Did this mani ages ago but never got around to posting it up. Here's my version of how I think Earth would look like from space (with a lot more purple). Yeah, I used a tad too much purple but I still think it's pretty nevertheless. I used an old concealer brush and some acetone along with about 5 different polishes to create this look. And although it took quite a bit of trial and error, I was surprised at how easy and effortless this technique was.
Anyhoo, short post today as I am really tired and falling asleep as I type. Hope you all like the mani xx ❤ Jun
Left to Right: Cha-Ching, Scandalous, Popular, Strobe Light, Speck-tacular
Yep. I went out and bought myself a whole pile of new glitters. I have been such a magpie recently, only the glitter polishes ever catch my attention nowadays. But ohmygoodness am I excited about this one, especially since IT'S MY FIRST FLAKIE! EVER. I've been dying to get one for the last 8987398759879 years. Nfuoh is just too ridiculously priced (+ shipping makes them more expensive than Deborah Lippmann polishes) and Finger Paints and Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure are of course no where to be found. So my flakie lemming never got satisfied. Until I found Australis' Speck-tacular sitting inconspicuously among the top coats and base coats. OH HAPPY DAY!
Australis' Crystal Colour Top Coat Speck-tacular over Sally Hansen Black Out and OPI Dating a Royal
It's so gorgeous and so affordable! I got it for around $7 on sale and it's a flakie topcoat, the best kind of flakie cos you can pretty much layer it over anything. Application was alright, I had to put on about 1 half coats for more dense flakes and drying time is so-so. It looks pretty similar to Finger Paint's Twisted, except less dense and with bigger flakes. But oooh it's so shiny I can't stop staring *googly eyes*. Haha, yes I'm a little mad currently on 7 hours sleep for the last 48 hours.
Just for fun, I chucked some matte top coat on. And I like it just as much, if not more! The colour of the flakes is still very visible and the depth of the polish can still be seen even with the matte coat.
Speck-tacular with Matte Top Coat
Oh boy. This buy has made my shitty week so much better.
Till next time! xx
P.S.: For those who have tried tons of flakies, please let me know your honest opinions on this one. I might be too happy about owning a flakie to even give constructive comments. :)
Being the typical highly-strung stressed-out uni student, I don't just want to snack, I NEED to snack. Especially at night. In fact, I think I eat more than I work the night before an exam or assignment deadline. It's like a vicious cycle. Stress => Snack => Guilt => Stress (because of the guilt) => Snack more. Yeah you get the picture. :(
So you can imagine my joy when I found this website. According to it, late night snacking is perfectly reasonable as long as you stay off foods high in fat, protein or fibre and keep the calorie count 200 and below. There are recipes for a lower calorie raisin peanut butter, almond meal cookie dough, and 120-calorie meatballs (from Martha Stewart). And everything just looks so yummyyy! There's also a list of types of food to avoid at night in case you were wondering.
Plus, did you know bananas can help you get better and deeper sleep? Apparently the high levels of potassium and tryptophan in them help put you to sleep quicker. There is now hope for those allergic to red wine (me), warm milk and sleeping pills.
So next time you feel like a late night snack, don't reach for that bag of chips or box of oreos. Have a banana instead or some yummy 120-calorie meatballs. I know this is a deviation from the usual nail stuff, but I thought it would be fun to share something random. Will be back with a nail post soon! Ta! ❤
This is pretty late, but it's something I couldn't not share. One of my favourite bloggers Varnished Valkyrie is giving away... (drumroll please...) Chanel's Peridot!! Yes you heard me right.
Source: temptalia.com
Uh HELLO? Who doesn't want Peridot?!?! So for my lovely followers who have yet to follow her, you can check out her blog here. And even if you don't win, her blog's fantastic so there's no loss there. ❤
Yes I know. I have been a lousy blogger who hasn't posted in weeks. Truth is, I've been so tired I come home and fall into bed, hair half wet. And I've also snapped a nail so I haven't been bothered to paint my nails since. whoops. So, apologies for falling off the face of earth for a while.
