Thank you !

Good morning dear readers and followers !

We can't believe we've reached out 101 followers ! That's amazing. Thank you so very much to all of you who have been following, commenting and supporting. We really appreciate each and every one one you !

Now about the giveaway, as you may know, it's now closed. I'll be verifing the entries and I'll be probably able to announce the winner tomorrow ! ;)

I don't know if I'll have the time to post during the week-end but I'll encourage my sis to post some of her nail arts hehehe.

Talk to you soon,

xoxo

Artform Revolutionary Range #502 Red Gold

I toyed with the idea of doing an April fools post, but unless your the first in with it, there isn't much point (you got me Kaz!)

Today I'm showing you Artform Revolutionary Range #502 Red Gold, which is a dupe of Ozotic Pro #502 which may be close to a dupe of Sally Hansen Prism Ruby Opal (see Splurge vs Save).  But before swatches I just want to mention a couple of things that annoyed me about my latest order from Artform nails.

1. I noticed on my credit card a week after placing my order that what I was charged was less that what I had ordered. I sent two emails to them asking why my order was costing less, unfortunately I never received a reply. It was only when my box arrived that there was a hand written note on the invoice that said some polishes were out of stock and they didn’t charge me for them. As their shipping is rather expensive, I really wish they had contacted me and advised if and when they were getting the polishes that were out of stock back in. I would happily have waited to receive them and ship them all together, whereas now, I would have to place another order (including the full shipping price) if I want to get the out of stock items.
2. My other gripe is that a number of these bottles were not full. The green holographic one, and a few of the multichromes have a good 5mm missing at the top of the bottle. What’s with that!!

Despite these two issues, I am really happy with the polishes I have got.

#502 is another multichrome with colours shifting through from a burgundy crimson through to gold.  This is three coats over a black base.

This one was the first I swatched, and I didn't capture it as well as I have the others.  There is a real knack to photographing duochrome polishes and I certainly got better the more I took.

Suprise !

Just a little, fast, post for my sister (who's working hard while I'm doing that !)

I was missing my leopard manicure, so ... Here it is !

I used China Glaze - Lemon Fizz and Milani - Gold Glitz.

To do the leopard "skin", I used the best "nail art novice tool" ever created ! The Essence - Nail Art Pen ! For the girls who don't know this, it's like a paint pen but with polish, except that it is not polish, it's better ! It looks like polish but it's water soluble !!! No more mistake on your "just done" nails !

It is LEGEND ... wait for it ... DARY !

XOXO to my sister, who , I know, is gonna check the blog before I tell her to do it ;)

Japanese Nail Cocktail Champagne gradient gel manicure

Japanese Nail Cocktail Champagne gradient manicure, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

I love the name of this product!

I snagged the last of this set at Claire's in Osaka over the weekend. It is a really cute gel-look gradient manicure kit, made by a company called Beauty world. It's fairly easy to do (just have to remember to apply all colors when the polish is wet or it won't blend) but the only thing the outside dries fast but the under coats take a long time to dry.

This set is called Champagne. It comes with three colors, a pinky-beige, a sparkly bronze, and a gold glitter with big and small glitter pieces. You can't really tell in the picture, but the base color is more pink than it looks. There are other color sets as well, which if I see get restocked I may consider getting, as they are really cute.

Another plus to this is the company puts money towards each purchase for breast cancer research, which can be seen on the bottom of the box in the picture.

I have a good idea for Wednesday manis. I'll have it started next week, since I had already done this mani when I thought of it.

I see we're at 99 followers! This is awesome. Only one more to go till we hit the big 1-0-0 and celebrate! Thanks everyone, we wouldn't be what we are without all of you :)

Artform Revolutonary Range #505 Green Purple

Hang on a minute; didn't I just do a post on this polish yesterday? Well yes and no. This is one of the Artform Revolutionary Range polishes - #505 Green Purple, that I got in my haul last week. 

Let me just start by saying this is an exact dupe for yesterday's polish, Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal. The very last photo shows a comparison swatch. The other interesting thing is that I’m sure this is also an exact dupe of Ozotic Pro #505.

Recently when I wrote about ordering these polishes, Kira from over at Kira and Lydia's Makeup, said she was keen to see these as she didn’t want to double up on her Ozotic Pro colours. Well Kira, right you are!

What I find very interesting is that not only do they appear to be the exact same multichromatic polish, but they also have the exact same number! And even more evidence that these are probably from the same Australian manufacturer, is that it’s not just this one polish. I ordered six multichrome polishes (#502, #503, #504, #505, #506 and #508) from Artform Nails. From looking at other people’s swatches and reading the colour descriptions of Ozotics #502, #504, #505, #506, all four of these polishes are exactly the same number and colour as the Artform ones.

So the cool part is that I read a comment from Kaz over at Pretty Random saying that Ozotic Pro #503 and #508 are discontinued. So how cool is it that after looking at the Ozotic Pro colour chart, I have probably located exact dupes of #503 and #508.

Just remember that these actually cost a little more than the Ozotic pro ($10.95 v $8.50). But if you want to get #503 and #508, it’s probably worth the extra few bucks.

