Polish Days: To Boldly Go

This month’s Polish Days theme is science fiction. I’m not much of a sci-fi fan, except for being a huge geek over Star Wars. I blame my brothers because they love the original trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI) and we used to watch all the reruns on TV.

Polish Days: The Number 5

Apologies for cutting it really close this month by posting this up now. I know being sick over the weekend isn’t a good excuse, but I nearly gave up on this manicure because I just couldn’t get it right. After three days and over half a dozen attempts, I’m glad to say I’m finally done.

Aritaum 14 Vacation Blue

Collection: Modi Glam Nails

Happy 43^rd Earth Day!

Teal blue jelly with gold foil. The foil particles remind me of the Zoya foils, especially Charla. When I first got this, I thought it was a dupe, but nope. Charla has a greener base with a lot more foil.

Vacation Blue has the same thin jelly consistency that is easy to control. My smile line can still be seen here, but I barely noticed as the gold foil is so eye-catching in real life.

One important note: please use a good stain prevention base coat. I used a cheapo base coat and my nails turned blue! After just one hour! I haven’t done a full manicure with it yet. My tips are to paint carefully so it doesn’t get on the skin (see my ring finger) and to remove it in one swipe (instead of rubbing it and getting the color everywhere).

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Aritaum 14 Vacation Blue (2 coats)

Orly Stone Cold

Collection: Mineral FX (2011 Fall)

Sapphire blue jelly with small blue flakes. Light It Up Blue is an annual event on April 2nd for Autism Awareness. The date might be over but the whole month is dedicated raising awareness so I wanted to contribute this gorgeous blue manicure.

For more information on autism, please visit:
• Autism Society
• Autism Speaks
• Autism Association (Singapore)
• Autism Resource Centre (Singapore)

This polish has a thick base, presumably to suspend all the little blue flakes. In the photos above, the jelly base appears sheer at the tips but they are opaque in person.

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• Michelle Base (1 coat)
• Orly Stone Cold (3 coats)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

Innisfree 101 Girl’s Skirt

Collection: Poem (2012 Summer)

Pale sea foam green and gold micro-glitter with small blue hexes. This is a sheerer (and cheaper) dupe for Deborah Lippmann Mermaid’s Dream. It sadly doesn’t look its best under macro mode. It very pretty in person and reminds me of clear seas.

Although it’s not as opaque as Mermaid’s Dream, the formula is smooth and easy to control. This has the same scent as Autumn Leaves, though it seems stronger here. With two coats of top coat, it’s smooth enough to pass muster, but I recommend another coat with you’re really picky.

Polish peels:
• PVA Glue (1 coat)
• Innisfree 101 Girl’s Skirt (3 coats)
• American Classics Gelous (1 coat)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

China Glaze Midnight Mission

Collection: Vintage Vixen

Navy blue with silver micro-glitter. I bought this in hopes that it’ll kill my lemming for Essie Starry Starry Night. It’s beautiful and does look like the night sky.

The formula and application was smooth and easy. No problems to report of at all. Sadly, this didn’t kill my lemming so I guess I’ll still be keeping eye out for other alternatives.

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• China Glaze Midnight Mission (2 coats)

Polish Days: Back to Nature

Where I live – near the equator – the weather can be simply labeled as either rainy or sunny. We don’t have four distinct seasons, but there are two monsoon seasons: December to March, and June to September.

My nails were inspired by the cloudy skies of the monsoon season. The blue and white show off a bright but cloudy day we often get during this month. It gets pretty windy too so I tried to make the clouds appear as though they were moving.

Crow Toes Merope

Collection: Pleiades (2012 Winter)

Taupe base with blue/ pink/ red duochrome shimmer and small translucent flakes. I’ve been looking for a blue to red duochrome every since I saw this. Merope definitely fits the bill and the shimmer even has an additional green flash.

Cult Nails Manipulative

Collection: Divas and Drama (2012 Spring)

Dusty tiffany blue with green micro-shimmer. While China Glaze For Audrey is from the same color family, it’s brighter and has no shimmer. Manipulative pulls too green on me to be a true tiffany blue but I love the hidden shimmer.

After reading about Cult Nails’ great formula on various reviews, I expected this to be as smooth as butter. It is highly pigmented for a light shade but butter it is not – I found it thick and streaky. Adding plenty of thinner really helped but I recommend a light hand during application for the best results.

Polish peels:
• Michelle Base (1 coat)
• Cult Nails Manipulative (2 coats)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

Polish Days: Something New

I almost forgot about this month’s Polish Days even though it was pushed back a week (because the first Tuesday fell on the 1^st). The idea was to try something new – an untried color, a technique or even a new finish! I have quite a number of untried polishes but I thought it would be more fun to try a new technique. Then I remembered an old trend: newspaper nails!

My original idea was to have nude nails but I failed my first attempt. So I switched colors because newspapers are usually grey. I couldn’t get the ink to ‘print’ clearly on my index finger (as seen) even though the rest turned out better.

Three Beauties Radient Turquoise

Sheer green base with blue/ purple duochrome glass flecks. I bought this polish on a hunch that it’ll look awesome over a black base and I’m happy to show you that I’m right! Look at that glass fleck duochrome goodness!

