A Good Girl Haul

Hello there! I've been trying to document my hauls here to keep track of my purchases and normally I'd feel so guilty but I feel like such a good girl this time round. :) I bought 10 bottles in May and only 2 in July. TWO. AHHHHHH, I feel like an addict kicking her dirty habbit, except I'm not sure if I want to kick this polish addiction!

Starting off with a bang, I bought a tin of Burt's Bees Lemon BUtter Cuticle Cream. To clarify, I did not break up with Lush Lemony Flutter. I just wanted to try something new. I do love the citrus scent of Burt's Bee. Somehow my Lemony Flutter has changed its smell and it's extremely soft and not flakey like those I've been on other blogs. I think it's because of how hot and humid Singapore is. Which is why I love how refreshing Burt's Bees was! The smell was sharp (I LOVE citrusy scents so this one is a big plus for me) and it wasn't too oily. I'm now alternating between the two, using Lush when my cuticles need that extra love.



I couldn't resist the charm of the Essie Resort collection. Can you blame me?  The formula was great and the colour payoff was amazing!



These next four were my recent purchases from Mei Mei's Signatures. It's pretty obvious I'm on a purple trajectory huh? This is Girly Bits Twitterpated, Black Cat Lacquer Tetris (a square shaped multicoloured glitter topper which I am in love with), Happy Hands Lady Goodman and The Worst is Over.



Meimei was also kind enough to send me a couple of polishes to review and I really enjoyed them! You can read the review here. I really liked how I wouldn't ordinarily buy these shades but they turned out pretty dope.



This is Scofflaw Cuckoo Cloud Land (a phrase from Radiohead's Like Spinning Plates) and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot which I purchased form Shoppe Eclecticco. I absolutely love these two, not just for their names but for their beauty as well!



I also got Emily de Molly Land of Confusion and Oceanic Forces, Femme Fatale Cosmetics Nightsong Grotto and Cloudburst from Shoppe Eclecticco. Couldn't resist these four beauties either and these Australian indies always sell like hotcakes on Annette's shop so I had to ninja them before I regretted not getting them!  



Well, that's the end of this humble haul post. I'm pretty happy to be over a month "clean" now, because it not only means more money in the bank but also more swatches to come. I'm trying to slowly swatch my way through my indie collection and hopefully this low buy will continue on so I can get through the stash faster!

Till next time!

YSL Jade Imperial and Dior Nymphea Comparisons

Hey gals, this is going to be a quick post. I went out today, wanting to haul YSL Jade Imperial home but sadly it was already out of stock so all I could do was swatch the tester. For those wanting to get Jade Imperial too but who can't get hold of it or don't want to pay its hefty price tag, you can consider OPI Mermaid Tears or NOPI Green Up Your Act!



I'm wearing Jade Imperial on my thumb, Mermaid Tears on my index and Green Up Your Act! on my ring finger. Mermaid Tears is clearly closer to Jade Imperial than Green Up Your Act but it is still more yellow-toned and less dusty than Jade Imperial.



Here I'm wearing Jade Imperial on my thumb, Beadstreet A42 (or Enlistment, as I call it) on my index, and Chanel Khaki Vert on my middle finger. Once again, no dupes.

Next, we have Dior Nymphea, RBL Bikini Bottom and Essie Mint Candy Apple.



Nymphea wasn't OOS but I wasn't willing to pay S$37 for a blue creme (okay fine, Nymphea doesn't appear to have some secret shimmer going on in the bottle but it doesn't really show up at all on the nail so for all intensive purposes, I'm going to regard Nymphea as a creme). Bikini Bottom is clearly more jelly and greener than Nymphea but I'm finding myself more in love with it than Nymphea. Lastly, Mint Candy Apple is so much more vibrant and chalky than Nymphea. 

Hope this quick post was useful! :)

Polish Days: Vintage

I must admit, I have been a naughty girl. I haven't participated in the recent Polish Days events because of my horrible work schedule and the lack of inspiration but I"M BACK!



Today's Polish Days theme is Vintage and as much as I wanted to show you some vintage (OPI black label) polish or the first polish I bought, I thought I should jazz this day up - with Essie Jazz!

This is two coats of Essie Jazz that I started with.



Jazz is a nice and opaque nude shade that is extremely work appropriate.



