Dior Vernis in 537 Rivieria

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Dior

This is Rivieria in two coats on me. I love the Dior formula, the polish dries so quickly and the brush is perfect for the width of my nail bed. I press gently at the start and viola!

While Rivieria is certainly too bright for conservative work environments, it is a declaration that Summer is here to stay!

HAUL: Tony Moly Polishes in TR07 / ND05 / RE01 / TR08 / TR04 [Swatches ♥]

Quick, somebody hand me an award for most hardworking blogger! 😛

Alright so I was in school on Tuesday doing some work when I read about the Tony Moly polishes and promptly decided that I should reward myself with a few polishes.

Sidenote, I should organize my stash soon else one MUJI chest will never be able to hold them all. And my polishes take up nearly three drawers of space, FML.

Anyway, back to the entry. I love how Korean brands are so into recycling that they use paper bags instead of plastic carriers! I know that sometimes paper bags are not that sturdy and are prone to ‘giving way’ to weight, but we usually just dump them into our own bags right? So recycle people!

Carrie if you are reading this, GO AWAY NAO! *nudges*

Before I begin into another wordy entry, Tony Moly polishes retail at S$4.90 for the basic range, S$8.90 for their middle range and S$12.90 for the premium range. The basic polishes include cream and shimmery (yucks!) finishes, as well as base/top coats and cuticle oil (I may be wrong on this). The middle range is a select few polishes with interesting colors, like the one I’m wearing now (but dont have proper pictures yet >_>) – a dark concrete grey like the Zoya Kelly. It also has a polish rather similar to one that I remember from Dior, though the name escapes me at the moment. As for the premium range, I remembered seeing glitters (which were not gritty to remove for a one coat) and holos (don’t quote me again!).

So here’s what I got.

I’ve been good and only got five! And thanks to L who kindly allowed me to use his fingers for swatches at the store as mine were already covered in Rescue Beauty Lounge’s Teal. Which is a gorgeous color by the way.

*Color swatches will follow this sequence*

The polishes have names, but I threw away the receipt that had them printed, sorry!

TR07 is a milky dusty pink, reminds me of the MAC Pink Cult blusher.

ND05 is a true nude beige, with no hint of pink in it.

RE01 is a true red that I dont have in my collection. My reds tend to veer on the vampy side as mentioned, haha. Might be a dupe for the MAC Obey Me polish though.

TR08 is a brown grey with purple in it.

And finally, TR04 which is yet another grey with green in it.

Again, my grey may be your black, so I would recommend for you to head down to the Tony Moly store (there’s one in Bugis and another in Marina Square yes?) to swatch them for yourself. I will do a in-depth review, time permitting, of them when I finally get my Seche Vite topcoat replaced.

The Tony Moly polishes are of great quality, at the prices you pay. I love the design (rounded bottles with black caps) of them, the formula’s smooth and creamy, definitely opaque in one coat though two is optimal to reach the color that’s in the bottle. The wear is decent as I have minimal chipping at the tips of my fingers after two days and a whole lot of typing, without any topcoat to seal the polish.

All in all, value for money!

Questions? Lemmings? Comment Away!

SWATCH: Wonder Woman Nail Lacquers in Spirit of Truth & Obey Me!

Hi everyone!

Here are some swatches of the Wonder Woman Nail Polishes (lacquer sound like such a fancy name for ‘polish’, so does varnish!) in Spirit of Truth (blue) and Obey Me (red).

I’ll get the specifics out of the way first. MAC describes Spirit of Truth as ‘navy blue’ and Obey Me as ‘true red’. It retails for USD15 and costs S$24. As of today, you can only find the Wonder Woman collection at Tangs (Orchard, not sure about Vivocity) since it was a store exclusive. Other MAC stores will only stock the merchandise tomorrow, 10 March. The Mighty Aphrodite blusher was already SOLD OUT at S$47. Ouch :S

My heart belongs to Spirit of Truth, and Sophia (of the Makeupblogette) kindly compared her bottle to the blue nail polishes that she owns and lo and behold, no known dupe! Lynn reminded me about China Glaze’s Calypso Blue and Bermuda Breakaway, both which were a little off and not a true navy blue. Ah see how I’m justifying my purchase already? Heh.

