March 29, 2013

[Nail Arts] Easter Inspired Manicure

Students are not excited for Easter for sure, but we WELCOME it! It's like a spare 4 days in the writing/reviewing hells lol!  Easter is especially meaningful for me, because I remember that my first ever manicure was themed on Easter as well. It was 2 years ago, that I entered the colourful nail polish world.
I believe, since then, I improved a lot on my nail arts (also bought too many nail polishes, they are like multiplying now!). Yeah, here you go!

I used five base colours, from left to right as follows:
Orly-Spark
Essie-Play Date
Essie-Mint Candy Apple
Essie-Tart Deco
OPI-Strawberry Margarita

March 20, 2013

[Nail Arts] St. Patty's Day Nails

 I always wonder what St. Patrick's day is about, and people answer me "It's an Irish thing!", yes, but why St. Patrick's? Why we celebrate that in Canada?
Anyway, even though I don't really celebrate St. Patty's day, I still make a nail art for it! Just to get into a festive mode!

March 16, 2013

[Stamping] When Laura Marries Maria

The title makes me laugh, but that's what I was thinking when I discovered those nail polish names lol. Augh, not exactly, I was thinking "when Laura sleeps with Maria..." haha.
March 10, 2013

[Gel Nails] My First Ever Home Gel Experience


Yes, I am  so excited for this mani!! I know that a lot of people are doing gel nails for a long time already, but I have never tried it myself.  Shellec is so expensive, usually about $35-$45 if you want to go to a salon (Imagine how much nail stuff you can buy from that money!). I know that they are rock-hard and shiny, better than Acrylic nails for heath reasons.  However, I like to change my polish often, and I do not need that 2 weeks lasting power at all :)

You may guess, my gel experience actually is a complete coincide!  I received my February (yes last month) Glymm bag yesterday and I wasn't happy with them. I will write a separate post for that. The funny thing is that it came with my March Topbox at the same day! I received a 'gel' nail polish from my February Glymm bag; it is a small bottle by a campy called Nailuv. Never heard this company before. The colour is "Berry Sweetie".  So far, I haven't seen anyone received a different colour, otherwise I would really love to trade some others in!

When I read the instruction on the box, I "suddenly" remember that I own a LED polish light. How come? It's a very long story and I am not going to talk in this post. LOL. I can see why some other girls feel frustrated to receive a gel polish, because they also need gel top/base coats to do the manicures.  I am fortunately to have some minis kicking around. I am excited as much as scared, first time to do anything new is always scary.  I follow the instruction came with my LED light package, and use the Nailuv colour.


Ta-Da! It's not too bad right? When I was doing it, I had feeling that the LED is not strong enough to cure the polish.  I purchased this LED light in Wal-Mart, because it is the cheapest option! I heard that LED light has long life span compared to the UV one as well.  I didn't expect too much!


Look how shiny it is! I really LOVE it! It has some blue/purple shine!

I am so thrilled by that prefect smoothness!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE what I came up with!!! so PRETTTY!  The colour is very similar to my Ciate Cupcake Queen! But Berry Sweetie is more shiny and more blue reflective light!

In case if you interested, this is Ciate Cupcake Queen Swatch!

I will update again soon about what I think about my first gel experience and some pictures in daylight. You will see how beautiful it is under the sunlight!
I am a little worried because I don't know how to take them off yet, haha!   Let's see what will happen!

[BE CONTINUED]

March 8, 2013

[Just Colour] A surprise purchase ! Revlon Girly


I picked this babe up in the London Drugs when I was shopping for groceries! I was immediately in love in the first sight.  I love the purply pink colour and the multi-glittery in the bottle. This finish belongs to the recent nail trend finish- milky glitters. I did not own any shades of milky yet.  Usually, I don't follow the nail trends on the market, because I cannot afford to acquire all the finishes at the speed they come out on the market.  Most of the cases, I seek for clearance bans, sale items, discontinued shades or sets.  After all, students are poor, and I do not have part time jobs now.  Revlon polishes are not that expensive, but I have so much trouble to work with them.  They dry much  slower compared to other nail polishes. The polish itself is often very watery and hard to control.  Yes I know that I don't like Revlon, but I still purchased the Girly because I love the shade!

The bottle itself looks very promising!

Look that glitters, I looove it!!

This is my right hand, you may notice that my left hand nail is longer than right hand's now, I broke few nails and had to cut them down to look normal that's why :(

It's very beautiful!

I love that sparkle feelings, made me feel very princess-y!

The glitters are pretty, I love the colour combination!

Last picture!

Overall, I am very impressed by this colour. I usually get tipwear quite fast with Revlon, Girly is no exception. It takes long time to build the opacity for the pictures you see. I need 4-5 coats, because it is very sheer. I don't think I will purchase other colours from this collection, but I definitely adore Girly!

What do you think about it?

March 6, 2013

[Just Colour] Horrible Nail Polish X Magic

 I purchased 1 New year mystery boxes from Julep.  I joined Julep since October, but I skipped most of the monthly boxes. Why? They are very expensive!  I love Julep's customer service and idea, but I cannot afford to pay 3 nail polishes for $20 quite often.  I figured out that the mystery box usually contains at least 4 colours are the most economical option for me.  Of course the pitfall is that you cannot pick the colours and it might result in repeats.  I have no trouble for that, since I only own few of them :)

I tried the colour Brant, it is dreadful! Absolutely dreadful!  The colour did not go on smoothly, and it was so hard to apply. I messed up a lot. It is a disaster!

Brant, by itself is a dark black. That's it. End of story.

You get what I meant. Just a black...


