Ozotic: 908

A few days ago, Ozotic released eight new shades in two separate lines / collections - Sugar and Beam. While these are a break from the usual ozotic duochromes and multichromes, they still take my breath away. Well, honestly, it's hard not to be tempted by the official description:

Inspired by 'reflecting luminous light beams' hence the moonlight colours with sparks! 

908 is jam-packed with green and pink sparks! 

Over black or wear on its own so versatile! 

Layer over black and see 908 explode on your nail reinventing itself to light changing crystals simply amazing! 

A magical transformation in appearance that you need to see to believe! 

Colour varies depending on the angle the light falls on your nail!

Let's take a look at 908:

3 coats on its own.
Ozotic 908 is a clear-based polish filled with small green and pink flecks. It is so packed with flecks that you can actually build it up to opacity in just three coats, or four if you don't like VNLs. At three coats, Ozotic 908 looks like a shimmery metallic/platinum off-white from afar. The green and pink flecks add an interesting touch to the white when they catch the light. I'm not sure if the moonlight flashes green and pink like this but it sure is very pretty.

1 coat over black.
The flecks get thrown into the foreground once it is layered over a dark base. You can see the green and pink hues clearly and I even caught glimpses of *gasp* gold and purple! The flecks are duochrome after all! It is not very obvious from this picture but the color shift is there. It would be stronger if I had done 2 coats or one thicker coat. The green is still the strongest hue though.

And because I think it looks very delicate at just one thin coat on its own, here's a picture with 1 coat over OPI Barre My Soul (to hide my stained tips o"o). I love how soft it looks here! It is almost like Essie's Pure Pearlfaction but with bigger flecks in green and pink.

Application was great. I had no problems getting the flecks to spread evenly over the nails. But like I've said, this is really jam-packed with flecks so you may want to go easy on the polish if you don't want it to overwhelm your base color - just take a little polish and spread it thinly over the nails.

So, what do you think of Ozotic 908?

The new Ozotic shades are now available for purchase on Star Trinkets for S$19.80 each. The price includes postage for Singapore addresses, but there is an additional S$2.50 charged per order for Registered Mail. All orders are sent by Registered Mail. Star Trinkets ships internationally.
The shades are also available for purchase on the piCture pOlish site for AUD$13.00 each. International shipping rates are available on the site.

xoxo,
mich

**Product was provided for our honest review. Please see our disclosure policy for more information.**

Peel-Off Base Coat aka. Time to Bust Out the Glitters!

I love glitter polishes. There are sparkly ones, colorful ones, whimsical ones... yea, you get the idea. Unfortunately, they are a universally-acknowledged PITA to remove. :|| Even with the foil removal method, I still shy away from wearing them. I don't stop buying them though - I take them out to admire them in the bottles but mostly they just sit around in my drawers collecting dust. o"o

Thankfully, some creative genius came up with a revolutionary peel-off base coat that changed the sad fate of my glitter polishes for the better. With the peel-off base coat, glitter removal is easy as picking at the polish and peeling/popping them off the nail like this:

No more scrubbing or soaking the nails in foul smelling acetone - just pick and pop! I don't know about you but that's almost as fun and therapeutic as popping bubble wraps for me. :L

This magical concoction can be found in your regular beauty supply craft or stationery stores - goes by the name of... 'PVA glue'.
Yup, that's right! It's our good ol' craft glue! How did anyone even think of using glue? *impressed*
I bought the Innisfree peel-off base coat before I knew about its true identity but you can always buy the cheaper alternative and pour it into empty polish bottles for easy application. Don't believe me? You can check out this neat post on Lab Muffin.

It feels a little strange knowing that you are deliberately smearing glue over your nails but other than that, it applies smoothly like our regular base coats. If you find your glue a little too thick, you can always thin it with water.

Some application tips for best results:

• You don't have to paint a thick coat of glue. It pops nicely even when you use a thin layer of glue.
• Ensure that you cover every inch of the nail that you intend to polish on.
• Wrap your tips (i.e. paint the free-edge of the nail) with the glue - especially if you have a habit of wrapping your tips with the polish.
  This will ensure that any polish at the tips will come off easily too when you peel off the polish.
• Let the glue dry completely until it doesn't even feel sticky when you touch it.
  Depending on how much glue you use, it can actually turn transparent fairly quickly. But I will advise you to wait for a little while more until it is no longer tacky to touch. I've made the mistake of applying my polish immediately when it turned transparent and the polish refused to budge when I picked, scratched and cursed at it the next day.
• Do not wash your hands when you don't have polish over the glue - even when the glue has dried completely.
  Because it is water-based, it will turn wet and sticky again upon contact with water.
• I'm not too sure about this but I haven't been able to get the polish to pop off in one perfect piece when I paint a base color before topping it with glitters. Yes, it peels off fairly easily too but it tends to crack or break into little pieces (see the difference in the picture above). Not a huge issue but I like it when the glitters come off nicely in one piece - looks like one of those fake nails. I'm weird, I know.

