Poppy flower tutorial

I have been wanting to draw poppies on my nails after seeing a Kenzo perfume advertisement on TV. Those bright red flowers are so mesmerizing! So here's a tutorial on how to create poppies on your nails.

Things you will need:

1. Nail brush

2. Smallest dotting tool (here, I used a pin)

3. cotton bud

1. Paint a white base color.

2. Drip a drop of red polish onto aluminium foil (or plastic, paper etc) and dap the cotton bud onto the red polish. Then, dap the cotton bud onto the nail to create five petals. You will need to dap onto the red polish for about 2-3 times.

3. Using the dotting tool and black polish, create many small black dots in the middle of the petals.

4. Using the nail brush, paint the stalk with green polish. Wait for it to dry completely before adding a topcoat (this is to prevent the polish from dragging).

I have used cotton bud to make the petals so as to create the fluffiness of petals. I can't think of any other tools to create this look so I settled for cotton bud! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

KBShimmer: Hex Appeal

This is the second KBShimmer polish that I own and so far the formula of their polishes is really good! KBShimmer Hex Appeal is a blue glitter bomb but the application was still really smooth! The brush can also catch a lot of the glitters so even with one coat, I could get a lot of glitters on my nails. But, I still applied 3 coats to cover the VNL. I would suggest painting a base color first so you will only need 1 or 2 coats of Hex Appeal. As with Spring Training, this polish does not thicken during use. I really love this polish a lot! And if you are thinking that indie polishes are expensive, Hex Appeal is really worth the money cos of the amount of glitters in it! LOL!

KBShimmer Hex Appeal: 3 coats with topcoat

Under artificial light

Look at the shimmer!

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

Gradient + Triangles Tutorial

Sooo I came out with this idea after seeing a tutorial on a blog about transferring watermarbling designs onto a piece of plastic sheet (can't remember which blog is it cos I saw it long ago). Instead of transferring watermarbling designs, I thought of creating gradient triangles on a piece of plastic sheet. Then, I will transfer these triangles onto a gradient mani.

Here's what I came out with! :) Gradient mani and gradient triangles of the same color theme.

Things that you will need:

1. a piece of plastic sheet (got this from cutting one side of a zip-lock bag)

2. a sponge

3. marker

4. ruler

5. scissors

 1. Cut a small rectangle of about 5cm x 3cm from a piece of zip-lock bag. Draw 2 parallel lines with the height of 0.7cm (If your nails are longer, you can increase the height of the lines) on the rectangular plastic sheet.

2. Draw 5 and a 1/2 triangles with the width of 0.5cm (If your nails are wider, you can increase the width of the triangles.)

3. Flip the plastic sheet over and paint 2 coats of white polish over the triangles.

4. Paint 3 colors of your choice on the sponge and sponge it over the area with white polish. Wait for it to dry.

5. You will be able to get this opacity after 3 times of sponging. After it has dried up, paint a topcoat.

6. After the topcoat has dried up, flip the plastic sheet over and cut out the triangles. You will be able to get 10 triangles in total.

1. Paint 1 coat of white polish on your nail. Wait for the white polish to dry.

2. Using the same sponge as above, apply 3 colors of your choice on the sponge and sponge it over the white polish.

3. This is 3 times of sponging.

4. While the polish is still wet, remove the plastic sheet from the triangle and quickly place it on the nail. (You can use tweezers to pick up the triangle.) Add topcoat to the nail and clean the excess polish.

This is the final look! :)

Hope you will give this mani a try! There are so many possibilities with this method! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

Kbshimmer: Spring Training

It's my first time trying KBShimmer and now I know why it's such a popular indie brand. KBShimmer Spring Training is really an apt polish for spring. The green base is just the right color and all the colorful glitters of various sizes just remind me of all the beautiful flowers that bloom in spring. The base color is not too opaque so when I applied 3 coats of Spring Training, some of the shiny glitters become pastel when they are layered over by another coat. This mixture of "pastel" and shiny glitters make this polish so interesting! Also, the formula is ultra smooth, the polish does not thicken during use as well! This makes application so easy and effortless. :)

KBShimmer Spring Training: 3 coats with topcoat

And because this is a really pretty base for some nail art...

