modern nail color: July 2013

My 1st Attemp at Water Marble Nail Art

Hello dear readers!

Today, I'm excited to show you my first attempt at water marbling :) I know I'm years too late to try this trend. In my case, this was not as easy as it seems... you have to choose the right nail polishes otherwise, you'll end up with a blob of polish on the bottom of the cup of water... it happened to to me before :'( and for this reason, I thought trying more would be a waste of time and precious nail polish.

I have to admit that I love to watch water marble YouTube videos (I find them relaxing for some strange reason). The whole process is fascinating and the end results amazing. I know this manicure is not spectacular as many other water marbles out there... but, bear with me... it's only my 1st attempt ;)

For this manicure, I used three China Glaze nail polishes from the Avant Garden collection: Passion for Petals, Fancy Pants and Dandy Lyin' Around. The base of this manicure is Passion for Petals as well. I found that most China Glaze nail polishes are good for water marbling.

As you can see, the swirls of nail polish are not as much. This is because I was experimenting and I just added a few drops of each color in case I failed... but in the end, I really like the randomness of the lines.

Have you tried water marbling? What do you think of my first attempt?

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013: Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

Sent for Contest

After an agonising month of keeping my mouth sealed, I am happy to say that the day has finally come! Yup! It is time for piCture pOlish's Blog Fest 2013! For those who are new to the scene, piCture pOlish hails from down under and every year, a group of bloggers embark on a massive mission to swatch and showcase new colours from piCture pOlish for polishaholics to drool over. Well, at least that was what happened in the past...

This year, the girls from piCture pOlish decided to catch us all by surprise by having a huge competition instead to celebrate the Year of the Blogger! Yup! They have dedicated this event for all the bloggers and to celebrate what we do ♥ I must say, I was rather surprised and touched when I first heard about the theme for the blog fest this year. I might have mentionned it before but I think there are still many people out there who have the impression that nail blogging is a piece of cake. It looks deceptively simple but bloggers often put in a lot of effort to maintain their nails, painting them as perfectly as possible, photographing them accurately, editing the pictures and finally blogging about them - all these on top of living a regular everyday life (yes, we really do engage in other activities apart from painting our nails). For me, it has become slightly more challenging this year when I took on a full-time job after my graduation. I am often bone-tired after work and there were several occasions when I felt like throwing in the towel so that I can rest a little more during the weekends... but your comments kept me going, so here I am! ♥

So, before I digress further and get all soppy, let's talk about the competition, shall we? On 29 July, 7pm, local time, participating bloggers will showcase their own nail art creation to take part in the competition. All nail art creations will go into the running to be chosen to.... create a collaboration shade with piCture pOlish!! *excited dance* There are only three winners though - 1 voted by all of you, 1 voted by the participants and 1 chosen by the girls from piCture pOlish.

For this competition, I was given these three shades to work with:

Stunning, aren't they? I will post swatches of each of them but first... let's take a look at what I came up with. After wrecking my brains out, I've decided to unleash my inner Pollock to create this mani:

If you have been following me for a while, you would probably know that I can't really draw to save my life. And you should also know that it doesn't stop me from doing nail art ;) After all, there are plenty of nail art techniques that are really simple and idiot-proof! This is one of them. All you need is some pretty colours, a fan brush and follow these steps:

Start the manicure with a coat of base coat to protect your nails.
Paint your nails with a coat of white as the base colour and let dry.
Drop a drop of polish on a piece of paper.
Dab the fan brush lightly against the drop of polish so that the tips of the brush pick up some polish. You would want only a small amount of polish to get a streaky brushed look.
Run the fan brush down (or up) your nails to get streaks on your nails.
Repeat steps 2-4 with other colours.
Once satisfied, seal the design with top coat and you are done! (Clean up required, of course)

Because the design is really simple, you are free to use any colours that you like. Personally, I think analogous colours with a splash of complementary colour work very well to create a striking combination. If you like some texture, you may use varying shades of the same colour or make use of slightly sheerer colours to create the illusion of depth. The trio from piCture pOlish were perfect for this and that was one of the main reasons why I went with this design.

Now for swatches of each of the colours:

Flirt. 2 coats.
A bright magenta that certainly deserves that warning label on the bottle. And yes, it is more flirtatious than sweet so bring it on ;)
Before I forget, this hawt babe is a one-coater that applies itself. Super fantastic formula.

Violet Femme. 3 coats.
A deep bright purple that is slightly sheer but builds up to opacity nicely. Dries to a matte-satin finish - I think it really does have neon pigments! - so a top coat is definitely needed. I really love this shade of purple.