Michelle M32

Periwinkle blue cream. I used this polish a year ago for my birthday manicure but the color seems to have changed. I’m not sure how accurate the photos were but my memory tells me it used to be purpler. I tried going down to Beadstreet to compare but I couldn’t find this shade so I think it’s discontinued.

Color change or not, I do love this hue. Like the other Beadstreet creams I have, this is thick but evens out well. It bubbled a little on me because of the thickness so I would recommend thin coats.

Polish peels:
• Michelle Base (1 coat)
• Michelle M32 (2 coats)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

Polish Days: Bling

Collection: All Night Stars (2003 Winter)

We all know that the yearend festivities are usually showy and sparkly. But this month’s topic was also chosen because Hannah, the amazing lady who organizes the Polish Days, has gotten engaged recently! Her new ring (and fiancé) inspired her to call us to go blingtastic!

Just a year ago, I hardly had any glitter polishes. Estessimo TiNS The Neptune was probably the first full out glitter I bought. Since I had not tried it yet, I figured this would be a good time.

Royal Fire

I did this as my birthday manicure earlier this week; it’s Max Factor Fantasy Fire over Revlon Royal. I saw this combination some time ago and fell head over heels! The bottle of FF shows a purple base, but it’s pretty sheer so it hardly alters the blue base of Royal. And if any of you were wondering, that’s henna on my index finger; a friend did a design on the back of my hand over the weekend.

I got Fantasy Fire in April but this is the first time I’m wearing it since I wanted to save that tiny bottle (my precious~). I still have the manicure on currently, and let me tell you: the wear is amazing. I’m not sure if it’s Revlon, Max Factor or the combination of both, but there’s only a small chip and slight tipwear. And I’m not gentle on my hands; I don’t use gloves when I wash dishes and have a bad habit of using my nails to pick at things.

Essie Sag Harbor

Collection: North Fork (2009 Summer)

Greyed powder blue with silver pearl shimmer. As mentioned in Polish Days: Sentimental, this was my very first salon brand I ever bought. I love how the fine shimmer creates a pearly but non-frosty effect.

My bottle has a lot of mileage on it and had thickened over time. A bit of thinner solved that so I had no issues whatsoever. As one of my first loves, I dread the day I will finish the bottle. Luckily, China Glaze Sea Spray and L’oreal High Tide are both extremely close enough to be call dupes.

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Essie Sag Harbor (2 coats)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

Essence Blue Addicted

Collection: Color & Go

Deep blue jelly with blue and green hexagonal glitter, and small blue square glitter. I’ve had this for months but dreaded putting it on because I dislike glitter removal. But with PVA glue to make it trouble free, I’m so in love! Doesn’t it look like the deep blue sea?

The formula was very gloppy – it needed around 20 drops of thinner, which is a lot for a 5ml bottle. There’s a lot of glitter in this polish so there’s no need to fish for them even after thinning. In fact, I try to get fewer hexes on the brush or else my nails become too clumpy.

Polish peels:
• PVA Glue (1 coat)
• Essence Blue Addicted (3 coats)
• American Classics Gelous (1 coat)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

Polish Days: Sentimental

This month’s Polish Days theme is sentimental so I decided to dig out two of my oldest polishes to create a manicure. Yes, two. If you can’t see both polishes in my picture above, fret not. Because my second shade is a sheer stamp over my base – it’s real subtle in person too.

Michelle M31

Azure blue cream. It’s a lovely color that’s easy to apply. The formula is a little thick but gave me no problems.

I bought this from Beadstreet at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. I really recommend this shop for those on a budget as their nail polishes are great for the price. They have a good range of creams, plus some glitter and crackle. You can test the polishes so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting.

One bottle goes for $2.50 while two are $4. I have three of their creams and they’re fully opaque in two coats. The brushes are a bit unruly and might require trimming but it’s a small issue. Those I have also wear as well as any other brands so I think they’re worth it.

Polish peels:
• Michelle M31 (2 coats)

Layla Ocean Rush

Collection: Hologram Effect (2012 Spring)

Ocean blue linear holographic. I don’t know why I waited so long to put it on! The base color is so bright and eye catching so it doesn’t look boring even in the shade.

Ocean Rush has a finicky formula. You can’t use a normal base coat nor should you go over the same area while painting. These Layla holographics have a buffer that sold separately, but you don’t need buy it. I used a normal buffer that was lying around at home, the kind with a high grit and brings your nails to a shine.

Simply buff your nails shiny before painting your nails, no base coat needed. I found that the buffing gave me an easier application compared to using Nfu Oh’s Aqua Base. I wonder if this method will work for the Nfu Oh holos too?

Polish peels:
• Layla Ocean Rush (3 coats)

OPI Road House Blues

Collection: Touring America (2011 Fall)

Dark indigo cream. Look at how reflective it is! If only all creams could be like this! The color is not quite a true navy, there’s a drop or two of purple in there. I was eying this for a while until my best friend gave it to me for my birthday last year – she does know me very well.

The formula was excellent, being almost opaque in one coat. The second coat covered everything perfectly! It’s great as a base color (see it under Cult Nails Seduction) and would probably be good for stamping and nail art too.

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• OPI Road House Blues (2 coats)