China Glaze Reggae To Riches & Cirque Fascination Street

Howdy!

I had this manicure two weeks ago and only managed to post it up now. I have another one pending.. oh my, even blogs have backlogs!

What you see here is China Glaze Reggae To Riches; I knew of this polish last year and was secretly lemming for it. Well, I did it discreetly because I had a long list of to-buys and was distracted by the new collections popping out in seasons. I just didn't have time to look back. Now, when this RTR caught my attention in Star Trinkets, I bought it without hesitation.

I mentioned before, Color Makeup 5 could be a dupe but no, it's not. CM 5 is a fuchsia-near-neon-more-pink-tone with blue flash. CG Reggae To Riches is violet pink with bluish-purple shimmer.

Shown on my nails, 2 coats with topcoat.

Yup, bubbles on them. Bummer! (pun intended!) My instinct told me to blame the polish. Then I sat down dejectedly, because I knew some of the bumps were the result of my rough nail beds. I was one of those kids who bite nails, and continued doing so into my adulthood. I only managed to quit the ugly habit two years ago. By then, no surprises there, my nails are dented with teeth marks. Looks like I gonna rely heavily on ridge-filler from now on! :(

[side-note] When I put RTR on, it reminded me of Nicki Minaj. She's always in violet, pink or fuchsia.. I can't shake off her image from RTR. The hair color and body suit may not be perfect match to RTR, but still... 

I lived with the bumpy manicure for a week. On that Saturday, I made an impulse move by putting Cirque Fascination Street on the tips. It was supposed to be a "gradient" effect. Yea, supposed to. Didn't look like it that way:

A medium shade is missing to create the gradient flow. I didn't have time; I was already running late for appointment. My impulse action sequence began by putting weight from the brush on the tips and light strokes from top to mid-section - all these were done in less than 3 minutes for 10 nails. That's faster than waiting for instant noodles to be ready at the table. Yep, that's instant for you and end results, for a noob like me, produced such bad color-coordinated manicure. HEE, sorry if they are eyesores :)

I owe Cirque Fascination Street a proper introduction. I will do a better NOTW for FS, I promise. In the meantime, check out FS' holographic effect, taken indoors:

Till next time, let's hope for a better manicure!

Orly Galaxy Girl

Monday blues anyone? I'm not because in a week's time I'll be leaving my company! Can't say I'm sad to part ways with them but I'm actually moving back to Singapore in early March. I have been living in Malaysia for 7 years and grew to love every part of it; places, food, people... Due to personal reasons I gotta pack my bags (tons of them) though I'm very-verry-verrrrrrry reluctant to go.

Anyway! I'll be extremely busy in the remaining days of my stay but nail stuff cannot be skipped! :) Last Wednesday was my birthday and Orly Galaxy Girl became my birthday manicure! Nope, no poor attempts on nail arts, I suck at it! Let's not spoil the awesome polish, shall we?


Bottle pics!

Orly Galaxy Girl is part of the Cosmic FX collection, sibling of Space Cadet. Compared to the latter, Galaxy Girl appears matured, subdued and mysterious. Space Cadet is like a child on a rampage, flaunting all out with its glorious colors :)

Galaxy Girl is a mix of plum purple with berries, topped with disco blue, violet, green and gold flecks. Plumish, think eggplant. The overall shade on the nails look like burgundy, winey with purple as base. Interestingly, though it's in different purple, Galaxy Girl with its name reminds me of Hit Girl in Kick Ass movie!

Courtesy of Screencrave

My swatch didn't do any justice, I was too lazy to work on a proper table and chair, opted for a couch instead with big windows at the side. With the humidity and heat, my manicure resulted in bumps and bubbles. Ugh.

It's difficult to capture the true colors even with all the angles, contortions and twists. Not that colors are deceptive, it's just the topcoat applied that were too shiny to allow color accuracy. Have made a mental note to avoid this for future manis!

Galaxy Girl is a duochrome. Albeit it's not flashy, all colors on the nails ding-a-blingbling onto your eyes without deliberate movements needed. What you see in the bottle is exactly what you get on your nails. This is cool, you don't get to have such polish often!

I normally refrain bad photos making their way to the blog but this is an exception for Galaxy Girl to show you the color shifting goodness this babe has.

2 coats are good for coverage but I used 3 for the bumps (yea it didn't help).
Do you have Galaxy Girl too? Do you adore her as much as I do?

Orly Space Cadet

Heya everyone! How was your weekend? For this post I'm showing couple of photos of Orly Space Cadet from Cosmic FX collection.

Bottle pics first -

The polish from Orly Cosmic FX collection is unique: textured like minerals in glass-speckled manner and extremely well-duochromed. 

