OPI Houston, We Have A Purple

From the Texas collection 2011.
This was 3 coats, without topcoat.

I have to say that every time I'm forced to photograph such colours like these and Do You Think I'm Tex-y, it nearly gives me a brain hernia at how red it comes out in my photos. I confess I tweaked the colours on Photoshop to make it even remotely similar to the original colour. OPI Houston We Have A Purple is a grape coloured jelly that is visibly and significantly more purple and darker than its counterpart Do You Think I'm Tex-y, but my camera begs to differ.

I currently have this and Do You Think I'm Tex-y painted on alternate fingers, and using the syrup nail technique. I love how it looks! It really reminds me of the Hi-Chew grape flavoured candy. I can almost just taste it. I really like jellies. They're not as ostentatious as glitters, cleaner than duochromes, and not as boring as cremes. I love how squishy and shiny and soft and gummy-like it looks. It really makes me feel like eating them. D:

Can you imagine if they had scented jellies in the future? Like if they really smelt like Hi-Chew gummies? I think I'd go wild with cravings everytime I opened the bottle, much less painting it. OMGAH!

Anyhow, fancies aside, I have to say that perhaps it's due to the nature of the sorbet finish that this polish is meant to have, but the formula seemed rather watery and runny, as was the case for Do You Think I'm Tex-y as well. It's really difficult to keep the polish from pooling in my cuticles while painting, and quite a bit of clean-up was required. I did notice, when I was dabbing excess polish back into the bottle, that perhaps in order to achieve that sorbet effect, they did have to make this polish thinner than usual. In the bottle, it looks more like syrup than nail polish. However, I like the jelly finish so much that I would say this pooling thing would not deter me from buying more.

Do you like jellies? What do you think of scented jellies?

i'm missing you like candy

ISN'T IT LOVELY? my first time trying syrup nails.

Index, ring: OPI Houston We Have A Purple

Middle, pinkie: OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?

Both from the Texas collection 2011.

This manicure reminded me so much of sweet syrups and candies and gummy bears that I immediately thought of Mandy Moore's song from my (relative) childhood.

Anyway, I loved having this alternate combination that I did the reverse combi on my left hand and am intending to wear it as a manicure. Syrup nails are rather easy to do, although they'd be faster and less tedious if you used a polish that dried faster. I also love how you're supposed to use as sheer a coat as possible, which is opposite to what you're normally supposed to do for normal manicures.

I have a sneaky suspicion that syrup nails work best with jelly polishes like these 2! I tried it with OPI Yodel Me On My Cell and it didn't have that yummy an effect. However, it looks pretty good with something like Color Club Untamed Luxury as well, because in 1 coat the glitter is pretty sparse but can grow very dense as you build up the coats, so you can achieve a very nice glitter gradient effect with that one.

dancing on the kitchen tiles

2 coats of OPI Black Onyx then scotchtaped with 1 coat of China Glaze Millenium.

As you can tell, Millenium is now my new favourite darling of nail polish art, because it's striking, outstanding and dries very fast. Anyway, apologies for the less than perfect technique but I'm still getting the hang of it! I had intended this to be a kitchen tiles effect a la Alice in Wonderland like the sort of vinyl flooring but it somehow now reminds me of Formula 1 racing? Perhaps I ought to have used a pure white instead of a silver, but I have no white that is opaque enough to cover in one coat, as is needed for scotch-taping.

Anyhow, I'm generally quite pleased with how this turned out, despite its messy application. Definitely eye-catching and not what you'd usually see on the nails of conservative Singaporeans! My friend suggested black and red checkers like a real checker-board but I felt that that combination might be a little fierce. Black and silver is outstanding, eccentric but still passable. Oh well! My next scotch tape project is going to be something along the lines of starburst!

Dancing on the kitchen tiles - it's from some McFly song, isn't it? I like that line. XD

Whiskers & Kittens: A Baby Pink Comparison

Front: Essie Ballet Slippers
Back left: OPI Who Needs A Prince?
Back right: Essie Pop Art Pink

Gosh, isn't that image just the cutest? For some reason, I captioned it 'Pinkertonville' on Flickr, because it was the first word that popped into my head when I looked at it. As you possibly can tell, I've gotten lazier to take photos of the individual bottles, then cut and paste it onto the photos but hey, this is a great idea.