Someone once asked me: foil removal or PVA glue? After trying it out a few times, I have to say I prefer using PVA glue. 

Even though I have to wait approximately 10 minutes for it to dry before I can paint my nails, time passes quickly when I check my mail or scroll through the blog posts on my google reader. It is not much longer than the time I take for foil removal - cutting aluminium foils, cutting cotton pads, wetting each pad with acetone, wrapping my nails one by one and soaking my nails in harsh acetone for another 5 minutes or so (I stare into space because I can't work the trackpad on my com or phone with my fingers all wrapped up). 

And, because I'm weird, I like picking at the polish and popping them off my nails! :$ There is not as much satisfaction when I just pull the foil off my nails if you know what I mean. 

There are some downsides to using PVA though.
Amanda from Pretty Girl Science has pointed out that it does not prevent staining! So I will definitely recommend the usual base coat + foil if you suspect the glitter polish might stain your nails.
[edit: Michelle from Lab Muffin and Susan from The Subtle Shimmer have suggested painting your base coat over the PVA glue to prevent staining. I will be trying that out soon! Having tried that myself, it didn't appear to affect the ease of peeling. yay!]
Of course, another disadvantage is that I simply can't resist picking my polish off my nails before the end of the day! o"o

What do you think of PVA glue? Have you tried it before?

xoxo,

mich

Nail Ideas: Fall Fun!

It's the weekends!! *woohoo* :e
Unfortunately I had been busy for the whole of today so I didn't manage to get more swatches done. Instead, I've decided to share this nail art that I did for a nail art contest held by Kaitlin (@kaitlinferland) on Instagram:

Please ignore the tag I'm holding. It's one of the contest requirements. :)

Doesn't it look like fun?! I've always wanted to jump into a gigantic pile of leaves in fall! Unfortunately for me, we never get to enjoy the four seasons here in Singapore. :(

Here's the picture that inspired this mani:

Source

Snoopy definitely looks cuter here! :L

This is also my first attempt at nail art using water-based acrylic paint*!
Other than the base color (OPI My Very First Knockwurst), all other details were painted using this set of acrylic paints:

A picture from kkcenterhk.com because my box is a little squashed.

I've previously used purely nail polish for my nail art and I must say it is a lot easier to work with acrylic paint.

One huge advantage of acrylic paint is that it maintains the same smooth consistency for quite a while. I like to blob a drop of color on a piece of cardboard paper and work with that when I do nail art. However, polishes tend to dry up rather quickly so I find myself adding a drop of thinner now and then just to keep the polish at the right consistency for painting. As you can imagine, it gets really tedious after a while. :f Acrylic paints maintain the same workable consistency for quite a long while so that is a huge plus for me. Using acrylic paints also means that I no longer have to deal with gloopy or stringy polishes that makes painting minute details next to impossible!

Having said that, acrylic paints dries really quickly once they are painted on the nails so you don't have to wait very long to add more details or the top coat. I didn't do a tutorial for these nails but you can see how acrylic paints can be used at Polish Art Addiction. She does some amazing nail art using acrylic paints and even posts step-by-step pictorials for some of them.

I also prefer using water-based acrylic paint because I can easily wipe it off any mistake with a wet piece of tissue or cloth without having to repaint the entire nail from ground zero including the base coat. Considering how much nail art fails I have, this definitely helps me save a lot of polishes! :e

So, if you are into doing detailed nail art, I'll definitely recommend acrylic paint!
I like the consistency of these Oumaxi-s - they are easy to blend and paint. They are also well-pigmented so I didn't have to go over the same spot twice to ensure coverage.
You can find them here at KKCenterHK. (You can use the code 'ThePolishWell' for a 10% discount. Valid until 31st Jan 2013!)

xoxo,
mich

**Products marked with an asterisk are provided for our honest review. Please view our disclosure policy for more information**

Innisfree: Poem Nail Collection

It's been a while since I've last checked out some of the Korean polishes in the market and I was pleasantly surprised when I chanced upon some pretty-looking promo pictures on Instagram. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had ordered a bunch of them. :P I had wanted to grab another interesting collection too but it was unfortunately out of stock on the website so I made do with these for now.

