Are You a Movie Star

I've been busy lately.
So busy that I didn't have time to sit down for a proper nail art session.
Instead, I just slapped on 2 different polishes from the untried stash
& I'm totally IN LOVE with it!!

Layered OPI Are You a Movie Star over OPI Midnight in Moscow

And here's the result of such a combination =)

I'm wondering if I need a back-up of Are You a Movie Star.
It's absolutely HOT!
Its the best glitter polish I've tried so far.
I can't stop staring at my nails.
*ignore any typos, staring as I'm typing*

Holo glitters with larger hexagonal holo glitters + those thin tiny bar-like glitters in a sheer pink base.
Someone should send a letter to OPI and demand that this baby be made available everywhere!
Its an absolute shame that such a beauty is country exclusive

heh... shouldn't ignore the other OPI used but well, Midnight in Moscow isn't as awesome as Are You a Movie Star
Midnight in Moscow is a very dark brown that looks black most of the time.
There is very subtle red/burgundy shimmer but this only shows up in certain lighting and under strong sunlight. Nothing spectacular really.
Vampy - Yes
Pretty - Okay, esp when the red shimmer shows up
Application - Easy. I hardly have problems with OPIs anyway.
Awesome - Nah. It's probably going to end up on my purge list one day

So back to the awesome one.
This pic was taken at night with flash.
Just love this pic for the glitter goodness...

Blurred for more glitter shots

All right so enough of the nail stuff.
I know I just showed you guys some really adorable cupcakes just a while ago
but it seems to be the season for cute cupcakes recently.
I just got another one from yet another colleague.
She ordered quite a lot to give to her students as part of the Children's Day celebrations we had in school today, and there were leftovers.
erm... I realised it sorta looks like I took a bite outta the cake but I swear I didn't until after the photos were taken

Love those pretty stars.
They remind me of the colouring books I used to love when I was a kid.
And it'll probably look good as a nail art design as well! LOL!

AND a reminder if you haven't yet submitted your entry form for the giveaway.
Winner's going to be announced in the next post so stay tuned!

and a Happy Children's Day to all my readers!
Love the child in us (whether we're 6 or 60) and give all the little ones a hug! =)

Graduation Mani

I'm going for my graduation later today, so I thought I'll do my mani to match the gown.

I started doing a part-time Masters in Guidance and Counselling course with James Cook University in 2007.
It was tough cos I had to juggle another compulsory course at work, all those assignments from the 2 concurrent courses, work plus my dance commitments.
Sometimes I get so exhausted I just crash when I get home.
Completed everything end of 2008 but cos we missed the convocation date, we could only do it this year!

Well, I'm real glad all that hard work paid off.
Just a couple of days ago, I got an email from the Associate Dean to say that I graduated top of my class?!
I've never topped any kind of classes before!
Still feeling kinda stunned here...

Yeah, so mani to match the gown.
Gown's black with a goldish-yellow sash.
Unfortuantely, I went through my stash and there was nothing remotely similar to the sash colour.
So I started pulling out all those within the colour family but well, nothing looked as good next to the bottle of OPI Black Onyx as Colour Club's Tangerine Scream.
So there you go, halloween colours for a graduation mani =P

NOTD.

Again something that looks simple.
I have this personal thing that nubbins should look simple, even with nail art.
Its like there's only so little space on the nail, you shouldn't over-do the nail art, or it'll be kinda "crowded".

unfortunately, this one took me longer than most of my other nail art designs.
I can do the french, funky french, reverse french, even landscape designs & all those stuff free-hand.
But the half-moon mani stumps me.
I use the french sticker guides everytime I've attempted one.
& I even "cheat" a little by going over with the Art Club black striper.
Outta the 5 times I've tried doing a half-moon mani, I've only been satisfied with 2.
& this is one of the best I've done so far!
I'm actually super pleased with it =)