Anyway, onto the swatches of Artform #505.  These were all three coats over a black base.

I really wanted to photo the comparison between Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal and #505 in the sun, but the clouds came over and I had to do it under then bathroom lights instead.  As you can see even in this indoor flash picture, both Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal and Artform/Ozotic Pro #505 are dupes.

I'll be bring you more of these duochromes in coming posts.  If your a green lover, just wait until you see the discontinued #503. Ah-maze-zing.

Indigo nails and viva la nails :)

As you can see from previous posts, i changed it up! I love love love this Barry M. The color just seems to glow! I mean, from one side it looks blue and then from another it's a purple!

Ive also discovered this freebie from Viva la nails, it's a blogger pack. I am impressed with this website so much! The selection is amazing! I also picked up a few other things from them, that I will blog about soon. Using the white butterfly and flower rhinestone sticker decals I placed three on each ring finger.

I wanted to use something that went well with the that gorgous buttery(is that a good word to use? )blue, and the white decals reminded me of the blue and white danish patterns that you see on a lot of china patterns. I was tempted to do all my nails but stopped at just the ring fingers. I also finally ordered my first Konad! I hopefully will get the gist of it, because my first attempt was so pathetic that I can not even talk about it, forget posting pics!

Speaking of new things, what do you guys think of the new April blog design, a special thanks to Julie for her skills:)

Also Emily's Nail Files is having a giveaway! Her very 1st! Here is what she is giving away(clink picture to enter):

Look..Models Own! Barry M!.. me wants!

Ok, well that's it for now!

Teeez - Cool

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Miranda showed swatches of some Teeez nail polishes. I was immediately intrigued! I don't know what it is with me and prismatic polishes... *sigh* So, I went searching for Teeez. About the brand:

"TEEEZ trendy cosmetics is a Dutch-based hip and fashionable cosmetics company.

TEEEZ trendy cosmetics offers makeup for eyes, lips, nails and body.

Have Fun, Get Noticed, Be TEEEZED... "  

 Yay! It's Dutch. :) When I was looking for places where I could buy their products it turned out a shop right around the corner of my house sells them without me knowing it. How is that for a surprise! But onto one of the polishes I bought, this is Teeez - Cool 02.

And it's certainly pretty cool, I would describe it as an azure coloured polish with a scattered prismatic effect. Blue + prismatic glitter = a total win in my book! The only thing I don't like about the polish are the flowery stickers on the bottle, it looks a bit cheap, but the polish itself is really awesome. The application was good, I used three thin coats, but you could get away with two thicker coats. The brush is somewhat flat, nice to work with. 

Teeez polishes cost €4,50 (10 ml), but they were 50% off, lucky me. :O

Now I'm off to the kitchen, today is bake day! Thanks for watching.

Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal

I'm taking a break from the holographics to take you down the magical duochrome path that is the magnificant Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal Nail Prisms. 

Turquoise Opal, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. You actually look the same on my nail as you do in the bottle
2. Thin, smooth formula
3. Awesome colour changing from turquoise green and blue through to rich royal purple.
4. Smooth glossy finish, top coat not required
5. Magnificant in sunlight and indoors.
6. Sparkley metallic shimmer finish
7. Great durability.

Ok, so it looks like I love you seven ways.

This was two coats Turquoise Opal over one coat generic black polish.  This first photo was taken in the shade, the rest were in full sun.

This is the Canadian version of the polish, which I actually nabbed off ebay just the other day.  In fact I nabbed two bottles for an excellent price and I have a special idea for what to do with my second bottle.  So stay tuned for that...

Nail Polish Spill Equals Beautiful Disaster

Now that I'm high as a kite from the fumes, I can show you why dropping a box of nail polish can become art. ;) My clumsy mistake as usual, I was placing my nail polish case on the shelf and it came crashing down. The casualty of this fall was a Zoya swatch. I snapped a few photos, and used acetone to clean it from the floor. Pee-you. It was stinky, and now I have a headache. But so worth it for these shots! Does anybody else see some art in these or is it just me? lol

Swap - part. 3

Hey ladies

What's up ? A quick post to show you my NOTD (sorry I'm really tired, I'm crazy busy these days...). So for this mani I used one coat of OPI - Obscurity from the Glam Goth Set and one coat of Milani - Gems and then one coat of SV.

Outdoors - with flash

Outdoors - with flash

Outdoors - with flash

I really need to try Gems over a white polish, I'm sure it will look great. Do you own this one ? Or do you have one of its dupe ? What color should I try it over ?

Don't forget to enter our first giveaway here ! You still have a few days to enter ;)

Thanks for stopping by

xoxo

Artform light blue holographic 512

Only three more holos to show you from my giveaway range.  Introducing the light blue holo.

Um, what to say about this polish that is different from the previous posts about these Artform holo polishes. Same scattinear holo finish, smooth application, glossy finish, yada yada yada.  Oh not sure if I have said this yet, they are not super fast to dry like other holos, maybe that is why the wear is so much better?