Innisfree's Poem Nail Collection contains an interesting mix of 2 glitters and 2 duochromes - all extremely beautiful. Just take a look!

The Glitters

Innisfree 101 (Girl's Skirt). 3 coats.
A beautiful seafoam green with sprinkles of tiny gold glitters and a handful of blue hex glitters as accent. Now, doesn't that look familiar? ;) I had been eyeing Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream for quite a while now so I immediately pounced on this when I saw it. Judging by the swatches of the DL I see online, 101 is similar to Mermaid's Dream - slightly lighter and less densely packed but close enough for me. I still felt like a mermaid wearing this. Incredibly gorgeous. Kudos to Lippmann for creating this insanely beautiful polish. :b
[edit: you can view a swatch-wheel comparison here.]

Innisfree 102 (Cherry Blossom). 3 coats.
A sister polish to 101. This is a delicate silvery pink with a mix of small blue and gold glitters accented with larger hot pink hexes. Interesting color mix that looks wonderfully good together. Still a little mermaid-like - reminds me of one of Ariel's sisters (Alana perhaps?). It reminds me a little of those beautiful ocean corals too. :d

The Duochromes

Innisfree 103 (Autumn Leaves). 3 coats.
A rich and gorgeous duochrome that shifts from reddish-brown to gold. Shimmery fall in a bottle! You know how I love those colors. :L There is also a hint of green in the bottle but it didn't quite show up on the nails.

Innisfree 104 (Purple Night). 3 coats.
Another pretty glass-flecked duochrome. This one shifts from dark blue to a rich purple. The color shift is quite obvious and strong in real life but I couldn't capture it on my camera no matter how I positioned my hands. I could see the two colors on my nails but when I put the camera in front of my face, I could only see a shimmery purple on the screen. :|| End of rant. But honestly, this is stunning in real life.

Application and formula for these were pretty good.
The brushes were a little wide and rather short and stubby. It didn't feel elegant when I was painting my nails but boy am I surprised to see that I don't need any clean up. I don't know how that happened but I guess the brush fits nicely near my cuticles.
The formula applies smoothly on the nails. It is a little thin for the glitters because they are not as densely packed as some of the other glitters in the market. I will recommend some time for drying in between coats though to avoid dragging.

I hesitate to say more because I'm not very sure about it but I thought I smelled something while applying these polishes. Are Innisfree polishes scented? I can't quite put my finger to the scent. Reminds me a little of the fancy scented pens with whimsical dangly charms at the top that we used to have in primary school (elementary school) back in my time.

I'm also rather impressed with the eco-friendly concept that Innisfree adopts. You can read more about it here. I am definitely looking forward to seeing more from this brand.

So what do you think of these polishes? Have you tried any Innisfree before?

xoxo,
mich

p.s. these polishes have names too but I couldn't read Korean so I didn't include them in this post. :et I have edited the post and included the names!

Guest Post at Love. Varnish, Chocolate and More

Today, I'm excited to be guest posting for the lovely Deborah at Love. Varnish, Chocolate and More!
Click on the picture and hop over to check out what I did! :$

xoxo,
mich

OPI: Germany Collection Fall 2012

Good morning everyone!
Sorry for the slightly late post today. I had been a swatching machine yesterday during the day (swatched more than 10 polishes in a sitting before attempting some nail art) and ended up rushing to complete an assignment in the evening. Hmm... yea I think I may have a problem with my priorities. :et  On the bright side, this probably means that you will be in for some swatch candies this week! ;)

Let's start off with some of my picks from the OPI Germany Collection for Fall 2012!
It has been a while since I've gotten myself some OPI but this collection really reminded me why I love OPI so much.

My Very First Knockwurst. 2 coats.
A beautiful light tea rose pink. I wouldn't ordinarily go for this color but I love that it is slightly dusty-looking. It is a few shades darker and slightly more beige in real life. Demure looking without sacrificing feminine chic - perfect shade for work and play. <3

Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! 2 coats.
A dark grey with a very strong green hue. Depending on the lighting, it looks more grey or green. A very chic and sophisticated color. Makes me feel a step closer to being on Forbes list of most influential women. I like. 8)

Every Month is Oktoberfest. 2 coats.
*swoon* Now this is exactly why I love OPI. A stunning inky purple filled with red/gold shimmer. It is just drop-dead smolderingly sexy. :L

I apologize for the blurry pics above, I took a ton of pictures and they all turn out blurry - either my camera was spasming at that awesomeness or I was actually trembling with excitement. I promise I will re-swatch it again.  >.<
The first picture shows how it looks indoors - dark with glowy shimmery center and flashes of purple at the sides. Yup, you can see the purple base even without strong lighting!
The second picture shows more of the gorgeous purple base under indirect light.