Here are the indoor pics

And ladies (not sure if there are guys),
pls remember to enter yourselves for my giveaway k.
For those of you who might have missed it earlier,
I've added a contest form after a few of you very kindly pointed out about the private followers.
You'll HAVE TO put your name in via the entry form k!
Really don't want any of you to miss out so I'll keep reminding you guys till the contest ends =)

My First Giveaway! =)

EDIT!
Please take note that after some feedback, I have since added a entry form for the giveaway!
My apologies for this oversight. Blur me didn't realise that you could be following privately!
*shame-faced*

YAY!
My very 1st Giveaway in anticipation of the 100th post =)

I realised that I have quite a number of non-Singapore followers
so I thought to give away some stuff that I can find here but may not be so readily available for those non-S'pore readers =)

Just one very simple rule.
1st, you'll have to be a follower of my blog.
I'm really honoured that you guys take the time out to read the stuff that I write about so I'll really like to take this opportunity to present you a token of my appreciation =)
I will do a random draw and will announce the winner in the 100th post =)
(And just in case you're wondering, this in post #97)

So here are the prizes that are up for grabs.
A set of 5 Sasatinnie nail polishes including 3 flakies,
2 nail polishes from Etude House,
A facial sheet mask from Etude House,
1 ibd 5 seconds nail glue,
and 1 packet of purple metal beads for nail art.
All brand new.

I know its not much, but its my little token of appreciation to you guys =)

Close-up of the flakies.
There's a bluish-purple one, then a dark purple one as well as a copper-brown one.
(Sorry guys, no codes no names so that's the best way I could describe to you)

Close-up of the polishes from Etude House.
This pic doesn't do justice to the colours.
For the 1st one, think along the lines of OPI Go On Green and even RBL Scrangie (the blue version).
The other one is a light gold glitter that has just that little hint of olive.

The nail art stuff.

All packed and ready to be shipped to their new owner!

Also, since this is a post about giveaway, just take note that there are quite a few blogs that are hosting giveaways too:

1) Evil angel (aka missnono) from Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss is celebrating fall and giving away her own brand of eye shadows, nail polishes and lip gloss!

2) Liz from Iceomatic's Nails is giving away Viva La Vespa to her blog followers!
*yeah! I hyperventilated too when I read this!*

3)Gildedangel from Naive Nails is giving away 3 Sinful Colours to celebrate hitting 50 followers! Way to go gal! I see that there's a lot more followers now too! =)

4) Painted Lady Fingers is giving away Essie St Martin Mint *gasp! yeah! another HTF!* and a lovely Halloween painting. She's celebrating 100+ followers!

5) There's also a lovely haul of items (including a China Glaze, Nail Tek, etc) on Also Known as.... This is also another nail blog that I enjoy reading

6) Okay, this one isn't a giveaway but there are prizes =)
There's a nail art contest hosted on Sasse's 'nad Stamping Stampede. The prizes are amazing! Contest ends 8th October

And to end off the giveaways, some really cute cupcakes that I wanna share with you guys.
A colleague recently gave birth to a baby girl. She's on maternity leave right now but came around yesterday to deliver cupcakes for us as part of her baby girl's 1st month celebration.

The 1st month celebration, known as Man Yue in Mandarin is a traditional Chinese custom. It's typical for the parents of the newborn to give out cakes or some sweet stuff for others to share in the joy. Another traditional item that one may also receive is a hard-boiled egg (shell intact) that has been dyed a bright red.

Anyway, the cupcakes we got were the most adorable that I have ever seen!
Each one of us got a cupcake each, but there were a total of 4 cute designs.

This one's a baby bib.

Look at that milk bottle! Isnt't that the cutest?!

Then there was a hearts design...

And this is the one that I got!
Baby Booties!!

Look at that flower detail! So sweet!

Mismas

Another quick and easy nail art design
Love the colours, but not too pleased with the overall result.

As you should be able to guess from the title of this post, RBL Mismas was used =)
The other OPI is L00 Alphine Snow.
This one is fast becoming my fave white nail art polish.