Again, I wanted to do a comparison between this and the Nfu Oh 65 blue polish, so here it is.  I did this in the shade to show you that the colour is very similar. Nfu OH 65 on the index and ring, Artform holo on Middle and pinky.

Here is the sun comparison picutre. Artform on the left Nfu Oh on the right.  Yeah, I know it's no Nfu Oh, but it still sure is pretty.

Two more to go.

OPI Merry Midnight! I Love My Flakies!

Hola! Happy sunny afternoon. I have to say that I am in a pretty damn good mood today. I went to the health food store and got this nasty-ass "green" concoction which consisted of spinach, parsley, broccoli, and other greens in a smoothie form. While it tasted disgusting, it definitely gave me a super boost of energy! That aside, I thought I'd share my swatching OPI's Merry Midnight. I managed to snag this for $18 on eBay which was well worth the buy! Do you own this? What do you think of flake polishes?

For those of you who think spending $18 on nail polish is a joke (I feel ya) Cult Nails also has a wonderful pink flakie polish called Iconic that you can order from their site for $10 (along with their other amazing swatches- have you seen Living Water? WOW!) - and I feel it's more versatile than Merry Midnight, because it can be worn in the spring, summer, fall, winter etc....whereas I feel Merry Midnight is more of a Fall/Winter only polish. Here is Iconic from a prior post.

Oh, and before I forget - this is an older swatch I had done of Finger Paints brand black polish. I meant to rave about how it's probably the best black nail polish out there. I highly recommend it! Just 1 layer on top of a base coat and it's opaque. Great quality for $3.99. I also tested out my photoshop skills here - is it blatantly obvious that i photoshopped out my jagged cuticles?

Lastly, I noticed that Walgreens is now stock FULL of the gorgeous glittery Sinful Color swatches that had been becoming difficult to find. So hurry up and go grab them! This glitter is seriously the most amazing glitter polish I've yet to find. This one swatched below is called Nail Junkie.

Skittle Nails with a Skittle Funky French

Yesterday I was in the mood for something fun, which resulted in: skittle nails with skittle french tips. For the base colours I used pastels, for the funky french brighter or darker colours. What can I say..? I love this! 

I know now why I never include my thumb in my pictures, it's not photogenic at all, it looks fat. But enough with the whining, lol.

All the polishes I used were cremes:

	Base Colour	Tip Colour
thumb	Essie – Body Language	OPI – You Don’t Know Jacques
forefinger	Zoya – Caitlin	China Glaze – Grape Pop
middle finger	China Glaze – For Audrey	OPI – Jade is The New Black
ringfinger	OPI – Mod About You	Barry M – Shocking Pink
pinkie	China Glaze – Agent Lavender	Zoya - Kelly

What a list. *wipes off forehead* :i

Oh, I almost forgot.. I want to share a tip! You can make (funky) french tips by using french tip guides/tape or paint them on freehand. I like to do it freehand, but on days with shaky hands the line could be a bit wobbly. If you want a straighter line apply a layer of topcoat over the base colour before applying the french tips and let it dry. Then add the french tips and let them dry a bit. Now you can take a small brush, dip it in some nail polish remover, dab the excess off and carefully remove little mistakes. Because of the layer of topcoat you're not ruining the base colour. Add another layer of topcoat and you're done!

Thanks for watching!

Just a swatch this time~

Good evening everyone!

Finally, we are finished moving to Osaka! Everything was kinda crazy for a week or so, running back and forth between Osaka and Tokyo, packing, dealing with movers, the electric, cable, and gas companies, and much much more, but finally I have a minute to myself :) My friend Jaclyn came with us to Osaka to hang out for a few days, and I must say, though in NO way a girly girl, she is inspired by this blog (because of the ladies here) and was wearing OPI's Shatter over red polish! I was very impressed:) She is also the proud owner of Sephora by OPI's Teal We Meet Again after seeing me wear it. I am telling you, this is a huge step for her. Anyway, I wasn't able to do one of my famous manicures, so at night while we were hanging out I decided to do a swatch of China Glaze Party Hearty that Julie got me for Christmas. I realized I hadn't worn it yet, that I'd been wanting to, and I had it with me so why not? I applied two coats. It is such a cool glitter! It has big red glitter, medium green glitter, and small silver (I read somewhere that it's supposed to be gold, but it looks silver to me) glitter pieces. I wore it alone, but it would also be great over red, white, silver, or green nail polish. A must for any glitter fan, looks great even though it isn't Christmas!

Sorry about the quality of this pic, I took it outside.

China Glaze Party Hearty, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

Image courtesy of mbeauty.com

Stay tuned, I already have an idea for my next mani! ^_~

Artform pink holographic 516

Are you sick of seeing holos yet??  Nah, I didn't think so. This pink Artform holographic is one that you could win in my giveaway.

Again, great holo effect with a scatt-inear (my new word for for scattered and linear all at once) finish, like those in the OPI Designer Series.

Like the others in the range, this applied smooth and dried to a gloss, so no need to add a top coat if you don't want.  Although I found that top coat didn't dull the effect at all.  This was two coats in full sun.