what i've been doing lately

Hello! My camera has been with a friend all week and hence I can't upload any nice macro shots of my nails.

Here are some screenshots of my Instagram hahaha so at least you know I've been painting (though admittedly, not as often as I would like to be).  Well, the holidays seriously flew past.

Follow me on Instagram @IshieFishiee!

China Glaze - Unpredictable

Instant gradient nails for me! Love duochromes and absolutely love China Glaze for creating their Bohemian line of duochrome polishes!!! <3 They turn out slightly streaky (as do all metallic frost-finish polishes) so remember to paint as straight as possible right down the length of the nail, so at least the streaks are neat and straight! I think you should be able to see them in the image above. Dry time is alright, I gave myself a good hour before topcoat (I feared Seche frosting at the tips) and even so, only a very very thin layer of Seche. It would help if you put on a movie or TV show during dry time. Loved this look so much. Good wear too. So much love for CG right now.

OPI - Dulce de Leche

OPI - Alpine Snow

You HAVE to know how difficult it is to DIY a Classic French. Yeah there are those French tip sticker guides that help you create that perfect straight-as-an-arrow line. Unfortunately, my manicare brand french tip guides adhered too much to my polish, despite my Dulce de Leche base being left to dry for a good 20 minutes - the stickers were just too damn sticky. They ended up ripping out part of my polish. Hence you can see some imprefect straight lines and other wonky ones I just free-handed on the rest of the nails I didn't use the sticker guides on. Well I won't ever DIY the Classic French ever again. I'll probably create glitter French tips or something, but I'll leave the Classic to the professionals :-) The skills required to create the perfect Classic French is worth your $$$$$.

Cult Nails - Clairvoyant 

OPI - OPI Ink (Used as a base for Clairvoyant for pigmentation. More on the look here.)

OPI - Just Spotted The Lizard (Chevron outline)

Chevron nails! I LOVE CHEVRON. I once did a Chevron-tip design before with OPI's Jade Is The New Black, a plain black creme and OPI's Designer de Better! as the Chevron outline. It made me look like I was a very patriotic Rafflesian. This design shown here was meant to be more of a Chevron half-moon instead of the tip, but I obviously painted the purple V's too far out from my cuticles. What to do... the Clairvoyant was too pretty! Had to show more of its flakie beauty, yes? To create the V lines, I used 3M Magic Tape.  Before cutting them and using strips to create the clean V shapes, I pasted the tape pieces all over my skin so the strips wouldn't be overwhelmingly sticky, unlike those nasty manicare strips! By the way I created the V outline with Just Spotted The Lizard as an afterthought, because my initial idea of the purple and black combination still lacked that... little extra. So I free-handed the duochrome V's with a toothpick. Not too shabby, eh? Also, I'd chosen a duochrome so it would add that extra flashiness to a generally subtle manicure. What do you think of it? :-)

Well so I'm painting my nails again tomorrow! So excited. What colour should I use? :-)

x, Ish

i like it haute!

China Glaze - Some Like It Haute

Ta-da!!! I wore this for my prom. Many compliments from me to this polish:

1. GREAT dry time! I only did these like half an hour before my prom and no dents, no scratches (which couldn't be easily fixed with just a little dab of polish) and no major problems really.
2. Glitters like craaaazy!
3. The dense micro glitter in the clear base once layered on the nail (pictured here is 2 coats) gives it a very smoky, deep look and I just LOVE it!

Oh gosh I LOVE GLITTERS!!!! Preferably dense micro-glitters with some chunky glitters. Which is basically perfected in this polish!!! Best coverage and best sparkles!!! Perhaps I should invest in Material Girl, the pink counterpart to Some Like It Haute. It just bothers me that its colour is so similar to OPI's Teenage Dream. I mean I know they are different but they look reaaally similar from afar anyways and I'm not that addicted to the point that I have to have near-dupes because they're not dupes.