Quote from Orly:

The MINERALFX technology includes specialty mica, that allows for a clearer, vibrantly bright lustrous shimmer. Crystals allow for a multi-dimensional color transformation. Glass particles carefully controlled in shape and size create a luminous phenomenon. This combination infused with the Silica and specific colors selected create this exclusive technology that gives nails a unique optical effect that’s magnified as the lighting source intensifies or viewing angle changes.

So many colors flashes insanely even from the bottle -

Pink, copper, gold, green... even purple/plum

This pigmentation is thin, you need to put either 2 thick coats or 3 thin layers for decent opacity. Application is excellent, brush is good and Orly rubber cap is simply awesome for grip and control. However I did my manicure in a humid condition and resulted in bumps...

Under artificial light, the color changed to plum-pink-purple. Under natural light, the green with gold undertone shone. Orly has created a new standard for duochromes: You don't have to contort & twist your fingers to find the duochromes. You can see the colors on the nails at any angle or even when fingers are at rest! The glass speckles add dimension and depth to the overall look. Fabulous.

I have another bottle from Cosmic FX collection: Galaxy Girl. Will swatch it soon!

Nubar Indigo Illusion

Hey readers, how are you? I had a busy social week which includes the A|X anniversary event, two friends' birthday parties and celebrating my ex-boss's new job.

For A|X event I changed my Sparitual Sacred Ground mani to Nubar Indigo Illusion to match with my navy blue pedicure (shade is almost similar to Orly La Playa, but a level lighter).

Initially I wasn't sure about Indigo Illusion, it seems a tad faded for duochrome and washed out for a fashion event. It's extremely sheer so I tested it over black base, the color changed to metallic pink and olive green, just like Nubar Wildfire. I had to put 3 medium coats of Indigo Illusion on my nails, which used up 1/5 of the polish in the bottle (heart pain).

Here's the bottle pic, on the left is Sparks S082 bought from SaSa;

In the bottle, Indigo Illusion has a fantastic array of shimmering blue, pink, gold and green;

Sparks S082 is a clear polish filled with prismatic crescents flakes and tiny round glitters. To be honest, it's so much denser than Nicole by OPI Step 2 The Beat Of My Heart. You'll definitely get the flakes and glitters on your nails without effort.

On the nails, I only have greyish blue, violet-pink and green. The gold did not show up. I smudged my ring finger's nail so I used Sparks S082 to conceal the mistake. Didn't help much but it's a good layering polish, especially for accent nails.

(Photos were taken 2 days after manicure)

It was a harsh week, my cuticles and skin were dry and brittle. I had over-cut the cuticle on my pinky resulting in long laceration at the edge. Imagine my scowls when applied with acetone polish remover and polish. It was painful!

Duochrome is at its best on Nubar Indigo Illusion. In reality, without top coat it dried to satin matte finish even though the shimmer settled down to oil-slick smoothness. No twisted angles or various lighting needed to reflect all the colors. Green is strongest under the shade, Denim grey-blue is obvious under indoor artificial light and every intended colors show up in natural lighting.

A blurry macro shot;

Splash S082 is so interesting on Indigo Illusion that I added it to my thumb as well. Even with prismatic flakie and glitter, the duochrome doesn't shy away!

I love duochromes, they always pose a challenge to cameras... you have to take multiple shots to find the colors as seen in reality. I found the missing gold shimmer blended with green, you gotta contort your fingers in a way to see it!

Earlier on I expressed my concerns on the faded, washed out shade but all worries erased after applying them. Nubar Indigo Illusion is gorgeous! It's subtle from far but amazeballs within distance! Whereas Wildfire is eye-catching, Indigo Illusion is a hidden treasure. I found myself staring at them throughout the whole week!


3 coats of Nubar Indigo Illusion
1 coat of Splash S082
1 coat of Seche Clear base coat
1 coat of Seche Vite dry fast top coat (I used 2 coats on ring & thumb to seal the flakies)

Nubar Wildfire + Color Club Smash Hit

Hey everyone! How was your week? It's been a busy one for me and was so tired after end of each day that I couldn't keep my eyes open after 11pm.

Before facing the hectic week, last Saturday I painted my nails with Nubar Wildfire. It's an unusual color that you either love or hate. I have Wildfire for quite sometime, bought from a Facebook sale and a quarter was used by previous owner. I was hesitant to try it not because of the color but because of the remaining 3/4.. that's precious amount left in the bottle!

So here it is, Nubar Wildfire, from Going Green collection. You can see the duochrome from the bottle. I put on Elianto Twilight Zone as base in order to bring out Wildfire's color.