Today, I decided that I shall compare my only 3 baby pink polishes. It used to be only 2 until very recently when I got Essie Ballet Slippers, which made it a nice number for a comparison.





As you can see, Essie Pop Art Pink really doesn't quite fit into the category (expected). While the other two are more similar, nude/white/powder pink sort of combinations, Pop Art Pink is a more in-your-face light Barbie pink sort of colour. It's got more of a blue tone to it, making it very much different from the other two.

Ballet Slippers and Who Needs A Prince? have more to compare. From this photo, you can see that WNAP seems to be more of a peachy shade as compared to Ballet Slippers, but that's really because WNAP has a red flash which, when seen with its base pink colour, makes it appear a little peachier. In reality, I would say that it seems as if the makers of WNAP decided to take some Ballet Slippers, and add a bit of red flash to it and there you have WNAP. The base colour is extremely similar, if not identical. Essentially, Ballet Slippers is WNAP, without red flash.

Although WNAP still remains as my favourite of the lot, as well as one of my favourite nail polishes in my entire collection, I have to give some kudos to Ballet Slippers. I'm really digging the soft femininity of it and the only reason why it lost to WNAP is because of the red flash. Cremes have a difficult time keeping my interest in them for more than a few hours. Because of its red flash, WNAP has a very shiny pearl finish on the nail which is tons more interesting and pretty than a solid creme like Ballet Slippers. However, I'd say Ballet Slippers would make a good second in my line-up for baby pink polishes while Pop Art Pink goes on to finish third, as I can't say I like my nails looking like Barbie.

Which one of the 3 do you like best?

OPI Breathe Life

Warning! Sentimental post ahead.



This was 5 coats.

Yes, 5 coats.

So maybe it's not meant to be worn as a polish by itself? But it's so lovely though. I'd definitely give it a go over Black one of these days, along with OPI Give Me The Moon. OPI Breathe Life is a lovely sheer icy-blue fine glitter in a blue-tinged beige base (which you can't really see much of). I'm not sure what collection it's from, or if it's from any collection at all. It is the polish released by OPI in aid of Lung Cancer Awareness, in collaboration with the Lung Cancer Foundation of America. I'm not sure if proceeds from the sales of these polishes go towards this cause, but let's hope that it does spread the awareness of this terrible disease. If I'm not wrong (not entirely sure about this), this polish is limited edition!

As someone who is training to become a pharmacist, I'm academically exposed to the hard facts of this disease. Having a close grandma who passed away just at the beginning of this year from lung cancer, I'm also emotionally aware of the outcome. As we all know, those suffering from lung cancer are mostly long-time smokers. My grandma herself smoked for, I think, 60 over years. I'm thankful that my grandma was diagnosed at a rather old age and therefore was able to live her last years without the very, very painful, emotionally draining and expensive therapeutical options for the disease.

I wouldn't want to come across as a bit too naggy or righteous on a nail polish blog (that sounded incongruous), but I'd really like to take this opportunity to get any smokers out there to just contemplate quitting. The amount of money spent on cigarettes, over the course of so many years, only to have to spend more money later on for treatment that could have been unnecessary. And of course, as we all know, second-hand smoke kills as much as first-hand does. I'm even more concerned for those close to me, like my family and friends, who do smoke. It's not so much because I think smoking is evil or reprehensible, but more because I don't want to lose people I love so unnecessarily.

All right, I shall stop nagging. Hahaha. Other than that, IT'S A GREAT POLISH. XD If only it was more opaque!

OPI Do You Think I'm Texy?

From the Texas collection 2011.

This was 3 coats with no topcoat.

Awww, don't my nails look like strawberry gummies you just want to sink your teeth in? I'm beginning to appreciate this jelly finish (no nonsense about the sorbets, now). This is my very first proper jelly-finish polish! Unfortunately I accidentally ordered another one which means I've to sell one off to raise funds to buy the OPI Houston, We Have A Purple. Heh.

OPI Do You Think I'm Texy? is a berry-hot pink polish that is saved from being a little too striking with its jelly finish. You would notice that the close-up seems to be a bit peach/orange. And I've no idea why it appears as such. As I've ranted earlier, this was one of the polishes that turned up a completely-off shade of red in the photographs, so I had to tweak the settings a little on Photoshop to make it a bit more closer to life. The colour is closer to original now than it was previously, though not completely accurate either. In life, there is more of a red tone to it but you can definitely tell that it isn't a full-red from any distance, I imagine.

