Australis Mates Rates

Wow it has been that long since my last post.. almost 5 months!
Time to dust off the cobwebs and revive Nailbytes!


What I have here today is Australis Mates Rates which I believe is only available in Australia. My friend was there for a month and I have asked for nail polish, specifically only made in Australia. Boy, he came back with a bundle! Not only did he manage to get those Australis polish which I painstakingly picked from online reviews, he also managed to get Face of Australia and Bloom! I will post the swatches soon, all in good time :-)

Australis Mates Rates is a deep forest green polish with gold shimmer. The gold overlay gives a dark olive shade. I might have mentioned before that I usually avoid green on my nails because it doesn't suit my skin tone, creating a washed out look. However I suppose it only applies to greens in pastel, jade and dusty shades.. with Mates Rates my nails look fab!

Application is smooth, drying time is fast too. But the brush is left to be desired; a bit hard, kinda rebellious by refusing to obey the directions. Not sure if this is an isolated case, will test out other Australis polish next time!

This green baby is opaque in two coats; you can have it in one and with one you can see a teal underlay:

Under direct sunlight, the gold shimmer is very evident on the nails:

In natural daylight it reflects the blackened green with gold peeking out in certain angles:

There are bubbles on the nails, hmm. I suppose in such weather with constant movements while they're still wet (i was walking to and fro in the house lol) give rise to these bumps. It's pretty on its own but to hide the hideous imperfections I resorted to stamping :-P

I used China Glaze Passion (metallic chrome gold) for the leopard prints. Turned out to be better than expected!

*excuse the dry cuticles! it's been awhile they took the center stage in macro shots!

All above are shown with 2 layers of base coat (to prevent staining). No topcoat.

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 :)

China Glaze Urban Night + Color Club Fashion Addict and Konad

Hello there! We're now entering the last month of year 2011. How has this week been treating you?

I was in Bali for the long weekend, though I enjoyed myself but I didn't like the night scenes in Kuta and Legian. Weather was hot, humid but the sunset view was spectacular!

Before my trip I put on this manicure and by the time I came back, most of them were chipped off. So right now I'm "cleansing" my nails by leaving it bare with a layer of top coat.

For this post I'm putting up tons of photos... It was a day with unpredictable weather. Sunny at first, raining after that and moody storm followed through. I was also rushing to complete my mani to attend my cousin's wedding... with these factors, please forgive the unclean and imperfect look!


Here's the bottle picture of China Glaze Urban Night and Color Club Fashion Addict:

Remember I have Color Club Revvvolution that doesn't have any holographic effect? I decided to test other Color Club's holographic polish by buying Fashion Addict and Worth The Risque. Unfortunately the holo that was raved by bloggers did not show up on my nails either.

Color Club Fashion Addict is a sweet lavender polish that's packed with shimmers. Below photo was taken indoors, painted with two thin coats.

Holo? Meh.

Fashion Addict in outdoor, under the shade.
Holo? Zits.

Finally Fashion Addict under natural light, outdoor.
Holo holo? Nope. I don't see it.

Despite the non-existent holo, I like the shimmery pastel shade even though a stronger tone of lavender with brighter shimmers would be more suitable to be called Fashion Addict. Nonetheless, a pretty color for my mellow days :)

Next up is the base for my mani. China Glaze Urban Night from Metro collection!

China Glaze Urban Night is a rich true purple that looks yummy and inviting. Others call it an eggplant color. I must say I quite like it, a color that's not over- or under-stated yet stood out like a royal being. It's the perfect shade for Fall and I love how China Glaze aptly named it as Urban Night... it looks metro chic and sophisticated, doesn't it? :)

As with other CG polish, it takes two coats to reach opacity and builds up beautifully. High gloss and fast drying too!

Ok on to the real stuff! Below are my Konad mani with leopard prints, using image plate M57.

