Funky Tribal Nails

Hello there. I have been obsessed with tribal nails lately and I do not know why. So I have some tribal nails here that I am fond of. I used a picture I saw on Instagram as inspiration (can't find it now :/). I am terrible with coming up with tribal nail designs, it takes me ages. She did a great design so here my interpretation of it. It's not very different :/ But it's matte!!!

I should've let more glitter peak through cause those are my favourite bits!!! I'm happy with how it turned out. It wasn't actually too hard, you just have to be careful :P I was ok if my lines weren't completely straight (tape takes too much effort).
Dark Blue: Essie - Bikini So Teeny and Models Own - Freak Out!
Pink: OPI - Japanese Rose Garden
Light Blue: The Face Shop - GR501
I originally used OPI - Charged Up Cherry, but it just didn't look right so I painted over it. Tribal is awesome and it looks impressive even though it is rather simple. Oh more tribal to come (more matte to come too :P), I have seen some awesome ones and I simply cannot wait (I have to copy tribal nails, I'm terrible at coming up with them myself :/).

Have a nice day!!! :)

Combo: Blueberry Pizza

Hello there. Hope you are having a lovely Thursday. I'm dreading school frankly. But, CHRISTMAS OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! I am excited :P Well here I have a little combo made from some new polishes, I will call them birthday/exams polishes (and I really like them :)).

I started with 2 coats of Essie - Bikini So Teeny, I'm a fan. It's a periwinkle shade? Except I found my bottle to be much darker than pictures I've seen of it, but it still has the super pretty shimmer in it so I'm happy. TK Maxx is beast. Then 4 coats (to build up glitter, it will probably build better once I use it more) of Models Own - Freak Out! from the Mirrorball collection. It's very indie-esque, there's light blue shards and bar glitter, dark blue circle glitter and small circle purple glitter. It smells bad like most Models Own polishes, but it something you can get over. And finally I used a matte topcoat. Oh excitement, I love matte nails. At first I didn't really get matte nails, but one day I decided I love matte nails. It's Rimmel Pro - Matte Finish. When I first put it on I was like "Why isn't it mattifying!!???", but couple seconds later everything was alright. I was planning on investing in the essie matte topcoat, but the Rimmel one was far cheaper and I reckoned they'd pretty much be exactly the same. Oh manicures will be made matte ;)

Peachy Nails: Essie - Tart Deco

Hello there. Well first off, my exams are over!!! Hallelujah!!! Everything is happy again, well until my next set exams but who thinks about these things? This is one my of favourite polishes, sparked my love of this colour. I know I've probably raved about it before but hello more raving.

My lighting was very red-y/orange which was strange but I worked with it. I got some other good photos but I was just happiest with this one. Ain't she a beaut? It's super shiny too. 2 easy coats, almost one coat. It's just a really beautiful colour, a peachy/orange (there are many descriptions). I can't say enough good things about this polish. It was in The Art of Spring collection in 2010. Hehe today in my exam when I was bored I breathed on my nails to make them "matte". For about 2 seconds, but a great way to kill time. Looked pretty cool, coincidentally I got a matte topcoat today. The best way to celebrate the end of exams is new polish (my mother wasn't best pleased though). :P

Multi-Coloured Gradient Leopard Print (+100th post!!)

Hello there!!!! Welcome to my 100th post, it's come awful fast. I've been wanting to come up with something nice, I never intended to do more leopard print. But it happens. Especially with me. I'm in the middle of exams so I haven't been able to post as much as I've wanted. So spending less time on nail business, so I'll have more time to do revision. Now whether I've done that revision is another story :/ But anyway, to the manicure.