And no, I haven't forgotten about the Vintage theme. No no, Essie Jazz isn't the end product. I wanted to try out the whole saran wrap trend with sepia tones (my Vintage link) so I used OPI Over The Taupe for the top layer.



Just a quick tip, be sure that the bottom layer is dry before painting on the top layer! I used a quick dry top coat to speed things up.



I'm loving how pretty the subtle marbled effect looks and man, this was such an easy nail art to do! I was initially a little scared I wouldn't be able to do this saran wrap thing but seriously, it was so little effort for such a pretty end product.

Remember to check out all the other Vintage manicures!

#SGSwatchFest: Spring Nails

Hey lovelies! Couple weeks ago, a few of us came together for our first #SGSwatchFest with Femme Fatale Cosmetics Winter Hyacinth and it was such a hit, we're now planning for many more #SGSwatchFests to come.

Today, a couple of us were supposed to meet and show off our latest Spring themed nails and I was really excited to finally meet some of the girls I've come to know in our local polish scene. Unfortunately, during my lunch, just hours before our meeting, I suddenly came down with serious abdominal pains and I started throwing up so I had to take a rain check. :(

I did my spring nails last night though, in anticipation of the meetup and here they are!



This was actually the inspiration behind the mani:



I saw this mani article in yesterday's Urban newspaper and I it was such a fit for this #SGSwatchFest so I decided to paint my nails like that too!





According to the article, they used Butter London Cuppa (nude base), Trout Pout (pinkie), Artful Dodger (ring), Kerfuffle (middle), Jasper (index) and Molly-Coddled (thumb).

For my version, I used Essie Sand Tropez for my base colour, China Glaze Lemon Fizz (thumb), Essie A Crewed Interest (index), OPI Done Out In Deco (middle), Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau (ring) and Essie Navigate Her (pinkie).



I haven't done *any* form of nail art in a very long time and with the whole glitter indie craze, I got lazy but this mani was so easy to do and it's a great way to break into the whole nail art thing again!





Loving this spring mani so much! Looking forward to the next #SGSwatchFest! :)

My Essie Spring 2012 Picks

I knew I wanted Navigate Her and A Crewed Interest from Essie's Spring 2012 collection when it first came out. Problem is, I was having a hard time tracking these two down. I didn't just want to purchase them online. I wanted to see them in person to make sure they look the way they did in the pictures I've seen but every single time I visited Smoochiezz (the only brick and motar stockist in Singapore who carries affordable Essies), they were always out of these two elusive shades.

A couple weeks ago, I visited one of Smoochiezz's make shift stores at Tanjong Pagar MRT and I asked the lady why Navigate Her and A Crewed Interest are NEVER in stock. She then told me she remembered seeing them both at another of her stores and offered to bring them down for me. Then and there, I decided to jump the gun and ordered them! 

Anyway, enough with my long, grandmother story. Here are the swatches!  

This is three coats of Navigate Her with a coat of Essie Good to Go on top.

GOSH I LOVE NAVIGATE HER. It's the perfect shade of pastachio green. It's so unique - I've never seen a shade like this before and it looks so fresh! Perfect shade for Spring (even though it's rainy and gloomy these days)!

Next we have A Crewed Interest. This is three coats with a coat of Essie Good to Go.

Just like Navigate Her, A Crewed Interest is such a fun, fresh colour! It's a really wearable shade of peach and I'm definitely gonna be wearing this one when my peak period rolls in and I need some fun colour on my nails to cheer myself up.

What can I say? Essie really knocked it out of the park with these two fun, fresh shades! Formula-wise, I must admit they're not the best. I had to be extra careful and they did apply a bit streaky. I'm not sure if it's the anorexic Essie brush or the polish itself, or maybe a combination of both but they were not the easiest polish to paint on. That being said, I love the colours so much I'm willing to close one eye and bite the bullet with these two.

Till next time! :)

Jindie Nails Noel

Heyhey! Today, I have Noel from the Jindie Nails Santa Claws collection to show you guys.

Straight up, I couldn't resist doing a bottle shot. Noel is described as a "neon green, white and red matte glitters and green sparkles densely packed in clear base," from Jindie Nail's Etsy and that couldn't be any more accurate!



I started out with two coats of Essie Going Incognito. Love how glossy it is!



