YouTube Inspired...

Hello, hello! I'm sporting a couple of broken nails and it might be a while before they recover to a bloggable length so I'm bringing out some manis from the vault. 

We all love nail art, right? That's the reason why we are here on this wonderful thing called the internet right now. Not to be left behind, big cosmetics companies have jumped on the bandwagon and created YouTube channels to promote their products. I enjoy watching beauty/nail vloggers on the video-sharing website but all the Google algorithms have caught up on this preference of mine so I'm constantly bombarded with the aforementioned companies' ads and videos. I usually skip them as they lack the genuineness and creativity of the vloggers and they seem over-stylised which really puts me off; there's a reason why I'm on YouTube and not on your site!

For some reason or another, I ended up watching one and liked the colours they had shown together. Being the rebel I am (teehehe), I didn't go buy their products but instead used some older polishes from different brands to recreate the very simple tape mani they had presented.

I started with one coat of Maybelline Mini Colorama in Peach Cocktail, let it dry then taped off half my ring finger nail and applied one coat of Max Factor Mini in Purple Haze. I added a coat of Seche Vite to all my fingers and let it dry before applying stripe of Sally Hansen's Big Money over the very rugged edge I created on my ring finger. 

Tadah! Super awesome and original. 

The highlight of this mani was actually reusing Peach Cocktail. When I bought it a few years ago, I had no idea what a good formula was but I remember it being runny and having to use a 2-3 coats to get it completely opaque. This time it applied in one beautiful, buttery coat and the flakies/shimmer still showed up within the depth of the polish. Man... this polish has turned out so good, I didn't even have to clean up. I can just hope all my bad formula polishes do the same in a few years.

Is that shimmer on my thumb? At least you know, I don't retouch my pics...

If anything came out of watching that nail-polish-company YouTube video was the rediscovery of some cool polishes. And also having some vault manis for rainy days. I'm still gonna avoid them as much as I can though.

Till next time, 

Laura

GOT Polish Challenge: Stripes

When I saw the 'stripes' prompt for this challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I did it, but it didn't turn out quite the way I was imagining in my head. I took photos of it and all but I don't think I'm ready for it yet. I'll leave it for later... I started again with naked nails and brought two older polishes that I knew I liked and went well together. 

For the base I used two coats of Ulta3 in Bouquet, a lovely fuchsia crelly with lots of blue shimmer which was purchased at the beginning of 2012 for about 50c. I then brought out the striping tape and created an unintentionally uneven diagonal stripe pattern on middle and ring fingers. I used Sally Hansen in Bejeweled for the textured stripes and created a glitter gradient with the same polish on the rest of my fingers. I topped my pinky and index with a coat of Seche Vite.

Bejeweled was one of the first swatches I did in this blog back in June 2012 but it was so terrible I redid a swatch here. It's always been one of my favorite polishes because of the combination of colours, how quickly it dried, the relative easiness to remove this super packed glitter and the texture. I liked the way the glitter didn't sit smoothly on the nail and I believe this is the polish that started my luuuurve for textured polishes, even though this isn't labelled as one.

This was a bit of a rushed job but I'm still happy with the way it come out, I can't stop running my fingers over this textured stripes. 

Check out the rules for this challenge and other striped manicures below. There are some real winners in the.

Bejeweled: Take 2

I was supposed to have uni this morning but the floor where I was going to have class flooded and the class got cancelled. What is a girl to do with the time she would have otherwise spent commuting? Well, if you're reading this I'm sure you know the answer.

I present to you and uber-speedy manicure. I used two coats of Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Bejeweled, a small purple and larger pink glitter that takes two seconds to dry. Ok, maybe it takes fifteen seconds but you get the gist. I then applied Rimmel Pro Matte Finish topcoat but I didn't see a lot of difference as this polish dries fairly matte by itself.  Finished by stamping with Konad Special Polish in Black using Bundle Monster's BM-212 plate. I'm not sure what the motif actually is but the abstract look can also look good.

