, by an amazing stroke of luck, I managed to find Orly Wandering Vine and Enchanted Forest on an etailer site that only ships to the US, as well as a kind soul who was willing to ship it to me. I'm been lemming for Enchanted Forest since my green phase began (I think it's over now, though I'm not quite sure what new phase I'm in) and when I saw Wandering Vine, I couldn't not get it. They're both OOS everywhere so when I saw them, I knew I had to find a way to make them mine! (:



I ordered A-England Lady of the Lake and Tristam during the 30% off sale and they came (all the way from the UK) in a week! Paid around $13 per bottle but it's so worth it! The two of them sparkle like crazy in the sun! I also ordered CC Worth the Risque and  Revvvolution from Candy and they're the stud version so if you're interested, click on the link above to get them before they're gone!



Last but not least, cuticle care. I saw DYON International selling these LE China Glaze Holiday Berry scented cuticle oil for $4 each (inclusive of shipping) and I couldn't resist! They're a bit smaller than your average China Glaze, which was why I got 3 bottles. Oh, and as the name implies, it smells like berries! I must admit, I've been cheating on Lemony Flutter with Holiday Berry. I also purchased the ELF Nourishing Cuticle Pen from Smoochiezz because I wanted to try it out. It contains quite a few good oils (grape seed oil, almond oil, etc) and I wanted someting I could throw into my bag in case I ever feel the need to moisturise my cuticles on the go. I haven't done so yet because I think i'll get weird stares if I whip out the pen and start applying the oil in the train, but what I can tell you is the application is a breeze. The amount that comes out is just enough to moisturing the cuticles and not leave too oily a feeling.

And, I was invited to join a secret fb polish addict group and my god, I'm not the craziest person okay. There are so many people worst than me so I take comfort in that! HAHA! It's actually nice seeing how many polish lovers there are because none of the friends understand why I need so many polishes but the girls int he group do! Hehehe!!

WOKAY. I've been pretty girl so far in February but that's because I'm saving up to bomb big time at BeautyAsia! HAHA! Hopefully things don't go out of proportions there! But I know I'll have Candy and Lynn to help control me so at least I won't go ballistic! :D

December's Haul

December's haul was so epic I had to split the entire haul up to take photos. I actually paid for most of the polish you're about to see in October/November but the polishes only arrived in December which is why they're featured in this month's haul. So technically, I wasn't THAT naughty in December!

This first set of pictures are of the polishes I collected from Cheeying from Inkypolisholicious and from Susan. I wasn't able to meet up with Susan to get my polishes but she was meeting up with Cheeying anyway and I too was going to meet Cheeying during the weekend, so she was kind enough to help me collect my polishes from Susan and passed me all my polishes! Thanks Cheeying, if you're reading this!!



December's Haul: Batch 1. This batch consisted of the Cult Nails polishes, Nfu Oh polishes and mini franken bottles the Yings helped me to order, and the RBLs and piCture pOlish Festival that I bought from Susan!

Don't worry, I got some close up shots for you! (:



Love how the Cult Nails bottles came wrapped up in brown paper with their names on the sticker! Doesn't the packaging look so chic? It really makes the packaging look so much more personal, showing how every bottle was individually wrapped by hand, with love!



Here they are unwrapped! The order's opposite from the above picture (i.e. L-R: Wicked Fast to Clairvoyant).



RBL BiBs! These were the RBLs that got shipped to Singapore first because they were from an earlier batch of BiBs. BUT, not all four are mine. One of them is actually for the giveaway that Lynn and I are going to have! We have yet to discuss the details but we should be doing the giveaway very very soon so do look out for it! And for now, I shall keep you in suspense as to which colour we'll be giving away! (:

Susan sent me the remainding two RBLs when they arrived and here they are!



These two Catherines are all mine! They're so pretty!



FLAKIES GALORE! Here are the two Nfu Ohs the Yings helped me to get and piCture pOlish Festival which I purchased from Susan! The Yings aren't really selling polishes, I just tagged along with their Nfu Oh order but Susan is selling piCture pOlish as well as Ozotic Pro polishes so if you're interested, head down over to her blog for more details!



Festival is a gorgeous multicoloured flakie in a clear base which makes it VERY interesting! Here is it next to Clairvoyant, which is also a multicoloured flakie, except it had a darker base!



You can see the flakies better from this angle! Aren't they so purdy? (: And if you're curious how they compare on the nail, Susan did a good comparison post between Clairvoyant, Festival and Nubar 2010, so do check it out!