Here’s a closeup on Obey Me. I love the name of the lacquer, like ‘OBEY ME OR ELSE’ yo? I don’t own such a bright red, most of the reds in my tiny collection is the dark vampy kind but Obey Me seems like such a fun color to have! I’m thinking OPI’s Little Red Wagon would come close.

So Spirit of Truth or not? Ahhh, decisions.

RBL Mail ~

I’m starting to think that sg_beauty is quite a good place to shop for bargains though I’ve met my fair share of dishonest sellers. One particularly nasty one claimed that the lippie I purchased was ‘swatched only once on the hand’ and when I received it, the thing turned out significantly shorter than a brand new one I had in my stash. Needless to say, I didn’t feel inclined to posting it. Anyways, here is something that got to me last Wednesday but again, I procrastinated ><

Tada! I managed to snag these two babies for S$31, quite a good deal considering that they retail at USD18 each. I’m suspecting that the seller bought hers at the 50% sale, but no matter, I still got a great bargain!

The interesting thing about them is that they come in rectangular bottles with a narrow width. The only polishes in my stash that is similar to these are the H&M ones, but that will come another day.

As you can see, it will be a breeze storing (and therefore collecting!) these Rescue Beauty Lounge (RBL) polishes as they have square corners unlike the usual more space-consuming round bottles.

Again, I have to proclaim my luck as these two were what I picked out from Scrangie’s swatches that I had to have (someday). Teal is such an ‘in’ color right now! Unfortunately I cannot do swatches at the moment as I’m letting my nails rest for awhile. So that will have to wait :S

Om would be what I call a salmon-pink color. Funny how that word reminds me of Harry Potty’s Aunt heh. Teal stains terribly, so I would advise a base coat before anything else. I’ll definitely be back with swatches, pinky promise!

 

Canmake Gel Volume Top Coat (Swatches & Review) ~

Hello! Today I have a review for you, yes you who came to my blog searching for ‘Canmake Gel Volume’ etc and got disappointed when you don’t see an entry 😛

In case any of you don’t know or haven’t seen what I’m talking about, here’s the product I’ll be reviewing today. You can read the official product description here.

The Canmake ‘GEL VOLUME TOP COAT’ retails at S$17.90 (ouch!) at Watsons. You can still get it at 20% off before 2 February 2011.

First of all, what exactly are ‘gel nails’? Gel nails are like acrylic extensions, they are both artificial surfaces to help your nail art last longer. The manicurist will use an art brush to layer on clear gel on your nails before telling you to put your hand into the UV machine to get the gel to harden and cure. Gel nails are super shiny, and they make your nails look thick and glossy. Celebrities usually have a gel overlay on their nails even with normal polishes on so that their fingernails look great in pictures.

So what exactly does Canmake’s Gel Volume Top Coat do? Basically its promising to deliver the extremely glossy surfaces that normal gel top coats give, without the UV curing. That’s right, I usually have to pay an extra S$10 for a gel top coat to seal the polish and having to UV them. With Canmake’s polish, there is no need for you to purchase a UV machine to get glossy ‘gel’ nails!

Now the question is, does Canmake really deliver on such its product? *JENG JENG JENG JENG*

I’ll have to be brutal here. The first time I tried it, I thought I just wasted money on a hyped-up product that didn’t work. For all of you who are smart enough to invest in a bottle of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, you would know that it gives you an extremely glossy surface and dries your nails in like five minutes flat as well. So why bother paying nearly S$18 for another top coat that is supposed to be a ‘quick dry’?

Then I decided that I should give the product another shot. And discovered that it did actually work, just not the way I expected it to.

Yes, I really liked the fact that it was a very fluid liquid and not gloopy, unlike what my Seche Vite would become after some time.

However, it wasn’t quick-drying at all. Not one bit I must say. And that was a major turn-off when I used it on my surface-dry fingernail and the polish stained my brush purple.

See the glop on my index finger? Yes, silly me thought that the CGVTC was a ‘quick-dry’ and it actually wasn’t. A little off-topic here but Siberian Nights looks purple in the bottle, but after two coats, it becomes a near black.