When I first saw the bottle, it reminded me of another OPI favorite of mine - Royal Rajah Ruby. So I decided to pull it out to do a brief comparison.

(L-R): OPI Royal Rajah Ruby and Every Month is Oktoberfest

Very similar in the bottles but if you look carefully, you can spy swirls of inky purple in Oktoberfest, especially near the top of the bottle.

Ahh.. finally a clearer picture of Oktoberfest! Now, do you see why I love it!? :L :L

Ok, back to the comparison...
RRR and Oktoberfest are clearly different on the nails. Both are full of vamp and glowy goodness but if I really have to choose between these two (heaven forbid), I will go for Oktoberfest. I really love how the shimmer looks against the inky purple. <3

The formula and application for these were really good. Smooth, even coverage with just 2 coats. Just the way I like it.

So what do you think of the Germany collection? Which ones did you get?
p.s. I didn't get German-icure because it looked really similar to Royal Rajah Ruby but apparently they are not dupes either. You can check out comparison swatches here.

xoxo,
mich

China Glaze: On Safari Collection

Ok I'm really late to the party for this one because I was trying to stick to my no-buy but I caved in a few weeks ago and ended up buying three from China Glaze's On Safari Fall Collection. :f

So here are my picks from the collection!

Exotic Encounter. 2 coats.
This is a beautiful dusty green-leaning teal. It was love at first sight when I saw swatches online and I knew I would get this sooner or later. I have a thing for dusty colors. :$

I Herd That. 3 coats.
This is a gorgeous warm gold glitter with a generous mix of bright orange/copper glitters to add depth to the look. There is also a handful of holographic glitters to add texture and sparkles. Super pretty. <3

I'm Not Lion. 3 coats.
Saved the best for the last. A sister polish to I Herd That. This is a beautiful light champagne gold glitter filled with holographic glitters and a sprinkle of silver glitters. This is definitely more holo than I Herd That. Just sit back and watch the rainbow sparkles dance on your nails. :rainbow I had thought this would be too light for my skintone but it didn't make my fingers look washed out at all. :e Super love. :L

Application for the glitters are surprisingly smooth and easy. I had some trouble with Exotic Encounters though. The formula is a little watery and random drops of polish appear out of nowhere to slide down my brush. :f I will be sure to take extra care to wipe the excess off the stem of the brush next time.

So what do you think of the On Safari collection? Did you get any of the polishes? ^_^

xoxo,
mich

Nail Ideas: Saran Wrap Nails!

Hello everyone!
So sorry for disappearing for a week! I had a brief health scare earlier and wasn't in the mood to do my nails. :~ Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing as serious as I had thought! Phew! I'm already taking some medicine for it and feeling a lot better. :$

I've decided to resume my regular blog postings with a simple nail art with one of my favorite colors - purple!

Here's my maiden attempt at saran-wrap, cling-wrap or, in my case, glad-wrap nails! It is a really simple nail art technique that gives a really beautiful marbled look.

First, you paint a base color and let it dry completely (I used Seche Vite to quicken the process).
Then you paint a second color and blot some of it off using a scrunched up piece of cling-wrap.
And you're done!

Here's a tip: the marbled effect looks best when you do the blotting immediately after painting the second color. During my first try, I took some time to screw the cap on the polish bottle before blotting and the polish became too tacky to be blotted. It ended up looking really strange and did not have the marbled look at all. :f

For this mani, I used a-england's Guinevere, a light mauve purple, as my base color and Elaine for the dark purple. The smoky dark purple was perfect in adding a mysterious and magical touch to the cling-wrap mani. I couldn't resist adding a thin coat of China Glaze's fairy dust to complete the look. But it looked really good without the holographic glitters too:

Don't the colors look perfect? :L I really really love how they look together. Of course, they are gorgeous on their own too! I believe I haven't worn anything else but Guinevere and/or Elaine in the last two weeks. Lol! :$ Will get around to posting swatches soon!

What do you think of this mani? Have you tried the saran/cling-wrap technique before?

xoxo,
mich