Since I loved the gradient leopard print I did quite recently (I don't mean to be boastful), when I was stuck I decided to do more. I really was trying to avoid leopard, but I love leopard so there's nothing I can do. But really what a better way to celebrate 100 posts, more leopard!!! And it goes without saying, but I quite like this. Surprisingly my favourite nail is the yellow one, I like the way all the colours go together, oh yeah I outlined in colour instead of black and I busted out my bobby pins. Now for the colours used :/ Leopard print dots first (lightest to darkest). I bet I used near 100 polishes.
Purple: Essie - Lilacism, Rimmel - Purple Pulse and OPI - Plum And Get It
Blue: The Face Shop - GR501, Nails Inc - Baker Street and Kiko - 265
Pink: OPI - Japanese Rose Garden, The Face Shop - PK105 and Per Una - Fuchsia (no name)
Green: China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint, China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard and OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Red: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff, OPI - Dutch Tulips and w7 - Burnt Amber
I probably love listing these off too much.

And here's the bare bones of the gradient, I'm very happy with the pink nail. Gradients are way easier to do with glitter with a tinted base. My gradients still are not good, but I've never been good at gradients. I also like how subtle the orange gradient was.
Pink: Orly - Basket Case, OPI - I Lily Love You and OPI - Excuse Moi!
Orange: Essie - Tart Deco, Bourjois - Tangerine Fatal and China Glaze - Luxe and Lush
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream, OPI - Last Friday Night, Barry M - Aqua Glitter and Revlon - Radiant
Yellow: Barry M - Lemon Ice Cream, w7 - Golden Sands and Nails Inc - Glamour Glitter
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream, Rimmel - Purple Pulse, OPI - Plum And Get It and Topshop - Razzmatazz
Then leopard print happened and everyone was happy :P

Well there was another rambly post on Plumeria19, hope you all have a wonderful week!!! :)

Ikat Pattern Manicure

Hello there. I've been seeing this around and I thought it looked pretty cool but it was Very Emily's design that made me need to do it. I woke up not being able to wait to do my nails. Mine are no where near as amazing as Emily's but I quite like my attempt.

I unintentionally did the same configuration on both hands. I preferred it on my right hand, unintentionally made it more spiky. My lighting was very red today (:/) it was strange.
Base: One coat of Models Own - Snow White, 3 coats of Topshop - Green Room and one coat of w7 - Polar Bare. That took ages to dry -_-
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)
White: Models Own - Snow White
Orange/Peach: Essie - Tart Deco
I need more Tart Deco in my life. The last time I used it was June. How insane. Green Room never photographs right, Green Room is also extremely tedious. It's a disappointing polish. But I think the ikat pattern is great, it could become my new leopard print. Time will tell...

Oh lots more ikat to come :)

Gimme Glitter: OPI - Metallic 4 Life

Hello there. This is a polish my best friend gave me, when I saw it I quickly informed her it was from the OPI Nicki Minaj collection, she told me she didn't know that but thought it looked cool.

And cool it is. I like it, but I just don't think black is my colour. A lot of people told me they thought it looked really cool but I wasn't totally convinced. It's sliver metallic glitter (small and large) in a black jelly base. I did one coat of Nails Inc - Motcomb Street underneath (a very dark blue) and put 2 coats of Metallic 4 Life over that. You could definitely get it opaque without a base, I just like having something underneath. It's definitely an interesting polish to have. I will find ways to work it into nail art. I was waiting til my nails were long enough before I tried this out (I love/hate how quickly my nails grow).

Cupcakes In Love

Hello there. Hope you're enjoying your Sunday, I'm taking a break from "revising" (loose term) to write this post. I guess I was stuck and I just put this design together. I feel like the "turn nail into cupcake" is slightly overdone (done it myself many times) so did some cute little cupcakes. Since my nails are very narrow, cupcakes never look right, but this surprisingly worked.

Maybe it would be more suited for Valentine's Day. I don't know why I keep reaching for pale purple, it really really doesn't suit me. I never learn -_- But it helped me find a way that it does suit me. One layer of Last Friday Night and boom. Magic, I was worried it would dramatically change the colour but it didn't, all it did was make it slightly darker. I will be doing that combo a lot more as it's so girly and subtly pretty.
Base: Essie - Lilacism and OPI - Last Friday Night
Cupcake Frosting: Models Own - Snow White and Nails Inc - Glamour Glitter
Pink Casing: Orly - Basket Case and OPI - Charged Up Cherry
Blue Casing: The Face Shop - BL601 and Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Cherries: OPI - Dutch Tulips (red) and OPI - Plum And Get It (purple)
Heart: Essie - E-Nuff Is E-Nuff 
Eyes: Lovely Me:Ex - Black and Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
I really like the Nails Inc glitter, it's subtle but that's why I like it. It has gold micro-glitter with slightly larger gold glitter. Oh and I love Lilacism and E-Nuff Is E-Nuff together. Just saying.

