...And a happy New Year!

The year is coming to a close, so I wanted to post my Christmas nails at least before January. Basically a repeat of the previous snowflake theme, but in more traditionally Christmassy colours.

Have a fantastic 2013, everyone!

 

Frightful.

Though I care little for snow and cold, the aesthetic of snowflakes appeals to me. Infinitely complex works of art on a microscopic scale! What's not to be fascinated by?
Base minty green is a Hema polish; 82. They really ought to name them, so dull this way.
On the accent nail and thumb - tiny glitters are a Herôme polish, and the bigger ones are courtesy of Wild & More.
I had a lot of fun really using my nails as a canvas again!
For Christmas I'll probably do something similar, but in red and gold. I can't really help it, I've got a bit of a fever for painting snowflakes because of this!

Wouldn't Call It 'Magic'.

I haven't updated in a month, to the day! I'm extremely ashamed.

I have here one of Essence's  Colour and Change polishes.. called '01 Wonderlicious Green'. Looks pretty darn blue to me. I thought maybe the effect would bring out this allegedly wonderous green, but it did not. It remained, well, blue. Given to me by Sinterklaas, I thought I'd test it out with a few simple stripes. An effect I wouldn't particularly describe as "magic".
The base polish is extremely pigmented which I liked and has a nice, cool metallic look to it.
It's a cute polish, technically does what it says on the label, but wouldn't exactly call it 'top' innovation.

Sparkle Touch.

Etos had a two-for-one going.. so, how could I resist, right?
The mother of pearl colour on the right originally caught my eye, and then I figured I'd get a sparkly effect polish because I rarely use those and it might be fun!

Curse of the in-door pictures, I'm tellin' ya.

Sparkle! It's like a party on your nails.
The mother of pearl colour was really sheer, and I really should've layered it with something more opaque. 20/20 hindsight, I guess.

 

Miss Sporty 040 and 'Sparkle Touch'.

Black on Black.

It frustrates me so much how impossible it is to take reasonable pictures in my room. The lighting just doesn't allow for it. Bah!

Anyway. Wanted something stylish but simple; black-on-black French mani utilising the contrast between matte and shiny.  Koh 'Black!' and NYC's 'Matte Me Crazy'. 

Cut to the chase.

I'm sure everyone knows the feeling. Every now and then you just need to shake things up a bit.
Now, one of my most obvious visual trademarks is my mass of messy, frizzy, untameable ginger hair.

It used to look mostly like this...

Last Friday I made an appointment with the hairdressers. Originally, I intended to get my fringe cut a bit shorter and to take a bit off the ends. I then thought - screw this, if I'm going to get a haircut, let's get a haircut.

Bit of a change there. Wha'cha think?

Red Means Stop.

I'm pretty bummed out by the fact that when I get home, it's almost inevitably dark out. This means I don't really get the chance to take much colour accurate picutres, so doing a lot of swatching is kinda pointless. But my nails - naturally - do remain polished!
Autumn and Halloween left me with a desire for classy red nails. I blame Morticia Addams.

Look at 'em!

I think I've largely gotten over my previously named 'weird relationship with reds'.
Anyway, this somewhat sloppy half-moon mani consists of Essence's '03 - Cotton Candy' as base, topped off with NYC's '235 - Fine Red Wine'. It's funny how I wasn't even sure this polish was one I wanted to keep but now I've grown to really like it.

 On a somewhat unhappier note, I've broken a nail on my left hand (hence my right featuring in the pictures, which doesn't often happen) so now that this is posted I may trim down the rest a little to compensate. Ouch!

White+Blue.

A quickie inspired by my country's very own Delfts Blauw, utilising Essence's '03 My Boyfriend's Jeans' (Denim Wanted), Koh's 'Midnight Blue', and a white Miss Sporty polish.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from me, everyone!
Not much to say, kind of a last minute effort. (Which I suppose is fairly obvious but humour me okay I have a life no I don't I'm lazy.)
Lovely orange, though, being Herôme W.I.C's '150 Zagora'.

Island Palm.

I have absolutely zilch when it comes to a pun for a title for this post, so the name of the polish it is going to have to be.
It being '170 - Island Palm', a Givenchy polish. And what a beautiful one at that! I think I can count this one among my favourites. A stunning and exotic metallic colour that shifts between the greens and blues of the spectrum.

Don't you love that bottle detail?

I think it's an amazingly bold colour that really jumps out at you, especially in the right light. It takes some a few coats to cover (I think this was at least 3), but for this polish I don't mind in the slightest. It's fantastic, a real eye-catcher.

I do think the summer months would do this one more justice, because in the drab weather of October it rarely gets the chance to show its full potential.

All that glitters is not gold.

Oh my god, I haven't updated in nearly a month!
It's been a case of boring manicures which often chipped before I got around to photographing them, or me being too busy to post or even do my nails (which are sadly the first to suffer when I have things to do).

So, without further ado, here's some admittedly boring pictures of Dior's '668 City of Gold', taken inside because there was no sun to be found at the time.

Border Nails.

I know, I should be (and am) ashamed for posting my nails in the state they're in. I was late in taking pictures, and at this point the manicure had already seen the best days of its short life.