Well there is a downside (isn't there one to every polish haha) to this wonderful polish. It's a major topcoat-eater. It's not sandpaper-y feeling anymore on my nails right now, but it isn't perfectly smooth, which I really expected after 3 layers of Seche Vite... Plus, what I did was I'd painted 2 coats of glitter and 2 coats of top coat on a few of my left-hand nails about 3 hours before I did my right hand (which means more dry-time on the left). But when I layered a 3rd coat of top coat on all my nails, the pre-painted ones turned out exactly like my freshly painted right-hand nails. Somehow the top coat sinks between the little spaces of the glitters, regardless of dry-time. Weird huh. I really don't think it's possible to achieve a totally smooth finish for this polish! THOUGH, it would be truly amazing if that was done!

Still a fantastic polish for me though. Like Scrangie once commented on OPI's Burlesque Holiday Glitters, it feels like craft glitter glued to my nails! And yet the gun-metal grey glitters and the holographic chunky glitters make it so elegant and luxurious.

Thanks China Glaze! For creating such a nice polish!

I've yet to try Marry a Millionaire.

x, Ish.

Ps, And yes, for once I shaped my nails. Hehe oops 0:-)

like magic

OPI - Planks A Lot

China Glaze - Haute Metal Crackle Glaze

3 reasons why I love shatter/crackle finishes:

1. They are designed to look good messy. You'll always end up with something decent.

2. They crack the best over creme shades, which in my opinion are the easiest to mess up (dents, dust, bits of cotton wool stuck to your nails... one of the reasons why I dislike creme finishes).

3. They can fix any of your messed up manicures! (Also supported by the reason explained in parenthesis above.)

Okay so yesterday was a harrowing experience with the friggin' bottle of shit - Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat. Guess I'll just use it on my mom from now on cos she keeps short nails. Her theory is that the NL topcoat becomes frosty over parts of the nail which aren't in contact in skin and that's why it happened to my long nails. Doesn't make any logical sense to me so... whatever it's hers for good.

So yes anyways, look at my right hand! The one I didn't mess up. Crackle Glaze totally saved my left hand too in a swift 15 minutes! :-) Impressive, really. The 3am me was completely sold. Now I don't regret buying so much Crackle Glaze! (Ok, only 2, but still.) I have Haute Metal and Tarnished Gold, as well as the Black, Turquoise and Silver OPI Shatter shades.

The downside is that such formulas get really goopy with time. A personal quick-fix I've found to revive these polishes:
1. Fold a cotton pad into a little 'V' shape and dip the tip into nail polish remover.
2. Place the tip of the cotton 'V' over the neck of the bottle of shatter and squeeze such that the drops fall nicely into the bottle.
3. After about 3 to 7 drops (depending on how much formula you have left) quickly re-cap the bottle (it will get goopy all over the stem of the brush and on the tip!) and shake up!
The formula may be slightly runny if you squeeze too many drops (just keep it under 10) but it'll be fine after application :-)

This is just my personal experience with Shatter polish, I haven't had to do this for my Crackle Glazes so try it at your own risk? Anyways it's a known fact that Shatter shades don't last! This is just my attempt at trying to lengthen the life of my polishes!

x, Ish

lost city

OPI - Black Shatter

China Glaze - Atlantis

This polish pair is beauuuutiful! Goes so perfectly together. I love how the little glitters from Atlantis peeks cheekily out through the cracks.

I also did four 'accent' nails (because they didn't stand out more than the shattered nails but I liked the mix and so did everyone else) using a black base and Atlantis for a french tip. I didn't use OPI's Black Onyx or CG's Liquid Leather... I used a brandless black polish my mom bought in the US for 3 for USD$10 - such a good deal, glides on like butter and opaque in one coat!

Removal of the glitters was decent. Glitters are notorious for their stubbornness towards polish removers. This one wasn't too bad. Perhaps the real test is when I try to remove OPI's Rainbow Connection from my toes!

Ps, I layered OPI Rainbow Connection over OPI Planks A Lot and it looks really good, because Rainbow Connection contains all sorts of coloured glitter except for purple, and hence the glitters can stand out against a dull purple. Try it :-)

Pss, thanks Iris for suggesting the french accent nails! They turned out amazing and I received so many compliments yesterday and today. I think my initial idea of OPI Silver Shatter over a black base would've been overkill!! So thanks babe ;-)

x, Ish