Orly Fantasea

This was 3 coats, no topcoat.

I've fallen in love with Orly Fantasea ever since I saw swatches of it on another nail blog. I tried to find it on various nail polish etailers but to no avail. I think it's a really old polish but I finally found a bottle of it at the local nail polish shop. It's beautiful, isn't it? There's something ethereal about it, similar to Zoya Adina, but with a gold-bronze duochrome/shimmer. Zoya Adina, having a green flash, makes it look ethereal in a ghostly sort of way, but Fantasea really looks soft, delicate, fantasy-ish like its name.

Application was OK, a bit on the thin side. A little of VNL here despite it being 3 coats, but it's all right with me. (: I've no idea which collection this is from.

Bisque - Ocean Glow

This was 2 coats, no topcoat.

Bisque is a brand I found in China which is majorly, majorly cheap. Also, the quality of their nail polish is surprisingly good. I bought more than 10 bottles of this brand in various colours, so you can expect to see more of these coming right up. This first example is my favourite nail polish from Bisque. It's a very rich medium blue, almost bordering on dark. It reminds me of Essie Mesmerize, except slightly brighter. But inside the polish, it's chock full of blue-green shimmer which reminds me strangely of the mermaid sheen in Charla.

While the shimmer does not match up to the sheen in Zoya Charla, I don't think that was the purpose. Zoya Charla comes off as blue-green from afar, whereas Ocean Glow is distinctly blue. I did do a comparison but it was so awfully painted (I was dizzy from my flight back) that I decided not to upload any pictures. As for the quality of this nail polish, I actually think it's better than some of the more 'established' brands like OPI and China Glaze. I only required 2 coats to reach this opacity. Also, when I did the comparison with Charla, this polish was extremely easy to take off. I was afraid it would give me smurf fingers because of how rich the blue is, but it only took me one swipe of the cotton wool to get it off. Charla, however, took me a ridiculous amount of time. There's something about Charla that doesn't quite respond to nail polish remover.

Anyhow, this was RMB 4, which translates to S$0.80. Yes, I paid less than one dollar for this 0.53 Fl Oz bottle of polish. From what I've swatched on my nail wheels for the rest of my Bisque haul, the quality does not disappoint either. More to come!

Sasa Tinnie - Darkened Flame

This is 4 coats, no topcoat.

Also bought from the Hong Kong Sasa, this is a dusty dark purple base with orange/green flakes in it. It reminds me strikingly of Orly Fowl Play from their Birds of a Feather collection, though the purple is definitely more gray and desaturated than that of Fowl Play.

As with the other Sasa nail polish I bought, Peacock Feathers, Darkened Flame has no actual name so I decided to give it one because who wants to call it 1M9 all the time, right? Also like Peacock Feathers, Darkened Flame is very thin and requires 4 coats to reach this opacity. However, because the base is dark, the VNL is much less visible on this one than with Peacock Feathers.

I like the flakes in this one, but I think the base colour could be richer. The grey-purple does look a little dull, though the flakes in the polish save it from becoming too boring. This was HK$20 per bottle, since it is full-sized unlike Peacock Feathers, which translates roughly to S$3.30. Cheeaap!

Sasa Tinnie Mini - Peacock Feathers

This was 4 coats, no topcoat.

I picked up this baby in the Hong Kong branch of Sasa, a make-up and beauty store. I love, love, love this colour. It comes in a mini heart-shaped bottle that's about 5.5mL so it's quite tiny. The handle is just a little pink pearl so it's a little hard to hold but nothing major. The only complaint I have about this polish is how thin it is. It took 4 coats to reach this opacity and even then, there's still VNL.

This polish has no name anywhere on the label so I decided to call it Peacock Feathers. It's basically a blue-based polish, but the blue only really appears at the sides. Inside is a rich yellow-green that's dotted with bronze glitter. The effect is amazing, it's the one polish I have that truly looks so much like peacock feathers.

I just wish it was more opaque and in a bigger bottle. This cost me HK$7.50 for one, which translates to S$1.25. Awesome!

back from holidays!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the short absence, but I've been away on holiday. :D And I am excited because I think my nail polish collection just exploded while I was in China. It was a madly cheap SGD $0.80 per bottle!

I KNOW, RIGHT?! How could I possibly resist? :D I swatched them on my (extremely cheap) nail wheels as well and the quality seems all right so far. Since it was so madly cheap, I took the opportunity of getting colours like orange and yellow which I would normally not dare to buy with the more expensive brands like OPI and China Glaze, so I can try out which colour is nice on me!

In addition, I also haven't quite finished swatching my recent haul with 8ty8beauty. LOTS OF SWATCHES COMING UP, I HOPE.

Thanks for sticking with me! :D

Color Club Worth The Risque

With flash

From the Femme Fatale collection 2009.
This was 3 coats, without topcoat.

This is proof that not all valid holos need an Aqua Base, or has to be linear, or from the China Glaze OMG collection. I was initially hesitant. I wondered if Color Club, one of the secondary brands to my mind, can produce a decent holo. This polish threw my groundless doubts away and stomped all over them before burning. This is an amazing holo, so much so that it almost looks like a nail foil! Doesn't it look like I just stamped a piece of foil on my nail?

It is a scattered holo that is definitely silver, unlike OPI DS Sapphire. I have heard that though it required 3 coats to reach opacity on the nail, it does an excellent job as a stamping polish on Konad so I'm definitely going to have to try that soon. A holo stamp! That is immeasurable prettiness. The photo with the flash reminds me of those Pokemon trading cards I used to collect as a kid, with its holo borders. I love how fuzzy it is. I am beginning to appreciate scattered holos as much as I do linear holos.

I also bought Color Club Revvvolution (I always can't keep track of how many 'v's there should be in its name), which is sort of its black holo counterpart, and I am eager to swatch it for you! I think I shall try out a Konad with Revvvolution as the base and Worth The Risque as its stamp.

As a side note, my friend bought Color Club Fashion Addict, from the same collection and is a lavender scattered holo. It looks remarkably similar to my OPI DS Diamond! Perhaps I might get her permission to use it in a comparison between the two. If they are dupes, then Fashion Addict would prove to be a cheaper alternative to the slightly more expensive Designer Series by OPI.

Color Club Electro Candy

From the Electro Candy collection 2009.
This was 3 coats.

Mine eyes, they do dazzle.

Seriously, when I was applying this, I felt like I was applying pink highlighter fluid. This is now the brightest polish I own. I think anyone could see this a mile away. Electro Candy is a neon bubblegum pink with a hint of coral, and also with a turquoise shimmer that is hardly noticeable on the nail. Even in the bottle, you'd have to tilt it at a certain angle to see a glimpse of it. Anyhow, I think I can safely say that I would not be wearing this polish on its own. It's just not becoming to blind passers-by.

Really though, the brightness of this polish almost seems to give it a quality like it's glowing. It's a bit surreal. Even when I view it in a dark corner of my room, it's almost as if it's glow-in-the-dark (which, of course, it isn't). I was also quite sad to see that the turquoise shimmer didn't come through very much on the nail. I'm not sure if it's because the polish itself is just way too bright to let any other distractions come through, or whether it's the fault of the formulation.

However, application-wise, I have nothing to complain about. Each coat dried remarkably fast, as was the case with its counterpart, Ultra Violet. By the time I was done with the pinkie on one hand, the index was sufficiently dried to begin the second coat. I'm undecided as to the brightness of this polish. It's really the first neon polish I own and I am shocked that they can even formulate such an amazingly bright colour. I'm generally not one to wear such madly bright polishes. Mad colours, yes. Madly bright - meh.