Cirque Ophelia & her flowers

Hello readers!

This manicure was done weeks ago and I only get to post it now.
Be warned, it's a photo-spam post!


I bought OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from a sweet lady who posted about the sale in Facebook. Usually I won't get an expensive white polish since most of the time, I will use it as base. But this MBSW is not the typical white, it's a shy white with grayish blue undertones. Which I find it to be interesting. Not too bright and sparkly yet still look clean and polished :-)

I used two coats here, first thin layer and medium coat on the second. This white is not streaky and covers nicely without giving any issues - this is a white gem! Most of the whites are patchy on the nails, either runny or too thick. Not this one. MBSW is the new white!

To jazz up the chalky nails I added blue flowers on ring and thumb, with Cirque Ophelia on the rest of the fingers!

I used two coats of Ophelia:

And realized Ophelia's cornflower blue is not a close match to the flower's :-(
In retrospect, I should put one coat of Ophelia to complement the whole manicure (albeit the mismatched color)

Anyway...

Cirque Ophelia is another pwetty.. it's like your nails are spammed by blue fairies' dust! I'm not a big fan of glitters but this has a place in my heart. It has that soft, delicate and naive look.

I'm not sure if Cirque named it for Hamlet's Ophelia; it just occurred to me that my manicure plays right into the character!

When Ophelia went mad after her father's death, she was observed to be in white gown, walking in the streets mumbling to herself and sprinkling wild flowers. Later on, she fell into the river and drowned, her body flowed with the stream, flowers weeping from the trees and rested on her body, echoing a delicate and tragic end of her short life.

Ok, back to reality.

If you're wondering about the flowers, I bought them from BornPrettyStore. It comes in a set of 12 assorted flowers at a very affordable price:

To help you understand their sizes, here's a reference:
(the rest, except green, are bigger - they cover three-quarter of my thumb nail)

Are you tired of reading already?
I will make this quick.

After few days of feeling 'uneasy' about the blue combination, I removed Ophelia and did a simple french mani in MBSW. Ok they weren't perfect... well that's because I did it in the office toilet! How many of you did that too? Own up! Haha!!

Last to add; I bought Cirque Ophelia from Mei Mei Signatures. She has wide range of nail care and polish brands - from salon to indie ones! Go on, click and take a look.


Right, you can rest your fingers from scrolling the page now. Thanks for reading!

Bloom to be MANiDiva!

Hellllllllloooooo!

Today is a special post: I have a model for the manicure! And that's none other than Mr C, my better half :) Yes it took a few months of offhanded-suggestions, few weeks of hinting and two days of persuasion to nod his head in resignation!

I can't put a finger to why I needed his nails for the manicure, but it started as a joke and spun off to a request since his nailbeds are flat, big and wide to be a polish canvas.. lol!


On to his manicure!

Since he has tan complexion, I wanted to bling up his nails. I decided on Bloom Costa Rica (hot red creme) and Bloom Seoul (dense silver glitter) - both were brought in by my friend from Australia :)

Both polish are well-pigmented; they are one-coaters! Application was a breeze. It applied smooth and buttery. Seoul is so tightly packed with glitter that it's impossible to act as layering polish. As for the brush, not too bad, not wonky, not naughty, just a little on the thin side.

I used two coats of Costa Rica as base. I know it was opaque in one but I didn't cover the ends well so two to round up. After it was completely dry, I used reinforcement ring stickers to create half moon nailart in Bloom Seoul. Well apparently it wasn't that dry yet, cos' the sticker smudged the red base on the pinky. And I added too much Seoul on the half-moon, it became a mountain.. lol.

I gave more time for the rest to dry up and while waiting, decided to dot up two nails instead. Using a dotting tool, I randomly dotted the thumb's and ring finger's. After that I completed the half-moon art on index's and middle's. Hmm, ok, they weren't half-moons, and they were in different shapes and sizes. Oops.

Though the art was poorly executed, I'm still glad I did it!
Since it has de glamour look on a man's nails... I call this a MANiDiva! :P

Last shot before Mr C cleaned it off!

Above pics were shown without top coat.
Thanks for reading!

China Glaze Aquadelic

Hello there!

I bought China Glaze Aquadelic from Star Trinkets two weeks back, along with two other CG polish: Passion, Reggae to Riches. They are under TSS Blog Sale, click on the links if you wanna catch the rest of the goodies (but pls leave some for me!).

If you don't already know, Star Trinkets is owned by a nice lady called Susan, whom has a personal nail blog called The Subtle Shimmer. She blogs almost daily, with good details on the polish and great swatches. Do visit her sites!


I have used China Glaze Passion for konad stamping in my previous post. So today I'm showing China Glaze Aquadelic! It's turquoise with more green than blue; bright but definitely not neon. It's a summery color, makes one cheery and happy!

As with most of CG polish (or from those in my stash), application is smooth, well-pigmented and not too runny. But it became thick after 30 minutes, which made it harder to manage. Brush also tends to pick up more polish and result in globs deposited on the nails.

