On Nail Swatches and Lucky Tom

This is long overdue. I joined a nail polish spree together with other sisses from GirlTalk. Thanks Mhean for hosting this spree!

Forgive the darkness of the shots. They were bright on-cam but for some reason, they turned out dark when I uploaded them (could be the brightness of the monitor).

Here are swatches of the polishes I got (all taken in artificial light):

left to right: Orly Robo Romance, China Glaze Gogo Pink, China Glaze 2NITE, China Glaze Sexagon and China Glaze Visit Me in Prism.

The next ones aren't mine. They're my sister's, but they're so pretty that I had to show you guys.

Here are four shades from the China Glaze Romantique Collection:

from left to right: Passion, Cherish, Awaken and Adore

from left to right: OPI Brand New Skates, China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, China Glaze Liquid Leather.

Aren't they pretty? It's a good thing I can use her shades too!

Moving on, I went to the Hello Kitty Launch in MAC Shangri-La yesterday. The mall opened at 10 am, but I was able to get there at 3 pm already. To my surprise, a lot of stuff were already out of stock (on it's opening day!) especially the lip glosses. It's too bad, I liked the lip gloss in Sweet Strawberry and the TLC in Popster. Boo hoo!

At least I was able to get my hands on a Lucky Tom palette, which I've been lemming for quite some time now.

Here's a pic of the palette:

Here are swatches:


I really wanted to have this, partly because of the Hello Kitty packaging and I wanted to be able to bring these colors around. These colors are dupable, though, but I still want them. However, Paradiso (the orange shade) might be a little hard to find. Nevertheless, still puuurrrty! Since I wasn't able to buy any lippies from the HK collection, I got myself a pot of Fluidline in Blacktrack instead (no photo). I can't wait to use them.

Review: Orly Won't Chip

I bought this because of the good reviews. I really want my nail polish to last long, and I read that this is the way to go.

Let me run through the pros and cons.

PROS

• It really makes a difference with your nail polish life. With this as my top coat and Orly Bonder as my base coat, my nail polish can be chip free for a week! And to think that I wash dishes and sometimes scratch my skin.

CONS

• This has a clumping problem for me (and some people also). After a few swipes, the application is no longer smooth so you have to close it and shake it before continuing to apply it.
• If you put even little more than what is necessary, it bubbles.

So what is the final verdict? Would i buy this again?

The answer is no. Unless I can find away to get rid of this bubbling problem, I'm trying other top coats.

My First Experience with Konad Nail Art

This is my first nail art using Konad! My polish color is Orly Catch the Bouquet. I actually took this while I was in the slipper section of SM Megamall. I started out a simple flower design, but hopefully I'll be able to do more complicated designs in the future.

I had to practice this a few times to get it right. The first few times, the design was incomplete so I had to try some more but I finally got it! I tried using my Sally Hansen nail polish for the nail art but yes, as the seller told me, the formula was runny and the design came out pale. I guess I have to stick to the special nail polish unless I can find a brand with that has really thick nail polish. Originally, I wanted the flowers to be silver, however, when I stamped the silver polish onto my nail, the design looked pale. I was disappointed in the silver. The white and black polishes work well, though. I have yet to try the gold polish.

When I finally finished stamping all my nails, I was going to apply a top coat, and to my horror, the design smudged! I had no choice but to do the smudged nail all over again. I waited for another 2 hours for the special nail polish to "dry," but it smudged again, much to my dismay. I redid a lot of my nails because of the smudged designs. Finally, I got the trick to applying the top coat. The brush must not actually touch the design. Apply the top coat on the nail with the right thickness, and brush the polish very lightly. Just enough for the polish to spread around the nail. The polish will act as a barrier between the brush and the design. Once the top coat dries, the design dried as well. However, be careful not to put too much top coat in an effort to avoid contact between the brush and the special polish, or else bubbles will form.

All in all, I think once I learn how to do this better, this will be more enjoyable. It's a little faster than manually drawing the nail art, especially for untalented ones like me. Nail stamping can also be used in combination with manual painting.

Recent Hauls

Last Tuesday was our concert in Shangri-La Mall, so before our call time, I stopped by Nikki's (askmewhats) office to get one set of art pens from her. It was my first time to meet her and she was so nice! Of course, I admired her nail art which is lovely as usual. Anyway, I bought these art pens because I want to learn how to do my own nail art since going to salons to have it done is quite costly.

Here is a pic of my nail art pens:

There are 24 pens in all and she gave a nail dotting pen free.

Here's another look at my lovely nail art pens:

I can't wait to create my own nail art. Aside from these pens, I'll be purchasing other materials for my nail art.

Anyway, after I left Nikki's office, I went to Shangri-La Plaza. During our break, I went around the mall and lookie what I bought from Rustan's:

Another Orly nail polish in Catch the Bouquet. I also wanted to buy the Orly Spritz Dry but decided not to to save on expenses. However, it would turn out that I would regret not buying it because the next time I did my nails, the polish took forever to dry! I'll be buying the Spritz Dry one day, unless of course someone can recommend a good spray-on nail dryer.

Aside from my Orly nail polish, finally bought myself a Belle de Jour planner, which I've been lemming for since last month. This was the last copy in National Bookstore.

