Showing posts with label black. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black. Show all posts

The Polish Well: Catching Fire



Hands up those who are excited about the upcoming Hunger Games: Catching Fire movie!! *sticks arms up and jumps around wildly*

Ever since I've read the books last year, I have been completely hooked onto this series and there was no turning back. So when I found out that Catching Fire movie was scheduled for release this 21 November, I jumped right into bed that same evening and re-read the Catching Fire book in one night. Naturally, with the story swimming around in my head, my brain went on turbo mode and before I knew it, I'd already made up my mind to do a mini Catching Fire collection. :P


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the-polish-well-the-wedding-dress1The Wedding Dress. (3 thin coats)
Heavy white silk with a low neckline and tight waist and sleeves that fall from my wrists to the floor. And pearls. Everywhere pearls. Stitched into the dress and in ropes at my throat and forming the crown for the veil.
A sheer white base filled with delicate shimmers and small silvery holo glitters. I nearly tore my hair out in frustration trying to capture this colour accurately. None of my pictures does it any justice. The glitters are more obvious and sparkly in real life. Under the light, it shimmers and glimmers with tiny holo sparkles. I am really happy with how it turned out.
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the-polish-well-roses-and-blood1Roses and Blood. (3 thin coats)
The smell of roses and blood has grown stronger now that only a desk separates us. There's a rose in President Snow's lapel, which at least suggests a source of the flower perfume, but it must be genetically enhanced, because no real rose reeks like that. As for the blood ... I don't know.
A delicate white base lightly tainted with red shimmers and a whiff of tiny bright red glitters. At least that is what I imagine President Snow's scent would be like in a nail polish bottle. Don't worry, I left it unscented.
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the-polish-well-no-nightmares1No Nightmares. (3 coats)
When I open my eyes, it's early afternoon. My head rests on Peeta's arm. I don't remember him coming in last night. I turn, being careful not to disturb him, but he's already awake.
“No nightmares,” he says.
“What?” I ask.
“You didn't have any nightmares last night,” he says.
He's right. For the first time in ages I've slept through the night.
Oh Peeta! You make me melt ♥ No Nightmares is a light blue-grey filled with delicate sprinkles of purple and blue micro-glitter and light shimmers. A beautiful accident for I did not set out to create this colour. For some reason, it gave me a warm, safe and fuzzy feeling - just like what I imagine Katniss would feel on a night like this with Peeta.

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the-polish-well-breaking-out1Breaking Out. 4 thin coats but also opaque on 3 thin coats.
A flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light. I'm thrown backward to the ground, body useless, paralyzed, eyes frozen wide, as feathery bits of matter rain down on me. I can't reach Peeta. I can't even reach my pearl. My eyes strain to capture one last image of beauty to take with me.
Right before the explosions begin, I find a star.
A deep blue jelly filled with silvery shimmers and micro-flakes that glow a a bright blue against the dark base. I tried very very hard to put in a lightning in the bottle but the closest I could get was how I imagine the night sky to look on the day of their break out. My camera freaked out a little from the shimmers buried in the base and I couldn't get a clearer picture of the delicate shimmery effect. You can see it on the swatchstick here. 3 coats are sufficient for opacity but I used four coats in the swatch above for a deeper blue.

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the-polish-well-catching-fire2Catching Fire. 3 thin coats.
I look down, fascinated, as my ensemble slowly comes to life, first with a soft golden light but gradually transforming to the orange-red of burning coal. I look as if I have been coated in glowing embers — no, that I am a glowing ember straight from our fireplace.
A sheer black base filled with glowy red glitters and copper/gold shimmers for that glowing ember look where the glitters catch the light. Not as fiery as a fire but burning within nonetheless.



So, what do you think of this collection? Which one(s) caught your eye?

PRE-ORDER INFO:

As with the other collections, the Catching Fire collection will be made available for pre-orders from tomorrow, 10 November 2013 at 7pm SGT.


  • Colours are available in the following sizes:
    • 12ml - US$10 each
    • 5ml - US4 each
  • Shipping rates are as follows:
    • International:
      • US$6 for the first 12ml / US$3 for the first 5ml
      • US$2 for each subsequent 12ml
      • US$1 for each subsequent 5ml
    • Singapore: Flat rate of US$4
  • This pre-order ends 17 November 2013 at 7pm SGT
  • Form embedded at the end of this post.


