japanese glitters

Winmax Delicia - No. 12
Promance - No. 14

Konichiwa my friends!!!!! ^_^v*~~ Life has been good in Tokyo, despite the brevity of this trip. It's always good to get out of the country at any opportunity you can. Okay so tonight, I'm featuring two polishes that I've adopted from the Land of Sushi.

I'd just like to whine a little first before starting: Damn you, Seche Vite - you shrank my polish. (Especially my ring and pinky fingers pictured, damn it.)

Ok. Winmax Delicia No. 12 is a very strange, strange polish. It's a very dark Slate gray shade peppered with tri-coloured micro-glitter (teal, orange and dark blue and MAYBE some purple unless the blue bits are playing tricks on my eyes). And it's a unique strange ... wait for it ... frosty jelly base.

WTF? I know. But let's just introduce Promance No. 14 first.

Promance No. 14 is a clear-based polish base with holographic glitter as well as blue and purple star-shaped holographic glitter pieces suspended in it. Yes, I did not mention 'dense' despite how the bottle looks chock-full of glitter. More on that later.

This No. 12 must've been borne from some kind of Frankenpolish freak accident... Then again, I bought this from Daiso which probably explains why it's such a bizarre polish. I actually quite liked the dusty gray effect it had - pretty similar to the effect of OPI My Pointe Exactly from the NYC Ballet collection - because of the jelly-ness of the base. I was really convinced that it was a jelly from the slightly gooey consistency that formed on the inner side of the bottle neck and the sheerness of the first coat. By the second coat, however, there were signs of a pearly sheen and slight streaking... The third coat just looked kind of weird, really. Frosty jelly - such a pretty/ugly sight! Very weird indeed. Oh and the little micro-glitter bits also disappointed me because they looked so pretty and sparkly in the bottle - nicely sparse, and had a whole chill, faded, galaxy-ish vibe going on. But no not really. Glitter barely showed up at all on the nail and they even looked gritty. Seeing that the micro-glitter was quite fine, I guess my only explanation is that the frosty-jelly base shrunk while drying. I hate how bottles fool us.

Since No. 12 was SO weird (idk it's probably that would be considered 'indie' and 'radical' in the nail polish industry but I think this is too freaking weird for me)(and this shit is sold at Daiso)(but a pretty good deal for 100yen)(WTF) I decided to layer it over with a glitter polish, after a coat of Seche Vite to speed up dry time. This, btw, will help prevent the sunken look of large glitter pieces.

On a side note, my mom was so cute in Tokyo - after I purchased No. 12, she said, ''Then what glitters are you going to put over that?'' #Momknowsbest. ^_^v And I should mention she discovered Promance No. 14 at some overpriced knick-knack store that sold like functional keychain-sized digital cameras and Happy Tree Friends merchandise. Impressive actually, how she managed to find this starry gem. #Momtrulyknowsbest. ^_^v*~~~

This polish, like most other polishes containing large pieces of glitter, was a bitch to apply. But screw that, it has freaking blue AND purple holographic stars!!! Every other polish pales in comparison. So anyways if you were wondering how the stars look so perfectly random on my nails, it's because I placed them there. Or most of them at least, some of them were being real biznatches and sticking to each other or refused to come off the brush until the final stroke. The stars were also really sparse on the brush despite me fishing for them. It's like trying to catch a couple of smart goldfish from a fishbowl. But in reality, it's me trying to scoop up a couple of inanimate star-shaped glitter pieces that don't move/think independently in a polish bottle which turned out to be very challenging. Though it realistically should be easier to handle than the goldfish scenario and unfortunately makes me look more stupid. (Damn.........)

Well, overall I do like this look. The smokiness of No. 12 - evident near my fucking dried out cuticles - makes it look more dreamy and far-away than just a flat out black creme. Though, I'd have to say the holographic glitter and the shapes of the stars would stand out much more on a clean creme base in a sharp colour like black. Also, while trying to space the stars out, streaking from dragging the large glitter pieces created ugly shallow trails that showed quite obviously because of the frostiness of the base. :-( Annoying, really - fuck frosts. :"( At least the holographic glitter helped to mask that pretty well. Glitter always saves the day. (Yay Team Glitter!)