NOTD

I can see what the RBL hype is about.
I've never had another creme that applies as smoothly.
This is what I call butter-smooth-goodness.
AND this is only 1 COAT!!
I've never had one coater polishes until RBLs....

I was so pleased until I spotted bubbling on my thumb! =(
So the thumb design is a little screwy cos I was trying to cover the bubbling up.
HEH. I figured I can still pass off screwy dots as being creative.
Its harder to pass off bubbling =P

Pic of the right hand just cos the sun was there =)

Mini Purge

So I'm running outta space to store some of my pretties and I said purge!
BUT when I got down to doing it, it was painful.
I'll take one out then put it back countless times.
So I'm starting the purge small or I'll hyperventilate =P
I'll probably have to add on in the very near future though

I prefer swapping actually, although I have no idea how this will solve the space problem but there's a reason.
It's just that nail polish in Singapore is just that bit more expensive, plus I had to ship some of them so it doesn't make much sense to me to put them up for re-sale.
Nevertheless, I've put a price tag (in Singapore dollars) to all and am okay if you wanna buy them instead.
Paypal only for international.
Locals, you have added option of POSB transfer.
I've also done a wishlist at the side, but you can always try swapping with others =)

I don't mind doing international shipping but you'll have to give me some time to check out the shipping rates k
My office's quite near a post office so that shouldn't be a big problem.

I've done something similar before and had the problem of who wanted what first so I really would like to avoid that this time.
So I'll really appreciate it if you could list those that you want in the comments section.
This way, everyone can see =)
And please do leave me an email so that I can get back to you.

ok, so here goes:

Nubars:
Grass Green Glitter (about 90% left) - $12

All swatched 1X:
Skin Food Milk Prism Nail Charcoal Holo - $10
Beauty Credit Platinum (holo) - $7

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Ivory (BN) - $2
Revlon Wine with Everything - $4
(I can't tell how much is left but I'll say at least still more than 50%)
L'Oread Jet-Set Quick Dry Cyclamen (up to the word Paris) - $4

All Brand New:
Orly French Manicure JeT'aime - $10
Orly White Tips - $10

All Brand New:
Voxy Dancing Fairies - $10
Voxy Mystique - $10
Voxy Cosmic Emerald - $10

Glitter shots of these

Both swatched 1X:
Voxy Twilight Zone - $8
Voxy Blessed - $8

Here comes the OPIs:
Heart of Gold (up to about middle of the OPI) - $8
Funny Bunny (about 90%) - $9
How to Jamaica Million (BN) - $12
Play til Midnight (swatched 1X) - $10

Affair in Red Square (BN) - $12
St Petersburgunsy (about 80%) - $8
Suzy says Da! (BN) - $12

Kreme de la Kremlim (around middle of the OPI word) - $8
Kreme de la Kremlim (BN) - $12
Rumble for your Thoughts (around the bottom of the OPI word) - $8

All Brand New:
You're a Doll - $12
Mod Hatter - $12
Glamour Game - $12

All Brand New:
I'm a Princess, You're Not - $12
Your Royal Shyness - $12
Princesses Rule - (pending)

Japan Exclusive OPIs coming your way...

Don't say I didn't warn you, this post is picture heavy =P

1st up, NOTD:
This is the Sasatinnie flakie that I posted yesterday
(Unfortunately there's neither name nor number code on the bottle)

The base colour's a bluish-purple and there's a hint of micro silver glitter.
The colour was a pain to capture but this one's the most colour accurate of the lot that I took
*I sorta have this feeling that camera-makers hate purple*

I think you can just about catch the hint of the silve glitter in this pic.

And as you wiggle your fingers, the flakes turn from copper to gold to green.
Awesome.

I was trying to capture the colours of those flakes, and tried a few angles.
But these were the ones that showed up the best.