If you wish to place an order for the older colours, you may include them in your order list and I will see if I have any available stock for you.

GIVEAWAY:

To celebrate reaching 10k followers on Instagram, I am also holding a giveaway on Instagram! One lucky winner will walk away with a set of minis of this Catching fire collection. Please feel free to hop over to IG to participate in the giveaway :) Rules are available in this post.

May the odds be ever in your favour <3

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My Ten Friends: Astrochicken & Zero-G


Happy Sunday everyone!
So sorry for the brief absence! I had been busy with the pre-orders earlier so I didn't have the time to swatch/blog. I really ought to plan my posts in advance >< Anyway, I am happy to say that I have shipped out half of the orders and the other half are packed and ready to be mailed out this week! Keep a lookout at your inbox for email notifications with your tracking numbers!
Thank you for making this pre-order such a success!

With the pre-orders out of the way, I can finally do some swatching and blogging! Boy have I missed playing with all the pretties sitting in my drawers! I have some serious backlog by now so let's jump right into it, shall we?

Today, I have some pretties from a new-to-me indie brand - My Ten Friends - given to me by the lovely Denise from Dazzled!


Oh yeaa.. They look gorgeous, don't they? My mum walked into my room when I was swatching a bunch of polishes and Astrochicken immediately caught her eye. Her taste in polish is awfully trendy and bold for a woman her age. I am so proud of her ;)

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my-ten-friends-astrochicken1Astrochicken. 3 thin coats.
A sheer yellow base packed with shimmers and a handful of red, lime green and gold glitters in various sizes. As delicious as it may look, I had a nagging suspicion that it is not actually inspired by some space cuisine. So, I had a quick look at google and viola~ The word “astrochicken” is a name given to an egg-like spacecraft imagined by Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist, which would be launched into space where it would hatch and move around exploring space. At least, that is what I got from Wikipedia. The rest of the words were beyond me #_# Interesting concept huh? If it were ever constructed, I hope it would look as delicious as this polish does ;)


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Zero-G. 3 thin coats.
A sheer black base that simply explodes with silver holo glittery goodness that defy gravity - from hexes to shards. One of those that give you instant galaxy nails. The base is an interesting one and I am not quite sure how to explain it. It is actually a load of tiny black particles suspended in a lightly tinted base. It is apparent on the first coat but it builds up to opacity very quickly on the second/third coat.




Application was good. Although the formula is slightly on the thick side, it is still easy to control and the glitters spread evenly on the nails without any dabbing or placement. No fishing needed to get the glitters out of the bottle either.

So what do you think of these two colours? What are your favourite My Ten Friends' colours?

My Ten Friends polishes are available on their website or through stockists like Dazzled. For more information and updates, you may wish to follow My Ten Friends on Facebook and Twitter.

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

The Polish Well: BANG!


Happy Sunday everyone!
I can't believe the long weekend (we had 2 days of public holidays on thursday and friday) passed by so quickly. I still don't feel adequately rested! T_T

Anyway, I thought I would share some of my new concoctions on the blog today. It has been quite a while but I've finally finalised a new collection that is based on one of my favourite korean bands - Big Bang! I was introduced to Big Bang by my sister earlier this year and have since been hooked onto quite a number of their songs. The idea of a collection came about way back in March when I had a sudden bout of inspiration and created Hallelujah. Since then, I have mulled over the rest of the colours and I am happy to say that I've finally made some headway. Take a look:

p.s. you can click on the lyrics to enjoy the lovely songs on youtube :)



Fantastic Baby.
A berry red jelly filled with an assortment of glitters - holos, reds, purples, circles, squares, hexes and a sprinkling of shimmer. I had such hard time coming up with a colour for this song. Every ounce of my instinct told me to throw a bunch of silver holo glitters together for the dance number but I wasn't sure if I could come up with a mix that is better than what is already available in the market. In the end, I scoured through the lyrics and settled on "heartbeat" for my colour inspiration. Even then, it took me several tries before I came up with this. Quite happy with the squishy look. :P


Ego.
Red with gold and holo shimmer. Slightly darker than what it looks in this picture. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to capture much of the shimmer in the picture either - it is slightly more visible IRL :(


Love Dust.
A soft greyish-blue mint with subtle holo. This was partly born from my obsession with turquoises and mint and partly from Deborah's (lovevarnish) request for a soft mint holo. I took a look at the bottle after the shaking and mixing and "Haru Haru" immediately came to mind.


