Essie Bahama Mama Swatch + Review

Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!

I have Essie Bahama Mama to show you today. I rarely wear darker colors so this was new to me, and I have to say, I really really like it.

 It's a oxblood type color that was popular a few years ago.

I really love the color, don't really love the formula. It was really streaky on the first coat. The second coat covered pretty well, but under sunlight, it was easy to tell see that there were patches (pointer finger).

I used two coats for the pictures above. I also made the mistake of wrapping the tip before my second coat of polish, which is why there's excess polish at the tip. hehe oops.  

Overall: love the color ( I've already worn it twice), the formula is a bit tricky, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. 

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Back..With New Stuff

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.
Over the past few months, I've accumulated some exciting new things (mainly things I've wanted for a while..).

On the left is Bahama Mama (which I have wanted ever since it came out) and the right is No More Film. I have yet to try No More Film, but I will soon.

I got the cuticle oil because I lost my Burt's Bees Cuticle Cream :( and I wanted to try it. I actually really like it. It really does smell like apricot!

As you can see, I went through an Essie phase.. hehe.

I love watching Julie G's videos and she always talks about Jet Set, so I wanted to give it a go (so far so good).

I want to try and do some nail art... hopefully sometime in the near future.

Butter London British Racing Green, another color I've wanted for a while. Sally Hansen White On and Black Out, always good to have basics.

Hopefully you all enjoyed this post. My class schedule isn't as packed this semester, so hopefully I'll be blogging more.

Thanks for reading (and patiently waiting for new posts)!

Fail Nails: Half moon manicure

Hey everyone~

Yup. I attempted a half moon manicure because I thought it looked really sophisticated and nice! But of course, with my luck and my horrible skills with tape, I sorta failed. T^T 

I used Sally Hansen White Tip, and Essie Licorice. You want to use colors that are very opaque and only take about a coat for full opacity. This pic was taken right after I painted the black part over the white base and peeled the tape off, so messy edges. 

This is after applying top coat. T_T As you can see, the white part smeared into the black part of the nail.. Stupid top coat brush.. I usually don't clean up after painting my nails, cause after I wash my hands throughout the day, or take a shower, the sides of my fingers magically because clean and free of nail polish. :D

This is what my nails looked like after a couple of days. T_T I guess I went to bed too quickly. The new topcoat I'm using isn't as nice as my previous one, but I'm going to try to use it up anyways. (bubbles, shrinking edges, smearing! D:) I'll try to post a review of it soon! 

But yes, I'm definitely going to try to attempt a half moon manicure again in the future. Hopefully my nail taping skills will have increased by 900%. :D Sigh break is over soon.. I enjoyed it though. I think I forgot how to study, and how to do calc. D: Not good..!! >_<;; I wasn't very productive (I watched youtube videos and ate my heart out) but it was very relaxing.. Time for #*($ to begin once again.. >_<

'Til next time!

NOTD: Black and Glitter French Tips

Hello..

Wohoho today has been an especially mentally exhausting day. Even now I feel pooped. T-T

Anyways, here's a quick NOTD from some time ago. From far away, these black/glitter french tips look really elegant and pretty. :D

I free handed the black tips with Essie Licorice, then created the glitter border with China Glaze Glistening Snow. 

Some cleaner edges. No really, from far away your nails look a lot nicer. I added a little star stud to make things a bit more interesting. I really want gemstones now haha. :P

L-R: China Glaze Glistening Snow, Essie Licorice

I wish I took more pictures, but I forgot.. T-T Anyways, man all this stress and worrying is getting to me. My math grade went down a lot after the past test. T_T Now I can't get it up, no matter what. Oh well.. It's ok. Life happens. C'est la vie. (so cliché!) haha.. I can't think!

Time to start studying! Can't wait till Christmas! :D 

'Til next time!

Manicure experiments

Hello~

Ever since I saw this picture of a girl's nails with a lavender base and red french tips, I've always wanted to recreate it. I tried back last year here with Essie's To buy or not to buy as the base color, but it was so streaky so I used Sally Hansen's Lacey Lilac this time instead. 

Well... Lacey Lilac was too blue... It made Essie's Clambake look too blood red. This wasn't the look I was going for, but oh well I can try again next time!

Thumb: jelly sandwich with OPI Living Daylights and Essence Cotton Candy

Slanted French tips L-R: Sinful Colors Orange Cream, Island Coral, Beautiful Girl (The mint part was Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet.)

Pinky: jelly sandwich with OPI Minnie Style and OPI I Theadora You

So I fixed that hand ASAP into this. I was experimenting with which pink base would look best against the mint green tip. These were inspired by Minzy from 2NE1. I saw her have something similar in some episode of 2NE1 TV. I used tons of different colors to see which combo would look the best. 

Pretty good for me cause I can't freehand anything!

My first jelly sandwiches.. I kinda like the one on the pinky rather than the thumb. Sorry for not cleaning the edges! T-T

'Til next time!~

China Glaze - Aquadelic Swatches and Comparison

Hello~

Sorry for not posting for a while.. School makes people busy. -_-

But anyways, today I have China Glaze's Aquadelic! This is by far one of my favorite turquoise polishes. My search for a bright turquoise has finally come to an end. 

This is two coats. Formula is great!

Aquadelic looks a little darker in indirect light..

From L-R: Essie: Where's my chauffeur?, Turquoise and Caicos, China Glaze: For Audrey, Aquadelic

Now for the comparisons...