Kryptonite. 3 coats.
Now this is my kind of kryptonite. A deep dark green with chunks of holo particles and shimmers. Wonderfully shimmery and mysterious in the shade but all glowy and sparkly then it catches the light. You absolutely need to click through on the picture and look at the details in the original reso. I did not manage to catch the holo action but trust me, the chunky particles swimming in the dark green base is enough to make you weak all over too - well, maybe except the nails, they will be superhuman.

piCture pOlish is available on their webstore (everyday deals and international shipping available!) or through their network members. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for more updates.

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**Products were provided for contest participation. All views expressed are our own honest opinions. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

China Glaze: Sunsational Jellies

Sent for Review

Finally, the second half of the China Glaze Sunsational Collection - the jellies!

As you may have already heard, some of the jellies are quite sheer so I chose to layer all the colours over white in my swatches below.

Isle See You Later. 4/5 coats over white.
A blue jelly. The sheerest of the whole collection. It is so sheer that I wouldn't advise you to try getting it to reach opacity on its own. Because it is so sheer, the blue does not come across as deep as it looks in the bottle. Nonetheless, it is a gorgeous bright baby blue on the nails when layered over white.

Keepin' it Teal. 4 coats over white.
A green-leaning teal jelly that is also on the sheer side but slightly better than Isle See You Later.

Shell-O. 4 coats over white.
A coral orange jelly that screams fluorescent. With my thing for corals at the moment, it is no surprise that I really like this one.

Heat Index. 3 coats over white.
Bright hot pink jelly. Very aptly named. Hmmm... I think the next time I will add another coat or two to get closer to the bottle colour. I am surprised that I quite like this one.

You Drive Me Coconuts. 3 coats over white.
A relatively more muted pink with blue undertones as compared to Heat Index. It is still very bright though. The formula is one of the better ones in this half of the collection - I suspect it can actually reach opacity on its own.

Are You Jelly? 3 coats over white.
Another bright purple! It is also more opaque but the formula is a little patchy.

Now that you've seen all the swatches of the China Glaze Sunsational collection, which ones are your favourite?
(psst! If you've missed out on my previous post, you can check out the first half of the Sunsational collection here.)

On the whole, formula aside, I must say I really enjoyed the colours that China Glaze has put out for this summer. I am especially in love with the cremes. Because of them, I am officially a neon convert now. No kidding, even as I type, I am wearing some of them as a gradient on my toes - no worries, I won't be posting pictures of that. ;)

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**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

Black Lace and French Manicure and How to

Hello dear readers:

The nail art I'm posting today is a remake of something I already did once before I started this nail blog. It is a combination of French manicure and lace. Details on how I did it below:

I started with one layer of basecoat. Using Kleancolor in black, I painted French tips using the nail polish brush. I didn't use adhesive guides this time. I think it looks better if I use my natural nail smile lines as my guide.

I stamped on top of the nail bed area with a lace pattern from A40 stamping plate using Kleancolor black as the stamping polish. I wanted to give this manicure a bit more glam so I added one layer of a glitter nail polish on top of the French tip.

What do you think of the combination of lace and French manicure?

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Awe-Inspiring Easy Nail Polish Design

There is a very friendly, cute younger guy who works here (so sorry I didn't catch your name!) who is very, very helpful. He even helped my friend and I look up rather obscure polishes to check if they had it in stock. The lady who checked me out was rather gruff and completely ignored my attempts to make small talk, it was off putting but the young man working there more than makes up for it with his friendliness!

Awe-Inspiring Easy Nail Polish Design

They have a really impressive range for China Glaze, OPI and especially Nubar which can be hard to find. Most shades are in stock with the exception of really popular ones. They also carry a fantastic array of manicure and pedicure supplies.

Awe-Inspiring Easy Nail Polish Design

Try Le Chat polishes, they're one of my favorite brands yet highly underrated even among nail fanatics. I think it's the cheapest polish they carry too, at $2.50. Oh, you can pay with credit card but it's a $1 extra charge. Overall, one of the best nail supplies I have ever been too. One of the most organized, that's for sure! Definitely worth checking out.

Awe-Inspiring Easy Nail Polish Design

China Glaze: Sunsational Cremes

Sent for Review

Hola!! After enduring a terrible work week, I thought I would chase away all my sorrows and brighten up my weekend with some neons (pun completely intended)!

Despite all the hype over neon colours in the polish community, I have always avoided neons because I found them too stark and too eye catching for my taste... that is, until I saw the promotional pictures of China Glaze's neon releases for summer 2013. The pastels called to me and my eyes were immediately drawn to the blues and greens. I knew I had to have them. And I was right! Take a look:

Disclaimer 1: I've tried my best-est of best-est to get colour accurate pictures but my camera just refused to handle so much awesomeness. They are brighter in person.

Disclaimer 2: I did not go for any tanning session. The neons are so bright that my camera (and even my eyes) decided that I must have become tanner some what. Silly them.