Anyways, I then decided to put on a layer of SV first to dry my nail polish, before piling on CGVTC. And viola, this happened!

See the difference in the thickness of my thumb? Thanks to liberal coats of CGVTC, I now have super thick and glossy nails!

**Sorry but I tried to take pictures of my other fingernails, they didn’t turn out spectacularly as it’s really difficult trying to photograph from the side and my sister had to help me out begrudgingly with it.

Here’s another look at it.

The CGVTC definitely makes my nails look plump and fat, which means they are great to photograph as they appear to have wider nail beds.

However, I also think its a waste to have to layer SV underneath to dry the color polish first, before you can layer on CGVTC. If you just want glossy nails, I would recommend you to invest in SV (and a bottle of its SV Restore!) It’s definitely more economical, and also dries your polish super quickly. At S$17.90, CGVTC is quite pricey and in my honest opinion, not worth a check-out. Good to have, but not a must-have.

Hope this review helps! xx

TOPSHOP NAILS in Big Smoke (SWATCHES) & a definite DUPE for it ♥

Here’s a teaser for it XD

Big Smoke is a beautiful light concrete grey that looks a little ‘purplish’ in different lightings but nonetheless, beautiful as hell. It’s definitely a work-appropriate color, and TOPSHOP did something wonderful by putting this color in their collection as it’s right on the grey-taupe-mushroomy-nude nailwagon. The TOPSHOP@Knightsbridge had only two bottles of Big Smoke left on the shelf after I grabbed my bottle. They each retail at S$13 and after the F3 card discount, I bought mine at S$11.7.

I swatched these with neither base nor top coat, so that you can see for yourselves how good the formula is. All my swatches are in two coats and Big Smoke was opaque in one already, but for the sake of the review, I did two.

The good thing about TOPSHOP polishes is that they are true to their bottle color. I purchased my three bottles on sight alone since they did not allow testers, something that still bugs me till today. I basically opened the bottles, held the brush up to scrutinize the colors (checking for shimmers basically) and look at it glop down the neck of the bottle. Safe to say, all three polishes applied true to what the eyes see.

Sorry for the blurry photo. I cannot emphasize how heavy the DSLR is to be holding it with one hand and trying for a perfect shot. But this aside, I swatched the polish once again this morning and tada!

You get the drift. I did my nails in less than a minute, hence they may look a little wonky to you.

Now here comes the hard part. Is Big Smoke worth the S$11.70 that you pay for as compared to the OPI / ORLY / Essie / China Glaze / Color Club that you can get online for less than S$10 through a spree?

Yes and No

Yes because the color’s really so beautiful and I can see it working for us fair Asians and to medium skin tones (not sure if it will be ashy for darker skins) and being such a soft muted color, it’s definitely work appropriate. No more boring nudes or pinks (okay I personally like them :P) when you can wear Big Smoke!

Yes again because the color dries really fast, remarkable for a thick two coater and the polish doesn’t chip even without a top coat applied. Not that I went digging in the sand or anything, but I remembered it lasted three days before I could see tiny chips at the ends of my nails.

No because the bottle contains only 8ml and the standard size for nail polishes are 15ml. When you get down to it, Big Smoke (and all the other TOPSHOP polishes) costs S$1.46/ml whereas an OPI from a 8ty8beauty spree costs only S$0.53/ml.

And definitely no because, I have found a DUPE for it! Yes everybody, a slightly greyer version of Big Smoke (that has faint brown undertones) but unnoticeable to the naked eye! ♥♥

Spot anything different?

Heh, it’s Color Club’s High Society VS TOPSHOP NAILS in Big Smoke!

High Society applied a little less thick as compared to Big Smoke, I had to do three coats for the picture but maybe it’s because I just wiped Big Smoke off my two fingers with remover, hence the color wouldn’t stay.

But still, holy smokes’ that’s an almost exact DUPE!

A closer look at it.

EDIT:// Lynn was telling me that Big Smoke looked more brown than High Society, and I took pictures again to see if the difference was obvious on my screen.

