GOT Polish Challenege: Purple

My purple Golden Oldie polish without doubt would be B Collection by Bloom in Dubai (which is no longer in sale!!!). I have done a few posts praising it and showing it as a base and part of nail art. Since I got Dubai, I have gotten a few other purple shimmers by different brands that may have their own qualities but this one has a very special place in my heart. 

For today's challenge, I wanted to create a white based purple gradient with glequins but that turned out to be a terrible experiment. Then I had recalled this post from Penny Pinching Polish, where she tries a heap of polishes for stamping over black and white to see what works. I never really though of using sheer-ish polishes over black thinking that they wouldn't show up. Dubai as a stamping polish never crossed my mind so today was a good day as any to prove that this was a good all-rounder polish. 

The base was done with two coats of Union Jack Black by Butter London and once dry, I stamped it using Dubai and two patterns from the MoYou's Suki 04 plate. I topped it all off with one coat of HK Girl Top Coat. 

I was stoked with the way this turned out. The stamping gives the black a very subtle depth in the shade/artificial lighting but once it comes out to the sun this mani really lights up.

I didn't think I would be able to love this polish anymore but I just can't stop looking at the multicoloured shimmer. Isn't it pretty?

I had some trouble photographing the shiny version of this mani so I matted it to make it easier. Unfortunately, the matte top coat killed the shimmer and left some  bad brushstroke marks so I went back to shiny after taking the following photo.

Yeah, I like the shiny better.

I'm pretty sure Dubai is gonna stay on my 'favourite' pile until it runs out. 

Till next time, 

Laura

33 Day Challenge: 3 Favourite Polishes

It's the third last day of the 33 Day Challenge and I'm gonna make this super quick because I am tired but didn't want to miss another prompt from this challenge that is about to finish. Here we go...

Narrowing down the stash to bring out my three favourite polishes wasn't an easy task, they are all so pretty and each has its own qualities. I decided on the ones that were my first favourites of a certain type and that I still love. I started with a coat of Essence's Snow White (my first and only jelly), let it dry and stamped Essie's Penny Talk (my first one coater metallic that has been featured in this blog plenty of times) using the plate BM-417 and then created a french tip gradient with Snow White and B Collection by Bloom in Dubai (the first polish that lasted about 10 days on me with top coat and had an awesome formula, no longer on sale but I have three bottles of it :) ). Topped it all off with one coat of Seche Vite to smooth out the gradient. 

These nails were super hard to photograph because of how shiny they were and my camera was freaking out when I was trying to take photos in the sunlight. I brought the nails into the light box but the shine was still too much and I couldn't figure out what settings would work. 

Anyway, this is what I came up with and I'm in love with this stamped jelly sandwich. It's shiny, the colours work well and I came to realise I hadn't done something similar before.

Quick note, this is how the jelly sandwich looked like in the sun. Yep, I cropped the only half decent photo I took but it shows some of the pretty light that was reflected from my nails.

Don't forget to check out the other particpants' manis for today's prompt.

Sassy Paints Guest Post

Hello, hello! I'm gonna keep it super short today. I've written my first ever guest post for Sassy Nails as she's starting a Sassy Saturday Guest Post series and I'm a thrilled to kick it off. Yes, it's Sunday in Australia but think of time differences. :)

This is the preview but you can check out the whole post here. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Till next time, 

Laura

The Challenge Entry That Wasn't

I always wondered how nail bloggers got involved in 31 day challenges. Does one just find a challenge and starts doing it? Would one have to get an invitation to participate? Was there some sort of exclusive club I didn't know about that created all these challenges I saw floating around? I still don't know the answer to these questions but I was really happy when I came across the Oh Mon Dieu! It's The Rather Awesome 31 Day Challenge Giveaway!. As you may infer by the name, this is a challenge open internationally in which you can win prizes for completing each challenge and get up to 31 entries for the month, when completed. I came across it by the second day of the challenge and funnily enough, I had completed the first two entries unknowingly and figured I could jump on the 3rd day without too much trouble.

