12 Days of Round-Up: Asian Brands to Watch

I apologize for being absent yesterday! I had a bad day at work and couldn't find the mood to blog so I went to bed early et violà! I'm alright again after a good night's sleep! :i

So let's continue with our last two round-up posts, shall we?

Lately, I've noticed some interests in some of the Asian polishes released recently. Ok... maybe it is just me but some of them are really worth noting! :$

Tony Moly

I first saw swatches of the Galaxy collection over at Steffels and it was instant love. I bought them and fell in love again (yes, even on my short nubs and dry fingers). I recently swatched them on my swatch sticks and I fell in love all over again. They are excellent. Then I came across the milky glitters and... gosh, I need them! Yes, they did a dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air but apart from that, they have been incredibly creative, haven't they?

It has been a while since I've seen anything exciting from them but I'm ready whenever they are!

Innisfree

Another Korean brand that has caught my heart in 2012. They have a huge range of polishes and they have recently upped the game by releasing some really gorgeous glitters too. Like Tony Moly, they are also not afraid to play with new color combinations and that's what I really like about these brands. Just take a look at some of the glitters that I've bought from their Star Sign collection!

Beautiful, eh? I really need to get back to swatching soon. So many pretties in my untrieds!

So, yupppp, these are two of my favorite Asian brands so far! What do you think of them? Have you tried any Asian polishes yourself?

xoxo,
mich

P.S. Don't forget to enter our year-end giveaway to win amazing polishes from both mainstream and indie brands! Ends 12 Jan 2013.

12 Days of Round-Up: Mainstream Favorites

Whoohoo!! We are officially mid-way through our round-up! I hope you are enjoying the series so far! It is something that I have never tried before but I do like sharing some of my favorites with you and hearing from you about your favorites!

Today, I have some of my favorite mainstream polishes to share with you.
I must confess though, I did not buy many mainstream polishes this year. With the colorful indies everywhere, it is starting to require much more before a polish wow-s me - as if I am not already picky enough. :P

China Glaze Riveting. 2 coats.
Bright and fiery. I am not a fan of orange but I couldn't help falling in love with this.

China Glaze I'm Not Lion. 3 coats.
Light champagne holo glitter that is incredibly sparkly and elegant - just the way I like my bling.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire. 1 coat over Zoya Kelly.
Magic in a bottle. I know there are a lot of polishes with the same color-shifting shimmer but I love Fantasy Fire because the shimmer really pops in the sheer purple base. I have never worn it on its own before but I just (like half an hour ago) painted it on a swatch stick. I can stare at it all day long. I will try to take a picture soon!

OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest. 2 coats.
Inky base with fiery red shimmer. This was an instant favorite from all the fall polishes by the mainstream brands. Simple, elegant and smoking hawt at the same time.

Innisfree #101 (Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream Dupe). 3 coats.
A polish that looks like the shimmery scales of a mermaid's tail - or at least it looks like what I imagine a mermaid's tail to be. I didn't even know it was possible to replicate the perfectly textured look in a polish! For sweeping me off my feet like that, it deserves a spot on the list. I'm using the innisfree dupe because I am a pauper but you know I am referring to the original. :i

Of course, the blue-greens are also on this list but I thought I shouldn't bore you with a repost ;)
What are some of your favorite polishes in 2012? :h

xoxo,
mich

P.S. Don't forget to enter our year-end giveaway to win amazing polishes from both mainstream and indie brands! Ends 12 Jan 2013.

Innisfree: #85 (Raspberry Yoghurt)

I feel like a zombie lately. My coursework is growing heavier by the day and with the other things that I am working on, I think I've bitten off more than I could chew. :( At times like this, it is perhaps unavoidable that I've resorted to retail therapy. I didn't plan it but it just happened. o"o

So, before we get overwhelmed by the next haul wave, let's try to finish swatching the polishes from the previous haul(s) before the untrieds get out of control, shall we? :$

#85: Raspberry Yoghurt. Sandwiched with OPI Barre My Soul.

