China Glaze Oldies but goodies

Well, I know I'm supposed to be on a low/no-buy,
but I have this compulsion to walk into any interesting nail salon that I see,
esp if I do see them having a huge window display of polishes...

So I walked into one on Thursday
and guess what I found!

China Glaze:
100 Proof Pink,
St Martini,
Tequila Toes

Channelesque,
Groovy Green
and Moody Blue

Channelesque was a serious lemming of mine
but now I don't have to fork out on ebay anymore! =)

There was also 1 Lavendar Lingo that I eventually put back
but now I'm wondering if I should head back there just for it...

Youtube Nail Art Tutoria

Nowadays I barely have time to read all my fave nail blogs,
but over the last weekend, I caught up with some,
and even chanced upon this nail art artist on Youtube.

Her painting skills are amazing!
Remember the set of acrylics that I bought a while back?
Well since the last disaster, I've been kinda hesitant but after seeing her tutorials, I'm actually tempted to try again

Check this out:

Pedicure: U&A 998

So after a high-end polish,
here's one that I don't even remember where I got it from =P

Its probably one of those thrift-store polishes that I picked up along the way.
I went through my stash and I had 3 polishes from this brand.
All are rather interesting, so I think I'm probably going to post them all pretty soon

Here's the 1st of the 3: U&A 998
This one's tons of fine light-gold glitter and holo bar glitter suspended in clear polish.
The glitter is dense enough that you'll just need 2 or 3 coats to get it opaque.

2 coats, with topcoat.
Natural daylight.

I was mesmerized enough by the bling that I stuck my foot up on the window ledge to admire =P

Indoors.

With camera flash

Grunge

Today's nail art is something that is rather simple to do,
hence I won't be doing a tutorial for it k

Items used:
RBL Grunge,
and Art Club Nail Art Striper in Red on Red.

and here's the Nail Art of the Day:

Natural daylight.

Indoors.

Swap haul

From a recent swap with a new member on MUA,
OPI DS Classic,
and Sally Hansen Salon Nail Lacquer in Alchemy

I'm supremely pissed with the Sally Hansen in Singapore.
Why is it that these lovely shades and collections are NEVER available here?!
I'm sick and tired of all those mauves, pinks, reds and sheers that you insist on displaying in all the drugstores and departmental stores.
Seriously guys, I know you can do better than that...

Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge

I had one of the crappiest week ever,
which accounted for the lack of posts last week,
and included my nails breaking.

So nails are back to nubbins
and nail art will again be simple ones k.

Anyhow, its good that my RBLs are here,
at the very least, I had something to look forward to over the weekend.

Today, I present to you RBL Grunge,
a major lemming of mine.

To be honest, I have no idea how to describe the colour.
Its too pink to be called taupe, too grey to be beige.
I'm tempted to call it mushroomy, but the mushrooms that I know aren't even this colour.

Natural sunlight.
2 coats, without topcoat

Indoors:

The Most Amazing Green Polish: Elianto Racing Green

Elianto Racing Green has to be the most amazing green polish I have ever owned,
I'm so totally in love with this one.
You know how glass-flecked polishes look like?
Imagine gold flecks instead of the usual silver ones.
Add this to a beautiful blue-green base...

oh well, you just check out the pictures yourself
oh.. and the pictures were taken after 4 days of wear k,
so pls excuse the little tipwear
(I just couldn't bear to take it off!)

Taken indoors:

ok, I know this one is a little blurred,
but I thought it showed the bling-ness of the polish

Taken at night, artificial light with camera flash

Georgeous one ain't she...

Purple Bling

I had a wedding to attend on Sunday,
and little time to do a proper nail art.
So I decided to do a gradient glitter mani to jazz up my simple pink dress.

Natural daylight.

The next 3 are taken indoors:

And here is the tutorial for a glitter gradient mani:

Bottles used:
OPI Princesses Rule!,
Estessimo TINS 006 The Amethyst,
Estessimo TINS 064 The Immediately Sexy,
Nail Colour NK-20

Tip 1:
Usually, I tend to choose OPI Princesses Rule! as the base colour cos of its shimmer.
Other colour alternatives are OPI Happy Anniversary, OPI Dazzle Me, OPI Upfront and Personal.

