Monday, April 30, 2012

Suzi loves cowboys

Hi ladies~ It's really starting to get chilly here in Australia since we'll be entering out winter months soon. So what better way to wave that in than with a mug of hot chocolate! Or nail polish wise, a bottle of OPI Suzi loves cowboys.

I started off with two coats of Suzi loves cowboys and they were two effortless coats. I really do love the prowide brush that OPI has, it makes application for me so much easier. The formula was nice too, although more watery than I would have expected from a crème polish. Nothing bad that affected application though. For my accent nail, I applied two coats of Ulta3 Lily white. I alternated the colours for some nail art, using my Glossyblossom nail art striper for the white stripes and dotting with SLC on my accent nail.

suzi loves cowboys nail art1

suzi loves cowboys nail art2

It's simple and effortless, but more interesting than a plain manicure :) What do you think of it?

Thanks for dropping by!
~Sharon
A product was provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Sunday, April 29, 2012

More of the blues

Hello everyone~ I've been especially mood swingy the past couple of days, most probably due to the stress I've been undergoing. Which totally suits the mani I have to post today - a blue manicure! I alternated two coats of Orly Sweet peacock and Stone cold onto my nails. It's nothing much, but I quite liked it while it lasted.

blues x2 1

blues x2 2

Once these three weeks of horror are over, plus more assignments, plus exams, I'll be good. Honest. July really can't come fast enough!

Thanks for dropping by.
~Sharon

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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Nail & cuticle care routine

Hi ladies~ :) I have been getting questions about how I take care of my nail and cuticle so I thought this post would be helpful and answer some questions. I just want to start off by saying that my nails are in no way perfect (in fact, they're currently quite stained and I'm still trying to grow them out!); the only reason they happen to look nice in my photos is because of the following routine.


1. Removal of old nail polish


I don't use anything special, just a local cheap and acetone-free polish remover. I usually pour it in my pumper bottle (which isn't shown) so it's easier to get the remover onto the cotton ball piece. I unroll my cotton ball so that I can make good use of the ball and tear as many pieces as I can from it. I then take the cotton pieces, soak them with remover and place it onto my nail plate, waiting 15-20 seconds before swiping it off my nail. Of course, the removal process will depend on the type of nail polish you are removing - glitter will generally take the most amount of time to remove.

2. Pushing back your cuticle

And after all that? I take a shower to make sure any residue is washed off! :) I also push back my cuticles gently while in the shower as the warm water softens them and makes it easier to push back.

3. Moisturising the cuticle


After my shower, I lather my cuticles with cuticle cream. Whilst my remover doesn't contain acetone, my nail plate still gets dry. I rub the cream into my cuticles, and any leftover onto my nail plate. I like to use my Burts Bees cuticle cream throughout the day as it leaves less oily residue. I take my Lemony Flutter out right before bed and apply it onto my cuticles and nail plate again.

4. Filing your nail


When I need to give my nails a trim, I use a glass file by Manicure. Make sure when you file you don't saw back and forth on your nail or you'll damage it! File in one direction until you reach your desired length. I prefer a more squoval shape so once I like my length, I round off my edges to ensure they don't get caught on things.

5. Go to town! It's time to polish your nails :D

my take on gita&whimsical2
(original post with the mani here)

I hope this was somewhat helpful to you all ^^ If you have any questions, let me know either through commenting or emailing me, I'm always happy to answer your questions :)

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Faint of Heart's hidden element

Hi everyone~ Since starting my prac placements, I've been wearing boring, neutral shades. Or...that's what I thought. When I grabbed Orly Faint of heart out to wear a couple of days ago, I thought it was just a plain, neutral crème totally suitable for work. Well, I was right about the work appropriate part. Not so much the boring bit though.

As I was applying this in the sun (which I rarely do, and might explain why I missed this the first time), I saw tiny black flecks floating in the nail polish on my nail. Thinking I had gotten my nail dirty, I put it riiiiiiiiiiight up to my eye to check it out. Behold! The wonder of this polish - hidden black flecks :D It is reminiscent of Misa Grey Matters (which I have been super lemming), but the flecks are less noticeable unless you stare at your nails in the sun.

Check out the photos, and especially the macro to see what I'm talking about!

faint of heart1

faint of heart2

faint of heart3

See what I mean about the black flecks being hidden? Unless you put your nail up to your eye or stare at it hard in the sun, it really isn't all that noticeable. You definitely can't see it in the bottle either. I think this hidden element makes me love the polish even more ♥ What do you think? :)

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Swatches and review: China Glaze Crackle Glitter (part 2)

Hello hello~ After posting Part 1 of the Crackle Glitter collection yesterday, here is Part 2. I've already covered the basics about the formula in my previous post so I'll just get right into here!

Jade-D is a lovely lime-green crackle glitter, which leans to more to the yellow side. I layered this over two coats of Rimmel Grey matter.