I used CG Urban Night as base and CC Fashion Addict for stamping.
Taken without top coat:

Hang on... did you see the holo in Fashion Addict? It's shy, it's subtle but YES IT'S THERE!

I suppose the holo effect is only visible in small areas, most probably due to it being a scattered holo. Oh well, at least I didn't get a dupe!

However the holo effect vanished when I added a layer of top coat:

I was a bit skeptical on the design but it caught a lot of attention! I get questions from colleagues, acquaintances and friends on the stamping process and they were quite, in fact, in awe! That really made my week a great one!

China Glaze Westside Warrior + Trendsetter and Konad!

TGIF!

I haven't been posting much, I know. My card reader isn't working right which caused significant delay in transferring photos from camera to hard disk.

Today I'm showing a konad mani! YES I HAVE KONAD SET. FINALLY!

I bought Konad Special Set at a discounted price, thanks to Groupon. I actually received it in late October and my first attempt was pathetic. I did it with Nubar Baby Blue for my bestie's wedding ceremony and if you recall, I was ashamed to post it here since there were awful bubbles and bad stamping work on my nails. I had serious issues with Konad polish, they are very gooey and dried too fast. I couldn't transfer the image to my nails properly and everything went downhill from there. I almost gave up but I remembered other bloggers had recommended China Glaze polish for stamping. Hey, they're so damn right. It glided on smoothly, easily and with the added benefit of various colors to play with!

Here's the picture of my Konad Special Set!

This set includes:

• Instruction CD
• Step-by-step guide in paper
• Product catalog
• 5 Konad special polish (red, white, green, pink pearl, black pearl)
• 1 Top coat
• 5 Image plates (M3,M36,M44,M55,M57)
• 30 Rhinestones
• 1 Image plate holder
• 1 Stamp and 1 Scraper

For my manicure-of-the-week (MOTW), I used China Glaze Westside Warrior and Trendsetter from Metro collection Fall 2011.

China Glaze Trendsetter is a mustard-olive polish with subtle shimmers. It looks sandy indoors but dazzles under the sun. Pigmentation is superb, a medium coat will reach opacity! This may not be a congeniality shade, much like OPI Who The Shrek Are You. I, however, like how unusual it looks on the nails. As I said, hidden gems are the most treasured.

China Glaze Westside Warrior is in military green shade. The color from the bottle appears a level lighter than how it looks on the nails. I took the photos after a heavy rain and lighting failed to reflect the actual color. What you see is a tad darker than in reality. Think of it as the color in army fatigues.

It's a little tacky on the application because it drags and result in patches. But it builds up beautifully; I applied two coats for complete coverage.

Are you ready to see my 2nd feeble attempt in stamping? It wasn't perfect but at least they transferred to my nails.

I chose the zebra stripes in M57 plate.

Taken without top coat and before clean-up:

After a layer of Elianto top coat and Seche Vite top coat:

After the storm, sun came back with vengeance. It was too sunny so I took a shot of my left hand indoors. I'm a leftie so my painting skill is left to be desired:

If you notice, the lines on my right are different from my left's. For my right hand, I placed my fingers on the table and stamped the image but for my left's I lifted them to my eye level. I would say image looks better by using the second method!

And I gotta say I'm very pleased on the color combination. It's not in stark contrast but both complemented each other well. With Trendsetter's shimmers, it bounces on and off against the light!

I only tried China Glaze For Audrey once for marbling so I didn't know how good their polish are. After this round I'm impressed. The brush is easy to work with, pigmentation is great and they are sooooooooooo glossy and shiny. China Glaze is renowned for very good reasons. Thank you CG.

If you would like to purchase Konad products, click on the links:

Konad Malaysia
Konad Singapore
Konad Facebook (malaysia)

With this mani I renewed my interest and confidence in stamping. I intend to do it few more times, even with Konad polish and plan to get more image plates in the future. Meanwhile I'm striking out Konad in my Wish List :)

Have a good weekend!