Also - annoying name. XD I keep typing 'Sexy' instead of 'Texy' when talking to my friends, which may lead to some awkwardness depending on who you're talking to.

Of scotchtaping, take 1!

As my weekend manicure this week, I painted the OPI DS Sapphire. Today being Sunday and having to take it off eventually, I decided to play around with it. I attempted scotchtaping before but I finally got it to work!



Base: OPI DS Sapphire
Pattern: OPI Ink

It's a jumble of pattern because I was testing them out, but it came out pretty well! The lines were neatly defined, contrary to my previous attempts.

I tried it first with frosty tape like the 3M sort, but I found that for some reason, the frosty tape would sort of be corroded or weakened by the nail polish (when you paint the nail polish over the tape), so when you attempt to remove it, it tears off into shreds and leaves bits and pieces of itself on the nail. It was a mess! I tried it again with clear tape and found that it worked a lot better. The only downside to clear tape is that you can't really see the line you're pasting so you'd have to be quite careful. Frosty tape had better visualization! But I've heard from others that frosty tape was better for them, so I'm not really sure if it's just the quality of mine!

OPI DS Sapphire

From the OPI DS range. 3 coats.

This marks the second DS polish that I own. While mega-fans of linear holos may not really like this range as I have heard that they are all scattered holos except for DS Original, for a holo noob like myself, it does perfectly well at keeping my goo-ga-eyed and mystified by its magic rainbow shine!

DS Sapphire is a blue-tinged silver base with a lavender flash, and of course, the holo that is sort of like a scattered linear. It's not quite a true scattered holo because there is some visible linearity, but yet it is not as clearly defined as the classic China Glaze OMG collection. From afar, or under dim lighting, this polish may seem to be a concrete silver, or maybe even lavender. Application was all right. You can do with 2 coats if you don't mind a little VNL but I decided to do away with my laziness and paint a third coat.

I painted this under dim lighting at the beginning, so I was rather disappointed because the holo was amazing in the bottle and didn't seem to come up too well on the nail. However, after painting it under my flourescent lamp today, I realise that it's actually - not a bad holo at all! I particularly like the lavender flash! It's like, when you direct your nails at a light source, the halo around the light source on your nails would be a lavender gradient-ing out to a more periwinkle purple. Trippy, right? You can only somewhat see it in the photograph, which I admit dims down the lavender flash quite a bit, though it shows up the holo satisfactorily. You can see the discrepancy between the very linear holo in the bottle and the more scattered holo on the nail as well. While you probably can't layer it on top of anything else as one coat is still thick enough to obscure or confuddle anything but the richer colours, it makes a great base layer for Konad-ing (you know what's coming up!) and possibly shatter (I'll try Black Mesh over it when I get it - I suspect under Black Mesh, it'll look like OPI Last Friday Night).

Considering that the poor shopkeeper charged me a whole lot cheaper for this, I'm extremely happy with this buy. It's pretty, it's not a bad holo (though not as linear as I would like) and it's definitely eye-catching. How cheap did I get this? Well, I paid almost the price of a China Glaze for this one. HO HUM! (:

Edit: Just realised that when it's viewed in dim or yellow lighthing, when the holo's all muted out and invisible, it resembles a darker, glittery, more opaque version of Orly Sky Blue Pink!

China Glaze Millenium vs OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It

China Glaze Millenium from the Khrome collection 2009. 1 coat.
OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It from the Texas collection 2011. 4 coats.

As you can tell already, CG Millenium is tons more opaque than the watery-thin formula of OPI It's Totally Fort Worth It. The chrome-shine of Millenium is also way more outstanding than the mere shimmer in OPI. Of course, the OPI has the pink glitter add-on but really? Compared to the blingness of Millenium, it pales a long way. Although OPI on its own looks shimmery already (like in this swatch) but when compared with the shamelessly shiny Millenium, it also begins to look dull and lifeless. The silver in it is evidently a lot more gray than Millenium, which leans towards white.

I'll say this for OPI though, at least it evens out. Even in this photo, you can pick out all the brushstroke mistakes I made with Millenium. What can I say? Beauty is unforgiving. In the close-up, you can see that OPI has a much neater, even finish, whereas Millenium has a more foil-like appearance, and dries too fast to ever even out your mistakes. Millenium reminds me of white gold, though!

And just for kicks, I thought I'd layer some China Glaze Broken Hearted (from the Crackle Glaze collection 2011) over it...



