Nail Art Escapade No.2

My second time.

hahaha. So inspired indeed by Pretty Beautiful, that I continued nail art after those from the previous attempt chipped, and I washed it off.

Here goes:

The Half-Half, using City Girl, Revlon Cherry Rush, and Clatty Purple (for dots).

I don't really like this design, though I think I did a much better dot painting within the lines. No dirty overlaps, and the surface finish is much smoother than the Sweet Snow Cake one I did on first try.

My SO also thinks this design is a bit weird.

Though it may be due to the colours I chose. Those tutorials that I have seen are all using Black and White. But I don't like Black.

Nail Art Escapade No.1

Guess what? haha. I am so inspired by Pretty Beautiful's pretty and beautiful DIY Nail Art, that I made an attempt on DIY nail-art as well!

I believe a lot of you might have stumbled upon her beautiful nail art already. But do check it out, if you haven't already done so. She has really nice reads on other beautiful things too. =)

Here's mine: (Caution! I have ugly fingers and toes.)

The Sweet Snow Cake nails. Done with Rainbow White, O2 Skin Pink, and Revlon Cherry Rush.

My SO commended me for this one!! He thinks I did a really good job, and he likes the sweet colours too. Compared to when I only had the pink on, he didn't even notice the pink on my nails. LOL.

But I feel I can definitely improve my techniques. See the pain on my index finger? It's overlapped wrongly. I didn't mean to overlap.

The Simple Flower Red nails.

My SO just likes the Revlon Nail Enamel in Cherry Rush, with or without flowers. haha.

Overall, I am really very happy at my 1st time results. Much easier than I thought DIY nail art would be. And the colour combi that I chose works out well.

I did do a practice for the Sweet Snow Cake one, and I had to wipe of everything the first time. But I soon got the hang of it. Like the length of white to put, how much I should dip for each nail polish, whether I should overlap the colours or not, etc.

Yup, it's pretty easy. Actually, you just pain whatever you see in those pictures, and try to find the right tools to pain them.

Here is what I used: (Nothing fancy. No branded nail polish and all.)

From Left to Right: Rainbow, O2 Skin, Revlon Cherry Rush, Clatty, O2 Skin Base Coat, O2 Skin Top Coat.

I also used the round ends of toothpicks to dot the dot. Dirt cheap, and it works. Change a new stick about every 4-5 nails. As the dots will get bigger and bigger, then not nice.

I will review the Rainbow White Nail Polish. I actually bought it because there were many recommendations that does the job well, and is only $2.

O2 Skin nail polishes are really cheap and good. I have two shades of pink, and this is one of them.

Clatty is a $3.90 brand from Venus. I think some of you who frequent Venus might have seen it. It's no good. So don't buy. (Which explains why I am only using it for the dots.)

Revlon Nail Enamel is the ultra good one. =))) It's my 2nd time using it, though I have bought it for quite some time. It's the colour that is on my toe nails. And the good news it, I did this nail art 3 weeks ago, and my toe nail colour is still fully on!!

Revlon Nail Enamel in another colour has been reviewed by My Women Stuff too:
Revlon Red Hot Tamale for the Sexiest Toes Ever!

Yep, hope my noob attempt at nail art may inspire other girls to try DIY too! I am sure you all know it saves quite a sum of money. Plus, I had a good time relaxing myself, and having fun Me-Time while I was doing that.

My Small Nail Polish Collection

Amazingly, I managed to even have a collection of nail polish. Since I only change the coat of polish after 2 weeks, and I rest my nails for 3 days in between. Plus, once I like something, I stick with it till it's used up.

Unfortunately, I have not managed to really find a polish that I think is perfect until Sally Hansen and Revlon came in. Hence, I kept on buying and trying different colours.

My little family of 15.

My criteria for the perfect nail polish:
- same colour as seen from bottle
- thin, very thin
- easy to spread
- dries fast
- shines
- no chip
- good brush
- don't dry up my nail and cause cracking

Usable Ones
O2 Skin Base Coat, Top Coat, the dark pink from O2 Skin, the Clatty Dark Blue one, Sally Hansen, and Revlon. The rest are deemed unusable.

My Biggest Disappointment
The L'oreal Star Magnet one. Spreadability is okay only. But what I don't like is that it damages my nails. It made my small toes dry up and peel off. Sigh.

The Cheap & Good One
O2 Skin base coat. O2 Skin tend to have discounts, and that's when you get it real cheap. But their colours are one tone lighter than in the bottle, so I think getting the base coat and top coat is okay, but maybe not the colours. For example, the dark pink I have, when applied, it looks like the light pink I have. The light pink, just looks like nail gloss with pink glitter.

What Looks Good On Me
Throughout all this colour testing, I've come to learned that I really should stick to warm colours, like the Precious Peach from Sally Hansen. I don't like warm colours, like brown, yellow, peach. But really no choice, since my skin matches with them more. Purple, pink tend to be a slight disaster. Not just for nails, but also eyeshadows, blush, lip colour. Sigh. So I must learn to let go off my favourite colours, and embrace those I hate but look good on me.