Also pardon the pictures of my nails if they turn out to be hideous; I just painted this on and went straight to typing this post, without even taking snapshots yet. I'm going to do that after typing this post. My top right corner of my right pinky is definitely destroyed from typing capitals (AS SUCH) while holding down the Shift key.

So what do you think of this look? No or go? And I wonder what to post next - more Japanese glitters or something from OPI's The Amazing Spiderman collection... It'd be nice to post what you wanna read.

x, Ish.

glitter party

OPI - Bring On The Bling
Orly - Luxe

OPI - Sparkle-licious

Hi everyone! Since I charged my camera I managed to get a few shots of my 5-day old Burlesque manicure. I got them done at The Nail Shop at Far East Plaza while waiting for Nikki to get her tattoo done. They have an ongoing GSS promo: SGD$18 for an express mani-pedi! :-) My sister got a Princess Manicure at just $10. Then again I doubt my readers are aged 12 and below so I'd really recommend the mani-pedi promo! If you do want to try it out, the promotion lasts till end of this month. Ask for Nayumi :-)

I wasn't intending to get a mani-pedi (we had to kill some time before I headed to CJ to collect my graduation cert) so I didn't know what colours to get... until I saw the Burlesque swatches at the shop! I loooooove the OPI Burlesque Collection!

I think it's the collection I have the most colours from - Tease-y Does It!, Glow Up Already! (The bottle is pictured), Take The Stage and The Show Must Go On. Pretty good haul for a vintage collection. ;-)

Bring On The Bling is a clear-based glitter polish, containing mainly gold glitter, along with a drop of orange glitter, light blue glitter, green glitter and I think some silver glitter as well. The manicurist, Nayumi, applied two coats of this over a coat of Orly's Luxe - a yellow gold foil - for full colour coverage (colourage, lol). Not the best shade of gold though, in my opinion. I wish she had used a darker shade of gold so the glitters will really pop!

Sparkle-licious is also a clear-based glitter polish, containing mainly yellowish gold, purple and dark blue glitter. Very, very beautiful. It looks very Indian Princess themed! It had a very Princess Jasmine from Disney's Aladdin vibe. The other manicurist layered two coats of this polish over a gold OPI shade. Didn't catch a glimpse of its name and it isn't one I recognise so... Idk hahaha.

I can't say much about the application except that the manicurists seemed like working with he glitter shades was a breeze (idk I expected the polish to be goopy but it didn't look that way... or maybe it's just their job to look like they know what they are doing. Or maybe they do know what they are doing. . . ) but IN ANY CASE, the look is so wonderful!!! Of course I think the glitters require more than just a single layer of Seche to be smoothened out, and maybe that will make it more shiny/glossy too. Perhaps to make this Burlesque mani-pedi last, I might add some Seche Vite over it.

Let's wait till removal - I have a feeling it'll be a bitch like all glitters usually are.

Before I finish, my sister would like me to share her Princess manicure too. (Haha she was like reading out every word I was typing and at ''I got them done at The Nail Shop at Far East Plaza...'' she added ''with my sister''. Haha damn cute!) She chose alternating pink and purple Korean glitters (no names on the bottles...). The pink one had a soft pink jelly base - quite like OPI's Teenage Dream (which I have yet to post about...) - with silver micro glitter and sparser large round (oh and hexagonal, too...) holographic glitter which are really shiny and sparkly. The purple is similar, except the base isn't as pigmented as the pink and had to be layered over a layer of purple creme.

Quite a good deal really, you should head down if you can and Nayumi's real sweet.

OH and before I go - just a note about tipwear: Dudes this manicure didn't even start chipping until last night, and only on my weakest nail (my right middle). I expect my toes to remain perfect until like the end of next week. Awesome sauce! I just love my glitters, end of story.