Crazy Multi-Coloured Glitter Leopard Print

Hello there. I did more leopard print, since I can't seem to function without it for a short period of time.

SO SPARKLY!!!! But really I would stare at my nails and be like "So sparkly...". I thought of doing a glitter leopard recently and since I had glitter on I thought "Why not?". I love leopard print, I love glitter. Sorted.

It wasn't hard, but it took much longer than I thought it would. Simply since I wanted to use all glitter, it was hard finding ones that you wouldn't have to do 10 coats or so before the colour showed up. Candidates were OPI - I Lily Love You, OPI - Last Friday Night and Barry M - Silver Glitter (don't know why, it doesn't even have a tinted base). Even with a pigmented glitter it took multiple layers.
Base: Barry M - Amethyst Glitter (and other polishes mentioned in last post)
Pink Glitter: OPI - Excuse Moi! (which was perfect for this)
Blue Glitter: Barry M - Aqua Glitter
Lilac Glitter: Topshop - Razzmatazz
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)

Thanks for reading!!! :)

Gimme Glitter: Barry M - Amethyst Glitter

Hello there. My lovely friend got me this with the other Barry M polish. It was a request when she asked (:/), but I think the mix of glitter is super cool.

Pictures are difficult since the days are getting dimmer but I still charge on and give myself a hard time (bathroom turned out to be pretty good). So many pictures, just to get 2 decent ones. I was trying to get the true colour of the glitter, it's super cool. I was planning for some layering combo but it quickly became apparent that layering wasn't going to happen. You could probably use one really thick coat and it would cover the whole nail. I did 2 standard coats and it was sufficiently covered. I did use some colours underneath that I'm going to mention. OPI - Plum And Get It, w7 - Golden Sands, OPI - Sea You In Hollywood, Per Una - Fuchsia (no name) and Nails Inc - Motcomb Street (from Glamour magazine, some may still be left).

Now for texture, it was very rough and probably some of the glitter could fall off. Minimum 2 coats of topcoat recommended. And removal -_- It was tough, even with the tin foil method, and glitter went everywhere. I had to wash my hands very violently too. But I'm excited to use it in designs (but in less quantity) :)

Gimme Glitter: Barry M - Aqua Glitter

Hello there. I've got a new series today, primarily focusing on glitter if you couldn't tell :P This is 1 of the 2 lovely polishes my friends gave me. The glitter was perfect, I had planned to buy it myself but for some reason took it off my list (?), obviously went mildly insane as I really like the glitter.

Grrr, I hate when I have to edit out cuts, I had to do that in the last post too. It's always a half-baked attempt that looks terrible, 2nd photo I cleverly covered it up. This is 3 coats of OPI - Sea You In Hollywood, it's kind of a dark blue/dark teal with lots of shimmer. The 1st coat was kind of sheer but 3 coats built it up, 2 thick coats would probably do the same thing. Then 3 coats of Barry M - Aqua Glitter. It's great, it has light teal micro glitter with darker, larger pieces of teal glitter. I was sure if you could get it opaque on it's own, but now I'm pretty sure you could. The base is slightly tinted too. I wanted sufficient sparkle. You couldn't see the base at all after the glitter.

Combo: Blue Explosion

Hello there. Hope you're having a nice day, I know I have dodged a bullet today and I'm glad that everything today. Thank goodness. Well I have a little combo today, I didn't get great pictures and I forgot to clean up :/ But I really liked the way it looked. Even though it only lasted a few moments, it was a nice few moments.