I guess the collection will stay small for now. Although I was amazed at myself for even having 15. Cos when I started using nail polish, I had thought that I would only have one or two, and stick with it till it finishes. But no. LOL.

Honestly, how many of you do this too?? haha. Like thought you would just get one red lipstick, but ended up buying all the shades, and every new invention that comes out, then end up with a whole collection of barely used lipsticks? :PPP hahaha.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength No Chip Nail Colour

Previously, I only experimented with $2.90 to $3.90 range nail polish bought from places like HDB marketplace, private limited beauty stores like Venus, or The Face Shop, Missha etc. However, I find that nail polish is another beauty product whose quality really only comes with price.

So although I try my best to keep the recommendations in my blog to low budget items, I have to make another exception for the Sally Hansen nail polish. I assure you that you will find this exception worth every cent you spend on it.

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength No Chip Nail Colour

Available: Watsons U.P$13.90 Now $9.90 Member Now $8.90, Guardian, and other big stores

Volume: 13.3ml Star Properties: Exclusive micro-diamond formula guarantees a brilliant, multi-faceted shine!

Description:

Stops Nails from Breaking!

• Diamond Strength: Instantly bonds with nails to provide a shatterproof, diamond hard protective coating that virtually ends splitting, cracking and peeling.
• Diamond Shine: Light-refractive diamond particles go beyond ordinary lacquer to produce a multi-dimensional faceted shine.
• Diamond Wear: Long-lasting color is chip-resistant, fade-resistant and waterproof.
• Available in 36 shiny shades.

My bottle of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength

I decided to get a bit wild, and try a brighter colour, so I chose Precious Peach.

When I first took out the brush, I actually thought that the colour would be too sheer to look like what is in the bottle, as the concoction is really, really thin, that it drips down a 3 drops if you just hold it at the mouth of the bottle. However, I was so wrong.

Since I always press my nail polish brush to the side of the bottle once before painting, I needed to use two coats, but this does brings out the exact same colour as that in the bottle.

It dries up very fast, but thought slow enough for me to apply and mix the two coats well so that I get an even coat. There is no difficulty in spreading either, as can be deduced from how thin the liquid is.

The best thing is, that it really shines like diamond naturally. This is the first time I don't feel like putting a top coat on my nail colour, as I always do base coat and top coat, to protect the colour from chipping, and also to add shine.

Because this dries fast, very much unlike those $2.90 nail polishes, I no longer have to use the hairdryer or my mouth to blow, and worry about leaving fingerprints or mattress prints on the nail polish anymore! (Yes, some really lousy nail polishes do not fully dry by bedtime, and by sleeping with the sticky coat of paint, fine lines are often left on my nails. I also can only paint the top coat the following day, otherwise, it will mix with the nail colour.)

Honestly, I do feel like throwing away all those bottles I bought previously. I feel that they cannot be used at all, cos they are too horrible. Of course I feel the pain, so I still leave those colours on my shelf.

So I think, yes, it is worth it to eliminate all the above problems, by saving up and not buy 3 bottles of cheap nail polish, but invest in just 1 good bottle of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength.

Anyway, just want to add that I picked Sally Hansen, because I have always been attracted by the Doctor-like professional impression that their display shelf gave me. So now that Watsons is offering at $4 less, and the latest, $5 less at $8.90, this is my chance to get it.

If you can afford, then it is good to stock up on the colours during the discount. Although I think 13.3ml can last me a lifetime since I only change the coat after 2 weeks.

I love it: 5 hearts.

3rd day of school

Should I say time passes fast or time passes slowly? haha. I think this time it's not fast or slow... Just neutral. It's my 3rd day since school reopen on Jan 5, for my 2nd Sem of Year 3.

I just painted another nail colour yesterday. But it's still not fully dry yet. I am trying this new brand called Honey Sweet $3.90 from Venus.

[to upload photo]

I bought it because it comes in my SO's favourite colour - Baby Blue.
But I don't really like it. I have to paint it really thick, so that it covers my whole nails. And it's so hard to dry. Most importantly, it's not worth it because the resultant colour is not baby blue, as you see it in the bottle, but some light blue that reminds me of colour pencil. For those of you who remember, there is this double-sided colour pencil that you probably used before when you were young, and it's the blue that is coupled with the pastel pink. I should seriously go look for it and take a picture of my nails with it. Think it would match perfectly. hahaha.

So I guess I am still going for my SO's D&D afterall. At first, they wanted to charge non-staff $60. But the response was lukewarm, and to increase the number of attendees, they decided to lower it to $30.

Yup, so I am looking forward to painting my nails violet and putting the fake eyelashes I just bought, on that night. It would be my first time =))) *anticipation* Maybe I should video myself doing that, and time myself too. See how I fare against XX's BFF challengers. It would be fun.

Then I have my dental appointment the next day. Still thinking whether I should postpone it, so I can spend more time with him... sigh. my teeeetttthhhhh. Already tahan 2 months liao.

No updates from XX. A bit bored.