From here, I can see that High Society is just a tad more grey than Big Smoke, whereas Big Smoke has a brown undertone to it. However, when I look at my nails now in room lighting and in the sunlight, the difference is barely discernible!

Final Verdict:

Color Club’s High Society costs US$2.75 + US$1.5 (shipping) = US$4.25 = S$5.70

TOPSHOP NAILS in Big Smoke costs S$13 x 0.90 (F3 discount 10%) = S$11.70

High Society works out to be S$0.38/ml whereas Big Smoke costs S$1.46/ml. They come in 15ml and 8ml respectively, thus Big Smoke costs 3.8x more than High Society per ml.

If you wanna get a bang for your buck, Color Club’s High Society is definitely for you! Unless you are in a hurry or cannot wait two week for your polishes through a 8ty8beauty spree and have the F3 Card, you won’t go wrong with Big Smoke 🙂 Both formulas dry quickly and are an ease to work with, definitely a keeper in my nail polish stash! ♥♥

Alrightos everyone, thank you for reading thus far heh, hope this entry helps you should you need to decide if S$11.70 is too expensive for a bottle of polish!  ^_^

Orly Gumdrop + CANMAKE Nail Glitter = ?

You get this ^_^

I was bored of my nail color *sweatdrops* and decided to change it again. Couldn’t wait to wear the rest of the Orly polishes I bought, but to be honest, the formula and the size of the polish brush left much to be desired. Orly’s colors are so-so except for this collection, but it applied thickly and basically was a nightmare to work with, especially with the neither-here-nor-there brush. I went through several colors (especially Lemonade!!!) before deciding on Gumdrop for my fingernails and Lollipop for my toes.

Other than that, the colors were really candy-like and Spring-ish colors always revolve around pastel shades – love! On with the entry

Here I blurred the picture so that the glitter can show up properly. I used CANMAKE Nail Glitter in 01, the silver shade that is Limited Edition. However, it is a really small bottle and like others, hard to get decent glitter chunks out to get the coverage I have in the pictures. So you might want to consider other wallet-friendly options because the CANMAKE Nail Glitter polishes cost a whopping S$17.90 – you can get a OPI nail polish at Far East Plaza for less that price.

Here is the CANMAKE bottle I’m talking about. I liked my nails having the ‘gel’ type of look, which looks thick when viewed from the side. So I didn’t mind spamming my nails with glitter, though I know the cleaning process will be helluva annoying. A thick layer of Seche Vite sealed the glitter and now they feel smooth to the touch.

Note that my bottle had about 75% left after I was done with this major spam, so >_<

Don’t you agree that Gumdrop is such a darling color? Hehehe.

There is absolutely no method in doing my nails, I just did them with a thin layer at first, then start spamming the upper tips till they look like what they do now. Please remember to seal your nails with a layer of top coat too, else they will feel superbly gritty.

I’m so happy that I will be wearing such nice nails for Christmas, they make me smile whenever I look down at them or when they catch the light. Are you wearing glitter for Christmas too? =)

Nail Treat

After getting embarrassed at a classmate’s (rather sexual) question today in class about my nail extensions and how I manage to do everything with them, I shall post this up;

Hello from Hong Kong. 🙂

P.S. Shall update once I’m done with my deadlines for Friday 2359. Stay safe and dry people!

Goodbye

Before I tried being smart and “peeled” them off my own nails, which lead to me in unnecessary pain before denouncing the idea of “recycling” them for second wear.

Chanel – Rouge Noir / Top Coat

I took a deep breath and plunged into the unknown, hostile territory of “branded” nail lacquers. See, they are so atas to the point they don’t call their polishes – polishes, but lacquers. Brings an altogether different picture to mind doesn’t it?

My poison was 18 Rouge Noir, the famous Chanel Red. I like how dark it is, very different from my usual O.P.I reds. Interestingly, their topcoat is in that black bottle, I was also fooled by it lol!

C has been clamouring for some Transdesign polishes, so order away I shall.

P.S. Spring Clean I has been a great success. Now if only Momosaurus and Papasaurus will allow me to throw the old TV / LCD player away to make for some more room.