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

still on backlog

Nubar - Nubar 2010

I wore this look for New Years! (During which I had a smashing time, might I add.) (Literally, smashing. Think broken doors.) (In the plural.)

The image is blurred to fully capture the various colours in this polish.

Here I've layered 1 coat of Nubar 2010 over a coat of black creme. (Some brandless one my mom purchased from the States; I'm sure I've mentioned this before.)

The resultant look is, as described by my mom's friend, a beetle's back. The multi-coloured flakies reflect mostly green, yellow, orange and red from various angles. In dull lighting they appear mostly fiery orange. This differs from the ones in Clairvoyant; Clairvoyant contains blue-coloured flakies as well.

I love Nubar 2010 because it keeps me staring at my nails so much haha I just can't take my eyes off of it! I can't say I love this as much as I love Clairvoyant... but it does come a close second.

Everything was great, actually. Dry time was excellent. I love that it has a clear base! However it doesn't dry very glossy. I always need to fall back on Seche Vite for that...

The flakies aren't as concentrated as those in Clairvoyant but they do provide sufficient coverage. I've tried layering two coats of Nubar 2010 and it's honestly too much. The scattered flakies allow some of the black base to show up around the individual flakes, which creates a very random (artsy, really) and unique look - you can't ''mess up'' the look. Not really.

I'd wanted to mention how it was difficult to get an even coverage of the flakies all over the nail, but I do realise that it's difficult to do that and it kills the whole spirit of random patterning. Guess free-spiritedness is something that a lot of people need to learn. Especially for Singaporeans, we're all so uptight and stressed. In general, I suppose.

Anyways, I hope everyone has a good 2012! Speaking of which, makes it clearly ironic that I've used Nubar 2010... (I need to stop living in the past.)

x, Ish

totally joining the cult

Cult Nails - Clairvoyant

OPI - OPI Ink

This has got to be my favourite polish, ever!!! (Possibly until I finally wear Deborah Lippmann's Across the Universe... I do love my glitters. Especially Deborah Lippmann's signature style of glitters suspended in jelly bases.) Okay anyhoos...

Clairvoyant (aka Unicorn Puke) consists of rainbow-coloured flakies suspended in a very sheer purple jelly base, designed to be used as a layering polish. I saw Swatchandlearn's swatch which featured Clairvoyant layered over OPI Ink, and was immediately head over heels in love with the combination of the flakies and the deep and shimmering purple. I think that the shimmer peeks out so nicely from between the varying sizes of flakies and are sort of ''muses'' to ''back up'' the real stars of the show - the multi-coloured flakies!!! Do you get what I mean!?? Like the muses singing back-up vocals in the Disney version of Hercules:



Hehe I love the muses!!!

Anyways back to Clairvoyant. The coverage on the OPI Ink base was excellent. As comparisons from various renowned nail bloggers have revealed, Clairvoyant is the most jammed packed with rainbow-coloured flakes out of all the ones offered by other various brands, namely Picture Polish's Festival, Finger Paints' Twisted, etc. (Oh I'm not sure about Ludurana though... I've not tried them but they have a wonderful collection of flakies which btw is going to be discontinued, as reminded by the sweet girls over at Inky Polisholicious; do proceed to their blog to find out how you may purchase Ludurana polishes!)

However, I am a little bothered by the purple-tinted base of Clairvoyant, because this limits the kind of base colour shades to be paired with the flakies. For instance any hopes of pairing it with a light colour would be tarnished (not destroyed, at least) by the altered look of the base after the application of Clairvoyant. In their defence, though, flakies are best shown off on a dark base as a dark shade can create a sharp contrast between flakes and base and hence, draw one's eye's immediately to the shiny flakes! The tinted Clairvoyant wouldn't cause any (or much, if there is) any changes to the colour of the base polish.

On a side note, the flakies in Clairvoyant look like fish food:



Oh my gosh, isn't that hilarious!?

Okay anyways to wrap up this review: dry time was excellent (it is a little fast though, considering we have to even out the flakies), OPI Ink was of course gorgeous even on its own, and the look is amazing. However, because the flakies aren't evenly shaped and sized, some flakies are thicker and hence do not permit a perfectly smooth surface to the touch after drying - unlike what I had expected. This did not bother me much though, Seche Vite always saves the day. ;-)

If you are interested in purchasing Clairvoyant, it can be purchased directly from Cult Nails' website, but only after it's been re-stocked!!! It sold out in an instant (despite being produced in larger quantities unlike its debut as Unicorn Puke where only something like 285 bottles were produced?) so I suggest you keep your eyes peeled for that coveted polish!!! ;-)

Oh Clairvoyant, thou art beautiful :'')

x, Ish