Monster.
A sage green with rose flecks and subtle green shimmer. This is not new to the blog and some of you might already know that this was from my feeble attempt at duping Butter London's Two Fingered Salute. I've since gotten my hands on the real deal and they are definitely not dupes. While the base colours are almost, if not exactly, identical, the shimmer and flecks are completely different. Nonetheless, I really like this lab creation and it seems to fit with the song so I've decided to keep it in this collection. :P


Lies.
A deep teal with a mix of aqua blue and green shimmer. Another song that gave me a difficult time but I am glad I finally had an eureka moment.


Bad Boy.
A deep blue with a mix of copper, blue and purple shimmer. This was another song that was very challenging to put in a bottle. In the end, I went with the colours of a beautiful sunrise that I happened to catch. I think this one needs a bit more shimmer for the colours to pop.


Tonight.
A deep plum jelly with gold, royal blue and purple shimmer-flecks. This was an accidental mix that came about because I was curious what I would get if I mixed all my shimmers together. I didn't go further than these three colours when I fell in love and abandoned my initial quest. I will toy with that again in future - though I suspect it may not look fantastic.


Hallelujah.
A mix of holo silver, gunmetal and lavendar glitters and with a smattering of purple shimmer falling within the depths of the black jelly. My very first colour of the collection and one which I still love.


Blue.
A slate grey with blue, green and silver shimmer. Inspired by the very first Big Bang song that I fell for. My sister had been playing Big Bang songs for ages but this was the very first that caught my attention. Unlikely most other korean songs that my sister played, this was unusually mellow and emotional. Till now, it is still one of my favourite songs by Big Bang so there was no way I could leave this song out. 


Phew. That was quite a whole lot of polishes, wasn't it? 
Now that you've seen them, which one(s) caught your eye?

As you might have noticed, I have temporarily placed my shop on hiatus and I am no longer taking any orders at the moment. Although I've enjoyed creating these new colours, I have yet to firm up any plans for my store so these polishes (together with the other colours) are not available for sale at the moment. I will post an update once I have a plan. 

So why am I showing these new colours to you, you ask? 
Well... apart from the fact that I couldn't wait to show you my creations, I've also decided to throw a small giveaway to celebrate my birthday this week! ^_^

The prize? The entire unreleased BANG! collection (minis) for one lucky winner!

The giveaway is open on this blog (details in the rafflecopter widget) and on Instagram (details on my IG post). All entries will be collated for the draw so you need not enter twice - duplicate entries will be deleted before the draw.
The usual rules apply so fire away!
Giveaway closes in a week's time on 18 August 2013 at 12am, SGT. Good luck!

Giveaway has ended


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Color Club: Halo Hues 2013

In 2012, Color Club took the nail community by storm with their Halo Hues - a gorgeous collection of six holographic shades with excellent formula. This year, Color Club once again lived up to all our expectations by delivering six more stunning holos:


Mindblowingly holo, aren't they? I've skipped the holos last year because they were too light for my taste but the 2013 ones come in more saturated colors so I caved in and snapped them up!

Swatches below are taken under indirect light and direct morning sunlight (super sunny - Singapore style). Please excuse any awkwardness in the sunlight pictures - it was so sunny I couldn't see a thing on my camera when I took the pictures. Please also excuse the weird red glow on the bottle in some shots - I was wearing my red t-shirt and the sunlight was bouncing off it in all directions... *_*

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Kismet. 2 coats.
A lime green-gold holo. I thought this would be my least favorite from this collection because I am not a lime person but seeing as I've already started using it for nail art, it looks like I do love it after all!

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Cosmic Fate. 2 coats.
An orange-tan holo. Interesting color - I haven't actually seen a lot of orange holos. It is not as mannequin on me as it looks in this picture. The morning sun made my hands look more orange than it actually is.

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Miss Bliss. 2 coats.
Pink holo. I am not a pink person either but this was a medium pink that was not too coy so I am ok with it. Plus, the holo-ness redeemed it all.

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Eternal Beauty. 2 coats.
Another saturated color... this is a medium purple holo. Really pretty. Not my usual shade of purple but I do like it a lot.

