Archive for the ‘Nails’ Category
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After a long long time, a nail post! I’ve definitely missed polishing my nails, and I’ve got Caronia Philippines to thank for inspiring me to start again! They sent me their newly released collection, Blue Moon, in this nice little press kit.
Held in this cute reusable bag, the kit contained the three new shades of the Blue Moon collection, as well as a lovely blue scarf that I’ve taken to wearing in the office.
This collection is a collaboration with Ballet Philippines. These colors aim to liven up your nails and keep you prepared for those unexpected and thrilling moments that happen once in a blue moon.
Read on for the swatches!
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One of the most exciting items in my loot from BU7xSunsilk last May 17 was this most awesome nail polish set: Deborah Lippmann Silk Collection. I had heard tons of great things about Deborah Lippmann nail polish and here, finally, I can get to try it!
It came in this tiny cardboard box that housed all three polishes in the Silk Collection. Opening it up I was greeted by the iconic Deborah Lippmann bottles.
This collection has three shades. Pseudo Silk Kimono, a silky white shade that, from the bottle, reminds me of its namesake; Harem Silks From Bombay, a deep sparkly purple that bids to be one gorgeous shade; and finally Red Silk Boxers, a bright sparkly red that may turn out to be one of my favorites.
I’ve finally finished swatching all of them. Let me start with the one I started with: Red Silk Boxers. I knew it was going to be a beautiful red shade. As you can see above, there’s some shimmer in the bottle, which doesn’t translate much on the nail.
What I didn’t expect was the interesting matte effect that came out. When you first apply this on the nail, it looks like the usual glossy polish. But it dries surprisingly matte! And it dries surprisingly fast too, almost as fast as Dazzle Dry. And it needed no topcoat! This is really good news to me. And check out that color! I like a good bright red, and being matte means this is quite office-appropriate as well. Perfect.
The next shade I swatched is Pseudo Silk Kimono. Like Red Silk Boxers, it dried matte. Unfortunately, being white, it was a lot more prone to showing brush marks than the red (and the purple one).
For some reason it also didn’t last as long as either of the two. It chipped after just two days (I didn’t use top coat in any of the three). I guess it is pretty clear that this is my least favorite.
Finally I got to swatch the last, Harem Silks From Bombay. I thought it had the most interesting name, and the most interesting potential. It was purple, with shimmers! And it would probably dry matte as well, like the other two. It turned out to have a lot less shimmer, but it is there if you look closely.
I love the color so much! It looks almost black in certain angles, but the purple flashes every once in a while. I also love the pinkish microshimmer as well!
There you have it! I really love how these turn out, and I think I might explore the brand a little bit more because of this very positive experience. Deborah Lippmann is cruelty-free, and is available at Rustan’s Beauty Source for Php875 per bottle.
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OMG has new bottle labels and price! Check out the OMG nail polish spread at Landmark Makati:
In the second (close up) image above, you can see that the old bottle labels are on the right side, while the new bottle prints are on the rest of the bottles. Interesting development! Of course I have to buy the new bottles. I got two pink ones: First Date and Champagne.
Here you can see a better close up view of the new bottle prints. The sticker labels in front are now gone, and replaced with labels printed directly on the glass bottles. The bottles themselves are the same. Another major difference is an increase in price. These new bottles now cost Php24.75 each, compared to the old price of Php19.75. I think only isolated bottles remain at the old price, which include the line of Crystal Sands.
Here is Champagne on my nails. It is a very sheer pink, which is practically almost the color of my nails. It only becomes evident under bright light, which you see here. It’s actually pretty nice and is a good office-appropriate polish shade.
Here on the other hand is First Date. It is a pretty bright pastel baby pink, and is a great shade for summer. It leans neon and reminds me of stabilo highlighters that I used in high school.
I…cannot think of a witty end to this post. So let me leave you with an awkward end.
End.
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It’s been a while since I received this from the BDJBox Beauty Soiree, but I’d like to show you this interesting polish. This is Revlon Parfumerie, a recently released line from Revlon which claims that it is a scented nail polish. Basically what that means is, once the polish dries on your nails the scent will be released. If you sniff the actual polish, it will just smell like regular nail polish. The bottle is also different than the usual Revlon bottles – it is a squarish bottle with a round cap/brush handle.
The scent/shade I got is Ginger Melon. It is a bright neon pink on the nail.
Please excuse my really dry cuticles.
How does it smell like? To me it reminds me of those hard candies of our childhood, those ones that are really sweet and takes forever to finish. It does not remind me at all of ginger or melon. How long does the scent last? During the first day the scent was really strong and it seemed like I dipped my fingers in crushed candy. On the second to fourth day, the strong scent virtually disappeared, but I could still smell it if I pressed my nails against my nostrils. Fifth day onward it only has a bare whiff of the original scent.
Also please excuse the chipping on my middle finger. Kinutkot ko kasi.
In conclusion, I am really more in love with the color more than the scent. I don’t think I am a huge fan of scented polish, but I think it’s better than smelling like nail polish, you know? Basta.
Revlon Parfumerie is available or soon to be available at Revlon counters. Revlon is not cruelty-free.