Next post - either something from OPI's The Amazing Spiderman collection for BSF x Smyc or maybe a Japanese glitter. Stay tuned ;-)

x, Ish

beautysofly x showmeyourclaws #1 - hollandaise

OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam!

Hi everyone. First off sooo sorry for the late post. I swear I typed this post out a while ago but for some reason I cannot find it. So I'm re-writing this post. Okay anyways enough depressing news.

I was really excited to try out I Don't Give A Rotterdam! from OPI's Spring Holland Collection! Thank you BeautySoFly ;-) This collection came in two parts - cremes and what seemed like glass-fleck shimmer. I Don't Give A Rotterdam! was part of the glass-fleck half. (Everyone knows I don't like cremes... They just disappoint too much.)

I Don't Give A Rotterdam! is a grayish-blue jellyish-creme (ikr....no other way to describe it) polish, which contains medium-density silvery and slightly copper-toned glass-fleck shimmer bits which distribute themselves nicely in the bottle. The shade of blue is truly interesting - it's like 50% Columbia blue and 50% Air Force blue (thanks Wikipedia). It has a similar shade to Columbia blue but is darker and definitely more dusty and gray-tinged like Air Force blue. Okay this is the exciting part: I Have A Herring Problem - the sister blue shade to I Don't Give A Rotterdam! in the Holland Collection - has something like 60% and 40% of the above-mentioned colours respectively. Why would OPI release two such similar colours? Well I guess the tone of the polish base and the hue of the flecks add to or take away from the suitability of the polish with your skin tone... We'll see how that turns out when I swatch I Don't Give A Rotterdam! side-by-side with I Have A Herring Problem.

Swinging back into focus, I Don't Give A Rotterdam! actually really surprised me by how flattering it looked with my skin-tone! I remember debating which blue hue to purchase back in March: I Have A Herring Problem or I Don't Give A Rotterdam!. Before the launch of the OPI's Spring collection, I'd already heard raves about I Don't Give A Rotterdam!, about how it was going to be the star of the collection. I eventually settled for the former, though. Its base was just a shade darker and a little murkier - like it had a drop of swamp water. There was a hint of teal, too. Most importantly its glass-fleck shimmer was coppery-gold, which I felt would allow the overall hue of the polish to look much more flattering against my Asian skin tone.

Anyhow, I Don't Give A Rotterdam! looked surprisingly great and reminded me very much of Spring, with its pastel-like shade. I don't even know how to describe it. It was like... marshmallows. Marshmallows in Spring. You know, like how legit pastel colours look, but not too chalky? Marshmallow is the only way I can describe it! Like dusty marshmallows... Sleepy yet cheerful. It makes me think of the soft sunshine fanning across a vast field as dawn tip-toes over the flowers and the occasional tree. And baby bunnies waking up in a basket of gray blankets... but okay that was so irrelevant.

Application was wonderful too. Awful after just the first coat though, it's too sheer (hence my view of it having some jelly qualities); you'd really have to paint two slightly thicker coats or three thin coats. What I have is the latter pictured, without Seche topcoat (isn't it shiny!?), which I'd admittedly only left to sit for 5 minutes. I think it looks wonderfully glossy without topcoat too, I think this is another characteristic of this polish which leads me to think it's half jelly. It's got the fullness of colour of a creme, slicks on like butter and looks glossy. Like cream cheese with melted butter glazed on top! Omg do the Dutch make cheese? No clue lol but anyways

The dry time isn't too bad as well. However I do stress the base is really quite creme-y, if you dent the surface before the polish fully dries, it WILL leave ugly dents and there's no way you can hide them. The glass-fleck shimmer kind of serves as something to better match a variety of skin tones - cremes may sometimes look rather stark especially on skin tones which don't match the tone of the colour - and I think the glass-fleck shimmer really softened the starkness of such a light tone against my skin. Also the glass-fleck shimmer is another way OPI can keep up nail polish sales (''Newest nail look! Get it today!'') ... you get it don't you.