Excitedly, I thought of all the possible nail art I could create with the prompt Purple. One of my all-time favourite polishes is actually a purple by B Collection by Bloom called Dubai (no longer on sale) but a simple swatch wasn't going to do, so I created curved, black and gold french tips to spice it up.

Version 1: Two coats of B Collection by Bloom in Dubai on a base-coated nail followed by a coat of Seche Vite. Once dry, I painted Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Night Flight with the polish brush, let it dry, then applied OPI's Goldeneye for the gold and used one last coat of Seche Vite to smooth it all out.

I had a lot of BAD drag marks from using Seche Vite to dry the first two coats on all my fingers. I did it late last night and I didn't really noticed the marks until after I had taken the photos. By the time I was done editing the OK photos, I was too tired to fix them or do them again. Hence, version 2 was created this morning. Same steps as version 1 but iIapplied Dubai carefully and skipped the first coat of Seche Vite.  

I was really happy with the way it came out, even if all the tips had a different curvature/centre from each  other. Especially keen on the middle finger.

My camera was freaking out a little from all the shine on the nail and I couldn't really show a lot of crisp detail. So what would I do in these sort of situations? Bring out the matte top coat.  Doesn't that look cool?

I got some cotton fluff stuck on my ring finger, had to fish it out with tweezers, tried to smooth it out with matte top coat and hoped that it wouldn't be too noticeable.  

So we all love Goldeneye, right? When I was taking the photos for version two, I noticed there was a lot of green reflecting from this polish. I was wearing a green cardigan at the time so I took it off to make sure it wasn't that colour reflecting. In a much closer, the Goldeneye over black seemed to bring out a green tinge on what seemed to be translucent flakies. Night Flight is a green based black so that might explain the green. I wonder how Goldeneye would layer over other colours but that may be another post altogether.

I was really happy with the way this turned out and this curved french mani and colour combination are things I wouldn't have tried had it not been for the challenge. 

So why the challenge entry that wasn't? Well, when I checked out the prize pack that corresponded to Australia, I was a bit disheartened as there was nothing in it I didn't already own. This is not a critique on the prizes but it wasn't an incentive for me to enter the competition. The challenge bit was exciting but I know I won't be able to complete since I go back to uni in two-ish weeks. Maybe I'll start my own challenge... I'll like to see how that goes.

Have you been part of a challenge? Did you enjoy it? Any that you would recommend?

Till next time, 

Laura

Essie Matte About You. Or How I Thought I Was Living In a Lie

If you were to look at the matte tag in this blog, you may notice about a third of all my posts have been matted. I love the matte finish and the soft light it reflects. So far I've been using Rimmel Pro Matte Finish and I was in love. After reading a few blogs, I discovered that the this matte top coat was actually giving my manis a satin finish and not the full on matte effect. I decided to do some research and look for the best matte top coat to ensure I was actually in love with the matte finish and not the satin one. 

This is how I came across essie's Matte About You. I'd read in various places that essie MAY and OPI's Matte Top Coat gave the best results so off I went to this trustworthy eBay seller and only found MAY for sale. I got the bottle of polish today and I had to try it out straight away. 

I knew exactly what mani I wanted to try it with to have a truly matte finish. I started with two coats of Topshop in Celestial, a beautiful periwinkle blue creme that is no longer on sale. There are plenty of dupes out there but the quality of Topshop polishes is impressive so I stuck with this one. Please excuse the crappy clean up I knew, I would have to clean up the rest of the polishes later. They get cleaner, I promise. 

Once Celestial was almost dry, I dabbed one coat of essence in The Huntsman from the Snow White Collection. I even got a long bar glitter that I didn't know the polish included.  Dabbing FTW! This took a while to dry so I applied a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the process. 