Raspberry Yoghurt is a light pink/lavender filled with pink and gunmetal hexes of different sizes. Super delicate and pretty. I will even venture to say that it is work-appropriate but, of course, that's just the nail polish addict in me speaking. ;)

Raspberry Yoghurt is part of Innisfree's Yoghurt collection of milky pastel glitter polishes (#81 to #85). Although all the colors are very yummy-looking, only Raspberry Yoghurt called out to me. On hindsight, I'm kind of regretting not picking up the green (with pastel lime and orange glitters) - it looks really fruity! 

Application was not exactly breezy. The formula was a little thick hence I chose to layer it over a base color. I think I will thin it with some thinner the next time I wear it.

So what do you think of Raspberry Yoghurt? 

Have you tried any Innisfree polishes before? Like I've said before, I'm really quite impressed with Innisfree. In fact, I have, urm, ordered more Innisfree-s recently - I should be getting them by this week. o"o 

Stay tuned!

xoxo,

mich

Peel-Off Base Coat aka. Time to Bust Out the Glitters!

I love glitter polishes. There are sparkly ones, colorful ones, whimsical ones... yea, you get the idea. Unfortunately, they are a universally-acknowledged PITA to remove. :|| Even with the foil removal method, I still shy away from wearing them. I don't stop buying them though - I take them out to admire them in the bottles but mostly they just sit around in my drawers collecting dust. o"o

Thankfully, some creative genius came up with a revolutionary peel-off base coat that changed the sad fate of my glitter polishes for the better. With the peel-off base coat, glitter removal is easy as picking at the polish and peeling/popping them off the nail like this:

No more scrubbing or soaking the nails in foul smelling acetone - just pick and pop! I don't know about you but that's almost as fun and therapeutic as popping bubble wraps for me. :L

This magical concoction can be found in your regular beauty supply craft or stationery stores - goes by the name of... 'PVA glue'.
Yup, that's right! It's our good ol' craft glue! How did anyone even think of using glue? *impressed*
I bought the Innisfree peel-off base coat before I knew about its true identity but you can always buy the cheaper alternative and pour it into empty polish bottles for easy application. Don't believe me? You can check out this neat post on Lab Muffin.

It feels a little strange knowing that you are deliberately smearing glue over your nails but other than that, it applies smoothly like our regular base coats. If you find your glue a little too thick, you can always thin it with water.

Some application tips for best results:

• You don't have to paint a thick coat of glue. It pops nicely even when you use a thin layer of glue.
• Ensure that you cover every inch of the nail that you intend to polish on.
• Wrap your tips (i.e. paint the free-edge of the nail) with the glue - especially if you have a habit of wrapping your tips with the polish.
  This will ensure that any polish at the tips will come off easily too when you peel off the polish.
• Let the glue dry completely until it doesn't even feel sticky when you touch it.
  Depending on how much glue you use, it can actually turn transparent fairly quickly. But I will advise you to wait for a little while more until it is no longer tacky to touch. I've made the mistake of applying my polish immediately when it turned transparent and the polish refused to budge when I picked, scratched and cursed at it the next day.
• Do not wash your hands when you don't have polish over the glue - even when the glue has dried completely.
  Because it is water-based, it will turn wet and sticky again upon contact with water.
• I'm not too sure about this but I haven't been able to get the polish to pop off in one perfect piece when I paint a base color before topping it with glitters. Yes, it peels off fairly easily too but it tends to crack or break into little pieces (see the difference in the picture above). Not a huge issue but I like it when the glitters come off nicely in one piece - looks like one of those fake nails. I'm weird, I know.

Someone once asked me: foil removal or PVA glue? After trying it out a few times, I have to say I prefer using PVA glue. 

Even though I have to wait approximately 10 minutes for it to dry before I can paint my nails, time passes quickly when I check my mail or scroll through the blog posts on my google reader. It is not much longer than the time I take for foil removal - cutting aluminium foils, cutting cotton pads, wetting each pad with acetone, wrapping my nails one by one and soaking my nails in harsh acetone for another 5 minutes or so (I stare into space because I can't work the trackpad on my com or phone with my fingers all wrapped up). 