Then went on one coat of Noel. What I love about Noel is that it doesn't have too much jolly green (Christmas green) glitters so using a jolly green base really brought out all its colours!



I also love how the red jumps out and make everything pop even more.



We've been seeing so much red and green hex (and bar) glitters from all the other indie Christmas collections and Noel's matter glitter is such a breath of fresh air!



I also decided to try layering Noel over some reds. This is two coats of Sally Hansen Brick Wall, Beadstreet 74 (or Brick It Up as I have christianed it) and China Glaze Hey Sailor.



This is one coat of Noel over all three nails.



Now on to some close up shots, here's Noel over Going Incognito. Love the colour combination!!!



This is Noel over Hey Sailor. Hey Sailor is a typical Christmas bright red and I'm sad that it kidna swallowed the red glitter in Noel.



This is Noel over Brick It Up. Brick It Up reminds me of gingerbread cookies and it just brings up such not so typical Christmasy feel whenever I see it.



This is Noel over Brick Wall. This one is my favourite combination of the reds. Brick Wall was dark enough to let all the glitters shine through.



LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Jindie Nails is available from Mei Mei's Signatures, who ships worldwide with the exception of Italy.

Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for my honest opinions. I am not affiliated with Mei Mei's Signatures or Jindie Nails.

OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The moment I laid eyes on Zoya Fei Fei, I had to have her but Zoya's pretty hard to buy where I come from so when OPI released On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a pretty close dupe for Fei Fei, I was pretty ecstatic!

This is three coats of OHMSS with one coat of Essie Good To Go.



OHMSS is a sheer polish that is sooooo complex.  It actualy slightly duochrome as it flashes from green to purple but unfortunately, my camera was having a bitch fit so I didn't manage to capture the pretty duochrome. :(



I'm totally in love with the gold and blue and periwinkle shimmer swimming amidst its slate blue base.





Seeing how sheer OHMSS was, I thought it'd be a pretty good topper so I decided to try layering it over a couple of dark, sexy colours.

From L-R: One coat of OHMSS over NOPI Khloe Had A Little Lam Lam, Revlon Chic, Essie Going Incognito and Beadstreet Black

Here are some super close up shots!



One coat of OHMSS over NOPI Khloe Had A Little Lam Lam



One coat of OHMSS over Revlon Chic



One coat of OHMSS over Essie Going Incognito



One coat of OHMSS over Beadstreet Black

OHMSS is one of my favourite polishes from all of this year's release. That's how much I love it!

piCture pOlish Denim (and comparisons)

I've wanted to get Denim for quite a while now and since I got Amethyst, how could I separate the two shimmery and mini-flakie siblings?



Similar to Amethyst, Denim came with a QR Code sticker and scanning it would lead to Star Trinkets, piCture pOlish's Network Memeber right here in sunny Singapore! These QR stickers seriously make online shopping much more convenient, especially on your phone!



And now, two close up bottle shots to show you the shimmer and flakies in Denim!





Denim had a similar formula and consistency as Amethyst (or is it the other way round?), which was on the thicker side, but nothing unmanageable. Two easy coats and you're good to go!













And now, presenting to you, the shimmery and mini-flakie siblings!





They really do have the same finish and I love that Denim now has a purple sister! This is two coats of each polish.









Bonus time! I have another comparison which I was very curious about when I was considering whether to buy Denim or not. This is Essie Smooth Sailing VS piCture pOlish Denim.



This is two coats of each, taken under artificial lighting.





The first difference is their colour. While both colours can be classified as cornflower blue, Denim is much more purple than Smooth Sailing, which my pictures sadly do not show very well. It's something like Essie Lapis of Luxury vs China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le. Both lie in the same colour family but one just looks more purple.

Finish wise, both polishes have a similar mini-flakie finish but Smooth Sailing's finish (as its name would imply) is smoother than Denim's. It like someone put Denim in a blender and blended it up a little. Denim also has an underlying blue shimmer which Smooth Sailing does not.

Lastly, Smooth Sailing has a thinner consistency than Denim but both covered well with two coats. Sadly, even with Smooth Sailing's easier-to-work-with formula, Essie's anorexic brush pull the
Bottom line: I love friggin' Denim, Amethyst and Smooth Sailing. That's all folks!

Stay tuned for swatches of piCture pOlish Orbit!