I was deciding between this and the Cosmo Date book. The Cosmo Date Book is only P200 (around $4) while the Belle de Jour is P598 (around $12). They're both really girly and have discount coupons, although the Belle de Jour has more. However, the reason why I decided to buy the Belle de Jour was because it had better binding and a hard cover while the Cosmo Date Book's cover was just made of thin cardboard. I felt that it wouldn't last the year if it was in my bag. It's good, though, if you plan to just leave it in your study/office desk. However, Belle de Jour is better if you plan to take this with you wherever you go like I do.

Regarding the coupons, I'm probably not going to be able to use most of them because most of the coupons are only good for regular-prized items. And I'm not the type who buys something regular-prized when it comes to clothes, bags and shoes. Although the coupons of BDJ are more than the ones from Cosmo, there are similar coupons though.

As for the Starbucks Planner, I don't plan to buy one in the next 10 years because it's really hard to gulp down 16 cups of expensive coffee in 2 months!

Anyway, I finally got home today and look what I found waiting for me: my Aromaleigh Haul! This haul was a pool order with Rebecca (newbietobeauty) and Micah (hoarder from GT). We ordered during the end of November sale.

The sticker on the pot is really cute. Here is how my haul looked like:

Here is what I got, a FS of URFP in Peaches and Cream and 5 mini jars of Illuminating Perle Powders in Kindle, Tickle, Whisper, Splendor and Allure. The Perle Powders are so pretty! I wanted to get more actually but it was going to be too expensive already so I got these top 5 which I felt was going to be the most useful for me.

Anyway, that's my haul! Merry Christmas again!

Raves and Rants

Okay. Let me start off to say that this day did not go very well. This morning, at 10 am, I went to a branch of my bank to deposit money for my debit card because I want to order some MMU from Dreamworld before the end of their sale this December 20. So, went I went to the bank, I got a number which was No. 22. The teller called out No. 14. 35 minutes later, the teller was still stuck at No. 16! It was taking more than 35 minutes to accomodate 3 people! And since I was still no. 22, how long would it have taken before they called out my name? An extra 1 hour and 30 minutes? We have other things to do besides wait in a bank. I just sighed and left the bank. This is not the first time it's happened to me. I don't understand why this bank is so popular when it has such crappy service. I've had numerous experiences already. I think it's time to start looking for a different bank.

The sad thing is that this might be my only day available to go to the bank. I might not be able to order from Dreamworld anymore before the sale ends :(

Well, aside from that, I went to buy wrapping paper from National Bookstore in Robinson's Galleria yesterday. It said that there were 6 rolls of paper for 39.75. I bought the paper, and to my shock when I was wrapping my gifts a while ago, I only found 3 rolls of paper! They are mislabeling their items. I got really pissed.

It's a good thing I got a few goodies.

My friend, the one that I brought along to the Ellana showroom (in a previous blog entry), went back by herself to buy some stuff. I asked her to buy me a full size of their Sheer Velvet HD Powder in White Chocolate Mocha which I previously raved about in a previous blog entry. Yey! It's very affordable for P380 and has a generous amount. They also have a new paper bag design.

Here's a pic:


Anyway, today I accompanied two of my friends to buy gifts in Trinoma and I couldn't resist getting a bottle of Orly Bonder. Now I have a base coat to go with my Orly Won't Chip!

Nail Haul and Nail Art

Yesterday, I went to Landmark Trinoma to do some shopping and I got my first ever imported nail polish haul! I wanted to get a good top coat or base coat for myself so after taking a long time to decide, i got myself Orly Won't Chip. I also got an Orly Nail Lacquer in Witch's Blue for my sister. I'm sure she's going to like it. Total wallet damage: P714 (around $14.28, I know! Orly is so expensive here!)

Next time, I want Orly Bonder so I can also have a good base coat.

Anyway, since I was so excited to use my Orly Won't Chip, I got myself a manicure in Princess Nails and Spa once again. Here's how it turned out:

Yes, I know it's similar to my first nail art but I'm a really dainty person at heart and I still haven't gotten past the flowery theme. At least now, I'm using a deeper shade of pink (I normally like a very nude shade of pink). This color is OPI but I wasn't able to take a good look at the name of the shade since there was something else blocking my view.

Well, that's it for now. I have a lot of work to do!

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CS Palette and My First Nail Art!

Look what I got today! The CS neutral palette! I got the 88 shimmer palette before and loved it, so I decided to get the neutral palette as well! Since I don't use eyeshadows all the time, I promise not to get anymore palettes (except maybe the 88 matte palette!). The CS palettes are my only non-mineral makeup aside from my MAC Blot. Even just looking at the palette, I realized that sis Aika was right. The shades here are different from the neutral shades found in the 88 shimmer palette. Can't wait to play with these!

I got my very first nail art today! I initially went to Get Polished in Diliman because the Lay Bare website announced that it today was the grand opening plus I saw a Now Open sign outside. I went inside and was so surprised when I found out that they weren't open yet! Grrr.... I then found myself in Princess Nails and Spa in AIC Grande Tower in Ortigas. I really wanted a pick-me-up so I tried nail art on my fingernails. I've never actually had a manicure before! Normally, I just get pedis.

I'm so fond of dainty designs! It's too bad that I have short fingernails so I can't really do that much with them.

I used Orly Taffy here. For P250 (around $5.00) this is reasonable. The base and top coat are CND (I've never actually heard of this brand before but it's US-made).

Please excuse the messy background.

I'm happy that I tried nail art. I'll definitely do this again. Maybe next time on my feet! Lol.