goldie-locked tips

Deborah Lippman - Boom Boom Pow

OPI - Up Front and Personal

This is what I wore for Christmas! I basically painted all my aunts' and girl-cousins' nails on Christmas eve. (Damn, I should've snapped a picture.)

Boom Boom Pow is very sheer - it's a clear (or slightly yellow/gold-tinted, I can't really tell) base with micro-mini gold bits (like teeny weeny gold flakies) - which I suppose is the ''24k gold'' part of the polish? - with small and medium gold hexagonal glitter suspended in it.

It's way too sheer to be worn fully opaque, but when worn alone it will appear like gold glitter suspended on your nails. Check out Scrangie's swatch to see it flying solo but personally I would prefer to layer it over another polish. What I have layered 2 coats of Boom Boom Pow over is 1 coat of Up Front and Personal - a very delicate-looking (seems sheer but fully opaque in two coats) champagne-gold polish with tons of shimmer. I love Up Front and Personal, by the way. It's so so pretty and so glad Mom purchased it!

I think the shimmer and the gold hex glitter complement each other very well and creates a very festive look! Layering also helps conserve the very costly Deborah Lippmann shade too, as compared to wearing 4 full coats. I can't really remember the exact figures but I paid around $20+ (USD) for it at Nordstrom to pacify my need for Deborah Lippmann polishes, since Across the Universe wasn't available then. (Damn! I found it the next day, on a 30% sale at a beauty supply store at 3rd Street Promenade.) Perhaps this is why I'm so particular about it needing to be close to perfection.

Of course I managed to find ways to nit-pick at this polish... Haha. In bullet points:
1. Dries too slowly. I suffered so much just waiting for 2 coats to dry... I cannot imagine enduring the dry-time of 4 (or possibly more).
2. Not terribly buildable, in my humble opinion.

3. Looks (well it is) thick and goopy especially where the large glitter pile up as well as near the tips.

4. Dry time... Ugh so long it deserves a second (bad) mention.
5. So damn expensive for the chore it proved to be! The ''24k gold'' is just a marketing fluke. I doesn't deserve to be priced higher than the regular DL shades.

I can't really remember how removal was like; I think it was alright though. Not easy but not too difficult as well. Then again it could be due to the layering... Need to do more research on that. Overall, I was largely contented with some bling on my nails at all. It did add to the festive cheer! :-) Sigh, me and my glitter.

x, Ish

Ps, On a sidenote... I think Seche shrunk Boom Boom Pow... (wrt to picture; look around my cuticles!)

Pss, Why can't the first 2 pictures of each post be enlarged? :-/ pffffttttt Solved!

the first time i sported red nails

Sally Hansen - Red Carpet

This is the first time I ever wore red!!! :-) I was so excited, and yet worried at the same time that my untrimmed claws would make my hands look witchy. I can't really decide if my hands do or don't though, Red Carpet blew my mind!

Red Carpet has a pure red jelly base jammed packed with red micro glitter which sparkles like crazy in the sun!

Somehow I thought I would have chosen a slightly vampy shade because I was always too afraid to try red. I guess that's because my mom always told me ''that's too womanly for you'' and there was just something about the way she said ''womanly''. It carried with it a heavy tone of judgment.

Anyhow, I'm sooo glad I scored this darling, at <$5 (USD)! Thank you Sally Hansen. It dried quickly (I completed my manicure in under fifteen minutes complete with Seche topcoat) and wasn't that much of a pain to remove despite the glitter in it. No staining too, as I'd expected with a red colour.

Also, while in the US, I stopped by Sephora and checked out CND effects polishes. (I truly cannot remember the name of the collection right now... I will update this post once I remember it/manage to find it through Google!) The flakies were so hyped about but when I tried them I was rather disappointed. For the quality of flakies and the price of the sets - purchasing Nubar 2010, Essie Luxe Effects Shine of the Times or Cult Nails Clairvoyant (aka Unicorn Puke) is a way better option because they're all $10 (USD) or under.

x, Ish

gross

NEVER buy Revlon's Multi Care Base+Top Coat:

1. It creates a horrid uneven surface to paint on your colour when applied as a base coat.
2. It bubbles when used as a topcoat.
3. It stinks. (Literally and metaphorically.)

That's all.

Sigh, I really cannot post at all without my camera's SD card adapter :-( I've got Cult Nail's Clairvoyant on my nails!!! I want to show them off wehhh.

x, Ish

OH NO

I cannot find my camera adapter - how'm I gonna post!!! :''(

On a lighter note... Clairvoyant arrived today!!! :-) Guess the next post will be a super spammed one!

x, Ish

haul-o, there!

Okay so i've not been posting.

