Spring 2013 Trend : The White Polish

Several magazines reported the white polish trend earlier this year and I must say, I liked what I saw. It looked fresh and clean but with an edge and I just had to dabble my hands in it! And so happens that I somehow end up with two practically identical white polishes and one lovely white 'glitter' this month. Here they are:

Left to right: OPI Alpine Snow, OPI Lights of Emerald City (From their Oz: The Great and Powerful line), and Ciate Snow Virgin 010.

OPI Lights of Emerald City just looks so good in the bottle, it's so dreamy because of the square white (glitter?) flakes suspended in the clear liquid with smaller square (again, glitter?) flakes that glow like oil slick when the light hits them. It evokes an image of an afternoon in a snow-covered village where it's still fairly bright outside but all the lights are on.

Here's a macro shot of OPI LoEC with flash:

OPI LoEC is best for layering. It is a pain in the ass to work with, though, as it's very goopy and the white square flakes are hard to pick up. I had to use different technique to apply it: I'd put a blob on my nails and maneuver the flakes around to get an aesthetically pleasant random look.

I layered this polish over Jessica's Cloud Mine in the picture. Here's how Cloud Mine looks on its own (1 coat):

And here's one coat of OPI Lights of Emerald City over Cloud Mine:

Tedious application aside, I do love the result! Sometimes your first instinct is to get as much white square flakes as you can on your nails but it actually looks better applied sparsely.

On to the white polishes:

I love the white polish trend! It just looks so...clean, like a good start, as Spring should be! They are really identical in terms of look but I must say I like OPI better. The formula as well as the brush are better than Ciate, it spreads more easily and if you've gotten the hang of it, you can get a smooth and opaque finish in a single coat (I have 2 coats on in the picture, though).

Ciate on the other hand, is a disappointment. The formula is less thick but what makes it worse is the brush. It looks like it can't decide whether it wants to be the round or the panoramic type and ends up somewhere in between, resulting in uneven and clumsy application. It took 3 coats to get it even and opaque in the picture. Oh, and you know the little black bow that looks so cute especially in the ad? I hate it. It looks cheap and poorly made in real life, and what's worse is, it is attached to the cap instead of the bottle so it becomes a nuisance when you're applying the polish as you have to be careful not to let the ribbon touch your wet nails.

I'm gonna end this post by showcasing all the polishes used in this post:

Chanel Le Vernis Mimosa : How to Salvage a Wrong Shade of Polish

I bought Chanel Le Vernis in Mimosa back in summer 2011. It is a very pretty yellow, bright and opaque enough to show up on your nails but classy enough not to emulate a teeny bopper. It has very fine shimmery particles but you can't really see them unless you hold the bottle / your nails next to your eyes.

Sadly, the shade is all wrong for me. It got me a bad case of lobster hands and it always looks very painted on. I can't tell you how many times I painted it on only to remove it seconds later. For as long as I've owned the polish, I have yet to wear it in all its glory. It is THAT bad on me. Suffice it to say, Chanel Mimosa is unflattering for my skin tone.

However, there's no reason to waste a perfectly good polish so I came up with a couple of ideas on how to rework Mimosa into something wearable on me.

1. Bubbly Mimosa

These bubbly-inspired nails also serve as my first attempt at gradation nails. You know, the one where you use sponge to create (somewhat) seamless gradation of 2 different colors.
 I use China Glaze in Harvest Moon for this effect. Harvest Moon is a gorgeous shimmery copper and part of their Capitol Colors collection (a tie-in with the Hunger Games movie).

 

I still haven't mastered it yet but i think the uneven border makes for a nice bubbly-like effect.

 This will definitely catch people's eyes, perhaps more appropriate for parties and celebrations.

2. Sprinkles nails: Easter Egg Edition
I came up with the second idea after rummaging through my polishes collection and found several colors that looked so great together. I don't know if there's already a name for this effect but I call it 'Sprinkles Nails' because it consists of dots from several different colors - it's basically a 2D version of Ciate's Caviar nails and InStyle magazine actually ran an article of similar idea a few months back.

I use 5 different polishes for this effect: 1 for the base color, and the rest for the dots.

From left to right:
1. OPI Skulls & Glossbones as base color
2.China Glaze - Sea Spray
3. Jessica - Cloud Mine
4. Chanel - Mimosa
5. China Glaze - For Audrey

For the record, China Glaze - Sea Spray was the color that started it all for me. Before it came out, I was never such a polish fiend as I am right now. Then it came out and it started snowballing from there =D

Steps 1 - 5

So what you do is, paint your nails with the base color then work your way through each color by dotting it randomly all over your nail, one color at a time. This works best with polishes that have rounded type of brush.

The end result looks somewhat like the colors and pattern you'd use to decorate an Easter egg, hence the name of the design. Definitely eye-catching and not for the boardroom!

The good thing about Sprinkles Nails is that you can experiment with any colors, you can go with themes such as Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, etc. or you can just go crazy and mix in any colors, the possibility is endless and each will yield unique result, every time.

Holiday is around the corner so Season's Greetings everyone! ^_^

NOTD - Flakies & Creme

Second nail post of the day! I present you my NOTD:

OK, so perhaps I should tell you that I have a penchant for pale shades with a twist, hence this post and this post. So my NOTD this time should come as no surprise to you that it follows that same formula. It's Essie's Shine of the Times over OPI's Skull and Glossbones.