Wanted to try border nails, a nail art trend I think can look either fantastic or horrible.
Sadly, my attempt did not fall in the 'fantastic' category.
When lining white (which is what it started off as) over Rimmel's '700 Block Your Green' I realised I had made the wrong choice, colour-wise. It just doesn't look good, and within a short period of time the white had absorbed some of the green and turned yellow. Experiment failed, sadly.




But on the bright side, Block Your Green is a pretty polish and I'm glad I bought it.

(I know, I know, I'm sorry!)

Just reminding you all the discount is still valid! Use it while you can!

Upon my return..

Upon my return home a short while ago, I discovered my mother had put up this sign on my bedroom door.
Always nice to know what your relatives think of you.. ;)

Shopping Stop.

 I've started a new internship, and while not adhering strictly to any dress code, they do ask that you dress in a representative fashion and keep it a bit professional. What better excuse for a shopping trip?
Mainly wanted to get a blazer - which can turn almost anything from just casual to business casual. And would you look at that ADORABLE bow detailing? Such a lovely touch. (Blazer came from H&M.)

Then, uh, temporarily stepping down from representative and professional.. I stumbled upon this Pink Floyd top and had to have it. I still feel a bit funny about H&M selling bandwear. It doesn't sit entirely right with me.
But I genuinely like Pink Floyd so I couldn't let this one go. Bought my mother corresponding Fleetwood Mac top they had. 
Also, gorgeous teal corduroy trousers. Though you can't really tell they're teal in the picture. 

Ah, fantastic C&A! Having a range of types of jeans that make me feel like my body type is allowed to exist. I love H&M, but their insistence on having almost everything be skinny fit bothers me immensely. Anyone else get that over there?
I love a good ol' fashioned boot cut, I really do. If I had the funding, I'd prance around in extravagant bellbottoms pretty much all the time. But yeah, most of my jeans are pretty worn out and fray like crazy at the bottom so I needed some I could wear to work and not worry about.

Isn't that colour just FANTASTIC on footwear?
My word. I was actually looking for shoes that'd keep me closer to the ground, but I saw these and wanted to try them on. And then I wanted to keep them. Forever.
Also a top in roughly the same colour. Skull made up of hearts! Lovely.

Little accident.

I broke a nail. I plan on cutting the rest to roughly that height when I get home..
Don't you just hate being out in public with your nails looking terrible?

Product Review - Nail Stickers (+ Discount!)

I AM MADLY IN LOVE WITH MY OWN NAILS RIGHT NOW.
Seriously, look at that picture and tell me you don't think they're adorable! A result of a white Miss Sporty polish, Catrice's 'C05 Take It Mint', from the LE Cucuba and the product I'll be reviewing - nail stickers from KKCenterHk.

  

The product in question has number 3D-164.
≫ Product page

I don't really agree with them being 3D nail stickers (though since they technically have depth, breadth and height it's not actually wrong) but they are quite flat.
Which I much prefer, anyway.
I was a little hesitant to try nail stickers again at first, since I usually avoid them. Often they look quite tacky or apply annoyingly or have awkward sizes that I simply can't really use for anything.
But these were so cute I really couldn't resist.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the application of the stickers, because.. well, they're stickers - how hard can it be?

They come packaged in a thin layer of protective plastic and once opened they peel off quite easily.

No complaints here!

Small complaint, though. When I applied the top coat, one of the stickers curled up a little. As you can hopefully discern in the sadly blurry lower picture, this wasn't the case for all of them. So, just a fluke I hope, but for the sake of an honest review worth mentioning anyway.

Generally pleased with this, loving my nails.

I wear nail bows now, nail bows are cool.

KKCenterHk sent me these products purely for the purpose of review, I have not received any special compensation for doing so, and the opinions stated are entirely my own.

Product Review - Stamping (+ Discount!)

Hey guys. I was approached by KKCenterHk to review a few of their nail art products, so here's the first of two!
(And scroll down for a discount coupon code!)
Fair warning; quite a picture-heavy post.

I was quite excited about this because I haven't really done much nail stamping in a while. I've gone a bit rusty when it comes to technique.
Anywho -
The products here are;
SPPMB37 stamping plate.
≫ Product page
JR1055 Scraper and stamp set.
≫ Product page
As you can see, both products are neatly and individually packaged.

When I opened up the stamp and scraper bag, this happened. Yeah. But it plopped right back into position so no real problem there.

Removing the plastic, as you do..

Now for the proper product review - I'm really pleased with the stamping plate. The shapes are neatly done and the polish filled the ridges well.

I must admit I had a little bit of trouble with the scraper, but with my own stamping set I have the same issue. I'm generally inclined to use an old student pass I had lying around, and will admit to having resorted back to that after one go - I don't like wasting my Konad stamping polishes if I don't have to. The scraper supplied is all plastic, no metal, so the plate is at no risk of being damaged from use.
I just can't apply the pressure to those things evenly or something, so student pass it is for me.

As you can see, the image transfers to the nails pretty much as well as is generally expected. I see no difference in quality from my Konad or Essence stamp plates, so I'm satisfied!

Couldn't resist stamping another image while I was at it. Don't you love this cute little skull guy? I think he's adorable.

Upon first contact, I've browsed the KKCenterHk website, and they really have a very large collection of (very affordable) stamping plates. It was so hard to choose one for review. Definitely check it out, there's bound to be something for everyone.

Keep your eye out for the next review!

KKCenterHk sent me these products purely for the purpose of review, I have not received any special compensation for doing so, and the opinions stated are entirely my own.