Turns out my friend Sarah's Macbook doesn't have a slot for my camera's memory card and I didn't bring the cord so I can't post anyways. Well I will talk about my buys then :-) I'll just steal pictures off Google of course.

Just in case you didn't know, I'm in L.A. right now!!!

I've purchased wayyy too many things for my own good, by the way. Especially polish. Actually I aim to not buy anymore polish with my mom's money. So I only buy when I start working. Then again I'll have other things to pay for when I start working so I'm able to better prioritise. Anyways I have close to a 100 bottles at home and like probably 85 are unused so gotta get to them before any new ones!

Okay so these were the few lucky guys who got a spot in my collection before ''official closing time'' haha!

1. Color Club!

Back to Boho Collection

Beyond the Mistletoe Collection

Omg I love glitters :-)))

2. Sally Hansen!

Red Carpet

I'm actually wearing this shade right now. First time wearing red :'') Shall post this once I hit Singapore.

In the Spotlight

Honestly, this was a stupid buy. Honestly. Application was so sparse though it looks there's some serious party happening in the bottle. But this was cheap, so never mind.

3. Wet n Wild!

Gray's Anatomy

After application, results do not resemble what it looks like in the bottle. It comes out sheer, and pearly-purple. Very pretty as a sheer polish. Good price too. Basically a sheer version of OPI's Not Like The Movies and without the glitter (I LOVE that polish, by the way!)

Teal of Fortune

I have so many ones similar to this I don't know why I bought this. Someone, please expect this as your Christmas gift.

Party of Five Glitters

I'm going to gift this too! :-)

3. OPI

The Show Must Go On

This is a really old release but omg I really wanted some of the Burlesque polishes badly! I can place this baby beside my two other Burlesque's :-)

4. Butter London!

No More Waity, Katie

All Hail The Queen

No comment yet. Heard application was great for this one - we'll see :-)

5. Deborah Lippmann! *Omg drumroll please*

Oh my god. I was completely hyperventilating. I love DL polishes SO MUCH. So much lemming for them while I was in Singapore! If I'm not wrong, they don't do international shipping. So right. I got the first two from Nordstrom. Was pretty upset because I wanted Across The Universe, which they didn't have... But later I found it! At some beauty supply store at 3rd Street Promenade. Thank goodness I asked for it cos it wasn't on display. Oh yes, my life is complete :-)

Glitter In The Air

Boom Boom Pow

Across The Universe

CANNOT WAIT to try my DL's!!! :-)

Okay I'm feeling very sick right now (my lungs are full of gunk, I've been coughing/sneezing/wheezing the past 3 days!!) sooo I'll go rest and watch American cable TV while I can.

Btw, click on links to look at picture source and maybe swatches (depending on the site). The rest of the pictures were from Google.

xx, 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:-)

pre-vacation

OPI - Designer... de Better!

YES! A double post today. It's a surprise for y'all I guess, I didn't think I could show this to you guys! Haha.

Well I wore this for SC Homecoming last Saturday. I'd initially thought that I'd not bothered to snap pictures but I did in the middle of removal (haha, explains the 3 nails instead of 4!). I had lots of dents and scratched-off bald patches due to the mad rush that day before my nails could dry fully! But I think these nails pictured were my good ones. Okay anyways.

This is one of my favourites! Seriously, even more than Rainbow Connection and the other more glitzy shades in the latest Muppets Holiday Collection. In fact I think the glitters are complete let-down's. They look brilliant in the bottle but turn out terrible on the nail. The clear base and the sparse application just spoils all expectations induced by how it looked in the bottle.

Okay back to this wonderful polish. It's just beautiful!!! I believe that the foil is a silver-champagne base (not a true silver nor a true champagne? If you get what I mean!) with orange specks of glitter and creates a really warm look on the nail.

I think the pictures that I took are true to what it looked like on my nails but really it's much, much more... luminous and radiant. The orange specks serve as little candle lights, and they warm up the silver-champagne base so nicely.

There were issues, of course. If I remember accurately, this polish revealed VNL!!! VNL is visible nail line, which is basically the line separating the part of your nail that's pink and the part that's white. This formula ran pretty thin as well, it'll be best at 3 coats with about 5 minutes waiting/dry-time between each coat, though I've only used 2 coats due to my hurry. Also I have quite a bit of ridges on my nails and foil finishes definitely give your ridges away!

I still love this polish to bits. I've yet to try Warm and Fozzie, the other favourite I managed to score despite it being completely out of stock everywhere. Hehe I have my ways.

BUT a pity I won't be able to post Warm and Fozzie or Marry a Millionaire in the next 2 weeks... The next post will be of a newly purchased polish when I'm in... L.A.!!! I'm leaving in less than 12 hours, and can't wait!!!

x, Ish.