I'm not gonna lie! I'd definitely wear Millenium under Broken Hearted any day. Precisely because it's so shiny, it enhances the effect of the crackle! OPI looks fine under it, and the pink crackle brings out the pink glitter even more, but ngeh, like I said - beside Millenium, it just looks a lot more muted.

CND Sapphire Sparkles on Black

Yes, I said I'd swatch it and here it is! Amazing looking. I think this is better than OPI Ink, actually, because the glitter is chunkier, and it has a duochrome! Plus, in terms of shade, it's no different from OPI Ink. Even though Black Onyx is as black a polish as you can find, but CND still manages to transform it into an amazingly deep purple polish.

It's absolutely beautiful. I have no more words of admiration except for another picture:

China Glaze White Cap on Black

China Glaze White Cap is from the Anchors Away collection '11.

This is 1 coat of China Glaze White Cap over Black Onyx. One may think that White Cap is a cheaper alternative to CND Jade Sparkles. Although I don't own Jade Sparkles, but having seen the quality of CND Sparkles in their Sapphire one, I am convinced that White Cap will never really substitute Jade Sparkles.

White Cap is a cream jelly base with fine golden shimmer in it. You can see how the cream translucent base plus the golden shimmer transform the black polish into something olive-golden. I personally am not digging the olive-golden shade, I think it could be achieved in better quality with Jade Sparkles over Black.

However, that's not to say that White Cap isn't a great polish! I've used it over other nail polishes to great effect. However, because of its translucent cream base, it may not turn out the way you think it would because it does make the base colour lighter and more faded-looking.

China Glaze Fairy Dust over Black

Good grief, just how dense is this? I'm so amazed by it already in just one coat! This has got to be the best holographic sparkle polish out there. Not only is it dense and even, the glitter in it is so beautifully holographic, I can't stop staring at it. Looks best over black because then you wouldn't have anything competing with Fairy Dust for epicosity.

I think I've mentioned it on another entry before but I love how Fairy Dust doesn't seem to just sit on the base colour, but it somehow feels as if it's suspended in the clear jelly base it's in, giving it this amazing depth that I've never seen done in any other layering glitter topcoat! The only bad thing about Fairy Dust is that it's so epic on its own that I never really feel like layering it over any coloured cremes because it doesn't quite do the glitters justice!

Also, unlike most other shimmery topcoats which enhance its base colour or makes the base colour different-looking, Fairy Dust doesn't. It's suspended in a clear base, so it wouldn't alter the shade or colour of your original polish, but because it's purely holographic, it's not any shade of colour at all (for example, I wouldn't call it a silvery glitter, because you see nothing but holographic specks), so it doesn't quite enhance the base.

If you want to go really crazy, go ahead and test how far you can resemble a disco ball by painting 2. However, I found that a 3rd coat didn't glitterify it significantly more than the 2nd coat.

OPI Black Onyx

I wasn't intending to do a review on this one, because I'm like, black is just a basic layering colour, right? Anyway, I bought this black polish purely for layering and experimenting purposes because I think I would never wear a black polish on its own like so without any kind of shimmer on it. Partially because my mom hates it.

But I'm so impressed by this one! Although it's a two-coater and therefore not exactly the most ideal for Konading but look at how glossy it is! And this is without topcoat!! Dry time on this was pretty good too! The time it took for me to take a few photos and type out most of this entry, it's already dry! Good if you intend to use it as a base for something.

Well, there's nothing much else to say besides that. It's black, it's creme and it's high freakin' gloss. Done!

OPI Meet Me On The Star Ferry

From the OPI Hong Kong collection '10.

You know, I'm not even sure why I bought this polish. It's far from the sort of colours I usually go for. MMOTSF is a sort of a very dark rust colour with purple and red undertones. It's a very interesting colour and it does remind me of Chinese restaurants somehow, in both its shade as well as the type of glitter in it. It has a very shimmery base which is semi-frosty, and in it, you have very fine glitter that flashes red and green, somewhat similar to the ones found in OPI Happy Anniversary, but finer. I cannot think of anything remotely in my collection that could compare to the colour, except maybe DS Diamond, but that's a holo and that's significantly lighter, although it's in the same range of colour.