Too Yacht to Handle.
Yup, this is a almost-neon sister of the famous For Audrey. It looks identical to For Audrey but when you put them side by side, you will notice the difference immediately. Too Yacht to Handle is a bajillion times brighter and For Audrey looks really dusty in comparison. Too Yacht to Handle also comes across as being slightly greener. Both are gorgeous in their own right.

Hightlight of My Summer.
A yellow-leaning pastel mint green. I really like it more than I'd expected. It is really bright. I'd thought Illamasqua Nomad is bright but it pales next to Highlight of My Summer. Nomad also has a tinge more blue than Highlight of My Summer. Yup, I do love these two colours.

Sun of A Peach.
An eye-searing neon peach. Ughhh I love this so much - unexpected favourite. Awesome colour with an awesome name to match. Just plain awesome. I wore it when I dropped by my workplace during my call break (needed to settle some personal matters) and my friend was completely blown by how fluorescent my nails were. Yup it is that bright.

Neon & On & On.
A neon pink with just a touch of coral. I thought I wouldn't like it but the coral is making me mince my words. Also an unexpected favourite.

Bottoms Up.
A neon bubblegum pink with a touch of blue. I am sure this would grace Barbie's nails during summer.

That's Shore Bright.
A bright red-leaning purple. The least neon of the collection - is it a neon? Nonetheless, it is still a fun summery colour to sport.

Now, you may have already heard of this already. The formula of these colours are not the nicest to work with. They apply streakily and do not level on their own. I suspect the white in the pastels is not playing nice - as usual. I found that it helped a little to use piCture pOlish's Revolution (meant to be a glitter base but it did not work as well as I had hoped it would be) - the colours applied less patchily that way. Seche Vite did wonders to level out the streakiness as well.

Nonetheless, I am really head-over-heels in love with the sunsational cremes. I liked that they are not the usual highlighter colours. They look less stark that way, don't you agree?

Ever since I have received them in my mail, I've pulled them out countless times to wear them one way or another. Just before I came back to work, I did this completely work-inappropriate mani just because I can ;)

I started with a white base and randomly sponged on the colours from the Sunsational cremes before topping them with a coat of black shatter. Oh yes, shatters do look good once in a while ;)

So what do you think of the Sunsational cremes?
My personal favourites are Sun of a Peach, Too Yacht to Handle, Highlight of My Summer and Neon & On & On... ok. That's not really helping :P
Which colour is your favourite?

Stay tuned for swatches of the other half of the collection ♥

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**Products were provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

Holographic Skittle Manicure and Stamping

Hello dear readers!

This is my first post after my painful thumbnail breakage... as you can see, I managed to keep some length.

It's been months since I purchased my Color Club Halo Hues collection and still they were sitting unused in a dark corner of my nail polish drawer. This time I thought it was a good idea to put 5 of them to good use and do a skittle manicure.

The Color Club colors that I used are as pictured on the pic below from left to right:

Cosmic Fate, Over the Moon, Kismet, Eternal Beauty, and Angel Kiss

I stamped a pattern from my Bunny Nails HD-A plate using Kleancolor black.

Both of my hands, can you believe I took this pic myself? :-)

What do you think of my attempt on the skittle manicure?

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Superb Nail Polish Trends

Here's what you need to watch for when you're here: -some of these nail polishes have been on the shelf for a while and I saw that some of them were starting to separate -you wont see a lot of the colors mainly whites/creams, pinks, reds, and purples 3 stars for the collection they have. Opi and china glazes have an abundant color choices but I'm not into that glittery stuff Verdict: 4 stars but I wouldn't come here often just for nail polish, about a 45 min drive, but I was in the area! HOOHAH!

Superb Nail Polish Trends

I will never get polish anywhere else again. How can you beat $4 Essie or $5 OPI. Anyone can go in and buy, you don't need a Cosmo license. The staff is helpful and friendly. Its nail polish heaven. They also have shells and gel polishes as well anything you could ever want for you nails and even hair products, they have here. I'm not sure if they have a huge theft problem, but when I went I was made to feel like a criminal even though I have no intention of stealing due to the amount of workers following me and staring me down. The male worker was friendly and was helping other ladies around me find colors, but the young female behind the counter had some kind of negative attitude when she asked if I needed help, which gave the impression she really didn't care if I needed help, and in fact hoped I didn't. She was the one who rang me up and her level of customer service was offensive. Do you really need to look at the cash I put down, look at me, look at the cash, look at me, then give a hard stare? The bill was $15.20. I gave you $20.20. The change is $5. I have never seen an Asian be so exasperated at the prospect of simple math!

Superb Nail Polish Trends

OPI is now $5, Zoya $4, Nubar $4, China Glaze is still $3 ($2.75 if you buy 10+). They claim nationwide prices have gone up, but I am still disappointed the prices have increased. However, it is still cheaper than anywhere else I've found & their selection is huge so I will probably be back in the future regardless, although it may not be a pleasant experience.