Anyway, the important thing is that I'm back and I have a new baby! Hope this makes up for the wait :)
TA DA! Sally Hansen's Big Money from the new Gem crush collection. It's a beautiful gold fine glitter with lilac particles. GORGEOUS! And it looks even better on:
Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Big Money (2 coats)
I think I'm in love!
The application was a dream as well. As with most 'one-coat' glitters, Big Money dries almost immediately. And instead of the normal thin brushes Sally Hansen polishes usually come with, the Gem Crush collection comes with one of those new flat wide brushes, which was a major plus point because application was so easy for my poor polish-applying-impaired left hand. Two strokes for each nail and you're done! Not sure if these brushes work on all nails, but for mine it is perfect!
Again, photographing this baby was hard. Big Money has a transparent base with absolutely no black tint in it despite what the photos show. And just for fun, I tried Big Money over a few different polishes.
Left to Right: Big Money over 1) Sinful Colours' Aqua; 2) Sally Hansen Black Out; 3) OPI Dating a Royal 4) Color Club Alias
Big Money over Nubar Reclaim
I really like it over Dating a Royal and Black Out. Nubar Reclaim's holographic effect is lost under Big Money so that's just a waste of a good holographic. Overall it's a pretty good layering polish despite being a pretty densely packed glitter but I still prefer Big Money on its own, in all it's glamour. Here's one more picture of that gold goodness. Can't wait to try out the other polishes from this collection! Happy Easter everyone! :)
P.S.: To all my fellow Melbourne lacquerheads, Target in Melbourne (not sure about the rest of Aussie) is having a massive sale. I got this on sale for AUD7.50 which is a pretty good deal in Australia for nail polish. And if you're lemming more for makeup, lo'real is 50% off. Sale ends April 9th so be quick!
Recently, I got a lovely surprise when my dear friend Judy gifted me two beauties for my birthday - the glittertastic Simmer and Shimmer from the OPI Burlesque Collection and Lourve Me Lourve Me Not from La Collection De France. I know these are about a year late but I had to do a post on them cos they are so pretty!
I am a glitter fiend so obviously I couldn't wait to swatch Simmer and Shimmer. Simmer and Shimmer is a gorgeous glitterbomb of predominately pale blue with orange, fuchsia, gold, green and silver.Not only that, the coverage is pretty darn fantastic for a glitter polish too. This is it in one thin coat:
And I managed to get full coverage with just one more thick coat. Whooo how gorgeous is that!!I couldn't stop staring at my nails the whole time I had it on. I love this so much! Too bad glitter polishes are so extremely hard to photograph. This one is no exception. Pictures don't do justice to this polish at all.
The one complaint I had tho, is that the wear of this polish is terrible on me. Chunks of it chipped off after one day. :(
But I'm not complaining too much because it's just such a pretty polish. And what's more, I get an excuse to change my polish after a day. :b
Swatches for Lourve me Lourve me not will be up in the next post. Cheers all!
LA Girl Disco Brites in Dance Craze and Disco Ball, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power
I wanted to pattern a white netting over LA Girl's Disco Brites in Dance Craze, a vibrant coral orange colour, but when I finished I thought it looked kinda yucky. So, I decided to add a pink modified french arrow tip. However, clumsy me messed up the index finger so I had to quickly salvage an hour's effort by painting different random designs on each finger. Only the ring finger has the original arrow french tip. Please ignore the icky cuticles the weather has been horribly dry.
Although it was a fail, I think it didn't turn out TOO bad and I'm really digging the shine of Revlon's Quick Dry Topcoat. I think I might be loving it more than Seche :O and it's big three free! So that's a further plus point. On that note, what are everyone's favorite base coat and top coat? Let me know! I would love to try out some new suggestions!
Busy busy busy. That pretty much summed up my whole week. So busy I've been wearing my nails au naturale for the whole week (eek!). Soooo, I've decided that I'm gonna try my best to catch up with backdated posts and make sure I do an update every few days even if it's just sharing a random picture I find online
That said, the lovely I Bleed Polish has given me two awards (thanks love! and sorry I took so long). I feel so honoured because I'm such a newbie at blogging and such surprises give me additional motivation to keep on blogging, don't stop blogging... I'm so random haha. That's Y&T if anyone didn't know that already.