Application was great, 2 coats only though I had to keep messing it up. I absolutely hate it when some edge or corner ambushes my unsuspecting fingers and it scrapes off a chunk of the wet polish. Can't get more annoying than that. Anyway, there's something about the shimmery base in this polish that makes the brushstrokes very obvious, so beware! It dries to a shiny enough finish, though it could do with a layer of topcoat, of course.

All in all, I'm not really sure whether I'd ever wear it, because the colour just doesn't quite excite me. It's not really purple, and it's not really red or bronze or brown. It's an interesting mix of all, and there's a slight mutedness to it which some might like, but I just can't really imagine myself in the mood to wear such a colour. That could explain why I never properly swatched it though I got it more than a few months ago! I've never even worn it out, never used it as a base for nail art - nothing.

Oh wells. At least I own something from one of the very few OPI collections that's actually Oriental-themed.

Duping OPI Ink

Index: OPI Ink (2 coats)

Middle: OPI Black Onyx (2 coats), CND Sapphire Sparkles (2 coats)

Ring: OPI Black Onyx (2 coats), Daiso Blue Glitter (3 Coats)

Pinkie: OPI Ink (2 coats)

You know what. I actually prefer my middle finger combination over the original OPI Ink. I should never have underestimated the epic-ness of CND Sapphire Sparkles. Look at that amazing glitter! When it shines purple (which is, by the way, the exact same shade of purple in OPI Ink), it's of a very slightly larger glitter than that in Ink, and it's helluva lot more bling. The good thing about CND Sapphire Sparkles is that it also flashes blue at another angle, because it's a duochrome glitter and because it's awesome like that.

OPI Black Onyx + CND Sapphire Sparkles is definitely something like a value-added OPI Ink. I foresee myself wearing this way more often in the future. On a side note, I finally got a really good coverage of OPI Black Onyx for the first time. Previously, it's always seemed rather watery and obstinate, like I needed a few coats before it really showed the black, but this was just 2 and it came out very glossy and solid. Of course, you need to wait for a while before you can layer on the CND Sapphire Sparkles.

As for the Daiso one, the sparkles is definitely more sparse than the CND (duh, Daiso was only S$2!). Unlike Sapphire Sparkles which shines a mixture of purple and blue, Daiso flashes blue most of the time. Only at some angles can you see a hint of purple in those sparkles. Also, the blackness of the base still comes through strongly, so from afar, you're more likely to see black rather than a dark purple, as is the case for OPI Ink and CND. However, if you're one that loves black or very dark polish, and like the blue sparkles in this one, then go for it. Though more sparse than CND, the sparkliness can definitely compare.

I'm not sure if this was a fair comparison, seeing as OPI Ink was meant to be a microshimmer whereas CND and Daiso are almost foil-like glitters, but I'm glad I found the CND Sapphire Sparkles combination! Maybe I'll do a full swatch with it soon! (:

OPI Give Me The Moon (update!)

For my weekend manicure this week, despite trying out all my Konads and stuff, I decided to give this one a run. Because I was simply too lazy/tired to go Konads on all ten fingers so I opted for something safe and solid. I recently reviewed this one here. As usual, it took so many coats that I stopped counting but I'd just like to add...

IT'S FRIKKIN GORGEOUS?!

Yeah, I guess wearing it on 4 fingers for like 5 minutes was just enough to impress me on the femininity and elegance of this polish but actually wearing it on 10 fingers - I actually could not stop staring at it throughout my shower and I still can't stop staring it.

It's a dove grey base, something like Zoya Dove or China Glaze Pelican Grey, and they sprinkled some icy cool blue shimmer in it. But maybe because you can't reach full opacity so the pinkness of your own flesh shines through, but whatever the case, in dim lighting it looks like a mad awesome shade of shimmery lavender-pink. What?! Yeah, I don't get it either. Whatever the case, the colour of this polish is WINNING. XD

I said in my previous review that at some angles it might look grey. I retract that. I only see the grey as a base colour to the blue shimmer. It is impossible to see this polish as pure grey, near, far, wherever you are. My mum thought it was a purple. GOSH I LOVE IT. Hahaha. When it comes to nail polish, I'm a bit of a schizo. On one hand I like all these mad loud ones like Zoya Charla or Color Club Untamed Luxury, but on the other hand I'm as crazy over the super soft and subtle polishes like this one, or OPI Who Needs A Prince? There's something about the subtlety that wins me.

My first attempt at Konad!!

Whoots, here it is! OK, I lied, this isn't my first attempt at Konad, but it's the first ever documented!