This is where I decided to put one coat of Rimmel PMF on first to see it would compare to MAY. Pretty  and soft, right? 

I let the mani dry completely before applying one coat of MAY. 

I didn't really see any difference but the I thought it may have had to do with the layering of matte polishes. So I started again to make sure there was clear difference.

More after the break.

Neon Saran Wrap Mani

Or since I'm in Australia, should I call it Neon Cling Wrap mani?

Whatever name you'd like to give it, here's my first successful saran wrap manicure. I've tried it a lot of times before but it always looked lumpy or I would take off the base with the wrap. I learnt to be a gentler and it looks like it paid off.

I used American Apparel's T-Shirt as a base for American Apparel's Neon Pink. I then layered B Collection by Bloom in Miami and gently applied pressure while still wet to create the effect . 

It was actually a bit bumpy after blotting the wrap on my fingers. At the moment, all my topcoats have either yellowed so much they change the colour of the polish, or are rock solid and no thinner would save them. I'm waiting to for my first Seche Vite to arrive in the mail but it's taking forever. I was itching to post. 

Anyway, instead of topcoat, I used OPI's Natural Nail Base Coat. It seemed to even things out a bit and give it shine but it took foreeeeeever to dry and, after a couple of hours, still has a rubbery feel. It also seemed to dull the neon colour a tad. Can you tell? 

This was originally going to be the base for some tribal nails. I have been trying to get some done but every time my hands seems to get shakier/completely-uncooperative and ended up with a terrible mess. They will not elude me!!! One day, I'll draw the coolest tribal nails and everyone will be talking about them. Haha! No, not that far. I'll just have postable nail art.

Is there anything that's you love but haven't been able to recreate?

Till next time, 

Laura

essence Marble Mania's Silver Twister

I've had this terrible lemming for two metallic stamping polishes for quite a while. I know Essie's Metallics collection has had some good reviews on their own and as stamping polishes and they have a variety of colours that go beyond the usual gold and silver. Unfortunately, living in Australia means that they won't be available in stores for a few more months at least, if at all. I've also tried eBay, e-tailers, forwarding services from the USA. It's all either too expensive or they've sold out.

I also looked for Barry M Foil Effects and found them in stock at Ninja Polish at a fairly good price but the shipping cost was the same as the polish. So I kept looking and I've  bought  about three pharmacy gold and silver polishes but they're all too sheer for stamping properly.

In one last bout of hope, I went to Target to see if there was anything new. When I came across the essence stand, there was a display of polishes for their Marble Mania collection and saw this little beauty:

From what I see in the Essence website, this collection is mostly about nail art rather than just marbling. There's even a kit with two sponges (for gradients), orange sticks, a striper brush and a booklet with nail art ideas for sale. I didn't see the kit in Target but it doesn't really surprise me as it can be a bonus just having a few of the polishes available. 

I do this thing with bottles to see how sheer they are where I turned them a few times  while on its side and see how well they coat the glass bottle.With all the other polishes that I had bought for stamping (that didn't work out), you could see the polish in the bottle through the glass but not with this one. I had hope again and as I turned the corner I saw the essence Twilight Collection polishes. This collection has a very streaky, one-coater, gold polish that is amazing for stamping. It deserves a post of its own. There was only one bottle of each, so I snapped them up and run to pay for them.

After my little adventure, I started trying a few colour combinations and found out the best ones for the silver polish was a dark, matte base, at least for my skin anyway.

Polishes used:

Purple: B Collection by Bloom in Dubai

Silver: essence in Silver Twister

Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and Rimmel Pro Matte Finish

I did two coats of Dubai followed by Sally Hansen Insta-Dri so it would dry quicker and I could get on with the stamping. Then I applied the Matte top coat before stamping with the silver using Bundle Monster's BM-207 plate. I didn't add any top coat after that and I'm regretting it as there is already some tip wear on the stamping on my thumb.