And since I finally have my camera back, I thought I might as well do the haul pics for last week.
Nail Tek Foundation III Ridge-filler & Nail Strengthener,
Seche Restore Thinner (a must-have for all nail polish lovers)
& Poshe Super-fast Drying Topcoat (I swear I just bought one not too long ago)

Then I got these Essies at only SGD$5 each! =)
Country Road,
Meet Balls (i've been wanting this one since I heard its name! LOL!)
and Glorious Glow.
Okay, not the most exciting of colours but seriously, for $5, I really don't care!

Orly Star of Bombay which I got for only $5.80,
and Pixie Dust.
Love the pixie charm!
Heh... sorta have this crazy desire to get the entire collection just to get the charms...
*checks for fever*

Skin Food Milk Creamy Prism Nail.
No names no codes.
If I'm not mistaken, the Milk Creamy Prism Nail is Skin Food's holo line,
but the holos in these 2 that I got are very very subtle...
1st one's a silverish olive and I couldn't tell that its a holo from the bottle.
The one on the right is sorta a rose-gold-brown (does that make sense?).
The holo in this one is a lot more pronounced than the 1st.

Somehow, my camera isn't able to accurately capture these 2 colours.
I know the light in the 2nd pic is a little weird but its the most colour accurate pic of all the lot I took
(I spent like 10 mins trying to get colour accurate shots of these 2)

And the Star of today's haul pics.
OPI HL761 Are you a Movie Star
A major lemming and one that was super HTF even on my side of the world.
Glitter bomb! Its got the small holographic glitters, the bigger hexagonal ones plus those thin bar glitters!

See how it glitters!

And with this particular OPI, I would like to introduce you to one of my suppliers.
Since my addiction, I've come to know a few who I call my "Nail Resource People".
Boki's one of them and she's the one who is able to get me these Japan Exclusive OPIs.

So one day while we were texting, I told her how HTF the Japan exclusives were for some,
and how from MUA, I could tell that some really really want to get their hands on these.
And, to cut a long story short & to get to the most exciting part,
Boki is now able to accept paypal and get this SHE'S NOW TAKING INTERNATIONAL ORDERS!!

So hurry!! Go visit her site at Doll Up Nails and get those HTFs that you have been lemming!
Again, don't say I didn't tell you.
Some of those are LIMITED STOCKS ONLY!

PLUS, Boki also has some of those Estessimo TINS that are oh so glittery beautiful and wonderful as gradient mani.

Go on! Just let her know that Berry sent you her way!
It's her first time taking international orders though,
so do give her some leeway in case there are 1st time glitches k =)

And so you have an idea what's available at her site,

Happy 10th Anniversary Collection:
V19 Heart to Resist,
V20 Be Mine, You're Fine,
V21 Cherry Much in Love,
V22 I Pink I Love You,
V23 Love will Blossom and
V24 Kiss of Peach

The Reflection Glitters Collection:
R63 Disco All Sparkle,
R64 Golden Rainbow,
R65 Rosy Reflection and
R66 Reflecting Pool

The Yokohama Collection:
Y01 Baby Blue,
Y28 Pinkerbell,
Y31 Starbright Sparkles II,
Y32 Penny for your Thoughts,
Y33 Blush of Adrenaline,
Y35 Vintage Violet

Y36 Swirl of Euphoria,
Y43 Bay Bridge Sunset,
Y44 Cherry Blossom,
Y45 I Love Yokohama,
Y46 Sweet Love at Ferris Wheel and
Y47 Yokohama Twilight

Estessimo TINS:
006 The Amethyst,
018 The Very Strawberry (My fave of this lot),
026 The Mars,
064 The Immediately Sexy,
402 Seductive Amethyst,
406 Passionate Ruby

Bling shot! =)

005 The Aquamarine,
013 The Relax Mint,
030 The Silky Night,
035 The Tribal Turquoise,
054 The High Drama

011 The Four Clover,
412 Feeling Liberty and Love,
052 Coco's Shopping

024 The Pluto,
041 The Prestige Champagne,
056 The Gear-Top Traveller,
066 The Neo-Vintage Dress

012 The Happy Milk,
025 The Saturn and
070 The Starlets

And some examples of nail art using TINS...