What do you guys think? I actually have done a post about 10 months ago with this polish but it was terrible! Think glittery cuticles, awkward hand position, a loooooooong post where I just kept blabbing on. You could say I'm trying to redeem myself with this one and hopefully the other one can be forgiven.

Either way, I love this polish and it's glittery goodness. I'm off to keep studying.

Till next time, 

Laura

No Glitter Jelly Sandwich Here

I think this post will be one of lots of confessions of my nail polish fascination. The first one would be the fact that I loooooooove the way glitter jelly sandwiches look (you know, one layer of sheer polish, one of glitter, one of sheer polish?). Every time one pops up in a blog, I can sit there looking at the pictures and find every sort-of-hidden piece of glitter in that particular manicure. Why haven't I done one? To be completely honest, I have about 30 untried polishes (would that be confession number 2?). I feel like I need to start using those before I revisit any of my older ones that I know would work for that particular look.

While looking through my polish drawers, I found one of my untrieds that was very glittery, Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Bejeweled. I have this sort of compulsion at the moment where, if my nails are bare, I need to apply polish immediately, otherwise... I'm not sure what would happen, since I usually give into the urge. So on the Bejeweled went  without hesitation and I thought I could create some sort of jelly sandwich with it. After applying the first layer, I realised I had the order of the polishes wrong, decided to abandon the idea and just enjoy the one-colour-of-polish-at-the-time experience. 

Once two layers of Bejeweled dried, I looked at my nails and came to the conclusion that such glittery, pale colour didn't suit my skin. I went back to the polish drawers and found a more colourful glitter to put on top, which ended up being Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink. I liked the look but the holographic glitter in Bejeweled got lost with the Rockstar Pink. I applied a last, very thin layer of Bejeweled and this was the final result.

I guess this would be bring me to my third confession. I don't plan what I'm painting on my talons 99% of the time. If I ever do, it turns out completely different or I don't end up liking it, so spontaneity is usually the key for me.

Anyway, we're all here for polish, not confessions. I'm sure you've seen the bottles around but I'll show you again just because I can.

The Gem Crush polishes came with a flat, stiff, medium length that is AMAZING for picking up the glitter. No having to fish for it or lay the brush really flat and hope that the glitter will stick to your nails. Sally Hansen has done a good job with this one. 

Now, after all the blabbing, here's a picture of how the transition of this mani happened. On the left, two layers of Bejeweled, in the middle, one coat of Rockstar Pink over two coats of Bejeweled, and finally on the right the creation of the glitter glitter sandwich (was that a creative name or what?).

This extremely glittery mani was also extraordinarily gritty. I'm hoping the two photos below can show the difference. On my left hand (left photo), I applied three thick coats of Essence XXXL Shine Gel-look Top Coat and the grit could still be slightly felt. On my right hand (right photo), I didn't apply any top coat and I think you can see the difference. 

Not sure if you noticed from the pictures above but my right hands looks a little rugged. This would be confession number four. My right hand usually goes without moisturiser, base or top coat and when I painted them the polish goes all over cuticles and fingers. It's not gonna get photographed, so it can be left untreated, for lack of a better term. Oh no! Not after this pictures. My right hand will be treated with as much love as the left. After all, it does most of the work...

And last but not least, I hate nail polish remover. I dread the moment when I have to take out the cotton and soak it on that smelly, irritating substance that removes the beloved polish.  When I applied all the glitter above, the first thing that popped into my head was the fact that at some point I would have to remove it. Well, that's what happens when one wants to sparkle. No pain, no gain.

Fortunately for me, all the grittiness with no top coat cracked in day at work. The below photo was taken on my lunch break because I felt it wasn't going to last the whole day and I wanted to show you. *Warning: The following image might disturb polish lovers.* 

My shoulders now rest lighter getting all that off my chest and I can breath easily (since I didn't have to unpolish one hand!). I hope I haven't bored you though.

Until next time, 

Happy polishing!!