Nails: Spring Blossoms
Posted on: March 31, 2014
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After a very long while I finally was able to do nail art again! Here my inspiration is Erikajjang’s tutorial for sakura nail art. I wanted to do a similar art with some deviations. Here are the products I used.
I of course will have the Dazzle Dry Base and Top Coats. For my sky-color, I used Dazzle Dry Sno Cone. The branches are painted with OMG Sunny Tan, and the blossoms are painted with Dazzle Dry Strawberry Macaron and OMG Gold Digger. Here is the resulting nail art.
As you can see, I only did the sakura patterns on the middle fingers. On the outer three I painted birds also using Sunny Tan. The lines are still a bit thick, even using my thinnest dotting tool, so I may have to use a toothpick next time.
Nails: OMG Sunny Tan
Posted on: March 17, 2014
- In: Nails | Swatches
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This week I’ll show you the swatch for OMG Sunny Tan. This shade is quite simply a taupe, leaning towards chocolate brown. It is a very nice neutral shade, and quite office-appropriate.
Here it is, indoors.
And here it is, outdoors. The chocolate browniness of it is more apparent here.
OMG nail polishes costs Php19.75 each, and is available in Landmark branches. I have no information on OMG’s animal testing policies.
Nails: OMG Gossip
Posted on: March 10, 2014
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In a not-so-surprising turn of events, I have new shades of OMG nail polish. One of them is Gossip, a shade of green that falls somewhere between mint green and light olive.
Indoors Gossip looks closer to olive.
Outdoors the mintiness appears!
Loving this bright color on my nails! It should go really well with some pastel colored clothes.
OMG nail polishes costs Php19.75 and is available at Landmark department stores. I don’t have information on OMG or Klik’s animal testing policies.
Nails: Sweet Valentines
Posted on: February 24, 2014
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This is waaaaay late but let me show you what I wore on my nails over the Valentines weekend.
I used two coats of Dazzle Dry Strawberry Macaron for the base. On the ring finger I used Models Own Blizzard for a nice silver sparkle. On the other four I used Revlon Brilliant Strength Nail Polish in Seduce and Dazzle Dry Heart of Fire for the dots, which ended up totally indistinguishable from each other. The random swirls between the dots were actually the Revlon polish, and was inadvertently swiped across the nail when I applied top coat too early.
Hope you guys had a great valentines!
Nails: OMG Jive
Posted on: February 17, 2014
- In: Nails | Swatches
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Here finally is the last of my three new OMG nail polishes: Jive. It is a blue that will remind you of plastic toys and maybe an after-lunch sky.
Indoors it looks a lot darker, closer to the bottle color.
Outdoors it looks lighter and brighter. I used two coats, with a top coat.
OMG polishes are Php19.75, and I bought these at Landmark Makati.
- In: Nails | Reviews
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In one of my lucky breaks last holiday season I won this Konad Double Side Stamp Set from Lia of Geek Girl Manila. I was super stoked to get this as I believe that Konad is not widely available in the Philippines (correct me if I’m wrong). The one we have available here is of another brand, Kand, which can be bought from Landmark. The Kand set (as you can see from this haul) comes with a one-sided stamper, a plastic scraper, and an image plate, and the whole thing costs Php80. As a really nice bonus, I got four image plates along with this Konad stamping set. I have no idea how much the Konad set or the image plates costs.
What is nail stamping? It is basically putting the appropriate polish into the wells of an image plate and using a rubber stamper to transfer the image to the nail. This set includes a double ended stamper (a big end and a small end) and a metal scraper. I’ve already attempted to do nail stamping before with my old Kand set but it didn’t really work out. I think this is because I didn’t have the right stamping polish, and I didn’t know the correct steps. There is actually a not-so-bad set of instructions at the back of the set. For my first attempt with the Konad set, however, I used Polka Polish’s guide for nail stamping.
Let me give you a closer look on the contents of the Konad stamping set. First we have the double ended stamper, which is about two inches long.
It is wide on one end, with a pink rubber cap to pick up the design. This is used mostly for the big nail designs that usually cover the entire nail.
The other end is much smaller, and has a green rubber cap. This end is mostly used for the spot-designs or accents.
The set comes with a scraper, meant to scrape or push off the excess polish from the image plate. The handle is made of plastic, but the actual scraper is made of metal. I didn’t really like the idea of a metal-on-metal contact; I was afraid that it would damage the image plates. I didn’t use this on my first attempt at nail stamping with the Konad set, I used the plastic one from Kand.
As I mentioned earlier, the prize came with four image plates. Here are the four image plates. Click on each for a larger version. For reference, the plate designations are (clockwise from the left) m3, m56, m91, and m57. Strangely enough, m3 is the exact same plate I got in the Kand set.
And here is my first attempt. I used the m57 plate for the gold splotches. The base polish is Dazzle Dry Morning Dew and the stamping polish I used is OMG Gold Digger.
I am loving this set! I can’t wait to try the other designs!
Pros: performs quite well for its function (provided you follow the correct steps); quality materials used
Cons: metal scraper; not widely available
Becoming Sleek 