Index
Base: China Glaze Snow
Stamp: Zoya Breezi
Plate: m51

I definitely like the index finger design best. It reminds me of old Chinese white porcelain cutlery with their intricate blue designs. But sorry for the smudge. Although the polish looks a little thin on the nail and looks a bit bald in some places, I actually like it that way! Like I said, reminds me of the Chinese cutlery.



Middle
Base: OPI Diva of Geneva
Stamp: Zoya Marley
Plate: m79

Middle finger looks a bit strange! I don't think the combination goes really well. For a relatively darker polish like Diva of Geneva, a lighter stamping colour would be better. Zoya Marley was supposed to be that light shade, but for some reason it came out pretty dark on the nail. The design's a little incomplete but I also surprisingly like it that way. Gives it a bit of a vintage feel, especially since the design is roses and pearls and random lines.

Ring
Base: Zoya Marley
Stamp: OPI DS Diamond
Plate: m60

UGH, I can't see DS Diamond at all! What a pity. I had expected DS Diamond to really shine when on Marley but, no. I can't see it at all. And because it's a scattered holo, I suspect that's why the holo effect didn't come out so well when stamped on, unlike linear holos (like legendary China Glaze OMG etc.) How saddening. Now it just looks like I have some glittery holo topcoat-ish thing on my Marley.

Pinkie
Base: OPI The One That Got Away
Stamp: Konad Special White Polish
Plate: m51

Whoops, I forgot to put on a topcoat for this one. And before anyone comes up to me with an accusation of not cleaning up properly on my pinkie, the story goes that when I stamped it on, I was so amused by that whole bit that stuck out (and rather enamoured by the design) that I kept it as it is. But yes, I will clean it up later on. I like the combination here. The One That Got Away is one of my favourite base colours of just about any nail art because it's that deep but rich shade of reddish-pink, but the glass flecks in it really helps it become bright. So basically it's good for just about everything.

Hailing from Korea, Konad is a brand that specializes in making image plates on which you can paint on nail polish, scrape it off (so that there's only nail polish left in the engravings of the design), stamp it on a stamper, and then stamp it on your nails. It sounds difficult, but it's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Of course, doing it on your right hand (if you're right-handed) is a whole different ball game and one at which I am completely at the bottom of the ladder.

Anyhow, Konad (obviously) recommends you to get their own Konad special polish which is ultra-opaque (so much so that it is highly recommended that you do NOT try painting it as a full coat on your nails - honestly, I don't even want to try) as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. I like how small and handy all the equipment are, very convenient and all-round cute. Everything's a becoming girly shade of pink (hey, if you're doing nail art with flowers and stuff - kinda speaks volumes about you). Using the Konad special nail polish would definitely make it a lot easier for you to get the hang of things, and I would highly recommend that to beginners. Personally, I think the white Konad polish is a must-have for everyone, since white Konad is especially lovely. Black and silver are also becoming tempting. I stupidly bought the lavender shade which I have not used until now.

In my opinion, Konad's one of the easiest nail arts that I've come across. I've tried water marbling, I've tried nail foils and nothing really works without hair-pulling frustration. Shatter polish doesn't count. Konad, however, is pretty simple, as long as you don't do it in a windy place or under a fan, because the nail polish would dry up faster than you can stamp it. Yes, I confess, I learnt that the hard way. Anyway, that being said, Konad isn't fail proof (especially the RIGHT HAND), so you may have to practise a bit before you get things right.

So I'm really happy that I've found colours that are able to work with my Konad. This is my first time successfully trying stamping with non-Konad polishes! Generally, if you want to find something that works, go for those polishes that are one-coaters, or at least has a pretty good coverage in one coats. The thicker and creamier, the better. Zoya cremes work marvelously for this one, I've heard that China Glaze Millenium, 2030 and Color Club Worth The Risque and Revvvolution are great polishes for Konading as well. Will try it out when I get them!

OPI Give Me The Moon, OPI Ink

I was picking through a local nail polish online store's sales list and the two that I picked happened to be from the same collection, and I didn't even know till now. I got OPI Give Me The Moon and OPI Ink, both from the OPI Night Brights collection '07. 2007 was a looong time ago, back when I still shunned nail polish (the horror).


OPI Give Me The Moon. 5 coats. No topcoat.

