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

Estessimo Tins - Swan Lake

This was 3 coats.

Estessimo Tins is a Japanese nail polish brand that is not actually sold locally (at least, at prices that are not exhorbitant) but I managed to get this one from a local blogshop and I am in love! So much so that I took way too many pics:







As I cannot read Japanese and I find their 'collections' very difficult to keep track of, I'm just going to be satisfied with saying that this is called Swan Lake. In my opinion, I think this would've made a way more epic official nail polish for the movie Black Swan than Zoya Bebe, which was more of a ballet leotard shade of light pink. I get the theme and all but come on, Black Swan was way not girly and feminine.

Swan Lake has a dark grey base, with some fine shimmer inside that really redefines my notion of 'duochrome'. It changes colour freakily. Though I would say the dominant shade is still a sort of dusty teal-blue, the purple hue it changes into at another angle is definitely not far behind. And when the light hits directly onto the nail, you really see this awesome bright teal colour, leaning almost towards green. And yet, all these awesome colours are muted and faded in its dark grey base, giving it a really ethereal feel.

I think I don't even need to explain why this polish would've made a better official polish for Black Swan. The now-you-see-it-now-you-don't shades of the polish, the soft, faded, dusty look and its graceful but possibly-sinister colours - everything spells out that movie.

And here it is with flash:





Doesn't it look completely different from the ones taken in artificial light?!

Anyway, it immediately reminded me of my other purple/blue duochrome, Orly Royal Velvet, so I pulled it out to compare...







2 coats of Orly Royal Velvet.

Obviously, they are worlds apart. Next to RV, Swan Lake looks dusty, antique, faded, sun-washed - ghostly, even. Not to mention, Royal Velvet's predominant colour is a royal deep rich purple, where that of Swan Lake is the teal-blue flash that I spoke about earlier. The colour is so much richer in Royal Velvet because that royal purple is its base, whereas in Swan Lake, the base is a dark grey as mentioned, and that really desaturates the colour a lot, but it suits the soft and ghostly feel of the polish, to me.

Another thing I have to point out is that while normally I would call Royal Velvet a duochrome, it looks nothing like it next to Swan Lake. Swan Lake's duochrome is so crazy that you can see both purple and blue at the same time, sometimes, and it almost makes you a little dizzy looking at it. I actually suspect that it's because your left eye sees blue and the right eye sees purple. What?! That is seriously crazy.

This is my very first Estessimo Tins polish. I bought it from Tammy's nail blog, and it cost S$15. The formula was good, although a little on the thin side since I required 3 coats to build it up, but no major problems.

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.

Essie Mesmerize

From the Essie Spring 2009 collection.

This is 2 coats, without topcoat.

I recall a particular nail blog describing this as a "Superman blue" and can never dissociate this colour from the Man of Steel ever since! I personally think Superman has a slightly lighter shade of blue but this is definitely in the same shade range. It's bright, but yet dark at the same time. I guess you can call it a medium blue, and it's a creme through and through. The formula is creamy and good, much like that of Mint Candy Apple.

I really like how this blue is dark without transcending the line into navy. I have actually made a comparison photo between this and Zoya Breezi, although their similarities are few and far between, besides being beautiful medium blues. Breezi has more of a teal tint to it whereas Mesmerize is a true blue (heh, pun).

Essie Mint Candy Apple

From the Essie Winter collection 2009.

This was 2 coats, without topcoat.

Mint Candy Apple is a rather cool mint colour, with blue undertones in it. It isn't particularly obvious on its own but if you compare it to the likes of Orly Gum Drops or China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, you can definitely see that this is the bluest of the lot. I bought this precisely because of its blue undertones, since I believe that pure green shades have an aversion to me. Still, Mint Candy Apple is a very pretty, mint colour that gives a splash of refreshing vitality to a wide variety of skin tones.

No, my beef with this polish is really on its formula. I'm not sure if it's just me but Essie polishes seem to have a strange sort of drying time. It dries while you're still painting it, so it becomes a goopy, streaky mess! But this only applies (I think) when I paint them under a fan. Is this supposed to happen with any nail polish? I don't seem to be having this problem with any other nail polish. In any case, Essie applies very well in air-conditioning, i.e. no direct wind, but you're not dying from the heat either (I live in a tropical country). I would even go so far as to say that in air-conditioning, Essie creme applications are only second to Zoya, which is saying quite a bit. A one-coater would have been sufficient if your technique was good. If not, an easy second coat would definitely rectify it.

I'm not sure if it's so coincidental that I have always been using this nail polish under a fan because I never can bring myself to get a nicely done manicure of this one, so I haven't worn it. In this photo, I had painted it in air-conditioning so I'm very surprised and pleased with the result! I'd definitely wear it more often, and defy the look of greens on me.

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?