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)

Polish Days: Vintage

It’s Polish Days again!

Polish Days is a monthly event where nail bloggers post their theme-inspired manicures at the same time. It was brought together by Hannah who also does the logistics needed each time.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think ‘vintage’ is soft (but not necessarily light) shades.My impression is ‘old but classical’ – colors that were aged and slightly faded though the passage of time.

Orly Au Champagne

Collection: Holiday Soireé (2011 Winter)

White shimmer with a satin finish. This is officially my first white polish as I’m sure some of you might know. I used it plenty of times in my EURO Series. The shimmer is there but not loud. If you’re looking for an affordable and easy-to-find white polish with delicate shimmer, you should really try this!

Although it has a satin finish, it doesn’t dry as fast a traditional matte polish. It’s very easy to apply and can be a two coater if done carefully. I’ve also taken pictures of this with a layer of top coat – it’s real pretty. It may not show the differences very well, but it’s definitely more sparkly.

Topped with Cult Nails Wicked Fast

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)

Essie Lapis Of Luxury & Orly Snowcone

While both polishes are in the cornflower blue category, Lapis Of Luxury has a bit more periwinkle. It’s not so obvious in the picture above but definitely noticeable in person (as shown in the sunlight shots below).

Unless you have a soft spot for cornflower blues, I’d say you don’t need both. I’m keeping them both because Snowcone is great as an opaque cream but I do love my squishy polishes too!

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• Essie Lapis Of Luxury (3 coats) – index and ring fingers
• Orly Snowcone (1 coat) – middle and little fingers

Euro 2012 Spain

And the last shall be the first! This is my second time trying a gradient and I’m really happy at how beautiful it turned out! I know this is probably the least matching of the Euro 2012 manicures (as compared to the jerseys), but I don’t care.

Spanish colors are traditionally red and yellow – they are called La Furia Roja (The Red Fury). But this is their away jersey; which I adore! The sky blue base is complimented by the dark blue stash. But it’s not just a plain stash; it’s made of fine stripes that fade into a gradient!

To create this, I followed The Nailasaurus’ gradient tutorial. It’s a simple technique, easy to learn but I've yet to master it (all I’ll say is that I had some difficulties doing my right hand). I wouldn't mind more practice – more colors to play with!

This concludes the Euro 2012 series. Thanks for sticking with me till the end, especially those who don’t even follow football.

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Snowcone (1 coat)
• Orly Snowcone / OPI Road House Blues (sponged on)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Germany

This is a simple design that I used a striping brush to do. I did manage to make the lines pretty straight but my yellow polish applied too thickly, causing an uneven bump even after I put on top coat.

This is the German’s home kit. I do like white kits because there’s just something elegant about the color. As for the team, I was disappointed when they were knocked out at the semis. I really thought that a final between Spain and them would have been great, but alas, it wasn't to be.

The weather over here has been rather finicky, so I settled on some lamp light shots. I'm sure you’re seen this white shimmer in sunlight a couple of times anyway.

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• Konad Special Polish Black (1 coat) – ring finger
• Essie First Dance (1 coat) – ring finger
• China Glaze Lemon Fizz (1 coat) – ring finger
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Ukraine

I'm sure you can tell that this is another attempt at freehand drawing, heh. I did create some "guides" by using thread to "impress" checkered boxes before the base dried completely. It worked but my freehand skills are still rather lacking regardless.

The Ukraine home jersey is rather trendy with its slight tribal pattern that has been so popular this year. As mentioned in an earlier post, I only have one yellow in my stash; hence, this is as color accurate as I can be.

I used a dotting tool to “fill in” the checkers here. It was rather time consuming but that may be just my inexperience talking. If I do find my drawing skills improving or an easier method to do this, I’ll definitely try this design again.

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• China Glaze Lemon Fizz (3 coats)
• Orly Snowcone (1 coat)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Russia

This one’s a simple design: red nails with the flag colors as an accent nail.

When I first saw Russia’s home jersey, I thought the diagonal strip was just white and blue. Only after closer inspection then I realized that it was tricolored.