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Over The Moon. 2 coats.
A medium aqua blue holo that reminds me of Layla Ocean Rush. I am all for blues this year so naturally I had to get this.

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Beyond. 2 coats.
Charcoal black holo. Gahhh... no words for this beauty.

As you can see, these colors are really holographic so it was hard for me to capture a shot to show the base colors on the nails. I was only able to capture them on swatch sticks (on a cloudy day, no less) because the plastic swatch stick dulled the holo significantly (they blaze with rainbow goodness on the underside where I paint the polish) :

color-club-halo-hues-2013

Although the plastic swatch sticks dulls the holo, be rest assured that you can add a topcoat over these beauties to protect them from chipping. Thicker topcoats may dull the holo a little initially but the holo should be back to business once the topcoat dries to a thin film - at least that's my theory. :P I've tried topping them with my usual Seche Vite and it did not seem to dull the holo significantly.

Application for these pretties were excellent. Unlike other fickle holos, I did not have any trouble applying these over my usual base coat, NailTek Foundation II, and they only required two coats for complete coverage. Really, what more can I ask for? Nothing... except more holos? *flutters my lashes*

What do you think of these holos? Which ones caught your eye?

xoxo,
mich

Sparkles By Julie: Lost in Space & Strawberry Licorice

*knock knock* Anybody around? I'm truly truly sorry for disappearing for a week. Life has gotten a little busier this week - I am always heading out and hardly have the time to take a breather! xP Although I am quite free during work but I don't quite dare to work on my blog in the office. Heh.

I know that I have yet to complete the last instalment of the round-up series but I thought I would put up some newer swatches first before working on the last round-up post. Don't worry, I have not forgotten about the giveaway! It is officially over and I will be working on verifying the entries and picking the lucky winners asap! :$

So let's move on to the pretties that I have to show you today, shall we?


sparkles-by-julie-lost-in-space08
Lost in Space. 3 coats.
A sheer black filled with metallic blue, silver and holographic glitters of various sizes. Insanely sparkly and I can really get lost in the depth of all the glitters. You can of course layer this over black but I prefer to build up the color for the depth. The black base is slightly unusual though - it is filled with very fine black specks that somewhat resemble noise. I don't quite know how to describe it but it is pretty obvious on the first coat. It is no longer that noticeable thereafter but I thought it was pretty cool nonetheless. You can try spotting some of the specks on the glitters in the closeup on the left.


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Strawberry Licorice. 3 thin coats.
A silver foil accented with pink, purple and silver holographic glitters. The glitters are very sparkly and I love how they go extremely well with the silver base. I am also pleasantly surprised that this is not as brushstroke-y as I thought it would be! I did not experience any difficulty during application and did not have to make any extra effort to do my nails carefully. *double thumbs-up!*




As with my previous experience with the other polishes by Sparkles by Julie, I had no problems with the formula - the consistency was just right and application was a breeze. The glitters are also well-distributed and I did not have to fish around for them. I should add that I've tried her full-sized bottles this time round and the brush is not unlike other indie labels (eg. HARE polish) - they fan out nicely and are easy to control.

So what do you think of these colors?
If you wish to get some Sparkles by Julie, you can hop over to her Etsy store or check out Mei Mei's Signature (the exclusive stockist in Singapore)!

xoxo,
mich

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

Nail Ideas: Studded Nails

To celebrate the end of exams and to mark the end of a long hiatus, let's start off with a simple nail art!


After being cooped up at home for so long, I decided to bust out my Born Pretty studs and rock some attitude on my tips. I started off with one coat of Nails Inc Black Taxi and added the studs onto my ring fingernail while the polish is still tacky before finishing the mani with a thick coat of Seche Vite. It is really simple but the final look is very striking! 8)

I've worn this manicure for almost two days now and I'm really impressed to find the studs holding on so well (only the one near the free edge got scratched off). I can't wait to try out other designs with these studs!

Just in case you are wondering, I got the studs (Item ID: 2401) from Born Pretty Store and you can find them here.
You can also use our coupon code for a 10% discount by entering "HDL91". There are plenty of nail art supplies that you can find in their store at a reasonable price so I will definitely recommend this store if you are into nail art.




More swatches to come soon - if I could bear to remove this mani, that is. :P

xoxo,
mich

**Product was provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**