L-R: Turquoise and Caicos, Where's my chauffeur?, For Audrey, Aquadelic, CG- Kinetic Candy (just for fun)

You can tell that For Audrey is dustier than Aquadelic, Turquoise and Caicos is more green, Where's my chauffeur is more blue, and Kinetic Candy is just dustier and more sky blue. 

Overall: Aquadelic has a great formula, maybe a little thick but there's always nail polish thinner. If only I had found Aquadelic earlier - I probably wouldn't have bought Where's my Chauffeur? and For Audrey. I guess I'm not really a fan of dusty colors yet. I like colors that are bright and fun and go BAM. 

'Til next time! ^^

Pastel Cupcake Nails

Hellooooooo  (★^O^★)

It's spring break for us right now, and I FINALLY painted my nails again. Pastel cupcakes!

Not as clean as last time.. T_T;; It didn't turn out as expected, but it's still cute nonetheless. I really wanted to  do at least one more fun, spring pastel NOTD before summer arrives. Speaking about spring, sdlkfasjdfkl it doesn't feel like spring at all right now. It's cold, gloomy, cloudy, rainy, COLDDDD, and lonely. Where are the sing-song birds and the cute little rabbits? LOL 

I did pastel cupcake (ice cream?) nails! I feel like this color combo gives off a different mood than my last pastel combo. 

Too lazy to clean it up haha!

 I keep on realizing I have way too much nail polish every time I paint my nails. T-T

L-R: Ulta Encore Pink (didn't use it), Sinful Colors Sweet Tooth, Essie A Crewed Interest,  Hello Kitty Banana Cream, SH  Mint Sorbet, Sephora by OPI Havana Dreams

I ended up using so many coats that the nail polish never really dried! I painted them hours ago and I can still scrape it off with my nails. >_< At least they cheer me up! 

Sweet Tooth is really pretty; has the slightest shimmer and is sort of jelly-like.

A Crewed Interest is so pretty color-wise, but the formula is a no-no. Streaky, pooling, sheer, blah.

Banana Cream is pretty good for a pastel yellow. I still need to use 4 thin coats though..

Mint Sorbet is really prettyyyyy! Good formula, good pigment.

Havana Dreams is also pretty color-wise, but really sheer. It could be good for jelly sandwiches though!

There are dents everywhere!

By the way, those red dots are supposed to be cherries lol.

Sorry for the awkward hand positions. I'm still trying to look for a pretty way to take pictures. I'm not sure how long this will last.. I kinda already have another design that I'm looking forward to doing. 

Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope this inspires you guys to try your own rendition of pastel nails!

'Til next time~ (✿◠‿◠)

Essie - Where's my chauffeur?

Hello!
I took the SAT today. T_T Hopefully I'll never have to open another prep book again.
But look! I finally swatched Essie's Where's My Chauffeur? from the Leading Lady collection.

Guess which one is Essie's Turquoise and Caicos?

Don't my cuticles look beautiful? LOL

L-R: Essie Where's my chauffeur?, Essie Turquoise and Caicos

Color: The first two pictures are what I expected the color to show up on the nail, because it was a bright blue in the bottle. The next two pictures that show the color as darker are more accurate though. I kinda was hoping it to be brighter. ヽ(ー_ー )ノ  It can't be helped though, right?

Application: Everything evened out in three coats. Sheer at first, but it all works out. :D

To my surprise, it's actually a lot more similar to Essie's T&C than I thought it would be. From far away it's sorta hard to tell the difference. Nonetheless, WMC? is pretty. 

I'll give this five umbrellas. ☂☂☂☂☂ ^_^

another pink NOTD

hello again.

I have another pink nail of the day for you guys. I was just really in the mood to try the new glitter that I got.

L to R - Opi pink yet lavender, Essie fiji

Pink Yet Lavender is from the new OPI Mariah Carey collection. I picked it up at my local ulta. did you know that the prices for OPI went up? :(

This is what the combo actually looked like on my nails:

I have 2 coats of fiji on all my nails as a base, and then I have one coat of Pink Yet Lavender on my pointer and ring finger.

also apologies for the yellow cast in the pictures, I ran out of natural light so I had to use the light in my room. 

Words cannot express how much I love this glitter polish. Do you all have a new found love for a  glitter polish?

NOTD: CL's nails

Hi guys!

Sorry for not posting lately.. (too much homework...)

I found this tutorial for CL's nails and tried it.. It actually didn't turn out that bad! :D *beaming pride*

Where I found this

I'm still looking for a less streaky, opaque white nail polish!

Essie Licorice, Sally Hansen White Tip

Not bad, eh? ^^

Sally Hansen's White Tip isn't very glossy.. I should probably buy a top coat.

Oh! I went to Walgreen's the other day and found these on sale!

The brushes for these aren't as thin and precise as I'd expected.. Lemme try to draw it out.

Maybe I just got a bad batch.. But a lot of the brushes had the above problem where there were stray brush hairs everywhere.

'Til next time!

NOTD/Review: Metallic Pink

Hola Amigas,

I had a little bit of free time today and I thought I would paint my nails. I originally wanted to paint my nails blue, but I ended up painting them pink..

The Nail of the Day (NOTD) is a combination of 2 colors:

Left: butter London's Fairy Lights - A metallic rose pink color. I don't love the formula of this color, it is somewhat difficult to work with, but it dries fast and is opaque in one coat. 

Right: Essie Fiji - My Go-To light pink color. It is streaky and hard to work with in the beginning, but in the end, it becomes a beautiful light pink. 

2 Coats Below: 

Fairy Lights-Pointer finger and Pinky. Fiji- Thumb, Third finger, Ring finger.  

Did you all like this combo? 'cause I sure did :)

Have a Great Weekend!