The accent nail gave me a bit of trouble because I painted the blue as the base color. The red was too jelly-like; resulting in a maroon like shade. The white section became too thick as it needed three coats to become opaque.

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)
• Essie First Dance (2 coats)
• Michelle M31 (2 coats) – ring finger
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats) – ring finger
• Essie First Dance (3 coats) – ring finger
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Poland

Another red-white combination. It’s the easiest design in my opinion, so I decided to freehand the lines. The lines could be straighter and the red polish less thick – I guess I need more practice with the striper brush.

Poland is one of the two co-hosts this year. Their home jersey is rather simple and leaves me uninspired.

I really hope you guys haven’t been bored looking at the same polishes in the last few posts. As I mentioned earlier, I only have one white polish. I do love the shimmer and the fast drying time, it’s great! I’ll do a proper post on it in the future!

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• Essie First Dance (1 coat)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Croatia

Checkered patterns! This is another one of my first attempts and I think I’m starting to get better at these tape manicures!

This is Croatia’s home jersey. I actually don’t like the red-white and blue-white color schemes on clothes. It looks a tablecloth or picnic mat!

I do love looking at them on nails though! I know it’s possible to do more squares but I like the symmetry of just four squares.

Thanks for looking!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• Essie First Dance (1 coat)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Denmark

This is my first time trying a ruffian manicure. I think I did a decent job as the lines are pretty clean. The bald spots were more of an application error than a problem with the polish itself.

Denmark is the other team that didn’t survive the group of death (together with The Netherlands). I think the matte/shiny stripes on the home jersey look rather cool. I don’t have matte/shiny stripes (a good idea to try in the future) but I have the non-matte version of my manicure.

These pictures were taken before the matte top coat was applied. The white polish used dries into a satin finish which is clearly different from the shiny finish of the red polish. The different finishes are definitely more obvious in real life!

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• Essie First Dance (2 coats)
• China Glaze Matte Magic Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Portugal

Are you a football fan? If you’re not, I hope you’re bear with me during this period of Euro madness!

This is Portugal’s away jersey. It’s definitely one the more weird unique jerseys in this year’s competition. Since I’ve brought up this country, no, I’m not a Cristiano Ronaldo fan. I prefer Lionel Messi ;)

I used striping tape and scotch tape to create the lines. I know the lines are not perfect but I’m rather happy with the results. I would say that it’s an improvement over my previous tape mani here.

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• OPI Jade Is The New Black (1 coat) – index & middle fingers
• Essie First Dance (1 coat) – ring & little fingers
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Euro 2012 Greece

Euro fever! Who are you supporting in this year’s Euro?

I was inspired by the Euro 2012 jerseys and wanted to do manicure designs based on them. I thought it would be a good introduction to nail art for me. The designs seem simple enough to try out ;)
So why the Euro jerseys? I’m actually a huge huge football fan. I’ve been watching European football since I was young and thought it would be rather fun to combine my two passions!

This design was inspired by the Greece home jersey. I only have one white polish, which has silver shimmer. I find it preferable to a plain cream here, as it creates an extra dimension to the otherwise plain design.

This is my first attempt at dotting so I hope it’s not too messy! I used toothpick instead of a dotting tool as I wanted the dots to be tiny. But it looks like I wasn’t too successful, heh.

Thanks for reading!

Polish peels:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Au Champagne (3 coats)
• Michelle M31 (Dots) – ring finger
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)

All jerseys featured are for illustrative purposes only.

Orly Royal Navy

Collection: In the Navy (2010 Summer)

A bright medium blue jelly with green shimmer. Despite the name, it's not anywhere near navy, but it doesn't matter because it's so beautiful! I'm always looking for the perfect medium blue and I found this! I love how the green shimmer is suspended in the jelly base, it's really pretty!

Two easy coats for full opacity, it's not sheer and the VNL can't be seen in real life. However, it dries semi-matte so a top coat is needed for glossiness. Please excuse the shrinkage on my ring and little fingers, it wasn't tip wear but Seche Vite.

Click to enlarge the pictures for that gorgeous shimmer! Thanks for looking!

Polish sandwich:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
• Orly Royal Navy (2 coats)
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (1 coat)