This is a rather hard colour to describe, but it's a sort of gray base with yellow undertones, with an icy light blue shimmer. The colour is definitely unique, I haven't yet come across any nail polish that has that sort of colour yet. The shimmer isn't at all phantom, either. From afar, it lends a blue tinge to the grey, and only in very dim lightings or at certain angles would you not be able to discern any blue at all.

I like the colour very much but the only problem I have about this polish is the formula and thus, the application. The polish is rather sheer - I'm not sure if it was meant to be layered, or worn on its own but since all the other swatches I've seen of it, it's usually worn on its own, I'm going to assume that it's meant to stand by itself. It took me a whopping 5 COATS to get the opacity you see in this picture. If you squint, you can still see my VNL. That's a crazy long time! Sigh, but well, I'd definitely still wear this because I adore the colour and how special it is, I just have to make sure I have a movie to watch while waiting for all 5 coats to dry.

Update here!


OPI Ink. 2 coats. With topcoat.

Homg.

HOOMMMGGG.

This is like nail polish orgasm. XD Sorry, but when I first painted it on my nails, I was like, whimper! It deserved another shot on the cam.



You know, I like this polish so much that it's still on just 4 of my fingers, after swatching them? I haven't yet rubbed them off because I really really like it. And trust me, I'm someone who shuns from dark, or black-based polish, so that is saying a lot to the attractive quality of OPI Ink.

I've long heard of the legendary OPI Ink but had never felt the need to own it, again because I shun dark or black-based polish. Only after I saw the beauty of Zoya Valerie in its bottle (unfortunately, I wasn't the one who bought it), and then seeing OPI Ink in its bottle as well at a school fair, I decided to get my hands on it.

OPI Ink has a black polish base, but it's so mad full of a purple/blue-flashing duochrome glitter, that it almost always looks like a rich, dark, royal purple. Again, only in the dimmest of lightings or at certain angles would it even come across as black. However, there is no denying that it's dark but the glitter is just so beautiful! I really, really love it! I cannot express how much I love it except - HOMG.

I was also surprised that this went on in like 2 easy coats because Give Me The Moon, from the same collection, had such a thin and tedious application. However, all the better for OPI Ink, I say! It's absolutely gorgeous and obviously, highly recommended for all, even those who usually don't like to wear dark-based polishes like me. (:

OPI Diva of Geneva

From the Swiss collection '10.

Now, before you guys think I'm so outdated and all that, this is one of my first few nail polishes ever and I have to say, I haven't seen many duochromes pass through my hands that can surpass the richness of this one. Diva of Geneva is a rich, cool purple with very obvious red maroon undertones, and is chock full of a gold glitter. The gold glitter is most obvious in the bottle, and doesn't quite translate into much of a duochrome effect but it makes its presence felt by contributing to the shimmery appearance of the polish.

This one is a classic. In flourescent, white lighting, it shows in the usual purple tones, but in dim, yellow lighthing, it looks like a rich, vixeny maroon. It's often hard for even me to discern if it looks more purple or red. I often get confuzzled myself! One of my favourite nail polishes. It dries semi-matte but has a really good coverage. This was only 2 coats.

Sephora 0272A with Silver Shatter

If you remember this little post with my Sephora mini-haul, you would probably know I'm head over heels in love with Sephora 0272A (gosh I hate the "name"). So naturally, I wondered how it'd look with the bling of Silver Shatter crowned over it.

It's the most fantastic creation I've made so far! (except for the one time I did Konad)



GOOD GRIEF! Can you see the blue-green luminescence peeking through the glittery goodness of the Silver Shatter? It was absolutely fantastic, and it looked even better when I put on the topcoat layer, but it didn't look much different on photos, so I chose not to re-upload.

In most lightings, this turned out more glowy green than actually blue-green, but it didn't matter. My piano teacher liked it so much and we both thought it looked like Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, somehow. I really like how unique this combination is! It's like the Sephora might have been too bright on its own, so the Silver Shatter helps to tone that down a little, but because it's so glittery, it doesn't make it seem any duller either.

I also really liked how Silver Shatter cracked on this one! You can definitely see the plate-like formations (Geography, anyone?) The only thing to look out for is that with one layer of Seche Vite, the texture of your nail would feel a little bumpy because the Seche Vite seems to sink into the cracks of the Shatter. It's a pretty interesting effect. You can put on another layer of Seche Vite if it bothers you, but as it's only my weekend manicure, I didn't bother.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!