I drew some birds and trees on the Spring Training mani! This is really a suitable mani for spring right? ;) (This is actually inspired by some pictures I saw at a Mr Bean shop. :P)

Close up shot of the birds

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

Lush Lacquer: Purple Splash

Lush Lacquer Purple Splash is such a pretty purple jelly polish! Recently I have started liking jelly polishes with white glitters so Purple Splash really caught my eyes. The layering of purple jelly over white glitters creates subtle depth of the polish and it's gorgeous on the nails. It has a mix of white bar, hex and square glitters and holo glitters! The holo glitters just add a special touch to this polish. Application was really smooth and the glitters are quite evenly spread out on the nails. For this mani I used 3 coats of Purple Splash.

Lush Lacquer Purple Splash: 3 coats with topcoat

Under artificial light

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

PolishTBH : How I Troll

How I Troll is my first thermal polish! I really love the transition of transparent (warm) to hot pink (cold) I see in pictures of that polish. However, I live in Singapore and it's extremely warm here so I am a bit worried that the thermal might not work well in their weather. So, I have put this polish to the test! Let's look at the photos to see how the colors change in Singapore!

L-R: Two Fruity colors (unnamed) as bases and PolishTBH How I Troll.

At ~33 degrees,

The gradient is not present at this normal temperature in Singapore.

At ~0 degrees,

I was holding an ice pack when taking this picture. The gradient is obvious and I really love it like this! :)

At ~20-23 degrees,

This picture was taking in a school's lecture hall. My hands were pretty cold from the strong air-con in the hall and so the whole nails transit to pink color.

Conclusion: I feel that thermal polishes might not work that well in Singapore, especially during this super hot period. I guess maybe it will work better in December when the temperature drops? Will try again to see if it works again next time. :) But still, the glitter mix in How I Troll is quite cute so I don't mind even if it doesn't show a gradient. :)

Thanks for reading! :)

XOXO

Missha: Amethyst and Sasatinnie: black shimmery pink polish

Today I going to introduce 2 really affordable polishes I got recently. First is Missha Amethyst, which I got from 2plus1 on qoo10, and second is Sasatinnie black shimmery pink polish which I got from a Sasa store in Genting, Malaysia.

L-R: Sasatinnie black shimmery pink polish (with raspberry scent) and Missha Amethyst

Missha Amethyst is a glitter topper with pink, fuchsia, purple and blue hex glitters and pink star glitters. It is quite a watery polish BUT the brush is still able to capture a lot of the glitters! This really surprised me because I thought the watery formula will just make the glitters glide back into the bottle when I lift up the brush. But no! I was able to apply just 1 coat of this topper.

Sasatinnie black shimmery pink polish is a jelly polish. Like any other jelly polish, the first coat was unable to provide full coverage. However, opacity can be reached with just a second coat. This is a really good polish for the price that I am paying for (4.90 RM~ S$2). Application was really smooth and there were no bald spots at all. The pink shimmer was moderately visible on the nails, so it's definitely not as shimmery as seen in the bottle. Well, at least the pink shimmer was still visible on the nails! :)

Under indirect sunlight

Under artificial light. Look at the pink shimmer!

Under indirect sunlight. I have used Glitzology: Diamonds & Pearls on my accent nail.

Under direct sunlight. Look at how the glitters dance in the sun!

Here's a picture of Glitzology Diamonds & Pearls. It is a clear base polish with a variety of sliver glitters. Very pretty but cannot reach opacity even after 3 coats.

What do you all think about the combination of Glitzology Diamonds & Pearls and Missha Amethyst?? I really like it though! :)


Thanks for reading! :)
XOXO