Well, I actually had a lot of trouble applying Brant :(


I was going to take off this once I applied it.  However, I suddenly remember there is a nail polish that my friend gave to me a couple weeks ago. It is a very sheer colour looks kinda mix stuff. I wasn't too impressed, because I hate frost/shimmer finish types.  It definitely cannot be wore alone by itself.... Anyway, I am going to take off Brant, why not try that one on top, so I can freeze these two colours in the UNWANTED PILE? So I did.

The nail polish is Sally Hansen-Blue Frosting!
It is amazing, SO STUNNING!  It's duo-chrome type topcoat! I was so speechless!

Because Brant wasn't very even, so that resulted in damp surface!


It's very beuatiful!


I have trouble to catch that dual-chrome effect, that's why I have so many pics!


Colour changes according to the angles. you can see why I don't like Brant :(


Mostly blue, but actual there is purple!


Another hand!


Close-up!


You can see more purple from this angle!


I believe that people can find this polish in Dollorama now!


Anyway, I apologize for heavy picturings. It is very hard to catch the blue of this dual-chrome effect! You can see it is not prefect, just because I didn't have even surface to work with!

I don't see myself purchasing more this type of dual-chrome polishes, because the colour seems pretty limited! I have only seen in purple/blue/dark green etc, not on some other colours. I am wondering if that's related to what kind of chemicals can produce this reflection. 

I absolutely hate Julep-Brant, worse Julep nail polish ever!!

Anyway, what do you think about this combo? 
March 4, 2013

[Nail Arts] First Attempt for Nail Tapes

I ordered some nail tapes/strips in e-bay back in December as my Christmas gift to myself.  I have seen many other great bloggers did their nail strips. They are absolutely eye-catching!!!  I learned fast enough that this is only applied if you DID IT CORRECTLY lol.

I didn't expect the strips are so hard to work with. It is very easy to catch on hairs! It's not easy to cut the length that fits your nail perfectly.  It is also very easy to mess up!

I ended up doing something looks very simple, but took a long time for me to do this!

The colour is Ciate Headliner from my mini calender set.  I was thinking to create something TIFFANY-LIKE.  I didn't own any colour close enough to that famous Tiffany blue tho! (Later on I discovered I actually did.  I traded with a girl and I had Julep-Daphne, it's too late! such a bad owner!).


Anyway, it's the result:

I have to say, headliner is very very pretty by itself! I love a lot of Ciate colours!


Don't underestimate this simple nail art, it took me a long time and I wasted a lot of tapes!


I love this nail art a lot! Simple and elegant!


I am very sad that this only lasts for a day. I didn't apply the tapes properly, the ends pop up the very next day. This lesson teaches me that strips have to be done with caution, otherwise it won't look good and last long!

What do you think? I am wondering if anyone purchase the ciate minis too! They are sosososososo pretty!  I will never pay for their regular nail polishes, so expensive! But some minis will last me for a decade!
March 3, 2013

[Just Colour] Hailee Suede Finish

I purchased my first Julep monthly box back in November, because I was very curious about the 'suede finish'.  'Suede' sounds like fur-type to me and it is interesting!  I chose the 'IT GIRL' box which contains Hailee, Nora and a Matte top coat.  When I opened the box, my heart sink.   I didn't know that 'suede'=matte nail polishes!

Personally, I hate all matte finishs  It's just not that pretty in my eyes. I didn't mind to receive a matte top coat, because I can experience a little with matte.  However, I didn't expect Hailee and Nora to be.  I was shock and unhappy :(  

So that's why I haven't used Hailee until February, I tried to avoid to use that.   But the best thing of matte finish is that they dry faster than the regular nail polishes (also chips faster lol).  I really did not have a lot of time to do my nails this term, and it becomes handy if you just want something quick!

Enough said, picture tells the story!


Hailee is a medium dark green matte. I prefer this one over Nora!


The matte finish is not reflective!


Excuse my terrible cuticle!  I was very busy and I didn't have time to take care them :(

Surprisingly, I love Hailee a lot. I didn't expect myself to love matte finish, because I love everything glossy and shiny! You know, it's like you have gems on your nails :)  

Julep matte nail polishes are very nice. Of course I didn't have other polishes to compare with Julep, but the application is smooth and easy, love it!
I am excited to experiment with my Matte topcoat now! Woo hoo!


What do you think about Hailee?

March 2, 2013

[Nail Arts] Archaeology Inspired Nail Art

It's been a while since I updated.  I noticed that I didn't create a single entry in entire February! Can you believe that?  Of course I am pretty lazy on doing all the nail arts as well.  It's my last term before my graduation and I really want to try as many stuff as I can.  In addition, I am having a trouble with my archaeology class, which frustrated me a lot. Anyway, let's back to the nail talk!


I tried to minimize the time on doing nail arts now, since I am very busy. So the nail arts are not that special (admit to myself as well). But doing nails make me feel calm and happy :)

I did this nail art for the school opening! I was 100% excited to take an archaeology class this term (even though it turns out to be a disaster *sigh*)

The base colours are  Essie- Chinchilly and RGB-Toast that I received in my Glymm bag. My brother said that he cannot distinguish the difference, which is funny!  I love browny shades, so they are prefect for me!

Left Hand under Yellow light


Left Hand under white light


Right Hand under yellow light


Right Hand under white light

Well, I am left-handed, so of course the designs on right hands are often better than another :)

   
haha, does anyone know what's on the index figner? 


Close-up!


This is the first time I tried RGB, I have to say the formula and application are pretty good.  However, one bottle cost about $14? NO WAY for me.  This is the first nail polish I received from Glymm that I actually enjoyed.  I love their nail promotion, sounds like just RIGHT FOR ME. 

I did many other manicures during my absence, I will update them soon!

What do you think this archaeology-inspired nail design? I hope that my professor is appreciated (If he ever notices that? ) haha