Ain't it cool beans (I'm talking weird again :/)? But really, all the glitters make a crazy glitter explosion. Though total it was 7 layers (bad move) I would probably calm down if I do this again. I started with one coat of Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream and added the glitter. First 2 coats of Barry M - Aqua Glitter (a birthday present from a friend, I really like it), followed by 2 coats of Revlon - Radiant and 2 coats of OPI - Last Friday Night. I think Last Friday Night made it pretty, iridescent glitter can be very pretty.

Have some other brighter pictures, 'tis pretty cool. Removal was easy, all I had to do was push it off, came off in one swipe. Thick layers of polish never last :P

Remembrance Poppies

Hello there. Today is Remembrance day, a day to remember all the people who died in wars. I did a little manicure to commemorate this.

I really like it, I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but I think it's really cute. It was also really easy, I think I'll do it again with a different colour scheme.
Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black
Black: Lovely Me:Ex

I hope you are having a good day :)

It's-a-me Mario!!!

Hello there!!! It's the weekend, thank goodness ;) This is the manicure I had on my birthday, for my birthday I wanted to do my perfect manicure. Which obviously involves the main moustachioed man himself, Mario!!!

Needless to say, I love it (just having Mario on my nails ;)). And I'm very happy with how the faces turned out :D It's also perfect for Movember (Guys are growing out their moustaches to raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer) this month!!! I think it's a great cause :)
Red: OPI - Dutch Tulips
Blue: Nails Inc: Baker Street
Peach: w7 - Linen
Black: Lovely Me:Ex - Black (no name)
White: Models Own - Snow White
Light Blue: Barry M - Blueberry Ice Cream
Brown (just a little bit): w7 - Brownie
I also had to use one of my favourite polishes, Baker Street. I love Mario, if that sounds crazy I don't mind. Mario games are by far my favourite. I could have done 5 Mario faces but I decided that I wanted to do 2 perfect ones instead of 5 substandard ones (my OCD wouldn't be able to handle that :P). Also the Baker Street had to appear as well :)

                                                Just a little close up of Mario, isn't he cute? :P

It makes me want to do nail art of all the members of the Mushroom Kingdom. Ok it's set I'm going to do that. I'm looking forward to seeing the other Movember designs this month too :)

Pink Nails: Orly - Basket Case

Hello there!!! Hope you all are having a wonderful day, I know I am :P I think after the showing of this polish I will be nail arting it up!!! New term, came up with it just there. Orly has been a brand that I have been really really liking, I love looking at swatches of Orly polishes (well I guess any polish but for some reason Orly interests me) at The Polishaholic. I stalk her blog too much :/ I like their colours and I think the Flash Glam FX collection sealed that they were amazing (to me). Orly is definitely a brand that I want to build more polishes in my collection (little by little).

Here is Orly - Basket Case, I was looking for this particular shade (I'm a fussy girl when it comes to pink) I was planning to buy the mini from Boots but when I found it on my trip I thought "why not?". This will sound weird but I love how big the bottle is (18ml). I love the shape of the bottles too.

When I first put it on I was a little disappointed as I thought it was exactly the same as 2 other pinks in my collection (hot pinks which I like). But don't worry I was wrong (:P) it took me a day to see it properly. Guess I would describe it as magenta, I used 3 coats. 2 coats is a little streaky. But it's one of those polishes that take ages to dry fully so topcoat is recommended (but I know there's tons of people who do not need to be told to put on top coat) it's also thin so chipping is easy. But it's very shiny without topcoat too. I love it, I honestly think it's my new favourite pink. The name is so cute too!!!

Combo: What I dreamt last Friday night...