I don't know if you've noticed but the angle of the hand is different to the way I usually do it. Turns out, I did a terrible job with my stamping and there were bumps and non-stamped edges so I had to turn my hand a little to hide the imperfections.

What do you reckon? Am I overdoing the matte top coat? Should venture into the shiny side?

Till next time, 

Laura

Too Random Skittle

I've had a few terrible manicures in the last couple of days that were not even worth photographing. I'm talking about extremely flooded cuticles that couldn't be fixed, crooked stamping, smudging of such said stamping, terrible colour combinations and bad gradients. 

This is the first one that looked sort of OK, even though I'm not completely satisfied with the result. I tried using differents textures ( a cream, a metallic and a glitter) in blue, green and pink that I thought would look good together as a skittle mani. Tried tying it all up by having a striped middle finger but the job was kinda dodgy and there's a piece of stray glitter on my ring finger that I couldn't remove!!!!

Anyway, I'll do and learn but here are the pictures.

The obliged matte top coat, which in my opinion, makes polish look a million times better. 

Polishes used:
Pink: B Collection by Bloom in Cologne 
Blue Glitter: Essence in Blue Addicted
Metallic Duochrome: Topshop in Eclipse
Top Coat:   1st pic: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri
                 2nd pic: Rimmel Pro Matte Finish

There you have it. I'm gonna Google Colour Theory and maybe learn a little about what looks good together and keep practicing with that tape.

Till next time, 

Laura

I'm in a blogging mood...

Two posts in one day? Yes, that's right. Laura is in a blogging mood. And also feels like she needs to do something with her day. So here we go.

A little while ago, I went to Mecca Maxima in the city and the lady that was serving me showed me this beautiful, sunny yellow by Nars but the $32 price tag put me off buying it. When I tried it in-store, the polish had an amazing formula and wasn't too streaky as yellows can be but it wasn't enough to justify it.

So I went looking for another yellow and I came across the discounted bin at Target and found Monte Carlo by B Collection by Bloom for only $5!!! It was a steal and I've had pretty good experiences with this brand. 

I also happened to get two Bundle Monster Nail Stamping Plate Sets and was itching to try them. I applied two coats of Monte Carlo and let them dry. They were fairly thick coats and took a little while to dry but I had patience that day. Generally, I like wearing really bright colours and their boldness doesn't bother me, but I'm glad I decided to stamp over this because it was B R I G H T. 

I have noooooo idea what colours go well together so I jumped on Google and checked out a colour wheel to see what would look with the yellow. According to my understanding of the colour wheel, a purple would look good (Colour theory? Laura has no idea). I grabbed an old SugarBaby in You Rock, I don't even know if they sell them anymore but it's in my stash and I might as well use it. I stamped very sheer and it looked more maroon than purple but I really like the effect it created. I used BM-204 plate for the stamping image and use OPI RapiDry Top Coat. 

I only took one good photo of the mani  but it does it enough justice, I hope.

Till next time.

Laura

End of Semester Manicure

Well... Technically the semester isn't over and still have about four pieces of assessment due in the following two weeks but I couldn't wait to post again. 


I've been wanting to do this fish braid technique for ages but I didn't find the time or I had disastrous attempts at it. As always, I found on YouTube on MissJenFABULOUS channel, and I loved it. Here's my attempt.

I got home on Friday night, after having three assignments due that day, and started making the braid on my ring finger which took  F O R E V E R and painted the rest of the nails on Saturday morning.  

Polishes used:

Purple: Dubai by B Collection by Bloom
Pink: Cologne by B  Collection by Bloom 
Gold: Goldie by Bloom Cosmetics
Top Coat: Rimmel Pro Matte Finish

I've also learnt the very important lesson of cleaning up the cuticles and how much better it can look when the polish is fairly even. I grabbed an old eyeliner brush and tried it out. It's OK but i don't think it will stand the polish remover for much longer. So it'll be my quest to find a good one.

I'll leave it short and sweet for today,

Till next time.