exam period.

Apologies for the lack of updates and photographs recently! I have been busy studying for exams, which will end in about 2 weeks. (:

I have acquired a bottle of Silver Shatter which I'm really excited to try. In my free holidays after the exams, I hope to showcase some Konad (which I bought like, 7 plates of, thanks to my complete lack of self-discipline), the Crackle Glaze (Lightning Bolt and Crushed Candy) from China Glaze as well as Silver Shatter from the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection.

Till then, see you! (:

Looking at it now, you would think - what possessed me to even want to compare these two? They look so different. The truth is, when you only have Sea Spray on your nails, it looks pretty much like a baby blue, albeit a dusty one. I honestly thought they would've been more similar. Apparently I had forgotten the brightness of What's With The Cattitude? (seriously, that name is way too long, and 'Cattitude' takes me extra effort to remember how to spell).

Also, apologies for all the scratches and chips on Sea Spray. It's been worn for about 3 - 4 days, and it's gone through a few games of Ultimate Frisbee so I think the scratches and such are passable.

I'm quite a 'blue' person, so I love them both. I'd paint Sea Spray when I feel more neutral or muted, because it's refreshing but yet not too much in-your-face, whereas I'd paint Cattitude if I was feeling bouncy, happy, crazy, etc.

OPI DS Diamond

This is my first holographic polish and I have to say I'm loving it. Very much. This is Diamond from the OPI Designer Series, and it is a muted lavender scattered holo. Shown here is 2 coats. If you squint really minutely, you probably can see a bit of a VNL but because the scatter holo plus topcoat reflects light like mad and distracts your attention, the VNL is way not noticeable. This also helps to camouflage any little mistakes or smudges or dents you may make along the way, making it an ultra-convenient yet chic and exciting nail polish.

I like how in the shade, this transforms into its muted lavender base, making it work-appropriate and for those days when you're feeling a tad bit neutral like me now. But when you hit direct light, or worse, in the sun, the zest of this polish is really going to show through! Because it's a scattered and not linear holo, Diamond would not be so in-your-face bling as the legendary China Glaze OMG! collection, but for now, I like it as such! (: Formula is excellent, application was great, OPI brush rocks, so on and so forth.

Seriously, LOOK AT THE DEPTH OF THIS NAIL POLISH. It's amazing. And oh, how it goes crazy in the sun. All my friends love it.

China Glaze Sea Spray

Sea Spray is one of those colours where you just can't seem to pin point an exact colour down for it. The most appropriate one I could think of was dusty baby blue. In yellow light, the blue shines out more, but in white light, it could almost appear dove grey.

Application was great, as usual. This was 2 coats, though if you're really good with your technique, you could do it in one. I know there are some places that say this has a silver microshimmer and I do agree with this, but it took me a comparison photo with a true creme to see the shimmer. At any other angle, it looks like a dusty blue creme. So what's the point of the shimmer? I believe that it's for the purpose of creating more light reflection and therefore making it seem more glossy, which it does. I really love this. Mine chipped, however, within 3 days or less, with topcoat.

It kinda reminds me of a stormy sky. The colour is not too strong or bright, but it's still somehow refreshing. Love it, can foresee myself wearing this quite often.

From the Anchors Away Spring collection '11.

L.A. Girls Deep Sea Micah

It's not many days that I get to be able to swatch freely when the sun is still up. I usually do my swatching at night when I come home from school (that's when you see a yellowish lighting from my so-called flourescent lamp).

So I just happened to pop by Guardian Pharmacy this afternoon and after shamelessly testing out some L.A. Girls nail polish (non-testers, cough), I decided on buying this one as the most likely one I'd wear even though at the point in time, I preferred the hot pink, green and purple tin foils on my other fingers. The blue seemed lacklustre and a whole lot less shiny next to the others. But I'm more of a blue person, so I got this anyway. When I walked out into the sun, it was a shock to discover that this blue does not lose in terms of sparkliness at all to its warmer-coloured counterparts.

Application for this one was lovely, if on the sheer side. I think this was possibly about 3 or 4 coats. I used to not have much of an impression of L.A. Girls because I've never really seen them being mentioned almost at all on nail polish blogs and I generally don't trust stuff I see on Singapore shelves. Because the first nail polish I bought was from their Matte collection and it wasn't very satisfactory. Plus, it separated! So I thought it was rather low-quality, but hey, this is starting to make me appreciate a different side of it.

It kinda looks like Cuckoo For This Color from the OPI Swiss collection, so I whipped out my Yodel Me On My Cell for a comparison (to be later posted). Was rather shocked at how similar they were but Deep Sea Micah is more of a cooler green and interestingly, has more shimmer/sparkles than Yodel. Is the nail polish giant going to be one-upped by a two-bit varnish company?

All in all, I have a really really good impression of this polish and can't wait to try it out as a full manicure!

Essie Mint Candy Apple + Arezia #697

This is 1 coat of Essie Mint Candy Apple from the Winter '09 collection and 1 coat of Arezia #697.

I always have issues putting on Mint Candy Apple. It seems awfully streaky! And not only is it streaky, it actually bubbles. I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong but I really had to take some time out to apply this one. However, since I knew I'd be layering a coat of Arezia #697 over it, I decided not to polish up the streaks and holes since it'd be camouflaged by the additional coat anyway.

I'm not sure which country does Arezia come from, but I'm loving what I see of their polishes so far. This is a pearlescent blue-mint colour that you can layer on something else like what I did here, or wear it by itself. If worn by itself, it only requires 2 coats for opacity, but the colour is a lot greener than it looks here, since this is layered over a mint base. It does give it a bit of a frosty finish but I seem to like to this effect quite a bit. It's somehow freakishly glowy. It's sold at SGD $4.00 at Sasa Beauty, which is awesome cheap. Not just that, there's a Buy One Get One Free promotion going on there right now.

Edit:

I realise that this photo is more true to how the colour of my manicure really was. It kinda looks like the green tack that I used in school recently. Still - got a lot of compliments with it.

Hot pink comparisons

I decided to do this one because my friend insisted that I was buying the same colours over and over again, so this is to prove to her and also myself that I haven't, really. XD As you can tell, they do look pretty similar in the bottle, and I was worried myself that I've been buying dupes but - obviously not.

I don't really quite know what brand is Eleanor, but I saw it in a big basket of a local beauty shop and decided to get my hands on it.

OPI Diva of Geneva from the Swiss collection '10 is an obvious cool purple with a hint of gold in it. OPI The One That Got Away from the Katy Perry collection '11 is a berry pink on the darker side with large glass flecks in it. China Glaze Ahoy! from the Anchors Away collection '11 is a hot pink base with golden micro-glitter which makes it lighter and warmer than The One That Got Away. Eleanor doesn't really have a name for its polishes but I'm just going to go ahead and call it Hot Pink. This is a more muted dusty pink packed with silver glitter.

Love them all, anyway! I've worn OPI The One That Got Away and OPI Diva of Geneva as manis so far, not the other two yet. Looking forward to Ahoy! It look hawt.