Both came out last year, Shine of the Times is part of a collection called Luxeffects, a collection of polishes meant for layering. I picked up this one since the flakies gained resurgence some time late last year. I'm not a big fan of flakies but I like to have that option, LOL. The flakies in this shifts colors between green, yellow, and copper under some lights, and between pink-purple under some other lights. It looks more obvious when layered over something dark.

OPI's Skull and Glossbones is part of their Stranger Tides collection (a tie-in with the movie of the same name) that came out some time in spring 2011. It's a very pale grey, sort of a cross between white and light grey but still lets the natural rosy color of your skin shines through to prevent it from looking chalky. This is one of my favorite shades to wear ever.

Love how it's muted yet it'll come alive under certain angles or lights. Just my kind of shade!

Taken with flash, the flakies shift colors between pink, purple, and light teal.

Formula wise, Skull and Glossbones is a tad thin, you need to apply 2 coats to be opaque while Shine of the Times is at the opposite end of the spectrum. It's thick and clumpy, really not my favorite formula to work with.

Hope you get inspired! (^_^)

Gemstone Inspired Nail Polishes

I've always loved rich gemstone colors. Wearing them is an elegant way of introducing colors to your outfit, especially for someone who loathes wearing (too much) colors like me. One day I was just looking at my nail polishes collection and realized I had few polishes that despite their names and marketing, are gemstones-inspired. I just had to do swatches, so here it goes...

Look at them, will ya? Aren't they just swell! So beautiful and rich...here are a couple more pics below:

 I suppose from left to right they kind of mimic emerald, tanzanite, amethyst, and sapphire.

Here goes the swatches, FYI I use OPI Nail Envy Original, OPI Natural Nail Base Coat, and Poshe topcoat in all pictures, no cleanups.
First up is emerald-inspired polish, appropriately marketed so, as well. It is Emerald Fitzgerald by China Glaze from their Vintage Vixen Fall 2010 collection. Here's how it looks in a room with natural sunlight:

It's a dark cool-toned black-green with silver micro glitters. The consistency on this is thick and if you haven't mastered how to get the right amount of polish on the brush, it tends to get goopy. On the bright side, it is almost a one-coater but I did 2 coats just to satisfy myself :D
Here's how it looks with flash:

You can see how dark it can get. Application-wise, I'm not really a fan of the brush. It's the classic brush type, thin, round, and longer than I'd prefer so it makes it harder to control. You can see the uneven lines that I flubbed on the moon area as a result.

Next up is tanzanite-inspired polish. It's a lesser-known type of gemstones in gorgeous blue-violet color. And coincidentally (and also befittingly), I use a lesser-known nail polish brand for this color. It's Groupie by L.A. Girl from their Rock Star collection. Here's how it looks in a room with natural sunlight:

It's a very rich blue-violet with bronze, red, and blue glitters. Very stunning. I mean, will you look at the first pic? it's just gorgeous! L.A. Girl is a US brand, it says made in USA on the bottle but a lot cheaper than most popular brands. Somehow where I live, this brand is easy to get (we have their cosmetics line here, as well). Brush type is about the same as China Glaze above. Their formula is on the thin side so you have to do about 3 coats to get a fully opaque result. You can see how thin the formula is in the pictures with flash below:

I use 2 coats in the picture and I don't think it's supposed to be jelly. That being said, I always love the colors they come up with. I can always find some unique colors in there and they have a few collections dedicated to glitters as well, please do check them out on their website! Besides, they're easy on your pockets and unless you're doing some photography shots, how many times in real life do you take close-ups of your nails?

Last photo is blurred to show you how gorgeous the glitters are.

Next is amethyst-inspired color. It's Cowgirl Up by China Glaze from their famous Rodeo Diva Fall 2008 collection. It's red-based purple, semi foil/semi metallic with blue micro glitter. Here how it looks like in a room with natural sunlight:

It is so rich and gorgeous. Application was a mess, though because just like Emerald Fitzgerald, the formula on this is quite thick and with the long and thin China Glaze brush it was just hard to control. See how I messed up the lines near the cuticles? Definitely not a polish to wear in a hurry.

Look at just how gorgeous it looks with flash! it becomes richer and comes alive. You can see how the blue micro glitter popping up subtly to give it an even more beautiful result. Do note, though, because it's somehow a foil/metallic, it can get a bit streaky.

Last is a sapphire-inspired polish. It's swimsuit...Nailed It! by OPI from their Miss Universe Summer 2011 collection. It's simply a rich blue micro glitter even though in the bottle it can have juuuussst a touch of green. It might be too bright than what a sapphire-inspired gemstone color should look like but it's stunning nonetheless. Here's how it looks in a room with natural sunlight:

And here's it is with flash:

Application on this is simply perfection. Formula is the right thickness and it glides on smoothly and evenly. It was especially a bliss since this has the OPI Pro-Wide brush, it makes application much easier and smoother, even in a hurry. It's almost a one-coater but I used 2 coats in the pics. The brush makes creating neat, rounded line along the cuticles a breeze. The color pops without being too bright and it doesn't lean towards green nor violet, it's simply a blue hue. This is one of my favorite polishes to wear despite its name which I kinda loathe.

So there you have it, a selection of gemstone-inspired nail polishes, hope it gets you inspired as well ;-)