Here, we have the Starbites pigment I bought from TKB Trading. They make really nice glass fleck duochrome topcoats when put into clear polish! You can check swatches out here, here and here! I've made my glass fleck top coats already and you only need a little pigment for a 5ml bottle and I have plenty left so if you're interested, drop me a comment and I can make and sell you a bottle! (:



And I ordered another 20 mini fraken bottles! I've already used up 17 bottles from my previous batch of 20 mini bottles I ordered a couple months back so I needed to restock my frankening supplies! I somehow don't remember using 17 bottles! WEIRD!!!



December's Haul: Batch 2. These polishes are the ones Janelle helped to buy from the US and mailed it over to me! She was very patient with all my orders because I was collating orders from 4 other gals and she also included some extras for me because she was busy with school and had to delay sending the polishes out! She was way too kind and I'm going to repay the favour when she send me the list of polish she wants from over here! (:

Top row: Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, MAC Blue India (!!!!!!I FINALLY OWN THIS BABY!!!!!), Sally Hasen Gray by Gray, Sally Hansen Fairy Teal, NOPI Green Up Your Act and Color Club Artsy Crafty

Bottom row: Color Club Bojo Mojo, Manglaze Matte is Murder (these were the two extra bottles Janelle got for me!), Revlon Perplex, Orly Fowl Play and OPI Nantucket Mist

Really happy with this US haul because I got to satisfy so many of my lemmings. I finally own Blue India! It's been on my wishlist since the second month of my addiction and when I saw it on eBay for a reasonable price, I jumped at the opportunity! I also managed to get Perplex, which is a well know dupe for Chanel Paradoxal, which I also have but who can resist such a good dupe? Certainly not me. I also got a backup bottle of Fowl Play and Nantucket Mist. Sadly, I overpaid for Fowl Play, Nantucket Mist and Artsy Crafty but considering Janelle threw in Bojo Mojo and Matte is Murder, I'm still a very happy kid! (:



December's Haul: Batch 3. Collected some of these polishes from Candy and bought the rest during my outing with Lynn and Candy. Oh, and some were Christmas gifts from the very very very generous Candy too! I tell you, shopping with two fellow polish addicts is very damaging to your wallet! HAHA, this batch contained so many polishes I had to take a vertical shot! D:

Let's go to close ups shall we? (:



L-R: Essie Size Matters (What a fabulous name! HAHA!!), Topless and Barefoot, Color Club Fashion Addict and Worth the Risque (THEY BOTH ARE THE FRIGGIN STUD HOLO VERSIONS!)



Nameless Beadstreet polishes again! I friggin love Beadstreet polishes because they're of a very good quality for the price you pay! And since they are nameless, I shall exercise my super creative (read: lame) brain power. L-R: 3 bottles of clear which I'm not gonna bother naming, Yellow Yellow Dirty Fellow, Orange You Glad I'm Only $2 and Night Sky. And yes, I'm VERY happy they only cost $2 per bottle!



L-R: Color Club Magic Attraction, Art Club Glitter Hologram and Gold Hologram



Took a blurry picture just to show you how holo these three polishes are! :D



Finally bought myself some proper yellows! I was doing my nail wheels and got so pissed off at having to paint 5 coats of cheap yellow polish to get it opaque! L-R: China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Happy Go Lucky, Refresh Mint and Essence Lime Up!



And lastly, Essie Smooth Sailing, Orly Sapphire Silk and Pixie Dust!

Okay, as you can see, I'm pretty much broke and need to eat grass for the next two months so I can afford to buy the gorgeous polishes coming out in 2012! I'm praying my addiction will improve in the New Year! HAHAHA! That shall be my New Year's Resolution! TO BUY LESS POLISH! :D



(L-R: Elianto White, Twilight, Perisian Indigo, Night Glitters, Etude House BL505 and OR207)

December's Haul: Batch 4. These were the polishes I bought during my one day trip to JB. I was searching extensively for Elianto and when I finally spotted it, I squealed! Got myself a back up of their black and white polishes because I love how creamy and opaque they are, and I also got two more polishes from their Sparkling Diva range. Etude House was ahaving a 30% off for their polishes so I grabbed a multichrome blue and a dusty salmon/coral colour. Really Happy with the coral colour because I've been having a tough time finding a coral I like and this one is so pwetty!



(L-R: Extra Strength Lacquer Remover, Emerald City, Sacred Ground and Twisted Vine)


December's Haul: Batch 5. These were from the SpaRitual nail class I went to with two of my friends as well as Cheryl! Emerald City came with my goodie bag, along with a buffing block, zebra file and samples of their Handprint Hand Serum and Hydrating Hand Salve (which are not in the picture above). As for the rest, the course fee of $38 was fully redeemable for products and I chose to redeem the lacquer remover, Sacred Ground and Twisted Vine.