Nubar Raspberry Truffle

Happy Saturday! It has been a tiring week for me, travelling to different places for meetings almost everyday. My feet has shown obvious signs of exhaustion: dry, peeling and blisters. Walking long distance in high heels is really not easy!!

Last Sunday I painted my nails with a long-forgotten polish... Nubar Raspberry Truffle. I bought it from a nice lady who didn't like the color and sold it cheap :) It was in my stash for a year and kept hidden since. Silly me, such a gem should not be treated this way!

From the bottle, how can you not be attracted by it??? An interesting mix of red, copper, gold and green. Duochrome baby? Neh. You can see the color on my nails, it's dark chocolatey brown with intense red shimmer!

Below pic shows the camera focus on bottle color and  the true color on the nails. Yup, no copper, gold and green on the nails. Light is playing tricks on our eyes yea.

Nonetheless it's still a beauty. I have started liking dark browns on my nails and this gorgeous has captured my attention and stole my heart the moment I applied!

I'm not a chocolate lover, nor am I a fan of raspberry. But the name is apt! It does look like chocolate fudge with bits of raspberries on top and additives of sophistication and dose of vampyness. Love!

Application is flawless. Pigmentation is good, covers in two semi-thin coats. Red shimmer does its job well under bright light, chocolatey brown is at its darkest hour under artificial light and sheds its shadows to delicious brown under natural bright light. I embrace all :)


Raspberry Truffle in dark oaky mahogany

Raspberry Truffle in shimmery reddish brown

Humor me, look at the macro shots will ya?

This polish is from the 2009 Nubar Chocolate Truffles collection. Old one it is and hype has gone down ever since. BUT I AM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH RASPBERRY TRUFFLE! It's my polish to go!

*Above photos of swatch were taken without topcoat applied

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!

Nubar Reclaim

Hello everyone!

It'll be the last post before I fly off to Singapore today, the last post written in Malaysia :) I will be out of transmission in Singapore till I subscribe to their local broadband, I wonder how I'm gonna survive without internet! Sheesh. Once cable is up Nailbytes will continue on, please wait for me ya?


Before heading home, I have chosen the critically acclaimed Nubar polish, an all-time favourite: Reclaim. I bought it sometime ago and, just like Peacock Feathers and Royal Velvet, have since reluctant to swatch on them because they are oh-so-precious! Since I'm leaving and having seen the holo magic on CC Worth The Risque, I decided to leave Malaysia with a big holographic bang :)


Nubar has this funnel-shaped bottle that looks small which somehow vexed me because their polish is superb, colors are awesome and hey, why compromise quantity? But don't be fooled, it's of regular 15ml size. I just can't believe swatching it can cause significant amount of polish loss looking from the bottle!

Reclaim is part of Nubar Going Green collection and it's the only linear holographic polish among the rest. It's a young green, leaning towards the color jade and the holo turns the polish into goldish-yellow on your nails when in shade.

It only takes 2 coats to achieve opacity. Holographic polish that's pigmented, great isn't it! However I have application issues due to the brush, sometimes it doesn't agree with me and drag itself on the nails. But it isn't a big deal since it dried smooth, glossy and real fast.

Now, green is not my color. From experience my skin tone doesn't go well with greens, especially in lighter shades. But I do like Reclaim very much, the linear holo holds so much of my attention and awe that everything is forgiven!


All are taken without top coat. Below photos are shot indoor, natural light, daytime. Holo is visible though not too obvious. I have other polish that couldn't show their holo talent in the shade so Reclaim surpasses them all!

Here's the holographic bang when Reclaim is shown under direct sunlight!

You don't have to twist 'n turn your fingers to find them, holographic in Reclaim is e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Such a winner, totally glorified and deservedly so!

Are you a Reclaim fan too? Linear holo is still very much visible even with topcoat. Awesome yea? Definitely a keeper! :)

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!

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