But it's not a bad hybrid, really. In fact it's pretty good! It's so in-between everything (cremes/jellies/shimmer/glass-fleck) that I really think it's good for all seasons. It's good for everyday use, if you're a fan of blues! The dusty look also makes it easy to wear. I still will never be able to pull off Mint green or straight out Baby blue nails... so I really love this colour. I definitely would put more care in applying this one like I do when I apply cremes, but trust me - this one's a keeper.

You may order this polish at BeautySoFly.com, there's still room for their 17th Spree!

On a sidenote: OH MY GOD... THERE'S A NEW OPI VINTAGE MINNIE MOUSE COLLECTION??!!?!! I just saw it on BeautySoFly. Why am I unaware of this until now... I'm still waiting for my Chanel dupes from the OPI Amazing Spiderman Collection!!! Holey moleyyy so many colours, so few finger nails... But fret not, I'll bring only the best ;-)

Okay back to reality: I'll try to swatch I Have A Herring Problem after this Burlesque manicure chips (it's chipping already :''(...) and since my camera was M.I.A., I had my friend snap a couple of shots for me with her DSLR, so I'll post the pics when she sends them over!

Well ciao for now, I'm sooo sleepy. Once again, thanks BSF ;-)

x, Ish

get ready for a comeback

Hi girls!

So I've been away forever. Here's the good news: I'm going to be back! But before that, here's some even better news:

I've been working with BeautySoFly (previously beautysofly.livejournal.com & flyapparel.livejournal.com) for quite some time now, and hence am especially excited to be in support of their brand new site - BeautySoFly.com (Just click it already... This link, I mean, because I'm too much of a tech noob to know how to hyperlink the damn image.)

The three girls behind this online store - Grace, Elizabeth G. and Elizabeth T. - are really wonderful and sweet people and I can't even start on how hard they have worked to create a one-stop shop for their customers to purchase beauty products and apparel in a single cart. (Thank you, really!)

What's more... BeautySoFly wants to work with me to present you swatches of the hottest colours from any OPI, China Glaze or Essie Collection which I think you should see. Don't forget that you may purchase any colours from the stated brands from BeautySoFly.com, which imports these genuine beauty products directly from a supplier in the US.

Speaking of which, I really need to do a post on how to check out if your products - especially OPI, because it's the most established brand - are genuine or not. After you girls take this chill pill, you can be assured that BeautySoFly is nothing but awesome.

Are you excited? Don't forget to for the first Showmeyourclaws x BeautySoFly post and each subsequent week for new colours that aren't worth missing out on.

And don't worry, I'll still be bringing in other awesome-sauce labels (think Ozotic, Butter London, Deborah Lippmann - whichhh may convince the BSF girls to bring them in??? Hehehe OKAY that's just wishful thinking but who knows ;-)) so STAY TUNED~~

Sigh, I really miss this space.

x, Ish

hiatus

Dear girls, do forgive the lack of updates! Promise to be back asap. ;-)

outer space

Orly - Out of This World

So I guess you guys know that I am absolutely in love with Orly's Mineral FX Collection. And yes I do have the whole set. Today I'll feature Out of This World.

Out of This World is a deep violet jelly-based polish, dense with mini duochrome flakies (or glass flecks, I can't decide) whose colours shift from purple to gold.

Well okay I'm not too sure about the colours of the flakies, they do confuse me. Pictured is 3 thin coats of Out of This World on my nails (sorry for the mess on the ring finger, I was in a rush!) And the duochrome reveals mostly purple shimmer. I'm looking at my nails right now and I honestly cannot detect any obvious gold shimmer, only slivers of it in indirect sunlight. I'm pretty sure the flakes are duochrome, though I considered the possibility that it's just gold mini flakies whose sheen got drowned out by the deep purple base.