And, because I'm weird, I like picking at the polish and popping them off my nails! :$ There is not as much satisfaction when I just pull the foil off my nails if you know what I mean. 

There are some downsides to using PVA though.
Amanda from Pretty Girl Science has pointed out that it does not prevent staining! So I will definitely recommend the usual base coat + foil if you suspect the glitter polish might stain your nails.
[edit: Michelle from Lab Muffin and Susan from The Subtle Shimmer have suggested painting your base coat over the PVA glue to prevent staining. I will be trying that out soon! Having tried that myself, it didn't appear to affect the ease of peeling. yay!]
Of course, another disadvantage is that I simply can't resist picking my polish off my nails before the end of the day! o"o

What do you think of PVA glue? Have you tried it before?

xoxo,

mich

Innisfree: Poem Nail Collection

It's been a while since I've last checked out some of the Korean polishes in the market and I was pleasantly surprised when I chanced upon some pretty-looking promo pictures on Instagram. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had ordered a bunch of them. :P I had wanted to grab another interesting collection too but it was unfortunately out of stock on the website so I made do with these for now.

Innisfree's Poem Nail Collection contains an interesting mix of 2 glitters and 2 duochromes - all extremely beautiful. Just take a look!

The Glitters

Innisfree 101 (Girl's Skirt). 3 coats.
A beautiful seafoam green with sprinkles of tiny gold glitters and a handful of blue hex glitters as accent. Now, doesn't that look familiar? ;) I had been eyeing Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream for quite a while now so I immediately pounced on this when I saw it. Judging by the swatches of the DL I see online, 101 is similar to Mermaid's Dream - slightly lighter and less densely packed but close enough for me. I still felt like a mermaid wearing this. Incredibly gorgeous. Kudos to Lippmann for creating this insanely beautiful polish. :b
[edit: you can view a swatch-wheel comparison here.]

Innisfree 102 (Cherry Blossom). 3 coats.
A sister polish to 101. This is a delicate silvery pink with a mix of small blue and gold glitters accented with larger hot pink hexes. Interesting color mix that looks wonderfully good together. Still a little mermaid-like - reminds me of one of Ariel's sisters (Alana perhaps?). It reminds me a little of those beautiful ocean corals too. :d

The Duochromes

Innisfree 103 (Autumn Leaves). 3 coats.
A rich and gorgeous duochrome that shifts from reddish-brown to gold. Shimmery fall in a bottle! You know how I love those colors. :L There is also a hint of green in the bottle but it didn't quite show up on the nails.

Innisfree 104 (Purple Night). 3 coats.
Another pretty glass-flecked duochrome. This one shifts from dark blue to a rich purple. The color shift is quite obvious and strong in real life but I couldn't capture it on my camera no matter how I positioned my hands. I could see the two colors on my nails but when I put the camera in front of my face, I could only see a shimmery purple on the screen. :|| End of rant. But honestly, this is stunning in real life.

Application and formula for these were pretty good.
The brushes were a little wide and rather short and stubby. It didn't feel elegant when I was painting my nails but boy am I surprised to see that I don't need any clean up. I don't know how that happened but I guess the brush fits nicely near my cuticles.
The formula applies smoothly on the nails. It is a little thin for the glitters because they are not as densely packed as some of the other glitters in the market. I will recommend some time for drying in between coats though to avoid dragging.

I hesitate to say more because I'm not very sure about it but I thought I smelled something while applying these polishes. Are Innisfree polishes scented? I can't quite put my finger to the scent. Reminds me a little of the fancy scented pens with whimsical dangly charms at the top that we used to have in primary school (elementary school) back in my time.

I'm also rather impressed with the eco-friendly concept that Innisfree adopts. You can read more about it here. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more from this brand.

So what do you think of these polishes? Have you tried any Innisfree before?

xoxo,
mich

p.s. these polishes have names too but I couldn't read Korean so I didn't include them in this post. :et I have edited the post and included the names!