Jade-D2

Jade-D1

Luminous lavender is a light lavender crackle glitter. I decided to try this over China Glaze Light as air and loved the subtle result! ♥

luminous lavender1

luminous lavender2

And as promised, here are all the crackle glitters layered over black. From index to pinky: Gleam me up, Luminous lavender, Jade-D, Glam-more.

chg glitter crackle1

They definitely do pop more over black! I'm especially loving the look of Jade-D, the yellow really comes out here. I'll have to wear these over darker shades next time :)

chg glitter crackle2

As you can see, the crackle effect came out much better this time because I had enough glitter on the polish brush. So yes, whilst I'm supposedly over crackle polishes, I'll be wearing these crackle glitters often!

What do you think, are you back into the crackle craze? :)

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon
Products provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Swatches and review: China Glaze Crackle Glitter (part 1)

Hi everyone~Today I have two of the polishes from the China Glaze Crackle Glitter collection. Whilst many bloggers are starting to get over the crackle phase (me included!) I was quite curious with this collection. I mean, there's glitter! And wow, it's supposed to crack too? That's enough to have me hooked and curious :P

The formula on the whole was quite nice to work with. It wasn't thick as you would assume most glitter formulas to be like. I found I needed to make sure I don't wipe too much glitter off my brush before applying onto my nail though, or the glitter wouldn't look like it hadn't cracked, just more like a glitter layered over a base colour (see photos below). The crackle glitters do dry matte like all crackle polishes, so my photos show them with top coat over it.

In hindsight, I should have probably layered these over a black base (see it layered over black in Part 2), but I wanted to play with different coloured bases and hey, they're much more interesting than black :P I tried my best to find a good base colour but I think one (or two) may not have been such good choices, especially at showing off the beautiful glitter. I'll probably go back and swatch this again over a black base to see it come to life :)

Gleam me up is an aqua-blue crackle glitter. I applied this over two coats of OPI Pompeii purple. As you can see on my index and middle finger, the glitter simply looks like it was layered on since I didn't have enough polish on the brush. A great difference to the outcome on my pinky and ring finger!

gleam me up1

gleam me up2

Glam-more is a fuchsia crackle glitter. I totally failed with this one, the crackle look only turned up on my pinky! Definitely need to work on having more polish on the brush. This is layered over two coats of Ulta3 spring shower.

glam-more2

glam-more1

Whilst I would proclaim loud and clear to the world that I'm sick of crackle polishes, this collection definitely surprised me! I quite like the subtle crackle effect the glitter gives. The China Glaze Crackle Glitter collection will be available in the US May 2012, retailing at $9.

What do you think of the first half of the collection. Is this a yay for a different form of crackle or a huge 'get over it!!' to nail polish companies?

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon
Products provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Interlocking suedes

Hi ladies~ I saw this the interlock nail art over at Nail Polish Wars agessssssssssss ago and finally decided to try it out. Because I'm lazy, I went with suede polishes - love their fast drying time ♥

I started off with two coats of OPI Russian navy suede and Lincoln park after dark suede, alternating the base colour for each nail. I then went back and free handed the tip half of the nail with the second shade. For the interlock look, I dotted the opposite shade along the diagonal line. For a better description and tutorial, check out my link to Nail Polish Wars! :P

suede interlocks1

suede interlocks2

suede interlocks3

I'm not sure I love how this turned out, might have to try this again with different polishes :) What do you think of the design though?

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Blue and yellow stripes...like the minions?

Hi everyone~Last night I attended my friend's birthday party and the theme he had was blue and yellow. So not only did I get to wear my pretty blue summer dress, I also did up my nails to match the theme. I decided to go with some stripes, since I haven't done them in awhile and took inspiration from Nailside, who does heaps of amazing nail art.

I used Ulta3 spring blossom as the base colour, then took my striper brush and applied Australis Blue tiger. To add a little more to the mani, I used my black nail art polish to add some black stripes. I quite like the end result! :) And they also remind me of the minions from Despicable Me!

blue&yellow stripes1

blue&yellow stripes2

I love the way the two colours come together. What do you think of this mani?

Thanks for dropping by!
~Sharon

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Friday, April 13, 2012

You need this glitter in your life ♥

Hi everyone~! Sorry for not posting as regularly now, I really do think I've lost my inspiration to blog :( My nails haven't been all that interesting lately as well - I've just been sporting plain manis *shockhorror* Hopefully some sort of nail art inspiration will hit me soon!

Anyway, here's a mani I wore awhile ago. I've been putting off wearing  The Face Shop BL801 since I was too lazy to find a good base polish shade. I finally decided to wear it over two coats of OPI Thanks a windmillion and layered a thick coat over it.

BL801 over thanks a windmillion1

By the way, that's not tip wear you see on my middle nail. I had initially planned some nail art but it flopped and I was too lazy to remove the white polish so...I slapped the green polish on over it!