Hello there!!! I hope you're well. When you get new polish, you want to use it. It's basic science :P So that's what I've been doing. I have been itching to do some nail art but I need to try new polish :P And nail art will be happening soon. Last Friday Night was very much an impulse thing, many a time I have persuaded myself that I do not need. Except when I saw it I caved and got it -_- But I don't regret it at all, as the pictures will show :)

Ain't it nice? :) But it's much nicer in real life, they are both very pretty polishes. I started with 2 coats of Revlon - Dreamer one of my favourite layering polishes. And it pulled through again!!! I think Dreamer is one of the best bases. I then proceeded to add OPI - Last Friday Night from the Katy Perry collection last year. 4 coats, it was to build up the sparkle. I honestly thought 3 coats wasn't enough. Last Friday Night is a sheer blue base with little round iridescent glitter (who knew iridescence could be so nice?) with blue micro glitter (which is GORGEOUS), it is a very lovely glitter. It's very simple but I really really like this on my nails. Blue iridescent glitter is nicer than pick iridescent glitter. I was even considering putting this into a Match Made In Heaven post, but it wasn't of that caliber but close.

Nice lil' close up. It was much nicer in real life, but I thought it was super pretty. Isn't the title cute too? No? Just me? :( :P

Green Nails: China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard

Hello there. This is one of the polishes I showed in my last post. It was from this year's Summer Neons collection from China Glaze.

I went into Sasa (asian equivalent of Boots or Superdrug) and wasn't really expecting anything and I saw some China Glaze polishes. I literally jumped (obviously I got over-excited). It was a very limited selection, I was interested in 2 from that collection but obviously the ones I was interested in weren't there. There were 3 Summer Neons (Love's A Beach, Orange You Hot? and I'm With The Lifeguard), some from the On Safari collection (Adventure Red-y, Man Hunt, I Herd That, I'm Not Lion) and some other miscellaneous ones (haha I enjoyed naming them :P) so after much deliberating I thought I'm With The Lifeguard would be a nice green polish to have.

Haha long intro, but to the polish!!!

It is nice and bright. I'm not sure neon bright, like so neon it would practically glow in the dark, but it is definitely bright. It's a nice colour, I would describe as slime green, grass green or Kermit the Frog green. It definitely grew on me after I put it on.
I used 3 coats as visible nail line was happening at 2, there was still some visible nail line but it wasn't too bad. More right hand pictures as I had serious issues with bubbling on my left hand, there was some here but it was ok. I'm not sure whether the coat was too thick or I was too fast but the bubbles were bad.
It kind of dried satin matte, but definitely on the shiner side of satin matte. I used topcoat in the pictures, not it make it smoother actually. More to tame the bubbles, which it did pretty well. it's very nice shiny though. I liked the satin matte finish too. I had some weird separation going on in the bottle but as long as it doesn't affect the colour I'm fine.
It's one of those colours that as a child I would think "Who would ever wear that colour?" but now I do and think it's pretty cool. Olive is another one of those colours but I still think that's gross. Maybe it will change one day, it did with this.

I'm great at rambling aren't I? :/ :P

Taiwan Haul

Hello there!!! Hehe haul is a funny word (^_^), this is my first one as I thought I would give them a try. They look fun and I love haul posts and I thought it would be interesting. I was very controlled, I didn't get much which is good. And I was in a situation with a lot of polish (there was a side stall that I saw out of the corner of my eye), of course every now and again I would have to say "Calm down girl" to myself, but honestly I was very careful about not going crazy and buying a ton (cause then there would be some polish that got neglected and I would regret buying it).

L-R - China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard, Orly - Basket Case and OPI - Last Friday Night

Look at that!!! 3 polishes!!! Ok controlled is a loose term but I'm happy with my purchases (actually my aunts got them for me so thank you to them).

I wanted to get a nice green polish so when I saw I'm With The Lifeguard I thought I'd seize the opportunity (it wasn't that dramatic).

Basket Case was on my wish-list  I wanted that particular shade of pink and there was a large array of Orly polishes and I kind of felt like I wanted to get more (when I say more, I mean 1 more). But really I don't regret it as I already have similar colours of the others (there was a more limited selection compared to the other brands) and it would be the unused polish situation. I am the most excited about the Orly polish out of them all (what can I say, I'm a pink girl).

Out of the polishes Last Friday Night was kind of the impulse buy, I was deliberating whether to get it or not but last minute I grabbed it.