L-R: Nubar Wildfire, Elianto Twilight Zone

Application for both is good; Nubar's brush is thin but not hard. Surprisingly Elianto's brush is quite wide and applies like a dream. Pigmentation for Wildfire is quite weak, you'll need at least 2 coats for coverage on its own. Twilight Zone is a one-coater, opaque in one swipe! But drying time for both doesn't pass the mark; both take approximately 5 TV commercials to dry, so yeah, patience is needed here.

Unfortunately time wasn't on my side, I had to meet friends for late lunch that day and was rushing to complete my mani. Things done in a hurry result in imperfection, as you can see from the photos. Gorgeous Wildfire became a mess by my hands! I also didn't have time for snapshots so below were taken the next day, with sun blazing in the sky.

Nubar Wildfire. Outdoor, in the shade

Outdoor, in the shade.
My camera doesn't like duochromes so I contorted my hands to show the colors!

Nubar Wildfire is olive green but flashes bronze, pink and weeny bit of gold. It's really interesting because while olive green may not appeal to many people, this seems to please the eyes, no matter what skin tone you have. Personally I don't favor gold because it dulls my skin but Wildfire works for me. I was wowed by the first coat and blown to outerspace after the 2nd!

You don't even have to move your fingers at different angles to find the duochrome, it is so obvious at ALL angles! That's the quality of Nubar duochromes, they are not hidden like others... in fact they are out to impress!

Outdoor, under direct sunlight

Outdoor, in the shade

Indoor, natural light

It garnered enough attention from two male colleagues, they were awed by the colors flashing in and out on the nails :)

I had tip wear on the 4th day and since I didn't have time to change my mani, I slapped on Color Club Smash Hit to cover the flaws. Not done well but at least it does its job. Somehow the application became very difficult to work with, I didn't have issues last time but the polish is very thick and gloppy. Some bald patches on the nails but as with crackle polish, adding second layer will cover the base completely.

Wildfire peeking through the crackle

Awesome duochrome against black, pweeettyyyy!

Now I understand why Scrangie and others commented that it's magical when crackle polish is applied over duochromes. The colors still flashes insanely through the cracks; crazy zebraic (new word by me) mystical and oh-so-diva!

1 coat of Elianto Twilight Zone
2 coats of Nubar Wildfire
1 coat of Color Club Smash Hit
1 coat of Seche Clear base coat
1 coat of Seche Vite dry fast top coat

Daiso Color Makeup 25 & 5

Hello readers!

I hope you like what Joyce had presented in the previous post :) She's into pastels, neutrals and soft shades and her nail work is always excellent! Whereas for me I prefer bright, dark and odd colors with high contrast. Today I'm showing my nails in bright theme, perfect for the toes but hey, it looks so fun on the fingers too!

Scanning through my stash I found Color Makeup 25 in tangerine and 5 in fuchsia magenta. From the bottles, 25 is a neon orange and 5 has an interesting blue reflection. That spells duochrome to me. Nice! But both smell awful, really awful.. like expired cheap aerosol. If you look at the bottle pics, 5 fuschia magenta is a perfumed (scented) polish! While painting, I smelled my nails and was choked by the chemicals. When dried, Color Makeup 5 had a subtle rose scent. Not overpowering, you only get it if you bring your nails very close to your nose.

L-R: Color Makeup 25, Color Makeup 5; both from Daiso

Color Makeup 5 (fuchsia magenta) is a perfumed polish

I put neon orange on my ring finger nail as accent nail. Both colors really pop! So summery, vibrant and flashy. I love these kinda colors :) Make mondays less blue, tuesdays more bearable, wednesdays easier to pass by, thursdays a breeze and friday a blast!

Outdoor, under the shade. Not vibrant enough? Look at the photos below...

It's striking under direct sun. Did you see the blue duochrome on fuschia magenta?
(my index's was marred by bedsheet.. argh)

Right, the blue flash! It's even more evident under artificial light (indoor). This seems to be a dupe for OPI Kinky In Helsinki and China Glaze Reggae To Riches. I don't have both to compare though...

This is the most accurate color for both 25 & 5, although magenta shade is brighter in reality

Application was surprisingly smooth. Neon orange has a jelly finish. Both are sheer in one coat but completely opaque with 3 thin coats. Even 2 coats will be good to go if you don't mind the faint VNL.

Another wonderful thing? Considering that I put on a brand-less top coat (no Seche Vite in order to avoid shrinkage), they didn't chip for 5 days! Only minimum tip wear on the thumb, the rest still solid and strong! , These are definitely keepers!

Oh and I managed to leave a gap between cuticles and polish. Maybe a little too wide but I'll work on that :)

For RM5 per bottle with top-notch quality, I'll make more trips to Daiso from now on!

3 thin coats of Color Makeup 25

3 thin coats of Color Makeup 5

OPI Ridge Filler

Brand-less top coat