BL801 over thanks a windmillion2

BL801 over thanks a windmillion3

Besides the gorgeous holo glitter you can see so apparently, just look at that beautiful shimmer! *is in awe* I totally need to layer BL801 over a darker green shade; hopefully that'll bring out the shimmer more :D

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter pastels

Hello everyone~ Hope you've all had a Happy Easter and enjoyed your break :) I decided to go with some pastel skittles for the weekend, although can anyone tell me why we always associate pastels with Easter? :P

easter pastels1

Pinky: Two coats of Australis Peek-a-boo
Ring: Three coats of China Glaze Re-fresh mint
Middle: Two coats of China Glaze Light as air
Index: Three coats of Ulta3 spring blossom
Thumb (not pictured): Two coats of Ulta3 spring shower

I topped everything off with a thick coat of OPI I juggle...men. This polish dries super fast and really acts as your quick dry top coat. I've found my usual top coat or even a second layer of I juggle...men streaks and ends up making the polish look like it's cracked - but not in a good way. One thick layer is definitely the way to go for me!

easter pastels2

I juggle...men adds a very subtle shimmer to the pastel skittles but I'm liking it lots! ♥

What do you think of this mani?

Thanks for dropping by.
~Sharon

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Friday, April 6, 2012

Going dotty!

Hi everyone~ I feeling I've really hit the blogging rut - I have quite a few photos of manis I've worn over the past few weeks, but absolutely no inspiration to post about them. Hopefully this passes over soon, since I'm more than happy to continue polishing my nails :)

For this mani, I started off with two coats of Color Club Wild orchid, one of my first purchases from this brand. And then, because I felt like some simple nail art, I took out China Glaze Light as air, Ulta3 Spring blossom and OPI Thanks a windmillion to dot with. In hindsight, Thanks a windmillion probably wasn't such a good choice since the green appears quite dark over the base colour in comparison to the other two shades.

wild orchid and dots1

wild orchid and dots2

wild orchid and dots3

I wasn't a huge fan of this mani, but it wasn't too bad for a simple nail art mani. What do you think of this?

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Swatches & review: OPI New York City Ballet collection

Hello hello~ Today I have three of the nail polishes from OPI's New York City Ballet collection to show you all :) This collection consists of 5 soft shades which are sheer and probably aren't meant to be worn opaque. The last polish is a fantastic glitter, which I will talk about more below.

I found Care to danse? and My pointe exactly to be streaky on the first two coats, but levelled out by the third coat. In the photos below, I applied one coat on to my pinky and then adding one additional coat on to each following nail, building up to four coats on my index finger. As you can see from the photos below, I still have slight visible nail line at four coats. These nail polishes are definitely not ones you can build up quickly.

First off, Care to danse? A soft lavender shade which leans a lot to the pink side. I'm not much of a fan, unfortunately, because of the pink tinge. If only it looked more purple on me!

care to danse1

care to danse2

My pointe exactly. A beautiful light grey which looks absolutely gorgeous on me :D I'm loving this shade and really, if you don't plan on getting many from this collection, this polish (and the next!) is definitely one you should consider picking up. It's totally unique in my stash and I'm going to treasure this beauty ♥

my pointe exactly1

my pointe exactly2

Pirouette my whistle is the stunning glitter which was included as part of the collection. To me, this was the stand out of the collection, from its pretty micro silver glitters to the white hex glitter mixed into the formula. And absolute must have from this collection, in my opinion.

Below, I layered one coat over four coats of My pointe exactly. I was soooo in love with this combination ♥ Pirouette my whistle just adds that extra awesome to these soft shades :D

pirouette my whistle over my pointe exactly1

pirouette my whistle over my pointe exactly2

I'm not normally a fan of soft and sheer polishes, but these were pretty awesome. They're totally work appropriate too, and I'll be sporting them many times throughout my next few weeks of practical.

OPI NYC Ballet collection will be available from mid April in Australia at selected beauty salons, spas and David Jones nationally for $19.95.

What do you think of this collection? Any you're going to add to your stash or wishlist? :P

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon
Products were provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Another skittle mani :)

Hey everyone! Does any else love skittle manis as much as I do? :P I wore this awhile ago, around the time I posted about the blue skittle mani. And looking at it now, I want to wear another one! Awesome, I have a new manicure idea :D

Anyways, here are the polishes I used:

Pinky & index: Two coats of Ulta3 Royal fever
Ring & thumb: Two coats of China Glaze IDK
Middle: Two coats of Zoya Dannii with a matte topcoat on. I loooooooove the matte look of this polish! ♥

purple skittles1

purple skittles2

purple skittles3

Here are some photos under artificial light so you can see the beautiful holo goodness that is IDK! :) The polish colours aren't too accurate here.

purple skittles4

purple skittles5

What do you think of skittle manis? Any colour suggestions for my next one? ^^

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

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