It would have been a good manicure, except it bubbled. Or so I think? I am beginning to wonder if those bumps are the result of the imperfections on my nails. I could have used my ridge filler but I painted my nails on a weekday night and didn't have time to redo everything. The next morning I rushed to take photos and zoomed off to work.

Anyhoo, photos show two coats but you can easily get away with one. I freaked out on the bumps and tried to cover them up - of course it didn't work.

And since it wasn't done well, I shall be kind to your eyes by not spamming this post with more photos :)
Thanks for reading!

Nubar 2010 with Orly La Playa

You see, I'm so free on Saturday that I'm putting two posts up. All these manicures were done in a span of 2 days. Applied, removed, applied, removed. Mom was shocked that the nail polish remover was depleting at an alarming speed. Without waiting for further nagging I bought a new one from Watsons. And, bought Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. Couldn't find that Colorstay top coat though.. since it garnered many positive reviews online. WHY did I get a new top coat? Because my dear Seche Vite leaked during transition! It had 10% left and was gluey and such, but now it's a milky mess and in solidifying state. SOB!

Anyway anyway... am showing a famous layering polish here. This season has various polish that produce similar effects but since I have this baby in my stash and failed to glorify it last time (click here & here to understand better) I decided to layer it on Orly La Playa, latter being my trusty blue base :)

First up, a picture devoted to Orly La Playa. True blue, royal blue, inky blue, navy blue... yea it fits to all these descriptions. One-coat is good enough but I want to be 110% opaque, so two coats applied.

Now for Nubar 2010. A clear polish with iridescent flakies. Holographic flakies. Didn't know it's so outstanding till now. Fool I am!

Above was done with two coats of Nubar 2010 without top coat. Placing flakies can be trying but I learnt by brushing same layer twice-thrice on the nails to quantify them :)

When applied I became increasingly aware that it looked almost similar to Cult Nails Clairvoyant, though the latter comes with purple base and doesn't have gold element in it. I will do a comparison next time!

Below is a swatch of single coat of Nubar 2010 on Orly La Playa.

Nubar 2010's awesomeness cannot be ignored. I'm sure the similar flakies from CND, Color Club and others  are outstanding as well but for me, I'm superbly contented with this one :)

Have a great day ahead!

China Glaze For Audrey & ELF Chocolate = Let's Play!

Hello readers!

It's a Wednesday, mid-week of early March and I have almost lost count of the date and days because I have been bumming at home :) Left the company and currently having a helluva time packing and cleaning. Nonetheless, I did not forget manicures!

This is done last week, a simple design and require little effort. All you need is masking tape to create the shape. My friend said they looked like Play buttons and hence the post title, ha!

First up, as usual, bottle pics!

For this manicure I used China Glaze For Audrey and ELF Chocolate. My CG is almost finishing and application is thick and gluey, making it a chore to apply and to even out. ELF Chocolate is a delicious brown true to its name, like chocolate fudge. It dries glossy, super shiny.. surprising for a polish belonging to a non-dedicated polish brand!

For Audrey is a Tiffany blue but of course it's not the exact color, it should be 98% similar and this dreamy cottage blue suits ALL skin tones. I was a fool to use it for nail art, it's so pretty on its own. To compensate I used it for pedicure :)

I apply CG For Audrey as base and let it dry completely. Using masking tape, I cut various triangle shapes and placed them onto nails. After which paint one or two coats of ELF Chocolate and remove the triangles. Let dry and add top coat. Ta-daah!

Besides looking like Play buttons, do they remind you of anything? Do you like this design? :)

Funny Valentine Nail Art

Greetings everyone! Today is the notorious V Day, one of the most expensive days to be celebrated by everyone, be it for singles or couples. Flowers bombed holes in wallets, dinners only come in couple sets and seldom cost less than RM50 per head... What else.... oh, gifts are always in red, pink or anything pastels and come in balloons, rings, cards, cushions, plushies, chocolates, couple tees, couple jewelry and etc etc etc. Unless you DIY, things are pretty standard on this special day.

So!! I decided to freestyle my manicure for this occasion. Free hand nailart is my first and I don't have proper brush and tools to draw. I relied solely on dotting tool and toothpicks.

I used Elianto White and Bloop H124. Didn't manage to take bottle pics but for Bloop H124, you can view it here. 

Ok here's the thing; I hesitated to post this up. The end results are quite horrendous. I always know I'm bad in drawing and to draw in mini size is far worse than I can imagine. Without any good brush and tools the whole thing became a kid's drawing on a lazy afternoon. Heck, even my 9 year old nephew can draw better than me!

Take a deep breath, prepare to view an image that may spoil your Valentine's day... and of course, feel free to laugh!

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TA-DA!

Yes, nail art gone wrong. Design lacks creativity. Drawing epic fail. Adding the damage is the top coat smudged the pink onto the white! I should have painted a topcoat before drawing anything on it. All in all, it's a failure.

BUT I created this with my boyfriend in mind. The middle finger in the first photo is my boyfriend's initials. He's on 2 years overseas term so we don't get to meet often now. 