Anyway, the first is:
The rules are:
1. Link back to the person you got it from
2. Tell seven things about yourself
3. Give the award to ten bloggers
7 Things about myself (non-polish related):
- My favourite colors are aqua, blue and black.
- I'm skinny as a rake. Been trying to put on some weight for close to eight years which might not sound like a problem to you guys but I'm too skinny for my own good. I've had random strangers give me money and tell me to buy food. It's beyond embarrassing. :/
- I'd rather bake than cook. There is no such thing as too much desserts :)
- I have a thing about dirt, which makes working in the lab great because I'm in gloves half the time.
- My fingers and wrists are too small to wear most production-sized rings and bracelets so I have resorted to making my own. Will post pictures of some for you guys to have a look soon
- I love korean food (I'm not korean). I could eat kimchi and korean bbq meat everyday mmmm..
- I have a weakness for shoes, especially the weirder looking ones.
I have too many favourites to pick just one. An all-time favourite would have to be I'll Be by Edwin McCain. But at the moment, I have Untitled by Mumford and Sons on replay. Love Mumford and Sons, please please please come to Melbourne!!
2. What's your favourite dessert?
Froyo, gelato, anything coffee flavoured!
3. What's your favourite pet?
Don't have one but I would want a corgi, siberian husky or a hedgehog.
4. Black or White?
Black most definitely.
5. What's your biggest fear?
A Zombie apocalypse. I kid, I hate needles and heights and if I were to have a biggest fear it would be the people I love leaving me.
6. What's your best feature?
My.. hair?
7. What's your everyday attitude?
'When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.' A cliche quote I know, but I try to get one step closer to fulfilling my dreams each day. And if you haven't already seen this
video, watch it. It's good stuff.
8. What is perfection?
Travelling the world with someone I love and not having to care about time or money.
9. What is your guilty pleasure?
DEEP FRIED OREOS.
And I tag everyone in the previous award! Btw, who likes salted caramel corn? Cos I do! Made some over the weekend. Try some if you haven't already, it's mega yums!
It's no longer Valentine's but I came across this super cute diy so I thought I'd share it. ALL my paperclips shall look like this from now on. :D Hope everyone's had a great weekend so far ♥
Another quick post today. I wanted to recreate the effect of television static on my nails but with a pop of color. For this mani, I used a white base (two coats) and neon colored glitter sand, sprinkling randomly over the nail before the second coat of white fully dried. Finally, end off with two coats of Seche Vite to cover up the grainy-ness (is there even such a word!) of the sand. I like how the overall effect turned out, kinda reminds me of happy, fizzy candy powder. Mmmmm fizzy candy. Maybe I'll go grab some later. :) Cheers!
Sally Hansen's Celeb City, Essence's Underwater, ArtDeco Black and White striper polish
Just a quick abstract french mani using a base of good old Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Extreme Wear in Celeb City. Wasn't very happy that the black bled out when I applied top coat, but oh well, things happen when you rush through a manicure. OK. Off to watch 'One day' with my girlies. I hope I don't bawl. The last thing I need is puffy eyes at lab tomorrow.
Essence Choose Me!, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, Blue and purple art glitter polishes
Gradient nails! For this mani I used Essence's Choose Me!, a gorgeous turquoise glitter flecked with gold, as a base and OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark over the the tips of my nails. I sponged blue and purple glitter polishes across the middle to create the gradient then Seche Vite as a top coat.
Hmm, the pictures came out pretty grainy and its unfortunate that my camera couldn't capture the prettiness of Choose Me!. Other than that, the polishes are quite true to color. All advice on how to take better mani pictures will be greatly appreciated! :)
I'm not that big a fan of crackle effect polishes anymore, especially the whites - they either look like peeling paint or worse, Wite-out. However, I must say I am absolutely loving Lightning Bolt over mosaic rainbow nails.
7-9 different polishes should make a good rainbow mosaic. Go as crazy as you want with the color choices. Crazy is perfect for this nail-do. ;)
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