Tip 2:
Divide the nail into thirds, and paint the gradient accordingly.

Step 1: Paint base coat.
Step 2: Paint 1 coat of base colour.

Step 3: Using the medium-tone polish, randomly paint approximate two-thirds of your nail.

Note: Pls don't be precise when following the imaginary one-third line. This gives it the blended effect.

Step 4: Using the darkest-tone polish, randomly paint the last one-third of your nail.
Optional Step: You can top it up with a clear holo glitter polish for added bling

The reason for my no/low-buy Part 2

I've to apologise if it seems like I take a long time to reply to posts or emails
I've been extremely since changing jobs,
and it seems like the only time when I can get onto blogger is during the weekends.
In the meantime, I'll try to schedule posts as often as I can k =)

Anyway, remember I said I was on a low/no-buy for the time being?
Here's the main reason why:

Flinty was kind enough to help me get these RBLs when they had the 50% deal.
Thank you so much dearie!
*muacks*

Purple Haze,
Stormy,
Grunge.

Concrete Jungle,
No More War (sticker was missing from the box),
and Bikini Bottom.

heh... and I know Halloween and Christmas are both long over,
but I finally caved and ordered these:

OPI Tatoo Ta-Boo, the 2009 Halloween mini set:
Which Arm?,
Glow-ink In the Dark,
Tattoo You Want Candy,
and I Love Mummy.
*cringes at the names OPI came up with*

OPI Mini Merries, 2009 Christmas mini set:
Comet Loves Cupid,
All A-bordeaux the Sled!,
Holiday Glow,
and Shim-merry Chic.

I still haven't figured if I wanna get Smitten with Mittens from this same collection...

The Green Experiment

hmmm.... I don't know if I should be glad or bummed
while no one said anything about not being able to wear green on my nails,
no one seemed to have noticed it at all!

Items used:
Zoya Midori,
Zoya Suvi,
Art Club nail art striper in You're Golden,
and blue and clear rhinestones

I'm sorry about the lack of a tutorial,
but this one's a really simple nail art.
Pretty sure you'll be able to do a similar one on your own =)

Taken in natural daylight.

Indoors, natural daylight.

Nail art blog

well... I don't have a tutorial for you guys this week,
but I'm going to introduce you to a nail art blog

well... it happened that I chanced upon stci's photos on MUA
and I fell in love with her nail art
She has the most delicate art work ever!
Found out she has a blog too.
Its in French, but you can just look at the pictures (and drool over the art work)

La Passion du Nail Art
Absolutely gorgeous work!

Pedicure: Zoya Suvi

I've got green on my toes too this week!
Obviously I'm all out to test the boundaries on nail colours at work =P

Flinty from the blog Polish or Perish sent me this,

Zoya Suvi

Indoors, natural daylight.
3 coats, with topcoat

Indoors, with camera flash

My toes pictures don't do the polish justice
I really love this colour,
Suvi is one of those deep emerald green that looks black at the sides but shimmers in the sun.
Gorgeous! heh... I even stuck my toes up on the window ledge just to see the polish in the sun =P

Zoya Midori

heh... about a week ago,
one of my bosses commented that she liked my green dress
and then went on,"You should have matched your nails too!"

OMG! You mean I'm allowed to wear green nails to work?!
So I experimented with dark navy first....
and the office complimented me on the nail art

Well, I'm going to work this week with green nails
Hopefully no one's going to bat an eyelid or say anything like "No green nails"

Zoya Midori

2 coats, without topcoat.
It probably can do better with a 3rd coat,
you can still just about see my nail bed in the pictures.
But otherwise Midori is a lovely apple green shade with a gold flash.

well... I always think of Granny Smiths with such green shades,
but if Granny Smiths are this pretty, I'll probably have a healthier diet =P