I will definitely be going more in depth with these polishes (they'll get a post), but I want to take this time to say I am very thankful that I can enjoy nail polish, am able to add to my collection and that I'm fortunate enough to be in this position. I really am truly thankful.

But I have one more thing...

OH MY GOODNESS HE IS SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!! ^_^ I called him Mr. Webster (named from a line from "When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss, love that song. It's Alison Krauss's song, end of). We was walking around this garden centre with herbal medicines and stuff. When I saw Mr. Webster around a corner, he had to be mine. He was on special offer too. You can take the top hat off!!!! The top hat sold it for me. He used to have bubbles in him but he began to leak so we dumped out his contents (like the way I'm referring to it as him ;)). But I didn't buy him for bubbles so I pulled the bubble wand out (much easier than it should've been) and I'm going to find a cute use for him. He's so cute, I'm normally not that drawn to these things. But he's so cute.

So I hope you enjoyed my little haul post and have a great day (or night)!!!! :)

Disclaimer (fancy word :P): This was in no way to show off, I thought it would be a fun little post to do, and just to see what polish is being added to my collection :)

Pink Nails: OPI - Japanese Rose Garden

Hello there. I brought this polish along with me on my trip. This has always been a like/hate polish(I have never loved it) as the simply put, the colour has always disappointed me, even if it isn't that bad.

This gross yellow lighting picture is probably (and unfortunately) the most colour accurate. ARGGGHH!!!! Right hand pictures, because since I was insistent on 2 coats a random piece of I-don't-know-what got moved onto my nail and got stuck under the coat and annoyed me sufficiently. So right hand pictures.

Well firstly, if you like this kind of colour I would recommend the purchase (I'm trying to sound posh, but my recommendations could be dodgy for all we know :P), the formula is perfect. One coat and it's lovely, why I did 2 coats I'm not sure. It was just so easy to apply and dried really fast. Also it's naturally pretty shiny, my pictures don't show this but it has a tiny bit of frosty shimmer going through (just saying). Basically I only have good things about the formula, it's simply the colour.

It probably would suit someone else far better, also my pictures are not good (:(). But I guess when I bought the polish I was expecting something but the outcome disappointed me. But this time when I put it on I thought it was quite nice. I guess I like it but I don't think I'll ever get any further than that with this polish. This was in the Far East collection in 2000 (I did some researching), but now of course it has been re-formulated. Japanese Rose Garden is an absolute beast for water marbling though, it's the only polish that's consistently delivered for me. I think it was made for water marbling :)

Neutral Leopard Print

Hello there!!!! I'm back!!! I'm probably the only one excited by this :P But I hope you all had a fun Halloween, and I really hope everyone who had to cope with Hurricane Sandy are ok and safe.

I was away on a trip to Taiwan for my uncle's birthday. It was super fun and I got a few polishes that I will be posting about :) I did this before I went on my trip but I decided to save it til now. Obviously I have been going a bit leopard print crazy, but I went for neutral :O What is this I am using neutral colours??!! But honestly, I really really liked it.

Sorry that around my nails are so messed, I'm not sure what happened. I got inspiration from Lauren Conrad's website and she featured something similar to this on the homepage sometimes. Except now that the format of the website has changed I'm not sure where to find it :/ But anyway, I think it's great, I actually did a slightly different leopard print formula, I spaced the spots more and I did the lines differently... Ground-breaking I know.
Nude: w7 - Linen
White: Models Own -Snow White
Black: Lovely Me:Ex  - Black (no name)
I won't be going neutral crazy anytime soon (or ever) but it's nice for this. I need more leopard print!!!

As good as it is to be back (I really am very excited!!!), it got dark early (so I couldn't take pictures) and it's absolutely freezing. I have been shivering and got burnt by the shower (if you understand what I'm talking about, it's not fun). But thankfully it's not that bad and I have fluffy boots and a bed with an electric blanket (you do not know what you're missing if you haven't experienced one) so I'm very lucky.

I hope you all have had a wonderful week (if not I hope you're making it through :)) and have a great time in the week to come!!! We're in a wonderful month!!!! :D