To decode the rest of the drawings: 

• First photo - index is xxx (i miss u); ring finger is an angelic heart (3 dots = angel); pink is a smiley face. 
• Second photo - middle finger is VD (i know it looks nothing like tat); thumb is patterned with mini hearts.

I think I describe too much on a bad manicure. Ha! Time to sign-off.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you have a great day ahead :)

Bloop H124 + Konad

Hello readers! For those in Asia, it's gonna be a long long weekend yes? Chinese new year is 'round the corner, and rightfully so since it's Friday today and reunion dinner falls on Sunday. I wonder, what is your typical family reunion dinner? Ala carte yummy dishes or seafood steamboat? Do you have it at home or in restaurants? Every year we have home-made steamboat, lots of impossible-to-finish ingredients and tons of chatter with laughter. Dad will bring fresh seafood from Sabah and mom will prepare tasty soup stock. Sadly this year I'll be staying put in Malaysia, missing out the family warmth and togetherness. Ahh... homesick especially during Chinese New Year.

To compensate my miss, I did a bright manicure, though not exactly a CNY one but a color that is lively, loud and happy. I use Bloop H124:

It's a deep pink with rays of neon on it. Yes it's bright though it's not obvious in the bottle. On the nails it's blinding against the sun, oh yes. Quite a festive color, good for occasions and hence I used it for pedicure too.

I stamped it with Konad white polish on M57 image plate:

Here's the outcome!

I regret not using Konad topcoat to finish it off because my Seche Vite stained the white to pink :-\ Okay though it's still not that bad. I double-stamped on my thumb's, index and middle since the image is too small for full coverage. You can see the overlapping mistake on the index finger.

Bloop H124 is a really fun color, application is great; I used 2 coats for opacity. Disappointingly brush is wonky so it takes patience to paint the nails properly. You can get it cheap from Watsons, I bought it for RM7.90 only.


Before ending this post, I wish everyone A VERY PROSPEROUS HAPPY NEW YEAR!

OPI Steady As She Rose + Konad

Happy New Year!

I was away for the last part of December and was kept busy since then. After my Sabah trip I changed my manicure to a more subtle one, mainly because I needed to meet my future HR to officiate my position. Initially I intended to keep the manicure clean and simple but the rebel side of me konad-ed it, not with one but three designs on the nails!

Steady As She Rose is part of the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean 2011 collection. It's a dusty pink or more accurately, a muted lavender shade. For stamping I used Elianto White.

I used image plate M44;

In the beginning I only needed one image to create a half moon design but it looked lonely so I added two-line image on top. That made it queer and ended up with vertical stripes on the tips :P

It was my first to create complex konad design on the nails and my placements of each image still need further improvements. Nonetheless I'm quite pleased with the outcome :)

Splatter Mani in Blues

Greetings! December is a busy month isn't it? Mine is all about travelling for holidays, to attend interviews, for family gatherings.. Sometimes I wish we can slow down our festive pace and reflect on the things we have done for the past months to sum up 2011. When the year passed by, we will be tied up in daily stuff and tend to forget about simple pleasures we used to have.

Anyway...
I have a fun manicure to show you today! I learned from Polishaholic about splatter mani few months ago but didn't have time to try (add to the fact of having a slight phobia in cleaning up ever since the water marbling experiments). It's always in my to-do list, so, making use of a long weekend I sat down and patiently completed this manicure - though I redid two nails - with success!

Instead of neons and reds, I opted various blues for the splatter:

I used Elianto white as my base, the rest are in different shades of blue - Nubar Baby Blue, Splash S031, Splash S061 (awesome shimmery midnight blue that gives depth), Essie Lapis of Luxury (cornflower blue) and Sasatinnie FCGL001.


Special mention to Sastinnie FCGL001: It's a sheer blurple with irregular-sized colored flakies! Copper, yellow, green flakies swimming in the bottle and it's absolutely visible on the nails. I bought from SaSa for RM8.90. Cheap but so pretty, polish addicts are you excited yet? Or you have them in your stash already? I have another one in copper brown :)

To avoid extensive clean-up I followed Polishaholic's advice by wrapping my fingers with tape.
To make the splatter, Polishaholic used Ikea straws. I was curious on the effects of each splatter used on different straws so these are the ones I had:

I cut them in half and used the bottom part to dip each straw into each different blue polish. Then from the top end of the straw I puffed out the polish (a single strong puff will do). It's not always on target, some of them landed on the paper towels and most of the time globs of polish were splat out instead. So yea, it's another messy affair second to water marbling. I find that the black and white straws gave better splatter than others.

This is how it's like after all the splattering. Looks terrible at first glance huh?

Taking deep breath and measuring my patience, I carefully cleaned up my fingers and cuticles with cotton buds (some call it Q-tips). Now I present you, Blue Splatter Mani!

Right hand

Left hand

Okay the clean-up is less than perfect. And the imperfect splatter is what makes it look unique! If you take a closer look, the Sasatinnie flakies are flashing among the seas of blue!

This splatter mani is well-liked by my friends and colleagues. It's eye-catching, fun, easy to do (albeit messy) and doesn't require painting skills - Why don't you give it a try too? :)

Hope you like it!