Either way, I still felt cheated that from the bottle, Out of This World looked so amazing - just check out the picture of the bottle I've included below. See all that gold shimmer shining through the side of the bottle? Beautiful isn't it! Now compare that to the pictures of my nails. Tell me - just where the hell is that gold shimmer!? :-(

I guess I can see it. If your nails are really curved you would see them along the sides of your nails. But I do wish it was more obvious anyways. Perhaps it seems this way because I didn't apply my Seche topcoat like I usually do. But anyhow, I think the lack of gold impact really steals away from the whole galaxy theme Orly was aiming for. It just loses its oomph. Perhaps I should try this colour on with Seche Vite next time.

Anyways besides the confusion with the shimmer, I realised that 3 coats is ideal for application because of the jelly base which runs slightly thin, like jelly bases usually do. But the surprising thing is that the reflectiveness from the crazy amount of shimmer flecks actually give the illusion of opacity at 2 coats, which is nice.

Anyways though I was pretty disappointed by this polish (I was expecting to be blown away, like the rest of the colours did for me. ESPECIALLY Galaxy Girl!!!!) but, its being less flashy does qualify it a very wearable polish, like the kind of polish which will be your one and only, most cherished polish. So purple lovers, this will be your baby! :-)

Well, Out of This World's vampy look (it actually looks like a vampy OPI Ink) does flatter me! I look good in dark, vampy shades. I guess this one's a keeper for me.

I also realised that this polish looks very similar to OPI DS Mystery, and hence will do a comparison between these two sometime. :-)

Till next time!

x, Ish

showstopper

OPI – The Show Must Go On!

How often does one come across vintage polishes!?

Okay I consider this ‘‘vintage’’ because Burlesque polishes have literally vanished off the face of the consumer market. But guess what I saw sitting on a shelf at the pharmacy while I was in LA…... :-) :-) :-)

Obviously I grabbed it! Didn’t even have to think twice. But upon closer inspection, The Show Must Go On! proved to be something more than just a red shimmer polish.

The Show Must Go On! is a red shimmer polish with a coral-red tinted base, and filled with red and gold shimmer. When the light hits it, you’ll also notice a red-goldish-pink duochrome. (The pictures show a little glimmer of duochrome! It shifts from red near my cuticles to orangey-gold and then pinkish near the tips!)

I think the name is so apt for the situation in which I used it! If you read my previous post, you’d have known that I was aiming for Barbie pink nails but failed because of darned Wet Paint Nail Glaze System. The end result wasn’t satisfactory so I removed it immediately after application, but I just couldn’t go with bare nails for the night. I was almost freaking out because I am quite anal about my nails being painted and at that point I didn’t even care that the colour didn’t match the outfit, then I spotted something red on my nail shelf. Anddd The Show Must Go On! saved my night, matching my outfit and all :-) I know it sounds corny and everything but, admit it – it is apt isn’t it!

The formula on this ran a little thinner than I’d expected. Seeing that it’s a shimmer polish, I’d expected a quicker-than-usual dry time (because from past experiences, shimmer shades tend to behave that way). However I took a little more time for it to be dry to the touch, and even then it was a little prone to denting. I’d majorly messed up my left index finger after snapping a few shots of my manicure, leaving a couple of obvious crescent-shaped dents.

Here’s the amazing bit: I just tried to smoothen out the dents my pressing it smooth, and a few hours later, the nail looked flawless. I’m dead serious, I asked a couple of people and they echoed the same response, ‘‘Nothing’s wrong, it’s perfect.’’ THIS is why I swear by shimmers and glitters!!!

On top of that, the duochrome is just lovely. I don’t think I even have to touch on how amazing it is in sunlight – all duochromes are beautiful in sunlight. The interesting part is when it’s night-time. The red-gold-pinkish mix creates a warm, orangey glow which is especially noticeable under shade or in the dark. It’s truly fascinating. I’m sorry I didn’t include a picture of such a phenomenon but wow you have to see it for yourself to be wowed. Come to think of it, the look actually it reminds me of Take The Stage, a burnt copper-orange foil-ish kind of shade. It’s also from the Burlesque family. I am going to have that swatched next! :-)

Well until next time, guys. :-)

x, Ish