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.

aquarius

I wasn't really sure how to name this but here's my first somewhat successful sponging attempt!







Base: China Glaze Snow, 2 coats (Holiday collection 2010)

First sponge: China Glaze Flyin' High (Up and Away collection 2010)

Second sponge (nearer tips): Zoya Charla

I initially had wanted to use OPI What's With The Cattitude for the first sponge (the one that covers about 2/3 of the nail) and I'm glad I chose Flyin' High instead, which is a better match for Charla. I like how Charla adds that mermaid sheen at the tip.

I really like how this turned out! It looks like an ocean spray or something. I could've named it Sea Spray or On Stranger Tides, but they are unfortunately already used as polish names.

I did this by cutting a square of sponge and just putting the polish on a piece of paper (I stupidly tried using kitchen towels in my first few attempts, DO NOT use anything absorbent), then dabbing the sponge on the polish and dabbing it onto your nails. It turns out a little gross and rough at first because of the sponge (unless you're using a smooth sponge), but all is well after you put on your layer of topcoat.

I used a sponge that was holy and I guess rather rough. That's why the gradient turned out splatter-like and sort of like water splashing, which is cool with me, but for a smoother gradient, I think perhaps finding a foundation sponge or something smoother would be a better idea. I might go and hunt for one now, myself.

All in all, extremely pleased with the way this turned out! And it's super fast, because when polishes are sponged on rather than painted, they tend to dry a whole lot faster. The only rate limiting factor is most probably going to be the dry time of your base layer.

UPDATE





So I got bored and I also received my haul from 8ty8beauty so I applied some China Glaze Black Mesh over it and I love how it looks! I love how the gradient pops up against the black crackle in the forefront, and how it all looks really cartoony!

pink eggshells

Base: China Glaze Millenium, 1 coat. From the Khrome collection 2009.
Shatter: China Glaze Broken Hearted, 1 coat. From the Crackle Glaze collection 2011.

Doesn't this look entirely like pink eggshells? I just can't stop thinking of eggshells when I stare at my nails now, although I'm not sure if there are hot pink eggs around.

I really like how Millenium pairs up with Broken Hearted! I feel that a hot pink crackle over a pure white creme has a very jarring neon effect which could be nice, if you're into that sort of thing. Millenium provides a excellent contrast base without being way too glaring. It's light and shiny, without really emphasizing the crackle lines of Broken Hearted too much that makes your eyes ache.

Broken Hearted also crackled really nicely on this one. I think it's also because of the fast-drying action of Millenium, so by the time I got around to painting Broken Hearted, it was really completely utterly truly dry, so Broken Hearted worked better than it did on those slower-drying ones. I love the fast-drying-ness of Millenium. It's so so time-efficient. I wish all polishes were this fast, but that's wishful thinking.

If Lightning Bolt decreased my faith in China Glaze crackles, Broken Hearted would have restored it. Very user-friendly, probably on par with OPI's Silver Shatter, and it's denser too (being creme, duh). Sorry, I still have yet to mastered the art of using Lightning Bolt but that just says something about its user-friendliness. However, I doubt I'd be getting the OPI White Shatter unless I'm feeling really extravagant, since I already have Lightning Bolt.

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

property of the half-blood prince.

I can never run out of Harry Potter quotes.

This is a Slytherin-inspired manicure dedicated to my friend, Lynette, on her birthday! She first suggested the idea of painting her nails red and gold for the occasion, and then I said, "Trying to be Gryffindor?" and then I came up with the idea of painting mine green and silver to match hers. I'm the Slytherin to your Gryffindor, babeh!

Anyway, I honestly couldn't be bothered to wait for 5 coats of Untamed Luxury so I simply painted 1 coat of China Glaze Millenium which dries so happily fast, and then painted another coat of Color Club Untamed Luxury over it. The green-teal jelly base of Untamed Luxury was very well brightened by the reflectiveness of the CG Millenium. I actually quite like the effect of it. It's definitely properly green, and without the hassle of having to paint ten million coats, especially since both Untamed Luxury and Millenium dry pretty fast (if only one coat).





Sorry if the scotchtape lines aren't as clean-cut as they ought to be, this is only my second time trying it out. I'm generally pleased with the effect, though I can already think of ways to improve my technique the next time I try it out. I'm starting to really like scotachtaping. It's less of a hassle than Konad and if you play around with it and get creative, you can come up with some really awesome nail art. I want to dry a sort of star burst kind of thing soon!

Anyhow, I hope Lynette likes it. :D I love the idea of having a matching manicure, and well, it gratifies the Harry Potter obsession in me too.

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!